| My NYC Sephora Beauty Haul |

photo credit:http://www.aptnewyork.com/blog/sephora-new-york-explore-make-up-perfumes-and-more/

My trip to New York wouldn’t have been complete without a trip to Sephora. When I was in Krakow in Poland last month I hadn’t known they also had a Sephora store so when I saw it on the day we were leaving I was absolutely kicking myself! I also didn’t know that one of my favourite beauty brands Inglot was actually made in Poland and was only a fraction of the price compared to the UK/Ireland. So any of you make up enthusiast’s heading to Krakow anytime soon please take note and learn from my mistakes haha. 

So, needless to say I had a lot of missed opportunities to ‘make up’ for (see what I done there!). This was my first ever time visiting a Sephora store so before I left I done my research and had a list as long as my arm of all the things I wanted to get while I was there. It is quite overwhelming when you first walk into the store so having a list is a good idea and ensures you stick to your budget!

I was only really interested in picking up brands and products that we can’t get here in the UK or Ireland as I figured there was no point getting anything that we could get here easily on the high street. Defeats the purpose really! So literally on my first morning in NYC I headed straight to the Sephora store before I had a chance to spend my dollars on anything else J

 Below I’ve listed everything I picked up. I hope you enjoy this beauty haul and let me know in the comments if you have tried any of the products - I’d love to hear your reviews!
Also if you would like to read my full in depth travel blog to NYC including what we got up to and all my top tips then just click here.

    1.                 | Anastasia Beverly Hills ‘Brow Wiz | 
    As soon as I walked through the door of Sephora I was immediately drawn to the Anastasia Beverly Hills counter. This amazing brand literally floods my Instagram newsfeed every day and the highly raved about ‘Brow Wiz’ was number 1 on my list to buy. And let me tell you, it was worth the wait! It’s an amazing little pencil. It makes the tedious job of filling in your eyebrows so effortless, it’s buildable and is perfect for creating those natural hair-like strokes. A must have! I got this in the shade ‘ Dark Brown’

     2.                | Anastasia Beverly Hills ‘Dipbrow Pomade |
   This is another of the eyebrow products that’s highly raved about. I usually only ever use a brow gel on my own brows (until I used the brow wiz of course). I have yet to try this one but I couldn’t leave without it and if it’s anything like the brow wiz then it will be just as amazing. I also got this in the shade ‘Dark Brown’.

     3.                 | Anastasia Beverly Hills Liquid Lipstick |

The Anastasia brand has a huge selection of liquid lipsticks and glosses. I have been dying to try the matte liquid lipsticks so I picked up two in the shades ‘lovely’ which is a beautiful pinky-rose colour and ‘Dusty Rose’ which is a deeper shade of pinky-rose. I’m always drawn to those sorts of colours. I’ve only swatched these lipsticks but the colour pay-off is amazing and they dry really quickly. 

     4.              | Make Up Forever ‘Ultra HD Foundation |

I have yet to come across a Make Up Forever counter here in the UK and this Ultra HD Foundation has been on my wishlist literally FOREVER. (I’m the queen of the pun tonight). I’ve only worn it the once but I got a really good match from the girl in the store and it felt lovely on my skin. Really good coverage too without looking cakey.

     5.       | Kat Von D ‘Ink Liner |

Kat Von D is another brand we can’t get here in the UK and the liners are supposed to be THE best thing since sliced pan. I had a tough decision picking between this one and the coveted ‘tatoo liner’ which has a thicker application but is just as good. I ended up going for the ‘Ink Liner’ as I like to build up my liner slowly and the smaller applicator is perfect for this.

     6.   | Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder |

This stuff is pure magic and lives up to every expectation! If you haven’t heard about this product then you’ve obviously been living under a rock. It’s the most amazing setting powder I have ever used.

     7.                  | Becca Cosmetics ‘Under-eye Colour Corrector’ |

This is a brand I’ve heard a lot about from watching my favourite beauty you-tubers. While I was doing my research this product popped up a few times so I chalked it down and decided I’d give it go. We actually tried this on my boyfriend Shane in the shop because I didn’t want to wipe off my make up haha but it does what it says on the tin. It comes in a variety of colour correcting shades depending on what you want to conceal but I chose the under eye corrector which is a peachy colour best for  neutralising dark spots and hyperpigmentation i.e eye bags! Still trying this one out.

