Taking control of your health - Prevention and detection of illness

This is a slightly different blog post today, although it is still on the topic of health and wellbeing.  Above is a picture which I took today of the David Bowie memorial wall in Brixton, sadly he lost his battle with cancer today.  

I just want to say that cancer, heart disease and other similar illnesses are truly terrible and sadly, the damage they do is not always treatable.  Having said that, many of these illnesses are now detectable and treatable, especially if the are discovered early enough.  For this reason, I would urge anyone reading this to take advantage of any screening programs they are offered and to have any symptoms or health issues which are bothering you, always, always checked out.

It's the start of a new year and many people have made resolutions to improve their health and fitness through exercise and diet, that's wonderful and can offer many benefits including reducing the risk of developing certain illnesses, but also be aware of screening, monitoring and checking any issues which may seem trivial today, but could develop into something more serious later.

Healthy & Tasty Tuna pasta bake

Easy Tuna Pasta Bake Recipe

Here's a recipe for a full of flavour but still healthy pasta bake, the only fat comes from the cheese & you can always substitute wholewheat pasta.  I have deliberately not put measures, you can adjust the ingredients to suit your own taste or dietary requirements.  It's amazingly easy to make, the only cooking (other than 25 mins baking in the oven) is cooking the pasta).  It's also infinitely changeable in terms of which vegetables you use.  So here it is, warm comfort food without any effort....

Ingredients:
Pasta
Can of chopped tomatoes
Can of tuna in spring water
Leeks
Handful of fresh basil (I keep a basil plant in the kitchen, looks good, smells great & you always have fresh basil)
Freshly ground black pepper
Cheese

Variations:
Chop a chilli & add into the mix. Or
Add a squeeze of harissa or chilli paste this will make it nice & spicy or
Add a bit of chopped garlic or
Add any vegetables you have about the place Esp broccoli, courgette or carrots (these will need par boiling first) or
Substitute onions for leeks

Method:
Boil the pasta & while that's cooking chop your vegetables and put the tuna, tomatoes & vegetables into an ovenproof dish.  When the pasta's cooked, add it to the dish, mix them all together gently & cook for 25 mins of until cheese bubbles

Enjoy

Pic to follow

YSL Black Opium Review

This is my unboxing & first impressions video of Black Opium by YSL


http://youtu.be/tYCVUIkHmJY

Autumn / Fall Outfit Idea

As Jane Austen said it is a truth universally acknowledged that autumn follows summer (ok she didn't write that part).  Today I'm looking out of my window at the pouring rain, the thunder and lightening are competing with each other and it seems that sunshine is a distant memory.  That's why I thought I'd share my outfit idea which goes across the seasons and still manages to not make you look like there's snow on the ground.

The Mac is by Ilse Jacobsen Sweden and is just so well designed.  It's light, but windproof.  Her zips are rubberised so they don't go soggy in heavy rain (nor will anything in your pockets get wet).  The lining is a soft light fleece and the hood fits nicely (I hate it when a hood is so huge you can't see out of it).  My top is made by Pyrus London and is beautifully light & soft and the jeans are Vero Moda (double button so slightly high waisted).

Moving on to accessories, the bag is Vince Camuto lovely soft leather and uber practical with a zipped gusset which make the bag about an inch wider (big enough to put a bottle of water in).  The wallet beside it is by Love Moschino and matches it well and once again, is really practical with lots of card slots and a zip all round so nothing can fall out.  Finally the studded shoe boots are from zara and just give the outfit a little quirky touch.

New Youtube Haul - Birthday Boots & Bags

Just a quick one to let you know that I have filmed a new haul video, it includes my autumn / fall bags & boots from Kurt Geiger, Ugg, Ralph Lauren & Vince Camuto.

Time flies!

Hello Minxes,
Today's the last day of July, I know everyone says it, but where did the month go? Because I'm just getting over a nasty bout of flu & August is my birthday month, I've decided to take a month for myself.  I have various work roles (rather than just one job) and so I have taken a holiday from one of them (I will try to limit the time I spend on the others) because I want and need some ME time!

I think that part of the reason why I got the flu was that I haven't been taking enough care of myself (like a lot of folks I've been focused on other people's needs) and somewhere in there I forgot about me, so the plan this month is to ease off work, try and read some good books, work out what really matters to me in life and how to achieve it and generally get my stuff together.  The reason why I need a month to do it, is because I have ignored these questions for so long that they now need my complete attention.  Which is where the point of this blog comes in,  don't forget about yourself & your needs, life is NOT and should not be something that happens to you while you're doing something else.

The main challenge, in my opinion, is how to [nicely] stop other people draining all your energy, this may sound selfish and I know that by helping others you can help yourself (I do volunteer work, which I enjoy), but this point is really about boundaries.  You have to have a little area inside you with enough time & space to figure out the things that are important to you, then the time to make plans about those things and finally to act on those plans.  Admittedly, buying a mansion in the country may not, currently, be an achievable goal, but saving for a deposit & selling all those things you no longer need may be more reasonable.

Anyway, this is just a little reminder from one who knows, that you have to find time for yourself.  I plan to keep writing this blog throughout August (it's one of my guilty pleasures), speak to you all again soon.

Minimalism & In Praise of the New...

Sometimes I like to have something new, whilst this may not be good news for my struggle towards minimalism I do believe that it is good for both the spirit & for keeping up with innovation.  The reasons why I believe it's good for the spirit come from the belief that inside us all is a little child, who loves to have a treat and who also loves new shiny objects!  In other words, when we get something new it makes us feel special.  I know that you're probably yelling at the screen right now that we should be mature & regulate our desires etc.  But I honestly think that a little of what you fancy does you good, subject to certain restrictions, namely, that you can afford what you're buying & that it will genuinely give you pleasure for more than five minutes.

In all fairness you could keep playing your old CD's and make your calls on an old brick mobile (with no sense of post modern ironic style) for as long as your equipment lasts, or you could favour the Kondo Minimalist idea of keeping what you love and gently saying goodbye to the other items, which does give you the opportunity to replace some of them with shiny, new, more efficient & usually smaller items (an Ipod versus a CD collection) and yes, my whole music collection fitted onto my Ipod Classic (even though it amounted to over 90GB).

Minimalism teaches you to work out what is important to you and attach values to what you have in terms of what it adds to your life, so if you do choose to upgrade or replace something for a shiny new item, don't feel bad, but do make sure that you savour every moment of unwrapping it, playing with it and generally enjoying the kidlike pleasure of a treat - just don't get sucked into buying too many of them!