Losing Weight is Easy

I went through a period of time where I was obsessed with a show called “Secret Eaters”. For those who have never seen the show, it is basically overweight people telling everyone they don’t eat enough to be the weight they are. Whether they are actually dieting or starving themselves of calories because they feel that will work.

They write a typical list of foods they eat in a day for their meals. This food dairy tends to consist of about 1000 to 1500 calories. This food dairy normally consists of fruit smoothies in the morning and salads throughout the day. So, in order to work why 20 stone Sharron isn’t losing any weight, the TV hosts put cameras in their homes and follow them around to see what they are actually eating. Spoiler; it normally isn’t 1000 calories.

As someone who has been grateful enough to never have to worry about my weight, this show continued to surprise me the stupidity these people had. Even with my high metabolism, I wasn’t eating the amount of shit these people were.

Losing fat is easy. Even if you don’t have the time to exercise you can change a lot in just the diet alone. When I first started going to the gym I was still pretty relaxed with what I was eating so the 2 cancelled out on each other so all I was doing was maintaining the same weight. As soon as I changed my diet I noticed changes in my body as all the muscles I had gotten from the gym were actually showing. In short, those who consider themselves overweight don’t need to suddenly go to the gym every day. Just change your diet slightly.

When it comes to dieting don’t go to the extremes because you are more likely to relapse if you are just starving yourself of nutrients. There is no point cutting absolutely everything bad for you on day 1. Instead gradually start replacing things with healthy alternatives, for example, instead of having sugary breakfast cereals have porridge, just as filling with fewer calories.

For those who are overweight that don’t believe they deserve to be overweight seriously have a look at what you are eating and then come back to me. I’ve had fat people complain about their weight whilst shoving 4 chocolate chip muffins into their mouth. Sometimes it might not even be what you are eating but how much you are eating. What you call snacks other people call meals. A snack is an apple or packet of crisps. A breakfast butty with 2 fried eggs, a sausage, and some bacon is not a fucking snack.

At the end of the day, you are probably overweight due to your own stupidity and naivety. Or because you are stuck in this cycle where you use food as an emotion. You feel shit for being fat so you eat fatty and sugary foods, which in turn make you fat so you end up in this loop. See food as a source of energy, eat what you need to survive the day and leave it at that. I’m not suggesting you can’t treat yourself every so often but don’t depend on food for your own happiness.

Gracie x

My Book: “Letters to my Past”

Facebook: facebook.co.uk/graciehemphill98

Twitter: @gracievhemphill

Instagram: @graciehemphill

Snippets of my Life: Chronic Pain

I have never been amazingly keen on going to the doctors so unless it is not something resolved by painkillers I don’t go. This is also why a few months ago, I spent 3 weeks with damaged tendons in my left foot before having to go to A&E after not being able to walk, but that is a completely different story for a different day. I basically have a high pain tolerance so unless it’s really killing me I won’t bother seeing anyone.

But recently I have discovered a reason to hate my doctors even more.

I have spent about 3 and a half years suffering from chronic abdominal pains and bloating. I was first experiencing these pains during GCSE’s and A-Levels and so the doctors put it down to stress. After about 3 separate visits they eventually diagnosed me with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and said I was experiencing pain and bloating due to the fact I was stressed. Which was understandable at the time. The doctors gave me the relevant medication and told me once I had finished education the pain will go.

At first, the medication actually worked, whether that was due to a placebo effect I will never know. But after a few months, the medication lost its effect; I increased the dosage and the cramps still didn’t go. So off to the doctors I went.

I was still doing my A Levels at this point, so they had suggested that nothing had changed in terms of my diagnosis and still believed I had IBS and that my pain was down to stress. The doctors gave me stronger medication and left it at that.

And the same thing happened; after a few months, the medication stopped working. Again, could potentially have been a placebo effect. At this point, I was almost finished with my A-Level exams and so knew that my pain should be gone soon anyway as I won’t be as stressed.

Well months went by I started working full time and I stopped any education or exams. But I was still in pain. I tried everything under the sun; taking the medication, not taking the medication, cutting out the rubbish from my diet, going to the gym…nothing worked.

