Losing Weight to be Fit and Fabulous

I got a fright the other day when I weighed myself as I hadn't done it in awhile.  I was 169lbs, which was a shock to me, I have never been this heavy before, even when I was pregnant with my daughters.  So I decided that it is now or never.  I started cutting down on sugary treats and pop and became more active.  Today I weighed my self and I was 166.4lbs, which means I'm already over a couple lbs down already.  I have took some photos for a before picture and here they are.

My aim for the next 30 days is to combine the 30 day squat challenge and the 30 AB challenge.  Hopefully after the 30 days I will be down to 160lbs, well this is my aim.  So today I have to do 50 squats, 15 sit-ups, 5 crunches, 5 leg raises and a 10s plank.  This should be easy enough.  Here is the links to the challenges I am doing. 30 day ABS challenge http://goodbyebabylon.tumblr.com/image/49370797359 and the 30 day squat challengehttp://lindahaukaas.blogg.no/trening.html.  I hope other people will join in and try and get fit and fabulous with me.

Catching up, Cooking and Waiting for Snow (18/01/2013)

The last few days I have been trying to catch u on all my Tv programmes that I like.  The three series I have been watching so far are Revenge, Hart of Dixie and Beauty and the Beast.  I have managed to to complete the series of Beauty and the Beast and I am about 2/3rds of the way through the first series of Revenge and Hart of Dixie.  I am really enjoying them and during the weekend I want to hopefully catch up on Arrow and Bones as well.  I will get there, it's just I don't have that much time for myself.

All day we have been waiting for good snowfall as the girls really want to go outside and play and make snowmen.  Luckily at about 5 o'clock it started to snow and it looked like it was going to snow all night and leave us with a good couple of inches of snow for the next day.  I am honestly not a big fan of the snow but I love watching children play in it.  Plus this will be my youngest first proper big snow where she have chance to have some fun in it.  So I will have the camera at the ready for lots of snowy filled pics.

For dinner I decided to try a new recipe and it is a very simple one.  Yes I found it pinterest again, but they have so many good ones to try.  It's called Braided Spaghetti Bread and looked really delicious so I thought I would give it a go.  All it is, is a bread dough rolled out and you put in the middle cooked spaghetti with a sauce you like.  I had added a little bit of turkey mince to add some extra flavour then add some mozzarella on top of the spaghetti and braid the dough on top.  I then added garlic butter on top with Parmesan and baked in the oven for 20 minutes at 180oC.  This is what mine turned out like.

I think it turned out pretty well, it also tasted pretty good but I think next time I make it I might go for a different sauce.  This is the link to the recipe that I tried to copy http://www.rhodesbread.com/blog/blog/braided-spaghetti-bread.  Hope you have fun trying this if you fancy it.

Bye for now
J x

Difficulties

At some times in our lives we go through some difficult times. At the moment I am going through some money problem and this is causing me some difficulties. I don't have a lot of money and I need to pay off 3 credit cards.  I am at my limit on two of them and I am struggling to pay them on time. My number one plan now is to get at least 100 off each card over the next thirty days. I plan on doing this by selling some unwanted things. I am also going to get back to doing surveys and writing reviews.  I really need to get this sorted or I'm going to let down my girls. I really don't want to dissapoint them and they need me to do well for them. I want to be able to give them whatever they want and I will have this sorted by the end of the year. Also I will like I said in one of my previous posts by trying to claim back my ppi

Bye for today
J x

Lazy Dayz

Today I had a lazy day as my youngest daughter woke me up at 5 and never went back to sleep.  By the time it was 7 o'clock I had a bad headache and felt like doing nothing, so my partner took my littlest one out to see her pops so I could get some peace and quiet and get rid of my headache.  While they were out I managed to watch an episode of Revenge.  I am about half way through the first series and really enjoying it.  I also watched the latest episode of the Big Bang Theory which gave me a good giggle.

This afternoon I felt a little disappointed with myself as I hadn't been out the house all day so I popped to the shop to pick a couple of items for tea and wanted to check an app I had downloaded for my phone.  It is called map my walk, it looks good so far but I will let you know what I think when I have used it more.

Me and the girls put the music channel on before they went to bed and had a little dance around and I realized how much I missed listening to music. I want to try and listen to it more and maybe have fun dancing with the girls more often.

