MY EIGHTH WEEK IN LOCKDOWN - CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

We have officially hit the 8-week mark. I started to get more agitated this week with the whole lockdown situation for probably the first proper time. I’ve felt it pretty consistently all week rather than just the odd day here and there, and to be honest I am sure a lot of people are getting to this point now ‘cos it really has been so long. I’m actually finding it hard to imagine going completely back to normal because I’m so used to my routine at home now, though I know once my assignments are over I will be so lost with what to do!

I’ve had an overwhelming week with uni work as I approached my first deadline (which is now submitted – YAY). I feel like the lead up to your first submission is so stressful because you have to balance all of your other assignments whilst checking and submitting your first piece. I always check, check and re-check assignments against the criteria before I submit them because I get paranoid that I have missed a vital point out or that I have exceeded the word count. I am so grateful that my assignment deadlines are quite spread out over the next three weeks or so, which gives me time in-between each one to check the others. I feel like finishing my deadlines could be in sync with when lockdown measures are eased more to the point where I can start socialising with close friends and family (I am hoping and praying) so this is keeping me motivated and keeping me busy right up until this point. 1 submission down, 4 to go!

I’m really proud of my fitness progress through this lockdown. This is definitely the longest I have consistently exercised and kept in a fitness routine before and it’s also definitely the most I have enjoyed exercising. In the past, I have never ever stuck to home workout routines or enjoyed them as I always found them too repetitive and too much of a chore to do, but since lockdown, I don’t know where I have found the motivation from but I’m not complaining. The only thing I am finding now is that I am starting to concentrate more on how many calories I am burning than the actual workouts themselves. This week it is my mission to not dwell on the amount of calories I am burning, but the fact I am exercising and more importantly, strengthening my upper body and core as I start a two-week workout plan. The aim of the plan is to change and strengthen my body and NOT all about burning calories, so whilst I complete it, I am trying my best not to worry about calories and I will hopefully see a gradual change in my body.

Every evening I go on a fairly fast-paced family walk which is a really great fat burner that does not get spoken about enough. I have never been a fan of running, in fact, I hate it. I couldn’t rave enough about walking as a great way to get your heart rate up and burn fat without really noticing you’re doing it. If you keep your pace up all the way, walking can actually be the most effective type of fat burn and in my opinion, way more enjoyable than most other cardio exercise. I am so lucky to live in such a lovely area full of walks through nature and I am loving it!

I spent part of the weekend helping my Dad paint his office – teamwork makes the dream work. We got my room done pretty quickly a couple of weekends ago so we figured we would be even quicker in a smaller room. The problem with this was that we ran out of paint after a coat of the room, which meant we had to leave it, click-and-collect paint from B&Q the next day and just carry on then, so it took up quite a bit of the whole weekend. We are almost half way through re-decorating the upstairs of our house this lockdown, as usually stuff like decorating your house would be put off as there are so many better things you could be doing in normal life, but not in lockdown. I reckon in the next few months we will have completed our decorating-upstairs mission and it will all look great!

I started using the new skincare products that I ordered from the Body Shop through the week this week. I can’t say that I have noticed a life changing or miraculous difference but there are some. The face wash and the eye cream have been the most noticeable differences so far. I was advised by one of my best friends Maisie about how due to me having normal to dry skin, foam face washes can be stripping of oils in your skin which can contribute towards the dryness. The face wash is more of a moisturiser texture but is used just like a normal face wash and I have noticed that after using it my skin has definitely not felt as stripped. The eye cream is leaving my under-eyes feeling so smooth and moisturised and is definitely reducing puffiness in the mornings which is an added bonus. I haven’t been getting dark circles under my eyes as much as usual in lockdown but I will be interested to see if it reduces them when I get back to my normal day-to-day life. The links to all the new products I bought will be down below.

We treated ourselves to a Harvey’s takeaway on Saturday night which was amazing! They did a competition on Facebook during the week which made me really crave their chicken kebab so that’s what I had – it didn’t disappoint. I think it’s really important through this crisis that people focus on helping smaller businesses that may be feeling hugely impacted during this time, which is why we are trying to order takeaways from independent places rather than large chains. Don’t get me wrong, soon I will DEFINITELY be ordering a Dominos but generally speaking, I want to support smaller local businesses as much as possible.

As a little surprise this week, I sent Jacob a pack of his favourite protein treat bars to his house. I had to direct the delivery driver on the phone to Jacob’s house as it’s really hard to find, and this was extremely difficult when you’re not there and haven’t been there for over 8 weeks!!! I managed to get my bearings and direct him though, and Jacob loved his surprise. I have never really been into all these different protein products but I have made the mistake of doing research into increasing your protein intake and now I want to try some! I think I will wait until I can return to the gym properly, see if I keep up a good exercise routine and then consider protein products.

I hope everyone is doing ok now we are pretty much hitting the two-month mark. We will get through this and return to normal soon. Hope you all have a great week.

Keep smiling and have a great day! Liv xxx

Bodyshop links:

Eye-cream - https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-gb/face/eye-care/vitamin-e-eye-cream/p/p000810

Face wash - https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-gb/face/cleansers-toners/vitamin-e-gentle-facial-wash/p/p000177

Toner - https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-gb/face/cleansers-toners/aloe-calming-toner/p/p000169

Eye and lip contour - https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-gb/face/targeted-treatments/aloe-soothing-eye-lip-contour-care/p/p002405