Fitness Tips

Seeing as it’s that time of year when the sun comes out a little bit more (hurray for spring!) and I’ve recently started taking exercise a bit more seriously, I thought I’d share some of my tips for things that have improved my performance over the last few years. I’m by no means a pro, but I enjoy going to the gym and being active, it makes me feel a whole lot happier and I find it a good way of dealing with anxiety. I’m currently focussing on trying to get my 5K time down from 28 minutes to 24, so any training tips would be more than welcome!

Music

Personally a good playlist is my main motivator. If I’m not enjoying the track I’m listening to it will distract me from my run, and annoy the hell out of me until I change the song. I like listening to music that makes me laugh or want to dance. I once had a playlist with ‘It’s Not Unusual’ by Tom Jones which came on whilst I was plugging away on the cross-trainer. I’m glad I didn’t have my contact lenses in that day, no awkward eye-contact after pissing myself laughing. On my own. With headphones in. At a busy gym full of students. But it was a fun workout, and it certainly energised me.


Current favourite running tracks:

• Lethal Bizzle - Police On My Back (you can pretend you’re running away from the police)
• The Streets - Fit But Don’t You Know It 
• Outkast - Bombs Over Baghdad (instant energiser)
• TRex - I Love To Boogie
• Fatboy Slim - That Old Pair Of Jeans
• Mark Ronson ft. Amy Winehouse - Valerie 
• Desmond Dekker & The Acres - Israelites
• Jay-Z & Linkin Park - Numb Encore 
• Foo Fighters - Wheels
• Hot 8 - Sexual Healing

A decent sports bra
Enough said. Any ladies will know how much of a difference a bra that fits you just right can make to any given day. Same goes for exercise: I want something that will keep them in place but not restrict my movement or cut off blood flow to my tits. I currently own a really comfy and relatively cheap Nike sports bra that does a mighty fine job. 


Wiccy Magic Muscles
Since I've started running more, this massage bar has become my new best friend. The clove oil and cinnamon really gets to work stimulating blood flow, and the peppermint oil has a lovely cooling effect on well-used muscles. The brown bits in it are aduki beans, which also give a nice texture to massage with. And it leaves my skin feeling soft and moisturised. Yes please. 

Variety
I’m very much a routine kinda gal. I like the comfort of repetition - it makes me feel less anxious knowing that I’ve already done what I’m doing before, and therefore the chance of something going wrong less likely. (I know this might sound crazy to some people, but it is how it is!) But I also get bored easily of a routine. Over the last four years I’ve done various classes and activities: running, yoga, belly-dancing, cardio at the gym, hulahooping, weight training (small weights mind!) but I tend to do one at a time very rigidly rather than mix it up. I know this isn’t effective. At my peak of physical fitness I was doing a combination of small weights, cardio and hulahooping, and it was varied enough to keep me focussed and happy. I’m trying to get back to that happy place, where I’m doing several different activities a week to help my fitness progress, without losing interest in what I’m doing.

Top Five Lush Favourites

1.Eau Roma Toner Water 

I never really understood the point of toners. What is toning? Why is it something I need to do? I figured it was another bullshit marketing ploy. Boy was I wrong. Lush's toner waters are blended with essential oils; Eau Roma Toner is blended with lavender and rose oil. Rose - if you didn't already know - is great for reducing redness (which I have lots of... Thanks for the genes Ma & Pa!) and lavender is great for healing scars and balancing oil production. So it makes my skin feel lovely jubbly. Toners act as a moisturiser for the deeper layers of the skin, and help prepare new skin so it grows lovely and healthily. These are also wicked for the summer, simply to cool down your skin whilst adding lots of minerals and nutrients. Delicious!

2. Twilight Bath Bomb

I always thought I didn't like lavender that much. It reminds me of older ladies, and those scented bags you get to put inside your pillow. But the lavender in Twilight is blended with Tonka (comes from the same family as vanilla) which gives it this lovely sweet edge, and kind of reminds me of malted milk biscuits. Plus it's a beaut in the water, you can’t go wrong with a nice hot bath. 

3. HQ perfume

Simple. So I can smell like Lush all day long every day. This is a limited edition perfume that I got from the pop up perfume gallery in London last year which was AMAZING. Unfortunately there's no link to prove this one's existence as it's only available from the founding Lush shop in Poole.

4. Ultrabland/Herbalism

I've slightly cheated by putting these two together as they are indeed separate products… but I love them equally, and on a daily basis I rarely use one without the other. 

Herbalism doesn't smell great, if I’m honest. It smells medicinal which I think the rice vinegar and witch hazel have something to do with, but it works wonders on my skin. I tend to get a lot of spots on my chin so I need something to maintain healthy oil production and prevent breakouts. On the whole the rest of my skin is fairly dry, so i do use a really creamy moisturiser after this (Celestial if you’re interested.) Initially I had reservations about using Herbalism because I thought it was mainly for acne-prone oily skin. But I love how clean it makes my skin feel, and generally my skin is a lot clearer these days. Nice one Herbalism!

Ultrabland is a really simple concoction of beeswax and rose infusion amongst other lovely ingredients. I tend to use this one to take off my makeup at the end of the day, as I wear a heck of a lot of eye makeup and need something heavy duty to take it off. It feels quite oily, sort of like rubbing butter on your face, but if you take it off properly with hot water and cotton pads or a flannel it shouldn't make your skin greasy.

5. R&B Hair Moisturiser

I'm not going to lie, when I first saw this I had two reservations. One being the price tag, and the other being that I don't have afro-carribean hair. However I sampled it after how much everyone else raves about it, and I was rather impressed.

R&B smells absolutely delicious, and you only need a teeny tiny weeny little bit, so actually it isn't that expensive when you consider how long a whole pot will last - my sample lasted me weeks! Bear in mind it's also not a product you need to use every day. It helps with managing the amount of hair I have, and tame my curls when they escape. 

So what have I learned from my Lush fave's?  Try things even if you're not sure that they're made for you. I'd gotten so used to boxing myself in my different skin/hair types - because that's how lots of shops market their products, e.g. " This conditioner is for dry hair. This moisturiser is for sensitive skin." Try breaking away from those constrictions, as you might find something you really like. Also skin and hair constantly change with weather, hormones, diet, stress (the list goes on!) so it's difficult to pin yourself down to one particular type; I think that’s why we end up saying ‘combination skin’. But everyone is different, and don’t knock something until you’ve tried it!