PRETTY YOUNG THING

I've jumped back on that healthy eating bandwagon, it's probably abit late to get that fit summer body but I want to loose abit of weight and just eat abit healthier. I feel abit rubbish right now and I find that my diet can sometimes affect how i'm feeling. I have done slimming world in the past and lost over 2 stone so I know this works for me. Since being pregnant with Amelia I have just eaten whatever I want but really want to start making healthier choices and eating better. I thought i'd share a few ideas of the types of foods that I eat when i'm being healthy as I feel this can really help people.  I do have a Slimming World instagram which I share most of my meals on. I like using Instagram to get ideas for healthy meal ideas and I follow loads of Slimming World accounts again to get lots of new ideas.

For breakfast I like having Oaty Pancakes, you can see a recipe on my blog here, they are so tasty! I love having them with banana and nutella.
If i'm not having pancakes then I might do a fry up using FryLight and lean bacon, a low fat sausages.
Another breakfast favourite is a fruity smoothie, i'll pop some Banana, Strawberry, Oats and sometimes Yoghurt and honey in a blender like one from My Juicer UK for a yummy tasty refreshing smoothie in the morning.

For lunch my fave is Jacket Potato, beans and salad. I really like the Sweet Potato Jackets, they are really tasty! I tend to cook them in the morning and then just pop them in the microwave at lunch time for a few minutes.

I also like just having a nice tasty salad especially in the summer. I like to have some low fat coleslaw. On slimming world you can have pasta so sometimes i'll add a little pasta to my salad.

You can find loads of low syn snacks, you can buy packets of chicken or a fruit bag which would be syn free. I find that finding the syns for things and writing it on a sticky note onto the product helps when your watching what you eat. This can stop you from eating that extra mini roll in the office at lunch.

I find dinner really easy some of my favourites are hunters chicken with Slimming World Chips, if you chop potatos into chips and pop them in the oven using FryLight you can get some yummy low fat chips.
Another fave is bolognaise, I tend to make extra and have the left-overs the next day on a Jacket Potato for lunch.

I find sweet treats the hardest as I have a sweet tooth, I think the main thing for me is if I want something i'll eat it, rather than getting depressed about being on a diet on not being able to eat what I want. I think by making good food choices most of the time you can loose weight and feel better. I want to get back into my exercise too but right now it's just a brisk walk with Amelia, especially in this heat!








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We were kindly invited along to The Head of Steam in Birmingham on Wednesday night for their press launch night. Located on Temple Street it's in a fab central location, just up the road from the local transport links and around the corner from The Bullring, Selfridges and Grand Central.

The Head of Steam has a very impressive drinks menu, there's pages and pages of beers from all around the world, cask ales, cocktails, ciders, spirits and soft drinks. I worked my way through the cocktails, they were lovely. I had the Cherry Lollipop which is a mix of Disaronno, Midori, Lime and Cranberry, it was super sweet and fruity, it was amazing. I've never had Disaronno in a cocktail before but it's one of my favourite spirits. I also had a Louisiana Rum Punch which is a mix of Old J Cherry rum, blue curacao, passionfruit puree, pineapple and lemon juice, it was so fresh and summery, it reminded me of holiday. I think the cocktail prices are really reasonable and I think they were quite strong which is always good in cocktails. As I mentioned above they had a huge book of drinks so if cocktails are not for you they have a huge range of other drinks. Clint was actually spoilt for choice and didn't know what to go for so he just asked for an American beer, he was given Motorhead Road Crew which is a pale ale and he said it was good, and tasted a bit like a light beer and he really enjoyed it.

They have a really good variety on the food menu, as well as the main food menu they do Breakfast and Brunch which is served till 3pm, I don't know of many places that serve breakfast that late, it's usually around 12pm but I love breakfast food and loveee brunch so i'm always drawn to places that serve a late brunch. They also offer a selection of sandwiches, wraps and light bites, perfect for lunchtime or early dinner. They also do Pizza's, burgers, hot dogs, pies and much more. I had the BBQ pulled pork stone baked artisan pizza which was gorgeous, i'd say Pizza is up there as one of my favourite foods. The pulled pork was really tasty and the base was lovely, the sauce was very tomato-ey and fresh. The pizza was a really good size, we shared some onion rings and could'nt finish it, I left a slice of pizza as I was stuffed!! Clint had the 12" Chilli Dog which was topped with a 3 bean chilli, it was a really good size and it looked great and came with fries so again was a really good portion size.

