My New Year Commitments

I don't believe in New Years resolutions. For me when ever I make a resolution it's like I am immediately setting myself up for a fail. The minute I tell myself I must quit something, it makes it near on impossible to do. I used to be a smoker and I have lost count of the amount of times I have quit on New Years and then started up again within a few days. I did eventually quit after a few attempts and it was not a New Years resolution nor was it because I had told myself I "must" quit (although I needed to) Instead I told myself I was going to try my best and attempt to stop smoking. If I failed then it was ok and I could simply try again. When we make (and then break) resolutions it leaves us feeling defeated and dissapointed in ourselves so this year I decided to make some New year commitments instead. I made a commitment to myself to "try" and change certain things in my life. Nothing was set in stone, I am not setting myself for a fail, I am simply commiting to trying. So here are my own personal New Years commitments for 2015.

• Eat breakfast every single day - Ok , this may sound like a silly one but for me it's actually quite necessary. I used to have such a rubbish routine when it came to my diet. I would literally never have breakfast and it really is the most important meal of the day. Now that I am back on track with Weight Watchers it is even more important to have a hearty breakfast each day to set me up for the day and really give my weight loss a boost.

• Drink more water - Again another very simple one. Most people drink water as a normal part of their daily routine. I would literally drink zero water daily. Just a few cups of coffee and plenty of Coke zero (another slight addicition I have kicked) but no water. So this year I have made water my new best friend. My fridge is stocked up daily and I always have a bottle with me. It is such an amazing aid to your weight loss and remarkable for your skin.

• Be a little more selfish - An odd one this, as selfish is considered to be an ugly trait to have. But this year needs to be a little more about me. Don't get me wrong Aalliyah will always come first and nothing will ever change that but I really need to spend more time doing what makes me happy, after all I am more than just a mum.

I am hoping this year will be a wonderful year for me. I am looking forward to making so many more amazing memories with family and friends and just enjoying every moment I can. We spend far too much time focusing on the negatives in life and worrying about things that more often than not either wont happen or are out of our control anyway. What will be will be. Enjoy it.. Live, laugh and love in 2015...

Happy New Year

My Easter Break - In An Egg Shell

Ok, So we are done with the snow, ice and freezing cold temperatures of winter and Easter came to mark the beginning of spring, sunshine and an indication that summer was on its way! The only problem was that when I woke up on Easter Sunday morning ready to forget the diet for one whole day and devour everything anything in sight, I was greeted with the not so pleasant site of lingering snow which had been laying around taunting me and my thoughts of summer for days! Looking out of my window I could see the wooden bench in the garden topped with snow and my flower pots each with a frozen layer of ice. I turned around expecting to see gifts under the tree, not chocolate eggs and daffodils. Needless to say I was not dreaming of a white Easter and I'm pretty sure no one else had banked on it either given the sizzling temperatures this time last year.

Yes I realise I have moaned for a whole paragraph about the weather, but hey.. I'm british and thats what we do best!

Anyway, In spite of the weather, both myself and Aalliyah still managed to have a wonderful Easter as I hope you all did too. There was the typical roast dinner. I opted for a nice joint of pork for the ever so selfish reason that I hadn't had roast pork since starting weight watchers in October, so we were having it.. End of story!

Me and Aalliyah had lots of fun making some Easter inspired treats for her class, which she gave out on the last day of term, when she also came home with some goodies for winning first place in the egg decorating competition.

No Easter is complete without a bit of bonnet making.. Aalliyah also made her very own town called "Chick-ville"

Plus we had a beautiful Easter stroll in the Spring sunshine snow. There is just something so "British" about seeing a beautiful blooming daffodil..poking out of 4 inches of snow! 

Surely we have had the worst of it now? We have put up with an Arctic Winter and now Sprong (Spring gone wrong) Can we please just have a sizzling summer full of sunshine, sunshine and that other thing that went missing last year... Oh yes.. SUNSHINE! 

Good luck to the first person that moans when it's too hot!! You know there will be someone!

How did you spend your Easter? I hope what ever you did you had a wonderful time celebrating.

My Second Super Seven!

Well it's official! I have now lost over a stone (Biggest grin ever) My total weight loss for the past 4 weeks is 14.5 lbs. I am over the moon as I never imagined I would have such a good loss. If I am honest I was rather sceptical about Weight Watchers, and really did not expect to lose any weight. I have loved getting proved wrong!

