I'm so determined to finish off my weight loss project by the end of the summer. So determined that I've actually signed up for a 6 week intensive exercise and diet plan made by a Finnish company called FitFarm.

I obviously can't share too much about this whole thing as it's a paid service and me dishing out the bits of it for free would violate the terms of the "contract". I will however talk about my general progress, how this plan is making me feel and so on. I placed myself in group 2, which is for people looking to lose 10-20kg. I mean I'm not going to be too disappointed if I don't lose all the weight I'm still looking to lose, but even half of it would be absolutely great. I just need that little push to get off this plateau I seem to be stuck at right now.


Taken from my Instagram, prepping the paperwork.

I'm a bit of an obsessive person about certain things, so I've written down the week 1 diet plan on a bit of paper so I can stick it on the fridge. I've also gone to Holland & Barrett to buy all the supplement goodies they recommend to use during the plan + a massive stack of little plastic containers for lunches.


The most difficult part of this whole thing is definitely going to be the eating part. I work really long hours and I don't get to come home during the day (apart from Monday and Friday), so I need to be able to have my lunch in a sealable container. Thankfully Poundland was able to supply me with those, and I am actually going to do a bit of meal prepping for the next six weeks! Thankfully the lunches are perfectly fine cold, so in that sense it won't be an issue at all. I just need to get into the habit of cooking a lot of meat in one batch and then just divide it into enough containers to last me for a week!

And just because the plan isn't a big enough challenge, we are having a team dinner a week into the whole thing! Our department is paying for it all and I'm worried that I'll end up eating and drinking far more than I think I should because I'll know it's free!

I'm actually really excited to get started with this, it'll be something completely new and fresh so I definitely won't be getting bored of it - and only lasting for six weeks and the plans changing every few weeks, how can I?

I've kinda been putting this off for a while, because the reviews aren't quite that big on their own! I've been testing three products for the past few months now (with varying results), and I wanted to summarise them all in one handy post.


It Works! body wraps


There's loads of different body wraps out there, and I've always been very sceptical about these things. Me not following the rules as much as I should've probably had an impact on the results (I refused to give up caffeine for these things), but overall this wrap isn't amazing. I forgot to take any sort of measurements at the start of my testing so I can't give you guys accurate results, but the pictures can demonstrate the minimal change. Apart from the caffeine part I followed the instructions of the pack, and my results aren't quite the same as all these adverts on their website. ;)

This test was done during a period where I did pretty much no exercise, so the results were purely due to the wraps. I think this is more of a quick fix for an event than anything else really, just to nip in your waist and remove bloating from your belly.



RapidLash eyelash serum


I'm absolutely in love with this stuff! It has worked far better than I imagined it would. I've nearly finished the bottle now, and I started this test back in late April. While the look of my lashes without any mascara might not look too different, I've noticed them growing a lot stronger and longer than before. The tips of my lashes are still quite fair in colour, but with a bit of mascara they look really great - most days I actually only use mascara before heading out, hah!

My lashes also curl a lot more now, instead of just growing straight out. This was probably the biggest reason I wanted to give this serum a go, and it really didn't let me down. Especially my lower lashes have gained a new life completely, they must be as long as my top lashes were before starting this test!


So final verdict? Definitely worth it. Just buy it off Amazon or something, actually saw it at my local drug store for twice as much as I bought it for!

DermaOil skincare oil


I got DermaOil through a collaboration with ChemistDirect, and I was so chuffed about the opportunity to test something for them! Unfortunately this test barely got off the ground, as the oil actually made my stretch marks itch beyond belief! I had to stop using the oil as I was scared that constantly scratching my marks would actually make them worse.

Does this mean it's a bad product? No, probably not. My skin just couldn't handle the oil for whatever reason. It's a shame really, I've got a lot of stretch marks all over my body and I know this stuff works. You win some you lose some. :)

My review of Noom is probably the most popular article on my blog right now, and lately I've had the chance to have a look at the features Noom Pro offers - and so far I haven't been disappointed!


The biggest feature Pro offers is the chance to join a Noom group. The idea of these groups is to get the chance to share your progress with a small group of likeminded people - before you join a group you get to influence what kind of people you want to group up with, based on their age, location, sex and so on.


