Can you believe it’s now only 80 days until Christmas? As part of my commitment to the Countdown to Christmas Challenge, I’d like to speak about Christmas Stockings today. Stockings are an important part of many families’ Christmas traditions, and yet they are easy to forget about until the last minute. If you have children, [...]

My class was absolutely mobbed on Thursday night!  It was queued out the door when I arrived sharply at 7pm for my weigh-in.  I asked a few of my fellow dieters in the queue, whether this was especially busy or not.  It was certainly the busiest I’ve seen it out of my three visits.  Everyone agreed that it was an exceptionally busy night. 

The fact that it is now less than 100 days to Christmas is no coincidence.  This is the time of year when many women start making preparations for Christmas, and part of those preparations include planning what to wear at the round of Christmas parties and celebrations.  Many women, myself included, would love to fit into an outfit in a smaller dress size for the party season.  Some women might simply want to ensure that they fit comfortably into their favourite LBD. If you start your diet and exercise regime just now, there should be plenty of time to achieve that.

One of my goals, when joining my slimming class, was to lose a stone (14lbs) by the Christmas party season.  Just two weeks into the diet and I’m half way there already!  I’m now confident that I’ll surpass my original goal, and I am thrilled at the prospect.

I attend my local Slimming World class, and I’m following their new Extra Easy diet.  To find out more visit the Slimming World website here.

In the current economic climate, I’m sure I’m not the only one who is apprehensive about the cost of Christmas this year.  Whilst still looking forward to Christmas with my family and friends, I’ll certainly be having a more frugal Christmas this year.  My husband works in construction and things are still pretty quiet in that industry.  He is actually having to work down in England for the next couple of months, while his company tries to secure more contracts in Scotland.  This is not ideal, but it is certainly preferable to him being made redundant, so we can’t really complain.

Jennifer’s email was inviting me to visit her “100 Days to Christmas” blog and to join this year’s Countdown to Christmas Challenge.

Having visited the blog, I must say I’m impressed, and had no hesitation in subscribing to the site, and rising to the challenge of the Christmas Countdown.

Jennifer has set up the “100 Days to Christmas” blog to advise, inspire and motivate us into getting on with everything we need to do from now until Christmas, to help make our Christmas celebrations go smoothly.  By visiting the 100 Days to Christmas blog daily, you’ll find the tips, tricks, and reminders to get you planning and motivated for the holiday season. Each day Jennifer will give us goals to achieve.  Like with everything else in life, we can achieve great things if we just break down the steps into bite-size goals!

I love Jennifer’s “100 Days to Christmas” concept and I endeavour to follow her advice and rise to the challenges.  As a busy mum of five-year-old twins, with a corporate job and a few home business ventures, I need all the help I can get for reducing stress in the run up to Christmas!

In the “100 Days to Christmas” blog you will find a daily dose of inspiration and motivation to help you get ahead, then relax through the busy holiday season knowing that you are more prepared than ever!  Part of being ready for Christmas is knowing how to give yourself plenty of time to focus on the holiday at hand while looking at the larger picture.

I first came across Jennifer on Twitter, and from there I discovered her fantastic site – ListPlanIt.com.

ListPlanIt.com has over 400 printable lists and planning pages to help you organize your life and put your world in order, including everything you need to get prepared for Christmas! In Holidays & Occasions, you’ll find calendars, daily and weekly planners, card lists, wish lists, gift lists, cookie/candy planner, party planning pages, holiday meal planning pages, grocery lists, and so much more!

I am a very satisfied member of ListPlanIt.  I joined last year, and have used a great many of the available resources from the website.  As a self-confessed List Freak I am in my element on List PlanIt, as there are lots of great lists and templates to download and use as planning tools.  I use their lists regularly to plan my blog posts, as well as to help with household chores and finances.

Therefore, I am very excited to share Jennifer’s 100 Days to Christmas promotion with you!

Jennifer wants to give 3 ListPlanIt Download Memberships to 100 Days participants. You have several ways to enter to win a full year of access to ListPlanIt.com:

1) leave a comment on the 100 days to Christmas blog (www.100daystochristmas.com),

2) tell your friends & followers about 100 Days to Christmas on Facebook or Twitter and leave a comment on the 100 days to Christmas blog linking to your profile,

3) subscribe to 100 Days to Christmas‘ RSS feed using a reader or by email and leave a comment on the 100 days to Christmas blog,

4) blog about 100 Days to Christmas then leave a comment on the 100 days to Christmas blog linking to your post.

One of each of these per day please. You have until Sunday, September 20 to enter.

Ready to get started?  Are you willing to accept the Countdown to Christmas Challenge? If so, please visit the 100 days to Christmas blog to find out what the first goal is.

Each day on the 100 days to Christmas blog, you’ll find the tips, tricks, and reminders to get you planning and motivated for the holiday season. If you have found a way to put the day’s post into action, then join me and the rest of the 100 Days members in our efforts to prepare for the holidays season. You may have followed the post of the day, or maybe you followed your own ritual or tradition. Whatever the case, show your holiday spirit (or attempt at holiday spirit) by posting the banner below on your blog, writing a post to let everyone know how you took up the challenge that day, and joining the community so that together we can make this the best Christmas yet!  Please remember to add me as a friend, when you join the community!

I will keep you posted on my progress with the Christmas Countdown Challenge on this blog.  I would be delighted if you would keep me posted on your own progress via the comments on this blog and/or via my page on the community.

Here’s to an organised Christmas Season!…