Broken Routines

Since the Easter break began I've lost my routine, having a 5 day weekend and 3 days at work has completely thrown me out of my cycle, along with messing up my sleeping pattern.

Here I lay at 19 minutes past 12 on a Sunday night (Monday morning??) wide awake scanning the NHS website for dieting tips. I was late to work everyday last week due to my sleeping pattern and slept in until 1pm on Saturday after a night out on Friday and I've basically been hungover since, so my exercise was shocking last week.

I'm in such a bad routine at the minute, I'm skipping breakfast and snacking throughout the day when at home, I personally think due to absolute boredom. At work I've been VERY good, as everyone who works in an office knows, daily people are bringing in something they baked at the weekend, or a box of chocolates which were an unwanted gift, and of course someone leaves weekly so there's always cakes and buns around, and with it been Easter last week.. chocolate eggs and bunnies galore. But with a huge amount of willpower I kindly declined and also skipped on the coffee too, replacing it with a bottle of water and a kiwi fruit.

Hope I carry forward the will power this week and go for a run and finally start eating breakfast.

I plan to run on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday this week, which hopefully will finally see me complete week 1 of C25K, and on my rest days I may even throw in a bit of the Katie Price workout dvd.

Think tomorrow at work on my lunch, I'm going to make a food plan of my food for the week, this will hopefully help me get back on track and focus a lot more.

Anyway, time to try and sleep.

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Exercise videos!

I'm a massive fan of exercise videos, I must admit I do love a good cheesy z-list "celeb" one, however I don't agree with them at the same time.. Simply because you see a personal trainer doing so much of the talking/directing/exercising whilst the z-lister posing around and looking exhausted after the warm up, a la Katie Price/Kerry Katona/Coleen Nolan - choose who you wish, they are dismal in their videos - I've seen them all.

BUT.. I must admit my favourite and the one I've stuck to the most is Katie Price's - "The Jordan Workout" pinktastic cringe worthy video, which I found on youtube.. I'm not sure exactly what I love about it, I just seem to stick to it and when it's done I want to do it again! 

I love the clock in the corner of the screen showing you how much time is left, I always glance over and think, "ok just a quarter left to go, then I'm done" which is a massive motivator for me. As many of the reviews on Amazon.co.uk say, you kind of forget Katie Price is there and focus on her trainer, Richard Callender (who is just gorgeous, may I add).. I think the main plus of this video is all the boxing exercises in it, lots of punches, kicks and squats in the Warm up and Cardio segments, some may find it repetitive but I'm a big fan of the way he trains you making the reps less but faster at the same time.

I must admit, I did feel the burn especially after doing the Resistance stages of the dvd - ouch! 

 I do prefer this type of exercise video, compared to a dance based one, I know many people will say it's repetitive, which it is, but I do really like it, I do think it would've been better without Katie Price in it, but I reckon just putting her name to it would of brought in the pennys!

 

There's all six parts of the DVD on youtube which can be found from the above,

alternativly, you can buy the DVD for £2.79 from HERE - cheap as chips!

(and possible better for you than chips) 

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My first run

For my running I'm following the Couch to 5k plan, I did my first run of Week 1 on Saturday morning, I woke up at 8am and was out the door by 8:15am.

I downloaded the podcast from the NHS website and tried my best to follow it. My fave thing is when the narrator tells you when to start and stop and its quite encouraging really, the music is great too, a faster tempo song for the jogs and slower for the walks. Also the podcast lasts for 30 minutes, ensuring I'm running enough - as before I found out about it, I was unsure how long to run for and what to when I'm tired..

I'm sure the majority people know how this works, but this is the first week of the c25k plan:

• 5 minute warm up walk
• 60 seconds of jogging x 8
• 90 seconds of walking x 8
• 5 minute cool down walk

I must admit, I did 3 lots of jogging and had more than the 90 minute second rest in between, so in total I managed about 6 minutes off jogging in total, which sounds crap but I'm so proud of - I thought I'd be exhausted after the warm up.

I did make the mistake though of not properly planning my route, (around the local golf courses) which had a HUGE hill and no footpath..... Great.  I made the best decision I think going before 9am, as on my way back the roads were busier and more people were up and about, which I was a teeny bit uncomfortable with as I had minimal make up on.. Yes that's right, I ran in make up.. only mascara and my eyebrows filled in though and I did keep a lip balm in my pocket too!

