My Attempt at a 3.5 Day Juice Fast

So I got super motivated to juice.

This motivation hit me on a Thursday afternoon but like always when it comes to anything new, I started on Monday.

I didn't expect Monday to be hard because I was full of motivation and it was the first day.

I wanted to drink six juices a day but I was happy to do three.

I considered buying fresh juices but I dragged out the never been used juicer and got down to juicing fruit and vegetables. So on Sunday night, I had 4 bottles stacked in the fridge ready for Monday.

On Monday morning, I started with plain water as I do most days and just for the feel of something hot to drink, I had lemon in hot water. At about 9, I had my first juice. Carrot, ginger, pineapple, apple and cucumber. Within the first hour, I had to pee twice.

At about 12, I had another juice. I couldn't face going to sit in the lunch room with everyone from work so I stayed at the desk and mourned food.

I felt like I needed coffee to face the latter part of work so I had plain black coffee. Instant coffee with nothing in it is kinda gross. I couldn't even finish it but I felt a lot better after having it.

In summary, just like I guessed, Monday was fine.

Tuesday started fine as well. I started my day with tea instead (plain green tea) to avoid having to drink coffee. I had my juices, went to the toilet less and then later on in the day remembered a dinner I couldn't back out of. So I had dinner and didn't dwell on it. I had water, mushrooms and steamed prawn but my stomach still hurt from suddenly eating.

On Wednesday, I went back to juice. I was REALLY hungry on Wednesday and my stomach felt so empty. I was also sick of juice so I had only one throughout the day. Because my goal wasn't to starve, I blended some vegetable juice with a banana when I was home and had that for 'dinner'.

On Thursday, I couldn't finish my first juice. No amount of mental cajoling could force me to do it. So I ate at lunch and said goodbye to juicing.

I decided to juice because I felt bloated and I was spiralling into a snack zone and I wanted to reset my mind. Also, as soon as I ate a carb, I would feel really full and uncomfortable. It didn't really matter in what quantity. I feel like I achieved what I wanted. I don't feel as bloated as I did. I also don't feel particularly light but I'm happy not feeling bloated.

Also, you don't get hungry on juice fasts if you drink enough juice. On Wednesday, I was hungry because I didn't drink enough juice.

I enjoyed my approach to it. I would do it again. Soon even.

My Skincare Routine

So I was just on tumblr and decided to check my inbox and I had some messages, one of which was asking about my skincare. I'm not sure how long that message has been sitting there but it's worth doing a skin care routine if only because I'm obsessed with buying beauty products.

In all my back and forth with products, there are certain essentials I have never wavered from.

DERMALOGICA.

If they are a church, I am their priest and I have converted many people. The first time I used dermalogica was when I went to a Marie-Claire event and got a starter pack in my goody bag. Tbh I don't really appreciate free things, not with my heart, so I used the wash half heartedly a few times and left it somewhere in my bathroom. I must have been bored and decided to give the products another try , also incorporating the daily microfoliant (still my favourite skincare product bar none) and I was blown away. It really smoothed out my skin. You know all those things below the surface that never really come out? Gone. The samples lasted for months and when they ran out, I took the plunge and bought full bottles.

So after that long ass story- my fundamental staple is dermalogica.

In order not to turn this into a post detailing the pros and cons of every product, the have, I'll highlight three products I always have/use.

1. Special Cleansing Gel- This is a basic face wash. I think the formulation has undergone a slight tweak since I started using it but I love it all the same.

2. Daily Microfoliant- The powder exfoliator that existed before powder exfoliators became a 'thing'. If you don't know how to use it properly, it can seem ineffective but it works.

3. Overnight Cleaning Gel- OMG. This is phenomenal . There was a phase where I was just covered in acne. I was depressed and over it and I tried this. IT.CHANGED.MY.LIFE. The name doesn't lie, I actually saw an overnight change. Now I try to always have it- often buried at the bottom of a bag until those pesky spots surface.

4. I said three, I lied.  Special cleansing gel is perfectly fine when you're skin is treating you well but there are times when it really messes up and you need to tackle it head on- Thats where the skin clearing wash comes in. It has the same calming consistency as the special cleansing gel but it tackles spots.

Okay dermalogica can feel a bit mediciny so moving on to some other products.

I'm obsessed with even skin. I still haven't managed to achieve it but my standards are probably impossibly high. But a few products have helped me in my journey. Currently, I'm trying a Khiels serum and seeing where it takes me.

The one thing I've never settled on is a moisturiser. Moisturisers are really essential and when I still lived in England, I slathered it on happily, switching to heavy formulations in winter but in the burning heat that is Abuja and the unbearable humidity that is Lagos, it's really hard to deal with moisturiser. I've used a few mattifying moisturisers and they did mattify but felt weird. There are two mattifiers I recommend though. One is a benefit pore minimiser and ding-dong DERMALOGICA again!

