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ryanmentalhealth · 4 years

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Mental Health - Inaugural Post (20/09/2020 - 03:00)

So, here goes. This is my first post regarding mental health. It has been a very long time since I have done this. I have been thinking a lot recently regarding blogging and posting about my mental health but time and time again I have chosen not to. I hope this helps more than it has in the past, because in all honesty, I am struggling, more than I have admitted to anyone recently.

Admitting to my family that I am suicidal and that I am really struggling with my mental health has been one of the hardest things I have ever done. I don’t come from the most supportive or affectionate family, but to give them credit where it is due, they have been amazing. Everyone has rallied round and has tried to support me in their own little ways. The case is the same with my friends. Some of them have been absolutely amazing, checking on me on an almost daily basis but respecting when I need some space or time alone. Just knowing that I am able to just pick up the phone and phone them, no matter the time of day or night is a massive safety net for me. They have no idea just how grateful and thankful I am for them. They have quite literally at times, saved my life!

I have missed my last 2 meetings with my support worker, the first one due to me getting my times wrong and thinking the appointment was 3 hours later than it was, the second as a result of me slipping down my steps and thinking I managed to break my ankle (I did not btw.) This has had a huge impact on me over the last few weeks. We had managed to do some excellent work together and she managed to help me understand a lot about my mental health and has been working to continue this work. I have my next appointment on Tuesday and I am really nervous about it. I am scared because I think it is time to admit that I don’t think the CBT approach is right for me at the moment, I think I need to see a psychiatrist and have more involvement with the primary care mental health team. I guess I just need to be honest with her and tell her exactly how I am feeling.

I have been off work now since the 14th July, not due to return until the 25th October. I don’t think I am going to be fit to return at this point. I am not ready, I am no where near ready. The way I feel at the moment, I don’t know if I ever will be ready to return to work. I still feel suicidal, every single day. Literally, every.....single.....day. If you have never had thoughts or feelings of suicide then I can tell you this much, they are terrifying. Every single thought fills you with absolute fear and panic, dread and anxiety. It is horrific. As I sit writing this blog, even now, the thought in the back of my mind is as such, “Surely it would just be easier to swallow all the pills. Just do it, overdose, it will stop the fear, the anxiety and the panic. Just do it, you won’t continue to suffer if you just do it.” That being said, let’s be clear about one thing. I am NOT going to kill myself, not a chance, I am not going to loose this battle, these thoughts and feelings are not going to beat me.

My sleeping has not in the least improved either, as can be witnessed by the fact that at 03:19 on a Sunday morning, I am sitting here, writing this post instead of in my bed sleeping. Before people start hitting me with sleep hygiene advice and such, I was in my bed at 2300 last night and lay there, staring at the ceiling until I decided to get back up out of bed at 0130. I was not using my phone, I did not have any TV or Music on. Just me, bed, a lamp and a book, which I only read for around 20 mins before deciding to try and fall asleep. Something that really is bothering me about the sleeping issue is that I have told my GP about it multiple times and every time he just gives me sleep hygiene advice and tells me not to watch TV in bed and not use my phone. What I need is something to help me sleep, something that will assist me in developing a strong and healthy sleep routine. I used to take medication in the evening that would make me drowsy and assist me off to sleep but this was changed to a different medication recently, making the sleep issues even worse. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, when I get no sleep or next to no sleep, the thoughts of suicide are worse!

As well as the sleep issues and the thoughts of suicide, another issue that I am having is the lack of ability to leave the house. Every time I want to leave the house alone, I have a massive panic/anxiety attack. This has been exacerbated by the pandemic with the need for of a mask (which I will ALWAYS wear when I am in a shop or on public transport btw, I am not an anti-masker!) but covering my face makes me even more anxious which, given the fact I am already a walking bag of absolute panic, fear and nerves, I can promise you is not a good thing! Every time I go near the door to head out, I suddenly get an overwhelming feeling of terror. My hear rate increases ten fold. I start to sweat profusely. I feel dizzy. I start to have irrational thoughts of harm coming to me if I leave the house on my own, getting run over, getting stabbed, getting attacked, even thoughts of being shot. Where do these thoughts come from I hear you ask? Well, I have no idea, Nada, literally nothing. I can’t even go out from my house to the local corner shop, literally 150 meters from my front door. This is becoming crippling now. Crippling and terrifying. I also develop sudden exhaustion when I think about leaving the house, suddenly, regardless whether I am tired or not before hand. When I open the door, I get a horrific feeling like being in a tiny room, with the walls closing in on me, I feel trapped, like a caged animal. Can you understand just how confusing that is to me. Outside, stepping out of my door, that is how I feel. Trapped, outside...

Another thing that has started happening again recently is flashbacks, memories and reminders of some horrible things that have happened in the past. These, I think, are having a huge impact on my mental health. I am remembering certain traumas. One time recently, I woke up after a nightmare and thought for around 30 seconds that I was back in that very situation again. That was the single scariest experience I have ever had. I feel like I am never going to be free of that trauma but that is something that I really need to work on.

Also, in relation to the image attached to this post, you will see it is a quote from the author Bill Maher - “Suicide is a mans way of telling god, you can’t fire me, I quit!”. I have chosen this image for a number of reasons. 1) I absolutely adore the quote. It has always been one of my favourites. 2) It’s true as fuck! 3) I lost one of my closest friends in January to suicide, something which even to this day I am still hugely struggling with and he spoke often about just how much he loved this quote. in fact, he was the person who introduced me to said quote. 4) I think that ever post deserves a good quote, so every one of my posts will have an image of one of my favourite quotes.

I will begin to round this post up now, as I realise that it is very long. My intention is that I am going to try to write one of these posts at least once per week, more if possible. If you have an interest in mental health then please feel free to follow me on tumblr or twitter. You can find my twitter handle on my page. Also, if you have any stories you would like to share with me or if you wish to ask me anything, please reach out and do so.

If you, like me, are struggling with your mental health please know this one thing. It is ok to reach out and ask for help, it is ok not to be ok!

Much Love, Ryan

#mentalhealth #mentalheathawareness #Suicide #Recovery #staying strong #Scotland #ScottishMentalHealth #Ryan #LGBT #LGBTQ+#WeeklyMentalHealthBlog #MentalIllHealth #Depression #Anxiety #PanicAttack #post traumatic stress disorder #PTSD #itsokaytobenotokay #its ok to ask for help

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thestudyfeels · 5 years

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100 Days of Sweat

Welcome to the official admission post for the 100 days of sweat challenge! *plays the conquer theme song and does a booty pop* This is a pretty long post, but has everything you need to start, so read on!

READING TIME: 6 minutes.

OoOh? What's that?

Thanks for coming out of the cave! In short, it's a consistency challenge to turn working out into a habit.

You've basically got to move your body for a 100 days straight. No slacking, no backing out!

Most take on this challenge personally, but I felt accountability would be great for those beginning with exercising & those who can't seem to keep their streak (cough, me).

Sounds fun! How do I join? Do I need to do a booty pop too?

Booty pops are appreciated. But here's how!

1. First things first, decide whether you'll be joining via IG, Discord or staying on Tumblr.

2. If using IG, reply to this post with your handle or (alternative) if you'd like, join Discord instead! For that, click here to join the server!

(NOTE: Those who joined via the first post I created regarding this needn't reply again! I've already added you to the list.)

3. Lastly, boost this! Reblog, get your followers to join! Drag your friend or sibling in! (already dragged my bestie into this in case no one joined in lmao)

Important PSA: yO, ANYONE can join! All my beginners and winners, young teens and old pals, drarry fans and johnlock shippers, team cold water AND hot water (sparing y'all because I stan working out more), EVERYONE!

Here's what I'll do:

I'm creating an IG group for those interested in staying fully committed. (Pros include making friends! Or enemies, for a hundred whole days! Some of you might even get married together, I have high hopes because wedding cake is everything)

Sayani from @studign-stars will be the admin for Discord! You can hit her up for queries, if any.

In short, there'll be 3 separate groups. One for those joining via Discord, one for those on the IG group, and a third for those staying on Tumblr.

If you wish to use any other platforms like Snapchat and Twitter, feel free! Also plug your progress on Tumblr too so we can hype each other on! (tag stuff with #100dos)

+ That said, I highly suggest joining either one of the groups, for accountability does wonders. It's now up to you, fellow warrior.

How to prep for this challenge:

OhO! There's a whole lot prepping to be slayed. To finish this challenge as smoothly as possible, here's a few steps. Make this easier for yo’ lazy bum.

1+ Firstly, grab a marker and scrap paper (when you on a student budget, cuz same) and write down numbers from 1 to 100. I did 1 to 30 to prevent myself from being overwhelmed, but do right them numbers to gain momentum.

2+ Take couple before photos. From the front, and the side. If you don't want to, take them anyway and store it in a folder you never open. Also measure your weight, and if you have a measuring tape, take other basic measurements of the chest, waist, arm etc.

3+ Coming to the main part! Pick your 'base’ routine. This is the primary workout you wanna do 2-3 times a week. It's the main course!

For beginners, I suggest choosing a 15 min full body workout. Do try it out before you start 100 days— make sure it's challenging enough.

For those who already move their bodies, pick a workout that aligns with your long-term goals. If you want toned legs, pick a leg day routine. If you want abs, focus on abs.

My base routine is the Beginner's Bodyweight Workout (BBW) from the NerdFitness website. I do 3 sets of the entire routine (takes around 25-30 mins) thrice a week.

So, do some research and pick a workout! Doesn't have to be an hour long at all, just make sure it's time-effective and challenges you.

4+ Find your cheat day workout.

Yikes, the wording is kinda incorrect, but anything for the clickbait.

This is the workout you do 2 days a week, and is the second most important workout. (This means: 3 + 2 = 5, you’ve now got five days planned!)

I do Alexis Ren’s ab routine (I hate it) twice a week because abs are my target zone. For you, it could be arms, thighs, butt, anything!

5+ Leave your last two days for simple moving.

It's up to you to decide what's going to be cooking in the remaining two days. For suggestions, you can pick a fun activity, say yoga, handstands, cartwheels, splits, any form of dancing like hip-hop, Zumba etc.

I'm trying to do a handstand this year and get my middle splits already (I fell off track so I still have quite a way to go) so I'll be stretching and doing hand flexibility exercises in the last 2 days.

Or you can just go for a jog or a power walk. Just keep the momentum going!

A quick recap:

To summarize, you're doing a major workout 3 times a week, a toning workout (mine is abs) twice a week and a fun activity in the last two days.

Also, mix this up. Your muscles need time to heal, and I strongly emphasize leaving the next day free for lighter activities after doing a major workout. Here's my routine, as an eg:

Do remember that this is just a STARTING POINT, because we don't want you to wake up everyday and be like “wut I do today.” It's now your mission to plan your workout routine. Consider taking more workload or reduce it as per your level (this is definitely a lot, try reducing if you're just beginning).

Also important: DETERMINE your workout routine NOW. I spent 2 years (only stopped like 3 months ago) doing YouTube videos haphazardly. This works, because you are working out after all, but it's a pretty lousy method if you want consistent results. Also makes you depend on motivation to workout (which has probability results equal to me marrying Tom Felton), whereas if you had a routine, you'll have to workout because it's in your schedule and you'd be a loser to lie to your schedule.

Is this a lot? It's a lot. I know.

If this is overwhelming you, don't back away darling. Face your fears. Here are some reasons to not back out—

The entire challenge is flexible: You don't have to follow that routine ^ if you don't want to. Starting out, you can do a major workout 2 times a week and fill the other 5 days with fun stuff. You can always change the routine later, 100 days is a long ass time.

The challenge fucks with your mindset and strengthens it: 100 days of continuous movement is CRAZY. Can you imagine how strong (mentally too!) we'll all be at the end? You'll have grown so much!

Working out will become a habit: I've been working out for 2 years now, and it has positively affected every single sphere of my life. Exercising is the #1 habit I suggest everyone build. Since science says it takes 66 days to build a habit, we're ON it.

You'll be really proud of yourself: I know I'll be. I'm literally going to hug y'all at the end of it, and sing jingles about how far you've come. 2019 will have been slayed.

I could go on and on, but this is it. Now's the moment. This is about doing something you're afraid of. Taking risks. Learning, falling, getting back up.

Thence, ladies, gents and non-binary pals, THIS is the 100 days of sweat challenge. You're cordially invited to it.

(We're dramatic, yes.)

🌻 !!! MAJOR PSA & DEADLINES:

The challenge itself begins on 10th April, 2019.

You'll be added to the IG group latest by 7th April.

Because I'm your mom, I'll add everyone in, tell you the details and everything. If you’ve got any questions, jump into my inbox now and get them answered.

That said, please remember that I won't take anyone in midway (no, not even if you buy me free tacos for a year). So join in now & spread the message! The more, the merrier! Bring beer too!

Thanks for joining in! This will be promising and hugely interesting (accountability can do wonders, but we'll see). I'll be waiting for you on the other side with my stuffed animals, cIaO fReNdOs!

— Nandini (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡ 💌

letting my taglist folks know (which you can join here!)

@doctorearlgray, @mintschlar, @procrastilate, @scienceandsarcasticdroids, @sxudying, @hannistudies, @vocative, @studign-stars, @ash-trological, @sweet-bean-study-queen, @chaoticstormthings, @lunetudes, @beingstudent, @beautiful-magicalbrain, @akydemics, @literery, @redvelvetstu-dies, @vivinotes, @jynsdesk, @moonshinestudies, @studying-in-chaos, @thelazyunistudent, @einstetic, @ram-the-blonde-bitch, @a-students-lifebuoy, @studahliless, @inspostudying, @the-diary-of-a-failure, @would-iwasshookethspeared, @coffeeandpies, @artsytourism, @gloomstudy, @scrolls-of-jupiter, @studytrivia, @ristudy, @isatriestostudy, @historicalbeez, @luvjoys, @indiaisstudying, @studyingunderwater, @dianeemay, @kemi-k, @londonotes, @froststudies, @pennyfynotes, @studiently, @midnightstudying, @unicorndoesstudies, @studyingundersun, @wingedprunepsychiclawyer, @tonystarkstudies, @delphinaaugery, @morganastudy, @studiies-psych, @sumastudies, @emrys-studies, @parleonstudies, @acataemic, @studylustre, @adelinestudiess, @sorcierstudies, @coffeeinfusedstudying, @pizza-and-studying, @the-third-me, @scrunchiestudies, @jemsjournals, @jas-study, @jabuticabablr, @khelmatic, @avastvdies + you, if you’re reading this!

