Weigh Day Thursday 25July

This morning I was weighed and the devastating result was that I weigh the same as last week! I was gutted to begin with, but that did not last long as I know I did my best this week and it may show up next week. I have however lost 2 inches on my bust, 2 inches on my waist and 4 inches on my hips!! Greats result from the measurements anyway..

This week my plan has been switched up a lot.
I must eat red meat 5 times this week, at different times of the day each day.
I can only eat 3 yogurts a week.
The only fruit I can eat are kiwis, full oranges and pears.









I am looking forward to next weeks weigh in already as I know results should start showing.
I am still attended Boot camp & walking so I will be patient..


Regards,
Naoimh

Weigh day Thursday 18th July

This week was a fantastic result as I have lost 4 lbs!!
I am extremely happy with this and proud of myself for sticking to the plan. I went for a walk most days with the buggy and I also attended Boot camp twice. I feel that my body strength is getting back to where it was pre-pregnancy. I am able to keep up a lot better than when I first started. I am also remembering to do my stomach exercises at home every night.
Eating wise has been very good also. I cannot fault this eating plan, it works extremely well with me!

So with this great result it has pushed me a lot closed to my goal a lot earlier than expected. I have lost 6 lbs in 2 weeks.

This week has been changed slightly, I am to be on what's called a 'detox' week!

I will need to eat a tin of tuna between meals at different times of the day- every day.
I need to have a tin of pears for 3 breakfasts this week.
I have to eat an Activia 0% fat vanilla yogurt everyday.

I need to have chicken everyday, either for lunch or dinner.
The only fruit I can eat are full oranges and pears.

I have started this weeks and I am feeling great already. I will stick to the walking in this beautiful weather for the day that I do not have Bootcamp!

Regards,
Naoimh
 

Weigh In For Thursday 11th July

As I was busy all weekend (enjoying the sun) I am only getting a chance to post last weeks weigh in. The result was that I have lost 2lbs!!

Me & my baby at the Christening

I am delighted with this as I had my baby's Christening party which was fuelled with lovely food and wine! I did not stray from my eating plan though that night - it was only when I gave in and demolished a kebab later that week... but moving on from that it was a good week! I did however get my period for the first time since having baby so I'm only assuming that I was down a bit more but it did not show because of this! Time will tell at this weeks weigh in...

Chicken curry For dinner

Chicken salad for lunch

I am following the plan as best I can and I can honestly say that I started
noticing a difference in myself just after a few days. I am not as bloated as usual and I feel I have a lot more energy too. I am exercising most days like going for walks with the buggy and remembering to do my stomach exercises everyday. It helps too by writing down what I eat everyday. I'm looking forward to this weeks weigh as I am really after sticking to the plan so I will post Thursday.






Regards,
Naoimh

Drum roll please....

So this morning I joined ONE2ONE weight loss. I had my first official weigh in which was...10 stone 4!! Meaning I am 9 and 1/2 pound heavier than my last weigh in before I got pregnant! Not a bad result at all considering how much weight I piled on during my first pregnancy. I do not have to lose nearly as much weight as I had to before... phew :-)
I will be going every Tuesday to be weighed. I have to admit that this new eating plan sounds really manageable especially to people that do not like to diet!
Heres a quick breakdown on the eating plan:



FOOD
 It's basically all about rotating the foods that you eat everyday, and there are lots of foods that I can eat. I can only eat red meat once a week so it's chicken and turkey and fish all the way!! All White foods are completely cut out!!ALL!! So I have stocked my cuboards with Soda Bread and Brown rice and brown pasta. I can only eat 2 slices of bread & 4 Brown crackers OR 1 brown Pitta bread in a day. I can have a 3 treats a week which would be a packet of walkers baked crisps or Manhattan popcorn. I have stocked up on low fat laughing cow cheese also and I can still eat Dairy gold butter. Happy days:)

DRINK
I need to drink 2 litres of water everyday which is completely do-able! I can also drink 2 bottles of wine a week - if I ever wanted to but I think the one will do as I don't drink much! I was told that wine is so full of sugar thats its best avoided anyway! For anyone that drinks beer or cider, 10 bottles of Coors ligh, Budweiser and Bulmers light are all within the weeks drink allowance.

