My First Give Away!
Hey! Hey! Hey!
Pages by Ike is over a month old! Thank you for sticking around, for the likes, shares and comments. It's time to celebrate and abuse exclamation marks in excitement!!!
One winner gets to win a Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity and Sleep tracker!
Yup, it's time to be a doer and not just a reader. Don't wait until 2016 to start to get your physical activity habits right, trust me 2016 has fitness challenges in store for you already, so get a head start by tracking your activity with the Fitbit! Your Fitbit is stylish and makes your lifestyle adjustment to #fitfam a lot more trendy!
To win, all you have to do is hit the adorably blue subscribe button (or click here) and once you are all registered, let us know by commenting below. The winner will be contacted and together we'll draw up a plan to get your fitbit to you.
Entry closes November 14th! (UPDATE: The winner has been sent an email)
(Open to residents of the US, UK, Canada and Nigeria. Delivery time might vary for locations.)
Previous subscribers will be automatically considered for the giveaway but have to comment below as well.
All the best!
Emperor of Sofa to Emperor, Fitfam
Photo credit: Me!
If you are an adopted member of #fitfam (like me) and ignoring Cold stone, Krispy Kreme and Dominos is getting pretty hard; if running 5 miles feels like a stretch and exercising in general looks like it's cut out for others and not you, well, I've got great news for you. Below are some tips on how to repudiate your reign as Emperor of sofa and assume a new position; Emperor of #fitfam. If you can't stand the term #fitfam, please skip to the last paragraph. I can't particularly give you a time frame for your transition; the main determinant is your will....fused with this post. Here goes....
1. Insta-Mentor
An insta-mentor gets you rolling out the mat and grabbing the dumbbells in no time. Mine on Instagram is @sofialevfitness. She never fails to inspire my abs. My abs love her. The part of me that hates to work out though....not so much. During those times when I don't feel like being Emperor, I just scroll fast past her 15 second videos, but then after a swift scroll, there she is again! She's one of those multiple photo/video uploaders. A fitness mentor inspires your body parts and it helps if they are really active on social media and in your face all the time.
2. Buy Gym wear (neon does it!)
I don't know if this happens to anyone else but when I wear my gym clothes, I have a Clark-Kent-like transformation. My jaw is set, I stand akimbo, staring into the sun with an imaginary red cape blowing in wind...that kind of stuff and then off I go to the gym to run less than my proposed 3 miles. Superman has his timeout days too, what can I say? Nevertheless, buying gym gear definitely helps your morale and enthusiasm in breaking a sweat. If you feel you need an arm, head, ankle, belly band, get them all, as long as they makes you feel like you were born on the thread mill and get that heart rate up.
3. Gym/Work it
Now that you have those neon beauties, i guess it's important to join a gym! It's worth every penny. A cheaper alternative would be buying work out tapes (I said tapes, I don't know why i said tapes). If you are on a budget, google some aerobic exercises or do what i do; make up a routine and work it out consistently.
4. Ignore junk food
You'd think that associating the word "junk" with "food" would turn us all into junk food snobs but no, makes us love and crave it even more. Make cooking a habit and do it quantities that last at least a week. Also snack right with healthier options; nuts, fruits, vegetables. Leftovers and healthy snacks are the key to junk-snubing.
5. Make healthy eating fun!
Try new healthy recipes and make healthy pastries. If you are a baked goods lover, bake healthy. Eat dinner early, 7pm early, and if you are above the age of 25, carby night-caps are probably not the best idea.
6. Get a pedometer!
I should get paid for this pedometer thing but seriously, get one for yourself and a loved one this Christmas. It helps to measure your daily activity. You'll very soon realize how sedentary you actually might be, which we don't want, sitting being the new smoking and all. Set a target for each day, we are supposed to take about 7000-8000 steps a day. My pedometer just whispered, "Hypocrite," which is exactly why you want one.
