Lincolnshiregirl

Jawbone UP24 Test Drive

So back in July I wrote a post about my Jawbone UP band and how it had helped me to focus on my activity & sleep patterns, I was lucky enough to be asked if I would like to road test the UP24 band to see if I liked this too.

The main difference between the UP and UP24 is that UP24 uses bluetooth to connect to the app (it’s also £24 more expensive) but having used both bands I do think this extra little bit of money is actually worth it now that i’ve experienced it. The main reason for this is that it reminds you through the day to sync your band and also gives you updates of how active or not you’ve been that day.

Around the same time as getting the UP24, Jawbone did a major update which included a redesign, I quite liked the old design but the new design is more crisp, clean and clearer to use, within this update they also improve the food logging side of things.

In the past I’ve used My Fitness Pal to log my food intake but decided to use this function instead as part of the test drive!! And there are bits of it I really like and bits that I found extremely frustrating.

The positives first:

How they rate each meal so you can see how good it is on a score of 1-10 (1 being not very health and 10 being super healthy),
The breakdown of the food you’ve consumed so far in terms of macro nutrients like carbs, protein & fat. The other
The rough amount of calories you’ve burnt against your intake so you can adjust it
Like the word cloud as this shows you if you are eating lots of the same foods (need to cut down my butter intake from the looks of it)
Barcode scanner – saves time when finding foods
If you eat out, many of the chain restaurant meals are in the database, again it’s still being added to but very good idea.

The negatives:

The database is still quite small and many foods are missing or the British term is not used, an example of this is double cream and I know I probably shouldn’t be eating it but it tastes so good with fresh raspberries!!! (I can’t for the life of me find it as I haven’t a clue what it’s called in the states if they even have it!!)
Barcode scanner – many UK foods aren’t on here so you end up having to manually add the nutritional information yourself which is time consuming & not that accurate.
The inability to store recipes, I love the barcode scanner idea but I cook most of my food from scratch so not very useful to me and it’s extremely tedious to input a recipe as you have to add every individual ingredient (this is a fault with most of the food logging apps, my fitness pal included, although you can create your own recipes on MFP and store them) and I don’t know about you but I tend to cook similar food regularly so having to put it in everytime is just boring!!

Overall, I think the food logging bit is a great idea as it gets people to understand the collation between food and activity but until the database is more comprehensive I’ll be going back to use MFP for this side of things

I love the reminder you can set yourself and it also prompts you to challenge yourself to into routines & healthy practices, I even got a message on my birthday (I think I need to get out more as I actually did a little gig when I saw it!!), all the step counted too!!

As you can probably tell I’m a massive fan of these clever little bands and so glad I invested in it as it’s really given me the tool I need to make changes to my life for the better.

I’d definitely recommend anyone thinking of getting some wearable tech to go for it!!

CrossFit Diaries, Part Two – Tech I Use

So the first month of CrossFit went ok, I managed 10 workouts and 2 runs (13.3km) in terms of measurements not too bad either:

Weight: 13 Stone, 4lb – 1lb loss
BMI: 30.9 – 0.2 reduction
Chest: 39 inches – 1 inch loss
Waist: 34 inches – 2 inch loss
Hips: 47.5 inches – .5 inch loss
Thigh (R): 27 inches – .5 inch loss
Thigh (L): 27 inches – .5 inch loss
Bicep (R): 14 inches – 1 inch gain!!
Bicep (L): 13.5 inches – .5 inch loss

Overall inch loss: 4 inches across my body – i’m happy with that!

So this months I’m going to focus on the tech that helps me stay on track

Polar Heart Rate Monitor:

I use this every time I exercise so I can monitor how I’m doing, how good my recovery is and overall cardio fitness!! I am able to set a goal for this which is either weight loss or cardio fitness, mine is set to cardio fitness and currently my weekly targets are:

Time target: 2 hours 25 minutes
Calories burnt target: 1200kcal
Intensity targets (different heart rate zones) Zone 1: 40 minutes, Zone 2: 1 hour, 35 minutes and Zone 3:10 mins

It monitors how i’m doing will adapt the programme if I’m not hitting the above targets after a month, every quarter it prompts you to do a fitness test and then gives you feedback as to the changes positive or negative.

