What I eat in a day

I've seen a lot of these on youtube and I have to admit, I could sit for hours watching them. I find them extremely interesting and I enjoy seeing what people eat and discovering new foods through them also. The food I ate on this particular day (Tuesday-07/07/2015) wasn't the healthiest of foods, but it also wasn't bad either. I'm not the sort of person who eat completely healthy day in and day out and I believe that everyone should be healthy, but also indulge on things a couple of times a week (I don't mean have takeaway three times a week, I'm thinking more like having a chocolate bar, occasionally having crisps, enjoying a couple of scoops of ice cream in this hot weather etc).

I am in no way saying people should eat the things I eat, and as I say, this is just one day of the week...there are days when I'm extremely healthy or do different things, for example, some days I'll do 'raw 'til four', other days I will strictly calorie count, some days I'm all for vegetarian dishes and other times I can't get enough meat! Also just to note, I drank about 5 bottles of water throughout the day to keep me nice and hydrated and also because water is extremely good for the body!

Anyway, moving on...this was my breakfast:

 This is a liberte yogurt and they are delicious! This is the greek yogurt and honey one and I love having these for breakfast. They have 0% fat which is a bonus and they just taste so good! I definitely recommend them, I think they do blueberry ones as well!

For Lunch I had two mini pork pies and some bbq sauce. I love prok pies and the mini ones are my favourite. I don't have them very often so when I do indulge on them I really enjoy them more than I would if I had them regularly. The bbq sauce was a sweet and sticky one, mmm!

Had a cup of tea with this and also, I only had one squirt of bbq sauce but it spread out on the plate so it looks like a lot more!

For dinner I had some piri piri chicken which is seasoned nicely and which has the skin on(loads of people hate this, I personally think the skin is the best part on a chicken..it's so yummy!) Again, eating the skin on chicken is not something I do all the time as I know it's not the healthiest thing in the world, but every few weeks it doesn't hurt! With this I had home made chips (they taste a million times better than frozen ones) and some lovely fresh bread. I also had some of the garlic nandos sauce to dip my chicken in which is so tasty! And I was drinking coke with this as I always do with dinner.

Apologies for the photos not being very good quality, I took them on my iphone. 

I plan on doing more of these as I enjoy reading/watching them, so let me know what you think :)

Thanks for reading!

Channy xoxo

Changing for the better

Do you ever look at the people you know and suddenly realise how much they have grown as a person or changed over the years? The way they once behaved or acted has completely changed and they have an altogether different view on life, and to see this is wonderful. It's so great because you can see how they once saw the world, and are able to compare it to how much more understanding they now are of the world.
This all probably seems rather strange to be reading, but this is a post I've wanted to write for a while, mostly due to witnessing changes myself in regards to friends of mine, family members and even celebrities. Yes, celebrities. We read about them so often, it seems there is no escape from them. As we scroll down our facebook news feed there are so many stories about celebrities which everyone is talking about. We follow them on instagram to see what they do with their lives and it's from instagram that I had the idea to write about how people change overtime. This may seem confusing, but bare with me, I do have a valid point!

The reason I am writing about how people change and how it's very good for people to change comes from being a fan of Lindsay Lohan. Now I know many people have a strong dislike towards her, but she is a person, she is real, she has her issues, but who doesn't? The point I'm trying to make is that many things happen in our lives that define us and change us and make us who we are today. The exact same thing happens to celebrities and yet many people view them as 'special' people, unlike ordinary people, when in fact, they are the same. The only difference is, they are in the public eye and they have six zero's behind their yearly wage. They go through the same things that we do and they change as the years go on, just like we do.
To get back to Lindsay Lohan...the reason I'm focusing on her is because her life has been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs and she's only 29; however, she has changed over the years and the world has watched her transform from a young girl, to a troubled young woman, to a positive and focused woman. I follow her on instagram and it's so interesting to look at her photos and see how she has changed overtime. She was once a self confessed alcoholic which caused her to be reckless and lead to her drug use. For quite some time her life was, to be honest, a mess and it didn't look like she was going to get her life back on track. But she did. She picked herself up, dusted off all the crap in her life, surrounded herself with positive people and began to change her life and herself. At one time she would have looked at life and her problems and would have decided to take drugs to run away from it all, but now she is much more positive, accepting that bad things happen but that there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

The things with change is, it exists in so many forms. People can mentally change, physically, emotionally, in terms of their appearance, the way they dress, eat, talk etc, and it's all fascinating to see. If you look at pictures of Lindsay Lohan from between 2004 and 2011 you can see that these years were not good on her body and her view on life was probably not very good; she turned to alcohol and drugs to get away from everything and was rarely sober.

