Wednesday 31 July 2019
Tuesday 30 July 2019
Mom on a Budget: Affordable Back to School Clothes July 30, 2019 at 12:00PM
Monday 29 July 2019
Sunday 28 July 2019
WMBW Fit at 40 with The Arrow Club – Powered by Adidas – Part 3 They say a little progress each day adds up to big results. Now, I’m not sure who ‘they’ are or which one of ‘them’ said it, but it feels like an appropriate thing to say at the end of this body transformation journey with The Arrow Club. For those of you who’ve been following along from the start, you’ll remember that we covered eating in the last post and a little about The Arrow Clubs approach to training in the first post. If however, you stumbled upon here after googling “How to lose weight while drinking beer” then I have good and bad news. The good news is, it’s totally possible, the bad news is you’ve started at the end and are in for a major spoiler alert. You might want to take a look at the first post here and the second post here before taking a look at the results below – otherwise, it will kinda be liking watching Star Wars and I’m still not really sure I understood what that was all about. We have continued our calorie deficit diet with weekly reductions in calories for the last sprint to the finish line – To be honest, I barely felt the calorie reduction and some days didn’t even manage to fit them all in. We’ve also continued to follow the principles of mobilizing, activating, overloading and conditioning for our 3 training sessions a week. Now I know we’ve discussed training in the last few posts, so this time around, we thought we’de put together a quick video to give you a taste of what those training sessions look like. So, what were the results after 11 weeks?… Yeah, quick disclaimer here. Unfortunately, our 12-week journey was cut short in the end with an unexpected overseas trip so we never managed to crank out those last few training sessions to see out the full 12-week journey. None the less below are the results. I’ve decided to put Day 1 and Week 8 side by side so that you can have a comparison from the first day as well as a comparison for changes in the last few weeks. Shooting these ‘before and after shots’ was a lot trickier than we had anticipated and although we had floor markings for ourselves and our tripod, the lighting on the day played a big role in the final image. I have tried my best to remove as much contrast as possible without messing with the pic too much for the sake of authenticity. Okay, enough disclaimers. Go take a look already! Now you understand why I opened with “a little progress each day can add up to big results”. I decided to put together a short little Q&A for Elzaan (her results up next) and I to answer as a way to recap our feelings on The Arrow Club experience. What did you enjoy the most from the experience? The ‘diet’ was definitely the most enjoyable for me. The flexibility that comes with working to a calorie goal made it incredibly easy to stick to. I never felt deprived and could plan ahead for any treats I needed. What did you enjoy the least from the experience? I don’t know that there was anything I didn’t enjoy from the experience but weighing your food at every meal can get a little tedious. When you’re hungry and all you want to do is eat, the exercise of patience requires a few reps. In the end, planning ahead is the best way to overcome this and the results far outway (no pun intended) the effort. What was your biggest surprise/learning during the experience? Carbs are not the devil!! That’s right…we can eat them, all of them, rice, potatoes, bagels…ALL THE CARBS!! Understanding the caloric value of food was such a lightbulb moment for me. Not that I didn’t understand it before, I always got the principle but knowing that 10 peanut butter M&M’s carries the same amount of calories as 100gms of potatoes helped me make better decisions…or at least plan for less better ones. What will you continue to practice on your own? There is loads I will take away with me from this experience, but there are 2 things that I have continued to practice after this journey ended and I will continue to practice forever. The first, in case you haven’t noticed, is not demonizing food, working towards a calorie goal is a lifestyle change that I will definitely adopt moving forward. The second would have to be mobilizing and activating my muscles before a weight workout. A couple of band exercises and stretches before training has given me such a great understanding of what muscles do and has kept me totally injury-free. Do you think your body transformed? Completely! Putting these images together for this post really let me see the massive change from day 1 to day 91! My posture alone has transformed my body. Even without all the pictures, I could feel the difference in my clothes weekly! I’ve spent a lot of money at the tailor getting my slim fits slimmer! Are you in the best shape of your life? I set out on this journey in the hope of getting into the best shape of my life and I think I came pretty close in 11 weeks. An 8Kg drop in weight and 10cm loss around my waist is a pretty big deal at my age. I think 11 weeks isn’t long enough to achieve the results I was hoping for in my head (think Brad Pitt in Snatch) but it’s also unrealistic to think those results will come so easily. Given another 11 weeks I may just be that much closer. One more quick disclaimer. Elzaana and I did this questionnaire independently of each other and without discussing it beforehand. Interestingly (but not surprisingly) a lot of the answers overlapped. What did you enjoy