"Romance? What Romance?" - Has the Era of the Old Fashioned Gentleman Died Out?

Lately I'm pondering if the kind of guy I'm looking for actually still exists out there. If you know me personally, you'll know that I've been single for coming up to 5 years nearly. It's not because I haven't looked, and it's not because I haven't been on dates, but the kind of men I'm meeting on the channels recommended for doing so, simply aren't the sort that I want my next relationship to be with.

I'm not judging; hey, if 'Hi. How are you?', one word replies and then 'What bra size are you?' is what you're after from a man, that's completely fine, but I've been there, done that and at the end of the day, it's simply not what I want. Maybe I've been spoiled with Hollywood romance films and tv shows where the guy always turns out to be a good'un in the end, but surely there are still some men out there who can hold a conversation and show an interest in more than the immediate physical assets in front of them?

It's all about the upbringing; I've grown up with a strong sense of family, where even though my parents aren't together anymore and there have been separation and divorce elsewhere along the way, my grandparents for example, have been solidly together (last anniversary before my grandad passed was their 60th I believe) and wherever they went together, they always walked hand in hand. You could see from the way he looked at her, right up to the last day, that he absolutely adored her and wanted to do everything he could just to see her smile. The day before he passed was their anniversary, and even though he was bed bound in their house and hardly able to move, he found a way to get a beautiful bunch of roses delivered to her, even though in that state she had asked noone to mention the upcoming anniversary because she was certain he wouldn't know what day of the week it was, let alone the date and month.

Sometimes,  I look around and think maybe I'm asking too much and I should settle for what is available, and then I see my 'baby' cousin, now 23 years old, holding doors open for me to walk through and refusing to let me pay for coffees or dinner, simply because that's the way he's been brought up and I'm reassured that there must still be men out there who are decent and kind, and have old fashioned mannerisms that if you're not used to them, make you blush and smile a little to yourself.

Am I the only one wanting a little romance and respect from a partner or do you agree with me? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Dresses, Jackets, Shoes, and Bags

I've recently, since starting my most recent role at asos.com, discovered a previously hidden passion and love for fashion and styling, and as it turns out, I have quite a talent for it. A talent that others are apparently noticing too - last week I was out with a friend of mine, shopping for an outfit for an event in June, and while she was changing dresses, I was talking to other customers in the waiting room. I struck up a conversation with a particular patron and was also helping her with zips etc, for the dresses she was trying. The lady in question, commented that she should be paying me for my services.

Later the staff member from the changing room, had heard by conversations with my friend and the other lady, and asked me which area I work in. I thought she meant generally, so I told her I work for ASOS. To my surprise and utter delight, she responded by admitting that she'd genuinely thought me to be a Stylist, based on how she'd seen and heard me interacting with the other customers and my friend. She went on to say that I clearly had a passion for it and a natural talent and that perhaps I should look into Personal Styling/ Personal Shopping as a career (which I have been anyway) and also stated that the store we were in at the time, offers Personal Shopping as a service, and that I should maybe apply for the role! I felt completely giddy and excited for the rest of the day. I had been told by my friends that I have a talent for it, but to have a complete stranger (who works in that industry anyway) make that observation and suggestion that I should look into it as a career was truly a completely different buzz.

Thus, I have thrown myself into the passion for Fashion Styling and made the decision to sign up for a course and will also be working on a Portfolio to show as examples of my work/ talent as a Stylist. Furthermore, I think a unique selling point I can bring to a career as a Stylist/ Personal Shopper is the photography aspect.

Keep your eyes peeled for more of this!

Easter Wishes from the Scatter-Bunny 🐰

Happy Easter Everyone! I'm still on my DECHOX so of course won't be having anything naughty, even today, but I hope the Easter 🐰 brings you all some tasty goodies to enjoy. 

I thought I'd write a quick post and wish you all a lovely day and update visually on my progress since starting my Dechox in March, so here goes:

Lots of pictures in today's post, I know, but bear with me for a few more pics, as I wanted to share a recipe with you, that I tried for the first time yesterday and it turned out really well.

So, if you've read my last post on making pancakes, you'll know I'm not very good at making them (or at least making them look presentable) but I thought I'd try something yesterday and as they tasted (and looked) pretty great, I thought I'd share the recipe with you and some pics of the overall result.

I'm going to call them 'Cashana pankcakes'. The following makes 5 pancakes:

• 1 mashed banana
• 2 tsp of Pip & Nut cashew butter
• 1/2 scoop of MyProtein vanilla whey protein powder
• a dash of 1% milk
• 2-3 drops of Vanilla Natural Extract

Use a fork or a whisk to mix these together in a bowl until (mostly) smooth. 

