Boots Haul #3

This week I had two great reasons to be at Boots; firstly because it was triple points (yay!) and secondly because my lovely colleagues bought me a Boots voucher for my Birthday. I finally got to treat myself to some Nip + Fab goodies I've been lusting after for ages, as well as getting some essentials. 

The Haul

Skincare

Nip + Fab Dragon's Blood Fix Plumping Serum

Nip + Fab Glycolic Scrub

Ted Baker Body Scrub

Make Up

Bourjois Happy Light Luminous Serum Primer

 Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in No. 52

Bourjois Volume Clubbing Ultra Black Mascara

Health

Seven Seas Complete Multi Vitamins

Colgate Max White One Toothpaste

Essentials

Johnson's Baby Shampoo

Elegant Touch Nail Glue

Carex Complete Strawberry Laces Antibacterial Gel

The Skincare

I've been wanting to try Nip + Fab products for such a long time but for some reason or another, have never got round to it! My work desk buddy Chloe (who also shares my love of beauty and skincare) knew how much I wanted to try the products and got me a Boots gift voucher for my Birthday which was the perfect excuse. 

I have really dry skin so I decided to go with the Glycolic Scrub and the Dragon's Blood Plumping Serum. I will be doing a full review on them but I've used them once so far and absolutely love them both. They are definitely up there with the best smelling skincare products I have. 

The Ted Baker body scrub wasn't something I'd planned to buy but I saw it on the reduced section when I was buying my make up and the £4.00 price tag pulled me in. I just cannot resist a bargain. It's not a product I've tried before but I have a few other Ted Baker beauty products and love the smell so I'm hoping this one is the same. Hopefully this will help out with my dry skin too!

You can find out more about Ted Baked products here.

The Make Up

Does anyone else have the problem of all your make up running out at once?! Well that was definitely me this week! This is now my fourth repurchase of Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation which has never happened in the history of my foundations. I am on the hunt for a new one to try but I'm so bad at making decisions on new products I grabbed this one again because it really is great. If it's not broken, don't fix it ey?! I ended up buying No.52 which is the lightest shade I've ever had. Literally can't deal with how pale I am right now! WHERE IS THE SUNSHINE?!

I think Volume Clubbing just had to be my favourite mascara of all time. I love big dramatic, thick eyelashes, so if you do too, this is The One!

Boots was running 3 for 2 on products so naturally I had to chose something else. I have just run out of the Bourjois Happy Light Matte Primer and I have to say I wasn't impressed but I had no idea what other primer to go for so I opted for the Happy Light Luminous primer this time. I really hope I like it better than the Matte version so I'll keep you posted on that one!

Health and Wellbeing

With my eating issues, I never have the vitamins I should so supplements are really important to me - even though I do forget to take them quite often! I sat on the floor in Boots (gross I know but this task takes a while!) and read the contents of every single vitamin packet on the shelf to see what exactly it included. Due to laziness, the ease and the cost, I prefer to take one tablet that has everything rather than taking a whole load. The Seven Seas Complete Multivitamin has literally everything I need so I decided to try it. When I got home and saw the size of the tablets I almost had a heart attack thought so I'm not looking forward to getting those down! 

I'm not sure I really believe whitening toothpastes work but I thought I'd give this one a go seeing as we were running out. If anyone has found a whitening toothpaste that actually works, let me know! 

Essentials

I've seen on a couple of posts lately that some people use baby shampoo for cleaning their make up brushes. Mine are in dire need of a deep clean so I thought I'd give it a go seeing as I usually struggle to get my Real Techniques Stippling Brush properly clean. I'll let you know how I get on!

Antibacterial is for my grimey journeys on the train every day. I read in Time Out this week how many germs are on the train seat and poles and was almost sick so this is coming with me everywhere I go... I just need to remember to actually use it!

Hopefully you've seen my DIY Acrylic Nails for 13p post? If not, you can find it here. One of the products I need for the nails is the glue and seeing as mine have gone walkabout, I needed to buy a new one so I can have pretty nails again!

I'm already writing the review for my next Boots Haul! I can see some products from Indeed being involved! Can't wait to test out all of these and get some more beauty reviews up!

