Motivation Monday| Work out Smarter Part 1| Interval Training

 

How is everyone's health and fitness resolutions going? Still going to the gym? Still eating healthily? I know I've slipped up a couple of times, but the trick is to not let it get you down! Success comes from getting straight back up when you fall down! Do not let one bad day become a bad week, then that bad week become a month…. get back to it!

From what I have gathered through talking to friends and through you lovely blogging ladies, changing your diet is the easiest task when it comes to changing your attitude to health. I have been in awe of many of your gorgeous healthy dinners on Instagram and Twitter. It seems to be the exercise that people struggle with, and as I personally love to workout I thought I would share some tips with you on how I have found the motivation to go from Couch Potato to Mad Runner!

To be fit, healthy and toned you need to balance a healthy diet with regular exercise. Now for many of you especially my fellow bloggers finding the time to workout if difficult... What with full time jobs, blogs to manage and write, friends and family to see and time to sleep... Where you you squeeze in a workout?

The trick is to workout smartly! You can do a half an hour workout 5 times a week and still see results quickly, you just need to make the most of the little time you have! This is where Interval Training comes in! Yes it is harder than traditional hour long cardio workouts but if you want to spend less time to get the results you need then this may be your answer!

What is Interval Training and How does it work?

Interval Training involves short intervals of maximum intensity exercise separated by longer intervals of low to moderate intensity exercise. It burns more calories than traditional cardio exercise because it involves you working to your maximum effort. Overall an Interval Training session consists of a warm up followed by 6 to 10 repetitions if high intensity exercise, separated by medium to low intensity exercise, ending with a cool down and stretching.

The benefits to Interval Training

• It burns more calories, both during and after your workout as it takes your body longer to recover.
• It increases your metabolism so you improve your overall fat-burning potential.
• Improves your overall fitness and athletic capacity and condition
• It works both your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems.
• It limits muscle lost that occurs during weight loss compare to traditional steady-state cardio exercise

The biggest advantage to Interval Training is that you can adapt it to your fitness level! You can alter the number of repetitions you do in a routine, you can change the length of your recovery periods etc. You can also do it in a variety of different ways; running, cycling, rowing or on the cross trainer.

Prior to the last two weeks I had not done much Interval training but since I have been doing it I have noticed a big increase in my fitness levels and running performance. More importantly I have been enjoying my workouts more! I hate the treadmill but as it is dark when I finish work I can’t get out on the fells to run so I don’t have much choice. I used to run at the same pace for about 45 minutes and be bored out of my mind, but since I have started Interval Training the time goes a lot quicker even though I am pushing myself harder than ever before!

I have been using the Tone It Up interval routines this past few weeks, you can see them above. But have also includes some others for you to try.

Have you ever tried Interval Training before? Do you enjoy it, and did you see any results? Let me know if you give this ago!

Fitness Friday| 2013 The Year of Health

 

It’s that time of the year again, gyms are getting full, health food shops have never been busier, and it appears that everyone is now running or cycling everywhere… all the time! Yes it’s the time of the year when 90% of us pledge that this year we are going to lose weight! So for 4 weeks the gyms are busy, the pubs are empty and we think that we’ve done ourselves some good thanks to our crazy detoxes or exercise regimes. Then it slowly creeps back to drinks after work, skipping a few workouts and before we know it your trainers are collecting dust in the back of your wardrobe and your fridge is fully stocked with wine and cheese!

So this year I am asking you to join me and not pledge to lose weight… no this year we are going to get healthy! You can do this anyway you want, be it small changes such as making your lunch everyday, walking home instead of getting the bus, having a 15 minute run round the block… it all still counts! Or you can really go for it and eat clean, train hard and challenge yourself everyday.

What I am aiming for, and I think you should all aim for is health! If you can change your attitude so you focus of making the correct choices everyday that will make you a healthier and happier person then the weight loss will not only come… it won’t creep back on! If you can teach yourself new habits… no more fizzy drinks, no more wine after a hard day at work, your weight WILL reduce, and it WON’T come flooding back on as it does when you go on crazy diets and detoxes.

What you, I, and everyone needs to remember is that weight loss is a lifestyle change! It is not a 2, 4, or 6 week eating plan, diet or regime. If you don’t learn to adopt healthy habits any weight you lose will just reappear over the year and you will be making the same resolution in 2014… to lose weight!

So my resolution this year is to make sure that next year, 2014, my resolution won’t be to lose weight!

