IM BACK!

Okay so I took a longer break that originally planned but I am super excited to get my teeth back into blogging and sharing my own journey based around, healthy eating, fitness, and lifestyle.

Where have I been hiding?!

This past year has been really full on due to it being my last year of my degree and therefore I wanted to put all my head strength into achieving my original goal I set at the beginning of my degree and that was to achieve a first-class degree. All the head strength paid off and I have now gained a shiny new qualification; A First Glass degree in Graphic Design.

I could not be happier with the outcome of my 3 years hard work and I cannot wait to get back into my blogging journey and make StudentVsFitness a frequent blogging platform, continuing to follow my own journey to a healthier lifestyle and a fitter future.

The future of StudentVsFitness

So now I am a graduate and no longer a student I thought about changing the name of my blog but I then thought the whole reason I started this blog was to encourage other students how to eat healthy on a budget, give tips on how to help the dreaded hangover with natural nutrients and how to stay active during tough times with exam stress and coursework deadlines. So I have decided to keep the name the same and continue my blogging journey through the eyes if a student/recent graduate.

I am SO excited to get back into blogging and sharing my experiences through my blog and hopefully starting to network with other similar bloggers to me and work together to inspire other students to take their own journey to a living a healthier lifestyle and working towards a fitter future (all within a student budget!)

Review: Aloe Vera Refresh!

So I got contacted by Satellite PR and asked if I wanted to try out the ‘Grace Aloe Refresh’ drinks and I was super excited to get involved!

A little bit of background about the drink…

Grace are a Caribbean food based company that have expanded to countries such as Canada, United States and the UK. They produce Caribbean based foods and drinks to allow everyone across the world to experience the taste of the Caribbean.

I received two flavours of the Aloe Vera Refresh drink. The original and a strawberry flavoured version. I totally fell in love with the drinks, in my honest opinion I prefer the original flavour of the drinks because I think the strawberry flavoured drink tasted a little bit artificial but that’s my own opinion.

So let me explain…

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Taste?

The taste is hard to explain in words, it is a very sweet drink but not over powering due to the soothing texture. It not a ‘stodgy’ drink it has the same consistency of water.

One of the main features that plays a big part in the drink is the small segments of Aloe Vera pulp in the liquid. (So if you don’t like drinks with bits in, maybe this one isn’t for you) The only way I could think to describe the texture and consistency is it tastes like the drink has small juice vesicles in it. You know what I mean, the tiny segments within an orange segment full of the juice, it’s like that texture, but Aloe Vera pulp instead of orange juice vesicles. Basically there are soft bits of pulp in the drink. It can take a bit of getting used to the taste and consistency but I loved it from the get go.

I tried the drinks that contain 50% less sugar than the normal Grace Aloe Vera drinks which doesn’t affect the taste at all as I tired both of them and both the normal aloe drink and the 50% less sugar taste the same in my opinion.

Each bottle is 500ml and claims that there is 96 calories per bottle. The contents contains 30% Aloe Vera pulp and juice. On the bottle it says that the drink has ‘more than 100% of your recommended daily intake of Vitamin C per bottle’ BONUS! I have heard many people gaining health benefits from drinking Aloe Vera drinks, which is true as it helps towards making the immune system function properly and helps reduce tiredness and fatigue. (All of this in a bottle?! Winning)

My samples of the drink didn’t last long enough (because I couldn’t stop drinking them!) for me to fully experiment with looking at changes and benefits of my own body over a period of drinking the Aloe Vera drinks but I will definitely be buying and drinking more of the drinks because I have fallen in love with them.

I recommend this drink for everyone to try! I would try it two or three times before you make a decision because the taste can grow on you and no be put off by the slight 'yucky' look of the drink in a glass, taste it! It makes you feel super refreshed and I know how cliché that sounds but its true, the pulp really helps to boost the energetic sweet flavour of the drink.

You can find out more about Grace Products on their website! http://www.gracefoods.com/

Note: I received the drinks free of charge to try out and review in my honest opinion on my blog. All images and opinions are my own.

Little Update!

