More buying Wedding dresses...

I've posted before about my strange proclivity of buying wedding dresses.

Below is one of my favourite Christmas shoots by Tim Walker for Vogue, I thought about dying some of the dresses that I have been buying to achieve similar looks.  The dress above was £30 and it is pure silk.

Exploring my inner drag queen

We're all bemoaning the miserable cold and now add to that constantly drizzling weather.
There are only so many variations on a coat. This is my most cheerful one, in the brightest pink I could find.
I was doing one of those massive wardrobe clear outs trying to work out what summer clothes I had for this year.  Ie clothes that could conceivably be cheerful Spring/ Summer wear and yet also suitable for minus one degrees as it doesn't feel like warm weather is coming any time soon.  There isn't much that cuts the mustard outside of jeans and knitwear. I found this feather shrug in a bag in a distant recess.  I think it is meant to cover the shoulders and perfect with a ball dress (another completely unsuitable purchase for a lifestyle that bears no resemblance to my own) and it was from the Vestry of all places. Are they still around? I must have tracked it down in a bin end sale and then just forgotten about it.  The feathers are really warm, warmer than my faux furs (and feathers aren't farmed cruelly are they? I was thinking they are just a by product).  Please don't disavow me of the fact as I think I have found the Holy Grail of winter clothing, pretty, lightweight, INCREDIBLY warm and easy to wear, I am going to try to track down a feather vest/jacket next.

Sharing the pain....

I am training these two lovely ladies together, they are getting twice the results for half of the price.
They are neighbours and so there is  no excuse to not make it to a session.
Eva is in her late sixties and is getting in shape for her son's wedding.
Anna had gained weight after having two children and is now well on the way to her target size, she has lost two stone, although with the Find weight doesn't mean much! She has lost about four dress sizes and is gaining muscle mass all over her body.  She is lucky that she is predisposed to build muscle easily, so she can get into shape very quickly, however this can be a little demoralising on the scales, as muscle weighs heavier than fat that means a reduction in fat and an increase in muscle will push the hands of the scales up not down.

Anna is using her 'pre baby jeans' as her measure and the button is getting closer every week...

Style Crush Thank Fifi

The fashion blog Thank Fifi is one of my favourites, she is usually head to toe in high street labels and makes them look amazing. To my taste she has a perfect physique, she is as beautiful as a model, but without the 'near death' thinness that most regular models exhibit.  Years ago I used to cast models for photographic shoots, I hated the casting days when these poor emaciated girls would struggle into the office like soul-less spectres.
What we see in magazines bears no resemblance to reality, we literally used to colour them in and pad them to make them look close to 'normal'.  The only girls who looked healthy were the really 'big' models of the day, it seemed that once you had made it, you were allowed to eat, but up until then it was a diet of cigarettes, diet Coke and any chemicals that maintained skeletal look.
That is why I love Thank Fifi, as she is a normal girl who is undeniably beautiful and has been accepted by the fashion crowd, this is much, much rarer than you would imagine.
Plus she dresses in a fashionable way, but not in that Alexa Cheung style where you need to be early 20s and have the physique described above.  Instead her outfits could be worn to the office, albeit you might look like you had put a bit(!) more thought into it than usual.
So back to my homage outfit, it was a very cold February night and we were heading off to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen for a birthday treat.
Sick of dressing for arctic expeditions, I wanted something to remind me that you can be warm in the UK without wearing 8 layers.  I copied this outfit as best I could (using ebay), got the HM top for 99p, the jeans are flared Victoria Beckham from her dvb days (bargainous £4.99) and belt was from HM £6.99 in-store, the cardi is TopShop.  The trouble is I LOOK like I am wearing head to toe high street, where Thank Fifi looks a million dollars, I have 20 years on her, may be I need to look elsewhere for inspiration!

For Mother's day

I did this for father's day last year. It cost the princely sum of £3.50, £1 for the board off cut from Hombase and £2.50 for the sample pots of paint. Its value would be beyond measure for any mums and grannies.

Think life is better as a natural skinny? ...

Inspired by the post about SJ, I asked another of my personal training clients if they would mind me writing a post about them as a case study.

