Category Archives: Wedding

Jenny Craig – Week 3

Posted on by

0

This week is my third week on the Jenny Craig Weight Management Programme. I have to say that I am feeling good. I have had two comments on how slim I am looking and I weigh 9 stone 6 pounds. I have lost a steady 5lbs which I am happy with.

Last week my consultant corrected my calorie count to take into account the fact that I am breastfeeding twins. I am now eating up to 2300 calories a day by supplementing my Jenny Craig foods with recommended foods from their Grocery List.

This plan is so easy to follow and allows me to eat some lovely foods. I have porridge with blueberries for breakfast washed down with a fruit tea. This afternoon I used my milk allowance, a banana and a spoonful of cocoa powder to make a delicious dark chocolate milkshake / smoothie. It was lovely and healthy too!

My favourite foods so far are the mushroom and bacon risotto and mushroom stroganoff with rice. I also love the potato snacks and chocolate bars.

As part of the programme I have also made sure that I am more active. I have been out walking most days, with my double buggy, and have been more active in my play with the babies. I am feeling the benefit of this exercise and my bingo wings do seem to be tightening up.

I am looking forward to next week when I will re measure my vitals and see if I have lost inches as I think that I have.

Last week I was asked to reflect on what kind of eater I am. I am definitely an emotional eater. if I am struggling with the babies I eat, if I am bored I eat. I just like to eat, and the great thing about the Jenny Craig plan is that I can eat, I am positively encouraged to eat and still I lose weight. It is great!

But … it is also expensive. I am lucky enough to be writing this review in exchange for a 28 day trial of the Jenny Craig programme, I am not sure that this is something that I could afford to continue myself. What I can continue though are the methods and ideas that I am learnign every day to develop a healthier relationship with food.

I will always now eat little and often. I will refer to Jenny Craig’s free foods and portion control. I will continue to exercise regularly. I will continue to try and have a positive outlook about my weight loss that will remain steady until I reach my desired weight.

Jenny Craig has made me think that my goal might just be possible, and this ugly duckling will become a swan in time for her wedding!!!

Thank you Jenny Craig!

Jenny Craig – Day 4

Posted on by

0

I am really tired today after a second terrible night with the teething twins. William is breastfeeding night and day at the moment because he is off solids because of his teeth. This is leaving me exhausted and I am worried that my allocated 1200 calories is not enough for a Mummy feeding 8 month old twins. I did tell Jenny Craig during my initial consultation that I was breastfeeding and so was sure this had been taken into account but now I feel uncertain.

It could just be that I am having a bad day. Esther and William are demanding and draining every ounce of energy that I can muster.

Must try to keep positive and keep my goal in mind, to lose weight for the wedding. Seems such a silly thing to focus on though when the babies do not seem to be doing so well.

It is taking me, my Mum and David to make things work today.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Jenny Craig – Day 3

Posted on by

2

Oh dear, yesterday I fell off the diet wagon spectacularly, enjoying not only pancakes with sugar and lemon but also fajitas and flapjack! Not because I do not want to continue with the plan, not because I particularly lack motivation but because I wanted to enjoy the last day before Lent. For Lent I have given up fajitas, flapjack and caffeine. I will feast again at the end. To counteract my over eating yesterday I upped my activity and went for a 9 mile cross country walk pushing almost 2 stone of babies in their double buggy. The weather was glorious and we completed the route in 3 hours, quite good going I think!

But back to Jenny Craig’s Plan today. I was naughty yesterday but am back on the diet today. I started the day with porridge and blueberries from my free fruit allowance. It was really a rather nice way to start the day. I am back on the diet and raring to go.

For lunch I am having yesterday’s Winter Vegetable Soup which is easily prepared in the microwave. This is great when parenting twinfants! With the soup I am allowed some bread and cheese and also some salad. I am going to have some cherries though instead of my salad. Tonight I am having mushroom stroganoff and rice supplemented with lots of free veg and a little parmesan cheese.

On Monday I found the Bacon and Mushroom Risotto okay but I had to supplement with a lot of veg to feel satisfied. I am thinking that I might actually like to become a vegetarian. Maybe next Lent I will give up meat and see how I get on!

The soup today was quite nice and definitely filled me up. A filling lunch that will give me plenty of energy for the afternoon, playing with Esther and William.

Looking forward to dinner tonight and seeing how satisfied I feel at the end of a full Jenny Craig day.

I think I should point out that I am getting this 28 day trial for free but receiving no financial reward for the reviews. These are all my own, very honest findings and opinions and I hope that people will find them helpful.

