Februarys Health and Fitness Roundup

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This is the second instalment of my monthly Health and Fitness updates, check out the first one here which explains a bit more as to why these posts will be popping up regularly! I was hoping to post this last week but I’ve been a bit AWOL from blog land. However lots of good and exciting things are a foot which I shall explain about soon, so ear with me, I will be blogging regularly again soon! Promise!

 

I’ve been really hesitant about writing this post as I had a pretty bad month in February. I had bronchitis for the first 3 weeks of the month, which was awful, I was making it to work then just coming home and crashing. It completely wiped me out. It also meant I was massively craving comfort foods, so pretty much lived off toast for the month. Then I finally start to feel human again but the last week of the month became stress central at work, so my exercise improved but my diet was still pretty lethal. I am a massive comfort eater!

 

Unsurprisingly I ended up putting 2lbs on which has got me down as January was such a positive month. So although I was undecided about writing this post, the idea of this series is to document my fitness journey, the good, the bad and the ugly and most importantly keep myself motivated.

 

So the question now is what am I going to do to get back on track? Well I’ve took the bull by the horns and signed up for ‘Run to the Beat’ which is a 10k run in London in September. I currently can’t run to the end of my road without hyperventilating but it’s on my ’30 before 30’ list and I really want to achieve it. I also work so much better when I have something I’m aiming towards. I’ve enlisted the help of one of the coaches from boot camp who’s also a personal trainer. He is going to set up a training plan for which I’m excited to start. We’ve already set my 6 week goal as being able to run 2 miles!! It may not seem like much but it’s like a marathon in my world! Eeeek!

 

I am also back doing my fitness camp sessions 3 times a week and rowing on Saturdays. It feels really good to be exercising again!

 

Exercise done in February ...

Boot camp x 5 sessions

Rowing x2 sessions (3 hours)

 

Progress this month...

Chest:   -1”

Hips:  +0.5”

Thighs:   left +1” Right -0”

Bottom: -0”

Arms:  Left -0.5” Right -0.5”

Waist: -0”

Weight loss this month: +2lb

Total Weight loss: 5lb

 

Disappointing results for February but I think I need to accept that I am going to have times where I am ill and there’s nothing I can do about it. It just makes me more determined to achieve my goals and work hard!

Treat your hair, treat yourself

Todays post is a GUEST POST!! I am so excited about this, I haven’t had a guest poster on ‘Lipstick and Lashes’ for a good 10 months. I have quite enjoyed having it as my own little space but I also love collaborating with other writers and spicing things up abit around here. When the gorgeous Nika emailed me asking if she could guest post, then made me giggle by sending this buzzfeed article entitled ‘If Disney Princesses had Wet Hair’ I was sold on the idea!....

Women often see their hair as a reflection of their identity because it represents them in public. For many women a bad hair day equals a bad day: when a woman's hair is too fine, too frizzy, too dry, turning grey or falling out, her self-esteem is affected. Is every day a bad hair day for you? Then it’s time to do something about that.

Rapunzel, let your hair down! (Image source flickr.com)

How to take care of your hair?

The first step on that road is to dedicate some time to your precious hair, and take god care for her. When you are drying your hair, make sure that you don’t use the hottest setting on your hairdryer especially if you're pairing it with another hot tool, like a flat iron. Taking care of longer tresses requires frequent trims (every six to eight weeks) and conditioning the ends every other day to prevent dry out. As for brushing your hair, it’s better to choose a natural hair brush, because it’s less damaging. Your hair is its most fragile when wet, so avoid excessive brushing or combing until it's most dry.

Do not flat iron on a daily basis. (Image source flickr.com)

Hair products

It is very important to choose hair product that matches your hair type. As for shampoos, no matter what your hair type is, you should try using shampoos that do not contain sulfates or parabens. Curly hair probably needs frizz-minimizing and softening shampoo. Straight or oily hair needs a gentle shampoo designed for daily washing. For colored or treated hair use a shampoo that's fortified with extracts or amino acids, because treating your hair is essentially damaging it. Dry hair probably needs shampoos with glycerin and collagen to help restore moisture into the hair. It is the same principle when you are choosing a conditioner. For full recovery of your hair you can try products with Moroccan oil. It softens hair, helps hide split ends, and adds shine. Basically, it's a miracle product, especially if you have dry, coarse, or damaged hair.

DIY hair care

If you think hair care is expensive and not everyone can afford that, guess again! There are some great hair care products in your own kitchen. DIY hair masks are becoming even more popular, because they are healthy and contain only natural ingredients. A true hair care miracle is a raw egg, and it works with all hair types. You can combine it with yogurt, olive oil or honey. Dairy products also work great for dull hair, they give shine and softness to your hair. A lemon juice and olive oil mixture will moisturize skin on your head. To add body to hair, reach for an unlikely beauty beverage: beer!

Your friend can be your hairdresser too (Image source flickr.com)

Hair diet

Healthy diet is an important factor for healthy hair. To have stronger hair, consume eggs, milk and dairy products, fish, nuts, carrots, dark-leaf vegetables, legumes and grains. Also, make sure you intake minerals and vitamins.

