2010 In Pictures...

Firstly my lovelies, I would like to say a huge thank you to every one who commented and congratulated me on my first year. As with the majority of people, I started this blog just as a bit of a place for my ramblings to come out and as a diary of sorts. It means a lot to me that you come and visit and comment on the nonsense that oozes from my being. As one of my favourite blogger's Bitch cakes would say, you are AWESOME!

Now my lovely readers, I thought that seen as you are all so fabulous and wonderful, that it was about time I fulfilled my many promises of pictures. So here are many of my ever changing face! I have put them in chronological order (where did I learn that word?!) so you can have a good old nosey!

Just starting out in January, I only know this due to it being the first ever pic on our new camera!

Looking very un-comfortable in Cardiff in April.

Posing whilst being the support crew for Mr B's friends on their mammoth walk.

With my sisters at Kheira's house warming in June.

With Mr B at the same house warming party.

Just about to start the race for life with Harriet at the end of June.

So far my favourite EVER picture of me in my lovely red dress that is now too big! You can just see my charm bracelet too...

In the gorgeous dress at the same wedding at at 3 stone gone at this point.

With Mr in Scarborough in October on the rescue mission to get the parents!

With Harriet in a bar in Scarborough on the same outing.

With my auntie Jayne at a family party at the end of October.

Outside Edinburgh Castle the day before my birthday this year :)

The end of 2010, Boxing day at Grandma's with my two baby sisters and 5 stone 4 lb lighter!

So there you have it boys and girls, most of my year in pictures! I hope everyone has a lovely time however they celebrate the new year. If I don't dream up another blog before then, have a enjoy what ever you do and see you next year!

Lex xxx

My First Anniversary!

Well, well, well boys and girls who'd have thought it. Today is the first anniversary of me starting WW, it only feels like a few weeks ago! Today I am going to share with you my picture that finally made me admit I needed to do something about my weight before it became a massive problem. So without further a do, here we are...

September 17th 2009

Here's another, it's a very rubbish pic of Mr B I'm afraid. This was taken in the glamorous location of Skegness...

July 2009

I both hate and love the first picture of me at the same time. I hate it due to the fact that I'm there in all my blubbery glory, not being able to do the big girl thing of hiding behind someone or something. I hate the fact that you can see my stomach bulging, and the way my chins are being squished into my neck. I tried to convince myself that my stomach was just my dress and that it was a really bad picture, but I finally accepted the fact that I needed to do something. That's why I also love this picture. It was the proverbial kick up the bum that made me start this journey and become the person that I am today. I also love it due to the fact that my Mummy is in it and my favourite auntie, Jayne who is actually that tall/little!

So sometime in the afternoon of the 28th of December 2009, I joined up to WW online with a starting weight of 18 stone 6 lb. I never would have believed I'd have lasted a whole year doing this, never mind wanting to continue doing it and even looking towards becoming a leader. Entire aspects of my life have changed including my appearance, attitude towards food, and my out look on life in general. Of course I'll still have blips, but on the whole I'm in a more positive place than I was this time last year. I no longer feel totally uncomfortable in social situations, no longer panic at meeting new people, I no longer worry what others think of me in regards to my weight and I feel more confident.

I'm not sure I have ever shared why I want to be a more healthy weight. Well here goes... I have a genetic disorder called Turner Syndrome which only affects girls (if you want to find out more: http://www.tss.org.uk/) and it affects, amongst other things, fertility. After finding out about Turner's when I was a teenager, my stubborn streak has taken over, and I am determined to be a mum some day. I would love to be able to conceive naturally, but may possibly need help through IVF. I know that if I hadn't started to lose weight, when it comes to possibly needing any help this would be the first thing the doctors would tell me. So in a way I'm getting a head start, plus it can only help my body if we don't need help with conceiving. I'm not saying I want a family right now, but I think getting my head round everything now and getting myself as healthy as I can is a step in the right direction.

