Mindset – change it and achieve your goals!

Do you ever ask yourself what it is that stops you from losing weight, or getting a better job or achieving one of your dreams? It is all down to our mindset – if we think that we can’t do it then you can be sure that we are not going to do it.

Are you a cup is half full or half empty kind of person? The people that achieve great things are always in the half full gang – they believe that they can do whatever they set out to achieve and so they do. They don’t have the word failure in their vocabulary, they just keep trying until they achieve their goal. Now I am not saying that some things are easy, you may be trying to overcome a fear of something, but if you take small steps to change your mindset you will get there, you only have to look at the likes of people like Paul McKenna – he achieves great things with people in short time spans by changing their thought process.

Read Full Article

When weddings go wrong: consumer protection guide

When you get married you put your trust in one person; when you plan your wedding you have a trust a whole lot more.

Suppliers can go bust, goods can fail to arrive or turn up in bits. But the glitches in getting hitched needn’t end up expensive glitches. Wedding insurance is one way to make sure you get your moneys worth; knowing your consumer rights is a double protection.

You have a number of statutory rights, as well as some additional forms of protection from debit and credit card providers. Take a look at the examples below to see how the rules could work in practice.

“My wedding dress shop went bust”

Let’s say you bought a £700 wedding dress. You paid £350 of that with a credit card and the rest in cash. Now the shop has gone bust and says it can’t supply the dress or give your money back.

Now, under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, your credit card provider is equally liable (with the retailer) for any purchase you make on the card between £100 and £30,000.

A business going bust is a classic case where Section 75 applies; you’d just call your provider to make a claim and get your money back.

Note also that you’d get the full £700 back even though you only paid £350 on the card. We like Section 75.

Note also that if you hadn’t paid with credit card and cash but with a debit card you could still be protected.

Chargeback schemes from card issuers – Visa, Mastercard and American Express – offer a full refund in situations like the one above. They’re not required to give money back by law and each scheme has its own rules so it’s less sturdy protection but, even so, many have benefited from giving their bank a call to claim.

“I bought plates online but they don’t look like I expected them to”

Under Distance Selling Regulations you have the right to cancel an order and return items for up to seven days after you received them by post.

Remember, too, that the Sale of Goods Act 1979 says goods must be:

- Of satisfactory quality

- As they were described

- Fit for purpose and

- Last a reasonable length of time.

These are often worth knowing when making a complaint to a retailer about a fault.

“I bought plates online… but I’ve smashed them”

Accidents happen and, unless they arrived smashed, this is certainly not the retailer’s fault.

However, this is something some credit card providers may be able to help with. Big providers such as Capital One and Barclaycard often offer cover against loss, theft and accidental damage for a few months after the purchase.

However, remember that every protection policy is different and many have exceptions so check the small print carefully.

A note on credit cards…

Finally, let’s end all this credit card talk with a warning.

You don’t have to pay any interest on your credit card to take advantage of the consumer protection offered to credit cardholders mentioned above. Nonetheless, credit cards are a way of borrowing and that means that, potentially, they’re a way to get into debt.

Anyone that thinks they may get into unmanageable debt should put the plastic down and back away - being mired in debt is no honeymoon.

Contributor info:

This is a guest post from Choose, a consumer information and credit card comparison site which includes tables to compare 0% purchase credit cards.

How to have a beautiful body inside and out by Zara Groves

I recently walked into the bathroom toilets in a local hotel bar and found this lady sat on the floor, she was crippled with pain from her irritable bowel syndrome. She said that it happened regularly and that it would pass soon, but until it did she was unable to stand up. She also said that she knew how she should eat to make sure that this didn’t happen but didn’t actually follow the healthy eating and therefore would suffer on a regular basis.

I found this absolute madness, why would you want to subject yourself to a crippling pain rather than eat a healthy diet without the kinds of foods that set off the symptoms. So it got me to thinking about what to write about in my next blog.

It’s quite funny really, you always hear of people going on about wanting to lose weight, but very rarely do you hear anyone say “I really want to have a healthy colon”

Considering everything that you put in your mouth goes through your colon, you would have thought that this would be more of a priority than fitting into a smaller dress size.

The term ‘Irritable Bowel Syndrome’ (IBS seems to be used quite a lot, as it covers a vast diagnosis of people that suffer with stomach complaints. The doctors say that it can’t be cured only helped, but I totally disagree with this.

