He started by building the stud wall to house the stove. This was literally a frame of wooden beams with plasterboard attached. Obviously if you install a real log burner you have to follow fire safety guidelines like having special heat boards.

What has kept me going throughout this is simple. Each week I’d stand on those scales (Monday AM, after going to the loo & completely naked) in the middle of the kitchen & every week, I’d see the scales going down. After not long, I started noticing my clothes getting looser & then, everyone around me started seeing the difference too & making comments about how great I looked. I’d then be able to buy clothes in a smaller size & not from any plus ranges. That right there, beats eating a Domino’s pizza hands down. I’m a big lover of ‘styling the seasons’& our loft is full of soft furnishings & decor items which I regularly mix up (mainly because it fulfils my need for change & a new interior look without breaking the bank!) but January has always been a bit of a limbo month. Too early for the blush pinks of Spring just yet. Caravans aren’t exactly the epitome of fashion or interior design, but I love a good challenge & after finding a caravan with the best layout to suit our needs, decided to go for it. This is a Bailey Ranger 540/6 & was previously VERY orange wood….to see some before pictures, head over to my ‘before’ blog post here.I’m not 100% where I want to be just yet & if I’m honest I probably don’t feel ‘ready’ to be writing this blog post as I’m still knee deep in lettuce leaves but if I can help to inspire even one person who wants to overhaul their diet & in turn lose some weight to be healthier then it’s been worth it.

You don’t have to exercise– but it definitely helps! Even taking a few more steps a day (I wore a fitbit charge 2 for the first half of the year & couldn’t recommend it more to make you consciously think about how much you’re moving & to get that all important 10k a day) to joining a local gym. I don’t exercise for weight loss necessarily, I now do it because it makes me feel SO good; I leave my PT/bootcamp sessions (with @pwrfitnessuk who I couldn’t recommend more to anyone local) energised & with a clear mindset. Suitable for co-sleeping – this is what it was designed for, it provides extra safety as the sides prevent parents rolling on the baby or baby rolling out of bed/under the covers. It is also soft enough for you to have your arm over the baby for reassurance (Rory LOVES his bum being patted). Below is the finished result! Finished just in time to create the most cosy Christmas at Baylyn House & I am SO in love. It’s completely transformed the room & creates such a lovely atmosphere.

Against the partitioning wall is a sideboard which is part of the Liatorp collection from Ikea. This originally acted as our TV stand but we now have a white wall mounted TV which is a Samsung 32 inch available here. After Joe finally woke up, I was so excited to show him my find but was met with ‘yeah it’s okay I suppose but I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with it, it’s nothing special’. My parents also weren’t sold on it but I eventually managed to persuade them to view it as well as another couple of other options up this way. Throughout it all, I was adamant that this would be the one we were going to move to. I have a video of the day we drove up to view, coming up the lane & I say ‘are you ready guys, because we’re going to live here one day’ to which they all laughed. In the end they left that viewing loving it as much as I did. New Year, New Me’ is in full force & personally I’ve got a few resolutions which now 2 weeks in have been going well but not only does it feel like the right time to make changes to ourselves but I also feel this sudden urge to redecorate & change up my home too. Anyone feel the same? Don’t buy bad food– this sounds like an obvious one but don’t buy ‘bad’ food or have it in your cupboards. Have a big clear out & donate to a local food bank. If you have kids then obviously you can’t completely restrict them (because crisps are essentially every childs staple diet…right?) then put them in a separate cupboard & mentally tell yourself that is out of bounds. At the start I had a situation where my two had finished eating their dinner & I’d demolished a few chips without thinking…I started getting out the anti-bac kitchen cleaner & spraying it over to stop myself. Now I’ve developed the will power (& it comes naturally) to not even look at it. I can’t explain what changed inside of me this time around & made me achieve what I have so far this year which is currently a crazy 5 & a half stone but it was like a lightbulb moment.