Tag Archives: exercise

WLB Week 18

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Can you believe we’re at week 18 already? This year is completely flying by!

Although I have been too busy to blog, my exercise has made a massive increase for these past few weeks. That’s right, I’ve been going to the gym for three whole weeks now! I have two more sessions booked for this week on Thursday and Friday, so I’ve only done one so far this week… But I did my one before that on Friday, so it all cancels itself out!

Anyway, enough rambling. Onto the nitty gritty. My eating habits haven’t completely changed at all. I am still eating the same, but working out more as I figured this would be the bestest way for me to lose weight. However, this week, I haven’t lost anything. In fact, I have gained 0.4lbs.

I have no idea how or why. I just have. As you can see, it’s been a bumpy road this week. I’m thinking to myself muscle weighs more than fat but there is no way I have developed muscle that quickly to have made me 0.4lbs heavier, so I don’t really know what’s gone on there.

On a happier note, my stomach (read: my one ab) doesn’t seem as swollen, so the exercise is helping somewhere – when I look down, I can see more feet – YAY! Maybe it’ll tone me down before actually losing the weight that I so desperately want to lose. Eventually, I’m going to have to turn my exercise up a notch, and exercise five times a week, but right now, I just don’t have the time to kick it up any more than I already am. Bring on the summer, when work is a little quieter and I don’t have to work every weekend!

I am enjoying the personal training though, a lot more than I thought I would. It really helps me for someone to stand there and tell me what to do – and make sure I do it. I have ached and ached for days upon days afterwards, but that just goes to show it’s working, right?

I am hoping for a massive weight loss over the next few weeks if I keep up with this same diet/exercise routine I have found myself in. I love soup right now because the weather keeps getting all pants and soup makes the world a better place. Seriously.

How has your weight loss been this week? Any tips or tricks as to why my weight has increased instead of decreased?! Someone must be able to make sense of it…

WLB Week 17

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This week has been devastating in terms of my weight loss. Everything was going so smoothly and then, I accidentally drowned my Fit Bit in a swimming lesson :( Fit Bits + Water = No Longer Functioning Fit Bit. I am so sad and I feel naked without my little buddy clipping onto my leggings everyday.

I feel, because of this, my weight loss has actually deteriorated for this week! It’s weird how much I depend on that little piece of technology to keep me on track! I forgot to weigh myself last weekend and Monday, and my diet has actually been slacking because of it. I am waiting for Fit Bit to email me back with how to get a new one because I need it back in my life. I am also gutted that I just upgraded to premium and spent £39.99 a few days before the incident happened and I’ve not actually been able to use it for what it’s for… ANNOYING.

That said, I have booked some personal training sessions for myself this week, for yesterday and tonight, and I’m planning on going to personal training sessions three times a week from now on, to get my butt into gear and to finally lose masses of weight instead of a couple of pounds here and there. Right now, I wish I could take a few months off work so I could personal train for six to eight hours a day (cough), just to get to where I want to be quickly but I can’t, so this is the next best option for me. I cheat when I’m in the gym. I say I’m going to do 25 minutes of Cross Training or whatever, but I will always slyly decrease my time because no one is watching me do it. So I need that trainer there to tell me what to do and make sure that I do it. This will be my way of life for the next few months, and at the moment, I am dreading it because I know, to start with, I will feel completely knackered before I feel completely awesome.

Here’s the weight graph for this week anyways, which doesn’t really make sense as I haven’t logged for every single day… But hey, I love a visual aid…

Well, I am still losing (remarkably!), but there’s not really much to report. I promise I’ll be better with tracking next week for a better graph :) I’ve actually lost 0.6lbs since before I went on holiday, so bye-bye holiday weight!

Obstacles for this week are a hen weekend on Friday/Saturday and bank holiday weekend on Sunday/Monday. I just have to be extra-good at making healthy choices. And try not to get too drunk. Hopefully, the personal training sessions will outweigh the bad points in my diet for this week.

Changes to this week are obviously working out more, so I need to drink more and make more sensible food choices than last week.

Buying a Home-Gym

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I can’t remember if I have mentioned this a small age ago, but we’ve decided to convert our garage into a home gym. Number one, we never use it. Number two, eventually a home gym will save us money on gym memberships and the like. Number three, I need equipment around me to start taking exercise seriously, without jumping into a car and losing motivation on the journey.

