How to hit Summertime with a smile!

Long time no see right?
Ah life kept me busy, I bloody hate finals and all the stress but well, awaits the fresh breeze coming from the sea...Ah those summer nights! Oops, my GREASE symptoms are kicking in.

So so, I'm not an expert when it comes to weight loss regarding my several unsuccessful attempts to go back to my goal weight of 3 years ago but I'm confident enough to tell you that if I hadn't given up to junk food and sugary stuff, I'd be totally fit, toned, and comfortable in my body.
Because when I could stick to a healthy lifestyle last year before summer, I lost weight and my body was better than it is today.

Let's start simply...
Rather than white types of flour, always pick the whole-weat ones. It goes for bread, pasta, rice.
Why?
White ones tend to increase your glycemix index and when it is high, you tend to eat more and you keep all the fat/sugar. Hence no weight loss although you've had a normal meal.
ALWAYS have breakfast. Jesus, it's the base of your daily food intake and, for example, I allow myself chocolate of few reasonnable sweets for breakfast because the body will burn it away during the day anyway. Go for toasts with whole-weat bread, or oatmeal. Drink milk (semi-skimmed always!) or eat a yogurt (no flavour, 0%). No sugar in your coffee/tea/milk. And drink fresh fruit juice or eat raw fruits (beware of fruits juices...Some are only 40% fruits and are high in added sugars...).
Cheese is ok in the morning because your body won't keep all the fat unlike cheese at night which is the worst choice^^
Bacon and eggs are also ok. Chocolate is absolutely not a problem at this time of the day.

If you feel hungry 2 hours after your had breakfast you can allow yourself a small snack. Try nuts! Walnuts, pistachios, almonds, etc. Less high in calories is pistachios, beware of walnuts and eat them wisely.
Rice cakes are ok if they're whole-wheat. You can eat carrots with houmous, tuna/salmon water caned, cucumber with 0% greek yogurt, and always try to pick FRUITS if you can. All types are ok except for bananas: they tend to be kept by the body and nourrish it plainly (you know now why tennismen/women always have a banana for break.). If you really crave banana, eat it for breakfast or for the morning snack but after noon, it's a bit of a risk for your weight loss.

It's 12:00 and you're having your lunch break. You have to keep in mind to always keep it this way:
- between 100 and 120 grs of protein (chicken, turkey, salmon are the best choices but at lunch you can have beef, pork, tuna too.) Don't forget eggs and try not to eat more than 4 to 6 eggs a week.
- Vegetables: it doesn't matter how much you eat as long as there is no butter. Do not go over 2 tablespoon of oil (olive oil is the best) when you cook them. Add SPICES. They make the food tastier and you won't even think of adding salt (which causes you to bloat easily).
- You can add bread but whole-weat and not more than 60 grs.
- 0% greek yogurt (a tbspoon of honey or maple syrup if really you hate it like this), or a fruit. 0% cheese is ok too. (on your bread why not?)

Afternoon snack is the most horrible for me. I always tend to crave sweets, junk and all types of bad carbohydrates. If you want it to be a success, you can eat nuts yeah, the same kinds of small ones I put in the morning one but for successful weight loss, my dietician told me to avoid fruits. The natural sugar in them is instantly kept by the body after 3pm. If you really can't do without it, try apples, raspberries, strawberries, cantalupe, watermelons.
A piece of dark chocolate is ok along with a coffee (no coffee after 5 though, you might not sleep and we know that a good night sleep is a huge help for weight loss).

Dinner...There's a saying that is quite known "at dinner, eat like a poor". Exactly. Dinner is time for salads (bewaaaare of dressing/cheese/fried things!!). You can have a nice one using lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber and chicken white. If you can't do without dressing, try this one: lemon juice, 2 tbspoon of olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, basil. But really the greek yogurt one is really the better (always 0%).
Is advice for dinner a lot of vegetables, and still the same amount of protein but at night, avoid beef/pork/tuna and other red meats/fat fishes. Is absolutely encouraged chicken white, turkey, hard boiled eggs (2 is the best portion!), salmon, white fishes like haddock for example.
Dessert: a yogurt.


