I wanted to get some suntan lotion that was recommended to me by a coworker and a friend (Friend = aka JXMoyle) so I bought myself some suntan lotion and after sun lotion by the brand Piz Buin (Half price at Superdrug at the moment. Note: 13th July, 2013).
This is their Tan Intensifying range!
I've never tried it before till today.
(If you'd like me to do a review, let me know in the comments
If you any of you live in the Uk, you know that our summer's are very few and far between and even when we do get some sunshine, it's very short lived. So when the sun does come out, us Brits like to enjoy the sunshine as much as we can!
(Pretty much, every Brit if possible will get outside and lay out in the sun,
it becomes a sea of bodies!)
However this year, we are so far blessed with sunshine on a number of days which has been real nice. I'm just hoping it keeps going for another month - at least!
My friend JXMoyle and I after we got our essentials (for me, the Piz Buin tan lotion and after sun lotion, and for JXMoyle her hairclips), we went out of the mall and enjoyed the sunshine as much as possible!
Here are a couple of pictures of my day!
JXMoyle & I (FX on PicFX app and uploaded onto Instagram @MissNathalie)
Edited on Instacollage on iPhone
Our legs were rather red. I said we were 'Lobsters' since that's what I was called at work! Apparently I was doing a "Lobster impersonation" the last time I got burned.
Thanks Jemma!
Of course as the evening progressed, so did the redness in our skin! Ouch.
There was also a lot of people passing through for the Wireless festival which I heard was featuring Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake. Gutted I wasn't able to go!
JXMoyle and I did a spot of shopping after being outside for so long, I ended up getting a couple of things but also, I ended up trying things on for fun! Here's a photo below of what I tried on at Hollister. Nothing that flattered my figure, which was a shame as some of their shorts did look pretty cute and was on sale.
I wouldn't wear these two items together of course, but just thought I'd take a photo of the skirt as I did think it was pretty but I'm not really a skirt kind of gal.
The top is on sale at the moment at the store, but the skirt is full price, both from Hollister. One thing I've always wondered though, why is it so dark in these stores?
If you are in the Uk, I hope you're enjoying the sunshine while you can!
We all know summer has a short lifespan!
I'll be doing a mini haul video at some point this week.
I thought I would write a blog post about health and weight. It's something I have struggled with for a majority of my life if we want to make it all specific.
When I was younger through to my early teens, I was active. An by active, I mean I did anything and everything my dad would allow me to do hobbies wise. I did judo, karate, kung fu, swimming, tennis, dancing and exercising pretty much everyday.
Now here's the part where I tell you what stopped me... Because all those things I did, I loved it thoroughly and never wanted to stop any of them! They made me happy!
When I was about 13 years old, I got diagnosed with a thyroid condition and I had graves disease. Sounds terrible but in essence, it wasn't as 'icky' as it sounds. Graves disease I believe is the part that refers to the increased heartbeat and to the muscles around the eyes.
My thyroid condition was duo'd with Graves disease so my eyes got affected too. This can cause the eyes to protrude which is not a pretty look (exophthalmos). And at that age, it really made me feel bad about myself 'image wise'. When we're teenagers we always have our insecurities amplified by our own thoughts driven by our hormones going crazy at that age and our peers.
Hyperthyroidism made me feel extremely tired. I read online it's supposed to make you more energetic but I really wasn't energetic at all. I can't tell you how high my heart rate was at the time as it was a long time ago, but put it this way, even if I was just sitting down I was exhausted like I was working out! So all those activities I used to do, I couldn't do them anymore. None, what-so-ever.
The only thing that I saw that was good (If you can call it that at this point) about this condition was, I was losing the weight with no effort. However, having said that, it didn't out weigh the bad that I had to go through.
I had the condition for at least 5 years and that's considered lucky! My mom had the condition, as well as my brother and my sister. I'm the only one out of 4 of us who got over the condition without needing the Iodine treatment nor operation to remove the glands and I'm not on any permanent medication as the rest of my family are.