I recently started using the dermalogica skin smoothing cream, Bvlgari face emulsion and olay regenerist night recovery cream. I use them pretty much interchangeably but I get less of a shiny afterglow with the dermalogica skin smoothing cream and it's a lighter foundation for the days I wear make-up.

I don't take off my make-up *shock* *gasp* yah. I only take it off when it's making me feel hot and then I strip that off so quick. I had some time to kill in the airport recently so I decided to try the bioderma cleanser. Cannot say I can see what the fuss is about, I'm afraid. Before this I used one from clinique which was an oil and water mix and I liked it. Better than all of these things, is washing your face but hey! Do you know some people don't wash their faces ever? (looking at you Garance Dore), apparently its healthier for your skin?

Anyway, that's my skin care routine in summary- if it can even be called a routine. 

The Lunch Club: RSVP

As a tribute to the Eat Drink Lagos blog, this post is going to be in the style of their blog.

Dami: I've recently written about how much I love the Eat Drink Lagos blog , so when they announced a lunch time event, I was excited. I wasn't REALLY planning to match my excitement to actually paying for it and going but my sister convinced me by booking two places, at N8000 a place, that was basically kidnap (the things you do for family)

Mide: Um, Dami, you asked me to book you a place

Dami: Mide you told me the day after so like...

Dami: Anyway, I like the building. 

Mide: It was nice. When we walked in there was a table full of men and another table full of people so it was like which one is our table

Dami: I almost jogged up to the owner and asked him. Thankfully, it wasn't the table full of men. 

Mide: This tag was soooo cute, I took it home 

Dami: yah, I mean I would have taken mine home too if she booked it in my actual name instead of her friends name...

Mide: I didn't think it would matter!

Dami: Right, whatever.

Dami: The first (of 7) courses was the fish macho. 

'White fish in sesame dip topped with sundries tomato on plantain base.' 

It looked nice and cute but it was MESSY to eat. The fish fell off, but it was okay. 

Mide: OMG, this was like good, i preferred it to the ugly prawn thing. I had like 3, it was so good. 

Dami: the prawn macho was basically the prawn version of the fish one. Meh.

Mide: I don't really like creamy stuff, so...

Mide: The chicken pops were papping! They were soo good, I had like ten. 

Dami: Everyone was raving about these, but to be honest, I've never really been that into sweet chicken.

Mide: the chicken log was definitely scotch egg disguised as chicken logs. 

Dami: I had high hopes for this, but I took one bite and just couldn't. Then again, I was full, so there was that. I just didn't feel like the cheese, chicken and the hard casing really worked together. 

Dami: I had the sweet berry which tasted really strongly of vanilla, which wasn't surprising but I had serious drink envy for the copa del lebanon. It looked fresh and delicious. 

Mide:.

Dami: look at iiiiit!

 Dami: look how cute this is

Mide: it's a table

Mide: I hooked girl up, hmm mm. Skin was looking on fleek.

Dami: my sister actually takes the best pictures of me. It's the love!

Dami: I love the wood details of the menu 

Mide: Oh my gosh (sarcastically because I have no actual views)

 Dami: these pulled pork sliders just didn't work for me. The pork was shredded really finely and it looked and tasted like beans. It just wasn't working for me. 

Mide: It was a bit sweet, but the bread was lovely.

Mide: who's that baddy on the wall

Dami: (she obviously means me)

Mide: There was so much food, I felt really sick for the rest of the evening. It was definitely worth the money though. 

Dami: It was TOO much food. I think the next one should have less food and at least one drink. Although water was included in this one and it was free. The lunch was definitely amazing. Conversation was great and it was a perfect number of people. I feel like a round table would be nicer for next time, there were some people I barely spoke to at all.  It was definitely worth it, especially in a place like RSVP where ordering starters can set you back N5000 on a regular day. 

The Engagement Starter Pack

Look at the nail polish, not the nails

 We've just come out of a wedding/engagement season. Christmas, year ending, year starting, vacations (meaning loads of plane proposal opportunities) and so on. If you missed out on last season, don't despair, there's a new season next month! Phew! And I'm going to tell you how to make sure you're ready ready ready when it comes.

1. Nails Nails Nails- Do I even need to say this? Buff , shine and oil those cuticles. This is the first thing you do after it happens and chipped nails might be quirky but your friends are not going to want to put up that picture of your crusty fingernails and if your engagement picture isn't shared, did you get engaged?

Look at the perfection of these nails and ring and hands. Who wouldn't want to get engaged to this?

2. Hands- honestly, if you're waiting for your engagement, you're probably old enough that you should be slathering hand cream on your hands endlessly for no reason (well, for the reason that you're like...old). No-one wants to see folds of skin pooling around your engagement ring.

Can't you see what difference moisturiser would make to these hands?

