Skiing Holiday!

Hi, today's post is about my skiing holiday in France that I went on a few weeks ago.

 

If you're considering booking next year's skiing holiday, this might help you decide whether it's worth the money and effort (SPOILER ALERT: it is).

 

My family and my friend Emily's family went together in one very cramped (but I see it as cosy) seven seater car which took us all the way to the French Alps to a lovely resort called Sainte Foy Tarentaise. It's 17km from Val d'Isere.

 

Just being in the mountains was pretty exciting- the views were incredible and all around us were people skiing and it made us so jealous. Without wasting any more time, we went to get our skis, ski boots, poles and helmets from the ski hire place.

 

In my opinion, the boots are the worst part about the whole skiing holiday. First, you have to get them fitted which feels like such a chore when you just want to get outside skiing. Next, they're uncomfortable as hell. Luckily for me, my ski boots fitted me perfectly and were good for the whole week of skiing, however they were still ski boots and there is a limit to how comfortable they can be.

 

They have to be tight so that you can ski without your feet slipping around inside them but, especially if you feet are a funny shape, this can make the boot be really tight around certain pars of your foot and cause bruising. Basically, it's difficult to find some ski boots that fit your feet, and even when you do, they have far from the comfort of your soft snow boots.

 

Anyway, once the ski stuff was all hired and sorted out, we went straight to the chair lift which headed right up the mountain. It took a few runs to get used to skiing again (it had been a year since we'd been last time) but before long, we got super ambitious and whenever there weren't too many people, we'd go as fast as we dared.

 

One of my favourite parts of the whole mountain was the viewpoint. This was at the very top of the mountain and the chairlift to get to it took ages, but it was so worth it. As you can probably guess by the fact that it's a viewpoint, he views were stunning. I just didn't get bored of standing there taking it all in, feeling on top of the world. I'd check the time and realise that on a normal school day I'd be sat in double geography, and that made me feel even better.

 

I have taken many photos from the viewpoint, but none of them reflect the real beauty of it.

As you can see in the photo, the ski was perfectly blue and everything looks so calm and peaceful- worlds away from work, school and the stress of normal life. You can't see it in the photo, but slightly to the right is Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe! (I think- don't quote me on that)

 

With all of the breath taking scenery, I couldn't resist using my ipod to take hundreds of photos and videos. I have a habit of making movies for all of the holidays we go on, so I was getting plenty of footage for that (I won't show you the movie because it contains members of my family who came with us and they might not want it to be on the internet, sorry).

 

An event that I found particularly exciting (in a bad way) was when I was about to take a video of my Mum, Dad and brother skiing down the mountain after me but I dropped my ipod! It started sliding down the slope and my instinctive reaction was to chase it. I had a rush of adrenalin and hormones so after skiing dangerously fast and skidding round to catch the ipod, I felt all wobbly and my heart was still beating really fast afterwards.

 

I don't know if you find that exciting, but for me I had a rush of emotions: shock, panic, fear, concentration (if that's even an emotion) and relief, so I found it pretty thrilling.

 

Despite it being a skiing holiday, we did do other things apart from skiing. One of them being snow shoeing! I'd never done this before but was very happy to because, though skiing is one of the most fun and addictive sports I've ever done, after 6 days of doing it for 6 hours each day, we just wanted to vary it a little (and I'm so glad we did).

Emily doing something (I don't know what) when we were snow shoeing

I found I could appreciate the views a lot more because I didn't have to focus so much on not falling over. We could all chat and get some exercise at the same time. The snow shoes made walking in the snow a lot easier but some of us just wore snow boots because we were walking on a path which was already quite patted down.

Every evening, we'd retreat to our little French hotel 10 minutes drive away from where we skied. It was lovely and rustic with unique paintings for sale all over the walls.

We ate in the hotel's restaurant and I had the opportunity to try lots of local dishes which were (mostly) delicious! Most nights the light was off by 10 because, trust me, skiing is EXHAUSTING, but it was still very easy to get up and go the next morning (partly because of the buffet breakfast!).

Basically, I had a great trip and I recommend skiing in France (or anywhere) to anyone considering it (:

 



Healthy Habits Challenge: Day 15

Today I want you to:

 

Relax!

 

To be honest, being healthy is exhausting. The easiest thing to do is always to just not do the workout, eat the extra chocolate bar, drive instead of walk, but every time, we made the choice to do the difficult (but best) option. All of those times we had water instead of coke and went for a run when it was raining, we resisted temptation and used our will power to reach our potential, but it was damn tiring.

 

After all of the hard work, have a break. Make yourself a hot chocolate with marshmallows, have a hot bath, use a face mask, do something nice that will just give you a bit of rest.

 

Never forget that you're trying to be healthier because you think it will make you happier, so every now and then, don't forget to do something that makes you happy, even if it won't make you any healthier (although it will make you mentally healthier because it will reduce your stress).

 

Just chill. Stop worrying. Take a break. Come back better than ever feeling motivated and ready to be a better person who is more physically and mentally healthy than they've ever been.

 

This photo is from when I went to Portugal and after dinner we went to sit on a cliff and watch the sunset. I felt so relaxed with zero stress at that moment, and I still remember it as being really special. You might not have a sunset over the sea in Portugal, but I bet you can make a damn good hot chocolate!

