How I stay motivated with my weight loss/healthy lifestyle journey

Hello all!

I am really excited to write this post because I know it's something a lot of people struggle with, especially with it being January and making new years resolutions!

I have lost just over 2 stone since I began this journey. Over Christmas I took a little break from being completely intense with my workouts and eating but I basically maintained the whole time (well a little 3lb gain but that's gone now so all good!). I am back on track now and have even upped the amount of times I hit the gym so all very exciting!

So what do I do to stay motivated? Read on for my tips!

Set yourself small goals

Everyone usually has an end goal that they want to reach such as loose a certain amount of weight, run a certain race etc.. but I think it is really important to set yourself some smaller realistic goals.
Some that i have set for myself are

• Go to the gym three times this week
• Decrease time in running 500m 
• Drink at least 2 litres of water

These are just three small goals that are all achievable and will give you a sense of accomplishment when they are achieved. I can say I can tick all of those and am constantly setting little mental goals for myself.

Watch Documentaries 

I genuinely feel this is something to which I owe a lot of my motivation too. Netflix has so many different documentaries on sugar, weight loss and healthy living. I have watched almost all of them! My favourite one is Fed Up which is mostly about sugar and the effects of too much of it. It really puts you off indulging especially on these cold nights where you want a cup of tea and a few biscuits. Also a recent RTE one documentary called Sugar Crash was brilliant so if you have access to the RTE player I highly recommend that one too.

Follow Fitness Instagrammers

Most of my feed on instagram is filled with 'real life' women(and some men) who have successfully lost or are loosing weight. They are so inspirational and usually very honest which makes me feel like all the hard work does eventually pay off. If you would like me to compile a list of my favourite instagrammers- let me know!

Also I would recommend unfollowing any pages that post tonnes of food pictures that are unhealthy like cakes, creamy pasta dishes etc... they just make you want to eat everything in sight-trust me. 

Talk to your family/friends

Don't keep your efforts a secret tell your family and friends what you're planning on doing and update them. They will probably notice a change in you mentally and physically even without telling them but you're more then likely going to receive positive feedback and encouragement which is so nice to hear after you've busted your ass in the gym and the kitchen. I know Irish people can't take a compliment but learn to, you deserve them! When someone tells me how great I'm looking or simply likes a picture of my healthy meal on instgram it gives me a smile and all those little smiles help encourage you to keep going!

Those are some of the way in which I stay motivated but ultimately motivation must come from within it is an inner drive that influences the selection and the persistence of tasks.

I know that sounds wishy washy but trust me I've just spent all day studying for a cognitive psychology exam and one of the topics is motivation so if the psychologists say it well then it must be true! hehe

I hope you like these type of fitness/weight loss/healthy/lifestyle posts. It's obviously a huge part of my life at the moment so it's something i enjoy talking about. If there is anything in particular you'd like me to write about comment below or tweet me! 

Love Always,

Alice xx

Weight loss: The first two stone are gone, but how?!

Hello my loves,

For the last three months I have been on a healthy living/ weight loss journey and so far I'm down two stone so thought I would share what I'm doing and then perhaps update as I continue on with this new lifestyle change.

The key words in that first paragraph are lifestyle change. I probably sound like a broken record as it's something everyone always says but it's true. There is no quick fix, not fad diet you have to simply treat your body like a temple and go from there.

I have enlisted the help of a personal trainer and this was the best decision I could have made because he makes up a plan for me where I do two one hour sessions of training with him per week as well as a detailed description for a third day to do myself. He also gave me a meal plan with guidelines on what to eat and when to eat. Having him waiting for me in the gym twice a week means I'm forced to get up and go because either way he'll charge me as well as he holds me accountable so I'm less likely to go off plan or decide not to go to the gym by myself on the day I don't meet him.

What do I do in the gym? If you're familiar with crossfit at all the type of stuff I do is like that. My trainer is an 'aspiring cross fit athlete' so obviously he likes and believes in the method so does it with me. It's lots of body weight exercises such as planks, squats, burpee's, mountain climbers and so on some of which I'll then do with weights, actual weights like dumbells, kettlebells and dead lifts and a little cardio with a 50 calorie row to warm up at the beginning and a little run on the treadmil at the end. Gone are the days of sweating it out on a treadmill for an hour and heading home.

I'm sure you've heard of the term 80% diet 20% exercise and I 100% agree with it, I have only missed one workout the entire 3 months but there are weeks where my diet isn't the best and I notice things like not loosing any weight, feeling lethargic and just crap in general so I am a convert. The gym for me is fun because I can feel myself getting fitter and stronger(I dead lifted 40kg the other day, how insane!!) but even my trainer when after the first 6 weeks and I had a big loss said you can tell you're eating really well because you can kill it in the gym and go home and eat crap but you're numbers are telling me you're not.

What am I eating though? My diet is really simple and now that I've been doing it for a while it all makes sense. I have breakfast, snack, lunch, vegetable juice, snack and dinner everyday. All of my meals contain protein sometimes animal proteins such as eggs, chicken or turkey but also in nuts(I have a crazy love for almonds). I have brown rice but can have other grains such as buckwheat or millet but to be honest I love rice and it's the easiest for me to cook so I stick to that. I have it at lunch time with vegetables and protein and at dinner I have raw veg and a protein so usually a salad. At that time of the day I don't need carbohydrates so it makes sense to not have them that late. I can see why my Granny always had her dinner in the middle of the day now, I feel like that's what I do!
My snacks are nuts and seeds. The nuts keep me full in between breakfast and lunch and the seeds between the juice and dinner are more so I don't snack on other 'bad things'.

