Has watching a TV diet of sport, sport and more sport inspired you to get out of your armchair and exercise? Thought not! But never fear, even the most exercise-phobic can be inspired to get fitter, you might not win a gold medal, but you’ll most certainly feel better for it. I should know because I’ve managed to keep up a fitness regime, as in 4/5 times a week of sporting-level activity,  for the last 15 years; more if you count my five years age 19-23 hitting the uni and college gyms.

I won’t lie, it’s not been easy. Staying motivated when you’re not a professional athlete with a livelihood at stake can be almost impossible. But I think I’ve cracked it, and anyone reading this who knows me will testify.

I was originally inspired to exercise after watching Madonna live in her Who’s That Girl tour when I was 17. I was impressed with then 30 year-old’s slim but strong physique. She’d apparently embarked on her intensive exercise routine after feeling so unfit during her first tour, and had vowed to be able to carry a set and keep up with her dancers and never feel breathless half way through a song again.

For about three years I exercised 3 times a week in the college gym or doing aerobics and step classes, a new thing then, up until I was 23. Then my career  and the long hours of a trainee journalist and later financial reporter saw my routine slide. It wasn’t till I was 29, and had broken up with my boyfriend, that I made a promise to get fit again. It was sort of a millenium resolution. I joined a gym and my skinny 8.5 stone body got bigger and bigger until 2 years later I was weighing in at 11stone.

At 5′7″ and a small frame I was actually slightly overweight, despite going to the gym and doing yoga four to five times a week. How had that happened?

I discovered just how when I decided to change my routine – I’d been doing the same thing for two years – and go to a spin class. It was sooo hard but I realised that I simply had not been challenging myself enough and my body and my mind were bored. The gym membership which I’d been about to ditch was renewed and I regularly saw a personal trainer and used the advice of a gym instructor to keep my routine fresh.

I’ve never looked back, apart from the three months of pregnancy when I decided I really did need a break, and even now I actually regret that.

So how do and did I stay motivated? Remember to ask a GP before you embark on any exercise routine, and remember that although I am fit, I’m not a fitness expert.

1) Have a goal. At the moment I’m using my gym’s Olympic challenge of cycling 60k (not in one go I might add). Having a distance to go means you stop looking at the clock and concentrate on what you have to do, and – because no one wants to spend all day at the gym – you end up doing it quicker! Another example 1km on a rower, or 100 floors on the step machine.

Other goals could be – to finish a Race for Life 10k, or cycle London to Brighton.

2) Have an achievable goal. If you’ve never exercised before start small that way you won’t feel disappointed and you won’t give up so quickly. 500 metres could be a marathon if you’ve never run before.

3) Mix it up. Don’t just run or cycle, do weights (get an instructor to give you a routine and change it every six weeks) do a class.

4) Do stretching/flexible stuff. Exercise isn’t just about burning calories or losing weight it’s about being able to be lithe and enter old age able to touch your toes. Doing yoga, pilates or body balance means your muscles get the stretching they need – for me it’s about de-stressing and making sure my tight hip flexors don’t affect my ability to exercise.

5) Get a fitness buddy or fitness muse. Okay mine was Madonna, and when she started doing yoga so did I. Now I use an app which can track my progress so I can be inspired by myself.

6) Don’t watch what you eat. Okay I’m blessed here, as I’m one of those people who can’t sit still but everything in moderation and if you are exercising you’ll get to know your body and it’s needs (yoga is great for this). I eat everything (apart from meat) and I love my occasional chocolate treat. But I also love the feeling I get when I drink enough water and eat healthily.

7) Don’t fall for fads. the only thing that really works is good old fashioned aerobic exercise, i.e getting off the sofa and getting sweaty.

Make time. When I have weeks I can’t get to the gym I aim to do a DVD (Tracey Anderson’s dance cardio is great – but tricky) or – as I did one week – put weights on my ankles and used my walk to and from the station and tube stations as my aerobic exercise session. I’ve also got resistance bands and a kettle ball (currently a door stop) which I also use when gym deprived.I’ve also been known to go running at 5.30am (before Andrew leaves for work).

And don’t forget to reward yourself, it can be food, a facial, a new book or face cream.

If all this sounds too much, remember once you get that energy, you will want it forever.

