Some say two heads are better than one but frankly this isn't the case for chins. Some people don't seem to get a double chin even when they put on weight. I on the other hand like to think I'm slim and yet if I put on a little bit of weight I get a double chin. You may have a spare tyre in your car but having a extra chin to spare doesn't exactly do a lot for your confidence. For me it's just one of the places I put on weight. I'm always hips and chins! Some people put on weight around the belly or bum, but for me I tend to just get wider first followed by an extra chin if I don't keep my weight controlled. It quite frankly sucks! You can hide body imperfections with the right wardrobe but let's be honest there isn't a lot you can do to hide a double chin! There is however exercises you can do and obviously we all know staying a healthy weight will help too.
The tags on facebook. Don't you just love it when people do that....
Here's my everyday chin workout:
When I moisturise I make sure to pay special attention to the neck, taking the moisturiser in an upwards and outwards direction either side of the neck and chin. Taking the moisturiser from the bottom of my neck and pulling it upwards my chin and outwards to the lymph nodes (going either side of the ears).
Lift you tongue to the roof of your mouth (so you chin sticks out) and hold for about 5 seconds. Repeat x3.
Gentle finger taps under the chin area whilst pulling your head back.
Here are some more exercises to help which I found on Youtube:
This post should of perhaps been my very 1st post since this blog is all about me sharing my journey and reaching my goals. I mentioned when I gave advice on a previous post about setting goals that I'd share my own goals but since then I've been wimping out. Quite simply because of fear. What if I share what my goals are and then I fail to achieve them? It wouldn't exactly be very inspiring. However whilst trying to decide how to get out of doing this post after already saying I'd share my goals as well as how I planned to achieve them I realised that firstly by putting my goals out there it would motivate me to achieve (as I'd of annouced to the world what I was doing and so was no way of going back or getting out of it), but more importantly that if I reached my goals I'd be able to share how I did it and if I didn't I'd be able to share my mistakes. I've decided that if I get it wrong I'm just going to own up and tell you. I've be fightened to do this being an instructor encase people think well I'm not going to her class, she can't even achieve her own goals nevermind help me with mine. I then decided I may be an instructor, but you don't become a great driver as soon as you've passed your test or expert in parenthood as soon as your child is born. Everything in life needs to be experienced before you can truly relate to someone. So I've decided that I will become the best instructor by sharing and succeeding in my own goals rather than preaching about what you should be doing when in all honesty I'm still learning what fully works for me. I can share how I've lost weight and got into shape but I can't share how I reached all my goals as I haven't yet. I really want to be an expert in getting mums the results they really want. So here is my goals below and I'll be sharing with you the highs, lows, failures, successes and mistakes made along the way in trying to achieve them!
My goals:
*To have the confident to have a photoshoot and one day rather than share other peoples motivation posters I'll start my own. Cringey I know!
*To have the confident to start work-out videos and sessions via skype.
*To have a perk bum free from cellulite ;-)
*Definition in lower stomach and arms.
*Eat clean 80% of the time and learn new recipes.
*Become stronger and fitter.
Now you know my goals I'll keep you updated on how I'm doing. Wish me luck x
I recently wrote a blog about setting goals and making a plan for results. In this I talked about setting yourself challenges. However whenever you set yourself a challenge or are following a new exercise regime or perhaps a diet it will only work if you see it through.
Last night after doing a week without sugar treats I was really struggling - in the evenings it really gets to me. I posted on my facebook page "Can I keep it up?" and one person replied "yes you can" and we ended up talking about how they were struggling too and how they'd had a bad evening and ended up eating lots of naughty treats. We shared tips with each other and it made me realise I'm not alone and to come up with a new plan. Introducing 'The dealing with frustration and cravings plan', which I'll go to whenever I'm struggling.
These are my 25 top tips:
1) Share you struggle. Post in on your facebook status, twitter or start a blog journey like me. Or start a group on facebook with friends that are working on goals too. Sometimes all it takes is someone saying you can do it. Or simply check in with me - leave a comment on the fanpage or tweet me.
