As all women do, I'm currently in a phase of trying to make myself healthier and embrace a positive mindset. But - I'm praying that this is not just a phase but soon becomes a lifestyle as exam season creeps upon us I know the feelings that tend to be attached to it and I really refuse any part of it. My friends laugh when they hear me adding a new thing to my daily routine or a new found favourite of mine - purely because I will go to any length possible to ensure I'm at my best 365 days a year especially when it comes to dealing with school and associated 'stress'.

'Stress' as a word is one I absolutely hate and avoid at all costs based on my belief that whatever you speak out is what you become - for example if I constantly say I feel sick or something gives me a headache I become it. Many people are starting to discover this after reading 'The Secret' and the idea of 'law of attraction' - that's not really what I'm on about but if that makes more sense then you get the gist. Whether you're at school, work or university there comes a time where you do become overwhelmed and truly feel the effects of fatigue. Over working yourself is definitely one of the things I do to myself, resulting in cold like symptoms and overall angry moody Tiffany. Which if you know me personally, isn't the best version of me. So, is there really a way to tackle fatigue? Sleep, duh and a little bit of coffee 4x a day? Come on sis, do better.

I received the Vitamin B-Complex supplements from the lovely people at Incite Nutrition (click here) which:

• helps maintain normal mental performance i.e. keep your brain at its best 
• reduce tiredness and fatigue

Skin I've come to learn is not permanent - we continue to shed cells upon cells on a daily basis - yet we become so obsessed with how bad it is without actually doing something about it. For years I never felt the need to look after my skin as it has always been a common misconception that black women don't get acne or suffer through skin issues. I for one can say, ISSA LIE. Although many are blessed with amazing skin - which can be down to pure genetics and your general welbeing - some of us aren't so lucky. Even my makeup application just didn't bang as hard as I wanted it to, below is an unedited photo from my blog's birthday (6th Jan 2017) :

If there's one thing I try to tell myself all the time is 'rest Tiffany', but as always I work against that and end up overworking myself. Is that good for my productivity? Of course not and I know that this is what we as a society are working towards - creating zombies of people in the workplace due to an accumulation of strain, mentally and physically.

Ask yourself, when was the last time you gave yourself an off day to disconnect from everything and everyone. If it was more than a week ago then maybe that's why you keep yawning at breakfast. Breakfast. The first meal of the day sis. The fact is that in today's world we have made it a normality to overwork ourselves in order to survive - but essentially if we are working like this till were 68 then how much will we have to left to give or do? Put it this way, you're a duracell battery and overtime you slowly lose juice, which is inevitable but the more you're used i.e in frequency the quicker the juice runs out. Everyday a new to do list is created with work constantly piling up on each other. Obviously, you work to get everything done ASAP but we lack factoring in the machine running the show - you.

I'm slowly starting to learn the importance of looking after self during what others call 'stress season', because otherwise I'll burn out. I know I'm not the only one and you're reading this like 'this is me bro'. Each week you have 168 hours, 10,080 minutes, 604,800 seconds to work out what's your priority - every time it should be you. We run around like headless chicken thinking there's not enough time in a week to get 'ish done but there's more time than you think.

Recently, I divided my time according to a 5 day week (Mon-Fri) based on the hours I go to school, sleep, go to work and how long I do school work for. Seeing your days in numbers may be helpful for you to realise you have more time than you think, or if it's the opposite then realise the wakeup call you've now got in front of you. Time management is such a key part to life and the quicker you can grasp it the easier larger life tasks become. 

It's wet, cold and I can hear little kids screaming 'muddy puddles' - welcome to winter in London guys. It's always after summer that I start getting fanatic about health, to avoid cold and flu season at all costs also to try and shed a few pounds or maintain my weight during the festive season. Costa and Starbucks start to cram with customers longing for their Christmas sugar kick - I sure as hell am one of them lets not beat around the bush! With the calorie content in some of those drinks, I know I need to ensure that I'm working to keep the pounds off.

A couple of months ago Pulsin was kind enough to send me some of their protein bars and protein powder - which to be honest I was a bit shooketh about as it reminded me during the summer months of the winter that was ahead. Now at that point that I was envisioning, I tried their stuff and listennnn hunty!


Ok so I will keep it 100 with you guys and admit that I've never been a huge fan of protein bars at all - I just always thought they tasted processed and fake if you ask me. That's why I was so intrigued by Pulsin as a brand who promise to create products for all ages that ensure that we are staying healthy whilst enjoying the products we consume. I tried the vanilla choc chip protein bar and mint choc chip too - personally after trying both I preferred the mint choc chip, it had more of a chocolate feel to it so I almost forgot that I was eating a protein bar. I definitely think that the bars are an acquired taste that I think if you like 'raw' and 'organic' in taste type protein bars then you'll like these.

The protein powder was a hit with me, I didn't even taste it in anything I was having and still got to reap the benefits. Personally, I prefer that in a protein powder - not to taste chalky or feel the grains in a smoothie. I added a heaped tablespoon to my smoothies and half to my breakfast bowls - with honey, granola and natural yogurt - to add more protein to my day.

I'm not in anyway using the products to lose weight but to instead feel healthier and improve wellbeing.

Click here to buy from Pulsin and let them know I sent you.

Drink water and mind ya business - pretty damn simple, eh?

As all my Londoners know that the weather has been been bright and beautiful, with the occasional showers because lets not get ahead of ourselves we do live in England. One of the things I always find myself doing at this time of year is drinking"Detox Water" - super refreshing and a good cleanse for you internally and externally. Personally, I like ice cold cucumber and lemon water - below I've got some of the benefits of it (other than it looking nice) :

Benefits Of Lemon Water:

• Weight loss 
• boosts immune system - contains plenty of vitamin C, helping your immune system heal cuts and preventing you from catching a cold etc. Studies have shown that in the long term it can help you avoid cancer too - all from just drinking a little lemon water.
• Hydrates the body
• Boosts your brain 

Hello world, 

Hello December and hello to you,