It’s National Vegetarian Week and the theme of this year’s veggie week – which has been annual event for the last 20 years, is breakfast.

Now we at Ella Mag are what we call pescatarians – i.e we eat mostly veggie with the odd fish dish thrown in  (normally sustainable sourced salmon). But we do happen to love our veggie breakfasts, although it has to be said we tend to rely on mock meat products like soya sausages and fake bacon which can get a bit boring.

So to celebrate National Vegetarian Week Chinese supermarket Wing Yip has come up with a few imaginative and very yummy alternatives.

We are going to have a go at making Yu Tiao, which is usually known in English as Chinese fried bread sticks. They are deep-fried strips of dough which are eaten for breakfast in East and South East Asian cuisines and often dipped into hot coffee.

Other Asian vegetarian breakfast choices include the Malaysian Paratha, which is a type of flatbread that’s apparently delicious with breakfast staples like omelette or scrambled eggs and of course Chinese Man Tao (steamed buns) are fluffy and perfect with hot soy milk – these are great, I ate them all the time when I was travelling around Malaysia and Singapore!

Mr Wing Yip, founder of Wing Yip, said: “We’re trying to help break the perception that vegetarian breakfasts are a bland alternative to the traditional British fry-up or sausage sandwich. “With a little imagination, you can create a fantastic meat-free exotic meal to surprise your breakfast guests and get a perfect start to the day.”

Yu Tiao

Ingredients:

• ¾ teaspoon instant yeast
• Two tablespoons of lukewarm water
• One teaspoon of Mai Siam Palm Sugar
• 250 ml water
• One teaspoon of bi-carbonate of soda
• ½ teaspoon of ammonia powder – available from Wing Yip
• ½ teaspoon of alum – available from Wing Yip
• 315 gms bread flour
• One teaspoon pink salt

Method:

1. Mix the yeast, lukewarm water and sugar and set aside for 10 minutes until foamy.
2. Mix the water, bi-carbonate of soda, ammonia powder and alum.
3. Sift the bread flour and pink salt into a mixing bowl then add the two other mixtures and, using a wooden spoon, mix the dough until it is combined.
4. Knead for five minutes and add a little bit more flour if the dough is too sticky to work with.
5. Cover with cling wrap and let the dough proof for two hours. After that, turn the dough onto a well-floured work surface.
6. Sprinkle some flour on the dough and roll it into a long rectangle.
7. Cut into strips that are four centimetres-wide and roughly the length of a chopstick.
8. Place one of the strips one on top of another and leave for five minutes. Then heat vegetable or sesame oil for frying.
9. Press lightly on the two strips of dough with a chopstick. Then hold both ends of the combined dough and lower into hot oil. Deep fry, turning constantly until each it turns puffy and golden brown.

We’re all guilty of it, taking our health for granted that is. It’s only when something goes wrong that we realise just how precious it is.

My wake up call came this morning. Now I’ve long prided myself on my ability to lift not just Immy (who is 2stone plus) but her buggy as well.My rule is that once I can no longer do this, then really Immy shouldn’t be using the buggy any more – kind of like my own personal health and safety rule.

I reckon I can lift it fairly safely, so long as I bend from the knees, not the back and I keep the distance I have to carry it to a minimum. This morning I broke that rule when we were rushing for the train, instead of getting Immy to walk up the stairs and over the bridge I lift her up and down two flights of stairs to the city bound platform of  our local train station. The moment I lifted the buggy I felt a twinge, not unlike that I got in the latter stages of pregnancy.

As the morning wore on it became apparent that I had indeed done ’something’ to my lower back and that appears also to have aggravated a shoulder twinge I picked up while working in an office last summer.

The lady in Boots, and the queue behind me, all had advice on what painkillers to take – the consensus was that I needed something serious – codeine and ibuprofen. I glugged two tablets down there and then. The rest of the day was a bit trippy but I made it through and Immy got her swimming lesson and a three hour play in the park.

I’ve also made an appointment to see a physio on Friday morning.

But don’t be like me, take the advice of experts at The Shoulder Doctor, whom I discovered thanks to a well timed press release on minor injuries sent to journos this afternoon.

Apparently, and of course we know this, you don’t have to be doing ‘bravado’ stuff like picking up a buggy with a child to do your back in.  Any of these sound familiar?