A few months ago I had completely had enough of being in pain and not knowing what it was. I hated the unpredictability of it all; some days I’d be great and others not. I hated having to cancel plans on people last minute because I felt too shit. My physical health was starting to affect my mental health and some days I was in so much pain I didn’t want to leave the house.

I went back to the doctors and asked that I wanted to see an IBS specialist, I wanted to see someone with slightly more knowledge on the illness. The doctor there denied my request. She said whilst what I was describing sounded like IBS she wanted to do a couple of tests to make sure it was definitely IBS I had.

Angry was an understatement. If tests had to be done to confirm I had IBS why weren’t they done 3 years ago when I was originally diagnosed. She didn’t particularly have an answer for that. She suggested that what I was describing could also be just a food allergy. Whilst I was still relatively angry I decided to take on her advice of doing a food diary and working out what was making my stomach pain worse.

I was noticing a couple of food groups that seemed to give me stomach cramps but to confirm any theories I had I went to see a Nutritional Therapist and paid her to give me a food allergy test.

To cut a long story short I am actually allergic to milk and wheat which means I have to live a dairy-free and gluten-free diet. It sounds like a lot of effort and it is a lot of effort but being able to go about my day no longer in pain is the best feeling in the world. I also think if anyone is experiencing unexplained abdominal pain to see if it’s a food allergy as they seem to be the most common thing to explain that kind of pain.

I am annoyed that I couldn’t have worked out this allergy sooner. And I’m more annoyed that the doctors placed a diagnosis on my forehead just because I was a little stressed. I’m not doubting that I wasn’t stressed I just knew I wasn’t stressed enough to be causing my body that many problems.

I wanted to share this story because 1. I’m British and I love to complain and 2. To let everyone know that doctors aren’t necessarily always going to be right. Whilst they may study for 8 or 9 years each individual person is different. So maybe my symptoms were IBS in another patient, but they weren’t in me.

Gracie x

My Book: “Letters to my Past”

Facebook: facebook.com/graciehemphill98

Twitter: @gracievhemphill

Instagram: @graciehemphill

Girls Can Rape Girls

For those of you who weren’t aware one of the news stories this week is that famous singer Melanie Martinez has been accused of raping famous female musician Timothy Heller. She is being accused of sexually assaulting her former best friend with a sex toy at a sleepover.

Melanie took to Twitter after being accused and said she wouldn’t “be intimate with anyone without their full consent”. She then continued to thank her fans for researching and finding that the claims made by Timothy were fake.

Timothy stated that whilst it was difficult to come out with her story it was definitely what needed to be done after being inspired by the #metoo movement.

The #metoo movement was where victims all over the world decided to speak out about their experiences with sexual abuse, assault or rape over social media. The movement also got people who weren’t necessarily victims themselves speaking out. And of course there are still many victims out there that didn’t have the courage to speak out but this movement still showed that sexual abuse or rape isn’t a small problem.

A lot of Melanie’s fans were suggesting it was fake due to the fact she was female. We sit here demanding to have equal rights and then every so often when something comes up we pull out the we-have-tits card. Women can rape as well. I understand sexual assault or rape is more of a power play and therefore men are more likely to commit these kind of crimes but doesn’t mean women can’t.

Another comment that arose from all of this was “She doesn’t look like a rapist”. As if rapists walk around with a tattoo on their forehead saying “rapist”. There is no typical look that can help you distinguish a rapist from anyone else, otherwise, there would probably be fewer cases of sexual assault and rape. It is the same with anything, just because someone doesn’t look like the stereotypical version of what you are thinking of doesn’t mean they can’t be. Another example would be telling a lesbian that they looked too attractive to be gay because the stereotypical lesbian is butt ugly.

Also, the fact that the accused and the victim are best friends doesn’t make a difference. In actual fact, you are more likely going to be assaulted by someone you know than just a random stranger off the street.

The moral of this story, whether or not it is fake, is that girls can rape girls and best friends can rape best friends.

