It gets to that time of year again when all the holidays turn into a reason to eat a little more sugar and a lot more carbs. And I know people tend to ditch their hard work they made for the summer for bikini season, I tend not to waver from my fitness routine and yes it’s a lot harder to find motivation in the winter with the cold and the darker mornings and night, but its no reason to ruin all your hard work for the summer and it just means that next year when everyone is slaving away in the gym to rectify the damage they did to once again get “the perfect bikini body” you can not exactly sit back and relax but not slave drive yourself as much as everyone else.
So my first step is to find the motivation to actually want to workout, which even I fall victim to every now and again but just think the more you do now the less you have to do later. I started my motivation by setting myself a challenge so the end of 2016 I started working out 6 days a week and I thought what if I did this for a year as my new years resolution, and I usually suck at new years resolutions especially this year really did not stick to it. But that year I thought no I actually want to make an effort to try and make the whole year and even though it was hard to stick with travelling I did manage to make the whole year and it made me feel 100% better and from there I just carried on 6 days a week no matter how much or how little a workout I managed that day, all that mattered is that I did it and I did it so much it just became a natural routine to me, so much I’m on my second consistent year of 6 days a week, and I don’t tens to think of it as a chore anymore.
I was always that person that hated working out, I always felt no matter how much I did it never really made an impact on me and I was always conscious of doing too much and injuring myself. But trust me just find what you actually enjoy or start off small and work towards adding more pressure to yourself and your body, and if something is too much just stop take a minute then try again, just because someone else can do it for longer doesn’t mean that you have to. I was always that person that thought they could do way more than me, why can’t I do that? So when I first started to workout I tried lots of different ways of working out: Pilates, kickboxing, Yoga, running, HIIT, and I found that I enjoyed Pilates the most and I could see the most results, especially when you change the types of workouts you do, never stick to the same routine everyday otherwise your body becomes too familiar to what you’re doing and it’ll take you a lot longer to see results. And if I’m honest I still have a little while off where I want to be with my body but the more diversity within Pilates that I put into my workouts the more results I tend to see on my body. After a year of doing Pilates and a little bit of strength training I’ve tried more ways other than Pilates, my most recent new favourite workout choice is HIIT (high intensity interval training) it just adds that extra bit of cardio on top of the usual strength and lengthening my body is used to.
Now this is the fun part, I am definitely a culprit for buying workout gear, so much so that I’d go into Victoria’s secret with my sister and she’d avoid taking me into the room where they kept leggings and sports bras (insert hand over eye emoji here). The main brands I tend to lean towards are usually Victoria’s secret, Nike and Alo yoga. When buying workout wear I tend to stick to light sports bras and leggings (mainly high leg with some sort of mesh details), I do own some high intensity training sports bras but I hardly ever use it unless I’m doing a lot of intense cardio which is not ever my go to choice. Alo is mainly based for yoga workouts so its very soft and tight fitting items perfect for your yoga (obviously and Pilates). Victoria’s secret is a good all round it’s got high intensity workout gear and low impact, which is mainly why I tend to gravitate towards them the most. Nike is definitely higher impact based for your running but they do make some pretty great leggings if you want an investment.
My usual workout schedule:
Monday: Pilates – arms, abs, legs, bum (full body work out)
Tuesday: Pilates – inner thighs, defining arms, lower abs (individual targeting)/ HIIT 20 min
Wednesday: HIIT – 15 min fat burning
Thursday: Kickboxing/cardio Pilates – alternate between 4 different workouts every week
Friday: Pilates – muscle lengthening and definition (full body)/ HIIT low impact cardio
Saturday: Rest day (with an occasional 3mile walk)
Sunday: Pilates – inner and outer thighs, 15min abs, arms
