American Dreaming!

Hi lovelies!

A quick post ofr you today, mainly a few snaps!
I have a friend in America who I met when I went there a few years ago for uni for a couple of months. It was an amazing experience and she also came over to Britain to do her Masters too so that was fun. We often send each other things every couple of months to try and get our favourite things from each others countries which is obviously very handy for blogging!

I sent her over a few things such as face wash, Girls Aloud Eylure lashes, Rimmel mascaras and of course...........Cadbury's chocolate!

This was what I received:

Look at all that bad food!!!!

I went to M's the other night for food ( a LUSH healthy fish stew yummm!) and we finished the evening by eating some Pop Tarts. I'd never tried them before and can't say i would again....the fudge flavour is nothing like fudge whatsoever! I think I've just weaned myself off sugar and this doesn't taste right anymore!

The Oreos i plan on eating with some amazing peanut butter though as I hear its the way the Americans do it....and it would be rude not to!

As far as products are concerned she sent my favourite face scrub from a Neutrogena range that we don't have here, two Essie polishes I asked for and China Glaze Christmas 2013 set. So much glitter!

I always love seeing the names of the polishes in these sets! I can't wait to get them on my nails even though its nowhere near Christmas anymore, glitter isn't just for the festive season you know!

This face scrub is one of my uber faves and I'm gutted we can't get our hands on it over here. The rice protein really does absorb oil for hours on end and when I was there i didn't even wear make up because my skin cleared up with the help of the sun and this beauty!

The Essie polishes were Leading Lady and Stylenomics. LL was a limited edition polish for us Brits last year and i was so gutted i didn't get a full size one but found on the american website that they were still selling it! I was very pleased as you can imagine!
Stylenomics is a gorgeous dark green that I cannot wait to wear, it's a classic colour that should go with a lot of things now and in future.

Are you as lucky as me and have a contact in the US who can send you things? She's sent me EOS balls and many other things and I'm hoping it will continue for a few years to come!

What would you choose for them to send you? I'd love to go back over there and have a spree! I'd hate to think how much I'd spend!

L xxx

Fitness Fridays: Top Tips for Changing your Diet into a Lifestyle (2)

Hello!
Another post for 'Fitness Friday's, I hope you're looking forward to the weekend as much as me! I'm heading to body pump tomorrow morning which I'm really looking forward to after missing it for almost 4 weeks!
You can see the other posts I've written so far on this link if you enjoy reading this one.


As mentioned previously, I'm no fitness coach or nutritionist but I've found these tips and small changes have helped me, and maybe they'll help you too :)

6) Liquids - water is the best liquid you could need because it hydrates you, flushes out toxins and is a vital component in our bodies needs. 2L is the best amount and more if you've exercised that day. I now take a bottle to work with me and keep it on my desk and drink one in the morning and one in the afternoon to know that I've consumed 1400ml and then I get the rest from peppermint tea or at home after work. My trainer told me that for every tea/coffee you need a cup of water to hydrate yourself again which was scary at the time but herbal teas don't require this so I've swapped a few round.
Generally though just avoid the fizzy sugary drinks of any kind. Normal ones contain tonnes of sugar, diet ones contain chemicals that are just as bad. It frustrates me when people work hard at the gym to then drink Coke or Fanta, what is the point?!

7) Swap your carbs. Perfectly simple, swap your white carbs for brown ones. Brown rice, wholewheat pasta, granary and wholemeal bread. Easy to do, tastes minimally different but will save you a whole load of chemical refining and you'll feel fuller for longer as it takes your body longer to digest. I try and minimise the amount of bread I eat too as the yeast makes you bloat out, swap toast for porridge for your breakfast if your having sandwiches for lunch so you're not having too much.


8) Don't shop on an empty stomach. Shopping for food whilst you're hungry will result in you buying twice as much and more of the bad stuff, trust me I've done it plenty of times in uni and regretted it! All of the healthy stuff went off and had to be thrown out and so I'd wasted money and eaten rubbish.

9) Make sure your plate is as colourful as possible. The bigger the variation in colour of veg on your plate will give you a bigger range of nutrients and you'll be more likely to eat it. Try adding carrots, red peppers, spinach, beetroot etc etc to a meal to vary the colour and avoid having brown coloured foods on your plate as they're usually processed crap (apart from those complex carbs I mentioned before!

10) Sign yourself up for challenges. One of my new favourite website is 30 Day Fitness Challenges which have all kinds of challenges such as squats, arms, abs, little black dress and beach body ones. Each day you follow their set plans and you will see differences. I've signed up to a load of them and will probably feature them in a post soon as I've been loving their workouts!
If you're looking for something different why not volunteer for a charity run as there's plenty of 5k, 10k runs leading to half and full marathons.
I've never done any of them and decided that I'd just go for it and signed up for Tough Mudder which is a 12 mile assault course involving mud, ice baths, climbing, fire and electrocution. go hard or go home right?? I'm really looking forward to it as it should be fun but it's also pushing me to go to the gym every week and work harder than I have before.

I hope that some of these can help you to change your diet and ultimately lifestyle slowly. It takes a long time and a lot of commitment but if you really want something you'll get it if you're prepared to work for it!

I'm still training for tough mudder which is in 6 months now. My fitness and weights have been going really well but my running has been awful because of the weather. In a few weeks the evenings will be light enough for me to run after work so I'm hoping that I can just go for it then and fingers crossed it won't seem like such a mammoth task!

