Starting the Day & Ending the Day Right

There are a few things that I have started to do in the last few months, which have really helped my mental health. We don’t really talk about mental health much, sometimes shy away from it as something we don’t like to talk about, it can be confusing and scary.

I like to think of these practices as my anchors at the start and the end of the day. They are things that make me feel ready to take on the day, positively and in the right mind set. And to end the day feeling grateful and allow me to reflect on the day.

Start your Day…

With positive thinking and ask yourself 2-3 questions, similar to the below (switch them up each day, google new ones, so you don’t get bored asking yourself the same questions):

-      What are you looking forward to today?

-      What is your greatest strength?

-      What am I most happy about in my life?

-      What am I most proud of in my life?

-      What makes you smile?

End your Day…

With reflective or gratitude questions, again ask yourself 2-3 questions, similar to the below (again switch them about, as above on the start the day questions):

-       What was successful today?

-       What did I learn today? Generally and/or about myself?

-       What relationships am I thankful for?

-       What made you smile or laugh today?

-       What is the most beautiful thing you saw today?

-       Who made a positive difference in your life recently?

These are just little things, you can add into your day – they take no time in the scheme of things and when you write them down, it reinforces their effect on your mind. I like to keep a notepad by my bed, so I can write them down each morning and evening. This reminds me to do it and I can flick through the notepad to remind myself of the positive and grateful things in my life.

Take 15 minutes

Another thing I have found useful recently, is taking 15 minutes in the evening (usually after dinner), to write down all the tasks I have on my mind. Whether that be work related or personal, I write them all down on a pad. This action of writing them down, helps you take them out of your head and allow you to relax – especially preparing you for sleep. I also write down the things that are worrying me, again the action of writing them down helps your brain to figure them out.

Try one or try them all, I know they help me, so I’m sure they will help you.

Thanks for reading

Holly x

Running Music Review

Anyone who knows me, will know that I hate CARDIO, I have tried many times in the past to get into running, cycling, etc. But it is just isn't me, I find I can't get my technique right and I struggle to sort my breathing.

Recently, I was asked if I would review some running music, and I thought to myself why not! I agreed to test it out and managed to rope in my friend Jenny, who is actually training for the Norwich 10k in August. We went to the gym at lunchtime, to have the place to ourselves and could try the 'running music' on our own. I appreciate that some prefer to run out in the open, but for this trial I wanted to feel relaxed and in a control environment (I'm too prone to twisting my ankle). We tried the 3 minute interval running music.

At first I was apprehensive, but I carried on and gave it my best shot. I thought the voice commands were a tad on the quiet side, especially in the introduction, they did get a bit easier to hear throughout the programme, but I'm not sure if that was because I was trying really hard to hear them. It could be that using headphones would be better to hear the commands, but in my opinion a bit louder would be great.

Jenny and I really liked the beat of the music, in both the resting periods and the running sections - I found that this helped us keep going and to keep our pace. In the past I have found it very tempting to fall out of pace and want to stop or not to push myself. So we both found it challenging, despite out different stride length.

The commands were also very good, in terms of the countdowns and letting us know what was coming up. However, I'm not a fan of the cheering you on 'you are doing well' statements. Unfortunately, I have used far too many workout videos in the past, that tell me I'm doing well, despite me actually sitting on the sofa and not doing the workout. Cheating myself I know, but these sorts of commands can sometimes put me off, rather than keep me going.

We both agreed that the mixture of short effort versus rest, really did help. Especially when in came to regulating breathing and trying to maintain a good balance of breathing patterns. Plus I think for someone starting out, or someone trying to increase their stability, this is an excellent way to do this, all pre-packaged for you, rather than relying on yourself to stop and start yourself, which isn't easy when you are running.

For an absolute beginner, I'm not sure the 3 minute interval training is quite right, the pace in my opinion would need to be slower and possible start with a 2 minute interval set. I'm a fairly fit individual, I'm not an athlete, I'm more of a weights and HIIT training kinda gal. So I was able to keep up with 3 minutes intervals, but I'm sure a beginner wouldn't. And I did struggle towards the end.

Sooooo all in all, good programme, for getting into running and trying to increase your current fitness level/train for a 10k (for example). 30 minutes out of your day, doing this will work you hard. For £7.99 price range, a little on the high side, but if you aren't paying for a gym, that is hardly anything in comparison - especially if it will help you.


