Love from, Florence Grace

Those of you who follow me on Instagram will have probably seen my very long, emotional rant via my stories on Saturday night. Following a nasty comment from a stranger who followed me, I wanted to make something abundantly clear. However, since then, it appears that *some* people are even more confused about my content and the messages I share via my social media platforms, and so I wanted to make my stance on some subjects abundantly clear. Let’s start at the beginning (a very good place to start…) when someone slid into my DM’s to try and defend the ‘benefits’ of Slimming World to me. Clearly this person hadn’t followed me for very long as I have repeatedly shared my feelings regarding Slimming World and similar diet groups, and have even written about them on my blog . However, I tolerated the conversation – she asked me reasonable questions, such as why was I so against it and I gave reasonable answers. I was actually quite thrilled I was able to have a civil conversation ...

Every January before this one, I made one of my goals 'Lose weight - at least two stone'. That started when I was 15 and continued for seven years, until I was 22. This year, upon turning 23 and ready to enter 2019, weight loss was a priority thanks to a health warning from my doctor. No set amount, however, and strictly no 'dieting'. Because over the last couple of years, I've become quite "anti diet". I hate the word, what it means and I absolutely despise all the crappy fad diets that entice vulnerable and insecure women into their clutches with promises of extreme weight loss in minimal time. I think - in fact, I know  - that it's possible to lose weight without going on a 'diet' so to speak. Without depriving yourself of your favourite foods, without starving yourself and without living off appetite suppressants and shakes. I know, because I've done it - and so have so many other people. Dieting sucks and if you're consid...

It's no secret that I'm a huge  advocate of body positivity and self love. What that means is that I celebrate people with bodies of all shapes and sizes , I don't hate or discriminate against people of a certain size and I encourage people to do the same. I also encourage people, particularly women, to learn their value and worth and fall in love with themselves for who they are and the traits they possess, rather than based solely on physical appearance. However, it's no secret that I have spent a lot of this year documenting a weight loss journey. It started in March, ended in July and then restarted again this month. Understandably I receive a lot of questions about how I can advocate body positivity and self love whilst actively losing weight and sharing my progress on social media, so I thought I'd use this space to explain it in more detail than anyone cares to read in an Instagram caption. So... Am I trying to lose weight? Yes, I am. However, I...

We all know the story of the hare and the tortoise like the back of our hands, right? The annoying fable that taught us all as children that "slow and steady wins the race". Adult life has taught me that this is in fact true. A similar quote that I love is "A little progress each day adds up". Because it's true. Life so far has taught me that rather than rushing right into things, expecting brilliant results straight away, it is better to work hard on something for a long period of time to obtain even better  results. Baby steps really do add up to something greater in the long run, and this was proven to me with my school work and exams, in running my business, and now in my weight loss too. Although I'd like for there to be, I don't think there ever will be a time where I'm not in some kind of infuriating conflict about my body and how I look. I love myself, but at the same time I want to alter so many things. How is that even possible? It'...

As always, my first New Year's Resolution for 2017 was to lose weight/get fit. I always find it quite hard to talk about my personal relationship with my body and weight because I'm such a strong advocate of body positivity and I feel that by talking about dieting I'm going against everything I believe in. I think everyone should embrace the body they're in, as long as they're happy and healthy. Whilst I am definitely a lot happier and healthier than I used to be, I'm still not fully happy and healthy, and that's why I'm trying to lose weight. However, it's not just about the weight for me; I want to get fitter too! Just because it would be nice to walk up the stairs without getting out of breath, you know? Anyway. Whenever I lose weight, I change my eating habits accordingly and eat a lot more 'good' food and a lot less 'bad' food (although I do still indulge in treats like pizza and crisps every now and again!) but the one thing...

Today, a new 'challenge' appeared on social media: I knew straight away I had to join in! As most of you must  know by now, I'm a strong advocate of self love and over the last year my self love, as well as my self confidence, has improved and increased quite dramatically! Before 2016, I would have described my self confidence and self esteem to have been extremely low. I hated how I looked, I had no confidence in myself or my abilities- I'm happy to say that the story is quite different now! So let me share with you what I like to call my 2016 Glow Up (a glow up is better late than never, right?) End of 2015/Start of 2016: End of 2016: I'm not gonna lie, I really feel myself now. In the last year, I've lost a lot  of weight. Like, look at the first image in this post and the last. I feel like I'm almost half the size I was! I'm not, but I feel that way! I've also learnt how to do my make up bett...

