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I know it's a little late ( or early ) in the year to be making new resolutions so with that in mind, I shall call mine something else. Whatever way you want to phrase it, I am coming up to the end of January and I have realised some changes are needed. I am still feeling more tired than I reasonably should be at any time of day or night, you might say I've been feeling sluggish, like a slug.  I also made a very foolish mistake yesterday at the gym. They have just invested in a new weighing scales because several of the guys training there are trying to build some muscle and they wanted a way to monitor if their weight had gone up. On some level, I am glad that as a woman the gym will not require me to gain weight because after so long of trying to manage my calorie intake, I am not sure my brain could take it. Anyway, I , being rather silly, decided I may as well see what I weighed. Sure I hadn't checked in a few months and it would be good to see where I was it. Ah

Lately I have been waking with pretty vivid recollections of the previous nights dreams and at first I was thinking it was strange that I'm dreaming much more than I used to but then I remembered something my naturopath said the last time I saw her. Well I really should have paid more attention when she was talking to me because all I could remember was there was some link between a deficiency in your diet and poor dream recall. Naturally I googled it (isn't that what the internet is for !) and there's a link between lack of vitamin b6 and poor dream recall. There you go and sure haven't been taking a pretty decent quality B-complex vitamin the last two weeks so the mystery has been explained. I will say , now that I am waking to the lingering echoes of last nights dreams, that perhaps poor dream recall isn't the worst thing in the world. I have been waking to remember some pretty bizarre dreams. I have never been one for dream interpretation and I sure as hell

(Possibly my favourite card for if you're sort of seeing someone )  I've made no secret of the fact that valentines day is one of those 'holidays' that I don't really buy into. I don't really see the point to be honest . I do like getting a card or I should rephrase that given that on the previous occasions that I've been dating someone around valentines they haven't really bothered to make an effort so I haven't ever received a valentines card from a boyfriend. So I guess I think I'd like to get a card for valentines day provided it wasn't too slushy. once a guy I was dating panicked when I handed him a card I'd gotten him and he hastily scrawled happy v day on a bar menu because he couldn't spell valentines day ( that should have been a sign it was doomed really) and I don't believe that counts.  Beyond a card I'm not overly pushed about the whole thing. So long as my boyfriend didn't decide to sessioning on

Despite how this may sound, this is really not a rant. Okay let me stand corrected, this is a bit of a rant but not a really bad one. Okay now that we have cleared this up, today I found I could not move in work without bumping into clumps of teenagers and I was starting to find it more than a little bit irritating. I know our shop is big and full of seating plus it has teenage books so it tends to be a bit of hangout for the young and bored at the weekend.  I am finding of late that teenagers are infuriating me on a level that they never did before and it's making me feel pretty old. Not to mention the fact that I am frequently finding myself privy to the most idiotic of conversations due to my unfortunate proximity to them when I am doing some work at the computer. That and the the fact that as a 31 one year old I am virtually invisible to the teenage masses so they either don't seem me at all or I am deemed irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. I have to say that som

Whenever I get a weekday off I like to go home and try cram in as much crossfit as humanely possible so that I can feel better about my otherwise sedentary lifestyle and this Friday was no different. I was on lock up Thursday night but I wanted to do a class that night so I came to work prepared. By prepared I mean that I had all my stuff already packed in my car and I was wearing my workout clothes under my uniform. This allows me to a wonder woman type stunt once the shop is closed except with less spinning involved. I was up this morning at 8 and it felt like a lie in for me which is a little bit sad but an extra hour in bed is not to be laughed at. All I needed was time to wash and eat and throw on some gym gear and then feeling super efficient or half asleep ( maybe a bit of both) I headed to the Supermarket to get my weeks shopping in before the 10 am class. The workout was tough but good but I believe I may have used different words to describe it if you had asked mid-way an