2) Take photos! You may dislike them but let that fuel you. Don't avoid taking them because you dislike what you see - let the photo drive you. Nobody has to see it. Take a picture of yourself in your underwear in the mirror so you don't have to ask anyone to do it (if you don't wish too) and every 4 weeks take another. Let the photo from the previous month motivate you for the next month.
3) Put that photo in your purse! Whenever your out and nearly go to buy a treat open up your purse and remind yourself that for every treat like that = the photo won't change.
4) Visual aids. Get two plastic clear cups so you can see through them and watch your progress. Count in pennies (or whatever you wish) the amount of lbs or inches you wish to lose (depending on which way your measuring your progress). Then write on one 'lbs/inches lost' and on other 'lbs/inches to go'. Then place the pennies in the 'lbs/inches to go' and as you get closer to your target watch the 'lbs/inches lost' fill up. Place in your kitchen to remind yourself to keep going.
5) Don't weigh, re-take photos or measure yourself without a good gap. Re-do these things every month, it takes approximately 4 weeks for you to notice a change so don't allow the scales to mislead and depress you. Restrain yourself!
6) Give yourself enough time!
7) Start a diary/food logger. Sometimes we don't realise how much we are eating until we write it down. Begin keeping a journal of everything you eat and drink and ensure you control your portions sizes, but are eating enough to keep burning calories. Your body will store fat if you don't feed it with enough good nutrients.
8) Check you are in fact being healthy! Sometimes we think we are eating healthy because of the way food has been marketed or because of the media. Don't assume anything. Google what your eating and check it supports your goal. You might be surprised.
9) Find some inspiration! There are so many motivational posters and success stories online. Google 'Inspirational' images. Put the story or photo that sticks out for you on your fridge!
10) Buy some health magazines and books. Knowledge is key! Some have great tips and it can be really motivating reading other peoples success stories.
11) Remember one defeat isn't DEFEAT. It ain't over till you say. Forgive yourself and move on.
12) Remind yourself why the foods you are giving up are bad for you.
You'll never look like this with junk food!
13) The little things count. Whilst reading this are you drinking water? Is your tummy pulled in and your shoulders back. Do it now :-)
14) Remember you are the only person that can nourish your body. Treat your body, not your mind. Your body isn't craving bad foods but will pay the consequences. Reward your body, don't punish it.
15) Think you can't lose much weight doing short exercise busts? Think again. Doing short intense work-outs will burn a heck more than choosing to do nothing. 20 minutes WILL and CAN make the difference!
Effective but only 4 minutes long :-)
16) Be honest with yourself. If you want it enough you won't quit. Ask yourself 'Do I really want it? How bad do I want it?
17) Keep busy and if it's late on an evening and your considering eating naughty food then just go to bed. Plenty of sleep will only help your results.
18) If you do decide you can't hack it and do indulge then make sure you earn it! Pick an exercise you find really challenging and do 50 reps before allowing yourself to binge. Do warm up and cool down though.
19) Rather than focusing on weight-loss or creating a more defined you focus on becoming a FITspiration. The fitter you are the better you feel and the more likely you are to succeed.
20) Prepare yourself! It will take time, it will suck, it will hurt and it will be emotional, but look at those people who've made it and I doubt you'll find one that will say it wasn't worth it. Expect it to be hard work and suck it up. Be determined. Find a way to stop letting money, time, motivation, stress, depression and so on stop you achieving. Fight for it. Earn it and own it. It's yours for the taking but you can't wish for it you need to work for it.
21) Say 'No' with pride! People will challenge you and try to tempt you. Be proud of what your doing and tell them LOUD AND PROUD 'No thank you'! and when they say 'Surely you can have one' you say 'Yes I can but no thanks, I'm not on a diet you see but I care enough about my body to not load it with junk'! Think about it....they probably don't really care if you succeed or not as they don't feel about you and your body the way you do. They may not feel you need it, but your doing it for YOU not them. Practice saying 'No thank you'!
22) Don't become fixated and worried about everything you eat. Enjoy the learning process. Trial and error wins the race. It doesn't matter if you don't get it quite right, in fact getting it wrong means you'll succeed because you've learnt from it. Don't beat yourself up and don't obsess over everything you eat.
