Today's Shopping - Boring Essentials and a Few Naughty Treats.

Hey ladies, I hope you're all smiling :)

Today is the whingiest of days. I'll be brief, get it out my system and then power through. First off my camera is now working, but the SD card reader in my laptop isn't. What a pile of poo. So I've used my phone for pics today. Second I've just had one of those days where you feel a bit pants and you're all clammy and clumsy all day. So pretty. And third I wanted to spend a voucher (and money I don't have) on a hydrating oil at the Clarins counter in my local John Lewis. The curt lady that worked there was just chatting rubbish about 'maybe it's discontinued'. Maybe you should learn what products you're supposed to have on your counter. Aaaaaaaaaaand I'm done ;)

So today I got a couple of sneeky make-up bits I ordered off cheapsmells.co.uk the other week. I'm just going to put it out in the open now that other beauty bloggers/Youtubers enable me like no other. If I see people giving rave reviews/lots of people love something, it's like my hand's reached in to the new Zara bag everyone has (which I think is already breaking because I over-filled it, oops) and suddenly my debit cards in my hand. As if I don't know the number off by heart. Someone get me a therapist! Haha. Anyway, I ended up getting:

Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in Shade 2 - Apricot Shimmer, £12.50 and YSL Touche Eclat in 1 Luminous Radiance £21.50 (Eeeek).

Let's discuss (or justify to myself). I'm obsessed with getting the perfect pale, pinky/peachy lip. However, I've come to the realisation that my lips are quite dark naturally, so I'm going to investigate 'beigeing them out' with some Viva Glam Gaga 2 and then putting colour on. This does feel nice on the lips, but for the price I was expecting unicorns to jump out my mouth. No such luck. I'll show you my lip drawer in another post if you want, so you can feel my pain of the never-ending-search-for-a-colour-my-lips-probably-won't-go. Ha. My problem is I see something on someone else and hope it'll look the same on me. For example I saw this on Anna from ViviannaDoesMakeup.com and it just looked sooo good on her. I definitely have face envy.

I also got Touche Eclat, I'm definitely not explaining what it is. If you don't know, go back under your rock. Or Google it ;) This is THE cult product. I bought it for the pure fact I'm a beauty junkie and I wanted in. I got it in the palest shade because when I researched it it was the pinkiest. Now my skin is definitely very cool toned, but I thought it's be good to counter the blueish tone under my eyes. Then I'm planning to whack my Bobbi Brown creamy concealer over the top and hoping my face will be mistaken for a ripe peach. I'll let you know how that goes.

After the excitment of the post I had to plod along to Boots to get some essentials I've been putting off buying. I just hate spending money on non-fun things. But, needs must so I got:

2 face cloths, 99p each (i.e. the classic flannel) and some Boots own brand Simply Sensitive face wipes - on offer for £1.85, usually £2.79.

Dove Invisible Dry Stick Deodorant, £1.66 reduced from £2.50, TRESemme Instant Refresh Dry Shampoo for Normal to Oily Hair, £4.79 and Colgate Advanced Whitening (Tesco) £1.86

I imagine most of these are self-explanatory. I got the flannels because I read on beautymouth.com, she's a skincare expert extrodinaire, that they're just as good as muslin cloths and you should change the one you're using every day (also apparently the flannel is becoming redundant, save the flannel!). I'm trying to get a good skincare routine going because my skin's so dehydrated. As a general rule I've cut out face wipes, but they're so handy. When I'm away for a weekend I like to take my face products, but let's face it after a few voddy's it's either facewipes or waking up with the rocky mountains on my face. The deodorant's a handy size, the toothpaste was the only choice in our little Tesco beacuse I forgot in Boots, and I thought I'd give this dry shampoo a go because Batiste is eurghh. All I'm saying is, I had the one for dark hair and accidentally sprayed it on my face (don't ask), it looked like I'd rolled in a dust bunny. Ew.

How about you, do you find essential re-stocking a chore? Or do you secretly love any excuse to find yourself in Boots? How do you feel about facewipes? Have you made any disgustingly priced purchases you can share to make me feel better about my own? ;)

Livvy x

Thighs of Thunder #2 - Motivation

Hey ladies, hope you're all ship shape.

