Fall Bucket List || 2018

Today everything is going slow and work is not wanting to get on track so I'm pausing to de-stress and write what is on my head and how I'm feeling...

My favourite season is FALL and I also love Spring but a bit more Fall because of Halloween and also Christmas is so near you can almost smell it.

I never do Bucket Lists specific for a Season but this year I just need the extra push and pick me up because I'm feeling drained and I have a lot to do before Christmas.

1. Decor for Halloween.

I do this every year because it's one of my favourite holidays. I've been buying stuff every year, adding to my collection of cute and spooky around the house nick-nacks. I have two bins of Christmas stuff and one bin of HALLOWEEN, that is how much I love it!

2. Perfect my pumpkin bread recipe.

I've been trying to make pumpkin bread without flour because I'm gluten intolerant and I don't like the no gluten flour - it seems to make me bloat the same. I've tried it out with oat flour and it became a sort of a pudding. Next time I'm trying chickpeas

3. Buy some new leggings to work out in.

This is already done by the time I post this. I'm thinking they have to be an autumn colour because I always buy black, high-waisted and cover my ankles. They also have to be warm so I can use them all winter or until the SALES.

4. Drink hot tea or lattes every night before bed.

Yesterday I did a tea for David and a latte for me. It just warms me up and I feel all cosy watching a movie (Ant-Man and The Wasp). Also, preps me for a good night sleep which has been difficult these last weeks. There is always something and this last week it was the wind, my parents have no electricity or phone and I could not contact them for days.

5. Cut my hair.



After going to Algarve and swimming with seaweed it just made me pull out all of my hair getting it out so it's really fine at the moment. I love giving it a trime in the FALL because it falls out a lot during these months and I want my hair to be beautiful for December (something important coming up in December so subscribe to my newsletter because it's free and/or to my youtube channel, I'll be announcing it everywhere soon!)

6. Go for walks in the park.

I love to walk at night in the park. It has been the best thing moving to this apartment among a lot of others. I have a new phone game POKEMON game which makes me want to walk more so our 10-30 minute walks are more like 1-2 hour walks at the moment. It's good but our series and movies are getting pushed and also dinner time is a bit too late for my liking.

7. Fireplace lite.

My and David love our fireplace and when it becomes a bit colder when can light it. This apartment is warm even in the winter so we don't need it just yet but I do want to make one or two fires just to see it lite for a little while.

8. Buy some new pillows for the Living room.

I want some SEASONAL pillows that I can change the covers from time to time but I'm so picky that I never buy any. I have my outdoor furnisher in my living room, at the moment because I don't want it to go bad in the rain. I want to tye them in with the grey and brown going on but IT'S GREEN and I have always been a little hesitant to buy green anything for the living area. We have some plants there and I always have some flowers but having green pillows or chairs was a no-no. Since I got the outdoor furniture, GREEN has been growing on me and I'm finally thinking of getting some green pillows. What do you think? Black (TV, TV stand, fireplace, table and shelves), grey (chairs and coffee table), brown (sofa/couch), white (floor and walls) and now GREEN... Is it too much?

9. Watch Nightmare Before Christmas and if possible the new Grinch movie.

I love Halloween and when it's movies that make Halloween and Christmas dance together I just need to see them all. If you have a favourite tell me in the comments because I've might not have seen it.

So these are the main things I want to do this FALL. I did some of these last Fall and I loved them so much I just had to add them on the list (1, 3 and 4). What is your bucket list for FALL? What is your favourite thing from this SEASON that you always do?

Have a beautiful day doing what makes you happy.

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My First Haul on This Blog

I wanted to make the fist HAUL of this blog with my favourite things at the moment. I did buy some more products but these are the ones that stood out and were a bit different than usual and I am just in LOVE with all of them.

1. The BIOTEN night cream is amazing. If you don't already know, all of the bioten products I ever tried I love and this could not be ay different. This is a night cream and I have dry to combo skin so I love my night creams a little bit on the oily side but not too greasy that it might break me out. and this has just the right amount of oil and the anti ageing properties are visible with two or three usages.