23) Get friends on board. Meet up once a week to share how your doing, start a joggers group. Join classes together. Walk the kids to school together. Off load your frustration and listen to theirs. You'll soon see your not alone.
24) Treat yourself after the small successes. Those small successes all add up and are helping you on your way. Acknowlege the achievements and stop only focusing on the slip ups. Reward yourself after the little successes even if it's just with a file and polish.
We all know too much sugar in our diet is bad for the waistline and our health, but really how much sugar is in some of the most common treats we might choose to eat.
Well let's take a look. Information from Sugarstacks.com
McDonald's Chocolate Shake21 oz (medium) shakeSugars, total: 111g
Calories, total: 770
Calories from sugar: 444
Nutrigrain Cereal Bar, Strawberry1 Bar (37g)Sugars, total: 13g
Calories, total: 140
Calories from sugar: 52
* You'll notice that if you do the math on
many of these, the total caloric value
is lower than the calories that should be
in the sugar alone, if sugar has 4 calories
per gram. We don't know if they used
"low calorie" sugar; we just used the data
on the nutrition label, and assumed that
sugar accounted for 100% of the calories.
This was common for beverages but not
other products.
Firstly never set a goal to lose weight. Yes you may want this and it's fine to follow a programme to do this, but don't let this be your main goal....trust me! Real weight-loss and not just a quick fix, but something you wish to maintain takes time, but if you focus on being healthy the rest will naturally follow! Of course you can lose weight really quickly following the right diet and exercise regime but if once it's completed you put it all back on it's pointless.
Your 1st goal should always be to re-educate yourself. Knowing how to read food labels, which foods will keep you feeling fuller for longer and so on will make you much more likely to succeed permanently.
Now set specific goals that are achievable but will help your individual needs for e.g if you struggle to stay off the sweet treats then your goal would be to research and learn some healthy sweet recipes that you enjoy.
One of my goals is to try something new every week. The reason for this is I'm really fussy however I know it's important to eat a variety of foods for results and health. Making this a perfect goal for me which allows me to slowly increase my palette of food which eventually will make it easier for me to eat healthy which equals a fitter me. Happy days!
Write a list of your weaknesses and set yourself a challenge based on where you struggle.
My goals are to tone up my rear and get some definition in my arms and lower stomach. I'll be posting soon how I plan to do this with setting specific goals to help me succeed.
Yes this is a bit of an embarrassing one but it's true. I find as soon as I meet someone I'm checking out their eyebrows. It's probably the first thing I do. I blame this on the fact that previous to becoming an aerobics instructor and before becoming a mum I was a Health and Beauty manager in a salon in Newcastle. In this job I started of as a therapist and within 3 months was the manager. This role meant I always had to take good care of my appearance - and a therapist with bad eyebrows is never good.
My own eyebrows are actually pretty appalling at the moment as I'm temporary out of the area where I have my brows threaded. I won't just have anyone work on my brows and always go to Asha from Coco Rose. I find many therapists take too much off and eyebrows one hair thick is never a good luck! Good eyebrows bring out your eyes and for many people their eyes are their best feature, just by having well groomed eyebrows I believe you can instantly look more beautiful.
If you have eyebrows that are quite thick or need reshaping I'd highly recommend threading as the definition in shape is so much more than waxing or tweezing in my opinion. If your eyebrows aren't as thick then obviously there isn't as much to play with so you won't get as much definition.
My tips for perfect brows:
1) If your eyebrows are quite thin or totally out of shape try growing them in for a while - so you can get a better re-shape! For me this is a killer letting them frankly become a bit bushy, but if you can resist it will be worth it for a really good shape. The exception to this rule is you must pluck in the middle - monobrows are never cool!
2) If your brows are fine then get them tinted. There is no point having beautiful shaped brows if you can't see them.
3) If you decide to do a re-shape yourself make sure you measure where you should be removing the hairs and don't over do it. See photo below.
A) Get a ruler or something with a straight edge and from the edge of your nose hold it straight up. This is where your eyebrows should start.
