// FROM COUCH POTATO TO A HEALTHIER ME //

I've always been someone who has struggled immensely with my relationship with food and my body image and it took me a long time to realise that nothing changes overnight so I have to remain positive about these things. My first year at university was filled with junk food, excessively amounts of alcohol and lazying around watching stupid amounts of Netflix series', and of course this had a knock on effect on my weight, health and now, has impacted on my self esteem. But, don't think that this post will just be me feeling sorry for myself, oh no, this is to note down the goals I have set myself as of today. I'm making a change for me, but I'm hoping you'll join me on this journey! 

GOALS 

More water. I drink so much tea/coffee, and the occasional energy drink/fizzy drink and it has to reduce significantly. I can get through anything from 1 to 6-8 cups of tea/coffee everyday, so I aim to replace this with water. I'll never be able to give up my morning cup of tea with my breakfast but I want to keep a pint glass with me when I'm in the house, this way I can keep sipping and refilling all day. An easy change to make but one which will help improve my skin and keep me hydrated. 

3 main meals a day and healthier snacks. I love cooking but make the mistake of going for convenience over consistency when it comes to meals, mainly lunches. (I need to step away from the supernoodles) I go for the quick option instead of planning ahead (I'll come onto that later) so I want to start having proper meals and healthier snacks. It's an easy swap from the likes of pizza/chocolate to pasta salad and a banana. It will keep me fuller for longer and make me feel good on the inside too!

More exercise. I aim to complete at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, it doesn't have to be all from one activity, it can be a combination of many. It's easy to complete exercise in my house too, via youtube videos or even running up and down the stairs, but I want to get outside more too. I'm hoping to go on more country walks/runs and maybe even start going to the gym once I'm back at university and can easily access it and pay for a membership. Hopefully I can get my family/friends and boyfriend involved too. 

More 'clean' foods. This kinda follows on from '3 meals a day and healthier snacks' but I want to stop eating all those horrible prepacked ready meals, etc, they contain next to no nutrition and I always feel bloated and sick after I eat them. So why I do, I have no idea! 

Prep and plan meals. To stop running to the convenience food, I need to start planning what meals I'm going to have. It will be a little more difficult while I'm still living at home over the summer, but once I go back to university I can really plan ahead with my shopping. When it comes to lunches, I can easily find time in a morning to prepare something in advance so it's easily grabbed out of the fridge ready to eat there and then or take in a lunchbox to uni/days out or wherever I'm going. 

Get up earlier. In order to fit in more exercise/cooking, I need to get up earlier. The days of lying in bed until midday (or sometimes all day...) watching TV and slobbing about are over! I need to start getting up at a reasonable hour, going to bed earlier and just getting motivated for the day. 

MEAL IDEAS

Breakfast:-

•   A small banana cup up topped with greek yoghurt (2 tablespoons) and a handful of granola. (could also add a teaspoon of honey drizzled over)
•   Fruit with greek yoghurt. (eg. Apples, peaches, banana, strawberries, blueberries)
•   Fruit smoothie.
•   Green smoothie.

Lunch:-

•   Chicken breast with salad (lettuce leaves, cucumber, bell peppers)
•   Pasta salad – tuna/chicken/salmon & lettuce leaves and veggies.
•   Meat/Fish (chicken/tuna/white fish) with rice and veggies (broccoli, peas)
•   Pesto pasta (could add salami/chicken/mushrooms)
•   Ham, salad wholemeal sandwich

Dinner:-

•   Pasta dishes (bolognese, tomato sauce, crab pasta, chicken and lemon linguine)
•   Chicken, rice/potatoes and veggies.
•   Wholemeal pitta pizza
•   Homemade chicken/vegetable curry
•   Cottage pie
•   Chilli and rice
•   Homemade fish cakes
•   Turkey meatballs

(Picture is linked via pinterest.)