Take a look at running music, at https://www.runningmusic.co.uk/

Thanks for reading

Holly  x

Know Yourself to Make a Change

A key to a lot of things in life, is to know yourself. To make life decisions, stick to decisions and stay strong. You have to start listening to yourself and know yourself. Unfortunately, for some of us (I’d say a lot of us), we stopped listening to ourselves a long time ago.

Listening to your body and your brain, what is your heart telling you versus what you brain is telling you. One of them will take control, but you control them both. You are in control of your actions and your choices. I know that life can get in the way, kids, work, family, partners, etc. But you are fundamentally in control of where your life should go and therefore, have the ability to change things.

Start asking yourself some questions (even write them down if that helps): 

• What do you like doing (YOU, not your friends, family, partner, kids, etc)?
• What do you eat when no one is looking? How much?
• What do you eat like in front of people?
• When do you eat sweet things?
• When do you reach for crisps?
• What gets you out of bed (Yes, life is a reason to get out of bed, but work in itself, isn’t necessarily right. If you didn’t have work, kids, time constraints, etc; what would get you out of bed)?

This might be easier...

• What don’t you like?? 
• What would you hate to do for work?
• What is your idea of an awful holiday/break?

These are some of the types of questions you have to ask yourself, which help you to know yourself, and possible help you towards knowing where you struggle with things. To know your weaknesses, where you ‘fail’, and admitting that to yourself, is very powerful and is easily swept under the carpet, when thinking about day to day life.

Sometimes it is a hard thing to admit or confirm, even just to yourself. But it is worthwhile trying to find out what makes you tick and what doesn’t make you tick.

Listen to yourself, your body will tell you different things from your brain. Your brain is so busy, it often turns off the body listening function and you just carry on living busy and getting on with life, never truly listening to your body and what it is trying to tell you.

I’ve written about this before, but a key one for me, is dehydration and your body trying to tell your brain to get you some water:

1. It tells your body one way, dry throat maybe, but you’re busy so switch that off.
2. So it tries again, by telling your brain you’re hungry, but again you’re busy so switch that off.
3. How about, feel a bit dizzy at times, nope I haven’t got time, this report needs submitting by 5pm.
4. Ok says your body, I’m now going to give you a headache – mmmm odd I have a headache, better take some tablets with a splash of water.... hurrah water, but not nearly enough. I could go on and on with examples, but I won’t.

This is just an example about water, but we all do this for loads of things. I don’t like my job (hate it even), so we tell ourselves this, but then say ‘yeah, but it pays the bills’, or ‘yeah, but I like the people I work with’, or ‘yeah, but what else would I do?’. Very valid reasoning’s not to quit your job, but surely the sign that you hate your job, is enough to make your brain/body do something about it; research new jobs, train in something new part time or flexibly, etc. I’m just as guilty as anyone with this, in the past.

Moving this into weight loss and fitness; making that first step is hard, finding the time is hard, aching is hard, not getting results straight away, is hard. But YOU are totally worth it and need to find what WORKS for YOU!

 

Ask for support

 

Support has been fundamental in my weight loss experience. You have to pick those people around you carefully, that you confide in and ask to support you. I didn’t tell everyone, but gradually everyone found out, by seeing results, going with me to dinner, etc.

 

Knowing myself (from exploring questions like the above), I knew that if there were things in the house I was trying to avoid (e.g. Chocolate), I would eat it! I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. So I asked my sister, not to stop it coming in the house, but if she had some, not let me know about it and hide it somewhere. She did this and it helped me no end!

 

I knew that it would be hard to eat in public exactly what I wanted, which isn’t necessarily the norm, so I told those people around me that I ate with or when I went out for dinner. That yes I was going to eat differently, because I had to for my health. It isn’t a taboo trying to lose weight, but often people don’t like to admit that is their goal and so shy away from looking different from everyone else. Be proud in what you are trying/going to achieve, we all have struggles in life, but everyone has different difficulties to work past.

 

I’m not here to preach and I’m not here to tell people the right way, I’m here to suggest things that I have learnt over time. My ultimate aim is to help, so get in touch if you think I can help you.

 

Thanks for Reading

 

Holly x

Goals & Rewards

When I speak to family and friends about how they treat themselves, I have noticed a very unsurprising trend. We all treat ourselves with food and/or drink. This doesn't surprise any of you I'm sure and didn't surprise me. We are slaves to what we want and fancy, therefore anytime we think we have done something that deserves a treat, that is what we lean on: Chocolate / Wine / Pizza / Crisps / Etc / Etc.

