Hi there!

If you've been following us on twitter or reading our fitness posts then you will be aware that we both took part on a Tough Mudder challenge two weeks ago.

If you don't know what a TM challenge is then here's a quick run down; each course is designed by Special Forces and is between 10 and 12 miles long. There are roughly 20 obstacles on each course but this could vary, particularly if you have completed a TM course before as you will have additional obstacles available to you that first timers do not.

The obstacles vary in their challenges; you could be required to climb a wall, swim through ice, crawl underground, jump off a plank into water or run through electric wires. You don't find out until the week before what the course is like nor which obstacles you will have to endure.

Here a few snaps from our day!

The official photos from the day are great and provided free which is always good. As events like Cardiff Half you have to pay for the photos. TM is really all about team work and you come away feeling like you've really achieved something and even if you didn't fully know your team at the start you will at the end.

It's such a friendly environment all the way around and everyone helps everyone on the obstacles which is great. As things like the 10 feet walls (one of the hardest obstacles for me!) were fine at getting people over but without the help of other teams your last person wouldn't be able to do it.

It's definitely something that pushes you to your limits but all of us that did it totally loved it and can't wait for next years south west event to do it all over again. We've all said we'd tailor our training differently if we did it again so here is some of our advice.

• Road running isn't all that helpful. The course is very hilly, after obstacles this is especially tiring. As much as possible run on hilly routes and uneven ground. It's a lot of running through wooded areas so over rocks and twigs.
• You need the upper body strength. (We both tried hard to do this!) Think press ups and pulls up. These sort of movements help build the strength you'll need for the day especially to be able to pull yourself over some of the smaller walls. Luckily the boys helped us with this.
• A good general fitness level. There is no point focusing on one thing. The next day everything hurt including the abs. This course uses every muscle!
• You will complete. Friend of ours had previously told us it was more of mind over body and towards the end it really was. When every part of you aches and you've been going for over 3 hours it's hard to get the energy to do some of the obstacles but you will find the strength to do them.
• Have a good supportive team around you. A few tall strong men will be helpful on the day!

Hello!
Another post for 'Fitness Friday's, I hope you're looking forward to the weekend as much as me! I'm heading to body pump tomorrow morning which I'm really looking forward to after missing it for almost 4 weeks!
You can see the other posts I've written so far on this link if you enjoy reading this one.


As mentioned previously, I'm no fitness coach or nutritionist but I've found these tips and small changes have helped me, and maybe they'll help you too :)

6) Liquids - water is the best liquid you could need because it hydrates you, flushes out toxins and is a vital component in our bodies needs. 2L is the best amount and more if you've exercised that day. I now take a bottle to work with me and keep it on my desk and drink one in the morning and one in the afternoon to know that I've consumed 1400ml and then I get the rest from peppermint tea or at home after work. My trainer told me that for every tea/coffee you need a cup of water to hydrate yourself again which was scary at the time but herbal teas don't require this so I've swapped a few round.
Generally though just avoid the fizzy sugary drinks of any kind. Normal ones contain tonnes of sugar, diet ones contain chemicals that are just as bad. It frustrates me when people work hard at the gym to then drink Coke or Fanta, what is the point?!

7) Swap your carbs. Perfectly simple, swap your white carbs for brown ones. Brown rice, wholewheat pasta, granary and wholemeal bread. Easy to do, tastes minimally different but will save you a whole load of chemical refining and you'll feel fuller for longer as it takes your body longer to digest. I try and minimise the amount of bread I eat too as the yeast makes you bloat out, swap toast for porridge for your breakfast if your having sandwiches for lunch so you're not having too much.


8) Don't shop on an empty stomach. Shopping for food whilst you're hungry will result in you buying twice as much and more of the bad stuff, trust me I've done it plenty of times in uni and regretted it! All of the healthy stuff went off and had to be thrown out and so I'd wasted money and eaten rubbish.

9) Make sure your plate is as colourful as possible. The bigger the variation in colour of veg on your plate will give you a bigger range of nutrients and you'll be more likely to eat it. Try adding carrots, red peppers, spinach, beetroot etc etc to a meal to vary the colour and avoid having brown coloured foods on your plate as they're usually processed crap (apart from those complex carbs I mentioned before!

10) Sign yourself up for challenges. One of my new favourite website is 30 Day Fitness Challenges which have all kinds of challenges such as squats, arms, abs, little black dress and beach body ones. Each day you follow their set plans and you will see differences. I've signed up to a load of them and will probably feature them in a post soon as I've been loving their workouts!
If you're looking for something different why not volunteer for a charity run as there's plenty of 5k, 10k runs leading to half and full marathons.
I've never done any of them and decided that I'd just go for it and signed up for Tough Mudder which is a 12 mile assault course involving mud, ice baths, climbing, fire and electrocution. go hard or go home right?? I'm really looking forward to it as it should be fun but it's also pushing me to go to the gym every week and work harder than I have before.

I hope that some of these can help you to change your diet and ultimately lifestyle slowly. It takes a long time and a lot of commitment but if you really want something you'll get it if you're prepared to work for it!

I'm still training for tough mudder which is in 6 months now. My fitness and weights have been going really well but my running has been awful because of the weather. In a few weeks the evenings will be light enough for me to run after work so I'm hoping that I can just go for it then and fingers crossed it won't seem like such a mammoth task!

What would your top tips be? Have you singed up to any challenges?

L xxx

Morning everyone!

