Another amazing weekend in London behind me! Meeting up with my closest friends is always such a joy, I've known these people for so long that I know that I can just be myself without being judged or mocked. It's a safe feeling, you know?

It's safe to say that my Juice Plus plan was pretty much out the window for 90% of the time. :D I figured that I'll allow myself to just enjoy the weekend, have whatever I wanted and just get back on track once I got home. There's so little point depriving myself of all the goodies when something like this happens, it's just easier to let go a little bit and have fun.

Our Friday evening meet-up point was the wonderful Green Man Inn / Juicy Bastard Burger Kitchen at Edgware Road. It's been my favourite place to eat for years now, their burgers are just way too delicious to skip! You have no idea how nice it was to tuck into one of their delicious burgers after not eating much all day and running around in London for ages right after work!


Saturday is always our traditional double BBQ day. We all head out to Tesco to buy food and drink, help our wonderful BBQ master with all the prep and just chill in the sun! We always seem to get the incredible weather for these weekends, it's been really miserable for a good month now so a bit of sunshine was so welcome. I actually tanned a little bit!

One of my friends made this amazing bowl of salad for the meal, I think I actually inhaled a good half of the bowl just by myself... :D It had cucumber, red onion, tomatoes, feta, pine nuts, oregano, olive oil and salt & pepper in it. It'll probably be my go-to salad at home from now on, really simple to make and just tastes so delicious!

And I was actually quite sensible with the BBQ food! I had some chilli-mango chicken, new potatoes and loads of the salad.


And just because sitting still all day in the sun can get very exhausting, we booked a booth at a local karaoke bar to split the day up a bit. ;) We did karaoke a few years ago for my birthday and we all enjoyed it so much that we rebooked at the same place and it was just as brilliant as I remembered! It was so much fun, we picked some really cheesy songs and then personal favourites, it's actually our tradition to listen to Blame It on the Boogie every single meetup and now it's on our karaoke list as well! :D Five year tradition going strong, hah!

Our second round of BBQ was just as glorious as the first, only difference being that it was getting so dark outside that we had to improvise with our lighting.. :D We all just turned on the torches on our phones and put empty beer bottles on top, the result was actually really pretty! A potential DIY project for when I have a place with a garden.



Sunday is always Oxo Tower day. Very pricy cocktails, amazing view of London and the best company in the world is the perfect way to end a weekend. :) At £13 per cocktail I really should've stuck to one, but the curiosity in me took over and actually had three... :D Good old mojito, a Mad Hatter and a Singapore Sling. The last one was actually really yummy, couldn't really taste the alcohol in it so I kinda drank it waaay too quickly!




Since coming home I've actually been trying to recover from tendonitis in my ankles. Again. Thankfully it hasn't gotten as bad as it was last year, where I actually had to take a week off work and load myself with strong painkillers. Luckily I can sit down at work when I feel like it now so I'm not even giving it a chance to get too bad.

This is such a horrible timing, though. I ordered myself a six week PT plan a week ago but not been able to start it now because of my ankles. Hopefully by the weekend I'll be recovered enough to start, the folder just keeps staring at me on the desk every day!

A new look for the blog again! What do you guys think? :) I really liked the old one, but it was really broken code wise and I couldn't get things to work. This one should also be a bit more user friendly if you're browsing on a tablet / small screen.

I'm really starting to be bad at finding the motivation to go to uni! I mean, I do work at home but showing my face at uni every now and then wouldn't hurt. We've only really got a few weeks left of this year, so I really feel like I can achieve the same things at home I would by going into the studio.


To pump up my energy towards uni work, I wanted to take advantage of the incredible weather and go for a quick walk earlier. I was trying to decide whether or not I should take a hoodie with me, and I'm really glad I did in the end. Despite it being really sunny, the wind at the seafront was awful! Even the seagulls were side stepping to avoid falling over!



My weekend is going to be incredibly busy with work. The resort is having an adult only weekend, meaning late night venues, lots of hen/stag parties and so on. And in turn it means that us photographers need to be present with cameras, capturing all those memories for people. :) Should be a fun weekend! Also going out with the team tomorrow night after work.