How you learn your healthy habits is very much a personal journey, but for me I surround myself with healthy images, motivating pictures and interesting articles. For me I use my tumblr account where I follow other blogs who post pictures that inspire me to be fit and healthy, plus it’s great for finding workouts, challenges and information. I also subscribe to Zest Magazine on my iPhone, which cost me £19.99 for the whole year, which I think is a bargain! I also enjoy challenging myself and after completing my own Festive flat Tum Challenge and getting some great results, I am now going to follow the Love Your Body Challenge from the Tone It Up Girls. I know that Jayne from Miss Jayne Becca is a huge Tone It Up fan and will be doing this challenge also, so if you want to join us let us know, we can support each other! Having that support and encouragement makes it so much easier to stick to as well!

What do you think? Are you going to aim for healthy this year? How do you motivate yourself? Any tips, let me know!

Fitness Friday| How to get a flat stomach

 

As many of you will know I have been taking part in my Festive Flat Tum Challenge for the past month with an aim to tone up and get a flat tum for Christmas. You may be asking… why work out in the run up to Christmas, with all the parties and food… am I mad?! Well yes, it is proving to be difficult especially with the boxes of chocolates being brought into the office weekly, but I want to look fab for Christmas so the challenge is worth it!

So with an aim to get that flat tum I have been doing my favourite, most effective ab workouts daily, and I wanted to share with you my tips on how to gain a flat tum. I am in no ways a nutritionist or qualified personal trainer, these are purely tips I have learnt through my passion for fitness and health. So here goes!

Firstly to gain a perfect flat tum you firstly need to get rid of the fat hanging around your midriff. You can do as many crunches as you want but if you have fat around your middle this will always hide the muscles you are building underneath. So you need to combine both cardio and strength exercises. Ab exercise alone won’t get rid of belly fat!  Think of it this way; you use strength exercise to tone from the inside, and you use cardio to loose the inches on the outside that will allow you to show your sexy toned stomach! So make sure you are working up a sweat for 30 minutes 5 times a week, at least!

Next step is strength, I want to share with you the go to strength exercises that I recommend to tone that tum as quick as possible. Basically you should be doing exercises that use as many muscles as possible in one go and for this I recommend The Plank and Bicycle Crunches!

The Plank is the best move I can recommend as it works a tonne of muscles all at the same time! You don’t need any equipment, you can do it anywhere and it works you hard in relatively little time! The Plank works your muscles more effectively than traditional crunches! It has been scientifically proven to build endurance in your abs, back and arms, as well as stabilise the muscles. It is also the perfect move building up strength for those dreaded pushups! Here is some tips on how to perform The Plank;

1. Lie face down on mat resting on the forearms, palms flat on the floor.
2. Push off the floor, raising up onto toes and resting on the elbows.
3. Keep your back flat, in a straight line from head to heels.
4. Tilt your pelvis and contract your abdominals to prevent your rear end from sticking up in the air or sagging in the middle.
5. Hold for 20 to 60 seconds, lower and repeat for 3-5 reps.

Bicycle Crunches are my next tip! These little painful beauties have been proven to be the most effective abs exercise! This move, like The Plank works a series of muscles all at the same time. They work the  rectus abdominals (the six pack area) and the obliques (the waist). The Bicycle Crunch works those side abdominal muscles like no other core exercise, so if you want that sexy waist get going girls! Here is some tips on how to perform Bicycle Crunches;

1. Lie face up on your mat and place your hands behind your head, lightly supporting it with your fingers.
2. Bring the knees in to the chest and lift the shoulder blades off the floor without pulling on the neck.
3. Rotate to the left, bringing the right elbow towards the left knee as you straighten the other leg.
4. Switch sides, bringing the left elbow towards the right knee.
5. Continue alternating sides in a 'pedalling' motion for 1-3 sets of 12-16 reps.

So there we go! To gain your flat tum you need to burn off the fat with cardio and perform effective core exercises such as these often. I do them daily, but try to at least do them 3 times a week.

What are your favourite ab moves? Do you have any other exercise your recommend to tone up that stomach in time for Christmas and New Year?

JWoww indeed! JWoww Jersey Shore Bikini Line

Jenni "JWoww" Farley from The Jersey Shore is known for her tan, and for always being brown. Her love of tan comes from, sunbathing, sunbeds and fake tan (so she probably looks very dark in real life!)

Now she has released a line of bikinis that will help her maintain her tan without the dreaded tan lines. She has teamed up with Perfect Tan Bikini to create these quite gravity defying bikinis.

The bikinis use a adhesive to help the cups stay in place once the straps have been removed. The adhesive is activated by body temperature, however there is no mention on whether it is waterproof, so that would be pretty pointless in my opinion. The adhesive is reusable, and can be reactivated up to 20 times by heat through hairdryer or hair straighteners.

