My Weightloss Journey... so far (Part 1)

Some may know that I am not the slimmest of girls. In fact, I'm far more than curvy. I am what you would call overweight/obese/whale-like, whatever. I know that, and I'm not pleased with that. In October 2012 I joined a gym. Not because I was ashamed of how I looked or because I wanted to be slimmer, but because I was getting a lot of pain in my joints. I didn't visit a doctor and wasn't told to join. I knew what was causing the pain and I knew what I had to do to fix the issue, so I joined a gym.

I decided to join the gym Curves. Curves is a womens-only gym which offers a circuit to give you an all over body workout. It can be on the pricy side compared to other gyms but I'd heard a lot of great things and my mum used to attend before her disability worsened.

For £35 per month you get your Curves membership. Each time you attended you would do 3 runs on the circuit. The circuit involves weight-machines and stations. You're on a machine for 30 seconds, a station for 30 seconds and so on. You do this three times, totalling only a 30 minutes session. Good, huh?! On average, I would burn 400 calories per half an hour session.

Curves weigh you and measure you regularly to track your progress. At first this was a little daunting. I'd been overweight, 'fat' and unhealthy my entire life and hadn't stepped foot on a set of scales for years! The thought of having to do this in front of somebody else terrified me! However, after my first time doing it, I was pleased to be seeing results and I looked forward to weigh-in day.

Not only do Curves offer you exercise and fitness, they also encourage their members to join their healthy eating plan. At first, I wasn't a bit resistant to do this. I'm a bit of a fussy eater and it seemed far too hard to me to stick to. However, I gave it a go the best I could and it wasn't actually that bad. You're allowed any amount of 'free foods' you like!

After 4 months being at Curves I'd managed to lose around 1 and a half stone! I'd shocked myself. I'd never managed to lose weight before. I'd only ever gained. I was proud of myself that slowly, but surely I was losing weight and I was noticing a change.

However, I went to the gym one day and the gym instructors told me that they were closing down within the week due to low number of members at this branch. I was gutted. I loved Curves. It worked for me. This meant I had to start my search again for a gym. (Curves have branches all over the country and some may be different to the one I attended. Please view the links to check Curves out. I would totally recommend them! They may be pricy and may not offer as much as other gyms but they really do work and they're designed for women just like me! The not-so-confident-gyms-are-full-of-thin-people type gymaphobe!)

I had more confidence this time though and I started to go swimming (something I'd not done in over 11 years!!!). I bought myself a swimdress that covered all the icky lumps and bumps and I now had confidence in getting into the pool. I now absolutely love swimming!

There were loads of gyms in my town and I decided on a typical bog standard gym. I enjoyed the gym at first. I went at least 3 times a week and I loved it. They did classes and I loved the Zumba. However, after a while the people who were at the gym started to change. People were getting slimmer and slimmer. So slim that they didn't really have any weight to lose. I lost a lot of confidence seeing people at the gym who were already slim. I stopped going to Zumba and I stopped enjoying the gym. When summer drew in and the months got hotter I couldn't cope being there. It was far too hot, too hot to work out and I wasn't enjoying it at all anymore. I'd leave the gym looking like I'd been dragged through a bush backwards then dunked in a bucket of water. Other girls would leave looking slimmer and more perfect than what they did when they went in!

In November 2013 me and my friends booked up to go on holiday to Magaluf in July 2014. This was my incentive. I'd unfortunately put on a stone that I'd lost at Curves, by not going to the gym over the summer months so I had even more work to do.

I still wasn't enjoying the gym and the holiday was constantly on my mind. I couldn't go to Magaluf looking like this. People would laugh, I wouldn't be comfortable in anything or with anyone. I suddenly hated how I looked and began to get more and more self-conscious. It wasn't about my joints or my health anymore. I wanted to look nicer and be slimmer. I was done with being big!

