Gift inspiration - the dieters edition.

Christmas is only a few days away now! This dieters edition of gift inspiration is rather late this year (sooo sorry. I've been really busy). If you do want any of these things, you could buy some of these little gems as last minute/late gifts or buy them for yourself with the Christmas money you receive this year. Some of these things are online only, but a few will be available in stores too! There's something to suit all budgets. :)

Gifts £10 or less:

1. Lunch Bunch Strawberry Snack Boxes - £7.00, Paperchase. 2. One Body Multi-functional Pedometer - £6.00, Tesco Direct. 3. Shabby Chic Fleur Measuring Cups - £6.00, House of Fraser. 4. Me To You White Bear Polka Dot Flask - £3.00, New Look. 5. Funny Calories Dictionary Quote Mug - £6.99, Amazon. 6. Blue Magnetic Notepad with Pencil (Shopping List) - £3.85, White Shore.

Gifts £25 or less:

1. The Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Lose Weight (Paperback) - £11.99, Waterstones. 2. Dumbbell Alarm Clock - £16.90, Amazon. 3. Moleskin Recipe Journal - £16.99, Paperchase. 4. Graze Gift Voucher, 5 Boxes - £17.45, Graze.  5. Woman's Health Magazine Subscription (12 month) - £12.00, iSubscribe. 6. Men's Health Magazine Subscription (12 month) - £23.00, iSubscribe.

Gifts £50 or less:

1. Typhoon Novo Mechanical Scale - Teal - £40.00, Lakeland. 2. Crock Pot SCCPRC507CB-060 Digital Slow Cooker, Black - £39.95, John Lewis. 3. Kenwood HM792 kMix Hand Mixer - Almond Cream - £49.99, Currys. 4. Nike Womens Flex Experience Running Shoes - Club Pink/Blue - £49.99, Tennis Nuts. 5. Joseph Joseph Index Advance Chopping Boards - £45.99, Lakeland. 6. Asics Mens GT-1000 Running Shoes - Blue/White/Neon-Yellow - £49.99, Tennis Nuts.

Gifts £50+:

1. Morphy Richards 48822 1000 Watt 16-Litre Soup Maker - Brushed Stainless Steel - £64.00, Littlewoods. 2. Confidence Fitness Magnetic Manual Treadmill Running Machine - £79.99, Amazon. 3. LA Fitness Gym Membership (12 month) - from £35.00 per month (from £420 per year), LA Fitness. 4. Vibram Fivefingers Seeya Men's Running Shoe - £107.99, Millet Sports.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

Gift inspiration - the dieters edition.

Christmas day is fast approaching (only 2 weeks to go!) and whilst some of us are prepared well in advance, there are a lot of us who tend to leave everything to the last minute - well this post is for you. We all have a friend or two who are forever dieting (I know I'm always dieting and I know lots of other people who are too). If you have yet to get them a gift, why not show your support on their journey by buying them some slimming friendly/themed gifts this year? I've put together this post, full of lots of different types of gifts, to give you some inspiration. Or even to give other people ideas of some things that you'd like to receive this year (or you can just treat yourself)! All of these gifts can be purchased online, and a few can be purchased in stores, and there's something suitable for all budgets! :)

Gifts £10 or less:

1. Union Jack A5 recipe book - £8.75, Paperchase.  2. Back away fatty magnet - £3.50, Really Good Shop.  3. Retro magnetic meal planner - £7.00, Paperchase.  4. Diet cheating fines money tin - £2.99, Amazon.  5. Run Fat B!tch Run paperback book - £8.39, Waterstones. 6. Diet kit - £5.99, Amazon.

Gifts £25 or less:

1. Calorie/jump counting skipping rope - £10.98, Amazon.  2. Jamie Oliver herb display pots - £18.50, Boots.  3. The Nakd Celebration Box - £13.00, Natural Balance Foods.  4. Healthy Food Guide subscription - was £27.00 now £21.99, Healthy Food Guide.  5. Union Jack adult apron - £16.99, Joshua's Harvest Store.  6. Wooden cookbook stand - £16.99, Lakeland.

Gifts £50 or less:

1. Typhoon electronic scales - £29.99, Lakeland.  2. George Foreman 14532 10portion health grill - £44.97, Tesco direct.  3. Biosync fitness set - was £39.99 £29.97, Amazon.  4. 16 jar revolving spice jar - £35.00, BHS.  5. La Cafetiere Titania 1 litre - £26.31, Tesco direct.  6. Zumba Exhilarate DVD fitness pack - was £59.96 £48.00, Tesco direct.

Gifts £50+.

1. Delonghi 18 bar pump espresso machine - £169.97, Tesco direct.  2. Body sculpture cable rower with DVD - £99.99, Sainsburys.  3. Robert Welch signature knife block - £274.99, Lakeland.  4. Kenwood FPP225 food processor - £59.97, Tesco direct.

