My Christmas

I've seen lots of blogging about Christmas routines and whatnot, so I figured why not!

Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is my sister's birthday. We always try to make it special for her, so she doesn't get over-shadowed by Christmas too much! We do her presents in the morning, then spend the day playing with/using them. This year her main present was a blue violin, which she was extremely pleased with! Consequently we spent the day learning to play it! Later on she had her choice of take away-Chinese. In previous years we would go to the panto, but as sisterbell got older and tickets harder to get, we stopped going. (Which is a shame as I love a bit of panto!) in the evening we have family movie time, which is usually a new film on Filmflex that none of has seen yet. And, of course, this is accompanied by nibbles!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning I get woken up by my sister super early. It's a Christmas tradition from when we were all really small to open our stockings together. We used to do this with our parents as well, but as we got a bit older me and my siblings convene in one of our bedrooms and do it (so my parents can sleep for a little bit longer!!). My brother doesn't do this with us anymore (he prefers sleeping too) so it's just K and me. As we share a bedroom I don't get a choice in the matter! Once this is done, We sneak downstairs to see what Santa has brought during the night, and make tea to wake up the parentals with. usually. This year K couldn't wait so she went to wake them up before going downstairs. This year we did presents before breakfast, K passed the pressies out and we watched each other open them. then we had a lovely continental breakfast. Super yum! 

During the day we explore our presents and use/play with them, and pop on some Christmas TV or films. I also help with the Christmas dinner (sometimes!). Christmas dinner kicks off with crackers, jokes and paper hats. Then we eat to our hearts content! Afterwards we clean up, and have some yummy dessert-this year it was chocolate Birthday cake! One of my favorite Christmas things is having cheese and biscuits with my Dad. It's something we only ever do at Christmas, and I'm a huge cheese lover. 

In the evening it's time for boards games and movies, usually another new movie from Filmflex! with, of course, lots of nibbles! 

That more or less rounds off my christmas. It may not sound like much, but I love it all the same! 

P.S. I was very lucky to receive some lovely pressies this year. I got LOTS of socks I love socks, I don't know why ; a dress, top, chocolate, bath  fizzers, a photo calendar, a photo coaster, money, a necklace, makeup, more chocolate...the list goes on. 

I had a lovely Christmas and received some lovely gifts, and I am looking forward to next Christmas already!!

It's the little things...

That make me happy.

Just had a big dinner of pasta bake with meatballs, (yum) and then mum asks the question 'apple tart or jam roly poly?' I jumped up shouting 'jam roly poly and custard!!'. The prospect of eating a super yummy desert made me so happy.  I just had to write about it.

Clearly I have a food problem. Getting excited about a meal just proves this...

This got me thinking about desserts and what traditional holiday desserts other people have. Surely it isn't just my family that have special desserts... (excluding Christmas pudding and Christmas cake, of course)

Here's a few of my favorite Christmas desserts:

Jam roly poly (duh)

Apple crumble

Cheese and crackers (not technically a dessert, but I have it in the evening on Christmas day)

Birthday cake (mini-me's birthday is Christmas Eve, still counts as a holiday dessert, right?)

What are your favourite holiday desserts?

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Driving Time!

Had a driving lesson today (woo).

I always envisioned myself already driving by this point, but alas, it has not happened. Circumstances delayed me from passing, the main one is lack of funding!

I did lessons about 3-4 years ago, then stopped to go to uni, then halfway through uni I did some more lessons, then stopped because I couldn't afford it. THEN when uni finished I did my theory test (and passed), which brings us to now, when I am finally on the home stretch towards doing my practical test.

The plan is, aim to pass by the end of February, then save up for my insurance, and then insure self on car (provided by Mum when she gets a new one), and be a driver thereafter. Once this happens, I'll be the proud owner of Tullulah, the Nissan Micra.

Happy Days!

If it all goes to plan.

Which it will...

Commutting vs Moving

Why am I doing this? It's still nighttime outside! Utter darkness! Today feels worse than all other days because I'm staying work am hour early so I can make it home in time for my sister's school Christmas concert. Thanks a bunch, sis.

I do actually know why I'm doing this. To get to my job. Which I love (but sometimes don't). To earn money, so I can actually afford things...like my train and bus fare to work, and rent. All of which make half my pay disappear monthly. I don't actually mind paying my parents rent, I'm just whining about money! A lot of the time I think I may as well be living in London and paying rent there. Ergo avoiding the stress of delayed trains when commuting from a distance.

