Dreams |

April 18, 2017
by madeleineskristensen 1 Comment

My training goals

Eyes on the prize! Photo by the amazing Phil Gorry (here). Check him out he’s amazing! More photos to come.

I love to have goals to strive for with my training. It might slightly be from my time at lululemon where we set goals and a deadline for when we want to have accomplished them by. I’ve been doing a bit of thinking recently of what I want to achieve with my training. What is my purpose and motivation to go to the gym? Don’t get me wrong, I love it and couldn’t imagine my life without it but I need something to get me to push just that little bit extra. So here are the goals I’ve come up with so far. It’s a bit scary sharing them!

1. Perfect my push ups

Being able to do a set of unbroken push ups perfectly has been an ultimate goal for me for a while and I’m on track to getting there. My upper body has never been so strong but I’d like to get even better.

2. Do a pull up

To be able to pull up my own bodyweight would be awesome. There’s something so empowering about mastering your bodyweight in that way. After getting the push ups on point a pull up is my next goal.

3. Do a handstand push up

Wow, these look so intense when I see people at G5 smash them out. I find it scary just trying to do a handstand. Again with the bodyweight thing, I want to master it.

4. Walk on my hands

The next step after a handstand push up is walking on my hands. The day I manage to do that I’ll be so happy.

4. Do a 100kg deadlift

After lifting 90kg the other day I’ve already mentally set a new goal of a 100kg. That would be insane. Never in my life did I think I would ever consider lifting that heavy but I feel like it’s possible one day. I just need to keep on pushing for it. A 100 kilos! Absolutely crazy, I can’t believe I’m even writing this. I sure would prove my old couch potato self wrong (I have already with lifting heavier than I ever thought I could but you know what I mean).

5. Enter an official Crossfit competition

This is terrifying but so tempting at the same time. Lots of people at G5 enter Crossfit competitions all the time. I’d love to enter a qualifier just to see how I would do. I don’t really care where I place, just trying and seeing how it goes would be amazing. Just as long as I do my best (knowing my more competitive side I know this won’t be a problem).

6. Get stronger

Since I started doing more Crossfit and weight training I’ve become intrigued to see how far I can push myself. I want to see how strong I can get. I never thought my body would be able to life the weight I do today and that is just after less than 1 year of mixing up my training. I can’t wait to see what I’ll be doing in another year’s time. Always strive to be better.

7. Get more flexible

My training definitely makes me stiff and to focus more on flexibility is something I really want to do. I want to try and have three stretching sessions at home and at least one yoga class a week.

There you are, my current goals. I’ll come up with more but it’s a start. Just writing them down makes me feel a bit more pressure to make more of an effort to achieve them. I don’t have an exact deadline for when to achieve all of this by but as soon as possible. What are you goals? Try writing them down and please share them with me if you want. It’s so inspiring to see what people are working towards.

It’ll be interesting to look back at these in a couple of months to see what I might’ve achieved or if my goals have changed. They always do, it’s inevitable to change what you want to do and and achieve. Just go with what you feel and want. You need to want something really bad in order to put in the extra work for it 🙂

December 10, 2016
by madeleineskristensen Leave a comment

Sharing my love for healthy food

Hi dears!

Today I was a bit nervous walking to work. It was time to share my love for healthy food with our yoga crowd in the showroom. I have been working on this for days and using my own recipe is a bit scary, you’re putting yourself out there. Good nutritious food is something I really love and it’s a step towards something I would love to spend my life doing. As I served my first cup my heart was in my throat haha.

I ended up making a coconut vanilla chia pudding with an apple compote and maple toasted oats. It was amazing to hear that everyone loved it. People were coming up to me saying it was delicious. I couldn’t believe it! I made a bit much and there were leftovers so the girls in the showroom were munching away all day and asking if they could have more. It made me so warm inside and happy. Someone asking for more is the best compliment you could ever get when it comes to food.

I’ll put up the recipe for the chia pudding very soon. It’s a great thing to make a big batch of at the beginning at the week to have for breakfast or snacks.

