​I’ve stayed twice before at The Dormy House Hotel near Broadway, both times before it’s recent refurbishment.  This is the first time for two nights and was a birthday treat from my husband!  The refurbishment is gorgeous and it now has a house spa.

We stopped in Chipping Norton on the way on Friday and had lunch in a privately owned delicatessen and coffee shop.  When we arrived at the hotel we sat in one of their comfortable lounges and enjoyed a glass of prosecco!  I loved their ladies cloakroom – I am a bit fussy about toilet facilities but theirs did not disappoint so I couldn't resist a cheeky selfie.  My blue coat is from Boden, I purchased it right at the end of their sale last winter, it had been reduced massively by then and I didn’t actually wear it until this winter as by the time I received it, it was too warm but it is a good tip to get a bargain.  The rest of my outfit is from Mint Velvet.

Friday evening I wore my new dress from Jigsaw with a silver grey scarf with pink tassels also from Jigsaw and my Boden shoe boots, a sale purchase in January, first time I have ever ventured into the ankle boots with a dress look but after wearing high heels for a wedding back in October and suffering all day I decided it was time to reconsider, I don’t want to resort to flats so I thought I’d try boots.  The dress was really comfortable and it is styled on their website with flat shoes for spring so I will try it out a different way myself soon.

On Saturday after a late breakfast we headed into Broadway for a wander in the shops and I treated myself to a new book ‘Style Forever’ by Alyson Walsh, I suspect this is going to be a great go to fashion reference book for me and I am looking forward to reading it properly and sharing some tips with you.  There is a lovely boutique in Broadway I enjoyed going to again, Sue Parkinson and I bought a Breton t-shirt dress; it’s never too early to plan for summer!
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We spent a lovely lazy few hours in the spa, we had a massage each, and we enjoyed the outside hot tub, the swimming pool and the thermal suite.  Our room was very pretty and so comfortable.  It was hard to leave on Sunday and head back to reality.  On the way home we stopped in Stow on the Wold and Bourton on the Water before picking our daughter up from her grandparents.
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One of the things I want to use my blog for is to motivate myself to improve my health and fitness, I am hoping that by writing about my goals I can make myself accountable and maybe encourage others along the way. 

Have you read Gretchen Rubin’s book ‘Better than Before’?  She explains that the secret to habit change is knowing and understanding yourself.  So to master our habits it helps to understand where we stand in the ‘Four Tendencies’ framework, in other words, how do I respond to an expectation? I am definitely an ‘Obliger’, I respond better to outer expectations but struggle to meet inner expectations – I require external accountability.  That is why I do not exercise alone, I’d never do it, I’d always have an excuse!

You can take her ‘habits quiz’ here.
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So when I saw the Cancer Research campaign Sugar Free for March I decided that signing up for that as well as recording my journey on my blog might just give me the kick up the backside I need.

Why do I want to give up sugar?

Well my weight has been slowly increasing for a few years now, that is down to my age as I can no longer make little adjustments to my diet and find the pounds fall off.  Hormones, stress and age are all conspiring against me.  I exercise twice a week, ideally it should be more but I am an active person anyway and I do other activities like a dance class and walking the dogs so I don’t feel I have to add in another formal session.  But diet is the real thing to address when trying to change your figure.

To help me write this post I referred back to James Duigan’s book ‘Clean & Lean Diet’ – he says cut out the CRAP (Caffeine, Refined Sugar, Alcohol and Processed Foods).  But he dedicates a whole chapter to sugar as it is the worst of all!

Put simply sugar makes us fat.  Our bodies cannot process too much of it so it gets stored as fat.  Plus it makes fat-burning even harder – if you are eating sugar every day, all the gym sessions in the world won’t shift that excess flab.  For me I don’t think it can be any clearer!  So why do we do it?  Well it’s addictive and that is the habit I have to break.

And I think it is worthwhile adding in a reminder here about Alcohol – it is the simplest and most fattening sugar of all - it is basically a poison – it stimulates the production of oestrogen in our blood stream which promotes fat storage (around the waist and tummy).  It will decrease muscle mass, leaving you squidgy and out of shape.  It is no coincidence that women’s waist sizes have got bigger over the years in line with the amount of alcohol we consume.

I am going to keep things simple to start with – I have already cut down considerably on alcohol so I will continue with that, basically no drinking at home, social drinking only and then maximum two glasses of wine.  Having sugar in my tea is the biggest habit I need to break.  If I can master that in March then I can move onto other sugar-laden snacks too.  I will be posting regularly with updates and tips.
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Will you join me?
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