Zaggora Competition Time

Ok, so it is almost July and I haven't blogged in over a month and probably haven't lost a single pound. After having a hospital appointment last week where they insisted on weighing me (apparently they couldn't just take my word for it) I noticed my weight has stayed pretty much the same since I started on my big diet plan.

The 2 big boxes of Jenny Craig I paid a small fortune for sits in my living room, and I have no idea about what or if I want to follow a specific diet plan.  The biggest problem for me is that I eat out A LOT, so diets where i have to eat specific food doesn't really work for me, another downfall of JC was I despise microwaved food.  As I'm going to Greece at the end of July I really need to snap back into some sort of plan, or my bikinis won't fit and I will resemble the GhostBuster Stay Puft Marshmallow Man hobbling along the beach.  The way I lost weight last year was quite simple... EXERCISE and eating smaller portions, so am going to give this a go.  

Unlike a lot of people I actually enjoy going to the gym, the walk I have to do along a main road in Manchester City Centre from my gym to my car is made pleasurable if my tshirt is literally soaked with sweat and has turned a different colour.  I feel like I have worked hard and despite the lack of energy and that my muscles are crying out for a break I have a little spring in my step.

So the plan is exercise, now I want to find a way to make each workout really count.  Since I read other diet blogs in the hope for inspiration I came across several reviews on Zaggora Hotpants.  Now I love the idea of miracle pants that will dissolve the fat and make you a size 8 with no effort, but I know they don't exist, but these seem like the closest thing to that dream.  These pants claim that they can help reduce body fat, the visible signs of cellulite AND help you lose 2 dress sizes in 2 weeks.  They make the claims that wearing when active will be more effective but you can get some results by sitting on your sofa watching Corrie (or Revenge for me, off topic but my favourite programme right now.)

They work by increasing energy expenditure by raising the core body temperature, resulting in an increase in metabolism. The 80% increase of perspiration when wearing these pants helps burn calories and break down toxins, meaning weight loss and reduced appearance of cellulite.  

So after reading the reviews and seeing a promotional code on Facebook, I  took the plunge to buy a pair.  They only arrived this morning, which took a bit longer than I expected, but I understand the pitfalls of slow postage more than most.  One first feel they felt like a wetsuit, and after squeezing myself into them in the most ungraceful manner I gave them their first test run.  Holy cow I sweat like crazy, I only did a quickie on the exercise bike but the sweat would make you think I had run a marathon.  When I wear them to the gym I think I will put some pants over, this doesn't affect how they work, but helps the rustling noise they create and also hides all my lumps and bumps these seem to highlight.   As you can see the cat wanted to take part in this photo, how sexy do I look ha!

So I am now on the 2 week challenge, 30 minute workouts 3 times a week (which I'm sure I will go over because an hour an half doesn't seem enough to me) wearing these bad boys and after 2 weeks I should have dropped down to a size 10.  I will measure myself tomorrow, and do the results during the 2 weeks.

Now the lovely people over at Zaggora have kindly given me 3 pairs of the Viva Hotpants (as modelled by my thunder thighs or the skinny minnies in their promotional pic) so for your chance to win one of these pairs all you have to do is follow the instructions below.

How To Enter

1.  Follow this blog via the Google Friend connect (to the side)

2. Visit the Zaggora website, pick your favourite colour and comment below with your preference

Additional Entry

Follow the Jelly Button Jewellery blog via Google Friend Connect, and leave a comment below letting me know you have entered twice.

Easy Peasy Right!!! Now for the boring bits...

The Rules

To be entered you need to follow AND comment.

This competition will close at the end of my 2 week challenge, midnight (GMT) July 15th 2012.

The winner will be selected at random, and will be notified within 7 days of the closing date.

The PR from Zaggora will send the prize directly to the winner.  

This competition is open to UK entrants only.

Excuses excuses

Right first of all I am going to get the excuses out of the way, I've been poorly, I spent a few days away with Uni, I've been busy, I've been celebrating with my best friend, blah blah blah.  All these excuses are true but combined they have meant I have been a massive failure when it comes down to my diet.  

I have avoided the scales until today, luckily I've not put any weight on but I've definitely not lost any!! The only positive is that I have still been going to the gym a couple of times a week, meaning I can see my muscles however small returning.

The thing I'm not unhappy with at the moment is my boobs, they're HUGE!!!!!!! Most girls would moan, and most lads would (and do) say it's like slapping God in the face dieting to reduce them.  But until you struggle fitting 34H cups into a dress, running on the treadmill, or not being able to lye on your front you won't understand.  Photographic proof of how they impose on my life is my photos from my night out last week, I had an adorable top and high waisted skirt, and rather than notice the teeny tiny telephones and polka dot pattern the first thing you see is BOOBS!!  But after all my moaning I'm the only person who can shrink them, so diet is back on and I am sticking to the gym..... I promise ;)

Sorry about the chinnage on this pic, I was fairly tipsy and holding my head up was an effort.

