Allow me to introduce myself

Hello there lovely people!

Thought I’d start a blog as a way to share my experience of health, food & fitness… and lots of other things along the way… like maybe coffee (ok, definitely coffee!!)… tasty recipes… interesting things I’m learning… and if there’s anything else you would like me to know about then please feel free to comment below and I’ll see what I can do!

But first let me introduce myself and tell you a little about me and my world recently….

I’m Hattie…. a fun, loving, adventure seeking… wife, daughter, auntie, friend, personal trainer who loves food, coffee, training, drawing, getting into the great outdoors and I always try to have a smile on my face (if I don’t.. give me food and take me for a walk and it’ll be back in no time… no I’m not a dog… but I do love dogs!) and strive each day to be the best I can be!

Locked down.. they won’t let me out!

The last year has been interesting & emotional to say the least and one that none of us expected…. With several lockdowns and restrictions in place my days have usually consisted of getting myself up early (yes… I’m one of those annoying morning people and I find I’m much more productive in the morning!!), a training session or two for myself, training my awesome clients (who I am so grateful for and have stuck by me for not just one but three lockdowns… so far), learning lots of cool stuff about us as human beings, doodling anatomy parts, going for a wander outside (I warn you I get lost easily and call it an adventure.. it’s fun right?!) and cooking up some tasty food (most of which have come from my friend, Jambo’s Friday night cookalongs)!

Lockdown 1.0 for me felt strange to adapt to as it was new to all of us and it was like going into the unknown… but I did manage to set myself up a good home gym in my garage, we were lucky enough to have glorious sunshine all the way through to be able to enjoy being outside whether it be sitting in the garden, training, going for beautiful walks in countryside, starting to play a bit of golf again… and we had some fun experimenting with ways to amuse ourselves at home like never before (including chipping competitions into the washing machine at one point!!)

We were then given a little freedom… before….

Lockdown 2.0 came to us in November and we were told it would just be a month so there was an end in sight and we just got on with it… I mean, we’d been there before and we could do it again for another month if it meant we would be able to get back to normality sooner!

Then we were given some tiers and a bit of Christmas (for some of us!)... before…

Lockdown 3.0…. well… now we’re just fed up of lockdowns, am I right? It’s a new year… but same old lockdown (I think… the rules still confuse me as to what we can and can’t do anymore to be honest!!)

Theres been ups and downs… laughs and tears… sunshine and rain… so many bloody zoom calls… and I think we are all now trying to find ways to come to terms with this new “normal”

Routine. Routine. Routine.

Working for myself the last couple of years has taught me to create a routine for myself as no one else is going to do that for me. This was a huge god-send for me during these lockdowns to keep me focused, productive and to give me a purpose to get up everyday.

As part of this I have a couple of must-haves in my days to keep me sane:

1. My morning routine

My day always starts off with a strong coffee, bowl of porridge and time for myself to decompress and get mentally prepared for the day ahead.

2. Getting my body moving

So I’m a bit of a fidget… So I like to get things moving each day so I can sit still at the end of it!!

This could be through gym training, taking a walk, doing a bit of yoga or mobility work, rolling around on the floor in front of the TV (getting weird looks from the hubby!) or dancing around the kitchen.

3. Getting my brain working

Through learning something new, reading, problem solving, experimenting…

This included morning reading, strength faction lessons, a weekly anatomy club, getting my Precision nutrition coaching certification and the latest being joining the awesome Rebels Fitness Mentorship.

A positive of this last year is the time is has given me to able to learn so much from all of these in order to develop myself as a coach and learn more about the human body (because they are amazing things!).

4. Time to wind down

(or as I often say to my hubby… “I’m going to bed down now”)

So when all the work is done for the day and my brain has gone into overdrive I find it hard to actually properly relax so I have been trying to finding myself a bedtime routine so I can wind down, relax and get a good night’s sleep!

This could be taking a bubble bath, making a cup of tea and curling up in bed with a book or listening to a bedtime story on my calm app.

We are creatures of habit… so why not take advantage of that!

How have you kept yourself going through this last year in and out of lockdown?