Travel Diary: Day 4, Alesund

The second place the ship docked at was Alesund, which was a lovely, pretty place. Again. like the day before, we woke up early and went up to the top deck in order to marvel at the scenery and practise our photography skills, followed by seeking out a table by the window and savouring our breakfast along with the view. This time we decided to set of a little later, and allowed ourselves a bit of extra time to sleep after breakfast in order to feel slightly more refreshed as we explored Alesund.

Alesund was a very beautiful place, surrounded by large mountains and glistening lakes. We spent a lot of time walking around admiring the area and taking photos of the scenery. It was pretty amazing to be able to walk around a town where you shops and other attractions but you also have a phenomenal view. Most of our trip consisted of walking around and taking in the place, which was nice but a bit tiring.

When we got back on the ship we did what we'd been doing at every port stop which was rush up to the buffet in order to fill up on unlimited food. We planned on watching 'The Theory of Everything' in our stateroom, as it was available on the entertainment system (the ships had pretty good TVs in the cabins, with shows and movies available to watch at whatever time you wanted). However, I was so exhausted from all the late nights and the early mornings that I was completely unable to keep my eyes open and as a result became overwhelmed with sleep and drifted off for a few hours (which is very unlike me- I never sleep during the day, I can barely even sleep at night when I'm supposed to). In between naps we went up to try some of the afternoon tea that was being served in the buffet, as I really like scones with cream and jam. We then quickly returned to sleeping, before getting ready for an earlier dinner in order to have more time to sleep as we had a tour the next day that we had to wake up early for.

Travel Diary: Day 3 Stavanger

Today would be the first day in port. We docked in Stavanger at around 7:00 am in the morning, though we woke up a little bit earlier in order to watch the ship arrive at the port as we knew the scenery in the area would be particularly beautiful. I forced myself out of bed at 6:00 am when my alarm went off, fighting off my instinct to just shut my eyes, roll over and go back to sleep. I dressed quickly and we went right up to the 18th deck, as we would get the best view from there. As this was a perfect opportunity to take some brilliant photos, I made it a point to take the camera with me, and spent a fair amount of time snapping away at the scenery. Since we looked somewhat decent, and we were pretty close to the buffet, we decided to grab some breakfast, taking special care to nab a table by the window in order to savour the scenery while eating. We then returned to our cabins to finish preparing before we went out to explore the area.

With cruises, the majority of the time you can simply walk of the ship and into the town you've arrived at, so as soon as we had disembarked we were able to begin looking around. We started by walking up some pretty cobbled streets with a relatively steep incline- quite a work out considering the time of day! Luckily, this did also mean that we had the opportunity to burn off some of the food we'd over-consumed. We then made our way down to a beautiful park, where we sat and enjoyed the scenery for a short while. After relaxing briefly at the park, we headed over to a museum. However, as it turned out that you had to pay to enter (the cost of living is particularly high in Norway, which meant that everything, including entry to the museum, was ridiculously expensive) we didn't actually go inside. We did make good use of the free WiFi that we discovered the museum offered, however. Following this brief stint at the museum we ambled through more cobbled streets, checking out the shops that lined them and snapping away like nobody's business. Finally, we ended up at a cute little market area which offered trinkets, souvenirs and fluffy rugs, hats etc., many of which were made from reindeer skin. At this point we were pretty exhausted from the hours of walking, and our tummies were starting to rumble so, with the ship in sight, we thought it was just about time that we headed back and rushed over to the buffet. 

After lunch had finished, the others went off to watch 'The Jungle Book' at 3:00 pm in the cinema on board. I debated going, but ultimately decided to stay back as my hair was due a wash, dry and straighten, which takes me hours, so I really needed to use the time available to do that. Three hours later (I'm not exaggerating, though I did take a pretty long, hot shower) and my hair was all straight and nice and ready to go.

Having looked at the menu in the restaurant we decided that there wasn't anything that really caught our attention, so we thought that this time we'd opt for a more casual meal and check out the buffet instead. I enjoyed having dinner at the buffet a lot! It was nice and relaxed, and we managed to get a table with a view of the sea, which helped add to the atmosphere. They were serving east Asian food in the buffet, and everything was so delicious. About an hour after we'd finished eating, we watched a show that was being performed in the on board theatre. The show was pretty spectacular- it involved pulsing lights and catchy, modern music brought to life with amazing voices and breathtaking dance moves, all set against an illuminated background. The whole theatre was alive and buzzing. I thoroughly enjoyed it! The day was finished off with another fantastic sleep, worn out and exhausted after a long day of walking and sightseeing.

Travel Diary: Day 2 At Sea

I set my alarm for 8:00 am- I wanted to wake up early in order to make the most of every minute on the ship. Unfortunately, we did lose an hour as the clocks had been moved forward in order to match Norwegian time. This resulted in a little bit of a scramble to get ready for breakfast before the buffet closed, as what we thought was 8:00 am actually turned out to be 9:00 am (the buffet closed for breakfast at 10). I was especially keen to see what they had to offer, though I felt slightly disappointed as I felt the options were somewhat more limited in comparison to other cruises I've been on. I didn't let that stop me from enjoying my breakfast, however!

