2014 BRING IT ON....

Hello everyone :)

All set to ring in 2014 in style?

I had an amazing day at my cousins wedding on Sunday, the 29^th. I got my dress about seven weeks ago and couldn’t wait to wear it but I was abit nervous about how it would look after an indulgent day or two over the festive period.

I love a good wedding and when I’m going to one I have to go all out and get tan, nails, hair and everything done because why the heck not! I want to look and feel good!

 

And I sure did :)

 

I rang the hotel in advance just to suss out the menu. Realistically I knew I would go over my weight watcher allowance on the day no matter how hard I tried not to because well when I’m feeling good and having a great time I say ‘feckit’ lol. And that is what happened on the day itself but I didn’t mind :) Firstly inside the church a few tins of roses appeared, I was like ‘WHY GOD WHY’ and to be honest we were all waiting around for the different photos to be taken that everyone was raiding the tins…so worth it tho….then instead of going straight to the hotel in Cork city we decided to stop off in a local hotel to get something small to eat because we knew we’d be hanging around in Fota Island Resort for ages. So we all headed to the hotel and I had a lovely ham and cheese toastie yum…When we did get to the hotel for the reception they had trees made out of ferro roche *LIKE WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME* so you know had to have a few….and…another few of them….oh and a few for the bag also ;) But it was good…tried some mulled wine also for the first time…four sips and I had enough because far too sweet and over powering…Oh the main meal itself….Tapas for the appetiser made up of such lovely little bits and bobs….Beautiful soup with truffle crudités for starter…followed by Fillet of beef with a peppercorn sauce and the most divine potato with sun dried tomatoes *I was weak lol* and dessert….oh it was a trio of divine is all I can say….as were the little chocolates littered on each table…which were of course eaten because it would be rude not to like ;) Then the speeches came and the tears followed also because I’m a sop and we were all a bit blubbery….then the dancing…oh yeah I worked that dance floor for the night so I might have burned off a ferro roche or two :P Then the late night food of cake and sandwiches etc arrived and well had to sample those also…Overall I had a great day food wise and dancing wise!

I got home and fell into bed and woke to my foot killing me, I suppose the physio would kill me if he heard I was in heels and dancing as if I owned the floor….oh dear….just need to take it easy AGAIN….need to be back in action for the 18^th of January tho because ZUMBA MASTERCLASS time and I need to shimmay and shake the jiggle off BADLY!

Okay so we’ve established I had a great day at the wedding etc and the spanx by the end of the night were put into good use…Thank God my mother always taught me from a young age to walk tall, shoulders back and always keep yourself pulled in *ie keep the stomach pulled in….this is what I do on a daily basis, my stomach muscles are only used to it, so much so if I relax my stomach muscles after a minute or two it pains me…just goes to show…we can do it and I don’t care it makes me look better always did and always will…thanks mam*.

 

 

But during the day I was feeling annoyed for having the chocolates etc and had a moment where I was disappointed with myself etc the usual we all know sure! But during the day I saw many people who were quite heavy *probably about the same as I was before weight watchers* and I saw myself, the OLD Grá, in them…but I am the new Grá…why must I spend so much of my time giving out to myself for not being slimmer and taking a long time to get to goal and have an off day…like should I not be patting myself on the back saying ‘way to go Grá, you’ve been working your ass off since May 2010 all through college and look at you, in a fecking boutique size 12 dress and you look good….not 17st 8lbs anymore….ya babe’ ha but you get what I mean…Throughout the day my poor mother was swarmed with people saying how well I look, how I look like a model *ha I love that one…bit of an ego boost…far from but hey thanks spanx* etc and you know what I looked fantastic I’m going to say it…even if you might think ‘Jeeze the head on your one must be massive’ tis a bit to be fair but we all need to learn to be proud and love ourselves at times…I don’t think I look fantastic today but I did on Sunday lol!

