Like I mentioned last week, I've chilled with my diet a little bit. I'm kinda regretting it right now as I feel like I can eat anything I want to (including some chocolate unfortunately)! I'm still slightly ill, nowhere near as bad as it was a week ago but I still get awful coughing and sneezing fits every now and then.

I haven't completely fallen off the wagon, though. I'm just such a foodie that I get quite creative with my dinners. :) I bought some puff pastry this week and turned it into salmon pockets tonight, they were absolutely amazing! I chopped a yellow pepper and red onion, fried the salmon and veg, added spices, a bit of sweet chilli sauce and a few tablespoons of creme fraiche and then divided the mix into four portions and loaded them on the pastry (+ 15 mins in the oven). All it needed with it was a fresh side salad.



I've also been thinking about my workouts a lot this week. With my work days being 10+ hours, I really don't find the energy for a workout in the evening when I get home. My only option to do any kinds of exercise is early morning before work - that'd mean getting up at seven at the latest so I can squeeze in 30-45 minutes of exercise before getting ready for work. I really don't like the idea of getting up so early but it's really the only way I could do it right now, so I suppose I just need to suck it up and actually start setting my alarm a lot earlier than I'm used to.

I mean I know I can lose the remaining weight just by eating right, but it won't give me the results I really want. To reach my ideal body I need the exercise to give me that shape I'm after. Jillian Michaels pretty much has my dream body, so that's what I'm aiming for.


So all I need now is to just get a grip and actually get up early in the mornings (and also fix our DVD player so I can do some workouts at home..).

I got a little pressie from Noom today! Thank you Sarah for the super awesome shirt, I love it! It'll be the perfect workout top in this heat, it's nice and light and the colour is so awesome (by the way, matches the new Noom look!). I also got a balloon, it has been a good source of entertainment for both me and my other half all afternoon.. :D

Also feeling very Dutch wearing all this orange haha!



I've had a very relaxed two days off from work. As I do work insanely hard, I just don't rush at all when I do get some time to myself. I'm still trying to recover from this stupid flu as well, so I didn't even bother going out for a walk. I've actually been doing quite a bit of drawing and painting again, one of the pieces being this World of Warcraft fanart piece I started last September and never finished!

We've also had this huge canvas just sitting in the lounge ever since we moved into this flat. I wanted to paint something and hang it on the wall above our dining table, but I just never quite had the inspiration for anything worth painting. I finally found some inspiration and I currently have half a painting drying on the dining table! Hopefully the other half will materialise soon enough so I can show you guys what I've been up to!



Painting is quite a therapeutic thing. It always lets me process some thoughts, just think about general stuff going on in my life and try and find answers to things that have puzzled me for ages. Today I was just thinking about motivation and how I keep it up weight loss wise. I actually surround myself with things that motivate me - pictures of healthy food and fit people, use apps that show me my progress, take pictures of myself and compare them to some older ones and most of all just talk to people about my goals and dreams! It's so great to chat to someone who knows what you're going through and can give some advice, it just gives that extra boost of motivation to keep going (especially when things are tough)!

I'm quite involved with social media, and I try to include all these fitness related things to my feeds. I follow several fitness pages on Facebook / Instagram / Twitter, I'm building a health & fitness board on Pinterest, I read fitness and weight loss related blogs and so on!

Do you have any motivational boosters?

Well the past week has definitely not gone my way in the slightest! Maybe my happy mood and gloating was far too much for some higher power, as I have been incredibly ill since publishing my last post haha!

It started out with just a simple sore throat, nothing I should've been worried about. But then my body temperature started climbing up and by Thursday morning I was pretty much bed bound because of it. Thankfully the fever dropped back down by Friday, I actually got an invite to a wedding reception and it would've killed me to miss it! I felt priviliged to be there for the happy couple's special day, they looked so incredibly happy and I wish both of them all the best. ♥ Can't wait to see all the wedding pictures.


The dress I bought for the wedding -  I actually had to go dress hunting between shifts on Friday (yeah, on the day of the wedding!!), it was far too stressful for my liking! :D

Because of this stupid cold / flu / spawn of something unpleasant I've decided to relax with this diet plan a little bit. The good thing about this plan is that I don't have to stress about the end date at all, so if I need to take a week "off" from it, I can. I don't think I should put my body through such a strict and calculated diet when it is run down by some bug. I'm obviously still eating very sensibly, I'm just adding more carbs and fats to my diet for now and return to the plan once I feel healthier again.


