Welcome to 2025...

A new year begins and as we reflect on the previous 12 months we look forward to what the coming months may hold.

It is also that time of year when resolutions and pledges are aplenty and the mantra of 'new year new me' can be heard ringing along with the bells chiming midnight!

But how many of those resolutions and pledges actually come to fruition over the year ahead? Why do we always use the ringing in of a new year as the time to make that change...well we say we're going to make that change!!

And while the start of a new year, or maybe the start of a new week, or perhaps the beginning of a month or even a point in the future that links to current plans (you know the 'when I get back from...') all sound amazing and may even feel great they very rarely even happen. The problem is that by telling ourselves that we will do something at a certain point gives us a feeling of positivity, a feeling that we are in charge, a feeling that we are moving forward and will achieve our goals because we now have a 'plan' and unfortunately that is where it all falls apart. That feeling of achievement because we have said we will do something on a certain date is enough for us to feel good about ourselves and it tricks our brain into thinking we've 'done something' when actually all we've done is thought about doing something. This in turn means that when that date rolls around we often find an excuse for the 'plan' to not happen or get delayed or only last for a few days until something comes along to derail us. We feel good about ourselves for thinking and planning about making a change but that feeling wains and our desire to make the change wains with it. Something else more important comes along and gives us the excuse to 'start next week' and the whole process repeats itself.

We've all been there, I know I have. I've lost count of the times I thought about starting a diet to lose a few pounds for that holiday, or before Christmas or for a special event only to find that before I knew it my starting point had moved so many times that 'the event' was suddenly upon me and I'd missed my opportunity. Which of course at that point made me feel like a failure and I would just give up, throw my rattle out of my pram and convince myself that I was always going to be this way and there was nothing I could do about it. Rinse and repeat this process over and over, for years and years.

You know that old mantra of 'don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today' actually rings true. If you want to make a change, if you want to try something new, if you want to lose a few pounds or get fitter then why wait for a 'date in the future'? Why not just start today? What's stopping you?

If you want to make a change in whatever aspect of your life then the best time to start is now, today, this minute. Waiting until Monday, or the new year, is only delaying you becoming the person you want to be. That better version you want to be will only happen if you make the changes you need when you decide to be that better version.

So the question you have to ask yourself is that if you are waiting for that specific date in the future to make those changes do you really want to make that change? If you can't start now, right this minute,  then why? Surely if the change you need to make is important enough, or wanted enough, then starting now is the only option.

Remember the only person you have to please is you, and the only person who can make the changes you want is you and the only person stopping you from starting is you! So don't wait till tomorrow start now. You don't have to start big, you don't have to start perfectly, you just have to start and each day you just keep on going until before you know it the thing that you wanted to achieve is happening. It may not happen as quick as you would like but it will be happening and if you miss a day or mess up then just start again the next day. No-one is perfect, we all have bad days and the trick is not letting those less than perfect days derail you. Simply dust yourself off, get back up and get straight back on with what you should be doing. Don't berate yourself, just chalk it up to experience and start again. 

So instead of reading this, you know what you need to do...start NOW!

Overdue Blog Post - Part Three!

Wow, so I finally have the time and space to get writing again and find myself approaching the end of March having not written anything since early January - whoops!

Luckily for me I have been keeping a diary of sorts and so have a pretty good idea of what I've been up to but am wondering how best to either summarise or move on from my last post. Which I think means this will be more of an overview and perhaps there will be separate posts focusing on some of the happenings over the last few months.

Plus I need to figure out a way to get back into writing more often...perhaps I need to go back to my diary type posts that I did over the preceding couple of years...something to think about!

But let's get back to the job at hand and try and summarise what's been happening of late.

So, where were we...ah yes Christmas! This year (or should that be last year?) was different to our usual routine of years gone by. This was the first Christmas since my dad had passed and that meant the first Christmas for Simon and I without any of our parents and while that brought about its own set of emotions it also meant that we had only ourselves to please. Which meant we were able to mix things up a little!

Molly and Dan were spending Christmas at their home, having spent the previous year with us, so we decided to travel down to see them instead. This resulted in us making the journey to Bournemouth on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day) for a few days before returning to celebrate the New Year at home.

