❤️🍕Purezza🍕

 Today I had my first ever vegan ‘dining out exp’ a treat from my amazing (meat eating) man. 

I’ve been eyeing up purezzo in Brighton for a while now….. 

Must admit I was a tad worried when he said we would go somewhere 100% plant based as he is a true cave man that won’t have a meal without a slab of steak or cheese.

My 6 year old princess is also one for loving the ‘basic’ kids menu, mainly for the dessert.

She loves a good brownie and burger!

As much as I was excited for myself I was slightly apprehensive that my two faves wouldn’t enjoy plant based pizza as much as I knew I would.

King Jobie and I split a salami calzone and a volcano pizza and Honey had a margarita. Obviously they were all vegan so the cheese was different to what they were used to as was the base.

First bite was absolutely amazing! Purezzo really is the dogs’ for vegan pizza! So fresh, the base melts in the mouth. The smells are insatiable. The filling of the calzone was to die for artichokes, vegan salami, vegan cheese, tomatoes, peppers and onions, all lovingly cooked to perfection. Nice selection of oils to pour, garlic oil was just perfect, delicate but had a nice tang. The volcano pizza was again pure perfection. The aubergine tasted really meaty and the jalapeños really set it all off. The sprinkling of sweet corn really bought a nice bit of sweetness to it.Must admit I really enjoyed my treat. It really is important to me that we continue to eat out as a family. This can be difficult as Jobie and honey are totally carnivorous and eat all animal products, something I too enjoyed before I realised how much my body couldn’t process it.

Jobie and I have spent hours and hours enjoying food in different continents it’s such a huge part of our relationship experiencing new things together.

Never did I think I would see him eating vegan! He’s never had anything against veganism. However, he feels the whole thing can be overshadowed by the vegan activists rather than the health benefits and I do get that. His opinion is that most vegans are middle class and closed minded. Jobie and I are polar opposites in our opinions, it’s our difference in opinion that keeps us debating and lovin’. No one has supported me on my journey like he has which is why it bought tears to my eyes when I noticed he had scoffed his pizza before I!.

Honey ate half of hers too (it was massive) and took the rest home, we are casually devouring it in front of men in black 3 😂✌🏻️.

Both of my meat eaters LOVED purezzo it is safe to say!

It was a winner! Taste sensation for me ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

The only quip I have is, they don’t have a kids menu?! Whyyyyy. I wouldn’t describe it as particularly kid friendly in there which is a shame as it really is important to promote family veganism. Honey is 6 and so is able to enjoy a fair amount of food but the margarita was too big for her and she wasn’t willing to try any of the more ‘out there’ flavours and I can relate.

Slightly disappointing that there was no kids menu, it almost made it feel slightly pretentious and did add a slight air of disappointment to the meal. It’s so important for kids to experience a varied diet to develope the taste buds and the deeper meaning towards diet, food production etc.

To honey it was clinical and bland, exciting because I made it so for her however if she was to choose between a dominos pizza and purezzo I think I know which one she would pick…. Disappointingly.

Half of me really does believe there was nothing their to engage with and relate to. Kids minds are like sponges and I am so excited for honey to experience a variety of different foods and pick her lifestyle accordingly when she reaches adulthood I can’t help but wonder….

If vegan restaurants engaged young ones more could we create a generation that realise the truth about food before they suffer in the same way I did…….

  Laura 

X

How I cleared my acne…

Do you suffer from acne? Horrible cystic adult acne?

Have you tried every tablet and cream created by man? 

Every fancy expensive make up?

Years and years of crying, feeling shitty and smearing makeup on your face to hide the hideous bumps.

Contraceptives, dr endorsed accutane that destroys your liver in the quest for perfect skin.

Watching endless YouTube tutorials of women spending hours teaching you to hide your awful skin with perfect make up techniques, that quite frankly are utter bollox…

Hiding your imperfections doesn’t bode good for the self esteem take it from me!

Looking at other women with skin envy! Why can’t it be me….

Even going for a spray tan became a living nightmare for me. It was this years PRIDE by far the best day in brightons social Calander, August the 4th and I like everyone else wanted to GLOW.

