What you do today for yourself both mentally, physically and physiologically has a huge impact on your life tomorrow.

In the wise words of Zac Efron from his new series, Down to Earth he says; “We don’t like to think we are growing older even though we are constantly doing it”. When we are in our twenties and even thirties, we often feel a little too invincible to the real world and the happenings within us. We often neglect to remind ourselves of the importance of healthy aging which begins while we are young. Although our metabolisms are in it’s prime and we may not pick up weight as quickly or feel the effects of what we put into our body immediately, it is important to remember what we put into our body today will have an impact on it tomorrow. 

This is a topic that resonates with me and has been on my mind for a while now, too often I see friends or people I know of neglecting their health for which I can assume 4 reasons; 1. They are unaware of the importance in healthy eating and living 2. They are somewhat too lazy to try and make an effort on doing so 3. They think just one more won’t hurt (200 times over) 4. They don’t really believe the impact it will have on their life in a few years time.

In just over three months, I will officially be a qualified Sport Scientist and with that comes all the amazing knowledge I’ve learned over the years about health and wellness, the importance of exercise, eating well and the disadvantages of doing the opposite. Although it would be nice, we youngsters unfortunately don’t have a free diet pass, a healthy diet is so crucial at every age and if there was one thing I want this post to do, it is to to urge you to be mindful of the food you put into your body and maybe think twice before you have to decide between a cheesy pizza or a chicken salad! Living a disease free life is what the goal should be and this is how its done..

Your future self will thank you for it

This is probably the most important point I want to get across to you. We all know the saying  ‘prevention is better than cure’, If you are mindful of being healthy both mentally and physically now, you’ll be putting your body at less risk for health problems and diseases later on. Working out and eating healthy is more than just losing weight and ‘looking’ a certain way, if you are purposefully introducing healthier habits into your life your body will be able to function at it’s best and in turn, it will feel so much better in the long run. 

Eat right to have more energy

I am sure somewhere along the road you have heard of the term ‘brain food’. The brain is an organ that uses energy and takes about 20% of the body’s calories in order to function, that’s why it is so essential to ensure you are fueling it with the necessary foods. It also needs good whole foods to remain healthy, just like the rest of our body. 

Consuming foods that are full of nutrients, vitamins and minerals is vital in ensuring health whether it be brain health, gut health, heart health – it is all relevant and they are all interdependent, meaning they influence one another. Eating the right kinds of carbohydrates, fats and proteins will provide you with more energy throughout the day, you will be able to function for longer periods of time before feeling fatigued and your overall mental health will improve too.

You’ll feel better about yourself and attract healthier habits and people

It is no doubt that when you eat healthy, you feel healthy. When you are putting the right nutrients into your body and working out a bit more often than usual, you will begin to notice that your body will be able to perform efficiently and function a bit more adequately then usual.

Another part of your body that will thank you for it is your skin, remember what you put inside your body will show on the outside. If you are eating wholefoods and saying no to extra greasy and cheesy foods, your skin will start to relish. You will glow and in a few years time, your skin will reflect the healthy habits you began when you were younger.

Stretching

I don’t want to limit looking after yourself to just the foods you consume, simple things such as moisturising after the shower or doing 5 minutes of stretching every morning will all have a huge impact on you in the years to come.

Stretching has a wide variety of benefits for both the younger generations and older populations. Stretching when you are young can help prevent many injuries from occurring as you get older, and is also known to help prevent or minimise the risk of certain diseases such as arthritis. It helps maintain mobility and balance which are crucial the older you get, as it’ll prevent you from falling.

So as you can see, there are so many important reasons as to why you should look after yourself from a young age. Don’t do it for me, or your friends, you should do it for you because you love your body and you want to look after it so it can look after you the older you get.

In todays world, health is a term that is heavily controversial. There are so many debates as to what constitutes itself as ‘health’ and it is an ever changing phenomenon due to new discoveries, experiments, scientific evidence and own personal opinion.

Thats why I want to ask you, what is health to YOU? I know what it means to me, but that may not necessarily be the same as what it means to you. So, this is where we begin – it is so important to remember that there is no rule book to health, there is no road that takes us to the final destination. Health is, and will always be something that is acquired to ones own beliefs, morals, values and where they are at, in their life at the time. The meaning of health will constantly change as you go through the different phases of your life, when you are in your teenage years it may mean something completely different to you as to when you would be pregnant or fighting an illness.

The meaning of health should always be relevant to what you are wanting to achieve out of life. Whether that be to lose a few kgs or to prevent yourself from developing diseases as you get older and maintaining who you are now.