I'm already off the schedule I made about a week ago. Mostly because organisation and me don't see eye to eye, but also because I know posts are really boring without pictures... But I can't think what would go with this sort of post. So, I'll be brief.
I'm having the biggest struggle motivating myself to exercise this week. Or to be more specific, I've only exercised once (half-arsedly) this week. Not good. It's just so boring! So I thought I'd do my top 5 pointers for exercise motivation - if only to give myself a kick up the bum:

1. Set realistic goals - Last week I was trying to do too much and this week I feel flat as a pancake because of it. If you can barely walk 3 days after, you've probably overdone it..
2. Be organised - Yup. My favourite word re-occuring again. However much I'm not organised, I know how necessary it is. My plan of action, which I got from the 'toneitupcom' ladies on Youtube, is to set my alarm half an hour early each day and exercise then. That way you can't put it off and you've still got the whole day, because I've also found myself resenting how much time it's taking up.
3. Reverse-chubby-chase -This is just for those actually trying to lose weight. Put up an A4 picture of yourself at your biggest where you exercise (tight clothing/massive pants, the less flattering the better), if that's at home, if not put it on your bedroom door (facing in the bedroom, you don't want your family/flatmates thinking you're fully off your rocker). This way you can pretend you're running/jogging/tap dancing away from your tubby self, whilst actually toning-up a new self :)
4. Don't beat yourself up - If you can't exercise one day, don't panic. Your body needs a day's rest each week, that's when it can re-cover and burn the fat (or something like that). Plus the world isn't going to stop if you have a 'really can't be arsed day'. Just make sure you don't also have a 'going to eat the contents of the fridge' day then too ;) And, if you don't think you can do your usual amount of exercise, do half. Some is better than none.
5. Have something to work towards - Whether it's a bikini body (never in my lifetime, unfortunately) or even just a pair of trousers you can't squeeze your money-maker in to (ding), have something you're looking to achieve. Personally, I'm going on holiday with my gang of ferociously attractive friends in the summer and I don't want to get thrown in the see by a mistaken whale trainer. I'm joking. Ish. Point 4 ;)

What are your motivation tips? Or do you have a clothes/summer goal?
Fell free to comment, it makes me happy :)

Livvy xx


*I'm not a qualified trainer or nutritionist or anything, these are all just my opinions and experiences.

First Attempt at 'Inspired By' Make-Up - Lily Collins

Hello, hope you're having a relaxing Weekend.

For anyone with a beady eye, you may have noticed today is supposed to be a 'Thighs of Thunder' post day. However being the bimbo that I am, I thought it was Saturday today and spent the morning doing my make-up, so we're rolling with it ;)

I was just Googling away the other day, as I often do to waste some time, and came across some pictures of Lily Collins (who's in the new Mirror, Mirror film - which my friend won't come with me to see because appratenly she's heard it's rubbish ;)). Anyway, I found this beautiful picture of her...

How stunning is she! P.s. This isn't my picture, Google image her if you want to find the link it's from :)

And I thought I might have a cheeky go at a similar make-up/hair look. Let's all take a moment to appreciate how beautiful Lily is and therefore not raise our expectaions for my own face. ;) I chose her because I have big eyebrows too. That is genuinely the main reason. Bless my cottons.

I started off by centre parting my hair (ew, it looks SO bad on me. as hard as I try to work it it's just never going to happen), then I pinned one side of my hair back and used my Babyliss Curling Wand to curl the other side. I need more practice with the wand. My hair ended up a sort of crimpy, wavy, curl. Then I did the make-up and...


Here's my finished look, I didn't throw on a beautiful dress because I couldn't be arsed. It is Sunday lunch time after all. Haha, anyway here we go:

So that's my attempt. Got a bit excited playing around with my camera so I thought I'd show you my nails too, which are the 2 polishes I mentioned the other day. I was actually really impressed with how the eyeshadow turned out, as I don't use it that often and I'm not a pro with blending yet. I used Virgin in the inner corners and just underneath, Sin (both from the Naked palette) all over the lid, a pale lilac in the 17 Smokey Eyes palette in the centre of my eye then Rebel from the Sleek Bad Girl palette on the outter corner and crease, mixed with a touch of Dark Horse from the Naked palette. Woah, look at me getting all technical. Can I just point out as well that I know my eyebrows are bushy, but you're going to have to trust me that they look HORRENDOUS over-plucked. Ha.

Here are the products I used:

Do you enjoy re-creating celebrity looks? Or do you prefer to make up your own? I've never done it before but I actually think it's a good idea for inspiration. Even if we can't all look like Lily. Sigh.