I have also noticed that from personal experience and from speaking to others, that we also think we deserve a reward all the time; for getting up, for going to work, for getting to lunch time, end of day, through the traffic.   Treat : Treat : Treat

We need to try and understand the good behaviour and reward systems that we, individually work best with. You do not deserve a treat, for every single little piece of life that you get through, those treats become nothing, they become habit and they no longer give you that good feeling that you used to get, when they were in fact occasional treats.

Looking at this through the lens of trying to lose weight, which I know so many of you reading this, are trying to do. We need to find goals first and then establish non food related rewards, which make you feel like you have achieved something, which you will have done if you reach that goal.

GOALS

I'm sure we have all heard of setting yourself SMART goals, well this is because that is the best way of setting goals, however I like to look at it in a slightly different way, rather than going through each letter and assigning things to them.

a) What is your overall goal (lose 2 stone)
b) What is a 'healthy' timescale to achieve that (1lb a week)
c) Therefore, how long will it take to get to that goal (28 weeks/7 months)

I would also very much recommend, having non weight related goals. Maybe reduce waist size by 4 inches, for example would be a great goal to have.

Once you have this overall goal, you can then set yourself interim goals, times in the next 7 months, where you can celebrate your progress towards your overall goal. Some would say, getting there would feel good enough, I don't need other goals or rewards, as feeling better will be a reward in itself. Yes this is true, but you can sometimes in-counter times when you can't feel/see the health benefits or results right away and therefore, get disheartened.

So, I would recommend have a reward every 4-6 weeks, on route to that overall goal which you will achieve in 7 months. To make it nice points to celebrate yourself and also for help pay day wise!

SETTING REWARDS

You have your overall goal, date you can healthily achieve that and your interim goals to get you to that overall goal. Now to set the rewards for the interim and overall goal. When I was thinking about this myself, I thought about the big end result first, what is a big thing I could buy/organise which would really mean something to me. Yes losing weight should be a good enough reward and trust me it is, but why not give yourself something else to look forward to as well!!

REMEMBER - DO NOT SET FOOD RELATED REWARDS!!!!! Your body and mind deserve not to be treated with the stuff that actually makes you feel and look like you don't want in the first place!

1. Set your overall goal reward
2. Set your interim goal rewards

I did this by making a list of non food related rewards:

- Massage
- Cinema Trip
- Flowers
- Spa Day
- Clothes
- Trainers
- Shoes
- Etc

There are loads of lists online, use them and take the ones you like. Then assign the biggest ones at the end of your journey, the not so big ones at the start of your journey.

SIMPLES!

Here is an example of a goals/rewards list.

I saw an amazing idea online the other day, to try and inspire/motivate you through your journey to your goal. It is a weight lose money jar, a jar set aside at home, and every time you lost a pound, you put a pound in the jar. The money can go toward your overall reward, or anything you want! Some people put more money in, to put the stakes up, but I love this idea either way, just put in what you can afford...

Thanks for reading :)
Holly

Dieting Know How

There is a lot of information out there about diets and dieting. Working out which one for you, is a minefield. Not only are there lots of facts and fiction out on the internet, but there are also a lot of old wives tales, Chinese whispers, 'my friend did this and it worked'!!


In my opinion, there is not a one sized, fits all diet (I also believe that in clothing as well!).


Diet A will not be good and work for all people.


Our bodies are complex machines, which work really well, when given the right food & water, plus exercised regularly. But our bodies are so clever, that whatever we throw at them, they will try their best to adapt and carry on. Without us realising that this impacts how we feel, as quite often it is gradually done over time.


Meal Frequency


Here are some common miss-conceptions around meal frequency when on a diet or when trying to eat healthily and lose weight:


- Skipping Breakfast will help you lost weight!
- Skipping Breakfast will make you fat!
- Eating frequently can boost your metabolism!
- Fasting puts the body in starvation mode!
- Eating carbs after 6pm will make you fat!


Here's the truth: Your body doesn't say how many meals a day you should have and when you should have them. Your body works on an amount of calories a day, for your entire day of activities (work, gym, watching telly, sleeping, etc). This amount of calories will keep you at your current weight (maintenance calories). If you increase or decrease your daily activity then your weight will change.


If your body is maintained on 2,000 calories a day, you need to consume this to stay at your current weight. But your body doesn't work better, if you split that 2,000 equally throughout the day, six times for example: eating 333 calories six times a day. Diets that tell you as such, are not very flexible and very hard to fit into your life, who can say yep I'll can eat every 3 hours and consume only 333 calories...!


