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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I Can Drive?!

First of all, let me take you back to just over 2 years ago, I was 20, working in a busy town with fantastic transport links that dropped me as close as a 5 minute walk away from my office and was able to spend my wages on whatever I wanted. I had no real reason to be driving and had little to no desire to begin either. Flash forward to when I started my job in a small village and things became extremely different! Not only are the transport links between where I live and where I work quite poor, they're slow and expensive! where I was paying £7.00 per week for a train ticket, I began paying £95.00 per month for a bus ticket, a huuuge contrast. Throw in a bus that only runs every hour and is quite often late and you'll get an extremely fed up Hayley! After a year of working at my current job, I finally gained enough courage to get behind the wheel and learn to drive and after a few weeks of learning, I wondered why I'd never wanted to start! 

All in all, it took me around a year to pass my test, I reckon this is partly because I put off doing my theory test for a long time out of fear that I'd fail. I started lessons around the end of September and then passed my test just two weeks ago on the 25th of October. I was surprisingly lucky on both occasions and passed both of my tests first time which was so so unexpected, I didn't feel at all like I knew enough to pass the theory and I certainly didn't feel prepared to pass the practical test. 

The weekend after the weekend that I passed, I went down to my local Citroen dealership and bought my first car, I got a C1 Elle in nude and I'm completely obsessed! The car is on Citroen's Simply Drive package where you get the car, insurance, road tax, roadside assistance and servicing for one monthly price which is a LOT cheaper than any prices I found when getting quotes for other separate cars. The car insured with a telematics scheme because I'm a brand new driver and 22 I only installed the device yesterday and have been obsessively checking my score after each journey since! so far I'm not doing too bad but it is put together over an average based on ALL journeys so I'm hoping I can keep the good driving up! 

Getting in a car on your own for the first time is weird and definitely takes a lot of getting used to but I'm starting to get used to it now and the first day I must've stalled 200 times while getting used to my car and driving to and from work was crazy but I'm definitely getting used to it now.  

Hayl xo

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Hospital Appointments and HRT

Since the last (only) time I wrote about my Turners Syndrome a lot has happened, I still don't know too much in terms of it's effects on me but the check ups and treatments are well underway so I just thought I would go over that here for anyone that may want to know the kind of tests/check up us turners ladies have.

Medication

There are only 2 types of medication that I take currently

• 3 vitamin D supplements in a high strength in the morning. These are due to a deficiency in Vitamin D which has affected my bone health. I was diagnosed with osteopenia meaning I have weak bones but not so weak that they would break with ease just through a fall etc. 
• 3 oestrogen tablets (ethinylestradiol) on a night. This is my hormone replacement therapy which is standard for girls with turners syndrome as well as lots of other women that have issues with their hormone regulation. This currently is purely oestrogen for now until my doctor sees fit to transfer me to the combined pill with progesterone in.

Tests/Screening

As you can imagine, I've been subjected to a lot of prodding and probing in the past year and a bit just to make sure I'm in tip top shape. Some of the tests I have had done are:

• Enumerable blood tests to diagnose any deficiency or abnormality in the blood. As mentioned above the only deficiency right now is Vitamin D however in my last set of tests, my ferritin levels came back as low so my doctor has decided if they are any lower by my next appointment, I will be put onto supplements for that too.  
• A Dexa scan to check my bone density levels - this was the test that discovered my osteopenia.
• An MRI scan for my uterus to see what shape it was in, this came back normal
• A healthy heart test to ensure my heart was working as it should be - this was just an ECG which came back fine
• A cardiac ultrasound - this was just to see what my heart actually looked like and to make sure there were no problems with my aortic valve - weirdly, this was my favourite of all the tests as I got to see my heart on the screen in the same way an expectant parent see's their child both are fascinating to see.

I can't actually think of any other tests I've done but aside from that I have regular check ups at the hospital to discuss my general well-being, plans for parenthood and my extremely terrible food habits (I always get a telling off about that last one)

In general, I'm very happy with my progress since diagnosis both personal and physical, a lot of things have begun to make sense, I joined the UK Turners Syndrome Support Society and often interact with the other TS ladies and parents which is always helpful and full of support where needed. 

