Start the Year Right

Hello my loves! 

Happy New Year 2019. I thought that the new year would be a good time to resurrect our little blog here, and to set our intentions for 2019.

What are your goals for this year?

For me, 2018 was a lot about being strict with myself. I didn’t drink for the first ten months of the year, I spent lots of time logging all my calories into myfitnesspal, I wanted to be 100% vegan and felt guilty when I inevitably slipped up. I made countless schedules for myself and made endless lists of goals and priorities. Does this sound familiar to you?

My goal for 2019 is to just soften that approach a little.

I’m sure I won’t be going back to the days of moderate-heavy drinking, but I’m not going to force myself to never ever have a drink again ever. About 95% dry is what I’ll aim for. We’ll see how this goes obviously, but it’s a starting point.

I’m going to focus on learning how to make plenty of healthy, nutritious meals for Mr. BHUK and myself, if they’re vegan, that’s amazing, but if there’s some dairy or cheese in there I’m not going to beat myself up about it any more.

With exercise, I’m going to do things that make me feel good. Getting on my yoga mat is one of them, as is strength training with Mr. BHUK. I’m going back to the start with my running and restarting the Couch 2 5K app, with the aim of running three times a week. These runs start of nice and gently so it’ll be good to just keep it chilled and enjoy exploring a new city.

My long-term goal isn’t anything drastic - my long-term goal is to enjoy a healthy quality of life for as long as I possibly can. We only have one life here on Earth (as far as we know, anyway) so while I’m here I want to be strong and healthy enough to live life to the full. My secondary goal is to keep looking good as I age - no, I’m not planning to have any work done, but I want to stay vibrant and attractive as much as I can. In other words, I want to be a smoking hot older woman, who clearly still looks after herself and enjoys life.

Long-term goals like this take the focus off how much we need to be doing RIGHT NOW, and refocus us on the long game.

What are your long-term goals? Let me know in the comments.

Chat soon,

BHUK x

Sober Wednesday - seven months sober

Happy Sober Wednesday!

I find that, as time goes on, I'm not really counting how long I've been off alcohol for. But it is in fact well over seven months now.

Sounds like ages doesn't it? 

It's funny, the more time goes by, the more I realise that not drinking really doesn't affect my life all that much. The first few months can be up and down, but living alcohol free is part of who I am now and I no longer really miss it. I'm happy to sit in a pub and have an alcohol-free drink, more than happy to have sparkling elderflower instead of fizz at a wedding and happy to have a glass of water with dinner (it's healthier anyway).

My 30th birthday in a few months will be interesting. So far my plans are quite vague but include spending time with my mum and sisters at a spa hotel, before going on a little mini-break with Mr. SSV. Sounds civilised and I don't think I'll be drinking. My health is more important to me now.

Apparently I've saved almost £700 - I mean I don't know where that money is, as I work for myself my income is up and down anyway - so all the more reason why I should be careful with money and not pour it down my throat. I just treated myself to a new car (that I definitely need for work) and who knows if I would have been in that position if I'd still been drinking? It's impossible to say isn't it, but it feels good to know where my money is going.

Where are you on your journey to sober? Leave me a comment and say hello. And, if there's ever anything you want me to chat about on here, do let me know. Let's build the sexysobervegan community!

Chat soon,

SSV x

Vegan Friday - when things aren't perfect

I guess you could say that I've been putting off writing this particular post as I'm not sure what the reaction will be and to be honest, I'm a little nervous.

As you may know already, I have moved house recently. I am now living with my future in-laws in the Cheshire countryside. It's really lovely here and I'm slowly getting used to all the spiders and moths that come as part of living rurally.

Here's the thing, all four of us have dinner together most evenings, and lunch together most days. I am no longer in charge of what I eat, I eat what I'm given for the most part.

The food is lovely but it isn't vegan. It's vegetarian. So here I am blogging and instagramming my heart out about the moral and ethical reasons for going vegan, and yet in my life I am actually eating dairy. 

I have to stay honest with you guys.

At the end of the day, when Mr SSV and I have our own house and our own kitchen, I do plan on keeping it plant-based and vegan, but for now I'm going to have to compromise in order to keep the peace.

I made a rather delicious vegan chocolate cake the other night from this recipe:

I plan to keep dairy as limited as possible while I'm here - I make my own breakfast so that's not an issue. Lunch is usually a case of putting loads of salad and bread (and cheese) on the table and you kind of make what you like. So I can cut out cheese from there.

