Short term goals

These are goals that you plan to achieve within the next week or so. Maybe you want to lose five pounds before your friends wedding in two weeks. This is a goal, as you lose, track it tell your friends about it. When you get to that two week mark see if you’ve reached your goal if you see you are 1lb shy don’t despair, go over why you might not have lost that last pound. Then rejoice in the fact that you’ve lost four lbs! These are important to keep you motivated as they keep your mind on the job at hand as your goal date is always quite close.

Medium term goals

These are ones that run over a couple of months. For example, you might want to lose two stone before your birthday which is three months away. Easily achievable, track when you are losing, your start weight, goal weight and what you are doing. If you are nearing your goal try and think about what you’ve been doing right and make sure you continue to do it for your other goals. Doing these medium term goals is important as it shows you that you can lose substantial amounts of weight. If you have six stone to lose overall then you may find that is seems like such a struggle to get through. With your medium term goal you will see that you’ve lost those two stone that’s only four more to go.

Long term goals

These are the goals that will get you to your ideal weight they could be a year in the future and could be to lose over 100 pounds. Pick something achievable and try and find out what your ideal, healthy weight is. (Just search for “ideal weight calculator” and you’ll find loads of resources to calculate a healthy weight for your height and age.)

Other indicators

You shouldn’t just look at your weight to see how you are getting on, also have goals that pertain to other things. Having short, medium and long term goals in other areas will help you to keep focused, you might find that you’ve lost inches but no weight. It’s the funny way in which our bodies work because when you exercise you turn some fat into lean muscle and it weighs more.

Measurements

Make sure you get some good starting measurements, if you want to be thorough then measure your: neck, chest, waist, hips, thigh, calf, forearm and bicep. Look online for tips on how to measure but generally it’s at the widest part of your body part except the waist which should be measured at the slimmest part. Seeing that you’ve lost inches off your waist can spur you on even if you aren’t any lighter. Maybe you have a goal to eventually get your waist size down to 30 inches, track this, measure once a week and be motivated by the inches lost!

BMI

Although your BMI relates to your weight it is a good indicator of where you should be aiming for. Your body mass index is worked out by your weight and height, a good health BMI to aim for is 25. You can find your BMI out online and it will tell you whether you are in the overweight, obese or morbidly obese category.

Clothing

Another goal might be to get into those jeans you bought two months ago that were too tight. Watching your clothes become baggy and having to buy new tighter ones is a great feeling. A long term goal might be that you want to easily fit into a UK size twelve or even wear a size twelve wedding dress!

Health

When exercising you will find that the exercises get easier and you have to do more to stay as active. If you find push ups really hard and can only manage five, the next day you should aim for six and build it slowly from there. Before you know it you will be doing 50 without even thinking about it. This is a good way to keep yourself doing the proper amount of exercise. As your body gets used to something it stops being as effective. It would take about three weeks of the same exercises before your body stopped feeling the benefit. So try to change about what you are doing every two weeks.

Having various different goals all to be achieved at different times can get quite confusing but if you have the organisational skills, or a diary, then you’ll be able to do it. Stick to the goals and reward yourself because doing all of this will help you keep on track to a healthier life style.

What I used:

Virgin Vie Mousse Foundation
UDPP
Pink FCUK eyeshadow
Blue Illamasqua eyeshadow (<3 I love this so, so much. Higly pigmented and sexy as hell! Think I have the 'Victim' shade.)
Black Hourglass Glitter Eyeshadow. From the ‘Prism’ eyeshadow duo.
Clinique Lipgloss
MAC Pink Glitter

The reason my lips look so metallic is because I applied lipgloss then dotted them with the MAC glitter. A great look but not the most comfortable. I’d love to know what you think.

I don’t get the pleasure of talking about men’s clothes very often, it is a shame because I love men’s fashion. It is somewhat an obsession. I am not blessed with a boyfriend who is happy to go shopping on a weekly basis so I can choose his wardrobe, so I am taking on my male readership to help you find a new style. I’ll try and do it all thriftily but I’m not going to be putting you in an outfit that will fall apart whilst you are running around being manly.

