No shame in a maintain...

31^st July 2017

Whatever you decide to do, make sure it makes you happy.

Well I’ve got maintenance sussed, stayed the same for the last 3 weeks, but as a very wise woman once said to me, ‘there’s no shame in a maintain!’  I’m actually really pleased with that as I haven’t tracked for the last 3 weeks either. 

It’s not easy to lose weight, it’s even harder to keep off weight that you’ve lost because you are obviously the kind of person who overeats which is why you end up overweight in the first place.  I most definitely am that kind of person, I love food.  Add to it that I work in a job where I talk about food constantly so am tempted all the time by thoughts of deliciousness and it’s never going to be easy.  I’ve accepted that, I’m content withmy struggle because struggling and being this weight is a damn sight better than quitting and getting a whole lot heavier.

The real challenge starts now as yesterday I ripped out the first of the kitchen cupboards and took up the floor tiles, the rest of the units except the sink will be gone this week too.  Then I’ll have a table to prep our meals on and that’ll be it for however long it takes to get it all done.  It’ll be alright, here’s to a few weeks of easy to prepare meals I reckon as all my cooking stuff is packed in boxes.  We had fish finger sandwiches yesterday, they were delicious, I still haven’t done a proper shop, just buying bits and bobs as and when I need them.  I’ve got to be careful we don’t live on sandwiches and toast as that’s the easy option isn’t it.  I accept the challenge!  I have a microwave still, it’s sitting on my washing machine, so a table, toaster and microwave and for now the cooker is still connected – it’s all good.  Can I lose weight whilst having a new kitchen fitted?

I need to sort the floor now, it was okay until this morning, but one of the tiles underneath the tiles I’ve taken up has come lose and lifted and a few others look like they’re gonna do the same so we might have to try and either get them all up or skim over the top, I don’t know – I’ll ask an expert I guess!  If anyone knows a professional floor expert, lino layer, give me a shout J It’s all gonna be worth it in the end.

I thinking ready meals, part of me is saying make a stew but I’ve got some many other things to get done that cooking’s not a priority, eggs on toast for breakfast, I’d kill a bacon sarnie but as I don’t have any other than a pack of extremely fatty streaky bacon in my freezer that came in my meat parcel at Christmas I won’t be having a bacon sarnie this morning.

I’m waffling so I’m gonna get off and get my day started, Carpetright this morning I think, need to work out what’s actually going to go on that floor when it’s sorted.  The beauty of having stuff to do is you don’t spend all your time thinking about eating, bonus.

Have a great day BeYOUtiful.

I wished the Sunshine would stay...

30^th July 2017

I’m thankful for my struggle because without it I wouldn’t have stumbled across my strength.

I love a Sunday morning, even more so when it looks like it might not rain, at least long enough to walk the dog anyway!  Had a good day yesterday, cracking meeting on the morning, followed by my massage, walking the dog – that’s my Saturday ritual now. Usually when all that’s done, I’m too tired and relaxed to even cook a meal properly, but yesterday I had a spurt of energy appear from somewhere and I moved the shed around to make room for most of the stuff in the utility room, it’s almost empty now, then they can turn it into a wetroom in September.  Having cleaned out one cupboard in the kitchen and cleared off the work surface I know I’m going to love being able to put everything in there out of sight once the kitchens been done.  I do love the less is more style these days, it looks good and it’s easier to clean!

Oh how I wish I could get the less is more style perfected on my plate too J I’m not too bad though, I’ve been worse, I just love eating, and food is so delicious.  Yesterday morning I made an eggy bread omelette, I was experimenting, it just tasted like omelette - you couldn’t tell there was any bread in there, I won’t do that again.  For my main meal I had the last piece of salmon out of the freezer, half packet of brown rice with diced veggies and a bit of soy sauce, it was delicious.  I nibbled on celery and hummus for my tea, I’ve eaten an entire head of celery since I blogged about it the other day, now I can say the inflammation in my legs has gone down, whether that’s a coincidence, where I am on my monthly cycle, that I’ve started drinking more water again or down to the celery I don’t know, it could be a combination of all of those things.  Either way, I shall be buying more celery today as it’s not hardship eating a stick here and there, no it’s not my most favourite flavour in the world but it’s easy enough to eat and can be disguised in my meals if necessary.

I’m not sure what’s on the menu today, hummus on toast for breakfast to use it up, it was reduced to 20p in the Co-op last night!   I will see what’s left in the kitchen to eat and then decide, we’re working towards bare now, mostly tins left and microwave rice, a few things in the freezer.  I noticed fish fingers so maybe buy a couple of baps and have fish finger sarnies, mmm nom nom. 

