Feeling Stylish

This is a topic I’ve wanted to write on for a while but I’d love to know your opinions on the subject. If you’ve written a similar post or plan to write something, add the link to the link-up at the bottom of the page. If you’d be so kind to link back here to get others involved that would be great!

Ever since beginning to lose weight I’ve had time to dwell on how I feel about my body. Do I hate it and that’s why I want to change it? No, god no!

I love my body and that’s why I am getting fitter and healthier. I love how I look but think how I could look without flabby bits. I think how I could look if clothes fitted me properly. I also think about my skin, my heart, my lungs, my hair, everything. I’ve lost 60lbs and I am so much healthier. I owe it to my body to keep motoring on with that.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been exposed to a lot of pro-anorexia stuff (mainly through Tumblr) that breaks my heart. Beautiful women who think they are fat or horrible looking and that a starve/binge/purge cycle will help them to be beautiful. I’m not one to judge on body type. Curvy is beautiful, bones are beautiful, muscle is beautiful. But health is way above all of those for me.

Yes, I want to look good. There was a point at the beginning of my weight loss when looking good was my sole motivation. But things have changed, I’m not doing this to lose weight any more. I’m eating better and exercising so I can be healthy and fit. I want to out run the boys, have the stamina to dance all night long, and not have to worry about eating an entire pizza.

The media doesn’t help. It shows us pictures of skinny models and then tells us that skinny is bad, curvy is good. Then doctors tell us that being overweight is bad. We could die! Curvy women who are overweight have nowhere to turn, should they lose weight? Should they embrace their curves?

Embrace your curves, if you have them. Lead a healthy lifestyle and you can’t go wrong. You might lose weight but generally if you have curves at 17 stone you’re likely to have them at 10 stone too.

Those of you blessed with high cheekbones, tiny waists and skinny legs. Embrace it, don’t let people tell you what you need to be. You don’t need to be curvy, you don’t need to be thinner.

Muscular women, show off those muscles! No doubt you’ve worked hard to get them!

Learn to dress for your shape and it would make a whole world of difference to how you see yourself.

Love your body and treat it well.

Feel free to link your body image blog posts below and leave a comment when you do! I’ll be along to read and comment!

Rock workouts.

My music of choice would be classic rock in most given situations. While driving along listening to the Foo Fighters today I remembered how great rock music is for getting adrenaline pumping. Now, I normally run to either dance or rock, both – as long as they have the right BPM – are brilliant. And, of course, I don’t mind doing workout videos to dance music.

I’m lucky in that I can appreciate most types of music but I bet there are a lot of rockers out there who steer clear of videos and classes simply because the music isn’t to their tastes.

I’ve recently jumped on the Zumba bandwagon. I do the DVDs at home (not ready to be that uncoordinated in front of a group of people) and, although the moves are fun, the music is very repetitive and a bit boring. I put to you, Zumba and fitness fans, how about a workout to a mixture of the following:

• Muse
• Foo Fighters
• Asia
• AC/DC
• The Darkness
• Fallout Boy
• KISS
• Greenday
• Biffy Clyro

Now, I’m no choreographer. I couldn’t put together a workout of any sort. So, I put this to all the Zumba instructors and fitness folk out there. Just remember where you heard it first.

Of course, if I’m missing something here and there are rock workouts out in the world then someone please tell me. I want to get rock hard abs to AC/DC and sweat to the Foos!

Firstly, apologies for the awfulness of these pictures they are hastily taken in the mirror but they give a good idea of the weight I’ve lost!

The first image was taken just before I started going to a personal trainer last year. The second image is the result of a lot of hard work. It was taken today! 2.5 stone gone since then, that’s about 4 stone in total since I started to lose weight in April 2009! Amazing how exercise speeds up the process.

I’m really proud of myself but I still feel like there’s a long way to go.

The outfit is of little interest, I suppose, but in case your are interested… In the March picture I’m wearing River Island jeans in a size too big and a Dorothy Perkins tank top. Now accessorised with Batman converse and my River Island sheep cardigan (not pictured).

I really understand how tea can make a difference on your life. It can relax you, make you feel alert and detoxify. This new advert really struck a chord with me, a woman overcoming obstacles to make her way to the top of a hill. I’ve been having a rough time lately trying to juggle work, new house, blogging, more blogging, social media and exercise so I love being able to just sit with a hot cup of tea.

Take a look at the video, it’s beautiful and the song is exquisite

The last advert Twinings did featured a wonderful cover of Wherever You Will Go, orginally by The Calling. The song rocketed to fame and I’m sure Twinings hope the same will happen with this lovely Fleetwood Mac cover.

Sean Summers, Marketing Director for Twinings, has this to say about the advert: “We had a fantastic response to our first advert and were inundated with phenomenal feedback – often hearing that it stirred a few emotions. The message, that busy women should take 10 minutes to get back to themselves, resonates strongly.

“Moving into this new area of emotional advertising was unchartered territory for us. However, now we can see the Gets You Back To You ethos spreading and that consumers were moved by the advert, we hope our next instalment will be equally if not, even more positively received.”

This was a sponsored post. However, all opinions are my own.