Fall must have work outfits

August 31, 2016August 12, 20162 Comments

As we are nearing the end of summer we have to start looking at work wear ideas for Fall. During fall we can start to add beautiful scarfs to our summer dresses or we can opt for long sleeve blouses and pants.

Chokers are making a huge comeback this year. Add a choker to your outfit to give it spunk

Add a beautiful golden belt to a monochrome outfit to give it that extra

Statement pieces are the key to gorgeous outfits. Pair a beautiful jacket with dark trousers and some heels to look like a CEO

Versace will make you look like a million dollars.

Some knee high boots will do the trick. They are very fashionable and can be worn with almost any skirt.

Add a silver belt or bracelet to a taupe outfit

The proper handbag will make any outfit look fantastic.

Here the Chanel bag would work best. Paired with a sequenced skirt and checkered shirt

Assecorise with pearls and golden bracelets and your all set to strut down the street like the diva you are.

The problem with my diet.

August 30, 2016August 29, 20162 Comments

When I was younger I used to believe that exercise is the only way to lose weight. During high school I didn’t participate in any sports except for one season in the hockey team during grade 9. My mom has always been overweight and she was always dieting and trying various exercising regimes which means that I often did what she did. I even did calanetics at one stage and it really created a real burn in my thighs but because I didn’t change my eating habits I didn’t loose any weight. Not eating right caused me to stop exercising if I didn’t see any results with my exercising routine.

During 12th grade I gained a lot of weight mainly because of bad eating habits and examination stress. I am quite tall and as soon as I gain weight I look like a giant fat teddy bear.

When I started working I started to go to extremes to lose weight. I remember that I use to eat cereal for breakfast, then run for 40 minutes on the treadmill before work. For lunch I would go run for a further 20 minutes and then only eat a yogurt or drink a fruit juice since I would not be hungry after exercising. This went pretty well for a while but as you well know this kind of crash dieting does not last. This only lead to binge eating and when I wasn’t running I would gain lots of weight because I had no muscle to burn the fat anabolically. I didn’t believe in weight training because I was afraid that I would look like a man. You always see these bodybuilder woman online who look like dudes and I didn’t want that.

During our honeymoon I bought a Fitness magazine and saw this lovely picture of Jamie Eason. She was a bodybuilding competitor and didn’t look like a guy at all. She looked so feminine and this is when I first considered weight training.

It wasn’t until around 2009 that I got into weight training. In August 2009 I was retrenched from my work and hit a real low in my life. I didn’t know what to do… our country was going through a recession therefore companies weren’t really hiring. Although this was the lowest point in my life it was also the catalyst for everything that I am proud of today. I started studying and started to work out at the gym. By then I have gained around 6 kilo’s and found it hard to do simple things. I remember being out of breath when I dried myself with a towel and this is when I decided that I can’t be this pathetic at such a young age. I should still be able to run and jump, not try to catch my breath after a bath, I mean come on!!!!

I then first started controlling my calories by following weight watchers, its was a great diet because it helps you see what kinds of foods are REALLY bad and which ones you can get away with without cutting out any of the essential food groups. When I’ve lost 6 Kilo’s and couldn’t lose anymore, I started cleaning up my diet a lot more by reducing my sugar intake. I have never cut out any particular food group entirely but I have reduced some of the ones harming me. Especially since I have such a love for cakes… 😛

Fitness wise I then started going to the gym with my husband. Since I wasn’t working I could afford to go in the mornings and the evenings. I started off with the aerobic classes, three times a week in the morning and as I became fitter I started incorporating step classes and kickboxing classes into my routine. In the evenings I did some weight training with my husband. I started off with mainly doing legs 3 times a week, and upper body twice a week. It consisted of mostly body-weight exercises.

My first exercise routine looked like this.

Legs (2-3 sets of 10-12 reps)

Plie/releve

Skate lunge

Lateral shuffle

Upper body (1-2 sets of 8-12 reps)

Close grip lat pull-down

Standing cable chest fly

High cable press-down

Bicep curl.

I am currently writing a book on my fitness journey that will include some exercise routines and food ideas. Watch this space….

Super Healthy Strawberry and Mango lollies.

August 29, 2016October 23, 2016Leave a comment

My husband absolutely adores ice creams and fruit lollies but the past few weeks, it’s been too hot to go outside and since our nearest supermarket is a 15 minute walk away from home we opted for home made fruit lollies instead. Luckily I had some frozen strawberries in the freezer along with some mango I froze for smoothies a while ago. I decided to mix these with some orange juice and viola… super healthy fruit lollies.

What you need to make 6 lollies

5-8 Frozen strawberries. ( you can biol them in some honey before hand because they are somewhat sour)

1/2 a mango (frozen)

1/2 cup orange or mango juice.

Mix the berries and half of the juice in the blender. Do the same with the mango. ( you can add more juice if the mixture is too pasty. It needs to be pour-able. First pour the strawberry mixture in the lolly holders and put in the freezer for about 20 minutes. This is so that the 2 different mixtures don’t mix. Then carefully pour the mango mixture inside or vice versa. Then freeze until completely frozen. This takes between 1-2 hours depending on your freezer.

We now eat fruit lollies on a daily basis.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we have.

From Pinterest to Reality

August 26, 2016August 20, 2016Leave a comment

Last year we tried to create a haunted house for our school. We had 3 main rooms. We had a slaughterhouse, a clown room and a creepy girl in the well room. We made all the decorations ourselves. Our inspiration being Pinterest. One of the things we made for the clown room was ‘n little cage with wheels with heads inside.

My attempt

To make this I used a normal square box. Cut a window in it. Used some of the offcuts to make the wheels and then painted it orange and black. I added a piece of black paper to the top to create a roof and took ribbed paper to create the bars. I also cut a door in the back to put the heads in.

We didn’t have a lot of fake heads, so we only put one in there.

And this is the end result.

Beach themed Anniversary Party

August 25, 2016September 21, 2016Leave a comment

More than a few years ago my parents asked me help them organise their 25th wedding anniversary. My mother was already sick by then. She wanted the whole family to be there and she wasn’t looking for something over the top but rather for something casual with some dancing at the end of the night. My parent had a roomy house with a seperate entertainment room and an outside pool. We then decided to have a beach party in the back yard. We wanted a real summer feel to the event so this is what our menu looked like

Entree- Fruit kebabs

Main – Home made chicken and beef hamburgers

Dessert – Ice-cream cones.

To drink my dad made us some sangria in a watermelon

. We threw Gerber’s and candles in the pool to give it that romantic holiday feel.

We further had cocktail umbrellas for the drinks. Crepe paper flower necklaces for each of the quests and we made little palm trees out of carrots and green peppers for table decorations. Our serviettes were in pink, orange, yellow, green and sea blue.

Although my father initially thought that having such a casual party wouldn’t work out well… the party was a huge success and everyone had a wonderful time. We even got to catch up with some relatives we haven’t seen in a while.