New and improved you

Firstly a quick apology for being away for a while, I've just started back at sixth form & it's been quite full on. That & other things in my life have just taken priority as of late but have no fear, I'm not planning on going anywhere in the long term, posts may just be a little less freque

nt than they were over the summer.

I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past few weeks about my life and I've realised that I'm not overly happy with the way that it has been. I've been stressed, paranoid, upset and just not my usual, happy self. Obviously I don't want to be feeling this way so I've come up with some 'rules' for myself to try and get back on track. I thought I'd share them with you as I know that a lot of people my age (and others, but exams & hormones etc can really take their toll) feel similarly at some point or another.

1) Have some 'me time'. Every day I aim to spend some time for just me. No homework, no chores, no anything. Simply sit for a while and do something that I enjoy, be it reading a magazine article, listening to some music, painting my nails, anything will do, just so long as it gives me a little time out from life.

2) Find a way to vent my feelings. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to do this but normally if something is bothering me I'll just cry but that's not how I want to deal with things any more. Perhaps write it down either in a notebook or in an unpublished blog post, I don't know. If you have any ideas let me know in the comments.

3) Deal with issues head on. If someone is annoying or upsetting me I am going to try confront them about it. This is a big step for me as I tend to keep all of my emotions bottled up but I've realised that is contributing to my stress so it needs to stop.

4) Talk to those close to me. I'm not overly close with my family but I'd like to think that I can go to them with things. Even if I just talk to them about how our days were, that's a start right?

5) Be more social. Honestly, I'm not that much of a social person, I'm quite boring really. All I really do is school through the week, go to work some evenings and on Saturdays and stay at my boyfriend's at the weekend. I've found myself saying 'no' to many things lately for absolutely no reason but I'm going to try to make the effort to see friends much more.

Hopefully these few things will help me to become happier and just enjoy life a bit more. If anyone decides to do these things (or a variation of) I'd love to hear about how you get on. If you'd like me to give you an update in a few weeks on whether I think it's working let me know.

How do you keep yourself happy and get rid of stress?

Tidy space, tidy mind

I don't know about any of you, but I'm one of those people who live by the title of this post, tidy space, tidy mind. I find that when things around me are tidy and organised, I can think much better. Now, if you were to ask my parents, they would definitely say that I'm not a tidy person - they are wrong. I love being tidy and honestly, I have some form of OCD when it comes to organisation. The thing is is that I simply don't have the time to keep everything spic-and-span.

My whole life is spent doing something - weekdays I'm out of the house from 7:30am until 5pm at school, I often work a few evenings during the week, Saturdays I work most of the day & will more often than not spend the night at my boyfriend's house along with the majority of Sundays. Add things such as homework, driving lessons, meals and household chores into the mix and I am home, awake and not busy for about 7/8 hours a week, which if you think about it, is nothing at all! This is why I things aren't always tidy.

I do, however, love things to be tidy, and I really do enjoy doing the tidying (I know, freak or what?!). I have decided that from now on I am going to take just a little bit of time every couple of days to keep things organised. Just little things like de-cluttering my bedside table or my desk, picking up the few clothes that may have 'accidentally' missed the laundry basket, things like that. I think that by doing things like that I will be able to keep both my environment and my mind clear, helping me to focus on other things in life such as school, work and relationships.

I know that this post has probably sounded super cliche, but it's true for me. What do you do to keep your life more organised?

Take the time to just smile

The past few weeks I've been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. I won't go into the reasons for this as there's quite a few and that's not really the point of this post. You know when you're just having a really down day and feel as though things just won't right themselves again? Well I've had quite a lot of those as of late and it gets to the point when you just are miserable so much and it has an effect on other aspects of your life.

I've been trying to find ways of keeping myself happy, or if I'm already feeling down then ways to cheer myself up, and have found a few ways, some may seem super obvious and silly but I thought that I'd share them with you anyway in hope of possibly making your days a little brighter!

1) Watch your favourite movie - everyone has that one film that they love and can watch a million times and still enjoy it don't they? I challenge you to find one person who doesn't! There's nothing better than popping said film into the dvd (or vhs if you're super retro) player and sitting back, relaxing and just feeling yourself getting transported into that world. It may be a recent film or one from your childhood, whatever it is will surely put a smile on your face.

2) Pamper yourself - no, I don't mean go all out spend £££ on a spa day at some luxury resort (although I'm sure that would do wonders to cheer you up!), just do something that will make you feel good about yourself. There are so many things that you could do, dye your hair, shave your legs, groom your eyebrows, take a bubble bath, anything so long as it leaves you feeling a little more fresh and confident in yourself!

