Finally...

... I'm going to provide you with a blog which isn't about eating :)

It’s so good to be back home. Unfortunately I don’t actually get much of a break because I have deadlines in May and lots of work to get done. All this said and done, I do plan on getting a nice bit a shopping in, and maybe a little bit of running. 

The main question is what would I buy on my shopping spree? The answer…? I have no idea, buying clothes doesn’t seem like a brilliant idea when I’m in the progress of losing weight. So we shall have to wait till Friday to see what I spend my money on.

It’s nice not to have to feed myself every night. Being back at home for a couple of weeks mean that my lovely mother is in charge of feeding time at the zoo, not me.  She’s also prepared first thing in a morning to supply me with coffee. Got to love it J

The only problem, my first night in my old bed led to a night full of bad dreams which meant I got very little actual functional sleep. I could write books based on some of the strange things I dream about, and I very well may do; when I have a bit more time on my hands. Last night’s main dream was based on an undercover cop who was being followed by a stalker and his two followers; they killed her and decided to come after me.  Then I climbed on to a roof to escape and climbed on the university bus to escape and gain myself time to call the police. Somewhere during all of this an old man with a shotgun turned up to shoot them but missed and got killed also. The three men tried to stake me with broken tree pieces as if I was a vampire, but I was fast enough to stop all three of them and snap all their weapons… maybe I was a vampire after all :p 

So I actually wrote this a couple of days ago and haven't had chance to post it until now... Guess what?!  I've had many many weird dreams since, so you may be getting a bit of a dream diary going on soon. Anyone who can tell me what the hell my dreams are telling me, I'm listening :)

Many Days...

... of diet catch ups coming your way!!!

Day Twelve:

Lunch: Weightwatchers spag bol (293 calories)

Snack: Subway ham on wheat grain with salad (278 calories)

Dinner: Omelette & salad (250 calories)

Snack: homemade chocolate birthday cake (150 calories)

Total calories: 971

Day Thirteen

Snack: coffee

Breakfast: 1 x toast & orange juice & coffee (180 calories)

Snack: 3 x coffee

Lunch: egg sandwich & coffee (270 calories)

Dinner: Pizza, garlic bread & salad (700 calories)

Total calories: 1150

Day Fourteen

Breakfast: 4 x coffee

Lunch: Sunday roast (700 calories)

Supper: Cheese on toast & coffee (350 calories)

Total calories: 1050

Day Fifteen

Breakfast: 3 x coffee

Lunch: Boiled egg on toast (340 calories)

Snack: Instant Latte (80 calories)

Dinner: Chicken kiev, jacket potato & salad (500 calories)

Snack: Homemade chocolate cake (100 calories)

Total calories: 1020

Day Sixteen

Breakfast: coffee

Lunch: cheese and salad sandwich & ready salted crisps & coffee (450 calories)

Dinner: Roast chicken & potatoes & veg & 1 x bread (600 calories)

Snack/ desert: small portion of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream (200 calories)

Total calories: 1250

Wowwww......

.... that was a lot of catching up. Sorry about that! I'm some how having less time to blog while I'm at home, but I have been keeping constant track off what I am eating ready to update you lovely people.

I'm also about to post a regular blog, which I typed the other night and didn't get round to posting, so take a look at that too later :)

Day Eleven...

... wasn't quite as exciting as yesterday, mainly due to the lack of BBQ times. But I did spend a couple of hours sitting in the sun reading on my lovely little Kindle.

Breakfast: None, I didn't get up until after 11 (0 calories)

Snack: Orange squash (4 calories)

Lunch: Lettuce chicken salad wraps (250 calories)

Snack: Muller light- strawberry (61 calories)

Dinner: Roast chicken breast, sausage, stuffing, jacket potato with cheese sauce & salad & small bread roll (700 calories)

Snack: Weightwatchers hot chocolate (40 calories)

Total calories: 1051

Here's to a night of watching Shrek films, good times :)

Day Ten...

... and I didn't get round to posting again yesterday. So here is yesterdays post and then I shall do todays. And then later on I think I'm going to treat you to a non-diet entry...

Breakfast: Special K & skimmed milk & orange juice (208 calories)

Snack: Giant filter coffee from Starbucks & Milky Way crispy rolls (128 calories)

Lunch: Homemade spicy vegetable couscous (120 calories)

Dinner: Ooopssss, pig out warning BBQ- burger on bun, 2 sausage on bun, 2 chicken kebabs, salad & low fat coleslaw (too many calories to count - 1000 min)

Total calories: 1456

Going over was so worth it for a BBQ in the sunshine. Back to being strict tomorrow.

Day Nine...

... and I had a bit of an early night, hence the lack of a diet post. Don't have time for a long post because I'm supposed to be doing university work, so here we go, yesterdays diet diary entry...