However, (there's always one of those lurking somewhere) it would mean more living expenses of I were to do that. Bills, council tax, food, blah blah... These added on outweigh the cost of living at home significantly. Unless I flatshare/houseshare, which would be difficult if living with strangers, as I would have a frequent visiting boyfriend. Awkward.

I think this will take lots of deep thinking and list-making. And talking to people. Especially the important ones like boyfriend and parents.

Why can't I have teleportation powers?

Gym Stuff

I have a gym membership! woo!

It's a brand new 24/7 gym, so I can actually go anytime outside of my work hours (yay). Only problem so far, is the staffed hours are 10am - 6pm, and I work 9-6, and don't get back until 7:30pm. So I cant have my induction until this weekend! So I cant use the gym until then!

Weirdest thing happened, the Assistant Manager of the gym turns out to be a friend from school! such a small world. (not really, same town) so that was a nice surprise. She's my account manager, so will be doing my induction-more catch-up time!

I always find it really bizarre when things like that happen,  it's like life is throwing you down memory lane...

Work-Related Jargon

I like my job.

It's based in London, and the people are all great, and I'm gaining some good experience. The commute is a bit of a pain at times, but at other times it's great because I can read uninterrupted for an hour! Additional to reading time, once I procure a tablet I can catch up on the monumental list of TV programs I need to watch! (I will list these at another time!) I could, of course, use my laptop. However I don't fancy carrying this around with me!

Another (debatable) good thing about work is the weekly food shop. yay for free food! We order food for the office, which generally consists of tea, coffee, bagels, alcohol and biscuits. (and various breakfast & luncheon items). Now, I love biscuits. I could eat a whole packet to myself very easily. Can you spot the problem? 

I have no willpower. At all. This is why I'm fat.

So having biscuits just sitting in the kitchen is not helping! I'm not eating packets of them (obviously-that would squander the office's biscuit supply!) but it is still so unbelievably tempting to eat them. Om Nom Nom. To avoid the biscuits I am attempting to eat fruit to fill me up. This doesn't always work, as when I am waiting for my lunch to finish cooking/toasting/whatnot I reach for the biccys out of boredom & hunger!

Such a derp-head.

I will never fit into any of my old wardrobe at this rate...

Chocolate

I recently decided to give up a favorite food each month. I have a friend who does this, and I thought it was a good idea, so now im doing it too!

This month I have given up chocolate (until Christmas). I created a table with what I was giving up each month, and my goal weight for that month. I haven't been finding this too difficult so far, however I havent come across any cravings for it thus so far. Apart from wanting a cookie from subway, but only because I saw them when buying my other half's dinner.

I think this will become more difficult as time goes by, especially in the run up to Christmas. Speaking of which, my boyfriend has akready bought chocolate to go in my advent calender. DILEMMA. I need to decide if im allowed to have them or it I have to save them up until Christmas... (Clearly I didn't think this through when deciding chocolate was this month!)

Buses

The past few mornings (since Monday) I've been getting a later bus and train to work-so I arrive at 5 to 9 instead of 8.30. This means getting the 7.10 bus, and the 7.45 train to London. This is with a 15 min wait between bus and train, long enough to get myself a morning coffee and I don't have to worry about missing my train.

Or so I thought.

Every morning, without fail, the bus has been late. Up to 15 mins late. Which eradicates the inbetween time for coffee and chilling out. Which is very annoying!

Now, so far I've still been able to catch the train on time. I'm dreading the day the bus is so late that it makes me late for work (like a domino effect). Now I'm thinking about whether it's worth getting the later bus or not...

5:2 aka the fast diet

I watched a documentary about fasting a while ago, and the health benefits it has. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I did attempt it for a little while.  (It didn't exactly last long though!)

I've seen some more stuff about this diet since, and know of a couple of people who lost some weight through doing this as well as clean eating. 

I'm thinking about trying this again and I've been looking on message boards on  MyFitnessPal to see the opinions of people who are already doing it and what they have experienced. The general consensus seems to be that as well as being a calorie deficit, it also puts the body into rejuvenation mode, which rests the digestive system and assists in your body's recovery.

I think this diet plan can work, as long as people don't take it to extremes-by either going mad on the normal days by overeating, or severely under eating as well as fasting 2 days.

I think I will stay doing this as of tomorrow, and see how it goes.  And really try to stick to it!

Stormy!

Well. The storm sure made life interesting yesterday. Got up for work, left the house, almost blew over. Went a bit further up the road, a huge gust blew so I turned my back to it, and was pelted with stones. Got further a long, another gust of wind blew bits of tree into my eyeballs. Literally could not see! Super watery eyes and everything.

