& I was doing so well..

Bit of back story first, when my Son (Leo) started full time school in September I hit the healthy eating and being active with full force and the weight, literally dropped off me!! 

In about 5/6 weeks I lost 10lbs and I was a mere 4 pounds from goal and since then I have gone completely off track! 😭

It started the week before Halloween, Leo got chicken pox so he was off school for a week and with the disruption and stress we ate bad food! The week of Halloween he was really poorly again so bad that I took him to hospital; he was diagnosed with scarlet fever! I'm a BIG stress eater and to cope...I ate!! Halloween weekend rolled round and I proceeded to have my first drink in 3 months; ended up very very drunk!

Since then I've either been really really good or bingeing to disgusting amounts! I've now gained back 4/5lbs of my 10lb loss! I'm really disheartened by it but if I beat myself up about it anymore I'm just going to eat to feel better- ITS A VISCOUS CIRCLE PEOPLE! 

So I have roughly 9lb to my "christmas goal" had I not fell off track, I'd no doubt be at my goal now but hey ho! 4 and a half weeks till Christmas and I'll be happy if I can just get this recent gain off by then! Currently in bed with a peppermint tea; I'm so bloated from bingeing this weekend! 

Normality resembles tomorrow... C'mon Steph you can do it!!! 

I'm in love with Juice plus! ❤️

                         

Since starting juice plus, I've lost 9lbs! 6 of that was "water weight" but I've only done it for 2 weeks fully since I started and I'm happy with that result! I was away on holiday for a week so let it slip and then there was Easter.. Which also was my Sons fourth birthday so a lot of chocolate and cake was consumed!

Since Monday (28th April) I've ate really clean and I've started daily workouts; which has improved my everyday mood so much! 😃 it was exactly 14weeks on Wednesday till my 23rd Birthday and it would be amazing to get a stone off (only really want to lose a stone anyway) by then, so far after 4 days I've lost 1.4 of that so on the right track..just got to keep it up!

I felt like I had a really good food day yesterday and wasn't hungry once so thought I'd post my menu on here! 

Breakfast - Juice plus complete chocolate (30g), ice, 200ml almond milk, 200ml water, banana and 10g peanut butter with raspberry Iced green tea. 

Then I did my running app (5k trainer) and went for a long walk.

Lunch- kiwi and a clementine, 100g of frozen black forest fruit with ice, water and 30g of Vanilla Juice plus complete, washed it down with another big glass of raspberry iced green tea.

I drank a lot of green tea, lemon water and normal water throughout the day that I didn't find myself hungry till 9pm!

Tea - 2 peppercorn beef medallions, sweet potato fries with roasted mushrooms and peppers.

My calories were too low for the day considering all the exercise I did so I had a snack before bed:

2 kallo rice cakes with 5g of almond butter on each and 1/2 a chopped banana on each.

Weigh in officially Monday so I'll post it on here :) 

                                                                                     X

Jumping on the Juice plus bandwagon!

So in my previous blog post I said I was starting juice plus, well today was my first day and.. I loved it!!  The shakes taste incredible, so far I've only tried the chocolate one but it was like an actual chocolate milkshake! If like me you've ever tried "chocolate" protein powder/meal replacements you'll know that most taste really artificial! 

I blended a scoop of the chocolate powder, a banana, a few ice cubes and 300ml of water = heaven! (Picture 2)

My lunch one I did the same but instead of the banana I used strawberries, it was nice but I think berries will go nicer with the vanilla shake mix.

Throughout the day I drank a shit tonne of water and nothing else, then tea time rolled round and I couldn't wait ( hadn't ate actual food since Thursday due to weekend juice cleanse) 

I needed something healthy, quick and easy; being in college till late exhausted me! So cooked some chicken, put some peppers, mushrooms, garlic seasoning and some spray oil in a wok then added rice noodles and I INHALED the whole thing in about 4 minutes! On the plus I made enough for tea tomorrow. 

Since I hasn't used my healthy snack option all day about 3 hours after having tea I warmed a nak'd cocoa delight bar and added a chopped strawberry and some vanilla alpro yoghurt.. Tasted really nice think I'll forgo the strawberry next time though with the nak'd bar. (Picture 4)

I'm unsure as to whether to post daily food diarys or just if it's an interesting day, time will tell! Anyway, I'm looking forward to tomorrow! 