I’ll try and put these into full outfits but it might be best to just take this as a list of brilliant pieces that would compliment your wardrobe. Not knowing you exact wardrobe and other details I might be way off the mark with what will fit in but that’s what the comments are for.

£12 from Asos.com

£25 from Asos.com
I love these jeans. They may not be for you if you are particularly skinny and tall (unless you fancy an emo look) but would certainly suit someone of average height and build. They’d also go brilliantly with converse, pointed boots, the above t-shirt and a waist coat (although maybe not all at once.)

£65 from Asos.com
These are gorgeous, made by Superdry, a brand I love. I don’t think you should skimp on jeans, a good pair of jeans will last you years. These are more body shape friendly and will suit almost anyone.

£50 Asos.com
Any man that can pull of pointed boots will certainly turn my head. Any man that can wear electric blue, pointed boots will have me dribbling. These might not be for everyone but the good news is that they do them in black too.

£19 Asos.com
These shirts are so in right now, they look awesome, suit almost everybody and can be worn a number of ways. You can wear a plain t-shirt underneath with the shirt done up partly, or undone or you can wear it as you would a normal shirt. For a sexy cowboy look go for some black pointed boots and ripped jeans.

£23 from Asos.com
Wear a simple black jumper over a plain open necked shirt for a more casual look at work. Suit jackets and ties can sometimes be too much, these jumpers look smart and very stunning.

£425 from Asos.com
More men, especially of the younger generations should wear three piece suits. Go for quality. I can spot a cheap suit from a mile away. This is a stunning set of clothes, men should go out dressed up like this for no reason other than the fact that they look fabulous. If you can afford to have a suit tailored to your measurements do so, however, if you can’t then you should buy a suit and take it to a tailor who can fit it to your body size. Get a suit that fits, you may find the trousers are too long, the jacket is a bit loose, a tailor could sort all this out and more for around £20.

£59.99 from Republic
A nice fitted, smart coat is something I don’t see enough on men. Sure there are other, casual coats out there (one of which I’ve outlined below) but jackets such as this always look good.

£44.99 from Republic
This is a nice, simple jacket. Great to wear when you are heading out clubbing and have to take a jacket for those cold walks between clubs and bars. The collar shape is unusual and that pulls this out from the hundreds of other generic black coats.

£19.99 from Republic
Big, bold stripes. If you are cold wear this over a simple long-sleeved black top.

The Outfit:
Black Corset from: www.corsets-uk.com
Purple Skirt from Dorothy Perkins
Pink, net underskirt from Oxfam (89p – bargain)
Black leggings (I’d love to wear stockings but I really don’t think I can pull that off)
Christian Louboutin Rolando shoes.
Mini Tophat from Ann Summers
Sequined Waist Coat from Next
Feather Boa from Yarmouth Indoor Market
Possibly false lashes
Possibly black nail polish

Of course you’ll have all the pictures from the night. With all the outfits, how to recreate them and who was wearing what. Bring on the weekend folksies!

Sensitive skin

For those with sensitive skin you should try and find a gentle exfoliator, preferably a natural one suitable for your skin type. Look for ingredients such as sugar, jojoba, vitamin E and Aloe Vera. Also make sure that there are no harsh chemicals such as parabens in the scrub (these can be identified by the suffix ‘paraben.’) Look for retailers and websites that promote natural, handmade products and you will find that these are fine for sensitive skin.  If you do find a daily scrub then it may not be necessary to use it on a daily basis even if it is for sensitive skin, if you find that you can use it just three times a week and gain the desirable results then do so.

Dry skin

With dry skin you need to ensure you get a product that won’t dry you out even more, just the process of putting water on your face to wash the scrub off will dry your skin. Try and find a product formulated for your skin type or turn to other methods of exfoliation for example you can buy exfoliating facial wipes which need no water to work. They will also remove makeup, cleanse and tone. Try and use a natural product, ones with chemicals in tend to dry your skin out even if they do claim to be moisturising. When using any product even one that is formulated to moisturise your skin, apply a moisturiser afterwards whilst your skin is still wet.