#100dos #unicorn studying #studign-stars #inspostudying #looklibraerie #heypfyn #jacistudies #lunetudes #ash-trological #studylustre #gloomstudy #dahliless #moonshinestudies #athenastudying #heypat #heylondonotes #adelinestudiess #hanniscup #heyindia

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lostandunicorny · 5 years

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Tarot Bear Readings Prices Menu

Hi Everyone,

so I’m working harder to expand this side hustle, Tarot Bear Readings, and I hope you guys can support.

If you can’t pay for a full reading that you’d like cause it’s too expensive, just DM me and we can work something out. You guys can also donate like $1 to my paypal or bank account to help me pay my bills each month it’d be great.

So this is the service I’m offering, and these are the prices. HMU to book your session//reading now.

Time based readings (conducted over messaging services is Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp. Any extensions for time-based readings will be charged in 30 minute blocks regardless of whether or not the full 30 minutes can be fulfilled. Ie if you choose to go over an additional 40 minutes you will be charged 2 x 30 mins extra Please book min 36 hours in advance)

15 min - $15 Message me your questions for 15 minutes, I will select your cards and send you messages explaining your spread and discussing the reading. We can open up the spread with more cards for more clarity. Or you can ask a new question and we repeat the process.

30 min - $20 Message me your questions for 30 minutes, you can select the cards for the first spread or I will choose all of the cards for you. I will send you messages explaining your spread and discussing the reading. We can open up the spread with more cards for more clarity. Or you can ask a new question and we repeat the process.

60 min - $30 Message me your questions for 60 minutes, you can select the cards for the first spread or I will choose all of the cards for you. I will send you messages explaining your spread and discussing the reading. We can open up the spread with more cards for more clarity. Or you can ask a new question and we repeat the process.

Question Based Readings (conducted over email ONLY, email will be sent within 48 hours of payment confirmation)

1 question - $10 Email me your question and I'll respond with a PDF file attached with your reading. You can ask for clarification on the spread (ONLY ON THE SPREAD, NOT YOUR WHOLE SITUATION) and we can open up the cards for more and I'll amend the PDF accordingly.

2 questions - $15 Email me your questions and I'll respond with 2 separate PDF files attached to the email with your readings. You can ask for clarification on the spreads (ONLY ON THE SPREAD, NOT YOUR WHOLE SITUATION) and we can open up the cards for more and I'll amend each PDF accordingly.

3 questions - $20 Email me your questions and I'll respond with 3 separate PDF files attached to the email with your readings. You can ask for clarification on the spreads (ONLY ON THE SPREAD, NOT YOUR WHOLE SITUATION) and we can open up the cards for more and I'll amend each PDF accordingly.

Card Based Readings (conducted over email ONLY, will only allow concession if the messaging service can receive and send documents, email will be sent within 48 hours of payment confirmation)

1 card - $5 You give me your question, I send over a PDF with your card and what it means in relation to your question within 48 hours.

3 card - $10 You give me your question, I design a 3 card spread. In the PDF will contain your spread, the cards, what their explanation is, and a summary of the reading.

5 card - $15 You give me your question, I design a 3 card spread. In the PDF will contain your spread, the cards, what their explanation is, and a summary of the reading.

Modes of Payment accepted: PayNow/PayLah - +6587511167 (or message me for the QR code) Bank Transfer - I use OCBC Current Account, (contact me for my bank account #) PayPal - https://paypal.me/tarotbear Google Wallet (not sure what my link is for this, just please send payment to my email [email protected])

You can schedule and book your readings through the following methods:

WhatsApp - +6587511167 Email - [email protected] Facebook Messenger - Tarot Bear Readings Instagram DMs: @tarotbear.readings Twitter DMs: @tarot_bear

Please help to respect me as a reader and the energies and time it takes to do your readings and offer my help and services to you. I can keep my prices low if everyone is able to show respect. If you find that my time and energy and advice is worth very little to you, I’d prefer if you found another reader or did your reading for yourself.

FAQs:

Do you need my horoscope?

Nope, just need your name, contact details (aka where i’m gonna talk to you on for the time-based readings, or send your reading to for the PDF based readings) and your question.

Btw please keep your question open-ended, unless it’s a 1 card reading, then its chill if it’s a more yes/no kind of question.

Is there any limit on the kind of questions I can ask?

I’m cool with health, general, career, romance/love, family.

I don’t do 3rd party readings. So if you’re asking on behalf of someone else, I’m sorry but I’d prefer if you don’t. I don’t find it respectful to pry. You can ask about your future together, but it’s not chill to do like “what’s their new job gonna be like” etc.

You can also check out my disclaimer below for the extent of my “powers”

I need help on phrasing my question.

If you need assistance w how best to phrase your question for this reading, I found that this guide from labryinthos helps a lot https://labyrinthos.co/blogs/learn-tarot-with-labyrinthos-academy/how-to-phrase-effective-tarot-card-questions-and-get-the-most-from-your-tarot-reading

Are there any crystals//voodoo//spells involved? Can you do those?

No crystals, although I’d love to but I’m not there yet.

I don’t do voodoo. And I don’t know enough about it

I respect spells but I don’t think I’m at the level where I can cast effective spells for other people but I can share with you a spell recipe if you’d like at no extra charge.

What kind of cards do you use?

I currently only own 1 Tarot Deck and that’s the Pocket Universal Waite Tarot as seen below

I’m hoping once I get 10 paying customers, I can save up to get other decks for other reading usage, so I can switch up to my mood and to the respective vibe

Do you read face to face? Can I schedule for a call instead?

I’m not comfortable with face to face

Or phone call readings

Or video call readings

I get really terrible performance anxiety and my brain goes blank and I’m worried I’ll waste your time

Even worse, the only other times I’ve read for people face to face is when I was high and drunk. I was still accurate but that’s not a good thing cause it doesn’t give too much respect to the reading process

So for now, no readings face to face

Live readings are all conducted over messages

How long have you been doing tarot?

First picked it up in high school year 2.

That was in 2014.

And I printed my own deck and cut it up from the library.

I now have no clue where that deck is.

But for professional readings with this current deck, I’ve been doing it now for 6 months.

And it’s been pretty accurate thus far. And I’ve helped a lot of people and that’s made me really happy.

We just weren’t getting paid enough before, that’s why the deck was unhappy. And thus this menu now.

Disclaimer: All readings are not meant to be taken as scripture. Please do not use your tarot session to ignore any legal, medical, or professional life advice Please still defer to any professional you are seeking help from. Readings are meant to offer entertainment, additional insight, and guidance. Tarot Bear Readings will keep your identity and intimate details of your readings confidential unless there is intended harm on the client or other people. Tarot Bear Readings does not condone any illegal or harmful acts conducted by any client after the reading/session and will not be held responsible and/or liable for the client's actions after the session. Tarot Bear Readings will screenshot your feedback, and post it as testimonials on to different marketing and media collaterals, leaving out your name and personal details and further details of your reading.

Mission and Vision Statement: Tarot Bear Readings is for the busy introvert by the busy introvert. Tarot Bear Readings believes in respecting the higher level of insight and power and hopes to provide help to more people to guide this. Tarot Bear Readings will be fair and honest in all its dealings. Tarot Bear Readings aims to be affordable and accessible for everyone to help guide from day to day choices to bigger decisions in life.

#tarot #tarot service #tarot reading #tarot business #fortune telling #paypal #please consider donating #please support

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aoibaratraveler · 5 years

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UK Road Trip Week 1

Hello! My name is Danielle and I’m finally using my page to talk about traveling, it’s certainly been a long time coming that’s for sure! I’ve said it in my bio but I am a horrible procrastinator and even though I love traveling and I try to make a habit of going to as many places as I can every year, but I hardly ever document it other than in the form of instagram or facebook really which I am ashamed to say...even though I have three journals that my friends have bought for me specifically for this purpose. Well no more! I’m going to slowly try and make a habit of documenting my travels in the form of tumblr or in my journals and eventually start a youtube channel since I am so inspired by youtubers like Sharmander or Sharla in Japan, Tokidoki Traveler or Abroad in Japan and even lovelyzkelly and I want to be able to share my story and my travels like them!

Eventually I’ll also post about about my past trips and how they have shaped me as a person because I have tons to say on the matter but for now let’s start with the present!

It has officially been a little over a week since I started traveling around the UK with my boyfriend. i’m so happy to finally being able to do this, ever since I moved to Cambridgeshire last September I have been itching to travel again and now I can see all that this country has to offer! We started the trip on July 19th and I decided that I would log each day in my small notebook since I don’t always have access to wifi and then just relay it all here so without further ado! ...By the way follow me on instagram at Danielle.bay to see all the photos from each destination of our trip! (I also have twitter @daniellebay24)

Day 1:

Today started off full with jitters and excitement because we had only just moved into our new place and were now headed off onto a road trip/camping adventure--which would be my very first time doing both and I did not know what to expect. After two hours on the road and eating a delicious chicken mayo sandwich prepared by the bf we arrived at our first campsite. Hilariously our camping neighbours who were in a camper van had set up a washing machine and were hooked up to the communal water area and it was just rather ridiculous and excessive; they were full on glamping. We had a fun albeit confused time setting up our tent then decided to grab dinner at the pub that was on the campsite. My first time sleeping in the tent was rather rough especially with the heavy rain all night, but it was still a fun experience and besides I’m no stranger to sleeping uncomfortably after my experience with couch-surfing.

Day 2:

Woke up surprisingly early on Day 2 without an alarm or anything at about 6:30, i was pleasantly surprised. I hope that camping will fix my internal clock so that I can go back to being an early bird. We quickly packed up after having a coffee and experiencing weather mood swings and then hit the road for the Isle of Sheppey. During the drive I was finally able to finish six more chapters of Harry Potter (don’t judge me, I’m reading the series for the first time and loving it) and we also experienced a very cool, local thunder shower. Once we arrived at the campsite, the bf took the liberty of setting up the tent. It was lovely and warm so he insisted on having a bbq, I objected at first because it was getting late in the day but we ultimately did it only to have it not turn out so great in that it took over an hour for our meat to properly cook and by that time it was dark and cold and the bf was looking a bit sheepish.

Day 3:

Slept slept in a bit to about to 8:45 because I had a very uncomfortable sleep on the hard foam sleeping mat. Eventually we had breakfast which consisted of just strawberries for me, the bf really wanted to make eggs but I told him it was no use unless he had oil to fry with and salt/pepper, he did it anyway and then saw the error in his ways. Later, we decided to go buy some supplies (stuff to fry with) and then charge up. An unfortunate amount of our days have been taken up by going to shops and charging our electronics; each time we’ve spent about three hours...so we’re going to try and remedy that by buying a car gizmo thing that allows us both to charge our phones in the car. After charging up we finally explored the island a bit and went to the edge which was super cool. We saw a horse that looked like a cow, a donkey, two very happy dogs, a snail hanging out on a leaf, and a B&B called “Hogwarts”--all in all a pretty chill day. Oh and we got Chinese takeaway, yum.

Day 4:

My sinuses were really bad when I woke up, I think because of the older couple that decided to pitch up right next to us and smoke until late last night and early in the morning. I woke up at 5:30 because it was just a very uncomfortable sleep and I honestly can’t wait to get a sleeping mat. Anyway I didn’t actually get up until 6:30 and so did the bf. We slowly packed up everything and had our coffees and then were off by 9. Today’s drive was wonderfully scenic and we hugged the coast the whole day. I just regret not transferring my photos on my phone’s storage or deleting some things earlier so that I could have taken more photos and shot more videos...luckily the bf took some for me on his phone. Southern England’s coast is beautiful and I don’t know why it isn’t advertised more. It felt like we were in a different country or somewhere in Italy, Spain or even Southern France. Many coastal cities are much like Santa Monica but cleaner in that each of them have a lovely view of a ferris wheel on the pier and everything seems more chill. From the beautiful coast of Herne Bay to the stunning white cliffs of Dover and all the way through the South Downs AONB to Portsmouth it was a fantastic drive. Unfortunately once we arrived in Portsmouth our Airbnb was less than ideal. The couple in the room next to us were loud through the night and the walls are just too thin. The place is filthy, the shower is covered in mold and it just isn’t the best place to get refreshed and have a good sleep after camping.

Day 5:

Woke up to the obnoxious couple playing rap music at 6:30 and with the guy literally exclaiming that he doesn’t car if he wakes up the rest of the house because he is too “hyped”. We ended up having a chill morning since we had to wait for the bf's radio mp3 transmitter to arrive from Amazon, it’s great because it doubles as a charging station for our phones. We left at around 1:30 and began a lovely stroll in the warm sunshine exploring Portsmouth and it’s coast while also catching Pokemon. We unfortunately had a disappointing lunch that seemed deceivingly good from the menu which was also more expensive than it should have been but after getting the bf’s obligatory Starbucks of the day and reading for a bit we had a delicious beefy poutine and Mr. Whippy and then continued our stroll all the way along the coast and then back to the Airbnb.

Day 6:

Slept in a tad today, suppose I’ve gotten too used to the bed but then again we did walk a lot the day before so we were both really tired. We were out of the place by 11 and then set off to Exbury but not before making a stop at Aldi for a cheap and healthy lunch. The gardens of Exbury ended up being too expensive for what it was worth so we explored the Bealieu village before heading to Hurst Castle near Milford beach. It was so beautiful there on the beach and the walk to the castle was nice albeit tiring, about a 45 min trip each way on a sandspit that was very rocky. After arriving back at the place, we settled in with some iZombie and Dr. Who before bed.

