Focus T25 & Protein World Slender Blend

I haven't done a post in a long time, and decided I wanted to tell you all about how much I love, sometimes hate Focus T25. Now if you have never heard of it before, I'm sure you must have heard of Insanity? If not you must look it up, where have you been?!

Focus T25 is a set of workouts which you follow on a calendar, you do 1 a day Monday to Thursday, Double day Friday, rest on Saturday and Stretch on Sunday. Each workout lasts only 25 minutes, some you need weights for and a mat. T25 is split up into 3 phases, Alpha - focusing on the foundation, Beta - focusing on the core and Gamma - focusing on strength. There is also a mass up of all these together Gamma Hybrid. Each one lasts for 5 weeks except the Gamma one's which are 4.

Focus T25, along with Insanity, Hip Hop Abs and probably more, comes from fitness expert Shaun T.

Here he is the master behind T25 and Insanity and don't trust that smile, he will make you work! You will be screaming at the TV.

I started off with Insanity and stopped at the fitness test (yeah I know, what a weakling) I just knew it would be too hard for me to jump into straight away. I did Zumba (which I loved and still love) and a lot of Jillian Michaels after deciding not to continue with Insanity, but got bored of that everyday after a while. So I decided to search the web to find a new fitness routine and came across T25, I whooped with fitness joy! How awesome would this be!

I got straight on it, put the calendar up on my wall and began Alpha, I must admit it was a little more intense than I thought it would be but hey, this guy claims to give you an hours workout in just 25 minutes. I soon got into the routine and made myself do it everyday after work, so I knew it was coming and what to expect.

I love it, I sometimes shouted at the TV and nearly cried in pain, but it is worth it, you really have no excuse as Shaun T says, it's only 25 minutes of your day! Everyone is different when it comes to results, I didn't really start to see any results until I got to the Beta phase. But I did see those inches come off, I was so pleased, I put in extra effort as my holiday was coming up and managed to lose 5lbs and at least 1 inch of all areas. Please note, I wasn't massively over weight before beginning this. So I imagine people looking to lose a lot of weight will notice results fast.

I finished all phases 7 weeks ago and was really happy with the results, I knew I could do better with my diet and had 2 weeks off when I went on holiday, funny how this may sound I actually was sad that is was over, what do I do now? Should I find something else? Carry on?

Hey, don't change a routine if it's working, I decided to start it all over again, what am I putting myself through! Although it can be tough, I love the feeling at the end of each work out and lose seeing the results when taking my measurements, if I have a bad day diet wise, I can make up for it with doing these work outs. I also love Shaun T's motivation "I'm smiling because I love it!" and I've never been in better shape, I feel more athletic and not just thinner, I sometimes mix it up add Zumba in if I feel I can do both, and don't berate myself if I miss a day, I've only missed 2 so far and I'm half way through Beta.

To make it easier to lose that extra few stubborn lbs to get to my overall target weight I also ordered myself some Vanilla Slender Blend from Protein World. I heard about it from Tanya Burr on one of her monthly favourite videos and decided to give it a go. So far I'm liking the taste and hoping it will curb my snacking, as this is my main problem, I haven't used it for a full week yet, I alternated with fruit smoothies for breakfast, but still saw a 2lbs loss, so this week I am going to try all week, see how I go.

If you are reading this because you are interested in either Focus T25 or the Slender Blend, just go do it, you won't be disappointed, and come back and tell me how you got on!

Things I want to do before I die

This is in no particular order and will probably be updated over time 

1. Go to Las Vegas and see Criss Angel live in the Luxor hotel

2. Go to the Harry Potter studio at Christmas time

3. See the firework show in London on New Year's Eve 

4. Travel to Australia, New York, Hawaii, Barbados, Japan

5. Move into a beautiful house and make it a home 

6. Definitely have two children, preferably 1 boy and 1 girl

7. Get married and have a happy marriage

8. Get a handle on worrying and anxiety for good so that it never takes over

9. Write and finish my own book

10. Live a full and happy life with no regrets, everything happens for a reason 

These are my main choices at the age of 24, let's see how things change as I grow, I will come back regularly to update or cross off this list. 

Healthy starts (again) here!

This is the brilliant new device I have been using on my refreshed health kick. The Breville Blend Active, I bought it from Amazon on a great deal as I've always wanted to try make my own healthy smoothies and this seemed really easy to use and quick which is great for early work mornings.