EXERCISE IDEAS

At home:-

•   YouTube videos
•   Circuit training
•   Running stairs
•   Crunches and Squats
•   Yoga

Outside:-

•   Walk more – less relying on public transport/lifts
•   Jogging
•   Bike rides
•   Country walks with family/friends
•   Sports

SUPPORT NETWORK

I’m looking for anyone who has similar goals with their lifestyle and wants to join me on this and support each other. It doesn’t matter if your goals are exactly the same or slightly different but I’d love someone with a positive attitude to chat to and share recipes/exercise plans/tips with. It’s as much for you, as for me. Feel free to comment on this post and we can communicate via twitter/email/whatever method we can both agree on!

UPDATE POSTS

I want to keep my blog updated with how I’m getting on so I intend to write blog posts at regular intervals (perhaps every fortnight/month) to keep track of my progress. I want to be able to look back on this when I’m feeling a little demotivated and find inspiration and remember what I’ve achieved. This way I can share my favourite meals, exercise routines, what I need to improve on and anything else motivational to help me along. (quotes, etc)

I’m so happy to finally be getting back into my healthier routine and I can’t wait to feel and look better. It’s gonna be tough but I’m ready for this. *insert bicep emoji* ;)

// SUMMER DRUGSTORE HAUL //

I'm a massive fan of the 'first impressions' style post so instead of the usual haul where you just say why you bought stuff, I thought I'd combine the two and that way it's a little more interesting for you all. 

real techniques duo-fibre collection //

I am a big lover of the Real Techniques brushes as they are amazing quality, affordable prices and easy to find in any town with a Boots/Superdrug. I've had my eye on the duo-fibre collection for quite a while and just couldn't put it off any longer. I am once again, not disappointed as they are fabulous. There is a face brush, contour brush and eye brush so you're pretty much covered and each one blends product flawlessly. I've only used them with powder based product (setting powder, contour powder and powder eyeshadow) but they work like a dream. This leaves me with a few more brushes which can be multi purpose (the RT contour brush used for blending concealor, for example) and means my setting powder can be effortlessly, but lightly dusted over oily patches during the summer months. 

l'oreal studio line #txt wave creating spray //

I've already tried and loved the Volume Supersizing Spray from the range so thought I''d give this new addition a go. It's a bit like a salt spray, giving 'lived in' textured hair and is meant to be used in conjunction with heat. At a first go, I sprayed this on my already curled hair and it gave a nice tousled wavey look, it held pretty well and with a bit of back combing, would have looked even better. The directions are to spray this into damp hair and blow dry a little, twist into buns and secure with clips, and then blow dry until completely dry. I'm sure this method would work extra well, and I can imagine the effect lasting longer. 

garnier bb cream for combination/oily skin //

In my past experience of BB creams they didn't work for me because of my oily skin and I ended up a shiny mess after only a few hours, so after I was recommended this BB cream for oily skin, it quickly went onto my wishlist. I tried this BB cream on this bright Sunday morning as I don't have many plans so if I had turned into an oily mess it wouldn't be a total disaster. First of all, the colour is okay, with only 2 shades in the range (Light and Medium) I had little to no choice, but being NC13 in MAC foundations I undoubtedly went for the lighter shade which is a little too warm toned and dark for me but I just used a tiny bit at a time. The coverage is quite good, better than I expected, light at  first but easily buildable and once concealor and powder are applied, I'm happy with the finish. I used the Collection Lasting Perfection concealor in the lightest shade which helped to brighten my undereyes and lighten the overall tone of the BB cream. It lasts around 5/6 hours before I need a touch up of powder so for a BB cream, so I have to say, I'm pretty impressed (although this will obviously vary on the heat, your individual skin, etc). Then powder on my oily areas to help set and hopefully keep oil at bay. I have to say, my skin looks really good all things considered (spots and redness) and I feel like I have a bit of a 'glow' compared to my usual full coverage foundation and I'm glad I've switched for summer. 

rimmel apocalips 'aurora' //

Liquid lipsticks have been frequently mentioned in the blogger world recently so I thought it was about time I tried one. With many offerings such as Bourjois, L'Oreal and Rimmel I chose based on which colour I fancied and Aurora caught my eye. It's a pink toned red which suits any eye makeup whether dark and smoky or bright and bronze so suitable for both summer and winter. The pigmentation is excellent and the lasting power not too bad either so for the price I'm happy. 