Gracie x

My Book: “Letters to my Past”

Facebook: facebook.com/graciehemphill98

Twitter: @gracievhemphill

Instagram: @graciehemphill

Should We Lower The Voting Age To 16?

Politics revolves around changing things for the better. It revolves around having a say to make the future a better place for the public. So, should 16 and 17-year olds be able to vote for their future?

Let’s be honest, I’m barely interested in politics at 19, are there really 16-year olds out there that actually care about it?

There are already just under half of those who are 18-24 years old that aren’t voting. If we do allow 16 years old to vote there will probably be at least half who won’t vote anyway.

Part of the reason the government doesn’t allow 16-year-olds to vote is due to the fact they believe they are immature. And in my time I have met 18-year-olds who are just as immature, so what’s the difference?

However, the age of responsibility with most things tends to be 18. For example, being able to buy alcohol, cigarettes or get a tattoo you have to be 18.

A lot of you will at this point be saying 16-year-olds can join the army and get married, so why can’t they vote? But you forget to mention that 16-year-olds can only do those things with the permission from their parental guidance. Therefore that suggests that 16-year-olds can’t make important decisions. Marriage is a long-term commitment and so is politics. If the candidate you vote for wins you can’t get cold feet and say “I changed my mind”.

Teenagers, in general, are indecisive. Nowadays, they follow trends where after 5 minutes something becomes irrelevant and gets forgotten about. They are also very easily influenced so if everyone they know is voting for a certain person, they will most likely follow.

I personally don’t think we should lower the voting age to 16. I struggle to know who to vote for now let alone if I was 16. But if someone can give me an argument to change my mind I’m open to hearing it.

Gracie x

My Book: “Letters to my Past”

Facebook: facebook.com/graciehemphill98

Twitter: @gracievhemphill

Instagram: @graciehemphill

The Real Reasons For Rape

A tweet has recently appeared on my Twitter and it upset me to the point of feeling ill. Now I’m partially hoping the person in question was trolling or doing it for the followers, because if not this girl clearly doesn’t know how the world works.

What makes it worse is that as soon as you click onto this girl’s profile she has pinned that tweet, which basically means it is the first thing you see on her page regardless of chronological order. It’s almost as if she believes she is giving people advice, which once you read the tweet you will realise she’s not.

I’m not going to mention the girl’s Twitter name or anything like that as I don’t want to give her any more attention than she already got, but her tweet said:

“I’ve never been raped. Know why? Because I don’t dress like a prostitute or act overly sexual like most young women. Take some responsibility!”

Firstly, considering she has never been raped or sexually abused in any way she doesn’t know enough on the topic herself to be able to comment on why people get raped or sexually abused. Nine times out of ten it is for power, the one doing the action wants to take control of the victim. Doesn’t matter what they are wearing if the person is prone to committing these kind of acts they will continue regardless.

The only thing you can blame rape on is the rapist themselves. Men get raped as well but do they walk around in revealing dresses or skirts? No. Therefore, it isn’t the outfit, it is the person committing the acts.

One of the main things that cause people to rape or sexually abuse is if the person themselves has experienced abuse in the past. If they have gone through a time where they felt powerless or vulnerable they want to be able to have control of everything in their life now.

I’m not suggesting that all rapists and abusers have been through abuse themselves because every situation is different. And I’m also not suggesting that those rapists or abusers who have been abused themselves deserve sympathy. Because they don’t. If they have been through it all themselves and know how much hurt and pain it causes a person but still decide to do it to someone else then they don’t deserve sympathy.

And whilst I feel like I talk too much about the topic maybe it still isn’t being talked about enough if there are people who are still making stupid comments like the one above. Telling rape victims how to dress is almost as bad as telling depressed people to “be happy”.

Gracie x

My Book: “Letters to my Past”

Facebook: facebook.com/graciehemphill98

Twitter: @gracievhemphill

Instagram: @graciehemphill

Are you Male, Female or Offended?

The whole point of a census is to count all the people living in the UK monitoring basic information like race, age, and sex.