4/5 months slightly over due but I have finally organised myself into a routine to get back into what I do best and that is blogging! The past 4/5 months have been super full on with uni and a ton of other stuff which I know is no excuse to have such a long ‘break’ from blogging.

Now work load is starting to calm down with at uni I will have a lot more time to focus on the content of my blog and improving my communications with my audience.

In the essence of health and fitness, I plucked up the courage to join Coventry Uni Hockey Club and couldn’t be happier with the pals I have gained as well as being part of a team of crazy and ever so slightly alcoholic girls. Training every Monday helps to keep on top of my fitness as well as going to the gym throughout the week. I am glad I have kept to an active regime and not just packed it in since moving back to uni.

On the other hand I am not being as strict as I was over the summer with my diet. I am a lot more lenient with what I eat, not in the sense of stuffing my face with shitty foods but after spending the months from April 2015 to September 2015 with no carbohydrates or very little, I have reintroduced certain carbohydrates into my diet these include; whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread and the usual sweet potato that I love, I had to do this due to training for hockey and playing matches, I needed to re think my diet for energy levels in sport.

I still go to the gym when I can each week which is usually 2-3 times because it helps a lot with letting out stress from uni work as well as keeping the weight I have worked hard to lose, off.

I have a whole list of blog posts that I want to write each week to keep my blog active for my audience and keep my motivations going on my own journey to improving and maintaining my health and fitness. 

My 4 Top Tips on Eliminating the Excuses.

There are so many positives to working out not only in terms of fitness and health but it can also just generally help you as a person.
The Number 1 positive I love about exercising is:

• It releases endorphins 

So learning about the good old endorphins in my old Health A-level class I found really interesting how they can be our 'natural feel good' hormones that are often released during exercise resulting in putting you in a fabulous mood after a workout! ( I know, what more could you want?!) 

• Stress Reliever

So you're near exams or a project due in date and you are last minute having the ultimate stress out? Well get those running shoes on and run it off or get to the gym! exercise has also been proven to help improve and control your mind set in stressful or anger fuelled situations. Whilst exercising your body releases 3 main chemicals (adreneline, serototin and dopamine)  that work together to relieve stress and enable to you take a better control over your negative emotions and ultimately bring you mood up from a low to a natural high. Even just 10-15 minutes of vigorous exercise can eliminate negative feelings, so I am sure revision could hold for 10 minutes while you run out the stress and create a revision ready mind set for you next session in front of your books/laptop.

So, so far I have briefly explained that exercise can have a pretty positive change on you generally i.e your moods, on your mind set, emotional control and of course your fitness and health so why are you still reading this and not outside exercising yourself into a good mood?!

okay wait before you go and do that take a look at the next 4 points to eliminating the excuses...

NUMBER 1
Setting yourself goals:
Now with this one alot of people set goals that are slightly out there and don't carry them out because "Its not working and its taking to long to reach the goal" and im not an expection to this because my goals used to be ridiculous ( I mean 'looking like Michelle Keegan in a matter of weeks' at 16 my goals were a bit excessive) and I always ended up giving in because I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere near to my (slightly ridiculous) goal. SHORT AND SWEET, these are the best goals in my opinion. 
Of course everyone that sets out on a journey of creating a better lifestyle and to get fitter will have the long term goal of a better body image, health and fitness but I mean REAL short and sweet.(and no I don't mean doing a 10 minute run with the goal of reaching Express Diner to get some fried chicken.)

Achievable goals are key. If I am in the gym I will set a specific goal for that gym session keeping them short and sweet. For example: I wont allow myself to leave the gym until I have done at least 60 minutes of working out no matter how long it takes or how much my mind keeps telling me to turn around and walk out the door ( burst into song, I know you want to) I will not leave (being strict and having a lot of mental strength really helps). Its just the same if I am outside going on a run, I wont allow myself to go home until I have done a HIIT run for at least 40 minutes. Achieving a goal is honestly the best feeling and will definitely motivate you to go out and smash another goal during your next workout!
So keep them short and sweet on a daily/weekly basis and it will all add up to achieving a long term goal!

