#BLOGTOBER - Day 12

Day 12

Best Advice I've Ever Been Given

Don't eat yellow snow?

Sorry, that joke was in bad taste... See what I did there?

I genuinely don't know what the best advice I've ever been given is. I guess a lot of the advice I received from my mum growing up was invaluable - if only I had listened at the time...

It's important to listen to advice from others. Especially from someone who has been through whatever it is they are advising you on. On the flip side of that, your decisions on big things should always be what is best for you.

Leading on from that, the best advice I have to give - which I have received in the past - is:

Sometimes you have to be a little bit selfish and think about yourself and what you need.

You can't always live for other people and for making other people happy, it doesn't work. You end up exhausting yourself and having zero energy to give. Occasionally taking that step back and asking yourself 'Actually, is this what's best for me and my needs?' is absolutely necessary.

I have a tendency to go along with whatever other people want, and to let them make decisions. I am working on speaking up and expressing my needs and wants in my relationships. A big part of this is saying no to social events that revolve around food. I am a bit of a food addict, so I really struggle with saying no when there are options to eat the unhealthy foods I love in front of me. And no, it isn't as easy as 'just order a salad/fish/[insert healthy option here]' because that option is not always available. This is an area in which I am trying to improve by following the advice above, and suggesting other things to do instead of going for a meal or having a BBQ.

An example of following this advice, I cancelled plans to see Mandrew this weekend because I'm so ill I can barely move. I haven't been this ill in a while and I hate it! Painful throat & chest & head, and zero energy. It's helping me to stay at home and get better, but also helping him by not subjecting him to my germs.

On the plus side of having this bug, I have plenty of time to blog and read blogs...

Tomorrow's prompt: 

Favourite Fall Recipe

Link up here

That Time We Made Cupcakes...

I have a sister. She's younger than me, the baby of the family as she likes to remind everybody... she is a little odd at times, and reminds me a lot of me. I tend to talk about her a lot, soooo it's no surprise that she spills over into my blog too...

One Saturday the parentals popped out, and Sisterbelle and I decided to spontaneously bake cupcakes. We raided the cupboards for ingredients, and settled into creating some vanilla cupcakes with buttercream icing. Omnom!

The cupcake part went brilliantly, they looked and smelt great, we got them out and got to making the buttercream icing. This is basically butter, and icing sugar. And butter. Because we ran out of icing sugar...we also decided to make the icing lilac.

so when we finally served the cupcakes, and ate them, they were a little...sickly?  veeerryy buttery. Of course we ate them all up anyway! 

Birthday Post

I am now 22. My birthday was on the 12th Feb (last Wednesday) and I really did not do a lot for it. I was sick as a...sick thing. So I was off work and bored out of my mind! The day was not very eventful, everyone was away at work\school so I pretty much just chilled out all day feeling ill.

The 12th Feb also happens to be the anniversary of when me and my wonderful boyfriend got together. This year is the 5 year mark, wows. So, being a wonderful boyfriend, A came over with a bunch of red roses just for me :) we hung out for a couple of hours watching TV, then he headed home.

Once my family were all back, we had my takeaway of choice (chicken kebabs) and watched Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. Then FINALLY it was time for cake and presents. My dad made my birthday cake, it was yuuummyy.

I received some lovely cards and presents, the two main presents were a Nexus 7 from the best boyfriend ever, and a SatNav from my parents-sounds a bit random, but this is an awesome present because I am currently doing driving lessons and I would have been looking to get one in a couple of months anyway! Thanks mum and dad :)

At the weekend me and le boyfriend went to see Matilda the musical, enjoyed it sooo much! I would recommend seeing it. On Saturday I went for a meal with some friends at Chimichanga on Saturday night. On Sunday I went on a hike to train for BenNevis. You can read about my hike soon on here: BekBek

As of now I'm still ill, and hoping to fell better ASAP. I've had a great weekend and enjoyed my birthday despite feeling unwell.

Here's hoping for a good week of work, gym and getting back to normality!