 

So my lovely mother had to deal with me yesterday ranting and raving with the likes of ‘you know mam I don’t know why I’m giving out after putting on a few lbs over Christmas…I’ll lose it again in no time…imagine if I didn’t join weight watchers…I’d be a heifer….far from a heifer now though’. Did I mention I have a saint of a mother, poor woman must be going ‘my daughter is cracked’ but then again mam is as bad! Love to woman though and I’d be lost without her :)

God I really am ranting on abit aren’t it! I would say it is my NY’s resolution to stop the ranting but don’t think that will ever be possible and I just wouldn’t be me if I did :D

So onto the whole New Year stuff…Firstly I have to say 2013 was a GREAT year where I achieved many things both in my personal life and regarding weight! I got back on the weight watcher wagon 100%...I started blogging…seriously never thought I’d ever do that but I can thank the girls on the facebook group for that….they were all very encouraging :) And best of all I got into my post grad….seriously 2013 was brilliant….And I KNOW 2014 will be even better…it will be a year where many challenges will be thrown my way but BRING IT ON :)

I never really do the whole NY resolution thing because I don’ ever stick to them no matter how hard I try mainly because they are usually unrealistic!

So in 2014 this is what I hope will happen

·         I will get to GOAL

·         Learn to not be so hard on myself

·         Try to listen to other people’s opinions before butting it *Oh this will be hard*

·         Enjoy the year

·         Work hard with my course and have a brilliant time in the Gaeltacht in the summer

·         Be HAPPY

·         Try to remain as positive as possible

·         Spend more time with my family

·         Try and allocate more pro points to my main meals as opposed to keeping them for treats

·         Not let weight watchers affect my social life

·         Try and eat my meals at the kitchen table as opposed to eating in front of the tv *I seriously rarely eat at the table*

·         For January I giving up chocolate – This should not be hard as I didn’t touch it for 5 years up until about 8 months ago…I’m getting to like my curly wurlys TOO MUCH so I need to cut back

·         If I fall off the WW wagon for the day I won’t beat myself up about it, I’ll start again the following day.

·         I WILL ENJOY LIFE!

 

 

The list may seem like a lot but they are all simple things which if I can get to grips with will help me succeed :)

Now I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope 2014 will be the year you achieve your desires and may it be a joyous year filled with happy moments!

 

Thank you all soo much for reading my blog which I started last one night in September with a glass of wine holidaying in the Netherlands…You all offer such support and motivation to me and especially for those of you who have sent me such beautiful private messages THANK YOU! Hopefully 2014 will be continued with my irrational ranting and raving!

 

Now I’m off for my bike ride *my first in years* with my dad and then off to Cork to see my aunts and cousins before they return to the UK in the morning.

 

See you all in 2014 :)

Until next time,

Grá :)

 

 

 

Motivation...

Hello everyone :)

Hope you all had a lovely day yesterday with family & friends :)

My day was great, my family was all around and we had some great food. I was up until 3am on Christmas Eve cleaning, setting the table and making loads of fruit skewers and just dancing around the kitchen to Christmas songs if I’m being honest :)

 

I woke at 10am on the big day and I had the worst sore throat and head cold…I got my tonsils out in Summer 2009 after my Leaving Cert and hadn’t suffered much since then so to have a sore throat on Christmas day after 4.5 years basically without I was devastated and felt miserable.

I had a good plan made for my day but was open to some additional bits & bobs. However as I was so miserable I didn’t go about making my own changes to the dinner as I would have had to cook it myself and I just didn’t feel up to it…instead I made sure my brothers and nephew and the 2 girlfriends (my brother’s wife goes to her own family on Christmas day and the little niece went with her) were looked after. My little fruit Santies went down a treat :)

 

So I had my nibbles, a box of quality street appeared with some after eights and some fabulous chocolate Brazilian nuts oh Lord were they good! I nibbled mindlessly, I helped get the dinner served. I had my 0pp soup for dinner but was a bit bold and had some unplanned bread with it, dinner was the works but I didn’t finish it all and finally desert I just had some ice-cream for my throat. Oh a sore throat will never stop me from eating believe me ;)

We all relaxed for the evening and of course had some sweets, me probably more than others but hey ;) I also had a few of these...maybe they outweigh the sweets ;)

 

I finished the night off with a turkey & ham sandwich on 2 slices of slimsters bread with branston pickle YUM!