the most from the experience? I loved that I never had to think about what I was going to do at the gym – I’m not an exercise expert so coming up with workouts every day was often something that put me off going to the gym entirely. Having someone take all the ‘work’ out of workouts and guide me through each session (while keeping a strict eye on my form) was definitely a God sent. What did you enjoy the least from the experience? Hmmmm… I really struggle to think of an ‘unenjoyable’ part to this experience but if I had to pick something I would say the effort of weighing and planning meals can be a little tiresome. Sometimes you just want a quick ‘grab and go’ without slicing, dicing and weighing everything beforehand. In the end, I quickly learned that failing to plan was planning to fail! So basically… planning is your best friend along this journey! What was your biggest surprise/learning during the experience? My biggest surprise was learning that carbs are in fact NOT the devil and that you can eat carbs at every meal and still lose weight in the end. This literally went against everything I believed and practiced over the last few years. Another massive surprise was realizing that I didn’t have to get my heart rate shooting through the roof in order to have a good workout and burn fat – I can’t believe I ever trusted that ‘sweat is your fat crying’ motivational poster! : ) What will you continue to practice on your own? I will definitely be including carbs in my diet in the future! DEFINITELY! I realized that sustainability is the way forward and that following a sustainable eating plan is a far better solution than crash dieting every time bikini season rolls around. Do you think your body transformed? My body has definitely transformed. I wasn’t even aware of how bad my posture was and what a difference it makes to my overall body! My bum is also looking better than it has in years… sooo… obvs happy about that! Are you in the best shape of your life? I think ‘best shape’ is a relative term. If we’re talking purely physical appearance, then I would say yes. As mentioned above, I’m super happy with my posture and bum and I think my body has ‘shaped’ up really well, given a few more weeks I think I would be in even better visual shape. I don’t, however, know if I’m in the best physical fitness shape I’ve ever been. I feel as though I have been stronger and fitter before but not necessarily looking this good. Again, I do believe that more time could change all of this. If you’re looking to put your body to the transformation test, just drop the guys at The Arrow Club a mail. If you’re based in Cape Town you can visit their studio in Vredehoek or alternatively, you can chat to them about their online coaching program if you’re…well, anywhere else in the world! And there you have it! Our first ever body transformation. A massive thank you to The Arrow Club for giving us your time and dedication as well as Adidas for making sure we looked as good as we felt! Now that we’re stocked up with some badass training gear, we need to keep putting it to good use – just so we don’t end up with a ‘fat at 40’ blog post. So any suggestions? We’re both looking for new fitness challenges and would love some suggestions. Boxing? Yoga Challenge? Crossfit? Let us know. Okay. Stay fit and fancy. whatmyboyfriendwore
Saturday 27 July 2019
Friday 26 July 2019
Girl With Curves Approved: Best Plus Size Denim July 26, 2019 at 12:00PM
Thursday 25 July 2019
SHOP: Small Ark Bamboo Handbag July 20, 2019 at 06:55PM
Wednesday 24 July 2019
Tuesday 23 July 2019
The Only 4 Items Your Shapewear Collection Requires July 23, 2019 at 12:00PM
Monday 22 July 2019
Dressiquette – Tie Bars Sit Between the 3rd & 4th Button Here’s another update on a Dressiquette post that is now over 7 years old – Not that the ruling on where to wear your tie bar has changed but it would seem, however, that either A: No one read the original post or B: Everyone has read it but is choosing to ignore it. Tie bars seem to be the kind of fashion accessory that never really go away – much like shoulder pads they just seem to reinvent themselves in different eras of fashion. These little accessories were quite hot a few years ago and although the trend may have died down a little they still have their time and place. Now, if you can find the time, I’ll be happy to show you the place. Literally. With so many guys still getting their tie bars wrong, I thought it time we update this post with a simple illustrated step by step guide. Rules like this are great, they make suiting up simple and pretty much fail-safe. Well, clearly not fail-safe I guess. In this case, it couldn’t be more cut and dried. Your shirt has buttons, make sure your tie bar sits between the 3rd and the 4th button of that shirt. It’s that simple. Kinda. Now, to be fair, the above rule is a contemporary approach to wearing your tie bar as traditionally a tie bar was worn lower down between the 4th and 5th shirt button – So if you learned about tie bars from your Pop Pops, then all is forgiven. In all honesty, a little higher or lower, either way, won’t be a disaster. The cut of your suit, the placement of your shirt buttons or even the width of your tie will all play a part in the perfect tie bar placement. If you’re really lost, just go for somewhere around your sternum and below your pectorals muscles – if you don’t know where either of these is, maybe tie bars aren’t for you. There are of course a few more details that you might want to know before you start sliding that tie bar between the third and fourth