Thursday 31 October 2013

healthy meals/weightloss

'Dieting' is a phrase which brings either one of two reactions upon me. Sometimes I'm great, although my actual 'diet' technique involves eating as little as possible and exercising loads i.e not very healthy. Alternatively, if I'm in a good frame of mind I put dieting right out of my head and pretend I'm happy at my current weight. Which, for the record, I'm not.
My weight has fluctuated so much over the past two years - back then I went and lost 26lbs easily without actually having to make many adjustments. To be fair, I was going through a really bad period in my life and not eating/exercising was a way to gain control. When my life improved, I started eating again, and put loads of weight back on! Typical!
When I was with my ex, we were too lazy to cook half the time so we just made pizza and stuff and I put back on the weight I'd lost, again.
Now, I'm halfway between my highest weight and my lowest weight, aiming to lose more. When I lose weight, I'm happier. I'm more focused and goal orientated and mentally, I'm in a better frame of mind. This time though I'm aiming to do it a healthier way.
One thing I'm aiming to use to motivate me is uploading my meals/recipes. Hopefully if I keep doing this I'll get into the habit of it uploading and I'll stick to this healthiness plan. We'll see I guess!
Lunch: homemade tomato soup with grilled chicken and salad
Breakfast: satsumas, yoghurt and hot chocolate.
It's pretty easy at the moment because it's half term so I'm not at Sixth form which means no early mornings. If I wake up late, I don't get hungry, is that weird? It works to my advantage though because it means I can eat less which means less calories! I'm trying to eat more fruits and vegetables and meat rather than carbs which is all well and good except occasionally I'm getting lightheaded.
Some of my favourite things to make are grilled chicken salad, simply because I love chicken and it's so filling, and salad is so colourful and also filling. Mixing stuff like tinned tomatoes with garlic and onion and being blended makes great soup and it's usually around 60kcals assuming you don't add oil or anything. Add herbs and spices and boil everything together for about 15 minutes and then blend it - so filling and so low calorie.
Options hot chocolate is one of my favourites if you're craving something sweet - there's loads of different flavours like belgian chocolate, white chocolate, mint madness, a hazelnut one (of which I can't remember the actual name) and they're all between 40-50kcals!
Also, 'crispbakes' (I get mine from Sainsbury's) are big, round circles of goodness. If we're being technical they're made of wheat flour but they're the perfect mix between sweet and savoury and can be topped with pretty much anything. The Sainsbury's ones are 39kcals and the Morrison's ones are only 29kcals, so go crazy!
Hopefully as I discover more healthy foods and upload more recipes I'll start to lose weight, I'll keep updated!

#OOTD2

I look so cheerful today. This isn't even an OOTD if we're being honest; I tried to upload it last night (at about 1AM so technically I guess it counts as 'today') but blogger's being shit and won't let me upload photos from my laptop. I thought it was something to do with my internet connection so I went to bed with the hope of uploading again this morning. Still no luck! I've resorted to uploading everything via my tumblr and 'upload via URL' for every. single. photo. Time consuming stuff as I'm sure you're aware! I really like this outfit, it's not the usual kind of thing I'd wear - I'm usually always in shorts and tights but my only clean tights had some massive rip at the top and if I'd had worn shorts it would be visible, so it had to be a dress! I recently bought myself a new Zara leather jacket too which I'm in love with, one of my pet hates about leather jacket is they're either restrictingly tight or too baggy around the shoulders/arms, but this one has elasticy fabric stuff (technical terms there) between where the sleeves end and the body starts, as well as on the wrist cuffs, which is great.
I'm not sure why I'm looking so cheerful here
New Huf socks!
Dubious looking makeup smudge on my dress *sigh*
Another mirror selfie (don't hate me)
I also bought some new Huf socks recently - I'm not sure whether they're genuine or not, the packaging was exactly the same as the genuine ones I bought a year ago, however those ones cost me £15 inc postage and these ones were £3.99 + postage, so there was a pretty huge difference in price! Quality wise they're identical too so whether they're dupes or not doesn't bother me. I got them off Ebay here - they say you get a random colour of about 12 so I was lucky getting the colour I wanted. They also come from China which means long delivery time but if you're after Huf socks and can't justify spending £15 on a pair of socks, go for the dupes!
My dress (only the bottom half can be seen) was from H&M a while back - I bought it with the intention to wear it all the time, however sadly this is the second time it's seen the light outside my wardrobe. Ah well.
I wore the dress with my BOY LONDON t shirt on top. I didn't want to wear the dress alone and thought if I wore a black and white t shirt on top it would look better, and hopefully, it did.
Paired with the trusty new leather jacket and my New Look/Converse dupes, off to work I went!

