A Fortnight Of Fitness and Health Two Weeks On + New Goals

Hi all! How is everybody today!?

So it’s been two weeks since I published my blog post ‘A Fortnight Of Fitness and Health’ and embarked on a new fitness journey. Meaning now, two weeks later after setting my goals for the fortnight, it’s time to reflect.

How did I do?

Let’s start with the first goal – less dairy… I’m going to say I didn’t succeed too much with this goal. I ended up having THREE cheese pizzas along with cheesy sides in the space of just one week as I ordered in Dominos with my parents, Dominos with my bestie and Pizza Hut with my family on the Wednesday, Friday and Sunday of the first week of my goal setting. OOPS. In fairness, on the Wednesday when my family ordered in I did try to opt for a vegan margarita pizza, but unfortunately Dominos don’t sell them! No regrets though because the food was delicious, their Twisted Dough Balls are Heaven on Earth. So naturally I ordered them the second time round on the Friday too. 😉 SO YUM! Craving, NOW. So yeah, the dairy I didn’t do so well with but hey ho, you can’t have it all. And as someone who has cereals every day for breakfast, I now no longer have dairy milk with my cereals! I have Soya milk now, and I won’t be going back to dairy. It seems so unnecessary to me now to have dairy milk with my cereal when I know I like plant based… I haven’t transitioned into plant based milks with hot drinks yet, however I don’t often drink too many hot drinks anyway (I love a hot chocolate though), so I’m not too worried. When it comes to my dairy consumption, I still definitely want to limit it where I can especially with cheese. I don’t want to be consuming cheese on a daily basis or having it with every meal, but I do want to have it in moderation! Speaking of dairy / cheese, one of my reasons for cutting cheese out as much as possible in the first place was to see if it would improve my skin and if I’m honest I don’t think it has. My skin does seem to be clearer and more glowing at the moment, however I have been taking care of it more recently in terms of skincare, moisturising, cleansing, face masks etc that I think it’s down to that more than anything. I haven’t noticed a direct correlation between my skin becoming clearer and cutting down on dairy (not that I cut down on dairy too much anyway, let’s be honest) but that’s just my personal experience. As always what works for me may not work for another, and vice versa! I’m just sharing my experiences!

Drinking more water is something I’ve definitely achieved in these past couple of weeks and it feels amazing. I believe water has so many amazing health benefits and soul benefits, water is energy and it feels great for my health to be consuming more and more. The only downside is I need to go to the toilet more often, but hey, at least I’m getting my steps in on my way there and back LOL. And I guess that’s part of the point of drinking water isn’t it? To flush you out and cleanse your body.

Drinking less fizzy (or soda should I say, Hunida? 😉 hehe), is something I can say I’ve definitely achieved. If anything I’ve realised since taking on these goals that I actually don’t even like fizzy that much and when I have chosen to drink fizzy, it’s been lemonade not coke. I guess it’s true that you can have too much of a good thing. I used to drink coke on a daily basis, two glasses a night sometimes, whereas now I can go days without it and not even miss it. Before I set the goal to cut down on fizzy two weeks ago I was consuming it every single day virtually, but since I’ve made a conscious effort to cut down I’ve had it about a handful of times and gone days in a row without it which feels so good and almost makes me feel lighter. Whilst I haven’t really noticed any physical benefits to cutting down on the fizzy, I definitely feel better in myself and it’s helped me to consume more healthy goodness, as where I would have opted before for a soda drink, I have been opting now for apple juice and orange juice or simply just water… oh and maybe a couple of hot chocolates here and there, but overall, I’ve been consuming more of the healthy stuff. Hurrah!

My goal of eating as much fruit and veg as possible is neither achieved nor not achieved. I’ve definitely been more thoughtful when it comes to choosing what I eat and picking up more fruits and veggies, but I wouldn’t say I’ve had a great deal. This is something I’m definitely going to continue to work on as I want alllll of the nutrients and everything that’s good for my health, yes please!

Lastly lets talk about the exercise, or let’s not shall we. DID NOT ACHIEVE. But I’m working on it, as you’ll see now with the new goals I’ve set myself.

