Frump to Fab - Onwards and Upwards

Prudent

sweaty_betty wrote: »

Welcome Prudent :-)
Wow - seven weeks holiday (I'm guessing you work in education?) - that'll give you chance to have a good start! Do you have a plan for what you'll tackle first? Can you throw money at it initially?

If I had seven weeks - and the money! - I'd go to a beauty counter and get them to recommend some skin care, or I'd go to a salon for a facial and ask what they recommended. Fwiw I really love brands like dermalogica (expensive but slightly better on ebay), origins etc. A cheaper alternative which is also good (in my experience) is Lush. You can buy much cheaper products, but if I was starting out I'd definitely go to one of the above to ask them about my skin type, kind of products they'd recommend etc.

I'd then join a gym and book some personal training sessions and ask them to put together a weightloss/fitness programme for me - they seem to be happy to do this generally. Also, there should be at least some sunny days over the next seven weeks, so you could take advantage of this, go for long walks, bike rides (if you have a bike, or see if you can get a cheap one from ebay/freecycle etc).

Exercise can take a while to get in the habit of, but if you set yourself small goals each day/week, it's doable.

Thank you so much for all the ideas Yes I do work in a school

The gym personal fitness really appeals.

My first target is my weight and I want to join slimming world this week to work on that. I don't have much money so everything will have to be on a budget. I bought a bike a few weeks ago. The school reconditions bikes in a workshop and I bought one of them. It is a basic mountain bike, but only cost £45 which I could afford ok.

Today I have:

Had a healthy breakfast of a spinach, tomato and mushroom omelette plus some rocket.

Been for a lovely 3 mile walk beside a loch.

Replaced two cups of tea with hot water, sliced lemon and ginger.

Had pea and mint soup plus carrots and some reduced fat humus for lunch.

I like lush, so will be investigating their products. I am very frugal so am going to try using up some products I already have first. Some of them are very good as they are competitions wins. I love ELF makeup, so my makeup challenge is to find the right products and learn to apply them well.

faerielight

I've only recently discovered E.L.F makeup and it's soo cheap and great quality! whichj products do you use and like? As I said I'm loving their mineral foundation, but also their mineral blush and mineral booster finishing powder, and their mineral lipsticks are great too. The nail polish isn't too great tho, it takes so long to dry and smells so strong. Your food for today sounds so yummy!

maddiemay

Prudent wrote: »

Thank you so much for all the ideas Yes I do work in a school

The gym personal fitness really appeals.

My first target is my weight and I want to join slimming world this week to work on that. I don't have much money so everything will have to be on a budget. I bought a bike a few weeks ago. The school reconditions bikes in a workshop and I bought one of them. It is a basic mountain bike, but only cost £45 which I could afford ok.

Today I have:

Had a healthy breakfast of a spinach, tomato and mushroom omelette plus some rocket.

Been for a lovely 3 mile walk beside a loch.

Replaced two cups of tea with hot water, sliced lemon and ginger.

Had pea and mint soup plus carrots and some reduced fat humus for lunch.

I like lush, so will be investigating their products. I am very frugal so am going to try using up some products I already have first. Some of them are very good as they are competitions wins. I love ELF makeup, so my makeup challenge is to find the right products and learn to apply them well.

If you are able to visit a Lush store in person, if asked they will give decent size samples of a lot of products to take away and try, I have sensitive skin and in the past had terrible eczema on my face, the sales assistants were always lovely in recommending the best products and sending me away with things to try, in the end I had a range of things that I could use without worry.

No affiliation to L*sh, just very satisfied with their help at the time.

faerielight

I just followed a youtube nail art video and painted my nails a taupey colour (rimmel steel grey) with gold glitter tips gradiant.. it has so cheered me up

Prudent

maddiemay wrote: »

If you are able to visit a Lush store in person, if asked they will give decent size samples of a lot of products to take away and try, I have sensitive skin and in the past had terrible eczema on my face, the sales assistants were always lovely in recommending the best products and sending me away with things to try, in the end I had a range of things that I could use without worry.

No affiliation to L*sh, just very satisfied with their help at the time.

Thank you. This is a great idea. I will be able to visit a Lush store. I like their honey face scrub. It makes my skin very soft. This afternoon I have experimented with a homemade tumeric, honey and milk mask.

