Janay Brazier

I have completed the first 7 days of this 28 day challenge and I am already feeling the benefits of it. Making sure I work out for two particular times each day and thinking more carefully about the food that I'm putting into my body has definitely made a difference. I followed the 'When, What, and How's of the Program' section and made myself aware of my start date (Monday), What I needed to do each day in terms of the challenges, and how to be successful - resulting in my rather lovely little Tone It Up journal above.

I got myself completely organised last Sunday, spending the day putting together my journal and filling in the first few pages with the Day, the word of the day, my daily 'mantra', my booty call (the short workout for the morning when I first get up), my fitness challenge for the day, my meals - including TIU's recipe of the day - and my other fierce and fabulous challenges. Below is my layout in the notebook, showing Day 1 of this week.

So, let me get to it and explain each day...


Day 1: I woke up ready to go on Monday morning (22 June) and completed my 'Booty Shorts' workout, which took me about 25 minutes.

I then went about my day, having wheat flakes for breakfast before going to work. For lunch I had an omelette and an apple. I also made sure I had enough water to drink as the weather is - surprisingly - starting to hot up here in the UK!

When I returned home later that day I completed my 'fit' challenge called 'Sweet and Spicy Strength Training'. This was a great workout that I could actually feel working as I did it. I added in the 'Bombshell Bonus' of 'Stretch It Out' here as my legs and arms really needed it.

For my 'fierce' challenge I set myself three things to complete by the end of the day. I am proud to say I completed them: Write an introduction blog post to this challenge (tick), arrange a haircut (tick), and tidy my shoe cupboard (tick).

For my 'fabulous' challenge I had to write an "I'm Amazing" list and write down all the things I love about myself. While it felt a little silly at first I really got into it and managed a good length list. It really does make you feel better about yourself.

For dinner I had a homemade wholemeal pizza, which was healthy and delicious. Yum!


Day 2: Tuesday (23 June) got swapped with Wednesday at the last minute as I discovered it was International Yoga Day and I had scheduled my Yin Yoga workout for the next day. Rather than just swapping my two booty calls I decided just to swap the whole day over. So my morning workout was my yoga, followed by the Burn, Baby, Burn HIIT workout later in the day.

For breakfast I had an oat power bar, followed by a lunch of a baked potato and a satsuma. Dinner was a tomato pasta salad, followed by an apricot yoghurt.

Swapping meant doing Wednesday's 'fierce' challenge of setting myself a morning ritual to start the next day (which I did, and it was lovely!), and my 'fabulous' challenge of soaking in some sunshine, so I headed out for a walk in the late afternoon.

My bombshell bonuses were to sit with poise (which I tried to do, but working in a Primary School doesn't really leave much time for sitting down!), trying meditation (which I did after my yoga), and reminding myself to wear SPF outside (which I slapped on generously before my walk and the sun was out!)


Day 3: Wednesday (24 June) was, as I said, swapped so I completed Tuesday's challenges. I had a lovely booty call this morning of 'Walk Your Way to Wow' before having a bowl of porridge. Lunch today was bran cereal as I ran out of time to make any to take to work (oops!), and dinner was chicken and salad.

My afternoon workout was 'Go, Go, Goddess' cardio so I set myself a real challenge of going for an interval run/walk with 60 seconds running/30 seconds power walking which I managed to do for half an hour. This was a big achievement for me.

My 'fierce' challenge of creating a vision board was pretty easy as I have two boards on my Pinterest page called 'Fitness' and 'Quotes' which I look at everyday to motivate myself.

For the 'fabulous' challenge I had to find myself a 'bombshell buddy', so I have recruited my Mum to take part in some workouts with me and keep me on track. I also regularly speak to people on Instagram.

My 'Bombshell Bonuses' today were to make a power playlist (which I will feature in another post this week as I am in LOVE with my new workout music!) and to visualise my goals, which I tried and have decided to keep thinking about each night before I go to bed.