Day 7:

Yay seventh day! I can’t believe that I have actually written everyday, proud of myself. We left the Airbnb earlier today and headed backwards towards the South Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) to a beautiful valley called “Devil’s Dyke”--well, not exactly there, we parked about 3 miles away next to a water tower and then ate our deliciously cheap lunch from Aldi. We set off walking among gorgeous rolling hills and fields. I had always wanted to do this but because it was so humid and because we had foolishly neglected to bring our water, the hour long walk to Devil’s Dyke was harder than I anticipated. We got there in the end after stopping a few times for photos and to catch my breath and only really by cheering myself on internally. The valley was beautiful and vast but because it is considered a tourist attraction, there were more people than I would have liked. We got some water at the pub there, relaxed for a bit and absorbed the views before heading back. The journey back was much easier and faster partly because it was downhill and partly because it was cooler now. Unfortunately it was still equally as painful for my feet. It’s a shame I hadn’t realized sooner but my new sandals have a thing sticking out that irritates the arch of my feet and gives me blisters; still working on how I’ll remedy this. Once back at the car, we set off to Arundel to see the pretty castle and pretty it was, very Hogwartsesque. The town of Arundel was very cute and old timey and I felt it was a nice end to our day. The bf on the other hand regretted not just spending the day in Arundel instead since by the time we got there (18:30) everything was closed. We played Pokemon go for a bit and then headed back to the Airbnb. Once back, we opened our books and read for a couple of hours and then at about 23:30 got ready for bed but that’s when new guests started checking until late into the night, I don’t think they stopped until about 03:00 and were so loud, would turn on all the lights, leave them on, and then head to their rooms. One guest in particular would go in and out of his room constantly leaving all the lights on and talking loudly on the phone in the room next to us. It was really hard to fall asleep, especially because I had hunger pangs but I got there in the end. As for the bf, he’s such a light sleeper that he sadly barely got any sleep...

Alright! That’s all for my captain’s log of week 1! Next week I’ll be back with week 2! See you then!

#englishcoast #ukroadtrip #travel #uk #road trip #camping #expatliving #expattravel #englishnature #britishnature #british sightseeing #canadianintheuk #wanderlust #explore #ukexploring #blog post #firsttimeblogging

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moontaeilll · 5 years

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ALL ABOUT SM GLOBAL PACKAGE & NEO CITY: SEOUL EXPERIENCE

by twitter user @sugnsook // @yudotaeil

Hello~ so i am not that good at explaining/vlogging or writing stuffs but in this thread? or blogpost or wherever u guys reading this, i will try to describe my experience as much as I can. Also for now, I am dividing this post, FAQ-style according to several topics, and I will put a separate detailed post on my own Neo City: SEOUL experience. I hope this will help for u guys deciding to splurge a bit on concert/global package!

Disclaimer: In the past, I got a few ccs complaining about my fangirl related-expensive expenses, I just want to note earlier here that as the whole prior to the actual concert, I was a part time student & working 30+ hours a week, working every chances I get. It was also my last semester of undergrad studies & I have been wanting to attend NCT’s first ever concert since 2017 and been really saved up since then, so I consider the large expenses is pretty much a treat for myself.

Tl;dr: if you worked hard enough and really wanted to attend your faves event, just go for it, as it was really worth it.

— General

What is included in Global Package?

Concert ticket (depending on days u wanna go), a good quality hotel for your stay, return transportation to & from the concert venue - hotel, preorder access to official merchandises, NCT 127 theme global package-special merchandises, NCT 127 theme snack boxes (after the concert), One themed lunch, a half day tour with tour guide before the concert, special event (varies according to what concert) - for NCT127’s we got a photoshoot session with NCT127’s life-size standee in SM’s infamous practice room itself.

How much does Global Package cost?

All i can say first thing first is….it IS costly. The ones I am paying is $949USD for Superior Single (Course C) as shown below:

The difference between the prices & packages are it depends on which hotel they will locate you & your seating in the concert. They also have Course A, Course B & Course C which depends on the concert days you are attending. Because I am flying out to Seoul just for the purpose of concert so why not just buy the two days ticket? And yeah that is why I chose Course C.

When does the ticketing open?

Usually the global package ticketing will only open at least one month prior to the actual concert, just like the concert announcement itself. Basically right after SM announce the concert, just be prepared as the ticketing will be shortly after it, right before the general ticketing starts. My advice is just, save up save up and save up as it is really well-known super costly.

How competitive the tickets are?

It is less competitive than general ticketing for sure, but pretty competitive in between ifans itself. When I bought mine, I initially planned for just economy ones but the ticket sold out WHEN i clicked “payment”. So, be quick or you might need to wait a bit more. I’m the type to be anxious if I dont have my ticket yet so I really want my ticketing matters to be settled up as soon as possible so-- when I figured out the economy package got sold out I quickly clicked on superior option - impulsively hehs.

During that ticketing, SM allows you to hold your payment up to 2 hours, as for twin package buyers can split payment. So if the tickets sold out, you might be able to get it after 2 hours. NOTE THAT: SM changed the policy from 2 hours to 30 mins now.

Eventually SM will release more packages and you CANNOT change your options once you have buy it. The packages will be available up until a week/or two before the concert, but the type of packages is really depends. I would say, Course C - Economy package sold out pretty quickly because that is what most people aiming for.

*also, keep refreshing the page if you are buying at the exact ticketing open time! The ticketing for mine opened 3 mins before the actual time so yeah….

How is the payment made?

Paypal only. Just be sure you have signed up to smtown travel account, and link you cards or have paypal balance to get your payment completed smoothly. Your package will only be confirmed once you get the payment confirmation so, having a working payment method is important. SM’s cancellation policy is ridiculous so I recommend everyone who is interested to join GP to do a thorough research beforehand.

Can international fans join general ticketing?

Yes, but not really feasible, as Yes24 sites require verification, unless you have connections with korean verifications or buy from 3rd party. The downside of 3rd party is you might get even more expensive ticket collectively compared to what Global Package has offered.

How good the seats are?

It depends on your luck as you will only draw your ticket basically the day before the concert. The more you paid for the package, the better the seats. For standing you might get a better queue number and in korea concerts you strictly go in by queue number. I chose seating, so for luckily one of my seat was right next to extended stage, and another seat was on the other side but center view. Also i luckily got both sides of seating so I can enjoy the concert with both views.

It is possible to trade your ticket between other global package holders tho - bcs i saw people did this at my hotel lol but you cannot ask sm to change your ticket. The concert ticket will be written as “해외팬투어” (intl fans tour), instead of your name.

My seat on the first day

My seat on the second day, center view

My seat on the second day, side view

Is there a customer service page i can rely to?

Yes. If there is one thing i would applaud SMtown travel for, it is for their customer service. I used a lot of their “Q&A” page and they typically will reply you within one business day. If you ask on weekend, they will respond to you as quick as on Monday. So if you have any like literally, ANY question about your package, just send a question to them and they will reply personally as soon as they can. And it is in english.

— Logistics

After you have bought your package, SM will update the logistics & schedule 2 WEEKS before the concert. So don’t worry if they ghosted you out before that 2 weeks lol.

Technically, they will divide the hotels according to the package type (dlx/superior/econ), then they will divide you into bus numbers, according whether you are seating/standing. Also your schedule will depends on the bus number you get. And this is non-exchangeable, as they prepared everything according to the list that they grouped you out.

How is the hotel?

For me, i got located at Ibis Styles Ambassador Hotel in Gangnam. Because I got single package, i got the whole hotel room for myself, lol what a new experience, as for my solo travels i only go for budget hostels 🤣. The hotel location is only 15~20mins subway away from the venue, and it is walking distance from COEX. There are a bunch cafes & convenience store nearby so it is pretty easy to get something. The only thing is SM’s booth opens at 8pm, so because I arrived early, I just roamed around until the booth opens. At SM’s booth, it is where you pick up your preordered merchs, sm’s merchs and most importantly draw your tickets. Also I took the chance when gathering with fellow global package goers to trade anything i needed to exchange while everyone is there.

I dont know where to put this under, but for GP, We were given a greeting card from the boys, bunch of stickers, a letter set (with colour pencil), L-holders, bunch of posters and nct127’s moodlight. For the letter set, you can decorate and write fanletter to the members and hand it to your tour guide at the time they ask you. I bought some masking tape and stickers beforehand to decorate my letter, u can prepare it ahead too and transfer it to the letter they give as the time frame is really short.

Can I go to the concert by my own?

Yes you can~ Be sure to tell your tour guide so that they dont waste time waiting. You also have to tell them whether u want to go back to hotel with them or not, as that is when they will hand you the snack boxes. If you are not certain of travelling alone in Seoul, i recommend to travel by the bus they provide, because the tour guide will bring you right until the concert entrance. For me, I wanted to join fan-events and roam around the venue more, so I decided to go on my own. (Best thing about it was when you’re in a train with fellow NCTzens they just airdrop you a lot of nct related stuffs — including the selfies they airdropped at the venue!).

— Itinerary

How tight the schedules are?

It kinda not as tight as I thought? Except for pretty early schedule on the first day, also Maybe because I got a seating ticket so I dont go to venue after the tours right away (standing fans had to queue right away after the tour)

And for me, this was my schedule —

25th 8pm: pick up merchs, ticket etc from SM booth 26th 10am - gather at hotel lobby 10:30am - depart for lunch (at Bulgogi Brothers), it was NCT127-theme and they play nct’s songs! 11:50am - depart to COEX artium - u get 1 hr to roam around there, I chose to roam around smtown museum 1pm - depart to SM C&C building in cheongdam, for special event Around 2~ish - depart back to hotel

U get free time in between and gather back at 4:30pm to depart to concert venue as concert starts at 6. As concert ends around 8:30pm, they give you about 45mins~ to get back to the bus if you wanna go back with them. 27th Bus departs at around 2 pm if i recall, as concert starts at 4pm. I went out at 10am lols (also tell your tour guide!) and bus departs around 7:30pm after the concert. 28th - check out around 12pm.

Detailed itinerary will be updated in my experience post.

The best thing about the concert period was they give you discount on some SM-related stuffs. For example, they give 30% off (?) for beverages at sm cafe for ticket/GP holders, and also discounted smtown museum admission. There were also new merchs got released that time, and some other promotions going on.

Snack box after the concert!

Merchs I collected from kfans giveaways at the venue

The best part was NCTZens spreading out the fanproject - sing Paradise during Encore; using Airdrop. NEO indeed 😎

The amount of memes & stuffs being airdropped - lol

— Budgeting

General budgeting for my trip:

Flight - around 1.6K MYR return trip with 20kg luggage & meal (AirAsia)

Hotel - i only went during my GP stay period so it was all inclusive (hotel + concert ticket) with that $949 USD

Other expenses (tmoney, food, additional merchs) - about $250 usd is enough for me for 4 days, considering I spent on buying cosmetics & merchs a lot. My own preordered merchs was separate amt too, it depends on what u do/willing to spend around that period.

— For Muslim Fans

Do they provide halal meals?

They dont provide halal meat, but you can request for vegetarian option or seafood. During lunch, I got vegetarian bibimbap set. And for the snack boxes, too bad SM provided ham/bacon in the sandwiches, which I am not confident in removing it so I decided to not eat, just eat the cookies. Also they offer late-night meals after the concert (separate pay), but I didnt opt for that one and only went to eat at nearby places.

Can I pray before the concert?

Yes~ as I mentioned earlier, there are a few hours gap before you depart to concert so you can pray at your hotel beforehand. Or if you dont mind, like I did as I went to venue early on the 2nd day, I went to pray at Olympic Park area itself, there are a lot of benches or u can walk a bit further to isolated places to pray. I just sat down at some bench and pray while sitting down.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

These are what I can think of, and as I said earlier I do have another separate post regarding my own NEO CITY: Seoul experience, and I will update under a thread. If you have any questions feel free to contact me via twitter (@sugnsook/@yudotaeil) or curiouscat.me/6sungjae. Also for neo city fancams/random pics about my trip, it will be updated eventually under the main thread where this entry is posted :) Hope it helps!

#neo city seoul #sm global package #h:blog #concert

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financiallymint · 6 years

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How Victoria from Glasgow Manages her Money

I’m very excited to be bringing you Financially Mint’s first student case study! I’m hoping to be publishing these every week so students can compare and see how others deal with student life.

The first one was done with my great friend Victoria (or Mackers, as I like to call her). After a night out in Glasgow, I whipped out some questions and recorded her answers. Some awesome answers!

If you’re interested in free coaching and what to answer these simple questions, please contact me(you don’t have to use your real name if you don’t want to ;))

So without further ado, let’s hear from Victoria!

1. Name and university

Victoria at the University of Glasgow

2. Did you take out a student loan? If so, how much are you getting?

Victoria took out a maintenance loan with SAAS. As you probably know, university is free for Scottish students in Scotland – so Victoria doesn’t need to take out a loan to pay for tuition (yay!).

She tells me she receives £475/month as a maintenance loan.

3. Is the loan enough? How else do you support yourself?

It’s just enough to cover rent and a little bit more. Her rent is £400/month, so she has 2 jobs to support and earn the rest.

She works as a waitress and tour guide. More on that below.

Related: How to Make the Most of your Maintenance Loan

4. Do you budget? How?

She doesn’t spreadsheet and calculate every little bit, but she always puts aside money for rent first.

After that she sees what’s left and as she says she ‘thinks ahead’.

Actual budgeting is a little more useful, but I know she is already pretty careful with money. To start budgeting properly (it only takes 30 min per month), check out this Student Guide: Budgeting

5. What are your tips to save money?

Walking. Walking instead of taking ubers or taxis.

Cutting down on drinking. Sometimes she’ll only have one drink at the bar. Sometimes that’s all you need.

Here are some 18 other ways you can save money in university

6. Do you have a job? What is it?

As mentioned before, she works as a waitress and tour guide. Since their both not permanent jobs, she works whenever she has time, which is about 2 days a week for her.

What she recommends: get a seasonal job. For her tour guiding job she only really works over the summer. She earns an astounding £30/hour. Great way to save up money.

7. Do you make money in any other ways?

Her parents don’t financially support her, but Victoria says she does odd jobs for them here and there and might get a few £50 (or she steals there food hehe).

Surveys and matched betting are some others quick ways to make money, but read my reviews before getting started… make sure they’re worth your time.

8. How do you find student deals and which ones do you use?

Emails.

She signs up to the newsletter of certain shops and restaurants, and gets emails whenever there’s a cool discount on. She mentions Yo Sushi, Urban Outfitters and Asos.

She also might discover discounts through friends, or even just walking around and checking out the windows. Pretty cool.

9. Ever thought of getting started with investing? What’s holding you back?

I’m always insisting on students to get started on investing, so of course I had to ask this question. Her answer: Not knowing where to invest and how much is a safe amount.

Sometimes she puts away some money and 2 months later she needs to take it out again for some reason or the other, so she’s not sure how much to put out in the first place. Do you have that experience?

If you do want to get started, read the following posts:

What the F@%K is investing?

