I say “kind of” because as I recall I would eat the odd McDonald’s burger after a night out (because, doesn’t everyone?) Or I would enjoy a plate of my mums beef casserole on a Sunday afternoon (because that was the best homemade comfort food!) However in 2013 I took the plunge and stopped eating meat altogether. And do you know what? I am going to give my self a pat on the back for that, because I have stood the test of time. I stopped eating meat before it even became “fashionable” and it hasn’t just been a faze either. It’s been a complete lifestyle choice & change and one that I have stuck too.

I have written several blog posts on my choice to live my life meat free which you can read here and to be completely honest my views are still exactly the same. If you eat meat you like pets not animals. I don’t preach or force my views onto anyone, if you eat meat that’s your choice and I respect that. I wouldn’t sit there and judge anyone for tucking into a chicken roast dinner, the same as I wouldn’t expect to be judged by tucking into a bowl of vegetables and some kind of meat substitute. We are all different and we can eat what we like when we like.

So living life as a pescatarian (meaning I eat fish) Well it’s great, I love vegetables and I love the variety of plant based food that is now available in both the supermarkets and restaurants. If we were to go back 10 years to when I first fully went meat free all that restaurants seemed to offer on the menu was a stuffed pepper with some goats cheese in, I mean it was pretty much slim pickings. I actually remember going to one restaurant who barely had anything suitable for me, so I ended up ordering a chicken Caesar salad, but without the chicken of course, so I basically ended up with a bowl of lettuce with some croutons and some Caesar dressing, not exactly the most delicious meal I have ever eaten. But thankfully with more and more of us choosing to follow meat free diets, there is now a much wider variety, with many restaurants having a separate menu for the veggies and vegans!

I find that the hard core carnivores out there are always pretty intrigued with us herbivores and usually come with a question or two. The first one being “how can you not eat meat?” Which is like a completely dumb question right? And I mostly do a sneaky eye roll in response! But for me, the biggie question that I seem to get asked a lot is “why do you eat meat substitutes, why not just have actual meat? I think the misconception is it’s automatically assumed that I miss the taste of meat, but in all honesty I can’t really remember the taste of meat it’s been that long. I genuinely love the flavour of meat free products, and it may not be to everyone’s liking but it certainly works for me.

Today, I think we are seeing more and more people choose a life without meat. Or at least begin to cut down the amount of meat they eat. When you start to learn about how meat is produced, you can definitely see what a huge benefit going meat free can have for not only yourself but also for the animals and the environment. So really there’s no surprise it’s becoming more popular.

But I’m never one to preach because as they say each to their own and I am completely here for that.

The post Celebrating 10 years meat free!! appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

When I first thought about writing this post, it was going to be focussing on how unhappy I am with my body currently. It was going to be a super personal post, going back over my weight loss journey from 2018 to present (BLAH, BLAH, BLAH) I then decided to hit the STOP button and take things in a new direction.

So hi I’m Lisa, and I have struggled with my weight for so many years now, it’s kind of hard to think back to a time when weight wasn’t at the forefront of my mind.

I did work extremely hard to loose weight over the last 4 years, and then the many lockdowns we lived through made me my absolute own worst enemy. I mean no one forced to make batches of banana bread and eat it on a daily basis, that was all me!!

Lockdown and eating more than I usually would alongside wearing very comfy loose fitting clothes made me feel like I had put on a few pounds over the months. Even though people would tell me I was silly and that I hadn’t , and even though all my clothes still fit just the same. Somehow I had managed to convince myself that I was bigger. And once it was in my head, it was fully embedded with cement.

For some reason I have a real hang up about my hips, I see them as huge! In fact when I look in the mirror they are ALL I can see! And my obsession with them just got worse after my January wedding. My obsession with my hips got so bad that I would almost cry before going out somewhere, I would try on at least 5 different outfits scrutinising in the mirror only my hips, like the rest of my body didn’t even exist. It just got to a point where I wouldn’t look forward to doing anything or going anywhere because I honestly thought (and occasionally still think) that people would just be looking at my huge hips!

So here we are right now, July 22nd 2022 and I’ve kind of turned a small corner. I mean honestly I don’t know what happened because one week I was trying to cover my hips with jumpers and looking in every mirror, shop window, shower door, patio door, I men literally every reflective surface, analysing them at every given opportunity. And then the weather got really warm and I wanted to wear a playsuit (something that I had been dreading ALL summer) and I remember picking one out of my wardrobe putting it on and for once I wasn’t repulsed by what I saw. It actually looked okay, so I wore it to work! I then took a bigger step and wore a different playsuit at the weekend, to go shopping. It might seem like something so small but actually it was quite a big deal for me! 2018 & 2019 you would find me only wearing little playsuits, but it’s been a while since I felt confident enough since the whole global pandemic.

