Let's Talk About Stress, Baby....

''I'm so Stressed!'' ..... ''I have so much to do'' ....... ''So many things on my mind!''

Just some of the few sentences that have been on repeat in my head this week! And I know I am not the only one who hears these mantras on a frequent basis..!




The last few weeks have been particularly stressful....You know when you feel you just don't have enough hours in the day to get everything done, or forget things because your mind has been pre-occupied? Yep, that is how it has been for me...!

The reason I am sharing this is because I wanted to talk a bit about the effects stress has on your body, your routine and your eating habits....




Stress rears it's ugly head in many forms; from being physically and/or mentally exhausted from work or running your home, to being run down and weak from poor nutrition or too much exercise (yes, there is such a thing as too much exercise!)

Warning signs your body will give you are the obvious ones...short/bad temper, loss of appetite and
general focus, poor quality sleep, your skin, hair and nails start to suffer and you are more likely to put ON weight than lose it.

To be honest, I have suffered with most of the above recently! Not great when I have a Competition coming up! But hey - I identified what the problem was and where I needed to refocus - the main one being my food....

Our Emotional Connection to Food



I cannot stress enough how important it is to not neglect what you put in your body - as women (although this is not limited to just women), we tend to reach for the cake, chocolate and ice cream in times of sadness / stress / emotional despair, and lets face it, no one can say that they don't have a week / month where they feel a little off kilter and reach for the above for ''comfort''....






Stress = Bad Night's Sleep = Neglected Breakfast

You know when you wake up for work and snooze the alarm more times than you should and tell yourself you'll grab some breakfast on the way out of the door.... Yea, probably the worst thing you could do!

Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day, especially if you are training. I'm not saying you need to have a Full English, but starting your day with, at the very least, some eggs or another form of protein with nuts will have much more of a positive effect on your mood and well being for the day than a shot of espresso and a Banana and then a chocolate or breakfast bar around 10am- the amount of times I have been told the latter has formed someones breakfast is crazy - how can you expect to focus and function properly on so little?!

Need some quick ideas? Why not try;

Not-so-boring Scrambled Eggs

• 2 eggs
• 50g-80g of Sausage Meat / Chorizo / Chicken (last nights leftovers maybe)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 2 tsps of salsa

1) Heat some butter in a pan and add the meat to heat through. 
2) Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and add to the cooking meat and scramble.
3) Simple as that - be imaginative with the ingredients you add to the egg to create lots of quick recipes!

Breakfast Burger

• 1 Burger 
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 an Avocado

1) Pop the burger in the oven to cook whilst you are getting yourself / kids ready in the morning 

2) Slice the tomato and avocado into circles and use them to place the burger in (like a bun) 

3) Serve with a handful of nuts - the great thing about this recipe is that you can put it all in a box and eat it on the go if you are running late - just cut it all up into chunks, grab a fork and go!

At Your Desk Porridge

If all else fails, grab a pot of yummy porridge and mix with hot water - but not too often! And only post work out... I discovered this one a while back and loved it! 

Again, check out the Fitter Foods book for lots more ideas on breakfast ideas...! I love their Breakfast Calzone....try it!!!

You really can be so much more productive each day having eaten a ''proper'' breakfast in the morning - even if it does mean getting up a little earlier. Just means going to bed a little earlier each night. Win Win right?! Getting more rest and then feeling more prepared for each day?!

Anyway, I am highlighting this as, as said above, this is where I started to neglect my routine - feeling like the world was on top of me led me to have a complete appetite loss - not meaning I wasn't eating (I love food too much, so no worry about that happening!) but I wasn't eating enough - but still training as much as I normally do. This led to me being extremely tired and lacking motivation as the weeks training started to feel like a chore, not my usual favourite pass time.

The worst thing for me, and this might sound selfish, was the effect the added stress was having on my appearance. My skin was noticeably bad, hair was even thinner than usual and I developed a ''nice'' paunch around my tummy - I was not happy at all! My biosig results shot up and it only highlighted how much stress my body was under - I knew I had to do something about it!

It was a wakeup call,  and so I made sure this didn't last too long! I have got back on track, but it really highlighted for me the effect small changes can make to your wellbeing - for better or worse..!!

The point in me telling you this is to highlight that regardless of how strict you are, how many times you train a week, how much of your life revolves around training and nutrition, you still have to (try to) remember to maintain as much control over everything else in your life - a big ask for those who have several plates spinning, I know! But also remember there is nothing wrong with taking some me time to regain perspective and have some much deserved rest!

A few things to bear in mind...

How aware are you about the stress caused to your body? How do you feel when you fall out of routine?

Hopefully the talk of stress and it's effects can resonate with some of you. How do you manage your stress? I found yoga to be a big help, as well as spending more time with those close to me!

So... A Few Updates!

It (was) My Birthday

Yes, my birthday has come and gone! I got a lot of beautiful, thoughtful and useful gifts! Here a just a few....

A cookery Course, Massage Vouchers and Gym gear amongst others!

Lots of yummy food was consumed of course, rounded off nicely with a lovely meal with all my girlfriends! Thank you again to all of those that joined me for food, wine and cake...!!

I am also pleased to say that my dad listened to my plea and I got my homemade Red Velvet Birthday cake! Thanks Dad!

Saturday saw a visit down to Winning Health Solutions gym in Southampton for some competition prep after the details of the events were released!

Really pleased to say that I had a squat session with Gina Collins, the current Britain's Strongest Women U63kg (who I will be competing against!) and managed to match her weight for weight, rep for rep - pretty chuffed with that acheievment I must say!

I also managed a new Log PB and some practice with the kegs and loading platforms. Feeling a lot more confident now....2 weeks until the comp!

England's Strongest Women Southern Qualifier will be held at Winning Health Solutions on April 20th, events starting at 11am - if anyone would like to come along to show some support, it would be very much appreciated!!!! Let me know if you would like to come along.

Speaking of achievements, the week before saw me put a massive 12.5kg on my deadlift - I managed 112.5kg for one rep! I then went on to lift 90kg 14 times in one minute....!! Here is a photo of me, Grace and Zoe from the Events session...

Me With 110kg, Grace with 120kg and Zoe with a huge 140kg!!

Charity Event - Mercy Ships

So a few weeks ago I mentioned that I will be running a charity event for a friend of mine running the London Marathon - this is still going ahead, we may just have to change the date as EBW will actually starting their expansion (already!) that weekend - so the date confirmation is to follow this week! Again if you are interested in helping us complete 26 miles on a range of strongman equipment, in a great atmosphere and all for a good cause, please contact me!!


Again guys, sorry for the delay... I really do promise this time that I will be more frequent!

Have a good week all! Remember, Be Happy. Be Healthy.

Franki x