It is important to take out travel health insurance before you go away on holiday and it amazes me how many people don’t bother and decide to just take the risk – things can unfortunately go wrong when you are abroad, especially as you are likely to do things you wouldn’t normally do at home such as water sports and the like. It is so inexpensive as well, to cover two people for a single trip can cost as little as £10 so there’s really no excuse not to. Please people, if you are travelling make sure you get a good insurance policy first.

So around a week ago I took a massive step in my weight loss journey – I increased my calories by 250 a day to my maintenance number, I guess that means I have officially stopped trying to lose weight.

After 4 years this is certainly going to take some getting used to.

The thing is I really wanted to get to 100lbs lost in total – but after being stuck at 98lbs lost for 8+ months it might just be time to admit my body is where it wants to be. I’m not going to lie, if this results in me losing a few more pounds I will be thrilled as I would still love to get down to my magic number and if it doesn’t work out and I start gaining weight I will have to have a rethink.

In other news I am still doing my Turbofire – I have two weeks left to go before finishing the first 12 week plan, after that I will probably go on to do ‘Insanity’ or Chalean Extreme. I am still trying to get out and run when I can but have not been nearly as dedicated as I was last year.

I am going to reward myself by getting some nice new goodies like clothes and beauty products, I have been looking at beauty product reviews to see where I should send my pennies

If you work in the assisted living field you will know the importance of an excellent Assisted Living Software to help manage every thing involved and ensure your residents as well as employees have the best quality of life and take off any pressures. The software from RightClickNow.com comes really highly rated and recommended and is very affordable, it has been shown to help save money over the course of the period it is used.

It’s quite amazing actually how far these kinds of software have come in recent years – they offer so much more than they used to and generally at a fraction of the cost.

Can you believe that despite being at this weight loss thing for almost 4 years now, I have never had a gym membership or actually even stepped foot inside a gym?

At first my reasoning was that I didn’t want to be ‘the fat girl’ at the gym, looking all sweaty and out of breath and gross – once I got over that notion my reasoning was that I couldn’t afford it and it was too far away.

Now that I am a healthy weight, fit as a butchers dog, can afford the gym and have one a mere 5 minute walk away – maybe it’s time to bite the bullet and get myself signed up. I visit the leisure centre often as I go swimming there and often see signs and offers and promotions for classes that make me want to join but for some reason, something is still holding me back

If you are looking to join a gym but don’t know where to go then check out Gymdar.co.uk, it’s a UK based site that offers information and reviews on thousands of gyms across the country. We all know gyms can be expensive, so it makes sense to seek out reviews and the opinions of real users to make sure that we are getting the most ‘bang for our buck’. My local gym is listed on Gymdar but sadly has no reviews yet – perhaps if I finally pull my finger out and register with them I can be the first to add my personal review

My other new love – Turbofire!

It’s a 12 week work out program that has cardio, hiit, strength, toning, sculpting, core and every thing in between – you follow a schedule and I love it.

“When I say Turbo, you say FIRE – Turbo – FIRE – Turbo – Fire”
I don’t know what it is about it that makes me love it, I have followed many work out videos and regimes over the years and they have all been a chore, but I look forward to my Turbofire classes.

Except for ‘stretch 40′, that sucks.

I am about 7 weeks in to the 12 week program so far and although I have not lost any weight (when do I ever?) I have lost some inches and can physically see the difference in my body.

NIVEA are celebrating their 100 year birthday at the moment and as part of the celebrations have launched 'A Million Moments of Closeness' campaign where you are invited to help prove Britain is now closer than ever before. You are invited to upload photos of beautiful shared moments of closeness with your loved ones at facebook.com/niveauk. They will also be holding road shows across the UK that you can pop along to. Every day a lucky winning photo will be chosen and awarded a £100 prize.

There is a great video that features psychologist Geoff Beattie who was always my favourite 'behavioural expert' on Big Brother, he used to appear on Little Brother often as well as Big Brother's Big Brain which was a whole show dedicated to looking at the emotional issues of the housemates. In it he tries to show that Britain is now closer than ever thanks to the Internet and social media outlets. A lot of people criticise the Internet and say that it's actually making us all further apart, how can a virtual smiley face ever really compare to seeing a gorgeous toothy grin up close and personal? Isn't a text message just lazy and impersonal? I definitely see their point – while social media can do a lot there's nothing in this world that can compete with a real life squeeze from a loved one when you are feeling down – but think of all the positives and the million moments of closeness sites like Facebook have made happen, that otherwise simply wouldn't have done.

There are families who live apart who can now be kept constantly up to date on each other's lives, share photos almost instantly from the big events in their lives (and the smaller ones, too) or even really feel like they are there thanks to free video messaging. Think of all the old school friends or even lovers that have reconnected that simply never would have found each other again.

