What a difference 6 months - and 50lbs - makes

Life has been hectic recently with friends visiting, a lot of packing ready to move next week and we're also off to Scotland today for a wedding this weekend & to stay with family for a week :)

Since my last blog post boasting about willpower, I have slightly lost it a couple of times. I gave myself a few 'days off' around Easter when a couple of friends came over & I gave into wine & chocolate, and last weekend when some other friends were over but this time it was one too many vodkas & savoury snacks making their way into my belly.

Despite this, I am continuing to drop the pounds & have hit a few milestones with my last weigh in, including passing the 50lb/3 & a half stone loss marks! Also in my quest to find an outfit that fits me for the wedding this weekend, I have found that size 10 dresses can actually fit me quite nicely! Although my bottom half has yet to catch up, I'm still pretty damn pleased with seeing a '10' on my clothes labels again!

Feeling pretty proud of myself already, I wanted to try & compare me in a new dress to a 'before' picture. Although I hate the fact that it shows how big I was and neither pictures are that flattering, I thought I'd be brave & share it with the world, so here goes...

The 'before' picture was taken in April last year, 6 months before I started the weight loss journey. I'm not sure how much I weighed here but it was around 50-57lbs heavier than the 'during' picture taken on Tuesday. Also excuse the scarily bright white legs.. I can't remember the last time I had them out for the world to see!

I wish I had a better 'before' picture for comparisons but this is the best I could find... I didn't take or keep many pictures of myself before!

Anyway, I'm off on the epic drive to the Bonnie land now where I will be cutting myself a bit of slack with the manic exercising and healthy eating, although I did get up at 6.30am this morning to squeeze in a gym session first! I'm looking forward to plenty of bubbly at the wedding as well as the chippy with smoked sausage that I have to have every time we're in Scotland :)

xo

Where there's willpower, there's a way

Monday 3rd October was my first 'official' weigh in day, and the first day I started properly watching what I eat and hitting the gym.

Yesterday marked 6 months since then and I'm pleased to say I'm still well and truly on the wagon! Other than a slight gain over Christmas, I've been losing between 1 & 4lbs each week - usually a steady 2lbs - and feeling good!

The biggest change in myself is the huge increase in WILLPOWER which has got me everywhere!

Willpower to not buy those tasty looking treats, willpower to not eat everything in my kitchen and to choose the healthiest options when eating out, willpower to go to the gym after work most days even though I'd rather get my PJs on and sit in front of the TV, will power to just. keep. going. on the treadmill/cross trainer/stair-climber (this I'm particularly noticing with c25k with which I ran a full 20 minutes with no stopping yesterday - a new record!)

Sometimes when one side of my mind is telling me I can't keep going or I don't have the willpower to not scoff down a tube of Pringles or a block of mature cheddar or something, the other side reminds me that I had the willpower to give up smoking, something which contains an addictive substance, so I can do this. It's a great thing to look back on to remind myself that I can do anything if I put my mind to it!

I'm not sure where this willpower has come from to be honest, but I'm just making sure I make the most of it while I still have it!

I'm also keeping in mind that in a few weeks I'll be up in Scotland for a week with family & for a wedding so it might be a struggle keeping to the super healthy eating thing, as much as I'll try! So I'm just making sure I'm being as good as possible until then. I'm aiming/hoping to his the 3.5 stone loss mark by the time we go which means shedding 5lbs in two weeks... Including over Easter weekend... So we'll see!

 

Broken muscles

HII *waves*

I'm finding myself with some extra time this evening as I'm having to skip my after work gym trip (shock, horror) because I seem to have damaged my calf muscles :(

I'm not completely sure what has happened but I'm guessing it's a combination of lots of walking, running, cross-trainering and not enough resting. Anyway, my calves felt slightly tender yesterday after walking a few miles to the gym, completing week 4 of C25K on the treadmill and then walking home again, so I didn't go to the gym yesterday but took a long walk in the sun to the beach instead. But this morning as I got out of bed I was in quite a bit of pain and it has been a slight struggle walking all day and prodding my calf muscles hurts too as if they are bruised.

Ouchie :(

Although I don't feel like I've been going OTT, this may well be a sign for me to rest so I am doing as I'm told and sitting here stinking of Deep Heat. Yum. I'm hoping the pain disappears tomorrow though so I can get into C25K week 5 before I slip out of it!

Week 4 was TOUGH so I won't say I'm looking forward to getting into week 5, but managing to complete the last week (JUST) was a pretty proud achievement for me and I don't want to stall now!

I also decided last week while watching the documentary of John Bishop completing his cycle, row & three marathons from Paris to London, that one day I WILL run a marathon. Now, I know this is no easy feat and would take a lot of training - and I'm not forgetting that I am only in the middle of a programme to get me to run 5 small kilometres and struggling to run for 5 minutes straight - I'm saying that this is something I want to do in a good few years from now... An ultimate goal, something for the bucket list!

This is definitely what I look like while I'm running,
I'm not a hot sweaty grimacing mess at all.

I won't lie, I'm slightly regretting this in light of my current muscle pain but the world wasn't built in a day...

First, I need to complete Couch to 5k (which should be about 4 weeks from now) and sign up for the Race for Life 5k run this summer which will make sure I keep running in the lead up. Then I'll go from there aiming for a 10k event then maybe a half marathon.

It's good to have goals, right?

All change!

Everything has gone a bit crazy this last week & will be for the next few months as it's all change for us and lots going on!

At the end of April we will be leaving Bournemouth (*sob*) and moving back along the coast towards our hometown in West Sussex to be closer to family and friends.

