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Being on a restrictive diet isn't a whole lot of fun but it's not all doom and gloom either. I am not eating some things because they make me ill and others because I am doing this thirty day thing with the gym but you should see peoples faces in any where they serve food when they realise they have nothing to offer me.  It's not as gloomy as you might imagine though and there are some aspects to it that I do actually like. Like for one when I am  not eating junk I feel better both physically and emotionally, I sleep better and my skin is clearer and you can't really argue with that. The other good thing particularly when it comes to me not being able to eat wheat is it rules out a whole load of food items straight away. Now that I mention it, that's also the worst thing about not being able to eat wheat. One thing I have discovered about myself is that I am almost completely lacking in self restraint so if I was hoping my own desire to stay healthy to stop me...

One of the things I have discovered, in my quest to lead a healthier life, is a great interest in reading a variety of articles and books about how the food we eat impacts us. Particularly junk food. I suppose this is of interest to me because it is all stuff I used to guzzle large quantities of but don't any more. It allows me to express horror at what said vilified food does the body ( or which terrible ingredients it is said to contain) but at the same time feel pleased that this no longer effects me. At this point in time, the days when Mcdonalds was my go to junk food seems like a distant memory. I have also discovered that under no circumstances should I share my findings unless someone directly expresses an interest.  I have changed my eating habits so dramatically over the last few years that it now feels like there is a vast chasm between younger, fatter me who ate what she liked and did not appreciate being told that Coke uses a chemical that's also found in cosme...

As declaratory statements go, announcing that I am not an athlete, is hardly likely to shock anyone. I am certain if they have seen me in person or read any other blog post of mine than that would self evident. Yet here I am declaring it anyway. Well there's a good reason for that. As someone who does Crossfit ( yes I know I have mentioned this before) I have the great privilege of training along side some fantastic athletes who are competing and hitting personal records all the time. There are many more who aren't quite at that level but are making great strides in that direction and there's me. You would probably be better off putting me in the same category as the occasional Crossfitters who just do the women's class twice a week because despite the fact I have been doing it on some level for over three years, I have not progressed that much beyond them. Doesn't sound too good when I say it like that.  I think I have reached the point where I have accepted...

At this point in time it is known to many the fate that has befallen my Iphone 5, namely that I got quite drunk one night a year and a half ago and unwittingly had my very expensive, new and uninsured phone stolen from me and I am still paying for it. I mean that in the literal sense that I am still in contract until March next year. This is without a doubt the worst thing I have done to a phone and in the past I have broken screens, lost phones and even had one die when it fell out of my back pocket (alcohol may have been involved ) and into the toilet. The joy of my previous experience working for a mobile phone provider meant that I knew there was nothing I could do about my contract on a phone I didn't have so I got a bigger sim card and wound up the back of my iPhone 3GS, a virtual dinosaur by comparison and soldiered on. The plan at the time was that I wait out my contract or at least until December of this year and then opt for early upgrade to get a better phone but thi...

I So if you haven't been keeping up, I am half way through a clean eating challenge with my gym ( no alcohol/ sugar or wheat for 30 days ) and so far I'm getting through it. I haven't caved and eaten anything forbidden and I'm now at the stage where I can safely keep chocolate in my house for other people without worrying I'll sneakily binge on it . As far as I'm concerned that's a major achievement.  The only thing is that while I've lost a bit of weight , my stomach has not lost that rounded look, my spare tyre is still fairly intact and I was really hoping that it would disappear as a side effect of my cleaner eating. I am still hoping that will happen but every time I try to wriggle into my too tight jeans or see my tell tale outline in a fitted t shirt I can see it's not yet the case. Now I know that it will take a lot longer to come off than it did to go on but all the same it still feels a little unfair. I have decided on this basis to t...