4 Extremely Basic Steps to Get Started with Investing

10. What are some things you struggle with most at university?

She tells me she struggles most with timetabling, time management and actually doing all the work. Basically being able to have a balance between university, library, gym and a social life.

If you feel the same way feel free to check out these posts:

How to Balance Work and Study at University

Don’t Want to Worry About Money in Uni? Here’s How

11. Is university worth it, for you?

Victoria is studying at uni to learn. She says she’s hoping it will give her a job in the future, but at the moment she’s focusing on enjoying her education. She knows that we’ll probably be working 40 or 50 year long lives, and is willing to put in 4 years to get a proper education. She also says she loves meeting the people there and acquiring essential life knowledge.

Some cool posts that may interest you:

Why you should study what you love

Reaching Financial Independence in University

It was amazing to interview my friend and I think a lot of other students can learn a bit about how others are doing. What do you think of Victoria’s methods? Do you agree with her? Reblog and lemme know :D

And if you want to submit some answers for a case study, just pop me an email or send me a message on Instagram and Twitter

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maximuswolf · 3 years

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I [32F] just found this subreddit and I am crying via /r/ADHD

I [32F] just found this subreddit and I am crying

I've suspected that I might have ADHD for a while now, but when I started scrolling through the posts on this subreddit I just started bawling; so many of them could have been written by me.

The first psych I saw said I couldn't have ADHD since I had good grades. Turns out I am just really smart and good at memorization, doesn't mean I can pay attention.

Recently, I was treated for anxiety and depression with Prozac. It is working really well for both, but I found that I was still having issues with motivation and focus. I work in a lab but I am working remotely mostly now (more like remotely working since I am getting only a few hours done per week). My boss is starting to notice. My relationship with my boyfriend is suffering too - he gets upset when I forget things, or if I start looking at my phone when he's talking to me (understandably), etc.

Just for illustration purposes, here is what I did today - does it sound like I might have ADHD?:

8am - woke up and made coffee

8:15-9 worked on my paper (yay!)

9am-10 - did virtual yoga

10am - shower

11-12 researching covid vaccine safety (randomly thought about it in shower)

1 - lunch and getting ready

2pm - go to lab

2-3pm lab meeting over zoom - I forgot that i was supposed to present today. Boss seemed pretty disappointed. I didnt pay attention to anyone elses presentations. Instead, I browsed twitter and listened to a stevie nicks gypsy demo instead.

3pm-4:30pm researched why gypsy is considered a racial slur, learned a lot about the plight and oppression of the Romani people, and tried to figure out whether or not bohemian would be considered a racial slur as well (still not sure), listened to songs from the opera la boheme (and read the english translations)

4:30pm - realized i hadnt gotten any work done whilst at work. Worked a little bit on my figure. Then felt stressed about not having worked and want to go home.

5pm - biked home

5:30-6:30 facebook and twitter, went down a jill biden rabbithole (did you know Joe proposed 5 times before she said yes? lol)

6:30-7 went to riteaid and get dinner

7-7:30 ate dinner

7:30-9 learned everything i can online about emily dickinson and her lesbian lovers including reading most of her love letters to her brothers wife

9-10 watched my favorite unknown artists youtube videos trying to find the perfect one to post to reddit to try and get her more fans, decide not to post

10 - wondered what the hell is wrong with me

10-10:50 learned to play gypsy on ukulele

10:50 decided to work! went to put on a song and spend ~10 min just trying to decide what to listen to

11 put on a "brain food" playlist and then googled whether or not adhd people have a hard time keeping to do lists, then googled whether or not adhd people have a hard time watching shows (i can't watch them unless im with other people - oh or the times when I find a show actually interesting enough to watch then I'll binge watch it) and find this subreddit!

11-11:30 write this post, decide that I'll try working again tomorrow!

I have a psychiatry appointment scheduled next week. I'm really hoping he will be willing to try me on something that might help.

One thing I noticed is that I am much better at working when I was a smoker (just quit again) and also when I was on drugs that affected dopamine (Latuda and Abilify - had to quit due to side effects). So I think dopamine is a big factor in what is going on in my brain.

Really glad y'all are here too and that I'm not the only one struggling. Advice welcome.

Submitted January 22, 2021 at 12:39AM by salientalias via reddit https://ift.tt/3p8NrTw

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phakjira198 · 4 years

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Internship Reflection.

Ayee tumblr, long time no see again. Anyway there’s a lot for me to catch up to you. First of all I’m interning, but I might have mention some of that in the earlier posts. It’s been 1 month and a half already since I first started my internship and almost a month since I’ve started going to the office. So far I’ve had my up and down with the internship program. There were moments where I really enjoy it and strongly believe that this is what I was meant to do. Usually these are the moments where I can either a) get things to work properly b) coding or c) finally fix the bug. And usually to accompany those moment I’m listening to music and internally dancing at the same time. But there are also moments, where I don’t feel so good. Like most of the day like almost 65% of the day, I don’t really want to go to work. I’m not sure whether it’s actually me not wanting to go to work or something, but I just have this anxiety inside of me whenever I wake up and to be honest I’m not even sure whether it’s work relate or not, or it could just simply be because my digestive system is not so good. (because currently it’s Saturday morning and I still have that feeling 🎉). Now that I think about it, it’s probably not work related and is probably just a general issue that I have that I need to fix. Anyway back to work related issue, there are also things that I don’t enjoy about work. For example, when there’s no clear thing for me to do. I don’t enjoy those moment. In addition to that, when I had to observe the timeLag behaviour that was quite boring.

Now let’s talk a bit about what I love about Agoda. Honestly, I think the work environment here is great. Every single one of my team member is so nice and helpful. And I love how flat the organisation, I mean the VP table is so close to me and his desk is just like the rest of ours. And the day before I casually walked pass the CEO room, which has glass door so we can see him all the time lol. Moreover, when I was facing an issue with negative timeLag, my manager/ magager’s manager even have to talk with the VP about we could do to fix this and he pitched in idea as well. So that was very cool.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been happy with where I’m at. Like for university, I have lot of doubt and concern about my own university’s quality. So I don’t feel completely satisfied with it. And for me joining a program like Champ. At first I was so excited about it and was so glad that I got in. But when I’m actually at the thing for a while, I don’t particularly like it or enjoy it that much. I mean I still kinda do, but I don’t feel great about it and it make me feel bad about myself. But not with this internship, for this I was excited about it, and after a month and a half into to it I still enjoy it and it makes me feel good about myself. Which is a feeling that have been missing from me for a while, so it’s quite good to have that feeling back.

And Agoda has this intern internal pitch thingy, where they split the interns into teams and the we have to pitch an idea that will help Agoda disrupt the travel industry. At first I was quite worry about my team because everybody in the team seems to be so awkward and quiet and just don’t socialise, you know just like me. But then after working with them for a while, I really like all of them. Like they’re all incredibly smart and are good at what they’re doing. It helps to remind me not to judge a book by its cover, and that first impression doesn’t really count. (especially since you’re own first impression is not that great either and it takes like a year to get to know you and for you to be yourself around them 🎉) And since all of us are quite awkward and shy, we didn’t talk and mingle that much, so we worked quite fast. The first time they announced the team and we met. The other teams, they were getting to know each other better and bonding and all that shit. But our team talk about work straight away and got a rough idea about what we’re going to do. Then we only met once to refined that idea for like an hour, while the other team took much longer to work on it. And when we’re doing the pitch coach thingy, we were already starting to work on our presentation slides while the other teams were still discussing their ideas. Any way to sum things up we work smart and not work hard. (which is what we should always be doing). Like I didn’t have to do that much extra work out of our meeting team, only an hour something to work on 1 slide , which was quite fun. Then maybe a couple hours more to work and the script and practice pitching it. But it didn’t feel like a lot of work at all; it felt like a team effort and I don’t have to carry it or feel like all of the responsibility is on me (like what I usually feel a lot of time when it come to school work). Anyway, I enjoyed it very much, and we won!!!! 🎉🎉🎉 We won first place, and my pitch was an absolute bomb (in a good way). Like I totally rock that presentation.

My pitch presentation was an absolute bombshell. To be honest, I don’t know whether it was actually an absolute bombshell or not because I didn’t watch myself present and I’m not sure whether I would be able to watch myself present or not because don’t know whether they actually recorded it or not. There was a livestream that our team (as in adp-messaging) watched through bluejean, but don’t know whether P’Bow recorded it or not. If she did, then I would really like to watch myself present. Anyway as soon as finished my presentation and walk back to my seat, Teerat gave a thumb up and said that I did great which made me feel good. Thank you very much. Then when there was a 10 min break, which was right after my presentation. One guy, came up to me (well he didn’t came up to me, he just walked pass me) and said that he heard I was good but he didn’t think I would be THAT good. (and to be honest I have a minor crush on him rn, help I’m so weak. Just a tiny bit of interaction with a guy and I start to develop feeling for him, like how pathetic am I, but there’s a little bit more to that which I’ll talk about more in another post. Well, there’s really nothing much more to that but my head imagination has a lot more to it lol). And a couple more friends said that I was great, and that I shouldn’t be an engineer and should do something marketing and PR instead (yeah right ~ sarcastically). But to be honest, when they were saying that thing I didn’t really know how to feel. Especially after I won, I really don’t know how to act. I wasn’t feeling happy, or excited or proud. It was a strange feeling, I was afraid that people would think I’m bragging or they would think that I think that I’m better than everyone (which is absolutely the last thing that would actually come to my mind. Never in the whole wide world would I ever think that). Anyway it was after a while, like 5 hours later when I’m by myself and there was not congratulations from peeps, when I actually started to feel proud of myself, and happy, and excited. It’s like I was unable to process that emotion initially and it took me 5 hours to process that, or maybe it was the fact that I was by myself. And I think maybe because partly because one my friends didn’t feel particularly good about her own pitch ( I mean, I think she did great, she was the first one who got up), so I didn’t want to be all oohhh I’m so happy I won and all that shit. Anyway, later that night I posted on twitter that I won a pitch for the first time in my life even though there was only 6 teams competing and they are literally all my friends. When I posted every single one of my friends on twitter liked it and was happy for me, they all said congratulations and all that shit and it made me feel good and love. And my mom was the best as well, she was very happy and proud of me. My dad was a little bit น้อยใจ I think because I didn’t tell him that I have a pitch or a presentation coming up, usually he’ll know about this kind of stuff. But since I’ve been coming home late and waking up late, he didn’t see me practice and didn’t know about the presentation until I’ve already won. So he had to process it a little bit. Any way he was happy for me the morning after when he had already processed everything lol 555. To go back to the presentation a little bit. I wasn’t really nervous about the presentation that much because a) there wasn’t that much people only like 30 b) because I believe in what I presented, I actually believe that it’s a good idea and that we could actually win. There’s no major flaw in the presentation that we created, it was a solid presentation and I was proud to present it. A lot of the time when I’m presenting I always have doubt and was never really confident about what I was going to present. Especially when it come to school presentation, I’m always so worry about the presentation material itself, about hitting all those criteria to get a the perfect grade. And I think that’s one of the reason why I’m nervous when I’m doing most of my presentation, but this wasn’t really the case. In addition to that, a lot of the time that I do my presentation there’s always some flaw that I’ve identified, or some area of improvement that could be made it to, but even after knowing that I don’t make any changes because I’m too lazy, and then when I’m presenting I worry about this kinda stuff so the presentation doesn’t end up that good. But again this is not the case with this presentation, I was very confident with what we have prepared. The bottom line here is that if I’m actually proud of what I’m doing (which is not a lot of thing, I tend to do things half ass a lot) then that thing is actually good, I can guarantee it.

Another big finding that I found, well it’s not really a new finding but it’s actually the first time that I’m accepting and acknowledging it. I am EXTREMELY lazy. Like my favourite thing to do is to simply do nothing. Like whenever I get home from work I just want to do nothing and watch a sitcom. I mean it’s understandable because I’ve been quite tired from work, but still I should be doing something that I love right, like playing piano, reading book, or writing my journal. But I don’t because I’m even too lazy to even do the thing that I love. This is a very big issue that I have to fix. I can’t be too lazy to do the thing that I love. I think my biggest goal for the second half of the year is to simply watch less sitcom and do nothing less and try to do something more.

On more thing that I need to write about is the intern review :).

wrote on the 17 - 18 July 2020

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osum · 4 years

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The post above made me laugh for days. It’s true though, they say change is possible and can begin small and be incremental. During this COVID-19 maternity leave I squandered a lot of time. Admittedly for 2 of those months I had a newborn and was sleeping odd hours and had a 2-year-old. Regardless, those can be seen as excuses.

In late March most and most of April I completed the contracted time with a client for my online marketing business. I completed a continuing education credit for my medical interpreting certification. I completed training for a position I did not find suitable after all. I began work on a business plan with a colleague. I ran 26.5 miles, lost 4.2 lbs wrote 1 blog post, and read 2 books (audiobooks). Of course there were daily dinners on the table, packed lunches and bathtime, and bedtime. It was while barely keeping up with all these things that I decided that I needed a more systematic way of achieving my goals.

I was stumbling onto this feeling at the end of the year too, which is when I bought the Habit Roadmap for myself from The Best Self Co. It’s a tracker to manually write and track goals. I started using it but didn’t stick with it. I was annoyed by my lack of success with this tool.

I found a free app, Strides to track my progress. Simply using this app coupled with my obsessive-compulsive personality and the need to check off the bubble each day, I completed 30 days of 3 goals and added another goal 10 days after starting the first 3 goals. These goals weren’t necessarily big, but they are important to me.

The three goals I set for myself were to brush my teeth twice a day – once after breakfast, and once before bed. This seems silly but it’s unbelievable how many nights I’m tired and go to bed without a proper routine. My second goal was to hunker down and focus on my real estate education (one hour per day) so I can take the test and sell real estate as a side hustle or maybe more. The third goal was to consistently take my birth control – because another baby right now would sure derail all the other plans I have – duh. The goal that I added after 10 days of success with the original goals was to pump (breastmilk) daily, so that I could have enough milk stored up for my baby when I return to work in a week and a half.

