Saying Goodbye to the “Holiday Pooch” by: Abbey Bowen

Now that the ghosts of Christmas cookies past have found a home in your lower abs, it’s time to get rid of that, self-acclaimed, “Holiday pooch.”

Let’s face it, we all overdue it during this time of the year. Your grandma makes her famous potato salad, your dad baked your favorite pineapple upside down cake and you made seven batches of sugar cookies. To top it all off, you ate all of the food mentioned above within a time frame of 24 hours, am I right?

Well, never fear. I have a workout routine that is guaranteed to help.

A year or so ago, I started following Cassey Ho’s Pilates videos on a website called “Blogilates.” Ho, a Pilates instructor, creates videos titled “POP Pilates.” You can also find her videos on YouTube.

Every video targets a different area of the body and is set to current pop music. My favorite is a video designed to strengthen muscles in the gluteus set to the music styling of the “Bootylicious” queen herself, Beyonce (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzZSCsw6i2c).

Ho is really perky and makes exercising fun. Each video runs anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes. Due to the fact that they are short, Ho recommends doing at least three different videos or repeating the same video three times to get a sufficient workout in.

During the videos, she makes it known that she is also struggling with the moves. This ensures viewers do not get discouraged because they’re finding the moves challenging.

Speaking of which, I feel the need to mention that Pilates is anything but a cake walk. The moves are designed to stretch and strengthen muscles you probably didn’t even know you had. You will feel so sore the day after a workout, but the pain is worth suffering through for the killer results.

After doing Pilates for a year, my body has become so much stronger. The exercises have also helped me increase the duration of my cardio workouts. I can run, bike and stair step a lot longer now. My flexibility has also improved immensely.

Don’t just take my word for it, try POP Pilates for yourself: http://www.blogilates.com/#sthash.Z5BTJuD8.dpbs.

I promise, you will be seeing results in no time.

~Remember, you have to learn to love yourself before you can truly love someone else~

Abbey :]