- aches and pains from carrying the weekly food shop home
- repetitive strain injury from washing and blowdrying hair, playing tennis, golf
- carrying your baby
- ‘iPad shoulder’ -using modern technology on the sofa etc so you slouch
- poor posture at your desk or in the work place

Tony Kochhar from the ShoulderDoctor has the following tips to avoid lower back injuries, I know some of them sound obvious but you may just want to remind yourself of them.

• Never lift above shoulder height.
• Keep your heels on the ground and make sure you are on a stable surface
• Take a firm hold.
• Keep any weight close to your body, not at arms length
• Keep your back straight and bend your knees.
• Lift as smoothly as possible – no jerky movements

He’s also given me some exercises designed to be used as gentle exercises for a lower back strain as telling me to keep taking the non steroidal anti-inflammatory tablets. Before you take any medication remember to consult with your GP before taking any pain relief; I know I can tolerate most types of pain relief because giving birth to my daughter involved such huge amounts of the stuff.

It’s National Vegetarian Week this week, if you hadn’t already noticed.

Like many of my 1970- born peers, I went veggie in the late 1980s when I was 16 -  encouraged by friends who’d listened to Meat is Murder by the Smiths. I didn’t ever listen to it, I was too scared to!

I’d always been veggie at heart, at the age of six I remember being severely reprimanded for spitting out a piece of gristle from a hamburger during a BBQ. We lived in the countryside so I knew where meat came from, my reasons for turning veggie was really that meat became – over the following decade -  simply unpalatable.

Being a veggie in the 1970s was not really acceptable, after all our grandparents could still remember rationing from 20 years back; being a faddy eater was not entertained by a generation of parents and grandparents who remember what it was like to go hungry.

Now we are actually encouraged to go veggie, and there are lots of benefits, most of all is that you do find that you eat more vegetables. Much as I love my mock-meat products, you can only eat so many soya sausages a week.

The Vegetarian Society launched NVW 20 years ago!  Liz O’Neill, of the Vegetarian Society, said the theme of this year’s veggie week was breakfast. She said: “We’re hoping this year’s theme will help everyone to get off to a good start, realise how much veggie food they already eat and help to tackle head on the  notion that life isn’t worth living without a bacon butty.”

There’s lots of inspiration on the website National Vegetarian Week as well as events near you.

At Ella Mag – we’ve been using our breadmaker to cook up some yummy breakfast treats.  We’ve been making spelt bread, which is a tasty and wheat-free alternative to wholemeal bread (which we do also love).

For lunch, we’re going for goats cheese salad with rice and vegetables, followed by a banana smoothie, and if we are hungry mid afternoon, it’s organic homous and oatcakes for us.

And for dinner, we’re going to be cooking Nigella’s Cheddar cheese risotto

Yum – who needs meat?

The secret of a longer life has been revealed. And it’s not what you think it is. It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are or how many times you hit the gym, what matters is how often you eat cooked food.

Don’t believe us? Well a 10-year study published in Public Health Nutrition links frequent cooking to a longer life.

Scientist studied a group of Taiwanese people aged 65 and over.  Just under half of those people never cooked, 17 per cent cooked 1–2 times a week,  9 per cent cooked 3–5 times a week and 31 per cent cooked up to 5 times a week.

During the 10 year study, 695 of the group died. Of those who were still alive were the ones who cooked the most. All other variables were removed.

The unmarried women who lived and ate alone, had not been highly educated, were non-drinkers and non-smokers, got around by public transport, walking and cycling, and shopped more than once a week.

Along with cooking more frequently, these women also reported enjoying a better, more nutritious diet than others in the study, with diets high in fibre, vitamin C and low in cholesterol.

Women who cooked for a spouse or other family members also lived longer. Men were more likely never to cook or to cook infrequently. They were also more likely to die at a younger age.

Prof Mark Wahlqvist, who works in international health and nutrition, said “it has become clear that cooking is a healthy behaviour. It deserves a place in life-long education, public health policy, urban planning and household economics. The pathways to health that food provides are not limited to its nutrients or components, but extend to each step in the food chain, from its production, to purchase, preparation and eating, especially with others”.