Jaw Bone Up:

I wear my UP24 all the time and this monitors my movement and sleep, see my full blog post about this here: https://lincolnshiregirl.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/jawbone-up-a-year-on/

This helps me to stay on top of how active I am and also helps me to keep a good routine when it comes bedtimes & getting up times.

IPhone Apps:

My Fitness Pal – I use this to log the food I eat so I can keep an eye on my calorie intake & the balance of Macro nutrients (Carbohydrate, Protein & Fat) as well as vitamins and minerals, this is linked to my UP24 Band and Map My Fitness so adjust my calorie allowance based on how active I’ve been on any given day.

Map My Fitness:

I use this to monitor my runs, so I know the distance I’m running and my pace!! I’m not really bother whether my pace is a good pace (elite athlete pace etc), all I’m interested in is that I’m improving.

Recently I’ve also downloaded my WOD and Big Lift 2 apps to help me monitor how I’m doing at CrossFit.

These apps allow me to record my Personal Bests (PB), my 1 rep max weights and also times for some of the benchmark workouts – more about these next month when I’ll be taking you through the lingo of CrossFit – that gives me a chance to learn it some more as sometimes it all still sounds like a foreign language.

What tech do you use to keep yourself on track?

Until next time – tally ho!!

The Crossfit Diaries – Part One

As many of you know I’m a bit of a gym bunny, I always have been & think I’ll always will be, my interest in fitness & exercise peaked when I qualified as a personal trainer (PT) now 12 years ago (that really does make me feel old!!) and again I had renewed interest in it when I was studying Nutritional Therapy & the link between the food (energy) you put in the body & the energy you get out.

Anyway, about six months ago I decided to review my fitness goals and activity as I didn’t feel that it was really effective. My main goal is to be as fit as I possibly can be (Now don’t shoot me as this isn’t a SMART goal, but I think i’ll know when I reach it) and at the time I was going to David Lloyd 4/5 times a week, dividing my time between cardiovascular workouts, weight training and swimming sessions and had been doing this religiously for around 7 years yet I didn’t feel like I was really pushing my body anymore, I’d got stuck in a rut and yes as a PT I knew what I was supposed to do but actually doing that, with so much other stuff going on in my life, I never quite found the time to write an effective programme that would help me achieve my fitness goals. And yes I enjoyed going to the gym but I have to say what I know now, the gym was soul-less!! Everyone just plugged into the machines oblivious of everyone else… Another point to add is I’ve never been much of an class girl, preferring to do my own thing!!

So when a friend in January this year mentioned to me that a new CrossFit gym was opening in Lincoln I was intrigued to learn more, up until this point I’d never heard of CrossFit & I bet some of you haven’t either.

So with a bit of courage I went along to Cross Fit Witham when they had an open day to see what it was all about & was hooked straightaway!!

CrossFit is a way to exercise that helps you become fit for life (meaning making your every day life easier). There are 10 areas that a CrossFit workout will help you with:

Cardiovascular and Respiratory endurance,
Stamina
Strength
Flexibility
Power
Speed
Coordination
Agility
Balance
Accuracy

So, how do they achieve all these things? Well every day there is a Workout Of the Day (WOD) which everyone who attends that day will do the same WOD and your scores are recorded, it’s not really a competition between everyone but against yourself & beating your previous scores!! And the great thing about WOD is that your body never gets used to it as everyday you are challenged to do something different. All the exercises are scale-able so if you are new to exercise you can still take part and then build up.

Now i’ve only been a few times at writing this post but I’ve realised its more than just a workout!! It’s a way of life, it’s a community where everyone is rooting for each other to achieve success at whatever level they are working at and that’s something I’ve missed since giving up hockey a couple of years ago!!

