Hello!

So, how does one start a blog? Especially one as personal as one about lifestyle choices and life long battles with weight?

Maybe let's start with who I am, and where I'm at.

Hello, I'm Bron.

So life looks a little like this; I am married to the most amazing, supportive and outstanding man I've ever met, and together we have a fearless, funny, adorable little 18 month old. For protection of identity, let's call husband Top Cat and little one Squiggle.

We currently live in South West London, or thereabouts, having moved from our hometown of Hull. Life is very different down south, but after 6 years here I think we're starting to get the hang of it!

By day - and by night, come to think of it - I am a church lay worker. This involves lots of people facing in the community and within the churches I serve. Also by day, I am mother to Squiggle, as previously mentioned. Squiggle comes with me to most of my work appointments which means days can be a bit crazy and sometimes time is tight. But I wouldn't change it for the world; I love my job, and I love that I can still see my little one growing and changing.

This is my second shot at Slimming World. I won't go into details now, but I had a lot of success with Slimming World two and a half years ago, losing about 4st. Pregnancy and new motherhood curtailed that, and so I'm back to square one plus (that's all the weight came back on and then some.)

Slimming World is a plan I highly rate. It's not about quick fixes, but complete lifestyle changes. It also uses real food in wholesome recipes. It is also the best plan to follow for someone following a vegan lifestyle, which I also do.

Again, I won't go into details, but I've been vegan now for 7 and a half years. Things have changed a lot since I first made the change in lifestyle, and the options available now for a vegan lifestyle are phenomenal in comparison. Sometimes this makes life easier, though for a vegan trying to lose a lot of weight with a real addiction to chocolate, it makes it a whole lot harder.

Being vegan and on Slimming World is great, and there is a lot to enjoy, but there's also a lot we miss out on. Foods that people take for granted - Muller Light, mini chocolate bars with low syn value, cheese that can be used as a healthy extra, puddings made from quark and other animal dairy based products - are off the menu.

It was with child like glee that I found Pinterest had a wealth of Slimming World friendly recipes, but typing in "vegan Slimming World recipes" offered little inspiration. A couple of slow cooker casseroles, a lentil based curry and lots of other recipes that either weren't vegan, weren't Slimming World friendly, or weren't vegan OR Slimming World friendly.

What I hope to do here, as well as journelling my experiences, thoughts and feelings, is to share recipes that vegans CAN enjoy. I'm no Isa Chandra Moskowitz, so original recipes will be far and few between, for now anyway. It'll mostly be links to vegan friendly recipes, links to non vegan recipes with instructions on how to make them vegan or referring to books that can be bought in group. It might not sound like much, but I would have loved something like that. Still would.

One final promise before I sign off and think of something more meaty to blog on (or should that be, more tofu-y? Man, I crack me up!) I promise I won't be that needy, teary person that will type reams about how they tried so hard and only lost half a pound. Hearing that is my consultant's job and Top Cat's job (sorry Top Cat!) Secondly, I promise I will not EVER shame or be judgemental about omnivores. I'll be honest, I would love to live in a world where eating animals and their products became a thing of the past but right now I am the minority. Even in my family I'm the minority, Top Cat and Squiggle don't follow a vegan diet and I would not force it on either of them. It is the choice of the individual. If you want to chat about it sometime, great, but I won't bang on about it here.

I think I've covered everything. 

See less of you soon!

Bron x