🤒 S I C K N O T E 🤒
Fo’ real! Vitamins, probiotics, fish oil, dark leafy greens, nutritious meals with carbs, protein and fats... regular exercise, a healthy lifestyle & a healthy home... but lack of sleep, the little ones bringing home germs on the daily and I have been well and truly taken down! It’s been 4 weeks now and my cough has gone from bad to worse. I know many people are in the same position. I keep getting told to rest but that’s pretty hard when you work (especially if you’re self-employed - no paid sick leave over here) and have 3 kids, two of whom need you physically, one that you needs you emotionally and the whole family that needs you physically and mentally. There’s literally no off button. But this weekend, I plan to rest. I even bought everyone their favourite M&S sarnies for a carpet picnic today and obviously all the goods for a hearty breakfast. I just keep repeating to myself, “this too shall pass.” Not wanting to wish time away but just wishing to get us all to a place where we’re fighting fit and sprightly again! To try to boost my immune system & start feeling better asap, I paid a visit to my lovely friend @elizaclarkinfo. She gave me 3 injections:
1) Glutathione - a potent antioxidant; it boosts immune function and helps fight disease, reduce inflammation, promotes energy and mental clarity, anti-ageing and better sleep
2) B12 - great for a quick energy boost, immune system, aids production of serotonin for improved mood and sleep and
3) Magnesium - good for treating anxiety, neuropathic pain, pms, improves insulin sensitivity and, as I found out online, Magnesium has a powerful relaxation effect on smoothing muscles around the airway, so it is often used to treat the severe exacerbation of asthma and can therefore help with coughing! Whoop!
HAPPY WEEKEND, FOLKS! ⛈
🏋🏻♀️ P R E S S 🏋🏻♂️ “Soph! Take some pics of me training. I need some content for the gram.” Sophie finally finds the optimal position for the photo when I’ve already done 10 reps with 10kg dumbbells. By the time she’s ready - I’m done! 😂 So I pick them up again and struggled so hard to get them back up, I had to put my feet on the bench to get some weight behind them! Swipe for shot. Then, “Ok, have you got the pic, Soph?” “Erm I dunno about the whole shot but your boobs look great!” 😂😂😂 Honestly, you just can’t get the staff! Cheers babe. 😘
Here we have the bench press. Some call it a chest press. I prefer to call it a bench press because it works so much more than just your chest. This is my favourite exercise for the upper body because it’s a compound exercise - meaning we hit more than one muscle group. In this instance, we hit every muscle in the upper body. 💪🏼💪🏼 Heels should be on the floor and behind your knees. Back should be arched with shoulder blades pressed into the bench. Start sign your weights above your chest, not your head.
Draw your elbows out wide into an L shape and round them back up as you press up. There’s always less rounding towards the end when you’re knackered and just need to get them up. But as you do round, really ensure you’re still contracting your chest - the bit where it meets your armpits - for full effect! 💪🏼👍🏼 Let me know which exercises you’re unsure of and I’ll post them on here. 👍🏼
🧠 W I L L P O W E R 🧠
A couple of years ago, I went to a talk about ‘Willpower’ at the Cheltenham Science Festival. Long story short- the guys were asked why some people had more willpower than others. They said something along the lines of some people being more mentally capable than others. This really bothered me. I’m no expert but I believe willpower is linked to habit. I have loads of willpower when it comes to training and eating well because I’ve made established habits over the last couple of decades. But just because I have the willpower to train (which arguably requires very little willpower on my part), it doesn’t mean I have willpower across all aspects of my life. Take my finances. When James says, “we need to sit down and look at the family budget,” this is me—>🏃🏻♀️🏃🏻♀️🏃🏻♀️ I have zero willpower when it comes to spending (what I don’t have.) Not on me, I hasten to add! But on the girls, the home and experiences. If I want us to do it, I’ll bloody find a way! Usually, that way is not by asking James for fear he’ll say, “No, we can’t afford it.” 👎🏼 I’m sure I’m over sharing but I think it’s important to make my point. Just because I had 3 kids and am able to lose fat and eat well, it doesn’t mean that I function perfectly in all aspects of my life. I have good habits and I have bad habits. Some take all my willpower (and I still fail) and some require very little willpower at all. Nobody’s perfect and we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. The best piece of advice I can give you, if you are struggling with willpower to do anything or give something up, is to try to make it a habit. Do it consistently and continually for a couple of months to make it a habit. I need to get into the habit of doing our online food order on Sundays as I am blowing way too much money “popping to M&S” every day and coming out £50 lighter each time - not to mention buying the girls more things that they don’t need! It’s a bad habit! 🤦🏻♀️ On the other hand, I can’t wait to eat well today after a weekend of birthday celebrations for the eldest and looking forward to training tomorrow. Good habits! What’s your view on willpower? 💪🏼
