Fitness Friday| How To Reduce Cellulite

Image from Google

I'm going to be honest here, so I don't know about you, but I know I suffer from the dreaded cellulite, but thankfully I'm not alone as apparently Ninety per cent of women suffer from it, including celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Blake Lively! It is caused by a combination of factors including toxin build up, water retention and poor circulation.

Below are some tips I have picked up over the year to help reduce the appearance of cellulite!

Step One- Change your diet

Healthy eating is very important when it comes to cellulite, as eating processed, junk food only encourages our bodies to retain water and slows down our circulation. Reducing your consumption of saturated fat, caffeine, wheat, salty foods, alcohol and refined carbs will make a big difference. 

Step Two- Move your body

Exercise it the most effective way to ridding cellulite. For the best results you should try and mix up your work outs, include; aerobic exercises such as jogging and cycling or swimming; toning exercises such as weight training and lots of squats; lymph-boosting exercises like yoga and Pilates. 

Step Three- Stimulate your system

Stimulating your lymphatic system increases the oxygen travelling through the body, and gets rid of toxins. The most effective method is through body brushing. You do this by selecting a brush which is not too soft or not too hard, and brush before your bath or shower. Start at the feet and working up your legs and across the hips, bottom and stomach in upward strokes. Move from the hands, up the arms to the shoulders, always brushing towards your heart. 

7 Top Tips

1. Eat plenty of fresh foods and reduce your processed food consumption.
2. Eat protein daily.
3. Cut out fatty, sugary foods which are stored as fat, mainly on your lower body. 
4. Drink loads of still water!
5. Exercise! Exercise and Exercise! 
6. Relax once a day- take a few minutes to concentrate on your breathing.
7. Body brush to improve the skin texture and use a good moisturiser. 

Do you have any of your own tips?

Fitness Fridays| Ways to detox everyday

I know I have written and article before on detoxing, and whether it is a scam or not. My personal opinion is that tablets, and expensive shakes and syrups are not the answer. Detoxing is being kind to your body, giving it the nutrition it needs so it can function properly. 

Everyday your liver, lungs, kidneys, digestive system and lymphatic system work overtime to help keep your body free from toxins. If you were to improve your everyday routine by incorporating a few of these tips you would be giving your body a helping hand, ensuring you stay beautiful. Following these tips could help you be slimmer, less bloated, and keep your hair, nails and skin strong and glowing.

• Go Organic- This is a big ask, as we all know it can be pricey. But where you can, and whenever you have the opportunity pick organic. To help your body function properly you should feed it premium grade fuel in the form of organic fruit and veg, with plenty of wholegrain fibre and brown rice. 
• Drink more- Very simple, but very effective. You all probably know that drinking water flushes toxins out of your system. You can also get your dose of water from herbal teas, and fruits such as watermelon, cucumber and grapes.
• Bathing Beauty- Having a sauna is a great way to sweat out you toxins, but if you can't get to a sauna, try a couple of handfuls of Epsom Salts in your bath. These salts draw out the impurities and improve you circulation. 
• Brush up- Skin brushing is a great way to detox by stimulating the lymphatic system. Do this with a natural bristle brush for five minutes a day, brush along your body towards the heart in long, smooth sweeps. A added benefit to this is that doing this reduces the appearance of cellulite.
• Hot and Cold- Rinsing yourself alternatively in hot and cold water really boosts your circulation which helps rid nasty toxins in your body. Take a shower for five minutes in very hot water, allowing it to run down your back. Follow this with cold water for 30 seconds,  repeat 3 times, this will really wake you up.
• Work it out- Sweat out your toxins. Simple, free and very effective. Studies have found for those who exercise, the time it takes for waste to pass through the system was increased by 60 per cent, not time for toxins to hang around!
• Yoga Baby- Yoga is not just great for toning. It has great benefits for your insides, obviously the deep breathing used throughout yoga had detoxifying benefits. The yoga poses squeeze, stretch and massage the liver, intestines, kidneys and lungs, this helps you insides eliminate impurities and heal. 
• Snooze to loose- When you sleep your body goes into repair mode, it releases vital hormones that assist in the growth of healthy cells, healing of tissues, and fighting off infections. Studies have shown that those who don't sleep as much tend to be overweight or obese, more likely to develop diabetes, and eat foods high in calories and carbs.

Do you have any tricks you do everyday to improve your health?

Fitness Friday| Looking hot while becoming hot!

This week, I'm being less lecturer like, and I am going to ask you all to look hot while you work out... a bit more fun, as we all love shopping!

It will be much easier for you to be motivated to work out if you have cute new workout clothes to wear, so chuck out those tatty leggings and over-sized T-shirts and get yourself something hot. 

Depending on which exercises you do, you will need different clothes for the activity.

Running

Properly designed footwear is essential.
Nike Air Max Excellerate Plus
 Ladies  Running Shoe-  £75
Sports Direct

Jacket- £65
Sweaty Betty

Yoga

Yoga Pants £60
Sweaty Betty

Yoga Top £38
Sweaty Betty

Dance/Aerobics

A sports bra, is essential for
every workout you do!
Look after your boobs!
£22
Sports direct

Capri Pant £17.95
Nike.com

I hope you all invest in some sexy workout clothes!

Are Detox a sham or not?