It feels very odd writing all this down, a nice odd but still rather strange! So I am ending my first year on WW, and 2010 a size 14, and 5 stone 4 lbs lighter feeling very lucky to have all you lovely blog readers giving me encouragement and support whenever I need you. Thank you all... Bring on 2011!

Lex xxx

The Foods Of Christmas Past

This is going to be my first attempt at Christmas on WW as I'm sure I've already said at least once during my many ramblings, and I'm beginning to look forward to it properly now. My festivities are kicking off today with the lovely Mr B's birthday, who is yet to decide where he would like to go for his tea I might add! Thank you for party points WW!! Just need to keep a reign on them in case of mince pie related incidents...

A lot has changed in the last year, least of all my appearance but I will be doing a post on that next week. One of the big changes has obviously had to be my eating habits. Old Lex would eat for eating's sake until she was so stuffed it hurt or was so bloated that it was un comfy to wear anything tight fitting! There were seconds, and sometimes thirds at many a meal unless the plate was already groaning with the weight of what could feed a small army for a week.

This Christmas dinner is being cooked by yours truly, and just for Mr B and I too. So I only have to please us, which is fairly easy as long as there are no parsnips near his plate or evil evil garden peas near mine. There a very few temptations for me in our cupboards as we are essentially being fed by others throughout Christmas, which is making it so much more easy for me to point everything up and keep "old Lex" in check. I think I may almost be at the stage where I no longer eat because it's put in front of me or because something is just there and to be polite which is a very big deal is my little head!

Yesterday I sat and tried to remember what a typical Christmas day's food used to be like and it went something like this:

BREAKFAST ~ Selection box, or most of one plus two slices thick white toast and proper butter

CHOCOLATE

LUNCH ~ Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, seconds, lots of wine, pudding/s

CHOCOLATE

TEA ~ Nibbles, sandwiches, crisps, party food, cake, dips, more wine/alcohol of some sort

Just writing that down makes me feel more than a little bit ill, I might try and point it up just out of curiosity!

This year I am hoping for a cleaner, less stodge related Christmas. The two main obstacles in this plan being Mr B's parent's Christmas day tea time, and dinner at my grandma's on boxing day. The in-laws put on a proper "spread" as it were at any time of year never mind at Christmas so I need to keep a firm grip on "old Lex" seen as it really will be the food ghosts of Christmas past on that there dinning table. In saying that I'm not even sure my body could handle all the bread and pastry that will be there. Old Lex took over in York last Sunday and bought a sausage roll type jobbie with the sandwiches for lunch. I took one bite and swiftly gave it to Mr B who devoured the evidence! All I could taste was grease and it was VILE with a capitol V! Mr B seemed to enjoy it though...

Dinner at Grandma's should, in theory, be a little easier as Grandma is a veggie so I will be surrounded by lovely, filling, 0 pp food! Hurrah! I shall be making a few dozen of the WW friendly mince pies to accompany me on these jaunts so I know that if all else fails there's at least one sweet option that isn't too bad.

On that note bloggerinos I think I may wish you all a very very very merry Christmas! I hope you all have a lovely time what ever you get up to, and I hope Father Christmas remembers where you live!

Lex xxx

Is Honesty The Best Policy?

Hi everyone, hope you're all OK and haven't got frost bite or swine flu! I'm getting bored of the cold now, especially having to scrape the car before work as that eats into my first coffee of the day drinking time considerably!!

I have read a few blogs and posts on the WW website recently that were all to do with the subject of honesty with weight loss. Honesty with other people that is, not with yourself as that goes with out saying really. Now that I have lost a fair bit of weight, people are commenting on my appearance a lot more and are asking more and more questions. To be honest I'm not sure how to handle this! I answer the questions of how much have I lost and how long has it taken, but then comes the "how much more?" and "how much did you weigh?" parts. According to WW, for my height of 5' 5", I should have a couple more stones to go overall. If I tell the truth of how much further I have to go, people become shocked and outraged and tell me to stop. But they don't understand how far I have come in the past year and how many obstacles get thrown in our ways as we're trying to do our best on the long weight loss journey.