How hard is it to find bloody gym equipment though? I have been googling and ebaying for the last two days, trying to make sense of it all, but am getting no where. I’m even thinking about hiring the gym equipment, so at least if we break it, someone else will fix it. There are just so many options and a bazillion brands to choose from! I didn’t know there was so much money to be made in exercise equipment. I want it to be good quality equipment too, so if I wanted to use it everyday (you can stop laughing at me now…), I can trust that it wouldn’t break. From looking at the prices of the supposed non-breakables, I think it’s more than likely I’m going to have to save up for the rest of the year at least for one item of equipment!

What I need in my gym is this:

  1. A treadmill. I might not be running at the moment, but Jay is and I will be soon. Even if I start at home and work my way out onto the streets around where I live, I know this is the ultimate way of losing weight. I just can’t at the moment, because I’m too self conscious.
  2. A cross trainer. I love cross trainers. I could cross train for hours and hours on end.
  3. A stationary bike. I hate cycling in public.
  4. A rowing machine. Probably not a necessity at the mo, but I enjoy these too.
  5. Probably some weights, but I have no idea what I’m looking for in this respect.

I just need to speak to someone who’s not trying to sell me something to figure out what exactly it is that I need. So I asked my friend, Imran, what his criteria was when he bought his fitness stuff. He’s bought a cross trainer before, and when I asked him, he told me I could buy his! He spent £120 for his one, and price was more of a factor for his purchase. I’m kind of looking for something that’s more worth the money, I guess.

So Immy helped me to look at websites to get all my equipment and I’m a little bit closer to finding what I really want. I really think this’ll be a work in progress though. For quite some time.

Have you ever bought any gym equipment? Where did you start looking and what were your factors for what you were looking for?

WLB Week 10

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Hey guys! Can’t quite believe it’s been a week since my last weigh in, but here we are. I’ve actually been really good this week and started my mile a day swimming, to shift those extra pounds before holiday. I’ve not eaten particularly badly, as I haven’t been out to go eating and I’ve been knocking up 10,000 steps on my Fit Bit Ultra per day (by walking around my living room for hours at a time!), so I’ve been hoping for a weight loss for this week.

I weighed myself on Wednesday morning, as I had to drop Ozzy off to Mum’s, and I thought while I was there, I would just jump on the scales. I know you should weigh yourself at the same time everyday, because your body has a change of around 2lbs per day, and I usually weigh myself in the evening.

This week, I lost 1lb. I am chuffed, as it’s still a loss – granted, it’s not the biggest loss in the world, but it’s still in the right direction. I am hoping for more of a loss next week, when my metabolism has really and truly kicked in with all this exercise I’m doing. I find it difficult to be sad at a loss, no matter how small, so we’re still happy bunnies.

Obstacles for this week?

None, actually. I have most of my weekend to myself this week, with Jay going away to a wedding, so I’m actually going to get my bum into gear and get my house in order as well as exercise! I’m going to take Ozzy on super long walks to tire him out for when I’m busy as well.

Changes for this week?

Again, I don’t really want to change much for this week. I’m going to be honest and say that I’ve not been tracking my foods as well as I should be, so that’ll be a massive change for this week.

  1. Track more.
  2. Keep swimming/walking.
  3. Eat well.
  4. Drink lots of water.

How’d you get on this week?

WLB Week 7

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Before Weigh In

I actually don’t think I’ve done all that well this week, but everytime I seem to write that, I have a 2lb weight loss, so here’s hoping! Here’s why I didn’t do too well anyway. On Saturday, during the day, we had Domino’s. Granted, that was all I ate, but still, it’s not good for my waist line. Not only did I have a moment of weakness on Saturday, but on Sunday after work, we had Fish and Chips!! What on earth was I thinking?! Calorific! Those were my two really bad moments in my diet this week, so I’m really not expecting much and it’s my own fault. On Tuesday, I actually ate food that was bad for me to try and shed a little bit more weight, but I doubt that’s made much of a difference, haha.

