Weigh in 3

Another great week slimming and another loss, I hope I can keep this going!

I visited Dermalogica HQ today for more training, I just cant get enough.  Its easier to learn in a subject that you are passionate about, and helping ladies feel good in their own skin is very rewarding.

I pulled out my favourite scarf for my trip to the big city lol.

After my class I went for a back massage and even after losing only 8 lbs I could actually feel a difference in my body, I really needed that boost as I had no food prepared and the drive thrus and chip shops were calling me, really loudly!  I managed to get myself almost home and decided to pop into my local petrol station to pick up some fruit and there working away was one of the ladies who won a back massage donated by my salon at slimming world group just yesterday, I was so glad to see her face and share my driving past the drive thru story with someone who really understood, she agreed that some days are really hard but smiled and looked at my basket full of fruit. 

Online Skin Analysis

Over the past few weeks quite a few people have asked me for skincare advice online, I feel like I am disappointing them as I dont have the answer of a miracle product for breakouts.  My advice is and will always be to visit a professional salon and have a consultation and skin analysis to determine the cause/s of your breakouts. 

The most important thing to remember is that the skin, lifestyle, diet and budget of your friend or favourite beauty blogger is never going to 100% match yours, and so what works for them may not be for you.  The best advice you can take from your friend is the name and telephone number of the professional beauty therapist they know and trust and then pay them a visit.

Dear Diary

It has been a busy busy week at work with new products coming in, Crest White Strips are in demand, exciting times.

My slimming world is still going well, lots of home cooking, fruit and vegetables, hoping for another 2lbs off this Tuesday.

I needed a little retail therapy this week and opted for these as I don't want to buy clothes, they are super cute, just hope Bentley isn't embarrassed by his mummy in pink wellies haha. 

A few hours later I found myself ordering a dress for my valentines date night - I wont post a picture as George sometimes reads my blog, and I want to impress him on the night.

Bye for now
Chelle

Weigh in 2

I have been thinking about weigh in 2 since I woke up on Sunday morning feeling dehydrated after a huge meal and bottle of wine.  Every other day I simply stuck to Slimming World plan and ate syn free apart from 2 del monte juice ice lollies which are 3.5 syns. 

The result is .............

I am so happy with this, 2lbs is what I am aiming for each week, and I wont be dining out again until 14th February, when we are going to Berts at The Merchant Hotel and I am hoping to wear something HOT!

How has your week of slimming been?
Chelle

Education Evolving and Exfoliation

What a weird title, let me explain.  I am a beauty therapist, and education is very important to me, this is one of the reasons I decided to train at a private college where outside examiners come in and observe students working under exam conditions, imagine for a moment doing a busy 8 hour day with an examiner looking over your shoulder and asking you in depth questions all while you are maintaining a professional environment in front of your client, its stressful, but I do have a sense of achievement knowing that I was tested and proved myself.


When a newly trained ITEC / CIDESCO therapist leaves college they do so with a huge knowledge of the human body and the detailed workings of electrical salon equipment and off they go to do what they love to do, which is make people feel good in their own skin.


The problem comes when a therapist thinks they know it all, don't get me wrong I do know it all about the products that I use and the equipment that I use along side them, this is because I have not stopped learning and evolving as a therapist, I attend classes at least every month on subjects from skin, massage, nails and waxing etc.  But I do not know it all about what is coming next in terms of ingredients, techniques, trends and new equipment and this is the reason that I have made a promise to both myself and my business to stay educated by attending classes every month of every year.


Now were does exfoliation come into all of this, well in my experience this is where most clients are going wrong, the skin care world has moved on a lot from scrubbing our faces with crushed apricot kernels (though granular scrubs are beneficial for younger very oily skins).  Get into your local professional salon and find out about lactic acid, salicylic acid, rice bran and lots of other goodies.

Blowing The Budget

Last night I had 23049823904 Slimming World syns, approximately.

We went out for a friends birthday dinner, it took me 15 minutes to decide between ordering a glass of wine or a bottle, only for the comedy of our waitress asking me how many glasses I needed with the bottle........... eh one thanks :)

The food was a lot better than I expected, I had only ever had lunch at The Pheasant before which was good pub grub.  Last night I dined on delicious fillet steak and the 23049823904 syns pepper sauce!

So all in all I had a lovely weekend, seeing friends and feeding my face.  I am totally ok with my synful dinner as we don't go out that often so in winter I wont be holding back from steak and dessert, in the warmer days however I will order delicious salads and not feel like I am missing anything.

Tomorrow I am meeting with my local Slimming World leader Caroline to arrange Bliss Beauty Clinic giving massage vouchers for her groups slimmer of the week, then its back to my tax return before visiting my friends new baby Emily.

