Carmen Electra – Fit to Strip

Carmen Electra: Fit to Strip Vol. 2 – for those who are unsure from the title, this is a workout DVD(not porn!) that claims it’ll give me a dancers body and spice up the bedroom.

My bedroom is currently about as spicy as vanilla yoghurt so I’m welcoming Carmen’s projections on that one. Keen for the dancers body too!

The great thing about this DVD is that when we watched it later in the afternoon while eating leftover vegetarian pizza (me) & a triple ham sandwich with mustard, plastic cheese and a beer (housemate), we were amazed by how sweet and friendly Carmen Electra actually seems.

And the ‘celebrity fitness instructor’ Michael Carson who leads us through the routine is nice as well, another great aspect is seeing Ms. Electra struggle a little with the workouts, human after all!

Volume 2 doesn’t seem to have any actual stripping moves, but focuses on cardio and getting toned up, apparently the other DVD’s in the series look more at the art of taking ones clothes off in order to excite.

We did some of the exercises whilst indulging in previously mentioned treats and let me tell you, I am really feeling it in my thighs and ‘buns’ (as Carmen is fond of describing my rear) today. Wonderful news for my impending fitness!

I really like what I’ve seen so far from Fit to Strip 2, it’s definitely not something I would have picked up had I not received it as a gift, but it’s really enjoyable and I’m already noticing the effects from it the day after first using it, so I’m keen to continue on and see some results!

LOVES IT!

PS. Author does not condone eating leftover pizza, beer & ham sandwiches on the quest for optimal health and wellbeing, HOWEVER, if you’re going to do it, might as well be before you get your body movin’ so you can burn some of it off!

Be well,

Annette
xoxo

A big sleep-in started my birthday with a snoozy bang. I did wake up at 7am to rush into my housemates room and sleepily jibber about birthdays and she made it worthwhile by presenting me with two wonderful prizes!

Carmen Electra: Fit to Strip Vol. 2 (review coming very, I love it!) and STOTT PILATES: Sunrise Workout (also coming soon!). Yay! We’d both been meaning to get some workout DVD’s happening, so now we’ll be busting moves and stretching it out in the comfort of our own home!

After my gift receiving I fell back into bed til 11am and then made my favourite healthy breakfast: Honey porridge with sliced banana!

This stuff is really good for you too as it keeps blood sugar levels even throughout the day, so it’s a perfect brekky.

Backtracking a little… the night before I went to dinner at Galileo Buona Cucina, Shenton Park. Totally in love with this place now!

Bruschetta for starters (possibly the best I’ve ever had), pear nectar (!!!) and one of their signature dishes, artichoke ravioli for mains… such a fantastic birthday dinner!

Urban Spoon rating:

My parents gave me something dorky I’d been wanting for a while, A WATER JUG! I’m going to use this to make my special Iced Green Tea – I make a big batch of this up and drink it throughout the week, I’ve found it really helps with glowing skin so I’m really excited to get back into this!

Back to my day though! I met up with my Mum and had a HUGE salad and detox juice (beetroot, carrot, apple, celery) from Edens Salad Bar in Subiaco, they were both delicious and the juice was enormous! I recommend.

Urban Spoon rating:

As my birthday treat to myself, I bought the latest Good Health magazine and some of the new Lindt Blueberry Intense chocolate – OH MY DELISH! As well as the blueberries, it also has little slivers of almonds, yum.

Another lovely gift I received, from Conor @ Hold the Beef was some Oxfam Unwrapped seeds, I found it really thoughtful and it made me smileeeeeee that my birthday inspired Conor to want to help someone else 😀

Throughout the day I slurped on green tea & rosehip tea to up the wellness quotient, and when it came time to get ready for my party, I used some Akin & Al’chemy prods to “gussy up”.

My locks were treated to [Al’chemy] Rice Aminos & Wheat Protein Intensive Moisture Shampoo and Avocado & Calendula Re-Moisturising Conditioner. These hair heroes are SLS free (a very good thing) and are devoid of many other nasties as well, so are great when you want to give your strands a break from the chemical torture they’re usually subjected to!