// SUMMER CUT //

After much debate and searching around Instagram for inspiration, I finally decided to go to the hairdressers and get shorter locks for summer.

before //

When poker straight my hair reached to just under my boobs (can I say boobs?) and despite a few longer (and very grown out) layers, it didn't have a lot of shape. The ends were dead and overall I just needed a freshen up so I finally took the plunge and booked an appointment. 

after //

I simply explained how long I wanted the overall length, asked for some long layering and feathering to frame my face. Simple! I'm so happy with how it turned out. It's going to take some serious getting used to but I'm so happy with the end result. 

I think I might do a 'How I style my hair' style blog post if anyone would be interested at all? It'll take me a few weeks to figure out how I style it myself but would be an easy but informative post to write. I could throw in my hair care routine for good measure too. 

// ALL ABOUT BROWS //

I was recently inspired by the wonderful Anna from ViviannaDoesMakeup and her video about her brow history and thought I'd create a blog post sharing photo's of how my eyebrows have come to what they are today and how I keep them in check! So be prepared for a few embarrassing photos and a few brow disasters...

June 2011 - Year 11 prom

So these are the brows I started with, pretty bushy, literally no shape but a tad sparse in areas and this is how they stayed until I realised just how horrific they were and that everyone around me was taming theirs and I wasn't.

Although despite this, it took until January 2013 to finally ‘borrow’ my Mum’s tweezers and give plucking a go. After watching numerous YouTube videos and gaining inspiration from some of my favourite beauty bloggers/vloggers I ended up with this…

Yeah, over plucked into a rounded line and then filled in with a rogue brown eyeshadow I had. But I remember this day so well, I went into town with my Mum and felt über confident with my new brows. If only I knew how awful they looked.

In February 2013 they improved slightly, with a little more shape as I begun growing them out a little, but still I was apparently a fan of the arched line, but not in a stylish way.

In May 2013 I bought a MAC 266 brush which transformed my brows no end and by July 2013 I had an actual shape to my brows, hurrah! I was well in the depths of filling them in with MAC’s Charcoal Brown eyeshadow and to be honest, they don’t look too bad.

But instead of leaving them be, according to this photo I wanted a more ‘square’ shape to the fronts, but this was the complete wrong way of going about it.

By October I’d realised the error of my ways and they look alright again. I had dark hair at this point so loved a strong dark brow. They looked okay, but a little too unnatural for my current liking.

June 2014 saw a lighter hand with my shadow and a good arch which was a great improvement and I like how my brows look here.

These are two recent photos where I am pretty happy with how my brows look, although they are obviously given a little nudge with the help of some shadow, they don’t look ‘drawn on’ with the likes of a dark brown pencil so I’m satisfied.

As I'm growing out to my natural light brown hair, I use a MAC 266 with Charcoal Brown eyeshadow to start and create the main shape and arch of my brown but focus the product mainly on the underside of my brows and the tail end. Then I simply use ‘Naked 2’ shadow from the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette to build up the fronts and top edge of my brows. I feel like this works well and gives the effect I desire. For now, this is how I want my brows and seems to be fairly ‘on trend’ with the bushy brow look. I’ll never have wonderfully busy brows but at least I can give a little of that effect and keep them looking tamed and in check. I don’t wax or thread, simply pluck any stray hairs every 4 days or so, this way I’m still growing them as much as I can from my 2013 disaster but keep them looking neat and tidy.

// CAKE POPS //

Yes, I've jumped onto the 'cake pop' badwagon and as a first attempt I just went as simple as possible to avoid a complete disaster! I'm actually quite happy with how they turned out and can't wait to make them again and mix up the toppings.

for 30 (ish) cake pops, you will need //

• 110g self raisng flour
• 110g caster sugar
• 110g unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• a few drops of vanilla extract

for the topping //

For this I used melted chocolate and icing (made from icing sugar and water mixed together). It's a little trial and error in getting the consistency right so just bare with it and experiment! I then just sprinkled on some 'raspberry fudge balls' and 'sugar sprinkles' which I bought from Lakeland. But you can use whatever you like, be creative!

