My friend shared with me a few checked recipes for delicious drinks.  Enjoy ;)

1. green etiude

2cucumbers
1/2 cup of fresh mint
50ml of green tea
100ml of vodka or bacardi rum
squeezed lime
one flat spoon of sugar
ice

2. watremelon&cucumber margarita

2cucumbers
2pieces of watermelon
1/2 cup of fresh mint
squeezed lime
1 spoon of Cointreau liquer (or any sweet oneyou have got)
100ml of gyn (I recommend Finsbury)
1/2 spoon of sugar
ice

- one has to mix the cucumber, mint and waternelon in a blender and then add rest.

3. mayfair

one cucumber
two squeezed lemons
50ml gyn
a spoon of sugar

4. gazpacho

one cucumber
one tomatoe
one red pepper
a small bottle of tomatoe juice
a little  bit of Tabasco sauce (like one spoon)
1/2 spoon of Worcestershire sauce
100ml of vodka
salt and pepper

One needs to peel all veggies and mix them with half of tomatoe juice, then remove all the shit and add the rest of the juice, tabasco, sauce, vodka, salt and pepper.

Now we are firmly into the “Im going away in 6 weeks help” season I thought Id do a few updates on new ways to work the key parts on show in a bikini..

First up – Abs:

Having worked on my Abdominals for years the key bit of advice I tend to share is that you need to keep changing what you do. Too much of the same movement or excercise and your muscles get used to it, you can repeat it for ages but it isnt actually doing you much good. In the past Ive posted various crunch routines but recently a friend of mine developed two new excercises which Ive found incredibly effective

Excercise one

Lie on your back with your legs in the air and your lower back pushed into the floor. Slowly lower one leg down until its just off floor level then the other. The trick with this one is to a) gradually reduce the angle from the floor – so your muscles are continually worked and b) dont speed up. If you have difficulty keeping your lower back engaged, put your arms straight up in the air and that should help.

Excercise Two

This one involves being able to do a side plank, if thats a new move for you then Id suggest you get comfortable with it first before trying this. Using a light weight (about 2KG) go up into a side plank. Extend the weight up into the air and then lower down to the floor and back up again, repeat it 20 times on each side. The key with this is to keep the technique on your side plank good, keep your body still and with only controlled movements on your available arm. As you get better at this one you can increase the weight you are using and raise the leg on top for even more of a challenge.

Model Lily Cole visited India to check out the process of making organic t-shirts, and the enormous effort, that is needed to produce it.

The eco t-shirts are going to be available in Tesco to promote the  Climate Week.

None of the cosmetics have been tested on animals, none contains parabens, perfume or

chemical colourants.

I don’t know if anyone of you heard about this, but some time ago a friend of mine told me that the pansy tea helps for skin.

I have decided to give it a go. Pansy tea is easy to find.  So here’s a brief review, with highlights:

TASTE: to be quite honest it isn’t so good, it tastes weirdly, a bit like red tea combined mixed up with green one. One can add a spoon of honey to make it sweeter, no sugar though.

DURATION: I’ve  been drinking  pansy tea for about two months (which is not a long time, if it comes to herbs) . Two teabags per day.

RESULTS: skin is smoother, brighter & hydrated (mind you, I drink lots of coffee and tea that dries it off).  I tried not to use any new cosmetics, serums or face masks at that time, so I am sure the effect was caused by the pansy itself.

Some friends of mine decided to join me in that test, one of them had problems with acne. I can’t say that her face is acne – free yet, but her skin is purified and glowing now.

In my opinion, drinking pansy tea is as profitable as drinking nettle. I  guess we should just remember, that herbs and plants won’t change our skintypes or heal diseases, but they can contribute to the process of detox.

x

PS I have just gotten a pretty nasty comment from one person, which can be seen under Reactivation post. I wanted to let everyone know that I have no intention to copy anything from other blogs about organic living, healthy living, healthy life style and such. I just enjoy sharing stuff, testing products and trying to stay healthy. I have no agenda and I don’t write here to sell any product or promote any cosmetic/food line. This is why I don’t really need to make this place famous/fashionable/seen by thousands.

I write for my own entertainment. More over, everybody lives in rush nowadays, it’s nice to stop for a second, and think of ourselves. No matter if it means drinking yerba mate, using organic cosmetics, doing workouts or simply, focusing on activities we are currently performing (which is my ballet teacher’s favorite ;)  )

Now we’re out of January, I thought it was time for the first fitness post of 2011. I don’t about you but I get rather tired of being told about all the “new” things I can do in January when the reality is that most people engage with their new routine for a couple of weeks and then drop off again.