We had a day at sea, which was great as it provided us with some vital time to relax before we got down to exploring the ports. We decided to use some of this time to explore the ship in greater detail. Cruise ships are pretty big and this one looked amazing- it's such a fresh, modern ship, and I really love the decor. We started with a bit of window shopping, as there are a fair few shops on board, before seeking out the bars and lounges.

We then headed up for a bit of lunch  at the buffet (again, I can't remember what I ate, though it definitely involved chips), before heading to a talk in the theatre on the latter two ports we'd be visiting and the tours of these ports that we had booked (or could book, though most of them were sold out). We booked a tour afterwards (which was amazing, I'll discuss it more in another post), that involved visiting a church and what's known as the 'troll wall.'

The dress code for the evening was formal, so we got ready a bit earlier than we normally would, in order to allow enough time to get suitably ready. I usually enjoy getting ready to go out, but when you feel like you've managed to double your body weight you've eaten so much it's not quite as much fun. However, it was nice seeing all the other passengers looking so amazing in their formal wear. There was also an amazing atmosphere in the atrium, partly because everyone was dressed up, but also because they were serving free drinks (which included sparkling wine, whiskey, gin and tonic, red wine and orange juice), which is enough to put any normal person in a good mood (isn't anything that's free?)

I had been particularly looking forward to dinner that night because I had seen the menu before hand and it looked amazing. It included lobster that came in a delicious creamy sauce (which was so delicious; it was honestly the best dish I had in the restaurant) and prosecco soaked strawberries (which could have done with a stronger prosecco flavour). Our meal was rounded off with some champagne truffles, which were delicious, although I didn't quite have room for them after my lavish meal (I did make every effort to make that room, though I wish I could have enjoyed them on an emptier stomach).

We went for a quick wander round the ship, just to see what it was like a night time and to check out what was going on, though we quickly retired to our cabins for the night in order to prepare for an early morning and an inevitably tiring trip around Stavanger.

Travel Diary: Day 1, Southampton

I think it would be pretty awesome to be a travel writer, or having a travel blog. Unfortunately, I don't have the means to carry out the travelling part regularly enough to generate enough interesting content. Since I've (somewhat) recently returned from a week long holiday I thought it might be fun to dabble in a little bit of travel blogging and document my little journey on this blog. It probably won't be as exciting as your average travel diary but I hope that it's enjoyable nevertheless.

I'll start by giving you a bit of background on the holiday and describing my first day. We went on a cruise round the Norwegian fjords, on a ship called Britannia (one of P&O's ships). Again, this probably sets it apart from other travel blogs as I don't think there are many people out that blog about cruises.

After loading up the car with all our luggage we drove down to Southampton on a hot, sunny Saturday afternoon, where out ship would be waiting in the port, all ready for us to board. Seeing as we arrived a little later than we were supposed to we didn't have to wait at all. We collected out cruise cards, breezed through security and boarded the ship. That's the great thing about cruises, your holiday starts almost immediately. We briefly visited our cabins to check them out, then dashed up to the buffet as we were starving and in desperate need of a meal. I can't remember specifically what I ate but I know that it involved a lot of chips (I love chips), and an amazing tasting trifle. I had vowed to try everything, and worrying about gaining weight was banished. It's not everyday that you have access to lots of delicious food whenever you want it, plus it is only a week. Eating is also a huge part of what makes going on a cruise so much fun.

After that we returned to the cabin, where I panicked as my luggage hadn't turned up, even though everyone else's had (they bring your luggage straight to your room). I have to admit, this made me pretty anxious, and I was on edge for the whole safety demonstration. Luckily, when I returned to my cabin afterwards it had arrived. We then went up to the top deck to watch the sail away. The atmosphere was buzzing, as everyone was getting into the holiday mood. We relaxed on some sofas, and I had (and thoroughly enjoyed) a strawberry and lime cider.

Dinner time crept up on us, so soon after the sail away had finished we went to the cabin to get ready, as there 's a dress code in the restaurant. Once ready, we went to the restaurant only to find there was a bit of a wait (which actually happened every night, a bit of a problem with freedom dining). We were given a pager that would alert us when a table was available, so we went off and sat by a window with a view of the sea. The wait wasn't too bad as we'd massively over indulged at lunch, so it provided us with the opportunity to overindulge yet again. Eventually, our pager started buzzing and we made our way to the restaurant. The service was quick and we ate our dinner quickly (I had a goat's cheese soup for starter, skate, potatoes and veg for main and a mango and kiwi pavlova for dessert). After eating we returned to our cabins, where we promptly passed out after, high on the excitement of being on holiday and full to bursting after stuffing our faces, in what are probably some of the comfiest beds in the world.

Product Recommendation: Aveeno

As someone who suffers from terrible eczema and skin so dry it could rival the Sahara desert, moisturising is vital to maintaining the skin, keeping it healthy and just generally feeling comfortable. However, finding a decent moisturiser that soothes my skin without leaving it feeling heavy and slimey was incredibly difficult.

Until I found Aveeno.

A few years ago, I was researching remedies for eczema, when I came across a post discussing Aveeno, and the effect it had on someone's eczema. Seeing this, I decided to research Aveeno further, and discovered lots of glowing reviews, which encouraged me to try it for myself, and it just amazed me.

