update time!

So update time!

We have chosen the person to conduct our Ceremony, her name is Hannah and I warmed to her as soon as i spoke to her on the phone. Hannah is local to Bristol and has done many ceremonies so we are good in good hands! Hopefully by having someone that we get to know before the ceremony will mean we have a far more personal wedding and it will be a little less nerve wracking!

The alcohol has also been purchased! Phil and I had a great wine tasting session a week back and we took great advantage of the Christmas wine sales! Thankfully Majestic Wine 'look after' the wine until we need it, knowing Phil and I we would have drank our way through it if we kept it in the house!

Since the venue has been booked, I have been looking for floral arrangements for the center pieces and... well... I didn't like any of the ones I was showed. They were too small, too flamboyant or just a bit boring. 

I've had this idea for some time that I would some how combine my love of knitting and crafting into the wedding so I've decided to knit all the flowers! I have knitted so many different flower patterns, bought books and completely ruined a few balls of walls to find the perfect flower pattern and it looks like this:

How cute! 

Instead of the red, we have chosen purpley pinks for the flowers. Seeing as we are saving hell of a lot of money making the flowers ourselves, I decided to buy my favorite brand of wool, Rowan. Its expensive but the colour choice is so much better than the cheaper ranges.

Just a few hundred flowers to knit now...

Off to a wedding fayer tomorrow with Clare so that will be good fun! She has no idea what she has let herself in for!

Over and out for now

So its wedding time...

So its time to start blogging again but this time about Philip and mines wedding!

We have the date and the have the venue and The food is planned...

What we don't have is a venue for the actual ceremony. We visited a few places, such as Cadbury and Banwell Castle and I came away with more reasons for not having it at the these venues than having it there. Soon as we said 'just ceremony' they weren't interested either.

I really disliked the idea that we had to have the ceremony at a set time, that the food had to be chosen off a list and that the day would be so much so like the last couples day. It was all to restrictive and felt so impersonal!

So after much discussions with our mums we decided we were going to do our own wedding the way we wanted it, the way it should be and not the way we were told it had to be.

So we have decided to get legally married first and then have our own ceremony with all our friends and family in a place of our choosing with someone leading the celebration in a far more informal, personal ceremony. We have yet to choose this person but because its not legal it can be anywhere!

So the planning has began and so far its gone to plan! Everyone who has asked about the wedding has given different views on it but most have been positive! The most important things we want from this wedding is getting our friends and family together and having a bloody good wedding breakfast and a few too many glasses of wine!

I'll keep blogging on the progress and start putting some pictures up of crafty ideas.

ohh and Ben is walking me down the isle.

First sleep after bootcamp

Wow I slept well last night!

Took the dog for a walk this morning to stretch my legs out and it felt like the longest walk ever! I'm not feeling totally back to normal but I am looking forward to hitting the gym tomorrow... whats wrong with me?!

Well I was pretty pleased with my weigh in last night and really impressed with my weigh in this morning but even more impressed with my measurements!

I've lost 2cm around my waist, bum, top of leg and top of arms and I've lost 4.5 cm around the top of my torso (under arms) and 4 cm around my tummy! My clothes arent hanging off me but are deffo looser!

The highlights of bootcamp were:

• the weight loss of course
• knowing I can actually run and can push myself far harder than I thought
• new friends I have made
• being confident in the fact I can go somewhere totally new and interact with new people on my own
• the information I received on food and nutrient and knowing how much I should be eating 
• being caffeine free for 7 whole days and not wanting a cup of tea!

The lowlights of bootcamp were:

• Day four. I never want to revisit Day four of bootcamp again
• The supplements that had to be paid on top of the bootcamp fee
• the multiple sock changes that were needed!
• the many bruises I have!

In all I loved Bootcamp! The whole experience has been far more than I thought it was going to be and a life changing event. All ready I've cooked two of the recipes that were provided and kept to the portion size they recommended. 

I would highly recommend bootcamp if you need a kick start or just want to improve your fitness. IT WAS NOT EASY but it was enjoyable! That feeling you have after you have done a proper work out is totally worth the pain.

Thank you for all your kind messages of support, they have been really motivating!

Day 6 and its over!

Day 6 finally came and it was a good one!

We did 'Insanity' this morning which was super hard! The only highlight was a huge plane flying over really low! (Philips informed me this was a Hercules). I'm sure Tom was picking on me today but I think it might have been because I was closest too him... maybe.

Brekkie then followed and then we had the Olympics again and my team won of course! We then took the Olympics to the pool and did lots of races including a core exercise where we had to sit on the edge of the pool backwards and lean back not allowing ourselves to fall in the pool. 

We then had lunch which was a mince wrap and the exercise continued!

We had the burpies challenge again, then a dance class then Pilates.

