The switch...

So its official my diet as switched back to slimming world. Not up for attending classes yet, but when I looked back at my food diaries for weight watchers I had pretty much had slimming world days anyways. So weight watchers runs out at the end of the month so I can use the food diary on there until then no more. Bit sad but I'll still have Neenie to help me. Although she jets off soon for a holiday so I am not sure how I'll cope at work with the crisp craving haha.

x

11 weeks and counting...

until Bristol Half. I am thinking 'holy moly how did that happen' and slighly starting to panic myself. But I have a plan. A good plan adapted from by one a lovely lady from a forum sent me. Had this last week off with all the social events. Back to this week.

I have been enjoying the training. A couple of my friends have started and although I was slightly annoyed that they were getting as good as I was in a few weeks, I got over it. Now I see it as an extra chance to see them socially, we don't have to worry about what to wear (well, we're not supposed to anyways) and it doesn't cost anything. We laugh about how red and sweaty we get while running, compare our horrible feet (slightly gross!) and enjoy slightly out of breath chats.

I have good friends, they only started coming because I told them I needed some motivation to train for this. So no matter how fed up and cannot be bothered I feel at work on running days I make myself go. If I don't go then they probably won't go and they make the effort when I want to go. So it's only right I make the effort back when I can't be.

So my running plan this week looks like this:

Monday - 2.5m
Tuesday - 3m
Wednesday - rest
Thursday 3m
Friday - rest
Saturday - 3m
Sunday - 6m

Emm what next?

It's been a while since I blogged. Alot has been happening, we've been to the Whitlock wedding which was amazing, we took our nieces to Eureka! which was also amazing - the loved it and we've been to London which was the most fun we've had in ages!

I'll start with the Whitlock wedding. Friday 17th June - Rivington Hall Barn. Was lovely. Expected something different bcos the bride and groom are a bit quirky. And they most certainly didn't disappoint. Walked into the Barn and it was decorated with white chair covers and instead of 1 colour they had the sashes in pink, blue, green, purple, orange and teal. It looked great. I said to hubs 'I wonder where he is , he's not at the front already' when the registrar came out and asked us all to stand. Then explained normally you stand for the bride but they had requested we stay seated. Then lady gaga started playing and the groom came out first dancing down the aisle. Followed by the bridesmaid in black jumpsuits. They all looked amazing. Then the bride came in an amzing dress with a brid cage veil. After the ceremony was cocktail hour, followed by afternoon tea. They had vintage (I think that's what you would call them?) teacups and saucers and the name places were luggage labels.

After the speechs they changed the room over and they had a barn dance. Was great fun - I had expected not to enjoy it as I am not really a dancer (well other than drunk dancing to some cheesey pop) but it gave everyone a chance to meet and just have a laugh really. Then they had their official first dance to Alica Keys New York as that's where they got engaged. The buffet was a hog roast and they served wedding cake which was 3 tiers of prok pie!

A great day! And I even had a pretty dress courtesy of my mum who wanted to buy me one. No reason why really, I had said I wanted on and she said she would treat me :)
And it meant I got to wear my wedding shoes again...however, they were much less comfortable than I remember!

Saturday was hangover free - not sure how I managed that as it was free wine. Was glad as we had agreed to look after Tom's nieces - we decided to take them to Eureka! which is a kids meseum. As I didn't grow up here I have never been. We all loved it. Was great fun :)

Sunday was a quiet one before we set off to London baby! I have never been to London, other than change trains. So I was really excited. That lasted for a few minutes after we had arrived at Earls Court tube station. When I accidently knocked a lady with my bag to get told off by her, then when trying to get out of the way got told off by another man, then the lady again and then again. Oooopsy, not like I meant it. I was so embarrassed and a bit annoyed that I could have actually burst into tears. I spent the rest of the week sticking to the right everywhere we went so I wasn't in anyones way.

We did all the usual sights, London Eye, Harrods, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Hyde Park, Ice Bar, Meseums. Shattered.com after it all. But had a great fun. Didn't think about work for 1 second.

In my holiday mode I also didn't think about my diet. Had:

And cocktails, wine, cider and beer! That pizza looks huge, I won't lie it was big but the angle of the photo doesn't help. It was yummy though. But it hasn't done me any favours.

