A-Z Guide to Happiness: C

C

Hellloooo

Today's letter is C, and for this I choose COOKING!

I absolutely love cooking, albeit a little bit stressful at times, but hey... the end result is yummy food so it's worth it!!

I think my favourite meal I have made so far is home made lasagne and potato wedges, for this I use the 'nosh for students' recipe book, which I highly recommend as it's full of easy recipes for quick meals, homey meals, comfort meals, fake aways! I absolutely love it.

I also recently attempted the triple chocolate cookies from Love Tanya (Tanya Burr's book) and oh...my...god they are the best cookies I've ever tasted!! The girls from work said it was like a bite of heaven :P I often bake little goodies to take in as I do really enjoy doing it! My friend Hannah tells me I should open a bakery one day but I don't think I'm quite that good!

If you want to take a look at something I've cooked and reviewed from the Nosh for Students cook book then take a look at my blog post below. Should I bring back Tasty Tuesdays? 

http://ell-jaye.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/tasty-tuesdays-week-one.html

I've just asked my mum what her favourite thing that begins with C is, her answer was Cadburys! Typical woman, a proper chocaholic!!
What be your Happy C?

Much Love

LJ xo

A-Z Guide to Happiness: B

B

Hellooo

So for today's letter I choose BUBBLE BATHS!!!!!!!!!

I've had a couple of rough days so I thought a bubble bath was just what I needed!

I set up my bathroom, lit some lovely smelling candles - There's a place called notcutts near me and last xmas they sold this amaaazzingg vanilla candle that smells like cupcake dolls (a toy from when I was little, they were basically like barbies and when you turned their dress inside out they went into like a cupcake, but they were scented.. sounds strange i know but delightful for your nose lol! -  So anywayyy.. I used that candle, and then a few others.

I got a couple of pieces of Zoella's fizz bar and used that, I love the smell of it and watching it fizz, the only thing is I quite like having bubbles in my baths and fizzers don't have that effect, so I have to use a bubble bath too :P

I stuck my new Toshiba Chromebook (highly recommended) on the side and set up a playlist of Gabrielle Aplin on youtube for whilst I was relaxing in the bath. Gabrielle Aplin is my go-to music at the moment when I'm feeling stressed or on edge, I'm not sure why, something about her music and voice is incredibly soothing.

What would be your happy thing for the letter B?

Much Love

LJ xo

A-Z Guide to Happiness: A

A

Hellloooo!

So, today's letter is A, for this I am going to choose the word Animals!

I have a westhighland terrier called Poppy, she's getting a little old now bless her! When we first got her she was smaller than a football and sooo cute! She still is cute now, just not as diddy! :)

I also have a pet Degu, very adorable animal and funny to watch, although I'm still a little scared incase she bites me, she never has but the man at the pet store decided to tell me scary bite stories! Not what you should do when trying to sell an animal!

Anyyywaayyy, part of the reason why I have chosen Animals as my letter is because it is scientifically proven that the company of a dog for example, assists in improving depression and anxiety! 

Some of the reasons that they help improve depression and anxiety are the following:

- Dogs can sense when you are feeling low and upset, and they will respond to these emotions to try make you feel better.

- Dogs also are less likely to respond if you are giving commands in a stressful or frustrated manor, meaning that you must learn to control your emotions in order to speak to your dog calmly and assertively.

- If you have a dog, it will need walking - which means 1) you get out of the house instead of staying shut away all day and 2) You're exercising, which releases endorphins (the happy chemical that your brain makes) so it's a win win situation!

- Often if a dog is lying with their head in your lap, you will want to stroke them, they are calming animals and by doing this it is a soothing motion which can help when you are feeling anxious.

- If you have a little puppy bouncing around being a bit nutty and trying to play... are you going to say no to that? Are you going to be able to resist having a little giggle?? I highly doubt it!!! 

- It's a conversation starter if you aren't used to talking to people! You could bump into someone when walking your dog and you have something that you can actually talk about without having to rack your brain!

- Companionship, you're not going to feel alone when you have a pup by your side! They say a dog is a man's best friend.

- Having a pet gives you responsibility, I see it as almost like a purpose! This animal needs you, it needs you to get out of bed in the morning to feed it, walk it, give it water! It needs to be played with and loved! 

Although I have got a dog, she's not technically mine! I would absolutely love to have my very own puppy that I raise myself and build a bond with from day one! If I could get one I would like a King Charles Spaniel as these are very fun, gentle and loving dogs that are highly recommended for people that suffer from depression.

If you want to read a bit more about this, here are a couple of links!:

http://pets.webmd.com/ss/slideshow-pets-improve-your-health

http://www.webmd.com/depression/features/pets-depression

http://dogsfordepression.org.uk/how-dogs-help-us.html

Do you have pet that helps you? Tell me about them and how they help!!

Much Love

LJ xo

A-Z Guide to Happiness

Helloooo!!

So for the month of August I am going to be making an A-Z Guide to Happiness!

Each day in August (minus a few as there's not enough letters in the alphabet!) I'm going to make a post about something that makes me happy using that day's letter!

