Challenge yourself? Big News!

I like to think I live by the mantra “If it scares you – do it!”

In the past this has been running 10km, flying to Amsterdam to meet a friend on my own, going back to university at 25, so with that I would like to introduce you to my new challenge :

Swimming 22 Miles – The length of the English Channel- for Aspire the Spinal Injuries Charity, as every eight hours someone is paralysed by a Spinal Cord Injury and there is currently no cure.

I have 12 weeks in which to complete the challenge, but I’m aiming to do it in 10 with 2 weeks as a contingency plan. Here’s the scary bit – it is 1686 lengths of the pool and that works out to 168 lengths per week.

So I am a real life Dory – Just keep swimming. I start on the 12th of September and I am so excited to start, just to prove to myself that I can complete this challenge.

If you fancy sponsoring me – I have included the just giving link below just press the button, any amount no matter how big or small would be brilliant. Thank you in advance.

 

I will of course keep you updated with the progress

 

 

Hi internet peoples,

How are we all today? Good rainy weekend where you are too?

Well if you didn’t guess from that introduction its rather pouring down here, its not stopped all day and to top the weekend off my mum has took both my water proof coat and hoodie to the caravan with her. So that means unless I want to wear a huge winter coat thats not waterproof and weighs a ton when wet I have no proper coats to go out in the rain with!

So given the weather I’m currently sat watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix with strong, sweet black coffee, and a Choc Orange Hi-Fi bar. I’ve never been a one for Hi-Fi bars I tried the Rocky Road ones and to be honest they where rather nice, but some people are bar/cereal bar type people and I’m not one of those.

On Thursday though I thought I’d wander over to the “sale” table and have a look for a cook book I wanted, which they didn’t have. I saw the Choc Orange ones and the Double Choc Crisp bars, I’m not willing to give up my healthy B of  bread, I love bread but at 3 Syns a bar, I am willing to waste 3 syns.

The Double Choc Crisp ones where not my thing, they where nice but I don’t know if I would buy more, as for the Choc Orange one OMG! its like eating a jaffa cake and I love them, honestly I could eat more than one in a sitting but I have to be restrained and control myself.

On a side note, I’ve not had stomach ache since I stopped taking the orlistat,  I’ve been eating food with out wanting to vomit during or after eating. I’m excited about food again, I’ve made lasagna for tea tonight with enough free/ speed food to kill some one I’ve also taken to putting bacon and gherkins in it, you guys should try it.

Any way, the next blog post will contain my big news, there are  just a couple of finishing touches to put to it but I’m really excited about it!

LMC

X

In case You Missed It!!!

Well, today was weigh in day and in case you missed it, I lost 3lbs and got these bad boys!!!

Yes you read that right, 2st and my Club 10!!!

To say that I am happy would be a a bit of a understatement at the moment.

Haloween

The last time I went out at Haloween was probably about 6/7 years ago. Since my gran has been ill and I became her career my social life has took a bit of a dive bomb, I dont mind this as it has allowed me to persue other activitys but the thought of getting dressed up for Haloween and spending the night surrounded by drunks when you dont drink does not appeal to me….

This year though, we where invited to a haloween party, and for some reason I was really excited. So i decided to go as a zombie nurse.This zombie nurse to be precise I even had the wig! 

I hate white – I will wear a white vest top under something but thats it. So the fact that this was white, tight and I was wearing a blonde wig when I’m a brunette was pushing my limits. But I thought it would be a good out fit. I really went all out and from the front I looked ok. But there was a picture taken which shows me from the side and makes me seriously hate my self for allowing myself to get this big. I have a massive stomach role / over hang, my chest blends into my stomach and I have about 3 chins.   The last post I wrote how I wanted to lose weight well I’ve now frightened myself into it. That was possibly the scariest haloween I have had in a long time. I cant see another haloween this big. I also noticed that when it was posted to facebook everyone was tagged in the picture but me, and I’m eternally greatful for this.

Restart.

Sometimes, all it takes is one conversation, one chance conversation and you change path.

This is what happened to me. I mentioned in my last post that I had left my Slimming World group, it had never occured to me to change group, but a chance conversation with a memeber from my old group brought this idea into my head. The lady in question for her own reasons had left the original group and joined a new group. She explained that the new group was alot better as it wasnt clique and was a good, supportive group.

What had I got to loose? Apart from a couple of hours sleep on a Saturday morning?

So I decided to give it ago. My boyfriend has recently changed jobs, which means that every other weekend I will be staying at his house and getting up with him early and then only have to get my self up in time for group at 8:30am. Im sure I can do this!

I’ve really enjoyed been back eating healthy, good food, my stomach is less swollen, and less painful. Plus the recipes are always tasty and filling and I love reading the cook books to find something new to try, be it a SW one or a normal one that I can adapt.