Which leads me on to the reason I was blogging before I started blabbing. I have been doing weight watchers and have lost around 8lb in 10 (I think its 10) weeks. Which is ok. But I don't enjoy it. It normally means although me and hubs can have the same dinner, we need to cook them seperate to make sure mine is right for points. I miss not having to worry about seperating them. That's why slimming world worked so well for me. We could cook everything together. It's got me thinking. I only have a couple of weeks of my subsciption for ww online left. Do I stop and switch back to slimming world. I don't think I'll go to group, but I have everything I need. Its such a hard thing to decide. I have no idea why, I have done both now and I am sure slimming world suits my lifestyle better. But weight watchers gives me freedom to eat honey nut for breakfast (sad but true, I missed these alot when I was on slimming world)

Will give myself 2 weeks to decide. Hmmmm really what is next in the diet of Mrs Murphy :S

Moan, moan, moan

Rubbish day!! And all I want to do is moan. About important stuff like work and then not so important stuff like my friend can now run the same distance as me in the same time and its taken her a month, compared to my year.

But sometimes I moan too much. I moan if I sleep in, get up too early, its raining, its too warm, I have nothing to wear, I have too much clothes to wash, I can't do it, I'm the only that can do it etc etc. Basically I could happily sit here and moan away.

From now on, I am going to quit moaning. Well try to replace this with me being positive about 5 things each day.

Starting from now:
1. I ran 3 miles today
2. I found my 'missing' 9222 shares
3. my hubs made me dinner
4. I helped my friend choose a hostel for her travels
5. I told my hubs me makes me very happy

The start of summer...

And its raining in Halifax - how typical.
I am not back to my wedding weight as hoped - always typical but not surprising.

I am not worried too much about the rain, I am working so it doesn't bother me too much. Hopefully weekends can be dry?! Please!!!!

The weight though bothers me. Last summer I was slimmer, 1st 2lbs slimmer to be exact, but I didn't enjoy myself like I thought I would. I was too busy stressing over the 3lbs I still had to go...3lbs that took 3 months to get off! I ran tonight (the Bristol half training going well!) but I really felt heavy. I could feel my bum wobbling and my belly - felt awful. I know how to fix it, I really do but its finding the motivation to do it that is hard.

I love food, I love socialising with food. I also love cider. I love socialising with that too. Put the 2 together and it not only makes a drunk Cheryl it makes a happy one. Why do these things have to be 2 things that can cause trouble for my body! I can make good food choices, however, I can't seem to make good drink choices . More effort required on this!

My aims for June are as follows:
*lose 2lbs - we have a wedding next week and London the week after so it will be tough!
*get new hair - bit of a cheat, its booked for next Saturday. Bye bye red hair, hello brown
*keep running - not matter what the weather is like, if I don't feel like it at all
*spend more quality time with my husband. We might live together but sometimes we don't speak much. Must change this.

Trip down memory lane....

Last September just before I set target about 4 weeks before the wedding, the group I went to had a 'women of the year' competition. You had to have lost over 2st to be able to nomintaed and the class had to vote. People could nominate you to be entered if you didn't want to do it your self.

My friend Natalia wrote me a poem as my nomination:

My Friend Cheryl

My friend Cheryl was really pleased,
Her boyfriend Tom had got down on one knee.
She was very excited with a wedding to plan,
Now to find her dream dress to wed her dream man.

The hunt began for the perfect dress
But with each one she tried she felt more distress.
She'd tried 26 diets in the last 7 years
With no luck on any she was close to tears.

But then she heard about Slimming World, lots of pasta and chips
Eat as much as you like and still get smaller hips.
Green days are her favourite, she even likes quorn,
By adopting a new lifestyle, her weight would be gone.

She swapped fat coke for diet and pizza for pasta
Adding some Body Magic to lose the weight faster.
More fruit and fresh veg, Tom helped with the cooking,
She started to like how her body was looking.

Again to the shops to find the dream dress,
And at last she had found it, she was going to impress.
But it didn't stop there, she continued to run
She was still determined to get a smaller.................tum!!