For my first run, I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt so awake when I got back home, the c25k plan does recommend a day off between running, so I cannot wait to get back out tomorrow morning!

x

The running gear

I ordered my running clothing from Sports Direct, a cheap and cheerful sports clothing shop. I didn't want to be spending loads of money on running shoes and clothing, simply because I would rather spend my hard earned money on a nice MAC eyeshadow or a dress from topshop..

 The absolute bargain of the century, a pair of good running shoes for £9, yes you heard NINE BRITISH POUNDS! Everywhere else I had looked had running shoes for £30 minimum, so when I saw these I straight added them to my basket, I've been walking round the house and doing some exercise videos in them and they are SO comfortable - deffo important for running.

Another absolute bargain courtesy of Sports Direct, RRP is £22.99 and I snapped this up for £7, they come in a variety of colours, I did want a black one but they didn't have my size so I thought I'd go garish and buy a bright pink, this is unbelievably comfortable, I never realised how important a sports bra actually is, it was so supportive I almost felt flat chested!

 Obviously not an essential item but I knew I'd want to take my phone running with me to listen to the Couch to 5k Podcasts, (download free here) and I'd be too scared of my phone falling out of a pocket, so I got this, for £3, simply to put around my waist, and pop my phone and house key in, very comfortable and secure.

One last thing, I have to be 100% honest and say I just liked the look of this LOL. For £2 for a sturdy water bottle that holds 500ml, (also available in 350ml) I just couldn't say no, not sure if I'll take this running with me, but I can fit my hand comfortably through the hole so I suppose it's more practical than a normal bottle.. and its pink :-).

To run in I just wear a pair of black leggings from New Look with an oversized mans tee on, I normally just order the bog standard Fruit of The Loom t-shirts from Amazon, they're around £1.99 each and much better quality than ones from Primarni. 

I totally sound like I'm sponsored by Sports Direct but I can assure you I'm 100% NOT, but I just think for the quality of goods I recieved, for a total of £21.. just a bargain! (not a massive fan of the £3.99 delivery though)

.. However, I placed my order on Saturday night at 9pm, got a despatch e-mail Sunday morning and my package came around 2pm today (Monday), I was honestly expecting them to come Wednesday/Thursday.. so tomorrow will be my first run!

Not sure whether to go before work or afters..?

x

PS sorry for the rubbishy pictures, I wanted to picture everything unused! x

Cutting out the crap..

I start work at 8:30am every morning and finish at 5pm, with an hours commute there and back, leaving the house at 7:30am and returning around 6pm, I find it hard to eat at sensible times.

In a morning I wake around 7am, slap the make up on have a coffee and dash to the bus stop, I normally have lunch around 1pm, which is generally a sandwich from the diner at work washed down with a diet coke and a pot of grapes. I don't normally eat dinner when I get in until about 8pm, as that's when I can probably be bothered to, but normally its a carb filled dinner, (not great when I had carbs for lunch). Working in an office there's always someone fetching in the chocolates, cakes or biscuits so I normally have a cheeky snack too, oops!

So as you can see, I don't lead the healthiest lifestyle and this definitely needs to change, I'm fed up of feeling groggy and tired in the morning, and being lazy after work. My main downfall is carbs, I just love pasta, rice and breads..

My first goals in terms of nutrition are:

• Wake up 15 minutes earlier to eat breakfast
• Take my own lunch to work, try soups, salads, etc
• Eat more fruit
• Cut out the carbs (my main downfalll..)
• Eat at regular times
• Less coffee & diet coke

 What are your bad eating habits?

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Hello!

Most people will be reading this having been diverted from my beauty blog, Emily Victoria.

This blog is by no means about beauty, but kind of my running diary blog, where I'm going to update about my progress, my goals and my nutrition.

When I was at school I was big on nutrition and fitness, I was on every sports team but when I left nearly 3 years ago I just haven't been participating anymore, and now with a sedentary 9-5 office job, its hard to find the time to work out, but hopefully this blog will motivate me.

Emily
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