NUMBER 2
Compete with yourself: (or the oblivious person on the next treadmill along)
Now anyone that knows me knows I am not a competitive person...HA who am I kidding I am UBER competitive! If you get on the treadmills or any other machine next to me in the gym you have just entered yourself into a competition without knowing, that's all I'm going to say...
I love being competitive with others especially in sports but also competing with my own personal bests. I am constantly trying out new workouts or new levels of workouts to beat my usual ones which, can make a workout so much more fun and interesting.
So what are you waiting for?! your personal bests wont come to you! GO GET THEM!

NUMBER 3
Reward System:
As childish as this point may sound it can really work. 
Yes, you can totally have that glass of wine or the Jaeger bomb while you're going out on a 'mad night out' tonight IF you've done your workout for the day! Simple as that folks, you get that workout in during the day, you can get the double vodkas in during the night!

NUMBER 4:
Nullify The Negatives:
"Its just who I am" 
This quote above is the one that I have heard the most when it comes to excuses of not exercising, and yes I always used to think this too but not one word of that is true when it comes to body image or your fitness levels. YOU can change that.
Way too many people influence your own thoughts and will ultimately lead to you believing you cant just because someone else says so, this then results in your attitude being the main negative that is stopping you from saying you can or you did. Take matters into your own hands, its easy enough saying that 'you can' but until you do you wont gain anything from it. So because 'YOU DID' read to the end of this blog post ( thank you for bearing with)  now 'YOU CAN' go and put it all into practise so you can say 'YOU DID' and 'YOU ACHIEVED'. (An awful lot of cheesiness in that last sentence)

Workout Routine Change Up!

I did a post near to when I first started this blog explaining the ins and outs of my old workout routine. Although I felt like that was a good routine to start this journey off with, I felt like I was hitting a brick wall and it wasn't really benefiting me because it was purely cardio based. So I stepped it up a level and worked out a new workout routine. After doing research into different styles of workouts I wanted to make sure I had plenty of muscle building and toning exercises because it is a really good way to burn fat.

Whilst researching I also came across the Cardio Bum horror stories, and that was when I stepped up the squats and glute exercises. No one wants a cardio bum! Peachy Perfect, always. 

Below I have written out and illustrated my workout I do everyday. ( Do excuse my ever so slightly green bean looking illustrated people) 

• 30 minute run 

I go for a 30 minute HIIT, where I will do exactly what I did on the treadmill in the gym:

Ill start with a slow jog then move into HIIT:

standard run for 1 minute

sprint for 30 seconds

standard run for 1 minute

sprint for 30 seconds. 

I will do that in 10 minute intervals.

4 days a week followed by my workout routine below which I do 6 days a week:

 Non equipment exercises:

 Burpees -  20 reps

Alternating push-up plank 30 seconds

Reverse plank - 20 seconds hold, repeat 3 times.

If you cant raise your body high enough, try straight arms instead of bending them.

Mountain climbers - 30 seconds. 

2x 30 second reps

 Plank - 20 seconds hold, repeat 3 times

Plank on your front.

Medicine ball:

5kg V up- 30 reps 

Medicine squat, rise lift above head - 20 reps.

Keep back as straight as you can and keep medicine ball to chest.

Mason twist /Russian twist with medicine ball - 30 reps

If you cant lift your legs at first, keep them bent with your feet flat on the floor whilst doing the twists.

Kettle bells: 

Pass through lunges 6kg - 20 lunges

Kettle bell swings 8kg - 30 swings 

Make sure you are lifting from your legs, it is super important to bend your legs when you swing down, lifting from your back will cause your lower back to become uncomfortable and ache later on. ( trust me, I learnt the hard way. This heads up will save you the pain)

One arm kettle bell push press 4kg - 15 reps on each arm 

Kettle bell single leg deadlift 6kg - 10 reps each leg 

Squat, kettle bicep curl, rise, push above head 4kg - 20 rep

This one is similar to the medicine ball squat:

• Hold the kettle bell at the "horns" close to your chest 
• Squat down, complete a bicep curl with the kettle bell
• Rise from the squat 
• Push above head

Repeat the whole workout 2x.

