Hello, friends!

Continuing on from my last post I want to share some easy ways I have started to exercise.

Now, I don't really like to exercise since as a high school student I am on my feet with a heavy bag most of the day. But I somehow decided I will start being more active and stretching a lot more since I really want to increase my flexibility. I also prefer to exercise in the comfort of my own home, so the exercise I choose to do is quite simple and doesn't require a gym.

1. Stretching

Stretching will increase flexibility and improves the motion of your joints, making you more balanced, which I know I need. It also reduces stress, increases circulation and improve your athletic performance. 

2. Basic Workouts

I like to do a few basic workouts at home to compliment my healthy diet and get my heart pumping.

I start with a warm up video by blogilates who does really good home workout videos that range from low intensity to high. This warm up is great and she has also done a more recent one I like to sometimes which is a little more intense.

I really like to do these videos since right now I want to work a lot on my legs and overall cardio:

I found this exercise a while ago when Girls' Generation member went on a show called Star King to show her leg workout but now KStyleTV did a whole video on this workout with her trainer (since the Star King clip video on YouTube was low quality as it was years ago), I was really happy to find this!)

This was originally on blogilates' channel but it's not available anymore, if it does again, please support as it's a great video for legs! It's hard at first but squats are very beneficial :)

3. Walk more and make more choices in your daily schedule to increase fitness

Go for a 30 minute walk, take the stairs instead of the elevator, park further from school or work and walk (or walk there from home if you can), anything at all! Every counts, on the days where I don't want to do intense workouts, a walk a long the beach is really relaxing!

As long as you make better habits and find a balance, it will definitely pay off into the future!

Of course, I am no expert, I just wanted to share a few ideas and some new things to consider!

Remember, enjoy life!

Nina

Hello, my fruit loops! 

Sorry for the corny title but I hope I can post as many things as I can to help people worry less. This week is some tips for dieting that has worked for me! Now, I'm obviously not professional but since these are simple things, I want to encourage everyone to try them out or incorporate them into their lifestyle if you are looking to change your lifestyle bit by bit.

I was a bit unsure on how to approach this blog post but I hope that this will be an encouragement to others in some way since some small changes can make a difference, I don't think a lot of people realize that. Now, when I say diet I mean changes to a diet to make it healthier for your body inside and out! In today's society the concept of diet can have so many different meanings for many different reasons. 

The thing is, making changes to become healthier is just as much of a mental change as well as a physical one, it takes time! If you change things bit by bit you will find yourself getting used to a healthier lifestyle bit by bit. Remember to eat healthier, not less! 
Good luck!

❤ 

I found out about this app through Wengie, another blogger, and  also strongly recommend using an app that has been my best friend with making better choices and weight loss! You input your own weight/height/goals etc and it calculates how much you should be eating each day in order to healthily lose weight.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

It has also recently added improvements to the app that tell you nutritional value of the food you are eating and reminds you of your goals: a really good encouragement!

1. Drink More Water (and drink tea when you can!)

This tip pops up almost EVERYWHERE! Drinking lots of water used to make me sick so I would drink so much cordial and other drinks instead which is just extra sugar in my system that I don't really need. I am also obsessed with tea and always had black tea with milk and sugar.

I decided that bit by bit I would drink more water until I could completely swap out cordial and other drinks for water. I also started drinking more and more green tea as it has SO many health benefits as well as speeds up the metabolism for weight loss :)

Drinking water helps your skin and your body to function properly, after all our bodies are mostly water. Also, sometimes when you think you are hungry, you are actually thirsty. So drinking water before meals or when you are hungry allows you to know how hungry you are and to control how much you eat.

2. Watch what you eat: eat foods that fill you for longer and eat less bad foods.

Another big I have tried to do is swap out a lot of what I eat with fruits and vegetables, and eating whole meal bread and rice if I am having something like that with my meals. Swapping out a bag of chips or a chocolate bar for a fruit salad or a handful of nuts can really make a difference.

Try to eat less junk food and fast food, plan out your meals and make them beforehand can help control what you eat. Trust me, I know, it's hard to avoid eating chocolate and all that all the time. But every once in a while doesn't hurt, otherwise you will go insane and eat a lot of junk to make up for it. That's not good. So it can be done in moderation.

After all, you have maybe 4 meals a day, times that by 7 and that's 28 meals a week. Having one or two a week that aren't as good is not so bad if it is unavoidable.

3. Watch portion sizes

Eating smaller meals throughout the day is something that is always recommended and it does help :) 

I used to come home from school and eat leftover food in the fridge (which is like one extra big meal) and then have dinner not long after. I stopped doing this because it was unnecessary ad just had a cup of tea with some snacks instead.

