The Skinny on The Skinnygirl Workout

I just love Bethenny Frankel. What is it about her? She is flat-out funny and speaks her mind. She has always seemed so real and accessible to me. Even though she has an amazing figure and a fabulous life, you really don't want to hate her. You really would like to be friends with her.

In the past, I had received a copy of Body By Bethenny from Acacia, and wrote my honest review here. I really like Body By Bethenny, and it grew on me even more as time went on. This time around, I received my Skinnygirl Workout in my Christmas stocking from my husband. Before you start feeling all bitchy in my defense, I did ask for it...the stocking stuffer was in no way a hint from him to exercise more. It has been in my exercise DVD mix for the last couple months and I think I'm ready to talk about it.

I didn't love it right off the bat. I love Bethenny for her humor and wit, and was hoping to see more of that in this DVD. The ease of the banter between Bethenny and Kristin McGee was what made Body By Bethenny fun. In this case, the new yoga instructor, Mike McArdie is all business. I would actually call their interactions almost awkward sometimes. Bethenny's quips sometimes don't even phase him...where I am chuckling, this guy doesn't crack a smile. The way this DVD comes across is like these two just met and are working out together for the first time. The one time Mike says "Give me more chest" and Bethenny's like, "Excuse me?"...that made me laugh out loud and it went over his head. Of course she did get some funnies in, with the "boob-to-knee-asana" pose she coined in the last DVD, and references to "shar pei neck". I did find it endearing when she spoke directly to the camera and told us viewers that this DVD is "much harder this time around."

Well, this is a workout DVD, not a soap opera. All other things aside this is a great workout. I must say that Mike is a solid instructor, leading the workout but also doing the poses himself. He always mentions modifications that can be done to make it easier or harder depending on your skill level, and speaks of the benefits of the particular poses and what part of your body to engage with each pose. He also takes time to encourage Bethenny and mention if her poses or movement need to be tweaked for proper form. That is what I love about Bethenny. She keeps it real. You can just imagine so many other celebrities would never want themselves filmed in a workout DVD where each pose and movement wasn't exactly perfect.

I do love that the workout is broken up into segments. Three Workouts For Your Busy Life, to be exact. One 20-minute workout, two 15-minute workouts, and then a 12-minute stretching portion. The latter is especially great because most yoga DVD's include stretching at the end of the main workout, so I feel you actually get more workout time. There have been mornings that I have been short on time and may do the first two segments and I still feel like I worked my entire body. I love incorporating yoga into my routine, as I feel it is the perfect compliment to my running. There have been days that I have been sore after doing The Skinnygirl Workout. A good sore.

Are you a fan of Bethenny? Have you ever tried any of her Skinnygirl products or workout DVD's? I think you should. Especially the Skinnygirl Margarita...after your Skinnygirl Workout.  Have a fit and fabulous weekend, friends!



Linking up over at Bees With Honey today! Stop by and check out some new blogs!

Fitness Eff-Up

The boys in their pj's playing inside Buddha's new dresser

I'm not the type to complain a lot, and I'm not really even complaining now. This week has been a mixed bag, and I fell short of some of my typical goals. I have been eating really well, despite a few pieces of See's candy from that darling heart-shaped box I got on Monday. A lot of vegetables of all different colors, hardly any meat, and no processed food. It's my blogging and exercise that sucked. I was good about running Saturday and  Sunday, but Monday my running buddy "called in sick". We already were not scheduled to run Tuesday, so I planned to get up early anyway and do Body by Bethenny. And I did, sort of.

Pottery Barn pattern for Buddha's "surf" themed room

Let me rewind a bit. I am starting to rethink putting Buddha in a bed so soon, at 28 months. He did so well in his crib, he absolutely loved it. I don't know why I was in such a hurry to get him in a big boy bed. He doesn't want to stay in it at bed time unless I lay with him until he falls asleep. Which isn't so bad, except Mama needs "me time" and wants to put him down and walk out so I can blog and watch TV. I sound horrible, but its true. Sometimes it takes him about 45 minutes for him to go out. Before, he'd just amuse himself in his crib on his own until he fell asleep and I was so proud of his independence and ability to self-soothe. Now, I sort of feel like a prisoner who's night is pretty much over when its time for the kids to go to bed.

Even my morning work outs for me now are at risk. The Buddha is waking up sometimes a little before 6 a.m, which is when I leave for running. So far, and its been a miracle, he hasn't woken up that early on my running days. If he's telepathic and he gets it, then I'm going to encourage that. But on my other days when I am not running but working out at home, he is waking up before I even have a chance to make any noise or even start my DVD. That kind of telepathy I do not support. For whatever reason, this darling, sweet, cherubic love of mine does NOT like me to do yoga. He looks downstairs and sees me on that mat and he starts to scream.

