Fat Girl Slim: Keep Calm and Clutch at Straws

Its the final countdown ( Dana na naaa dana na na naaa!)

The fear has finally set in.

There is a sun lounger in Bulgaria shouting my name and its get louder by the day.

In a little over a month I will be sat on a plane winging my way towards my first beach (read: only) holiday in 5 years and like most women who are no longer 22 I am dreading that moment where I have reveal my not so bikini ready body to the world.

So in a last ditch attempt to not be too self-conscious while i'm there i'm going to reinstate my rather quickly abandoned Fat Girl series.

For the next few Fridays i am dutifully going to check in on the weird and wonderful things i'm doing that week in aid of being a bit more beach goddess and a bit less beached whale.

This week is all hands to the deck as I am going to embark on two rather different ideas. One being the rather self explanatory, well known as being a bit mental and almost guaranteed to do something as long as I actually DO it. The other is a bit more erm..... out there.... well whats the harm if it works, amazing, if it doesn't at least i'm going to see results from the other thing.

So this week it's:

Jillian Michaels: 30 day shred

and 

Paul Mckenna: I can make you thin

I have attempted the 30 day shred on a few occasions now, most recently i little over a month ago when I managed 8 days straight, and even felt ready to move on to level 2 of it, but i fell off the bandwagon when I had some friends stay for a few days, much eating out was had and much wine was drank...needless to say I haven't been back on it since. This will change today.

And as for the Paul Mckenna randomness, this is a book i bought a long time ago when i was on a bit of a 'hypnotherapy will cure the world!' kick. I'm somewhat skeptical about how listening to a CD will help but I've read the first few chapters of the book and there seems to be some simple ideas and tips on how to recognize if your actually hungry and how to recognize when your full. I have a really bad habit of shoving as much food as i can into my mouth as quickly as possible and then i'm stuffed for days, so the idea of putting my knife and fork down between mouthfuls so i can finish chewing what i'm eating is so far helping me realize when i'm full before i'm stuffed. We shall see how it goes.

If you've got any tips or ideas of things I can try (no crash diets though, thats never healthy!) please leave a comment below. And if you'd like to keep up to date with my spectacular achievement/failure in this task please have a click on one of the many ways to follow this blog in the side bar.

Friday Favourite #6 The Q&A 5 Year Journal

Early this year there was a little bit of a craze in the blog community around the Q&A journal.

But just in case you've been living under a rock i thought i'd through in my thoughts.

The basic concept of the journal is that every day of the year asks a question and under it there is space for 5 years worth of answers. Its a simple concept but also quite a clever one.

I reckon it'd be interesting to look back and have a snapshot of how life and probably more importantly my perspective on life has changed. Kind of like writing little notes for your future self.

Maybe it is the fact that i'm evidently trying to have a bit of a early mid-life crisis (see HERE and HERE) but i'm hoping that i can stick to keeping this diary as every time i pick it up it somehow gives me a bit of hope for change in the future (oh dear i've gone all deep again!) Seeing those blank spaces wondering what i might fill them with......

Are you doing a Q&A journal?

i got mine for £6.19 from Amazon HERE

And so it begins...

Today is a little bit of a difficult day for me.

Its Payday.

Its pathetic I know. Having a payday should be a reason for joy, laughter, merriment.

But this month, which i think is the first month ever, i'm filled with fear.

Last months musings about the state of my finances made me wonder about what im missing out on in life. Don't get me wrong i'm still definitely wanting to achieve those things but this fear im feeling is to do with the fear of not being able to not just run out and buy everything in sight.

The theory of not buying random stuff when you have no money is very easy to deal with, the reality of having money in the bank and trying to persuade yourself you still don't need those things is very different.

I knew this would be hard so I've assigned myself a small budget (£40) for buying a couple of new things so i  thought it'd be easy to start and make a change but there's a whole world of pretty things swirling around and my inner teenager is throwing a proper strop about not being let loose in Primark.

I got a little bored....

I am an intrinsically impulsive person.

I get an idea in my head then i set about doing it.

I woke yesterday morning and decided i wanted a haircut. Now while most people would call a hairdresser, make an appointment and so forth...... I decided i wanted it now. I probably could've got a standby appointment at a place in town but every penny i have at the moment is ear marked for feeding me until payday.

Now I happen to own a basic pair of hair scissors so well one thing led to another.....

And now i have a jaw length bob. Its by no means perfect, but i reckon it could pass for 'shaggy' and it'll certainly do just now. I decided to curl it, which maybe wasn't the best move, i think it'd look better wavy, but either way i think the messier i make  it the cuter it'll look :-)

Its actually a wee bit shorter than it looks in that photo. And don't i look grumpy, lol!

Have you ever had a go at cutting your own hair?