Sunshine Blogger Award

Happy Saturday my lovelies! This week I had the lovely surprise of being given the Sunshine Blogger Award by the very lovely Abbie! I love these posts, they bring the blogging community together and we all get to know more about on another.

Before I start this post, I just want to say, I’d definitely recommend reading Abbie’s Sunshine Blogger Award posts here! From her post I found out we share a love of Emily Blunt, people watching and we certainly share the same sentiment when it comes to running.. or lack of running.. haha! Abbie talks about all sorts on her blog and her writing is so engaging, so it was an honour being nominated by her for this!

So, the idea behind the sunshine award is to highlight and nominate bloggers that you believe spread positivity, kindness and that are, put simply, rays of sunshine!

The rules go like this:

• If you’ve been nominated, it means you’ve been given the award! So, congrats and well done!!
• You must thank the blogger that nominated you and link back to their blog or their original post.
• List the rules for this award and a snazzy logo or picture of it in your blog post.
• Answer the 11 questions from the blogger who nominated you.
• Nominate 11 more bloggers and set 11 fun questions for them to answer.

 

Onto my questions from the lovely Abbie:

1 . What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Funnily enough this is a piece of advice, or maybe you could call it a quote, from Stuart Little of all things! Every cloud has a silver lining. So I try and make at least one person smile a day, I love positivity and try my best to radiate it! And it’s a great reminder that if you can look on the brighter side, things do seem brighter!

2 . The strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?

As a fussy eater, this one isn’t strange at all, but I can’t think of anything strange I’ve eaten; I think I once ate a worm when I was tiny? Haha! But a few of my friends thought it was weird that I like cheese and apple sandwiches.. which isn’t weird at all I later found out from loads of people who eat them!

3 . If you could make one rule that everyone had to follow, what rule would you make?

Ooo hard one! I guess it’d have to be that everyone is treated equally! A girl can dream no? Now that I think about it, also that war and violence is never an option! I don’t mind being naïve with these sorts of things, because it helps me to stay positive!

4 . What is your favourite smell?

Freshly baked bread or cake, coffee, fresh and warm laundry along with oranges!

5 . What would be your dream meal? Including starters, main course, dessert and drinks?

For starters it’d have to be.. freshly baked bread with butter (can’t go wrong with a classic, right?). My main course would be a roast dinner, it’s my all time favourite meal and I could eat it 365 days a year easily! And for dessert it’d have to be a chocolate soufflé with pralines and cream ice cream, anything warm and chocolatey is just a dream for my sweet tooth! The drinks to top it all off would be a Disaronno and fresh orange juice; I asked a bar tender to recommend a drink for someone who like Disaronno and that’s what I was given.. trust me, it’s delicious!

6 . Who are your five dream dinner guests?

There’s too many people to pick from! Is it too cheesy to say the Fab Five from Netflix’s Queer Eye? Or it’d be Michelle Obama, Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, James Corden and Chris Pratt. It’d be a pretty great dinner party if I say so myself.

7 . What film/book could you watch/read again and again and not get bored of it?

Legally Blonde has to have a mention here since I’m watching the first and second one for the fifth time in a row whilst I’m writing this.. and I am not sorry! It’s a great film about women breaking stereotypes in my opinion and is just such an easy breezy watch! And of course all of the Harry Potter books/films, I’m a huge potter head and am hoping to go back to the studio tours again next year!

8 . Do you believe in ghosts and the paranormal?

To this day I’m still on the fence! Part of me hopes there are ghosts and that the paranormal world does exist out of pure curiosity, but I’m a huge scaredy cat so part of me hopes not!

9 . If money and time weren’t a problem what skill would you like to learn?

Carpentry. I love creativity and I’m always thinking of ways to upcycle and change furniture, but sometimes my ideas are a bit too ambitious compared to my lack of skills with powers tools other than an electric drill! Haha!

10 . Are you a morning or a night person?

I used to be a morning person who would get up at 5AM EVERY DAMN MORNING. Then I became more of a night person.. but now I’m a bit in between and wake up around 7am! I love my bed and sleep a bit too much, so for me, an early night in is usually on the cards!

11 . Where would be your dream holiday destination?

There’s too many! I’d love to go to Canada though, I’ve not travelled too far away from the UK so Canada, America, China and Japan are on my bucket list!

 

Alright, so my questions are:

1. What’s your go-to self care tip?
2. What did you want to be when you were little?
3. If you play an instrument, which one? Or.. what instrument would you like to play?
4. Is there a quote you live by? If so, what is it?
5. If you could only eat one meal, three times a day for the rest of your life, what’d it be?
6. What’s one of your favourite childhood memories?
7. Why did you start blogging?
8. If you could step in the shoes of anyone for a day (like in Freaky Friday haha) who would it be?
9. What 3 words would you use to represent your personal style?
10. What gives you that extra spring in your step in the morning?
11. If you were stuck on an island, who would you want to be there with you?

