Health and Safety Overload!

I have returned and am proud to say that I have survived the health and safety course and an over night stay with moaning colleagues! Wooo hoo! I have to say that it was the same course as last year and just as "interesting" as it was once more geared towards the construction industry. I did come into my own in some areas though so I was feeling slightly smug for a fraction of yesterday. The picture above is of the notes I made on the first day, as you can see at one point in the afternoon my mind wandered and I started adding up how many points I had had so far and had got left for the evening meal... Exciting times! The glass of wine I had with tea was lovely and extremely well deserved. I even managed to earn 2 activity points on my pedometer, as Caroline and I needed some fresh air after the course and went exploring.

I did find the whole thing a struggle as I expected I would. The food choices that were on offer were not fantastic for someone trying to track their points! I remembered from last year that its a full cooked buffet lunch, so I had a fish cake on the first day and a piece of Salmon on the second both accompanied by salad and veg, I even sat all virtuous with my satsumas for pudding whilst everyone else was tucking into amazing looking puddings. It was hard not to revert back to my old habits, especially when I saw the chocolate torte type thing that was on offer. Both lunches were delicious but at home I try and eat lighter at lunchtime and have something bigger for my tea, which wasn't great yesterday with it being the dreaded WI day.

The lack of water available for me to guzzle was a tad rubbish too! There were some large bottles of water on the tables but for some one who can drink loads without thinking about it, there wasn't enough!

So that leads me nicely in to last night's WI result. I had a gain of 1.5 lbs. I'm not surprised and certainly not shocked by this due to the lessened control I had over the two days leading up to it. In all honesty I thought I was going to have a much larger gain than that so I am gratefull that there's less to aim to shift for next week. Even with this gain, I'm still over my four and a half stone mark which is the thought that is keeping me going. My own mini goal is to be at 5 stone gone by my birthday at the end of November...

My WW leader, Yong, last night was teasing us by not letting anything slip about the secret new changes to the plan. Does anyone have any inside info that they're willing to share?! She did however tease me by asking me if I eat a lot of fruit and then winking at me!!! How very mean!!

All my organising skills are coming into their own with the meal planning. Tonight's tea is a, dare I say it... Slimming World recipe that I have adapted and pointed up. I have to admit it was the Herby horseradish dumplings that attracted me and made me buy the magazine! So its rich beef cobbler with herb and horseradish dumplings tonight and lasagne with pork mince for tea tomorrow. Yummy yummy in my tummy, at least I hope so!

Hope everyone is having a great week, I've had fun sat drinking my coffee and catching up an every one's posts.

Lex xxx

Damage Limitation

Bonjour my lovelies, I hope you all had a lovely weekend and you've managed to get warm at some point today! The sun is now taunting me by being out and lovely, but I know how cold it is out there!! Stupid northern weather and it's stupid frostiness! Although the plus point was that my lovely hat that Mum made for me kept my ears toasty.

Well the lurgie has returned with a vengeance, thus giving me a gravelly voice and a cough any smoker of around 100 a day would be proud of. Does coughing count towards earning activity points? It's certainly making me ache like I've been doing some sort of sit up all night long! It probably has something to do with lack of sleep and spending Saturday afternoon sat in a draught in a freezing restaurant...

Saturday was Kheira and my adventure to meet up with some family for our auntie's 50th. Mum and Dad are "accidentally" away this week so it was left to us two to go nosey, I er mean enjoy ourselves. The venue of my Auntie's 50th bash was changed at the last minute, so I went from knowing what I was having at the planned Italian meal to facing the challenge of eating in a place where I used to love their burgers and curly fries. Torture is not the word!

Kheira and I glammed up ready for the celebrations only to be faced with the prospect of spending the afternoon freezing in the restaurant with some of our least favourite people. It turned out not too bad to be honest. The food was rubbish which meant that I didn't go over points, and there was plenty of conversation so we stopped noticing how cold we all were!