So far I have only told my true starting weight to a select few people, I only told Mr B my starting weight once I knew that I finally weighed less than him. How have you all handled it? I'd love to hear your views on when the truth should be told, or if it should be told at all!

Any way, on a lighter note I got mistaken for a new girl at work yesterday! A guy that came in to do some work had not been on site since February, and I've always chatted away to him but he was different with me yesterday. It wasn't until him and his mate were leaving that he realised it was me all along bless him. That's only mainly due to his mate telling me I looked stunning and have lost more since he last saw me a few months ago. It honestly made me grin from ear to ear for the rest of the day, and just now whilst I'm writing this too!

I had lunch with my WW leader Yong on Saturday which was great. Non stop chatting, nice food and lots of warming coffee made for a lovely few hours. We spoke about me becoming a leader once I reach goal, and she thinks I'd do well at it. Apparently she's looking for someone in our meetings to be the new starter clerk, and has asked if I'd be interested in doing that. Yong started off being a clerk, and she says it really helped her get to know what happens behind the scenes and get a greater knowledge for her becoming a leader. Fingers crossed for me!

Overall I didn't have a very active weekend, we did lots of walking around town and in York but so far I haven't managed to make it top the gym. The scary hill of doom down to it has not been gritted and I can't say I'm too keen on trying it! Off for a walk up to the hairdressers in a while though so there's a few extra activity points hehehehe...

Lex xxx

Winter Blues

Please forgive my lack of enthusiasm today boys and girls, I think the winter blues have well and truly set in in Lex land today.

WI was a success last night, I lost 2.5lbs so I am rather pleased with that! I didn't make it to the gym last night as I had a panic attack on the way home on the M1, not a great place for it to happen I can tell you, so I had jelly-like legs for a few hours afterwards! I am booked in for Zumba tomorrow night though, and I'm really looking forward to it too.

I made 2 dozen of the mince pies to take to my WW meeting last night and they were a huge hit with all the boys and girls! Yong, our leader, had 3!!!!! I managed to rescue myself one before they all went luckily. I'm meeting Yong on Saturday for a girly natter and some lunch, and I can't wait.

Well I'm afraid that nothing more exciting has been happening with me so far this week. Here are a couple of pictures of me seen as I don't think I've put any on for a while!

Lex xxx

Feeling Festive!

I am so glad to be back at work for a rest and some peace and quiet after a rather busy weekend! After lugging the furniture and Christmas tree around the front room on Friday night, we are all trimmed up and ready for Christmas! Bring on the festivities!!! How many activity PP do you reckon pushing and pulling a cabinet and a settee would have earned me....





This weekend has seen a gym trip, a sort of Christmas shopping trip, a family get together and the aforementioned trimming up. No wonder I feel worn out today!!





Zumba was AMAZING! I am hoping to make it a regular feature in my week, and I'm definitely going back this Friday for a wiggle, jiggle and a giggle at myself! I really didn't realise how un-coordinated I am until I was stuck in front of the mirror with the other ladies for that hour. It was so much fun, and every one's in the same boat and just having a laugh and enjoying it with the hip shaking and sticking out of the bum!





I met up in Sheffield with my best friend Sally on Saturday, for what was supposed to be some shopping. We ended up pottering around not buying much apart from coffee and putting the world to rights. We also managed to rack up a fair few activity pp between us too! Sal has now lost a stone and a half on WW and is loving it as much as me, we wore our pedometers with pride on Saturday!





I also had a major breakthrough this week, and avoided a mince pie related disaster. I LOVE mince pies, and this being my first encounter with Christmas since starting WW I knew I had to either go "cold Turkey" (how very apt...) or try something new. Having narrowly avoided the pies on Friday at work (I swear I could hear them calling me!), I turned to the fountain of knowledge, the WW website. I found a recipe on there for some mince pies made in filo pastry that only come out as 1 pp each!! How fantastic is that!!! I made some yesterday, and they have gone down a storm with my Dad, Mr B's Dad and his Mum too. So I have been to the shops and stocked up on more supplies for more batches over the next few weeks. I shall definitely be taking some to my WW meeting on Wednesday.





