It wouldn't be January without a trusty fitness post, would it? Or rather it has been and this has drifted into February. Over the years the level of content has shifted from the way it started, which is just a natural progression. I've developed some interests while others have ebbed and flowed with some being dropped altogether.
It was around 9 years ago I found myself re-connecting with exercise after the time that I imagine many people find themselves in once school finishes and they don't have any ongoing sporting commitments. That void that you don't even notice until one day you realise that you can't just pick something back up, like running and your body has changed without you having ok-ed that.
Since then I have had peaks and troughs in my relationship with exercise but it's not fully lapsed except for times of injury.

I'd say I'm at my strongest and most capable at present than ever before. No, my running isn't up to scratch but after a knee scare last year it gave me a fright and I haven't wanted to push my luck. I would definitely classify myself as someone with the fitness bug. There's nothing I enjoy more than exceeding my own expectations or taking others by surprise. Lets smash goals and grow, I have the appetite. An easy workout leaves me feeling grumpy yet one which wears me out to the point of wanting to throw up is fully satisfying.

The strategy of exercise has changed too, I'm now happy taking control of the direction of travel instead of feeling like a passenger on a package trip. Once a week I attend the hour long outdoor bootcamp which has been a mainstay for years. Not only does this prove challenging physically but also serves to tick off the social side of things too, technically I am mixing with others. An hour of hard-as-you-make-it bodyweight exercise is great for endurance, keeping myself competitive against myself and naturally others. Sorry guys, I secretly beam every time I note my form is better, or I'm faster or I have better recovery than anyone else. I know it's childish, but that part of me that wants to win surfaces frequently in this environment. Quite often I'm last to finish because I'm doing everything properly which also makes me smug, you get out what you put in and if you think skimping on effort and form in a bid to finish first is worth it then you can keep your results. The only thing I really hide away from is the group games and swapping partner work, help!

Much of my self identity is made up by my physical build and capability. I've got very fixed ideas about who I am in terms of health and I'm unwilling to budge on that.

A couple of years ago my Mum of all people introduced me to YouTube Hiit workouts (High Intensity Interval Training) which are by nature short and intense. Through these I've maintained a good rhythm of working out 4 or 5 times a week, kept up the momentum and enthusiasm with really quite minimal time commitment.

This year more than ever I want to set some goals, tangible ones, not just feeling more comfortable in my clothes (although that would be awesome too). I want to learn to master pistol squats and handstand press ups. These are two easy to see results - either you can do it or you can't. Aside from this I want to dedicate different days to different muscle groups in a bid to get stronger in a more organised way. A full body workout is great but a focused workout might be the way forward from now on. It's going to take a bit of sussing out but I'm ready to give things a whirl.

Take care,
Sophie

Do you recall the last fitness post? It feels like a distant memory as I write but over the past few weeks and months I've found myself about to compose a piece about how things are going well and how my motivation was on an all time high and yet before the words have found their way onto the page all has collapsed again into the abyss of emptiness.

My conclusion is that it must be normal to go through peaks and troughs of progress. I honestly feel like no matter how much good intention there is behind planning, sometimes things fall to pieces when it comes to the crunch. There are only 24 hours in a day. Spend them wisely. From a personal point of view, I have to say that it's utterly impossible to have everything. And I'm so disappointed.

Those 24 hours a day are a balancing act. There is no way to fit in everything that wants doing. Prioritising is key. Sometimes 'free' time has to be spent on cooking batches of food for the freezer to provide fast meals for future nights. Sometimes spending the time doing extra housework is essential for achieving a calm living space. Sometimes you need extra sleep. Other times you can spend time exercising. Being an adult is exhausting. Sometimes you have the time but no energy.

This year I've been weighing myself weekly. Scales are the enemy and I don't take much notice of what they say anyway but there is no denying that skinny jeans are now really rather uncomfortable and dresses with waistbands are a no-no. My diet is one I would describe as haphazard, though in my defence I would say I drink plenty of water, eat a fair amount of vegetables and quite a bit of fruit. I also eat quite a bit of protein and nuts, so technically it includes a whole host of all the good things I'm supposed to eat. However, I imagine it's the everything else that's the problem. There are no biscuits or cakes in the cupboard, though we often have those big sharing bags of crisps.

Exercise is currently down to once a week of intensive activity, plus running 5k up to twice a week (but often no running). It's lousy and I'm cross in a way that I don't make it more of a must do than just a want to. But in my defence I'm fitter than ever before! My strength and endurance is at an all time high, though running is a bit lame.... I think my days of racing are over, there's no joy in it any more. So I'm at my fittest while at my flumpiest too. Hurrah. Or not. Not much of a consolation when my belly is hanging over the top of the jeans.