I would like to emphasise that it did not clear up my eczema- I have yet to find a way to eradicate it, unfortunately. However, it has made living with eczema much easier. It makes my skin feel like it has actually been moisturised, leaving soft and smooth. It also brings great relief when suffering from terrible dryness. As I said, most other moisturisers that I'd tried left my skin feeling pretty disgusting (they did nothing to help with the itchiness and would just peel off, resulting in my skin remaining very dry), so it's been great having something that's compatible with my skin. It also lasts for ages, which is a major bonus.

I would really recommend Aveeno to everyone (and I think, having seen what a lot of other people have to say about it, there are many other people who would), especially people with very dry skin and even more so people who suffer from eczema. It's such a great  product.

Ways To Relieve Stress

Stress can have a detrimental effect on our health, and can be responsible for or contribute to the worsening of multiple health conditions. Therefore, it's important to try and keep your stress levels as low as you can. Sometimes it can be difficult to do this, as high stress situations are sometimes unavoidable (e.g. important exams, which pretty much always cause a lot of stress), and in these cases it helps to have something that relieves some of this stress and presents you with an opportunity to properly relax and unwind for a bit. I've decided to make a list of things that help with stress (some of these are things that help me, but I haven't tried all of these) in the hopes of inspiring people and perhaps providing them with some ideas (though I'm sure there are hundreds of posts like this out there). I'm also hoping this post will provide me with some ideas for myself (seeing as I'm basically permanently stressed).

• Pamper yourself- I suppose the definition of pampering yourself would vary from person to person, but it could be anything from running yourself a hot bath filled with bubbles and putting on a face mask and some relaxing music, lighting candles and pouring yourself a large glass of wine to just painting your nails or changing you bed sheets. I have to say, it's not one I've indulged in much personally.
• Indulge in a spot of binge watching. Netflix is particularly good for this
• Eat/drink something that you really enjoy, they're called treats for a reason
• Bake or cook something- I've found that cooking can actually be quite good for easing stress (though it can also get stressful at times, it really depends on your mindset on the day)
• Make a playlist of songs you enjoy or that make you happy or have good memories attached
• Read a book you really enjoy. This could be something new or a book you've read a dozen times.
• Actually, read anything- a magazine, a blog, some online articles
• Sit outside, particularly on a sunny day
• Try an adult colouring book
• Try some yoga, or perhaps meditation
• Exercise, but make sure that it is exercise that you enjoy and will make you feel good. I have to say, I haven't always found exercise effective (at least not in the way people make it out to be)
• Invest in a lava lamp, it's pretty soothing to watch the wax float around, plus it gives your room a cosy glow
• Make a blanket fort
• Hang fairy lights
• Get straight into your comfiest pyjamas
• Light some scented candles
• Go for a walk, especially in a calm soothing area where there's lots of nice scenery (if you're lucky enough to live close enough to anywhere like this)
• Go for a drive
• Pop bubble wrap
• Window shop
• Prepare a picnic and sit a nice park or scenic area
• Spend time with a pet

Here's a picture of my lava lamp and fairy lights to soothe and (hopefully) inspire you.

I've tried to come up with as many ideas as I can, though I'm sure there are many more! I might make another post (or posts) like this if I think of a few more ideas, I like the idea of having a bunch of posts with a ton of ideas on stress relief. 

Blog Update

I have to be honest, I haven't been doing so well in regards to leading a healthier lifestyle and, as a result, my blog has suffered. I'm just a little bit ashamed of how little I've posted in the last month or so! I'm trying to get my diet back on track, as well as managing to work at least a bit of exercise in, so I'm hoping that I will be posting more regularly about these things pretty soon. In the mean time, I'll try writing about a few other things, just to keep this blog alive. I want to stick to the theme as much as possible, but I also want these posts to reflect my lifestyle, so I don't want to post anything that focuses on a healthy lifestyle when mine isn't (plus, in my opinion. it's more difficult to write about these things when you're not practising them anyway).

I also wanted to add that as I approach the beginning of university again, I want to write about a few things related to university, some of it to help myself and some of it to help others.

Anyway, I hope to post again soon, though I have no idea what about!

Recipe: Falafel

This one is surprisingly easy, so it works pretty well if you're pressed for time. If you want to make a larger quantity, double the quantity of chickpeas, red onion, garlic and coriander used).

Ingredients:
400g of chickpeas
One red onion
Two clove of garlic
One teaspoon of cumin
A large handful of coriander
Half a teaspoon of chilli powder
Half a teaspoon of paprika
Two tablespoons of plain flour (I used wholemeal)
A liberal sprinkling of salt
Sunflower oil for frying

Method:

Roughly chop the half onion, garlic clove and coriander, and leave it to one side.

Open the can of chickpeas, drain them and dry them with some kitchen towel.

Combine all the ingredients above (minus the sunflower oil) in a food processor and blitz them until the mixture is smooth and can easily be moulded (if you can imagine shaping them into balls as you would do with dough then it should be okay).

Roll them into balls and flatten them into disk shaped patties. I made them pretty small (and came out with twelve), but you could make them bigger, though it would make fewer.

Put them in the fridge to chill for a bit (well, around fifteen minutes). This isn't essential though.

Once out of the refrigerator heat the sunflower oil in a large pan and fry them until they are golden brown on each side. It's important to use kitchen roll once you've fried the falafel and removed them from the pan as it will soak up the excess oil.