Love Lauren xx

Birthday #ootd & #fotd

I don't really do many fashion posts, because I barely have any sense of style but so many people asked me about my dress and make up that night I just had to share it with you all!

The dress: Lipsy Love Michelle Keegan Floral Print Cami Dress. You can get it here for £65.00

I very nearly cancelled my birthday night out having literally nothing to wear. My wardrobe has been massively sparse since my surgery seeing as my body shape has changed massively. The lovely Jade came to Westfield with me and I dragged her around every single shop trying everything on. This dress wasn't something I'd ever pick out myself so I'm REALLY glad Jade was there to hep me chose something! I loved it from the minute I tried it on and was loving life that I could go out without a bra on for the first time ever!!

Shoes: Nunziatella by Aldo. you can get them here (and they're now in the sale!) £60.00 down to £44.98

Another last minute purchase (pretty much sums me up!) bought at 2.30pm on New Years Eve, ridiculous I know. I love them so much but they're slightly too big so if I trip, it's that I swear - obviously not the alcohol!) 

The Face

Base: 

Bourjois Happy Light Matte Primer

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation

Make up Revolution The One Matte Malibu Blush Stick

Make up Revolution The One Dream Blush Stick

Make up Revolution Baked Bronzer

Real Techniques Stippling Brush

Real Techiques Blush Brush

Real Techniques Contour Brush

Eyes:

Benefit 'World famous neutrals most glamorous nudes ever' eye shadow kit

Make up Revolution Give them Nightmares palette

Avon Supershock Gel Eyeliner in Black

Avon Supershock Mascara in black

Mac eyeshadow contour brush

Avon eye shadow brush

Girls With Attitude Siren Eyelashes

Make up Revoluion Focus Fix Eyebrow Kit

Lips:

Unknown brand nude lip liner

Make up Revolution The One lipstick

Can I just take a moment to admire how beautiful these GWA lashes are! My favourite item from #nyLDNmeet goody bag!

Hair:

Charles Worthington Volume and Bounce Texturising Spray

Back Combing Brush

Batieste XXL Volume Dry Shampoo

I think I might do some more fashion posts... Scary thought!!

Love Lauren xx

Etiqutte we expect at @LDNmeetup

I know this post is going to be a controversial one but it’s one that we feel is important to write having organised our first event and with more than one a month planned for the rest of the year. This post isn’t about anyone in particular just general things we noticed and what we expect from future ones.

We’ve been really upset by some people’s behaviour and attitude so we thought rather it carrying on, we should just openly say what we expect from people coming to our events and what we will and won’t stand for. It’s a two way street, we spend time, money and effort organising these events. We don’t make any money from these events and genuinely do it for you all to have fun, meet each other and learn new things so a bit of appreciation for our efforts goes a long way.  

I don’t want this to turn into a massively negative post because on the whole, you guys are amazing and everyone is lovely but at least by writing this, everyone will be on the same page and if you don’t like what we stand for at our events, please don’t RSVP.

Before the event

• Please appreciate that we all have full time jobs and may not reply to tweets and emails straight away. We try our best to get back to you as soon as possible though.
• Sending rude tweets like ‘where’s my invite.’ will not get you anywhere. If you haven’t received an invite, it’s probably because either your contact details have been entered into the database incorrectly or not entered at all. Contacting us to say, ‘I love the sound of the event but didn’t receive an invite, is there any spaces left’ is much nicer than ‘why have I not got an invite’. It’s just manners. If you received both messages, which one would you be most likely to reply to?
• When everyone is tweeting about the event via the hashtag, please make everyone feel welcome. Our events are open to all bloggers, veterans and newbies, young and older bloggers etc. Everyone is equal and everyone is welcome at our events and I detest seeing tweets suggesting otherwise.
• If you RSVP to the event and can no longer make it, please let us know. Not turning up on the day is firstly frustrating because we always have a waiting list of people that want to come and also an inconvenience for things like ice breaker groups, left over goody bags etc.

