Queue The Camera Roll | August

These snaps also show some of my favourites from the month. Excuse the quality of the photos.

1.) Book of the Month ~ Quiet by Susan Cain 

2.) Homemade Smoothies ~ esp. Strawberry & Banana

3.) Oats with lots of different toppings

4.) Red Lips, Favourite Jacket, Curly Hair

5.) Peanut Butter, Banana on Toast

6.) Enjoying Nights-Out with Friends

7.) And finally Baths to help the colder nights we are having

And that's all my random snaps/favourites for the month of August.

What are your favourites for the month of August?

PCOS | Diet | Dairy

PCOS affects my day to day life more than I like to let on to the people that surround me everyday. But lately I have been noticing a change in my energy levels. Since finishing university and moving back in with my mom there have been more treats around me than there was before. There are cookies, chocolates, cakes and sweets all the time. My brother and sister are twelve and fifteen and like to eat the usual treats and rubbish that kids there age do. However, I am twenty-one and no longer a child and that means my needs for sugar aren't and shouldn't be matched with theirs. But the time of the month got to me when I first arrived back that first month and I ate a few too many sugary treats. Since then though I have been a bit of a sugar and snack addict up until a month ago when I managed to straighten myself out and get me back on a healthier road.

Growing up there wasn't a doctor to sit me down and properly  explain what PCOS was. That also included what you should eat and how people with the syndrome struggle with insulin resistance. I had to instead research on my own and find out about everything about it, and I still feel like I'm learning today. In fact I take my symptoms more serious now, than I ever have before. I'm learning more about my body and how certain and different foods make me react. That's both IBS and PCOS related. At the moment I'm figuring out what works for me and what doesn't. So far it is working and I am paying attention to how my body reacts to certain foods. There's still a long way to go and more I want to figure out, but so far so good.

Here is one of the main things I have recently learnt about PCOS:

~ Dairy - before my recent research I didn't know how bad Cow's milk and products are for your body. I knew that soy products were bad but I didn't realise that the milk contains IGF-1 or Insulin Growth Factor 1. IGF-1 is a naturally occurring hormone with a similar molecule structure as that of insulin, mimicking the role insulin plays. However, women with PCOS already have higher than normal levels of IGF-1, meaning that their ovaries are sensitive to heightened or added amounts of this hormone. This leads to their ovaries going into overdrive and doing more work than they in fact need to. I have now switched up my use of cow's milk and gone back to almond milk. It isn't a favourite but I am going to keep using it because I know how the switch has helped others internally, including helping the reproduction system and aiding natural unassisted periods.

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For more information I have found this website called pcosdietsupport.com. Tarryn suffers from PCOS herself and has also made podcasts which I have found useful that you can find on Itunes by searching pcos diet support.

Do you have PCOS? If so, have you learnt anything that you would like to share?

xChloex

Quiet | Susan Cain

'Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking' is in fact a book by author Susan Cain and my new bible. Of course, I am using the word bible in an open sense, meaning a book I feel to be powerful. I have been reading this book over the course of the past few months and although it has taken me this long to complete it, it doesn't take away from how much I have thoroughly enjoyed the read. As well as, how much I have taken from the book information-wise.

Quiet is a non-fiction book about introversion and in turn extroversion. Before I even picked up this book I knew I was an introvert, and in fact I have always had an incline that I have introverted tendencies. But personally for me this book (and my saving grace) has only confirmed it definitively. I know referring to it as my saving grace sounds a little strong and some may say 'Slow down Chloe, it's just a book'. However, for me books have always been and meant something much more than words on paper. They symbolise numerous things, including the determination to complete/finish something that a book helps us achieve.

I am definitely the type of person that can pick up a book at 11am and still be reading it by 6pm later on that evening, especially if I am really into a book. I have even been known to complete a book in a days sitting when I've put my mind to it. As an English Literature student this isn't shocking and was one of the many demands of my chosen course, which nowadays I actually miss. Who'd have thought it?

Basically, if you've ever felt like the shy person in the group? Or even if you've questioned your own personality type, then this is the book for you. However, I would honestly recommend this book to everyone and anyone I meet (and have been). You know when you find a book so good that you want everyone you know and come into contact with to read? Well, it's one of those. It's both informative and enlightening and like the recommendations on the back praise:

"Remarkable" - Daily Mail,

"Will make quiet people see themselves in a whole new light" - Naomi Wolf

and "An extroadinary book that will change for ever the way society views introverts" - Gretchen Rubin, Author of The Happiness Project

Pick it up and give it a read :) It will definitely change your view of certain people.

Oh and check out the TED talk Susan Cain did here.

The Guardian's Review here.