"WAIT MOMMY!!" he wails.

I don't know what I am supposed to wait for. He lays down on the ground and writhes around like he is in pain. Yesterday, I was 20 minutes into a 40 minute work out and I was totally irritated. Since Chip works nights I have to keep the kids quiet. Monkey was awake too, but he is a total Mommy Yoga Supporter. He even goes to the closet where I get my mat, takes it out and unrolls it for me. I love it.

This work out is excellent for my hamstrings and counterbalances my running

I made do, pausing the DVD to put the TV on in their playroom which mostly worked. I managed to finish the work out although I think I might have missed part of a sequence on one side of my body but oh well. I planned to do the same thing this morning but was a complete YOGA FAIL. I had even tried asking the Bude if he wanted to sleep in his crib last night.

"NO! Sleep."

He promptly hugged his bear and fell over onto his pillow pet with a huge smile on his face. Did he fall asleep right away? No. Did I? Of  course. At some point I made it out to watch TV with my hubby who had actually stayed home sick. Naturally, both kids got up early this morning. It was a school day and before I started it was too late for me to work out and still be ready in time.

I'm not going to give up, I am planning to try the DVD again tomorrow. I think Buddha likes his bed and it might be too late to go back to the crib. I just have to be patient, and know that eventually he will get the hang of this. I also need to give a shout out to my man, who I know will still encourage me to run in the morning, even if it means dealing with Buddha if he wakes up before I get back.  And, there's always velcro. Just kidding.

Hope you all are having a fabulous week so far...we are on the downside...2 days until the weekend!

Review: Body By Bethenny - Unleashing My Inner Skinnygirl!

If you are a fan of The  Real Housewives of New York City, you know Bethenny Frankel. She is a straight shooting, no B.S., healthy food chef, reality star and author. Bethenny's enterprise also includes this workout DVD called Body By Bethenny. If you own this DVD or are interested in purchasing it, it is probably because you already know of Bethenny either from the Housewives or her newest show Bethenny Getting Married. She is not well-known for being a fitness expert, although she is well-known for being healthy and in-shape. This isn't like the Jane Fonda Workout, where Jane was the fitness guru who led and directed all of the workouts on her videos back in the day. Bethenny is essentially showing us, as she says on the DVD, what she does to get in shape. And that, my friends,  would be doing yoga with a qualified instructor.

In the introduction, Bethenny stresses that it is important for us to be realistic in our workout goals, and how it is important to just do what we can do and work with what we have. It really makes fitness out to be un-intimidating, which is nice. For 55 minutes, Bethenny works out with Kristin McGee, who is a certified personal trainer, Pilates master and yoga instructor. There are no other students in the room, its just Bethenny and Kristin. Their easy flow of conversation throughout the work out is not strictly teacher-pupil, its almost like two girlfriends working out together or the relationship you might have with your hairdresser where you become really close buds with the expert who makes you pretty. There is some banter back and forth and typical funny Bethenny comments - such as "Ugh, my hideous feet" when we are directed to reach down and grab our toes. And when we are doing  a forward bend she calls it the "boob-to-knee" pose and says "We should write to India and tell them to change the language."  Such a character!

This is definitely a good workout for a beginner yoga student to work up to. It's nice because the yoga portion is only 40 minutes, so its great if you don't have a lot of time, or if you are just starting to try to get in shape the duration of this workout won't kill you. But this is not a super easy work out, there were times when my arms were burning and the poses were hard to hold. I have a lot of work to do on my core strength, which will help me balance better. I noticed I was even better the second time I did the DVD, and the backs of my legs (hamstrings) were pretty sore. As they mention in the DVD, if you sit at a desk all day like I do, your hip flexor muscles get very tight and had a great stretch for that. I really felt that for me, this DVD was an excellent compliment to my running.

There were also 10 minutes of strength and toning, with light arm weights. The last 5 minutes were fun "booty blast" moves which consisted of leg lifts and squats. I felt like the 55 minutes flew by fast and because of that see this DVD and something I will be doing often. It's a realistic workout, just like Bethenny says. Being a busy mom of 2, I need to work out regularly but don't have 2 hours to commit to it every time. With this DVD, I don't even have to drive anywhere, just pop it in while the kids are playing, napping or even better yet before they wake up in the morning. Before you know it, you'll be done and you'll feel much better about yourself. You'll unleash your Skinnygirl in no time!!