I spent last weekend in the company of one of the greatest Swedish icons; no, not Björn Borg, ABBA, or the Chef from The Muppets – but Volvo! Throughout my childhood in Karlskrona (southern Sweden) literally everybody’s parents drove this marque, including mine. Our country has a reserved, understated national culture, and it’s a point of humor that the populace differentiates its individuality by buying the *newest* Volvo. Now though, the exquisite, silky and muscular aesthetics of this freshly-launched beauty, the XC40, make our old 1990s Swedish 240 estate look about as aerodynamic as a cube! Our weekend at The Grove was themed around the classically Swedish concept of Lagom (there’s no direct translation but perhaps conjure Goldilocks and her ‘just right’ porridge), and part of my role was to lead a group of fabulous lifestyle press around a 30-minute HIIT workout on the ‘wellbeing’ part of their experience. Click MORE to read my thoughts on this car, to see how we got on with lagom, and to get a little BTS from the event!
Posts tagged 'lifestyle'
WIN YOUR OWN WESTIN WELLNESS WEEKEND !!!
As part of my Wellbeing Ambassadorial duties for Westin Hotels & Resorts, I recently had the awesome opportunity to attend the opening of The Westin Hotel Hamburg, Germany. It’s a brand-new, architectural art-piece at the heart of the city’s cultural center, built literally on top of the Elbphilharmonie (the city’s world-class Concert Halls, opening Jan 11th 2017), it offers epic views over the city and has a 1.3 square kilometer wellness spa! The best news of all? COMPETITION TIME! Westin has teamed up with me to offer 1 lucky reader (+ partner) their very own Wellness Weekend Escape here! Click MORE to see how to enter…
SHOE-IN WITH ADIDAS AT THE UN !
Recently, I joined my friends at Adidas to witness a unique partnering at the United Nations HQ in New York. Parley For The Oceans, an organisation dedicated to the preservation of our beautiful oceans, hosted a moving and informative session in the UN’s main chamber, at which Adidas board-member Eric Liedtke revealed a beautiful and groundbreaking running shoe created from discarded ocean plastic (of which there’s 40m lbs in the North Pacific alone!). It’s a totally unique production concept, and much of the profit will go towards funding the ocean cleanup yet further. I caught up with Eric afterwards to dig a little deeper into the shoe, along with finding out how one of my favourite sporting companies is evolving into an exciting future! Click MORE to read my update interview… (more…)
HEALTHY XMAS GIFT LIST ???
I’ve left this ‘Christmas gift list’ post very late in the day, but not by accident; December will have been a seasonally indulgent month for many of us, and the last thing you want think about whilst you’re toasting with a flute of delicious bubbly is a ‘healthy reboot’. However, now is the time to snap up those last-minute healthy gifts, ready to help loved ones re-focus on the New Year reforms – and there are still 3 very productive shopping days left to do it! Click MORE to check out the 14 essential goodies on my FitnessOnToast wish list from my wander around London’s iconic Harrods 🙂
MORE FLAVOUR, FEWER CALORIES ?!?
Myth-buster: ‘Healthy’ doesn’t need to mean bland or boring. I’ve long since learned to cook smarter, and have found that fresh herbs and spices are bursting with flavour and can utterly transform a dish on a super lean calorie budget, whilst possessing a wealth of health benefits such as disease-fighting antioxidants, and protection against chronic conditions (e.g. cancers, diabetes, and heart disease). They’re packed with vitamins and minerals and in the quantities you’ll use for a dish, are super low in calories. So rather than reaching for a creamy sauce to add easy taste (often laden with a lot of the wrong fats and way too much simple sugar) here’s my list of some of the surprising superpowers found within spices and herbs alone! (more…)
COSMOPOLITAN ‘BEST LIFESTYLE BLOGGER’ AWARD !!!
