Body Revamp - Week One

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I am currently attempting to get healthy. At the grand old age of 24, I have come to the realisation that now is a good time to try and kick some of my bad habits. I used the New Year as a starting point for this.

Some of my goals for becoming a healthier person include -

• Sticking to the recommended calorie intake 
• Eating healthy food
• Only drinking alcohol on special occasions
• Taking my make up off before I go to bed - I know, I should have been doing that already 
• Trying to cut out sugary drinks - I'm failing this. 
• Exercising more - walking, zumba, yoga

I have downloaded a great app called My Fitness Pal. I saw it mentioned in a blog recently and thought it sounded fantastic and kept telling people about it. Awkward moment when everyone already knew about it and told me I was a bit behind there. 

But anyway, if there is anyone else that like me, is not down with the kids, I recommend this app. 

If you are looking to improve your eating habits, I have found it is very helpful to keep a record of what you are eating. With this app you record each meal, plus snacks and water intake. It also keeps track of the distance you walk - obviously when you are holding your phone, its not THAT magic. My favourite feature is that you can scan barcodes on food packaging to record it.

Food

One of my main aims is to control my eating. I love food. Pizza and curry are my weakness, and my portion sizes are ridiculous. I envy people that actually enjoy eating healthy food. My goal is to discover how to cook and enjoy healthy food. I'm not going to completely cut out bad food, because I would just fail. 

This week so far, I have been focusing on my calorie intake and making sure I have a good breakfast. Breakfast is so important and I often find myself skipping. I have found eggs to be a quick and healthy breakfast and also you can have them in a variety of ways. Scrambled, poached and boiled are my favourites. Mix with spinach, smoked salmon or mushrooms and you are creating a yummy and nutritious breakfast. 

My biggest challenge yet is lunch. I work in an office and do not have the facilities to cook. Sandwiches are an option, however I am trying to avoid too much bread. Yesterday I had a salad, but it didn't travel well and it wasn't enjoyable. However my day did improve, as I made the most delicious Thai Green Curry. I used Chicken and lots of vegetables, as well as brown rice for that extra healthy kick! And to be completely honest, I could not taste the difference with the rice, compared to normal rice. I also added some hot curry powder to give it a kick. I had initially intended to make my own sauce, following a recipe from one of my new books. However that goes into another story that resolves around stock cubes and Sainsburys stupid store layout!!

Exercise

This is going to be my biggest challenge. I'm not the most active person in the world. I have joined and quit the gym too many times to count.  For Christmas I asked for a Zumba DVD and I previously purchased Charlotte Crosby's Belly Blitz. These will be my starting points for exercise. I also am aiming to go on at least one long walk a week (weather dependant of course). This week I have chosen to go to Kilve Beach at the weekend. Kilve is a pebble beach and can be great for finding fossils. I felt this would make it more fun and less like exercise.

Lifestyle
My first big change of the year is that I have got myself a new job. I had been job hunting for a while, as my current job was bringing unnecessary negativity not my life.The job is based in my hometown and is more relevant to what I like doing (its still admin based). I will also have less of a commute which will be much more convenient. I'm still not really sure what it is I want to do with my life, as I don't think the all expenses paid travel bloggers are hiring at the moment, but if I'm in a happier environment, I will be closer to finding out. 

Happy New Year

Its the beginning of January and we are all a little depressed that Christmas is over. January is the month everyone claims will be the start of a 'new person', but really we are all exactly the same as before.

Last year I made a resolution to 'say yes' more often. And I was successful. I ate food I had never tried before, and went to places I had never been before.

This year I haven't set myself a resolution, but I have set myself tasks.

• To learn how to poach an egg
• To master the eyeliner flick on myself
• To go on at least two holidays abroad
• To move out of my parents house
• To progress my career

If I can at least complete three items on my list I will be happy. 

