What’s in Store for 2013?
In January Mr F and I escaped to Riviera Maya in Mexico for some much needed winter sun. Looking grey and slightly knackered after cooking Christmas dinner for 10 people (my first Christmas dinner – just call me Michel Roux Jr). Feeling rather unwell we hopped on a plane and and I could not wait to hit the beach in my new Freya Showboat Bikini and ponder about what 2013 was going to have in store.
Having always set goals for myself each year, I had already started to make a few notes about what I wanted to achieve in 2013 – after all if you don’t know what it is you want to achieve, how can you go about getting it right? So on the 2nd day of our holiday, I sat with my notebook and started to write “2013…”
Here’s some of the things I came up with…
1) Love Life To appreciate every day life more. After the sad news of fellow Freya Blogger Kerry Farrow in December, a true Blog Star, I sat and promised myself that because life indeed is so precious, I will make a concerted effort to be thankful every single day for everything I have from my husband, to my health, home, family friends, clients, running water – everything.
2) Health I need to get back in to a healthy lifestyle. Over the past few years my general health and energy levels haven’t been the best, having got in to some lazy behaviour using the excuse of being busy with work to try and justify it. This year for me is all about treating my body well, by feeding it well and exercising regularly. I recently found the most inspiring story of a girl called Hayley who lost 11 stone after the birth of her baby and looks incredible! Whenever I don’t feel like working out or ordering a Chinese takeaway, I check out her website Slimspirational. She really is an inspiration.
3) Fitness To encourage myself to exercise more often, I have to committed to running a 10k this year (the furthest I have ran before now is 5k) so it gives me something to work towards and focus on. It also gives me the opportunity to wear my gorgeous Active Black Samba Sports Bra and I always think that cute clothing for excercise motivates me more! Thaks heavens for Freya!
4) Energy For me this is vital – having being diagnosed with ‘IBS’ but being given no additional help or guidance at all by the NHS, I’ve had to take matters in to my own hands. I’ve suffered long enough now to know that my body does not react well to sugar and dairy, however cutting them out of my diet (or at least dramatically reducing my intake) has been somewhat hit and miss. As we’ve reached February, so far so good and I’ve lost 6lb to boot. Bonus!
5) Confidence I want to look my best in 2013. I’m a personal stylist so I guess I’m often judged on my appearance but over the last few years I’ve been feeling that I’m looking a little older that I should. The diet and exercise is a big part of this, but thanks to the lovely Lyndsey at The Derma Clinic in Nantwich Cheshire, I’m embarking on an exciting course of treatment that will get massive positive results in my skin will make me stick to a cleaner diet and healthier lifestyle, otherwise, what’s the point in getting it done?! Follow @dermaclinicuk on Twitter to get great skin in 2013!
I had my first session of Collagen Stimulation Therapy with Lyndsey last week and am feeling super positive. She’s an absolute Derma-Genie and I’m so, so thankful I met her. I’m already starting to see improvements with my skin thanks to her advice and the Environ products she’s given to me, so fingers crossed by the end of 2013 I’ll look 21 again 
No pressure Lyndsey ha ha!
6) Career I’ll be officially launching the sister company to My Style Companion this year which is a Branding and Marketing Consultancy aimed specifically at helping small businesses in my local area of Cheshire which has been working hand-in-hand with My Style Companion to help sole-traders and small businesses gain more exposure, create a clear and powerful brand and basically, produce better results! I’m loving the challenge of balancing the two businesses and absolutely adore the diversity in my role at the moment. Every day is different (challenging but different!) but I always did love a challenge!
7) Passion With My Style Companion we’ll be running more affordable style advice events for women who want a confidence boost in their life, from Style Masterclasses, pop up personal shopping experiences and confidence boost camps that cover health, wellness, beauty, style – and overall how to get better results in your life and feel bloomin’ fantastic! I’m just in the process of getting together some exciting collaborations for this but basically for me…
2013 is about helping women (including myself) to feel even more confident and fabulous in their own skin and achieve what they want from life.
Here’s to us, Ladies!
Nicola x