One prob,

Queuing up with lots of other people bare faced waiting for my spray. Everyone was make up free, everyone’s skin was totally flawless…… Aside from me, the spotty troll, pale, spotty,flabby, did I mention spotty?… Subconsciously screaming for the ground to swallow me up and save me from this silent social judgement.

I looked at the floor,

Knowing I was really just getting a spray tan to make it easier to hide my spots with make up.

Self esteem at an all time low I stepped into the booth and got my glow.

I went home feeling sorry for myself and told myself whatever it takes at nearly 30 years old I will clear my skin. 

Naturally!

I no longer want to spend 100’s of pounds on products, Botox, creams, potions, prescriptions. 

I had to look deep inside myself to realise that maybe, just maybe, my cystic acne was due to ME MYSElF and I.

For years I haven’t spent the time getting to know my body.

I thought I had…

Constant trips to the gym, diets, creams potions, reading magazines and looking at what the rest of the world was doing on the quest for perfect skin.

I am fit and healthy, I go to the gym 5 days a week, I eat a high protein diet, I am doing everything right! Vogue, cosmopolitan and endless health blogs tell me so….. So why do I still have pizza face?

I truely believe it is down to hormones, 

Since being a baby I have downed copious amount of dairy! Love the stuff, cheese is to me, the holy grail of happiness. Opening your Christmas presents and finding the entire collection of Louis Vuitton handbags staring back at you is the happiness cheese brings me.

I would wear cheese if I could,

I would bathe in cheese.

You get me?

I have NEVER given up dairy before.

I also, despite being a book worm who loves learning about the endocrine system had not EVER thought that to make dairy. Cows. Must. Be.pumped.full. Of. Hormones.

We then ingest these hormones and it can knock some peoples hormones totally off balance.

Could this of happened to me?

I quickly realised that there was no evidence base to support this however reading other people’s experiences when cutting dairy out of their diet I felt I must try it.

Spots on the chin and neck and back…

I was not the only spotty alien from planet cheese there were others just like me.

Reading further I could see that actually it isn’t just dairy that is pumped full of shit.

So Is meat! Chicken is pumped with water and antibiotics…. The list goes on.

I had also always eaten meat.

Time for a lifestyle change?

After reading what I had about the food industry I decided I would cut out all dairy and all meat and attempt veganism.

The thought was terrifying.

But I was intrigued to see if what had worked for others would work for me.

I began my vegan journey on the 4th August the day after my embarrassing spray tan.

Today is the 17th August.

13 days later.

The results are remarkable.

  Both of these pictures were taken with out me wearing make up.
I have used no fancy face washes over the past 13 days. 

Just water and simple face wash.

No moisturiser.

No skin hair and nail tablets.

And no fish meat and dairy.

I have also upped my water intake 2 litres of lemon water minimum.

I haven’t really excericised as I have been super busy with work..

I am in awe of the results.

I almost can’t believe it myself.

There are so many ‘free from’ products that it isn’t too hard. Yes it has taken abit of getting used to because it is a LIFESTYLE change that has required commitment and is so different to anything I have tried before but overall I feel better, actually I feel amazing!

I even LoVe the taste of soy, something I never thought I would enjoy!

What is working for me won’t work for everyone. However if you are reading this and suffer like I have I urge you to try it!

Love your body inside out rather than outside in.

Don’t hide who you are 

Accept it maybe your lifestyle and change, grow, live!

Balance those hormones naturally 

Give it ago.

Less really is more with skin,

Food is so important I truely believe it is number ONE at improving skin.

Some of us are lucky and can eat whatever we want and have perfect skin, but if like me you are special I urge you to look inside and give your body some love.

You will feel better for it.

I am excited to continue my vegan journey and watch my skin naturally glow for the first time EVER.

Research and forge your own path only you know your body! Tablets, like chickens and cows are pumped full of man made synthetic rubbish that you would never want to put inside you believe me…

All tablets have side effects, not always good and perfect skin for a damaged liver is not the one.

