Feeling as dreary as the weather!

This is day one of back on the diet after 4 cheat days of pigging out with a pizza hut pizza and sides, burritos, a pasty and who knows what else. The first couple of days are always the hardest and I think it's partly because I know it'll be another cheat weekend this weekend coming as we're away staying at a cottage with some of our friends. This also means I have the task of packing our little man off to Granny and Grandad's for the weekend so need to make sure everything Isaac could possibly need is in his bag!

Just feeling tired, under-motivated and I have no energy at all. There's only so much coffee can do, I knew I shouldn't have had a potato with lunch today. Hopefully I will do better tomorrow. I think it doesn't help when the weather is crappy and my son Isaac is teething. He just started saying 'dada' (and knowing what it means) at the weekend so all day he's been wondering where he is and keeps looking around the room shouting for dad. It's great to feel appreciated!!!

Also Christmas shopping has been started. I give to a lot of my family who live close by whereas my husband doesn't so it means I have a lot of present ideas to think of as well as about 8 of Isaac's friends birthdays in January, groan.

On the up side I'm still very excited after our house viewings at the weekend and we've got some more in a couple of weeks, including a really nice, newly built apartment so here's to hoping we find a place we really like :) although I'm not looking forward to the packing, moving house is the only time when unpacking is fun!

Time for another coffee.

check in soon,

Lydia

A diet ('healthy eating plan') that works

Please note::: If you are allergic to exercising you will only get so far on a diet. Don't expect to do nothing and still loose weight!

Tip: It is more motivating to do a diet with someone. The person you live with is probably the best idea that way you can ban 'bad' food from the house (and the shopping list)

I had a baby 8 months ago and although I was down to the same size I was pre-baby I still had that post baby blob on my tummy, not that anyone else would have noticed but it's one of those things that I'd rather base my 'diet' goal on looking a certain way then what weight I want to be.

It started with my husband wanting to lean up a bit, he got onto whey protein shakes and was going to the gym and running five days a week. Although his diet consisted of 6 'meals', some of which were a protein shake, protein bar or fruit and others grilled chicken and vegetables. I'm not really organized enough to sort out 6 meals a day as well as my son's food so I decided to modify it a little.

The first thing we did was to try and find a recipe for home-made protein bars......do you know how expensive it gets when you need to have 2 a day!!!

Here's the recipe we found:

• 1 lb of no fat cottage cheese
• 4 tablespoons of natural peanut butter
• 2 cups of whole oats
• 3 scoops of pure whey protein power

[http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/worlds-best-tasting-fastest-healthiest-homemade-protein-bars/]

Note::: Cottage cheese is never usually in our house but you really don't notice it in the bars so don't be put off by it!

While my husband chose to eat these I preferred to make some with less protein powder in it. Here's how I made mine (they do have more carbs but as a meal substitute they work well)

• 1 tub of no fat cottage cheese
• 1 1/2 tbsp peanut butter
• handful of raisins
• 2 cups of oats
• 1 scoop of protein powder

I mixed all the wet ingredients together (including the powder) then mixed in the oats and squashed it into a tray. It is a no bake recipe and it does have to be kept in the fridge but they're so handy if I have to go out anywhere and haven't had breakfast or if I'm going to the gym and don't want a meal.

Here's how I chose to do my diet.

Breakfast: cup of tea, protein bar

Coffee with sweeteners

Lunch: steamed fish (white fish or salmon), 1/3 of a bag of mixed salad leaves, small potato. (you do not need any sauce, butter or condiments as the fish is moist enough!-tuna is the exception then I would add a teaspoon of mayo and a bit of vinegar) The potato should be the size that you look at and think that's not big enough to fill me up! 

Coffee with sweeteners

Dinner: protein bar, piece of fruit, a low fat yoghurt if needed.

Decaf (just my preference for evening drinking) coffee with sweeteners 

I also went to 3 gym classes a week- 2 Pilates class and 1 BOKWA class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_soxJDXAFE&feature=relmfu

I chose to walk rather than drive if we were going out anywhere as well.

In 2 weeks I toned down and probably lost about 4-5 lbs. 

Note::: If you are feeling tired in the afternoon skip the potato at lunch. 

It is difficult to diet on your own but try and keep motivated or find friends of a like mind and be accountable to someone. If you have a smart phone there is a free app that is useful if you just want to watch what you're eating or you're cutting down your calorie intake. It's called My Fitness Pal and it does link to Facebook if you want to make sure you stick to healthy eating.

Remember cheating on a diet is only cheating yourself. If you need a cheat day take a whole day rather than having a sneaky snack on a diet day :)

Stay Motivated,

Lydia

Getting on the ladder

We've decided it's time to look into getting a mortgage. With one child and another one in the plans for next year it seems like the right time to be doing it.

We would definitely need at least 2 bedrooms so finding a house in Exeter where we are renting at the moment is proving difficult for our budget, not to mention there's just some area you really wouldn't want to live in even if you didn't have a small family! We've decided it would be best to look for properties in Newton Abbot (a town about 20 minutes drive from Exeter) where we used to live. We can get a 2 or 3 bedroomed house most likely with a garden within our budget and both sets of our parents live there so ideal for babysitting.

We're going to view some houses tomorrow (saturday) to see what size deposit we would need and what type of time frame we would be looking at for moving into a house. Ideally I would prefer before Christmas or after January as our son's first birthday is in January and I can't really see moving in between Christmas and his birthday as a feasible option. We will just have to wait and see what goes down tomorrow! :)