We ate the falafel with wholemeal pitta bread, chopped raw onion and homemade tamarind sauce (which I didn't and don't know how to make, otherwise I'd have posted a recipe). I also tried experimenting with mixed greens, but these really did not complement the rest of the meal, so much so that I ended up picking them out. I feel like Greek yoghurt and/or cucumber might also go well, but what do I know. I put mixed greens in mine and it was slightly awful.

Product Review: Aussie Three Minute Miracle Reconstruction

My hair care routine isn't exactly sophisticated. Shampoo and conditioner and either plait and leave to dry or towel dry, heat protection spray and straighten. Not exactly fancy. For a while now, however, I've been aware of just how damaged and dry my hair is, and I felt that it was necessary that I tried something more to help my hair a bit. I'd heard about deep conditioner and had been debating using it for sometime. A couple of weeks ago I decided to take the plunge. I decided to try Aussie's Three Minute Miracle Reconstruction Deep Conditioner as it was one of the few that had been available for purchase from the supermarket I was shopping at. I'd used Aussie products in the past and hadn't been particularly impressed, so I wasn't expecting much from this. I was wrong.

I've used it twice now and I'm really happy! I felt that it delivered exactly as it promised it would- it actually repaired my dry, damage, split end riddled hair. That's an impressive feat. My hair was in a pretty appalling state, but it now feels light, feathery and deliciously soft. There are still split ends but, since my hair had become so bad that my split ends had split ends, this is no surprise. It's not like it can wave a magic wand and cause my split ends to vanish. However, there are far fewer split ends and the ends of my hair no longer feel like straw that could snap at any minute. It also smells amazing!

The only downsides I found with the product is that it doesn't do much to combat frizz (not that it promised it would, but my hair gets very frizzy very easily, so it would have been nice if it did) and I had to straighten my hair to fully see the effect the conditioner had. Aussie does, however, have a deep conditioner specifically for frizzy hair, so I'll probably try that soon in the hopes of eradicating the awful frizz. Despite these criticisms, I really do think it's a great product. It does what it says- repairs damaged hair (and it worked on my insane, thick, frizzy hair which is a miracle in itself) - which is more than what most hair care products do. The fact that I decided to write a review about it proves this easily.

Meal Snapshot

I want to showcase my diet at different points, to give you an idea of what I eat. Some days are healthier and other days are not so healthy. I feel like a lot of people who blog about health don't showcase the not so healthy points (I suppose they don't have them, but I feel like if you do have them you should still discuss them as it's normal to have days where you aren't as healthy you normally are) in order to make themselves enhance their image as the epitome of health. I want to be open and honest about my diet, displaying the good and the very, very bad.

I decided that, since I've spent a lot of time discussing the healthy side of my diet- and this is primarily the one I eat- I will start of by showing you a healthier day (Thursday 9th June).

I started the day with a banana smoothie consisting of banana, peanut butter, milk, honey and a splash of vanilla. It tasted really good, almost like a vanilla milkshake. I followed this up with a strawberry, spinach and grape smoothie, which is pictured, as I felt I needed a bit of fruit and veg. I also had to finish the strawberries, grapes and spinach.

For lunch I had a baked potato with tuna, which I really enjoy. I didn't take a picture because it doesn't look too appetising, though it definitely tastes so much better than it looks. 

A bit later on I wolfed down half a punnet of strawberries. These strawberries were handpicked from a farm that supplies Marks and Spencer and other supermarkets nationwide with strawberries and they were so deliciously sweet I could not stop eating them. About an hour after that I had a square of Lindt sea salted dark chocolate, which is also pretty yummy- it's the combination of the sweetness and saltiness, they complement each other perfectly!

For dinner I cooked falafel. I'd made it before and really enjoyed it, so I was keen to make it again. However, this time round I felt it wasn't as good. I don't know if it was missing something or if I just wasn't that hungry. I ate it with wholemeal pitta bread, raw onion, a tamarind sauce and, in an attempt to be healthy, some mixed greens, which really did not go. I ended up pulling them out.

I was really cheeky and had two Lindor chocolates before bed, whilst watching Netflix. 

A Health Rant

When I said I wanted to discuss health problems on this blog I had a specific issue in mind. I wasn't sure when to get round to discussing this issue but it has really been getting to me for quite some time, so I think that now is probably the best time to rant about it, especially as it will probably end up being pretty relevant in some of my future posts. This one is a little embarrassing, but it's been causing me so much distress for so long I now feel that it would be a really good idea to discuss it.

So, what's the issue? Well, for quite some time I've been feeling really bloated. I didn't bother sorting out in the past as I had a pretty bad diet and assumed that that was what was causing it, or that it was even just stomach fat that had accumulated after over eating for way too long. However, as I got stuck into my new diet and lifestyle, I noticed that this problem persisted. The longer I kept eating healthily and exercising the more the problem stuck out (literally, haha) to me. I put it down to drinking too much diet coke, and stopped drinking it. This didn't work, and left me more confused.

