Book Reviews: January and February

It's been a while since one of my book reviews posts, in fact the last one was in December, so I decided that since today is World Book Day and I don't have anything else to post, I'd get on with some book reviews! There are of course quite a few books here, so I'll try to keep them short! I've set my Goodreads 2014 challenge at 65 books for this year, and I'm a little behind on it right now, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to read a bit more when I go to Disneyland Paris (aeroplanes and airport!) and a lot more when I go to Florida, particularly the second week where all I plan to do is lay on the beach! For my Goodreads Challenge last year, I first set myself 25 books - when I'd reached like 8 books by the end of January (because of my operation, all I did was read!), I decided to up it to 30, then 40, then went all the way for 52, one book per week. But I actually read 62! So, I had to up my challenge this year and the next logical number for me was 65 - not sure how I'll do, but I'm giving it a go!

So let's get started on these books then!

St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell - 8.5/10

This is a collection of short stories written with a really strange twist, as many short stories are. With titles such as 'Haunting Olivia', the tale of two boys who explore a ship graveyard in search of their sister who died in the shell of a crab, and 'Ava Wrestles the Alligator', in which two sisters are left alone in their cabin at the forgotten theme park of Swamplandia to look after the alligators and fend for themselves, you can tell that they're going to be absurd yet captivating. It's difficult to describe the collection without telling you about each story separately, so I won't! But I really loved reading this - you're thrown into the middle of stories, grasping to find out who is who and what on earth is happening, then you immediately find yourself captivated by the intriguing characters, before you're left alone again without a proper explanation of what has just happened aside from your imagination. I'd definitely recommend this!

The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder - 7/10

This was a sort of 'additional reading' book for my book club which Charley suggested - it's the lovely tale of a boy who finds a magic advent calendar which leads him on the journey to Jesus' birth and understanding the meaning of Christmas. It does sound a bit like a children's book because really it is! But it's a lovely story, nice and easy to read on each day of advent (with each chapter being a separate day leading up to Christmas).

Entry Island by Peter May - 7/10

Back to my murder mystery detective-y novels again! I got this book from Net Galley, and picked it because I loved the sound of the mystery in it, and the fact that it's not just a straightforward mystery, but also touches on history too. A man is murdered in his own home on a secluded island where there is, supposedly, no crime. The only person who is witness to the murder is the man's wife, and the evidence all seems to point to her, but Sime, the detective, is convinced it's not her. The story is also punctuated by his insomnia and dreams (or flashbacks?) of his relatives in a distant Scottish past. While these sound a bit disjointed, the two stories work together well, and of course come together perfectly too. I really enjoyed the story, but occasionally felt there were elements that were a little unnecessary or dragged on a bit too much. I did like it though and think it would make a really good film!

Viral Nation by Shaunta Grimes - 6.5/10

(If you're not used to my apparent obsession with dystopian futures, you'd better get used to it quickly, because here come some more!). In this version of the dystopian near future, a virus has claimed the lives of much of the population of America, and citizens are kept walled into the main cities in order to keep them safe from the threat of the outside and the virus. They have to take injections everyday in order to protect them from the virus which still lives within many of them. The main character is Clover, an autistic sixteen year old girl, who is chosen to join the Time Mariners, people who use a portal to travel in future to gather news - hence there is little crime as the future can tell them who will commit this crime and they can be stopped before they do it. It soon becomes apparent from Clover's travelling forward in time that her brother is in danger, and they need to do all they can to stop it. This was an good read and kept me interested all the time, but nothing spectacular. I did find Clover's character particularly fascinating as she struggles with autism in every day life. It is the first in a series and I'd be pretty likely to get the second, so must be pretty good!

