A LIFESTYLE & FITNESS CHALLENGE FOR AUGUST.

Wednesday 31 July 2019

If there was a month of the year that was going to motivate me to get myself together it was going to be August. Firstly it's my birthday month and more importantly, I have a holiday to Fiji in 3 weeks so I need to be looking and feeling my best! As I was writing my goals down for this month, I was making a few bullet points of things I wanted to stick to this month. To make things more interesting for myself (and I would love if you guys took part too #FitWithGi), I thought I'd come up with a little 20 day challenge. After all, things are easier to do when you take them day by day instead of saying 'I'm going to cut out chocolate for the whole month'. So here it is, a 20 day life and fitness challenge for August. 

tea with gi august challenge

Daily Habits 


I could list 100 things I wish I could stick to every day. I told myself last week I was going to wake up half an hour earlier and read my self-help book to get in the right mindset for the day. I lasted two days before I decided sleep was more important. So instead of trying to do everything and failing, I'm just going to try and stick to 3, at least for the 20 days. 

1. Drink 2l of water a day. 


Every list in the world tells you to do this to be healthier and fitter. I start off the day great by getting a litre in at the gym, and then I slowly forget about refilling my water bottle or counting the amount. Luckily, The Big Bottle Co sent me this 2.2l water bottle and now I don't need to worry about refilling anything. Just one bottle a day and all is good. I like that it has the measurements on one side so I know what I have left etc. I've been adding lemons, cucumbers and all sorts inside to make it look more interesting too. 

big water bottle co

2. Start the day with Apple Cider Vinegar. 


I've spoken about this loads, and you can find the benefits here. Recently I've been adding two tablespoons of the ACV with Manuka Honey to boiling water and having it like a 'herbal' tea in the morning. 

3. Intermittent Fasting 


Again, I've spoken about why I find intermittent fasting so useful on the blog before. I try and aim for  an eating window of 12pm - 8pm. Since I go to the gym in the morning it's easier as that's an hour and a half I'm not tempted to eat. I've been breaking my fast with a protein shake and Botanika Blends sent me a nice bundle with over 10 different protein powder flavours, protein porridge and a mushroom hot chocolate which I thought was very interesting indeed. 

All of their products are vegan, and as I've found with other vegan proteins sometimes the texture and taste can be a bit more powdery than with whey protein. The flavours I enjoyed were 'cacao mint cookies', 'golden chai latte' and I thought the 'custard filled cinnamon donut' was very unique (if only I was eating a real one). I loved that the Botanika Brekky porridge had 16.8g of protein and only 25g of carbs. The 'grandma's apple pie' flavour was my favourite and I added half a frozen banana to this to make it more substantial. 

botanika blends


The 20 Day Challenge


All of these are pretty easy and don't take up a lot of time. To hold myself accountable I'm going to be posting on my Tea With Gi Instagram stories once I've done the daily challenge. If you choose to take part (or even just do a couple) tag me or use #FitwithGi so I can see! 

tea with gi august challenge



I hope you join me on this journey and can't wait to see what I feel like at the end of this!

G


* This blog post contains gifted items but all words and opinions are my own *

MAKING CONNECTIONS WITH PEOPLE WHEN YOU MOVE ABROAD.

Thursday 18 July 2019

When I turned 18, I left Gibraltar to go study in the UK (Bournemouth to be exact), then spent a year working in London, a semester abroad in Florida and now here I am on the other side of the world in Brisbane, Australia. So it's fair to say I've had my fair share of moving around and having to find my feet in a new city/country. The great thing about uni is that you're all in the same boat and everyone is there to make new friends. When I lived in London, it was slightly harder to make a group of friends and such because I only knew a handful of people, and London is big so meeting up for a cup of coffee could cost you £8 in transport and an hour journey. Luckily now there are a lot of useful ways to meet people online (not necessarily Tinder) and companies like GreyZone Club that can make settling in to your new life in London a tiny bit easier.

making connections when you move abroad


Before I arrived in London and started my new job, I spent ages looking through flat shares on SpareRoom and in the end moved into a 6 bedroom house in Wimbledon with 5 new housemates who had all moved in at the same time. I'm quite an outgoing person, and go out out almost every weekend (even more then since I was 21) and since some of my housemates were a bit older I couldn't do that just yet (they were a lovely bunch though!).

I then started working for an events company and thought, everyone here must enjoy going out and doing stuff right? They plan parties for a living! The company ended up being made up of only a handful of people, but luckily two of the people working there were my age and from the same university as me so we got along well. Soon after we were going out a lot of weekends, exploring the London museums and just making the most of everything the capital has to offer.