I’ve set myself some new goals for the end of this month! And I actually made a start on these yesterday because why wait? I wasn’t really feeling motivated with everything I’d set before, I needed a new system and some new goals. Some of the goals remain the same. I’m sticking to drinking less fizzy and I still want to cut down on that dairy intake. I have put ‘cut down on chocolate’ on my goals but I’m not sure how much I want to do that really. The last thing I want to do is deprive myself however, maybe I can try to go at least one day without it huh!? Not today though, not today (I’ve been munching on an Easter Egg as I write this, ironic LOL). On my list of goals is:

• 7 minute workout every single day (short but sweet workouts, sometimes less is more. A 7 minute mini workout everyday is easily manageable and totally not so daunting as say, the thought of even a half an hour workout every other day. Little and often is my new motto when it comes to exercising!)
• Go for a walk every other day (I love walking, it’s a great form of exercise and it feels so good to be out in nature and fresh air, I really want to get outside, walking more and connecting to nature hence why I have set myself this goal. What an enjoyable form of exercise. Also I read somewhere that 5 minutes of walking burns 20 calories??! I’m sure it varies person by person but on average if what I read is true then that’s AMAZING. This is a goal I am very excited about)
• Limit fizzy drinks as much as possible (should be easy considering the past couple of weeks, yay!)
• Cut down on chocolate (I’m not even two days into this challenge and I can sense this goal flying straight out the window… if I can go three days without any chocolate I’m counting that as an achievement he he)
• Have at least 5 cheese free days and cut down on dairy intake (I’m positive I can achieve this, I’ll just get those 5 days out of the way asap)
• Eat more fruits and veggies (as many as possible) (This is a goal I really want to achieve. So far today I’ve had three portions of fruit and veg. I’m just going to try and chuck them in anywhere and everywhere, I can do this!)
• Drink at least two flasks of water everyday (should be easy, I think flasks make water consumption so manageable. They’re easy to drink from and keep your water readily available at your side, rather than you forgetting to go and get a drink from the tap. Or not getting one because you can’t be bothered. Either / or. Flasks are just a God send when it comes to getting that water consumption, they make it so easy)
• Stretch everyday (For years I have been wanting to become more flexible. I just want to be a beautiful ballerina okay!? First stop, improving that flexibility.)
• Meditate at least every other day (I say every other day like I don’t fully intend on doing it every single day, but I’m giving myself some space just in case life does get in the way and I don’t get a chance to do it one day. I’ve included this goal here with my health and fitness goals because mental health is just as important as physical)
• Keep a gratitude journal every single day (Again, mental health is so so important and I believe writing down what I’m grateful for in my journal everyday is very very beneficial to all things lifestyle and mental health, so this is definitely a habit I want to form and stick to for the rest of my life)

Phew! And there you have it. My health and fitness goals for the end of this month. By the way, can you believe we are at the end of May!? Where has this year gone!? It’ll be ‘Hello 2020’ before we know it. But I’m going off topic here. Before I go I want to share with you the method I’ve created for myself to keep on top of these goals. As well as writing daily in the notes section of my phone what I’ve eaten each day and what exercise I’ve done, I’ve also made a little chart in my journal inspired by Rossy’s bullet journals actually, to document my achievements and progress.

As you can see, each day I will highlight the sections where I have achieved my goals. There’s a section for all of my goals and each day, so it’s pretty easy and fun to monitor! Thanks Rossy for this inspiration!

Naturally I have taken a before photo which I’m going to share here, then at the end of the month / beginning of next I will share an after picture. I love my body just how it is, just as I love myself just the way I am but I do want abs and I do want to tone up, and improve my health in general (for example, consuming more healthy nutrients with fruits and veggies and meditating etc), but I think this before photo will be a great source of motivation for me. I LOVE seeing progress!

Do you have any health and fitness goals for this coming week? Be sure to let me know in the comments below and remember you are perfect just the way you are, but it’s always fun to have goals too! Just do what makes you happy!

As always thank you so much for reading,

lots of love and light,

love,

Jennie

♥