🔍 V I E W 🔎
Go careful with what you look at on Instagram. Looking at too much of one type of thing can warp your sense of reality, especially if what you’re looking at, isn’t really reality or easily attainableable. I was talking to a client last week about her upcoming nuptials and mentioned that on my wedding day, I didn’t feel my best. I felt I was bigger than I wanted to be. I don’t feel like that at all any more. But my sense of reality back then was completely warped. I had competed in my last physique competition six months prior to getting married and was convinced that I had to be competition lean on my wedding day. I wasn’t. I chose not to overtrain or put myself in a calorie deficit - which is what it took for me to get that lean. I didn’t feel “big” on the day, I just didn’t feel I was as slim as I should have been. I was hung up on pics of other “fitspos” looking so lean and on pictures of myself on competition day too - the one day that you could actually see all my abs, after two training sessions per day, a reduction in kcals for the last 12 weeks and water manipulation in the last week before a comp. 🤦🏻♀️ I now look at my wedding pics and wish I was that lean again! 😂 The same goes for anything. I unfollowed lots of “she lifts” accounts back then and more recently I have unfollowed many interior accounts. I started to think that I should sell our hallway furniture so that we could buy new stuff and turn it into a Scandi type home but then realised my hallway furniture is all from Hong Kong (bought in 1996), Livi’s king-sized wrought iron bed is my old bed from Bali. Nearly every single ornament is from another country. So many things in our home tell a story but aren’t necessarily à la mode! But it’s ours and it’s special and our home doesn’t look like everyone else’s. So my long-winded point is, don’t let Instagram allow you to lose your grip on reality, your personal values, style, belief... interior preferences! 😂 And look, I even managed to find a wedding photo that’s fitness related - that would be a tub of protein powder in my hands, that I was given during the best man’s speech! Always representing! 😂
🍿 S N A C K S 🍿
It’s not until you start to reel your diet in that you realise just how much you overeat and overdrink! I’m already missing my huge glass of red wine and a few cheeky snacks in the evening. The thing is, I’m not even hungry! I’d just got into bad habits (that I blamed on being a mum of 3! 😂) Given how little sleep I had on Monday night (cheers Willow), I felt lively yesterday. Lively enough to still workout at the end of the day - when I could have gone home for an hour to myself! Last night, Willow mostly slept ON me but I don’t feel horrendous today. On Sunday, I felt absolutely shattered and was honestly wondering how I was going to cope with being back at work, getting the kids ready to leave on time and generally just running this madhouse! But just a couple of days of eating more fresh food, more protein and brain and energy food like salmon, I am feeling more alert and energised already. Given how Willow’s sleeping at the mo, long may it continue. It’s certainly motivation enough for me to keep at it! I wanted to share this little PWO pic of me to show you that despite how I look in selfies stood up - I do have rolls - a pretty decent amount and I’m not ashamed of them. Once upon a time, I would have been devastated by a photo that caught my rolls on camera but not anymore. I’ve had 3 kids, I’m 41, I eat buffalo wings and drink Prosecco whenever I want! Admittedly, I’m expecting this little leaning out exercise that I’m doing to reduce the rolls a little but ultimately, I just want to feel more energetic and stronger every day! Who doesn’t want that? If you’re feeling sluggish, make a few changes to your diet - you don’t have to go “on a diet.” Increase your protein intake as a priority! Ensure you’re getting 1g to 1.5g of (lean) protein per kg of body weight every day and give up the booze during the week. Watch your sleep improve immediately... unless you have a teething baby that is. 🤣 Give it a go! I’d love to know how you get on. 👍🏼
🥅 G O A L S 🥅
