Body Image - Moderation moderation and some more moderation!

Happy Monday Ladies, wow this has been a busy year and I cant believe the silly season is upon us already, I have finished my shopping and ordered my food, so i feel at least a bit in control....... for now,

Ha ha ha APPARENTLY Christmas is the time of year when you're 'allowed' to indulge in all foods, yet you're also expected to look fabulous in slinky outfits. So how do you manage it? Check out the following five steps and try to avoid weight gain during the festive period.

1. Decide now to be more careful about what you eat this Christmas, but still enjoy yourself! You don't have to eat mince pies (unless you want to) to have a good time! Enjoy the company of friends and family you don't see that often, dance at the work party and play games with the children.

2. Be prepared. It is essential that you are mentally and physically ready. To get yourself mentally prepared, ask yourself these questions:

Do I seriously want to eat healthily and feel great at Christmas?
Am I resigned to the fact that I will gain weight over the Christmas period?
Do I want to face the task of losing the same weight a second time around?

If after serious consideration your answers are 'yes, I am serious; no, I am not going to gain weight and no, I don't want to lose weight a second time', then we're in business! Your attitude is the most important factor towards staying healthy and staying slim over Christmas. Don't underestimate the power of the mind.

Thoughts like 'Oh, I am bound to gain weight at this time of the year, I always have', or 'I'll get seriously down to losing weight again after Christmas' are negative. Ensure that your thoughts are positive. Replace, 'This year I want to stay slim during Christmas', with 'This year I will stay slim during Christmas'.

Develop this positive attitude and use the power of imagination to assume greater control over what you eat this Christmas. Then you can easily survive the temptations that will present themselves to you.

3. Know what your 'Christmas weight maintenance' goal is. It's the holiday season, you'll be eating out more and eating more rich foods, so your goal over the next few weeks can be simply maintaining your weight. That way, you won't be disappointed if you don't lose weight, while any loss will be a bonus!

But also remember that a healthy eating plan will give you a better chance of losing weight. Know what you are aiming for and be very positive about how determined you are to keep weight off between now and Christmas. Then, go for it!

4. Really want it! This is a weight maintenance goal for you, not for your partner, your family or anyone else. You really want to stay slim now that you've started taking care of your body and your health. Be selfish about it; this is your goal and the rewards and the benefits are also yours. As it is, you are the only one you disappoint here.

5. Believe that you can do it. It is certainly possible to keep the weight off leading up to Christmas. The only thing that might prevent you from doing it is yourself.

Lastly ENJOY and believe in moderation moderation and some more moderation xx A

looks do count - Body Image

Hello gorgeous ladies,

Do looks count?

I am writing this post today because it has become apparent to me, regardless of how much I try not to believe, that the latter is true.......Looks do count.

A client came in to the Salon yesterday and during  a conversation with him we both came to realise that he had just employed a previous employee of mine. The Girl in question was squeaky clean looking, very pretty, outgoing, polite etc..... everything a employee looks for in the Beauty industry. But on the other hand, after working with us we found her to be unreliable, not at all punctual, self absorbed and not very loyal. to cut a long story short she left us and has moved on to four or five other jobs in the past year.......Back to the client, he employed her obviously going by everything on the outside rather than past resumes. (she does present herself very well.)

So that answers my question......... looks do count!


Who says you can't judge a book by its cover? Why not be as superficial as possible? Why not trust first impressions? We all do it, and sometimes we're actually correct in doing so.
A study released several weeks ago noted women can look at a photograph of a man's face and assess with high accuracy whether he's the kind of guy who likes children, and thus shows good potential as a long-term mate. Conversely, the females identified correctly the men who had the highest testosterone levels and most suitability for a short-term fling (i.e. someone who won't tolerate nagging over changing diapers, chauffeuring the kids, doing household chores, keeping beer stains off the furniture, etc.).
University of Chicago researcher Dario Maestripieri, a co-author of the study, guessed that the women judged men with "a more rounded face, a gentler face" to be those most favorably inclined toward children. Another researcher suggested the men who liked children seemed to have a happier expression on their face when photographed, and women must have picked up on that.
Of course, the men showing a fondness for children may never have actually been around them. Once properly exposed, they may hate the brats, and in fact become foul-tempered, depressed louts from whom the children cower. But that would take a longitudinal study to determine, which we don't have time for.

