Food, sun, sea, holiday and more food,food,food!

 

 

Hello everybody, I bet you’ve been wondering where I’ve been? I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since my last post! The first week was a bit of a nightmare as I wasn’t very well and the house fell through that we were buying so a bit of a stressful week but luckily the second week I was able to relax as me and the hubs travelled to Santorini  a Greek island with my mum and dad!

 

Wow what a place! Now I love Greece and have always said I’d love to retire over there one day and I think it would have to be here! It is such a beautiful and scenic little island and the views are out of this world!! The sunsets are amazing and not one is the same I would recommend this island if you want a romantic get away.

Now before I left my weight had stayed the same and I was happy with that as all my clothes fitted!  Alas the same can’t be said now as I’ve  put on 4lb! But you know what I’m really not bothered as Mother Nature is a pain and I ate a mixture of food some healthy, some not so healthy but I had an amazing time and wouldn’t change anything from it! The best thing is I had a little bit of a cheat week but I’m now back on track! I was motivated to lose the weight before holiday which I did as I’d lost 2 stone which got me started, admittedly I broke the habit whilst on holiday but now I’m back I’m focussed on the motivation and looking forward to getting back to the habit which is why I believe in the quote above!

Now for my food, take a look at the picture below, yummy right?! Well these were my breakfasts for the week! I know what your probably thinking 😍😋👌🏻😯🤐 but it was so good! Plus I never worried to much as we did between 2 and 5 mile walks most days up and down the hills of Santorini in the beautiful but blistering heat as well as swimming in the sea and pool!  I’m also not a massive water drinker or though I’m getting there but I drank a big bottle over there every day!  As well as freshly made fruit smoothies and fresh fruit juice which you will also see in the pictures below (so I wasn’t always naughty😝) I’m also proud of myself as whilst over there I only had two alcoholic drinks but they are my fave a fresh Strawberry Daiquiri with naughty sugar round the top (but if you can’t spoil yourself when on holiday, when can you?)

 

Now to my main meals again yummy right?!

Like I said I had an amazing week, one I will never forget but I am now looking forward to getting back on track and  setting myself small goals to lose a little more weight. My next goal is to shift the 6lbs in the next 2 weeks and then another 7lb in the 4 weeks after that ready for my friends 25th Wedding anniversary at the end of September!

 

To hot to handle

Hi there peeps hope you’ve had a glorious week and enjoyed the sunshine! ☀️

Let’s just say I didn’t get back on track this week so another week of staying the same weight wise for me! I found it very difficult with the heat this week to get in the right frame of mind for a run, I tried once but failed miserably, and got annoyed with myself and gave up! However with it being such glorious weather I did mange to go for a couple of long walks (as any exercise is better than none) with the hubs later in the evening when it was slightly cooler.  We walked a couple of different routes and it was nice to see other surroundings and now have new routes for my runs! 👍🏻

Eating this week was slightly better than last week!  As I already told myself I wasn’t running due to the heat. I knew I had to choose wisely when it came to eating.  Fortunately in this weather I don’t like eating lots and enjoy salads and lighter meals.  Here are a few meals I had this week and a couple of naughty treats😜

Top left is a home made Tortilla Pizza taken from Joe Wicks cook book as well as the the bottom left picture, this is Pork and mozzarella with beetroot and a side salad (should be with Feta cheese but I don’t like feta) and the bottom right is a Chicken Risotto also from his cook book which was tasty! Mum and dad treated me and the hubs to a pub lunch yesterday so I had the roast dinner you can see and then the naughty ice cream cake for pudding.  I babysat Saturday night for a family member and they left me a bottle of prosecco and some choccies!🍾🍫

Even though I didn’t eat to badly I could tell that the runs obviously help with the weight loss as I didn’t lose any weight and felt slightly sluggish.  I notice the weather is slightly cooler for this week so I am starting again today with the runs 😊👍🏻 as I’m not letting one bad week ruin the rest of my weightloss journey!  I’ve come so far all ready and am happy with my progress and I want to continue along with my healthy eating and weightloss!

This quote below is my aim for this week! I’ll let you know how I get on! Have a fab week everybody! 😘

 

 

New Monday, New week, New goals!