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - 7/10

This novel is written in five different voices: that of a wife and her four daughters as they travel to the Belgian Congo on a mission with their father on an evangelical mission to convert the people in 1959. We read this book for book club, and it was definitely an interesting one, although it was very slow to read - only one of us had finished by the end of the month! The family travels over from America where they live fairly typical lives, bringing with them all sorts of unnecessary items strapped to their bodies as they aren't allowed that much in their cases. This is only the first example of how unsuited they are to the culture they are about to enter. It may seem like it would be annoying, being written in 5 voices, but I enjoyed that aspect of getting to know each character individually, although as we discussed at book club, they were all very stereotypical characters - the oppressed mother wanting to break away; the oldest daughter a typical American young lady obsessed with her looks and boys; the Daddy's girl goody goody; the mute disabled twin; and the younger daughter who looks more objectively on the people she meets. Each character is influenced by the racism of the day which you see slowly drop away during the first half of the book, and the second half changes them entirely. I did feel that the book should have ended a while before it did; the second half I ended up skimming parts as I didn't feel they did much for the story or the characters. But ultimately I enjoyed reading it - it was educational as well as an interesting read. I would recommend though that you read it when you're not particularly busy! It needs a few sessions of sitting down and really reading it, it's not the sort of book you can dip in and out of.

Windwalker by Natasha Mostert - 8.5/10

I wanted something easy to read after trawling through the Poisonwood Bible, and this seemed right up my street with mentions of mystery, magic and soul mates. One reviewer on Goodreads gave it 1 star and said: "If you believe in soul mates and lovers who are reincarnated and fated to search for the partner with whom they have had disastrous relationships in the past, Windwalker will please you." And that ridiculous description made me decide to read it - oops! The story itself follows Justine who has recently lost her brother and has taken a job to caretake a deserted mansion to escape the pain of it all and Adam Buchanan, who is from the family that previously owned the house, and who murdered his brother there. Justine, a photographer, takes pictures around the house that develop very strangely with hidden images, while Adam is living a fugitive's life in Namibia in amongst the dunes and doing underwater cave diving. Of course, I'm sure you know the story now! A nice easy read that kept me interested throughout, and some scenes in particular had me enthralled, including the cave diving, as every reviewer says! One scene in particular literally had me holding my breath until Ben warned me what I was doing!! There was another story running through it of Justine feeling and being stalked which I felt was a bit disjointed from the rest but was still good. Got to say, not too sure of the ending though!

The Midnight Side by Natasha Mostert - 7.5/10

If you want to know whether I enjoyed the book above, you should look here because I went straight onto reading another by the same author, so I must have done! I still wanted something easy, and I'd got into her writing style, and since I already had this downloaded (also from Net Galley), I thought I might as well. This is another almost supernatural style book, in which we see telephone calls from the dead and lucid dreaming (again, right up my street!). Isa, living in South Africa, receives a phone call from her friend and cousin, Alette, who lives in London in the middle of the night. It's a bad line and she can barely understand her, then finds out the next morning that Alette had died before she could have made that phonecall. Confused, she travels to London and takes up residence in her house while carrying out the instructions given to her in Alette's will by her solicitor, for Isa to do her bidding and manipulate the London Stock Exchange - but why? Again, I enjoyed it, but not as much as the last book. The characters were a little less defined in my mind and occasionally weren't quite there for me, but there was a nice bit of a twist which I enjoyed.

Pawn by Aimee Carter - 7.5/10

And another easy read - I like these at the moment, okay?! This is probably more of a YA book, but I like those too! In (yes, another) dystopian future, the world order has been changed - people are assigned a number I to VII based on a test they take at 17, VII being the highest and only assigned to members of the ruling family. Kitty Doe is assigned a III and decides to take her life 'underground' at the clubs until her boyfriend can take the test, hopefully get a good number, and they can decide on something better to do with their lives, since a III is disappointing. But she is snatched up straight away and offered the chance as a VII, not knowing that she will be 'masked' as the Prime Minister's daughter, Lila, who died only weeks before, and used to help fight the rebellion she was building. Again, I'm sure you can see where this story is going, but I liked reading it. There were some tense moments, and a little bit of confusion (everyone wants to kill each other at one point, and I honestly couldn't figure out who was on what side!), but it's the first in a series, and I think I want to read the next too.

