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

NSpa Hot Cloth Polish Cleanser

Hey All

Hope you are having a great Sunday. Mine has been super busy. I spent the weekend with my family and got the first train back this morning to go to a new gym class I'm really liking. Now I've quickly rushed home to shower and wash my hair before watching the ice hockey tonight.

Today we are sharing our thoughts on a Hot Cloth Polish we were lucky enough to have in our goody bags from the Bristol blogger meet last year.

We've both been huge fans of hot cloth polish cleansers since we first tried the legendary Liz Earle hot cloth cleanser. Since falling in love with it I have been hunting down a cheaper alternative as it is a little pricey. I have done a save, spend, splurge on hot cloth cleansers you can see here.

I was excited to try the NSpa offering as it's available easily in stores such as Asda and very reasonably priced.

The cleanser has a similar consistency to the others I've tried and sinks into the face well when applied. It melts away my foundation and eye make up easily without irritating my eyes or leaving them sore. The cloth that comes with the set is a reasonable one. I have noticed the muslim cloths that come with the cheaper alternatives to Liz Earle aren't quite as good. 

It has a really neutral scent which I love as it's not overpowering or anything I dislike. I really can't find anything I dislike about it. It comes with a pump so is easily dispensed. It comes with a cloth so if you are new to hot cloth polishes it's a great one to try. My make up melts away and my skin is left feeling soft and clean without feeling tight. It doesn't irritate my eyes and smells good.

All round it's a great cleanser and since discovering this and the along came betty one mentioned in the link above I've not felt the need to repurchase Liz Earle. For me which I buy depends on the supermarket I'm in!

I do love finding a great cheaper alternative!

Love M

xxx

I feel exactly the same as M, since trying Liz Earle I've been a convert to a proper cleanse with a cleanse and polish type cleanser that melts make up and cleanses and exfoliates your skin.

This cleanser is exactly the same as Liz Earle, a thick white cream dispensed out of a pump and applied straight to a dry face and washed off with a muslin cloth.

The cloth provided with this cleanser is fine, but I do prefer the Liz Earle ones as they feel thicker and I think they will last longer but nevertheless its a great starting point to try them out.

This melted my make up just as easily as Liz Earle has done and my skin felt clean and make up free after use. The cloth didn't feel as exfoliating as the Liz Earle ones but thats easily rectified as I have so many of them already.

At the moment I tend to use proper eye make up remover anyway to remove all traces of mascara etc as my eyes are sensitive and I don't want to spend ages rubbing away at them. This does remove it very well but there's always some left which isn't surprising to me as my lashes as really close together and hold make up for ages!

I'd definitely repurchase this especially as its so easy to get hold of during your weekly shop and much cheaper than the original. I'd recommend it if you've never tried a hot cloth cleanser before and wanted to give one a whirl and it really is just as good as the more expensive Liz Earle.

Have you tried this cleanser? Which other NSpa products have you tried?

L xxx

Maybelline Color Show: Brocades

Good morning to you all!

These polishes were snapped up by myself on a shopping trip over Christmas and although they've been worn lots I just haven't had chance to post about them yet!

I'm a fan of the Color Show range from Maybelline, the bottles aren't huge but for £3/4 you can try out some new colours that you weren't sure you'd like etc and its a great way to build up a collection with a great quality product.

The Brocades were brought out in time for the festive period; you can NEVER go wrong with a glitter at Christmas time and Maybelline brought out the brocades in a gold, black, pink and a silver.
I'm not a big silver wearer so decided to pick up the other three in a 3 for 2 deal at my beloved Boots.

I swear almost all my wages get spent there!

You can see in the pictures above the colours; the Knitted Gold is very much a rose gold colour, Woven Skyline is exactly how you'd expect New York to look at night if it was a nail varnish and Rosy Rosettes is a gorgeous shimmery pink.

So how did they fare on the nails?

I decided to do an accent nail over the past few weeks so here are my shots with the pink and gold colours doing just that.

These were taken with and without flash after 2 coats. Some nails as I;m sure you can see could do with another coat....but 3 layers of a glitter polish is nightmare number 1 when it comes to removal so I had to stop myself knowing how fickle I am with changing them.

The colours are great and the gold was a nice addition to my collection as I don't have any rose gold colours.



I have to say though, however much i love the pink and gold the black didn't fare as well. The photos below show 2 coats again and it just wasn't enough.






You can still see a lot of my nails through the polish as it wasn't dense enough. This was a beautiful polish but would definitely require another polish underneath as a base colour before application otherwise who knows how many layers you'll end up with and that many hours of removal would drive anyone insane!



I really love the effects though, I'm a sucker for a glitter and these jelly types ones were really good and the range of colours means that anyone will want one.

Being glitters they also lasted really well on my nails even through working in the lab and i did get some compliments of how lovely and sparkly they were!

Have you tried the Maybelline Brocades? Which colour is your favourite?

L xxx

Origins Merry Moisturisers Set

Hi all!

One of my favourite presents to myself this year was my huge haul of Origins gift sets.
Not only are all products that I've used from them completely amazing, but the gift sets can be quite a bargain if you're lucky!

This one, Merry Moisturisers, was originally priced around £50 but Boots discounted it for a few weeks before Christmas and so I snapped it up for £28. This was a bargain because the moisturiser in this set costs £34 on its own!

Loved the packaging of these, very simple, Christmassy and the different designs for each set are really cute. The polka dot is also a classic!
As with all other Origins products the ingredients are fully listed on the back of the box.

I've kept these boxes as I like them so much, boxes like these are always useful for storing things and putting presents in. I've got plenty of boxes like these stacked up and storing all my eyeshadows, lipsticks etc in.

Merry Moisturisers gift set contains a number of products from the Make A Difference range which is one of my favourites from Origins. This set contains the Rejuvenating Treatment Lotion, Hand Treatment and Moisturiser as well as a Drink Up Intensive Face Mask.

This moisturiser is one of my all time favourites. I've previously tried the gel version of the treatment which is for oily skin and therefore is lighter. There's actually four different types available for different skin types so I was interested to try another type now that my skin isn't as oily and requires more hydration.

This was as expected; lovely to apply, smells divine and my skin feels like its had a really big treat when I've used it. Love it love it love it, I'll be repurchasing this for a while (as long as I can afford it that is!).

As someone that doesn't really get the whole toner thing, this was a massive revelation to me. I loved the smell, the effects and just everything about it. You can see my original post on it here but needless to say it has completely won me over to the toner argument...though I'm still skeptical of others.

This is again another gorgeous product and the size is perfect for a handbag. It sinks into skin really nicely which is something that is a must have for me as I cannot stand greasy hand creams and having slimy hands that stay like it for ages!

The Drink Up mask is another product I've used before and loved. It was the first hydrating mask I'd ever used and it was amazing even for my oily skin. It didn't overload it and was perfectly hydrating without affecting my skin in a negative way at all. Perfection!

This would have been a gorgeous set for anyone, I'm a hug fan or Origins as I've probably mentioned many times and genuinely love it! There's never been a product I didn't like and all of them have worked beautifully on my skin.

I always look for bargains such as these sets at Christmas time to save me a bit of money and also try out new products that I might not have tried otherwise.
I also take regular trips to Cosmetics Company Outlets (CCO) where items can be discounted greatly, I'm talking £25 instead of £34 and you can save some money there too, as long as the products are available.

Do you like Origins? Did you pick up anything from their Christmas sets?

L xxx