3) Relive old memories - was there something you loved doing as a child? Why not do it again? Yesterday I found my book full of messages from my friends when we left school last May, reading through them cheered me up so much as it reminded me of so many things we've shared together that I'd completely forgotten, some of which were such happy days in my life. Even just look through photos from that night you and your girls went out or anything.

4) Talk to a loved one - be it a parent, sibling, partner, friend, talking to a person whom you trust is a great way to let off steam and sort out your emotions. Bottling it up often seems like the best thing to do as you don't want to burden others with your troubles, but if they truly love you then they'll want to know what's up. I've learnt this recently and even if the person is the problem, still tell them, they may never know that they've been upsetting you if you don't tell them!

5) Do your favourite hobby - for me this is easy, reading a new book. You may love cooking, painting, sewing, dancing - the options are endless - whatever it is take some time out to do it, you will feel much happier and if it's something you haven't done in a while you may rediscover your love for it. This definitely works, I read a whole book in 24 hours yesterday and after I'd finished I felt a real sense of accomplishment.

What do you do when you're having a down day to put that smile back on your face?

Isn't this just the cutest video ever?!

Summer sun

Those living in the UK will be well aware that for the past few weeks the weather has been awful - rain every day, and when it hasn't been raining it's been super gloomy and overall just plain miserable!

Finally though, we seem to have been blessed with some sunshine!

I don't know about you but I love summer - when it's hot that is!

What's better than chilling outside in your bikini/shorts & vest, soaking up the rays and listening to music/reading a book/whatever tickles your fancy?

I have no idea how long this will last, hopefully a while though, so I'm making the most of it whilst I can. My day today will be spent in my garden revising for my driving theory test and sunbathing, which will hopefully mean that I can have a real tan rather than my current fake one!

Remember though, too much sun can be damaging to you! Keep topping up with suncream throughout the day and make sure to drink lots (water, pimms, whatever really, just as long as you don't go thirsty!) and if you feel yourself getting too hot or burning then go inside for a while!

I hope that everyone is enjoying the sunny weather & I'd love to hear what you're all doing during the summer.

Goal to get fit

I've had the goal in my mind for ages now to lose some weight and get fitter but so far that just hasn't happened.

These past few months I've been really unhappy with my body and the way I look in clothes, especially in skinny jeans. I figured that just feeling sorry for myself and unhappy with my figure would get me absolutely nowhere so I've started doing things that will help me to lose a bit of weight and tone up.

Firstly, what I eat. I like to snack and I know that's not particularly good for you so I've tried to cut the amount of snacks that I have down. My diet hasn't changed too much, I just try to eat in moderation and include more fruit and veg into it.

The biggest change that I've made is the amount of exercise I do.

Normally I do little exercise, a short walk with the dog here, the walk to work from town there, that was it really. But that's changed now, the best thing to help me tone up is to do some exercise.

About a month ago I bought a fitness DVD, The Only Way is Essexercise, and it's actually pretty good. It comes with three different workouts; dance, boxing and aerobics. Personally the aerobics is the one I do as I have very little rhythm and boxing isn't really my cup of tea. I try to do this 1-2 times a week.

I have also started running. I will go on a route around the village I live in which is about 2 miles and takes roughly half an hour to run which is good enough for me as I'm not really a runner, in fact I'm not really a sporty person at all! I aim to go running once a week so long as it's decent weather, I don't like running in the rain as I have to run along tracks and would get absolutely covered in mud!!

I've also joined the gym that's next to my sixth form and plan to go 2-3 times a week. At the moment I tend to stick to the cardio machines - treadmill, cross trainer & bike - but will hopefully move on and go on the rowing machines, more scary looking cardio ones that I don't even know the names of and the weight/toning machines.

I know that this wasn't too detailed but yeah, if you'd like me to keep you updated on how I'm finding it then I happily will, all you need to do is ask!

Hideous weather, gorgeous day.

As anyone living in Britain will know, the weather this week has been absolutely awful! Luckily, I've managed to escape most of it as I've been working but today I had the day off and had made plans last week when it was still slightly warm and the sun was peeping through the clouds just a little. A few of my girlfriends and I decided to go out for lunch in town as it was my only day off and we haven't seen each other properly in a long time. However, as we were all on a budget we struggled on deciding where to go, eventually choosing the Pizza Hut lunch buffet, which is an absolute bargain at £6.99 for as much pizza and salad bar as you like, especially when you think that it would cost you £6.75 for a regular Margherita pizza anyway! So after venturing out in the rain and getting absolutely soaked, despite having my trusty Primark umbrella on me - seriously, that thing has lasted me about a year and normally I manage to break them within a month, one time I even broke one the same day I bought it! - we met and went in.