Tapestry Jacket

Tapestry Jacket: New Look

Black Skater Dress: New Look

Bow Belt: New Look

Heels: ASOS

I wore this outfit this week to work then out for an evening with my friends to a Chinese restaurant - I thought it was adequately dressed up enough for going out but not overly dressed up (which I usually am anyway so it doesn't matter!). I've had this dress for a couple of years now; I actually bought it before I started teaching to have something to layer over blouses, but I think I maybe only wore it once or twice, and not often without anything underneath. It would have been too low cut for teaching without a layered blouse, and I think I had it in my head it was "too low" in general - I've been thinking about it recently and I don't tend to wear low cut things very much because I'm wary of showing off too much cleavage. On someone else I would think it was fine, but there have been several occasions when I was younger that I was told off for wearing shirts that didn't have enough buttons done up at school or wearing tops that were "too low" when of course most other girls were wearing exactly the same but had a lot less cleavage than I did. I was even once told off for wearing a roll neck jumper (this one) because it was too revealing, although these type of jumpers were in our dress code! Anyway, I was going to say it scarred me for life, but I think I'm being a bit melodramatic there! But it did put me off wearing anything that showed off the true size of my bust, and looking back through the pictures on my blog, you probably couldn't tell unless you knew that I'm concealing a 28G bust under my clothes (and hair, as I've realised is one of my 'tactics' too), aside from the recent pictures in bras!! Anyhow, this dress hardly shows off much, but even Ben noticed I was wearing something much more low cut than I normally would. Looking through my wardrobe too, I realise that I've tried to avoid buying low cut clothes, so I'm going to try to stop doing that in future because it rules out a lot of options that are actually quite flattering on me!

Right, done with all that ranting now! The newer part of this outfit is the jacket, which I've worn a couple of times to work now, last time with a plain black midi skirt that I got at the same time. I wasn't sure whether to get the jacket, but I had a New Look giftcard that I'd been wanting to spend (to get it out of the way!) for a while, so decided to go for it. And I really love it! There have been similar around recently from everywhere from Primark to ASOS and Topshop, but this was £29.99, looks good, feels good quality and is nicely structured too.
In terms of shoes, I'm still obsessed with mid height court heels like these at the moment - as I've said before, they're perfect for work because they're not over the top high (which I can't walk in anyway!) but still look fairly smart and stop my back from hurting from sitting all day! I have a couple of pairs of these plain black ones - these from ASOS and a pair from New Look - but I could do with some wedged heels like these too that are a bit more sturdy.

So as I said, I wore this outfit out for a meal with my friends. I was supposed to have choir that evening but forfeited it to see them since it was the only day we could manage between us, and one of us lives fairly far away. Plus I had a maternity bra to give to one of them to review on Big Cup Little Cup, which was kind of important as you're not exactly pregnant for long! The restaurant is one of my favourites but I don't go there with Ben or family anymore as apparently they've all gone off it, so it's the best to get to go with my friends! 

I finally managed to get some good outdoor photos again too for this post! I'd had a hospital appointment during the afternoon so I ended up being home a bit earlier than usual meaning it was still light! It's only just dark when I get home at around 6pm now, so I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks when it'll be light enough to get photos outside again after work. It took me a while to find my tripod for these (I swear, things just keep going missing in this house!) and nearly gave up, so I was really glad I did because these pictures turned out really well, so looking forward to getting more like this again!