Oh and our trip to Holland is fast approaching! Heading over to the land of Dutchies next Friday. :) I'm so excited about this trip, I haven't seen this bunch of people for such a long time (since last October in fact!), it'll be great to get together again and have a fantastic weekend together. These friends really make me feel like I belong to a group of some kind, so I'm determined to make the most of our weekend away.

When I started uni back in September I was absolutely petrified. We started out as a group of eight, with everyone else knowing someone on the course and obviously having bonds with them. In a way I was the outsider of the group and I was just really worried that I'd struggle making friends.

But all the way from the first week there was someone who really seemed to take notice and wanted to get to know me. And that friendship has grown incredibly strong over the four or so months we've known each other.

Chris has got such an amazing talent of reading people and every single time I've felt down for whatever reason he's been able to make me laugh within ten seconds. I did have quite a bumpy autumn with my personal life getting in the way of my studies really badly, and without Chris I really would've fallen apart. We actually get on so well that our tutor thought that Chris was the reason I was so distracted, even though he was the one looking after me! Apparently being happy and laughing is a distraction, go figure. :)

While Chris isn't actually an athletic type and so far hasn't offered to go to the gym with me, he's got his funny way of supporting me fitness wise. He is so addicted to McDonalds and we used to go over there for dinner after uni at times, then all of a sudden he just said to me that he feels a bit guilty for doing that because it'll just ruin my progress. Bless his heart. ♥

We haven't actually taken any pictures together, so this screen grab from a DayZ video Chris shot a few weeks back will have to do! :D


He actually made a post about me on his Tumblr last night, that's why I felt like repaying the favour. :) I really wouldn't look past that post if you're not alone (or under 18 for that matter..), very very NSFW. :D

As we live quite close to each other, he gives me a lift to and from uni quite frequently. As a thanks I offered to make him lunch today and ended up making pancakes. I should've taken a few pictures but you know, you just get caught up with the conversation sometimes!

So I guess all I want to say is - thank you Chris. :) ♥

I also use music to process everything in my head. It doesn't matter if it's a happy or a sad thing, I do usually associate songs to those events and when I listen to the songs later on I pretty much always go back to those moments and think about them. For example meeting my WoW friends is very tied into Blame It on the Boogie, as it was one of the songs played during our very first meetup and we all learned the little dance you do with the chorus. :D It's not a good meeting without a bit of MJ!

And here's a few songs I've listenend to a lot the past few days. Not going to go into it too much, some songs might only have a very loose connection to everything and some songs have been there just to cheer me up. Enjoy. :)

It's a known fact that we waste a lot of our resources on this planet. While one person might not make a huge impact on it all, it will definitely add up. If nobody thinks that they can make a change, where would we be today?

With this in mind, I actually ordered myself a stainless steel water bottle. I think I was mainly attracted to the fantastic colour of it, but oh well! Adding water also makes the surface of the bottle feel nice and cool, which will definitely be a plus during workouts. 


And as always, there's the health related side to this purchase. Normal plastic bottles can contain a chemical called BPA (Bisphenol A), a possibly very harmful chemical to the human body. It can cause negative changes in the brain, behaviour and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children. It can also affect fertility of women and block normal hormone function.

BPA can transfer from the plastic onto food and drink, especially when heated. It is quite worrying to think that it could have a huge negative effect on my life in the long run. I'm still not quite plastic bottle free (I still buy way too much Diet Coke..), but I'm definitely working on it. Now that I've got my new shiny bottle, I don't have to worry about it leaking and making my bag soaking wet when I'm out and about. That's right, I'm planning on taking this baby everywhere. It's so pretty.

Anyways, enough about all this seriousness. ;)

This week has been quite a busy one in all fairness. I've also had a few days when I've just felt upset for no good reason, I don't know if it's just my body's way of telling me that it's still in shock with all these changes to my daily schedule or something. Like for example, I don't have any days off this week and my next week looks exactly the same. And I should carry on with my uni work at home on top of that. Very shattered lately.



But thankfully we are getting a "day off" on Monday - our course tutor wants to take us to London! A bit torn about it to be fair, in a way it'll be very nice to do something completely different (and I love London) but then again I also can't really afford it right now. Getting there will cost a fair bit and whatever extra we do on top of our scheduled stuff won't be free either. :p Oh well, payday soon! :D

I do really enjoy uni thought, I feel like the course is exactly what I want and have made some lovely friends over these few weeks. :) Will just have to wait and see how these friendships evolve, though. Learned to be a bit cautious with new people. Maybe it's a bad thing, maybe it's not.

