Ever since I joined Slimming World and started to respect my body a little more dear reader i've become fascinated with trying to understand how my body works and why I've always had a problem with my weight, it's only in the last couple of years I've really got to grips with that and that's why I'm more than 2 stone lighter than I was in April 2013.

Just lately as I've really been changing my life in all aspects for it I've taken a really hard look at what's going on inside my body as much as I've looked at all of the external things which affect me, my life and my business.

Last week I tentatively started on Davina's 5 weeks to Sugar Free and I'm actually really enjoying it, I've not cut out all sugar yet as it was my birthday, I went out for drinks but it's around a week since I started putting most of it into practice and I'm 2lb down, feel a lot brighter and definitely have more energy during the day.  I am also reading "Sweet Poison, why sugar makes us fat" by David Gillespie recommended to me by a friend and it's a good (although quite heavy in places) book  all around the same subject that refined sugar isn't good for us at all but we're all blooming addicted to it and if we can just restore our bodies to the way they're supposed to work we'll feel and look a whole lot better.

Now obviously I'm not a diet guru just like I'm not a life guru and actually it's probably more the case that if I can do it anyone can but we're all in this together right?  We made it through January and came out of the end better people because we took control, well this is one of the next step because we need to love ourselves and respect ourselves in all areas and that includes what we're putting in our bodies.  I love cake, i'm sorry, I do, it's not my fault!  I've just experimented by making a Victoria sponge using a recipe from Davina's book which substitutes the sugar by using Maple Syrup and which swaps white flour for wholemeal spelt, I can tell you that it was so delish that Looby asked for more!!  Ideally I think no maple syrup or honey would be the ideal but none of us are perfect so if we can just cut out most of the sugar, swap white flour for wholemeal spelt (yes I know, spelt, it sounds hideous but I promise it's not, I made a loaf, I didn't die and I didn't suffer from bloating, I didn't even have middle aged lady night sweats)  I also made our Yorkshire puddings with it yesterday and Iain (yes the one with aspergers who doesn't like anything and won't try anything) didn't notice the difference, obviously I didn't tell him until after he'd eaten them!

So if like me you're on a path to changing your whole entire life for the better why not give it a go, you can still have pies (wholemeal spelt crust) and you can still have pizza (home made with wholemeal spelt) and you can still have bread and the changes you need to make are minimal, it's actually a lot simpler than I thought and I was doing a lot of it with Slimming World anyway, the one thing I wasn't doing was I was having a lot of low fat things and they seem to contain some not very nice things and some hidden sugars in some cases so now I'm making sure I'm moving back to basics, I'm a pretty good cook and I really enjoy baking and cooking, I find it's actually relaxing, especially if you can put on the radio and dance with your beagle!

So now we're into February, I hope you're continuing on the path to being a better you, you know what I'm working on, well lets just say by the end of the year I hope I'll be able to help you be a better you in person and online, more about that coming up soon...

One of the nicest things about being a wedding photographer...

Is meeting so many wonderful couples and getting to enjoy the celebration of their love, I love this moment from Stuart and Michelles wedding where she was looking on as he made his speech.

I have a little downtime today whilst I prepare for tommorrows wedding so I'm catching up on getting ready some photos for despatch and another batch edited also! I also need to go to the local organic shop to get some more groceries as my husband would have us beleive that we have no food in the house even though the fridge is full of organic vegetables, in the next sentence he says he needs to eat better and I lovingly remind him that if he didn't complain say there was nothing in the fridge and then ask for take-away pizza (which BTW he didn't get, I made him Pitta pockets with tuna and organic gubbins)this wouldn't even be an issue. I'm really clamping down on proper eating this week as I want to get the children back on track for starting school next week. I have to say I let it slip a little during the holidays and didn't complain too much when they asked for sweets and constant ice-pops but this week it's back to fruit, vegetables and plenty of organic rice, pasta and other lovely gubbins. We are lucky to have an award winning organic far shop literally just around the corner. We've been shopping at The Honey Tree since we moved here and it's really the best reason I have for not moving away in the near future, also we now get an organic grocery box every friday from North country organics, this little wonder comes with all the vegetables and fruit you need (to feed an army) for a week plus meat, milk, eggs and bread and all for a bargain £39.99, mmmmmm, I love it!!

The Diet Begins.....

Argh, can't believe I'm dieting but since the Dr at the hospital advised that I really should be 2 stone lighter i thought I would listen to his advice rather than stare death in the face as I watched my liver turn to fatty gel! The funy thing is though as this is the part that I'm pissed at (yes i'm swearing but with reason) he failed to give me any credit for the fact that i used to be a size 20 and that the only reason I am a 16 is because I gave up smoking and had a hysterectomy (gosh I'm so bad!!!) yes no credit for either of the above. I did laugh when he said that I would feel so much better for it as I feel more well than I have ever in my entire life, we go walking almost every weekend and I can even skip along with Looby and Abigail. If it weren't for the pesky pangs in my liver and the fact that blood tests tell me that all is not well in that area I would have told him where to stick his diet but for the sake of my health I am listening and acting accordingly.

So this morning alone I must have lost half a stone as not only did I have a bowl of sawdust and woodchip shavings for breakfast but I also skipped briefly with Looby and at one point we even ran, well I am now obviously already a size smaller and no doubt by the end of the week I'll be a mere shadow of my former self!

Oh yes the diet....

Well it was going really well and by Friday I was feeling like a veritable stick insect, I had pretty firmly stuck to loving my rice-cakes with cottage cheese and my steamer has never been so busy, I do really love the steamer though which is more than can be said for the rice-cakes, it's not that they're awful it's just that they're bland!!

Anyway so there I am feeling skinny (yeah like thats going to happen!!) and the weekend arrived, Friday night we were out for family dinner, Saturday we were out for Family lunch, Saturday night I was out with hubby for date-night dinner delights and we'll not count the amount of G&T consumed over the last weekend, in my defence atleast the tonic was diet tonic! Yesterday I was back on track though with a steamed feast for lunch and then smoked salmon and extra light cheese on bagels for tea, again though those G&T's were calling my name last night!

I have to say though that for once I really feel like we had a weekend, Paul had the entire weekend off, I only worked yesterday, an hour or so for the photography job in the morning and then a couple of hours for Happy Scrapper later on, we did though manage to squeeze in lots of family fun inbetween and I think dear reader we're all a little sad that Monday has arrived so very quickly!

So whats in store this week? Well my highlight will be my ultrasound scan of my kidneys this afternoon, really looking forward to that one, plus 2 parents evenings this week, tons more work, lots of ferrying children to and from whereever and then hopefully before we know it the weekend will approacheth and we'll get to have fun, fun, fun again!!