My April Favourite!

I feel like I start off every monthly favourites with the same thing... I can't believe another month has passed. This year is going way to fast for my liking. How are we already hitting May, that means I only have a month and a bit left of this semester and there one semester done and one left till I graduate. Scary stuff.

Anyway let's get down to business shall we?

I wanted to start with some music favourite first this month, now these songs are not 'newly released' but I'm just really into them at the moment.

One is Hailee Steinfeld's Love Myself. I know this has been around for a bit and I have listened to it many times but I finally downloaded it and am so obsessed with this song. It's a great pump up song, I am currently using it as my alarm song to wake me up in the morning as well as in the gym. Every time I hear this song, I just want to dance!
The other song I'm really into at the moment is Ellie King's Ex's & Oh's. This song is so catchy, I didn't even know what  it was called for ages but I knew most of the words when I heard it playing when I was out, so I had to research and find it. It just another great pump up song that makes me want to dance. Definitely going to have to listen to the rest of Ellie King's songs.



Snapchat Filters
Okay, so I was like extremely late to the party when it came to Snapchat filters like I couldn't even work out how they worked until February.  But now that I do know how to use them, it like one of my favourite things to do. Bored on the bus play with Snapchat filters, want to entertain the kid I'm babysitting open up my Snapchat filters, wanna send a silly picture to a friend use a Snapchat filter. I mean these things are great. My favourite one is definitely the rainbow vomiting one (with or without unicorn) and that amazing lighting filter ( Don't know what it's called but I'm sure all of you know which one I'm talking about)

Fake Tanning
I've been embracing my European roots recently and tanning myself up. I don't tan well. that's an understatement I burn, not tan. There are very rare occasions where if I am in the sun for a bit I actually tan. I normally am applied sunblock every  hour to prevent myself from going lobster red :p. So I normally turn to fake tanning to make it look as though I have actually seen the sun while on summer holiday. I usually use the Dove Summer Glow moisturiser but it was always slightly inconsistent and took ages to get a good shade. So after some research, I stumbled across Le Tan Express Tanning Mousse. Let me tell you this stuff is amazing! Because it's actually tinted you can see the spots you missed (no awkward white spots) and it develops super quickly. you can leave it on between 30 mins to 2 hours depending on how dark you want it. I average between an hour and a half to two hours to get my skin look perfectly tan. Just make sure you use a mitt with it cause it pretty potent but go forth and be tan all year long!


Rose Gold Eyes

We all know my love for rose gold, well this month I've really been utilising the rose goldy shades in my makeup collection. I've been combining my Rimmel Kate Moss Eyeshadow Crayon in Rose Gold with my L A Girl Nudes Eyeshadow Palette to get these gorgeous pink gold eyes. I just smudge out a little black eyeshadow on my top lid, add some mascara and I'm ready to go.



Zootopia
Yup, this is a kids movie and yes it's in my favourites. Mid-April marked school holidays which meant I was nannying. I had seen the trailer for Zootopia and thought it looked great and what a better excuse to go to a kid movie than the fact that you are getting paid to go :)  I meant it was a great film, clever and witty for both children and adults alike. Also, there is a great Breaking Bad reference in there so if you find it 10 points to you! If your up for a good light-hearted laugh and love animated movies as much as I do, go check it out. (ps. there were plenty of adults in the cinema I was in that didn't have children with them. No shame in revisiting your childhood once in a while)



There we go another month of favourites... This is just crazy. I also found this month's favourites really hard to think about as this month has been pretty hectic but I've made it to the end and am so ready for May.

Hope April treated you well and that May is even better.

Love Louise xo

"People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do"

Finding Motivation?

I seem to be falling into a phase of early winter blues.

I mean you know when it hits winter and all you want to do is snuggle in bed, listen to the rain and watch Netflix, yeah that's how I feel right now.

I feel like I am letting myself down in terms of working out, eating well, being productive.

I don't know if it's my body telling me that I need to actually take time to slow down, particularly as I have been sleeping in a bit more (something that is extremely rare for me, I'm an early bird, always up by 7:30 at the latest) or if I just don't have the energy to get things done.

I have found particularly that my motivation towards working out has faded slightly, sure I'm still going to my group yoga and pilates classes but I'm not pushing myself to go a do my training routine on days I can have put aside to do it. Just today, I had told myself all day that I was going to go to the gym as soon as I go home from university but as I was going home on the bus, I managed to talk myself out of it, justifying that I had work to do. But in reality, I would have had enough time to go to the gym and come home get my work done, hey I'm writing this blog post now so I got my uni  stuff and housework done if I have time to start writing this. So why am I sabotaging myself into not going and doing something that will benefit me in the long run?