The doctor diagnosed me the other week with having food intolerances and the past week has been about discovering what they are and changing my diet to rectify any horrible side effects. So far, I have discovered  intolerances for milk (any skimmed or full fat), diet drinks (no more vodka diet cokes…), red onion (I’m fine with normal onion…) and garlic, and so I’ve got to start changing my diet around these. I am finding it really tough and I have found that, over the past 2 weeks, I have lost somewhat of my appetite (not for pizza or fish and chips though…). I’m hoping that I’ll figure out what else I have a reaction to soon and I’ll be able to get past this.

I’m planning on kicking up the exercise a notch as I have failed with exercise again this week and I’m planning on swimming a lot again. I think I’m going to try and swim the channel every month, which isn’t too bad, to be fair. It’s only 21 miles in 30ish days (depending on the month) so I think I’d defo be able to complete it every month. I think I do need a new challenge, perhaps for charity again, to give me something to be motivated for.

I’m going to start planning what meals I’m eating every single day and night, and start taking my lunch to work with me again. Something’s got to give and now I get paid every 2 weeks, there’s no excuse why I shouldn’t spend something on proper good for you food. I need to increase my fruit and vegetable intake again, but I’m worried that this will mess up my stomach. Just got to start being better at eating better.

I have joined (yet another) weight loss website today called Fitbit. Stolen from Jodi (again), this website shows you how many calories you should be eating and when you should reach your goal. This isn’t to say that I’m stopping WW; I think for now I would like to compare the two and see how many points is worth how many calories. I think this would be useful for when I finally come off of WW (and am therefore 2 stone slimmer…) and would be helpful for me to maintain my weight. Fitbit tells you when you should reach your goal by and it has given me the deadline of 23rd June 2012. I’m hoping for a bit sooner than that. I think Fitbit is a bit more scientific and clearer than RunKeeper or Fitocracy. I haven’t used Fitocracy in what feels like years and I think RunKeeper is a useful tool to keep track of any long walks I do. I am considering buying the Fitbit Ultra, to make this even more worth while. I might see how I get on with the website and app first before splashing out on £79.99 of technology, but I think I’ll ask Jay’s opinion as well as he knows all about this kinda stuff!

After Weigh In

So this week, I put on 1lb. To be honest, this was to be expected and I’m lucky that it wasn’t more than just the one! Next week, I’m going to try so much harder and, with Fitbit, I am hoping for some massive changes. Today, I’ve only drank water and I’ve eaten some soup for lunch, so it’s a bit of a detox day for me :)

Things to change for this week:

  1. Exercise
  2. Fruit/Vegetables
  3. Food planning
  4. NO TAKE OUT - seriously now!

Obstacles for this week:
  1. Working all day on Sunday
  2. Working all day and evening on Tuesday

WLB 2012: Week 4

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Before Weigh In:

This week is week 4 of WLB and I’m hoping I’ve done really well. Sometimes you just don’t know how you’ve got on until you nervously step onto the scales and see for yourself.

I haven’t eaten too badly this week; well, other than the Fish and Chips on Friday, which Jay and I shared, because we’d both had a really rubbish week and didn’t want to cook. But, because I have been really busy, I’ve found it quite difficult to stop and find time to eat. Particularly when the shops around near where I work don’t allow for dogs and I don’t trust leaving Ozzy in the office on his own! My packed lunches to work have kind of stopped, because I really haven’t had time to food shop! This weekend, I’m not working so I’ll be able to shop then! I haven’t really been drinking much (not that I ever did in the first place – that makes me sound like a right alcoholic!) apart from at a family friend’s 50th on Saturday.

Exercise has started and I’ve been to Zumba twice and Pilates once. I used to do Pilates when I was at university and used to really enjoy it, so I thought I’d give it another go. It’s not the most strenuous of classes, but I get it for free on Mondays, so why not?! Zumba is completely and utterly awesome again, as it was before. I now have a loyalty card, so I’m entitled to a free session when I’ve been so many times. Hooray! Savings! I will be Zumba-ing on Thursday and Saturday this week, so really stepping up my exercise from before. I have been trying to find a personal trainer, but they all seem to be booked out for the January ‘let’s get fit‘ phase. I’m going to arrange a gym induction for the fitness centre I work at as well, so I’ll be able to pop into the gym before or after work when I can’t commit to any of my classes.