     8.   | Benefit ‘Porefessional |

This is a re-purchase of mine and something I always have in my make up bag. I had literally just ran out before heading to New York so I had to pick it up while I was there. Amazing primer.

     9.                | Boscia Luminizing Black Mask |

Next on my list was this face mask/peel which I have only just recently heard about. As far as I know this brand does a few different varieties of face mask but this one is particular is meant to be brilliant for removing blackheads and impurities from your pores and reducing excess oil. It’s also got Vitamin C which is the best for brightening up the skin and helps to reduce the look of fine lines. However, It’s also meant to be really painful to peel off. It could probably be compared to peeling off dried tar off your face (there are a few videos on you-tube check them out for a giggle lol).

     10.                | Huda Beauty Faux Mink Lashes ‘Jade’ |

These lashes are life! I am obsessed with Huda beauty on Instagram. They are faux mink, so so fluffy and really easy to apply. I got mine in the style #13 ‘Jade’

     11.                | Stila HUGE Extreme Lash Mascara |

This was actually given to me as a free gift at the till when I signed up for the Sephora store card. I have heard loads about the Stila products, in particular, the Stila One Step Correct Concealer, the duel lip and cheek cream and the Stila eyeshadows. This mascara is also one of their top sellers so I’m excited to try it out.

     12.                | Marc Jacobs ‘Highliner Gel Crayon’ & Lipstick |

Last on the list was this Marc Jacobs gel crayon eyeliner and lipstick which was another freebie I got at the till after I signed up for the store card for my Birthday! (which isn’t until March btw) lol howya Marc! I used the lipstick on my first night and it’s a beautiful darky pink colour in the shade ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Le Marc’. Absolutely divine!

     13.                | MAC Soar Liner & Creme Cup Lipstick |

Sephora don’t stock MAC but while I was there I also popped into the MAC store and re-purchased my absolute fave lip combo ever ‘Soar’ Lip Liner and ‘Crème Cup’ Lippy. I use this combo to death and needed to restock these in my makeup bag.

And that’s it guys. Super happy with everything I picked up. As promised I will be back with my full NYC travel blog which I hope to get done this weekend. I don’t plan on doing a tap this weekend only hit the gym and finish this blogpost. I can’t wait to share everything with you guys! NYC is AMAZING! Next week we’re off jet setting again, this time to Iceland! Busy busy bee.

Big Love

Aileen

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| The Body Coach | 90 Day SSS Plan | Cycle 3 | The Results |

 Hey guys!

So here I am at the end of my 90 days journey with the Body Coach!

The time just flew by. The past couple of weeks have been manic with work and getting myself ready for my holidays to New York this Wednesday (eeeeppp) but I did promise you all I would have this blogpost up before I headed away so I’ve kept to my word J😉

If you’d like to read my Cycle 1 blogpost you can click here and for results click here. You can also read my Cycle 2 blogpost and results here.

Meals

So for Cycle 3 it was back to Cycle 1 principles; 3 meals a day + 2 snacks of which two of those meals were from the general menu which were low-carb and then 1 from the post workout menu which would obviously be consumed after a workout and high in carbs. After the carb-up of Cycle 2 I couldn’t wait to get back to having low-carb meals again, but, in saying that, I also missed all the carbs. Such a contradiction I know lol but as much as I hated the bloating that I got from eating all the carbs in cycle 2 I still loved them and missed having them! I was still given the freedom and flexibility to create my own meals using the pick ‘n’ mix principle from Cycle 2 but there were also a whole new variety of recipes in this cycle which I could choose from also.  To be honest, I didn’t experiment with the recipes all that much. In fact for the final 2 weeks of the plan I didn’t really do any food prep at all just because I have been incredibly busy lately. Bar my dinners in the evening, I ate mostly from the canteen at work but kept it clean and on plan by having a two egg omelette with chicken, peppers, onions and a huge side salad twice a day every day. So they were my low carb meals during the day and after I trained in the evenings I would re-carb with meals like chicken and rice with veg, tuna melt toasties, poached eggs with toast and veggies and stir fry’s with rice. For snacks I stuck to having nuts either cashew or almonds, natural/unsalted, and protein shakes (no fruit allowedL). I also occasionally had a quest protein bar to curb cravings! Supplements were the same as they were for all cycles.  I didn’t take absolutely everything recommended but I did have BCAA’s Pre + Post workout, a protein shake post workout and dissolvable vitamin C and multi-vitamin tablets from Lidl in my water every day.

