Around up of 2016

Well what has 2016 entailed for me?

Well I joined slimming world and finally got back to my old weight watchers target of 8st 11. I’ve found slimming world much easier and less restricted than weight watchers and it’s taught me I quite good at making healthier choices if only I can stay clear of the chocolates and desserts! and on our holiday to St Ives I did actually manage to come back and not put any weight on! I no looking forward to maintaining my goal weight into 2017

I joined a gym and got a personal trainer! I have to say the personal trainer is the best money I have ever spent! I managed to achieve so much in a short period of time. Mike is great trainer, he listens to me when I moan about my back hurting and changes things up to accommodate but also pushes me to new levels. I can now deadlift 60KG quite happierly which is more than I weigh. I also now go to a bootcamp every Saturday where the trainers including Mike push us to our limits, it's a great group on Saturday really friendly and we all help to motivate each other

Places we’ve been in 2016:

Lanzorote

St Ives

Crazy Bear Hotel

Woburn Centre Parcs

Premier Inn Tower Bridge

Highlights of 2016

Harry Potter Play

Spending time with my 2 favourite boys 

Spending time with my friends including prosecco Fridays 

Getting the summer house and garden done

Chelsea Flower show

Things I’ve learnt

To sow

How to make macaroons

To let go of things that I can’t control

What lies ahead for 2017?

Well an amazing holiday to Disney Paris and I'm sure a few more things as well.

Heres to letting go a little more, having fun and getting fitter

Slimming world update

Since joining in July I've only managed to lose 8lbs which if I'm honest I'm slightly disappointed with. Losing weight the 3rd time around is so much harder than before. Where I do find slimming world so much easier than weight watches for the long term as I'm not obsessing about food as much as before, I've not 100% following the plan but that's my choice.

But things have changed since July

1. I'm making much better food choices, that was apparent on our recent holiday to St Ives. I was ordering salad or plan veg with my meals rather than the normal chips.
2. I've gone back to the gym again after finding a new liking for it. It might have something to do with getting a personal Trainer. I train with him once a week and in the 1st 4 weeks although I didn't lose any weight I lost some inches. I'm proud of my achievement. He's really starting to push me more now which is good.
3. As well getting a trainer I also now attend a boot camp every Saturday. It's run by my trainer and 2 of his trainer friends! It's brutal there no let up at all and if they catch you slacking they call wild card! After 5 weeks I can say they are getting less hard! The 1st couple of weeks I struggled to jog all the way around the park now I can jog it all and carry a kettle bell for 1/2 of it! I'm still not a fan of burpes.

I know that if I follow the healthy eating guide I can loss weight! I have 6lbs to go to reach my old weight watches goal, ideally I'd like to be a couple of pounds below that but we shall see! 

Will keep u posted

Joining the Dark Side slimming World

Many who know me know I was a weight watchers advocate through and through! You can read my full story here http://two-plus-1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/my-weight-watchers-journey.html?m=1

I lived and breathed weight watchers from 2009 until earlier this year. it did me well, originally helping me loss 6.5 stone then helped me maintain my weight for 2 years, in becoming a leader it distracted me from my crazyness of trying to be come a mother and then helped me loss the 2 stone I gained after having my son.

What I loved about weight watchers was the being strict about pointing and measuring. All was well until February this year (2016) when over a meal out with a friend she challenged me to try slimming world (the dark side) We had a long conversation about it as I wasn't convinced as I had tried and failed to do weight watchers filling and healthy mainly due to it being so restricted! But she talked me into it by saying what had I go loss? 

She lent me her pdf copy of the slimming world plan ( you can actually get a copy here https://slimminghealthandfitness.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/freefoods.pdf) and explained the basics and kindly lent me her log in to the online app, I then had to report back to her after the month. 

I stuck to my promise at although at goal at that time I managed to loss a couple of pounds and I can't believe I am going to say this but actually found it a lot easier than weight watchers especially for me trying to maintain my weight. 

