Trip to Portugal

I wasn’t planning on writing a post about my holiday – just my usual weekly Friday post but I decided I’d like to share some of the photos and what we’ve been up to on my blog.

We, as in Callum and I, booked this holiday very spontaneously in December when the miserable weather was taking its toll on me. I’m not a fan of the cold and rain, never mind the dark mornings. And so last Monday we went off to Albufeira in Portugal.

Since we’re both students this had to be holiday on a budget. This however only meant two major sacrifices – sleep, as the flights were very early in the morning, and excursions. We flew over with Ryanair to Faro, the flight was delayed by at least an hour in both ways but hey, we got there and back home safe and sound.

We didn’t really think too much about it when we were choosing our hotel, we just booked the one that wasn’t too pricey and had decent Tripadvisor reviews. And we got lucky. Natura Algarve Club turned out to be VERY good value for money. It was well maintained and, most importantly, clean. The staff couldn’t have been more helpful – we had a problem with the heating in our room and it was resolved the next day.

We spent most of our holiday walking around the old town and sightseeing. According to my Fitbit we walked at least 10km every day. The hotel was a good half hour walk away from the old town but neither of us mind walking, for me it’s the same as walking to campus. The town is so beautiful! I loved all the white buildings and cobblestone pavements. There’s so much you can do there but it just all depends on how much money you have to spend. We originally planned to go horseriding but didn’t book it in the end. The marina was a much newer area with colourful apartments and lots of boat and fishing trips to offer but I much preferred the charm of the old town. Despite the tourists and loud bars and restaurants there still was a sort of laziness about it. We spent two afternoons sunbathing on the beach and found ourselves a lovely little snack bar that sold by favourite drink of the holiday – fresh orange juice. Considering most bars’ Happy Hour lasts all day long that’s pretty boring, I know. Although we got tempted by port one afternoon, we were in Portugal afterall. 

View from Ricardo's Pizzaria where we went for dinner one night.

One of the streets in the old town.

Hand-painted tiles on buildings in the old town.

Praia De Albufeira.

Old town.

I tried posing but fell instead ;)

Port and lemonade and fresh orange juice.

The old town is full of touristy-type shops. But amongst all the tourist junk you can find some really beautiful things, especially pottery. I treated myself to new vase – I decided that I don’t have one and that flowers will definitely look nicer in a vase than in a pint glass (oh the joys of student living).

Would I go back there again? Definitely! Even though we didn’t get up to much and just enjoyed sight-seeing the town we stayed in, it was just the kind of relaxing break we needed before exams start. 

10 tips for waking up and getting on with your day

Kate Faithfull-Williams’ article in Boots’ Health & Beauty magazine (March/April 2016 issue, yes another free magazine) inspired me to think about my own getting up habits and what gives me more energy in the mornings. Here is a list of tips that I think can help you to get up and get on with things – I try to stick to them myself but may not always succeed ;)

1. Get enough sleep in the first place. It’s an easy calculation – you know what time you need to be up so count back 8 hours from that plus another hour to allow yourself to settle in bed (read a book or listen to some music, anything that will make you switch off) and make sure that that’s when you go to bed. There are even apps that will remind you to go to bed based on the alarm you set (click here). Sometimes life does get in the way of those magic 8 hours but I think that if you prioritise your sleep over, say, checking facebook or watching TV you will thank yourself for it in the morning. Here’s the link to my previous blog post about sleep rules.

2. Wake up at the same time every day. I sometimes have issues with this however I have stuck to getting up before 8am for the last couple of weeks. It feels like I have a routine and means that I’m tired in the evening so can go to bed early (which is what I love!). An early start also makes me more productive. I’d say between 8am and 1pm is my most productive time of day, especially if I have to study.

3. Set your alarm clock for when you actually want to get up and DON’T SNOOZE IT! Those extra 15 minutes that you think you absolutely need will only make you feel more tired.

4. Open your curtains straight away. I often struggle with getting up when it’s still dark outside. Having one of these sunrise-imitatingalarm clocks would make it so much easier!

5. End your shower with a cold blast. I don’t shower in the mornings, I much prefer having a relaxing bath in the evening as I always associated it with the 

end of the day, it’s a part of my bedtime routine plus I can’t deal with washing my hair in the morning. So I was cruel and asked my boyfriend to test this one. According to Callum it work very well in terms of waking you up but makes you want to get out VERY quickly.

