I really can't say this enough - taking pictures of my progress has been one of the best things I've done this year. When I feel like I'm hitting a wall on the scales, looking back to last spring really makes me feel happier about myself and my progress. I just keep telling myself that there's absolutely no point giving up, I've come way too far to throw it all away.

And the thought of wearing a bikini next summer does kinda keep me going too. :D


These pictures were taken 2nd April. Such an insane difference, isn't it? Especially the difference in my face and neck, I actually have clear definition now instead of just one straight line from ears to shoulders!


It's funny how I really miss having red hair. It just keeps popping up every few weeks, I either look at old pictures of myself or just see an advert with the most stunning red hair colour. I've actually made myself a promise - I'm going to get my hair done properly at a hairdressers before the end of the year. I've been trimming and colouring my own hair for absolutely ages now, I just can't really afford the luxury of getting my hair done every month or two. I think it's actually been about one and a half years since I've been to my hairdressers. Oh my.


I've already decided what kind of red I'm going for and what to do with the cut, but you'll just have to wait and see. ;)

It's amazing how dogs just seem to know when you want to sleep late. Every single time I've got the morning off the dogs just start barking like mad and won't shut up! I did get to sleep until 9 though so not going to complain too much. :)

I've definitely had a busy day! I've mainly been catching up with housework that's been piling up since last week - when you're busy you really don't notice it at the time, but eventually you just start running out of clean clothes. :D


I'm already doing well with my little plan I made yesterday. I was determined to go for a longer walk than I usually do, and by the time I got back home my RunKeeper told me I had walked 7 kilometres in an hour. I wasn't really going too fast, I was just enjoying the nice weather and getting back into it all. It's just been such a long time since I've actually gone for a proper walk so I knew my muscles would feel a bit stiff.


The weather is a bit funny right now, it's not really cold enough to wear a thick winter coat but too cold to just go out in a normal hoodie. Thankfully I've got my Björkvin hoodie to keep me warm on days like this! I really should invest a bit of money into long sleeved shirts and a thin coat so I could layer it up when I go out.

I really fancied something a bit different for dinner tonight so ended up spending a while on Google to try and find an easy recipe to try out. I ended up going for Korean beef, a really easy and tasty dish to make! :) I didn't have any red chillies and I don't like green onions so substituted them with green peppers, but it was still very delicious! I did kinda miss the chillies in there though, it was lacking that kick chillies would give it. I just drowned my food in sweet chilli sauce to try and compensate... :D



I was really craving something sweet after dinner, but there was so little I could actually eat in the house! I'm so happy my other half loves watermelon, there was a slice of it in the fridge so there was something sweet I could have!

And the reason for me being so restricted with food at the moment is quite simple - I think I'm lactose intolerant. I have very little dairy in my diet and for the past two weeks I've had an unusually large amount of dairy in different forms. And ever since I've had incredible stomach pains in the evenings, it's not exactly hard to connect the two. Lactose intolerance is really common in Finland so I really wouldn't be surprised if I've developed it as well now.

It's just really hard to try and avoid dairy in this country. There's dairy in absolutely everything! If it's not actual milk in the ingredients list, it'll be milk powder. Very frustrating as I need to start scanning ingredient lists when I shop if it really turns out that I can't have dairy. I'm doing a milk-free trial for a week or two and then have a day when I just go for everything possible with milk in it and see what happens.

Gotta say, I'm not really looking forward to that day.

It's done! Magazine done, printed, bound, presented and handed in! You will have to wait until it's been graded to see the final outcome, but I think I could show a few pages of it to you lot. ;) It's been printed on this really beautiful textured paper and I used salmon colour wallpaper as the covers, I'm just so very proud of what I've produced and hopefully it'll come back as something else than a pass. I've just worked way too hard for it to get a pass!

For people who aren't familiar with this project, we were asked to create a magazine about homeless people. It could be for or against homeless people, it could be to raise awareness, it could be something you can actually give to the homeless (like a survival guide etc).. Anything at all. I went for a very typography heavy piece about a person's journey from living the good life to losing it all and recovering again. It's been one hell of a project, I'm very tired and just happy that it's over.