The day was great, I felt disappointed I went over a good bit, actually probably a lot because of the sweets but hey it was one day.

I was back on track today despite still feeling miserable! The 15KM cycle had to be cancelled due to the bad frost which was bad enough as I can’t do much else because of my foot. Oh course I won’t lie I felt like a fat lump all day, I was feeling sorry for myself. I think because I can’t do my usual exercises I’m feeling very sorry for myself. The plan was to go out tonight and see my friend who’s home from the UK and others but I just felt so miserable and sick I couldn’t PLUS I looked like a pregnant lump in any dresses I had *cue self pity* so I settled for Christmas TV catch up.

 

But anyway moving on from the self-pity *why am I feeling sorry for myself I’m back on track today but I’m a woman and I’m a psycho at times*. I had a nice chat with my boyfriend as he was getting ready to head into Eindhoven for a few drinks *nothing related to WW or anything or how blah I feel* just a nice chat. I got off the phone and I remembered a quote I saw a while back:

 ‘’When you feel like quitting write down ten things that motivate you’’

 

Okay so firstly I do not feel like quitting my God the opposite but I liked the idea of writing the ten things that motivate me as it is something I have never done before.

So I actually couldn’t think of ten things lol but I have seven which is close enough ;)

1.       ME -> When I look in the mirror I want to see a reflection I am happy with, I am never going to be perfect but I just want to like me with and without clothes lol. As the saying goes ‘If you can’t love yourself how do you expect others to love you?’ and how true is that! Being happy or even content with oneself will make you a more positive person who is enjoyable to be around :)

2.    My relationship -> a relationship is made up of two people who are happy together. I have an amazing boyfriend and I want to feel happy and good within myself so I can feel good around him. Plus I want him to be proud of me and also come on girls you know we all want our fellas to be proud to say ‘she is my girlfriend’ ;)

 

3.       My health -> Having a weight problem can lead to many complications and health problems in later life. My dad was naturally super slim but started gaining weight around the time I was born and a few years ago he was put on numerous types of medication for HBP amongst others, he has lost weight and also doesn’t take nearly as many tablets as before but he always says how proud he is that I took the step to lose weight so I wouldn’t end up having to take copious amounts of medication because of being fat!

 

4.       My family -> I don’t want to be the ‘fat’ member of my family. I want to feel good going to family gatherings and also I want my family to be proud of how far I’ve come *which they are*.

 

5.       My future -> I’m training to be a teacher so I want to lead my example. I’ll be teaching children from 4 to 13 years of age and I want to lead by example and be a healthy teacher. This is one of the reasons I got back on the weight watcher wagon in June to go for gold!

 

6.       My future family -> What I mean by this are the children I will have in many years to come, do not want to be unhealthy, I don’t want my children to have a fat mother who can’t run around after them. I want my children to have a healthy outlook on life and once again I want to lead by example.

 

 

7. Family wedding next Sunday -> This is my current motivator as I have a lovely dress and I want to feel good in it so here is to being a saint from now until then ;)

 I was writing these down and thinking ‘they won’t make sense to other people’ but hey this is me being honest and I tend to write what I think so I apologize for the jibberish ;)

I’m posting this because it was like a eureka moment for me tonight, I realised I had wasted a day feeling miserable when I should have felt happy that I was back on track, I had a lovely day with my family and most importantly I am human lol!

Now, I must go eat my delicious and extremely late dinner all for 4PP ;)

 

Merry Christmas everyone :)

 

*VOGUE it :P *

 

Until next time,

 

Grá :)

 

p.s my scales said I was up 6.5lbs after 1 day...water retention as I'm a piggy but not that bad lol so ladies get drinking plenty of water it'll all help :)

 

My Christmas Day Plan...

Hello Everyone :)

So only 3 days to go to Santa :D

 

I’m soo excited mainly because I can’t wait to give my 3 year old nephew/godson his presents and see my 8 month old niece in her cute outfit I got including an adorable red tutu :D

 

 

However, in 3 days we will also be facing the joyous and very Merry Christmas Dinner which inevitably begins anytime around 5/6am for some and may not finish until 2/3am on the morning of the 26^th lol :)

 

 

So do you guys have a plan on how you are going to deal with the food itself? Have any of you made a plan of what your meals, snack and drinks will be during the day?

