When Jack Wills* contacted me asking if I wanted to collaborate with them on a fitness post for promotion of their women’s joggers I was so excited as my exercise journey definitely hasn’t been the smoothest and I feel like I’ve learnt a lot. You guys know I love to share everything on here, so lets get cracking hey?

At high school you better believe I was one of those gals who was always last in the 800 metres, and I used to try and convince my friends to fake fall-over with me so we could get out of it. It wasn’t until I was a lot older that I realised exercise is so much more than feeling judged by other women about how high you can jump or how fast you can run. And the one thing it’s definitely not, is a competition.

You don’t like running? Don’t do it. The thought of the gym makes you feel rubbish? Guess what, no-one is forcing you to go.

Finding a way to move your body that makes you feel confident, happy and in control is a game-changer, and there’s so many options out there that I promise there will be something out there for you. Try everything! Yoga, pilates, HITT, swimming. Is there a particular thing you loved when you were little, and is there any way to include that into your weekly routine now? There is no rules when it comes to what exercise you should be doing, let your body lead the way.

And my exercise routine now? Well, it depends on how I’m feeling and more importantly, what my body NEEDS. Some days I can do yoga three days in a row, the next two days I want to chill. I can go to the gym, or if I’m not feeling it I’ll simply leave and try again another day.

It really doesn’t have to be a mine-field, so don’t let it.

How do you feel towards fitness, do you think there’s a pressure attached?

*this post was sponsored by Jack Wills.

A few months ago I decided to have a little week-long blogging break, which I don’t think I’ve ever done since I started Natalie Leanne in April. There was a number of reasons I wanted to step away from the laptop for a while, one being posting every other day can be quite time-consuming. I was a bit scared and nervous at the beginning, what if I didn’t miss it and didn’t come back? Thankfully that didn’t happen and I’m still here to tell the story 😉

If it becomes a chore…

Unless you do this as your full-time income, then you can totally have some time-off (well, you can anyway but whatever). You most likely started your blog as a passion project for yourself, and the last thing you want to happen is to lose your love for it. I always think you should never force yourself to post, it can lead to things feeling more rushed, and more than likely you can end up unhappy with the content you’re putting out there.

If other life events need your attention

Sometimes life just gets a bit too busy, and blogging can fall to the wayside. And that’s totally okay, by the way. Even if your blog is one of your top priorities, some things we can’t control and they need your time and attention. Having time off will help you feel less pressured, and will give you some time for yourself to rest when you really need to.

If you’ve lost inspiration and creativity

I find my inspiration and creativity go together hand in hand. When they’re there, it’s all good, however some times they can disappear for a while. I don’t know about you, but I can’t force out posts. I usually get all my ideas at the most random of times (the shower, before I go to bed, on a walk etc) so I make the most of jotting down them when they arrive so it saves some stress later. If I’m really struggling, I try to not let myself even think about it for a few days and sooner or later it all gets back to normal.

What I learnt from my week off:

• Blog stats didn’t fall off the face of the earth, so that’s good to know.
• It actually went super quick, but I did feel a lot more rested and ready to write again after a break.
• Jot down ideas you have whilst your not blogging in a journal, so you can save them for later.
• You realise how much time you actually spend. It’s not just the writing, there is pictures, scheduling and promoting too, amongst other stuff.

Have you ever had a blogging break?

It’s been a hot minute since I did a Products I’m Trying Out, so I’m back with a new one! I love trying out new makeup and skincare specifically, and I always like to share if I’m loving something just incase you’re in the market for it!

For Christmas I received lots of Glossier goodies, and I know I loved the birthday cake balm dot com, so I was interested to see how the original version would shape up. Newsflash: it’s frigging incredible. I think I even prefer it to the other version as it’s just extra soothing and calming. Safe to say I’m obsessed with this.