When looking at changing the way you eat (healthy), look at your lifestyle first, what can you do and what can't you do. We are all different, some of us are morning people, some of us are afternoon people and some are evening people - in some way connected to healthy eating, but more to prove we are all different on this blog.


When looking at your lifestyle, think about an average day, we all have to eat, so at the moment when do you eat? Why do you eat at that time specifically? Is it because the kids have gone to school and you have two minutes before heading to work and is the first time you can eat that day? When you have done this, look at what you eat at those times.


Plan it out on a page: Activities throughout the day, with times, when you eat and what you eat at those times:


8.30 - walk kids to school
9.15 - eat 2 breakfast biscuits with coffee
9.30 - drive to work
etc
etc


This will give you an average look at your day, but focus in on (highlight even) the eating sections. A pattern or structure will emerge, so that you can then alter or change the food you are eating, to fit a new healthy eating plan. Or make sure that you plan your meals, especially when you know you don't have much time, prepare your food ahead of time. It can feel like a hassle at times, but is totally worth it in the long run. Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail.


DIETING SHOULD FIT IN WITH YOUR LIFE, OTHERWISE IT WILL NOT LAST & YOU WILL NOT LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF.


For more help and advice on nutrition, get in touch: merseaislandpersonaltraining@gmail.com


Thanks for reading :)
Holly

Getting Back to Reality: Severe Depression

Some of you will have noticed, that I have been a bit absent from writing my blog. In fact I haven't written on here since July 2015. This is for a mixture of different reasons, however the main one is that in 2015 I suffered with Severe Depression. I didn't realise that it had taken hold of me, until I was too late, but I would say I was suffering since March 2015 at the earliest.


Many people have asked me the reasons for my depression, but this time there was no ONE trigger. It was a mixture of different factors:


- Stress at work
- Stress outside work
- Working two jobs
- Fitness targets not going to plan, because of above stress
- Etc
- Etc


During my depression, I did do a bit of writing, just brief bits, but I want to be clear and honest about how I felt and this is the best way to do it:


'Life is meant to come easy! Life is meant to be yours, I don't feel in control'


'Binging on food and wine is what I do, making excuses for myself, telling myself 'It's Normal', everyone enjoys a glass or two at night......every night....??? To relax.....??? To stop you thinking.....??? To stop you hating yourself.....???'


'My heart is beating so fast, as I speed toward London Liverpool Street, it almost feels like my heart is going to jump out of my chest. I feel sick, headachy and as if at any minute I could cry.


2 months off work, with Severe Depression. Little to no sleep. Anxiety levels through the roof. It is no wonder I'm feeling like the above. It's not the unprofessional perception I want to portray, but it is how I feel.


I feel like a tiny little animal, scared, frightened and not sure what to do. I want to run back home and dive under the covers in bed, stay there for the next month.


Now I'm shaking, I can barely write this. This doesn't feel like me, I'm confident, strong and happy.... I feel like they have abandoned me. I'm on my own and lonely without them.


People with depression often feel alone and lonely. They can feel like this with close family and friends all around them and supporting them. It isn't an alone/lonely lack of human companionship for me. For me it is my strength, confidence and happiness that are gone... And I can't find it - I don't know how to find it.'


'The over eating has got to stop. Now and since it started there hasn't been an excuse. I've been depressed and I have been sabotaging a lot of my hard work to lose 5 stone! It breaks my heart, that all that determination and strength I worked so hard to obtain and sustain has fallen by the wayside to this disease!'


This was where my brain was, now I'm in a much better place. I took the time off work needed to recover and get myself in a better place. I took the medication that the doctors told me to take. I went to counselling sessions and did everything they told me to do.


Now I'm positive, I've drawn a line under last year and started a fresh this year.


I am DETERMINED
I am STRONG
I do DESERVE THIS


More blogs to come, got lots to write about :)


Thank for reading
Holly

Happy New Year

I feel it is a little cliche to say this, but at this time of year, I do tend to reflect on the year I have had and what I want for myself in 2015. 2014 was suffice to say 'epic' for me. In more ways than one, I have completely changed the way I look, the way I act, my confidence levels, my work ethic and my general attitude towards work and who I am. I'll split out the different aspects so I can pin point exactly what I mean.

Work:

So this year I managed to readjust my work/life balance, this term is banded about all the time, but I really mean it. I used to put my job/career at the top of my priority list, it went something like this;

Work -> Family -> Friends -> Me

This is not a healthy balance in any way, shape or form. I used to think that this was the only way that I was able to make enough money, and support my family and friends. I didn't realise at the time, that actually I was making myself ill. By putting myself at the bottom of the list, means I didn't actually do anything for me, ever (especially look after myself). I thought I was (looking after myself) because work, family and friends were my life, so putting them before me made sense. Even when that made my extremely ill, working myself into the ground at points - not being able to get out of bed from exhaustion is awful...