During the event

• This is one I actually hate even having to type because I cannot physically believe we had an issue with this at our last event... PLEASE do not take things from our brands without asking. I would have thought it was obvious when a brand brings products to show and test that they are not to take home without permission but unfortunately someone at our last event bloggers decided to take things from the brand even though every single person was generously gifted TWO full size products after the event and they’re not cheap products. I was massively upset and embarrassed by this and genuinely will not tolerate it – it’s stealing.
• At our events, we love to see people mingle and get to know each other. I know it’s easy to stick in groups with people you immediately bond with but we would love to see people interacting with everyone. If anyone looks a little lost of left out, include them!
• Things don’t always go to plan and it’s not always our fault! As most of you know at our last event the venue let us in 1.5 hours later than they were meant to so we had about 20 minutes between getting in the venue and people arriving, obviously we were running around like headless chickens but we did as best we could to make sure no one really noticed! Thank you SO much to the bloggers that saw us struggling and asked if they could help out – Philippa we’re looking at you!
• Take lots of photos!! I know this is one we all as bloggers mean to do but most of us (like me!) completely forget.
• Requesting items to review; if there is a brand at our events offering everyone the opportunity to review one of their products, please only sign up if you’re genuinely interested. At our last event, almost everyone signed up to receive products, that’s 47 people who requested two products each with the value of approx £40 altogether including postage. I’ve only seen a handful of reviews which to be honest, I’m really upset by. That’s nearly £2000 worth of products given out because people have requested them. No one can use the excuse of not having a product they liked because everyone got to choose specific products from the entire range after sampling them all at the event. This has really put us off gifting anything at future events because we feel so bad on the brands involved.
• A lot of people just took their two goody bags from us at the event and left without saying thank you or bye. Yes okay we did get a lot of tweets to say thanks but it's just a lot more polite to say it to our face before you leave the event. Thanks to the people who waited around for the madness to stop to say goodbye properly. 

After the event

• After the event we sent an anonymous feedback form, we would really appreciate it if people fill it out just so we know what everyone did/didn’t like to make sure the next events are better!
• If you love something in the goody bag, tell the brand! Most brands are on twitter and insta so there’s no excuse to not let them know.
• We really don’t appreciate people complaining about what they got in their goody bag. Everyone was lucky enough to receive TWO goody bags full of products at our event and yes some brands couldn’t afford to give 50 items of everything, particularly the most expensive products so they were spread out across everyone. It takes hours of emailing and phone calls to get so much stuff for goody bags so please appreciate what you do have rather than complain that someone got more than you.
• Contacting brands after the event – for those of you who didn’t come to the event emailing the brands who gifted items to say ‘I couldn’t make it to the event but Lauren said I could email you to ask for the gifted items to be posted to me’. No. Just no. Do not do it. It’s rude, cheeky and has consequently made me look bad to the brands and damaged that relationship. It honestly surprises me that anyone would even think of doing this just to get free things but they have told me about it, and I know who it is.
• Obviously we don’t expect everyone to review every single product in their goody bag by any means, but if you've won a raffle prize, particularly an expensive one, we do expect to see at least a thank you tweet, insta post, review post – something! Some people had items at our event worth over £50 and the brands have been really upset not to even receive a thank you or any exposure for their brand. Not only does it upset the brands but it also affects the relationship that we have worked hard to build up. If they feel that we did not give the exposure that they thought they would get, they are less likely to work with us in future events. This is exactly what has happened after our last event and is such a shame because we had some really great brands involved with raffle prizes worth over £700 altogether! Thank you to those of you that have thanked the brands for their generosity, it definitely hasn't gone unnoticed. 

All in all, most of the brands involved in our last event were really disappointed with the lack of exposure from everything gifted and donated. Unfortunately, because of all these brand issues and bloggers in general so obsessed with freebies, this is why the next few events we have organised won’t have any raffle or goody bags. I know some people said in the feedback from our last event they wouldn’t come to a future event if there wasn’t goody bags and free products, which is fine. We put on these events for you guys to have fun and meet each other, blogging to us isn’t about the free stuff, it’s just an added benefit for people that appreciate it.

We will be looking at doing goody bags and a raffle at a future events, we just need to take some time and think about how not to be in the position we’re in now, and how to filter out the people that genuinely want to come to our events to mingle, have fun and give the brands the exposure they deserve for gifting products and the people who are just coming for the freebies – because that’s NOT what we’re about.