My opinion-

JWoww looks amazing! Living up to her name in these photos!

I can understand the logic in this endorsement and think it works well, as I think we would all want to look this sexy on the beach. However the designs of the bikini are not to my liking, a little bit trashy I think (but then again Jersey Shore is not known for it's class). The adhesive bikini is a good idea if you don't do anything but sunbathe while on the beach, no activities such as volleyball or swimming would be suitable while wearing this. I have also tried adhesive strapless bras in the past and as a girl with naturally large boobs, then do not support me and just hang off me, so I believe this bikini would have the same effect.

What do you all have to think about this bikini line? Would you wear it?

Girls with muscles| Weight Training for Girls

Oh good grief  I get sick of the media having a go at Jodie Marsh for her "new look". I don't particularly like the girl, but then again I've never met her, she might be lovely. But I do admire what she has done. She has radically changed her lifestyle, diet and exercise to make herself the fittest she can be. Yes the world of bodybuilding can not be the healthiest thing you can do to your body, due to extreme dieting shortly before the show and dehydration to draw out your muscles. But it sure is a hell of a lot more healthier than sitting on the couch eating chocolate and crisps.

Now because Katie Price has been photographed with a muscly man, the media are now scared she is going to end up looking like Jodie Marsh as well. I my honest opinion I agree when she is in competition and tensing then no its not a sexy look in my eyes, but when she is dressed up nicely in a dress, not tensing, she looks great, lovely and toned.

I hate that most girls are scared to do strength training because they are scared of getting muscles, but getting muscles will not mean you grow big, it means you become tight, not jiggling, not covered in cellulite. Girls should train more often, its a great rush to know you are just as strong as the next guy (literally). That you can lift a good weight, that you can do "man" pushups. Try it, you may surprise yourself.

What girls look like who weight train

Remember strong is sexy! Try adding some toning moves to your next workout! Don't be scared of those dumbbells!

18 Days To look Fabulous| Tone Up Quickly

It is 18 days till the big night, New Years Eve! This means we all have 18 days to look and feel amazing for the big event (whatever your plans are.) Most people spend the occasion catching up with those we have not seen for a while, so what better occasion to turn up and make jaws drop. It is obviously very hard to maintain our weight throughout the holidays, never mind lose weight. However it is doable, especially during the week between Christmas and New Year, as the majority of parties and get togethers happen before Christmas day. 

So what I'm suggesting is that we do not punish ourselves with relentless calorie counting, but instead make healthier choices. Here are my top tips;

• Do you need an extra glass of wine after the 3 you've already had? Try swapping a large glass of wine (185cal)  for a vodka lime and Soda (76 cal), this will save you around 110 calories.

• Always have a healthy breakfast. You can at least start the day right. Have a healthy filling and nutritional breakfast, for example a smoothie, for your vitamins, then scrambled or poached egg on wholemeal toast. The protein will ensure you stay full untill lunchtime, and if you are hungover the eggs enzymes are good for your hangover (if you can stomach it.)

• Have a health lunch as well! If two out of 3 meals are healthy, it will make a difference. Plus if you have eaten well for most of the day, you will less likely want to ruin your good work, by indulging too much for dinner. Have some soup, hummus with carrot/ celery/ pitta bread, or warm Chicken and pasta salad (in a tomato sauce, not creamy!!)

• Have a 30 minute brisk walk 5 days out of 7. Try going for a walk after your dinner, this will help your digestion also, so you will feel less bloated. Wrap up nice and warm and take the family or dog with you. If you don't fancy walking at night, then try walking to work, or get off your bus or tram a stop early and walking the rest. It may only be 10 minutes extra, but it will help boost your metabolism meaning you will burn more calories when you are sat at your desk all day.

• Do some strength exercises, even if you are new to it. Did you know that for every pound of extra muscle you gain, you burn an extra 150 calories a day! Plus it will help your posture, and the dreaded cellulite! So if you plan on wearing a short dress you need to be doing some lunges! 
• All I am asking you to do is 50  bicycle crunches in the morning when you wake up, and 50 before you go to bed. Bicycle crunches work the whole abs area, so will help trim your waist quicker. 
• Plus 50 squats while you brush your teeth in the morning and again in the evening. It is better than just standing there, plus squats are a great calorie burner, but make a great difference to the toning of your legs and ass... We'll all be looking like Beyonce in no time.

Now I am absolutely certain that everyone of you reading this will be able to do these small but significant things every day over the next 18 days. It really will make a difference your body, your skin, your hair, and it will ensure you look fabulous on the biggest night of the year.

Lets go for it! Let me know what your plans are for the New Year?