Non-polish! A health story and a weight loss milestone.

*ESSAY ALERT :p*

The last few years have been difficult for me, to say the least. At 16 my health and mood started going downhill, and I was eventually diagnosed with mild depression, which was re-evaluated as severe depression only a few months later (yes, it got a lot worse very quickly and it was a very dark period of my life), and on top of all of that I was diagnosed with CFS/ME (chronic, debilitating, pretty much life-ruining fatigue). Needless to say, I was stuck in my room for a lot of the last two years of school. Thankfully I pulled through at least somewhat and ended up getting into Cambridge; my first year was pretty awful health- and mood-wise, but my second year started getting better. Last summer, I found out I was gluten intolerant, and discovered myself through trial and error that sugary and starchy foods made me feel like crap in general AND often aggravated my chronic fatigue, setting me up for a day or two of feeling so mentally and physically tired that I couldn't do anything. So I cut most of these out (bye-bye, favourite foods: pizza, bread, lasagne, chips/fries, chocolate (well, I cut down a lot, but won't cut that one out completely :p...funny that the foods that taste the best were giving me so much havoc!), swapping cereal for omelettes, sandwiches for salad with lean meat, and swapping out potatoes at dinner for another serving of different vegetables. A nice side effect of not feeling so damn fatigued all the time was the ability to actually exercise sometimes (bear in mind two years ago I often could not walk a few hundred metres to go to the library at uni), which I am so happy about :) it's still a constant struggle, but I've been doing pretty well and have managed to lose 40 lbs (actually 43 :p)...it's amazing how much ME can make you put on, and coupled with trying to eat my depression away and eating things that I was actually intolerant of, I had gained a lot since starting uni. Now? Almost the same weight I was at 16, and I was only 5'9" then (5'10.5" now)!

(more after the cut)

NOTW (feet): OPI Holland I Have A Herring Problem + Pedal Faster Suzi!

I really don't like feet. Especially not mine. Ew, my spindly toes. Anyway, look past my leg-appendages and enjoy the polish, if you can :D

I tried out two of the other minis that I got at Sally's on my feet, with the shimmery blue (almost a light denim colour, which I've been coveting for a while) 'I Have A Herring Problem' and the light but pretty 'Pedal Faster Suzi!'. It's far too wet to be wearing flip-flops right now (I can't wait until it's warmer and dryer; nearly all regular shoes give me blisters), so my perdy toes were mostly for my own benefit, although I did make the boyfriend tell me which he preferred :p (Pedal Faster).

Ewww...

You can't even see the colours very well, sorry! I only took the one photo and now I have something different on my nails...

NOTW (hands): OPI Care to Danse? + Pirouette My Whistle

Following on my last post about my ill-advised but fun Sally's trip, I decided to try out some of the OPI New York City Ballet soft shades from the mini pack I had bought there. I wanted something that wasn't so bright as uni work was starting up again and I wanted to have pretty but slightly more professional nails. Granted, when I went and applied a glittery topcoat, any professional image was somewhat shattered, but eh :p

I applied two coats of Care to Danse? so that my nails looked natural but healthy and bright and then applied the glittery topcoat, Pirouette My Whistle (oh, OPI and their names :p). I'm not usually big on glitter (mainly because it GETS EVERYWHERE), but this stuff stayed put without a top coat and didn't flake off, plus it looked pretty :) I especially liked the big round flakes. What do you think?

Sally's Polish Haul

Soon after finding out that we do in fact have Sally's here in the UK and that there was one half a mile away from where I live when at university, I was kind of excited for term time to start up again :p (that excitement faded away quickly though; it's exam term and aaaargghhh, basically!).

I registered for email updates and got a 20% off voucher a few days later, which just excited me even more. I ended up visiting a Sally's in London when I went to hang out with my sisters for the day and see Rock of Ages (which was alright but had a pretty terrible first act; the second was pretty funny though)...I was a little shocked that OPI polishes were *£11* each (ouch!) when I get them online for about £4+shipping...I bought OPI White Shatter and a China Glaze polish (a more reasonable but still pricey £6.59) from the Electropop collection, a perdy pink creme called 'Dance Baby'. I'm pretty sure Sally's is the only physical store in the UK where you can buy OPI and China Glaze polishes though (I think some manicurists sell OPI, but I imagine that might be even more expensive, especially if you get a manicure as well...I've never actually had one!).

Anyway...onto this haul :) I spent waaay too much money, even after the 20% off. As in, just under £55. Did I mention we're not allowed jobs at Cambridge during term time and that my parents give me very little money? Yeah...good thing I sell stuff on eBay. But yeah, I couldn't afford this, but these beautiful polishes WILL last me a long time, I swear! :D

The pretty view from my window at uni :) 

China Glazes: Sweet Hook (Electropop), Temptation Carnation, Tree Hugger (I fell in love with the name and had to get it, it's very me!), Rainbow, Seduce Me.

OPI: New York City Ballet minis (I love ballet and I love soft shades), OPI Correct and Clean UP (there was no price on this and it turned out to be £9.99 before discount :/ it really doesn't work that well, but it's ok; I got it because I am sooo messy with polish, especially when tired!), OPI Dutch Treats minis.

A zoomed-out view!

I did really like Sally's; it was spacious and the assistant was friendly and asked me if I needed help, but then when I said I was ok she left me alone and didn't hound me, which is always appreciated. She let me ponder over polishes for a loooong time and even stopped unpacking OPI polishes and moved into the display when I wanted to have a look :)

Let's be honest, if I still live in Cambridge when I have a full-time job (which I hope to do), I'll probably head to Sally's for a couple of polishes every month or two :p right now, I'm going to avoid going again for a while as it is all VERY tempting.