Tag Archives: simple

Simple Steps To Improve Self-Confidence

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ritaoraFeeling at ease with your body is something many people struggle with. Such feelings can eat away at self-confidence and make it harder to assert yourself in life. Sometimes, other people’s attitudes and messages in the media can make it even more difficult, but there are things you can do to fight back and learn to love yourself.

 

Identify problem attitudes

 

Do you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts about your body when you’re dressing, showering or shopping? Try to spot such thoughts developing and stop yourself. You probably wouldn’t make negative comments to a friend in that way, so why do it to yourself? Instead, focus on parts of your body that you like, even if they don’t seem as important. Practice thinking positively about them and remember that you don’t have to be perfect to be appreciated.

 

Share thoughts with friends

 

Social convention means that often we don’t complement each other enough. If you have friends who also need more body confidence arrange to get together and tell each other what you admire about one another’s appearance. Alternatively, you might prefer to do it using anonymous notes if you’re shy. You might be surprised by how much friends like or even envy aspects of the way you look that you never considered previously.

 

Focus on fitness

 

Even if you’re overweight, disabled or getting on in years, there will usually be something you can do to increase your fitness level. Exercise lowers levels of cortisone, the stress hormone and makes the body look better. You can even do exercises for your face to reduce lines and wrinkles; a sort of natural facelift.

 

Dress to flatter your figure

 

Everyone likes to feel sexy and you can find clothing to suit all shapes and sizes online, including fantastic plus sized lingerie deals. Rather than worrying about what doesn’t look good on you, seek out stores that specialize in clothing designed for bodies like yours, whatever shape you are. You don’t have to look like a model, because in reality people are attracted by many different aspects of an individual, such as sense of humor, stylishness and intelligence.

 

Love your style

 

Part of learning to love your body is about understanding how to see it on your own terms, which involves choosing clothes that flatter your shape and selecting colors and patterns that reflect your personality rather than concerning yourself with following fashion. That way you don’t need to worry about being compared to other people and you can instead focus on simply being who you are.

 

Despite the fact that women’s magazines tend to focus on hairstyles and waist measurements, studies show again and again that one of the most attractive assets anyone can have is self-confidence. Once you are comfortable in your own skin and enjoy the way you look it will show in the way you walk, the way you dance, even the way you smile; all things that will make an impression on others. Most importantly, they will make you feel good about yourself.

 

 

Property Tycoon: A Simple Seven-Step Guide To Becoming a Property Millionaire Book Review

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Property Tycoon: A Simple Seven-Step Guide To Becoming a Property Millionaire by Ian Samuels Property Tycoon: A Simple Seven-Step Guide To Becoming a Property Millionaire by Ian Samuels couldn’t have come at a more relevant time. Property is booming in the UK today, and particularly in London. So can this book help you to become a property tycoon in seven simple steps? I would say so, it certainly has all of the information you would ever need and is easy to read.

I really enjoyed this book and it made me want to start a property business of my own. Baby step by baby step. This book is a good read and is very well-written. It is enjoyable despite its business like subject. It is a good, complete guide to every aspect of  property management. It is full of ideas and things you never even knew you didn’t know. Highly recommended. I will certainly be keeping it to hand.

 

What they say:

Property Tycoon offers a complete and incredibly revealing guide to EVERY aspect of residential property investment: whether you’re looking to just dip into buy-to-let or want to use property to build up a substantial and life-changing income.

Covering buying, managing, maintaining, financing and selling UK property, this book is written by someone who has made a success of buy-to-let investment for more than 20 years and through two booms and busts. Written in plain English, and filled with real-life case studies, it reveals the secrets of:

– the questions every successful property investor asks themselves before buying a property

– how to secure capital for your investment properties

– where to get tradesmen, agents, mentors and tenants you can rely on

– what it takes to manage and maintain different kinds of property portfolio and how to take your portfolio to the next level when the time is right

– when to buy and sell, and how to make sure you get your way in auctions and off-plan deals.

With housing in ever-increasing demand, and UK values showing an average rise in value of 9% a year for the last 60 years, today represents a great opportunity for anyone interested in entering the buy-to-let world. Property Tycoon is the friendliest and most up-to-date guide available.

Property Tycoon: A simple seven-step guide to becoming a property millionaire is available here.

 

 

How To Get Glowing Skin: What Products To Use

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You want healthy glowing skin? Of course you do. I have had lots of fun testing these products. Let me know what you think.

Beauty review, Glowing skin, good beauty products.

 

Stila Set & Illuminate Baked Powder Trio

Now this is a setting powder. So why is it in an piece about glowing skin? Well, not all setting powders are chalky and cakey. When used properly they can give you great skin. This Set & Illuminate Baked Powder Trio adds radiance to the skin and makes foundation and blusher stay put all day. It gives you airbrushed, fresh, naturally beautiful skin. Really great stuff.