The medicalisation of birth is a hot topic in the UK and the US, with some women claiming intervention is often unwanted and paramount to abuse. Ella Mag’s guest blogger Dr Lesel Dawson discusses her own birthing experience.

While reading some blogs at the weekend, I was shocked to come across a wealth of (mostly American) material describing ‘birth rape’.

This is not sexual, but a term used by some mothers to describe unwanted and/or unnecessary intervention during labour, invoking a definition of rape as any physical violation.

As I read some of the disturbing stories about women given C-sections against their will, the unwanted use of forceps to ‘speed things up’ and the pressure put on a few to consent to chemical induction or pain relief, I was reminded of a blog I submitted to The Huffington Post in August 2011.

It touches on some of the arguments regarding the medicalisation of birth and suggests some of the differences between the US and UK system. While I don’t think that the issues surrounding ‘birth rape’ are confined to the US, the context of intervention in the US may make it harder for practitioners to identify with mothers who want to go au naturelle.

My first child was born two and a half months prematurely, on only gas and air. Despite the excruciating pain I was in, I didn’t realize I was in labour when my husband dropped me off at St. Michael’s Hospital in Bristol.

I went in wearing my work clothes, as if I might actually deliver the lecture I was scheduled to give, rather than my son. People always say that you forget the pain of birth, but this helpful amnesia depends on being given a baby at the end of your ordeal: the trauma of birth gives way to the love and joy of holding your child.

The fact that my son was whisked away from me the moment he was born, has meant that the pain of his birth remains in my mind separate from any joy of seeing him. During the final stages of labour I kept my eyes closed tight. I felt that I was both in the room and somewhere else. And all the while four lines from Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’, were stuck on repeat in my head (the bizarreness of this struck me even at the time). It was as if a strange madness had come over me.

This experience is a million miles away from the labour and birth most of the women seem to have on One Born Every Minute USA. As I watched it last summer, the first thing I was struck by was the absence of screams. At first, I thought this was just because it was early in the episode. However, it soon became clear that almost every woman featured had been given an epidural.

The result is to transform the show from gripping television to something both more surreal and mundane. ‘You have completed’ (the American term for fully dilated), one midwife informed a bored-looking mother to be, ‘You are ready to push’.

I had mixed emotions watching the US version of this show, both as an American and as a mother of two, whose children were born in the UK.

Certainly, there is something disturbing about the way in which these women appear so detached from the cataclysmic event happening to them. The tendency for most women to have epidurals (and to have them fairly early) not only medicalises birth, but also renders the mothers-to-be oddly passive.

A woman with an epidural requires continuous foetal monitoring and a catheter, making her unable to get up and move about the room (activities thought to help with labour pain and ensure that the baby is in the right position for birth). The women also seem passive and detached in more fundamental ways: they are unaware of the changes happening within their bodies, so it is for the nurses and obstetricians to inform them of what is happening.

Interestingly, when a woman is shown giving birth without medication it changes the interpersonal, power dynamics of the event in striking ways.

Marcella, a non-medicated pretty young mother-to-be, is told by her nurse that she will check on her again in a couple of hours as she probably has a long way to go in her labour. However, minutes after the nurse leaves the room, Marcella starts to scream, ‘I have to push!’ Nurses rush in to prepare the room for the baby’s imminent arrival. ‘I would have never expected this!’, her confused nurse comments. The attention is all on Marcelle and it is clearly her body, not the doctors and nurses, that has taken charge.

But is it right to idealize the pain of childbirth? Although this may be pain with a purpose, accounts of women in labour for several days who end up too exhausted to push or with emergency c-sections make it seem less like a joyful, natural process than a form of torture.

Unrelieved pain is also thought to be one of the risk factors for difficulties in breastfeeding and in post-natal depression. So isn’t pain relief a good thing? Surely Elaine Scarry is right to observe in The Body in Pain: ‘the most crucial fact about pain is its presentness’. When you are in pain, what is significant is that it is happening to you right now. And for most of us, our chief desire is simply that it ends.

So why is it that, according to some studies, approximately 65% of American women have epidurals while only 25% of women in the UK do the same?

In the NHS, where money is tight and anaesthetists fewer on the ground, it may be the case in some instances not that women are actively choosing natural births, but rather that requests for epidurals are not being met. Epidurals can slow labour down and, once administered, midwives are legally bound to provide the woman with one-to-one care.