There is no excuse for neglecting your hair, especially when it’s so easy to take good care of it. Beautiful and shiny hair always leaves good impression, which is why proper hair care is important.

 

- You can find Nika on twitter here, and I can’t wait for her to start her own blog!

Motivational Monday // March

I was originally going to write this as a separate post along the lines of ‘when life gets in the way’ or ‘struggling send help’ but then I stopped and reminded myself that I write these motivational Mondays to keep me thinking positively and looking at the good rather than the bad.

You may or may not have noticed that I have been a little AWOL lately, February has been pretty pants if I’m honest. I spent the first 3 months feeling horrendously ill with bronchitis, I did manage to go to work but all free time was spent in bed sleeping. Then the last week of February, I have had a nightmare with work so all my time and energy has been spent dealing with that. My healthy diet and exercise went out the window and blogging was pretty much a non starter. I was unable to promote The Bloggers Snail Mail project as much as I usually would, so this round is super quiet compared to previous rounds and my emails are stacking up and all are unanswered. This has made me feel so sad and fed up. I’m usually pretty on the ball but all this has made me loose motivation.

So I have decided this is a new month and it’s going to a good one! Yesterday I booked my flight to Australia, I am going for a month in November as a good friend of mine is getting married. I also signed up for a 10k run in September to get me back on track with my fitness goals. And do you know what, I have started to feel good again! Positivity spreads positivity and sometimes you need to fight to regain control of everything around you.

I have decided to challenge myself to write a blog post a day this week, I won’t post everyday but will schedule some for next week as well as this one. I want to get back into blogging, as I hate leaving this little space on the interweb unattended, it feels like I’m neglecting a child!

I also going to look for the good in everything, I once read if you can think of 3 things every day that you are grateful for, it will help you to train your brain to be more positive. There are so many blessings in life, sometimes we just need to look a little harder for them.

Happy Monday!

Wish List // Victoria's Dress

I feel ridiculously old now, my prom was 13 years ago! In my day job I’ve come across a lot of young people who are planning their proms and a big thing is the dress. When I had my prom, firstly proms weren’t such a big thing back then and secondly I really didn’t like school so I did go to my prom but made very little effort! I had my hair all pinned back, did makeup myself and worse a very plain purple dress. I don’t even have a photo to share with you all! I was also a bit of a tom boy back then so getting dressed up was a pain in the back side!

However nowadays it’s a different story, I wish as an adult I had some fun balls or proms to get dressed up for as I am seriously suffering from a lot of dress lusting lately... I don’t think being laid up for 3 weeks with bronchitis has helped, it’s given me a lot of time to mooch at pretty dresses on my ipad whilst tucked up in bed!

I recently came across the website ‘Victoria’s Dress’ which is full of beautiful wedding dresses, evening dresses and prom dresses (A lot of which happen to be on sale right now!). I am seriously swooning right now!

Peach Tulle Dress / Mint Green Tulle Dress / Cobalt Blue Sweetheart Dress / Yellow Chiffon Dress / Pink Chiffon Dress / Short Baby Blue Dress

Above are a few of my favourite dresses from their website, the yellow one reminds me of belle from beauty and the beast, best Disney movie ever. The cobalt blue dress is just stunning and screams class at me, and the skirt on the peach one is just way too pretty. My ultimate favourite one has to be the mint green dress, I love the pastel shade, the gorgeous skirt and the beautiful embellished top. To me it’s the perfect mix of modern vintage, is that a thing?! It’s definitely my dream dress! 

Now would anyone like to invite me to something where I can swan around in one of these beauties?!

Overcoming Anxiety

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I’ve never shared this on here before but a few months ago I was diagnosed with anxiety. My mum was really ill in hospital at the time and I wasn’t coping very well. I ended up having a massive panic attack at a friend’s party. I’d never had one before and it was the weirdest feeling. It felt like my heart sped up out of nowhere and I just could not grasp any breath. It was after that, that I decided to visit my doctor and received my diagnosis.

I wasn’t sure what to think when he first said the word anxiety. I had heard it thrown a lot at the time and felt it was a bit of a dramatic trend for young people. How dumb was I. looking back I think I’ve suffered from it for quite a while. I don’t think anxiety is necessarily a bad thing, a certain level of it is really good for us. It’s what spurs on our adrenaline and keeps us going. It’s not healthy though when it inhibits your life and prevents you from being yourself and being able to get on with daily tasks. This is how it got for me, I lost motivation, I felt empty and I just didn’t feel like myself. I’ve been on medication for a while, which has really helped, but I’ve tried a few other ways to try and help reduce my level of anxiety and have found them to really work. I am definitely by no means a medical expert and anxiety affects everyone so differently, but I thought I would share what helps me in case it may be useful for someone else…

Delete Facebook off your phone – I’m a serial Facebook snooper, I can spend hours mindlessly browsing through Facebook, but I know I’m not the only one! Let’s be honest though, all you’re really doing is wasting time, catching up on gossip and comparing your like to everyone else’s highlight reel. How does any of that make you feel good? It doesn’t, so delete it! I now go on Facebook once a week, check my notifications and that’s it. I feel so much better for it and am learning to use my time more wisely.

