Awesomefication - building strength takes guts!

I love positive,motivational quotes.  If I hear something that inspires me it becomes a mantra.  A friend shared a quote/question with me the other day and it is this: 'What would you do tomorrow if you knew you could not fail?' Source: Unknown Over the last week I have been taking stock of achievements and contemplating future goals and this quote got me thinking.  Is it the fear of failure that stops most people from setting and achieving goals? So often I hear people say “What’s the point? I’m not going to get it”, "I can't do it!", "I'm not being negative, I'm just being realistic", "If I think the worst then anything better will be a bonus".   It is such a negative attitude to have.  If you think you are going to fail before you even start then that fear becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.  Whether it’s a job you are applying for, a new experience you fancy trying, a major life change, anything; if you start off

It has been just over a week since I finished with fight camp.  After it finished I was totally up for stepping up the exercise regime and attacking every class I could get to.  But of course, the plan never quite went off as I had hoped.  Life got in the way, I had a wedding at the weekend which I was rushing about getting stuff for and work was quite hectic so I only managed to squeeze in two sessions.  I’m having serious withdrawal.  I am missing the structure and routine of the early morning workouts.  Don’t get me wrong, I have been enjoying the extra hour under my duvet, but I just don’t feel as energized through the day and have been relying on my coffee addiction to get me going in the mornings.  It has also been hard to get that same intensity during my workouts.  You take for granted how much the trainers encouragement during the sessions actually kept you going.  It is a totally different game going it alone.  Actually having to think about it and plan my exercise around my

So I had my final Fight Camp session yesterday morning.... boooo :(  6 weeks of early 5am rises, 24 hours worth of crazy training sessions, 10 million buckets of sweat, 20 bags of spinach, i've lost count of the amount of chickens, and a vat of  protein shakes later and I feel fit and fabulous! Every session was relentless and the setup continually evolved.  Even in the last session, the trainers were chucking new combinations and exercises at us (which included some jump kicks and jump knees which were much fun), continually pushing us until the very end.  The finisher was an absolute killer which involved a pack of cards (a very dodgy pack of cards which seemed to have way too many 10s in it) and a torturous amount of burpees, squat jumps and ab exercises.  My ab's are flinching just thinking about it! I've got mixed feelings with regard to the end of the camp.  I'm sad it is over.  As much as I was starting to struggle with the early mornings (one

Since I started my blog a lot more people have been approaching me and asking and talking about exercise and fitness.  It's mainly curiosity, folk wanting to know what I am doing that has me blasting away the inches.  What I have started noticing is the excuses people come up with to justify not exercising to themselves.  It's funny listening to them, because it is the same ones I used to use myself! So, I thought I would put together my top 5 excuses for not exercising and give you some tips on how to stop making excuses for not doing exercise and actually get exercising. #5 "I don't know what to do!" Not knowing what type of exercise you want to do, whether its with an aim to improve a certain aspect of your fitness, to target a problem area, getting into exercise for the first time, or for weight loss, figuring out where to start can be a stumbling point for anyone, especially if you haven't exercised in a while. The best thing I can suggest is

I'm a few days late with the update.  I was away in Fort William this weekend watching some nutters chuck themselves down a monutain on two wheels, also known as the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup. Which was full of thrills, spills and great fun.  Last week was a tough one.  We had Monday's Thai session as usual but Tuesday was our rest day, then had three days on the trot. Wednesday Thai, Thursday and Friday Strength and Conditioning.  Lots of bodyweight stuff, press-ups a go-go - my biceps are getting solid and were aching most of the weekend. Just completed the first session of the last and 6th week of Fight Camp.  I struggled this morning, but i'm putting it down to the weekend away.  There were no long lie's for Sara on Saturday or Sunday :( and my legs never got a chance to rest between hiking up an down Ben Nevis and standing about.  What I did notice as I was bounding up and down the mountain was that my legs felt much stronger and had more power in t

This week I have been on a bit of a high.  I've been walking around work with a perma-smile, which seems to have prompted some strange looks and questions from colleagues. Someone asked me the other day what I was smiling about, and I didn't actually know why.  I just felt good. Nothing out of the ordinary has happened to prompt such a good mood, just the same old really.  The only thing I can put it down to is exercise. So, as my mind often does once it has an idea, I felt the need to go and garner some knowledge on the topic and do some reading on the effect exercise has on the brain.  It made some very interesting reading (interesting to me at least! If you are bored easily you may want to switch off .... now!) Memory Did you know that exercise can actually help improve your memory?  Apparently, it triggers the creation of new neurons in the hippocampus (get me with my big words!), which is the brains centre for learning and memory.  Not only does it generate new neur