I'm having a scales amnisty. At least for the next 4 weeks. I'm working out as much as I can, I'm feeling better and Mike says I'm looking better...but those darn scales won't budge! (In fact yesterday they went up, but I'm going to say that was trainers weight) So, therefore, rather than feeling better and taking Mike's compliments, I'm moping about. My happiness (or at least how I see myself) is prisoner to a piece of measuring equipment.

No more! I'm going to do a little experiment for the next 4 weeks...do we need accountability/weigh ins to lose weight or is it holding me back? My theory for the latter is that you try hard all week and if the scales haven't moved you're think, well what's the point? I may as well eat that dot dot dot.

JNL (I told you she'd be back!) said it took her 2 months

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I turned 33 weeks pregnant on Thursday and I'm feeling better than I have done at earlier points in my pregnancy. Despite this I didn't get much chance to workout with various other things getting in the way. So on Saturday I was well up for a good gym session. Here's what I did:

20 mins on the bike (I did about 140 cals)

> 10 x squat to shoulder press (with 5kg weights)

> 20 x slow sumo squats

Just a quick update on pregnancy stretch marks...I'm 33 weeks pregnant tomorrow and so far, amazingly, I've not got any stretch marks. On the other hand my other, pre pregnancy stretch marks (probably from growing too quickly as a teenager) that I'd never really noticed before, are more obvious. What's the opposite saying to 'every cloud has a silver lining'?

I'm applying moisturising cream every time I pass the bottle (the massaging of your belly is supposed to be effective for women who got stretch marks during adolescence) and am battling on with my anti-stretch mark diet. The other day I was walking down the cereal aisle and was (sadly) delighted when I came across some ground flax seeds!

Ground flaxseeds from Linwoods

"Wahoo," I hear you cry! Or probably more likely, what's so exciting about this?

Well, I'll tell you. Flax seeds are the best source of Essential Fatty Acids (according to WHFoods.org and

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I've been particularly lame this week! I have been researching different ideas for blogs during my lunch breaks but by the time I get home at night after work I can't be arsed...terrible, but I guess I'm still trying to get my head around not being a lady of leisure! I'm not sure I like it but my new job is good.

The good news is that we've had a bit of time to ourselves this weekend. Today, I was the last one up at 7:30am (bearing in mind we also have a teenager in the house at the moment!), so it's been very productive. By 10am Mike had finally finished off the painting in the bathroom (hooray for a complete bathroom, it's only taken 8 months!), I'd hoovered our room and the dreaded stairs, Gabby and Ashleigh had tidied and hoovered their rooms, I'd put a huge wash on and

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I've been following my own advice from the Sunday Symptoms (besides yesterday's sweetie overload!) in an attempt to banish these spots (the main offender in my pregnancy symptoms) and - what do you know? - it seems to be working! So I thought I'd do a quick morning blog about what I've been using and eating.

Firstly, I've been washing my face with something that's been in my cupboard for a while now but I never bothered using and it's great. It's by the fabulous Soap and Glory (I love ALL their stuff!) and it's called Clean Mary. Because it's like a milk it seems to moisturise while it cleanses, which is good because my skin is not only spotty but also dry!

The other thing I'm using is the only oil-free moisturiser I could find in ASDA, and it was pretty cheap, amazingly. I was

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I am conscious that it's getting on for the middle of February and I'm now 14 weeks pregnant. It's nearly a month since I wrote my mission and time to revisit it to see how I'm getting on (before I start pretending I never wrote it)...

My top priority was to concentrate on being healthy and happy. I think I'm doing pretty well on this (apart from chocolate gate at the weekend), which is probably due to the life of luxury and unemployment I'm currently enjoying.

I'm exercising for at least 30 minutes about 5 or 6 days a week;

I am doing something I like most days, although I'm so shit at actually sitting down to do the pampering things like paint my nails - I've been meaning to do my fingers for the past couple of nights but have ended up doing my blog late. And, my toe nails? I'm too ashamed

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This weekend I rekindled my love of the Cook Yourself Thin cookbook (circa 2007) thanks to my mum who lent me the book. I used to watch the episodes religiously, and don't forget this was in the days before sky plus (well for me anyway) so it meant I had to make sure I was free on that night so I could watch it. Old school.

Anyway, yesterday I started a twitter account for the blog (@mumsdays - please follow me!) and responded to a question from one of the Cook Yourself Thin chefs (@GizziErskine) who then responded to me! She asked me - which risotto? To celebrate this momentous occasion and my first experience of a 'celebrity conversation' particularly with one of my heros, I'm going to share my favourite 5 CYT recipes:

5. Beetroot Chocolate Fudge Cake - I'm not much of a sweet tooth but I have made this a

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This is the final part of my directory on what to love, hate and avoid during pregnancy...this last section is really up to what you do with it and whether you chose to include in your pregnancy diet or not. At the risk of sounding patronising, I'll repeat what I've already heard a lot since becoming pregnant: 'listen to your body'. So this is a list of the things that are not strictly bad but not necessarily good either...

AVOID

Booze - this is a controversial one as there are 2 camps: the one that says it's fine; and, the one that says there is scientific proof that it can seriously harm the development of your baby. I think that the odd glass of wine is OK but certainly do not get drunk is the word on the street. As with some of the hate stuff, I've gone from really liking a glass

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As the second part of our Love, Hate, Avoid pregnancy diet, now we come to hate...As I mentioned previously, I'm with the NHS on most things and if they say there isn't scientific proof that something will harm baby, then the rule isn't going in my list of things to hate. It will probably go in my Avoid list, which is when you can make your own mind up. As a result this list isn't too long...

HATE

Unpasteurised dairy or some types of cheeses - I LOVE blue cheese, squidgy cheese, smelly cheese, etc. But it is all out of bounds. Now I have never become ill from eating cheese, and I mean never. However, IF you were to become ill from this type of cheeses or unpasteurised milk/dairy, you would be in big trouble (baby-wise), and for that reason I don't mind giving it up a jot. Plus, I also

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Yesterday was a busy day, with school pickups and seeing a lovely friend of Alex's and mine through the business but still I would have thought I had time to do all the things I had wanted to. Instead I seemed to have lost the day to CV writing and Lamb Tagine - which was gorgeous but, man, it took an age to make! If anyone has any tips for preparing butternut squash quickly, please pass on. It is now my nemesis.

Anyway, so TUI eating... I wanted to start with the dos and don'ts of eating for a healthy pregnancy because a) babs comes first in all of this, so we must follow the main principals, and  b) there is so much advice out there it's hard to keep up with everything so I'm compiling it together into my own Love, Hate and Avoid pregnancy diet, starting today with LOVE.

LOVE

Protein -

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