It’s All A Balancing Act

July 29, 2024 / No Comments

This morning at 07:15, my alarm went off so that I could get up for circuits at 8am. Except I didn’t get up, I had no energy, couldn’t open my eyes and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. Which is what I did.

When I finally woke up the first thought that went through my head was ‘I must be coming down with something’ until seconds later my stomach started rumbling. Painfully. Ah ha, I thought, I hadn’t eaten enough after circuits and boxing last night. That bowl of tomato, lentil, leek and cabbage soup just didn’t cut it.

And this made me think. I spent years of my teenage and early-twenties life equating feelings of hunger with something to be proud of. A rumbling stomach meant that your body was burning fat rather than food and was therefore making you skinny. When I was dieting I’d skip breakfast, have vegetables for lunch and a small dinner, keeping myself going with caffeine whilst trying to exercise and ignore the feelings of dizziness. Yes I was skinny but I wasn’t healthy….

Fast forward a few years to my realisation that I hadn’t eaten enough. It’s a very fine balance for me at the moment as I am still trying to lose the last 5lbs whilst reducing body fat and increasing muscle definition. However, if I don’t eat enough food then I don’t have enough energy to work out efficiently and build muscle.

It’s all a learning process at the moment while I figure out what I need to put into my body to get out of it what I want. And my brain needs to go through an advanced training programme where I work on the fact that when it comes to food, less is not always better. Watch this space…

July 21, 2024 / No Comments

This is something that has really caught my attention over the past few days for a few reasons. It’s an advert from Always called #LikeAGirl exploring why ‘like a girl’ becomes a negative phrase as girls grow up.

As a girl who was a serious football-playing, anti-dresses, action man tomboy, being told that I couldn’t do anything as well as the boys because I was a girl was like a kick in the stomach. Just because I was the only girl at football training it didn’t give anyone the right to say that I was good ‘for a girl’. No. Get it right. I was good. The fact that I was a girl was irrelevant.

As I got older I was discouraged from playing mixed sports because no one ever included ‘the girl’ because what’s the point? She can’t kick the ball, she can’t hit the ball and she DEFINITELY can’t throw the ball. Bullshit.

I fully appreciate that men and women are physically very different, for example women hold onto body fat more than men (and for good reason, you need to be a certain weight and body fat percentage for everything to keep working properly and enable you to have babies). But stop comparing my achievements to those of my male counterparts.

When I run, I run for me. When I work out, I work out to improve myself. When I eat healthily that’s because I’m listening to my body and giving it what it needs.

As one of the women in the film says, I run, workout and eat like a girl. Because I am a girl. A girl who’s damn proud of who she is and what she’s achieved over the last year.

So I think I’ll carry on acting like a girl thank you very much.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

The Not-So-Pretty Parts of Fitness

July 14, 2024 / No Comments

I love Instagram and health/fitness blogs as much as the next girl but there’s something that I need to get off my chest….

Fitness isn’t pretty. Eating healthily can be pretty but isn’t always. Meal prep definitely isn’t pretty.

So what’s with all of these people pretending that it is?!

This is a beautiful bowl of vegan deliciousness from Deliciously Ella, a healthy eating blog that I take a lot of inspiration from. And yes, I am aware that this blog is one of the ways that she gets paid and she therefore has to spend time making things look good but the bar is being set very high!

My meals (particularly if I’ve just worked out) look something more like this…

Also, who looks good when they’re working out? Anyone? Nope, I’m not seeing any hands… That’s because no one looks good if they’re really working out properly. Sweaty red faces, sweaty hair, sweaty clothes is more like it.

This is Kayla Itsines, an Australian blogger that I started following recently who is clearly very strong and fit but how does she ACTUALLY work out with her hair like that? It would drive me insane! Let’s face it, you can’t do burpees with hair like that…

This is more like it (look away now if you’re eating):

My final rant is about mason jars. Who has the time in the morning to make their smoothie, put it in a mason jar, take a whimsical photo, carry that jar to work and then sit down and drink their smug smoothie?!

My smoothies are carried in plastic tubs because they’re light and easy to drink from:

And breathe.

The point of this rant was to tell you that however inspiring all of these Instagram and Blog babes are, the reality is that hard work, commitment and a whole load of red sweaty faces and ugly (but healthy) food is going to get you to your goals. So don’t compare yourself to anyone else, stick to your own process and you’ll see the results.

Be inspired but be real.

It’s Not All About Working Out

July 8, 2024 / No Comments

One of the biggest things that I’m learning is that fitness, health and exercise doesn’t always come in the form of a plate of salad and an hour in the gym. There’s more to feeling good and there’s definitely more to life than just that.

This past weekend I visited friends in Plymouth, Devon and we stayed active all weekend whilst indulging our foodie faces in lots of great food (and ice cream!).

I finally got to try paddle boarding in Cornwall which has been on my list of goals for a while. My balance was better than I thought it was going to be, mainly because the board is so big and wide that it was like standing on a door, but also because my core is getting stronger. I loved it and will definitely be looking to do it whenever I can!

We walked a few miles back along the coast to Devon which was very beautiful and included a few hills which was a brilliant quad and glute workout. I attempted to swim in the lido the next day but for a pampered London girl it was a bit too cold… I jumped in and jumped straight out again!

Anyway, my point is that exercise can fit into your life in more ways than just pounding the treadmill. Try going for a walk with some friends, swim somewhere new or give something that wouldn’t normally think of a go and see where it takes you!

Taking The Green Plunge

July 4, 2024 / No Comments

Over the past 3 weeks I’ve completely overhauled the way that I eat and I wanted to explain what I’ve done and why.

You’ve no doubt seen how much I was complaining about not losing any weight and as much as I’m learning that change doesn’t just happen on the scales, there’s still a part of me that wants to lose body fat and look leaner.

Enter the Alkaline Diet. My friend Anna introduced it to me via way of a cleanse as outlined in the Honestly Healthy cookbook. The basic concept is that to allow your body to work to its full potential and protect you from nasties, the PH level needs to be more alkaline than acid.

Acid-forming foods include meat, fish, eggs, dairy and grains while alkaline-forming foods are pretty much anything green plus fruits, nuts and seeds.

During the 10 day cleanse, you stick to these rules rigidly, consuming huge amounts of green vegetables in solid and liquid form. Lemon water (hot or cold) is also a major part of the cleanse as believe it or not, citrus fruits are alkaline when they’re inside your body! I know, it took a while for me to get my head around this one.

After 10 days of this I had lost 1lb and had got through the feelings of tiredness. Onto the next stage! This is when you reeducate yourself into the proportions of different foods that you have on your plate. Protein, especially animal protein, should play much less of a role in your meals. the majority of what you eat should still be green and leafy vegetables, including spinach, watercress, kale and seaweed)

I’ve adapted it to fit my lifestyle and training schedule to aim for 2 vegan meals and 1 snack each day with 1 meal incorporating animal protein.

A sample of my daily food looks something like this…

Breakfast:

Green smoothie (1 x banana, ½ cup blueberries, 6 slices of cucumber, 1 stalk of celery, 1 big handful of spinach or kale, 1 tsp each of chia seeds, linseed and flaxseed, 4 broccoli florets, splash each of coconut water and almond milk)

Lunch:

Green salad (watercress, spinach, cucumber, tomato, celery, broccoli, avocado, radish sprouts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chickpeas, lemon + olive oil dressing)

Afternoon snack:

Fruit and almond butter (apple/strawberries/blueberries/pear + 1 tsp almond butter) OR homemade seeded flapjack (check out the Honestly Healthy recipe, it’s amazing…)

Dinner:

Chicken salad (watercress, spinach, cucumber, tomato, celery, broccoli, avocado, radish sprouts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flaked almonds, chicken, lemon + olive oil dressing)

All of this is supplemented by a cup of hot water and lemon first thing in the morning and 2-3 litres of cold lemon water throughout the day.

1.5 weeks later I’ve lost another 3lbs and I’ve got bags of energy! My running is stronger than it’s ever been, I don’t get stitches and I feel much more focused during training sessions. It’s paying off as my body fat is dropping and my little baby muscles are starting to poke out. Watch this space for more vegan-related updates!