Fitness Update | January

Oh January, here you are again, reminding us all of how another year has gone by and the fitness and health resolutions have to make another appearance. 

We all make them, and the majority of us will not stick to them.

I wanted to write a post today to tell you a few changes I've made lately and a few of my fitness goals for 2015. 

Exercise |

I try to do things that I enjoy when it comes to exercise, I've always been a fan of jogging and lately have been trying to do it as much as I can, even if I don't fancy going outside, I will put my Nike App on and jog on the spot. As long as I'm keeping my body moving I feel like it's better than nothing. It terms of jogging, I plan on doing at least 10 miles a month for the year, perfectly achievable. 

If I am at home I'm also trying to do fitness DVD's for half an hour of the day, just to keep myself moving.

This year I'm also trying to mix it up with classes, I want to maybe start playing badminton on a regular basis with my sister and maybe start doing boxing (I hear that's what the VS Models do!). I really want to keep as active as possible this year and make time for it, so hopefully by the summer I'm comfortable enough to get into a bikini!

Diet |

For me, diet is the hardest part. I love chocolate, crisps, cheesecake and wine far too much! As well as everything else bad for you, and I eat way too much of it on a daily basis.

I would never start a strict 'diet' just because I know I would never stick to it, but this year I definitely would like to try to cut down on the really bad snacks, and try to incorporate more fruit and vegetables into my diet. Also lately I am loving green tea more than ever, it has so many health benefits and I love trying all of the different flavors.

I'm good when it comes to water as I drink a hell of a lot of it, so mainly just need to work on portion control and cutting out a lot of sugar from my diet and we'll see how it goes from there.

I'm going to try to post these fitness updates monthly to share any progress and updates. I think it's a great way to track where I'm at.

I've always loved reading fitness blogs too, so if any of you are reading any at the moment feel free to tell me about them.

Thanks for reading!

Fitness Update #2

Hello lovelies!

Today I've decided to finally sit down and write about what's been going on in my world of health and fitness.I've done a couple of fitness related posts which you cab check out, here and here, but as I haven't done an update since August I thought it was about time I babbled away about what changes have been made and where I'm currently at with my health and fitness.

Warning: This could get very long and rambly, apologies in advance.

Since my last update I quit my gym membership, it was pretty pricey, I wasn't taking advantage of the facilities offered, I wasn't swimming because I had no body confidence, I never went to the free classes they offered and I was essentially going to the gym just to use the treadmill and the weights. Both things I didn't need to be paying £45 a month for. I could jog at home and I had dumbbells at home so it seemed a huge waste of money.

 So...it's a new year, and when January hits we all see it as an opportunity to get skinny, join a gym, start a diet. I didn't give myself a goal to start any kind of diet or join a gym, I tried to set myself a few goals, realistic ones that I would more than likely stick to. 
You can read a little about my new year fitness and health goals in a post here.

So number one was to drink green tea, if you know me at all you will know I am not a tea drinker, I don't like tea and I don't like coffee. I can drink tea, I tend to drink it if I feel ill and need a hot drink with not too much flavour like hot chocolate but I'm not a fan of it. After doing some research however and reading all about just how good green tea is for you, I decided I had to incorporate it into my everyday life. I bought a box of Twinnings Peach and Cherry Blossom Green Tea, and I surprisingly enjoyed it. It has a light tea taste but smells like peach which I love. I was also in a restaurant the other day and ordered green tea! Who am I? I haven't noticed any changes in myself from drinking it but I know it's doing me a lot of good so I plan to continue drinking it.

Another thing I really wanted to do was to jog more, I don't mind jogging, I'm not good at it as I'm very unfit and I have asthma. But it's one exercise I feel really works so if I'm going to workout I usually opt for jogging. Towards the end of last year I downloaded the Nike Running App on my phone and I have been loving it! It's so motivating to look at your progress and I really enjoy using it.  The app consists of 'levels' and I'm currently on the first level, a goal for this year for me is to get to the second level which requires a total of 31 miles! I can hopefully do this by the end of the year.