Post Workout Warm Down
I then move onto warming down because I want to reduce as much ache as possible the next day. I use the app 'DailyYoga' which has a ton of cool yoga workouts tailored to what you want.

• DailyYoga

I know this workout routine wont be perfect for everyone but I wanted to put it up to show that you don't always need to pay for a gym membership to workout and to give some ideas for other routines. If you don't have kettle bells or a medicine there are a ton of exercises that you can do that can have a similar effect on your body without using equipment, do your research and put your own routine into practise! 

2 Months Off the Gym!

So its now summer and I have come home from uni for 2 months and I wasn't sure whether I wanted to get a membership at a gym near home or just use the outdoors as my gym. Due to wanting to save money for when I head back to uni after summer, I've decided to take the next 2 months off the gym and make the outdoors my gym. I did buy 2 essentials that I wanted to have during my workouts over the summer as I felt they would make it more effective to what I want to carry on achieving plus I can take them back to uni with me and use them there too!
So The first thing I bought was a 5kg medicine ball. I wanted to get one heavy enough that it challenged me but I didn't want to get one too heavy that it would make it hard for me to use effectively.
I then bought a kettle bell set that included 4 kettle bells ranging from 2kg, 4kg, 6kg and 8kg.
Both purchases were definitely worth it! they make my workout routines a whole lot more fun and challenging. I just use a simple yoga foam mat for when I do exercises that involve lying down, for added padding and comfort on my back.

Kettle Bells: £24.99
 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Palm-Springs-Vinyl-Kettlebell-2kg-4kg-6kg-8kg/dp/B006LTCJ8K/ref=sr_1_88?s=fitness&ie=UTF8&qid=1435241001&sr=1-88 -

Medicine Ball: £19.99
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medicine-Crossfit-Strength-Training-Kilograms/dp/B00KSDC9QW/ref=sr_1_10?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1435241037&sr=1-10&keywords=5kg+medicine+ball

For my runs I just go on different routes around where I live, mainly country roads and hills because I live in a village with a ton of quiet routes to run on.

Being Healthy On A Night Out? Ew.

There is no such thing as staying healthy on a night out as a student, because let's face it (as much as I love my green smoothies) standing drinking one whilst your friends drink their body weight in Jäger bombs WOULDN'T BE FUN. However there are some things that you could do that would make you feel less guilty. So how I look at it is I use the nights out as my cheat days because I'm consuming alcohol containing ridiculous amounts of calories, instead of eating cheat food for a day I'll have cheat drinks on a night out and eat super clean the during the day before a night out. You get my drift... I don't go out every week purely because I'm a broke ass student half the time and for some sections throughout the year I'll be focusing on my health and fitness so I won't allow myself to go out (boring I know, but work hard now and play hard later and all that). When I do go out I have some tips on making it work for me and maybe with you too. EARLY HOUR CRAVINGS Being students and stumbling home at 5-6 am after a night out through a street filled with shitty takeaway food that seem like heaven at the time, everyone gets cravings for it. I'm no exception cheesy chips all the way! BUT that's where I draw the line. Chips. I don't get burgers, pizzas, kebabs because I know I will gain nothing from it and I've gotten used to not having bready/doughy type carbs in my diet, but because I'm a student, and always starvin' marvin' after a night out I limit myself to chips (don't get the cheese on top, you can get through it...DONT DO IT). This all depends of course on the money I have left which is normally none. Next tip... COOK SOMETHING BEFORE Honestly, the amount of times I've thought about how future Shan is going to feel in situations. So during the day before your wild night out, quickly cook up some pasta with sauce or a jacket potato and put it in a container in the fridge ready for your slightly intoxicated 6am arrival to your fridge to find your self thanking your past self for thinking of you in a time of need. Pros to this? Saves you money, it won't have half the greasy shit you could intake in a takeaway on the way home AND your stomach is content (using the word 'content' loosely depending on how long you'll spend laying by the toilet for the next few hours getting rid of the 'good time' that is alcohol). DANCING On a night out when I've gotten to the stage of drinking when I don't know some people's names (we've all been there) you will not stop me dancing until they play the last song. Love. It. This can also be a super way to burn some of the calories you're pouring into your body through drinking, ITS A WIN WIN, drink more? Dance more! WAHEEEY! EAT CLEAN DURING THE DAY So chances are you're not going to want to work out or do any type of exercise the day after a night out (or like me, even move from bed unless the word food is mentioned) SO what I do is, eat super clean during the day and do a good workout during the day before the night out. If you're busy, start a couple of days earlier, eat super clean for a couple of days, it's worth it. THE DREADED HANGOVER I don't think there is ever a solid cure for hangovers it's just enduring it. However there are some things that can help. On a night out while your bladder is getting full but your mind is telling you to not 'break the seal' because you'll be back and forth weeing all night, this is the main way your body is going to lose potassium, now I'm no body nutritionist/scientist whatever, but potassium is needed for your body to function properly and if you're alcohol weeing all night you'll be losing a lot of potassium. So that hangover is basically your body trying to get all your bodily levels back to normal. Bananas are a smashing source of potassium so have a 1 or 2 bananas on your bedside table for when you wake up as they can help ease the symptoms of a hangover. WATER
Everyone says it but it's so true, drink plenty of water before you go to sleep. The alcohol will have made you super dehydrated which will cause your hangover headaches, I make sure I drink 2 glasses of water before I sleep and have a glass of water ready for me when I wake up. But it's down to your own body so drink as much water as is comfortable for you. So they are some of the pointers I use on a night out, it's just based on what I am comfortable with and how I see things for my own body it's nothing professional or based on scientific facts of food and life, just a few handy tips. I'm going to do another one of these kind of posts a couple of weeks before freshers week in September on how I'm going to stick to my routine and keep my strict mind set, although I'm not a fresher any more this coming year, I will for sure be having one hell of a week pretending I still am a fresher because fresher life sounds better than 2nd year life!

