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SFN EXPO day 2


Shona Vertue’s class


Talk about women and weightlifting

A really fun Q&A with the guys from Lean Machines, John and Leon

I was over the moon that I had to the chance to listen to and talk to inspiring guys like them

These beauties Linsey and Gwen came to say hi and try out the hang challenge. Was so lovely to see them!

Faye challenged me to a hang off, team Faddie style 😛


At this point I was so exhausted and my hands were sweaty so couldn’t hold on. Plus Faye is ridiculously strong! One day I’ll beat you Faye! Haha


Had an acai bowl at Acai & Co

Then SFN was all of a sudden over and it was time to pack up and leave. Faye and I headed to Jamie’s work for a tea and to give them some of the leftover doughnuts we were giving out at the expo.

Hi guys! It was a bit quiet here yesterday. I was going to post this but it got late and it was Jamie’s last evening before he left for Kentucky so I thought it was way more important to spend time with him than stressing over a post. Also because the days he’s away it’s our five year anniversary. I’m sure you understand. I’d rather do both things properly, spend time with Jamie and then writing a quality post. I think I’ve made up for it with this ridiculously long post… Sorry it’s so long! There’s just so much to be said.

Yesterday was a bit of a back to reality day. It’s almost as if I’ve been on holiday and had such a great time and now I’ve got that feeling of going back to normal life. SFN EXPO was amazing and I really felt like I was in my element, surrounded by incredibly inspiring people doing amazing stuff in the health and fitness industry. It made me feel so happy and Jamie said when he has seen me this past weekend he could see a real spark in my eyes. I felt so much joy I couldn’t contain it in any way. I wish I could go to more expos like these but it would require me going down to London which I unfortunately can’t really afford to do very often.

The second day of SFN was just as fun! My amazing colleagues knew that I was dying to take part in some classes and talks and were so nice and understanding and said I should just go for it. So in the morning I arrived quite early for Shona Vertue’s class. I hadn’t booked in and the class was booked out but I was hoping I would fit in somewhere, which I did luckily. The lovely Leanne who was hosting the Sisterhood area where Shona was teaching who I’ve met before a couple of times said it shouldn’t be a problem and yes I fit in. Wohoo! Shona’s class was fantastic and she said the reason why she has shaped her form of training to combine include both yoga and HIIT style training into one is because you tend to neglect the things you like doing less and by including it all in the same class you can’t avoid it, which I thought was a very interesting and great take on it all. It’s very much in line with my beliefs that you need both strength exercises in form of weightlifting and cardio in combination with yoga, mobility and stretching. Both aspects compliment one another and will benefit your training the most in the long run. The class was great and very sweaty. My triceps could feel it yesterday after all the narrow push ups we did. Her chat was amazing and made me crack up several times throughout.

After the class I stayed for her talk together with Niko Aligieri who is the owner of a gym down in London called Equilibrium. The talk was about why women shouldn’t fear strength training, something I’m very passionate about. The audience brought up some super interesting questions, which both Shona and Niko had some great insights into. There were some PE teachers there who asked about how they could help their kids realise that being strong is important and I thought it was incredible for them to be there and ask for advice to help influence these young children to have a healthier relationship to their bodies and to fitness. Go you PE teachers! People like you are going to change lives for these kids and in turn change the world.

I was then technically meant to go back to the voomfit stand but the guys that I really wanted to listen to were going to have a talk, Lean Machines. I love John and Leon’s Youtube channel. They train Crossfit down in England and their videos are so inspiring, insightful, positive and upbeat. Their approach to fitness feels so fresh, healthy, fun and easy. I thought I’d stay for a bit of the talk and have my lunch and then sneak off. Before the talk I was sort of on the fence whether I should go up to them and tell them how much I appreciate their presence online and in the end I decided to get over the fear and just do it. I went up to them and said I watch their channel and love their video content.

They were so nice but as the talk was about to start I went and sat down with my lunch box. It must’ve looked good because they asked if they could have some haha. I felt so bad when I had to sneak away and silly of me, I sat at the front and couldn’t smoothly sneak off without being noticed and made a scene haha. I felt bad but I think they understood. Back at the voomfit stand I was saying to the team I was so sad I couldn’t finish listening to the guys talk. So they told me to go back as nice as they are so I did. I tried to be smooth again but I’m not smooth so sort of interrupted the talk again when I came back and the guys got thrown off entirely and forgot what they were saying. Oh dear haha, at least it made everyone laugh.

