Tag: fitnessbeautytravel

St. Patrick’s Day Makeup

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Anyone that knows me, knows that I like to go all out for holidays. I tend to show up for work dressed for the occasion, and St. Patty’s Day was no exception! I got some laughs and some funny looks, but it was all in good fun.

All products used for this look – with the exception of the green shadows – were LimeLight by Alcone products. As for the green shimmery shadows, those were Mica Bella shadows. I used three different shades to create the eye look, and just one shade of the shadow to create that shimmery green lip color. The lips turned out like a metallic liquid lipstick, and I love how it ended up filling out the look!

How to recreate the look:

I always start by moisturizing and priming my face. I use Must Dew to moisturize, and First Base Primer to prep my face for makeup. Then I go in and apply my foundation, and concealer to highlight. I do my brows next, and clean up around the brows with concealer. Once that step is done, I’m ready to go in with my bronzer, blush, and translucent powder.

Once the face is good to go, I then move to the eyes. I applied all of my shadows with a little spritz of primer on my brushes to maximize the color impact. I used a lighter shade of green to apply it all over my lid and in the center of the lower lash line. Once most of the color was on the lid, I gently blended it upward a bit. Then you take the slightly darker green and apply that with a new brush to the outer corner of the eye, and blend inward about halfway across the lid.

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Again once most of the product is where you want it, blend upward slightly and in and around the crease. Next you take a really dark green using a fine crease brush and apply it basically in an outward V where your winged liner goes. Blend that inward a bit, and up and around the crease. You take that shade along the bottom lash line until it meets the other shade you applied earlier, and blend. Lastly, you can take a yellow to the inner corner of the eye and the beginning of the lower lash line. This last step is optional, but I liked the way it turned out. After you’re done all of these steps, you want to go back in and just make sure everything is well blended.

Once you are satisfied with the shadow look, it’s time for the stars of the show. You first go in with your liquid liner to line the lash line, and then do your wing. Next up is mascara, and I usually do two coats for more drama. If you feel the light green got overpowered on the lid, you can go back in on the inner corner of the lid with that light green shade.

PRO TIP: If you made a mistake with the liner, you can go in with your concealer to fix your line. You will want to use a good concealer brush for this so that you can be precise.

PRO TIP: If you accidentally got mascara on the shadow, leave it there for a minute and let it dry. Then take a brow brush or spoolie and gently brush over the spot of mascara. It will pull off the mascara without wrecking your makeup!

This metallic lip color was actually super simple to create. I basically just applied my nude lipstick to prime my lips and give the loose shadow something to cling to. Then I just went in with my middle green shadow color and applied it with a damp brush on top of the lipstick. I applied my finishing spray to finish out the look, and it did have pretty decent staying power. I had to reapply the shadow a bit in the afternoon after eating an apple, but that is to be expected when you have shadows on your lips and you eat something like that.

I just love the way this look turned out! If you decide to recreate it, come back and share your results! I’d love to see other approaches.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

xoxo

Jess

 

 

 

The Difference Between “Luxury Cosmetics” and Professional Cosmetics

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I would like to start out by saying I honestly did love my old makeup. I had no idea that there was a problem until this week when I decided to slap a before and after together, and holy smokes… Mind. Blowing. This totally validates my decision to join the LimeLight family.

29216979_2050637638483775_3594829760657620992_n.jpgPicture 1: This is from about a month or so before I started using Limelight products. Note that my foundation was definitely too dark or had oxidized (I used the lightest shade available in the line), and note how big my pores look.  Go on, zoom in a little and you’ll really see it.

I used a primer always, yet still hated the end result in photos because I could see all the little bumps. I had stopped taking selfies as much since last August because I thought it was because of my new phone, which is a much smaller screen and therefore had a smaller camera. I didn’t notice anything I didn’t like in the mirror, so when I was seeing it in my phone, I assumed it HAD to be the phone…

Picture 2: This is WITHOUT a primer – just LimeLight foundation and a small amount of concealer in a few spots to highlight. I finally have a shade light enough for my skin, and my skin looks FLAWLESS – no more visible pore bumps. Putting these photos side by side blew my mind because it was only in that moment that I realized the problem hadn’t been my camera all along – the problem was my foundation.

ZERO editing done to both images (except for putting the pictures together and the text additions of course).

You guys…

THIS is the difference that professional products makes.

THIS is why I decided to join this company.

And this is why I can’t wait for you to be introduced to these amazing products.