Health is NOT only based around fitness and intense activity. Health is so much more then that and thats what I want to talk about today; health but not in relation to exercise. I want to talk about health in relation to the inner workings of the body because you can assume fit and healthy on the outside but you have to understand that it all begins on the inside.

Gut health

I am almost sure you have heard the word ‘gut health’ been thrown around somewhere in this cyber world. You may have a good understanding of what it is or you may not, either way one of the main things you need to know is that it is important!

Good gut health impacts many things such as; gastrointestinal fitness, immune fitness, emotional health, cognitive functioning and your energy thus it is crucial in maintaining overall good body health. A healthy gut contains bacteria and immune cells that ward off many infectious diseases, help fight illness and even fungi. A healthy gut = a healthy digestive system. Good gut health helps to keep a balance between organs and hormones inside your body, which in turn will affect your health and well-being. So it is clear to say that your gut health influences your mental health and vice versa. When you have a balanced gut it is known as something called ‘equilibrium’, this is where the poor bacteria don’t have space to grow and and the good bacteria pave the way for them to do their jobs, ie. digest foods and ward off the evil.

The sad reality though, is that because we have easy access to fast food chains and that there is economic and pandemic stress it is easier and more common to find those living an unbalanced and sedentary life. Thus, in turn poor gut health is becoming more and more common in people.

Everything in your body is interdependent, meaning that everything influences each other one way or another. Thats why it is important to look after your inner-self just as much as your outer-self. So if your gut health is out of whack, so will how you feel, your well-being, mental health. You’ll feel lethargic and have digestive issues, maybe even symptoms of abdominal pain and bloating. These are all signs of an unhealthy gut. I would encourage you to be aware of how your body feels after eating food, pay attention to what you put into your body, notice if you are eating whole foods that are full of anti-oxidants, taking your daily vitamin C and omegas to look after your gut or are you eating greasy food that is cheap, mass produced and gives you temporary satisfaction which in turn contributes to the discomfort you may be experiencing. What you put into your body plays a major role in how your body functions which in turn will affect how you feel mentally and physically.

Mental health

I am an avid contender of mental health, as someone who has been into health and fitness for many years – I will always tell you that mental health should always become before physical health. Yes, there are known benefits of physical health improving your mental health but mental health is so much more then just dropping some squats, getting a jog in and calling it a day. Mental health is where you live, its the voice inside of your head constantly telling you, you can or can’t do it. Mental health is all about inner healing and constant self-development. It is wanting to work on you for the respect and love you have for yourself and your mind, to live a life where you never feel like you can’t achieve something.

Working on your mind is one of the most powerful and healthiest things you could do for yourself and I strongly encourage you to do it. There is no better feeling then waking up in the morning excited and inspired for the day to come, trust me because I have felt the opposite many of a time.

When I experienced one of the darker times of my life; I dwelled on everything, I felt sorry for myself, I threw many pity parties where the only person who showed up was myself. Until one day I realised that was just it, It is always going to be me at the end of the day, I am the only one who knows how I feel exactly, what I am going though intently and I am the only one in control of how I am going to change MY life for MYself. Other people are going to carry on with their lives, yes, if you are lucky you have incredible people supporting you and backing you but they are also living their own life and going through their own tribulations – they aren’t fixated on how you are feeling 110% of the time so YOU need to for yourself. After everything, you owe it to yourself to do such a thing. You just need to believe that you are worthy of so much more, because you are. And if you think that there is nothing ‘more’ then I can tell you my friend, you are wrong and thats where self-development comes in.

Self-development is a whole other world. It opens your mind to new perspectives and opinions, it helps you to see things in a light you never thought possible, it reminds you to focus on the things that are truly worth focusing on and in the midst of it all, you tend to see how you created mountains out of molehills. It truly is an incredible hobby to begin and its never too late, no matter how old or how young – you know how the saying goes, better late than never.

So I encourage you to focus on your health. Determine what it is exactly that health means to you and stick with it, make it your own. Work on that mindset, create amazing goals and get excited about life. It can only go up from here!

“You have to change your mind before you change the way you live and the way you move“

Before I started going to uni, exercise was a huge factor in my life. I worked out at least 5-6 times a week and thrived off it, but with uni comes sacrifices. Adjusting to the workload and the demands that were apparent made it difficult for me to try and balance my life accordingly, making time for things that I enjoyed such as working out. Luckily, I have found a routine that works for me that allows me to have time to fit in a sufficient workout, but I do know how difficult it can be to try and find time which is why I want to share with you what I do/did to remain active even when I can’t workout. With that said, this post isn’t just for those who are in university or school. This post is for everyone who lives a busy life too!