FOOD TO BE BANNED from your healthy lifestyle:

• Energy bars: these are a total trap! They're usually loaded with calories, extra fat and sugar and you might as well eat a Snickers bar, it won't make a difference. So be extremely careful on the calories.  

• Granola: we often stupidly think it's harmless but hell no. Granola is high in calories. Let me explain, when you buy a pack, the amount of calories per serving is generally added. But you must know that the usual serving (often barely 30g) is ridiculous and you will be tempted to have MORE of course. There is the trouble, you eat more than you should and you lose no weight eating it...

• Salads: No you read it well! But the traps with salads are found in the type of food you put in it. Usual oil dressing is a NO. Cheese is a NO. Fried chicken is a NO. You get me? Instead of the usual fattening dressing, try fromage blanc (0% of fat), or 0% greek yogurt with parsley/basil/chives.

• Smoothies: The problem with smoothies is the way it is made. Always go for smoothies made with whole fruits, low-fat yogurts and NO added sugars. Smoothies are probably the traps you always get into. So be careful next time you buy one! Read package &/or ask questions! 

• Yogurts: Always pick yogurts with no added sugars, no fruits (because jam is probably a nice way to load the most sugar you can). 

WEIGHT LOSS FOOD you should have in your daily diet
 - Apples! The pectin in it reduces feeling of hunger and it's rich in fiber.
- Sweet potatoes! Low in calories and high in fiber, probably better than the usual potatoe which tends to increase glycemic index. A high glycemic index in blood makes you keep all the sugar/fat you eat...
- Red berries: such as raspberries and strawberries, these are full of vitamin C, fiber and antioxidant, keeping your skin healthy!
- Chickpease: you can add them to salads or meals with rice/bulgur. I love to eat them in hummus! Here is a low fat hummus easy recipe!
- Mushrooms! They make you full and helps in the weight loss process!
- Eggs: Ideal breakfast/snack, especially hard-boiled.
- Low calories desserts...You read me well. To treat yourself like this will help you to stick to your healthy lifestyle rather than being too severe, often resulting in binging stupidly because of craving.
- Soups. With the weather getting warmer, cold ones (as gaspacho) are perfect.
- Oatmeal is a slow-release carbohydrates. It means there's no high glycemic effect and people eating it are losing weight faster than the ones who don't. You can add fruits, nuts and other types of food to make it better! One of my favourite!
- Nuts of course! Best choice is pistachio (keeps eyes healthy) and the one you have to be careful with is walnuts/peanuts.
- Bulgur is a good alternative to white rice for example and helps you to fight belly fat.

TO BOOST YOUR METABOLISM...
- Spice your food up! Chile peppers especially. 
- EXERCISE! This is the best way to lose extra weight! There's no magical diet, no miracles. If you don't work out, you might lose weight thanks to a too restrictive diet but your body will be tired, unhealthy and you will gain the weight lost back at one point. 
There's no secret, to be healthy you have to eat well and to move well too. For stunning results it is simple, you need to work out REGULARLY and eat healthy. You may not see the results after a week but I can assure you that your body will change little by little. ALSO, DO NOT KEEP AN EYE ON THE NUMBERS ON THE GODDAMN SCALE! 
You lose FAT yes by eating better and exercising but at one point your weight loss with stagnate. Why? Because you burn up all the fat and replace it by muscles. There are quite stunning transformations on the internet about people eating better, being at the same weight and working out regularly but with a perfectly fit and toned body! 
Few examples:
Here & Here.

 I hope this post is going to help you and make you motivated before summer! For questions, my Twitter of leave a comment below ♥ Next post is about Fashion and will be up soon!

A new year means new things!

Like it's said in Japan, osashiburi desu! It's been a long time!

A month and two weeks to be exact! It makes it even more enjoyable right?
First of all, dear readers, I wish you a very happy new year and I hope it brings the right changes for you. Also, I was surprised that a certain someone asked me when I will be updating this blog! I mean it's not like I have any feedback...

In my case, I've been pretty busy and I now try to find more time to please myself as a woman: means buying a lot of girly stuff like clothes and make-up ^^
So the title says it all! New things that are mine will be the subject of this post.

