Falling way of the wagon.. Ouch!

It was my birthday last week and unfortunately I used that as an excuse to be careless with my food choices and also my exercises all week - and I feel awful.  This isn't awful because I let me self down - although I feel angry at my self for that - this is awful because I feel sluggish, worn, tired, bloated, uncomfortable... I am starting to believe the words you are what you eat.

To top it all of I stood on the scales this morning and learnt that the 1.5 stone I lost before Xmas 2016 has now returned. I'm angry at myself for allowing this however I feel that we have to use these experiences to remind us why we want to lose weight in the first place.

My problem is I'm happy in my relationship, I have great friends, a good social life, I partake in lots of activities - but this means I do not always make the best choices when it comes to food I indulge with sweets all the time and my portions are bigger than they should be. Well hopefully not any more. I have got in my hand my referral for Slimming World and have checked - My first meeting is Thursday 26th January and I have high hopes and determination.

Its time to make a stand in the microcosm that is my life.

What have you done when you have fallen off the wagon? How did you get back on track and what are your fail safe methods - I would love to hear from you.

Lots Luv,

Vikki  xx

(VGB)

When you just have to embrace the gloom..

Ive had a bad day - to most people it would not seem that bad, but within my tiny world it is and suffice it to say that this has affected my mood, exercise programme and eating habits... *pushes the empty bag of chocolate away*

I find that when things get you down it is really hard to motivate yourself to be better. Sometimes we want to wallow in the melancholy no matter how petty or detrimental to ourselves this is. I am here to admit that due to being disappointed last night not only did I have a massive hot chocolate but I also ate a bag of McVities digestive nibbles (they are so good but not worth it really). I didn't go to my favourite exercise class and even this morning couldn't bring myself to do yoga. I allowed myself to be my own road block and this is the perfect example of when we are our own worse enemy.

Although you might feel the need to accept / embrace the gloom it is only hurting yourself - after some serious words (with myself) I have been able to push through... only a little bit but the understanding that I am just going to make myself feel worse not only immediately but in the long run, when I notice those 3 pounds I lost are back again gave me a kick to force myself to look on the brightside and ensure that I get back on track as soon as possible.

If you have had a bad day please don't let it affect your long term goals...

Lotsa Luv,

Vikki  xx

(VGB) 

Good Morning To ... Do Yoga

Today is a #GoodMorningTo start the 30 day yoga challenge here goes day 1!

Fortunately I have always been quite flexible so I can sometimes get into the weird and wonderful poses of Yoga but my strength and stamina require improving so here goes.

If you want to follow the same programme each video is approximately 30 mins and I will be doing "Yoga with Adriene" her videos are on YouTube and you can follow here: https://youtu.be/oBu-pQG6sTY.


I'll let you know how I get on.

Lotsa Luv,

Vikki

VGB

Lets get lean in 2017 - I mean it this time...

I think my past blogging has been a perfect example of how bad I have been in the past at sticking to my own goals - in other words absolute failure.

Like most people I let my job, social life and love of chocolate rule my week and now I desperately need to do something about it. As most people I am using the start of the New Year to get back on track - but this time it is something I am not going to fall behind on.

I don't know about you but often it feels as though my hobbies - example my YouTube page and this blog end up taking a back seat and also being forgotten as I get overwhelmed with work and commitments. Essentially not spending enough time doing what I love and focusing too much on keep others - colleagues, friends and family happy above myself. So this Year with one week until my 27th birthday I am going to focus on doing the things that make me happy and also prioritise my health and fitness.

My 2017 Goals are:

1) Like most people I hope to lose weight in 2017 - and keep it off. A recent visit to the doctors really opened my eyes and so I have signed up for Slimming World today in order to support this achievement, and I am waiting for the postman to deliver my initial voucher so that I can join.

2) I want to be the healthiest I ever have been. Links of course with the first point but in addition I am going to increase my activities and using my Fitbit I am going to aim to hit at least 10000 steps a day. I am also hoping to improve my skin through a healthy diet.

3) I want to perform on stage - I have a degree in Drama and love performing. I took a year off in 2016 as my workload wouldn't allow it but I am back in my society and ready to get back on stage. I have an audition for an upcoming local production of 'Allo 'Allo that I really hope to be apart of - keep your fingers crossed for me.

4) Finally I  want to make sure that when I say I will be blogging again I actually do. I love to write and I enjoy hearing what other people think of something I have tried or might try. I think that the easiest way for me to keep my blog going is to treat it like a diary of my experiences.

So here is to becoming a better me in 2017. I hope you enjoy the read and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

What are your 2017 goals?

Lotsa Luv,


Vikki

VGB 

My favourite meal this week: Folded Wrap

This meal comes out at approximately 475 calories.

Ingredients:

1 chilli Tortilla wrap (I used discovery)
a handful of spinach
6 cherry tomatos (halved)
half cup of feta (in chunks)
half a green pepper (chopped how you like - I like strips)
and half a tbsp coconut oil.

Method

take about half a table spoon of coconut oil and heat in a pan with the tomatoes and pepper once they re heated remove from pan and put the tortilla in. leave it on one side for about 30 secs and then turn over and put the spinach, tomatoes and pepper and feta into the centre of the wrap then fold the wrap in half and fry for as long as you want depends how wilted you like your spinach then flip it onto the other side for a moment and serve.


This is quick, easy and super tasty the perfect meal to have after work when you cant honestly be bothered because the next episode of PLL is out and that all you really want to do!

Enjoy - and let me know what you think of it.