Most of the people that were there haven't seen me since maybe new year time, so it was a massive shock to them to see me looking so different. My uncle who's a typical blokey bloke even told me I looked stunning which meant a lot to me I can tell you.

Mr B and I had a nice relaxing day on Sunday. It was lovely for it just to be us two rather than us visiting or people visiting us. We walked up into town so I could collect my snazzy new specs and then enjoyed lunch in a gorgeous coffee shop that we have found all tucked away. I will post some pics of my glasses on here but I am paler than a pale thing on a pale day today, even more so than usual. It also doesn't help that my rudolph-esque sore nose is being highlighted by the red top I am wearing!

This weekend has mainly been about damage limitation. What with the meal out on Saturday, and me on a two day health and safety course on Tuesday with an over night stay in a hotel, I won't be able to control as many things as I would like to be able to. I went to the gym on Friday before my shift started and I'm hopefully going straight from work tonight, plus I have racked up activity points with all the walking this weekend, but I'm starting to fret that it might not have been enough for even a STS never mind a loss. I have pointed religiously and nothing has passed my lips that has not been written down, but the slight niggly feeling that arrives on the morning of WI day has arrived two days early! I'm not a fan of this! I know that it's only for this week, and I can get back on track on Wednesday night, and I also know that I have done all I can before hand to try and counteract the daft things like maybe not being able to drink enough water during the course.

I'm sure all will be fine, but I am a born worrier! So I shall be giving myself a mental slap and carrying on with all the good work. I shall now concentrate on worrying about having to spend two full days on this course with work mates that I am less than enthusiastic about...

Lex xxx

Sausages and Saucy Specs...

Firstly, I would like to make a quick apology for my apparent mardy-ness on my previous post. Fingers crossed I'm feeling much better and in a far better mood. There have even been reports of me smiling today....

The down side to the lurgie is that Mr B has now decided that he has it! I swear I can't be ill without him trying to copy! I had the dreaded swine flu last year, and his boss made him work from home just in case he caught it an spread it at work. He did not. He was at home annoying me. I'm sure he'd have period pains if he could get away with it!

Anyway, that's by the by. As of the dreaded weigh in last night I was down 3.5 lbs! I have no idea how that happened. The only thing I have done differently is upped my running. I have now cracked the four and a half stone mark and am also now into the 13's. This is all great but I am now down a point!!

This week is a bit of an odd one as I am working lates today and Friday, which messes up any sense of normality and routine that I like to have. The old version of me used to sit scoffing crap from the vending machine all night, especially when I had to work nights. But thankfully those days are no more! I have put some severe planning into meals this week to try and hold off any slip ups that might try and tempt me. So last night I made a cottage pie ready for tonight's tea and a recipe that I have adapted from Slimming world called "speedy bangers and beans". Both have been very very filling and have stopped me wanting anything else. The sausages are gorgeous and so so tasty without having to do to much messing around! I also replaced mashed potato on top of the cottage pie for carrot and swede mash with a little flora light in and I have to say I am surprised at how much I enjoyed it. There's even some of each left for dinners/teas for tomorrow or for Mr freezer to hold onto for another day.

I also had my eyes tested this morning as they have been aching a bit and I get a bit paranoid about things like that. I have worn glasses for reading and being on the computer for years now and I'm chuffed to say that they haven't changed too much. That's all well and good but one of the pairs I already have are now stupidly wide for my face!!! I didn't even think that was possible!! So I had to pick some new frames, what a shame!! I adore anything retro/vintage and was hoping to get some in that kind of style but no such luck in Specsavers! I will post pics once I've collected them.

I am here until 11 pm tonight and I'm feeling every minute of it. At least I can use the time to catch up on reading your lovely blogs.

Lex xxx

Mardy Poorly Lex

Dear Lex's Lurgie,

Please can you go away now, I quite like having my voice thank you very much. I especially like being able to have soup without it hurting to swallow and being able to concentrate on anything apart from earache...