On April 23rd listened to an episode of The Morning Struggle Podcast about changes to the morning routine that could be helpful. They mentioned rising an hour earlier to have an hour in the morning that was productive. In my case that would be 5 am. It seemed rough but also doable. Just one week prior I had inadvertently been waking up rather early to prepare for an all week online training starting at 7 am since the trainers were on the East Coast – and that went rather well. So I purposefully started waking up at 5 am, pumping then heading out for a short run where I would listen to more podcasts/audiobooks and set my head straight. I’d return by 6 at which time one or both of our boys were awake and my husband was tending to them. At first I felt bad that on a couple of occasions I got up at 5 and the boys got up shortly after which made my husband get up a lot earlier than he would like. But luckily he was a good sport, and within a couple weeks the boys mainly slept again until their regular time (roughly 6 a.m.).

I’m happy to report that yesterday was my 30th day of the first 3 goals. I successfully brushed my teeth every day twice a day. I didn’t think about before and after pictures before, so here’s the best picture I can find of me closest to the start of the 30 days and one of me today. Pretty. Haha. More important, dental health is a gateway to overall health so it’s a big deal if I continue to maintain this habit.

4-16-20

5-21-20

In the 30 days I finished my first of three courses to take the real estate exam! That’s a huge deal. It makes me wish I’d focused sooner. Regardless, now that I know how to do this, I hope to be ready to take the exam for my birthday (mid-August).

This goal was a little challenging because it required undivided attention for an hour a day, so I made it manageable by taking advantage of any time that I had available. I’ve recently learned that babies have awake periods that last 90 minutes, so I was able to more or less predict when my baby would be sleeping. He sleeps for 20-40 minutes, so the minute he would fall asleep I would start the ‘Tomato Timer’ app on my phone – basically just a countdown timer- and set my phone to airplane mode to prevent calls, texts, and notifications from coming in, and I would focus until he woke up or I completed my hour. So, somedays I’d do three stretches of 20 minutes, other days – rarely- I could get the full hour in one sitting!

When I spent more time than the hour, I would accumulate it in 5 minute increments on a post it note which I could ‘cash in’ on a weekend day/night when the family schedule got out of hand. So in this post it below, I have 45 min accrued, and upon the completion of the full hour, I can use it as sort of coupon for a day off from studying. This was very welcomed when it seemed like there was no way I would get to sit at all, or it was too late to begin to focus. An hour can seem like a lot or can seem like a little but I heard something very worthwhile in one of the books I listened to most recently: Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo. While people think they don’t have time, when they take inventory of their time, a lot of it is wasted. We are consuming other peoples creativity instead of ourselves being the creators. We are making other people’s goals come true (by being one more viewer, or consumer) before prioritizing our own goals. If a doctor diagnosed us with a condition cured only by sitting quietly for an hour, we’d surely find the time. So it’s worth finding the time to do the things that move us forward.

The reason I liked this concept is because it ties back to the hour of power that I learned about in Leadership Santa Barbara and that concept helped me develop the 10 Hours to the F*ck It Bucket.

My third goal isn’t super exciting but this pill has to be taken at the same time every day to be most effective, so it worked well to have it be one of the last things I did each night coupled with brushing my teeth before bed so that I could check off both goals before putting my phone away for the night.

Lastly the goal I added 10 days into this process was to pump breast milk. It’s hard when you have a good supply and a breastfeeding baby that feeds on demand to prioritize storage of milk, but eventually, I’m sure he’ll need it, and I will need to do it a lot more often, so I figured I’d start now. Here’s where we are so far in 20 days + the rare times I did pump prior to that.

The last accomplishment of this 30 day window is one that I cannot claim for myself although I did play a role. My husband, my toddler’s caretaker and I have worked on potty training Lucca. We started the same day that I started logging my goals and he’s doing very well. He’s not quite there, but my goal was for him to be potty trained by the time I return to work and I think he’ll make it.

The point of this post is to reflect back on some accomplishments but more importantly to outline the process that can work for me again and for you too. I have questions about the process, like: what happens after 30 days? Do I keep working on the same goals or adding or swapping out new ones? How will this work when I get back to work? My thought is that goals are fluid. Habits are permanent and it’s important to recognize the difference.

Please let me know if you have any apps that you recommend or anectdotes of times you’ve tried to change things successfully or unsuccessfully and what made the difference. Thanks!

By Olivia Uribe Mutal – @osum on Twitter

30 Days of Focus. What can be achieved in 30 days and how to do it. The post above made me laugh for days. It's true though, they say change is possible and can begin small and be incremental.

#inspiration #productivity #reflections

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namandutree · 4 years

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KIM MYUNGSOO in MANILA 2020 Hello! Sorry for being inactive. I’ve been also inactive on my stan twitter account. But since I miss posting here on tumblr, just wanna share my moments here on this platform. By the way, thank you for the 333 followers. I am stunned with the followers who keep following me despite being inactive in here. November 23, 2019 - the ticket selling day. Before the fanmeeting details has been released, I was supposed to watch a korean band concert (Day6), in which I had a trouble convincing my mom that I will be watching a concert in Manila (I live in a province that’s why she’s so hesitant to allow me and it’s expensive for me since I have to pay not only for the concert ticket, but also for my plane fare and pocket money). Just a little bit of sweet talk with my mom, and then she gave in. My best friend was supposed to help me with my ticket purchasing, but I kinda changed my mind before the ticket selling, and that time, the details about Myungsoo’s fanmeeting has been spilled out and I had a hard time choosing between the two events. And since the concert of Day6 (which was on Nov. 23, the same day as the ticket selling), might be a conflict to my thesis defense sched, I chose to attend Myungsoo’s fanmeeting instead (well why should I not, they are my ultimate babies). I actually told mom SOME white lies 🤣. All she knew was my best friend was treating me the concert ticket, when in reality, I saved up a money for it and even though I had problems, someone still helped me through it. I actually want to thank God for it. Ticket selling day. This was the day after the important event we had from our college department. I couldn’t really enjoy the party the night before the day of the ticket selling because I was scared and I was having thoughts that “what if we couldn’t purchase). So the ticket selling day. There was a major black out in the whole province that day. Just how things gets worse. I woke up early because me and my friend have to meet up early for the ticket selling since the site where we will be buying the ticket will open the ticket selling at 9 am so I had to wake up up at 8 am. Also, since there’s a black out, I had to search for open computer shops and I had a hard time, my friend also searched for it and I already went to 3-4 computer shops that has a fast speed internet, but all of it were closed. 😭 Luckily, my inspirit friend found an open computer shop, and I rushed there. It was already past 9 and we were panicking. The other friend we have who is also buying along with us is also panicking because she’s in manila. So we can only communicate through messenger. She tried to purchase the Loge tickets, Row 1, but unfortunately, there was something wrong with her debit card when purchasing, and we can only hold the ticket for 10 mins. So after 10 mins, the tickets were already taken by other buyers. Fortunately, I already asked my mutual friend if we can borrow her credit card in case there will be an error, so we used her credit card and ended up on Balcony row 6, but the venue is only small so it’s still worth the shot. We were super excited when we got tickets. It will be my first KPOP event. Jan. 8, 2020 - LEADERNIM KIM SUNGGYU IS FINALLY BACK FROM THE MILITARY Day of the fanmeeting (Jan. 12, 2020) So since I live in the province, I had to take a plane to go to Manila. I arrived in Manila on Jan. 11, 2020. I will be staying with my best friend, who lives just a few minutes from the venue. I’ve already been to the venue once so I’m already familiar with it. I bought Myungsoo some snacks from our province. And I also had trouble on handling it to the admin who is in-charged on it but I luckily, I did. And I hope he got some of it and enjoyed it. On the fanmeeting day, I had breakfast with my best friend before I head out to the hotel, where my friend and other inspirit mutuals were staying. I will be staying for the night in there after the event with them. I knew where Myungsoo was staying, I was there to meet one of the admins of BIPH but I didn’t dare to wait for him. We still have a long day to go. So I went to the hotel where my friends are staying, and met up with them. They were so energetic and loud (shout out to them, I really enjoyed their company). My friend and my other mutual friend had to head out for the cupsleeve event of the other group we are stanning (clue: their disbandment was rlly injustice 😭) and then few hours we head out to the Kim Myungsoo cupsleeve event. The queue line was so long since the cafe they chose for the event was only small, so we had to wait a little bit outside, we met some of the closed inspirit friends I have and it was the first time meeting them. But I had to go back to the first cupsleeve event I went to to hang out some more with my other mutuals. I also got my fanmeeting goods. At 2pm, I bid my goodbye to them since I had to fall in line for the physical ticket. Since we purchase online, we wanted to convert our E-tickets into physical tickets for remembrance. The line was also long and the staff keep saying that they will be closed at 3pm but they had no choice but to accommodate the fans who were falling in line. I met other mutuals. I also gave away the freebies that me and my friend got for the fans. I was mobbed. But it was ok. And there was actually a funny thing on my encounter with my mutuals. I met them on the crossroad. I was walking on the pedestrian line and they were about to but I ran to them and they were shocked that they ended up backing out from crossing. 😂😂 Ok back to the main event! Since we were in balcony, we had to take the stairs that will lead us upstairs. We fell in line for 20-30 minutes or longer so me and my friends chatted. And then when we went inside, it was WOW. You know that feeling when you enter a concert venue? Yeah THAT feeling. We were really really excited. We went to our respective seats and met some of our mutuals. We had a countdown and when past 6pm came, we already expected that they will be a little bit late (Filipino time lol) and when a VTR of Myungsoo played on the screen, loud screams were heard on the venue, and then AN ANGEL CAME OUT ON STAGE. He is so handsome, he was wearing white and he LITERALLY LOOK LIKE A REAL ANGEL. He started singing one of his ost songs. I don’t want to elaborate the whole happenings. Miss Sunny was the emcee, and Myungsoo was far from who we knew as L. We were seeing a KIM MYUNGSOO on that night. He is such a gentleman, and cute. And he really responds to Miss Sunny so kindly and cutely. He even offered her and his translator water. Of course he changed his clothes and the event went by. He had games and segments and he interacted with the fans really well. There were a lot of fanservice from Myungsoo, a lot of fans were given the chance to either have games with him, take a selfie with him, and even be hugged by him. Lucky to those who were called on stage. We keep on chanting One more, One more, so more fans were given the chance lol. And oh, I actually wanted to thank my friend for lending me her extra yeobong because I still havent gotten the chance to buy either version 1 or 2 that time but when woollim restocked the version 2 last february for Gyu’s concert, I finally reserved one! Yay. So the event went on. Myungsoo went down to the crowd on MVP and VIP section to walk while performing. During TMI of Myungsoo, he told us the things he did the moment he woke up until he went to the venue. He actually thought it will take him longer to arrive on the venue due to the traffic but his hotel was only 3-5 mins away 😂. He keep on telling his manager “Yah minseo-ah i’m hangery”. His accent was really cute 🤣. And he actually strolled around Gateway mall and lucky fans met him in there. And then he mentioned about the mango juice that people are drinking so he drank one also 🤣 and he keep saying toot to censor the things like Starbucks and etc 🤣🤣. So he just talked about his upcoming drama, sang more songs, only his OST, he also sang one INFINITE song, he even told us that he will be back with INFINITE next time. But due to the sudden happenings in the Philippines, the Taal volcano erupted on the same time and Manila was already affected by the ashfall even though the Taal was far. So Myungsoo had to end the event early for the safety of everyone (fans still have to travel and go home which will be risky due to the high alert of the volcano). We were sad but we understood it too. And Myungsoo was also not feeling well, so he didnt continue the things he was supposed to do. He was still about to sing some songs I think and we had a banner project for him and we were about to sing along while he sing to an INFINITE song but the even were directed to the hitouch and photoop. We went downstairs since all of the ticket holders have a hitouch with Myungsoo. We were really excited, and I was figuring out how to hide my phone while pointing to Myung when I hitouch him, I put it on my bag, and I could see him abit from afar since someone was blocking my view 😭 and when we went on stage, it was quick 😭 I was distracted by his manager and by the people around him I though I could entwine my hand with him but it was only hitouch. But BRMSKFJDJD HE LOOKS REALLY HANDSOME, A REAL VISUAL, AN ANGEL, ETHEREAL, ALL THE POSITIVE ADJECTIVES COULD DESCRIBE HIM. IT FEELS SURREAL. LIKE I WANTED TO GO BACK INSIDE AND JUST STARE AT HIM ALL DAY. After the Hitouch, we went out and screamed and met some of our friends and took pictures with them. When we met the mutuals that we will be staying in the hotel with, we actually decided to go at the side of the venue, the VIP GATE. We waited there. We were so sure that Myungsoo will exit in there. And then when a car pulled off the driveway, we saw Myungsoo’s silhouette inside since we were on the other side of his car. But at least it was an unforgettable moment. We also met one of his managers and he was funny. 😂 We also met some of Myungsoo’s fansite and MADE IN L IS REALLY PRETTY IRL. I think Myungsoo was supposed to take his flight on that night back to Korea? But due to the volcanic eruption, all flights were cancelled. When me and my friends went to look for a restaurants/food chains to eat, we already felt the ashfall outside. It was alarming, and the smell coming from the eruption was actually not good for the health. And the new people we met that night had both of their flights cancelled. And also the flights that our friends have on that midnight were cancelled so they had to stay one more night in the hotel. We went back to the hotel and that’s it. We also got a lot of freebies from anyone. Thankies

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paulpowder2-blog · 5 years

Text

Syn Free Mexican Spaghetti Squash Bake

Mexican Spaghetti Squash Bake – both healthy and delicious with bold flavours, black beans and melted golden cheese.

Spaghetti squash has to be up there at the top of my list for favourite vegetables. It’s so versatile and can be used in a variety of really creative ways to create the most delicious healthy dishes.

Before I moved to Canada, I probably would not have even known what spaghetti squash is. But now with it available at pretty much every grocery store here, it’s a regular item in my grocery cart.

Spaghetti Squash is pretty unique in that once cooked resembles strands of spaghetti, so is a perfect natural gluten free replacement for pasta or noodles and a great speed food to add to your plate.

Perfect with spaghetti bolognese instead of pasta, add it to your chow mein instead of noodles, or do a half and half mix if you really can’t live without the pasta.

Another favourite way to use cooked spaghetti squash is in a delicious cheesy bake like this Mexican Spaghetti Squash Bake. Seriously it’s so darn flavoursome, I could eat it every week.

and if Mexican inspired flavours don’t tempt you, check out my:

so many yummy choices, right??

To cook the spaghetti squash, my favourite method is in the oven see my How to Cook Spaghetti Squash, it’s a really simple method and gives you perfect long strands of squash instead of short.

