I’ve been at it again, treating myself.

This definitely seems to be my new thing, rewarding myself with shopping for clothes and cosmetics and jewellery and other girlie goodness. I never used to bother treating myself so am not sure why now that I am almost at my goal weight I have started to do so, but I like it

Bottega Verde is one of my (many) favourite cosmetics brands but you could only get their products in Italy previously. Now they are coming to the USA thanks to the Internet so that we can order all their goodies online and I am very excited. I absolutely love their aloe products as I have sensitive skin and have always found aloe vera really gentle but still effective.

Check out this gorgeous Italian package they are offering as well, I think I would kill someone to own that as it would sit perfectly in my collection

That will have to wait until my next ‘treat’ though as I just spent far too much to celebrate my ‘normal’ BMI on a gorgeous brand new size 10 coat.

Things were pretty strange the first few days and we did eat a lot of take away and general bad food but we quickly got back on track and I am pleased to say we are back to good healthy eating and I have even managed to lose a couple of pounds. I weight less than 9 stone for the first time in my entire life now

I have also got back into running, my knee plays up a little bit still sometimes but it’s not like it was – because of the gap in running I have gone backwards a bit and am having to build it back up again, but I hope to be back up to running for around 40 minutes soon enough.

Things are looking good.

We took a trip away for 3 days so I didn’t get the chance to use my elliptical, though we did do an awful lot of walking so I suppose I probably burned as many calories that way.

Well for whatever reason it happened, I am definitely happy about it – it means that I have hit my next mini goal of being 9.9 and can now move onto the next one and the next one is a big one – when I reach my next goal of 9.2 I will no longer be overweight according to my BMI, I will be a healthy/normal weight.

Given how slowly I am losing these days I expect it to be at least a few months before I get there, probably in the summer – but get there I will

I remember having many times of despair along the way, when it was hard, or weight loss was slow and thinking to myself that at this rate I will still be fat in 3 years – I managed to talk myself around by pointing out that I may still be fat in 3 years, but I’d certainly be a lot less fat and more healthy if I stuck with it than if I didn’t. That 3 years was going to pass either way, so I may as well stick at it – right?

And now here it is 3 years later, and yes I am still technically fat according to my BMI – but only just, I am very nearly at my goal and let me tell you I am infinitely happier and more confident in my own skin that I was then

I have decided to treat myself to something nice as a reward, I had been hinting at my fiance that perhaps he’d like to treat me and take me away for a night or two away somewhere nice, but like most men he doesn’t seem to have picked up on it.

Even though the Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacific starts tomorrow and they have some killer prices with rates starting as low as $30 per night, I don’t think we’ll be able to stretch that far – given we’d need to pay $100s for flights as well lol – maybe when I reach my overall and final goal though hey? You can book now for dates between December and April so I may well have actually reached my final goal by then.

I will just have to settle for the nice cardigan I have seen instead, I have had my eye on it for a while and it actually makes sense to reward myself with clothes – I love buying UK size 12!

Happy days.

I say indulgence, I wasn’t that bad. I say little exercise, but I actually did a lot of walking and generally being busy. So that’s why I am only somewhat surprised as I know from past experience that a chance in routine can often be a really good thing for a diet – so I was hoping (but not expecting) that this would happen

Back to being a good girl now though, let’s see if we can get out of the 10 stone range quickly!

I had really hoped to have got to the 5 stone lost stage now as it would be the ideal time to hit that milestone, but I am just 2 pounds shy of that.

As a reward I have decided to treat myself to a fad diet!

Well, sort of. I am not about to go crazy and start eating nothing but cabbage soup, you guys know I feel strongly about doing this the slow and steady way, working out, consuming less calories and following all of the healthy tips I have learned over the last few years — but looking at some of the reviews of diets available on HealthProductReview.org inspired me to think that maybe a little ‘boost’ diet wouldn’t be all that bad. It sure would be a treat to be able to drop 7 pounds in a few weeks, rather than painfully slowly as I do now.

I will do my research, find a diet that is right for me and then keep you updated

I have no idea if I lost weight, gained weight or stayed the same.

Having two different sets of scales on the go is not a good idea!

The old scales now read 11.6, I think they were 11.7 last week but that might have just been a blip because they were 11.6 previously.

The new scales now read 11.8, I think they were 11.9 last week so I think I lost 1lb this week — but who knows? Stupid me lol