I Am What I Am!

Posted on by

1

Mummy Beadzoid has tagged me and asked me to ‘Fill in the Blanks’ and explain a little about who I am.

So here goes …

I am a worrier.  I have always been a worrier for as long as I can remember.  And the thing that I worry about most is what other people think about me.  Pathetic, I know.  I worry about what people think about what I wear, what I do and how I do things.  I worry about what kind of teacher I am, what kind of parent I am, what kind of blogger I am!  I let these worries impact on what I do.  It leads to a lot of loneliness actually and to an inability to really be myself in front of others.  Very few people know the real me, I do not let people close.  A fear of ridicule, a fear of rejection.  I can come across as rude to some people, I know, but it is not rudeness, it is shyness.  People find this hard to believe as I am confident on a stage or when teaching a group of children but among a group of my peers this confidence leaves me.  Deserts me and lets me down.  This worry is quite a handicap for me.  It leads to irrational thinking and over reactions to silly situations.  Sometimes it is like an out of body experience as I emotionally react to a situation I am telling myself to stop.  But I can’t! This worry causes me stress but I cannot stop it.  I should be able to but I can’t.  I am a worrier and it is something about myself that I hate.

The bravest thing I have ever done is have abdominal surgery whilst 26 weeks pregnant with my twins.  Although this is not something that I chose to do, I had no choice, I have never been so scared in all my life.  David and I had tried for so long to get pregnant, we had come so far in this twin pregnancy and we were about to lose everything because of me, because of my body.  I was letting him down.  I was letting his parents down, my parents.  I was letting down our children, before they had even been born.  From being admitted to hospital to being cut open took 3 days.  3 days of tests and assessments, pain killers, blood, vomit and terror.  David was far braver than me, he did not know if any of us were going to survive, no one seemed to know what was wrong or what should be done.  I told him that if it was a choice between me and the babies then I wanted to be the one to die.  It was awful but worse for David as my recollection of those days is blurred and I know for him the memories are still very clear.  After the operation I was in hospital for 7 days recovering.  I was heavily pregnant.  My bump had been cut from top to bottom to allow the surgeon to save my twisted bowel without disturbing the babies.  I could not eat, I was on oxygen.  David had to help me in a way a husband should never have to help his wife, let alone fiance to fiancee.  I was so swollen with water retention I could barely sit, stand or walk.  I had to fight on to get fit and well for the babies.  When I was discharged on the 21st July I did not expect to go to hospital again until October but in spite of my best efforts and those of all the doctors the babies were born on the 24th July 2010 at 27 weeks plus 3.  I am so sorry babies that I was not able to keep you safe inside me for longer x I will always feel sad about that.

I feel prettiest when I forget to worry about what other people think. 

Something that keeps me awake at night is my son, William.  Bless him. Born at 27 weeks, now 7 months, there is nothing my little man likes more than Mummy’s milk.  Every 2 – 3 hours right around the clock.  I always complain about this but actually I love feeding him and will miss it so much when this special time is gone.  But it does mean a severe and prolonged lack of sleep. 

My favourite meal is fajitas.  David and I started eating fajitas regulalrly when we started IVF as a good way of eating lots of vegetables.  When I make fajitas they are filled to bursting with veg – peppers, onions, mushrooms, chillies, tomatoes, spinach.  We have lots of different varieties of mushroom and they are really filling and flavoursome.  We started IVF in January 2009 and we still eat fajitas at least once a week even now.  Yum – Yum!

The way to my heart is to surprise me.  Tell me something nice, make me laugh, write me a story, cook me a meal.  Be thoughtful and kind and spontaneous.  Treat me in some way, make me smile.  Show that you have been thinking about me enough to plan a surprise no matter how small.  Do this and my heart will be yours x

I would like to be thinner.  Since starting IVF and being pregnant I have gained over a stone in weight.  It is coming off slowly but I still have a way to go before our wedding in September.  I am struggling to lose weight and tone my stomach because of the scars from surgery.  I will keep working at it and hope that by September I will be somewhere near to where I used to be in tone and weight.  If not, well, I have two beautiful babies to show for it, and at the end of the day, I am alive.

This is me, I am what I am.

Thank you Mummy Beadzoid for the questions x

Listography – My Perfect Day

Posted on by

8

I am so thankful to have this to do today as I am having the worst few days ever with Esther and William, well William really.  He is teething with a temperature and refusing to eat or sleep.  I love him with  all my heart but he is exhausting at the moment as he is often inconsolable.  David works from home and is getting increasingly stressed that he is needed to help with the babies rather than focus all his attentions on his work.  I think we are both nearing breaking point, so taking 5 minutes (albeit with William in my arms!) to ponder on what would be a perfect day for me right now is a really rather nice thing to do.

