Cabbage Soup Diet | Day 3

Heyy lovelies,

Today was a fruit and vegetables day which meant that I could fill up on fruit and vegetables of my choice throughout the day, as long as I had the soup at least once. I had watermelon and blueberries for breakfast and as I was going shopping I took an orange in the car to munch on because I knew I'd get hungry at some point. I then bought some carrot sticks and a fruit pot when I was at the shopping centre so I could stave off my hunger whenever I needed to and have the fruit for lunch. Although, the worst thing happened and I dropped my fruit pot on the floor in the Apple shop and when I went to get another they'd sold out :( so I had to just wait until I got home for my soup.

I had the soup for my dinner and I blended it tonight to be a little bit more adventurous, ha. It think I actually prefer it blended as it's not so watery, and then I treated myself to a few strawbs after. I've just been drinking water mainly, with the odd glass of cranberry juice thrown in for good measure, as that is one of the permitted drinks. I am also allowed to drink unsweetened teas, so I've had those occasionally.

I have been a bit peck today though, especially after dropping my lunch, but I've avoided all temptation and even avoided sweets, crisps and popcorn at my friends last night, so I think I deserve a gold sticker for that! 

Tomorrow is my 'Bananas and Skimmed Milk' day but I don't like milk so that should be fun. I might substitute it for just normal fruit, I'm not sure yet. I'll decide tomorrow - living on the edge or what! 

I will put a picture of the lovely soup eventually, but I keep forgetting to take one because when it comes to eating it I'm just so hungry! I will remember tomorrow (or thursday) though! :)

Love x

*Picture taken from http://indian-teenage.in/balanced-diet/

Cabbage Soup Diet | Day 2

Hey guys,

So it's day two, and after eating just soup and fruit yesterday, I have to admit I did go to bed a bit hungry, but I just ignored it as it was only day 1 and I wasn't going to quit there. I obviously haven't noticed much difference as it's only been one day, but I haven't weighed myself again either because I heard that it can fluctuate a lot during the week with water retention and being a change to your normal diet etc so I'm not sure of the results so far, but I'm not worried. I don't seem to have put weight on anyway so it's all good, ha.

Today I struggled a bit as it was my 'vegetables' day, which meant I can eat any veg, especially leafy green ones as long as I have my soup at least once. As you can imagine, facing veg or soup for breakfast isn't the most appetising so I put it off until lunch. Probs shouldn't have done that but I just could not have had soup or vegetables any earlier in the day. I had soup at lunch time and then took myself some carrot sticks to munch on whilst shopping. For dinner I was then allowed a baked potato with a little bit of butter. I put some celery, green peppers and peas with it though as I hadn't really eaten many vegetables, or even very much all day, so it was an attempt to fill myself up for the night.
I'm going to my friend's tonight for a bit of a girls night in, so hopefully there won't be any temptations there because I could so easily eat some sweets right now.

Tomorrow is a fruit AND veg day, how exciting, ha! But at least that means breakfast will be easier and I'll try and be more adventurous with my vegetables. Mmmm.

x

*Picture taken from http://indian-teenage.in/balanced-diet/

No Carbs before Marbs: Update ♥

Heyy lovelies,

So my intentions were great and I really thought it'd be a breeze avoiding carbs for a little while, but after like 2 (maybe even 1) days I gave in to the little devils. I didn't really think how difficult it would be to avoid them when going out, or when eating at other people's homes, because I couldn't exactly turn down their cooked meals because of the carbs. So anyway, hopes of toning up/losing weight that way failed pretty miserably.

With a week to go until my holiday though, I thought I'd try the Cabbage Soup Diet, which is basically a 7 day speedy diet where you eat cabbage soup, and each day you eat different specified foods as well as the soup in an attempt to drop a few pounds, which is pretty perfect really as I only want to lose a few, not loads. Today is my first day, so I've made my big batch of soup which is actually more of a vegetable soup than just cabbage, as it has green peppers, spring onions, mushrooms, tinned tomatoes, celery in and any spices you want to add too. It's actually pretty yummy (for now), not sure how I'll feel about it 7 days later but thats for another day.

Today I also have to eat fruit - any fruit I like except for Bananas. So i've stuck to watermelon, which was amazing and refreshing after lots of Rosé wine last night, strawberries, blueberries, and oranges. Tomorrow is a vegetables day where I eat any veg I want, especially green leafy ones..not really looking forward to that for breakfast but we'll see how it goes.

So far, not so hard, although I am getting a bit hungry, but I haven't had dinner yet so it's all good! :) I'll update daily on how it's going and if I can see any difference. :) wish me luck...again.

If anyone else has tried this, I'd love to hear how you got on, and what you thought?

x

*Picture taken from http://indian-teenage.in/balanced-diet/

No Carbs before Marbs ♥

Hey lovelies,

I'm sure many of you know about all of the bikini body faddy diets and some of you may have even tried some before, but as someone who rarely sticks to any diets and really just eats what I want, I didn't want to go for something that meant I couldn't have proper food or proper meals. I'm not overweight but I have noticed the pounds creeping on lately, as I've finished Uni and come home to a permanently full fridge and cupboards and I've been on holiday to Turkey, where I obviously didn't begrudge myself any treats. So I thought, to feel a bit better about myself in time for my second holiday to Spain, I'd give up carbs for four weeks and exercise more often (I rarely exercise, the gym is not my friend) and see if it made a difference.

As someone who never weighs herself, I'm not going to bother with the scales as I'll be able to notice and feel if I've lost any weight and I can normally just tell in the mirror. I'm also going to try and eat 'little and often' as it's apparently the best way to lose weight, although I already find this hard as I normally consider weight loss to mean cutting back on what you're eating, so eating like this really does seem like cheating, but we'll see.