As I'm getting so much time to myself for a few weeks, I've decided to be nice to myself and really enjoy it. There's a few things I really want to do and maybe I'll have the time to try something new as well. :)

I want to read more. I figured out that I can download the Kindle app on my tablet and even download my Kindle library on it so I've rediscovered my love for reading! And what makes things even better is that Robert Fabbri's next book about Vespasian (Rome's Fallen Eagle) came out not so long ago (even though the release date is 2nd January I was still able to download it) and I've been burning to get into it properly, but with the deadline I've just had to put it off. Looking forward to late nights snuggled in bed with a book!


Go running. I got to a nice start a few weeks ago and then I had to drop everything in order to get my uni stuff done. I really miss going for a long walk or run, it's just one of those things that clears my head and gets rid of so much stress.

Get back into an exercise routine. I'm talking about resistance training now. I don't quite know what yet, maybe start going to the gym again or maybe do stuff at home. I just need to get back into it desperately as I know my core muscle strength is getting worse.

Sleep! I'm just going to have late mornings and let my body recover.

And of course, might do a bit of shopping as well to treat myself. :) I'm quite getting into the idea of wearing skirts and dresses on a daily basis now, just need to fill my wardrobe with some first! And I definitely need new shoes since I've had to give up on wearing heels, I need some pretty flats to replace all my heels.


And just to try and spread a bit of holiday cheer, a picture my other half took yesterday. I think this will be the amount of holiday spirit I can manage. :D

This month has dragged so bad weight loss wise. It's been really frustrating to have all these uni committments and work just dragging everything down. I'm just so looking forward to having a break from uni work for the best part of a month (our deadline is Tuesday and we won't start a new project until January), gives me a proper chance to get back into exercising and looking after myself.

And measurements. Not even going to post the pictures as there's absolutely no change at all from last month.

Arms: 30cm (30cm)
Bust: 97,5cm (99cm)
Waist: 72,5cm (72,5cm)
Belly: 91cm (90,5cm)
Thighs: 57cm (57,5cm)
Weight: 71,3kg (72kg)

But on a happier note, I've finished my uni project! Just needs printing out properly at uni but it's done! 

And I have a target for myself: I want to be out of the 70s by my next progress check in January!

It's amazing how everything else gets pushed aside when there's a big deadline coming up. I haven't had the energy for exercise or blogging at all with all my uni stuff lately. Final deadline is on Monday (or Tuesday, that's when we do our evaluations) and I've still got loads to do so this'll be a sweet n short post to let you all know that I'm still alive! :D

It's really coming down to the fine details now. I've been tracing fonts on a separate bit of paper to "create" my own font to use in the final magazine, created tons of mockups of it and now I'm at the stage where I just need to put it all together and print it off. After Monday I can finally breathe and relax again, get back to exercising properly and actually recharge my batteries for the next term.


Right now all I'm hoping is that the project is a pass (our grading system is pass - merit - distinction) as I am just really drained and quite done with this project. For our first project it's just been so much to manage - we've been asked to be an editor, a designer, a photographer, a researcher and a journalist for this project, which just is a bit much in my opinion. Then again this is the very first year of the course I'm on so we are the guinea pigs.

I really stepped out of my comfort zone clothes wise today. I don't think I've ever worn something this short and it really made me feel self conscious all day. I just kept tugging my top down and making sure my shirt wasn't wonky! :D Then again I did quite like it, it's just me not being used to clothing like this at all. I've just never had the body to wear anything like this.

Oh and I do like it how the angle in the picture is making me look waaaay taller than I really am.


I've been meaning to mention this for a while now - new handbag yay! I'm not really bothered with accessorising usually and I use the same bag for everything, so actually buying a new bag just for the fun of it is something very weird of me. My friend introduced me to this second hand vintage shop called Rokit a few weeks ago and I just found this absolute gem in the bag section. Rokit is exactly like any second hand shop really, once you've bought an item it gets removed from the website and nobody else will have the same item (or well, obviously if anyone has kept their old clothes etc they will).

And this is what I found - a very adorable pirate themed bag from Betsey Johnson. I only paid £30 for it, which is an absolute bargain compared to the prices of her new bags!


Oh and last weeks weigh in - huuuge gain because of the night before.. :p Christmas do at a Chinese restaurant, you can just imagine the amount of salt in the food + alcohol. Hah.