Thank you to all the people that are always supportive, friendly and appreciative. It is noted and these people will get priority at our future events. I’m sorry we even had to write this post, but issues need to be addressed before we launch into the next 85384 events. Without sounding too blunt, if you’re not willing to adhere to a bit of appreciation and respect for us and the brands involved in our events, please don’t come in the future.

@LDNmeetup

Love Lauren xx

Career Guest Post; Working in Tech

So excited to welcome my very first Guest Blogger to help you all out with career inspiration. This time, we're looking at a career in Tech!

Name: Jasmin           

Blog: http://jasmincharlotte.com

Industry: Technology Consulting

Job Title: Applications Consultant

Brief description of job role and industry

Technology consulting covers everything and anything in the world of tech! Essentially large companies come to us when they want to revamp their technology and business processes. We work with their business to understand their needs, design new technology and put it in place. I’m currently on the graduate scheme which involves working in a variety of different roles, mainly focusing around business analysis – finding out how a business works and what we can do to improve it.

An average day consists of...

Consulting means you move projects. You may be on a project for a couple of weeks or 6 months. The different projects mean you work with different companies, different people and different locations around the country. This means that there is no average day! An average day may be meeting with the client, writing requirements, running workshops, or learning new software. At the moment I am working on understanding business processes and writing training.

Career progression

The graduate schemes in the industry are usually structured, with a great progression model. You then continue to move and grow with the company once the grad scheme is completed.

Qualifications/experience required

You do not need a background in technology. You will need to have received good A levels and usually have a first class degree in any subject. Work experience is good to prove people and communication skills.

Best tip to crack the industry

Although you don’t need experience in the tech industry, it is good to be knowledgeable about the trends. Research the companies fully. You need to be a fast learner and be able to pick up new things quickly. You need to work well with others and have a high level of professionalism. Put time in to the applications, you need to make an impression.

Best thing about my job

No day is the same! It is constantly changing, and I learn new useful things every day. It is challenging and rewarding. It is a great way to get huge experience in a variety of industries and roles.

Worst thing about my job

You need to be geographically mobile – it can involve a lot of travel as projects can be anywhere! 

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I'm still looking for lots more guest posters so if you're interested, give me a shout! Don't forget to follow Jasmin's blog, it's one of my favourites!!

Love Lauren

Career Series; Working in Events

Source

Industry: Corporate Events

Job Title: Senior Project Executive

Brief description of job role and industry:

Hardly a day will pass where you don’t come across something an events manager somewhere has done, whether it be a pop up stand in a shopping centre or an international festival. Working in events has endless possibilities and career paths dependant on the type of events you want to work in. The industry is split into two sections; private events (working for individuals for example wedding planning), and corporate events (working for businesses). In corporate events you can either work corporate side (at the actual brand’s company) or agency side (working for a company who works with a variety of brands/clients).

I work for an events agency based in London and have always been agency side, (just because I prefer that side of the industry) so my job can be different to someone who works privately or on the corporate side. There are pros and cons to all sides so it’s important to investigate these and work out which one suits you best.

My job role involves assisting the more senior members of the team of larger projects and managing smaller projects on my own. I organise events both in the UK and worldwide for anything from 2 to 500 people. Nothing is out of limits, if our client wants it (and they can afford it) that’s what they’ll get. We always strive to be innovative, creative and put on unforgettable events for every budget.

I work on conferences, incentives, incentive travel, hospitality, road shows, weddings, parties, team building and just about everything else you can possibly think of! In my role, I am involved in research, venue finding, budget negotiations, proposal writing, creating costings, contracting, on site events management and everything in between for every single event!

An average day consists of...

My job is rarely the same two days in a row. I could be flying out somewhere in the world to find venues for our events, sat in the office writing a contract or on the phone begging a hotel to reduce their rates!

On an average day I will come in, go through my emails and write my to-do list for the day, prioritising tasks that I need to do urgently. We work to tight deadlines so I spend a lot of my day chasing hotels and venues throughout the world for information and prices so I can write my proposals! Projects I’m currently working on include an Indian wedding for 1500 people, a conference in Malta for 200 people, a conference in South Africa for 100 people and lots of smaller UK events!