 

My nominees are:

• Kim from Chimmyville
• Holly from Holzieloves
• Steph from Steph Loves
• Megan from Megan Elizabeth Lifestyle
• Emma from Believe In Bumble
• Finlay from Finlay Grace Allan
• Anna from Stralthy
• Han from lifewithhan
• Haziqa from Teller Of Tales
• Merrell-Ann from Trousseau Diaries
• Emma from Violetelm

And that’s just a small group of the amazing bloggers that deserve this award! Be sure to check them and their blogs out! You won’t regret it, trust me! Oh and if you share your Sunshine Blogger Award posts on twitter be sure to tag me @weightofmywrlds so I can retweet them and spread the love!

Being nominated for awards like these always bring a huge smile to my face and will keep me smiling for ages, and its a great motivation to keep improving and writing! What’s something little that brought a smile to your face in the last week? Let me know in the comments!!

Have a great weekend my lovelies, and Happy Easter!

Love,

I Found Out My Ancestry With 23 and Me.

It’s Mother’s Day this weekend! So a lot of us will be showering our mums with love and tending to their every need. When deciding what I wanted to write for today’s post, I stumbled between the idea of a mushy post about why I would be lucky if I turned out remotely like my mum or if I wrote about my ancestry that I found out recently with 23 and Me.

So, I’ve decided on a bit of both. My mum and I aren’t what you’d call super cuddly or expressive with our feelings when it comes to reminding each other what we like about one another, which is why I know my mum is cringing reading this right now just like me! Haha sorry mum, but I love ya.

It’s not that we don’t like expressing our feelings, we’ve just never been that way when it comes to talking about each other. And she’s more like a best friend than a mum, and we can tell each other anything (yes that does mean we can talk about emotional stuff, but that’s not us and that’s ok), honestly I don’t really know where I’d be without her. Also, can we just appreciate the fact that my mum, Lindsay, is incredible at encouraging me to wear whatever I want, and she could pull off wearing a bin bag and look great if she wanted too. Although here she’s rocking a neon green crop top (she hate’s this photo, and I can’t understand why, because she looks great! So make sure you show her some love in the comments!).

Right, that’s enough mushy stuff, onto why I wanted to find out my ancestry. Well, for years I have wondered what my heritage actually is, because I’d heard several stories from different family members and where I come from.

So naturally over the years I’ve become more and more curious about what’s true and what’s just a rumour! Which led me to buying a 23 and Me pack.

The entire process took about 3-4ish weeks, and that’s from receiving my box, sending it off and being sent my results. One thing I love about 23 and Me is that they update you and keep you informed about what is happening at every step towards getting your results.

So, what did I think my heritage was?

I was told by family members that they thought I could be:

• British
• French
• Something else I can’t remember..

What were my results?

Well, I found out a few things I wasn’t expecting! Here we go:

• 100% European, Northwestern European

Broken down into:

• 65.8% British and Irish – UK & Ireland
• 10.9% French and German – Germany & Netherlands
• 9.4% Scandinavian – Norway
• 13.9% Broadly Northwestern European

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect from my results! I was just excited to see where I’m from, and finding out I’m more than British was a big shock to me; I have no idea where the Irish, Scandinavian, German or Netherlander (I don’t know if that’s the right way to put it) in me came from.

So once I found this out, I was able to see where/who in my ancestry timeline this DNA has come from.

This was so interesting to find out, and it also got me thinking, who in my family do I think could be part of a certain population. And I’ve since asked my family members that I’m close too, about what they know about their own ancestry and it’s sparked some really cool conversations!

I also paid to do the health reports from 23 and Me; so I got to find out about what my genetics say about my personality, appearance, carrier status, health risks, hobbies etc. To give you an idea of what a few things I found out (there’s about 5-7 reports when it comes to the health part so I’ll stick to a few very brief things):

• Likely to have blue or green eyes – That’s true, I have bright blue eyes.
• Likely to have lots of freckles – Also true, more so in summer!
• Likely to have lighter skin – True, and it’s no surprise now considering my heritage.
• I don’t have an athletes genetic makeup – so guess who’s not going to feel guilty about not enjoying exercise anymore….hahaha.

Here’s a few generations of the women in my family, featuring my incredible dad and nephew (we’re all a little nuts, but I love that about us!). So left to right we have my nephew and niece – such cheeky monkeys, my little sister, my parents, then below left is my granny and my great granny:

Now that I know more about my heritage, I am going to look further into my ancestry, and where I’m from. I also now feel like I know more about myself and why I am the way I am, because of my genetics. And it makes me want to go visit all of these amazing places I’m from even more now, because I have only been to Germany and I live in the UK!

