Happy Monday

I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself this evening so I thought I'd share my good mood with the WHOLE WORLD... or at least my blog & Twitter followers.

After managing to drag myself to the gym for a pretty good calorie burning sesh even after having a crappy night's sleep and feeling fairly groggy all day, it was time for the weekly weighday ritual. And my scales brought good news!

This week I've shed another 4lbs which brings my running total to 21lbs - a stone and a half! I'm definitely feeling proud of myself and although there is still a long way to go, my goal is feeling more achievable.

Disclaimer: Okay this might not actually be me...

I've also noticed that my new jeans I bought after Christmas after dropping a size can no longer carry off their description 'skinnies', which - as nice as it is to be dropping sizes - is not going to do well for my bank balance!

J x

Calorie counting crazy

After falling off the healthy eating wagon slightly around the festive period, I was finding it tough to get back into the swing of things. Even before this I was struggling to get strongly over the 1 stone mark. When I got to 1 stone loss, I thought I was past the first big hurdle and that from then on it would start to get easier, but how wrong I was. For ages, I was hovering above and below the 14lb mark and it was getting frustrating!

This is how happy I'll be
when I hit my goal weight ;)

This is when I called in My Fitness Pal to whip me into shape.

I've dabbled with My Fitness Pal before but it didn't last long. This time I think we'll be BFFs as after two weeks of becoming a food-and-exercise recording, calorie-counting addict I've already shed some pounds and gone down a belt hole. That's an official measurement y'know.

I signed up under a new username to start afresh and entered all my details - current weight (which I later changed to my start weight at the very beginning of the 'lifestyle change' so I could keep a better note of my overall weight loss - see the badge on the right of this blog!), goal weight, how often I aim to workout, how active my day job is and some other bits and bobs. It then gave me a goal limit of 1200 calories a day... ouch?

But I've found 1200 calories a day actually really easy, especially on days when I manage to burn some 'serious cal' at the gym allowing room for a more calorific dinner if necessary.

I've definitely become slightly obsessed with tracking every single thing I eat or drink on the website - and the phone and iPad apps are amazing too - but I am definitely seeing this as a good thing! I've also noticed that the community on the forum there works really well for people to motivate each other.

So I'm pleased to say I'm well and truly back on the weight loss wagon and feeling good. Last week I lost a massive 5lbs - probably down to a shock to the system after slipping so badly, but I'm sure I can continue to push it in the right direction now.

It's weigh day tomorrow, so let's hope we see the number on that badge head up!

Who, what, where & when?

Since becoming a fiancée, I have become obsessed with all things wedding!

I've subscribed to loads of wedding blogs, bookmarked some great websites, become a complete Pinterest addict (which is a great site anyway but amazing for wedding inspiration!) and developed a stronger love for wedding-related TV.

It's all very exciting but it really makes you realise just HOW BLOODY MUCH there is to think about when planning a wedding!

Now, we don't want some massive celebrity-style wedding (has anyone seen Celebrity Wedding Planner? Jedward ♥), but we do want a fairly big deal - a  day to really celebrate love and the two of us and something for us and our guests to remember for years to come.

So we need to think about venue(s), a bridesmaids, groomsmen, registrars, colours, dresses, suits, food, guest list, invitations, favours, flowers, a cake, entertainment, and those added extras for our personal touch on the event.

Oh and then there's a honeymoon and all that comes with that.

And of course the all-important hen and stag parties (which I'm sure our friends are far more interested in)!

... and I know there's probably a LOT more that I'm forgetting, so if anyone could point me in the direction of a comprehensive wedding to-do list I would really appreciate it!

It can all be a bit overwhelming when thinking about all the boxes that'll need ticking, but before anything we need to figure out what we can afford and what date next year to settle on.

So, who, what, where & when?

Well I don't have the answers to any of these (other than the bride and groom 'who'... you'd hope anyway!) yet, but let's hope it falls into place.

Darren and I have four days off together at the beginning of February so the plan for that time is to attempt those awkward conversations with family members to find out exactly the extent of the financial help they have offered us (we need figures!), view some venues, attend a wedding fayre and decide on a date (or at least which month!)

Eek!

Here's to a year of sweating & saving!

2011 has (as every year, month, week or day does) had its ups and downs but looking back it really has been an amazing year with so many landmark moments - notably graduating, beginning my career, getting engaged, quitting smoking & making a dent in the weight loss target! I definitely didn't expect it to be such a big year at the beginning of 2011!

As the year drew to a close I was sad to see the back of it. I think this was mainly because so many exciting things happened last year and I was feeling as though there is nothing really exciting to look forward to in 2012... We're both just looking at a year of struggling to save a lot of pennies and lose a lot of weight ready for a 2013 wedding!

But once we can truly get stuck in with the wedding planning, I'm sure that will soon take over my home life and be exciting enough for me! Once things settle down a bit for us, it is time to work out realistically how much we can save and come up with a figure for our budget!

Anyway, now I really need to step away from the new toy and get myself to the gym! Happy weekend everyone :)