you can't beat "THE SMILE"

31^st July 2014

What makes you different, makes you BeYOUtiful. Embrace your individuality. 

YAY its Thursday, which for me means Bloxwich day, busy but brilliant, and we’ve already had a fantastic week in meetings already, 271lb lost so far and last night the boys were doing it for the dudes, both Dave and Roy received their 5% which is great, yesterday morning Pat achieved her goal, it’s always great to be a part of their journey.  There’s always one thing that makes me feel better than anything that ever happens in a meeting and that “THE SMILE”, huh you might think, what smile, well I’ll tell ya.  “THE SMILE” is the one that happens the week after the “ROCK BOTTOM” the week before where that member is really unhappy and sometimes there’s tears, the feel desperate about wanting/needing to lose weight and all I want to do is hug them because I so know how that person is feeling as I’ve been there myself.  Sometimes it’s been made worse by someone’s comments towards them which have made them feel even worse than they already did, and they already felt pretty rubbish about their lack of ability in succeeding with their weight loss efforts.  So “THE SMILE” is fabulous, it’s actually making me smile sat here just thinking about it!  I had one of them last night, after her “ROCK BOTTOM” last week she lost a fantastic 8lb and the smile well, it was just the most BeYOUtiful smile I’ve ever seen, you could see how beautiful she really was, she shone, anyone looking at that face and that smile wouldn’t care about the numbers her body showed on a scales because she is gorgeous and it wasn’t an 8lb weight loss that made her that way, it was a change of mindset and a smile.  She know feels back in control and proud of herself, those feelings are what make us succeed, realising we can do anything we decide to do!

Yep best job in the world….

So here’s something for you to print off and stick on your fridge if you’re struggling at the moment, you may be feeling overwhelmed by life, by all the things you have to do, by all the things you feel you need to do and that may be making it difficult for you to stay on track because you don’t have enough time in the day or there’s just too much going on;

Note to self: 

I don’t have to take this day all at once 

but rather one step, one breath and one moment at a time.   

I am only one person. Things will get done when they get done!

I decided a month or so ago (no idea how long really as my weeks just fly) that I am only one person with 24 hours in my day, so I will do what I can and what I can’t get done will wait.  This mentality is being applied to my work, my diet and particularly my housework ;-) and I feel so much better for that change in mindset, I put 100% into everything I do and that’s what matters to me. 

On that note, I need to go but 100% into making me a cuppa and starting my paperwork before I leave for my meeting this morning, oh and giving my mom a big hug because I had a not so nice realistic dream last night that reminded me how much she means to me xx

What would you say to that 10 year old version of yourself?

30^th July 2014

A Person Who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected.  Appreciate & love yourself and you’ll be amazed at what you are capable of!

The mornings are getting a little bit darker at 5am, sign our summer is passing us by, end of July tomorrow, how quickly has that gone!   My house looks like a Weight Watcher war zone this week, I have so much stock in there, normally at this time of year, my meetings get quieter and I chill out for summer, not this year, we’re all still buzzing and feeling the Slimmer this Summer lovin!  It’s fantastic, hence the mess, I’ve got a room full of magazines and stuff for the carnival on Saturday, I also have a gazebo and a table that wouldn’t normally be there.  It’s a bit like a Krypton factor obstacle course making your way from one room to the next, I’ve even got my mom on the case, stapling flyers inside the magazines ;-) 

I’m still stopping to enjoy the other stuff in my life though, watering the garden last night and spotted the first of my purple passiflora flowers, how BeYOUtiful is this;

 

We also made sure we ate well yesterday, we had salmon, roast vegetables and mixed grains and it was delicious.  I’m trying different grains and have to say this was delicious, 7pp in half packet and it had Bulgar Wheat, Quinoa and Lentils in olive oil, they’d already done the hard work and it was tasty.  I’ll be buying them now and having a try at cooking my own, now I know they can be made to be tasty. 

WOW I’ve just read a really powerful quote, I’ve never watched “My Mad Fat Diary” but I’m just looking on Sky to see if it’s available for download because this is a great quote, very thought provoking;

“I want you to imagine a 10 year old version of yourself sitting right there on this couch.  Now this is the little girl who first believed that she was fat and ugly and an embarrassment.  I want you to imagine her sitting there right now.  Now tell that little girl she’s fat.  Tell that little girl she’s ugly.  Tell that little girl that’s she’s an embarrassment, worthless, and useless.  Because that’s what you do every single day when you say that to yourself.”  My Mad Fat Diary quote

WOW, now if that doesn’t make you think, nothing will!  I’m hoping you couldn’t do that, that you wouldn’t even dream of saying such a horrid thing to a child, to anyone really, I’m guessing some of you reading this are guilty of talking to yourself that way though and that makes me sad, it makes my heart sink because I’ve done it.  Not anymore, now I see the BeYOUtiful in everyone including myself.  We’re all gorgeous, we’re all amazing, original one offs who become absolutely incredible when we realise that and embrace our true selves xx 

What would you like to say to that 10 year old version of yourself?  If she/he said that she felt that way about herself, what would you tell her?  Or if you were to offer them some advice about the future what would it be?  

