It's been so long since I've been to the gym! I completely forgot how incredible it is to walk in and just focus on improving yourself physically. It was about 5pm on a Sunday and the gym was practically empty, so getting back into the flow of it was so easy.


I think the last time I rowed on an ergometer must've been during a high school gym class! Sitting down and trying to figure out the menu and damper took a couple of minutes, but after a bumpy start I just got into the 'I'm a viking bitches!' mindset and started rowing.

Not going to lie, I was worried about my back being able to handle the constant pressure the rowing position would put on it. After a couple of minutes I did feel a bit of a sting in my lower back, but supporting my back by tensing my entire core fixed the issue and I could carry on like normal. I was originally going to go for a 40 minute stint, but figured that I have plenty of time to practice and stopped after half an hour.

First of probably thousands of gym selfies!

And just because 45 minutes at the gym wasn't enough, I went on a Pokemon hunt as well for over an hour! I swear this game has made me love walking, according to the game I've already walked 58,5km since it launched. I've struggled to find motivation to go for a walk (even though the weather has been incredible the past few weeks!), so being able to be a complete nerd and relive my childhood whilst getting fitter is so amazing!

Preparing for this competiton has also given me another reason to stick to a healthier diet. I mean I cook pretty healthy most nights, but lately I've had a few too many takeaways for dinner *oops*. Tonight I whipped up turkey meatballs in a tomato sauce with sweet potato mash and peas & sweetcorn, and our fridge is full of healthy ingredients and snacks again.

Lots of fishy plates earlier this week: basa fillet with pasta and veg, tuna with noodles and runner beans & salmon with noodles and beans again.

This is going to be a great summer!

I have done something nuts and agreed to take part in the annual rowing competition, Sulkavan Suursoudut, in my home town next summer. My family had a team for it this summer for the first time ever, and it went so smoothly that people seem really keen on doing it again next summer. And since I've been after some sort of fitness related project for ages now to keep me going, I figured that I'll do it too!

Photo: Riku Kettunen

Essentially the competition involves rowing about 60km around a big island on lake Saimaa. You can do it alone, with a partner or as a team (minimum of 14 people I believe). It's pretty much the only thing that happens in my home town all year, and it's the kind of a thing that you should do if you grew up in Sulkava! I guess it could be compared to doing a marathon - unless you're a really hardcore athlete you just do it for the experience, not to win. Next year's competition is actually the 50th year running so I'm hoping it'll be really exciting and lots of people show up for it!

My experience with rowing includes a tiny fiber glass boat my family owns we use simply for checking fish traps. I've never been in one of these big boats that require lots of people, but I'm just going to do my best over here and use the rowing machines at my gym regularly from now on, so I'm not completely dead when it comes to the competition.

I'm going to be writing a lot about my prep and progress from now on, hopefully getting back to the old style of blogging I did back when I first started. Lots of progress rambles, food posts and so on. Wish me luck!

I was given this product to test at no cost. All opinions are my own.

I was given the Shrinking Violet Shrinky Suit to test a few weeks ago and now that the product is officially out on the market I'll be sharing my experiences with it! When I was contacted by the Get Shrinking team, I had literally no clue of what the product might be and what it'll do.


The kit includes your shrinky suit (the funky looking space suit - honestly made me laugh out loud when I opened the kit!), a bottle of the solution you apply on your body, a little measuring cup to get the right amount of lotion each threatment, tracking cards and a tape measure. There's loads of solution to use, it'll last for a good 8-10 treatments!



The solution smells quite nice, I think the only way I could describe it is kind of a massage oil scent. All you need to do is rub it on the areas you want to target, put on the suit and do whatever you want for an hour. Probably best to stay indoors haha! You can just either sit down and watch TV or do light exercise - the point of the shrinky suit is to raise your body temperature by a few degrees to get the solution working.


I honestly wasn't expecting much to come out of this - maybe it's just my sceptical approach towards anything - but holy cow it really did work! This is my tracking card, before measurements taken literally moments before putting the suit on and after measurements were taken when I woke up the next morning. The little leaflets do say that the results do get better over time so it might be best to "sleep on it" and only measure the next day.

