Health and Halloween

October is always one of my favourite months of the year. The nights get longer, the weather gets cooler and mumma starts adding dumplings to our dinner to fatten us up for the winter. 

It's always a super busy month for me as its full of birthdays, oh so many many birthdays. Growing up, this meant sweets at school more or less everyday day; now it means lots of lovely meals out with friends and family, cocktails and wine. After a month full of baking cakes and writing cards for other people I get to celebrate my own birthday at the end of the month- I turn 22 on the 26th October, put it on your diaries folks. 

As well as all the autumn cuddles and birthday parties, October brings with it... Halloween. I freaking love Halloween. In less than 2 weeks, I will finally get the chance to wear the costume I've been planning for weeks, and I cannot wait. But before then, I'm gonna snuggle up with a nice hot chocolate and a toffee apple and force my boyfriend to watch Hocus Pocus. It's one of my favourite ever films, and as far as I'm concerned, it's just not Halloween without it. 

If you're ever in Boston...

I've been back from America for no less than two weeks now and I haven't blogged once... I know, I'm a terrible blogger, but please do forgive me- I've been recovering. I was expecting three weeks of sight-seeing fun to wipe me out completely and have me wrapped up in my duvet catching-up on all my missed tv for the foreseeable future. However, (and I may be jumping the gun a little here), I'm not actually doing too badly. No, really. Yes I've had to take things slowly, and I have had the first inklings of a throat infection for the last week but I'm actually ok. 

So what have I been doing these last few weeks during my time across the pond? Well I've been exploring all that Boston has to offer, guided by my very own almost local, my boyfriend Jamie. 

Before my trip, I'd never been to America before. So naturally I spent the first few days in complete awe of their roadsigns, mailboxes and fire-hydrants, I was jumping with joy whenever I saw a 7eleven, a Wholefoods or a laudromat. 

Obviously I can't fill you in on  all I've been doing the last three weeks, I'd bore you to death and you'd probably never read my little blog again. And that's definitely not what I want. So I figured I give you something of a highlights reel, step-away from mentioning my chronic illness and just give you a little snapshot of my time in Boston. So, just in case you ever head over there, here's a little list of some of my must do things in Boston and the surrounding area.

How to Introduce Yoga to Your Life

Last week I posted about how the lack of exercise brought on by my condition has drastically affected my self-confidence (read the post here). Now I'm here to tell you that it's not all doom and gloom. This week I want to share with you the silver lining to have come out of this situation- my discovery of yoga.

   Yoga. You might have heard of it? Right now, it's kinda the fashionable cupcake of the exercise world. In church halls and sports centres across the globe, men, women and children have been rolling out their multi-coloured yoga mats and contorting their bodies into 'down-ward dogs' and 'cobras'; tanned and toned celebrities have been posting carefully angled photos of their recently perfected poses on Instagram; and even my seventy-eight year old grandmother's at it. Why? Because it's bloody brilliant. That's why. Hailed for is reviving qualities and numerous benefits, yoga has quite simply put my life back on track. Focussing on both the mind and body, it’s not simply the physical benefits of yoga, such as an increase in energy and a decrease in muscle tension that make yoga the perfect gentle exercise for an ME sufferer- yoga can increase concentration and memory as well as aiding sleep and decreasing depression too! What’s not to love?

I've being yoga-ing for about eight months now. It was a key part of 2014's News Years resolution to finally start making some progress on the recovery front. While I cannot tell you the difference between different types of yoga (there's many- look it up!), I can attest to its healing benefits. Over the years I’ve tried pacing, relaxing, various supplements and so forth, but I really I feel that it's yoga that has had the biggest impact on my ME riddled life.

   I know, I'm kinda going in for the hard sell. I'm like a sales-woman, stopping at your door to offer you the latest miracle cure for all chronic illness. If only right!? Unfortunately that's not the case. While it does have many benefits, yoga is certainly not the miracle cure. But for people like me, with mostly moderate M.E, it can be a god send for helping us get back on our feet.

Exercise, Body Confidence and M.E

Hola! After a lovely week away in Spain with the family I'm now back in Blighty with blonder hair, browner skin and a fairly unpleasant travel hangover. Now I'm back on home soil I'm going to have to be taking extra good care of my body for the next two weeks to prep myself for my big American adventure at the end of August- I've got all my fingers and toes crossed that my body copes reasonably well with this, and if not, well I'll have a super carer to look after me in the shape of my boyfriend Jamie.

Clockwise from top left: All freckly in the sun, beautiful Estepona harbour, colourful patterns at the Spanish market, sunning myself by the pool

The lazy nature of my holiday and the pretty intense Spanish heat meant that I've spent most of the week lounging around in bikinis, which is what's led to the writing of this post. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that we women are never more concious of our bodies than when in a bikini- it's like being in your underwear except you're on display for all the world to see. Now, while I'm fairly happy with my body most of time- I look in the mirror and take a 'yeah, you'll do' kinda attitude, I'm not as body confident as I'd like to be, and there's one main reason for this; yep you've guessed it, it's my M.E.

