Sale Agreed!

 Yay! This went up this morning.

SALE AGREED

Busy and exciting times ahead.

Birthday Wishes.

Today is Mr dots and spots birthday - we started off the morning with our first run together!!! 

He was impressed so feeling a little proud of myself!

 We opened his pressies at lunch time as Sophie had had a friend over for a sleepover and the morning just vanished - all wrapped in some great paper lol!

I've spent the day in second heaven on Pinterest, gathering ideas for the house move. I've been pinning all these wonderful ideas and images for years, so now is the time to put them all to good use. The hall in our current house is small so I want to create a lighter, brighter, more spacious hall in the new house.

I've also always dreamt of a large family kitchen/diner with doors leading straight out into the garden. It will involve taking down a wall but it will be do-able and I can not wait x

So many ideas!!!

Friday weigh-in!

Yay! another 1 and a 1/2 pounds off for me this week.

I'm pretty pleased with that considering my meal out last Saturday, my mini egg consumption, a few 'chip shop' chips last night and a mouthful or two of Sam's brownies. It was all within my weekly syns, so although I felt naughty it was all allowed on the plan!

My jeans really tell the story - what a difference between my size 18 jeans I wore in the magazine feature to my size 8's I can wear today - 5 stone difference in weight too!!!

( egg based mushroom pizza)

As I show with my weekly food pic at the top, you can see I eat well and can lose weight too. I guess I just eat the right food now but can still have the odd treat - all in moderation!

Sam's Chocolate Brownies have been a test of my willpower. He has cooking last lesson of the day, so I first have to endure a 15 minute car journey with the torturous smell of warm brownie's all the way home. You can see where he nibbled a corner in the car!!. They then have to go back into the oven to finish cooking as he always runs out of time at school, so the smell then lingers in the house. I then have a bite to taste and sit at the table and watch everyone else have them for tea with cream and ice-cream. I have planned them into my syns today so I can treat myself to a slice with my evening coffee. I guess I enjoy it more now it's a treat to look forward to and I savour the taste as I know it's a one off and it'll be a while until I have it again.

Well the kids break up today for Easter, I intend to do my best to stay'on-plan' and not be tempted by the enevitable treats that'll be around. I shall busy myself with de-cluttering and get out running as much as I can.

Have a lovely weekend and here's hoping the sun will shine x

MOVING ON!

What a week!!!

Following on from our weekend viewings, we had an offer made on our house Monday morning, which we accepted! After a frantic evening on RightMove with no houses available, Tuesday morning the house below came on the market. We viewed in on Wednesday lunch time.......

....liked it, made an offer which was accepted, so it looks like we are all systems go!!!!!

It's going to be a project - lots to do to make it my taste and style - wall papered ceilings for one!!

But it is just a 2 minute walk for Jeff to work and it ticked all the boxes we were wanting, so fingers crossed everything goes according to plan and we may well be in for the start of Jeff's Summer holidays x

Exciting times xx

Wonderful Weekend

What a way to start the weekend - first breakfast of the year outside in the sunshine!

Jeff had to work and we had 3 house viewings booked, so it was a good job Sophie, Sam and I were heading out to Bristol for the day. First a little shopping then ZaZa Bazaar - an eat all you can for £9.99!!! Not a great place when on a diet but good on the other hand, as I could have just one of everything and beat the craving!

I made the best choices I could, given there was temptation all around me. I'd planned to go up just the once but the plates were actually quite small so I had 2 rounds. Pudding was very hard to resist - I'd planned to have the fruit platter but there was only pineapple and orange on offer, so did have a sneaky couple of treats too which were worth every syn!! I'm not going to let my little treat take me off-plan though, I'll just syn accordingly and lower my daily syns for the rest of the week.

We then headed off to the Hippodrome to see WICKED! which simply was WICKED! Such talent! I absolutely LOVE musical theatre and we're so lucky to have the Hippodrome so close. Have booked to see Mary Poppins in November - it was the first show that Sophie went to see when she was about 5, so a  good excuse to go and see it again.

So this morning I woke early and went out for a run - a little damage limitation for yesterday. I'm quite chuffed with how well I'm doing - I'm focusing on the pace and today, I actually ran a huge chunk in one go, nearly 3k without walking so big improvements.

By getting my 3 and 1/2 stone award this week, I am now officially 

HEALTHY!!!!!!

This has always been my focus, to get into the healthy BMI band and I am there. I want to get a little further down the green bit - so I have a little buffer once I hit target but this really makes me sooooooo very happy. The first time in over 18 years that I have been healthy!

Enjoy what's left of the weekend x

Friday weigh-in!

So a 1 and a 1/2 pound loss for me this week means......

....I also got my long awaited for 3 and 1/2 stone award - Yay!

I'm so chuffed!

I run over 15k this week and enjoyed two exercise classes and been introduced to the 'plank'!

 I've decided on my final TARGET weight too, so a great positive week.

Have a fab weekend - I'm having a day out in Bristol tomorrow with Sophie and Sam - it may well test me on the SW front but I'll report back how I get on!!

5K here I come!!

YAY! I've run 5k and twice now and today I managed to go a little faster than the time before.

Now I can run the distance, it's all about speeding up a little by June the 14th. 

I want to 'run' the Race for Life and in a reasonable time too.