Over the few weeks I've been a part of my group I've really grown fond of the people I get to chat with! Most of the time I just hover in the background, but when I feel like I can really share my knowledge with everyone I just love being a part of it all. You can share anything you want - pictures of meals, workouts, thoughts about weight loss and most importantly, you get to ask weight loss related questions and get answers very quickly! My phone alerts me every time someone posts in the group, so the response time is really quick if everyone in the group is by their phones (and I most likely will be as my phone is always somewhere close, hah!).


Pro also gives you the opportunity to use the app's own database of recipes, which can be extremely useful for people just starting with their lifestyle change. It counts the calories for you and gives incredibly detailed instructions for every dish, there's just no way you can get the dish wrong with all this guidance! It will make cooking so accessible for even novice cooks. And even I find myself browsing the recipe database for inspiration when I don't know what to cook for dinner! I'm actually really dying to get a microwave to our office at work so I could make all those delicious soups and take them to work with me to have for lunch. Yum!

So to answer the question a lot of people are asking - is Noom Pro worth the sub? Yes, yes it is. Just put the price into perspective for a second - the sub for a month costs roughly the same as a takeaway dinner would. Cut down on one takeaway and you'll be able to afford Noom Pro.

For several months now I've felt trapped. Trapped doing something I hated more and more by the day. I struggled to find motivation to carry on, but I refused to give up. This spring has dragged on beyond belief. And today was the day when I could finally breathe out and think to myself, that I'm free of it all.

I wrote quite a long post about the wrong "career" choice a while ago. A post about me feeling like I want to help people achieve their fitness related goals, make the world a healthier place one person at a time. A post about how I ended up studying graphic design because it was the convenient choice for me and my back at the time, but now I couldn't be happier to be done with the course.


I was actually scrolling through some recent posts where I've mentioned studying, and the amount of stress I've spoken about is scary. No wonder I've put on weight since Easter, I've just felt really awful about being on this course. I've let myself fall back into bad habits diet wise, I've stopped going to the gym due to lack of energy and I've just not been happy about it at all.

The final deadline for our last project is in a few hours, but I managed to finish everything by about 3pm. I only had a few little bits to do and the thought of having the entire day for it just made it worse! I procrastinated like a king for a while, doing a small section of work and then going back to browsing YouTube or any other website that would take my mind off the work.


And guess what the first thing I did was after submitting? Go for a very long walk. The feeling of being in no rush after such a long time was refreshing. Actually walked the route I used to walk back when I was only in the beginning of my weight loss journey, I went through this long journey in my head and just felt proud of myself, in so many ways at the same time. I went through one of the most difficult years in my life, still managed to drop all this weight (despite gaining a bit back since Easter) and finally found a job I really enjoy.

People are wondering what I'm doing next. Well, quite simple - I'm going to carry on working to save money for a PT course, but that's still at least a year away. Thankfully the shifts I've been given for most of July are mostly split shifts, giving me the opportunity to get back into going to the gym! All these gaps in my shifts are perfect for a quick workout. I really can't wait!


I actually did a quick full body workout tonight while the other half was watching football. Bicep curls, lat raises, basic crunches, chest flies, dead lifts and squats, followed by a very thorough rolling session with my beloved foam roller (my brother actually fell in love with that thing when he was over!). Somehow I've just found all this energy to use up - maybe the stress of my course has actually been making me really passive lately? I don't know. I'm just really happy that energy is there again.


Oh and I'm completely in love with my hair right now! It is the result of a lot of patience and a bit of bleach, hair colour and silver shampoo. It's nice to be blonde again after such a long time, and this time I've almost managed to get to my natural colour! Hooray!

I recently joined a group through Noom Pro (again a massive thanks to Sarah from Noom for providing me with Pro for a year!), a small community for people losing weight with the support of the app. It's a nice place to chat and ask for hints and share our thoughts on several weight loss related topics - alcohol being one of them.

One of the group members asked, how to handle social outings and alcohol. They were worried about the calories in booze, and I don't blame them. Alcohol can really throw good progress off tracks, and in some cases the consumption of alcohol is the main factor for sneaky weight gain. People might not see drinks as something so fattening, but trust me - they have loads of calories.