At the end of August this year some of the guys and gals from the box (What the gym is called) participated in Tribal Clash (http://thetribalclash.com/) a crossfit competition and my goal is to be able to enter it in 2015 as well as feel like i’ve achieved the goal I mentioned above and I’d like to take you along on my journey in an online diary of my progress, each month I’ll tell you how i’m getting on but it will be more than that, I want to share with you the different aspects that make crossfit one of the fastest growing exercise regimes there is around, this will include:

Food and nutrition (obviously I couldn’t not mention food being slightly obsessed about it)
The lingo
The regime
The equipment
The competitons
The community

and much more…

A way I will be measuring my progress is with stats, my body measurements but also the personal bests I’m getting during my workouts, as my personal best are a little thin on the ground right now (only done 5 WOD so far). I’ll give you my starting measurements as of today 10th September 2014

AGE: 37
Weight: 13 stone, 5lb
Height: 5 foot, 5 inches
BMI: 31.1 (I know this isn’t very accurate as doesn’t take into account muscle mass but it’s another stat I can use to see my progress)
Chest: 40 inches
Waist: 36 inches
Hips: 48 inches
Thigh: (R) 27.5 inches, (L) 27.5 inches
Bicep: (R) 13 inches, (L) 14 inches

So the hard work starts now… eekk!! Check back in a month to see how I’m getting.

Jawbone UP – A year on!!

Tomorrow is a year since I became the proud owner of an UP band so I thought I’d celebrate by telling you a bit about what it is & it’s benefits!!

Back in May last year while reading one of my fitness magazines I saw a short article about this new band that you could wear that would monitor your activity & sleep!! How cool I thought but couldn’t justify buying it there and then.

Some months later it was soon to be my birthday so decided that I was going to treat myself to said band, I’d thought about it often over the months but just didn’t think I could afford it.

The band was made by Jawbone (makers of quite fancy mobile speakers & also bluetooth headsets) and called UP and it contain technology from Motion X (People behind GPS tracking apps & other wearable technology)

Ordering the band was pretty easy, they come in different sizes & colours, so you just measure your wrist & pick the size which best fits, I ordered mine directly from Jawbone (http://eustore.jawbone.com/) it cost £99 plus postage and arrived within a couple of days.

I opted for black (Onyx) as thought this would go with most things (a year ago there weren’t that many colour options!)

The great thing about this band is you just wear it, it has a day & night mode which you can easily switch between by pressing in the small silver butter & sun or moon lights up to indicate which mode it is in. It’s water & sweat resistant so can be worn when exercising and showering (not swimming!! but you can log your swim once you’ve finished!!)

To download the data, you simply plug it into your iphone using the headphone socket.

It syncs pretty quickly and also shows you how much battery life it has (lasts for around 10 days before charging is needed)

So what does it actually measure? Well your steps & also your sleep patterns!! You can set yourself daily targets to aim towards (mine are 10,000 steps & 8 hours sleep).

But it also allows you to log your food diary so you can track your calorie intake

Personally i use My Fitness Pal to log what I eat and you can sync your UP app to MFP so that the food data is transferred between the apps (Handy feature)

The front screen of the app shows you your daily progress as well as giving you hints and tips on health. You can monitor your trends to see how you are doing!!

Other handy features you can use is for it to alert you after a set period of time of inactivity, I set mine to vibrate after 20 minutes of inactivity) which is useful if you do desk work as it’s a reminder to get up and move around (had a few raised eyebrows though when it’s happens this during a networking event!!) It’s also got a smart snooze function which allows you to snooze during the day & will wake you up based on your sleep data from the night before (I’ve not actually tried this function but like the idea that it uses the data it gathers to improve what you do).

My first major milestone came in February this year when I’d hit my 1 million steps (in just 7 months) Whoop whoop!!

Recently I’ve started running and found that I could link this app with Map My Fitness which helps towards your daily step target & the need to replicate data from one app to another. There are many more apps you can sync the UP band with (mainly paid for subscription apps!!)

Another great feature is that you can link with other people who have an UP band, which may or may not help you achieve you goals, peer pressure and all that!!

Overall I’m really pleased I invested in this new piece of technology, when I first got it most people had never heard of it before but over the last year I’ve seen more and more people use wearable tech to monitor their habits & lifestyle choices, which I think is a good thing.

For me, has it changed the way I behave? Maybe, I already was quite active but it made me more aware of my inactivity when I work from home. The sleep monitor has been useful too as me & sleep have never really been best buddies so it does encourage me to try to get my full 8 hours to help keep fatigue at bay.