Here is the recipe for those of you who aren't an online member, I only made a dozen though as a trial. I also folded the tops over to make them look more pie like, but that's just because I don't like things too crunchy!

Mince Pies

ProPoints® Value: 1
Servings: 36

Preparation Time: 5

minCooking Time: 15

minLevel of Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients
300 g Pastry, Filo, Raw, packet, thawed if frozen
5 spray(s) Cooking Spray, Calorie Controlled
350 g Mincemeat
4 teaspoons Sugar, Icing (level)


Instructions
Preheat oven to Gas Mark 6/200°C/400°F.
Unfold filo pastry and use half of it to line 36 patty tins, layering 4 small squares of pastry into each patty tin, and misting each layer of pastry with a little spray cooking oil.
Place 1 teaspoonful of mincemeat into each pastry case. Top with pieces of the remaining filo pastry, scrunched up into folds. Mist each one with spray cooking oil.
Bake for about 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
Serve warm, dusted with icing sugar.

Lex xxx

Thrice Weekly...

No you rude minded readers, nothing to do with rudy things! Please drag your mind's from the gutters! My three things are to do with changes I have made this week.

Firstly, I have finally managed to get in three gym visits! Hooraah! Well it'll be three after tonight's jaunt anyway. This has taken military planning given the weather and that the roads are still pappy everywhere. Our gym is at the bottom of a hill of doom that I fear my car may not survive in the ice, hence the lack of visits since before we went to Edinburgh.

So I went for my usual workout on Tuesday night, a swim on Wednesday in my new smaller costume (not sure I like swimming in a halter neck though...), and tonight ladies and gentlemen, drum roll please....I shall be losing my ZUMBA virginity! I can't wait, I've heard so many great things about the classes and I have finally plucked up enough courage to go to a class. Have any of you Zumba'd before?? How did you point the activity on the tracker??

This leads me nicely into my other three things. I have set myself the challenge of doing three things differently or trying something different, this was brewing in the back of my mind any way but was even more backed up by the fact that this has started appearing in the front of the "Your Week" mags from the meetings.

I have been wanting to try different fruit and veg to what we usually get in our shopping, and I was struggling to find a way to sneak in something that Mr B would also eat so it wouldn't go to waste. I was struck by a stroke of genius in the fruit aisle in my local Tesco on Monday, he doesn't like fruit so why not just try fruit for a while. After all, it's now 0 pp so unless I consume a full fruit bowl a day I should be ok. I have no idea how they got to Barnsley, but I found Persimmon fruit! I have read a few blogs about this fruit and have tried for a while to get hold of some and finally succeeded. It's quite difficult to describe to taste, I suppose its got an apple like skin on it, with a sort of peach/apricot type fleshy flesh. Sorry for such a rubbish description! I also picked up a pomelo fruit, I am yet to eat this but apparently its a bit like a grapefruit, only the outside is green... Here is a pic of the persimmons

My second thing is to try new recipes that we haven't eaten before as we've found a few favourites and they keep making an appearance on a very regular basis. So far we have had a very yummy chicken and bacon casserole and a peppery meat loaf. I thing both of these will be making another appearance!

My third new thing is the Zumba class at the gym. I have been on about booking into a class for ages now, and I finally feel I have enough confidence to go out and do it. I hope I'll meet and get to know some new people in doing this, as all my friends live a long way from me now which sucks! I think it's been the confidence and lack of self belief that's held me back from going before, I'm happy to say that even though I still have MAJOR up and down days, I think my mind is catching up with my weight loss. Bonus!

