Bikini Body Ready || The Results

Hi lovely ladies, I hope your all having a fantastic weekend and have been enjoying the lovely sunny weather. A little while ago around the end of April I put up a post all about how I was aiming to get fit for summer and ultimately get myself bikini body ready. I had such a great response from that post, with loads of you telling me that you were on the same little exercise journey as I. It's been great being able to motivate one another over Twitter and moan about our achy bums and tums. In-case you missed that post you can have a quick look all about the challenges that I took up here - I dare you to give them ago!

So seeing as I'm flying out to Turkey tomorrow I thought I would get a post up for you today with 'The Results' and to show you all how with a little bit of hard work and motivation you can see good results. I can honestly say I feel confident and ready to strut my stuff, wearing my bikini throughout the whole of my holiday. 

Just to re-cap you all I have been taking part in Carly Rowena's 30 day squat challenge and 30 day abs challenge. These challenges are really hard work, but amazing and I can't recommend them enough, especially if you are wanting to see good changes in your body. The challenges have a range of exercises for you to do that really target your bums and tums, so there really is no need to be shying away from that bikini. 

Below are the pictures of my process over the last 30 days during the abs challenge. I was going to do before and after pictures, to show you all the amazing difference in my butt after doing the squat challenge, but you have no idea how hard it is taking a picture of your behind, without it looking like your posing for a lads mag - Totally not appropriate for Miss Sunshine & Sparkle. But you will have to take my word for it that there has been a huge change in the way my booty looks and feels. To give you an idea, my bum cheeks feel a lot higher, more perkier and they feel a lot more toned to the touch. One thing that I always a hated about my bum was the little dimples on it and I'm super pleased to say that all dimples have now gone - Result. 

So as you probably can see from the pictures that there's been quite the change in the way that my stomach looks (I hope you all don't mind the bikini picture, but I really wanted to show you the change and inspire those who are wishing to get bikini body confident - You can do it!). By no means do I have six pack abs, but that was not what I was aiming for. My tummy is much more toned and I can really see and feel the difference around my waist area. Other than seeing a noticeable change in my body, the real difference that I notice is the way that my body feels. My stomach feels a lot more toned to the touch and when I move by body in certain directions I see the start of some muscles that I never knew where there before. Even my cheer coach made a comment at my last practice saying 'Danni wow what a difference in your stomach'. The fact that someone else had noticed a difference and change in my body really made me think that all the hard work does pay off. 

Overall I'm pleased as punch with the results and throughout my journey I've learnt that I actually really enjoy working out. Before doing these challenges I never really saw the hype that is surrounded by fitness these days. I always thought the point of working out was to loose weight and as I'm always trying to gain a bit of weight, I thought exercise was a no go. However after making sure I do these challenges everyday for the last month and a bit, I've totally seen the 'fun' side of exercising. Of course with exercising the most rewarding thing about all the hard work has been seeing those results - However since exercising regularly, I've seen a whole lot of other benefits that have generally improved my overall lifestyle and it's some of these points which have made it all worth while and why I've decided that I will continue to work out, even tough the challenges have been completed. One of the huge benefits is that I've had some of the best nights sleep ever. I've always been a light sleeper and a bit of a sufferer from insomnia, keeping wide awake till early hours of the morning. Since getting into a routine with exercise, I've found that I'm now sleeping like a baby! As soon as I'm in bed it only takes me around 20-30 minutes to fall asleep, where as before it would take a good few hours. I've also found that I have a lot more energy throughout the day. I don't really understand how that works, as I always thought that it would be the opposite - But either way it's a huge plus.

For those of you who are thinking about getting involved with these challenges (you can find all of them on Carly's YouTube channel here) I would like to share with you a few little tips and tricks which have helped me along the way.

1. I've found that getting up that extra hour in the morning to do the challenges is the best time of day to do them. At the beginning I decided to stay in bed a lot and would have the thought 'I'll do them when I get home from work'. But I found that as soon as I came home from work the last thing that I wanted to do was exercise. It can be hard to motivate yourself so early on, but once I completed each challenge in the morning, I felt so much more awake and felt a little sense of achievement for kick-starting my day that way.

2. Take your time - Sometimes I found that there were days where my body just didn't want to work, my butt would be aching mad from the previous day and there were countless amount of times I thought my arms were going to give way when doing the abs challenge.  I think it's really important to choose a pace that suits you. I had to give myself a few breaks inbetween exercises each day before continuing.  Although the abs challenge is only 5 minutes (sounds easy right?) It really is hard work and on someday's it would take me 10 minutes to complete - This is okay.

3. Listen to your body - There were someday's that I had to miss on the squat challenge just because I have a knee injury from cheerleading a few years ago and as a result my knee can play up from time to time. As I was coming towards the end of the squat challenge and the amount of squats to do was increasing, I found that it wasn't doing my knee any favours and I was in a lot of pain. I decided to stop the challenge and found an alternative exercise to do. 

4. Drink plenty of water and eat the right foods. I am no expert when it comes to eating healthily (although I am learning) but I found that the more I was exercising the more I wanted to change my diet too. And healthy eating and exercise really do go hand in hand.

5. Get motivated - Although I'm really sleepy in the morning. I found working out to good music really helped get me into the swing of things and made things a little more fun.

6. Have fun. It really makes a difference when you enjoy what your doing. Through comments from my last post and talking too people I managed to get quite a few people involved and it was great having others around me who were doing the same thing every morning. It was always a lot of laughs moaning at work with my friend - struggling to do the simplest of tasks like walking up the stairs! 

Now that I feel bikini body ready and confident enough to 'work it' whilst away, I really would like to take the time to say a huge thank you to Carly, she has been amazing and is such an inspiration. Carly's challenges really have changed the way my body looks and feels and she is such a sweetie. Carly has always responded to my tweets and Instagram pictures and has helped motivate me along the way. Her YouTube channel is full of tips and tricks and I promise you that if your wanting some motivation then you'll end up watching all of her videos!

You can find Carly's YouTube channel here

or follow her on Twitter @CarlyRowena

That's everything beauties, I hope you enjoyed more of this lifestyle type of post. If any of you are taking part in the challenges or have any other exercises that you're loving right now, be sure to let me know. 

Lot's of Love

P.S A lot of you have requested a flexibility post and I plan on getting one up for you all as soon as I get back of my holiday :)