Top 10 Workout Tips

Food is a major love of mine, along with being generally lazy and avoiding exercise. However my job as a model sort of dictates that I have to be a certain size, so I try my very best to drag myself to the gym a few times a week, hard as that may be! Here are my top ten tips for working out when you really would rather be in bed/eating pizza etc.

1. Buy cool workout accessories

It's the beginning of the year, and the shops are bursting with their ranges of 'cool' work out clothes (because everyone loves working out in their overpriced bra!) and other fancy workout gear. Yoga mats, water bottles, ipod holders - if you can think of it, they've got it.

This month I bought a water bottle juicer from Amazon and it is amazing. You can juice half a lemon, lime, whatever takes your fancy in the bottom half and have all the benefits of sipping on lemon water all day. Great if you aren't good at drinking normal water, and super cheap at £10.

Also getting a cool pair of new trainers or gym clothes really helps you want to go to the gym and show off in it! Missguided's new range is really cool.

2.Wear your gym clothes to bed

Might sound a bit 'gross' if you re-wear your gym clothes a few times before washing (errrrm no.. I don't do that) but it is literally my tip-top-tip. I used to wear my school uniform to sleep in Cyprus because we had to wake up at 6am! (But we finished school at 1.40pm and went to the beach, so can't really complain).

If you just throw on a pair of leggings and tshirt before bed, when you wake up you can literally roll out of bed, grab your pre-packed bag and sleep-walk your way to the gym. Do a sleep-workout, and by the time you are properly awake you have finished!

3. Work out in the morning 

Similar to #2, the earlier you work out the better. It is out of the way, and leaves you energized and endorphin-ed up for the day ahead, with your metabolism burning away all day. If you work out before breakfast (with still a small snack to stop you from fainting, like a banana) then you naturally will burn fat instead of energy. I've recently discovered you only start burning fat 30 minutes after you start running (quite a problem when I only used to do 20 minutes a day!) because first of all you burn the food you have recently eaten. This also means you get to look forward to an amazing breakfast afterwards.

The later you leave your work out, the more excuses you will find to put it off until tomorrow - this happens to me so much it is ridiculous!

4. Coffee

A good, but probably not 'totally' healthy tip is to drink coffee before your work out. Or eat a banana, anything that gives you a good energy hit and gets you working out twice as hard! I've recently started making use of the amazing coffee maker I bought Dima for Christmas (or making him make use of it for me, as it remains a bit confusing) and every time I drink it before a run I burn double the calories as I would normally.

Just don't make a major habit of it, it can be pretty addictive!

6. Set your alarm ten minutes earlier than you have to

I don't know about you, but once I have opened one eye and checked my phone, I can't get back to sleep. Rather than just lie in bed all morning on instagram, this makes me more motivated to actually get up and start my day! 

Pretty much my alarm!

Just maybe set a couple, incase you fall back to sleep! 

6. Get out the door

A major struggle of mine is actually getting out of the door into the freezing cold air. I usually just get changed into my gym clothes then sit around procrastinating, until I ask Dima to literally kick me out of the house! Once you are out, you're out and once you are at the gym you may as well work out before you come back. Much like diving into a swimming pool, it's not so bad once you get in. 

8. Set some goals

Achievable ones! I try and run a little bit more every so often. I used to run 20 minutes a day about a year ago and now I try to always make it 40. Generally I do it in two 20 minute bursts on the treadmill so it doesn't seem so daunting, but even a minute more each week can make a huge difference. Try on your skinny jeans every week to see progress, and your skinniest-of-the-skinniest jeans every month.

My ultimate goal - might happen one day if I revisit Cheerleading!

8. Watch TV at the same time

I get really bored exercising. It's not that I can't run, it's that moment when you check the clock and it feels like at least 20 minutes have gone by when really it has been 20 seconds of blistering hell. So I watch TV. Luckily my gym has wifi (most of the time, when it works!) so I usually watch a series on Netflix on my ipad as this means I get to catch up on my favourite shows and forget everything else. American Horror Story is a pretty terrifying one to watch (makes you run a lot faster) - at the moment I am alternating between The Good Wife and The Originals. 

My gym - Kiss Gyms in Acton

9. Join a good gym

And make sure you go! Having failed at my trying to work out at home plan, I realised that the only reason I work as hard as I do is because of the atmosphere of the gym, knowing that you have bothered to come there so you have to do something before you can plod on home. A gym that is close by is perfect as you literally have no excuses. Check out what classes are being offered at certain gyms, if they have a swimming pool, sauna, women's only section... just tailor it to what you are most likely to do. I go to Kiss Gyms at the moment and only pay £20 a month which is pretty darn cheap for London. I just need somewhere with a treadmill, couple of yoga classes a week and preferably a women's section! 

10. Do classes

Classes are a great way to ensure you are working out to your full potential and doing it correctly. They can also be (whisper) fun! My favourites are yoga and pilates, and if I have something I really need to be toned for occasionally I will put myself through the hell of a legs, bums and tums class. There are literally so many out there, you are spoiled for choice! 

Ideal class!

