The final day of detox

On Sunday morning I woke up and didn't feel one bit hungry, even though I had gone over 12 hours without eating which I though was strange. 


For breakfast I had some lovely leeks topped off with some lovely leek broth (oh you can feel the love)  


For lunch I had the same. 


Now for dinner you are meant  to have a low calorie low carb dinner such as chicken with veg. As someone who was looking forward to this meal since yesterday and scoured the Internet looking for low carb chicken dishes. You can imagine how excited I was about that. Alas when we got to the supermarket we realised that if we bought all the ingredients that we needed we wouldn't have any money for petrol so we thought a takeaway pizza would be the better option. Oddly enough I was only able to eat two slices before I got full. 


Now for the BIG question would I do it again? 
I would. but only for one day. I talked to someone who did it before and they told I could have built up a lot of toxins and need to get rid of more. 


I feel that I am looking at food in a different light. 


What Have I changed?
I changed what I eat, instead of teas and coffees I am going to opt for herbal tea. 
A low fat smoothie in the morning with some protein powder instead of cereal. 
smaller portions in general. Most importantly sharing sweet things.  


When I started this detox my sweet tooth was out of control. I still have a bit of a sweet tooth and I would like it gone so another detox is in order but not too soon.  


Did you do any changes after you're detox? Would you do this detox?


I would like to say a VERY VERY BIG THANK YOU to all who supported me during this detox, I couldn't have done it with out you! 

xoxo

Detox day one

Before I start I need to say this: Don't have any plans and have a duvet weekend for this!


This morning when I woke up, I didn't make a bee line to fridge like I though I would. I some how managed to get though my usual morning routine before feeling hungry. Major plus I though.


For Breakfast I had a bowl of leek juice spiced up with some pepper and salt and lemon and a handful of leek segments.
For lunch I combined the bowl of leek juice with leeks segments.
For dinner well I didn't have dinner. 


First of all I felt I was surrounded by food and just going to the food store was surprisingly hard. 
As the day progressed I really started to feel the toll of this detox. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed and read a book till I had to go out again. My hope in this detox dwindled. 
I didn't have dinner because I didn't want to sit their trying to force myself to eat it. 


I don't have that detox feeling I was expecting, or is their even a detox feeling. I was expecting to feel lighter I am a bit disappointed with that, in saying that I don't know if I am meant to feel lighter. 
I also don't feel blotted surprisingly


Dose the detox feeling even exist?  Did you feel that feeling?

Detox night one

What you need for this detox:


- 1KG of leeks
- Olive oil
- Salt & Pepper
- Lemon


You first need to wash and cut you leeks into 2cm segments. Boil for 20 minutes, strain water into a container.


You are going to have 3 meals, for you main meal you are going to have a bowl of the water you strained into a container. For snacks you are going to have leeks.


Very exciting huh?


You can spice up you're snacks by adding some salt & pepper/ lemon and olive oil. All optional of course.

All served up 

Its Friday night and I just finished my first leek dinner. I added some lemon, salt and pepper just to spice it up at bit.
My first thought 'god I'm starving'. In all fairness this is to be expected, the last time I ate was 5 hours ago. It been an hour since I ate and it is far from filling, I regret having plans this weekend. You really need to plan a stay in bed weekend.


Because I will be consuming very little calories, I am bound to lose a few pounds. I am almost 100% positive that I will put those pounds back on or more. I think I'm going to have to keep telling myself that any weight loss is a side effect of the detox and not to be disappointed when I gain it back.


One thing that worries me slightly, it that I will be tempted to drink a lot more water. At this exact moment I am really thirsty but I know I am hydrated.


Have you gone on a detox? how did you find it?

My First EVER Detox

Up until a few weeks ago, I never felt the need to go on a detox. I didn't even consider the power of a good detox. 

Why the detox? I gained a huge amount of weight and quite suddenly simply form a massive change in diet. For someone who lost weight at a click of a finger and had a lovely flat stomach, I didn't think much off it. As the months went by my stomach just got bigger and bigger.

As hard as I tried to sick to any sort of diet and I did try my very hardest it just would not work. My arch enemy  got the better of me. sweets, cakes, chocolates oh you are all so deliciously evil! The more I let my enemy win the bigger my sweet tooth became. I didn't have the true determination that you need to lose as much weight as I have to (over 2 stone). Now I feel that I do.  

