Feeling Stylish

Firstly, apologies for the awfulness of these pictures they are hastily taken in the mirror but they give a good idea of the weight I’ve lost!

The first image was taken just before I started going to a personal trainer last year. The second image is the result of a lot of hard work. It was taken today! 2.5 stone gone since then, that’s about 4 stone in total since I started to lose weight in April 2009! Amazing how exercise speeds up the process.

I’m really proud of myself but I still feel like there’s a long way to go.

The outfit is of little interest, I suppose, but in case your are interested… In the March picture I’m wearing River Island jeans in a size too big and a Dorothy Perkins tank top. Now accessorised with Batman converse and my River Island sheep cardigan (not pictured).

I really understand how tea can make a difference on your life. It can relax you, make you feel alert and detoxify. This new advert really struck a chord with me, a woman overcoming obstacles to make her way to the top of a hill. I’ve been having a rough time lately trying to juggle work, new house, blogging, more blogging, social media and exercise so I love being able to just sit with a hot cup of tea.

Take a look at the video, it’s beautiful and the song is exquisite

The last advert Twinings did featured a wonderful cover of Wherever You Will Go, orginally by The Calling. The song rocketed to fame and I’m sure Twinings hope the same will happen with this lovely Fleetwood Mac cover.

Sean Summers, Marketing Director for Twinings, has this to say about the advert: “We had a fantastic response to our first advert and were inundated with phenomenal feedback – often hearing that it stirred a few emotions. The message, that busy women should take 10 minutes to get back to themselves, resonates strongly.

“Moving into this new area of emotional advertising was unchartered territory for us. However, now we can see the Gets You Back To You ethos spreading and that consumers were moved by the advert, we hope our next instalment will be equally if not, even more positively received.”

This was a sponsored post. However, all opinions are my own.

For some reason, I had an amazing few weeks of running. I ran 5k and loved it, I did some great treadmill runs and I was feeling great. Now, two weeks since my last run, I can’t garner the motivation to get out there.

I think motivation comes and goes for most runners. The trick is to get over anything that’s telling you not to get out there.

Last week I had an appointment with my chiropractor. She said that running was the reason I had to keep coming back to see her. I asked if I needed to give it up. She said that if it was helping me to get fit and lose weight then to stick with it but I shouldn’t attempt long distances and I would have to give it up in the next few years.

That knocked my confidence. I thought, why bother doing something that is hurting me.

But now I’m thinking, screw Ms Chiropractor. Run through it, lose weight, get fit, hope all the back pain goes away.

Smart idea? Regardless, I’m going for a run tonight and you can’t stop me.

I weighed and measured this morning, all in preparation for the fitness challenge Running Bunn and I are undertaking.

Somehow, I’ve managed to put on 2kg over the weekend. So hopefully that’ll be easy to lose! My starting stats are:

• Weight: 84.5kg / 186lbs
• Chest: 40″
• Waist: 34″
• Hips: 42″

My muscles have just about recovered from my PT session on Friday, an early morning 2.3k on Saturday and a 7 mile walk (plus roast dinner) yesterday. Tonight I’ll be attempting my 4.6k route with the boyf. Under 45 minutes would be nice but I’m not holding out much hope for that. It is very, very cold.

I’m not going to update here every day but follow me on Twitter or Tumblr for up to the minute complaints and victories.

I’ll also share the beautiful charts Ali and I made to track our progress this week. (I might even make mine into a PDF for you to download.)