The rest of the day was a lot of fun, the showroom was busy with Christmas shoppers and we were blasting our 90s playlist. I LOVE that playlist, you just can’t not sing or dance along to the songs that come on. At one point we had a drunk group of guys come in to say hi and to have a look at our clothes. Somehow it ended in them getting me to do a pigeon pose in the middle of the shop haha. I love when random stuff like that happens. One of the guys attempted the same pose in jeans, it didn’t go too well to. You need slightly stretchier bottoms on!

This evening I’m just taking it easy. I swung by Riverhill during the day to pick up our mince pies for after boxing tomorrow in the showroom and also picked up a delicious freekeh salad with parsnip and lots of other deliciousness for dinner as a treat. Their salads are amazing! This one was no different. So now I’m watching The Family Stone and heading to bed in a bit. I’m so tired!

September 6, 2016
by madeleineskristensen Leave a comment

So close

Hi my dears,

Sorry I haven’t written for a while. I’ve had a very eventful past couple of days and I’m only just landing in what has happened. Whilst I was away on holiday I applied for a job within lululemon, pretty much my dream job and the reason why I wrote my dissertation last year. To be in charge of lululemon’s social media channels. It was too good to be true that an opportunity like that would pop up so soon after me starting working there. I was so excited!

I applied and got to the final two, I couldn’t believe that they were impressed with my work and I was so close to reaching this dream even sooner than I ever thought. Jamie and I were discussing what we would do if I got the job and I had to move to London and for a couple of days it felt like my entire future was up in the air. I had no idea where I’d be in the next couple of weeks. It was scary, but so exciting. The more I waited for them to get back to me about their decision, the more I wanted this job. I really wanted it.

On Saturday I received an email with their decision and unfortunately, I didn’t get the job. I was devastated. I was at work and I just couldn’t keep it together. I have been nervous for days and all of a sudden I couldn’t keep it together anymore, I cried because I was relieved that the decision had been made, I didn’t have to be nervous anymore but at the same time I was disappointed. So extremely disappointed. I was so close but yet not close enough. They gave me great feedback it all came down to experience and the other candidate simply had more, which was completely understandable and I really respect their decision but you can’t help being disappointed.

However, I’ve learnt so much from this experience and I’m extremely proud of how far I got, considering I didn’t think I’d stand a chance. After this experience I’m more determined than ever to get down to London and work on the brand team for lululemon. This was only the beginning and I’m going to take my learnings and build on this for next time. I’ve gotten to know some incredible people through this process and I know that my time will come. I just have to keep trying and putting myself out there. As I say to my friends when they have been turned down for jobs, you only need one yes. One day day I’ll get that yes.

July 27, 2016
by madeleineskristensen Leave a comment

A day I’ll always remember

I finally got my graduation photos from my sister! It was such a beautiful and surreal day filled with so much love and happiness. I’m always quite hard on myself and despite I always try to do my absolute best I’m never entirely happy with my results. As the saying goes, you are own worst critic. On graduation when I sat there in the big hall waiting for my name to be called out, I felt so proud of myself and what I have accomplished during my time at university. I have experienced so much and this past year I was pushed to my very limits of what I thought I was capable of doing. There have been a lot of tears and panic attacks to say the least.

It’s sad that my time at university is over but at the same time I’m so ready for the next chapter in my life. I’ve always loved working and am looking forward to working on a full time basis. I have no idea what’s around the corner but I’m already enjoying the ride.

There is so much more to say about how amazing my graduation day was. I was in such a celebratory mood that I had my first cocktails in ages! I ordered one and then the bar found out it was my graduation and they gave me the small pink drink on the house. I couldn’t finish it all and shared them with everyone around the table. I think I might’ve been on the floor otherwise… Such a lightweight these days.

My graduation meal at Number 16, I can’t even begin to explain how delicious it was! It’s hands down my favourite restaurant in Glasgow.

I’ll just let the pictures from this beautiful day speak for themselves!