My home-grown red onions.

This year I decided to do a spot of gardening. I'm not known for being that good at gardening - I struggle to keep ANY plants alive in my house.. And I have also never grown my own vegetables before. But after receiving some free red onion seeds in the post, I thought I'd give it a go.

Firstly, I planted my seeds into little trays and left them in the greenhouse to grow into seedlings. It was strange because I checked daily with no progress, but then suddenly - like over night - all of them popped up! I felt so proud that I actually managed to successfully grow something from scratch!

Then, once all the seedlings had popped up, they were ready for re-potting. I came up with the issue that I had no land that I could dig up to plant my seeds in... If I dug up a patch in my garden, they'd get dug straight back up again by my rascal of a dog. But I found some old plastic storage boxes, so decided to get to work on those. I got a wireless drill and drilled lots of little holes all over the bottoms of the boxes to allow water to drain out the bottom. I then filled them all up with compost. I watered the compost to make it moist. I then started pulling apart and untangling the seedlings. I placed them evenly spread out into the boxes. Then I had to play the waiting game.

Waiting for any onion-like things to start growing felt like forever. But once the first one appeared, again, it felt like they all followed suit, and soon enough I had 3 whole boxes full of little red onions! I was so proud of myself for not killing them all, which is what I expected would eventually happen.

Personally, I think home-grown red onions are much tastier than shop bought ones! Especially the ones I grow. ;) I made everyone try them and the verdict was pretty much the same. The countless amounts of times going up the garden to water them and waiting for them to grow was well worth it! I'd recommend anyone to give growing their own vegetables a go. I found it strangely relaxing and it helps clear your head, and also gives you something to look forward to. I definitely want to grow some more in the future, maybe something different... potatoes maybe? Not sure yet. :)

Doing the 30 day squat challenge.

I have heard so much about this "30 Day Squat Challenge" lately, especially on Facebook, that I have decided to give it a go for myself. I am now on day 13 out of 30. Why have I decided to join everyone else and put myself through this leg-and-bum-torture? Because my boyfriend, Jago, & I have booked a last minute holiday and we leave in just 13 days! We're going to Mallorca Rocks, Magaluf, for a week and I am battling for my bikini body back, which I had last year when I went to Turkey (click here for the blog post). As I haven't been able to attend the gym lately (recent health issues), I need something to make me feel like I'm working out and making an effort. I'm aware that I'll only get to day 26 before actually leaving for our holiday, but that isn't going to stop me. Ideally I'd like to be at the same weight as I was before I went to Turkey, but the likelihood is that's a bit unrealistic with the amount of time I've got to do it, but that won't stop me trying my hardest!

Here's a scan of my notepad with the whole challenge written out. I need to write it out myself rather than continuously keep looking up for it online each day, otherwise I probably won't do it. The first 3 days were by far the most painful. By Day 3, stairs were out of the question! I'm quite shocked at how much it actually raises your heart rate and how sweaty you get just by doing squats! From Day 5 onwards, I actually have to stop for a few seconds between every 10-20 squats as I just get so hot and bothered I can't seem to push myself up from the bottom of the squat, haha.

I didn't take a before photo, so I don't know how I'll be able to compare any real difference. I'm just going to have to try and take a photo of how it looks now (at Day 13), and then take one when it's over and see if there's any noticeable change. I'll post the results at the end of the challenge. If there is a noticeable difference, I may give myself a bit of a break and then restart the challenge all over again from the beginning.



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TIP! Perfect portions.

I don't know about you guys, but I find that one of the hardest things to do when trying to lose weight is serving myself/others correct portion sizes. At my biggest, my portion sizes were HUGE. I probably had enough food for on my plate to feed at least 2-3 people!

Portion sizes are tricky.. But I have learnt, instead of packing your plate up high "just incase", just take a normal portions worth and eat what you have. And if you are still hungry afterwards, you can always go back for a little more. Having too much food on your plate will make you feel obliged to eat it.. Eating the correct portion sizes (correct portion sizes are often suggested on the side of food packages) are key for stomach shrinking and successful weight loss!

My Mum suggested that, when I have a spare 20-30 minutes, I prepare portion sizes in advance so we can just grab and go instead of fussing around with the scales and things - which will be especially handy when in a rush. I thought it was an absolutely amazing idea - couldn't believe I didn't think of it myself!

So before you knew it, I had set up a little work station in my living room, made up of a tray, digital scales and cheap food bags, plus whatever food I wanted to weigh. I decided to weigh out all of our cereals into the portion sizes suggested on the cereal boxes (most serving sizes were between 30g-40g), then putting them back into their boxes for easy storage. I also weighed out our uncooked fusilli pasta into 75g serving bags. So now we can just grab and go!

This has to be the best and most useful tip I've ever received and I shall definitely be keeping it up!

Project scrapbook.

