Boost Your Energy With A Spring Cleanse: Guest Post By Mia Taylor

While spring is a colourful, vivid season where everything is awake and in bloom, we don’t always feel excited to experience it. With spring allergies and fatigue, seasonal changes can sometimes affect our bodies in bad ways. If you’re constantly sleepy, unfocused and feel sore for no real reason, you might need a good detox to get your vitality back and help you feel cheerful about spring flowers and nice weather. Read on for some tips to help boost your energy and make you feel good.

Change your diet

Heavy, winter food is delicious and necessary when the weather is cold, but spring is the time to eat lighter meals and help our bodies fill up on natural goodies. Artichokes, asparagus, zucchini, spinach and broccoli are all in season, and there are many delicious recipes for you to incorporate these healthy, powerful foods into your diet. It’s time to go easy on the meat and dairy and give your stomach a chance to rest. Eat things like soups and salads and avoid processed foods and canned goods. Eat rice instead of bread, and use healthy spices such as turmeric, nutmeg, fennel, ginger and coriander. It’s okay to eat meat, but stick to fish and chicken for a while and avoid anything sugary, or fried. You want nutrient rich food that will help your body recover and feel vibrant.

Remember to drink enough water as well. Green tea and black tea will help with the detox and you can drink up to three or four cups a day. Avoid coffee and soda completely, as they will only make you feel thirstier and besides the unwanted weight gain, you’ll deal with their negative effects on your body.

Get moving

No better way to get rid of the toxins than to sweat them out. We need about three hours of exercise each week, and with the summer coming, now’s the perfect time to shape up. You don’t have to go to the gym to work out, you can do it at home, on your own terms. Take up dancing, kickboxing, yoga, or any other alternative to the gym. Go out for a run, or take long walks, go hiking, or put on your roller blades and drive them around the neighbourhood. The best way to get fit is to find something you enjoy doing and then become passionate about it. It will help you stick to training and you’ll have the added bonus of having fun. Working out is also a good way to gain more energy and balance your sleep cycle.

Use the right herbs and supplements

Sometimes our digestive tract needs some help to stimulate the cleansing and detoxification process. Simple herbs like dandelion and burdock root can help with this, or you could try the Renew Life detox products which have a lot of all-natural cleansing ingredients that are a really good way to help your body flush out the toxins on its own. Combine these with dandelion, milk thistle and ginger tea mix and your body will be full of energy in no time. The recipe for the tea is: bring water with peeled ginger root to a boil, then pour over the dried herbs (dandelion, milk thistle and cinnamon). Add a little honey and lemon juice.  Let it cool and you have a delicious drink that you can sip through the day.

Get enough rest

Sadly, no matter what you do, you can’t skip sleep if you want your body to be well-rested. You must get at least seven hours of sleep every night and do your best to go to bed and wake up at approximately the same time every day. Your body enjoys a routine and a hectic sleeping schedule will wear it out pretty quickly. The effects of sleep deprivation are pretty serious, so keep your health in mind and take time to get enough rest every night.

Spring is a wonderful time to turn our attention back to our health and develop good habits if we haven’t already. Follow these tips and you’ll soon feel fresh, happy, and full of energy.

Mia Taylor is a fashion and beauty enthusiast from Sydney and

writer for www.highstylife.com. She loves writing about her life experiences. Travelling and enjoying other cultures and their food with her husband is a big part of her life. She is always on a lookout for new trends in fashion and beauty, and considers herself an expert when it comes to lifestyle tips. Twitter | Facebook

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20 Blog Post Ideas For You To Use

This time last week in my Blogging On Zero Budget post, I promised that I'd share some of my blog post ideas with you all. Always one to keep to my word and thus today's post.

I'm constantly on the lookout for inspiration and I find literally anything and everything can kick start my creative streak. If you struggle to find ideas then I have a few tips.
I bet most of you scroll through Instagram hitting the like button every so often right? Well next time you're on there, really take notice of the images. Question the possibilities that the image holds and the story behind it. Learn to not just look at a pretty photo but to pay attention to the individual items, the colours, or the wording if it's a quote. Jot down notes and any thoughts that pop into your head. Flick through magazines and do the same. Read other blogs. Even just becoming more aware of your everyday surroundings will give you ideas. Once you learn to be more observant it's amazing the things that you'll notice that you might not have done before. There is inspiration literally everywhere.

Take the above image for example. It's not one of mine, it's from Pexels. But I can look at this one image and come up with tons of topics to write about just by studying it. Here are just a few ideas: Blogging Tips, How To Better Organise Your Work Station, How To Better Organise Your Life, My Perfect Working Environment, Getting Life's Priorities Right, Living For The Moment, Items That Inspire Me, Favourite Quotes, etc etc.

