Get a summer bikini body || Healthy diet tips

Me in a greek beach swimming

When spring comes, it's that time of the year when girls start freaking out about summer: we get worried about those winter/christmas/easter weight we put on and how we will look at the beach. But don't worry, i am here to help you get that bikini body you always dream of. 

First of all, you don't need to count calories one by one, but you need to be careful with some foods that are very high in calories: chips, pizzas, cakes and white bread. Try to consume the majority of calories before 3-4pm, so you can keep your dinner lighter. Instead of junk food, eat foods high in protein and fiber and vitamins: vegetables, fruits, black beans, fish, brown rice, oats etc. It depends on whether you are vegan or not, for you to find the perfect plan for your body to lose weight but also stay healthy without losing the important nutrition it needs.

Do not let those juices trick you: the majority of the juice that you buy in super markets they are most likely to contain a big load of sugar and fats. A better and easier way to drink something tasty full of energy that can fill your stomach too but also be healthy, is to make your own juice: mix up your favorite fruits in a blender and have your own homemade healthy juice every day. It's even better to eat the fruit than drink it. When you cut a fruit and then blend it, it is possible that it can lose some of its vitamins. Of course, it's still a healthy option, but if you can have the fruit itself, why not? Also, mixing many fruits to create your own juice or smoothie, can make you lose control of the amount of fruits you consume: people tend to put in the blender twice the amount of fruits of what they would consume if they just ate the fruits. So, eating the fruit will give you the best vitamins and it will make you feel full instantly.

Water, water, water! I know, you hear it every day, but have you really paid attention to that? Even keeping the same eating habits and just increase your daily water intake will make a huge difference in your weight loss journey, but also to the health of your body and skins in general. Drink a big glass of water the minute you wake up and, believe me, your body will thank you later. Ditch all the sodas and carbonated drinks that can make you feel bloated, and trade it with a good green tea. Tea helps body to burn fat as fuel and gives you energy together with the antioxidants that are good for body's health. 

My new sports equipment

Exercise is not gonna help if you do not follow a healthy diet and lifestyle, but it is an important factor that can help you lose weight and keep your body fit. I know that many of you may be bored and uninspired to work out, i feel you. You don't need to hit the gym. You can go for walking or jogging instead to the nearest park now that the weather starts to become warmer: it will save you money and it's a lot more entertaining and healthy to go for a walk in nature breathing the fresh air, than inside of a building filled with everyone's sweat and bad breath. If you still find it boring, you can choose something that you like and it will make you get that but of the bed and move: you can try dancing, alone home or take some lessons, swimming and many more hobbies.

Last but surely not list, inspiration is for me the most important thing. Look for fitness photos, your favorite tumblr girls with swimsuits, instagram profiles that inspire you to get the bikini body you always wanted and fitness apps that can get you moving and help you count your work out routines, your water intake etc. Something i also find helpful, is shopping sporty clothes: by buying a really nice sports bra and cute leggings you will want to wear them instantly and start exercising.

But remember, starving yourself is not a solution. It's not healthy for your body, your skin, your hair and nails, and in the end of the day you won't look the way you want: you won't be fit and healthy and it won't last long. So be the best version of you because if you don't do it now, then when? ♥♥♥

France 2016 || Paris, Disneyland & Lyon ♥

I know... Spring break is over for most of us. But don't cry, summer is really close for our next travel experiments. Well, before we hop onto the summer craziness (aka summer make up, clothes, activities, travel and other everyday things etc.), i'll tell you a bit about my trip in ... France ♥

Eiffel Tower, Paris

La me at Notre Dame, Paris

Paris is one of the most beautiful European cities, and it holds the name "the city of light" for a reason: when the sun goes down, Paris presents some of the most beautiful city lights I've seen. The Eiffel tower is light up (and it had different theme some times, it was sparkly when i was there!!!), everything looks amazing to make you spend the perfect parisian night like you see in the movies. Although, you have to check the weather before you go, because spring (March/April) in Paris isn't as warm and dry as you can imagine: it was raining every single day!
Rain can be cute and give this melancholic and beautiful feeling in the air, as long as it doesn't mess with your straightened hair and your make-up that is on flick for the photos!

Notre Dame, Paris

Love Locks, Pont des Arts Bridge

Waking up in a hotel room in Paris, is really something.. You wake up with a different mood: you feel like you are living in past century and you wanna go out, have breakfast and then wander around the city in your vintage dress until it's time for the Mullen Rouge. Well, not exactly like that, but you have that chic french feeling when you walk across the Seine River, looking all those little vintage shops and artsy buildings until you cross the beautiful Pont des Arts bridge. This is also called the "love locks bridge" because couples go there and attach padlocks (with their names written) on that bridge, then they throw the key into the river, to "lock" their love, to be committed to each other ♥♥♥ (Aww!!)

