Sunday Eve challenge

I managed to pick up a Country Casuals suit on ebay for under £20 earlier this month.

It is a size 16, so in reality it would have been a perfect fit post healthy eating.

The pen marks the spot. I have had to move the buttons over - I will wear it tomorrow
and then resell it or send to the hospice shop, as doesn't really fit properly!

A real make do and mend for my trip tomorrow!

Ooopsie Daisy, blip in the regime!

Let me introduce you to my downfall Lanson Demi sec!
A bit of a Friday night treat! Very rare these days!

Defined by the maker as "The Tender Champagne".

I vow to drink only demi sec champagne for the rest of my life - makes their black label taste like cheap muck!

A great little discovery!

# 20 products to change your life, for better or for worse #20 Skin Care The Lipstick Effect

(Illustration by : John Dodson)

Skin Care is a very personal choice, but highly lucrative for the companies selling their wares.
Even in this current climate, people are treating themselves to items AKA "The Lipstick effect" to cheer themselves up!

The UK Skin Care market was worth £2.1 billion in 2012, with Facial Skin Care doing particularly well in this climate of frugality. Interestingly enough Male Skin Care is on the rise and did very well.

So yes, they have our attention and it seems a good amount of our income too!!

When it comes to Skin Care there is a mine field of choice:

My Personal choices are:

Clarins 

Multi -Active day Moisturiser
Clarins define this as an early Wrinkle Correction cream for all skin types.

 

Multi Active Night Moisturiser

Clarins define this one as" Eight hours sleep in a jar"

The day cream and night cream are for a younger skin, but I find a lot of  hype relating to products for "older" mature skins and tend to try them out when Clarins is on gift ie: You buy some many
full sized products and get sample sizes or generous 15mls sizes as a gift. I always come back to the multi active range.

 

Cleansing Milk and Lotion

Just feel so good on the skin! No other reason!

Beauty Flash Balm - use this as an overnight mask whilst sleeping! But, it has more uses!



Special Offers here: Clarins

I am fairly biased towards Clarins as I visited the Paris HQ many years ago and we were treated like
Princesses!

I have been employed by Clarins as a Deputy Counter Manager, part employed by  Clarins and part employed by a nameless department store  Trafford Centre Manchester and I can honestly say never again. The company were great and the training was top notch, but the department store was without a doubt the worst place I ever had the misfortune to set foot inside, but that's a whole different post!

The Creme de la Creme

Is by Guerlain - Midnight Secret - the absolute best thing I have ever used on my face.
here
It really does do what it says, I haven't purchased this product for a good 6 years, but it certainly does what it claims to do.

I am not able to recommend the rest of this skin care range as it gave me a dreadful reaction.

DIY

THE best herbal beauty book that was ever out there, I grew up on this book and tried many a recipe.
This is the book responsible for me wish to and achieve a Beauty Therapy qualification
I shall be trying many a recipe again this winter now I have snagged a new old out of print copy!

Get yours here : Kitty Little

( Again all my own personal choices and no form of incentive received)

Boobs! Chins and all that jazz!

As well as my new healthy eating challenge I have recommenced my love affair with the company
MamaMio

I have already pointed out that my neck causes me multiple issues and my 40 chins are slowly dissolving! Boob tube is my answer.

You may view my claims here with a totally unflattering picture of me on my break during a particularly fraught 12 hour shift - chins are nearly gone, but NOW wrinkles and rootage need addressing!

 (24th September)

(5th September) oooh laaa laaaaaa

I can't say it's all down to Mama Mio as I have been sticking to my healthy eating regime rigidly, but I can say the chin results are pretty amazing.

I must be proud to keep posting these god awful self images!!

What do I like most about Boob tube? - have just discovered I can put it on my face too!
So maybe it will also help the lines a tad!

It comes in at £29.50 and the company claim that within a week your skin is firmer and already has many endorsements for it's efficacy.

Mine is just a drop in the ocean. But it certainly gets my vote for firmer skin and it does what it claims to do.

