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This morning I was up at 6am and out of the door by 6.30 for my Wednesday morning run. I did 6.4 miles in 58 minutes with an average pace of 9.01 and it was tough! It was grey, drizzly and very windy outside, and it took every bit of my will power and motivation to get myself out that door.

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It really got me thinking about motivation and how day after day I still manage to exercise, dragging my arse out of bed to run 10 miles, going to the gym after work when sometimes all I want to do is go home and veg in front of the TV.

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The key thing that keeps me going is how exercise makes me feel – I know that before and during exercise things might be tough, but I know that afterwards I’m going to feel pretty awesome.

Me after my first outdoor run in months back in Feb, feeling great!

Luckily I usually look forward to my workouts but when I don’t I’ve developed a few techniques to help when even the thought of feeling great afterwards isn’t enough:

• For early morning runs or workouts having all my kit laid out ready really seems to help. That way I can just get up, have some lemon and warm water and something to fuel up with and then I’m straight out. If my butt hits the sofa to chill out I’m more likely not to move!
• Make an awesome playlist – I know that some people prefer to workout without music but for me its essential. If I have a long run or workout ahead then I like to make up a really interesting and random playlist for my shuffle iPod – I then quite look forward to seeing what tune is going to come up next!
• Thinking of breakfast (or your next meal). I just can’t help it, but while I’m exercising I like to dream up my next meal, I especially like to think up awesome smoothie mixes! I have been known to run faster just to get home and be able to make it! For some reason food just tastes so good after a tough workout!
• My inspiration board – you can see my current inspiration board, as well as lots more inspiration on my Pinterest page. My vision for myself as a happy healthy fit person includes working out. Reminding myself of the person that I’m striving to be and the life that I’m striving to have helps to get me moving!
• Set yourself SMART goals – In case you haven’t came across SMART before it stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time scaled. I like to set myself goals each month – this works well for me as it suits my personality. For example my goal this month is to increase my running distance to 12 miles. I know its specific, its measurable, I know that its achievable and realistic and I’ve said I like to do it by the end of the month. Knowing that feeling of achievement when I have completed my goal really helps. I also find that signing up for races is great motivation for running – I have the Great North Run and Great North 10K coming up!
• Be flexible / change your plans – For example, the other day my training plan had me running speed intervals on the treadmill. The very thought of running them while feeling a bit under the weather was horrendous! Instead of blowing off the whole workout I decided to just change my plans and run steady state instead. Sometimes I have been due to run outdoors but have gymed it instead or other times I have decided to do yoga rather than a strength workout.
• Know your limits and listen to your body – Sometimes not wanting to workout can be a sign of overtraining or illness, that’s the point when you need to say I’m actually going to be causing myself more harm than good by working out and take a rest, and not feel guilty for it.

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One thing I am working on is not using negative associations for motivation, i.e. the fear of getting fat again if I don’t workout, or working out just to burn calories, as for me I don’t think that’s a healthy way of thinking.

What motivates you to exercise? Do you have any more motivational tips and tricks you’d like to share?

It was so hard to get out of bed this morning, why is it that on a Saturday and Sunday morning I'm awake at 6 and can't get back to sleep and then on a week day I feel like I could stay in bed forever!

I kicked off the day with a mug of warm water and the juice of half a lemon which always makes me feel all squeaky clean inside! I then made up a lovely green monster with spinach, frozen banana, vanilla rice milk, a teaspoon of maca powder and a couple of tablespoons of oats all blended together. I decided it was thick enough to indulge in my smoothie in a bowl addiction so I poured it in and sprinkled with grape nuts for crunch.


I got into work really early and started to tackle my ever increasing to do list. This morning we had a meeting at our local Italian cafe. The last time we had a meeting there we followed it with lunch and I ended up eating a giant pizza and slice of cake which left me feeling awfully full (and guilty) for the rest of the day. I was determined not to let that happen again! During the meeting I kept to green tea and just had just one Mocha. I also snacked on an apple.