Research has shown that communicating via the Internet as we do these days can help us Feel Closer in our relationships as we are much more likely to be open and honest with our emotions online – and it's true, since moving away from home and doing most of my communication with my brother via Facebook and Skype we have become a lot closer, we have always got on well but were not close for the last several years since he moved out of our family home. Now we chat daily and always know what is going on in each other's lives.

I have also recently discovered an amazing weight loss community site called MyFitnessPal – it's like Facebook for people looking to lose weight where you can make friends, do status updates, comment on each others walls as well as track your food, exercise and weight. It's the most supportive community I have ever been a part of, every time I log a work out I have done I get several comments telling me 'well done' or if I am having a bad day they will rally around to tell me to keep my chin up – up until a few years ago I wouldn't even tell my fiance my weight but I feel so comfortable on MyFitnessPal that I am happy to share every facet of my weight loss journey and body with people who are essentially complete strangers.

So how do you feel about it all? Why not enter the competition yourself and join in the debate

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Firstly – my new bike. It’s pink.

I had not been on a bike since I was a kid, but I am always up for a new challenge these days and as my other half has a nice bike I thought I would get one too. My brother was cleaning out his house as he is moving soon and found an old bike in the shed that had been there since before they even moved in and said I could have it, however when I went to try it out I realised it was too big – much too big, I am only 5ft tall.

So I thought well that’s that then, but then my lovely other half said he’d buy me one, a few days later off we went to the shops and picked one out. I don’t think any one has ever bought me something just like that before, I have had nice items as birthday and Christmas gifts of course but to just be taken to a shop and told to pick whatever I like for no apparent reason was new to me

I have only been out on it twice so far as things keep getting in the way, the weather, a broken light, a migraine etc – but yesterday we managed to do 8 miles around Sherwood Pines and it was brilliant. I loved it and I love my new bike

Long time no update, it’s been what – two weeks?

Well the good news is that I am back on the dieting wagon after falling off it a few months ago. I’m eating healthily having cut out the naughty snacks like chocolate and sausage rolls and exercising daily.

At the moment I am only doing around 30 minutes a day most days as we have been spending all out spare time working on the house and I am sure that burns plenty of calories, more so than I usually do sitting around all day on the computer all day any way.

Today’s task is to fit the stainless steel kitchen sinks in the bathroom and kitchen. We took a long time picking out the sinks and faucets we wanted and finally settled on a lovely stainless steel kitchen sink set that fits both our tastes which is pretty rare, it was also a bargain as we picked it up in the sale.

It’s a good day to be stuck inside doing DIY as it’s cold, rainy and windy out there – brrr.

The 30 minutes of exercise I have been doing recently is the Jillian Michael’s 30 day shred, it’s an absolute killer which is why you can get away with only doing 30 minutes. So far I am only on level one (of three) so still have a way to go but so far I am enjoying it and hope to start seeing some benefits soon

Why is it that a lot of the Gadget Websites out there are aimed at men? Or that people assume the only way a woman could be interested in a gadget would be if it were pink?

Ok I admit it I do have some pink gadgets, if the option is there and the pink version is just as good as any other colour then I will always select it, but it isn’t what gets me interested in the gadget in the first place.

A great resource for all of us gadget geeks is Geekalerts.com – they have loads of news and information about all the latest gadgets and gizmos, it’s updated regularly and often features quirky items I had no idea I even wanted until I read about them. They also offer discount codes for many online retailers allowing me to combine my love of gadgets with my love of shopping and saving money

They always seen to have Office Depot coupon codes and that suits me as I love to shop in Office Depot, I am a stationary nerd! Plus I am always on the look out for Think Geek coupons as it’s my absolute favourite site on the entire Internet, I just love their tshirts <3

I was just on itunes looking for new apps for my iPad, it seems like ages since I got any thing new for it and with a long journey coming up I wanted something new to tickle my fancy. I'd much rather spend the time working out than sitting down but I don't think that's really possible within the confines of a coach

I came across an interesting new iPad application from Ringier called 'The Collection' and it sounds promising.

It's a monthly appazine that will take an entertaining and unique look at the most talked about global topics, so there will always be new content available which is a great way to keep your readers interested. The first edition which is already out and available to grab right now from the appstore cover the Royal Family – of course, how could it be about any thing else? The amount of global attention last months Royal Wedding got was quite amazing to me – I obviously knew it was going to be a big deal here in the UK what with it being an official bank holiday and all but I didn't realise that the Americans and Australians would embrace it quite as much as they did also.

What I like so far about 'The Collection' is that it's not just your run of the mil articles, it has loads of pictures, takes a more interesting look at things and even offers some interactive features as well like the ability to send a message to the happy couple and play with the crown jewels. I already can't wait to see what the next edition will bring

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