This photo was taken in May 2017, exactly 1 year after I gave birth to Jasmine. In exactly 2 months today, Willow will be a year old!! I actually put on over a stone more with Jasmine but have definitely found it harder to lean out post Willow. I think a combination of having a C-section this time and genuinely giving less fucks about my weight and appearance; age and children definitely give you perspective. I am way more accepting of my body now than I ever was 20 or even 10 years ago. That being said, I do want to set myself a goal of leaning out a little over the next two months. I haven’t scheduled a photo shoot but may do for posterity, however, this is just about me and my own goals and putting a timeline to them so that I remain accountable to myself. I plan to strength train 3 to 4 times per week and to tighten up my nutrition. I want to be careful how I word this because I don’t want to say that I am on a diet, not just because I’m trying to eat more intuitively and move away from a diet culture but also because just using the term “diet“ makes me think of restriction, hunger and no fun! But I am going to drink less, cook fresh and eat my greens – all of which I have been rubbish at doing for the past few months. I also want to do this because, truth be told, with three kids, James being away a lot in the week and working, I am absolutely knackered. I take my vitamins, probiotics and fish oil daily but I want to feel better when I wake up in the morning. Since Willow was poorly at the end of last year, she has stopped sleeping through the night and is waking up regularly for comfort, so much so, that I’ve taken to just having her sleep next to me. I never co-slept with the other two and always thought it was something I would never ever do but when you’re worried about your baby waking up the whole household, you just do what needs to be done. It means less getting out of bed for me too. So, overall I sleep but it’s broken sleep. So, I’m hoping that upping my training and tightening up my nutrition will give me more energy for my kids and clients. I’ll be sharing my meals and workouts daily! Join me! 💪🏼❤️
🎆 2 0 1 9 🎆
Oh 2019, how bittersweet you have been. I wanna throw shade on you so bad for testing my strength beyond measure at the start of the year but equally, I wanna throw my arms around you and kiss you for bringing my beautiful 3rd baby, Willow, into the world and into our lives. You’ve produced my lowest low but also some of my happiest moments too - not just the birth of Willow but also incredible moments and memory making with Jasmine and Livi... floating in the lake with @tsarina222 in South Carolina is one of my absolute fav memories of this year. The opening of my new studio on Imperial Square is also up there as one of this year’s highlights - I can’t begin to tell you how good it’s been for my mental well-being to physically go to work and be around people in the day. So, 2019, I wouldn’t go as far as to say I can’t wait to see the back of you but if it’s ok with you, a very different start to 2020 would be greatly appreciated. One thing I will say is, 2019 showed me how undoubtedly strong I am, both emotionally and mentally, but unfortunately, how weak others can be. I will never put up with anyone else’s shit again. EVER. I am worth more than that and so are my girls. So, 2020, new year, new decade, same me but slightly different... let’s do this! 💃🏻 A huge thank you to all my friends and clients for your unwavering love & support. ❤️ Wishing all of you the best start to the New Year and new decade! Go out and grab it by the kahunas. Go chase your dreams. Vacay. Staycay. Love unconditionally. Smile. Choose happy. Never feel like you have to spend time with anyone that sucks the life out of you. Life is short. Live it! ❤️ #allthecheesyquotes #happynewyear #2020 #newdecade
🥇 W I N N E R 🥇
I’ve seen a lot of people sharing their top nine Instagram pics from 2019. I did mine but some of the photos actually took me back to a place that I didn’t want to be reminded of at the start of the year. I was heavily pregnant and you guys loved those photos (as did I – I love being pregnant) but behind-the-scenes, there were some tough times and that’s what I remember when I look at those photos. So, I have picked my top one photo from 2019. This was taken in September when I had just come back to work after 6 months mat leave. I had overcome adversity at the start of the year, delivered a beautiful baby, enjoyed a fab family holiday in the US, got back and spent the next six weeks grafting in the basement of my BFFs basement (with her unwavering backing) to get the new studio ready in time for my return. All whilst raising three incredible daughters and with the hubby away a lot at work, doing most of it on my own. And I did it. This is me tired and happy feeling like a bit of a Warrior Mama! I know people have it way tougher than me but we all have a baseline as to what is the hardest thing we’ve ever gone through and my baseline happened this year. But it’s a thing of the past now and I truly felt strong, happy and confident in this photo again. Happy NYE people! 🥂
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