Summer’s over, and despite best laid plans (which are invariably dreamed up reading health mags, and involve yoga on the beach, eating salads, playing tennis in the sunshine and the like), it might be that perhaps I’ve gained a few more (cough) pounds than I’ve liked. So, it’s back on the weight loss train for me – and I thought I’d share some of the things I’m doing to speed up the process.
You know that advert where there’s some kind of amazing festival with everyone throwing coloured dye on each other, and it’s supposed to make you want to buy a car or a camera or something, but actually it just makes you want to run outside in a spray of yellow, purple and red, dancing around like a toddler hopped up on too much Haribo? Of course you do – how could you forget? Well, if you’re anything like me, once you have a dream in mind, you set about to find a way to make it happen. And, funnily enough, where there’s a dream, there’s usually someone ready to make that dream come true if you give them some money. To cut a long story short, earlier this month I went on the Color Run in Wembley, London. That’s basically what I’m trying to tell you.
Ever since I booked my tickets for the McQueen show at the V&A museum next year, I’ve been thinking a lot about what to wear. Yes, it’s shallow on one level, but at the same time, as a fan of McQueen, I feel like it only makes sense to take something from the label with me when I go to view the exhibition – as a sign of respect more than anything. However, I have a couple of pairs of McQueen shoes, a skull scarf, my Swallow bracelet – but no bag. Like many people, I really love the knuckle duster box clutches, and I also have a soft spot for the Heroine bags, but they’re both out of my price range! When browsing through the collections online, though, I came across the gorgeous shape of the De Manta clutch, and decided that it would be the perfect bag to accompany me on my trip!
The De Manta bag made its debut in Alexander McQueen’s final show, Plato’s Atlantis, in spring/summer 2010. The collection was inspired by the concept of mankind returning to the sea following an environmental apocalypse, and many of the most striking designs showcased silk screen snake prints. The python clutch in the top left is one of the final items designed by McQueen, and as such it’s a pretty special piece. The shape of the clutch is unique indeed – it’s inspired by the shape of the manta ray, and the two folded corners are held in place by magnets. To open the clutch, you fold the flaps out and the zip is free to open completely. I just love how simple this is, yet how elegant it looks!
On the right hand side is the ocelot print clutch in twill from 2012, which is much hardier and therefore more fitting with my lifestyle! Perhaps my favourite two clutches are the middle two (all of the final four are current season), which are perfect for spring and summer – the lace/crochet print (yes, that’s a print!) silk bag on the right is sublime, but the floral print bag is the one that really caught my eye. At the bottom, we have on the left a feather print design, and on the right, a patchwork design, both in a heavy black and red which suits a bolder colour scheme! All of these clutches are the large size (there are also ‘mini’ sized De Mantas) and retail at £325. However, I may have located a cheaper, second hand ocelot clutch… More on that if/when it arrives!
What do you think of the De Manta clutch? Which one would you carry? And, do you own any McQueen bags?
Like my posts? Find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Polyvore for even more content!
Kate Middleton’s most iconic pair of smart casual shoes are probably her blue suede wedges. Most frequently seen during the 2013 Summer Olympics in London, these wedges are by American designer Stuart Weitzman and available at Russell & Bromley in the UK. However, there are also plenty of high street replicas – such as the pairs from Next and Hobbs last year. This year, grocery chain Sainsbury’s is in on the trend, producing a pair of blue suede cork wedges for £18 for their clothing line Tu. I happened to drop into Sainsbury’s yesterday wearing the originals, so I present a quick side by side comparison in the interests of retail science!
(Just an FYI, Sainsbury’s is the lighter blue of the two!)
I thought it was funny to note that 1) these were the only pair left after the Duchess’s appearance with the similar pair the other day, and 2) that they were positioned right next to some Sledge lookalikes!