What would your top tips be? Have you singed up to any challenges?

L xxx

25 Before 26 Update

Good morning!

A few months ago I wrote a post about me wanting to get a load of things off my 101 things in 1001 days list checked off. I've been a bit rubbish and now that there's only a few weeks of March left (my birthday is on the 26th) it's time to panic!

I've copied my list below and crossed off what I've done and edited a few things....

Here's my 25:

1: Visit another place in the UK, my aim is 5 and I've ticked off 2 - Visiting North Wales next weekend to catch up with friends. She's just bought a new house up there so technically I've not been there before, this can be checked off!

2: Read 4 Classic Books. 20 was my aim and I've only read 1 so far. First is Robin Hood

3: Second is Frankenstein, I've heard its a great story and a complete classic

4:I also plan on reading the real Beauty and the Beast

5: The real Jungle Book

6: Wuthering Heights

7: Treasure Island

8: Dracula

9: and lastly the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. This is quite a list.....fingers crossed I get some time off soon! - Basically I've read none of these, but I have read the Hobbit which counts as a classic!

10: Try 2 new foods. My aim is 10, surely 2 more can be done over Christmas! - Mushroom Pate and Watercress done!

11: Visit an art gallery; cannot think where this will be but I'll have to find one - this has not happened. I'm going to have to find one near me!

12: Give blood - this is simple and I have to fit this in somewhere; maybe on a week off - Week off at the end of March I will make sure this happens.

13: Work harder at toning up - Attending the gym 5 times a week and have my weigh in at the end of March with my trainer....eek!

14: I'd like to try rock climbing, it's supposed to be a great way to tone your upper body and I'd love to give it a go. There's an indoor climbing centre in Cardiff so I think I'll start there - Money is an issue here, think I'll have to drag my family along and maybe they'll pay...if only!

15: Start yoga/pilates - Still haven't tried a class now either! Easy to rectify this though.

16: Gorge walking - a fun day out that my dad and brother also want to do, winner! Family time will always be a good thing. Think this one is for the summer instead of February!

17. Running 10k is something that terrifies me but i have to get there to complete other challenges! The original challenge for this got cancelled but by the end of March I plan on running more than once a week as it will be light enough when I get home from work.

18: Go ziplining - courtesy of a Groupon deal me and M have bought tickets and will be booking in for April / May time.

19:Go to a gig - Still nothing planned but fingers crossed something fun will come along.

20: Learn to cook something new, one of each sweet and savoury. This hasn't happened yet but I plan on learning to make lasagne and a kind of cake that I can take into work for my birthday.

21: Continue to plough through the excess of 'stuff' in my possession - This a slow and painful process, it's not going well!

22: Learn basic things to fix on a car - The winter has been a learning curve with my first car; snow, ice, window chips, torrential rain, flooding and fallen trees. Still learning....a lot!

23: Go to London over Christmas - This was AWESOME! Me and my mum had such a great time having an indulgent wander, we will definitely be going again next year.

24: Visit an Antique or Vintage Fair - am yet to attend one of these too, maybe one of my friends who has just bought a house would like a wander.

25: Write a short story. I don't think this will ever happen if I'm honest but I would still love to do it.

What do you think of my list? Achievable?

Do you have a list of tasks you'd like to achieve by a certain date?
Do you have an tips for achieving them all??


Send me any links you have to your own lists, I love reading them!

L xxx

Origins Morning to Midnight Set

Morning chums!

For Christmas I bought myself a lot of goodies in the sales and pre Christmas deals. One of those things was the Morning to Midnight set from Origins that the lovely lady in store told me I couldn't leave without....so I didn't.

It was a gorgeous set of 4 products in really cute boxes that my mum now has proudly in the spare room housing crafty bits; she's happy so I'm happy!

I've previously posted about Ginzing Eye Cream and the Drink Up Intensive overnight mask so I'll concentrate on the other two new products (to me) which are the Ginzing Energy Boosting Moisturiser and the High Potency Night-A-Mins mineral enriched renewal cream. Cue some fancy photos:

The High Potency Night A Mins (HP as it will now be called because I cannot type that out every time!) is a seriously thick night cream that comes in one of the standard Origins pots as shown below:

I'd heard some rave reviews about this but before I didn't think my skin needed such a thick and hydrating cream. Boy oh boy was I wrong. My skin is obviously at the stage of needing some serious moisture pumped into it, I'm clearly starting to get to that age where the wrinkles will start and my skin look pretty drab. Hopefully by using this beauty it will slow down considerably now that its getting so much hydration and vitamins/minerals galore.

This smells absolutely divine like most Origins products and I can see myself repurchasing this in future because of the wonderful effects and no negative effects. My t-zone hasn't been overloaded at all and although that wouldn't affect much as its an overnight cream i still don't want to knock the balance out.

Thumbs up from me!

Ginzing is no different in the smell stakes - it's absolutely gorgeous and a really light white gel cream that sinks into skin almost instantly.
It's so light and hydrating which I think is the key to an energy boosting and brightening moisturiser, I feel it allows the skin's natural glow to shine through which is vital in making yourself look younger....right?

I do generally like the whole Ginzing range and am already a fan of the eye cream. The packaging is also a happy and brightening colour too which also helps.

I'd happily buy all of these items again in future, have you tried any of them?
Which was your favourite?

I love picking up these sets, such a great opportunity to try new products and they're always at a discounted price! What's not to love!

L xxx