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One Night with Jessie Pavelka

Honestly, when I was invited to go workout with Jessie Pavelka, I didn’t know who he was. A HIIT class and the promise of a healthy buffet is more than enough to get me somewhere. Things started to get a bit more real when I told my friend Laura what I was up to: “Have you SEEN A Year to Save My Life?!”

Erm. No. I hadn’t, actually. Maybe I should get out more. Or should that be stay in..?

It was…

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How I Meal Prep Like A Boss

NEW POST: How I Meal Prep Like A Boss

Working in town with loads of healthy food choices (and not-so-healthy for those kind of days) meant I never really had much of a need for meal prep. Sure, sometimes when money was a little tight I’d cook a few days’ worth of meals and take them to work, but I never really enjoyed eating re-heated chicken and rice when I knew Barburrito was just around the corner.

Now I’m leaving for work at 7am…

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My First Week At QDos | CrossFit For Beginners

My First Week At @QDosFitness | CrossFit For Beginners

Today was my fourth CrossFit class at QDos, thus completing my first week at the box, which is near Manchester Airport. Major kudos to the guys as not only do they have a gym name where you can make that “kudos” pun, they’ve also improved my form remarkably and already taught me to do new things. Considering these improvements it’s pretty unfair that CrossFit has a bad reputation for ruining form…

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The Color Run, Manchester

The Color Run, Manchester with @originalsource! #OriginalSourceIntensity

Running around a stadium on a hot, sweaty day with thousands of other people may not be everybody’s idea of fun. Add in loud music, lashings of paint and oodles of silliness and it suddenly becomes a lot more appealing!

If you’ve never done a Color Runbefore, that’s exactly what you’re missing out on. As you run through coloured stations volunteers throw powder at you so that when you finish…

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LIFE: Getting Parents Active

NEW POST: Getting Parents Active

The ‘obesity epidemic’ is often in the news here in the UK, with inactivity as a child often being cited as a contributing factor, which is clearly worrying for parents. What’s talked about less often is how children feel about their parents’ habits, whether that be smoking, drinking, or inactivity, and recent research has revealed just how much kids worry about their mums and dads lifestyles.

Wh…

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TRAIN: Les Mills ONELive

NEW POST: Three and a half hours of @LesMills_UK classes? It can only be ONELive!

Les Mills classes were the way I first got into fitness, with two hours of back-to-back Pump and Combat twice a week. Picture me jab, jab, upper, hook-ing in training gloves and baggy Nike dance pants and you’ll get the idea of a big Wednesday night out of my early twenties. Fast forward seven years and I was totally Pump-ed (ho) to hit up London’s ONELive with my fellow Les Mills-mad pal, Debs.

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RUN: Race For Life Delamere

You’ve signed up for a race, got your kit ready and prepared yourself for race day. But what is a Race For Life really like? On a grey day a few weeks ago I hit Delamere Forest, ready to run my Race For Life 10K. Delamere Forest was the smallest Race For Life I’ve attended, though the atmosphere was warm and friendly. Before the event I’d lost my race number, so I was very anxious to get there…

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LIFE: A Flaky Confession My psoriasis first flared up when I was 17. I was just about to take my AS levels when big, red, scaly patches appeared on my body, but the worst area by far was my scalp.

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SPORT: This Girl On The Radio By now you will have heard of the This Girl Can campaign - going into its second season, it's everywhere from TV to viral on social media.

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TRAIN: Get Spartan Fit + WIN!

TRAIN: Get Ready to Spartan + WIN!

Spartan Raceis coming to Manchester in July – AROO! – and I’ve put my big brave girl pants on and entered the Super*. The Super race is 13+km worth of obstacles, but there’s also Sprint at 5+km at Beast at 20+km.. I might have been tempted by the latter but in Manchester this time Super is the longest! I have an entry place for any Spartan you wish to give away (worth up to £90) so read on for…

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RUN: Ready to Race For Life

It’s now been a year since I ran my first 10K race, and tomorrow I’m running my next – Race For Life in Delamere Forest. Whilst it’s unlikely I’ll be achieving that elusive sub-45 minute tomorrow, it’s given me a chance to reflect on the races I’ve done over the past year, especially that very first one where I didn’t know what to expect.

Laura from Fat2Fit has written a great post on how to…

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LIFE: Be:Fit London 2015

Be:Fit Londonis a yearly fitness festival which is focused on giving women everything they need for a healthy and happy lifestyle, be it workouts, food, or supplements. I missed out on a trip to Be:Fit last year due to work commitments so I was sure to book the day off this time, and I was so glad I did; early Saturday morning I made my way to London, worried that the train I’d booked home was…

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EAT: Trek On!

NEW POST: @illliterature and I demolished a box of TREK flapjacks from @nakd.. And we loved them!

You’d have to have been living under a rock to not have heard of Natural Balance Foods. Along with the wellness revolution, over the past couple of years Trek and Nakd bars have boomed in popularity with those seeking a sweet yet healthy snack – in fact, when I met the guys behind Natural Balance at Be:Fit (How good is his t-shirt? They should sell them!) I was told that for years they got away…

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OP-ED: Beach Body Ready?

OP-ED: Beach Body Ready?

Yesterday I was in London, and it was difficult to miss the bright yellow adverts from Protein World around the city, particularly on the tube. I was so busy they disappeared into the rest of the advertising clutter for me, so it wasn’t until I settled with my coffee this morning to catch up with Twitter that I saw the backlash, and the company’s terrible response to them.

I find it difficult…

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RUN: I Am A Marathoner!

NEW POST: I Am A Marathoner! #ukrunchat

It’s not even sunk in yet that yesterday I ran 26.2 miles. Even as I was running, I found I had to keep reminding myself that this was it, you’re running a marathon, this is what you’ve been training for over the past few months! Clearly I thought my life would change dramatically after completing a marathon, but it’s sort of like when somebody asks how you feel being another year older on your…

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EAT: Fuelling My Marathon

EAT: Fuelling My Marathon.. With just days to go, my marathon nutrition is packed up!

Ener:gel, Scitec Isotec*, everything else available at any supermarket anywhere!

As well as training my legs, heart and mindset for the upcoming Manchester marathon, I’ve also been training my muscles to hold more energy and figuring out what’s best for me to eat whilst on long runs. My marathon is now four days away (ARGH! But also.. OOOH!) so it’s now time to make a decision on what nutrition…

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KIT: Race For Life 2015

T-shirt, leggings & socks all Race For Life* / Nike Free 5.0 / Samsung Gear S watch*

Stronger, braver, pinker – that’s this year’s Race For Life runners. Last year at Pretty Muddyeveryone was, of course, in pink, so I decided to wear my favourite pink Nike t-shirt. Big mistake. The mud STILL hasn’t washed out, and whilst I’m proud I got coated in the brown stuff for the sake of charity, I miss my…