These pictures are just a few taken between those years, and you can see how her body changed and how thin she became. Years of drug abuse damaged her both physically and emotionally, however she changed her life and herself and now she looks much better and often talks about health and taking care of yourself and looking after your mind and body. Below are some photos from her instagram of her now and you can see a drastic change in her face and body.

This one was captioned: 'Hard work pays off. Thank you to all those that allowed me to volunteer while in NYC. God bless you all. Amen.' If you wanted proof that she's changed. then here it is. a few years ago she wouldn't have taken community service seriously, but last time around she stuck to it and completed it.

'Hard work pays off'...she couldn't be more right. Because when you work hard you are making yourself more determined and are therefore changing. And everybody does it. Our friends and family all make changes and they all make them to benefit themselves. I certainly know I've changed. A few years ago if you'd have asked me what I wanted to be/do when I was older I'd have answered with 'I want to be a lawyer' and not much more. Ask me now and you'll hear a number of things including: being a cake decorator, reviewing films for a magazine, travelling the world, having my own 1950's style American diner, writing my own recipe books and wearing christian Louboutin's everyday. I've changed. I've changed a lot and my thoughts on things have changed drastically. Would I want to be a lawyer at all anymore? the answer is no, because I've found other things which interest me more, and which I'm a lot better at.
The fact is, we change a little every day, and most of the time we don't even realise it ourselves, but we notice it other people. An example I have of noticing things is when my best friend Jazz had her hair cut just before christmas. She used to have long hair like me and she cut 16 inches off...now this is an obvious physical change to her appearance but the change I'm referring to is how it seemed to make her happier..she was happy before she had it cut, don't get me wrong, like she is always happy, she's like a little ball of sunshine, but she received SO many compliments that I think it made her feel better in herself and now whenever anyone mentions her long her she always replies saying how much better she feels with it shorter. And this is exactly why I'm saying that changing is for the better. If something makes you feel great and generally more positive then nobody should view it as bad. Everyone should feel positive. We're all about those posi vibes!

I took to tumblr when thinking about making this post and as we all know, tumblr is home to thousands of quotes and since I'm not about to sit here and think of my own quotes to sum up what I'm trying to say, I thought I'd let tumblr help me out.

“There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.”

—  Winston Churchill

Could not say it better!

I guess the whole point in this post is to tell you all that whatever you do in your life and how you grow as a person and the way you write your own story will inevitably change you in various ways and that's okay. Please don't feel as though the choices you make are wrong, because no one can tell you what to do. And no one can tell you you are wrong. And no one should say 'you've changed' in a negative manner, as though you have done something wrong and making you feel guilty for becoming the person that you are, And if anyone says that to you in that manner, then please, don't allow them to contribute to your life any more because you have changed for the better, you have improved yourself and they probably wont know what has happened in your life or what you have gone through. Everyday we go through many things and face new challenges, be them small or large, we overcome fears, confront fears, do extremely difficult things and discover new things and all of these change us and make us see the world in a different light. So hold your head up high and continue on your amazing journey through life. Just remember, you're going to change as person, but you are also contributing to the change of the world and the future of it. And if Lindsay Lohan can change and grow into the person she now is considering her past and the added pressure of the paparazzi and always being in the public eye, then so can you.

Be happy, improve yourself and continue to change in to your future self :)

Thank you for reading
Channy
xoxo

More about London

It's been a few days since my last post as I've been busy doing things but I now have some free time to sit back, relax and write this post. I hope you enjoy reading about more of our adventures in London!

