A few weeks ago I got my first negative response (that I know of) to my blog. To say the least I was shocked. To be honest, I didn’t know how to react. The fact it came from someone I could trust, or so I though, made it a little bit worse and they clearly hadn’t been reading it.

This really goes to show how judgmental society is these days and the quote ‘never judge a book by its cover’ could not be any truer in this case.

I’m sure that this isn’t the only person who has jumped to conclusions about my blog, and when I started, this is very much what I anticipated. I have put my story out there for everyone to see, which has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done and for those who are judging me, they are clearly not worth being a part of my life!

However, that aside, to all of you who keep reading and offering me an unbelievable amount of support, my family, old school friends, I could never thank you enough and its really keeping me going right now.

So as another little update, I’m keeping positive (despite negative comments) and lining up a load of dishes I want to tr. I’m also going to go cold turkey on crisps, my real true weakness, and this will be my biggest challenge yet and I will let you know how it goes.

Eggs

Now you may wonder why I’m writing about such a simple food that most people eat in their everyday lives. However, for the first 19 years of my life, unless eggs were hidden within a cake or other such foods,, I wouldn’t eat it!

So two years ago my mum made me scramble eggs for breakfast and now I cant get enough.

The reason I’m writing about them now is partly because I’ve been craving them so much in the past few weeks and partly because they are so good for you.

Benefits to your health:

Now for the boring bit. Eggs are full of iron and vitamins B and D. iron isn’t as easy to come by as other nutrients and I know so many people who have had health problems because their iron levels have been too low. So eggs are a cheap way to get your fix.

The protein in the eggs helps to balance your mood and prevents your blood sugar from crashing so you can stay awake all day and not take your afternoon nap that I know many of you are guilty of (as am I).

Personally, I see eggs as something for breakfast, something to start the day right and keep you fuller for longer. After a bit of research I have seen a couple of recipes that I really want to try and they seem quite easy and cheap to do.

Cooking:

This is the good bit! Obviously the way you cook eggs could make them slightly unhealthier, such as a fried egg drenched in oil!

I’ve only ever had scrambled and fried eggs but I’m going to try poached eggs soon!

Fried eggs are more of a guilty pleasure that have a little bit of goodness in them if you look past the fat content. A once in a while treat!

I tend to put the egg on a bit of kitchen towel before putting it on the plate to soak up a bit of the oil I cooked it in.

My favourite breakfast at the moment!

Scrambled eggs have to be my favourite of the two with loads of ground pepper on top! I’m not a huge fan of creamy things and food with loads of milk in. so I make them with a little bit of butter! Check out pictures to see how I make it and when I’ve got round to trying other ways of cooking eggs, I will post an update.

Time To Be Honest

This is going to be the hardest blog post I've written so far and I'm still unsure of how people will react to it. To be honest, I'm disappointed in myself, the last month or so has been quite difficult on many levels and as you've probably noticed I haven't posted as regularly as I would have at the start. I love writing on here, getting supportive comments from friends and family so its been a shame I haven't been able to keep up.

However, I haven't been sticking to my diet or even going to the gym, yet I have noticed that my portion sizes have decreased and with all the stress I've put myself under over the past few weeks I haven't resorted to comfort eating as much as I would have before March. Yes, I'm upset that I haven't kept up with losing weight, but this isn't to say I have gained weight, I've actually lost 4 lbs in the last 3 weeks!! This has really helped me to know that the way that I see food has in fact changed and also having a more active job, where I stand on my feet for hours on end instead of sitting down all day, actually makes a difference and I've seen that my legs have gotten slightly more toned just from this!

I've got a few recipes lined up that I want to try out and I'll be doing so in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

Other than that, I'm going to keep it short and sweet as this has been hard enough to admit to and I need to get on with revising! I promise that I'm going to make more of an effort to keep posting, and I'll be changing the name of my blog to something more appropriate (any ideas will be more than welcome). Much love.

Mid Week Positivity

This week I've felt loads better I must admit. Yet again I've tried so much harder, tried new recipes (which always boosts my mood) and spent time properly talking to people I wouldn't normally talk to. All of this has really lifted my mood and made me feel more positive about the coming days and the future. Sure there are still moments where I hesitate and think 'what if...?' but I've managed to pass that and think more about the present moment.

