We Are All Wonderwoman - love your self

I really wanted to get away from the whole weight and body shape theme, but I recently came across the picture from above and completely lit up.

       I don’t know if it’s just me but I really do love bodies. Not in any kind of sexual way, but just the way they curve and the way they move. It really intrigues me! Okay, so now you’re probably thinking I’m a creep, but if it’s creepy to find the human form beautiful then I’d be damned.
        One thing I have a love-hate relationship with is photo shop. It’s lovely to see these beautiful boys and girls on the front of a glossy magazine, but if you see them in person and they look nothing like the picture…then maybe it’s a little over done.  A lot of women (and men too I think) get themselves slimmed down in photos for the media, why? I think a curvy body with a bit of meet on them is bloody gorgeous! (if I do say so myself being a fellow plus size gal) and I would like to point you towards exhibit A on the right here. You tell me this woman isn’t beautiful? She’s no size 0 in any standard but boy, you can’t say she doesn’t have sex appeal. Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying that a size 0 isn’t hot, I’m trying to say EVERYONE IS, you just don’t see larger models like this all that often. And this is why I love Gok Wan so much, did anyone see his ad campaign?
          He had models of all different height, abilities, and sizes all in a big UK add for everyone to see. It was a shock for the public to see but really lovely to experience. It opened up a whole new door for people that once were deemed unsuitable for modelling. I came across a few other people that is just a delight to see so I’ve posted a few pictures in and around this blog as you can see (and for copy right purposes, I don’t own anything and all credit goes to the models and photographers involved)

      Something I found a bit odd was I rarely see ‘average’ men around in magazines and such. There’s this whole rage on plus size models ect, but I only ever really see a beefy, toned guy with nice hair, or a slim guy who looks ‘idie’ or ‘hipster’….never anything in-between. If anyone has seen some of these men that I am referring to, then please point me that way because I’d love to see a more diverse range of men - seen as we see all different shaped women in this day and age. There was a poll taken with women and it stated that 84% of women were turned off by muscly men – so where’s do these women see a bit of eye candy?
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<!--[endif]-->But after all this rambling on, my main aim for this blog was really to say that we all have sex appeal no matter what we look like and how different we are from what we see shoved in our faces through magazines and the internet. It was supposed to be a ‘love your body’ blog, though it looks more of a huge rant. I’ll be sure to make future blogs a little more structured, my fingers just ran away with themselves on the keyboard for this one.

 Just remember ‘WE ARE ALL WONDERWOMAN!

or superman for you fellas out there

           

Stereotyped

I like to believe in the saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ for all kinds of situations in life, especially with people. There has been so many occasions where I’ve taken a look at someone and thought ‘no way will I get on with that person’, but after talking to them for an hour or so, I find that we have so much in common and get on like a house on fire. After these encounters, I began only thinking ‘we won’t get on’ after talking to someone and getting to know them a little – so I was embarrassed by myself on what happened to me today.
       As I was on the bus coming home from town, a young Muslim girl got on. She was wearing an intricately detailed head scarf and traditional Muslim dress. As she sat down, she popped in her head phones and listened to music as she stared out of the window. I couldn’t help but overhear what she was listening to: Slipknot, Of Mice and Men and some old Linkin Park tunes. And I hate to say, but I was completely shocked. I was in a state of confusion on why this traditional looking Muslim girl would be listening to something that…well…was what I would listen to really. And then it occurred to me, I had completely stereotyped this young girl into what I thought she should be. I was convinced that I didn’t stereotype people these days, and it was like a slap in the face when I had realised.  But really, why should it shock me that someone who looks different to what I do might listen to the same kind of thing as me?
       Another thing I have noticed on similar lines is the way people react to me with my blue hair (or whatever colour it might be that week). I usually get three kinds of responses.
                   - people who aren’t all that fussed and just walk past without even looking
                   - people who are genuinely intrigued by me
                   - people who look at me like I’ve just murdered someone or have done something shifty.
The first two points really don’t bother me. Like hey, I know I’m a little different to what you usually see around here so have a nosey if you like. It’s the third that REALLY gets me. It’s the look I get, the disgusted look and the ‘daggers’ as if I’ve done something wrong or that I’m less than a person than they are. How the heck do they know if I’m a bad person or not? There’s no need to look at me like that. Plus it’s not as though they have a quick glance, they full on stare at me constantly. If you don’t know me, you can’t really make assumptions.
        I once had a woman tell me in a supermarket that I would never get a job and I’ll just take and take and take everything that I can get from the government instead of making the effort to look normal and try get a job. The look on her face was as though I’d slapped her when I simply said ‘well that’s weird, my project managing role must be imaginary’ as I unzipped my coat to show my works security/ID pass. Just goes to show how important that saying really is. I just wish there was more people in the world that weren’t so ignorant to physical appearances.

