#weddingdressdiet

With just over a year until the big day I've decided to start a regular post on my wedding dress diet.

I'm the type of person that needs an end goal to keep me motivated & what better goal than this!

I'm not going to be going on some insane craze juice diet, no carbs before marbs or any of that crap!

My plan is to simply exercise more, lift weights (nobody wants bingo wings in a wedding dress!) & feed my body the fuel that it needs!

In a weeks time I'm running the Great North Run so this weeks plan is to eat healthily the beginning of the week & then from thursday to eat lots of healthy nutritious carbohydrates in order to 'carbo-load' my muscles ready for sunday. 

Exercise wise I plan on just keeping my muscles ticking over since I've not really done enough long runs in the past week or two so I'll be happy to do a few 5-10km runs :-)

with that in mind i've treated myself to some new lovely lime green nike free's which will mainly be for going to the gym in since i've got some more supportive trainers for covering distance

here's a link to my sponsorship page for the GNR  

So I've discovered I'm not too good at this blogging thing....

but every now & then I get the sudden urge to have a little ramble & today is one of those days!

(photo from FD blog)

so much has been going on in the past few months - I've actually made so pretty big leaps & bounds in the wedding planning malarky!

As I wrote a few months ago we set a date & venue but I felt under pressure to book florist, photographers, dj etc etc.

Its all sorted! I'm very exited to have chosen Jane at the wonderful Flower Design to do our flowers! She seems to be the fairy godmother of weddings!

I also chose my dress earlier this week! Which was a massive weight of my mind! I know its still a year away but I had a fear I was not going to find 'the one' but I have!

hope your all having a wonderful weekend

Jen xxx

Cycling

I've recently got into cycling :-) my husband-to-be has been having a tootle about recently & bought himself a road bike. This has given me a push to order myself one :-) I've been using my mums bike as mine hasn't arrived yesterday but here's a copy of the route I cycled with my step dad yesterday :-)

It was such a beautiful day & we stopped at a cafe near glasson dock where we had a bacon sandwich and a coffee. We then cycled to knott end where we had a fab wallings ice cream and caught the ferry back to fleetwood & cycled home! all in all a great day! (bar my horrendous short lined sunburn!)

here's a pic of the beauty i've ordered :-)  

half marathon training

I've just finished my weekend of nights and am currently fighting off sleep whilst sat in the glorious sunshine in the garden (it makes a change for me to have nice weather on my days off!).

This week marks the start of my half marathon training in preparation for the Great North Run (September 7th 2014). Im using the Nike + training app as I wasn't quite sure what training to do & unlike my last half marathon I thought I ought to do some proper training!

This weeks training looks like this :

I'm determined that i'm going to stick to the plan as I really want to get my time under 2hours!

but currently the sunshine is winning and I have no intention of donning my running shoes until it at least cools down a little!

Tomorrow I'm off to the florists for an initial appointment to get some ideas for our wedding! Super excited about it!

At the moment I'm loving peonies, Juliet roses & just all things girly and flowery! 

xx

Wedding plans, Running, Nights & too much cake.

So I thought a couple of months into being engaged the whirlwind would of died down by now!
It hasn't! We've booked our wedding date & venue (its not till september 2015) but now I feel under pressure to book the photographer, florist, find the perfect dress, etc. etc.

I'm hoping once things are all booked we'll be able to just enjoy being engaged.

I'm currently working nights, (this is my second weekend in 3weeks!) My last lot of nights I decided it was clever to still run the 10mile event I had booked on the following morning. This was NOT a clever idea! Especially considering I hadn't ran in around 2-3weeks prior to that. I ran a very slow time of 99mins 52secs. Still under 10min miles & considering i'd not slept in around 28hours not bad! I felt crap for it though!

Its given me my love of running back :-) I've been out a couple times this week and although not for 'long runs' i've just enjoyed tootling round the park :-) Plus im lusting after some new trainers.

So i'm on nights again this weekend and hoping that i wont lose my running cool but im not planning on running until i've finished nights :-)

today i made the most lush red velvet cake.
then ate all the leftover cream cheese frosting!
:-0

never going to fit into my wedding dress at this rate!
best get my head back into 'clean eating' mode.

Jennifer xx

I Got ENGAGED!

Why hello there….

It's been awhile i'm aware, intact its been over two months!
It's been a busy two months though but i'm going to try to get back into blogging!

Since I last blogged I've completed my first half marathon! I ran it on April 6th with a friend from works brother. He really helped keep my spirits up between miles 3-6 where I seemed to hit a wall - stitch, dead legs & a general lack of motivation. Once I hit mile 6 I got back into the swing of things, had an energy gel & really felt good about things! The last 3 miles were running into a headwind & at mile 12 I decided to leave my friend (sorry!) and try pick up the pace! I finished it in 02hrs 00mins 41secs. I'm a little bitter about the 41secs as I really wanted a sub 2hr time but for my first half its a good effort! My running hasn't been all that regular recently, although i've been getting out a couple of times a week. I'm running a 10mile event next weekend though!

In mid April we went to London for Andy's birthday. We had a fantastic time, we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the theatre. Had a fantastic meal and cocktails at Christophers. Had some amazing post theatre cocktails at The American Bar in the Savoy. We went to the Shard for breakfast for Andy's birthday & HE ONLY WENT AND POPPED THE QUESTION!!!!! Obviously I said YES!! We also went to The Savoy for afternoon tea :-)

Since getting home everything has been abit of a whirlwind! Choosing an engagement ring, lots of celebrating and now we're starting to look at where we are planning on getting married.

I've also just joined slimming world! I can & I will lose weight for this wedding!

Much Love

& I promise to blog again soon!

Jennifer xx

MIA, 5 Piece Update, Great North Run

It's been nearly a month since I last blogged. 

Where has it gone!?!

I seem to have been super busy. 

I've worked the last 3weekends including a full weekend of nights. 

I've had a few trips to manchester.

I've started learning to figure skate. 

I've been training towards my first half marathon. 

I've been to my first clandestine cake club.

5 Piece Update : 

1. Grey Cardigan - Primark £10 (ok so I said i wasn't going to do it but I just needed something to keep me going until I found the 'perfect' one)

2. White Leather Converse £45 (My pink ones have seen better days)

3. Still lusting after a handbag.

4. Dress

5. Space

I've started training for my first half marathon and also in preparation for the great north run.

Here's a link to my Sponsorship page, I'm raising money for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. This is such a great cause & one close to my heart. In June 2013 my Stepdad was diagnosed with a rare aggressive type of Non- Hodgkins Lymphoma, he has since undergone chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant and is currently doing extremely well. I hope he's going to take me out cycling hills soon ;-)