If you haven’t already, please RSVP to my launch event! I, along with two other power-houses, will be going LIVE to demonstrate the application of these products. Andrea will be walking you through the importance of a great skincare routine, Nikki will be walking you through everything to do with your complexion, and I will be walking you through beautiful eye makeup for both day and night! 

I hope to see you there :)

xoxo

Jess

LIVE Makeup Tutorial

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I am going LIVE tomorrow night to demo some beauty products ladies!

I am crowd-sourcing from the group on what products and looks to demo, so if you want to check it out let me know ASAP. I can get you added to our event so that you can voice your opinion before 5pm tomorrow!!

This is your chance to tell ME what YOU want to see in a tutorial.

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AND GO!

xoxo

Jess

Buskers in Paris

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One of the coolest experiences while being in Paris actually had nothing to do with doing the tourist thing and viewing the landmarks. What intrigued me the most was actually the locals and their street performances. From dancing to fire throwing, miming to being a statue, and more – performances in Paris were all over the place.

Europe 521Check this guy out. He is literally in perfect “Seated” form… yet he isn’t sitting on anything but air. He stayed like that for a while too! I can’t even IMAGINE how much pain he must have been in. If you’ve ever tried to do wall sits before, I am sure you can relate. That sure as hell isn’t easy!

Honestly, I 100% thought that it was literally a statue when we first came upon this person. It was only when we got closer and saw him move that we clued in that it was a performance. This is just one example of some of the crazy awesome things that you can find while exploring the streets of Paris. Not what you would expect, eh? I know I sure didn’t. This isn’t something that I would have expected to see anywhere, and it is really cool.Europe 523

We also came across this guy. He was going for a really long time, never letting the ball hit the ground unless he meant for it to happen as a part of the act. He was balancing the ball on top of his head, bouncing it, moving it across his head like you see here in the photo, even rolling the ball all across the length of his upper body from arm to arm. He would roll the ball up an down limbs, balance it, and just overall do really cool tricks.

This was very entertaining to watch, and it made things so much more exciting as we were exploring the city. It just goes to show that people use whatever skills that they have as a means of making a living out there. We don’t see this much where I am from, so I loved seeing the variation in performances and watching people earn a living by doing what they enjoy.

These pictures here demonstrate a group of performers that did a long dance routine.

This was probably my favourite performance that we saw in Paris. I adore the Step Up movies, as well as the Bring it On franchise. I don’t know what it is about dance, gymnastics, and cheerleading that draws me in – I just love it. I think it probably has something to do with the fact that I may as well have been born with two left feet because my coordination record has been terrible throughout my life haha. Regardless, when I heard loud music come on and people suddenly start dancing and break dancing, I felt compelled to sit and watch. And yes – I had to go and give them some money at the end because they were awesome.

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And then there were the fire performers… Don’t get me wrong, I loved their performance as well. However, I feel as though my excitement around their performance was slightly overshadowed by my anxiety. I was scared for these people walking around swinging flamings things near one another. Europe 739I was just waiting for one one those flaming sticks to hit someone, and I was nervous that somebody would get injured.These people are pros though, and they know what they are doing. This performance was actually just outside of an old church, and there was a large cement staircase nearby where locals hung out on weekends and drank. They were set up to perform in that area, and we took a break from exploring to check them out when we noticed the fire.

All of these performances were cool in their own unique way. I don’t have any pictures of the art, but I am sure you wouldn’t be shocked to hear about the massive amount of artists in the city. There was one street that we went down that probably had at least 15 different artists offering their services for money. You could get them to draw cartoon versions of yourself, portraits, and more. All right there on the spot!

If you are planning a trip to Paris, my advice is to explore the lesser populated areas. Visit the non-touristy areas as well to get a good feel for the culture and the city life. Performances were found in both the tourist areas and the more hidden areas that we found by chance, so just explore and see what you can find! I will say this though…

WATCH YOUR BELONGINGS.

This is a story for another time and another post, but Paris has a lot of thieves. I wore a small purse that hung by my hips, and my hand was firmly planted on that bag everywhere I went. This prevented anyone from being able to get into my purse without my noticing. Performances and stunts like the ones that I have described here can be really fun to witness, but you need to be cognizant of the fact that there are more than likely people in the crowd around you waiting for the opportunity to steal from you while you are distracted.

Happy traveling!

xoxo

Jess

 

 

 

Barcelona Street Art Culture

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This blog is titled fitnessbeautytravel, but I have been horrible at actually transferring my travel experiences to words and getting it on here. I recently joined some new Wanderlust groups on Facebook, and it has inspired me to finally get the word out about some of the places that I have been during this travel intermission.