Day 4: Thursday (25 June) started with a booty call of 'Amazing Abs and Arms' followed by a breakfast of porridge. My lunch today was a salad (I learned today that as lovely as red onion is there is such a thing as too much!)

My afternoon workout was the 'Sweet and Spicy Strength Training' again, and my dinner was fish cakes and sweet potato mash.

Today's 'fierce' challenge involved me trying to stop negative thoughts, which I find very difficult because the smallest, negative thing can really stress me out, and quickly too. So I really focused on this today and used the word of the day (positive) out loud many times!

For the 'fabulous' challenge I had to pass along the positive, which I think I did just through the amount of times I said the word! I paid people compliments and commented on people's photos on Instagram as they charted their progress with this program. It really made me feel great, especially the ones I told to their faces as I got to see them smile.

I couldn't complete the bonus of rolling away soreness as I don't own a foam roller, so I stretched instead. I also couldn't enlist my 'bombshell buddy' today as my Mum works on a Thursday.


Day 5: Friday is finally here (26 June) and it was an active rest day, so no 'fit' challenge today. It told me in the book to keep the morning workout loose and easy because it was a rest day so I stuck to the Yin Yoga routine.

Breakfast today was fruit and a coffee on the go as I have to be at work earlier on a Friday to discuss planning and the children's work and lessons for the week ahead. This planning session on a Friday with my colleagues gave me the idea of using a Sunday evening to get everything written in my journal for the week ahead.

Lunch was a chicken and salad wrap and an apple, and dinner was scrambled eggs on wholemeal toast.

My 'fierce' challenge meant setting myself reminders on my phone to make myself feel good, such as 'You can do this, beautiful!' and 'Don't forget to show your gorgeous smile!' which felt really odd but they did make me smile when they popped up on my phone when I had forgotten I had set them.

I didn't complete the 'amazing avocado glow' part of the 'fabulous' challenge either as I didn't have an avocado spare, so I used coconut oil on my hair and scalp instead, which I use sometimes to help with my psoriasis so it felt lovely today.

My bonus challenge today involved naming three things I love about my appearance, to which I listed my blue eyes, my lips, and my naturally blonde hair. Strangely all at the top of my body, but never mind!


Day 6: I woke up on Saturday (27 June) with a horrible headache so I skipped the booty call first thing but added it back in once the tablets had kicked in. I did 'Walk Your Way to Wow' so I could get outside and get some fresh air.

I only had a cup of tea for breakfast this morning too as I wasn't feeling up to eating much, but a couple of hours later I had an apple.

In the afternoon I completed 45 minutes of Zumba on the Wii and then had a lemon chicken salad for lunch.

For my 'fierce' challenge I wrote down three things I was grateful for that day, which were my lovely Mum's cooking (we had a lovely homemade curry), for my fiancé Clay letting me watch the film 'Pompeii' in bed again even though we already watched it this week (I really love this movie), and for other TIU member's photos on Instagram making me smile at how well we all get out and have created such a lovely community.

My 'fabulous' challenge involved celebrating a friendship. I don't know how but I completely forgot about this challenge so I am going to make sure I reschedule it in down the line during the next 21 days.


Day 7: And today is Sunday (28 June), which involved a booty call of Yin Yoga (I love this routine so much) and breakfast was wheat cereal.

I had some popcorn as a midday snack, followed by a late lunch-early dinner of salmon, broccoli and carrots. Salmon is one of my favourites.

This afternoon was meant to be a HIIT workout but I never managed to fit it in! I felt awful as it's the first workout I have missed, so I am going to throw it into the mix one day next week.

I reread my "I'm Amazing" list for my bonus challenge today, along with my 'fierce' job of doing something by myself, followed by my 'fabulous' task of having a 'me' night, which I am doing right now. I am blogging from my bed, listening to some of my favourite tracks and once this is done I'm going to read some of my new book and just relax.


I have really enjoyed this week and look forward to completing the next three!



Do you follow the TIU girls? Are you part of the Fit, Fierce, and Fabulous challenge? How have you been finding it, or are you interested in taking part?