One Simple Way To Maintain an Exercise Routine

Hello, Lovely People !

In my February goals post ( You can find it here if you missed it ) I mentioned that this month, I would like to exercise at least 3 times a week. The more observant of you might of noticed that this was also one of my goals last month and I stuck to it for the first few weeks and trailed off a little in the last two. However when I was exercising and eating well I noticed a massive change in my energy and my emotions. I felt fantastic! I was full of energy and after the first week I was raring to go and excited for the next work out. Unfortunately you have to go through that rough patch to get there and there will always be days when you'd rather watch Netflix and eat a whole pizza to yourself than go to spinning class, but I've found a way to make sure you get that workout done EVERY. SINGLE.TIME. Using one simple technique; negotiables and non-negotiables.

A lovely woman told me about this techniques a few months ago but only recently have I began to practise it in my everyday life and see the benefits. Now, you might be thinking " What on earth are you going on about Marianne ? " but I promise this is worth your time.

What is a negotiable ?

Everything that you do in life falls into negotiables and non-negotiables. A negotiable is something that you can do but you have the option not to so even though it might be good for you, you may choose not to do it. This might include things like having a salad for dinner, going to the bank or even, yes, you've got it, exercise !

What is a non-negotiable ?

Meanwhile non-negotiables are things we just do because we think we have to. For example, brushing your teeth or changing your pants, these are things you don't even think about getting out of because it's just not an option in your head.

How can you use this ?

The trick is, you have to make exercise a non-negotiable. Make exercise something that in your mind is as essential as brushing your teeth. By removing the option to get out of it, you're far more likely to go.

How I use this.

 In my week of exercise I have three non-negotiables and one negotiable workout, so my week look like this :

Monday : Yoga Class ( non-negotiable )
Tuesday : Spinning Class ( negotiable ) I go spinning every other week
Thursday : Swimming (non-negotiable)
Saturday : Gym ( non-negotiable ) 


This way I give myself some flexibility but I absolutely will exercise three times a week in the same way I will brush my teeth twice a day, everyday !


So why not give it a go and let me know how you get on in the comments ? I'd love to hear from you so we can all motivate each other ! If you want to be kept up to date on my weekly exercise progress then follow my social media (links below ) because I'll be tweeting every time I exercise to make sure I'm getting my 3 non-negotiables every week.


Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :)


Lots of love, Marianne xxx


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Gym Bunny

So we're just over halfway into the first month of the new year and life's going pretty well . The new series of Call The Midwife has started, it has snowed, I've been leaving hopeful notes left, right and center and I've been exercising on a regular basis ! .... Okay, well maybe that last one was a tiny little lie . Caught up in the excitement of the new year, this is one of my new years resolutions that got pushed aside. Now I'm determined to start exercising more. They problem is ( and always has been ) motivation, or rather the lack of it ;). So to get us all going I thought I'd write a post of exercise motivation ! Here we go :)

You DON'T have to go to the gym.

There are so many different ways to exercise and you have to find a form of exercise that you enjoy , otherwise you're not going to keep going are you ? From swimming ( my favorite choice ) to Tennis to the gym . Find what you enjoy ! You could even mix it up. For example, if you do join a gym , you could join one in a leisure center that also has a swimming pool or offers other sports that you could try out :) I'm planning on going to the gym once a week and to swim each Saturday :)

Have a mantra

Yes... you will look like a weirdo and get very strange looks when you're on the Running machine , mumbling to yourself . But who cares ? That guy staring at you should be running too and you'll have the nicer bum in the end so ... Karma ;) I find repeating a motivating phrase over and over as you work out can really help ! Let me know in the comments what phrases motivate you :) I like "It already hurts, you're already tired, so get something out of this."

Make a motivating playlist

As much as I dislike admitting this on the world wide web ... I run to Eminem music. I fully blame my Eminem obsessed best friend ( But she's lovely and beautiful and the best so I'll forgive her ) but it really helps me to run faster and there's actually been studies proving that Eminem music helps you work out better :) But whatever music you love , then make yourself a perfect playlist so you don't get board ! Try to mix slower and faster songs so you don't get too worn out and die or anything !