Well what a busy week!  It’s  safe to say that I stayed the same weight as last week!   The healthy eating completely went out of the window this week as I have been so busy and had to grab food when I could as I didn’t prep anything before hand (nightmare!)   I’m now thinking to myself it might not be realistic to try and lose the half a stone I wanted to lose in 2 and a half weeks before my holiday as I’m still so busy but I am going to try to lose something by keeping up with my runs and prepping my food.

However even though I haven’t lost any weight I still went out and brought some holiday clothes and swimwear and managed to fit into a smaller size😊.

I have always struggled with finding 2 piece swimsuits that make me feel confident and comfortable as my shape means I’m bigger on top than I am on bottom.  I tend to find I have to try on different shape and sizes in bikini tops as they all differ and I don’t want to be one of those people who dresses for the body they think they have, not the body they have got and let’s be truthful no one would like to see (myself included) my body in a bikini where I’m hanging out everywhere!

Even more exciting though me and the hubs have brought a house! 🏡 We will be moving out of our 1 bedroom flat and moving into a 3 bedroom house! We are so excited and have our fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly.  This week has been so busy viewing areas and houses, sorting out solicitors, having meetings as well as meeting up with amazing friends partying at festivals and BBQs hence the naughty no prepping! I can not wait to get back on track today!

Somehow I still managed to fit in 3 runs last week and a 5 mile walk yesterday with the hubs making the most of the glorious ☀️.

2 of my runs were my fastest in a little my while which I’m really pleased with as I have been getting fed up of not getting any quicker but I’ve really pushed myself so hopefully I can keep this up!

 

Like I said the healthy eating hasn’t been great but here are 2 pictures of meals I had this week.  The first picture is a chicken burger with sweet potato fries and salad and the bottom picture is a Joe Wicks special Hot and Sour Beef noodles.

This next picture however isnt a healthy food pic and you may have seen this online either on Facebook or Pinterest etc but my friends mum made this at her BBQ and it was yummy! I would definitely recommend this!  I’m not a massive lover of cheese but am getting better (not that I eat a lot on my healthy eating plan😜).

Melted Camembert in bread

Fun with family and friends at BBQ’s

Now I will get back on track and will fill you in next Monday! Have a good week peeps! 😘

Mighty Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well this picture above pretty much sums up my week!  It hasn’t been good at all. Yes I have run 5 times and been on a couple of walks but I have eaten pretty much everything from a Pizza Hut, Chips, Indian, BBQ to biscuits, cakes and sweets!  This has resulted with me putting on 2 lbs! Thankfully I am ok with this as I thought it was going to be more, which I think it might have been if it wasn’t for the exercise!

Part of me blames Mother Nature as a week before I always want to eat everything in site,  but I know I just need to have more will power to say NO to myself.   I’m forever telling myself not to eat it your just bored, or have a drink instead your just thirsty, but no matter what it just seems to end up in my mouth 😱 And as for going out with my family and friends I think I need to stop (lol only joking).  I’ve had a good time with them which is the main thing and or though I have eaten some naughty food I have tended to eat salads for lunch so I have more room for tea but them biscuits and sweets have just been calling my name! 🙈🙉🙊

Running has been a little bit of a struggle also for me at times this week.  I’ve really had to motivate myself to go for it! I think eating the wrong food had spurred me on to run but think all the junk food had started to take its toll and had made me feel tired and lethargic and due to this it had made me run slower than I know I can.  However I am pleased with my Wednesday run as its my longest run in ages , I don’t know what made me run longer I just knew I could, (slightly embarrassing run though as I noticed when I got back my trousers were on back to front 🙈😬)  Lets hope I was running quick enough for people not to notice!  Also you might have noticed the routes are pretty much still the same so I am going to try to change them this week.

We have had some gorgeous evenings in Ipswich so me and the hubs have also been out for some nice evening strolls and finally found the geocache we were looking for that I told you about in my blog “Wicked Week”.  I find this relaxes me and makes me feel sleepy and the nights we’ve been for walks I’ve slept well!  I do struggle with the recommended sleep (7-9 hours) as I need to be up at 5.30 am and rarely find myself going to bed before 10pm, let alone being asleep by 10.30 but I am trying to be in bed by 10.

Now for the food pics, Like I said I have been quite naughty but here are a couple of my healthy teas and a lunch.  I will have more on next weeks blog 😊

Spanish Chicken

 

 

Vegetable Frittata

Chicken Salad

Most importantly always believe in this quote!!!!!

