No smoking & Dieting. I must be crazy.

Progress report.

Day 3 of no smoking.

I have had a constant headache for the past 48 hours. This morning, however, on Day 3 - I am currently feeling rather wonderful! Finally, the nicotine withdrawals are leaving my system? I think. Or perhaps I just feel so refreshed  due to the fact that I have had such long sleeps the last few nights. You see, I have basically figured out that I can switch off the cigarette cravings by simply going to sleep. Hello going to bed at 9pm every night! Well, for now this is what I need... and I am pleased to say that I am 3 days in to no smoking and also achieving 9 hours sleep each night (which I haven't done for years). Feeling fresh ! Good right?

Well now for the bad.... the diet.

O blimey, I wish I could bury my face as I write this....

I have majorly been neglecting my diet the last few weeks... to be fair, I knew this week that I needed to get back on it, but with trying to quit smoking as well, well I thought I was best to tackle them one at a time. WRONG! This just wont do. I refuse to get any fatter than I already feel that I am. We all have that weight, (you know the weight that we say is our maximum)... well I am at mine now and so I need to kick start into major diet, calorie butt kicking mode, and I need to do it now. I don't care if it takes all my will power to quit smoking AND to diet all at once, but my lordy - I am going to do this.

x o x o

PS. For everyone's own safety... you may want to refrain from seeing me for at least another 7 days

From bad to good just like that...

Its a new dawn
Its a new day
Its a new life for meeeeeee...
and I'm feeling good.

I am full of good vibes today.... and do you know why?  Well, my friends... the answer is simply -
NO alcohol. I finally achieved a totally chilled and SOBER weekend, and o do I feel all the better for it! Now, don't get me wrong, I couldn't do this every weekend (as we all know I am a bit of a social butterfly and I do love a good party). However, I have seriously been lacking the odd quiet weekend of no set plans, no alcohol...  and subsequently of that no hangovers! Needless to say, I will definitely be ensuring that I do this much more regularly from now on. I feel so energized! Rarrr.

All I had to think about this weekend was simply what I wanted to do on each of the days.  If that had meant laying in bed all day, than I would have done just that, but with such brilliant sunshine.... all I craved for was to lay down beside the pools of the gorgeous One & Only Hotel and to soak up the summer heat. Just bliss.  I had just one set plan the whole weekend long, which unfortunately, just couldn't be ignored...

It was a follow up appointment to something that had happened to me in back January of this year, and without going in to it, it had been an extremely unexpected and tough time for me. Saying that, I endured through and I am genuinely fine now. However, just to be on the safe side of things... I do just need the odd check up to ensure that I am in fact all good. So I am sure you can all understand that with this appointment looming over me for the past month,  I have understandably been silently panicking  myself over the ''what ifs'' and ''what will I do'' if my check up this weekend doesn't go too well.

And so, I am sorry to say (admit) that with all my silent worrying, I have stupidly taken to smoking again (grrrr stupid, stupid girl!). Not good... and now looking back to last month I wish I had never started again, even if I did have my reasons.  Anyway, the appointment was yesterday and even though I am still waiting on my results... the time to stress and smoke has been. So here we are... Day 1 of no smoking (again). Hmm.
... Actually, to tell you the truth, I really don't feel too bad so far. I think the chilled weekend has made me so relaxed that I quite literally feel as though I could take on the world! Quitting smoking feels like a sinch right about now  and I will do this! (I am fully aware that I will most likely not be feeling like this later today or come tomorrow, but I will take this for the now!)

So for the now... I am going to desperately try to keep this momentum going, and only allow chilled, positive vibes to stay with me...This is going to help me to quit smoking and to also deal with the waiting for the outcome of my appointment. Who knew the wonders of just one relaxed weekend could bring?! I am determined to keep this feeling, and so for the rest of the week,  I will be devoting myself to quiet evenings after work, and no mid - week drinking shenanigans! Instead, I will be indulging in  some rare and stolen me time, and hopefully I will even feel energized enough that even after my 11 hour work days I can finally get back to tackling the gym also. Blimey. This may be a record changing week for me. I wonder if I can make it... no smoking and committing to gym time.....

Wish me luck !

x o x o

Easter Weekend in Dubai

Its Easter and I live in a Muslim country....and yet, I have just had a 3 day weekend to celebrate! Winning.

All week long, I told myself that I was going to have a relaxing, long weekend and therefore return back to work on Monday (today) feeling totally refreshed. Wrong!

