30.8.13

First Look | Picnic Set | Anorak Range | John Lewis


I was recently contacted to ask if I would like to review a picnic set from John Lewis and I immediately said yes! I love picnics so having the perfect picnic gear is a wee dream come true for me! I know it's slowly moving into Autumn but that's my favourite time to go for a picnic! In the summer, it's too hot, things melt and food gets 'sweaty', there are flies, it's madness! Much better in autumn when you can wrap up cosy, stick some soup in a flask and pack a wee picnic. Sitting in the park watching the leaves slowly change colour and fall off the trees, I can't think of a better setting for a picnic!

This is just a first look at what I got sent, I'm hoping to get out for an actual picnic asap with Mary-Jane so I'll let you all know how that goes!




I was sent a cooler bag, a picnic rug, a basket, a set of bowls and a set of plates. I have to admit, I've already used to cooler bag but not for it's intended purpose. I used it to carry some of my shopping home! It worked great though so I'll probably end up using it again. The rug is gorgeous and from the same range as the cooler bag, the Anorak Kissing Stags range which I absolutely love!




The picnic basket they sent as well is freaking adorable! After using it for picnics I'm thinking of keeping day-to-day cosmetics in it for during the winter. As much as I love autumn picnics, picnics during the winter are a bit of a no-go!


The plates and bowls, I actually thought were ceramic as they are a wee bit heavy but they are made of plastic. I'm assuming they are a bit heavier than usual picnic plates to stop them blowing away in the wind!




So as I said, these were from the Anorak Kissing Stags range and I'll definitely be having a look at the rest of the range as I love this pattern. You can also see the rest of their picnic items at John Lewis picnicware. I had a nosey myself and some of the other ranges are just as adorable as the Kissing Stags.


Can you leave me any tips, suggestions or recipes for healthy picnic foods below?

29.8.13

Banana and peanut butter smoothie | Recipe


I've always been a bit funny with fruit, never really liked it that much. Nowhere near as much as I love veg anyway! So I'm always looking for ways to get fruit into my diet without making myself feel sick. Enter smoothies!

I've tried a couple smoothies in the past but they've never really turned out right, I cannot stand 'bits' so trying to make them with strawberries or anything like that ends up with me either drinking half the smoothie and giving up or trying to sieve all the bits out. By the time I'm finished that, I don't even want to drink the damn thing!

I decided to take a fruit I didn't like but one that I knew didn't have any bits in it - bananas! I cannot stand bananas, eating them just as they are actually makes me feel sick. I don't know what it is but bleurgh! Banana flavoured things and banana chips I'm fine with but bananas, get away.

This smoothie is pretty simple to make :  
  • 200 ml Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 banana
  • 1 tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter


Almond milk is new in my life, thanks to Gemma Tomlinson. I've been watching her healthy YouTube channel HealthyHappyLife for a while now and I just love it! I'd heard her mention almond milk a few times so during my most recent shop I decided to get some and try it out. I'll be writing a more in depth post about it soon so look out for that, all I will say is it is bloody delicious!

I will be trying out this recipe again but I think next time I'll use half a banana and smooth peanut butter. It was a bit too 'banana-y' for me and the crunchy peanut butter made it a bit gritty so hopefully smooth will fix that.

Apart from those few things, this smoothie was delicious. I think once I get some protein powder I'll maybe add that in and it could be a great after workout pick-me-up. 

Are you a smoothie fan? What are your favourite combinations?

28.8.13

Weigh In Wednesday | The First One

Ok so, Weigh In Wednesday (WIW) is a go!


Ok so this isn't the best start seeings as a couple of weeks ago I was 216lbs! I was out last night for a friend's birthday so alcohol and snacks probably didn't help. However going out on a Tuesday very very rarely happens so I shouldn't have to worry about that affecting WIW again.

So I'm rather annoyed at myself as I'd previously managed to get down to 202lbs, so freaking close to being under for the first time in god knows how long! But I stopped exercising and eating right so now I have to lose the weight I've regained then I can focus on losing the other weight too. I'd like to be under 200lbs for my birthday (Nov 8th) so I'm going to have to seriously kick my ass into gear if I want to achieve that!

