Lifestyle Chat: Green Tea

Hello lovelies, today I am going to chat a bit about lifestyle and how one simple change in your habits can do you the world of good. I'm thinking of doing a little series on this, but for now, this is my first one.

Today I want to tell you about green tea. You may automatically go 'ugh no, I hate tea' and close this page, but I urge you to keep reading because it will amaze you how much good green tea can bring. 

Now for starters, I am one of those people, I don't drink tea, coffee or hardly any hot drinks at all, and like everyone else I thought green tea was disgusting. It wasn't until I read somewhere that honey is a natural sweetener and a lot of people put it in their green tea to make it taste nicer but in a healthier way. This is when I thought, yeah that could actually be nice, so sure enough I went down to my local supermarket and bought green tea and some honey. I was actually impressed with how nice it tasted considering how everyone I know has literally been like 'oh my gosh, it is the worst thing I have ever tasted'. At first, granted, I did put quite a bit of honey in there, but you slowly reduce that as you get used to the taste.

So now you've got over the fact of it being 'horrible', let me tell you why it is amazing!

• Green tea contains some Bioactive Compounds that have been found to improve your health

The green tea leaves contain large amounts of important nutrients and many of these still make it into the final drink. It contains (being all sciencey now) polyphenols, which function as powerful antioxidants and these can protect your cells and molecules from damage, which can help prevent disease. As well as this, green tea also includes minerals that are important for your health.

Do try and avoid the cheaper brands however because a lot of these nutrients may have been lost.

• Green tea can make you smarter 

Now, no promises here, but green tea has been proven to improve brain function.

One of the key ingredients is caffeine, which is known as a stimulant. Although it doesn't contain as much as coffee, it does have enough to produce a response in your body without causing the side effects people associate with too much caffeine. 

Caffeine actually increases the firing of neurons and the concentration of neurotransmitters (if you did psychology like me you will know these) like dopamine and norepinephrine, and so therefore improves your brain function and could potentially make your smarter.

• Green tea increases fat burning and improves your physical performance, helping you lose weight

Yes, the one you've all been waiting to hear, it can indeed help your metabolism. Studies have shown that green tea can boost your metabolic rate and increase fat burning in the short term. 

• It may lower risks of cancer & diabetes

Some studies have shown that green tea can reduce chances of you getting certain types of cancer because of the powerful antioxidants it contains. 

Here are some studies results:

1. Breast Cancer: A study found that women who drank the most green tea had a 22% lower risk of developing breast cancer.
2. Prostate Cancer: One study found that men drinking green tea has a 48% lower risk of developing prostate cancer.
3. Colorectal Cancer: A study of 69,710 Chinese woman found that green tea drinkers had a 57% lower risk of this cancer.

It has also been known to reduce risks of type 2 diabetes, as it can cause mild reductions in your blood sugar levels.

• Green tea may protect your brain in old age

The bioactive compounds in green tea have been known to have various protective effects on neurons and could potentially reduce the risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

• Green tea can kill bacteria

Green tea can kill the bacteria in some of your body and help with dental health and lowering your chances of infection against disease. 

So what is everyone waiting for? Make a small change in your lifestyle by drinking 2 cups of green tea a day and see the differences for yourself. I personally love drinking green tea, I feel a lot better for it. Go and grab your favourite mug, some green tea and honey (or without the honey if you are hardcore) and enjoy! 

Credit to all the sciencey bits here if you want to read up more.

My Halloween Costume: Minion

Hello lovelies, today I am going to share with you my halloween costume for this year and where I got all the bits and bobs from!

I decided this year I was going to go as a minion, which I know isn't very scary but I decided to break the mold a bit. I love minions (maybe a little too much) and it is such an easy costume to put together.

I thought the hardest part would be the dungarees, as I wanted a skirt instead of some shorts but I found exactly what I wanted for very cheap considering what others similar were priced at. I found it here, on a site called Glamourous. As this was not a brand I had heard from before I was a bit skeptical but it soon arrived, sooner than I thought and its good condition too, it is also something I would wear again. 

The rest of the stuff I got from Ebay, gotta love it. The top, hat and tights I bought from all different sellers but I am really pleased how the yellows actually match.

I got each of them here:

• Tights
• Hat
• Top

And then for the gloves and shoes, I already had these but you can use any kind of black boots and if you don't have black gloves you can get them cheap in places like primark and all sorts.






