Finding self love in Instagram 'likes' rather than yourself

When you have a following on Instagram it comes with a natural ego boost - of course it does! 

maybe I’m one of the few to admit it but having hundreds of compliments a day telling you how great you look and how amazing you are can be really nice to hear especially when you battle with low self esteem.

suddenly all these faceless Instagram handles are telling you how amazing you are AND IT FEELS GOOD RIGHT?!


It makes you think;
“Hmm maybe my nose I’ve always hated is cute after all!”
“My belly rolls ARE beautiful!”
“You see.. some men do like girls my size!”
And all of this is great if it encourages you to see the things about yourself you have never been able to appreciate.

But when does that become unhealthy, addictive, VALIDATING? 

have you ever not gotten as many likes on a picture and automatically made you think you’re ugly?
has someone not said your ass looks good made you doubt whether it is?
has not getting more than your usual likes on a post made you think what you said was stupid or not relevant?

you see there is a very fine line with allowing the kindness of others words to encourage you and to appreciate yourself without giving people the power to take that away as well.

if you give someone the power to hold your validation you are also giving them the power to take it away.
they don’t like your post?
they don’t comment with a compliment? 
or maybe worse they do actually insult you.

You have given that person so much power over your validation that you break down when they don’t give it to you.
It’s a horrible feeling isn’t it? not feeling good enough for that person (people) you want to please desperately. 

The good news is reclaiming that ‘power’ is something I practice a lot, it helps me so much in situations where people try to belittle my worth - I just think to myself “mmm nope I know myself and I’m hella fly and a good person at that, I’m also a funny bitch” and brush their comment off my shoulder. 

Take compliments but do not get sucked in to relying on them to validate your worth, beauty or anything else about yourself.v

Saturday Evening on Albert Dock

Hey everyone, hope your having a relaxed Sunday! Yesterday I walked down to the Albert Dock to take some photos for a uni thing we have to do on sequential imagery - basically 6 photos that have some structure of narrative. It's pretty easy as anything can have a form of story in it depending on how much imagination you use! Sophie who I am working with said that you can get some really beautiful shots by the water, so we researched when the sun has started setting these days and headed down.

 I am really pleased with how they all turned out, it was a bit of a cloudy evening so we couldn't get the sun setting as such but the the clouds were looking really spooky so used them to our advantage! It's started to get really cold here and is feeling more and more like Winter, bit crazy considering 3 weeks ago I was sweating buckets in uni lol.

 Every major city seems to have the love locks about and I found this really cute one (below) saying "CARL & KAREN MET AT 30 NEVER TOO LATE TO FALL IN LOVE CLASS OF 80" thought that was so flippin cuteeee - going for walks by the water is a really cutsey/couplely thing to do and it was a bit tricky to get decent photos without a couple necking on in the middle of your shot - but we managed!

I would highly reccomend you explore the city you have moved to as much as you can, be as observant of your surroundings as possible and find little places you never came across on your normal routes. It's good to find a place that relaxes you and can call your 'happy place' - anytime you feel stressed or fancy a bit of reflection time to yourself you always know where to go :)

What I Ate Thursday! | LoveFromDanica

Hi everyone, it's a bit late but I thought I would update what I ate today as I'm really happy with how well I stuck to day 2 of my Protein World food plan! Being a student I am fully aware that there is a common misconception that you are unable to eat a balanced, clean and healthy diet at Uni and I am here to PROVE YOU ALL WRONG! haha - With a little guidance of where to shop and what meals to cook I will teach you some delicious, cheap and clean meal ideas to keep you feeling and looking great throughout your time as a student! 

If any of you follow a YouTuber by the name of Gemma then you will know of her 'HappyHealthyLife' channel (one of my favs) showing you super clean and cheap recipes. I would highly recommend her channel as everything is very informative and helpful! https://www.youtube.com/user/healthyhappylife 

For breakfast today I started off with a Smoothie which included - 1 banana, small handful of frozen raspberries, small handful of ice, handful spinach, 4 scoops of vanilla protein powder, 1/2 cup of almond milk and a cup of water. The smoothie was super yummy and I can't get over how filling these things are! I didn't even think about getting anything to eat in Uni and I was in all day. As soon as I got home it was after 5pm so made myself another shake as I honestly didn't fancy making anything - I should mention that I am taking x 1 fat melter capsule and x 1 multi vitamin capsule after 2 of my 3 meals a day! 

At around 8.30pm I made my dinner - this lateness of eating is really not ideal for me, the closer you eat before going to bed the worse, your food is unable to digest properly because you are lying down, stores the food more and can often leave you with an upset stomach in the morning. 

I stuck to one of the 'Protein Based Meals' from Protein world as you can see below (Meal 4.) ..

I have been hit with bloody cold again so I wanted to make something that is going going to warm me up and give me all the vitamins my body is really needing at the mo! - I diced up 2 large tomatoes, chucked them into a non stick pan with no oil and put in 2 generously large handfuls of spinach and let that wilt on a low heat. To this, I added in 2 large cloves of minced garlic and a squeeze of tomato puree.

