I am still here.

I am still here, I am still on track, pointing and going to my weigh ins. 

With my dad still being in hospital my choices have not been the best but I have kept within my allowance.

This week I have lost 1.5lbs bringing my total up to 69.5lbs in 40 weeks. 

I also took a comparison picture this week. I am half a pound away from vein half way through loosing weight. 70lbs down 70lbs to go although I don't look at it like that. I like to break it down into 7lbs increments as it makes it easier to get to that goal.

Anyway... This picture! 

If this is my body half way through I can't wait to see the end result now!

Where have you been?

I Would like to apologise for my quietness since Thursday last week. I haven't really had much time to my self let alone be able to make a blog post/inform people of my eating and exercise choices.

My dad was diagnosed with lung cancer almost two years ago. Unfortunately as time has gone the cancer has gone to other parts of his body making it so he now has terminal cancer and on Thursday he was taken into hospital, so any 'spare' time I have had has been spent with my family who are over an hour away. 

Emotions are very raw as we don't 100% know what is going to happen.

We have not been home till late and then just come in and then we crash into bed.

As the week has been pretty hectic my evening meal choices have not been fantastic BUT they have all still been pointed and tracked. 

I am still in control of my food and have not given into the urge to binge eat my feelings and that is a huge accomplishment for me. I even took my own weight watchers chocolate bars to the hospital with me so I wouldn't buy any chocolate from the gift shop.

My week...

So this week has been a week of celebration for us. 

On the 22nd we celebrated our anniversary a day early, 23rd was our actual anniversary and the 26th was my 25th Birthday!

I have been perfect all week apart from the 22nd and the 26th where I didn't point or track anything apart from the activity points I clowns up on my pedometer.

To be honest, this is my first gain since Christmas. It hasn't upset me as I knew it was going to happen. 

I can get it off and hopefully more next week. 1.5lbs is my goal that I am working for, for next weeks weigh in.

3 days ago I started the Zumba sculpt and tone... I am in day 3 and I am not sure I am seeing much results yet. I am enjoying it though and working up such a messy sweat so something must be happening.

In other news... I must be getting wiser as my wisdom teeth are trying break through so I am in a lot of discomfort and taking painkillers every four hours. 

So, the scales this week showed a teenie tiny 1lb gain. 

Onwards and upwards and moving forwards!! :)

Zumba!

For my birthday on Sunday my hubby got me the 'Zumba Fitness' set, it comes with 4 work out DVD, two toning sticks and a total body transformation guide.

In the guide it has a couple of workout options:- let's get started, 10 days accelerated fat loss programme and tighten and tone program.

I decided to start with the 10 day tighten and tone programme! Yesterday was day one and oh my gosh! It was so fun! I worked up such a sweat and earned my self 10 activity points for just 45 minutes exercise. 

Day two consists of a 20 minute express session followed by 20 minutes of the flat abs dvd. 

I can't wait to do this once the girls are on bed tonight! 

Crazy, Busy week! (mini recap!)

So, as you've probably noticed I have been super quiet since Wednesday! I do have a good reason... Life has just flown by and I have not had chance to sit down and type at the computer.
So, Wednesday was weigh day... I had worked really hard this week so expected a very good loss. I banked a lot of activity points, ate all my dailies and only 4 of my weeklies Got on the scales and saw I had lost 2lbs! I was a bit disappointed but by the end of my meeting I was not disappointed anymore 2lbs is still a great amount to loose in one week!
I am edging closer to some current goals:- I am 0.5lb away from being in my next stone bracket, I am 4lb away from loosing 70lbs and 9lbs away from getting my 75lb loss certificate!  I want to have everyone of them ticked off before we go on Holiday (I have 6 weigh ins left to do it so can't loose focus right now!)

As for keeping me busy, It was our 4th Wedding Anniversary on Thursday so me and Hubby decided to celebrate on Wednesday. We went walking around a shopping centre, then to Ikea and finally we went out for a meal. Its safe to say I for sure blew all my weeklies in one day. Whoops.
Thursday, our actual anniversary we had to do boring, grown up things. We left our house at 10am and did not get back in the house till nearly half past five!

