• Laiee

Top grain nappa duffel features a separate lined shoe compartment, a sizable zippered center section, an outside back pocket and an exterior organizer pocket with 6 compartments and a key hook.  12  x  22 1/4  x  16  inches.

via ROYCE LEATHER Organizer Duffel with Shoe Compartment.

This racer-back style sports bra has tan-through micromesh fabric on the shoulders and back to prevent tan lines when exercising outdoors.

via Naked Sports Bra | AHAlife.

Zumba instructor fan favorites Gina Grant, Tanya Beardsley and Zumbas creator Beto guide you through 30 routines that will work you into a sweat and make you forget you’re even exercising.  Featuring exclusive music and choreography, Zumba Fitness® for Kinect™ lets you see yourself on screen.  Build strength, tone, and endurance as you dance to more than 30 official Zumba music tracks.

via Newegg.com – Zumba Fitness Wii Game MAJESCO.

Remember the Hawaii Chair featuring on Ellen?

 At Gaiam for $99

 am still using my iGallop.  I can€™t believe that six months have gone by.  My core is in a very good shape.  Since the last update on 11/28/07, I have lost another 5 pounds.  My diet has not changed much.  I am still staying away from rice, pasta, noodles, and bread.  However, I will indulge myself once in while.  I love bread and pasta so I allow myself eating them in a small portion once a week or so.  Chicken, turkey, tofu, and the chocolate soy milk are my main sources of protein.  The 40-minute workout on the iGallop is perfect for me every day.  It gets my heart rate up, strengthens my lower back, and tones my core area. I am going on a vacation for 3 weeks starting January 26.  It will be strange because I won€™t have the iGallop with me.  But normally, we walk ourselves to death when we are on vacation anyway, so I am not too worried about it.  No matter how much we promised ourselves not to do that again, we still dragged ourselves to every scenic spot, every shop, even though our feet hurt like hell.  Eating out will be the biggest challenge, but I think I am disciplined this time to eat well and healthy.

Some stats before I leave for vacation.  A reality check will be performed when I come back.

Weight:  142.5 pounds

Waist:  31 inches

BMI:  22.9 (I calculated my BMI here on MSN.)

Before I started the iGallop exercises:

Weight:  165 pounds

Waist:  34 inches

BMI:  26.6

It tones and shapes tummy, thighs and lower back.  It totally works for me.  Read all my reviews since the day I purchased it.

iGallop review I

iGallop review II

iGallop review III

 at Brookstone for $299.  I bought it in July, 2007 at the store for $199 though.

name:  fad
email: fatimah@
 
comment:
 
I want to buy this thing, but does it really work??  I mean, in Malaysia it costs me about RM2388.00 or USD615..wuuu… 
  

When I first saw the iGallop in the Brookstone store last Christmas, it was selling for $599 US.  Somehow, I just liked the machine.   It looked like fun and an exercise equipment I would use regularly.  However, at $599, it was simply too expensive.

Brookstone has been putting it on sale for some time now for $199.  I got it in July and have been using it ever since.  It comes with an exercise demo DVD.  The first week I just did the basic program as I was learning to balance myself on the saddle.  By the third week, I was doing all three programs – the basic, intermediate, and advanced.  To do all the exercises only takes 40 minutes.  This is the first machine ever that I didn’t give up.  I now even feel guilty if I don’t do iGallop for a day.  I just weighed myself yesterday.  I lost 12 pounds since I started on 7/12/07.  My stomach looks much flatter and better defined.

In the beginning, I didn’t pay too much attention to my diet; however, I did follow Nancy’s, the instructor on the DVD, advice that eat small meals every three to four hours.  In September, I decided to change my diet as well.  I always love soups.  This is the perfect time of the year for soups as the weather begins to get cooler.  My diet looks something like this:

Breakfast:  cut 1/3 of the tofu cube in little chunks (The tofu you get from the grocery store that is soaked in the water.)  + spinach + carrots or corn + 5 to 7 slices of the shaved turkey or chicken deli meat.  Stir fry them in olive oil.  200 – 250 calories

Sometime between Breakfast / Lunch:  I love coffee.  I usually have two cups with fat free Hazelnut flavored creamer.  120 – 150 calories

Lunch:  Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup or Italian Wedding.  220 calories.