 I grilled a white fish steak in the over for 20 mins on 180 degrees (the fillet shrunk quite a bit in the oven, whereas the recipe says 'large fillet' so this is probably what I will do next time, although I am not left hungry with the one I had.

I had 1/2 an avocado along side this :) It was veryy yummy, and the garlic is really going to help clear my nose!

Protein World Slender Blender & Kendwood Smoothie 2 Go

This week I ordered something I have heard a lot about recently mostly on Instagram, as many public figures from reality TV have been sponsoring the brand! If you haven't heard of Protein World I will tell you a little about the company - Protein World is a leading supplement range, 100% pure and GMA free to help you become leaner, fitter, healthier and stronger! 

For a while I have seen loads of people using protein shakes and whey protein while they were training and working out, but never actually understood what it is and what it did?! I have been really concentrating on focus on toning my body, after losing a lot of weight with very little excersise I have left myself with excess skin in parts of my body.  Above is The Weight-loss Collection I ordered for £62 - it came with multi vitamin tablets, fat melter capsules and whey protein.

I chose vanilla flavour protein powder but you can pick between chocolate, banana and strawberry! It also came with a really cute smoothie drinking bottle for my protein shakes on the go.

What is Protein? Protein is the body's building blocks for muscle and tissue.

What are the benefits of protein? During exercise or intense strength and resistance training muscles experience microscopic tearing and break down as they're stretched. The muscles fibre then protein and the amino acids it delivers to rebuild. Protein is also hugely beneficial for people who are looking to lose weight, the muscle tissue protein helps create is metabolically active and will - in short - help your body to burn calories at a higher rate. Protein can also satiates hunger because it is slower to digest than other food types as it slows down the release of the hormone ghrelin which stimulates appetite and encourages us to eat more. Protein lastly helps maintain keratin - the substance that looks after our hair, nails, joints and bones!

The user manual is really informative and has tons of smoothie recipes for you to get started. I am honestly so exited to experiment with this and give my best shot - keep an eye on my blog and also my YT channel (www.youtube.com/lovefromdanica) to stay updated on my process using Protein World. 

Other very exciting news is today I bought a blender! (lol) it's seriously quite sad how hyper I was to go to Argos today and buy one of these but I have been eyeing them up for a while. I realised that when I bought my Protein World kit I would probably need one to make different smoothies. Note that this is not essential and you easily make simple shakes simply with the protein powder and milk or water by shaking it in your cup! However I am a big green smoothie fan and love experimenting with putting vegetables in my smoothies and having a detox! This guy is a Kenwood Smoothie 2GO, it's got 20% off at the minute in Argos and is only £19.99! I was so impressed, it is essentially the same concept a NutriBullet however I don't really have a spare £100 to spend on a blender at the minute unfortunately lol. I used it for the first time this evening to make myself a smoothie, I used 1 banana, a small handful of frozen raspberries, ice, handful of spinach and about 2 dashes of almond milk - whizzed it all up and very much enjoyed it :) I will probably add some more water or pure orange juice next time as it was quite thick to enjoy out of a bottle but other than I was really impressed. I forgot to add the almond milk initially so the blender wasn't able to blend it easily but after I added some liquid in it took about 30 seconds for it to start properly blending. All in all the blending process took about a couple of minutes just to make sure it was all smooth which I thought was good, as for cleaning I literally just rinsed the cup and blade under a warm tap and it came straight off. The one thing I would always recommend with smoothies is that you wash them straight after you have finished or else it can be a nightmare to scrub off dried fruit! 

Why I Regret No Carbs

Hey everyone, long time no speak - I'm quite bad at slacking on my blog but along with my Youtube channel going well this year I would also like to keep this updated as much as possible so you can read a bit more about any video that I have recently uploaded!

So recently I made a video telling you guys about how over the years being on no carbs has effected my relationship with food and outlook on life generally, good and bad. I touch on some things in the video but I just wanted to go into a bit more detail about how losing weight has really effected my confidence and self esteem.

People that know me personally know me to be a very bubbly, confident and outgoing character but like many, this can be used as a front to sway from any real problems going on within that person. It's really common for the 'fat kid' to be funny in school, they cover their insecurities with humour so people like them for personality and forget the way they look. In some ways this is how I got through most of my teenage years. As a kid and right through to my teens I loved performing and acting, looking back now it only seems to makes sense that it was to use this as a means to become someone completely different other than myself, I could essentially become anyone I wanted to be.

After decided to do something about my weight in March 2011, the confident Danica became to show after the weight started shedding away - I felt so capable of so much more in my life, from school like to meeting new people and doing new things. The whole distraction of obsessing about how bad I looked was finally slipping away and I beginning to like what I saw in the mirror. More weight was lost and more confidence was revealed, this was the most happiest I had ever been before - people were praising me constantly and they sense of achievement I felt was non I had felt before!

I can't remember specifically when things started getting obsessive but I remember brief conversations with people I'd rather not name that still would put me down about my weight. When you have come so far from something that effected your life for so long and someone tried to question you on your achievement it brings out a side of you that I personally had never seen in me before - it's hard to explain if you have never experienced it - but you honestly will go to extremes to not become that person they are teasing you that you will become again.