2. Ultra Suave from the brand GARNIER is great and I always buy one or two hair masks when I go there but I saw this product and just because it smelled fantastic I had to buy it. I do love my leave in whatever makes my hair shiny and beautiful I always love to try out so it had to come home with me. I love it, not only it makes my hair smell amazing it is also great for the colder months ahead because you can use it to protect your hair from the heat even if it's still really wet. I usually go to the gym at night and almost every time, I wash my hair so this has saved my life trying it. I even think my hair drys faster when I blow it out with this product.

3. Laura Mercier is a brand I have in my collection for a long time now. The first product I bought was the translucent powder that is amazing and I use every day. This foundation has been on my list for a while now. Every time I use it people compliment me and ask what foundation it is. I apply it with my beauty blender dupe that I love and it looks flawless, lightweight and just blends like I have nothing on my skin. Now I just need to buy a lighter shade for the winter.

4. The KYLIE matte lip gloss and pencil were the first colour I bought - DOLCE. It's a dark nude that looks amazing in contrast to my pale skin.  The colour is very pigmented so you need just a little bit, it will last me a lifetime. When you first apply it takes some seconds to dry and after, it just stays on all day. The texture and staying power is amazing, it is matte and non-transferable. I did the kissing my boyfriend test and drinking water too, it did not budge.  It's not drying if your lips are in their normal state but I don't like to wear it more than three days straight because the fourth day my lips are a little dryer (normal for me whatever I'm putting or not on my lips). I have ordered more and I have even more in mind to order because they came out with a bunch of new colours this Autumn, I'm so excited

5. HELLO Gel Nail Varnish in the colour number 25 - Satin Pajamas - is a pinkish nude. I love nudes and I love these gel polish because the quality s fantastic at a great price, I recommend you check it out. On me these last more than a week which is amazing because there is no nail polish that lasts that long and these are nail polish prices. They also have different sets for those of you that don't have the UV light. I'm not sponsored, I just love it and I have bought other brands and for me, these are the best. I have a review on a set/kit from the same place HERE.


These are some of the products I bought this month and I have been using them non-stop since I got them. They can be also considered my favourites but I have some other products I want to add to that. I most probably do a video on that on my youtube channel

Tell me what is your favourite product that you last bought.

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Getting back to Yoga

After some most needed vacations, a lot of eating and doing nothing... or almost nothing. Now I need to get back to my workouts and all of the activity I can fit in my day-to-day to get rid of some of this vacation weight.

I love doing yoga in the morning but it has been harder to do it every day, even though I miss it a lot and my body does too, I find myself gravitating towards other things like weight lifting and arms and when they are tired I do a bit more arms...
Working out for me, can't feel like a chore or I wouldn't do it anymore. So I always do what I'm feeling that day with the conscious of rotating exercises for each muscle area ass much as I can but lately, I've been feeling that it's harder to rotate and I'm just doing one type of exercise and/or muscle area.

Now that the weather is cooler and I can feel a breeze from time to time I want to start running outside which I know I love and get really addicted to. Also, I want to do some yoga that isn't 15 minutes "stretching style" at the end of the day, I want a hole one hour routine where I can try to get to the next level and do positions I have never done before and those that, at the moment, are really hard, get them to flow better and stronger/longer.
I want these two to come back to my daily routine and then rotate the weight training that I do.

I'm all about starting new and I do my best to grab all these year round dates (the end of long vacations) to start again and get to my goals because the year has not ended so I can still reach them.

You all out there that get a little down when the end of the year looks near, just get back on your feet and every 1st day of every month is a new start or even of every week (If you can view it this way) is a new start so grab it and get to your goals of this year.

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Does the Military Diet Work?

Some weeks ago I went to a friend of mine wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and the food was good.

I had gain some kilos the early months of this year so I wanted to lose some fast for the wedding (their invitation got to us two months before the wedding). I went on line and found the Military Diet which I initially thought this is a joke because you can have ice-cream 3 days a week (on the diet) but, like always, I had to try it to really know what I'm talking about. I do eat a good amount of food (more than I should, to lose weight and some days I even eat more and that is one of the reasons my weight has been increasing) and this was decreasing drastically what I was eating but the food choices were food that I like and usually eat so I started it being careful and taking it slow.

