Say Goodbye To Your Love Handles!

It is an unfortunate fact of life that as we age, fat seems to make itself at home in our bodies. One of its favorite places to reside is in the area of the waist just above our hips, called the love handle region. But what is to love, exactly? Those additional rolls of fat are the guilty culprits in making many articles of clothing fit a little snugger, and in keeping many of us from showing up on the beach in bathing suits. There are no if’s, and’s or but’s about it; love handles have got to go! The good news is that with the proper combination of diet, cardiovascular exercise and muscle toning, you can say goodbye to those unsightly love handles.

Targeting Fat
Here’s the bad news: there is no way to target specific areas of fat on our bodies for effective reduction. Instead, we must focus on reducing fat in the body overall, and the best way to do this is through diet and cardiovascular exercise. A general rule of thumb is that once a woman hits a body composition that is around 20% body fat, the love handles will begin to disappear. It is doubtful that anyone needs to be preached at about the proper way to eat these days, with so much information available on diet and nutrition. Keep in mind that no matter how much you exercise, you will continue to gain weight if your calories consumed are higher than the calories burned each day. This is why it is so important to cut out fats and sugar from the diet as much as possible while you are exercising daily, to increase your odds of dropping the pounds and inches on a consistent basis.

Cardiovascular exercise should be done four to six times each week, and can be as simple as taking the dog for a walk around the block, to sweating it out on the treadmill at the gym. Any type of cardio exercise will effectively burn the calories – and the additional fat – but the harder you workout, the quicker you will see results. Before you begin any type of exercise program, make sure that you talk to your doctor about the safest choices for you. Once you have a cardio workout established into your daily routine, you can begin adding specific exercises that will tone the muscles on either side of your abdomen, called the obliques. The best types of movements that will work this area include twisting and bending motions that will stretch and tone those muscles. The toning will succeed in reducing the inches around your waistline, and give you the definition and firmness that your image is craving.

While additional fat storage in the body may be a fact of life as we age, there are things that we can do to keep those storage areas under control. Once you get a handle on those love handles, you will be able to sport that bikini with confidence. Bye bye, love handles!

Exercises: Get a Handle on Your Love Handles
Basic crunch: Works the rectus abdominis, the wide flat muscle that runs from your breastbone to the top of your pelvis.

Lie on the floor with your feet hip-width apart. Cradle your head in your hands without lacing your fingers together and with your elbows rounded slightly inward. Tilt your chin a small way towards your chest and pull your abdominal muscles in.
Exhale through your mouth as you curl your head, neck, and shoulders up off the floor. Hold at the top of the movement for a moment, then inhale as you slowly lower down.

Twist crunch: This exercise works your rectus abdominis as well as your internal and external obliques, two muscle groups that wrap around your waist.

Exhale through your mouth and curl your head, neck, and shoulders up and towards the left. Hold at the top of the movement, then lower to the start. Twist to the right on the next rep, and continue alternating until you complete the set. Note: Don't just twist your elbows from side to side. Really concentrate on twisting from your middle.

Anchoring: This exercise uses all of your abdominal muscles, including the deep, underlying transverse abdominis. Your lower back also gets a workout.

Lie on your back with your left foot on the floor. Lift up your right leg and bend your knee so that your thigh is perpendicular to the floor and directly in line with your hip; flex your heel. Raise your arms up over your chest and clasp your fingers together.
Slowly lower your heel and your arms towards the floor. As you do so, concentrate on keeping your abs pulled inward, and don't allow your lower back to pop up off the floor. This becomes harder the closer your heel and hands move towards the floor. When your heel has almost touched the floor, slowly return your arms and leg to the start. Repeat this exercise four times with your right leg, then four times with your left.

Makeup Tips for the '5 Minute Face'

Fed up with your tired beauty routine? Wish you could follow a simple yet effective set of steps that actually work for you? Well now you can with these techniques by Carmandy from the TLC show “How Do I Look?” These techniques are practical and all about enhancing your natural beauty without spending hours trying to look polished and pulled together.