In terms of dating, I imagined I was going to be swept off my feet by a 27 year old business man who had an amazing apartment in Shoreditch and we'd be spending our evenings in posh restaurants and then watching Netflix in bed. As one does when they move to a new country, I downloaded Tinder and started swiping away. London definitely isn't short of variety, but I just couldn't find anyone who I was that interested in or the conversations on there were just too mundane. Secondly, I do prefer to meet people the old fashioned way but nowadays that's pretty hard to do unless you're out in the smoking area every time you go out and wait for guys to approach you asking for a lighter. In an ideal world, I'd be sat outside a cafe in Camden, reading John Steinbeck and an attractive man would approach me and ask 'What are you reading?'. Sadly this never happened (shock) and so, how on earth does a single girl meet like minded people in London?

Step in Greyzone Club, the only dating agency in London that has a 'friends first' approach to dating. Whether you're into sporting events, art galleries, brunch dates or nights out, they have monthly events to cater for a range of interests. The best part about this is that these events aren't just there for you to meet a partner, but rather to build friendships and then maybe in the process you meet someone you like on a romantic level too - reducing the awkwardness in attending! They appeal to professionals in their 20s - 30s who are looking to meet other ambitious, career driven people.

If you're going to be in London in October, then I'd recommend attending their Masquerade Ball on the 5th October. Whether it's by yourself or with a friend, it will be a great way to mingle and meet people whilst you're also looking fab. The best part about these parties is that everyone is there for the same reason, to have fun and make connections - so you know if you approach someone to chat they won't be taken by surprise.


Have you ever lived/worked in a different city? How did you go about meeting people? 

G



*This post contains affiliate links but all words and opinions are my own. 


















MANIFESTING THE LIFE YOU WANT WITH RE-ALIGNMENT.

Thursday 11 July 2019

Over the last couple of years there's been a lot of talk, videos, books and discussions on manifestation and the law of attraction. I have friends who swear by it and others who just don't believe in it and think it's pointless and a waste of time. I probably lie somewhere in the middle where, I have focused on the positive outcome of things or my energy on something happening, and it has. Then there was the time I tried 'scripting' (writing a sort of diary entry as if you already have the thing/life you want, which in this case was to pass my driving test) and when I failed my test because my nerves got the better of me I got home and ripped the page out and said 'well this was a load of crap'. Then recently I got an email from Jennifer Willemsen asking if I would like to review her Intentional Life Creation through Alignment course, and with a cup of tea in bed and the PDF open, I gave it a go. 

tea with gi manifestation

What is the course about? 


The course sets out to 'redesign your life, master the art of living in flow and turning your dreams into reality'. It makes you look at your life with a magnifying glass - past, present and future. It encourages you delve into different areas - health, lifestyle, career, wealth, friendship, love and family and see where the problems are and how to realign where you are and where you want to be. The first 2 modules looks at introspection where you discuss what you want out of the transformation, what your future life looks like and what your personal goals and desires are. Next you look at liberation, what it is that is holding you back from getting what you want, stopping negative thoughts and removing limiting beliefs. The last module looks at creation, turning your dream life into your reality. 

Who is this course for?


To be honest I think this is a course that is suitable to anyone really (over the age of 16). There's not many times in life where I've analysed my life this deeply and although revisiting some memories can be painful, it does lead to more clarity after. If you're someone who's becoming 'burdened by negative thoughts' about yourself or your life, or you feel like you're just 'getting by' with life but not living it then this course will be enlightening. 

What do you get out of it?


The aim of this course is to get you to reconnect with your inner self and discover what has been setting you back from achieving what you want, and how to overcome that. You'll be able to get rid of limiting beliefs and 'how to master your life by understanding the universal laws' and finally, how to manifest your desires into reality. In a nutshell a more positive, stress free and happy life if all goes well. 

My personal experience with the course.

So I started this course back in May when my life in Australia was quite uncertain. I was finding it hard to find a job on a working holiday visa and was scared that my money was going to run out and I was going to have to fly back home. Now in July, as I write this post I was rereading what I wrote in my workbook about my 'limiting beliefs' and how I was going to overcome them. In terms of wealth I wrote something along the lines of 

'Going from having a secure income to being unemployed and having to watch everything you spend is stressful and sad, but I know it is temporary and I believe that if I try harder to find work and explore other revenue streams, I will be ok. The worst thing that can happen is I have to go home, and home is pretty great too.'