button. Firstly, size matters and in this case, bigger isn’t better. Your tie bar should never exceed the length of your tie. EVER!!! No matter how badly you want to wear your Pop Pop’s antique tie bar with your new skinny tie DONT! Your tie bar should be no bigger than 70% of your tie width. The skinnier the tie, the shorter the tie bar. If you need some different lengths I’ve found The Tie Bar to have the biggest variety – It’s where 80% of my tie bars and ties are from. Now that you have the size right, make sure you do the same with the color. If you’re going metallic then your tie bar should match all your other metal accessories: watch, cufflinks, belt buckle, etc – you can read more about matching metals here. If you want a more contemporary look, then pick a color that matches your shirt or pocket square. For a bonus look, go ‘invisible’ and pick a tie bar that matches the color of your tie… it’s very GQ! Now, I feel like I shouldn’t even have to mention this, but keep it straight. As in perpendicular to your tie. That quirky angle you have going on doesn’t look funky it just looks sloppy. Last but not least, don’t forget that your tie bar puts the fun into functional. That’s right. it ain’t there just to bring bling to your chest, but also to keep your tie in place. So, if you want to stop your tie smacking you in the face on a windy day or taking a lunchtime dip in your ramen make sure you attach it to the placket of your shirt! I know this seems obvious…and it should be…but I’ve seen far too many men just pointlessly attach the back and front of the tie together! Now that you know exactly where and how to wear a tie bar, let me tell you when not to wear a tie bar. Bearing in mind that its purpose is to keep your tie from moving around so never wear it with a waistcoat or cardigan, it’s just overkill. I know this because I did it on Instagram once…and a couple of you weren’t shy to point it out… As you shouldn’t be. Now please feel free to share this post with any gents out there who need to read it! I know there’s a lot of ’em. Okay. Stay Fancy whatmyboyfriendwore
Friday 19 July 2019
Thursday 18 July 2019
3 Quick and Easy Ways to Spend Quality Time with Your Kids July 18, 2019 at 12:00PM
Wednesday 17 July 2019
Tuesday 16 July 2019
Pumpkin is the must have ingredient for glowy, bright and even toned skin
So much more than a scary decoration
Whilst typically thought of as an autumnal vegetable used in warming soups and a scary Halloween decoration, pumpkin is actually one heck of a skincare ingredient.
High in vitamins A, C and E, it works wonders at reducing and smoothing the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, as well as fading dark spots. And as it’s made up of alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs), it works much like glycolic and lactic acids to break down and remove dead skin cells, which as a result speeds up cell turnover to reveal brighter looking skin.
See? Wonder ingredient.
Here’s our roundup of the 10 best products containing pumpkin…
Frances Prescott Tri-Balm, £46 Cult Beauty
Whilst it might sound strange for one product to be both cleanser and exfoliator, as well as a moisturiser, this multi-tasker is in fact all three. Add water to it and it emulsifies, removing make-up and dirt, let it sit on the skin and allow the pumpkin enzymes to gently nibble away at any dead skin cells, and leave it on all day for a plump, freshly cleansed glow thanks to the rich, nourishing ingredients, like sweet almond and mandarin peel oil.
Buy Now
Emma Hardie Moisture Boost Vit + C Cream, £49 Look Fantastic
Dull skin’s worst enemy. The combination of vitamins B3 and C, as well as red algae, pumpkin enzymes, shea butter and grapeseed oil brighten skin, whilst encouraging collagen production, calming the appearance of dark spots and ridding the skin’s surface of glow-preventing, dead dulling cells.
Buy Now
Kate Somerville ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment, £72 Cult Beauty
This is a punchy treatment that has been nicknamed ‘The Hollywood 2-minute facial’ and two minutes is really all you need. The LA-based facialist combines both physical and enzyme exfoliators (our trusty pumpkin, papaya and pineapple) to help reveal super glowy skin.
Buy Now
Neal’s Yard Remedies Geranium and Orange Hand Lotion, £13 John Lewis
Skincare doesn’t stop at your face. This delicious hand lotion contains pumpkin seed oil, which brightens and firms the skin on your hands. Keep next to your sink.
Buy Now
Mádara Superseed Soothing Hydration Organic Facial Oil, £42.50 Look Fantastic
Who doesn’t want to skin that screams radiant energy?! There are a total of nine different dry oils inside this face oil, including our favourite pumpkin. Together they help to reveal a brighter, more even complexion that deserves to shown off. Add into your daily moisturiser or use alone.
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Pai Pomegranate & Pumpkin Stretch Mark System, £50 John Lewis
Fight stretch marks with this two-pronged attack. Use the cream in the morning, which pushes water into the skin to promote elasticity, and the oil in the evening, which helps work on skin suppleness. Both are laced with pumpkin extract to encourage sluggish cell turnover.
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Votary Super Seed Facial Oil, £70 Net-A-Porter
This natural face oil tackles redness, irritation and loss of elasticity and plumpness, which makes it perfect for dry, sensitive or hormonal skin. The pumpkin plays a big part in all that by refining the skin’s texture and kick starting cell turnover.