Last week, an incredible, exciting thing happened. You may remember that Fitness On Toast had been nominated for ‘Best Lifestyle Blog’ in the 2014 Cosmopolitan Blog Awards, and for the past few months, I’ve eagerly awaited the verdict. The venue for the sophisticated blogging soiree was at London’s iconic OXO tower; an awards ceremony with the chance to chat to hundreds of like-minded bloggers over a Cosmopolitan or two! This year there were over 46,000 entries, 37,000 votes, and the standard of competition was hyper-rarefied! Just having been short-listed amidst an exceptional group of Lifestyle bloggers was immeasurably flattering…
…but I’m utterly ecstatic to report that Cosmopolitan’s Editor-in- Chief, Louise Court and Digital Editor Kate Lucy called out Fitness On Toast as the ‘Best Lifestyle Blog’ at the awards. Mild shock followed light disbelief, but was immediately overcome by a tidal wave of sheer joy! Having won has this award completely exceeded my wildest hopes for the blog, and I feel very grateful to every single one of my readers who took the time to cast a vote; even to those who didn’t vote, but continue to read my musings! Huge thanks to the Cosmo team for this recognition and for staging this wonderful event! In 18 months, Fitness On Toast has become more than just a platform to share fitness thoughts with clients; It’s a genuine reflection of me, and sharing it with you all makes me happier than you can imagine.
Thank you with all my heart 🙂
Faya x
BJORN TO BE WILD !!!
Being a [patriotic] half-Swede, I’m a bit of a ‘home-crowd’ for the fitness fashion brand Björn Borg, which I featured on my blog trip to Morroco earlier this year. With that in mind, I was elated to receive an invite to the label’s SS15 fashion show in collaboration with the eponymous ‘Creative Show Director’ Bea Åkerlund (stylist to the likes of Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Madonna and Fergie) and their own head designer James Lee. I hopped on a plane with a smattering of journalists and a couple of hours later we were checking in to Stockholm’s Berns – the city’s core hotel/club/hub for fashionistas, models, bloggers and designers for the week, it would seem. This post is a little round-up of what I found behind the scenes, my thoughts about their collection, and my interview with their designer James Lee!
JUST 3 DAYS LEFT TO VOTE !!!
Just a quick post today: I was recently nominated for the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards and voting closes on 29th August – in just 3 days time! I’m up against some excellent and quite inspiring bloggers which means it’ll be a super close race! Every single vote counts at this stage: I’d really appreciate it if you could spare 2 minutes to vote for FitnessOnToast HERE:
http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/entertainment/news/a27807/cosmo-blog-awards-2014-shortlist/
The ‘Lifestyle Blog’ category in which I’m nominated is step 6 of 15, and you do have to vote all the way through to the 15th step to click the required ‘SUBMIT’ button – but don’t worry, it’s quick and you get to browse a treasure chest of fabulous blogs for your ‘favourites’ folder 😀
As ever, I really do appreciate your support, as well as every like and every comment. Thank you 🙂 Faya x
ACTIVE ESCAPE – CAESAR AUGUSTUS !!!
You might have spied that my two previous posts were photographed at the jewel in Capri’s majestic crown, the Hotel Caesar Augustus. Following on from the Active Escape piece I wrote about Positano, I felt that this dream-of-a-destination deserved its own round-up, since it represents the perfect embodiment of a ‘healthy getaway’, and has a very distinct feel from the fantastic Il San Pietro; this is an island hotel, a tranquil haven of an escape, a retreat, a sanctuary, and altogether exceptional. Read MORE for my thoughts on how you can stay active and explore this magical place at the same time, along with a collection of lovely photos 😀
MEET YOUR MATCHA (GREEN TEA) !!!
As regular readers of FitnessOnToast will know, I love my green tea for so many reasons (metabolism-speeding, anti-carcinogenic, antioxidant-loaded, packed with vitamins & minerals etc), but above all else, for being a wonderfully warming, calming, natural ‘pick me up’. It contains materially less caffeine than its big brother (coffee), and it’s actively hydrating whilst coffee delivers the opposite result. This post focuses on the ‘superfood’ variety of green tea, called matcha, which is part of a 900-year old Japanese tea ceremony, and is an even older Buddhist monk ‘pro plus’-equivalent! It’s far stronger than normal green tea because you end up drinking the entire leaf rather than just a cup of pigment-coloured teabag water…