Thursday 12 July 2012

My new pal!

Well, not a real pal, it's my fitness pal, www.myfitnesspal.com

It's basically a calorie counter.

Every now and then I get slack with my diet, and then I start to gain weight. I don't want to gain weight, when that happens my clothes don't fit properly, I lose fitness and struggle with running, and I just generally feel bleugh!!

So, I use My Fitness Pal to help me keep on top of things.

I have entered my details so it has worked out how many calories I need per day.
I enter my food intake and it tells me my calorie intake.
I enter my exercise and it tells me my calories burned.
It offsets my calorie intake against my calories burned, and I can make sure I stay below my daily net allowance.

Easy as that! It means that I stay in control of my weight and feel good about myself.

Right now I'm using a month free gym membership that I won in a raffle. So far I've only really done swimming and used the sauna etc, I'll use the gym at the weekend I think. I'm doing this on top of my usual exercise. I don't input my regular walking that I do at work but I'm still always well within my calorie allowance on work days. I do need to watch it at weekends though since I don't do as much exercise.

Sunday 1 July 2012

Adventures in nail polish.

I've started painting my nails!

That shouldn't be such a surprise, except that anyone who knows me in real life will tell you how totally un-girly I am, and how you'd think that nail polish would be the very last thing on this earth I would have any interest in!

Well, times have changed, and I'm learning how to paint and care for my nails. Actually I do think that nice hands and nails are a sign of a person who takes care of themselves. I'm not doing anything flashy, no nail art or fancy bits and pieces, just plain solid colour. (Most of the time...).

My current favourite is a lavender colour. I also have an aqua and a bright blue that I like too. I'm not so keen on red, but pastel pink is nice, and I've got a couple of neutral colours too for less bold days.

Unfortunately, applying nail varnish is a learnt technique and I'm still learning, although I have improved a lot since seeking advice on a forum and watching youtube videos. You also do just have to practice, especially with your 'wrong' hand.

I've gone from this - look how badly I've gone over the cuticles!

To this - my jubilee nails with a little playing around with nails art before I took the polish off, still a bad paint job!

To this - getting better but air bubbles in the polish

To this - starting to get better but still not there yet

And finally, this is where I am now. Better, but still a way to go.

I also need to do huge amounts of work on the condition of my nails and cuticles. I've tried so many different treatments over the years but I still have nails and cuticles like this:

So, I have been back to the internet, sought advice and am now waiting for some new and highly recommended products to arrive from amazon.... well, I had a gift voucher to spend so why not?!!

I have also treated myself to a black nail art pen, so had a play with that recently for our work open day.

It's nice to finally have a girly hobby. I wonder how long it will last! Although with nails that look like mine, it's good to keep them covered up!!