(This is a genuine review and I have not been approached by the company concerned to write this)

Fat face

Approx 2 weeks into healthy eating - which comprises of fruit veg, mostly fish, eggs and chicken.
Absolutely nothing processed by others at all.....

Plus Points: weigh less, better sleep pattern, more energy........

Minus Points: Peeing more! That's all - don't really miss the junk and booze!

Healthy Aging

 

Pay attention to your breath. Many cultures identify breath with spirit, seeing the breath cycle as the movement of spirit in the physical body. Simply minding the breath is a way of expanding consciousness beyond the ego, of experiencing transcendence.  

 

 

 

Connect with nature. You can do this by walking or sitting in a natural setting; a city park will do just fine. Allow yourself to slow down, drop your usual routines, and just absorb the influence of the place.  

 

(pic: By Pete Gettins - July 2013)

 

 

Make a list of people in your life in whose company you feel more alive, happy, and optimistic. Make an effort to spend more time with them. Our spiritual selves resonate with others, and that connection is a healing.  

 

 

 

Bring flowers into your home and enjoy their beauty.  

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to music that you find inspirational and uplifting.  

 

 

 

Admire a work of art that raises your spirits: a painting, sculpture, or work of architecture.  

 

 

 

Reach out and try to resume connection with someone from whom you are estranged; practice forgiveness.  

 

 

 

 

 

Do some sort of service work. Give some of your time and energy to help others. The possibilities are endless but do not include just writing a cheque to charity.  

 

 

 

The suggestions above are intended to help you become more aware of your spiritual self. Any activity that makes you feel more alive, more connected to others and to nature, less isolated, more comfortable with change, is beneficial. It will enhance your physical and mental health. It will help you accept the fact of your aging. It will help you to age gracefully. 

 

 "Healthy Aging" by AndrewWeil, published by Knopf.

WWII dresser Uppers - the elephant in the room...

There are too many over nourished WWII dresser uppers - trust me there was a war on and no way  would ANYONE would be 4 stone overweight - save for Churchill with his private Larder.....

We have women in the military, but they don’t put us in the front lines.
They don’t know if we can fight, if we can kill. I think we can.
All the general has to do is walk over to the women and say,
‘You see the enemy over there? They say you look fat in those uniforms.’ E.Boosler

Fruit Compote for Jen ! :-)

6 large cooking apples
Handful of blueberries
1Peach
Coconut oil
Cinnamon


Peel and core the apples
FRY in hot coconut oil
add sliced peach and a handful of berries

Fry until the blueberries burst!

Turn heat well down - add 400-500mls water and some cinnamon ( depends on your taste)

Simmer for about 20 mins -until the apple becomes mushy.
Sir up with a wooden spoon and leave to cool
Overnight is best!

Voila! If not sweet enough add honey!  

The Big 66

(July 2013)

66 pounds, the amount I have increased by since 2007.
As I am now somewhat well into middle age, I have finally elected to do something about this dreadful state of affairs.

It's not really a vanity issue for me, but a health one. I can be on my feet for 12 hours a day
and end up coming home - consuming junk, you know, chocolate, wine and all those sinful unnatural
chemicals that invade the modern lifestyle. This in turn presents problems, knees hurting by supporting this vast increase in weight. My varicose vein goes nuts, so much so that I have to wear granny stockings to shut it up!

My knickers are bigger than Queen Victoria's bloomers.....

My double chin is giving this gal a run for her money...

So much so, that a very "good friend" keeps advising me to have liposuction on it.

Now I am not against making the best of what you have quickly, but this is not a quick fix situation.
I am giving myself 10 months to get rid of the 66 pounds -chin and all.
6.6 pounds a month is 1.65 pounds a week or there abouts. Easy and healthy!


In future posts I will talk about healthy eating - post updates of my current look and
see how we go from there!   

This is not a flattering picture at all and that is the intention - it's me after a 12 hour shift -post shower in my new XL nightie that doesn't fit because I am so fat. (5th Sept 2013)

This is me 66 pounds lighter before leaving for Guernsey 5 years ago....

So not so much off with her head, but off with her chins!