7. Be consistent!
#Fitfam is a lifestyle and requires a complete lifestyle turn around. It really is a conscious effort to get off the sofa, suspend Netflix 'n' chill and actually get active. Having someone who you are accountable to helps a lot as well; someone to stare you down as you open the fridge at midnight; someone to slap your wrist as you reach for that ooze-drippy caramel-ly, chocolatey desert; someone to send you this post, because they love you.
So remember; insta-mentor+ some neon+ junk snobbery+ workout tapes +dinner before 7+ nagging pedometer+ willpower= Emperor Fitfam
Now, if you hate the term #fitfam and you want absolutely nothing to do with them. Read this post again and cover the #fitfam with your pinkie. Once you've done that, buy you some neon colored gym clothes, follow a health entusiast on IG, make some healthy diet changes, buy a pedometer and share this post.
Workout playlist: Pain, Itch and Etighi
Exercise hurts. If you haven't exercised in a while, it hurts AND it itches!!! This itch is popularly known as runner's itch. No one really knows for certain what causes it; histamine, lactic acid, tight gym clothes (cat-call*). I don't know what it is but i could tell you tales about it, about when I used to run outdoors; tales about dodging behind trees and in public restrooms; tales about odd looks and impromptu modifications of scratch techniques. The thing makes you want to grow wolverine-claws and scratch those thighs off. However, I bring good tidings (as always). According to Scientific American, music distracts us from pain, maybe not itching but definitely pain, so we are able to focus more on achieving our gym/outdoor goals. With a great playlist, you wouldn't even notice. Ok you will, that itch sucks.
Another great thing about music and working out, music makes you go harder, faster and conserves your energy. Counterintuitive but you know science....they always have an explanation for everything. Apparently, music conditions the body to move in such a way that we use just the right amount of oxygen to achieve our workout goals, sometimes it even causes us to use less! To aid this process, it's actually advisable to have your movement synchronized to the beat of your music, of course not to the tee, otherwise, that would be another sport entirely. Most people have the ability to exercise to the beat of a song. If this is true (and it is, I can prove it) and you came into my gym (about to prove it) and you looked around, this is what you'd see:
The girl who I'm sure listens to rock as she sprints, she's so energetic and fiery. She definitely goes harder and faster. She inspires me from a distance. A long distance. Then the other girl who runs about 8 miles (not kidding), she definitely listens to raggae or something, sometimes, it's like she double steps on one leg! Then the hip hop boys with the weights. There's the guy who runs in slow-motion, I don't know what that guy listens to, some Bach maybe. Then me.....you'd see me trying desperately trying not to do Etighi on the tread mill while listening to Iyayan's Away or Yemi Alade's Johnny. It's a very diverse gym as you can tell.
Anyway, here's my work out playlist. How i endure the pain, the itch and my run-dance soundtrack.
My Playlist
Alive- Hillsong Young&Free
At the beginning, I work with length, so I go with a fast-paced Hillsong song. These guys do an average of about 8-9 mins on one song! They are amazing. If you can break through your first 7 minutes with a Hillsong song or two, great!
Speed of light- Owl City (it's hilarious running to the beat of this song, it's almost cartoon-like)
Hall of fame- The Script
Flares- The Script
Burn- Ellie Goulding
Outside- Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding
Watch me - Silentó (this song gets confusing. I literally want to stop running and whip! Who feels this way too?!)
For mid-way endurance, I switch to African music. This would probably be the time you'd walk in on me; dance-running.
Away- Iyayan
Million pound girl- Fuse ODG (this is great for that moment when you are sure you are going to walk off the treadmill without stopping it. That "forget-this, I'm-done!" moment.
Johnny -Yemi Alade
Surulere - Dr. Sid & Don Jazzy
[Gym trick: Put you favorite workout song in the middle of your workout playlist. Or at the end. So you work towards the "goal" of your favorite song. It works! I went from a gym 1.1 mile-r to a 2.2 mile-r!]
What's on your playlist? Do you dance-run? Do people at your gym do the Etighi?