It definitely is a constant battle and I’m really only taking baby steps, but baby steps are better than no steps at all. YES my hips could definitely be smaller, but then so could my thighs, I’m slightly out of proportion because my bust and waist are smaller than they should be to give me a proper figure. But I’m now trying to look in the mirror and look at me as a whole person instead of just hips!! I am a very healthy eater and I have been for a while now, but weight obsession is not healthy, and it got to the point with me where my hips were my big obsession.

I like where I am at this moment in time, and I hope to keep that up. I’ll still be good and eat healthy (after all I have the honeymoon of a lifetime coming up) But I’ll also remember to ENJOY food and not hate myself when something other than a lettuce leaf passes my lips! I know that life is for living and enjoying, I know that, I just need to remember it once in a while!

So I’ll leave this post right here, as there is a Five guys take out in my kitchen with my name on it!!! FYI I always opt for the veggies in a lettuce wrap, but I do have chips and today I have added a cheeky peanut butter and banana milkshake, the lettuce wraps kind of balances things out right!!!

Have a great evening!!

The post Body confidence appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

Firstly let’s give a massive SHOUT OUT to FRIDAY!!! It’s finally here!! The final day of work until 3 sweet sweet days off! Please can the sun shine and the rain stay away!!

Okay so today’s blog is focusing on a “hot topic of conversation’ Yes it’s a blog all about the D word – No not Dior unfortunately, I am talking about the dreaded D word…… DIET!!

Its getting to that time of year for some of us ladies, the warmer weather is gradually arriving and soon it’ll be holiday time….. which means BEACH WEAR, which means PANIC!! Which means “did I enjoy more hearty comfort meals in the winter than I should have?”

How many times do you have a conversation with someone and soon enough one of you comments on either going on a diet, or your currently trying out this diet, or it’s nearly summer, you must diet? It seems that this is a hot topic of many conversations whether we realise it or not.

The diet industry is a huge money making corporation, and with new “fad” diets coming out and new dietary products hitting the market, every day, I can’t help but feel that we, as in the millions of us trying to loose weight and get fit and healthy are being exploited in one way or another.

I am very easily sold on something, so throw back to 2017 when I saw Alexandra Burke on tv tuck into her slim fast shake, and tell me how many pounds she had lost I was like “this is right up my street” so I went out and I stocked up on shakes and bars, and was so ready to see the pounds fall off.

For any of you who don’t know, Slim fast works by having a shake for breakfast and lunch, 3 snacks under 100 calories and a balanced meal in the evening.

So after doing this diet for 2 months I was really hoping to see a difference. In reality I was hungry all the time, my skin started to suffer and I lost 1 Pound, oh and I was out of pocket too as slim fast isn’t the cheapest diet to follow!

There are many many companies out there just like Slim fast, you have Diet chef , Jane Plan, Diet Now and another I recently come across called Noom weight loss! And with deals like – sign up today and save £100, 14 day trial just £29! It’s not hard to see why us as the consumer finds this appealing. I actually know someone who tried Diet Chef a few years back and didn’t even get through the box of food because it tasted so bad!

I am by absolute no means a health and fitness guru, I do 3 classes a week, I have no desire to do more, I like my feminine look, I don’t want to be muscular it wouldn’t suit my small frame, and that look just isn’t for me (all though yes I think it does suit some people) I have spoken openly about my struggles to loose weight. I am as normal as can be, and have too continually watch my weight. (Blog post here??https://lifestylelisa.com/2019/01/24/living-the-healthier-lifestyle/)

But I do always remember something Luke (my boyfriend) once said to me a few years back when I was really having a tough time with my weight was that it’s not rocket science eat less and move more, and that is something I have found to be true.

I lost weight over the course of a year and a half (you can read the blog post here??https://lifestylelisa.com/2018/04/09/lets-talk-weight-loss/) I did this by cutting down my portion sizes, I now do 3 classes a week, and Luke and I do try to be more active (although we have let that slide a little since moving into our house!) I have climbed 2 mountains and am looking to do another next year.

I still have days when I look in the mirror and panic that I’ve put on a few pounds, I’m only human after all. There are times when clothes are too big for me and I worry that I’ve lost more weight than I should have. I get told I look good and sometimes I get told I look a bit too skinny, I think it’s just a no win situation.