Sample Breakfast Options

Sample Lunch Options

Sample Dinner Option

Sample Snacks

Workouts

The workouts were ramped up in this cycle, similarly to the other cycles, the body coach’s signature HIIT workouts were combined with a new style of weight training called ‘Pyramid Resistance’ training.

It would be so much easier to actually show  what this is rather than tell you as it’s a little tricky to explain without getting totally confused lol but I’ll give it a go! Basically this method of weight training involves high repetitions just like the VRT training in cycle 2 but rather than lifting the same weight with every set you start by doing low reps with heavy weight but gradually decrease the weight and increase the reps on each set. This is done on the first exercise and then you also do it vice versa on the second exercise. So you would start with low weights and high reps and gradually increase the weight and decrease the repetitions with every set - don’t worry, I will give an example below lol

So the structure of the cycle 3 workouts is split into 4 parts. (same as cycle 2)

  Ø  START: Exercise 1 - Pyramid Sets

  Ø  X1 round of HIIT (8mins)

  Ø  Exercise 2 – Pyramid Sets

  Ø  FINISH: X1 round of HIIT (8mins)

Each training day is then split up into 4 different options per week.

      ·        Back & Chest

      ·        Biceps & Triceps

      ·        Legs & Abs

      ·        Shoulders

Each option was not to repeated more than once in one week. Rest day’s had to be taken 3 times a week and if training for 2 days consecutively a rest day must be taken before training again.  

 Sample Leg Day Workout

      1.   Leg extensions

Ø  Set 1:  x50 reps (low weight)

Ø  Weighted Ab crunches x50

        REST 30SECS

Ø  Set 2: x40 reps (increase weight)

Ø  Weighted Ab crunches x40

       REST 45SECS

Ø  Set 3: x30 reps (increase weight)

Ø  Weighted Ab Crunches x30

      REST 60SECS

Ø  Set 4: x20 reps (increase weight)

Ø  Weighted Ab Crunches x20

      REST 90SECS

Ø  Set 5:  x10 reps (heaviest you can do)

     2.   HIIT (8MINS) Stationary Bike

30secs high intensity followed by 45secs steady x 8mins

     3.   Dumbbell Lunges

Ø  Set : x10 reps each leg (heaviest weight)

Ø  Planks (hold until failure)

      REST 90SECS

Ø  Set 2: x20 reps each leg (decrease weight)

Ø  Planks (hold until failure)

     REST 60SECS

Ø  Set 3: x30 reps each leg (decrease weight)

Ø  Planks (hold until failure)

     REST 45SECS

Ø  Set 4: x40 reps each leg (decrease weight)

Ø  Planks (hold until failure)

                    REST 30SECS

Ø  Set 5: x50 reps each leg (decrease weight)

     4.   HIIT (8MINS) Stationary Bike

30secs high intensity followed by 45secs steady x 8mins

Not gonna lie – the workouts were serious burners!! Especially leg day, dear god all those repetitions were killer. You really feel the lactic acid building up in your muscles. It was tough and not one bit enjoyable haha but none the less I got them done. Each workout took that little bit longer this time around but I managed to get each workout out done in approximately an hour.

My Results

Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for!! J The RESULTS!!

So, I was very nervous about sharing my before and after photos. I was afraid there wouldn’t be that much of a difference. I saw a huge drop in all my measurements and weight after cycle 1 but after the gain in cycle 2 I was worried that I would just be back to square one after Cycle 3. I was wrong J. I am still waiting for my graduation report to arrive from my Body Coach Support Hero however I can still reveal to you my results.

Overall, I have lost a total of 7 inches from my entire body.

·        3.5 inches from my waist

·        2 inches from my hips

·        0.5 inches from my chest

·        0.5 inches from each leg

·        0 inches from my arms

Weight wise I dropped 4kg after Cycle 1, gained 3.5 kg after Cycle 2, and dropped 0.5 kg after Cycle 3. So in total I dropped a mahoooosive 1kg LOL but I’m not hung up on the weight. Any amount of factors can affect the numbers on the scales. What matters is I feel good. The results could have been better yes, but they are still results at the end of the day. I had 3 holidays during this plan where unfortunately I did booze and I did binge but I enjoyed myself and I got straight back on plan afterwards.

