Frugal Frump to Fab/Winter Solstice

lessonlearned

Hi Everyone, ladies, lurkers and any curious newbies.

Welcome to the new Frugal Frump to Fab express, your ticket to a new shiny improved fab new you. Welcome aboard and hope you enjoy the ride.:D

A word of explanation for the newbies.

We are a group of people determined to transform ourselves from frumps to being fab. The timescale is 6 months taking us to the Winter Solstice on 21st December - just in time for Christmas.

We are just starting our second six month segment.

So .............do you want to be a "Christmas Cracker", do you want to start the New Year feeling fit and looking fab. Are you skint and need to do this MSE style.

If you've more dash than cash then join in.

We are a nice bunch of people here and we are happy to pool our collective knowledge and pass on any tips or advice. We are non-judgemental, kind and supportive.

As well as tips and advice we have the odd natter, share our general musings and, when necessary, have a bit of rant and let off steam.

I am a professionally trained and experienced beauty therapist with a special interest in natural treatments and products, making many of my potions and possets myself.

I will happily share my recipes and experience with you, passing on a few trade secrets along the way.

Your mission, should you decide to accept, is to make small sustainable changes to your lifestyle to help you achieve your goals.

Easy peasy does it, small steps, nothing too strenuous.

A little bit of exercise each day (you are allowed the occasional day off):rotfl:
A few tweaks to your diet to ensure you are eating healthily - most of the time;)
One small beauty treatment a day, usually using homemade recipes from ingredients found in your kitchen cupboard
A little bit of pampering and a little bit of TLC

All our tips and treatments are virtually free or cost just a few pennies, although we do occasionally have the odd splurge and treat ourselves to the odd salon treatment.

My first six months on our plan cost me just £100 and most of that was spent on new clothes.

Anyway, thought I'd just open up the thread so that you can all get posting.

So newbies - come along, join in and enjoy the ride.

I will be along later with today's pearls of wisdom.:rotfl:

See ya x

Pink*Kitchen*Lady

OOoh sounds great! I'm down for being a "Christmas Cracker'
~PKL

MrsWoolfe

Yay Shiny New Thread!!!!:j

Thanks LL,

Right, well day one of the new regime, I spent today's lunch hour reading up on http://www.britishcurlies.co.uk/curl_forum/

as I have very curly hair that sometimes behaves and can look lovely but at the moment is pretty dull/rubbish shape/not playing ball...I will be giving my hair some much needed TLC tonight, a good wash with a clarifying shampoo ( a gentle one though) a Deep condition and then a lime water rinse- I have done this before and had fantastic results, but got lazy and it shows:o I may also give the ends a little trim if time permits- this is much easier to do when you have curly hair- mistakes don't show up lol- can be daunting the first time but you soon get the hang of it- if any is interested this is quite helpful:
http://www.suite101.com/content/cutting-curly-hair-a67071

and this helped me too:
http://ask.metafilter.com/19258/How-do-I-cut-my-curly-medium-curls-shoulder-length-hair-by-myself

now I know many of you will shrink in horror at the idea of cutting your own hair but for my hair, I've found that I can often get a better result myself- very few hairdressers really know what to do with curly hair tbh and most will often insist on blow-drying it straight- which is pointless as a cut that looks nice on straight hair will more often than not look poo once it's curly again, that and most insist on a wet cut- again not great as the curls look completely different once dry- you just can't gauge how it will "fall" until it's dry...

anyway, I've rarely had a good cut- or at least as good as I can now get it myself from a hairdresser- so until I find a hairdresser who specialises in curly hair- or can afford one of the ones I've had reccomendations for- I'll save the £70 odd they charge at a normal hairdresser (my hair is half-way down my back) and do it for free! :money::D

Still no exercise for me at the moment- ankle is still playing up- had been getting better but Saturday's shenanigans and being on my feet all day meant it swelled up again and is a little sore again- I'm not going to push it til things feel properly healed up- but guys if in 3 weeks I've still not got back on the bike give me a gentle nudge please?:o

I've got my friend's Hen Do on Saturday- the one we were themeing around our crazy shoes- which I can now not wear due to bum ankle- and it turns out she has also had a tumble and hurt her ankle!:mad: guess we'll be wearing flats all round then! still going to dress up though and I'll be wearing my favourite dress:http://www.rockabillypinup.co.uk/sweetheart-polka-swing-dress-hell-bunny-p-322.html mine is the black and white version with a red belt and we plan to glam it up as much as possible! Can't wait!!!

Right Ladies, Lurkers and potential new recruits, hope all are well and some more of you come and join in- it's fun, makes you feel great and best of all MSE!!!