Finally got to the bus stop, and later arrived at the train station. Walked into the station, and there's staff standing in front of the barriers, and people milling about. All the trains were cancelled! Ended up waiting around for 2 hours in the vain hope that the trains would get going again. As you may be able to predict, they didn't.

So I trudge back home to work from there in a limited capacity, checking the trains periodically. They weren't running until after 1pm, by that point it was not worth me going to work!

Despite being a huge pain, this did give me the chance to get through some of my old emails and catch up on a couple of things. And my sister made lunch for me! So it wasn't all bad ;)

Clothes!

I finally got around to organising my clothes into sizes! I thought there would be more size 16's, turns out I have more size 14's! Now when I get to those sizes I can just open up the bags and be like, 'Oh heyyy new clothes!' 

Very Exciting. Graduation and Grad Ball are looming, and I need outfits to wear for it - I did want to buy new dresses for them, then I decided on only needed a new dress for one. Now, I am re-wearing another dress for Grad Ball and wearing smart clothes for Graduation. Ohwell! No point in buying millions of new clothes when I don't need to...

I've set myself weigh rewards, so when I hit a particular weight I am allowed a treat - e.g. Get below 220 pounds, rewarded with a pasty / milkshake / chips. the ultimate reward IS TO BUY MYSELF A WHOLE NEW OUTFIT! Exciting... I'm hoping this will help me to avoid those foods until I hit the goal and can have it as a treat, otherwise it won't be a treat at all!

I'm sure there are more clothes hidden away in the boxes I've yet to unpack, but I think it's more socks and swimming costumes...Need to get on that and finish the unpacking! So close to finishing it! 

New Start, Again.

Back from holidayland! wooo! But of course, now I have to face facts and lose the holiday weight, as well as the rest of my weight! The good news is I lost half a stone before going, but put it back on again. Hopefully it will be relatively easy to drop it off again!

Started the 30 Day Shred (again!) and have made a tracker which is proudly bluetacked to the wall along with a weight tracker. Have also taken before pics, and will be taking after pics, when I finish it! (Which I will this time! I WILL!) Doing this with my sister/personal trainer ;) who is very strict. Mostly.

Food diaries are back in effect as of today, and healthy eating will commence!

Exciting.

I have my graduation in October, and am planning on looking a lot less like a marshmallow. A ton of clothes and dresses waiting to be worn is another reason to stick to this. Also, I don't like being this big! It will change! IT WILL. The End.

I'd like to get running too, but I think I'll need to work up to that again. Most definitely. In the heat though...may end up dying!

I'm gutted that swimming is so expensive, had a blast in the swimming pools while on holiday! Would love to swim regularly, I'd have a better chance of sticking to it if it were cheaper and easier to get to!

To conclude, I'm restarting 30DS and food diary, and I am going to be thin. One day.

My New Personal Trainer...

I seem to have acquired a personal trainer.

She has been on at me for a while about losing weight, and moaning at me about weigh-ins and reminding me that my holiday is coming up.

She broached the subject of food diaries which we are now doing every day.

Today she forced me to do a workout (30DS) even though I was tired and wasn't really up for it.

She has also decided that we will now be drinking green tea as it is good for you.

As well as all this, she informed me that when I get a job I will be buying Shakeology/protein shakes for us and doing more workouts.

She also lives with me.

My (not so much) Baby sister has transformed into my own personal demon!

Life and other stuff

Officially moved out of uni and finished all education! finished with a 2:1 which was a very awesome surprise!

So, as you can imagine I've been very busy with packing and moving and working. I got a job that started as soon as I moved back home, doing door to door selling. Now, I was a bit dubious about doing this but decided to give it a go anyway and hey - exercise, right? I lasted a week, left on friday. Not something for me, I believe you need to have the gift of charm and likability to do door to door, as well as being able to not take it to heart when people say no to you all the time and slam the door in your face. Its a hard, draining job which I didn't feel was for me, but I do admire those who stick to it.

Now I am an unemployed student, one of many! Hoping things will pick up soon.

One downside of quitting is missing out on the exercise I was getting. To rectify this, I have started doing the 30 Day Shred again! I'm doing this with my sister, alongside food diaries to keep track of what we are eating! The last time I did 30DS was in February, just before I hurt my ankle and ceased all exercise for a while. The next couple of weeks are going to be a strict regime up to my holiday (soo excited) and I'm hoping to lose a significant amount!

