Gymwear & wellness | How our workouts have progressed…

Top: Next, Bomber Jacket: Next (old) Leggings: Gap, Trainers: New Balance: (Old)

Our exercise journey so far…

Starting a new regime can be quite the adjustment. For us, we went from sitting on the couch and eating terribly to working out every other day, eliminating most sugar and bad foods from our diets and being more conscientious in our day to day decisions.

In a short period of time we have seen a range of changes in our life, from wellness to the beginning of fitness its been an interesting adventure….

Sugar – time to break up?

The most interesting thing has been to see the way our energy levels have been ruined by an over dependance on sugar.

On the days that we go back to bad eating habits (the dreaded cheat days) the day following is never as good, we lack energy and can find ourselves often lethargic. Honestly, the biggest change has been energy levels.

Energy

I honestly thought that I would spend most of my time yawning (A big concern pre joining was… we will be so tired! We won’t have any time!) honestly, that has not been the case. Even better nights at the gym have given me much more energy in the day time, I don’t even yawn as much! Joined up with losing that lethargic feeling my body has felt more peaceful, more aligned if you are into that type of thing.

I believe it must all come down to being more active as ultimately I’ve started giving my body its needs rather than what my brains wants.

What about those cravings?

Pre gym I decided to slowly give up sugar and minimise how much I ate. Was I successful? Not at all, in fact I was quite the opposite. During the days when we had been off of exercising (We managed to get a cold and two sick bugs within the first three weeks) I found it easier to eat badly. Also if we popped off the bandwagon for a weak moment (A night of drinking for example left us eating chips and pasta and the next day left us craving sugar with less resilience) we found it harder to be strong with our healthy eating. However, when we stuck to less food in general, no alcohol and fruit as our sugar source it was much easier and effortless to maintain. In fact perhaps the old adage is true, you don’t miss what you don’t have.

Lessons learnt so far?

• Always wipe down the gym equiptment
• Routinely wash your hands after a work out and use the hand sanitisers in the gym throughout your workout
• Don’t buy bad foods and you won’t eat them
• Throw out any bad snack foods that are in the house
• Make sure you have lots of healthy snacks on hand

Whats next?

Honestly whats next is to keep going… You can’t see much change in my body in the photos above but thats another story for another day but I certainly see much change in my mind and myself internally.

Exercising and being dedicated to a slow building programme has been really beneficial to our mental health. Its made us feel so much better about ourselves and even better, its manageable and addictive. That sports high is something I had completely forgotten that I was in love with. Honestly with the repeat injuries I thought I just couldn’t exercise but in reality its just that I needed to find another way to exercise, to reach those highs.

From here it is onwards and upwards! We are increasing our weights, our reps and are continuing to push forward to achieve our healthier living goals. We know its not a quick fix but honestly we feel so much better just showing up, it wouldn’t be possible to stop.

In which a gymphobe tells you to, just do it!

“Well I’m excited to wear my new leggings….Even though I just took the tags off and they are grey… sweat patches be damned.”

(A thought from one of my first sessions…)

My decided meaning for the Nike slogan, “just do it” occurred to me on a very busy Saturday in Oxford Circus, London. 

Having gotten over my initial – “I do not belong in a sport-shop, period.” fears, I had just asked the kind salesman in Nike for a pair of men’s, *gasp* vomero 12’s in their bright blue and I was feeling unnaturally chipper and upbeat.

The thing is, I’ve been doing a lot of conquering of my fitness fears of late. 

Breaking free from the 11 year old, secondary school fear of exercise god, at 26 I had finally started beating away the, too big for exercise demons I seem to have picked up somewhere along the line of mandatory leotard wearing at age 14. And now, finally 15 years later I have finally started understanding the Monika, “just do it”. 

The fact that the unfit don’t just get struck down by giant chocolate lightening bolts the moment we enter the gym is a god send and although I have to wear men’s trainers, there are somehow running shoes for six foot tall, accident prone women who apparently have a thing for neon blue.

Just do it of course, is the key. You want to loose weight? Then just do it! Want to lift weights until you look like John Cena? Then just do it! 

Need to ask the all too attractive men in Nike about trainers for post- stress fractures and broken ankles then just do it! Own it! And one day soon you might feel even braver! 

I realise I’ve just played into a simple marketing slogan but at this point I don’t care. I’m a gym-adrenaline junkie and I know it. I want to lift weights like the scary men in the free weights section, get arms and abs like The Bella Twins and you know how that’s gonna happen? 

Because I’m just gonna do it.