Oily skin

For this skin type you need to ensure that the product does not contribute to your oiliness. You could get away with using a daily scrub to remove oil and all the dirt that clings to it. This will prevent spots, rid you of that oily feel and prepare your skin for makeup.

Acne prone skin

There are products out there specifically produced to combat acne, even if you just get one or two spots every so often or you suffer with acne quite badly investing in a product such a Clear and Clear face scrub can help to keep skin clear. If you prefer natural products then look at ones that contain tee tree and that are non-comedogenic, meaning they don’t clog pores, this will help to banish spots. These should be used daily or according to the instructions on the pack. When washing your face with the scrub, to wash it off you should use cold water, although this is less preferable to using warm water (especially with the impending winter months approaching) but it will help close your pores to any oil or gunk from your makeup that may cause spots.

There are two obstacles to over come:

1. His height – He is gangly, long arms and legs which often means that things are too short in the arm / leg area. He’s also hellishly skinny although any trouser issues can be fixed with a belt.

(Edit: I must point out that I love his gangliness, Ben just read this and retorted with “Gangly? Thanks babe : )”  Please note the smiley face, he texted this comment.)

2. Colour – The joker wears two hard to get hold of colours in the suit world. Purple and green. Dyeing may have to ensue.

The Outfit is made up of:

Pinstripe purple trousers
Blue / Grey Hexagon Shirt
Mottled brown/grey/black tie
Green waist coat
Purple coat
Grey Suit Jacket – although this isn’t seen often.

The two factors that seem to make up outfit are the purple coat and green waist coat. The next most important thing is to find purple trouser, then the hexagon shirt and tie. I’m quite a perfectionist and it is the little details such as those hexagons that would make me very, very happy but something tells me that our company at the party won’t notice them. However, everyone is going to be doing this costume because who doesn’t love Heath and the Batman films, so this gets me thinking that having one of the most authentic costumes is going to win serious cool points when exchanging Halloween pics with friends. I would mention Facebook here and how comments on Facebook about the costume would be uber cool but Ben doesn’t have face book and I doubt my friends, fashion forwards and geeky as they may be, would appreciate such awesome.

So, onto dyeing.

Dylon do a colour called Intense violet and a green called Amazon green and these dyes aren’t hard to get hold of, in fact there’s a store that sells them pretty much opposite my fave thrift store. They also do something called pre-dye also which lightens the colour of the garment you wish to dye. This would be perfect for dyeing pin stripe (can you dye pinstripe? Would it all just go one colour?) trousers, a dark coat or a waist coat.

So I need to find:

Grey/blue coat
(Grey suit jacket)
Grey/cream waist coat
Hexagon Shirt
Mottled Tie
(Golfer’s socks in some garish, colourful pattern.)

Hair

Ben already has the hair for the job, with some wax and mousse it should be easy to achieve that wet look, greasy, wavy effect. Then either with some yellow/green spray dye or coloured gel we should be able to get the correct colour. Experiments will have to ensue.

Makeup

I’m feeling pretty confident about the make up part (surprise, surprise) the only thing that may be a little difficult will be the scars. I know how to apply the wax and stuff to get raised scars but I haven’t done it in forever. Once again I shall have to experiment. However, with everything else I think I know what I’m doing. White foundation followed by a thin layer of white face powder, I’ll then get Ben to scrunch up his face for the appropriate cracks.

Eyes will be a mixture of black face paint, eyeliner and black eye shadow. The face paint will allow the cracking, whilst the eyeshadow and eyeliner will ensure the eye area stays dark. Lips will be done in face paint, then extended upward over the wax scars to create the clown look. What will be difficult will be getting the good balance between the authentic Joker look of cracked and smeared makeup with out the whole look being rubbed off by 9pm. Primer in some places but not others? Must train that boy not to rub his eyes.

*sigh* I must take this time to say: Heath, I love and miss you.

Watch this space.