What would make my perfect day right now?

1 – I would wake up to a warm, sunny morning.  The babies would wake smiling in their cot and we would go downstairs where I would put them down to play on the lawn whilst I got a breakfast of coffee, orange juice, fruit and croissants.  I would sit in the warmth of the sun and watch my children playing happily together.  It would be quiet apart from their beautiful coos and babbles.  There would be periods of warm hazy silence.

2 – The postman would deliver a letter from my sister telling me that she is pregnant and that she is moving home from Australia not just to the UK but to Kent where we will be sisters, friends and neighbours and our children will grow up knowing each other like cousins should.

3 – I would have lunch in a cafe courtyard in the sun and enjoy drinking wine and eating finger foods with good adult conversation with a group of friends.  We would laugh and joke and be playful.  We would discuss and debate.  We would not notice the sun beginning to set and day turning to night.  It would be wonderful.

4 – I would go to a salon and have a relaxing back massage, facial with Indian head massage and have my hair cut and styled.  I would take a lovely outfit with me to the salon and would dress there ready for an evening out.

5 – The evening would be with all my family and friends together at a function rather like a wedding reception with good music and good food.  There would be dancing to cheesy music.  There would be fun and frolicks and laughter. Lots of laughter.  Everyone would be loving the company of everyone else.  It would be riotous and yet so peaceful. Like being home!

And if there were just one impossible thing that I could make happen right now, I would like to go to 167 Grange Road for a cup of tea, a game of scrabble and a cuddle with my Nan.  Because I miss her so much even now, everyday.  That would be a perfect day.

Photobucket

Music I Want My Children to Listen To – Dodgy

Posted on by

3

I love Dodgy and adore their album Free Peace Sweet from 1996.  I had just left school when this was released and bought the CD whilst a Fresher at University.  I would listen to this album over and over again.

When I met David, he and I would often listen to this in the car over and over again.  Singing at the top of our voices, driving fast, windows down, sun on our faces, wind in our hair!

One of the songs from this album, One of Those Rivers, is one of ‘our songs’ and will feature in our wedding in September.  It contains the lyric

Let’s not worry about, what we haven’t got
And let’s not choose the life, that will have the cost
As long as you and I can live happily
then surely all I want is staring back at me

That is how I feel about David, it matters not about anything else, as long as we have each other that is all I need.

Another song, Homegrown, will be played at Esther and William’s christening next year.  Homegrown is the way that it should be – those words fit so perfectly over photos of our gorgeous homegrown babies.

These songs just fit us.  They mean so much.

David and I were supppsed to get married in August 2010 and I wrote to Dodgy who said that they would record Homegrown for us specially for the service.  I didn’t remind them and they have never been in touch again but I might send a link to my blog, explain that the wedding postponed and see if they will do something for us this time.  It would mean the world to David and I, and be a treasure for the babies to keep.

Back to the album …

If You’re Thinking of Me is a beautiful, sad song that has gotten me through some sad and lonely times over the years, but now Dodgy reminds me only of my first summer with David and a video he made for me on my birthday that year.

Dodgy are easy to listen to, they have simple and meaningful lyrics which tell a story.  The melodies are catchy with some of their faster songs being true Brit Pop anthems.

This band have grown with me from school through Uni to parenthood.  They are a shared favourite with the man I love, we listen to them in the car and In a Room; and I can picture us, in the future, as a family Staying Out for the Summer with Dodgy!

GhostWriterMummy

First Ever Flashback Friday

Posted on by

11

For the first ever Flashback Friday I am exploring Februarys past.

FEBRUARY 2011

This February has been all about my sister’s wedding.  My wee sis got married to her lovely man, Hugh.  They are now in the US on honeymoon before they return to Oz where they live.  Well done again, wee sis.  So, so proud x

FEBRUARY 2010

February 2010 featured another wedding.  On a beautiful winter day David and I went to our dear friends Rich and Lex’s wedding.  I was about 5 weeks pregnant in this picture and we were not sure yet if it would be twins or not!!

FEBRUARY 2009

February 2009 is when we moved into our house.  It has snowed a lot since we started living here.  It is a perfect house for snow and Christmas.  More about that next Friday as I plan to feature the house again in my Friday Flashback post.