You are making me extremely ratty and bad company today which is making me have a face like thunder, not great for being at work I can tell you!

I am bored of you lurgie, please leave me alone.

Yours Sincerely,

Mardy Poorly Lex
xxx

Fruity Porridge = Nom!

Here is my latest yummy find that I blogged about yesterday. In the words of Harriet and Mr B, NOM!!! Although they are usually speaking about curries or other awesome food stuff...

It says to make it with milk or water, so I tried it with water for the first time ever and was pleasantly surprised.

I'm feeling a bit off it and washed out today, my throat is hurting and so are my ears. Fingers crossed it's not the dreaded lurgie that's spreading like wild fire around here. I'm sure I'll feel better after my soup at lunch time.

I'm planning on keeping to my three gym visits a week that I've managed to get over the past few weeks, as I know next week I will struggle. I went last night and have now increased the amount of time I am running for. I can now do 1 minute 30 without stopping! Getting rather proud of myself.

It's WI day tomorrow, and if I have a loss then I will be losing a point. I've been attempting to save one a day this week just get into the habit a little early, but with all the partying at the weekend it was a little difficult. A short sharp shock might be good for me, you never know!

Lets see what the scales have in store....

Lex xxx

Charm-tastic!

My my my the weekend went by fast! I think I might start demanding photographic proof that it even happened! Hope everyone had a great one non the less.



Mine kicked off with date night on Friday, which happened to coincide with me being able to get my charms that I owed myself. Hurrah! Mr B and I both hate Meadow Hall at the best of times, well except for the "oasis" which is where all the restaurants etc. are, so I managed to get a coat, 2 cardigans and 2 charms in the record time of 40 minutes! That also includes much dithering on my part as to an "oatmeal" coloured coat being a suitable choice for my clumsy little self, and then too much choice at the charm counter. Result or what?! I went for the coat in the end as I think it looks ok on, plus I discovered it's machine washable for when the inevitable happens....





The charms that I eventually chose are these:













The remainder of date night was spent in "Coal" where I had my favourite, chicken fire sticks. They're chucks of chicken flame grilled on giant skewers, which then arrive in procession to your table with a red hot skillet of veg. They are gorgeous! Once again Mr B got meal envy!





I spent Saturday morning and afternoon having a relaxing time drinking coffee with Mum and Barnsley town centre, well we had to escape the rain! Then I had to transform myself into something resembling gorgeous ready for Mr B's boss's wedding reception. I spent the night dancing away and drinking far too much wine and laughing far too loud! It was fantastic. I tried to take a decent picture of myself but I'm afraid that they all came out a bit blurry! I had on my black 50's prom dress with pink polka dots and suitably ridiculous high heels....





Not sure if I've told everyone about my porridge related discovery. I ventured into Aldi the other night and found some fruity porridge that is gorgeous. If I remember I'll take a picture of the packaging. I think there's apple, cinnamon, raisins and cranberries in it, and 50g made up with water is only 2.5 points. I thought I might miss the milk in the porridge as I have only ever eaten it made with milk, but the cinnamon disguises it well enough for me any way.

Lex xxx

10%!!!

Oh yes boys and girls, I achieved it and could even be seen doing some sort of victory jump/jiggle manoeuvre next to the scales. The coveted 10% keyring is mine all mine and I'm feeling rather proud. Now as most of you know, I started doing WW online and only started attending meetings around mid June this year so this is just my 10% since starting going to a meeting. The 2 lb off last night now takes me to 62 lb gone or 4 stone 6 lb if you prefer, and 1 lb away from my next charm for my gorgeous bracelet.

Mr B and I are off to meadow hall on Friday night after much discussion, in which case I can call into House of Fraser and buy myself the two that I owe myself! There's so much choice and so many pretty things though, although saying that its only a small counter so they may not have the full range like the proper shop. So far I am fancying a little four leaf clover to add to the collection.

