Wednesday 27 August 2014

Werk Bitch #1

I have a confession.

I'm beginning to fall in love with all this healthy lifestyle malarkey.

(at the gym, in the newly refurbished section - where no-one else seems to go! can't beat having a whole floor all to yourself!)

Since I'm on a 'journey' (oh dear) and am really enjoying learning everything I'm learning about living a healthier, more active lifestyle, I'ma start documenting what I do at the gym. I also want to talk about what I eat before and after the gym and during the day, and just talk about my progress and how I feel I am benefitting from it all!

Par exemple, yesterday I had one of the, I'm trying to find an accurate adjective here, most...productive? mmm, feel-good? - we'll stick with that - days at the gym. I found a new workout plan/program/set/idea couple of days ago on womens health which centres around using a kettlebell. I think that it is uber mega important, or I have learned it is important to freshen up your routine everyone once in a while, because I can feel when I'm starting to get bored because my routine is getting stale and simply isn't exciting me anymore.


 With the routine I've just started, I also add in some exercises focusing on my abs - everyone wants dem #abslikeslabs - using the kettlebell, and it feels great to actually 'feel the burn' because then you know you're actually doing it right!

I'll leave it here for now, but this type of post will be popping up on the regz; I really am looking forward to making this a regular feature! Prepare for some sealthy - (healthy + selfie) spam.

peace out, a-town. 

xxx

Sunday 24 August 2014

Knock, knock.

Sometimes, every so often, I'll get a powerful spark of inspiration.

This time, this inspiration is to live well, live healthy and to live happily. At whatever cost.

My journey of actively seeking a healthier lifestyle started around March this year, and I can whole-heartedly say its been one of the most exciting things about my year thus far. Sometimes, naturally, you find yourself in a rut with exercise and healthy food ideas - luckily, I would say this has happened less than a handful of times to me so far - and you just need a little something to freshen you up. 

Low and behold - Instagram. Recently, I discovered how completely blinded I was by my obsessive romance with the app. I realised just how much it has an impact on everything in your own life; I realised that instagram is something based on comparison and improvement. You see other peoples accounts, snippets and selective projections of their lives, and you subconsciously begin to irrationally and thoughtlessly compare what is in these images to you, your life and how you live it. I will hand on heart admit, that 99.9% of the time, if I have my phone with me, I will most likely check instagram atleast every half hour - and I know I'm not the only one. But, as much as I truly love the concept of the app, I am grateful that I was able to take a step back and see it from this angle. (Insert penny-dropping realisation.) Recently, I was feeling a bit cruddy, about my life and what not, being stupidly/unhealthily over-analytical, so I looked on instagram and realised it wasn't lifting my mood (DAFUQ.) I noticed that I was pining after whatever was going on in the images I looked at and that that was rubbing the salt in further. That's not ok. Its ok to pine or envy in moderation maybe, but detrimental in saturation. So I stepped back a little. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a strong enough epiphany to make me stop using it all together - no freakin' wayyy baby Jane - but I now occasionally consciously remind myself to not get too deep in all this compare the market malarkey.

With that being said, the reason for this post is the very thing that is making me write this post. A tiny spark of pure, unpredicted inspiration can fuel you to think about your life differently. I'd say the beginning of this inspiration spark began yesterday evening when I carried on reading Lea Michele's book - 'Brunette Ambition'; the reason I'd got the book was because I saw she not only had just stories of her astounding success on stage and screen within it, but it was also about her lifestyle - about her diet, her self-care routines, and her exercise ideas - which hella appealed to me! After reading through the chapter about her childhood essentially being lived on Broadway (which is inspiring, and amazing in itself), I finally got to the chapters that were the reason I made the purchase. After reading about her homemade bath-time relaxtion concoctions and organic face mask ideas, I felt truly inspired to re-assess and really realise the importance of self care. Dont misread me here, I'm a neanderthal that bathes every 5 months without touching a drop of soap and glory - I know the basics and have my own developed, fairly informed routine; I just can't resist learning about others rituals. I'm 21, I know slathering every body part in some kind of cream is good for you, and I'm fully aware of the importance of drinking 400 gallons of water a day, but, it really is so rejuvinating reading how someone that has personal values that I admire looks after and maintains herself. 

Then, just 20 minutes prior to this post, I got my final punch of inspiration from an instagram account of someone I hadn't seen any posts from in a while; someone I actually knew/know, a real person - not just someone who spams your pictures with 'like my account and I'll give you 40 million followers and an apartment on venice beach and a french bulldog and perfect hair and the sun,' A person who's life is all about living actively, healthily and happily. 

And that brings us full circle. 

Inspiration is a bit like a full moon; its not here all day everyday, but when it decides to show its face and tap you on the shoulder, its something really special. 

You can easily get bogged down with anything and everything, and I know that all too well - what with constant self-analysation and profound hourly life-assessments. But. When it comes down to it, we all know, that being healthy, active, and truly doing whatever makes you happy - and I'm not saying it has to be your career, or something that you do everyday, because I know that takes its time - is/ are the most important things. Like, ever. Its natural to feel like a giant turd sometimes. But sometimes you really do have to just do anything that will make you smile. 

Life should be more about improvement, and less about comparison. 

Go on, give us a smile.