Percy Pigs for Breakfast | Health & Fitness and Starting Over

So, I haven’t written a health and fitness update for absolutely ages now, probably partly because I’ve been pretty crap with it all in the last six months to be honest.

A couple of years ago I was so happy to have got it into exercise for the first time in my life and to have kept up with exercising almost every day. I’ve always eaten pretty well, but I was eating better and incorporating smoothies and other health foods into my diet and I felt so much better about myself. I’d lost weight and toned up, and clothes fit me so much better.

So I’m really sad that I have let it go over the past year or so.

I just haven’t had any motivation to exercise, and I’m so tired all of the time and I’ve been so busy with blogging. But I know they’re all just excuses. It doesn’t help that I just seem to want to eat all the time and fill my body with crap constantly. I want the stodge!

I’ve also pretty much unintentionally given up my daily lemon water which is shit, because I’d done that for years as well as taking the vitamins which I know I are important for me. I’ve just got so lethargic and lazy and just can’t seem to make myself make the effort to bother with all the little bits that I found so easy before.

Not only that but I am just craving things like warming crumpets and marmite for breakfast every day, and atrocities such as Super Noodles for lunch. Help me! Even worse is that on the day I started writing this post I was feeling particularly rubbish and ending up eating some M&S Percy Pigs for breakfast! I honestly don’t care if I end up doing that kind of thing occasionally, but I do care about putting crap in my body every day, all day long.

And let’s not even get started on the red wine. You couldn’t anyway because I’ve drank it all.

But I’m feeling crappy, I’ve been dealing with a couple of health issues and I seem to get every cold going and it’s time to do something about it. I’m positively sick of my clothes squishing all my flab together when I sit down, and putting clothes on that fit me before and now won’t even squeeze down over my boobs.

So! I’m here to make some changes, or go back in time to go back to the changes that I had already made, or something. I want to feel good about my body again, tone up, have more energy, and sleep better, all whilst drinking lots of wine.

My health and fitness and starting over

Exercise and running again

This is totally the biggest one – the most important for me to feel better, as well as my biggest challenge at the moment. I start for a day or two, then I stop. I get ill and can’t even make myself get up off the sofa, and then I leave it too late in the day and just cannot make myself just jump up and bloody well get on with it.

John Lewis kindly asked me if they could send me some of their trainers, and that right there is exactly the kind of inspiration I need to get my ass into gear and actually get moving. I have these bad boys – the Nike Air Zoom Structured 20 Women’s Running Shoes, in black, white and grey and I bloody love them. Over the last couple of years I have developed a rather strong love for trainers – they are comfy, they look cool with pretty much anything, and you can pretend you’re going to exercise when you’re really just popping to Costa (for a toastie and a piece of Tiffin).

I love these both for exercising in, and wearing with jeans and a top on the school run. They’re so comfy and feel like I’m walking on air. I have quite a few pairs of trainers now but I really wanted a black pair to wear more easily with jeans than my brightly coloured pairs, and these are perfect.

Eat better

I eat okay in general, but I have just got so lazy with breakfast and lunches. We generally have a good home-cooked dinner, but apart from that I am stuffing my face constantly with cheeses, meats, chocolates and even crisps which is not like me at all.

I certainly don’t want to restrict myself too much wnen it comes to food; enjoying food is something that is a big part of my life, and I want to be able to eat the brie and destroy the Prosciutto in my fridge occasionally. But there’s the rub – I need to do these things less often, maybe not eat quuuuite so much cheese. The focus for me will always be on exercising to maintain my weight, whilst eating a relatively healthy diet and filling my body up with nutritious food as much as possible, but I still want to eat the cheese.

Drink (a bit) less wine

I love wine, particularly red wine. And again, it’s another thing I don’t want to stop. But I should probably drink a bit less now – both for my body and for my health in general. I’m not very good at just having one glass, especially when I’m at home, so I need to have more nights with no alcohol at all. I’ve thought about saying I’ll only drink at the weekends, but sometimes I just need a glass or two of wine on a school night to make me feel better and try and forget about my shit day! So I don’t want to make any hard and fast rules because then I’ll fail, but the plan is just to drink less!

Get outdoors more

Working at home means that some weeks, if it wasn’t for the school runs, I would barely leave the house. I need to try and have a little break sometimes and have a walk to the shop or even just round the block. I think it would make me feel a bit better and help me to get my focus back when I have been working for hours.

I also plan to take Ava to the park or down by the river much more often straight from school, especially now that we are heading towards nicer weather. It’ll be good to regularly spend that quality time together away from the house, as well as getting some fresh air and a bit of exercise.

Start those little healthy habits again

I really want to get back into those healthy little habits that I’d kept up for so long and that supposedly do me some good on the inside even if I can’t see them working. I would like to start my day with a warm lemon water again, and start taking my Vitamin D, Magnesium and fish oil supplements again, as they are all so important for our health and lots of us are deficient in them.

I also want to start having a smoothie for breakfast or as part of my lunch again, because I’m not eating enough fruit and veg, plus I can put loads of good bits like chia seeds and coconut oil in there for all the health benefits, and I do really enjoy them when I have them. At the moment I so often can’t be bothered to make them, but they really only take a couple of minutes.

So, the main thing about this for me is no big restrictions on what I do, eat, or drink. It’s all about moderation and still enjoying life so that I keep it up like I did before, not making myself miserable trying to be skinny (I don’t want to be skinny FYI) and then eating an entire pack of biscuits when I’m having a bad day.

Summer is on it’s way, as well as my summer holiday and that makes it so much easier for me to adopt these habits – get out for a run, eat better, and stop drowning my sorrows in wine! My aim for now is just to feel much more comfortable in my clothes and tone up before my holiday. I just want to feel nice in a summer dress again, and start to get back to where I was before and have exercise as a part of my life again.

I was sent the Nike Air Zoom Running Shoes from John Lewis, but all words and opinions are my own.