April Goals and Bloglovin Love

Hello everybody and Happy Easter to you all!

I finally got my act together and created a brand new "About Me" page on the blog so you can see a little overview of my life also Google Reader is closing down for good soon and even though not that many of you follow me on there I thought this might be a good time to introduce you to Bloglovin. Do you hate the feeling of visiting a blog you love only to find that the writer hasn't posted anything new up? And then you keep checking back frequently till you eventually lose interest and stop? Then finally one day you go back to check and see that he/she has three new posts you have to catch up on? Annoying right? Well this is where Bloglovin comes in, it's basically ONE website where you can follow all the blogs you want at once and it's automatically updated each time one of your bloggers posts something new, I just started using it and it's the best thing to happen to my blogging experience, no more crushed dreams and false hope as I hold my breath waiting for the page to load, all my favourite blogs are just one click away! I keep adding new blogs everyday it's my one stop shop for blogs. So yeah, follow me on Bloglovin to keep up to date with LTV! Link is to the right of this page, the same picture as below

Okay now that that's over, in an effort to take my own advice in this whole healthy lifestyle thing, I've made up a "goals list" for April to start tomorrow and I'm excited to see what happens if I keep it up properly!

Hair:

• Apply Jamaican Black Castor Oil (JBCO) to edges nightly and scalp every other day to increase thickness.
• Do two protein treatments to try and combat shedding/breakage
• Try a tea rinse/ Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) rinse one wash day for fun!

Fitness:

• Finish Insanity on time (7th of April)
• Drink at least 1 litre of water a day
• Try and have a side of vegetables with lunch every day
• Start new workout regime including Hip Hop Abs and maybe swimming (?)

What's on your list for April? Drop a comment in the box to let me know. Hope you all have a lovely long weekend!

Reni x

Insanity Month 2: It's Not A Diet, It's a Lifestyle!

Hey beautiful people,

So I thought maybe it's time for another update on Insanity and how it's all going. Well I'd start by saying month 2 is whooping my ass! My goodness, in the first week my body was so sore, I could barely move! My calf muscles ached, my thighs were burning, everything you can imagine aching, was aching... So awful! But now I'm in the third week and even though the workout is still as intense it's not so bad anymore. Two of the workouts are about an hour long so waking up early enough to do them before lectures has been a task, I start at 9am most days so that would mean waking up at 6.45 to start working out so I can be in the shower by 7.45/8.00. Anyone that knows me knows that getting out of bed before 8 is such a problem, so I do them mostly when I get home just before bed instead.

Before I started month 2 I was complaining to my friend that I wasn't seeing any differences in my body and blah blah but finally that is changing slowly but surely, I feel so much better and more confident, clothes are fitting better and I even lost 3-4 kg as well! So yeah, Insanity is doing me justice finally! Also my fit test results have really been improving (except the suicide jumps/burpees I can't do them to save my life). Basically the fit test is where you do each of the moves below in one minute and see how many you can get while maintaining good form! I have only 1 more left, hopefully there will be even more improvement!

Move	Fit Test 1	Fit Test 2	Fit Test 3	Fit Test 4
1. Switch Kicks	52	94	100	102
2. Power Jacks	31	38	46	53
3. Power Knees	45	78	87	108
4. Power Jumps	7	17	28	43
5. Globe Jumps	5	6	7	8
6. Suicide Jumps	9	9	9	10
7. Push-Up Jacks	8	14	19	27
8. Low Plank Oblique	29	24	35	45

I've learnt so much about correct form with exercise and I've been modifying some moves so there's less impact on my knees. Anyways, enough with the bragging and trumpet blowing (but if I don't do it then who will?!) here's some stuff that I've found has helped me so far in my journey to a healthier body.

• Eating breakfast; usually people don't eat because they aren't hungry or there isn't enough time but the longer you take to eat after you wake up, the more likely it is that your body will go into starvation mode and start holding on to fat, obviously a big no-no. So I've been trying to get out of bed 10 minutes earlier so I have enough time to make a Quick Smoothie or have some cereal before uni.