So having told you all this... I just wanted to tell you about it to give you an insight and background info on my health... But now, present day, the condition has been gone for 13 years now. I get blood tests once in a while just incase it comes back..
Also I wanted to say that my weight has been very up and down as having that condition truly threw me out of my routine and all the activities I loved. Having said that, I am now able to focus more on my health and weight issues. I am not a big girl, but I'm not at my fittest. An there is the problem for me.
After all my experiences good and bad about trying to lose weight, I'm learning every time how I go about finding a good balance with my body. I know I'm not someone who loves the gym, never was, even way back when I was an active person. I'm now learning that not only do I not enjoy the gym, I also need to do different kinds of exercise now to really kick start my weight loss and get healthy. I've always done crunches and push ups but my body is so used to it as I've been doing it for years so I looked over on YouTube and I found a couple of videos that I thought would be great for me.
Here is 1 of the videos I tried out today for the first time and man did it kick my butt!
It's only 20 minutes so it really isn't much time at all and it truly did work out my arms and I really did break a sweat!! I bought myself some dumbbells from Sports Direct (2.5kg) and they were on sale 50% off (£11.99 previously and now £5.99 each).
I also saw this video...
I've always been interested in workouts that incorporate movement that also tone your body. It saves you time from having to do crunches etc and workouts like these usually have you moving in ways that tone your stomach anyway! 2 in 1! *Bingo!* This workout is only 10 minutes! This video is of Tony Horton doing a 10 minute workout with the girls at PopSugarTVFit.
I'll be trying this one out tomorrow or Saturday!
The thing that I love about these workouts is that they are short. Combined they are 30mins, however, I'm not even starting out with that. I'm going easy, taking my stride. Any exercise is better than doing nothing at all! That's how I like to see it. If you workout once a week, then once a week is good enough for a little while, then increase it to 2, or if you want to keep it at once, just make the 1 workout you have that week more intense. Make the duration longer. Eg. Combine the 2 videos as an example instead of doing 1 on different weeks/days.
The important thing is to really give yourself realistic goals. Don't over do it when you know for a fact you won't be able to do it or stick to it. Here's a little tip as well to get you started on getting yourself fitter, instead of taking escalators, if you have the energy and had a good nights sleep, take the stairs (unless it's about 50 floors ha), also doing just 10 minutes of exercise once a week is good too. You'll see a difference eventually. "Slow and steady wins the race!"
Summary/Remember this/Mental note worthy:
* Give yourself realistic goals!
* Aim for doing a proper 10min workout once a week!
* Change up your exercise. (Remember, your body gets used to doing the same thing over and over again that eventually it doesn't do anything for you anymore.)
* Take the stairs not the escalators!
* Don't eat too late at night (but if you really need to, drink some water first and wait a few minutes and question yourself again if you're still hungry and if you are, make smart healthy choices - fruit!)
* Get a good nights sleep so you aren't reaching for food to get energy!
* Pamper yourself and treat yourself when you've reached your goals.
* Don't lose the weight to "look good", lose the weight to "feel good".
* Don't deny yourself "bad foods" cold turkey - unless you can do it! (On weekends having a cake or something sweet isn't a terrible thing. You'll crave it less and stop the binge eating and no flood of overeating bad foods will happen!)
* Be realistic!
* Stay focused when working out.
"The beauty about gaining weight is that you can lose it - again!"
Just as you gained the weight, you can also lose it too.
I will write a post about how much weight I had gained at one point in my life. Like I said, I'm not the fittest person and I've gained some weight these past few months, however, when I remember that one point in my life when I was at my biggest, it makes me feel proud of the size I am now as it's no where near the same size I used to be. So as much as my weight isn't ideal right now, it's a whole lot better. Besides, losing weight takes time and when you aren't given guidance or advice, it just takes a bit longer. Just keep at it and you will get there!
Until next time ~ Allie
PS: Sorry this post was so long but I had so much to mention, and I have so much support I wanted to throw out there! Because I know how hard it is to lose weight... An when you haven't got the support, it's even harder!
