July Review And August Goals

Uh oh... It's that time of the month for me again where I confess to you all whether I've been good or bad and made it through the months goals. Writing down my goals really helps to keep me focused on trying to achieve them actually but last month was horrific in terms of goals, I don't think I have a single success :(  I know I didn't set too many goals in the first place but I still failed the ones I did bother making! So I'd run through them quickly and see what needs changing and how I can eventually make it better. 

Mankofit's Eat Clean, Train Dirty challenge
This 30 day challenge really got the better of me and I completely flunked out from like day 6! I just found eating as clean as her a little bit too challenging and only lasted about 5/6 days! Lol. I have tried to implement some of the things in my usual diet though like no fizzy drinks/sweets and eating more fish as well. The training dirty part wasn't too bad and I enjoyed most of her workouts but then I fell ill the day before Race for Life (imagine that!!) and completely fell off the wagon, both eating and working out!

Race for Life
It kills me to say that I did NOT complete Cancer Research UK's Race for Life. Literally the day before or 2 days before I fell really quite ill and couldn't make it on the last train to London on the Saturday before the race and there were no early enough trains on the day even though I was feeling better which really sucked. But thank you to everyone that donated and I'm sorry I disappointed you :(

Hair
I finally posted my most recent hair regimen and I'm so glad I did! Special thank you to Ibiyemi, Candice (Healthy Hair Diary) and Mo (Within My Locket) for their amazing advice, it's so lovely to be able to share with other people on the same journey as you, especially when the road gets tough! Thanks ladies I will definitely be implementing some of the advice I got and soon too!

So those were my three July goals... All failed...*sigh* Actually no, i posted my regimen before the month ran out so that counts as a success! Yay! *happy dance* For August I've decided to try something a little different and do weekly goals instead of monthly, I got the idea from Candice and I think it's a great idea to keep goals bite size and make them easier to achieve! So.. My goals for the week (until the 9th of August) are...

• Try out a new hair regimen with more moisture and see how it works
• Drink 1.5 litres of water a day
• Workout 4 or more times a week
• Start typing my literature review (dissertation chapter 1)

What are some of your goals for the week/month? Drop me a link in the comments box, I'd love to read them!

Reni x

Race For Life!

This year, I'm participating in Cancer Research UK's 'Race for Life' in Hyde Park on the 14th of July. For those who don't know, Race for Life is an incentive by Cancer Research to raise money for research for over 200 types of cancer and it started about 19 years ago. The race is a female only event and participants (like myself) raise money by walking/jogging/running a 5 or 10 kilometre course and asking people for support/sponsorship for doing so. Personally after doing the Manchester Bogle a few months ago, the thought of walking/jogging more than 5k was just unappealing to me so I decided to take part in the 5k and try and run/jog it.

Preparation has been going really well! I've managed to knock a whole three minutes off my time and so I can now complete 5k in about 40 minutes, my first goal was to get down to 39 minutes but if I could get even lower to 35 or so that would be awesome! Gym time! Isn't this such great incentive to go to the gym with your girls and get a killer workout? I wouldn't lie, after the first time I ran a full 5k I was shattered and sore! And the 3-4k stretch is always the most difficult for me mentally but thanks to my awesome running playlist, it's getting better!

But all this good will and training will be for nothing without the help of all you lovely people, I would like to ask you all to donate to this very worthy cause. Think about your daughter, sister, mother, girlfriend or best friend and how finding a long term solution to cancer will help all women and men in the fight against cancer. No amount is ever too small and every single donation is valued, I do hope that you will all give generously after all it has been proven that giving more leads to longer healthier and more prosperous lives! (Okay I made that bit up but as long as you believe, anything is possible!) Please click the link below to get to my donation page and thank you very much in advance!

Race for Life Donation Page

Hope the week has been going well!

Reni x

Hair and Fitness Catch-Up Session and June Goals

So at the end of March, I wrote a post called April Goals and Bloglovin Love where I wrote a list of things I would like to have achieved by the end of April, then in typical me fashion, I completely forgot to come back with an update as to how things went, I just realised I never even gave a final Insanity update! Shocking behaviour really, thanks for not calling me out guys!

So let's start with the goals from April which carried all the way through till right now because honestly, life was a bit too hectic in May to think about setting any new goals! Begin with the successes shall we?