Bye for now

MrsWoolfe

yummymommy

Ooooh count me in. I'm not sure about me cutting my own hair but am open to most other suggestion.

I am on the way to loosing weight but still have a way to go. I am currently going through a nasty divorce, so time and money are rather limited.

But I sooooooooooooooo want to be a christmas cracker !!!!:j

pollyskettle

Can I be a Christmas cracker too, please? I've been doing quite well using the myfitnesspal site since 30/04 and have lost about 26lb so far. I mostly walk as my exercise (8.5 miles today - although this was not a 'normal' day, I usually do 2 miles in the morning and then I aim to do more later, but it doesn't always work like that!). I'm about to start Jillian Michaels' 30 day shred as I'd like to finish that before the children are off school.

My diet is quite restricted due to an egg allergy and intolerances to cheese and potatoes - I eat lots and lots of rice! My diet does get very same-y though I did make shortbread today though and scoffed teeny weeny one, but that balances the hideous amount of walking I did, so I'm good! The beauty of an egg allergy (every cloud and all that) is that I can make lots and lots of cakes and stuff for the family and not be bothered by them as I can't eat them! The baking takes the edge off the sweet craving too, I find.

I generally weigh in on a Friday morning and update my signature then. My first goal was 35lb loss by 1st July as that would put me back at exactly the weight I was when I gave up smoking on 1/7/09. I'm obviously going to miss that as I have 9lb and 2 weeks to go, but not by much and I'm very proud of what I've achieved. I need to lose more weight than that 35lb, but my goal is achievable by Christmas '11 and I'm pretty committed to making it.

I'm afraid I fail miserably at being a 'girl'. I have no idea about beauty treatments/make up or anything like that, but, at 36, I feel it is now time I learn so I would love to pick up some tips too.

I can also waffle quite a lot......sorry All I really meant to say was 'hello' :hello:

elantan

hey lovely to see a new thread started ... can i join in as well ?

today i actually went onto the treadmill for a short while ... it wasnt long but it was good to get back to it ... i miss excercising so much so i deff plan on getting on top of that ... not sure how i am quite going to manage it with my shift work but i need to do it, so if anyone has any suggestions i would be more than grateful

i also ate the second part of the vegetarian curry with brown rice that was made in the slow cooker yesterday .. i plan on having some home made bread with marmalade when i get into work but other than that it is going to be coffee and soy milk for me for the rest of the day... i have started taking evening primrose oil as well as this month before my period i got really bad chocolate cravings and i ate so much ... the annoying thing is i dont even like chocolate ( i know i know ... but it's true) so i am hoping evening primrose oil will help ... can anyone thing of anything else that might help with cravings etc ?

sorry to add so much for a first post but i wanted to give you a bit of an idea about where i am etc .. please feel free to ask any questions


polly i am not a girly girl either ... more used to being up to my knees in mud etc ... but i do enjoy treatments ( i am soooo worth it lol) i have not got a clue on anything female though .. i mean alot of the time i dont even brush my hair and makeup well that is a rarity for me ... maybe we can learn together ?

Cerisa

I'd quite like to hae a go at this please :j

pavlovs_dog

any advice on cracking a chocolate addiction?

is there a link to the old thread so i can swot up and see what i'm letting myself in for?

harrys_nan

I would like to join in as well, but i haven't any beauty tips or good recipes, in fact I'm a bit of a no hoper. Never had any pamper session only having my hair cut and and at my age (mid 60's) Ive even forgotten how to choose clothes I live in jeans, so HELP please

rockstar44

This is just what I need!:j I've always struggled with my weight but leading up to being 40 I spent hours in the gym (didn't want to be fat & forty!) and it worked! I've kept the weight off over the past 4 years and been really happy with my shape for the first time ever! My lovely new boyfriend moved in in September last year and I was doing ok until Christmas then it all went to pot! I've only recently got back in to the gym, healthy eating etc and I know from the past that writing down what I've done helps so here goes! Yesterday I did Body Pump Class & tonight I went to the gym after work! Hooray!

Kerry78

Count me in please! Love the idea.

I admit to spending too much money on skincare, I have oily skin with open pores and seborrheic dermatitis so I'm always looking for skincare that "works" meaning something that calms down the oil and doesn't strip my skin. It's an on going search!

I have a few major changes happening in the next 6 months, I'm getting married (in August in New York), moving in with OH (hopefully when we come home from New York but it depends on how our house renovation is going), coming off the pill and being made redundent (ok that's happening on 31st Dec but almost in the 6 months!)

This is something that can help me stay grounded!