I only weigh myself once a week, I can't understand people that weigh themselves every day or multiple times a day. It's frustrating, time consuming and can often be disheartening as your weigh can fluctuate so much even within a day. So I'll stick to once a week thank you very much!

As this is the first WIW, I don't have previous figures to compare so next week that will start. It'll have starting weight, current weight and loss/gain. I'll put the starting weight as 220.4 I'm also thinking of adding in my measurements every two weeks starting next week.

Until next weigh in!

27.8.13

Visual | Motivation


I got the idea for this because of Cassey Ho's most recent Transformation Tuesday post. It was about a girl called Natasha and through reading the post I was linked to her Instagram and saw her picture much like the above except all her numbers were crossed out!

The idea is quite simple, once you get under a number or on it, you cross it off! So I have 67lbs to go before I reach my goal weight. I did think about starting it off from my highest weight but that would mean another page of just crossed out numbers; sure it would be motivating but it'd also be a waste of paper so I just stuck with the one.

I've stuck this up on my livingroom wall right next to the mirror so that as the pounds drop off, I can cross it off and see the change in the mirror! I'm looking forward to the satisfying feeling of crossing off each number.

Do you use anything like this?

26.8.13

Monday Meals | #1 | 26.08.13

 Ok so I'm going to start a new series called Monday Meals, basically 3 pictures of my meals from the day. I would do it for every day but I think we'd both get pretty bored of that pretty quickly! I usually weigh in on a Monday so I'm thinking of changing that to a Wednesday (dat alliteration) or a Sunday, what do you think? Personally I'm leaning towards Wednesday.


Breakfast - New York Bakery wholemeal bagel with a wee bit of Vitalite Dairy Free spread, wafer thin ham and iceberg lettuce.

I use Myfitnesspal to log my food, it's the most accurate way to log my food that I know. However I also use Noom because of it's meal composition feature. It's nowhere near as accurate for food logging but it's nice to see at a glance what your meals looks like, even if it's just a guesstimate. 


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Lunch was quite naughtily out of a tin but at least it's now out my cupboard! ;) Ravioli with a Krisproll. The Krisprolls are a new purchase, I was getting quite bored of crispbread so I wanted to try something new. Look out for a post soon about them!

Unfortunately, because lunch was out a tin, it was a very 'yellow' meal but like I say it's now out my cupboard and I can look forward to healthier lunches in the future!


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Dinner featured my new favourite food - kale! I only tried it for the first time a couple weeks ago and I was amazed at how much I liked it. I'll probably be writing a post about that soon too. So dinner was kale, scrambled egg and sweet potato slices.

Again, this was a very 'yellow' meal. I'm starting to associate yellow foods with starchy foods and carbs so I need to watch out for that. Despite that, this meal was delicious! I've not bought sweet potatoes in so long so my tummy was very happy to get these! If I was braver with knives I would try to slice them thinner and make sweet potato crisps (or chips).


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Despite my very yellow day, I'm quite pleased that there wasn't as much red as there has been recently so that's a positive! Just need to work on adding more green foods into meals!



I hope you will enjoy this series, I think I will!

24.8.13

My Lovely Boyfriend #2 | Panache Sports Bra

Read My Lovely Boyfriend #1 here

  Ever tried something on and you can swear there is a choir behind you singing hallelujah? Well that's how I felt when I tried this on. I feel I should warn you all now, I'm not too great at taking pictures (especially pictures of underwear!) but hopefully I'll get better as more time passes.


This is the Panache Underwire Sports Bra in Raspberry and I nearly cried when I tried it on. I'm not even kidding. I managed to hold back the tears though and instead ran about my livingroom doing star jumps. Louis looked very confused but I promised him it was totally necessary.

I've had sports bras before but they were always cheap ones so they didn't last very long or give me any support. Seriously, at one point I was having to wear a normal bra then my two 'sports' bras over that. I'm all for layering but that's just taking the biscuit!



What they say: 

  • Reduces bounce by up to 83%
  • Wide padded straps
  • Breathable fabrics
  • Silicon encased underwire
  • Racer back option

I agree with all of the above. Let's start with the reduced bounce; my bounce was definitely reduced! Like I said earlier, as soon as I tried it on I was jumping about like a loon and fair enough there was still some upward bounce (let's be honest you ain't cutting off my bounce completely!) but downward; well they just kind of stopped. It was a new and strange feeling. I can now jump around without worrying that the weight of my breests will drag me to the floor!

