When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Opportunities | #ThisGirlEats

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Right?

But what if life gives you lemon, after lemon, after lemon? And what if you don’t want lemonade? What if you keep trying to reach for the cola, or orange juice, or water, but every time you think you’re getting close life just throws a whole load more lemons your way?

Our lives are full of obstacles. Some are self-inflicted by our own insecurities, while others are hurled at us out of nowhere. Relationships, health, work, things we might think we have control over can turn on their head in a matter of seconds and leave us wondering where to go next.

Things get a whole load more complicated than just “making lemonade”. We’ve all experienced moments that shift the entire dynamic of our lives right before our eyes, and it’s pretty impossible to spring out of bed the next morning like nothing’s happened (unless you’re some sort of superhuman, in which case please teach me your powers and show me your ways).

You can’t always just slap on a smile and make the best out of a bad situation, despite that British stiff-upper-lip mentality that is inherently ingrained in anyone born this side of the pond. But maybe you can find opportunities.

Things like this very rarely just fall into our laps. We have to work for them, make an effort for them, learn and struggle and strive for them. It’s hard to get into this motivated mindset when you’ve taken a knock-back, but if you can muster up some gumption and get yourself back out there, this can be the absolute best time to open up new doors in your life.

Think about it – what have you got to lose? If you’ve already taken a hit, what else is there to be afraid of? The worst (or, at the very least, something a bit shitty) has happened, so now is the perfect time to throw caution to the wind and GO FOR IT.

They say that when one door closes, another one opens. But you’ve got to make yourself walk through it, or you might never find out what’s on the other side.

 

 

Advertisement

“What Gets Me Motivated?”: The Necessary Questions of a Constant Procrastinator | #ThisGirlEats

I started this year so full of beans. Armed with cheesy resolutions, pretty Paperchase planners and crazy ideas for the new year, I was absolutely determined that this was it. I wouldn’t get lazy, I wouldn’t let things slide – how could I, with all this great inspiration and motivation to keep me going?! Nothing would stop me, not this time.

 

Of course, that didn’t last. I live in the real world and, sometimes, the real world hands you a crappy week, a stuffy cold, a foul mood and an insatiable craving to stuff your face that you just can’t ignore 🍟🍔🍕 These things happen but, if you’ve held onto that initial spark of hope that started you on your journey, you can pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and get on with things.

But what happens when your motivation starts to slide?

I’m naturally quite chilled out. That, partnered with a habit of being somewhat pessimistic and often beating myself down, is a slippery slope to spending hours on the sofa in same hoodie watching Netflix for the third weekend in a row, living vicariously through social media.

When you get to that stage, it’s a lot harder to just throw yourself back into the swing of things. You realise you don’t even know what the swing of things is anymore. You get stuck in a rut, which is somewhere I’ve unfortunately wound up.

However, I refuse to let this last. I’m setting out to reclaim my bright, optimistic attitude that kicked off the year because I SO want to get out of the rut – but how to get myself motivated again? 🤔

giphy.com

Well, first thing’s first – what actually motivates me? I’m sick of being down about how I look; this was going to be the year where all that changed. I want to lose a few pounds, sure, but more importantly, I want to be happy, I want to feel good about myself. Truly good about myself, you know? That feeling of proper fed-up-ness when my jeans don’t fit anymore is something I’m pretty done with now.

I guess the next thing to ask myself would be, how do I make motivation work for me? I’ve not got the ‘New Year’ buzz anymore, so it’s all down to me to create my own motivation. For me, this all comes down to routine and planning. Having a ‘To Do’ list forces me to crack on, planning things out in a journal gets my creative juices flowing, and sticking to a self-care schedule really helps me – I’m a creature of habit, so if I get into a routine then it’ll all soon become second nature.

Even writing about it is getting me all jittery and raring to go, so hopefully this will be the thing to kickstart my motivation again! How do you stay motivated? Leave a comment and let me know – maybe it’ll help me on my journey! 💕

 

Bringing in the New Year – Disney Style! | #ThisGirlEats

Everyone moans about New Year’s Eve, how it’s the worst thing ever and they really hate when it rolls around, but I just don’t care – it’s my favourite night of the year! Maybe it’s because we always had big parties to celebrate NYE when I was a kid so, for me, it’s associated with loads of fun, happy memories. I always make sure I’m up to something and I always see in the new year with a bang. But, this NYE, I went bigger and better than ever before…

I spent the final moments of 2017 in “The most magical place on Earth” – that’s right folks, we Disney’ed it up in Paris for New Year’s! I mean, there are looooads of things about Disneyland that make it, um, not exactly appealing for everyone – the queues, the kids, the crowds, being confined to the bright, shiny Disney bubble where fairytale fluff is inescapably blasted at you 24/7.  BUT, even though all those things are true, Disneyland Paris really pulled out all the stops to make our NYE truly magical.