I have so many lip colours, what’s one more in my collection right? I’m not a big fan of matte lips because they always dry my lips out too much and they end up feeling and looking very sore, not the look I’m usually going for. However, I’m super impressed with this Maybelline Super Stay Ink. It gives a lovely wash of colour and it stays put for ages, without flaking my lips off the face of the earth. I’m pretty sure it’s new or it was when I got it, so definitely one to try out if you’re in the mood for a new lip colour.

I picked up the Tanya Burr Eyebrow Pencil, and to be completely honest I didn’t have *mega* high hopes. But I was SO pleasantly surprised! I love how it makes my brows look, a bit more structured and fuller than they usually do, and I’m excited to keep using it. I would recommend. (I use the shade ‘Fair)

For Christmas my Mum got me the *amazing* Decleour advent calendar, and I’ve throughly enjoyed trying out all the skincare mini’s. (FYI: my skin is probably the softest and best it’s ever been while using them!) I’m not a massive fan of cleaning milks in particular because they never work out too great with my sensitive skin, but I’ve honestly had no issues with this one at all. It feels luxurious to use, and just an all round thumbs up from me.

I’ve been using the L’Oreal highlighter in Icy Glow and although it’s definitely not the usual subtle highlight look that I wear, it’s a pretty flawless application and makes you feel amazing when you have it on. If you’re in the market for a new highlighter, I would definitely advise to have a peek at this one! It comes with a mirror too, which is always a bonus right?

Have you tried any of these products?

Truth be told, I’ve always been a bit of a ‘giver-upper’, as much as this pains me to admit. I’m blaming my genes because my Dad is the exact same, although we all know that it’s a poor excuse, soz Dad.

It’s not that I lack enthusiasm, at the beginning I have bounds of it to spare, and I get so excited about a new challenge or goal  I can’t sleep! But it’s when it doesn’t go to plan is where I start to struggle.

I can easily fall at the first hurdle, and not want to get back up and try again. It’s a lesson I’m constantly learning that perservance pays off, and if you want it, you sure have to work for it. They say nothing worth having comes easy, and maybe that’s true. Plus the reward is always sweeter after you know you really, really deserve it.

We all need reminders to not give up, so I’m using this blog post to give you your reminder.

You know how satisfying it is when you finally achieve something that has taken weeks, months, even years? Remember that feeling and know that it will happen again for you.

If we got everything we wanted handed to us on a plate, maybe we would never learn what we need to, or find our passion and resilience for what makes our hearts flutter.

Life is a journey, and one which constantly pushes us to our limits, and shows us who we really are, and who we could be if we didn’t let anything get in our way.

Even when the challenges we face seem tougher than we ever expected, hang in there. You’ve got this, I’m with you all the way.

Don’t ever give up.

You can do it.

This is a blog post I’ve been meaning to write for weeks, but I convinced myself I couldn’t do it justice and portray everything I wanted to say, so I kept putting it off. Sophie talked about this in her post here, where she describes it better than I could so do go have a read, she’s a babe.

Anyway, back to the post.

I know I’ve spoken about social media a lot over these last few months, but it’s a big part of my life and a hefty portion of my day, so naturally it is something that I think about. Somedays life can feel like it moves 100mph, and social media triple that. There is always new content out there, and that’s awesome. But it also means social media DOES NOT STOP. ever. But guess what, you can.

We can stop the pointless scrolling and use it more efficiently. We can connect with our friends online, then get on with our day knowing we can check in with them later to chat, if we want to. We can log off early and go to sleep. We can turn our phones off for the majority of the day if we feel like it, it’s okay.

It can feel exhausting to come home from a busy day, and then feel so out of the loop that you have to ‘catch up’ on what you’ve missed, it’s constant and takes up so much precious time. Before I realise it an hour has passed, I haven’t made anything for dinner or even asked Dan how his day went. Which makes me feel like an AWFUL human.

At the end of the day, it’s awesome to stay connected to the online world, but a part of it IS online, not real day to day life unfortunately.

From now on, I’m going to accept that I will never fully catch up on what I’ve missed when I haven’t been active online, and that’s totally okay. I’m going to be living life in the meantime.

Can you relate?