So now to a new week and new start, let’s see if this one makes a difference! Catch you next week.😘

 

 

 

 

Another great week!!

Good morning people! Another glorious Monday is upon us!

So you are probably wondering if I Achieved the goals I set myself last week, so let’s have a little look.

Did I exercise 5 times this week?  Yes I did ☺️

Did I get more sleep? I did! It helps having a Fitbit to monitor sleep!

Drink more water? Epic Fail.  I’m terrible when it comes to water, I’m not a fan but I know it’s good for you and I always take a bottle with me on my runs so this counts right?  Next week I will aim to drink more water!

Lastly the weight loss………….3lb!!! So so happy 😊

 

Above are the runs I did last week.  As I said in my other blog “Weightloss achieved” I was going to run a different route this week and that I did!  However I like to know where I’m going and forgot to plan a route (which isn’t like me) so I just had to make it up as I went along and hope it would be roughly 2 miles which it was.

The route I chose isn’t that much different from the last one but it was nice to have different surroundings to focus on and made me enjoy each step even though one of my runs was in wind and hail 🌦💨  I am also impressed that my last run yesterday was at 6.28 am! Now that’s dedication for you on a Sunday morning!!👌🏻

This week I’m going to try another route and hope that the weather continues to be nice as there’s nothing better than blue skies and ☀️to motivate me more!

So to the food last week!  Again another healthy week even with the BBQ we had on Sunday, as well as some more recipes from Joe Wicks “Lean in 15”.

 Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms.

These were a yummy Joe Wicks recipe, they were filled with chicken and mozzarella on a bed of spinach and tomato. Not overly filling so added half a packet of Uncle Bens wholemeal rice.

Tortilla Pizza.

Another  Joe Wicks yummy meal!

The pizza consisted of tomato purée, mozzarella, ham, spinach, sweetcorn and spring onion . 

Curried Chicken boats

Admittedly this isn’t how the  picture looks in Joe Wicks book (he has everything in the lettuce boat) but still tasted amazing.  Me and the hubs eat a lot of chicken and as we get 5 Kilos of chicken from Muscle Foods we sometimes struggle with ideas of what to do with it (and don’t like to get bored of eating it) so we love looking for different healthy chicken recipes.

Musclefood steak, Sweet potato fries and salad.

My own food but still yummy.

 I also went strawberry picking during the week with the littlen and brought these beauty’s which I’ve had all week.

Musclefood Meat

Lastly I just have to share this picture!  The hubs has a high protein diet and I eat quite a lot also, so we have a lot of meat in the  house.  If you like your meat I would recommend Musclefood as there good for weightloss and increasing protein intake to help build lean muscle.  All of the above cost us £65 and this will last us about 6 weeks so I say this is good value for money and the meat is superb!

Follow my blog to see how I get on in the following week.  I have an Indian meal and a BBQ to attend so fingers crossed 👍🏻😊 but like the quote says above

” The difference between this week and what you do next week is what you do for the next 7 days to achieve your goal.“

Friday favourites

Hello there again peeps, slightly different blog to normal but felt I had to share.

Now I don’t know about yourselves but I wear make up on a daily basis and have yet to find a skincare product without paying the earth that works for me until now.

I used to always cleanse, tone and moisturise but have got a little bit lax recently, I still always take my make up off every night no matter what time but have noticed my skin has become dry, not all over my face but mainly on my forehead.  I put it down to cheap make up wipes I’d been using and not undergoing a proper skincare regime.

Boots No 7 is my new favourite. I use their “Beautiful skin” eye make up remover, it is quite oily so I suggest if you have oily skin to steer clear of it but with a little dab on the cotton wool  it takes the make up off beautifully.  I then use the “Soft and soothed” cleanser.  I needed to use a cleanser that would deep clean and empty out my pores of any residue and found this works well. Again you only need a small amount of cleanser as it glides over your face smoothly when you apply. Some cleansers I have used have made my face feel tight or dried out afterwards but this leaves my skin feeling silky soft.

