Fitness Friday: Spring Shake Up

Hello!

The last few weeks I've been struggling to keep up the motivation and focus. The 'New Year' enthusiasm has definitely packed up and gone so I've been looking into new ways to get back into it.

Working long hours with training, sorting out house stuff for my mortgage and solicitors and travelling with work have all meant that my exercise regime has all but disappeared. Now things with the house is mostly sorted and my work trips are only 2 days long I've been trying to get back into it.

I've been catching up on my fitness magazines and finding new workouts to try out but noticed that there were a lot of new programs starting online soon or that are available on the internet for free.

Tone It Up: Bikini Series 2015 - the TIU girls are amazing, I have huge crushes on both of them and I would absolutely love to look like either of them! 

Look at their beautiful abs!

I signed up straight away for their latest Bikini Series, they do it every year and it's an 8 week challenge. You get a new timetable every week with exercises and they regularly post recipes too - worth signing up for to give you motivation into your inbox regularly!

Muscle and Fitness 6 Week Fat Blast Program - another program this time for 6 weeks. This program consists of 3 full body workouts a week with 2 days dedicated to cardio and 2 for resting. This allegedly maximises fat burning and muscle growth and the workouts are detailed on the website, 2 full body workouts that you alternate and also 2 cardio routines. 

For someone that needs everything given to them at once so they can get their head around it and plan, this is perfect!

Shape's No Fail Fat Loss Plan is also another 6 week program. This program is also given to you in advance, it contains 11 different programs detailed in separate pages with videos and demonstrations so you know exactly what you need to do. The good part about this program is that there is a good range of exercises to keep you entertained including tabata, cardio, stretches, HIIT and metabolism boosters. 

I haven't tried any of these programs myself but having had a quick browse they look pretty good to me, a good range of exercises and catering to those who need time to prepare and those who need regular contact via email to keep their motivation up.

I will be reading through more closely and choosing some routines to try out myself, changing things up will boost my metabolism and keep my body guessing, both of which will help the fat burn faster!

Which of these do you think would be best for you? Will you be signing up for TIU as well as downloading the other programs?

It's 2 months before 'bikini season' arrives, it might not be bikini season in the UK strictly, but holidays are definitely looming and baring my body isn't going to be a pretty sight at the moment!

Hopefully this will keep me interested!

L xxx

New Boux Avenue

Hey all!

I've been on a bit of a spending spree thanks to the money I got for my birthday. Now that I've bought a house (post coming soon!) I wanted to spend my last lot of birthday money on myself and a few treats, so underwear was clearly top of my list!

I went straight to Boux Avenue, my favourite underwear store for basics and treats.

I wasn't disappointed when I got there. The first item I saw was this beautiful oriental print bra and knicker set in a balconette style.

I love prints from other countries especially oriental ones and this one with a black base and the pink and gold coloured flowers is beautiful!

This Amber Oriental set comes in at a pricey £28 for the bra and £16 for the matching knickers - which by the way are HUGE. I mean I've never owned knickers this big and this pretty, it kind of goes against everything I've ever been taught. The knickers are in the style of a 50s bikini bottom, they are high waisted and I didn't realise this at the time of purchase, it was only when I got them home that I realised they were as long as they are!
They are also a bit pricier than a usual pair at £16 but they are a treat after all!

There is a thong also available which I might have bought had I seen it on display and this costs £14.

Next I bought the Lauren Balconette bra which is brand new in and is currently on offer. You can purchase the bra and matching bottoms for £30. Unfortunately (again!) the only bottoms available at the time was the thong which wouldn't be my first choice but nevertheless I have a rule on buying underwear without matching knickers so it was the thong this time!

I do love the Cardiff store but it seems it wasn't as well stocked as it normally is.

The thong is still really pretty and a change for me, but the knickers would have been my first choice. Maybe it's a good excuse to go back....?

I also couldn't resist another deal they had on, 3 for £12 knickers!

These are normally £6 each so a really good deal and I always pick up a few when I can. They seem to last so much longer than other brands and they're so pretty!