I'd realised as we approached Christmas that ordinarily after having the big Christmas Day meal we would make use of any leftover food on Boxing Day...but as we wouldn't be home on Boxing Day this meant a change of plan. As Ethan's birthday is on Christmas Eve we decided to have our big Christmas dinner for his birthday instead and then make Christmas Day a very relaxed affair with presents and leftover food, which worked out beautifully. It was so nice to be able to enjoy the unwrapping of presents and have a very chilled out day as opposed to the usual slaving away in the kitchen! Plus because there was only the three of us it meant that cooking on Christmas Eve wasn't the big ordeal that it would have been compared to previous years. Oh and of course birthday celebrations in this house meant it was Mickey waffle time!

We had a lovely few days in Bournemouth even though the weather was rather soggy. We were able to exchange presents, enjoy some lovely meals, do lots of walking interspersed with coffees and even a little ice skating. Although on this occasion Simon decided to forgo the skating as it was very, very wet and joined me and Ethan in watching Molls and Dan enjoy themselves on the ice.

On the 29th December we travelled home with Molls and Dan making the journey as well so that we had a few days with all of us at home. We were able to make use of the outdoor skating rink in Nottingham that this year had an elevated 'skate path'...

Nottingham's Skate Path, above the Christmas market

...and when I saw 'we' I do of course mean Molls, Dan and Simon. I watched from afar and then went off in search of coffee and a little retail therapy. We saw the New Year in as a family with an array of board games and a lovely 'big' meal on New Years Day.

But by January 3rd the house was very quiet; Molls and Dan had gone back home to Bournemouth and Ethan was back at work. That left Simon and I with a couple of days to get the house back to 'normal' as we embarked on the horrible task of taking down and putting away of all the Christmas decorations; I love all my Christmas 'stuff' and hate having to put it all away. It actually took us about three days to put everything away with the majority being done by yours truly once Simon returned to work.

Well with Christmas and New Year done lets move onto January.

We started to get back into our routine of early morning (and rather chilly) walks followed by our Wim Hof breathing and a little meditation. Cold showers have now become the 'norm' for both Simon and I and these have continued regardless of what we have been up to. Unfortunately after getting back into our stride with the morning walks we had to take a little bit of a break as I suffer with chilblains on my left foot and once aggravated it becomes uncomfortable to walk on for extended periods and only gets worse if my feet get cold. So with a spell of very chilly weather we took a bit of a break from our walks.

Through January I was dealing with the sale of my dads house as we had signed all the necessary paperwork just before Christmas and it was now a case of working with solicitors to get everything done as speedily as possible.

We also started making some headway with our Jedi robes ready for Star Wars Celebration at Easter. And of course when I say 'we' I actually mean Simon, and his focus was on making some leather pouches for our belts to house our mobile phones. He also mastered the technique of metal casting by using pewter to make the buckles for our belts. 

For my part I had to order some different trousers as the fit on the pair I'd originally ordered was a little snug. And then there was an awful lot of research into the correct material to order for the outer cloak...something that was of the right dark brown colour and that was also of a heavy, wool like material. Suffice to say I think I went cross eyed looking at all the different options out there.

By the end of January we had found a local dressmaker that was willing (and excited) to help us with the technical aspect of putting the tunic/tabard section of the robes together. But I think I will go into more detail about our Jedi robes in a separate post!

We tried to get out for our morning walks again when the weather eased but no sooner than we had got back into the routine the weather turned rather cold again so we resigned ourselves to just get out as and when we could.

As we moved through January I was focused on getting more things removed from my dads house in readiness for the sale going through, along with the subsequent organising of Ebay sales. And my involvement with pre-school continued as we looked at the ongoing finances as well as a potential change in charitable status; so lots of research and a fair few meetings over numerous cups of coffee.

Ethan is still trying to find himself a house and we managed a viewing of one, but it was not quite what he was after,  and he had another couple of viewings cancelled at the last minute. First time buyer houses seem to go rather quickly once they get on the market - oh well just got to keep on looking.

And I think that covers January, so I will stop here and get writing the next post!

And a Brand New Year

Day 289...and a brand new year.

And this is going to be a very late post today...in fact it's so late it may have to wait until tomorrow!

Suffice to say it's been a chilled out day...there's been food, a walk, more R2D2 building and more board games...and I even won!

So take care and I'll check back in tomorrow.

xx

New Year, New Me!!

Isn't that how all blog posts etc are supposed to start this time of year - New Year, New Me!!

Lots of articles about diets, getting fit, moving more, eating better, being healthy etc, etc and how NOW is the time to do it! After all what better time to do something about your weight, or shape or fitness than the start of a new year!!  OK I hope you can detect my sarcasm as I write this because really?!!

