2014 Fitness Goals

A big part of doing exercise is having a reason or motivation to do so. I used to worry about being heavy for my size, but recently I've come to appreciate that that is to do with my build and body shape as much as the few creeping pounds of fat here and there as my activity levels dropped. Up until my early teens I did gymnastics, training for some 13 hours a week on top of swimming lessons and sailing. I never had to think about motivating myself to do exercise, so when I quit I was suddenly at a loss of what to do next. I took up dance lessons until school commitments got in the way which was fun, and over the last five or six years I've been running on and off. This year, I'm determined to keep up running, because when I'm out there I absolutely love it.

I like to use mediums such as Instagram and Pinterest to motivate myself, and as a result I've decided to post up my fitness goals for the immediate future to keep me on track.


1. Improve general fitness and staminaThis is a pretty fundamental goal for better health, and ability during runs, sports and classes.

2. Increasing muscle definition
I'm not currently a member of any gym, but I'd like to have a go at a bit of weight training. For this, I'll need to buy some light dumbells or wrist weights, but I think we've got some slightly heavier weights somewhere that I'd be keen to work with. Women aren't designed to 'bulk' like men, so weights are a great way to create strong, lean muscles.

3. Maintaining current size
Right now, I'm pretty happy with my size. But I am aware that I have had a couple of years of pretty limited exercise so I need to make sure that I stay happy! I'm not planning on targeting anything, as I believe that exercising to fulfill the aims above, and by eating more healthily, this will take care of itself, without me stressing over it. In terms of weight, I tend to avoid the scales, since muscles weigh more than fat so skew your BMI and weight to the seemingly unhealthily heavy side of the scale.

According to my BMI, I am borderline overweight. Newsflash: I am a petite size ten with moderately sized boobs, and some latent muscle mass from my gymnastic days. That is not overweight. Most athletes are classed as overweight by this measure due to their high body muscle percentage.

How am I going to achieve my goals?
My biggest aim is to keep up running! I really need to get myself some new trail shoes, as my current running trainers are giving me pins and needles. And new kit is a huge motivator. My favourite brand, hands down, is Sweaty Betty for all their amazing, pretty and practical designs. I like to keep one of their catalogues around to encourage me to go for that extra run.

Home workouts. Sometimes it is too dark, late or horrible to go outside, but I need to let off some steam. I get bored easily, so I'm on the lookout for some new videos and sites for me to workout to. Currently, I'm following Tracy Anderson's Mat Workout, which I bought from a charity shop for £2. I'm also trying Blogilates on YouTube and well as any routine sheet that catches my interest. Today, I did a few reps of this:

To try and claw back a little of my old, hyper-flexibility, I'm going to practice splits and bridges before the warm down of any exercise.

Have you made any fitness goals this year?

*All photos on this blog post have been taken from Pinterest-linked websites