I cant wait to see what I can acheive in this group of inspirational people, I’m really excited for a change. Now if only this could be translated into my uni work, which I had little interest in. Its just one module that I cant get my head into the game with. I have to the begining of May to do it – all the peices of work and a 2000 word report, and I cant actually motivate myself. I manage to find any excuse not to do it. I have even cleaned the oven!

7lbs

It has been yet another long while since I have posted. Not because I am not following slimming world, or not wanting to write, there has been so much I could have wrote about but life just repeatedly gets in the way.

So thought I would give you a bit of a update on my journey:

I am currently 1&1/2 stone lighter having got my award this week. I am really pleased with my self, for continuing my journey but I expected that it would be quicker. that I would be at least 3 stone lighter by now. The only person I can “blame” for my lack of weight loss is my self, but I’m not going to do that because we weeks where I have had a gain there have always been a reason for it. Not just because I sat and gorged my face. The thing is I am getting there, when I started this journey I was heavier, unhappier, and every lb off is a good thing, an amazing thing.

Me and my partner have been together a year, we celebrated it this weekend, we had a lovely Slimming world Chicken Tikka curry, and Steak and Jacket potatoes to celebrate. We did go out for food during the course of the weekend but all my choices where good choices and ate lots of fruit during the weekend, this is different to other weekend where I struggle when we are out and about to eat my superfree. I am happy, which means my weight loss is working well. I cant wait to see what the next year brings for us as a couple and I am really looking forward to Christmas this year, last year we didnt give each other gifts as we hadn’t been together very long, but this year we are going Christmas crazy.

I also bought myself a Christmas present, in the black Friday weekend sales (BTW those things are just stupid, people getting injured for a cheap telly, give ya head a shake!)  but I had been considering getting a new fitness tracker as the necklace to my shine keeps breaking, and pushing a wheel chair it doesn’t record my activity on my wrist. So a bit of research later and a chat with the nice lady in the Apple shop, I had purchased a JAWBONE UP24 from boots for £50, which is half price and I have to say that I am really impressed with it. Not sure about sleeping with it on, but then I cant sleep with a necklace on so its nothing really different. I will give you a update once I have worn it for a little bit. Its safe to say that I am going for my 2ST award before Christmas, I want that baby. Its 7lbs and i’ve got 3 weigh ins. So lets go!

LMC

XXX

Checking In,

Sorry about the absence of late, I would like to say I have been busy but that’s not the case in the conventional sense of busy.   I’ve just been I dunno dithering. It took me a whole week to do the weekly clothes wash, that’s not me it’s usually done in a day. Same with the cleaning, I’m normally little miss house proud but lately I’d rather not be at home. There are reasons for this but at the moment I can’t face them.

Slimming world…well I’ve been trying to stick to the plan but to be honest I cant say that I’ve been 100% committed. I have lost 3lbs over the last 2 weeks, but I am not sure how? But have you guys seen the new magazine and the calendar that comes with it? I love slimming world calendars as they show lovely pictures of tempting food that is seasonal, they are recipes that you want to eat. I’ve made loads out of this years calendar let alone the magazines 🙂 and I am so excited  for next year to try the recipes in there. As for this months mag it is full of scrummy food that I cant wait to try. I cant say I have been totally adventurous in the kitchen the last couple of weeks, its kinda been the same food that I have cooked before.

I have gotten good and started to freeze leftover stew and soup so that on nights like tonight when I cant be bothered to cook, I can simply defrost a bag and have that for my tea. Tonight’s offering is Beef stew on a jacket potato – simple but full of free and super free foods so a good filling tea and no syns. They are also good when your busy because you dont have to worry about finding something to eat.

Oh I have found something cool to eat. Let me present the Walls Gingerbread Sandwich. I have worked these out to 8 1/2 sysn but they are rather big and they are lovely. I cant eat a lot of dairy so these for me are the right amount but they are not small and because they are so full of flavour you dont mind that they are not huge. The box cost me £2 for 4, and they where worth every penny.

I have also calculated out that I am currently 3lbs of my 1 & 1/2 stone award so I am trying, and I have my Christmas present to my self to consider, I’m 9lbs off it with 9 weigh ins left. So I need to give my head a wobble and get on track. Its now 11months to my graduation so unless I want that tent, I need to get a shift on.

Positivity.

So I’m not feeling so much like my backside today, I still feel awful though.

I actually managed to get some sleep, at least I slept for longer than a hour at a time, which I think has helped. This was managed by putting a pillow under my back, I have no idea why this worked but it did.