To anyone wondering whether they should do something like this and find out about their genetic makeup, I’d highly recommend it,  especially if you’re unsure what your heritage is. I mean, I found out I’ve got 1,126 third, fourth and fifth cousins probably from a line in my 3rd set of great great grandparents!! And those are just the people who have already done a kit with 23 and Me, and they are from all over the globe! Maybe I’ll connect with them one day, who knows!

Family means the world to me, and I feel like I know mine a little better now. And I just want to thank all of the amazing women (and men, but you know.. it’s mother’s day) in my family for everything they have done and I want to wish them a very happy mothers day. You deserve everything!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you incredible mums, dads and other family members who are doing both roles out there. You’re so important and loved and I just want to remind you of that! Have a great weekend.

Love,

Finding My Style.

Hello my lovelies! I hope you’ve all had a good week so far and are wrapping up warm in the snowy weather we’ve been having!

So, since making my new years resolutions and reflecting on what I want for the year on my birthday, I’ve been on a bit of a self-discovery journey. To begin my journey I decided that I would finally break free from all of the current fashion trends and to put it simply.. wear whatever I wanted. Regardless of what other people think.

For too long I have only worn the clothes that people have given me a compliment in or if other people are wearing the same sort of thing. I never really strayed from what everyone else was wearing in my teens; because like everyone else, I just wanted to fit in.

Well, now I don’t care if I stand out. Or look weird to others.

I have been wearing whatever I want for the last few weeks and it’s seriously given me such a sense of freedom and expression. I only really realised how much I’d grown with my fashion when I was on Facetime with my sister, chatting whilst I had my own little fashion show/photoshoot and she mentioned how I’ve really grown into and found my style.

I’ve found a love of bright coloured accessories, bold patterns and outfits that I would never have put together before. I do remember one time in my past where I did love bright colours, and that was in the form of tights.. neon pink to be exact. And I wore those pink tights with a black trilby, fur gilet, purple top, checked skirt and a pair of knee high black boots. Bold for a 13 year old, I know. I’ve even dug that photo out for you to laugh at, silly pose and all hahaha!

It’s actually kind of sad how our confidence disappears in our teen years. But I’m glad I’ve learnt now that fitting in isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

It doesn’t matter what you want to wear, you should wear whatever you want, because you want to wear it. Also, if you wear something with confidence, it immediately looks good, because you feel good in it!

I have a few favourite pieces currently that always make me feel incredible when I’m wearing them; you can check them out below!

One of my absolute favourite looks is wearing all black with big, bold and bright earrings and bright shoes/boots! I’m also loving oversized clothes and unique bags!

Fashion and finding my own style has been something that I always struggled with until I stopped looking for approval in other people. What’s funny is that when I go shopping now, everything I pick up gets weird looks from whoever’s with me, but as soon as I put everything together in an outfit and wore it confidently, they loved it!

So, moral of the story is where whatever the hell you want, if it makes you feel good and confident, then you’ll look great.

After all, as the Roald Dahl quote goes:

“If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sun beams and you will always look lovely.”

Have a great week lovelies!! Love,

Birthday Reflections.

Thursday was my birthday!! Which means I ate cake, got pampered and did a bit of reflecting on what I want for the next year of my life. I guess it’s a little like new years resolutions but without the guilt if you break them. Reflecting on what I want for myself in the next months is something I’ve never really done before, but the time just feels right.

So, lets get into it!

1 . I am learning (and loving) how to be unapologetically myself.

2 . I want to wear whatever I want, no matter how wacky, weird or boring without fear of being judged, because my opinion is the only one that matters when it comes to my appearance!

How cute was my birthday outfit?! I love that jumper and accessories so much!

3 . Not feeling guilty for any food I eat or workouts that I don’t do.

4 . Be proud of myself for my little achievements.

5 . I want to schedule away at least one day a month for a selfcare day.

6 . Continue to push myself out of my comfort zone and try more new things.

7 . I want to read more books, I love reading but struggle to find stories I get sucked into, so I am on a mission to find some new books!

8 . Learning to love my hair when it’s natural and style it without heat.

9 . Continue blogging as it has brought me so much joy, and I love being creative!

10 . Giving people compliments when I like something about them, whether it’s a piece of clothing, their personality, attitude and/or anything really. It’s always nice bringing a smile to someone’s face, and you never know how much of a difference it can make to someone’s day.

Well, that’s what I’m going to be doing for this upcoming year, and I can’t wait to see what it’s going to throw at me! And I cant wait to see where I’m at in another years time.

So here’s to being another year older, wiser, happier and more comfortable in my own skin. Have a great weekend everyone!!

Love,

 

 

Why I Started Blogging

 

Hello my lovelies! I can’t believe we’re in November already!

So, I’ve been blogging for a few months now, and something I get asked quite often when people I know find out I have a blog is why did I start blogging? What pushed me into pursuing blogging for myself?

Well, this week I’m going to let you into the reasons what made me want to start theweightofmyworlds and what pushed me to actually going forward and creating/publishing my blog!