Too many women having epidurals can thus lead to staffing problems and a shortage of beds. In America, on the other hand, where the patient is the client, epidurals are more readily available and a potential source of revenue (they generally cost somewhere between $1000 and $2500).

However, I do not think that the more natural, mobile births we see in the UK are simply the product of the NHS’s overstretched resources.

The midwives I’ve encountered try to tread a fine line between finding alternative ways for women to manage their pain and listening to requests for epidurals.

And there are, after all, some good medical reasons to favour natural birth, or at least to delay the use of an epidural for as long as possible: as well as slowing labour down, epidurals make it less likely that the baby rotates into the correct position for delivery.

They can also lead to a drop in the woman’s blood pressure and slow the baby’s heart rate down. As a result, women who have epidurals are more likely to need to help of an instrumental delivery (such as forceps) or to have an emergency caesarean.

I am glad that I have given birth without medication, simply because it is an experience beyond what I could have imagined. That being said, when I was in labour with my daughter I asked for, and was given, an epidural in the final stages of labour. So what right do I have to feel critical of women who choose an excellent form of pain-relief from the outset?

None whatsoever. I may like the idea of natural, non-medicated birth, but it is easy have such views from the safety of my front room. Indeed, I think we need to be wary of our ability to judge real life situations. It isn’t just that unmedicalised births make for better television (and let’s face it, they do). It is the fact that there is an unbridgeable gulf between the person in pain and the person witnessing it. I may find my son’s birth a source of fascination, but it is without doubt an experience I would rather recollect than repeat.

I’m having  a mini meltdown. The list of stuff to do seems to be getting longer and longer and to make things even more stressful – it’s just me and Immy during the week. The bridegroom to be is working away from home, and this week is in stressville himself – taking some exams (good luck darling).

My attempt at detoxing so far is just that, an attempt. I’ve managed to stay clear of caffeine and alcohol but today – with two deadlines to meet, a caterer to organise, bills to pay and bridesmaids dresses to sort ( on top of making sure my three year is fed watered and happy) I resorted to chocolate.

I wouldn’t call myself a chocoholic, but today somehow, no other foodstuff would do. I’m not worried about putting on weight, my dress isn’t exactly clinging to me. No I’m vainer than that, I’m worried that my skin will breakout and I’ll just look rubbish.

I’ve also got a list of articles for Ella Mag that have all been researched and somehow need to be written. So for the moment I’m just going to get my head down, keep calm and carry on… over and out

Now it’s official, I am panicking.  Really really panicking. The other night I woke up at 3am and could not get back to sleep until 5am (Imogen woke up at 6am) this rarely happens to me. I do wake up in the middle of the night but can often doze off again happily.

I have started having dreams about the wedding, about the music going wrong, my dress ripping, and not being able to get to the church.

But this wedding worry seems to have exacerbated something I thought I’d shrugged off  eight years back – around the time just before I first went freelance ; a period when when I felt out of control of everything in my life.  I sorted it out by carving my own career and generally taking control of my life.

I know this feeling – it’s anxiety.

I’ve read several articles on anxiety in the last few weeks. Apparently we’re all are suffering from an overload of anxiety. It’s the new epidemic, according the Sunday Times Style magazine.

Anxiety is something I find hard to live with,  worry on the other hand…

I’m a worrier, in fact I really am one of those people who if they haven’t got something to worry about, will actually wonder why they haven’t got something to worry about and will worry about that. I’ll assume that there’s something I should be worrying about but am not therefore the thing I am worried about will happen/not happen and then I really will be worried.

I was born like this, ask my mother!  In fact I’m surprised I don’t look 10/20 years older than I am.

But worry is something I can control.  Although I’m pretty sure this anxiety is actually my normal worries with the wedding stuff added I don’t want it to get the better.

For me anxiety means having a feeling in the pit of my stomach that there’s something I’ve not yet done or have to do. It can paralyse me in social situations or at home when I’m trying to do something relaxing.

It also means I get headaches – which is not something I generally suffer with much either.

