My lifestyle change

I may have mentioned before I've lost almost 50lbs and I remember at the hardest parts of my journey I wanted to find more blogs by people in similar situations to help me on my way, I even attempted to write one myself but I wasn't very good at it and my head wasn't in the right place, but this time round it totally is! 

 It's taken over two years but this is my progress so far

 The good thing about it taking so long is that it's happened slow enough for me to understand and appreciate te process enough for me to never go back, I was so unhappy and it went deeper than vanity and looks, I just hated pretty much everything about myself, but not anymore!

 So how did I do it?

 I've tried pretty much everything going: cutting calories, cutting out food groups, pills, shakes, excessive exercise...they all worked but they're also so bad for you. Once I shifted the focus from weightloss to health (there's a difference) I really started to see results. It's so true that eating the right food as opposed to less food, and exercising in moderation, and listening to your body is the absolute best medicine!

 

 This last 18 months has really seen me educate myself about food and also kick my fitness into high gear. I've completed 30 day shred, insanity, c25k and t25 and loved them all, but NONE of them work without a good diet alongside it, trust me, you can't out train a bad diet!

 I'm currently on stage 5 of New Rules of Liftinf for Women and loving it, however I found that I got a bit too relaxed diet wise and maintained my weight for 3 months rather than shaking the last few lbs so I'm being more mindful of my eating and adding a cardio session or two a week too and I've already started dropping lbs again, woohoo!

 Here's my progress in numbers

 

And this is my current goal

I find goals easier to achieve when broken down like this otherwise I get overwhelmed. I know I'm not really fat anymore and I'm 1000% healthier than ever, but I'm stuck between sizes so I feel these goals will help me get to the lower size and feel more comfortable in my clothes as at the minute nothing fits well, and let's face it, why would I go for the bigger size?!

 I haven't gone into too much detail as everyone's different and what's worked for me might not help anyone else, but if anyone has any questions feel free to ask!

 Also look out for more progress, fitness and food related posts in the future! If anyone wants to add me on myfitnesspal my username is muc88 :) 

A week in the life of...

Ola!

 As I'm still relatively new to blogging and I'm not in a blogger routine yet, I thought I'd screenshot my Instagram feed to give you an idea of what my world is about, I thought this one actually gave a pretty good one too!

 Quick run through of my typical posts: promoting this blog, fitness related posts such as dying after a run, dumbbells and my latest delivery from myprotein.com! If I bake you can bet your backside there'll be pics of my cakes online pronto. 

 I'm a sarcastic little bugger and I love posting memes I find funny, as well as 'inspirational' quotes I find relatable.

 I'm not a maternal person in the slightest but spending time with my nephews and niece lately has been fab, and I'm the proudest aunty, also observe my lovely manfriend looking scarily comfortable holding baby Leila, eeeep!

 Just a quick insight into my life really, if you want to follow along you can find me @muc_pumpkin :) x

Put your best face forward!

So Hi all!

 I've been dying to blog for ages but just haven't had any free time, I feel like I've not been back from holiday five minutes but it turns out it's actually been a month, I'm ready for my next one already!

 Work's been mega busy and when I'm not at work you can find me at the gym, I'm well and truly back on the fitness bandwagon and I can't wait to share with you my progress.

 Today though, as I had a great Temple Spa class last night, and I have another one in a few hours, I want to share with you my daily skincare routine that has contributed hugely in boosting my confidence and only wearing foundation on nights out now rather than every day! 

So on a morning, my first go to product is Eyes Wide Open, this is great for spritzing on a cotton pad and wiping over eyes that just won't open, it's cooling and soothing and gives you that wide awake feeling even if you're on your way out for a 12 hour shift!

 Next up is Dual Act cleansing lotion, I love this as you can use it wet or dry depending on how your skin feels that day, perfect for my combination skin. I follow up with Toning Essence, this can be spritzed straight on to the face, or applied with a cotton pad, personally I prefer to spritz it straight on my face as it is lovely and refreshing, it smells like summer in a bottle!

Next up are the 'special attention' products. I use Be Strong serum mainly on the top half of my face and work my way down, this gets dubbed Botox in a bottle and it's no joke! It's packed full of vitamins that sink way down into your skin and give instant results, continued use for more than 28 days will be amazing, as this gets to work deep down so by the time your skin cells have renewed it'll reveal a new, smoother you! I use Be Clear serum on the lower half of my face, where I have marks from my chin acne, to help even them out and reduce their appearance.

 Next I apply Windows of the Soul to my eyes, you need the tiniest amount of this stuff, apply it with your ring finger by tapping along the orbital bone from the temple to the inner corner of your eye for best results. I swear I use concealer purely out of habit since I started using this rather than out of necessity! Next is Exalt firming neck gel, don't be fooled, you don't need a turkey neck to use this! Apply this with the back of your hands in a pussy cat motion every morning and marvel at how smooth and taut your neck feels!

To finish up, I use Moisture to go moisturiser, great for combination skin! The technology used in this acts as mini sponges to mop up any oily areas while simultaneously hydrating any dry areas, leaving your skin feeling perfectly balanced out and ready to face the day with or without makeup!

 Believe it or not, this takes literally two minutes to do once you have the hang of it, I leave the house at 6.40am and still manage to do all this without getting up any earlier than I already did before I found Temple Spa, so if I can do it anyone can!

 I use various other Temple Spa products which I'll be telling you about in a different post. They're all so versatile and they actually work, I've tried other samples I've been sent in my monthly Birchbox etc but I always go back to Temple Spa, I'll never stray again!

 Any Temple Spa lovers out there? What's your favourite product? X

bloglovin'

Hi all!
 Jumping on the bloglovin bandwagon, lots of great post ideas lined up for you all, just need a spare minute to write them up, please bear with me :)

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