This week, I don’t have much planned, so I am guaranteed some sort of weight loss next week, if I don’t lose this week. I hope I do though. I want to lose 2lbs this week and I’ll be back to my first stone.

After Weigh In:

I actually lost another 2lbs this week, so I’ve lost a whole stone since joining Weight Watchers!! I am really chuffed with myself, although it has taken me a year… It has spurred me on to do my next stone a lot quicker, which I’m sure is possible if I take my weight loss a whole bunch more seriously than last year, which I generally am doing! Hooray!!

Obstacles for this week:

  1. #ZOMGbloggersbash – my first ever blogging event!! I am so excited!! I’m just going to avoid any food and drink that’ll be there on the night and keep talking to people to take my mind off! Haha.
  2. No work at the weekend = boredom eating. I think Jay and I should probably arrange to do something this weekend to stop us from sitting there, eating chocolate and slobbing out. I have asked if he wants to go to Ikea, so that’s something we’re going to do, to sort out our home a little better. We might take Ozzy for a massive long walk as well, to kill some time and burn some calories.

Other than that, I’ll be sticking to eating well and Zumba-ing 3 times a week and Pilates once a week. Fingers crossed I’ll still be on a roll next week with all this weight pouring off of me and I’ll be another stone lighter in no time :)

If you’re losing weight this year, how did you do this week?

WLB: January 2012, Week 3

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So here we are. Week 3 of the new year. Wowzers, where has all this time gone? I honestly can say I’m not expecting a good result this week. I have been running around like a maniac, eating whatever I can when I can and not drinking enough water. Also, with the stress of Dad’s birthday (well, not stress… Just sadness, I guess), I have been focused on other things this past week.

Because I didn’t get a chance to weigh myself last week, I weighed myself this Monday and I lost 1.8lbs. Yay! Losing! Awesome! And then, to get back on track, I thought I’d weigh myself tonight and get back into the swing of things. I lost another 0.4lbs since Monday. Hooray.

There are so many things I have to change for this week to get back on track. Firstly, as I’m nearly settled in all the new things in my 2012 life, I am rebooting my exercise regime. Walking Ozzy for half an hour each day isn’t cutting it – especially when he stops and sniffs at absolutely everything, so it’s not a continuous work out! And there are two things I’m changing for exercise.

  1. Starting from tomorrow, I am restarting Zumba! It’s the exercise class that I love in my life and I think usually that’s half the battle with exercise. As long as it’s something you enjoy, you probably should keep doing it. And I’m planning on doing it on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday mornings (when I’m not working).
  2. At the fitness centre I work at on Sundays, I’m going to go through all the exercise classes and, if they have space and if I can do them, I’m going to book myself on them. I mean, I’m getting those classes for free. It’d be silly not to take advantage. And that’s something I’m going to do when I’m at work every Sunday; take 5 minutes to look through classes and book myself on. I might find something else I enjoy and want to stick at. Also, I’m thinking of swimming after my swimming teaching hour on Friday nights, but at the moment, Jay and I are using Friday nights as our date night, so we actually get to spend some time together without Ozzy, which is actually really awesome. We had our first one last week and I am actually really looking forward to our one this Friday. It works well when I’m working at both jobs on the weekend – this weekend is my last weekend of that for a while – thank GOD!

Secondly, I need to drink more water again. I noticed a real difference when I started doing that at the end of last year, so I’m just going to have to buy a load and make sure I bring one to work everyday. I know bottled water is expensive, but if it makes me do it then I’m not too worried. Speak to me about water prices in a few months’ time!

It’s not much of an excuse, but because I have been in and out of the office so much and super busy, I have not made my lunch for work everyday as planned in previous post :( So I have been eating stupid convenience foods from petrol stations and rubbish places. I’m going to restart this after my grocery shop at the weekend. GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER.

Overall, I think I’m on target to lose all my weight before a) my holiday; b) my birthday; c) my second holiday and d) all the weddings I’m attending this year. I’m just hoping all the above changes work to my advantage. Well, they should, shouldn’t they? It’s not as if my changes are visit McDonalds 5 times a day.

How is everyone else doing with their weight loss?

Weight Loss, Water and Plenty of Exercise.

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Well, following my last post, I lost 1.5lbs last week.

