trying something new

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[xxlaurenwright-blog]

Gym Training

So since Christmas, with the exception of my birthday weekend I have been training in the gym on average about 4 times a week. With a few cardio sessions and increased my daily activity.

The weight that I started at was the highest I have EVER been, as you can imagine this was hard to take in. & its been almost 7 weeks, and I havn't lost any weight at all. So my new plan is to do HIIT cardio at least 5 times a week. I have started taking Green Tea Extract tablets, along with all the other supplements that I already take. I am hoping that this will help.

So today is the 6 week until Malta marker, and from here is where I start taking it serious!

My macros are currently sitting at 150C|40F|130P.

Wish me luck!

[xxlaurenwright-blog]

My Friends

Okay, so I thought if I dedicated a blog to my boyfriend, I should probably dedicate one to my friends! 

Here are all the beauties except for Becky!

We'll start from the left. 

Bottom Left- Maisie, absolute babe, literally I know if I ever need to talk to someone she will be there! Even came out to Italy for my 21st Birthday! Top Girl

Top Left-Paige, not known paige for that long, especially with me being away and everything, but the best memory I have is us skipping a good 45 minutes of prime drinking time on Christmas Eve because we were in the chippy! 

Alyssia- The craziest person I know, she will always have a story to tell about something psycho that she is done! Which is why I love her! 

Top Right is Me!

Bottom Right-Jess,what a jem! She came out for my 21st with Maisie and Beck, after the first time we met in a nightclub we have been such good friends since then! Me and her are taking a journey into the unknown to Malta in April! Her and Dom(top left next to me) came to pick me up all the way from London Stansted Airport when I fancied coming home in November! Such an eventful trip including a 22 pound for 10 minute car park!

Dom, Sketchiest Annie Mac lookalike I know! Such a lush girl! Gutted she's dropped out of Malta but she's moving on to bigger things!

Under Dom; NIP! this is my baby sister Bethan (not such a baby I know) like I've previously mentioned she is more of a friend to me than a sister! We facetime often and she is actually coming to visit me this weekend! 

Don't know where i'd be without these :)

[xxlaurenwright-blog]

Whats going on now

So now you're sort of up to date with everything, I'm going to talk a little about what is going on recently.

I took two weeks at home over Christmas to see my friends, family and of course Jake <3

It was perfect, me and the girls had our annual night out Christmas Eve! I got to take a trip to London with Jake, and see all my family!

Since coming back I have decided to get really motivated for the gym and to get back in shape, part of this was because of how amazing Jake looked, in perfect shape, and then me. HA! 

I have a new coach, even though she is from America, she is quite reliable and is really good. Her name is Nikki Blacketter, google her, she is perfect! As is her boyfriend! Definitely going to be me and Jake one day! 

I have started eating really healthy aswell my Macros are quite low, and are getting lower as time goes on! I have a trip planned to Malta to see Annie Mac in April, so my goal is to look good for then!

Due to expected family situations at home Duarte has had to leave both work and Italy. We send him all of our love and are thinking of him and his family.

However this does leave me and Rhys in an awkward position, if we don't find someone to move in with us, our land lady said we have to pay his rent between us. Not only can we hardly afford that but surely thats not fair?

But anyway we're trying to find someone to live with us now!

As Duarte was my main gym partner, I am now going to the gym on my own and lifting lighter weights as I don't have a spotter(don't ask anyone because most people in my gym speak no English and are all male.)

My split means that I train either 4 or 5 times a week, which is nice as it means I can finish each workout with a HIIT session and I get 2/3 days off.

[xxlaurenwright-blog]

Taking the move

So starting from July 2014, I was so excited, thinking to get away from everything and everyone, time to myself, everyone always goes on about ''finding themselves'' when travelling, so surely thats going to happen to me, right?

Anyway, my start date for work was the 17th July, me and Jake flew to Pisa on the 13th so I had time to get all of my stuff sorted.

We stayed in a few nice chic hotels for the first few nights, which made it feel like a holiday! Florence is such a beautiful city, so much to see, but we knew that we didn't have much time together so that put a downer on things. When moving into the apartment, I got first dibs on the room choice, because I'm the only girl living there! I chose the best furnished room and the one with the best bed ha! Jake stayed with me to help me settle in until the 23rd July, which was the most heartbreaking day, I cried when he left, I cried at my desk in work, I cried at lunch, I cried when I got home from work, in the shower, eating dinner, literally all the time! But as they say time heels right?

So my first few weeks at work were the most boring weeks of my life, I mean I work 9am-6pm, and through July and August there are ZERO students at the University, which means noone needs computer help, and no work for me, so I decided to start teaching myself italian, and I would study the views(absolutely breathtaking)

Towards the end of August my family came over to visit, we climbed the Duomo in Florence, we visited the leaning tower of Pisa, we visited all the Roman Remains in Rome and seen the Coliseum etc. Crazy few days! 