I have recommended it to many people & will continue to do so!! Just today, they’ve done a big app update with some new designs & a few feature to track your weight (not that it matters what you weigh but a good metric to see progress).

So it’s definitely a Thumbs UP from me for the Jawbone UP band!!

It pays to be happier

Over the past few years social media has become integral to our lives and I have to say that for the majority of the time I love it and always up for trying new ones that come out, catch me on Twitter, Vine, Instagram, Linked In,Pinterest and the list goes on but then last year I kind of fell out with Facebook!! Not sure why really but I just found that I would go on there and just get annoyed with it or more to the point the people posting inane stuff! Either boosting about there amazing life or moaning about their not so amazing life and yes I could have un-friended people but it felt deeper than that, I didn’t think that it was adding to my life & if I wanted to speak to friends there were plenty of other methods of communications that worked & actually were more personable!!

So in November I deleted my account and if i’m honest I don’t miss it at all. And it turned out to be a bit of a social experiment when I got panic text from friends wondering if I’m OK as I’d disappeared off Facebook. I guess we can all be guilty of being a bit lazy when it comes to staying in touch with friends so Facebook is a good way to check in on people. I’d heard the comment “Oh I know you’re OK as I saw your FB posts!!” I wonder what the percentage of posts that people post are actually true!?!?

Anyway, a month after my FB deletion I fell upon another social network called Happier. https://www.happier.com – online as well as a smart phone app.

The premise of this social media site is similar to most of the others around that you post things, you follow people and people follow you!! There is ONE big exception – you only post things that make you smile!! What is there not to love about this?! Especially when there is science behind it too: https://www.happier.com/science

Every time you post something you get confetti falling down your screen and the more times you post each day you get different graphics to reward you for your smile. You can post just words or a picture too and also tag people into your post if they are part of your happy moment. I’m finding the more happy moments I share, the more I notice!! This can only be a good thing.

When you hit major happy moment milestones you get rewarded with more confetti.

Once you post something, the people who are following you can smile if it made them smile, comment on the post and even sort of forward it if they feel that it’s something that makes them smile too, you get notifications when there is a smile or comment. I’ve connected to so many people from all over the globe and it’s awesome!! The love and support I’ve received from what are complete strangers has helped me get through some not so good days! Everyone i’m connected to is so supportive & there just when you need them. There have been days when I’ve not felt like posting anything but still gone on to the app and read other people’s happy moments which is a great way to start a day or if you’re having a low moment.

There is notification screen just like in other social networks and if you are lucky one of your happy moments is put on the featured tab which means people who aren’t following you can see your moment. This has happened to me a couple of times and it’s a great buzz to see that the team at happier recognise your post as something that will make other people smile.

Each day there is a daily challenge for you do and also happier tips and a daily inspirational quote

The team also periodically produce word clouds to celebrate your happier moments, which is lovely to receive and see.

I am totally in love this this social media site and feel it’s a breath of fresh air in the world where negativity, doom and gloom often rears it’s ugly head. You can also sign up to their happier course (£17.49 for a 21 day course). I haven’t done this yet but plan to later this year.

Recently I’ve just reached my 300th happier moment in just under 3 months and plan on sharing my happier moments with my newly found happier buddies.

Fancy joining me to make this world a happier place? I’d love to see you there and let me know what you think?

Dragon Fly Crafts

I’ve been making crafts for years for gifts for friends and family.

I also sell the odd item when asked.

I’ve been clearing out my craft boxes and came across some gifts which I’d like to clear so I can work on some new creations.

Most of the wineglass charms are made with Swarovski crystals elements and all are made using pewter charms.

I have 3 sets of pearls, 2 sets of stars and 6 of Girlie things (Clear, light pink, bright pink, yellow, aqua and royal blue)

WGC Girlie Things Blue

There are 6 charms in each set and come in a little organza bag. Each set is just £10 including postage, payment is via a Paypal invoice & gift will be sent out once payment is received

I’ve also have some friendship hearts available too, each one is hand sewn with love and comes in an organza bag with a little card to write a personal message on.

