FAMILY FITNESS

A few months ago we were asked whether we'd like to be involved in a Family Fitness campaign with Argos and immediately I said yes. Since January I've made a huge effort to exercise and eat healthy in a bid to be the best version of myself and I was excited for Paul and F to get involved too – you can see my last fitness update here.

We were asked to wear fitness trackers and were allowed to choose equipment that would help us in our bid to get exercising. F was super excited and straight away asked if he could get a skateboard, something he's been wanting for a while, so when it arrived with neon knee pads he couldn't wait to get outside and try it out.

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MY PERSONAL FITNESS JOURNEY AND EATING HEALTHY

Over the last eight weeks I've been really focusing on getting fit and have been making dramatic changes to my eating habits. So far I've been keeping this rather quiet on the blog and IG, but I have been inspired by friends/lovely bloggers who are also on a personal fitness journey such, Keri-Anne  Gingerlilly Tea, Hayley from Southwood Stores and Catherine from The Triple Triangle, to get myself into shape. After a very over indulgent Christmas full of rich food, chocolates and crisps, I was left feeling sluggish, tired and not fitting into my usual clothes, but now spring is here I want to get back in control of my bad habits.  

I've never really been one to do sports, at school I was the kid that was last at every sport in P.E and being naturally slim I've not really paid much attention to what I eat, but as I get older I'm becoming concious of being a good role model for F when it comes to healthy eating and exercise. 

So for the last month or so I've been exercising 25 minutess a day and trying to swap meals for healthier options, using Deliciously Ella for inspiration and using an eat clean diet where possible, making sure to avoid any processed food, sugars, dairy and wheat. 

I've created a seperate IG account to keep track of my fitness progress and snap pics of my meals to keep me motivated, and I'm using my FitBit to track my progress too. 

I find exercising makes me feel happier, probably all those endorphins being released, and making smarter choices with food has really boosted my energy levels. Here are some of my recent meals:1. Fruit! I've been using fruit as a snack rather than reaching for biscuits, crisps and cakes. Plus F really enjoys coming along for the fruit haul. 2. Raw energy Coconut and Cacao Bites from Deliciosly Ella. I made a load of these with F and keep them in the fridge incase I need a boost. 3. For lunch I've been eating more open sandwiches. My favourite is Organic wholemeal Sunflower Rye Bread, avocado, tuna, sprouting lentils and tomatoes.4. Breakfast has always been a tricky one for me as it is the meal I tend skip even though it's the most important. Instead I've been trying to have an energy filled start to the day with a bowl of porridge made with Almond milk, topped with cinnamon, whole almonds and poppy seeds. 5. I have rediscovered my love for salads with this healthy Nicoise Salad made with tuna, sprouting beans instead of olives and potato, fresh peppers, egg and poppy seeds.6. Homemade soups for lunch are great as they are healthy and filling. I've been trying different recipes and always accompany it with some fruit and hot lemon water.7. Pomegranates are one of my favourite things to snack on in front of the TV. This is my weakness as I want to eat lots of crisps and dips, but as this fruit is fiddly it occupies me while wanting to snack and it's super tasty too. I'm really hoping to stick to this new way of living and I have invested in some work out gear and equipment to get me going. I'm going to post once a month about what I've been eating and also a bit more about my workout routines to keep a log of my progress and in the hopes it might be inspiring. I hope you'll follow me along my journey.

KICK START JANUARY WITH THE FITBIT CHARGE

So here we are again, the month where we all make promises to quit this and stop that, to do more exercise and eat less, to swap our vino for water, the whole shebang. January is renowned for the month that we are told to basically do better, to dust ourselves off from the heavy carb loaded christmas and alcoholic tendencies of New Years Eve and make a new you.

Don't get me wrong I love a clean slate so to speak. But truthfully it's not as if your body resets to factory mode on the strike of midnight come NYE, to be healthy you have to work at it. Not a fad or an half hearted attempt to have a dry month only to last until the weekend. No wonder most people fall at the first hurdle! With me I'm an all or nothing girl, so when it comes to making healthy choices it's hard to reach the perfect middle ground.

Where I lack motivation is:

Sleep – I think it's enough but it's definitely not enough.
Healthy food – Sporadic. Either a health fest with eat clean tendencies or you can find me in Dorito heaven.
Exercise – Running around after a four year old counts as this right?!
Fluids – Water? erm what's that again...oh you mean coffee yes?