My verdict: the Tu wedges are a decent replicate at £18, although the colour is not really a match for the dark navy of the originals and therefore doesn’t blend that well with dark jeans – which is the way Kate usually wears hers. For the price you probably won’t be surprised to hear that the suede doesn’t feel as nice, and the shoe itself isn’t as comfortable – although the heel and platform are both lower!
Sainbury’s don’t do mail order but you can find the details, including the item number, here. The original versions are here from Russell & Bromley, although they always sell out after an appearance!
See my previous post about the difference between the Hobbs Myra wedges and the R&B Corkswoons here.
Like my posts? Find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Polyvore for even more content!
As I may have oh so briefly mentioned, I’m going to be doing a fairly intense (I had no idea how intense…) obstacle run at the end of March, which I’ve been training for by using a 5K running app (see here, I LOVE it!). However, there’s more to an obstacle run than running. You may have caught that obstacle part, there. YES! There are obstacles! Now, thanks to a variety of fallen trees and other hazards in the local woods, I’ve been getting quite a lot of obstacle training into my runs, but none of them compare to the challenges that lay ahead… So, there was only one thing for it – another challenge, part training, part confidence boost, and all over good fun – Go Ape!
I knew this would be the perfect chance to get a little workout in, see how well we were all doing, and catch up with my team mates at the same time. I’ve been to Go Ape four times now (that’s me above back in 2010!) and I’ve loved every visit, so I knew it would be awesome! So, last Sunday, enjoying the first day of spring weather, we headed to Alice Holt.
The course is very lively, and beautiful in the sunshine, consisting of five sections, four of which are accessed by climbing a rope ladder. You start off with a safety demo (and I was picked on to be the volunteer this time when it turned out I had a PR pass!) and learn the ways of Go Ape, in which safety is paramount.
Swinging from a tree is serious business, but there are so many safety procedures involved it’s very safe – if you follow instructions. You have a variety of clips and attachments to make sure you’re always anchored in multiple places, which is very reassuring when you’re hanging from a tree in the middle of the forest. I have no idea how high these platforms are, but I have to tell you, they do make your knees go funny when you stand on the edge!
Once you’ve done your safety demo, which involves the first of five zip wires (how else would you get down from such a great height? Zip wire, of course!), you get to start on the first ‘big’ set of crossings. First of all, you need to climb a rope ladder (can I overcome the obstacle of a rope ladder? YES!), and then you’ll face the first of the two Tarzan swing / cargo net combos. This is the part I look forward to the most – weightlessly flying through the trees, before a quick scramble up a net – which is one of the obstacles we face at the run at the end of the month!
The swing is daunting, and the cargo net is tough, but that’s what makes it so much fun! Unfortunately, we had a young girl in front of us at my visit who completely freaked out at the Tarzan swing, and despite careful, patient and professional coaching from one of the Go Ape team, she eventually had to back out and come off the course. The first Tarzan swing is the test of your courage – if you can’t make it across, it’s unlikely you can do the rest of the course. But we’re all made of stern stuff, right? Of course!
The first cargo net is tougher than the second – I think it’s slightly looser – but we were really pleased with how well we managed to haul ourselves up them. Can we overcome the obstacle of the cargo net? YES!
The rest of the course is made up of various methods of getting from one tree to another – there’s always a metal cord that you stay clipped to as you go along, so you cannot – cannot – fall off of anything as long as you’re attached. The challenges vary from easy (wooden blocks to step on) to bloody difficult (stirrups), but if you ever have enough and just cannot take the strain, all you need do is relax into your harness and pull yourself along to the next tree platform.
Sometimes the course handily splits in two so that you can follow an easier path if you wish. Did we do that? Of course not, we were doing a very important training session! However, there was one challenge I could not complete…
Walking across the beam with noooo hands! Rachel actually pulled this off twice – incredible! I just couldn’t get my balance and held onto the safety cords which are attached to the wire – you can see them to the right of her head in this photo. That’s the nice thing about Go Ape – it’s tough, but if it gets too tough, you can sort of cheat. Unfortunately for me, balance beams are one of the obstacles I face at the end of the month. Can we overcome the obstacle of the balance beam? Well, only one of us…
After each treetop section is complete, you get on your zipline and speed off into the distance…
…and it’s seriously the best fun you can have in the woods when you’re stuck up a tree. Amazing!