Now only 4 weeks to go before the Big Day
You've worked hard this last year to get looking this way.
Now you've lost 4 stone and you're not so big,
The first dance with Tom could be a wee Highland jig.

I asked you "after the wedding what will then be your trigger,
To keep up the good work and maintain your new figure?"
You said you love buying clothes and you'd still want to run
And you couldn't do that if you had a big ...........bum!!

So my friend Cheryl, what can I say
You will look amazing on your big day.
You have been my inspiration and you got me here
Thats why I nominate you as my 'Woman of the Year'.

I won! I went to the regional finals and met some truly inspirational women, was a great day!!

I still get emotional when I read/think about it. I have printed it out and pinned it to my desk, to help me focus at work. It really busy and normally when I am stressful situations I want to eat crisps. No crisps allowed so I just need to remind myself of how well I have done. This extra 10lbs (was 16lbs) is going to go soon. With a little help from my running shoes and of course Neenie!

Tempted to sign up for Bristol Half after the disaster that was my training for Edinburgh. Have made a promise to myself that I'll train for 4 weeks and then I'll decide properly whether or not I'm going to sign up. So it started tonight, I went with my friend and another one came along tonight too. Ogden water looked lovely again, such a nice night. We all run at different stages so we kind of run apart.

Was good and I really enjoyed it. Managed 2.30 miles in 23 mintes. So pleased with that.

Plan to get me out running/active for the next 4 weeks:

Monday - body pump, 60 minutes
Tuesday - swimming, 40 minutes
Wednesday - running, at least 20 minutes
Thursday - rest day
Friday - rest day
Satuday - Park run 5k
Sunday - swim/easy run

Sorted.

All work and no play...well not quite

Crazy work! Spent most of my weekend at the office...boo. But I did manage to fit in some fun times.

Friday night = curry night
I had an awful day on Friday. I was trying to survive on just a few hours sleep so I was moody. Come 7pm when the girls came over all for forgotten. We had such a laugh. We don't do it enough so when we all get together we just laugh, chat and we have been known to break into song. Over the years we have changed so much as a group that are never short of something to talk about. Currently in our group of 6 there is: 1 married lady, 3 engaged ladies, 1 in a serious relationship and 1 single lady. 2 own homes, 3 rent and 1 lives at home, 3 on diets, 2 natrually skinny ladies, 1 pregnant lady (who looks fab, only weight that has gone on is her bump, sooo jealous!) and out of us one is planning to go travelling in October - all of the above make the over conversations very random. One minute we'll be discussing houses then suddenly we'll be talking about shoes. I love it. We need to make it a more regualr thing :)

Saturday afternoon from 2pm
I was at a beer/cider festival. I thought I quite liked proper cider and ale but Saturday proved to me I am more a strongbow girl. I tried 4 types of cider and 1 ale (all half pints) and I didn't like any of them. Hubs found some beers he likes one called 'tangerine duck' bought purely as it shares it name with the colour of the other love in life Blackpool FC. We headed to a pub at 5 to watch Spurs v Blackpool. Disappointing they didn't win :(
Out with hubs friends, one couple appear to be applying for 'don't tell the bride' would love to see the guy plan a wedding, would make great viewing.

Sunday morning
Quick Sainsbury shop, quick clean and work. zzzzzzzzz Boring, no more to be said really.
2 of our friends ran Leeds Half - one did it on 2.06 and the other 2.32. Awesome!

Today has been pretty poo. Although even after a bad diet day on Saturday I maintained. So pleased I didn't gain.

So onwards and downwards this week!
x

Busy bee

I am using my lunch time to catch up on internet time. I used to spend ages on the internet catching up on news, forum time and facebook. Now it seems I dont have any time to do these things at all. Lunch times recently have been spent walking into town with my two best friends in the sunshine. Today feel cooler and one of them has the doctors and one of them only works half day on Thursday/Friday. Perfect excuse not to move from the warm office.

