Ballroom Dance Style Faves

3. Waltz ♡
A beautiful dance of romance and love. The Waltz is a relatively simple dance to learn and when executed well, is truly amazing.

2. Argentine Tango ♡
A technically very difficult dance, but visually stunning. The emotion in this dance is usually sexy and powerful, combined with magically complex footwork.

1. Quickstep ♡
As you can probably tell from the name of the dance, the Quickstep is the fastest Ballroom dance around. To effortlessly glide across the floor at such a speed whilst being technically perfect throughout is difficult, and this challenge is something that makes the dance even more enjoyable!

#sundaysayings (treize)

"A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen. You have something very special."


- Nelson Mandela

Fitness Age - Fitness Test

Women's Health recently posted on their website an article and fitness test based around your fitness age. Norwegian researchers created this test that asks you a few questions to determine whether you are healthy and fit for what your average age fitness should be.

The article is here: http://www.womenshealthmag.co.uk/fitness/fitness-blog/2019/whats-your-fitness-age-this-simple-test-will-tell-you/

(The link for the test is about halfway down the page of the article)


My results are shown below!

VO2 is how much oxygen your body uses during exercise and how fit you are. This result is important, as it could be 'a matter of life and death'. If you are unfit for your age, your life expectancy decreases dramatically.

If you have average or above average VO2 levels, your chances of dying prematurely are at lower risk and your chances of getting cardiovascular disease are much lower too.

Fortunately is you score is bad for your age, by increasing your fitness levels, your fitness age can reduce!

Well... let's see how I get on when I reach my 20's!

Jas' Fitness Journey - Weeks 5 to 8

After a hectic and very stressful 3 weeks, my fitness journey still continues.

At the 4 week mark, you're meant to see a change in yourself - something which I saw at the 3 week mark. At the 8 week mark, others are meant to start noticing a change in your fitness - something which is still yet to come for me! However, different people's fitness levels change at different rates and after progressing quickly at the start, this section of my fitness is probably just a slower phase, so only time will tell.

Exercise:
My exercise has increased from what was originally about 3 and a half hours per week to 6-10 hours of dancing per week combined with a short circuit training session.

Over the next few weeks I plan on increasing the number of hours I dance even further and doing an additional circuit training session too. As anyone who dances knows, it is a very intense form of fitness, albeit very fun too. It is a great way to build up your muscles and cardio without you even realising!


Food:
My healthy eating has gone downhill a bit over the last 3 weeks. I still eat healthily most of the time, however those few too many meals out and take-aways have definitely been holding me back from reaching my full potential at this stage of my fitness journey.

Over the next couple of weeks I need to knuckle down and hold back from buying that ever so delicious Snickers bar, or that tantalisingly tasty Domino's pizza.


Progress:
On the upside, much progress has been made! Even though I have eaten a pile of junk food as well as healthy foods, my body is getting there. My fitness has burnt off more than my food intake - the vital element that helps you lose body fat. For me, this is good, as I have also put on muscle.

With muscle weighing more than fat, this effectively means I have put on weight - but it's all a good and positive thing and putting on weight in this way is always a good thing!


Progress Images:

Week 1                                          Week 4                                                Week 8

     Week 1                                     Week 4                                              Week 8

#sundaysayings (douze)

"I think the thing to do is enjoy the ride while you're on it."

- Johnny Depp

Jas' Fitness Journey - Week 4

As week 3 of my fitness journey comes to an end, week 4 begins. Apparently it takes 4 weeks to notice a change in your own body and at the end of my third week, I can see a change already. I have lost a bit of fat and gained a lot of muscle, especially in my legs and core. This is due to a combination of increasing how much I exercise and important changes in my diet.

Such a change to my lifestyle has changed how my body looks - but whether it's overly noticeable, you could question. So, here is one of my progress pictures so far:


PRE-FITNESS JOURNEY

END OF WEEK 3 OF FITNESS JOURNEY

So as you can see, the lighting is slightly different in the photos, which could be a little deceptive - although, at the end of week 3 it looks like I have lost muscle. BUT, what has actually happened to my body is, I have lost a layer of fat, hence why I have smaller 'love handles' and my stomach muscles have come together and become a more dense and ultimately stronger.

From here, I need to keep up the exercise, healthy eating and hard work in order to build up my muscles further and to make them more toned.

#sundaysayings (onze)

"If you hear a voice within you saying, 'You are not a painter', then by all means paint."

- Vincent Van Gogh

Jas' Fitness Journey - Week 3

It's the start of week 3 and having taken part in my fitness journey for nearly a month, I am slowly but surely making progress. Today, is a a quick progress update - if you missed last week, you can view that HERE.

Little steps, but we are getting there:

• I have started working out once a week. 
• I have started drinking lemon water (one of the best drinks for you!)
• I have exchanged unhealthy snacks for healthy snacks (although I did have a sneaky chocolate bar for the first time in ages!).
• I am back dancing again - Yay!
• I am still battling, but I am eating 3 meals a day more often that I used to.
• I feel much healthier in my body, even if I can't see any physical results yet.

My Healthy Lemon Water Instagram this week...

Lovesales.com - Review

Lovesales.com is a relatively new website that collates all your fashion discounts together, so you never need to buy anything at full price again!

Often, as customers, we end up spending ages trawling through sales racks in shops, or going on a million and one fashion websites trying to find clothes that you like in the sales. As we all know, this is extremely time-consuming and often we don't end up getting what we need or want at all.

Now, lovesales.com does all that discount trawling for you and you can simply visit their website HERE to find plenty of discounts and sales from brands that you love! With the hard work being done for you, it is much easier to access all those clothing gems out there, instead of only finding one on a sales clothing rail in a crowded shop, in which the item of clothing is probably falling apart and needs fixing or altering.

To make it even better, you can personalise the website to show you brands that you choose - catering the sales directly to you. With brands such as Zara, Laura Ashley, Urban Outiftters, Mango, Ralph Lauren and more to choose from, the world is your oyster in these clothing sales.

You can also get alerts for when there is a price drop, or new sales on items and brands that you love. The image below shows what the sales pages look like - with the opportunity to visit the full sale (the pink box) and the opportunity to be alerted about future sales (the blue box) at Miss Selfridge. As you can see, thy currently have up to a whopping 70% off in their sales right now.

Lovesales.com really isn't something you'll want to miss out on, when you can get the latest trends, build your wardrobe up and a get unique street style at a guaranteed low price - and it's all within the touch of a button!