Another tip is to challenge yourself with a writing prompt or maybe get someone else to challenge you. Give yourself a starting sentence or even just one word and then write a post around it. You don't have to publish it, but it's good practice for honing your writing skills. Once you really get into the swing of things you'll find that you'll be able to write about anything and still make it sound interesting. I always carry a notebook or scrap of paper around in my handbag just so I can jot down anything that comes to mind. As they say, practice makes perfect.

If any of you would like me to share some writing exercises in the future then please get in touch and I'll post some on here.

If you still need a bit of help in the inspiration department then here are those twenty post ideas I promised. You'll be glad to hear that none of them involve spending any money but some will require time and possibly some research on your part! You'll find that I'll be using some of these particular topics myself in the future but that doesn't mean you can't too. Feel free to use any. Happy writing.

1. What It Feels Like To Be Me (or rather you in this case)

2. Firsts

3. Why It's Okay To Be Different

4. How To Better Budget Throughout The Year

5. Why And How Blogging Can Open Doors For You

6. Don't Be Afraid To Ask For Help

7. Blag Confidence Until It's Real

8. What It Really Means To Be A Blogger

9. How To Better Use Social Media (Scheduling)

10. How To Launch A Newsletter And Why You Should

11. What Are Affiliate Links And Why Should I Use Them?

12. Change Can Do You Good 

13. Where Do You Want To Be In 12 Months?

14. Why Researching Reaps The Rewards

15. Why Investing In Yourself Will Pay Off

16. Free Online Courses To Improve Your Skill Set

17. Taking Responsibility For Your Life (and/or dreams if you prefer)

18. I Feel Guilty For...

19. How To Better Manage Your Time

20. Life Is Too Short To...

If you like this post then please do let me know and I'll share some more blog post ideas very soon.

Justine xxx


P.s It's almost weekend! Yay!




Image via Pexels

Organised Chaos: Spring Cleaning My Life

For whatever reason I'm in a decidedly minimalistic mood at the moment. I've collected things (*coughs and mutters under breath... hoarded) for years and although most people only see the organised side of me, the majority of my life and surrounding environment is more like 'organised chaos!' So I made a decision sometime last week to start spring cleaning my life!

My work area now looks like someone else has been in and taken over, because for the first time in a VERY long while, everything is in it's rightful place or has been given a home. Gone are my post it notes with reminders, instead I'm using a notebook! I can go off happily on my annual leave and relax in the knowledge that my colleagues will be able to find their way around my work station.

Next on the agenda is my room! You could call that 'creative chaos.' And it's going to take a lot longer to sort but I've made a start.

The whole process has been rather motivating. I never much believed in that 'tidy environment, tidy mind' malarky. But I must say I feel much better for doing this, because it's made me realize I need to organize the goals in my life too. I procrastinate like there's no tomorrow. I write endless lists of tasks and never make it half way through. I talk about all the things I want to do yet somehow never achieve any.

It goes without saying that if you have too much going on in your brain, too many goals, it's inevitable that things will slip by the wayside and nothing will ever get done. I'm guilty of this which is probably why my novel isn't complete yet. I always think I'll do it tomorrow. But how many tomorrows will there be before it's too late?

From now on I'm going to be a little more realistic. I'm choosing to focus on one task at a time. At least then I might make some progress. Over the next few weeks my only goal is to work on my novel. Everything else will have to wait. For now at any rate...

Happy weekend everyone! Until next time...

Justine xxx

Dare To Dream



Hello lovelies! How are you all? First and foremost I must apologise for my lack of blog posts this last two weeks. I've had a few other projects on the go including my novel which had sort of been pushed to one side for a while there, but I've really been feeling creative of late so I'm back on with it!

Today's post is actually more of a story. I was told it a couple of weeks ago and wanted to share it with all of you in the hope that you take something positive from it.

There was a car crash involving a young boy. And although the boy survived the accident, the emergency team had no choice but to amputate his left arm in order to save his life.

As you can imagine losing a limb must be pretty horrific for anyone. But take a moment to imagine what it would be like as a child, your whole life ahead of you, and suddenly you can't do all the things you took for granted just yesterday.

Luckily these days there are many aids available to ensure a person can live a mostly fulfilled life. But what if your lifelong dream suddenly seemed an impossibility?

You see, the young boy had dreamed of mastering Judo. I'm sure most of you have heard of Judo but for the benefit of those that perhaps haven't, it's essentially a modern marital art.

The boy approached a Judo master, pleading with him to give him a chance. Reluctantly the Judo master agreed and so began lessons. The master taught him his first move and instructed him to practice. After weeks of doing this same one move the boy became frustrated and asked why he couldn't learn more moves with the rest of the class. But the Judo master told him no, keep on practicing that one move. Obediently the boy continued practicing.