So, it may have taken me a tad bit longer than 90 days due to adding on a few weeks in cycle 1 and cycle 2 plus the lay-by time in between cycles but it absolutely flew. I did say I would be 100% committed to it but truth to be told I had plenty of hiccups throughout this plan! Nonetheless I completed it and I did see good results – not amazing but I’m happy I done it. I have learned a lot about food in regards macro-nutrient timing, the best times for the consumption of certain foods and portion control. With regards the workouts, I won’t lie; I’m looking forward to getting back to some heavy lifting again. I lost a lot of strength during this plan. I loved the HIIT training though which I will be incorporating into my workouts in the future as well as some occasional steady state, but come the New Year I will be going IN on the weight training again. In hindsight, I wish I had stuck to my own training plan and just followed the diet (which was an option in the beginning). So that being said I would advise anyone thinking of doing this plan who regularly weight trains to bare this is mind when signing up. But for anyone who is looking to kick-start a healthier lifestyle, learn loads about food and nutrition and overall get leaner, healthier and gain some body confidence I would 100% recommend this plan to you.

And there you have it guys. I hope you have all enjoyed my posts. T minus 1 day until we hit New York City!! Oh the excitement! The food, the sites, the shopping I could literally burst with excitement. If any of you have any tips for me before I go please hit me up.

And as always if you have any questions on my 90 day SSS plan journey you can catch me on any of my social media platforms:

Facebook: The Aileen Crowe Show

Instagram: @missaileencrowe

Snapchat: missaileencrowe

Big Love guys

Aileen

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Facebook: The Aileen Crowe Show
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|The Body Coach | 90 Day SSS Plan | Cycle 2

Hey guys!

First off, apologies it has taken so long to get this follow up post up on the blog! I have been absolutely up the walls since getting back from Poland a few weeks back so I’ve only just got around to writing it now. (Read my full Krakow blogpost here). But better late than never as they say! 

In this post I’ve detailed all the information you need to know about my meals and my workouts, how I got on and my results at the end. This is follow on post from cycle 1 so anything I miss out on here should all be detailed in my Cycle 1 blogpost which you can read here and my results here. Any other questions you have after feel free to drop me a message.

Meals

I was so excited to start cycle 2 for a number of reasons. This is the muscle building phase of the plan which therefore meant I would be eating a lot more food and in particular, a lot more carbs. And who doesn’t love more carbs! The reason for this increase in food/carbs was due to the increase in the workout intensity with the introduction of weight training into the workouts combined with HIIT training (which I will go into more detail about later) but I had really missed my weight training during cycle 1 so this was another reason why I was really looking forward to this cycle.

Similar to cycle 1, I was allowed 3 main meals + 2 snacks a day. The choice of meals was split up into two menus:

 1.    Training Day Menu

      2.    Rest Day Menu

So on training days I would select all 3 of my main meals from the training day menu. I could also have a protein shake post workout in addition to my main meals and snacks. On training day’s I was eating meals high in carbohydrates, lower in fat and high in protein.  Likewise, on rest days I would select all 3 of my main meals from the rest day menu. On rest days I was eating meals much lower in carbohydrates, high in healthy fats and high in protein. Unlike cycle 1, I was only given a handful of recipes I could use. A new introduction to this cycle was the ‘pick n mix principle’ which meant I had to construct my own meals using a list of ingredients provided in the plan. I was delighted with this new aspect of the plan as I had become bored of eating the same meals on cycle 1 so I was looking forward to getting creative and having a lot more flexibility with my meal planning.

To construct a meal I had to choose one of each of the following from a list of ingredients provided:

• ·        1 portion of Meat or Fish;
• ·        Spice or Seasoning of your choice;
• ·        2 portions of vegetables;
• ·        1 carb source i.e. rice, bread, pasta, potato etc.;
• ·        1 side sauce i.e. sweet chilli sauce, 0% fat Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese, soy sauce etc.;
• ·        On rest days an additional fat source i.e. avocado, cheese, nuts etc.;
• ·        A large portion of green veggies to be eaten with every meal i.e. broccoli, kale, spinach, mange tout;
• ·        And a portion of cooking oil i.e. coconut oil, olive oil, butter

In the beginning I really loved creating my own meals as well as using some of the recipes provided in the plan especially the sweet potato cottage pie which was divine! I could have eaten the cottage pie 3 times a day but I was only allowed to eat mince beef once a day L It also made eating out a lot easier as I wasn't tied down to specific recipes. The amount of food I had to eat was also humongous compared to cycle 1. For breakfast on training days I would have a massive bowl of oats with a side of 0% Greek yoghurt and blueberries as well as a protein shake! It would literally take me a full hour to eat it all ha-ha. I found rest days quite hard without any carbs at all especially when I was used to loading up on them on training days therefore I found I was quite hungry on rest days. For my snacks i stuck with having my protein shakes and cashew nuts. I also had a Quest protein bar 2-3 times a week and saved them for training days or as treats at the weekend. Supplementation was also the same on this cycle as it had been on cycle 1 which again you can read here.