PB did not want to supply a picture, but emailed me these words.

'I have always been thin, I eat normally, but when I was younger people assumed I had eating problems.  I never embraced being skinny and envied my friends with their wonderful breasts and guitar shaped bodies.  I was always a pencil.

Now that I am past 50 I feel dreadful, in every horror film or drama, the demented, evil or insane character is bony with a curved spine and ribs like a xylophone, that is what I felt I was becoming.

My legs were like sticks and my tummy had dropped and resembled a deflated balloon, hanging loose below my visible rib cage.  I hate it and would rather be 3 stone overweight than have this little body that is becoming more and more withered with age.

I was getting quite depressed and seemed to feel much older than my friends. 
Training with the Find has been a revelation, not only have I watched the beauty of the seasons changing in Kensington Gardens, but I have new muscles all over my body, and even look like I have gained a cup size!'

PB has always shied away from exercise all of her life, partly because she feared that it would make her even thinner.  This has possibly contributed to an acceleration of what she describes above. She has never done ANY kind of regular exercise

We have put the breaks on with strength training exercises to build up all the muscle groups in her body.

I am training her in an intense version of RockSculpt.  The sessions are short, sharp and intense, using perfect technique and weights, with an equal amount of time spent stretching as exercising.

PB does not need any specific diet, but does eat a lot of high (unsaturated) fat and protein.

PB looks beautiful and most women would envy her her naturally slim physique, but you have read her words to understand  how she was feeling.  One of the great things about regular exercise, that PB had never experienced, is the emotional lift, those endorphins last for 24 hours and it is quite possibly this factor that is the most important for her.

The sun shone and new hair colour

I bought the Missoni top on ebay for a bagainous £20, last year in the South of France, everyone was Missoni crazy, not sure it is that big here, but the knits are pretty and even though there is sun it is cold.
I am sporting an accessory, it is a rare occurrence, my 'bracelet' is actually one of the 'bling' straps that had adorned the wellies I am wearing.  I managed to lose one at a rugby match and wondered if the one ankle chain might be sending a coded message to fellow spectators (is it right or left that means you are open for business?).
I did my roots in honey blonde, a home dye kit from Sainsbury's Sensations (99p on sale!).  I quite like it, I had visions of lots of red tones which make my skin look a grey/green colour, but this one is a good colour.  I usually just choose 'mouse' not that anyone EVER calls it that, they come up with much more prosaic names.
The coated leggings are ZARA (sale £17) and the copper T shirt from Victoria's Secrets, I don't know what possessed me, (this purchase predates the Bond Street store by about 8 years).  They had a great sale and I bought something like $1000 of clothes for about $100, and then the shipping and duty was about 200 quid, never again!

Smart for work meeting

I had a meeting with a couple of people that I worked with many years ago at Conde Nast.  They are still very much kicking their heels in London town and absolutely fabulous in every way.
I am the country cousin, who has completely lost touch, and wasn't that 'in touch' to start with.
Smart is tricky for me since I live in my gym kit, or if I make an effort could be randomly wearing a wedding dress, kitted out Bollywood style, or channeling Anna Karenina.
It was very cold, so I opted for thick tights, Hermes ankle boots (£70 from my favourite secret shop that I am yet to reveal!) Limited Edition dress M and S dress 99p via Ebay and Top Shop Cardi.  As ever a dress wins the day for me as accessorising is unnecessary and I don't fall in the final furlong.

Sport, Slumber, Sparkle the S plan!

Now that we are 'entertained' 24 hours a day it is difficult to strike the balance of 'normal life'.

What does 'normal life' mean to you? Outside of time spent working to earn money, how do you divide up your free time? What do you prioritise? And how do you make sure that the balance is right?

There are so many pulls on our time with an ever widening media world, from the internet with its endless reading and entertainment opportunities  to hundreds of tv channels, film on demand and all the equipment that we can buy to keep us linked in to all of this even when we are out and about.

It becomes quite hard to ever just do one thing at a time, and when it is all overwhelming, human nature just reverts to the easiest, most familiar and least demanding. It might be the internet, or tv, or ironing, or cleaning, shopping or the pub, everyone's escape is personal

Most people struggling with weight issues are more than aware of the damage that their poor food choices and lack of movement is doing, but they eat for comfort and often just to fill a space.  A space left by something that is missing, but that 'something' is impossible to identify.

