Romwe Update & Keto Progress...

Hello my lovelies!

I have a couple of updates for you today on this lovely crisp Monday morning. I hope you all have a lovely weekend and that your Monday isn't too bad!

Romwe Update

So I finally got a letter from Parcel Force about this customs and duty that I supposedly owed on a Romwe package - turned out I did in fact owe £19.95. I told them to send the package back to the sender as I wasn't paying it. Of course I'm not going to pay £19.95 customs on a £10 jumper, that's just madness!

So the big mix up on this customs thing was apparently because the package was sent by a third party supplier for Romwe based in Germany - whenever they sent the package they declared it as worth a significant amount more than the £10 I paid. I can only assume this was a mistake. The customs guy couldn't/wouldn't tell me the figure it was declared at, only that it was a "significant amount". I am guessing that when Romwe's third party supplier in Germany sent the package they have accidentally put the decimal in the wrong place, i.e. rather than writing £10.79 they have put £107.9.

I'm not 100% sure what happened but I have emailed Romwe to say the package is on the way back to their supplier in Germany. If they want to send the package to me again with the correct value declared no problem, otherwise I'll be seeking a refund through PayPal - not because I'm overly worried about £10, but because of the principle of the whole thing. After all it is their mistake.

Keto Update

So I've been on Keto since last Friday and have found it surprisingly easy. I found it so easy in fact that I am convinced I must be doing something wrong? Bacon and eggs for breakfast, chicken and coleslaw for lunch and turkey burgers with lashing of cheese and mayo for dinner? This can't be right. Everything little neuron in my brain is screaming "STOP, DON'T EAT THE CHEESE! PUT DOWN THE FUL FAT MAYO! YOU CAN'T HAVE CREAM IN YOUR COFFEE!", yet the scales this morning told a different story - I'm four pounds lighter... really... FOUR POUNDS! Now I know this is probably just water weight but to be fair I've never come out the other side of a weekend lighter than when I went in.

I haven't felt any real cravings for carbs or sugar yet, but that said, I am only on my fourth day. I figure I must be in keto now as I've lost some weight and feel like I have more energy, but I haven't had any of the usual 'keto-flu' symptoms that I read about online. The more I read about the keto-flu, the more I think that it only occurs in people who are making the keto transition while incorporating some intense work-out sessions. I haven't changed my exercise at all - I'm still just walking my dogs every day - I live by the sea and I think sea air is really good for the lungs so a good long walk along the beach with the dogs is what I enjoy. It makes me feel good.

I'd love to hear from any of you lovelies doing keto. It is definitely similar to red days on slimming world, except you add the fat instead of taking it away. I'm excited to keep going with this. I was reading on Ketogenic Queen this morning about how she likes to have a 'cheat meal' whenever she hits a plateau, I guess this is to trick the body into burning fat again, like how on Slimming World if you plateau you mix up your days and add a speed day or two in. It's a handy tip! I'll definitely keep this in mind along my keto journey just incase I plateau.

Hope you all are having a happy and healthy Monday. You are all beautiful no matter what size or shape you are - never forget that!

Big love,

Kiki x

Quick update on the past year....

So I've had a little think about how I'm going to sum up the goings-on of the past year without making it too drawn out and boring and have decided to just make a quick five point list, and if anyone is interested in hearing more detail about a particular thing just leave me a comment or send me a tweet (@MrsKirstyWJ) and I'll get on it... like a car bonnet - mad apologies about that, couldn't resist.

1. We bought a new house
2. We got married
3. We went on honeymoon
4. We renovated our new house
5. We got another puppy

I wish I would have documented the whole renovation process a bit more but to be honest it was buying the house and starting renovations that kept me away from here for so long. It was a really difficult task, especially because we were doing it on a spend as we earn basis so there was no bulk loan taken out for the work. Glad of this now... not so happy about it at the time, because everything was so slow and so much hard work even though we had a lot of help from friends and family. We are just putting the finishing touches to the house now - finishing off the front garden and the attic so at least I'll be able to share that with you as we do it.

Oh, and for all of you that followed my 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels' blog where I uploaded a lot more diet related stuff, I just want to say that I am still eating healthily, not totally slimming world approved all the time but it's going good. I try to make a lot of freezable meals on Sundays as during the week I can be too busy to cook and don't want to resort to take-aways too much - not only for the healthy factor, but also for the pocket factor! I'll hopefully do a Sunday evening post with my meals for the week. And if anyone would be interested in me doing a food shopping haul video (of affordable healthy eating on a budget) let me know.

Talk later,

Kiki x

A Little Monday Update on the Weekend...

I did not eat healthy at all this weekend, Slimming World went right out the window and I've only let it back in this morning! Weekends are always hard for me - especially when J says "lets get a Chinese takeaway"... I can't resist the smoked chicken!

Apart from being very naughty in the food department, we had a great weekend... I have decided on my wedding band and J has 'almost' decided on his. We were able to view a couple of houses together on Saturday and are hoping to see a few more in our area this week. Although getting a Saturday appointment for a mortgage is much harder than I thought - they're booked up until the end of March!

After viewing the first two houses we had a loooong discussion about what we are really looking for in a house... it's terribly hard to think of what you really need in a house - space, number of rooms, parking, area, neighbours, layout of house, outside space incase you need to extend, do we get the 'home' feeling, how many bathrooms (for when we start a family), family sized kitchen and spaces, privacy...  these are only some of the things we have realised we need to think about.

Choosing to rent our apartment was much easier... and a lot less complicated, we walked in, liked the space, got the 'home' feeling and signed the lease!

So the search continues!

The bridal fair on Sunday at the Clandeboye Lodge was brilliant. I found a lovely little home-run company that makes the most beautiful hair clips for bridesmaids... almost exactly the same as the ones I had originally seen (and fallen in love with) on Pinterest!

The suits for the guys are still proving problematic, but J said we will just pick one day he is off work and book an appointment for as many places as we can and go around them all.

I've also got my first appointment with a bridal consultant! This is very exciting! I was under the impression that I could easily pick up a wedding dress a couple of months beforehand... but I was very wrong... it can take up to 6 months for a wedding dress to be ordered and made! Yikes! Talk about leaving things a little late!

I have also just this very minute put my order in with Oh So Lean, which I will collect from Bangor on Wednesday evening! I'm very excited to try their stuff and will post what I got and how I used them! Hopefully it will be of some help to fellow Slimming World followers!

I baked some cupcakes! I hadn't baked anything in a while as I was sticking very strictly to Slimming World but I gave in at the weekend as J had requested I make him some Easter Cupcakes a little early - a tester, as he called them! Cheeky!

Turf the destroyer (as we now call him) got a new toy on Saturday (Mr. Snakey)... and destroyed it last night by pulling out his tongue and ripping a giant hole in its head and pulling out the squeaker!

Looks like butter wouldn't melt... toys beware!

Mummy will be playing doctor tonight and stitching Mr. Snakey's head back together (the tongue is a goner)... along with re-stitching bobo (for the third time) and babybear - who is missing a limb!