I actually have no clue.

I have also found that I have lost spirit in my presentation and cleaning of my room, I spend the last month of last year and the first few months of this year getting my room perfect for this year. Making it a space that inspired me and I made sure that I was cleaning it regularly, doing my washing on a schedule, making my bed etc But these last few weeks everything is slipping and yes you could say that I have been busy but I don't know if that is the case. I do seriously think I have lost motivation for what I was aiming to do this year and I need a kick up the rear to get myself back.

So how do I do this?

How do I find the motivation that I feel as though I am seriously lacking?


Okay, so this wasn't a proper blog post but I just wanted to talk about that sometimes we all have those days where we don't want to do anything but take cat naps and watch Netflix.
I am always on a continuous search to find my motivation, where it is. Instagram, Pinterest , YouTube, a good quote but sometimes that isn't always enough and you question why you push yourself so hard.

Something I'm struggling with at the moment is that when I don't have the motivation and do nothing is that I feel as though I haven't achieved anything and that I have failed the day. I know this isn't so and we all need those days to vege but how do I this idea of failure out of my head, just relax and know that my motivation will come back around the corner soon.

Anyway, I hope you all are having a fabulous day.
What are your favourite ways to stay motivated? Do you feel like to need to achieve something every day to feel successful?

Love Louise xo

'Just Keep Swimming'
Dory, Finding Nemo

FODMAPs Friendly: Changing my Lifestyle

So by now you all know about my chronic nausea and how in the last year I finally found a resolution to feeling so I'll all the time. Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long one.

This solution was a specialised diet called Low FODMAPs.

Low FODMAPs breaks down food groups into :

Fermentable- rapidly broken down bacteria in bowel

Oligosacchaides-fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides

Disaccharides-lactose 

Monosaccharides- fructose

Polyols-sorbitol,mannitol,xylitol and maltitol

I know these kinda seems like a bunch of mumbo jumbo and technical words which it is but actually the scientific ideology is super interesting. Low FODMAPs is all about removing foods that cause problems and issues for the gut, whether it's the gases they release, the way our body absorbs them or aggravate our guts. It is mostly used to treat IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) but my gastroenterologist thought that is would help with my symptoms as she thought it was the way my body was absorbing food, so why not take away foods that aggravate the system.

If you want more info on how Low FODMAPs is and how is works etc

check out these sites for information 

http://www.healthyfood.co.nz/articles/2011/november/food-fodmaps-and-ibs-what-to-eat-and-what-to-avoid

http://www.med.monash.edu/cecs/gastro/fodmap/

But please don't start this diet because you think you need it, consult a doctor first. 

Okay, so now you know a bit about what Low FODMAPs is, let's talk about my journey with it.

Before meeting with my nutritionist I had done a little bit of research, freaked myself out, been intrigued and completely confused.

At our first meeting, she had me recite my average breakfast, lunch and dinner for a week. What I cooked for myself and my family. It was at this time, we then went through everything I was eating and I began to realise that a lot of what was eating were off limits in Low FODMAPs, and most likely contributing to me not feeling well.

Average foods I was eating that are on the list were garlic, onion, avocado, apples, bread, pasta, cauliflower, mushrooms, chewing gum, dried fruit, fruit puree, soda, juice, chickpeas etc

So basically I was going to have to overhaul my diet and eating, which for a foodie is really hard!

The first was to go gluten free, my nutritionist did suggest I could have a few crackers or biscuits that contained gluten but knowing myself and having attempted being gluten free before I knew that if I didn't go full in I would have failed. Being gluten free in this world is getting easier and easier though with so many more options being offered in restaurants and more variety of foods being sold at supermarkets (if you are in NZ, Countdown has the most amazing GF range I have ever seen). I have even managed to find myself gluten free liquorice which I thought I was going to have major withdrawals about. I also have so much respect now for those who have celiac.

The second thing was going lactose free. This was actually pretty easy as my nausea had kinda put me off any milky product. I turned on soy or almond milk (though I was told soy is better for me as I needed to keep my calcium up), I'm not the biggest ice cream eater and was still allowed a small amount of cheese (YAY!) and a little bit of sour cream. I do have to admit that I have been a little lax when it comes to lactose in baked goods but other than that I have explored different soy milk brands, soy & lactose free yoghurt and fallen in love with coconut milk chocolate ice-cream. 