I thought I would start by talking about the awesome culture that I came to love when visiting Barcelona. The locals were very friendly people (for the most part), and there was never a dull moment any time of day or night. One of my favourite things about the city was actually what was hidden down roads and alleys as you explore.

I have no idea what they are feeding the artists down there, but there are some pretty awesome works of art all over the streets of Barcelona. I can’t really put into words how amazing some of the art truly is down there, so I have included a gallery of some of the cool things that I saw during my time there. I apologize in advance for the quality of some of the images, I did the best that I could using a phone camera!

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I am not sure if people are just more brazen and carefree out there to be willing to face punishment for doing this in public spaces, or if maybe the rules regarding street art are a bit less strict down there. Back home in Canada, this would be considered illegal and defamation of public or personal property depending on where it was placed. I have always found street art (not to be confused with those created simply with the intent to be destructive without any artistic appeal) to be very interesting, so I love seeing it in new places. I think it gives artists the outlet they need to get their art out there, and it provides some visually appealing pieces for the locals (or tourists) to enjoy!

If you’ve found some cool street art on your wanderlust travels, feel free to write in to me and share what you’ve got!

xoxo

Jess the travel junkie

3 Years of Health and Fitness

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In the 3 years since I have been working out and going through my transformation, I have never posted pictures of myself without a top on. Why? Because despite how far I had come, I still wasn’t happy with my progress. I’ve since come to the realization that if I am going to coach my friends, family, and others to be happy with small improvements, that I need to start drinking my own koolaid and practice what I preach.

I am far from perfect. I still have big hips and thighs, a big butt, a bit of love-handles, and some belly fat that keeps me from seeing my abs. The biggest, and arguably most important, difference between the girl from the top photos and the girl from the bottom photos is that now I am confident and happy enough with myself to post pictures featuring my face.

Unfortunately I do not have photos from when I was over 200 pounds to show the full transformation. Hindsight is 20/20, and I wish I had been brave enough to take before pictures. When I started this journey, I had already tried just about every diet tip, trick, pill, supplement, wrap, and more on the market. Nothing seemed to work, so I pulled out the old P90X and thought I would give it another go, but I had tried that and failed to stay the course many times as well. My failure to take before photos is both a testament to my lack of belief in myself that I would make it, and also a complete and utter hatred for my body and myself for letting myself go.

You’re probably thinking that in 3 years of health and fitness, I should be a lot more ripped than that. Well, you’re probably right. The problem is that I am an emotional eater, so when life throws curveballs at me, I tend to return to old habits. The past 3 years have been a total roller coaster of ups and downs when it comes to my weight loss. I had lost 60-65 pounds, then I fell off track and gained 30 back. I got myself back on track and lost those 30 pounds, bringing me back to where I was before. Then my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, and four months later, he was gone. During the year between the diagnosis and following his passing, I totally derailed and wound up gaining 40 pounds back. Since January 2016, I have been working to lose those 40 pounds, and I am just about 5 pounds away from where I was before despite a couple of minor setbacks due to illness and life experiences.

My point in all of this essentially is this: It doesn’t matter how many times you try and you fail. What matters is how many times you try again. Nobody becomes successful at anything without failing along the way, and you can ask any expert in any field, and they will tell you the exact same thing. Failure means you are trying. You just have to know how to get back up and try again. Don’t let failure destroy everything you’ve worked towards. It is okay to take some time, but always brush yourself off and get back at it.

You are NEVER alone. Guaranteed, there are others out there struggling through the same journey that you are currently taking. I am right there with you on this journey myself, and someday I will achieve my goals. If you want help achieving yours and you are lacking the support and guidance that you need to get you there, you are more than welcome to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you out, and share information that I’ve learned along the way. Simply use the contact tab and fill out the form to send me an email directly, and I will respond as soon as I can!

Thanks for reading

xoxo

Jess

Throwback Thursday: My Transformation!

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So I am 100% speechless right now… I could actually cry.

THROWBACK

I have been working SO hard for what seems like such a long time, and falling off the wagon then getting back on repeatedly. A year ago yesterday I lost my grandfather, and until January of this year, I had totally derailed and had gone back to emotional eating.

In January I recommitted, and I am now almost back down to my lowest weight since high school. I am so freaking proud of myself and how far I have come. I still have some work to do, but these pictures are proof to me that everything I am doing is beyond worth it!

If I can do it, so can you.

