JANUARY FAVOURITES!!

Well hello there! Its almost the end of January (thank god!) and I thought I would do my very first attempt at a monthly favourites post! I got loads of bits and pieces for Christmas that I have been dying to blog about!

First up is my most reoccurring purchase; the Collection concealer! I use the Lasting Perfection range, in the shade fair 1 (as I am unbelievably pale) and I absolutely love it. I would really recommend this concealer if you're looking for something at a high street price, but has a high-end products coverage. The Collection concealer has the best coverage of any of the other concealers I've tried!

On to foundations! I am a firm believer in spending as little money as possible for a good foundation. I have recently been using my two favourite Rimmel London foundations to maximise my coverage.

The first, and the one I reach for the most, is the 'Match Perfection' foundation. I am extremely pale (fulfilling the Irish stereotype, good one Rach!) so for everyday use, I am the lightest shade possible; light porcelain. This is my go-to foundation for everything from school, to work, to running errands! This would be my most recommended foundation for its great coverage and the fact that it seems to never dry out my skin.

Keeping with foundations, I have been trying out the Rimmel London 'Finish' foundation, in the shade 103 true ivory. I picked this up recently and have been really loving it! I normally use this as a 'going out' foundation, and I got it in a slightly darker shade as I would wear it with tan on. I was seriously impressed with how easily it blends (using my much loved Real Techniques expert face brush) onto my face and how the coverage keeps up throughout the night. In comparing the two foundations, I would say that lasting coverage is better in the 'Finish', rather than the 'Match Perfection', although both give it a fair go!

If you're looking for a great high street foundation, these two are your best friends! I picked these two up in Superdrug in a 2 for £10 deal! How can you resist that absolute bargain?

Going on to brushes, I have only recently bought myself the Real Techniques Concealer Brush, and I'm still experimenting with it, so I'm not overly sure about it yet to be very honest. I think it takes me a while to 'warm up' to brushes, so I thought I wouldn't leave it out of the first monthly favourites of the year. The bristles are quite compact, so I find it really good for applying the concealer, but I've found myself reaching for my expert face brush to blend it out. Am I the only one that does this?

This next purchase was a complete blogger influence! Aimee wrote about the Garnier, Skin Active, Moisture Bomb face mask and it has now bumped its way up to my ultimate favourite face product! This face mask is quite a bit heavier than any others I've tried, but it works so much better than the rest. While I have a nice, relaxing 15 minutes with the mask on, I can feel a very slight tingling sensation of it working its magic!

I'm hopefully going to be making this a monthly thing on my blog! Tell me in the comments or on my Twitter (https://twitter.com/livingasrach) if you have had any similar experiences with these products, or if you know of something I should try for next month!

I also have INSTAGRAM now! Hit me up over there so we can be fwiends!
(@livingasrach)

Love, Rach x

MY FITNESS ROUTINE!!

Last year, I, very optimistically, decided that I was going to get into shape and stick to a fitness and healthy eating routine. But, as usual I had no motivation or real desire to stick to my, probably over-ambitious goals.

Going into 2017, after hitting many road blocks last year, I have decided to keep it simple and set myself realistic targets for this year. Another change I've made is giving myself something to motive me; my first abroad holiday! Myself and my boyfriend are going to Malaga in July this year. This will make sure that I stick to my fitness and eating routine as I want to feel super confident in a bikini in six months!

	GYM	COUCH TO 5K	SWIMMING	CLASSES
MONDAY	ABS WORKOUT	YES	-------------------------
TUESDAY	-----------------------	---------------------	YES	JIVING
WEDNESDAY	LEG WORKOUT	YES	-------------------------
THURSDAY	ARMS WORKOUT	---------------------	-------------------------	ZUMBA
FRIDAY	FULL BODY	---------------------	YES
SATURDAY	-----------------------	YES	-------------------------
SUNDAY	-----------------------	---------------------	-------------------------

MONDAY

I begin my week with a short walk/run using my Couch to 5K app before I head to school. This usually lasts for about 20-30 minutes. Its such a great way to start the morning as I find it really energises me, by having intervals between walking and running. I'm only on my second week, but so far so good! The app allows you to listen to instructions on when to walk and when to start running, while listening to your own music. As I am currently on my second week of using the app, I start off with a brisk 5 minute walk to warm up, then switch between 90 seconds of running and two minutes of walking. This allows my heart rate to rise, but also to recover before the next running section - and it feels great!

