Summer Salad with Ebly Sun Wheat

I'd like to share a simple and fast recipe with you again. This is one of my favourite salads in summer and it is also perfect for the lunch box at the office.

Ingredients for 2 meals:

• 150 gram of Ebly sun wheat (this product is well known in Switzerland and Southern Germany and is advertised to be wheat in its most natural form - I just love it and recommend to try it), cooked according to the instructions written on the packing
• 1 Feta cheese, cut into small pieces
• 250 gram of fresh small tomatoes, each cut in half
• half of a peeled cucumber, cut into small pieces

Dressing:

• 4 table spoons of oil (I prefer some cold-pressed oil with a lot of different omega-x fatty acids)
• 2 table spoons of balsamic vinegar
• spice it properly according to your preferences with salt, pepper and basil

This is how it looks in the end:

I just love it. :-)

Nails (& Nail Polish Review)

Here is a picture of a recent state of my nails:

The products I used for my nails are the total repair base coat by P2, the "Karl says très chic" nail polish by Catrice and the Essie good to go top coat:

This nail polish is a bit of a disappointment for me. It just does not look as good on me as on other people's nails. Look here for example @InnenundAussen on Paddy. Maybe the skin around my nails tends to be a bit too red - much more than with other people. However, somehow I think that the difference between the colour of this nail polish and my skin colour around my nails is just too blurred. Hence, I am considering to give it away to someone who can wear this colour better than me.

Otherwise I am content with my first Catrice nail polish. With Essie good to go, it dries quickly. It's opaque with the first application and it stays on the nails for around 3 to 4 days before it's chipping. But the colour does not suit me. 

Lush Haul

Recently, I've ordered with Lush UK. I don't buy often Lush products but I felt the urge to do so again since I read a lot of interesting reviews of Lush products on different Blogs lately. In my current place of residence, there is no Lush shop and I only had the choice between ordering from Lush Germany or ordering from Lush UK. Since Lush UK is cheaper, I decided to order in the UK. The costs for shipping are double as high as in Germany but the products themselves are much cheaper. I was able to save 20 Euro compared with an order in Germany (including shipping costs) with the content of my order shown below:

These are the products I ordered:

The products are:

• 4 Toothy Tabs: Dirty, Sparkle, Aquatic and Chou Chou ... I love you
• Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter (I already know this product and really love to use it agains dry hands and dry cuticles and am looking very much forward to using it soon again. Its lemony scent is wonderful, too.)
• Ultimate Shine Solid Shampoo (I've read that this is one of the least drying solid shampoos by Lush and since I desperately wanted to have a solid shampoo for ages now, I bought this one.)
• Bohemian Soap (The scent is pure lemony love *hmmm*)
• Therapy Massage Bar (Who doesn't need a therapy from time to time? ;-))
• Eau Roma Water (This is a facial toner recommended by Estée - Usually, I don't use toner because I find it too drying for my skin, but I am curious whether this one is a soothing one as Estée seems to suffer from dry skin as well)
• Rehab Shampoo (This shampoo has been recommended as very good for dry hair by Liv - I am very curios, how I'll like it.)
• Vanilla Puff (This is a body powder I've read a lot of great reviews about)

Most of the products are new to me and I am looking forward to trying them. Most of all, I'm dying to try the toothy tabs:

10 little secrets (Tag)

I have not been tagged, but I like the 10 little secrets tag a lot and think that the questions are very interesting. Apparently, it has been created originally by Beauty Crush some time ago - I believe somewhen in March or April 2012. Hence, me answering this tag now is not only cheeky but also belated. ;-) Anyway, here are my answers: 

1. What is one product that makes you feel like a million dollars?

I like to wear clothes and makeup that fit to the occasion I am in. Looking appropriate and well-adjusted to the context is something that makes me feel like a million dollars since everyone approving my looks makes me feel well. I don't like to rebel with my looks. That doesn't mean that I don't like to rebel - I love to rebel but rather with words than with looks. :-) 

E.g. for days at the office/University/formal events, I prefer to have a natural makeup look with my Nars pure radiant tinted moisturizer (this is one of the products making me feel like a million dollars) and a nice not too overwhelming blush and nude eyes with a shimmery beige base and matte brownish colours in the crease and the outer V. When I am visiting a glamourous or party event, I of course use much more colours. As said: my look depends on the occasion.