Here it is in action. It arrived smaller than I thought but that wasn't bad, you get the blending device which only has one button blend of course, 2 600ml bottles and lids and the blade device. It is really simple to use put everything you want in your smoothie in the bottle then attached the blade on top and turn upside down, the click into place on the machine and simply blend, so much simpler for washing! 

This was my first attempt I added anything and everything into this on haha. Oh a good tip is got from a friend get frozen fruit it lasts a lot longer than fresh!

Banana, mango, pineapple and frozen yoghurt

All blended up and ready to go!

Bit of apple this time and banana.

I have learnt at the moment mango, pineapple, banana and a bit if water is my favourite so far and such a summery colour! I am really loving this blender, I have used it everyday since last week and love it as a breakfast smoothie, especially in this weather and it's all good. Frozen fruit was definitely a good tip, I get all mine from tesco or aldi and they're not expensive either.

My mum watched me name my first and thought it looked so good she went straight onto amazon and bought one for herself! And I I've already lost 2lbs whilst having these! Keep them coming!

First Holiday Fun!

Hello Everyone,

I'm baaaack!

I had such a great time on holiday with Michael, I really did not want to come back.
Porto Santo is a beautiful Island and we got to experience a lot of it. I will definitely be reviewing it on TripAdvisor to help others with questions about the Island.
All Inclusive is a great way to holiday, I will definitely be doing it again, it was so nice to be able to get as much food, drink, desserts as you want and not have to worry about paying for it. That will be hard to adjust to now I'm home! hehe.

The Thomson Travel card is also recommended, I did a lot of research before hand and decided to go with Thomson. We didn't want to go on holiday with lots of euro's handing around and wanted our money more secure, we went in and had a chat and sorted out a card, most places in Porto Santo took the card, as long as it takes mastercard you can use it. It was so much easier to carry around a protected card and a small amount of euro's in cash rather than lots than could easily get swiped.

We got up to loads at Porto Santo, we had Thomson reps who we could talk to and ask questions, Emma was amazing, she helped us so much, we booked a Chill out Cruise, Scuba Diving and a Jeep Safari with her, all prices were pretty good, and after the experiences I say definitely worth it.

First off Scuba Diving, lets just say it looks a little easier than it is, I expected it to be quite simple, but there was a lot of things to remember, and more equipment than I thought, I still gave it a go even though I was quite nervous, we tried it out in the pool first to make sure we were ok before going to sea. I loved swimming around and found breathing a little hard to get used to but ok in the end, it was the what if scenarios that I struggled with, what if you lost your mouth piece and how to get it back, what if you get water in your goggles and how to get it out whilst still in the water (I HATE water in my eyes!) and what if you run out of air and how to use someone elses. I struggled with these and eventually gave up and said I was happy just to swim around, I watched Michael do it all, after a little struggling he managed to overcome it and finished it all, I was told I could not go to sea if I didn't do those exercises and I said I was fine with that, I wouldn't feel comfortable anyways. Michael also decided not to go to sea, as even though he managed to do it all, he still felt he needed more time (only 1 hour in the pool!) and practice before again feeling comfortable in the sea. So we went straight back to Emma and got a refund for the sea dive, I was a little gutted as I was so looking forward to seeing all the sealife under the sea, I love that kind of stuff, but knew I would just panic and not enjoy it if I went down. Maybe after a few more pool sessions we can do it next time.

Chill out Cruise was really nice, just us on a boat with some others and staff, really relaxing, can sit on the front and sunbathe, saw lots of great scenery, the whole beach from start to finish, stopped at Lime Rock for some swimming or snorkelling and then headed back. We got to see some Dolphins! lots of them it was so nice they were right underneath us :D We even got a glimpse of a whale. I got some great photo's from that trip.

The Jeep Safari Tour was fantastic our tour guide was called David, and we had another Jeep behind us following us along with another great tour guide called Cloudio. They both spoke great english and had lots to say about the Island, I was so glad I did it, It's nice to know more about where you are staying and were it came from, again lots of photos and footage from the day, it lasted 3 and half hours to get around all the spots so I thought it was definitely worth the money.

After all that we chilled out by the pool, sunbathed, drank and ate a lot, watched some fantastic shows by the Animation team in the sunset bar, which was in the resort, all on our doorstep. And some fantastic performances by the barmen.

Such a great fun filled, relaxing holiday, I seriously did not want to come home and back to work tomorrow :( it definitely makes us want to go on more though and makes us wish we had been on more in the past, but the fun begins here! We possibly might be going on holiday with some friends and their children next year which would be great fun, we'll see how it goes, either way we'll go on another holiday next year.

Pictures to follow!

Bye for now