Spring break has finally commenced for a variety of British university students in the country. I am so happy to be back home, surrounded by the people I love and sleeping in a double bed! The single bed life at university is not the one for me, and not to mention the vile wet room. Although I miss my best girl friends ALREADY, I cannot wait to spend some time with my boyfriend in a different country and spend time with my family. This Spring I am ticking off so many incredible things from my bucket list and I'm feeling extremely blessed. I thought that today's post could just be a chilled, chatty update about the recent things I've been doing, my upcoming travels and plans for the Spring Break.

Last week, my friends and I spent our Wednesday off university baking (in Easter bunny ears, I'd like to add). I'm literally so extra with everything, I just had to purchase the rabbit ears to lighten the mood further. You won't believe the amount of students walking past our huge kitchen windows staring in and thinking WTF are these gals doing?! Anyway, we managed to bake Easter cupcakes, Mini Egg Tiffin and Creme Egg brownies. They all tasted absolutely delicious, considering the lack of equipment me required - I must say, the brownies were definitely the best. We followed the BBC good food recipes for the cakes and brownies, adding our own twist with the Easter treats. We essentially just mashed up some biscuits, melted chocolate and launched loads of other excessively sugared foods into a baking tray for the tiffin. Despite the simplicity, this also tasted divine and only needed a couple of hours in the fridge to harden completely. 

TRAVELS

From the 27th March to the 5th April, I will be spending my days in the gorgeous country of Italy. My boyfriend treated me to this incredible trip for my 19th birthday and I've been looking forward to it for months. I've never visited Italy before but seeing as my boyfriend is half Italian and he's just finished taking Italian lessons at university, what better time would it be to go?! We'll be jetting of to Milan for a couple days, hopping on the train to Florence for the next few and then lastly, finish our trip if the historic city of Rome. Make sure you're following me on my social media accounts (linked at the top right of my blog) to watch what's going on whilst I'm out there. Snapchat and Instagram will be where I'll give the most updates, followed by Youtube on my return. I'm going to be creating a lot of content whilst I'm away, and hopefully getting inspired after experiencing a new culture. There will be lots of fashion posts, reviews and lookbooks on my blog and Youtube channels. I'm vlogging my entire trip too so make sure you're subscribed to my VLOG CHANNEL!

Read about 'The Reasons I Love to Travel' in a previous post. It might inspire you to visit somewhere new soon.

UPCOMING PLANS 

Although my 10 day trip in Italy is going to take up the majority of my Spring break, there are also a variety of things I've managed to cram into space in between! On Sunday, my mum, Auntie and little cousin went to watch Shrek the Musical. I've been wanting to see this for about 5 years now, after repeatedly watching the broadway version on DVD. It was so incredible to see one of my favourite musicals brought to life in front of my eyes. The staging, directing and hilarious comical moments were unbelievable - I hope I will be able to head back to the theatre once again to see this in the future. An amazing show for the whole family! Also, after my return to England, I am going to be jumping 13,000 feet out of a plane. Yep, my life-long dream to skydive is coming to action on the 6th April, alongside my boyfriend, his mum and one of his brothers! I cannot wait to be skydiving - I'm sure I will be a little nervous when I'm up in the air but for now, I'm beyond excited! After talking about my exciting plans, I thought I'd mention that when I head back to university on the 9th April, I'm going to have to get my head down; there are so many deadlines I need to meet and not the mention how close my May exams are. I'm going to enjoy my Easter break with minimal revision; however, I'm getting back on with my university work as soon as I'm back in Lincoln. As for now, I hope you enjoy all the new content I will be bringing over the next two weeks. I love you all and thank you so much for your continuous support!

Have you baked anything sweet this Easter? What do you plan on doing over the Spring break?

Lots of love

Being a university student, it is hard not to succumb to the countless takeaways and poor nutrition lifestyle. Everyone is partying, going out every weekend and it's easy for students to fall into an unbalanced lifestyle - lack of sleep, lack of exercise and an unhealthy diet. Luckily, I'm not a massive alcohol drinker; I love having a drink every now and again (I'm also obsessed with cocktail nights) but I don't go out on a regular basis with my uni friends. In 2018, I've pushed myself to lead a healthier, balanced lifestyle; emphasising on fitness and nutritional health. The two massive parts of my new routine are down to Blogilates, a youtube channel dedicated to mini fitness routines, alongside Herbalife, a global nutrition company that helps achieve active lives. 

In the evenings, Blogilates always has my friends and I working out butts off in our university kitchen. We pop on our gym attire (however cannot afford to attend the gym) and follow the current March 2018 calendar that Cassie has kindly put together on her website (click here if you want to follow too!!) She has been an absolute babe, motivating me in the evenings to push my body to its limits and getting back to that fitter state I used to be in. Each day is dedicated to a specific area or an all-round workout; this ensures that each inch of your body is working hard throughout the week. Don't get me wrong, we do NOT follow this everyday as our bodies would definitely cease; however, we try out best to do at least 3 evenings of hardcore workouts a week. I definitely recommend checking out Blogilates on Youtube, if you want some fitness inspiration to follow at home if you cannot afford a gym membership or want to save some money.

