September 12th

I’m sorry guys, but I have to take back everything I said about the Biosculpture gel nails! After having them done in red, once my nails had grown to a nice length, I got the Biosculpture overlay in a French manicure. They look great and are good if you’re going on holiday for a week but after a week, one or two of them begin to peel. Not really worth £49!! The beautician told me to stick them down with a bit of nail glue if they begin to peel, but it was quite tricky to do and still looked messy. I’m terrible as well because as soon as one starts to peel, give me an hour and I’ll have ripped them all off! Also the idea behind Biosculpture is that they’re meant to be good for your nails but when you get them removed, they soak them in acetone and then scrape them off leaving your nails looking a bit of a mess. The other method of removing them, the one I used the second time, is peeling them of yourself and as you can imagine a few layers of your own nails comes off with it! My advice is don’t bother with them, and just look after your natural nails. One more thing, as I predicted my Slendertone machine still hasn't seen the outside of its box. As soon as it does, I'll fill you in on the results.

September 7th

I went to one of the Sun Page 3 girls, Melanie Boorman’s, wedding yesterday in Hertfordshire. It was amazing! I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was slightly jealous. It was so special and she looked like a princess. I had the most disastrous time getting there, though. I got up at five in the morning to get the train to London and then on to Hertfordshire in time to get to the hotel and get ready before the church at 2pm. I was, what I thought was, about 30mins away from Euston when I went to the train buffer and asked what exact time the train arrived into London. The lady’s response was, ‘Don’t you mean Birmingham?’ Apparently there were no direct trains to London that day. I then had to get a coach to somewhere else and then two more trains to London!!!! I had to do my hair and make-up, and get changed on the train! Luckily I’d put my rollers in at home, God knows what I would have done if not! I know what you’re probably thinking, don’t I feel stupid walking around in rollers, but to be honest that’s just what I’m like, I don’t give a monkeys! It’s the friends with me who always feel embarrassed. I’m always embarrassing my friends ☺ If I’m in a shop and lose them I’ll just shout their names really loud. Anyway, I managed to get to the church for exactly 2pm looking and feeling slightly worse than I’d planned. I aged about 10 years through the whole journey worrying about whether or not I’d actually make it. Anyway luckily they had endless bottles of my favourite Sauvignon Blanc to help me relax and forget about how awful I looked. It was a great wedding. It was filmed for a programme on ITV, which is basically a competition between four weddings so watch out for it. Oh, and good luck Mel, I hope you win. If any of you see me on the programme, please bear in mind what I said about the journey and the amount of wine I drank to get over it!

Aug 30th

I’m absolutely loving Soap and Glory at the moment. Their products are really good. It’s the sister company to Bliss, which has spas in London and New York and sells a variety of products from the spa in stores such as Harrods. Bliss is v expensive though, and Soap and Glory is a lot more affordable. I once bought lemon and sage body butter from Bliss as I’d read in a magazine that it was Lily Cole’s favourite. If a supermodel likes it, it has to be pretty good. It was a really lovely rich cream but at £23 a tube I didn’t really want to buy it all the time. I then discovered Soap and Glory and their body butters were just as good and a lot cheaper at £10. I luuuurve them and they smell gorge. They come in various different scents from blueberry to lemon flowers and orange, which I’m loving at the moment. You’ve gotta try them! I also use ‘Scales Away’, a scrub for your legs which is great, and ‘Scrub Of Your Life’, an all-over body scrub. They have a few new products that they’ve just released. I tried ‘Some Like It Hot’ thermal scrub. It was the most bizarre product I’ve ever used. I think I had a reaction to it! I rubbed it all over, and as soon as you put it on your skin it gets very hot but quickly cools down. About two minutes later I started to heat up again to the extent that I had to turn the shower onto cold because as hot water touched my skin it made it feel 10 times hotter and felt as though it was burning my skin. I got out of the shower and as usual I’d forgotten my towel so had to run around looking for one. Usually I freeze when I’m on my after shower towel hunt, but this was bizarre, I was roasting! I finally found a towel, wrapped it around me and jumped back in bed. It felt like I had a heated towel wrapped round me. Strange! I used the scrub again the other day just on my legs and it didn’t have the same effect. It heated up at the beginning but quickly cooled down and stayed cool. Maybe because it was the first time I’d used it, the stuff in it that heats up had dropped to the bottom (it’s in one of those tubes where the lid’s at the bottom). I don’t know but it was HOOOOOOOTTTTTTTT!