I have a sweet tooth and there was a few things on the dessert menu that tickled my taste-buds so we got the Trio Sharing board and picked the Salted Caramel and Chocolate Torte, Strawberry and Rhubarb cheesecake and the Profiteroles with Butterscotch Syrup. We expected them to be smaller portions of the puddings but they were full size, it was huge so it's such a good value for money, you basically get a dessert free. The Torte was a little bit rich for me so I only had a little bit but it was really good, my favourite pudding was the cheesecake, it was really light and fluffy. I wasn't too sure about the Rhubarb but it was lovely very fresh and not overpowering at all. The Profiteroles were soo good, the cream was really fresh and light, they were lovely and it was unusual to have them with butterscotch but it was really nice.

Overall we had a lovely time, the venue is gorgeous very clean and looks really impressive! There's lots of different areas so you can go for just drinks or go along for a whole meal. It would be a great place to go as a group. You order at the bar and this works well when there's a group as you can just go and order and pay for your own. The staff were incredible, we had the best time! Every member of staff were lovely and couldn't have done more for us, they made sure we always had drinks and even when we asked for a little break before we ordered puddings they were happy to leave us to it. It's dog friendly and child-friendly so don't let that put you off. It had a really good vibe and atmosphere and we will definitely go back and we will bring Amelia along with us. They had baby changing facilities and highchairs so it's baby friendly. We both had a lovely night and it was nice to have a night off, have a drink and a catch up and it was such a lovely launch event, we had a fab time. Thank you to Head of Steam for having us.

Today i'm talking about body confidence, well really my lack of body confidence. Since having Amelia my body has changed alot and honestly I don't feel very confident in myself anymore. I have never really been happy with my body, like everyone I have those bits that i'm not happy with. I lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago! I did Slimming World and lost about 2 stone! I was the happiest i've ever been with my body. I felt slim and toned and felt proud of myself. I found out I was pregnant this time last year and during my pregnancy I did put on a lot of weight. I had a lot of morning sickness and a lot of food aversions. I just felt like I was going to get big anyway so I stopped doing Slimming World and just ate what I wanted too.

After I had Amelia I felt like the weight would just drop off me and I'd start going back down to my pre-pregnancy weight but that hasn't happened. I want to start eating well again and doing some exercise but I need to ease myself in as I haven't done much for about a year. I am very active, I walk a lot as I don't drive so I walk into town. We go to Gymboree on a Monday and we get a lift with my friend but we can't fit my pram in her car so I carry Amelia in her car seat from the car to Gymboree and back to the car which is a good walk, my arms are always killing. We also live on the fourth floor with no lift so i'm always carrying the pram, car seat, Amelia, changing bag, shopping etc up all of those stairs. I would consider myself quiet active but I just eat too much chocolate and cake.

It's not just my weight that is now an issue. There's a couple of other things that have affected my confidence. My periods have been very sporadic since having Amelia so I always feel on edge and unprepared in case I come on. This underwear from Knixteen has a built in pantyliner, so I wouldn't have to worry about leaking. It also has odour-crushing technology, it's designed to soak up moisture and dry fast and is seamless so no VPL. I really think something like this would stop me from stressing out. 

I also have really bad stretchmarks! I used so much moisturer and oils to prevent stretchmarks. I didn't have any at all for most of my pregnancy and then in the last month or so they just came out of nowhere. I'm going on a spa day this week and I will be wearing a costume, I have always wore bikini's and even when I was bigger, before I lost weight I would still happily wear a bikini but now I'm not sure if i'll ever be able to wear a bikini as I feel like everyone will be looking at my stretchmarks. I know most women have them from childbirth and even some women have scars from c-sections and I should be proud that I carried Amelia but it's hard. I was fairly confident before but now i'm really struggling to be proud of my body.

