Non Running...Project Life

This is a very different post for me and 100% nothing to do with running or fitness in general.

One of my other passions besides running and fitness is photography. Now I wouldn't call myself a 'photographer' but I know my way round a basic DSLR and I love to capture moments when I'm out and about with my iPhone. Despite moans from friends, family and my boyfriend when I want to take yet another photo, years down the line I know everyone loves to look back and this is why its so important to me to document my life. The downside of the wonders of today's technology, is the lack of physical documentation. For literally years I have intended to print out my best and most special photos and put them into albums, however life (and sometimes running) has always got in the way of this. Also, theres now so many photos to print the time and cost involved is a bit overwhelming.

I first discovered Project Life when I was watching Sprinkle of Glitter's YouTube video about it. It seemed like a really easy yet fun and creative way to put all my photos and other bits and bobs such as concert tickets & important receipts etc so I decided to do a bit more investigating.

I watched many many YouTube videos on Project Life but this one by Lily Pebbles and this one by One Busy Mommy as well as a bit of a peek on Pintrest really convinced me to give it a go. 

Its really simple as you use pocket inserts which reduces the time of sticking and gluing and theres lots of super cute pre printed cards you can buy to write captions and comments or just create a bit more interest. If like me you can't resist the treasure trove that is Hobbycraft then theres also scope to be a bit more creative with your album.

I'm really looking forward to physically documenting my year during 2015 and I've done a little YouTube video to document (favourite word at the moment apparently) starting my Project Life so feel free to give it a watch.

Let me know if you do Project Life or if you're thinking about starting one...

Happy Crafting (or running if crafting not your thing)

Holly

#thisgirlcan

As I type this its 3am and I can't sleep, so I decided to put this little bout of sleeplessness to good use and write a blog post I've been looking forward to writing.

If you've haven't seen it on the telly, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube...where have you been? Of course I'm talking about Sport England's video to launch their new campaign #thisgirlcan 

It launched in the Corrie (yes I'm a fan) ad break on Monday night and I can't stop watching it, I just LOVE IT. Now I just need to put down into words why I love it so much...

Its come whizzing along at just the right time for me. I decided that this year I'm going to try and love my body more, like many women (and men) I dedicate way too much time standing in front of the mirror prodding my belly fat, wondering which outfit is going to make me look my slimmest and worrying that just glancing at pizza on the menu is going to make me gain two stone. I then think about how far I have to run, how many lengths of the pool I need to do or how many 'hundreds' in Pilates I have to do to shed this two stone. I hate to think how many hours I waste daily with these negative thoughts. 

I'm ashamed to say that I don't always give much thought to the fact that my body, in the last year alone, has completed countless 15 hour shifts up and down stairs, taken me round lots of new and exciting places and seen me through a marathon! My body supports me every day and still manages to carry on when I've put it to the ultimate test, why am I disrespecting it by hating it? Its making me cross with myself just typing it. 

This advert just highlighted this for me. It tells us to not be ashamed of the body we've got but to use it to help us stay active and healthy. When I look at the women on the advert, I'm not repulsed by what I see. They make me smile and feel lucky that I've chosen to lead a healthy active lifestyle and that its ok not to be 'perfect'. My body is very similar to many of the women in the video, I don't think their bodies are something to be ashamed of so why do I think mine is? 

I've been trying to get a more positive mind set since the new year but this campaign has given me the boost to put my whole mind (and body behind it).

My other new years fitness resolution is to just enjoy exercise for fun and the way it makes me feel rather than focusing on weight loss. I enjoy running, swimming, pilates and yoga so much more when  I'm doing it because I want to. I need to remember how much more positive I am if I focus on how  workout makes me feel rather than how it makes me look. 

Seeing all the happy faces reminded me of how fun exercise can and should be, I know that I will be hitting my YouTube app when I'm having a down moment and this video will boost me right back up to where I want to be.

Last but not least, this video shows us that exercise is for everyone. Whether you're young, old, slim, curvy, like to shake it in Zumba with your friends or enjoy the solitude of powering up a hill on your own. Membership to this club is free and anyone can join (even you boys, you rock too)!