The more time goes on, the more miserable it makes me feel. The one thing I wanted to achieve regarding weight loss (which is a big part of what motivated me to change my diet) was a flat stomach. I wasn't bothered about any other area, I really just wanted to work on reducing and toning my stomach. I did not want to end up with a stomach so huge that I often look pregnant. The bloating has made me feel so terrible about my body, and I feel so uncomfortable and unhealthy. It kills me to think about what might exist underneath all the awful, puffy swelling, and that it means that I am unable to see the results of all my hard work. It's also testing my motivation- it's difficult to push myself to persist and eat healthily and exercise when I feel so disgusting and unhealthy.

I've been told that it is most likely an irritable bowel (as my blood tests have ruled out everything else). The tablets I've taken so far have not helped relieve my symptoms much, but I will be starting some new tablets and I've been referred to a dietician, so hopefully I will be able to find a solution. I'm also keeping a food diary to see if I can spot any patterns between symptoms and any foods I eat. I'm worried I won't be able to fix the problem but I;m determined to try everything in order to find a solution.

Recipe: Popcorn Chicken

I'm going to start off my recipe posts with an excellent Friday night treat: popcorn chicken. I've made it before one time but and it tasted absolutely delicious, so I knew I had to make it again. It's really easy and is perfect for anyone who is beginning to learn to cook.

Ingredients:
600g of  boneless chicken
6 medium slices of wholemeal bread
2 eggs
Paprika (as much as you like)
Salt (as much as you like)
Pepper (as much as you like)
Chilli powder (optional and, again, as much as you like)
Olive Oil

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Cut the chicken roughly into small chunks

Place the wholemeal bread in the oven on the highest setting until it is very crisp. Leave to cool.

Blitz bread in a processor until it forms bread crumbs.

Add the paprika, salt, pepper and chilli powder to the bread crumbs and mix together. I don't measure these, instead adding as much as I enjoy. You can taste the bread crumbs if you are unsure.

Crack the beat egg in a bowl (crack the second egg later once you've used up most of first s it may not be needed and you don't want to waste an egg).

Coat each piece of chicken first in egg, then in the breadcrumbs. Place each piece of breaded chicken on an oven tray, and drizzle liberally with olive oil.

Cook the chicken in the oven for 20 minutes.

I'd made some chips to accompany the chicken, and I'm adding some instructions to make them at the bottom of this recipe as they're very simple. You can choose any accompaniment(s) that you want really, but I quite enjoy these.

Ingredients:
6 potatoes
Olive oil, paprika, salt, pepper and chilli powder to taste.

Method:
Pre heat oven to 190 degrees Celsius

Wash and peel the potatoes. Slice them into long strips and place on an oven tray.

Drizzle liberally with olive oil and add as much paprika, salt, pepper and chilli powder as you like.

Cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

Staying Motivated

I've discovered that one of the most important elements of successfully maintaining a healthy lifestyle in order to achieve weight loss is motivation. However, staying motivated is one of the most difficult aspects of leading a healthy lifestyle. I've struggled with motivation pretty badly myself, so I've come up with a few strategies to help me stay motivated. I'm sharing them in the hopes that they inspire others and help them to stay motivated too.

• Focus on your goals. The end result is what you're ultimately striving for, so reminding yourself of what you'll achieve in the end can really help give you that push when you need it (especially when it comes to exercise). 
• Read motivational posts about people who have successfully achieved what you want to achieve. These are often accompanied by before and after photos, which can be quite encouraging, though I always take these photos with a large pinch of salt since they could very easily be edited or taken a less/more flattering angles with better/worse lighting. However, it's always inspriring to hear about people's journeys, and I find that it makes me think of my own and encourages me to work harder at it so I can achieve what I want.
• Follow/view health/fitness/food accounts on Instagram. I find that this keeps my mind on health and distracts from things that can evoke temptation (pictures of tasty but unhealthy foods are lethal). However, it's important to make sure that they promote a healthy lifestyle and are not advocates for disordered eating- you might then find yourself in very dangerous territory. 
• Watch videos on healthy recipes/ people who lead healthy lifestyles on YouTube. This is motivating in a similarly to the former point (about Instagram). It can also provide you with some excellent recipe or snack ideas!
• Find tasty but healthy recipes and make them. I always get a lot of satisfaction from doing this, especially when it comes out tasting great. It provides you with something tasty but healthy to eat, and allows you to kill cravings quite easily. It also alleviates stress, which is a huge bonus!
• Find healthy foods that you enjoy and work them into your diet more often. This is another one that can help with cravings. It might not be a substitute but it helps you stick with eating healthily whilst also enjoying he food you eat (which just makes everything easier). For example, I really enjoy pitta pizzas, and I've found a recipe for a blueberry smoothie that tastes delightfully like a milkshake though there's no ice cream involved at all.
• Allow yourself treats (i.e. foods you largely avoid). Sometimes cravings are just a bit too overpowering, and the more we try to fight them the bigger they grow. Allowing yourself food you normally don't every once in a while satisfies your cravings, preventing them from consuming you (which would most likely result in breaking free from the healthy lifestyle you're trying to develop. Well, that's at leat what has happened with me in the past).
• Start a blog (or a tumblr, or an Instagram, or even a handwritten diary, basically anything that allows you to keep track of your journey while continuing to motivate yourself). You can remind yourself of what you've achieved, keep track of the goals you've set and keep your mind in the right head space, especially when temptation creeps in. 
• Take progress photos. It's easy to lose sight of where you started and convinced yourself that you're in the same body you were in when you started. Progress photos remind you of how far you've come and the fact that you're body has changed thanks to all the hard work you've put in. When you're feeling down about your progress they're virtually a necessity in motivation as they lift your spirits so effectively, providing you with the knowledge that you are making the progress you set out to make. They've certainly helped me!