6. Get dressed and make your bed as soon as you get up. I LOVE pyjama days but I’d be lying if I said they’re productive. Getting dressed definitely makes me feel like it’s time to get things done and once you put the effort in to actually making your bed you won’t want to ruin it by jumping back in.

7. Rehydrate. My mum swears by a glass of water with honey and the juice of half a lemon half an hour before breakfast. She starts prepping it the night before by adding the honey to boiled water and then just adds the lemon juice in the morning.

8. Slow releasing carbs for breakfast. By now most of us know that a sugary breakfast will give you a boost of energy but you’ll feel tired again pretty quickly. Something like wholegrain oats with fruit and seeds is perfect to keep you going for the whole morning. And if you feel you need a snack before lunch opt for something similar, e.g. oatcakes. Oh, and don’t even think about skipping breakfast!

9. Have an action plan for every day. I can’t get anything done without a ‘to do’ list which is why I tend to write one in my diary most mornings. It may involve tasks as simple as ‘Walk the dog’ or ‘Clean the bathroom’ but it makes me focus on the day ahead and allows me to plan and prioritise. Plus it feels so good to tick things of ‘to do’ lists!

10. Fresh air. A walk with your dog will not only make him or her very happy, but will also help you to wake up. A brisk morning walk to school/work/university may seem like torture at the time but once you get there you will definitely feel more awake and energetic than your friends who opted for the bus.

Not everyone is a morning person though, and sometimes I'm quite jealous of the people who actually can have a lie in. When I have one, I can write off the whole day as nothing will get done and I'll just want to stay in my Pjs all day :)

Yoga and excuses

It’s the end of yet another week. I find that time has been flying by recently – me and my housemate Kathryn have both said that it feels like January exams were only last week.

This week was a bit odd, I’m feeling slightly under the weather and that, together with the pressure of upcoming deadlines, meant I haven’t been out running. I’m hoping to go tomorrow but I guess it depends on whether I come up with an excuse. Everyday yoga practise also went down the drain due to various reasons last week but I have improved again this week.

Last night I decided to play around with my yoga practise a little. I’ve had a productive yet fairly relaxed day and didn’t really feel like I wanted to stop and breathe for a minute like I usually do when I get to the evening. I wanted to try something new and push myself a little bit.

There is plenty of yoga inspiration on the internet – particularly on Instagram. I love browsing through random photos under yoga hashtags. I think #yogaeverydamnday is my favourite because many of the captions describe the journeys of amateurs like myself. And yes, of course, there are plenty of qualified yoga teachers posting pictures too, but it’s the amateur posts that really motivate me. I find it so inspiring to see people who, similarly to me, are struggling with something as simple as touching their toes and their progress to being able to do all kinds of weird and wonderful poses.

A few weeks ago I started focusing more on my hamstrings and hips as I figured out that that’s where the tightness, which prevented me from touching my toes, was. Although touching my toes while standing is still a challenge and requires preparation, it is starting to become more doable. My yoga teacher was definitely right (not that I ever doubted it) when she said that practising everyday will fast-forward the progress but to be honest, I didn’t think it would be this fast. As I see these little bit of progress though, I am getting more ambitious. Yesterday I decided to take a more holistic approach and push myself out of my comfort zone with all body parts. I started practising some gentle back bends – bridge, fish and wheel poses plus a few others. I do however try to make sure I don’t push myself too far and don’t try to force anything – this is also a great exercise for my patience. I think that is the main rule for me when practising yoga. I am also very keen to learn a headstand without support, just in the middle of my mat. I don’t find it too problematic to get into the position however staying in it and not flipping over definitely is problematic. My balance is atrocious. Upper body strength has also been on my radar for a while and it is taking soooo long to build up. I find that the transition from child pose to cobra really gets my shoulders working so I try to do that quite a few times every day. I also attempted crow pose. Here is a picture of my pathetic, poor quality and probably dangerous attempt that my mum managed to capture (top photography skills there as I can only stay up for about 3 seconds). 

Finally yesterday I also managed to do a beginner variation of pigeon pose which I got very excited about but unfortunately I didn’t capture it on camera :(.

