Fitness Friday| One Year On

If you didn't realise form my Tweeting and Instagramming this week, Wednesday was my birthday. Now usually birthdays to me are a day that revolves around me; a day in which I can behave like the princess that I think I am without anyone telling me to stop being a diva. Obviously the day did go along those lines, but this year was more special to me as it was a day to reflect on how far I have come in my health gain and weight loss journey. I didn't actually start my new healthy lifestyle until the end of June last year but I thought I would still celebrate my success on my birthday by wearing the same dress I wore the year before, but with a completely different body underneath. 

I thought that by wearing the same dress I would be able to see the changes in my body more clearly  and I think the picture above shows very well how far I have come, but also how far I have left to go. If you know me and read my blog regularly then you will know that I don't weight myself as I have an unhealthy relationship with the scales, but mark my progress through inches lost. I still have fat to lose and muscle to gain, and would say that I am 2/3 of the way through my health gain journey. 

The past year has been a year of change for me; moving across the country, moving away from my boyfriend (thankfully we're back in the same apartment again), getting a new job, new body and new lifestyle. The past year has also been an empowering one for me.  My weight used to be a very sensitive subject for me and even when I was at my thinnest I was never body confident, and this grew to whole new levels of awful when I gained weight at university. When I went to university I essentially lost control of my body and will power. My confidence took a massive knock but I would still smile my way through it and kid myself that I didn't look too bad. I now know that wasn't the truth. 

This year has been the year when I have gained back control of my body! This past year I have learnt that a healthy lifestyle can be tough to learn and master, I still have slip ups. I have learnt that my body is capable of so much more than I thought it was. I've learnt how to push myself, when to be proud but when to not over do it. Even though my body is not yet where I want it to be I am starting to love it again and can look in a mirror and feel proud, not disgusted. 

So one year on I look at the picture above and feel proud. I look in the mirror and see a smile not a look of disgust. I am now 24 years old and for once in my life I am feeling more body confident, and to me this is the best birthday present I can give to myself. 

Don't forget to check out my blogger of the week Rhiannon from The Barbelle. If you enjoy my fitness and health posts you will love her blog. It is crammed full of fitspiration!

Fitness Friday| Being Accountable

It’s the third of May, which  means for many of you, you are 3 days into a new/ your newest fitness and health drive. I love the start of a new month, as it’s a chance to set some new challenge and goals for myself. So have you started off strong or are you already dwindling?  If you haven’t had the best of starts remember that every day is the chance to start again… whatever you do do not wait until next month or the next Monday, just pick yourself back up and start again now! A great way to motivate yourself is to become accountable for your actions, that’s what I have been working on this week.

This week I have been taking part in Tone It Up’s Bikini Series, which is essentially 8 weeks of exercises, motivation and recipes to get us girls bikini ready. What the Tone It Up girls have taught me this week is the importance of being accountable. If you follow me on Instagram you will notice that I have been posting daily “Check-In” pictures which are part of the Bikini Series challenge. The idea is that you take pictures of each of your meals and your exercise efforts, make a little collage of them, tag it as #bikiniseries and share it with the world. This means that you are sharing your healthy lifestyle to the world and you are being accountable for your actions. It definitely makes me think twice about what I’m eating if I know I have to photograph it and share it with others, as I want to feel proud of my diet not ashamed.

Being accountable is very important when you are wanting to lose weight, change your lifestyle or up your exercise efforts. You need to be responsible for your actions when you are living a healthy lifestyle, and you need to think about the choices that you are making when you are wanting to become healthier. When you are accountable you think twice about buying that chocolate bar, you think about what you are eating and question whether this food choice is going to help you reach your goal, or are you going to regret it in half and hours time?

There are a number of ways to become more accountable. It doesn't have to involve shoving your healthy lifestyle in front of everyone and their dog. You can be accountable without shouting it from the rooftop. Here are a number of ways to become more accountable and help you on your healthy lifestyle journey;