Today sees the start of what is a busy work/social weekend. I am working until 5pm tonight, home cook tea and wash my hair. Ready to come back to work at 10pm where I will be until around 3am. Back home, sleep until 8am, breakfast/ready for work which is a 9am start. Here until 5pm Friday and then the girls come for curry at around 7 which I am supposed to be making. Staurday work begins again 8am until 2pm. Beer/cider festival from 2pm onwards, hubs wants to watch Blackpool game at 5pm and then we're meeting everyone in town around 8pm. Sunday we really should go to church and I should really do a long run since yesterdays love of running. I am typing all of this wondering 1. where I'll find the time to actually make the curry I've promised given that I offered as I didn't want take away for diet reasons 2. I could do with a quick clean before the girls come but I have other things to be doing and 3. when do I sleep?! For the next few days I may have to rely on coffee to keep me awake, but it will all be worth it. I love seeing the girlies, something we don't do nearly enough, I love spending nights out with hubs and his mates they crack me up, Sunday I'll feel great and proud of myself once I have completed my run. And the most important bit - on payday the lack of sleep will be worth it when I see the bank balance.

The cleaning can wait, after all I am not a scruff so they probably won't even notice.

Running shoes have come out of the closet

And I am wondering why I ever left them in there for so long.

Its been a good week. Since Easter something has really clicked in my head and suddenly I have new found love of wanting to eat well and want to get out and exercise. Weight watchers online has really helped. Suddenly I have to concentrate on what I am eating, plan my meals and really aim to to eat as much fruit and vegtables as I can, not just because they are pro point free but I actually like them. Being good saw my weight change by 6lbs in a week, yes 6lbs. I was amazed and nearly cried in the middle of boots. I managed to hold it together just, rung hubs told him. Then text my diet buddy Neen, we signed up 2 days apart and have been emailing/texting like crazy about. Love that we are at the same stage, really helps with stuff.

Last week was my first run in ages. I went with my friend Stacey and we both really struggled, we have both been piling on the pounds since my wedding. So off we went, not as far as we would have liked but it was a start. Made a rule Wednesday would be running night.

Plans work for me, like tonight people from work are out for a curry, I declined as I had plans to run. So glad I did. The sun was shining and we went here:

Its Ogden Water. This will now be where I spend every Wednesday night, well next Wednesday at least, my friend goes on holiday and I won't go alone. But when she is back, that's where I will be. Was so peace and having something nice to look at really helps. May even take the hubs for a picnic one Sunday.

Gorgeous end to a rubbish day at work...

Wow busy but happy days

Things have been a bit hetic in the Murphy house over the bank holiday. Mr Murphy had all week off so he strarted operation garden. Our garden isn't all that big but it has been seriously forgotten about by the previous owners.

This is what it looked like when Mr Murphy started

He worked really hard though and it looked like this by the end of Day 1


So with the hard work done, I was there to help on Day 2! Off we went to B&Q to buy flowers. Mr Murphy decided that he wanted to plant herbs/strawberries. Two people who know not alot about gardening took nearly an hour to choose what to plant.
Our garden now has, various flowers (I chose them for the colours they will be so I have no idea what they are called :rolls eyes: we have various herbs, carrots, spinach and lettace. The ot has strawberries and yet more herbs. The big black bag has potatoes.

So pleased with the results. Can't wait for things to start to grow. Who knew gardening was so exciting.

With our hard work done, off we went for a walk round the village where we live. Gorgeous end to a gorgeous day:

Happy happy days.

Happy 'fishy' Easter

Easter = a nice long weekend :)

I spent my good Friday in Leeds with one of my best friends Sarah. We shopped, had lunch and a good old catch up! I felt a bit like we hadn't spent alot of time together lately, so was really lovely to be able to chat and just see each other really.

Whilst in The Light, we came across the 'Appy Feet' place. The dipping your feet in fish has been something I wanted to try for a couple of months.

It felt soooo strange. Nothing like I expected at all. I was expecting it to be a bit ticklish and possibly even relaxing. It was neither. I have no other word than odd!

I can feel a difference in my feet though and I hate having pedicures bcos I hate the feel of the pomice stone so I will go again. But I think its safe to say its not going to be something I enjoy.

I did, however, love the sign....



When we came back to Halifax we met up with my lovely husband and his friends. Cue alot of cider and just being silly in general. Met the tallest bar man in the north east, being drunk I asked for a photo, my exact words were 'can I have photo bcos your really tall and I am really small' cringe! Like he didn't know I was small. That's what drinking cider does...