Mentality Over Physicality

In this blog post I really want to talk about how I have kept the right mind set for the past 4/5 months in sticking with working out 6 times a week and improving my general lifestyle.

For a pretty competitive person that hates quitting or failing I am surprised its taken me this long to get my shit together and stick at this new, much better lifestyle but I’m finally there and sticking to it because of how much better I feel now.

So the major point that I have noticed is for me it is definitely my mentality over my physicality, since going to the gym I can quite happily say my body will do most things I push it to do, but its the mind set that you’re in that is the most important, by far!

I’ve tried numerous times in the past to diet, exercise and all that jazz but looking back now I definitely did not have the right mind set in making sure I reach my goals and that ultimately made me fail in keeping up the diet and exercise. ( I hate failing).

What was the thing that kick started your new lifestyle? 

If I am being totally honest, the boredom I had of my degree. Yes, I am paying £90000 a year for a degree that I am quite bored of BUT I came to uni to get a degree and that is what I am going to leave with. I do Graphic Design, so there is a lot sitting on your arse all day in the studio in front of the computer or sketchbook and I was so bored of not doing something physically active with my days. SO off I went to the gym one evening and came out feeling so much better! not only does exercise make your fitter and healthier but it can help clear your mind of all the unnecessary shit, which is what that evening did and I have been going 6 days a week ever since because I love the refreshing feeling after. 

In my previous blog post I explained how I fit time for the gym with going to uni every day too. ( My Morning Workout Routine)

After cracking down on myself to get my butt to the gym 6 days a week I then went onto dealing with my lifestyle and my key word for this change is 

STRICT!

I am uber strict on myself, not as much as I was at the beginning of this journey because my body has adjusted. To change my sleeping routine and eating routine I had to make sure I stuck to it. So from going to sleep at 2/3ish in the morning and getting up at 8 for uni (wild one, yes I know), I had the big change of making sure I was trying to get to sleep by 10pm each night, it was not easy but I kept at it and now I have a much better sleeping routine getting 8 hours of sleep a night and I am not tired during the day.