I had a  bit of a mix up today, I was positive that today was the 7th, so I was took by surprise when the nurse called me at 11:50 am to say that I had missed Grans appointment, and had to arrange to take her down at 2pm, what I’d also missed was at asthma check up for me. I seem to be a day behind myself, maybe this infection is effecting me more than I thought it was. So I tried to drive today and oh my days it was painful. I wouldn’t of had to drive if I had got my days right.

 

I have decided to add a new page to the blog, a Recipes page, please take a look. I’m going to post recipes on here of some of the food I make, so that if you see something that you like you can get the recipe for it. Also if you want the recipe to something, leave me a comment and I will try to get one for you. I have not put the syn values on things so please use your common sense, the reason behind this is that it allows slimming world members to get to know how to read a recipe and define its syn value and if some one whos not following the plan wants to make it, they are not obstructed by all this “syn” value stuff. (How many times can I say syn in one paragraph!)

Looking forward to tomorrow, I am going with my mum and gran to get our hair done, which means for me a ever so slight trim of the dead ends. I am colouring my hair tonight, just to even out the tone of my hair as I am not loving it so much. Getting hair extensions put in my hair in Novemeber and I am really excited about this, hence the wanting to even out the tone of my hair. So I’ve got a foam dye, I love them as it always seems to work better.

LMC

X

 

 

Who Needs The Colonel?

All day I have been craving KFC. No idea why, maybe I just wanted chicken, maybe it was something greasy or just a culmination of the both. So I did what any good Slimming World member did and read my books, there where 2 recipes that took my fancy but I didn’t have all the ingredients for one of them (shock horror! this will be rectified) so I had to make the other which was Chicken Nuggets.

Now I love Chicken Nuggets…theres something about them that takes me back to my childhood. We where only ever allowed McDonalds as a treat or for a special occasion and by that I mean really special.  We didnt get the frozen types either so for me they make me feel about 7.  This recipe is simple, you cut chicken breast in to cubes, put it in beaten eggs and then roll it in breadcrumbs mixed with herbs and mustard. Well it was LUSH!

 

While I was eating this lovely creation I was thinking how nice it would be if I could have them with BBQ beans like a proper KFC, so my little brain went into overdrive thinking that Heinz do a Barbecue beans, but is this free? Its not in a normal sauce, so I checked and guess what?

This little baby 

IS TOTALLY FREE!!!!

Now I know what I’ve posted up there looks like loads of food, but at our group we work on the theory of feed your appetite. Well I am starving. or I was, I dont pick through the day, I generally eat 3 meals a day and that is it, I may have the odd piece of fruit but that is it. I could eat a smaller plateful but I’d be hungry and then I would end up eating the wrong things.

So as I mentioned the other day today is weigh in day, I had to do a run in and out job as I had the two invalids at home to look after and had to nip into town to get prescriptions  so I didn’t want to be out too long. I came in 2.5lbs lighter this is giving me a total loss of 6.5lbs in 2 weeks 🙂 Thats impressive, that is 0.5lbs off half a stone!

You can really see that I am losing weight on my face, I usually have chubby cheeks, but these seem to have disappeared over the last couple of weeks, I’m not complaining about this as I have always kinda hated this feature about myself. I always thought them hamster like. The one thing I cant wait to shrink is my arms, but I am dreading it at the same time, as I know how difficult it is to tone arms so cant help but feel that Bingo Wings may be inevitable, considering I don’t show my arms very often at the moment I’m not sure how this would effect me.

Surprise Awards.

So today was weigh in day, I wasn’t feeling it to be honest due to the fact that about 10 minuets before I was about to step on the scales I got a phone call to say my mum had had a accident at work. That kinda threw me into a tail spin. So I was stood in the line talking to the women around me about wedding flowers while half wondering if I should just leave and come back and get weighed at the night group. My mum had said that she didn’t want me rushing through to the A+E dept as her work colleagues where at the time helping her down to the dept (she works in the hospital) so I decided to stay.

I know I was aiming for a 3lb loss, but I was realistically expecting a loss of 0.5lbs, don’t ask me why, I just felt it had been one of those weeks. Well I stood on the scales and it read 4lbs. I WAS GOB-SMACKED. This has not only given me my 1st award, but brought my total weight loss to 1.1st wooooo. I also got my Silver Body Magic Award today, my only regret was that I could’t stay to group as by this point I had got a message to say go to the hospital.

So when I got there turns out that they where just about to take her into be seen and the whole process was really quick (for once!) and she has broke her foot! So I’ve now got a grandmother and a mother to look after and have spent tonight running around like a headless chicken, but I did manage to make the Beef Irish Stew with Dumplings from this months magazine for tea this evening and it was divine, I think celeriac is my new favourite vegetable. I’m still on my mission to try new foods and this was one of the best ones yet.