Fitness and Healthy Eating Routine

I'm doing a bit of a different post today. You guys probably won't know but in May I am actually running a 10K race in support of a charity, the charity I'm running for is The Olivia Rae Foundation. This charity is really close to my heart as it's was founded after the unfortunate passing of my best friend Olivia, her parents set up this charity as Livvy was really involved in the arts and this foundation supports projects in the arts in the local community. I will be doing another more in depth post about the charity later because it really is amazing!

So today I'm going to do a bit more of a fitness post, as attempting to run a 10k for someone who doesn't normally run will be a bit of a challenge but it'll give me something to look towards and hopefully it'll start me on the track to running more often because I've started to realise that I actually really like it.


I'll start of with the fitness side of it, I've started running in preparation for the 10K. I started on a Monday and run every other day, on the 'rest days' I still try to do some form of exercise. On the days where I run, I run for roughly 45-60 minutes as I am lucky to live 5-10 walk from the beach. I briskly walk down to the beach and the stretch once I reach it, I then run for 2-3 minutes and briskly walk for 1. I find this effective for me personally it also helps because I am new to running. I rarely go running without my ipod as I find I push myself further when I'm listening to music as I don't get as bored doing it. I try as run till I start to get tired or it starts to get too dark or my dog starts to get tired. I also walk my dog once a day for about 20-25 minutes (don't worry he gets more than one walk, we take it in turns).


On my 'rest days' I do activities like walking my dog, I do this once a day for 20-25 minutes. I also do my Pump It Up DVD, I try to do the warm-up and cool down as well as 3 out of the 5 workout sections. I also like to do a lot of household chores, your probably thinking what? You do household chores to burn calories! You can actually burn calories doing housework. For instance I'll try and hoover the whole house in one go, with having a dog and cat that is quite a task, stripping and making all the beds. Little things like that where I'm still burning calories but also being productive as well.


Now for the 'diet' side, I don't specifically diet or follow any diet. My 'diet' isn't a diet it's a change of lifestyle, a change of what I ate. This is what works for me and my body and my condition. Yes I have an invisible condition, to do with my blood. I am actually B12 deficient, now there are different types you can be and I will do a bigger post on my 'condition' later but for this post all your need to know is that my body doesn't carry B12 in my blood and doesn't absorb it from my food, therefore I have to have injections for it and to make sure I try and eat food that contains B12 in them.


On a usual day I try to follow this basic plan. I try to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with two snacks, one between breakfast and lunch and the other between lunch and dinner. For my snacks I try to stick to snacks that are 200 calories or under, for the rest of my meals I try to stick to healthy options. For instance if I crave pizza I will make my own (so I can control exactly what is in it) but I will pair it with a salad. I love using Sweet Chilli sauce as a dressing and topping to give it that extra flavour and the one that I bought from tesco's is only 56 calories for 2 tablespoons and i generally use less than that! I am also a HUGE chicken person, I don't often eat a lot of red meats, only occasionally when I have spaghetti bolognese. I eat chicken after I been running especially for the protein. I also eat a lot of fruit and have recently got into eating salads as well. I try and stick to having some protein, carbs, veg and dairy at meals but more so with my evening meals.


With the snacks I did a lot of research as to different snacks that are 200 calories or under and healthier. I'll list a few that I like:

• Apple slices with peanut butter and banana slices with peanut butter.
• If I'm craving something salty e.g. crisps I'll have a handful of salted pretzels or a small bowl of salted popcorn.
• If I fancy something sweet I'll have half a tube of smarties or 1-2 squares of dark chocolate.
• I buy frozen fruit as well as fruit for use in smoothies or for desserts/breakfast as I find they last way longer, therefore there's no sudden rush to eat them.
• I eat granola with yoghurt as a snack as well as for breakfast, I just half the portions.
• I love picking up fresh fruit when I'm out rather than buying a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps or some pop.

These are some of the things that work best for me and my body in particular. I am in no way a dietitian or nutritionist, I am just saying what personally works for my body and my lifestyle, before you undergo anything like this it's best to sit down, think about it and plan it out. You need to think 'Can I commit to having 3 set meals a day or will my job get in the way?!' 'Can I commit myself to running 3/4 days a week and still doing exercises on my rest days?' If your saying no to questions like these, you need to sit there and do research, try different things out till you can figure out which questions you can actually say yes to!


I will be doing more fitness posts and more posts about my 10K journey I might even film some vlogs along the way when I'm running (well when I stop for a break!) but I just thought I'd put it in here for a break from all the beauty stuff all the time! I will be spreading these posts out, possibly one every two weeks as it's only 3 months till the actual race! Nerves!!!!


What do you guys do to stay fit? Don't forget your fabulous no matter what you look like!