Body Shop Hair Chalks Review: Pink and Blue

Hair Chalks: The Body Shop (£5 each)

Today I'm bringing you a review of my latest beauty buys: blue and pink hair chalks from The Body Shop. As you've probably realised from my blog, I don't tend to do beauty very much - I like make up, but I'm not crazy about it. I generally wear make up to work every day, but only a little - usually just foundation, concealer, blusher and lipstick. It sounds like a lot, but it's just enough to stop me looking so pale! Anyway, I'm particularly lazy about my hair; if it's lucky, I'll dry it once in a while, and maybe every 2 or 3 months I'll straighten or curl it!
I saw these hair chalks online and decided I needed to get some. If you've been around here a while, you'll remember I once had pink dip dyed hair. Ever since, I've always wanted to have my pink ends back, but I started teaching, and it obviously wasn't acceptable then, and now I'm working at Bronco, I just think it wouldn't be particularly professional. So, the temporary measure of the hair chalk appealed to me straight away!
I grabbed these in the Harrogate branch of The Body Shop - currently they're only available in pink and blue and cost £5 each, which I didn't think was too bad. The pink is technically for blonde hair and the blue for brown as apparently these show up better on each, but I think blue would show up perfectly well on blonde and seems to disappear more readily into my brown hair! But either colour is great for blonde or brown hair I think, and blue would be gorgeous on red too.
They're pretty easy to apply - you just grasp the strands of hair you want colouring between a sponge and the chalk and run it down the hair. I actually don't have a suitable sponge (aside from kitchen sponges!), so I've been using kitchen paper with it, and that works just fine! You then spray it with hair spray to keep it in place or brush it through for a softer look. It says it can be easily washed out with shampoo, but it wear out of my hair quite quickly anyway so for me it doesn't really need to be washed out.
I wore the colours streaked through the ends of my hair to go out for a meal with Ben's family while wearing this outfit (I put this on again the next morning when it was light because it was the weekend to get pictures!) and it worked really well with the bright dress. And you can still just about see the chalks in my hair the next day in these photos.
And finally, apologies for the not so great pictures here but apparently taking pictures of your own hair with a bulky DSLR is really difficult! But the sky was awesome because the sunset while I was taking the pictures matched the chalks in my hair, hence why I included the sunset picture!

PS: I've recently got a new header and layout, what do you think? I think I'm pretty happy with it for now!

I'm A Princess! (Liebster Blog Award)

Tiara: Disneyland Paris (of course!)

Black Cardigan: ASOS
Dress (worn as a top): American Apparel 

Belt: Topshop

Full Midi Skirt: Choies

Heels: c/o Spy Love Buy

I got this skirt about a month ago from Choies after seeing various bloggers in different colours of it and deciding that, with my full midi skirt obsession, I needed it too. Unfortunately when it turned up, it wasn't really what I was expecting - it was a much longer length than the others I'd seen and the button hole was sewn shut! I emailed the company to ask for advice on what to do about the button hole - I didn't really want to have to send it back (because look: pink, shiny, full, pretty!) - and they asked me to try cutting the hole myself. I did so, and it was fine - one problem solved. But trying it on again, the near ankle length of the skirt, with all its fullness and bright colouring, looked kind of ridiculous, even for me! Luckily, I purchased a proper sewing machine a week ago, so shortening and hemming this skirt became my first project. Of course, that was not the best idea I ever had for a first sewing project, considering the fullness of it (why didn't I choose a straight skirt?!), but all went well, and I now have a knee length, full, shiny, pink, ridiculous Princess skirt. I've now also accidentally (ahem) found the other colours and need those too, including beige and purple, but especially green and red.

And of course I'm wearing a tiara - I'm a Princess, duh. Last year when I went to Disneyland Paris with my friends, Charley had a tiara, and I kept spotting them in the shops too. So it was inevitable that I would be leaving with a tiara. It doesn't get much of an opportunity to go outside, and unfortunately didn't make it on this occasion either - Ben is a grumpy old man when it comes to me dressing like a princess. And what better to pair with a tiara and princess skirt than sparkly shoes? Perfect outfit: completed.

