Welcome to week 2 of Food and Fitness! This week hasn't been super productive, and I'm going to blame it on the government 'Eat Out to Help Out' scheme. If you're not in the UK, this is a scheme set up by the government which gives funding to restaurants to allow them to offer 50% off food. Which basically means if you go to any restaurant or cafe on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, you will pay half of what you usually would (very dangerous). This has been set up to help the hospitality sector which has struggled during lockdown, and also to encourage the public to start getting out and about again. We have taken FULL advantage of this scheme. We went to an Indian restaurant on Monday night with my parents which was AMAZING, then went out for lunch at a cafe on Tuesday with a friend, and dinner and drinks as a little date night in Edinburgh on Wednesday... So basically, if I don't get anywhere with my healthy journey, we can blame the government? Food Due to living the high life, we didn't eat too many meals at home this week (oops), but something I'd like to tell you about is this recipe! Baked Basa with Potatoes and Veg - We made this meal on Tuesday night and we got all ingredients from Aldi! This probably cost us around £2.50 to make, and it was amazing and healthy! You can click here to read the recipe. Breakfast smoothie recipe - I've also been making lots of smoothies this week and wanted to share this recipe that I found for a healthy breakfast smoothie! Click here to read the recipe. I'd also like to chat about some healthy snacks I've recently discovered. I'm trying to consciously swap unhealthy snacks for healthier alternatives, and only eat when I'm actually hungry (Although, I say this as I'm eating a biscuit with my tea) I've compiled a little list of healthy snacks, where to get them, and the prices on my Recipes Page. Fitness This week has been manic as we finally received a date for the return of dance studios!! So I've been making sure I'm ready for that, and teaching my (hopefully) last classes on Zoom! I have actually managed to complete week 7 of Couch to 5K - much to my own surprise - and I can now run over 3.5km in 25 minutes. Looking back, this is absolutely crazy. I ran for the first time ever in May this year, and now I'm running for 25 minutes without stopping! I never ever thought I'd be able to do this, so if you're keen to start something, whether that is in relation to health & fitness, or anything else, just go for it! What's the worst that can happen. There are only 2 weeks left of the programme now. Week 8 consists of running non-stop for 28 minutes (3 times), and week 9 is when the 30 minute runs happen! I will keep you all up to date with my progress for the next 2 weeks. Throughout the 7 weeks of 'Couch to 5K', I've found that listening to either podcasts or audiobooks has been much better than listening to music. It gives me something else to focus on other than how long/far I've run, my speed, and my breathing. I find listening to something I'm engaged in makes running so much easier and would recommend this to anyone who may be struggling. I've just finished the third audiobook in the 'Wilde' series by Louise Pentland, and my next blog post will be a review of the series! This week, Renee and I have also been on a few hill walks. She is super keen to start walking up bigger hills, and I'm trying my best to have a go too. I don't think I'll be bagging Munroes anytime soon, but I do enjoy the view from the top! This week, we walked up Benarty Hill in Kelty, Bishop Hill in Kinross, and Lendrick Hill in Kinross. I'm going to do a separate post about some walks we've been on, so let me know if you're interested in that! I struggle with the motivation of getting up there, and I usually want to throw Renee back down the hill everytime she says 'this is good fun!', but I'm trying my best to push through because I know I'll be proud of myself when we get there! As always, you can send any questions or comments via any of the channels on the Contact Page, or leave a comment below. Let me know about any great meals you've made this week, or if you have any hill recommendations! Thanks for all the feedback on my last post too, I loved it! Love Sophy x
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Hi friends, it's gay chat time!