Holiday Countdown: 14 Days

Splish Splash

Went swimming at the beginning of the week! I always forget how much I like swimming until I do it again.

Now I am getting ever closer to moving home, I suddenly realise that I have wasted cheap opportunities to swim. It costs £1.55 to swim where I currently live. (this is after buying a special card for £3.something to get reduced prices-available to students, OAPs etc) The closest swimming place back home is £4.60 to swim! Eep! A big difference to what it costs me at the moment!

Regardless of this realisation, I swam 18 lengths, which is just over a 1/4 mile. Doesn't sound like a lot, but for an unfit girl like me with no arm strength, it's a lot! Let's hope I find a job back home so I can continue to swim ;)

YumYums!

Stayed with my Bessie recently, and she made the most confusing cookies.
They were protein gluten-free cookies. And they tasted GREAT.

The recipe: Click Here!   

very yummy, and low on saturated fats. high on protein, so they are great for an after-gym treat!

Close Friend/Worst Enemy?

Oh heyyy!

I was thinking a lot today about me, and my weight, and how I react to friends trying to help me with this. Friends (and boyfriend) who are intending to help by making comments like 'should you really be eating that?' when I'm contemplating something yummy can sometimes have the opposite effect. Especially if I am feeling naff about myself already, and their comment just highlights it and make me feel worse, then I overeat anyway because I am an emotional eater. Vicious cycle.

Therefore, I humbly request that my friends, family and boyfriend no longer comment about things like this, and allow me to do this my way. I want the weight loss to be my achievement, something I did myself. Granted, not all of my friends make comments like this, and some are great to chat to about weight ETC, but at times I just feel like saying...if I don't ask for your opinion, then please don't comment on my choices. KTHANX.

End of an Era

Uni is finished! Forever! 
AAAAAHHHHHHHHH

Slowly starting to pack up my things, and it dawned on me that if I were to hang up all of my clothes in a wardrobe, I would need three wardrobes to fit everything in. so much stuff that I'm keeping for when I lose weight!

Such a dilemma.

I know the obvious answer is to throw out/give away everything, but I don't want to! Some of it has never been worn, or worn rarely! Can't be throwing stuff out that I'll need again! Wasteful!

Mum is going to kill me.

Natural Cleanse and Lipo Slender

These products are a waste of time! They don't work, and make you ill. BooHiss!

I was skeptical of them anyway, so it's good to know my instincts were right about them. Made me a very unhappy camper.

Green Coffee and Natural Cleanse Review Update!

In my last post I said I would keep you updated on these pills.

Well, I had to stop taking the natural cleanse tablets. The directions say to take them twice a day, with water preferably before eating. So I did this for about 4-5 days, and the effect was pretty swift. It was like bulimia of the bottom. NOT a healthy option! I cant help thinking no wonder people have lost so much weight on these pills, they are abusing tablets to flush the food out!

However, These are good for short-term use. I would suggest no longer than 2-3 days, as after that the effects are not particularly nice, or comfortable.

I stopped taking the green coffee bean pills at the same time, to let my self recover, and have starting taking them again today. I shall update you with the effects of the green coffee bean extract pills on their own!

Lipo Slender & Natural Cleanse

Good Evening all.

Today I started taking Lipo Slender and Natural Cleanse. Lipo Slender is a green coffee dietary supplement. It boosts metabolism, suppresses appetite and has antioxidants in it. Natural Cleanse is basically a detox pill.

I did not spend much to get these, if they were expensive I wouldn't have bothered!

Going to update my blogs with info about these, and whether they work or not...I'm a little sceptical to be honest, but who knows...

So Far So Good...

first weigh in of the 18 week plan and I've lost 2 pounds. All is going according to plan! Big yay.

Hoping I can keep it up. I really want this. I want to look good, and feel good about myself.

I have such narrow clothing options at the moment because I look awful in everything. Not something that would make anyone feel good about themselves. But hey ho.


I'm looking forward to summer arriving, by the looks of things dungarees and overalls are in for spring/summer. I quite like dungarees, they're quirky.

Cankles!

I have fat feet. I was taking pics of my ankle to see if it was still bruised and swollen from spraining it last month and I have feet that just look awful. Fat lady feet.

So unattractive, and look horrible in shoes, which are a love of mine.Gutted.

Super sleepy after a mega library session that lasted all evening and night, and being awake all day today too.

I need to get rid of my cankles before my holiday. no flippy flops for me otherwise.

