[AD – Gifted] This blog post contains gifted items from Boden UK.

Oh hello! Are you ready for a chatty, lifestyle post? Well, grab yourself a cuppa and let’s catch up.

Whilst I am so busy focusing on my foodie and Northamptonshire blog posts for Nicole Navigates, it doesn’t leave me with much time to think and talk about things that are happening in my life.

And 2019 has not been short of things happening – there’s been some huge lifestyle changes I’ve gone through already this year.

At the start of the year, I said that I wanted to make 2019 my year of change. I had set myself some goals for the year; some of which I have managed to stick to, others I set out to do but they turned out to be completely different and not what I expected – but all for the better!

I never want my posts to seem ‘boasty’ or as if I am showing off – as I’ve been writing this blog for almost 4 years, I feel there has been a lot of followers who have followed me from the very start of my journey – that’s why I feel I want to share these important milestones and updates with you.

We purchased our first home

This one has been the biggest surprise of them all, as well as one that has been incredibly challenging, but rewarding.

At the start of the year, Josh and I set out to move out together, but we never expected to buy our first home. It seemed impossible at the time and we were looking for rented apartments and houses for months, as we believed it was the only option for us.

The more we looked, the more we REALLY didn’t want to rent for the next few years and waste our money on something that wasn’t ours. However, we hadn’t realised just how fortunate we were until we made a *very spontaneous* appointment with a mortgage advisor, who spoke to us about our options. Turns out, we were in a better position than we realised.

About 20 minutes after the meeting, our mortgage advisor rang us back and confirmed that we had a mortgage in principal – the first step in buying a house. Then, a few days later, we reserved our plot on a new build!

It has honestly been the fastest process ever, from getting the mortgage in principal, to reserving our plot and finally getting our mortgage and contracts exchanged. It now means we are literally 6 weeks away from getting the keys to our own place.

I always said I wanted to move out of home by the time I was 25, but I didn’t think I would be a homeowner before then! It really is a dream come true and I can’t express how excited I am to be moving into our own place, about a week away from my 25th birthday!

I’ve lost one stone in weight

It might not be obvious to the eye, but for those who may follow me on social media, I have lost a WHOLE STONE in weight – and I am not finished with my weight loss journey.

I wrote a post last year suggesting that I really wanted to sort out my eating habits and weight, as I kept looking in the mirror and didn’t like the look of the person facing me. It’s taken me a bit longer to get in the mind set, but I am finally making progress! 

Someone at work suggested going to Slimming World. I had heard of them and had done a little bit through my mum’s books when she used to go, but honestly, didn’t think it would work for me. 

From the first session, something just clicked and somehow, around being a food blogger, I managed to lose a whole stone within 5 weeks! I never thought I could lose that amount of weight within that time, in a healthy, controlled way.

I have now lost a stone and 3lbs and I’m still carrying on with this ‘lifestyle change’ as cheesy as it sounds – I’ve come so far, but I’ve got a long way to go.

However, me losing weight isn’t a vanity thing (though comparing photos now, I look GOOD!) but I’ve actually had quite a few health complications which impacted my decision to lose weight and I felt it was about time I started feeling good about myself – inside and out.

The photos you see featured in this blog post are just a snippet of how my confidence has boosted since I lost a load of poundage. I would had never striked poses like this, this time last year!

Now, I’m in the position where I can still enjoy food, but I don’t feel out of control and don’t feel I’m going to slip up so badly I’m going to gain all the weight back on again. I’m excited to carry on and see how much better I’m going to feel.

I’ve landed my dream role

I don’t think it’s everyday you can say you’ve landed your dream job, but I am definitely very lucky and still can’t believe I can say this. I have secured THE dream role!

If you follow me on social media, you will have seen me mention about leaving my existing role as Marketing Assistant, but I’ve been keeping quiet on exactly what I’m going to be doing afterwards.

Right now, it doesn’t feel like the right time to announce to the world what I’ll be doing, as the nature of the job I’m going into is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity, hence why I am staying quiet for now as I want to get into the role first before I say anything (obviously family and friends know!)

I won’t be writing a big ol’ blog post about it and to be honest, I’m not really sure how I’m going to *casually* announce it. Whatever I decide, I just won’t be announcing it in such a big way like I have done with previous job announcements before – I did that once and it bit me in the bum when what I thought was a ‘dream role’ ended up being disaterious.

I hope this doesn’t sound too negative – because my new role is really a dream come true and I am BURSTING to say something and am SO FREAKING EXCITED TO START. This means, I will be leaving my Marketing Assistant role on Friday 31st March and will shortly be starting my new role afterwards.

One hint I can give you is that my role will mainly be working from home and remotely… so I will definitely be looking for recommendations on good co-working spaces in Northamptonshire as well as decent coffee shops with good Wi-Fi!

Plus, I’ve already been spam reading Lisa at The Beauty Type & Jess at Jess Who Blog’s blog posts about working from home which have been super useful and inspiring.

Big things are about to happen and my new role is going to give me the opportunity to be more flexible and dedicate more time to Nicole Navigates, which will be a really exciting new chapter.

 Tell me three things that have happened to you this year which you are excited/proud about!

The photos featured here were taken by Jenn at The Wishful Luxury at Sywell Country Park, where I’m wearing some gorgeous pieces from Boden UK. I was kindly gifted these pieces from a previous collaboration.

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