I also started using a smaller plate and putting salad on first so that it would take up most of my plate.  

4. Eat till you are 80% full

This is something else that has popped up everywhere but it has a good point. 

Chew your meals slower (about 8 times), since it takes your brain 20 minutes to realize your stomach is full.

By being completely full or overly full you put strain on your stomach and stretch it out, you need to leave room for digestion fluids, water and gas, if not then your stomach needs to expand. If you constantly do this, each time your stomach will expand, leaving more room to be filled the next time you eat. The result will be gaining unnecessary weight.

Even if you have a fast metabolism and don't gain any weight, your stomach will expand and create a stretched out belly (I now realize I had this problem).  You also won't absorb the nutrients as well.

If you start off with a little amount of food and water and are still hungry, you can have a little more if needed rather than having a big portion straight away and feeling like you have to finish it all.

❤ 

Some other tips that might help:

Make sure to finish eating a few hours before you sleep so that your good is settled before. I read somewhere some KPOP idols didn't eat after 7pm or so, and I try to do that. I'm not sure if it works.

Always eat something in the morning, even if it is something small. 

EXERCISE. Even if it is a little bit like walking or taking the stairs or stretching! I will be doing a separate post next time for exercise ideas and easy ways to be active.

❤

If you are looking to lose weight, do it for yourself and to be healthier! On the way to a healthier lifestyle, love your body and yourself always! Don't be discouraged if you don't see change immediately: your organs lose the excess fat before your body does. Don't eat less in order to see results quicker. 

Enjoy life, and good luck! If anyone has more tips, leave them in the comments below!

Nina

Hello my lovelies! 

Wow, this past term was stressful. Even though I was expecting the amount of schoolwork I have to do to be really large, the term starts of so calm and easy going and then BOOM! You have four exams and a few assignments due in one day.

I still have schoolwork and other things to do over the holidays, but at least I can relax now, I'm so happy this term is over. Now it's just a few more until my 18th and then graduation! 

Ohmygod, I will be an adult. I don't think I am ready. I don't know what to do. But you know, I am not the first person to now know what they want to do with their life. I know that so I still have hope. I have barely live my life and seen the world, how would I know?

We all will go several different phases in our lives and try different things before we find our place in the world: don't be discouraged if you are unsure! 

Now that the worst part is over, hopefully I can post more frequently and do more reviews of different stores etc when I can actually make a Paypal account >.>

What to expect:

Spreepicky Review

KPOP Album Haul

Markets Haul

Lifestyle posts

Enjoy life!

Nina

"The story takes place in a technologically advanced society in which robots can be programmed to behave like a complete human. A robot is asked to replace "Hal", who died in an accident, to help Kurumi, Hal's girlfriend, move on with her life. "Hal" struggles to understand the real Hal's past, Kurumi's affections towards Hal as well as the meaning of being alive." -Wikipedia

So, I recently watched the anime movie "Hal", and wow, it was a great movie! I have actually been on a bit of an anime hiatus but this caught my eye as I remembered I wanted to watch it before, and I'm so glad I did; I enjoyed it and it brought me off of my anime hiatus!

 The Story and Characters: 

Now, I'm the kind of person who can usually predict what will happen in a movie, so I thought I was following along with the story line, and then bam! there was a huge plot twist.

The movie got straight to the point at the beginning, and then it started to be a bit slow so I thought it would drag out and then end the way I thought it would, but just like almost every anime movie I watch, everyone was turned around and it was so unexpected, sad but interesting!

The characters were quite realistic with how they deal with different situations and the female lead, Kurumi was so pretty! Hal is quite cute too. Haha.

It was a good story and something new I haven't seen before!

The Animation:

 One thing I seem to have forgotten, was how pretty the animation of anime can be. And this movie definitely shows that. The animation didn't was simple and beautiful when it needed - not overshadowing the story line or characters. 

Overall Rating:

 

Overall, I would give this a 4/5 totoros. I loved the story line and characters, but I feel like they should have developed it a little more as it had so much potential as since the world is so futuristic and some of the characters had a dark past, I would have liked to find out more about that. Of course, this could be left up to the viewer's imagination but 

it would have been nice to see.

I would definitely recommend this movie, it was interesting and has a bit of everything: it was cute, had sci-fi and a bit of action, it had romance, all with visually appealing animation. Give it a go!

Sorry, my review is quite simple as I don't want to give much away or spoil it :)

Enjoy life!

Nina

Hello lovelies! ♥

So! Due to recent experiences, I have been inspired to do another blog post that's a bit advice-y, more about friendship really.