Fast forward to the end of June and what with one thing and another and an all inclusive holiday in between I am now at least a stone up from my original weight watchers goal weight. On return from the holiday took the plunge and went down to my local slimming group to sign up officially! In the 1st week I lost 4 lbs , then the last 2 weeks I have stayed the same but that was ok as I'd had a weekend away in London. Unfortunately I'm missing next weeks weigh in as I'd booked a hair but but fingers crossed the week after will be a loss.

It is all about being in the right head space, once again I'm already finding myself making those wiser heather food choices. But I do have a few devil foods that I need to deal with these are:

1) sweet treats esp when I'm out with others like family or friends 

2) wine! 

3) Bread

And I need to find a way of not being lead astray by what other people have. 

So from being a weight watchers through and through and saying I've never join the dark side, I am now a slimming world convert! I am actually slightly swayed by the fact I know more people doing slimming world now, it's funning bumping into old friends from weight watchers at the slimming world class. Oh and a slight thing that one of my closest friends is currently their food editor on the magazine! 

Not that I'm byast but I do prefer their magazine! I am more convinced that slimming world is more maintainable long term. Like any healthy eating plan of you look there is a wealth of information, blogs, posts, I love Pinterest for great recipe ideas. 

I will keep you posted on my progress

Making some right decisions in my life

Being a working mum is hard, I have a busy sometimes stressful full time job as well as being a mum to a 3 year old and a wife to my wonderful husband. But I do tend to forget about me sometimes.

Weekends are a mix of essential things like food shopping and then family things but recently I feel like some things are getting forgotten about and me and the husband have a great big list of jobs to to some little and some big, this is on top of the normal things like washing, ironing,cleaning etc. It makes me wonder how everyone actually manages to do it all?

Prior to our recent holiday I started to think more about me and how I was feeling. If you've read previous posts you know I have suffered from depression in the past, if I'm honest I think I always will I just find different ways of either coping with it or hinding it. Anyway though my journey of self discover ( which I'm only just embarking on) I found this lady called Nic from Stronger her. If I had the money I would defiantly invest what she has to offer. But being such a nice Lady she has a private Facebook group where she encourages you to question certain things

The 1st one being  5 things I don't want in my life:

So here go this is my list

1. stress

2. A unhealthy bmi

3. Clutter

4. A unhealthy lifestyle 

5. To be unhappy

So the question is how can I achieve those.

1. Sometimes this is unavoidable but I do want to start maybe looking for a new job.

2. Well this is achievable. What I've not told may people is that I have actually converted to the dark side slimming world early days still I will write another post about that

3. Clutter - relooking at this I think what do I mean by clutter? Is this clutter is my life? Clutter in the house or clutter in my mind. Maybe it's all 3! Defiantly on my list of jobs should be to decluttet the house! I have a few piles that need sorting out. Clutter in my life well I think I need to stop trying to do too much then that will also help the clutter in my mind.

4) this goes with number 2, the unhealthy bmi, the plan is 1: try and be more active every day, I have a iwatch so I want to ensure I hit the 3 goals daily which should  be achievable and also back dependant I want to go back to the gym. I swapped my membership so that I joined a gym near work meaning I could go straight from work prior to collecting my son but actually I've not been since May! But the plan is that I'm going to get back into it very soon.

5. To be unhappy well I think if I work on the above and start writing this blog again I hope they will all help to stop me being unhappy! 1st step a me day at Nirvana spa including a massage and a class! 

Summer house Part 3

When I was looking for ideas for the summer house I stumbled across these funky storage boxes which I decided would be perfect for the summer house. 

They were pretty simple to make, the unit is the kallax shelving unit,  I brought most of the boxes from IKEA then followed this blog post http://sugartotdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/superhero-bins-tutorial-and-printable.html?m=1 on how to make the simple box. I did ask J what boxes he wanted. I then googled the logo and planned which felt I needed to buy. Total cost was about £15 (excluding the storage unit)

Me and J are super happy with the results. I would say if J was older I would have got him to help me.