*have you got gym/workout fears, or just starting a new workout? Let me know below I want to hear all about your exercising adventures! (& Cheerlead too because I’m going all out!) 

Health & Fitness week| Joining the Gym.

We are joining the Gym*.

You heard the correctly, me on a treadmill. Now, I realize that this might open the floor to some comments like, don’t be silly, you’re fine! You’re a stick with eyes!

Well let me tell you guys I don’t need it. I promise, I love you all but I’m cool with honesty, I’ve let myself go and I’m about to make it up to myself.

Furthermore, if you do ever encounter a six-foot tall stick with eyes – Run! This is not a drill people; this is the beginning of the apocalypse!

Why now?

So how come we have decided on the gym life? We’ve never gone in the gym direction as a couple before instead prior to a string of injuries and moving house we were prolific cyclers and runners. I personally, love working out when I do finally go, I just tend to like it more, outdoors.

Before I broke my ankle in 2011 I used to run for about two hours every other day all around Deptford, Greenwich, Blackheath and Lewisham but post ankle break it took me a while to get back. In fact from about 2013/14/15 I had three near stress fractures on my metatarsals and I still suffer from a lot of metatarsal pain every now and then. Especially when I’m pounding the pavement, it made running outdoors, impossible.

Josh however, unlike me isn’t so attached to the outdoor exercising life, in fact when I met Josh he was a full blown gym addict. He of course was super excited about going back, its where he feels comfortable getting a full workout.

My unexpected reaction

I won’t fob you off, when Josh suggested it, I cried in the middle of our kitchen. A strong reaction right? But I realized that feeling ‘big’ can be a big restriction in feeling comfortable enough to attend. Would I be judged? I’d met enough mean girls from attending an all girls school to encounter some more shouldn’t have been a problem… Luckily for me I have my best friend boo who has been a committed gym goer for ages to put my mind at ease. She let me know that most are so wrapped up in what they are doing they won’t be noticing me.

Now, I can’t lie I have done an awful lot of googling this past week or so to get the lay of the land. Especially since part of the problem is just that I have no idea what I am doing, but we all have to start somewhere, and this is going to be mine, deep breath, lets do it….

*We joined! Its was strange and all kinds of odd….

Got a cold? I may have stumbled upon a way to save your sore nose…

Advanced Night Repair Eye Gel+

The worst part of having a cold (bar a temperature and that sore skin feeling) is the red nose a few days in. There’s frankly nothing worse than having to see people with a nose like Rudolf.

Quite by accident however, I stumbled upon how to not look like you have a flashing beacon in the middle of your face and it started with eye cream.

As we well know by now I’ve been asking a couple of questions about skincare, like do miracle products work? Well I can tell you one thing, Estee Lauders advance night repair works! The night before I used this my nose was bright red and sore and the first thing I noticed was in the morning it wasn’t sore, looking at it in the mirror and it wasn’t even a little bit red! Success! So, how did I get here?

I’m not entirely sure when and if I heard it correctly but speaking with a couple of colleagues I could have sworn my boss suggested using eye cream on the bridge of your nose. Now because I wear glasses pretty much all the time I had developed an odd mark on the bridge of my nose. It just occurred one day and actually in using this eye cream there I can’t see it anymore! So I already knew it worked pretty well so on the third day of my cold when my nose was this horrendous red I just thought, you know what, I’ll try it! No harm, no foul!

I cannot tell you how surprised I am by this result, so much so I had to share it with you all! If we weren’t sure before this product works. It might not actually stop your face from ageing but it does repair, it does fix skin complaints and if nothing else that is worth the price in a way! This eye cream is not cheap, I think it is about £40 in the UK and it does last, it doesn’t run out uber fast (unless you are over using!) and apparently its working! So girls if you have a cold, wear glasses or just need your eyes to have a little lift this is the product for you!

The Weekend | Wellness & Health Pamper Saturday….

The best thing you can do for yourself tomorrow morning? Give yourself a time out to look after yourself.

Last weekend we chose to give ourselves a weekend at home to finish up a few more things in our living room and just have the weekend off. In reality we barely got any chores done because we were too busy resting, but thats ok too and here is how it went . . .

YOGA

I’ve been a little out of it in terms of exercise but I have been focusing on building strength and balance rather than focusing on quick fixes. Yoga has been great for me in terms of flexibility and strength and I’ve been trying to do a different practice every other day. Last Saturday it was improving posture and shoulders, thursday was core and tuesday was legs…etc It certainly won’t transform me overnight but I’d rather I implemented a practice I could keep.