The wide padded straps are the comfiest bra straps I've ever had the pleasure of slipping over my pale wee shoulders. They don't dig in at all and I don't have to constantly readjust them or fix them, they just stay put. Breathable fabrics is definitely a yes, I don't feel clammy and minging whilst wearing this or get that digusting under boob sweat. Very refreshing!

I can't really say much about the silicon encased underwire apart from it feels rather sturdy so I hope I don't get the dreaded end of the underwire poking out. I've lost many a bra that way, always happens to my favourite bras as well! It doesn't dig into my ribs either surpringsly. I think I've found the holy grail of sports bras!

This is the normal back option. When I first tried it on I thought it sat a bit low however upon rigorous testing (star jumps) I found that it sits in the perfect place! Just above my fat rolls.

Ok bit of a confession to make now. I didn't know the bra has a racer back option when I was looking at it online or even when I got it. I was just so excited that I didn't read everything properly. Even when I was taking pictures of the back of it I thought the pink bit sticking out might have been a big thread or something.

 While checking the very.co.uk page for info on the bra to write this post, I noticed it said racer back option and I was positively giddy! After trying it out I found that it makes the sports bra even more secure, still without digging in! So thanks to my excitement and inability to read properly I just got a nice wee surprise.


One of the features of this bra is that it isolates each breast while lifting them and I was rather worried I'd look like a poor man's Madonna. However my fears were put to rest when I tried it on and I was simply lifted. I feel like I don't hunch over anywhere near as much I do when wearing normal bras; is it really a sports bra or a correction bra to stop me ending up like the hunchback of notre dame?!

So overall this bra gets over 9000/10. I love it and I'll be going back to Panache in the future!


 Have you tried any Panache products before? What's your favourite sports bra?

22.8.13

First Look | Giveaway Win


Not even kidding, this was my response when I found out I had won Lydia's 200 Follower Giveaway (post here), I was so freaking chuffed and still am! I've recorded a video about the items I got but I'm also going to post pictures of the products so you all have options. These are just first looks, after a while of use I'll come back and review the products again.


Picture heavy below the read more!

21.8.13

Today's post is a little bit different. Today I'm telling you all about a giveaway. Not one of my own but my friend Andrew who blogs over at andrewjamesblog you should go read his blog and give him a wee follow. He is my favourite male beauty blogger and I love him!

So basically the giveaway he is doing is this:


You could win £70 worth of Label M products!

Now I'd never heard of Label M before reading Andrew's post but then again, I haven't heard of a large chunk of the things bloggers post about, it's all a learning curve for me! Just going by what Andrew has said about the products, I think I'd get the best use out of the thickening cream. My hair is ridiculously fine so this could be just what the doctor ordered!

If you'd like to enter the competition, head on over to Andrew's blog http://www.andrewjamesblog.com and follow the rafflecopter rules.

16.8.13

My Lovely Boyfriend #1 | Ellesse Capri Pants


So Louis recently opened up a Very account and he very kindly said I could get some fitness gear. I was like a kid in sweet shop trying to pick things! This will be a 3 part series and I couldn't get all the items delivered at the same time. This week is my Ellesse Capri Pants from the Melanie Sykes range ME:TIME. These were actually on offer when I got them, I'm sure it was buy two pairs and get £5 off. You can find them here on the Very site but I don't think the offer is on anymore :/



What the labels say: "Quick Dry moisture management guarantees exceptional absorption properties providing fast drying products with a soft dry touch that will keep the body fresh and comfortable.Stategically placed mesh and ventilation ensure optimal breathability, while fluid style lines and fabric combination create stylish functional products."

The main reason I got these was the last pair of bottoms I got for exercising didn't work out too well. I'll be writing a post up on them soon, keep your eyes peeled!

I have to say, these were an excellent purchase! I decided to go for the size 16, think I can safely say I am out of the size 18 category (woo!). They are a bit longer than I thought they would be but they aren't full length so I'm happy about that. Once I've 'out-exercised' these pairs, I might go for a shorter length pants. The smaller I get, the shorter my trousers get!