It's been something we've been thinking about for a while since people drifted away after finishing Uni and it got a lot quieter & lonelier around here! But it was always a 'maybe one day' thing.

This week I was offered a job at Strawberrysoup in Chichester as their 'Online Marketing Specialist' and I'll be starting there at the end of April, giving us around 6 weeks to pack up our flat and relocate! During that time we have a trip to Scotland as well so I think it's going to be a mad rush at times!

I am really going to miss Dorset as I love it around here so much, but I'm also really looking forward to being around my close friends & family again :) Everyone seems pretty excited that we're heading back! Well, except my dad who I'll be leaving in Poole, but at least that's a very good reason to come back this way regularly!

I also keep thinking about how much I'll miss my gym... Something I never thought I'd feel! I have been there almost every day since October and am not looking forward to having to spend £40 a month on a local gym after Pure Gym's bargain £9.99!

I'm hoping the move won't ruin my hard work weightloss-wise too much but I'm expecting a little slow down when we're first back as things will be hectic celebrating our return, getting into the new job and finding a new home. I'll just have to work extra hard beforehand!

On that side of things a quick note - I've changed my weigh-in to Saturday mornings now instead of Monday evenings and weighed in this morning with a 2lb loss since Monday. I know it might be slightly inaccurate because of the difference between mornings and evenings, but I'm not going to complain! That's just 1lb away from the 3 stone mark! :D

I definitely have mixed emotions about the move but on the whole it's very exciting, I'm really looking forward to starting the new job and a new challenge even though I'll miss everyone at CW, and I'm really looking forward to being around everyone I love :)

Being back in West Sussex should also kickstart wedding plans again as it'll be so much easier for us to view venues and organise things being in the area.

Who said 2012 would be uneventful?? (...Okay, that was me... but what do I know!)

xo

Chatting with a celebrity chef

Yesterday was fairly exciting as I got to interview Michel Roux Jnr for a magazine article!

He was at Bournemouth University for a talk with hospitality students and we managed to secure an interview slot with him beforehand. He was really lovely and interesting - it was a great morning! Of course we talked food (which left me feeling very hungry!), his cheffing family and I asked him whether he ever gets a craving for a KFC bargain bucket... He also told me I was sad for my love of Twitter and shared his experience of Facebook involving a fake Michel Roux Jnr...

Now I need to get writing the article which I'm sure I'll be sharing with everyone once it's in print :)

xo

Over the halfway point

Just a quickie today as I'm trying to be making a weekly weigh in post a regular thing & I haven't done much else...

SO today is weigh day and I'm pleased to announce that I am another 2lbs lighter! This means that since the beginning of my weight loss journey I have shed a pretty fine 39lbs & I'm half a pound over the halfway mark!

I think it's fair to say I'm pleased & proud! ...and wishing even more that I took photos & measurements at the very beginning so that I had those to compare too... oh well, I'm 39lbs lighter & feeling good! :)

Also I started week 3 of c25k this evening - I was dreading it but I survived & weirdly I think I'm actually looking forward to doing it again...

I'm like a different person!

xo

Bridesmaids & babies

Okay so this is a long overdue blog post, but I have no idea where this week has gone & I was about to publish it this morning when the whole post disappeared & I was left with a blank page.... not fun :(

BUT last weekend was an eventful one so I wanted to share!

Friday night I head to the homeland for a much awaited night out with my favourite ladies. Of course this special occasion was cause for a new dress, especially as most of my clothes are looking quite ridiculous and baggy on me at the moment and I wanted to show off the difference I was noticing with my weight loss!

It turns out I am now comfortably a size 14 which means I have dropped two dress sizes!! Big yays! There was a time when a size 14 disgusted me after hitting that just a year after being an 8-10, but I'm more than happy with a 14 this time around! This meant I was looking forward to this night out more than I already was because I wasn't feeling depressive like I usually do about what I'm going to wear out!

The main reason I was looking forward to this night was because I had decided to ask these three very special girls a very important question!

Officially my beautiful bridesmaids!

I originally planned to wait until we had a venue booked before popping the question to my bridesmaids, but then again I originally planned to have a venue booked by now so there you go!

We had an amazing night full of drinking, dancing, laughing & talking wedding plans and the best ever thing was me later realising that I didn't feel self concious all night - a first in a very long time and a pretty big deal for me!

On Saturday I had a surprise baby shower to go to. This was my first baby shower experience and it was a great night! We played games, laughed a lot, ate cake, tried baby food & wondered why people feed that stuff to their babies, ergh!

It was also really good to catch up with lots of people I haven't seen for a while and I had a few compliments on my weight loss which is always nice! People are really starting to notice when they see me, and also when they hug my "disappearing body" as some have said! This has definitely given me a massive boost to continue all my hard work!

Although I did give myself the weekend off a little after an extra good week, I still logged as best as I could and I hit the gym on Friday morning before work & ate well all day to make room for some of the alcohol I was to consume later.... which turned out to be around 850 calories when I logged what I remembered drinking the next morning! I knew alcohol was calorific, but 103 calories in a 25ml shot of Goldschläger? Woah.

But it was so worth it. I knew one not-so-good weekend wouldn't hinder all my hard work... which it didn't! On Monday evening I weighed in at 3lbs lighter than the previous week despite all the alcohol on Friday and a cheeky bit of cake at the baby shower! This brings my running total to 37lbs - just 1.5 away from the halfway point to my goal weight! Still a long way to go but I've definitely come a long way already! I'm feeling massively proud and confident that I can do this :))) !!

Wishing everyone an amazing weekend - I should probably get out of my pyjamas soon & do something productive.... Or I might just stay cosy & lazy until Darren gets home from work & it's time to head to the gym :)

xo