Part of the idea to start blogging came after reading many blogs and thinking about how amazing and fun they look to write. When the initial thought popped into my head to begin my own blog I thought maybe I should just treat it like a sort of journal or diary of my life? And then I thought back to doing English at school and never being amazing and doubted my ability to write.. however, even though I wasn’t great at the typical English lessons it did occur to me that I was pretty good at writing as if I were talking to people and doing some creative writing.

As you can imagine, all of these thoughts to start writing popped into my head as I were about to go to sleep (which is when I seem to get the most motivation to do stuff, am I the only one with this??). So, I decided to type the general idea into my phone reminders so it would pop up in the morning and actually remind me of last nights idea to start my blog, which it did.

For a few weeks after this I then put off beginning my blog because I still doubted myself a bit and I just needed that extra push. And that came in the form of my younger sister Phoebe.

Here’s my younger sister Phoebe, without her giving me one of my initial ideas to start blogging, I wouldn’t be where I am today!

Well believe it or not what pushed me into starting my own blog was when I thought of a project I wanted to do to help my sister as she was growing up (she’s growing up way too fast for my liking!). I wanted to create her a sort of ‘guide’ for everything that she’ll go through growing up and going through school. And then it occurred to me that that can become easily outdated and with technology moving forward so quickly that maybe I should just go for it and create my own blog that she can visit for advice and general life stuff.

Whilst all of this was swimming round in my head, a bit of a life re-adjustment (well I guess that’s what I would call it?) happened for me. That was the final push I needed to really kick start what you’re reading this on today!

The life adjustment that pushed me to start my own blog was that I began my own recovery journey from an eating disorder. I know, heavy stuff.. I’ll be brief (there’s previous posts about this you can find on here anyway) and I thought that writing my story and things that I go through would help me in that recovery. And that’s part of why my blog is called ‘The Weight Of My Worlds’.

Since beginning my blog it has allowed me to really own what I want to talk about. I love speaking up about body positivity, de-bunking fads that do no good to our mental health, talking about fashion, food, fun projects from Pinterest that are actually feasible.. telling you all about my weird, wonderful and down right funny life experiences and generally interacting with this amazing community that I have been welcomed into with open arms.

I was actually planning on writing this post for my blog’s one year anniversary, but I decided that what better time to talk about how far The Weight Of My Worlds and I have come than now. Reflecting on your achievements and what/who pushed you towards doing great things not only for yourself but others too is a great thing that we shouldn’t have to make a plan or schedule talking about it. Any time is a great time to celebrate your own victories! Especially the small ones, they all add up to great memories.

Why did you start blogging? What do you love about it? Let me know in the comments!

And with that my lovelies, that’s all from me today! Have a great weekend everyone!

Love,

 

Versatile Blogger Award!

Hello my lovelies! I am so grateful and excited to be awarded the Versatile Blogger Award by another incredible blogger! Thank you so much to everyone that has supported me and my blogging journey, and thank you so much Pamela (@TheSparkleMomma) and Haziqa Ishtiaq (@haziqa_ishtiaq) for nominating me! The love, support and empowerment blogger to blogger is so amazing and being welcomed into this community has made me so unbelievably happy and grateful.

Check out Pamela and her amazing blog with the links below:

www.helpmommasparkle.com/

www.twitter.com/TheSparkleMomma

www.facebook.com/TheSparkleMomma/

www.instagram.com/helpmommasparkle/

Check out Hasiqa and her awesome blog with the links below:

www.fictionismymiddlename.home.blog/

www.twitter.com/haziqa_ishtiaq

 

Rules/Instructions:

If you’ve been nominated, then that means you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award! So a massive congratulations to you my lovely!

Thank the Blogger/Bloggers have nominated/given you the award and include the link to their blog in your post. You can include as many links to their social media profiles as you want. Lets spread the love and support even more in this community!

Let the person who nominated you know 7 Things About Yourself.

Select 15 Blogs/Bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly and put them in your post.

Nominate the 15 Blogs/Bloggers of your choice on Twitter with their Twitter handles and include the Twitter handle for the Blogger or Bloggers who nominated you!

 

7 Things About Me:

• I was born up north, I’ve moved around 10 times in my lifetime and currently reside in Cambridgeshire. I’ve lived here for a few years now and like it here; I’ve got family up and down the country but here will always feeling like home.
• I never went to university; and it’s something I sometimes wish I did, but at the end of the day, I’m very happy where I am now!
• I love art, drawing, painting, sculpting, photography and basically anything creative! I’ve loved art lessons since I was 5 years old; and it’s something I do regularly to relax and unwind.
• I never thought I would start blogging. It was something I’d wanted to do for a very long time but didn’t have the confidence or website know how to do anything about it. But being such a creative person I’m glad I pushed myself to pursue it because I absolutely love it.
• I want to write a book. I’m not sure what exactly about, just that it will be a sci-fi fantasy action thriller novel of some form. It’s something I’ve thought about quite a lot over the last few months and I think I’m going to make a start on something soon.
• Christmas is by far my favourite time of year. It’s the lights, the music, the food (oh the food is so so good), spending time with your loved ones, the ugly and funny jumpers, watching loved ones open gifts that will make them smile and being able to wear so many comfy layers of clothes that it’s like I’m still in my bed!
• I could survive off roast dinners and Chinese food for the rest of my life. I can happily cook a roast chicken dinner everyday and I would not get sick of it. It’s like I have a whole other stomach for that stuff haha!