Buy yourself what you need 

I mentioned that I'm starting swimming again, when I made this decision it was hard because I'm not very comfortable with my body soooo I went out shopping and brought home a very lovely, red and white polka dot swimming costume :) I'm now really excited to go and show it off ! Make sure you kit yourself out so you feel confident doing whatever it is you're doing because ... well I think you're wonderful so you deserve to feel as good as I know you are <3

Reward yourself

One gym session ... then one chocolate bar . Fifty laps of the swimming pool ... then that gorgeous nail varnish you wanted last Saturday :) Make it worth your while !!!

Pinterest it

There is nothing that pinterest can't motivate you to do ! Seriously, type in exercise motivation and you'll find millions of wonderful quotes. My favorite that I found is " No matter how slow you're going, you're running laps around everyone on the couch "

How do you motivate yourself to get excising and healthily :) When I'm exercising I tend to naturally begin to eat healthily and then I begin to have so much more energy because I'm treating my body well and as a result I'm happier. So I'm really looking forward to starting swimming soon and getting some endorphin's going !

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

Lots of love, Marianne xxx

Mid-Morning Motivation

Hey there !

Do you ever have days where you're just feeling a lil bit rubbishy like you lost a bit of your sparkle ? I definitely have these days a lot and i used to take the opportunity to be sad all day and just have a wasted day for no real reason. But I do not like wasting days. I like to be productive , full of good energy and have that bit of sparkle that makes the day seem brighter. So me and my friend started doing something we call Mid-Morning Motivation.

Whenever one of us has woken up and is feeling pretty rubbish for no particular reason or is just having a difficult morning, we go through Pinterest to look for uplifting quotes and motivation that we then send to whoever is having a difficult day at about 11am as a little surprise to lift there spirits :)

It takes less than five minutes and even just knowing that someone cares enough to send you something just to send you something just to make you smile, might be enough to pick them ( and their day ) back up !

Here's a few examples that you could use that I've made myself : 

I do this for my friends regularly so from now on I'll be posting the Mid-Morning Motivation onto my twitter for anybody else who needs that extra boost in the morning !

What do you think ? And what quotes motivate you ?

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

Lots of love, Marianne xxx

Wall Tour !

Hello There !

A few months back I did a tag and as part of it I mentioned the massive collage I have on the wall next to my bed and how I used it to keep me smiling on tough days ! The whole Idea for my wall was based around something Carrie Hope Fletcher said :

" Things haven't always been this bad, therefore they won't always be this bad. "

So I made my wall as a reminder of the times that made me smile and bits of motivation ! A few people in the comments asked to see more of my wall so today I decided to do a wall tour for you before I have to take it down to move house at some point next  year !

Here are just of a few of my favourite bits ! I broke them down into sections to make it easier for both of us !

The Carrie Stuff :

1. Carries Face ! I've told you many times how much I love Carrie Hope Fletcher and everything she stands for, this woman is such an inspiration to me . So as you can imagine I was quite excited when my boyfriend got me a signed poster of her for my birthday ... I screamed so loud I had to go downstairs to reassure my mum I wasn't being murdered !
2. The original sign of the hopefuls that one of my friends drew me :)
3. Last December Carrie was on the final arena tour of War of The Worlds and my lovely dad took me to see it and I may or may not of cried. I mean I was only nine meters away from Carrie AND I had chocolate ice cream ... anyone would've got overwhelmed hehe .
4. Yes this is another of her signed posters with lyrics from one of her songs called " Running Through Rivers" On and her own illustrations :)

The Boyfriend Stuff :

5. About one and a half years a go now, I went with my boyfriends family to the Harry Potter Studios in London . They were amazing ! We drank butter bear and saw the amazing set and I bought a toy pygmy puff in the shop !
6. Here's some ice skating tickets from our 2 year anniversary and tickets for a film we went to see , I keep all our cinema tickets somewhere on my wall :) There's also a tag from one present he bought me that he wrote one of our favourite song quotes on .
7.Our Lets Go list hasn't been updated in a while we made it to remind us of all the things we want to do together like get matching Christmas pyjamas and go strawberry picking ... because were cool like that haha .
8. A friend that I don't really know any more drew this of me and my boyfriend in our teddies in a science class one time ... it's not the most accurate ( I don't and never have had green hair hehe ) but I do love it and its right next to my bed .