Saturday 26 October 2013

Current favourites

Everyone seems to be fully getting into the Autumn/Winter (already?!) spirit, and I'm still here clinging on to the remains of summer. I've never been a Winter person, I'll be honest. I'm much happier strolling around at 9:30PM when it's still warm wearing shorts and a t shirt, rather than huddled up around a campfire drinking hot chocolate and freezing to death telling horror stories. For one, I'm terrified of horror stories, but we're going off track entirely here.
There are however a few good aspects of the coming seasons, and this year especially has seen some good stuff happening. I thought I'd make a list of my current favourites I've discovered recently to somewhat improve the dreariness of this season.
Favourite album: Arctic Monkeys - AM. This album is so reminiscent of their old stuff, songs such as Do I Wanna Know? remind me strongly of their Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not days. The album as a whole has quite a wintery feel about it I think, but with contrasting songs from Knee Socks to Mad Sounds, the album is great to put on whatever mood you're in!
Favourite Book(s): I've been reading a lot lately, something to do with having loads of spare time, especially on trains! A few really good (but very different) books I've read recently have been Before I Forget - Melissa Hill, An Enormously English Monsoon Wedding - Christina Jones and How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff. In terms of plot they're all really different, but great reads. I'm also halfway through The Half Life Of Stars - Louise Wener, which I think I'll review properly when I've finished as, so far, it's amazing.
Favourite Film: Everyone knows that Autumn is the season for watching old movies and drinking hot chocolate - if you're not doing it at least once a week you're spending the season wrong. My DVD collection is sadly lacking in many good films, so I've been creeping amazon for old favourites to watch this time of year. The latest one I watched? She's The Man. It's such a great film for motivation and killing time (ultimate opposites there which makes it versatile) and it was probably the best £1.27 I've spent in ages.
Favourite Food: I feel like I should stick to tradition and say something like tea (which I actually really dislike *gasp*) or mince pies, fit for early Christmas such is this country! My favourite thing to cook at the moment though is soup, which I guess still fits with the season. Our house is lacking a blender at the moment so any soup I make comes out suspiciously thick, however once I've invested in a blender I like to think I'll be able to make more soup and possibly upload recipes! Soup is fantastic because not only are there so many different options, it's healthy and fills you up, perfect for slimming down before Christmas!
Favourite AW13 Craze: Tartan is everywhere at the moment. The shops are full of it, blogs are full of it, the only blog which isn't at the moment is mine! I think the most tartan I've got at the moment is a scrunchie. I've been looking for a cute tartan dress but so far I haven't seen any. I'd love to be able to pull off wearing tartan trousers too but I don't have the figure for it, although if I keep making soup I may do at some point in the future!
Favourite Event(s): I'm slacking now. I love Halloween but so far I have no plans - this needs to change! I have so many outfit ideas but no one to go out with and wear them! This is one of the major flaws of being 17, I'm legally allowed to cruise around England as long as I don't enter any of the clubs, but that's another matter!

I guess when you look on the bright side, there's actually loads happening this time of year. We still have Halloween, Bonfire night, Christmas, New Years, and then 12 days after that, my 18th! (Clearly the most important one..)


