Swimming masterclass with Richard Stannard, Great British Triathlete

OK, so let’s get it out there right away – I’m rubbish at swimming. I believe I don’t float, it’s so much harder than learning to drive no matter what people say, and yes I find water scary. There, the truth is out.

A while ago I had a private swimming lesson, which some of you might have read about (here), and I got into such a good routine of going to my local swimming pool to practice, but recently it’s really slipped  – weekends are so busy in the summer with being away, birthdays, people visiting, etc. What makes it worse, I’m off on holiday soon and really wanted to be a stronger swimmer before that.

So when I got invited along to a masterclass with Richard Stannard, Great British Triathlete and the current 2012 Biathle world champion, I couldn’t believe how good the timing was – great for giving me a kick up the bum to get going again!

The masterclass was being held at Fitness First in Hammersmith, and luckily I got to go along beforehand too for a one-to-one swimming session with the manager of the Hammersmith Branch, Jono. When I arrived, Jono gave me a quick tour of the centre before getting in the pool, and I think I pretty much fell in love with place – why does it have to be so far from my flat? 

My one-to-one was fab and I managed to build a little confidence before the masterclass with Richard.

On the night of the masterclass, me and 8 other bloggers all gathered at the side of the pool (all early – go us for time superb keeping!), and we had an intro from Richard, who told us all about his experience before asking us what kind of level we were all at when it came to swimming. There were a mixture of levels, from one blogger who goes swimming 4-5 times a week, to those of us who don’t swim often, which made me a little nervous.

Photo courtesy of Abbi from www.UpraisedLiving.com

We were soon in the pool, with Richard demonstrating and giving us tips for front crawl, the most efficient way to swim for speed. Richard started his way through the technique for body position, legs, arms and breathing, getting us to practice over a length or two of the pool after each section and demonstration.

Photo courtesy of Abbi from www.UpraisedLiving.com

The floats ready for us to practice our legs!Watching Richard demonstrate stroke. I’m on the far end.All ready to go with our floatsI’m on the far right – see me?

Richard was SO fast, and I watched in awe – If only I could be that good!

I was so slow and struggled with front crawl so did resort to breast stroke for a lot of the session, but Richard even gave me some tips on that.

Some of Richards best tips:

• When kicking, you need to kick from the hip, not the knee
• If your legs are too wide when kicking, you won’t move forward fast enough, imagine your big toes knocking
• On the last bit of your arm stroke, actually push back with your palm – you’ll move that extra bit further

Richard was great, making sure he gave everyone individual feedback.I’m definitely making sure I take his tips on board and will be using his front crawl tips in my own time too, to make myself stronger! It’s all about practice after all.

A quick group shot before the end

Although I struggled, I did come away feeling I’d learnt a lot – a lot to take on board and put into practice during my own sessions. I wrote a few things down to remember on the way home, and ate my delicious salad courtesy of Nando’s in Hammersmith when I got in (I must have been hungry as it was gone before I had chance to snap it – whoops!).

Swimming is SO good for you too! I know it’s exercise, and all exercise is, but it has so many different benefits. Check this article out from Fitness First about the benefits of a good swim sesh: http://www.fitnessfirst.co.uk/inside-track/workouts/stay-cool-at-the-pool-this-summer/ 

I’m actually hoping to start going swimming in the mornings before work – I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Do you go swimming often? What are your best tips?

Chloe xx

*I was invited along to the masterclass and also provided a one-to-one swimming session beforehand. All views my own! 

Top tips for the first couple weeks at a new job…

I know I’ve been a little quiet for the last couple weeks, only a couple posts and not much else. The reason – a new job!

I started just over two weeks ago now, yes I know I had the long Easter weekend but taking everything in and settling into my new company and new role has drained me. Easter weekend I thought I was coming down with whatever everyone else has been suffering from…achey-ness, sniffles, lacking energy…and so thought the best thing for me would be to relax. Do absolutely nothing. Apart from a movie marathon and cooking a roast – you have to have one once in a while and all those veggies are great when you’re feeling under the weather! And it was Easter weekend after all. But no exerting myself.

Now, I’m back to normal and absolutely loving my new job! Yes I don’t dread Monday mornings!

It has been exhausting and was quite nerve wracking to start with but I’m finally getting into the roll of things and enjoying my days. So having recently been through the start of a new job I thought I’d let you in on a few top tips for those first couple weeks, for anyone else starting a new role soon:

Be Confident

Now I’m not saying cocky, huge ego style confident- you know the type. I mean believe in yourself. They hired you as they believed you could do the job. Keep your head up and do your best. They’re not expecting a miracle in your first week, everyone has to start somewhere and begin taking everything in.