Girly-men look good

Back in 1998, Scottish psychologists concluded women tended to prefer the faces of men with more feminine features because they were perceived as gentler, trustworthy types who would be loyal mates and good fathers. In fact, men as well as women had more favorable opinions of those with more feminine features. It's a long-term trend, apparently.
"If you look at the evolutionary record, we've moved from a more robust form to a more graceful form as a species" in overall features, said Scottish researcher Ian Penton-Voak. We're too illiterate to know the word "gracile," but we think it means someone who looks more like Leonardo DiCaprio than, say, one of the hillbillies in "Deliverance."

Shallow little people

It's never too early to begin showing bias toward attractive people, and prejudice against those among us who are not. Infants, in fact, lead the way.
University of Texas professor Dr. Judith H. Langlois wrote of how babies spend more time looking at attractive than unattractive faces, if they're given a pair of images to look at side by side. When able to play with a woman wearing either an attractive or unattractive life-like mask, babies focused far more on the prettier choice. Newborns, it seems, are just as shallow as anyone who ever watched "The Man Show."
Dr. Langlois was also among the researchers who concluded years ago that nothing is better than looking average. Computer technology has demonstrated that composites of various faces are typically viewed as more attractive than individual photos of any of the subjects themselves.
"Despite the old adage 'never judge a book by its cover' and despite the prevailing belief that attractiveness does not matter once we know a person, even parents judge and treat their own children differently based on attractiveness, although they are not aware of it," Dr. Langlois wrote.

Vive le difference?

Does anyone doubt that men care more about their partners' looks than do women? Author David Buss, in "The Evolution of Desire," found proof for the assumption in surveys done repeatedly of the two genders worldwide. On a scale of 0.00 to 3.00, men tend to rate the importance of looks as about 0.5 more important than do women.
"Regardless of the location, habitat, marriage system or cultural living arrangement, men in all 37 cultures ... value physical appearance in choosing a mate more than women," Mr. Buss wrote. Back in the day, as they say, men wanted youthful-looking wives who gave the appearance of being able to pump out babies at a high rate. Modern studies have shown, according to Mr. Buss, that men acquire social status by having an attractive mate, although women with handsome husbands don't reap the same benefit.
"People suspect that a homely man must have a high status if he can interest a stunning woman," Mr. Buss says.

Pretty as a picture

Of course, this is the kind of knowledge from which Hugh Hefner and other publishers have profited for decades, without any researcher needing to tell them anything.

Amen xx A

How old is too old.......? Never by the looks of this!

How old is too old to wear a certain fashion item?? should we "listen to everything we read"? or is it just a question of personal self esteem?

Actress Helen Mirren is in her 60's and her famous bikini photos last week have raised the bar for bodies mature women aspire to. (Isn't she fabulous)

A new survey published in the Daily Mail May 11 now tries to provide an official benchmark too.

2,000 women between the ages of 18 and 65 polled by UK dieting company Diet Chef proved to be conservative when it comes to the appropriate age for wearing a mini skirt (35) or boob tube(33) but were much more generous regarding the bikini (47), giving all of you until the age of 61 to throw out your swimsuit and never show yourself at the beach again.

Everyone but Elle MacPherson, who is older than 34, shouldn't be wearing leather pants,apparently, but for leggings, you'll get another eleven years until they become an item of the past also. (in my opinion it depends how your wearing them, sometimes they shouldn't be worn at all.

As for shoes, mark your 47th birthday by throwing out any Uggs or knee highs and your 50th is the sunset for all stilettos. Apparently its time from there on to opt for more sensible shoe choices.

Oh and PS its time to chop off your hair, apparently long hair and ponytails are no-nos from your early 50s.

Thank god I still have a few years up my sleeve.