A poor week

This week has been a weird one, after changing from being paid weekly to being paid monthly I had to live on a quarter of what I usually earn, this meant money was extremely tight and we had to live on what I already had in the house.

Lunches at work were the hardest thing when we ran out of fruit, it was sandwich only and a bag of crisps, normally I stay away from crisps but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I have to say it really annoys me how expensive it is to eat healthily, at least in this country. Most of our weekly food bill is taken up by fruit and veg, and whilst a good thing it is also a bad thing. This is one of the reasons, I think, that there are so many obese people in our country, because the food that is not so good for us is 5 times cheaper than that of the stuff that is.

In the exercise front I have done better, not great but better. Went on a few walks at the weekend and did a bit of wii fit in the evenings. However, I know that this was not enough, I need to try and do more. Since the beginning of January I have been setting my alarm for 7am so that I can do some Wii fit before work..this hasn't quite panned out so far. I have managed to oversleep my alarm everyday so far.

I need to train my brain to expect to exercise rather than to think 'meh not today'. It is made harder by the fact that Jon is working away a lot now and I struggle to motivate myself when he is not here. It is also harder for him as his options food wise are limited to whatever the hotel serves.

So, that being said, the plan for this week is to step up the exercise, however having just got back from having root canal done on my tooth I am also thinking that it will be a soup diet or anything slushy for the next few days until the pain has worn off.

This week's being relatively good though has showed, a 2lb loss to get January moving along a bit:

Current Weight: 18st 6lbs

Target weight loss: 1 stone

Pounds left until target: 11lbs

Weightloss so far: 5lbs

Target weight: 17st 11lbs

The countdown begins!

So...it's been a while! I took a break over Christmas to reevaluate some things and for the most part it has worked.

As you can see in the picture it is less than 7 months to the wedding now and creeping ever closer. As exciting as that is it also fils me with dread, mainly due to wanting to lose weight before the wedding. I have a wedding dress fitting or two to fit in as well so that only makes it more nerve wracking; will I fit into the dress? Will it be too small? How much will the alterations cost if I have lost more than I thought etc.

With all this whirring around my head I have been going a bit crazy, but I guess that is normal for brides, and I thought I wasn't a typical bride!

Luckily I have the calming (at least occasionally) presence of Jon to stop me mid whirl wind and talk about our weight loss goals. We have decided to (finally) knuckle down and eat healthily and get back to the gym. Now although we haven't made it to the gym yet (we have both had heavy colds since Boxing Day) we have this week started doing qui fit again.

I was amazed, but not suprised, when the wii fit told us we hadn't been on in a while (454 days for me) and we decided that if we do not go to the gym for whatever reason then we will do wifi fit instead. Although our diets have been good lately our bodies really crave the exercise too and without it we don't really lose as much as we could. This is something we are addressing.

The wii fit did tell me one thing though, I have lost a stone since we lady used it, that means I was on my way up to my heaviest but hadn't hit it yet and now I am 3lbs off of losing 2 stone overall!

We have both also started using MFP (My Fitness Pal) again in the hopes that this will not only help us track what we are eating and the exercise we are doing but also it makes us actually think about what we are eating and how much. The trick is to remember to fill it in, which I will admit sometimes does slip through the net!

During one of my brain whirrings I thought about doing the couch to 5k plan, to really get us moving, I myself am not really a runner and do not enjoy it, but part of me wonders is that due to ny weight? Or my thought process? Have I trained my brain out of exercise?

In order to push ourselves we have decided that the week after the wedding we will take part in the Color run (I knoe wrong spelling but it's American) which is taking place in Birmingham. As soon as registrations open I will get us registered to make sure we do it!

We have taken part in a colour run before , 2 years ago, when I was bigger but we only ran for part of it, the plan is to run all of the way round! 95% at least! And I think that is an achievable goal!

Over Christmas I managed, somehow, to only put on 3lbs. This week I have lost two of those so it is not the worst outcome of Christmas!

Current Weight: 18st 8lbs

Target weight loss: 1 stone

Pounds left until target: 13lbs

Weightloss so far: 3lbs

Target weight: 17st 11lbs

Countdown to christmas weigh in

This week in my weight loss journey I am again thinking forward to christmas, as you may remember in my last blog I had some thoughts on my christmas dinner options as we do not do the traditional christmas dinner and instead do a 'pick and choose' buffet throughout the day.

