WELCOME TO GIN OR GYM

Oooh potentially contentious blog! “Instinct is illogical” comes from an acquaintance of mine who reads my blogs. K is a maths/science teacher who bases her whole life on the formulas and theories she teaches. There is not a situation in K’s existence that has not being calculated and nothing is ever left to chance. I should say that I am not writing anything she would not say herself. Where most of us would make matter of the heart decisions with our emotions, K is “cold, lo

Isn’t it funny how we have the weirdest things in our lives that we cannot exist without? For me it is coffee, me without my morning mug/bucket/gallon of caffeine does not bear thinking about. The world is not safe believe me! Yet there are other things that at certain points in your life you find become necessities. I don’t mean essentials like water, air, food etc but the everyday bits and pieces you take for granted. Part of this next phase of my 150 Day Challenge is to cl

If I asked you to define your core what would you say? Apart from fruit related meanings, the dictionary has it as “the part of something that is central to its existence or character.” Or as a friend once put it, “it is the bit on the middle of you that defines who you are”. Many firms and organisations use their core values as a means to promote who they are and what they do so I guess it is a pretty central message. I have been lucky in the past to have worked with firms

I have to admit that this morning I am shattered. A very busy and challenging week caught up with me and I had to cancel a few things today. I deliberately had a slow morning with a little bit longer in my meditation time. My walk took me round the Botanic Gardens minus my FitBit. The crocus and snowdrops are peeping up everywhere, it is so nice to see that wee bit of colour. Determination to get the job done! Sunday is going to be a challenging day as I have a lot to do plus

Up with the very sleepy lark this morning, places to go and people to see. I did treat myself to breakfast at my favourite coffee shop, Gordon Street Coffee. Their Glasgow Roast is just the fuel to get you going. I love sitting in here, especially this morning as the coffee bean roaster was on. Check the Day 27 post on my Facebook page Facebook Tomorrow, more coffee powered activity and if nothing gets in the way, a workout with GymGuyMark G #150DayChallenge #challenge #Coff

Tomorrow is back to work day! After an amazing break, it is time to shift focus and balance out life. 2016 looks to be one that will be filled with passion, opportunity, personal growth and one almighty challenge in getting this poor old  neglected body back into shape. The spark has been lit and the revolution continues! G x #Fitness #Ginorgym #growth #Gin #opportunity #Gym #Scotland #change #focus

When you read all the health advice for someone of my age, it is all cut down on stress, watch what you eat, don’t drink to excess and exercise. I realised the other day that in 2015 I revolted against most of this. I think I saw the inside of the gym only a handful of times, healthy eating; eh no, and stress, well lets just say at times it was off the radar. So I guess that makes me a lifestyle revolutionary, waving the flag for all the wrong reasons but if you were to quest

Ooooh what a subject for a Sunday morning! Passion can be defined as a “very strong feeling about a person or thing” or “an intense emotion, a compelling enthusiasm or desire for something.” Everything from chocolate, football, politics to saving the world has stirred passionate feelings and arguments in pubs or in families, so it can be a destructive emotion as well as a positive one. Passion is such and individual thing! We can all feel passionately about our country but th

This morning I wake up in a different world! Over a week ago I was in the busy, frantic office of investment banking and today I enter the world of the “creative visionaries and digital design specialists” at 29studios My challenges? To manage the office, to learn what they do, reacquaint myself with a MacBook and embrace a brand new culture and way of working. All of which I am so looking forward to! When you make any change to your life you cause a whole heap of ripples in

The one problem with making any big change is doubt, that silly little niggle that starts at the back of your head and will not go away. Small things can very quickly escalate into huge fears and worries and the spiral into heightened anxiety can shift up a gear and speed towards the danger zone. How do you stop that from happening? Self belief, remember where the courage came from to make that decision and why! Focus on you, on your reasons good or bad and use them to point

So what do you do when your courage has prevailed and you find yourself back on the job market? The days of your notice are fading away faster than you would wish and there is no new post yet on the horizon. First step is you get your Linkedin updated and your CV tweeked and polished. Then sit down and make out a plan, forget pros and cons for now, I did a mind map of what I would need to do to survive while I looked for what I wanted. It became very clear to me that temporar

Change! A word that scares many of us to heck and back! Why? Is it because we like being comfortable in an environment that is familiar or is it because we don’t like new faces? Perhaps the reason is that even if it is dangerous, we know what to expect from wherever we have lain our hat! Whatever the excuse, I mean reason, a lot of us just will not change what we perceive to be security. Very often it takes drastic action on the part of karma/Jesus/Universe (delete as appropr

This is the start of a very big week for me, after 12 years I leave my job! At present I do not have another one to go to but the next few days are full of exciting opportunities and that makes me happy #change #life #motivation

So what changed ? Why did I suddenly decide a few months later to finish the job? Another bottle of wine? Another fish supper? Actually it is much simpler than that, all it took was someone sending me a text that said “well I believe in you, read this and remember it” So I have thought, believed, dreamt and finally dared! Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom before you can start again, cliche I know but in this case so true. Apologies dear readers but I broke the promise at

You know those days where nothing seems to go right? The bus is late, you realise you forgot to switch off the iron/hair straighteners/coffee machine and then you finally sit down at your desk and there they are, one blue shoe and one brown. You sit back in your seat, close your eyes for a second and wish you would had a team of housekeepers and stylists to manage your every move. Days like these happen all the time, little things don’t go right and they can add extra stress,

I made the mistake of reading back over some of my Blogs yesterday. Big mistake, mainly because I picked the wrong ones to read. I chose to read those full of promises and pacts with myself, 75% of which I didn’t keep or found some excuse to justify the break! We go out of our way to keep promises to others, cancelling nights out to go see family, leaving the pub because we promised we would be home early, why then is it much easier to break that promise to ourselves than it

Talking about self acceptance this week, part of the process to get my head back into the right “exercise” space. To learn to see my perceived imperfections not as a fault but as a glorious work in progress is the goal, one weight at a time! #Fitness #Gym #Health #change #selfacceptance #goals

This is the only Blog where I will use the word menopause, I decided to write this as honestly as I can for two reasons. One, to sort my head out and accept what is going on, and two to try to find the balance again. Wikepedia defines it as … Menopause is the cessation of a woman’s reproductive ability, the opposite of menarche. Menopause is usually a natural change; it typically occurs in women in midlife, during their late 40s or early 50s, signaling the end of the fertile

Have you ever noticed how many problems we ladies have to deal with that all begin with or feature a word beginning with M. Some we face every month, others rear their heads now again and we are forced to face. In this past month alone I have listened to … Men One friends whose marriage ended and another whose boyfriend ditched her for another woman half her age. Both have replaced the men in their lives with three others, Mr Cadbury and those good ol boys Ben and Jerry! Mont