Add a small amount of olive oil to the pan between each pancake so that they don't stick, then pour one scoop of the mix into the pan to heat..

 

Use a thin edges spatula to gently lift the edges of your pancake and then when loose enough, turn it over.

When you've made your desired number of pancakes, or the mix has finished, plate up and top with a topping of your choice. I chose cashew butter and fresh raspberries.

Finally, enjoy!

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post. If you decide to try my Cashana Pancakes recipe, please let me know in the comments and post a pic of the result and tag me, on Twitter and Instagram @scatterbotblog

If you would like to sponsor my DECHOX, you can do so by clicking here.

Have a good Sunday x

Week Six: Weigh In Update

 

Hello again and sorry for the massive jump/ gap in weigh in updates. I'm here to fill you in on everything that's happened in the last 5 weeks and most importantly my weigh in and donations update.

So, my starting weight on 1st March was 97.9kg / 15 st. 5 lbs, and as of 10th April my weigh in is showing me to be 91.3kg / 14 st. 5lbs, which means in 6 weeks, I've lost 6.6kg/ 1 stone. In the last 6 weeks I have completely followed the rules I have set for myself and avoided all things that I would find tempting, and I'm beginning to feel less tempted by them as a result.

Don't misunderstand me, I've not gone out of my way to avoid being in a situation that would tempt me, instead, I've embraced situations that will tempt me and then proven to myself that my resilience is stronger than the temptation. I have still eaten out at restaurants, but have resisted ordering unhealthy starters and said no to any desserts - that doesn't mean that other people can't have them who are with me. It's not cruel or unfair, instead it just proves further that I can beat the temptation. An example of this is when I go to GBK and order a salad and a tap water (proof is in the pic above) - yes I know, it seems unbelievable to do that, but believe it or not, their salads are also delicious, and well worth trying. The other option is to have a 'naked' burger without the bun, but with the Burger I usually order, a salad is still the healthier choice.

At the same time, I've also been keeping up with my exercise, regularly going to the gym and seeing my Personal Trainer once a week. Saying that though, for the last 2 weeks, I've been feeling really ill (not as a result of the DECHOX) so I've not been to the gym since around 29th March 🙈 In my defence though, I've also been home sick from work since 3rd April. I've not been skiving from the gym, I've been ill. As a result, I've lost my appetite and although I've still made myself eat, I've been eating a lot less, but still keeping to what I have allowed myself to eat.

I've been told by the doctor that I need to eat a few carbs, but I've still kept to my rules as much as possible, so I've had a little bit of bread but avoided pasta and rice, and mostly just stuck to the Dark Rye Ryvita that I eat anyway.

If I've impressed you with my progress and you'd like to donate some money to the cause, and sponsor my Dechox, you can do so by clicking the button at the bottom of the page :)

Thanks in advance!
X

Week One: Weigh In Update - 8th March 2017

The first 9 days have been successful - I've not strayed once, and the longer I've stuck to the plan, the less tempted I've been to break it. So much so that today, at work, when I sat with 4 colleagues each eating or sharing a Domino's pizza, my stomach didn't even stir at the offer of a bite.

I decided on Wednesday, 8th March, exactly one week since starting my DECHOX challenge, to do a weigh in and see what progress I'd made. The result shocked me - I'd lost 8lbs in 7 days, by simply adjusting my diet and changing my eating habits. I've been told successful weight loss is 90% diet, but I hadn't really believed it. They do say, "seeing is believing" so I reckon now I'm a believer. And more motivated than before to stick with it and see how much I can lose by the end of May.

To give a clearer, more distinctive understanding of exactly what I'm giving up on this DECHOX, I thought it might be worth writing it down in black & white, so here goes.

As of 1st March 2017, for an ongoing time period lasting until at least May 31st 2017, I am banishing the following from my diet:

• Chocolate (edible and drinkable)
• Crisps, chips, etc.
• Popcorn (cinema/ ready made)
• Junk Food
• Take Out/ unhealthy food options
• Starters/ Dessert 
• Heavy carbs
• Fizzy drinks
• Alcohol
• Unhealthy snacks

I'm taking on this challenge to raise money in the name of the British Heart Foundation. To show your support, please click here and donate on my page to this great cause. I haven't set myself a goal weight as I'm just looking to see that the result will be, but my challenge is to not stray from the diet at all before at least 31st May 2017.