• Start a food journal- One of my most successful attempts at losing weight was when I kept a very strict food journal. I counted every calorie that passed my lips. This made me extremely accountable, helped me lose weight but more importantly taught me about food. I would eat 1200 calories a day and when I first started with the food diary I would run out of calories come lunch time, but over time I learnt about food and nutrition and learnt that healthier food had lower calories which meant I could eat loads! From 4 months of keeping this food diary I learn so much!
• Keep an exercise journal – This is what I currently do. I use a wide range of methods to measure my performance during my workouts. I massively increased my running performance thanks to the Nike Run App. Apps such as these measure how far you ran, how long, how quick you were and how many calories you have burnt.
• Plan your week- This is a must for me. Every Sunday I sit down and plan my meals for the week by looking through recipe books and magazines. I have a little calendar that I mark with what I’m eating for dinner on that day and I have a calendar that shows me what workouts I am doing each day. This forward planning means I don’t over spend on my shops, I have healthy food in my flat and I can plan my rest days around other events in my schedule that week.
• Start a weight loss blog- If you are reading this then you will know that this is my weight loss/ health gain blog! I started a few years ago now because I wanted a creative outlet where I could share my knowledge and thoughts on health, fitness and beauty. Fitness Fridays have been on the blog for a year now and have become very popular, as a result you lovely people are my motivators. Your tweets, emails and views on my blog encourage me every day to live healthy and lead by example. I would be a massive hypocrite if I blogged about health but didn't live a healthy lifestyle myself!
• Create realistic short, medium and long term goals and track your progress- If you don’t have goals then you have nothing to motivate yourself. Whether your goals are to run 5k, fit into a certain dress or pair of jeans, eat healthy 6 days out of 7, compete a triathlon, or to have some killer abs, if you have something to aim for your efforts mean more to you.
• Take pictures of your body- This is a great way to measure progress, as you very often don’t see any changes yourself and don’t believe others when they comment that you have lost weight. If you have a photo diary you can see the changes with your own eyes! You'll be amazed at your results and the changes in your body.
• Take your measurements-  Measuring yourself give you a much more realistic view of how your body is changing. Your weight is not a real indicator of health as it can be affected by water, hormones, muscles gained or the time of the day.
• Post photos of your meals- “If you wont’ tweet it, don’t eat it!” This is a more public way of making yourself accountable, but I’ve found the daily check in I mentioned above have really helped me this week.

I hope you have made a strong start to the month, but if not how about adopting one of the methods I have mentioned to help motivate yourself! If you have started strong how do you make yourself accountable? Do you have any other methods that I haven’t mentioned that others will benefit form hearing?

Don't forget to check out my blogger of the week Cantara from Gym Bags and Glad Rags. If you enjoy my fitness post you will fall in love with her blog. She is a stunner with a great blog! 

Fitness Friday| Weight Loss| Preparation & Planning

You rarely venture into anything new in life without first thinking about it. Remember back to when you started your blog, did you think about it before you started it? I bet you carefully thought about the name, what you wanted to say and what you wanted it too look like. Well if you are to start a healthier lifestyle, the same rule applies!

Success loves preparation! If you want your healthy lifestyle to be more than just a phase you need to plan and prepare throughout. This may sound like hard work, but as I always say; make small steps each day and they soon become habits.

Think about it. If you are not prepared for hunger you normally just grab something on the go. Be it a bag of crisps, chocolate bar or a shop bought sandwich. If you are prepared you will more than likely have a snack in your bag that is healthier, be it a homemade sandwich or wrap, nuts of fruit.

The same happens in the supermarket. If you are prepared, have planned your meals and have a list of ingredients you will more than likely only buy what is on the list which means your kitchen cupboards will be full of healthy food. However if you are unprepared you will venture into the supermarket and end up buying what ever takes your fancy, be it healthy or not.

I am not saying that you need to count calories, plan every single meal that you have and panic when you don’t have a pre-prepared snack, just become a little more prepared and it can make a big difference! Below are a couple of preparation tips.

• Plan your meals- One night a week flick through your favourite cookbooks for meals you can make. This means you will have meals for each night, reducing the likelihood of ordering takeaways.
• Stick to your shopping list- If you are too tempted by BOGOF offers then keep your head down and go directly to where your shopping list items will be found in the store. Do not browse every aisle in the supermarket… you will just buy more!
• Wake up 15 minutes earlier- This means you will have time to sit and have breakfast each morning, instead of grabbing a coffee and muffin from Starbucks!
• Keep a food diary- You can use a Diary, such as the Moleskin Wellness Journal*, a notepad or an app on your phone. Food diaries make you more accountable of what you put in your mouth. You will be surprised at what you actually eat when first starting a food diary!
• Prepare your lunch- A couple of nights a week get out your Tupperware and make up your lunches to take to work for the next couple of days. Lunch can be a meal that if bought on the go can have a million more calories that you would think. A sandwich bought from a shop can have around 400 calories in, add your crisps and cake to this and your lunch could amount to over 700 calories! By preparing your lunch in bulk you will have no excuse as you can simply grab it from the fridge before you leave in the morning!
• Keep and water bottle with you- If you struggle to get your 2 litres everyday, keep a 1 litre/750cl bottle on your desk or in your bag and sip it throughout the day. This saves you money and reduces the likelihood of grabbing a bottle of pop.
• Plan ahead when eating out- Most places have their menus online, and large chains even have the calories count on there. So if you are watching your waistline and don’t fancy splurging then check out the menu and plan your meal ahead. 
• Schedule in your workouts- Schedule in your workouts as if they were a meeting or dentist appointment. If you cancel a half an hour appointment to improve yourself then I’m sure you will feel guilty! Get your workouts written down in your diary!
• Set goals- Long term and short tem! Try aiming for so many inches lost by a wedding in the summer, or aim to take homemade lunches to work every day that week. If you have a goal you have something to concentrate your efforts on. Even better reward yourself after meeting goals… have a manicure, buy a new dress etc.