Is any one else doing anything similar to celebrate little victories or goals?

Off to see the parents tonight and will call in to see Grandma hoppy too. Thank you for asking after her girls, she's doing ok and managed to make it to bingo wearing one shoe and one slipper!!! She won the "house" jackpot any way hahahaha.

Lex xxx

Wednesday = WI Day

It's WI day once more bloggettes, how on earth does it come round so fast?! I have tracked, tracked and tracked some more this week so we shall see what the oracle at the scales has to say later on. After the slight bloaty blip of last week I have my fingers crossed for a loss, I think I've earned it to be fair!

This week hasn't been too eventful so far which has been a nice change. I think I'm finally getting settled back into the swing of everything with work and life which can only be a good thing. The only "event" really is that my tiny (4ft 11.5inches to be precise!) Grandma tripped over at home and thought she'd broken her foot! Cue many phone calls from her to my Dad (her son) and a trip to A&E courtesy of my Auntie, plus a ride in a wheel chair that she thought was hilarious! Turns out it's, luckily, soft tissue damage which is a bonus for a woman of 78 years of age. She is now more concerned that she's had to cut her "best" slippers to get her bandaged foot into it, she's ruined a Christmas cake she was in the middle of baking and that she doesn't want to miss bingo with the girls at lunch time today! She was having a medicinal glass of red wine when I called in to see her last night...

Any way, I got to the gym on Monday night and had a run again! I'm getting quite into it to be honest and I never thought I would. Running is just something that never really appealed until recently. I thought I'd be too big to go on a treadmill never mind run, then there'd be the inevitable jiggling of body parts, throw into the mix tons of sweatiness and my total clumsiness/lack of coordination and I thought it could only end in disaster. On the up side I'm now running most times I go to the gym so feeling very proud of this new habit I've developed. Off to the gym from work this afternoon, then hopefully again on Friday before Mr B and I go on a date night adventure!

Speaking of Mr B, there is a reason there are hardly any pics of him on this blog. I love him to bits and find him incredibly attractive, gorgeous and handsome. All except for when he has his picture taken!! I have very few pictures of him looking like a normal human being and not pulling a daft face. Here evidence of what I mean, taken the other Saturday night in the hotel we stayed in:

Exhibit A

All lovely and smiley until the photo is taken and then we get scary alien face Mr B! He doesn't look like this so I have no idea what goes on to make it happen!!

On a quick note, how many of you lovely blog readers live in and around Yorkshire? Would be great to meet up with a few of you one day.

Lex xxx

Not The Smartest Of Moves....

Oh my goodness it's cold here today! I am currently sporting this season's corned beef leg look as divvy here decided to wear a skirt today, not the wisest of choices I admit! But I do look nice even if I do say so my self hahahahaha, well all apart from the pasty cold legs anyway...

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Mine was spent with Mr B and I ranging from freezing to boiling in the in-laws caravan in sunny Skegness. There is no in between with that caravan! It was stone cold when we pulled up so we unloaded the car, trying not to sink into the mush that was the site, and whacked the radiator on. When we arrived from getting important food stuffs such as wine and something for tea it was like a furnace! We then had to sit like plonkers with the room windows open. I bet that will keep "nosey Joyce" the next door neighbour guessing for hours!

Anyway, I digress. The weekend was lovely. It's nice to have a change of scenery don't you think :) It stayed dry all weekend so I managed to rack up a good few activity points on both days, which I am very pleased with. So all in all it's been great.

This month is flying by! Got a busy week planned as usual, then we have date night on Friday, we're at a night do on Saturday night for Mr B's boss' wedding and then It'll be next Monday again! AAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!

The burning question once more this week is will I get the 10% key ring this week at WI?! I have tracked like a trouper, including my scoop of ice cream on Saturday, so there is no reason why not. Let's just see if my body is playing nice this week!

Lex xxx

A Slight Glitch...