C bought me this book I talked about as a surprise. It's written by The Lean Machines; John Chapman and Leon Bustin who are two inspiring local faces from Norfolk (you must have heard of them!They have a website too). They not only share advice on healthy eating and exercise but also on the mental health side as well. I'm a positive person in the mornings but these guys really put me to shame for the rest of the day. I'm going to try with some of their techniques for keeping happy and I'm sure it will make a positive impact. They also don't talk bull about things being easy nor make wild promises. It was really refreshing.

I guess this turned into a bit of a ramble really but I really wanted to check in with myself and say things aren't perfect by a long shot but I'm trying my best and still finding my way.
It must be about balance and I wouldn't want to work out 6 nights a week but live in a dishevelled house with no clean clothes and nothing to eat in the cupboard.
Please tell me I'm not alone.
Sophie

Sports bras are absolutely THE most important piece of sports kit for women. Although I've got a modest bust I am resolute about adequate support for all activities, especially sport.
My list of exercise activities isn't exactly vast; running and boot camp so I find that all my sports bras are used for both (especially as I don't have all that much to keep under control), a multi purpose sports bra suits me well. I've been over the moon with my Active Multi Sports bra which I've been wearing since November. The Shock Absorber SS16 collection is made up of four fabulous styles, the other three being the Ultimate Run Bra, Active Zipped Plunge Bra and this, the Active Shaped Support Bra which I've been trying out for the last couple of weeks.
This is the first sports bra in a long time that I'd describe as dressy, it looks gorgeous and makes me feel really feminine; a snuggly bright blue base layer with a black gauze overlay with strong shaped stitching. It's supremely comfortable to wear as the soft blue base is lightly padded, soft and breathable, it wicks away moisture and doesn't budge at all. In terms of fit, I'm really happy with it, my size is just right and the single clasp at the back (it has three hooks, for just.in.case) makes it an easy one to pop on and more importantly, off. The adjustable shoulder straps are much wider than any of my non-sports bras to avoid digging in. Shock Absorber know their stuff when it comes to support; it's no surprise they are an award winning sports bra brand who specialise in breast health, that's what you expect when their designs are based around the results of scientific research in how to combat breast bounce and how us ladies can take good care of bodies during exercise.
Back in 1994 Shock Absorber designed their original bra and soon in depth research aided the constant development of sports bras to control movement and allow women to feel comfortable and confident to take on everything they want to.
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Many thanks to Shock Absorber for sending me the bra to review. It was a joy. All content and opinions my own.
Sophie

Last year saw my fitness regime all but completely evaporate and funnily enough, there were consequences. At the start of the year I stepped on the scales for the first time in a long time, met with something of a shocker which has only been corroborated by most of my jeans refusing to do up. I knew that something had to change, both in my weekly activities and in my head too. A healthy body goes hand in hand with a healthy mind, or something like that. Late nights and bingeing on junk food is no good for you regardless of how much you work out so I had to look at everything in the round.

As my strength is better than it's ever been, it was clear that cardio was where improvement was needed and running on the treadmill was the obvious answer. I can't lie, most of the time I still whine about having to run after work. It tends to be something that feels like it's getting in the way of relaxing and enjoying my evening but deep down I know I have to do the exercise. So after a bit of a dither (I still need to iron out the 'putting it off' stage) I don my running kit and hop on the treadmill four evenings a week. One hour of bootcamp still stands firm in my diary. The rest have been allotted to a run. My relationship with the treadmill is hate-hate. It's a machine and therefore will not negotiate nor show compassion which doesn't sit well with me. What I really want is to set a time and count down with a neat way of scheduling the speeds but so far no joy. The treadmill is sturdy and safe but as I've got a relatively fast sprint in me the speeds I whack it up to seem to end up with me running in a messy fashion with one false move potentially ending in disaster. Due to the insane irritation that the treadmill causes me, I try to vary what happens on each session; sometimes a short fast mile, a HIIT session, a steadier longer go... To be honest my longest encounter has been about 1.75 miles this year and my shortest run lasted ten minutes. I always get off the treadmill puffing and hot.
I'm getting there. Once it's light enough I'll be outside hitting the roads again. I want to fall in love with running again, looking forward to feeling like this is something I want to do and enjoy. It's progress!
Sophie 

