Week 7 – The Library

So really, my book review this week is only fitting…Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  This is the book where we see Ron’s most famous quote about Hermione: “‘Because that’s what Hermione does,’ said Ron, shrugging. ‘When in doubt, go to the library.’”  So that is what I have done this week.  (You can find my review here, or on my Goodreads page.)

I was doing so well at not buying any books…well, sort of.  I bought three books in January (I think).  This month, I went in a couple of charity shops and bought three books (which I am really looking forward to reading).  I’m just glad that I don’t buy new books very often because they are so much cheaper in charity shops, and I always take them to another charity shop when I’m done.  This week however, I have decided to make an effort to use my local library a bit more.  The other week I got both Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr (both of which I have now finished and will be posting reviews for shortly).  I ordered the other books in the Twilight Saga, although I am still waiting for New Moon (which is the one I needed next) to be transferred from another library.  I got a bit carried away though and got 8 books out of the library! That is a lot of reading!!!

 

I have started updating my page to show the workouts that I am doing.  I am really disappointed in my effort over the weekend though.  I didn’t manage to do any exercise on Saturday or Sunday.  Oh well.  Onward, and upwards and I will be back on it on Monday (and probably regret it when I hop on the scales at weigh in).  Check out what I have been up to here.

Week 6b – Fitness page

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update so please see my post below for my full blog post for this week.

I have finally started up my fitness page to track my eating and my workouts.  So please, check it out here and feel free to comment any more workouts you would recommend trying.

Week 6 – Changeling, 1 Stone Award & building muscle

New book review – Changeling by Philippa Gregory.  Please check it out here or a shorter summary on my Good Reads page. Traveller Teddy, Douglas, is definitely being squashed by this one…it’s a big book!

This week I received my 1 stone loss award at Slimming World which means that I am now below my target range.  I had set my target with the idea of building a fair amount of muscle.  However, with working away so much, I have mostly been doing body weight work and am therefore still building muscle.  I will continue focussing on building muscle and working out but I don’t particularly want to move my target any more because I would have to reduce it down to 10 stone.  At 5 foot 8 I am already a size 10 in bottoms and 8 in tops so I don’t really want to be losing any more.  

To that extent, I’m desperate for any advice on how to build these muscles using body weight.  My current exercise regime is 3-4 HIIT workouts a week which is usually cardio with abs, leg and upper body work.  At the weekends, I run 1-3 times.  The number of workouts I do during the week is dictated by how much running I get done at the weekend because I know how important it is to have rest days.

With eating out a lot through work, I am wondering whether my protein intake just isn’t high enough for what I am trying to achieve.

 

And on a more exciting, positive note…I’m starting to look at holidays!!!  It always gets me excited.  Me, Traveller Teddy and my boyfriend are all starting to get Wanderlust.  We are thinking of having a nice relaxing beach holiday (which is very unusual, I usually love somewhere with a lot of history where I can go sightseeing).  However, this nice relaxing beach holiday…we are planning on including surfing and maybe some yoga.  So if anyone can recommend anywhere in Europe we can do this (on a fairly low budget) then please comment below or on Instagram.  Portugal perhaps???

Week 5 – January Wrap Up and Rosetta Stone

First up, new addition this week is that I have posted a review for Game of Thrones: A Storm of Swords: 2. Blood and Gold by George R.R. Martin.

January has been a busy month! I have been working away for most of it which means longer hours, early and late trains and trying to do workouts in hotel rooms – less than ideal! I have managed to do workouts most nights with a few much needed rest days.  I have read 5 books this month (the reviews for which can be found here):

1. Land Rover by Ben Fogle
2. The Witch Finder’s Sister by Beth Underdown
3. Adventures of a Young Naturalist by David Attenborough
4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
5. A Storm of Swords: 2. Blood and Gold by George R.R. Martin.

My weekly challenge – this week, I have finally completed the first unit of my Rosetta Stone Japanese course.  I have found this a real challenge! It is the first time I have used Rosetta Stone and the first time that I have learned a language with a different alphabet.  Japanese is a really difficult language to learn but I also find that the core lessons on the Rosetta Stone course are really difficult to get my head around! The whole point of the Rosetta Stone course is that there is no translation.  Which I understand in principle, however, I sometimes find it difficult to know what the image is trying to represent.  It also isn’t great at recognising what I say.  I have spoken in English (in a totally different tone because I was shouting at it) and it still gave me full marks. Other times I say it correctly and it gives me 0. And that’s just when it actually works with my microphone!!! If anyone else out there is learning Japanese, I would love to know how you’re getting on.