This post is going to be a bit of a weird one. I'm going to sound more millennial and social media obsessed than ever before, but I'm always honest on my blog, and this was something that I wanted to share with you guys, so. Today I'm going to tell you guys how social media is helping  my weight loss.  We all know just how addicted I am to social media. Not only is it my job to post on social media but I also love to update my social media every minute of every day! Not only does it help me to promote my blog and magazine, it helps me to make new friends, stay connected with old friends and creates a digital diary, so I can look back in a years time using things like TimeHop to see what I was doing a year ago, two years ago and so on.  My favourite social media site is Instagram , and it's Instagram that has been helping me to stay on track with my healthy eating and my get fit regime. Like many people, I'm obsessed with making my Instagram look prett...

Guys! You're going to kill me because yet again  I am writing about my (failing) diet and my weight loss attempts.  So I guess the good news is that I haven't gained any weight...but the bad news is that I haven't lost any either.  I had wanted to lose a stone in July. Now, half way through the month, I'm kind of guessing that's not going to happen. So I started having a read of some blogs and a watch of some videos to see if there was any  way that I could really get inspired and try harder than ever before to lose the small amount of weight that I want to shift!  It wasn't until I watched Velvet Gh0st's latest video about healthy snacks that I realised where the problem lied. It wasn't that I didn't want to eat healthily. It wasn't that I couldn't eat healthily. It was that I didn't like  eating healthily. My mum makes healthy meals full of vegetables, but I don't like vegetables, so I don't always enj...

So as you will know, I've been trying (yet again ) to slim down, tone up and boost my health. I've been trying to get in 10,000 steps a day (or as close as I can) by going on long walks, which has been especially nice now that the weather is better in the evenings! I've also done something else a little different the past two days... I have cut down on my carbs! Now, those of you who know me will know what a huge  deal this is for me. Bread, pasta, crisps , it's all my favourite! I eat carbs excessively and not much else, due to the fact I strongly dislike almost all fruit and vegetables! However, my mum has been encouraging me to cut back on the carbs and I have already  seen a difference!  Of course, I can't- and never would- cut out carbs completely. But I am trying to only have one, maybe two carb-y things a day. For example, my carbs were the bread in my sandwich, and three small new potatoes with my dinner- I had salad and a chicken breast w...

Today's post is super late I know ( sorry ) and it's not particularly exciting either ( sorry again ). Today I'm talking about weight loss and my body ( again ) but this time with a bit of a difference- difference being that I'm actually going to be realistic about my diet plan, goals and what I can achieve in certain amounts of time.  Normally, I want to lose as much weight as quickly as possible , because who wouldn't want to be able to do that? Obviously this never works out and it just leaves me feeling depressed.  At the start of 2016 I said I was going to be at least one dress size smaller by my 21st birthday in November, something totally achievable. However, that was my minimum goal and obviously I'd like to be two, or even three dress sizes smaller by then. Because I go on holiday on June 21st I would like to be one dress size down by then! This gives me just under three months to achieve this.  The plan is to lose two stone i...

So, youtuber Gabriella Lindley, better known by her user name Velvet Gh0st, has unveiled her secret project to her hundreds of thousands of subscribers...and guess what? It's not another bloody book. Nope, the ambitious vlogger has teamed up with Primark to bring out her own adorable homeware range, which features a strong cat theme and is just totally irresistible! I was thoroughly impressed by this pairing, not to mention overly excited about one of my favourite online stars and shops collaborating! Completely different to most other successful bloggers and vloggers, this project features nothing to do with fashion or beauty and is definitely not a book. In my opinion, this is more ambitious, more creative and more interesting  than anything else I have seen some of my other favourite online stars produce.  So I was more than a little confused when I saw the hate filled tweets and articles rolling in about what a horrific idea this all was. Apparently Primark are...

Last week seemed to fly by, and I never got around to posting my fitness updates, so this week you have the last two weeks combined- sorry about that!  The week two weeks, as it happens, have been terrible. I have stopped working out completely, with my only exercise being the occasional bike ride (three times, to be precise) and walking everywhere. My eating has been moderately okay  with me usually reaching 1,300 calories max- however, I have had a quite a few calorific meals with my boyfriend, including take out pizza and a BBQ.  So let's look at my statistics this week... Start Weight:  11st 4lbs Waist Measurement:  33 inches Goal Weight:  10 stone How much I want to lose a week:  2 lbs And here is where I am now... Current Weight:  11 st 4 lbs Current Waist Measurement:  31.5 inches. Weight left to lose:  1 stone 4 lbs As you can see, both my weight and waist measurement has crept back up- this is through no ones fault b...