Having written about my fitness plan for the year in a post last week (see here) I thought I'd start sharing some of my meals and snacks that I have in order to give you some ideas and suggestions in case you're lacking in inspiration as sometimes it can be so hard. I'm no expert in this whatsoever but I've lost around 2 stone and got myself to a size 10 and even though I do have my binge moments I don't often put on weight so thought maybe this could help!


First off, my number one tip is to make sure that you always have some food on you. This will mean that you are never tempted to buy anything from a shop like chocolate, crisps, cake etc that are just far too easy to pick up. I've got a range of stuff in my handbag and there's always something there whenever I need it which has stopped me many times from legging it to the corner shop. I also ALWAYS have water on me too, I get my 2L a day ever since buying myself a proper plastic bottle and swigging it when I'm 'hungry', but that's for another day.

Here's a few of my favourite snacks!


I don't think anyone will argue with me when i say fruit can be a perfect snack....its low calorie (around 50 per portion aside from a banana at 100), contains vitamin and mineral goodness and also water to add to your bodies hydration. It can be boring trying to get your 5 a day, but now I regularly get 7/8 a day without even trying as I put fruit on my breakfast, have some as my mid morning snack, a piece at lunch and maybe on the way home if I'm hungry to stop me eating something else before my tea.

I tend to eat a banana mid morning to give me a boost and also give my body the chance to burn off the extra calories, though lets be honest at 100 it's not a big deal!




Sometimes I really want crisps. I'm mostly a fan of savoury foods so sometimes I need the salt and the crunch and fruit just isn't good enough!

Nairns oat cakes are what I turn to when this happens. There are a variety of flavours but I find the plain ones (rough, organic etc) are perfect for me. When I'm in need of a boost pre/post workout and am not near a meal time I eat 3 of these with some nut butter on to keep me going; then I get the crunch and the salty taste guilt free!





You can read the ingredients and calorie values on these pictures, plus the qualities such as high fibre and no hydrogenated fat. I also sometimes eat these with a salad if I'm on a 'hungry' day.
I try not to have carbs with my salad as I have a decent helping at breakfast and try to burn those off throughout the day, but sometimes you just have to eat and these are perfect at 45 calories per oat cake.

(is it anything to do with them being called 'cake' as well? Hmm....)



I found Nakd bars just over a year ago and haven't looked back. At around 100 calories these are one of the few bars that are completely natural (all the contain is 100% fruit, nut, oat or soya crunchies), contains no added sugar, are wheat and dairy free and count as one of your 5 a day.



There are a variety of flavours and types; the apple pie bars are the original type of bars with raw fruit, oat and nuts 'smooshed' together to create a bar and the ingredients are listed on the packaging below. You can buy them individually, in boxes like in the pictures or on their website they have 'taster' boxes where you can buy a selection of bars together to try them all out.



The newer crunch range has soya crunchies added into them so that they contain more protein which is always a good thing. More protein means you are unlikely to lose muscle after burning off calories at the gym and it also fills you up for longer.

The good news is on their website (see here) you can get some great deals, currently you can get 20% off using the code NY14 but this only until the end of the month so hurry! Otherwise there are plenty of deals on their site so look out for them.
The Find Your Favourite box is £7.99 but they also sell boxes in Asda and Waitrose and probably more places too.



Sesame Snaps are my go-to snack when I've had a long day at work and know i have the gym to contend with on the way home. I often eat an apple on the way home to keep me going through my hour long drive home as its easy to get peckish around the 5/6 o clock mark.
I eat these snaps when I'm on the way to the gym so that I've got a bit of a sugar boost to fuel me through my workout. I know that once i'm in the gym I'll do it justice but sometimes it can be hard to make the decision to go!



These are quite simple; sesame seeds, glucose syrup and sugar. Normally I avoid sugar like the plague, unless its in fruit or honey I avoid it but these really do help and for days when I need something extra these 3 little snaps can make all the difference. That and there's THREE in a packet, so I feel like I'm having a big treat!
Plus its 157 calories for the packet and you can get these from Waitrose for 75p for a packet of four.....much cheaper than a chocolate bar! If you're lucky too they also do a coconut version with desiccated coconut and they taste GREAT.




Last but not least is my latest find; Bounce Balls.

I found them on a trip to Waitrose just before Christmas in the 'Free From' aisle. Being filled with protein and containing peanuts i snapped up my first one and haven't looked back since...
There are 5 in the range but I am yet to try the walnut version. The Almond, Peanut and Macadamia are all protein based and contains some whey powder to bind the ball. I find the almond and peanut ones are quite chewy but this takes me longer to eat and therefore I feel fuller quicker.



The coconut and macadamia one tastes more like a sweet that you'd have after a meal so I save this one for when I'm having a sweet tooth moment. The spirulina and ginseng ball was a newbie for me having never tried either and was very surprised to see it as a black/green colour in the package but it tastes AMAZING and I've been back many a time to get these.

My only qualm with these is that they retail for around £1.50/£1.70 which is expensive in comparison to everything else in this post. At the moment Waitrose have a deal on them where you can get 3 for £4 and I will certainly be stocking up as I do like them as an alternative especially as they contain a good dose of protein. They're also higher calories at 150-200 per ball but I'm not too bothered about counting my calories as long they all come from good sources.


So what do you think of my suggestions? Have you tried any of the bars before? Do you have an suggestions of your own?


I'm thinking of doing a Fitness Friday series so I can write about something different each week, whether it be a recipe, training plan, meal suggestions and other handy hints, would you be interested in reading them?

Let me know as I'm completely obsessed with it all and have been for a while but I don't feel like it comes across on here. I spend 5 days a week in the gym/exercising so would love write about it more!


L xxx