Walk

Walking really is a great way to burn a few extra calories and bring that heart rate up if you do a good amount of distance. Being a student we are basically stuck to our chairs at home or the seats in lecture halls, so I would highly recommend getting up and walking when you have a moment, even if it means walking to class rather than driving! Not only will it help in getting those limbs moving and circulation going, it also helps with your mental health. I find that being stuck inside the whole day really makes me go a bit crazy and often leaves me feeling overwhelmed, so going for a walk outside, getting some fresh air and taking in the surroundings is just as important to me along with getting a little sweat in!

Make the time

As a full time student, I know your time is limited and you may be shouting at me through your device saying “BUT I HAVE NO TIME” and although that may seem like a valid argument, it’s not. There is always time, you just have to make the time – not find it. If that means you have to wake up an hour earlier to get a 45 minute workout in, then that’s what you have to do. If it means having to sacrifice getting home an hour earlier, then what’s what has to be done. It’s difficult and there will be days where it’s easier to just sleep in or go straight home after a full day of uni but you’ll feel so much more productive once you’ve gone to gym and it’ll set you up on a positive note for the day ahead. I’ve personally never heard someone say they’ve regretted going to the gym even if it was difficult getting there! Always remember that you don’t even have to get yourself to the gym, some of the best workouts I do are home workouts that only take me 20 minutes. It’s important to move your body in any way!

Improvise

If you’re at home and have enough time to fit in a workout but don’t have enough time to get to the gym and back, improvise! Find something heavy, such as a rock and do some weighted squats, lunges – obviously be careful, we don’t want any broken toes in the process but instead of finding excuses, find ways to make it easier for yourself to get a workout in. Another thing I like to do is use dish clothes as gliders for my ab workouts. Simply place them on the tiles, making sure there is nothing in the way and do some mountain climbers, ab skaters etc. Simple yet effective and that’s what we go for when our time is limited as a student!

Becoming a HIIT FIT Stellies coach [Find out more about that here] has been one of the highlights of my year so far. I’ve learned and grown so much in such a short amount of time that I wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned and come across with you!

Stay soft on the knees.

It is important always be conscious about how you land when you are doing a squat jump, tuck jump or any other type of explosive movement. You want to aim for and focus on executing a soft landing. This is because the harder you land, the more pressure you put on your knees and this type of shock cannot be absorbed accordingly to protect your joints. If you aren’t aware of what you are doing or how it can damage your joints, it can result in injury in which prevention is always better then cure.

Engage your core when doing a push up.

Push ups are difficult and easy to make errors in, when you are in a push up position whether it’s military style or with the knees bent you want to keep your whole body aligned. The same could be said for a plank – suck your stomach towards your spine, engage and tuck your tailbone in. If you feel your t-shirt slipping up, it generally means your bottom is too high!

If it burns, it means it’s working!

I always say to my girls that as long as they’re moving i’m happy. Don’t be ashamed to step it down a notch and switch to an alternative move, that’s why we have them. Sometimes slower is better and there isn’t much use performing an advanced version of an exercise if you don’t know how to execute the simpler version first. It’s you against you, so work on your weaknesses and you’ll reap the rewards!

Wear the right shoes.

This one may seem a bit absurd but is definitely valid. I injured my knee towards the end of last year because I pushed myself during a high intensity workout, floors were slippery and I had no grip on my shoes so it was basically a disaster waiting to happen. When you need to jump forwards, do sprints or anything that requires you to move to a new space, it’s so important to have shoes that support your ankles and have grip to avoid slipping or tweaking anything. If you don’t have shoes that have the best grip and don’t want to purchase a new pair – you can use a yoga mat as extra prevention from injury!

Ensure good form.

Lastly, remember that when you are doing a high intensity workout, it’s easy to let go of good form and so it is important to be mindful and conscious about the movements while performing them to ensure optimal performance while keeping your muscles and joints protected!

HAPPY MARCH!!

During second year sport science, Fitness is a compulsory sport that we partake in – both theory and practical classes which excites me (as we all know, very well) because of my love for both health and fitness. This subject is currently helping me expand my knowledge on the topic drastically which can help me inform you better regarding my fitness related posts!

With that said, what’s a better way to bless the new month off other than with a good old top 4 favourite booty exercises? I know, I couldn’t think of any either!

Hip thrusts

There are many variations of this exercise to tone it up or down, my favourite at the moment is just adding a resistance band whilst my upper back is on the floor. This exercise is great as an activation exercise to wake up those glutes but also to target those hammy’s, lower back and even your core!