                                   x 

Doing another juice cleanse

While waiting for my juice plus shakes to arrive ( next post) I was eating clean for about a week and dropped almost 5lb! So when I got the email to say they'd been dispatched I noticed on twitter my local health bar @fuelshakes were doing a weekend 3 day juice cleanse for £35; what a great way to kick off my health kick I thought and really cheap! 

Currently on day 2 now and yesterday was rough, it's been nearly 5 months since my last one and last time I was in work, which definitely took my mind off it! 

I have no idea what's in them but I think they're very similar to the cleanse I've done in a previous post. 

My juice plus shakes came yesterday and I'm so excited to start them on Monday!   

                           x

March 2014 Challenge and a little Fitbit review

I'm a huge fan of MyFitnessPal and the community message boards, it's a great support network and a motivational tool.

Pretty much any day you can find a group or challenge to join, the past few days I've joined two which are going to be my ultimate March challenges: Lose 5lbs in March and to walk 100 miles in March.

I think the easiest out the two will be the 100 miles, it seems a lot but when you divide it over the month it equals out to roughly 3.2 miles a day over the 31 days.

I walk on average about 5 miles a day thanks to my ultimate fitness gadget:

I've had a Fitbit for just over 2 years, started out with the Fitbit ultra which was the best thing I'd ever invested in! When it broke, I was devastated! Within a few weeks I had the new Fitbit Zip permanently attached to me!

I couldn't recommend Fitbit enough, it's changed my whole outlook on being active, the app and online dashboard are great tools and I check them multiple times a day.

I have some less active days so March I'm going to try to be active everyday to log my 100 miles!

Hopefully all the walking and continuing eating at a deficit will help lose the 5lbs.

I've been doing the 10,000 step challenge for just under a week and I've lost 2.4lbs; maybe water weight but anything down on the scale is good by me.

Time for a happy, healthy March!

                  x

My take on the "Juice Cleanse"

I did my first Juice cleanse late October, I used a local company in Liverpool @juicyliciousmee on twitter. The 3 day detox cost me £60, they had an offer on free delivery that week (normal £10 delivery charge) Every night for 3 nights the lovely woman who runs it would drop off 4 bottles of juice. 

Every morning you would begin with a hot water with a slice of lemon, the benefits of this alone are incredible!

The 9am and 12pm Juice - Avo-licious.

This juice was delicious, filled with avocados, cucumber, pineapple, apples, lime and spinach. It tasted "healthy"

The 3pm Juice - Beeti-licious

This juice containing Beetroot, carrots, apples, parsnips and lemon was the hardest to swallow; I'm not a fan of parsnips but after the initial shock of day one I enjoyed it on day two and day three.

The 6pm Juice - Berry-licious

Containing apples, strawberries, raspberries, goji berries and natural fat free yogurt, you can tell this tasted amazing and fruity!

Overall, I found myself really enjoying this detox the woman was always at the end of a text or tweet for support.

The benefits I found from it: my energy levels have never been higher, my eyes were WHITE, skin was glowing and on a weight loss note I lost 6lbs!! Didn't even put it back on when I started eating normally again either, Christmas indulgence put it back on!

I would highly recommend Juice Cleanses and definitely @juicyliciousmee if you're local to the Liverpool area

x

Second time around.

Well, this is officially my second attempt at a blog. I had a previous one that I haven't used since July..last year! The main aspect of that blog was fasting (5:2 diet, 24 hour fasts) and that isn't were my head is right now, so this is going to be a mash up of everything I do Fitness, food and beauty related.

About me:
I'm Steph, 22. I live in Liverpool with my almost 4 year old Son and I'm currently studying AAT to become an Accountant, which is the hardest thing I've done so far but you get what you work hard for right?!
I love the whole world of Health and Fitness, I've tried pretty much everything out there exercise and diet wise some to great success and most making me utterly miserable. So everything I have done in the past and do in the future will get a review on this blog.
On the subject of beauty I'm an avid fan of beauty blogs and beauty YouTubers, which makes me splurge on occasion on many makeup items, skincare etc. So naturally anything I want to review will also have a place on this blog.

In short I could post about anything, from the newest beauty craze to the newest diet to a great bar I've been to.
                                                                                                x