The toner again is Boots’s “Soft and soothed” range which I also find refreshes my skin as well as hydrating it and hey no more dry skin on forehead! I highly recommend these products and no matter what your skin type there range covers all! 👍🏻

Another favourite product of mine is the “Soap and glory” range at boots. This makes my whole body feel super soft.  Again affordable prices for beautiful feeling skin. Also comes in either big tubs or little mini ones ( great for hols) .  As well as skincare products they also do make up which I have yet to try!  My faves are the hand cream, and the body butter! Again they have different varietys so it is worth going in to have a peruse to see the different ranges and smell the different smells as they all differ and its down to own personal preference.

Perfume

I absolutely love perfume and have 3 favourites.  I love a floral scent, not to flowery as I find this can be over powering and make me feel nauseous but these 3 are just right.

First we have Bright Crystal by Versace this contains pomegranate seeds, lotus flowers, Acajou and musk to name but a few. Prices start from around £28 for a small bottle to around £70 for a large

Secondy we have Diamands by Emporio Armani this contains lychee, raspberry, rose, lily of the valley, freesia, Amber and vanilla. This is my favourite perfume and wear this most of the time. Prices start from about £28 to £70.

Thirdly we have Romance by Ralph Lauren. This contains rose, ginger, marigold, lychee, camomile, lotus flower and violet.  As you can see all 3 perfumes are similar and I would recommend them all. Prices start from around £35 to £70.

Nail varnish

The colours are from left to right:

Skinny dip, Aloha, Bikini, Surfboard, Flamingo and Starfish.

Its only recently that I’ve just started buying nail varnish as I haven’t long stopped biting my nails! I wish I’d done it sooner as there are so many gorgeous ones to choose from like these ones above!

These are the Coconut Infusion range by Barry M. Whilst taking some time for myself I was flicking through a magazine when who should I spot on the back cover but the gorgeous Lucy Mecklenburgh promoting these beauty’s. In boots they were on offer I think it was buy one get one half price and as I couldn’t choose between colours I brought them all (whoops) 😬 I thought these colours would be lovely for my holiday but now I have to choose what ones to wear 🤔

The only colour I am not wearing is Starfish.

Weightloss achieved!

Hi there people hope you all had a Fabulous week and weekend filled with lots of fun things!

Mine was a good week all round if you have read my last blog “Wicked week” you would of seen all the marvellous things I got up to but not only that I actually lost another 2lb!  This = 😊Me!

It was a good week for me exercise wise with lots of clean eating which I will now share with yourselves!

My exercise this week consisted of 3 runs (which you will see below) and 2 long walks with the hubby.  These runs along with clean eating for 6 days and a cheeky meal out on Saturday to a pub 😜on the way to watch Lionel Richie helped with the 2lb loss.

As you can see the time varies on the speed which comes down to my mood or the weather! I have stuck to the same route for the past few months so this week I’m going to change the routes as I don’t want to become bored which is easily done!  I’ll let you know how I get on!

 

Now to the clean eating! Most of you would of heard of Joe Wicks aka The body coach and I swear by his recipes in the books you can see in the picture.  “Lean in 15” is great for me as the days I work, I work long hours, so 15 minutes to prepare and cook food is amazing.  The same with the HITT workouts I find I can do them every day any time of day when I have 15 mins to spare.  Another thing I recommend is food prep, it is handy for me that I get Friday’s off work so after my morning run you will tend to find me in the kitchen preparing and cooking some meals for me and the hubs for the following week! (yes I’m a great wife) that way it makes it easier for me if I get home from work and go for a run or do a HITT workout I only have to warm it up!

The 3 pictures below are recipes from Joe Wicks books! These were 3 of the teas I had last week.  The first one is Chicken kebabs with sweet potato and salad.  The bottom picture on the left hand side is Halloumi burgers with sweet potatoes fries on a bed of spinach( I added the sweet potato and spinach) and the last one is Chicken satay skewers on a bed of rice! All so tasty but my favourite was the Halloumi burgers!

Here are the other meals I had for tea:

Pork Kebabs with cauliflower rice and broccoli

Smoked Salmon with sun dried tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and a mixed salad.

And then my naughty meal out, which we only had as we didn’t have to pay for the main as hubby had points on his Table Table card 👍🏻.  The only other thing this day I ate was a salad!

Paprika chicken with chips, salad and coleslaw and a rocky road sundae (without cream😜)

I believe every now and then you should treat yourself , otherwise you will get bored trust me!!

So my new goals for this week:

Exercise 5 days

More sleep

Drink more water

Another 2lb weight loss.