This summer for the first time in about 5 or 6 years ( well its been long enough that I can't precisely remember, which says a lot) I will be going on holidays and I am very very excited about the prospect . I know I've mentioned it before but in the three years since I left Edinburgh, my friends over there have been trying to entice me  back for a visit. It's not that I didn't want to go back, I did but lack of money or at least my perception of how much it was going to cost me kept putting me off. Then in a manner quite unlike me I spontaneously checked the cost of flights to Edinburgh on a random weekend in July and as it happens they were a lot cheaper than I had been expecting. So in a move that felt a bit like tempting fate I invited my boyfriend to join me. Yikes, that's like 6 months away so I guess I'm now banking us still being together then. Not that I'm not hoping for that anyway.  anyway I've booked the super cheap flights and were s

So the boyfriend recently commented that he doesn't come across in the most flattering light in my blog posts. A vague reference here or there to a hangover and a mere mention of a lie in while I'm up reading. I vowed I would write a blog especially to right those wrongs but this isn't going to be it. I do hope it was obvious I was joking when I said that. In fact I think I might have squirmed a bit in an uncomfortable manner just making a joke about it. I think it's because I'm happy for my blog to get personal when it's about me but I am not really able or willing to give out large amounts of personal information about the important people in my life. Perhaps I am more private than I seem. Which is odd given that I write a blog that's read by a whole lot of people I know and even some I don't. But I would like to set the record straight on one thing and that is however vague my references are to the man himself, I am not scant on detail because I

Like most women, I have major body image issues so I don't think for a moment this makes me special. It's always at the back of my mind and frequently the main thing I think about but I was forced to properly confront it on Monday during a class at the gym. The crossfit gym I go to has a big long mirror against one of the walls, not so we can admire ourselves or fix our hair but so that we can check we are doing exercises correctly. Much more effective and less likely to injure yourself and normally I'm all for anything like that but as it happens I really don't like having to look at myself in a mirror particularly when I'm all sweaty and wearing tight clothes. Anyway we were practising a movement called toe to bar. It's pretty much like it sounds. You hang from a bar and then using a controlled swinging movement you bring your feet up to meet the bar. Yea it's pretty damn hard and I suck at it. I'm still working on the progression which is called k

This weekend was my most anticipated long weekend. Every few weeks I get a whole three days off work together and I often get excited at the prospect. Mind you I might have wasted some opportunities to lie in but I'm probably better off for it. Usually my plans for the long weekend are fairly unexciting I come home on a Saturday and do a class and then spend the rest of the day and all day Sunday lounging and reading and then Monday I do two more classes before returning to Waterford. It is probably not the best use of my time if I am to be entirely honest. This weekend was different though. I was better prepared and made plans to go stay in my parents holiday house in Wexford.  It's out on hook head just outside Fethard on sea surrounded by several other identical looking houses but it was going to be good to be somewhere different for a weekend. I didn't have a key but I had already commited to a crossfit class on Saturday morning so it seemed an ideal way to combine

Being in a relationship is really hard. Now I don't mean the relationship itself because that seems to be going well so far. I'm happy, he's happy so lets not interfere with that dynamic. And trust me if it was the relationship itself I was unhappy with I would know better than to air such grievances on a blog that my boyfriend occasionally reads. I'm pretty smart like that. No, the bit I am finding hard is the sheer effort that goes into making myself an attractive human being all the damn time. Hair to be fixed and make up touched up and changing into more attractive clothes before leaving the house. Things to trimmed and things to be shaved and flattering underwear to be selected. It's all quite a lot of work. Admittedly I am only gripping about this now because I have been having a particularly bad week. It's my time of the month, I think we'll agree that's a euphemism that were all comfortable with.  I wholeheartedly believe that always ( women&#

Say what you want about my dietary restrictions because I think they are turning out to be a great thing for me. Previously I was fat (two or three years ago) and unbelievably picky about what I ate whereas as now I'm a lot slimmer, feel much better and I'm actually starting to experiment with food. Mostly because necessity has forced me to. Clearly someone doesn't want me to starve. Who would have thought I would have been trying new foods just like a regular person, not me that's for damn sure. Anyway in the spirit of experimenting, I made some changes to an omelette recipe and it turned out so damn good I have renamed it a nomelette. I may have also called it legendary but that's just conjecture at this point in time. I used to only make omelettes with just eggs and cheddar until I had to give up cheese and then I was forced to improvise. Now cheese is so very delicious that I am seeing how I get on only eating small bits of it and so far my tummy hasn't