Well everyone, the scales showed a 1 lb gain last night, I thought it was going to be bigger than that so I'm quite satisfied that it was only teeny in the grand scheme of things. I have upped the anti and am aiming for a loss at weigh in next Wednesday. Victory will be mine!

My new leader, Yong, is amazing. She has so much passion and energy for everything that she does that I can't help but be inspired by her. She lost 4.5 stone to get to goal and looks beautiful! Go Yong!

Due to what the scales said last night, I have put on my annoying bossy organised head from this morning and become a pre-planning machine! A machine I tell you! Mr B is yet to experience this in person today, so far he has only been informed via email.....

I have spent all of my precious lunch time planning meals and shopping lists for the next week, whilst enjoying my WW Creamy Red Thai curry from last night. We are away at the weekend which usually throws our weekend meals out a bit, but not this time my friends! I am refusing to let anything sneak up on me! Well at least that's the plan anyway, I'll let you know how I get on with that.

I ran in the gym again last night, I feel like I'm getting somewhere with it all ready and dare I say I'm getting into it! I'm back at the gym for a quick swim tonight before heading to Mamma and Pap's. That will make it my third time this week boys and girls, I've finally managed it! I have been aiming for three visits for a while, but life has that annoying habit of happening around you doesn't it?! Any way, as the sang goes, "three is the magic number!"

Dad's car is still well and truly poorly sick so he requires little Ariel once more. I don't mind at all as Mr B can chauffeur me to work in the morning and I can get warm and comfy in the passenger seat.

I really should get this spread sheet finished but I keep getting distracted, I hate spread sheets!

Lex xxx

Soup-er!

It's Wednesday boys and girls, which means only one thing in Lex land....WI day! Lets see what the scales have in store for this evening. I'm very dubious as I'm feeling tres bloaty today even though I've pretty much drank my own weight in water. But what ever happens happens as I know I've been on track this week. Everything is accounted for, including the wine on Saturday night!

Lets get down to business shall we! I'm ashamed to say I don't really know what goes into my soups. It tends to be a random combination of any veg that needs using up to be honest. Although my main staples are usually onions, peppers, courgettes, carrot, butternut squash. I tend to roast them in a hot oven until they look nice and roasted and then whizz them up with some water and a stock cube to get it to what I feel is the right consistency. It usually makes a fair old pans worth which I freeze in clip lock boxes that I know hold two portions of soup.

The tomato soup that I had Monday and Tuesday was quite a creation! I will try to recreate the recipe!

Large pack of fresh tomatoes

some garlic cloves

tinned chopped tomatoes

dried mixed herbs

Jar/carton of passata

salt and pepper

• Get the oven nice and hot (around 190/200/gas 6). Put the whole fresh tomatoes on a roasting tin along with the whole garlic cloves, spray with a little oil, season with salt and pepper and place in oven for around 20 mins


• Pour the tinned tomatoes around the others in the roasting tin and season with the herbs. Put back in the oven for around 15-20 mins or until the fresh tomatoes are looking nice and darkened.


• Once cooked, transfer these tomatoes into a large pan(keeping garlic to one side) and add the passata. Squeeze the garlic into the tomato mix and blend together, adding mores seasoning in needed and a little stock/water to make it the consistency you like.

Enjoy! I hope that make sense to you all. I'm not the best at things like this but I do try! Here is a pic of my roast veg soup from today, along with a whole meal pitta to keep me going!

The eyebrow torture I er mean er waxing went great last night. Lovely Lianne has done a grand job and I no longer have ginger caterpillars on my face! Hurrah! As much as I love Lianne, one of her colleagues is extremely overly familiar and pushy with the products. I gave in and let her do my make up. Now I'm not a big fan of a shiny face on myself, yet she tried convincing me that a shiny face and lots of blusher is the way forward. I know I'm a bit pale but I don't think I'm quite corspe-esq to require that much slap! I do like their products though, especially the glam vintagey style packaging. I am a bit of a magpie for anything like that, especially if it comes wrapped in something pretty or sparkly!