So on our second day we woke up bright and early and headed downstairs at the hotel to have breakfast. After having a small fry up (the mushrooms were SO good!) we showered, got dressed and slapped some makeup on before heading to the tube station. We'd decided to go to Camden Market and Notting Hill so we headed to Camden first where we took in the sights and smells surrounding us. as we walked around the market, we looked at the jewellery, talking about how cute the rings were and complaining that we didn't have enough money to buy all the things we liked (typical students!). We came across a stall there which sold old cameras, vintage and retro style and all in a good condition. This fascinated me as I'm a lover of vintage things and I've planned to buy one when I'm next in London in a couple of weeks. We fell in love with some gorgeous dresses and had to pull ourselves away from them, and headed to Cyberdog. For those of you who are unaware as to what Cyberdog is, it's a shop which sells, shall we say, unique clothing; neon bright dresses and tops that flash, as well as sex toys (if you dare go downstairs, which we of course did you will also find bondage accessories and a whole load of other things). It's certainly an experience when you go in there, but also one that you shouldn't miss out on when you're in London! 

After walking around for a while we decided to have something to eat, heading towards an amazing Mexican street food stall there where we each had a burrito. The food in Camden is amazing and smells delicious and £4 for a burrito bigger than my head(they really are massive) is something you can't miss out on!

Once we'd been around Camden market we headed back to the tube and went to Notting Hill. We strolled down Portobello Road which is so cute and quirky and has houses painted in pretty pastel colours. We had a lovely walk around the area talking about life and people watching before heading to the Natural History Museum. This museum is amazing! We only got so much of it done but we enjoyed every minute there! There are various sections within the museum which focus around animals of the past or which are becoming extinct, the earth and much more. The section on mammals was my favourite part and also the dinosaur section as well. What I love about this museum is that there is so much information to read and I love reading about things and learning. 

Once we had been around so much of the museum, it was coming up to closing time so we left and walked to Harrods to have a wander around the food hall and of course, more importantly, the shoes. The food hall is one of my favourite places to go because I love seeing the fresh food and all the cheeses and freshly made cakes and cupcakes. I also love the smell of the steakhouse and just watching people buying all sorts of different foods. Once we'd walked around the food hall, we went to the shoe department and spent at least 40 minutes looking at all of the gorgeous designer shoes and talking about how one day, we'll be one of those women that goes and buys two pairs of Christian louboutin and doesn't even think about how much she has spent (we have big dreams!). 

After walking around there for a while we headed to Bubba Gumps for dinner, where Jazz and I enjoyed the coconut shrimp and Amy had their delicious burger. We ate too much but it was so good so we didn't complain. I absolutely love Bubba Gumps and definitely recommend that you try it if you love seafood! Once we had eaten there, we went back to the hotel and chilled for a while, talking and laughing a lot before going to bed.

Here are some photos I took:

Camden!

Irregular Choice...absolutely love the shoes here!

That famous Camden pic that everyone takes ;)

An old fashioned Beetle car down Portobello Road...I really want one!

Pretty pastel houses

Cute house!

Notting Hill

Natural History Museum exhibit

Dinosaur! 

How cute!

Baby elephant

Was such a lovely sunny day!

Bubba Gumps <3

Soho at night!

Thank you for reading! More to come on London!

Channy xoxo

A little trip I took..

A few months ago myself and my best friend began talking about travelling and wanting to see the world and going on little trips. We decided that this summer we'd start our travelling journeys with one another by going to London for a few days. And then my other best friend joined in with our discussion, and before we knew it we were planning a few days there and excitedly talking about what we would do while we were there. And then, our talks about London calmed down and we hadn't mentioned it for a while (mostly due to the crazy amount of uni work we all had), however, one day a couple of months ago we talked about it again, and then a few days later we suddenly had a hotel booked and train tickets ordered. It was happening. We were going, and we were so excited! 

Roll on a couple of months and the day arrived...due to out insane level of excitement, none of us had realised that we had booked to go on Father's day (oops) so we got up early, messaging each other in excitement, rushing around to get ready before heading to the train station. We took our seats and in a matter of minutes we were laughing so hard, and that's how the rest of the journey to London went. We arrived there, went to the hotel and headed to Nando's, because what else do you do when you need to wait three hours before checking in?!? Let's be real here, Nando's was the only option, and it went down a treat. 