Once you have the cooked spaghetti squash you can then turn it into this yummy Mexican Spaghetti Squash Bake.

Looking for some additional support on your weight loss journey? Did you know Slimming Eats has a friendly Slimming World Facebook Support Group where you can get daily meal ideas and recipe ideas? Come and check us out, we’d love to have you join us.

How can I add a 1/3 speed foods to this Syn Free Mexican Spaghetti Squash Bake?

You are totally covered with this dish, seeing as the majority of the dish is speed foods, so dig and enjoy without any of the guilt. But just in case you want to increase those speed foods even further, a side salad goes perfectly with a nice big slice.

Help!! I can’t find spaghetti squash anywhere I hear you say. If you have one of these handy 5 blade spiralizer, you can try substituting the spaghetti squash for some spiralized butternut squash strands. I recommend just saute it in a pan with a bit of spray oil just to soften slightly before mixing it with the other ingredients.

What Kitchen Items do I need to make this Syn Free Mexican Spaghetti Squash Bake?

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See the handy Pinterest image below if you wish to pin this for later 🙂

Yield: 4

Mexican Spaghetti Squash Bake - both healthy and delicious with bold flavours, black beans and melted golden cheese.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

For the Mexican Sauce

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 cup (240ml) of crushed tomatoes (passata)

1 cup (240ml) of chicken or vegetable stock

1 tbs of tomato paste

2 teaspoons of paprika

1.5 teaspoon of chilli powder

1.5 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon of oregano

1/2 teaspoon of onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

For the Bake

3 cups of spaghetti squash, cooked

2 eggs, beaten

10 grape tomatoes, chopped

1 tbs chopped fresh coriander, cilantro

60g (2oz) of cheddar

100g (3.5oz) of mozzarella

1 cup (170g) of black beans, canned

cooking oil spray

Instructions

For the Mexican Sauce

Spray a saucepan with some spray oil over a medium high heat

Add the onion and garlic and fry for approx 2 mins to soften.

Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, stock and spices and bring to a boil

Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken. Set aside

For the Bake:

Preheat oven to 200c/400f (gas mark 6)

Add the spaghetti squash to a large bowl, along with the sauce, eggs and black beans, season with a little salt and black pepper

Mix till all combined.

Spray the oven proof dish with some cooking oil spray.

Add the spaghetti squash mix to the dish.

Top with the cheeses.

Bake in the oven for 30 mins until the cheese is melted and golden.

Top with the chopped tomatoes and sprinkle with fresh chopped coriander

Slice, serve and enjoy!!

Notes

This recipe is gluten free, vegetarian, Slimming World and Weight Watchers friendly

Extra Easy - 1 HEa per serving

Green/Vegetarian - 1 HEa per serving

WW Smart Points - 5 per serving

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1 Amount Per Serving:Calories: 311 Total Fat: 14g Saturated Fat: 7g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 6g Cholesterol: 129mg Sodium: 671mg Carbohydrates: 29g Fiber: 8g Sugar: 8g Protein: 19g

Nutritional information is an estimate and is to be used for informational purposes only. Ingredients can vary greatly from brand to brand and therefore it would be impossible to give accurate information.

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sassenach-j · 7 years

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ECCC2017 goodness: my recap

Ok, so I've actually never written a blog, nor am I on tumblr too much, but I had such an incredible experience at my first comicon that I thought I should write a bit about it! Let's see how this goes. It all started when Sam and Cait (and Eddie), posted that OH SO ADORABLE video from the makeup trailer telling everyone they would be at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. I was so busy at work that day, it was almost a blur. Twitter was abuzz about it, and my girlfriends and I were messaging back and forth like....I'm going, how can I not go, are you going? We have to go! And before I knew it, I was telling one of them...just buy me a ticket!! I'll make it work! And alas....ECCC2017 was a go. The opportunity to see Sam and Cait in person, and also a chance to meet 7 of the most wonderful girlfriends in the same city? SIGN ME UP! The first night in Seattle was so much fun! 7 of us (none of us had ever met, but have been talking on twitter every day for about a year), completely clicked so seamlessly, it was like we had met 10 times before! Meeting them was seriously the highlight. Ok yes, seeing Sam and Cait at the same con was also an out of body experience :). Besides majorly fangirling over seeing our faves the following day, the night i arrived at the hotel and meeting and spending hours laughing and drinking and eating lots of non MPC approved snacks, and playing Cards Against Humanity, and Never Have I Ever.... was priceless! The next day, on verra little sleep (how can we sleep when we were gonna see Sam and Cait the next morning!!), we arrived at the convention center at 7:15am. We mayyyy have gotten 4 hours of sleep night before, and that’s being generous! The doors were going to open around 10am, and we just HAD to get up close and personal at that panel. We arrived so early we were super close to the front of the line. It wasn't so much a line as a....smush together and stand for 3.5 hours... But heck, for them it was worth it, sore bodies and all.

They didn't let us in until 10:30, so needless to say our legs were about to fall off. When the time came to herd us thru, the organizers said..."no running".... ummm...yeah good luck with that. So we "walked super fast" and tried to get pretty close, but our squad of 8 kinda broke up in the shuffle and some of us grabbed seats in row 5, and the other girls a few rows behind. Still great vantage points! Cait came out first looking absolutely adorable. And in that leather jacket she wears soooo well. She looked beautiful in all black! Then Sam came out IN A KILT! Hallelujah!! It's been so long, I was like...are my eyes deceiving me?? They were not. And then he killed us with a wee kilt twirl. Lawwwwwd! Cait laughed! They seriously make each other laugh, oh...about every 5 seconds. And they were both wearing black leather jackets. As per usual...matchy matchy. The panel was great! They're just SO giggly and adorable and happy together, you can't help but feel the same! I love how much Cait teases him. It's the cutest thing ever to witness in person! They truly are just such bright lights and so engaging and caring and they love their fans so much. It's so evident when you watch them together.

There were tons of Q&A questions, and one of my girls, @heyheykatiemae asked one too!! It was perfect. Cait said ‘Hi Kate’...and I think we all died. Of course, after the fact, I now have like tons of questions I'll ask next time! The panel was about an hour or so, and after taking tons of pictures (most came out blurry....damn those low lights in the event room!), alas, the panel was over. We all had autograph tickets for Sam and/or Cait for that day after the panel but the room was already full so we were told we can go back for the 2nd shift around 4pm. So instead, we grabbed lunch and then headed to the hotel where they were doing the group photos! Omg, soon enough I would get my samcait sandwich!!! Kind of a dream! Long lines were completely fine bc it gave us time to catch our breath. Although, the nerves were definitely rampant! I mean, these two beautiful humans would be NEXT TO US in a matter of minutes. Never having a con experience before I didn't know what to expect regarding the photos . People around us who had already taken their solo pic with Sam said it's super quick and u barely have enough time to say hi! I wore my Unusual Lady tshirt, and under it I had my MPC shirt. Yes, my plan was to flash Sam the MPC shirt after Cait saw my Unusual Lady shirt. I also recently got into knitting so I knitted them both hats! Granted they'll be in 80 degree temps in South Africa, but eventually they'll be back in cold Scotland! Hearing that the photos would be super fast, I had no clue how I would say hi (or ramble incoherently), give them their hats, flash Sam (uhh the MPC shirt, that is), AND take a pic w them in the minimal time allotted! I was on line to take my pic, and after dropping off my jacket and bags on the nearby table, I heard NEXT! I saw them standing there and omg are they tall and gorgeous, and as I walked up to them I THINK I held out my arms and said Hiiiiii! I heard Cait scream and point to my shirt and smile! My unusual lady shirt!! I quickly pulled up my shirt to show Sam the MPC one underneath. And omg thank goodness I held down the shirt so there was no actual flashing 😳.. and he pointed and smiled and said that's great! I then mumbled...I knitted you both hats! Mind u, as I walked up, someone literally snatched my bag with the hats from me and put them into a box with other gifts. So after I said I knitted u two hats, I remember Sam saying oh great! In the blink of an eye I was between the two of them, and both of their arms were around me, and mine around them. Hello out of body experience.

Oh wait...let's back up slightly. So the day of the Con, I said to the girls..ok so I want to show Sam my MPC shirt after Cait sees the unusual lady shirt , and I said my fear is that I'll forget to pull my shirt down for the pic. Well, lo and behold half of my shirt was up for the pic. 🙈. As I was flashing Sam, I heard the organizer go MOVE. Umm gee, thanks for the time. So I ran between them for the pic and I remember pulling my shirt down, but I guess not all the way! When the pic was printed I was like oh nooooo 😂. But heck, it gives the pic more of a pop of color, and to be honest, no one is even looking at me when those two stunning humans are in that pic! Ok so back to being in between them... they both really squeeze tight and I remember that feeling so well! The photographer said.. READYYYY ... and then there was the FLASH. Then he yelled NEXT ! I said thanks and ran off. Problem was I ran the wrong way bc I was so flustered and then I hear someone say..wrong way! And I ran back to the correct exit side like a chicken with my head cut off. Thankfully there was no video of this! I tried to wait for my friends bc I was the first to go, but we had to move it along. After we were all done, there was a lot of screaming and squee'ing!! It really felt so rushed and I wish they gave us more time, but omg it was still so amazing taking a pic w them! They really are so tall in person! And so gorgeous and so kind!! Sam's leather jacket was so soft! And I remember putting my arm around Cait and it ended up on her arm! And Sam's hand ended up on my side and his fingers were pressed down. *faints*

So after we picked up our hard copy pics, we had a little time before the autographs. We composed ourselves. Ok, who am I kidding, there was zero composure as we all rehashed our picture experience with one another! We were freaking out! Next stop...the autographs! We lined up rather early but neither Sam nor Cait were in the room as of yet. It was so intimate! Didn't realize the room would be so small and cozy. They each had their own table next to one another but they were somewhat on opposite ends. After about 10min or so, Sam came in! So he walked in to all of us hootin and hollerin. I can't believe I just used the phrase hootin & hollerin. Does anyone say that anymore? Anyway.... when he walked in he did his cute schoolboy smile and wave. Granted I was just next to him for a photo but he was so close again! Cait was gonna be another few minutes bc she was still taking individual photos with fans. Because of this, they allowed the people who only had Sam autographs to move up in line while the others (I only had Cait bc Sam was already sold out) waited on Cait. I actually thought that half of the room would start to move up in the line, but it was only maybe 10 people or so. The others had both Sam and Cait, or just Cait. After a few min Cait arrived to a raucous applause. Not to mention a banging on the table by Sam when she walked in, and his big smile at her as she sat down. Such an adorable goober! Ok where was I... so we were waiting for the line to move and all of a sudden the lights went out! Then u hear Cait go... ladies, this is not the way to get to Sam! 😂 To which everyone laughed. When the lights came back up, both Sam and Cait were leaning back in their chair looking at each other and smiling. They continue to kill us. Sam was just sitting there alone, cause at the time no one was lined up at his table. So he made a funny comment like, where is everyone? I was standing so close and decided to talk to him. Cause I mean...why not, right? So I said yeah what's the deal. I said something like I'll keep you company. So he looks at me and goes (with a hand waving gesture) come on over. And then he winked. And then I died. I of course wasn't allowed to hop over the rope (darn), but that wink and smile was everything. A few minutes later Sam walked over to Cait, put his arm around her and scrunched down to her, whispered something, and then stood up and hand gestured that she talks too much, basically saying that's why he has no one in his line. Haha! He's the cutest, and he can never stay away from her! She laughed. We all swooned.

So I had brought with me the main promo card picture of Jamie and Claire from S1. I had Ron D. Moore sign it while ago and thought it would be great for Cait to sign it too. I was so sad I wasn't able to buy Sam's autograph ticket bc he was sold out. Cait is seriously so stunning. She just radiates joy. She is so genuine and so warm and friendly. You could truly tell she was having such a great time! She needs to go to cons more often! She's just so real, you can't help but smile in her presence. I was so thrilled to see how much love she was getting at this con. I mean...we all love Sam, that goes without saying! But Cait never attends these events, so to see all the attention and admiration from the fans, it was really a sight to behold. Both she and Sam are legit mesmerizing in person! They are just so beautiful, with such beautiful hearts. Sorry, got distracted there for a minute...ok, so it was finally time to walk up to Cait. I had my season 1 promo pic for her to sign, as well as a gorgeous pic of Cait that a couple of my friends & I had printed out to surprise one of our girls who couldn't be here. You really do lose all sense of speech when looking right at her! She signed both pictures and then i rambled. Earlier on, when I took my pic with her and Sam, I had brought them hats that I knitted, but someone snagged them from me so fast and put them into a box, so I asked Cait about it! *burrows head in sand*. I was like...hi! Question for you! So when we took our pic, someone took these hats I had knitted for you and Sam, and I was was wondering if you'll get them? So she goes, oh yes, they put everything in a big box for us and we'll definitely get it! She thanked me! Then she looked at my unusual lady shirt and said, with a big smile, thank you so much for supporting. I said oh of course, I'm so happy to. It's such a great charity and you do amazing work. She thanked me again, and I floated away. So, as I mentioned earlier, I didn't have a Sam autograph, but after leaving Cait's table you end up walking right past Sam to head out of the room. No one was in front of him at the time, so I verrrrry slowly walked by, while holding my picture that Cait just signed. His handler (not sure if that's the correct name) holds out his hand (to take my autograph ticket), but I said...I don't have one *sad face*, he was sold out. He felt so bad that he handed me (also with a sad face), one of Sam's headshots that was sitting there, unsigned. So I said thank you and then Sam looked up at me. He also held his hand out for my pictures, and I said....you were sold out, so you won't be able to sign my picture. I still had my sad face on, which was valid! He looked sad too and said oh noooo. He then put out his hand and goes..I'll sign it! Then he takes the picture from me. His handler lady says, did u buy an autograph? I was lost in the moment & didn't say anything, so she gives Sam a dirty look, he looks at her, continues to sign and goes...I'll pay for this one. DEATH. DEAD. GONE. He's the sweetest person in the world!! I cannot believe he did that! Then I proceeded to say thank you and blurted out...I'M A PEAKER TOO! I DID A 5K LAST WEEKEND. Yes, I blurted! He goes oh that's great! So good, way to do it. Then I left....walked into the hallway, and screamed with my girl Katie, because she was standing there next to me basically the entire time while waiting to have him sign her picture. So yeah...that moment was kind of everything.