Nommy!

Normally we just buy party food and chuck it in the oven and pig out all day, but this year I am going to look into some other options:

Healthy Crisps:

Firstly, ignore the dip, I won't be making that, but crisps are a big part of the Christmas meal, so if they are healthier that can cut out a lot of naughty calories. Bear in mind that with the recipe it asks for Olive Oil however we would use Frylight here instead.

Ingredients

3 large potatoes, sliced into 1/8-inch thick rounds
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oilSalt

Method

1. Toss potatoes in a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of oil, and pepper until well coated. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Arrange potato slices in 1 layer on 2 cookie sheets. 
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until chips are crisped and lightly browned. 
4. Remove from oven, season with salt and cool.

I am going to keep looking for more healthy recipes as I go, I am thinking something like stffed mushrooms, peppers, potato skins etc. I think the route to take is homemade as far as possible to avoid extra calories that I don't know about.

This week I have lost 2lbs! YAY! My scales hinted at being 18st 7lbs last week but changed their mind by weigh in day, so I am glad that I have kept it off this week, obviously the new batteries in the scales are helping me out!

Current Weight: 18st 7lbs

Target weight loss: 1 stone

Pounds left until target: 12lbs

Weightloss so far: 4lb

Target weight: 17st 11lbs

This week in my weightloss journey..

What I REALLY want is to lose weight, especially now I have bought THE dress, now I realise that no-one can give that to me I have to earn it. So, with that in mind I went and bought myself a planner that will help me to keep track of what I am doing.

After hearing about it on another blog I went and had a look at www.personal-planner.co.uk and with the amount of customisation available I thought, now this I like! So I went through the steps and chose my front cover (I decided on a 'Wonder Woman-esque theme; blue with white stars my name in yellow and red elastic) which 'modules' I wanted in the diary, including the format of my days, for the modules I decided on a meal planner for the week and a 'training' (workout) tracker. I am hoping this will give me another way to track what I am eating, weighing etc. If I track it in enough places I should be able to get it covered.

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that I have not written a blog recently, with work being super busy I have not had the time to write my blog and when I get home I was refusing to even look at my computer, this should all change now.

This is pretty much my determined look!

Whilst I was stood there in what will be my wedding dress, undone at the back because I couldn't fit in it, I looked in the mirror and thought, this is not what I want to see on my wedding day, this is the last time I look this big in my wedding dress! When it came to ordering I was feeling nervous, what size did I want to order it in, they measured me up and advised against going too small a size in case I don't hit my target size as they would only have about 1 inch either side to let it out and that could be an issue.

Let me tell you know that with a zip up wedding dress (sssh don't tell people it has a zip!) the sizes are more biased to the thinner end of the size guide and unlike a tie up back you cannot get away with just not zipping it up as tight.. So, I came to the desk to order it and they put the sizing chart in front of me; 'Now don't get disheartened..' they say and immediately I am thinking oh god they don't even do my dress in my size! What it actually was that wedding dress designers seem to have their own own sizing guides and they showed me the chart and I was 2 sizes above what size clothes I actually wear!!! They agreed to let me order one size below (which is still a size up from what I wear now) as they said we would much rather take it in than you not fit into it.

So with that in mind I now have to lose AT LEAST a dress size in time for my dress to come in (June) so that I can have fittings alterations etc. This is more than doable, when you think about it it is just a couple of inches off of various places. I am so close to having lost 2 stone so far (only 4lbs to go) so I know I can do it.

We are off on a walk tonight as Jon has the dentist so the gym will be closed by the time he is done. We used to walk in all weathers, we did lots of walks in the snow last winter, so we need to get back into that habit and not wimp out because it is 'too cold'. I have decided to make sure that I am and to prove it to my lovely readers (psst that's you!) that I am going to take a photo every time we go out for a walk and stick it on my instagram/twitter (@Fordith for both), it may not be very interesting but it will be there! Probably won't be taking photos at the gym... probably not allowed... but I will still update statuses to show it.

I have had a couple of up and down weeks in my time off and my weight has fluctuated around the 18st 9lbs mark, sometimes one lb off sometimes one lb on, so I need to have a good week to get myself back in it! I also need to prepare myself for xmas and make sure that we don't go mental with chocolates and xmas food. We don't have a proper christmas dinner and just have a buffet, maybe I will have to slip some vegetables and salad bits in there. ;)

Current Weight: 18st 9lbs

Target weight loss: 1 stone

Pounds left until target: 14lbs

Weightloss so far: 2lb

Target weight: 17st 11lbs

  

Things I want for Christmas!