On the first day at breakfast, you can have a coffee a toast with two tablespoons of peanut butter and a half a grapefruit. I did not have the coffee because I don't drink coffee so I had a barley instead (which is similar to coffee but without caffeine) and didn't have peanut butter or grapefruit so I just ate the toast without the peanut butter and instead of the grapefruit I ate a half of an orange (as you can see on the substitutes page).
I felt ok all morning but I did eat lunch at 11:40 because I was getting hungry and I like to eat lunch at 12 o'clock so it was a good time to get it in.
For lunch, I could drink another coffee and toast with a half a cup of tuna.
Again, I didn't have the coffee but the barley and the rest as they demanded.
At 15:00 hours I was hungry and I had already drunk one litre of water so I eat an apple because they allow that for dinner so I preferred to divide the food during the day and eat it when I was hungry. about an hour passed that I was feeling light-headed and this day was the worst to get pass of all the days that I did the diet. Keep in mind that I usually eat 2000 or more calories and I was eating less than 1500 so that was really low for me. then at about 16:40 I ate half a banana and at 18:50 I was famished so I ate dinner which consists of 85g of any meat and one cup of green beans. I had some stir-fried turkey breast with the green beans.
I did not go to the gym because I was feeling really blurry and slow but I did have my cup of walnut ice-cream which was a low calorie one.

On the second day for breakfast, I could have half of a banana, a toast and an egg. I just had the toast and a boiled egg on top and reserved the half of a banana for the evening. I felt ok all morning.
For lunch, I had the boiled egg and half of the cup of cottage cheese I was allowed with five crackers. I could not eat all of the cheese because I was full. I did eat it when I was hungry at 16:30 and on this day I went to the gym because I felt quite energetic all day, very different from the first day. I would say that was from not be use to so little kcals and this day my organism was ok with that amount of food. I did do a heavy workout and I did take 12 minutes more than usual but I was happy that I did not feel bad during all of it.
At dinner, I had two sausages a cup of green beans because I did not have broccoli at the moment.
As always I was so happy to eat the ice-cream that today was half a cup at about 22:30.
I did not have the banana because I did not need it.

On the third day, I could have an apple a slice of cheese and five crackers, for breakfast. I had the apple in the middle of the morning because I was a bit hungry and I did need it.
At lunch, I had a boiled egg and a toast like they said and I ate half a banana at 15:30. It was really hard this day, I did feel some hunger that I corrected with drinking three litres of water. This was the first time in a long time a drank this much water. I did not have stomach pain but I felt a little empty.
At dinner, I had a cup of tune and waited half an hour to eat the cup of ice-cream so I didn't go to bed with an empty belly.
Overall this day was good but I did not go to the gym and the good thing is that these days I was not with a lot of work or I could not do it as fast as normally because though I felt most of the time well it was a little blurry and I can't say it would be easy if I didn't love ice-cream as I do. When I was hungry I would think about the ice-cream I could have at the end of the day and the hunger would almost vanish (be tolerable).

Kilos I lost: They said you can lose from 2-10 pounds each time you do this three-day diet and I just lost 1.7 kilos (3.7 pounds). I think this is because I do have a lot of muscle (exercise regularly) and I already eat healthy so it is much harder to lose weight when you already have a good "diet" plan.

Then the next four days I ate more or less the same as I do but less portion-wise because I felt I did not need as much food to feel full as before.

I did do this diet two times more (three times in a month) and I did get into the dress I wanted. In total, I lost 3.8kg (8.3 pounds) but a week after coming back from the wedding and eating more or less normal. I did get 2kg back. I don't think that was bad because after attending a wedding and stretching my stomach out again I always increase my weight a little.
That was not the major problem but the lack of my period is a big problem.
I've been three weeks without it coming. I'm not pregnant and I had never been so much time without it coming since I got it for the first time. I'm a little worried and I do think that this diet was the biggest problem for that occurring as it was the only change in my life the last 2 months. I will be waiting for it to return but this leaves me thinking that this diet is really bad for your hormones and not just for diabetes (all that ice-cream tastes great but does not do your good things).

