Thursday 23 July 2015

Slimming world update #7

I am theee worst person for saying i will do an update on a certain day because i never do and then two weeks later i pop back up :( im rubbish. sorry.

So i weighed myself on Tuesday and i now weigh 11st 13Ibs. I am so very happy about this. I have 11 Ibs left to go till i reach my 2 stone weight loss goal.

Last time i saw the doctor i asked about taking the metformin and how it will affect my weight when i come off it and she said i will have to be careful i do not balloon :( well i was on a little downer after because you try so hard and then to fear it could all come back is rather daunting. So yeah, need a plan in place. When i have lost the two stone i will carry on with slimming world, I don't have any intentions of stopping. 

For anyone who has not read my previous Slimming World posts, i was 13 stone 2Ibs when i started which was 83.8 kg or there around and i was advised by the hospital to lose weight for something i will mention when the time is right and i am now 76.2kg. At my first hospital appointment my bmi was worked out at around 33 and according to my boots digital print off slip it is 29.4.

I have recently got my bike fixed so i have been cycling to work and back which is typically around 12-13 miles depending on my route and if i am going straight home or not. A friend at work suggested i use an app called 'Strava', it is free with in app purchases but it's great, it records my routes and tells me my miles and how many miles i have done in a week and i added my friend, so now we can talk about our rides and compare times. This week so far, i have done 39 miles. I don't tire of riding, i love love love it. It is my version of a car, i just hop on and away i go to my destination. 

what else is new... Oh i finally tried that other slimming world frozen meal i had in the freezer. It is called Hot - smoked salmon farfalle.






I didn't like it at all :(. It looked nice and smelled nice but i could not stand the taste. I am not a fussy eater, i don't know if i have mentioned that before, i will eat most things apart from meat. I only eat fish, and salmon is one of my favourite fishes to eat :( so i was very upset to find this too didn't taste nice.

I'm not saying other people won't like it but for me it was a no go :(. There is only one more left that is veg friendly now and thats the potato curry. I have no idea if i am going to spend what precious little money i have left on it, in fear it will go to the dogs :/ 
let me know if you have tried them. FYI you do not need to be on slimming world to give this a go, or any of them. It is just normal food but healthy and not filled with fatty oils and butters etc.. good for everyone, but not my taste buds sadly.

By now you should all know how bad i am at being good.. Food wise. Usually i'm an angel haha. well the other night a dominos kind of slipped and fell into my mouth with dominos cookies too, I just blinked and boom. oops??!!
And last night i had a hankering for sweets and chocolate (BLOOMING HORMONES), so i kind of ate a share bag of revels and this morning at 6 am i ate a bag of  minstrels (not the massive share bags but the smaller versions of them, not that it makes it any better :/) and some sweets. What is wrong with me? I have 39 days left until my appointment and i am still not taking this seriously. I have not even been back the gym in like 3 weeks. I moan about not being able to afford the gym and that but then i have a pass sitting in my purse and i do nothing, typical beki that is.
I am taking my biking seriously though, the thing is, when i go the gym i tend to use the bikes and walk on the treadmill because i don't like running on them, so i kind of feel like i'm already doing those things daily anyway? and i can't just go swimming at any time as it's only available certain times of the day because of schools and classes- see perfect at making excuses for myself :(. 

Just look at what i had for my lunch when i came home from work today..




Fries, some grated red leicester cheese and onion gravy. Now this would be ok if i measured out the cheese and used that as my healhy option A and made my own fries. Dissapointed in myself today.

Well i am currently waiting for my mum to come get me and then we are going to asda to do a food shop for a soup i am making this evening, it's a speed soup so if it tastes nice i will post pictures and the recipe for you all to try. It is mean't to be slimming and super filling :)..

I will keep you posted. Sorry it's such a long post. see you all soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sunday 12 July 2015

Must read books!! #1

Hello everyone,

oh my days im excited to say that every book i read i will be putting on here to tell you how amazing it is, i won't be giving the story away in any way, i will however say whether it's happy or sad or whatever and who i think the book is more aimed for, and to tell you, or rather convince you to buy the book because it will make your life that little bit better, well they do mine :) and let me just add that i don't get any money at all for doing this, these are books i have read and i think they are that good i need to spread the word.

 There is nothing better than getting lost in a book right? . I find it so hard to read books even though i love reading, for the simple reason that i don't have enough time or i have too many crafts going on at once. I love reading my books when i'm on my daily commute to work, on the bus. I'm always gutted when i reach my stop. Anyway.. like i said the point is to give you my personal opinion on the book and then you can make a decision as to whether or not you want to read it or give it as a present.

So lets start with the first book :)

The secret supper club - by Dana Bate 


 You almost likely won't be able to read the blurb but i have uploaded a photo just in case.