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Lancer Skincare The Method: Polish, £62.18 Look Fantastic
From the man behind Beyoncé, Margot Robbie, Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian’s complexions, comes The Method. A simplified routine that promises to deliver. Inside The Polish you’ll find pumpkin and pomegranate extracts, which help to banish any uneven texture. The A-List option.
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Summer Fridays Overtime Mask, £39 Cult Beauty
Summer Fridays are known for creating instant cult products, and this one is no different. Called Overtime, because it’s perfect for those times when you’ve been busy and have neglected your skin slightly. Apply a thick layer onto clean, dry skin and work it in for 60 seconds before leaving it for 10 minutes. Goodbye lacklustre skin, hello glow.
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Peter Thomas Roth Pumpkin Enzyme Mask, £46 Cult Beauty
If you’re partial to a Spiced Pumpkin Latte from Starbucks around Christmas time, then you will love the way this smells. You’ll also love the way that the AHAs and pumpkin enzymes cut through surface debris and dead skin to reveal skin that reflects light like never before.
Buy Now
It’s time to take pumpkin more seriously.
Invest in this vegetable now.
The post Pumpkin is the must have ingredient for glowy, bright and even toned skin appeared first on Marie Claire.
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The Summer Dress Currently on Repeat July 16, 2019 at 12:00PM
Monday 15 July 2019
I'm a seasoned festival-goer and this is my essential beauty packing list
The must-haves and the oh-my-goodness-leave-that-at-homes
The festival season has officially hit. Glastonbury kicked us off a couple of weeks ago. Portaloos, outrageous outfits (festival fashion is definitely its own genre) and warm cider – this, to me, is the real start to the British summer.
In order to truly nail a festival, your beauty bags needs to been on point. It has taken me some time to perfect, but I now think that I have created the ultimate beauty packing list. It’s all down to the essentials that you can’t live without and the ones that, despite your initial thoughts, should be left at home. You need hard working space-saving, multi-use products; make-up that makes you stand out and skincare that saves your skin from total disarray.
Here’s my roundup of ‘what to pack’ for a festival…
Biodegradable face wipes
I don’t think I could make it through a festival without these beauties. As my usual double cleanse is off the cards, I turn to these at the end of the day so that I’m not sleeping in my make-up. The key here though, is to make sure that they’re completely biodegradable. Simple’s wipes are brilliant at ridding my skin of every last scrap of make-up, even the best waterproof mascara, and I can rest easy knowing that I am not adding to landfill, because they break down in just 42 days. That’s better than grapefruit, melon and onion peels.
Simple Kind To Skin Biodegradable Cleansing Wipes, £4.39 Boots
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Mirror
I cannot tell you how many times friends have forgotten a mirror and ended up using mine. How on earth do you expect to do your make-up in the evenings and assess the damage in the morning? Don’t rely on the tiny one in your eyeshadow palette, opt for stand alone one. A total essential.
Folding Travel Mirror, £6 Boots
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Under-eye patches
Probably not one you will have thought of, but trust me when I say these will provide sweet relief in the mornings. Festivals rarely provide a good night’s sleep – noisy neighbours, boiling hot tents, staying up to watch the sunrise or maybe just skipping sleep completely to keep the party going… Cooling and hydrating under-eye patches are heaven sent for puffy, dark-circled eyes.
Soap & Glory Puffy Eye Attack Under-Eye Brightening Hydrogel Patches, £3.50 Boots
Buy Now
CC cream
I really don’t like wearing too much complexion make-up when I’m at festivals. Firstly, I like to let my skin breathe as much as possible, but also because I’m not able to thoroughly cleanse my skin every night I hate the idea of adding to that. HOWEVER, I am no fool. I know that after a couple of days in a field, when more often than not my morning cuppa has been a cider and I’ve failed to get to bed before 3am the whole time, my skin is going to look slightly worse for ware. Enter IT Cosmetics illuminating cc cream. Nothing camouflages redness and blemishes better in this time of need. It’s full coverage, so at a festival I’ll only use a small amount and apply it those bits that need a bit of TLC.
IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream Illumination SPF50+, £31 Boots
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Colourful eyeliner
You can guarantee that everyone you see will be covered in glitter (it’s synonymous with festivals after all), but I think it’s better to stand out from the crowd. Not only because it’s more imaginative, but because it’s much kinder to the planet. So I like to apply a bright eyeliner to my eyelid and Fenty Beauty’s new liquid eyeliners are exactly the right amount of neon.
Fenty Beauty Baecae Vivid Liquid Eyeliner Trio, £27 Boots
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Lip & cheek duo
When I’m looking peaky and pale, I always have a rosy blusher with me to fake a natural flush and make myself look a little more human and less walking dead. Ideally, it would be one that I could use on my lips too so that I don’t have to carry an extra product with me. Smashbox’s Beverly Hill Blush is the ideal shade to bring me back to life.