What I have found extremely difficult in cutting is onion & garlic, not only are they two of my favourite favours but they are actually found in some many things. Particularly in gluten free dishes onion, garlic (and avocado & mushrooms) are often used. I have become very skilled in reading the back of packages looking for onion and garlic or even just herbs because most likely its garlic. Pasta sauce is out, I used either plain crushed tomatoes or one flavoured without onion or garlic, anything sour cream & chives has to go as well, any gluten free gravy or cheese sauce mix is out as it contains onion & garlic powder. I have to be super observant in what is in the food I'm buying or what I'm ordering if I'm out, I always make sure to tell the server that I can't have garlic or onion on my plate (sometimes I just say I'm allergic as I know it will guarantee that it won't end up on my plate and to an extent it's kind of true).  I also I am allowed garlic infused oil or to cook roast veggies with onions and just not eat them.So you can still have flavour with actually ingesting them

I also had to cut out chewing gum which was extremely hard as it was the only thing that I could use to stop nausea but the additives in are off limits with FODMAPs. I also cut juice and fizzy drink which for health reasons is great for cutting down my sugar but during summer was really hard not to have one and I do have to admit I've taken a sip or two but tried to limited and be careful. I am also allowed to have the occasional ginger beer if my nausea gets quite bad as ginger is great for nausea.

So those were some of my first challenges when I had just started, that was back in October 2015 and now we are in 2016 and right now it's early April, so whats that almost seven  months on Low FODMAPs and I am so proud of myself for achieving that. It took a few weeks for my body to detox itself and I was still suffering from quite intense nausea but once I hit the 6 week stretch I started feeling better. The episodes became lesser, shorter lasting only 15-30 minutes instead of days on end. Now I feel like I have so much more energy than I did 7 months ago, I feel healthier and not like I could fall over at any second. Christmas was a little sad as I couldn't enjoy some of my favourite things like stuffing, gravy, ferrero rochers, my nana's lollie cake & chocolate slice or christmas pudding but I got through it and even made christmas lunch for my family that aside from the gravy and stuffing was completely FODMAPs friendly.

I'm not saying I don't have cravings, as I said I have been craving a cold frizzy drink like there is no tomorrow in the summer heat. I also really want apple crumble all the time which isn't something we use to eat a lot but because I can't have it I want it. Same could be said for fried chicken or a really good sausage roll. However I know that the rewards of not eating them is greater than that one moment of eating it. 

I also have been working on my fear of being a difficult customer, I'm not one for complaining or speaking up when it comes it customer service but with these dietary requirements I need to. I have to check that something is gluten free or if that have an option for it, whether it includes a food I can't eat that isn't in the description or ask for something to be taken off the plate.  It makes me feel super difficult and I hate but I know it's something I have to do. Just the other day, I went out for lunch with a friend and the waiter had to come back three times to check things and changes thing on my order. Its moments like that where I turn beet red and cringe. This also makes going out to eat hard at points, luckily as I said restaurants I becoming so much more flexible to allergies and dietary requirements, it may take some intense googling but you will always find something eventually. Obviously Italian places are out but Mexican is a great bet because most of it is gluten free. There are also so many more cafes and bakeries popping up that are targeted at vegans, vegetarians, gluten free food loving people. Little Bird Unbakery being one my favs, Kiwi readers check them out. When heading out with friends I'm always the one who is finding and suggesting restaurants as I know what I can and can't eat. Though when dining with one of my best friends it gets difficult as she is pescatarian,so you throw the two of use together and you get a menu that tailors to FODMAPs and have fish & veggies on offer, lots of attention to the online menu must be paid. Where as another one of my friends is celiacs and allergic to avocado so when we are together its super easy to find a place where we can both eat.


An added bonus that I wasn't expecting from going on Low FODMAPs is weight loss. I haven't been happy with my weight for a long time, being a petite girl, any weight I gain is obvious. After years of being super tiny when I was little, my metabolism slowed down and the inevitable happened. Anytime I attempted a 'diet' I always failed as I have no will power (Its amazing that I have stuck to this for as long as I have)  However Low FODMAPs is not for losing weight, it is about making yourself healthy, reducing stress on your gut and solve the problem. The weight just started to come off because I has cut some many foods as well as no juice and soda, meaning not a lot of processed sugar. I hadn't even though or recognised it until Christmas, when family I hadn't seen since the year before notice a change. I actually looked at myself and photos of me from pre FODMAPs, realising the change.

Bellow are two photos that I think so this change from my perspective. The one on the left is from my birthday in August last year, where I was so sick I had to go home early and the one of the right is from my look book I shot mid Jan. To me I can really see a difference, even just in the way I present myself. I can just see that I am happier. I can also go back to exercising which will aid in this, now that I don't feel as though I'm going to throw up every second.

So that's it, I wanted to write this post because Low FODMAPs is a big part of my life and I wanted to talk about what I have learnt and my experience.
I hope you have enjoyed this post as much I enjoyed writing it.


Love Louise xo

'Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th'
Julie Andrews