Thursday 24 October 2013

Channel 4's 4Talent day in Great Yarmouth

So today I was fortunate enough to go to one of Channel 4's 4Talent days, based in Great Yarmouth. Originally when I applied I had little hope of actually getting a place; they say on the website if you don't hear back from them within a few weeks you haven't got a place because of the large number of applicants, yet somehow I received an email (three emails actually, either they were very confident about offering me a place or there was a glitch on the system, I'm going for the latter) inviting me to attend today, 24th October! I personally live about 4 and a half hours away from Great Yarmouth meaning this was a somewhat spontaneous trip.

As I had work last night I was unable to get a train down (up/sideways?) until this morning, meaning I was up bright and early at 4AM! I left the house at about 4:30AM when I was dropped at Liverpool Street Station in London where I boarded my first train to Norwich before transferring to Great Yarmouth. One thing I have definitely learnt today is not to drink large coffees before attempting to sleep. Instead of counting sheep I counted chairs: if anyone was curious there were about 880 seats on my Greater Anglia train this morning at 6:00AM. Nonetheless, I remained awake for the whole journey. I arrived at Great Yarmouth Station at about 8:40AM and got into my taxi. About 30 seconds later (slight exaggeration) we pulled up right outside the Hollywood Cinema, where the event was taking place. Straight away I was excited, and clutching my train tickets in one hand and my nerves in the other, I walked inside.

The first thing that struck me was how friendly everyone there was. I could smile at people and instead of them glancing back at me and leaving me wondering what I'd done wrong, people actually returned my smile! In fact, two girls saw I was standing on my own and came over and spoke to me, we got chatting and they helped me find the room I was supposed to be in - definitely a welcoming start! Along with the unlimited free coffee/tea/cappuccinos it was looking to be a good day. We were given a welcoming talk from Priscilla Baffour who introduced us to the day and basically told us the ins and outs of Channel 4. After this there were the options of four workshops; originally there were supposed to be three but to my utmost surprise and pleasure a Journalism workshop had been added! This was brilliant news; being an aspiring Journalist (as I repeated to my taxi driver later in the day) this workshop would be so beneficial and definitely something to help me gain experience. There were other workshops on option offering experience with green screen effects, maximizing CV and cover letter potential and finally pitching a new programme, but I decided the journalism one would be best for me.

The talk was led by Jules Mccarthy, a BBC journalist who has worked in the industry for 15 years now. She was great. If ever there was a journalist I've met who I would aspire to be like, it would be her. The talk itself was so inspirational, and Jules is such a lovely woman which meant that any questions or queries you had could be answered clearly and in their entirety. Throughout the workshop we covered topics such as broadcast journalism voices, how to cover a topic briefly yet fully, interviewing skills, along with improving ourselves as a whole - the very first task was making lists of things we were good and bad at, and how these could benefit/hinder us as journalists in the future. The whole talk was incredibly inspirational and just heightened my desire to progress into the journalism field especially.

 After the first half of the workshop we were given talks from Charlie Gauvain of EyeTV and Mike Hughes of Mustard TV. Both talks covered topics such as how to break into the industry, how to impress people and unconventional methods of drawing attention to yourself in the right way! Although I personally prefer the writing side of journalism the talks did pique my interest into broadcast journalism and production too, so hopefully in the future I can gain some experience in these fields also. We had a lunch break (also provided by Channel 4, aw) and then the workshops continued. We practised the skills we had worked on previously and did some mock broadcast announcements which were great fun. After finishing these there was a Q&A session where we were all given the opportunity to harass quiz all the industry professionals on any general media queries and then the day was wrapped up. I didn't get the opportunity to take many pictures throughout the day; although there were a lot taken by the 4Talent team which I will provide links to when they're up! I did however take a walk around Great Yarmouth afterwards to reminisce from previous visits and took some photos there.
Editing and recording broadcast journalism from unconventional mediums (iPhone cameras)
Broadcasting my hopes and dreams, fresh from Great Yarmouth's pier arcade
Our first task - publicising our talents and personal criticisms before decorating the wall with them 
One of many Channel 4 4Talent TV screens where we were shown mini clips and show reels
Industry professionals during the Q&A session
Reminiscing Great Yarmouth
Pirate Park by the shore!
Arcades along the promenade 