So I have been thinking about Christmas this week; mainly through harassment about what I want as I don't like to think about it prior to 1st December! 

So being of a geeky mind, this weekend I went to the MCM Birmingham Comic Con, and it was fab! I was able to get a couple of things to add to my collection and it was really great to see an event that once shared an exhibition hall is now big enough to fill two halls.

One of my purchases (well technically it was purchased for me) was the DC Cover Girls Wonder Woman Statue, I am a big Wonder Woman fan, but I am picky about which ones I want and like, I try not to collect stuff for the sake of collecting it. If the face or quality doesn't overly impress me then I won't bother, but this? This I REALLY liked which never normally happens.

Wonder Woman: The Art of War Statue (Yanick Paquette)

You can buy this online for around about £70 for instance here it is on Forbidden Planet International, however we managed to bag it for £60. I was instantly drawn to it, hinted heavily to my other half whilst we stood there, bought it and after getting in the car (it couldn't possibly wait until I got home!) and opening up the box, I found I was not disappointed. 

It is a well-made, well-painted (not something I could say about a lot of my pop vinyls) figure, a simpler version of the old Wonder Woman costume. Her hair is in a style that even I could do to my hair, the top is corseted to match the boots. It is 7.25" tall, and cast in porcelain, and I think one of my favourite figures!

Another of my purchases today was the Exclusive Wonder Woman (in Star Sapphire's outfit) Pop Vinyl, as shown below. I found it hidden on a shelf at the back of one of the stands, with my eagle eyes I spied it and asked to have a look. They handed me two, one non-metallic and one metallic, as the metallic one was £40 and the non-metallic was £20 I decided I couldn't afford both but I wanted at least one as I had never seen them before.

NYCC 2014 Funko Pop Star Sapphire Metallic Wonder Woman Fugitive Toys Vinyl

I actually decided on the non-metallic one and it was then that they told me, they don't sell them here in the UK, after getting home I had a quick look on eBay etc and found they were right, all the ones I could find were in the US. Suddenly, I was annoyed at myself that I hadn't bought it at the time, but then I looked at the prices. Actually I can get them cheaper (including shipping) by buying them on eBay for £30(ish) rather than paying £40 just to have it there and then, so that definitely goes on my christmas list!

The next thing on my list is: A Hobbit home! I mean who wouldn't, I love this, I may need to obtain a child from somewhere so I have a reason for it, or I may just move my home office into it and geek out.

Hobbit Home - $4,695.00

Ok, so I probably won't get it for Christmas as it is a whopping $4,695 (£2998.56) so it is a little bit out of our Christmas shopping budget, but it would be cool nonetheless. Maybe, another way around it will be to first create a hill in my back garden, then dig a hole into that and attach a hobbit door, surely that might be slightly cheaper? I could, depending on the size of the hill, actually make it human height as well so I can take my laptop in there at night!


And lastly, something more in budget:

Rainbow Backlit Keyboard

Just because, look how cool it is! I want it! At only $29.99 it is a steal compared to the Hobbit Hole. It has no real purpose I just find it cool, I am a big fan of all things colourful and would have endless joy looking at my rainbow coloured keyboard as I typed. 

For now, that will do, so take note friends and family because I know what I want!

Can I just get paid to walk around all day?

I have been off work since wednesday and took the time to go Wedding Dress shopping with my mum and various members of my Bridal party (depending on the day). It was an odd experience.

I knew what I didn't want but not necessarily what I did want, it was a lot of Trial and Error, I got into a sort of rhythm eventually when I was able to spot the dress on sight that I knew I would not like even if they were different looks to the one I had tried on. I was correct in thinking that it would be difficult for me to shop for them, some shops would not let me try on the dresses that I would not be able to get on, which is fair enough, but some shops outwardly told me not to go near the rails because of my size, and I kept thinking 'I understand what they are saying but what if the dress I want is in there, I could try on a similar style but prefer those designs and order it in my size.' But hey ho, I did not. 