So when I was asked to test out the Fitbit Charge, a wireless activity wristband, I didn't know what to expect or how it would impact my day to day lifestyle. Well it has, so much that I think I'm a little bit in love with it, in fact it's like having a personal trainer on your wrist!

The Fitbit Charge is sleek in design, lightweight and splash proof, and basically looks like you're wearing a really cool watch. It's super easy to set up with a free downloadable app for your phone or computer where you enter your details such as: Gender, weight, height, date of birth and you're all set.

It's that easy. You literally wear it all day and night and use your bluetooth to sync the info to your app. So I've been using my iPhone to chart my progress and achieve the daily milestones: walk 10K steps a day, 30 minutes of active minutes, plenty of water etc. as recommended by the government for a healthy lifestyle.

The Fitbit Charge will log your steps automatically as well as stairs climbed, calories burned, distance in km walked, active minutes, calories eaten, water consumed and it also logs your sleep and for me this is a biggie. It tells you how many hours you slept and during that how many minutes were restless and any periods you were awake. So all that sleep I thought I was getting, erm not so much.

When I first started inputting how much water I was intaking I was horrified to realise that it equalled 200ml, that's a cups worth. So all that lack of energy, feeling groggy and headaches was down to dehydration. Even though I feel like I'm drinking a ridiculous amount of water I'm still only filling up on 1100ml a day, just over halfway to my daily recommended target.

Having something which easily allows you to see your daily activities and celebrates your milestones certainly changes your way of thinking about your health plus you can share your results on your social platforms too. If your arms are full of shopping/ a hundred and one things there is even caller ID synced with your phone. One glance and you know whether it's worth dropping all those bags for.

I love the Fitbit Charge and if you want to hear me chat about it some more and other wearable fitness technology then I will be live tonight at 19:00 hours GMT on a google hangout hosted by Faya from Fitness on Toast for Argos with me, David from MensRunning and Liina from Mind Over Matter. You can use the link to tune in and find out which Fit Tech is best for you, otherwise you can find more information about wearable technology at Argos

*This post is in association with Argos.

LET'S WORKOUT

So you might be wondering why I’m wearing this outfit and lifting weights? Yes I do like to exercise and I’m always up for a giggle, so when Argos got in touch and asked whether me and my blogging buddy Fritha would like to make a fun work out video, including a whole world of silly, obviously I was game. I never need an excuse to dance around the flat.

So after being challenged to create this little video we decided to make a day of it. After dropping F off at preschool, I headed into town to meet Fritha and Wilf for a bit of Mr Motivator style inspired shopping. Embracing the youth in me, I headed to the teen section in New Look and H&M and cobbled together an 80’s inspired work-out wear – think Madonna meets Pretty in Pink – one coffee later, we headed back to F’s preschool in time for pick up and back towards the flat.

A quick change of clothes and a lot of laughter later we were ready to get our groove on. I normally try and squeeze in exercises where possible so it was fun going through my normal routine and incorporating exercises with cleaning. F thought it was hilarious and never one to miss a dance moment got stuck in when filming, as you can see from the video.

Having a small child does make it tricky to fit those recommended 30 minutes of daily exercise, so being able to stretch and flex those muscles while doing every day chores is a great way to keep fit and acts as a super time saver. All you need are items you have in your home and if you would like to do Floorcare work-out exercises yourself but you don’t have the right materials you can always got to a store like Argos to find a hoover.

So there it is, my debut video appearance! If you want to join in on the silly and have some fun, I would really love to see your cleaning work out and will share them all over on twitter.

JUST ONE SMALL THING

After last week's melt down into crazy land, I've been making small changes to keep myself balanced, focused and happy. We've had a fun filled week of play dates, sunshine, birthday parties, cake baking, giant balloons and Gromit hunting with the odd sprinkle of toddler tears. The main difference I've noticed this week is no matter how tired/cranky I feel, if I can get out for a quick early morning walk – with or without F – I'm pretty much in a good place for the day. I feel more organised, more in control and that I've gained more time. I'm not sure if this will last through wet and wintery weather, but for now it seems to be doing the trick, and hell it's Friday.