It's August...

Time flies right? I know I'm not alone in saying holy Christ how did we get to August? But I for one am incredibly glad it's finally here. 

July was a bit of a roller-coaster of a month for me- lifewise it's been great (I finally graduated!), but healthwise, not so much. While the first half of July was one of those wow! Even I can hardly tell I'm ill stages, the second half of July had me mostly in bed catching up with some old friends (the cast of gossip girl) and eating way too much cookie dough for my own good. So while it may have had some pretty momentous ups, I'm glad to see the back of July, not least because it means it's finally August!

Why am I so excited it's August? Because I've been anticipating it's arrival for such a long time- since I booked my flights out to America way back in the early Spring in fact and even more so since the 21st May. On the 21st May my boyfriend flew out to Boston to spend the summer living it up in the American sun (oh, and working to complete his masters of course), and on the 28th August, after fourteen weeks apart I'll finally be flying out to join him. And now that August is here, well I'm beyond excited. It'll be my first time in America, and while I'll have to do the cross-Atlantic flight alone, when I arrive I'll have very own personal tour-guide- since he arrived I've had my boyfriend sourcing out the best pancakes in town. Because with only three weeks there, a girls gotta sample the very best! 

It's gonna be pretty tough on my body, I know that. I know the repercussions are probably gonna be huge come September 19th when I touch back down on British soil (boyfriend in tow this time). But yes, as the popular saying goes- you only live once. And while I may not have been blessed with the healthiest body, I'm not gonna let that stop me living my life, seeing the things I wanna see and sharing these amazing experiences with the person I love most in the world. Even if it does mean a month in bed afterwards.

Eeeeeeee!

Until then? Well tomorrow I'm actually heading to the Costa del Sol for a last minute holiday with the family for a week of sun, sea, sand and simple relaxation. Last year my body shocked me by coping remarkably badly with the heat, but so far I've been coping pretty well in the glorious British sunshine we've been having of late. So I've got my fingers crossed that this year will be an improvement on last! And if not... well I've got an air-conditioned room.

All packed and ready to go

Right now I'm off to do a little pre-holiday pampering with my lovely new Barry M nail polishes. Catch you in a weeks time!

Alice

x

What I'm Watching

What with my graduation, the weekend in Brighton and all the catching-up with friends and family that comes with returning from uni, I've had a pretty busy time of it lately. There I was, plodding along, thinking my M.E was behaving itself incredibly well and coping with all I was throwing at it far better than I could have hoped. Then bam. Turns out it wasn't coping too well after all and the post external malaise has hit me pretty hard this week (if you're lucky enough to not know what this is, then check out my post on the symptoms of M.E here for a little heads up). If you're a fellow spoonie then you'll know just how gutting this can be. Though we're used it, every time the dreaded PEM hits it feels like a million steps back along the road to recovery. And to be honest with you, I'm really pretty bad at coping with it. Yes, I try to push through though I know I shouldn't, I cry though it just makes me more exhausted and I fret that I'll never ever feel any better... so much for the positive attitude, eh. 

But ultimately, eventually I give in. After a good talking to from my boyfriend or mummy I manage to get myself back on the positive bandwagon wagon and see each episode of PEM as a simple blimp along my long and bumpy journey. So what's a girl to do when she can hardly get out of bed? Why! Sign up for a Netflix account of course! So while I've been holed up in bed with some chocolate and a fan, I've spent my week catching up with some of my best loved shows. These are some of mine, what are some of yours?

Baking Sundays: Death By Chocolate Cupcakes

For a cake lover like myself, it really doesn't get much better than a classic beautifully fudgy, chocolately chocolate cake. Therefore finding that perfect chocolate cake recipe has been like finding the holy grail. I've searched high and low, in old cook books and new, magazines and phone apps and just about every corner of the internet for a flawless recipe that would produce a cake that'd be be, quite simply, delectable. But what's the secret to a faultless chocolate cake... cocoa powder or dark chocolate, sour cream or milk, muscovado sugar or caster? I've tried them all, but nothings been quite right. Nothing's been wow!

That was until I stumbled across this recipe from Sally over at Sally's Baking Addiction. Her chocolate cake was just what I'd been looking for- light, fluffy, moist and immensely chocolately- it was perfect. This has been my go to recipe for quite some time now.- it's one I love to bake up for special occasions and guests always love it. Follow the instructions and this cake is utterly flawless and exceptionally delicious- trust me, you shall never want for another chocolate cake recipe again.