Great Yarmouth seems to mainly be filled with arcades - straight up approval here
Couldn't not have a go, unfortunately this is where my talents end (I didn't win, surprise surprise)
In desperate need of Disney toys.
The Channel 4 4Talent day is a great experience for anyone trying to break into the media industry. This day has just proved to me that although talent is important, there is a huge aspect of 'it's not what you know but who you know'. By networking and spending the day learning from industry professionals, I've learnt so much about how to progress and showcase my talents for the future. I have made new friends who share the same interests as me and generally, had a fantastic experience in Great Yarmouth!

Monday 21 October 2013

New hair!

Being someone who gets bored easily, it's never a good thing for me to keep my hair the same for too long, or there are drastic consequences! Yesterday was one of those days. I've had the same hairstyle for a year and a half now, when after falling out with a close friend I dyed my hair dark brown from its natural light blonde and pushed my fringe aside for a centre parting. The opposite has happened now, as you may notice from the pictures! I decided, somewhat spontaneously, to cut my 'fringe' into a short, 90s-esque fringe. I think I like it. I was so nervous at first - having had the same hairstyle for over a year (quite an accomplishment for someone who used to change every few weeks) it felt incredibly unnatural and slightly sad cutting off my finally-long-enough-to-tie-back hair. It had to be done though, or I would have ended up dying it again, and as much as the colour of my hair is great, the length isn't. I've been trying to grow it for years now and after getting half of it chopped off it's actually going somewhere now, i.e down.







I'll be honest, most of these pictures are just me taking bad selfies as an excuse to upload on here. I tried to get my fringe from different angles and consequently there are some very unflatting photos among them! I was aiming for my fringe to be a couple of centimetres above my eyebrows (which desperately need plucking, maybe not a good day to cut a new fringe in?) and I actually quite like the length it turned out! The only problem is my fringe grows ridiculously fast unlike the rest of my hair, meaning I'll have to trim it every other week I think. Generally though I'm pretty happy with how it turned out considering I cut it myself!

Sunday 20 October 2013

Wrangler/Mom jeans

The new jeans fashion at the moment seems to be of the oversized, highwaisted, rolled up variety. In short, Topshop 'Mom' jeans. Those of us with more time and less money may venture into the depths of ebay and look for some authentic Levi ones, which (let's be honest) are superior both in quality and design. Topshop as a brand is great, however the quality of their clothes speak otherwise. My sister was telling me how she wants some 'mom' jeans from Topshop, and I, as a well researched charity shopper, told her to find some in a charity shop instead! Luckily for some (unfortunately not me) she's naturally a size 6 which makes finding vintage clothes that much easier. It was only when I was digging out my wardrobe I found my vintage Wrangler jeans! They are so, so similar to both the Topshop and Levi comparisons except the quality of them is fantastic! I vaguely remember buying them in one of my local charity shops but not having the balls to wear them due to people (including my sister!) telling me they were weird.. Added to the fact that they were a bit tight. A year on and half a stone lighter, they have found new light for my AW13 wardrobe! As I only found them the other day I haven't made a OOTD post for them yet but this is them in all their glory. The best part? They cost me literally 1/10th of the price of the Topshop jeans at a bargain £4!
True vintagey style back pockets wooo

They're like a 30" waist but this photo makes them look huge



The jeans in all their glory (ignore the uneven cuffs)

Folded cuffs, courtesy of myself and not Topshop's manufacturing
This is an utterly pointless photo other than to emphasise the oldness of these jeans.


Topshop comparison photos - £40 'Mom' jeans.
I reckon I'll pair them with a crop top of some form, creepers or platform trainers and hopefully a leather jacket if I can find a nice, durable one to invest in!

Mini Primark haul!