These are the things that I've found really helpful so far. I guess different things work for different individuals, and I don't think my ideas are particularly unique, but I hope they may be helpful and inspiring in some sense. If I find other effective ways to motivate myself I'll make sure to post about them. 

I would also like to stress that it is important that all your motivation is healthy and positive- take care to avoid people who encourage others to adopt disordered eating habits as this can have a significant negative impact on your health, both mental and physical. 

A Few Things I Have To Say About Clean Eating

Recently, I've noticed clean eating has been getting a lot of flack, and I am delighted. I'd known about clean eating for a while and it's a diet I'd always aspired to have. When I get healthy, I told myself, this is how I'll eat. Clean eating involves cutting down on processed food and eating more 'raw,' 'natural' products. Refined sugar is banned, meat is banned, dairy is banned, gluten is banned. Seems a bit restrictive doesn't it?

All the food they eat is super healthy, and words like 'nourishing' and 'nutritious' are flung around by the so called 'wellness gurus' who preach about the abundant benefits their diet provides those who follow it with. Avocados are used as substitutes for butter in cakes and spiralized courgette in place of spaghetti. It's easy to be fooled into thinking that by following this lifestyle you'll be transformed into a health goddess. I certainly was- I believed that if I could find a way to follow this diet as closely as I could (budget and time permitting) my eczema would disappear (in fact, my skin in general would clear up and develop an ethereal glow), my hair become glossy, I'd develop an amazing body, my mind would become less foggy and I'd be able to think with renewed clarity.

I realised, however, that this sort of lifestyle would not be realistic for me. I could barely cook (and certainly not well enough to make vegetables taste amazing. This has now changed) and I couldn't afford the expensive products required to uphold the lifestyle. I also became sceptical of just how little the 'wellness gurus' allowed themselves to eat. No carbs? No dairy? No meat? How do you get by on so little? I knew I couldn't do it; I'd miss normal food too much.

That's why I'm so happy to see articles popping up depicting the unhealthy side to clean eating. I love the fact that they discuss how unhealthy it is to cut out food groups when it's not necessary, and the fact that this can also have a detrimental effect on your well being. I love that they stress the importance of a balanced diet that includes carbohydrates, dairy and fat, because we need all of these to be healthy. It makes me feel so much more comfortable about my own diet- when I'd started to embark on a healthier lifestyle I'd felt like I was still unhealthy and that I was doing something wrong by including carbohydrates and dairy products in my diet. These articles confirm everything I'd known since I was little, everything I'd ever been taught. It's made me feel much more satisfied with my lifestyle, and more comfortable about what I eat.

There are other issues with clean eating, some I've read about and some I've detected myself. I remember reading about how even using the word 'clean' to describe the diet is somewhat problematic as it attaches morals to food and implies that all other food is 'dirty' and those who eat it are, by default, dirty themselves. Food is just food. No one food product is better than another because it has a higher nutritional value, and all food serves its purpose in context. One thing I picked up pretty swiftly was the cost of these ingredients- they're not exactly affordable for the average person. A little research into the backgrounds of some of these 'wellness gurus' lead to the discovery that they aren't exactly poor. For example, Ella Mills (aka Deliciously Ella), the poster girl for clean eating who's seen ferocious success promoting her clean, vegan diet, is the daughter of the heir to Sainsbury's and an MP. According to Google, her parents are worth £40 million. When you have that much money to play with it's more than possible to allow expensive items that would be considered luxuries for the majority to become everyday staples. I suppose that doesn't really matter, since she, and others like her, are still wildly successful.

I'll be the first to emphasise the fact that I'm no nutritionist but, then again, neither are most of them which, to me, makes a lot of what they promote pretty questionable. The most important thing is that what you put in your body makes you happy and healthy, and I respect their decision to eat how they want. However, to act as if their diet is the only way you can be healthy (at least this is how I've interpreted it) is wrong, and I personally feel that they should promote the idea that all food is healthy and that a balanced diet is important. This is a topic that I don't feel I'm done discussing, so expect more posts on clean eating from me!

A Typical Day For Me

I feel as though I've been slightly vague about my diet so far, so I think it would be nice to write a post about what I typically eat, to give you a bit of insight as to what my diet looks like.

Breakfast- Breakfast almost always includes some sort of juice (which is made up of a mixture of vegetables such as spinach, lettuce and carrots, and fruits such as...well I've used most fruits in these juices! I want to do a more detailed post about my favourite juice recipes sometime in the future. I also try and include something solid, to help my digestion (I'm not sure if it actually does, but I feel safer including it). At the moment, this is in the form of cereal, because I'm lazy and it only involves pouring, though it can also include anything such as porridge (plus topping(s)) or Weetabix.

Lunch- Lunch on a weekday typically consists of either soup, baked potato and tuna, or tuna and wholemeal pitta (or wholemeal toast...I've recently discovered that this is a delicious combination!). Alongside this I often, though not always, have some satsumas, and most times a granola bar and/or a healthy treat I've made myself, such as a muffin or biscuit. These treats, I must emphasise, are different to the other treats I allow myself- they're home made and probably healthier.

