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.