Livvy xo

It's All Getting a Bit Hairy - Hair Repair

Hey gang, hope you're grand.

I don't know about anyone else, but after winter my hair is officially frazzled. I hardly ever use heat on my hair but in winter it sometimes has to be done to avoid arriving home at then end of the day with the bubonic plague. Now it's Spring, or now some days the weather is hinting at Spring, I am working on damage control left by winter.

My first problem is that with all this exercise I am constanly a sweaty mess, so washing my hair more often is a must. It's a bit of a pain in the bum actually because I can literally leave my hair 5 days without it getting greasy. The pro's of massive bush hair. But now if I'm going out in the evening my hair needs a wash, so the hair dryer has come back out. So my first hair saving product is the reasonably obvious, heat protection:

Aussie Dual Personality Heat Protection + For Straightening Leave-In Spray (what a mouth full!). £3.99 from Superdrug.

I never used to be that fussed about heat protection and now I'm dealing with some seriously dry ends as a consequence. I particularly like this one because it's not sticky like some other brands. To be honest I've got no idea how these products work, so I couldn't say I definitely know it's working. However, the top 3/4 of my hair isn't dry at all, so from a non-expert stance it appears to be doing the job.

Now my new hair isn't dry, it's time to focus on the frazzled ends. I am exaggerating a bit. I don't even know if it's possible to have super shiny ends, but I'm willing to try. ;) I know if I had the bottom 2 inches of my hair cut off it'd be loads better, but I'm trying to grow it. Don't panic, I still have little bits trimmed, but I can't bare to part with lots at once. As I've practically sold my soul to beauty blogs and videos, the next product won't come as a surprise:




Macadamia Natural Oil - Healing Oil Spray. 125ml. £13.10 from Cheapsmells.com

Macadamia oil, and many other hair oils, have been all the rage in the beauty world for the past year, give or take. As a rule they're quite expensive. I got quite a sizeable sample in the one of Boudoir Prive box they did at Christmas, before becoming Jolie Box. As an avid 'bun on top of head' wearer, this stuff is great to just coat all over my ends then whack it up. It immediately makes the hair feel softer and smoother as it claims to. Plus it says it protects. I've no idea what from, but hey that's another layer of 'hair help' and I'm all for it. It is a bit more pricey than I'd like, seeing as I do smother the bottom 3 inches of my hair in it, but you get what you pay for. Plus the cheapsmells price is about half the RRP, so I can't complain too much.

Those two are the basics my hair really needs. But, it is nice to have a treat every so often; after winter my scalp is suffering as well. You've got to love the colder months for sapping all the moisture out of your body. The next product I would say is my 'hair care secret'. I've not heard it talked about and I've no idea why..:

Origins Rich Rewards Intensive Moisture Treatment - For Scalp and Hair. £14 from John Lewis.

This was a splurge. My head was in desperate need of some loving. I know Origins are sought after for facial moisturisers so I thought they'd be a safe bet. Having tried a Kerastase shampoo to treat my scalp and it making my skin itchy, I was a little hesitant to splash out again. Thank goodness I did. This literally smells of sour pears with a hint of pineapple. My mouth actually waters when I open it. You can use it as a conditioner, but for all over your hair, once a week. Or, what I do, you can rub it in your dry hair/on your dry head and leave it to sit for half an hour before you go in the shower and do your usual routine. You can feel it has worked before you even shampoo your hair. I can't rate this highly enough.

My routine is to put the Origins treatment on, bum around for half an hour, wash out my hair, towel dry, heat protectant if I'm blow drying, then Macadamia oil. And that's my hair repair tips for the Spring, so we can all have luscious hair for our Summer pics :)

What's your hair care secret? Have you tried any of these products? Let me know :)

Livvy xo





Thighs of Thunder - 1. Going Out to Eat.

Hey gang, hope you're all good.

First off let me just apologise for the most hideous crime, there won't be any pictures in this blog post. Mostly because I've only just thought about what to write about. Sorry.

I just got back from having lunch with my Dad, one of THREE meals I've arranged to have out this week. When you're trying to shift some exccess timber off your tree trunks, that many meals out can be stressful. Firstly because there's so much temptation but also because it's hard to know what's in the food - which makes calorie counting a nightmare.