 So i think this book is aimed at Women. If you love cooking, comedy and romance at it's best and worst then why not just give this book a read. 
My mum was reading this and told me about it so i lent her my favourite book and she lent me this. She told me it was hard to get into in her opionion but when you do it's really good. I didn't think it was too hard to get into and have loved the story. I am a chapter away from finishing but it has just got super interesting and i am totally gutted it's nearly over and that's when i decided this would be a good and interesting idea.

The book doesn't ever give too much of the story away so you never really know what will happen next but you are really wanting to keep reading. I found myself to be pulling shocked faces on the bus which isn't ideal because you feel like a total idiot when you look up to feel your face smirking or frowning or even laughing.. Yes i have done that- typical me, and people are looking at you and then quickly looking down to the book to see if they can spot what's on the front cover haha. - The shame!

But yeah i am loving this book and really do think if you are looking for something a little different to your typical love story than give this a go, if you comfort eat and don't have much luck in love then maybe you can relate :), one more thing to add, Hannah sugarman (The main character) is a very independant woman, so if you like books with strong female characters then i think you will enjoy this book. 

I cant wait to finish this and to go on to the next one :D 

Until then... keep smiling :P xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Slimming world update #6

Hello hello hello,

I am so excited to tell you that when i weighed myself on monday just gone, i am now... 12 stone and 3 Ibs which means, i have only 1 pound to go and i will have lost a stone from my starting weight. I am made up, still have a way to go as i ideally need to be 11 stone but i was told i needed to be 70kg which is 11 stone 2 Ibs i think :).

I am really proud of myself.. she says whilst eating a double decker chocolate bar and nearly eating 150g of cheesy puffs -_- haha.
Told you i don't stick to it religiously.

I have found a new form of motivation.. The black board.

So what i do is write how many Ibs i have lost that week, how much i have to lose in Ibs till target and how much in Ibs i have lost so far, and for my own personal use i have written how many days left i have got until my appointment in which i have to lose the weight for :).



It is nice to look at because, although you know how much you have lost, it makes it more real to see the numbers in front of you and feels good to watch the numbers go down.

I have not had much of an appetite this week. I have not been that well. But Darren bought me a couple of the slimming world ready meals and i tried one on friday night and sadly to say i wasn't a fan at all.






I was gutted that i wasn't a fan, as i thought what a great idea for me when im stuck on time or ideas or going to someones house but no. Not for me.

It wasn't awful just for my tastes i wouldn't get it again.
if any of you have tried it and have liked it or like me not a fan please comment and let me know, it would be interesting. The meals are really good sizes too.

The other one i have in my freezer is pasta with salmon in it so i will include that review in next weeks weigh in update. Really hope i have lost weight, looking back i kind of regret that chocolate bar, damn you Darren haha. It was my fault with the cheesy puffs though, i just had a hankering and i am rubbish at saying no :(.


So thats all i have for you this week but i will be weighing myself either tomorrow or tues so i will update you all asap. 

Take care :) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Saturday 4 July 2015

Super quick post to my readers

I am so excited to have just looked at my audience to see where in the world you are reading from.

You have all totally made my year, thank you all once again for taking the time to read what to me seems important or interesting. I would love to hear from some of you about what you do and how you found me so please please comment or email me :).
My audience so far..

United states
United kingdom
Ireland
Australia
France
Poland
Austria
Canada
Russia

I am gob smacked and almost lost for words, but seeing as this is a blog i kind of have to have something to say  :p

You are all part of my blogging journey and whether you mean to or not you are all supporting me just by taking the time to read what i have to say. Thank you all once again.

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My crafting adventures..

So i have pretty much been abandoning all my lovely followers :( im very sorry, I really truley love doing my blog and i still have so many views and i would be so upset to find my regulars have left me because i have not been updating you, so im sorry. But i am here to show and explain why i have not been updating so stay with me..

From the last post i was showing you what i have been up to lately with my craft addiction, i literally have a craft addiction, anything you can make and do i am pretty much researching and on ebay looking for a cheap way of starting out, apart from my soap craze i am now interested in making my own essential oils, I need to take a step back and tell myself to calm down haha. I just love to be creative, love love love it. So anyways..

I am really interested in starting a soap business, like seriously i think i would do so well and it's not often i am confident about myself in that way, or any way really. But i have put a lot of thought into it and all i am trying to focus on right now is finding the perfect recipe for me. My most recent soaps are..

 
Honey and oat soap. These are only very small soaps, typical hand soaps, so not big but small enough to use up in a few weeks and move on to something else :). This soap is completly natural, it has coconut milk and coconut oil as its main ingredients and inside the soap is ground oats for exfoliation and real honey inside which helps to moisterise your skin and draw moisture to your hands to prevent them drying out and then some oats on top for decoration. This soap doesn't have a smell as such apart from the natural soap and the slighest scent of the honey.
 