So what is IBS - it is a common gut disorder. Symptoms can vary and include abdominal pain, bloating, and sometimes bouts of diarrhoea and/or constipation. Symptoms tend to come and go.

What really needs to be addressed is what we are putting in our mouths, eating bad and unhealthy foods is the cause of the reaction within our colon and intestines. In the Western society a lot of people constantly eat food that is processed, high in sugar, contains caffeine and chemicals that really shouldn’t be eaten, too much wheat and dairy, and far too much alcohol. With this in mind it really is no wonder that people complain of pain, in their stomachs is it?

A more serious complaint is Crohns Disease – this is a chronic (long-term) condition that causes inflammation of the lining of the digestive system.

Over time, the inflammation that is caused by Crohn’s disease can damage sections of the digestive system, causing additional complications, such as narrowing of the colon. The most common symptoms of Crohn's disease are abdominal pain, often in the lower right area, and diarrhea, rectal bleeding, weight loss, arthritis and skin problems.

So considering these problems you would think that people would take care of their insides more.

I would like you to read this from a client of mine

“For 25 years I have been suffering from severe Crohn’s Disease which affects the whole digestive tract – the intestine walls become inflamed causing a narrowing of the affected part of the gut. It causes many problems and I was taking 18 tablets a day for this condition – sometimes more.. I have had life saving surgery in 2009 and have been in and out of hospital far more times than I can remember.

At the time of writing this I am almost pain free and I do not take any medication whatsoever. I can only put this down to the Bootcamp Diet which I still stick to 80% of the time. I honestly feel better than I have ever done and I would strongly recommend anybody that has this type of illness or similar conditions such as colitis or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) to try the Bootcamp I went on. Everything goes through our digestive system so maybe we should be a bit kinder to it.

Zara has done for me in 8 weeks what the doctors/consultants have-not managed all these years. I urge anyone to give it a try.

All the best, Be healthy, Alison x”

What an amazing story...... 25 years of suffering, dealing with numerous doctors and so called specialists with no luck and taking 18 pills a day to try and control it and then she meets me, I change her diet and within 8 weeks she is pain free and medication free!!

This statement should speak volumes to all of the people out there suffering, eating a healthy diet can alleviate those crippling pains, surely this is a no brainer.

So which would you prefer?

A. Eat healthy diet, be healthy and have no more painful symptoms and probably drop a dress size in the process?

B. Carry on eating the diet you are currently eating and carry on suffering with pain and take lots of medication to try and combat it?

If you would like any more information on this subject or any fitness/diet relate subject, please do not hesitate to contact me,

Zara Groves

www.twitter.com/ZaraGroves
www.facebook.com/zaragroves1

NEW mini jam-jar favours and other rustic goodies

One of our favourite wedding shops has some new products that we just cannot keep to ourselves!!

The Wedding of My Dreams sells all sorts of lovely rustic charmed decorative items with a section dedicated to weddings and this month there are some new goodies that we'd like to share with you.

Pretty mini jam jar and honey pot wedding favours finished of with red polka dot covers and a little message to your guests.



We find that brides are often looking for a new and unique way to display their wedding table plan and we think that The Wedding of My Dreams has found a great new table plan holder.

Full of rustic charm these wooden washboards make the perfect country chic table plan holder.


Why not pop on over to The Wedding of My Dreams www.theweddingofmydreams.co.uk and see the wedding table plan holder and the Mini Jam & Honey Pot Wedding Favours for yourself!

Happy Planning ♥

Keep Dry On Your Big Day - In Style!

ou may be THE most organised bride in the world with the best attention to detail, but the one thing that is out of your control, is of the course, the weather! And, let's face it, if you are getting married in, albeit beautiful Blighty you can half expect a spot of rain or more!

However, all is not lost, if it is going to rain on your parade, then let it land on a brolly that has panache!

These brollies are so pretty that you will want to keep using it after the big day.

This pretty little number is a subtle shade of soft cream adorned with white flowers.


We love this seethrough brolly! You won't miss a think peeping through this pretty brolly!



And this beauty is a gorgeous shade of turquoise blue adorned with fuschia pink flowers! Beautiful!

If you feel you cannot live without one of these little beauties then you need to get on over to Love Umbrellas http://www.loveumbrellas.co.uk/ where you can purchase them for as little as £12 - £28!!

Happy Planning ♥


Y