Just because we start a new year shouldn't be the reason to create a new you! If you want to do something about your weight or how you look you should do it because the want is there not because of what time of year it is.

Now I will be the first to admit that over the festive period I have like most people indulged in foods I wouldn't normally have done, probably had a few drinks more than usual and not moved as much as I do usually. So yes the New Year, or rather the end of the holidays, is the kick start back into my usual routine.

There will be lots of 'diets' out there that will promise amazing results in amazing amounts of time or fantastic results by buying their products or sticking to a 'points' system or some other type of gimmick normally involving a 'discounted price' to entice you in. The problem with most of these 'quick fixes' are that they are just that, a quick fix, that doesn't last and the only thing that you can guarantee being any lighter is your purse! Now don't get me wrong some people will use these diets and for them it will work and it may even work long term for them but for most of us we buy in, stick to it for a while until we hit a bump in the road and we go back to square one.

Now for anyone who has read my blog over the last few years will be aware of my own success at losing weight and feeling better about myself and body shape. Have a look at my page called - 'Getting Real' where I go into detail about how I lost weight and started a new way of eating...a lifestyle change.

And I think this is key to anyone who really wants to lose the weight; it is not dieting that will help you to lose weight it is making a change to your lifestyle.

Having changed my lifestyle two and a half years ago I have not only embraced it but I continue to learn more about what I am now doing and how that affects me and my body and how the way most of us eat is doing us more harm than good. And it is a lifestyle that I found relatively easy to adopt and one that the whole family now follows. So what did I do?

Have a look at the page on this blog called 'Getting Real' as well as my post from June 2015 called 'One Year On' as both of these document my journey and how I got to where I am today.

Basically I have adopted what is often referred to as either 'low carb' or 'low carb, high fat' (LCHF) way of eating. This means cutting down on the sugars and starches - so no potatoes, breads, pasta or rice - while eating plenty of fish, meat, eggs, natural fats and veggies (those that grow above ground!).

I don't count calories - lots of studies now show that not all calories are the same; the way your body processes calories depends on where they come from! Take in sugars or carbs and your body doesn't really know what to do with them and so stores them as fat which leaves you feeling hungry...so you eat more (usually more carbs) and so the vicious circle begins. Take in fats and proteins and your body uses these for energy and actually starts burning your fat stores, you also feel satisfied when you've eaten fats and protein and so avoid the cycle of eating more when it's not needed.

The key to all this is to eat real foods and ditch the highly processed sugary rubbish that is way too easily available. Many years ago the official dietary advice to lose weight and keep your heart healthy was to eat low fat foods...the food industry obliged and provided us with a ton of low fat or fat free alternatives. The problem with removing the fat was that the food tasted pretty nasty so the food industry replaced the missing fat with sugar or sweeteners. But this meant our carb intake increased; we didn't feel 'full' so we ate more. The food industry recognised they were onto a good thing by supporting the official dietary advice and so kept on producing more and more processed low fat foods. We now find ourselves with a food industry still supporting the 'low fat advice' and not wanting to make a change because of the detrimental affect it could have to their profit margins.

The latest evidence now tells us that fat has never been our enemy, it's been sugar all along. The advice that governments followed about having a low fat diet was wrong...they simply listened to those that shouted the loudest, those scientists who, at the time, had the connections and believed their ideas to be right...unfortunately for us they were not. I urge you to read a book called 'Why We Get Fat and What to Do About it' by Gary Taubes - a fascinating and easy read which explains why we find ourselves today with the highest obesity and diabetes rates ever, despite following all the government advice to eat low fat.

So the answer is simple ditch the carbs, enjoy fats and protein and eat real food. No fads, no gimmicks, no magic powders simply good, tasty, satisfying real food. And yes you can throw some exercise into the mix as well but the exercise won't make you lose weight; it will keep you fit and will tone what you've got but it's what you put into your body that will make the biggest changes.

I have been eating this way for two and a half years. I complete a set of body weight exercises most days. I dropped from a size 12 (UK) to a size 8 (UK) and have stayed that way. Yes my weight will fluctuate every now and then but it stays pretty consistent. While changing the way you have eaten all your life can be daunting and a challenge I have found it really straight forward to stick to; there's no portion control or calorie counting it's simply finding the right food, eating it and enjoying it.

If you want to make a change, feel good about how you look and at the same time improve your health and well being then give this lifestyle a try. I did, it worked and I'm staying this way!

