New Years Resolutions: Just Start

Its that time of the year where everyone is bloated, has a food baby that's 4 months old and feels dissatisfied with their body. Then the 1st of January hits and we have those over enthusiastic, goal oriented gym goers that absolutely kill it on the 1st of January but then a week later fizzle and are, again, back to sitting on the couch with chips and soda. 

I am here, as a fitness instructor and just your ordinary friend, to tell you not to fizzle, feel unmotivated and give up after killing it for a week and not seeing any results. Hey, it took you a lot of courage to sign up for the gym or for group fitness classes and just going is a victory in itself. But continuing from that starting point is where the challenge lies. After a couple of weeks, spice it up. Maybe take that Zumba or Kickboxing class that you've always wanted to try but at first felt too weak or not fit enough to do so. Working out can get monotonous but if you change up your routine, it becomes more fun and interactive. Once the weather gets warmer, start going on hikes with your friends, take your pet with you and now your multi-tasking; walking your dog and spending quality time with people you care about. You also get a great view of nature in all its beautiful glory and get to appreciate it more. Hiking is great cardio as well because you're not thinking about how hard you're technically working out. 

Okay. How to get started with your fitness journey. Here are some steps to get started as well as tips and tricks. First step: write out your realistic goals for yourself. I promise you, you can't lose 120 pounds in 2 weeks and look like a Victoria's Secret angel with legs for days if you are 5 foot 2. But you can definitely have goals like benching 40 pounds to start out. Step two: Take before pictures and measurements of yourself so you can have references for your journey later on. Step three: It's not just about working out for 2 hours at the gym for 5 days straight and then downing a liter of Coke and a Big Mac. Its also about what you eat. Start a diet (but I don't mean dieting) plan where you plan out healthy, wholesome meals for each meal and day of the week. I always tell this to my clients, but have a support system around you that give you positive and helpful feed back. If you do not have a healthy support system around you, if people close to you are being negative about you changing your life for the better then find a support system online. There's always me, if you have any questions, need advice or just want to talk, I'm always an email away (styleandbell@gmail.com). But there are communities all over the internet just waiting for you to join and one you start going to the gym and classes, you will start making friends there as well, I promise. 

It's going to be a great year, 2016. You've got this. 

Sports bra: New Balance

Gloves: Nike

Sandals: Adidas

Cap: Lululemon

Bag: Lululemon

Coin Purse: Loft 

Practice makes perfect

I am a late bloomer when it came to the whole beauty thing. Literally so late that I almost passed my teens before getting into make up, hair and skin. In the beginning, I did not know what I was doing because my mom did not wear a lot of make up. Her whole morning routine, as beauty gurus would say, was put on Johnson baby powder, eyeliner and blush. Of course I saw all those glam girls doing highlighting and contouring, smokey eyes, and ombre lip colors and I wanted to be able to have those make up skills too. 

I started out researching products because I didn't want to pay for something that did not do its job properly and waste my money. I found out everyone was raving over the Kat Von D tattoo liner. (And I really wanted to be able to do a cat eye and look super fierce). It was my first ever investment into make up products, but from my research, I knew it was good. I just had to apply it to my eye lids properly. That, my friend, was the challenge. At first I spend literally 15 minutes trying to get both eyes to look symmetrical and then would spend another 10 rubbing it off with make up remover because I didn't like how it turned out. But I felt (somehow) more confident with that little black line of extension on my eye. 

Soon cat eyes were a thing of the past, I could whip one out in a heartbeat. Now it was onto that smokey eye. I struggle, looking like a panda at the beginning. My makeup artist friend even said I should stop doing make up because I was embarrassing myself. That, of course, coming from not only a good friend, but a make up artist, hurt my feelings. But to spite him, I watched even more tutorials and practiced even more. Smokey eye, hun, I've got you. 

If you are going to start something, maybe its doing make up or maybe its starting a business or blog, know that in the beginning, things are going to be hard. And I'm not saying it gets better as time goes along, you just adapt better to the situations brought at hand. Be persistent and tenacious. You might not get into the swing of things the first time around. But I promise you, you're going to get better at it. The first thing you should do is take the first step. 

Fit Inspiration: New Year, New You

If you have been following me from the beginning, which isn't too long ago, you will know that I am very much into the whole health and fitness lifestyle. I actually am a certified yoga instructor and can actually teach classes. As the year comes to an end, we start thinking about the how the next is going to be greater and grander than the one that has passed. We make goals for ourselves to become a better version of who we are so that we fit into the "greater and grander" ideal we have for the new year.

If we are to make that a possibility, we must start with ourselves. If our goal is to lose weight and become stronger, then we have to persevere and be tenacious. There will be days that we do not see the results we want and have very negative thoughts, but we must always remind ourselves to keep moving forward because the world is not waiting for us. We must seize the day and take it to the fullest. 

