The Game is Afoot!

Hello, my name is Helen (hello Helen). It has been four weeks since my last confession, on my honour! Or may I be chopped up and made into soup.

In the words of Sam Beckett oh BOY!!! Yes my friends, these are indeed exciting time!

First a re cap since the last posts. Tomorrow marks my next blood test encounter , interested to find out the numbers as frankly I feel no different, but hey, let's see what the numbers say.

Slimming World is going ok - I would say great, but frankly I would have liked to have seen bigger numbers by now. I know what I am capable of, and I know where my weaknesses have come from on several occasions. That aside though, I am pleased to announce that in just four weeks I have lost a whopping 13lbs!! (whoop whoop!!). Very pleased as this means I am well on target.

On target for what? Um, well ok confession number two, other half and I have actually booked a holiday for the end of the year! If that wasn't enough, I have also brought myself a size 12 (yes, that is a 12) Bikini (yes I said the word Bikini!!). Am aiming to be able to slim down and wear said Bikini on said holiday! Have worked out if I can lose on average 3lbs per week, I will be well and truly at target by the time said holiday comes - which will be nice!

On a semi related topic (I'm saving the absolute zinger until last ya know), aforementioned fella and I have also been discussing potential dates for up and coming tied knot! I've said we will start looking seriously at venues around May / June time, gives me a chance to shift another couple of stone before a date is actually cast in one! Very excited, have already got shortlist of first dance songs, disco songs, pre ceremony classical tunes, style of dress, overall colour scheme, nominated maid of honour (ta Jen!) & bridesmaids, the beginnings of a guest list, various dance routines to attempt at aforementioned disco and roughly what we'll be doing day before, on the day, and where we'll be going on honeymoon! (Not that I've been thinking about this or anything!) Really excited, but again, it is all weight dependent, as I refuse to walk down the isle looking like a beached whale - pre wedding beauty health & fitness regime officially starts here guys & gals! I think that calls for another whoop whoop!

Aaaaaaaaaaand finally!! NLP course & Life Skills course remains ongoing, HOWEVER! have discovered that I have enough qualifications to apply for SHTC membership, which is like a governing body type thing for coaches, so today I have applied, and initial feedback looks good! Waiting for payment to clear naturally, but barring that, I could be a fully fledged (associate) member!

Once membership is approved, there is literally nothing (I don't think) stopping me from turning around and screaming to the world "Hello, my name is Helen, and I am a certified coach!!!!!!!!!"
 omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg and breeeeeeeeeeath!!

If I could do back flips then seriously right now I would be! Four years it has taken me to get to this point, and finally a dream today has begun to be realised, I am so so happy! Of course now the hard work (and the fun) really begins! Whilst I am polishing off my remaining courses, I can legitimately market myself and try and get some clients in!

I'm off now to run around the garden screaming yipppiiiiiiiieeeeeeee!!

30 Day Lifestyle Challenge - Day One

Morning peeps! Well it's Monday, and we have yet another gorgeous morning this morning!!

After having a couple of weeks 'off' from all things routine, I've been simply itching to set myself a 30 day challenge! In keeping with my down with diets attitude, this challenge isn't about 'keeping to a restricted diet and exercise routine', yes exercise is involved, and yes I have written out my 'menu' for the week, but NO I'm not on a diet - still with me here??!

I'll let you in on a little secret, I have a passion for rural Victorian life, more specifically from the middle class farmers wife / female perspective. I don't know where it has come from, but I am simply fascinated by it, and have been inspired myself to adopt a more back to basics lifestyle.

I am at present researching for a book I am intending to write: 'Modern Day Victorian Living' (or something like that!). Using the rural Victorian as a template, I shall not only attempt to bring back past values / crafts / routines etc but more importantly make those values & routines etc relevant for today. Big example of this would be washing day - back then it took them four days to wash / dry & iron clothes by hand. Today we put it in the washing machine which is much easier! (so naturally I wont be dismissing modern technology just for the sake of it, just using it when and where it has it's place).

After a small amount of research, I have an idea on the farmers wife very basic weekly Mon - Sat routine, with Sunday of course being God's day and naturally a day of rest (sounds good to me!!), which mainly dealt with the household chores, baking days (I really looking forward to those already!!) and market day (for me, that involves sitting at the computer and ordering from Tesco's tee hee). In addition to the standard household chores, I have also given myself set exercises to do every day, and have set out what I'll be eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

With the latter, again please don't confuse this as a diet, just because I have set out a meal plan. The plan is based around what I currently have in the cupboards, and enjoy eating! I'm using current stocks up before buying more in - saves on the waste that way!

And yes, as far as the food is concerned, with the exception of Breakfast, I will still be following Paul Mckenna's Principles of only eating when I'm hungry.

Breakfast is the exception because I have never really eaten breakfast - if I do eat, it's more of a Brunch thing. So this time at the very least I will eat Breakfast every day without waiting to gauge whether I'm hungry or not - and yes, I will stop once I am full.

So yesterday, I sat down and wrote out my jobs to complete list for each day, every day encompassing toning and treadmill exercise, 3 meals, and my chores list for today. Sounds tiresome? Well today is washing day, and what that mean? well, putting all the laundry in the washing machine and switching it on - oh yes I can see how that could be irksome!!?

So, getting to the actual 'challenge'.

This morning, I weighed out 1oz of porridge, made with milk and sugar sprinkled on top, accompanied by a glass of water, which although was very tasty, unbelievably (or not) I've had about 3 teaspoonfuls and am feeling quite stuffed! I'm not even sure I've eaten half of it! Like I said, my body isn't used to eating breakfast, next time I do porridge I'll put a little less in and see what happens.

I've also sorted out the chickens, taken meat out to defrost for tonight's dinner, completed my toning exercises and made the fella his morning cup of tea in bed whilst sorting out my own breakfast, and no, I didn't get up at 6am either!

As is normally the case, day one is so far going swimmingly, but then again let's be realistic - I've only just begun, let's see where I am in 30 days time :D