Friday I got caught up with the housework that had been semi-neglected over the past couple of days when I was have been out. I did make an amazing fish dish for tea too...

I found the recipe here at:-  www.weightwatchers.co.uk 

I also made butternut squash chips for my lunch and I have planned to write a blog post with a step by step guide on how I make them so keep an eye out :)

A year.

A year to some people is not very long, to others it seems like a lifetime, A year is three hundred and sixty five days. 52 weeks!

To me, This past year has brought a lot of changes all of them for the better.

My husband got a new job that required us to pick up and move 50 miles from our friends and family, In this past year I had also decided I had, had enough of being the 'fat one' and I needed to take control of my diet once and for all. I didn't like how I looked, I wasn't happy and it needed to change.

The first photo was taken May 2012 when we was on holiday in Cornwall. This photo was 3 months postpartum, I hated how I looked, I got tired easy and I just was not happy with how I looked in clothes. Shopping for clothes always filled me with dread.

It was still another 3 months before I knuckled down and got serious however I did try to loose weight on my own but with not very much avail. I joined weight watchers September the 5th. I know this date as Mia started full time school the day before.

While cleaning out my clothes the other day I found the dress I wore on holiday. I had only worn it once, That night on holiday. I felt so self conscious, My arms looked massive, my legs looked like they belonged hung up in a takeaway shop and my stomach...I could feel it wobble with every step I took. When we got back the dress got stuffed to the back of my wardrobe, packed in a case when we moved only to be shoved back into the bottom of my wardrobe with thoughts of I will never feel or look good enough to wear it0

.  

I figured at, at least 64lbs down from when I was last in it I would look a bit better, I'd try it on and snap a comparison picture.I stopped and looked in the mirror and I felt like a different person in this dress. I actually look like I have a figure! and my legs, my legs look like legs and not kebab spits!! 

I like how it looks that much I am thinking about wearing it when me and hubby go out to celebrate our anniversary on Wednesday.

This folks, This is what is attainable in just 365 short days. Never say never.  

Chicken goujons

These are a firm favorite in our house. They are one meal I know everyone will eat without a grumble. Mine work out to 5pp per serving (3 goujons) but I would for more accuracy weigh and track your own ingredients!

What you need...

• 350g of raw chicken breasts
• 3 slices of brown bread (mine worked out 117g)
• 3 eggs 
• 75g plain flour
• garlic powder (1 tbs)
• Mixed herbs (1 tbs)
• drizzle of olive oil (I used two pumps of my WW oil sprayer)
• 7oz of milk (I used Molly's baby milk as she is on a dairy and free diet)
• 3 bowls for battering your chicken strips.
• Salt and pepper to taste

How do make them...

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200, and cover a baking tray in foil and give it one spray of olive oil. to make my bread crumbs, I used my food processor for super quickness, I also added in my garlic powder and mixed herbs to mix them up a bit too.
2. Break your eggs into one of the bowls and mix, Once the eggs are mixed together at the 7oz of milk and mix again till both the egg and milk are combined.
3. into the second bowl weigh out your flour and season to taste.
4. Into your third bowl put your bread crumbs and lay out the bowls flour, egg/milk and then bread crumbs
5. Cut your chicken into strips (I managed to get 18 strips out of my chicken breasts)
6. Dip your chicken strip into the flour to coat, then the egg and then the breadcrumbs. Once coated with the bread crumbs place onto your baking tray, Repeat till all your chicken strips are covered.
7. Once all your chicken is coated and placed onto your baking tray put in the oven for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked fully.

 I found making the goujons was a great opportunity to get the eldest to help! She loved getting her hands dirty and helping make tea! 

Even the youngest wanted to have a look at what was going on! (Don't worry, I took her down once I snapped the photo!!)

 The goujons before going in the oven. They looked and smelt SO good before cooking too!

20 minutes later and the goujons are perfect and golden!

My full plate: Chicken goujons (5pp), Oven chips (5pp), 75g baked beans (1pp), Garlic sauce (1pp), Salad (0pp).