Months passed by and the boy heard about a competition coming up in which one pupil from the class would be picked to enter. Disheartened in the knowledge that he'd never be picked, he carried on practicing his one move and gave no more thought to it. To his surprise the following week, the Judo master informed the boy that he had in fact entered him into the competition.

On the day of the tournament, the boy took on his first opponent. He waited for the right opportunity to use his one move and won the first round. The second opponent came face to face with the boy and again waiting for the perfect moment, he used his one move and took the opponent down thereby winning the second round. Now in the final, the boy grew nervous as he saw his opponent was much bigger and well built than him. The boy took a thrashing and the referee even wanted to call the fight off. But the boy's Judo master insisted he fight on. Waiting for the perfect moment, the boy finally got the chance to use his one move and by doing so he won the tournament and became the champion against all the odds.

Travelling home later that day, the boy still couldn't believe he'd won the tournament. He asked his Judo master how he'd been so sure that he could win. The Judo master explained that firstly, the boy had practiced his one move until it was perfection. Secondly, for anyone to get out of that move, they'd need to grab their opponents left arm... And as the boy had no left arm, the opponent couldn't defend himself...

So why have I shared this story with you? I want you to take what you want or indeed what you need from it. Since hearing it myself I've googled and found different versions online. I still don't know for sure if it's a true story or not, but regardless I think the sentiment behind it is heart warming and inspiring.

For me? I like to think that it means ANYTHING is possible. That dreams can come true if we only dare to try. I encourage all of you to go forth and dream big!

Have a fabulous week.

Love Justine xxx

*Please note I have re-told this story as best I can remember from how I originally heard it. Apologies for any errors.

Goals For A New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a well deserved rest. I thoroughly enjoyed my time off. But now that 2016 is well and truly here it's time to boot myself up the backside and get back into the swing of things. Some of you will have noticed that I haven't got my new blog up and running yet. It will be ready very soon. There's just a few things we need to add before it can go live.

Favourite Blog Reads

Hello! Have you all had a good week/weekend? Mine's been a busy one. Feeling somewhat headachy today so I'm going to quickly share my favourite blog reads from the last week with you all before I go back to bed. This week I've put the posts into different categories to make it easier for you to head straight to whatever takes your fancy! As always, just click on the relevant photo to be re-directed to that particular blog. Go make yourself a brew and enjoy!

 

The Best From The Beauty Bunch

 'Seasonal Base Switch Up' 

From Roses

'Clinique Bundle'

Olivia Mulhearn

 'Autumn Essentials'

Zoella

 

Life Or Something Like It

 '13 Important Things Anxiety Has Taught Me'

Aisling's Beauty Bytes

'Daily Reminders To Keep Life In Perspective'

Michelle Phan

'Broken And Stronger'

Sprinkle Of Glitter

'Breast Cancer In College'

Alyssa Vingan Teen Vogue

Books And Book Reviews

 'Tonight The Streets Are Ours' 

Daisy Chain Book Reviews

Blogging Secrets

 'Things To Know About Being A Blogger'

Couture Girl

 Christmas Countdown

 'Beauty Advent Calendars 2015' 

Thou Shalt Not Covet

Fitness

'How To Get Your Motivation Back'

Cakey Dreamer

 The One With The Stunning Photos

'Sveti Stefan'

Style Scrapbook

 

 

And that's a wrap. Hope you all have a fabulous week! 

Lots of love, Justine xxx

*All photos taken from relevant blogs, copyright not my own
*Photos edited using Basic PhotoCollage

Chatting with friends...

I've named this 'chatting with friends' because that's exactly how I feel when writing these posts. You have all been so amazing. I've genuinely appreciated all your kind words and messages over the last few difficult weeks. It has helped me hugely.

A week ago today we lost a great lady. Such a strange expression. It sounds like we've simply misplaced my Nanna in the supermarket or something. I wish we had because at least then I'd be able to see her again. She is missed terribly by the whole family. 
It's safe to say it's been a peculiar week. I've been walking around half the time in a bit of a daze, feeling lost somewhat. The girls at work have been incredible. I couldn't have got through this week without their love and support. 
I think loosing someone who was such an enormous part of your life makes you take stock of things. It's certainly made me question the direction in which my life is going. There are so many things I thought I'd have done by now and yet in reality I've barely scratched the surface. So, I've decided to become a little more proactive. I'm going to make a list of goals, (attainable ones) that I will have to achieve by a particular date. For instance, I must get a passport! I've never been abroad yet! And I'm also going to learn how to swim! There are obvious bigger goals that will take time and money to achieve, (bridal shop for one!) but in the meantime I'm going to also work extra hard on finishing my novel. I've even made a mental list of literary agents that I'd like to send it to! Fingers crossed!
I hope that this post inspires one or two of you to try the same thing. Maybe do something you've always wanted to do but for whatever reason you've been putting it off. 

Have a fabulous weekend/week. I'll catch you all soon.

Justine xxx