Sometimes life can be a bit too much , we try and cram so many things in. Thinking of ourselves… as well as planning the wedding, we’ve had a quite a few things to deal with in the last couple of years. Serious illness, job losses, debts, changes in employment,  Imogen starting pre-school and a few others.

I nearly had a meltdown this afternoon when we were discussing the honey moon with Andrew’s parents. Then  I remembered how I managed to beat off the anxiety that nearly suffocated me a few years back – learning to  breathe.

You may laugh but while Andrew put Immy to bed I put on my yoga DVD, and rather than fast forward them, I actually just did the breathing exercises on their own instead.  Just sitting still, being calm, being in the moment, and hearing the sound of my own body nourish itself made me realise – everything really will be okay.

Ahhh

The reception appears almost sorted (food and drink that is) and while I had a bit a blunder re. numbers it appears we have some leeway if – as I hope – some guests who are not sure (school term permitting) are able to make it actually can.

So it’s onwards with my final preparations. But I am on my own, literally for at least the next eight weeks, because Andrew has landed himself a new job in London. It means he’s staying away during the week with our friends and that I am ’sort-of’ left holding the baby, abiet a big baby – 2 stone plus and over 3ft tall, and a baby who appears to like telling me what to wear in the morning.

The wedding dress is going to cost £50 to clean (just over half what we paid for it). Gulp! We’re about to write the cheque for the church and we’ve signed the legal forms as required by the Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster.

All that’s needed is flowers, favours, bridesmaids’ dresses and errr and an awful lot more stuff. I can’t think about it right now, too much (paid ) work to do.

I’m back on the booze for a week, in fact I’m writing this with a glass of Dolphin Bay Chardonnay in my hand and (not used to much alcohol of late) feeling rather wobbly.

In need of inspiration I dug out The Great Amercian Detox Diet by Alex Jamieson, the wife of Morgan Spurlock (of the film Supersize Me) from our ‘library’.

She’s a vegan chef and helped Morgan’s body recover from the damages a 30-day fast-food  only diet (no mentions for obvious reasons) did to his system. The ‘detox’ is actually a fairly sensible regime, but it does recommend drinking more water than I’m used to, and there’s an awful of tofu in the recipes.

I bought this book some years ago, but it’s not bad – and the plan is for 8 weeks. I’m already caffeine free – so let’s bring it on…

Ella Mag’s editor Samantha Downes is getting married this summer and she’s doing it on a budget. This week every minute counts…

With 10 weeks to go till our wedding every minute we can spend planning is a minute’s worth of stress avoided.  I’m not quite reciting the mantra  ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ but…

Being on a budget means looking for some great freebies. As my dress is sorted I’m now concentrating on having glowing skin to match my beautiful wedding dress.  I’m not leaving it to chance, oh no. So after a brief Easter break spent scoffing chocolate and guzzling wine (well sort of) I’m now back on the booze-free, choccy free, caffeine-lite bridal bootcamp plan.

I’m allowed the odd cup of tea (but no more than two a day) – a journalist needs something to get them through deadlines – but all else is banned.  But it’s not sooo bad, surprisingly I didn’t actually enjoy those mini Cadbury Caramel easter eggs quite as much as I did last year, and ended up with a hangover after just one (large) glass of red wine on Easter Saturday.

Keeping to the straight and narrow means spending my lunch hours sourcing budget bridal stuff.  One of my news shifts means I’m based in the City of London a few days a month. Temptation is everywhere, but being broke means I have to be inventive.

Thankfully the Dermalogica shop in One New Change offers a free 10-minute skin mapping service. So I can get my skin sussed out and product suggestions, but there is no obligation to buy. In fact I discovered I had all the right products, I just need to use them more!

(For those of you i.e. most of you who don’t live or work in the City of London you can find a free of charge face mapping service at www.dermalogica.com).

Another find was the Hershesons blow dry bar – for £24 you can get an up do/down do in just 30 minutes and I’m debating whether a trip there might just be worth the effort on W Day.

Sadly this service is not available outside London but you can find a reputable hairdresser on the Hairdressing Council’s website.

Now you’ll have to excuse me, am off to decide what buffet food and drink we are going to serve. Wonder if our guests will be happy with a sausage roll and a glass of cheap fizz?

Read more:

Buff bride on a budget – 10 and a half weeks to go

Buff bride on a budget – my no booze plan