I lost a STONE in 6 weeks!

Before I get into how, I wanna talk about what brought me to lose weight. I haven't been even slightly slim since I left school, between college's £1.00 breakfast's and my love of crisps, cheese and a good drink... I've not made it easy for myself to be slim! It's been a bit of a slow gain, I didn't notice until looking at old photo's just how much weight I've put on! Don't get me wrong, I've never been overly concerned about my unhealthy habits and weight, I made changes here and there but still had that chippy at work on a Friday or that takeaway after a night out and I'm completely fine with that. It was only when I was diagnosed with Turner's Syndrome that I even considered that perhaps my weight was problematic. My consultant, the lovely Sue, is also a specialist in diabetes and is always on at me to do something about my weight before it's too late and this January after a noticeable gain over Christmas, I did just that and I joined Slimming World. 

A few people had mentioned joining to me in the past and I generally brushed them off thinking how much I would HATE to go to a group get weighed in front of everyone and then discuss my issues with food in front of a whole group... how embarrassing? and yet I couldn't have been more wrong! You literally go in, hand over your card and membership money, walk over and get weighed and then it goes into your slimming world book. Once everyone's been weighed group starts and your consultant will go round the group to talk about how you've done. Staying for group is optional but Hollie and I love to stay for group and hearing from everyone. As daunting as it sounds, it is always a positive experience. Any loss is fantastic but even when you've gained, it's discussed in a positive way, the consultant will not say 'Hayley, you've gained 1lb' as she might announce with a loss but she'd say 'Hayley, you've lost 15lbs so far' and it's still met with the same applause which is amazing. Another fantastic thing about group is there are so many different people in there and we all share tips and recipe's and have a nice little chat each week. 

Just from following the slimming world model (Free Food, Speed Food, HEx A and HEx B and Syns) I have lost just over a stone! I have had a few treats here and there but I've always got back onto plan. 

The internet is FULL of Slimming World recipe's and inspiration and one surprising platform to get it is Instagram. Honestly, I get food envy every day just looking at Harry Pickard's insta he has the most amazing meals that still sound naughty with so few syns. My point is, you can draw inspo from anywhere and it hasn't half helped me this past 6 weeks.

I am still a long way off of my target and not even at the point where I can SEE I've lost weight (I'm definitely feeling it in some of my clothes though) but I am still more than happy and loving my life, still stuffing my face but with better foods!

Hayl xo

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Why I chose an apprenticeship

So, at current a lot of people will preparing to go to uni and others are looking for their first job out of college a good percentage of which very well might be an apprenticeship. I might have touched previously on the fact I was one of the latter but in this post I'm going to talk through my decision.

Firstly, I went through the entirety of my A Levels intending to go to uni. My courses were generally picked with criminology/forensics in mind as that was my end goal. I absolutely loved my college courses and gained so much from them regardless of the outcomes so even though I picked them to get into my uni course, I don't feel I wasted my time having done any of them.
I got good enough grades to build up enough UCAS points to get into the course/uni I applied to and I was buzzing but then the closer and closer it got, the more I felt terrified about the whole scenario. It literally got to my registration day and I was like, NAH. Now, I know most people will read that and be like, you're not the only one Hayley, we all felt like that but carried on. For some reason, I just couldn't. That same day, I emailed my tutor at uni and told her I wasn't going to go and I re-did my CV and got applying for jobs. Before long, I realised without little experience, no where that I wanted to be would take me on which quickly drove me to the apprenticeships website. The thing that attracted me most to apprenticeships was the whole idea that not only did you get the experience in the role, you have a qualification at the end to prove you have that experience too and of course you get paid as you do it! I have both my level 2 and 3 in business admin which I completed at 2 different jobs and if you didn't know level 2 equates to a GCSE level and 3 equates to an A Level. I'm still at the job where I completed my level 3 and I'm really happy in my role and the workplace itself.

Another part of the reason I was happy to give up the idea of university so easily was that I can go back to it at any point, just because it wasn't for me back when I was 18, it doesn't mean that in time I wont decide to do a course via the open university or anything like that, it's always something I'll be open to revisiting when I'm ready, I may wear the mortarboard and gown one day!

To summarise - I decided late in the game I wanted to do an apprenticeship because you gain experience, a viable qualification and money to do so in one. I'd never not advocate uni though, if/when I have kids, I'd hope they would like to go to uni and I wouldn't be like well I didn't go so you don't need to, uni will always be the first path they should head to until they decide otherwise for themselves just like it was for me! Never think that there is only one way to get where you want to be in life or that there is a set timeline to do so... there is always more than one way to make a mai-tai and it is ALWAYS 5 o'clock somewhere x

Hayl xo

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