Soon after that, I got a job as an au pair with a great family (and then a week in got offered another  full-time job which I had to decline), work some weekends at a bar and as soon as I put more effort into finding paid blog work, more collaboration opportunities came rolling in. As much as that period sucked, it made me grateful for the security I have now and how a lot of things I thought I needed (getting my nails done, eating out every week, new gym clothes) didn't really make a different to my happiness. 

In terms of the aspects I enjoyed most about the course, I enjoyed looking at what I remembered about what I imagined my future looking like when I was as a child. I found it useful to write out what was holding me back in certain elements in my life in the 'Reasons Why Not' section and how in fact the only thing standing in my way was me and my fear of failure/judgement. I found Jennifer's personal stories inspiring on how high vibrations, manifesting and affirmations worked for her. 

"Be active because you are inspired, and re-act on things that show up in your life (signs, people, etc.) instead of being pro-active out of motivation."

"The more positive experiences you “collect” after trusting/acting upon your inner guidance, the more likely you are to get at ease with trusting the outcome."

I found her talk about 'positive outcome capital' section particularly interesting and relatable. How so many opportunities present ourselves daily but how we're often scared to reach out and grab them. Whether it's saying 'yes' to something or talking to a stranger, you never know where these conversations will go.  

What are my beliefs now? 


I'm a big believer in trusting the process or 'universe' that things will work themselves out when I hit a hurdle or something unexpected happens. I also think that breaking down different aspects of your life (money, relationships, career) and seeing where you are now and where you want to be is pretty useful. As long as we're focusing on the why we want to get there first instead of the how. It makes sense that if we envision good things happening and give out positive vibes then naturally those vibes will come right back at us. 

The course also comes with a lovely list of positive affirmations and I've started picking one daily to say each morning/evening. Even if it's something as simple as 'today is going to be a good day'.

Thank you to Jennifer for gifting me this course, it's definitely been an eye opener and I'm excited to take what I've learnt on board with my life! If you'd like to check out the course for yourself click here



G



*This post contains affiliate links but all words and opinions are my own. 




HOW EASY IS IT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE?

Monday 1 July 2019

Easy as. I'm kidding, I did GCSE French and up until recently still had intermediate level french written on my CV, until I had a phone interview with an events company in Monaco and after I hang up the phone I quickly removed that from there. That being said, after that incident I thought to myself - what a waste of everything I learnt in school. So I started implementing a number of ways to improve my French again and actually be able to hold a conversation in the language. If you're looking to learn a second language, here is my advice. 

plaza de espana


1. Take a course online. 


I remember years ago my dad got me a Rosetta Stone package and after just taking a look at their website, they've definitely come a long way. They have a speech-recognition feature to help you fine tine your accent and pronunciation! If you're looking for face to face tutoring or through Skype then Listen + Learn online provides just that. Whether you're looking to move abroad or further your language skills for a job, they provide specific types of lessons. 

2. Change your phone language. 


I suggest doing this once you have the basics down. The last thing you want to do is reset your iPhone because you didn't know what the heck 重启 meant. The great thing about this is that we're so used to using our phones and what prompts/messages come up, that when reading it in a different language we should automatically know what it means through memory. 

3. Spend some time living in the country. 


If you really want to immerse yourself (and make a trip out of it) then spend a couple of weeks, or even months in the country. I find it amazing how so many non-English speaking people move to England, or Australia and just pick up the language as it goes. A great way to do this is consider becoming an Au Pair, as you won't necessarily need to speak much of the language apart from the basics as you will be living with a family. 

4. Communicate with people who speak the language. 


I've done this with people and vice versa. I've had english friends who have wanted to practise their Spanish with me (I'm bilingual) and just from listening to me repeat certain words, especially at uni halls, they caught on to a lot of words. I've met some French people in Australia and try to speak to them in french and tell them to correct me when I say something completely wrong. 

5. Dedicate 10 minutes a day with an app. 


I do this for a couple of days and then I fall out of habit, but we've all heard of Duolingo  and how easy and helpful it is for learning a language. The app is free, and you basically pick your language level and it gives you a couple of exercises to do every day. 

6. Watch subtitled films.

Some of the best films are in foreign languages after all. 

7. Buy an easy foreign book.


Don't try buying Shakespeare or Ernest Hemingway because you'll probably close it after the first two pages and give up. Even if it's something as simple as Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland, reading something you're already familiar with will make it easier to make sense of what you're reading and picking up words. 

8. Make a note on your phone for new words. 


I used to carry a little notebook with me and every time I forgot what a word was or learnt a new one, I'd write it down and reread through the list. Luckily now iPhone notes makes this process a lot quicker and easier. 



Do you speak any second languages? What's one language you would love to learn?

G


* This is a collaborative post but all words are my own and only relevant collaborations are published on this blog. 


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