health

A Weekend of Snow, Study and Perspective

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Social media often shows the highlights – the polished moments, the smiling faces, the “everything’s going to plan” snapshots. But real life? Real life sometimes looks a little different.

Last week was one of those reminders.

Just as we were getting excited about the snow, our boiler decided to give up entirely. Three days with no heating and no hot water wasn’t quite what we had in mind 🤦🏽‍♀️ Typical timing! That said, a little perspective goes a long way. We still had electricity, the shower has its own heater, and a couple of portable heaters kept us warm enough to get by. Not ideal, but definitely not the end of the world.

It was also one of those moments that made me pause and smile – isn’t it funny how life has a way of keeping us grounded just when things are about to get busy again?

A Weekend of Learning (and Enjoying It!)

Alongside the boiler drama, I spent the whole weekend completing my Level 3 Mat-Based Pilates training. And honestly? I surprised myself with just how much I enjoyed it.

I’ve done a lot of similar training over the years through Fitness Pilates, and I’ve trained previously with Kelly Reed (who also tutors Fitness Pilates), so the content felt familiar but deeper. Because of my previous qualifications, I’m exempt from a fair chunk of the course, which means I should be able to complete it much quicker than I originally anticipated – a real bonus.

What stood out most was how good it felt to be learning again. I haven’t done any formal educational training for over a year, and getting back into that headspace felt refreshing rather than overwhelming. It feels perfectly manageable, and more importantly, it’s reignited my excitement for the health and wellness side of what I do.

This qualification will support my return to personal training, with a stronger focus on wellbeing, movement quality and long-term health. It’ll also be a lovely progression route for those of you who’ve been coming to Fitness Pilates and might be ready to explore mainstream Pilates when the time comes.

Community First – Always

We were absolutely gutted to have to cancel Glow Beatz last week, especially after such a fantastic start to our courses. But I felt good about the decision. People booked on in advance just as we’d asked, and our priority was – and always will be – safety. With the conditions as they were, it was the right call.

The weather did bring a few low moments if I’m honest. Not being able to get out with the dog and not leaving the house since Thursday felt strange. But in an unexpected way, it gave me the space to fully focus on the course, slow down, and enjoy being immersed in learning again.

Sometimes what feels like a disruption turns out to be exactly what we need.

Looking Ahead

This year, I want to share more of the behind-the-scenes moments – the reality behind the classes, the studying, the juggle, and my own wellness journey alongside yours. I’ll continue sharing what’s on offer at Cardio Central, but I’m also really looking forward to supporting those of you who want more in-depth, personalised guidance through personal training and Pilates.

I’d love to know:

  • How did the weather affect you?

  • Are you focusing on any personal development this year?

  • And would you be interested in joining Pilates when the classes become available?

As always, thank you for being part of this community – real life and all 💜

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year, Everybody! 

This blog post is a little bit different, I recorded a voice note and translated it into text so what you are reading, is absolutely the way that i would say this to you! If you want to listen to this blog instead of reading it, click on the video link below.

 

I’m cutting it a bit fine posting this today – I think I should have really done this at the beginning of the year! But anyway, I think I’ve still got time. So I wanted to talk a bit about resolutions and why I don’t like them.

Resolutions can quite often set us up for failure. We have this big idea in our heads that we need to get resolutions done by midnight on December 31. And we carry that into January. And what basically tends to happen is, we have these big resolutions that are completely unachievable, and then we beat ourselves up when we fail.

I combat that by setting goals, instead of resolutions, and goals can be set at any time of the year. It’s a popular time of year to set them. So I’m going to give you a few tips.

GETTING STARTED

First of all, you need to make goals manageable. If it’s something that you can’t see yourself achieving, you are setting yourself up for failure. Instead of saying, “I’m going to lose three stone by the summer,” break it down into smaller chunks and say, “I’m going to lose one to two pounds each week.”

So, how do I lose that one to two pounds? Well, I’m going to eat healthier and I am going to exercise. How do I eat healthier and how do I exercise? I’m going to attend a fitness class, I’m going to make sure that I include more fruit and vegetables in my diet and drink plenty of water at the same time.

So we’ve taken that big goal of losing a significant amount over six months, breaking it down into a weekly goal and then we’ve broken it down again. So we understand exactly how we’re going to manage that. And that, in itself, is a simple, straightforward way of setting goals. It’s simple. But it’s not easy because we have to have motivation and discipline. And when we don’t have motivation, we quite often have to rely on discipline to help get us through.

SCHEDULE EVERYTHING

Making routines for ourselves and scheduling time for ourselves is important. So one of the things that you can do is sit down and break down your weekly schedule. And this may take some time. I’d say set aside maybe 30 minutes just to get everything jotted down. Use something like Google Calendar, Outlook, or whatever it is that you’ve got on your phone, and actually block out time. So I block out time for work, block out time for kids. My two children have an abundance of things that they do after school. So I have to make sure that I schedule that in and also block out self-care time as well. So you know exactly what it is that you can do with your time.

Once you know how much time you’ve got to play with, then you can start to slot in the things that you need to do to be able to achieve those goals.

So forget resolutions. Resolutions are not what you’re aiming for. You want to get goals set, and if you have structure and you know exactly what you’re doing with your goals, it’s going to be so much easier for you to achieve them!

I hope that helps. Please comment below wherever you see, hear, or read this, and I will see you next time for some more information around health and fitness!