• Eating 3-4 times a day; same sort of theory as before, it's better to keep your metabolism running through the day than have long periods of no/junk food then one massive meal to compensate. When I was being really good, which has been so much more difficult of late, I'd have a smoothie around 9, 'light lunch' at 12.30, lunch again at 3/4 and then dinner at 7, 8 at the very latest and try not to eat anything really carb heavy like rice/pasta after 4.

• Setting weekly/monthly goals; for me this is such a great motivator, just trying to reach the goals always motivates me to continue, and finding people; friends or otherwise, to hold you accountable when you slip up is always a good way to ensure you at least try and stay on track. I have a really good buddy system going on right now with two friends, we hold each other accountable for working out and also clean eating without being judgemental.

• Having a cheat day or two; nothing much to say on this one except we are human beings with weaknesses and sometimes we just want that little bit extra love to come from our food!

Just look at these bad boys from Home Sweet Home! "Sweet Carolina" burger with fully loaded fries on top and the massive Chilli Dog with sweet potato fries below! Amazing!

It's not a diet or a phase, it's a lifestyle! Trying to change your lifestyle and incorporate some form of clean eating/regular exercise into it now means not having to do it at 40! For some more tips look up the Anti Diet by the Londoner, she has some really good advice on there and even though I just found it I'm already addicted! It's charm is in the simplicity. Here's to conquering the last week and a half of Insanity! How are you guys doing with working out and eating good? Any other helpful tips for me? Let me know in the comments box. 

Manchester Art Gallery: Canvas and Carrot Cake

Hello lovely people,

Of late I've been trying more and more to appreciate the little things in life and focus more on the present than worry about the past or what the future holds for me, I've also decided to try and explore more. I live in such a vibrant and busy city that it sometimes amazes me how little I've done here in the last few years. Aside from hitting up a few clubs and typically the same restaurants I really haven't seen that much of Manchester. So I decided I'm going to try and do more and see more of Manchester in possibly my last few months here. I started on Saturday by taking a little solo trip to the Manchester Art Gallery and it was amazing! I went partly because I didn't want to be alone at home but I also didn't want company if that makes any sense and also because it's free, I always find places like museums and galleries to be really calming because of the general ambience of reverie in them, they are perfect for just sitting and staring or for periods of deep reflections. It's such a beautiful gallery, I was pretty amazed by a lot of the work I saw there, oil on canvas is definitely my favourite form because the objects in the paintings always look so real! I love how artists can tell a story with just a picture, it's such an amazing talent! Gosh I can't wait to be rich and own a mansion and buy fancy artwork to decorate my house, haha. After the day there I was so nostalgic for New York and The Met Museum, still mad at myself for not giving a whole day to that amazing museum. Here's a few of the artwork that I saw and loved:

Extremely melancholic picture, I wonder if/when the father is coming back...

One of my favourites, it was such a massive painting as well. I love the colour and the detail, it apparently took the artist about a year to complete!

This one reminds me of Dan Humphrey and Serena Van Der Woodsen of Gossip Girl! Lol.

Venice!

I'm so upset, there's a painting (oil on canvas obviously) of the French Revolution on my phone but for some reason I can't transfer it to my laptop, it reminds me of the scene in Les Mis where the little boy was shot :( oops, spoiler alert!There was also an exhibition on showcasing the work of Raqib Shaw, and while all the colour and glitter makes his work very bright and electric looking, I personally just didn't like it very much. It doesn't make me feel anything, it doesn't make me want it in my future mansion, I just look at it because it's bright and very outspoken! 

Raqib Shaw

I sort of liked this one by him, it was a lot calmer than the others.

Afterwards I had a yummy slice of carrot cake and a hot chocolate before heading home to games night with the girls! White wine spritzers and a game of taboo always goes down well!

Ta ta,

Reni x

For some reason ALL my pictures were crooked! I hope this doesn't ruin the photographs too much. Also, unfortunately I can't remember the names of all the artists or the names of their works so they have not been properly referenced. I apologise immensely for both.

Plantain Party! (For Cool Kids Only!)