There is water, parks, flowers, lights, sweets and a vintage beauty in Paris. This city can give you everything: a simple walk by the river, or a shopping therapy in the most popular fashion boutiques. It combines the modern and the old, the eccentric and the chic. Every girl that respects herself enough cannot go to Paris without visiting at least once the very known Laduree bakery. I knew that my first day in Paris as an official french girl i had to have a real authentic french macaroon in this shop (and I did! So yummy! ♥). Well, I didn't have one, actually, I had four, but it's just semantics. Also, the Eiffel tower, the Louvre and the Notre Dame are among the most popular sight seeings, but there are many more beautiful parissian places to visit: Montmartre, Champs-Elysees, Palace of Versailles and, of course, Disneyland!

Ok, what can I say about Disneyland? It's a place where dreams come true.. ♥ 

The minute i passed the gate and stepped my foot in the disneyland park, it was real. All the fairytales i was reading, all the disney movies i was watching... everything came in life in front of me and I was feeling i was one of them! Beautiful scenery, amazing colors, cute shops, sweet fairytale music and all the disney characters in front of you. The most beautiful day of my life ended even greater (if this is even possible) with a half-hour firework celebration at the closing time that took place at the Cinderella's castle, aka the Disney castle, aka the -house of my dreams- castle!

Lyon by night, Fourviere

Before this amazing trip comes to an end, i decided to visit the city of Lyon, a very beautiful city in east/central France. It's not nearly as crowded as Paris is, but i think this is a beauty of it. It's like a little not so popular Paris, and it has almost everything that Paris has: Lyon has the Basilica of Notre Dame & the Metallic Tower, both of which are in Fourviere, and are resemblance of the Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower of Paris. 

A warmer feel of air is what you feel in spring while walking across either one of the two beautiful rivers Lyon has, and also tasting some delicious french sweets and pastries that those little chic french "patisseries" offer. My choice: of course the pink pig!

But they say a picture is worth one thousand words, imagine how many words a video would worth!! Although i could ramble on and on about how beautiful France is for hours, isn't it better to see my whole Paris & Lyon experience but also my Disneyland day through my video vlogs? Merci beaucoup, gros bisous ♥♥♥

Spring Break Activities ♥

Spring is officially here! The smell of the flowers starts to touch your nose and the sun becomes more and more present. You have that feeling of freedom, like the summer is too close you can almost touch it, and you have free time from school, university or other activities. But how can you spend your free time? Well, that's why i'm here for!

Spring is all about flowers and nature.. Wear your comfy shoes and take a walk around, explore a forest, wander around a garden, or whatever is colorful, fun, and reminds you of spring. Walking is also good for you, because summer is loading, and we all want a nice bikini body to hit the beach. But we also all have eaten tones of food and sweets in winter and we haven't yet lose all those christmas bellies. So, spring is a great season to start working out since the weather is nice and warm, most of the time. Take your snap-back, your sunscreen and start walking or jogging. 

Except for exercising, or taking walks and exploring the nature, when the weather starts to get warmer, it is always a cool idea to hit the beach. Although it is spring, April can be a little chilly to go

swimming, so you can just lay around the beach, enjoy the sunshine, relax and read your favorite book, or you can go with your friends later in the evening, light a fire and have fun ♥ For those of you who are more daring and would like to try get into the water, you can experiment with some watersports that can be extremely fun.

With spring, here come the strawberries ♥
This season of the year has some of the tastiest fruits: strawberries, apricots, pineapples, mango and tangerines are only some of them. This is a good opportunity to start cleaning your diet and eating healthier. This way you will not only feel better, but also get one step closer to your summer body goal ;)

Although i never stopped eating ice-creams and frozen yogurts (even in winter i really cannot stop, i'm obsessed!), you can now start experimenting with different recipes for healthier snacks: you can make natural ice-cream out of strawberries or your fav fruit, eat low fat frozen yogurt with fruits etc.

Last but surely not least, every season has its fashion. When you feel the warm springy air you know it is time to start putting away the heavy coats and the winter clothes, and start taking out the cute, pink and floral outfits. Spring is the best season to combine all the kind of outfits: skirt with boots, jeans with sandals, everything is allowed. So start wearing those beautiful colorful dresses, and don't forget the headbands: flower and hippie headbands are a must the last years!

But why stop on your outfit and not redecorate your room? It's this time of the year that you throw away all the dark winter color sheets and pillows, the snowy decorations and give your room a fresh spring air. Since spring is all about flowers, floral or polka dots light color sheets will give a sweeter sense in your room. The dark colors will be replaced by lighter pink, purple, blue and my personal fav mint green color.

Those were some ideas to inspire you to do something creative with your free time and make you feel the spring vibes.
But if you have the time and the money, why not travel? Spring break vacation can be so much fun: roadtrips with friends or family, go to an island, or go camping. 

So you wanna know what i'm gonna do for spring break? I'm gonna give you this hint: fairytales aren't just for little kids ♥

New York trip | 2015

Hello world! I know i haven't been around since the new year, i had a lot going on with my life: mostly travels and studies. But i'm back for good and i'm ready to share with you my lovely travel experience and trip to New York on October/November 2015.

There's something about the New York sky... 

