Red

If you've been here since the beginning, or have read some of my earlier posts, you might remember me mentioning that I was on the hunt for the perfect red lippy. Well, guess what? I found it!

Last Tuesday, I went out to the city with a group of my friends. I managed to find the perfect flannel top (it's black and white and you'll be seeing it soon), and whilst in Sportsgirl (an Australian clothing/accessory shop), I found a great red lipstick. It's not too bright and not too dark, but it's still vibrant and lively. It also applies quite well, however I've heard from a few friends that some of the peachier colours aren't too great when it comes to applying. An additional plus is that it was only $10, what more to love than a good, cheap lipstick?

Sleep, Nutrition and Exercise

I think a healthy lifestyle is honestly one of the most important things in life. Whilst I don't go for 6km runs, 5 times a week or swim 1500m every morning (fun fact: I'm actually quite terrible at swimming), I still believe that it's important to exercise at least three times a week, whether it be a sport that you play (like touch footy, netball or soccer), a quick jog in the afternoon or even just participating in PDHPE at school. Below are a few things that I think are important for a healthy and balanced lifestyle:

Sleep
I'm constantly torn between wanting to stay up all night and wanting to get ten hours of sleep. Sleep is essential for your body, we all know that, but how much sleep do we actually need? It varies depending on age, but for people aged 11-17, the recommended amount of sleep is 8.5-9.5 hours. So stop watching copious amounts of movies in one night, put down your laptop, and sleep. Sleep lots. 

Nutrition
Being nutritious doesn't mean that you can't eat junk food, it just means to balance your diet. You can still eat chocolate and be healthy, as long as it's in moderation to the amount of exercise you do and what else you eat throughout the day. A few of my favourite snacks/meals include nuts, smoothies, avocado on multi-grain toast, yoghurt and muesli, pasta, various salads and fruits like strawberries and grapes. Nuts are an extremely good source of natural fats, which are an essential part of your diet, and are also quite filling, which means that a small portion will last a while. Multi-grain and/or wholemeal bread is also quite a good alternative to white bread as they are more nutritious and carry more vitamins and minerals such as magnesium and fibre.

Exercise
A balanced lifestyle will almost always include some sort of regular exercise. I think that it's important that you enjoy the exercise you're doing, otherwise it begins to feel more like a chore rather than a beneficial and fun part of your day, and that's why I think playing a sport is great. I enjoy playing sports a lot, so it's a great way for me to get exercise without even realising it and you also meet heaps of amazing people and develop different skills. I also like to go for jogs, not long 8km ones (I'd like to get there someday), but just quick 2-3km jogs in some afternoons. It's a good idea to start small with exercise, especially running, and work up. Start with 1km runs and then slowly increase your distance to 1.5km and then work your way up to 2km etc. I find that the Nike Running+ app is great and it shows you your progress and how far you've run. It's the same thing for strength exercises like sit-ups. Start small with 30 sit-ups and then slowly work your way to 50 and then 60 and then to however many you can do until you're too tired to continue. If there's one thing I can definitely say about exercising, it's that you'll never regret it.