Speaking of my holiday, I bought a swimsuit last year which is 50's style, red with white polkadots. This was a tiny bit small when I bought it, but totally wearable. I want to be able to fit into this comfortably. that may end up being half way to my holiday, but that's okay because I can wear it swimming while it fits and hopefully end up with it being too big for me by my holiday! I will of course mourn the loss of a really nice bathing suit, however being too small to wear it will overshadow any sad feelings by a long shot.

Stress, life, update

Hello world!

About time I did a proper blog rather than a random pictures one, or no blog at all!

I've been SO Busy recently. Shows, Uni work and my job all coming before health and fitness. But as it's my third and finial year I hope you'll forgive me.

Super stressful couple of weeks, of course that meant that I've found it really hard to eat healthily. Binge Binge Binge. After tomorrow I will be past one of my biggest deadlines EVER, for better or for worse, so I am hoping to get back into a good healthy routine.

I have 18 weeks until I go on holiday. My aim is to hit 180 pounds by then, I estimate that will be 1-2 dress sizes. Exciting, right? New (old) wardrobe time! All I have to do is lose 2 pounds a week. I need to stay focused and GET IT DONE.

Speaking of getting it done, I have an assignment to finish.

Photo spam!

Enjoy some random photo spam! :)

This one makes me laugh :) 

Goals!

I wanted to post about my goals, hopes and aims. And moan a little.

I want to be slim and healthy.

I'd love to be a dress size 8 or 10.

I want to look good.

I want to feel comfortable in my skin, and not worry about being too big all the time.

blah blah moan moan you get the picture.

I am going on holiday at the end of July, so I have just under 6 months to get an acceptable beach body. 168 days! 24 weeks. I really want to do this, I would love to have holiday pictures I can look at without being too embarrassed to look at. I don't want to hate how I look any more.

I hate that weight loss takes time. It gets me down because I feel like I'm working hard and not getting anything back from it. It's irritating that it isn't instantaneous. I want to be skinny NOWWWWW not months down the line!

It's hard work, especially hard when all my close friends are super skinny. TIRED of being the fat friend.

So now I've moaned and vented a little I'll get round to posting about specific goals at some point. hope your ears aren't bleeding from my whining. Enjoy.

Jillian Michaels 30 day shred

Reviews on this workout DVD have been pretty amazing, and there are a bunch of videos on Youtube with great results too. I decided I wanted to do this, so I bought a box set of 4 Jillian Michaels DVD's which includes the 30 day shred. It hasn't arrived yet but level 1 is on Youtube, so until it comes I'll be using that.

I'm hoping to see my clothes get looser by the end of it. I've taken my measurements so I can compare at 10, 20 and 30 days. I also took a frightening picture of myself, if there's a big difference at the end I'll post!

I'm looking forward to getting on this and powering through. Today is day 2 for me, and I ache, but not so badly I cant move so...we shall see what tomorrow brings!

Swimsuits....BLARGLFKJDFLKLWF

Swimming costumes are so unattractive unless you are in good shape.

Whenever I wear my swimming costumes I feel like a heffalump, and definitely just focus on all the lumps and bumps that are in the wrong places. Sometimes I think you may as well swim naked because you see your whole shape through them anyway! (Having said that, I am glad people don't swim naked. Inappropriate much?) I think it makes getting yourself to the pool that much harder because you don't feel comfortable.



They're marketed as either athletic, or sexy. They look good in the pictures-on the models-then when you buy it and put it on for the first time, you expect to be transformed into either a beach babe, or an athlete. Thought process: 'that looks good, if I buy this I'll look like that!' That doesn't happen! But we fall for it every time. I say we, I mean me, and hope that I'm not the only one.

Click to find my less vain approach to exercise and weight loss

Something to aim for...

This is a size 14 dress that I have never worn.

I would love to wear it, I'm hoping that the next time I go home I will fit into it. If I manage to drop a dress size by my birthday, I should fit into it shortly after that. 

When I fit into it I really want to get lots of wear out of it!

you can follow my weight progress more closely here 

Mountain of Clothes!

 While I've been at home I have tried to hunt down the many bags of clothes I have hidden away from the world. I think I was pretty successful, but I have a funny feeling I may have missed one or two!

 Tops, Jeans, Skirts, Trousers...

 Dresses, tops, trousers, jackets...

As you can see There are a lot of clothes. As well as the piles at my Uni flat!

Uni flat pile : 

My goal is to drop a dress size by my birthday (mid Feb) I have a few items to aim to get into as motivation, I'll post pics of those soon!