Anyway, the tough bit on a Sunday is to stay on track, so I’m going to try to keep myself a bit busy this morning, then relax later, that’ll stop me thinking about food a bit longer.

Whatever you’re doing, enjoy your day BeYOUtiful, I plan too.  

Trust me - you look good!

29^th July 2017

If it makes you happy, no one else’s opinion should matter.

Eggy bread, such a simple, cheap, tasty breakfast, I really enjoyed it yesterday morning, I used a pan liner in the pan to save making the washing up hard work too.  Lunch was a good chicken sausage sandwich, I will definitely be doing another Penn Road butchers shop when my kitchens sorted and my new fridge/freezer in place - they really are good sausages!   For my tea, I did food in 15 (minutes that is!), a jar of Asda’s cheap curry sauce with chicken thrown in and microwave brown rice.

I had planned a No Count day but ended up cleaning out a kitchen cupboard as my mates chap let me know he’s got 3 days off next week so could get started, by the time I’d finished messing about I hadn’t got time to cook, not forgetting I hadn’t got all the ingredients I needed, no onions even.  I really do need to shop but I’m not going to do anything to ‘big’ because I want my kitchen as empty as possible to make his job easier.

I was hoping for a dry weekend to empty my shed and sort but it’s not forecast, so that might have to wait another week, I’m sure I won’t find it difficult to find other things to do, there’s always something to do in the house isn’t there.  I loved Gogglesproggs the kids one last night when one of them said, "The thing about cleaning is you're taking dirt out to make room for more dirt!" The kid makes sense, a whole lot of sense!

Can’t we be self-conscious creatures, worrying what others might think or say, have you ever stopped to wonder why?  How do we disarm that inner critic and decrease those feeling of self-consciousness?   Start by working out what we’re actually self-conscious about, then challenge those negative thoughts.  So many people worry about their weight and how they look, so dress in certain ways but trust me, you can look fabulous at any weight – you don’t have to live in black smocks!   Here’s just a few photos off the internet proving my point!  These ladies are all outside their ‘BMI’, they look incredible to me!

Think about it for a moment, self-consciousness usually stems from us worrying that others will confirm our negative self-take or fixate on those things that we already feel insecure.   If you’re listening to your negative thoughts about you being overweight and someone tells you that you should think about losing a few pounds, your negative thoughts have already convinced you that being overweight is wrong or bad – is it?  Then the comment has backed up your negativity and now you feel even more self-conscious!   What’s right or wrong, good or bad – who decides that?  Erm when it comes to my body – I do, not some damn chart or opinion from someone else who has no right to tell me what I ‘should’ be!

So challenge those thoughts of yours, I do mine, I put a sleeveless blouse on the other day and I didn’t like that I could see that bit of skin under your arm, I thought it didn’t look nice and spoilt the outfit, then I looked at myself in the mirror and said ‘really! Get a grip, everyone has that bit under their arm, it’s part of your body, now love it and move your ass, you’re gonna be late for work!”  No one commented on my underarm and if they had, I’d have said, ‘do you have nothing better to focus on than my armpit – sad times!2

Never forget that your inner critic, the nasty voice in your head is not a good or reliable voice to be listening too, it’s not the voice of reality so start telling it, ‘whatever!’

People really aren’t paying that much attention to you as your insecure, self-conscious you thinks, they are, they’re too busy listening to their own negative thoughts!   We all have things that make us BeYOUtiful, we all have what some people call faults, I’ll go with characteristics, I don’t think any of us are flawed, we’re all BeYOUtiful and meant to be the way we are.

You can become more confident, trust me I did, I used to criticise every inch of me, I never quite good enough and even if I did within an hour, my hair wouldn’t look as good anymore and I’d be conscious of that.  Now, I’ve realised nobodies hair looks perfect all the time, actually so people do and I find it infuriating that they manage it ;) but if you look hard enough there will be something that’s not quite right about them, I can’t be bothered to do that because it’s not necessary to make yourself feel better by finding fault with others.

Yeah give yourself a break, you wouldn’t pull someone else’s appearance apart with such savageness – I hope you wouldn’t anyway and if you would, you seriously need to check yourself.    If someone else gives you a hard time, challenge them, stand up for yourself.  Accept your worth, you are amazing.

Now go have an epic day BeYOUtiful!