Take Notes

Write everything you think might be useful down, even your direct line telephone number (trust me this will be useful to have handy!). If you have questions, ask away and make note of answers. Where things are, the processes in the company, key numbers, etc.

Names, Names, Names – you’re not expected to remember them all

If you’re in a bigger company, don’t worry you’re not expected to remember everyone’s names at first. It will come. Don’t panic, if you’re chatting to someone and have forgotten, just say “I’m really sorry, I’ve met so many people and can’t remember your name”, either that or wait for someone to call them but that could take a while.

I have a nice little desk plan, this could be an option for you too. If not, you could always make your own.

Don’t Freak Out

In my first week I’ll admit it, I had a mini freak out. It’s a bigger company, it’s run very differently, there’s so much going on all at once, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get everything done.

STOP

Now breathe. They are expecting you to settle in first before making big things happen. As mentioned before, they hired you for a reason. Believe in yourself.  The chances are you left your last job to move onwards and upwards so this is what you’re doing.  With perseverance, belief and enthusiasm you can do this.

Join In The Conversation

Don’t be afraid to join in a conversation during office hours with other work colleagues, or at the pub after work on a Friday night. Make yourself seen. Ask others when they’re going for lunch, start talking to anyone and everyone. The more you get on with others in your work place the more you’ll enjoy it too.

If you get invited out for work drinks in the first couple weeks definitely go! It’s good to get to know your colleagues on a personal level too.

It’s not the deal breaker to have colleagues as friends but it is a nice addition.

Enjoy It

Full time work takes up 5 days of our 7 day week. That’s a hell of a lot of time! You need to be enjoying it, thinking positively and even looking forward to those Monday mornings (ok that’s a little far for some, sorry). But seriously, times too precious. Enjoy as much of it as possible.

 

And there you go, my top tips for a successful first couple weeks. Don’t take too much extra on as you will be tired, I rested a lot! But do enjoy it, starting a new job is really exciting – all those new people and new projects!

I wish you all the best of luck 🙂

Chloe xx

How to keep your New Year fitness mojo burning bright

In December I posted about my early new years resolution planning (read here) and told you all about Jantastic – Have you joined yet? 

I know it’s only the 2nd January but start as we mean to go on right?

With only a few days left before the start of the Jantastic challenge I thought you might like some tips for keeping your New Years Motivation burning. I did promise these were coming too! 

Here are a few tricks to keep your fitness mojo firing from Martin Yelling, PhD. He is a performance expert and works alongside his wife Liz, who is a 2 time Olympic marathon runner. He is also founder of New Year health and fitness challenge www.jantastic.me.

1. Make your goals a stretch but not out of reach. Stop and slow down when it comes to lofty New Year resolutions. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with dreaming big yet at the same time don’t over commit and under deliver. Setting your sights too high can mean you’ll end up disappointed when things don’t go to plan.  Disappointment leads to disenchantment with your goal and before you know it you’ve missed another run, skipped another stretch and binned a swim.

2. Share your goals. When you keep your goals to yourself if you go ‘goal AWOL’ it’s only you who notices.  This isn’t great for keeping you on track with your aspirations and only the strongest self-motivated people succeed. When you share your goals and make them public you suddenly become more accountable for it and take greater ownership.  The increased awareness of your targets by others around you really can help you stay on track.  Start a blog, post notes on the fridge and share the goal love.

3. No i in team! Sticking with something solo challenges even the most dedicated.  Joining a community or team of other people with similar aspirations helps you stay motivated and on track.  Sign up for an exercise class, join a group, persuade your friends and get a fitness buddy. It’s easier to get off the sofa when you’ve committed to an exercise rendezvous.  It doesn’t have to be face to face either.  Set up your own team in the New Year online fitness challenge Jantastic and invite your friends to join you.  Before you know it you’ll all be on the train to motivation central!

4. Protect your time.We’re all busy people and protecting time for our health, fitness and exercise is really important. Find slots in your day (early morning, lunchtime?) when you can prioritise time for your workout and commit to it.  Miss that opportunity window and it’s really hard to carve out a new one.

5. Be on top of your motivation.  It sounds clichéd but to be motivated you’ve got to know what floats your boat in terms of giving you that vital energy and enthusiasm boost when you need it most, when the weather is at its worst during the spring, when you’re feeling on a particularly low ebb, when your goal just seems so far off it’s almost unreachable.  Try getting a personal reason to exercise and reminding yourself of this. The memory of a loved one?  Raising money for charitable cause close to your heart? To drop a dress size?  Whatever your reason/s draw on them to drive you onwards.

 

I hope these help, they sure got me thinking about my drive this January and how to be on top of my motivation.

Good luck and most of all I hope you have fun! Fitness is good in so many ways, also giving you energy and relieving stress. You could even get to know new people taking part in a group class you might not have before!