Please feel free to comment below, or contact me via Twitter @JaynePhipps should you want to know more.

A really good website to give you more information is www.dietdoctor.com

Goodbye 2016 and Hello 2017

I have finally found some time to write and find myself at the crossroads of one year ending and another beginning, and thought it would be appropriate (and a bit of a cliche) to say goodbye to 2016 and look forward to 2017.

My last blog piece was back at the beginning of October and since then our lives have been a little hectic; hence the lack of posts.

Work has been as busy as ever, compounded with the usual Christmas antics of concerts and fairs. The Disney Dream Girls podcast continues to thrive and along with my co-host, Michelle, we have managed to reach show number 139! I have had some more ink added to my Disney sleeve, so watch out for a separate blog post on these latest additions. My daughter achieved her black belt in Mixed Martial Arts. My eldest has settled into University while still being able to live at home and is doing really well. There has of course been the usual 'getting ready for Christmas'; buying presents, decorating the house indoors and out, finding time to bake, writing cards etc, etc, etc. We have also managed to enjoy some brilliant nights out with good friends; indulging in a number of local burlesque evenings hosted by the fabulous Scarlett Daggers. Oh and there was also the small matter of a new Star Wars movie, Rogue One, that just had to be seen! Phew!

And in amongst all of this in early November my father-in-law became really rather poorly as a result of living with dementia for a long time. This meant a number of weeks in hospital and just when we thought he maybe coming home he sadly passed away in early December.

This year has been one of ups and downs and one that has at times stretched us to our limits but as a couple and as a family we have come through it all. We may not have been able to get to Disney this year or had a fancy vacation somewhere but we have made the most of the time that we have had together. Simon and I enjoyed a few days cosplaying in London at this years Star Wars Celebration with our new found Mandalorian Mercs family. We dragged the kids along to York Comic Con so we could dress up once again. We spent days during the Summer as a family simply getting out and about together. Both Simon and I have expanded our own 'ink' collections and we even cosplayed at our local Disney Store. And through all the ups and downs we have as a family come together and got through to the other side.

So what does 2017 hold for me and mine? Well at this point in time I really don't know...I have some more ink planned in a couple of weeks time but other than that we have nothing set for the year. Molly has her GCSE's to complete and her next stage of education to think about. Ethan will be completing his first year at University and Simon and will continue to draw and make stuff! But who knows what else will be on the cards.

But whatever comes my way I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and productive 2017. Get out there and do what makes you happy, enjoy life and share it with those who mean the most to you xx

Happy New Year!

Reflections and Moving Forward

So as is customary at this time of year I thought I would take a look back at 2015 and see what's on the horizon for 2016.

So 2015 has been rather a tough year to be honest. As those who read my blog will know early on in the year my mum very suddenly passed away and this left rather a big hole in my life and had a big impact on this year. It has been hard going at times but with amazing support from Simon and friends I am 'getting there'.

We did manage a short trip to Disneyland Paris back in February and I've wrote a number of blog posts that cover the trip as well as general overviews on eating at Disneyland Paris and Disney's Sequoia Lodge resort. Being able to visit a Disney park was great fun although it did make me miss Walt Disney World even more!

I have continued to record the Disney Dream Girls podcast with my very good friend Michelle and have enjoyed watching and listening to Michelle's trips to Disneyland this past year - she is even there now as I type this...the lucky thing!!

Simon and I have continued with our cosplay creations as we get ready for Star Wars Celebration in London next year. I have discovered that I am a very good assistant when it comes to moulding things with a heat gun and using a hot glue gun is quite good fun too. I've even used a sewing machine for the first time in my life!  I will endeavour to do a blog post in the New Year cataloguing our achievements so far.

So looking forward what does 2016 have in store...well the main thing at the moment will be our trip to Star Wars Celebration in London in July. We have tickets for all three days of all things Star Wars which also means we get a great short break away in London...without the kids ;)

I will also be getting some new Disney ink completed this year; in fact only yesterday I was talking to my amazing tattooist Rachael Huntingdon (Rampant Ink) about making a start on what will be a full sleeve!

Will we make it to a Disney park this year? Who knows? It will be 25 years this year since I visited Walt Disney World for the first time so it would be lovely to think we could re-visit 25 years on but as I write this it is looking highly unlikely....but never say never!!

I hope that 2015 has been kind to you and yours and that 2016 will see you happy, healthy and having a ton of fun.

Happy New Year!!!