That just leaves dinner. Family is important to me and I want to build a good relationship with my future in-laws, so I'm not about to start refusing the food that they have kindly cooked for me. I'd rather try to inspire with things like the chocolate cake above and maybe offering to cook once in a while. But if you have any suggestions, do let me know in the comments because I do feel conflicted about it all.

On the plus side, they grow so many different vegetables here, so my veg intake has gone through the roof, and it's all home-grown, organic, no packaging and I have lost a few kg since moving in.

In the meantime, I'll see you soon, don't forget to give me a follow on instagram. I've joined a new gym near my new home so I've been posting what I'm been doing for my workouts in my insta-stories. Do pop over and say hi.

Let's chat soon,

SSV x

Sobriety is a form of Self-Love

Hey babes,

You are warmly welcomed to another Sober Wednesday. Sit yourself down, grab a coffee, and let's chat.

There's so much talk at the moment about Self-Love. About how we need to love ourselves first before we can love others or before they can love us (a troublesome concept but let's sail past that).

Sometimes this can be mistaken as a ticket to 'treat' ourselves. So we lie in until 10am, eat take-aways whenever we want, maybe even call in sick to work to have a chill day, have a gin and tonic to celebrate whatever.

But are these behaviours really an example of loving ourselves? 

When thinking about self-love I find it helpful to imagine how I show love to my best friend, my (as yet imaginary) daughter or my younger self. Would I berate, criticise, bully or mock them? Of course not! And yet we do this to ourselves way too much.

Would I encourage my best friend, daughter or my younger self to engage in unhealthy habits and activities? 

Nope.

I want to take care of them. I want them to be well. I want them to thrive. How about we treat ourselves like that?

So when it comes to drinking, it's an unhealthy habit, it makes you feel like sh*t, it wastes money, it makes you gain weight and look bloated. So think about what it means when you say to yourself with a glass of wine in your hand 'I deserve this!'

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you don't deserve that. You deserve way, way better. You deserve to look fabulous, to sleep well, to have glowing skin and to have enough money to save for actual treats.

Sobriety isn't a punishment. Being stuck in the grip of alcohol is. Every time you say no to a drink you are treating yourself, every time you have a glass of water instead of a G&T, you are treating yourself. Every night you get to bed early and wake up fresh, you are treating yourself.

It's time to start looking after ourselves, it's time to start loving ourselves.

Do you agree?

Sexy Monday - I'm back!

Hello my lovelies.

After what seems like ages, I'm ready to come back to posting on here. Thanks to those of you who got in touch on instagram asking if I'm ok - you are such sweeties!

Truth is, I'm fine, great actually, but I've been moving house and that kind of takes over doesn't it?

I'm now living with Mr. SSV and his parents in beautiful Cheshire, UK. It's really rural and a total change from Manchester. I'm loving the sunshine and the quiet. Not loving the moths and spiders so much but I'm coping.

I may have chatted on this blog before about the idea of generally using less. This is true of my cleansing and beauty routine especially.

I've been noticing that I don't need to take all that many products with me when I go away for a few nights. I'm wearing make-up for special occasions, but I haven't worn foundation in months now, and my skin loves it.

My goal is to transfer to all vegan and plastic free beauty products, but in a minimal way and not by rushing out and buying a whole bunch of stuff. Rather, I'm using what I have until it runs out, then trying to buy a vegan and ideally plastic-free alternative next time I need to stock up.

I received some beautiful products from Pai for Christmas from one of my sisters - these really are amazing - and looking them up now I see that they're quite pricey and definitely premium products. However, it's now August and neither show any signs of running out so I figure they're worth a recommendation:

The oil makes my skin super glowy and that's probably why I've not felt the need to cover my skin in make-up. Mr. SSV isn't that keen on the smell - it's quite a woody smell if you know what I mean, so I'm using the oil in the morning and my regular Nivea night cream in the evening.

Do you have a favourite vegan beauty product? Please recommend in the comments and I'll give some of them a try. The beauty of buying really good products is that they often last a lot longer, meaning you buy less overall, and a simple skincare regimen really doesn't need that many products. I'm really starting to see cheap beauty products as a false economy, and keeping my skin in good condition is a top priority as I get older.

Of course, drinking enough water and having a healthy diet and lifestyle does wonders for your skin anyway, meaning you won't need as many pills and potions to stay youthful.

Well, that's what I'm hoping anyway.

SSV x

Sober Wednesday - think how far you've come

When I think back to my drinking (and particularly my student) days, my mind boggles at the wasted money, the wasted days hungover, and the wasted opportunities to look after myself better.