Dinner- Dinner varies quite wildly, so it's less easy to state the meals I typically eat. It depends on who's cooking, whether anyone is cooking, the ingredients we have at home, how much planning has gone into the dinner. Some of the dinners I've enjoyed include stir frys, turkey meat kebabs, falafel, pitta pizzas, chicken fajitas, beans burgers, regular burgers...there's so much more, I've probably forgotten loads!

On top of this I try to exercise regularly, I do Wii Zumba (as I've stated in a previous post) which I really do love. I hope to keep Zumba as a part of my exercise routine for as long as I can, whether it's on the Wii or an actual Zumba class (which would be so awesome to take part in, I've love to if I had the opportunity). I've recently been doing a one hour class three times a week, but I have done it more frequently in the past (and will do it more frequently in the future) when I do shorter workouts. I typically do my workouts across the weekend, including Friday and/or Monday, though this definitely does vary depending on my mood.

I also drink almost two litres of water a day. I had been drinking two litres, but then I decided what to work out was a healthy amount to consume for my size and it turns out that it's just under two litres, so I now drink that. I have a 600ml bottle of water that I refill three times a day- once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once in the evening.

I hope this gives you more of an insight into what I eat. I'm pretty happy with my diet- it feels realistic and is easy to maintain, plus it allows me to enjoy eating. I'll probably do a post outlining what I've eaten on a specific day in more detail. In fact, I might do these quite regularly, to show you changes in my diet and give you an in depth look into what my diet and lifestyle is like in a variety of ways.

Changes I Still Need To Make

This post is basically a follow up of my previous one where I outlined all the changes I have made to my diet and lifestyle so far. While I feel like I have made lots of great changes so far, there is still a lot more I feel I could do. These are a few changes I've failed to make, but still want to work on:

• Eat more vegetables. I don't particularly like vegetables that much, which makes it difficult. The NutriBullet has helped me get in a few more vegetables than I would have, and sometimes I cook them into meals, but I would like to get to the point where I'm having at least one portion of vegetables with my dinner.
• Develop a more regular sleep pattern. I often sleep late, which means I wake up late, and sometimes I barely sleep at all. This is definitely something I need to work on to help boost my health (and to also help me make the most out of my days).
• Eat treats in moderation. I mean, I mostly do this, but I do this by avoiding eating treats on most normal days. However, I do find that on quite a few (though not all) of the occasions that I have allowed myself to have treats I struggle to have them in moderation, consuming more than I should. I really need to learn to let treats be treats. 
• Work on dealing with my stress more effectively. I actually want to discuss this in a bit more detail, which I plan on doing a bit later on. I am prone to stressing very easily, and this has such a bad effect on me. Stress can be terrible for your health, so I think it's hugely important that I find ways to deal with this effectively. 
• Lessening the amount of fat in my diet. I have lessened the amount of fat in my diet, but I'm still too partial to having a bit too much butter and mozzarella on my food.

There are probably even more that I could add, but these are the biggest ones and the ones that stand out to me as needing to be changed. I'll post updates if I achieve (or at least try to achieve) any of these things.

My Progress So Far

I decided to start gradually, making a few small changes that would be easier to sustain. I didn't what to change my diet and lifestyle drastically straight away- I honestly think this would have made it more difficult for me to maintain and I most likely would not have kept it up for as long as I have. These are the changes I've made so far:

• Exercise. I feel like this one is probably the place most people would start, as I did. I decided to start slowly and gradually build up, but this didn't last long. I did (and am still doing) Wii Zumba, and I love it. The Wii appears to be dying out, and this is the only thing we really use ours for now, but it's helped me so much on the exercise front. Though I'd planned on doing only 20 minutes of Zumba three times a week, I promptly increased this. How often I Exercise a week varies. If I'm doing an hour I exercise around three times a week, but if I'm doing less than an hour I'll exercise more frequently. I thoroughly recommend Zumba, whether it's a class at the gym, videos on YouTube or on the Wii if you still happen to own one- it really is great fun and provides an excellent work out!
• Drinking more water. I didn't start with this straight away (I think I only began drinking water when not exercising about two months in!) but it was surprisingly more easy than I thought it would be. Again, I started slowly and gradually increased my intake, which helped get used to taking in a huge amount of water. The only downside is needing the toilet all the time- if it weren't for that I would have borderline drowned myself in water.
• Buying a NutriBullet. I didn't actually buy it myself, but I certainly make good use of it! It's been great as it's allowed me to get in lots more fruit and vegetables, and it makes them taste so good too! I'm having great fun experimenting and coming up with new juice flavours.
• Cutting out junk food (mostly). This one has been incredibly difficult, but I think I'm doing pretty well! At the moment my cravings have died down, but they're quite often all over the place, which makes it difficult to cut down completely. I never actually planned to cut out unhealthy food altogether- I believe that part of leading a healthy lifestyle is allowing yourself foods you enjoy that are not as healthy as forbidding yourself from eating these foods can very well lead to you binging on them later on as cravings spiral out of control- but I do think I've indulged more than I should have. Still, I've been doing a lot better than I have done, so that's a start!
• Learning to cook. I've only started cooking very recently, but I feel like I've been pretty successful so far. I'd always told myself I was a terrible cook, but it turns out that this isn't really the case! Cooking puts you in control- you get to eat what you want, how you like it, and you know exactly what's gone into your meal. It's also far healthier than eating processed food that's full of additives and other crap.
• Cutting down on diet Coke. Diet Coke (and Coke Zero, Pepsi Max, Diet Pepsi- I don't discriminate!) is truly my vice. I can drink tons of it, I really do love it. Considering this, it was incredibly difficult to cut down on, and I was very reluctant to do so (only managing to cut it out about two months in). I feel like the reasons one is not supposed to drink diet fizzy drinks is a bit vague, but thinking about all the chemicals in diet Coke makes me feel a bit queasy, and I don't like to think about what it could do to my body.

