Slightly overweight caterpillar (Princessing for those too old to be a princess...) ...

[Karcheer]

dreams of being a butterfly...

In my 20s and 30s I knew who I was (City girl) had regular treatments and looked pretty good even if I do say so myself.

Since I turned 40 (im 47 now) i've lost my identify, and to be honest I just don't bother anymore. The last year (lockdowns) have caused me to be even worse.
If i look at myself I don't even recognise who I am...

I'm 100% fed up with myself.

Is there a princess thread at the moment?

If not anyone else want to join me on a Caterpillar to Butterfly journey?

So far i've booked in highlights and a trim, pedicure, manicure, waxing, facial, massage - all spread over the next 6 weeks.
I've a PT session booked for Wednesday.
I'm trying to keep (falling a bit) to Exante.

I've ordered 3 bras in various sizes as i've no clue what size I am anymore.

I need to sort out clothes, make up etc

Who is in on our journey of self discovery (haha!) ?

@Campervan69

I'm bad at throwing things out too. I tend to do a soft throw out first (bagged and into the loft) to see if i need it. Nothing more annoying than looking for something and realising you've chucked it.

I did a big clear out before we moved and I moved the black bag and now i have it stored at the bottom of my wardrobe. I just want to be a ruthless butterfly haha!

I wore my eldest gym kit - the elastic in the leggings definitely isn't what it used to be, so Im binning it!

I had a mini clear-out of my toiletries basket, it was quite satisfying. I dumped a handful of samples that I know fine well I’ll not get around to using, and a few old lotions and potions. It’s nice and (relatively) tidy now.

Dug out some Dove gentle tanning body lotion and planning to start using it, to get a bit of colour on my legs for when it warms up.

I'm planning to do a sort out of my wardrobe over the weekend .
I need to get my summer clothes out of the attic and go through them ( they're clean when I put them away but I'll give them a freshen up wash)
For summer I have dresses but I'm sure I'll find some 'gaps' that I need to buy .

Just reporting in. Have been doing Slimming World over the past two weeks to shift the 3 stone excess. Has actually been fine and best of all I've lost 11ibs!!!!!!!!! I'm delighted and really surprised! I can't believe it and am feeling motivated to keep going.

Starting to very slowly feel a tiny bit better about myself. I'm putting aside planning a haircut etc. until I've lost enough weight to justify it. But hey, it's a good start.

well done @Tiredteacherxxx that's brilliant, well done, keep at it!

please can I join? feels like me - at 49!

@indecisivewoman81

Am I join?

Overweight 40 year old who is in need of a decent hair cut and colour, eyebrows threaded and nails done.

Fed up of how I look. Just seen a photo of myself today on Facebook and was shocked at how chubby I looked 😞

I seem to go up and down like a yo yo. Was jogging and exercising a bit up until recently when I broke a couple of small bones in my foot (no plaster cast but bandages and told not to exercise, dance etc) 2 weeks ago. I can still walk about but it's bloody painful.

What I've been doing:-

root touch up - permanent hair colour in reddy brown (I think?) and cut - didn't really need the cut as she shaped it and cut in longer layers but feels healthy.

Got caramel highlights half head this weekend and pedicure/mani and eyebrow threading.

before I broke my foot and in past few weeks have started on healthier snacks and cut out biscuits:-

• Dates with peanut butter
• low calorie jellies - make them myself and put in fridge
• swapped biscuits for fruit
• Cut out dips and crackers/breadsticks etc
• Have Mikado biscuits (the sticks) or rich tea light if want biscuit
• sticking with porridge with blueberries and golden syrup rather than granola and yoghurt, blueberries
• cutting down on carbs at meals - palm sized amount where possible.

@Tiredteacherxxx

Just reporting in. Have been doing Slimming World over the past two weeks to shift the 3 stone excess. Has actually been fine and best of all I've lost 11ibs!!!!!!!!! I'm delighted and really surprised! I can't believe it and am feeling motivated to keep going.

Starting to very slowly feel a tiny bit better about myself. I'm putting aside planning a haircut etc. until I've lost enough weight to justify it. But hey, it's a good start.

Is slimming world good?

@70isaLimitNotaTarget

I'm planning to do a sort out of my wardrobe over the weekend . I need to get my summer clothes out of the attic and go through them ( they're clean when I put them away but I'll give them a freshen up wash) For summer I have dresses but I'm sure I'll find some 'gaps' that I need to buy .

Feel and hear you re summer clothes and other clearout.

I really feel I've kind of got a handle on what suits me and what doesn't over the lockdown, what I like, don't like and what can go.

Reply to CleverCatty - sorry, don't know how to reply with your comment...

But, YES, Slimming World has been great so far - I'd recommend it! It works well for me as I can basically eat as much as I want! (Glutton)

@Tiredteacherxxx

Reply to CleverCatty - sorry, don't know how to reply with your comment...