I hope these tips help you prepare for a healthier lifestyle. Tell me how you make sure you are prepared for a healthy week!

Fitness Friday| Freeze Your Fat| 15 Minute Isometric Workout

 

I don’t know about you but when I workout I am guilty of hammering the cardio and sometimes forgetting about strength…. which is not good! Strength exercises obviously build up your muscles and it is a fact that the more muscle you have the more fat your body will burn during the day! Now you don’t have to hammer the weights to get your strength workout in, in fact you can stay completely still and still work your body hard.

Above is a range of isometric exercises that slim you down and tone you up without moving a muscle! Isometric exercises require you to remain static and use your body's own resistance and weight to challenge your muscles. So all you have to do is hold each of the positions for 60 seconds, three to four times, will a 30 seconds rest between each.

1- Plank- Lie face down on the floor and prop yourself up on your forearms and toes. Keep your bum down and your body in a straight line. Concentrate on your abs and glutes and squeeze them as tightly as you can and hold still.

2- T-Stabilisation- Firstly get into a push-up position. Next shift your weight onto you left hand and rotate your chest to the right as the raise your right arm towards the ceiling. Keep your feet stacked. Hold for a few seconds, then try it on the other side. That’s one rep!

3- Wall Squat- Stand with your feet should width apart and back against a wall. Lower your body, slowly down the wall, until you knees are at a 90 degree angle. Push into your heels and hold still.

4- Lateral Raise- Start in a standing position with your feet shoulder width apart with your arms at your sides and a 1kg to 2.5kg dumbbell (if you have no dumbbells, use a tin of beans). Slowly raise your arms until they are in line with your shoulders and hold them there!

5- Static Squat- Start in a standing position with your feet shoulder width apart  or slightly wider. Extend your hands out in front of you to keep your balance. Sit back and down like you are sitting on an imaginary chair. Keep your head facing forward as your upper body bends forward a bit. Lower down so that your form a 90 degree angle with your knees and hips, ensuring that your knees never go over your toes. Press back into your heels and hold still.

Have you tried isometric exercises before? Or do you prefer to use weights? Which one of this moves is your favourite?

Primark & New Look Haul

 

If you follow me on Twitter you will know that I have been selling all my belongings on Ebay the past couple of weeks. I say all my belongings, I really mean all my “fat clothes.” As I have lost quite a bit of weight over the past few months, my clothes have been getting rather large for me, especially around my boobs! So as I have been quite successful on Ebay I decided to reward myself and go on a shopping spree!

It was great to go in a shop and not know what size I was, and in most of them I was pleasantly surprised!  Unfortunately, as always when I have money to spend I can never find something to buy, so my haul was smaller than I wanted it to be.

You can find what I bought in the video below, which for the first time is in HD! Yeah!

 

Have you got any tips about which shops have some great stock in at the moment? I really need some casual dresses, so any help is much appreciated!

Fitness Friday| Personal Weight-loss| Progress Picture

 

Firstly this post is a little bit late, my apologies, but like many of you, I have been especially busy the past week getting everything organised for Christmas. Now that I am at my Boyfriends’ parents house (where I’m spending Christmas) I can finally put my feet up and relax. I am currently writing this post while sitting in my PJ’s waiting for my tan to dry and nibbling on Cadbury’s Chocolate fingers… yum!

Anyways on to the purpose of this post… my personal weight-loss or even fitness/health journey. As you should all know by now, as I keep going on about it, I have been taking part in my own Festive Flat Tum Challenge over the past few months and although I haven’t quite achieved a flat tum tum yet I have seen some results which I wanted to share with you.

I have on this journey gained more than I have lost.. I have gain a new perspective on my health, body and fitness. I write this post as a completely different girl than what I was 4 months ago. For example, yesterday I was out in torrential rain running… I have officially turned into a mad runner… but more than that I enjoy it! It isn’t a chore, I enjoy going out and working out, I enjoy pushing my body and working hard and no matter how many pounds or inches I lose will change that.