New York is amazing in fall. You can see all those beautiful colors, the reddish/orange leaves, it's cold enough to wear cozy clothes but warm enough to be able to go outside and walk in the wonderful New York parks without freezing. 

Central Park, NY

One of the best things about New York is the parks. Central park is a must-see destination for everyone that wants to visit NY, and it's so huge that you cannot walk it all. There are lovely horses though, willing to give you a ride around, if you get too tired. But apart from Central Park, there are other big beautiful parks: Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens is one of the biggest NY parks and it holds this giant beautiful world globe. Talking about parks, i cannot leave aside the Astoria Park (i was living 5 mins away from that), where you can enjoy the river view and the beautiful Triborough bridge which connects Manhattan, Bronx and Queens.

La me talking with this lovely horse!

La me in Central Park, NY

La me captioning the Triborough bridge in Astoria Park, NY

My mom & I playing hide and seek
in the infinite park street

World Globe in F.M.C. Park

 

Holding tight that Flushing Meadows
Park sign!

Enjoying the colors & the bridge
 of Astoria park

La me in Astoria Park

For people that live in countries that do not celebrate Halloween (like me, duh!), that season of the year is one of the best to visit New York and participate in the Halloween craziness. Halloween candies, scary costumes, spooky house decorations are only a few of the things you can see in NY at the end of October.

Someone went overcrazy
with the shopping! 

But we all know that if you go to New York, you are gonna spend much of your time in Manhattan and Times Square or at any of the huge malls for...shopping! Manhattan offers any store you can imagine: from Disney and M&Ms store, to Sephora and Victoria Secret (the combination of fairytales and fashion shopping is heaven for us girls!).

Times Square by night

La me in Manhattan

Of course, you can't go to the US without visiting the statue of Liberty, crossing the beautiful Ellis Island. For those that love nature and animals, like me, there are many parks, zoos and aquariums to see. Bronx Zoo is one of the biggest zoos in the whole world with thousands different and unique animals which also offers train rides to see the amazing natural environment with beautiful rivers and waterfalls (I was walking for 8 hours and didn't get to see it all!).

Bronx Zoo, NY

To end this long post, there are million places to visit in New York and several choices for every kind of taste. For those, as me, that love food the city offers so many delicious options, milkshakes, burgers, sweets, huge pizzas (my favorite meal there is the breakfast, those huge piles of pancakes with maple syrup though :P) etc. I could go on and on about my incredible experience in the other side of the world, but since one picture, or in my case a video, is 1000 words, it's better to watch my vlog that i have uploaded on my youtube channel -->  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHbPE8ZHTMM ♥

And remember: Travel as much as you can. As far as you can. As long as you can. Because in the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take...

Travel Tips

Hello fellow travelers, and people who like to travel, even if you can't right now! I'm in a -i'm going on a trip to the other side of the world soon- rush, meaning that my room is kinda messy, like my mind. Clothes are around my room, backpacks, suitcases all the kind of bags i could discover in my closet are out here now. But the packing and the trip preparations give you an excitement and a very happy feeling... as long as you are organized and not let everything for the last minute, especially if you are planning a long trip to a far away place.

The list. It's all that matters, to be organized for your travelling adventures. Just take a piece of paper, or write it on your computer (but i prefer writing with my own letters on a paper, it feels more personal and i carry my little notebook all around the house and take notes). Start your list by writing down the basic categories: clothing, beauty products, gadgets and other stuff. Then you can divide your large categories into others: for example under the "clothing" category you will have subcategories like "tops", "bottoms", "underwear", "jackets" etc. 

The only way to make sure you won't forget anything is to start in the morning and think what you need in your everyday life routine from the minute you wake up till you go to sleep, and decide which of them are really important to take with. Since we all know that airplanes have a weight limit (unfortunately because most of us would like to bring all our household with us just in case!), you have to think carefully and pack only the important stuff, so you will have enough room left for the things that you are gonna buy there.

After making your list, you will have to start packing. A very useful tip for making room in your suitcase is to use packing cubes and packing folders. They are all over the internet for you to order, and you can put many clothes and stuff in there and minimize the room they would actually take if they were folded free in the suitcase. Also, rolling saves more space than folding, and it prevents the wrinkles of the fabric for clothes that they need to, like formal shirts. 

The most important and useful objects like phone, tissues, camera, gum, passport, money and some basic beauty essentials it's better to put them in your handbag that you will always carry with you around and in the airplane. For those of you who have oily skin (like me), never forget to pack some blotting papers to remove the excess oil, but always use a face and lip moisturizer because the skin in the air tends to get dehydrated. 

Lastly, you may want to keep notes and write while you are travelling like I do, keep a travelling journal or vlog the whole thing. For those cases, do not forget to take your favorite journal or notebook that you want to take notes to, and an easy to use pen, but be careful so it will not be anything too heavy so you can carry it around in your bag all day long. Also, besides your phone, you can bring your camera to take pictures or videos so you can vlog your trip and have your memories into a video.

The most important tip: don't forget to have fun because you only live once ♥