But apparently, people are getting offended and upset by being asked their gender. According to those who are either transgender or non-binary asking for someone’s gender is irrelevant and intrusive. I think it would be more intrusive if they came round your house and pulled your trousers down and went “Ah this one has balls”. Being asked to tick a box isn’t exactly the most intrusive way of finding out the answer to that question.

In order to offend fewer people they had thought to offer an ‘Other’ option, however, that got ruled out as it would make transgender or non-binary people feel left out or not part of the community.

The other suggestion was to have a two section question; asking firstly about your biological sex and then secondly asking what your gender was. Which in short is asking what you were born as and what you feel you are. This was also ruled as it was seen as too confusing. In all honesty, once we start to ask people how they feel about things we are opening a whole new can of worms.

“I earn X amount but I feel like I should earn more”

However, if you get offended by having to tick a box maybe you should seek professional help. One answer on a census doesn’t define you or who you are as a person. Society nowadays get so offended by anything and suddenly we can’t tell any jokes in fear of offending at least one individual in the world. The Office of National Statistics doesn’t particularly care how you feel they just want to know if there is a chance of you getting pregnant. This would then help work out how many midwives to train among other things.

If we can’t ask people questions because of the fear of offending them then we can’t have a census. If it is discriminatory to ask people about their gender then it should also be discriminatory to ask about race, occupation or even where you live.

At what point do we stop getting so politically correct?

Gracie x

My Book: “Letters to my Past”

Facebook: facebook.com/graciehemphill98

Twitter: @gracievhemphill

Instagram: @graciehemphill

Is the New iPhone Worth it?

For those who don’t live under a rock you may have noticed Apple released three new phones; iPhone 8, 8 Plus and the iPhone X. Apple struggle with numbers ever since their first model where they started at number 3 so apparently the iPhone 9 won’t exist. I work in a phone shop so whenever a new phone is released I have to know basic information about it in order to sell it. And can I just say Apple are making it harder each year to sell their new products. And when customers come up to the counter and ask questions about the new iPhone I could be honest but instead, I have to make up some believable bullshit.

To be honest I’m sure I could say the only way to charge the new iPhone is by sticking it up your arsehole and you’d still buy it.

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are basically the same as the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus besides a couple features. Apple have decided to make the back of the phone glass as well so not only does the phone attract fingerprints like there is no tomorrow but when you drop your phone you will have twice the amount of damage and therefore twice the amount of cost to fix it. You will also get to see your sad disappointed face on both sides of the cracked phone.

The new iPhone 8 is more powerful than the 7, however, Apple have actually made the battery life worse because the people who buy Apple products don’t complain enough about the battery life. The megapixels on the camera haven’t actually been improved; it is the same as in the iPhone 6s. So, whilst they have improved features on the camera you won’t actually be getting any clearer of an image.

The iPhone X which isn’t actually out until the beginning of November will start at a small loan of a grand to buy, and that is only the 64gb version let alone the 256gb version. Now I understand there are people out there who can warrant and afford to spend £1000 on a phone so for those people, I shall explain if it is actually worth it.

The iPhone X is very similar to the new Samsung S8 (£689) and S8 Plus (£779), in the fact they got rid of the home button so there is more space for the screen. However, one trick Apple missed out on is that they only made one size of the iPhone X so for customers who like the larger screen they will have to sacrifice that feature if they want the iPhone X.

One feature that the iPhone X has that the Samsung S8 and S8 Plus doesn’t is facial recognition. This basically means you can open your phone with your face because that is how lazy we have all got now apparently. It does also mean looking like you are taking a selfie every time you open your phone; which is just embarrassing as no one actually wants to be caught taking a selfie.

And it is really easy; you just scan your face once when you’re wearing makeup, then again when you’re not, then again when you get your hair cut, then again when you lose that weight for your holiday and then again when that dickhead breaks up with you and you gain that weight again. But yeah easy stuff.

Whilst this new feature is exciting is it worth the extra £300? Definitely not.

Gracie x

My Book: “Letters to my Past”

Facebook: facebook.com/graciehemphill98

Twitter: @gracievhemphill

Instagram: @graciehemphill