I'll update weekly to report on how I feel I'm progressing, if at all (I hope it does help a bit otherwise I'll get to my holiday with no change except a waste of 4 weeks! Ahhh) and tell you how easy/difficult - probably difficult - I'm finding it!

Wish me luck!

P.S. If anyone has done this successfully before and has any tips to share, please let me know, as anything to make it a bit easier is welcome! 

x

*Picture taken from http://indian-teenage.in/balanced-diet/

Holiday Outfits ♥

Hey lovelies,

Thought I'd do a cheeky little post about a few of the outfits I wore in Turkey, as I haven't done an OOTD post for a while. I got a few things before I went away - actually,  pretty much all the things I'm wearing on the pictures are new. Ooops. But that does mean they may still be hanging around in the shops, especially in the 'Buy now or regret it later' sections.

Left: Dress Topshop, Belt: Primark, Sandals (Last Year): Primark, Necklace: Topshop

Right: Bandeau: Primark, Skirt: Topshop, Feather Sandals: Primark

Left: Dress: Topshop: Belt: Primark 

Middle: Dress: Topshop, Vans: Sister's Boyfriend :P

Right: Sunglasses: Primark, Bralet: Topshop, Sheer Maxi Skirt (Looks like trousers because of the wind): Topshop, Bag: Primark

These are a few of my favourite outfits that I wore out in the evenings. Obviously the bottom middle picture is a bit of a joke, I didn't actually wear huge size 10 vans with my dress, I actually teamed it with my feather sandals. All the outfits had to be floaty and cool enough to bear the hot Turkish nights so I opted for more skirts and dresses than shorts or playsuits this time. My fave outfit was the bottom right as I adore the straps on the top and my new skirt which is sheer from half way down the thigh. Oh, and it even has slits up the sides - perfect for the infamous Angelina Jolie leg pose ;)

What do you think of my holiday outfits?

x

How to: Giant Birthday Cupcake ♥

Hey lovelies,

So yesterday was my lovely mamas birthday and next week is my twin sisters birthday too, so as a little joint/early for my sisters treat I thought I'd make a giant cupcake birthday cake. I've seen them in lots of bakeries yet have never actually tried one but I found a mould in a catering shop so I thought I'd give it a try with my boyfriend. Finding recipes for a cupcake that big turned out to be quite difficult as each one seemed to say different amounts and the mould didn't have any instructions on it, so we ended up making it up a bit as we went along and working it out as best we could for ourselves, but luckily it worked and was deeeelish!

Unfortunately I haven't got pictures of every stage because some we got a bit ahead of ourselves and just carried on, but there are a few for you to check your progress :)

What you will need to make the cake we made:

A Giant Cupcake Mould 

250 grams of Self Raising Flour

250 grams of Unsalted Butter

250 grams of Caster Sugar

5 Eggs

4 tablespoons of Milk

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

Buttercream fondant icing 

Pink (any colour of your choice) food colouring.

Cake decorations

Piping bag

Preheat oven to 200'c

Step 1: Cream the butter and caster sugar together until a smooth paste is formed

Step 2: Add one egg at a time with a little bit of flour and beat

Step 3: Add 1 tspn of Vanilla Extract and fold in the rest of the flour

Step 4: Add milk and continue to fold until the mixture is more smooth and liquid-y and easy to pour into moulds.

Step 5: Equally distribute the mixture into the top and bottom parts of the mould and place the bottom mould into the preheated oven first for 10 minutes, as this is slightly thicker and needs more time.

Step 6: After 10 minutes, place the top mould into the oven for 35 minutes.

Step 7: Icing - If you're cheating a little with the icing, like us, then pour the buttercream icing into a mixing bowl and add a few drops of food colouring, adding more when required in order to get the colour you desire.

Step 8: When the cake is ready, leave to cool before taking out of the moulds.

Step 9: Using a serrated knife, slice the bottom mould where it has risen, to make a flat surface for the top mould to sit on. Do this for the top mould as well, so that the top sits comfortably on the bottom.

Step 10: If you wish, you can add some of the buttercream icing to 'glue' the parts together like we did.

Step 11: Using a spatula, evenly coat the base of the cupcake in the buttercream icing so that all of it is covered.

Step 12: For the top, using icing in a different colour (or the same if you prefer), pour the icing into a piping bag and ice the top layer in whatever pattern you wish.

Step 13: Decorate the cake using flowers, hearts, sprinkles or whatever takes your fancy and carefully take off the messy icing plate to make it look neater(or just wipe the edges). Now share with the world and enjoy :)

         

Such a simple recipe for something that looks really complicated. I'd say the whole thing takes about two hours though with the decorating being so precise so quite a lot of time and effort is required. :) Happy Baking.

Have you ever made this before? Do you think you'll be attempting this yourself at home? 

x

Wednesday Wishlist #2 ♥

Hey beauties

I haven't done one of these for a while because I've been shopping a fair bit recently but I have my eye on a few things for my next holiday and just general wear at the moment I thought I'd display them all in a little post :).

Left to right: Necklace- Topshop, Dress - Sugarhill Boutique, Skirt - Missguided.co.uk, Playsuit - Missguided.co.uk, Shorts- Missguided.co.uk, Hand chain - Topshop, Blouse - Topshop,  Colour change nail polish - Barry M,  Stacked ring - Topshop, Playsuit - Topshop, Shard ring - Topshop, Peplum top - Topshop, Shoes - Topshop, Skirt - Missguided.co.uk, Shorts - Topshop

Unfortunately I don't think the tiny amount I have in my bank account will stretch to all of these straight away so I think I'll have to pick out some favourites, although I think they're all perfect for my upcoming holiday to Spain at the end of August.

What do you think of my wishlist?

x