I realised this gym wasn't for me. I'd lost nothing since being here, I had no motivation to be here, I hated being here and I knew I needed a change. I cancelled my membership with the gym and I found another circuit gym in my town. Just like Curves except it wasn't women only, it was mixed. They also had a normal part of their gym just like a standard gym. They did classes too such as Zumba, Boxercise, Pilates and more!

I've currently only been at this gym for almost 4 weeks. However, I've already lost around 5lbs. I really enjoy it, the staff are great and it's definitely for me! I do Zumba regularly and try to attend the gym at least 3 times a week. I'm determined to lose weight for my holiday and drop a couple dress sizes.

I will keep regular updates on my weight loss.

I'm also going to do a post on diet food and what I'm eating to help achieve my goals. As well as this, I'm going to do a post on the best swimwear for curvy girls and also flattering gym wear to help give you the confidence to get in the gym and work.


Stay Confident x

NOTD: Barry M gelly in 'Blue Grape' (349)

Since around August 2013 I've mainly had gels done so it's been quite a while since I properly wore normal nail polish.

However, for many months I've been eyeing up the 'gelly' range by Barry M. In particular, the shade 'Blue Grape' as I am a HUGE lover of all things cobalt blue (especially nails!).

The latest craze in nail polishes is to have the lasting qualities that you find in gel polish but within your normal, standard nail polish.

I'm a huge fan of Barry M anyway so I figured I'd give their 'gelly' polishes a go. I love my gels but they can get costly after a while.

I purchased mine for around £3.99 in Superdrug however you can find these pretty much anywhere that sells Barry M.

As I said, this is in the shade Blue Grape which is a sort of cobalt blue but a little bit darker.



Taken with flash, although a good colour representation

 

The above photo is of my nails with three coats of the Barry M gelly polish. The first coat seemed to be a little watery and didn't really coat the nail too well. Coat two was better however it definitely needed three! Three coats covered the nail well.

I applied this around 12 hours before taking this photo and I've had no chips yet. I even spilled some polish remover on them when tidying up the edges with a cotton bud and none of it came off. Which amazed me!

So far so good with this polish. I'll keep you updated on how it lasts though but I think I'm on a to a winner!

taken without flash

Beth xoxo

Upcoming Holiday

I'm about to blog about something I am extremely excited about.

On 14th July 2014 I will be going on my first holiday in years!

I will be heading to the Spanish island of Mallorca and staying in Magaluf with my two friends Sophie and Jade.



The holiday is to celebrate Jade's 21st birthday however it's also Sophie's 21'st whilst we're out there so we'll be celebrating hers too!

This is going to be a really girly holiday and hopefully a 'rate good laff'.

We've got so much planned including a water park, boat parties and even a night dressed as animals!

It's something I really cannot wait for and over the upcoming months you can expect lots of posts to do with my holiday.

UPCOMING POSTS
- Holiday Shopping
- Bag Packing
- Whats In My Hand Luggage

I'm even going to be creating a video whilst we're out there!


Beth xoxo

Am I back?

Hey!

I've made a return.

It's been almost 2 years since I bothered blogging.

I stopped for a few reasons. One of which was I just got too busy. My job increased and I lost my spare day to film YouTube videos meaning I also lost inspiration to write and even lost inspiration to continue watching YouTube videos.

But I felt like coming back.

I've had a little revamp. Deleted some older posts which made me cringe a little. Next on my 'to do list' is to figure out how to get a decent theme and to make this blog look half decent :)

I'm no longer doing YouTube due to the fact I just don't have the time and also I don't particularly want to.

I may however make videos for here from time to time.

I'm hoping to make this a regular thing and hopefully build something up for myself :)

UPCOMING POSTS

• What's in my makeup bag?
• What's in my hand luggage bag?
• regular reviews
• OOTD's

If you'd like to contact me for whatever reason you can contact me on the below methods.

Email: bclosebeauty@gmail.com

Instagram: @bethjclose

Twitter: @BethJClose

Tumblr: www.bethjcx.tumblr.com