My holiday is under 6 weeks away and I am aiming to lose another 7lb ( half a stone) so the week before I can go out and buy some holiday clothes 👙.

Join me next week to see if I can!

Wicked week!!!!!

Well what an awesome week! I have been so busy but also took some time to chill. Life is good! Below are just some of the things I’ve been getting up to this week as well as my weight loss journey which will feature in my blog tomorrow!

My favourites this week:

Colchester Zoo

I took the littlen I look after here for the morning and what great fun was had! We had fun walking around looking at the different animals and even stopped for a play in the park and an ice cream.🍦  (Word of advice it is hilly so if you fancy a trip and have a pram or buggy expect a good workout!)

A walk with the hubs

 One of my favourite things to do is walking on a lovely day and me and the hubs are avid Geocachers, (so if you are to we might see u about).

This is a view of the river walk in Ipswich that I captured on a glorious day whilst looking for a Geocache which we couldn’t find.😞

Fence painting

Now call me weird if you like but I love painting I find it therapeutic! Me and the hubs are looking to move in the coming months so are doing some little jobs round the house.  One included putting a fence panel in the garden as thanks to the wind the other broke, but as u can see        ( the taller one) it’s orange where the others are grey so I’m trying to match the colour to as near as I can. I think I still need couple of coats😜

Lionel Richie

What an awesome Date night with the hubs at Colchester Stadium to see the one and only Lionel! (I love a bit of Lionel!) Even the rain didn’t dampen our spirits and we were dancing All night long!😜

Chillaxing

Every now  and then I baby sit for a family friend and once the kiddies go to bed it’s a nice time for me to relax and the family are so good they supply me with drink and food (they know me so well). Another way I like to relax is by colouring and love this adult colouring book!

For my weekly weightloss journey follow my blog tomorrow to see how this week has affected it! 😬

Running the right way!

Whoop Whoop, it’s a good Monday for me as I finally lost some weight! As my followers will know, last week weight wise wasn’t my best due to many things, but I really buckled down and out of the 5lb I put on, I lost 4lb! 😊.  I ate healthily but what really helped me was my running. I went for a run 3 times, I have found not also does running help weight loss but it’s such a good stress reliever and really gives me time to think! (And it helps when the weather is lush.)☀️ My last run was a run/walk as I hadn’t long eaten. (Word of advice leave it at least 2 hours after eating before going for a run!!!).

Also the running helped me as I had a friends birthday meal and a Father’s Day dinner, so with healthy eating the rest of the time I knew my runs would give me a little leeway to have a little treat, and it clearly works as I lost the 4lb and I could still enjoy time catching up with family and friends some of who I haven’t seen in a while!  All together a very happy week which has made me motivated for the coming week and know I can tackle anything that comes my way!

Below is me with some of my friends at the party and sunbathing with the in-laws doggy.

 

Tune in next week to see if I’m “Moving on up” or “hitting the skids”.

My Rollercoaster week!

What a week, not weight loss wise mind you😬 but spending time with family and friends now this makes me 😊.

The weight crept up 5lbs this week due to Mother Nature and a few to many Bbqs and drinkie poos and is a little bit more than I hoped I’d put on.  I am annoyed with myself because I knew where I was going wrong but couldn’t stop myself eating! I’d like to blame just Mother Nature but unfortunately that would just be an excuse!  I just need to not have eyes bigger than my belly!

Fortunately I’ve started this week off  in the right way and gone for a run!  I did get out twice last week for a run and now feel I’ve got back in to the swing of it and will kick my weights butt this week rain or no rain! 👊🏻👍🏻

Putting aside the weight issue last  week in itself  was fab! I’ve caught up with some besties and spent some quality time with family!

I also took some time for me and as some of you may be aware from another of my blogs I had a spa day with my mummy, but also went to the hairdressers for a root touch up and wash and blow dry.  (Is it just me or does anyone else feel a million dollars when they’ve had their hair done?) I also got a little excited as I saw on my friends Instagram account a picture of a make up organiser tray and knew I needed to have one (much to the delight of the hubby, as he’s always finding my things all over the place 😁) and at just £3.99 from B&M knew it was a bargain! It now has pride of place in my bedroom on the shelf!

I feel so lucky I have great friends and family and like the quote above says “Every day is a gift, make it count!” Which I fully intend to do!