Party Party Party

Today I got an invite to my cousins hens night, I have never been to a hens night before so I am pretty dam excited for it, she is a bit of a wild one, so I bet there will be a lot of twists and turns in the night. I feel like I am a bit of an expert on hens nights at the moment, not that I have even been to one haha.

There are so many great things that you can do, the obvious being strippers, but there are day spas, cruises, girls nights in, chocolate tours, winery tours, pole dancing classes, burlesque classes...

So whats my plan? I am thinking about doing a bridal shower and hens day in one. I'm not a fan of the bridal shower games, I find that sort of thing pretty corny, but for those who might be interested, heres a few great game ideas:

Bridal QuizContact the groom and ask him 20 questions about the bride. At the shower, each guest and the bride answers the questions. The guest with the most correct answers (according to the groom) wins. The bride's answers are then compared with the groom's out loud.

Bride's Comments
Have someone write down the bride's comments as she opens each gift. Read these back to her as if they were comments she was to make on the wedding night - eg "I love it, but it's too small", "Mum uses hers all the time"

Clothespin Game
Everyone is given a peg at the beginning of the shower and then rules are nominated. They may be for the group or everyone has their own rule. Rules can include 'you can't play with your hair', 'you can't say wedding', etc. Each time someone is caught breaking a rule, their peg is stolen by the person who caught them. The winner is the person with the most pegs at the end of the shower.

Design a GownEveryone is divided into small groups and given a number of toilet paper rolls. A time limit is set and each group must design a gown using the toilet paper and any items they have in their handbag. At the end of the time, the "gowns" are judged for funniest, most stylish, etc.

Do You Know Me?The bride fills out a facts sheet about herself and then each guest must try and guess what the bride would answer. Questions could include Favourite food, Favourite band, First kiss, etc. The person with the most correct answers wins.

Famous CouplesCut out pictures of famous couples and paste them on a large board. Cover them all up. Remove the cover from the bodies first and have the guests guess who the couple are. Once it has been guessed correctly, remove the cover on the faces. Move onto the next couple. Whoever guesses the most correct, wins.

How They MetWrite out the story of the bride and groom met then take out the key words. Fill in the blanks by asking the guests for verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc then read the new story back to everyone. 

Trivia QuizThis is best if the questions relate to the bride and groom, love, marriage, etc. Questions could relate to theme of the shower. eg A 'Month' Shower could have questions such as What month did the couple meet?, What month was the groom born?, What month is diamond the birthstone for?The honeymoon is in Cairns. What is Cairns' rainiest month?, etc.

As for me, I am thinking of a pretty easy going brekky locally for everyone to have a great feed and cacth up and then get transport to the races, being that it is caulfield cup day, everyone can get dressed up, have a bet and enjoy the day...providing victoria gives us a warm October day!

Long Weeekend.

This weekend my fantastic fiance' has been smashing out some reno's to our home. I can't really explain it, but we have created a new room and its starting to look exactly how I pictured so I am pretty stoked with that. As for me I spent the day doing fun stuff, like dishes haha, and cleaned most of the house which was good, I always feel so accomplished. I also made some yummy banana weetbix muffins for my brekkys for the rest of the week. How great is it that it is a long weekend!!!

Yesterday I played netball and we won! In fact we smashed it! I scored 33 of 48 goals for our team which is a PB for me, and the other team only scored 9, so it was a pretty fun victory. I was also excited that I got to be the stand in captain for the day and we came out of it with a win which was fantastic. Netball is such a fun part of my week. I play in a great team, I love the girls, I have learnt so much and feel like I finally do something that I can be proud of, and its a great way to keep fit asd well..

Today I also started my healthy eating and exercise plan and I am happy to say day 1 has been a success, I have eaten really well, I have done a bit of exercise and I have also had my massage which has me feeling great! and the best thing is I still have tomorrow to do whatever I want, so we have planned a little BBQ before the footy starts. Before that however we are gonna try and get up early and get stuck into the house a little bit more, Daz has some plaster to put up and I have a couple walls to paint, whether or not we get up and actually do it could be a different story though haha!

So no wedding planning going on this weekend, but I am sure I will start to get into the grind again soon.

