The 12 Days of Fitness

It's been a while since I last posted a blog about my progress and it's not because I haven't been helping people get fit I might add. I hope you have had a lovely Christmas. Over the past few weeks I have been planning my New Year fitness packages to help the ladies and gents of Loughborough to get fit in January. I have also managed a children's activity camp in Stratford-Upon-Avon on behalf of Fit For Sport. I have worked for them in the past and when asked if I wanted to work the week leading up to Christmas with 20 children aged 5-12 years old each day then I jumped at the chance. The camps are a great way to get children off the sofa and off the computer games and to get them ACTIVE! We all had a great time and I can't wait to do it again for February half-term. The camp allows me to add 100 people to my Fitness 10,000 challenge.

It has been fairly quiet in fitness town since I last blogged. A combination of clients being ill, going on holiday and Christmas parties has meant that most have seen the Christmas period as a time to relax and recover ahead of the New Year. I, on the other hand, have continued to train for the Loughborough Half Marathon taking place next March and feel in good shape to start my next phase of training. The hard stuff starts next week!! To help me get through those tough interval sessions I have the onesixeight: fitness training podcasts and I shall also be training with Team 168 in Loughborough at the new group training sessions starting next Tuesday at 6pm. Find out more here.

There's still time to enter the Loughborough Half with Team 168... Email Becky today to find out more

As this is the last blog of 2011 I thought I should update you with an accurate Fitness 10,000 total so far. Drum roll please...........................

4503

I am nearly half way and that makes me very happy and excited for the next 7 months. I thought I would share with you some plans as to how I am going to help the next 5,500 to get fit in the New Year.

• School Olympic Bounce-athons 
• The Loughborough Half in March
• 1 giant Charity Bounce-athon in June before I go to the Olympics
• Personal training, group bounce and running sessions
• Corporate fitness programmes
• and much much more! :-)

Stay tuned next year to find out when I reach my target of helping 10,000 people get fit and how I manage to do it.

Before I sign off you may be wondering what the 12 Days of Fitness is all about. You can follow the 12 Days of Fitness Challenge on the onesixeight: fitness homepage. The challenge is all about helping people get up and active after the Christmas break and in to the New Year - kick starting those New Year's resolutions. Score points for doing the video exercises, low intensity activity and higher intensity exercise. Report your points score and progress via Twitter or Facebook to win prizes!! Good luck!!

All that is left for me to say is Happy New Year and let's make 2012 a year to remember... only 5497 people to go!! :-)

This week has been pretty quiet in terms of my Fitness 10,000 challenge. I have, however, been out and about networking at the Women in Business meetings in Market Harborough and Burton. Both lunch events gave me the opportunity to talk about my Fitness 10,000 challenge and how I can help people with their New Year Fitness regime, which should contribute to my Fitness 10,000 challenge next year.

In other news this week, I have started to send out my Christmas cards. All of the cards have a voucher for a week of FREE bounce classes in January or February next year. If you haven't received a card but would still like to try bouncing for free in the New Year you can request a voucher here.

Finally, if you aren't already following @onesixeightfit on Twitter you are missing out on lots of tips on how to eat healthily over the festive period. And then there's the @168LboroHalf twitter page where you can find lots of running tips - not just for people running the Loughborough Half Marathon next year.

Top tip for the week - if you are exercising with extra layers on because it's cold outside, be sure to replace the fluid lost from sweating with lots of water. Even though you may not feel like you've sweated a lot or feel particularly thirsty - you still will have lost water and need to replace it asap so you don't become dehydrated.

Keep bouncing, peeps :-)
BB

Santa Clause is Coming to Town!

I waited until today to write this week’s blog as I wanted to report on this morning’s activity… I was asked only last week to lead the Loughborough Santa Fun Run warm up. The event was a huge success and the warm up was very much appreciated on such a chilly morning! I am waiting to hear how many Santa runners the event attracted, however, it is estimated that over 1,000 runners had registered. Unexpectedly, this takes my Fitness 10,000 challenge up to the next level and I can add these 1,000 people to the list – taking the tally up to over 4,000!!

This week, I organised my 4^th Bounce-athon, which was held at Redlands Primary School in Sileby. The event was a huge success with 237 children and even some teachers taking part throughout the day. I really enjoy the energy that children have and feeding off their energy is possibly the only way I can keep bouncing for 7 hours! The kids had lots of fun and I am sure they will enjoy the after-school classes planned for the New Year. My next Bounce-athons will be in January so I look forward to those. Feel free to get in touch if you would like your child’s school to get involved.

On Thursday, I also received a very important and exciting email informing me that I have been successful in my Games Maker application for the London 2012 Olympics. I applied to volunteer last year and have gone through the application and interview stages and knew that I would find out before the end of the year if I had a place or not. I am very excited and honoured to have been offered a place – I haven’t yet accepted, but I definitely will be doing! This is an excellent once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and will also be a great end reward for after achieving my Fitness 10,000 Challenge. I shall let you know more of my Olympic plans in the New Year – including details on my Olympic Bounce-athon taking place on July 2^nd when the Olympic Torch passes through Loughborough.

Finally this week was the onesixeight: fitness Christmas meal and in true fitness professional style I supplied all the guests with a ‘How to stay in Shape over Christmas’ fact sheet which went down well! The fact sheet includes calorie information for alcoholic beverages, health benefits of a Christmas dinner and how to burn off the Christmas treats with shopping and dancing – after all, I do believe in everything in moderation. If you would like a copy of the information then you can download it from the onesixeight: fitness website.

Quick tip: if you don’t want to leave the house to exercise because it’s too cold or dark, try this home circuit…

Stair running for cardio

Press-ups for upper body

Squats for legs

Tricep dips for arms

Sit-ups for abs

Keep warm everyone and enjoy your Christmas shopping, fairs and more.

BB :-)