Luke and I also make sure that we eat really well. I always do salads for lunch, we have vegetables with dinner, and I love making a healthy smoothie for an occasional treat.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re certainly not saints and there are times when we love nothing more than a bottle of Prosecco and lots of chocolate! But to be super healthy 24/7, for me that would get a little boring. As long as Monday to Friday I’m on plan it leaves the weekend for the naughtiest little treats.

I have looked at many of these “diet plans” and honestly I can’t see how any of them work! I remember when the Atkins diet was all the rage, and everyone was doing it from Brittany Spears to Madonna and if you wasn’t already doing it you most certainly wanted to try it, but speaking with anyone who was on it I was told about the downside which was bad breath and how their skin really suffered as a result of the diet plan. And honestly does anyone even do the Atkins now?! I mean is it all really worth it? And it takes me back to my first point, eat less move more and have a nutritional balanced lifestyle with fruit and vegetables!

I think it takes me back to the desperation I felt in the early days of my weight loss journey and how I would have tried ANY diet to help me achieve my goals. Which is why I decided to waste a few hundred pounds on slim fast and I didn’t get “SLIM FAST” (pun absolutely intended!)

Diets are everywhere, on tv, in magazines, on advertising boards around towns and of course all over the internet. There is so much pressure on both woman and men today that it’s hard not to get sucked into the whole “try this for 6 weeks and see the weight fall off” But in my opinion and from my own experience keeping it simple, works better than any of these fad diets on the markets, and the truth is when you truly study them most people that have tried all of these out say the weight goes back on when you stop following the strict plan.

So Girls and Guys….. STOP obsessing, put the scales away, and don’t let it consume you!

It’s just not worth it! Love yourself, be confident and most importantly be happy and healthy!!

I am off to do my final 8 hours of work, before the weekend can begin! I will then be spending the long weekend catching up on blog posts I haven’t yet read, I have a new book to get into, I’m getting my hair and nails done, and there’s a list of other things too!!!!!!!!!

I also intend to have a few gins’s and eat a fair aloof food (keeping it perfectly balanced of course)

So whatever you are all doing, have a good one!!

Lifestylelisa

L xxx

The post The “D” Word appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

7/06/2018

Happy Thursday!! The weekend is in sight just two more days to go!!

So I was thinking last night with the summer season “finally” here! I have a few things on my to do list I must do in the next few weeks. I have some summer goals and things that generally need to be done that I just keep putting off! It’s just that with warmer weekends all I really want to do is be out and about unseats of tidying up!

So here is my little list

1) I have decided it’s time for a summer clear out, i didn’t have a spring clean this year and I have lots of clothes that I don’t wear anymore, and lots of last years summer clothes that are now too big for me since my weight loss (never thought I would be writing that!). Last year I sold some bits on eBay, but to be honest that was a bit of a mission. So this year i’m, going to look at selling some bits on the Facebook selling pages. I have never done it before but thought I would give it a try!

2) Being the Summer seasons means it’s time for salads, lots of salads! Salad for lunch and salad for dinner. Luke and I are on a health kick (even more so than usual) so we are living on salads, Luke has chicken (mainly) and I like tuna, prawns or seafood sticks. So my lunches and dinner don’t become boring I like adding seeds and nuts which keeps it interesting! 

3) Speaking of health kicks Luke and I are doing “SFS”  this year which means slim for Seychelles. For the past  3 years it’s been FFF (fit for Florida) but seeing as Seychelles is the destination for 2018 we have decided to get slim for it, hence the salads!! I am also going to start hitting the gym with Luke on the weekends. Now I’ve lost the weight I need to maintain it, which is actually more difficult than loosing it in the first place! Temptation is literally everywhere!! and for me it’s in the form of crisps and nuts! I have a weakness for all things savory!!

4) Keeping things minimal, okay so summer is here and that means ONE thing….. SPIDERS! YES! I am a massive arachnophobe, I hate spiders, they can reduce me to tears! So I am trying to keep things simple and minimal in my room. I am forever dusting and picking Luke’s clothes up off of the floor after him (seriously lucky I love him!) I am just trying to lesson the chance of the creepy 8 legged things!

The Minimal, Tidy room

5) Holiday shopping, as they say out with the old and in with the new! And seeing as I am having a big summer clear out, that will make space in my wardrobe for some Summer/Holiday clothes! ASOS is probably one of my favourite online shops, I have the premiere next day delivery option set up so I always know if I need something ASAP ASOS won’t let me down. Plus they do lots of different brands including Ted Baker and DKNY to name but two . They also have a good range of men’s clothing so Luke always has a good spend up just before the holiday!

So there we go, a few things I need to tackle this summer, as well as getting out and about and enjoying the sunshine!