After checking in, we headed straight for Covent Garden and wandered around the shops, taking in the sights and smells(despite having eaten Nando's until we felt like we couldn't move, we were left with our mouths watering at the smells of crepes and pies) and people watching. We moved on to Leicester Square, among the hustle and bustle and evening entertainment, went in a few shops and found ourselves making many jokes leaving us crying with laughter. Moving on from there, we headed towards the South bank and walked on the embankment, taking in the lovely views and just having a good old laugh. 

We walked a lot and our feet were hurting us so we decided to grab a bag of sharing doritos and head back to the hotel where we enjoyed our pre bedtime snack. After the exhausting day we'd had we drifted off to sleep(after making our stomachs hurt with laughter) and woke the next morning ready to explore London. 

I'll upload in a few days about our second day in London as these posts are fairly long! But for now, enjoy some of the photos I took from our first day :)

 

Russel Square Underground sign

Russel Square looking pretty in the sun

The Moomin shop in Covent Garden

Urban Outfitters...who doesn't love this shop?!

The Commitments!

I love the statues around London

Marching bands!

Such a cute area!

:)

Thank you for reading! 

Channy 

xoxo

Finished second year of uni!

Well the title says it all...my second year of uni is all over and done with. I can't believe how quick this year has gone, it only seems like two minutes ago since it started! It's crazy that I'm 2/3 of the way through my course already! 

Anyway, now that my essays are all done, all I have to do now is revise for a couple of weeks and then I have my exam, but I am now basically free for a few months! It feels so good! I have so many plans with my family and friends so I can't wait for all my friends to be back so that we can do what we do best: get messy at Welly and Spiders ;) If you're wondering what I'm talking about, then I'll explain...So, Welly and Spiders are two nightclubs in Hull that we go to quite a lot and we love them and often end up in a bit of a state but who cares?! we have so much fun there! I actually went to Welly last night with my best friend and it was hilarious and we celebrated finishing this year of uni with a bang! So yeah, there will be many more nights like this coming up as well as breaks away and holidays and days out and adventures which I cant wait to share with you!

Let me know what plans you have over this half term and the summer!

Channy

xoxo

Essays, essays and more essays..

My life at the moment seems to be focused entirely on one thing: Essays
I have four essays due in all around the same time (one on Friday, the other three all next week), so my days are currently spent on the laptop trying not to go over the word count by too much! It's been a crazy few weeks planning all of these essays and researching and typing them up, but I'm getting there. Earlier today I handed one essay in (finally!), I have another complete and I'm about half way through my third one. So hopefully by next Tuesday I will be essay free for a few months, and along with that, my stress should just drift away...hopefully..
Is anybody else writing essays for university/college/school? If so, I have a little tip: don't try and cram loads of work in each day, just pace yourself out...I usually plan to write between 500 and 700 words a day when doing an essay, that way it keeps me calm(ish) and I feel as though I'm more focused and word things much better!
And have breaks! This is vital and very important! Make sure you have a quick breather for every half an hour of typing you do. Walk away from the laptop/computer, stretch your legs, drink some water...get a bit of fresh air for a few minutes! A few minutes of space can really help you when writing essays, so make sure you don't over exert yourself because it will just make you tired and then your focus will fly out of the window!

I've basically finished my second year at university now so I can relax a little bit more and get started on all the plans I've made! But for now, it's back to writing this essay...I'll be back soon!

Channy
xoxo

It's been a while...

So...it's been a long time since I last made a post and there are quite a few reasons for it, but I'm not going to bore you with all the details. To cut a long story short; I felt as though I wasn't very organised with my blog and at the time I started it, I was applying for uni and things just spiralled out of control and I kind of forgot about it. However, for a while now I've been wanting to start a new one up, but I decided to just re-start this one up and go from there.

So....I am back. I'll be blogging more often from now on, and nothing has changed really..I'll be blogging about essentially everything, although I feel it will be more interesting this time around! So I guess I'll 'speak' soon!

Thanks for reading!
Channy xoxo