*I did have a photo but unfortunately I seem to have accidentally deleted it during an earlier phone purge on the tube this morning!**Sigh**

Things don’t always go as planned…

 So I had planned to start this new regime on Monday 1st. So it’s Sunday, middle of the night and I've found myself hugging the toilet with a stomach bug. not ideal but I guess this was a different way to restart my system (silver linings and all). I was going to simply drink the smoothies for the first week for this purpose but after eating nothing and drinking only water for a day I felt I had paid my dieting penance.

Therefore I have tried instead to incorporate my NutriBullet smoothies into - what I hope is - a normal healthy diet and lifestyle change rather than putting the dieting title on it. Psychologically I have found this immediately makes the "diet" easier to follow.

To help me do this I am keeping a food diary and attempting to measure my portions to ensure I am not over eating and that I'm burning the calories  I'm consuming. To help with this I'm using an app called MyNetDiary why this app?  well, the basic features are free and it allows you to enter as much or as little information as you wish plus turns I had downloaded this app a long while ago and already had it hidden in a folder on my phone.

So far I have found what I have done to be a fairly easy routine to follow and have managed to keep on track with regards to daily calories and portions - even including the cheeky Nando’s I had for lunch on Thursday!

What The Next Few Months Are All About

Introduction to my weight loss journey...

I’ve fallen victim to happy. The end of 2015 was a puzzle being completed it was as though suddenly all the pieces seemed to fall into place - mainly I moved in with my boyfriend and I started a new job it was a great end to the year and as we approached 2016 I felt confident and ready. That is to say until I tried on the clothes in my wardrobe which to my dismal had got tighter and stopped fitting properly and I now have to resort to wearing only my "oversize" items which now seem more fitted. I fell into the "happy" trap.

I apologise in advance for the lists of 1) , 2) and 3 you will find below its always easier and tidier to make things a list - am I the only one who feels like this? Anyway I digress.. 



I tell you now it doesn’t help when your boyfriend wants to gain weight and you want to lose weight – I can admit that this hasn’t helped my case.  You also may be wondering why I didn’t start this in January well due to that fact that my birthday is in January and I still have a great deal of food left over from December (Ahh party food in the freezer – I cant resist you) I find it very difficult to implement a diet and fitness plan that I can follow properly. As we approach February 2016 however  (can you believe it already!) I've made the decision that it is time to be more realistic face the music and resist the chocolate.

Now when choosing to embark on a new diet plan I have learnt a few things from the past. 1) After trying a number of different "crash" diets I know they don't work and you only end up getting hangry* in most cases.  2) It needs to be realistic with foods that you will still enjoy and 3) It needs to be something that can work around your lifestyle.

If you are feeling the similar tightness why not join me on this journey – I’d love to hear about your experiences and also recommendations and perhaps we can do this together.
When going forward I feel that it is important to set yourself motivating goals mine are:
Holiday to Italy in May – (3 months to lose some weight so I can eat all the guilt free pasta and pizza I want.
2) Clothes shopping – due to the fact that half my wardrobe is currently too tight I have told myself that until the stuff in my wardrobe fits I cannot buy anything else. (Those gift cards from Xmas and Birthday are going to have to wait).
3) For personal comfort – probably most importantly.  I want to be clear that I’m not preaching happiness comes from loosing weight – that is certainly not the case – I’ve always had pretty significant curves and learnt to embrace them - most often sitting comfortably between a size 12 and 14. However recently I am discovering some discomfort from the extra weight I have gained and it is more difficult to achieve some of the dance moves I rocked before!

so I've got my reasons for doing this next is to decide where we are going to begin. Due to the fact that I love fruit and veggies and I got a Nutribullet end of last year I am going to try my own variation of the Nutribullet smoothie diet.  I will preface this by saying that I am in no way a nutritionist or perfect and I am adapting what I have read across a number of websites to suit myself - I don’t believe in trying to set myself silly goals that I know I will fail or just leave me annoyed. There are a couple of reasons that I am choosing to do this kind of diet 1) I suffer from IBS so I feel that the cleansing nature of this will do my digestion some good and give it a wake up call 2) I’m looking for something that will act quickly (I only have 3 months for my first target) but unlike a crash diet is something that I can continue to adapt and bring into my normal diet.

Here are the rules:

Eat as many variations of fruit and veggies as you like but more veggies than fruit as fruit contains a lot of natural sugars.

Must drink filtered water approx. 8 glasses a day (chemicals present in tap water)

Green tea is allowed but no caffeine aka coffee, tea, fizzy drinks.

Moderate exercise 15 minutes a day and intense exercise 2-3 times a week

All smoothies must be 50% green leaves (Kale / Spinach / Swiss Chard)

NO:
Alcohol
Fast food
Fried foods
fatty / red meats

Plus:
Limit intake of dairy products (if you have any)
Limit intake of lean meat products (if you have any) 
No dairy / Meat in the first 7 days either.

  Of course I will allow the occasional cheat day very occasionally as I believe this helps willpower and suits social life but I will try to stick to low calorie alcohol and make sensible choices when out. 

How I imagine a typical day will look:
Morning – breakfast style smoothie.
Mid-morning snack – veggie sticks
Lunch – Smoothie
Mid-afternoon snack – nuts
Dinner – light meal consisting of fresh veggies (after first 7 days you can intriduce light dair and lean meat if you want to).

Please note: I haven’t tried this out before so this / results might vary – I will regularly post recipes I am using and food diaries.

I will also share with you the exercises that I am doing and when and also bring back my “move of the week”.

Well I think that is a good overview for now  so I’ll let you take that in and catch you in the next one,

Lotsa luv,

Vikki
 




* Anger which somes from being hungry.