If you read my post – 24 things about me – you will know that exercise and I have been separated for a while now. It wasn’t a bad break up – we just drifted apart. But after a few years of being an independent woman, I realised how much I missed exercise, so I thought I would give it another shot. Who knows how well it will go. It might not last more than a few weeks. Maybe it will just be one sweaty session and that’s it. But I am hoping to stick with it for the long run. No pun intended.
However. I am really excited to announce that I have just started collaborating with Pure Gym. I am determined to get fit, healthy & toned for summer/ my life so I am VERY happy to be collaborating with them.
One of the main reasons I thought it was about time to get some strength back in my life is because my arm actually gets tired from taking selfies. I am not joking. If I hold my arm out too long (because lets be honest – it usually takes at least 100 photos before you find one that is reasonably decent) – it actually starts to get tired and violently shake – and nobody wants a blurry selfie.
And desperate times call for desperate measures… so I decided to start going to the gym. Pure Gym have gyms popping everywhere the moment and they are constantly opening new ones. Pretty sure they are on a world domination mission. They have gyms all over London and one of them just opened pretty much at the end of my road. So I had no excuse.
My biggest hesitation with joining a gym is that it can be unbelievably intimidating to start going to the gym by yourself when you have no idea what you are doing. It would be fine if you are with a friend or someone, so that you don’t look so lost, wandering around pretending you have some form of structure to your ‘workout’…
“Oh yeah – just going to do some arm… stuff… with these heavy things here – and then I am going to do some cardio things and maybe sit on this machine and hope it gives me a good bum”
…but turning up at the gym, alone, being disgustingly unfit and not knowing where anything is/what anything does, does make one feel slightly self conscious. You immediately think that everyone is looking at you, guessing how long you will last before you go back to being a coach potato.
PLUS there is all the intimidating people! All the incredibly fit women, who have been sprinting on the treadmill for about 2 hours and are not even sweating yet; groups of girlfriends who are on the crosstrainers together – casually bobbing up and down, more focused in discussing everything from bikini lines to why that guy from last week never called her back, rather than focusing on how many calories they are burning. And then there are the men in the weights section. They stand there grunting and lifting things that I probably couldn’t push across the floor – or they are taking photos of themselves in the big mirrors, to admire how good their muscles look in their vest top that they picked up on their gap yah in Thailand.
So yeah – those are my fears about going to the gym. Plus you have the anxiety of what if I fall off the treadmill? What if I drop a weight on someones foot? What if I am filling up my water bottle up but it is going so slowly, and there is a queue forming behind me, do I stand here until it is full or do I move out the way of these big scary gym pros and just walk away with a measly half-filled bottle.
HOWEVER – I popped into the gym the other day to have a look around and see what I was in for. And actually, when you take away all the fear, you see that it is full of normal people, who are just there to get fit and are too involved in not falling off their own bicycles to care if I fall of mine or not.
As part of my collaboration, I am teaming up with a personal trainer from my gym, Nick Weekes, (who is a total babe), to try and blitz my body into shape for summer. I will go into more detail about this in my next post – but let me just say – I had my first personal training session today – and I actually can’t walk. Jelly legs to another level. As lovely as he is – he didn’t seem to care how much I complained that I couldn’t do another set of squats. I would have really LOVED a lift home from someone today, rather than trying to wobble up the hill.
Anyway, the gym is brand new – a lot of space, all open planned, over 200 pieces of equipment, lots of classes, a spinning class room too which should be fun to try. It is just a really cool, good gym (with different types of membership, no contracts etc. plus you can be a member of your gym or up your membership to two of their gyms or all their gyms etc for such a small increase in price – so you can have a gym close to home or the office or on in London and one in Birmingham – whatever floats your boat). It is exactly what I was looking for. Also – the girls changing room is huge. Good showers, a lot of mirrors to do your make-up post-gym pre-meetings. I am really happy and really really excited to get back into the gym world.
I can just tell I am going to get addicted and become one of those annoying gym-going, juice-drinking, yoga loving, exercise losers. I can’t wait.
So as part of my Pure Gym collab introduction, I thought I would add in a quick gym outfit post.
Firstly – lets discuss shoes. Because shoes are a very important thing in my life.
Never judge a book by its cover – but always judge someone by their shoes.
I was recently sent over a pair of trainers from Cortica, a British brand that designs unique, innovative footwear. I love these trainers – 1) they are different and unique and cool – they are cut-out’s so they will be perfect for Spring/Summer etc and 2) oh my gawddd they are comfortable.
(Also can we just appreciate this water bottle from bkr. It is possibly the most beautiful water bottle ever. I am pretty sure it is glass – and they are all covered in a colourful silicone coat in the most gorgeous pastel colours – have a look at their website – I am in love.)
So back to my #wiwt – (which is #’what I’m wearing today’ for those who are less hashtag literate) :
Trainers : Cortica – (Epic in Black) – they have these in loads of different colour – including these gorgeous lilac ones which remind me of ballet shoes. They also have a few different styles for men – which are all mega cool. So go and check them out.
Gym Leggings : Puma
Sweatshirt : Brandy Melville
Jacket : Topshop
I haven’t made up my mind about these leggings yet. They were given to me by Father Christmas (probably as a hint to do some exercise) – I think he picked them up from Urban Outfitters. (Yes I still get a stocking – and talking of stockings – I am already getting excited about buying a luxury advent calendar this year. I didn’t get one last year, because they are so expensive, but I was stalking through some of last years’ on google/other blogs and I had momentarily forgotten how amazing they looked. So this year – I will get one. I will. Or I will ask for one for Christmas – but that means Christmas will have to be moved to December 1st this year.
The Positives of this would be – you get a present everyday.
The Negatives – you will have had all your christmas presents by the real Christmas Day.
Anyway – back to the leggings. I was totally obsessed with them until I actually put them on. I didn’t realised that they had that weird white triangle cutout – and the knee section is pretty see-through. So not sure what my thoughts are. I love Puma gym gear though – and these are pretty flare. I have a very marmite reaction to them – do I love or hate?
I wore them to my Grandma’s house the other day and she said “Oh, are your leggings new?” – which I know is her way of saying “I do not like your leggings”. I know this because normally I would get “Oh I love your new leggings Jessica, very nice”- and I did not get that reaction at all.
I then asked her what she thought and she said “I am not sure if I really like them, or if they are hideous”. Which is pretty much my opinion as well.
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| Swanning around in my gym gear. |
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| Pony tail vibes. |
So. In summary. I am joining the gym. A lot of people say ‘Oh you don’t need to go to the gym, you are naturally quite thin – you are lucky’. This is true – I am naturally thin, which is lucky as I eat disgustingly badly and I don’t exercise. But one day that will catch up with me / I will probably die from a macaroni cheese overdose. So I really want the fitness and the strength to be able to keep up with the big kids. Plus – I would also like to look like a Victoria’s Secret model so I will be aiming for that too. Right – it is decided. I am going to the gym. I promise I will actually go. I will let you all know how it goes/ rant at you with endless complaints about how sore my muscles are, and you can all tell me to (wo)man up.
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| This is me – being a classy bird |
Have a great week everyone!
xx
My membership with PureGym is complimentary – but my blood sweat and tears will all be my own.