W hotel

The W hotel is quickly becoming my favourite place to hang out. London Village Kids have started up a sort of model-hang out there, (so if you are modeling in London definitely sign up. straight away.) - they also do really great nights out in London for everyone so definitely worth checking them out, some really cool people. Back to the W. It is such a beautiful hotel and located bang in the middle of Leicester Square and Picadilly Circus. 

Hiding behind M&M's world - a gigantic W

Their theme seems to be... disco balls. But instead of one looming conspicuously over a big room, they sort of exploded them into every conceivable place, which looks awesome.  

We are lucky enough to use the gym, and I went to check it out the other day - amazing. Super high tec machines and relatively empty in comparison to my sweaty university gym! 

I don't think I have ever seen such a beautiful gym - running on a treadmill that overlooks London is a nice change to running on a treadmill that overlooks.. a wall. 

The best part, is obviously the sauna/steam room. 

The lounge in W is also amazing, a really chilled out and relaxed place to grab a drink or two and study/use their free wifi.

 

Their food is amazing, and they have two very cool sections which remind me of seasons - one 'wintery' section with blazing, swanky fires 

and one section with beautiful floor to ceiling windows, meaning it is a beautifully light place to go and sit. I watched enviously a couple of people having an afternoon tea in there, and it looked incredible! Definitely planning to go and elegantly devour some mini-cakes with Dima soon! 

They also have a club (whatttt!) and I've heard that on the weekends it gets pretty busy there, which must mean it is good! As well as a cinema - they should definitely install these in every hotel! If you are looking to stay in London it is literally perfect and very different from all the other hotels I've been to! Definitely worth checking out, even for a cheeky lunch :) (they have mini burgers - enough said.) 

xxx 

Sleep, Eat, Work, Work out, Repeat

As a model, you have to be in shape. As a stressed final-year law student, you have to have energy to do the millions of pages of reading each week and essays that come hurling at you, and your only solace is chocolate. I have to get into shape very quicky for a very important and exciting job that I really, really want so I have finally got the motivation I need to eliminate junk food and work out - hard. Also exams are coming up which means I have got to stay on top of all my uni work!

The first way of doing this is go to the gym. Obviously most people don't need to lose weight quickly, but if you want it to stay off you need to do regular exercise and eat healthily (guilty). I have been doing cheerleading which is amazing for strength building (I can now beat my friends in arm wrestling competitions) but not great for actually losing weight as there is not that much cardio in it. So I have begrudingly started running for twenty minutes a day which I really hate.



The second method is to do exercise at home - over the holidays our cheerleading posted a daily conditioning challenge which takes only ten minutes and is very effective, combining 30 seconds exercise. Here it is..

Each exercise must last a minimum of 30 seconds.

All exercise sections must be performed continuously with no breaks until all exercises for that section are complete.

1) Legs
Squat jumps (must bend to 90 degrees with chest up and arms above head)
Switch lunges (lunges on alternating legs with jumps, arm above head at all times)
Rebound jumps (straight jumps with arms above your head, pushing only with your calves and keeping your legs completely straight with each rebound)
Rock backs and tuck jump (Rock backwards onto your back with your legs in the air and immediately rock forwards onto both feet, trying to stand up and once standing up tuck jump immediately)

2)Arms
Press ups (elbows next to body, chest/boobs to floor, squeeze you bum the whole time to prevent 'sagging' and push straight up. If not normal press ups then do press ups on your knees)
Press ups with wide arms (arms at 90 degrees to body, same as before)
Diamond press ups (make a diamond on the floor using your hands (index finger to index finger and thumb to thumb) and do press ups, aim to put your chest on your hands)
Dips (hands on edge of desk/chair with body facing away, start with straight arms and bend your arms until 90 degrees, repeat)

3)Abs
Dish hold (lie flat, raise shoulders and feet slightly off the floor, hold and squeeze you abs and bum)
Sit up with twists (sit up, elbow to contra-lateral knee and lie down, repeat)
Crunches
N sits (hold dish and then tuck your body, knees to chest and then go back to dish, repeat)
Scissors (lie in dish, raise and lower opposite legs)
Plank (hold this plank with your toes UNDER your feet (i.e. do not hold plank on your toes)

4)Cardio
Jogging with high knees (knees must rise above hip height otherwise it is futile)
Burpies (Hit press up position, pull legs to elbows and immediately kick back and stand up, then hit press up position etc)
Jogging with high knees again
Burpies but lie down (do not hit press up position but instead lie down and stand back up immediately, repeat)
Jogging with high knees
Tuck jumps (arms above head, chest up, jump and bring knees to chest, must do this with feet together)

This will take you approx 10mins. You can have a 30 second break in between - there is an app on iphones called 'SIT' which times thirty seconds continuously. 



The third method I am going to combine with the above two (for as long as I can manage!) is daily yoga. Lisa posted the link on her blog; Here is the challenge. Stretching is a major part of working out which is often neglected (definitely by me!)

Also I am going to attempt to drink as much water as I can, an obvious one. I wrote a healthy eating plan this morning listing my motivation, the foods that I can eat and a checklist to tick off daily (inspired by our fabulous cleaning chart which has generated world war 3 in our flat).

Hopefully by posting this I will get some further motivation/motivate others- I definitely need all the help I can get!