The Weigh In

Ok, so I am about a week late on my weigh in! I feel like I have been incredibly busy all week! I think working 5 days again is messing with my brain haha! Anyways as well as cooking, cleaning, playing netball and balancing friends then this week has been hectic! Nevertheless here I am to give you my first official weigh in and details on where I wanna get too.

Height (obviously not going to change): 178cm
Weight (Not fussed if this changes cos muscle weights more than fat): 71.2Kg.
Making my BMI 22.8, smack bang in the middle of the "considered healthy" chart. However I don't feel as healthy as I should be, well not in my opinion. I am tired all the time, I am always coming down with something, and I'm always suffering from joint aches and pains so its time to turn this around.

As for the key measurements
Thigh: 57cm
Waist: 69cm
Butt: 100cm...how big does that sound?
Arm: 30cm...muscly? haha
Clothing Size:10

I don't particulary have any aims to lose weight, but I do want to tone up, feel healthier, have more energy and I would love to fit back into my size 8 jeans for the honeymoon, not that I will be wearing jeans.

So what am I gonna do about it?

1. Food Intake: I am going to go back to http://www.calorieking.com.au/ This is a website I really enjoyed using. You can put in the weight you wish to get to, or even the weight you wish to maintain, and this will help show you what calories and kilojoules are in the food you are eating. It can be very helpful, because sometimes you can eat more calories than you would expect.
2. Exercise: I am going to do at least 45 minutes of physical activity everyday. I am going to rotate at night doing pilates, taebo and using my exercise bike, also combining with netball and netball trainings. I am also considering the worth of buying a bike to ride to work everyday, good for me and good for the hip pocket too.
3. Fortnightly Sports Massage: This is something I try to upkeep regularly due to past injuries, I also find its a great stress release and great for recovery.
4. Having a bath at least once a week. Baths are great for getting the blood flowing to the muscles and clearing out cells, its also great for the mind.
5. I am going to conitnue trying to write my blog once a day, getting all my thoughts out definitely helps me sleep better at night, and its been proven the better you sleep, the healthier you are, including brain function, energy and even weight loss.

So what am I going to eat?

1. I am making banana weetbix muffins for breafast, a quick and easy option that should see me eat in the morning rather than skip. Additionally a glass of apple and strawberry juice to start the day to get the sugars flowing.
2. Lunch, I am going to have a wholemeal sandwich with lean meats, such as honey ham and salad
3. Dinners ofcourse wont always be set, but these will also include a small serving of meat for protein and an array of vegetables
4. Dessert will be a couple rows of cadbury chocolate because no matter how hard I try this is a habit I simply can not kick.

So this is it, between today and the wedding I am no longer going to eat McDonalds and KFC. I am going to limit myself to a block of chocolate per week (I can eat a block in about 40 minutes). I am going to take up every opportunity to exercise and I am also going to take every opportunity to relax.

So here we go....I'll let you know how day one goes tomorrow...fingers crossed for a win today in netty xx

Op Size 8 update!

Well its pretty fair to say I have fallen off the band wagon here. I haven't at all been focusing on my diet as I had planned. Actually I am sitting on the couch with my feet up eating teevee snacks as we speak. But I am lucky enough to work in a job (or 2) which requires me to be on my feet all day, as well as netball training and game day I would quite easily do plenty of exercise, which is enough for me to have lost a couple of kilos over the last couple of months.

However I haven't been feeling healthier because I am back to eating KFC a little to much, back to eating piece of chocolate after piece of chocolate and I blame Cadburys new marvelous range for that one haha. However I think it is time to make the change, nothing drastic, but instead of a homemade banana choc chip muffin for breakfast I am going to swap in some weetbix with honey, and for lunch, I am usually pretty good and have some yoghurt, pretty much because it is free and at tea time I need to up the vegie and salad sides and focus on them instead of the parma, the sausage or whatever the attraction of the meal is.

I also want to be able to go back to the gym. I am hoping I will be able to afford a gym membership shortly and start going before work at 7am for an hour, come home, eat brekky and head to work. But we are depended on some more job security before that happens.

I thinking eating well and exercise is the key to how stressed people feel, how well they deal with things and most importantly how well you function on a day to day basis and I have always been great at telling people what they should do to feel healthier but never take the advice myself.