Thanks for stopping by lifestylelisa.com

Enjoy your day 

L xxx 

The post Getting Summer Ready! appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

It’s now time to get personal and talk about weight! My weight, my struggles and my journey.

I’ve decided to write this post now as I am now at my goal weight (happy face)

First off the stats – I’m a small 5ft girl (short) if I gain a pound it looks more like 2 pounds, and is really quite noticeable. So to say I’ve always struggled with my weight is a fair point to make.

Since I can remember I’ve been a standard size 12, at my biggest I was a size 14, which was back in 2009/10 I then dropped back to a size 12 and finally a size 10 which I have maintained since 2014 (ish).

I have tried dieting so many times before and always end up falling off the wagon! I even did Slim Fast back in the summer of 2017 and lost something ridiculous like a pound in 2 months!!

So here’s the thing whilst on holiday in Florida last year (2017) I had weight issues, I looked pretty big in my pictures and I didn’t feel confident in myself.

My mum who I had been messaging whilst in Florida suggested maybe trying slimming world. I immediately dismissed that idea, I just couldn’t see myself sitting there in a circle sharing weight loss tips with complete strangers (no offence).

Getting more and more stressed about how big I was looking was starting to cast a dark cloud over my amazing holiday, so I decided enough was enough, there was nothing I could do it about whilst in Florida (except enjoy myself) but when I was back in the UK I was going to (reluctantly) sign myself up for Slimming World.

I decided to sign myself up to a Wednesday night group, at 7.30pm. First of all slimming world really isn’t as bad as I had pictured it, and everyone in my group was very friendly and chatty, and I felt completely relaxed there.

I had a little chat with the group leader and was surprised to know that you can loose up to four-six lb’s on your first weigh in! Well that would suit me just fine!! I hadn’t weighed myself prior to going to SW but thought I must weigh about 9 something….. The group leader also goes through good and bad foods and syns.

So I’m not here to tell you the in’s and outs of SW but in a nutshell you get an allowance of 15 syns per day, and they can be used on anything naughty that you like! You just can’t go over your allowance.

So I’m standing in the queue waiting for the all important weigh in feeling quite smug really, it’s not like I have loads to loose, it’ll probably only take me a few weeks to hit my 9 stone goal. Stepping on the scales I was naturally pretty surprised when I was told I weigh 10st 05lbs, okay that was definitely more than I thought I weighed, but with a possible 4-6 lb weight loss in my first week it wouldn’t take me long…. Or so I thought.

My first week I was completely on plan, I weighed and I measured and had a few cheeky syns here and there but never went over my 15 per day allowance. I ate salads, and free foods, prepared over night oats every morning. I felt pretty good about myself to be honest, confident that I had shifted at least 4lbs I was quite excited to jump on the scales at SW on my 2nd week. So IMAGINE my face when I’m told I’ve lost 1lb, I mean are you kidding me? 1lb in a week? I consoled myself with the fact that a loss is still a loss, hopefully the week after I’ll loose big.

Sticking to plan another week, I was SURE I was in for bigger weight loss, but NOPE, I stepped on those scales, and I had lost…. 1lb.

I’m annoyed at this point, religiously measuring and weighing, being careful with what I eat, sticking to plan, and all this for a 1lb loss?! It actually got worse from there because sticking to the same plan the week after I GAINED a pound, then lost it the week after and gained the week after that!!

I seriously contemplated going to the doctors to see if I had a medical condition that was maybe preventing me from loosing weight, it was all becoming very disheartening for me and my 9st goal was getting further and further away!

I plodded along weeks after week in the hope that I might have a bigger weight loss at some point but it never happened. My last weigh in before Christmas was on 29/11/2017 where I weighed in at 9st 12lb just 2.5lb’s lighter when I started! I then decided to give up over the Christmas period, I was busy and trying to make Wednesday class in December was going to prove difficult. Instead I did what most people do during the festive period and INDULGED! I ate what I wanted when I wanted and didn’t count a single syn! It was bliss!!

Reluctantly in the new year I decided to return to SW against my better judgment I decided to try it one last time.

Before stepping on the scales I fully expected a BIG gain, especially with the amount of food consumed.

You can imagine my surprise when I stepped on those scales and and LOST 2.5lb’s! That quite literally made no sense at all.

I went home that evening and decided I would do a mini experiment, I would weigh in each week but do my own diet! No syns, no measuring, no free foods, just a normal healthy calorie controlled diet. The proof I believe is in the results

I had a consistent loss every week from doing it my way.