We have to constantly be on the ball, creative, organised and have the best attention to detail. Missing something vital in a contract can cost a lot of money! In fact, when you're dealing wit six figure budgets, any mistake can cost some serious money. 

It's a very high pressure environment with tight deadlines coming thick and fast. The industry moves so quickly it's my job to know where the best places are, the new hotels, new bars, up and coming destinations over the world. Our clients want the best so they'll have the best!

Career progression

An entry level job in events would start as an Events Assistant and depending on the company size there’s usually about 4 or 5 levels of progression throughout your career. It’s not a job that you particularly get promoted quickly as it’s very much down to experience. It’s definitely a ‘learn on the job’ kind of role!

Qualifications/experience required

Whilst I did study Events Management at University for four years, a degree isn’t essential to work in this industry. Events degrees are fairly new so many people working in events don’t have them (and don’t rate them!).

Experience is essential for working in this industry. I learnt more in the first week of my first role than I did in the whole time I was at Uni. The more experience you have, the better!

Best tip to crack the industry

Passion. In the events industry you work long hours, for not great money and sometimes difficult clients with difficult briefs. You have to really love it to be able to find the passion and creativity it takes to come up with and put on an event. Even without much experience or many qualifications, if you show an employer in the events industry you’re insanely passionate you’ll go far!

Best thing about my job

It’s different every day, I get to travel and experience things I would never be able to do on my own and I can be creative beyond my own imaginations. We do get spoilt a lot in this industry with events hosted by venues and hotels nearly every night of the week and free/reduced rate nights away and holidays. Well obviously we have to see the hotels we propose to our clients...

Worst thing about my job

It’s not as glamorous as everyone thinks! Yes you might be in the best hotel in Cannes, but you’re the first up at around 6.00am and the last to go to bed at 3.00am (you can work out how many hours sleep that gives you), and rarely see the outside of the conference room! You’re also required to work a lot of weekends and you definitely don’t get paid by the hour!


I hope you've enjoyed finding out a bit more about working in events, please feel free to contact me if you're looking for any more information! 

Look out for my beautiful guest bloggers telling you all about their jobs too!

An introduction to my new Career series

Finding your dream job or dream career isn't an easy feat. Whether it be because you don't know what you want to do, don't have the right qualifications/experience or even just don't have the confidence to go after your dreams.

I've known since I was about 13 what I wanted to do, and have worked ever since to get there, so I know I'm one of the lucky ones; but I speak to people on a daily basis that absolutely hate their job which makes me sad. I didn't like my last job, so I quit and moved closer to London to try and find a job in the City. It was a massive risk as I didn't have anything to go to, but I was confident in my passion for events and in my previous experience so it was a risk I was willing to take, and it paid off... so far!!

Yes we all complain about our job first thing on a Monday morning when we're still feeling the weekend blues, but at the end of the day, it's a place we have to spend the majority of our life in so surely we should all strive to find that career that excites, challenges and inspires us?

Cue the inspiration for this series...

I want to give you all a glimpse into a range of industries from people who genuinely love their job so I'll be welcoming my first ever guest bloggers! There will also be CV and interview tips, how to stand out from the crowd and loads of other career related posts from industry experts.

I hope for those of you that are unhappy with the direction your career is going in, that this series gives you some inspiration of what else is out there and also gives you the courage and confidence to peruse your dreams.

Love Lauren xx

p.s if you would like to guest post for this series, please let me know!!

5 week progress; weight loss tips and tricks

It took quite a lot of balls to post this photo, mainly because I was embarrassed about the amount of weight I’d put on after surgery (no one warned me of that side effect!). On the other hand, I was proud of my achievement in a small amount of time, so I wanted to share it with you all to inspire everyone else working hard at the gym/about to give up because you just want 38220 takeaways in a row (yes that’s me too!). 

Firstly I need to say a massive thank you to all your amazingly lovely comments and words of encouragement, it made me feel a zillion times better, and more inspired to keep going.