When you’ve finished your course, you even get a certificate and can pose with the Go Ape ape for a photo (if you bring a camera, natch), just to prove how awesome you are!
All in all, Go Ape is fantastic experience, whether you’re testing your strength, training for an obstacle race, or just want to have some fun! You do need to be in reasonable shape to complete the course, but it’s certainly not incredibly physically challenging. Plus, it gives you amazing bragging rights after, and the chance to eat some ham, egg and chips for lunch completely guilt free afterwards… Which may or may not be what I did at Alice Holt…
Book your own tree top adventure with Go Ape at www.goape.co.uk. They even have segway courses (and you know how much I love segways!) and loads of locations all the way across the country (find out here). Tickets cost between £30-32 for adults, £24 for 10-17 year olds, and they even have special courses for tiny ones at £17 per child! I was given two tickets for the purposes of review for this post, although the fact that it was my fourth trip is a pretty good indication of how much fun I think Go Ape is!
So, let me know – have you Gone Ape before? Are you planning to? And how do you train for obstacle runs like Tough Mudder or X-Runner?
Like my posts? Find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Polyvore for even more content!
Since I first encountered the brand at Bicester I’ve fallen in love with Kate Spade’s preppy, girly style. So I had to pop into the Kate Spade store near Covent Garden the last time I was in London!
The store is brimming with gorgeous treats, including some beautiful shoes on the bottom level.
There’s also a small range of really pretty clothes, including jumpers, dresses and skirts. I’m definitely in the market for one of the brand’s beautifully structured dresses!
For now though, I came away with something a bit kinder to my budget, these gorgeous skinny mini bow earrings:
I’ve loved this design since I saw a gorgeous bracelet featuring it on Pinterest. That’s on my wish list next! Do you like Kate Spade’s style? Got anything on your wish list?
Like my posts? Find me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Polyvore for even more content!
It’s been a muddy old month in Blighty – not that I can complain when so many people have bigger problems to contend with. The flooding has seen entire communities losing everything they have, so a spot of mud seems like heaven in comparison. I have to say, it’s making my jogging routine feel a little more like an adventure – exactly the kind of thing you want when you’re training for an obstacle course! And the dogs are having a blast as well…
The storms haven’t been without casualties here though. A few trees have fallen in my local woods, making obstacles of their very own on the pathways!
Hopefully, the worst has passed now and the mud will recede soon! Until then, I’m quite enjoying the sense of achievement I feel when I get home and have to scrape the mud off my trainers. And joggers. And legs. And arms!
In early spring, I’m going to be motoring off with a bunch of other fine folks to take part in a crazy, mud-soaked 5k obstacle course. So, I decided, as a basic minimum, that I really should at least be able to run 5k before I get there… In comes Zombies 5k, an app I had already downloaded but never used – which sits in amongst a plethora of 5k apps that I download whenever I’m supposed to be doing Race for Life. This time, though, I’m pretty serious about making sure I prepare properly. So at the end of last month, I embarked on my first week of Zombie 5k training!
The app works with your phone (and is also available on Android) to track your distance and other fancy things, but the main feature of it that made me download was the storyline that’s woven into your progress as you run. You plug in your earphones, select a playlist from your music folder, and then in between tracks, narrators tell a story of a group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse, of which you are one, who are struggling to gather supplies. As Runner 5, you are put into training to venture out and gather items, and the narrators mix together plot points and training advice along the way to make each run seem like it’s building up to make you an elite, zombie-outrunning athlete.
