As suspected, no loss this last week…but that’s OK because as mentioned I did only manage to work out twice. Fingers crossed I can get back on track and back to losing next week…so close to that goal of 12 stone, soooo close.

I go away on vacation on June 5th, my realistic goal for then 11.10 – that’d be awesome.

My Heart Rate Monitor just got dispatched today so fingers crossed it’ll be with my by the tail end of the week, I am ridiculously excited about it – I hope it’s decent

When it comes to buying gifts, I can buy for the females in my life all day long…mum, sister in law, friends…a walk in the park, but when it comes to the men it’s a different matter entirely – my dad and brother I find especially difficult because neither seem to have any idea themselves what they want! With Farthers Day just around the corner here in the UK it’s time to start thinking about and looking for that perfect gift for him…so thank heck I came across this Gift Ideas Generator from GiftGen.co.uk a while ago – you just select from a number of options about the gift recipient, their age, gender, interests etc and click to search – after a few moments you are presented with a list of gift ideas and the places you can buy said items cheapest, how useful is that? And unlike a lot of these gift finder sites that are only really interested in selling their own products, this site is independent so you really do get a useful list of results. The 4th result on the list I did for my dad is a ’6-in-1 Utili-key’ – never would have even crossed my mind were it not for this site, but that’s now what he will be receiving this time next month, sweet

Today I ordered a heart rate monitor from Amazon, yay. I have fancied one for a while but I don’t really know much about them and which ones are good etc. It seemed like all the cheaper ones were getting bad reviews on Amazon which put me off – but then I saw this one, £29.99 reduced from £59.99 and I had £12.50 worth of vouchers to use…so it has cost me £17.50 in total. I sure hope it’s good, I have never trusted the calories burned read out on my elliptical…as it’s a lot lower than most online places seem to indicate. Hopefully it’ll equal more effective work outs and the weight will start falling off me hehe

Tomorrow is weigh day, sadly not expecting much of a difference on the scale though because I have only been able to work out twice this week due to various reasons…so long as it’s not a gain (and it shouldn’t be, I have been eating well) I will be happy.

Another 1lb lost this week, hurrah. It’s not 2lb like it was for the last two weeks, but it means 5lbs over the last three weeks and that is pretty major for me. Only one more to go and I will be down to 12 stone, that’s been a pretty big mini goal in my head ever since I started this weight loss malarky over a year ago now, so it’s going to feel awesome to finally get there! Only 2lb more to be below 12 stone, into the 11s, yay

I have mentioned before I am sure that I have a great love of all things bargain hunting, I regularly visit several sites with Money Saving Tips and the like on them, in fact I even run my own UK bargains website. So I always have my eyes out for and am always happy to come across new money saving advice websites like StopStupidStuff.com – a website I just recently discovered that offers helpful advice and tips to Americans trying to manage their finances. I love the name of the site, it’s to the point…because a lot of the ways people throw away money are stupid, or things that are easy to avoid. They offer money saving tips in a wide range of areas, from every day shopping to your education needs. The tips range from simple quick tips, like spend cash rather than using a credit card all the time and use coupons…to much more in depth information on things such as the economic recession.

It’s definitely another one for my bookmarks list to check back at regularly and take the time to read all of the already existing content. I’d recommend checking it out, even if you think you are already smart with your money

I could have swarn the I posted this last Wednesday night after I had weighed in, but apparently not. Hmm.

I continued with the same pattern, logging every thing, aiming for a 1000 deficit each day and again I lost 2lbs, that’s 4lbs in 2 weeks which is mega for me. I can’t wait to see how I go this week though, I was on my period last week and that’s been known to do a whole world of funky things to my weight…so I am not counting my chickens just yet. I’d be thrilled if I could keep up this pace though

So a while ago I was searching for some good energy drinks, I admit to being a fan of them – they really help when you know you are going to have an intense workout, or after having had one when all you want to do is crash…but you can’t because you have important things to do, such as blogging about your intense work out lol. I came a product called MAXXED Energy Pops – and they are currently holding a contest where you can win an Xbox 360 Elite and $100 game stop gift card, an iPod and 12-pack displays of MAXXED Energy Pops, among other things.

Just enter your details to register for the contest, then embed a widget on your site – you can see mine below – then all you have to do is have your visitors and friends click on it, when they do you gain power and the winners are determined by who has the most power come the end of the contest.

If you don’t have a website yourself you don’t have to miss out, they also have an keep going sweepstake you can opt into that is open to all where a random person is chosen for a prize package each day.

Looks like this is going to be fun, I want all of the prizes

So, yay. Last night was weigh in day after ‘step it up week’ and I was thrilled to see I had gone from 12.6 to 12.4, a 2lb loss in one week is huge for me. All I did was make sure I was logging everything, every morsel that entered my mouth was counted…and I was aiming for a 800 – 100 deficit per day, it was too easy and most days I found myself having to eat up extra calories which makes me a bit suspect that I am doing something wrong, there’s so many numbers I wonder if I worked it out wrong etc, but the 2lb result seems to suggest I did good.

Here’s my daily deficits:

Thurs: 1150
Fri: 960
Sat: 1000
Sun: 850
Mon: 1025
Tues: 650
Wed: 1050

Making a total of 6685.

So plans for this week? much the same, see if I can pull it off again or if it was just a fluke/because I changed up my habits. Fingers crossed and I will keep you updated.

Much better today.

Calories consumed – 1260
Calories burned – 340

Daily Deficit – 980

Working out was hard today though, I was just having one of those days where no matter how hard I wanted to push myself and how determined I was, my body wouldn’t play ball…my legs just wouldn’t move fast enough. I wanted to quit after 150 calories, it was a miracle I pushed to 340. Tomorrow I will have to work out harder though as tomorrow is my highest calorie tea day of the week – salmon and pasta, yum.

Unfortunately because of my job I have to spend a good portion of my day sat behind a desk, this isn’t great for someone who is trying to lose weight, but it certainly makes me appreciate high quality ergonomic office furniture, especially my nice big super comfortable chair that I know isn’t going to give me any long term back problems or the like. spacify.com do a great range of office furniture, from filing cabinets to stacking chairs. Check them out