I absolutely love Boux Avenue and I always find that their products are the prettiest, at reasonable prices (apart from maybe those big knickers....) and they're really good quality. The basic tshirt bras I bought a few years ago are STILL going strong even though normally I would have had to replace them by now.


Do you like Boux Avenue? What are your favourite products? Do you like the choices I made?

L xxx

Benefit's Puff Off

Hey All

L and I were lucky enough to try this product before it was released (you can read about that here). As soon as we tried it we both knew we had to have it when it was released, and not just for the pretty packaging!

Here's the blurb from Benefit:

Why we love it!

Iron on…puff off! Undereye puffiness and creases look “satiny smooth” with our innovative undereye gel. The custom “ironing” tip instantly helps smooth the look of undereye puffiness & fine lines. Iron away for a smoother day!

94% said eye area looks smoothed*

*Consumer panel survey on 31 women after 7 days

Essentially this product is a cooling eye gel with a small amount of concealer like product contained within it, the squeezy tube has an 'iron' shaped tip to it to dispense and apply the gel to skin.

This is also known as the 'custom “ironing” tip' and we think it looks pretty cool! Not only does it appear to 'iron' out the creases in your delicate undereye skin it's actually really comfortable to use on your skin, it's the perfect shape and it cools on contact with your skin making it feel like you're wearing a face mask.

All you need to do is apply a dot of the eye gel under each eye and spread the gel out using the iron, it's super simple and can be applied on bare skin and over make up - great for the morning puffy eyes that sometimes happens and also you can apply this throughout the day. I'd definitely apply this at my desk during the day when things have been a bit busy and I need a few minutes to relax!

The tube holds 10ml of product which is a similar size to any other eye products and costs £22.50

As you can probably tell, we're big fans of this product. I always think I don't need 'another' product to add to my make up bag but I've really enjoyed this one and frequently use it in the mornings to help my bags reduce and also in the evenings/Sundays as a cooling eye mask. It really works to reduce the bags under your eyes and give you a cooling feeling that relaxes you.

I wouldn't say this is an essential product but it is definitely a treat, and everyone needs treats right?!

Have you tried Puff Off? What did you think of it?

We love Benefit's new products - they've been bringing out some really good ones recently with this and Roller Lash!

L and M xxx

Travel: Places to Eat and Drink in Reykjavik and How to Save Money

Hey All

I love reading people's travel posts and travel blogs but as I've not been away much, there hasn't been the opportunity to write. With Iceland one thing we heard over and over again was how expensive it was so I thought I'd share some of the places we ate and tips we picked up. Some places were recommendations some places we found by chance.

One thing we did when booking was book an apartment over hotel. We did this so if we got there and it was mega expensive we could save a substantial amount of money and cook in the apartment.

For the days we went on excursions we cooked lunch in the apartment the night before to take with us and also bought in breakfast items. As we knew we were going to do this we took a little tupperware pot with us and a 1kg of pasta. This definitely saved us money. We popped to the local supermarket (find yourself one called Bonus! it's the cheapest one!) and grabbed chopped tomatoes, onions, peppers, cheese and cured meats to make up pasta. Meat like chicken was expensive but we found getting cured meats wasn't much more expensive than the uk and it went further. Things such as veg wasn't much more than the uk. We also grabbed lots of treats like crisp, chocolate and fizzy drinks to take on the coach with us. By doing this we saved loads of money and we weren't disapointed not to eat at the excursion places as most of them were overpriced and it was things like burger and chips. Think of alton tower type prices and level of food.

When we landed in Reykjavik it was about mid day by the time we got to the apartment so after a trip to bonus we went exploring and happened upon our first meal. This is one I don't actually have a photo of. It's on Skolavordustigur which is one street parallel to the main shopping street. They keep things simple, a massive bowl of noodles, veg and meat. I had beef and it was so tender and really tasty. A perfect lunch for a cold day and it worked out about £15 for food and free refill drinks for us both. We really wanted to go back here but decided there were too many other places to try.

Image from this trip advisor review!