Next project was the cushions, I started with the simple 50x50 ones. I say simple but I did end up having a private sewing lesson and had to buy a sewing machine.

I opted for the John Lewis JL110 as I preferred it to the hobby craft ones. 

I decided that I wanted zipped cushions 

Material wise I brought the purple from my local fabric shop, it pretty much matches the lilac of the summer house. The cost was about £3 a meter and I brought 3 meters. The Zips I got off eBay for about £3 for 10.

And then 2 statement ones, fabric was from John Lewis and rather expensive.

Next was the hula play tent. I found this post https://bluehousejoys.com/hula-hoop-tent-tutorial/and decided it was pretty simple idea. 

For the top bit I followed this post

http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2015/05/hula-hoop-tent-tutorial.html#_a5y_p=3768182

I brought the curtain from IKEA £15, the hula for a toy shop £2. The fabric from my local fabric shop, 2 meters was about enough £4.44 For my 1st attempt I'm happy with it. Approx £22 though I did re do the top tent bit. I tied the hula on with ribbon I already had.

J seems happy with the result. I already had the cusions at home.

Last task was the bench cusions. You can buy the bench pad from IKEA that sits on top of the boxes but I decided I wanted mine thicker and a differs pattern.  The cushions all match the summer house. I brought the foam from eBay, cut to measure worked out maybe slightly more than I wanted at £15 each. Fabric after a lot of searching I brought that from eBay too and then got the Velcro from my local fabric shop. Total cost was probably £25 each one.

I followed this post mostly for the main cushion https://campervanconverts.com/2012/03/11/how-to-sew-fabulous-seat-cushions-even-if-youre-a-complete-beginner-part-2/

And then this for the velco http://centsationalgirl.com/2012/10/simple-sew-box-cushion-cover/ 

There are a couple of things I changed between making the 1st one and the 2nd one, also the velco bit wasn't perfect.

Overall I am happy with the results. 

For all the sewing projects I made templates before I cut any of my material. I would recommend this for anyone.

I still have to make the blind at some point.

Summer house project part 2

Once the summer house was built it was then time to start painting, due to an great offer from Dunster we brought the summer house during their sale ( please note they have sales every couple of months)  but it meant it came and had to be painted within a couple of weeks as the wood is untreated. After looking at all the paint options I decided to buy the protek paint which was most recommend . I found that Gardenstreet.co.uk seemed to be the cheapest. You can order paint sample from Protek them selves.

I picked China clay as the main colour. I brought 10 litres which did all of the outside 2 coats and 1 coat inside the summer house. French lilac for the summer house door and Windows, I ordered 2.5 litres but probably only needed 1litres.

2 days of painting later and the outside was all done. With the paint you have to paint both coats within about 4 hours.

We added guttering ourselves.

The plan was always for the summer house somewhere where I could spend time in the summer with J and then as he grows up somewhere he can go with friends to play. 

If you've not discovered Pinterest yet you so need to, I got loads of ideas from there and will do another post about the bits I made, from that I had pretty much decided on what furniture I wanted. 

Storage wise we brought the an IKEA kallax shelving unit, 2 X stuva storage storage boxes. We already had the big Bertha bean bag.

Overall result is I'm very pleased with the result. Now we just need to finish the garden.

Summer House Project part 1

When we moved into our house over 3 yrs ago at the end of the garden was this horrible garage. 3 years of discussions with the hubby later we finally agree to replace it. 

We took various trips out to an assaultmant of garden centres to look at our best option as I wanted a summer house and hubby needed somewhere to store his motorbike. No where actually did the whole solution we wanted so with a some help from a builder we finally came up with a solution that would suit both of us.

I know that originally hubby wanted to take on the project himself but with J things get harder and harder as he just wants to help us do everything, that would be fine if I was happy to wait 3 yr's for it to be done.

Once everything was ordered the 1st part of the project was to get the builder to rip down the garage and make the concrete base bigger. 

Then came the fun of the massive jigsaw puzzle.