B) Place the ruler in the same place again but now letting it cross the outside of the pupil. This is where you should have an arch. The brow between A and B should be about pencil width.
C) Starting back in the same position measure to where you eye ends. This is the minimum length you want your eyebrows to be.
Extra tips: *Don't pluck when your on your period as you skin is more sensitive.
*Always pluck in the direction your hair grows.
*Pluck after a hot shower when your pores are more open.
*Never pluck long hairs as these give your brows shape.
*For unruly hairs comb down with little bit of vaseline and finally make sure to check in the mirror from a distance during plucking to ensure brows stay even .
I get it
all the time you don't need eat healthy your already skinny. Or you
can get away with eating all that as your slim and so fourth. Yes I
believe in eating well and yes I also think it's fine to sometimes
just enjoy what you want in moderation. However I'm also like
everyone else and struggle sometimes to eat healthy, whether it's
because of lack of motivation, stress, money, time or simply I just
fancy having junk and loads of it. I'm only human and bad food tastes
for a reason. The funny thing is about all these statements though is
simply well I'm slim because yes sometimes I do fall of the healthy
eating wagon but generally I'm always trying to stay on it. I mean if
every time someone said to me go on you can get away with eating that
then believe me I wouldn't be the size I am now. I work ridiculously
hard on trying to eat healthy because quite frankly I'm fussy and it
doesn't come natural to me. I'm working on the terrible habit I have
of eating for pleasure instead of for fuel.
I don't
think they is anything wrong with letting your hair down sometimes
and not worrying about what you put in your mouth. I believe it's
just as unhealthy to become fixated on only eating real foods whilst
it would be great if we all did this it's not very realistic and
worrying about it is certainly defeating the object of living a
healthy lifestyle. Most nutritionists say aim for 80% being good and
don't worry the rest of the time too much.
So I've
kept just over 2 stone off now for 2 years now but since I struggle
with healthy eating how have I done it?
Here are
my top 5 tips:
1)I'm
always prepared for a bad day. Now I don't mean I have some amazing
back-up plan for when things go wrong on how I'm going to fight the
demons saying what the hell eat me when things are going wrong, to
be quite frank I'm pretty poor at this (although great compared to
how I use to be) know what I mean is if I've had a bad day I except
it and move on. Sometimes it's sooooo incredibly easy to feel sorry
for yourself when you've had a bad day and eaten terribly and think
what's the point. When in actual fact you've just had a slip up and
tomorrow is a fresh start to get it right. A bad day is fine not
ideal but fine. A life of bad eating isn't fine. Start over and
believe me you will see less and less of these bad days as healthy
eating starts to become a habit. I know this as I get better and
better all the time.
2)Focus
on small gradual changes. I always had 2 sugars in my tea and I
gradually over six months I cut down to none. Yes six months is a
long time to break a habit but it's better 6 months to quit and it
being permanent than a quick fix that doesn't last. I went from 2
sugars to 1¾ waited till my taste buds adapted and then 1½ and
down ½ teaspoon a time until my taste buds weren't bothered. Now
two years later and I'm still without sugar in my tea, in fact the
thought of 2 sugars makes me feel sick, YUCK!
3)Don't
waste your treats on drinks! I love food so if I want to have
something naughty and keep it in moderation then I have to knock
drinks on the head. Anyone who read my very first blog will know I was very badly addicted to fizzy drinks. Even if a drink is low or
zero calories think about what nutritional value if has, if it
doesn't then it's likely to be having a negative effect on you and
stopping you from succeeding in your goals.
4)Be
honest about what you can't eat in moderation. For me it's sweets so
I gave them up completely about 4 months ago. I simply cannot have
one. If I do I immediately want more and before I know it the whole
packet has gone (no matter how big the packet is). So now I don't
buy them. If I need something a little sweet I may opt for chocolate
as I can have a few squares and not be fussed. Clearly that's
better than massive bag or sweets! Always focus on what you struggle
to eat in moderation.
5)Have
a glass of water with every meal or snack. It's easy to forget to
drink enough and we all know it aids weigh-loss so get into the
habit or pouring a glass of water with everything you plan to eat.