The changes I've made haven't been perfect but I've managed to integrate them into my lifestyle with great ease, and I've found that they've really suited me so far. I hope to further improve my diet and lifestyle in order to become healthier. I also hope that reading this might help someone to take the steps to improve their own lifestyles and become healthier. I know that I all of this has been reiterated time and time again. It really isn't as difficult as it might seem (though it's not as easy as others might make it out to be)- the best thing I've found is to make changes gradually and to be patient and not put pressure on yourself. You know you best!

About Me

Now I've welcomed you to my blog and you have a bit of an idea of what it's about, I'll tell you a bit about myself and give you a bit of background information that will hopefully put a lot of what I write about into context. I'm nineteen years old and am currently living at home with my family, though I'm planning on going to university to study English in September.

At the moment, I'm pretty much in limbo. I started university in September 2015, but absolutely hated the university I was at. A short while later, I decided to leave and start again at a new university a bit closer to home. I've written about the experience in a lot more detail on my other blog, which I started around the time I left university so that I would have something to focus on as I adjusted back to being at home (and the fact that I now, for the first time in my life, had nothing to do). I'll link the post to this one as I really don't want to write about the experience much more. I was the left with an abundance of time that I had to fill. Naturally, the first thing I turned my attention to was applying for jobs. However, job hunting only leaves you occupied for a somewhat small period, especially when there are only a few jobs available, which meant that I still had a lot of time to fill. I've been planning to get healthy for a long time, but something has always acted as a barrier, or my motivation crumbled almost immediately after beginning. However, this time I had all the time in the world to dedicate now, and little to distract me or tear my motivation down, so I decided that this time period would be the best time to make a start. December was looming, and since the festive season is one of great indulgence I allowed myself to let go, to eat in a completely unrestricted fashion, as I would only ever do it again very rarely. 

 As December melted into January I began, though my start was very shaky. I might have been eating slightly better, but I still had a few too many treats. However, by mid January I managed to put a stop to that and sorted out my diet a bit more. I've pretty much kept it up, though I'd be lying if I said I was completely healthy all the time. It's been incredibly difficult, and I've almost fallen off multiple times, but I'm determined not to give up. I don't think I've ever kept up any lifestyle change as long as I have this one, so I'm certainly proud of that. I don't push myself  very hard and I make sure I still enjoy my food, and less healthy foods are not forbidden either. I feel like these were major mistakes I made in the past and contributed greatly to me not being able to sustain my diet effectively. I hope to get even healthier, but I think it's important to take small steps and make small changes that are easy to take on board and incorporate into your daily life.

I've been unlucky on the job front (I don't know if the job market is tough or if I'm doing something wrong), but it ended up causing me a lot of stress, so I've decided the focus on other things as the high levels of stress were not doing pleasant things to my body! This blog is one of the biggest things I want to focus on (as well as my health), as I feel it will help me with the stress and give me something else to think about (other than what an awful mess this year has been). I'm really looking forward to getting it started.

My University Experience: http://deeperthanthestars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-mess-that-was-my-month-at-university.html

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog

A few months ago I decided that, since I had a lot of time to kill I should take the opportunity to improve my diet and lifestyle. It's something I'd always told myself I'd do, but had kind of ended up putting off. I'm pleased to say, about four moths later I haven't given up, which is honestly a bit of a shock. Having said that, I still constantly need motivation, and I guess that's the main reason I've created this blog. I'm hoping it'll serve as  reminder of what I've achieved and help me keep going, because it's something I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life. I'm also hoping that it will help motivate and/or inspire anyone else who is in the process of changing their lifestyle, or wants to change their lifestyle (especially if they're like me and have always struggled to make/maintain these changes).

I want to be completely honest and frank about my diet and lifestyle. I'll share lots of the good but I'll also share the not so good, the slip ups, the off days, the days I just feel like shit. I don't want this my whole lifestyle to revolve around losing weight, but I have to be honest, weight loss is a large part of what has motivated me and what continues to motivate me. I'll also post about things related to my lifestyle, such as physical and mental health, fashion and beauty.

I would like to emphasise that I am certainly not an expert in any way shape or form. I probably don't know what I'm talking about at all (though I will try and do as much research as I can), and my posts will be largely based on my own subjective experiences, which are completely relative to myself. I am learning, and this blog is a tool aiding this process.

This is the first of a few warm up pieces I'm posting as a bit of an introduction to my blog, my lifestyle and what I've achieved so far. This one is short and sweet, I really just wanted to say hi and welcome.