PT Mollie’s Virtual Training Group

I have a big personal milestone coming up at the end of the month. 21 months after the closure of the company was announced I will finally be made redundant from the Forensic Science Service. This has been a long time coming and I am very much ready for it. I don’t have another job to go to at the moment and intend to reward myself for 14 and a half years of hard work with at least a month off work.

I have lots of things that I want to do in that month and I know that I’ll be busy but I also want to make sure that I keep focussed on my health and fitness goals. The temptation for lie-ins, lunches with friends an glasses of wine in the evening will be high, and while I intend to indulge in some of these things I also want to make sure that I don’t end up slobbing about undoing all the good work that I’ve done over the past year.

So when I saw a tweet from PT Mollie who I follow on Twitter about a Virtual Training Group I thought this would be just the thing to keep me motivated through the next couple of months. The Virtual Training Group or VTG as it’s known, brings together a group of women online over an 8 week period to motivate, encourage and keep each other accountable to our goals. Mollie, who is a London based health and wellness coach, leads the group.

At the start of the 8 weeks we were all asked to set up to 5 SMART goals that we wanted to achieve over the next 8 weeks. Mine are:

• To run for at least 30 mins 3 times a week
• To do a strength or core work out 3 times a week
• To eat 5 portions of fruit or vegetables 5 times a week
• To use my foam roller for 10 mins twice a week
• To run the Great South Run on 28th October in under 1hr and 55 mins

This week I got to ‘meet’ the other ladies who are part of the group and we all get to start tracking our progress against our goals, via a shared spreadsheet which Mollie has set up for us. It was great to receive e-mails from the others in the group – there are 15 of us in the group all together from the UK and USA and it’s great to find out that a lot of people have similar goals to me.

Each Monday we have to report back on how our week was. Mollie is really keen that we keep this upbeat and positive and focus on what we have achieved rather than making excuses for what we haven’t. I’m looking forward to hearing how everyone else is getting on.

I have to say that even in the first few days I have found the group very motivating. I have been making an effort to make sure that I have something positive to fill in on the spreadsheet each day. Aiming to eat more fruit and veg in particular has influenced my food choices for the better.  

And of course all the time I’m doing this I’ll still be listening to my Thinking Slimmer Slimpod. These goals are in effect short term Thinking Slimmer goals too. I’m excited to see what the next 8 weeks will bring and look forward to being part of a motivating and successful group.