Oh and I coloured my hair (again). Right now not looking too presentable so a picture will have to wait.

Apologies for the long gap between posts. Real life has it's ways of interfering with things. :)

I've really been able to find some kind of serenity by the sea in the middle of everything that's been going on. I've just automatically gone to the beach instead of somewhere else when I've gone for a walk. It's just so beautiful and quiet over there.


I've had a bit of a hair crisis for a while now. The colour just didn't turn out to be as even as I wanted it when I coloured last time (a month ago?), my fringe ended up being two shades darker than the rest and I had this layer of red mixed in with the brunette. So I had a master plan of buying hair colour stripper and a hair colour a few shades lighter than what I have currently. The stripper worked wonders like it always has before, but unfortunately I didn't have time to add the new colour (and I also ran out of hot water...) before going to the gym. So I went to the gym looking like a carrot!! Was a bit embarrassed, but had no other option than to suck it up and focus on my workout instead of worrying about my hair. :p

For the past few days I've been really busy with my uni stuff. I need to do some prepwork for the course (learn the software, do tasks etc) and read nine books. Well, I've started browsing the books and sort of read bits and pieces here and there and I've already done a few of the tasks. I'm so happy to have the next two years of my life planned and steady, giving me a bit more stability and hopefully at the end of it have a job in my own field. :)


I was actually so tied up with it all today that I didn't realise to have lunch until 1pm. In a way it felt really good, I haven't been this focused on anything for a very long time. I love just losing track of time when doing something I enjoy, getting stuff done and seeing results I've worked hard for. I could say exercise is one of these things, I can just go for a walk and get so carried away I end up being out for a lot longer than I intended. Getting into fitness / losing weight is definitely going to help me with studying as I've got a ton of determination I used to lack during college.

But yeah, a quick fish finger sandwich (with a small dollop of mayo, cucumber and beetroot) for lunch and I decided to give my brain a break from all that thinking. Quick change of clothes and off I went for a walk, with an added bonus of seeing my friend. :) I think everyone needs at least one good friend in their life, someone to just spend time with and be silly. We just sat at the beach today, throwing rocks at random bits of rubbish on the beach. I have awful aim, don't think I hit anything more than once haha!




Today was going to be a gym day for us, but unfortunately my other half had a very long day at work so he didn't even come home until 20.30pm. In a way I'm glad we didn't go tonight, my legs are STILL sore from the leg workout I did at home and it'd be a leg day for me at the gym as I did arms and core on Wednesday. I was thinking of doing a workout from a dvd tonight instead but I'm just too full of pizza at the moment to even think of working out haha! So yeah, made pizza for dinner tonight. I knew my other half would want something very filling and big after a long day of work, so whipped up a very yummy chicken pizza with a wholemeal base. I love making pizza but I've never actually made it with chicken before! Was just a simple mix of chicken, tinned tomatoes, onions and green peppers + grated cheddar on top. It turned out absolutely incredible, quite sweet because of the peppers but I was more than OK with that!



And as a little treat, my father in law got me a Flake bar. :) I love these things, the texture of it makes you think you're eating a lot of chocolate but it's just 170 calories for the whole thing, whereas you'd probably be eating twice the amount of calories in a normal chocolate bar this size. Satisfies my need for chocolate. :D

Since coming back from their holiday, my in laws have really fallen in love with the Jamaican culture. This obviously includes the food side of it as well! I didn't really have a proper lunch today (literally just wholewheat pasta with beetroot) so I was starving by dinner time. I did sort of snack on stuff while waiting for things to cook but not gonna worry about that too much.



Anyways! Jerk chicken, rice and a salad made out of kale, tomatoes, peppers and onion. I also had a little bit of this fish curry I didn't take a picture of. Incredibly delicious, just spicy enough to give the food a bit of a kick but not too much to only be able to taste the spices. And a bit of pudding as well in the form of apple pie, strawberries and a little dollop of vanilla ice cream. :) Tomorrow's weigh in might not go quite as well as I want it to, haha!