Onwards and upwards! Here's to another loss next week!

Fancy shedding a few pounds yourself? I cannot recommend Weight Watchers highly enough. If you follow the plan than you will get the results you want..

Head on over to there site now and take advantage of there £1 joining offer (That's both online and weekly meetings)

Weight Watchers

Overdue Catch Up..

Well it has been a while since my last blog post. Sorry about that. Things just kept on taking priority and always had no time left at the end of the day to blog... But I'm back now :-)

In one of my earlier posts, you will remember I had been to my initial meeting at Weight Watchers. My 4th weigh in is on Thursday! Time sure does fly doesn't it?

Here is a quick breakdown of my weight loss:

Week one: 6lb Weight loss
Week two: 3.5lb Weight loss (Silver 7 Awarded)
Week Three: 2.5lb Weight loss

I am just two small pounds away from a one stone weight loss and over the moon! I never thought I would have so much success with weight watchers, and I am hoping after my initial stone weight loss, I will continue to lose a little each time gradually getting closer to my ideal weight and size :-)

I have found myself eating so much healthier since being on weight watchers. My portion sizes are smaller, and I am trying so many new foods. I have become a massive fan of couscous, something which I rarely ate before and I also have a new found love of Quorn sausages. I am yet to try any other products from the Quorn range, but I am hoping they will be just as tasty.

I haven't had as much exercise as I would have liked to these past few weeks, plus with it being so cold and rainy, totally lack motivation to go out in it! Will be popping into town in the week, so will pick up an exercise DVD. At least I can physical with the heating on, warm and dry :-)

Would love to hear any recommendations on a good DVD to try if anyone has any?

I will keep you all informed on the weight loss.. Until the next weigh in.. Ta Ta for now :-)

Early Days..

OK, So I am on day 3 of my new Weight Watchers Pro Points plan. I am really surprised at how easy it is to follow. I am still tediously looking up "everything" in my handy little point checker book, but as time goes on, I guess things will stick with me and I will automatically know point values for certain items I eat more frequently. I must admit, when I first went to the meeting and the group leader was explaining about how to count points and that everything must be weighed before hand, so to calculate the right number of points, I just thought "Oh god, I'm going to be spending half my life weighing food". When it comes down to it, it literally takes no more than 5 seconds to pop some rice or a potato onto the scales. So there really is no excuse for not weighing anything before hand. There are even some fantastic little hints for when you are dining out and cant just pull some scales out of your pocket. Such things like how to use your fist to use as a size comparison for a potato or how one portion of spaghetti (pasta) would fill a five pence coin. So even when you are out, you kind of get an understanding of how big your portions are and how to calculate the points.

I wont lie, I am a "big" eater! If I wasn't then I wouldn't be at weight watchers ;-) so the portion sizes are very different to what I would normally have. For instance, they say a portion of mashed potato would be similar to the size of a lime. Well in that case I have been having around 8 portions on my plate up to now. I would easily have a mountain of mash with my Sunday dinner. So with the portion sizes being so different to what I am used to, Im learning to eat things that will keep me fuller for longer so I am not starving within a few hours.

I love the fact that you have zero heroes. Besides a few, every fruit and vegetable is 0 pro points, which is fantastic as you can have plenty with your dinner and not rack up any extra points. I personally love fruit and vegetables so this is great for me, and I have probably had more fruit and veg in the past few days than I have in the past week! The pro points plan is definitely changing my eating habits, and getting me making much healthier meals,which is great!

I am a night snacker! Most definitely. I would snack on things at night time. Biscuits, tea and cake, crisps.. all the naughty things. I thought "No way can I give these up" But I have found much tastier alternatives, and if I want to I can still enjoy some biscuits or piece of cake. That's the great thing, its all about moderation and portion size as opposed to what you can or can't eat! When I fancy something sweet, I have been having a meringue nest filled with fresh strawberry's with lot of sprinklings of sweetener (Tate and Lyle granulated sugar substitute- The best sweetener out there if you love your sugar)

There are also plenty of chocolate or cake bars out there in the Weight Watchers range. I have some myself. They are very tasty and only a couple of points each :-)

I am really looking forward to going back next week..Hoping I have lost a little. Id be happy with a pound even! Just something to show its working.

As I said before, I will keep you updated. If there are any fellow weight watchers out there or anyone who blogs any tasty healthy recipes I would love to hear form you, leave me a comment/follow :-)