After a couple of weeks into the cycle I found myself not being as creative as I thought I’d be and the freedom I was given with my food choices did make me slip up a few times. By the end of the cycle I couldn’t wait to cut out the carbs again as I had been so bloated throughout it. Carbs just don’t suit me no matter how much I love them. Or else I haven’t quite determined which ones suit me and which ones don’t.

Sample Training Day Meals:
Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Sample Rest Day Meals
Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Snacks 

Workouts

So as I said earlier I was really excited to start the new training program. I have been weight training for years now so heading to gym and lifting absolutely no weights at all was so weird for me. The only thing I had enjoyed about this was the time saving lol but I did feel that I had lost a lot of my muscle tone and strength during cycle 1. So needless to say I was looking forward to getting back to it. In this cycle the method of training used was called VRHT i.e. Volume Resistance HIIT Training. This method of training involves using lower weights which allow you to do a large amount of sets but with lower repetitions i.e. 10 sets of 10reps. This method or type of training is meant to build your muscles and strength very quickly.

The structure of the VHRT workouts were split into 4 parts kind of like a circuit.

•    START with x1 round of HIIT
•    x1 round of VR training
•    x1 round of HIIT
•   FINISH with x1 VR workout

Each training day is then split up into 4 options:

1.  Arms (Biceps & Triceps)
2.   Chest & Back
3. Legs & Bum
4.   Shoulders

Sample Training Day

5 minute warm up on the stationary bike

    1.   x10 mins of HIIT on the Stationary Bike (30sec fast, 45sec steady)  
    2.  Squats 10 x 10 (45sec rest between sets)

    3.   x10 mins HIIT on the Stationary Bike (30sec fast, 45sec steady)

    4.   Lunges 10 x 10 each leg (45 rest between sets)

    

I really loved the training on this cycle, except for leg day. That was tough. 10 sets of lunges with 10 reps on EACH leg is not fun let me tell you ha-ha. That’s 200 lunges FYI. It actually took me a whole week to recover after training legs and then it would be leg day again ha-ha. But hey no pain no gain, Besides that I really did enjoy it. Each workout only took roughly 45 minutes to complete (except for leg day which was a little longer) so the time saving in the evenings was a major bonus for me.

My Results

I wasn’t expecting to lose any weight during this cycle so I wasn’t surprised when I didn’t and I also wasn’t surprised that I gained weight either. I was told by my support hero before beginning this cycle not to expect to see massive drops on the scales as I would be gaining lean muscle mass at the same time as losing body fat so not to dwell on the numbers and trust the mirror. My weight and my measurements all increased after this cycle and I was absolutely gutted until I seen my progress pictures. Although I didn’t see all that much of a difference I think I look leaner even if the scales don’t reflect that. TMI* (It was also lady time which would have affected the results as well!)

To be honest I could have been more disciplined but truth be told I wasn’t. During cycle 2 I had been on x2 holidays which didn’t help as I couldn’t train and I couldn’t meal prep so it definitely threw me off. However, I did try and stay as disciplined as I could while I was away food wise, the only downfall being that I did drink alcohol. I am currently on my second week of Cycle 3 of the plan and I’m also finding it very hard to get into routine. I’m extra busy with work and every week there just seems to be something on so I’m missing out on some of my training sessions and just not getting any time to meal prep. There’s a whole load of excuses lol but I’m ploughing on with it. 3 weeks from now I will be heading to New York so I want to give it my all until then because once I’m there, I’ll be knee deep in pancakes and cheesecake and I won’t even be sorry HA. I think this will also be when the Christmas season will start for me so it may just all go downhill from there J I will of course still be in the gym as always for some damage limitation ;) I’m hoping to have my Cycle 3 blogpost up before I jet off to New York but that might be wishful thinking. If not, I’ll definitely have it up when I’m back along with my New York VLOG.

So that’s it guys!

As always, if you have any more questions about Cycle 2 

or anything else, I’m always happy to help.

Talk you all soon

Big Love

Aileen

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