NEVER GIVE UP

It’s not over until you say it is.

 

5 Ways to Avoid Junk Food in the Workplace

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5 Ways to Avoid Junk Food

Does your place of employment make it difficult for you to stay on your healthy eating path with regular treats and ways to cheat? Mine does!

So for now I say, “Yay for small victories!” Here’s why.

With my current place of employment, there are breakfast treats from a bakery provided every Friday. I am usually fine with that as long as I don’t go in the lunch room. Yesterday junkfood.workwas a little different though because our manager brought timbits (Canadian bite sized donuts lol… tasty little devils) and coffee. I was OK all morning until I went to refill my water bottle and saw the box. I figured the chocolate ones were gone anyway so I could just take a peek. Chocolate ones were in there. I stopped and stared like a doofus for a good 30 seconds with the devil on my shoulder telling me to take one.

I didn’t cave! I’m only two and a half weeks fully back on track with my fitness and nutrition, so I didn’t want to risk messing with my progress. Now to survive next week at work with a treat trolley, lunches being provided, suppers occasionally if you stay late etc. I think I’m in deep trouble lol.

I realized that if I am finding this to be a struggle, there must be others like me working in similar environments that are struggling with the exact same issue. I wanted to share a bit about how you can help make this process of avoidance a little easier.

Here we go!

Don’t say “I can’t have that”

Seriously! Instead of saying to yourself or to others than you can’t have something because you’re on a diet, start telling yourself and others that you “don’t want that”. If you allow yourself to think that you are restricting yourself from something that you want, it becomes a lot harder to resist. Think about how bad the treat can be for you, and how it can ruin your progress and set you off course, and think “I can have this if I want to, but do I really want to eat it?” If you think positively about the situation and say that you don’t want that because you owe it to yourself to eat clean and create a healthier life for yourself, you WILL feel better about the decision to avoid whatever tasty treat was put in front of you.

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Bring your own snacks and meals

This is a big one. Prepare your healthy meals and snacks before you go to work. If you get hungry, go eat one of the snacks or meals that you brought for yourself. If you don’t have a fridge handy and your meal needs to be kept cool (as most healthy meals would), then you can invest a small amount of money in one of the many cooler bags out there designed for health and fitness individuals. I have one, and I used it every single shift when I was working in an environment that had no fridge. Having snacks and meals readily available makes you far less likely to indulge on whatever treat your office is providing this time. If you don’t have these healthy choices available and you happen to be hungry at the time of the junk food option, you are way more likely to give in.

Avoid the area that holds the treats

For me I know to avoid the lunch room on Fridays because of the breakfast treats. If there are coffee and timbits provided, I know to avoid the table on which they are kept. If cupcakes are brought in to our daily morning meeting (which happens whenever someone in the office has a birthday), I know to leave right after the meeting to avoid seeing all of the other people munching down on the cupcakes. Don’t torture yourself by putting yourself around the foods that you crave, and instead try to avoid those areas if you can.

Celebrate the times you avoid the treats

Be really happy and proud of yourself for avoiding these office temptations! Pat yourself of the back. Join health and fitness groups and networks, and share your small little victory with others. See what I did here, I did exactly what I am telling you to do in this very blog post! When you learn to celebrate these small victories, it becomes easier and easier for you to stay strong each time an opportunity presents itself to cheat.

Get your office involved in your journey

Share what you are doing! Tell other people about your goals and what you are trying to accomplish, and ask them to please be respectful of your goals by not shoving things under your nose that can hamper your progress. Sharing your goals with others will help to keep you accountable, and it could also help you find a person to go through the journey with you. Having a partner go on the journey with you is definitely a huge advantage, because you will both help to keep one another accountable. If you’re REALLY motivated to keep on track, you could even try to get the whole office involved by doing a friendly competition. Have a little “biggest loser” competition, or have a “step counting competition”. Get the office doing something that will keep them active and guide them to a healthier lifestyle, because if you get them on board your life in the workplace will get a whole lot easier!

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Lastly, I just want to say that if you do find yourself in a position where you have “cheated” on your nutrition and your meal plan if you have one, DO NOT get mad at yourself and allow that to get in the way of your progress. So many people give in once, and then they use that as an excuse to binge for the rest of the day. “Well I already messed up once so I may as well make this a cheat day”. Don’t do it. Just don’t, please! That is a verrrrryyy slippery slope to be on you guys, and trust me, this is coming from experience because I’ve done it myself a thousand times before. A cheat meal can turn into a cheat day, and a cheat day very easily turns into a cheat weekend, which then can turn into a cheat week, and then all of a sudden before you know it… a month has gone by and you’ve barely worked out or eaten healthy, and you find yourself right back where you started having gained back some weight. If you make a slip up once, be like “that’s okay, one mistake is not going to hurt me and I can be really good for the rest of the week.” Stop yourself from being down and discouraged one one tiny mistake, and definitely don’t let that cause you to give up on your goals.

xoxo

Jess

Fall Into Fitness Challenge Group!