Leg press

This is one of my most beloved exercises to incorporate into my workouts. I’ve been using this for years and years now and still don’t get tired of it! The primary muscle targeted here is your quads but it does still work the overall muscles within the leg. Adding a resistance band is a good progression method to spice things up!

Resistance band clam shells

This is a a newly found fav of mine which is almost always supersetted with the hip thrust. OH. MY. GOSH. Will they make you gasp for air? Probably!! I’ve been incorporating in the beginning of my workouts to really activate the muscles of the targeted area. This is great at targeting those hip abductors and your glute medius!

Barbell Squats

This may seem like an obvious one but I haven’t been able to do these for the past few months due to an injured knee so you bet that i’m going to do these when I can, now that i’ve recovered!! This is a great exercise to target those glutes, hamstrings and your lower back. Just make sure you look up, keep your back straight and that those knees stay in line with your toes. (You can add a resistance band if you want more of a push or add extra weight!)

One thing many people forget to do during exercising is breathe, Breathing is so important to the execution of an exercise. My brother once told me that ‘your legs know what to do, focus on your breathing’ and after all these years, it’s still something I practice and preach to people who ask for advice or our HIITFIT members.

I am a little obsessed with using a resistance band when training booty, one I would really recommend is the GraceFitUK extra heavy – https://gracefitguide.com/products, but of course choose according to your fitness level and you can increase the difficulty of band when necessary for that extra challenge!

If you enjoy blog posts like that, please leave a comment and I will be happy to do similar one’s!

Disclaimer: The images in this blog post are not my own, I found them on google. Click on the images and you’ll be directed to the page where the images originate from.

We have all been at a stage in our lives where we haven’t been able to workout or what we like to think is a valid reason but is actually an excuse, right? There have been many moments throughout 2018 where the last thing I ever felt like doing was going to the gym or for a jog because I was drowning in tests and assignments! Well, I can tell you that this year is going to be no different, although I want to make more of an effort to be active – when I cannot go to the gym or if I just run out of hours in my day, I want to ensure that I’m still helping myself remain healthy and fit the best way possible. Here are 5 tips I have found help me!

Take the stairs not the elevator, walk or cycle to your destination don’t drive. We live in world where convenience really is at our fingertips, it’s easy to just hop onto a lift whilst on your phone or to drive to get there a bit quicker – however, it’s definitely not the healthiest way to go about your day. Instead leave a few minutes earlier, look on maps and see how long it will take you to walk or cycle to your lectures or your meetings and plan your day around that. You’ll be getting some fresh air and keeping active while going to the places you need to be at!

It starts in the kitchen. If you know you’re about to have a crazy week where you’re not sure you’re going to have time to breathe ned alone go to the gym, clear your kitchen of all the foods you know aren’t going to help you reach your health and fitness goals. Keep foods that are wholesome, organic and colourful – keep it clean and you’ll feel a difference sooner than you think! Of course you can treat yourself here and there but do it all within moderation.

Stay hydrated. Whenever I am feeling a bit hungry, I always have a glass of water beforehand. Many people always mistake their hunger for thirst, so drink a glass of water before every meal and make sure to drink 1L of water for every 25KG’s that you weigh, that way you can ensure you are keeping your body hydrated and drinking the right amount of water for yourself! If you struggle to drink water, put some lemons in or fruit to make it taste a little less like nothing. You’ll probably find that drinking a glass of water before eating will result in you eating a little less too which helps keep large food portions to the minimum.

Look after yourself. Get a good night’s rest, when you are busy from morning to night your body needs some time to rejuvenate and reset. If you are feeling stressed, take a few moments to try and destress, it’s known that your body tends to hold onto extra weight when you are stressed – so do some things that you know work for you in order to feel relaxed whether that be kicking your feet up with a good book or putting on a face mask. Looking after yourself and your body are key aspects to your fitness and health journey!

Give up the excuses of why you shouldn’t and find reasons to why you should. Although these points are all valid and can help lead you to a better and healthier life, you do need to make the time to fit in some workouts. They don’t have to be for hours on end, some of the best workouts are only 20-30 minutes you just have to change your mindset! If you go in with a negative mindset, you won’t come out feeling fulfilled. Ask yourself why you can’t gym at the moment, plan and structure your weeks and days ahead so you can do any sort of activity you love to help you get to your goals a lot faster. Give yourself some well deserved ‘me-time’ amidst the chaos of work, uni and life! There is no race, it’s you against you – even if you just do something active on the weekend, that’s fine! It’s a start and we all start somewhere, just don’t put pressure on yourself.