We had lunch in Pizza Express and they have 'Leggera' pizza's on their menu, which they claim are all 500 calories or less. Perfect if you need a specific number and an ideal amount of calories for a main meal. I don't want to keep babbling on about calories, but for the purpose of eating out they're quite useful. A lot of larger restaurant chains now have a healthy option meal, where they indicate how many calories are in it. I know Prezzo do this and I noticed at Frankie and Benny's they have some lower calorie deserts. Although my local Frankie+Benny's is notorious for having sod all of what's actually on the menu, so you might want to have them check if your pudding is available while you're eating your main.

Salads of course are the obvious option. However be careful if you are adding a side to your meal. For example fries are a big no, and even something like garlic bread is usually drenched in the delicious saturated fat known as butter. Also, the sauces on salad's are like little hidden fat pouches in your food. I try to go for something like a balsamic dressing which is usually the lightest option, and have it on the side so it's not swimming around in it.

If you're not trying to shift the pounds, but rather trying to be healthy, just make a few simple changes. Maybe have a water instead of a coke, or don't have a starter if you're having a pudding. To drag it back to the calories, they do all add up. There's like 100 calories in one of those little glass bottles of coke. It's a pretty horrendous way to pack in energy as you'll get a sugar low and crave more sugar afterwards, plus you're effectively using food allowance for a drink. Pretty pointless.

These are just a couple of tips I've been noticing/living by recently. I've said it before I'm not a professional, these are just my opinions and experiences.

What healthy tips do you have for eating out? Let me know in the comments below :)

Livvy xo

Spring Cleaning... Or (nail) Polishing.

These title puns are getting out of hand ;)

Hope you're all good gang. Today I'm going to be displaying my latest Spring nail polishes:

Left to right: (top) Seche Vite top coat, OPI Original Nail Envy.
(bottom) Pop Beauty Nail Glam in 'Lavender Love', Orly's 'Oh Cabana Boy' and Ciate's 'Strawberry Milkshake'.
(P.s. Sorry these pics were taken without a flash, I think my camera might be broken. Cry.)

If any of you have seen my nail polish collection post, you'll notice ALL of these are new. OOPS. But to be fair to me (or, to justify it to myself) I do change up my nail colour all the time. Plus, I had been looking for the perfect collection of nudes. Primarily for Spring and Summer, also because they can be worn all year round. By nudes I mean a selection of nudes and very pale pastels; I'm not best friends with beigey nudes, especially not on my nails. I do have a couple of Essie colours, which I love, but I like to try out new brands (All of these brands were new to me, bar OPI). And I'm glad I did:

Ciate's Strawberry Milkshake is a very decadent nail polish. I got it from beautybay.com for £8.50, which is expensive for a polish. However you're paying for quality. The packaging is beautiful. The colour is like that of a Frijj strawberry milkshake. It's a slightly brighter pale pink than is showing in the picture. I am in love with these pale pastel shades at the moment. I have some pastels from Models Own and I just find them a bit bright for everyday wear in Spring. So, in love with this colour, I was ready to bid farewell to polish shopping. But you know how it is, you're on Asos looking at the sale, you head to the beauty section and down the side the devil's advocate is flashing 'Products you may like' at you... Which leads me to:

Asos, £6.50

Pop Beauty's Lavender Love is what I imagine Essie's Lilacism to be like. A very pale lavendery lilac, verging on off white, it gives the most subtle colour to the nails without being over-powering. I am in the most pleasent depths of love with this! It is EXACTLY what I've been looking for. This and the Ciate polish are just perfection. Plus they look super cute together. It's the sort of colour a beauty addict would look at and appreciate, but your boss isn't going to ask you if you've been finger painting. Unlike with this polish:

Freshly painted to swatch, hence the Nail Envy all over my finger. Oops.

Orly's Oh Cabana Boy is a gorgeous neon, electric, hot Barbie pink. I bought it on a whim from Cheapsmells.com for £5.45. I was ordering more Macadamia hair oil and errr 'broused' a little too thoroughly. My bad. I'd heard Fleur from FleurDeForce discussing it and just pressed buy before I knew what had hit me. When I was waiting for it to come I was a bit wary of the obnoxiousness of the colour. I mean I love my brights but this is seriously 'plastic fantastic'. Low and behold, I am in love with it. It's the perfect toe colour. I haven't painted all my finger nails with it yet, I'm not sure it's hot enough at the moment, but it just makes my feet look all 'I'm-on-holiday-having-fun-relaxing-and-tanning'. Amazing.