Aims for February:

1. I really want to improve my running! January has been a really good running month for me.  I didn’t manage R.E.D January like I had planned to due to work commitments.  However, on the whole I have upped my distance and my speed. I hope that this month I can get to 15-20km runs! I really want to sign up for a half marathon later in the year, however, I need to know that I can achieve it first.  
2. Plan my workouts.  Usually my workouts are just what I feel like doing on the night.  Which is great, I think it is really important to be adaptable to what my body needs that day.  However, it means that I’m missing out key areas that I want to incorporate into my routine more.  I plan on starting a weekly “Workout” page for my blog which I will put up each week to show what I have done, and my thoughts on it.  I really struggle to give myself rest days.  I get a bit…twitchy if I haven’t done anything that day. If you want to use it (there will be links to any YouTube videos that I use) please feel free.  However, remember that I am NOT and fitness expert in any sense of the work and am doing what feels right for me and what I enjoy.  This may not necessarily be the same for you.  However, if anyone out there is a personal trainer and wants to give me some advice, that would be very welcome 🙂  I also want to work more yoga and flexibility work into my workouts.
3. Squats and Splits.  I have never been able to do the splits.  In fact, my gymnastic ability is just embarassing – I can’t even do a forward role).  So I am following a stretches programme I found online to try and get myself doing the splits.  And I have started the 30 day squat challenge (in a 28 day month) because I am really conscious of the size of my legs and the way they wobble.  People tell me that I’m ok, but for me, I am at the point of being confident in my leggings and dresses etc, but I am not confident in putting on a bikini or some shorts in the summer…luckily we are a way off from summer and I have time to get there.
4. Reading…I am really enjoying the amount that I am managing to read at the moment.  I think it is really good for me to take time for myself (away from screens) and disappear off to a far off land.  It really helps me to reduce stress.
5. Languages. As you know, I am learning Japanese through Rosetta Stone and German through Duolingo.  With Rosetta Stone, my aim is to complete Unit 2 this month.  It’s going to be tough (especially because I would like to review bits of Unit 1 to keep it fresh) but I think I can do it.  With Duolingo, my aim is to simply maintain my streak – need to come up with some award for myself if I manage it.  If you want to join my Duolingo club, the club code is: SW9VWC
6. Blog.  As you can tell, it has been a hectic January.  My aim in February is to start bulking out my blog a bit, particularly with the Traveller Teddy articles, which I have started but haven’t polished to go online yet.  I am dedicating some time to it this week I promise.

So, Happy February everyone! See you on the other side. Please comment below any thoughts and comments, good and bad.  And I look forward to hearing from you all (and having a long nap at the end of the month which I think I’m going to need…how long till the long weekend of Easter???)

Week 4 – Yoga

Reviewing Harry Potter is probably one of the hardest reviews I will have to do (and there are seven of them!!!) Like most of the rest of my generation, I love Harry Potter.  I was the same age as Harry in the films so grew up reading the books.  My copies of the books have completely worn out.  I have had to buy a new copy of the Order of the Phoenix because the first hundred pages fell out and the spine was coming away.  I can’t bring myself to throw it out though so if anyone has any crafty ideas, let me know.  

Check out my full review here and follow me on Goodreads to see me shorter review on there.

This week, I tried yoga courtesy of Yoga with Adriene’s TRUE 30 days of yoga on YouTube.  I have tried yoga in the past at my old gym but I really didn’t get on with it.  It wasn’t part of a course and I found that some of the moves were too advanced and I couldn’t hold them.  I didn’t form a connection with the lady that was running the course and unlike in Adriene’s videos, there was no theme or meaning behind the session.  