When they left it was back to living with two boys who play games all day. Also gyms in Italy shut for the WHOLE of August, how annoying? I tried to run, but I'm not too good at that! I'm not a very athletic person!

[xxlaurenwright-blog]

Boyf

OK, so I've sort of just realised I have missed out one of the biggest parts of my whole life.

Anyone who goes to a busy gym will understand, that there is the one boy who you are in love with, and he probably doesn't even know you exist, but you and your friends know every single thing about him right?

Well me and my friends all have one of these, some of them have more than one, OK OK most of them have multiple ha!

But mine was always this one boy, I had seen him in the gym for a long time, and I am just WAY too shy to go talk to him, so like a stupid little girl I would giggle as he walked past and just act sooo stupid I guess. 

Anyway, one day when stalking, I realised that we actually already follow each other on all social media, and he had actually liked most of my recent posts on Instagram.. yeah I don't check notifications that often ha!

So like a 12 year old I started to like his back, anyway this must have worked as the 27th January 2014, Jacob Farthing direct messaged me on twitter these exact words "Come train legs with us tomorrow?"

That was it, I had butterflies the lot! 

Anyway after agreeing, I later bailed, well stood him up, thinking I had lost my chance, I messaged him telling him I had chickened out, we set up a new date to go, however THIS time I was stuck in traffic for FOUR whole hours on my way home from uni! I turned up at the gym as he was leaving! I was mortified! Anyway we got talking and we trained together for a few weeks.

Until the 21st February I was out in Cardiff for my friends birthday and I was sooo drunk, and like a real gentleman he came and picked me up, looked after me when I was sick and well was just a true gem. I woke up the next morning so incredibly embarrassed! The first time I went to his house and this happened! He didn't seem to care and after I went home we arranged to see each other again.

From here we were inseparable. Every single day we would see each other, whether after uni or before work or even just at the gym. just whenever we could. 

As you can probably imagine, breaking to him that I was doing a year abroad in Italy was a hard conversation. But we decided to try to make it work.

We are still together now, and he is living in Quincy California doing a Soccer Scholarship, yeah I know big distance hey?! but so worth it when seeing him at Christmas etc. We talk everyday when possible and with a 9 hour time difference we try to Facetime as much as we can!

If anyone ever says long distance relationships are easy then they're lying, but if anyone every says they're impossible are also lying!

It is only 96 days until I next get to see the love of my life when he comes to spend the summer here with me!

Heres a picture of us from Christmas!

Catch you in the next one

Lauren 

x

[xxlaurenwright-blog]

Back Track

Hey,

So I thought I would try to tell my story of how I got here in Italy.

Towards the end of the term before Christmas 2013, I was given the chance to interview for a job here at the EUI Florence, everybody else in my place was really hyped up about it and everyone was already planning what to say. But not me, I was just shocked that I was actually given the chance to be interviewed! I was not in a relationship, and my ex had just joined the gym I was going to, so it seemed like a perfect chance to get away from everything. My only real preparation for the interview was me and my dad throwing some idea's around about what I could say, however the only thing that stuck was my dad telling me to say 'It is not only a massive opportunity, but a real challenge, and both I am ready to take on.' I can't even remember anything else I said in the interview, apart from the interviewee asking me if my parents owned their own businesses, which when I said no, he pulled a funny face. This led me to feel like I had no chance at getting the interview. 

When I left the interview room, I seen the other girl who was selected, she was in a full female suit, with the smart pencil skirt and everything! At this point I felt so stupid, I was stood there in my dark grey skater dress with black tights and converse.

To my surprise a few weeks later I was woken up to a phone call from the university telling me that I had been accepted for the placement! I really could not believe it, I remember how proud my dad was when I told him! The next few months were just paper work and preparing for the move.

Easter 2014, me and Rhys (he is a friend from my class at uni, who also got the placement) took a trip to Italy, to view a few apartments and to visit where we will be working and to get a little bit of an idea of what it would be like. We decided on a three bedroom apartment in the Le Cure area, in between work and Florence town. We got in touch with another person from our uni who got the placement, Duarte and asked him to live there with us. He agreed, even without seeing the apartment.

We met up with Duarte only once or twice before the actual move!

This is all for how I got the placement guys, 

talk more about it in the next one 

Lauren 

x

[xxlaurenwright-blog]

First Post

So I'm not too sure if anyone will ever actually read this or not. But here goes nothing.

I'm Lauren Wright, 21 from Wales, UK

However been living in Florence, Italy for the last 7 months. I'm an ICT trainee, but not what you would expect. I am training in weightlifting and currently training to transform my body. I will be writing about both my life in Italy and my training.