These are screenshots from my phone to show the information that you gather as you run – and how you progress, from a series of short bursts of running interspersed with walking, to an hour’s worth of longer runs and walks in the final week. Unless you are incredibly unfit, it should be easy to get stuck into, and it follows a fairly typical route for most 5k training programmes.
One of my favourite parts about this programme, though, is the way that it captures lots of extra info that can be viewed online if you link your app to the website, www.zombiesrungame.com.
First of all, it tracks your overall distance and time, and also breaks down the total distances for each week as you go along, as well as informing you about the major plot points you’ve encountered so far. Week one workout three was especially fun for me, as I went with my parents and their mad dogs to Royal Victoria Country Park, where not only did I get dragged through the mud by an insane mutt, but I also got to experience an exciting storyline twist when I was asked to run outside the safety of the base in order to pick up some ammo for the township!
As you can see, if you choose to share this info, the website can track your progress on a map – which is the second aspect I really like. You can see exactly where you went, and even how fast you were going at each stage – right down to your speed for each individual song!
Royal Victoria Country Park is an amazing place to run, as it covers lots of different terrains, from a pavemented seafront, to a wooded area, and even a military cemetery. And here’s an interesting fact for you: the tower is what’s left of Royal Victoria Hospital, where the fictional Dr Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories trained as a surgeon for the army!
Somehow, my app magically synched itself to my run and had me tearing down a side route (middle left) in order to pick up the aforementioned ammo. The accompanying insane canine was very happy to pull me far beyond my normal running pace and I ended up plunging through a series of muddy puddles of varying depths… But, considering I’m training for an obstacle course, I’d say it’s all part of the programme!
I’m definitely happy to have picked this method of training, and I’ll be sure to pick up my review at a later date in order to fill you in on my progress! Crazy as I sounds, I actually look forward to my thrice-weekly runs, and it’s a combination of a well-crafted learning curve, and an interesting storyline, that are keeping me coming back for more. Visit the app store to find Zombies 5k, or head to www.zombiesrungame.com for more info.
I have a bit of a thing for popchips – I first heard about them on the Jillian Michael’s podcast, as she’s an investor in the company, and as you know, I love me some Jillian. So I was eager to try them out, and boy, did they live up to the hype.
I got an email through from popchips recently about research they did about snacking at work, that used the term ‘snackered’ to describe the British workforce – the word combining ‘knackered’ with ‘snack’ to refer to someone who is both tired and in need of a little sustenance to restore their soul. I don’t know if they coined this term, but I like it, and I’m adding it in to the very important diet-related word ‘hangry’ – when you’re so hungry, you get angry because you’re on a diet and you’re not ‘allowed’ to eat anything. Well, popchips are under 100 calories a bag, so whether you’re hangry or snackered, I’m fairly sure you can fit this into your calorie allowance!
Most diet plans will have an allowance for snack food – sometimes twice a day – and that fits into popchips’ research that workers reach for snacks at 11.30am and 3pm daily. Plus, apparently, 1 in 10 workers of the 2000 they surveyed admitted to taking a day off with a faked illness when they ran out of energy in the afternoon, while 6% said they take their snacks into the toilet to eat in secret! Not sure what’s going on there, but I don’t think you’d have a reason to hide your bag of popchips at the office – unless you were scared of your co-workers stealing them! I have to say, in the case of bunking off work because of low energy levels, I don’t think a bag of popchips can really solve that problem (sometimes, a sickie is just a sickie), but it will console you to snack on them during your commute home as you contemplate a half duvet day…
popchips are definitely one of those snacks that it’s worth having around the house (and office!) for when you get an attack of the munchies – because they’re not fried, but rather popped like popcorn, they’re healthier for you than regular potato crisps. I wouldn’t say they’re an alternative to crisps, because it does them a disservice to compare the two – they’re really a unique product all on their own, and the process of manufacturing them is totally different to the way crisps are made (here’s a fact – the chips aren’t made from slices of potato, but rather small kernels of potato that are popped just like popcorn!). Who would have thought that there were more ways to cook a potato in the year 2013!