I really like the way that Adriene develops your mindfulness and spirituality as part of this course.  She is entertaining (as is Benji) and unlike other yogis I have had sessions from, not annoying! I was really surprised at the sense of peacefulness I felt at the end of the session.  I allowed myself to be completely absorbed in the motions.  I tried to do Day 2 the following day but found that I just wasn’t in the right mindset to do the session which I think is the most crucial part of yoga.  I have done it since though and am really looking forward to continuing this course and incorporating this into my exercise routine.  What I really love is that all 30 days are free…it’s not like a lot of programs where you get a free trial then find out the price is much higher than expected.

Click here to go to Day 1 of the True Yoga Course on YouTube and follow Adriene on Instagram: @adrienelouise

Week 3 – Target Member

Hi everyone,

I’m really sorry this post is late!!! It has been a crazy hectic week and then I had the weekend in Bath with my boyfriend so I haven’t had time to write anything!

This week, I got my target member award at Slimming World!!! I cannot describe how totally over the moon I am! I work away a lot so have to eat out in restaurants most nights.  This makes maintaining a healthy lifestyle really difficult.  Particularly when I’m away on my own, it gets so hard to not just order pizza and chips towards the end of the week when I’m bored and lonely.  To be honest, this blog and my reading goals are really helping me with this – it is keeping me occupied so I’m less bored and therefore less likely to snack.  Time away from Netflix is also great!

As an added bonus, I also got Slimmer of the Week for the first time which is just amazing!!! I was so overwhelmed!

This week, I finished reading Adventures of a Naturalist by David Attenborough.  It was incredible – my first 5 star review.  Check out my review here.  So, in mark of this, I thought I would include this cute picture of a vervet monkey I took when I was travelling in South Africa.  I fully plan on starting my travel posts this week, and will post one next week, so this is just a taster 😀

I have also set up a Good Reads page.  Please, check it out here.

Week 2(b)

Hi everyone,

Just a short post to share with you that I have finished book 2 of 52: The Witch Finder’s Sister by Beth Underdown.  Click here to read my review.  Or purchase it using the link below – currently only 99p on Kindle:

Week 2 – Get Fit Work Away

So, this week sort of goes in with my Instagram name haha.  And first up, I would like to apologise because the first part of this post comes across kind of negatively.

Because of where I have been staying this week (and literally not seeing any daylight so I wasn’t been able to explore), my Run Every Day January hasn’t gone to plan.  I still have an annual target for my running though.  My plan while I was away was to exercise every day though so to try and keep my exercise up that way.

Again, easier said than done.  I haven’t achieved this for a very good reason though – I was really sore from my workout.

So, the days that I was at home, I went running.  I mixed up the distance and when I ran shorter distances, I tried to up my pace (a lot).

So in 2018, I have so far got 45 achievements on Strava!

While I was in hotel rooms, I took my yoga mat, some weights, my resistance bands and some gym clothes.  So over the space of a week:

Thursday: Run

Friday: Run

Saturday: Run

Sunday: Rest day (my body thanked me, I was so exhausted)

Monday: 30 min body combat video followed by 3 rounds of Kayla Itsines Abs workout (with 45 second plank between rounds).

Body Combat workout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ccc_bgR4DA

Kayla Itsines workout: https://www.facebook.com/k.itsines/videos/1760187654025712/

Tuesday: Nina Dobrev’s Secret Les Mills Grit Cardio.  It was amazing and so hard!!! I have never been so exhausted.  She loves burpees.  I wanted to do yoga afterwards, but I couldn’t hold up my own body weight.

Nina’s Workout: https://www.lesmills.com/likenina/

Wednesday: Rest day.  It hurt to move!

What I really love about Nina’s workout is that you can tell how much she is struggling! I mean this in a good way.  She looks like she is pushing herself to the absolute limit.  The problem I find with a lot of workout videos is that the people doing them are so insanely fit, they don’t sweat, they don’t slow down etc.  I think I resembled Nina! It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one that struggles.

I feel so much better having done all this exercise, even if it does still hurt to move.  I’m hoping to get a longer run in at the weekend as well (weather dependent).  I don’t like to do workout video’s at home because I live in an old Victorian house that was converted into flats and my downstairs neighbour works nights so I always feel guilty jumping around during the day.

Reading Challenge: I am part way through my second book: The Witch Finder’s Sister by Beth Underdown.  When I finish reading it and write a review, I will post it to my Instagram (@getfit_workaway).

You’ll be able to find the review here.