2013 Faves

      It’s such a shame that I’m crap enough to get ill when I want to start blogging on a regular basis. Damn you crap immune system! But now I’m back on the mend, sort of – and thought I’d do a somewhat easy post today- I’m just going to go through a few of my newfound favourites of 2013:

Avon’s Speed Dry Nail Polish:     So I’m an avid Avon user, and just love to try out new things in there and came across their ‘speed dry’ collection that claimed to dry within 30 seconds. I was very sceptical seen as the Rimmel London's 60 second polish is, in my eyes, crap – they have great vivid colours but no way in hell do they dry as fast as they advertised. But any way, I saw this gorgeous teal colour in the brochure and couldn’t really help myself. I recently tried it out and WOW! When it says it dries fast, it bloody does, it’s brilliant! I’m awful for being impatient for nail polish to dry so I smudge it, or get prints on it…stuff like that. But with this, it’s a perfect finish! Actually megger impressed. Really glad I bought it.

Direction by Le Riche:         When in high school, it was forbidden to have your hair any colour other than a natural tone. So as expected, when I left I went a little bit crazy. My hair now doesn’t stay one colour for long. I’ve been pink, purple, blue, silver – you name it. And that’s all thanks to Directions semi-permanent hair dye. It’s so fun and easy to use. It comes in a little pot (which usually covers my medium length hair) and has no annoying ‘mix this with that then add this’ instructions. It’s also vegetable and plant extracts so it doesn’t harm your hair – if anything, it makes it feel ten times better as it acts as a conditioner. The only problem I have ever had with the dye is it once turned my pillowcase blue after sleeping on it – but that was more my fault than anything, I don’t think I rinsed properly.  And as an added bonus, it’s not tested on animals – nice!

Oasis Summer Fruits:          This drink is GOD! I’ve recently started drinking Oasis Light and it’s brilliant, I don’t really go anywhere without a bottle. It’s got to the point at work where instead of buy three bottles a day at £1.25, I nip to Tesco’s beforehand and buy a 2 litre bottle to last me just the one day. Somewhat of an addiction developing there.  Though I really don’t get the little quotes on the lid ‘wham bam thank you ham’ and ‘quiche me baby’ - interesting design choice.

Tumblr:

       I got tumblr some time last year but never really used it and frankly, didn’t really know how. It’s took until early this year to get into it, and I love it! I don’t even know what it is about just scrolling through picture after picture, but has seemed to catch on. It’s like I’ve found my people! I’ve never really met people that relate to me, but on that site, everyone seems to be very open about what they’re feeling and are going through, and it’s refreshing to see to be honest. Some people might cringe at some of the posts but it’s nice to see more than a fake smile and know you’re not on your own. Kudos to all my Tumblr amigos!  Btw, if you want to check out mine: click here  

Chopsticks:        I’m going through a phase at the moment where I like to use chopsticks to eat everything! It just feels like a better way of eating and feels weird as hell using a knife and fork afterwards. It a good way of appetite control too. You’re eating slower there for giving your body chance to send signal to your brain, telling it that you’re full. You know that time when your stomach hurts and you feel sick after a big lunch? That’s because you’ve over eaten when really…you felt full possibly 10 minute before the time you actually stopped eating. so there you go.

I might do a revised version of this later in the year but for now, i think that's enough rambling, don't you? :3 
 