My Christmas

I've seen lots of blogging about Christmas routines and whatnot, so I figured why not!

Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is my sister's birthday. We always try to make it special for her, so she doesn't get over-shadowed by Christmas too much! We do her presents in the morning, then spend the day playing with/using them. This year her main present was a blue violin, which she was extremely pleased with! Consequently we spent the day learning to play it! Later on she had her choice of take away-Chinese. In previous years we would go to the panto, but as sisterbell got older and tickets harder to get, we stopped going. (Which is a shame as I love a bit of panto!) in the evening we have family movie time, which is usually a new film on Filmflex that none of has seen yet. And, of course, this is accompanied by nibbles!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning I get woken up by my sister super early. It's a Christmas tradition from when we were all really small to open our stockings together. We used to do this with our parents as well, but as we got a bit older me and my siblings convene in one of our bedrooms and do it (so my parents can sleep for a little bit longer!!). My brother doesn't do this with us anymore (he prefers sleeping too) so it's just K and me. As we share a bedroom I don't get a choice in the matter! Once this is done, We sneak downstairs to see what Santa has brought during the night, and make tea to wake up the parentals with. usually. This year K couldn't wait so she went to wake them up before going downstairs. This year we did presents before breakfast, K passed the pressies out and we watched each other open them. then we had a lovely continental breakfast. Super yum! 

During the day we explore our presents and use/play with them, and pop on some Christmas TV or films. I also help with the Christmas dinner (sometimes!). Christmas dinner kicks off with crackers, jokes and paper hats. Then we eat to our hearts content! Afterwards we clean up, and have some yummy dessert-this year it was chocolate Birthday cake! One of my favorite Christmas things is having cheese and biscuits with my Dad. It's something we only ever do at Christmas, and I'm a huge cheese lover. 

In the evening it's time for boards games and movies, usually another new movie from Filmflex! with, of course, lots of nibbles! 

That more or less rounds off my christmas. It may not sound like much, but I love it all the same! 

P.S. I was very lucky to receive some lovely pressies this year. I got LOTS of socks I love socks, I don't know why ; a dress, top, chocolate, bath  fizzers, a photo calendar, a photo coaster, money, a necklace, makeup, more chocolate...the list goes on. 

I had a lovely Christmas and received some lovely gifts, and I am looking forward to next Christmas already!!

Work-Related Jargon

I like my job.

It's based in London, and the people are all great, and I'm gaining some good experience. The commute is a bit of a pain at times, but at other times it's great because I can read uninterrupted for an hour! Additional to reading time, once I procure a tablet I can catch up on the monumental list of TV programs I need to watch! (I will list these at another time!) I could, of course, use my laptop. However I don't fancy carrying this around with me!

Another (debatable) good thing about work is the weekly food shop. yay for free food! We order food for the office, which generally consists of tea, coffee, bagels, alcohol and biscuits. (and various breakfast & luncheon items). Now, I love biscuits. I could eat a whole packet to myself very easily. Can you spot the problem? 

I have no willpower. At all. This is why I'm fat.

So having biscuits just sitting in the kitchen is not helping! I'm not eating packets of them (obviously-that would squander the office's biscuit supply!) but it is still so unbelievably tempting to eat them. Om Nom Nom. To avoid the biscuits I am attempting to eat fruit to fill me up. This doesn't always work, as when I am waiting for my lunch to finish cooking/toasting/whatnot I reach for the biccys out of boredom & hunger!

Such a derp-head.

I will never fit into any of my old wardrobe at this rate...

Chocolate

I recently decided to give up a favorite food each month. I have a friend who does this, and I thought it was a good idea, so now im doing it too!

This month I have given up chocolate (until Christmas). I created a table with what I was giving up each month, and my goal weight for that month. I haven't been finding this too difficult so far, however I havent come across any cravings for it thus so far. Apart from wanting a cookie from subway, but only because I saw them when buying my other half's dinner.