And all these pictures are from 2011 and 2012, just to give the post a bit of colour. ;)


Don't get me wrong, I do drink occasionally. I'd be an absolute hypocrite for talking about alcohol in my blog and claiming that I don't touch the stuff. But since deciding to live a healthier life, I've cut down a lot. I've never been a massive drinker, and my drunken adventures were limited to our big nerd gatherings twice a year. Due to personal reasons, alcohol has never appealed to me that much. To me getting absolutely wasted and not remembering a thing the next morning just isn't worth it. Why spend a lot of money on something you won't remember?

In the discussion I asked why this person felt like they had to drink when going out. Is it because their friends create pressure and they'd rather avoid the grilling about choosing not to drink, or is it just about having more fun when drunk? Can we condition ourselves to enjoy a night out without being drunk? Is it simply socially acceptable to be absolutely hammered and make fools of ourselves, is it OK to justify our drinking by saying that we need to wind down after a stressful day at work?


Going slightly off the rails here. My point is, I really think you can still enjoy alcohol while losing weight, as long as you're being smart about it. Spirits have considerably fewer calories than beer and wine (and more likely to get you drunk faster, hah), and when combined with diet soda you'll be saving a huge amount of calories over the night. For example, a shot of vodka with diet lemonade only comes up to roughly 70 calories, when a pint of Magners is 210. It's also a brilliant idea to drink lots of water during the night, helps you avoid a hangover in the morning. ;) Drinking water will also fill you up, possibly limiting the amount of alcohol you drink.


A lot of fitness people do actually say no to alcohol. Even small amounts of alcohol shut down your metabolism, while it's being turned into energy. For people training towards competitions, early mornings are a regular thing, so staying out late drinking isn't exactly the best option. Most diet plans they use most likely completely ban alcohol as well, no point consuming those empty calories is there?

Will I completely cut out alcohol? Well, I don't see it as an impossible change in all fairness. If I ever was to start training towards a fitness competition, I wouldn't struggle with a strict diet that bans alcohol. I'd struggle with the early mornings more, hah!

So what's my point in this whole thing? If you want to drink, I'm not going to hunt you down and wave a blaming finger at you. All I'm saying is that maybe plan ahead a bit, budget your drinks in and go for the lower calorie options instead of beer. Your body will thank you in the morning.

I've had the UP band for nearly a year now, with long periods of not using it and then falling in love with it again. I figured that since I wrote an initial review and a quick check up after using the band for a week, I should write a full on review of the band now to wrap it all up nicely.


For an overview of the band, do check my other review. The app itself has stayed pretty much exactly the same with the exception of 'trends' not being there anymore, so I felt like it was unnecessary to cover that bit again.

The band has worked flawlessly ever since I got it out of the packaging. Even though Jawbone says that it's waterproof and you can still wear it when you take a shower, I've always taken it off for it. I just don't trust something like this to actually hold water out for too long. :) I've read a lot of negative comments about the band not working after a short while, and I have a feeling that it's linked to water getting into the delicate system.


UP has definitely shed a lot of light on my daily activity levels. It's great to be able to tell exactly how many calories I burn, how many steps I take and how much I sleep. I actually look forward to syncing my band every night, just to see if I've hit my ten thousand steps every day. It helps me plan my calorie budget and if I have a more active day, I know how to adjust. It's the little things that really make this band worth having. Now that I've used it for a while again, I barely even notice it. It's just like any other wrist band or bracelet people wear, it's just about getting used to it. Sure, it's not the most elegant looking thing and might look quite odd with some fancy dress, but small sacrifices for fitness are normal in our lives. ;)

I actually feel quite bad for forgetting to put the band back on if I take it off for whatever reason. I feel like I'm missing out on important data of my life if I don't wear it! It's kinda turned into a part of me, in a way it has stopped being this device that just collects data as I live my daily life. In a way it's like a companion, something that helps you and lets you know if you're doing something wrong.