My fitness posts have been a once-in-a-blue-moon affair the last few months; I suppose that's because I just haven't got many pictures of fitness related things and posts usually start with photographs then assemble from there upwards.   You know I like working out. In the last two and a half years I have become a bit of a fitness junkie; now counting running as a hobby along with regular boot camp classes (which are the absolute best thing ever – you have to get along to your nearest).  I have various long term goals I guess although they are pretty vague. My main motivation is that I want to hit my thirties in fighting fit shape (due to turn 30 next year, vom) and not slink in feeling unfit as well as old. As I live out in the sticks joining a gym has been not-so-practical and I've not pursued it although have recently been toying with the idea of getting a personal trainer.  I get that not everyone is interested in fitness. I get that not everyone appreciates a toned physique (although it's something I long for). I get that it's not for everyone. What I don't get is that some people feel the need to criticise people who DO want to get and look fit. Someone close to me, who shall remain unnamed because I'm not quite as brutal, was very rude to me about my chosen fitness pursuits. Not knowing I've already been going to boot camp for 2+ years told me “you don't want to do that, you'll get ugly. It will put strain on your face” I was pretty livid, I have to say. I retorted with “I've been going two years, so do I look ugly?!” which received no response. We have a brief dialog which I somehow refrained from using blasphemy but I left this person in no doubt of what I thought of their attitude. Actually I'm still fuming, weeks later. It's ok though I guess, I used my aggression to fuel workouts.

A long time ago in my early teenage years I heard a wonderful quote from a wrestler named Chyna. I was really keen on watching WCW on the telly every Friday evening. If you don't have a clue who I'm talking about be careful with your search, turns out that wasn't the only job she had... Anyway, in some interview she did I heard her say in response to a question about her body that she had been 'crafting it' for her whole life. That term really stuck with me. Crafting.

I wanted to be strong and sexy. The boobs the size of beach balls were never on the agenda, but I did aspire to be fit and self-empowered. The message about working with what you've got is for a whole separate post I suppose but I just kind of assumed I would stay slender and get strong by doing nothing new. Fair enough I did stay slim until my late teens then very gradually, so as it went completely unnoticed, I started putting on weight until one day I was shocked to find the scales telling me I was a stone heavier than I expected. By that point I had started to feel a bit uncomfortable in my clothes and it was either a case of buying a size up in jeans or doing something about it.

Bootcamp has pretty much saved me from carrying on down the same path and letting me lapse into gluttony and inactivity. I firmly believe I would be at least two sizes bigger than I am, with far less to smile about had I not got stuck in.

I took these pictures as part of my record of how my body is changing but I kind of like them in black & white even though I do have a face of thunder (this is what happens when I forget to smile, boo). My abs are getting there although I wish they always looked like this instead of before I've even, on non-bloated days. There is a distinct nip in at my waist now which is really encouraging . My arms are probably the second most noticeable change over the two years and although they are still like little matchsticks there are more apparent biceps and a more toned shoulder line. My legs have always been kind to me; even when I was less active they looked quite toned so I've just been working on them gently to add to the toning.

If you need me I'll just be busy, crafting away.

Sophie

It's high time my health and fitness plan was reassessed and given a much-needed shake up, today's post comes from Josh Mann, a personal trainer and nutrition advisor who is scrutinising my current regime and putting forward his recommendations. This is very exciting for me! Over to Josh
Sophie and I have been have been speaking recently on Twitter and I have offered to have a look at her current regime and see if there is anything she can improve upon to get the results she wants.
First, lets look at your current lifestyle and what you have done to get yourself where you are today………
Finding this out is crucial to understand what current activities a person undertakes on a day-to-day basis, but it is also important to find out and negotiate the time they have to dedicate to their goals. This will have a big impact on the advice and recommendations I would give to somebody.
· After an active childhood, you (as most people do) have fallen into the trap of becoming inactive as an adult.
· You’ve decided to attend a boot camp and gained confidence as you’ve gotten fitter. Since then you’ve taken up running and previously entered both 5k and 10K running events (with personal bests of 22min12secs and 46mins57secs respectively) – not a bad baseline to work from.
What activity are you participating in on a weekly basis?

