Lifestyle: Gym For The Win and My Workout Clothes.

As some of you may know (or maybe not, considering the amount of cake and meals out I blog about), I am quite the health and fitness nut. Money Supermarket kindly offered to reimburse a month of my gym membership for me to talk about whether I think the money is worth it as part of their Gym For The Win campaign. I gladly agreed as I can safely say that switching to a more active lifestyle is one of the best decisions I have ever made for myself and I would encourage everybody to do the same.

I have been going to my local Pure Gym regularly for about four months now, and although I pay their special promotional price of just £10.99 a month, I would happily pay the full price of £18.99 as it is a decent gym with all the equipment you need (except for a swimming pool, so if swimming is your thing then it would probably be best to look elsewhere). But most importantly, I love the way that working out has affected me, both physically and mentally. Six months ago I had definitely hit a low point in my life, where my bed, my laptop and chocolate digestives had become my best friends. After waking up one morning feeling the same lethargic, depressed way I had felt for weeks on end, I decided it was time to make a change in my life and I decided to go down the healthy lifestyle route. As well as helping to burn off fat and tone up your muscles, exercise helps your body to produce endorphins which make you feel great. It has definitely helped me feel more confident and happy in my own skin, as well as giving me a better outlook on life.

Although a gym is not necessarily needed to have a healthy and active lifestyle, if you can afford to spend £15-30 a month on a gym membership, I would definitely recommend it. There is something about being in the gym that motivates me to get my workout done. I did start off by working out at home but I found that I was too easily distracted by the internet and the television. Plus, at the gym you have the benefit of having a wide range of equipment to use and members of staff on hand to help you out or answer any questions you may have regarding health and fitness. Give it a go- A lot of gyms these days offer rolling month contracts which means you can opt out at any time if you find that it isn't for you. If you would like to check out Money Supermarket's Gym For The Win campaign and maybe get involved, you can do so here.

I know that it can be difficult to motivate yourself to actually get up and start exercising, but one thing that I firmly believe is that if you feel good about yourself when you are working out, you definitely push yourself to go further. It's a little naughty, but on a few occasions where I have lost motivation I have gone out and purchased some nice new gym clothes to help get me back on track, so I thought I would show you what I wear to the gym as part of this post. There is no reason for your gym clothes not to reflect your personality just like your regular wardrobe, so bright colours and bold prints are the way forward for me. My favourite places to shop for gym wear are H&M and TK Maxx- both stock some lovely pieces for very affordable prices. You also can't go wrong by looking in Primark- I actually own a pair of leggings from their workout range which I really like, plus I always stock up on their super cheap shorts and vest tops.

 Sports bra and leggings: Kyodan via TK Maxx | Jacket: Primark | Trainers: Nike via JD Sports | Gloves: Nike via TK Maxx

Gold Sports Bra: H&M | Vest Top and Shorts: Primark | Base Layer Shorts (Purple): Nike via TK Maxx | Heart Rate Monitor Watch: Polar via Amazon

Do you/ have you had a gym membership?

*DISCLAIMER: Money Supermarket kindly reimbursed one month of my gym membership (£10.99) for this blog post. All opinions expressed are still 100% honest and my own.

My Budget Bucket List.

Hi girlies!

So I have a bit of a different post for you today. I have tons of stuff to photograph for upcoming blog posts but I haven't really felt like it/ had time to properly sit down and do it over the past few days, but I really wanted to try and get another blog post up so I thought it would be the perfect time to enter this amazing competition that MoneySupermarket are holding. They are offering one lucky blogger the chance to win £1,000 to put towards crossing off something on their bucket list, and four more runners up will win £50! If that wasn't already generous enough, if they get over 50 entries, the grand prize will be doubled to £2,000!

To enter, you just have to write a blog post describing one budget bucket list item, and one extravagant one; so here we go!

My budget bucket list item

If somebody were to hand me £50 right now, I would probably put it straight towards getting my first tattoo. To most, this might seem like a silly bucket list item because who doesn't get tattoos these days? But this is something that I have been 'umm'-ing and 'ahh'-ing about for the past three years, and I haven't had the chance to just go out and do it; being an unemployed student, every time I got my hands on a little bit of money there was always something more important that I needed to save it for. Besides, I hate any sort of pain and I'm also the most indecisive person ever and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to regret it. However, the past year or so has been one of the messiest times in my life and I actually see getting this tattoo as taking a huge step forward, as I will be facing one of my fears and the idea that I have is one that holds a lot of meaning for me. I won't go in to too much detail about it as I could write a whole blog post dedicated to it when I finally get it done :P but it's a little quote that I live by, and I would like it permanently drawn on the inside of my arm to remind me that life isn't always as bad as it seems.

My extravagant bucket list item

I can't say that I am not very well travelled, because considering I am only 21 I have been lucky enough to see a lot of beautiful places- I have been to the Philippines 8 times, the USA twice, Italy once and also the South of France. However, having family in the Philippines means that holidays have always been pretty restricted, hence why I have been there a whopping eight times(!), and we were always confined to one area. My other trips were school/college trips so obviously there wasn't much room to explore then either. Getting the opportunity to travel to Calvi, France last year for Calvi on the Rocks (you can read my posts about this amazing experience here) was a huge step in my life as it was the first time I had travelled out of the country alone, and it sparked a sense of wanderlust in me. To have the opportunity to explore the world further, especially now that I am a free bird (until I have to knuckle down in to the world of work for the rest of my life, eek!) would be incredible and I think it would help me grow as a person and find the much needed inner peace and independence that I am thriving for right now. Places I really want to see are more of the USA, more of Europe, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Australia, just to name a few. Of course, even the main prize for this competition isn't going to fund a trip around the globe, but it would sure give me a base to start from. I have been following Victoria (In The Frow) on Instagram and I am super jealous of her 64 day trip around 33 States with TrekAmerica, and to be able do something similar would be an absolute dream come true for me.

So there are the two things on my bucket list, from one end of the spectrum to the other! I have to tag three other bloggers to do this, so I'd love to see what is on Isabella's (Bellaetc), Natasha's (Wild Little Rose) and Alex's (Odd Socks and Pretty Socks) bucket lists. Of course I would love to see what is on your bucket list too, so do let me know in the comments or link me to your post if you have entered this fabulous competition! If you would like to find out more about the contest, which ends on August 2, you can read more here.

What's on your bucket list?