Now I know that making myself healthier, means I'm less ill all the time, meaning I have more time to spend with family and friends. Being healthier, means that I am more focused at work, I'm more productive and make better business decisions.

In the past the above diagram has meant that I became increasingly ill with depression, I have mentioned this before in my blog - but it is the truth and often people don't like talking about depression. I have felt low throughout this year, but focusing on my health and fitness, has realigned what I think is important and what I really should let go and forget about.

Over the year, I have very slowly taken my life back, I didn't do it all in one go, that would be impossible and a very daunting task. Gradually I started to say 'no' to working on my days off, or adjusting my work flexibly, so that if I worked at the weekend and were quiet during the week, I would take some of my time back. Having an understanding manager is crucial for this and a career that means you can do this also. I'm not saying that others can't do this, there are other ways of getting that balance - we all have 24 hours in a day, what we choose to do with that time is up to us. We all have families, distractions and things that we put in front of looking after ourselves, but these are things that can be realigned, thought of in a different way or time looked at differently.

Work is still very important to me, in the end it does sometimes I have to come first - above everything else, but 80% of the time it comes alongside my other important things in my life and occasionally doesn't even register as important. These days this is more the way it looks for me;

Me -> Family -> Friends -> Work

The Way I Look

For anyone who has seen me over the last year, the first thing that they would say about me, is the incredible transformation, that I have made in the way I look. I have lost 77lbs (around 5 stone) of body fat, put on 8lbs of muscle - I can also squat, deadlift and chest press over 135kg more (collectively) that when I first started.

I can safely say, that I never (EVER) thought that I would be able to achieve this and thank god that someone did believe in me - Tom (my PT) has a lot to answer for in terms of my weight lose and transformation. I have learnt so much in the past year about health, nutrition and training. I would have never pictured myself as a gym person, but here I am and I love it!!

Looking at the above picture creates three reactions from me, 1) OMG was I ever that big, I never felt that big 2) Wow look at me now, incredible what I have achieved 3) Crikey I have a way to go to get to my goal (spurring me on and keeping me focused.

Weight training and careful eating is how I got here, taking it slow and not trying to do everything at the same time. Sometimes I concentrated more on getting my diet right, other times on my training at the gym. Now, I'm lucky in that I can focus on both at the same time, but this took time and effort to realign the way I think about food and going to the gym.

This year, has been a year of discovering more about than myself, than in the past 30 years - I think turning 30 in itself makes you reflect on who you are and who you want to be...! I turned 30 a few weeks ago and I can honestly say, I have never felt as good as I do now. I'm usually full of energy, I don't care as much about what other people think of me, I laugh more and want to make others laugh, but most of all I have my confidence back - this to me is more powerful than anything else I have achieved this year.

Confidence is one of the keys to be happy I think, it  makes you care more about what you do, who you influence and why you want to impact them. It makes you love yourself, or try to love yourself - I say try, as I don't think I'm quite there in completely loving who I am, but I'm certainly getting there.

Reflection

On reflection I am a better person  now, than I was this time last year, I'm more positive, I want to help other people more and I want to be kind to myself.

I'm happy, I love laughing and I want to make a difference to people. I attribute this to my hard work, I would not be the person I am now, if it wasn't for who I was a year ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago - I have worked incredibly hard, it hasn't been easy and I have struggled. But I am where I am today and I'm proud for what I have achieved.

I sound like I'm finished, like I'm where I want to be and that I have no more goals to reach. Some of my friends and family would look at me now and ask 'why don't you just stay where you are, you  have achieved so much?'. But why stop now, I'm not at my goal, I have a goal that I plan to reach in May 2015, this is probably going to be harder than anything I have done so far, but I want to achieve my goal and I won't stop until I'm there.

I will probably get to May and tell you I have another goal to reach for, but where would we be if we didn't have goals, personal and work wise?

A huge thing I have learnt is my appetite for successful, fuelling my determination to achieve.

Some of my goals for 2015 are not tangible as such, not a product you can see, touch or hear, internal goals, which overall will make 2015 more of a success than a tick list of achievements - I want to smile more, I want to be happier and I want those who are important in my life to be happy.

Happy New Year Everyone!! BE HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SMILE