The powder is made up of three different shades and comes with a plastic shaver which gives you just the right amount of product when you half turn it. It also stops mess, so points for the great design, especially the slick, black compact. The best thing about this product is that it is subtle. It’s not glittery or shimmery and it’s not too much for daytime. It just makes your skin look fresh and perfect in a very subtle and natural way. Available from stilacosmetics.com and costs £24.

Stila Set & Bronze Baked Powder Trio

This is similar to the Set & Illuminate in design: it has the same handy plastic shaver in a beautiful black compact. The compact also has a mirror.  The difference is in the word ‘bronze’. This give healthy looking tanned skin. In the only way you should get tanned skin (no sunbeds). It comes with three shades:

  • Matte bronze – which bronzes and warms the skin
  • Kitten shimmer –  to brighten and illuminate
  • Bronze shimmer – enhances skintone

You can wear this alone if you have good skin but it also sets foundation. It makes makeup last all day. The powder also has Vitamin E and jojoba oils so it moisturises and conditions. It gives natural glowing skin rather than turning you into a glitter ball. Not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that. Available from ASOS and costs £24

Stila Illuminating Liquid Foundation 20 Watts

This is also natural and makes you look like you are not wearing makeup. I love the bottle it comes in. It is very sturdy and I like the weight of it. There is no SPF in it which some people prefer, although due to my pale skin I tend to take SPF whenever I can. The foundation gives a very subtle shimmer. It is light and it gives a sheer coverage which is just better than a tinted moisturiser. If you like heavy coverage this won’t be for you, but it is a great, natural foundation to give you glowing skin. It’s not matte, it gives a smooth look without looking like you are overly done up. Perfect for a radiance boost.

£25 or cheaper if you shop around. Try Google Shopping or buy from feelunique.com

Stila All Over Shimmer Liquid Luminizer Pink Shimmer

This adds a delicate shimmer for a radiant glow. This is not really a pink shimmer, but more a beautiful champagne shade. This also has antioxidant and grape seed oil which conditions and cares for the skin while you glow. The soft-focus pigments help diminish the appearance of fine lines and skin imperfections while adding uplifting highlights. This product is great as you can use it as a highlighter on cheekbones and underneath the brow bone. It can be used on top of foundation or mixed with moisturiser. Great stuff. From feelunique.com

Stila Sheer Pressed Powder

I have included this because getting shine under control is always going to give healthy looking skin. The oil-control formula is finely milled for a smooth, flawless finish. It makes skin look clean and polished. It doesn’t look cakey or heavy on the skin. Good stuff. Available here.

Simple Kind To Skin Illuminating Radiance Cream

This product is more glittery than the Stila products. It is more obvious but I got a lot of compliments when I was wearing it. I love Simple products because they don’t put a lot of nasty stuff in them. I have sensitive skin and they are gentle but they really work. The cream has Pro-Vitamin B3, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin E and Bisabolol, Ginger Root Extract, Sweet Almond Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil. It also doesn’t have any artificial perfumes, colours or chemicals. It has light reflecting minerals along with UVA/UVB SPF15 protection. I have actually been wearing this cream almost everyday. Sometimes I wear it alone (usually with concealer) or as a primer under foundation or BB cream. When I use it as a primer I don’t use a lot of foundation or BB cream. Overall this is really good, inexpensive stuff. Recommended. £8.99 for 50ml at Superdrug

Laura Geller Spackle Neutralizing Colour-Correcting Under Make Up Primer

This is a good primer that improves skin’s texture so makeup glides on and looks freshly applied for hours. It has subtle peach undertones, is lightweight and “neutralises” skin imperfections. It is oil-free and paraben-free and has botanicals such as Aloe Vera to help calm skin and reduce the appearance of redness, as well as Centella Asiatica and White Tea Extracts which provide antioxidant protection. A very good primer, available from QVC

Bourjois Blush Exclusif

This is a great pink blusher that suits everyone. It has self-adjusting technology that gives everyone a personalised pink. You can watch it transform on your skin which is pretty cool. Quite impressive. According to Superdrug’s ‘its formula contains pH reactive pigments to transform your cheeks into a customised pink shade’. Just put a little on the apples of your cheeks and hello health! Makes even the most tired skin look like you go for a daily morning run. This is a suit-everyone pink cream blusher and that lasts all day. It is just dream-worthy, it works like a highlighter and blusher. Very glowy.

£7.99 from Very.com or Superdrug

Elemis Pro-Radiance Illuminating Cream

A hybrid moisturiser which works as a radiance booster, a primer and a light moisturiser. Is a great all-in-one but if you have dry skin then you might need another moisturiser. Gives skin a beautiful, shimmer-free, dewy glow.

£32 from QVC or Harvey Nichols

Benefit Finding Mr Bright Makeup Set: Girl Meets Pearl, Posie Tint, Highbeam and Erase Paste.

