living boutique: the-find

Showing posts with label the-find. Show all posts

Saturday, 5 July 2014

Elixir, twins, outfits...

Elle Macpherson is 50, she is thorough-bred perfect, the body, the hair, the face, and apparently it's all down to what is in the bottle above.

Let's worship at the altar of Elle....

The hair....

The smile....

The fantastic sytling....

And the BODY....

Perfection....

And so what about the elixir?

A friend of mine is a judge on the InStyle beauty awards, so she was sent a jar.

One quick smell and I knew what it was immediately....

Basically it is this....

Dehydrated Barleygrass, £8.99 from Holland and Barratt, or at Amazon etc.
Dehydrated greens (DGs) in all of their varieties are incredibly potent and beneficial.
This is the only part of my 'beauty' regime that I never miss, every morning a least 3 tea spoons mixed with diluted apple juice.
I have been taking them for 10 years and I notice if I stop.

If you read all the online hyperbole, users claim that DGs cure everything from psoriasis to cancer. I don't think that there is scientific proof of these kind of benefits, but in these days of shrink-wrapped, laser-zapped veg, it is useful to get your vegetable nutrients in one true dose.

I recommend them to everyone that I train with and everyone sticks to them (if not the exercise regime)! One lady had acne problems, that cleared up almost completely (except for when she gets very stressed). Another lady had been trying to conceive for 3 years and did get pregnant (aged 44).

I can't claim it to be the powder 'what done it', but it does seem that for those who have quite stressful, caffeine-driven lives, vitamin rich, 'alkalising' powder seems to balance things out.

So I can see why Elle is happy to was lyrical about it, but she has commercialised it too far. It is £96 a jar, which is a shame, as this is a product that could help many people. Since it does not carry a medical license, it is impossible to advertise the claimed health benefits of dehydrated greens, but most people would feel and look better if they took them. At £8.99 it is worth a go, for 96 quid, I can understand why people would hesitate!

So if you want to look like Elle, either buy some DGs from Holland and Barratt, or enter the competition and win some gene support supplements from Baranova (read previous post!)....

Yesterday I went to visit my positively blooming pal from Paris with a Bump, we were heading to Carluccios in Hampstead and the weather was 29 degrees.

I tried on my Etoile Isabel Marant dress, vintage Hermes bucket bag and gladiator flats from Matalan.
Miss B turned her back, she did NOT approve...

Although Suki (an interloper from one of our neighbours) DID like the colour scheme A LOT...

In fact she's quite keen on the whole 'selfie' thing...

I plumped for a Miss Guided lace dress (£30)....

and some K Jacques sandals....

In my head, the dress is a dead ringer for this one by Dolce e Gabanna

Paris with a bump is incubating two new little beings and is only about 2 weeks away from being a mum for the first time. Her bump is so tidy and compact, it's hard to believe that there is one let alone two...

We visited a beautiful boutique next door, it is a British brand that I have never heard of called Charli, lovely separates a bit like the new US label 'Joie', and pretty good prices.
Charli sells other brands like Day Birger Mikkelsen and the like, I found these cute little rose gold plated necklaces and bought a boy and a girl for the 'bump'.

It's so good for the soul to catch up with old friends, Paris with a Bump is updating her blog and has lots of exciting plans including a new mummy bootcamp retreat, more info soon....

Sunday, 2 June 2013

Do yoga

Feel like this forever...

Thursday, 30 May 2013

Metabolism boosters....

Monday, 27 May 2013

When the going gets tough....

www.the-find.co.uk

Monday, 8 April 2013

It's not easy...

Do you ever look at people who are in great shape and think, 'It's not for me, they are lucky they were just born with shapely legs, great abs, toned arms'.... no they weren't they all have to work at it. They are the ones out running on their holiday when everyone else is recovering from the excesses of the night before.
And they don't just look great, they feel fantastic too, it IS worth the effort.

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

The Sugarbabe

About SJ...

This is SJ, SJ has just started training with the Find and I asked if she would be up for doing a case study.

