1 Month Down, is it Really Going to Happen?

Wowser, how quickly has January disappeared!?! It feels like I blinked and missed it even though there has been quite a lot going on in my life this last month. As I am so determined to achieve the goals I set myself this year, I thought I’d best undergo a little tracking session and see if I have managed to make any progress. If I don’t check now, soon I’ll be sitting here in June wondering how I’m going to fit it all in to 6 months. Here’s my progress:

• Weight 9st7 (or less) by March – somehow have managed to reach 10st…oops!
  • Umm, still at 10st despite quite a few changes to the diet. I have a very poorly gut at the moment so I can only hope this will settle soon and help my weight loss
• Weigh no more than 9st at the end of the year
  • As above
• End the year with £3,500 credit card debt or less (fair chunk to pay off to reach that!)
  • Epic fail! My car added £650 to this for it’s MOT. Instead, I will be saving to pay off a chunky old loan this time next year
• Read 10 new books
  • Not yet started but did finish a book today which was started in 2011. I have book no. 1 lined up and ready to go so hopefully this time next month I’ll be back on track
• Star in at least 1 theatre show
  • Auditions in a couple of weeks 🙂
• See 12 theatre shows
  • This one is super fun. Have so far seen an amateur show at my local theatre (Neverwhere, was awesome) and went to see Cirque Du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday which was spectacular!
• Spend 3 weekends away with the bf
  • I blame him for the lack of progress
• Eat in 6 new restaurants
  • January = poor month = not much eating out = fail
• Leave the country 3 times
  • Trip to Budapest booked for July, super luxury as well 🙂
• Exercise for at least 1.5 hours per week (up from 0 hours)
  • Simply put…not done this! I have however started Aqua Fit once a week but made one class then was too late for the next. Back on it this week but it’s only 45 mins per class :-s
• Make my eBay store self sufficient by June (i.e. have enough profit to buy next lot of stock)
  • Sales have started picking up this week with the arrival of pay day…phew!
• Have a trip to NY booked in (actually have at least deposit paid)
  • This one’s for later in the year
• Make and try 3 home made beauty products
  • Nada! Have however inherited a heap of non home made products from a friend who is emigrating. The pile of products I have in reserve is MASSIVE. I will use them all though…eventually!

So as you can see, I have made fair progress in some areas whilst failing in others but nothing is a lost cause yet and I’m hoping I’ll have a bit more time in Feb. to dedicate to my goals. I still feel like these are achievable and that’s the most important thing. How are you all doing with your goals? x

Low Calorie Cakes

At the moment I am on a bit of a health kick, partly to lose some weight but mainly to feel a bit better. I’ve been really suffering with a bad gut, bad skin and feeling exhausted for a good 4-6 months now so I’m trying to do something about it. What I’ve found is that I am absolutely fine with eating loads more fresh fruit and veg. but I still crave naughty foods and need to snack several times a day (I eat loads!). So far, I’ve been struggling with this and have resorted to crisps and chocolate on quite a few occasions which obviously is not really helping any of the causes.

As diet success seems to be mainly about being organised, I got myself organised this weekend and made some more of my delicious lemon and poppyseed muffins. They’re gluten free, sugar free and dairy free as well as being low GI and tasting nice…amazing! The recipe is sat over on my other, somewhat neglected blog so here it is: http://candidafree.wordpress.com/muffins/ . Just thought I’d share in case anyone else is also having trouble sticking to their diets 🙂 x

Skin Therapy on a Budget

I don’t know about you guys but my skin has taken a right beating this winter. I think it’s at least partly my fault; the mild temperatures mean that I have been less aware of blasting my skin with moisturiser. The result is that I have some hideously dry skin with a greasy T-zone and a fair few little spots. Now I struggle with my skin at the best of times but this is excessive, even for me!

Usually what I’d do in this situation is go and splash a load of cash on an expensive cream which I’d use 3 times but right now I am broke so I had to be more imaginative. Then I remembered what I did when I was at uni and the same thing happened…aqueous cream! Check it out, this whole tub is just £4.05 in Boots:

500g Pot of Aqueous Cream, £4.05 in Boots

What an absolute bargain! It’s a bit thick for everyday use unless you suffer from eczema but I’ve found that using it a couple of evenings per week has really perked my skin up; my cheeks are feeling much smoother and more youthful. Give it a go and let me know if you have any other good, bargainous skin tips! x

The Easy Way to a Flat Stomach

Over the last few weeks I have been making a conscious effort to eat more healthily and exercise at least a bit…as per my goals for 2012. What I have been finding though is that exercise takes time I don’t have and I have literally no idea where to start. That’s when Justin Devonshire contacted me about writing a guest post and I thought…hang on…a personal trainer writing on my blog…BINGO! So here is Justin’s first post, “5-Minute Fixes for a Flat Stomach”.

