Five Favourites Finished

I had a lot of fun scrapping my five favourite photos from September.  I decided it was time to bust some kits that had been hanging around for a while, they'd been hanging around because I didn't really like the papers in them.  Not liking the papers made it really easy to cut in to them and I love the layouts I've created!

This one documents how Alfie just couldn't wait for his birthday present so, the night before, he went to my bag and helped himself! He looked so happy there was no way I could tell him off :)

I had a really great day out at The Great Sheep Round Up with these girls.  It was great to see them all again, just a shame that Nancy couldn't make it :(

I have too many photos of me and Alfie like this but a dog's life is short and I know there will come a time when I think I just haven't got enough photos of us together.

Sandra had a coffee morning for Macmillan, she baked some really lovely cakes and made a lot of money for the charity. She took this photo of us just as I had a big mouthful of cake! :)

If Alfie goes out the garden and it's wet he comes in and throws himself on his bed with his paws in the air and won't move until they've been dried! His face looked so funny on this day I just had to grab my phone before I grabbed the towel :)

That takes my total number of layouts this year to 45!

I'll be back soon with my five favourite photos from October.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Week Forty Four

Week forty four brought the sunshine with it, here are the highlights:

Me and Maddie made the most of the nice weather by walking in the park during our lunch breaks :)

The views were really lovely and it was hard to go back in to the office!

These 2 had lots of cuddles :)

I did my meal planning for the week:

Alfie got in to some strange positions, I guess he was comfy though!

Dirty pudding :)

Alfie :)

After doing all of my housework on Saturday I finally sat down and enjoyed this :)

We had some lovely sunsets:

Our big tradition is to watch Hocus Pocus on Halloween :)

Alfie got busted sleeping on my mood blanket and tried to hide himself!

November started with fog, it was quite eerie on my walk through the park!

After my walk I had a 'me' day and only did what I wanted to do :)

While outside the fog hung around and got heavier....

It was a nice, quiet week that helped me recharge my batteries.

Here's hoping the next week is a good one.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

It's All About The Figures

This week was all about figures and most of them were bad!  I'm being a bit hard on myself because I had 4 good days where I'd start off with this sort of thing for breakfast:

And have this as a treat, only 1.5 SYNs for 120g and it really is lovely.

Another low SYN treat this week was mini Kinder bars, a real chocolate hit for only 3.5 SYNs each!

But the bad figures were 31 SYNs at Nandos and a hot dog for 19 SYNs....I wish I'd taken a moment to check the SYN value before I'd eaten that!

I did manage to get lots of Body Magic in, because the weather was so lovely I went for a walk in the park every lunch break :)

Unsurprisingly, with having a grand total of 137.5 SYNs this week I had a half a pound gain.  It could have been a lot worse if I hadn't been writing EVERYTHING down....even those little things our hands pop in our mouth when our eyes aren't looking :)

So I didn't lose the 3lbs I wanted to but I did try a new fruit, in fact I tried two!  I got myself some figs and although they were lovely they weren't very filling:

Then I got gifted this fruit:

My friend's husband had read how I want to try a new fruit this week so they treated me to a Singo pear and, funnily enough, they gave it to me at bingo!  If you haven't tried one it's a very crunchy, sweet pear and it's VERY filling.

I also tried a new recipe which I thought I'd share with you:

Garlic & Herb Baked Chicken

To serve 4 you will need:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2tbsp all-purpose seasoning
1 large garlic clove crushed
6 tbsp quark
small handful of chopped parsley
low cal cooking spray
2 red onions peeled and cut into thin wedges
4 strands of cherry tomatoes on the vine

Mix the garlic, quark and parsley:

Slice a pocket in each chicken breast and rub with the all-purpose seasoning:

Stuff the pocket with the garlic, quark, parsley mixture:

Place in a baking tray and surround with the onion and tomatoes and then spray the whole lot with the low calorie cooking spray:

Bake in the oven on 200 for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked though.  I thought it was delicious but Maddie thought the parsley made it too lemony. The bonus is there are zero SYNs per serving!

I haven't ended the week feeling disappointed, I know why I had a small gain and I know it could have been a lot worse.

This week I am committing myself to:

1. Try a new vegetable.
2. Exceeding 10,000 steps on at least 5 days.
3. Losing 2lbs.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Week Forty Three

Week forty three was a quiet one, here are the highlights:

I had lots of cuddles with this boy...when he wasn't engrossed in a TV program!

I went for a lovely long walk after work, I haven't been doing my evening walks and I've missed them.

I got up to date with Project Life :)

I had a night out with my bestie :)

I added more squares to my mood blanket while Alfie snuggled on the blanket!

Dirty pudding :)

The boss treated us all to Nandos for lunch :)

I actually managed to get Maddie to come shopping with me!

And got cross that out of date food was on the shelf!

I did some late night scrapping :)

And made a smart choice when Paul took me out to lunch :)

We had a night out at bingo with friends and Paul had a win!

Me and Paul had a trip to Ikea, it was rammed but he wanted to be like a tourist and go during the weekend! Me and Maddie always go midweek when it's a lot quieter :)

I enjoyed a glass of wine and my new candle :)

And then Paul went home so I enjoyed a cupcake while watching Downton Abbey :)

This week is going to be another quiet one and, now that the clocks have changed, I'm looking forward to getting cosy indoors after work and making some Christmas presents :)

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

The Road is Long!

Lots of people know that I've been on a journey, a very long journey with Slimming World! I've been doing it for 3 years, and that's not a problem because it's not a diet it's a lifestyle, but this year I have only been maintaining my loss.  The loss I've maintained this year is 3 stone (52lbs) and while I'm pleased with that I still need to lose more, a lot more!

I had become complacent and I know I won't be happy going another year with only maintaining and not losing, for that reason I've decided to keep myself on track by sharing my weight loss highs and lows, ups and downs (hopefully more downs than ups on the scales!) on my blog.

I weigh on a Thursday evening so blogging my week and, I hope, my weight loss, along with recipes and tips, on a Friday will help me to remain focused.  This is something I could have started at the beginning of 2016 but why wait when I want to focus NOW, I would love to lose a stone (14lbs) by Christmas.

I had a very disappointing gain this week, 1lb in fact, and I was upset because I had tried so hard and really thought I was going to have a good loss.  This post would probably have been a lot different if I had of had a loss, it would even have been different if I'd written it this morning when I was still feeling dejected if I'm honest.  Right now though I'm feeling fine about it and I'm looking forward to the week ahead :)

One of the things I'll me making to help me be prepared and stay on track are delicious muffins, yes muffins that will keep me on plan!  The muffins I'm making are 1.5 SYNS each or 4 muffins for a Healthy Extra B choice, I normally have them as a HEB and eat 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening because they are so filling.

To make them you will need:

4 Weetabix
4 beaten eggs
1 toffee Mullerlite
8 tbsp sweetener
4 cap fulls of salted caramel flavouring:

Put all of the ingredients in a bowl:

And combine well:

Divide in to 8 muffin cases:

And bake for approximately 20-25 minutes at 190/200 degrees or until golden, voila:

Very quick and easy to make and I think they are lovely.

This week I am committing myself to:

1. Try a new fruit.
2. Try a new recipe.
3. Lose 3lbs

Wish me luck!

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx