On Joining Slimming World

Last month I took the plunge and joined a Slimming World group. I've given Slimming World a go a couple of times from home but always said I'd do better if I attended a group - only I had nobody to go with and didn't have the confidence to go alone. My sister joined with me and it wasn't as scary as I thought, it's true what people say - they're all lovely! I also bought a bike and have been biking to and from work every day, I definitely didn't exercise enough before but I'm putting that right now :)

I decided to join Slimming World because I couldn't stick to it for very long doing it from home.. Being at group as given me the motivation and extra support I didn't have before.. It keeps me on track and keeps it fresh - from home it ends up sliding and sliding and the next minute you're eating crap again. At group there is incentive to keep going - you're praised and rewarded by the group (they all clap your weight loss, you get a sticker and certificate for every 1/2 stone you lose and if you lose the most out of everyone else at your group, you're slimmer of the week and get a sticker and a bowl of fruit. There is also a draw each week to win different syn free/low syn ingredients.)

I have 2 reasons for wanting to lose weight. Firstly, I hate the way I look and how I feel in pretty much everything I wear and I want to be able to shop in "normal" shops again. I want to look in the mirror and think "I look great in this!" instead I think "URGH" - if I look. When I first met Aaron, 6 years ago, I was a size 14 and I really want to get back to that. Please don't think for one minute that I think plus size is horrible and they should all lose weight too because I don't at all. Have you seen plus size blogs? Those ladies are fabulous! The difference is, they're confident and love who they are, they embrace it. It's personal choice.

My second reason for wanting to lose weight is for health reasons. Since putting this weight on, I get back ache more often and I've had problems with my foot the past couple years too. I'm flat footed and being overweight hasn't helped.. Sometimes the pain in my foot is so severe I'm in tears. It's meant I can't walk too far cause if I do, I'll suffer afterwards (another reason for buying the bike!) and I'm very limited on what shoes I can wear. Also, both my dads parents have diabetes, my dad was told he'll likely end up with it and I know that by leading a healthier lifestyle, I'm at less risk.

Thursday was my 3rd weigh in at my Slimming World group and I got my half stone award, won slimmer of the week and won the raffle too - you should have seen me trying to bike home with everything!! I won slimmer of the week the week before too :) It's such a great feeling having everybody clap and genuinely be happy and proud of you. In 3 weeks I've lost 8lb and I'm so proud of myself. My target is 3 stone in total although I may want to go further once I get there - I'm going to go by how I feel and what I look like instead of concentrating on a number.

I'm not in a big rush to get to target, I still enjoy my food and I'm not going to start depriving myself to get there quicker because I know I'll be more likely to give up or just pile it all back on again. The changes I've made and continue to make need to stick with me once I get to my target too, I can't go back to binging on rubbish, it's about changing eating habits for the better - hopefully it will just come naturally after a while! :)

Are any of you following Slimming World? Let me know! 

I'm always posting about it on my Instagram so feel free to take a look @tiffanyleighx

xxx

Let The Journey Begin!

I've mentioned a couple of times in my last few posts about how I've been feeling a bit "meh" about several things.. As always, there is light at the end of the tunnel and woo woo! It seems I'm finally approaching!
To (try) and cut a long story short.. I was made to feel unhappy at a job full of liars, shit stirrers and back stabbers for 6 years and one day decided enough was enough and just walked out. Unfortunately I was a bit naive and didn't think it would be too hard to find another job, although I will never regret leaving. We had to give up our rented home and moved back in with Aarons parents for around a year until Aaron found a better job and we moved out again.. We moved to the next town for 1.5 years and apart from the odd couple of jobs, I still wasn't having much luck. Our house was crappy, the landlord wasn't interested in fixing anything and none of our family or friends lived close by. It got to me quite often, especially towards the end - the same time my blog started to go quiet. We were living on one wage and though grateful of our own space, it was difficult not being able to treat ourselves, afford a holiday or to even keep the car in good order.