Aug 22nd

I’ve bought a Slendertone today with the aim of trying to cheat my way to rock solid abs. Yeah right! Worth a try, though. It was quite pricey at £119.99 but if it does what it says, it’s well worth it. They say ‘For a firmer, flatter, more toned stomach, Slendertone System-Abs is a revolutionary and clinically proven way to firm and tone your waistline. The patented toning technology used in the abs belts ensures all of the muscles in the region are toned (including the rectus, transversus abdominis and the obliques) to give the entire area a full workout. Just one 20 minute session with the System-Abs belt is the equivalent of doing 120 crunches.’ Impressive hey! We’ll see. Knowing me it will remain in its box for about a month before I bother to get it out. You’re meant to use it for 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week and it’s supposed to deliver amazing results in just 4 weeks. Like I say, we’ll see. One of the personal trainers at my gym said nothing can compare to doing the real thing. It would be brilliant if it really works though.

Aug 18th

I had such a laugh at work over the weekend. I was working in a club in Wigan on Friday and one in Stoke on Saturday. Normally when I do this kind of stuff it’s purely work and I just want to do what I’ve got to do and leave, but in Stoke I had so much fun! I got pretty drunk and stayed all night. As soon as I walked in I had a huge smile on my face and couldn’t stop dancing. The music was pure cheese but it was great. Normally in clubs you get some bad vibes of people but in this club everyone was just out for a laugh. No-one could dance but no-one cared! Ha. Even the compere and the camera man were dancing away, loving it! Cheese isn’t my kind of thing but once in a blue moon it’s brill. A bit of the old ‘Mysterious Girl’ always goes down a treat and they even played the Vengaboys ‘Going to Ibiza’! Ha ha. I keep laughing to myself picturing us all doing the dance to ‘Cotton Eye Joe’. Yeeeehaaaaaaa.

I had my hair and nails done earlier in the day. My nails looked great. I had a red/orange gel put on. It’s great. I keep looking at them in shock that they haven’t chipped. Normally my nail varnish chips after about an hour but with the gel that never happens. I bought a nail varnish in the same colour so that when my nails begin to grow I can go over the top and fill the gap in. They also do a French manicure in the gel but my nails were a bit short. Now I’ve got a gel overlay, my nails will be protected (mainly from me biting them) and they’ll grow so next time I can get the French. I do like colour but a French manicure goes with everything.

Aug 15th

I’m doing a PA in a club tonight so I’ve decided to get my hair cut and my roots done. I’m going all out and treating myself so I’ve also booked myself into Harvey Nichols Urban Retreat salon to get a deluxe pedicure and the Biosculpture gel overlay on my nails. There’s nothing better than a bit of pampering to cheer you up. My appetite’s finally come back. I’ve written out some wheat-free meal plans, which I’ll start next week in the hope of finally finding out what my allergy is. I’ll let you know after the weekend how my beauty session goes.

Aug 8th

I’m finally over my food poisoning. In fact, I’ve been OK for almost a week now but my appetite is completely messed up. To make matters worse my family and I are going through a stressful situation at the moment. A combination of the food poisoning and now this, means my appetite has completely vanished! The only things I fancy are stuff like Cadbury’s Time Outs and Space Raider crisps! If it carries on much longer I’ll have to resign from writing this blog! I’m really lacking motivation as well, and haven’t managed to get into the gym. It’s unbelievable how much stress affects your mind and body. A lot of illnesses are caused by, or are made worse by, stress. IBS is an example. My digestive system gets much worse when I’m stressed and I end up with coldsores.

