20 obsessions of every girl in her twenties.

Don't lie to me you love them all.

♥ Beards, they make every man beautiful.

♥ Eyebrows, because eyebrows.

♥ The 90's comeback, who didn't love jelly shoes the first time around.

♥ Secret bedroom dancing to our favourite childhood boyband.

♥ Having a mental break down every time we remember we're not eighteen anymore.

♥ Pizza, because pizza won't break my heart.

♥ Quote cushions, they say everything no one wants to admit out loud.

♥ Etsy, every girl needs a £50 handmade tampon holder.

♥ Vodka lime and lemonade, the lime makes it healthy ;)

♥ Bright lipstick.

♥ Smoothies.

♥ The elusive thigh gap.

♥ Travelling.

♥ Wine.

♥ So many bottles of wine just to forget that we're still single.

♥ Unforgiving heels that no one will ever be able to walk in.

♥ Instagram, #nofilter #thereisafilterthough

♥ Sandwiches, because nobody wants to cook.

♥ Pugs. The cutest f*!$ing dogs ever.

♥ Mason jars... because everything looks cute in a mason jar.

Until next time.

R x

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Worth the hype? Seche vite.

Seche Vite has been hyped up by the beauty community for years, after finally finding a bottle I get to see what all the fuss is about.

I was lazy and neglected a base coat. First, I painted my nails with two coats of OPI's 'this gown needs a crown' and finished with a thick coat of seche vite over the wet polish. I have never had a fast drying top coat that actually does what it claims. Seche vite dried my nails in under two minutes! perfect for those of us who don't protect our fresh manicure like it's our only child.

Day one: Unlike most other top coats Seche Vite has kept my manicure looking fresh for 24 hours! usually by now the majority of my nails would either be chipped or completely ruined.

Day two: Today was supposed to be the real test for Seche Vite. When I'm at work my nails get abused, constantly coated in alcohol and harsh cleaning products. Work was depressingly quiet do I can't say yet how Seche Vite holds up against alcohol, however my nails did survive the excessive amount of cleaning I did. By the end of the night there are only two small, vaguely unnoticeable chips.

Day three: So today there are a couple more chips, but they're not really noticeable. Although, I'm putting that down to the distracting sparkly polish. Tonight was a relatively busy night at work and my nails are now chipped like normal. I can see why people love this top coat but for those of us in bar jobs it's not the miracle I was hoping for.

Verdict: If I wasn't working with products that naturally strip nail polish I would agree with everyone else, but it looks like I'm still searching for that miracle top coat that will keep my manicure for more that three days.

Until next time.

R x

Military diet week three & four.

Week three.
I took week three off, only because I was at mum's for the majority of the week and I wasn't going to make her buy a bunch of extra food for me. I'd love to tell you that I made the healthiest choices but I treated myself a tad too much, at least I only gained one pound, which was lost back anyway.

If anyone is interested, you can follow me on myfitnesspal (yourboat23). No matter what I eat, good or bad it gets put in there. Without this app I would be literally be lost, you can set daily reminders to put in your food in and let's you know all the nutritional deets you need to stay successful on your diet.

Week four.
This week my diet days got neglected, life got in the way this week. I still stuck to the food plan, but I drank a lot of alcohol on Monday and then spent most of Tuesday in A&E. Wednesday, was my own fault I forgot to prep my dinner so ended up having to prepare something that didn't need defrosting.
For the most part I did stick to the plane, and even though the meals I ate were not what the diet calls for my calories were in check every day.
This week has made me realise that this diet isn't all about the strictness of what you eat. Over the past few weeks I have learnt to live on a low calorie diet, even on non diet days I just don't find myself craving 'naughty' food. If I do, I have found so many healthy recipes that prove you can still have the naughty foods but still be healthy.

Skinny Sundays.
From now on I'm not going to be giving you guys a run down of diet days, each week I will swap things in and out but the three diet days will always be virtually the same as the last couple of posts. I will check in every Sunday, no matter what the post is about I will just add in my progress for anyone that is interested but for the most part Sunday's will be dieting orientated.

FAB FIND. 
For anyone who's inner chocoholic will not stay at bay... you need ChocShot in your life! I make it with almond milk, it's amazing!! Whenever I need a chocolate fix I will go straight for cup of this rather than a big ass bar of galaxy. To top it all off there's only 14 calories in each teaspoon!

Weigh in, 21st February.

This week I lost: 1lb.