After school, I head to my local gym and do an abs workout. I have a couple of (hopefully) ab sculpting workouts that I've found that I like the most, so I just do my own thing to be honest! I mostly go for side crunches, planks, ballet-twists, basic crunches, right/left oblique crunches, bicycle crunches, and my favourite, seated Russian twists. I sometimes use an exercise ball or dumbbell.

TUESDAY

After school on a Tuesday, I go to my local swimming pool and go for a few lengths. Depending on buses and my families work arrangements, I try to spent at least an hour in the pool. Sometimes, on good days, I spend around 90 minutes of doing various water based exercises which help my all round fitness. I usually do lengths for as long as a feel like it, which comes to also an hour. Then I go into water resistance, which is walking/running (usually a jog for me, oops!) in the swallow end, then I tread water for a couple of minutes. I do these kinds of exercises until I can feel my stomach muscles starting to weaken.

At the minute, I also attend jiving lessons in my local town with my sister. Jiving is a moderate intensity type of dancing that keeps the heart rate going. I have been doing this for a couple of weeks, and am really enjoying it. I love that its another way of incorporating exercise into my week, without it feeling like exercising!

WEDNESDAY

Before school, usually at around 7.15am, I head out to do my 20 minute walk/run using Couch to 5K app. Again, this helps me energise and feel good about myself during the middle of the week, when I'm so tempted to call in sick and have a duvet day!

I head to the gym after school on a Wednesday to do my leg workout. This is my least favourite workout, so I really have to force motivate myself to actually go. This workout is usually quite short as I can never motivate myself to stay longer than 45 minutes. My leg workout usually consists of side leg right/left lifts, hamstring curls, quad lifts, right/left lunges, forward right/left extensions and my most hated, deep squats. Sometimes, I use two 3kg dumbbells during my workouts.

THURSDAY

Time to hit the gym again! Thursdays are arm days. This lasts about an hour and again, I kind of do what I like the most. I usually do overhead presses, bicep curls, right/left triceps' extensions, bent over rows, front raises, reverse bridge dips, hammer curls, lateral raises, one arm push ups, hi-lo planks, chest presses and half push ups (I can't do a full one yet). I don't always do everything every time I have an arm workout, but just what I feel motivated to do.

On a Thursday night, I attend my favourite class; Zumba! I go to this with my friend Hollie, as without her, I wouldn't last the entire class. Zumba has got so many benefits, the number one being weight loss! I find that I burn 600-1000 calories in a 90 minute session. I love my Zumba classes mostly because it never feels like exercise (at the time, the next day is a killer) and its so much fun dancing and moving to music. I would seriously recommend joining a Zumba class to anyone!

FRIDAY

Even though its the end of the week and I'm exhausted, I sometimes manage to motivate myself to go to the gym for my full body workout. I try to spend about an hour doing this. I try to do a little bit of everything in my full body workouts; kind of like a 'best bits' of my entire workouts throughout the week and adding wee bits in to keep me going! In addition to what I've already listed from my Monday, Wednesday and Thursday workouts, I do deadlifts, glute drops, jump ropes, ski hops (one of my fav's!) and jumping lunges.  

After this, or sometimes in the morning before school (if I can fall out of bed time in), I head to the pool for an hour. After doing a full body work out, I sometimes just feel up to doing lengths for an hour. There is something really relaxing about swimming; I feel like I'm in a wee world of my own when I'm concentrating on my strokes or the way my body moves. Sometimes I go to the pool just to think, its not necessarily all about the exercise for me.

SATURDAY

As a full time A-Level student, I don't work much during the week, so on Saturdays and Sundays, I work in my local shop. This in itself can be a workout sometimes! My 9am-6pm shift done, I head home to do my Couch to 5K walk/run. This can be a great destressor after a long day working with the, sometimes infuriating, public.

SUNDAY

Finally, a REST! (From workouts, not work unfortunately) I usually spend my Sunday evenings catching up with homework, or doing something with my family. This is my favourite day of the week, and sometimes the most important. The rest allows my body to recover and recuperate from the long week of activities.  

Hopefully with a more goal orientated week of workouts, I can stick to my routine a little longer than I did in 2016! If you know of any good workout music that you love, make sure and let me know in the comments; I'm always looking for new ways to reinvent my exercises and keep interested.

Throughout the week, I use My Fitness Pal - its a great app that can be downloaded for free onto any android or iPhone. It helps me track not only what I eat, but what exercise I do and how much water I drink! It also has a target setter that lets me enter my weight on a weekly basis, which really helps me stay focused and determined.


Let me know what you think down in the comments
Love, Rach x