October Round Up!

Oh, I did that thing again. I didn't blog for a month. It's been a very busy work month for all kinds of boring reasons and I'm still not very good at chasing myself and finding time for blogging. I thought I'd do a bit of an October round up / things I've been loving in my absence!

Invites!

We posted our wedding invites!! October signified the 6 month mark until our wedding, when I look back at something from 6 months ago it feels like no time at all so I know it will come in so quickly now. I designed/mocked up our invites myself around a week after we got engaged to check with myself whether I could do it. I could! (there were a few design changes after that original 5 minute mock up!). We used printed.com to get them well, printed and I would highly recommend them. For some reason the files corrupted the first few times they were uploaded, causing a bright green border on the RSVPs! Instead of just carrying on and printing them which would have been a nightmare they called me and checked with me whether it was right as they didn't think it matched the rest of the designs. It just felt really personal that someone was checking through everything. We've received a few RSVPs back and it's so exciting building our playlist from people's requests!

Blogsocks. 
Charlotte has made this brilliant blog to help people find their new favourite blogs, it's so great because I find it so hard to find blogs with a smaller following. I usually prefer these blogs because they're just a bit less polished and more personal. I've linked the round up above and this is the interview that I did, I felt like a bit of an idiot for being the only person to actually include recipes in mine but i hope if you try them you enjoy them!!

A big old change of a haircut.

A lot of people tried to talk me out of this haircut with it only being 6 months to the wedding, however, I have always been someone that has a fringe. It's only in this last year that I've managed to successfully grow out a fringe and keep it grown out for any length of time! I'm so happy with this change though and I'm sure I can figure a way to style it for the wedding. Ive basically given up on my eyebrows since having it cut and wearing not a stitch of make up day to day. It's kind of great.

Family visits. 

We had some family visits this month from Sam's fam and my future in laws and it was so lovely! We had a really nice day out in keswick, walking around, looking at the beautiful scenery and eating so much food. I had a vegetarian queasadila that I almost sent back because I was sure it had meat in it. It was very delicious but I'm not sure I enjoyed the uncertainty!!

We chose a great day for our visit, even though it was cold it was so bright and lovely. How lucky are we to live less than an hour from these views!

Absolute silliness. 

I don't know why but I feel like we have just had so many laughs this month. The top picture started off as me trying to get a nice selfie but I think these turned out so much better.
The bottom picture is proof that my personal training is paying off, we were kind of just messing around getting ready to go to the gym after work and I wondered (no idea why) if i could pick Sam up!! I honestly crack up laughing every time I look at this picture, Sam's face is hysterical, he looks so pleased. I'm also creasing up with laughter in the photo, if I hadn't been laughing so much maybe id have been able to squat while holding him up ;) I think this is a move that will have to happen on our wedding day ;)

I say this every time but I'm really going to try and keep up with blogging again now! I need to get back into practicing photography!!
Most of these pictures come from my Instagram which you can find here.
I'm also over on Twitter ranting out general life and talking about how much I love pizza.

Back soon!

10 things I need to say about weight loss.

I've been, as my doctor put it, 'actively losing weight' since New Year and with that happening I've noticed an awful lot of social norms seem to go out the window, all of a sudden people can comment on everything about what you eat and how you look, but it's okay because you invited it, didnt you?
Here's a list of the things I've noticed.

1.  If you tell someone you're 'on a diet' (I hate that term but it's for ease here) they immediately start offering sweets and 'unhealthy' items trying to tempt you away from it, would you do that with cigarettes to someone who's stopped smoking? Don't tell people to 'loosen up' and offer them things you know will tempt them, they're probably trying really hard to avoid this and just want support, it doesn't mean you have to give up eating that stuff. Just because your friend is dieting doesn't mean you can't eat a donut, and if your friend shames you for that, they're an asshole, its not because they're dieting.

2. You don't need to lose weight! Don't make me make this uncomfortable and tell you the reasons why, I personally, do need to lose weight. I can get all serious about my self esteem or even my health, its probably not what you want to hear.