So yesterday I trekked it down to Portsmouth for their university open day, which was great! I had to prebook my trains (about 12 hours before, incidentally) so I could guarantee a seat and a place on the train, which was definitely a good decision! The only downside of this was that I booked my return train(s) for about 4PM because the journey was shorter; it seems I forgot that waiting around an extra hour slightly ruins the point of a faster train. Anyway! I decided to have a look around Portsmouth as a place. I would have gone down to the sea/harbor except for the fact it required getting another train and with my sense of direction that's never a good idea - although I managed to get myself a good 102 miles to Portsmouth! (Thanks Google Maps).
The town itself was really easy to find, as in walk out of the University and you're already there! A quick look around told me it was a good town centre (or would that be city centre? hmm..) - there was a Primark, Topshop, H&M, River Island, along with the necessary Costa, Subway and Maccy's! Seeing as I had to do the return 102 miles I decided to somewhat limit my spending, as everything I bought in total yesterday came to a grand £18!
I was looking to finally buy the black Topshop Joni jeans I've been after for ages, but I don't know if it's just my pot luck but they seem to have stopped selling them? I found every other colour under the sun except the black jeans! In one sense it was good, because that would have set me back another £36 and although I only spent £18 in Primark my taxis when I went out last night cost £25 too, meaning that yesterday was actually quite an expensive day!
The Primark in Portsmouth is fab. It's huge, for one - I didn't even venture upstairs and got lost downstairs a few times! There's also that sneaky multiple exit thing going on, meaning you can walk out one way, keep shopping and see something through a different window and walk straight back in! It was a great store too because unlike my local branch - Luton (but less on that) - all the new stuff was in, which hopefully means the stuff I bought (despite it being pretty generic stuff) shouldn't be spread among the masses of Luton for a few days weeks now.
Basic Crop Top - £3.50

Cute burgundy frilly socks - £1.50

Equally cute green frilly socks - £1.50

Teal beanie - £2

Black American Apparelesque luxe skater skirt - £10

I'm glad I bought a new beanie because despite wearing different ones in my OOTD posts, I usually stick with one of three beanies, even though I have a huge collection! I worked out a while ago I own at least 11 beanies, I really need to find an opportunity to wear the other 8! The socks were a good investment too; at £1.50 a time you really can't go wrong as I'm sure my sister will agree, owning nearly every colour of them. This just means I can actually wear my own rather than use the "but Mum put them in my room!" excuse now. The skirt is very American Apparel but at a shade of the cost which is always a benefit, and I'd be surprised if there's drastic contrast in quality, too. I actually wore the top last night with black high waisted shorts hence why it looks a bit crumpled in the photo, overall good buys I would say!

Thursday 17 October 2013

You'll be my american boy

Everyone who has commented on my outfit today so far has said i look 'American'. I'm not sure whether this is due to the stars and stripes hat or the varsity top (or 'versity' as one friend referred to it). This is definitely one of my more bargain outfits - the hat and top together came to only £9 from Primark! I never understand why the nice beanies are always in the guy's section but if it means not spending £14 for the equivilent in Topshop I'm all for taking a detour to the male part of primark. The Shorts are from Topshop (does this make me a slight hypocrite considering my last comment?) and my shoes are my beloved Air Max 90s which really need replacing soon due to how much I've worn them! This is probably the only post I'll be seen in without my gold chain cause I left it at my friend Becca's last weekend, hopefully it'll be making a swift return when I see her though!







Friday 11 October 2013

Rita/RiRi street style

As someone who loves dressing casual and hates heels, street style has got to be my favourite look this season. And the best two people showing it off? It has to be Rihanna and Rita Ora. There's been a lot of uproar (mainly coming from Rihanna) lately suggesting that Rita Ora has been copying Rihanna, particularly her style, but both of them represent the look differently - Rihanna wears heels with most of her outfits to dress them up whereas Rita keeps her street style typically casual with trainers - I have to say I prefer this look because of my hatred of heels! I've been creeping Google for a while now looking for new outfits and ways to style casual clothes and these have got to be some of my favourites of the two stars. All photos credit of Google Images!