...beauty: New Year, New Eyeshadows!! Make Up Geek Eyeshadow Review and LORAC Serenity dupe...

Two years ago  I started swapping out my traditional make up for talc free, paraben free mineral make up. There were two flaws in my amazing plan: the first being that I had more make up than I thought so rather than replacing items I simply doubled the amount I own, the second being that minerals can be a bit of a palaver to use, especially when travelling, and the pots don't make it easy to really see all the colours I own so I tend to forget what I have and end up sticking to the same colours.

Due to this cosmetic mis-calcuation, when I saw Marlena's video I was definitely not in the market for trying anything new but, somehow, my habitual behaviour saw me clicking on the link and checking out the starter kit.......
Talc free you say?
No Parabens?
No filler?
All in a convenient MAC sized pan at a limited time only reduced price??

SOLD! To the cosmetic compulsive at the back......

While I waited for the shadows to arrive I felt uneasy. I already have too much stuff, what if they're rubbish and I've wasted my money?

Well, they finally arrived last Thursday and I am truly ecstatic to say that I have ZERO regret with my decision!
I have tried all eight shadows and love them all. My favourite colour so far is Glamorous, a BEAUTIFUL golden brown that is a perfect dupe for LORAC's Serenity eyeshadow at about a quarter of the price - amazing!!

One shadow I was a bit concerned about was Purely Naked, I just didn't think I would use it, but it is the perfect nude socket colour for my skin and I am so glad that Marlena included it in the kit.

Click here to see the kit and be sure to check out the rest of the MUG website for some amazing tutorials.

Next up:
- BLOG SALE featuring MAC, Bare Escentuals and Mally beauty!!
- Multiple EOTDs featuring MUG eye shadows!!

Please come back and check them out :)

Thanks for reading xx

Fitness: New Year = New Diet.......

So, if anyone out there is actually reading any of this, you may have noticed that I stopped posting about CAD. There is a reason for this: it stopped working so I started eating crap again.
Apparently, such extreme (in my opinion) dieting does not agree with me mentally or physically so once I'd got the Christmas crapfest out of my system I set about researching/remembering what had worked before.

At the end of 2008 I embarked on a basic healthy eating plan that enabled me to lose weight during a month that contains both my birthday and Christmas. There was no magic bullet, just simple healthy meals three times a day with the option to be a little less controlled on weekends or special occasions, combined with regular exercise in the form of DVDs.

That's it.

Unfortunately, I developed a frozen shoulder at the end of January and the result was a fear of working out in case it happened again (trust me, that is a valid fear it is bloody awful pain) and lots of comfort eating.

The year went downhill from there.


Anyway, I had a bit of a wake up call a couple of weeks ago and just thought "I have to change this now" so I did. I had a bit of a blowout last weekend and on Monday I started again.
This is what I have been doing for the past week:

WORKOUT:
I am re-testing the Body Doctor routine. I used this routine in 2003 and got good results but I was pretty much starving myself at the time so I am interested to see what happens when I eat in a sustainable way.
here is how I used it this week:

MON: Davina Body Buff warm up (10 min), Body Doctor weights routine, Davina Body Buff Cardio + Yoga cool down.

WED:Same warm up, BD(Body Doctor), Davina Body Buff Boxing + cool down.

FRI: Natalie Cassidy Warm Up (10 min), BD, Natalie Cassidy Sweat (15 min) + Punch (15 min), Davina cool down.

I really enjoyed these combinations. BD (as I shall now call it!) requires a 10 minute cardio warm up prior to the weight routine and at least 15 minutes of cardio immediately after it. The book recommends gym cardio machines but I find them deathly boring so I am using my DVDs and I am just as knackered I assure you!

FOOD:
Breakfast: frozen fruit, 2 tbsps Greek yoghurt, 1 tbsp flaked almonds/pumpkin seeds.
This is what I have every day, except Sunday when I have eggs and toast.

Lunches:
-Cous cous made w/ vegetable stock powder, sliced cucumber, 1/2 can butter beans, 1 tbsp cashew nuts.
-Cous cous w/stock, 1/2 avocado, 2 tomatoes, 1/2 can chickpeas.
-Cous cous (plain) 2 tomatoes, 1 can sardines.

The meals with the 1/2 measurements are spread over 2 days and the sardine meal is a once a week thing.

The result? I started the week at 14st 6lbs and as of yesterday I was 14st 3lbs so it is definitely doing something. I've been a bit lax this weekend so I will post the "official" stat tomorrow.

I am really happy with the results so far. There was a huge amount of habit breaking going on and I think I managed pretty well.

If anyone else is in the same boat good luck to us all!! :)

xx