Floss

Maddiemay, I would exfoliate & shave first, wait a day, exfoliate & moisturise and then use your self tan mitt, but put fine latex gloves underneath to protect your fingers

faerielight

the face mask sounds great.. do you find the turmeric is soothing and good for redness? Also does it stain the skin? I made a good mask recently with calamine powder and rhasoul mud, the calamine is really soothing for my sensitive rosacea skin.

maddiemay

Floss wrote: »

Maddiemay, I would exfoliate & shave first, wait a day, exfoliate & moisturise and then use your self tan mitt, but put fine latex gloves underneath to protect your fingers

Thank you Floss:A, I will start tomorrow, Ooooh I had not thought about wearing gloves under the mitt.

lessonlearned

Hello Everyone and Welcome to the Newbies……

Re the turmeric. Turmeric is a natural anti-inflammatory so should help calm any redness. It's also a traditional acne treatment. Avoid getting it near or on the eyebrows or hairline where it will "catch" and stain, otherwise staining shouldn't be a problem.

Well for the last couple of days most of my fabbing has been packing up ready to move on Monday and decluttering on an industrial scale;) I even went through my collection of make up and potions and had a massive clear out.

Reading through the recent posts by our newbies I was struck by your courage, strength and humour. You are all so brave, positive and determined to reclaim your lives and improve your health.

Good for you.

Don't get me wrong I am not anti-doctors but I really do believe that far too many people do rely on doctors far too much and expect the medical profession to simply wave a magic wand and perform miracles.

I call this "Dr Kildaire Syndrome" (From the 60's TV series where our handsome Dr Kildaire never lost a patient and always had a miracle cure up his sleeve).

Sadly, although our medics often perform daily miracles, I do believe very firmly that we all have to take some responsibility for our bodies and our health.

We owe it to ourselves to look after our health and our bodies.

Nature gave us fabulous bodies and yet how often do we abuse them - the wrong food, not enough movement, too much stress, not enough rest, self-medicating with alcohol and comfort eating, over-reliance on prescription drugs etc.

We women often put our families first and put our own needs on the back burner, until one day we get sick because we have neglected ourselves for too long.

That is partly what this thread is about and how it all started.

One day my son took a photo of me. I looked at it and was horrified. The next morning I took a long hard look in the mirror and said to myself "Enough"!!

(Have you done the mirror test recently - go on you know the drill by now……)

"Fabbing" may sound frivolous but really it's just shorthand for taking better care of ourselves, not just our appearance, but our health, our well-being, our happiness. It's about re-taking control of our lives and not allowing ourselves to drift into a sad and unhealthy future.

So - just do something each and every day to improve your lives, your health and your well-being. Take it slowly and gently.

Eat well, exercise a little, get enough sleep, do something which gives you pleasure, make your surroundings pleasant and comfortable, take care with your appearance.

If you don't know where to start then just start with a squirt of perfume.

Smell divine every day and bring out your Inner Goddess.

Don't be dismayed at how far you have to travel, just enjoy the journey. From now on you are going to Have Some Fun - it's your turn.

Think how far you've come already. You have lurked for a while and now you've jumped in. You've now got your head in the right place and are ready to transform yourself and your life.

Remember you didn't become a Frump overnight - it probably took several years. Don't try to do too much at once, give yourself time and lots of TLC. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Becoming Fab is not just for Christmas or your Summer Hols -

It's For Life. - Hopefully a long and healthy one.!!!

Just Edited to Add

It's never to late to change and you are never too old to make a fresh start.

Google "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead" and read about how Joe Cross transformed himself and the lives of many others. Now you may not want to be quite so radical in your approach and do the whole juicing/fasting thing but it just goes to show what we can achieve when we really put our minds to it.

maddiemay

LL, wise words from you as usual, I think that we all need to remind ourselves from time to time that we have a duty of care to ourselves. Like you I have invested a considerable sum of my disposable income on physio etc rather than holidays, clothes and the like as the help that I need is only available privately, I realise that this is not possible for everyone, but thanks to the wonders of the internet and technology there are lots of ways that we can improve our lives, support from this place and the people here makes it so much easier too.

I hope that the move goes well and that your new home is soon less of a building site.