 

Now you know some things about me, it’s time for me to pass on some more love to some amazing bloggers that deserve some recognition and a nomination!

1. @chloexlizabeth
2. @_amalog
3. @wotawomandiary
4. @BGbloggers
5. @chimmykins
6. @_ellabellax
7. @Finlaygracex
8. @foreverfiblogs
9. @lifeofemmax
10. @Stephloves4
11. @MaudMPP
12. @k8t4unicorns
13. @BaileyLeahBlogs
14. @LavraxB
15. @SandSblogger

My list of amazing bloggers could go on forever! Check these great people out and give them some love!

Have a great weekend lovelies!!! Love,

Finding A Lump.

This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for quite some time. And what better time than than a few weeks before ‘Breast Cancer Awareness Month’ begins. Just warning you now, this might be a bit of a long one, but I think talking about these things more does a lot of good, and if this helps anyone out there then I’ll be happy.

Only a small number of people know this about me, but about 1 1/2 years ago I was doing a quick breast check after reading about boobs in an article (I think it was from somewhere like cosmo?) and I found a lump.

Lucky for me, it ended up being labelled benign which means it’s cancer free and shouldn’t impact me. I recognise that I am incredibly lucky that my lump ended up being benign as not everyone is so lucky.

Let me take you back to when I found this lump, I think I was reading an article about why all boob shapes are beautiful (being a girl just wanting to like her body for what it is and all that.. still working on that now haha) when it occurred to me that I hadn’t checked my breasts recently.

So that was when I decided to give my boobs a once over. And that was when I found a pea sized lump towards the bottom left of my left breast. It was like the entire world had stopped when I felt it, then the panic set in. That was when I got my mum to see if they could feel it and that I wasn’t going mad for nothing.

Unfortunately they could feel it too, which meant the next day ringing up the doctors to get an appointment. Sadly my doctors are a bit short staffed without as much people as they probably need for the area I live in, so I had to wait a little while before I could get booked in, but I know that they’re doing everything they can in the current funding situation.

The day of my appointment came and off I went to the doctors absolutely terrified because in the time waiting for my appointment my anxious had wreaked havoc with my head and I had basically come to the conclusion that I was going to have to have surgery or it meant death. Some people may think it’s silly that this is what I was thinking, but that’s the reality of anxiety for you, it’s not rational and you can’t control it.

Once I went in for my appointment the doctor was so lovely and she calmed me right down; she asked me about what I’d felt, where and if I was in any pain. For the record, I’ve suffered with chronic chest pains for about 6 years in the left side of my chest reaching round my entire back and through my shoulder blades (I’ve been back and forth to the doctors for years about it with no avail), so I mentioned this in my appointment to see if this lump could be the cause of the pain if it had trapped a nerve or something, I didn’t know what it could be because I’m not a doctor and no amount of googling was helping me out.

I’ve recently found out the pain is actually coming from a few other conditions which I’ll talk about in another post, but I am okay and getting treatment so it’s now being managed. Right, back to talking about boobs!

After talking about what was going on, then came the examination. It was pretty nerve wracking getting my boobs out for a complete stranger, but it had to be done. She got me to show here where the lump was and then she felt my breasts for lumps. That was when she confirmed to me that I was right and that there is something there.

The doctor did then confirm to me that yes there is a lump, but the good news was that it was very small, around 8mm-1cm big, which meant it was probably benign which is great news. In order to just double check everything from my appointment, I was then given an appointment for an ultrasound so we could actually see what was going on.

The hospital appointment came round about two weeks after my doctors appointment which was pretty fast in my eyes. And I was glad because I just wanted to know what was happening and if I needed to start thinking about how I was going to potentially tackle the big C.

I brought my mum along with me to this appointment because 1.) We love doctor/hospital shows like 24hours in A&E and stuff like that, and 2.) She’s always there to support me in whatever way I need it. Going in for my ultrasound was pretty surreal, I walked into this dark room with 3 medical professionals in it, a load of equipment, a medical bed, 2 chairs and a curtain. My mum stayed with me for the entire thing, which helped a lot with the nerves.

So, I said hello to all of these very welcoming women in this dark room, took my top and bra off and laid down on the medical bed. It’s pretty weird having 3 women that you met 5 seconds ago staring at your boobs I’m not going to lie. The main doctor there did another examination on my breasts and then she put the coldest gel in my boobs I’ve ever felt haha. Then came the ultrasound machine, the doctor pushed it all over my boob until we came across a dark blob on the screen. My lump.