Body Scrub

2016 marked the year of proper skincare but interestingly I’ve never been good with the rest of me. I have surgery scars that the moment they occurred everyone told me to cover in vitamin E and all that but its just never been something I’ve been that bothered with, so four years later they really are still there but I have been playing around with body scrubs. Especially since we still haven’t gotten a bath, its as close to relaxation and candles as I’m ever gonna get.

Here I’ve used both a foot scrub (It smells of peppermint!) and a hand scrub which in the winter season really helps to minimise all that dry skin!

Face Masks

Last year I found this Face Mask from Loreal+  I really love the Charcoal mask but because I take it off with a hot flannel I’m always worried I’m leaving parts of it in my pores so I like to follow it up with Estee’s Nightwear detox mask.

Moisturise….

Once you’ve stripped all the oils you have to put them all back in! I also like giving myself a good amount of time for this to sink in. As we were at home that day I also used the advanced night eye cream, which I love. This thicker, gel like consistency sinks in quickly and I hate to say it but my eyes feel better for it, whether its working or not.  Followed up by daywear which is my go to for the winter months.

As a body moisturiser I’ve recently been using this moisture spray from sanctuary, its really light and absorbs quite quickly making it quick and simple for those like me who are on the go.

Eat Well

In another effort to feel better I’ve been dropping carbs in and out of my diet to find the best balance for me. I’m not allergic or anything like that, but my ibs is happier with less carbs, so a hearty breakfast last weekend was half an avocado, an egg (best poached) and some bacon, delicious, easy and simple.

The best way to continue a weekend like this is of course, a daily walk, afternoon naps and plenty of movies, but if you aren’t good with weepy films don’t foolishly start The Choice thinking it will be all daisies and buttercups… not the case.

Me and Josh are still recovering now 😉

 

 

Friday Feelings | Is enough, enough? A case for minimalism.

(Our living room in the beginning of construction/overhaul – I’m not sure we’d even seen this much of our floor in a long while!) 

When I went to university I only took as much as would fit into my dads Volvo. I had my basics, a couple of books, dvd’s my kitchen and bathroom stuff and a couple of weeks of clothes.

For months, I never felt like I didn’t have enough. I didn’t go clothes shopping, I didn’t need to and although after a few months I shopped again and things changed as I went back to work (I didn’t work the first year of university, or the last) but I bought more, but never as much I have now, never as much as I had a teen but the reality of this story is this, I never needed for more, and I was happier, with less.

I’m bringing this up because Josh and myself are so sick of having so much stuff. We’ve just done over our living room, including the floor and as we went to put all our stuff back in the room, we refused to. Instead we wanted to chuck most of it out.

Currently upstairs in our house is a mess. I feel suffocated by all these things, now that I know how it feels downstairs with just a few things.

I’ve not gained happiness by having more stuff. Instead I’ve crowded myself more instead. I’m not saying that we are going to sit in an empty, minimalist house but we are certainly looking to have less, buy less and hopefully be happier in effect.

It starts with having a shopping ban on fast fashion in the home and on clothes but also on food and other little things, beauty products, make up. Actually focus the stuff factor to what I actually need rather than a lot of things to make myself feel better.

That money we save gets to go towards our savings again and our time gets given back to us as well. I for one am looking forward to seeing the white spaces in my wardrobe again and on that note, less time spent in shops and more time living.

The most interesting part of this is that prior to the last wedding year we had achieved this goal, we had been so focused on living over stuff and I’m sad to realize it didn’t stick properly. I’m not looking to downsize our house and live in a shoe box, live in empty rooms, true, current minimalism isn’t me either but its finding a happy in between, its finding true to us happiness in what we have and what we do.

As we go on this journey it will be interesting to see the little ways our lives change from now to living more simply, of course I will share it all here and I’m thinking it will of course re start in my wardrobe.

Friday Fashion recap & New Years Resolutions?

I’ve always been terrible when it comes to making new years resolutions. There has been the odd year where I have made some but none where I have actually kept them and fulfilled my plan.

This year however, honestly I feel like I have some to make and some to keep, whether I will or not I guess I have to tell you them to keep some accountability.

Educate myself

As the wedding planning ebbed away this came to me almost fully formed, I want to go back to educating myself a little. In particular, I want to finally learn to code. In secondary school I learnt basic coding on terrible programs like Dreamweaver but now I know I really need to get to grasps with HTML and be able to apply that to my graphics for work and this blog.