He is very very tall, I don't think I have ever felt so small (and I am almost always the smallest person in a group, well other than kids).

Its safe to safe both me and Mr Murphy woke up Saturday hungover. We had to travel to Blackpool to watch Blackpool v Newcastle. For those who haven't seen the Blackpool strip it looks like this....
Tangerine is not a colour that is good when you feel ill. The train was packed, hot, full of Bradford fans on the way Ackrington and worst of all we had to stand for an hour. We both spent the train journey feeling like we were going to be sick. Burger king in Blackpool helped.

I wouldn't really have called myself a Blackpool fan, I am a Rangers fan. Have been since I was born (not that I would have known anything about it then, so I count it from being 5, this being when I went to my first match that I remember) but I go with Hubs and always cheer them on as he was brought up in Blackpool and really does support them. Anyone who has ever support a team or even just watched their kids play will understand that there is a feeling, an excited but nervous feeling you get when you actually care about what the score is going to be.

I had this on Saturday. I am normally quite a chilled person, I try not to get wound up about pointless things, not to argue too much with anyone. But watching Rangers, I turn into a bit of a loon for 90 minutes. 90 minutes and I get all my anger and frustration about every single decision the ref makes or the ones I think he should have made. Then afterwards I'll go back to being normally. I have been with hubs a couple of times to watch Blackpool, we went to Wembley to watch them get promotion thena couple of weeks ago at Blackburn. Yesterday something was different. I cared what happened but not just for hubs but I was disappointed they didn't win. Maybe I am becoming a Blackpool fan afterall.

Was even more disappointed in the Rangers result today :( Was role reversal in our house today, Sunday is normally cleaning day, I then iron and hubs watches whatever football game is on. I watched Rangers v Celtic, as we wanted to enjoy the sun this afternoon, hubs cleaned :)
Will always be a Rangers fan, only thing spoiling it is the religious stuff. Do not agree at all. Enough said!

Overall an awesome Easter with awesome people.

p.s the Blackpool player is Charlie Adam, I love him, he is Scottish, he used to play for Rangers and is doing well for Blackpool and he spent ages signing autographs for the kids, when the game finished he walked past the fans clapping them. I may call my kid Charlie, I may also have become a bit of a stalker, we were 2 rows back and I took about 25 photos of him warming up lol.

My life in photos

Some of my friends are doing this 30 photos thing on the book of faces, and I've decided that I'm going to join in. Here is my version, can't promise 30 though

♥ someone you spend a lot of time withMy hubs, the person I could spend forever with and not get tired of his company

♥ a picture of you

Love this, my first size 12 dress ever, shame its a tad small now

♥ an old picture of you
Me and my sisters wedding also my heaviest

♥ a picture of your sibling
My sister and her hubs

♥ a picture of someone you miss
my mum and step dad, Scotland is too far

♥ a picture of people you don't see enough
my 'halifax mum' don't see her enough anymore but I know she is always there for me

♥ a person you can tell everything to
Cheryl Cole, aka the very lovely Natalia

♥ a picture of your everyday life
My baby poppy cat

♥ a picture that reminds you of great times
House party 2007

♥ a picture from the best day of your life
easy choice - 25.09.2010 - we became The Murphys

♥ a picture that always makes you laugh
Sarah having a great time

♥ a photo from a great night
July 2010 Mrs Snowdens hen do

♥ a picture of the people who are closest to you
Katie, Sarah D, me, Sarah F BFF's :)

♥ a picture from last summer
Daisey May, the most beautiful baby ever

♥ a picture of you on your favourite holiday
Nice 2007, our first holiday together

♥ a picture of your favourite things
The token of my never ending love for you

♥ a picture of your closest friend
The boy who stole my heart. He really is the best one of the best ones :)

who am I...

I am a wife.

A daughter.
A sister, cousin, grandchild, a neice.
A best friend, and a regular friend.
A cook, a cleaner, and a wannabe runner.

A reader.
A hard worker
A cancer.
A believer.
A cat owner

A little bit weird.

Amongst other things...