Here came the good bit for me. After a bit of moving around the blob the doctor came to the conclusion that my lump is definitely benign, and that I actually have something called a fibroadenoma. Fibroadenoma’s are a range of solid breast lesions that can feel hard, soft, smooth and rubbery, a bit like a pea, but they can be larger. Fibroadenoma’s are usually painless, but if they are causing significant pain they can sometimes be removed; you should also keep an eye on the lumps and go back to your GP if anything changes.

It’s pretty strange looking at an image of your boob on an ultrasound screen, especially because you only ever see ultrasounds happening to check on pregnancies.

So, once my ultrasound was done, I headed out with a leaflet about fibroadenomas and a huge sense of relief. I was and am incredibly lucky that my lump isn’t anything that serious.

At the beginning of this year, I thought my lump might had gotten bigger; but this was also around the time that I had lost a lot of weight, so I wasn’t sure if maybe I could just feel the lump more. So along came a second round of appointments to the doctors and hospital and lucky for me, nothing had changed other than myself losing weight.

This was great news for me as you can imagine. Some people aren’t as lucky as I am and I will be forever grateful that my lump is nothing serious. I’m still living with my lump at the moment, and it does cause some achiness now and again, but I know things could be so much worse.

What I want everyone to take away from this is to make sure you’re checking your breasts on a regular basis. You never realise how lucky you are until you have a scare like this. Even if you’re a man reading this, check your chest too, because men too can breast cancer. If you’re looking for some more information about what signs to look out for when checking your breasts, you can find that here! You can download a leaflet on what to look out for here!

I hope you’ve all enjoyed finding out a bit more about me and have found this useful; I know it’s been a bit long winded, but it’s an important issue that needs to be spoken about.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you! And I also want to say a big thank you to all of my lovely readers for all of your support, and to celebrate my first 100 subscribers and say thank you to you all, stay tuned for a giveaway at the end of the month!!

So that’s it from me for today! Have a great week everyone! Love,

Why I Recommend Going Shopping By Yourself

Last month I came to the realisation that I never go shopping on my own, partly because I suffer with crippling driving and parking anxiety when I’ve got to drive to unfamiliar places with risk of getting lost (please tell me I’m not alone on this!) alongside just general anxiety of being out on my own for fear that something bad will happen.

So, my day off during the week came around and I had an appointment in the morning about 5 minutes away from a huge shopping centre with about 3/4 huge multi-storey carparks, and that was when I decided to rip the band aid off and just go and do it. Plus I was in desperate need of some new clothes and I realised that I needed a nice outfit for a wedding I’ve been invited to.

To put in perspective how bad my anxiety was on the day, I had a panic attack as I was parking my car for my appointment because I was scared I wouldn’t be able to get out of a space once I finally got in it. That then happened again when I thought I was lost trying to find my way to the multi-storey carpark and finding a space to park in that wasn’t the size of a peanut.

Once I finally got parked, the fear sunk in that I might never find my car again (irrational I know..) so I took a photo of where I’d parked and rang my mum to tell her about my triumph and to tell her where exactly I’d parked in case I forgot.

So I made my way into the shopping centre, and my sense of achievement was crazy! I literally felt like I could take on the world, for about 5 seconds. Then it occurred to me that I’m all on my own and that I’d also need to repeat what I’d just done to get home!

After this realisation I decided that I would go and have a cuppa before I start shopping to celebrate facing my fears and anxiety head on and this way I would actually face another situation which makes me anxious; which is sitting on my own in a restaurant or café alongside having cake which the lovely eating disorder voices in my head were very adamant would kill me. But guess what, I didn’t listen to those voices and it didn’t kill me! Woo!

I don’t know why I was ever so anxious about this one, because as soon as I got myself a cup of tea and a slice of chocolate cake and started reading a magazine I forgot all about the people around me and it was bliss. Highly recommend it.

Once I finished my tea and cake I felt a lot calmer than before and it set in that I can do the following:

1. Take as much time as I want looking at stuff.
2. I don’t have to worry about being indecisive and wanting to revisit the first shop I went in 3 times..
3. Learn to stop worrying about what other people will think about stuff I’m trying on.
4. Go and get a snack when I’m getting hungry instead of feeling like I need to wait for other people to be hungry first.
5. No panicking about picking up clothes in shops and comparing my clothes size to whoever I’m out shopping with.
6. Try on as many clothes as I want without feeling rushed.

And let me tell you, I had an amazing time once I’d realised these things because I could just be myself and do what I wanted, taking as much time as I wanted.

Whenever I go shopping with other people I spend a long time looking at clothes with them and then hardly ever buy anything for myself. This is partly because I never feel like I have enough time to try everything I want to on, so I just don’t buy them.