Chloe xx

Pop-Up Baking Boutique Masterclasses – Brick Lane

I wrote not too long ago about wanting to get better at baking and the pop-up boutique which was coming to Brick Lane (read post). Well it’s here!

Thursday night I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch – an evening of mingling and learning new techniques from Juliet Sear – cake and baking expert, author of The Cake Decorating Bible and Even Better Baking Ambassador.

The Pop-up is reasonably easy to find, it’s located at 12 Drays Walk, Brick Lane but it’s inside Ely’s Yard – the same place as the ZICO Smoothie pop-up.

I turned up at 6.30pm and was greeted by Lucy (one of the team behind the running of the Dr Oetker Baking Boutique). She invited me in, offered me a drink and I started talking to one of the brand ambassadors about the boutique, the layout and what they had on offer.

The Dr Oetker Beter Baking Boutique is set out over the two floors of the shop. On the lower level one wall had all the products which are available to buy, as well as a till area, and a wooden table in the centre with baking equipment on to help create the atmosphere. This is where most people were crowding to mingle and network.

I loved the wall on the left as you walk in – a huge wall which asks you questions and directs you to the chocolate you would most like. I know, all chocolate right? But this was really cool!

Upstairs is where they hold the masterclasses, with a big work bench where all participants can be seated around the outside with the person holding the masterclass on the other side for demonstrations.
Upstairs also had a board where everyone could post their favourite baking tips – I thought this was an awesome idea too! A great way to share knowledge and learn a few cool tricks or new twists.

These are my favourite ones…




After browsing all the amazing tips, I spoke to a few people attending the event as well as those helping to run the pop-up.

A short while later we were all invited to go up and take a seat for Juliet to start her masterclass.

She opened with telling us a bit about herself and that she made Fearne Cotton’s wedding cake!! Just WOW! 

She then went through a few different techniques – making icing roses, robin cupcakes, snowman cupcakes and pigs. She went through the different designs step by step, allowing us to answer any questions we had and giving us some really good tips on how to make the best!

Cutting the icing to make her sugar rose

Using the plastic wallet to squash her petals for the rose

Putting the rose together

Juliet icing on top of a fondant topped cupcake

We then all got chance to decorate and experiment ourselves, using the techniques Juliet had shown us or to freestyle…I’ll let you in on the rose technique too…

Juliet going around the room helping with any queries or questions people had as they worked on their pieces of art 🙂

So here’s the inside information on how to make a rose…

Roll a ball of fondant into a sausage and cut into sections. You’ll need about 6. Make sure your surfaces have a light layer of icing sugar to stop sticking!

Using a plastic wallet (yes from the stationary section), cut down the side and along the bottom, place the pieces inside with enough space between them.

 Cover the pieces of icing with the other side of the wallet and use the base of your thumb to squash the circles. Then use your finger tip to smooth one side of every petal – this will form the delicate curved edge which looks like the outside top edge of the petal. (Photo below doesn’t have the smoothed off edges)

 Open the wallet and peel the first petal off. Carefully stretch the first one out, roll the one side back a tiny bit. Roll the first one to make the centre piece of the rose. Start attaching petals to the outside, overlapping the last petal and each petal added being slightly higher, the thinner edge being on the top – the petals slightly curving outwards, like a rose would. You should keep going until the rose looks even all the way around.

I then iced a cupcake with Dr Oetker cupcake icing to attach the rose.

How cute does this look? They’d look awesome if you used the Dr Oetker shimmer spray over the top too! Slightly wishing I had done this too!

I also made a robin cupcake with the Dr Oetker chocolate cupcake icing, coloured fondant and the black gel colour for the pupils.

I really liked this one! I think I’ll definitely make these again!

I also did a bit of free styling on my last cake. It was so much fun getting to try out the different products, tools and have the help of Juliet’s tips too.

Everyone’s cupcakes looked amazing! Looking around the table it seemed everyone else was having so much fun too. There were some really cute cupcake designs.

At the end we got to take our cupcakes home…

I said goodbye to all the lovely people I’d met, and left with a goody bag with a few Dr Oetker bits and pieces in – Excited to use these!

I didn’t buy any of the Dr Oetker range whilst there the other night, but I will definitely be going back to purchase baking goods before they close. Their products are awesome, they make decorating interesting and so much fun and some of them even help make things easier & better!

I will be putting my new found tips and skills to work this christmas with presents and events, so keep an eye out. I have no excuse not to get back into baking!

What Dr Oetker products have you used? Which are your faves?

Chloe xx

Facing Your Fears…

Most people will have fearful feelings or anxiety to some extent in their lives, whether it’s making new business calls, small spaces, business meetings, networking events or something else. But when you are faced with a fear, how do you go about dealing with it?

I got told yesterday “If you don’t face your fears, how are you going to grow as a person?”.

