How To: Up Your Game

After 4 months of completely taking ‘time off’ from my normal uni routine, my gym regime, my nutritional structure and my regular sleep pattern – I’m back.

I’m back at university where I dedicate myself entirely to trying to learn as much as possible whilst prioritising my ‘fit-girl’ life and maintaining a social life.

I focus on those 3 things because they’re what genuinely make me happy in life: Having the knowledge and ability to debate with people about historical and political actions (you got it, I study history). Achieve my body-goals through breaking mental boundaries, and to keep meeting interesting and diverse people from all over the world who I might not have the opportunity to meet otherwise.

I wanted to write this blog post from the perspective of someone who used to be terrified about taking time off, who would get frustrated and angry if there wasn’t a gym around, or who would pull at their skin after eating an ice cream and guilt-trip myself for eating pizza. I’m not the kind of person to be overly emotional or to try and get sympathy where I can, I just want to let you know where I was at, because when I used to be that girl who would wake up, go straight to the mirror and think about how much I wanted to change about myself, I couldn’t imagine ever getting out of that.

You can read time and time again how exercising will change your life, how it becomes addictive once you see results and the classic ‘trust the process’. So I get how monotonous and boring these things can be, I’m here to tell you that   1. All the above phrases are/were true (to me) and 2. They’re part of a much bigger picture that is something which can’t be taken for granted.

Dedicating time and effort to make the gym your safe space, your therapy-room, your second home is invaluable. Don’t get me wrong, when I started going to the gym and lifting weights a year ago I did NOT feel comfortable. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, made me feel awkward, clumsy and weak. But sticking to something which makes you feel uncomfortable is one of the best things you can do in life to grow. Putting in the time to do this when my mind was in a totally stable place meant that when I was feeling insecure, vulnerable or just a bit sad, the gym was the place where I could physically go and mentally switch off. It was my safe space.

So if you’re finding it difficult to stick to your goals of ‘losing weight’, ‘getting abs’, or even (god forbid) getting a ‘thigh gap’, then remember that going to the gym is a lot bigger than that. Dedicate yourself to it so that you can use it to your advantage, make the gym a place that when you can’t cope, the gym can be your coping mechanism. It doesn’t need to be alcohol, drugs, cigs or even food. You need to put in the time to make positive changes in your life. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.

This all links back to taking time off and getting back into a routine. You can probably now see that why going back to the gym for me will never be a challenge, but rather a pleasure.

Now I’m back after those 4 months and I’m ready to take my fitness goals to the next level, I want to achieve my ambitions with more precision, efficiency and success so I decided to focus on plus factors which I think will help me along the way. Those include: taking supplements, tuning my Curve Guide progress and goals with a top fitness expert and examining my body composition/sleep/heart rate and more with a digital fitness tracker.

I’ve decided to dedicate a blog post to each of these 3 things to give you an in depth idea of what I mean by ‘next level’. So if you’re keen to up your game and want to know how I plan on doing that with the TomTom Touch, then keep on readin’…

1. TomTom Touch – I’ve never really been into fitness add-ons ranging from tech equipment to supplements but after hearing some incredible things about the TomTom Touch I decided to give this fitness tracker a go in September. I wanted to try it out before posting about it just incase it didn’t live up to what my friends had told me, but after a month of using it I’m genuinely obsessed with it.

One of the most useful parts of the tracker for me is that it measures my body fat to muscle ratio, sounds pretty intense I know, but if you’re trying to take your training to the next level then it’s a super easy way of doing so.

It’s built-in heart rate monitor (how fancy do I sound) means that when I’m completing my HIIT sessions from my Curve Guide I can actually make sure I’m pushing myself to the point where my heart is pumping at the rate I’m aiming for. I think a lot of the time if we don’t have someone else there to remind us that we can work harder, and that we actually need to to keep seeing results, then it can be easy to settle and eventually plateau.

Another aspect of my life which has changed a lot since getting back to uni is how much I sleep. I’m a natural early bird (that just made me laugh, sounds like something I should put in my Instagram bio) but I also stay awake pretty late sometimes so I’ve been using my Touch to track how many hours I’m sleeping so that I can measure out if I’m overworking my body. If I am, the Touch gives me a good indication of how much and when I need to take a break.

My main goal this year is to gain more muscle in my glutes whilst keeping my thighs toned and waist tight with visible obliques. Such a specific goal whaaa!? Having this in mind honestly gets me so excited, partly because I know it’s possible and also because I never thought I would have such a clear goal in mind which is what makes it possible! To reach my goal I need to make sure I’m not burning too many cals on a day to day basis so the TomTom Touch has helped me a lot over the past month to make sure I’m on track to those booty-gains.

If you want to keep up to date with how I’m keeping up to date with my goals check out my Snap Chat: progresspure

Love, Molly xx