Bye bye for now

J x

More Plans

I have some more plans.  Today we finally got some ink for our printer and I can finally get some things done that I have been meaning to do for at least the last six months.  First up I want to reclaim hopefully the ppi on two of my credit cards.  I am going to get the forms printed off ( I got these from www.moneysavingexpert.com).  Hopefully I will get my money back,  I did it a couple of years ago on my loan and managed to pay off the loan and get some extra money.  I'm hoping this will pay off the credit cards or at least get them way down so it is easier to get rid of them.

The second thing I would like to do is make a custom recipe folder for all the recipes I have tried and loved.  I have started typing them up, so some are ready to go.  I'm going to add a picture of the finished product then file them into my new folders.  I am going to start these projects next week.

Today I have another night at college, which I'm really looking forward to. It's just a nice little break where I get to do something for me and hang out with people who want to do the same.  Were just doing french manicures again tonight and some theory.

I am struggling today with the temptation of something sweet.  I really want something but I haven't given in yet.  I just want a big bite of chocolate but I'm going to try to be good.

Bye for now

J x

A little Shorty

Only a short one today I'm afraid. I haven't done much today as it was my eldest ones first day back at school.

I have kept to my diet today though, so I have had no pop or sweets today. I did way myself this morning and I have only lost half a pound. I'm going to try harder this week and see if I can lose a little more then this next week.

I also started back at college this week which I'm really happy about. We are doing manicures and I'm really enjoying it. I love learning all these new skills bit I'm unsure whether to start a YouTube channel with what I am learning.  It's just a thought at this point.

Bye, bye for now
Jx

Family and My Pinterest Addiction

I have spent most of today at my mums house with the girls.  We usually go there every Sunday for our dinner and for the girls to play.  Also so I can get a little break, my mum does all the chasing around instead of me.  We had a lovely Sunday lunch today and I was good and didn't over indulge, especially with the crackling.  I usually finish the whole plate but today I only had two small pieces.  Healthy eating for the win.

I also want to talk about my little addiction to Pinterest.  I have already mentioned that I use the site in previous posts.  If anybody is a member I am sure they will understand.  Let me start by explaining what pinterest is, it is a website where you create boards and you pin pictures to them but if you click on the pictures they will send you to the link where they came from.  I have a few boards, from recipes I want to try, crafts, animal photos, words and art.  I find this website so useful, especially all the recipes.  In fact I found so many recipes that I had to buy some extra equipment so I could try them.  This is mainly a slow cooker or crock pot in the USA.  I have tried a few already and they are fantastic.  The thing is you find so many things to try that you need to find time to try them all.  Please let me know if you use the site and what your thoughts are as I have only heard positive things about.

Goodbye for now.

J x

Jobs Getting Done

I am feeling really happy today as I have been able to catch up on most of my washing.  There was quite a bit to do, although some of it still needs putting away though.  I did spend about half an hour sorting out my t-shirt draw thanks to pinterest.  I now have all my t-shirts folded and displayed in my draw so I can see all the designs without having to look through them all.  Here's the link I got from pinterest http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy-organized-t-shirt-drawers.html.  I hope this help some people who need more organization.

Me and my girls have also been enjoying watching the cartoons and programmes I use to watch when I was little.  This is all thanks too CITV and there old skool weekend they have been having.  I didn't know whether they would enjoy them as they are so different to what they watch now, but my eldest really took an interest and asked lots of questions about them.  I'm sure we will watch some more tomorrow.

I have also taken my little dog for a walk, so I got some exercise done today too. But it also one of my treat day's, although I am not going to go overboard. I have one can of pop and I have had a small apple and blackberry pie. I may have a couple of squares of chocolate as well.

I'm sure I will have more to report tomorrow. 
J x

To Do, To Do, To Do

It seems at the moment I have loads of to do lists and there is no end in sight.  This makes me quite happy actually as it is giving me something to do.  I have lists for things that need organizing, lists for chores to do, lists for personal goals and lists of ways to make some extra money too.

Today I got another two big boxes two add to the other two that I got yesterday.  They have now also been filled up.  Hopefully I will just need two get another two and all the girls toys will be sorted.  There bedrooms will then need to be moved about and adjusted until I am happy.