Drink at least one litre of water a day.

Yay to this one! It's weird, i now find myself actually wanting to drink water over many other things. You might not understand the severity of this because I didn't document the time i actively tried to convince one of my best friends that I was allergic to drinking water, oh dear, the silly things I've said! Overall though I find it so much easier to think of drinking 500ml two bottles of rather than half a 2 litre bottle. Weird huh?

I mean just look at how gigantic that bottle is! The 500ml is so miniature and cute in comparison!

I know I'm nowhere near the recommended daily intake but this is a massive achievement for me :)

Try a Tea Rinse/ Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse

Ouuu this was such fun, I must admit it felt extremely weird to pour tea over my hair and I was having one of those "You know you don't have to try everything you read" moments, but I'm glad I tried it because after dousing my hair in Twinnings Green Tea and doing my regular deep condition with ORS Replenishing Conditioner, my hair felt so nice and soft, yet strong and I hardly had any shedding at all! I was amazed actually, seeing as I was at least 7 weeks post by then!

Do Two Protein Treatments

This one I did and overdid and found myself face to face with the monster that is protein overload! Lord I could have cried, I'm even a bit too embarrassed to share what I did but I would anyways. So.. here goes... don't laugh! Basically, the long and short is that after I took my weave out, I washed my hair as normal then thought to go heavy on the protein because of breakage/shedding. So I mixed two types of protein treatments. Motions Protein Reconstructor and ORS Hair Mayonnaise and then deep condition. I then spray my usual leave-in by Motions as well which contains silk amino acids, read protein. By the time my hair was dry I was almost in tears from how hard/dry/crunchy it felt. After a couple of deep conditions later that week it was back to normal-ish but I'm never doing that again! Lesson learnt.

And now the not-so-fun parts, trust me I have an excuse for each one of them but I will just take them as fails for now and try harder next time!

Apply JCBO to my edges nightly and scalp every other day

I was clearly feeling extremely optimistic when I wrote this! But the real reason it didn't happen was because I got a weave.

Have a side of veggies with lunch every day

Even more optimism! Ha!

Finish Insanity by the 7th of April

Not completing this one really hurt me but my knee was starting to act up again! I got to day 57 and could never be bothered to do the last three days after I felt better :( Here's my update on how I was doing before the setback though Insanity Month 2: It's Not a Diet, It's a Lifestyle.

Start a new workout regime including Hip Hop Abs and Swimming

This only counts as a fail because I dont actually have a regime but I have been working out loads and training for Race for Life! (more on that soon). I started the Hip Hop abs and can I just say that as an avid Shaun T fan, it sucks! Ugh, it's so boring and you do the same video everyday for 6 days or something crazy! As soon as I saw the schedule I was bored, I think I made it to day 5 or so. Some very good information about engaging your core on there though with the "Tilt, Tuck, Tighten" method, if you like relatively low impact exercise (because everything after insanity is low impact!) and want to work your abs definitely look into it though!

Random view of the pool at my gym, taken from my favourite stretch spot. There's just something so calming about water.

Whoosh! That was a pretty long review, but I guess a lot has happened since I last posted any thing mainly hair/fitness related.

Now that all this catching up is done and there's only a teeny bit left to do, I thought it'd be a good idea to make some new goals for June.

Hair

Nothing fancy here really as I'm currently 11 weeks post but my hair has been in braids for about 2 weeks now.

• Complete 16 week stretch.
• Wash hair at least once every 2 weeks.
• Moisturise every other day.

Food/Fitness

• Run 5k at least twice a week in preparation for Race for Life on the 14th of July.
• Complete the 30 Day Squat Challenge (Day 12 today, whoop!)
• Be able to plank for 90 seconds (I'm currently on a measly average of about 45).
• Pole!
• Try a new recipe or two.
• Drink at least 1.5 litres of water a day

Others

It's summer time and bar my dissertation I intend to have as much fun as possible!

• Become a 'yes' girl! Life is nothing but the experiences we make out of it!
• Use my proper camera more, it's so much better than the iPhone 5.
• Write a story or two to go on THAHW.
• Blog more after exams are over

What are some of your goals for the next 30 days?

P.S. My donation link for Race for Life is here, I'd do a separate post to give the details properly but just incase anyone already knows what is and all that and wants to donate :)

Reni x