In the end we brought a 3x3 Avon summer house from Dunster House and the billy oh bike shed from garden buildings direct. We had to get our builder to turn the bike shed around so it would sit on the left of the summer house as it wasn't originally designed to be that way around.

2 days later the summer house and bike shed were built

The letter!

Since having IVF I now dread October as I know it's when we get 'The letter' then one asking us what we want to do with our 2 remaining frozen embro's. We were very lucky the 1st 2 years as we had storage included within our treatment.

This year though was different, the letter came from Oxford and unlike the previous years there was now a cost to store the embro's which meant we had to finally decide what we wanted to do.

Our options

1. store them for another yr cost of £290

2. Let them perish

3. Donate to another couple

4. Donate to science

Before the letter had come hubby and I had talked about it knowing that we'd probably have to pay this year. We had already decided we're not going to have any more children and that we didn't just want to let them perish So that left us 2 choices. Although I thought we'd go with option 4 we decided that we wanted to explore option 3 a little more.

Option 3 - donate them to another couple would mean the opportunity for another couple to have a baby, but what would it mean for us?

* Another couple would have our biological child and James brother or sister

* We would have to go for further tests before we could donate 

* We would have to go for counselling 

* We could never find out any more than the yr of birth of that child and the sex

* James would never be able to search for his brother or sister

* At 16 that child could find out more information about us

* At 18 that child could find us if they wanted

* If that child ever got taken into care for any reason we would never be told

After a long hard think over a bit of wine we decided that was not an option for us mainly due to the fact James would never be able to find his brother or sister and the tests and counselling we'd had to go through in the beginning.

So that left us only 1 option - donate to science. Oxford are currently doing research into why perfectly good embryos don't implant into the womb. So our embryos will go into that research and actually instead of helping just 1 couple they could help towards helping lots of couples! 

The C word

When I first heard The C word was on I wanted to avoid it like the plague then over the days I've heard some great things about it that when I was off work in May suffering with my poorly back I decided to watch it. What a roller coaster.

The C word scares the Shit out of me and I have no idea how I'd deal with it.

I know it's effected so many people lives and so many people have lost someone from it, including me.

Every day I miss my Nan and Aunt who were taken from us by the C word. My nan died when I was about 11 or 12 I don't have massive memories of her, though I remember spending time with her in the holidays.

My Aunt on the other hand I remember every bit of her, she was not only my Aunt but also like a big sister to me. 

I so wish they were both here today to meet my gorgeous son I know they would adore him.

My morning with my Son

This morning was one of those mornings with my son where everything is answered with a NOooo and screams and then the whole where’s Daddy starts.

It started at 5.40am this morning with my Son crying in his cot. I go in to find that he’s had a nose bleed during the night, I give him a cuddle and then try and wipe his still slightly bleeding nose this equals paddy number 1. I somehow manage to give it a wipe after wrestling with the octopus and then take him into our room for a cuddle. My son then asks for milkie, thoughts run through my head thinking how do I do this alone? Normally when hubby is around 1 of us makes tea & milk and the other one gets J up. Answer is cbeebees but then at 5:50 in the morning it’s not on! Thankfully my son is part entertained by the adverts of the cartoons meaning I can strip his blood covered bed and make myself a cuppa and him his milk (oh and take some headache tablets to help my banging headache) by 5:55 I’m back upstairs, in bed asking my son if he wants to sit on my lap for his milkie. Answer of course is NOoooo and cue paddy number 2, 15 minutes later Mr Independent is feeding himself his milkie.

At 6:35 I get up to start getting myself ready and leave my son in the bedroom watching cartoons, though he decides he wants to come into the bathroom and sit on his stepping watching me until he decides he ready to brush his teeth. I say brush his teeth very loosely as of course he doesn’t actually brush his teeth just sucks the toothpaste off and wants to hold the toothpaste at the same time. This then starts paddy number 3 as he wants more toothpaste which mummy won’t let him have. Paddy number 4 starts quickly after when again mummy dares to try and wash the dried blood out of his hair. Finally after about 10 minutes I’m in a position to get him changed out of his PJ’s and into his clothes for nursery.