Also today I finally have my tumble dryer, so I can get all my laundry done.  I have put it all in piles although I know I won't be able to get it all done today I can get a good chunk of it done.

One of my goals this year is to save more and I came across this article which I think could really help.  Well I'm going to give it a good go anyway.  It's called the 52 week plan and all you do is put away the amount of what week it is, so for week one I am putting away a £1.00 and week two it will be £2.00 and so on.  This should accumulate nicely and hopefully I will have saved quite a bit by the end of the year.  Here is a link to the article http://www.allthingsmw.com/52-week-money-challenge/

Still doing well with no eating of chocolate or drinking of pop.  I am however struggling to ger any exercise done.  I think I will take the dog for a long walk tomorrow.

Take care

J x

Getting There

So I woke up this morning with a plan.  I wanted to get the girls toys organized, so I wanted to get some boxes to put them all in.  I thought I would only need 4 boxes, but by now I have realized I am going to need a few more then that.  I went to the shops this morning trying to find the right size and colour of boxes I wanted.  I only came home with two in the end, so I could see if they were the right size, they were 75l boxes. I found out they were and have them filled all ready.  One now has Puzzles and games in and the other has my younger daughters Happyland toys in.  I now need boxes for the musical instruments, dolls and barbies, electronic toys and then miscellaneous.  Hopefully I will have these done by the end of the month.

My healthy eating is also going well, although I am craving pop, but I'm not giving in.  I haven't done any exercising yet, although I was helping my daughter with her Xbox kinect game Once Upon a Monster, which meant I got a little bit of activity done today.  Also walking round all the shops help too.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow as I am getting a new tumble dryer.  This means I can get all my clothes washed and dryed and hopefully see the bottom of the wash baskets this weekend.  Then I will need to organize all the clothes back into the wardrobes and draws.  I am sure I have a lot of clothes that can even be thrown out or donated.

Ok, see you tomorrow for more of my daily chores.

Jx

Going Stong

Although it is only my first day on my goals, I think I am doing pretty well.  This is considering that right about now I would have drunk a pink of coco cola and had a bar of chocolate to keep me going.  Let me explain  why, my 2 1/2 year old daughter does not sleep well and hasn't since she was born so I have become accustomed to drinking either coco cola or lucozade to keep me going.  I haven't touched either one yet today and I do not intend to for the rest of the day.  I am now calculating my calories on the myfitnesspal app to help me along.  I am going to try and get some exercise done later, even if it is for only 10 minutes or so.

I have been working on my third goal to be more organized as well.  I have whittled down my unread emails down from 1500 to 250, hopefully by the end of the day I will of gotten rid of all of them.  I have also downloaded some PDFs to go into my new organizational folder.  Next I need to set myself a budget and put it into effect.

I haven't really made any progress on any off my other goals yet, but hopefully I will do that soon.

Sorry this hasn't been that interesting of a day, but I have pretty much stayed at home all day.  I will get out of the house tomorrow.

I will see you tomorrow

J x

New Year New Me

First up Happy New Year to all, hope everybody had a good 2012 and have an even better 2013.

I want to take this year and make a new me.  I want to become fitter, healthier, more organized and more money conscious and learn to drive.  I felt last year I became lazy and didn't want to do any thing to better myself apart from starting college again.  This year I am on a mission and have already written my five year plan for motivation.

Over the next year I will be blogging about my daily, weekly and monthly goals and hopefully at the end of the year I will have accomplished a lot of these things.

So first of become fitter.  I will  admit I haven't done any exercise since last summer but I do walk everywhere.  I hope to at least work out twice a week using the Xbox kinect as I can't afford to go to the gym.

Second of is being healthier.  I am terrible at the moment, I pretty much drink pop and eat a bit of chocolate every day, not good.  I plan on cutting these out during the week and treat myself on a weekend.  I also want to start cooking more instead of buying things I can just put straight in the oven.  This is just very lazy of me and I feel very disappointed with myself for it.

I am combining these first two goals together.  I weighed myself this morning and I was 163.2lbs and this is my before picture.  I found the picture below on www.pinterest.com, I'm using it for motivation.

