10 Ways To Survive Christmas without Gaining Weight

Anyone who struggles with their weight will know how hard it is to stay on track over Christmas. Temptation is everywhere; special offers in the shops, gifts from well-meaning friends, offerings at the school fete, the list is endless! Christmas these days seems to centre predominantly around food and there are no end of tempting treats that we feel compelled to buy in the shops, because it's traditional. No one wants to undo all their hard work in just a couple of weeks, though, so I've put together a list, with some ideas to keep us all motivated. If something has worked for you, feel free to comment below!

Win a Philips Soundmachine for Christmas

Christmas is a lovely time of year, but can become stressful when we add up all the gifts we need to buy. Aside from the cost, there's also the task of thinking what to buy for everyone and then going shopping for everything. This competition might just take the pressure off, buy ticking one gift off your buying list. Everyone loves music, so hopefully this Philips Soundmachine will make a nice present for someone, or keep it for yourself, no judgement here!

How to Handle Difficult Relatives at Christmas

In an ideal world, relatives would be like other people, we would be surrounded by the ones we like, and not obliged to spend time with those we don't get on with. Sadly, it doesn't work like that and Christmas is probably the prime time for testing the tolerance levels of the average adult, often to Hulk-esque proportions, but you can make it easier on yourself. If family politics (or personal guilt) rule out going away for Christmas, pretending to have a highly contagious disease, or faking your own death, here are some suggestions for helping things go more smoothly when difficult relatives threaten your Christmas spirit.

Christmas Packaging - What can you Recycle?

Over Christmas, the UK population generates 25% more waste than normal. With waste collections becoming less frequent and rubbish bins getting smaller (in our county, anyway!), this can pose a real problem for households. Add to that, the strain on the environment, and this means it is even more important than ever to up our recycling and upcycling game to try to keep landfill to a minimum. This post aims to sort out the facts when it comes to recycling your Christmas packaging, as well as what you can do to ensure you don't end up with a lot more landfill waste this Christmas and some alternatives to traditional wrapping.

Novotel Bristol Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Baffling!

We've just returned from a stay at the Novotel Hotel, which is situated about ten minutes' walk from Cabot Circus in Bristol. We booked through Hotels.com and paid about £195 for two nights, which is towards the lower price end for a fairly last-minute booking in this area. This secured us a double room with a sofa bed for myself, my adult daughter and teenage son. The hotel is part of the Accor Hotels group and is described on their website as a 'mid-scale hotel for business or family trips'. We've never stayed in a Novotel hotel before and it looked very swish from the outside, so we had high expectations. How did it measure up? Read on to find out.

Win One of Five Christmas Hampers UK Blogger Giveaway

It's been a little quiet around here lately, as I have been struggling with ill-health, which you can read more about here, and also contemplating a change of direction. In the meantime, somehow, October has been and gone and Christmas is suddenly on the horizon, which seems impossible. As a thank you for all the support I've received, I have joined in with a really exciting blogger giveaway, offering a great opportunity to find other blogs you might enjoy, whilst also taking part in a giveaway to win one of five fabulous Christmas hampers, which would be a great start to the Christmas shopping!

Don't Rush to Flush #Unblocktober

It's #Unblocktober! I'm really pleased this is a thing, because it needs to be a thing. Fatbergs are gross and destructive, costing taxpayers a lot of money and many of the unflushables that are flushed down the nation's toilets cause enormous harm to our environment. Whilst researching this post, I discovered a lot I didn't know about what you shouldn't flush and I thought it might surprise you too, so here's a post all about responsible flushing and how you can make #Unblocktober a success. To join the conversation and for more information, including a downloadable resource pack, head over to the Unblocktober website.