I cant believe that August is over already! That month went super fast but its time to review the monthly motives of August!

AUGUST FITNESS:
Pace
This motive has by far been the best one of this month, I've really enjoyed working on my pace during my runs because it has had such a positive impact on my thoughts about running and how my body reacts to my runs now. So, before I started working on my pace I saw the run part of my workouts as a chore because of my impatience. When I went running, I would go too fast which then made me want to stop sooner because I would tire quicker ( mainly because I have got pretty used to going on HIIT runs). So being able to work on my pace to enable me to run further and for longer has helped me to enjoy running more. So much so that I have made a goal for myself to be ready to run a full marathon in 2017. 
Motive Met? Smashed. 

AUGUST HEALTH:
Water 
This motive is going pretty well, I'm finding it a lot easier to get started with my days once I have had a glass of water before anything else. I know that sounds cliché but its true, drinking a glass of water every morning before I do anything else has become a very refreshing part of my get ready routine. I did drink a lot of water throughout the day before I started this motive and I still do but  I wanted to set it as a motive to make sure I was drinking water before filling my body with caffeine as it contributes massively to getting your metabolism started again after your body has been in a fasted state all night.
Motive Met? Smashed.

AUGUST LIFESTYLE:
No alcohol
So I am full on holding my hands up, waving a white flag and admitting that I failed at smashing this motive. BUT im not going to put myself down about it because yes, I had a couple glasses of Rosé with my dinners a couple of times during the month, but I could've done a lot worse with other alcoholic beverages that contain higher amounts of sugar and other nasties.One thing I will take away from this motive is, improving my willpower and knowing its not rude to say no to alcohol sometimes when at a friends or out with friends. ( plus some more will power to be able to say no sometimes to the beloved Rosé) 
Motive Met? Fizzled.

A Pompous Porridge Brekkie

This is a quick and easy brekkie for all you students that have woke up late and only have 20 minutes before your lecture starts...

Ingredients:

• Grab some rolled porridge oats
• Pour 300ml of milk
• Slice a banana 
• Grab a handful of Blueberries
• Sprinkle that cinnamon 

1. Throw ( not literally) the porridge oats and milk into a sauce pan and bring to the boil on the hob and keep stirring until a thick consistency ( or however you like your porridge).
2. Pour into a bowl and chuck your banana and blueberries on top, sprinkle that cinnamon and get eating!

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Setting goals and running a full marathon in Canada?!

So from my past experiences of talking to people about them wanting to workout or go to the gym or even just work on eating healthier, the main conclusion I can make is. EXCUSES.
I feel that 101%, ( added that 1% to emphasise my feeling for this point, hello drama queen!) excuses are one of the top reasons as to why goals that people set don't get smashed.

If I ask someone to come to the gym or on a run with me or if they even ask for some advice on health, fitness and lifestyle, I watch the cogs start turning in their head and almost straight away a lot of them reel out all the things that could stop them and use an excuse as to why they "CAN'T".

So this led me to thinking that a major part of setting goals isn't just about the positives of the journey but also how you will overcome the factors that could prevent you from achieving the goal. One of the major flaws is people putting their work, social or personal life in front of their health and fitness life. You should make the swap and make your work, social and personal life fit around your health and fitness life. 

'The only bad workout is the one that didn't happen' - Unknown. 
Eliminate the excuses one by one to progress with your goal setting! Willpower
I think willpower, goes hand in hand with motivation especially when it comes to working towards goals. The willpower you build up will help to prevent yourself from skipping that workout or not running that extra mile and it will result in a massive push in the right direction of your goals. Our brains can be the biggest competitor to try and destruct your goals, we've all been there...

KEEP THOSE LEGS MOVING AND YOUR WILLPOWER WILL GET STRONGER
The achievement from having the will power to fight back to all the distraction and preventions can boost your motivation. The fact that your will be able to prove your negative thoughts wrong will make you even more determined to push the negative thoughts to the back burner. 
I'm not saying anyone is perfect and everyone gets off track once in a while (definitely including me!)but by adding will power to the 'goal achieving' equation It will be a whole lot more enjoyable seeing your progression.

When people say keep your goals small and reachable, In my opinion I feel like they are selling people short a bit, why not have a couple of bigger goals that can get smashed by the smaller goals you set? Im not saying set unrealistic goals and it'll be rainbows and unicorns, but keeping to small goals can sometimes get repetitive. I think you need a bigger goal to set the bigger picture.
These past couple of weeks ive kind of gone running crazy and although I didn't enjoy it as much before and used to see it as a 'chore' in my workout routine, I am finally really starting to get into it since I have worked on my pace, timings and distance. This has lead me to set some new goals for me. One long term big goal that will be achieved by smashing some smaller goals along the way.

Long Term Goal:
By the time I finish my degree in 2017, I want to be able to run a full Marathon either in England or in Canada (Where I want to go as soon as I have bagged this degree)

So I wrote this goal down and then thought of all the things that can boost me towards smashing that goal. Below are the events I want to take part in to propel me into being ready for a full Marathon and of course with other frequent training in order to build up my mileage background and training tolerance.