Another special products for me is my hair dye by Khadi (Khadi herbal hair colour in natural hazel). The colour looks like my hair colour but better (and more shiny). I love my looks the first one or two weeks after having dyed my hair. One could say that it makes me feel like a million dollars. ;-)

2. What is your skincare secret? / A passed down skin care tip

Do it regularly! Skin has a memory (not necessarily a very long term memory, but a quite a memory). My skin needs some time to adjust to regular creaming and starts only a couple of weeks later to shine from within due to the regular skin care.

And don't do too much with your skin. With skin, my experience is that less is more. This holds especially for cleaning - I don't mean that it's better to not clean ourselves but we should rather do it with water and very mild products. At least for me this rules works. ;-)

3. Share your hair care secret?

I don't wash my hair too often. I do sports every morning and my hair is always full with sweat, but I only wash it every third day. All other days I just rather rinse it with water and conditioner. In this way I save time since I don't have to use conditioner when I wash my hair (the next day I'll use it anway) and my hair is always well-groomed because I use conditioner more often than shampoo. 

4. What is your biggest diet rule?

Sugar is evil. Nevertheless, I also eat sweets from time to time (due to socialization) but since sugar is highly addictive (the Guardian talked about this phenomenon of sugar addiction recently as well) and unhealthy, I try to hold off from it for most of the time. I don't add any sugar to my beverages, i.e. I drink pure unsweetened tea and I also drink my coffe only with milk. Nevertheless, I still drink some beverages that have sugar included (but not by myself - I bought them like that), like my Chai and sometimes also a glass of Coke (and here I prefer normal Coke and don't drink any diet Coke since artificial sweeteners are even worse than sugar - in my opinion at least). And I try to eat as few sweets and cakes as possible (an exception are my own home made ones where I have the control over the sugar addition and all other ingredients). But of course I cannot hold off from sweets all time and sometimes I break this rule. Rules always have to have exceptions! ;-)

Otherwise, I don't have any diet rules except for trying to cook myself as often as I can with as many raw and fresh ingredients as possible, avoiding any kind of junk food as often as I can.

5. Any workout tips?

Just do it! :-) And do more than you think you can. It is very often the case, that we are too kind to  ourselves and our lazyness. Often it's possible to challenge ourselves more than we think our bodies are able to do. The harder it gets, the more we benefit from exercising. However, don't do it without good instructions! We can destroy our bodies if doing sports improperly.

6. Which perfume is your secret weapon?

I am a very self-centered person when it comes to perfume. When I use perfume, I most often use it solely for influencing myself positively. Lemony scents are my favourite scents on me since they wake me up and help me focus better. My favourite lemony perfume is: L'Occitane EdT Verveine. This one isn't available as EdP as far as I know. 

7. Show us a clothing item of yours which always turns heads
My bright pink blazer by Zara is sure to be turning a lot of heads. :-)

8. What is your most treasured piece of jewellery?

I am sucker for jewelry with some positive emotional meaning like positive reminders, motivational anchors and such things. I don't believe that meaningful jewelry can change something by itself but I like to wear it nevertheless and influence me positively as a reminder of positive emotional states. My favorite jewelry brand is Dogeared and I have several necklaces from this brand, a couple of them being favourites. One of them is the amethyst teardrop healing gem necklace by Dogeared. On the enclosed card it reads that the Amethyst stands for awareness, honesty and inspiration and is an ancient healer of the mind, body and spirit. And most importantly, the color suits me. :-) 

The other necklace is a silver necklace from the discontinued mantra series by Dogeared.