Smashbox L.A. Lights Blendable Lip & Cheek Colour, £26 Boots
Buy Now
Hyaluronic acid serum
Booze doesn’t just dehydrate your insides, it does the same to skin too. As soon as I wake up, I can feel how parched my skin is, which is why hyaluronic acid is key. Ever since I discovered L’Oreal Paris’ replumping ampoules I’ve been obsessed, because they’re perfect for travel. You only have to pack the number of ampoules for the number of days.
L’Oreal Paris Revitalift Filler Replumping Ampoules £19.99 Boots
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Moisturiser
This might sound obvious, but by god do not forget this. Your skin will thank you. I like to take Embryolisse with me – it’s a cult beauty product, because it isn’t too heavy, rids the skin of dry, flaky patches and sinks in quickly. It’s loved by make-up artists for weddings and backstage. Plus it can be used on the face and body, so another multi-use product.
Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentré Nourishing Moisturiser, £20 Boots
Buy Now
Dry Shampoo
I don’t need to remind you of this do I?! Leave your shampoo and conditioner at home, embrace the dirt and give your hair a break. This Colab one has UV protection and doesn’t leave a white residue – ideal.
Colab Dry Shampoo Active, £2.33 Boots
Buy Now
Supplements
Specifically, rehydration salts. When you’re hungover, you’ve got to replace the salts you lost the night before getting tiddly. First thing in the morning is great, just before you go to bed is even better. If you manage to do on the night, you’ll be my hero.
Rehydration Treatment, £2.39 for 6 sachets Boots
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Suncream
Pack this along with gallons of positive thoughts. Annoyingly, the British weather isn’t exactly reliable. I have been to so many festivals where it rain from the moment I enter through the gates, to the moment I pass through them again when I leave. But sometimes, sometimes, the weather holds out for us and is gloriously sunny. POTENTIALLY ADD SOMETHING HERE ABOUT GLASTONBURY AS ITS MEANT TO BE SUNNY. On these rare occasions, you need your suncream. But I wouldn’t bother packing a big bottle – we must remain realistic – so this pocket sized Nivea SPF30 is perfect.
Nivea Sun Suncream Pocket Size Lotion SPF30, £3 Boots
Buy Now
Hand sanitizer
If you haven’t packed this, you should probably just go straight home. You musn’t, under any circumstances, forget this. I cannot express this strongly enough. Keep it on you at all times. If you haven’t been to a festival before, then nothing can quite prepare you for the loo situation, but at least with this to hand you will feel some what in control. Sort of.
Carex Moisture Plus Hand Gel, £1 Boots
Buy Now
And that is how you pack for a festival.
Mic drop.
The post I'm a seasoned festival-goer and this is my essential beauty packing list appeared first on Marie Claire.
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Sunday 14 July 2019
Saturday 13 July 2019
Nordstrom Sale Must-Haves July 13, 2019 at 04:15PM
Friday 12 July 2019
high summer style guide July 12, 2019 at 02:58PM
Summer is the strongest category on my sartorial calendar, and in lieu of the high-travel season, I’m sharing all of my favorite wardrobe essentials for warm weather destinations. Here are my core summer essentials below. When it comes to cost-per-wear, the Jacquemus Santons Provence hat and Loewe basket are my daily accessories that I tote […]
The post high summer style guide appeared first on Lust for Life by Olivia Lopez.
Thursday 11 July 2019
5 Ways to Remind Yourself How Amazing You Are July 11, 2019 at 12:00PM
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Wednesday 10 July 2019
Tuesday 9 July 2019
Wardrobe Must-Have: Soft, Summer Duster July 09, 2019 at 12:00PM
Monday 8 July 2019
WMBW Drinks – Winter Gin & Tonic Ahh, the humble G&T. There are few cocktails as simple and satisfying as the perfect pairing of Gin and Tonic. We all fell in love with it the moment we mixed one up for Nana and snuck a sip in the process – Kids will be kids, I guess. Turns out though, that the G&T is a little older than Nana, by about 300 years. Gin was discovered by British soldiers fighting alongside the Dutch during the 30-year war of the 1600’s. Genever (as the drink was called) was said to give the soldiers ‘Dutch Courage’ and quickly found its way to Great Britain. At the same time, quinine, the main ingredient in tonic water, was discovered to be a treatment for Malaria. It probably didn’t stop the itching though, just the dying part. This medicinal tree bark was found to be “a bitter pill to swallow” by Britsh troops in colonial India so they took to mixing it with their daily gin and lime rations – back then lime wasn’t so much a garnish as it was a necessity to battle scurvy. The rest, as they say, is history. Today’s G&T has seen a massive reinvention. This could possibly be attributed to the Spanish adopting it as their national drink about a decade ago – who wants to drink wine with fruit in it anyway. The introduction of different garnishes intent on enhancing the natural botanicals of the Gin opened up endless possibilities for the simple G&T. What we have is no longer ‘Nana’s