I think this will become more difficult as time goes by, especially in the run up to Christmas. Speaking of which, my boyfriend has akready bought chocolate to go in my advent calender. DILEMMA. I need to decide if im allowed to have them or it I have to save them up until Christmas... (Clearly I didn't think this through when deciding chocolate was this month!)

New Start, Again.

Back from holidayland! wooo! But of course, now I have to face facts and lose the holiday weight, as well as the rest of my weight! The good news is I lost half a stone before going, but put it back on again. Hopefully it will be relatively easy to drop it off again!

Started the 30 Day Shred (again!) and have made a tracker which is proudly bluetacked to the wall along with a weight tracker. Have also taken before pics, and will be taking after pics, when I finish it! (Which I will this time! I WILL!) Doing this with my sister/personal trainer ;) who is very strict. Mostly.

Food diaries are back in effect as of today, and healthy eating will commence!

Exciting.

I have my graduation in October, and am planning on looking a lot less like a marshmallow. A ton of clothes and dresses waiting to be worn is another reason to stick to this. Also, I don't like being this big! It will change! IT WILL. The End.

I'd like to get running too, but I think I'll need to work up to that again. Most definitely. In the heat though...may end up dying!

I'm gutted that swimming is so expensive, had a blast in the swimming pools while on holiday! Would love to swim regularly, I'd have a better chance of sticking to it if it were cheaper and easier to get to!

To conclude, I'm restarting 30DS and food diary, and I am going to be thin. One day.

My New Personal Trainer...

I seem to have acquired a personal trainer.

She has been on at me for a while about losing weight, and moaning at me about weigh-ins and reminding me that my holiday is coming up.

She broached the subject of food diaries which we are now doing every day.

Today she forced me to do a workout (30DS) even though I was tired and wasn't really up for it.

She has also decided that we will now be drinking green tea as it is good for you.

As well as all this, she informed me that when I get a job I will be buying Shakeology/protein shakes for us and doing more workouts.

She also lives with me.

My (not so much) Baby sister has transformed into my own personal demon!

Life and other stuff

Officially moved out of uni and finished all education! finished with a 2:1 which was a very awesome surprise!

So, as you can imagine I've been very busy with packing and moving and working. I got a job that started as soon as I moved back home, doing door to door selling. Now, I was a bit dubious about doing this but decided to give it a go anyway and hey - exercise, right? I lasted a week, left on friday. Not something for me, I believe you need to have the gift of charm and likability to do door to door, as well as being able to not take it to heart when people say no to you all the time and slam the door in your face. Its a hard, draining job which I didn't feel was for me, but I do admire those who stick to it.

Now I am an unemployed student, one of many! Hoping things will pick up soon.

One downside of quitting is missing out on the exercise I was getting. To rectify this, I have started doing the 30 Day Shred again! I'm doing this with my sister, alongside food diaries to keep track of what we are eating! The last time I did 30DS was in February, just before I hurt my ankle and ceased all exercise for a while. The next couple of weeks are going to be a strict regime up to my holiday (soo excited) and I'm hoping to lose a significant amount!

Holiday Countdown: 14 Days

YumYums!

Stayed with my Bessie recently, and she made the most confusing cookies.
They were protein gluten-free cookies. And they tasted GREAT.

The recipe: Click Here!   

very yummy, and low on saturated fats. high on protein, so they are great for an after-gym treat!

Close Friend/Worst Enemy?

Oh heyyy!

I was thinking a lot today about me, and my weight, and how I react to friends trying to help me with this. Friends (and boyfriend) who are intending to help by making comments like 'should you really be eating that?' when I'm contemplating something yummy can sometimes have the opposite effect. Especially if I am feeling naff about myself already, and their comment just highlights it and make me feel worse, then I overeat anyway because I am an emotional eater. Vicious cycle.

Therefore, I humbly request that my friends, family and boyfriend no longer comment about things like this, and allow me to do this my way. I want the weight loss to be my achievement, something I did myself. Granted, not all of my friends make comments like this, and some are great to chat to about weight ETC, but at times I just feel like saying...if I don't ask for your opinion, then please don't comment on my choices. KTHANX.