I came out at the age of fourteen, which - in hindsight - is actually quite young. I was so completely sure of myself and breezily just telling everyone 'I have a girlfriend.' I just said what I felt, and most of the time it was fine. I remember high school not actually being that bad! I was expecting homophobia from my peers, but most comments I experienced were laughable, and it was mostly people asking silly questions instead of actual hate. Some teachers were actually worse than pupils, and of course I can't mention names (damn) but there was one in particular that said something I still tell people about today. After I left school, I actually ended up in a relationship with a boy (shock horror, I know). For some reason, my friends were absolutely raging about me being seemingly 'straight' again. It lasted 9ish months and then I realised I was definitely 100% gay (I think I did know this all along). With me deciding and telling everyone I was definitely a lesbian this time, the next wave of weird comments started when we reached the age of going out clubbing. People are drunk and stupid and say the weirdest things that they (maybe?) wouldn't say when sober. Although most comments came from the males, I will say, some girls said some weird things too! So let's talk about some classic things that lesbians hear a lot! 1: "No offence, but I just feel weird about you getting changed for PE with us" A classic high school comment. For some reason, a lot of teenage girls believe that gay means pervert, and that now you've come out, you're going to blatantly stare at them in their sports bras. Obviously ridiculous, and proves that a lot of girls are very self-centred. Which leads me on to number 2... 2. "Does that mean you fancy me then?" Similarly, some girls believe that once you come out, you are then attracted to every single girl in your class, their mums, and your teacher. (Okay I fancied a fair few of my teachers, but not the point.) No I don't fancy you. 3. "Aw no way, I wouldn't have guessed that!" or "You don't look like a lesbian" People throw this one out there as a compliment, as if you should thank them and be grateful you look 'straight' (???) Honestly what does look like a lesbian even MEAN?! 4. "I can change you" or "I like a challenge" When men say this, I honestly just can't believe they don't realise they are behaving like T-Rex level predators. IMAGINE saying something like this to someone!! 5. "You're too pretty to be a lesbian" Again, this statement makes no sense, there is no correlation between beauty and sexuality. Usually people are trying to pass this off as a compliment, but it just ends up uncomfortable and embarrassing when they can't explain what they mean. 6. "Threesome?" No. 7. "That is such a waste" In my opinion, this is one of the worst. So many men have said this to me, and it basically translates as 'Well this has annoyed me because now I know you won't have sex with me.' It comes across as stroppy and rude, never mind entitled and predatory. 8."Are you both going to wear dresses at the wedding? Something about that doesn't sit right with me." Guess what? You weren't invited anyway! It is no one else right to tell people what they should wear at their own wedding. Also we live in Scotland and men wear kilts to their weddings... So, hate to break it to you but heterosexual weddings have lots of dresses involved too x 9. "How are you going to have a baby?" or "But it won't be YOUR baby together though will it?" This one also riles me up big time. Can you imagine if you asked a straight couple how they were going to conceive their baby? What a weird question to ask. Also, would you ever tell adoptive parents that its not 'actually their baby'? No you wouldn't homophobes!! Check yourself. Of course we can't forget the classic. I can't tell you how many times I have had this conversation with people... 10. "How do lesbians have sex?" or "But it's not really sex is it?" Similar to my previous point, you would never ask a straight couple how they have sex. That is a ridiculously personal and rude thing to ask. Not only have I been asked this question by friends, I have been asked it by boys I have just met on nights out, or friends of friends I have met that day. My response has now become "Well, how do you have sex?" Because it usually shocks them into shutting up. You cannot tell someone what sex is. Each person has their own defined ideas and boundaries around sexual contact, and you cannot take those away from someone. To people reading this who have said these things or similar things to anyone in the LGBT community, please, just use google. We are not here to educate you on our sex lives, or respond to your strange backhanded compliments. You also cannot change us, and we definitely don't want to have sex with you. LGBT friends - please get in touch if you've had any weird questions or comments like these, I would love to hear other peoples' experiences. There will definitely be a part 2 coming soon, more things have already popped into my head since I wrote this. The list is never-ending! Kind words only please, Love Sophy x Hi friends! Thank you for the massive amount of support for Okay Sophy so far! I didn't think anyone would even want to read it, so I've been blown away that so many people have followed the Facebook page and subscribed to email updates. All your kind words and excitement for the blog have encouraged me even more and now I can't wait to get it started properly! I planned to start some sort of fitness schedule on Monday, but because life is life, Monday ended up being the biggest write-off ever! We literally didn't leave the couch, and ate nothing but macaroni all day, which is obviously totally okay, and I would definitely recommend that as a balanced lifestyle... So I started on Tuesday instead (who decided Monday was the start of the week anyway?!) Fitness I've been craving a ballet class for ages - weird dancer thing to say but okay - so I found this intermediate/advanced ballet barre video on Youtube. It was taught by Katrina Morgan who has a channel FILLED with ballet tutorial and follow along videos. She is a dream! I love that she doesn't talk too much in her videos, but still includes little technique reminders and the aims of the exercises. I was absolutely SWEATING during and after but it was great and a nice level of class! I've popped the link below incase anyone wants to give it a go too! x www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IXip5hM06U&t=2515s I thought I'd also chat about home workouts this week. I've always struggled to follow along to workout videos or other peoples' routines. I find that I stay more motivated and disciplined if I create my own workout plan/routine. I usually put together a combination of exercises that I find work for me, and cover abs, arms, and legs. I would just start with a number of reps or length of time (e.g. 