Wednesday, June 15, 2016

30 Chic Days – The Fourth Series: Day 8

Auckland skyline...


Welcome to Day 8 of the 30 Chic Days series.  If you’ve just joined us, you can catch up from Day 1 here.

I’m following a simple format, logging my day.  The goals are:

Awareness of what I’m doing each day
Where I am placing my focus, and
Remembering what I want to achieve.

Here’s what I will be reporting on each day for thirty days:

What I ate
What I wore
How I moved my body
What I read
My focus for the day

Day 8:

What I ate

Hot tea with milk

Breakfast – Fresh chopped pineapple, apple and mandarin with Greek yoghurt, toasted coconut flakes, raw almonds, brazils and walnuts plus a sprinkling of tropical flavour cereal as a topping, soy milk latte

Lunch – Rice crackers with cheese, sliced carrot on the side, a peanut butter bliss ball and coffee with creamy milk.

Afternoon tea – two mandarins.  I could have easily been tempted by other things, but we had nothing around so I had mandarins.  One of the secrets to not eating junk food?  Don’t have it in the house.  If you have to buy it for others, choose flavours/products you don’t like so you won’t be tempted.

Dinner – Pan-fried chicken breast with sliced onions and mushrooms in a creamy sauce, mashed potato and steamed vegetables – carrots, broccoli, green beans and cauliflower.  Two squares of 72% cacao chocolate and a decaf coffee.

What I wore

At home for the day I wore comfortable and cosy loungewear – black viscose clingy leggings and a black viscose clingy top.  My darling has called me ‘the cat burglar’ on occasion in this outfit but I don’t take any notice of him.  I wore my exercise clothes for my walk, not the cat burglar outfit.

How I moved

I went for a one hour walk around our neighbourhood mid-afternoon.  It rained lightly for the first third, but I had my rain jacket and an umbrella so I was okay.

What I read

Another favourite book that I love to pick up for a read is Veronique Vienne’s The Art of Being a Woman.  Sometimes it is overshadowed by other books on my shelf, and then when I have a read, like tonight, I think to myself ‘this is the only book I’ll ever need to read about French women’.  Of course I have other loves on my bookshelf, so I can’t really mean that, but when I’m reading Veronique’s work I do.  Sort of like the irrepressible love-rat guy who truly believes he is in love with whichever girl he is with at the time.  I know, it's a terrible analogy.  Another book Veronique wrote is quite a cult classic.  I saved up and bought myself a second-hand copy a while back (it’s out of print) – called French Style.  It’s a fun read but I think it's scarcity has pushed the price up beyond its value.

My focus for the day

Today was elegance.  Not that I wore pearls or anything like that, but I just kept the word ‘elegance’ top of mind and let it float around.  It was a nice feeling and it helped me in many small ways – with my posture, deciding what to eat, how I felt, the music I listened to (Bach).  Just lovely!

--

Are you joining in this 30 Chic Days Series too?  If so, please mention this in the comments so we can click through to your blog, or if you don’t have a blog and would like to participate, you can let us know in the comments how your day went.

See you tomorrow, be chic!

12 comments:

  1. Another chic day of inspiration! Thank you for posting these because I love reading them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am enjoying your book ( I downloaded it last week) as well as your posts. It helps me to put my goals in perspective. I have had that FRENCH STYLE book for years. Their was also ITALIAN STYLE that I bought around the same time- years ago! I need to review them. It's been too long. I should order the other book by Verinique. I didn't realize she had written another. Thank you for your dedication and inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry for typo! 'There' not 'their'!

    ReplyDelete

  4. I love how your husband notices things. (Even if its "the cat burglar suit".) If my husband notices things, he doesn't let on lol. I never really thought about the everyday mundane things before I met you through your blog. It makes life more fun!-Carla.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for sharing The Art of Being a Woman! I just read the excerpt off of Amazon, and put it in my shopping cart right away. Like you, I adore French lifestyle books; this one looks wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My pleasure, Stephanie!

    Starfish, I have both those books too, BUT there are two similar books - Susan Sommers (not the actress) wrote French Chic and Italian Chic, and Veronique Vienne wrote French Style. I know, not confusing at all!

    Carla, maybe because I write about the everyday things, I notice them more as well as you. Sometimes I come across a post of mine that I don't even remember what I wrote about; so those things, unless we note them down, we forget them pretty quickly. I'm sure your husband notices and appreciates things about you, he just thinks it rather than verbalises it :)

    Maureen, so glad you like the sound of this book. It's a hidden treasure I think.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I agree, Fiona...when I write things down, I remember them too. I am loving doing the 30 chic days, & am already noticing a lovely difference in my life. Thank you. I have been doing it on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Ratnamurti, I love the comprehensive research you are doing into chic French ladies on your blog, it's so interesting! I'm glad you are feeling good from participating in the chic days series, that makes me happy :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you! I WAS confused. I have the Susan Sommers books. I need to now check the French Style book. I ordered The Art of Being a Woman yesterday after reading your post. I am looking forward to reading it and I am hoping that I didn't already have it. I have been collecting fashion related books for over 35 years, but when my husband and I downsized last year, I gave a young college gal my hardcover collection of about 50 books. I kept a dozen, and have downloaded some that I parted with on my kindle. I'm enjoying your posts. They are making me more mindful.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Starfish, oh well, if you did already have it, you are obviously meant to read it again :) I have done that sometimes, think about ordering a book and then think 'I'll just check when I get home before I place the order' and voila, I already have it. And I don't have THAT many books, or do I?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Veronique Vienne has a whole series of The Art of ... books and they're wonderful. Do read them if you can, especially The Art of Being a Grownup.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Aurora, I've read one or maybe two of these books (they are square and more picture-y?) so I'll search out the others. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

Merci for your comment. Wishing you a chic day!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...