Breakfast: Scrambled egg on danish toast & orange juice (260 calories)

Lunch: Tesco Lighter Choices chicken and stuffing sandwich & diet coke (305 calories)

Snack: Strawberry Mini Milk (30 calories)

Dinner: Lettuce chicken salad wraps (300 calories)

It was very yummy. Kinda like fajitas but saving the calories on the wraps by using gem lettuce leaves instead.

Snack: 2 x Rivita & low fat cheese & coffee (140 calories)

Total calories: 1035

Day Eight...

... didn't make me feel as happy as I thought it would. It turns out I originally weighed much more than I thought I did, which was very disappointing. Should have jumped on the scales last week rather than assuming I hadn't put a shed load of weight on since Christmas. But I'm not going to let this get me down. I'm going to try even harder than I was doing before.

The run at 6 didn't happen, but I did go for a slow jog a bit later on by myself, although it was very warm out at nearly midday. Clearly should have remembered the clocks went forward before setting my alarm and barely sleeping then ending up having a ridiculous lie in.

Breakfast: none

Lunch: Spaghetti hoops on 2 slices of danish bread toast with grated low fat cheese (300 calories)

Snack: Coffee

Dinner: Small portion of stew, garlic mash and 2 slice danish bread (520 calories)

Snack: 2 coffee & 2 oat biscuits (140 calories)

Total calories: 960

Bring on one very intense week!!

Day Seven...

... was very exciting, considering I actually went for my run. Unfortunately we didn't get up until nearly lunch time so I didn't go running until like half 2 this afternoon. The sun was out and it was warm, so even my short run worked up a bit of a sweat. Tomorrow morning me and the other half are getting up at like 6am to get a run in before doing university work. So this is going to be a very quick update because I need sleep to ensure I get up at this time.

Breakfast: Special K bar & coffee (80 calories)

Lunch: Egg sandwich on danish bread (210 calories)

Snack: Dried pineapple, papaya & coconut (100 calories)

Dinner: Reggae Reggae chicken breast (birdseye), sweet potato (baked), spaghetti hoops, low fat cheese, salad & danish slice of bread (725)

Total calories: 1125

Tomorrow is weigh day!!!!!! Wish me luck!

Give, Give, Give...

... is the message spreading across the country tonight as Sport Relief hits our screens once again. Sports personalities and comedians around the globe come together to raise money for a charity that makes a huge difference abroad.

What can an audience watching tonight look forward to...? Frank Lampard and Christine Bleakley meet Outnumbered, Frank Skinner faces his fear of swimming, Miranda does tennis, Benidorm cast take on Britain's Got Talent and England footballers cook up a storm in the kitchen with James Martin... and that's just the first half!!! I cannot wait for kick off!

Everyone should clearly spend the night in front of the telly with a box of tissues, because I'm definitely getting the tissues at the ready because nights like this make me cry like a baby. The stories of small children suffering, dying from disease which could so easily be cured if these people had access to the right medicine; we can help them get that medicine. Imagine how painful it is for a parent to sit there and know they can do nothing. If you know you can do something to help tonight, and can spare any money, then give and help save these childrens' lives.

Lets all do our bit and give a little tonight and help children out there suffering.

Thank you!

Day Six...

... And today I went slightly over my 1250 calorie count for the day, don't think I'll be having a Lunchable again for breakfast. After all the extra calories today I'm certainly in need of a run so tomorrow morning may be the day I put on my running shoes and take my first strides to getting fit in time for Race for Life. This shall be the first for in like years. I actually did quite a bit of walking today as I walked to university instead of getting my lovely other half to give me a lift. I'm definitely feeling a lot less bloated as I managed to squeeze myself into a pair of jeans, rather than my usual leggings or skirts. It made a nice change to feel a bit more comfortable in denim.

Breakfast: Ham & cheese lunchable + coffee (with sugar due to no sweetener at university) (290 calories)

Snack: Mint & choc Special K bar & coffee (with sugar again) (122 calories)

Lunch: Home made chow mein (300 calories)

Snack: coffee (back to calorie free sweetener)

Dinner: 3 x small sausages, jacket potato & cheese with salad & 1 slice wholemeal bread (600 calories)

Total calorie intake: 1312

Looking forward to my run in the morning!

Lets see how long the excitement lasts :p

Day Five...

... and today I'm feeling like I have a happy tummy for eating less crap than usual, although Special K bars may not provide enough sustenance to keep me going from about 8am until I have time to grab some lunch. Must find something else I enjoy to eat for breakfast. Today has been another hugely stressful day with university and my mountain of work and I highly doubt that tomorrow will be any different, but I hope to get lots and lots of Dreamweaver work done in the morning. Everyone is going home this weekend, if they haven't left Derby already (my house mates have), but due to Ash's university commitments we have to wait at least another week minimum before returning home for Easter. I cannot wait, mainly because soon I will be able to afford no food, which will be brilliant for my diet, not! So here we go...