At least it's a loss! This week has made me realise that I can eat as well as I want but without exercise I'm not going anywhere fast. Next week I'm going ease myself in and aim to go for two short runs and just up the amount each week :)

Until next time.

R x

♥♥♥♥♥

20 things I wish I'd known before I moved out.

Even university halls do not prepare you for life.

♦ Remember bin day!!

♦ Bills.

♦ Electricity bills.

♦ Water bills.

♦ Phone bills.

♦ Rent.

♦ Council tax.

♦ You need to pay your bills on time.

♦ All the nights out sacrificed just to pay the bills.

♦ Just face it, bills come first.

♦ God damn bills.

♦ The oven needs cleaning. Regularly.

♦ That goes for the fridge too.

♦ There's no personal chef to cure that hangover.

♦ There's no maid service either.

♦ Mould is not your friend, Bleach is.

♦ Food is more expensive than you think, but doughnuts.

♦ It's hard to wake yourself up in the morning. I need a better alarm.

♦ Decking will be your own personal ice rink in winter.

♦ Boilers are complicated.

Military diet: four days off.

I realised that it's all well and good sharing my meals for diet days, but I haven't been sharing days off so I thought I'd quickly share with you all the meals I've been having on my four days off.

The aim is to stay under 1500 calories for best results, honestly even I haven't been finding it hard. On average I've been eating about 1350 on my days off.

Breakfast.

Porridge (quaker oats 2 minute sachets).
Boiled egg and soldiers.
Smoothies (recipes coming).
Banana pancakes (Recipe coming).
Scrambled egg 'burrito'.

Lunch.

Cheese toasties.
Almond butter on toast.
Eggs in pita.
Bacon wrap.

Dinner.

Skinny Lizzie 'low everything' sausages (only available at morrisons) & mixed vegetables.
Baked Fish & mixed vegetables.
Chicken & mixed vegetables.
I like to stick to meat and vegetables for dinner it's just so much easier. 

Snacks.

On my diet days I don't snack, so I've been trying to keep snacks to minimum. If I do snack I've been having fruit mostly, the occasionally naughty treat just to keep my inner chocoholic at bay.

Cheats.
I have been allowing myself one cheat meal a week, I usually save this for dinner so I can go out for tea or scoff a pizza ;)

Alcohol.
I wouldn't be surprised if you are wondering how my inner alcoholic is handling this. I don't drink at all on diet days and I have cut down a hell of a lot on alcohol, but I will still have Saturday night pint. If we go on a night out I've been trying to stick to gin and slimline mainly because of it's low calorie content.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Until next time.

R x

My top 10 picks on Netflix.

As a Christmas present to the house I signed up to Netflix and I definitely don't regret it. My poor laptop hasn't been turned off since!! Netflix isn't hard to navigate but sometimes I find myself scrolling though the endless lists of tv shows and movies not fancying anything.

So, not in any particular order here are my current top 10 pick for Netflix February 2015.

1: Grimm.
If you like a good supernatural series this has everything apart from vampires (yet). It's so refreshing to find a supernatural show that doesn't focus on the undead these days. This show is sort of a mixture of Buffy and CSI.

2: Orange is the new black.
Everyone will have recommended this Netflix original but it's definitely worth watching! I finished both seasons in less than 2 weeks.

3: All the Disney movies.
I know this is a bit of a cop out but if I listed all the Disney films on Netflix they would fill this entire list. There are so many on there at the moment, Hercules, Mulan, Aladdin, Pocahontas and soooo many more. If your a Disney junkie Netflix is the place to be.

4: Carrie, original and remake.
Netflix doesn't have the best selection of horror films, out of all of them I recommend the recent Carrie revamp. If you haven't seen the original watch it first, but for a remake I really enjoyed this one.

5: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
This is my favourite tv show of all time, even though I own the box set it's always helpful to be able to watch it on the go. I've lost count how many time I've re-watched this series. It's nice to see a classic on there.

6: Greek.
I had seen this before but never really got into, after giving it another go I can't stop watching. It's not really for everyone, following the lives of two college students trying to navigate the bitchy world of the greek system. Pretty much all of the plot lines are a tad far fetched but that's what makes it funny.

7: The sweetest thing.
The chick flick for girls who hate chick flicks! If this is you and you haven't seen it, you need to! Otherwise you will never know the joys of Cameron Diaz's hilarious dancing during the best musical number ever. If you do fancy a proper chick flick Netflix also has the classics like clueless and 10 things I hate about you.

