posted 23rd January, 2012 under Trends & Travel Exposed.
We’ve all done them before right? Decided to try a new fitness trend in the vain attempt that it will become your new fitness elixir? I’m distinctly remembering my recent Adult Ballet Class I took; my mind distracted by the array of flailing arms and legs that looked more like a re-enactment of Monty Pythons Meaning of Life than Tschaikovsky’s Swan Lake.
More importantly, what about those ‘gadgets’? Work your abs while watching Sex and the City re-runs? Eat your chocolate lunch and dinner without gaining a kg! Sound familiar? The weight loss industry is so full of hot air and hard sellers it is little wonder we still listen. Indeed most of our clients are hard core skeptics before the results speak for themselves! Regardless, a sucker is born every minute and here are some of the ‘tools’ invented for them, by them.
Take a look below:
Dumbell Phone:
Another seemingly useless Japanese invention to tone your gun while talking. Known as the Chindogu, it is simply a dumbell attachment for your phone. Only problem is you will have to master the art of multi handed talking, otherwise you might just develop a raging right side bicep. Marketed also as a clever way to get your kids off the phone, I think any rebellious teen worth their mustard will realise resting it on a table will get the job done.
iGallop
Released in Singapore and Hong Kong, the iGallop allows you to simulate the movements of horse-riding. Need I say more? If you feel like a laugh check out the original Asian iGallop TV ad (not surprisingly this ad was cannedwhen released in the U.S market). A man’s invention?
Handy trim:
Just spin a piece of string and you will reduce lose weight and build muscle….apparently.
Jump Snap:
Want to jump rope without the rope? Find it hard to skip when there is a chord making you jump higher? Then simply get a Jump Snap and you can flip or flop your way through a workout and it records how many times you “jump”. And if you are in the minority like me and you can’t jump and count for yourself then let the electronic voice tell you how far (or little) you have gone.
1920’s Fat Reducer:
And finally, while I thought fat loss was a cultural phenomena of the 80’s, please wind back to the 1920’s, when Dr. Lawon’s “Guaranteed Fat Reducer” managed to retrieve a vibrator and unite this with his toilet plunger as the ultimate fat cavitation device. You could even do a DIY on this at home girls! ….providing you arent using second hand tools…
Anyone else have something weird and wonderful? I love this stuff!
posted 18th January, 2012 under Food for Thought.
I’m getting on my high horse today as yesterday I was belittled and left livid after encountering a type of girl, who thankfully I rarely find myself in the company of, but when I do I am left at a loss. Granted, I fortunately never bore the brunt of school bullying as my tolerance for those insecure girls were little to none and I actively chose to surround myself with nice girls vs mean girls. Does this mean I abdicated a potential popularity throne? Yes. However, come Year 12 was my group (without me realising) the most admired group in our year? Apparently so – well that’s what one nice peer told me anyway. And those so called ‘popular girls? Well they had either dropped out or been relegated to the misfits of the year.
The girl in question, continually batted her eyelids, spoke down to me as if I was a delinquent and repeated her terrible directions at me louder and louder to hammer the point home. The moment I shook her hand and introduced myself, I knew she was trouble. She chose not to look at me, not to smile and to judge me on what I looked like. Attempts at conversation were left to dwindle awkwardly in the air as she CHOSE to answer in single word sentences. She pouted, tut tutted and stared me down whilst telling me the process I had been operating (which had worked beautifully previously) was WRONG and ‘clearly I wasn’t listening’.
The funny thing was that she appeared to be nice as pie and super friendly to everyone else who walked into the marketing booth we were manning. Any other person who came into contact with her, particularly of the male orientation, she talked candidly, laughing and cooing at appropriate times. She even scored a free coffee from the male barista next door and failed to introduce me to him so I was left standing there like a shag on a rock. I also noted how comfortable she was in talking to girls who were not as gregarious, smiley and relatively attractive. (No I am not suggesting that I am lustrous, radiant and a stellar example of what beauty is, but I know how to present myself when necessary as most girls do)
The problem here is deep down I knew this girl was simply trying to build herself up by tearing me down. I should have felt sorry for her as clearly she was deeply insecure, but I still felt like throttling her. She was so territorial over her work and deeply competitive that I couldn’t help without being seen as trying to overstep her. Rising above it became exceedingly difficult.
Given that I actively choose not to entertain these people’s games I found it down right impossible to tolerate this girl’s attitude. I also knew confrontation would have made my day go from bad to worse as she was most likely an expert in the art of the cat fight. A sport I can happily admit, I have little experience. Despite knowing how vulnerable I was to her insults I still tried again and again to smile, engage and move forward. I’m thinking the smarter person would have just ignored her outright. But I am stubborn and desperately sought to win this girls attitude over.
So enough of a rant, hopefully this gets it all off my chest and I can move on. I’d hate to think she manipulated my thoughts this much, but tell me, how do YOU remain civil and deal with these moments of female ferocity?
posted 16th January, 2012 under Hypoxi Success Stories.
My name is Catherine. I have a strong dance and athletic back-ground and I have always been active, energetic, slim and healthy. At the end of 2010 I learned I was pregnant. All was going well until around the last four months of my pregnancy where I gained an enormous amount of weight. Although during my pregnancy I exercised by swimming and walking, I still gained a mammoth total of 40kg by the time I was ready to give birth.
Continue reading Catherine Sheds her Baby Weight »
posted 11th January, 2012 under Food for Thought.
Imagine it’s Friday morning. You open your backdoor, wander down to your humble veggie patch, pull a few handfuls of fresh basil from your recent summer crop, rip out a fully bloomed garlic bulb, set down to your clean kitchen and gear yourself up for a busy day of pesto making. A little Pleasantville right? Well, that’s the theory behind plenitude economy as heralded by the “Center for the New American Dream
Continue reading Thank God It’s Thursdays? »