Third goal, to be more organized.  I feel pinterest will be very useful in this area.  They have so many tip, tricks and PDF's to help organize yourself.  I first want to start on clearing my folder of old paperwork, then make some organizational folders.  I also need to sort the girls rooms out and my wardrobe and my emails.  There are I'm sure other things that need to be done but when I get to those I will let you know.

Fourth thins is to be more money conscious.  I plan on doing this by making notes on my diary on when I get paid and how much I can spend or pay towards my credit cards.  I also need to make a conscious effort into making some extra money on the internet, whether this is writing reviews or taking surveys.  I am also going to be doing car boot sale and selling any unwanted DVDs, clothes and books.

Last but not least is learning to drive.  I need to be able to do this for when I become a freelance make up artist.  I will first block book my first 10 lessons and take my theory test.  Then I will decide whether to take another 10 lessons or do the and pass 'n' go in one week course.

So my goals for this week will be to not have any pop or chocolate till the weekend, exercise at least once, hopefully twice and to cook at least once.  I need to go through my folders and emails and I will start selling some of my DVDs.

Here's looking to the future.

J X

Motivation, Motivation, Motivation

This is what I need right now as I am feeling very lost.  I need this for my beautiful girls as my relationship with their dad seems to be falling apart slowly and I need to be able to stand and be strong for them.   You see for the last six years I have gone around the country for him so he can follow his dreams and now it has come to a point where I need to sort mine out.  For this to happen I need to have a hella a lot of motivation and money, which I don't have much off.  But it the next few weeks you will see that I am going to be more motivated and more determined then ever.

From today, I am setting up four of the most important goals for me and them.

Number 1.  Make a five year life plan, so I know where we are going. 

Number 2.  Get some money into saving, so I have some back up money.

Number 3.  Go back to college so I can have my dream job and prove to my girls that at no matter what age you are you can live your dreams.  (I'm 30 by the way).

Number 4.  Learn to drive and get a car, so I can have more independence. 

So for now I am thinking positive and off to make my five year plan.

See you tomorrow and keep motivated in whatever you do.

New Year Cleaning

After the aftermath of Christmas and the New Year and a week of rest I have decided to give the entire house a good clean.  I am going to take each room and try and gut it as much as possible and throw out all the rubbish, mop or vacum floors, clean walls and surfaces and put everything back nice and neat.

The first room I am going to start with is the kitchen as this seems like it will be the most work.  I will also have to do the room under the stairs which is in the kitchen as well and I am not looking forward to that at all.
The next rooms will be the living room, the hallway and downstairs toilet, Our bedroom and en suite, the family bathroom, then Faiths room and Graces room.  So I'm hoping this will take a week, it may take longer depending on how much the girls try and interfere. 

I also need to get all the washing done as I only have one washing machine and radiators to dry it.  I am going to be saving up money for a tumble dryer at the end of the year so it will be a lot easier.

I hope everybody is enjoying the new year so far and good luck if you are doing a big clean like me.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to one and all.  I was actually asleep at midnight, so I didn't see the New Year in till about 1am when my fiance got back from work.

I have had a nice relaxing day with the family though eating a nice roast dinner, then taking our little dog Angel for a walk.  We have been snuggled on the couch and watching movies as well and also been jumping around in front of the TV with the Xbox kinect.

I have promised myself this year that I will take some more time for myself.  As pretty much most of last year I was a mum 24/7 and I thing I had about five days all to myself.  SO I am making a promise to myself that once a month I am going to take the time to have a me day, while my fiance looks after the girls.

Anyway hope everybody had a fun night and day and that 2012 brings you lots of luck and fun.

New Year Resolutions

I don't usually make New Year resolutions, but for 2012 I decided to set myself some goals.  I am going to set them into three categories, the first group is a must, the second is I will try my hardest and the third group will be I will try my best to do.

So the first group of things I think are a must for me this year are:
1. Lose 30lbs, I have gained quite a lot of weight this year and I want to get back to how I used to be.  The first thing I will be doing is cutting out the fizzy drinks which I have been drinking a lot of and the take aways.
2.  Pay off one credit card.  I only have two credit cards but they are always hanging over my head.  My aim is to pay off the one with the smaller balance first.  I don't think I will be able to pay off both as I don't get much money. 