Little Reminders of Stuff :

9, 10, 11. Love, Live, Laugh. I found these really cute cut out letters for 40p each so put them together to make these words the features of my wall :)
12. I love Doctor Who and when I saw this article about the 12th Doctor ( Peter Capaldi ) making a video to comfort a young boy who had lost his grandma and it was really heart-warming to see his act of compassion so I wanted to remember it to help me remember that kindness is always necessary. I'll link to the video here !

Stuff to Keep Me Going :

13. A letter my best friend wrote me to read when I'm feeling down, I keep this by my bed where I can always get to it . My best friend is honestly the most caring, sensitive, kind young woman I have ever met and I don't know what I'd do without her.
14 and 15. I have a few little phrases and quotes on scraps of paper around my wall like " You are not in this alone" and "Life isn't about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself " .
16. When I was about 12 I got cast as the lead in our schools musical Olivia and it was a massive boost for my confidence and one of the few times I've actually got the chance to perform in front of an audience. Musical Theatre is such a big part of my life and I'm happiest when I'm singing so I always keep the programme from that performance to remind me of how happy I was then :)

I really hope you enjoyed seeing a few of the bits and bobs I keep to help me stay motivated and inspired around my world map . I use the map to remind me when stuffs going wrong that there's a lot more than just that in the world !

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :)

Lots of love, Marianne xxx

Quitting The Game Before You Lose

When you were a kid you'd play games. Whether they were board games or computer games or something on the xbox that I don't understand ! Children play games. When you're a kid playing games on your mums laptop and it starts going wrong; you pressed the wrong button by accident or you made a move you regret and you know then that you're going to lose. What do you do? You quit.

You see you're going to lose, you get scared, you quit. Fresh start, clean slate, no one has to know.

Humans are obsessed with fresh starts and clean slates and have somehow become convinced that they're impossible to have unless you move away, scrap everything and everyone and create a completely new situation. But as you grow up you have to realise, I've had to realise. That just simply isn't always possible. Isn't that terrifying ?

As you grow up it's a shock to the system when YOU do something wrong and it is YOUR fault and you CAN'T change it and you have no choice but to stand by yourself to fix and make up for what you've done because there's no 'Exit Game' button in the corner and you can't always runaway and promise yourself nothing will go wrong in your new start because it will. Things go wrong and it's very, very hard but you've got to work through them, face the consequences and believe that one day it will be alright again because it will and probably sooner than you think.

It is so easy to convince yourself that you can't change anything, that you've gone to far this time and you're in to deep and you're drowning and you're scared ... you forget you can swim. Difficult and impossible are different words.

" When you're going through hell, keep going "
- Winston Churchill

Yes, it is difficult to persevere and own up to what you've done and face it head on because there's no other way, but it's necessary and you will get through it. Something I've found helpful in these situations is the Buddhist concept of impermanence. This reminds us that nothing is permanent neither good or bad, I find this very comforting .

At the minute I am in this situation. If this was a game I would quit and start again but I've ran way enough. I can't just keep moving on to get away from the problems . I must own up to them, I've run out of options, I have to face this head on and I am going to, this time. I need to accept that no where I go in life will be perfect, life isn't meant to be perfect but you have to admit that so you can accept , work through and move on from those imperfections and then be happy :)

I'd love to hear your thought and experiences on this because it's something very new to me !

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :)

Lots of love, Marianne xxx