A very 'I feel sorry for myself' type of meal last week - Chicken Amaras (sweet, mango based curry), pilau rice, sag aloo and a naan bread.

This is the type of plan that starts at set dates throughout the year, and all the people taking part have the chance to chat on a forum specific for that group. We actually have a Facebook group going on as well, and I've seen a lot of people say that they've fallen ill since starting the plan. Not sure if it's just coincidence or if this is our bodies' way of reacting to the new way of eating. But then again, I've been eating pretty similar to this for a very long time ande my body should already be used to it surely?

I was actually preparing myself to go to the doctor's today, as my tonsils would not settle down. I actually survived through the weekend with the help of a lot of painkillers to keep the swelling down, but thankfully it seems like they're starting to get back to normal now. I actually had tonsilitis for over a month a few years ago, was so worried I'd have to go through that nightmare again.

Oh and before I forget! My first Noom Voices article was published earlier this week! I'm so proud to be a part of the Noomily, can't wait to get started with my next article! My plan with these journal articles is to talk about the ups and downs of weight loss - and I think I know exactly what to talk about in my next one! ;)

I'm feeling fantastic right now. I just can't contain the excitement! So many good things have happened to me recently - weight loss is back on track thanks to FitFarm's program, starting my guest writer "job" with Noom, I was asked to give out an interview for an article (will post the link here as soon as it's published) and now another insane opportunity has popped up thanks to my blog! I'm going to try and keep it to myself for now as I don't know what's going to happen with it, but it's all good!!

All this has been timed so perfectly. I've been under so much stress for a few weeks now, but all these good news and a lot of help from a friend really have lifted my mood so much. Silly little songs when I was sulking to make me laugh and having someone to rant to about it all made it so much easier to deal with. And knowing that something is going to happen about the thing causing the stress is definitely helping as well. Just need to wait for a little longer and things should resolve. All I need to do is bite my tongue and be patient.


My not so great mood at work the other day (from my Instagram).

But less about that, let's not drag everyone's mood down any more than this! I really struggled to stay still after the email I got earlier tonight (and I got such an energy spike from that green tea I had earlier) so I figured that I'm gonna go let some of that energy out and go for a walk on the beach. The tide was super low so actually got to walk on the sand, even jogged a bit because I was feeling so good about everything.

By the time I climbed back on the promenade my shoes and socks were soaking wet and legs caked in wet sand! But nevermind, I had so much fun!



All this just shows that nothing bad lasts forever (I believe my friend actually said exactly the same thing to me yesterday but I kinda just ignored it hah), it will all turn around eventually! :) We just need to keep going and give the world an opportunity to catch up with us.

This is a sponsored post.


Last week I got an email from a company called Pure Chimp. They specialise in all sorts of 100% natural skin care products and macha green tea. I was offered this amazing tea to review, and as green tea has amazing health benefits, I wanted to hop on board and try it out!

This is how the tea is described as on the Pure Chimp website:

It sounds really incredible, doesn't it? The tea comes in powder form, which really surprised me (in a good way!). The thing that usually bugs me with tea is that you have to wait for several minutes before it's actually good to drink, but this is literally just a matter of mixing it up with hot water (or a small dash of liquid for a super shot) and that's it.



I think my favourite part of this tea is the COLOUR! Oh my goodness, the colour of the powder is the most vivid green I have ever seen, it's so beautiful that I just kinda wanted to look at it for ages. It just shows how pure this stuff actually is, you just couldn't get that kind of colour out of something that was chemically enhanced.

As I'm pretty used to drinking green tea, the taste of the Super tea really didn't surprise me. It's a bit more earthy than most teas I've tried, but that's in no way a bad thing at all! I do load my tea and coffee with sweetener though, I'm guessing the taste would be somewhat bitter in it's "natural" state.


Overall this tea is insanely good! Beautiful, herby and woody taste and the colour just makes me want to stare into my mug every ten seconds. I had quite a bit of the powder in the bottom of my mug so it kinda worked as that super shot, and oh my it made me shiver! :D It really packs a punch, bound to wake you up in the morning..

You can purchase the tea from the Pure Chimp website, and right now it's on sale at £14.95 (usually £16.95).