Firstly I need to explain that I don’t use weighing scales, so I measure my progress through this progress  picture I am sharing with you, along with the inches I have lost and how my clothes fit. I used to have an unhealthy relationship with the weighting scale and would concentrate more on the pounds I lost than how I felt and looked. For example if I have a really good week where I had worked out 6 times a week and eaten healthily everyday but then I only saw a small amount of pounds lost I would feel awful, upset and demotivated. Now I concentrate on my performance in my workouts; how far or fast I run, how may squats I can do, how long I can hold a plank for. This means I end up pushing myself a little bit harder with each workout and I know the harder I work the sooner results will come.

To achieve the results I have I have simply changed my attitude; I focus on health not weight-loss. I eat healthy 80% of the time and workout 5/6 times a week for about an hour. I have not deprived myself of anything at all; If I want to go out for dinner and have a big burger I will. I just know to not have a huge big burger the next day. I eat 3 meals a day and have 2 small healthy snacks, so I am eating little but often. Because of  this constant grazing I am rarely hungry so I don’t end up binging on something I shouldn’t because I feel starving. With my exercise I aim for 30 to 40 minutes of cardio a day and 30-20 minutes of strength exercises a day. For my cardio I mainly run, but do use a mixture of workout DVD’s and games also such as Zumba. With my strength exercises I either makeup a routine of simple but effective moves such as Squats and The Plank or I use a DVD such as The 30 Day Shred.

So my results are as follows. In 4 months I have;

• Gone down about 2/3 dress sizes on my top (dependant upon the shop)
• Gone down 2 dress sizes on my bottom (again dependant upon the shop)
• Lost a total of 13 inches, including 2 inches off my boobs, hips and bum and nearly 2.5 inches off my waist!

I still have a long way to go till I will be completely happy with my body, but I am very happy with my results so far.

Have to been on a fitness or health mission this year also? Have you seen any results from exercise or changing your diet recently? I always love to hear about success stories!

Fitness Fridays- Jumping Jack Challenge

I am going to start a new feature on my blog, so it is a bit more organised and less random. So I present to you all 'Fitness Fridays!' Each Friday I aim to post a article on a fitness tip, review, or anything fitness related. This will hopefully inspire you to try it the next week, and we can all get fitter together :D

Right girlies, I know a lot of you may have made resolutions to get fit/ loose a few pounds/ tone up/ drop a dress size... Whatever! We would all like to find an easier way to do this. Nobody wants to spend hours in the gym, and eating salad all the time.

Through tumblr I have found a challenge in which burns plenty of calories and takes little time out of your day.

Its the Jumping Jack Challenge! the science is that for every jumping jack a person does they burn 5 calories. So if you do 100 everyday for a week you would loose a pound. (As to loose a pound a person needs to burn 3500 calories, or eat 3500 calories less, a week.)

This is just a guide, so you can tick off days that you reach your target!

100 jumping jacks is really not that much, and won't take more than a few minutes! So come on girls, what are you waiting for?!

Snooki's weight loss

Snooki posing in her bikini on Twitter

Snooki with her boyfriend (again a personal picture from her Twitter account)

Another shot in her bikini

So I have been following Snooki's weight loss for a while now, as she frequents my twitter, and is often mentioned on websites and magazines I read.

I never really thought she was massively huge, like the media portrayed her to be. Yes she was a bit overweight for the height she is, but not massively. Now she has been losing weight, she looks great, I just hope she doesn't go too far as I know she has had eating disorders in the past. She admitted to battling both anorexia and bulimia in high school, and once only weighed 80lbs. She told OK magazine "There were these little freshman girls, and I was scared that these little freshmen girls were going to take my spot [in the  cheer-leading squad]. I just started eating salads... and then I got to a point where I was just eating a cracker a day. I was down to 80 pounds. I almost died."

 I know that her current weight-loss is credited to weight loss tablets called Zantrex. She stated on her twitter that she eats less, workout more, but credits the pills for her transformation. The pills are fat burning tablets, which have also been used by Britney Spears.The side effects include palpitations, anxiety, cold sweats, nausea, diarrhoea, increased heart rate and irritability.

On the website it states that the tablets just cause fat loss, not body weight loss, and that they should be taken twice a day, two in the morning and two with your main meal.

Personally I admit, I have been tempted in the past to resort to miracle weight-loss tablets, but never have. I believe now that every person is capable of changing their body without taking pills and tablets that cause such dangerous side effects. I would be too scared of the side effects to take any of these fat-loss tablets. I think especially celebrities who have access to personal trainers and nutritionalists (most of us don't have the pennies so such luxuries) should be losing weight the healthy way through exercise and healthy eating. For us without these luxuries become your own personal trainer and nutritionalist, educate yourself, there are thousands of free websites to read up on what you need to do to change your body if you have the desire to.

I want to know what your reactions are to celebrities using weight loss tablets? Or even in general your opinion on the tablets. Or on Snooki, should someone with previous eating disorders be taking weight loss tablet.