After the sad news I got on Wednesday I was thinking of ways to lift my mood when all of a sudden, the idea of a plantain party popped into my head! I thought I'd also lift the mood here a little too so the tribute post isn't the first thing everyone sees when they visit! The party was fabulous, oh my goodness, does anyone else share my infinite love for plantain? I honestly believe it is the best food on the entire planet! Second to none. For those of you who might not know plantain is pretty much a type of banana, but it's usually bigger and less sweet and needs to be cooked. And this is what I spent my Thursday evening doing, cooking plantain in as many different ways as I could think.

I had them lightly salted and fried:

Peel and chop the plantain into little circles, sprinkle some salt and shake them all together, then fry in vegetable oil on medium-high heat turning once till they are a lovely golden brown. 

Some rather unfortunate burnt ones, but they still taste yum!

Seasoned and grilled:

Peel and chop the plantain, get your spice mix (mine was cayenne pepper and Aromat multi purpose seasoning) Place on a foiled covered oven tray and grill at about 200 till they are golden brown. I didn't put oil on the foil because I didn't feel like it but you certainly can. Also, allow them to cool down before trying to take them off the foil!

I have a feeling if these were cut a little thinner  and cooked a little longer they'd make really good plantain chips!

And Sugared!!:

By far the worst but most delicious of all the recipes! I think this recipe is quite common in Latin/South America and they usually use really ripe almost completely black plantain but I didn't have any so I just used regular ripe ones. Peel and chop the plantain, fry in 2 tablespoons of butter, when golden on one side, flip them and add a mixture of 2 tbsps brown sugar and 1 tbsp ground cinnamon, continue cooking till the sugar just caramelizes. This is DIVINE! But just looking at the recipe again is making me feel sick with sugar overload, it was great for satisfying the sugar craving I've been experiencing of late though! Loved it! Oh this is also one of the reasons for that detox I spoke about earlier!

All that brown goodness is cinnamon and caramelised sugar! I burnt myself with this one, was waaaay too eager to try it! I even almost forgot to take a picture so this plate has been about half eaten!

When I was making the sweet plantain, the bf remarked that it smelt like some food he eats back at home called kelewele (pronounced kay-lay-way-lay), so of course I googled the recipe for that to add it on to my list! This particular version didn't turn out too good, it just tasted like plantain seasoned with ginger! It didn't really look any different either so I didn't bother with a picture. So now I'm searching for the perfect kelewele recipe to add to my list of things to do with plantain! You can also boil them, boiled plantain and Efo Riro (spinach stew, not sure how else to describe it!) is the food of kings! And you can roast them to make Boli too, I've tried doing this before but it just didn't have the same taste as the ones you buy from the women on the streets of Lagos!

Several plantains later (between the two of us!) I was full and ready to sleep! Unfortunately it was time for pole dancing!! Lifting my body weight yesterday was something of a chore but I managed it and even felt strong enough to let go of the pole while sitting on it! The instructor was impressed! :) If I had to pick only one food to eat for the rest of my life, best believe it would be plantain! Speaking of, I think I have some plantain chips waiting to be munched on in my kitchen! *happy dance*

Bye for now,

Reni x

Personality Quiz!

Is anyone else extremely pissed off by the fact that today is the 22nd of March and we are STILL getting snow!!! It's ridiculous, March is the month for Spring time shopping sprees and bright happy colours not boots, coats and scarves! Luckily I have nothing planned this weekend (for now) so this has given me a legit excuse to stay in bed till Sunday just relaxing and being generally lazy, I'm even considering doing a detox! Actually now I really want a spa weekend in some cottage far far away from the city, which is weird because I love the city! Anyways, enough random ramblings, this post was meant to go up aaaaaages ago when I saw that my friend had done an online personality quiz on her blog Within My Locket and she seemed impressed by her results. Partially out of boredom but mostly out of curiosity I decided to give it a go! Here are my results:

Your view on yourself:Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:You prefer to get to know a person very well before deciding whether you will commit to the relationship.

The seriousness of your love:Your have very sensible tactics when approaching the opposite sex. In many ways people find your straightforwardness attractive, so you will find yourself with plenty of dates.

Your views on educationYou may not like to study but you have many practical ideas. You listen to your own instincts and tend to follow your heart, so you will probably end up with an unusual job.