Now the finishing touches: the one thing lacking in the outfit is the glasses, they do sell minion goggles in Toys R' Us, but as a student I couldn't justify £12.00 on some goggles, so I improvised with some free 3D glasses from the cinema. And as for the Gru Laboratories symbol, I literally just printed it off and safety pinned it on.

I am so excited to go out on Friday and be a minion for the night! Hope this inspires you to dress up too! Please let me know in the comments what you are dressing up as this year, and if you've posted anything about your costume i'd love to read it.

Weekend Break to Prague

Hello lovelies, a couple of weeks ago now I went for a long weekend to Prague to celebrate one of my friend's 21st birthdays and it was incredible. So I thought I would just share some pictures and some of the things I did. 

 Dancing Building

Health and safety hazard. One seat cable cars with no seat belt or anything!

Here's a lot from my holiday (some of them may be slightly rubbish as some I took on my phone) If you guys have anything you want to know, if you are planning to go there soon, let me know in the comments! One thing I can say is that we were so blown away with how cheap everything is over there, it was amazing. You can also check out more photos of me and my friends when we were there on my instagram. 

Zoella Beauty: Review

Hello lovelies, I know you will have all have heard about this special lady. Zoella. The amazing woman who inspires so many of us today, and as a lot of you will know, a couple of weeks ago she bought out her own beauty range 'Zoella Beauty'. So after searching several Superdrugs as all her products were flying off the shelves, I finally found them! 

I purchased the Zoella Soak Opera bath soak & the Zoella Lets Glow candle, mostly because I am obsessed with candles and I haven't had a good bubble bath in years so I felt these fitted me the best. I also wanted to try the Fizz Bar, but anywhere that stocks them must be sold out in seconds, as these were impossible to find. 

So I set out by running my bath and I poured some soak opera into the bath, I must admit I went a little bit crazy with it and used quite a bit. And to my delight the bath was full of bubbles within minutes, however to say how much I used, I don't know if it would be full of bubbles if you only used a little bit. As the bath was almost ready I lit my candle for the first time in the hope it would fill my room with a beautiful scent that would hit me when I walked back into my room. 

Now on a serious note, i've tried to look at these products completely objectively, as it is very easy to just say how amazing each product is just because we love Zoella so much. 

When I hopped into the bath it was very relaxing and smells wonderful, but for me I love my bubbles in my bath and if I were to use what I used every time I had a bath it wouldn't last very long for me. So i'm hoping the next time I used the product it will still give me lots of bubbles but with less product used.

When I reluctantly got out of the amazingly hot and lovely smelling bath, I did indeed walk into my room to be greeted with my room smelling great. However, the scent was fairly weak compared to my Yankee Candle for example and I have read several reviews that say that the smell is not to their taste, but me, I really like it! So I urge everyone to smell before they buy.

Overall, I think Zoe has done an amazing job to create all these yummy and affordable treats for us all to enjoy, you can tell shes put a lot of her personality into these. And for the price of each item I think it is definitely worth it to pamper yourself! You can find the whole range of her products here, on the Superdrug website (and obviously in store too)

What do you guys think of Zoella Beauty products? Post links down in the comments to your reviews, I'd love to read them!

DIY Bedroom Decoration

Hello lovelies, I have been ever so busy settling into University again for my final year, i've been back for about 3 weeks now and i've only just got round to properly decorating my room. I used a really simple and easy way of putting up pictures and I thought i'd share it with you guys. 

Basically, i'm just sharing with you a really simple but totally effective way to give new life to your room, and it is super cute, and relatively cheap! I saw something very similar on Pinterest, which gave me the idea. 

You will need:

• String
• Mini pegs
• Hooks or nails of your choice
• Pictures

I've left links to where I got everything from online, but obviously you can feel free to get different types of things etc. 

I started with the hooks, I got stick on hooks as my house is student accommodation therefor I can't just go banging nails into the wall, but if you live at home and you have your parents permission it would be easy to do with nails too. I placed the hooks where I wanted the string to drape down then wrapped the string round each hook. You can play with this until you get the right drape on the string. 

Then comes the fun bit, just putting your pictures wherever you want with the pegs. I decided to use two pegs on each photo as I felt they might have fallen without it, but I think it looks super cute with one just letting the photo hang down. Totally up to you and your style.

Here's what mine ended up like:

I hope this gives you guys some inspiration to do things with your room! Please show me if you do!