Its not my fault though.  I tried so hard to resist... but I was just led astray...

You see, Thursday night was a work event night... and so I had no choice but to go. My colleagues all love a good party and so even though I tried to refrain, (I even ordered soft drinks and bottles of water).... my colleagues quickly took my 'sensible' drink orders away and replaced them with glasses of wine... (See... NOT my fault!)

Friday saw me tanning myself at the gorgeous One&Only Beach Resort (Dubai).. and I even managed a quiet Friday night in.

However, by Saturday.... all my chilled weekend plans had gone straight out the window again...

The boyf has bagged us tickets to the IPL (Indian premier League) cricket (apparently this was meant to be a good experience to go and see) and so I went along with him and his friends... and their girlfriends (none of us girls had the slightest idea what to expect or even knew a thing about cricket! ). Anyway, we arrived in good spirits at around 1PM in preparation for the first match to start at 2.30PM. The boys got straight to drinking, but us girlies tried the sensible option of sticking to water for the simple reason that it was a sizzling 36 degrees C! However, after 3 hours into just ONE cricket match... us girlies felt that alcohol was now clearly needed (I don't think many could blame us for this). So by the time the second match ended another 3 hours later... (yes...we watched over 6 hours of cricket in one day) ....we were all rather tipsy. Not drunk, but definitely more then a little hazy!

 

...which is probably why we all then decided that we wanted to continue the drinking on elsewhere.... and so off we all went to Media One, Dek on 8 ! But with it being a Saturday night and with work being on Sunday for pretty much the rest of Dubai... the bar was quite literally dead. In fact, they even stopped serving drinks at 11PM (who Does that?!). In light of this, we all felt that we were left with no other option (in our minds) then to head to the famous Rocky B's.

Needless to say the night deteriorated from there (in an extremely drunken, hilariously, fun sort of way...a brilliant night was had) !! This also includes me lying on my boyfriends lounge mat and rolling myself up into a sausage roll.. resulting in me getting myself wrapped up so tight that I couldn't then move my arms and so I was left stuck... Yes I do this sort of thing when I am extremely drunk.... No I am never going to change.

I am sure you can imagine that come the following morning, which was in fact Easter Sunday and my extra day off for the Easter weekend, well... lets just say the day was a complete and utter write off. Basically it consisted of me moving from my boyfriends bed/ apartment back to my bed/apartment and then proceeding to fill my day with movies and endless amounts of the most fattiest and unhealthiest foods that I could get my hands on. Made me feel better though.

Today. I am full of regrets. I want the weekend all over again just so I can go back and make better decisions which involve not drinking and not eating all that I did. That way I wouldn't be sat at my desk now feeling extremely tired, and extremely hungry as I have only been able to allow myself to snack on carrot sticks all day in an attempt to make up for yesterdays binge. Ahh.. Why cant I be naturally skinny. And not have to work. Just be rich and rock up to work (a company that I would obviously own) whenever I felt like working. Other than that I wish to spend my days at the beach, shopping, seeing friends and getting my fix of exercise from a hot personal trainer. Why has this not happened to my life yet?

Anyway, I hope you all had as fun of an Easter as I did.. (and are not having to now make up for all the chocolate Easter eggs eaten, like I am currently having to do. Bollocks.)

x o x o

Single girl no more..

So here's an update for you all.... I am in a relationship... that sounds rather mature doesn't it. Basically, I am currently no longer the single girl about the city (well at least for now anyways)....

I, myself, am not even sure how this came about. I mean, yes, I was on Tinder. But as we all know, no one ever really expects to meet anyone they actually like on Tinder. Maybe a date here or there, or even a cheeky kiss... but never anything more than that. Well, ladies and gentleman.... surprise, surprise - the darn thing actually works. I am now a Tinder statistic. That's right.. I met the boyfriend on Tinder.

We had been messaging for about 2 weeks before deciding that a date was now clearly in order. So
pushing aside any ''Tinder'' assumptions that we may have already had, we bit the bullet and arranged said date....

The night started of quite promising with drinks at The Observatory Bar - (a sophisticated bar situated on 52nd floor of a Dubai Marina Hotel that showcases panoramic views of the Dubai Marina). However, at some point through the night (when we were both clearly influenced by the alcohol) we decided that our next stop should be the Tecom club-  Rock Bottoms (think dark club, pool tables, old school music and extremely drunken banter from whoever you bump into) .. and so we dived right in and took to playing drinking games whilst gulping down Rock Bottom's famous cocktail - Bullfrogs. Needless to say... I was well and truly drunk.