Have any of you struggled with body confidence, do you still struggle or did you find coping mechanisms? Is there any way that I can over come this issue with the way I look? I know I can diet and loose weight but can I be happy with the way I look without always being on a diet? My weight and my appearance really stresses me out and upsets me and I feel good talking about it. I know i'm not alone and that I'm not the only woman who's lost weight and had a baby.















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Today's post is a little different, I want my blog to be a little bit more personal and I want to start documenting things again. When I started blogging it was more of a diary where I could write about things and it quickly turned a place full of beauty reviews etc... I am still going to feature beauty reviews but maybe some more personal posts too.

So what family means to me? I have a huge family aswell as alot of friends and other people in my life that I would consider family. Just a handful of these people are in pictures above.

My family mean the world to me and I love spending time with them. We always celebrate special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas and new year together. It's lovely having such a close family, that I get to see all the time. We are all close and we share everything, I announced my pregnancy very early to my family because I knew they would all be so excited.

As I said it's not just blood relatives that I class as family, I have a few friends that i'm really close to and I share everything with them, I get to see them regularly and we enjoy our time together, celebrate special occasions as well as just catching up over a coffee.

I think family means those very important people in your life that you want to share everything with, you enjoy spending your holidays together, share your important news with them, celebrate all those special occasions together. I love my family so so much and really cherish the time we all spend together. I am very lucky to have a lot of friends and family around me as not everyone is so lucky. I am lucky to have parents that are still married and my moms parents are still married and alive and a huge part of my life. Clints parents are amazing too.

Being happy for them and celebrating their achievements and successes! Wanting them to get the best out of life and be happy!

We do have our ups and downs like any family and sometimes you might need help when trying to resolve family issues. We live in a modern world where people get divorced or have to fight for custody of their kids and getting a lawyer or solicitor involved is your only choice. Slater Gordon is just that and make family matters simple and less stressful for you.

What does your family mean to you? Do you have a really small but close family? Do you even talk/see your family? Do you have a long distance relationship with your family?








*Disclaimer: This post is in collaboration with Slater Gordon, all words/ opinions are my own.

I was recently invited along to Cafe Rouge in Birmingham for their Summer Taste Event! The event was all about their new summer menu and I was lucky enough to head along to the event and check out some amazing food!

First of all the weather was incredible, it was really sunny and warm so as we walked along the canal to the venue was so lovely, the Mailbox was buzzing and everyone was having such a good time.

We was offered a drink on arrival and went through into the room where the event was being hosted. The french doors were open and there was flowers and balloons everywhere so the vibe was fab really welcoming and summery.

They started by introducing us to the chef who talked about the new menu and we got to have some appetizers. I didn't have any of these but Clint and everyone else seemed to enjoy these, they looked fab!

I tried a few of the new mocktails which were perfect for the summer. My favourite was the Rouge Blush Mocktail which was really good!  They were also fixing up Gin Blooms but as i'm pregnant I couldn't try these! They looked fab though, really refreshing.

For starter I ordered the Croquettes De Legumes which was so good! We've actually had this before but it's just so good and a really nice, light starter.

For mains I had the Crepe Au Four which is a new dish on the menu, It was a white creamy sauce dish covered in a crepe and baked, inside was lots of mushrooms. It was really tasty, I think it would taste better with chicken inside too, if this was an option it would be so good!

We got to sample a selection of deserts which were all amazing, I really enjoyed the Lemon Posset which was so good!

The event was really good, everyone was chatting and really friendly. There was so much food and drink everywhere and it all tasted so good! It was such a lovely event and so chilled and a lovely way to spend a gorgeous summer evening. Check out Cafe Rouge in the Mailbox in Birmingham, it's on the canal and has fab views, they have outside seating which is perfect for these warmer nights we've been having. Check out their new Summer Menu here - http://www.caferouge.com/locations/birmingham-mailbox/summer-set-menu














 * I was invited to the event and my food and drink was all complementary, I have not been paid for this feature.

* I have not been paid for this post, I was kindly gifted a gift voucher for attending the event. This post is honest and my own opinions and views.