This week, I gained half lb.

I have been stepping up my training, so I have reason to believe that its muscle, rather than faaaat! But I’m on my diet like no one’s business at the moment. I’m eating exactly what I should be eating. I’m not going outside my daily point allocation and, although I’m earning activity points (6 points per hour), I am not touching them either! Maybe that’s why I gained though… Because I’m not eating enough. I’m drinking 1.5 litres of water at least per day. Yesterday, I drank nearly 3 litres. Water speeds up fat loss, don’t you know. As I take a swig out of one of my 1.5 litre bottles.

Training has been going well. I am getting faster – well, as fast as you can for distance training. A 40 minute mile is my aim and that’s where I’m at right now. So it’s progress. I swam for an hour and a half the other day and didn’t really feel tired. But then, I had a shitty training session in the morning, because I hadn’t drank enough water. Lesson learned: drink tonnes of water when I’m swimming this for real.

Charlotte and I have joined the Zumba revolution. For those who haven’t tried it, do. It’s like aerobics to Latino music and Latino dance moves. It’s seriously addictive and we’re doing two sessions a week from next week! It doesn’t feel like you’re working out at all – but then you feel the sweat dripping from your forehead, so it must be doing something! On our Tuesday session, I’ll be swimming before hand as well! I must shift this weight… Particularly before weigh ins on Wednesdays!!

Today is a bit of an exciting day for me. My wardrobe is being delivered! Between the hours of 3pm and 7pm. FINALLY. I have saved and saved AND saved! And now I will have somewhere to store my clothes which won’t look like Primark railings. Seriously. Jay doesn’t want the wardrobe in our room, but God damnit, it’s going in there! I got up extra early to rearrange our room, ready for our new arrival. No, it is not a baby. I cannot wait to build it tonight. Ikea is like grown up Lego. I love it!!

So what am I doing this weekend, I hear you ask? Well, on Saturday, I have to swim, go to my Zumba class and teach swimming lessons for an hour. I might even push the boat out and go for a run! AND obviously, I’m gonna move all my clothes into my wardrobe! Yay!!

Sunday is Father’s Day. Yikes. I have donated my Father’s Day donation to Cancer Research. We’ve already gone through one of these and, although it doesn’t feel any easier yet, I’m sure it will do eventually. I felt really sad earlier this week and my head just kept flashing back to ‘the night’. I had a bad swim that day as well. I have to remember what I’m doing this swim for and what Dad would be saying now. Probably laughing at me, and thinking I would never be able to do it!

On Sunday, Jay and I are going out for lunch. We haven’t been out for a meal in a small age, so we’re living on the edge and going to lunch. And I have my discount card for 2 for 1 on all courses. So it’ll be cheap and cheerful!

My budget hasn’t been going as awesome as I hoped it would. I have been spending like a good’un. But that recycling phone website has given me £80 for my severely smashed up phone. Happy days! That’s going straight on a cover for my iPhone! And some new trainers. As I left my ones out in the rain the other day. Sigh.

So we’re starting our budget again! All my direct debits/savings have come out, I have paid friend for the iPhone and I’ve filled my car up with petrol. The outstanding direct debits are for phone bill, laptop and car insurance. I have to be super strict with my budget.

But alas, my dear reader, do not fret. Subway Subcard is all about earning triple points per sub that I buy and I have a low fat sub for lunch every day (9 points, in case you were wondering!). So, whilst this triple point thing is going on, I may as well use cash to buy my lunch and earn the points in order to get FREE Subway later on in life! HOOR-FRICKIN’-RAY!! Seriously, I have currently earned enough points for 3 free subs, but I’m going to hold out until the end of the month when I need free lunches! Also, you get the chance to win free things every day – I have won 2 free medium drinks or packets of crisps! SAVINGS!! I also am in for a chance of winning a Nintendo 3DS, which, if I do win, will be going straight on Ebay for more moneys to spend! Hahaha. I won’t win though. I never win.

I am feeling happy, Reader. Everything is going awesome. Don’t think I have not realised that I have not mentioned puggles in this post. We are still coming up with some awesome names. Yesterday, we were going through Harry Potter names. Fang is my favourite :)

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Personal Addictions and Obsessions

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My addiction to online bingo has reached a new low. I entered a free bingo draw to win £100,000.00 and, although I know there were odds of 11,000 to 1, I actually got mad when the computer crashed and I couldn’t watch the game being played. Needless to say, I didn’t win.