Serious business begins now!
First product being introduced to you is that Sephora eye shadow: shade is red wine n°31. You can easily find it in any Sephora shop, otherwise, on Sephora.com. I fell in love with it because it matches my new sweat (which will be introduced to you later on this post). As the light in my room sucks, I couldn't provide you a nice pic of its shade on my skin so I'll be careful to take a proper picture of it used in an eye make-up as soon as possible (which means also that you have to wait for me to get a nice camera!).
As it was on sale, I only bought it for 3.27€ instead of 10.90€, a nice buy you could say. This eye shadow is mate, I might use this red wine with peculiar colours, mostly: purple, dark pink and black to outline the whole.

Next product is a KATE lipstick by RIMMEL. Particularity: 1st lipstick collection created by Mrs Kate Moss please! If you know me enough, you can easily remember that this woman is a real example of success for me. I won't talk about the drugs part, but she's a strong business woman and owns all of my beauty ideals. I have been buying RIMMEL products ever since I've known she is the brand's model!
About this lipstick, I picked the n°11: a kind of cherry shade, between dark red and dark pink. Note this down: every lipstick smells like fruits! This one actually smells like cherry ♥

It moisturizes lips and it's long lasting guaranteed. Whenever I apply it, I don't need retouches after few hours. It's hard to remove without a make-up remover to be honest. I think I'll get more of those pretty lipsticks in the future! Definitely approved! (price around 8€)

Bourjois is a well-known French make-up brand. In the last years, their ambition has been to create cute and vintage packaging but also products with a nice natural smell. I've used mostly Bourjois products until now, although I tend to avoid them now that I have more money but if I have to advice you a single brand that isn't too expensive: DEFINITELY BOURJOIS. Their make-up is now paraben free and all of their products are really girly and nice to wear/use.
Today, I will talk about their blusher! The one I've tried out this time is the n°40 called in French "Rose Thé" (Rose Tea), and smells like...A tea rose flavoured! The package is small, owns a mirror when you open it and a small brush to apply it wherever you are! Price: 12€50 here in France.

There's a peculiar rule about the shade you should get for your skin colour! Choose a shade that compliments your skin tone! If you're not sure about it, try it out on the back of your hand: if it feels natural and remember that your face is always two shades lighter than your hand.
For pale skin: a light pink is actually the best choice! It flatters your skin naturally and doesn't give a fake impression! Check out the Well Dressed blush from MAC!
For medium skin: Peach and coral tones you must use! Especially if you have golden undertones.
For dark/very tan skin: Plum/dark pink shades.

If you still don't know or you're unsure about the right choice, then try to decipher which colour you tend to get on your cheeks when you're flushed! Best way ever, besides, you will pick the exact natural colour you tend to get :)


Also extended my O.P.I collection! You can't see the shade well on the picture but if you're interested by the same tones as my lipstick, it's the Black Cherry Chutney! There's a shimmer feel to it!

Last product here is this green box called SULFUREUSE Pâte du MARABOUT by Garancia. It's a purifying, cleansing and Make-up removing paste for blemished combination to oily skin! SPOTTED! Oily skin...Is my own most hated trouble! I mean, it's like my teenage years are kicking out now that I'm 23. Anyways, to be honest, I only heard good things about this paste...And you must know that a skin that isn't well cleaned gives troubles! I think we tend to forget how important it is to always remove all traces of make-up. The skin must breathe after a day full of make-up, pollution and every other natural or chemical agressions. You don't want to look older when you're 30 right? Then take good care of your skin now!
SO! The paste smells good (only natural products such as lemon, cucumber, etc.) and it's soap and paraben free. Frequency is once a day, at night preferably. Next step is the Pschtt Magique in the morning, I think this one will be added on my wish list!
I'm trying it out tonight so I will let you know after few days how it is...Price though is 22€ at Sephora, a bit less online (around 17€).

I was supposed to talk about fashion next but my pictures are so low quality I can't even have the guts to post them! So I will wait for a better day light and a better camera maybe to give you some fashion delight!
Until next post, take care and tweet me any question/suggestion/feedback please! Or leave a comment below!