I also want to touch up my graphics knowledge. Although I don’t use that knowledge on this blog that much (mainly because I don’t have a decent enough computer to cope with Photoshop or even elements.) I have about 12 years experience but I really want to hone it in and learn more about using the newer tools.

Saving

To assist myself with this I am also planning on saving up for a new basic laptop.

Currently I have an eight year old Toshiba laptop which is crazy clunky and needs an external hard drive attached to work faster than a snail and then I have my MacBook pro. This is only 4 years old and I am writing on it right now however, it is almost out of storage and really I can’t delete enough off of it to give myself enough space for Photoshop and everything else I need so my plan is to get a new one which can cope with Photoshop and all the other programs I need.

On the savings front I am also tempted to join bloggers like Jesse Coulter on having a spending freeze on things like clothes and home wears. Something, which really became apparent this Christmas is we really don’t need anymore home wear stuff. At first it was super exciting because we had this big house which looked empty but ultimately we have plenty now and really don’t want to cramp our house anymore.

We have just painted and laid new floors in our living room and after having emptied the room we have ended up putting less than half of the stuff that was in there back in. Since then it’s really opened up the space again and feels like a breath of fresh air with so much less stuff!

With this in mind I am really thinking it would be good to stop spending for a while put that money towards a new laptop and furthering my graphic design/HTML knowledge.

Continuing to get out more and spend more time being active

Planning everything during the last two years kept us stuck inside and our bodies and minds have felt worse for it. In response, at the end of last year I started walking into work in the morning, adding a further 20 minutes exercise into my day and I have really seen the mental and physical benefits.

I think it will also be nice for Josh and me. Two years ago we spent vast amounts of time on cycle rides and walks and just taking in life outside of the TV and the living room and it really defined us as people so being more active again with walking, cycling, yoga and exploring our new village will really bring us back to that place of comfort and health.

That is really it for this years resolutions they are all rather easy and achievable and this year I am determined to follow through! Picture wise, as above I barely shared any outfit posts this past year so hopefully we can also rectify that as well!

Friday feelings | growth, stillness and trust

Friday feelings | growth, stillness and trust.

A sentiment came to me recently and that is this, “try, fail, change and try again”

I’ve never been too good at admitting to failure but I’ve been even worse at thinking if this didn’t work it doesn’t mean something else will . 

Something else will work, perhaps only when it’s right. 

I’ve spent a lot of time flogging a dead horse but since this recent sentiment came along I’ve found myself more and more focused on trying and changing and with it it’s released an awful lot of guilt and blame.

Choosing to change, choosing to try is in actual fact far more fulfilling than routinely pulling up blame and “you’ve failed, you’ve failed, you’ve failed…”

It’s not failure, it’s just not right. Sometimes you have to try all the porridge’s before you find the right one for you.

The first thing I’m attempting this attitude to is our week in Marrakesh. I’m notorious for feeling strung out and overwhelmed by not filling my time properly. Somewhere along the line, being busy got misconstuded for being productive when most often it’s the least productive use of time.

Myself and Josh have also committed this week to complete and utter, floating rest. No guilt, no productivity, just switch off. 

The ultimate week(end) we never give ourselves.

In this week I also intend to employ the art of stillness. Switching off the do anything/everything attitude and instead taking time to revel in nothingness, in Elizabeth Gilbert sitting on her roman floor eating asparagus, watching the birds and listing to the wind and allowing myself to have inspiration and creativity bloom if it wishes or stay hidden if it rather. 

Instead of insanity we have committed to a week of complete and utter rest.

The ultimate in luxury.

*if you want to know more about the art of stillness I loved this blog post by coach and speaker, Blaire Palmer.

The Weekend | What to wear and where to go…

Hallelujah! Its Friday!

I’m going to let you in on a secret, I think me and Josh have this weekend business down pat.

We’ve stopped food shopping on Saturdays (friday nights ftw – we live a wild life) Last weekend we were able to get in blog photos, lay ins, a pub trip, dinner out in Maidstone, catching Dr Strange in Rochester, a walk around Emmetts Garden in Sevenoaks, we made sausage rolls and got in copious amounts of Gilmore Girls (Josh is watching the whole series from the start to prepare for the new series!) that is some serious going!

I have to add that in terms of wellness getting in what you like to do on the weekend is the key to ultimate happiness. Things like making sure we have a walk makes the weekend almost too perfect, in fact it makes Monday pretty hard to stomach, you mean I have to travel on a train? Write things professionally and respond to phone calls and emails? Torture… torture I tell you…

 

Beauty and Health | 7 things I’ve learnt about my skin

I think that there is a lot to learn about our skin as we grow into ourselves. From small things like what irritates, what foundations won’t sit on ‘that’ moisturiser to learning that skin is one of our most important body parts and to give it bad products and food choices can make life long affects.