I'm continuing to eat fabulous healthy food and am desperately hoping I'll see a loss on the scales this week from all my efforts. I'm just a pound away from my next award and my Target weight is getting ever closer. I have found the whole 'slowing down' very frustrating but I also recognise I won't be changing what I'm doing when I get to target anyway, this is me now forever.

Happy Mother's Day

I enjoyed a lie-in this morning - the joys of having older children.

Breakfast was a delight too - the first croissant I've had in 6 months and boy did it taste good.

I was spoilt by my lovely family x

Being a Mum is the best and I love my two to pieces.

Of course I wish my lovely Mum a wonderful day, treats have been sent in the post. 

It's also a day to remember Jeff's fabulous Mum, who is sadly no longer with us x

I have no plans for the day but to spend time with my lovely family.

Hope you have a lovely day too x

Run, run.......

....as fast as you can!

Quite proud of myself this morning, rather than have an extra 30 minutes in my lovely, warm, comfy bed, I decided to go out for a run. Run number 2 and with my 'Map my Run' app, I was able to record my route, distance, time, pace, calories burned etc. I was pretty chuffed considering I'm not really a runner! I'm going to try and get it up to 5k and then work on speeding up a little because.....

....I have signed up for the Race for Life, Bath 5k in June.

I want to be able to run it and run it well!

My motivation is my own personal health and fitness and having a goal to work towards will make a huge difference and I will be running alongside my fellow Slimming World friends on the day. I'm also doing it in memory of Daphne - Jeff's Mum, who was cruelly taken far too early by cancer nearly 8 years ago now. She was a wonderful woman who I miss dearly x

So I've set up a Just Giving page - if you'd like to donate that would be fantastic and if not, no problem.

You can find me HERE

This will be me on the day!!

I actually can't wait!

Wish me luck!

Friday weigh-in!

So another half a pound off for me this week - I'm a tad disappointed but know everything is slowing down. I'm just impatient to get to where I want to be!

A healthy BMI has always been my focus and I'm so nearly 'healthy', but ideally I want to be a bit further into that green bit too.

I do remind myself of the bigger picture and actually found this photo last night taken a year ago March and then of course a photo taken just the other day. What a difference a year makes!

So I continue to plod to my target eating delicious healthy food and introducing some much needed fitness and exercise into the mix.

Have a lovely weekend.

Keeping motivated!

As my weight loss slows into the final phase, rather than obsess over the numbers on the scales (which I do!), I've decided to focus my attention on getting fitter and more toned. 

I've been and 'investigated' other forms of fitness, as per my March goals and have signed up for a Legs, Bums and Tums session tomorrow. Quite a big deal for me who hasn't done an exercise class in 20 years! As a result I've been to Bath today on a mission to find a good sports bra. I've gone down from a 38 to a 34 which made it a very expensive morning, as I ended up getting fitted for an everyday bra too!

I even went out for a run yesterday - the first in a year and surprised myself by how much I could run and how good I felt after it, although my legs ache today, it was much easier 3 and 1/2 stone lighter. Last time when I suffered terrible shin splints I was trying to run every day, I've decided to run no more than twice a week, do 2 exercise classes a week, continue with my walking and when the Lido opens in late May, add that into the mix too.

I've had to buy new leggings and tops too - I tell you it's expensive losing weight and having to buy all this new stuff! Although saying that, I wouldn't turn back the clock and go back to how I used to be. 

 Jeff and I had to go out for drinks on Monday night and for once I felt comfortable and confident wearing my size 10 trousers and little Toast jacket.

As you can see, I by no means starve myself and even enjoyed lunch out in the garden yesterday.

So no more worrying about what the scales say - what will be, will be. It might take me a little longer than I'd like to get to Target but I will get there eventually and find/settle at my 'happy weight'.

FOR SALE!

So we have decided to put our lovely house up for sale.

I've been wanting a new project for a while and with Jeff's job over in Street keeping him extremely busy, we've decided now is the right time to move closer to his work and give him some extra free time instead of travelling. It makes no difference to the children and the school run, so it's all systems go! I want the kids to move before they leave home, so that when they come home from university etc in a few years time, it will feel like home! 

Our house is lovely and I will miss it terribly but I'm itching for a new decorating project. I can't get excited about anything though until this is sold, as just today 2 house's we had our eye on, seemed to have been snapped up. Sadly I think it won't be an easy sell as we are directly on a road, that seems to put some people off but someone will fall in love with it I hope.

Who could resist this fabulous garden and the wonderful Collett Park directly behind us?

 Interested? 

Have a look HERE!

Weekend Recipe - Alpen Cheesecake

I'm not a huge pudding fan but had seen this recipe posted a few times so thought I'd give it a try. It's a 'cheescake' type pud and a quarter works out to be your healthy extra B choice or it's counted as 6 syns.

You basically make a base using 8 Alpen Light bars of your choice - break up into a bowl, melt in the microwave until soft, then press down in a tin to form the base - pop in the fridge to set.

Meanwhile dissolve a sachet of gelatine as per the instructions on the sachet.....

Mix the tub of quark, 3 Muller Light yogurts (use any flavour) and the gelatine together and pour over the base, then pop in the fridge to set.

When ready decorate with your fruit of choice and enjoy!

I have seen someone use the chocolate fudge Alpen bars, add a layer of sliced banana and make the topping using  toffee Muller Light yogurts to make a banoffee style dessert - give it a go!