A quick pat on the back must also go to my base and top coat of choice. I feel like these two products are seriously hyped up and pricey, but for good reason. I got the OPI Nail Envy with a voucher for my birthday. It retails for £18.65 in Boots, which makes me seriously sick in my mouth because I love it and can't face paying that much. It works as a base and nail strengthening treatment. I had a devastating moment last week when my thumb nail broke off by about an inch. It was beautiful. Sigh. But I'm sure this bad boy is stimulating growth, and for that I am ever thankful. Also the Seche Vite top coat. I was mega wary when I got it because it says 'This product is known to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm'. However I read this blog post -http://lacquerglamour.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/seche-vite-and-toluene-harmless-or-harmful/
- and I felt reassured it was safe enough to use. It leaves a surprisingly glossy, high shine finish. Plus it speeds up the polish drying time (I'm excited to use it on Essie polishes because I swear they don't even dry overnight. ;)). My friend even asked the other day if I'd had my nails done. Serious swoon.

What's your favourite neutral, pastel polish for spring? Is there one I need to know about? Do you have/love any of my faves? Let me know :)

Livvy xo

Face of Thunder and Thighs of Thunder.

The most 90's greeting just crossed my mind and I have the greatest urge to type 'Waaaazzuuuuup?'
Okay. Out my system.

Right so if anyone has read my previous posts, you'll have seen my indecision over what sort of blog I want this to be, and whether I want to blog at all.

The answer to the latter is, yes I do. I just needed a direction. So I've come up with a plan to do regular posts about my two greatest life consumers. 'Face of Thunder', the beauty and make-up obsession I am still fully in the grips of and 'Thighs of Thunder', my desperado attempt to lose weight/be healthy.

The plan of action is to do FoT posts on Saturdays and Wednesdays, because I have a WHOLE crap heap of tales to tell and products to review. That also includes FOTD's, hair tips, possibly a tiny bit of curvy girl (and I use the term curvy sparingly, lol) fashion. That should be fun because my friends and family just don't appreciate why anyone would need 50 nail polishes. Then on Sundays and Thursdays I'll still be posting from this blog, but they'll just have 'Thighs of Thunder' in the title to show it's a diet/health/exercise post. On Sundays I'll do a weekly update and on Thursday a variety of whinging/exercise tips/diet tips/whinging and sweat based whinging. ;)

What do you think? Do you like the idea of beauty and diet/health posts? I'm an expert in neither but a tryer of both ;) So hopefully I'll be able to give person opinions, rather than informed ones. :)

It's Tuesday today so I'll catch up with you tomorrow for a beauty chinwag.

Livvy xo

Guess Who's Back? - The Slimming Shady

Yes, let's all be embarrassed for the title. I couldn't resist ;)

If anyone is actually reading this, hellooooo. I hope you're all keeping well. I realise it's been about 3 months since I last posted, but I have had a request from the lovely @VanzTheMachine on Twitter. And even though I did say I might not post again, I thought 'hey, why not?' Plus I could do with the whole group support thing, as today I'll be discussing (if you hadn't guessed from my genuinely shameful title)...

Healthy eating and exercise. YAY! Everyone's fav ;)

To quickly catch everyone up to speed, about 2/3 years ago I lost 4 stone. 'Oh' you're thinking 'we've got ourselves an expert, a veteran even'. No, no you don't. Well in terms of weightloss, yep... Wasn't so good at keeping it off though. Maybe I'll explain why one day, but today is not then.

So here I am for round 2 (and by 2 I mean 2 succesful rounds, out of about 9000 non-succesful ones). In the last 5 weeks I have lost 12lbs, which even I gave myself a little pat on the back for.

In this post I'm just going to give 5 simple tips to get you started. If it's popular, I'd love to do a whole little series on it :) And if that's popular I might re-ignite the beauty blogger in me, goodness only knows she's begging to be unleashed.

Rambling.

Sorry. Let me just quickly add that I'm not a nutritionist or health expert, these are literally just my opinions and experiences. So without further ado...

