Sunday, February 28, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan Strategy Three: Exercise – part three

“I hate exercise”

Girls often tell me that they hate exercise. I hated exercise too, until I finally gave it a chance. The secret is not to be doing it to get thin but rather for the act of exercise its self. One needs to tune into one’s body when one exercises. Stop repeating to yourself that you hate exercising.

Instead notice your feelings; tired, pain, uncomfortable, bored and keep pushing. See if you can challenge those feelings keep going, focusing on getting plenty of oxygen into the trouble stops. Imagine breathing oxygen into your brain, legs and tummy. Feel the oxygen creating the burn, burning the fat, creating energy. Just when you want to give up, do another five minutes. Then one day (depending on how unfit you are) after fifteen minutes of suffering it all lifts and something magical happens. Your body and breathing go on auto and you feel like you are flying.

You will feel happier because your body is being pumped full of endorphins. Then as the added bonus you will start to look great. But if you do it for the effect, you will give up before you start. You need to get into doing exercise for the sake of the exercise itself.

I know I go on and on about exercise but I cannot help it. More than once I have been very overweight, and I have tried every diet available. I promise you with my heart and thighs; diets make you fat. The only way to stay slim and healthy is by doing regular exercise. Besides I prefer to workout and be able to eat what I fancy with no guilt.


Saturday, February 27, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan Strategy Three: Exercise – part three

Stretching

Stretching does wonderful things to one’s muscles. Other than making them supple, stretching also tones your muscles. The act of stretching is a quiet, slow action, which does wonders for the stress levels. Once you start stretching, notice that it soon becomes something you feel the need to do. Yoga is the ultimate form of stretching since it often incorporates meditation. Meditation and stretching are two excellent ways to fight the effects of stress. Stress makes you ugly and sick. Stretching is very important before and after exercise. Doing it before ensures you do not hurt yourself during your workout. If you stretch afterwards it can help avoid stiffness. Exercise and stretching should be started gradually or you will hurt yourself and have to stop. Which would put a dramatic stop on your beauty plan.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan Strategy Three: Exercise – part two

Feeling strong energised and happy is the best feeling in the world. The human body is a machine, which loves to be used. The more you use it the stronger it gets, the longer it lasts, the happier it is and the better it looks. Exercise is the ultimate drug, offers immediate gratification during exercise with delicious endorphins and then the bonus after effects on your body and mood. You can’t beat it. Exercise is the cheapest and most dramatic of all the strategies to reform your body. It’s just starting that is difficult.



Thursday, February 25, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan Strategy Three: Exercise – part one

A challenge, choose a day you are feeling sluggish, swollen and generally ugly. Look at yourself in the mirror, take careful note of the way you look and how you feel. Go for an hour’s worth of hard exercise. The most strenuous you can manage; push yourself as much as you can. Now go and have a look at yourself in the mirror. Everything will instantly look and feel better.
The biggest difference will be the way you feel. You will feel positive and energised but also oddly relaxed. The harder you push the more the difference. All the oxygen, which has been pumped into your skin, will make it glow. Your muscles will have been filled with blood, so your body will be firmer and smoother. You will be more relaxed, sleep better and become regular. All of which will make you your most beautiful.




Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan Strategy Two: Supplements

Vitamin & detoxifying supplements


Vitamin C allows toxins to be broken down and discarded by the body. So a good vitamin plan would be a good Multivitamin and maybe a little extra Vitamin C. Vitamin B is very good when combating the effects of stress. A natural immune booster will ensure your good health when you are travelling and experiencing stress. Stress places havoc on your skin and hair, a course of vitamins, which are geared towards nourishing hair, and skin can also be a good idea. I also like tonics, which are added to water and help clean out the system. I recommend using only natural supplements and make sure you are not over doing some vitamins like Vitamin D.




Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan Strategy One: DIET– part ten

Metabolism Stimulating Diet

A Word on Dieting Tablets:

Just don’t go there! They make you moody, emotional and in the long run they destroy your metabolism. So one day when you eventually have to stop them or you loose a kidney, you will have no metabolism and have no hope of ever getting to the right weight. Trust me on this; any metabolism stimulating and appetite suppressing drugs bought in the pharmacy are no different to amphetamines they sell in discos around the world. They will not keep you thin since the second you stop taking them you will be hungrier than you have ever been before and with a huge new tendency to put on weight. And if they don’t destroy your body they will make you so irritable that everybody will hate you. Enough said.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan - Strategy One: DIET– part nine

Metabolism Stimulating Diet


If you MUST have chocolate because you are a chocoholic, it’s not a problem. For every one hundred grams of chocolate you need to do one hour of exercise, the sweaty kind. SO you do the maths, personally I am prepared to do three hours a day, everyday. As I have mentioned before it’s just really important to balance what goes in with what goes out. If you fall off the wagon and over do the energy intake time to going dancing all night long.





Sunday, February 21, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan - Strategy One: DIET– part eight

This is going to make me hugely unpopular but you know it’s an emergency girl, so cope. Alcohol. It’s a waste of calories, which need to be dedicated to nurturing your hair and skin. It stops you from exercising the next day, fills your liver with toxins and slows everything down.
You have to because of some party? Stick to spritz’s and champagne. The calories are slightly less than those in hard spirits, beers and liquors. Not to mention that they work faster and better thanks to those bubbles, which means you need to drink less.






Saturday, February 20, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan Strategy One: DIET– part seven

Metabolism Stimulating Diet

Our aim is not to suddenly drop huge amounts of weight but to detoxify, stimulate your metabolism and nourish your body. This will not only improve the way you look, but it will drastically improve your state of mind and energy levels. Instead of focusing on what we are not allowed, we need to focus on adding things to our diet. A good step is to include as many detoxifying and nutritious ingredients possible into your diet. The good news is the more the merrier.

Foods which help you to detoxify your body:

1. Fruits
2. Green Foods
3. Lemons, Oranges & Limes
(Note: start each day with a warm cup of water and lemon juice to clean your liver)
4. Garlic
5. Broccoli Sprouts
6. Green Tea
7. Raw or juiced Vegetables
8. Seeds & Nuts (no butters or salted nuts)
9. Omega-3 Oils

Friday, February 19, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan - Strategy One : DIET– part six

Metabolism Stimulating Diet

It would shock you to know how much weight you would loose just by getting rid of the excess water you are retaining. The number one substance, which aggravates water retention, is sodium. The number one weapon against water retention is water. Flood your body and it lets go of its reserves. But this takes one to two days to kick in. Water retention is also effectively reduced with exercise, saunas, steam rooms and massages. And if you are prone to swelling in general avoid all alcohol for at least three days before your wedding.


Thursday, February 18, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan Strategy One : DIET– part five

Metabolism Stimulating Diet

Then there is the most difficult but most important rule of all; try not to eat after seven (if you go to bed at ten). Most of the weight we put on we do so when we eat and go to bed. The same goes for afternoon naps. If you have a little binge, no need to panic, just go for a long walk. Try to see your body as a machine and try to balance what goes in and out. Eating an hour before exercise is ideal and not napping before a three hour time period has passed since your last meal. If you manage nothing else at all this is guaranteed to help you loose around a kilo in a week.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan - Strategy One : DIET– part four

Metabolism Stimulating Diet


If we have our carbohydrates for breakfast, we need to stock up on proteins during the other two main meals. So lunch and dinner you will eat baked, boiled, steamed or grilled proteins with loads of fresh fruit and vegetables. Proteins are eggs, beans, nuts, meat, fish, chicken and hard cheeses. They are essential for increasing muscle mass. The higher your muscle mass the more fat you burn. A telltale sign of bad dieting is a thin person who is bone and fat with their skin hanging off their body. Proteins are essential for reshaping your body. Limit salt, oils, fats and dairy. Except for low fat live yogurts. Make chicken, fish, tofu, beans or lentils tasty with spices. Eat your fruit first and wait fifteen minutes, this will ensure minimum absorption of fat.


