All Entries Tagged With: "age-defying tactics"
The Stress Factor = The Fat Factor
Feeling a little stressed out? If there was ever a better reason to zen out it would be because too much stress can make you hold on to fat. Yup, being stressed out can lead to a muffin top crisis, and nobody needs that!
When you’re stressed out over a long period of time, you produce high levels of the hormone cortisol which is in over-drive trying to help your system cope with the stress. Cortisol is produced in order for your body to able to cope with stress and is fab in small doses but excess levels of cortisol in your system has the following effects on your precious bod…
1. You store excess fat, particularly around your mid-section
2. It puts too much stress on your immune system – reducing wrinkle fighting power
3. It decreases your muscle tissue which means your metabolism slows down, and we all know what that means – no more skinny jeans!
So if you’ve been exercising and eating well but still find it difficult to keep weight off around your middle, you may be suffering from excess cortisol in your system. Try and have a look at ways to reduce your stress levels e.g. meditate for 5-10 minutes everyday, get enough sleep so you’re not constantly catching up with life, delegate more at work, or make sure you plan fun into your week.
Zzzs make you pretty…
Beauty sleep has been given it’s name for a reason Fit Girls, if you don’t get it, you don’t look so pretty, and your body doesn’t thank you much for it either.
Our bodies do this whole recovery thing while we sleep. It’s considered that the sleep you get between 10pm-2am is your physical recovery (when all of your hard earned lunging zaps the cellulite from your thighs – oh yes girls, you heard it right, the benefits of your workouts, take real effect when you’re sleeping), and the sleep you get between 2am-6am is your mental recovery (where our brains release chemicals to keep our immune system healthy – healthy immune system = wrinkle-fighting-power!)
But sleep ain’t just sleep either – there’s a bad night’s sleep where you wake up feeling like someone has hit you in the head with a typewriter, and there’s a great night’s sleep where you wake up feeling refreshed and don’t feel like you need a coffee to actually blurt out “good morning”. So as you cry into your latte on a Monday morning, having just caught sight of the fantastic bags under your eyes that no amount of touché clat will cover up, consider these helpful sleep tips to ensure that the Zzzs you do get, give you more bang for your buck!
1. Sleep in a dark room – even the illumination off a digital radio will keep your body slightly switched on
2. Don’t eat just before bed – if your body is trying to digest your food your sleep suffers, not to mention extra fat you store from late-night munching.
3. Don’t drink caffeine after 3pm – even if you’re fine to have caffeine just before bed, your body is still more alert, and your sleep is less restful.
4. Don’t sit at a computer or watch TV before bed – doing so may prevent your sleeping rhythm from kicking in.
5. If you’ve been out on the town, and dabbling in a glass of champagne or two, have a glass of juice and a vitamin pill before bed, it just helps the head!
Everlasting Gobstoppers and other age-defying tactics
So I was sitting on a train the other day minding my own business and I couldn’t help but notice a lady sitting in the opposite aisle who’s face had had a lot of work done, and I mean a lot of work!! At a guess she was maybe late 40s. Anyway she was working away on her iphone or blackberry, whatever, some mobile contraption which meant she was way too busy to notice me staring at her non-wrinkles.
Her face looked kinda bloated and her lips were way too puffy. It distressed me. In an effort to look younger she looked more like a freak stuck in a permanent fish bowl…how does this look good??? Where are her friends to say “honey…just let it go”?
Of course once you start, how does it stop? On the flip side look at Demi Moore, the girl looks good no? She should be the official advert for plastics, has bagged a man half her age, and doesn’t look like she has had an ounce of work done even though she has openly admitted it. But let’s not kid ourselves here ladies, and this is what I think separates the Demi’s from my train friend. Demi had the work done but still takes damn good care of herself – why else would her butt have looked so flawless as her erm slightly immature husband posted a pic of it on twitter? You can bet your life Demi eats well and trains her butt off for that ass (no pun intended), whereas my train friend, let’s call her Trouty, probably got the work done, and has done sweet FA for the upkeep.
Now we’re all about the natural route at Fit Girl as we love older women whose lines are on the face but still have a sparkle in their eye, to us that is true beauty. But if you do go the plastics route, we think there should be some form of regulatory system…
a. Hunt down Demi’s surgeon and only let him do the work if any!
b. Once you’ve had the work done, train your ass off and don’t eat crap
c. Don’t deny you’ve had work done, it’s boring cos everyone knows that you’re lying
d. If your husband posts a pic of your ass on twitter fly-kick him in the head!
So that’s the regulatory system, in all of it’s officialness!!