summer drink’ of choice (always a double BTW), but rather a drink who’s flavoring can be adapted all year round. With winter settling in we thought we would share with you some Gin and Tonic recipes we put together for our friend over at Craft Liquor Merchants and one of our favorite HomeGrown gins, Inverroche. The Sage of Citrus The combination of sage and orange is a fail-safe in the kitchen. These sweet and savory flavors pair up perfectly and if they’re good enough for Jamie Oliver’s famous roast potatoes you better believe they’ll kick ass in your G&T. Both sage and orange have anti-aging properties, so really it’s like taking a sip from the fountain of youth. We’ve decided to keep this one a little simple so that the botanicals of the Inverroche Verdant can really shine through. The citrus notes from the orange will pair perfectly with the waxy lemon rind of the verdant while the sage and licorice can bond over their love for all things bittersweet. Start off by adding a dash or two of bitters into your glass to add depth to your drink – bitters is to cocktails what salt and pepper is to food. Now simply pour your gin over ice and top up with tonic. Slap the sage between the palm of your hands to release the oils and drop in with your orange. Stir and serve. Bet you feel younger already. The Bluemary Blueberries are the perfect all year round fruit, packed full of antioxidants they’re almost guaranteed to keep those winter sniffles away when paired with rosemary and honey. That’s right, with rosemary’s immune boosting properties and honey’s powerhouse antioxidants, this pink G&T is pretty much this seasons flu shot. Start by dropping a few blueberries, rosemary leaves and a teaspoon of honey into your glass. Dash in a couple drops of bitters and muddle together to extract the flavor and color from those blueberry skins. Fill your glass with ice and pour in your gin – We recommend the Inverroche Classic as its green floral notes will pair perfectly with the grassiness of the rosemary and sweetness of the blueberries. Use a stirring spoon to combine all the flavors at the bottom of your glass before filling with tonic. Pop in some whole blueberries and a large sprig of rosemary to garnish, then sit back and feel your body fighting off all those pesky diseases. The American Pie Nothing, and we mean nothing takes away those winter blues like warm apple pie. This legendary combination of apple and cinnamon deserves its own room in the Smithsonian, or at the very least a special mention. It’s just unbeatable. Sweetened with a little maple syrup this G&T is guaranteed to have you going back for seconds. Possibly thirds. Using an apple peeler, slice off a lengthy piece of apple peel to be used as your garnish later. Cut up a wedge into small cubes (the smaller the better) and drop into the bottom of your glass. Sprinkle some cinnamon over the top and add a teaspoon of maple syrup before muddling everything together finely. Fill your glass with your ice and top with a dash or 2 of bitters before adding the gin. Use a stirring spoon to combine all the ingredients and top up with tonic. The cinnamon in this drink pairs perfectly with the aromatic woody finish in the Inverroche Amber gin while the sweet toffee apple flavors only further enhanced with the fresh apple and maple! It doesn’t get much better than this. And that’s that! Hopefully, these three will keep your well hydrated during this chilly winter spell! To be honest, they may even work just as well in summer, perhaps with the addition of a little more ice. Okay. Drink responsibly and stay fancy. whatmyboyfriendwore
Sunday 7 July 2019
Friday 5 July 2019
Prince Harry has been given a bracelet with a special meaning to give to Meghan
New mum Meghan Markle was reportedly given an eternity ring by Prince Harry to celebrate the birth of baby Archie, who is reportedly being christened this weekend.
Now she might be adding to her jewellery collection, as Prince Harry has been given a meaningful bracelet to pass onto her.
The royal attended the National Youth Mentoring Summit in London this week, and according to People, was given a lapis lazuli bracelet made by ‘Afghan War widows in a partnership that hopes to foster hope and healing with American war widows’.
Harry apparently thought it was ‘lovely’. Lapis lazuli signifies wisdom, healing and love, so it might be significant for someone who is navigating early motherhood, and according to the Daily Mail, Meghan has also been wearing lots of turquoise jewellery, ‘to bring blessings’ for new mums.
More importantly though, the mentoring meeting was set up in the name of Harry’s mother, the late Princess Diana, so it could also be a nice nod to her.
The post Prince Harry has been given a bracelet with a special meaning to give to Meghan appeared first on Marie Claire.
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Thursday 4 July 2019
Wednesday 3 July 2019
Tuesday 2 July 2019
3 Espadrille Styles to Wear Right Now July 02, 2019 at 12:00PM
With summer in full force, it’s time to think about footwear that’s stylish but let your feet breathe in the heat. I personally love espadrilles for any summer look because they and add a bit of texture and interest.
