Before & After Pictures

Everybody, myself included loves the before and after weigh loss pictures; they look so dramatic, shocking and down right AWESOME!

Below you’ll find some pictures of me, past and present; I’ll add more over time when I get round to scanning some of the older ones, but in the mean time I want you to share your before and after weight loss in the comments below. Shout your success from the roof tops, you’ve earned the bragging rights so use them! Continue reading

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1 Year On – My Top 10 Dieting Lessons Learned

before and after picture of darran mansfield realistic weight loss

If only I’d known what was possible…

I’ve done it! I’ve stuck to my slimming world diet for a whole year!

You can’t imagine how happy I am for finally sticking to something let alone it be a diet, although you know how much I dislike the word diet. I prefer to think of it as an ever changing, realistic, sustainable lifestyle.

Ok so I’m going to be cliche’ but bear with me because it’s all true. This is by far the best thing I’ve ever done, for my health, my confidence and my future.

I’m not gonna sugar coat it; it’s been hard work, its taken conscious thinking, planning and above all else its take a crap load of will power & determination.

You maybe thinking of starting a diet healthy lifestyle, or you may have recently started one, either way I’m sure you could benefit for the things I’ve learnt over the last year including my mistakes. All of them can be applied to any diet plan, not just slimming world that I’ve been following.

So here are my 10 hints, tips and lessons, in no particular order; Continue reading

An Important Lesson James Gandolfini Can Teach Us All

James gandolfini can teach us all to live life more

Something happened to me in the space of 24 hours has really got me thinking seriously.

Last night before I went to bed, I was reading a few articles, like normal and stubbled across one that caught my attention, it’s called A Deep Thought From The Universe. Basically, it paints a crystal clear picture of just how short life is; I quote “Say a person is fortunate to live until the ripe old age of 75. That means they get 900 months on this earth to do ANYTHING they want.

900 Months!

That figure hit me pretty hard, knowing that we’re lucky to be here, alive, on this planet for just 900 months.

I read the whole article, something I recommend you doing, and then went to sleep thinking about it, but not deeply thinking about it if you know what I mean?

Fast forward 10/12 hours

I woke this morning to find Continue reading

My Monthly Weigh In Report – May 2013

I can’t believe a month has rolled around already, where does the time go aye, almost half way through the year already!

So what’s been happening on the blog this month?picture of me in big trousers

Well I wrote a pretty interesting article about Muller light yoghurts, looking at how many we can safely eat due to the high sugar content. I’m really happy it was well received, and got some really positive comments on Instagram.

It’s the first time I’ve got any proper feedback on an article, and it was because I had helped someone; it felt amazing knowing what I had written helped someone:-)

Apart from my own personal reasons, helping others is the reason I set this blog up, I want to help as many people as I can.

Aside from my muller light article I started a series of posts about bulk preparing sandwich filings. For me, they’ve been nothing but a god send. Making my sandwiches have never been so quick, cheap and easy.
So far in the series, which I will be adding to is, egg & bacon, chicken and bacon and seafood mix, I recommend you taking a look at them if you haven’t already.

Monster bike rides

I started biking a little more this month; me and Nathan went on a huge bike ride out and about, we had a goal of 10 miles in our heads, and although I want to complete it I thought it was going to be killer, surprisingly it wasn’t. We took our time and completed the whole 10 miles 1 hour 22 minutes, which isn’t to bad for a first try.

i went on a huge, 10 mile bike ride and completed it in 1 hour 22 minutes

That ride inspired me to do more riding at the gym, and that’s what I done. My first attempt at 10 miles went well and took me 34 minutes 25 seconds! Continue reading

The Ultimate Guide To Bulk Preparing Slimming World Friendly Sandwiches

quick & easy egg and bacon sandwich filling advertLiving a healthy lifestyle is far from easy, and in order to succeed things need to be simple, realistic and sustainable. Today I want to share the system I use to bulk prepare my entire weeks sandwiches. Not only does this save bundles of time, endless thinking (“what should I have?, what should I have?”), excellent value, slimming world friendly and most importantly their simple and realistic to make. Most of the preparation can be done in under 20 minutes on a Sunday (that’s when I do most of my weeks prep).

Like I said, I personally feel the key to living a healthy lifestyle has to be a realistic system, which boils down to preparation. I don’t need to tell you how time consuming cooking from scratch is, and no matter much I love cooking, I just haven’t got enough time in the day to stand over a stove preparing beautifully cooked meals. It’s not gonna happen.

Almost every diet out there bangs on about eating fresh, home cooked meals because their so good for us compare to preprepared foods, I fully agree, but what they fail to help us with is how to fit all this extra work into our regular lives.

So what’s the answer? Continue reading

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Quick, Easy & Cheap, Slimming World Egg & Bacon Sandwich Filling

quick & easy egg and bacon sandwich filling advert

Preparing food well in advance not only saves me tons of time but also stop me thinking things such as “what can I eat” “what should I have for lunch/dinner” etc etc. Without these questions not does it stop me opting for the quick and easy junk food options, but it also saves me from failing, failing my over all goal which is to eat healthy.

Today I’m going to show you how I bulk prep egg & bacon sandwich filling, part of my guide to slimming world sandwiches. Not only is it quick, easy, unbelievably cheap, it’s also very low in syns.
Continue reading

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Warning: Muller Light’s Worse Than We First Thought

how many muller lights can we safely eat?

Maybe you've been a member of slimming world for a while now, and you want to know a little more about things, or you may have just joined, and you want to learn more about the syn free & free foods you're allowed to eat, in particular Muller Light yoghurts, and how many you can eat safely. Well you've come to the right place! I'm going to strip mullers down to the bare bones and expose them for what they really are, are you ready?

Slimming world’s going great I really can't fault it. I’ve currently lost just over 4 stone (58lbs/26kgs), and I’m really getting into things; in particular, learning about the foods that i'm eating, and what's in them. At first it was simply curiosity, but now it's more of a need, I need to know what I’m putting in to my body, and what's its doing to me.

Your body needs the right fuel

I don’t know if it's a good thing, but I'm thinking of my body more as a machine, a machine that needs certain “fuels” to keep it running well, especially if I expect it to do things I've never done before. I want to be fitter, leaner and strong than ever, and for that to happen I need to make sure I’m giving my body what it needs.

Continue reading