These are just £5 including postage, payment is via a Paypal invoice & gift will be sent out once payment is received

If you would like to buy any of them, just email me at Rachel@firecracker-uk.co.uk with you request and I’ll sort payment & then post out gift 1st class

Stepping off the world for a weekend

You know that feeling that sometimes you just want to escape from the world and give yourself some breathing space. Well this year has been filled with many high & lows for me that one day I decided that I needed to get away for the weekend before mad Christmas season started. I’d heard about Samye Ling some years ago when a friend had told me about it when she had needed to get some headspace. So searched through my phone to find the name again & let Google do its magic! Before I knew it I’d booked to stay 3 nights.

A week or so before I was due to come to Samye Ling I kept looking at their website to make sure I was totally prepared for this weekend away – not much is really needed apart from warm clothes, thick socks & a torch!!

So after dropping Sophie cat at the cattery, I headed north with excitement. Phone set to airplane mode for complete peace & quiet. The drive was just lovely, my Sat Nav took me on the A66 across the Pennines which just looked stunning in the late afternoon sun, a quick stop off at Scotch Corner to have a break & I was approaching the Scottish border. Then another stop off at Tesco in Lockerbie to buy some PJ’s as I’d remembered 3 hours into the journey that I’d forgotten nightwear (any friends reading this will laugh as I’m renowned for forgetting PJs and have bought many a pair at the nearest supermarket!!).

As I arrived at Samye ling (15 miles from Lockerbie) there were cars & people everywhere, not what I was expecting at all, once I’d finally found someone to help me find my way I was told that it was a very special day as 49 days before the founder of Samye Ling had been murdered while visiting Tibet & in Buddhist Culture prayers are said for 49 days & the Friday I arrived was the 49th day!! People havd come from far & wide to pay their respects & the place had an amazing atmosphere. I was luckily enough to see 1008 butter lamps lit in the Butter Lamp House (everyday 108 lamps are lit for world peace) but on significance days such as this full 1008 were lit.

I choose to stay in Purelands which is a 15 minute walk from the main monastery in the Nun’s house; I had a room to myself & shared washing facilities. The Nun’s live on the 1st floor so no locks on the doors & all female too; I dropped off my stuff and made my way back to the main centre for dinner. There is one timetable for what happens at the centre including meal times, prayers & mediation. The accommodation is all full board with delicious vegetarian food served at each meal occasions.

Most people are here for weekend courses, retreats or residencies!! I made friends at that 1st dinner with some ladies who were here for a “introduction to mediation” course and they were quite taken aback that I’d just come here with no real agenda apart from some down time.

It was dark on the Friday night when I arrived also dark I came down for breakfast on Saturday morning!! (breakfast is served from 7-8am) but I was greeted to this lovely sunrise/view after breakfast.

I spent the morning familiarising myself with surrounding and I was drawn to this building.

I later discovered that this building is called the Victory Stupa (called Pagodas in the Far East) and was built to signify victory over all negative thoughts; it is also surrounded by the Prayer Wheel House

Within the Prayer Wheel House there are dedications & ashes of people who are no longer with us, this was very poignant for me having just lost a friend suddenly just some weeks ago!! Over the weekend I spent a lot time in and around these 2 buildings & wrote a dedication to Kendo Hau in remembrance of such an amazing guy who I had the pleasure of knowing.

All meals are served in the dining room where shoes are not allowed!! Hence the need for thick socks, breakfast at 7am, lunch at 1pm and tea at 6pm.

On Saturday afternoon, I found a quite spot in the library and read & meditated for most of the afternoon.

On the Sunday I decided that I was going to attend all the prayer sessions, which happen 3 times a day (6-7am, 1.30-3pm and 7-7.45pm, on a Sunday the evening prayer session is 1.5hrs dedicated to 2 deities), each prayer session is dedicated to a certain deities, which don’t symbolise actual people but ways of being. Prayers take place in the main temple.

And if you think the outside looks impressive, you’ll be blown away by inside, I just stood there opened mouthed for a few minutes when I 1^st went inside.

All the prayers are chanted in Tibetan but that didn’t matter as I still felt moved by being in this amazing building.

Also on the Sunday I took a walk out of the centre along the highland foot path to the next village, it was a glorious day & very warm (well for the 1^st of December anyway) so I took many picture, the scenery was awe inspiring.