Week 1 and half

Soooooo this week hasn't gone well at all in terms of dieting :( First problem (boys may want to stop reading) was I started my period, and this basically means I am in crippling pain and can't do much except sleep, this leads onto the second problem.  After spending the past year suffering with abdominal pains which feels like severe stomach cramps ALL THE TIME as well as my stomach swelling up and going rock solid I finally got a diagnosis.  I have been told it is a bladder infection, food intolerance to just bad period pains, and after seeing what looked like a big bubble on the ultrasound I was told I have an cyst on my right ovary.  This is why when I am on my period the pain gets so intense I often vomit and faint, and then through the rest of the month suffer with a pregnant looking tummy that lasts a few hours then disappears until the next trigger.   I have even measured the difference in my abdomen during one of my fake pregnancies, before it is 34 inches.... during it goes to 39, thats 5 whole inches of swelling OUCH!!!  I was tempted to ask for a picture when I went for my ultrasound, I felt really left out sat with the pregnant women wondering the sex of their unborn child, I looked like I was about to give birth to a tennis ball.

My cyst (which I now call Bubbs) combined with that time of the month has meant dieting has been the last thing on my mind,  I have eaten pizza, steak, wings, chicken with bacon and cheese, cake etc... not all at once but since my weigh in so am dreading looking at the scales on Monday!!

I am determined to get back to my diet today, I clearly can't exercise because that aggravates Bubbs but hopefully by next week I can make an appearance at the gym.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend whilst I feel sorry for myself and lock the fridge up to avoid all those Easter eggs calling out to me. x

Easter Defeated Me Week 1

Well I had a feeling it would happen, and it did.... I succumbed to Easter :(

After having a really good start to the week I ruined the diet by having Chinese takeout with my parents on Sunday, a celebratory meal in Franky & Bennys yesterday AND some chocolate!!!!

It probably wasn't as bad as it could have been, the chinese was only 2 meals shared 4 ways, the meal yesterday was to celebrate a new business venture and I said no to dessert!!!! Finally the chocolate wasn't over the top, I had some peanut M&Ms, Kinder Egg and a Malteser bunny, spread over 4 days of national chocolate weekend I think that was fairly acceptable.

I have been to the gym a couple of times too, however due to my health problems which makes my lower abdomen swell up like I'm 6 months pregnant I had quite a short session yesterday.  But I  am at the hospital this week so hopefully will be back doing my 3/4 sessions a week soon!

However I have still managed to lose weight YAY, not as much as I wanted but its going the right way... here are my stats.

Weight loss: -2lbs
Under Bust: - 0.5inch
Arm: -0.5inch

Am feeling motivated for this week so lets see how it goes xxx

DAY 3 & 4

I've been kicking myself after realising I decided to diet over the Easter weekend, what an idiot :(  I had my mum offering chippy tea, chicken roast dinner and cakes, saying it's Easter you're allowed to indulge... well I can't ok!!

Day 3 was quite hard, it started off ok with a porridge breakfast, but then the lunch meal arrived on my plate and it was VILE.  I ate the salad and pushed the tuna pasta around my plate before finally admitting defeat and binning it, then the same happened with the dinner meal, chickpea tagine.  Now normally I love tuna pasta and chickpeas but these meals were absolutely awful, worse than school food and hospital food combined!!! So after only eating salad, porridge and 2 bananas I was STARVING so fell off the bandwagon and gave into my hunger temptation.... well not really, I had a wholemeal pitta with reduced fat hummus MEGA YUM!!!

Get rid of the awful tuna pasta and this was all I ate ...until the hummus and pitta hopped into my mouth, sneaky little pitta eh!!

Day 4 which is still ongoing again hasn't been so good, breakfast was fine, I actually enjoyed the cereal and reminded me of Special K.  Then I went to the gym, did my hour workout, finally gave up on the treadmill after realising 34H cups bounce like hell even with 2 bras and a fitted tee to hold them down, left the gym and the post workout munchies hit!!   I was too hungry to wait till I got home for my noodle soup so stopped at Marks & Spencers.  Now I could have completely blown the diet by getting some amazing giant wrap with crisps and chocolate but instead I opted for the bean and sprouted pea salad with a smoked  ham sandwich.  The 500 calories consumed cancelled out the 250 I had just burned off at the gym but it was totally worth it and I am still on track to have my 1200 calories for the day.

Apart from the gym munchies I end up getting hungry late on at night, because I stay up till the early hours of the morning doing jewellery I would normally snack on crisps, toast or cheese on crackers to get me through, obviously can't do that so decided to make a soup from the 'free foods' so I have something to fill that hole when I get a rumble in my tum.

If you want to make my spicy jambalaya veg soup here is the recipe....