Using the band has also confirmed how much sleep I need every night in order to feel refreshed when I wake up in the morning. It's a very fine line somewhere between seven and eight hours, if my sleep falls shorter than that I just feel really drowsy and awful in the morning. UP has really helped me figure out my sleeping pattern, and it's one of the most important features of the band for me. I've gone from going to bed at 2am to actually wanting to sleep by 11.30pm. The only downside to the band is that it can be a bit uncomfortable when settling down in bed for the night, as I use a memory foam pillow and it doesn't quite give way for the band like a normal pillow would.

In short, this band has really changed the way I think about my own daily life. I have started making better decisions sleep wise and keeping track of my steps with something as delicate as UP makes it effortless and I really don't have to think about it at all. I highly recommend this to anyone who doesn't want to mess about with clunky pedometers. I'm actually really surprised how I haven't actually seen any UP bands or similar (FitBit for example) around at all in the year I've owned this thing. Are they really not that popular over here?

I'm actually quite tempted to buy the new version of this band, but with the price tag being rather high in comparison to this one, I think it'll have to wait for a little while unfortunately. :)

Well this has been one busy week! My brother left about 40 minutes ago, and I've got a bit of time to go over the week before I have to crack on with my course work (final deadline on Thursday, eek!). :)

The amount of little gifts my brother brought with him was so adorable, made me a bit homesick for a brief moment there! Two Moomin mugs, some wooden utensils, sweets and chocolate and a very cute brush to wash veg!


It's been so nice to have family around for an entire week. I really don't get to see my close family a lot as the distance (and price tag) is just too much for regular visits, so I make the most out of it when I get to see the people I love and care about.

I wanted to let my brother decide on a lot of the stuff we did, so we did some shopping (or tried to, the high street shops sell awful clothes.. :p), saw Edge of Tomorrow and went to London! Our London day was filled with Natural History and Science museum + food! I didn't have to think long when trying to pick a place to eat, The Green Man is the pub to go to whenever I'm in London! Instead of going for a beef burger, both me and my brother picked the vegetarian version this time. The patty was made of mashed sweet potato and red chilli, that and the blend of spices made the burger one of the best I've ever eaten! With incredible flavour and affordable prices, The Green Man is very hard to top. :)


Usually on a holiday I tend to eat absolutely crap, but with my brother being quite into staying fit (he runs) and eating healthy, I felt far more motivated to pick the healthier options all week. It's all about the support of loved ones when losing weight, eh? :) We also did TONS of walking and my step count averaged around 13k all week, with Friday topping it with 24k!

Friday really was the absolute highlight of the entire week! I've never been to a festival before and I was so excited about it! It was quite a long trip to Donington Park, and arriving to East Midlands Parkway station was quite a bizarre experience. As we pulled up to the platform all we could see were these MASSIVE power plant cooling towers! Not exactly something you see right next to train stations now is it? :D



Coming from a small town, seeing so many people in one place was a very odd experience at first! Just trying to find our way through the crowds between stages was a task and a half, and we didn't even try to get close to the stage when we were listening to the bands. We quite happily just stayed behind the masses of people, also saved our ears that way. ;)

Out of all the bands we got the chance to listen, Powerman 5000 and The Offspring were by far my favourites. I've been a massive fan of PM5K since I was about 14, and I've been just as fond of Offspring from around that age too. Just seeing two incredible bands live on the same day made me so happy and grateful, it's not something I get to do a lot! Download had an incredible lineup this year, just a shame all the bands I love were scattered on different days. Maybe I'll go for the entire weekend next year if the lineup is just as amazing!





And it's not a good festival unless you get a shirt to remind you about it! Unfortunately the girl's tee was absolutely awful so went for the smallest guys shirt they had - and it's not bad! Quite a loose fit but oh well, at least I've got a shirt!



I bought a cute widget for my phone called Snap Remote (or Selfie Remote) as well this week, and I finally got the chance to test it out! It's a really handy little thing and I actually went a bit mad with it, my camera's pic gallery was full of silly snaps of me fooling around (as you can see in the bottom two pictures haha!). I will cover this cute little remote in a separate post when I have time for it - time to be productive and actually do some course work!