In work we have to book our holidays well in advance to ensure we get the days we want. Here's how it works. We get a week in Spring and a week in Summer but I find it awfully complicated deciding what dates to take when I haven't made any plans yet. I've only just made plans for my long weekend and that's this weekend coming. I cant help but feel this system wasn't set up to accommodate for the indecisive amongst us. That's me, in case that wasn't obvious. I am the indecisive one. Originally my plan was this and bear with me because it doesn't sound all that exciting (mostly because it isn't). The dates I had decided on so far were Valentines weekend and a weekend in May. My reasons for Valentine's weekend aren't quite as romantic as you'd think, nope, that's really not my style. I wanted to go to a comedy show on Valentine's night which falls on a Friday and I was trying to book it off because chances are I'll get stuck

🔮 It's not so much that today has been a terrible today because it hasn't been particularly so but I have been extraordinarily cranky all day long. Really it should have been great because it was Monday and I wasn't in work, right so surely that's awesome in itself but for some reason it wasn't and I have grumbled and grouched my way through this Monday until it was time for bed.  It could be because I got to bed late and woke up all groggy which seems to be my thing these days. Or because I went looking online for some information I needed to move my life forward but found nothing of any use except the nagging sense that information was somewhere on this world wide web and I just couldn't find it. Or perhaps it all comes down to hormones as I was once again surprised by my period arriving yesterday like the world's worst uninvited guest, leaving me sore and cantankerous and off chocolate. Maybe that's enough in itself to have me fuming with barely

Sundays are those rare days that when I'm off I don't usually have anywhere I need to be and I don't have the option of going home to the gym so It's day to whatever I like with and that usually seems to translate to as little as humanly possible. It's day of rest, isn't it? This Sunday I managed to outdo myself spectacularly on the laziness front although it was mostly unintentional. It's my first one off since Christmas and I had committed to going for a walk in the mountains, as you do. Personally I would have preferred to have waited another month or two until it got a little warmer as I am well known for being a perisher but I thought it might be good to get outdoors because I was only complaining recently that this stupid winter weather has me inside far more than I'd care to be. In case you're wondering what happened to that plan, I would suggest you take a look outside, Unless you are not living in Ireland because if you're not looki

I would like to state for the record that I decided I needed to give up sugar before it was hip. I don't know if that earns me any hipster points or not but there you go. I've set the record straight. I have been happily battling my way out of a sugar addiction since this time last year and I was a few months into it before I even read anything that confirmed my suspicion that it might not be doing me any good. Okay, fine so I thought all the chocolate was making me fat which kind of undid my whole plan to get super fit so I gently weaned myself off and found myself in full meltdown mode. Ideally it would have been better if I had just stayed off it altogether but I don't live in an ideal world and I am just one woman with extremely limited will power or so it would seem. Anyway I have already mentioned how for the good of my own health/sanity I have decided to clean my diet up for good this time and leave sugar binges behind and that's all well and good. I'll fee

I am not having a great sort of morning. The sort where I would readily crawl back into bed with my book and just read the day away, forgetting the world. Those who know me, know that I would happily do that most mornings but today I really really wanted to. I don't know if it's lack of sleepy or just tired of waking up to the dreariest weather imaginable but I have a pretty bad dose of rainy day blues and I don't know how to shake it. It's grey and raining and cold and blustery like a bad mood waiting to happen and joy of joys I start work at 1 till 9.30 and then I'm back in Saturday morning at 9 again. So no duvet day for me.  I was listening to the radio this morning and they had a competition for a free summer holiday. I would absolutely love one because I couldn't even begin to tell you the last time I got away for anything like that or even when I can next afford to (not any time soon, that's for damn sure) and I came pretty close to entering the c

