Holiday at Sandy Balls

Last week we stayed at this fabulous place, Sandy Balls near Fordingbridge in the New Forest. Although I love camping, I'm not quite brave enough to do it with the two little ones (maybe next year). So we decided to opt for the 4 berth oak lodge. There are loads of other accommodation options from bringing your own tent to pre-constructed tents to lodges etc.

The lodge had a double bedroom with en suite bathroom and a small twin room and family bathroom. There was an open plan living room & kitchen. The only downside was that we couldn't fit our travel cot into either of the bedrooms. This wasn't really a problem for us as we co-sleep with Esme for most of the night anyway.

This is the perfect location for an activity based holiday. You are in the middle of the New Forest so you have excellent access to cycle paths and bridleways for a family cycling or walking adventure. It was lovely to re-discover my bike. We even managed to get a second hand Burley Cub cycle trailer for Esme to go in.

Thomas at the Toddlers adventure playground

As she isn't sitting up yet we ended up strapping her car seat into the trailer using the belts and lots of bungee cords. I was a bit nervous about putting Esme in the trailer but after checking on the CTC website and reading lots of cycling blogs I was reassured. Esme loved riding in the trailer and could be heard cooing and singing to herself around the Sandy Balls site. Thomas went on the bike seat behind Paul.

Sandy Balls also has an indoor and outdoor pool, which we visited everyday. I think my kids are water babies. It was lovely to see Thomas' confidence in water growing day by day and Esme enjoyed floating and kicking in the water.

On rainy days (lets face it - UK summertime - there's gonna be a few of them) then Sandy Balls has a soft play area for children under 6 and also a range of craft activities that you can book onto. So there is plenty to do.

Looking at fishies in the River Avon (A nervous daddy holding on tight!)

Sharing the babywearing love!

I decided I was not going to put Esme in disposable nappies for our week away and packed most of our cloth nappy stash. There are laundry facilities on site so I thought I'd be able to get a wash in if we needed to. I think I somewhat over estimated how many nappies we'd need. I didn't have to do any laundry and we still had plenty of clean nappies to take home with us!

The kids (excuse the dummy, Thomas was exhausted!)

We had a fantastic time. The active week has really spurred me on to get on my bike and exercise more. We are already planning next year's holiday there. Still not sure if I'm brave enough to camp so maybe we will be back in a lodge again.

Weigh In Wednesday

I didn't post last week as I was away on holiday. In my week away I managed to gain a pound, despite cycling and swimming everyday. Admittedly, I wasn't sticking to the food optimising plan so that could explain the weight gain. A friend of mine did suggest it was a pound of pure muscle from all the exercising. I'd like to believe that, but realistically....er......no.

So this week I have gone back to the Slimming World food optimising plan (except for a couple of momentary weaknesses) and also kept the momentum going with the exercising. I got into some "good" habits on holiday and have really been enjoying cycling and running. I'm hoping to do some swimming again this week too. (My own mini triathlon!)

My biggest motivation at the moment is how much easier the running and cycling is becoming now that I'm carrying less weight around. I no longer have to push the bike up hills or stop to walk half of my running route. Its little things like those that really spur me on.

1 stone 1 1/2 lbs (15 1/2 lbs) in 11 weeks.
Current weight: 11st 3lbs 2oz

Weigh-in Wednesday

2 1/2 lbs this week which means I have lost a whole stone.
A few of my friends have commented that you can tell I've lost some weight, which to be honest, means more to me than what the scales say. I've also started to notice that my clothes are feeling a lot looser now.

I still have another stone to go so I'm going to hold off on that shopping trip until then.

14lbs (1 stone) in 8 weeks.
Current weight: 11st 4lbs 2oz