Ingredients:

2 peppers
2 carrots
1 onion
5 large sticks of celery
1 green chill
1 red chilli
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
1.5 pints of stock
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon oil
Big squeeze of tomato puree

To make:

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the chilli and fry for a minute.
Add all the veg and let sweat down for 5 minutes on a low heat
Add the stock, tomatoes, puree,  garlic, seasoning and leave to simmer for 45 minutes.
Blend until smooth, or if you prefer leave some chunks in

Now I like my food spicy which I why I added so much chilli, if you don't like to feel the burn reduce the cayenne pepper and chilli to your taste.

Since I still had some calories left from my '250 splurge' that enabled me to use the stock cubes and oil, but there is such a small amount for a massive batch I don't think it would make a massive difference.

Yummy! Would be good with crusty bread and lashings of butter but I had mine without!

Anyway off to warm up my pasta bolognese for my tea, then I will be back at the gym tomorrow. If you havnt already there is a giveaway over at Jelly Button Jewellery blog so go and enter xx

DAY 2

Ok, I've managed 2 whole days and I think I'm realising why I have never stuck to a diet before... I LOVE FOOD TOO MUCH.

I've been daydreaming about food I don't normally bother with too much, such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut etc and I would do anything for a big greasy burger right now :(  Don't get me wrong the Jenny Craig food is alright, (not the muesli that was like hell in a bowl) but being told what to eat isn't going down well with me.  But I am sticking to it, yesterdays breakfast like I said was terrible, the muesli had no flavour and I struggled to eat half, the lunch was probably something I would normally eat anyway - beetroot and cottage cheese salad with carrot and coriander soup,  but the dinner I struggled with.  I just can't get my head around how a ready meal containing chicken doesn't need to be kept in the fridge and then only needs 2 minutes in the microwave, baffles me.  Anyway the chicken reinforced my perception that ready meals have crappy meat in them, Even when using fresh meat I spend ages trimming all the fat, veins, or any other yukky bits off so you can imagine how I was picking away at some brown lumps that under no circumstances resembled chicken.

 The mash, gravy and veg were all tasty though but I did leave about half of the meat.  Having left a chunk of my already small calorie intake I decided (or couldn't resist) munching on a cookie, ok ok 2 cookies!! They were those Maryland 51 calorie ones that are so dry they sucked up half my brew when I dunked them so not the biggest disaster, and I was told on my weekly consultant call I am allowed a 250 calories splurge out once a week (not exactly a splurge is it!!!)

I am feeling more positive today though, I have been looking at new outfits and have decided when I drop 7lb I will treat myself to this dress :) If anyone wants to buy if for me (haha wishful thinking) it can be found here :)

And finally I am doing a big giveaway on my other blog so go check it out xx

DAY 1

Ok so its day one but not a full day, the delivery of the food didn't come until lunch by which time I had already had my breakfast. After the delivery I then went to bed as I only got about 3 hours sleep last night thanks to my neighbour getting a new puppy, and as usual not understanding it has just left its mum and wants a cuddle.  So when I finally surfaced at 3ish I had only eaten a slice of wholemeal toast with peanut butter and wasn't really in the mood for fruit and salad.  So I went against the plan by just eating the lunch time meal which was carrot and pea mash.  Basically for the Jenny Craig diet I have had all my breakfast, lunch and dinners provided and I just add veg, salad and fruit as directed on my diet plan.  So since I skipped all the additional 'free foods' and just had the mash it made me feel a bit sickly, anyway it filled a hole and left me feeling motivated to make sure I stuck to the plan for dinner.

Dinner was a beef and potato casserole type thing, not really my type of food and the sort of thing I pull my face at if my mum makes it for Sunday dinner, but I am determined to do this diet.  I was allowed one starch which I chose a 100g jacket potato for (if you ever weigh this out you will see it is the smallest potato ever!!!) a steam packet of mixed veg and some roasted carrots. And my verdict was..... to be honest it tasted alright, similar to my mums version (hope she doesn't read this) The meat definately had a 'ready meal' taste to it, but since I avoid ready meals like the plague because of the crappy meat used this was actually not too bad.  

The one thing that puzzled me when I received my giant 2 boxes was that it didn't mention anywhere if I should store the food in the fridge which I would have expected from ready meals containing chicken and beef, so I rang the helpline and they said in a cool dry cupboard is fine.  I have no idea how this is possible except to assume it is freeze dried or something, definately random but a good idea for people who want a travel meal.

Anyway that is the end of Day 1, I didn't make it to the gym (I used the excuse I can't find my card) but after finding out I can get a replacement one for a tenner I will definitely go tomorrow.  

Spk soon xx

Dodge was just as intrigued as I was.

Sorry for the bad photo but this is my weeks food diary

And dinner, told you the potato was tiny!!