Fun Ways to Stay Motivated on your Fitness Journey

So it's coming to the end of February and if you're anything like me you are probably wondering what on earth you can do to keep your motivation going!

You've made it through January and got passed the part where a lot of people normally give up. So what can you do to make sure you don't lose your focus??

Recently I've been looking into new ways to keep myself on track, so I've been taking part in lots of new activities in Cardiff to make sure I don't get too comfortable on the sofa too often.

Fitness Friday: Tips from Personal Trainers

After my post last week where I shared my tips that I found help me to get back into my work out routine in the new year, I thought I'd share with you some tips I've found from personal trainers that might also work.

It's always the second and third weeks of January where motivation starts to disappear and you can easily fall back into your old ways before you've even realised it!

So here's some of the best tips to help you keep on going:

1) The image you have of yourself will define what you will work towards - get a mental image in your head of what you want and keep it there. This is why I love pinterest and instagram for providing inspiration all the time and giving me something to work towards. Find something that will work for your body type and work on it.

2) Eat MORE good food MORE often - love this one! Snack more on veggies, keep your protein intake regular throughout the day and don't let your blood sugar drop. I try and eat every few hours, this means I never get really hungry and get to the cravings stage so I don't ruin my hard work. It REALLY helps and although you might think its weird to eat more food more often, as long as its the right food it won't cause you to gain weight. Since January I've been so hungry I've barely stopped eating but as its all good food its OK!

3) Carbs are GOOD - Carbs are necessary and without them you won't really get very far. Make sure you have them for breakfast and lunch especially as it will carry you through the bulk of the day, and particularly before and after a workout to fuel yourself and your body. I'm talking brown rice, oats, wholewheat pasta, sweet potato and quinoa, good carbs to keep you going and on track!

4) Don't let your body adapt - We're all guilty of getting into habits, it's the easiest way to make sure you keep going. Initially making yourself go to the same classes to create a habit is great, but after a while your body gets used to it and it doesn't have the same effect. Keep changing it up, try and go to a different class on the same day at the same time to keep your habit, go for a run outside instead of the gym or go for a hike on an unpredictable route. Anything to vary exercise will make sure you get the best out of it. I'll be doing body pump tomorrow morning and I might go really heavy for a different track each week for the next few weeks to shock my muscles into working harder.

5) Don't go all or nothing though - Stay consistent in terms of efforts, don't run every day for 2 weeks and then give up because you've got blisters and shin splints. Allow your body time to build up and recover but keep pushing and don't give up just because you ache more than normal.

6) Prepare everything - Workouts and food in particular. Don't turn up to the gym and wander around deciding what you're going to do, write it down or plan it all in your head and just go for it whilst you're there. Same goes for food, prepare your meals and plan out when you're having what meal, it will help when you're tired after a workout just want to eat, and stop you from going for a takeaway or a ready meal! One of the easiest ways I've learnt to do this is to prep a load of meals on one day and portion them up. You can then freeze some for later on and keep others in the fridge. I also find having cooked chicken and a tupperware of ready cooked quinoa in the fridge helps as I snack on that instead of crisps!

7) Perfect your form - Before you start piling the weights onto the bar make sure you know what you're doing and your form is correct or you'll injure yourself before you start. Not only that but knowing your form and performing the full range of each movement for each rep will get you the most out of each exercise that you possibly can; i.e. squat lower, push up harder and stretch further, it will make you sweatier without a doubt!

8) Focus - This means ignoring your texts, calls and emails whilst you're in the gym. Focus on what you're doing for the 30 minutes or hour you are exercising, not only will this make your workout seem like it goes faster but it will also ensure you get the maximum out of it too. Blast your favourite music and concentrate.

9) Hydrate - The most important factor in weight loss and exercise. Don't forget to stay hydrated and keep a bottle of water near you, I carry one with me all the time and the benefits are endless!

10) Make a record - Take photos for a before and after. You don't need to put these on the internet (I certainly haven't!) But it can help to show you progress that the scale might not. I've also started to keep a journal of my dirt and exercise habits so that I can see progress. An increase in distance when I run, or a change in pace, an increase in weights or just about anything really. I'm hoping it will give me a boost when I see how far I've progressed or how my body has changed.

What do you think of the tips? Are there any that stand out to you that you think might help? 

I know I need to keep changing up my classes and exercise and definitely need to prepare my snacks better!

L xxx

Fitness Friday: New Training Program

Hey there! Happy Friday afternoon!

I've been anjoying posting a lot more fitness related posts every Friday afternoon in between my usual fashion, beauty and life posts. If you've enjoyed any of them in particular and want to see more of them let me know. So far I've reviewed some products such as coconut oil and protein pancakes; shared my latest training programs; listed some of my favourite motivational blogs and fitness gurus and lastly showed you some of the recipes I've been loving lately.