I do believe this, but at the same time I know fears can be so irrational that some can seem truly unable to overcome.

I’ll let you in on the fear which has made it’s way back into my life – cats! (Or actually kittens!)

The weekend just gone my boyfriend got a kitten for his birthday – My heart stopped. How the hell was I going to deal with this one? No more going to his? Only seeing him at weekends when he came to mine? Completely avoiding the situation?

 

A photo Alex sent me of the kitten on Saturday morning…

But he had a birthday BBQ and night out on his birthday and everyone was going to his. All really excited about this new ‘thing’, and at first I could ignore it. UNTIL one of Alex’s best friends decided he was going to try get me to go see it and kept taunting me – I couldn’t deal with it, I had to walk off as I started crying and shaking like crazy. I felt like Alex looked at me like I was just being silly when he came outside, but he said he was confused because he didn’t know what happened. I realised other people don’t always see/understand how fear affects you. 

I calmed down but I haven’t actually see the kitten in real life, and I can now laugh about the fact I fear them, but thinking of facing it which I was talking to one of my housemates the other night made me want to cry…tears were actually ready to fall!

But I know I need to do this. For Alex, and for myself to grow. I mean seriously, I can’t avoid his, or run from room to room with the hope a kitten isn’t in the hallway! I’m still not going to like it, but I’m hoping at least I can not be tearful and shaky if it’s around. Right now I feel like the kitten comes first – what does it matter how I feel about it he’s not going to do anything about the thing, so this is also why I need to face it so I can stop feeling this way.

So I started researching facing my fears, and here’s what I found –

Top tips for facing fears:

• Take a breather – if you’re feeling anxious, and are worked up, this is not a good time to try and face your fears. Take some time to relax and de-stress. When you have calmed down you will be able to think more rationally and deal with the situation better.
• Get exposure to what you fear – the more it stays hidden or you don’t expose yourself to it, the scarier it will become.
• What is the worst that can happen? – a panic attack? Calmly try to think what the worst is that can happen. Even if something goes wrong, chances are you will be fine! Think positive.
• Fears do actually tend to be worse than reality – will it really happen again?
• Talk about it – It helps so much more to have someone close you can talk to about your fears. I’ve already seen this in my amazing housemates!
• Reinforce yourself for facing your fear! This is such a great way to get used to dealing with a situation causing anxiety, by creating positive consequences to facing them.

So here goes, I shall let you all know how I get on – please do wish me luck! I’ll also let you know if I find a better way to deal with this ‘thing’.

If you have any other tips, please do comment to tell me, it would be very much appreciated!

 

Chloe xx

The Daunting First Event… Dum dum duummmmmm

Recently I had my first event. The first I had been involved in since being in PR. The first event I had played a huge part in organising (my Account Manager had been away which gave me more opportunities to pick up extra responsibility). daunting, nerve-wracking, stressful? Yes. Worth it? …

How did it go? I actually think it went pretty well, and my Director seemed happy too! Great turn out, everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and have a good time, and the presentation got just the reaction I’d hoped for from the room.

What did I learn?

– Be prepared – make a list of everything you need to do. Prepare goody bags in advance in case people don’t send the right number of samples (you’ll be surprised how many people don’t count correctly!). Get name badges printed and made as early as possible the day before (too early and you will only have to go and ask for changes and additions) and pack spares for any straggling attendees who forgot to RSVP.

– Invites Galore – invite more people than your limit. Not everyone will turn up on the day, many pull out due to unforeseen circumstances which come along the day before, etc. Journalists can be busy, we all know this, so be prepared for dropouts.

– send a reminder the day before – just a little email with the time, location, and to let them know you’re looking forward to seeing them. Perhaps add a screenshot of a map too, to add a visual element. Just text can get a little boring…

– Always ask your team if they think you might have missed something. They might see something from a different angle. Especially if it’s your first event and others have done them before. Learn from people who have been there and done that!

– Attendee lists – print and take several. You never know who else might need one other than the person on the door. Security, an attendee, your client (they’re not always prepared with things like this, they have so many other things to think about, so help them out)

– A Photographer – Always a good shout! Photos help a story sell. You might also need them for brands who might have sampled for goody bags, clients, your own portfolio, etc.

– Have a run-through, perhaps the day before. Run through timings and the general order of the event with the client so everyone is clear on the day.

– Team Briefs – team briefs before the event to refresh everyone’s mind, and distribute responsibilities is a great idea. That way everything gets covered and people aren’t trying to do the same thing.

– Be Confident – On the day, be confident in what you’ve organised or helped to organise. If you have time then mingle, network, work your stuff! It’s a great opportunity to build relationships and meet new people. Enjoy!

So was it worth it? HELL YESSS! Fab day. Great experience. Loved it!