♥

NUXE & TODAY'S LOOK

Hello dears,

Last post was almost a week ago! Such a long time already but I've been busy & had to cope with few troubles...
Anyways! Today I wandered in the shopping centre of Montpellier (which is the city where I study & will live probably soon) & as nothing had my attention in the many clothes shops, I decided to go take a look at cosmetics.
Three days ago I saw a mention of a bio-based cream with clementine cells. I don't know why but I was so appealed that I noted down the name/price/etc on my wishlist (that I currently write on my notebook like small goals of products I must buy).
And imagine my joy when I stumbled upon it in the health-care products store!
To be honest, it's quite expensive compared to brands like NIVEA but here, keep in mind that the products are bio-based, paraben free & made exclusively with natural fruits/plants/etc.
The brand's name is a spin-off of the famous brand NUXE, called here BIO BEAUTÉ by Nuxe.

First product is a light emulsion, 24h moisturizing with clementine cells: the smell's got citrus fruits notes (thanks clementine cells!), it's very light indeed & easy to apply. It moisturizes instantly your skin & leaves a nice perfume. I will certainly update a review of this emulsion after few days to let you know how my skin gets used to it & if it's worth it.

Price of the emulsion: 16.90€ (~ 13.65£/~21.90$)

The next product by BIO BEAUTÉ by Nuxe is a hand cream! Women! In winter hand cream you must apply! We all suffer from hand dryness in winter because of the evil cold so let's get ready to fight it!
I just tried this cream & I must say, the smell is absolutely good, it's not oily at all (like most of hand creams to be honest) & it penetrates the skin instantly. Now my hands are soft.
I really advice it to you if you need a hand cream.

Price of the hand cream: 9.90€ (~7.99£/~12.85$)

Last but not leaaaaast: the tinted repairing lip balm with raspberry pulp.
To be quite frank, I used to avoid raspberry in general but little by little this fruits grows on me & even in medicines, I often make the choice :)
So, as there was an offer to get a small set of NUXE products when you had bought for at least, 30€ in the brand. So so, this lip balm was sent to me by the beauty gods! I finished my lip balm few days ago and it was a great occasion to buy it.
It's a bit like a lip gloss. When you apply it, it gives a very shiny feel & it's raspberry tinted so, you can protect your lips & stay feminine.

Price of the lip balm: 8.15€ (~6.57£/~10.58$)

The small NUXE set I got...for free!

Now that I'm done with NUXE, which is probably one of the best health-care brand out there, I'll talk about fashion.
More importantly about my own look. Today, I was in the need to feel comfortable but keeping a kind of rockish feel. Why rockish? Well if you don't know that side of me, I am a huge rock&roll fan & there's always an occasion that I won't miss to show this detail!
Today was themed GRUNGE!

It's pretty simple as you can see. Checked shirt by ZARA (I think I bought it 27€ or something), the scarf if from a french shop CAMAÏEU (12.95€), the jeans is from MANGO (35.99€) & you can see that I wear Doc Martens! (135€) 
It's not revolutionary but the grunge spirit is there thanks to the sort of tie-dye jeans & the oversized plaid shirt that became one of my favourite piece in my closet.

I also went to ETAM (Natalia Vodianova being the official model of the brand, I confess that I go there only for this reason sometimes) & sobbed over an officer coat/jacket (term of your choice because it can be both. On extremely cold days I don't know if this coat can really protect you from it).
The price also made me want to sell myself lol. 99.95€. To stop being lazy, if you're from GB, it's 80.60£, and if you're from the US, 129.60$. If you're from somewhere else, I let you convert this into your own currency.

I give myself few days to find a nice winter coat online. If I don't, I think I will surrender, ruin myself & buy this amazing piece! Then I'll be fabulously ruined but fabulously braving the cold !

To next time dears!

TONI&GUY CLEANSE products

Official first post will talk about hair & the few products I often use.

Something you might not know if you're not familiar with my social network mutliple accounts is that I've been a redhead for almost three years now.
By redhead, I don't mean belonging to the Weasley family. No, I've been red since december 2010 (except for this summer when I was indeed a faded red, which was a mix of orange, coppery, pink, ugly ginger...).
Since then, I've come to damage my hair a lot & even had to cut them short last april because it was desperating...My hair was dry, had lost its brilliance, & even the red hair dye wasn't lasting longer than when it was healthy.