On Monday it was time for me to leave so I made a wish & tied a ribbon to the Cloutie Tree

The “Cloutie Tree” is an old Celtic custom and also a Tibetan tradition.

As the cloutie (cloth) is tied on the tree, a wish is made and as the material fades, the wish is deemed to have been carried away by the elements. In this way the tree becomes decorated with people’s love, prayers & good wishes.

This marked the end of my trip to Scotland, I have plenty more pictures to share with you but have put them on my Flickr account: my user name Rachel_Firecracker

I will definitely be going back here again in 2014 and am planning on staying longer. It has really helped me see what’s important to me & how I can make sure I do more of these things in 2014.

If you would like to visit Samye Ling, I would highly recommend it, here is the website: http://www.samyeling.org/

Pork and Apple Meatballs with roasted pepper sauce

I made these meatballs a couple of weekend ago as I fancied doing some experimenting in the kitchen for a change of making the same old meals I always do, they were so quick and easy to make and turned out delicious so I thought I would share the recipe with you

Ingredients

for the meatballs:

500g pork sausage meat (or pork mince if you like, but you may need to add a couple of tablespoons of breadcrumbs to it)
1 onion finely chopped
1 apple finely chopped
1 tsp. dried mixed herbs
1 egg
salt & pepper
oil for cooking

for the sauce:

1 onion finely chopped
1 or 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
tin of chopped tomato
water
2 tbsp. tomato puree
2 peppers (I used 1 red & 1 orange)
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt & pepper
oil for cooking

Method

There are quite a few steps to this recipe but it all happens quite quickly!

1. Roast the peppers

Chop the peppers in half & de-seed them. Place them on a baking sheet and place under a hot grill for around 15 minutes to char the skins.

2. Make the meat balls

While the peppers are under the grill, chop the onion and apple finely (or grate) into a large bowl along with the sausage meat, herbs, egg & seasoning. Mix together so they are well blended and form the mixture into small golf balls.

Warm a small amount of light olive oil in a large frying pan. When hot, brown the meatballs in batches and add to a baking tray.

3. Bag the peppers

Check your peppers. Once the skins are well charred, place the hot peppers in a freezer bag and seal. (This means the peppers steam themselves a little and makes it easier for you to remove the skin.)

4. Cook the meat balls

Turn off the grill and turn the oven to 150°C. Place the meatballs in the oven on their baking tray while you make the sauce.

5. Make the sauce

Using the same frying pan, add a little more oil and soften the onion and garlic for the sauce until translucent, 2 or 3 minutes. Skin the peppers and mash or puree them into the sauce. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a tin of water, the tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce (to taste), salt and pepper.

6. Combine everything

Bring the sauce to the boil before adding back the meatballs and cooking on a lively heat for a further 15-20 minutes.

You can serve this with any carbohydrate you like, works well with some large chunks of bread! I also like to serve it with some steamed green vegetables (broccoli, sugarsnap peas etc)

And here if you are interested are the nutritionals for this recipe (does not include the carbohydrates or green veg)

NUTRITION INFORMATION			% of your guideline daily amount (per serving)
Typical Values	Amount per 100g	Amount per 477g serving
Energy	349kJ / 83kcal	1663kJ / 398kcal	20%
Fat	4.7g	22.3g	32%
(of which saturates)	(1.1g)	(5.4g)	27%
Carbohydrate	3.8g	18.4g
(of which sugars)	(2.4g)	(11.4g)	13%
Protein	6.1g	29.2g
Salt	0.4g	1.8g	30%
Fibre	0.8g	3.8g

The summer of 2012

Well as 2012 draws to a close, I thought I’d share with you my memorable summer…

But let me take you back seven and a half years when we found out that London was chosen to be the host city of the Olympic games in 2012 and what a day that was, then the following day our jubilation of this fantastic announcement was brought down to earth with the bombings on the London transport network.

I bet you can remember where you were when you heard either of these pieces of news which impacted on our country and the days that followed.

I can remember where I was exactly as if it was yesterday (working very long hours as a senior manager in a health club in Croydon) but little did I know how much my life would change in those intervening years between the announcement of London 2012 and it actually taking place this summer (running my own business in the beautiful & amazing county of Lincolnshire, which is now my home).