Tea at Chiquitos was lovely and yummy, and I stuck by my intentions of pre planning everything before hand. Lauren however gave in and had garlic bread with cheese and the macaroni and cheese! I suppose one of us had to be naughty! We sat and nattered for hours and put the world to rights much to the annoyance of our waiter I think. We met at the one on the retail park near IKEA in Leeds (if one one knows it) and seen as I got there early I decided to park at the restaurant and walk up to IKEA for an extension lead for Mr B. I certainly earned my activity points yesterday playing "hunt the staff member" and then trying to convince them the extension leads were not actually where they said they were!!! Grrrr! Oh well I found them eventually!

I mentioned FB yesterday on here, if anyone would like to add me my full name is Alexa Brammer. Please write a message saying you are a blog reader!

Lex xxx

Returning To The Crime Scene...

Today I'm being a brave girl. I am going back to the Benefit Counter to have my eyebrows waxed and tinted by the nice girl, not the she devil that tortured me last time! I'm not sure that I shared on here what had happened, basically she daubed me in dye, squidged my eyeballs, ripped the wax off and left me with wonky eyebrows. Thats all after making me wait for her to come back from her lunch!!!!

Anyway, rant over. I complained, and am going back today to see the lovely Lianne to deal with the catterpillers that are threatening to take over my face!

I'm also off to meet my friend for some tea at a Mexican, I'm very excited as we only tend to be able to get together with our other halves. I know what the menu is like and have planned on spicy chicken and rice YUM! I have just some more of my none point roasted tomato and garlic soup. I'm very pleased with it even if I do say so myself! So with all that planning under my belt I should be still on track this evening.....

On another note, if anyone would like to get in touch via facebook then please leave me a comment :)

Lex xxx

Ho Hum!

Well my lovely readers, once again I find myself making the age old excuse of life getting in the way of my little blog. So lets have a quick update of slight mishaps of this week:

• The trip to Leeds was cancelled



• My so called "holiday days" were far from relaxing



• The hair dressers cut my neck!



• I had a slight "episode" and couldn't stop crying!

Not a great start to the week admittedly! Mum really wasn't well so we had to cancel our girly day out, which was a great shame but it just means we'll have to make it extra special when we finally do get to go. That's what kind of started my mini-meltdown on Monday night if I'm honest, from which I have now calmed down thanks to the awesomeness of my Mr B.

I had Monday to Wednesday off as holiday days, and as I have said, I did not relax one bit! Poor Dad's car stopped dead in Sheffield city centre on Monday evening, so I have been doing as much as I can to help him and Mum over the past few days. They're going away for the weekend too so I have lent them Ariel (my car!), it was either my girly turquoise skoda, or Kheira's fiesta and mine won out with engine size and boot space hahahaha. I'm sure Mum still packs for five even though there's only them two going!!!

Wednesday was a slightly better day! I have finally had my hair cut thank god! It was getting very desperate, and had started doing what all curly haired people will recognise as the "growing out instead of down" routine! All was well until she went to trim my hair with the clippers along my neck line and cut my neck!!! It's still a bit sore but it now just looks like a line of hair dye on my neck!

Now to the good parts! I promise there are some and that this blog is not just a collection of my moaning! Mr B and I spent the day in York on Saturday and caught up with some friends, he then surprised me by telling me he had booked us into a hotel. It turned out to be a gorgeous place near Harrogate. It was an awesome surprise and I sometimes think that I'm not worthy of someone so loving and kind.

Weight Watchers was a great success again this week, I somehow managed to lose 2 whole lbs this last week. I have no idea how, not that I'm complaining mind you! I am really hoping and praying for at least a lb loss this week, that would take me to my 10% since starting to attend meetings. Fingers crossed for me please everyone!

I will try and check in again over the next few days! I really don't like leaving it this long between blogs!

Lex xxx