One Super Useful Fitness Hack to be Guilt-Free in Your Valentines Day Outfit

Friday fashion fun (ok I’m late, it’s Saturday). It always comes around so quickly!!

Next week as you all know is Valentine’s Day. While this may be an exciting time for most, for some, it might be this dreadful time of the year where everyone kissing in observance of this occasion makes you want to puke. Even if you don’t have a date, plans, or might feel like puking at the sight of couples snuggling, grab your girlfriends and go out for a fun out. Make it an excuse to dress up, get dolled up and show off your best Valentines Day outfit.

My Valentines Day Outfit

This week I’m showing off an older image where I donned a #workinggirl outfit in all shades of red (and some pink) that works very well as a Valentines Day outfit. It was taken at the H & M opening of Orleans mall nearly 15 months ago.

 

I am posing here with my friend Marilou from 20 York Street blog. If you’ve followed my blog for some time, you’ll know that she was in my top Ottawa bloggers to follow post. Be sure to check out her blog and say hi. She’s definitely an ally you want to have :).

As you can see I was much heavier as I had given birth 2 months before.

Ok back to my Valentines Day outfit, you would not believe, but this dress is from Old Navy! I know it looks way more expensive than that.

The booties are my fave pair of shoes. They are red suede and pretty lethal (not just because of their sexy colour), but literally. The spikes on it can really harm if manipulated the wrong way. So it can be a weapon say your date doesn’t behave lol…

And my little red riding hood cape cost less than $50. Despite the fact that I had to resew the buttons back on something like 5 times each, I love it and it’s super unique!

I must mention that these beautiful photos were taken by my friend Cindy from way back when, who had given birth to her baby daughter month after me.

Valentines Day Makeup

One way to emphasize your Valentines Day outfit is of course with makeup. I found this great tutorial from The Gloss by Kelsey Manning, channeling a cute and upbeat look. I think this look is amazing to further stroke the romance in the air.

If you’re looking for a makeup palette that will really get you the colours you need and make your face pop, check out Mineralissima. They offer an incredible range of natural, beautiful and flawless mineral cosmetics, all made from Mother Natures best set of ingredients. They heard the market cry out for natural based makeup that’s refined and environmentally friendly. I chose to feature the angel eyeshadow as I thought it’s a perfect colour for your Valentines day outfit.

Accentuate Your Hair With Extensions

Now you can’t possibly forget about your hair. About a year and a half ago, I began experimenting with hair esxtensions I was never a fan truly but it was my cousin’s wedding and I wanted to have a fishtail look. My hair was not long enough so I figured why not try extensions. Who knew it was such fun! I now absolutely love the effect and regret not having gotten them weaved in instead of opting for the clip ons.

Don’t get me wrong, the clip ons are great if you like taking them off at night and only using it every once in a while. However I wanted to have them on a more permanent basis and not have to take them off and on every day or every second day. You can see me with extensions in this photo which was first published in this post about funky scarves a couple of months ago.

If you’re looking for a brand offering quality extensions at affordable prices, check out Kudu’s line. This brand has a quality selection to choose from. They carry Brazilian and Russian hair in weaves and in clips.

Extensions in and all, to complete your Valentines Day outfit, you might want to try your hand at one of the 18 Pinterest hair tutorials author Jessie Holeva discussed in this The Fashion Spot article.

Fitness Confession

You will soon be able to see what I look now when I post my fitness story and regimen for you to follow to get to where I got. It’s not an easy road, and it’s always an uphill battle, but it’s doable. There will be ups and downs, and sometimes literally more ups (weight gain) than downs (weight drop) but note that not all weight gained is purely fat gain.

Even though I’d consider myself more advanced in fitness than the average Jane, I still struggle with the mentality of seeing the scale go up, even though the body fat % is going down, I’m toning, and my clothes fit better. Unfortunately, it’s years of this weight number being registered in our minds that’s driving us as for the most part, it’s the most important unit of measurement to calculate our improvement or lack their of.

I recently even read an article denouncing (not entirely but to an extent), the calorie. If you have 30 mins, it’s definitely worth reading. Eye opening, and very insightful.

Fitness Hacks for a Guilt-Free Valentine’s Day

Of course I mention this on the dawn of Valentines Day week coming up, where we will all be consuming more chocolate than we should. But I’ll give you a trick, and of course this would only work if you are already restricting your intake of processed foods, sugars, simple carbs, etc. If not, this may have little to no impact.

If you are say following clean eating, a Paleo lifestyle, or watching what you put into your body, and you know you will be going out on a specific night to celebrate V day wearing your Valentines Day outfit of course, and you still want to feel like this after:

 

…here’s a “cheat meal” strategy that I followed from Miss Fitness Life that I read in one of her newsletters before the Holidays. Note that I also added some of my own tricks to the recipe:

• Eat very well the entire week. I mean, really well.
• Make sure to measure what you take in.
• Exercise for 45 to 60 minutes incorporating 80% strength (3-4 times a week), 20% cardio (3 times a week).
• The day you will be going out, make sure it’s your heaviest workout day, make it a legs day, or compound exercises as it’s what will work you out the most.
• Eat well on the day of so you can cheat on your V day dinner.
• The next day, ensure that you hit the gym again with a heavy workout, incorporating cardio.

This will allow you to have your chocolate and eat it too (as well as a meal full of yummy food), guilt-free, and still look awesome in your Valentine’s Day outfit!

This is Grace

Grace from Color & Grace. Based in Troy, Michigan, Grace is a 41 year-old petite woman who loves colours. Born and raised in China, she moved to America for love in 2007. Her day job – teacher. Her dream job – fashion blogger. Make sure to go and check out her blog and leave her a comment on her awesome outfit.

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