Fitness isn’t about what you do in a quick burst, fitness works best when its something that you do as part of your daily or weekly routine. So, now the gyms are hopefully quieter again, its time, if you haven’t already, to start building fitness into your day. If you are beginner go for a walk at lunchtime, avoid lifts like the plague and walk up escalators; even changes as small as this will make a difference if you keep consistently at them. If you are happy in a gym, nows the time to shake up your workout, do some new classes perhaps – or build up your own circuits.

Talking of classes…This is also happily the time of year when exercise classes start to get less rammed! Classes are another excellent way of getting into exercise. They are usually fun, challenge you in different ways to just doing your own workout and its generally quite a social occasion too. Of all the classes I’ve done so far there are two I have fallen in love with! One of theses is Spin and its one of the best fat and calorie burners you can find in a group session. With the right music and the right instructor its hard to find a more challenging workout in a class environment. But if you haven’t got a spin class to go to, panic not! Its pretty easy to recreate the spin experience on a stationery bike either at the gym or at home.

1) Put on your favourite tunes (something with a fairly high rate beat ☺)
2) Start off with 10 minutes with the resistance down fairly fast but comfortable as a warm up
3) Do 30 seconds going as fast as you possibly can with the resistance down low followed by a minute of normal pace – repeat 8 times
4) Do 30 seconds going as fast as you possibly can on a standing sprint (out of the seat with resistance slightly up) followed by a minute of normal pace out of your seat – repeat 8 times
5) 5 Minutes with medium resistance seated, take your hands off the handlebars and just push with your legs
6) 2 minutes going as fast as you can

Remember to stretch out your legs at the end of this, otherwise it will hurt the next day! Take it from a girl that knows and has spent time walking around doing a John Wayne impression after a particularly arduous spin class!

I’ve had a small break in posting, as lots of things happen in my life right now but I just wanted to let you know that with the beginning of February, I start my regular posting.

There will be a lot of new reviews, interesting stuff like care routines, and of course, our new section – How to stay fit – by Lucinda.

I hope you haven’t forgotten about me, and we’ll enjoy the blessing of nature together!

One of the harder muscles to hit when you are doing standard sit ups in your lower abs but I was with my training partner last week and she showed me an amazing new routine to get this muscle group. When we did it we combined it with some standard crunches and side abs using weights and created a short 15minute routine that got all of the muscles and was really effective.

There are four different sets to this routine, we did twenty on each and repeated it for times

Set 1

20 normal crunches with your feet on the floor, hip width apart and a space between your neck and your chest – concentrate on doing a slow and controlled movement both throughout.

Set 2

Put your legs out straight at a bout a 45 degree angle from the floor, make sure your lower back is in contact with the floor and your stomach muscles are tensed. Slowly lower on leg down till its just off the floor and bring it up and then do the other leg. Keep going till you have done each leg 10 times trying to bring the starting point nearer the floor as you go.

Set 3

Lying on your back with your legs straight up in the air, try to touch the outside of your ankle with the opposite hand. With this one try to move from your side abs and not from your neck, alternate until you have done 20 times on each.

Set 4

Take some hand weights (I use 5KG / 6KG ones but if you are starting out you might want to find something lighter – if you don’t have weights you can be creative but make sure that what you pick is roughly even). Bend your legs slightly and, keeping your back straight and your abs tight, slide your arm down towards your knee and then go to the other side and do the same. Be careful with the movement on this one, its really important that you keep your upper body in line as you do it. Repeat until you’ve done 20 times on each.

Triathlon update: I’m still in the base building phase at the moment which means I’m increasing the time and distance I can do each of the three activities for. Its been rather tough going out into the cold to go for a run but I’m still on track and looking forward to getting into the anaerobic phase where there its less about distance and more about intensity….. more anon!

Its probably time to vary up the routine a bit – What works best is if you vary the muscles you are working so perhaps alternate the following routine with the press up one?

This routine focuses on the chest and arm muscles (so great for the bust area as well as the tri’s and bi’s). If you have an excercise ball use that to balance on as it will also work your core but if not standing up works just as well for working the arms. For the first excercise either use some handweights, starting off with 2KG and working up as you find it gets easier. If you dont have weights to hand at home, then you could also be a bit inventive and use a couple of cans or something like that!

Flies

Do 20 reps of this lying flat on a bench, stool or excercise ball. Make sure you keep your stomach muscles tensed and your arms with just a slight bend in them as you do this one, if this means you need to use a lighter weight thats fine. Slow is better than fast so count 2 down and 2 back up again for each one. Repeat 20 times