As for the second part of this post, Sarah tagged me in the Liebster Blog Tag a couple of weeks ago, and I thought, what better post to answer her questions than one in which I wore an outfit I know she would wholeheartedly approve of. I'm going to be super lazy and not tag anyone or ask other questions (no time right now!), but please feel free to answer these in your own post if you want to - I tag you! So here goes:

1. What was the last song you listened to?

Oh Sarah, perfect question to ask me! What else could it be than 'Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?' from the Frozen soundtrack! (Aside from the songs on the radio this morning, but they weren't there by my choice!)

2. When was the last time you laughed, and why?

My sister and I decided to crimp each other's hair over the weekend (because we're awesome like that), and I'm pretty sure I laughed at her following that - I may have crimped every last bit of her hair then declared it "unicorn hair"!

3. What did you do for your last birthday?

This is awful, but I actually just had to look back in my blog to find out! The post where I rounded it up is here. I had book club with my friends that weekend, and also had my grandparents over for food on the actual day - not terribly exciting, but it was just my 23rd!

4. If you could spend an afternoon with any two people, one male and one female, dead or alive, fictional or real, who would they be and what would you do?

I could get all deep and choose a famous author or someone from the Classical past (not Plato though, thank you very much!), but instead I'm going to go easy and say I'd spend my afternoon with Ben and my sister. I know, I get to see them all the time, but really, that's who I'd prefer to be with (plus it might be awkward if I get any of my Greek or Latin wrong - I'm not so sure of conversational terms in those languages!). We'd probably just do something like watch films, go shopping, eat...all things I like to do!

5. What's your most visited website, except your blog?
Maybe Twitter or Facebook?! But that's really boring! I also spend a lot of time on other people's blogs and currently Reddit which I've only really discovered recently.

6. What are you currently coveting?
This is my other blog's fault, but everything I want at the moment is lingerie related! In particular, a proper steel boned corset like the What Katie Did ones and this Mimi Holliday teddy - I'm annoying about that one because I had it in my basket ready to go with 60% off in the sale, and it sold out! There's only a large left now, so if you're that size, go buy it and enjoy it for me!

7. Which genre do you most like to read?
This is a difficult question because I wouldn't really say there's a particular genre I like! If I'm looking for a nice quick read, I'll go for Young Adult; if I want something exciting but also kind of quick and easy, I'll go for a murder mystery or psychological thriller; but I also like non-fiction occasionally and classic literature too - way too indecisive!

8. State three words that describe you best.
Sparkly, whimsical, LOUD (when I'm with friends and family only though!).

9. Do you have a tattoo, and if yes what is it? If no, why not?
No - I've always "kind of" wanted one though. I think I like the idea more than actually having one. If I were to have one it would be a hidden Mickey somewhere on my ribs so that hardly anyone would know about it or see it, plus it would be tiny and remind me of my love of Disney.

10. Sweet or savoury?

Argh, impossible choice!! Depends what mood I'm in and what time of day it is! Sometimes I have huge cravings for savoury things like cheese, other times I will need chocolate! Right now, I just want chips.

11. What's one superstition or conspiracy theory that you believe in, or that you think has some merit?
Don't get me started on superstitions and conspiracy theories! I don't particularly believe in any certain ones, but I do kind of believe in things like ghosts. But I love reading about things like that - anything weird, mystical, unexplained, unsolved - I love it! Give me an unsolved mystery and I will try to solve it (any other Jonathan Creek fans out there?!), although I haven't been successful yet!