The Next place we ate came from a recommendation from my other halfs work colleague, Tapas Barinn which is on Vesturgötu which is on a square not far from the main street. We were told we could get great food including trying the local delacies. My love of a bargain, meant before we went I did some googling and found a vistor guide online that you could download a printable version of and it gives you discount for restuarants so I really recommend printing those pages. Here's a link to the website where you can download it. By doing this we got 10-15% of meals. At Tapas Barinn we ordered two taster menus and shared everything. We were glad we did this as we wanted to try things like whale and puffin but each course was quite big so we were glad we didn't have one each to try. This meals worked out at just under £100 but included 14 courses, dessert, two shots of brennivin, a glass of processo and two beers. For the amazing food we got we were happy to pay it would recommend it to others at a heart beat. We ordered the Icelandic Gourmet Feast and A journey into the Unknown. Here's some of the food we had.

This is from A journey into the unknown and was a pulled pork burger, Serrano ham, teriyaki salmon and one I can't remember. This menu does change each night.

This is the puffin. It was a really dark meat with a slightly liver like texture. It came with a blueberry  brennivin compote.

The mink whale was served rare on  a sweet potato mash.

The lobster tails were amazing. They were so creamy!

and one of our desserts!

Also right by Tapas Barinn was an amazing bar called Stofan Cafe. We sat downstairs one evening for a drink and played board games. They had reasonable priced beers and a nice chilled atomosphere. Pints were also served in crystal esque glasses

Next up is Svarta Kaffi. Another recommendation. This is on the main shopping street Laugavegur. It serves the most amazing soup in a massive bread bowl. They have two different soups on a day. We had a chicken soup which was so tasty and it come in a bowl you can eat. What more can you eat. We really loved the food here. Other people around us had ordered salads which also looked good. This is definitely a great lunch place. With two pints of beer and a tip I think we paid around £20-£25. We liked that the bread that was torn out the middle was left on the side of the board to munch.

Kofinn Bar on Laugavegar next to Sushibarinn is somewhere we went to a few evenings for drinks. They were reasonably priced. When drinking in bars we choose pints most of the time which were around £5. Here we also sampled some cocktails which I think were about £9. We loved the atmosphere here everyone was friendly and we got chatting to other people. They also do a quiz in english some nights. We did it and it was actually quite good!

Another bar we really enjoyed was Dillion Whiskey Bar. We loved the music in here and the massive selection of whiskeys. We spent a few evenings drinking in here. It seemed busy most nights we were in there. Dillion had a variety of prices due to the fact there were 101 whiskeys. They also had whiskeys of the month which were up to half price. They had a barrel behind the bar which you can see which is called Floki. It's icelands first whiskeys and in bars Dillion's is one of the few places you can buy it. At just over £15 a shot we splashed out and shared this one!

Another reastaurnat we loved was Kitchen Eldhus, this is a Nepalese restaurant. The food here was amazing. We shared starters of popadoms and dumplings then had two mains to share. A lamb biryani and an amazing special which was spicy but sweetened with honey. We also shared naan breads and chapaitis. With two large beers and tips the meal cost around £60. All the food tasted amazing, the combinations of flavours were so good and the sweet and spicy mix was perfect. My other half commented on how fresh the ingredients like tomatoes tasted.

One bakery we loved was Bernhoftsbakari. We went here for breakfast and snacks a few times. We grabbed breakfast and teas and there were seats in the window to eat. We also popped back for cakes. They had amazing cinamons buns the size of your head!! We found it to be reasonably priced and a great selection here.

Other places to mention were Solon Bistro. We had amazing burger here and went for the full three courses! Primo Restaurente is somewhere we didn't discover until it was too late. We wished we'd gone here as the food looked amazing (a voucher for here is also in the book mentioned at the begining) and vegamot which serves american type food and massive portions! We also enjoyed pancakes and tea in Cafe Paris but the service wasn't great!

Most places we went we payed around £60 for either a bottle of wine or two beers and two courses. We didn't find it as expensive as we expected sort of London prices. We did also order local when it came to alcohol as we like to drink local beer and I assume this was cheaper.

Have you been to Iceland? Do you do your research before holidays? If you're going and want any advice just ask!

Love M

xxx