Join this site and follow my blog to stay tuned to all my updates!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Long time no see!

Gosh, I can't believe I was not here for so long...

I'm so so so sorry I was gone. For SO long! Wow! I know many of you still read my blog - and all the info here is for you to use, learn, and so on. :) Feel free. Thanks to all of you, who have written in the past months and who have lost me for a while! I appreciate all your support and insight!

I have TONS of updates, and I won't be able to fit it all in here. But to explain why I have been relatively absent in the past 3-4 months - well, surprise-surprise, it is all my PhD. I know, I have been bragging about it for it seems like half a year. And it seems that for a year by now I have been saying "Hold on, Liuba, it's just a little left!" Then suddenly my supervisor wants me to do a new study - in December! I was supposed to finish everything in December. The worst thing is I really wanted to do that study myself, so I did it. Sigh.

Anyway. I will be back and relatively soon. I am - YES! - planning to submit in May and am working really intensively now revising, revising, revising! After that I will be back. And I will have a few new things to share with you. 

First, I'm gonna add another part to this blog - on health and going natural, as this is what I am doing this year. This was one of my NY resolutions, and I am going to share my journey with you. It will be a mix of some diet and make-up tips and stories.

Second, I have stopped doing TA after Continuity level 6. I never started level 7, though I really love TA (this blog is the proof enough right?!). But I simply couldn't find the time and energy besides my PhD. I am doing some exercise 3 times a week, but it is really low-intensity stuff, like Tracey Mallet barre method (I will try to do a review sometime). Why? Don't get me wrong - I still love TA immensely, but I really like to do it systematically. And when I can't - I feel like it is not worth it in a way. I DO want to proceed from level to level, and if right now I don't have a chance to be consistent and do one level in two weeks, well I'd rather leave it till I can. This is only my thing, and some people don't mind being inconsistent. But I will get back to Continuity in May-June.

Third, I am planning to get a personal trainer on top of TA. Yes, I know, it is not recommended. But I want to learn about this stuff - so that I can understand my body better and know the differences between different workouts. Otherwise, how can I claim that what I'm doing IS the way forward? Huh? :)

So this will be the updates to this blog, check back in soon! I have already prepared some stuff on natural make-up, mineral make-up and make-up for acne-prone skin. So, stay tuned!

Finally, some updates. I moved to Prague! Wohoo! One of the most beautiful cities in the world! But right now - I am having a research stay in Trondheim, Norway (I know it is confusing, but forget about Norway, I'm thinking of myself as based in Prague already!). Trondheim VERY northern, but extremely pretty - any season. In the past months I also did a lot of travelling  we my BF (obviously besides packing up my stuff, selling furniture and leaving my beloved Bremen) - we travelled to Amsterdam, New York, Frankfurt, Heidelberg and Strasbourg. Lots of great memories, wonderful time, great food (YUM!). I am a food freak - I know that now. I LOVE FOOD! French food - delicious! Steak - WOW! We had some nice steak in NY almost every day, as well as had a great one at (not next to AT) the Grand Central at the Michael Jordan Steakhouse. It is quite pricey (like most things NY-style!), but very good and with a very fine view I have to say. :)

NYC skyline... Not just beautiful - breathtaking! I wish camera could really capture it!

Well I just couldn't NOT post this :)))) Funny. It is actually at the Madame Tussauds. 


Have a great rest of the weekend you guys, I will try to check in here more often. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

3 comments:

