Who doesn’t love to win?

In recent months I got a new Fitbit (I’ve had one for a few years, but now have an all singing all dancing one!) and have hooked up on Facebook, email and friendsof friends to motivate myself to do more steps and basically not just sit all day when I work from home or at the weekend. It’s working but I want to win challenges more. 

If you don’t have a Fitbit you are probably thinking “what challenges?” Well let me explain! Firstly on your Fitbit – you have your own personal goals but there is this whole other bit where you can challenge your contacts to see who does the most steps in a day, a weekend or a working week! Again sounds simple right – well no! My contacts must literally step every single waking moment! In a working week they are at like 140000 steps! Weekend challenges can be mental at like 60000 steps and I swear they must be just cheating somehow! 

So I wake up pretty early regards of what day it is, going downstairs, feed Henry cat, open the back door and make coffee! Then come upstairs, shower, blow dry & straighten my hair, put make up on and then find outfit for the day! In this time I never used to wear my Fitbit! STUPID as you can do 1000 steps before work by wearing the Fitbit! Who knew! Some might ask why I don’t wear it 24/7 as it tracks sleep, but my arms/hands go numb at the best of times (B12 deficiency) the Fitbit does not help this at night at all. With all these challenges I clearly clock up these steps now.

Another thing I do is before going to bed I have to make sure I have made my official goal a day (5000) and my unofficial goal (normally around 10000) Therefore I step on the spot before bed,or dance around my house! I can be exhausted and have the decision of steps and challenges or go to bed! Bed wins a lot to be fair! 

This weekend I invited new Fitbit friends to do a day Fitbit challenge (daily showdown) and then my friend invited me to do a weekend warrior (2 day challenge) I went to legoland yesterday so totally thought it would be easy to win! NOPE – everyone just wants to win! Everyone ends up moving more! It is really good at making you move! But the good news is I did win yesterday – whoop! My feet hurt so much from walking all day but I still danced around the house to the Take That thing last night on the tele and today I still need to rock the steps to keep going in the weekend warrior! My friend has cancelled our walk this morning so I now need to motivate myself to go for a walk or the gym and then do some food shopping (you step quite a lot down those aisles) and as its a beaut of a day again the garden could get a quick look stupid or failing that it’s too sunny – my sun lounger has my name written all over it! 

Anyway the morale of the blog is get a step tracker it makes you move more! 

January’s done

Like everyone I had such high hopes for January but at the same time was skint for the first month of the year! Christmas is a killer when the world and his wife has children and you buy for everyone! Every year I say to myself I’m only buying children and every year I feel too guilty to do it – why I’m not sure – it’s not like you get double the presents or anything! Oh well maybe this year.. To be fair half the fun of Christmas is the buying of gifts. 

So in January I started the month with plans of loosing a stone, going to the gym more, going out on loads of dates or at least making way more of an effort and being in a happy place (strong mind etc!)

Well I lost nothing! I ate way healthier than I have forever and I lost bloody nothing! Clearly living on spinach doesn’t work anymore! The fat club me and my friends started didn’t happen – well it did but then they couldn’t be bothered or wouldn’t reply to texts or just basically didn’t get the concept, so there isn’t any point anymore! So that goal failed although someone at TRX I haven’t seen in a while said I lost loads of weight today and to be fair as she said she has nothing to gain by telling me this – so I’m going with something is making me look like I have lost weight! Whoop! 

I so didn’t make the gym more but I went to a trampolining class twice which is amazing – so that will continue! I also tried the 30 day shred and again I haven’t done much of it – but I did do it a bit! I need to get back on it! 30 days of the same circuits type exercise is not that fun but I brought hand weights that are purple!!! 😂

Dates – hmmm I have made an effort to be on all these online websites but I’m not being funny the guys literally are horrendous! Or you message them as you have matched with them and they don’t reply, or they don’t want children or they are just bloody boring! I might be boring too but wow I just can’t be bothered to keep a convo going with someone I don’t know who I’m clearing not clicking with! I have to remember it is just month one of 2017! 

In terms of getting stronger and happier – I think so – these things take time and work is hard right now and family life hasn’t been fun with Friday the 13th striking again! But I’m positive for February! I have plans to be happier in all aspects of my life and if all this fails the new flooring I am meant to get this year won’t happen and I’ll book an adventure somewhere fabulous and then will be happy for sure! Shopping for new flooring was boring anyway!

My final goal for this year is to be sensible with money, get ready for my remortgage at the end of the year and be in the best position I can be in! Another hardship (is that the right word – probably not!) of being single – so much pressure on being an adult and having a mortgage on your own! Yes I am very fortune to own a house in the south east of England and to have been on the property ladder for 10 years, but when it’s just you paying all the bills and you get the massive loan it isn’t the easiest and my journey to buy this house, a few years ago was one Royal nightmare! But hey I won’t put anyone off trying to buy somewhere! It’s still fun when you get in and all the stuff you can do to it! 

