Do you know what really made me smile this week? Two things in particular. One being that I had to do a boot camp workout class with my hair down. There was an unfortunate incident involving dropping a scrunchie in a loo. I can't tell you just how fun it was to be running around with my hair swishing around in the evening sunshine, quite liberating! Now, it wasn't all that practical for some activities but it didn't seem to matter. The difference was staggering; I felt like I looked nice, it gave me a huge grin and also made me feel like a proper rebel.
My fitness journey hasn't been a consistent upward trend; I go through both patches of things going really well and then other times some rocky days and weeks where everything feels like hard work and pointless. It's sometimes too easy to get bogged down with the 'right now' and forget to take a few steps back and give yourself the credit for everything you have achieved. It takes time to make progress and move closer to reaching goals; the commitments of time, energy and money are all worthwhile in the end. It's a journey, you'll get there if you keep working at it. Give it your best each time and make little steps of improvement, they all add up! Make sure you give yourself the encouragement and praise that you afford to others. You're doing great, go inspire yourself.

This new workout gear from Matalan has been a welcome addition to my wardrobe and made me so happy! I love the digital style print activewear range and this bright turquoise stretchy top is really comfortable for working out.
Who inspires you?
Sophie
This post was written in collaboration with Matalan, all content and opinions my own.

I've been gathering my thoughts on this year's fitness goals for a while now but it's been difficult to pinpoint exactly what I want to work towards achieving this year. I want to get back into eating sensibly; plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meat, more fish and whole grains. It all sounds so simple and straightforward but putting it into practice tends to be a little more of a challenge and it's one I want to rise to. Making small changes like drinking more water instead of coffee and limiting alcohol to weekends are all within my control. After years of bad skin, I have learned to relish my clearer complexion, so I'm willing to make compromises to keep it nicer for longer.

As an early bird, I really want to get my days off to the best start I can ensuring that both my appetite is satisfied and I'm nourishing myself from the start with a healthy breakfast. I want to get back into porridge ideally. My top tip is smoothies; if like me you really can't face eating raw spinach, try a home-made smoothie with some fruit and yogurt or milk, you can have it anytime of the day and you can pop in whatever you like.

In 2013 and 2014 I had my heart set on running; it gave me something to focus on and strive towards which was great in a way because it kept me busy and the rapid improvement kept me motivated. This year I'm not so sure that I want to focus on it so heavily. More than a few times I took to the roads with nothing more on my agenda than to jog along, enjoying the peace of the countryside, the fresh air, sunshine on my skin and the ability to run along while breathing easy. The enjoyment was immense. This year I want to capture that feeling of pleasure much more often.

Conversely, I also want to pursue the harder bootcamp style workouts that seem to be right up my street. I now go to two different classes a week, one of which is just amazing and pushes me in different ways every time. My original thinking was to seek out a personal trainer which should give me a regular commitment, way to keep focussed and some motivation to do my best at all times. Maybe something I will undertake come spring?

One thing I really have learned about a healthy lifestyle is that the more you enjoy it, the more likely you are to stick with it; the longer you stick with it the more you get into it. It's a real priority for me to smile more and to take more enjoyment my lifestyle. You only live once, this isn't a dry run. There is something gratifying about brand new workout wear; I don't often treat myself to new gear but maybe this year is that time to make a change. Let me say I've never worn such fabulous quality outfit, it's a whole new experience! I have Anthropologie to thank for sending me this outfit from Pure + Good. They have a fabulous range of high quality activewear online, it's great to see some unique pieces that stand out and look special.

The static stripe legwarmer leggings are such a great fit, I went for size small which is approx. 6 – 8 which is a comfortable snug fit, made from something incredible, a thick, stretchy fabric which gives and stays in shape (and certainly wont let anyone else see your underwear through it when you bend over – we've all seen someone else's wardrobe malfunction). The foot strap detail is rather clever too, I wish all my workout leggings were as good. I'm never usually confident enough to parade around in just a crop top but I'm happy to make an exception for this stripelace racer back bra which is again made of some kind of marvellous thick material. There is a flattering amount of padding to not only offer a reassuring amount of support but also leaves me feeling way more feminine than usual with a little bit of cleavage. Blink and you miss it, but still.

The pretty lace back really deserves to be seen, it's gorgeous isn't it?!

In summary, I want to smile; I want to lead a lifestyle that makes me happy, keeps me healthy, allows me to feel strong and capable while inspires others to do the same.

Sophie

It's high time I checked in again with my running progress this year. As you may know, I've been spending time with the treadmill in an attempt to get my training back on track after a frankly LAZY winter. Ideally I've been on 'mill 3 times a week but in fact it's been more sporadic so sometimes just once, or none. My main focus has been on interval training in order to build up my cardio abilities and my breathing, with a gentle warm-up in order to get my body in gear for a bit of a beasting. To be honest the maths of pace and speed are beyond me but the treadmill is currently set on imperial measurements. I try to do between a 14 and 25 minute workout with at least 5 minutes of gentle jogging included to start off, the last thing I want is to go and injure myself at this stage! I then whack the speed up to somewhere between 9-11 mph for a minute (or as long as I can possibly manage) before reducing it to about 3 mph (walking pace) to recover. The machine can measure heart rate so I'm tending to take that as an indicator for when to speed back up again. For example; my heart rate once I have been sprinting for as long as I can manage is around 181 bpm, so I wait until it falls down to under 130 bpm (which is a couple of minutes of walking and breathing) then go fast again. At the moment I tend to do between 3 and 6 sprints depending on the length of workout and by the end I expect to be sweaty and disgusting. For the time being I have been running at 0% incline but I'm going to start the intervals at an incline but slower pace in order to get some hill training in.


