I have had a naughty week this week and as a result I have put on weight. At the begining of the week I lost half a pound so my overall weight loss was half a stone BUT since then I have had a very bad lunch with mum and a BBQ so all in all I have put on a pound and a half. Grumble grumble.

I am sure it is only a temporary set back and I don’t have any plans for naughty meals during the next week or so so hopefully the weight will start falling off again!

Oh and I only got the gym once this week and didn’t do any walking as my son broke his toe so 1. I had to do the school run and 2. obviously he couldn’t walk any distance to walk with me……

I have found four new products in the past week and I wonder how I managed without them!

First, my skincare. I popped into the Body Shop and decided to give their Vitamin E skincare range a go as I felt that my skin needed a little boost. I decided to use their Illuminating cream and also their night cream. Both of which I really really like and can see the difference already. My skin is clearer and healthier looking and my mum even said how ‘fresh’ I was looking!

Whilst in the Body Shop I decided to get one of their Tea Tree Oil Blemish Stick for those pesky outbreaks. I have used this on a spot and it has virtually disappeared and without over drying it as well so you can still cover it with make up easily.  

The other wonder product I have discovered is from Holland and Barrett. I wanted to get something to help my weight loss a little but something that wasn’t too ’artifical’. After speaking to a very nice lady who works there I decided on their Super Green Tea Diet Pills.  I have always been a little weary about diet pills so I spent a lot of time googling these and believe it or not, I couldn’t find anything bad about them at all!

Basically I have to take a pill mid morning and a pill mid afternoon and this is enough to help curb my appetite (not too much but enough to stop the snacking!) and also increase my metabolism. And I have to say I am really pleased with the results! I have a lot more energy so instead of just sitting in my armchair I am finding things to do and therefore being more active. I have also found it easier to resist the snacking so all in all I am happy! There is one down side though, I can’t stop talking for about two hours after taking them! And believe me I can talk for England at the best of times LOL! My poor Dad is the one who has copted it the most as he was at mine all weekend and I work with him - poor man! Ha ha!

Woo Hoo I have lost three and a half Ibs this week!

I have been sticking to my 1400 Kcals a day but only went to the gym once but I have spent all weekend doing some serious gardening so i’m sure I have burnt quite a few calories that way!

Virgin Radio ran a competition this morning asking the question ‘would you rather?’.

My friends daughter actually won this competition and her prize is an electric guitar signed by Snow Patrol! Needless to say she is very pleased!

Her winning question was - ‘Would you rather Jeremy Clarkson for Prime Minister or Gene Hunt (Ashes to Ashes) as Head of the Police?’

So my question is, which would you rather? It’s a really tricky question and to be honest I can’t decide!

I haven’t lost a pound this week but neither have I gained any either.

So what’s gone wrong? Well I have no idea, I have been sticking to my 1400 Kcals a day, I went to the gym twice and I did some walking. I did go to a party on Saturday night which had a free bar and a buffet but to be honest I hadn’t lost any weight before I went.

Any ideas anyone? Surely I should have lost something?

  or  

The gym I attend provides you with a free copy of the Daily Mail so recently I have been reading it. Now normally the Sun would be my newspaper of choice but now I am quite enjoying the Daily Mail.

Does this mean I am getting old and turning into my parents?

I am finding the Daily Mail particually interesting as I agree with all they are writing about the state of this country. What with the cost of food and petrol ever increasing and the state of our prisons. However that is a whole different topic all together!

So at the tender age of 32 should I be enjoying the Daily Mail so much that I would prefer it to the Sun?

St. George’s Day is celebrated on April 23rd. The life of St. George, the patron saint of England, is shrouded in legend and fable.

Most famously he slayed a ‘dragon’ in Libya, and saved a sacrificial maiden. He distributed a reward amongst local villagers.

St. George held a senior post in the Roman Army, before being executed for protesting about the treatment of Christians under the rule of Emporer Dioclesian.

His popularity spread throughout Europe from the 10th Century onwards, following stories of his chivalrous actions.

English Heritage has launched a campaign to dispel the apathy surrounding St George’s Day and encourage more people to celebrate their patron saint.

A survey by the Government agency revealed that 82 per cent of the public knows that St George’s Day falls today, but fewer than one in five actually celebrates the occasion.

I think we should have a bank holiday just like the Irish do on St Patricks Day.

It was good to see the English spirit alive and well walking to work this morning. I saw vans with the England flag hanging out their windows, my local sandwich shop had England flags and banners outside and I saw a pub covered in England flags.

I am proud to be English and I wish we would be given the opportunity to celebrate it as a country.

Thank you to Burkes Peerage and The Telegraph for some of this post.

I broke one of my most important dieting rules today, it was beautiful sunshine outside and I didn’t go for my walk….. Bad Nici I hear you all cry….BUT……I did something far more exciting…..

I got a new phone! A nice shiny Nokia N95! I had a pay as you go phone and was getting fed up with running out of credit and not being able to access my voicemail and also having no credit for an emergency so I decided to go back on contract.

It does everything you can imagine! I can access my googlemail very easily, I can chat on MSN Messenger and Skype and even visit my favourite websites.

It’s the most beautiful phone EVER!

I have lost 3 and half Ibs!

I have strictly stuck to 1400 Kcals a day without any real problems. I have been eating a lot more veg and salad which of course hardly has any calories at all in them so I have then been able to eat something slightly less healthy with them like fishfingers! I have been keeping a food diary so I can keep an eye on my calorie consumption and this has really helped, although a few of my friends have laughed at me when I got my pad out of my bag and wrote the calories a cup of tea has down!

I didn’t manage the walking five times like planned, I only went twice purely because the weather has been so rotten but I did go to the gym twice.

I am really pleased with my progress this week and hopefully next week will be just as good!

Synopsis from Amazon:

“The Pillars of the Earth” tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known; of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect - a man divided in his soul; of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame; and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother. A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett’s historical masterpiece.

My thoughts:

What a wonderful book!

Set in the twelfth century, Ken Follett tells what it would have been like to live in this time. The poverty, the living accomodations, the fighting were all told in great detail.

The characters were brilliantly written and the book flowed from one character to another very well. Some of the characters you couldn’t help but love but some, including one in particular was pure evil and another was very cunning in the worse possible ways.

Even though this book was a mammouth 1,075 pages long, I was still turning the pages as if it had only just begun. Ken Follett keeps your attention right to the last page and to be honest I didn’t want this book to end. I am going to miss it!

10/10