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It is absolutely ridiculous how lack of food affects my mood. The other day I was so busy that I did not have time to stop and have lunch. I felt myself becoming more and more cranky to the point that I started developing road rage. I guess this was my indicator that I had to stop and fuel my body. It is just so unbelievable that missing one meal can have a such a negative impact on your day! So, make sure that you fuel up your bodies!

So last Monday I decided to put my willpower into practice. My car had to go to the garage and it had to be picked up. I guess the easiest option of getting there would have been taking a bus or even better taking a taxi. Yet, despite the fact that I did not feel particularly motivated to do any cardio on that day, I decided to run to the garage. Please bear in mind that I don’t usually run and I was not really aware how far the garage was. I just wanted to check out if my le...gs would be capable of running longish distances. As I began to descend down the hill outside my gate I started thinking that this run was maybe not such a good idea after all, but I kept saying to myself that whatever happens just keep on moving. And just like that, 7.55 km later, I arrived at the garage, happy with my little achievement and relieved that I didn’t have to run back home. I even got myself a little trophy - a garden plant from B&Q! I am curious to know if you ever put your willpower to test?
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I choose willpower every time because getting motivated will fail you when you’re tired, in a bad mood, or feeling down for whatever reason. It is a strategy inherently dependent on how you feel, which is why it will work wonderfully sometimes and fail miserably other times. The lie people believe is that they’re doing something wrong when it doesn’t work. The great news is that there’s nothing wrong with you if you can’t get motivated on a particular day for whatever reason. The problem isn’t with you, it’s with thinking that you can simply turn on motivation like a switch at any time.

Walk number 6 this week! Usually I would try to get out of walking my doggies by day 3 or 4! I guess in the past I did not really see walking my doggies as a very effective way of improving my fitness, but guess what - I have figured out that even a simple walk can be used in a progressive way to build my fitness level up! So, every single day I am setting small progressive goals for myself and my doggies like walking longer distances, walking faster, and exploring new place...s to walk with more walking intervals. Sometimes we are just on a mission to explore new areas and we are in the zone, not really realising that we have walked for 2 hours!!! What’s there not to like?! I am spending time in nature with my doggies, not only being kind to my body but also getting progressively fitter without much thinking and effort! By doing this I am developing my own base level of conditioning which will help me to increase my tolerance for more intense training. Now I am curious to know if you use any of your day to day activities in a creative way to improve your fitness level?
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In actual fact there is nothing wrong with wanting to change your body shape. It might come to you as a surprise that being body positive does not stop you from setting up body related goals. However, the way you go about it is completely different! How? Firstly, you will never have to diet again and punish your body. You will be able to say goodbye to the calorie counting, restrictive food bans and other forced behaviours. With me you will learn how to lose weight naturally and fully accept yourself, which in turn will help you to achieve your body related goals!!! So, if you are somebody who is fighting your own body and brain, please stop now!!! The truth is that your brain will resist any dramatic behavioural shift, which explains why most dieters lose weight in the short term only to gain it all back when the body adjusts.

What is your relationship with food like?

I am somebody who, as long as I can remember, has always struggled with an overly rigid exercise routine. Somehow I always thought that changing the way I worked out would have a negative impact on my body. So, I would try to keep my workout regime the same all of the time - obviously my previous regime only served to punish my body! Everything else -my friends, other activities or my time with my family would have to be fitted around that regime! The regime was the most impo...rtant thing! It felt like if the regime was not being followed something bad would happen. It is sad to think that in the past, my negative body image had stopped me from exploring or discovering wonderful activities, such as paddle boarding, which actually bring balance into my life and enhance my relationship with my body! Can you relate to that? Are you somebody who struggles with making changes to your exercise routine?
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If you don’t immediately answer “Great!” with a smile—don’t worry, you’re not alone - I sometimes feel like that too!⁣ ⁣ When I feel negative about my body, instead of going back to weight and image based goals I try to set myself different kinds of challenge. Some of them work well while some of them don’t make any difference. I guess it is trial and error!!! This week I have decided to take on a difficult, but potentially impactful and rewarding, one-week challenge. If you ...want to join me follow these steps:⁣ ⁣ 1. Keep track of how many times you hear someone talking to you about dieting or weight.⁣ 2. If someone tries to draw you into a conversation about weight or dieting, change the topic or find an excuse to leave the conversation.⁣ 3. Think about what you are saying to other people and keep focused. If you find yourself talking about weight or dieting change the topic.⁣ 4. Tell other people about your personal challenge and encourage them to give it a go too.⁣ 5. At the end of the week, tally up how many times you heard someone talking negatively about their body and how many times (if at all) you talked negatively about your own body.⁣ 6. Consider whether you feel better about your body after a week without negative body talk. You may like to take the challenge for a second week to see if you can improve your focus.⁣ ⁣ Are you with me?
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Who says that exercises cannot be fun? So, put fun back into your exercise routine! I love doing silly exercises - here I am testing out how many resistance bands I can use to do side band walks! What a great warm up for my glutes, hips and thighs. This simple warm up exercise not only strengthens your gluteus maximus, medius and minimus but also stabilises your knees and hips! Try it for yourself, I dare you!!!