Right now, I am at work with online bingo in the background. I am playing for free for a £1 jackpot, just so I can play the 10p a ticket games and win about £30. You have to win at least £30 in order to withdraw the money, you see. That’s how they reel you in. You’ll always win at most £29.99 before you spend it all to win that extra penny. I’m smart enough to recognise this, but weak enough to keep playing. Boo, online bingo. Boo.

As much as I hate to admit it (because it means that Jay is right), I have started to become addicted to exercise. I swim everyday (with 2 days off exception!) and I started step class last week, which I’m actually looking forward to attending this evening. I’m even considering to increase my daily swimming to two one-hour sessions a day (one in the morning, one in the evening).

I am, however, a bit pissed off. Last night, at WW, I put on weight (well, 0.5lb), although I have increased my training for the channel swim and have started this exercise class. Just what the hell is going on with my body?!

Today, I have drank at least 1.5 litres of water (I buy a 1.5 litre of bottle a day, but I was drinking water before I bought it today…), I have taken 2 out of my 3 Thermabol tablets (I know, it sounds like a super hero, but Jay assures me it’ll help my weight loss) and I have only eaten my lunch. I am seriously considering swimming after my step class, although I know I won’t, because I won’t make it in time. I am on a one-woman mission to lose weight, particularly next week.

I suppose this obsession with my weight loss is not really a bad one. I still have a lot of weight to lose. Plus, a new reward for myself; lose 1 and a half stone, eat Domino’s pizza. Honestly, I really really miss it. But the addiction to online bingo, I have to admit, is just plain weird. I’m not getting withdrawal symptoms from it yet…

Swimming the Channel #2

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I feel like I haven’t written here for a while, so I suppose it’s best to do so. Not much has really been happening, but it’s good to offload some of the random thoughts in your head, right?

I got my new car on Friday! Hooray! It’s so girly and I love it! I will post some photos up when I get a chance to take some. I’ve been fairly busy these past few days… well, busy and hungover.

I have been drinking quite a lot in the pub recently. I wouldn’t say I was an alcoholic, but defo a glorified binge drinker! I don’t like how it makes me feel the next day and it even ruined my weekend this weekend – I was meant to go to Jay’s granddad’s 80th, but I was so poorly, I couldn’t even look at the television screen for hurting my eyes.

It will be a year since Dad died next week. I honestly feel like rubbish when I think about it. I think, because I’m very conscious of when the date is, my emotions are all the more heightened. I cried twice today: once when I couldn’t open my door and had to drive to Mum’s, the second when I’d finally got in my house. It may have something to do with me, feeling so tired. I’m not sleeping very well and I’m having the weirdest of dreams. I woke up in the middle of the night which is rare for me, as I sleep through anything. I don’t know. I think it’s going to be a difficult week.

I’m going training tonight for my swim and I’m going to swim the mile 5 minutes faster than what I did before. I trained once last week and my recovery period took two days. Two days. I must learn to recover faster, particularly as I won’t have the two days in between swims to recover. This week, my aim is to swim tonight and tomorrow night and I would like both miles to be under 45 minutes. If I’m feeling alright, I might even have time to do another on Wednesday, but I don’t want to push it. Even after my first swim, I’d aggravated an old swimming injury in my right shoulder, which seems to be fine now. I don’t think my brother is actually serious about doing it, which is fine. I came up with the idea, I don’t mind doing it on my own and I’ve already raised £380.00. Please donate if you haven’t already here. Seriously, every penny counts. And even more so, as more and more people become affected by cancer. If not directly, I’m sure you’ll have known someone who’s had cancer, survived cancer, had a cancer scare or died from it, so why not put something towards it to try and prevent it?

I’m at work and I’m taking bookings for our next course which starts in May. I’ve booked two people on so far. Hooray. We need, roughly, 200 people more to enrol onto our course to meet targets. Fingers crossed, eh? I figure I need to market some more. If you know of any new mums in Essex who might be interested in swimming, please forward them to me :)

Anyways, that’s all for now! I’ll write again soon.