I've decided I'm going to make a personal thinspiration scrapbook! It's going to be filled with lots of old photos of myself (to remind me of what I don't want to ever look like again), current photos of myself, my weight-loss goals and reasons for doing it, healthy foods, personal photos, magazine cuttings, inspirational quotes/pictures, clothes/things I want and celeb body-crushes. Every now and again I might even scan in a page from the scrapbook to share with all of you. :)

It's hopefully going to kick start me back to how I was, as I'm starting to slack a little bit.. And also it'll give me something to do throughout the summer on my days off work, as I've now completed my first year at college and have been unsuccessful in the extra-job hunting so far.. :( I recommend anyone in the same situation(s) should give this a go! Scrapbooks are great fun and are great for getting you back in touch with your creative side! They can be found very cheap. I bought mine, which is filled completely with black paper, for about £1 - if that, in In-Excess.

Updates on this soon! :)

Herbs - update!

I told you that I'd let you all know when they start popping up, so here's the herb update!

I didn't even know that they had started growing! My mum came to my room telling me she has to take their lids off as one of them was pushing up against it. I had no idea, as about 3 days before she told me, I watered them and absolutely none of the pots had anything growing in them at all. They're growing so fast! Especially the coriander. They're not edible yet though, but even if they were I want to leave them until they get really big and full. So proud of myself for actually being able to grow something! Normally any plants I buy, that grow, die within the first 2 weeks.. So I guess this is a personal achievement, haha.

I'll give an update one these again when they're even bigger!

Discovering my green thumb!

Whilst doing the weekly shopping, with my mum and sister, I spotted these awesome things - Sutton's seeds "Grow Your Own" pots. (Click the photos to enlarge them). They were very cheap - just under £1 each - they're on special offer at the moment. They are pots that contain compost and the seeds to grown your own herbs and vegetables.

We bought 3 pots - parsley, coriander and chives. I've just been sat downstairs "sowing" the seeds. I've never grown my own plants before. I've always wanted to learn to do gardening properly.. I want to be able to grow some pretty flowers in our back garden - even though I know the dog will destroy them.. But I can't seem to even be able to keep plants that are already grown and potted alive for longer than 2 weeks! So this may be a challenge for me.

The pots are really easy to do! All you have to do is move the compost around to loosen it, take a bit of compost out, make a hole and sprinkle the seeds in. Then put the compost back in to cover the hole, push it down to compress it slightly, water it and shove the lid back on. And hey-presto, you've done it. Put them in a window sill and hope for the best. Normally my main problem is remembering to water them.. I'm not even sure how often I'm suppose to water them but oh well, haha!

Wish me luck! I'll take a couple of progress photos, as/if they start to grow! *fingers crossed they do*

Yoghurt-sicles!

Yoghurt-sicles! Great for ice cream/ice lolly/yoghurt lovers! I don't know about you, but yoghurts don't last 5 seconds with me.. 2 spoon fulls and it's all gone. So, as I'm going through a stage of basically freezing everything (mainly for my smoothies), I thought "why not freeze some yoghurts"!

I used Munch Bunch Fromage Frais (44 kcal per pot) and Petits Filous Little Desserts (82 kcal per pot). I definitely prefer the Petits Filous, but the Munch Bunch has a lot less calories..

**This is NOT an original idea. I'm sure it has been done a million times by a million different people from around the world.**

What you need:

- Your favourite yoghurts.

- Plastic cutlery/wooden lolly sticks/anything similar.

- A freezer with space in it.

Method:

- Get the sticks you intend to use and pierce them into the middle of the lid of each yoghurt pot. I used plastic knives, snapped in half (I wouldn't recommend you do this, but if you do, be careful because it can be very sharp and could cut your hands/tongue), as my freezer drawers aren't very big.

- Put in the freezer, the right way up, and leave them overnight, as then by morning you'll know they will definitely be completely frozen.

- Take them out of the freezer. Take the lid off, pop the yoghurt-sicle out of it's pot and enjoy!

Training myself to run.

I have never been a great runner. I did cross country whilst at school, once - when I was about 12ish - and I honestly thought I was going to die. But lately, for some reason, I have had the urge to go out and run, even though I can't run to save my life. So I've decided to train myself to do it. For the last 5 days in a row I have gone out for a jog/walk. Jogging as much as I could and then walking when I needed to catch my breath and then jog again. It's seems to be getting harder and harder everyday, but I've probably pushed myself a bit too much too soon. Today I met up with my friend, Simon, and we went for a jog together. It was hard but I managed to push myself a lot harder than the other 4 days when I went jogging alone. I managed to go a further distance and went longer before I had to stop and walk. I'm hoping training myself to run will help boost my weight loss further, hopefully tone my body a bit, make my thunder thighs/tree trunk legs smaller! These are some views I saw in the last few days whilst out on my jogs -

 

Also I bought some new running shoes today! My older 'Fila' ones are really worn out and knackered now. My new ones are called 'Nike Pegasus 28' and they are sooo comfy and very lightweight! I love them. Also I can get away with buying children/junior shoes because my feet are only a UK size 3.5/4, which means I can buy them so much cheaper! I managed to get them for £27.99 from Sports Direct - bargain!