Cut out caffeine – I was a complete coffee whore! No joke, I would have 2 cups of coffee before I left for work, about 3 in the first hour there and then at one an hour for the rest of the day. Looking back that’s insane! I would spend my whole day wired and then stupidly wondered why I couldn’t sleep at night! I feel so much better for giving it up, I’ve replaced it with fruit teas and a chamomile tea before bed. I am much calmer, I’m not spending my whole day feeling tired and I’m sleeping much better.

Get Creative! – I find getting crafty and making things very therapeutic. As well as making jewellery for my shop ‘Pearl Divine’, I’ve started joining in with craft swaps and I’ve also recently come across adult colouring books which are ace! I think it allows your mind to focus on something and I always feel great when I’ve completed something.

Talk to People – I’ve barely told anybody about my anxiety but I have spoken to three of my close friends about it. I regularly check in with them and they have been amazingly supportive. It feels good to talk and get it off my chest.

Improve your sleep routine – I used to average about 5 hours of sleep a night. I would stay up ridiculously late every night, making no allowance for getting up early. I now try for 8 hours of sleep a night even if that means forcing myself to go to bed! Life is so much clearer after a good night’s sleep!

Exercise – go for a walk, run or cycle – get moving, head to an exercise class, whatever suits you just do it! Get those endorphins pumping and you will feel so much better for it.

I still have good days and bad days with my anxiety but I am feeling more in control of it now. I guess the moral if this post, the one thing I’d like people to take from it is to make sure you take the time to switch off and look after yourself.

Chemist Direct Haul

I haven’t done a good old haul post in forever! I haven’t had a massive shopping blow out in ages, don’t get me wrong I still am a shopaholic but my spending has been a little here and there rather than one big haul!

So when Chemist Direct recently got in touch and offered me £50 to go mad and purchase whatever I would like in their online store, I got ridiculously excited! They have a huge range of beauty, hair, body and health products at pretty bargainous prices. I spent an evening browsing the site and ended up with £569.75 worth of items in my shopping bag. Whoops! I ended up going on a bit of a cull and getting it down to £60.50 with postage and packaging.

So here is what made the cut...

Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula Natural Bronze Tanning Lotion – I love the smell of this stuff and I don’t know about everyone else but I’m feeling ridiculously pale and pasty this winter so anything that will add a hint if colour is a must for me right now!

Bare Minerals Nude Beach Glimmer Eye shadow – I have used this shadow before and recently ran out. It’s such a pretty shade, I may do a separate review on this at some point.

Garnier All in One Skin Perfector BB Blemish Balm in Medium – lately I have been using BB creams instead of foundation, I find it a lot lighter on my skin and can’t wait to give this one a whirl!

Carmen Copper Curling Tongs – I’ve recently had 3 inches chopped off my locks so it now rests on my collar bone. I really like the messy hair look, you know that tousled beachy hair style, and I’m hoping these curling tongs will help me achieve that!

Beckhams Signature for Her 75ml EDT Spray – this could have gone terribly wrong as I had never smelt this scent before, but I wanted a new perfume so I thought id risk it! Cue, sigh of relief when it arrived and smelt lovely! I’m not sure this scent would be for everyone as it’s quite a musky manly one but I quite like that about it!

OPI Muppets Most Wanted Gaining Mole-Mentum Nail Lacquer – such a pretty colour!

Inecto Pure Coconut Oil Conditioner 6 pack – err yeah, 6 whole bottles, I know that seems a little excessive bit I find coconut conditions work wonders on the dry ends of my locks!

Have you tried any of these products?

Valentines Day: My One True Love in Life

Happy Valentine’s Day you beautiful people! I hope you are all feeling happy and loved whether your single, married, engaged or whatever!

As today is the day that’s hallmark stamped for love, gooeyness, hearts and flowers I thought I would dedicate today’s post to my one true love. Nope, fear not I have not gone crazy and met a boy or my dream man Chris Hemsworth in the last few days and declared my undying love. Nope, I am talking about my bed. Yes my bed, you read that right, I have to say it was a close call between my bed and peanut M&M’s (yum yum!) but my bed won out!

It’s my favourite place on earth, especially during these cold winter months. It is ridiculously comfy and cosy. I think my love for it has expanded lately with the recent present of an electric blanket. I don’t care if this makes me sound insanely old but it really is the best invention ever! I can’t believe I’ve never had one before.

So because of said electric blanket I now have a quilted mattress protector underneath it which just adds to the comfy factor. I then have a duvet and multiple blankets thrown on top... I can’t explain how good it is!

Oooh and to top it all off? The joys of being single means it IS ALL MINE! I can sleep in the middle and starfish and I don’t have to share it with anyone else!

Screw you valentine’s day!