So its that time of the year again, where health and fitness comes to the front of everyone's mind. Detoxing is obviously one of the most popular ways to kick start this phase many of us go through. From juice diets, to yoga, to beauty treatments, there are many different ways to detox. However I recently read an article in the Daily Mail saying that detoxing, in fact, had no benefit to health and is a sham. To be honest I always take any article published by the Daily Mail with a pinch of salt, as I believe they can over react a lot!

So I did some researching into the topic. Experts believe that the body is perfectly capable of ridding of all the toxins in your system without the need of detoxing. They even claim that some detoxes out there can even be dangerous. Detoxing is not what improves your body's functionality, it is the increase in the healthiness of peoples diets that make them feel better, and it is in fact bad diets and lack of exercise that make people feel sluggish and heavy, not toxins. Basically experts say detoxing is no more than a marketers dream and a million pound industry.

I personally agree that the body does detox itself, but to a degree you can help your body through many methods. You cannot cram your body full of rubbish continually, do no exercise and expect it to still function effectively and properly for the rest of your life, you need to nudge it in the right direction. I don't agree with spending large amounts of money on special products, but instead, upping your intake of vegetables and fruit, restricting carbs, taking up yoga and Pilates (exercises that concentrate on breathing and stretching), just using your commonsense. Do not buy into fads and pills, if you up your vitamins and fibre you will see more movement in your bowls (lovely I know, sorry) which will help rid the waste you have in your body.

For example my mother had a series of colonic irrigation, and the benefits she gained form this were great. When she saw the therapist she obviously listed all the possible benefits, but my mum personally lost around 7 pounds, which was most obvious on her upper abdominal area, as this is supposedly where waste in our body become crammed, and makes us look bloated no matter how much exercise and toning you try to do. She also felt less lethargic, and recommends the treatment to everyone and anyone who will listen.

A personal example of detoxing is when myself and my friend did the Maple Syrup Diet, which is famous because Beyonce used it to lose weight for her role in Dream Girls. Basically you are to drink nothing but a mixture of lemons in hot/cold water, organic maple syrup and cayenne pepper (it was pretty gross). You drink this for 6 times a day for 10 days, me and my friend managed 4 1/2 days. Surprisingly my hunger disappeared after 2 1/2 days, however my humongous headache made me want to die. This is an extreme "Detox" and I would not recommend it, as personally apart form losing 5 pounds, I saw no other benefit, I think I actually looked worse.

What are your opinions on detoxing. Have you ever tried a detox, or bought any products?

The importance of Health! Which life are you designing?

This image popped up on my Dashboard on Tumblr, and it really struck a cord with me. I may not be the healthiest person in the world, but I have a great respect for it, and thankfully a knowledge of it.

I get really annoyed by people who assume that because they are slim or skinny, whatever, they believe that they are healthy. Because I can tell you many of them are not. Your weight is not a representation of your health, you can be slim yet still have unhealthy fat around your organs that can damage them. You can be skinny, yet be unfit, and not have strong bones and muscles to support you, that will quickly deteriorate with age. There are plenty of people out they who may be classed as overweight, due to their high BMI's yet, they are healthier than people who are deemed healthy because of a lower weight.

I am not consistent with my health and fitness, but I do try, and I know that although "overweight" I am a lot fitter and healthier than some of my friends. Nutrition has a lot to do with it, and since drinking smoothies everyday for breakfast, which include on average half a mango, quarter of a cucumber, handful of berries, one banana, and a handful of spinach, I can't believe the crap I used to start my day with. Even just walking for 30 minutes a day is better than nothing. I believe that everyone should be active at least once a day. There is no excuse for not working out these days, especially with the computer games and DVD's that mean you don't have to trek to a gym, they make working out work round your schedule (although exercise should always BE part of your schedule). Even if injured with a bad back, or leg etc, do some gentle exercise such as yoga (which is amazing!)

Overall you may be young now, but how you live your life now will effect how you live it when you are older. Your body has a very good knowledge of how you treat it, and it will treat you the same as you age. Treat your body well and it will look after you for years. Abuse your body and it will soon shy and retire from yourself, and will refuse to work properly.

Just take the picture for example, or look to Jane Fonda for inspiration. At 73 she has just release a new exercise DVD. She admits she can;t do everything she used to, but she tries. (And she still looks fabulous doing it.)

Please just think about how you treat your body. Even just aim for 4 days healthy, 3 days not, and try and build it up and up. Aim for healthy breakfast and lunches, every little bit will help, and the more you do it, the more it become a habit.

That Time of the Month| Exercises That Relieve Period Pains

So this is a little personal, but it effects all of us girls. It's just a quick post about a way I have found to help us through this time of the month.

Obviously the usual, hot-water bottle, sofa, chocolate, magazines of films, helps. But sometimes you can not do that, and you need to actually get on with your life. I always have one day, when I am in serious pain, once so much so I nearly passed out, and at times I have been sick. So I always try and find ways to relieve this pain, so I can continue the day as normal as possible.

As much as you want to, curling up in a ball, does not help! Your muscles need to be relaxed not tensed. So I have found a short easy gentle yoga routine can help, as this helps you focus on your breathing, not the pain. It also helps you relax all you muscles especially the stomach ones.

You can easily search such routines on YouTube, as there is loads of free tutorials available. I have recently used;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moF1sy0SvGk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4SDE2kpQHs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mChI17yrOXM&feature=related

I hope this helps even one person! How do your relieve your cramps?