In conclusion January was ok, February needs more effort & March is my birthday – so all will be fabulous! 

Healthy food is challenging right?

Randomly yesterday I shouted out in the office – “I think you should all come up with meal ideas for me” everyone looked blankly so I went on to explain! So obviously I am back on a Healthy kick as its January and I really do need to be healthier! BUT normal people could just eat whatever, but no I have acute IBS so basically I have it really bad! 

My IBS is triggered by all the usual things of stress etc, but my main trigger points are food intolerances! I avoid (and have done since I was 20) wheat, gluten and soy! Dairy is ok but I don’t really like too much in terms of milk, Fish I really don’t like (I was sick for hours once on a dodgy cod), eggs are ok – it depends on the day I think and coffee can not like me very much if too strong, however I do have a bit of a Starbucks addiction but a one shot skinny caramel latte grande seems to be ok! 

That isn’t it though – in my mid twenties I kept getting pains in my side and it turned out to be gall stones that kept getting stuck in my gall bladder pipe! (Worst pain ever!!) so it was taken out! Therefore everything I eat, must be under 5g of fat! Oh yes because you can’t digest too much fat and It just hurts! You would think I would be a bean pole but no my body wants me to work for it! 

I also like to try and follow the Fodmaps diet, as I mentioned in my previous post because apparently food that you can digest easier helps ease the whole IBS situation! 

So you can imagine my colleagues faces when I explained what they needed to find me! One girl said “I’ve found you a great recipe, it’s called air!” Haha! Another girl did actually Google things and found lots of dessert recipes or snacks to make but with everything all people ever give you is snack type recipes and not actual meals! Even cookery books have recipes for dips as a starter! I get it isn’t the easiest thing to stick to but needs must! 

I play this game with my mum when I drive to the supermarket and I call her and ask her what I can eat! She goes through all these options and tries to help, but it’s just annoying as why can’t it be easier! I did make a great dish tonight though which I found from a site a colleague sent me! It was just vegetables called a Briam! It’s by Jamie Oliver and I just ammended it to my needs! It was lovely! So if you have any recipes you have and your reading this – do send them over! ? 

Can you Imagine a boy’s face when I tell them my intolerances and they have asked me out for dinner? It’s fun dating with IBS -follow up blog to come! 

And let the healthy January commence

It’s January 2nd and it’s obviously the time of year where the world decides to be healthy, me included! I knew for a while I needed to stop eating the rubbish and actually go to the gym more again ( I’m lucky I do actually like exercise) but I think with having a few healthy issues and basically using “it’s nearly Christmas” as an excuse since September and clearly not thinking I had put on that much weight – I just ignored it! My jeans still fitted! Haha! 

Anyway I came up with the idea a month ago that instead of doing the usual slimming world, weight watcher or standard fat clubs I wanted to just do it with my mates! When you have IBS, try and follow a Fodmaps diet, are wheat, soy, gluten intolerant and are just a bit fussy on food, it isn’t always the easiest to follow a generic diet!

So a group of us are basically weighing ourselves, putting a couple of quid in the pot every few weeks and whoever loses the most in 3 months wins the pennies! Every few weeks we can go for a treat dinner to encourage and celebrate successes too! With the support of everyone too we can go for walks and do exercises to get us to our goal weights! I love a good competition so I’m totally up for winning the money! To be fair at an old company we did this and I so won – so hopefully it will happen again! 

So as of 2nd January 2017 at 8.30AM I have put on 1.5 stone in a year according to the last time I weighed myself and recorded it on fitness pal! I have at least 2 stone to lose to start with (I don’t do unrealistic goals) clearly I apparently should lose about 9 stone to be in that healthy perfect doctor chart I think, but I literally would look like skeletor with excess skin everywhere! Those charts are so unrealistic! So I’ll start with 2 then go for another 2 & then I think my size will be a good size! I go more on dress size and how I look anyway! I know I am heavier than most people but I don’t look as big asa weigh! Must be heavy boned! Haha! I know I need to loose weight and wouldn’t be very comfortable going on dates right now either – so time to do something about it! If you have weight loss IBS/food intolerant tips – please share! 

It’s day 1 and it will include meal planning, recording everything on fitness pal and checking the Fodmaps check list for what fruit and veg I can eat! Tomorrow I will go to the office and take my trusty nutri bullet smoothie with me! There will be less Starbucks in my life (boo) less carbs and less treats! But I have done it before so just need to think end goal is feeling healthier and feeling happier in myself to go out on dates and make 2017 a fun one! Whoop!