High school seems to be a bit of a learning curve when it comes to friendships, especially since my circle of friends has changed quite a bit over the four-five years. Recently, I learned how important it is to speak up and be honest with what you think. I've always been sort of quiet and more of a listener/give advice person when people come to me with their problems rather than going to them directly and asking. This has been a problem for me since I need to learn to take initiative and solve the problem directly rather than waiting for the opportunity to do so.

This became clearer to me when there was some miscommunication and false rumors between my friends within my group which led to leaving people out and having tension between people in our group. I kept telling myself I should just sit everyone down and talk about it and clear everything up (since I'm always the neutral party). I spoke to the people affected to get their side of the story but it wasn't until we got some info that someone outside of the group was spreading these rumors and everything was solved very quickly.

Everything could have been solved straight away of we were all honest about our feelings and no misunderstandings would have been created. 

This is why it is important to speak up when something feels wrong - when I heard these rumors I straight away though "There is no way she would done that." 

It is most likely better to get your feelings out and argue about it than have everything kept a secret and being angry/upset in secret. Then you'll solve the issue, or at least know that someone is angry and why, rather than treat someone badly or leaving them out and they don't know why. That's a much worse feeling - not knowing why.

As my friend said herself, she just wanted to know what she did wrong to make people leave we out, especially since it turns out to be nothing. 

Everyone, lets treasure the people close to us and open up to them but by bit! We are never alone in this world and sometimes some things can't be done on our own :) If you open up and argue a bit - that's something to overcome and make the friendship stronger. We need to be kinder to each other in this world. Lets do our best! ^^

Nina ♥ 

Hello everyone! I should have written about this a while ago when f(x) finally had their comeback with their title song and album "Red Light", but now I definitely have to!

I'm a big Kpop fan, and one of my favourite girl groups ever has to be f(x). Their music and concepts are definitely unique which is something I seem to really enjoy when it comes to music. So, when I saw the teasers for their comeback, I was way too excited!

A lot of people had mixed feelings about the song, and much like Girls' Generation's "I Got A Boy", they were confused by how it sounds like several songs in one. Where "I Got A Boy" is one of my favourite songs, of course I instantly liked "Red Light" because it's really experimental and catchy. The pace and beat is all part of f(x)'s charm!

This has got to be one of the most arty farty and interesting videos S.M Entertainment has produced. They're not stuck in just one box set, but have lots of different settings and lots of symbolism to represent society and society's standards. It's quite interesting when you read about it. The half-make up is to represent the ugly and beautiful side, there are mannequin's with wires to show how we are programmed by the media and so much more. The choreography is a little simpler than what f(x) usually had before, but dancing is hard no matter what. The choreography compliments everything perfectly.

The songs on the album itself are perfect! They're different and make want to get up dance, (especially Rainbow!). The song Milk is so good too, and the live performance is so cute, really contrasts against Red Light. Ugh, I could go on and on.

What I really want to talk about is what is happening now and that's the recent news of Sulli taking a break from the entertainment industry due to poor physical and mental due to all the hate she's been receiving, and the whole group has stopped performing.

Of course, it's a whole new industry and culture to me so there might be things I don't understand. But, who, anywhere, deserves to receive negative comments on their weight, performance and relationships to the point where they can't take it anymore? She decides to take a break and relax, and in return receives more negative comments. How are idols different from normal people? When a normal person gets to the point where they can't take it anymore, they are flocked with support, but Sulli got more hate, how is she any different from any of us? She, and other singers, gave up a part of their lives to perform and please us, why cant we support them and respect them? 

Remember, even celebrities have moments when they are down and have feelings too. Everyone has a past and no matter how wonderful a person's life may seem, there is so much more, and most of the time we only see a few minutes of what seems like their perfect lives. Let's be more kinder when we decide to comment or say something, and make the world a better place bit by bit, kay? (≧ω≦)

Nina

It's winter here and it feels like everywhere else is summer :') I deal really badly with the cold, I even get cold in summer. At least I can wear all my sweaters, stockings and boots that I have haha!

I have two weeks of holidays from school and so far I have rested a little too much ._. I went to see Blended on Thursday last week with my friends, and omg, I didn't think it'd that good. I was a bit skeptical, but it's a pretty good movie! I also had more sweets than I should have. I need to eat better now that it's the holidays, I will keep to my healthier lifestyle now that I've started months ago. My parents bought me lots of fruit so I need to finish it all :')

I got some new earrings, I'm so excited! I lost one of my opal ones last year at camp and I was so upset, no one understood >:

It's my best friend's birthday at the end of the week, I'm so excited! I got her earrings too, I hope she'll like them. Before that, we are going for lunch tommorow with everyone. I'm pretty excited :)

I'll post again soon~  Take care!

Nina