Make sure to finish it as it will help to fill you up!
Some
people all their life have struggled with their weight and others
like myself got away with eating junk, never touching a vegetable,
drinking excess amounts of alcohol and never having to exercise and
staying skinny. The silly thing is for me I never actually
appreciated at the time that I was pretty perfect and was still
unhappy with the way I looked. I now believe that this is a very
important lesson to learn before going on any health kick......will
you know if you actually look good? If not then really what is the
point if your still unhappy. People lose weight all the time and don't
see it so I think it's important to learn to be contented, but
also I always recommend taking some photographic evidence so you can
visually see your results.
Me on holiday in Tenerife when I was 21 and stupidly thought I needed to lose weight!!
I use to
blame the fact I'm now a mum on why I find it harder to maintain my
size, but actually this is just an excuse that can go on for far too long as to why your not back into shape. For me it was never because I became
a mum but it took me a while to be honest about this. Yes stretch
marks came when I was pregnant but extra weight gain definitely not. I
tried to convince myself it was, but actually I was quite poorly in
pregnancy and lost a stone and eventually at the end put back on
another 3 stone so ended up just 2 stone heavier than what I was
originally. The 1st stone came off more a less as soon as
Peta was born and the extra stone gradually over the first 6 months.
However when Peta was 15 months I was my biggest yet and the blame for my weight was still having a baby, well since I'd already lost that weight once and the
1st stone was nearly all baby and considering her age
well it quite simply was just an excuse to make myself feel better for not taking proper care of myself. It was only when I looked back
on photos of myself at 6 months that I realised this and owned up to the fact I was making
excuses for myself. The reality is you can get away with a lot more when your younger without it visually showing, but it will catch up with you evenually.
Luckily I
was still just classed as having a healthy BMI (a lb
more and I was classed as overweight) but this is about the time I
realised I needed to start appreciating I'm not 19 anymore and
actually I can't live on sh*t without exercise and still be healthy
size. If I continued I would in fact keep putting on weight and
feeling rough from lack of nutrition. This was at this time I starting
improving my fitness and looking at my diet. The first step in succeeding is owning up to any excuses. Do you ever blame time, money
or having a baby for not being in shape? Don't get me wrong I don't
believe in pressuring yourself within a certain time frame to be back
in shape but if like me after a year your still not back where you
want to be it's time to face reality. Yes there are plenty of factors
that make it difficult, nothing in life you really want comes
easy but work hard and evenually you earn your results.
I cannot diet end of. I simply have no willpower for it. I love food, especially junk food and find it so difficult to eat bad food in moderation. So I don't buy it and set myself individual challenges rather than following a specific diet plan that restricts certain foods. I don't agree with restricting yourself something, but everything in moderation. All these diet plans have been set up to make money and don't care if your just losing muscle not fat or if your not getting the required nutrients you need. So to really succeed you need to get the devil out of your body. By this I mean your devil. That one food(s) that you know is really bad for you and if your honest with yourself your most probably addicted too. This is your devil because it's likely making your fat, unhappy and definitely unhealthy. Quite simply you need to tell him or her to pee off!
I had quite a few. The main one for me was fizzy drinks. I went cold turkey about 2 years ago and to this day I haven't had a slip up. I was really addicted to these drinks especially diet coke and would send my hubby out at ridiculous o'clock to get me a can. I drank them everyday and the more I drank them the more I wanted.....yes it may seem crazy but I was a fizzy drink addict! Think about it could you tell me what makes up those fizzy drinks? Basically I was just polluting my body.
If you eat something everyday that you know isn't good for you or you find something difficult to eat in moderation then go cold turkey. If it's just you can't have one packet of crisps and before you know if you've ate 6 bags then just don't have any. Your not restricting yourself to any specific food group then, but just saying no to a bad addiction. After all it's not that tiny mouthful of something naughty occasionally making you fail in your goals it's the food or drink that you eat in excess. Give it up! It will be hard, it may take several attempts, but just from giving up certain addictions you'll be so much closer to succeeding.