Since my mother raved to me about how amazing this is detox that stems form the French one thing grabbed my attention, it got rid of any sort of sweet tooth the answer that I have been looking for. The detox is based around leeks, just leeks nothing else for 48 hour. 


This detox hopefully is the start of a clean slate, where I will finally be able to start losing weight for the big day and for myself. What I have planned is to lose a stone maybe a bit more maybe a bit less by this time next year.  

Wish me luck!

How to find the right engagement ring

(this post can apply to any piece of jewellery)


I did a post a while ago about my engagement ring (here) I didn't really go into too much detail about anything out side of the ring search.  I am going to give you my hints & tips and as much advice as I can think off from my whole experience of actually buying 'proper' jewellery not  just finding the right engagement ring!


About my own ring:


-1 carat diamond
- Colour: I
- Clarity: SI1
- Cut: Round Brilliant
-18 carat white gold 




Ring trends:

Yes that's right, engagement rings do have trends! Who would have though? Right now the present trend looks a bit like this, I still haven't made my mind up for this trend (I think its a bit too in your face!)


The Ins and outs:


When I started my search, I didn't think I didn't think I had. What happened was I went into town with the mother and decided to brave Brown Thomas jewellery section. O.K yeah maybe not the best place to start a search, but ya gotta start some where? I felt like a bit of twat when the sales assistant started asking me what type of ring I had in mind,  I really didn't know.  So she brought out a small sections of different rings, more so to see what I liked. It really dose help because you don't think too much about everything that surprisingly goes into looking for a ring. 


I found the technical side to diamonds really daunting at first, as the sales assistant
went straight into diamond jargon thinking that you knew what they where on about. As the weeks went by I got used to this learnt off  the jargon that vomited form sales assistants mouths. I came to the realisation that their is only two thing that are important, Clarity and Colour. Clarity being how imperfect the diamond is and colour well if their is colour in the diamond. 


here are two charts that all jewellers generally use

source

source

(there are more but these are the main ones)

When you pick a few rings that tickle your fancy, don't get put off if the ring is too small.   Bring the ring up to the middle part of your figure (as below) and see how it looks.

You will get a very good idea if it will suite your finger or not.

From this picture, you can see holes in the band. These holes are important, it allows for more light to shine through the diamond. Even if the diamond itself is not amazing quality, having all of these 'light holes'  will give the ring an appearance of having higher quality diamonds. 

Where to start your search:

The best thing, I personally think, is to go into any shop on the high-street.  why? its a more relaxed environment, and, they will give you a booklet about all the basic information you need to know.  

OR

You can have a look at different engagement rings on-line, this will help you get an idea of the style of ring you like. 

Do have a look in antique stores and small jewellers when you have an idea of what you want, you get to see a wider verity of rings (If you live in Ireland and are up in Dublin any time, have a look in Powerscourt in their antique section, they have the most amazing verity of rings and vintage jewellery in general) 

Things to avoid:

Avoid jewellers that claim to give a discount on their diamonds. often the certificate is fake. SO you never know where the diamonds really came from or the clarity and cut is not what they say it is. 

Diamond labs, its not that the diamonds are fake or poor quality. its that the rings you can chose from  are restrictive so if you have a particular type of ring in mind it may be a dead end. you can check out one of the many diamond labs here. 

Dose it suite?

With costume rings you just throw it on and and don't think much else of it. When you start trying on different rings you start to know what suits your finger. What you are looking for is something that looks balanced on your figure not lost or bulky. A sales assistant should know what suits best or just try on a verity of different rings. 

My Top tips

• Don't tell the jeweler's your real budget, they will bring out rings that are way over your own budget. A grand under should allow then to pick out rings that are in your budget.
• When you think you have found the right ring, sleep on it and try other rings just to be sure.
• Lest face it, most couples that get engaged are young and don't really have that much money to play with. try not to focus too much on the quality of the diamonds but on the ring its self. You can change the diamonds any time, but not the ring.   
• If you found the right ring but it was too pricey, go to a small jewellers (i.e one that makes the rings themselves) and see if they can make it for a cheaper price. 
• Check out a small jewellers if you have a design in mind but can't find it. 
• Keep an open mind.