But this time, because I was by myself, I spent about 2 whole hours in Primark (mainly because the shop is so damn huge!) trying on as much stuff as I could get my hands on; and after trying on so many clothes I came away with quite a few lovely pieces and some really cute shoes!

Then I went to around another 5 shops and another café before heading home! And after all of that I came home with 4 new tops, one new jumper, a maxi playsuit, 3 pairs of shoes and a load of new makeup! I felt like Alicia Silverstone in Clueless!

As scary as it was for me to go shopping by myself and face my driving anxiety, the benefits I got from it were so worth it. So worth it that I’m already planning my next trip by myself! I’m even debating an overnight trip to a spa!

Moral of this story, if you’re anxious about doing something or scared of doing something, give it a try and take your time with it, it will seem scary and stressful at the time but you’ll soon come to realise that you’re so much stronger than you think you are.

Also, I completely forgot to mention that throughout my time shopping I was very lucky to have my mum message or ring me every so often to make sure I’m okay and staying safe which definitely made me feel more comfortable and confident; so if you’re going to do this and are super nervous, ask a friend or family member to keep tabs on you to give you a little more confidence and security. Trust me, something as little as this goes a long way!

Have a great weekend everyone!

I Took An Intolerance Test!

Hey everyone!! So this week I’m going to be talking to you about intolerance tests. Why you’re asking? Well because my mum and I have suffered with annoying coughs for months on end for no apparent reason (the doctors said it’s nothing) and we both suffer with psoriasis which can be triggered from certain foods, stresses and other things! And to be honest, we both love sending stuff off to get health results!

So, the labs we used are called ‘Test Your Intolerance Labs’ or ‘TYI Labs’ (very creative name I know..). Also, just for the record, this isn’t sponsored, but if any labs wanna send us away for health tests feel free!!

We bought the ‘essentials’ test, partly because they were on offer for £29 instead of £39 at the time. Also, if you recommend the test to a friend you get £5 off so that’s what my mum did for me so it was even cheaper which is also a bonus.

So how did the test work, well, it was super easy and wasn’t painful at all; all they needed from us was around 5 strands of hair, ideally from the root (so we gave a few more just in case). Then we had to send off the hairs to the lab’s address ourselves; we’d recommend putting your hairs in a small clear bag and writing your order number on it just to ensure it doesn’t get lost (we wanted to make sure we got our results as quick as possible so took all precautions to make sure it didn’t get lost!), and then we put it in an envelope with our order sheets and send them off!

After a few days we got emails to letting us know that the lab had received our samples and then after that it took about 10 working days for the results to come through, online it said between 7-10 working days for your results to come through so we were prepared for having to wait a bit. The good thing is that they email you your results so you get them as soon as they are ready in a pdf; and it helps the environment by not sending out paper!

I will admit that I was a bit impatient waiting for my results but that’s because I sent them off just before a bank holiday, so I had to wait a little longer for my results because we had a 4 day bank holiday which is obviously non-working days!

Once I got my results it was pretty surprising what I am intolerant to, and it was the same for my mum! We found out that foods and ingredients in foods we were eating everyday we are intolerant to and that may actually be causing our psoriasis to flare up and these annoying coughs!

Here’s my results:

My Intolerance Test Results

Here’s my mum’s results:

My Mum’s Intolerance Test Results

So, this is what we found out! Turns out my mum is intolerant to basically all plants near us which definitely explains why she has all year round hay fever. Also, turns out she’s intolerant to buttermilk and mustard which she eats ALL THE TIME. So that has been a fun thing to try and cut out for her..(I’m joking, it’s been a struggle but she’s finally used to it!). And we did find it funny how my mum is apparently intolerant to gin, just because she loves a G&T every now and again!

For me, we found out that I’m intolerant to pears, which I absolutely love! That was disappointing but I figured I could manage a few weeks without them to see what difference it would make to my health. I’m also intolerant to butter lettuce which was something I was eating nearly everyday as well as pears; so it’s no wonder why I was feeling bloated and coughing all the time alongside my skin flaring up. One thing I couldn’t believe was that I’m intolerant to cat hair; especially because I’d never even considered being intolerant to certain pets and I love cats and my boyfriends cat seems to love me!

After getting the info back, we decided that it’d be a good idea if together we gave up all of our food intolerances (well at least for a while as an experiment). For my mum it meant changing a huge amount of her diet, you’d be surprised at how many things mustard is in!! It’s in everything!! And it’s the same with buttermilk, also in everything! Gin and everything else was easy for my mum to cut out just because she wouldn’t have that everyday anyway, so that was no big deal. My mum began taking antihistamines in the morning to help with her other intolerances and that has definitely helped her a lot.