If you’re reading this post I’m guessing you’re like most of the other 200+ women I’ve trained. Most of them try reading books and reading articles to find the best weight loss tips, but all they find is boatloads of complicated and contradictory information that tells them nothing.

You probably feel like screaming, “Get to the point!”

If that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place. I know your time is limited and valuable, so I am going to cut through the nonsense and tell you exactly what you need to do to get a flat stomach right now.

Here are 3 Quick-Fixes you can easily fit into your schedule to start shrinking your waist right now…

Quick-Fix #1: Use the Plank Exercise (and STOP doing crunches)

To perform a plank, get into a regular push up position, up on your toes, and rest on the underneath of your forearms. Now squeeze your tummy hard and try holding it for 30 – 60 seconds.

This exercise works ALL your core muscles in one go, and burns far more calories than doing hundreds of boring, painful crunches (which actually hurt your back and give you a forward leaning, unsexy posture).

Start getting down and holding a 30-second plank as many times as you can throughout the day. If you’re in work and getting bored, the quick rush of blood-flow from doing this exercise will even wake you up and help you to focus a little!

 Quick-Fix #2: Suck It Up!

Here’s another great exercise you can do if you are sat at the office all day and can’t fit in a full workout.

Simply sit up tall, back against the chair, and start sucking in your tummy and holding it as long as you can (whilst still taking breaths).

The easiest way to visualize it is to imagine you are trying to pull your belly button back toward your spine.

This will activate all your deep stomach muscles and improve your posture, making you look naturally taller and more confident.

Start by holding it for just 20 seconds, and getting used to breathing normal breaths at the same time. Then over the days build up your holding time until you can comfortably suck your tummy in for up to 5 minutes.

Doing this and the plank exercise alone will start taking the inches from your waist straight away!

Quick-Fix #3: The No-Sugar Drinks Challenge!

Cutting down sugar is obviously a fast way to stop fat getting stored on your belly. However, it’s sometimes more easily said than done.

Here is a dead simple way to cut out a LOAD of sugar from your diet and lose at least a pound or two in just one week:

Set yourself a challenge that you will not DRINK any calories for a week. Stick to water wherever possible, which will help flush excess fat and toxins out of your system. To flavour try cutting up some slices of lemon, lime or orange.

Switch to green tea instead of regular, and definitely cut out that Starbucks on the way to work!

This is just for one week. See how you feel after that week and decide if it was really that difficult to keep the sugary drinks at bay.

In reality there no ‘magic bullets’ to immediate fat-loss, but these are three of the closest things you’ll get to quick-fixes. Give them a try and let us know your results in 7 days time!

If you’re loving the results, check out Justin’s Blog: 

Justin Devonshire is a woman’s fat-loss & body-toning expert. He is the owner of Bodyshape Fitness – Personal Training & Bootcamp, which is run in both the UK and Cyprus.

For more free quick tips on weight loss, toning & motivation for women, visit the Bodyshape Fitness Blog, and get Justin’s “Little Black Dress Transformation Guide” as a FREE gift right now!

Today’s Saviour Is…

Nails Inc Elizabeth Street nail varnish. (Get it here.)

Elizabeth Street

Once again, my super weak and flaky nails have reached the point when they start peeling too much and then get even weaker. This means that they are now super short and hideous. I need to paint them for strength but don’t want to draw too much attention to them with any of my usual bold colours and that’s where this polish came in. Elizabeth Street is really not that different in colour to my nail beds so it’s just allowed me to tidy up my ugly hands and make them more feminine. Highly recommended to anybody in a similar situation 🙂 x

Latest Online Shopping Discovery

Ooh, I’m so excited that I just have to share my latest discovery. I’m a regular reader of Tor’s Fab Frocks blog as Tor is one of my friends’ sisters and she is always right there on the front line with new fashion discoveries. It was through her that I first discovered the Zaggora Hot Pants and now I’ve discovered some independent fashion designers made accessible at prices we can really afford!