Visit popchips at www.popchips.co.uk to find out more, including stockist information.
My thanks to popchips for providing me with the delicious snacks mentioned above!
Sometimes, even with the best will in the world, you can get derailed on a fitness regimen. Even with all the support possible, with the best fitness equipment, a budget for healthy food, and plenty of time for exercise, goals can fall by the wayside. Motivation is a fleeting thing, and willpower is even more elusive. Can you see where I’m going with this? Yes, it’s true… I have been derailed…
Partially, I blame Hush’s ridiculously comfortable harem trousers. I live in them, and they are the most cosy items of clothing I own. I rarely leave the house with them but as I work from home that certainly doesn’t limit my opportunities to wear them. However, they are incredibly forgiving of the woman-slob, and very accommodating to expanding rear ends. It’s entirely possible to go up a dress size and never even realise it when you have these comfortable trousers to hand. That exactly what happened to me after I took a bit of a break from exercise due to work-related stress and a really bad cold. When it was time to reach for those skinny jeans – let’s just say they didn’t fit so well…
I also blame a lack of a real and concrete goal for my fitness – every year I go to Ascot, but this year one of my friends wasn’t sure if she could attend, and of course, I couldn’t go without her. So, I slacked off. Then, when it was confirmed we were going, and I tried on my usual dress size at the shop… It didn’t fit. No way. No how.
It’s obviously stupid to base your self-worth on an arbitrary number in a dress. We’re always told that dress sizes are bigger now than ever. Vanity sizing is rampant and Marilyn Monroe was a size 16 anyway, so what’s the big deal? (She wasn’t…). Of course, psychology is more complex than that, and no matter how stupid and arbitrary the numbers may be, I’m not afraid to say that it had a real, demoralizing effect on me to have gone up a dress size. I hold my hands up and admit it’s ridiculous, that as an intelligent and educated woman I shouldn’t let other people define my self-worth – if I had fit into my usual size I probably wouldn’t have seen a problem, and so on. But still, the fact remains, I was faced with two and a half weeks to Ascot, and a dress that didn’t fit me. Rather than spiraling into self-hatred (again, I am not saying this is a sensible or worthy reaction, I am simply being incredibly honest about my feelings), I decided to put into action probably the most drastic weight-loss plan I’ve ever embarked on, and went for a full-on DIY Boot Camp.
Now, boot camps are everywhere in the UK and beyond, and I must confess, I’ve never been to one. Their results are legendary, and their toughness even more notorious. Hours of exercise coupled with carefully calorie-controlled food is the secret to their success, though, and I was sure I could replicate that at home. However, I am no personal trainer, nor am I a nutritionist, so I’m not going to share with you the minute details of what I did – you shouldn’t take me as the authority on this as I have no qualifications. However, I will let you know generally how I went about losing weight in my DIY boot camp so you can do your own research.
So, on my epic weight-loss tour I gave myself two and a half weeks to lose enough weight to fit into my usual dress size. I exercised for hours, passed up roast dinners and doughnuts, and ate a healthy, low calorie diet. I lost 5lbs in total in ten days, and now I fit comfortably into my dress for Ascot, well before my deadline. I will continue to maintain my usual 1200 calorie budget per day and exercise for around 30-60 minutes a day between then and now, but I am amazed at my progress in such a short amount of time, and I feel pretty proud of my achievement. Yes, it may be vain and vacuous, but on the other hand, it has reminded me that weight-loss can be simple and, dare I say it, easy, when you have a clear, concrete goal and no excuses.
Disclaimer: none of this is intended as a regimen for you to follow, it is merely my account of my own personal experiences and should not be used for your own weight loss plan. Consult your doctor before starting any weight-loss plan and please do not consider me to be an authority or expert on weight-loss.
Food, Fashion and Fitness 