Another gift you can give this year is a gift card! If your friend has lost a considerable amount of weight, dropped a dress size or two, or has reached/almost reached their ultimate weight-loss goal, then getting them a voucher for their favourite clothing store (mine's Topshop, *wink wink*) will be a wonderful gift. They'll be able to buy some new clothes better fitting to their lovely new figure. Most shops allow you to load up as much or as little as you want onto the card, so another great gift for all budgets. :)

Shapers meal deals!

I think I may have discovered the best food meal deal offer ever - "Shapers"! It's found in a store called Boots. Great for lunches - they have the biggest choice of foods I've ever seen; sandwiches; wraps; salads; fruit salads; crisps; chocolate bars; popcorn; juice drinks; energy drinks; soft drinks; etc. etc. For £3.29 you can pick up 1 main, 1 snack and 1 drink. They're tasty, filling, quite cheap and - best of all - they're low-kcal (all Shapers combinations are supposedly under 500kcal). Also if you own a Boots advantage card you can collect points too - bonus! ;) I've only just found out about these meal deals and I've already tried 4 different combinations, and I will definitely be having many more!

Here are 3 of them to show you (I don't have a photo of the 4th one..):

My Shapers meal deal #1 - £3.29 - total calories: 219.

In this meal deal, I enjoyed an 'Around the World' Latino style roasted vegetable & rice salad with salsa (170kcal) and a melon & mango fruit pot (29kcal). I also had a can of Relentless - Libertus energy drink (20kcal) (not photographed), as I had a very very long day at work, but I didn't actually like the drink and ended up throwing half of it away anyway. Other than that, this meal deal was lovely! Lots of exciting flavours in the rice salad and the salsa was lovely! The fruit pot was nice and tasted fresh, but I wish it had a more even ratio. You'd expect melon 50:50 mango, but it was more melon 80:20 mango..

My Shapers meal deal #2 - £3.29 - total calories: 289.

In this meal deal, I enjoyed an 'Around the World' Thai style vegetable jungle wrap (250kcal), a pineapple fruit pot (36kcal) and a sparkling cream soda drink (3kcal). The wrap was sooo good! The spices were strong and very tasty and very well wrapped (normally I find most wraps fall apart and more filling ends up on the floor than actually in your mouth)! The pineapple was delicious! The drink was strange, but I really liked it! I had never tried "cream soda" before so I thought I should give it a bash, and it was actually surprisingly nice - very sweet! I will probably buy this drink again.

My Shapers meal deal #3 - £3.29 - total calories: 316.

In this meal deal, I enjoyed an 'Around the World' Oriental style king prawn, mango & sweet fire chilli wrap (267kcal), a crunchy & juicy grape snack bag (48kcal) and a bottle of Diet Coke (1kcal). The wrap was lovely! A crazy combination of flavours! The mango and chilli sauce is very tangy, but very tasty! The apple and grape snack bag was okay.. The apple was lovely and had a great taste to it, but the grapes were a little off and squishy in my opinion - I'll probably avoid this snack option next time.. And Diet Coke is just awesome anyways - yummm!

I would recommend these meal deals to anyone! Find your nearest Boots store and please give them a go! You won't be disappointed - there's something there for everyone! :)

(EDIT - 4 more meal deals that I've had since making this post):

HUGE clothing clear out!

I've had to go through literally all my clothes because almost all of them, apart from the few recently bought ones, are too big (YAYYY!)! I am now pretty much a UK size 10 in the majority of shops (size 8 in a couple and size 12 in a couple). I use to be UK size 16/18, so I've dropped about 3/4 clothes sizes! I'm hoping/aiming to get down to UK size 8.

There's about 3 bin bags full of just tonnes of clothes that are way too big now! Ranging from UK sizes 10 to 16. It feels great being able to put on old clothes that use to fit me perfectly or even be far too tight for me and have them falling to my ankles because they are just that big on me now. But it's also a rubbish feeling in a way.. Because I'm now stuck with all these clothes and I have to spend £100's on more clothes to replace everything!  And I just don't have that kind of money spare.. Even if I do sell all my old clothes, I'll get nowhere near how much it'd cost me to buy new ones! But I've had to buy some new clothes lately anyway, even though I have next to no money this month, because I'm going to Turkey in 2 and a half weeks, so I need clothes - that actually fit - for that! I've even been browsing charity shops and boot sales for clothes because I'm so skint! But I actually strangely enjoy it. I didn't think I would, but it's fun and some of the things and bargains you find there are incredible!

I'm going to put some of my bigger clothes up on Facebook in the next day or two and hopefully sell some of those on there for money towards my new clothes and also towards my holiday. I've also put the nicer, more expensive clothes (like Topshop, Soul Cal, River Island, etc.) up on my eBay account - http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/brixtonbriefcase (just incase you wanted to have a look). And then next week or the week after, with whatever's left, I'm going to maybe do a boot sale at the cattle market - depending on the weather - to get rid of what I can to get some more dollar before I jet off to Turkey for a week with the boyfriend!

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!