I’d tell mine to not be afraid to be herself, that it’s okay to be different, to not want to ‘fit in’ and be like all the other girls in her class because one day being different will be the thing that makes a difference to her life!  I’d add that what she weighs shouldn’t be an issue as long as she focuses on being healthy xx 

Yep off the top of my head, that’d be what I’d say, STOP think quickly now what would you say, don’t put too much thought into it, because then you’ll say what you really think and not what you think you should say!  

Right that’s me, a couple of minutes of deep is enough at this time of the morning isn’t it ;-) xx

Have an amazing day BeYOUtiful, you know you’re worth it. 

Healthy KFC, that'll do me! I'm luvin it...

29^th August 2014

BeYOUtiful begins the moment you decide to be yourself. xx

Tired ain’t the word the morning, I’m sure I’ll be fine once I’ve had my pint of water and chance to wake up but at the minute I could happily go get back in bed and snooze, yet I had an early night, what’s that all about!  I did have a crazy busy day yesterday though which is normally my day off so maybe that has something to do with it.  On the positive, I’m all set for Bloxwich Carnival on Saturday and I have some of my BeYOUtiful members coming to help me out so I’m looking forward to a fun day of giggles.

One thing about being busy is food only gets thought of at meal times, yesterday I forgot to have breakfast and it was 11 ish by the time my belly started talking, so I had a yogurt and strawberries, followed an hour later by couscous, St agur cheese, Warburton thin & salad.  Tea was delicious, it did look great on the plate but it tasted divine, it was a KFC style coating I used on some chicken;

KTC original chicken fry mix, works out at 8pp per 100g powder, I reckon on 2 chicken breasts 8pp, chopped up I used about 3pp worth, then 2pp for an egg which half of which was actually left in the bowl, so 6pp each for some KFC style chicken, bargain!  If you’re doing Filling and Healthy you’ve only got to ProPoint the seasoning! Result!  Thank you AnnMarie for picking it up for me in Asda, she bought me the garlic spray light too which I’m also loving, sprayed it on my corn on the cob before roasting at the weekend, it was scrumptious, I know Ann’s made garlic bread with hers using the Weight Watcher Petit Pains, again that’d be free on Filling & Healthy, she put them on the George Foreman I think.   Oh I never got to try the strawberry flavoured grapes on the photo but I’m reliably informed they’re weird! 

We’ll be having salmon today cooked with those Maggi flavoured papyrus, and I’m going to have leftover strawberries and yogurt for breakfast I thinks, might throw a slice of jam on toast in for good measure.

Watched Obese, a year to save my life last night (think that’s what it’s called), I don’t usually watch those kind of programmes but we flicked channels and I heard my name so stopped, turned out she was called Bev too, made me sad watching it because overeating can be a real issue, the only reason I carried on watching it was obviously her name was Bev but the first few seconds she was saying how she loved food but I was watching her eat and she was shoving it in and not even paying attention to it!  It becomes like an addiction and we’re not even tasting it anymore, that’s not a love of food at all, that’s an obsession and it isn’t the same.

Just as a weight problem isn’t always about food, more often than not it’s about mood; it’s about our emotions, what’s going on in our lives!  I’m sure everyone will agree, it’s much easier to lose weight when you’re in a great place emotionally and your life is all good!  I’m not talking about losing that extra ½ - 1 stone you may be carrying because you genuinely love food and find it difficult to control your portions or you just have that extra bit of something nice.  I’m talking more when you have a good few stone to lose because you know deep down it’s affecting your health, you want to lose weight but you just feel like you can’t, it’s so hard, you start the day in the ‘let’s be good’ frame of mind but come teatime it’s gone, you’re in the kitchen looking for the solutions to all your life problems in the fridge and unfortunately they’re not there, they are just helping to create yet another problem, but for tonight it’s easing your pain, taking your mind of your drama and for a short while making you feel good and supplying you with a short stream of pleasure sensations!  Oh yeah I’ve been there!   Not been there for a while, but I have most definitely been that person, sitting eating something and at the same time thinking to myself, “what am I doing! I want to lose weight, oh sod it I’ll start tomorrow, right now this tastes delicious and thinking about my weight problem is taking my mind off all the real bigger, more serious problems I have right now and that’s quite a nice feeling, it’s a calm place where all my troubles have been put on hold, I like it here, I’ll stay a while, at least till bed time, then I’ll tackle reality again in the morning!”