20 crunches or 30 secs plank hold) and then increase/decrease as needed every day that I continue the routine. I won't post what my routine is, because it probably won't be useful to anyone else, but if you find you are struggling with motivating and disciplining yourself to work out at home, I would definitely recommend this! Another thing I wanted to write about this week is 'Couch to 5K'. This brilliant app encourages beginner level runners to run 5K by the end of the 9 week training programme. I've been doing the 'Couch to 5K' running challenge for the past 6(ish) weeks, but hit a major motivation struggle at week 7. The app challenges you to run a bit further each week, starting off with little 60 second runs during week one, and ending with consistent half hour runs by the end of week 9. I've been really enjoying it and I love running further and faster each run, but I'm just finding it SO HARD at the minute! I decided I needed to get a grip on Thursday morning. So I got up at 6am, got my running gear on (by 'running gear' I do just mean Nike leggings and any T-shirt I can find in the dark) and started week 7! This week consists of running for 25 mins without stopping, which is a struggle if you're not a runner. But I finally did this on Thursday morning bright and early and was super proud of myself! With any luck, I might do it again over the weekend! We'll see... Food Since we moved into our new flat, we have been really consistent with planning meals. We decided at the very start that we wanted as little waste as possible (of food and of money!) So every week before we do our food shop, we sit down and write what we want to have for dinner each day of the week. We then only buy the ingredients we need for those meals (and breakfast and lunch stuff, obvs) This has saved us SO MUCH money, stops us forgetting about (and therefore wasting) food in the fridge, and most importantly, stops that awful nightly drama and indecision of what to have for dinner. We used to be THE WORST for being indecisive and stroppy about what to eat, and would usually end up having something easy, random, and probably unhealthy. People who know me personally will have definitely experienced me waffling about meal plans (haha accidental food pun). Anyway, I would totally recommend this for anyone who wants to save money, cut down waste, and stop dinner decision dramas in their household (that's everyone, right?) Some fun things we made for dinner this week were: Homemade gluten free lamb gyros - We haven't cooked lamb before as it always seemed such a faff, but Renee's sister mentioned lamb on FaceTime today and we were inspired. Renee literally cooked and prepared all of it but we'll pretend I helped too.. This whole recipe is completely gluten free as always, and we bought all ingredients from Lidl (apart from gluten free wraps, we got those in Morrisons). It probably cost us less than £5 to make, and was so so good! If you'd like to make it too, I've posted the recipe here: Homemade Gluten Free Lamb Gyros Misty Copeland's Spinach and Goat's Cheese Salad - This recipe came from Misty Copeland's 'Ballerina Body' book. (A book that focuses on becoming strong rather than skinny, and creating a healthy lifestyle without restriction or deprivation) I would definitely recommend this recipe if you're looking to try a more exciting and different salad! Click here to go to the recipe I actually do feel like I've started to make some positive changes this week, and I'm hoping writing this blog will motivate me (and maybe other people) to keep going! Thanks for reading this week's blog post, let me know if you try out any meals from the recipes page, or if you've had motivation struggles this week too! You can contact me via email or Facebook. Love Sophy x Hello! Welcome to my blog!
That is a sentence I never thought I'd say, but here we are. Who are you? My name is Sophy, I'm 21, and I'm a dance teacher. I'm from Fife in Scotland, and I just moved into a little flat with my partner, Renee. I've danced my whole life, and left school a year early to attend an Edinburgh dance college. I trained for 3 years, and taught at my local dance school at the same time. After I graduated in 2018, I moved to Melbourne to complete a further year of training and teaching. While I was over there, I fell in love with the most amazing Aussie/Scot who was born in Scotland and always wanted to move back (coincidence?!) So at the start of 2020 (pre-covid situation) we flew back home together and started our life over here. I'm teaching at a few dance schools, and finishing some qualifications, and I love my job! Renee is about to start her new job in the care industry with a disability charity (She is very lovely). In my free time, I love finding cute little buys for our flat, or making some crafty stuff that I can show off to guests. I love reading, audiobooks, and those adult colouring in books, but I also love exploring new places, woodland trails, and picnics. I have an obsession with mugs, and anything with sausage dogs or bees on (no idea why those two creatures stood out to me, but we won't question it...) As with a lot of people, I've found myself unemployed during the Covid outbreak, and have become very unmotivated. I would really like to fit into my jeans again, so I am trying to eat better and work out more, but it's not really working for me at the moment. This is where Okay Sophy comes in. What are you writing about? My plan is to document what I've done health & fitness wise week to week. So I'll type up my weekly exercise routine (hopefully this will include running, home workouts, and online dance classes) and we'll cross our fingers that this will motivate me to actually stick to it. I'll also be posting my meal plans and any cool (gluten free) recipes I find or create. As I came up with this idea, I decided I actually have a lot to write about! So as well as health and fitness, there will probably be: Discussions about my Dunelm bargains; Book reviews; Crafty things; Anything I've learned about LGBT history; And anything that relates to sausage dogs. Why Okay Sophy? Well, last night I turned to Renee as she was peacefully watching Netflix, and said 'I'm going to start a blog.' She responded as she usually does when I make these random statements - 'Okay Sophy' and continued to watch the Crown. (Honestly, it's understandable. I do this a lot, and The Crown is a good show.) I then spent at least an hour brainstorming a name for said blog (just incase it became popular, you never know.) After a wee lightbulb moment, I decided 'Okay Sophy' is easy and simple (and might be catchy if I did accidentally become famous.) So here we are, blog post number 1! Thanks for joining me on my little endeavour, let's see where this goes! Love Sophy x |
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February 2021
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