After this date, we'll see what happens as, they say it takes 21 days to form a habit, so I may not have the urge to re-introduce the above into my diet again.

I'm intending to post an update weekly, with my weigh in update, so stay tuned to see my progress.


Comments welcome as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Dechox 2017 : Charity Challenge with a Twist

"Dechox? What's Dechox" I hear you ask. Well, DECHOX for bhf is a one month challenge introduced by The British Heart Foundation which challenges people to give up chocolate for the month of March for charity (de-CHOX - get it?) and, like last year, I've decided to accept and take on this challenge. With a twist.

I have to say I love the ads for the DECHOX this year. They've certainly grabbed my attention and kept me entertained, both of which mean they'll be memorable, so hopefully they'll also entice lots of people to join in the challenge (or encourage any that don't want to join in, to dig deep and sponsor those who do, instead).

The extra challenge I'm setting myself with this DECHOX, is that I'm not only going to be giving up chocolate, but also crisps, unhealthy snacks, popcorn at the cinema, take out, junk food and generally anything unhealthy that may be of temptation (my PT will be thrilled). In addition to this, I'm starting this challenge with an aim of starting it for the month of March and then seeing if I can keep it up with no cheating, to the end of May.

Don't get me wrong, I have willpower, but I do think this is going to be a challenge. Especially when it gets to around Easter time and people will be having lots of chocolate.

Today, the 1st of March and first day of my DECHOX challenge, has gone very well I think. I've not caved at all and even when going to the cinema this evening with two of my lovely friends who had chocolate and popcorn, I stuck with my DECHOX and snacked only on unsalted cashew nuts (only 1 handful) and dried apricots. So Day 1 is done, wish me luck for Day 2, 3, 4, 5..... you get the picture.

If you want to know more about what the British Heart Foundation do, you can find there website by clicking here. Should you want to join in the challenge, you can sign up to do your own DECHOX challenge here. Or if you'd like to show your support for my challenge and keep up to date with how it's all going, you can donate through my JustGiving DECHOX page by following the link here.

I'm also intending to post regular updates on this challenge and exploring if doing this has affected my health etc. in any way good or bad.

As always, your comments and likes are very much appreciated.

Sipping coffee in Wiesbaden

So I've travelled over to Germany for the weekend for my grandmother's birthday and today is my last day here. It's been a nice few days - I've seen my dad, my aunt, my grandmother, my cousins and spent some one to one time with my stepmom too. 

Yesterday we went for brunch (one of my favourite things to do on a Sunday) except it wasn't like any brunch I was used to. It was in a beautifully grand setting and reminded me of a scene from Gossip Girl where they sip from Mimosas somewhere on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. 

Don't get me wrong, the setting was beautiful and the food was delicious, it just wasn't what I was used to when it comes to Brunch (though I'd happily get used to it!)

Also, when someone mentioned "Brunch" there wasn't an explanation or description attached, so I expected to go somewhere and choose my usual eggs benedict from the menu, just this time wearing a posh frock. So when my eyes were greeted with the mother of all buffets, my stomach growled and demanded I get stuck in, but my head was still confused (it came around to the idea pretty quickly though). 

Here are a few pics of our grandiose morning at Käfer's Bistro, Wiesbaden yesterday.

Yes there was a dessert buffet too..

Hope you all had a lovely weekend whatever you are!

The Release of a Mental Struggle

What do you call it when someone goes out of their way to make you feel down, feel bad about yourself and even try to make you feel ashamed of something that you know you shouldn't need to feel ashamed about? What do you call it?

The word that comes to mind is 'bullying'. But what do you call that when it's someone who is supposed to love you, someone who is supposed to be your support system and who usually would be the person there for you when you'd feel you couldn't turn to anybody else? Does that still count as bullying?

Or does that count as something worse, because unlike normal bullies, where you can go home and shut the door on them and hopefully get some peace, this is something else? This is the kind of bullying, where when you're at home and it starts, you just want to be able to leave and go somewhere else, anywhere else. But you can't always do that, because it's late at night or you simply have nowhere else to go.

When the people you love the most, can reduce you to tears and then walk about the house carrying on with the many jobs that need doing and not notice, surely that's something worse than bullying? When they don't even show an ounce of regret or concern as to why you're upset.