Overall it was a good experience, I was able to try on a lot more than I thought I would, all of the shop assistants were lovely, except one, who quite obviously did not want a woman of my size in her shop, asked me what I wanted and I told her what I didn't want and those were the dresses she pulled out and simply said 'well that's all we have we are a small boutique' and within 5 minutes of walking in we were outside the shop again. But I did not let it taint my day.

It turns out I seem to have expensive taste in wedding dresses, now don't get me wrong I wasn't choosing dresses that were thousands of pounds but they were out of my ideal price range. Possibly it is because of the shops I decided to visit but there was an overall theme so I think it must be me! 

This wasn't a common sight!

I was amazed at how many dresses I was actually able to get on, ok they weren't done up at the back properly and all my back fat was hanging out, but I was able to stand inside the dresses and see (mostly) what I would look like in the dress. Some did not sit quite right due to my large hips and bum, but some were able to bring in my waist and remind me that I have one hidden in there somewhere! However, if it was down to shops assistants I would have bought them all, they all:

• Suited my figure!
• Looked amazing on me!
• Were a really nice colour on me!
• Would fit beautifully in my size!

Unfortunately for them I get really uncomfortable with 'sales pitches' and if I were in the street and they tried to accost me I would hold up my hand say 'no, thank you' and keep my eyes averted, but that is quite hard to do in a wedding dress...

It was certainly frustrating to my mum and bridal party when I kept asking them what they thought but never really commented on the dresses myself. I know that I am a thinker and a mull-er, I like to go away and think about things and come to my decision then. If I can't stop thinking about it then I know its the one, if not, it's not. But I also hate being put on the spot, and feeling under pressure to make a decision. When everyone is looking at you waiting to make that decision you want to try and please them, but at the end of the day it is my dress and I need to be happy with it. 

I do worry that I will never find 'THE dress' because I like lots of different aspects and have not found a dress that incorporates all of these. I also think that I won't have 'THE reaction' to the dress that is traditional (tears, screaming, dancing round the room whatever it is) or cliche. Like I said previously I need to think about it, and if I like it I will buy it, but that does make me look miserable (just my face I am afraid!) whilst I am trying them on!

We do definitely have a favourite though and are going back to view it in a couple of weeks, if I do choose that dress the next question is: 

What size do I order it in? 

My thinking is that although I am a large size now I really want to be slimmer for the wedding, I know that it is easier to take in dresses than let them out, but will having the smaller size push me to lose the weight? I will HAVE to lose the weight to fit into my dress, it may give me the incentive I have been missing of late.

And with that in mind, it's a loss of 2lbs this week, which is great! I just need to keep pushing onwards! Maybe by the time I go back to look at the dress I could lose half a stone!?

Current Weight: 18st 9lbs

Target weight loss: 1 stone

Pounds left until target: 14lbs

Weightloss so far: 2lb

Target weight: 17st 11lbs

I know I'm, naughty!

So last week  I may or may not have completely forgotten to write my blog and I may or may not have almost done the same this week... and of course I was punished for this by putting a lb back on and am now 18st 11lbs again! Noooooooooooooo *over dramatic fall to knees*

It's my own fault and I know it, I have many excuses; I was stressed, I was lazy with my exercise, I was busy with wedding stuff, I was eating badly. You can pick whichever will make you shout at me less! ;)

My wedding dress trying on went really well! I was able to fit (ok not perfectly but I could get them on!) into all but one of the dresses I wanted to try on. Luckily, I did pre-warn the lady that I am very picky, I think she realised by just how much by the end of it.

Although I may not have found THE dress I am not disheartened, I found one that I did like but not enough to buy and definitely not enough to go way over my budget to buy. I wanted to make that many alterations to it that I thought in the end it wouldn't be that dress anymore and it would have been too plain for me. I wasn't allowed to take pictures so I can't show you but there was some definite umming and ahhing over it.

Like I said, I may not have found THE dress but I have started the journey, I know what style will look better on me than others and I feel a bit more confident at saying 'no, I don't like that' and being sure of my choices.

I have another wedding dress try on in a couple of weeks and I have decided that I am going to be uber good until then and be as strict as possible! I have started my food diary again to try and sustain this so I can yell at myself daily.

I have added a new target, to lose my next stone, no date as of yet but let's see what I can do!

Current Weight: 18st 11lbs

Target weight loss: 1 stone

Pounds left until target: 14lbs

Weightloss so far: 0lb

Target weight: 17st 11lbs