Feeding My Soul

Tomorrow I have a day of catching up with girlies from my beauty course and being pampered from head to toe.

First of all I am off to see the fabulous Naomi of NB Beauty in Ballymena, I can vouch that she is a fabulous therapist, because I was there when she performed her first advanced bikini wax.......... I was there on the couch experiencing it  lol, anything for a pal.

I am having deluxe mani and pedi and then a much needed back exfoliation, don't be afraid to ask your therapist to perform this before your back massage, its something we just cant master ourselves :), then a back massage....BLISS

Afterwards I am off to catch up with Grainne another Roberta Mechan Beauty College gal who is working at Aura on the Lisburn Road, we are going for coffee.  I must not have a bun, I must not have a bun lol.

I don't see my friends often but when I do it really feeds my soul, even if you have to plan your catch ups weeks/months in advance I encourage you to do it, because when the date rolls around you will have a lovely day together.

Weigh in 1

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO

Can you tell I am pleased?  I am pleased and surprised.  I have been following Slimming World for 7 days, I stuck to the plan, followed all the recipes and honestly ate a lot of food. so much food that I was starting worry that I would not have lost any weight.

I actually lost FIVE pounds! 

I am hoping for another good loss next week and then I would be happy with 2lbs a week, I would be very happy actually.

I think the reasons I had a good week are that I planned my meals and also had lots of fruit and fat free yoghurt at hand.

I am out for dinner on Saturday and feeling a bit nervous about that, so I shall try and find the menu on line and make a good choice.

Bye for now
Chelle

Customer Service

Now before I start into my rant lets be clear that in any business there are going to be problems, the item you ordered hasn't arrived into store, the hotel has overbooked etc etc

I am not the type of person to get hot under the collar about these things, and usually the company does their best to address the problem and make you the client feel valued to ensure you will return and spend more of your hard earned £

However today I came up against an argumentative patronising employee, who wouldn't admit his team messed up, accused me of lying, and then - this is my pet hate - he refused to work with another dept of his business to resolve my problem, and told me to contact them myself.  Again let me stress that I do understand that in lots of businesses especially retail stores the shop staff cannot access information to resolve the problem, but this would not have been an issue for Mr Patronising, he simply didn't want to take responsibility for the problem, deal with it and ensure that I, the client was happy.

So now Mr Patronising has made this simple problem, a nightmare.

So when a customer approaches you with a problem, gives you all the information, and explains very clearly what they need to happen next, please either do what is necessary asap, or lift the phone and speak to your customer, explain the options, apologise and make a plan to resolve the issue.  Do not ignore them for a week and then when they call to follow up call them a liar, talk over them and be aggressive, this only makes the situation horrible, and makes me the client wonder why they give you thousands of pounds every year.

Be nice to your clients, or soon, they will be someone elses!

Chelle

Slimming Sunday

Not much excitement today, but that's not what Sundays are for anyways.  A trip to B&Q, yes I am one of those boring people, and then time to stock up on some more vegetables and 7 jars of herbs and spices for my slimming world recipes.

Today is cottage pie, again all syn free!

This is enough to feed about 6 people, ooopppssss

This was my 1/6 portion (still huge) which was delicious and I am full to the top. 

We shall be having this tomorrow evening again, and tomorrow I will plan more meals.  Time for me to get back to my tax return now, why oh why did I not file my receipts at the end of each week?

Syn Free Saturday Night

I had a lovely day at Bliss today, chatting and pampering my friends.

Tonight is low key, a movie and a snuggle :)

Dinner was syn free and yet tasted as dirty as a Saturday night feed should.

But before we get to dinner, look at this picture.  Bright, fresh, healthy food, almost beautiful.

Dinner was syn free chicken kebab on chips, think country fried chicken stylee.  Another recipe from Sera, THANK YOU!  I also made my first batch of Slimming World chips, and yes they are a tiny bit of work but they are delicious, I don't like normal oven chips so I am glad to have found these and the fact they are syn free is a bonus.

Now my dinner photo doesn't look very appealing, but believe me, and Sera, when we say it hits the spot.
Make sure and check out her blog at Click for blog

Have a great weekend everyone
Chelle

Preparing to succeed

Today I went to Asda to stock up on my healthy foods, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, and a few things which I need to check the syn value on before I eat them, sugar free jelly being one.

For lunch I had scrambled egg, ham, tomato and mushrooms - v good, AND then for dessert I had melon, grape and muller light.  Dinner was a recipe from Sera Click here for her facebook page, chilli and garlic burger, it felt good making food from scratch, that's the feeder in me again.