Smaller Goals:
Tough Mudder- Mud Run 2016
Race for Life - 2016
London Royal Parks Half Marathon - 2016

Wolf Run - 2017
Full Marathon- London or Canada 2017

I know to reach these goals I am going to have to build up some more willpower to prevent myself from slacking during training.
Seeing the goals I have set myself helps me tons to keep focused on what I want to achieve.

There are loads of ways to keep yourself focused on your goals,

• Set daily/weekly reminders on your phone, computer, tablet of what you're heading for and why
• Keep a journal of the journey towards your goal! when you get to the end of the journey being able to read back over everything your achieved and overcame will boost your confidence!
• If you start to slightly slip off task, sit down and remind yourself of what you want to achieve and revamp the motivational willpower

Don't let the negatives, preventions, distractions beat you!

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This is a superrrrr way to re gain your energy after a workout as a post workout snack or just a small snack in-between meals. It takes 5 ingredients to create these balls of energy and goodness.

Below are the ingredients you will need with a jolly simple and easy method. 

• You can use any nut butter, I just prefer almond butter to peanut butter.

• You could also use agave nectar instead of honey. 

• I used double chocolate whey protein powder from My Protein 

• Put all the ingredients into one bowl and mix together until the mixture starts to stick together.
• Grab some mixture and roll into small balls, they don't need to be super big because they're just little snacks, but you can roll them whichever size you would like.
•  This mixture made about 15 balls that were quite small. 

• I like to put the protein balls in the fridge or freezer after just to keep them cool and less sticky. I have heard they can last months if you keep them in the freezer, I haven't tried that yet but mine normally last 1-2 weeks in a fridge for post workout energy or snacks.

Happy Energy Snacking!

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So It is August 1st 2015 and last night whilst watching Pretty Little Liars (My reward from me to me as long as I have worked out during the day. It works.) I was listing ideas that I could incorporate into my blog as permanent fixtures throughout this journey to a healthier lifestyle and a fitter future and to make this blog a little more 'alive'. 

The first idea that I came up with is 'Monthly Motives' ( some fine alliteration there, Shan.) the whole idea around this is to get back into setting regular reachable goals at the beginning of every month. Since being home from uni I have admittedly slacked on the mentality side of my journey. At uni I used to set reachable goals each week whilst in the gym of what I wanted that week. Some of the goals included things such as not allowing myself to leave the gym unless I have worked out for at least an hour each day or No snacking between meals, substitute with water, making sure I am asleep by 10:30pm to get the most out of a sleep ready for a workout in the morning...you get the idea. These are the kind of goals I set myself every week when I first started this journey to force myself and push me into a strict routine (I needed to do be this strict for it to work).

Since being home although I haven't given up on eating clean or working out everyday ( I never will, I love it too much). I feel I have really lacked in keeping my mentality in shape. My motto is 'Mentality Over Physicality' because I believe your body will do anything you push it to do, its the mentality you have that will make or break your dreams (cheesy but true).

So this is where Monthly Motives come in. At the beginning of each month I will be setting 3 new goals for myself one for fitness one for health and one for lifestyle. Then at the end of every month I will be looking at how I did, focusing on whether I carried it out for a month, if I didn't, WHY? and if I did, what I did well and what the next steps/goals are.

So here goes...

AUGUST FITNESS:

The motive I want to set for this month is to work on my running pace to improve my running time and distance. Running outside and not on  treadmill is a lot harder because your legs have to do more work to keep pushing you along whereas on a treadmill the floor moves and your legs just go with it. I find when I run I rush, I become very impatient and try and power through the run all the way although this can be a plus because it makes me do a high intensity interval run, I want to work on my running distance and time to improve my long distance running. I was reading an article the other day on About Health on '13 Tips for Running Farther' and one of them stood out to me which is: Run at a Conversational Pace. I d never heard this before and thought it was such a good way to put it. So this is how I am going to judge my pace, if I can talk and hold a conversation easily without being out of breath my pace is good, even if it is at slightly slow pace I will be building up over 4 weeks. 

AUGUST HEALTH:

For my health motive I am going to make sure I have at least 1 glass of water as soon as I wake up. Before I have a morning coffee, my breakfast or anything else. I am following the well loved saying 'Hydrate before you caffienate' 

AUGUST LIFESTYLE:

This is a kind of big one, cutting the alcohol. Now I'm not a massive drinker I don't go on a 'mad one' every weekend but lately ive been drinking almost every weekend due to going to festivals and going out for birthdays so ive decided im going August with absolutely no alcohol intake. This is also mainly because I will be moving back up to uni at the beginning of Septmeber and although I have pretty good will power and self control, trying to go through freshers week without some alcohol induced nights out just wouldn't be the same( the excuses of a student everybody).

So... the 3 goals above will be my monthly motives... the laws of august...the great goals! that I will be working towards,at and with throughout the month of august. On August 31st I will be doing a follow up blog post to update on how I did and continue through to September 1st to set 3 new goals!

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