Healthy Habits Challenge: Day 14

Today I want you to:

 

Go for a walk!

 

You'd be surprised how good this will make you feel. Having a dog, I have motivation everyday to go for a walk because if I don't Poppy (my dog) will go crazy.

 

I get into a routine where I get home from school, have my lunch and quickly get some homework done. After that, I take Poppy out for a 20 minute walk across the fields, and by the end of it, school and homework feel like days ago. It makes me feel really relaxed and all of the stresses from the day are miles away.

 

Not only is it relaxing, it's physically good because it is exercise and gives you some fresh air. I find that when I get back I feel refreshed and not stressed at all so I can just relax for the evening. It's lovely.

 

Your walk could be 5 minutes to the coffee shop or an all day hike up a mountain. I live in the middle of nowhere in the countryside so my options for walking are always wet and muddy, but quiet and peaceful too. When I go a walk, it's just me and my dog and I have 20 minutes to just clear my mind and think for a bit.

 

I'm assuming you've gone for a walk before, but just for fun, go for another one today, you might enjoy it as much as I like walking.

Does anyone else find it really cute when dogs try and carry a stick that's bigger than them?

 

 

Healthy Habits Challenge: Day 13

Today I want you to:

 

Make a new meal you've never made before!

 

There have been a few food related habits to try so far, so I don't know if there's much for me to explain that I haven't mentioned before.

 

This new meal could be a new pancake recipe to a ratatouille good enough for the Queen, I don't mind, as long as you've never made it before.

 

Hopefully you'll be a bit of a better cook after doing this challenge, and hopefully you'll have discovered some new ingredients/foods that you like.

 

Remember that it's meant to be fun, so go ahead and get someone to cook the meal with you. Whether it's a disaster or your new favourite recipe, it should be fun to try!

 

If you can't think of anything to make, there are hundreds of blogs on the internet that just make recipes and meal ideas for you to try so have a look.

 

Personally, I love the look of this soup so that's what I'll be making!

 

 

Healthy Habits Challenge: Day 12

Today I want you to:

 

Try intense cardio!

 

This means you need to get a sweat on...

 

Intense cardio is things like:

 

Running

HIIT (high intensity interval training)

Swimming

Anything that makes your heart beat fast and a drip come down your forehead

 

Cardio will help you lose weight (because it burns a hell of a lot of calories) but also if you do endurance training like long distance running, it will make your heart stronger.

 

This means that your resting heart rate will become lower because your heart can pump more blood with less beats because it's so strong. I used to do a lot of cross country and my resting heart rate was 43 beats per minute, but I stopped cross country races a while ago so it's probably risen quite a lot.

 

Not only is cardio is good for your health, I find it fun! You work really hard but the endorphins afterwards are great. When you have your second portion of pudding, you feel like you've earned it.

 

You could make your own cardio workout by doing some of these exercises (or others):

 

Burpees

Jump Lunges

Skipping  Rope

Jumping Jacks

Skater Hops

Mountain Climbers (fast)

High knees

 

If you don't want to do that, there are plenty of workouts on youtube, pinterest or anywhere on the internet if you search "cardio workout"

 

Good luck! If you are in the middle of the workout and you're finding it hard, remember that the harder you work, the better it will feel afterwards (:

Sorry, this is the least blurry photo we had. Thanks Juliette for skipping rope so photogenically!

 

Healthy Habits Challenge: Day 11

Today I want you to:

 

Be a vegetarian for the day!

 

If you're already a vegetarian or vegan, lucky you! This one should be easy.

 

Otherwise, this is something that won't necessarily make you healthier, but it will just give you a chance to cook without meat and use other substitutes instead.

 

Everyone is different- some people might really benefit from being a vegetarian, other people might not, but it's worth a try.

 

Some studies show that vegetarianism can reduce risk of cancer and other diseases, but on the other hand, there are millions of people who are perfectly healthy who eat meat.

 

Being a vegetarian for the day will encourage you to use some different recipes and ingredients.

 

I mentioned them before, but Food 52 have loads of delicious looking recipes including plenty for vegetarians.

 

You might find it fun to be a vegetarian, and who knows, you might convert to be one!

 

Good luck!

 

A picture of a vegetarian quinoa salad from the Food 52 blog



Healthy Habits Challenge: Day 10

Today I want you to:

 

Keep off your phone 30 minutes before going to bed!

 

You might know this already, but the blue light from phone/laptop/TV/any screen is like sunlight which releases a chemical in your brain to tell your body to wake up, or something like that.

 

Basically, light from screens will give you worse quality sleep if you use them late at night just before you go to bed.

 

In a previous post I explained how sleep is important and how getting enough sleep is really good for you, but it's about quantity AND quality, so it's a good idea to try and stay off screens for a while before you go to sleep.

 

Instead of scrolling through Instagram and texting your friends or whatever you normally do, you could try reading, writing or just relaxing in the bath.

 

You might notice you feel more well rested in the morning because you got a better nights sleep or you might not notice a difference because you do this anyway, just try it and see what happens.