Thanks for reading, 

Hayl xo

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My stay at Wynyard Hall

Back in April (I drafted a lot of posts ready to come back!), I went with two of my friends to stay at Wynyard Hall and have some time at their spa. If you've not heard of it, Wynyard Hall is a beautiful country hotel in (would you believe...) Wynyard in Teesside.

So, on arrival, we were greeted at the welcome desk, given our key and taken to our room, we were staying in the Mount Stewart Suite which is one of their junior suites to fit up to 4 people. Our room had a nice view of the front of the grounds as it was just above the entrance to the hall. The room was gorgeous sadly I didn't take any photo's to upload, it had 1 double bed and a double sofa bed too. Also in the room was the standard tea and coffee provisions (complementary) and an array of bathroom goodies to sample too. there was also a tv and dvd player which was handy as we had wanted to watch a film whilst we got ready for the night. I took a handful of DVD's although they did have a their own library that you could loan from should you have wished to do so.

On the night, we decided we would go to a local pub for tea called The Stables. The food was to die for and the portions were HUGE! We got potato skins as a starter and the waiter recommended we get 2 between the 3 of us rather than each get 1 and even then I don't think we ate it all! I then got a trusty Chicken Parmesan 'Parmo' for my main, it came with chips but they were about an inch thick and wide again it's safe to say, I did not finish that! We were all far too stuffed for dessert so we went into the bar for drinks. The atmosphere was lovely and we had a fantastic night (and of course it wouldn't be a trip to any pub without me leaving v. tipsy).

The next morning, we went down for breakfast at around 8am and each got a full english as well as a few bits from the continental spread they had. Once full, we then headed to the spa. None of us really fancied an actual treatment so we just spent our time trying out all of the facilities - the hot tub being the clear winner for us all I believe!

Overall, it was a lovely stay and I'd love to do it all over again

Hayl xo

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Baking With Hayl - Tanya Burr's Lemon Drizzle Loaf

Last year, I bought Tanya Burr's - Tanya Bakes, in an effort to bake more and I'll not lie - it was a while before I put it to good use! My absolute favourite recipe from the book would be the lemon drizzle loaf, it's just so quick and easy to prepare and tastes absolutely amazing! It's a huge hit at the office too, especially with my boss!

For the cake:

• 3 eggs
• 170g self-raising flour
• 170g caster sugar
• 170g butter
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• zest of 2 lemons*

For the icing:

• 150g icing sugar
• juice of 2 lemons*

*Through trial and error, I've found its a lot better to use 2 smaller sized lemons, I once used 2 larger lemons and there was far too much juice to icing sugar ratio making it slightly too tangy for my liking - if you prefer the tangy taste just do what you think but I definitely prefer using the smaller lemons.

Lets bake!

Pre-heat your oven to 180℃. Mix the eggs, flour, sugar, butter, baking powder and the zest of two lemons into a big mixing bowl. line your baking tin with a bit of butter or use a non-stick baking tin and pour mixture in. Bake for 35-45 minutes - the cooking time depends on the size of the tin and your oven. To check your cake is ready, slide a knife into the centre and if it comes out clean, it is ready to come out of the oven.

Mix together the icing sugar and juice of the two lemons to make the drizzle. Stir it together - it should be quite quite a watery consistency. While your cake is still hot, poke it all over with a skewer or sharp knife and then pour over the drizzle so it can soak in.

Hayl xo

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Guess Who's Back - Back again...

Hiiiyaaa... it's been a while, no? Well it would seem that we have a lot of catching up to do then ey? Since the last post, all I've thought when it comes to blogging is, what is there to follow a post like that? Where do I go from there? The answer, as it would seem, is wherever the hell I want and since I've had such a long break in between what I'd classify as 'proper blogging' as in me having a schedule etc. I thought I really can write anything, if there is ever a time to give my blog a new feel it would be now hence the new theme. 

So now for where am I going with my blog? 

Pretty much as I used to - I'm gonna write what I feel like writing but this time, I'm going to do it better! this means that If I want to write a beauty post about a facemask I'm loving... I'm gunna! If I've been binge watching a show on Netflix and I think you'll love it - I'll let ya know!

I really want to give the whole blog thing a go one more time and if it goes back to square one, I'll pack in (maybe) and just forget about writing all together but for now, I constantly think about how I can come back to the blog and what I can write that will make me happy and what better to make me happy than whatever I want?

Thanks for reading possibly my rambliest post ever! 


Hayl xo

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