Breakfast: Special K bar (80 cal)

Lunch: Billy Bear and salad sandwich on wholemeal bread, Special K bar and a Morrison's version of a Munch Bunch yogurt & a sugar free stimulation drink (368 calories, only I threw loads of it away, so it ended up being more like 230 calories)

Snack: 2 x Asda version of Rivita & Low fat Cheese & coffee & squash(120 calories)

Dinner: Gammon, jacket potato, 2x dessert spoon of spaghetti hoops, grated low fat cheese & salad &can of diet pepsi (700 calories)

Daily Calories: 1130

Feeling very positive at the moment.

Day Four...

... another full day on my diet and I'm finally not starting to feel as hungry, but I'm pretty sure I've eaten more today than usual. Either way I have not exceeded my 1250 calorie intake and even went into town to buy my running shoes so I can get fighting fit and ready to take on the Race for Life in July... I think its been a while since I ran very far... maybe cross country in like year 8 or 9. So very lazy I know... But I'm ready for a bit of street running with my snazzy purple running shoes, avoiding treadmills, too much of a bore. So either tomorrow or Saturday the running (very slow running) begins. Now to the diet...

Breakfast: Wholemeal toast & nutella & coffee (300 calories)

Lunch: 2 oatcakes with low fat cheese & hot chocolate (150 calories)

Snack: Shapers Maple Syrup Popcorn & orange squash (92 calories)

Drink: Coffee (0 calories)

Dinner: Home made spicy chowmein & three slices garlic bread & orange squash (600 calories)

Snack: 1 small orange & coffee (68 calories)

Total calories: 1210

Just under.

Day Three...

... ideally I would have posted this last night but I've been suffering with migraine, and no, its not completely gone yet but university work needs to be done so I'm up and ready for a day of work. So this is yesterdays (20th March) diet diary entry.

Breakfast: Special K bar (80 cal)

Lunch: Lunchable and Phillidephia dunker (354 cal)

Snack: Solero Exotic Ice cream [it was a nice day and I deserve a low calorie summery treat] (90 cal)

Dinner: Ham and low fat cheese omelette & jacket potato with salad (600 cal)

Total cal intake: 1124

I will be posting again later on todays diet diary entry, but will also try and give you my usually opinion based post :)

Day Two...

... and I haven't relapsed just yet. Today I've been a very busy girl doing university work, taking photographs and working on Dreamweaver. I feel like I've achieved something today... for once. After starting with photography at 9.30am and finally leaving the library at uni at around 6 I feel that 8 and a half hours hard graft may surfice for today.

In like an hour we're doing an Asda shop and stocking up on yummy healthy foods... so here's the update for today.

Breakfast: Special K bar & coffee

Lunch: White torpedo with sausage and egg & diet coke

Dinner: Weightwatchers fish pie & 1x wholemeal bread slice (but most of it ended up in the bin) & coffee

But I am going to find a more conventional way of doing this at some point this week. Possibly through photography :)

Changes...

... for both myself and my blog. I am beginning my diet and getting fit in time to run the Race for Life in July, and you lucky people get to read all about my ups and downs and best efforts to lose about 5 stone.

I will regularly post about my diet, what I've eaten, what my targets are and what exercise I've been doing to lose weight and get fit and healthy. This may be daily updates or just a sunday update... but I'll have to wait and see how much spare time I have to fill you guys in with my piling amount of uni work which seems to be never ending.

I'm planning on doing the diet my mother usually uses, which is the 1000 calorie plan. You have 1000 calories for your meals and then up to 250 calories for snacks.

So hear we go...

Day One...

Breakfast - Special K bar & coffee (sweetner and skimmed milk) [80 cal]

Lunch - Ham and low fat cheese salad sandwich (wholemeal bread) [400 cal]

Snack - 3 oatcakes with ham & coffee [170 cal]

Dinner - Omelette & oven chips with salad [400 cal]

Water - 2 glasses & 1x 500 ml bottle

So todays calories tally up to roughly  1050 calories

Come back and catch up, and see how much I've lost every Sunday.

Castle...

... is finally back on our screens, and I am way too excited. The series follows a successful mystery novelist who is seeking inspiration for a new collection of novels after killing off his lead character. He finds this inspiration in the form of Detective Kate Beckett, who he is clearly falling in love with as the second series continues.

Nathan Fillion (2 Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place), plays the gorgeous Richard 'Rick' Castle who in this series as just released his new book Heat Wave staring Nikki Heat, based on Detective Beckett. He has the option to become the new author of three "unnamed" English Spy novel... we can all guess who that certain spy is. Instead of choosing to write for his all time inspirational character he chooses to continue following Beckett and  and the NYPD. The stunning Stana Katic (Quantum of Solace) is the perfect counterpart for Fillion and the perfect future love interest.