Time to reveal the damage! In the end I didn't feel too disappointed (I mean, obviously a little bit), but I suspect a lot of this is just water weight and easily fixable with a few dietary changes. :) Shouldn't take me too long to drop this weight I've gained and carry on.

As usual, numbers in brackets are from the previous progress check - which in this case was April.

Weight: 74kg (69,9kg)
Arms: 30cm (30cm)
Bust: 97cm (95cm)
Waist: 71,5cm (71cm)
Belly: 91,5cm (89cmcm)
Thighs: 56,5cm (55cm)

I've also set myself a target as a result of this slight dip - I want to be at 65kg by the end of the summer! As I really didn't hit my last target, I'm so determined to stick to this one. I might even get a detailed exercise / diet plan from a PT to really get going with this.

Lately I've been really proud of what I've cooked, and tonight really wasn't an exception. I wanted something light so I ended up making a very yummy roasted sweet potato salad with meatballs (recipe, without the grated sweet potato). Sweet potato really has replaced regular potato in our home, I just prefer the taste of it and being the healthier option also makes it so very lovely in my eyes. The meal is really filling despite not really looking like it, and really doesn't add too much to the calorie budget either. :) And now that it's getting quite warm outside I don't want to fill up with "heavy" dinners either.



Next week will be more inactive again, as my dear brother is coming over to England for the week! It's going to be one busy week with lots planned, including going to Download festival for the Friday! Can't wait to see Powerman 5000 play live, they're by far one of my favourite bands and it'll be so exciting to see them perform. If any of my lovely readers are heading to the festival and recognise me, please do come and say hi!

We spent the day in Chessington yesterday, and I finally got the chance to properly test my new lens! The entire album can be viewed here, below are some of my absolute favourites from the day. Enjoy! :)

Please no copying without permission! Email me if you'd like to use any of these pictures.

It's probably really obvious to most of you that I've kinda fallen off the wagon since before Easter. Deadlines and work left me with not a lot of spare time to exercise, and junk food became my friend again. It's incredible how easy it is to pick the bad but quick option instead of thinking about the choices you make when buying lunch.

I actually got on the scales this morning, only to see a 4kg gain since I slipped. Quite depressing in a way, but so expectable. I've not treated my body the way it deserves lately, and this is definitely its way of saying that this is enough. And for the past week I've really done all I can to get back to the healthy train, and having a bit of discipline is finally starting to show results.


I suppose it was just so easy to think, that because I walk to work and stand up pretty much all day, I don't need to exercise. But at the same time I've upped my food intake slightly to be able to cope with the long work hours I do. It's just not a match made in heaven, is it?

In a way it feels odd, I've gained weight but at the same time someone I know keeps saying that I just keep getting thinner and thinner everytime he sees me. I know it's not true and it does stab me in the heart a bit, because I've not followed the healthy lifestyle I've been working so hard towards since last year. 


But you know what? Dwelling in it is not going to fix things, I need to be the one to decide to be good again. Since starting to use my UP band again two weeks ago, I've hit my step target nearly every day and also actually gone for walks again. The weather being amazing definitely helps, as I just can't sit indoors when the sun is shining and it's so warm that you don't need a hoodie anymore.


I also made a promise to myself to stop buying Coke when I'm at work. I've actually ordered a new stainless steel water bottle and I'm going to start using that at work, instead of constantly buying bottles of water or juice. I'm cautious of both BPA in the bottles and the amount of sugar in bottled juices, so going for a stainless steel bottle will definitely make me feel better about myself.

This doesn't mean a complete ban to everything that isn't a vegetable or source of protein, of course. I've never been one to follow strict diets and I don't believe in denying guilty pleasures completely, as it's about a lifestyle, not just a quick fix.


There's so many things I need to catch up with (a few reviews and such), and hopefully I will start having more time for my precious blog. It has after all given me so many good things over the 1,5 years I've been doing this. One of the latest being an invite to become a part of the Noom community as a guest writer! I'm really excited about this opportunity, as I do love the app and being a writer for such a bit community will be so rewarding for me! :)

I think I will actually do a proper progress check on Sunday as well, being the first Sunday of the month and my usual progress check day. I'm really not looking forward to it, but it's exactly what I need for that final kick to the butt to start working towards a healthier me again.