I even managed to ask a question, something I don’t always dare to do and I got some really great tips. It was in regards to staying inspired with content with social media channels and providing quality content consistently. They said taking a break sometimes really helps to get you inspired again, and don’t fear taking a break, which I do because I hate letting you guys down as I know you guys want new stuff everyday and I do like writing everyday even though I’m busy. This is what I love to do. It felt reassuring that they also face this dilemma and that it’s okay to take a break and leave your social media blank for a while to ensure it’s quality things you’re posting. It’s a fine balancing act between posting consistently on social media and providing quality content because quality usually takes longer time, time that I don’t always have unfortunately when I only do this on the side of my full time job. Afterwards I got a photo of them, which made my day. They are such lovely guys and I was so happy to have met them. Thanks Leon and John for being so inspiring and amazing! I couldn’t believe it when they started following my page on Instagram as well, so crazy. Meant a lot to me!

The rest of the afternoon I was at the voomfit stand cheering people on for the hang challenge! Faye was there and Ross helped us out for a bit on Sunday as well. It was so much fun having them both there! Some of the G5 crew came along as well as Faye’s mum Carole. We went and watched the Throwdown again for a bit and it looked so intense but I felt extremely inspired by the teams who showed such great effort! It’s good to see and get into the competition spirit again seeing as I’ll be doing Rainhill before I know it.

I finished off my day at the expo with buying some goodies which I will share with you in another post because I really feel like I’ve been rambling on for forever, which I have. Sorry about that but I just had to share how amazing this weekend was and I wish it didn’t have to come to an end. I need something new to look forward to now! What I loved the most was how there was something there for pretty much anyone and it definitely felt welcoming to all types of training and perhaps even people who are not very into their fitness but are looking to get inspired.

Okay okay, I’m going to stop typing now because this post is becoming an essay. Sorry guys! Don’t even know if anyone is still reading this haha.

I hope you all have a beautiful day,

M xxx


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SFN EXPO day 1


Setting up!

Ready for the show. Team extreme! 
Checking out the Throwdown with Stella MCing!

Ross was so nice to help us out for most of the day!

Finally got to try maple water and they so kindly gave me some waters to review for you guys! I’ll be trying them out and writing about them soon.

Went back to the comp later on and ate my lunch. Yes I brought my own food… You’ve got to be prepared 😉

Tried Free Soul’s vegan protein powders and they were really good. They’re new on the market. It’s a shame they don’t have a vanilla one but they said they are working on bringing out a vanilla flavoured one as soon as they can ensure it will taste good. Will maybe have to get the chocolate… It was so tasty! We shall see hehe.

Lovely Gwen came to see me at the stand. Love seeing this beautiful lady!

Had the huge honour of meeting some of the Girl Gains ladies and Shona Vertue. Some incredible women who I really look up to.


Did the hang challenge for the second time in a day, this time against the man behind the expo himself, Neil. He won…

Hi lovelies! Wow, I’m looking through all the photos I took at the expo yesterday and words can’t describe what an amazing day it was. They had really done a great job organising it all and all the stands there were of great standard and value. I feel like a lot of the time the shows we get here in Glasgow aren’t that great but SFN has been amazing so far. Well done to the team behind it. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Scotland needs more expos and events like these and with the great turnout, it just shows there is a demand for it.

Our day started early yesterday. Team voomfit met up at 8.30am to finalise our stand to get going when the doors opened at 9.30am. We couldn’t believe how busy our stand was all day. People do like a challenge and it was evident in the amount of interest the hang challenge generated. It was crazy and so much fun! There were even some incredibly strong kids taking on the challenge. The best time at the end of the day was 2 minutes 35 seconds I think, which is insane! We’ll see if anyone beats it today.

When I wasn’t at our stand I was browsing about the expo and found some amazing businesses such as Raw Brazilian Coconut Water (love raw coconut water and had only ever tried Rebel Kitchen’s before, this one tasted absolutely amazing), Drink Maple, Free Soul, Misfits Nutrition, Harris Blu and loads more! It was so inspiring speaking to the people behind these companies, all trying to help people in some way on their fitness journey whether it’s through beautiful gym gear, healthy drinks or food. It’s amazing what’s out there that I haven’t heard of before and there only seems to be more and more amazing products being launched. The more the better I say! Healthy food and drink options are important to stay on track with your diet and then gym gear to keep us motivated and feeling awesome when training.