Sleep rules (and excuses)

Sleep is a big part of our lives – we should be spending a quarter to a third of it sleeping! Being home is always good for my sleep routine and it sort of resets my body clock – there’s no doubts about it. That’s probably because my mum has a fairly early bedtime which usually means that I get bored and go to bed too. While being home I came across an article about sleep in the free Asda Good Living magazine (I LOVE a free magazine!) and it got me reflecting about my own sleep routine.

The article was titled ‘The Slumber Diaries’ (written by Julie McCaffrey, March 2016 issue) and aimed to help one sleep deprived mum to get more sleep. This person however slept as little as 2 hours a night! Personally I can’t imagine doing that – I get cranky if I sleep less than six hours and so I really feel for people who have insomnia – if I feel awful after six hours of sleep I can’t even imagine how tired a person must be when they only get 2 hours of shut eye night after night.

When I’m at university (and I’m sure this is true for the majority of students) it is often harder to get those 8 hours of sleep – not necessarily because we can’t sleep but because we choose to do other things. If you’re not a twenty year old grandma like me, going out is definitely a bigger temptation. With me however, the temptation usually is more along the lines of films and cups of tea and I absolutely love spending my evenings with friends, wrapped up in blankets. But what disturbs my sleep most at university is my part time job as it involves working shifts. It definitely takes a couple of days for my body to reset itself again by which time I may need to go back to night shift mode.

The article mentioned earlier also had a lovely set of “Sleep Rules” which appeared to make a lot of sense however I immediately recognised that I probably break a lot of them. They included:

“1. No mobiles, tablets or computer screens in the bedroom for at least 45 minutes before bed.” Rule number one and I’m already guilty of breaking it. With my phone always near me it is so easy to just have a quick peak on Instagram or Facebook, or there’s a text or an email that I could reply to in the morning but why wait, right? Me and my boyfriend also made it a habit to FaceTime right before bedtime so that we could talk about what we have been up to that day – with that being one of my favourite parts of the day it would be difficult to give that up however let’s not make excuses and think of solutions. I could easily talk to him half an hour earlier and then spend some time reading to switch off. And one final reason/excuse for keeping my phone next to me in bed (and I bet 90% of us are guilty of it) is that I use it as an alarm. I mean, how difficult is it to buy a separate alarm clock that won’t tempt us with notifications and updates?

“2. Wind down by reading or listening to music.” I love reading in bed! I should make it a more regular thing.

“3. Cut down on caffeine and, if you smoke, stop smoking!” This one’s easy, I don’t smoke and I don’t really drink coffee unless I’m in work and very tired.

“4. If possible, give up alcohol for at least five nights a week and drink more water to stay hydrated.” Since my tonsillitis over Christmas which resulted in antibiotics somehow I just don’t fancy drinking so since then I think I’ve only had one gin and tonic. With regards to water I am trying to drink at least 2L of fluids a day – I had a FitBit band for Christmas and the app is very helpful in keeping track of how much I have actually drank.

“5. Don’t eat or drink after 8.30pm as the body warms up to burn calories and this hampers sleep.” I’m not a big fan of eating dinner late, I do however have a bad habit of snacking, especially whilst watching TV.

“6. Set your alarm for the same time every morning, including weekends Don’t use your phone alarm or you may be tempted to check messages.” There is absolutely no pattern to this with me. Sometimes I will get up before 8am all week but another week I will sleep until 10-11 whenever I can. Maybe I should try getting up at the same time every day, it would definitely mean having more time to get things done as I am definitely more productive in the mornings.

“7. If you haven’t fallen asleep within 30 minutes, get up and do something relaxing. Only go back to bed when you’re sleepy.” Once I actually switch my lights off I rarely struggle with falling asleep. For a while though I felt like I kept getting good ideas or remembering things I had to do the next day after going to bed so I kept a notepad and pen next to my bed - very helpful and I knew I could stop stressing about forgetting to do things.

“8. Exercise during the day, ideally outdoors.” I like running outside, I find I don’t get bored as quickly as I do on the treadmill but I definitely lack creativity when it comes to doing other forms of exercise outside.

“9. Try separate duvets if your partner disturbs your sleep.” Not a problem I’m experiencing at the moment.

A friend I know from school has recently written a blog post about her sleep routine and tips to fall asleep, click here if you fancy a read. I found it really interesting and it definitely made me think more about my sleep routine.

So here it is, nearly a thousand words about sleep in under an hour. If only I could write the remaining 700 of my essay so quickly...