The aim of this is to create a list of things to refer to if I'm ever struggling to find something that will make me smile.

Feel free to make your own list! I'd absolutely love to see what other people come up with too, so if you fancy it give it a go and write it in the comments below or tweet me at @ell_jaye :)

Much love...

LJ xo

Introduce yourself....again

Hellloooo!! Long time no speak

So, I'm trying to get back into blogging, mainly as a bit of motivation for myself.

My emotions are kind of a rollercoaster to be honest! sometimes I have down days when in reality there's nothing specifically wrong with my life, in fact I am very lucky but that doesn't stop negativity! Where as others I'll be full of laughs and everything will seem ok.

So basically, I want this to be my happy place, somewhere I can put all of my positives for me to look at when I need some inspiration and motivation.

Hopefully in time this blog will be filled with family, friends, happy memories, laughs, photographs, makeup, hair, cooking.... everything that puts a smile on my face!

With any luck, eventually I will help other people to!

Anyway, that's enough for now! Hopefully I stick to it this time!

Much love...

LJ xo

Getting Fit

Hey Guys!!

So, just to put it out there, I split up with my boyfriend, my bestfriend, two days ago. So I'm now thinking of ways to make myself happy and feel better about myself for 2015.

One of these would be to get fit, I used to walk around 4 miles a day at school and college as I had to walk from one side of the city to another. However I now work 9-5:30 at a desk job, and drive 40 minutes each way when going to and from work/home. So as you can tell.. my exercise has dropped dramatically! Meaning that in the last year I have gained 1 stone.

I know that is not a massive amount, I also know I haven't got a lot of fat to lose, but once I have lost what I need I plan to tone up.

In order to do this I'm going to be following the Blogilates work out plans, 30 Day Flat Ab Challenge & Beginners 2.0   4 week plan.

30 Day Flat Ab Challenge
For this it is basically what it says on the tin, 30 days of building up your abs. It starts of with a simple set of 5 reps of 3 different exercises, then each day the sets/reps increase, until the end where you are able to do 5 different sets of 22 reps.

It also has on it the amount of extra cups of water you should aim to drink each day as this decreases bloating.

Beginner's 2.0
I have a feeling this is going to be a fair bit more intense than the ab challenge. This workout plan contains video names for Blogilates, where you can then go onto youtube and follow her work out video. I think this is going to be quite a bit more intense than the ab challenge as some of these videos are 30 minutes long. But I am determined to stick with it!

So, without further a-due, here is my BEFORE picture - weighing in at 10 stone. I would like to be 9 stone 9lbs by 31st January, I think that should be pretty do-able!

If anyone else would like to join in with me, please tweet me or tag me on your instagram pics!

Blogilates also has some healthy food recipes on her app, which I shall be trying out too! Let me know if you have tried any in the comments below!! 

Thank you for reading, I will be keeping you updated on my progress!

Much love xoxo

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How to be happy

Hey strangers!

Firstly I apologise for the inconsistancy of my blog. I don't want this to be a place that I fill with negativity but most of the time when I feel like writing, it's because I'm in a negative place. I think as a new years resolution I will maybe set myself a goal of posting once a week... what do you think, sound realistic???

So how was everyone's Christmas day??

I got lots of bits and bobs, my main present this year was a robot arm... yes you read right... a robot arm! I know this sounds very odd but its an inside thing with me and my mum. Basically whenever I'm feeling low or fed up and she asks what I want to do, I always say build a robot. Random I know, but how cool would it be building a little robot?!

Xmas day was kind of quiet this year, I come from a reasonably big family but my siblings have moved out, one sister moved up north with her partner so now lives 4 hours away and my other sister moved to Australia so is a good 24 hours away! My brother only lives a short drive but he works a lot of long shifts so we don't get to see him to often. My mum works on Christmas day too which isn't the best but it could be worse! So yeah, if everyones home with their partners too then we have a full house of 9 people! but this year it was just me mum and dad mostly, except the few hours my brother came over in the morning.

What did you guys get for Christmas??? I think the best thing for me was spending time with my mum and dad, shutting out the rest of the world and playing board games and having a laugh. Things have been a struggle recently so doing this was just what I needed.

So I've called this blog post "how to be happy" but honestly, I don't think there really is any one answer of how to be happy. I think a good start is surround yourself with the people that make you happy. For me, thats my mum and dad. When things get tough home is where I want to be.

Another thing I would recommend is reading. I love reading because I get so into the story that it takes me out of reality and the story is all I am thinking about. My favourite book that I've read in the last year is Nothing Left to Lose. I would definitely recommend it!!

Tonight I've been feeling a little low so I've lit my favourite scented candle, opened up a tub of jelly tots and I'm going to play some Grand Theft Auto.

Surround yourselves with the people and things that make you happy, it's ok to take yourself out of reality from time to time, but don't run from it. Eventually you will have to face it again, but if things get too much, go to your safe place :)

Have you got any ways that help make yourself happy? Write them in the comments... lets try make this a positive space.

I'll write again soon (hopefully!!!). Remember, live life for you.

Toodles.. xoxo

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