8: Never back down.
This is one for those couples that can never agree on a movie. It has all the testosterone to satisfy the boyf and so many topless men any girl would be happy to sit through this movie.

9: The Hobbit series.
Obviously they don't have the most recent release yet, but if you fancy a Tolkien marathon, it's right there at the click of a button.

10: The Undateables.
Best reality dating show ever.
I love this so much, it's so nice to see that there really is someone for everyone.

Until next time.

R x

Military Diet week two.

So this week I decided to try out the suggested substitutions for just about as many of the foods on the diet plan as I could. Firstly, so I don't have to endure plain tuna and cottage cheese! Secondly, to see if it's the combination of foods or just the low calories which are aiding weight loss. And finally, just to mix it up because even though it's only my second week, I get bored very quickly. That's probably the main reason I never follow diets through, at least with this plan I can switch out different foods every week, but still have a semi-strict list of 'allowed' food.

With all my substitutions I have calculated the amounts I can eat by matching each foods calories to suggested calorie count. I have kept some foods only because, I didn't like any of their substitutes and I've separated the fruit and ice cream substitutes usually included into dinner as snacks, just in case I get hungry in between meals.

Day One, 2nd February.

Breakfast.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia.
Half a grapefruit. (no substitutions for grapefruit)
1 slice of wholewheat toast.
2 tablespoons of Almond butter.

Lunch.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*. (had before work instead)
100g of chicken.
1 wholemeal wrap.

Dinner.
3 Skinny Lizzie sausages.
100g Broccoli.

Snacks.
1 small apple.
1 kiwi.
1 cup of fruit yogurt.

Day Two, 3rd February. 

Breakfast.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia.
2 slices of bacon. (I GET BACON!!)
1 slice of wholewheat toast.
1 kiwi.

Lunch.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia. (had before work instead)
1 cup of plain greek yogurt.
1 hard boiled egg.
5 Ritz crackers

Dinner.
2 Chicken breasts.
1 cup of broccoli.
1/2 cup of carrots.

Snacks.
1 kiwi.
1/2 cup of fruit yogurt.

Day Three, 26th January. 

Breakfast.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia.
1 slice of cheddar cheese.
1 small apple.
5 Ritz crackers.

Lunch.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia.
2 slices of bacon.
1 slice of wholewheat toast.

Dinner.
1 chicken breast.
1 cup pf carrots.

Snacks.
1 kiwi.
1 cup of fruit yogurt.

Weigh in, 7th February.

I'm weighing in a day early this week. Only because I'm going to a gig tonight, then going to mum's on Sunday and my weight won't be accurate if I use different scales.

After three days I lost: 3 lbs

This week in total I lost: 3lbs

Had a few hiccups this week, i couldn't resist the temptation of popcorn :) but hey, at least I didn't gain.

Until next time.

R x

I've moved.

Hey guys,


I've moved my blog over to adventuresofashopaholic23.blogspot.co.uk just so it makes more sense than shopaholicadventures23.blogspot.co.uk
Hopefully should all be sorted with bloglovin' asap.




♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Until next time.

R x

10 reasons bartending is the best job ever.

One of my first posts was about my biggest pet peeves as a bartender. But it's not all doom and gloom, I wouldn't stay in a job I didn't love. Here are 10 reasons why being a bartender is one of the best jobs. 

1: 'I'll have a double monster redubull'

hahahahhaha do you want to try again?

2: Social life

Many people think that because we work unsociable hours we have no life. But we're are constantly surrounded by people even if they are drunk.

3: Other bartenders

You can't really help but love all other bartenders, they know the struggle. They're what gets us through those particularly bad shifts. Not to mention staff parties are possibly the best parties ever! 

4: Sleep

Working nights means I can totally justify sleeping ALL day.

5: People watching

Watching drunk people make absolute idiots out of themselves is by far my favourite part of working behind a bar. Until I remember that's me when I've had a drink.

6: Getting paid to party

Think about it, we get paid to listen to music and spend the night with our friends. it's just like a sober night out, but behind the bar. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like your working.

7: Staff discount

A perk that comes with most service jobs but it's much more enjoyable when that discount is on alcohol. 

8: Knowledge

Knowing so many cocktail recipes and the percentage of every drink known to man is essential to life.

9: The genuinely nice customers.