For myself, I cut out butter lettuce, which was pretty easy because there’s so many other salad leaves you can have instead! Pears were also pretty easy to cut out, but I definitely miss eating them because they’re so good when in season. Everything else on my food intolerances list didn’t really make any difference to me luckily just because I don’t like those foods in general (I’m a fussy eater, and for once it’s a good thing!). Obviously I’ve not cut out my boyfriend or his cat haha.. I love them both way too much to do that!

So… how has cutting these things out helped us? And how long did it take for us to feel a difference?

Well, for one, it took about 4 weeks for us both to feel a difference in ourselves. Cutting out these foods made a big difference for us both! For me, it actually stopped my annoying cough altogether! For my mum and my own skin, it definitely helped with our psoriasis flare ups, obviously it isn’t a cure for it (partly because there is no cure unfortunately) but it was something we found that helped a little. And now that I think about it, my mum hasn’t been coughing as much anymore either to be honest!!

So what should you take away from this weeks blog post? I would definitely recommend taking one of these tests if you’re suffering with a health issue that doesn’t appear to be caused from anything; and then trying out something like this to see if it makes a difference! And if it doesn’t, keep going to you GP until its resolved.

I think I’ve babbled on for long enough now so I’ll let you get back to your day; but I’ll ask you this, have you tried any health tests? If you have, which ones? And finally, do you want my mum and I to try some more to see what we find? Have a great weekend everyone!!

Love,

Going Makeup Free

Today’s blog post is all about my recent journey of not wearing makeup for a few months. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love wearing makeup and feel great in it and I think it looks amazing on other women and men. You’re all definitely more skilled than me!! And I still love watching makeup tutorials on YouTube and putting on a full face every now and again for special occasions or if I just feel like having a play. But recently I decided to stop wearing it all the time and go bare faced pretty much everyday.

For some people, going makeup free will seem like nothing, but for me this was quite big, partly because I suffer with acne and rosacea. So when I say that I’ve not been wearing makeup, I mean that I’ve gone from wearing heavy foundation, powders and concealers to wearing nothing on my skin on a daily basis. Now I only wear mascara and very thin eyeliner when I’m off out. It’s amazing how much time I have to spend on other things in the morning now!

After the initial few weeks, it’s been surprisingly easy, when I first started this it was for a few reasons:

• I started a new acne treatment and wanted to get the best out of it. (update on that in a future post)
• I wanted to feel better in my own skin and not feel like I need to wear it in order to feel pretty.
• I wanted to be able to hug people without my face transferring everywhere..
• I didn’t want to go around worrying if I’d smudged my face.
• I wanted to be able to go to bed without having to think of taking my makeup off.

Week one was definitely the hardest, my acne was bad and all I wanted to do was cover it up. And because I’m so pale, my rosacea was really bad. Oh and I tend to go bright red easily so I was panicking about that.

I was so scared about what people would see and think that I did my best to avoid going out and only showed my face to the people I am closest to. And the funny thing was that when I went into work I got compliments about how bright and fresh faced I looked!! And no comments that I looked tired, ill or red or that my skin looked bad, but nice things that gave me so much motivation to go makeup free for the long run.

So.. that was about 3 and a half months ago, and part of the reason why I’m writing this now is because I’ve only just realised this week that I’ve not been thinking about putting makeup on to cover up my skin to go out at all!

I still love wearing makeup, and I wear it for special occasions, but only when I feel like it and can be bothered to put it on. One thing I’ve noticed from doing this is that my skin has definitely got better, whether that is a result from not wearing makeup or my acne treatments, or both, I’m not sure. My skin isn’t completely clear yet, and it’s still got a long way to go before it’s completely clear, but for now I don’t totally hate it (well.. at least on a good day). I’ll do a post about my acne pretty soon when I reach the end of my treatment.

Something I’ve noticed from going makeup free is that funnily enough, no one gives a shit. No one said anything horrible or made comments, I wasn’t stared at in the street and no children ran away from me screaming after seeing my face. All a bonus really haha..

If you’re thinking about going makeup free and you’re worried about what people will say, just know that it’s not as bad as you think, and it’s quite refreshing to have clean skin out and about. Also, if you aren’t sure you can go completely makeup free straight away, work your way up (or maybe down is more appropriate?) to it but gradually using thinner layers of makeup and cutting certain things out of your routine over a few days/weeks, whatever works for you!

What I think you should take away from this post is that you’re all beautiful in your own skin (mushy post alert!) and deserve to feel amazing in your own skin without having to worry about what anyone else thinks. And if you want to wear makeup then you should! And if you don’t want to wear makeup, then don’t wear makeup!! Do what makes you feel good, and that’s what’s important.

Don’t let anyone tell you you should wear makeup and don’t let anyone tell you you’re wearing too much makeup. And if they are saying you’re wearing too much then tell them that that’s good because you paid good money for that makeup so you’d better be able to see it! If someone tells you you should wear makeup then tell them that they should go fuck themselves because you don’t have to conform to their beauty standards!

I hope you all have a great weekend my lovelies!! Love,