And finally, consume less sugar, I just want to be more conscious of what I'm putting into my body, opting for sugar free options when I can. 

As for exercise, when I really don't feel like jogging outside, I try to do things inside such as 'The 30 Day Shred' on YouTube, 20 minute exercises that literally kill me but are so effective, I've never done this for the full 30 days but when I get random bouts of energy this is great to do.
Another Youtube favourite is 'Blogilates', there are so many exercises on there, if I'm in for the day I go to YouTube and try to do one of her workouts.
If I'm feeling something different I will type in 'Zumba' and just go along with that or find some other type of workout online. 

I still use the app MyFitnessPal, I think it's a really great way to see what you're eating in comparison to how much you're exercising!

And that's about it, all fairly new changes so there's no progress to report yet, I hope you're all doing well.
 Have a great weekend! 

My Fitness Story.

(This may quite long, so go and grab a cup of tea before having a read.)

Okay, so my whole life I've been tall and slim and a really rubbish eater. I could eat a whole tub of brownies and a multi-pack of crisps for breakfast each day and still be almost underweight. In school I was forever being the girl who was "always eating". In school though I was quite active as I took GCSE dance as well as P.E, which made 4 and a half hours exercise a week. I was really unhealthy but still very active.

Moving forward to being 17 and being in sixth form, I remained the same weight, occasionally gaining a few pounds, but nonetheless I was still slim for my height. (In sixth form we had a free gym membership which I never used because I didn't like the people who went to my sixth form). However a few of my friends and myself joined a local gym, which I started to really enjoy. However as all of my friends drove and I didn't and the gym was quite far from my house, I always had to rely on someone to go with me. So eventually everyone got bored and stopped going.

When I turned 18 as well as eating lots of crap I was also going out A LOT, and drinking A LOT. Which took my weight right up, I gained a stone in all the wrong places and became very unfit!

A few months after my 18th I then moved to London and moved in with my older sister and her boyfriend. I soon realised they rarely ever had home-cooked meals and go out to eat daily. Breakfast in a cafe and dinner in restaurants every day. Around the same time I got a job in a cocktail bar/club and started drinking even more regularly (socially, do worry, I was never a raging alcoholic or anything, just a teenager enjoying a free bar).
This of course was terrible for my body and I almost gained another 2 stone!

It was the biggest I'd ever been and I'd never been so unhappy with the way I looked.

After six months of living in London I had a big fall out with my sister and ended up moving back home with my mom. I went back to my old job and home-cooked meals. I then found out that my job were giving free gym memberships to all staff. So I asked my friend Roz if she wanted to start going with me. At this point I was still eating absolute crap and drinking on weekends, but I was swimming and going to the gym almost everyday.

I weighed myself after about 4 months and had lost about 5 pounds in total, which was a very happy moment for me because instead of reading the scales and seeing an increase, my weight had in fact gone down.

However, in October 2012 I got a chance to move back to London again, and of course I said yes.

So this brings me to right now, I have been living with my boyfriend for over six months now, I haven't joined a gym and he takes me out to eat 2-5 times a week. I sometimes snack instead of eating meals and I rarely exercise. I'm also working back at the cocktail bar and so I do drink often.

I'm not the biggest I've ever been right now, but I'm not far off it, I'm certainly the unhappiest I've been with my weight. I know what I need to do in order to lose the weight, I just need the motivation.

I've had the 'My Fitness Pal' app on my phone for about a year now which at some points I will use religiously and at others, not at all. I recently got the idea to do the 30 day shred, but due to laziness I only managed two days. The only thing I have found that really works for me is the gym. I feel like writing this post and admitting my bad habits and laziness that this could be where I start.
I want this blog to also be a platform where I can write regular fitness updates and progression (or lack of) and just try to admit to myself that I'm doing something wrong and something needs to change.

If you have (or have had) any similar issues we can encourage eachother to stay on track and regularly let eachother know how we're doing.

I'm not sure if this will work but it seems like a good place to start.

Let me know of any tips/tricks or just general advice you have in a comment or email, the feedback would really help!