Post-shower I spritzed some ‘Cellular Brightening Mist’ on my face, I –LOVE- this stuff! It smells like lavender and feels cool & sparkly on the skin. I haven’t done any comparitive analysis pre and post spritzing but it makes me FEEL like my skin is brighter, so I’m sticking with it!

Seeing all my favourite people in one place that night ended my birthday on a high note, friends are critical to wellbeing and I was so happy that all my besties made it out to celebrate with me.

Love you all. Thanks for reading. Here’s to the next wellness filled year, hope you stick along for the ride!

Be well,

Annette

xoxo

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When the opportunity came up to try some Pod Puraceutical products, I jumped on the net and looked them up at www.podpuraceuticals.com.au and got very excited! Natural skincare, that’s full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants with not a nasty chemical in sight. By nasty I mean sulphates, parabens, propylene glycol, synthetic fragrances and colours. I’m not going to go into all these chemical toxins now and how bad they are, but I promise if you look them up then you’ll want to avoid them too!

Getting home one evening after a hectic day at work I was greeted by a lovely package at the front door. Inside a beautiful red box were two products for me to try, Liquid Detox and Liquid Eyelift . I love simple sleek packaging so I was starting to like these products before I had even tried them, it also helps that this Australian company are climate friendly, use recyclable packaging and print with non-toxic vegetable inks.

The Liquid Detox is a cleanser that’s designed to be used daily and promises to cleanse, exfoliate and moisturise. I have to say that I do normally use a cream cleanser and was a little skeptical at first using this lightly foaming cleanser as they usually strip my skin, especially in Winter. But this cleanser removed make-up and cleansed my skin without leaving it tight and shiny. My face felt clean and smooth. After using this cleanser every evening for two weeks my skin feels smoother and looks brighter. At the moment I have been using my Trilogy Rose Hip Oil to moisturise following cleansing with Liquid Detox, but once that runs out I would be very keen to try Pod’s Liquid Facelift.

Liquid Eyelift

I have also been using the Liquid Eyelift every evening for the last two weeks, and whilst I am currently lucky enough not to be dealing with fine lines and dark circles, I do suffer from some dehydration around my eyes, working constantly in an air-conditioned environment leaves my eye area feeling permanently tight and dry. This is a light weight product which is quickly absorbed into the skin. I noticed immediately following application that my eye area was softer and less dehydrated. Using this daily has definitely improved the dryness and irritation issues that I had.

I have only been using Pod Puraceuticals for the last two weeks, but already I am very happy with the results. It’s a streamlined skincare system that’s gentle on your skin and the environment. I can’t wait to try out their other products!

For more information about Pod Puraceuticals visit http://www.podpuraceuticals.com.au Pod Puraceuticals is sold online as well as selected Myer department stores and pharmacies across Australia. For stockist details call 1300 796 986.

Review by Hannah x

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High on the list of my priorities at the moment is to broaden my exercise horizons and work on my general fitness, so when my friends suggested we head down to our local tennis courts for a spot of racquet wielding, I couldn’t say no.

We turned up to the courts at about 7.30pm and let ourselves in, there was no one else there and the interesting thing about this place is that the general public has access to to turn the lights on.

Not to mention that it’s completely free to play tennis there. All you need to bring is yourself, a friend, racquets and tennis balls – something that eluded us, tennis pros we are not.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and even got some good serves in – yes!

I think it’s a testament to the Subiaco Council that excellent facilities like this are available for free use by the public and will definitely be returning to develop my tennis elbow. 😉

The facility also provides Pétanque courts and a skate park, as well as an oval for general sports.

Nicholson Road Reserve is located on the intersection of Nicholson Road, Rokeby Road & Thomas Street in Subiaco.

Be well,

Annette

xoxo

♥

My plan up until recently to do my bit for the environment and Climate Change, was to buy an electric car. When I had enough money. Oh, and when they were available to be bought. That was the plan. But recently, I’ve had the feeling that this probably wasn’t going to be enough and that I was probably going to have to rethink this plan, even though it was brilliant and foolproof (right?)

So what could I do? Get a worm farm? Make a compost bin? Live in a teepee? Probably. But it’s not really my style. I’m more of an electric car kind of gal. So what if I could take a small, little baby step towards doing something for the planet AND have this little step make me look lov-ver-ly. TELL. ME. MORE.