And just to clarify, the measurements are in centimeters, not inches! :)


I've only managed to do one treatment so far, but if the results stay similar I'm more than pleased! I'd like to remind everyone that this is not some magical cure for weight loss on its own. It should be used as a part of a healthy diet, you will not achieve permanent results if you don't keep active! :)

You can order your own kit straight from the Get Shrinking website. They also offer a 90 Day Challenge to take part in for the best results!

I've been challenged by ETB Fit to reveal my workout routine! And not just what reps I do and stuff, but how I actually prepare for it and how I manage the after care hours after exercising.

What foods do you eat pre workout?

This depends entirely on what I'm doing really! If I'm doing cardio I tend to load up on carbs more for the extra energy. A slice of rye bread with hummus or whole wheat with veg is an easy snack to have and doesn't take forever to make. If I'm doing weight training I try to get a more protein heavy snack in, such as yoghurt with berries or a simple protein shake. I try to keep my snacks pretty light, as I don't want to wait longer than 45 minutes before getting started.

Oh and coffee. I basically run on that stuff. 


What music do you listen to during your workout?

I don't specifically have a playlist for working out actually. I do go for the more upbeat songs to give myself that extra motivation when I feel like dying during the last reps, but other than that it's just the same music I listen to any other time. Some of my current favourites are:




How do you switch up certain routines daily/weekly to stay motivated?

I've got quite a few sources of finding new exercises and motivation in general. I have a health & fitness related board on Pinterest, I follow several workout related blogs and have lots of inspirational people and pages on my social media feeds. On top of that I use Workoutlabs quite often to mix up my routines when I feel like my beloved dead lifts and squats are getting boring. ;)

I do have quite a wide base of exercises from years of working out, though. I'm quite used to doing Jillian Michaels' workouts and she just finds the most amazing ways of combining just about ten different muscle groups in one exercise. Talk about being efficient!


What do you eat or do after your workout to make sure you get the most out of your workout?

Stretching and using a foam roller are my ways of cooling down after putting my muscles under a lot of stress. I thoroughly stretch all the muscles I've worked and especially after leg days I tend to use my foam roller for a good 10-15 minutes to really massage my legs (if I have the time I also use the roller to open up my muscles before working out). I'd really love to have a roller with those funny patterns, at the moment I'm just using a plain tube one - it does its job more than well, but I'm curious about the patterned ones! I can only imagine how deep they can dig when the basic version makes me want to cry sometimes!!

It's been four days now since I started my PT plan and I feel stuffed. So full up in fact that I've not been able to eat my evening snack at all. A huge bowl of yoghurt and berries just doesn't go down at all!

People keep thinking that losing weight means you need to starve yourself to the point of wanting to eat absolutely anything that crosses your eyes. It really doesn't have to go down to that. The day before I started I took a picture of my fridge (literally just after we'd been shopping for the week). The amount of food I'm actually allowed to eat is crazy, even my other half asked me if I'm reading all the recipes right as it seemed like way too much food to eat on a diet! :D

The fridge is missing 90% of the meat as well, all tucked away in the freezer haha! There's obviously some stuff in there that isn't a part of my diet, after all there is another person living in this flat who doesn't need to lose weight!


So far my dinners have included: rump steak with tomatoes and cucumber, salmon & cucumber casserole (pic on the right), salmon with veg and turkey chilli (pic on the left). I have pimped up some of the recipes to make up for lost calories elsewhere. For example I added a little bit of feta and sweet potato into the chili. The dinners are very low carb, I was worried it'd leave me really hungry but like I said, I can't fit everything in!!


For this week all my lunches are the same - chicken, rice and peppers. I've got to be honest, it's starting to get a little bit dull at this point of the week but I'm determined to carry on! It's only a week and then the lunch changes again, so should be fine.

Oh and I bought a yoga ball! It's been one of those awesome workout gadgets I've wanted for absolutely ages but it's just a bit difficult to fit anywhere.. And as my other half is taking part in the exercise bit of this diet plan, I had to get two of them! 50% off at Sports Direct, woohoo! It's getting towards the end of the month and about a week before payday so getting these bargains in is a life saver haha!


They're so much fun though. After filling them up we just spent ages messing around with them and my other half used them as a foot rest when watching TV. It'll be such a good addition to doing workouts at home, it'll let me get a bit more creative than before. And I will genuinely use it just to entartain myself when I feel bored.