Sam and Cait are just incredibly generous and genuine. Such good people. The OL fans at this con were so respectful and gracious and I enjoyed meeting other twitter and tumblr fans, as well! It was just the thrill of a lifetime seeing Sam and Cait together at the con. And what made it even better was getting to spend it with 7 of the best girlfriends, and going thru this experience together. They also had incredible experiences with both Sam and Cait, as highlighted wonderfully in @heyheykatiemae's blog! Take a gander, if you haven't already! My first con was absolute perfection. Fingers crossed they go back again next year, because we're all currently saving up money for ECCC2018 :). Ok well, that’s about all! Thanks for reading my ramblings! xx

#sam x cait #caitriona x balfe #sam x heughan #eccc2017

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dieingontheinside420 · 7 years

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Try to get to at least 30 points a day You can customise this diet however you like. This is my personal diet. Calorie intake 0-200 = 10 points  201-350 = 8 points  351-500 = 5 points  501-600 = 3 points  601-750 = 1 points  750-950 = 0 points  950+ = -8 points Water intake  9 Glasses = 10 points  8 Glasses = 9 points  7 Glasses = 8 points  6 Glasses = 7 points  5 Glasses = 6 points  4 Glasses = 4 points  3 Glasses = 3 points  2 Glasses = 2 points  1 Glasses = 1 points  0 Glasses = 0 points Exercise 1 hr + = 10 points  45 min = 8 points  30 min = 5 points  15 min = 2 points  0 min = 0 points Hours slept  8 hours = 10 points  7 hours = 8 points  6 hours = 7 points  5 hours = 5 points  4 hours = 4 points  3 hours = 2 points  2 hours or less = 0 points ------------------------------------- I remember scrolling through Instagram when I was 11 and seeing this photo and not knowing what it meant. I remember standing in front of a mirror and noticing how huge my thighs were and how my body didn’t look anything like hers. I remember feeling disgust in myself for the first time. I scrolled through that blog for hours and looked at the photos of pretty girls I’d never be. I remember the next day when I skipped my first meal. Two weeks later I fasted for the first time. I remember turning 12 and not being around anyone because I had pushed everyone away because I hated how I felt around anyone that I thought was skinnier than I was. I remember my mom telling me that she thought I might be coming down with something because I was suddenly loosing so much weight. I remember my 6th grade teacher pulling me aside one day and asking me if they were treating me alright at home because of how sick I was starting to look. I remember my friends starting to ask me if I was okay and I just ignored them and walked away. I remember when my mom found rotting food in my closet that I forgot to throw away, I remember her yelling at me and asking what it was. I remember my parents searching my room and finding notebooks filled with calories and exercises and dates and self hate. I remember being admitted into a hospital the summer before my 7th grade year because I had gone from 90 pounds to 65. I remember my parents crying and my sister who was 7 asking my why my stomach was smaller than theirs and I remember the day that I tried to kill myself in the hospital using a shower curtain. I was released three months later, five days before my 7th grade year was going to start and I remember that I was finally okay again and I could finally eat a cheeseburger without clawing at my throat and stomach. And then I saw this picture again. I remember almost puking because a wave of emotion so big it almost drowned me washed over my brain. I remember how I deleted the app that I saw it on again but it was no use because I went back to staring at my thighs and how they were starting to rub and touch at the top again and how it disgusted me. And I remember repeating the same process I did back in sixth grade until I passed out because I hadn’t eaten in 5 days and I was scared to drink water because it made my stomach get a little bit bigger. And I remember more hospitals and more doctors. And I remember being nursed back to health once again and how I had no friends anymore and how my parents always fought because they blamed my diets on themselves. Months passed and things were fine again. Years passed and things got harder and tougher but never that bad. I hardly ever went on social media. Things were okay up until a few months ago, the summer before my 12 grade year. And then I saw this photo again. ------------------------------------- The trick to starving I feel like most people assume the trick to starving yourself is through restriction. No eating after 7. No eating white carbs. No this. No that. But, the more you focus on the ‘no’s, the more you want them and that’s where binging comes in to play and going mental. But, honestly it makes it so much harder. What I’ve found is actually the opposite. Not being restrictive, in the sense of not letting these thoughts be so consistently present throughout the day, is what has helped me eat less. If you build of the mentality that you don’t care, and you don’t want it and you don’t feel like eating. It’s so much easier and you’re not thinking about food all the time. You think about other more important things in life, while still being able to lose the weight you want. Just don’t focus on it so much, and eat little bit of healthy food. stay safe everyone. ------------------------------------- Some meanspo I wrote!! Hey fatass, how’s it going? I guess that’s a stupid question, because everything’s probably shitty in your life, what with you being such a fucking whale. Why do you eat so much? You don’t need to eat that much. Your body can survive on way less food than that. You have such high stores of fat that it would probably take you years to die from starvation. You may not be able to loose weight fast enough by just not eating, so what you need to do is start exercising. Like right now. Get up and stop looking at thinspo and actually workout. Do you really think that just sitting there looking at those pictures of skinny girls is going to make you as pretty as them? NO! Its wont. You need to get up off that he lazy ass of yours. Do you really actually want those skinny arms, that thigh gap, the flat stomach? Yes? Well it sure as hell doesn’t seem like it. If you really wanted to achieve it you would be working out instead of sitting on your technology like you have nothing better to do. There is always something better to do. If you’re reading this in public, walk a block or go and buy a cup of unsweetened green tea. It will raise your metabolism, whereas just sitting there will do nothing. Yes, I know working out is hard, but once you make it a habit it becomes so much easier. 21 days is all it takes to make something a habit, so start now. Start taking walks in the mornings and finishing your days off with a yoga sequence before you go to sleep. Start eating one meal a day, and make sure its salad or some other healthy food, as opposed to the fatty shit that you’re always shovelling into your mouth. Aren’t you embarrassed of those huge giggly thighs that rub together when you walk? Aren’t you sick of having a tummy instead of a flat stomach that your lover can rap their arms around? The only girls who flinch away when their stomach is being touched are fat worthless girls. They know they should be ashamed of that tummy the size of a fucking planet. Scrolling through Tumblr, always seeing the GIFs of sexy girls being touched seductively by their partners. If you keep on shovelling your fat face with food, that will never be you. Do you see those other blogs on Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr, where other anorexic girls will do body checks, and other people will reblog them, or post them on their page with the caption #goals? Do you know the reason they are the ones being called goals and not you? It’s because unlike you they actually have some damn self control, and don’t feel the uncontrollable need for that fatty double cheeseburger from McDonalds. You don’t need that, what you need is a sense of self control, a salad and a bottle of water. The only girls who get reblogged are the hot ones. Notice that almost no one ever reblogs photos of fattass girls unless they’re making fun of them? Well, that practically never happens. Yes, society says to embrace your curves and all that shit. But when has society ever stuck true o that, huh? Practically never. The curves they want are a round ass, and huge shapely breasts. They don’t want a huge flappy ass, and saggy titties. So come on, stay with it, and don’t eat that unhealthy food, it will just make you fatter than you already are. ------------------------------------- You fat fuck. How about you pick up a magazine with skinny girls in it before you pick up a fork. can’t you see how big your getting. People don’t tell you this shit just to spare your feelings but your fucking fat. And I hope you fucking get hit by a car because fat girls shouldn’t be able to walk the streets. You fucking retarded shitface, listen if you want to be skinny just DON’T FUCKING EAT. Don’t you get it by now? No food = no fat. Hello? Do you fucking understand? Ugh 😑 I hate fat people, I hate you can’t you see why every time you look in the mirror you fat fuck?fat is ugly, skinny is perfect. ------------------------------------- 100 REASONS TO GET SKINNY THINSPIRATION 1. Imagine how you’ll look in tight clothes. No rolls no shame. 2. You’ll be delicate and small. No longer will you be the fat ugly friend. 3. Collarbones. Imagine having them to touch instead of just looking at them in thinspo. 4. You’ll have a thigh gap. No more chafing and no more disgusting fat just oozing off your legs. 5. Watching the scale go down every day instead of watching it go up and feeling disgusting. 6. Your sister will envy you. 7. Your friends will be jealous of your self control and tiny body. They can preach self love while secretly hating themselves all they want. It won’t matter because you’ll be thin and beautiful. 8. Thin hands and tiny wrists. 9. Delicate ankles and small calves. No longer will you be an elephant. 10. When you walk it will be virtually silent. People won’t hear you coming a mile away with disgusting hippo footsteps. You will be tiny and quiet. A shadow and a whisper. 11. People will ask how you got so thin. Oh they’ll be envious but none of them are strong enough to reach their goals. 12. For once you will be in control. No more binging, no more hunger after already eating. You will be powerful in your decision to achieve your ideal body. 13. You won’t be too embarrassed to draw yourself. 14. You won’t have to only date fat people. 15. In a relationship you will always be tinier than your partner. They’ll be able to pick you up and twirl you around. 16. People will give you piggy backs instead of you giving them. 17. Never again will you be too heavy for something. 18. You won’t be dictated by your fat anymore. Whatever you want, wear it! Everything looks good on thin. 19. Imagine how cute you’ll look in lingerie. Lace will just accentuate your tiny form. 20. Getting naked won’t be embarrassing. Let them stare. You’ll be beautiful. 21. It won’t always be unrequited love. People you didn’t have a chance with as a fat girl will love you. People need to get past the outside to see the inside. Nobody will bother getting past a disgusting fat outside. 22. Wearing makeup will be fun, not embarrassing. 23. You will be your own thinspo. 24. You’ll spend way less money on food. Food is temporary and a waste of cash. Instead spend it on games and clothes. 25. Looking in the mirror won’t make you want to break it. 26. A flat stomach is cute and tiny. 27. Your face will look thin and dainty. No more double chins and disgusting fat cheeks . 28. When people take pics of you it won’t make you want to cry. You’ll be the pretty one. 29. You won’t have to keep your hair short. Long hair won’t make you look like a greasy land whale. 30. Girls will envy you instead of pity you. 31. You’ll be the smallest person in your family. No longer will you be the fattest. 32. People will whisper about how thin you’ve gotten. 33. You’ll be light like a feather. 34. Food won’t control you. Eating is a necessity, not a crutch. 35. Think of bony shoulders. You’ll be defined and delicate instead of a shapeless mass of fat. 36. You’ll be able to count your ribs. 37. When you bend over people will be able to see the ridges of your spine. No more flubber. 38. You’ll have a tiny cute butt. 39. Thigh high socks will fit and look adorable. 40. Boots that travel up your calves will actually fit. 41. Shorts will look good on you. 42. Carnival rides won’t be embarrassing. The bar won’t touch your stomach. If anything they’ll worry you’ll slip out. You’ll be able to ride with anyone because your weight is barely anything. 43. Seat belts will fit easily. No more embarrassing struggle to strap yourself in while people silently judge you. 44. Any style will look good on you. Experimenting with fashion will be fun and interesting. Your body won’t hold you back. 45. You’ll be in the underweight category instead of the overweight one. 46. Your father won’t be ashamed of your weight. Your grandmother won’t keep getting shocked by how fat you’ve gotten. Instead she’ll fuss because you’ll be too thin. 47. There will be a huge difference in your before and after pics, and you’ll be proud. 48. You’ll finally get to fit your aesthetic. No more being ashamed of how you look. You’ll be the cute nerdy book girl instead of the fat gamer nerd slob. 49. Instead of eating you can follow hobbies like painting your nails, doing makeup, drawing, writing, and walking out in nature. 50. If you want some fun you’ll be able to hook up with someone of quality. No sloppy seconds. You’ll be first choice, not oh-my-god-never. 51. In a romance novel you’d be the beautiful thin one, not the tragic never loved fat one. 52. Shopping will be fun. You won’t have to keep looking for bigger sizes. Large will be too large. 53. If you want to you can shop at places that don’t carry plus sizes and be able to fit. 54. Changing rooms will be roomy and you won’t feel squished. Looking in the mirror to see how you look won’t be a disappointment. 55. You’ll fit in tiny spaces. No more bumping into walls when you go by. 56. Your breasts will be small and perky instead of fat. 57. Rings will look cute on your bony fingers instead of squeezing them like fat sausages. 58. The scale won’t make you want to cry. 59. Nobody will recognize you. They won’t be able to believe you went from whale to skinny. 60. Choker necklaces will look delicate and dainty on your neck. You won’t have double chins getting in the way. 61. Your jawline will be defined and sharp. No longer will you be soft edges and squishy fat. 62. You’ll be the pretty one. 63. Guys will actually like you instead of think you’re a blob of disgusting fat. 64. People will date you. 65. When you’re measured against other girls you won’t be the ugly one. 66. You’ll be able to love yourself. 67. At Halloween parties you can dress however you want and look good. No more ghosts or pumpkins. 68. Onesies. Just imagine. 69. Guys will chase you instead of you chasing them. 70. It will be okay to have something nice to eat every once in a while because you’ll be a pro at staying in control and if you do gain half a pound you can lose it just like that. 71. You could be princess carried without breaking someone’s back. 72. It’ll be “You’re so skinny” instead of “You’re not fat”. 73. When you’re at the gym you’ll be the one making people jealous and embarrassed. 74. Your feet will look delicate and dainty when wearing heels instead of like fat blobs. 75. Thinspo blogs will use your picture as thinspo instead of reverse thinspo. 76. ‘Cute’ will be the first word to describe you, not ‘nice’. 77. People will be concerned. Maybe they shouldn’t have called you fat and ugly all those years. Oh well, now you’re thin and beautiful. 78. You could be a model. 79. Crop tops will make you look cute, not fat. 80. No muffin top. 81. At family gatherings your snobby relatives will be blown away by how beautiful you’ve become. 82. Your exes will wish they’d never let you go. 83. You’ll be able to pull of cosplay like a pro. You won’t be the fat version of everyone you cosplay. 84. Every day will be exciting because you won’t hate the clothes you wear or looking in the mirror or stepping on the scale. 85. Shopping for a prom dress will be fun. You’ll look like an ethereal goddess instead of a sausage roll. 86. You’ll be able to pull off a bikini. 87. Going swimming won’t be embarrassing. You’ll be able to wear a sexy bikini without feeling like a joke. 88. You could wear baggy clothes and look stylish instead of like a slob. 89. You could wear your boyfriend’s shirt and nothing but panties and it would be the hottest thing he’d ever seen. 90. People will stare because they can’t believe you’re so beautiful, not because you look like you just crawled out of a gutter. 91. Unhealthy food will taste gross. 92. You’ll have a small stomach so when you eat small portions you’ll still feel full. 93. Eating will become so unimportant sometimes you’ll actually forget to eat instead of binging like a pig. 94. You’ll look like a ballerina. 95. If you’re eating less meat you’re helping the environment and saving animals lives. 96. No matter what else is going on in your life you will have control over your body. Nobody can take that from you. 97. Empty feels better than full. 98. Processed foods are extremely unhealthy. You’re doing yourself a favor by not eating them. 99. You’ll have so much more time and money if you’re not wasting them on food. 100. You will finally love your body. ☆Remember to stay safe. We want to be skinny, not dead. You can’t slay with a killer body if you’re decomposing six feet under. Be kind to yourself. Every pound is progress. ------------------------------------- Dear me, You can eat that piece of cake when you’re at your goal weight. You can have that burger as soon as your stomach is flat when you sit down. You can drink that milkshake when your thighs don’t touch. I promise , you can have anything you want for a day as soon as you reach what you’ve been trying to for 4 fucking years, but right now? Right now, you can drink 8 glasses of water a day, exercise your ass off, skip some meals, don’t eat those sweets, don’t binge, don’t give in. You got this.  It’ll only take a couple months to get to where you want to be if you try. Just try for me, for us, please.  That’s all you’ve wanted forever.  You can’t keep looking at thinspo wishing that was you. Make it you. -------------------------------------

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kennethherrerablog · 4 years

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How to Start Your Own Blog in 15 Minutes

Believe it or not, I created the Money Peach Blog from my laptop at my kitchen table. I literally had no idea what I was doing, and my approach to initially getting started was the Ready, Fire, Aim approach.