I then had the incredible honour of meeting some super badass girls such as Shona Vertue (I’ve been following her on Instagram for a while now and she’s amazing!) and then Zanna and Tally (and later on Victoria) from the Girls Gains. It was amazing to get a chance to talk to them and just hear what they thought of Glasgow and stuff. These women are women I look up to and am so inspired by how they make a difference in people’s lives. Something I hope to do with this blog. What a job they’re doing and I could only dream of being able to help as many as they are. One day maybe! They were all so lovely, just as how they come across online. Thank you ladies for showing girls how to love themselves, their bodies and teaching them on how to take care of themselves in a healthy way.

I’m so excited for another day at the expo. I’m hoping to be able to catch Shona’s class in the morning and Lean Machines talk. We’ll see how busy our stand is tomorrow but should be okay to go hopefully (if there is space!). I’ve got a list of things I want to buy (but probably shouldn’t because I’m meant to be saving money) but there’s loads of amazing discounts pretty much everywhere so I’m still saving money technically… Oh excuses… SFN is only once a year and having so many amazing things available in one place, you need to make the most of it!

If you haven’t been yesterday I would strongly recommend you going today. It’s so much fun and I truly think you won’t regret it for a second! Tickets are sold at the door so don’t worry if you haven’t got one.

Please come along to the voomfit stand. Would love to see you there 🙂

M xxx

 


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Wee Guys


Great affordable lunch place in city centre

Hi my dears! I love finding hidden gems in Glasgow where you can have a healthy and delicious meal. After being to Wee Guys twice I felt like I should share this place with you. It’s a lovely little lunch cafe just off George Square in Merchant City. The set up is very simple with a varying menu of salads, sandwiches and other dishes as well as a breakfast menu.

All of their food tastes delicious and fresh. Both times I’ve visited I’ve tried their salads, which have all been tasty. The only thing I would say is the dishes are quite small for a person like me with a big appetite but the prices are really quite cheap so you can easily ask for more and pay a bit extra to get another dish. My most recent visit I tried one of their specials which was a sweet potato, butternut squash and lentil curry with brown rice. I was still hungry after the curry and asked Jamie if he maybe wanted to share a big salad plate with me as well, which we did. Their food is always very easy to just take away if you want to eat it elsewhere.

Try it out and see what you think!


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The quest to getting stronger


Weightlifting with Faye and her mum Carole

Then we moved onto deadlifts and finished off with strict presses. They were so tough.

We then enjoyed some brunch at Singl-end.

I then met up with my little sis to give her a very belated birthday present. Better late than never!

Hi lovelies! Happy new week! Hope you had a wonderful start to your week and are feeling energetic and excited about your plans. I’m feeling a bit tired after a busy weekend and an early start this morning so perhaps not the best start to my day even though I had a great gym session this morning and I’m happy I went I think I need an early evening tonight to feel more rested tomorrow.

I wanted to share some pictures from my lovely day yesterday! I got picked up by Faye’s mum Carole and Faye and went to G5 in the morning. None of us were feeling a hundred percent so instead of doing something high intensity we worked on strength and we did the class I missed earlier in the week when I was ill. It was five rounds of 50kg back squats for 10 reps. Five rounds of 65 kg deadlifts for 10 reps and finally five rounds of 25kg strict presses for 10 reps. It was all quite mentally challenging, especially the strict press. There were several times I was standing there with the bar and had no idea how my muscles were physically going to lift that bar over my head. It’s like you almost forget how to control your muscles because you’re so tired haha. If I hadn’t had the support from Faye and Carole that would’ve been so much more difficult. I really need to up my strength game. I feel like my conditioning is quite good at the moment despite the fact that I’ve been ill but I really want to get stronger.

After a great weight session the three of us went with Lauren and Katherine to Singl-end for brunch! I was starving after that gym session and couldn’t wait to tuck in to the vegan breakfast. I just can’t get enough of it! The wait was a bit longer than usual on everything, which was a shame when were starving but it happens. In the end we were super happy with our food but you know you’re getting to that hangry stage and you just want your food now, that was me hehe. Once I was fed I was all happy again.

I then waved off my dear gym friends and went into town to see my sister to finally give her her birthday present. It was about time she got it! We went for a little tea in town where I got to hand it over and she loved it which made so happy. It was a frame with a quote in, which I thought was relevant for her as she stresses a lot about uni and life. It’s now over her desk as a little reminder. If you’re curious of what it is check out her Instagram, @elninjos.

Now I’m ready to just cook some dinner and do nothing! I’ve got a busy week ahead with The Motivational Dude’s charity event tomorrow evening which voomfit is sponsoring and then this weekend I’m at the SFN EXPO with voomfit as well where we’ll have a stand with a hang challenge. Come see us! So not a lot of free time this week at all but I think it’ll be good fun.

Speak soon,

M xxx