30 Chic Days – The Fourth Series: Day 1

To celebrate the release of my book Thirty Chic Days, I am starting a fourth go-round of Thirty Chic Days the series (you can see my first three starting here).

This time I am going to follow 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 (versus one day blending into the next).

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

What I ate

What I wore

How I moved my body

What I read

My focus for the day

I’m also inviting you along.  If you have a blog and think you’d enjoy doing your own Thirty Chic Days series, I’d love that.  Or, you might want to do a day here and a day there.  Either way, please link to your blog in the comments so we can come and see!

If you don’t have a blog, please feel free to join in in the comments; the more the merrier and we can encourage each other along.  If there is anything else you would like me to log, please let me know.  I’d love suggestions!

Starting with day one:

What I ate

Tea with milk first thing

Breakfast – fresh chopped apple, mandarin and pear with greek yoghurt (not low-fat, unsweetened), raw brazils, almonds and walnuts, a soy latte (homemade)

Lunch – Leftover homemade shepherd’s pie, sliced raw carrot on the side, coffee

Dinner – Curry made at home with diced chicken breast, onion, kumara (sweet potato), carrot and pumpkin with a gourmet sachet of Indian curry, a can of tomatoes and some chicken stock.  Served with basmati rice.  I made a huge batch so we have hot lunches for work too.  Decaf coffee and a store-bought (gluten-free) chocolate chip cookie.

Apart from tea and coffee, I drank water throughout the day.

What I wore

Navy linen/cotton Gap v-neck knit, distressed Diesel jeans, nude patent ballet flats and a chunky necklace.  I had my black short trench-style rain jacket and I wore that and changed into sneakers to catch the bus home.

How I moved

I went for an errand walk to drop off a bank envelope and buy some veges (don’t worry, it wasn’t heavy to carry – I bought *two mushrooms*) - about 40 minutes in total because I walked back the long way.  I also caught a different bus route home and walked the 5-10 minutes from the last stop.  A change of a bus route is as good as a holiday I thought (as the old saying almost goes).

What I read

I read a bit more of The Cozy Life – it’s so cosy!  I ordered myself the print copy because I loved the cover so much.  I know you still get a cover with Kindle but it’s not the same for a book like this.  The author talks about the Danish concept of hygge and how you can bring about a feeling of home to feel cozy. I don't know if it's because I'm an introvert, but the feeling of coziness is really important to me. It's not just a winter thing either, even in summer I can feel cozy and a sense of homeyness by having a delicious novel with me to dip into or my writing journal close by.

My focus for the day

I focused on ticking everything off on my to-do list for the day (five things) and I did it.  For too long I’ve been very good at writing things in my planner to do on certain days and then not even opening my planner that day.  It doesn’t help my productivity!  It felt good to tick everything off yesterday.

--

Thirty Chic Days – the book

Thank you to those of you who have made Thirty Chic Days such a success in its first week.  I’ve received lovely emails and messages from readers who are enjoying it.  I love receiving happy feedback!  Here are just a few of them:

I just bought a copy of your eBook and I'm reading it now while waiting for my husband to pick up a campervan for our weekend away. I'm parked on a grey side street feeling like I'm in a beautiful world. Love the read so far!! – Mel

I love this book! So warm and wise and practical at the same time. My husband is travelling this week, so it has been a lovely evening companion. I've highlighted the heck out of it! :) I know I will keep coming back to it for more ideas, and I will recommend it to my coaching clients too. Congratulations on a very well deserved no. 1 for your wonderful work! – Catherine

And some early reviews from Amazon:

Fiona Ferris has created a fun, motivational book for women on how to live a more joyful and chic life. Just by reading one or two chapters you will feel compelled to get up and start making changes and implementing her unique tips. Fans of her blog, How To Be Chic, will not be disappointed in this rich volume, full of chic words of wisdom. – Jenn

This is a charming book! Fiona comes across as your very chic best girlfriend and offers sound advice for the modern woman on how to make your everyday life more chic. The book can be read from start to finish, or you can pick and choose which chapter topics interest you the most and read one per day. I gained lots of new inspiration from her ideas and they made me think deeper on each subject as to why I might want to implement a change and most importantly, how to make it fun. Highly recommended! – Stephanie

If you aren’t already reading Thirty Chic Days, you can download the first three chapters for free by subscribing to my blog and I’ll email it to you straight away.

If you’d like to purchase, you can download the Kindle version instantly, order the print copy from Amazon, or, if you live outside of the US, you might want to order the print copy from the publisher CreateSpace as the shipping cost could be lower.

Click here to order the instant Kindle download or Amazon print copy

Click here to order a print copy from the publisher CreateSpace

We'll see you tomorrow for day two!