 
This one is lovely, this is my lavender and tea tree essential oil handsoap. What i found with the other soaps before these (and i have made lots), is that when i added the essential oil or fragrance, i was only using a small amount and when you first use it, it's great because it smells so strong but as it cures over the 4-6 weeks the smell evaporates and eventually you are left with nothing so i went back to the drawing board and did more research and finally found the information i needed and put the right amount in so i will see how it turns out in 4 weeks of curing. I coloured it with a really light green just so it looks pretty, this recipe is one of my favourites for how the soap feels so far :).
 
 
This soap i made last night and cut this morning. Its scented with English Rose fragrance oil and once again i used the correct amount according to a post i read so we shall see in four weeks time.
This recipe is different to the one above (lavender and tea trea), and it actually went wrong on me, it riced on me as i added my fragrance oil but i think it was because i added the coconut to trace. If you don't soap it won't make any sense to you but basically what happened is the soap seized, basically it set far too fast and i only had seconds to throw it into a mould before it was solid, i threw a bunch of dried rose petals on top for decoration. In the photo you can see there are two colours, pink and cream, the cream is the original colour of the soap before any colour is added and the pink is the colour i wanted it to be, due to the soap setting up fast i had to very quickly put the colour in and mix it super fast but it didn't all mix up but all in all i'm actually really happy with how they turned out and i think they look quite rustic. 

And then ofcourse i have been crocheting, Obviously :p. I have still yet to finish the girls blanket i showed you in my previous post but i decided to start on a boys one and i nearly had all the squares finished in one day.





You can't see it properly but that is actually a deep red but looks more pinky there. I'm going to use a lovely shade of blue to edge each square and do a border when its all been crocheted together. I am planning on selling my blankets on ebay, however each time i make one i kind of just want to keep it to myself haha. 

So yeah this is why i have been ignoring you all so i'm sorry once again. If any of you are crafters please comment and tell me what you do or email me and we can talk more personally.

I also wanted to say thank you to my newest visitors from around the world and i really do appreciate all the page views. If any of you who have visited me or who are reading this now have blogs please follow me on my blog by adding yours and i will look yours up to. I have a lovely lady who follows me and she has a lovely blog so please check hers out.

Thank you all for reading and i will show you the blanket when it's all done :) 

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Slimming world update #5

Hello everyone :) 

So it has been a while since i updated my weightloss but im back and i have a new weight to share with you.

Before i do i must be honest and say that i have not been sticking to it as much as i would have liked, when you constantly get told your fat or that you NEED to lose weight it really gets you down and that isn't the type of criticism that motivates me. So yeah i have not been good lately but i have still lost weight and although i say i have not been good, i am still making sensible choices when it comes to food but i am passing through my bad patch and with motivation from my family i am back on track as of today. 
 
I hope anyone that is doing slimming world and reading this stays to plan because if i had stuck to plan and behaved i would be another 3-4 Ibs away from target and i am now behind, so don't give up and please stick to it. Apart from my family motivating me, the other huge motivation has been before and after photos. I will include two here in this post today to show you. I don't feel like i have lost anything but i have and if it wasn't for photographic evidence and the scales i would refuse to believe it.

So here you go, the first picture is when i started and the second is a few weeks ago..

(**CRINGING SHOWING YOU THESE PHOTO'S BY THE WAY -_- **)




I was shocked to see the difference.

So anyways i now weigh 12 stone 5 Ibs and have lost a grand total of 11 Ibs. I am very pleased with this but i am now ready and back on track with my weight loss as i have 8 weeks left this tuesday coming until my appointment in which i have to lose the 2 stone. The lady said over two stone but we will see what happens. So now i need to get my bottom into gear and lose 1 stone and 3 Ibs. I am still seeing a health advisor at my doctors and it's ok, i know pretty much everything they say anyway but it's nice to have the moral support and a little nudge.

The other new thing i can add is i now have a gym membership. Through seeing my doctor they reffered me to the health advisor or assistant ( i can not remember what they are called) and through them i got a gym refferal. I get 24 sessions for 1 pound a go!! how good is that. You can only go at certain times but hey better than full price. So if you are over weight and would like some advice ask your doctor if you have a health advisor in your surgery and ask them for a refferal and ask about the gym pass. I used to cycle all the time but my bike broke and i did not have the money until now to fix it so i have booked that into the bike shop for the 15th july and im so excited to get it fixed and then i will be cycling everywhere as i used to. I can not wait.

So that's all i have for you for now, i will really try and do an update for next week as i am not working as much but i won't promise anything as i have been super busy crafting as usual :), read my next post to find out what i have been up to :)

Speak soon and keep up the good work! You are all amazing and remember we can do this! Dream bodies here we come.....



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