The fireworks were sensational, of course. Move over, London! The rides were exhilarating, especially whizzing through them in the dark. The music – mostly provided by Disney’s resident DJ, Goofy – was banger after banger. The bumper Disney parade, made up of the 25th anniversary, Halloween and Christmas celebrations, was dazzling (even when Mickey and Minnie’s showstopper float broke down and had to be rescued by a tow truck). So much awe encompassed every inch of the park, it couldn’t help but sparkle with Disney magic ✨

Some people hate New Year’s Eve because it’s drenched in resolutions, people professing to change this or that and boring us all with their repetitive recaps of the past twelve months. It’s all one big yawn, right? But I think those are the exact same reasons that I love it. I love having a reason to kick myself up the butt and make some positive changes, even if it is a cliché. I love looking back on my year, reliving the best bits and thinking about what I want to do better this time around. And when you’re standing there, shivering into your winter coat, snuggling your way into the crowds, watching a spectacle that is going all-out to so clearly define a line between the old and the new, it makes your resolutions seem even more… well, resolute.

Thank you Disneyland Paris for delivering a well-earned goodbye to 2017 and making me believe, even just for a moment, that anything is possible for the year to come…

Fuck Shame: How This Blog Snubbed My Career-Shaming Habit (Yes, That’s a Thing) | #ThisGirlEats

Like a decent cuppa, #ThisGirlEats has been brewing for a long time. As it became less an idea and more a reality, my passion exploded and it was suddenly super important to me. It was like a new lease of life (is a mid-20s crisis a thing? It really should be) and I wanted to make it work.

Image: Pintrest.com

If you’re sitting at home, perhaps feeling defeated, perhaps finding comfort in a bag of Kettle chips and a bottle of wine (no judgement here), wondering how a foodie blog that probably only my family and some very nice friends will ever read lifted me out of a similar funk, let me tell you…

I don’t like my job – I know; newsflash, I’m not the only one, bla bla bla. I mean, it’s not toooooo bad (‘cept rude customers, late nights and the absolute nightmare of Christmas retail, obviously), it’s just not my passion. And when you slog away day in, day out, at something you don’t feel any passion towards, it can get kinda depressing.

I’m SO guilty of letting my day job knock me back – I can’t count how many times I’ve come home feeling utterly rubbish. Still working at what I imagined to be a temporary stop-gap (HA HA HA) and not exactly making waves with my degree – or the £30,000 of debt I spent getting it! – led to endless hours punishing myself. I’d often turn a completely fine day into a living hell because I’d make myself feel so down about it.

But then I came up with this blog. Something to focus on, to aim for, to work on. Something exciting, motivating. It was a new adventure, the start of something. Once I realised that, everything else, including changing my negative mindset, just seemed to fall into place.

What was I criticising myself for? For being fortunate enough to have a job? For earning money, which allows me to have my own creative space, a decent laptop, and food to cook and experiment with? Is that really so awful? Isn’t that actually something to be proud of? Everyone who is successful, who I admire, has been in my shoes at some point. I’m a work in progress.

I thought having an “ordinary” retail job instead of being an award-winning journalist, music mogul or internet sensation of the blog-o-sphere made me unambitious, uncreative, underachieving. But did I look at my colleagues, doing the exact same job as me, that way? No. I saw them as funny, independent, interesting, creative, etc.. So why did I find it so hard to look at myself the same way?

We need to stop thinking that if we aren’t creating, organising, housekeeping, social media-ing, exercising, seeing friends and finding time to chill, all in one day, that it’s not a successful day. Productivity doesn’t have a time limit. The clock doesn’t refresh and start all over again after 24 hours. There’s no shame in working hard for bloody ages to get what you want. Fuck shame – take shame, disappointment and frustration into your own hands and mould it into inspiration, motivation, work ethic, passion, hunger.

Starting this blog gave me a bigger picture. It made me see my day job as a stepping stone rather than an obstacle. We are all a work in progress, and that’s okay.