It was so nice to be able to spend the day with the girls, even though it wasn't all of us. Since leaving secondary school last year we seem to have drifted. We've gone from seeing each other every day at school and on the weekends to seeing each other once a month tops! Obviously this was to be expected, I'm at sixth form, Becky, Lisa and Charlotte go to one college, Kirsty is at another and Sian doesn't go to college, therefore it's hard for us to all meet up at the same time. Quick interruption to the post, as mentioned in the title, the delightful weather we are having has just given us a powercut & someones car alarm is going off, fantastic!! Anyways, where was I? Ah, yes, we were meeting up every month for our birthdays and going out for a meal as there's one birthday a month between us from October through to March, mine being last. Obviously they stopped after my birthday so our last meal together was at the end of April. (We had to push mine back as Lisa was away & some of us had work commitments, etc.) so we hadn't done anything as a group since then, which is a pretty long time, in fact, apart from when I saw Sian & Becky last week, I hadn't seen any of them since then.

Lisa wasn't able to come for lunch as she had work and Charlotte wasn't either as she has gone away with her boyfriend, so that left the four of us. It was great to have a catch up about everything that's happened with us over the last few months, just sitting and chatting away for hours about anything and everything. It did make me realise just how much I miss them though. It's been over a year since we left school, therefore over a year since things were really right between us. It is great when we all meet up and do things like we did today, but you can tell that things aren't the same, and they never will be the same again. I plan to do a separate post on losing friends or distancing from them, so I won't ramble on too much about that.

Overall, a lovely way to spend my day off. Now I'm just sat in my room watching 27 Dresses and typing this out for you all. What did you do today? Hopefully no one in the UK got too wet in the rain and if you're in a different country and are having lovely weather, enjoy it while it lasts, us Brits know just how easily it can chop and change - just two weeks ago it was boiling, I think it was hotter here than in some places in Europe (although I may be wrong, I tend to make things like that up, for example everything in my History exam!!).

A day for myself.

Since the shop he works in stopped opening on Sundays a few months ago Sundays have been spent with my boyfriend with just a few exceptions - my niece's christening, studying for exams, etc. Today however, he had a bbq with some friends which I wasn't invited to, so obviously I didn't spend the day with him. (I actually did see him though cos I went with my family to town and he was in one of the shops so bumped into him and had a little chat, but I don't really class that as it was only a couple of minutes.)

It was a strange feeling, not spending the night at his last night - I've decided I don't like sleeping alone on a Saturday night, much nicer to be cuddling - and then even stranger not being dropped at his this morning as normally if I don't sleep at his I will be dropped off in the morning. This all meant that I had the whole day to myself so the question was, what the hell do I do all day?!?

My family were going to town to get a few things at about midday so I figured I may as well go with, saves sitting around bored. We popped to Sports Direct which is where we bumped into Elliot as he was picking up the new Liverpool kit - you'll probably pick up from my posts that he's football obsessed! - and I got a pair of those lycra legging thingymajigs, I don't really know what they're called but you know the tight 3/4 running trousers? Yeah, them. My mum was nice enough to buy them for me as she knows that despite being paid only a week and a half ago, I'm already running low, which was very nice of her. Then we popped into Waitrose to pick up some strawberries for the street Jubilee party tomorrow (which I don't get to go to cos I'm working all day, BOOOO!) and a few other little things before we drove over to Matalan so that my sisters could look for outfits to wear for my brother's wedding at the end of the month.

When we got home I watched a couple of episodes of Don't Tell The Bride, which is my all time favourite programme, however I'd never be brave enough to do that myself!! Then I had a bit of late lunch before having a go at my new exercise dvd, The Essexercise Workout, which I picked up for £2 in a charity shop the other day. It was the first time I had tried the dvd and I loved it. I'm not overly keen on the dance or boxing part, but that's because I have practically no coordination whatsoever, the aerobics part however was amazing! I could really feel it working my whole body and plan to do it twice a week!

I watched a few more episodes of Don't Tell The Bride before dinner. I then did the washing up and helped my mum clear the kitchen and then made myself an exercise plan for myself so that I actually do exercise - I need lists and plans in order for me to stick to things! I think I might do a separate post on my fitness regime if people would be interested? I can also keep you updated on my progress, just how well I'm sticking to it and if I find results, although I won't post things like my actual weight I doubt as I'm not exactly light!!

Now I'm just watching the Gary Barlow documentary on BBC1 and then will watch The Apprentice final which I'm pretty excited for!!

All in all today has been quite nice, however I definitely prefer spending the day with Elliot, but oh well, hopefully he's enjoyed his BBQ and I will maybe see him during the week if we can find time, it's quite hard when we are both working but we manage to make things work.

What did you do with your Sunday?