Christmas at the Smith / Nop House!

 

Welcome Back All, and a very Happy New Year!

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and New Year Break, I know I did! Lots of Food, Family and Festivities!

So, 'fess up, who over-indulged?! I did, and I am not ashamed to admit it - I enjoyed all the food and wine I treated myself too over my 2 week break from work! (Although admittedly, I am paying for it now, but who cares right?!)

"2014  -  New Year, New Me!!"

How many times have you heard or read this recently?! Yes, it is rather Cliche, and for this reason, I chose not to use this expression, but instead change it slightly to make it relevant to me...

"2014  -  New Year, Improved Me!"

I don't want to change who I am or what I do to better impress anyone else or conform to other peoples ideas of "good" or "hard working", I am proud of what I achieved last year, and all I want to do is to further improve my Progress, Health and Well Being! And that should be everyones' outlook, shouldn't it? In all honesty, self-improvement is much more about your own feeling than those of others, so make your Health and Fitness Goals about YOU and what YOU want, not what you think they should be based on other people's opinions!

Ooooh...bit much for the first post of the year? Maybe, but just wanted to set my point :)

Anyway...moving on to something more chirpy...!

"So, how will You and James spend Christmas?"
A question asked by several different people - be it from the gym, our separate social circles and family alike, almost with the preconception that we were planning a completely clean Christmas...avoiding the wine (no way, we love wine!) and "dreaded carbs"

Well, Christmas Day, we had a VERY large Roast, all the trimmings of course, followed by Dessert. Then the evening came and we ate lots of cheese and crackers... YUM YUM YUM!


Then came our turn to Host on Boxing Day. As I shared in December, I had already started prepping a few lovely dishes, but here are some foodie pics (gotta love em!) of the culinary delights we tucked into....
Fitter Foods' Xmas Scotch Eggs, 1.5kgs of Thick Farmshop Ham (plus roasted Duck and Beef!) Salad, AMAZING Veggie crisps courtesy of Costco, Fitter Foods' Yule Log, a homemade Banoffie Pie (thanks to James' mum) and homemade Almond Butter Chocolate Cups....amongst other things you can see on my lunch plate!!

I won't take all the credit, hats off to James for preparing a yummy, succulent duck, teamed with extra crispy fat and a wonderful joint of Beef, cooked to perfection!



 

 

So, this was our Christmas Feast, with a few bottles of red over the few days too!

As much as I enjoyed the food and being relaxed, I have to admit, I am itching to get back to clean eating and the gym!!!

I had planned a few sessions over my time off, but my back has been so bad, just doing the food shopping was painful enough! I managed 2 of my planned 5 sessions - better than nothing though, right?

So...keen to get back on it and feel good again, I will publish the below photo - the left is me, November 26th, after 15 days on the Elimination Diet -  the right is me on the 3rd January after the Festive Break....Ooops!

But I am not going to stress about it, it happens! I managed to get to the picture on the left easily (!) enough, so I know I can get back there! Ergh, now I have seen the difference, I'm not best pleased I must say...!

Monday 6th January sees me getting back on the ED and getting rid of this bloat!

Watch This Space!!

How are you feeling after the food hype has now been and gone? What goals are you setting yourself?

I have already seen plenty of people publicising their goals, and I will be interested to watch their progress!!


Just before I sign off, I must mention 2 of my favourite Christmas Gifts... Personalised Nike iD Trainers from James, and this cute FireDaughter Racerback Tee from Zuz. Thankyou to you both for such apt gifts :) xxx

Franki xx