First thing I noticed trying these on; they are so freaking smooth feeling! Definite plus. They aren't so tight that they are uncomfortable but they are quite form fitting. I used to wear really baggy bottoms to exercise in as I was quite embarrassed about having all my flabby bits highlighted and on show but now I think 'hey I'm exercising, who gives a monkeys what I look like!'

The top of the pants is actaully an elastic band so it stays up which is always handy, especially when you have a big belly trying to push them down! The fabric is so breathable, I didn't feel bogged down wearing them at all.

Quick warning before you look at these pictures; I'm aware I am fat, these trousers are quite tight and you can see all my lumps and bumps.


I really need to get some squats done! Need to define my arse a bit!



 All in all, I'm very really happy with these and I'd recommend them to anyone and everyone!

Quick wee video update as well for anyone interested



Have you had any recent sportswear purchases?

14.8.13

Review | Eyeko Skinny Mini Liquid Eyeliner


I got this a while back free with a magazine, I can't actually remember which one now but a fair few bbloggers have also spoken about it. Now it's my turn!

I've always been quite terrified of liquid eyeliner. Unless you count that one time I thought this was a good look
Me at 18/19

 I did have a worse picture than that but myspace has all changed and I can't find my old account, believe me though it was horrendous! I did get it right sometimes though.

Again 18/19
Apart from the handful of times I did try it, I usually steered well clear of liquid and stuck with my trusty Miss Sporty kohl liner so when I found out about the eyeko freebie, I thought I would jump back into the world of liquid liner.






 I love the packaging. It gives you all the info you need without being too busy looking. I especially love the Eyeko logo, I think it looks a bit like a guitar plectrum and upon looking at the Eyeko website they think so as well! I'd never heard of Eyeko before getting the freebie so I was excited to try a new product but also terrified I'd cock it up and look like Coco the clown's emo sister!






L- Top to bottom swipe. R- Multiple swipes.

The actual pen itself is great, nice and sleek looking. I'm not too sure if this is a sample size or full size but either way, when this runs out I will be repurchasing it! It is fabby. Great solid black colour, doesn't come off if you go over it again and boy does it hold!


This is the first look I created using the liner and I loved it! (I ended up swapping my red lippy for a purple one but we're not talking about that just now!)

Have you tried the Skinny Mini, or any other Eyeko products for that matter?



13.8.13

My 'Get Back In The Game' Plan | Motivation

Ok so this post is mostly for me to check back on and make sure I'm doing what I want to do but I thought I would put it here so you can all see what I'm doing and maybe suggest things you think I could also do!

Back to drinking water - I've really been slacking on drinking regular water (I can easily drink the recommended 8 glasses a day) so before I go to bed tonight I'm filling up some bottles and putting them in the fridge. I use multiple bottles so I can rotate them. Once I'm finished one, I have another waiting in the fridge that is nice and cold then I can fill the empty one and replace it in the fridge with the one I've just taken. I'm quite thankful that I enjoy drinking water, I don't have to force myself or add things to it so I'll drink it.






     Preparing meals again - I've been eating utter crap and totally stopped preparing delicious healthy meals. I am living on a very tight budget but it is possible to eat healthy 'on the cheap'. I might have to go back to being one of those annoying people who posts pictures of their meals to instagram (aroseforepona) to keep myself accountable! I need to try and get a big poster of this and put it in my kitchen for when I do prepare meals.
    I think one of the main reasons I don't do all that much cooking is I don't have any faith in my cooking skills! Practice makes perfect though, so kitchen you will become my bitch!




Bloody exercise! I know it's not difficult to get some exercise in; going for a walk, doing some housework, I can even make it fun by doing Just Dance, Wii Fit, something, anything to get me moving again! I have an elliptical, an exercise mat, a skipping rope, dumbells, exercise ball, Wii Fit and legs. Nothing is stopping me but myself! Well not anymore, body you are in for a reawakening, prepare yourself!





Finally - POSITIVE THINKING.

I believe in myself and I know I can do this.

I do have other goals that I want to focus on and smash through but these are my main four to get myself back on track. Once I am back in the swing of healthy living I will look at adding more goals to challenge myself.

What goals would you recommend?

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