Me and my friends had organised our first girl's holiday to Croatia in 2012 and I can remember up until then is when I got the worst, the pressure of finding out A Level results and the idea of moving away from home for uni was obviously subconsciously putting a lot of stress on myself and since going on No Carbs I really always found it as a way to control my life. When everything else was not in my control I could always be strict with my eating and this would make me feel everything was ok and not completely falling apart around me. Till this day I am still guilty of this bad habit, and it's more of a problem with other things in my life including lack of self esteem and bad anxiety issues that prevent me from controlling this.

FUDGE | Clean Blonde Violet Toning Shampoo Review

Hey everyone! I recently purchased for the first time some FUDGE violet shampoo from UK HairCare as they're currently doing 20%! I had been watch Melonlady's YouTube video on how she cares for her violet hair and had seen that she raved about the product, however this isn't the first time I have heard how good it is. Since I have been not going out lately to help save money and organise a lot of important things that are happening in my life at the minute I've had quite a few extra bob to spend on something nice for myself :)

I got a 300ml tube for only £7.91 with a P&P fee of £1.58 so a total of only £9.49! The postage took about a week with no trouble of the package being able to fit trough my letter box which was good - I was actually surprised how big the bottle was, there is a larger one available but this is a great value for money for a first try!

 I washed my hair this morning using the shampoo for the first time, the purple colour is a lot more deep and vibrant than any other purple shampoo that I have used and usually this means that taking the brassy ness out of your hair will be more effective. FUDGE recommend that you leave it in your hair for 5 minutes, but I would be careful with this and vary it to how light/yellow your hair already is. From experience, purple shampoos cling onto your ends because they are the most dead and will absorb any moisture like a sponge - so be careful with your timing! 

 The smell of the product was so yummy! I can't really describe it but I was actually a bit gutted to put on my Aussie 3 Minute Miracle after because i wanted to keep the FUDGE scent in my hair haha! I might consider using one of their conditioners if i continue to love the shampoo. I use about a large pea size amount of my wet hair and lathered the product evenly through all my hair making sure I've really covered all the hair, you want to make sure you have done this because the last thing you wont is patches of your hair toned and other bits yellow! 

 Hair Before..

 ..Hair After! 

I am super impressed! If this is the results for my first wash then I would 100% recommend FUDGE - my hair smells great, does not look brassy and feels soft and quenched ;)

Hope everyone is keeping well and your week was great! I had a busy start to my week with working but have had a nice 3 day break which I've enjoyed. Only 3 more weeks till I can get to go home, which I can't wait for! I am really starting to get into this blog and was kindly allowed to borrow my flatmate's camera to take some fancy photos - make sure to check out my YouTube channel for my latest video, 'Sweater Weather Tag!' Have a lovely weekend!

Danica 

xx

Update on new job @ Benefit!

Morning everyone! It is 07.26 in Newcastle at the minute and the sun is just starting to come up, this week is said to be the calm before the storm of the winter weather which is still yet to come - eek! Before I get ready for work I thought I'd give you all a quick run down on how the new job is going and what I have been up to.

I started my first shift last Tuesday, my nerves got the better of me walking to work and I had a slight panic/anxiety miss hap, I wouldn't call it a full blown panic attack but I had to sit down for a few minutes to catch my breath as I had lost all ability to breath for some strange reason, it was kind of the same situation I got in the summer at Borough Market when I was meeting my mum and Anna. Anyway I gathered myself together and off I went, I was a bit early (extremely impressive for me) so went outside for a bit to chill for a bit. Once I got in I seen two girls I was familiar with which was nice, one of the girl's Nicole was at the Recruitment day which was cool to see another face that had got the job! Things kind of went smoothly from then, I basically did what I had been taught at my interview - I traffic stopped for a bit to get some appointments in the book for Benefit makeovers (we are to aim for 17 each a day) and then reorganised the stall a bit, getting myself familiar with all the products. That Tuesday was ridiculously slow and quiet which I was kind of grateful for because I was able to ask as many questions as I liked, and I always seem to have a lot of questions to ask haha. I hadn't been given my till number yet so I wasn't able to do any transactions through the till but I was told that would be sorted by Thursday because there was a massive Boots point card event on which the girls kept warning me would be mental, when Thursday came I was prepared even though slightly hungover and managed the busy day really well - I was praised for making good sales and was even left by myself for a while.

Working at Benefit seems to come quite naturally to me, it involves a mixture of what I previously have work experience in from working at the markets to having knowledge on all things makeup! It's pretty great to be completely honest, I have to try and persuade people to let me do their makeup and I have full range of Benefit products to play around with - pretty amazing :)

Benefit is sending me off to Glasgow on Thursday for training, which should be exiting - all inclusive obviously! Hopefully learn some more tips and tricks for getting my sales up, as I've started to gather now that Benefit is very much into meeting sales targets..

That's all really, apart from that life is treating me well - flights are booked home to Belfast for the 17th which can not come quick enough and I'm keeping on top of my UCAS application to apply for Uni next year.

Hope you's are well also, I'll be posting a few videos this week on my YouTube so keep a look out!


Danica 

xx