It's easy to want to kick myself, but there's nothing we can do about the past, is there? We can only keep moving forward and keep doing the best we can.

Here are some silly decisions I made when I was drinking:

1. I had a bar job, but basically used my wages to go out drinking. If I hadn't been drinking, I wouldn't have needed that job. So I could have spent that time working towards my degree.
2. Being hungover on important days still haunts me. I was late and hungover to my own 21st birthday party that my family had lovingly organised for me. I thought it was hilarious at the time, now I cringe.
3. I spent my time with men who were totally wrong for me. Enough said.
4. I wasn't practising socialising without the help of alcohol, resulting in me still suffering from bouts of shyness at almost 30 years of age.
5. I put on weight and went from slim to slightly-heavier-than-average. Now that I'm in my late twenties it's harder to get back into the shape I would like to be.

Let's contrast this with today:

1. My income is low, but my spending is under control and I'm still able to save for holidays and other priorities. I have the energy and where-with-all to look for ways to increase my income.
2. My family mean everything to me and staying in touch with them is top priority. I would never treat my parents with the disrespect I gave them on my 21st birthday. My mum was inspired to give up alcohol at the same time I was and her health and weight have improved dramatically.
3. I have a loving fiancé who also doesn't drink. We go out and drink water and become exceedingly hydrated. 
4. My confidence is growing and I no longer feel the need for alcohol in social situations, and, I no longer feel awkward when I tell people I don't drink. Hurray!
5. I'm prioritising my health, have rediscovered my love of yoga and meditation, and working to clean up my diet. I hardly weigh myself but when I do, I'm always a little bit less than before.

Have a think about how your life has changed since you gave up alcohol and let me know in the comments. The changes are subtle but they all add up and I much prefer this new version of me.

Sexy Monday - get ready for compliments

Although it feels to me now that the changes I’ve made in my lifestyle are small, over time they all add up of course. I regularly receive lovely comments from friends and family saying I look well, that I’m ‘glowing’ or asking if I’ve lost weight (not sure about that one as I haven’t weighed myself in ages).

If you make these little changes then people will start noticing, maybe not right away, but they will. I went through a phase of feeling like I was getting these comments almost daily, it was amazing! 

I’ll use this post to go through what I’m focusing on at the moment in terms of health and beauty, and hopefully I can give you a few ideas to get you glowing too.

Let’s start with nutrition as I believe what we eat is the most important factor we can control to achieve optimal health:

 - still mostly vegan 

 - no alcohol

 - very very few fizzy drinks

 - one, maybe two coffees a day, in the morning

 - lots of fresh fruits, salads and vegetables

I’m also going to try intermittent fasting, where you limit your eating to between ten and twelve hours per day. Sounds pretty easy and it works with our natural circadian rhythms. I’ll let you know how I get on with that.

Fitness:

 - I’m in training for a 10k run in September, but please don’t think I’m some amazing runner, I’m probably the slowest person you know (honestly). But I like running in that you are only really competing against yourself, an improvement is an improvement, and that’s fab.

- I’m prioritising doing yoga and meditation most days, probably nine out of ten days I’ll do a short yoga flow from Gaia and a ten minute meditation from my Calm app. The combination of these two things really calms me down and gets me in a good headspace for the rest of the day.

Beauty:

- although I’ve chatted on here before about fake tan, I’m now moving into a more minimalist phase with my beauty regime. Partly this is to cut down on my plastic use, but partly I want to focus on honouring the skin I have and taking care of it, rather than trying to change it in any way.

- it’s a heatwave here in the UK at the moment, and while I love the sun I’ve been really careful to wear sun cream when I know I’ll be out for extended periods. I always, always put facial sun cream on before going out for a run. Freckles are cute and I love mine, but they are a sign of damaged skin and I want to protect my skin as much as is practical.

- I’ve ditched foundation! This is a biggie. When I’m going out I’ll put concealer and mascara on but that’s kind of it and it is so liberating. My skin can breathe and it has definitely improved considerably since not wearing foundation. Healthy, moisturised skin will look beautiful so if you have problem skin at the moment I suggest you try going without foundation for a while, your skin will be so happy.

- I’m trying to cut down my plastic use, so once I run out of something I’m going to try to do without. Coconut oil is a lovely moisturiser (use very sparingly) and places like Lush have lots of plastic-free, natural products, which must be better for your skin than the chemical-laden products we find on the high street generally.

So there we go, did any of these resonate with you? Let me know in the comments.

Let’s chat soon,

SSV x