These are the 3 espadrille styles I’ll be wearing through the rest of the season:
Monday 1 July 2019
Home Test The post Home appeared first on CHRONICLES OF HER. lainy black
WMBW Fit at 40 with The Arrow Club – Powered by Adidas – Part 2 It’s been about 4 weeks since our first post on our body transformation / Fit at 40 journey with The Arrow Club and we thought it was time for an 8-week update. If you missed the first post and want to know where it all started, you can catch up here. The last few weeks have been kinda chaotic, to be honest. Our workload was through the roof and we were putting in 12 hour days just to stay on top of things. To top it all off we were in London for about 10 days, away from The Arrow Club and our trusty meal plans. Why am I telling you this? Well, because that’s life right? Something always wants to get in the way of you and your goals and it’s never gonna be easy. So, how did little sleep and a travelers diet affect our transformation? Well, let’s take a look. With the exception of our one week away, our workouts have continued as normal. Continuing on The Arrow Clubs principles of mobilizing, activating, overloading and conditioning we’ve been doing 3 sessions a week of full body workouts. This includes a very mild warm-up of some inclined treadmill walking followed by about 10 minutes of mobilizing and activating the muscles we’re about to train with a resistance band. This has still been a game changer for me, not only has it given me the ability to learn how to properly target the muscles I’m working out but it’s also kept me injury free for over 8 weeks – a rarity for me. The workouts have been mostly focused on strengthening our weaknesses, building our postures and increasing our range of motion. My workouts are usually tri-sets with one push exercise, one pull exercise, and one abdominal exercise. We do 3 sets for lower body and three sets for upper body then finish off with some conditioning to squeeze the last bit out of you and increase your fitness. The results have left me feeling a little stronger each session while taking 8 cm off my waist and adding 2 cm to my chest! Boom! Now as you may (or may not) know, 6 packs are built in the kitchen, not the gym so eating really is key to your overall results. No point having a rock hard six pack under a layer of fat, is there? As I mentioned in my previous post, The Arrow Clubs approach to eating has truly been the best ‘diet’ I have ever tried. Having spent years demonizing certain food and cutting out entire food groups I can now finally eat everything. Literally everything – Just in much smaller quantities of course. Every week we receive a bespoke meal plan based on our current weight and are either put on a calorie deficit (to lose weight) or a maintenance plan to stop your body going into ‘shut down’. The problem with talking calories is that no one really knows what calories actually look like! Would you spot it in a line-up against… I dunno… atoms? How much is 1000 calories? Will I be starving if I’m on a calorie deficit? How do I even know how many calories are in something? These are the conversations I’ve been having over the last few weeks so I decided to try and demystify it a little. My last few weeks have hovered around the 1750 calorie mark on a calorie deficit so I thought I would show you exactly what 1750 calories looks like. We have a little digital kitchen scale to weigh everything and use the My Fitness Pal app to track all our calories – the app pretty much has anything you could ever put in your mouth in there – You can even scan product barcodes to obtain their nutritional information! Genius! Anyway, here’s a day in the life of my mouth! Post Workout – 285 Cal • Peanut Butter – 15g (roughly one teaspoon) – 98 Cal • Protien Powder – 1 Serving – 115 Cal • Rolled Oats – 20g (roughly 2 tablespoons) – 72 Each meal plan comes with a macronutrient breakdown of carbs, fat, and protein as well as how much of each you should aim to get in each day. It’s most important to hit your protein goal, so I try and smash a protein shake straight after our workout. We prep it before we leave and drink it as soon as we get in the car. The addition of oats here really helps bulk it up and the peanut butter not only delivers on all those good fats but also… I mean it’s peanut butter! Delicious!! Hot Breakfast – 498 Cal • Plain Bagel – 230 Cal • Eggs – 2 Large – 143 Cal • Avocado – half a medium sized avo – 120 Cal • Siracha Sauce – 1 teaspoon – 5 Cal Rediscovering bagels has been as close to a religious experience as I’m probably ever gonna get! I mean, have you eaten a toasted bagel? I’m not sure there is anything better! Breakfast has always been my favorite meal of the day and I never get sick of this one – truth be told, I sometimes eat this even when there’s something else on my plan! Lunch – 525 Cal • Rump Steak – 150g – 188 Cal • Baby Mediterranean Potatoes- 125g – 72 Cal • Tenderstem Broccoli – 100g – 31 Cal • Egg – Large – 72 Cal • Olive Oil – 1 Teaspoon – 40 Cal When was the last time you had steak, egg, and chips on a diet? I’m guessing never! This meal really starts showing you how varied foods caloric value can be. I always thought potatoes were an absolute no go, but at 72 Calories for a serving, I say gimme! My advice is to invest in an air fryer, pop those potatoes in that sucker with little to no oil, spice them heavily with some cajun seasoning and you’ll