Anyway, earlier this week I aimed to run 5k and set the speed at higher than I was used to running at. I made it to 2.75miles in 22minutes (after a 0.5 mile steady warm up) and really felt pretty shattered after that. The workout kind of left me feeling a bit daunted at just how much faster I'd have to run to reach my goal of 5k (that's 3.1miles in old money) in sub 22 minutes. Clearly, I have a LOT of work to do.
Yesterday I decided to make the most of the mild conditions and afternoon sunshine to hit the road for the first time in what feels like an eternity, although in reality probably only a couple of months. The main objective was just to make it to 10k all running as it felt like all confidence had drained out of me and I really didn't even know if I could still make the distance at all. For the first time in at least a year – if in fact ever- I discovered what it is like to go for a casual run and how to enjoy just running in the great outdoors, feeling the sun on my bones and feeling to a certain extent 'carefree'. Sure, I DID keep an eye on my Garmin Forerunner watch to see how I was going but not in a competitive way, just to make sure I wasn't pushing forewords too fast with the risk of premature expiry. To my total surprise the first 5k were at such a leisurely pace that despite a raised heart rate, I wasn't really out of breath and felt mighty fine. I should point out that I planned to do two laps of a 5k circuit just in case I felt like I wasn't going to make it. So the second lap started really well and naturally I didn't feel quite as fresh but it did make me happy to just relax about slowing right down on the incline and just not look at the watch, panic and have to press on harder. It's not in my nature to be so laid back about this but I had promised myself I wouldn't be fazed by however long it took me to make the distance and I resisted running hard at all points other than on the last half kilometre on a proper good downhill so I thought I'd just stretch out and do a short stretch as fast as I could which was satisfying. Just the fact that I made the whole distance still running has boosted my confidence no end and was just what I needed to make me feel like I CAN do it and I CAN make progress. All is not lost.

Sophie

I’ve been taking part in Fiona’s health and fitness challenge this month. The first week's challenge was to eat three healthy vegetarian main meals. By the time I read about this my weekly mealplan had already been made and booked for delivery so I wasn't about to make any changes but I knew that two healthy fish dishes were part of the week's meals. This one was actually horrible in fact, however I usually make it with trout which is delicious but using cod was a mistake as it stayed wet and fishy. All part of the learning curve. Super healthy and nutricious nevertheless.

Fiona also challenged us to has been to exercise three times. Check! Two bootcamp workouts (one of which was so badass, I'm so sore and it's getting worse) and one workout with Carly Rowena before my YouTube broke. After three busy but workout-less weeks it felt quite a struggle getting myself back into the swing of regular exercise but I made it.

Can you tell what it is yet? Abs looking far better than I deserve, but I think it was good timing....and light...and angle.

The hard work starts now

Fresh off my Blogging Good Read guesting with Alex I've decided to make more of an effort to get through the books that I've been meaning to read for some time. I'm halfway through The Buried Circle by Jenni Mills (which I started last year in holiday and have read about 10 pages since) and I'm determined to finish so I can move on to another, smaller novel. If you want to know what I thought of these three books then head on over. My choice was The Colour by Rose Tremain.

It's not Christmas, not new year just back to everyday. Time to get busy doing something useful.

Sophie

As you can see the soles are specially cut to be super flexible. I erred on the side of caution and went for the least barefoot-like Nike Lady Free 5.0  in a practical shade of grey with a pop of purple. They fit in a great snug way; a cross between a trainer and almost like a wet-shoe for the beach.

So, the big question is how did they perform? I decided to take them for a 5k (3.1mile) on a wet, slightly muggy evening. I run this distance every week and keep records of my times and being me, give it my best shot. My run turned out to be my fastest yet by quite a way: 22:25, even beating my competitive 5k race time by 19 seconds. So, although they wont take themselves for a run, they certainly helped me get a shift on, over and above my usual performance. I’m really excited to carry on with them to see what they can do in the long term!

I’ve also been asked to give my view on the concept of looking good while working out. I’ve been pondering this for the last few days and my mind has been going back and forth.



Over the years I’ve found that sportswear tends to make me look a bit slobby and tends to add pounds. In my experience, less is more – I feel far better about myself in this outfit than I ever will in tracksuit bottoms and a tee, even if my handkerchief shorts are kind of hilarious. When I work out I mean business. It always ends with me in an absolute mess; hair askew, red of face, a right sweat on, so frankly starting off with a faceful of makeup would be counter-productive, it would only end up sliding down to rest in my navel. Don’t get me wrong though – if some workout makeup became cheaply available that was sweatproof then I’d happily make a purchase. I’d love to look presentable instead of pretty ghastly! Essentially, workout in whatever is comfortable for you, but I can’t help thinking you’re wasting your time if you try to stay looking fresh at the expense of really making the most of your time in the zone.
*Thanks to Sportsshoes for gifting me the shoes to review. I’m looking forward to updating you on how they perform going forwards