She sent me this amazing picture for which I am truly grateful. SJ is 65 (can you believe it!), she looks incredible for her age and to my mind Marilyn Monroe might have looked like this had she been able to grow older.

SJ is of an era of counting calories and restricting food intake and she is slightly baffled at the idea that we can achieve great results without any hunger. Since in her prime dieting days, hunger meant success, but with the Find, where we are all about metabolism and long term results, extreme hunger is BAD.
The reason that I am so pleased with this photograph is that in lycra gym gear SJ looks truly stunning and it would be difficult for anyone to understand why she has started on this journey. Her focus is less about weight loss and more about improving skin tone and building muscle mass and definition.

She is going on a beach holiday to Madeira in the Summer with friends and would like to improve the appearance of her skin and feel confident that she could wear a bikini and not just stick to one pieces.

SJ is not a big eater and is satisfied with quite small portion sizes, she likes to eat regularly and does occasionally just snack all day and only eat one reasonable sized meal a day.
Sugar is her biggest downfall and it was only when we sat down to discuss her diet that she realised that barely an hour passes in the day when she does not eat refined sugar in some form. Often just a cup of tea with one sugar, or a bite of someone's cake, or a small corner of chocolate, but it is consistent and it is daily for years and years. With the calorie method, this was OK, as long as your total calories are low enough, it doesn't matter where they come from so even when she was slimming (her word, not mine, and I have to say it sounds much nicer than 'dieting') probably 60% of her daily calorie intake was from sugar.

She does get what she calls a 'bubbly' stomach, where her stomach will blow out more than usual even when eating something fairly small.

She is very much the lynch pin of the family and her time is in demand from many people. She often puts their needs first and as much as she really enjoys exercise, she sees it as a self indulgent luxury that can only be enjoyed after everyone else is satisfied. And this is despite an accident a few years ago where she was told that the only way she can maintain good health is by doing regular physio and pilates.

SJ does have a wonderfully straight spine (particularly upper spine which can be a problem area with people that haven't done much exercise) and through her convalescent pilates a great body/muscle awareness that will make training with her a joy.

SJ has agreed to send a monthly photo so that she can watch the results.

Tomorrow I will post the recommendations for her first month.

Saturday, 23 February 2013

Fat vs thin

I have to confess that during the 'hopeless years', I did just assume that any one thin had an eating disorder. I didn't feel that I overate and could remember enough times of feeling properly hungry to suggest that the natural skinnies simply didn't eat anything and it was the only way that they could remain so.
My journey over the last few years has really changed my attitude. I have lots of friends who are larger, and if I'm honest, only recently, slim new friends who I would have written of as non-eaters in the past.

The big difference is the emotional attitude towards food. With my bigger friends we would 'feast and famine', so go into town, buy a kilo of Ben's cookies and some how manage to eat the whole lot in one shopping trip. By the last six or so we didn't even want them, but just considered it better that they were finished.

We ate when we were bored, we ate when we were tired, we treated ourselves when it was raining/snowing/ too hot/ too cold/coffee time/ tea time etc etc, we never really needed a reason. Food was always for comfort and solace. And if we had over indulged it even became about punishment.
But we did try to lose weight and were always the first to try the new miracle diet, cabbage soup diet, Cambridge Diet, Atkins etc etc. And so we were big, but also hungry quite a lot of the time

I have noticed among my slim friends, that admittedly I have met mainly via sport, that they DO eat, and they eat a LOT. But the attitude is so different. They will come to a class because they want to EARN the Chinese/Indian/Pizza meal that they will be eating later.

The approach is so much healthier, they eat because they need NOURISHMENT for optimum physical health and they enjoy to exercise as it entitles them to food as a REWARD for their endeavours. Therefore there is no such thing as 'bad' food, or food that induces feelings of guilt.

I just wish I could go back to my teenage self and explain this to avoid all those miserable giant years. But failing that I hope that if even one person reads this and it is helpful, it is worth the post. .... on a lighter note...more clothes tomorrow...