It ended up working out pretty well, but there were a lot of bumps in the road and a lot of “oh crap, I shouldn’t have pushed that button….”

Since I went down the DIY road without a guide and have the scars to prove it, I can now show you exactly how to set up your own Blog or Website without the hiccups (ahem…. mistakes) when creating your own.

I don’t want you to make the same silly mistakes I did, therefore if you follow the exact steps that I share with you today, I promise you will be up and running in about 15 mins or less!

**Recommended: Click here to open in a new tab and follow along.

Step 1: Set Up an Account with Bluehost

Bluehost is the server that will host your blog or website.

To make this easy to understand, think of a server as the foundation of your home. It’s the first thing that you must have before you do anything else.

Then, think of your website as the walls and the roof of your home. The website sits on top of the server, just like your home sits on top of the foundation.

Why Bluehost?

There are many other servers out there that work well and I recommend Bluehost because this is how I got started, and I like what I know.

My feeling is if I use it and love it, then this is the one I will recommend to my friends and family.

But here’s also why I love Bluehost:

They’re available if you need help 24/7

There are NO CONTRACTS and you can cancel at any time

The Dashboard is extremely simple to understand and use

They’ve been around forever

Almost every blogger I know either uses Bluehost or started with Bluehost

*Note* There are other web hosting services out there that are free, but always remember you get what you pay for. Therefore, if you pay nothing…you pretty much get nothing.

If you want to bang your head against the wall and be consistently frustrated, use the free options out there. If you want to enjoy blogging, try out Bluehost.

Click here to open Bluehost in a new tab, and then follow me step-by-step through the entire process for creating your own blog/website with Bluehost. Let’s get started…

It’s simple, straightforward, and I promise you can do this!

Here we go…

Step 1: Select a Plan

Since you’re just starting out your Blog, you can choose “Basic” and be completely fine.

Step 2: Your Domain Name

There are two different options depending on whether or not your already have your domain name purchased.

Option 1: You Currently Don’t Have a Registered Domain Name

The first thing you need to do is to check the availability of the domain name you want through Bluehost.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you purchase a .COM domain. There are tons of other choices out there such as .net, .org, .co, .me, and .us to name a few, but people always remember .com.

You don’t want your future audience to miss out on you because they typed in yourblog.com instead of yourblog.net.

Option 2: You already purchased your domain from somewhere else

If you have already purchased your domain through sites such as GoDaddy.com, Hostgator.com, or Namecheap.com (there are a ton of places to purchase a domain), then you will need to transfer the domain name to Bluehost.

This is super simple and I don’t want you to get overwhelmed here.

First thing you need to do is to enter some information from the place where you purchased your domain (GoDaddy), so your current domain will be sent over to Bluehost.

This is called setting up your new nameservers.

Here is a link to show you exactly how to do this using GoDaddy, and it’s pretty much the exact same for anywhere else your current domain was purchased from: How to Set Up Name Servers

You will be asked to enter in your custom nameservers provided to you from Bluehost. I have them right here for you:Copy and Paste these into the option for Custom Nameservers

NS1.BLUEHOST.COM

NS2.BLUEHOST.COM

Note** It will take anywhere from 5 minutes to 8 hours for these changes to be reflected globally. However, you can immediately go into Bluehost and start the next steps below.

Enter Your Account Information

Step 3: Choosing the Best Package

Basically it is dirt cheap. Usually the cost is $7.99/month, but I have partnered up with Bluehost and they sent me a special link that takes that price down to $4.95/month!

This link was inside the button you clicked above and is also in the button right below:

Here is why I highly recommend 12 months at-a-time:

• Only $2.95/month for 36 months

• Goes to $3.95/month for 24 months

• Then $4.95/month for 12 months

• You can still get a refund at any time (no contracts)

• Full Refund within 30 days and prorated after that

• You get a free Domain Name with a 12 month or greater purchase

• You also have the option of month-to-month, but I will 100% tell you to stay away from this option.

Here is why I tell you to STAY AWAY from month-to-month billing:

• You will pay more than double over time

• If your card expires and you don’t catch it in time, a payment is missed and your website is shut down. All that work…gone

• You will not get a free .com domain

• You can still cancel your subscription anytime when purchasing in bulk and get a refund

What about all these Options?

You really don’t need any of them, however there is one I would recommend: Domain Privacy Protection.

The owner of every Domain is available to anyone on the internet. This means marketers will solicit your information and basically annoy the hell out of you because it is easy for them. If you decide to add on the privacy protection, your personal contact information is gone and is replaced with Bluehost’s.

I didn’t do this at first and my inbox was always full of annoying marketers from all over the world begging for me to hire them as my tech person. It’s worth the $1 each month.

SiteLock Security Find: This is great for any online business. This demonstrates to your customers that you are a trustworthy vendor/business by verifying your credentials such as email, phone number, and address.

Codeguard Basic is simply an automatic backup of your site every single day. This is a great feature because it would be pretty horrible if something happened and you lost everything on your blog or website that you have put so much effort into. However, this does cost $2/month and I will share with you a way you can also do this 100% free. Read further down to Must Have Plugins.

Enter Your Payment Info

Welcome to Bluehost!

Create Your Password

Note: When you get to this point, check your email with your Bluehost Login Credentials inside.

Step 4: Install WordPress

Now that you have a Bluehost account, it’s time to login to Bluehost using the login credentials they emailed you, and then setup your WordPress site. I use Wordpress and so do about 99% of all other bloggers. It has the most options and is the most user-friendly interface I have ever used. And…it’s fun!

Click “Wordpress Tools” at the top of the screen.

WordPress Starts Here:

Remember above where I told you the server was the foundation of your home. Well, now you can think of WordPress as the house that sits on top of that foundation.

WordPress is how you write blog posts, add a picture, create an about page, add a video, and basically anything you do to your website or blog. It is the control center for your entire site.

Next, click on “Install” and the watch the magic start to happen!

Note: I highly suggest to use something other than your email address for your Admin Username. This is to simply protect you from potential thieves out there who can find your email address and then are one step closer to logging into your website!

Next…

Step 5: Start Your Blog or Website

To login into your WordPress site, simply click on the link in your email you received once your install was completed.

This is the URL to login into your WordPress Site

yourdomain.com/wp-admin

example: moneypeach.com/wp-admin

Note: Bluehost will give you a great password that is very tough to remember. I would keep this password and WOULD NOT change your password to something easier to remember. I have over 200 failed login attempts from places all over the world trying to hack into my Dashboard.

Also, your username defaults to your email address by Bluehost and I also suggest you change this prior to installing WordPress to increase security. Once you choose your username, it can never be changed.

Once inside your Dashboard, you can start to customize your blog. However, before go any further, let me talk to you about Plugins.

The Other Blogging Stuff

If Bluehost is the foundation and WordPress is the house that sits on the foundation, then think of Plugins as the options you can have to customize your house. The tile, the window coverings, the paint, and all the other options you can think of for your home are essentially the plugins for a website or blog.

There are free plugins and paid for plugins. I currently have both, but since you’re starting off, I recommend you start off with the free ones first.

The MUST-HAVE FREE Plugins to Start

W3 Total Cache – Caching is a weird word but it essentially makes your site speed much faster for a better user experience

UpDraft Plus (Backup & Restore) – This plugin will automatically backup your website to Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, etc. A great safety net if something were to ever happen to your website.

Wordfence Security – This is a free security plugin to increase security to your blog. Believe it or not, you will have creepers from all over the world trying to break into your account. This plugin has great security features that will stop them from getting in.

Shareaholic – Have you ever seen the Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. buttons on an article you have read on the Internet? Well, this plugin will add those to every post or page you want, and allows your readers to start sharing your content out to the world for you!

Page Builder – This plugin allows you to do easy drag and drop to build out your page or post for your blog. If you’re not using this, good luck trying to make your blog post look just the way you want it.

Akismet – You will have those same creepers from all over the world trying to post a comment on your blog to market and annoy the hell out of your readers. This is basically an anti-spam plugin.

Yoast SEO – This plugin is a great tool for Search Engine Optimization, however I think it is even more useful for helping your with your images. Have you ever shared something on Facebook and automatically had a nice picture, heading, and description pop up on your post? Well, this plugin will allow that to happen.

Contact Form 7 – Someone is going to want to get a hold of you and you probably don’t want your email address out there for the world to see. This form can go anywhere on your site and will allow someone to get in contact with you. It’s the same form I use here: https://www.moneypeach.com/contact

Your Blog’s Theme

WordPress comes with a bunch of free themes, but you do get what you pay for.

When I first started, I didn’t know any better and I would spend hours upon hours trying to make sure a picture would be on the left side of the page, the title would look a certain way, and the menu would match the design of my site.

Then a friend of mine suggested the drag-n-drop theme by Enfold. This is the only theme I use and the only theme I will ever recommend. It’s extremely simple to use and there is a support team on standby to answer any questions you may have. Unless you’re a whiz-kid behind the laptop, make your life easier with a theme that’s simple. Get Enfold Theme

Post vs Page

Think of a post as a blog post or an article you publish on your site, and think of a page as an About Page, a Contact Page, or a Resources Page.

A post will usually look like this:

https://ift.tt/36K8qDG

A page will have a link similar to this:

https://ift.tt/3eAW8QU

The Homepage

WordPress automatically makes your homepage a blog roll, which is absolutely awesome.

This is what you want when you’re getting started. A blog roll (not to be confused with a Spicy Tuna Sushi roll) is simply a list of all of the blog posts you have written starting from newest to oldest.

I started with a blog roll as my homepage for the first year I had my blog.

Why?

Because I needed content before I could build out my homepage to point, right?

The Money Peach Blog Roll

https://www.moneypeach.com/blog

After I had enough content built out, I started to break everything into categories and then transitioned to a static Homepage like you see below:

Money Peach Home Page

The Images

Pictures are literally worth 1,000 words, so make sure your pictures are awesome! You can use these free tools below to create amazing pictures for your own blog:

Canva

Pic Monkey

Note: Be very careful using images you find on the internet. Many of these are owned by someone else and you would technically be stealing from them if the images were copyrighted. Canva has over 1 million pics to search and they are all $1 each. Another great place to safely download amazing images is from Depositphotos.com

A blog post should always have a featured image. I recommend using the same size every single time so your blog looks cleaner. The image size I use for my featured image is: 560 x 315px.

Facebook and Google+ Images: The pixel size should be 1200 x 628px.

Twitter Images: The pixel size should be 1024 x 512px. You can actually take your Facebook image and do a little resizing in any program like Paint Windows or Paintbrush for Mac. Easy peasy.

Pinterest Images: The pixel size should be 735 x 1102px. Yes, Pinterest had to go out and be different.

Instagram Images: The pixel size should be 1080 x 1080px or 800 x 800px. If you’re smart, you will make sure your Facebook Image can be cropped for an awesome Instagram image. You can use Paint or Paintbrush to do this as well.

*Note: Canva has all of these image sizes as templates to choose from for free and the pixel sizes are also inside the Yoast SEO Plugin.

Please Have an About Page!

Every single time I go to a website or blog that I like, I head directly over to their About Page. Why? Because I want to know a little about this awesome person behind this incredible blog post I just read!

Need an idea for an About Page? Here is mine.

https://www.moneypeach.com/about

Note: You will see it at the very top anywhere you go on Money Peach.

Your Contact Page

What’s the most frustrating thing in the world? Having to search forever and day to find a way to contact someone! This is such an easy step too. Simply add a new page in WordPress, label it “Contact”, and copy and paste the code anywhere in the post from the plugin Contact Form 7 I told you about above.

This is how simple my Contact Page is:

https://www.moneypeach.com/contact

Last, But Not Least

You can have a beautiful website, the best artwork and images, and all those nifty plugins I mentioned above, however it all boils down to one thing: CONTENT.

People want to read, listen, watch, and absorb content that is not just good, but is awesome! I have seen some ah-mazing websites and as soon as I start reading through a blog post….I…..get……distracted…..because….oh look a squirrel!

The point is this: focus on why you wanted to start a blog in the first place. Your content is why your blog visitors will become fans, and why your fans will become customers. Don’t stress too much about the colors, the theme, or any of the “lipstick” of your blog.

When you deliver content that is awesome, your blog will be read, shared, and you will be providing real value. Don’t get lost in the technology portion because you really don’t need to worry about it. I have you covered inside this post

Final Thoughts

I recommend Bluehost to you because I started with them, I still use them, and I tell my friends and family to start with Bluehost. However, I want to be completely transparent with your and let you know that if you click a link or a button on this page and you purchase hosting with them, they will send me a little thank-you commission.

However, my link to Bluehost will also provide you with a little discount as well!

Get Started with Bluehost

How to Start Your Own Blog in 15 Minutes published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

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