Getting Dressed

Last week I went on a fast and furious vacation to a wedding in Kansas and a 50th wedding anniversary in Arizona. It’s been my goal to change my eating habits and create a consistent routine when it comes to food, and I’m just a few weeks into that change. Then… the big day arrived and I had to leave the sanctity of my home and at the same time left my food self control behind.

I didn’t even make it onto the plane to leave the Seattle airport and I had a Venti Chai Latte in hand. Immediately upon deplaning, I went to a restaurant where I started devouring rye bread smothered in butter. Then I received a goodie basket when we checked into the hotel with chocolate in it. It hadn’t even been 8 hrs and I just didn’t fall off my healthy eating wagon – I jumped off with both feet.

It takes at least 6 weeks to create a new habit and “It takes energy to remember and then motivate a new action. Habituated actions are far less energy consuming.”

With that in mind, what could have made me fall so far from my goal… the fact it had been less than 6 weeks? Probably not.

I also thought about all the different books I’ve read about being healthy from The Blood Typing Diet to the Metabolic Typing Diet to You the Owners Manual. The difference between these books and the mainstream diets like South Beach is that from the beginning the focus is on a healthy relationship with food that nourishes and a positive side effect is weight loss. So, rebelling against great information? Probably not.

Then I remembered a book called The Sugar Blues where it was outlined in great detail about how much sugar we actual eat in a day. Processed food (and any convenience food) has wheat, dextrose, sucrose, fructose that all break down into simple sugars. With so many simple sugars the body doesn’t know what to do with it all and sometimes it creates weight gain and/or depression amongst other side effects.

Vacations are for fun and splurging is okay (at least for me, and in moderation). Even eating out instead of at home makes it harder to eat healthy. My experience when eating away from home is that meals are too large, and there are not enough veggies included in a lunch or dinner meal in relationship to the other types of food, oh and there is so much sugar added. Well, since we can’t change portion size and we can’t change the type of ingredients used, we can:

• Do a bit of research about restaurants at the vacation destination that use better ingredients.
• Make sure that what is ordered has some veggies.
• Pasta, bread, and anything with grains avoid when possible. Sprouted grain contains the most nutrition for the body.
• Don’t feel obligated to eat the entire plate. Even though that may seem wasteful, it is better to eat smaller quantities than to carry it home on hips, tummy, or bottom.

Do you have tips to share?

We have so many choices for everything, society has specific expectations of women, and a lot of what we do for beauty can be painful and take a lot of time… today, I’m specifically talking about shaving. I’ve been shaving since I hit puberty (before all of my friends in the 4th grade). Talk about embarrassing! I was horrified that I was changing and no one else was - I felt so self conscious that I asked my mom if I could shave.

Over 20 years later, I’m still shaving. While for the most part I’m comfortable with the body I’ve been granted for this life, there are a few parts of me that make me self conscious: triceps and the pores on my legs.

Shaving makes my leg pores look larger than they really are. Part of it may be the fact that my leg hair is incredibly dark and another part the fact it grows fast. Who knew – stubble would affect women too? It’s hip, cool, and sexy for men to sport an unshaved face. For instance: Bono, Wolverine, Mel Gibson, and Harrison Ford all wear the gruff look. Sure Wolverine is a comic book character… have you seen a stubbly legged woman comic book character? I rest my case.

In an attempt to expand the articles of clothing I wear, I found some cute skirts for this summer. Well, after just a few days of trying skirts out, I was back in lightweight pants, Capri’s or mid calf gauchos to cover up my (perfectly normal) shaven legs.

No matter how often I shave, it seems like it’s necessary again. In a world where everything moves fast where I’m always overbooked and strained for time, I wanted to find a way to make over my legs. After a lot of deliberation, and fear of a professional appointment for my first attempt, I bought Moom, a hair removal system like waxing. Sheesh – no time saver there because of how impatient I can be and how long the process takes. Oh not to mention that because I had to wait for my hair to grow long enough to rip out by the roots, it seemed to stop growing

Well, after a few Moom [ordeals], and a very unhappy me, I knew this type of hair removal was history before I even got the knack for applying and removing hair. I decided I must be meant to make change my schedule and make an appointment with a professional or go back to shaving, and all the self conscious side effects. Then I stubbled, uh, stumbled across some great information from a friend: epilating.

At first I had no idea what she was talking about because I’d never heard of it – then when she described it a bit more not so positive memories of my mom and her Epilady filled my head. I thought that would be worse that waxing. …so what could I do except research some more for the ultimate leg hair removal solution?

I think there are more epilators available than types of razors! There was no other way to make a decision than to bit the bullet and chose one. With my new epilator in hand, I ready the instructions and tried my best to follow them. Believe it or not, it was less painful to me than the Moom experience. All those reviews were true – the more it’s done the less painful it is.

Epilating is not for everyone. For me it definitely has started to save me time, I don’t have to work around getting appointments for waxes, and I’m starting to feel comfortable with my legs. No more leg 5 o’clock shadow!

While I won’t be a heroine in a comic book anytime soon (you see I’m not animated), and just maybe someday stubbled legs will be the in thing for women… at least I have found a decent solution to my self conscious dilemma and can leave the stubble to men for now.

We all know that we look better with a little tan to help smooth out the variations of our skin. But this isn’t what I mean when I say skin tone. More important than how tan we are may be how the colors we wear flatter our skin and hair.

No matter how tan or not so tan you may be, colors that flatter your skin will make you look fresh, polished, and confident. …And using your customized color palate will help you add clothing to your wardrobe that you love AND looks great against your skin!

We receive information from many stimuli, and we sort the information so that we can decide how to interact in different situations. This means that our personal experience affects how we react.

Dressing down for relaxation is okay - we still can still carry ourselves with grace and confidence. When we dress down because we are in a poor mood (don’t feel pretty, feel fat, just woke up in a bad mood) we give off signals to others letting them know we’re not our best. Our clothing perpetuates our mood.

Here’s an article that talks about service based on how groomed and put together we look. Really, that’s only part of the picture. When we ‘dress up’ and take time to wear pants or a skirt instead of jeans and shoes instead of sneakers and put on make-up we are telling ourselves: “You’re worth it!” This affects how we feel and the cues we give to others.

In addition to cues we give unconsciously, when we dress to promote ourselves our appearance helps people make correct interpretations about us. There is a great book called Blink by Malcom Gladwell illustrating people that have mastered this technique.

Many cultures rely on fish to bring protein into their diet. When eaten, fish meat transfers many vitamins to the body: A, B1, B2, B3, B12, and D. In addition, iodine from fish brings the body needed minerals. Omega-3 fatty acids must be obtained from food. Omega-3’s help our hearts and brains.Other tidbits:

Quick Side Note: Omega-3’s sometimes come paired with Omega-6 and Omega-9. Just like with fats, there are specific ratios to understand when determining what food is chosen to obtain the Omega-3 fatty-acids.