And just to float in the clouds a bit, I got this wonderful message from my friend today. It made me smile so much and I really wanted to share it with you guys.

"I respect you so much. You do so many things even though your back is as it is... You could be just miserable and just stay in bed all day feeling sorry for yourself, but you do so many things, clean, housework, walking the dogs, fitness etc... [...] But most of my respect for you is earned because you're willing to change your life. Losing weight takes alot out of you and is difficult. You're so strong for continuing it."

Thank you. <3

Well. Not quite what I was expecting this week! :D I haven't exercised at all because of my ankle, I've only done the squat challenge four times over the week. It just really shows how important your diet is when losing weight. :) And I'm sure intermittent fasting has got something to do with it as well.

Next week is going to be a bit iffy again, my other half booked me a last minute weekend trip to Netherlands to celebrate my friend's birthday. In a way it's a good thing, my friend LOVES dancing so might burn some of that booze on the dance floor... :D I think I'll be quite ok in all fairness, with my monthly progress check being on Sunday / Monday. 

The rest of the week is going to be very odd for me. I am going up to London tomorrow to meet up with a bunch of friends. This means alcohol, lots of eating out, no working out.. On the other hand we will most likely be walking a lot, shopping and sight seeing being something we've planned. I'm quite confident that I'll be able to stick to IF and eating healthy, just need to figure out what drinks I can have without feeling insanely guilty. Maybe vodka and diet lemonade. Or sugar free mojitos (one of my friends makes incredible mojitos, would be a crime to say no to him!). Oh we'll see.

As I'm only coming back home on Monday afternoon, I'm also skipping this week's weigh in. Even if I had a scale at the place I'm staying at, it'd give me an unreliable reading. I learned it such a long time ago that sticking to one scale is one of the most important things during weight loss. Using the same scale will give you the most reliable results, as the configuration and placement is the same week after week. We actually have two scales in the house and the readings can be incredibly different. I'll most likely have a look when I get home on Monday to see how much damage I've done, but the official weigh in will have to wait til next Sunday. :)


I also made a nice schedule for 30DS the other night but various things have just screwed it up completely. I haven't actually started the program this week, I've just gone for long walks (again). So yeah, going to start 30DS on Monday when I'm back home. I think a break from these programs will do my back good in all fairness.

Oh and I've gone pink! It's not a permanent colour, it says that it'll wash off in 6-8 washes. Just about perfect for this weekend haha! There's also a possibility of landing a job in the near future so I'll most likely have to cover it up anyways. Sad times.

Have a wonderful rest of the week everyone!

Felt like it's a good time to ramble on about something non weight loss related for a change! :D As probably for a lot of people, music is such a huge part of my life. I like to sing, I listen to certain songs when I'm feeling down, I LOVE screaming my lungs out to some of my favourite songs when sitting in the car.

I started getting into rock and metal when I was about 13. Green Day's American Idiot had just been released and to me it was the best thing ever. It was kinda the album that started forming my identity a bit. I mean sure, I went through the emo phase but even though my appearance has changed to a more neutral look I'm still a complete rocker at heart. :D This kind of music fits my personality well.

I've seen a few bands live as well. I was probably 15 when I went to see Bullet for my Valentine back in Helsinki. Can't remember much of the gig to be fair, all I know is that it was good. :D Over here in England I've seen KoRn and Volbeat. The Volbeat gig was such an emotional thing for me, this band is by far the best thing I've ever come across. Hearing them play my favourite songs made me eyes water and everything! Such a soppy git. And the official tour shirt I have is probably my favourite bit of clothing as well (and when I bought it it was a bit tight, now it fits like a glove :D).



And like the title says, something else I want to write about too. I've been trying to figure out a good way of writing this post for a good few days now but I've just kinda been lost for words. Lately I've been spending more and more time speaking to someone who's definitely been such an inspiration to me weight loss wise. He's gone through the process already so he's been able to give me good tips (and tons of motivation) and it's just been so nice to talk to someone who can relate to what I'm dealing with. I mean of course I talk to my other half about this too but he's never seen fat on his body in his life. :D

And to finish this post, one of my favourite songs from Volbeat. :3