Eating routines were not as hard to change, two of the major changes I made was cutting snacking out completely and replacing it with drinking water and not eating after 6:30pm until the morning for breakfast which can be challenging but I occupied myself with either going to see friends for the evening or doing work until l went to sleep to keep my mind off having that cheeky mid evening snack (don’t do it)

Being in the studio all day at uni with Cost Cutter just over the road also made it very easy to snack throughout the day and just generally buy shit foods due to boredom and just generally being sociable with others in the studio often turned to eating. As well as filling myself with crap I was spending ridiculous amounts of money each day on food, and looking back I can see how horrendous it looks on my bank statements (sorry HSBC x)

I managed to cut that whole shabang out my day pretty abruptly due to being very strict on myself and felt a lot better for it knowing my money was better in my bank and not CostCutters pockets.

so yeah thats kinda how all this came about, im going to do another blog post on how I eat when I have uni all day and don’t have time to go home and use the food in the cupboard instead of spending money and things like that. 

My general advice after doing it myself and changing my whole lifestyle is be mega strict, if you feel like you cant maybe get a friend of a family member to help you out/keep reminding you of what you want, because I promise you will feel 100% better. Its probably not the most appealing thing to do as a student but for myself it is definitely what I wanted/needed to make me happier, not that I was unhappy before but I definitely feel happier now rather than before.

Mid Transformation Post

Still have a way to go to get to my goal but I’m uber happy with my transformation so far, nothing wrong with a lil motivation.

My Morning Workout Routine

Yep, you did just read that I, a student, gets up in the morning and goes to the gym. From October to December last year I didn’t even know what the morning looked like as I had a horrendous sleeping pattern of going to sleep in the early hours and sleeping most of the day. Which looking back now is something I’m not happy I did but hey ho, it’s all one big journey.

But when I decided to change my lifestyle I was reading a ton of articles on what is the ‘best’ time to workout. Different articles said different things but my personal conclusion is whenever is best for you. At first I tried doing my workouts at different times during the day starting with evenings, as well as the gym being busy I was realising I was lacking in motivation due to being at uni all day and ended up just wanting to go home to bed.

So I switched it up and tried going during my lunch break at uni, which wasn’t too bad but when I had finished I was knackered and didn’t fancy going back to uni to do more work in the afternoon and again I then switched it up!

MORNINGSSSS!!
By far the best time of the day for me personally, at first getting into a routine of getting up at 6am to go to the gym for 7am and be back and showered before uni at 9am was quite tricky as my body wasn’t used to it but I powered through and now LOVE getting up early. To make sure my body would merge into this routine I was very strict at first of what time I went to sleep, it would be around 10-10:30 just so my body could get enough sleep to get up early. Making sure I got at least 8 hours sleep each night.

When my body started to get used to my new routine it was a lot easier and I had a lot more energy to start the day.

My Workout Routine:
At the moment because I’m mostly focusing on losing weight, I mainly focus on cardio in the gym. And loads of people say you need to mix it up with weights and stuff like that as well but so far my body is reacting well to cardio so I’m sticking with that for now. I mainly use 2 machines which are the cross trainer and treadmill.
Cross trainer: 45 minutes interval training, I will do a warm up then I will go on to doing:
2 minutes intense-1 minute cool-1minute intense-1minute cool-2minutes intense and repeat for 45 minutes. Raising your heart rate in small burst with intervals is a proven way to burn those calories and seems to be working for me!

I then head over to the treadmill and I’ll a lot of the time do a HIIT workout, which will start off as a fast paced walk, then a jog, then a standard run for 1 minute then a sprint for 50 seconds and back to a standard run for 1 minutes and sprint again for 50 seconds, I will repeat the run-sprint workout for 15 minutes.

My favourite type of workout is definitely a HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout, although it’s pretty tough and tiring depending on the level you push yourself to, You feel amazing after.

And that is about all I do at the gym at the moment, 1 hour of cardio a day is definitely enough to burn those unwanted calories and release the good toxins for your body.

When I go on to using other equipment at the gym to tone up after I’ve got to my weight goal I’ll update on my next gym routine

Protein shake lovin’…

So this isn’t an essential thing you need in your life to achieve fitness goals but I wanted to give it a go. It is not the cheapest either, I paid £19.49 for 1.45kg on the MyProtein website which is quite a lot and it lasts well.