All I knew was that by hook or by crook I was going to go to the Olympics, I knew that it was a once in a life time event and I had to experience it for myself first hand. So as soon as tickets were available I was on the website, completing my details and deciding what I wanted to go and see and I was one of the lucky ones and managed to get two tickets for ladies hockey on my first attempt!!

Well you can imagine my glee when I found that there was going to be a torch relay around the country and it was heading our way. At this point I was like a little child bouncing around with excitement, again I made it my mission to make sure my diary was clear so I could be there and see the torch.

Then it was announced that during the torch relay it was actually staying overnight in Lincoln and there was going to be a free ticketed event to celebrate this occasion!! Yes you’ve guessed it I got tickets.

As the torch weaved its way around this great country of ours I was a daily viewer of torch cam, brimming with excitement as the days counted down to when it would arrive in the city of Lincoln.

Before I knew it, it was 27^th June 2012, on a lovely summer’s afternoon, tickets in hand; friends and I made our way to Lincoln Castle Academy to wait for the torch to arrive. We were entertained while we waited to get our 1^st glimpse of the torch itself. And there is was and then to top it all, the Red Arrows did a fly over the stage, what a fantastic end to a memorable day. And then I arrived home to find that my hockey tickets were on the door mat (Cue: Jumping up and down with excitement again!!)

The next morning, I was up at the crack of dawn determined to see the torch again as it left the city. So I made my way to the castle square and waited in the drizzle (what a difference a day makes!!) to see the torch leave the cathedral and head into the castle and then out of the city.

So now I had over a month to wait until the day arrived where I would walk under these banners.

I had tickets for 10^th August 2012, again an early start to get to the park bright and early before the crowds and the excitement in the air as you stepped off your train at Stafford was palpable. The sun was already high in the sky so we knew we were in for a lovely sunny day at the park.

We headed straight for the Riverbank Arena where the hockey was being played and found our seats. Watching hockey is quite intense due to it being very fast paced, as the teams run up and down the pitch and before we knew it the 1^st game had finished, a short break ensued and then we were back in our seats to watch the 2^nd match of the session.

Once the hockey finished we headed to BA’s Park Life to take in the atmosphere of the games.

Then it was time to head home.

The following day I was lucky enough be asked by a friend if I wanted to join her to watch the Men’s Modern Pentathlon (MP) (I’d actually applied for these tickets but had been unsuccessful).

None of us had seen MP before so we didn’t know what to expect. Before we went to the 1^st venue we headed to the booking office for The Orbit, the day before we had tried to get tickets but they were all sold out!! As it was early we got some (yay). Then we head to the Copper box where the first discipline took place.

Fencing – the way this event worked was that all the competitors fought each other in a round robin system so at any one time there were 20 matches happening.

Once the fencing was over we raced over to the Orbit to experience the park from the top of this magnificent structure.

Swimming – once back to ground level we headed to aquatic centre to see the 200m race. We weren’t in our seats long the heats only took around 15 minutes. And on mass everyone left the park and headed to Greenwich Park to see the final 3 events.

Once in our seat I was taken aback by the backdrop of venue, we had the perfect view of the city of London and it looked amazing.

Equestrian – This event is a real test of the athletes horsemanship, they are introduced to the horse for just 30 minutes before they have to do show jumping course, this was edge of your stuff, no one knew how the horses were going to react and we did have some hairy moments when the horses either bucked or refused a jump.

After a short break and a re-arrangement of the arena it was time for the shooting and running combined event. The athletes had to run a short distance, shoot 5 laser targets before doing a 1km circuit of the park, this happened twice more (shoot, run, shoot, run) and the athlete who crossed the finished line first was the gold medallist and Olympic champion.

And then it was over for me but what an amazing experience it was and something I will never forget.

Thank You and well done Britain, we truly are GREAT!!

One year on from taking the huge jump into self-employment

This week is the anniversary of me giving up my job and running my business full time and what a rollercoaster it has been!!

I thought I’d share with you some of my thoughts about it.