Fitness is about the journey and not the destination is what I say to all my students. We are so focused on our goal body type or weight, we forget that the path that makes us stronger is what defines us. If we are to focus on just the end result, we will not enjoy the journey that gets us there. Take it little by little, each pound we lose and strength we gain are little victories in themselves. I was so proud of myself once I could shadow box with 5 pounds in each had. When I put the weights down, I was lighting fast. If you want to run a marathon, take it one mile at a time. Your fit body is not going to be sculpted in a day or even week. It takes time. Stick with it and definitely have people supporting you through the whole journey. I wish you luck and welcome you to the fitness family. 

But first coffee...then work

Productivity. Once you become an adult, there are just so many things that need to get done in a day that sometimes as opposed to when we were younger, we wish there were more hours in a day to just get things done. 

Procrastination. Something that we humans do when we get stressed. I procrastinate all the time and do the most obscene things to try to avoid the inevitable. 

Progress. How to avoid procrastinating and be productive is to leave our comfort zone and venture out of it. For example, I have an office in my room that I do work in, but because my bed is also in the room, it is very tempting to just take a "short" break from work and take a nap. How I get myself out of the comfort zone of my home office is to go out to a cafe. I buy a coffee at my favorite shop, find a seat and sit down and get things done. This is just one tip on what to do to become more productive and make better use of one's time. If you would like more tips and tricks on how to get more done with your meager time, please leave a comment and I will write another post on productivity. 

Streetstyle mode: Coat on the Shoulders

As fashion people, we read online magazines, news forums and blogs about streetstyle. It starting becoming this hot topic only a couple of years ago by their pioneers such as Tommy Ton, Phil Oh and Scott Schuman. As the years progress people in fashion, who typically would not dress for other people, but themselves, started getting more creative with their looks to get photographers' attentions. One trend that made its trademark, especially in fashion week (doesn't matter the season) is the sophisticated I-delicately-put-a-coat-on-my-shoulder look. 

Lets be real here, it may look sophisticated, elegant and fashion forward, but boy is it hard to get in and out of cars still steadying the coat on your shoulders. Let's not even talk about reaching for things. The whole coat on shoulders look science was specifically made for going to a fashion show, getting photographed and sitting down. And number one rule in rocking this trend, don't fuss with your coat! It ruins the whole enigma of how you can balance a clothing item on your shoulder without looking like you've tried too hard. 

Coat: Uniqlo

Vest: England

Top: gifted

Pants: Zara

Boots: Macy's 

Sunnies: Aldo

Hat: Urban

Bag: Thailand

Morning walk

I typically was not a morning person when I was younger. Sure, I had to wake up early for school, but that didn't mean I was awake and alert. But now as I mature and am becoming more of an adult, I really enjoy my early mornings. I get things done in the morning time, so my afternoon and evenings can be more relaxed and laid back. 

This morning for instance, I woke up (no alarm needed) at 7 am, got dressed, and headed out with my friend and my camera to the nearby park around my house. It was nice to breathe in the crisp, cold, morning air and take some pictures for the blog and portfolio as well. 

My advice for people who want to get more into mornings is to ease into it. First start off maybe getting up an hour or two before you usually wake up. Set up a list of things you want to accomplish in the morning and go through them one by one. If you try to multi-task, you may get overwhelmed and stressed. Take it easy.  It starts becoming a routine by itself soon enough. If you want to start exercising or running in the morning, schedule it in. It doesn't take more than half an hour to an hour to run. You realize how much time you've been wasting before sitting around watching hulu and netflix when you could be (as a photographer, blogger, model and singer) editing some photos, writing a blog post, emailing casting directors or writing song lyrics. Once you get up and start doing things with your morning, you realize that you have time to get things done. 

Jacket: Lululemon

Pants: Nike

Shoes Nike

Cap: Adidas 

Creative Meeting Attire and Greecologies Review

As a creative, I dress myself to express my individuality. But there are times when, even as a creative, one must dress appropriate for the occasion. Taking an example out of my daily life, I had a meeting for an upcoming photoshoot that I will be apart of and I had to dress for, not only the location, but also for the individuals attending the meeting. Even if it is your good friend, it is better to dress well and professional to show that there is a level of professionalism. 

Since it is a creative meeting amongst friends, I dressed myself polite enough so that if onlookers were watching, that they would know we meant business but at the same time kept my flair and sense of style in the game. If you want a look book on professional outfits to wear to the office, while still looking stylist, I am more than happy to do a post specifically on that topic. Just leave a comment down below, I am all ears. 

On a different note, the cafe in which I had my meeting was simply divine. The name of the place is called Greecologies and they serve greek style yogurt along with something called butter coffee, which I had to order. I ordered the Maca butter coffee, which I thought was very rich, buttery (of course) and flavorful. For those who like creamer in their coffee, try butter coffee. Literally no creamer needed, its fatty enough I promise. If you're ever in Little Italy in New York, go and have a look.