My Top 5 Healthy Weight Loss Tips:

1. Water - I know, you've heard a trillion times how much water you should drink. Believe me, I was a squash drinker, even dabbling in the occasional diet coke. And alcohol is just a whole other level. I'm not saying completely cut them out, but they should all be rare treats. I've taken to carrying a water bottle around with me everywhere (note; don't bother taking them to concerts, you'll just end up yelling at doormen when they take it off you). Sipping water consistently throughout the day keeps you hydrated, flushes out toxins and gives you something to put in your mouth that isn't food. I won't say it fills you up, personally I think that only lasts for half an hour before you're chomping at the bit if you're actually hungry. But, it does actually make your skin clearer. I thought that was an urban myth egged on by Hollywood's crazy raw food eating, yoga ladies. Turns out it's actually true, so get yourself a bottle and start sipping.

2. Calorie Counting - I can literally feel the disgust in your faces. Calorie counting is certainly NOT essential for weight loss. I didn't do it last time and still did really well. I also hasten to add that becoming obsessed with calories makes you a massive bore and quite frankly life's too short. However, I've been doing the Biggest Loser online club (the UK version, I'm sure other countries have their own) and that's had me eating 1200 calories a day and inputting what I eat in to an online diary. It does sound a little crazy, and if you're just trying to be healthier it's probably not for you, but let me just get it out there that I LOVE IT! For education alone, it's been invaluable. For example there was me thinking, 'I'll just chuck a tablespoon of olive oil on my salad, it's good for you'. I don't doubt that it is, but now I know there's approximately 121 calories in that, I think twice. It had never crossed my mind before. So instead of calorie counting as such, which I personally think is a little soul destroying, I think calorie awareness is essential. Once you are familiar with calories you can make healthy choices without whacking your calculator out at dinner like a compulsive, mathmatically challenged weirdo.

3. Exercise - Ladies, it's time to purchase a sports bra. Get out your baggy band t-shirts and trakkie b's previously reserved for days of watching 'Man V Food' and 'Britain's Got Talent', don't even try and tell me you haven't. The fact of the matter is that weightloss is like maths, unfortunately, you have to burn off more than you intake to lose weight. Your body needs those 1200 calories to function, any less than that your body will store food when you eat again. So to shift the excess pounds you've got to shift your arses. You're going to have to trust me that a good quantity of my brain is saying 'lay down, have a Dominos', but you've got to get your inner ninja to beat that thought away. There are a LOT of forms of really great exercises, my rule is basically if you're panting and sweating then you're winning. Dvd's like 'Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred' and Davina McCall's exercise vids are immense. There's no better compromise for the lazy community than exercising in your living room, staring the sofa in the eye while sweat's pouring in to it and thinking 'this is not a food sweat'. Plus you can do some serious exercise in half an hour, you've just got to be commited. Other exercies I personally enjoy are swimming (no one likes the 'shamu walk of shame', but nobody's looking and if they are accidentally kick them as you swim past), the rowing machine, the stepper, etc. My current weapon of choice is the Davina McCall foldable exercise bike which was like £100 from Argos, folds up, is relatively quiet and parks nicely in front of the telly... 'Man V Food' won't watch itself. I've also taken to walking with my friends which leads me to points 4 and 5...

4. Do it with someone else and 5. Set yourself a challenge - Okay I'm cheating by grouping points, but I don't want Guiness in touch saying I have the record for the longest blog post ever. However, the reason I've taken to walking with friends is that we've signed up to do a 13 mile charity walk in the summer. I mentioned before I'm not good at maths, but let me assure you that is a LONG way. Half a marathon in fact. So as well as getting healthy together we're raising money. More winning ;) Also in terms of having a partner in crime, it's amazing to have someone to whinge to and who understands what you're doing. Me and my best friend have a little healthy competition. If she says she's lost a bit of weight it spurs me on to do the same. Plus if I needed any more motivation, I have a holiday booked for the summer. Nothing says 'start sweating' like the thought of having to be semi-naked on a beach near 5 of your ridiculously good looking friends.

Let me just re-iterate that I'm no expert and these are just my personal tips. If you're planning a drastic change go and see a professional so that you can't sue me. ;)

And one final thing, I'm no super-motivated robot! Post-Lent where I gave up chocolate, crisps, sweets and pizza I'm suffering a slight (cough*huge*) chocolate addicition. I've been swapping out food cals for chocolate, NOT good. Any tips anyone can give me to beat the chocolate craving? What do you guys struggle with? Let's be a team :)
Please comment if you're interested in this sort of post, not of such mammoth content of course.

Good luck if you're getting healthy too.

Til next time,

Livvy.