My Self Improvement Journey – January

Part of my New Years Resolutions was to get my arse into gear & lose some weight. It’s now been 1 month (4x weigh in’s in total) I thought I’d blog about my results so far as well as what’s kept me going.

I’ve also been doing a few other self improvement such as the multiple failure no spend challenge, which you guessed it, I failed at again.

I’ve been a member of Slimming World on/off for a couple of years now & think it’s absolutely wonderful for people that like eating (lots!) like me rather than surviving on lettuce leaves & feeling like your starving alive, but still with amazing results.

I decided that because I know it like the back of my hand & still have all the books, I’d try doing it by myself from home but with the help of a few Facebook inspiration/help pages & following some incredible Instagram success accounts.

Those that watch my Instagram stories will have seen that last week I decided to try something a bit more drastic in the Cambridge diet, which I did (or should I say survived…) for the grand total of 4 days. I lost 5 3/4lbs in that time, however was basically starving living off of 3 (or 4 if you’re tall like me) bars or shakes equating to the grand total of 600 calories a day to send your body into ketosis. I realised that yes I’d lose weight & quickly, however I’d never be happy on it & it means you basically can’t have a social life what so ever. To even have a ‘cheat’ meal or 1 drink would require coming off plan a few days before very gradually, under supervision of your consultant, because it can be incredible dangerous.

Why would I do that when I can eat properly with Slimming World? Yes it may take 2 or 3x longer but as the saying goes ‘I’d rather be fat & happy than thin & miserable’.

Anyway, I am so pleased to announce that I’ve lost a total of 12lbs! My first week was a 3lb loss, which I was quite disappointed at considering it was week 1 & I would normally lose a considerable amount but that didn’t phase me too much. Week 2 was 3.25, week 3 was a maintain (for no reason what so ever!) & finally week 4 was the 12.75lb loss which bought my to my total for January.

My tip for this month is REWARDS.

Not just the reward of losing weight & being generally healthier which is a result in itself but I decided to try something new alongside my ‘no spend January’ (more on that below…) whereby every reward/certificate that I would receive at a Slimming World group, so for example half a stone, down a number, 1 stone, 1 and a half stone, club 10 (10% of your starting weight), I would reward myself with a little ‘prize’. Not only would this stop me going out & buying something immediately but it would also be a great way to keep me motivated.

This month I reached my half a stone award so ordered myself a pair of Joules wellies which I’ve had my eye on & are perfect for getting out & about which will hopefully help along the journey as well! The only other shoes that I own are basically ballet flats which aren’t hugely helpful when out on the beach or walking through woods…

My recipe for this month is BREAKFAST BAKE

Super simple but oh so delicious. Fill a ramekin with bacon, sausage (both precooked), mushrooms, tomatoes & baked beans then crack an egg, season with salt/pepper & bake in the oven for 20 minutes. You can add your HEXA allowance by sprinkling your 30g of grated cheese over it if wanted. Syn free (depending on sausages)! You can see the basic idea here at pinchofnom.com

How have I been doing with NO SPEND JANUARY?

You may also have seen that I attempted no spend January which basically meant that I wasn’t allowed to buy anything ‘luxury’. I’ve done this a couple of times before & not stuck to it 100% which is what happened this time around as well BUT I would have definitely spent far more money had I not been doing this than if I had. It made me stop & think on every single purchase I’ve made, do I really need this candle? No.

This month I bought –

• Some leggings – mine all seem develop holes in the crutch at the same time so I spent £12.99 on 2 new pairs.
• An Olympus Pen 7 camera – in all fairness, this is for work so is being offset as a business expense. I want to up my photography game this year & this is going to be helping me.
• New bedroom furniture & carpet – I ordered the matching wardrobe, chest of drawers & dressing table to our bed/bedside tables. By doing this I then sold our old wardrobe/chest of drawers so we thought it was the perfect time to replace the carpet whilst the room was fairly empty awaiting deliver. The carpet in our bedroom always looks dirty & has a big line down one side from previous fitted wardrobes that were removed when we moved in. I’m not even going to try to justify this big spend as it definitely could have waited until after the January no spend challenge, but hey, it looks amazing. 

In one whole month I think that’s pretty good going. I walked past the tulips in Aldi & at no point bought anything that my husband would call ‘tat’ (most homeware that I am normally a complete sucker for…).

The only issue is that now I feel like I might actually burst with the fact that I can now spend spend spend….I feel slightly deprived which I know is absolutely ridiculous & really I haven’t gone without once this month however it’s crazy how a ‘ban’ is more mental than anything. It’s a bit like being told not to press the big red button…it makes it so much more appealing when that’s been said right?

Who else joined in with the no spend January? How did you all do?

I’d also love to know if anybody else has joined up or is a long time Slimming Worlder – do you have any tips? I’m going to be blogging at the end of every month with my results & tips to keep me on track.

Love,