Often this 'emptiness' comes from an in-balance in our lifestyle.

At the Find we try to get our guests to consider how they spend their time and work out if it is balanced and as productive as it can be for them

For ease we encourage them to divide their free time into 3 distinct categories; Sport, Slumber and Sparkle.

Sport doesn't mean sweating in the gym, it is anything that requires ANY movement that raises the pulse from its resting rate;  walking, climbing the stairs, cleaning, shopping, making love, dancing as well as all the usual forms of exercise.  

Slumber isn't just about sleeping, any thing restful and meditative falls into this sector; listening to music, surfing the net, watching tv, reading a book.  If it is restful and relaxing and lowering your blood pressure, it is slumber. 

Finally 'Sparkle', when you sparkle it is not about drinking champagne at one in the morning at Claridges or dancing on the tables at Tramp,'Sparkle' is any human contact whether with family or friends, in the bank or at a coffee shop.  It is simple, real, face to face interaction, with smiles, eye contact and conversation.

The balance that we need to strike with our spare time is dependent on our lifestyle. If you work as an aerobics teacher, the amount of time that you dedicate to sport and sparkle will be less than you need for slumber, but if you work alone on a computer in an office, to balance your life you will need to make a concerted effort to engage in sport and sparkle activities.

Everyone knows deep down what they are missing, but most of us gloss over the truth as life is so hectic.  Do you occasionally get a pang, a feeling of longing to get back in touch with old friends or family that you haven't seen for a while?  Do you need three or four cups of coffee to get up in the morning? Does your body feel exhausted and 'heavy' quite a lot of the time?

Look at what you HAVE to  do and how that enriches your life, then once you have worked out how much time you have left divide it into three categories above, prioritising the areas that are not fulfilled by what you have to do.  Then put activities that balance your life into your diary in black and white and stick to them.

Miss Haversham meets Madame Jojo

This is the first of the wedding dresses that I bought, it isn't quite what I thought as was expecting the bodice and skirt to be separate, I actually quite like it as an evening dress though, Valentino did one really similar to this and I might wait before I do any thing really drastic.

I had just finished a BodySculpt class before I took these photos, you can really see how pumped my arms and shoulders are, I have chosen pics which are more about the shoulders than the dress to try to show what a difference just a few minutes of intense exercise can make. 

We had been doing a lot of chest and shoulder work and the definition and size of the muscles are completely different to 'normal' resting images.  This is after only 20 minutes of intense work and it is why the results are so fast and so noticeable when the exercises are followed regularly.  It is harder to show with ab muscles where there is more flesh hiding the results, so you don't get the immediate effect, but within about 6 weeks even the outy-est of bellies can be drawn back in.

If this pumped up looks fills you with horror, remember it is temporary within about two hours the body reverts back to gentle definition.

Online purchase not quite what I was expecting...

The trousers in the first pic only are pure silk from La Perla (Florida outlet mall c. 1992), keep an eye on Ebay as they will be appearing soon. Even my husband who takes zero interest in my clothes told me to go and change them. They are very beautiful and perfect as 'loungewear', however I don't get to lounge that much, and if I did I certainly wouldn't waste time changing my clothes.  Although in a parallel life I can see the pleasures of sweeping down a marble staircase swathed in silk and cashmere, reclining on a chaise and eating a velvet coated box of chocolates.

Back to real life, it was my birthday night and we were meeting friends for a quick drink, I had been training a client and didn't have time for anything other than a squaddie shower, hence the rats tails and no make up.

In these circumstances diversion is the best tactic so I donned my SUPER BLING Indian necklace, all the way from Jaipur, it wasn't quite the subtle green and matt stones that I had been expecting, but I'll wear it a few times and then re Ebay.

The top is from Wallis and the black coated leggings from Zara sale.

Dogs a little flustered as they knew we were going out. They are meant to be company for each other, but instead each seems to fuel the other's fear of abandonment. Does anyone have a solution to neurotic dogs?  I have got to the stage where they come everywhere with me.