FEBRUARY 2008

This was the month that my parents left for Spain but here I am with my Dad on his February birthday before they left.  It his birthday on Sunday actually, so …

Happy Birthday Dad!!

So there you have it, a little flash through my februarys past.  What will you choose to reminisce about?  What have others chosen to share?  Why not hop on over to Cafe Bebe and begin your own trip down memory lane.

Thank you for a fun Friday meme x x

All I Want for Valentine's Is……

Posted on by

8

This week it’s gift time, it is Valentine’s day after all …

Shopping time! Buy yourself a Valentine’s present.

Window shopping on the internet. What would you buy yourself for Valentine’s Day. Spend as much as you like, buy what you want.

Extra Valentine’s bonus: great minds think alike! Over at Kate Takes 5, this week’s listography is “Things I’d like for Valentine’s Day“. Write 1 post for double linky action. Love is in the air, love yourself!

This Valentine’s Day I would like …

close up

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/skybluesea/product/charm_necklace

I really love this necklace and I emailed the lady to ask if I could have it with 4 letters on – J, D, E and W.  She agreed to do this and so now I am hoping that it really will appear with the Valentine’s Post!  I might even wear it for our wedding!!

Happy Valentine’s One and All!

Gratefully Cheery Week 6

Posted on by

9

Reasons to be Cheerful at Mummy From the Heart

This week has been a difficult week for me as Esther, William and David have all been quite unwell.  As has my cousin who was hoping to come round and support us while she was off work this week.  However this difficulty has lead to one of my main reasons for being cheerful, I have asked my Mum to come and stay for a few weeks, and I am really really looking forward to spending some proper time with her.  More on that in a minute.

My reasons for being cheerily grateful this week …

My sister’s wedding was a wonderful occasion and she was a beautiful bride!

It really was a great day and Julie did not stop smiling throughout.  I did not stop crying!  People kept asking me on the run up to the day “Will you be emotional when your sister gets married?” and I said no.  I really did not think that I would be but as soon as I woke up that morning the tears welled up.  I could not look at Julie without crying.  She was so beautiful and I felt so so proud.  My little sister was a bride and now she is a wife!  Congratulations again Mrs Newsome!

Esther and William seem to be surviving their first cold without needing medical intervention

I think that they both have the same cold on top of which they are teething but oh how different they behave!! Esther is quietly getting on with life while William is letting everyone know that he is not very well!  So so different.  He is definitely suffering though our William.  He screams with pain and his cheeks are red raw.  He is also a total snot monster and seems to be off his food.  But I am thankful, so thankful, that 3 days in and he does not seem to be getting worse.  I am hoping that this time hospitalisation has been avoided.  Touch wood!

Esther and William are now sleeping in a big cot!

When we got home from the wedding on Sunday night we did not rebuild the bedside co-sleeper instead we transferred both babies into one traditional wooden cot.  It is still beside our bed to make night feeding easier but it is a big, proper babies cot.  They sleep side by side horizontally across the cot.  We plan to keep them together until after our wedding in September when they will be one year corrected age, then they will  graduate again to a cot bed of their very own!

This blog has entered the Wikio Top 500 Parenting Blogs at 396!!!

Today I received an email telling me that my blog has entered the Top 500 of the Wikio UK Blog Ranking in the category of Parenting.  Woo Hoo! And when I checked my ranking it is 396!  This has not only made me cheerful, it has made me determined to be a better blogger and to make my way up the ranks!  One can only try!  One of the things that I am hoping to do is move my blog and rename it to make it more memorable and appropriate for the content it now includes.  I have a website as well as this blog called Edspire and so may combine the two and host my writing there.

My Mum is coming to stay!

My parents live in Spain and though we seem them quite regularly it is not the same as having them here when I need them.  Subconsciously I think that this has been really getting to me since my operation and the babies being born.  It has, from my point of view, really affected my relationship with my parents.  Today I made the first step in putting things right by asking my Mum to come and stay.  I should have done it weeks ago as we have desperately needed help but something inside me just wouldn’t let that be.  Now I have realised, through Esther actually, that this is not the right way to be.  I loved my Nan more than all the world and my children deserve to have a chance at a similar relationship with theirs.  Also, I would hate it if Esther acted toward me as I have been doing to my Mum recently.  I have to move on from the bad birth of Esther and William and do everything I can to give them the good life they deserve.  David’s family are wonderful but I want Esther and William to know my side of the family too, and I want my Mum and I to be friends, something I don’t think we have ever been.  Lets hope that we can all start again and make things work as they should x That really will be something to be cheerful about!