9. Who is your style crush?

Kendi and Chelsea. :-) Look at these gorgeous looks from Chelsea: here, here and here. I love that her looks are stylish and trendy but still wearable and down to earth. And her looks are very versatile as well. Love her style (not all outfits, but most of them ;-)).
And Kendi is a style goddess and my favourite source of inspiration. All of her outfits are great and some are really perfect. I especially like her more colourful outfits like this one, this one, this one or this one. Other examples of great outfits by Kendi are this one, this one, this one and this one. Actually, I should check Kendi's blog more often. Choosing these above linked outfits for this post was a lot of fun and now I am in the mood for creating great combinations from the content of my own wardrobe. :-) 

10. Tell us something we don't know about you

There is a lot you don't know about me. *evillaughter*  8-D

Hmmm, I don't know what to tell you. The blog is in its infancy and there is nearly nothing you really know about me. You just know that I do sports and try to live healthy and organized and that I am kind of a beauty addict (but not that bad yet). ;-)

The following new information might be of some value however: I am a science fiction and fantasy fan and love to watch SF or Fantasy movies or TV shows. From time to time I also read an SF or Fantasy book, but I prefer to watch SF and Fantasy rather than to read it. Usually I prefer to read non-fiction books as can be seen in my current to-read list and the book I am currently reading which is shown on the right of this blog. Nevertheless, writing my thesis at the moment does not leave me much time for reading. Actually, I shouldn't be writing this blog post either. :-P

Towards setting goals properly

Setting goals is important in life in order to gain control, feel empowered and be more in charge of ourselves. By setting goals and taking actions to achieve them, we are giving our lives the directions we desire which makes our life fulfilling and meaningful. Recently, I shared with you the goal to bike for 5 hours a week and started to track my progress with the bar shown on the right column of this blog. This goal has worked out very well for me and sharing it with you guys has motivated me a lot to pursue my goal with all my energy.

Nevertheless, it is highly controversial whether sharing goals with others is motivating or not. See the TED talk below where Derek Sivers advises us to not share our goals:

I think that the research Derek is mentioning is right concerning how and with whom you share your goals. Being admired for just having your goals and being acknowledged as if the goals have been achieved already is indeed counterproductive. In case you decide to announce your goals you should be sure to announce them to the right persons in the right way in order to avoid any kind of gratification that might hamper reaching your goals. You might also have to take care that you are not talked out of your goal either - sometimes this happens as well and it depends on your personality whether this is something that motivates you (to prove people wrong and pursue your goals nevertheless) or whether it is rather demotivating you.

However, in my experience it is important to hold yourself accountable and to tell your goals to others who will ask you regularly about how it goes and kick your ass when necessary. This can help a lot with achieving your goals as you have the pressure to render an account. So, discussing your aims with a positive and helpful audience can help reach your goals. You have to take care, however, that if you give account for not reaching your goals, it is very important to not talk yourself down too much such that you start feeling empty, powerless and as if you were incapable of achieving a goal. This is so not true - everyone can achieve their goals. Instead of talking you down and punish yourself, you should notice that you have not achieved a goal and analyse why you have not achieved it. There is always a cause and it is not your personal insufficiency. It is very important to keep being positive but still realistic (and admit the truth to yourself), in order to be able to improve, change or achieve a goal. One mistake often made is that a goal is not set properly, i.e. it is not S.M.A.R.T. as explained below.