So if you haven't already seen the #thisgirlcan video, please give it a watch. I hope you enjoy and feel inspired by it as much as I am. The song along make me want to kick ass!

#thisgirlcan #thisgirldoes #andsocanyou

Love exercise, love your body, spread that love...

Holly

x

Jantastic 2015 & Feeling Positive

Happy New Year 2015 everyone!

I'm pleased to report that I'm starting 2015 feeling extremely motivated and positive and in a lot better head space than when I last posted.

To give a bit of background, at the beginning of December I was offered the opportunity to step up to a management position at work on a temporary basis, it turned out that this step was actually a gigantic leap into a freezing lake...well ok not quite but at least thats what it felt like at the time. I felt like I'd bitten off more than I could chew and started to feel very disillusioned. 

Another area of my life that I felt disillusioned by at the beginning of December was running. Looking back at my 2014 running year, its hard to understand why I felt like this. I ran the London Marathon in April, a goal I'd been working towards for 3 years. To top this off, I ran it in well under my target of 5 hours, coming in at 4 hours, 43 minutes and 34 seconds. That should have been it surely? If I wasn't in love with running by then, then running the London bloody Marathon should have made me fall hook line and sinker. To tell the truth I was in love, but like all good relationships, running and I hit a rocky patch.

I was expecting to recover within a couple of weeks and then be able to run half marathons (I was at least trying to be a little bit realistic) at the drop of a hat. Wrong! I ran about 529.4 miles in 2014, but only 70 of these miles were post marathon. I wasn't in pain as such but my whole body felt like lead, my brain was telling me to stop and my heart wasn't in it. I ran a few races in this time, hoping in vain that my mojo would return. I even said it did a few times in an effort to fool myself.

One positive to come out of this was discovering Pilates. I discovered a new way to exercise, learnt a lot about my body and how this could help me with running. I now take regular classes at The Pilates Pod and is an avenue I'm intending to continue travelling down in 2015. However I was still determined to get back to running.

I've always been a goal orientated person and with hindsight I think having achieved my end goal of running a marathon, I had nothing left to aim for. There wasn't anything left to run towards so I just ambled off (slowly and not very far) into nothing. Cue a little event called Advent Running. 

I first learnt of Advent Running through a few runner friends from UKRunChat who were talking a lot about run streaks (where you commit to running for a certain number of days in a row). The aim of Advent Running was to run every day between the 1st and 25th December. With a desire to get back into running and a love of all things festive I decided to sign myself up. On saying this, having not had much success with finding my mojo in other events I did not have high hopes. However I think not having a huge expectation and not putting pressure on myself actually helped.

Having a goal set that wasn't surrounded by times and distances was the best thing that could have happened to my running. I still had something to aim for whilst removing the pressure of 'having' to do a certain distance or time which I had been bound by during marathon training. For the first time I just ran for fun and to keep fit, the reason I started running back in 2012 in the first place. Pretty much from day one my mojo was back and this time I wasn't kidding myself. 

As I said before I was finding work quite stressful and having something else to focus my energy on really helped. Whenever I hash tagged runforsanity I wasn't kidding!

Equally as exciting as the return of my mojo was finding a whole new community of runners through the Facebook group (isn't the internet flipping' wonderful sometimes). Seeing people's posts and hearing their stories really inspired me to keep getting out there day after day and really brought back meaning to my running. I love being able to share my passions with people and see them grow, improve and simply just enjoy the experience. It reminded me that at the end of the day, its not all about distance, split times and calories burned...its about just running and also thats its ok to do just that. It felt like an adventure (advent-ture...sorry) again. 

If something made me run just over 50 miles in a month compared to 70 miles in 7 months then its got to be doing something right!

I'm so happy to be able to say that it doesn't end there, we all enjoyed Advent Running so much that we're taking in through to January and taking on Jantastic for the next three months. As I logged on to the website today to make sure I'd set my goals I got a tingle of excitement for the upcoming months of achieving fitness goals and watching my fellow Advent Runners do the same. 

Running is for life, not just for Christmas...thank you my fellow Advent Runners and new buddies for reminding me of this. I literally can't wait to start Jantastic, January 5th is the new January 1st. 

Holly

x