Check out Fashion Pony; they’ve got some brilliant, unique items that you will fall in love with. I can’t get enough of this dress and will order one as soon as I get paid:

Jasmin Dress from Klue by Kelly-Ann

That stunning dress is currently just £48, down from £80 and is made to order. Fabulous!

The only thing I don’t like about Fashion Pony is that somebody else has realised my dream before me. Selling clothes in one place by a collection of independent designers is exactly what I’ve wanted to do for ages, I just haven’t got there yet! Well done these people, I’m so happy to see fresh designs available to the masses 🙂 x 

Lucky for my breasts they’re small and humble…

So you don’t confuse them with mountains. Anyone else remember those Shakira lyrics from her debut hit way back when? For some of us you could replace the word “mountains” with mole hills and the lyrics would still retain their meaning but that’s just the way it is…or is it?

Unfortunately for those of us who are more modest of chest, the wider media doesn’t seem to share Shakira’s thinking. These days, if a woman doesn’t have a size 6 waist with a bust belonging to a size 16 lady attached, she could be forgiven for feeling overlooked, unattractive and plain old inadequate. There are precious few images of natural women; the media has forgotten that most of us skinny girls are also pretty flat chested – think Kate Hudson for a super hot example.

Flat Chested and Proud, Kate Hudson

Unfortunately, Cameroz Diaz was my other example and even she seems to have gone under the knife now!

The All Natural Cameron Diaz

The Bigger, (Better?) Cameron Diaz

Admittedly Cameron has had a natural looking enhancement rather than the football style we are used to seeing but this does just prove that natural role models are becoming fewer and further between on a daily basis. What natural is being replaced with is this:

Heidi Montag

Victoria Beckham

Katie Price

Personally I find it more acceptable that we are bombarded with images of glamour models with surgically enhanced chests, it’s their job and it’s easier to detach from those people than it is from some of the other women we are shown. Take Heidi Montag, she doesn’t really have a career any more so she had surgery; the same with a lot of the girls on the current Big Brother. Others like Victoria Beckham are intelligent and have super careers but just keep falling prey to the surgery bug. It seems that unless we are surgically enhanced these days, we just can’t reach that level of success.

Thinking about all of this led to me question why actual, real, non celebrity women are getting their boobs done and what the after effects really are. I wasn’t thinking about the PIP debacle, I just wanted to understand what has motivated real women to spend thousands or hard earned pounds on surgery and whether or not they still think they made the right decision. So I contacted an old school friend who agreed to help. She said she has never regretted her decision, (one that was made 6 years ago) and she’d answer my prying questions. That was a couple of days ago.

Today I got a response to my questions; I’d asked about how she chose her surgeon, what she thought of the result when she first saw it, whether she would consider further surgery and everything in between. Her response: she has found out she has PIP implants and now has a lot of unexpected pain and expense coming her way. I felt horrible and I feel for everyone in that situation, there was nothing they could have done to have checked that; they were relying on our government to quality check their product and they were failed.

So there is no interview, just what you see here on this page. However, it has brought me to a realisation: I don’t mind people having cosmetic surgery, I understand why you’d want it. However, there are some people having surgery because they think it will change all the bad things in their life and it won’t. Equally, there are people stretching their finances to the max. for surgery which means that when something like PIP comes along, they can’t afford to fix it. This is a horrible situation to be in so I suggest that unless you can afford the same amount of money again for corrective surgery, you should never have it. Surgery is permanent so make sure you really want it as the result is likely to be a smidgen different to what you expected.

Finally, what I see on this page is a whole host of beautiful women and Kate Hudson is not at the bottom of that list so for now I’m sticking just as I am, safe in the knowledge that my breasts won’t dimple, dent, rupture or stick out like I’ve stuffed my bra with melons! If you have had surgery and want to talk about the results you got, please do comment 🙂 x

As the High Street Falls does the Independent Rise?