have crispy spicy potato wedges in 20 minutes. There’s some seriously dark magic that happens inside that little thing! Oh, it’s also a good idea to fill up on some greens, 100 grams of broccoli is gonna leave you feeling pretty stuffed without putting a hefty dent in your calorie savings account. Dinner – 471 Cal • Cooked Chicken Breast – 140g – 200Cal • Cooked Basmati Rice – 110g – 150 Cal • Bok-Choi – 100g – 12 Cal • Sweet Peppers – 85g – 25 Cal • Olive Oil – 1 Teaspoon – 40 Cal • Oyster Sauce – Half a Tablespoon – 15 Cal • Low Sodium Soy Sauce – Half a Tablespoon – 5 Cal • Chilli Garlic Sauce – Half a Tablespoon – 8 Cal • Crushed Garlic – 10g – 16 Cal Now, not only do I love eating, but I love cooking too, so this meal has been through some pretty serious tests to pack a lot of flavor without shooting the caloric lights out! Sauces and condiments can quickly add up to a whole bunch of empty calories so use them wisely. Can we also just give a massive shout out to Bok-Choi for being the winner of the lowest calorie thing ever – I mean its not really a competition, but finding delicious low-calorie foods is a new hobby for me and Bok-Choi is my blue-eyed BOY! Lastly, I just want you all to know how happy I am to be eating rice again. It’s the perfect thing to eat when you want lots of something. Those extra 100 Cals At the end of the day, you’re gonna have about 100 Cals left in your calorie bank account – sometimes a little more sometimes a little less depending on whether you ran out of bagels or gave yourself a little more chicken. This is when your little ‘treat’ comes in. Personally, this has been a lifesaver for me. Being able to treat yourself to something you enjoy is a big part of making your diet sustainable. Elzaan and I have found a range of chocolates and snacks that offer a good 100 Cal portion. There’s even some really decent protein infused chocolates above that are a great option when you haven’t hit your protein goal for the day – just keep in mind this is often not the best quality protein! As we know, I love me a little tipple now and then, so finding drinks that won’t push me over the top has also been key for me. If I want to join the gents for a drink after work or have a little sundowner here at home, I just plan for it in my day. I have definitely found a new appreciation for lite beer and a classic Americano. Just so you know, there is a difference between Lite beer and Light beer and it’s more than just the ‘g’. Lite actually stands for “Low in Total Energy” whereas ‘Light’ just means low in alcohol… and really what’s the point in that. : ) A good lite beer can deliver all that beery goodness at about 100 Cals a bottle! Just drink them ice cold or they taste dreadful! If you’re more in a cocktail mood, you can’t beat an Americano, made with 25ml of each Campari and Martini Rosso then topped up with soda, is the ultimate gentleman’s drink at 92 Calories! It is important to note though that your first choice should always be nutrient dense food, in the end, it will keep you fuller longer and give you better results. So, are six-packs truly built in the kitchen? Did the 10 days of traveling mess everything up or is this really a sustainable lifestyle? Let’s take a look. So, 8 weeks in and I’m almost 6 KG’s down. In fact, at some point, I was more than 6Kg’s down, but my weight started doing a weird yo-yo thing a few days before the weigh-in and it jumped up a kilo…then dropped nearly a kilo the very next day to 67.25kg’s. For the sake of honesty though, I represented my weight and measurements as they were at the 8-week mark. The biggest physical difference for me is definitely my posture and waist (seen best on the side view) – Though to be honest, I could feel all that already in my clothes. My chest feels as though it’s building up a little and with my waist getting smaller my back is definitely looking broader. I have 2 more abs to show for all the hard work and at this rate, the last 2 should pop at the end of the 12-week mark! I’m happy to see that despite the difficult 4 weeks everything has kept dropping. My hopes for these last 4 weeks is that I start seeing a little more definition in my muscles and maybe add a couple more cm’s to where it counts. Either way, I’m proud of my progress and really enjoying the lifestyle change. Elzaan is still looking absolutely incredible and to be completely honest the above photos do no justice to how incredible she looks in real life! I mean, she always looks incredible, but lucky for me I get to see her when she steps out the shower : ) She’s definitely getting a lot stronger and knocking out pull ups and push ups like it’s her job! Amazing! I’m super proud of how dedicated she is and how far she’s come in such a short space of time. What a babe! All the training gear (except Elzans prized Stella McCartney sneakers) are available on Adidas.co.za (In fact the white training tights and grey and white ultra boosts are currently on sale with a whole bunch of other stuff). If you’re looking at doing a little weight lifting yourself, I highly recommend the training gloves, they’ve saved my hands and my grip too. That’s it! I’ll be back in about 4 weeks with the final update! If you have any questions about any of the above I’ll do my best to answer them in the comments below! In the meantime, you can keep an eye on my Instagram stories for what’s going down! Okay. Stay fit and fancy. whatmyboyfriendwore