A goal I have also set for 2016, is to educate myself on nutrition and how to look after the body. As someone that is always ill/tired/grumpy. I feel its about time I tried to do something about it. 

In December, I made the decision to cut out alcohol from my life (excluding special occasions).  I am also avoiding coffee (sometimes) and aiming for at least 8 hours sleep a night. 

For Christmas I received a good selection of books to help me with my goal. Hopefully I will actually use them. 

• Lean in 15 
• Made by Millie Macintosh
• Khloe Kardashian
• Jamie Oliver Superfood 

As I get to use the books more I will review them and let you know whether they are worth the buy. 

New York Take 2 - Day 1

Last month saw my return to the concrete jungle. I went back to New York for my friends 21st birthday. This trip gave me a completely different view of New York. I was there for longer this time. 6 days to be precise. It was incredibly tiring and my feet were killing me by day 3.

Day 1 and we arrived at JFK in the morning. We decided to get a shuttle to our hostel. This cost us $16 each and it dropped us at Port Authority bus station where we jumped on he subway down to Chelsea. Note: Getting the subway is not easy with a big suitcase! In hindsight we probably should have just got a taxi...
Unfortunately the hostel hadn't given us very clear instructions on how to get there so after standing around gawping and looking lost for a bit, a friendly american (rare in NYC) came to our aid. Turns out we were pretty far away. After a pretty long walk in pretty crazy heat, we finally found the tiny, completely missable entrance to our hostel.

We stayed in City Rooms NYC which in the end did turn out to be in a great location for sightseeing. We were a two-minute walk from Penn Station, which was handy for the subway and had a seven eleven right next door.
I will admit, due to previous experiences in hostels, I really was not happy about staying in another. And was sulking beforehand that we weren't going to a hotel. However I would recommend this hostel to any one on a budget, as it was the nicest I have ever been to.
We stayed in the room named Brooklyn. It came with a double bed - pretty comfortable, air con, a fridge, a sink, clothes rack, and a safe. For a hostel, it was a fairly spacious room, and there was a cleaner that came in everyday and changed towels and bins. In the reception area they offered coffee for free in the mornings and there was also a cold water machine which was handy for filling our bottles up.

The place only had two downsides. Firstly the shared bathrooms. Being a hostel, there had to be something that made in hostel like! To be fair, they were incredibly clean. The toilets were tiny. Any taller than me and you would probably find them uncomfortable. The showers were more spacious and were separate to the toilets, but weren't very powerful. The second downside was the layout. This is New York so the building was taller rather than wider, which meant a heck of a lot of stairs. We were on the third floor so it was a challenge to get the suitcases up and down. Luckily when we arrived there was a male member of staff there to carry my case for me.

By the time we had settled in I was completely knackered. I knew the day wasn't going to last much longer for me. We took a stroll to Times Square which was about 15 minutes away. I don't know if its an age thing or because I had seen it before, but the place didn't have the same feel as last time I was there. The crowds were not appealing and I felt in the way everywhere I stood. Don't get me wrong, it was still pretty cool to be stood in Times Square. But it just didn't feel as magical as last year. We had a browse around a few of the shops. Including the massive Forever 21. I remember when I went in last year and initially thought it was incredibly small for their New York store. I then noticed the escalators that went down...way down!

On our trip to Times Square, we also spotted the Naked Cowboy! I was so determined to find him this year as previously I hadn't. And people hadn't believed me when I told them he was a real New York thing/person. He was taking selfies with tourists but the crowd was too big so I took a sneaky shot from behind.

I didn't last much longer and headed back to bed, because at this point I had been awake for about 26 hours, which wasn't working well for me...

Day 2 coming soon.

University, My Experience

Are you heading off to uni this year? If so congratulations, you're probably about to have the time of your life!
As recent graduate I am proud to say I made it through my university years. Personally, I found the whole experience very difficult and unfortunately I am not one of those people to rave about it, there were times where I didn't think I would make it to the end.
My first year was the worst.....