JuiceToU Review: A 3 Day Juice Detox

I was offered by JuiceToU to try out their detox juices, and I decided I would go for it. A lot of people asked me why I was doing it (and whether I was crazy!) because it meant 3 days just having juices and no food. I've always believed that detoxes don't really 'do' anything apart from make you lose weight because you're not eating, so firstly I wanted to see if my idea of them was right. I've also been eating ridiculously unhealthily lately, daytime at work is usually not bad, but evenings I will have my tea (which have been slowly getting less healthy with more than the occasional pizza and chips) and always snack on crisps, chocolate or sweets afterwards. My hope is that the juicing will help me break out of that habit - I think I'm a little bit addicted to junk food now, so I'm hoping this break me out of it. So hopefully this will start me back on track with being more healthy!
I'm not doing this to lose weight or inches so I haven't weighed myself before, and I don't know what I currently weigh. I did measure bust, waist and hips in cm beforehand, so I'll let you know if there are any significant differences, and I've done before pictures that I'll stick up with some after ones (providing it works!) later in the post!
I've also got a bit of background to tell you first - I've had issues with eating in the past, so I need to be really careful with what I do. While I'm not affected at all by this anymore, there's the chance that I could fall back into bad habits/ I also occasionally have low blood pressure which makes me feel a bit dizzy or lightheaded (even when I'm eating normally), so I need to be careful with that. I'm actually planning to have a few small things to eat, probably just salads or soups, because I feel like I do need to eat something everyday to keep my mindset healthy. I'm also going to have oranges, yoghurts and cereal bars on hand everyday for just in case I do start to feel woozy at all.
Finally, throughout the day at work, I always try to drink three 500ml bottles of water (it's good for my rubbish bladder!) so I'll have one of those with each juice at work, as well as a glass on a morning, and hot water with lemon and even more water on an evening.
I decided to keep a bit of a diary as I went along to remember everything better - so here goes!

Day 1(ish) (Tuesday evening)

Starting on the Tuesday evening I thought might be easier because I would have eaten my lunch a few hours earlier and would be fine - I forget that by 4.30pm at work I'm usually already getting pretty hungry, and by the time I set off home at 5.30pm, I'm ready for my tea! I decided to do my juices at half past the hour rather than on the hour (it just works better with my schedule), so I began the first juice at 6.30pm.
First up: Berry Good (the 6pm juice) made with pineapple, blueberries, strawberries, apples and raspberries. It was a fairly thick consistency and slightly 'bitty' with the raspberry seeds. I'd expected it to be a bit sweeter with all the sugary fruit, but it wasn't very sweet! It was fairly nice, something I'd drink anyway. I spun out the juice over about an hour to hopefully keep me feeling less hungry, then headed off to choir. This kept me occupied for the evening until 9.30pm, so I didn't feel hungry.
When I arrived home, I made a cup of hot water with lemon to stave off any ensuing night time hunger or cravings, and surprisingly it seemed to do the trick! Ben tried some too and said that he'd be quite happy to replace an after dinner snack with that in future - success!

Day 1 (properly) (Wednesday)

Woke up feeling normal - it had only been one missed meal so far! I had a glass of water before setting off for work, skipping out my normal bowl of cereal. I'm not a big breakfast fan in general because I don't like eating straight away, but I force myself to have it everyday because I get hungry quickly.

Clean Green (9.30am): Made with spinach, cucumber, celery, apples and limes. I'd read so many reviews of this tasting awful that I was fully expecting to hate it, but actually it was fine - quite nice really! It tastes mainly of cucumber and pretty 'green' (if that makes sense!) - it reminds me of summery gardens (yeh, I'm not making sense!). I guess it's because I like vegetables and always have done despite being fussy about other things such as meat. I'd started to feel a bit lightheaded in the first half an hour before the juice, and that feeling continued a bit even during the juice (which again I tried to drink slowly with a 500ml bottle of water too).
Let's Glow (12.30pm): I managed to spin my Clean Green out until 11.45am so I didn't give myself a chance to get actually hungry, then started on my Let's Glow at 12.30pm. This one's made with oranges, apples, kiwi, grapes and strawberries and is super yummy. Is it just me that really likes these juices?! I'm already considering buying a juicer so I can start making my own to have normally instead of snacks!
Clean Green (3.30pm): Back to Clean Green again. I managed to make my Let's Glow last right up to 3.30pm, then grabbed my Clean Green with another bottle of water. I've been having a 500ml bottle of water with each juice so far and haven't felt overly hungry yet - just a couple of instances of colleagues 'mentioning' food to me and times where my tummy has felt a bit rumbly.
Berry Good (6.30pm): I'd already had this one last night, and liked it, so no problem there. I arrived home feeling really hungry as I'd had to finish my last juice at 5.30pm to drive home and that gap had got to me! I actually decided to have a leafy salad with just some lemon juice on it because I needed to something to actually chew on, plus it's basically what's in the juices anyway so it shouldn't hugely affect it. I also had hot water and lemon at around 8pm, and felt fine through the evening.