I didn’t want to get protein powder to build muscles or anything like that so I went with the impact diet type. After doing research because I had no clue about the ingredients or anything about it I decided to give it a go.

This type of protein powder is whey protein, which is fab in helping with weight loss and increasing metabolism. Overall is boosts metabolism and reduces appetite to reduce snacking between a meals.

I have my protein shake after the gym using skimmed milk instead of water because I think it tastes better. And then I may have one mid afternoon to stop cravings for eating crap before dinner.

I’ve been drinking these shakes for a month and a bit now and I’m finding it is helping me so much, with stopping cravings and generally having more energy after a workout.

Canary Islands 2015 - Biking

So I rented out a bike and rallied up the coast of the island. Laid off going to the gym on holiday because I wanted to do more outside. The hills really put my leg muscles to work especially in the heat, but it was so nice to have the view of the ocean right next to me.

What To Wear...

Branded gym clothes can sometimes be pretty expensive for clothes that you’re going to sweat in but being the student that I am, I searched around and found that H&M have a really good gym clothing range. That’s where I get a lot of my gym clothes because they are reasonably priced and are very comfortable.

As well as different gym leggings I also sometimes wear plain leggings with my hockey skirt or just my hockey skirt. After seeing many girls in the gym with see through leggings on, in my opinion that is the ultimate no no (some sightings are gross), so thickness in gym leggings is what I like to look for as well as a decent price that’s affordable for me.

For my footwear, I’ve always felt very comfortable in Nike trainers, now I know they are not the cheapest brand out there but I think spending a little more money on footwear is important because I pay a lot of attention to how supportive a trainer is on my feet and ankles whilst training because I don’t want an injury.

If I’m doing an intense workout like HIIT I will wear my blue Nikes because they have much better quality of support whereas if I’m going to do a lighter workout such as using the exercise bikes or rowing machine, I’ll wear my purple Nikes because they are much more light weight on my feet.

That’s just a little insight in what I wear, just your average gym clothes. Comfort, support and price are the three main things I look for when buying new gym clothes

Different Meals and Juices I have within my own diet.

The Result Of An Epiphany

So this is the result of the epiphany I had in the gym this morning of setting up a new blog to document and share my journey of improving my health, fitness and lifestyle as a student and voila here is the first blog post on my journey.

Hola, I’m Shannon, Shan, whatever floats your boat. I started uni in 2014 and after half a year of doing nothing but drinking, getting minimal sleep, going out and eating absolute crap in my diet, I decided I didn’t want to totally change but definitely improve my general lifestyle as a student. I still go out and live the stereotypical student life but I cut out a lot of the shit and baggage that potentially comes with it, purely because how mentally and physically unhealthy my lifestyle was becoming which then made me become very negative about pretty much everything, and I’m not about the negative Nancy life.

 I am in no way a fitness guru or some professional in health and lifestyle, I am just a student that is adapting her life for the better, oh how cliché…gross. But true.

 I’m already well on my way through my journey to becoming happier in myself mentally and physically, I’ve been going to the gym 6 days a week for the past 5 months and have rest days on Sunday’s and I’ve totally changed my eating habits, this is awfully cliché too, but I have never felt better. 100%. 

Being a student money is always an issue and can be a big barrier in eating better and not just popping over to dominoes to get a pizza because fruit and veg aren’t the cheapest foods out there but in my opinion are honestly are worth every penny, when doing food shops I do spend a lot of time comparing to try and find the cheapest foods that are good foods to keep my spending on the down low. 

It’s the same kind of idea with a gym membership and they can be pretty expensive for a student but after having my gym membership which I stupidly didn’t use for the first 3 months, I would definitely say buying a membership is worth it if you can. In my own personal opinion I prefer to go to the gym and workout instead of in a park or on a run outside, mainly due to the fact I feel I can focus and keep track of my progress better and generally feel more comfortable in a gym, plus running around the concrete jungle that is Coventry doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest. 

That’s kind of where I’m at, at the moment: Gym and eating better. I will be posting blog posts a few times a week on different areas of health, fitness and lifestyle as a student that I find on my journey.