At 7:10am we’re dressed and downstairs getting ready to leave when paddy number 5 starts as my son decides that he wants to go ‘outside’ to the back garden to play, distraction of finding his shoes to go outside sorts that, paddy number 6 is followed soon after over not wanting to get into his buggy by this point I have probably heard the work NOoooo about 100 times already. 7:18am we’re out the door and walking to the bus stop. Paddy number 7 comes at the bus stop when he’s bored of waiting for the bus which is now 10 minutes late and just wants to get out of him pram. Finally the bus turns up, the bus journey feels like it’s taking forever! Finally paddy of the morning comes when he gets bored on the bus and wants to get out of him pram. Distraction doesn’t quite work, savour is bus arriving in Town.

By 8:10am he’s dropped off at nursery with a face like thunder (I wonder where he gets that from). The staff asking me how he is my answers today is “moody but of course he’ll be full of beans after I leave”

By 8:15 I’m up at my desk taking a deep breath before walking to the coffee machine for that much needed caffine fix. I now have 8 hours before I have to do it all again.

 

My son’s favourite words so far today:

·         NOooooo
·         Daddy
·         Hold it
·         Outside
·         Sit there (this goes with him patting where he wants you to sit)

Review of my 2014 bucket list

Well last year I did a bucket list instead of new year resolutions.

So how did I get on?

Bucket list 2014

1) Loss the remaining 2 stone of baby weight I have to loss ✅ 

Nearly before Christmas I was within my 5lb of my goal weight, Christmas it all went out of the window and I put on 9lbs!

This year I know I will definitely get back to goal and below, then I can finish sorting out all my clothes, I know there will be some bits to sell!

2) Take a carriage ride around central Park when I go in May ❎

This didn't happen for 2 reasons 1: they didn't look that inviting and 2: it was very expensive

3) Finish decorating the house ❎ 

Though nearly there, we got the whole house done bar the downstairs bathroom, hopefully this will be finished in the next month or so.

The main thing to do this year is to pull our garage down in the garden and replace with this

Will be able to keep hubby's bike in the shed and then have a nice summer house for the family.

4) Make sure we do family days out at least once a month ✅

We haven't always done big days out like zoos but have tried to do something at least once a month

5) Spend some quality time just me and hubby ✅

Not had much but have had some, this year we're going to try and have a date night once a month

6) Do some fun and exciting things with J on my day off ✅

I try and take him somewhere for him on a Monday. Though I do struggle some days, I know as the weather improves it will become easier. Also I have got a merlin pass this year so I'm hoping I can take him to Legoland a few times.

7) enjoy and savor all those new 1st I will experience with J this year ✅

We've  done some amazing things this year, been on our 1st airplane holiday to New York and had our 1st family only holiday as well as some really great days out. 

8) Try and not get so wrapped up in twitter and make time in the evenings for Hubby ✅

Well the 1st part of this happened, I've taken a little step away from Twitter and actually this blog. The 2nd part making time for hubby well can't lie that's not happened as instead I've been on candy crush 😁

9)  Make the effort to cook more recipes both old and new ✅

Well definitely cooked more this year less ready meals though not that many new recipes.

10) Enjoy time with my friends ✅

I've had some great days out with my friends this year from Ascot

 Legoland

Spa day at Penny Hill and not forgetting the Master bake classes I did with my Dad.

Overall 2014 you've not been a bad year. 

What does 2015 hold?

Hubby turns 40, James turns 2, trip to Alton Towers, trip to Scotland and lots of other adventures in-between 

Centre Parcs

When mum 1st told me she was going to be away for 3 Friday in October I decided that one of those weeks we go away. We wanted somewhere or under £500 where we could walk to various resturants for dinner, so after debating for months and talking to various people I finally decided we'd go to Centre Parcs Longleat for a 4 night stay as it pretty much catered for all our needs.