EXCERCISE
And with all good eating plans it is advised to excercise at least 3 times a week. I joined a Bootcamp on Tuesday and so intend to stick with that and my walking with the buggy in the evenings.

A SAMPLE OF A WEEKS MENU BELOW

My next weigh in is Tuesday morning so I will post how I get on. I have every intention of sticking to this plan to a T.

Regards,
Naoimh

It's a Boy...

To begin with I'd like to introduce you all to my beautiful baby boy Joey who I gave birth to just little over 7 weeks ago!
He's perfect and I couldn't be happier with our newest member of the family

I did not post as much as I had anticipated while pregnant, due to exhaustion of running a busy home while working and taking care of a toddler. I enjoyed the relaxation of having a break from work towards the end and getting to spend quality time with my now 2 year old daughter.

I had an extremely good pregnancy, sickness subsided after the first 12 weeks and I did not gain as much weight as I did on my first! I had an exceptionally good labour, only going 1 day over my due date. I had a natural labour with only the help of 2 paracetamol and gas & air *pat on the back*-and my little man didn't keep me waiting when he was born just 45 Min's in the delivery suite.


I have been enjoying the last few weeks but now I feel it's time to start getting back on track with my plan of getting in shape..again!
I breastfed for almost 4 weeks - I decided to give up when I was admitted to hospital after getting mastitis for the second time. I felt like I was a lot thinner while breastfeeding but now that I have given it up I just feel constantly bloated and  much heavier. I have decided to cut out all junk food which I was craving while breastfeeding.

 

 

I started drinking green tea to detox just 4 days ago and I can feel the difference already! The bloating has stopped and I have a lot more energy which I am taking advantage of, going for a walk in the evenings for an hour.

I don't want to push myself too soon in case I cause injury if my body is not ready. I did 20 sit up tonight and 30 seconds of the plank which is enough to start out with. I hope to up my exercise in the coming weeks and start seeing results.

    










I am also joining the one on one diet plan this Tuesday. My mother has lost half a stone on the plan in just over a month! I know that Weight Watchers does work so I am not ruling it out, I just want to try something different this time.

I will post next week when I am joined and on my new healthy eating plan :)

Regards,
Naoimh

Ireland's Pregnancy & Baby Fair 2013

I have just come back from Ireland's Pregnancy & Baby Fair 2013 thanks to Tony Kealy's who chose me as one of their competition winners!
I won a pair of tickets through their Facebook page; Tony Kealys and so I brought along my also pregnant sister! We are only 20 days apart- me being due before her on the 9th May ( soooo excited)!!!! :-)

I just want to congratulate them on an amazing job that they did and I have to say it was a lovely day out with great special offers and plenty of stalls set up. At each stall there were great goodies and samples of products that I was genuinely interested in checking out. We each had several bags when leaving to our excitement! I was even more delighted when I returned home and opened my goody bags to find some great discounts and also some vouchers for 50% off newborn nappies in Aldi which I use all the time!

There were plenty of stalls and more than enough helpful staff at each one to keep us occupied for a couple of hours. I didn't purchase much as I already have everything I need right now but I did see some great offers that I'm sure would suit others!

What I did purchase was a stretch mark repair cream from a product called Silderm for €25. I thought it was great value from speaking to the lovely sales adviser. She was very helpful and explained how the product gets under the skin to the dermis where it can start to repair the torn dermis. I was impressed and wanted to try the product. There were samples there but as it cannot be bought in shops anywhere near by I decided to invest and try it out ASAP! I'm always looking for new products to treat my existing stretch marks. I am pleased to say that throughout this pregnancy I did not get any new stretch marks!

I will try this cream and post about the results! I am feeling very optimistic that  the results will be quite good. There are also lots of other products to try from this brand and a stretch mark prevention oil to prevent stretch marks before they appear.
To check out the product for yourselves I have a link to the Silderm website here.











I also bought a beautiful red velvet cupcake from the cupcake stand; Johnnie Cupcakes. I had to mention that because it was soo nice the perfect ending to a lovely afternoon. Looking forward to this company coming to Cork...

It was a lovely day and has made me even more excited about my baby arriving - I am ready and waiting patiently whenever it is ready to make it's appearance... :-)
Regards,
Naoimh 

Lotions and Potions for tackling the dreaded Stretch Marks!