Fast forward to February of this year and a friend of mine called Claire put us in touch with her old landlord that had a house available in our hometown.. The houses in this town are like gold dust. But we're here, finally. Not only that, I have a job now too. It's just a little part time supervisor cleaning job but it's a job and I'm earning again and we're already planning a holiday abroad this year! :D
I was unemployed for almost 3 years (apart from the odd few jobs through agencies - and never claimed a penny from the government either by the way) and in that time I became quite unhappy. I put on a lot of weight as I wasn't doing a lot which added to the misery and my mood was always pretty "meh" for the most part. Since moving back to our hometown and being close to everyone again, we've both been much happier.. Plus my little job which has really lifted my mood and given me a confidence boost.. So I thought the next thing to do was get back to being happy with how I look.

So I joined a Slimming World group. Up until a couple of months ago I would never have felt confident enough to turn up at one of these groups and would have flatly refused, preferring to suffer in silence. When we lived with Aarons parents, my confidence was so low that I wouldn't even leave the house on my own. I wouldn't do things like ask a member of staff in a shop where something was or even answer my phone unless it was my parents, sister or Aaron. I've come a long way and I have Aaron to thank for that as he's so supportive and understanding but I think age plays a part too and I still have a little way to go as it creeps up on me sometimes!!

I've been at Slimming World for 3 weeks this week and I'm so glad I pushed myself to go, they're a lovely bunch of people and I've been really enjoying it this time round (I done it from home before.) I'm so determined to feel good about myself and feel good in my clothes again but I also want and need to be more healthy. I even bought a bike and bike to/from work every day plus to the shop or up to my dads. I can feel myself getting fitter already - when I first biked to my parents I had to get off and walk up the hill cause I was dying so out of breath but now I don't :) We even walked to/around/from town Saturday (just over 1.5 miles each way) and I could have easily kept going - Aaron reminded me how I wouldn't ever walk anywhere when we first met 6 years ago so was really proud of me :)

So yeah, let the journey begin.. A happier, healthier me. I'm excited! xxx

What's Going On?

I'm still here.

I still enjoy reading blog posts, I sit and go through my BlogLovin' feed most nights although the type of posts I enjoy has somewhat changed and I've found myself following many different kinds of blogs.. I still follow a few beauty blogs - my favourites who bring variety, give in depth reviews, who's opinion I trust and who's writing style keeps me coming back. But I've found myself following more lifestyle, thrifty, travelling, weightloss kind of blogs..

I enjoy wearing make up and trying new products but I'm just not like most beauty bloggers.. I don't have to buy all the latest products and I can't talk for hours about make up. A large chunk of beauty bloggers are younger than me and much more girlie than me.. I'm 26 this year and feel like as I get older, I care about those things less - my interests have changed quite a lot the last few months - the same amount of time I haven't been blogging properly.

I've really been enjoying different homeware posts, anything to do with Slimming World, thifty/savvy posts, lifey/serious and/or funny chatty posts and days out/holiday posts. If anybody can recommend any blogs with any of these kinds of posts please send me some links as I love finding new blogs to follow!

I want to blog but every time I go to write I end up clicking off the page and I don't know why because I really WANT to! For now I'm going to continue how things are.. There might be the odd post but I won't force it.. If I want to post, that's a start but for me to keep clicking away, tells me now isn't the right time.. I am, however, planning on putting together a post of my favourite blogs as I've found some great ones lately but also have some old favourites too.

I hope you're all well xxx

Storage Heaters

They're big, bulky and bloody ugly and before we moved in I heard nothing but bad things about them from pretty much everyone (apart from my nan!) and read lots of stories online about how rubbish they are. I wasn't looking forward to sitting in a cold house every evening, chucking on jumpers and thick socks with a throw on top.

"They chuck all the heat out in the day time and are stone cold by early evening."

That was the main one, I can't even count the amount of times I read that one! Because of this, I was determined I would only move again if the house had gas heating like we had before. Only, we fell in love with the house and knew we'd be getting really good landlords, a rare thing when renting privately..