If you've never seen it before I definitely need to give it go and see what you think. It is certainly my new addiction. Heres me looking forward to the next two seasons already.

Shopping...

... is becoming ever so much more difficult these days. Not just for one reason, but a whole array of reasons.

All the stores seem to be going into administration, and then going poof, never to be there for me to buy their products again. Walking through town today and saw atleast 11 stores that had closed since just before Christmas. Admittedly I didn't shop at all of them but seeing all those empty shop fronts makes me a little bit sad. The only places in any city or town that seem to be staying open at the moment are the charity shops. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against charity shops, infact I used to buy many books from the Salvation Army back home, but now I have a kindle and a billion and one books on that to read, the charity shop seems to no longer serve a purpose for me. My nan on the other hand is always in there buying books, handbags, scarves, coats and other crap she really doesn't need, that she takes back to the charity shop a few months later.

And as for the stores that are still open (and that aren't charity shops), well, they're a bit crap too. Its getting a bit sad when the best place to go and buy clothes is the supermarket (George at Asda, F & F at Tesco etc). But you go into primark and its all the same crap, just in a different colour and the wrong size; and you know perfectly well because you're paying relatively cheaply for your clothes that you'll be in again in a fortnight buying the same damn thing. The amount of leggings from Primark I get through are ridiculous, but for £3 a time I'd rather buy them, then pay extortionate prices elsewhere. That brings me on to my next point.  Not only does everywhere having something that nobody really wants but its also really expensive. Everything just keeps going up in price, which means we're spending less, which mean businesses are making less, which means they go into administration and close, leaving us with... guess what???? Less places to shop!!!

Today in town I felt like shouting "Heyyyy!!!! Why does everything have to show your belly these daysss????" Yes its fashion, but what about us slightly larger women who by no means want our middle region on show. We go out to the stores and everything is tiny, short, doesn't cover anything etcc... We're selfconscious enough, don't go and make things blooming worse! And yes since gaining a few extra pounds at uni I'm stuggling to fit my growing bum and thighs into the things I'd like to wear, but their is no equivalent in stores such as Evans and other larger shops. They don't sell shorts, just three quarter lengths and cut offs... I don't want to look like my trousers shrunk in the wash, I want to look a little bit more fashionable than that.

At the rate its going with stores closing and the other not providing what the consumer needs we'll all be hitting Decathlon and buying tents to wear, because I'd rather be seen in one of those than a vest top that barely covers my feminity or a pair of shorts that let the whole world see every bit of wobble that I'm trying to keep hidden.

The TV World...

... isn't as impressive as it used to be when I was younger. Then again, I was entertained by Bananas in Pyjamas and Bears with a whole lot of love to share (CareBears) back then. Lets be honest, I'd probably still be entertained by that kind of childish excitement now.

I might be 21, but I still have my tween tendencies... yes I love vampires and the sex appeal they have. Forget the Twilight Saga, its all about Vampire Diaries and the Salvatore brothers and the love of their lives. This is probably one of the most complicated love triangles on my TV at the moment, but I love it and could solve their love triangle problems by taking one of the brother (Damon) off her hands. VD has vampires, witches, werewolves, hybrids and a whole lot of shit going down. Things are hotting up with the return of the originals (the first vampires) and their mother (the first witch), who is planning on killing her children to stop them from killing anymore. The catch... one son is willing to act as sacrafice to kill the others because he hates what he has become and the others are good, but still bad (if that makes any sense to anyone, if you watch the series, you'll know what I mean). I love the old english accents the originals have and the immense sex appeal vampires conjure.

Elsewhere in TV land, Gossip Girl gets more and more complicated every week, with its love "square" rather than triangle. Blair married Prince Louis and became Princess of Monacco and is now trying to get a divorce after he dropped the bombshell that their marriage is just for show and that he no longer loves her; he just refused to be embarassed by dumping her after all her exploits. Serena still loves Dan, who is madly in love with Blair and would do anything with her... onnly he leaked the video about how much Blair loves Chuck, which made Louis hate Blair... And that was all in one episode (how excited was I that day).

In Glee (my guilty pleasure) it was all about Regionals, which The New Directions won of course. The episode was probably the saddest in a long time, and I for one missed the cringe factor we usually associate with the show. Firstly, Dave Karofsky tries to commit suicide when he is bullied about his sexuality at school, then it ends with a car accident involving Quin... I look forward to next week and seeing what the hell happens... I can feel the tears ready to roll.

The Soap World is much too complicated for me these days, probably because I never keep up with what is going on. Yes I do sit there irritating my housemates keep asking whats going on and why people are doing certain things. Never watch the soaps with me.

Thats pretty much everything I really watch religiously at the moment, so thats it for now. Maybe you'll even want to go and see what all the fuss is about as far as these TV programmes are concerned. Enjoyyyy