Body Image

So there’s something that has been playing on my mind for years. Body Image. And the thing is, I know I’m never going to be 100% confident with what I’ve got, but what I’ve got is the only thing I’m ever going to have – so why mope about it? I’m never going to be 5ft7, all legs with the ever so famous ‘thigh gap’, beautifully long hair and size 6 – it’s just never going to happen! What I have got is stumpy legs giving me the height of 5ft1, hair that is so dead from damage that it just breaks off every now and again, and a bit of a belly on me. Make the most of it, right?
       From a very young age, I’ve been conscious about my body and HATED the way I looked – and that’s not an over statement. I remember one day when I was in year six (aged 10) when we were sorting out costumes for our end of year play. There were silk skirts of all sizes and I instantly went for the largest one and said ‘well what’s the point in trying to squeeze into them, I’m fat so need this one’. And that was age ten, my god. But the insecurity followed me all the way through my high school, trying to diet constantly and putting myself down about weight. I was never bullied, though. No-one was making me feel this way or teased me to make me feel bad about it, I did it to myself.
        From the ages of ten to now, I’ve tried different diets, different methods and nothing has really worked for me. Most of the things I’ve tried has probably harmed me in some way: not eating enough, replacing meals with shakes and so on. I’m sick of it now if I’m honest.
         There has been two things that have sort of worked for me and I shall go into more detail about them. First off was Herbalife. Herbalife is this nutritional diet that you replace your meals with. It’s full of all the protein and vitamins you need and it’s worked for so many people. I tried it for a little while and I instantly saw changes. I lost nine pounds in the space of a week – I was ecstatic! I loved how I was losing weight but quickly got tired of the replacement milkshakes I had to drink instead of food. Having only two flavours to vary with, I got sick of the taste and was craving crap food constantly. I don’t have the best will power in the world so slowly started bringing more food into my diet – don’t get me wrong, the diet and everything is brilliant and works for so many people that I know, but I did try my best to keep going. Though after a visit to the doctors, I was told to stop doing the diet immediately as  the supplements in it were having negative effects with a health condition I have. The iodine in vitamin pills were bad for my thyroid.
               I have a thyroid condition named Hypothyroidism. This means my thyroid is underactive, having nock on effects in the rest of my body. The thyroid produces a hormone that regulates other hormones in the body, so as mine is underactive, my hormones weren’t regulated. My immune system was down, my metabolism was incredibly low and I was getting little or no ‘happy hormones’. I found out about my thyroid condition through blood test for something else, and was quickly put on medication. I now have to take medication for the rest of my life on a daily basis to keep my thyroid regulated. As soon as I started taking the meds, I started to lose weight somewhat instantly without changing any part of my life – I didn’t exercise more, I didn’t cut down calories, it just happened. Now I seem to have hit a barrier where I’m not naturally losing weight so am having to put more effort in.
             The thing that gets me now though, is why do I feel the pressure to lose weight in the first place? And I think the media is to blame. Why shouldn’t I be happy with my size 14-16? The average size of a woman in the UK is 16, I’m pretty much that size yet I feel the need to be thinner. I think it’s disgusting the way this message gets into little girls heads. The idea of my seven year old sister not wanting to eat so she can be as thin as the character in her favourite TV show horrifies me. Why can we not have a varied image base in magazines and on tv? I would be far more likely to buy a magazine if there was a curvier women on the front. There’s also naturally skinny girls out there who find it hard to put weight on who should see people there size too.  So it shouldn’t be one or the other that we see, we should see a mixture of all shapes and sizes and get out of the awful habit we’re in of forcing girls – subconsciously – to be an unrealistic idea of perfect.  

Introductions

By the miracle that anyone may come across my blog and have a nosey at my content, it only makes sense to introduce myself. I’ll start with the basics:
         I’m Carys and I have the Welsh-est name imaginable – thanks mum and dad. I’ve been brought up in a city named Bradford in England. It’s not too bad but I’ve dreamt of moving to a big city one day (New York is the dream, I fell in love with it within seconds)
        I’m 18 this year, and I found myself an apprenticeship at Yorkshire Water which is one of the best decisions I’ve made in life so far. School really wasn’t for me so getting this job was a god-send, I’ll probably post about that a little later. My title is the ‘Innovation Project Management Apprentice’ which sounds far fancier than what is.
         So that’s my name, age and occupation out of the way – I’ll tell you a little more about me as a person.
         Though many people say this, music is a big part of my life. Through tough years in my life I used to sit in a practice room alone with my guitar, and just play – it really did get me through. Though oddly, I can’t seem to stick to a single thing. I’ve tried my hand at guitar, bass, drums, piano, keyboard, flute and possibly a ton of other things. Oh, I played the recorder in primary school (for the Americans that’s ages 4 up until 10 or 11) I was such a cool kid as you can tell.
          Still along the music lines, I really do look up to an American band named Shinedown. I fell in love with their sound years ago, and have ever since had it in my head that my life will not be complete without meeting Brent Smith – though I soon realised that was ridiculously ambitious so would settle with seeing them Live.
           I also love to travel. Seeing new places and new faces fascinates me. And although I’d rather be in a cooler climate, I love visiting all kinds of places. Hey, let’s write a list: New York, Vegas, Florida, San Francisco, Arizona, Italy-Rome, Paris, London, Iceland, Turkey, Greece, all over Spain. I can’t remember other places but that’s a pretty good selection off the top of my head. Most of the places I visited were on school trips – I know right, school trips! I can honestly say that I’ve had far more experiences at the age of 17 than most other people have had in a life time.
             I’ll leave this alone here, and go more in depth on subject as an when it comes to me.

‘Till next time.