Hi everyone!!!

Some of us overindulged in our favorite foods with friends and family this weekend... okay fine, both Karena and I did!!! It's okay though. That's what quality time is all about! We don't want any of you to live with regret... slipping up is good sometimes - It makes you want to get back on track that much more! It gives you more motivation and drive :)

We're thinking there might be some of you that feel the same way as us! Bouncing back is KEY. Here's how we do it...

1.  Drink UP!!!

After traveling, tons of activity and possibly your healthy cocktails, you're very dehydrated. Today and tomorrow, focus on drinking half your body weight in water throughout the day. ex.. 150lbs = 75 ounces of water. This will help with the spiraling cravings for sugary food from the weekend. Remember - we love mixing our water with natural things to flavor it. Try cucumber and mint - this will also help with you pH levels - read below :)

2.  RAW BABY!

This word can scare a lot of people. RAW food diets can be intimidating, but we want you to focus on this for today and tomorrow. Your digestive system has been in overdrive all weekend with grilling and meals planned all through the holiday. Give it a break - JUST LIKE YOUR BODY!! Eat mostly raw today and tomorrow because your body will easily absorb the nutrients, it will cleanse your system for a day or two and you'll feel lighter. Don't cook your raw food either- unless you sneak some lean meat in there. Tempeh, tofu and fish is best to have at 2 meals if you're going to have some lean protein over the next couple days. This is a good time to do the 7 Day Slim Down.

Raw foods for YOU!

• Fruits - apples, bananas, papaya (has break digestive enzymes), grapefruit, watermelon, kiwi, berries, mangos etc...
• Vegetables - KALE (a great source of fiber), broccoli, spinach, green beans, zuccini, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, ONIONS - (cleanse the liver) peppers etc...
• Avocado
• Wheat grass & psyllium husk!! - psyllium husk is an AMAZING source of fiber!  Mix 1 tbs with almond milk twice a day for the next 2 days to help cleanse your system. We buy the natural flavor at whole foods, but here's a link to their flavored.
• Some nuts & seeds- keep these on the low side for the next day.
• Raw black beans or garbanzo beans - loaded with fiber & nutrients
• Herbs & Spices - cinnamon, parsley, basil, cilantro, cayenne, ginger, onion powder, garlic, mint etc...

Our favorite RAW smoothie to help bounce back...

BOUNCE BACK SMOOTHIE

1 cup kale, 1/2 banana, 1/2 cucumber, 3 strawberries, 4 fresh mint sprigs (leaves), pinch of ginger, 1 tbs psyllium husk, 1 tbs wheatgrass, 1/2 cup fresh pineapple or apple juice.  (depending on the size of  your fruit & veggies, add a little water if you need to help it blend.) If you want to have this post workout, add one scoop of Perfect Fit!

This is also a great time to do the 7 Day Slim down in your plan.

3.  Bring your ACID LEVELS down

We talk about this a lot at Tone It Up, but having the right Alkaline Balance is important for many reasons including improved energy levels, decreased inflammation, disease prevention and many more. After a big holiday weekend, you're probably very acidic. If you consumed any processed foods, crackers, chips, sugary treats, any meat, fish, bread, dairy, bad fats and or alcohol or wine, then you need to balance your pH girl!

Focus on eating the foods above that are more alkaline foods. Vegetables - especially green leafy vegetables, your herbs listed above, cucumber, avocado and wheat grass. Also, anyone on the Tone It Up Diet Plan, drink up your Meta-D morning drink! We also LOVE kombucha if you can go to a whole foods or nutrition store and snag some for this week.

4.  Cardio & weights

You have some extra glycogen stored in your muscles from possibly overeating. The best way to burn through it before it's stored as fat is to increase your cardio and hit the weights for a full body routine. We suggest HIIT- a 20-30 minute routine is perfect to burn up the extra sugar stored in your body and to combine it with a full body toning routine.  If you're on the Tone It Up Team, do the FULL BODY BLAST program.  If you're on our blog you can do some of the HIIT workouts - HIIT!!! We also posted some full body routines below for toning.  Get burning and remember #1... hydrate :)

5.  Walk & Rest

Tonight, walk after dinner for a good 30 minutes. Get out and enjoy some solitude after a busy weekend of entertaining.  When you hit the hay, drink a full glass of water before you fall asleep, take a multi vitamin and try to dream for at least 7.5 hours.

Okay - ready? Now apply :) We love you guys!!

Your trainers,

Karena & Katrina

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Full Body routines...

You may also like this post we wrote on pushing through a Plateau.

Some of you are asking about plateauing. "How to break through a plateau?" Remember your body is a working system... it's all science. Calories in, calories out.

To tone up by 1 pound of fat in 1 week, you must create a deficit in calories by 3,500. 3,500 divided by 7 days is 500 calories per day that you will need to create a deficit in with diet & exercise. You can do this by burning 200-300 calories with a 30 minute cardio session on top of your bikini routines! Your HIIT workouts (high intensity interval training) increase your post exercise recovery too, causing your metabolism to burn even more calories at rest! By combining this with eating natural, you will tone up! Let it happen! If you want to tone up by 2 pounds per week, that's about a 60 minute workout session and eating approximately 1,600-1,700 calories per day - all very clean & natural food. Not to mention you'll have more energy and all the other benefits that go along healthy eating... cancer prevention, longevity, less stress.. etc. Don't forget to have your rewards here & there - dark chocolate, yogurt with cocoa, an oatmeal cookie - anything less than 250 calories :) We do this 1-2 times a week. (FYI, if you're on our Nutrition Plan, we don't count calories, but this is just a general estimate.)

*** If you're at a plateau and you've been doing all of these steps correctly, let your body catch up! It's just a process. The trick is to push through it. If you let it go every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, that's half the month, so you'll just be at a standstill. Your challenge is to break through it... hydrate, include HIIT cardio, do your workouts we send you every week, include your pyramid training and show your stubborn fat cells who's BOSS!! :) Have fun with it.

Speaking from experience, I toned up more than 23 pounds (this is Katrina :) The scale went up and down like crazy... but one day I decided to push through it, knowing that something had to come from all the hard work. My biggest battle was giving up fake sugar- I was a fake sugar junky! As soon as I started eating what the earth gave me, my body transformed. I hope this helps :) We know it can be frustrating. Just hang tight!

Check in with us on facebook with what you do :) http://facebook.com/ToneItUp

Love you guys,

Your trainers...

Karena & Katrina

Did you try the itty bitty workout video?

Print & watch it here! itty bitty Bikini workout

PRINT YOUR WORKOUT HERE! http://tiny.cc/itty-bitty

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Your trainers,

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