What this all amounts to is that talking about your goals to the right persons can yield a kind of social support system as discussed by the author of "The happiness project", Gretchen Rubin, in the video below. The video discusses also a couple of additional interesting ideas on how to hold yourself accountable for your resolutions:


As mentioned above, setting goals in itself is also not that easy. A goal has to be S.M.A.R.T.ly set, i.e. specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time sensitive. It also is important to not have too many goals at the same time since that might distract you. Focus on the most important goals (ideally just one for each life pillar) and keep them challenging but not impossible to reach. Note that there are also other words that can be used as substitute for S.M.A.R.T. or even S.M.A.R.T.E.R. as can be seen here - unfortunately, there is a specific very nice substitute for the A missing in these sources, namely attractive. Goals have to be attractive, i.e. they have to be formulated positively and not negatively (e.g. don't say "I don't want to be overweight anymore" but rather "I want to get slimmer and healthier and happier" in order to create a positive goal towards which you can target your life). Getting away from something negative is not as motivating as getting closer to something great. Keep in mind that in the moment you reach your goal, you'll feel great and your self confidence improves - this is what you should remind yourself of when targeting your goal. A nice german translation of the S.M.A.R.T. principle of formulating a goal hence is in my opinion: spezifisch (what exactly do you want to achieve?), messbar (when will you know that you achieved it and how do you measure progress?), attraktiv (make it beautiful and appaling and wonderful - note that you can only do so when it's your own goal and not a goal you have been talked into ;-)), ressourcenorientiert (do you have everything you need for reaching the goal? What is missing and what might have to be gathered by you before starting to pursue your goal? Can you gather it on the go while pursuing your goal?) und terminiert (when is your deadline and what exactly are the actions you want to take in order to get closer to your goal and when exactly will you do them?). 

Another very important thing is to check whether your goals match your values and whether your beliefs do not hamper you reaching your goals. It can be very difficult to make our values and our beliefs more transparent since naturally they tend to be hidden. They are a kind of bias we adopted very early in our lives e.g. due to our experiences in our childhood. Since they are deeply interweaved with our personality we usually are unaware of them. Some counseling by an expert with appropriate experience and a fresh mind can be tremendously helpful since we tend to be caught in our own traps. Nevertheless, since good counseling can be very expensive and we all are more or less on a budget and have to prioritize our expenses, here are two techniques to help you adjust your goals to your values and make you beliefs and values more transparent. More transparency can be achieved e.g. by using the 5 whys technique. "Why?" is one kind of question, you might also consider working additionally with questions like "how?", "when?", "to what end?", "what instead?", ... There are plenty of possibilities for leading a fruitful and illuminating conversation with yourself. ;-)
The video below provides some helpful advice by Jeff Doubek on adjusting your goals to your values:

However, as said above, with values and beliefs it's tricky because we tend to stew in our own juice and don't observe our unconcious biases. We don't remember how we gained our bias and often act unconciously. Hence, we should also be careful and try to adjust ourselves to life by means of the feedback we get from others. This requires openness and many fruitful discussions with others. In case we have tremendous difficulties to reach specific goals we really want to achieve, however, it might be worthwile to seek for advice and counselling with an expert with some kind of psychological background (it does not necessarily have to be therapy - I even think that this might be counterproductive in some settings). With the help of the expert you might discover specific unconscious beliefs or values that hamper you and that you have to deal with properly in order to get closer to your goal. Note that the state of your mind is also a resource and hence part of the "R" (here with the much better substitute resource oriented/ressourcenorientiert than realistic, because if you have all resources available, your goal is indeed realistic).

A hands-on first solution how-to for dealing with difficulties concerning your goals: In case you constantly do not reach your goals, you should gradually shrink the amount of goals you are aiming for until you focus on the one goal that is most important to you. In this way, you also prioritize your goals on the go which is very important in time and task management in general. In case this goal is connected with a habit, you should give it 30 days for manifesting it within your daily routine. If it is not a habit but a long-term goal, you should analyze it, break it down into subgoals and define the dependencies and finally realistically assess how much time you'll need until you reach each of the subgoals. You should also investigate what kinds of resources are necessary for reaching your goal and whether they are already available to you or whether you have to gather them before starting to pursue your goal.

And as soon as you have everything analyzed and defined, you can boost your motivation for reaching your goal by means of a vision board. This also belongs to the "A" (attractive) part of S.M.A.R.T.ly defined goals. ;-)

I might share some goals with you soon again, in order to motivate me to reach them. :) Which goals are you currently trying to achieve?