Enter the growing market of ‘green’ beauty products. Organic ingredients, recycled plastics all that jazz. Now, I’m not going to pretend like this area of the market is new, not by any stretch, but it is an area of the market that I have avoided up until recently. The idea of organic beauty products had me thinking of sandalwood and hemp and facemasks made out of porridge and dreadlocks and hippies and Fremantle (sorry!) I guess you could say I was a little biased and a lot not interested. So when I first started using Dr Bronner’s line of beauty products these poor, poor items were really starting on the back foot. I’m not saying I didn’t want them to work, I just didn’t expect them to. For the purposes of this review I road tested Dr Bronner’s Liquid Soap, Dr Bronner’s Shaving Gel, Dr Bronner’s Organic Lotion and Dr Bronner’s Organic Lip Balm.

Shaving Gel.

Let’s start with the shaving gel because this had the biggest hurdle to jump- if any of you reading this are related to/the friend of a beauty therapist (in my case my sister) you would have probably had it drummed into you that shaving your legs is EVIL and should be stopped at once. Now, if my sister is reading this I’M SORRY, but sometimes you are in a rush and you just need to shave your legs so you just do it and ok you feel bad about it 3 days after but those first two days the rush you get from that smoothness wow is there anything like it? So even though I am a waxer, I totally shaved my legs for this review. PUTTING MY BODY ON THE LINE. And this product- totally great. Smells amazing (not like shaving cream which I think doesn’t smell so great), is nice and thick so it creates a good barrier that wont make you cut the hell out of your legs, leaves them feeling great afterwards (and the next day) and seriously if you do shave your legs all the time, you have to have something like this. Don’t just think shower gel or shampoo/conditioner will do. It won’t. It doesn’t. Stop doing it. Get this stuff. The lemon lime smell was really nice. I highly recommend.

Peppermint Lotion

Now, the lotion. The plus was that it was quite light so you didn’t feel all sticky afterwards and rubs in really well (and those are two really big ticks in my book) the minus was that the peppermint fragrance got a bit too sickly for me (the good news though is that it comes in Lavender Coconut, Orange Lavender and Patchouli Lime something for every nose.)

Castille Soap

However, I also tried the Liquid Soap in Peppermint and that was just perfect. The peppermint gives your skin a real zing after you use it to wash your face so that’s one product where I think I would definitely prefer the peppermint preference. Now, while we are speaking of this soap- allow me to spend a second on it. This soap has EIGHTEEN uses. 1-8. I couldn’t even get through them all, and I tried. The face cleaning properties were enough for me (I’m not green enough yet to use it to wash my house or clothes), but knowing it has eighteen different uses makes me kind of impressed while I am using it.

Orange Ginger Lip Balm

And last, but certainly not least, the lip balm. Ah…lip balm. How I love thee. I don’t think I am lying when I say that I have tried nearly every single lip balm on the market. I just love them so. The Dr Bronner’s version I tried was the Orange Ginger flavour and it smelt really nice (not too sweet) so nice in fact it kind of made me feel like I was eating carrot cake every time I put it on. This was another bonus and surprise, surprise it did the job. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it is just as good as Lucas papaw ointment. It doesn’t make your lips irritated and itchy afterwards like Carmex does to me or Lip Smackers (yeah ok I own ONE alright so don’t tease me it’s just one and I’m 90% sure it was a gift) and it doesn’t smell medical like Blistex. Tick tick and tick.

The last thing I need to bring up about all these products is the PRICE. The lip balm $2,99, Liquid soap $2.49, Lotion $9.99 and shaving gel $7.99!!! You guys, it’s so cheap!

I seriously am wondering how Dr Bronner even makes any money.

Ok so it doesn’t have the fanciest, sexiest packaging (although there’s something serious about it which I like) but does it matter when you can have these basic products for dirt-cheap and you can know exactly what is in them AND you can know you are helping the environment out a little?

Get yourselves to this website stat because you can get everything online (the company is American): I seriously can’t recommend the lip balm and the shaving gel enough. Don’t wait around for the electric car.

http://www.drbronner.com

NOTE: All these prices are in US dollars, but the exchange rate is so good at the moment, 0.911 as of today 03/08/2010 so you’re still getting a way good deal.

By Adriane, dream babe extraordinaire