But, YES, Slimming World has been great so far - I'd recommend it! It works well for me as I can basically eat as much as I want! (Glutton)

That's interesting. Isn't it loosely food combining?

DB's MIL has had good success on this and so has a good friend of mine too - weight has dropped off and stayed off. Just not keen on their 'syns' etc LOL.

I've pretty much given up Exante. I love real food too much. I'm going to try and exercise it off. I also need to cut out the cr*p!

Checking in to say I’ve been better with taking my vitamins and ensuring I go to bed at a decent hour!

Still slapping on the moisturiser and trying to eat healthily as much as possible.

Hello can I join please? I’m 36 and now I have stopped breastfeeding I need to get sorted out.
I am hopefully getting married next year and I don’t even know where to start!

Gym done!
Waxing this afternoon!
And i've blow dried my hair as i'll be seeing actual people this afternoon at the beauticians!

I still haven't thrown any clothes away but I have ordered some new ones.

How are all the Caterpillars doing?

Finally got my hair cut. And ballyage done, I asked for highlights but she looked at me as if I'd asked for Angel Delight for pudding..... so outdated dahling! Not totally convinced by the ballyage but what do I know?

@Campervan69

Finally got my hair cut. And ballyage done, I asked for highlights but she looked at me as if I'd asked for Angel Delight for pudding..... so outdated dahling! Not totally convinced by the ballyage but what do I know?

It's the best thing to have if we go into Lock-down again...

Hey @Karcheer! Still going strong here, diet still a bit of a mess though. Took kids to the park today and actually put some makeup on and got my shades out. DH said I looked nice bless him.

I've sifted through my summer clothes , put a couple of things into the Charity Bag .
Ordered some Olaplex , I've never tried it but I was going to invest in some more PK Elasticiser and thought I'd give this a try .

My hair has some natural silver (ok grey) highlights running through , but they are the full length not just scalp growth. The texture is a bit rougher .
Don't really want to brave the hairdressers yet , so I'll turn my back on the thought of dye ( I haven't done any for months , I'd say well over a year )
I do use the Bleach London Silver ( it's blue ) but it can be a bit drying .

Nothing else to report really . I'm reaping the benefit of my new breadmaker not that it benefits me at all . Bread is not good for me healthwise (but it is bloody lush )

Just changed my username from, err, username but I’m still here. Signed up to SlimmingWorld online this afternoon and went to Tesco and stocked up on goodies to help me stay on plan. Went online window shopping and filled my basket at hush with all the lovely clothes I want but in the size smaller. Came to just under 1k 😮 so then I started listing some clothes I don’t really wear on Vinted.
I went out Saturday night, I wore contact lenses (prob first time since Xmas party 2019), fake eyelashes and did my hair all pretty. Obviously uploaded too many selfie’s onto insta which all got loads of love and some amazing comments (I do scrub up ok it seems) so that gave me a massive confidence boost and could really feel like a butterfly emerging. However those selfies were all neck up, just gotta work on what’s below now.

@ByThePool2021 that's good (nice comments)! I ordered over £500 worth of clothes the other day and then promptly sent about £400 back. I seem to order for someone else! taller, thiner etc...

I had to go out the other day and wore nice clothes, did my hair/make up and my builders said I looked nice :) that gave me a little boost too!

8am at the gym :)
had my nails redone yesterday...

I seem to be on top of exercise and in a good routine with that now.

I need to get on top of clothes, make up and food!

Hows everyone else doing?

All going well here. I seem to be waking up really early so I am doing my body balance class around 6:00 a.m. at the moment. Am sure this is just seasonal and when the dark winter mornings come I won't be jumping out of bed this early. But it is giving me a great start to the day.

Oohhh can I join?

Definitely a caterpillar here, although I've been chipping away at the weight gain from recent months. As for the rest of me?

Current plan is healthy eating and more exercise. I'm on a thread in weight loss chat for encouragement, and I'm humiliating myself with YouTube HIIT workouts. Two days in and I'm till huffing and puffing but the endorphin high is worth it. Plus it is hard to eat chocolate while HIIT-ing.

More urgently, a bit of butterfly quick fix would be great. I'd reckoned on aiming for a date in late June which is the first social date in my diary. But it looks as if I might be looking at a date in late May, so I'm going to make a concerted effort to shake off some of the caterpillar frump by then.

Current targets - make a decent effort with the healthy eating and exercise. Buy some decent conditioner and get my hair out of its current candyfloss state. Actually use some of the nice lotions and potions that I got sent at Christmas (hand cream etc.) Feet! Thank you for the reminder. Out with the footfile and the moisturiser. Sort wardrobe, stop hiding in yoga pants, and be ruthless about stuff I'm never going to wear again.

Hold me to account!