The right job for you:You have many goals and want to achieve as much as you can. The jobs you enjoy are those that let you burn off your considerable excess energy.

How do you view success:You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:You are afraid of things that you cannot control. Sometimes you show your anger to cover up how you feel.

Who is your true self:You are full of energy and confidence. You are unpredictable, with moods changing as quickly as an ocean. You might occasionally be calm and still, but never for long.

When I first read my results I thought "this is sooo inaccurate!" but actually a lot of it is true.. Although I don't think I'm hiding my true self! Not from close friends anyways, but maybe I'm in denial? Who knows. Is anyone else curious enough to do the quiz? Post the results on your blog and drop a comment to let me know when you have. You can find it here.

Ciao!
Reni x

Larger than Life: My Very Own Warrior Angel

Today was just one of those days for me... Not the good kind where you're unnecessarily jovial for no apparent reason, the other kind; where you're just a bit blue. Well I'm more than a bit blue and I'm not quite sure what I'm even doing here but I know that writing has always been the best outlet for me, I'm not much of a talker tbh so throughout today when people have been calling and texting to wish my family and I their condolences I've been at a complete loss of what to say except a measly "thank you". It's not that I don't care for condolences, I do... I think my mind is just still in a state of shock, first I heard but didn't quite understand, then I understood but didn't quite believe and now that no-one has called my phone to say "gotcha!" and the day is almost over I think that maybe it's true? But it can't be.

My grandfather can't be... gone. It's weird I still haven't been able to say it out loud, I can scream it out loud in my head but whenever I have to talk about it I'd rather say "about grandpa and stuff..." I've done my fair share of crying and wailing and asking why it had to happen this way but I'm trying to realise that although he's not physically here, nothing can touch the memories I was so so fortunate to create with him, . So this post isn't about mourning and loss, it's a mini toast to my Gramps, a celebration of a life well lived! Here's just a few of the things I will never forget about my very own Warrior Angel in Heaven (because he is way too full of energy to be just a guardian)

1. The way he loved all of his grandchildren and we loved him even more, he always taught us that family was the most important thing, second to nothing! 

2. Going to his house in Ondo almost every year for his birthday and having a 3-5 day party. No one could throw a party like my Gramps! Asun for days!

3. The way he called all of us by our first and last names every time he saw us, kind of instilling pride into us. He always said a good name was the most important thing anyone could have.

4. The way he was so proud of me for going to University of Manchester because my mum went there too and so did he. Almost every time I spoke to him he would say "Have you told them that you are third generation at Manchester yet? I'm sure not many people can claim that!" No they can't Gramps, no they can't.

5. Him getting cable tv and internet in his house so whenever we, the grand kids, came over to play we weren't bored.

6. Going on a massive family holiday to Spain with him when I was probably about 7/8, it was the most amazing villa ever. Barbados was meat to be next, but now we have Heaven instead which I'm sure is infinitely better!

7. His velvet slippers. Yup, gramps was rocking the velvet WAY before it was cool!

8. All his traditional necklaces, bejewelled walking sticks and embroided caps, dressing up was so much fun at his place!

9. His love for life... I've never met another person so exuberant and who had as much confidence as he did, so full of passion and a real lust for life and adventure. A perfect role model to me and everyone else.

As difficult as this is, it's time for me to wipe away my tears, or at least have less of them anyways. You would have never wanted it to be this way, I love you Grandpa and I won't ever stop missing you. Rest in Peace.

Grandpa, Grandma and all the cousins in 2009. Thank you for making us take another family portrait this Christmas, it's a shame I can't find it right now.

In Need of Pure Processed Unadulterated Refined Sugar!!

As I type this I'm desperately waiting for my phone to restore itself from my last backup because I just deleted the funniest message history in the world! Yes, it's that serious, thankfully my last backup wasn't too far away and so I have all the pictures I've been meaning to put up and stuff! Time remaining is 24 minutes, who knew these things took so long?!?! Goodness. So this post might be a little random because I don't really have a "theme" in mind, but I handed in my final deadline of this half of the semester so I'm feeling a lot more free now! My mind needs to snap out of holiday mode and into dissertation proposal mode! But for now at least, I'm chillin'!