Writing that’s just bought back some sad tears to my eyes because I can remember feeling that way and it’s horrible, it feels like a never-ending vicious cycle that you’ll be stuck in forever.  The truth is though I’m smiling again now because it doesn’t have to be that cycle, I broke out and so can everyone, it just takes a little bit of self belief, possibly some life changes not just to your diet to your life, if there’s something making you feel that way, then something has to change OR if you truly believe that ‘something’ can’t be changed then you have to accept it and find a way to deal with it that doesn’t make you miserable! 

Focus on the positives and start sorting the negatives – it can be done, I did it, is it easy – NO!  Is it worth it – Abso-bloomin-lutely!

Am I cured – NOPE!  Do I still go back to that person when a new problem rears its head, yeah sometimes but I quickly recognise what’s going on and work on rectifying it, which is why I’ve managed to keep off 3 stone, mostly because I now live a life I love (most of the time anyways!).

That’s enough serious from me this morning, went a little deep then for 5am on a Tuesday morning didn’t I! 

Let’s BeYOUtiful today, focus on the healthy and happy and take care of us. Xx We are after all very much worth it!

And good news, I’ve woke up – that pint of water has done the trick!

Car Boots & Burgers...

28^th July 2014

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan! 

After getting up at 5am on a Sunday morning and being out of the house by 6, I had a lovely snooze in the garden yesterday afternoon and then decided to have an early night as I have such a busy week and so much to do.  Hence I’m now awake at 5am after a good 8 hours sleep - yeah I woke up a few times but generally it was good quality sleep – and I’m raring to go, I have a ‘to do’ list a foot long and so much I want to get through, my usually chilled out Monday will be more ‘Manic Monday’ today because I’m buzzing with ideas and plans for Bloxwich Carnival on Saturday, we’re off there to spread the Weight Watcher Love!

Essington Car Boot sale was where we spent yesterday morning and I was amazed at how busy it was so early in the morning; I was also a bit surprised at how many people were walking round eating ice cream at 8am!  I mean don’t get me wrong, I’d have happily eaten an ice cream yesterday afternoon but at 8am, well not the best way to start the day, the field was full of people buying and selling their stuff but also burger bars, ice cream vans and hot doughnut stands, temptation is everywhere you go and goes just a little way to explain why 70% of my city is overweight or obese.  I love a burger as much as the next person, but if all we live on is this kind of food we’re heading towards ill health, it isn’t just about our size, it’s all the other factors that go with it.  I felt proud to be on that field with my fellow leader Elle who was my member in my first year as a leader and she lost 5st in a year and has maintained it ever since, can’t beat having the evidence standing there with you, “talking the talk” and “walking the walk”.  I’m hoping to have some of my members with me on Saturday to do the same. 

We had a chat with one chap who said he’d lost 2 stone last year by cutting out his carbs, and then he said he’d put it all back on because he got bored and hungry!  We explained that at Weight Watchers nothing is forbidden, there’s no fasting, no measuring and no counting with Simple Start, we simply have a flexible, no-fuss food plan with all the support you need.  I tried to explain to him that successful weight loss needs to be as effortless as possible and with Simple Start it is, you get to eat tasty, healthy and nutritious foods which are at the heart of our ProPoints system without the distraction of counting or portion control.    And that’s before you even start on the group support which I believe is the main reason Weight Watchers works!  On this occasion I wasn’t successful, I did get him to take a magazine and an information leaflet to read, he seemed convinced that weight loss had to be a miserable journey and it wasn’t possible to enjoy it or keep it off!  So wished he’d have agreed to come to one of my meetings to see that’s not the case!  Hey Ho you can’t win em all, but it’ll never stop me trying to…

I myself have got a fridge full of filling & healthy foods, I won’t lie I was very tempted by the burger bar yesterday, I will own up to partaking in a bacon sarnie when we arrived to start my day off with a bit of naughty, I only ever really eat bacon out of the house as I don’t have the patience to cook it how I like it, really well done - 14pp though!  I did resist the burgers though and when I got home and my bestie and her kids came I made us all a filling & healthy version of burger and chips instead, that’s the last red meat I’ll be having this week, it’ll all about the fish, pulses and grains for me this week, I want to try some new stuff.

Right I better get started on that to do list and hopefully I’ll fit an hour in the garden in this afternoon, all about balance! 

Happy Monday BeYOUtiful.