Something happened to me at work a few months ago. My role changed. I didn't agree with the reasons and I didn't agree with the change, but my voice of reason told me that being moved into a different role, was better than being shown the door, especially when I work for a company I adore. When I came home, I spoke to this person about it, and expressed upset but also relief. She expressed disappointment anger and shame. She continues to refer to my new role as a 'demotion' even though that's not what it is. If a company tell you they feel you're not as well suited to your role as they originally hoped, and have the opportunity to basically give you your marching orders, but instead tell you that they consider you to be a role model of the company's values and would like to, with your consent, move you into another role instead which they feel you'd be more suited to, then surely that's not a demotion. It's a positive thing. And yet this person, the one whose pride I strive to have, looks down on it as something to be ashamed of.

When I told her about it, the first thing she said to me, was to please not tell my aunt or my father or  any of her friends because it's embarrassing. So, aside from a handful of my very closest friends, no one knows about this. I'm breaking my silence about it now, because I'm fed up of being made to feel ashamed and like I'm an embarrassment, and I'm horrified that this person, who is supposed to love me unconditionally, can be happy to make me feel this way.

So hear it goes; I'm no longer a German SME Customer Care Advisor, because my 'quality feedback' states that due to a few minor German grammar mistakes and punctuation errors, I'm not good enough to be in that role. Instead I have been moved into a normal English Speaking Customer Care Advisor role and yes, my salary has dropped. But I still have a job. I still work for my money. So I don't think I should need to be embarrassed about anything and I'm fed up of being made to feel otherwise about it in my own home.


The weight is off my shoulders and I don't feel ashamed anymore..... and breathe.




If you feel you can relate to this post, please drop me a comment or give me a like.

Pancakes for Breakfast - Healthy Style

Protein pancakes are something I keep hearing about and seeing endless posts about on Facebook, Pinterest, etc. and today, being my day off from work, I thought I might finally try my hand at making them myself.

I looked up a friend of mine on Facebook who has an FB Page dedicated to her passion that is Nutrition and Fitness and inspiring others (you can find her page here), found her post on healthy pancakes and adapted it to match my tastes. Here's how my pancake attempt went this morning...

In the picture above left, is the pancake pan I ordered, likely over a year ago, from Avon (yes they sell kitchenware now) but have never actually used. I figured it would be the perfect partner to my protein pancakes.

The recipe I adapted is:

- 1x banana, mashed

- 2x eggs

- 1x scoop of My Protein Impact Whey Vanilla Protein Powder

- approx. 50 ml of 1% Milk (orange top)

After mixing the above together, I poured the mix fairly equally into the pan,  pictured above right. After waiting for the bubbles to start appearing, I suddenly realised I'd have to flip them...

... this didn't go so well...

Finding I had enough mix left to make another 4, I thought I'd try again.

Thinner layer this time.. but still I can't flip them. I think I managed to save approx. 7 out of the total of 8 pancakes in the end..

I decided to top them with a bit of raw cacao powder and another banana sliced up.

Here's a summary of my shambles pancakes again in pictures.. 

Drop me a comment or hit 'like' if you've enjoyed this post. Also, feel free to give me some tips for improving my pancake flipping skills ;)

An Expression of the Mind

I've been re-watching Gossip Girl and am feeling inspired to try new things and write about them. Tomorrow is the birthday of one of my best friends, and also the day that I'm supposed to be looking at booking a summer trip to New York with her and the girls. Yet now I'm unsure, as I've been advised that it's not going to happen, so I don't know what to do.

Today I had an interesting experience - I went to see a Clairvoyant, but unlike a lot of them, this one doesn't just read cards, she's also genuinely psychic. And as much as I'm trying to follow the golden rule of listen, absorb and let go and carry on, I'm now entirely in two minds about New York, which is new for me, because I absolutely love New York. I guess I'm going to have to sleep on it and see what happens tomorrow.

Good night everyone & sweet dreams

X

Goals and Resolutions for 2017

Happy New Year everyone & a big welcome into the year 2017 to all of us. Like a lot of you, I've made some resolutions for the new year, but this year, they're unlike previous resolutions I've made. I decided not to go for the popular "I want to lose weight" etc ones, mainly because I've been on my own fitness and weight loss journey since October and it's going well so I didn't feel the need to make that resolution.

Instead, my two main resolutions are:

1. To set myself achievable goals and reach them
2. To get to 2018 with no regrets

This second resolution was actually inspired by something someone I went on a date with told me, so I thought I'd make it one of my cornerstone resolutions.

Another resolution of mine is to post on here more regularly (I'm aiming for about once a week).


So have you made any resolutions for 2017?

If you fancy sharing them or simply just showing some love, drop me a comment below.