TV Series Review: West World

West World is a new TV Series which my boyfriend and I started watching this month.

I saw the trailer and it just calls to me so I had to watch. It is based on a movie from 1973 and has the same background story. I have not seen the movie but now I'm interested. It's my type of series, in the sense, it's a thriller/terror where there is not a lot of dull moments and the actors are amazing too.

The surroundings of the takes are almost all in the "play town" where people go to have adventures and experience things that they can't in real life. It has some science fiction behind it with the artificial humans that habit the "town".
The other scenes (until now) are in the lab with the scientists and tech guys which also is very interesting and gives us a look at their life and questions ours (if we were in a similar position). Also, the "God" position of the creator(s) is quite intriguing, of course, the actor that interprets God is one of the best in my opinion - Anthony Hopkins and just him makes the series much richer and interesting. But there is a cast of  actors that is "almost" as good.

You can't ask for more quality and I do think that at the moment there is no TV Series out there better. Of course, I still love Game of Thrones but it's not coming out at the moment and I also think that this is at the same level/could get to (because it's a baby at the moment) of elaboration and fantasticalness, it does have the field to grow far.

I do recommend vivadly, it's amazing. I would give it a 10/10 and let's see if it continues like this.

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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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All About Nails: Loving Gels

This year I just went on the hunt for a gel kit because I wanted something long lasting and I love doing my nails at home so why not get my own gel manicure kit?!

I got a great kit online for a fantastic price and I was amazed by the wear I got out of my nails. I have never done a gel manicure before and I thought that, on most people, normal nail varnish lasts so this will maybe last me a day or two without chipping. But I was amazed because I was washing dishes and cleaning with them and it lasted me a whole week and I didn't even know how to apply it well. I let it go on to my skin a little on my thumb.

I got a kit with four different colours of gel polish: cream, coral-red, bright blue, dark grey. Got a base coat and a top coat. Some cuticle pushers and some gel wipers. Also, the lamp which is small for the entire hand but I can do three at a time. Also came with a nail file and metallic peeler because this is the peeling type of gel polish. I do not use the gel wipers because I prefer just using some alcohol and a piece of tissue paper the gel wipers are a little bit of a fuss to take out of the packaging and also don't work as well.

How I apply: I buff my nails with the soft file that came with the kit, it is much more gentle than any file I have. I wipe the powder and oils of with some tissue paper soaked in alcohol and let it fastly air dry. I do prefer doing one hand at the time. After the alcohol has evaporated I star with the gel base and I try to apply very finally. I use to use a heavy hand with my normal nail polish but for this, it is very important to use fine coats so the gel polish doesn't bubble up. Then I curate it under the machine for 30 seconds. On the site it sais you can do 10 seconds for the base coat and the top coat but the machine only does 30 second intervals on, it's just more 20 seconds so it's really fast leaving it the whole time and it does not do a difference for the look or applying the other coats of gel polish. Next step is choosing a colour which for me it's always difficult because I love to wear different colours all the time but I do gravitate towards the nudes (as you can see in the pic). For this nude colour you need two to three coats and for the brighter colours just one or two will do, just do a fine coat and curate between coats and it's fine. Finally, you can put your top coat and seal everything in. Curate and wipe with some tissue soaked with alcohol and the last step is putting some cuticle oil or cream so your nails last longer because gel polish drys your nails more than normal nail polish and when they are too dry the gel polish tends to come off faster. I try to put some hand cream every day at least once.

Pros:
It's faster to apply.
I love doing my nails at night so I have no more streaks from the sheets.
I can do stuff immediately after I apply them.
They last four times more than normal polish (lasts for about 8 days with heavy washing your hands).
It helps my nails grow longer without breakage.
They look shinier and polished than normal nail polish.

Cons:
The smell, it's a bit intense so I try to do it in larger spaces like my living room and not my bedroom.
You have to be really careful to not put a thick coat or it will bubble up and I use to put thick coats with my normal nail polish so it's a bit harder for me.
The lamp could be a bit bigger. It fit perfectly 3 fingers but I would prefer the whole hand.
When you peel the nail polish sometimes a fine layer of you nail skin also comes off. So I do like to give two or three days of rest between gel applications (but sometimes I can't bother and I have used it about 10 times and my nails look great).

I did buy some more colours but I saw another brand and thought maybe it would be the same but it is not. I still love the colours I got and I also go the matching top and bottom coats because maybe it might not be right to use with the other brand but I was mistaken because the base and top coat of this Bling gel polish is POOOO and they come off in the same day. So I tried it with the Hello brand from Rosalind's store and it's looking better but I think it won't last the eight days, maybe five. I bought this other brand because it had more colours in the collection and it also was cheaper but I think it's not worth the money if you can't have the use of the other why bother putting chemicals on your nails.

Rating: Hello Gel Polish - 5/5 - Bling Gel Polish - 2.4/5

Do I recommend it? I recommend buying the Hello kit if you're a beginner like me and don't have anything but if you have the curating machine then I would just recommend the gel nail polish and most definitely the base and top coats because they're the best I've used.

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My favourite new SHOES from Seaside

I went to Seaside to exchange a pair of shoes that I bought for my mother and they didn't fit her, so I got these. The last time I was there I looked at them and they were full price and I thought to myself "I would LOVE to get a pair of these!" at the same time thinking that they wouldn't come on sale till later on but for my surprise they were in SALES 50% off and I had to get them.
There are other colours and I almost wanted to get the pink version but it was a too light pink for me to keep nice and clean. I have a problem with light coloured shoes, they always get dirty really fast. But I still have to find a dark pink shoe for my collection and I think it will be this year because from what I could see there were a lot of colours there and I would buy them all! I'm a little addicted to shooOOoOES.

I thought these would be a bit hard to balance and also a bit rough on my feet but they are double padded - as many of the shoes I have bought in Seaside - making them really soft for my sensitive feet. Also, the sole is not entirely complete and I thought that would be negative but the only thing that might make a difference is when I'm driving, I need to be more careful angling my foot on the break the rest is just like a normal platform which is very comfy.

I love the gold studs and the black swede  just makes them look edgier, them that crazy soul just wraps it all together making them really fun to look at. I love having comfy shoes and when they can be attractive too I just need to have them.

I have a "display" - wall of shoes - in my apartment's corridor and I need to add two or three more shelves so I can buy more SHOES, If you are a shoe addict like me you will certainly know the feeling of wanting more colours and shapes because your collections not complete (it will never be complete - that is more correct to say!). I already have the shelving just need my boyfriend to help me (it's more vice-versa) installing it.

Just so you know: my legs are looking a little crazy because of my CAT, when she gets stressed out with the other cats and I don't help her get them out of our balcony she gets jealous and takes a bite. Those scratches are bites and not nail scratches. Also, I was pale and did not use this week the St. Moriz tanning mousse that I speak of in my May Favs on my youtube channel, if you want to go take a peek.

What is your favourite pair of shoes, TAG it to me on Instagram @nickapaulo .

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