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It has been a great summer with lots of nice weather, and I am sure that we have all enjoyed our fair share of BBQ’s, cold drinks, ice cream, junk food, etc. Now that summer is over, it is time to get yourself back on track with your nutrition and your exercise routine. After all, summer bodies are built in the winter months!

Let’s get ahead of the holiday weight-gain and get some awesome results to show off to your friends and family during Christmas and New Year’s visits. Most people wait until New Year’s to start, and statistically speaking, very few actually are still on track a few months – let alone a year later. Establish those habits prior to the holidays, and not only will you be less likely to gain a bunch of weight during the holiday season, but you’ll also be more likely to stick it out beyond January 1st.

I actually have a few girls starting CIZE in a couple of weeks, so I am currently looking for a few extra people looking to lose 10-15+ pounds. You will be drinking shakeology daily, working out, and interacting daily in a private challenge group with others doing the program as well! Not only will you receive the full fitness program, but you will also receive the nutrition plan and a month supply of Shakeology (which replaces one meal a day – I prefer breakfast). PLUS you also receive a month free of Beachbody On Demand where you can access over $2000 worth of fitness programs by amazing trainers, meal plans, and healthy meal recipes to try out. This is in addition to having a personal coach (me) to help and support you along this journey, and a small team of people doing this with you for support and accountability.

This is a fun way to learn about health and fitness in a secure environment with like-minded people to support and encourage you along the way. Let me know if this sounds like something that you could benefit from! In the meantime, feel free to join my Health and Fitness group.

Comment below with “I’m In!” if you are ready to take this next step toward a healthier life!

xoxo

Jessica

September Goal: Lose 10 pounds

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Those who follow my blog will know that I recently pledge to get back on track with my nutrition and my exercise. This week was my first week back on the wagon, and though I had a bit of a rocky start, things are definitely getting better. I am sore all over my body (in the good way), which always happens to me when I start a new program, so it is pretty normal. I am happy to report that the headache and dizziness symptoms seem to be subsiding, which means that my body is getting accustomed to my new diet sans junk food.

I started this week with the goal of losing AT LEAST 10 pounds this month. I stepped on the scale this morning out of curiosity and was pleasantly surprised to find that I’ve already shed 5 pounds! That is pretty exciting stuff, however, you have to remember that a lot of that was likely just bloat from all of the junk that I had been putting into my body last month. For those of you wondering what I am doing, I thought I would fill you in!

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I am currently doing a Beachbody fitness program by Chalene Johnson (my favorite trainer of all time) called ChaLEAN Extreme. I love it because it provides a combination of the high intensity interval training (HIIT) that I love from her Turbo Fire program with the weight lifting aspect that I need to build muscle definition. That combination for me is perfect. Since there are two scheduled rest days with this program, I’ve also been adding in some extra cardio on one of those days and also on some of the shorter workout days. I just cherry pick from my catalog of programs or use Beachbody On Demand to do whatever workout I feel like doing that day!
In addition to the fitness aspect, I am also drinking Shakeology every single day for my breakfast meal. I prefer the chocolate Shakeology, and I mix it with a scoop of chocolate whey protein for an extra boost, almond milk, and frozen strawberries. It tastes like  milkshake, and it is totally delicious. My diet has been consisting of mostly natural foods. I have a fruit snack once a day an hour or two after my shakeology, I have veggies with lunch and supper, chicken, rice, greek yogurt, rice cakes with nutella, eggs, etc. I also just started using these soft chews from GNC called CLA 500mg in strawberry-banana. I have no idea if they work or not, but they are supposed to help with fat loss. The GNC folks must love to see me come through the door lol because they can take me into just about anything if the price is right!
There you have it guys! This is what I am doing, and you are welcome to take the pledge to lose 10 pounds this month with me. I have a free health and fitness group, and you are more than welcome to join if you need some extra motivation and accountability. Summer bodies are made in the winter everyone, so get to work now and get ahead of the holiday weight gain haha.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to message me with any questions you may have!
xoxo
Jessica