It makes a difference being able to stay positive most of the time, it means more good days than bad days, which obviously means getting closer to my goal! 

I am doing this purely for myself, to get a better quality of life and for a better future for myself. The last thing I want is to not be able to live my life to the fullest because I'm overweight or I'm so self conscious of the way I look. It's not a good way to live, so why should I have to live like that? The answer is I won't compromise my life in that way.

I started a new job this week and I've already agreed to work all kinds of hours so coffee is officially my new best friend to get me up early for the gym. Wish me luck!

So here's another progress picture, the first was taken at the beginning of March and the second was taken this morning. I'm not going to lie I was quite disappointed as I couldn't see of much of a change as I thought I would have. However, I went to the gym after and did a HIIT workout. I cam out feeling better and more determined! Roll on tomorrow!

A Quick Update

Last week I confessed that I had had a bad week, cheated on my diet and promised to try harder over the next coming days, and that I did. I haven't cheated on my diet and I've actually been to the gym, a much greater success than the week before. I've been told this week that I look skinnier as well which is a great compliment that I will never get tired of hearing! However I still feel like its not enough, obviously I know I could have gone to the gym more and stayed for longer when I did go and that will be my aim for this week. I never really know which equipment or machines to use in the gym though, to maximise weight loss (any advice would be greatly appreciated).

It's tough sometimes, I could have 1 or 2 great days that are really productive but after that I could end up having 2 or 3 really awful days that seem hard to get out of. I'm sure I'm not the only person that has this problem, and as these other people, you feel like you're the only person that this happens to, in that sense I guess we are not alone!

I'll keep this short and sweet and stop complaining now! I'm getting up extra early tomorrow to go food shopping and to the gym, starting the week the right way!!

An Active Weekend in Centerparcs

So last weekend my family and I took a trip to centerparcs in Longleat. It was definitely one of the most active weekends I’ve ever had. We just so happened to have a villa that was in the furthest corner the village meaning it was trek to get anywhere! On the first day we already had to walk the length of the village from the car park to the Indian restaurant! I’d already had a pt session first thing that morning so I was already exhausted. I did treat myself with a couple glasses of wine and managed to eat quite a bit for dinner but I did resist the naan bread and poppadoms. However I did feel a bit disappointed that I wasn’t able to keep up with everyone when we were walking back.

On the second day we went to collect our bikes and cycled the length of the village at least 3 times!! I have the nicest massage and a tuna sandwich for lunch. We had a very competitive game of badminton and I was completely exhausted after but felt so good. Then went for a swim to cool off, anyone whose been to centerparcs will know that there are rapids which are so much fun but I came out with loads of bruises after. I had a couple of drinks again and decided to have a healthy steak for dinner.

Exhausted!

Obviously after 2 days of non stop exercise I needed a bit of a lie in, so a late start on the Sunday that went very similar to Saturday except we also played table tennis and went on a pedalo around the lake which was so much fun. For dinner I had a prawn caesar salad but without the dressing which was absolutely amazing. We then play bowling, obviously not the most athletic game, but I won!!

Nailed it!

By the Monday when we were going home, I was aching like crazy (and for several days after!). I burnt way more calories than I ate or so it felt anyway. I ended up with a ridiculous amount of bruises and it took several days for me to recover however there was no stopping me and I carried on working out through the pain and it certainly paid off.

For anyone who wants a weekend away and loves being active then you should really consider centerparcs. I’m completely biased anyway as my family and I completely love it there but there’s so much to do and its so much fun!

Delicious!

Almost Stopping

I have never felt so disheartened after going for a run today. It took a while for me to get up the courage to go for a run that day but I did it. Unfortunately as I was coming to the end of my run, bright red and completely out of breath(!), a car of "lads" drove past and one shouted "run you fat c*nt", I was gutted. I would never wish for that to happen to my worst enemy. No one deserves to be treated in such a way, especially if they are trying their hardest to completely change their life around. It's a shame that someone needs to treat other people like that or to show off to their mates because it's not impressing anyone I know! I don't have anything to prove to them but lets hope karma gets them!!

I'm ready to get back out there tomorrow and work my ass off!