I did mess up a bit though, I planned to make slimming world chips but didn't want to wait that long on dinner, so I had a white bread bap with my burger, which I think is 14.5 syns, while this is OK and I haven't gone over my daily allowance of syns it is still such a waste.  But this only spurs me on more to always be prepared, especially on nights like tonight when I was working.

ASOS delivers

After my last ASOS success I decided to treat myself to this lovely red dress, and its fabulous!

I also got a belt, and yet again its true to size.  This makes me very happy as I find belts hard to find.

My Slimming is going well, though that's to be expected on day 2 hahahaha.  I am having lots of fresh fruit, yummy.  I am going to do a big shop tomorrow to be prepared, my downfall is that I work evenings and its oh so easy to nip to the chippy at 9pm, this wont happen as I will have food ready in the slow cooker.

I am off to look for healthy soup recipes now.

Chelle

My body is a temple

I am 14 stone and 5ft!  Now that is out of the way I can get onto telling you of my plan to slim down.

I am going to follow the food plan of Slimming World but have decided not to attend class, the last class I went to was simply getting weighed in and then the class leader calling out each persons weight loss and a round of applause for each, that's not really motivational for me and as Slimming World give most of their food plan upfront I feel well equipped to get going.

I am going to weigh in each Tuesday with my friend, using the Wii.  We might even have a "play" on the Wii and definitely get out for a walk on dry nights, I don't do rain.

I am also going to use my Silhouette faradic machine at Bliss, this machine contracts and relaxes muscles while you relax, it is a weird sensation, I love it!  It also increases metabolism, blood circulation and lymph circulation to help the body remove toxins.  It can be used on lots of areas, tummy, arms, thighs, and buttocks.

Home made

Vegetable broth has a special place in my heart, my nanny Murray made the tastiest soup in the world.  However I had never really tasted it properly until I was around 11.  I didn't like vegetables, so she would strain them out for me and give me the broth with some potatoes in the middle.  I was often mocked as nanny's favourite by my family at the dinner table, as nanny was a strict lady.  I don't think she was spoiling me, she just wanted to make sure I got the goodness of the broth.

Nanny would sometimes use the chicken left over from the carcass, if I am adding chicken I use boneless skinless chicken thighs.  She would get her vegetables from the green grocers all wrapped up in newspaper and at home she would chop them all herself, this is an important part of making a tasty soup, when you chop your own veg the kitchen fills with the smell and the soup is much fresher, I use scissors for the greens, it doesn't take long at all.  I don't like barley so I leave it out, sometimes I add red lentils to fill the soup out a little.  About an hour before the soup is ready to be served I add a tin of condensed chicken soup, and that my friends is it.

Vegetable broth is something that I think every household can rely on

Young children can get some wholesome goodness and a memory :)
Teens have an unprocessed snack that they can reheat themselves, after school etc
Twentysomethings can freeze small bags of soup to take to work, more pennies for nights out
Thirtysomethings+ can enjoy their soup and feel good about it helping their slimming goals - maybe that's just me!

Blowing away the cobwebs

Today we headed to Tullymore forest park for a big walk to kickstart my slimming attempt and just to get outside in the fresh air.  I enjoy the walk but always forget about the hill climb at the end, I am soo unfit.

The day was very cold and so I was bundled up like this

Yes shocker, beauty therapists do leave home without makeup, infact I am not really into makeup at all.  Let me explain my huge sunglasses, firstly I was in disguise lol and secondly I have rosacea on my face and all the protection I can give to my upper cheeks the better.

My youngest sibling has been staying with us for a few days so I grabbed him for a photo, he doesnt really do hugging, my bad

Of course Bentley loves Tullymore, lots of new sniffs

After our walk we decided to visit click ---> Paws 4 Tea in Dundrum, a cafe that welcomes doggies.... Bliss!

Our food was simple home cooked snacks with lots of tea top ups, and it was soo lovely to have Bentley there, please check out their facebook page and go along and support them.

Day 1 in the 2012 world

Last night we had the usual new years celebrations at our friends house, we stay over with them as they have a baby and none of us can be bothered to go out, we were all in our jammies by 10pm...........  Next year I would like to go somewhere fancy and have a lush late dinner and some bubbles.  This wont happen, and even if it did I probably wouldn't enjoy it as I don't really relax at events, I feel a weird pressure that everything should be perfect and life just isn't like that.

Today I have been narky and irritable, like I want to stand on top of a mountain and scream my head off to release something.  I think this comes from days and days of holiday time, I need to get back to work and give myself some purpose.

And so I shall say goodbye and go achieve something.
Chelle