Pros:
It makes you drink more water.
Decreases the size of your stomach.
You will be recompensated for the lack of food all day with ice-cream (not really a good thing though - I have mixed ideas still)
You lose weight (it can be water weight but still it's a loss and if you need that small push to get on the healthy road then maybe it's ok)

Cons:
You feel blurry (good just for when you're on vacation or doing nothing).
You feel a lot of hunger the first day of the first time.
The last day is always hard.
You eat too much sugar - ice-cream, so you will crave it on the other four days you aren't on the diet.
Your body thinks it's in hibernation mode or starvation mode if you do this more than one time, that is why the second and third time it wasn't so hard.
It sends you mixed signals about food because you're not eating unhealthy but then you eat ice-cream which is empty calories...
I did not get my period (it just came 3 weeks after - finally).

Rating: 2/5 mostly because of the lack of period.

Do I recommend? No, this has more cons than pros and you can't live and function whether you're a student or a worker this is not enough calories for a person to function normally. Every "diet" should become a lifestyle for your to have success on it and you should love everything about it. Also, it should be 80% healthy 20% not so healthy and it's more than 25% unhealthy with all that ice-cream.

Tell me in the comments what is/was the best diet you tried??

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My pets and FOFAS

My CAT is the most amazing creature I have ever had! 

I've had a bunch of cats in my life. Living part of my childhood and all of my teen years in a village here in Portugal, I have had the pleasure and luck to have had different domestic animals. I always loved CATs since I was very little. I still remember the happiness I felt when I received my first cat. At that time, I didn't know anything about cats, just that I loved them a lot. 

My first died really young and I felt really sad.When we got a new house I got a cat with it which has really fantastic because as an only child it's good to have other people and animals to grow with. 

This second cat I would treat her like a queen. I would bath her - BICHITA - brush, feed (sometimes like a doll) and even sleep with her (wich my mother hated because at that time I had breathing problems and she did make it worse). I still love her a lot and miss her but she died some years ago from old age. She was 23 years old.

I did have other cats in between, her sons and adoptive ones too but she was always my princess.
A little bit into going to university I got a dog but she died and I was very sad and even a bit traumatized from it. It was a very sad death and it still bothers me a lot.
When my boyfriend and I got an apartment we also got a cat and we called her: BIANCA. She came to us with 15 days which was very small so we gave her milk with a bottle and David - my boyfriend - was great with her. He had great "parenting skills" and I was very happy with that. When she was older, she became fearless and walked on top of our balcony we would have our hearts in our hands every time she did that. She was a very active CAT and did not like to be in the apartment so we decided to take her to my parents. She lived there like the queen, after BICHITA died. She would rule and no cat would enter without her permission, even dogs. She did live a shorter life but a happy one. You can really tell when a pet is happy in its habitat, being outside was just what she loved.

The cat you see in the pics, we got her a little after we left BIANCA at my parents. She was abandoned and mistreated so my mother brought her home and when I saw her, it was love at first sight so I brought her to the apartment and to show my boyfriend. I was a little afraid she did not like to be in an apartment as per normal pets like to be outside most of the day, but we had so much luck and FOFAS (my cat's name) loves being inside. Like all pets, she does go outside from time to time but she is so afraid of everything that after 10-15 minutes of eating some grass and sniffing she runs back home.

We do put a collar and a leash on her but she does not mind at all. She knows when I pick her collar that it's walking time and comes running.
The thing she loves most is laying in the sun on top of my working table and the second best is liking her fur until it's all shiny and smoth then me and my boyfriend rubb it and she is liking all over again.
I could not be happier for having this cat she is just perfect for us and she is a replica of me so I love her even more.I never thought I could have a pet so similar to me and that would love to stay at home as FOFAS does.
The thing that brakes my heart is that I do not have a little FOFAS. I'm going to miss her so much when she dies but hopefully, she will live a long and happy life with me!

I would love to hear about your pet(s) in the comments.

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