Herbal supplements really are the way forward give your body what it wants! Naturally! 

Remember 

Less is more

Learn to give your body what it really needs

Now off I go to the beach to let the sun kiss my newly glowing skin!

I am excited to share my journey with you in a few more weeks!

Pass me the tofu!❤️ 

Laura

X

#SkinSin

Good mornin’ beautiful,

My daily affirmation! However, I must admit I don’t think I have ever believed it. Beautiful, defined as:Pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically….

At 6.30am with morning breath, acne and the subsequent realisation of WORK fear?

NO!

Good mornin’ apprehensive, spotty, bloated stress head.

now we are talking!

for years like many, I have tried to fake beauty. I have sinned multiple times in the quest to FEEL beautiful and to BE perceived as beautiful.

There are many reasons why,possibly too many to mention.
The main being my lifestyle,
In a previous life I was a dancer and glamour model.
It was a must to be tanned, have white straight teeth, pert posterior/boobs and flawless wrinkle free skin and plump lips!
From the age of 22 I regularly used Botox and fillers, sun beds, hydrogen peroxide to bleach my teeth, I chained myself to the gym, relied on tequila when working late to give me energy. Experimented with a wealth of diets/potions to keep myself ‘looking good’. I have had miles of virgin Russian hair weaved to my head. I bought designer to feel designer. I was a slave to socialising in London and all over Europe.

Did I ever feel beautiful? Yes!
But it wasn’t real beauty and the feeling never lasted long.
My life revolved around other people’s perception of me.
Men’s perception mainly.

Constant comparisons to others, hours in make up to always be photoshopped!

Sorry to burst the ‘glamour’ bubble, but there really was nothing Raw or real or beautiful about being TOLD how to be beautiful.

It’s a huge weight to carry and after realising I was living a life based on the false I decided to pursue a new life and career based on the real.

I studied mental health nursing at university and graduated in 2015.

Mental health has always been a passion. My grandfather suffered with paranoid schizophrenia for years and I witnessed the cruelness of mental illness as a young child. I wanted to give something back and I feel blessed that I get to do so every day.

Nursing is not a particularly healthy career and many nurses face health problems in later life. Previously the pressure had been on me aesthetically but now the pressure was on me mentally. Heavy work load and the sheer responsibility of people placing their lives in your hands.

I neglected my nutrition, I neglected my bladder( squeeze through that ward round/medicine round), I neglected my sleep, my friends, my own mental state. It is fair to say a camel drinks more water than a nurse.

I love my job!

However, the job doesn’t love me!

I still didn’t feel beautiful!

This is when I started to look at ‘beauty’ as a lifestyle and not a perception.

Thus my new life ensued!

I left the concrete jungle that is the midlands and moved as far south as possible, to be by the sea.

Hiya Brighton!

The sea?

Why the sea?

Brainy scientists have found that those of us that live by the sea are calmer, fitter, spend longer periods out doors, happier than those inland and of course there is an abundance of fresh seafood. Winner.

This was step one to a beautiful lifestyle.

So Brighton, well, Hove, actually…

Since living by the sea I have noticed that my hair is thicker, longer and stronger than ever before. My nails are too! My skin which has always been acne prone has cleared.

To say that I am amazed would be an understatement.

Years and thousands of pounds on products and fresh air and the sea is all it takes to be beautiful?

Hold up!

How do I bottle Brighton and sell it to Everyone,everywhere?

Sadly I can’t.

I can only recommend you come and visit and experience the cosmopolitan beauty of Brighton for yourself. There really is no where like it!

I am writing this blog as a personal journey to a beautiful lifestyle, I want to share my experiences to make others feel beautiful.

Since relocating my lifestyle has changed dramatically.
I have learnt a lot about myself as a person.

I want to share with you the secrets to RAW beauty without Botox and products!

What works for me won’t necessarily work for others, however I, like most of the Internet am sick of seeing bloggers and vloggers who look identical, reviewing the same products talking about the same beauty ‘tricks’.

Beauty is a lifestyle and not just a good contour and blush.

The only thing BAE about me is my love of ‘Bacon And Eggs’.