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

Thirty-four (ask for more)

So it's Monday which means WEIGH DAY

This week I have managed to lose a total of 4lbs!! Which brings my total to 34lbs & well on track to hit 35 by my girls night out on Friday :) too excited!!

I am suuuuper pleased with this, I was thinking this aim to get to 2 & a half stone on Friday was a bit over-optimistic but it's definitely doable now :)

Im so motivated right now as I'm really noticing the difference with myself & the pounds really are dropping off :) I'm also feeling really proud of myself because I know I'm doing it in a good & healthy way, not using some fad diet or starving myself!

I'm going shopping tomorrow evening (yay payday!) for some presses & bits so I might see what the clothes shopping/size situation is like & maybe treat myself to something new :)

I started the Couch to 5k programme today which I'm really hoping will get me into running - I'd love to be one of those women running along the seafront elegantly, wind blowing through my hair.... Ha! Anyway, this programme seems really good because it eases you into running 5k, or for 30 minutes as you can measure by time or distance. I'll keep you updated with how it goes!

I'm off to get an early night now, as the fiancé is out clubbing & I have an early morning tomorrow hitting the gym to make time for shopping after work!

Sleep tight :) x

 

A toast to Pancake Day

Is anyone as fed up as me with hearing & seeing the word 'pancake' today!? I thought so. So let's talk about jam doughnuts and bread instead.

I've been craving a sugary jam doughnut for what feels like YEARS so I'm pretty sure I'm going to crack soon... but seeing there's around 300 calories in one is off putting as that's more than most of my breakfasts or lunches! This is why the food logging thing is so good for me - it pushes me to make good choices with getting the best and most out of the food I eat.

Anyway, I'm sure when I finally give in to the jam doughnut craving it'll be AMAZING (or really disappointing, but let's hope it's the first one!) Just like how it is going to feel at the end of Lent...

The fiance and I have decided to attempt giving up bread for Lent this year. 'THAT'S MADNESS' I hear you say! I know this, but I can be a little mad sometimes. But there's no point of giving up something that will be easy for you, is there? Because bread is one of the things both of us can go a bit OTT with, so it's a good excuse to prove to ourselves that we can go without it. It's not going to be an easy ride, but I'm hoping at the end of it we will reduce the amount of bread we would go through. I gave up cheese a few years ago for lent which was incredibly difficult for me, but I was proud of myself for doing it and it managed to break my habit of covering practically every meal with cheese!

So instead of Pancake Day, I am renaming today 'Toast Day: The day when Darren & Hayley stuff their faces with buttery, marmitey and maybe even some jammy toast before being deprived of bread for 46 days' (Sundays do count in my eyes!)

But first I must burn some calories to make some room for this carby blowout - to the gym!

Ooh, while I'm here - weight loss things are going well. Despite becoming increasingly bored of the gym (I must start some classes soon), I'm still working out most days and now I'm getting into the habit of taking a brisk walk to Sandbanks beach and back most lunch breaks!

As of yesterday I am now 30lbs lighter than when I started this journey! Yay! I'm aiming to get to the 2 & a half stone/35lb mark by Friday 2nd when I'm going out with some of my besties from the hometown.

Have a great evening, pancakes or not!

x

Two hearts set on two venues and hitting the two stone mark!

I have been a busy bee the last couple of weeks so while that means I have plenty to blog about, it also means I haven't had a chance to actually blog which is just unacceptable!

The last time I posted I was on my way to view our first potential wedding venue out of 7 that weekend. Unfortunately, almost two weeks later, we are still no further with our plans. In some ways it feels like we have gone backwards as we don't even have any options to look at anymore.

We fell in love with 2 particular venues which was all really exciting at the time as I was imagining myself walking down the aisle, having our photos taken and enjoying our wedding breakfast in these gorgeous buildings.... Until reality hit and we realised that we really can't afford a total of above £10,000 for a venue and food (unless we maybe don't bother with a wedding dress, suits and everything else a wedding involves). We even toyed with the idea of getting a loan for part of the wedding, but (luckily) we talked ourselves right back out of that one!

Although this realisation was quite a downer after being so happy with the venues we loved, we had a good talk about it and decided that as much as we want a 'wow' venue, even if we could stretch to the price, it's probably not worth it just for our guests' first impression. We would rather spend more on entertainment and those little extras we have in mind to make it a memorable night!

The other venues we visited that weekend weren't so expensive, but they were very 'meh' in comparison to the two we had our hearts set on. So it's back to the drawing board on that one! If anything, we have a better idea of what we both want and what we don't want, so hopefully we'll find something soon.

It is getting slightly irritating that we still haven't got anywhere for a venue as planning everything else has to wait! We also still haven't even told bridesmaids/best man/ushers that we want them in our wedding as I wanted to wait until we had a date and venue set in stone, although I might crack soon!

IN OTHER NEWS...

Despite a slight hiccup that weekend in Bognor (which included a lot of vodka & pizza, but we'll forget about that!) I am kicking ass at this weight loss/fitness thing at the moment - even if I say so myself! Last week after hitting the gym every day and sticking to my calorie allowance, I achieved a loss of 4lb which took me to the 2 stone mark!! I'm am really pleased with myself and it has given me even more of a motivational boost to keep working hard to lose the pounds!

Gym tonight & then chili cheese fries for dinner (before you raise your eyebrow - Quorn mince, plenty of tomato, homemade baked chips & just a sprinkle of low fat cheese!) I've already totted this up in My Fitness Pal and it's not all that bad... and I'll be working for it!

Another day, another hole

Earlier this morning, we thought it would be a great idea to drag ourselves out of our nice warm, deflated airbed and brave the freezing Bognor seafront for a short jog.

I am really no good at running so it was more a jog-walk scenario (that's interval training right!?) as the icy air grabbed hold of and squeezed my lungs.

After getting back and managing to breathe again, I do feel pretty good annnnd I've definitely gone down another belt hole! Nice :)

We're now on our way to view the first of 6 wedding venues we have booked to see over today & tomorrow... exciting!