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan - Strategy One : DIET– part three

Metabolism Stimulating Diet


I am not a fan of low carbohydrate diets because they sap your energy levels and can be dangerous for kidney and liver functions. So I recommend having your carbohydrates in the morning for energy and you will have the whole day to burn off the sugar. I highly recommend unrefined cooked oats. They are slow burning carbohydrates and being unrefined they will keep hunger away and stimulate metabolism. This is because your metabolism will have to work hard to digest the unrefined oats. (Note: A helpful hint is always to choose unrefined wholegrain when ever choosing rice, pasta or bread.) Wholegrain rice is a good substitute for the oats. I know it’s not exactly what you imagined for breakfast but this is an emergency plan.



Monday, February 15, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan - Strategy One : DIET- part two

Metabolism Stimulating Diet

Add as much fruit to your diet as you can bear. Even if you like just one kind of fruit, it’s important to give your metabolism a lot to work with. When we starve ourselves we slow down our metabolisms and when we start to eat again the body takes precautions against the famine it has been experiencing. The precautions involve storing everything you eat as fat. So a good trick is to eat a lot of that, which does not make you fat. Good examples are watermelons, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, spinach; basically raw fruit and vegetables. They will fill you up, detoxify you, nourish you, keep your metabolism up, quench you, drench you and the fact you don’t have to limit your intake will help with compulsive eating urges one experiences when dieting.


Sunday, February 14, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan - Strategy One : DIET– part one

Metabolism Stimulating Diet

Say the word diet to me and I instantly get hungry. I am just not one for sacrifice. I prefer to add things than to take them away. I do feel quite an expert in the field of dieting. I have lost and gained more kilograms than I care to share with you. I know drastic diets defeat themselves; they actually make you fat, especially when they starve you. They make your hair and skin look awful. So my diet is quite free and healthy. The key principle is metabolism stimulation with increased quantities of nourishing food. Being healthy makes you not only look your sexiest and most beautiful, it makes you feel it to.




Saturday, February 13, 2010

Bridal Beauty Emergency Plan – The Introduction

You have suddenly realised you are getting married in two weeks. Where have the last six months gone? You have been caught up in plans and no doubt neglected your beauty plan. Never mind let’s make use of what we have. The suggestions I have made may need to be toned down a little if you are very unfit. If you are more than ten kilograms overweight I recommend you see a doctor before you follow my “Bridal Beauty Plan”. Unfortunately like most things in life the more money you throw at the problem the better the outcome. However no high tech massage can ever compete with a dedicated run. Clearly if you wake up a little earlier than two weeks before your wedding all the better.

The plan is divided into different strategies, which each require dedication and determination. The results will be evident from the first day. Especially psychologically, since the exercise will instantly increase your endorphin levels. Although one may experience a light headache and a little tiredness from the detox, it will be short lived. Unless you have been bombing your body with toxins for years. For this reason I recommend starting the plan on a Saturday.



Friday, February 12, 2010

Often the assistants take the best images

It often happens that I will be stuck upon the alter during the rings with the strictest priest known to the Vatican and someone in the front row will begin to sob. I can’t move unless I want to donate my liver to the priest for his dinner. So I have to do what a good team player does and pass the ball. With a quick flick of my eye, my assistant will realise that their job depends on pouncing on the moment. The result, they get to shoot all the juicy bits, they wonder round happily hunting carefree without any responsibilities. Sometimes at the start of the day I will give them a brief framework but mostly they are a happy go lucky tribe who have it way to good.

I have including a whole bunch of my favourite pictures from Francesco, Kim & Zoë’s portfolios.