Category Archives: Exercise

Dieting? Eat Turkey. Gobble Gobble!

Blog post written by: OhDaisyBi

It can be hard to keep fit and stick to your healthy lifestyle during the holiday season. You start a diet or exercise plan and tell yourself that you will only take one day off and then go back to being healthy. The only problem is that you don’t go back.

We’ve all been there.

The Holiday Season kick starts with Halloween, followed shortly by Thanksgiving, then Hanukkah and Christmas, and finally the New Year. The festivities never seem to end! And we aren’t considering delicious seasonal favorites like the pumpkin spice latte! The calories can add up fast.

Although the holidays fill us with lots of joy, they can be tight on our jeans’ waistbands. Here are a few “tricks” that will allow you to enjoy the festive meals and stick to your healthy lifestyle.

1. Wear a Corset.

One downside to our perception of the holiday feast is to eat to our fill, and then some. To stop yourself from overeating, wear a corset. The idea of a corset may seem archaic, something that came out of the Victorian days, but it has its uses.

The corset restricts the amount the stomach stretches and limits overeating. You can also wear it all year round. Other benefits include:

  • Eating slowly,
  • Eating frequently throughout the day,
  • Eating small quantities of all your favorite foods,
  • AND you don’t feel hungry!

What can be better than that?

I bought my first corset after my second pregnancy (I used a postpartum waist wrap after my first pregnancy). When selecting a corset, remember to be conservative with the sizes. I purchased two sizes, a large and a medium. The large helped me slim down to sizes 10 to 12, and the medium helped me get to size 6 to 8. I’m currently a size 6. If you want to know more about how I lost weight after my pregnancies (or losing weight in general), leave me a note in the comments below!

I personally recommend the Yianna Women’s Corset. This corset is a steal at $20.88 on Amazon. It is comfortable and hid well under my clothes. I’m also intrigued to try the Spanx Waist Cincher. This corset is sold at Target for $28.00.

So, put the corset on in the morning and wear it all day long while you munch away! You’ll stay within your calorie count, and you get to eat everything too. This is one time where you can have your cake and eat it too!

2. Eat Healthy

Keep in mind that the corset will not do all the work. You have to be mindful of what you eat too. So, stick to healthy carbohydrates:

  • Eat whole grain bread. Consider trying to cut down the amount of bread you eat altogether.
  • Eat more vegetables.
  • Eat turkey with light gravy.
  • Drink more water.
  • Include a larger quantity of fruit on your dessert plate with a small slice of pie on the side (Yum!)

Let the feast begin!

About the Author

OhDaisyBi is the newest edition to the Belles & Books blog. Lawyer by day, Mother of two by night, she will be posting about all things kid. She’s also passionate about answering the internet’s burning questions on the “Women Can Do It All” lifestyle– time management, budgeting and finance, and boss-woman things. In her “free” time she’s usually attempting Pinterest cooking ideas and working out. Join her on here every month for a new post!

Glow: My first time doing Bikram Yoga

Dearest Belles,

If you are like my sisters, you love the gym and can keep a great workout routine going for years. I, however, get bored with anything once it becomes “same old, same old”. That’s why I am always looking to try something new. My latest find on Groupon has been Bikram Yoga. I found a great deal ($36 for 10 classes!) so I decided to try it. I was looking for a new challenge anyway.

Darlings, was I in for a surprise! Now, I’m not a complete newbie to the yoga world–I attended a few Yin Yoga classes at my old gym but those were more for meditation than for balance and flexibility. The first thing that surprised me was the humidity. Yes, yes, Bikram Yoga is by definition heated yoga, But I wasn’t expecting to break out my sweat mustache for at least the first 5 minutes! Turns out, it’s practiced in a room heated to 95–108 °F (35–42 °C) with a humidity of 40%.

And I thought Houston was bad…

Well, I got through most of the poses alright with the exception of the Patient Tree and the Bow postures, but it really made me realize how much flexibility I’ve lost since high school. I used to be able to touch my head to my knees and arms to my toes with knees locked! I definitely couldn’t do that anymore.

My towel was soaked and I nearly passed out at one point from keeping my muscles so taut but honey, it was worth it. I felt great and I looked great. For the past 90 minutes, I stretched in several ways that promote blood circulation and sweated out what felt like every toxin I had ever come into contact with, and I was glowing!

Don’t believe me? Here’s a photo I sent my sisters right after my workout.

I’ve been going every few days for the past 3 weeks and I’m still completely loving it. But alas, the Groupon comes to an end soon and I must flit like a butterfly to a new buttercup. Hmm… maybe I’ll try boxing next?

Hah! Keep it adventurous, Belles!

xoxo, Zahra