Today's post is dedicated to my latest training program. I've been working hard the last few months without much in the way of change in the scales. So I've changed my routine around a bit and have started to lose some fat! I was so pleased i cannot wait to continue and lose a few more pounds of it.

My latest weigh in showed that I'd lost 4lbs which I was happy with but 1lb was of muscle which is not the way to go. Nevertheless I'm trying to stay positive, eat lots of protein, consume more protein shakes as I have slacked off on them for a bit and keep working out.

So my new program! It's very similar to the last which I absolutely loved. The last one was a full body workout with moves that incorporated multiple muscle groups at a time and it was great. This one is similar in that way. It's full of supersets where I have box step ups, squats and lunges all with heavy weights followed by the rowing machine. I repeat this circuit 4 times before getting on the cross trainer for 10 minutes for some active recovery.

After this I then use the chest press and superset it with tricep extensions, followed by the low row superset with bicep curls. This is then followed by a further 10 minutes on the cross trainer before my core work. This involves the pilates 100 and then 5 roll downs which I repeat twice.


I've only done this a few times so far as its so new to me but I really enjoyed the feeling that I could increase my weights so much from what my trainer had written down. She'd been far too lenient with me and was laughing that I'd increased them so much on what she thought. 

It's such a great feeling to know that I've improved so much on what I used to be able to do. I just wish that my running was going as well as the strength is!

I read something the other day which has stuck with me so I'll leave you with it too:

'Don't concentrate on your weight going down; concentrate on your weights going up'

L xxx

Fitness Update

Evening All

L has recently done a fitness post and a few healthy eating ones and I thought I'd do a general update on my fitness. Both of us are doing tough mudder this August so we really need to get in shape and improve our strength. I need a massive increase in upper body strength!

You can read most of the posts from my previous weight loss here. I managed to lose over a stone but slowly it's gone back on. It's taken a lot to get the motivation to lose it again and tough mudder is the motivation I need. I've also signed myself up to Cardiff Half.

I was doing really well running for Jan but easily lost the motivation trying to fit in 2 runs a week. I've now joined a local gym and I'm loving trying out all the classes. I find classes best for me as I push myself harder as I don't like people to see me quit.

So far I'm loving

 Kickboxing Fitness

I had expected this to be like combat aerobics but it's taught by a taekwondo and kickboxing instructor. The first half an hour is spent doing kicking and punching drills and working on a target group like abs or legs and doing things like squats, leg raises, planks or sit ups at intervals. For the second half of the class it's spent doing pad work wear we pair or group up and kicks and punches onto pads. I love this as it really gives you a chance to push yourself and the instructor corrects your technique. It's a really good workout and the hour goes quickly.

Pilates

I love the focus on relax and breathing, this is a great class to follow an energetic class and really stretch you out. It focus's on your centre point and the abs stay engaged through a lot of the class. I'm really hoping this will help tighten and flatten my stomach.

Pump

Image credit

I'm really enjoying pump. It's a really hard workout with weights and works the whole of the body. After this I really ache. When I do kickboxing on Sun and Pump on Mon I really ache. It's a great one to build strength. The classes I'm struggling to fit in so I think I'll do the routine myself. Here's one that I can remember

Squats, Straight leg dead lift, standing row, side lunges, lunges, overhead abs, and some I can't remember the names of. You do each of these 20 times, 15 times then 10 times in sequence. For ones with a weight bar I do 7.5kg (this was my first class and I don't normally lift) then I use 3kg free weights and a 2.5 kg plate for the over head abs. After this sequence it's time for tricep dips, chest press and chest flies. These were all done 15 times 3 times. Lastly 5 minutes of abs. 1 of each of these. Frog abs (don't know the real name but you sit with your knees near to the floor and feet touching and you touch your hands over the toes, lie back and touch your hands over the head and repeat this move), normal crunches, reverse crunches, bicycle crunches and lastly plank. It's a great work out and I'm doing to try and do this in the gym.

Lastly I'm trying cycling. My bum gets really achey on my tail bone so I've now invested in padded shorts and I'm hoping they will help. I want to vary my cardio but really have to get back out to road running too.

As for food I'm trying what I did before. For me it works best to eat healthy 5 days a week and relax more at weekends food wise. I struggle to maintain 7 days a week as I usually end up doing stuff at the weekends. 

For meals I love overnight oats and porridge for breakfast, soup, salads and stews for lunch, poached eggs, Danish toast and plum tomatoes, low fat bolognese, fish and veg for dinners. I try and snack on fruit and nuts, nakd bars, protein shakes and crudites and hummus. 

How do you exercise? What's your motivation?

Love M

xxx