We have double glazing throughout but our living room has the stairs in (so we're heating quite a large space) plus a big window, the back door and the cats bedroom spare room door is always open too. We've been here a week tomorrow and only had one of the five heaters on the whole time. We have had it on the lowest setting (1/2 out of 6) all week so that the heat lasts right round the clock and because it's on low, it doesn't all get used during the day so we have the option to turn it up to kick more heat out in the evenings if need be.

The boys have settled in well too.. But Chester is such a remote hog!!!

There has been a frost a few mornings so it has been cold out but we've been toasty the whole time. It's been lush waking up to a warm house and not having to keep sticking the heating on when I get chilly as I haven't actually been chilly yet - baring in mind I'm here all day too. Another thing I like is that you don't hear a peep from them and there is never a worry of a gas leak.

As I say, we've only been here a week so far but I'm hoping by only using one of the heaters on low and both heating and hot water doing their thing on the night rate, it shouldn't be too expensive. As the night rate (cheaper energy) is until 7.30am and Aaron gets up early for work at 6.30am anyway, I've been getting up and getting any washing done while it's cheap too.. I'll report back after a month or so with how much it's costing in comparison to when we had gas :)

So to anyone with storage heaters that thinks they're crap, make sure you're using them right cause it's 10.30pm here, I'm super toasty and the heater is still hot! xxx

February Rant

A new bunch of posts for me, monthy rants. A place (my place) for me to have a good ol' moan once a month. You might relate to some of it, you might not. Light hearted, not meant to cause offence so if you're easily offended.. Ya know.. ;)

The Arctic Monkeys singer on The Brits.
The first time he spoke, I asked Aaron "Is he really drunk or a bit of a weirdo?" Turned out he's just an arrogant prick. Did you see him drop the microphone then make the comment about sending him the bill? Like, really??? I cannot stand arrogance at all.

When you're looking at something in a shop and someone leans across you.
I was in Superdrug a couple of weeks ago with my sister. There I was, standing at the Rimmel stand looking at lipstick and a young girl come and stood next to me and was leaning right across me to grab things. Not only could she have stood the other side and not been so bloody rude, she didn't even say excuse me or anything. I just find it really rude. I wouldn't do it so I don't want people doing it to me, thank you very much.

People that moan about our cats being house cats.
I shouldn't have to justify myself here but I find myself having to quite often and it doesn't get any less annoying. We just moved from a house on a busy road with no front garden, behind our house was the main road through the town and we're always hearing about cats going missing. Cats are allowed to be house cats. They're not like dogs, they don't need walking and we always make an effort to play with them to exercise them. They had the run of a 3 storey house and each other for company. We didn't want to risk letting them out and them being run over, going missing or coming home hurt. Plus our vet actually advised us not to let Vinnie out because he's always poorly - his immune system attacks itself and he has to have tablets on a daily basis. If he goes without a tablet he can become very ill. If we let him out and he didn't come home for a couple of days, he could become seriously ill or potentially die. If we separate the boys, they call for each other until they're back together so we keep Chester in too. They're spoilt little boys and get a lot of love and fuss, I know they're happy so there. Piss off kindly.

People on benefits that constantly boast.
You have a child or children, you don't work and you're on benefits. Fair enough, everyone has their own reasons and I'm well aware that for some people, it's not their choice and they don't want it to become their way of life. But some people seem to choose it as a way of life and that is what pisses me off. What pisses me off more than that is the ones that feel the need to tell everybody about all the new living room furniture they've just bought, the new car they've got or the holidays they're having. Is it really necessary? No, it's not.

My old next door neighbour.
Who ran a bath and slamed cupboard doors at 1am? She did. Who stompped around their wooden floors in heels all day/night? She did. Who asked me when I'm due when I'm blatantly just fat? She did (rude bitch). Who watched me put my washing out then lights a BBQ without having the decency to pop round and let us know like we did.. She did. Who didn't get a Christmas card off us last year? She bloody didn't! I don't like rude and/or ignorant people. She is both and I certainly won't miss her now we've moved.. Although our new neighbours aren't shaping up to be much better!


WOWZERS, it's kinda like therapy getting that off my chest but in a way that kind of amuses me. Who knew! xxx