For few months now, I take care of it properly.
In a well known French supermarket called MONOPRIX, I stumbled upon british hair products by a brand called TONI&GUY. I had read this name countless times in magazines until I finally found them in real life!
Since September 2012, MONOPRIX released a large collection of haircare products & I've come to love them!
I use the shampoo for damaged hair, the dry shampoo Day 2 Freshness (having greasy hair occasionnaly) & I must say, these products are definitely good. First try of the shampoo was a real pleasure: the smell is pretty nice & instantly after you wash your hair you can feel it soft, silk and nourrished.

 Price of shampoo: 7,94 € (~ 6.5 £/~10$)

 Price of Dry shampoo: ~ 8 € (~6£/~10$)

The dry shampoo can save you if you have fine hair like I do: it can be a nightmare on the 2nd day after your shampoo, it's easily greasy and with absolutely no volume (then you end up looking like Severus Snape). So when I get ready on Day 2, I must admit it saves my life and gives me back the volume effect the freshness of a real shampoo can provide!
Why I don't simply wash my hair again? Because I tend to develop oily hair as soon as I touch my hair too much & also because, having dyed hair, I can't simply wash it everyday or else I will shorten the time before the next dye job. I also want to give my hair a little rest, that's why I wash my hair every two days.

Last product I use a lot but isn't from TONI&GUY brand! It's actually from L'Oréal. To be honest with you dear reader, I'm not a fan of L'Oréal products, let alone L'Oréal Haircare products.
I've been so disappointed by the quality over the years that I absolutely avoid & reject this brand most of the time I hear anything about it.
But, last month, I bought my usual girly magazine & found a sample in it. I forgot it until I stumbled upon it again while arranging the mess in my haircare products &, before my shower, decided to give it a try.
I must say, jfc, I was absolutely stunned after my shower & the day after...
It's a light crème treatment with pro-keratin (keratin being a natural component of the human hair, which explains dry & damaged hair when you lose your natural keratin), & ceramide. It restores & repairs deeply inside! You apply this cream right after you washed your hair, wait a little minute & rinse: the result is absolutely visible. You achieve smooth & silk hair instantly.
The real result though appears with weeks of use. I'm around 3 weeks now & I assure you dear reader that my hair is healthier, less dry! I excusively use it on my tips to be honest because I know how greasy my hair can become if I ever apply anything on the roots.

Price of ELVIVE Total Repair 5 by L'Oréal: 8.06€ (~6.5£ & ~10.3$)

That's all for today!

Introduction

On the internet I'm called Aya.

I live in the south of France, I'm a 23 student (in my 3rd year of literature) & I've decided to run this blog for peculiar reasons I will develop later in this post.
First of all, I've learnt english at school first, then through various online interactions on social network platforms, such as Livejournal, Twitter & more recently Tumblr.
I know the legend damn well about French people mastering at Failed English, but so you know, we're not all narrow-minded froggies who don't even make the effort of kicking out our famous accent when we speak Shakespeare's language.(I must admit though there are times when my French accent kicks in and I sound like a retarder citizen of my country when he tries to show directions).
If  I manage to commit mistakes though, I beg you, native english person to tolerate my typos or anything else.

So that was the first nationality part which was necessary to avoid questions like "omg your french" (by natives who can't even make a difference between "you're" & "your", which represents the biggest pet peeve for me as a non english native).

Now here comes the most important thing: the reasons why I have decided, today, to create this blog.
Very simple: I tend to spam a lot Twitter & Instagram about the things I buy on a regular basis, could be make-up, clothes, etc. Twitter & its 160 caracters lessen considerably my talkative nature, & Instagram isn't a damn blog (despite people's huge novels under their pictures...), so, I had to think about a blog. Tumblr makes me depressed as soon as I lose followers and I didn't want to care about this matter anyway.
So here comes blogspot, which is actually, one of the best blog platform.

I really hope though that you, dear reader, will walk these roads with me in the near future and will eventually react & post comments about the things you will read here. I'm also open to suggestions, so if there's something special you want me to talk about in here, message me, leave a comment or contact me on my Twitter account & anywhere else.

Last but not least, enjoy your stay ♥