I wasn’t actually planning on writing a post about this, but so many people asked me how I did it, what’s my secret etc and I wanted to let you all in on it… – there is none. I didn’t lose the weight through any other way than the good old fashioned method – boring I know! No shakes, no fads, no extreme dieting; just little changes that for me, made a big difference.

I should say I’m not an expert in any way shape or form so don’t take what I say as gospel, it’s just my opinion and what had worked for me. I also know these are all really tiny changes, but all of them together can make quite a difference. I also know that all of these things aren’t anything new, but the old fashioned boring methods work, if you do too!

Little changes to make a big difference

Take the stairs instead of the lift
I live on the fourth floor so since about Christmas I’ve taken the stairs every single time 60 step up and 60 steps down, even when I’m coming in lugging the shopping and god knows what else in my feeble arms

Power walk
I’ve always been a dawdler, I blame it on my tiny midget legs but really I just like to walk slowly. Since I’ve started working and doing he dreaded commute into central London, I’ve become one of those people I used to despise, weaving in and out of people at the station, walking so fast it’s practically a jog. By the time I even get anywhere I’m out of breath so that’s enough to get some little calories burning right?! I have a 10 minute walk either side of the station, to and from work, so that’s 40 minutes when you add it up. 40 minutes of extreme power walking! A lunchtime power walk is always good to for those (unlike me) who actually leave their desk at lunchtime.

A little gym is better than no gym at all
Firstly let me state I was probably one of the most unfit people you’ve ever met. I used to get out of breath literally doing anything so I can hand on my heart say my weight loss isn’t from going to the gym 14 times a week doing 2 hours each time. I thought I was actually allergic to exercise until a while ago – that was my excuse anyway. I wrote a post in the past about all the excuses I make not to exercise so if you’re one of those people, check it out here!

I’ve found that results in the gym come from finding that little bit of time, and pushing myself that bit harder each time. Since working in London means I leave the house at 7.15am and get back at 7.30pm, I really can never find the time/energy/motivation to go to the gym in the evening. Take my hat off to anyone that does! So, I’ve been going at the weekend. Both days, in the morning after my standard breakfast and an episode of Gossip Girl. Even going for half an hour is better than not going at all. I keep trying to push myself harder each time – there’s a post currently in my drafts which is a fit guide for unfit people – how to push yourself harder in the gym! So I really need to finish that!

Pop Sugar Fitness is amazing
As I don’t know do any exercise in the week, I try to do an at home workout on Wednesday night. It doesn’t always happen, I usually get distracted by twitter chats or whatever else is going on (TOWIE currently!) but for when you do fancy an at home workout and can’t face the gym, Pop Sugar Fitness is THE ONE. Most of their workouts are 10 minutes long so you can basically put a programme together and mix and match to make an amazing 30 minute workout. There’s hundreds of videos to choose from, everything from stretching to high intensity cardio so there really is something for everyone. We have a Smart TV so it’s made life so much easier putting YouTube on the TV so I can work out in the lounge without having to squint at a tiny laptop screen while I’m running around the room! I talk about Pop Sugar Fitness a lot on my blog and on social media and there’s a reason for that! Results with Lucy was kind enough to give me a one month’s membership so I’m super excited to try that one too!

Cut down on the processed stuff
I’m a sucker for a nugget. My parents used to say I’d turn into one whilst constantly telling me how full of crap chicken nuggets were – err as if I cared! But, since I started making my own nuggets with fresh chicken and breadcrumbs, I’ve never looked back, they’re so much better for you and they even taste better. After having the fresh ones twice a week (at least!), I bought a pack of goujons from Tesco and genuinely didn’t like the taste anymore! I’m not ready to give up my junk food, but there’s always a way to make food that little bit healthier. My recipe on homemade chicken nuggets can be found here. 

Sauces
This one is easier for me than probably most people because I like my food dry, but think about the amount of creamy sauces and dressings you add to your food. I love a curry, Indian flavours are just amazing, but instead of having a Chicken Tikka Masala with lots of creamy sauce, I marinade my chicken in spices and chicken tikka paste then grill it. It’s so much better for you and still has amazing flavour when you add the right spices. Do you need all that mayo/salad cream/creamy sauce? My cupboard is stocked up with so many spices and flavours to add to grilled chicken.