Welcome to  January, the month where everyone begins to panic about the Christmas Obesity that a few weeks over indulgence has brought on and resolves to do something about it. Next month being February, the month where people realize that diets are really fucking hard and most will abandon them. If you have a diet that sounds like it might work then there's money to be made. If your diet sounds pleasant and is reasonably hassle free then get ready to start counting money. If it does all of the above and actually works then you'll be laughing your way to the bank. The thing is I don't think any of them are actually sustainable because if they were then people would stick with them and the diet book industry would slowly come to a halt.  I'm pretty certain they are geared to set people up to fail so that they can come back and try again with that diet or maybe another one. I think if there was one or two that actually did what they promised then there wouldn't be

As well as being obstinate and sarcastic, I am known for always finding obstacles in every possible plan of action that involves changing my life. Even when I am not happy with the status quo. I know, It does make me sound delightful but I think it's a bit late in the day to try and restructure my entire blog around making me sound like a nicer person.  I don't why I have such a negative outlook on things but I can talk myself out of pretty anything by mentally writing an endless list of reasons why I can't take that particular course of action. It's almost my specialty but I'm not entirely sure that's something I should be attempting to brag about. I've done it with fitness, for so many years I couldn't workout because of so many reasons. The main one that I wouldn't admit to is that I actually didn't want to. It would have made things a lot easier if I could have just been honest about that rather saying how I couldn't afford it, didn

Apparently according to those in the know today is supposed to be the most depressing day in the year and I can easily believe it. January is always upheld to be the most depressing month and much as I'd love to deny it, I myself am after coming down with a big old case of the January blues. As I trudged to work this morning in gale force winds and icy rain I saw the river was dangerously high and threatening to spew it's contents in the street and I felt in that moment the weather reflected how I was feeling. Utterly dismal. This January it's hard not to feel down. Firstly we have the weather which is usually appalling but this year has truly out done itself with raging storms for at least two weeks now. I find I am only stepping outside the door when I absolutely have to. I have a sneaky feeling my boss would not accept the weather is too yucky as a valid excuse for my absence. Not only does looking out my window make my mood plummet into gloomy depths but going anyw

I have been writing this blog for almost a year now. I started it on the 20th of January last year. Yikes and to think I started the whole thing because I was looking for ways to be more creative but I also wanted to write a blog and had no idea where to start. So I set myself a challenge for thirty days where I would write a blog post everyday on some. thing rather than waiting for something to happen and then blogging about it. Obviously it's had it's ups and downs and some posts are better than others. Apologies if you had the misfortune to stumble upon my blog on a day where I was basically writing gibberish. I guess on many levels this whole thing is more for me than the people who actually read it. Not that it isn't nice to have people read my blog voluntarily. I'm pretty certain none of them are coerced although I'd hate to be presumptuous on this matter. The trouble from here on is to try not to repeat myself too much because I now officially have

As someone who is back eating healthy for all of a day and a bit (the first half of yesterday was not my biggest success), I feel well equipped on how to advise others to do the same. Okay well maybe I don't but you're going to hear what I like about it all the same.  Obviously I like bad food because its forbidden and often delicious. That's all well and good but sadly the fact that most of it is very fattening is actually the least of my worries. All of the things I really want but can't have also make me feel really ill but yes I still struggle to kick it out of my diet because that's the sort of crazy fool I am.  Yesterday, after regretfully purchasing and consuming a coconut slice ( a healthfood store confectionary item made from vast amounts of agave syrup, raw cocoa, desiccated coconut and coconut oil) and oh boy did I suffer for it later so I did some dietary penance by going home and making a weeks worth of soup. No more making salads every evening bef

I for one won't be making any New Year's resolutions. There I said it. Phew, glad to get that off my chest. I understand the thinking behind it. The new year coming in seems like a perfect opportunity to turn over a new leaf, start afresh yada yada. For me this would never work. Announcing resolutions is like setting myself up for failure but you know publicly which as it happens is my least favourite place to fail. I almost think that's the nature of New Years resolutions. It's like you're giving yourself a bandwagon to fall off probably by mid February at the latest.  I think all New years resolutions are variations on the same themes; eat healthier, exercise more, drink less and quit smoking. Some or all of the above depending on how many vices you have or how ambitious you are feeling at the time of making said resolutions. In a way people make fun of the haste with which people abandon these resolutions once they have shaken off the excitement of the new ye