It's my last weekend off before Christmas so I felt it was my civic duty to escape the crowds of Waterford and do all my Christmas shopping at once in Cork city. It was a well executed plan, I wasn't working Friday so I headed home Thursday night to get in my requisite two crossfit classes ( Thursday night and Friday morning ) which ensured that walking and laughing were both painful come Saturday. Then I made the mistake of having two green teas on Friday (very little caffeine in them but still) which ensured I had an incredibly fitful nights sleep so come Saturday I was half crippled with muscle cramps and sleep deprived, an ideal state for a hectic day out and four hours driving. We got down to Cork nice and early and probably would have been in the city and shopping for 11 if I didn't run into trouble in the underground garage we picked to park in. Firstly I am not the sharpest without a goodnight's sleep so I was trying to get into a rather tight space but had ...

I like Christmas but over the last few years my enthusiasm for the season has dipped somewhat. I have been excitedly enthused about the giving season for far longer than it was cool to and I didn't mind sharing it at all. I remember as a child the excitement of going to Dublin and seeing the lights turned on and looking at the magnificent display that was Arnotts Christmas window. It's only natural that some of that sense of wonder will leave you when Santa gets outted and your parents confess to being the real present buyers but I was still getting ridiculously excited well into my twenties. It was my sister who insisted my Mum keep filling our stockings but I certainly didn't protest.  I loved being at home over Christmas and seeing the tree all lit up and the presents piled beneath it as my Mother grumbled that we had gotten carried away this year and we should hide some of them upstairs. I loved just having the family gathered together,with our own separate liv...

My boyfriend and I spend quite a bit of time together but every few days I sequester a night or two to myself. Stephen can usually tell when one of these nights is due because everything he does starts to drive me crazy. As someone who is naturally introverted, I need this time to recharge and to prepare myself to human again. Also I think it's good to not live in someone else's pocket (not literally because that would be uncomfortable.  This week I have been especially ratty probably due to the time of the month coupled with my body's reaction to all of the foods I haven't been eating. It turns out when you cut out things like sugar, your body is kind of a dick about the whole thing but seeing as this isn't my first time giving this a go, you would think I would be more adequately prepared. Anyway to protect my sanity I took two nights to myself and became a nicer person for it. Trust me, we're all grateful for this alone time.  When I had a night to myse...

I wrote a post some months back about a trip to cork where I bought a giant pig money bank. I'm sure you all remember it vividly. If not there is a picture of it above that should help jog your memory.  The idea behind it was that I would be able to throw all my change in and when  the pig filled up I would be rich beyond my wildest dreams. As you can imagine it hasn't quite panned out like that. Mostly because in the first few weeks I gave into temptation and raided the pig of all 50c coins. I won't lie to you, this happened on more than one occasion. In my defence, this always happened a day or two shy of pay day when I was really really broke.  Okay so the real plan was that I would empty all my change in ( and not take the good stuff out again ) and when the pig was full ( just in time for Christmas, hopefully) I would empty it. Now I was not planning on counting up bags of change. I get quite enough of that counting tills on lock up in work. Instead I pla...

Tonight I decided I was going to write a blog post but I often spend more time agonising over the photo to accompany it than the actual post itself and I got a little sidetracked. I have recently inherited my boyfriends old iphone 4 which is amazing after using a banjaxed iphone 3 for the last year and a half so I have been downloading apps like a maniac and getting carried away with all of the shiny new features. One of my personal favourites is the collage app. It gives you a frame and you insert your photos and then tweak them. My genius idea was that the photo I was going to use would be a collage of me over the last few years. Only one tiny little problem was that none of these photos were on my phone. One hour later I have managed to rectify that. Even if I did get a little side tracked, I will admit I really enjoyed trawling through my old Facebook albums downloading all number of photos to my computer so I could then add albums to my phone. I laughed while remembering good ni...

I think everyone has a moment when they realise jeans have gotten a little tighter and tights start to roll down. I  had mine a few weeks ago and while I acknowledged on some level that I had put on weight and that I was by no means happy about this, I still did nothing to change the matter other than dress strategically and refuse to talk about it. I had done rather well in quitting sugar again but had unfortunately weaned myself off with the promise of spelt bread. The idea being that I would gradually ease that out of my diet and soon I'd be back to my slimmer self except I just ate quite a lot of bread and then didn't really want to stop. So it was really rather good timing when I walked into an evening class at Crossfit Tipperary and saw they were starting a 30 day challenge of no wheat/ sugar/ alcohol and so I signed my name up before I could talk myself out of it. It only started last Monday and there was a workout being done by everyone taking part that would be don...