I believe that my diet always has been pretty healthy, I am a pescatarian, I don’t take sugar in hot drinks, I drink a lot of water and never have soft drink that isn’t diet, I don’t eat bags and crisps and bars of chocolate preferring to healthier options instead. By joining slimming world I think I was eating far more than I had ever done before and Luke actually made me aware of this.

For example I may have overnight oats and yogurt and fruit for breakfast, a yogurt mid morning, pasta salad for lunch, a SW bar mid afternoon, a jacket potato with cheese and beans and salad for dinner and possibly a meringue with a muller light yogurt and fruit for dessert. The pasta, potato, beans, muller light yogurts are all FREE, the oats are a healthy extra B (so I don’t syn it) my only syns are the SW bar and meringue. On the SW diet that is all fine, however the calorie intake is probably higher than I had ever been used too before, which is why I wasn’t loosing the weight!

I have no doubt that Slimming world does work, I just don’t think it is designed for everyone (I am proof of that) and it is so disheartening when week after week you are stepping on those scales and seeing no significant change.

I am now weighing it at 8st 12lbs, for my height I would like to go a few pounds lighter, which would put me in better proportion. I no longer go to my weekly Wednesday group, instead every week I weigh myself at home, and I can definitely notice the weight drop in my clothes. I continue to stick to my calorie controlled diet, and have the occasional blow out at the weekend.

I want to maintain a healthy balance between food and weight loss, I don’t want it to be such a big obsession, and I want to enjoy life instead of worrying about every little thing I put past my lips. Since Christmas I feel that the balance has been right for me, I am finally starting to feel more confident in myself than I have done it a long time. I feel more in touch with my body (which Oh my god even as I write it sounds laugh out loud stupid) but I now feel that I understand that my height does mean that I am not as fortunate as someone who is a few inches taller than me, who will carry the weigh better than I do. I still snack and and eat bread, but I don’t load on empty calories and would rather eat a punnet of raspberries than a cereal bar, where as before I had a never ending supply of low fat Alpen and SW bars.

with dieting it’s trial and error and working out what works best for you as an individual, I am by no means an expert, all I can say it I’ve seen the weight fall off people who go to slimming world. Unfortunately that just wasn’t the case for me.

The post Let’s talk weight loss appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.

I am now fully  back into the swing of things, I have finally accepted that Christmas is now over (that’s always a sad time) and am busy moving on with plans (Valentines day, a hen do and my Boyfriends birthday to name but a few) being a serial planner is sometimes exhausting, but it’s a part of who I am, and the bottom line is I LOVE TO PLAN!! 

It’s actually nice to be back into a routine after 11 days off over Christmas, don’t get me wrong, I am fully thankful that I am not required to work in between Christmas and New Year. Instead I get to chill out drinking salted caramel baileys and eating pretty much anything that gets shoved under my nose! I mean I do believe that over the festive period I have probably done a whole tin of Roses by myself……and more….if we are counting the crisps, nuts, biscuits, cakes and copious amounts of desserts that I have made my way through! But hey it was Christmas after all! that is the excuse I have used from around the 2 week in December!

Seeing as it’s the first week of a new year, I decided to jump straight back on the DIET, god I hate that dreaded D word! I have decided that in 2018 I want to diminish the weight issue that has followed me around for what seems like years, I mean I honestly cannot remember a time when I haven’t been on a diet. I am hoping at some point during this year I can find some sort of even balance where I am happy with my weight and can enjoy the nicer things in life without worrying about putting on a pound! I have mentioned this before but being a small 5ft a pound on me looks more like a stone! it’s the curse of being short!

I am planning more of an active lifestyle this year, I have my clubbercise class which I can’t wait to get back into, the weekly Monday run which I will be resuming, Luke and I have decided to walk more at the weekends and explore some of that beautiful Essex countryside that surrounds us, and then there will be more gym sessions along the way. Of course I write this post while making my way through a family sized pack of Veggie Chips (which are shaped as Mickey Mouse…Winner!) call it the last of the Christmas indulgence! And they taste so good!!

My point is we are not all blessed with bikini wearing bodies, and over time I have reluctantly come to accept this, it’s just not meant to be. And anyway what’s wrong with a tankini right?! in 2018 me and my body just need to come to this realisation that we are kinda stuck with each other, so we are going to just have to learn to love one and other, but it would be nice to at least look at piece chocolate this year without it going straight on my hips!!! It’s really not a lot to ask!!

This is definitely the new motivational me speaking, I wonder if I’ll still be as positive after stepping on the SCALES!!!!!!!!!!

We’ll see…..

?L?

The post Getting back into the routine of life! appeared first on Lifestyle Lisa.