Today I attempted my first real life recipe, as inspired by Deliciously Ella, and it failed miserably. I created a brown rice, sweet potato, spinach and feta risotto which logged in at 403 calories per portion, pretty good for an evening meal. However it was pretty unsuccessful! I eat brown alternatives quite a lot, and due to having tickets to the cinema I quickly did some boil in a bag brown rice, because as most people know, the real stuff takes forever. And it just didn't compare at all! I've got my parents on side of the healthy living change and it's so helpful having family support so you can all do it together! They really liked the risotto but it just wasn't for me at all! If anyone has any suggestions I'd really appreciate them!

In the meantime this was my food diary of the day:
Breakfast:
1 wholemeal thin kingsmill toast
2 tsp peanut butter
1 low fat strawberry yoghurt

Lunch:
Avocado and chicken on 1 slice of rye and spelt sourdough

Dinner:
Sweet potato, spinach and feta risotto (brown rice)

Snacks:
1 large banana


There was a lot of carbs today which I know aren't great, I'm trying all of the healthy alternatives however rice and bread in one day was a pretty poor effort, although completely unplanned! Tomorrow is a non-carb day so let's see how that goes!

I can do this.

One of the things I always find hard when trying to lose weight, is that I tend to throw myself into it and then steadily slip and eventually after the holiday/birthday party/wedding is over, I stop the dieting and stop the fitness regime I've got going. To prevent this, I thought this year I would start to have 'monthly motivators'. Rather than going all out and buying brand new beautiful gym clothes or trainers, I want to prize them through the months as I reach my goals.

Not all of these goals are materialistic, a couple of my goals throughout the year are to run outside over the summer when I'm more comfortable with running and to start up yoga later on in the year to strengthen my core when I feel my fitness is much better. It's small steps but it's these which keep me motivated!

I've already mentioned my first goal is my Dad's birthday, by which point I want to be down 14lbs-20lbs. I currently have plenty of clothes and shoes, however I am a classic girl and any opportunity for more leads me to spending money as fast as you can see French Connection. So I've decided, I'm not going to spend any money on clothes or goods until I reach my first goal. At which point I'm going to probably buy a dress for my Dad's birthday to wear! Here are a couple of dresses I have in mind...


This essentially sums up my sense of dress, I love bold prints and casual shirt dresses at the moment, my two favourites are on either end above! They're so adaptable and I feel like they suit any body shape. So it is with these dresses and February 20th at the front of my mind, I will persevere on!

I can do this.

Today I was put to the test, and I didn't fail too dramatically, but probably could've done better. I met up with two of my best friends for lunch and to go over the year. All three of us are on a health kick this year and it's really handy having two comrades pull each other through.

Each year we meet up to have a reminisce on the year just gone and look forward to what we want to achieve the next year. It's all very cliché but it's so nice talking through the year with the people who have gone through it with you, and who you know will be there the next year too. We ventured into pizza express, which luckily is quite a good place to eat out if you're on a diet, because they have so many low kcal options! All 3 of us went for the Leggara Padana pizza. The leggara pizza's are all under 500kcal, with a whole in the centre filled with salad so we didn't feel too bad at all! We did opt for a starter though which could've been avoided but it was all so good! Me and Emily went for calamari whilst Emma had the classic dough balls and altogether our meals came to about 900kcal each.

I hadn't eaten before though, and tonight I had a salad with a little bit of chicken so I don't feel too bad about life. Tomorrow will be an exercise day so I'll burn off a bit of that pizza!

I can do this.

One of the hardest things for me to come to terms with before deciding to lose weight, is I am never going to be one of the #fistagram, green smoothie girls. I've lost weight before through various means and at no point post-workout was I ever in a place to take a selfie or 'record my macros'. I'm under no illusion losing weight is hard, and it takes will power and a hell tonne of motivation to move your butt.

I will be the first one to say, Instagram is a huge motivator, But don't let it delude you. I'm a 20 year old student, I have next to no money and spend my time in lectures, in the library or at work. I don't have manicured nails and I can't afford a Nike running bra. The truth is, I don't just want photos of girls wearing nothing, drinking their post workout Nutribullet smoothie, I want to know how to lose weight when you can't afford a gym membership. How to eat healthily when you're constantly on the go. What breakfasts you can make the night before so you can eat it doing your makeup.

This blog is going to be a motivator for myself, because I want to prove to myself real life girls can do this, and I want to eventually be a motivator to other people. I've decided my first target date, which will be my Dad's birthday and when I will next be back home, February 20th. My aim is to lose between 14-20lbs in 7 weeks and I'll be continuing to set goals and motivate myself on here throughout this time!

I can do this. 

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Please bare with me whilst I get to grips with running two blogs. If you didn't know, my name is Alice and I also run Alice's Antics, a lifestyle, fashion and beauty blog. But this is my 2016 project. Please feel free to check out any of my links and keep up to date with how things are going. I've tried and failed many diets and lifestyle changes, but I feel like blogging is the key to success. Whether I'm talking to 2 people or 2,000, this blog is my own piece of the internet and whilst the other is mostly entertainment and very audience orientated, Exercise and Evils is directly for me and to help get me through each day, week and month. I'm not putting myself under any stress and at the beginning won't be sharing any deep secret facts about myself or my statistics. I hope, if you're reading this with the same goal in mind, to find happiness and self love through a change of habits and lifestyle, you'll come on this journey with me! Here's to eating clean and drinking green (smoothies)!