The art of present buying is not for everyone.  Many men fall at the first hurdle usually due not paying all that much attention to the details. My mum had fully mastered present buying ninja style by the time we came along. I remember vividly growing up how you would have to be careful, in the months before your birthday or Christmas, when expressing in any item that could be considered a gift because I cannot count the amount of times I unwrapped books, cosmetics or clothes I had pointed out casually while window shopping. I am assuming she went back at a later date and bought those items because when I was younger we were demons for rooting through her shopping bags to see what goodies she was bringing home. Often it could be the weekly food shop and sometimes it was whatever she had gotten on a day out but mostly (retrospect tells me) it was none of our business. As an adult I have worked on my present buying skills and I would consider myself pretty good at it. Although so...

Most people who already read my blog will already be aware of this but in case you don't, my boyfriend and I quite like going to cultural events be it theatre or music or film and of course the art gallery's that I go to with a certain amount of reluctance and trepidation. We have in the year since we met been to four different film festivals and it's been a great experience, seeing the kind of movies you're not going to catch at your local odeon.  So when we saw Garter Lane was doing a short film festival, we headed straight down to get our tickets. I didn't really know what to expect as the previous festivals I had been to included Japanese cinema, world cinema and I am not quite sure how to describe the twisted celluloid festival we went to but I suppose it would be closest to horror. I have limited experience with shorter films but I am always eager to broaden my horizons and do something a little different. Garter lane is a lovely venue, a short walk fro...

If you're anything like me then you wont really know what dub Reggae is. Now after being to my first Dub Reggae gig, I am still not sure I can do the music justice with words other than to say definitively that I like it. So it's Friday night and Central Arts are hosting Ras Tinny, naturally the boyfriend and I are going. With work the next day I can't drink at it ( I have yet to take advantage of the bring your own beer policy they have) but I have come prepared by having a Latte earlier in the day ( let's take a moment to be thankful for my low caffeine tolerance). Everyone is dressed up and there is a promise in the air that it's going to be a good night but still I arrive in my new wooly jumper because damn it's so cosy. I have come notebook in hand, not to write blog notes (which would probably be the smart thing to be doing) but because I am supposed to because of a creative writing course I am doing online which suggests you carry one around in case...

So here I was driving home from Clonmel last night and I had been thinking a lot over the last while about my difficulty in expressing my own Crossfit experience. I am pretty sure it's different than what newer people feel because you don't expect yourself to be at competition level when you're just starting out and I also feel its different than what my more competent fellow gym goers experience because if you're continually getting stronger and mastering new skills then you are bound to feel more accomplished. My issue is that I am not down often enough and I don't work out at home although I do promise myself continually I will.  So this is means I am nowhere near as good as you might expect from someone who's been doing this three years. Anyway inspiration struck on the drive home so I pulled in to write this down. This is my Crossfit experience. I hope other people out there identify with it.  Laura VS Crossfit I'm the one at edge of each cla...

So its a little known fact that I have written poetry on and off for the last 16 years. If you know me and are wondering why I haven't shared it then trust me there's a very good reason for that. The first stuff I used to write all rhymed and was pretty woeful even if it was heartfelt and personal. Sadly that was all destroyed by a very smart and self-conscious Laura many years ago. I did eventually move on from that to stuff that was structurally a lot better but still pretty bleak stuff. You would have felt all of the sad upon reading it, trust me I know these things. Then I just sort of stopped. I might have just gotten a little happier or perhaps I just had nothing to write about. Much like many people, I do my best work when I am supposed to be doing anything else which is why in college my room was always cleanest when I had an essay to work on.  A week ago I started an online creative writing course. The overall aim is that I will have written a short story by the en...