I have expressed before my love for the Apivita products and have posted about this Greek company’s holistic approach to beauty which remains faithful to Hippocrates’ philosophy. I always come back to Bahrain from Greece with a suitcase full of their products and keep enough stock in my bathroom cupboard so I won’t be left without my favorite facial cream, my shower gel and soaps, my body moisturizer, essential oils but also honey, tea and kid’s amenities.
This time, during my stay in Greece I wanted to fully indulge myself by visiting the 5-storey Apivita Experience store situated in the heart of Athens. Inspired by beehives and with an olive tree domineering on the ground floor, this beautifully decorated shop has everything you need: A juice bar where you can enjoy healthy juices and teas, a hair salon/barber-shop, a beehive spa (!), a natural pharmacy for custom-made cosmetics and a lecture room where you can learn all you need to know about beauty in various seminars organized by the company.
Dimitra and me with my new hairstyle
After enjoying a refreshing juice I decided I should give my hair a little treat and I entrusted my tresses to the hands of Dimitra who used natural hair dyes to enhance my color and gave me a simple, yet sophisticated hair cut. I was really impressed by the results and how soft my hair was after the treatment and I highly recommend you check this shop out when being in Athens.
As we are getting closer to summer, the stress on how our body will look in a bikini is overwhelming. So start planning from now, adjusting your diet and exercise regime to avoid panicking the last minute. Everything is possible as long as you stick to your goal and your goal should be to be happy with your image. Here are some tips to help you tone your body and boost your self-confidence before you hit the beach.
1. Stop Complaining and Set Up your (realistic) Goals.
No one is perfect and life is not a magazine. We said before: flawless beauty is itself a flaw. So instead of whining about your big buttocks, your saddle bags or your mushy thighs look at the big picture and ask yourself: What do you feel is your best feature? This should draw away your attention from the parts of your body that could need some work and drive you to a more positive attitude to achieve your goals. It’s a fact: by concentrating on the negative aspects you only attract more negative aspects utterly sabotaging your own efforts. So positive thinking is the key. Loving and respecting yourself should give you the mind frame to set up realistic goals. Start slowly and aim for weekly tangible goals that give you the achievement thrill “Yeah! I did it!” and leverage your motivation to go for more.
No need to emphasize the effects of stress on the body and mind. Stress can cause hypothyroid and this is no good news for your metabolism or body weight management, not to say your overall health. Meditation helps your body relax and drop adrenaline levels and it is proven to even alter gene expression! Plus when meditating, you can visualize yourself in your ideal state and reinforce your positive thinking. There are plenty of guided meditations on the web, even iPhone applications that can help you get it right, at least if you are new to this approach. You may check The Chopra Center or Erick Brown Subliminal Guided Meditation available at iTunes or any other meditation available doing a simple google search.
There is no excuse: if you want to feel and be healthy you have to get your body moving! Even a 20 minutes walk every day is considered therapeutic, if you have no time for the gym. Alternatively you could exercise at home, there are so many quick and efficient programs out there on the web. I highly recommend Yoga Journal’s 21 Day Challenge available for both newbies and intermediate yoga students as your day’s class is delivered straight to your email and you also get nutrition tips and healthy recipes too! If you don’t even have 20 minutes to spare, check Ramona Braganza‘s, short clips where you may even find less than 4 minutes workouts for before you walk -not the red this time,but- the “sandy carpet” 🙂
No exercise however strenuous can outdo a trashy diet. Exercise and healthy eating go hand in hand. So make sure you implement healthy eating habits and take control of your diet. And when I say “diet” I certainly don’t mean starvation, nor the miracle diets or magic pills and teas. You heard about before and perhaps even experienced the yo-yo effects of such “easy fixes”. Try to eat lots of veggies and fruits and respond to your cravings by offering yourself healthy alternatives. If you are not sure what is best for your body it’s always better to spend some money and consult a nutrition expert. A visit would be best but still there are plenty of books on healthy eating or even e-books with online support communities to help you stick to your choice. In any case check the reviews and use common sense to listen to your body and its needs. Also you may have a look at the free healthy eating tips from USDA or Harvard’s healthy eating plate and pyramid explained below.
As a final but important step make sure you drink lots of water. Eight to twelve glasses of water per day are generally considered as necessary for your body but it also depends on your sex, your body weight, your activity levels or even the climate (all of us living in the Middle East know how easily we can get dehydrated). A good rule of thumb would be to have two glasses of water before every meal.
This tip targets especially mums, including myself. We tend to take care of everyone else in the family but ourselves. Personally, even if there is a great choice of spas and salons in Bahrain, I don’t know why but I feel guilty spending my time having my hair or manicure done in a salon. I get so stressed having to be tied to my chair for as long as the hairdresser needs to wash and blow-dry my hair, as if the world around me will collapse. I have been trying for the last couple of months to book an appointment for a massage and I keep on postponing it with the excuse “I’m too busy for this”. I hope you are not in the same wagon as me. What? you are? Too bad! Get over it quick!
Force yourself, like I force myself, and I promise you once you are out of the salon you won’t regret it. The feeling of being taken care by a professional, even when it is just a manicure, is amazing. Your self-esteem will instantly skyrocket. Your body will be thanking you. Still think of it as a luxury? Then bring luxury home! Turn your bathroom into a personal spa. Scented candles, a bathtub full of warm water and bath salts, a body scrub, moisturizing cream and essential oils is all you need. Then find some quiet time and soak in after all are asleep.
You need to take care of your skin if you want it glowing under the sun, and you need to start now. Be sure to check back our ginny piggy column as we will be soon writing about some of the best anti-cellulite and skin care products we have tried so far!
And please feel free to share your beach perfect tips, we’d love to hear from you!
So are you ready for the countdown? 3-2-1! GO! I’m sure you can do it!
“Mum when will my teeth fall out”? The question kept resurfacing for the last few months since almost all her classmates had gone through the stage of loosing their baby teeth. But she’s one of the youngest in her class and her time had not yet come.
“Be patient sweetie, I think yours will fall out when your birthday is near” I kept answering to her questions.
I really was afraid that once the first tooth would fall out she would burst into tears… like the last time when she insisted I cut her hair short and when I did (at a “safe” length), still she wanted it all back up on her head. With sticky tape, if that would be possible.
So a couple of days ago I noticed a small displacement of her lower tooth before she told me it was wobbling. Mmm.. I smell trouble, I thought. What if she asks me to stick her tooth back in her mouth once she realizes her smile will be having a little blank space? I didn’t know if I could handle another “drama” from her.
The next day, when I went to pick her up from school, she came out holding a small envelope sealed and marked “To: tooth fairy”. The envelope, carefully prepared by the school nurse, had even the drawing of a little fairy. And then, saying nothing, she gave me a huge smile! her tooth missing… I smiled back at her and after hugs I asked: “It wasn’t that wobbly! Did you pull it out yourself?” By the look she gave me I guess she did.
So far she hasn’t asked when her new tooth is coming out. The old one was taken by the fairy in exchange for pocket money, so no requests for sticking.
But I really enjoy how proudly she wears her new smile 🙂
A gap between how we perceive ourselves and how we are perceived by others, is not something uncommon. Here is one of the most smart experiments to prove this scenario happens more often than we think and to a much larger scale than we believe. Although published almost a year ago, I chose to post this Dove documentary because its launch coincides with my birthday and I couldn’t find any better reminder of how we should never underestimate ourselves. The same of course applies for the opposite: never overestimate yourself. In any case, mind the gap.
idol-image.com 