Was going to do a couple random OOTN snaps till I realised I didn't take any pictures of myself this whole weekend, no random vain moments, I must say I'm surprised! Haha. It was my friends birthday and a couple of us got her a cake from Patisserie Valerie! This was both the best and worst thing ever, best because ours was the biggest cake and worst because I discovered that they do macarons!! I've been craving these since I had them in London a couple of weeks ago with my baby brother. These sugar filled goodies are just divine! But for obvious reasons *i want my abs!* I can't have them and this make me really sad. I'm really fighting every sector of my mind, begging it to stop being stubborn and just let the macarons go. Forget that I was going to order some online and get them delivered to my apartment. x_x. Sometimes I think all I need is some PURE processed unadulterated refined sugar! Haha, didn't think you could have so many oxymorons in one line did you? Neither did I really... Not listening to my sweet tooth is making me go crazy! I'm off to have some birthday cake, just one slice....

Birthday girl! Our cake is the biggest one on the bottom left, jealous though! Look how many cakes she got :O lol 

This whole clean eating thing is soo difficult but I'm determine to not give up, the other day I made banana pancakes, i found the recipe on Instagram and it was basically just pancakes made up of only 3 ingredients, 1 ripe banana and 2 whole eggs all blended/whisked together and then shallow fried in coconut oil on very low heat. The bf was appalled when he saw me using the coconut oil I usually use on my hair in food, he freaked the heck out, it was kind of funny actually. Lol. Yeahh, I didn't really like them, they were like banana flavoured eggs and I really don't like eggs, *ew, yucky yucky!*but if you like eggs and bananas then I think you'd really like the combination! I even had to have regular pancakes to combat the taste, mmmmmmmmm, yummy pancakes with flour are so much nicer!

Banana Pancakes, they look just like regular ones don't they? Deceivers!

Couple of bonus pictures since I didn't have any outfits to show off!

Bowling at All Star Lanes on Sunday!

My hair is red now! Well it has been for a while, update soon.

Blisters, Chips and Creamy Crack!

Wow, where the heck is March going?? And how on earth was the last time I posted on the 1st of March, I really hate when life gets in the way of my blog lovin. Now I don't even know where to start... Last time I was here it was the day of the Manchester Bogle, well those of you that have me on Facebook know by now that after approximately 13 hours of walking I had only completed 35 of the 55 miles and ended up with blistered feet and a swollen ankle for the better part of the next week! It was crazy intense, I used to think Oxford Road was long but my goodness has anyone tried walking the length of Oldham Road? Of course you haven't, you're not crazy. If anything can break a mans' spirit it's walking down a never ending road, I was going straight for about 2 hours or more! I almost cried! Lol. It was such an experience, a part of me still regrets not finishing but hey! Better luck next time.

Tomi & Super Saiyen Afam

Bogle Survival Kit! Check all the food!

Now on to Insanity, well because of the stupid Bogle! (Only stupid because I didn't finish) I didn't do any insanity the week before the Bogle like I was meant to because we were told not to do any intense exercising and then after the Bogle my ankle was so sore that if I even so much as attempted a jumping jack I would have probably broken it! So that was yet another week off Insanity! I'm so annoyed because I should be starting my final week now but here I am, just about to start Month 2, Week 2. The second month of Insanity is crazy intense, with 60 minute workouts instead of 45 minutes, those extra 15 minutes can really do some damage! I'd put up the results of my last fit test soon! Unfortunately during my 2 week break before month 2 I was really bad with my diet and ate a whole lot of junk, McDonalds and Portland Chippy and the like, I felt so gross! But it wasn't my fault, blame it on engineering! I was basically living at university, going home to sleep for just 4 hours if not less to try and meet a massive deadline. Life was soo messed up at that point, I remember trying to attend a 3 hour lecture after sleeping about 3 hours the night before, ha! Joke of life, I pretty much slept through the whole thing! The worst part is the lecturer is my dissertation supervisor. So awkward! Anyways yesterday I finally went to Asda and stocked up on some REAL food! Abs are made in the kitchen after all! So now I'm meal prepping like a boss!