With today’s news that yet another high street store, (Peacocks) has gone into administration, it’s really got me wondering about the future of the British high street. I’m sure you’re all familiar with Mary Portas’ campaign to promote independent businesses but I think we have an opportunity now to really give this campaign a boost and transform our generic high streets into something fresh and exciting. Here are some of the stores that have gone into administration in the last couple of years:

• La Senza
• Woolworths
• Peacocks
• Past Times
• Habitat
• Blacks Leisure
• Hawkins Bazaar
• Barratts (shoes)
• Comet
• Faith (shoes)
• Adams
• Jane Norman
• Focus DIY
• Confetti
• JJB Sports
• Arrogant Cat
• Alexon (Ann Harvey, Kaliko, etc)

As you can see, many of these are huge names, certainly names I remember growing up with. You’ll also notice that quite a few of these are still on our high streets today where either the process is slow or they have been bought. Why are they going into administration? Is it just a lack of consumer spending or is it that we as consumers are bored of shopping in the same places in every town for years on end and are slowly but surely campaigning for change?

With the demise of these generic shops comes an opportunity for the independent retailer to step up and prove that they really do have a place on our high streets. Independents with knowledgeable staff and great customer service stand only to gain in this market, coaxing those precious pennies from our pockets whilst their larger, stark neighbours expose their own weaknesses with even worse service and poorer quality stock as they fall. The risk however is that we will end up with a high street that is even more generic than ever as the failing stores are bought out by larger groups which already own huge chunks of our high street.

So here I am on my soap box, preaching what you’ve all heard a million times before but I really mean it…support your independents! We have a huge opportunity to transform our own shopping experiences  for the better and we need to seize it or it could be another 10 years of drudgery before we get the chance!

On that note, please do comment if you know of any independents that you want to give a shout out to! x

Review Sanctuary Heel Balm

While I was working at Boots, one of the free gifts I chose myself was a Sanctuary Heel Balm as my poor feet were so tired and dry from their increased workload. Well, I only actually started using it about a week ago and I love it so much I just had to write a mini review of it!

The cream is £7.45 on the Boots website for the above pictured tube which is actually a pretty good price for a quality foot product. Spend the money! The morning I woke up after my very first application, my heels were noticeably smoother and softer which is something I haven’t encountered with any other foot product. Application is nice as well, it has a fresh smell which isn’t too overpowering and a great consistency, not runny like a lotion and not as greasy as other balms can be so it soaks in quickly.

I don’t think I need to say any more except if your feet need some loving and you want a yummy product, not a medicated type solution then this cream is your solution. Let me know what you think x

Starting Over…Again

The concept of starting afresh is a strange one, it’s something that fills some people with an unrivalled optimism and others with pure dread. Unfortunately for those of us in the second category, it seems inevitable that most people with have to start over again at something during the course of their lifetime. For me, the thing I seem to have to keep starting over at is my career.

To put this in context, I’m a graduate (2008) and a really driven person with a strong desire to learn and achieve highly, not  someone who wants a “job”, someone who wants a career. However, I’ve only be working for 3.5 years since I left uni and yet I am now on job number 3 and at the bottom of the pile again. This is not because I am incredibly indecisive or lack direction – both are partially true, but actually this is a result of the recession / economic downturn / money related thing that most people don’t really understand. I’ve had 1 redundancy and 1 job I left just prior to redundancy – what rubbish luck for a grad!

So how have I dealt with this? The first time, I left out of choice and although I took a step back in terms of responsibility and money, I took a step forward in terms of potential and networking. The networking paid dividends in helping me find a new job this time round (phew!). This time though, I was forced out like a newborn into the world of the unknown. I am now no longer a fairly big fish in a small pond but instead a tadpole in a massive lake and it’s tough. I’m only on day 4 but I’m missing my creature comforts, the trust I had built up in my previous organisation, the challenges I faced daily. Today I am filing, as per the last 2 days. 3.5 years of work and I am filing all day, something doesn’t feel right.

The big bonus is that I am now working for a much larger organisation so my potential is much bigger than ever before. Somehow though, that won’t stick in my mind, what sticks is that I am filing and nobody knows what I can really do. Why is that? Why is uncontrolled change so hard to stomach and how can I beat the feeling?

What’s come alongside this is that the other things which stress me out seem even bigger and I’ve got a stress head like you wouldn’t believe! How do other people manage this? It’s bizarre that logically my brain says one thing and then backflips and makes me stress about the exact same thing seen from another angle…argh!!!

So who’s done it? Who has started over at anything and loved, even when it was forced upon them? If you have, please let me know how you keep on the logical path and don’t end up on my crazy rocky road, this is too much for my poor little mind!