Five Minutes to Beauty
1. Start with a tinted moisturizer or foundation, spot conceal any redness and apply under eye concealer.

2. Next, dust on a light translucent powder.

3. Highlight is key to this look so applying a shimmering light shadow under the brows, on the inside corner of the eyes and on top of the cheekbones will showcase your face.

4. Next swirl on blush for a fresh lively look.

5. Line the upper lash line with an eyeliner pencil and smudge with a Q-tip. This will give you the subtle definition you need.

6. Sweep on mascara to the top lashes only. Skipping the lower lashes will save time and potential cleanup.

7. Now slick on lip color and you're ready to go.

Fast, easy and effective!

How to Look Thinner In Pictures

It's spring. And if you're like us, the results of your swimsuit diet aren't quite showing yet. If you've got any graduations or weddings coming up in the warmer months ahead, you're likely to get your picture taken. If the thought of a photographer makes you want to run, relax: We've found a few tips -- online, in books, from experts -- on looking thinner in pictures.

1. Use flashes in sunlight. According to "Geek Sugar", it's all about the lighting. Flashes are good because they override the shadows that overhead sunlight might cast on your face, making for pronounced under-eye and chin shadows.

2. Lean in towards the camera. Digital Camera Tracker says leaning slightly towards the camera is helpful: "Think of having a long neck like a gazelle, and tilt your chin down just a bit to avoid the appearance of a double chin," the site suggests.

3. Stand like a ballerina. No, we're not kidding. While it stops short of recommending you wear a tutu, the 'Rocky Mountain News' says you need to pose like a ballet dancer: "The most flattering (read slimming) pose: Face front and cross one leg in front of the other, then turn your body at a 45-degree angle away from the camera and turn head and shoulders toward the camera. Place feet in ballet third position (one foot angled in front of the other)."

4. Put your hands on your hips. The 'Rocky Mountain News' says your soldiers might look less rounded this way.

5. Get a shot from below, as if you were on the runway. In Camilla Morton's new advice book for women, 'How To Walk In High Heels,' model Giselle Bundchen is interviewed about how to look good, both in front of and away from the camera. For pictures, the runway-veteran agrees that lighting is crucial, but she adds a few tips on angles and poses: "For long legs, point one leg into the center of the frame and get the photographer to shoot looking up your body," says Bundchen. We just hope it's not up your nose, Giselle!

6. Get a shot from above. The best way to hide that double chin is to have someone shoot your face from a few inches above your head. Just find someone who's taller than you. Either you'll look up at them, which makes double chins disappear, or the area below your chin will be in shadow, and won't show up in the picture at all. For a group picture where you want everyone to look good, stand on a chair and have everyone look up at you: We've been using this technique at parties for years. It works!

7. Forget about looking thin and just relax. Not all experts agree with the stand-up-straight, pose-like-a-movie-star advice. We spoke to Edward Keating, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning photographer for the 'New York Times,' who was the principal photographer for the newspaper's 'Vows' column for seven years. He says that the best thing a subject can do to look good in photographs is to be relaxed and happy. "Look at the photographer, not at the camera," says Keating. "If they're connected with me, they're not thinking about the camera and the lens."

The Perfect Frame

Long drop earrings are the perfect slimming accessory. With the two vertical stripes framing your face, the opticals are there for a thinner look in-between!!!!!!!

A hair styling tip for a slimmer look

For girls with full faces, a side part can be slimming. Try parting your hair so that the part lines up with the pupil of one eye, and sweep the hair over to rest on the other side of your face. It’s an ultra slimming 'do!!!!!!

visit www.allthewhey.com for a great selection of yummy bariatric drinks - for all our 'bari beauties!!!!!!!'

Mirror image

Getting a diamond to shimmer takes polishing. If we’re dressing by coordinating tops and bottoms, we need info about flattering tops to keep our slimmer line going from head to toe. Soooo, a wide collared shirt or a simple ruffle near the face will draw the eye to your neck, head, and face, for a polished, slenderized look!!!!!!