3. Waterproof Mascara- because you HAVE to cry. HAVE TO. Have you mistakenly watched an engagement? the guy almost gets on one knee and they girl puts her head down, already overwhelmed and he asks and she takes a loooong time to say yes and then there's a long hug. My point is- cry and waterproof mascara so after the hug, you can look cute for the photos.

4. Sync your calendar with a friend- not your period calendar and preferable a friend that likes taking pictures. Imagine it happens and it's beautiful and all these things are perfect AND THERE'S NO VIDEO OF IT AFTERWARDS. The worst! Now is the time to make sure your friend coincidentally eats wherever you eat, goes to whatever party you go to and if he ends up doing it in a private place, well at least you tried.

5. Eyebrows- your hands will be covering most of your face but your eyebrows will show!! So please and please , keep those eyebrows 'on fleek'

Perfect way to show the ring and engagement announcement

New Year , New Me (or Old me in a new body)

Why do new years resolutions get to the second week and fizzle out like lambrini. For the past 6 years, I've had the same resolutions and I'm always shocked when i look back and see the same things glaring at me. I went through some old posts and instead of writing a whole new post, I've posted some of my previous New Year posts.

Happy New Year!

Knit Top- Tophop

Jeans- Miss Selfridge

Bag Topshop

Jacket- Ralph Lauren

Shoes- Salvatore Ferragamo

Ring- Gucci

Watch- Rolex

Btw, I'm not engaged, married or wearing a promise ring. I just like to wear my ring on that finger. Also, I've gone back and edited most recent style posts to include style credits. 

xx

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

ANOTHER...

Read any success story and you will see threads of similarity with other success stories. Focus, passion, determination and relentless hard work. Authenticity. I don't know that it's possible to be successful when you don't 100 percent know who you are. 

I don't know who I am. Wait, that's not entirely accurate. I know all the different mes. But what is important, is finding a way to combine all those different people into one person. I love so many different things. I want so many different things. I want to be so many different things. And then I get distracted by everyone that's doing what they love and loving it and doing well at it. I'm attracted to passion. But other peoples passion can be distracting. I remember starting this particular blog and everything was completely me. And then I got caught up in doing what everyone else was doing. And then stopped being me. 

Then I go back to my inspiration board. Go back to doing things the way I love, regardless of how odd or pointless it seems and I'm happy again. And then it feels like maybe, just maybe, combining all those different people into one isn't as hard as I originally thought. 

To find you...you have to let yourself be you. You can't think about who you are, you just have to be who you are. 

This is my only new year resolution.

AND ANOTHER...

I was forced to think about new year resolutions when my friend at work walked in on the 8th of January with the hangover from hell. Her new year resolution was no alcohol all January. 'You lasted 7 days', I exclaimed. She shrugged, so I shrugged. That pretty much sums up new year resolutions.

This year though, I'd vowed to be different. To be fair, since my birthday is in December anyway, I tend to make mine early. New birthday, new me kind of thing. I kept mine sufficiently simple this year 'make an effort'. Yes. 3 words. Imagine my smug look when people would ask me and I'd turn around with just the right amount of squint and almost whisper 'make an effort', feeling like I'd just dropped the biggest gem of wisdom since the alchemist.

It hasn't worked.

I'm typing this from my unmade bed. There are clothes in a pile on the floor. I'd say in my room at least, I have not made an effort. This is my first blog post in months, my last being part of a series I never actually completed. I'd say I definitely am not making an effort. I haven't spoken to my mum in well over a week and my old iphone that I'm apparently giving to someone today still has 1072 photos on it.

It's safe to say so far, my 3 word resolution is simply not working.

Before I throw new resolutions at you though, it has to be wondered, why do new year resolutions never work. People come with solutions like 'WRITE IT DOWN'. In many houses and smart phones, lists of dreams and goals are languishing, waiting to be recycled or glanced at. 'BREAK IT DOWN INTO MANAGEABLE GOALS', yeah, but we often overestimate 'manageable', which is why my friend thought she'd do a whole month of not drinking when she often drank a couple of times a week.

So I'm sure this has been said, but this is my plan...underestimate yourself immensely. When I have an idea, I tend to go all out and burn out really quickly. But I've realised that if you knit a row everyday, at the end of the year, you'll have a jumper (is this actually true? how many rows does it take to knit a jumper?)

Either way, baby steps are my new goal, along with three things I'm going to make an effort at. My blood actually just ran cold when I typed 3 things, because I'm the sort of person that tends to like to make 40 or 50 different plans.

So, three things.

1. Write- 200 words a day. 100 on blog/diary/personal type thing. 100 on career assisting type thing.

2. French- 3 verbs a day.

3. People- contact 1 person a week that I haven't spoken to that week. (this might take more than  a year to get through)

Off course, my mind if pushing many many more ideas at me, but I think I'll stop there and see how these work out.

Happy New Year!