Healthy Replacements for Those Tempting Treats

If you’re anything like me, all you do is complain about how you want to get fitter, lose weight and eat healthy! But all you really do is google ‘ab exercises’ or look for the next dieting pill or weight loss remedies, but don’t actually get anything useful done!

Some people, especially George, were born incredibly lucky with the power to maintain a toned figure and eat all the junk they want without the side effects of putting on weight, or losing muscle definition (then again the boy does get spotty after a week of takeaways!). But others like myself can feel every tiny bit of fat layer itself up on every inch of my body – Gross. I just HAD to find something i could eat without feeling yucky, and that he would enjoy and not think was ‘too healthy’ (if thats even a thing…)

The amount of times I’ve said to myself “oh just one bite won’t hurt” and it leads to me devouring a whole tub of ice cream is shocking, and i want to be able to do this without the following guilt! Luckily i stumbled across the perfect solution – Homemade banana ice cream! Unfortunate if you don’t like bananas, but you’d be surprised how much the flavour can change with just the addition of extra ingredients.

Have a look for yourself!

---

Homemade Banana Ice Cream

The best bit about this recipe? ONE MAIN INGREDIENT. – BANANAS

1. Peel a bunch of healthy looking bananas (Yellow with maybe a few brown spots) and place them into a deep bowl. The amount of bananas you peel is dependant of the amount of ice cream you want!

2. Once peeled, cut them however you want, slices, halves, quarters, your choice, and stick them in the freezer for at least 2 hours, or until frozen.

3. Take your frozen banana pieces out of the freezer and place them into a food processor or blender (make sure your blender is powerful enough to handle frozen bananas!) and blend till smooth in texture. You can add a touch of milk if you want to help the blending process as well. It should look something along the lines of this!

4. Scoop it out and Voila! Deliciously smooth banana ice cream!

---

If you’re not a keen banana fan, test out the addition of different ingredients!
– Mint Choc Chip? Chocolate chips and a few drops of peppermint oil.
– Cherry and Vanilla? Add frozen cherries and few drops of vanilla flavouring.
– Peanutbutter? Well.. you can probably guess!

As usual, GET EXPERIMENTING. Guilt free ice cream, ready to be devoured!

– Lana xxx

The Wonderful World of Face Masks

Oh face masks, how wonderful you are.

Face masks are those types of things that relax you, but also excite you as you’re desperate to find out the result! They’re perfect for lazy nights in or before big nights out. Even if the people around you tell you that they can’t see a difference after one or give you that ‘suuuuuureee‘ look when you ask them to feel how soft your skin is, YOU can feel and see the difference yourself and its great.

Personally, my favourite ones are those which you can peel off your face or that dry hard. My house mate and i’s obsession for peeling them off in one go is endless, its just sooooooooooo satisfying!! After realising how many packeted face masks we went through a week, we began to look online and experiment with a mixture of ingredients to make ones that suited us best.

Below are two of the best ingredients and their properties for you to have a look at!

---

HONEY

– Hydration. Honey is wonderful for those with dry skin, or even to maintain glowing skin. It absorbs moisture form the air and locks it into the areas of your skin that need it most, to give you long-lasting hydration!

– Acne. Oh acne, we’ve all been there, we all disliked it. Luckily though, honey has antibacterial properties which can help ease and prevent acne. It even reduces the appearance of scarring thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties! BONUS!

– Complexion. Honey is said to give your skin a radiating glow due to it being so moisturising and soothing, but it is also full of antioxidants. These prevent ageing but also cleanse and open up pores, making them easier to unclog – Phew.

Want to find out more beauty uses for honey? Woman’s Health Mag has a great article to have a look at! Here you go!

---

COFFEE

– Inflammation and Redness Reduction. Caffeine has anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce these factors.

– Dark Circles. Dehydration, lack of sleep, genetics or even allergies can be the cause of dark circles below your eyes, but luckily, if you’re one of those people, caffeine’s got your back. Although it can’t ‘cure’ dark circles if due to genetics, it can reduce puffiness and other unflattering aspects that come along with dark circles. It can also reduce the accumulation of blood under your eyes which is sometimes the reason these dark circles appear.

– Reduces Cellulite. The dehydration of fat cells results in the minimisation of cellulite appearance, and caffeine does exactly this. Although this doesn’t necessarily apply to your face, it does smooth out impurities and tightens out fine lines, leaving you with tight, firm skin.

Coffee is incredible when it comes to internal and external beauty, and although i would love to cover it completely, i simply don’t have the space, so have a look at this article from stylecraze, and you’ll be fully in the know!

---

Eggs and chocolate are two others that i absolutely love but these will have to wait for another time! Eggs add that ‘peel off’ effect which i absolutely adore and this website explains it all! It also has a never ending list of different home made face masks which you just have to try out!

Have fun and get creative, find which works with your skin best!

– Lana xxx