A lot of drunk people turn into complete arseholes but we always forget about those that just quietly wait their turn and are actually nice to the people behind the bar. Shout out to the unsung nice drunkards.

10: Games and pranks.
For those quiet nights we need some form of entertainment, here's a few examples we do.
- Sunday funday. The rules vary but someone ends up soaking wet.
-'Can you run downstairs and get me some ice making solution?'
- Hide the lime! (My personal favourite)

Until next time.

R x

Military diet week one.

I know exactly what your going to say... fad diets don't work. But hey, what's the harm in trying?

I'm not quite sure why they call this the military diet, I'm pretty sure that the army don't live off tuna and crackers!

I found this diet just randomly reading through blogs, first through Rocio Laura. After some research I found the 'official' website which unlike the plan Rocio followed doesn't include beetroot, win!
Themilitarydiet.com has all the information you could ever want when trying a new diet, including substitutions a big plus when your a picky eater or have allergies. If you want to see the original diet plan check out the website, I'm just going to tell you what I had over the past three days. Any substitutes or allowed extras will be marked by *.

Right so basically for three days a week you follow this basic diet plan, some say you can't substitute anything, while other provide a rather extensive list of substitutions. For this first week I'm following the diet exactly apart from substituting peanut butter.
The website I'm basing my diet off allows substitutions when they have equal calories and nutritional benefits, for example, one substitute for peanut butter is almond butter similar in calories and both provide a high protein content.

This diet claims that by following the meal plan for 3 days, eating normally for the rest of the week (under 2000 calories) and 30 minutes of gentle exercise a day you can loose up to 10 pounds. For this first week I just followed the meal plan, I did very little exercise but did eat healthier than normal on the four days off. Unlike other bloggers I've seen do this diet I'm going to weigh myself after 3 days but count the whole week, this is more of a long term diet plan for me rather than a 'quick fix'.

Day One, 24th January.

Breakfast.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*.
Half a grapefruit.
1 slice of wholewheat toast.
2 tablespoons of wowbutter**

Lunch.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*. (had before work instead)
1/2 cup of tuna.
1 slice of wholewheat toast.

Dinner.
85g of meat, I had a beef burger (no bun).
1 cup of green beans.
1 small apple. (had as a snack)
Half a banana. (had before bed, apparently bananas promote sleep)
1 cup of vanilla ice cream. (had as a dessert about an hour after dinner)

Day Two, 25th January. 

Breakfast.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*.
1 egg (I had mine boiled with soldiers).
1 slice of wholewheat toast.
Half a banana.

Lunch.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*. (had before work instead)
1 cup of cottage cheese. Torture!
1 hard boiled egg.
5 Ritz crackers***

Dinner.
2 hotdogs (no buns).
1 cup of broccoli.
1/2 cup of carrots.
Half a banana. (made a smoothie with the ice cream)
1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream.

Day Three, 26th January. 

Breakfast.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*.
1 slice of cheddar cheese.
1 small apple.
5 Ritz crackers*.

Lunch.
Black coffee, with 2 teaspoons of stevia*.
1 egg. ( I had mine boiled with soldiers)
1 slice of wholewheat toast.

Dinner.
1 cup of tuna. (I'm not going to lie, I put mustard with the tuna so I could cope with it but I ended up making it inedible! The substitution list says that fish is preferable and all I had was frozen battered fish, but at least the calories match up.)
Half a banana. (made a smoothie with the ice cream, these smoothies are amazing by the way!)
1 cup of vanilla ice cream.

* No sugar or sweetness are allowed only stevia, I don't have a clue how people drink coffee without!
** Morrison's didn't have any almond butter so peanut free peanut butter it was.
*** The diet calls for saltine crackers but they're not available in the UK, Ritz are the closest match.

I was a little bit nervous about what to eat on the four days off, they recommend less than 1500 calories but the diet will still be effective if you have less than 2000. I found a post on the military diet blog that provided an extensive list of meal options for the four days off, which I will definitely be trying next week.

Before the three days were up I already felt better in my own skin, more awake and just happier in general. Some of the food was torture but next week I'm going to try out a bunch of substitutions just to mix it up a little.

Now, the part we've all been waiting for.

Weigh In. (31st January)
I know I said that I was going to wait until the end of the week but I want to start the cycle again on Monday just so it fits my routine better.

After three days I lost: 5 lbs
This week in total I lost: 7lbs

Until next time.

R x