Change up your snack drawer & make your own snacks
I’ve always been a big snacker, it was definitely my biggest problem when it came to trying to be good. I love anything that’s bad for me so I decide to make a healthy(ish) snack drawer for when I had those cravings. Now I make homemade breakfast bars (currently writing a recipe post) and have crackers, dried fruit and nuts, yoghurts and low sugar jelly at the ready. I even find homemade breakfast bars with a few chocolate chunks in are enough to cure my chocolate cravings.

Don’t have dessert straight after dinner
People have always told me to try this and I’ve always thought it was a myth but it’s genuinely true! Whenever I have a meal, I instantly crave something sweet, like massive cravings. I used to give in all the time having sweets, chocolate, anything sweet I could get my hands on. Recently, when those cravings hit I distract myself with twitter/Netflix for half an hour to see if I’m still hungry after my dinner goes down. I have to say, this one completely surprised me, but 90% of the time, I don’t actually fancy anything after about half an hour. Clearly the food has had time to digest and I realise I’m not actually still hungry. If I am though, I usually have either a yoghurt or cereal bar – they’re sweet but not too naughty! Better than a Twix anyway…

Pre plan meals

Luke and I have started to pre plan meals for the week on a Sunday night. It means that when we go shopping we buy things for a reason and not just grab all the junk food because we don’t know what we’ll have for dinner that week. I always take lunch to work to resist wondering the many Camden shops buying everything and anything that I fancy! On the most part, I’ve found that when the food isn’t in the house, I don’t really care that much, but when it’s there I crave it. I keep giving in to cravings of junk food in the supermarket because it all looks so amazing, but I get it home and think, why did I actually buy that?! Moral of the story – be stricter with what you buy!

Don’t give up a food group
It’s true what they say when you try and give up something, you crave it. It’s true with me any way! There’s a reason we have food groups in that little triangle we were taught a zillion times at school. Cutting carbs, yes. Not having any carbs, no! You’ll end up feeling drained and moody with massive headaches.

Pinterest is your friend
There’s SO many healthy food ideas on Pinterest you could keep yourself occupied for hours. Healthy food can be nice – and fun to make!

Turn every day chores into a bit of cardio
As I don’t have much time for the gym any more, when Luke is at work and I’m cleaning the house or hanging out the washing I’ll be blasting the music channels and dancing around the entire house. Yes it makes things take double the time, but it’s double the fun and I’m actually worn out by the end! Cue bed time and Gossip Girl!

Buddy up
Working out and eating right is so much easier when you have a friend onboard for motivation. I have Jade (you can see her beautiful blog here) who motivates my lazy arse when I just want to stay in bed on a Saturday morning!

Sorry there’s not some magic solution to losing weight and keeping fit, but these are just the small ways I manage to keep my fitness plan and eating sustainable. I’ve seen oh so many friends on these fad diets, losing an insane amount of weight quickly though crazy methods but as soon as they get back to ‘normal’ the weight piles back on! That’s not what I want!

Let’s all motivate each other to keep on track!!

Love Lauren xx

Spring is coming with Yankee Candles & Nails Inc

So Spring is almost here, without a doubt my favourite season (minus the April showers bit!). The sun comes out, flowers bloom and my wardrobe gets a little less black - a little, not a lot! I'm a massive pastel lover so spring colours get me excited! 

I know we all love Yankee Candles, and this little beauty was one of my Valentines presents. They all smell absolutely amazing and are the epitome of Spring. The set also comes with a lovely burner which I was most excited for because I have a couple of candles had nothing to burn them in before!

My other new favourite purchase was in the Nails Inc sale. These six mini beauties were last year's Spring/Summer colours but who cares?! The set was £10.00 so naturally I bought them for all my friends that have birthday's soon! (sorry if I just ruined that surprise!)

Whilst buying the nail varnishes, I stumbled across the Nails Inc VIP membership. I love their varnish so obviously I had to join - now I can collect points on everything I buy. What better excuse to keep treating myself! The £5 joining fee meant I was sent this gorgeous full size product for free! 

I'll show you all what the colours look like on once I've swatched them! 

Love Lauren xx