I need to start learning to manage and control my stress. It’s not bad situations that cause problems but the way we deal with them. I’m not a religious person but I’ve always been interested in Buddhism. Most psychiatrists and psychologists help people who suffer with problems such as depression or anxiety with something called Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, which basically helps change the way you think. The basis of this treatment comes from the teachings of Buddhism. Meditation is taught in Buddhism and this is another widely used treatment for reducing stress and anxiety. I’m planning to go down to my local Buddhist centre to do a course of meditation. I’m a complete stress head and let everything get to me. I need to learn to relax! I’ve persuaded my Mum to come with me, I’ll let you know how it goes.

On a different note, going back to my entry on the 11th July, I called the number on the Biosculpture website to locate a salon in Manchester and they advised me to call Harvey Nichols. They cost £49 for a gel overlay and every time you want an infill they remove the whole thing and start again costing another £49. A bit pricey in my eyes! I’ve been meaning to call Biosculpture back and ask if there are any small salons that do it, surely they’ll be cheaper.

Aug 1st

I got back from Ibiza the other day and I’ve been bed bound with food poisoning ever since! Ibiza airport is rubbish for food with only a really bad, greasy, American-style café where the food looks like it would kill and a Burger King, which I’ve since discovered can also kill! Well, nearly! Although I hate it, I opted for the Burger King. I don’t eat red meat and I hate processed chicken, but they didn’t have any veggie options so I had a chicken burger and tried very hard to ignore the fact I was eating processed crap. It was HORRIBLE!! I managed to eat half and threw the rest in the bin. Thank God! Imagine if I’d eaten the whole thing!? As soon as the plane landed and the seatbelt sign went off I ran to the toilet and threw up, violently. That was just the beginning, I was then sick in the toilets by the bag collection area, by the bus that takes you to the car park, in the car park and a few times along the hard shoulder! I’d flown to Stansted and had to travel back to Manchester, thank God my friend Amii (Grove, one of the Page 3 girls I work with) was driving. Oh, and have I mentioned I still haven’t stopped throwing up 2 days later!? I’ll write again when I’m feeling better because right now I’m going to have to make a run for the loo. AGAIN. ☹

July 23rd

I’m shooting for The Sun Page 3 this morning and later on I’ll be flying to the party island, Ibiza, for a much-needed break. I’m going for a week of partying and relaxing and as soon as I get back I’m planning to try and detox to make up for all of the alcohol I’m planning to drink ☺ You can’t go to Ibiza with a group of people and expect NOT to drink too much. I’m also going to try a wheat-free diet for a couple of weeks when I get back to see if that’s what’s causing my bloating. I cut out dairy from my diet for 3 weeks around the time I shot my calendar and I have to say I felt much better and stopped getting heart burn and feeling sick. The main problem I was trying to resolve was my bloating, though, and it didn’t improve that. Holland and Barrett do an allergy test in store that costs about £40. I’ve searched the internet for reviews etc about these tests and I think they’re probably not that reliable. Watchdog sent one of their guys to 3 different stores for the allergy test and each one came back with different results. On the other hand some people say they cut out the foods advised after the test and it has changed their lives. It will probably be another dead end but it’s worth a try.

July 20th

I had a great job today! It was at the Lovebox festival in Victoria Park, London. I had to have pictures taken covered - in fact smothered - in berries to promote a new fruit smoothie called Boost. It was pretty messy and sticky but after we’d finished the PR people from Freuds took me straight to a hotel to shower before bringing me back to enjoy the festival! The smoothies were different to any other brand I’ve tried, each flavour had a different benefit. Each one comes supplemented with ‘a natural shot of goodness’ to give you extra energy or protein, help your detox or give your immunity a boost. ‘Tropical twist’ gives your metabolism a boost, ‘berry blitz’ gives your immunity a boost, ‘mango mania’ gives you an energy boost and ‘smashin strawberry’ gives your mind a boost. What a good idea! The strawberry smoothie was my favourite, it was really nice. If you go on the website at www.boostjuicebars.co.uk you can try one out for free. Enter your details and they’ll send you a coupon to get a 750ml free bottle.

July 15th

I’m trying to get back into a gym routine at the moment and I’ve written out a weekly plan: I’m aiming for 2 yoga classes, 2-3 Pilates classes and 2-3 general workout sessions. Today I tried Ashtanga yoga and absolutely loved it. It’s a more intense faster version of yoga. If you’re younger I’d definitely recommend it.