Stretch marks are one of the unfortunate things that woman may get whilst pregnant. Because the skin is being stretched in such a short period of time it sometimes leaves the skin with these unsightly marks. While some woman are very lucky not to get one mark, others can be completely covered. I don't know whether it's down to genetics or just plain bad luck but the possibility is always there. Take my mother for example - she has given birth to 5 children and has not had one mark, where as I have been covered in them from just 1 pregnancy. I would advise to use something that suits you a soon as possible - do not just think that it is inevitable that you will or will not get them just because your mother or sister has or hasn't! I wonder is it just down to pot luck?!

So as I am one of the unfortunate ones who has had been left with these marks I have accepted that they are now part of my body but I will not give up on trying to remove them - if there is anything out there that REALLY works - I have yet to find it!?
 I have come to the conclusion that prevention is better than cure, so the best advise that I would offer to any mothers to be would be to prevent it as much as you can  - apply whatever moisturiser, lotion or oils you feel work for you  as many times a day as it says on the box if not more. If that doesn't work then you cannot blame yourself and you know that you have tried the best that you could.

I remember being 6 months pregnant and on holiday in the Canaries. I had this huge bump with not one stretch mark, I was really proud showing off my curves and bump in my bikini. I had used Bio Oil  3 times daily from the day I found out I was pregnant. I must have thought I had got away with not getting stretch marks as I started getting lazy with applying the oil. I was then told by a friend that her doctor had said not to use any oils on your skin as they only help the skin to stretch and give you  more marks - what a fool I was to listen because when I stopped applying it the marks started appearing without me realising. By the time the end of my pregnancy came around I had large red marks all over my stomach and back!

I have below a list of the products that I am using right now. Some are very costly so when they run out I always have a bottle of Baby Oil to use until I can get a new supply. I am using several different products as I want to prevent new stretch marks appearing as well as helping to still reduce the possibility of new marks.

If any of you out there have any other suggestions it would be great to hear about them? I am always looking for new products to try!

P.s I have also read that having an intake of Zinc in your diet can reduce the possibility of getting stretch marks!!

Regards,
Naoimh

   BIO OIL

Top of my list is the good old Bio Oil. This is probably the most popular oil used by pregnant woman. I apply this about 3 times a day and when I come straight out of the bath while my skin is still wet for it to absorb into the pores of my skin.
It is costly though so I don't always have a supply. It normally retails in around €12.00 - €19.00 depending on the size of the bottle but if you apply it as generously as I do it doesn't last that long. :-(




                                     BABY OIL

Baby oil is always at hand in my house for when I run out of Bio Oil. It doesn't matter what brand as they all do the same thing. I have several bottles stocked in my house and they are really cheap the Boots own brand is the cheapest and Johnson Baby Oil is always on offer in Euro Giant shops, you would never pay more than €2.00 a bottle.








PALMERS COCOA BUTTER CREAM FORMULA

This is a cream that I have just started using on this pregnancy. I have heard that Cocoa Butter is a good cream to use to reduce the chances of getting stretch marks. This is formulated to help reduce the appearance of stretch marks. It has a nice smell and dries in fast enough. I have been moisturising this in to my belly often but not as much as I would with the oils. It is a very good price coming in around €3.99 for a large tube.






                                                         PALMERS COCOA BUTTER FORMULA SCAR SERUM

This is one of the main things I use especially at night. It is a Scar Serum which is to reduce the appearance of Stretch  marks and scars. It says on the box that it is recommended by doctors. It contains Shark Liver Oil which is a bit unusual I thought!
The consistency is very thick and it does have quiet a strong horrible smell! I have been trying this for several weeks now and although it is hard to see results while I am pregnant I would definitely recommend this to other woman that have stretch marks.
It cost around €10.00 for a 30ml bottle. Although it is small bottle it lasts a while because of the thick texture. Applied 3 times daily is advised.





 

                         
                                         AVON SOLUTIONS STRETCH MARK CREAM
From checking online I have also heard that Avon have a stretch mark cream that helps to reduce the appearance. I have not had the chance to try this yet as I did not order it but I will be trying it in the future as there was several reviews from woman saying that the results were fantastic and the appearance and smoothness of the areas of skin with stretch marks were greatly improved!
Check out the reviews here -->>