This is going to be my second group:
1.  Try and blog daily for a year.  I don't know if I will be able to stick to this but I am going to try.
2.  Learn to use Photoshop elements 9.  I have had it since August and have been collecting magazines that give you lessons but I haven't got around to doing it and it's something I've always wanted to learn.
3.  To cook from scratch more often.  Most of the time I will admit to being very tired and lazy when it comes to food as my youngest daughter never sleeps well.  I have been researching recipes that look easy and quick and will have at least some form of meat and veg in.

Last but not least my third group.
1.  Take a lot more photos of the girls, I don't want to miss their growing up and it seems I keep forgetting to take pictures of the most important things.
2.  These two coincide with each other, so I will list them as one.  Get life insurance and make a will.

At the moment these are my goals, they may change as the year 2012 goes along but I will try and achieve as many as possible.

I hope everybody has a happy new year. 

Earning Money on the Internet

As a stay at home mum, I am always trying to find ways of making some extra money so I am not relying on my Fiance all the time.  I use to do a lot before my second daughter was born 16 months ago but haven't done much since.  I am hoping to start again this month.  I got reacquainted with the old websites I used to do this week.  I'm hoping to spend at least 3 hours a day on various survey, review and writing websites to earn my money.  I'm also hoping to get rid of some of my bits and bobs on eBay.

Some of the websites I use either give out money or vouchers, but would love to know of any other ways people know of to make money.

Motivation

I have had no motivation over the last few months to do much of anything.  This is mainly to do with a lack of sleep as my youngest daughter who is only 15 months either wakes during the night for up to 2 hours and refuses to sleep past 5:30am.  I have been lucky the last four nights though as she has slept through til 6:00am,  I am hoping we can stick to this pattern.

I really want to get my motivation back as there is so much I want to achieve over the next few months.  It will be my 30th birthday at the end of May and I feel there is so much more I could be doing.

My top few things are
1. Get down to 130lbs. I am currently 156ilbs.
2. Pay off A £1000 off my combined total of my credit cards.
3. Blog daily
4. Learn to use photoshop and take better pictures

Starting from Monday I am going to make myself do as much as I can to accomplish all these things.  Fingers crossed all this works.

Loose Weight and Get Fit

After realising that a lot of my clothes are all of a sudden getting on the tight side I decided last week to go on the scales.  I was shocked to find how much way, it is the heaviest I have been except when I was pregnant.  Now it may not sound a lot to some but it does to me, so I way 148lbs which is 18lbs more than I like.  I am 5ft 3in which makes my clothes size a 12/14 in England.

I am now looking into healthy recipes and figuring out ways to work out.  The working out is going to be the most difficult as my partner works 60 hours a week.  I will try to use the EA Fitness on the wii and when my partner starts his new job next month he will have Sunday nights off and we plan to go to the gym those nights.  Hopefully my Mum will look after my girls one night a week as well so I can go at least twice a week.

I also tend to walk everywhere, so I now need to find my pedometer so I can calculate my steps.  Hoping to do about 10,000 a day.

Now to eat less of all my sweet treats and cola.  This is what has made me gain the weight as well as now living close to takeaways.  Where we lived before, all we had was a fish and chip shop.

It's time to get motivated and lose the weight and get a rockin body.

Easter Weekend

Hope everybody has a wonderful Easter weekend.  Mine was quite quiet, on Friday I was in all day potty training my eldest which was quiet eventful, lots of little accidents but I'm sure we will  get there.  On Saturday we had a lovely family BBQ and the girls had a great fun with there grandparents.  I think some of them are bigger kids then the little ones as they were jumping on the trampoline.  A lot of fun was had eating, playing and a little drinking.

I had a quiet Easter Sunday as my partner was at work, so it was just me and the girls.  We had a lovely lunch and ate lots of chocolate and played in the garden.  My eldest even fell asleep on the trampoline which was very cute.  We must of tired her out.  Monday was a nice easy day of going into town and doing some shopping with my mum and the girls.  Although we did try to avoid the fair and we managed but there was a little sulking involved when my daughter realised that we had bypassed it.

All in all a lovely weekend and I hope everyone else had fun and ate lots of chocolate.