Summer of 2002.

I love living in the present, but every now and then I also love taking a trip down memory lane to remember how I felt at a specific time. I was cleaning through one of the drawers in the living room today, and found a diary I kept during the summer of 2002. I wrote in it every day during my holidays, kept track of how far we travelled, what we did,what we had for dinner, everything! I have always been quite specific about random things like that, and it's fun being able to look back on what then 14 years old Therese thought about life.

The holidays I had the summer of 2002 was great in such different ways. Me and my sister went on a road trip with our dad through Sweden, and over to Denmark. The thought was to head to a air plane show in Belgium, but our car broke down on day two of our holiday, so we decided to travel less, and enjoy Denmark and Sweden instead.

And later on that summer, me, my sister and our mum went over to an island between Sweden and Finland, called Åland where we went camping, swimming and sunbathing for a week. Such a simple and nice holiday, and I totally loved it! Åland used to be like a second home for me when I was younger, it's where I spent a lot of weekends growing up, as we used to have a caravan there each summer.

What did you do during your summers when you were younger?

My travel diary from July 2002.

To miss someone.

There are some days I can feel that I live away from my family, some days more than others. There will be occasions I miss, moments I should have been there, and days I would have needed my own family. Like the day my niece was born, or that day I got a phone call about that my grandpa had a heart attack. I couldn't be there physically for anyone in my family, and it breaks my heart thinking about it. Regardless if it's good or bad times, you still wish you could be there for everyone.

Yesterday was a tough day. Nicci, my dog back home, had to be put to sleep. It's weird, she's been around through half my life, always happy. For anyone who has had a dog, you probably know what I'm talking about. I didn't know until yesterday just how much this would affect me, and just how much I would feel.

Nicci was my little sister, and yesterday my little sister fell asleep.

Ben Nevis, 18th May.

Alright people, it's getting closer to our Ben Nevis adventure. On the 18th May me and my hill walking group are joining forces with a big group of excited people to raise money for Accord Hospice in Paisley, just outside Glasgow.

Accord Hospice helped my friend Kat's family a lot through sad times when her mum passed away. Read Kat's own story here: https://www.justgiving.com/weloveliz/

Please donate by clicking on the "Donate" button at the bottom of the page that opens, when clicking on the link above.

Any amount of money counts. Either choose the set amount of money to give (£10, £20, £50, £100), or choose own amount by writing the amount in the box. You can pay money in either by debit/credit card, or over PayPal. And if you don't want your name shown, you can donate anonymously.

Thank you all for taking time to read this, and thanks to anyone donating. The count down for Ben Nevis has officially started!

Be grateful.

Sitting in the airport waiting to board my flight. It's going to be a long day, two flights ahead of me, and several hours in airports. But I don't mind. I brought 4 books with me for this trip, and I'm determined to finish at least one of them before the end of today.

Travelling somewhere is kinda like therapy for me. Especially travelling alone, like I'm travelling today. It gives me time to relax, think and reflect over things in life. And when I have time alone, it gives me time realise how much I have in my life to be grateful for.

I am grateful that I have the most amazing boyfriend, family and friends I could ever have dreamed of. I am grateful that I am healthy, I have a home and that I have the possibility to travel places.

What are you grateful for today?

The importance of goal setting.

When it comes to working out, what is your goal? Is it to tone up, build muscles, lose weight? People often start going to the gym with the ambitions to achieve all that, but forget to break down their goals to more specific ones. How much weight do you want to lose? What is healthy for you? And what is your time limit for this?

I think that people often underestimate the importance of setting goals. It's what you need in life to move forward and to progress as a person, not just with your fitness and your training. It's important to set a time limit on when you want it achieved by, and make it realistic. Push yourself, make your goals big, but still realistic.

And reward yourself. Reaching a goal is rewarding enough, but boost yourself a bit extra towards reaching your goals. I usually reward myself with new gym clothes, which makes me even more excited to keep working out in the gym towards my next goal. But it could be anything, little or small. A new pair of shoes, new make up, something that you aren't allowed to buy until you have reached that goal.

Here's two pictures of me, pictures taken exactly two months apart. I'm no where near where I want to be with my body and health, but I am really getting there. These pictures just proves that goal setting, hard work and determination makes a big difference:

Don't think that I have it all figured out, I really don't, but I am working on this every day. Whenever I am near reaching my goals, I set up new ones. Always give yourself something to work towards.

This is my list of goals:

• Cut out sugar. Sugar makes me moody, makes me feel tired and really isn't needed in my life. There's a big difference in want and need, I really don't need sugar. This goal isn't just for a time being, its something that is needed worked on every day.

• Climb Ben Nevis on the 18th May to raise money for charity. And climb at least one Munro / mountain before then. 

• Have visible abs before our holiday to Sweden the 23rd June.

• Start reading more books. I've always had problems relaxing, I need to move and do something all the time. A goal for me is to be able to relax enough to sit down and read a book. It's always possible on holiday, but never at home. So this is a big one for me, at least two hours a week is a good start.

These are my goals for now, name one of your goals if you want to by pressing "comment" under this blog, post it as "name/URL" (it doesn't have to be fitness related). And remember, don't ever compete with anyone else but yourself. You can use people as inspiration, but never compete with anyone but yourself. Everyone is different, that is what is beautiful in life. We all develop, change, look and think different. So focus on yourself, and your goals.

Just a thought.

This is my body.

(This blog is not aimed towards any individual)

Something I often get called is skinny. Last year I would have taken it as a compliment, but these days when I work my butt off in the gym, it's doesn't have the same positive effect on me. I consider my physique as being toned and strong, not skinny or thin.

Something that has annoyed me lately is how many (negative) comments I've been getting about the muscles on my arms. Either my muscles are too big, my arms are too toned, or it simply looks like I've got "man muscles". What I have replied to the people telling me this is simply that: either they are too lazy to do something about their own body so they start nagging on mine, or that they simply might be jealous that my muscles are bigger than theirs. Surprisingly, all the negative comments I've been getting has been coming from men.

Why do they think it's acceptable to tell someone this? Would it be acceptable to go walk up to a overweight person and say that he/she is fat, or a naturally really skinny person who are trying for everything in this world to gain weight, that he/she looks thin and bony? No, so why should it be acceptable to make negative comments about my toned arms?

This is my body, which I'm pretty damn proud of, and worked hard to shape. I feel amazing, and for the first time in my life I actually don't dislike anything at all on my body. I love that my body is strong, healthy and works as it should.

I don't walk around flexing my muscles, but if I did it would look something like this.