· Daily dog walks
· 2x boot camp style workouts a week
· 2x interval style running sessions that last between 12-20 minutes
· Now looking to add a long run lasting between 45 minutes and an hour on the weekend.
From this you can see throughout the week you are quite active, I like that you’re out walking the dog and making the effort to do some form of activity. You do not have loads of time to exercise because of your work so you are keeping sessions short and intense so you can burn a reasonable amount of calories.
What’s the mission captain?
Let’s talk about goals – what do you actually want to achieve?
All goals should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant & have a Time-Frame. This will help you keep focused throughout the duration of your journey.
Let’s have a look at your goal:
S – you want to be able to run 10k in less than 46 minutes
M – It is something that can be timed with a stopwatch
A – You already have a PB of 46mins 57secs, and are a regular exerciser so to improve by 58 seconds does not sound unrealistic to me
R – You’re a keen runner, who is looking to better yourself and improve your overall health and running is a great way of doing this
T – I feel 12 weeks is a realistic timeframe to achieve this in.
Lets have a look at the nutrition side of things……
Nutrition will make or break your goals. Getting enough good quality nutrients is key to helping you recover from exercise, but it will determine whether or not you get the body of your dreams.
I asked you to fill out a food diary, logging everything you ate and drank throughout the course of a week. I would recommend that everybody do this at some point in the near future, as it can be a really good indicator of bad habits.
From your Food Diary I was able to produce the following stats:

	Food Diary (Average)	Target	Difference
Calories	2102	2000	102
Carbs(g)	277	251	26
Protein(g)	81	104	-23
Fat(g)	59	65	-6

Over the course of a week you can see that on average you are consuming 100 calories a day more than you need to. It may not seem like a lot, but that’s an extra 36,500 calories over the course of the year – this will not help appearance or performance.
The majority of people do not eat enough protein and you definitely fall into this category – you are eating around three quarters of the amount of protein that you actually need. If you are active, you need more protein to help recovery and build lean muscle (this helps you burn more calories at rest). The NHS recommends 0.8g of protein per kilo of bodyweight – this is fine if you do no exercise at all. But if you are exercising (and doing so on a regular basis) you need to double that amount – and before you say anything, no, you are not going to get huge ladies!
To me it appears that you are getting enough fat in your diet. I like to aim for around 1-1.5g per kilo of bodyweight. Fat is vital for overall health and should not be cut out of somebodies diet (see my blog on low fat diets). You just need to make sure that you’re getting fat from good sources such as butter, lean read meats, oily fish and nuts.
Carbohydrates are the last things I tackle because you should get your protein and fat sorted first and let carbohydrates make up the rest of your diet. You have included a range of Carbs including oats, bread and cereals in your food diary. I think oats are a good source of carbs but bread and cereal on the other hand, I don’t. The focus should be on unprocessed foods like starchy veg and 100% whole grains. Lets not forget those green veggies, these should be consumed daily and in large quantities. They offer too many benefits to describe here.
Moving forwards
I like that you are currently including two intense running sessions a week in your regime as this will help improve speed. The only changes I would make to your current exercise routine is to remove the boot camp style training and get some more miles in. I’m not saying that a boot camp style workout is bad, but for your goals it is not a relevant style of training. These boot camp sessions should be replaced by two running sessions, each lasting between 30-45 minutes. One of the runs should be quite easy and the other running at the speed required for you to hit your goal.
If you implement the nutrition strategy that I have suggested above, you should see your recovery time improve, have more energy and feel full at meal times.
Anything else to look at?
Sleep……..
You have told me that you get between 6-6.5 hours of sleep per night. Now for me, I think you need at least another hour to aid recovery.
Sleeping continually for either less than six hours or more than nine hours in adults has been associated with poorer health.
Below are the daily hours of sleep people need at the different stages of their lives:
· Children: 10 to 11 hours of sleep
· Adults: 7 to 8 hours of sleep (adolescents need a bit more)
· Older adults: 7 to 9 hours of sleep
When we sleep the body carries out a number of functions that we are often unaware of; producing processes that help you deal with physical and mental stress, information processing, memory formation and the repair and restoration of (muscle) tissues. It is a natural process and something that is essential to our overall well-being. If you struggle with getting a good nights sleep then I would recommend using a supplement called ZMA. The zinc and magnesium will help you relax and help you sleep through the night.
Before you go…….Read this!

Before you decide to get started on a brand new health and fitness journey, whether that be running (like Sophie) or for general weight loss, really take the time to make an honest assessment of your current circumstances. Better yet get someone let myself to do it for you. We can discuss achievable goals and make sure you have all the tools you need to achieve them.
Thank you to Josh Mann for this report! It has definitely given me the motivation and direction I need to go forward with renewed vigour and positivity. If you want Josh Mann Fitness to set you on the right track then check out his site for details of all he can offer you, follow his blog for great health and fitness posts and give him a tweet @joshmannfitness on Twitter too. I'll be keeping you up to date on the new changes I'm making soon. Good times.
Sophie