In terms of nutrition, I've found that I've injected a lot more protein into my diet. For those unsure of the benefits of protein, it is vital to obtain protein within your diet to repair tissues and promote muscle growth. Moreover, we need to obtain essential amino acids (those of which we cannot naturally source ourselves) by consuming products that contain them. Herbalife have crafted a variety of fitness products, many which are high in protein, to promote tissue repair, muscle growth, strengthen our immune systems and useful for the manufacturing of enzymes/hormones in the body. My favourite of the Herbalife range are the F1 Healthy Meal Nutritional Shake Mixes (specifically the vanilla and tropical flavoured ones), as well as the Vanilla Almond protein bars. The shakes make the perfect breakfast meal; I usually pop the mix in with some banana and chia seeds with my Alpro almond milk. Containing 21 vitamins and minerals and 9g of protein and fibre to support weight management, these shakes are aiding my fitness journey significantly. They taste UNBELIEVABLE and are also great for a post-workout shake too. Also, I'm a huge fan of the delicious protein bars - vanilla and almond are two of my favourite tastes so the combination is divine. With nutritional benefits, such as increasing metabolism and providing B-vitamins, these protein bars are a great snack to take to university and the ideal post-workout treat. I've been obsessed with these bars ever since they arrived to my door and have helped to cure my chocolate/sweet cravings than any other product has before!

Shop Herbalife Products here:

F1 Healthy Meal Nutritional Shake Mix

Protein Bars

Instant Herbal Tea

Are you on a fitness journey this year? Will you be using Blogilates and Herbalife to stay on track?

Lots of love

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The Herbalife products in this post were sent for review; however, all opinions are honest and my own.

A few weeks ago, a fellow University of Lincoln student and blogger, Carrie, got in contact with me in regards to the new Sport Relief #whatevermovesyou campaign this year. I jumped at the chance of getting involved, raising awareness alongside a small amount of money, in aid of a credible charity that I've supported for years. For 2018, Sport Relief have decided to create a new app which you can all go to the app store and download for free; the app is extremely motivational and challenging the nation to accomplish 1 billion steps every single day. This challenge, to help an amazingly worthy charity, has encouraged me to leave my university room more, walk to places instead of opting for other transport and setting myself other personal goals to reach in life.

WHATEVER MOVES YOU

Simply type in 'Sport Relief' on the app store to download and get involved. It is super easy to raise awareness by letting your friends, family and other loved ones know. If you are as competitive as myself and Carrie, it is worth setting up your own league to challenge each other to see who can get the most steps before the end of Sport Relief week (Friday 23rd March). Currently, I am on 30,000 steps since the challenge began, which I'm very proud of. I can definitely see an improvement to last week, when I barely left my apartment and did nothing but type/edit at my desk every day. It's so lovely to explore, walk around and have a breath of fresh air every now and again to clear my head.

If you want to join myself and Carrie, we have created a 'BLOGGING GROUP' league (you do NOT have to be a blogger, just anyone who fancies challenging us) to get you all involved. I have had a few questions about the whole app and it's completely free. There are a variety of different sections on the app - the 'discover' area is great to find new workouts and promoting the active lifestyle ever more. There is even a section to help raise money for Sport Relief this year; I currently have a page running and, fingers crossed, hoping to reach £100 by the end of the week. Any small donation counts and if you're not sure how to donate, then click on my page as all of the money goes 100% to Sport Relief. Thank you so much to anyone who has donated so far, charity work means an extreme deal for me.

DONATE HERE

JOIN OUR BLOGGING GROUP HERE

CHECK OUT CARRIE'S BLOG HERE

HAVE YOU DOWNLOADED THE APP YET? WILL YOU JOIN THE NATION TO BUILD 1 BILLION STEPS?

Lots of love

It has come to a point in my year that I've been expecting for a while. It seems that I've been overworking myself and it has finally got the better of me. I'm going to be taking a break from my blog and Youtube for as long as I need (I don't expect this to be long at all, a week minimum) to recover, getting my headspace back to where it needs to be. My mental health has plummeted over the past few weeks due to the amount of work I've been taking on and the pressures from university/my personal life. I've never taken a break before but I feel like it's well needed (and if I say so myself, deserved) after non-stop working for as long as I can remember.

Do you fail to give yourself a break? Do something today that will allow you time to relax.

BUNTY'S TEA ROOM

My final destination you should visit in this (hopeful) series where I share all my new finds in Lincoln, is Bunty's Tea Room. My friend, Hattie, came in this little place just at the top of steep hill with her family and she absolutely loved it. We decided to endure steep hill and pop in for some tea and cake. A little tip for fellow students would be to share a pot of tea; for three of us, this pot of tea allowed each of us three cups EACH so we ended up saving a lot of money together. The crockery was extremely vintage and the details were beautiful on the cups, spoons and plates. Bunty's Tea Room is such a quaint little house with only a number of places to sit. I'd recommend going in on an afternoon mid-week to avoid losing a seat. Having the biggest sweet tooth in the world, I also bought a HUGE slice of Jaffa Cake...cake, as it is my absolute favourite. I'd rate Bunty's a solid 8/10. Two points dropped for less seating and expensive cake.

Have you ever visited Lincoln? What is your favourite city?

Lots of love