Day 2 (Thursday)

Woke up feeling fine again, I generally don't feel hungry on mornings anyway, so just had a glass of water and went off to work. My tummy felt a bit flatter this morning, possibly because it's less bloated from not eating junk food, but we'll see if it continues!
Clean Green (9.30am): This didn't taste as good as yesterday, probably because I get bored of things easily, but no problems with it - made it last until 12pm again with a 500ml bottle of water. Didn't feel hungry at all during the morning (yay!).
Let's Glow (12.30pm): Still really enjoying this juice and wish my afternoon green one was this too! Felt a little bit hungry around 2.30pmish, but still had some juice to drink, so it was okay!
Clean Green (3.30pm): All good until about 4.30pm when I started to feel pretty hungry. My tummy started feeling empty at this time; I think it's because I'm getting towards the end of the work day and just wanting to get home for tea! I generally get hungry at this time and my body seems to be programmed to do that (as it should be!), so it was fairly difficult, but another salad is on the cards for tonight!
Berry Good (6.30pm): I decided to have another salad along with my Berry Good juice to keep me going a bit and it did the trick - kept me full until bedtime.

Day 3 (Friday)

I was expecting to feel starving all the time by Friday, but actually felt less hungry than the other days weirdly! 

Clean Green (9.30am): Still going down well, still going!

Let's Glow (12.30pm): I was actually a bit sad this was my last Let's Glow because I really enjoyed this juice! I'm planning to make some of my own now.

Clean Green (3.30pm-ish): I ended up going to the dentist with an appointment at 3.30pm because of a sore tooth (it was an exposed root, ouch!), so I started this just before and finished it just after. And finally I was done!

I didn't get to eat until about 8pm that night, but found I made it till then okay, not overly hungry. We went to a Tapas evening and was given a glass of Sangria before eating, so I had to take that really slow considering the lack of food I'd eaten over the past few days! 

Conclusion

I'm going to be a bit controversial here and say that although I had no problems with the juice detox, it didn't make a huge amount of difference to me. I know I 'cheated' a little with the salads (although they were basically made up of the stuff in the juices anyway), I don't feel like I lost the 6lbs that other people who did the detox lost - I didn't weigh myself but would have estimated I lost maybe 2-3lbs, mostly in water and bloating weight, as you can see in the pics my tummy is a little bit less bloated. I think it's okay for a quick fix, but not for a drastic weight loss fix.

The pics aren't very flattering at all because they were super quick after-a-day-of-work pictures, sorry! I'm wearing the same jeans in each, but obviously a different bra (Curvy Kate Tease Me in the first and Freya Deco Hatty in the second)

I also didn't really feel the bright and awake feeling others did after the second or third day, but I think that may be due to the fact that I don't do mornings :D Although I only get up just before 8am for work, which isn't exactly early, I'm never bright on a morning! But I did feel my skin brightened up, just incrementally, and felt a little smoother.

So, would I do it again? Short answer: no. It was pretty expensive, at £79 for the 12 bottles. And I also didn't like not eating! 

Was it a good experience? Yes. It did help with my slight addiction to eating all the time and snacking after meals. I've decided instead of doing a full on detox in future, I would be more likely to get (or make) some juices and have them instead of snacks for example, or possibly instead of breakfast, but I won't be skipping my lunch or tea for juice again any time soon. 

It was difficult not to eat for 3 days, but it wasn't overly difficult. I didn't feel very hungry at any point; I did get a bit lightheaded every so often but nothing dangerous.