method //

1. Preheat the oven to 180°c/Gas Mark 4 and lightly grease the moulds.
2. Place the butter and caster sugar in a large bowl and beat (with an electric mixer if preferred) until soft and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs.
3. Sift in the flour and then using a metal spoon, fold in gently. 
4. Spoon the mixture into the moulds (one teaspoon per round) and bake in the pre-heated oven for 18-22 minutes. To check if they are done, poke in a skewer - if it comes out clean, then they are ready. Transfer to a wire rack and let them cool.
5. Make your toppings (ie, mix icing/melt chocolate, etc) and once the cakes have cooled, dip the end of each stick into the icing/chocolate and poke into the bottom of the cake until you reach half way. Stand in polystyrene (or I used floral foam) and place in the fridge for 10-15 minutes for it to harden.
6. Remove from the fridge and cover with icing/sprinkles/topping of your choice. Place back in the fridge until ready to eat!

// 20 FACTS ABOUT ME //

One of the most popular post on my blog is my '20 pretty pointless facts about me' written aaaaages ago so I thought it was about time I updated it, gave you some new facts and some updated pictures!

1 // My favourite meal is breakfast and I love to have natural yoghurt and a banana topped with granola, and a cup of tea.

2 // I passed my driving test in June 2013 and haven't driven since! I'm pretty scared to get behind the wheel again, but also quite excited to have even more independence.

3 // I constantly have cold feet. Even in summer.

4 // I can't wait to have my own class of children to teach. My dream is getting oh-so closer (only 3 more years until I'm qualified) and I'm so excited for what the future holds.

5 // If you can make me laugh, I'll almost certainly like you lots and want us to be friends. Laughter is the best medicine!

6 // I'm a complete weirdo. Which you'll soon find out if you get to know me. But weird is unique and good, right?

7 // When watching the TV or listening to music, the volume has to be on an even number. No if's, no but's.

8 // I'm trying to improve my photography skills but am afraid of taking my Canon 1100d out and about with me, for fear of it getting stolen/lost.

9 // Cherry Coke is my favourite fizzy drink. I adore it. *runs to the corner shop to buy a can... or two...*

10 // The last time I went on an aeroplane was 4 years ago when I went on a pilgrimage with my church to Assissi, in Italy. I really want to travel and visit more places in the future.

11 // I am hardly ever late for anything because I get really anxious about not being on time. Especially for trains.

12 // My birthday is the 18th of May and although I used to get extremely excited as a child, I don't feel the same excitement now I'm older.

13 // I grew up in the Midlands, and have lived in the same house all my life (until I moved out to go to university)

14 // One of my favourite books is 'One Day' by David Nicholls. The film is also amazing, highly recommend!

15 // I was born on a Thursday. 

16 // I've only ever been a bridesmaid once, and that was for my Mum when I was 11.

17 // I love Cornwall and it's coastline because I have so many fond memories of family holidays there. 

18 // I can't wait to start a family, get married and have children. (not for another 5+ years though, hold your horses)

19 // I have watched the Shaytards vlogs every single day for the last 4 years! 

20 // I found it really difficult to think of 20 facts about me!

// WHAT'S ON MY FACE 16.07.14 //

BASE // 
A solid base of The Body Shop Instablur Primer which prolongs my makeup even further, combined with MAC Studio Fix Fluid which gives even and full coverage. To conceal my dark circles and any spots I used Seventeen Phwoaar Paint which is a fabulous budget buy. All set with Rimmel Stay Matte Powder (not pictured). To bronzed using the MUA Bronzed Perfection (not pictured) and then used a little of Rimmel Santa Rose blush on the apples of my cheeks.

EYES //
I filled in my brows with a MAC 266 brush and Charcoal Brown eyeshadow from MAC and then primed my lids with MAC paintpot in Painterly. A quick swipe of Satin Taupe all over my lid and blended out and then swiped under my eyes for a slight smoke. I used Vanilla in my inner corners and brow bone for highlight. A slight wing on my eyeliner using L'Oreal Super Liner which is a recent purchase to help me fall in love with eyeliner again, it didn't disappoint. A few coats of MAC's Zoom Fast Black Lash for lasting drama and an intense black.

LIPS //
My favourite MAC lipstick, Crosswires (not pictured) which goes with any eye makeup or outfit whether it be day or nightime. I adore it.