 

A drunken kiss was shared and we bid our goodnights (extremely drunken good nights), but we did leave the night at that. I woke the next day to feel like I was quite literally dying, the date had been my first drinking experience since completing my ''Dry January'' and now my body was definitely feeling the shock of alcohol running through its system again. It seems the same went for the boy. Therefore we agreed that a hangover day of movies and junk food was required. Obviously.

 

So that was the start of it. We met up later that week and there on continued with our weekly dates... until we made it to official ''relationship'' status. O yes, we all know that moment... the awkward ''are we boyfriend/ girlfriend?'' moment. Someone.... sooner or later will bring it up... and o my... doesn't it just make you feel like you're twelve years old all over again. Still super cute though when that moment comes.

 

That's about it in regards to the update of my new relationship status. I have a boyfriend. We are a few months in now and so I am  over the shock of giving up my single status so...yes, currently I am very much enjoying being with someone again. Aww.

 

Anyway. That's as far as I have to say on this for the moment. But.....on a slightly side note - how fun is it dating in Dubai?!! By the way....this is a rhetorical question, because I already know the answer and the answer is BAGS OF FUN.   I am literally already planning a blog post dedicated  to writing up a list of the top dates to try in Dubai as there is just so much to do.... so watch this space.

 

x o x o 

Letting go of sensible

What's been happening maaaaaate?! Mayhem. That's what...

January saw me sticking to my guns and maintaining a ''Dry January'' (well, pretty much.)

February... therefore was always going to be a month full of drunken catch ups and ultimately just madness. Which it was. That also goes for March, and so far.. for April too!

Thing is, after such an awful start to the year..with some personal things that I had going on, I entered into February basically adamant to put January behind me, and that to do this... all I needed now / wanted to do was to enjoy myself. I was in need of a temporary swap from my responsible, working life for some overdue carefree, random fun instead. So that is exactly what I did.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't just get up and quit everything to become a drinking, partying all hours, no care in the world hippy chick (although that does sound quite appealing to me currently). No, my day -to-day routine was still exactly the same with 11 hour work days (although, I will admit my job commitment was not quite so dedicated after too many nights out in a row but I maintained and struggled my way through, still ensuring that I completed whatever needed to be done). Its not like I completely went off the rails. Its not like that at all. I just let go off sensible for a bit, which I actually think is perfectly healthy to do every so often. And so it began..

A brunch here, a girls night out there... and before long... I had made new friends to go out and socialize with... and so the cycle continued... another brunch, another girls night... and again more friends were made and more parties were had with old and new friends alike. (Hence.. this saw my fun loving February extending into March and still now.. into April).   Ah... I love it though, this really is just another reason why I love this city! Dubai is such a social place...and the majority of us are all away from loved ones and life long friends, resulting in many of us similarly wanting to make new friends in a continual bid to feel settled in our new playing ground. This constant need to socialize mixed with numerous drinking deals and countless bars to choose from makes for a dangerous mix of extended Dubai drinking debauchery!

I really must start to reign my ''sensible'' back in..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.. Just a few snaps there. Thankfully, I don't normally snap away too much on a night out, I have my moments... but usually I am far too busy sipping on wine or dancing on a bar somewhere..weyyyy

 

So. As you can clearly see,  I have defo turned my 2014 around.. when I think of this year, I will now recall just one big party of new friends, drinking, chatting and ridiculous fun. Amazing. Basically this is how I think my life should be right now at the grand age of 25 years old. An experience... (of course with the added odd responsibility of making my way up that career ladder).

 

Life is sweet.

 

x o x o

 

 



Back on it

O, Hello April!

How, we are already in April, I do not know. Also, the fact that this is my first post since January is just not good enough. Slack is the word that comes to mind.

I have no excuses. Its not like I haven't had much to write about. In fact, its almost the opposite. I have had so much going on, that I literally haven't had the time to write a post, and when I have... basically I have been a little blog shy...not like me I know.

I just haven't been able to find the words in how to write down what's been happing in my little world.  You see, I have left single status behind me and entered into a relationship (yes.. the single girl about the city is currently no longer single)... and basically I have been trying to figure out my own thoughts on this before being able to write anything. So that's been my writers block I guess...

However, I miss my writing. So I am back.... and yes, I will be updating on the past few months activities. Blaaady hope the new man just doesn't come across this. ha.

x o x o