For lunch I went with a small bowl of Pea and Mint Soup (skipping on the bread) and the Greek Salad with feta, mixed leaves, red onion, tomato, red pepper and cucumber which was on the menu as a starter, but I asked if I could have a bigger portion and have that as my main.


I took a quick snap of these with my phone so apologies for the rubbish quality. They were both really delicious, the pea and mint soup was so creamy. I think I might try making my own at the weekend if I have time. Very glad I managed to avoid a major face stuffing session whilst still really enjoying what I ate!

Before leaving work for the gym I had one of my home made fuel bars.


I had a great workout at the gym doing all my May Training Plan resistance levels and speed targets during my intervals on the treadmill, step machine, cross trainer and bike. I did a total of 1 hour cardio and then did 3 sets of my abs exercises. I'm definitely getting better at holding my plank pose too!

For dinner I made myself up a egg white spelt wrap and filled it with spinach, turkey and hummus. I love this combo! Plus the wrap packs that extra protein punch to keep me full. I served it with some cucumber and carrot sticks and a little more hummus for dipping.


Desert was a bowl of chocolate protein goo (a scoop of chocolate whey mixed with vanilla rice milk into a thick gooey paste) with some added desicated coconut to add a bit more flavour.


Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, Mocha

Last night I finally finished my inspiration board! While I was going through all of the pages of stuff I had torn from old magazines I started to realise that this inspiration board was going to be wider than just my health and fitness related goals. I think this is now more of an inspiration board for my life at the moment including fashion, interior, travel and health and fitness / body inspirations.


What do you think?

I got all the pieces laid down and went to start sticking them in place when I realised that my glue stick had dried up on me, so I just took plenty of photos to use instead. I've actually taken the photograph and made it my desk top background on my laptop so I can see it on a regular basis.

Hope you like it! Have you ever used an inspiration board before? I'm quite a visual person so this kind of thing is great for me, plus it gives me an excuse to keep buying magazines! x

Thanks for all your comments to my last post, glad you liked my inspiration board, I'll let you all know if it helps to keep me motivated!

I started the day with a cup of green tea and then got straight into my Davina Superbody Super Sculpt workout. I love doing this workout, I really feel like I've been worked hard. I used some of my heavier dumbbells again today for one of the sections for some extra burn!

Breakfast was a bowl of porridge made with equal parts oats and quinoa flakes. I just made it with some water in the microwave and added a scoop of vanilla whey, some defrosted frozen blueberries and a spoonful of almond butter.


The almond butter went all melty, yum!

I was famished by the time lunch came round. I had a quick salad using up the last of my turkey with cos lettuce, carrot, cucumber and red onion and a dressing made from slightly watered down hummus (which worked really well).


I followed that with a bunch of red grapes, these were really sweet and delicious today.


As I was working a bit late tonight I decided to make my mid afternoon snack a bit bigger than usual to keep me going until I got home. I had four savory rice cakes with savory cottage cheese (cottage cheese mixed with a teaspoon of nutritional yeast) and an apple.


After my late night meeting I just wanted a fairly light dinner so I had a bowl of Carrot and Beetroot Soup


Followed by a big bowl of frozen raspeberries with vanilla rice milk and an apple


...and I've just went and had a handful of pecans and the last of a jar of applesauce (about two tablespoons). Why is it that the snackies are so totally random? I think I'm going to have a scoop of chocolate whey with some skimmed milk to try and fill me up and leave me a bit more satisfied. I always seem to feel extra snacky during the week before my TOTM so I'm not going to worry too much, plus my dinner wasn't exactly huge.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea, decaf coffee

As I had a few questions in the comments to yesterdays post I thought I would finish off writing my page on my food philosophy. My 'Food for Thought' page can be found on the right hand side of the blog. I've tried to give a bit of an over view as to why I eat what I do, for example, why I tend to avoid eating too much bread, rice and pasta. Hopefully you will find it interesting and informative! x