 

Last Monday I decided I would make up a rough idea of what I will eat throughout the day however if it changes a little that is fine as I’m going to have my 30 dailies and I have 40 weeklies left also but in reality I only want to use max 20-25 of them so I can have a few for St. Stephens Day :)

 

On Christmas Eve I am going to make a large selection of fruit skewers for all the family to enjoy on Christmas Day consisting of lovely fresh pineapple, kiwis, strawberries, grapes and oranges.

Also these cute little Santies will be created if all goes to plan How adorable are they :)

 

So anyway here goes my Christmas Day Meal Plan *subject to change*.

Christmas Day (43PP – for now ;) )

Daily milk allowance: (1PP)

100ml (1PP)

***************

Breakfast:  (3PP)

An omelette with 1 medium egg, 1 egg white, 2 turkey rashers, peppers, onion & chilli served with 1tbsp ketchup 0PP

OR

30g porridge with a helping of stewed apples with ground cloves

And a serving of some juicy fresh pineapple

***************

Fruit skewer with vitalina yogurt (1PP)

Packet of Skips (3PP)

***************

Starter: (0PP)

Roasted Cauliflower & Butternut Squash soup

***************

Dinner: (13PP)

A large selection of vegetables such as carrots & brussel sprouts (0PP)

100g turkey (4PP)

1 Gammon Steak (2PP) *I love HAM but I will eat the whole thing if left to my devices so I’m saving that for my turkey & ham sandwich later in the evening*

Gravy (1PP)

Home-made stuffing (3PP)

40g of Denny sausage meat (3PP)

***************

Dessert: (5PP)

1 meringue nest (1PP)

1 vitalina yogurt (1PP)

Fruit skewer (0PP)

Home-made apple crumble (3PP)

***************

Supper: (11PP)

2 slices of Slimsters bread (3PP)

50g Turkey (2PP)

70g Ham (3PP)

100g Branston pickle (3PP)

***************

Other snacks to be eaten if and when desired (10PP)

2 curly wurly’s (6PP)

Packet of Velvet Crunch (2PP)

20g of porridge with a serving of stewed apples and ground cloves (2PP)

***************

Some of you may notice I haven’t included potatoes in my dinner. In the last few months I have gotten out of the habit of eating them and find it unnecessary to add them to my meal with the exception of eating out. However, on eh day itself I might change my mind and add 100g of roasted potatoes (using fry lite) for 2PP to my dinner.

The rest of my family will be having my mothers beautiful sherry trifle but I think I'll resist as I love it but usually eat it because it is there not necessarily because I really want to :)

My drinks for the day will be non-alcoholic as in my family, alcohol is never something which was a prominent feature so it will be water, some diet club orange/7UP Free and tea *rock’n’roll*.

 

It isn't difficult to make a rough plan and I would really encourage you all to do so just so you can have an idea of the pro point values of many of the foods :)

I know I'm going to end up feeling like this by the time 10pm comes ;)

Until next time,

 

Grá :)

 

 

 

 

 

You DAWG you...

Hello Wonderful People :)

***I am giving prior warning that this is an essay of an entry filled with copious amounts of my ranting and raving like a mad woman…You have been warned!***

 