Last but not least, on Friday after almost 21 weeks, I finally texturised my hair, during the stretch I really really considered going natural! I had already made up my mind to go natural actually but in the last week my hair was frustrating me so much and making me go crazy so I just whipped out the creamy crack and got to texturising. I also air dried my hair for the first time! It didn't turn out half as frizzy as I expected it to be, and I really like that my curl pattern is still defined, I didn't have time to do a length check yet but I'd straighten my hair soon and also update y'all on that. Okay so that's just a quick update on the last 2 weeks. I'd probably go into some more detail on Insanity and my hair status soon but I was tired of missing you guys so I wanted to get this all out.

Ta ta for now,

Reni x

Morenike does the Bogle!

Goodness, how is it Friday already? And the beginning of a new month too? My goodness, time flies but not only when you’re having fun. Time also flies at an exponential rate when you have mountains and mountains of deadlines and targets to reach! I’ve had so much to write about but sadly I’ve been drowning in the pressures of school and haven’t really had enough time for much else, but today would be different, today I’m doing the Manchester Bogle! *insert applause*

For those who don’t know, the Manchester Bogle is a 55-mile 24-hour fundraising walk around greater Manchester. Yup, it’s crazy. You’d be surprised though; the level of foolhardy required to commit to such a task with little to no training is really not that great! It took my friend all of about 15 minutes to convince me. After talks of bravery, bonding and camaraderie I was sold, never mind that the greater part of the walk takes place at night, in my beloved cold and rainy city! 55 miles, assuming your walking at 15 minutes per mile would take AT LEAST 14 hours to complete. Thinking of it now I’m wondering why I do these things to myself! I remember telling one of my closest friends about it and he said and I quote directly “14 hours?! I’m sure Moses and his people didn’t walk for that long!” but I don’t mind though, I have endured many a long walk in my day and this latest and longest Israelites Journey would clear the memory of Koko Concert whenever I think of long treks! It should be fun! While my mates are partying it up at Circle and getting drunk, I shall be walking… I’m quite interested to see how far I get before I become delirious or start hallucinating!

The route for the Bogle stroll! The airport's on there you know, LOL!

To be honest, my decision to partake in this walk wasn’t based solely on my need to do stupid things in life every once in a while. There is also a far less foolish and more sentimental reason; the fundraising side of things, participants need to raise at least £60 for their chosen charity. This got me thinking about what sort of cause I would like to support and why and it didn’t take me long to decided. A few years ago, I lost my Great Aunt to cancer, the memories of going to visit her in the hospital and watching her literally shrivel away are definitely amongst the most painful that I have. I had somehow been able to put those memories in a box until I recently heard of someone else that was lost to leukaemia. He was in his early twenties, somehow this brought back so many of those memories and some images just never ever leave your mind no matter how much you will them too. Although I never met him, I saw how some of our mutual friends were deeply affected by the loss of someone who was clearly an angel to them all.

My mind manages to explain away the passing of an aged person, mourning them but saying “at least they lived a good, full life.” but when it’s someone closer to my age it seems unfathomable and wholly unfair, I don’t understand it. This is why I have chosen to aid Afam in raising money for the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust; they help young people living with and recovering from cancer by teaching them how to sail, essentially giving them their confidence and freedom back. He has already raised a lot of money without much of my influence (A whooping £600+) and dyed his hair blonde for the walk to encourage people to give more but no amount can ever be too much, so I encourage you all to click on the link below and donate whatever you can, and if you can’t donate personally, then forward the link, you never know who might see it and be able to help.

http://www.justgiving.com/Damilola-Ade-Odiachi?utm_source=emailvision&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fundraisingpage-donation-alert-email

May their gentle souls rest in peace.

On a lighter note, I can’t wait to update you on how the walk is going and all the challenges I’m bound to face along the way! I think you might be able to track my progress through this link when it all goes live! It'd be motivation for me to continue, although in all honesty I might be high on Ibruprofen by the end of it! Haha.

Wish me luck! Xx