Girl Meets Pearl gives you a light-from-within glow. Makes you look like you were born beautiful, Posie Tint gives the most gorgeous, rosy tint on cheeks and looks very natural, Highbeam is a silverish pink liquid that makes you glow like J-Lo. Put on your cheekbones, brow bones & the bridge of your nose. Erase Paste is a brilliant concealer, industrial strength to hide any flaws. This is a brilliant set and perfect for glowing, healthy skin. It’s not over the top, just makes you look happy and glowing. Available from Amazon UK and feelunique.com

What do you think?

 

Get Fit On The Move With James Haskell’s Fitness Advice

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Want to get fit but can’t find the time? Here are some tips from James Haskell. James is the health and fitness ambassador for The Healthcounter.

 

Planes, trains and automobiles Exercises to do on the move, don’t let that long haul journey effect your health

 

Lululemon_Yellow_YogaThe obvious one is walking the cabin. If it’s a Jumbo or a large plane you can create a circuit by walking down one aisle and back-up the next. However you might not be too popular with the Air Hostesses if they are working the aisles with the drinks trolley or they are in the galley, when you do your circuit end turns!

Another must-do exercise is stretching, when you get the chance. You can also do some simple exercises to switch muscles on. Like standing, feet slightly apart, one leg to the front the other behind and imagine that you are trying to push the earth apart. Hold this for 20 seconds and then rest for 20 seconds.

You should feel all the muscles in your leg work. You can repeat this with your feet a shoulder width a part. Find a wall or divide in the cabin – put your hands on it and try to either push-in the wall, keeping straight arms, or trying to split the wall down the middle of your hands. Hold all of these for 20 seconds and repeat 4 times

 

Spare 5 minutes? Exercise you can do in your garden, on the beach etc. Simples exercises that will work the all muscles as well as target areas

 

“I would say you should do a 5 minute tabata, which is a form of high intensity interval training. It is a method that is much more beneficial within this specific time frame than regular, moderate intensity training, such as jogging, biking, skipping, and so forth and in my view much more fun!”

 

One suggested circuit which is guaranteed to get your heart rate-up and sweating.

 

10 x standard press-ups

No rest

 

10 burpee jumps – start standing up – feet slightly apart. Then drop down to a crouching position on the floor, with your knees, which should be up to the chest, with your hands either side of the knees, palms to the floor. Then jump out into a press-up position. Then jump back into a crouching position and then jump back up into the air landing back into the standing position. Then repeat

No rest

 

10 Spiderman’s – Position yourself on the ground in a push-up position with hands a shoulder width apart and feet together, resting on your toes. Keeping one’s spine straight. Then using your abdominals, move your leg forward, bring your left leg to your left hand and then back to the neutral position. Repeating for the right leg.

No rest

 

10 sit-ups – Unlike the “Crunch”, which is predominantly a shoulder movement as the lower back should be kept on the ground. The sit-up you lift-up your whole torso off the ground moving through the vertical sit-up position and then back down again.

No rest

 

10 each leg lunge change-up to the other leg

No rest

 

Sprinting on the spot for 10 seconds

 

Repeat as many circuits as you can within the scheduled 5 minutes.

 

James’s top 10 lifestyle changes to get you on the path to fitness

 

1.            Diet is everything. In any successful programme diet will always comprise 70% and exercise 30%. Most people think it’s the reverse. There is a great truth in the saying “You can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet!”

2.            Make small changes and stick to them. Don’t try everything or indeed to do everything in one go. Sadly you will never stick to it.

3.            Have breakfast every day – protein based ideally. Eggs are great

4.            Eat a massive variety of vegetables, put a lot colours into your food. Don’t worry too much about fruit. Vegetables are more important and remember with vegetables you can eat as much as you want

5.            Avoid processed food and ready meals

6.            Try and exercise for at least 10 minutes a day, every day. Get your heart rate-up. Walk the dog; go running, do some body weight work just do something!

7.            Always seek advice and guidance before you start. So may diets and exercise plans fail because people get disillusioned. That’s because they were doing it all wrong to start with and sadly they were never going to achieve what they wanted.

8.            Create a plan. As Scott Alexander says “if you walk into a gym without a game plan then walk straight back out again. Get one sorted and then re-enter the gym with purpose, knowledge and vision. Execute the plan with precision.” So start properly and stick with it for a minimum of 4 weeks. You have got to give anything you do reasonable time to work. Everyone has an opinion, try it and if you don’t get results after giving it a reasonable shot then change. Don’t change every 5 minutes and don’t give up after the first week or two

9.            Preparation is the key. Double-up food when making dinner and put in the fridge for the next day. Hydration is also key, Avoid fizzy drinks, especially the diet ones as they are more often or not worst for you to drink because of the hidden sugar levels.

10.          Keep a record of your results and achievements through pictures and measurement’s. Avoid worrying about the scales.

James Haskell is the health and fitness ambassador for The Healthcounter, to see James’s blog topics visit www.thehealthcounter.com”