If i never have to do Pilates it will be too soon, its horrible!

After this we stretched and all ran off to shower and get ready to go home! YEAH!

We got weighed in and then said our goodbyes! The group I was with were so amazing and supportive. Its such a weird experience and everyone was so accepting of peoples quirks and differences.

I then made my way home, had an argument with the satnav on my phone and went free style! I made it back in one piece so my navigation skills of 'well lets see what this road leads to' isn't that bad!

I got greeted home by a very well groomed Benben (who hasnt left me alone since I got home) and a cuddle from Phil :)

All my gym kit (I just wrote PE kit and realized I don't go to school!) is now in the wash and I'm going to get into bed (which Phil had told me has fresh sheets, bonus points for him) to watch the GBBO and try to finish the knitting project I took with me! 

I thought I'd get far more knitting done than I actually did!

Soo the moment of truth has arrived...

The scales at home have just told me that I have lost ... 6 pounds! I am so pleased! Craig said that we will continue to lose the weight in the next few days so fingers crossed!

Sooo tomorrow I will do 'highs and lows of bootcamp' and measure myself see if I've lost any centimeters!

Day 5 at bootcamp

So Day 5 at bootcamp has come around!

This morning was intense, we had to do 10 press ups, 10 sit ups, 10 squats and 10 funny arm presses then run to the speed bump and back again (which I guess is 10 average cars long and back again) and we had to repeat this for 30 mins, my target was 8 reps which I did! Go me!

Then brekkie was served and then we had swimming and then team games which at one point I had to carry another team member! She was 11 half stone so it was quite tiring!

We then had lunch which was bulgar wheat, mince and salad, which doesn't sound exciting and really wasn't but it was enough!

We then went for another hike today and the view was better even though it was colder!

Core followed which was sooo hard, I cant really move my legs without hurting.

Then stretches followed and my elbow started to burn when doing the chest press which I was a bit unsettled about. I asked Craig the PT and he found my elbow was quite inflamed! I put ice on for 15 mins so hopefully it will be fine for tomorrow I don't want to be injured!

We then had another health and fitness talk which again was very interesting! Turns out anything 'diet' is bad for you and you should just drink the full fat stuff if you are going to drink it! 

So tomorrow is the last day! Hopefully it will be good but I think I'll just be looking forward to getting in the car going home to Phil and Ben for cuddles!

Am I still here?

Day 4 at bootcamp has been a mental battle.

We had a lie in this morning and started our first fitness session was a drill run.

This consisted of running to the nearest village and then running up and down a hill trying to beat your best time. This was really good fun and I did far better than i thought i would!

This was then followed on by a core session and stretch.

We then had lunch and we joined by the new bootcampers.

Day one for the new bootcampers started all again and we had to participate.

We did the 8 min run again and then more work in the field and circuits.

The only highlight was being praised by the trainer for having a good running pace!

Today I've felt pretty deflated  but that seems to be the general feeling for everyone.

I've been completely anti social and avoided conversation with most people, well except the one newbie who made a sweeping generalization and i made her explain herself. Awkward.

Only two more sleeps and hopefully tomorrow will be better!

My core has been cored out!

Day three at boot camp and only three more days to go!

I ache so much!

Its a real effort to even turn over in bed! My core feels so tight!

This morning was another 7.30 start of 'Insanity' which once you got into it was pretty good! It was sets of exercise that you did for one min on then one min off. This then turned into 1 min on 30 secs off and then 8 straight minutes of high knees, push ups, mountain runs and sprinting on the spot.

After breakfast we did had our own Olympics! This was pretty good fun and consisted of throwing a sand bag and running after it, doing a lap round the field as a team (so not letting any one lag) and shotput etc. My team won we were all  happy bunnies!

This was then followed by Pilates and it hurt so bad! Who would of thought a small movement could kill your  tummy!

Lunch then followed and was a yummy wheat wrap with feta salad.

Then there was a 20 mins burpies session. The set seemed easy 1 burpie per min and then the next min 2 burpies and then the next min 3 and so on until we had to do 10 burpies in a min. It seemed easy at first but it was high reps and the recovery was less each time!

We then went into boxing which was amazing! My partner got a bit scared as I punched too hard and fast! Whoops! We each then got to individually beat up the trainer, It was immense!

This was then followed by a dance class which at first was a lot of plank and core exercises but then turned into a dancey session and then bit of free styling. I sat down at this point as i cant really dance and wasn't enjoying it.

We then went into stretching and then it was time off and dinner!

This really didn't fill me up so a lovely lady called Nancy gave me her oat cakes and homous! I've never been so thankful to see oat cakes and the homous was soooo good!

Tomorrow training doesn't start until 9.30 so we get a lie in!

Really missing home so it's just a count down now but the worst is over!