It made me think, maybe I should share 10 things I’ve learnt about my skin.

1. Adult acne, its real and its not going anywhere because its hormonal. 

Learning that my adult acne was not an infection but instead, a hormonal issues was almost the best moment ever. For the majority of 2012 I was on antibiotics. Antibiotics which I’m pretty sure caused IBS for several years.

The lesson here is if you hit 21 and your periods are all over the shop and you potentially have these symptoms its worth telling this to your Doctor. Polycystic is not the end of the world (and it often doesn’t cause infertility so you know) so make sure you have covered all basis, overloading your body with antibiotics is never good.

Your doctor will most likely prescribe drugs for this but there are other ways, I find Alisa Vitti to be on the right track so check her out . . .

        2.  & 3. Sensitivity

Cheap skincare products hurt my skin. I wish that they worked for me because hello savings but oh my gosh my skin hurts and erupts when they are no good.

I have to wear gloves to use cleaning products and nail polish isn’t worth wearing. Nail polish remover is now my enemy and leaves a feeling that I can only describe as being  like having bamboo placed under my fingernails. If it hurts, don’t do it.

       4. eczema 

My legs are uber dry, I must remember to moisturise, I rarely do but every four weeks guys, my legs, uber itchy.

5. Sometimes your facial moisturiser likes you other times, its gonna not be so happy

I have come to the conclusion that sometimes you have to have to separate regimes ones for summer and one for winter. Also sometimes our skin changes or its needs change and you just have to switch it all up!

6. Allergies

Who knew you could be allergic to hairspray? Apparently all my hairdressers is who. They look at me pretty oddly. Somehow its something that happens, I’m onto my forth attempt but I have been keeping it as far from my roots as possible and so far its working!

7. It might work for someone else, it might not work for you

My dad washes his face with soap from Sainsburys. Its basic but his skin never breaks out, always looks healthy and I’ve never seen it oily or greasy. If I did that to my own there would be a drastically different reaction. The reason for this is not for any other reason other than that we are different and our skin reacts to things in a different way.

At almost 26 the key to my skin has been playing with different products and combinations to see what sticks. Right now my skin is working very successfully with Estee Lauder skin products and it doesn’t work so well with the L’Oreal products which I used consistently from 22. Skin changes and thats been another discovery to find the right products at the right time!

What are your skin lessons? Leave them in the comments below!

Food & Health | Health Kickstart at breakfast

Last week we took off two days before the bank holiday so we could give ourselves a much needed break. Unlike our usual stay-cations where we cram in as much as possible this was the short holiday where we decided that we wouldn’t do anything.

It also happened to be the last weekend of eating whatever we want before our self-imposed four month wedding diet kicked in. (By now it has and I’m probably a craving mess right now.) Something we both noticed by three days in however was that although sometimes its nice to forget the rules completely your body also needs to be nourished and looked after as well. The bread might taste great but the body sometimes needs recalibration.

Starting with breakfast and a run on Monday morning we were getting back on track and this right here is the best way to kick start it. Porridge, Linseed, Honey, Banana, Cinnamon and pumpkin seeds. Throw in as much water as possible and peppermint tea and you’ve got yourself a party of good eats! Now ask me this again next week and it might be a different story . . .

Happiness is … time for baking

Fudge topped brownies 

(Who just needs brownies when you can have fudge sauce on top as well? Also I made both of these with pre mix because I just didn’t have time for full on stuff! I have zero judgement for using pre mix)

I can have the most insanely filled weekends but fitting in, baking or watching a girlie movie or even reading a magazine can instantly turn busy insanity around to a relaxed weekend.

With a wedding on the horizon our weekends are getting more and more jam packed (especially once we add in gardening!) but this weekend we had my lovely sister in law around and Joshes best friend in the world Paul around meaning in the course of one day we managed to get some shopping in, a frappe stop off, pick up some of the suits for the wedding as well as de weeding the front garden and of course baking fudgy brownies and cookies…

These are my particular favourites. I mix nigellas recipe for double chocolate cookies and then I either put a caramel button in the centre or this time a piece of malteasers chocolate. They taste amazing and are also ridiculously fun and relatively simple! Next time I am tempted to add popping candy (Joshes favourite thing) so this is what happiness looks like this week, baking cookies and watching the second season of Grace and Frankie on Netflix (love this show so much!)