So that is basically how I have lost the first 2 stone out of a lot more that I need to lose but this is just the beginning and so far I'm loving it!
I can do a blog post on a what a normal day of eating looks like if people are interested because if I include anymore in this post It will be a novel!
Keep on an eye on my YouTube as I plan on making a video about it all soon but in the mean time I'm always posting my meal prep and workouts on instagram so make sure you're following me there, my user name is AliBowring (same as twitter).

Until next time have a great day and I will talk to you soon,

Alice May xx

As Told Through Instagram

I wanted to write a bit of an update post about whats been going on in my life but as they say a picture is worth a thousand words I thought I'd use my old friend instagram(follow me here) to help.

 First, this is my new tattoo! I know you can't see it very well but that is how it's going to stay for a while, I might post a better a picture at some stage but I have to keep a little mystery right? It means something dear to me and that's all that matters!

I went to Galway! This was just a little 2 night break with the girls and we met up with friends we had made on holiday this summer so was definitely a fun 2 days!

My friends have literally been my life recently, I feel i have a group of friends I can trust and rely on which is such a great feeling! These are ma two beauts Sinead and Seana. 

 This is my sister and Amelia, who is not shown for the most part as Sinead has decided not to have her face on the Internet. I had to include her as I spend so much time with this gorgeous girl, she is such a good baby and spends all her time smiling away!

 For the last 2 months I was working away in a beauty salon. I have actually stopped working and have moved to a new exciting adventure which I want to do a whole blog post on so hold tight! I am already missing the girls from the salon though, absolute gems they where.

I have to include it in my updates, I have a boyfriend! We've been together 6 and 1/2 weeks if you want to get all technical so it's still quite new but seriously happy with Sean

I've been missing my sissy big time as she moved to Galway for a month(I'm half Galwegian did you know?)She's back this weekend but will probably be off travelling the globe soon so trying to mentally prepare myself! 

 

 

I couldn't have instagram pictures without a saturated image of food could I? Basically I'm a master chef. I mean just look at that. NOM.

So that is my update of life as told through instagram! I want to start blogging more but with this new adventure I'm going on I just hope I have the time!

All the best, love and hugs,

Alice May

xx

My week in Picture's #10 & #11

So for the first time in 10 weeks I didn't post a my week in Pictures. I was just THAT busy! You see I've started to put the photo's together on PhotoShop and that takes a good while especially if you're me! So this week I just put together photo's from the past 2 weeks make sure to follow me on Instagram to see my photo's as I post! (AliBowring)

1st day college fun|Rainbow|First face chart for everyday makeup|Which Crunch Corner to have?|Theatrical Aging|Nom Nom's in Eddie's!|Sweet countryside|Bessum Buds

My hair is growing!|GIVE BLOOD|Lucy's new hoodie|College work mess|New Tattoo|PinkGlitter10 Polish|Selfie makeup of the night|Lot's of sleep in rollers

Until next time I hope you're all well and I'll talk to you soon,
Alice x

My Week in Picture's #8

I didn't want to look at an icky slug so my friend and I just covered him with grass|Claire's boyf teaching us self defense|I got shellac in my new local salon. I think the colour is called Romantique|Love|The amazing spread of food claire produced the other night|Mommy brought me coffee in bed!

So there's my week in picture's! Make sure to follow me on Instagram for a constant flow of piccy's! 

Also I'm sick so the blog posts and video's will probably be pretty scarce until I'm back on my feet. :( 

Until next time I hope you're all well(want to say the same to me!?) and I'll talk to you soon,

Alice x

My week in picture's #7

So I know i've been bad if I have two 'My Week in Picture's' in a row but I honestly have just had the busiest week! I was working non-stop! As always remember to follow me on instagram where you can see all of the photo's I upload each week!

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1. A slightly more dramatic look I filmed a tutorial on which will be up during the week!

2. I was bored. I took a photo...

3.I was babysitting a 3 year old and she fell asleep in my lap. so CUTE!

4.The outfit/makeup I wore to meet up with some old friends for lunch

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Until next time, I hope you're all well and I'll talk to you soon,

Alice x

My Week In Pictures #6

Here we are again 2nd post today!(3, if you count my late one last night)

Make sure to follow me on instagram to see all of my photo's as I post them! AliBowring

My room, Sneaky driving in the church car park with my cousin Alex, I quit smoking!,Daddy Momma & Baby coffee,Amazing views making me love where I live.

Until next time,

I hope you're all well and I'll talk to you soon,

Alice x

My Week in Picture's #5

So here we are week five my week in picture's where I pull a few(I say a few as the post would be WAY too long if I included every photo I instagramed during the week!) picture's from my Insagram!

So make sure to follow me by following THIS link

My sister and I made home made pizza from scratch, chicken and roasted veg as our toppings! YUM

I did makeup on my first ever photo shoot, which I'll probably do a post on when I get the actual photo's but here are my side line pics!

We did the shoot in Howth(Bull Island) and there were plenty of lovery views just like this! GORGE!

I'll tell you a night in your snug bed with a good book(kindle) and a glass of white wine is a MUST every now and then!

My cat Poppy and my puppy Lucy have never got on but here's hoping!

I threw a farewell party for my Friend Kasper who is moving to Glasgow for a year(sad face!)  so we took a photo for our friend who couldn't make it!

I have been so bad at blogging a tubing but I'll get it all up and running again cause I mean hello it's kinda my life... my favourite thing to do really!

Until next time I hope you're all well and I'll talk to you soon,

Alice x