Number 5

Afternoon all :)

Me on the weekend with Donut and Fudge :) 

So weigh day is here and i am pleased to confirm that I lost a further 2lbs this week :) Yey!! I really am so great full to my lovely nurse for setting me straight about my health problems, and how my diet and weight were making me ill! I am on the path to slimdom and I am not going to falter! I have passed my overall 5% goal now too, which means that my health complaints will of started to decrease - YEY again!!

Ok, so to today's post...


I had a mini melt down on the weekend, I suffer with manic depression but am controlling it with tablets, but this weekend wasn't right. I went grocery shopping by myself (oh yes, no children!! hehe) which I would normally love, but I found myself panicking over which food to buy, how much it would cost, & disappointing everyone. Very random I know. I powered through it and managed to complete the shop without running out of there like the roadrunner, but I felt such unease for about an hour afterwards! Luckily I have felt better since, I even managed to do some housework in the kitchen which made me feel better too :) I must say though that I am glad to have less of these panicky episodes, so now when they appear it is such a shock hehe that it almost makes it worse as I am not expecting to feel that way! I hope by telling you this you realise your no alone in your own craziness!! lol.


Now housework - I have never been a domestic goddess (how I wish I was) but before Christmas I managed to keep the entire house clean and tidy for around 2 months!! This for me is a record, but lately I have found my concentration suffering, in part due to the depression, and so concentrating on more than one thing is impossible - e.g: diet and exercise, or mum duties and housework duties - I can't seem to do both! To try and help with this I make lists, spreadsheets, goals but still I seem to be failing when it comes to it! I recently downloaded a housework binder printable from Clean Mama Printable's on Etsy in the hope that it would help, now these are absolutely gorgeous and so helpful but I can't get my head into gear to do it!! I do hope over the next few weeks I manage to claw back the housewife side of me and manages to get the house tidy/clean again! It can't be nice for the boys to have a messy house now can it?!


I have been getting so many questions on my facebook about my diet and how I'm doing it, what I'm doing - so I thought I would share with you a week in my life meal plan - first, you'll need to print off this free planner from here (organisedhome.com is amazing), now here is my completed meal plan :)

I hope this helps guys :)

Finally I just want to share this gorgeous picture of my youngest son Morgan with you - we went to the beach over the weekend and, well, he got covered in sand!! So as a treat I gave him an extra long bath (we normally have quick showers as there are the 3 of them) and this was the result - a new hair style :D

I'll be back again soon, promise!

Sam

♥♥♥♥ 

Number 4

So...

Firstly an apology for taking so long to finally getting a blog up - I have had so many technical issues with blogger the last week I have actually gone grey... well not actually but you get my point! but I am pleased to report tat I am here, not quite back to normal (I can't upload any new piccies) but here none the less!

Now I have written and re written this blog post to try and get it visible so hopefully 17th times the charm. My gorgeous son Mathew broke his thumb on the weekend playing a rugby match. He is the more timid of my boys, but was sooooo brave when we went to the hospital - he can't however write, play Xbox, play rugby, do karate or swimming for a few weeks so he's feeling pretty fed up!

In other news, I am doing really well wit my healthy eating - I lost a further 4lbs this week which makes 13lbs in total, in just 3 weeks! Go Me! My children and husband are very supportive (even if they eat chocolate in front of me!) checking what I can and can't have, and only ever jokingly put food in front of my face sometimes! LOL Seriously though they are a great help,I couldn't do it if I didn't have the support - also all my lovely Facebook followers are supportive too and I get excited every weigh day to tell you all how I'm doing! I'm hoping for another loss this week and will update you on monday.

Now I want to bring a cause that is very close to my heart to your attention, but first the back story as to why. 

My son Michael is 7 years old and is fit and healthy - he does karate, swimming, rugby, running, sports and anything else active or outside. He loves animals and drawing and is very good in school. To look at him he just looks like any other 7 year old (excepting that he is super tall!) however under the surface he has a condition called cerebral paulsy. 

Now firstly I want to quash any thoughts you had that people/children with it are wheelchair bound, can't speak and are severely challenged in every day life - this is not always the case, it varies to all extremes. When I was pregnant with Michael I had 3 horrid urine infections which have affected the growth of a certain part of his brain (like a stroke) and caused the cerebral paulsy. 

As soon as Michael could walk we noticed that his foot in-tuned, this was misdiagnosed and treatment failed.  In what feels like 100 different doctor's appointment and tests we finally had a diagnosis. As he has grown bigger and got older his symptoms haven't worsened but more have become apparent. To date he has bladder problems, a seriously high pain threshold (so if he gets hurt it's very hard to tell), falling, over tired,weakness in his left leg and left arm/hand, and finally he feels the cold even when it's hot!. Almost every night after stopping being active his left side droops like a stroke and he is in a lot of pain. He looses strength in his left hand and can't grip properly,  he walks with a limp and in-turned foot. In school he can't bend his left leg like other children so he finds it very uncomfortable to sit for any length of time on the floor, so he as a special seat in assembly or during any events in the hall. 

Michael very rarely let's any of this stop him - for the past 3 years in school he has won all the running, obstacle, skipping races and sack races he has been in, he is also the star player on the rugby team scoring tries every game and tagging relentlessly, he takes part in weekly karate and is almost ready to go for his first belt, he swims every week (twice from next week) and is on the same stage as his older brother. He is so outgoing and enthusiastic about everything that he makes every day a delight! Of course we have our bad times when he is naughty like any 7 year old but crikey the good outweigh the bad.

                 

              Monkey                                             Exploring rock pools                                      Ready to play rugby

I wanted to share this with you just to highlight cerebral paulsy and the wonderful organisation that is Scope which every year raises money to help support families and sufferers of it. Having taken a leaf out of so may stories from them we strive to support Michael to achieve his goals - he wants to play for the Scarlet's rugby team and then the Welsh rugby team when he gets older - and most importantly to keep him active. He doesn't know that e has this disorder, he just knows that something is wrong in his head which makes his leg poorly, but when the time comes we will have to tell him, and explain that he needs to continue the example and path that we have set him on with activity levels - if Michael slows down and stops moving as much he could potentially loose the use of his left leg, and eventually his arm too. 

One of the main things we haven't done is class/register him as disabled, even though technically he is I want him to have every possibility possible in his life, I don't want him to get older and feel like he has to live up to the disability, claim benefits and sit on his bum for the rest of his life (If the time comes where he finally needs to then we will be there to help but it is not for us right now). He will never get better, and he may get much, much worse but he is a fighter and strong and whatever happens in the future we are there for  him, as are the people from Scope - with support and guidance. We love him more than life, as do we the other 2.

So that is all from me this time - I will be back on Monday for weight loss update and with a super healthy recipe that looks to god to be true! I hope you take the time to have a look on the Scope site, it really is wonderful!

Later's Everybody :D

xx