On about weight loss, WI went well this week. I have lost the 1.5 lb that I gained before we went away, plus the same again so I'm now at 5 stone 1.5lb gone. I'm very chuffed with that, that takes me to 4.5 lb gone in the 4 weeks that Propoints has been in action.

Right I will now stop rambling and go and do some work, major H&S inspections and audits today so my boss's stress levels are through the roof bless him!

One more thing before I go though, I want to send Linz lots of love and hugs and I hope that she hears something soon to put her mind at rest. We're all thinking of you lovely :)

Lex xxx

I Have Returned Older and Colder

I'm still here honestly! I am returning to blog land a year older, no wiser, and a lot lot colder!I've been up to my eye balls in snow, quite literally (as I'm sure most people have!) as I'm so clumsy... I'm rather fed up of the snow and would quite like it to go away now please!

First things first though, my surprise weekend was to EDINBURGH!!!! AWESOME!!! It's some where I've wanted to go for a very long time, we visited when I was a lot younger but all I could remember were the hills, parts of the castle, and staring at a lady's rather strange walking boot type things.

Mr B had apparently had it booked for months and months, so much so that we travelled first class there and back on the train! This was a totally new experience for me, and I certainly won't complain if it ever happens again hehehehe. I was going out of my mind trying to guess where we were going to, as I was convinced we were going by train (which eventually proved right), but we firstly travelled to York station, which threw me off course as it's on the main line and you can get to most places! I spotted the Edinburgh train and asked if we were going there, and the reply I got was we were on that train but only for an hour then we had two more connections!!!! Grrrrrr! Obviously I then was wracking my brains, were we off to Northumberland? Where could we get to from Durham? He came clean once we were well on our way bless him. He can be such a lovely softie at times.

The hotel was gorgeous, and was very close to the city centre so I earned many activity propoints with all the sight seeing and doing touristy type things! Another bonus was the rank sausages for breakfast. Now I know this may not sound like a good thing to most people, but given the choice for a cooked breakfast I tend to pick sausages, this trip being no exception to the rule as the bacon was too pale for my liking. I tried both the beef and the pork and leek and turned my nose up at both. My how times have changed. The old Lex would have soldiered on with the least foul tasting of the two and maybe have gone back for more just to check. So given the circumstances I filled up on scrambled egg, beans and tomatoes and loads of 0 pp fruit, yummy yummy in my tummy! What a difference a year makes!

Whilst we were away, I cured my fascination with the famed Starbucks Gingerbread Latte. I have wanted to try one for ages, so I did and I'm sorry to say it was vile. I was so looking forward to it too as it combines two of my favourite things, coffee and gingerbread! I'm feeling slightly upset that it was nasty as it was my birthday treat to myself, but I think I will have to try their other festive creations as I feel I'm missing out! Slightly side tracked, but I can't believe the amount of Starbucks and other similar coffee establishments there are around Edinburgh. It's seriously crazy, for example there was one on the corner of the next street from our hotel, then a costa bar inside the hotel, an independent coffee place on the other corner and then a Starbucks just outside Haymarket station! I think coffee culture may have gone mad, although I like it very much!

One great advantage of being in the gorgeous city that weekend was that it is St Andrew's day the day after my birthday, and given that he is Scotland's patron saint, Edinburgh were celebrating by making major tourist attractions such as the castle free for the whole weekend!Bonus! We took great advantage of everything and became one of those annoying tourists all weekend.

The only downside was the snow, and the fact that we didn't know what the snow was doing at home! But we were some of the lucky one's who's train wasn't cancelled, but we did have to dig the car out at York station!

So due to the stupid snow, I couldn't get to a WW meeting at all. We couldn't get either car out so we gave up and had the rest of the week as snow days. This is the first time I have ever done this but there was no other choice and the guilt soon wore off after a treat of a glass of wine ...

I did weigh myself at home and I appeared to have lost the 1.5 lb that I gained but Wednesday will be the day of reckoning and I can see if I've managed to keep on track!

I will download pictures from the weekend soon :)

Lex xxx