Sometime between Lunch / Dinner:  One South Beach Diet snack bar.  100 calories.

Dinner:  I make my own soup.  Normally, it consists of one can of chicken or vegetable broth, spinach, tofu, carrots or corn, either turkey or chicken.  If I don’t feel like having soup, I may have 1/2 can of tuna in olive oil with vegetables of my liking and tofu.  200 – 250 calories.  I gave the other 1/2 can to the dog and the cat.

Sometime between dinner / bedtime:  Fat free yogurt.  100 calories.

Basically, I cut rice, pasta, and bread out of my diet and replace them with tofu.  The total calories I consume per day are around 1200.

Does it work?  It does work for me and I really enjoy it.  I like the way I look now; especially, I lost almost all my belly fat.  The stomach is flatter and toned. 

We have another machine at home.  It is an elliptical trainer.  I hate that thing.  It cost more than the iGallop.  We used it once.  It is now standing there screaming at me to dust it. 

My last iGallop review was on 7/12/07 when I purchased the product.  It’s been a little bit over a month and a half since I started using it.  I am on the iGallop 5 days a week.  I don’t really have a diet plan but I do follow Nancy Kennedy’s, the instructor on the DVD, advice.  Eat small meals every 3 to 4 hours.  Yes!!!  It does work for me.  And no, I don’t have the killer 6-pack abs yet, but I have lost the fat that used to cover the oblique muscles.

During week 1, I was following the beginner and the intermediate programs.  By week 2, I did all 3 programs – beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

All it takes is just half an hour a day “galloping.”  Following the routines on the DVD is fun.  Poor Emma, who is the demonstrator for the beginner and the advanced routines, gets screamed at by Nancy.  “EMMA!!!  FEELING TIRED, EMMA???”  On the contrary, Nancy is much nicer to Jason, who only does the intermediate program.  “How do you feel, Jas?  Pull your hands up, Jas.  Gooooood.”

I do enjoy the work out on this machine.  Who knows?  I may look much better when I write the iGallop Review III.  Wish me luck.

Update:  Review III is now available

We finally bought this weird looking machine from Brookstone – the iGallop.  The first time I saw it was right before 2006 Christmas.  Two of them were standing at the store front.  Sales folks were trying to get people to test it out.  I thought it was really a cool machine, but at $499, I let it pass.

For months, I kept thinking about the machine.  I went online and tried to find users’ reviews.  Most of them said the machine would not work because you could not loose inches by sitting on a machine and letting it do all the work for you.  But they didn’t use it at all.  So I went back to the Brookstone store in the mall and tried it.  I sat on the machine and followed the work out video for 5 minutes.  I was sweating like a horse.  I really had to focus and keep my balance on that thing while trying to follow all the twisting and turning motions the friendly but yet demanding work out instructor on the DVD asked me to.

I still didn’t buy it because I just could not persuade myself giving away $499.  I wish I were Paris Hilton then, so I could walk in the store, point my finger at the machine hinting that I am interested, buy 100 of them and place them in all the different rooms in my mansion.  I can work on my thigh and butt anytime anywhere I want without getting out of my mansion.

Yesterday, we were on our way to Abercrombie and Fitch to find a baseball cap.  We passed the Brookstone store again.  Of course, I just had to walk in to look at the iGallop machine I so very much wanted to get.  $199!!!  I bent down to look at the price tag once more as it was conveniently placed on the floor.  Indeed.  It was $199.  We looked at each other.  Our hearts were racing.  This is just too tempting.

The sales lady came over.  She knew we wanted it.  She could feel it.  Before she could say anything about how great the deal was,  I was all too ready to give her my credit card and sign the sales draft and snatch the machine.

I am now the proud owner of iGallop.  I did the warm up and the beginner work out program yesterday and today.  It was fun.  Maybe next time when I write the follow up review, I am looking like one of those gorgeous magazine models on the grocery check out counters.

Update:  Review II in now available.