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!








* sponsored post

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.















*sponsored post.

Today is World Heart Day! It's the biggest global awareness-raising platform for Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). The World Heart Federation is dedicated to leading the global fight against CVD, including heart disease and stroke.

There's lots more information about here on www.worldheartday.org

Today is also the unveiling of Beta Heart which is a new product designed to help lower or maintain blood cholesterol. The Vanilla- Flavored powder contains the key ingredient OatWell oat beta-glucan. Which has been shown to reduce/ maintain blood cholesterol. High cholesterol is a risk factor in the development of coronary heart disease.

For more details on Beta Heart and other Herbalife products visit : www.herbalife.co.uk

I thought i'd share a simple recipe for some yummy healthy pancakes which i've added the Beta Heart powder into. These are really easy to make and are healthy alternative to normal pancakes.

First up you will need :

First mix together the yogurt and oats and leave in the fridge overnight if possible, if you forget to leave overnight you want to leave it for a good hour or so.

Next up mix in the other ingredients, 2 eggs, sweetener and Beta Heart powder. This is your mixture, it should resemble a batter mix.

Heat your pan and spray some Fry Light to prevent the mix from sticking. You want to heat your pan on a low heat. When the pan is hot use a ladle and pour in your mixture. I tend to do a nice medium size pancake but its up to you whether you prefer a smaller size or larger size.

When one side is golden and the top has started to bubble/ gone yellowish then it's time to flip it over and cook the other side through, this usually doesn't take too long.

Repeat until you've used up all of your batter mix. Serve with whatever topping you like. I love banana and Nutella, it's my favourite pancake topping! What do you have on your pancakes?


Again be sure to check out the World Heart Day and Herbalife website for more information about today and find out what changes you can make to your life to ensure you have a healthy heart.








* this post contains pr samples, I have not been paid for this post. The views are honest and my own.

Sponsored by Slimming Solutions.

Heyy, so I thought i'd do a little Slimming World update for you guys! This week will be my 10th week. I've been sticking to plan pretty much all the way through, i've had a few off plan meals and a few little treats here and there. Last weekend I fell off the wagon a little and even though my meals were on plan I was snacking and had a few naughty treats. I went to a party on Saturday and had a little too much to drink. I had a really bad hangover on Sunday and had work, I had Rice Crispies for dinner and a sandwhich for lunch which was off plan. I was right back on plan on Monday and have had a really good week, it's wednesday today when i'm writing this but i'm going schedule this post for Friday. I've just got home from my staff meeting and one of the girls brought in Krispy Kremes and I had one, nooo. It was so good!

I've lost 1 Stone 6lb so far! I have won Slimmer of the week 3 times and i've got my Club 10 award. I'm hoping I can get my 1.5 stone award this week!

I will keep you updated with my journey, if you want to check out my Slimming World Instagram my username is @amypyt_sw

Hello, so incase you didn't know I recently joined Slimming World. I joined on the 10th March so just over a month ago now. I thought i'd share my journey and my progress incase you wanted to give it ago or just find out a little bit more.

I started by following Slimming World accounts via instagram, this gives you ideas about what you can eat and different meal ideas etc. People share snacks and how many syns they are so you can get lots of ideas just by following accounts via instagram, mine is @amypyt_sw

My Slimming World group is so lovely, and my Consultant Gem is great! She's so lovely and she texts me to congratulate me on my weigh in or to just find out how my week has been. We have a facebook group where we all share our meals or just general slimming world things and she's great at commenting and keeping up to date with us all.

I've found it quite easy to be honest there's only been a couple of times that I've had alot of syns and only a couple of times i've really wanted something really bad like a Mcdonalds or Chocolate but i've food optimised and instead I made 5% fat cheeseburgers without the buns or I got some little Malteaser bunnys which are only 8 Syns.

I've found it useful to plan my meals, I have a little planner which is on the kitchen wall which I write down the meals for the week and then I use this to create a shopping list for the week. This way we know what were having and there's no faffing. Sometimes i'd get stressed out trying to pick what to have for dinner and then would decide to get take away instead but this no longer happens

I have been exercising aswell, i've been doing my workout dvds and going for jog / runs. I've been progressing really well with my jogging and i'm actually able to jog for a little while. I know this will improve over time. I've found my pace has been improving and i'm not getting tired as fast. I use my Polar heart rate watch when i'm working out to record how long i've done and how many calories i've burnt. When I do go for runs I use the Map my run app which uses gps to create a map of your journey.

So the weightloss, on my first weigh in I had lost 4LB and then the same again on my 2nd meaning I lost 8LB in two weeks so I got my Half a stone award which was amazing, the next week I lost 3.5LB and then last week I lost another 3LB and got to my 1 stone award which I was so so proud to get.
I have weigh in tonight and will keep you updated with my journey. I hope you like my new fitness and healthy lifestyle blog posts and I hope you want to stay up to date with my journey.

I'VE JOINED SLIMMING WORLD! Saturday was my first weigh in and i've lost 4LB I'm so proud of myself for sticking to plan all week and I seriously can't believe how good it is. I thought i'd share a few things i've been doing this week and what I thought of my first week and my progress.

The main thing that sold Slimming World to me is that fact that you can eat so much, your allowed to eat whatever you want. Nothing is banned on Slimming World however you have 5-15 syns per day and things like chocolate and naughty things are going to cost you syns.

You can have one Healthy Extra A a day so this is like milk  and cheese, this makes sure your getting the right amount of Calcium each day and one Healthy Extra B so this is bread, cereal or porridge and this means your getting the fibre you need.

After this it's pretty easy, you can eat whatever you like some foods are free meaning you can eat as many as you like and some of these free foods are speed foods. You should eat alot of these as they will help you loose weight faster, you should have 1/3 of each plate full of speed foods. Finally syns, you can find out syns for things by searching the Slimming World App or your book that you get at group, if you can't find something you can usually google it and find out the answer.

I've been so full all week, i've been eating lots of salad, veg and fruit which is fab. I've been cooking new and exciting meals and Clints been eating the same as me so he's really enjoying the recipes too.
Even with work i've stuck to plan and we went for an unplanned meal out the other night and I managed to pick something that only cost me a few syns.

I've decided alongside slimming world I need to make an effort to be more fit and exercise more. I don't want to be all flabby so I'm trying to tone at the same time. I have made an effort to exercise this week. I've been going for walks and doing my fitness dvd which has really motivated me.

I had my first weigh in on Saturday and i'd lost 4LB which is amazing. I'm so happy I decided to join Slimming World and I can't wait for my next weigh in! It's really exciting and everyone at my group is lovely and my consultant is fab!

If you have any questions about Slimming World feel free to leave a comment or email me and i'll try and answer for you, but as I said this is my first week. I've made a Slimming World instagram account so if you want to follow me then here's a link https://www.instagram.com/amypyt_sw/  I am sharing lots of meals and fitness photos.

I'm loving it guys and i'm so glad I decided to join! Let me know if your part of Slimming World and how much weight you've lost ?

 

As you may know for the last month or so i've been trying to eat healthily and i've been going to the gym, so far i've lost 1stone and 2lbs. I still have a long way to go, I've been following some slimming world recipes however I don't go to slimming world or anything. I'm just watching what I eat and I've made some drastic changes to my diet. I think this recipe is so easy and with pancake day around the corner a really good healthier option.
I actually followed VIPXO's recipe which you can see here, she's done really well with Slimming World and she's a real inspiration for me. Theres more recipes on her blog aswell.