Arrived home from the Netherlands last Saturday night *major SOB*. I had a great break but more importantly I got to spend quality time with my boyfriend :) BUT….and there is a big BUT…I allowed myself to basically do the DAWG on it. What you I mean, I hear you ask? Well…on Monday I got myself up at 5:30am to get ready to leave for Cork city where I could get the long ass bus to Dublin Airport *cue an annoying gowl who sat beside me on the lovely spacious seat I had taken by the emergency exit….GOWL  I tell you*…My porridge was eaten but at such an early hour well I spotted a box of quality street opened and I ate about 15 of them…such items are rarely found in my house and I am soo thankful for that….so the day started off bad…then I forgot to bring a sandwich or two with me and a few bits to keep hunger at bay…Because of that I allowed my brain to give approval to a new decision ‘take today off regarding tracking and just enjoy yourself..not too much but you’ll get back on it tomorrow’ HA…yeah right….my delicious jiggly ass shimmayed off that plan *laden down with my massive bag since you know I need to bring enough stuff for a month like just incase…* and out through arrivals where total bliss took over when I saw my boyfriend and well when you’re happy and you’re already gone off track FECK IT ALL…Popped to the shop later on because I was starving and well I got soo many goodies, oooh they were good and I just said to Temi ‘taking tonight off weight watchers I’ll be back on it tomorrow’ to be honest I’d say he was happy in a way because I’m an awful person to go food shopping with I spend an hour searching and pro pointing everything but also Temi doesn’t know the really bag foodie Grá because since when we got together way back when I had 4st down and was an avid weight watchers *well..this was during my ‘’off’’ period of 2 years where I was sometimes 100% or others times 40% on WW if you get me* so he wouldn’t have thought anything off it…Anyway here is a little photo of only a fraction of what I consumed THAT NIGHT…oh I said it a fraction..

 

The next day I woke up and the only thing that was in my head was ‘you had such a disaster yesterday you won’t pull it back…the taste of full fat high pro point food is in my mouth…I can’t I just gotta continue…maybe tomorrow I’ll be okay’ sweet jeebus I haven’t spoken like that since I got back my WW MOJO in June…I scared myself…the last time I went to the Netherlands I lost 1lb…and was there for 9 days as opposed to the recent 5 day trip…WHAT WAS HAPPENING ME!!

So anyway the week pretty much continued like that oh did I mention we went to the cinema twice….Hunger Games & The Hobbit…

 

Both fabulous….They were two movies I wanted to see with Temi especially as I’m a super cheese ball and we had seen the first instalment of each together way back when *I’m the biggest romantic sop going*…Oooooh momma where those cinema trips fun….the first night….a bottle of water *I have not touched my former Diet Coke Addiction since Sept 13^th 2013 and I will not again ---- only bloody diet drink they have is DC*, share pack of skittles *nom nom*, pick and mix bag *SUPER NOM NOM* and a big pack of Sensations…oh sweet divine…The next night came the Hobbit…this time I opted for a bottle of wine (mini) for my thirst quenching beverage *seriously my kind of cinema*, the skittles appeared again, a medium popcorn AND  a mini tub of B&J Strawberry Cheesecake *I would eat my bodyweight in that stuff* we share the stuff between use but let’s be honest I probably eat the most…

 

Oh I forgot I also made sure to make up my lack of alcohol over the last few months…a nice few bottles of wine were had….Oh and sure I discovered some gorgeous houmous that I had to buy…TWICE….to go with my Melba toast of course ;)

 

 

Wanna know what else – SECRET SHAMEFUL EATING returned…I said it, a good few chocolate bars were picked up when I went to the shop myself…all eaten before I came back to the apartment….oh sure even the BIG packets of potato salad were only divine and the bread oooh divine!

I did not eat a regular breakfast of my favourite porridge ONCE…nada…..nothing…I was dying to have it Sunday morning believe me.

 

Oh best of all we went to KFC mainly because I wanted to *any fattie or former fattie knows that when you are a natural piggy the tendancy to go for junk will remain forever no matter how much we change ourselves. But anyway the KFC was fabulous…A large chicken weird wrap thing *it was massive with like fried potato* with the large chip and a FULL FAT 7UP (no diet and I didn’t ask for water :( ) oh and I had a medium chip that came with my boyfriends meal too coz you know…waste not want not!

 

At the station on the way home…I felt like ice-cream I saw my favourite ‘My Swirl It’ place…picked myself up one of these bad boys….when she asked did we want cream on top I nearly died…they didn’t do that in Ireland…needless to say it was gone in a few minutes :/

 

 

And you know what I kept eating and eating even though I knew I was beyond full….like feel like getting sick full…NEVER GOOD!