So thats it, starting tomorrow OPERATION SIZE 8 is back on! I will post my key measurements and start giving you all updates along the way! Have a great weekend xx

Winter Blues

Is it just me, or is the fact that tomorrow is the 1st of June and the first day of winter depressing? I hate the cold and wet weather and most of all I hate that it seems to be dark all of the time! Anyways I guess there are a few good things that happen in the next three freakishly cold months. I love that June, July and August bring me a lot more football, and hopefully my boys will win plenty more games this season, as well as this there are plenty of netball games left in this season.

Also the next few months will bring lots of planning for the hens party and also my bridal shower. As most of the wedding is planned, it will also bring a lot of hard work to get the wedding bills paid off, hopefully before christmas time. I am also hoping that I will be able to spend a few hours a week at the gym smashing up some fitness! I hate that my fitness has dropped so much after having penumonia. Of course its to be expected, but when you used to run 10km 3 times a week and now struggle to run 1km its pretty diappointing.

Anyways what else is good about winter? I don't think there is much else to be honest, I love September1st! It brings me hope that things are new, and I love that day in October when daylight savings starts!!! Anyways when that day does roll around it will mean that my Hens isnt far away!!!!

The Save The Dates have been sent and hopefully most people will be able to come. I am so excited, Bring on October

The Hens Night

Well this was a detail that up until about 8am today I thought was pretty locked in. But after about the 15th of 20 invitees told me they weren't able to come I decided that a trip to Surfers Paradise wasn't the way to go for a hens weekend. It would have been a fun weekend with theme parks, beach, night markets and my favourite place Planet Hollywood! Dam I hate that they don't have one in Melbs anymore...
So instead I have had a chat with my bridesmaids and have decided the melbourne option to be a more viable option for everyone, money wise it should cost about half the price, it only takes people away from there own lives for 12 hours instead of 4 days and means that everyone who I love can come. well hopefully anyways.

So what are good ideas for hens nights? Pole Dancing? Burlesque? Winery tours? Day Spa? There are so many options! At the moment I am loving the idea of doing a brunch in my home town before we head down to the city, hopefully in a Hummer...but I don't know how much they cost? Or if it'll fit 20 people???

I am loving the idea of a chocolate tour as well and then heading to a yarra river cruise, I went on one a few years back for a Christmas Party and it was great fun! Lots of finger food, lots of drinks, dance floor, and if that fall through I'll be happy to settle for ice skating and KFC at Harbourtown.

So anyone out there reading been to many hens nights? Let me know some ideas?

300 Days to go and its music to my ears

Today is May 27th and that means there is 300 days until the wedding!!! Its coming up unbelievably quickly. Firstly today I would like to apolygise about my post today as I just came off a night shift I have only had about 2.5 hours sleep. Often I bring song lyrics into my posts and thats because I love that music can explain a feeling, a thought, and a memory, so many sonys are so special to me for a number of reasons and thats why I believe music and entertainment are important to a wedding.

These days music and entertainment play an important role, and every couple needs to consider music for both the reception and the ceremony. Firstly consider the style of your wedding, if you are having a church wedding then I would suggest the possibility of an organ or string quartet. Whatever your tastes I think its a detail that needs to be carefully planned. Also it is good to not that your guests will cover a range of age groups and tastes! Also remember you dont want the music so loud that your guests can't have a conversation.

The Ceremony! We are opting for a more fun and laid back ceremony, our song choices will be reletively modern for the arrival of the guests, as for when the bridesmaids and myself walk down the aisle, I won't be dancing down the aisles but I will be pretty close to it I think. Check out the awesome couple who danced down the aisle to Chris Browns Forever. What do you think?

As for the reception there will be a large array of music on my playlist ranging from the 60's through to now, all fun songs, most with an awesome dance beat and most importantly not to sappy, because quite simply Darren and I arent a lovey dovey sappy couple.

Want some money saving options? Ofcourse you do!

• Consider a musician who can play both the ceremony and the reception, one act will be cheaper than two,
• Hire a great DJ instead of a live band, DJ's can play anything and don't need to take breaks, also paying for one person is cheaper than a 5 piece band
• Ask you reception venue for any reccommendations
• Plug your programmed ipod into the PA system
• Any musical friends or relatives? There are lot of people out there who can sing
• Hire a jukebox! These are fantastic
• You could also ask tge DJ to double up at the MC