It has always been my dream to run my own business, having grown up with my parents running their own business it’s no surprise that I am now doing it for myself.

Before I’d given up my job I was running my nutrition business on a part time basis, most people would call this a hobby business, but I knew it had potential so wanted to do it full time.

The main reason for wanting to have my own business is to allow me to use all the skills I have acquired through my life & felt that no job was going to allow me to use all my skills.

I’ve been lucky enough to have a number of different careers, some might say an eclectic mix of jobs but I seem to have this vision for how I want my life to be & when it’s not going to plan I change to make sure I’m on course to the future I want.

All these different skills and qualification now fit and make a complete jigsaw of what I offer to individuals and businesses.

I woke up on the Monday having finished my job on the Friday before and wonder what I’m going to do!! I have lots of plans & ideas and started in earnest to make them happen. I’d already decided on my logo, got my website designed and got business cards printed so what else did I need!?!

Well, a bowl full of courage for a start. I’ve been a food specialist business coach/advisor for over 5 years and well known in the food sector so it was quite scary going to networking meetings when only a couple of people know me when I had been used to the whole room knowing who I am and what I do. As most people who know me know that I’m not shy or a shrinking violet so a few deep breathes & I launched myself onto the Lincoln business scene.

And I have to say I have met some great people through these meetings, some are now good friends and some are business associates so I’m slowly building my network of business people around me.

The first high was to win some work with a very good friend and now business associate Hayley Bury who runs a company Baybury Marketing Solutions (www.baybury.co.uk). We’d successfully tendered in for some work and we’d won it, beating larger & more established business!! Yay, well done us!!

And the first low was to come home to an empty house and not really have anyone to celebrate this massive achievement with, well apart from Sophie cat but she’s not that keen on champagne!!

Living on my own and not having my family close by or being close to them emotionally has been one of my biggest hurdles to overcome. I love my own company and happily spend a weekend at home not talking to or seeing anyone but when you run a business it’s different. I have ideas, suggestions and thoughts and no-one to share them with, or to reason with.

So I called upon another good friend Sue Ritchie who is a confidence mentor (http://www.youtimecoaching.co.uk/)

She made me realised that I’ve got a lot of very supportive people around me called friends who are there to help & guide me when I need them. I’m not very good at asking for help and even today I struggle with it. I’ve always been very self-sufficient having moved out of home at 16 and then moving over 100 miles away from my family at 18! So I see it as a weakness to ask for help but I’m getting better at it. She also gave me a range of techniques to do when I’ve had a wobble/lose confidence in what I’m doing which I have to admit has been quite regularly over the past year but they are happening less which is a great achievement for me.

As I mentioned earlier I have a number of skills which hasn’t helped me really in my first year mainly because even a year on I think a lot of people are still confused about what I actually do. So a big lesson I’ve learnt is to be clear about my offering and be consistent in telling people this. I’m still learning this one too!!

Following on from the point above, social media is something I champion when I’m talking to business as I can see the real benefit to using it in business but for me I’ve struggled to again communicate my message, yes I’ve got loads of followers on twitter and have some great interaction through it but feel that now need to include a few more business focused tweets!! Or how else are people going to understand what I’m about and my expertise, ultimately SM has to be a marketing tool along with a range of other activities so I need to make it work for the time I spend on it!!

There are 2 distinct areas of my business:

Nutrition & Food

Business coaching/consultancy/mentoring/training

Each of these had their own identity originally but I struggled to know which one I was on any given day!! People would ask who I’m being today!! So I’ve decided to bring them under the same brand Firecracker. This means I can direct everyone to one website and talk about my brand which encompasses all that I do and am about.

There have been many more good times than bad over the last year and yes it’s been tough I have no regrets about giving up my job and can’t imagine working for anyone else, the freedom it’s given me out ways the sleepless nights and worries that come with running your own business.

The main thing I’ve learnt is not to give up, to keep knocking on doors, making connections and also to do good deeds as these will be remembered (I hope anyway, because I’m not going to stop doing them)

So I’ll just finish off by saying thank you to everyone who has supported me over the past year, this support and encouragement has helped more than you would know and I look forward to another year in the life FIRECRACKER. www.firecracker-uk.co.uk