Oh but I was good and made sure I drank about 3lt of water a day..does that make up for it *cough cough*.

So anyway on Saturday it was time to go home which meant very sad Grá trying to hide *failing miserably* her tears… I didn’t eat before I got to the airport well a few chocolate biscuits…as I didn’t have time, well you know ;) And I realised I felt great all week eating like a pig when I was with Temi but when I realised I had to go home and not see him for a few weeks I began to feel really shit about how the week went food wise…To me it showed how much our emotions can blur our vision…It scared me and I genuinely mean that…I couldn’t pretend buying the big chocolate bar was a good idea…I decided I’d track what I’d eaten/would eat during the day regardless of going over…I knew I’d end up going over as I had no food with me and the airports well not exactly healthy food central and I wouldn’t arrive back to my house until around 11pm that night but I tracked and tried my best…I still ended up going about 50pp over THAT DAY *imagine I was keep track…imagine the other days* but I was like it is fine…I was going to stop for a chipper on the way home but I decided against it because that would have made me about 100pp over so I had a lovely toastie instead :)

 

I woke up Sunday morning dreading the inevitable hop on my own scales to get a rough idea of the damage…I fooled myself into thinking ‘maybe only 3lbs’…It appeared to be at around 6.5/7lbs…Sweet Jesus that was in 5 days! So I decided there and then that that was my Christmas indulgence over and done with…A week before I was 4lbs from goal…a far cry now…So I got back on track, drank my water, ate my good meals, had my few treats *depriving myself of a little treat won’t help me believe me* and well I hoped my body was in shock with the junk as I didn’t feel I weighed 7lbs heavier…I hopped on my scales yesterday morning and I was right I was down to maybe being 3.5lbs/4lbs up…now that I can handle…I can thankfully make my final pre-Christmas weigh in this Friday so I will have a gain but I can be a lot happier about knowing I did serious damage control all week.

 

 

I will look fabulous at the family wedding on the 29^th no matter what. I won’t go over on Christmas day because I believe in myself. I made out a rough menu plan for the day totalling about 50PP which is fine by me and that includes everything…thankfully no tins of sweets/alcohol will be consumed except for my own usual sweets I’ll have!

 

 

I felt guilty…I felt disappointed within myself for the splurge BUT you know what I was entitled to a break BECAUSE I know I get back up and keep going…Why waste worrying about the past when I can concentrate on my bright future…This time last year I was 1.5stone heavier and this time 4 years ago I was 5.5st heavier…And this picture explains why I WILL get to GOAL :)

 

 

Funny thing is I think if I told my boyfriend how much I gained he’d be shocked….the joys of being a secret eater eh!

This day next week think about how YOU want to FEEL about yourself! Do you want to feel like the cat that got the cream and devoured everything in sight OR do you want to feel a little guilty for being indulgent but also know that you made smart choices throughout the day…Think about it :)

 

I have an idea at the moment to take photos of EVERYTHING I eat on Christmas Day and compile it within a blog entry just to firstly keep me on the straight and narrow but also just because I can look back at it and feel proud of having some form of willpower…if it is a bit wobbly I’ll survive :)  I’m going to be smart with food because I can’t rely on exercise to help me out at the moment due to a foot injury…physio appointment tomorrow so hopefully I’ll know what is up after them and I really hope I’ll be able to run the 10km on the 26^th, I’ve been looking forward to it despite not training in nearly 3 weeks :(

But all that aside look at my pretty hat :D

 

Okay seriously I’m going to shush now I really have ranted on long enough! BUT this post was never planned as I felt too ashamed to actually say it out to anybody except myself because come on it makes me sound like a fat pig but then I saw JQ's post tonight about Christmas and being up 5lbs this week and I said screw it and started typing immediately. Sometimes others don’t realise how much they inspire and support others so thanks JQ for that :)

 

 

Also the bad food choices didn't outweigh the brilliant time I had with Temi, especially wearing a size 10 top, size 12 jeans and coat and ankle boots woo new me and HAPPY me :)

 

 

Have a fabulous week everyone and I plan to get a new entry up next week :)

 

Until next time,

Grá :)