Why not take the chance to take part in something new? ⁣ ⁣ I am looking for a volunteer who is interested in taking part in my body positivity programme. Ideally, should be somebody who is based around Inverness and is available to pop in to my gym once per week for a period of four weeks - the starting date at the beginning of August? If you are interested in being my guinea pig you will not only get 4 Personal Training sessions free of charge, but you will also get access to online resources which will help you to track your progress and fine tune your relationship with your body. The online resources are going to be tailored to your individual needs! What I am looking for in return is your commitment, honest feedback and testimony for my website and Facebook. If you are interested drop me a message!

Could throwing yourself into a new activity bring inner happiness and improve your body positivity?⁣ ⁣ In my case my adventure with paddle boarding, which just has begun, brought a mix of joy and frustration into my life. My idea of introducing doggies to a paddle board did not exactly go according to plan. In my head all my dogs would love sitting on the board and enjoy their ride with me. In reality, although they spent some time with me on the board they were going absol...utely berserk! They were on and off the board, scratching my legs and making squeaky noises because they were overexcited - it was absolute madness! Here Flossy, who I think looks just like Rod Stewart, decided to jump off the board and swim to the shore just to turn back and try to jump back on the board again! To make things worse there was a group of people standing at the shore and enjoying Flossy’s performance, especially because she was trying to get me off balance - making me feel self-conscious! On the flip side I have never laughed so much! So I am curious to know where this new adventure with paddle boarding will take me, especially because I am able to share it with my crazy doggies and my husband.
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The truth is that self care is hard and often does not feel good. Getting work done, doing your chores regularly, working out, eating healthy, getting enough sleep, all of these things are not fun to do but they are what is required to have good self care. The idea that self care means happiness and good feelings is less about instantaneous happiness and more about long term happiness and well being. Something that makes you feel good in the moment is not self care, it is indulgence. It is important that people remember that indulgence often hurts or sets back your self care. Self indulgence is esier to do than self care and the more you indluge the harder it becomes to stop.

I think it is fair to say that many of us are trying to discover on a daily basis what our bodies are really capable of. I, for example, started to look at how my body reacts to more gentle exercise. I focus more on developing my strength in a balanced way. My workout plans are developed to target every single muscle. There is a good balance of pull and push workouts. I also pay a lot of attention to good technique. This is really important to me as I want to be able to exer...cise until I am 90! Yet, despite the fact that I have changed my approach to fitness, food and my relationship with my body, I definitely think that I have just barely scratched the surface in terms of my understanding of my own body; knowledge of what makes makes my body really tick and how I can improve my endurance, strength, speed, power, flexibility , agility, balance and accuracy. I feel like my understanding of my body is constantly developing. I just love finding new ways of building a special relationship with it, where anything is possible with functional training, a guilt-free relationship with food, and body positivity. I am curious to know how you understand the mysteries of your own body?
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This behind-the-scenes shot shows my doggies getting trained to go on a paddle board. Flossy is definitely picking up the commands very quickly and loves sitting on top of the board. She is certainly a natural SUP dog. The other two are not so sure about it. They take their time and drag their paws when you ask them to go on it. I guess it’s the same with humans - some of us take to a new activity like fish to water while others can find it a little bit difficult and nerve racking!

I think that some of the best-selling books of our time are self-help books and there is nothing wrong with that. I am somebody who actually loves reading self help books! However, while people lose themselves in a sea of advice, suggestions, routines and “hacks”, they also lose sight of the fact that no amount of information will change this simple fact: in order to succeed or improve in any area of your life you need to actually do something about the things you want to change! ⁣ ⁣ But think about it: Do you really need a book to tell you to stop eating 200 grams of sugar every day? Or to do something you’re passionate about? Or to stop engaging in body shaming? ⁣ ⁣

Over the years I have received varying advice about my diet, especially my protein intake, during the times when I was focused on losing fat or increasing my muscle mass. Today, after getting allergy tested, I found out that I am dairy and chicken intolerant! Part of the problem lies in the fact that there’s an overwhelming surplus of conflicting information about just what “clean”, healthy” eating really means. This information overload can leave us feeling confused, helpless, and completely out of touch with what’s actually good for our bodies. I say just stop dieting and start listening to your body! Your body constantly provides you with valuable feedback - you just need to be ready to listen to it!