Accomadation wise I decided on a 2 bed new style executive lodge. I went for a 2 bed so J could have his own room like he does at home . The executive lodges have pretty much all you could need for your stay, centre Parcs even provide a cot (though not a cot sheet) and a high chair meaning we only had to pack clothes and j's toys. Next time through I will remember to take extra dishwasher tablets and some washing up liquid! The only thing that let the lodge down for me was the gas oven. Though it wasn't a massive issue just made cooking slightly interesting. I'd was able to hand pick our lodge and I have to say I 'd done a pretty grand job! Our lodge was quite central in the pine area with only a 15 minute walk to the plaza.

We arrived the Monday about 11:30 am so we didn’t have to queue very long at all at the main gate. After arrival we parked our car and made our way down to the main plaza for a look around. Here we ate lunch in Hawtons before purchasing some supplies in the supermarket. As I was warned the prices in the supermarket were a tad higher than any waitrose prices but for us it was more about the ease of it than anything. After this me and J walked to the lodge while hubby went and retrieved the car from the car park. If you don't know about centre Parcs it's a car free zone bar arrival and departure days oh and of course the maintaince staff have vans they drive around in.

One of the things I loved about the lodges is there is a great big notice board in the kitchen! Once unpacked I decided it make a note on it of what we had planned for our stay.

The other lovely thing is there is quite a big hall way where you can leave your shoes and coats meaning you don't have to bring any of the outside woodland into the lodge and then in the lodge there was plenty of room.

The 1st night I'd already booked us into Strada. As expected this was the same as any you would find on the high street and very similar prices. A note on the resturants, I had pre-booked Strada and another one a couple of weeks before arriving as it had been suggested to me, we never found any resturant on our stay to be mega busy but I have heard and read things to the contry so it best to pre book. They do of course offer a take away service which was similar price to any normal one. We didn't use it so I don't know if they deliver. 

One of my worries always when going away is how will I sleep, will the bed be all hard and lumpy? I have to say the Longleat beds are very comfy indeed.

Tuesday morning I had to set the alarm to make sure we were up and ready for our 8am swim lesson I had booked for J. The sing along swim was very similar to any waterbabies, Swim kidz lesson and  for us it was perfect and you as you get 2 x 30 mins sessions for the price. 

Later that day we ventured out to the village near by to get some food in Waitrose, oh and an umbrella for the hubby to keep him dry. That night we just stayed in.

Wednesday morning as the weather looked nice we took a walk around Center Parcs to the sports complex, there we found the best soft play, there are a couple others but no where near as good and not as accessible. What was great about it was it was all accessible to J, sometimes when I take him to a local one I have to help him climb up to the slide but not at this one. 

Along side the activities you have to pay for there are also quite a few good out door play areas. 

After lunch we decided to go and have a proper look around the swimming pool. It's very nice and is split up into 6 areas, a big out door pool leading to the Rapids, a big wave pool, 4 slides, a small baby area , a toddler area and a somewhat underused cafe. 

That night we eat in Hucks American diner which I had pre-booked. Think TGI's, I have to say it did what it said on the tin, nothing special not sure I would go to it again.

Thursday after our 2nd swimming lesson we made our way to Longleat Safari Park. I'd booked the tickets through longleats website instead of Centre Parcs one as with centre Parcs it only gave me the option of going Monday or Friday and we didn’t want to do there with a car full. I have to say I wasn’t overly impressed with it, it was quite expensive for what it was, so I won't be rushing back there. 

Hubby did have fun showing J how train signals worked

Mummy enjoyed looking at the giriffe with J and  J liked helping Daddy drive the car around the park. 

After spending the day at Longleat we decided just to stay in.

Finally our last day arrived. You have to be packed and out of your lodge by 10. After packing up the car and returning it to the car park we decided to spend our last morning swimming. As you can imagine the pool was somewhat busier that day. Was more noticeable when we got out we struggled to find a family changing room. We had a final lunch in Hawtons before leaving at about 1:30 at which point the queue to book in was almost back to the front gate! So It’s differently worth arriving early, unless Friday is just a very busy day?

Overall we had a great 4 day break away and I will differently be going back.