3. People become health experts, they tell you why what you're doing is wrong and what you should be doing instead. Everyone has a story about how their auntie's, hairdresser's, niece's dog groomer's son found a miracle weight loss cure that works. Or how they know a nutritionist or a trainer or they've read an article in the Daily Fail that say the next big step to weight loss is drinking 200mls of water heated to 26 degrees with 0.34 teaspoons of honey and a dash of eye of newt. Leave me alone, let me eat my lunch and don't tell me i'm not allowed bread because I'm dieting, I need carbs.

4. Calorie counting is just disordered eating, it makes people obsessive. I have actually had someone say this to me, calorie counting does not work for everyone, I have tried it multiple times in the past and given up because it's felt too restrictive or it made me feel like a failure if I went over my calorie goal, but for some reason, this time it stuck. It's working for me and I like it.

5. People asking if you're allowed to eat that when you're on a diet, or worse still as I found when I was once seen eating a SINGLE DIGESTIVE BISCUIT 'aren't you supposed to be on a diet?' The problem here stems from society's views that a diet is about deprivation, its cutting out joy and taste to become skinny, and it couldn't be more wrong. For me, this is about longevity, I'm coming at you with the hard hitters now, its a LiFeStYLe ChAnGe. Forgive me for using that phrase. 

6. Being accused of body shaming for posting before and after pictures. There’s a lot of controversy around before/afters with regards to body shaming your own body and others who may look like you did in the before picture. I’ve found a lot of ‘real life fitness’ kind of people on instagram have been my biggest motivators, not the personal trainers who sweat green juice but the people who are in the same boat as you but a bit further down the line. The ones who know it’s absolute bullshit that you have to make time in your day that could be used for playing The Sims to exercise but that help you to stick at it because really being healthy is for yourself and no one else. I’ve posted pictures along these lines on my own instagram, above is a picture of me wearing the same dress with a difference in my weight, I put the pictures together for myself as at that stage I was feeling unmotivated and like there were no changes happening. I decided to post it because of the reasons above, maybe it would help someone else who sees that other people are doing the same as them. 

7. People have assumed that I think I’m better than them because i’ve been able to lose weight, I’ve even thought this about other people who are losing weight in the past when I wasn’t. (A kind of fuck you, I’m eating this donut, just try and say anything, like they would have done!) Weight loss is really fucking hard, it sucks, it feels never ending and no matter how much someone says to you to eat less and exercise more that is not how this is about to go down. I stress eat, I eat emotionally that can't be overcome by eating less, moving more. You have to have a change in mindset and I completely understand people who says they're not in a place where they can lose weight right now, i don't think just because its working for me right now (and who says it will continue to work?) doesn't mean i think I'm stronger or have more willpower. Weight loss is really really hard. 

8. Exercise makes you SO HUNGRY. I've spent most of this post complaining about other people when you're dieting, oops, guess i just had some things to get off my chest, but this one, this one is the killer. I am always ravenous after I work out and could quite easily devour £40 worth of dominos in one sitting, I've had to learn to be clever with pre/post workout food (by clever I mean pinterest and instagram are my friends) to kind of make this work for me, but there have been days where I've worked out and being doing amazingly well with my eating all day then ordered pizza. It happens. 

9. Weight does not come off all over the body at the same rate, it just doesn't happen in equal parts. I am an odd shape, I could wear  probably up to 4 different dress sizes in different parts of my body. It's so great. 

10.  Junk food is great, and I will never be one of those people who loves kale, also, dates and raw cocoa powder do not a sweet treat make. I'm sorry. 

This post isn't in any way supposed to offend anyone, I am a big believer in loving your body and accepting what you've got but also (and to completely contradict myself) I think if you want to change it in someway, as long as its safe, all power to you, whether it be through surgery, a haircut or weight loss. This is meant to be a bit of a tongue in cheek view of the things i've noticed since I started losing weight, even though I'm moaning a lot through this over this year I really have had a lot of support so it's definitely not all bad!