  1. I just can't help asking you, whether it was your try - to start smth new, i mean...I think, Tracy is good, her system..you know...is very strict, and a s a viewer, I regard it as a command to start smth...it is as a ...secta ( soryy my Russian) and in a good meaning of this word, to make a person who had no experience in this sphere, who is a newcomer...to give strong very strong motivation - it's a goog psychological effect and so on... but what then? I really wanted to ask you...may be later, tet-a-tet, but still...
    I always had it on the backstage^ what then? Very strict rules. Very strict diet ( for an unexperianced one). It can't last for a long time. There will be an explosion. untill a person ellaborates his/her own way to
    - trainings
    - eating habits
    I think, such programmes should develope a person/ To give him knowledge and motivation, but he should not stay dependant on it. Or to feel guilte when he is not able to foolow the rules...
    I truly believe, you can use this experience as the first stage in this sphere, and to moove further. To make your own rules. If i just misunderstood, then sorry, let's discuss it in private, ok?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. generally i would agree and disagree with you. on the one hand, TA might be a little restricitve in the beginning, but on the other hand it is a great method to develop a system and consistency. the diet after the initial 30 days is not so strict and is essentially about healthy eating. and this is something that should become a habit, and remain to the end of your life. it is about changing the lifestyle.

      i realised in the past year or so that i don't believe in diets. i believe in nutrition. i mean to lose some weight initially, diet might be important, but generally its about eating well, healthy and plenty! this means combining proteins, carbs and yes some fat too in reasonable portions. eating 5 times a day with regularity (this i still have a problem with). avoiding anything fried or deep fried particularly. eating more at home, and no no no to fast food and sugars and such. i personally also started transitioning to organic foods...all that said, i do eat chocolate, and its ok to let go for one day a week when you already reach your goal. but it is important to get good nutrition for everything you do. all in all, i learnt much of this while doing tracy. but of course it depends how you approach it all, cos blindly following her diet plan is also stupid.

      and all of this is not about looking good and being skinny. it is about being healthy, energetic and be able to do things. its like avoiding the risks you can actually avoid. yes, a brick can fall on our heads at some point, but you can't control a brick. but you can control what you do with your body and how you treat it. what you eat, how much you train your muscles for the healthy fat-muscle ratio, whether you avoid cancerogenous substances, etc.

      i love the method - cos it works for me. now i am just trying to work out differently (with a trainer) in the gym. cos i want to learn. i want to be stronger. but i def see myself going back to TA. and if it works- why change it right? so i totally understand all of those people who do tracy for years and years and years. its just i think to mak it work even better, you have to make breaks and change the activity.

      Delete
  2. That was just exactly what I meant!
    As a person who has tried many kinds of physical activity ( sorry, don't know how to say it in English) - cycle, step, aerobics, pilates, differnet workout activities with weights, even yoga, though I didn't get it), I mean...having gone through different trainers, through different kind of sports, different approaches, I am now with my own system of trainings, that means taht I know my body, I know its limits and possibilities, I know my problem areas, parts of my body where I should pay a bit more attention to, you know... I know when I am not okay and it is true, and when I/m just lazy and I should overcome myself... And my system is not a pattern, it is just good for me, and only me, and it works and that's it.
    That's why when I am asked some questions how to do this or that concerning dieting or workout or just the simpliest question - how to loose weight, I just can give common advices, but to make it work one should invent his or her own scheme or plan.
    That is what I meant. And it is very very good that you are going to start working with a personal trainer, I just didn't get - in a gym, in "trenazhernyi zal" or with one of Tracy's followers?
    Sorry, don't want to impose my opinion on you, but as for me, and as I regard - as for you too NOW - Tracy pays too much attention to the cardio part. If you don't have extra weight, then why do you need it? Why to loose time when you can spend it WORKING, really working? A simple warming up will be fully enough...

    And the same thing with eating habits. I am surprised how fast you gained all the habits of a thinking - what- you're- eating-person. I had a kinda quarell with Lena Boyarnikova VKONTAKTE. She posted a picture of a plate of strawberries, not ripe... you know, early...delivered from Turkey or Spain or Egypt, which is not good, not even tasty as it was totally not ripe, not healthy at all. I just couldn't help but noting, that it was not ripe... One word to another, I said - it is not healthy at all, Lena, it is dangerous!!! She got angry, it was noted by the tone of the conversation, and gave me the argument, like "What's then? Sometimes we should pet ourselves, and the children ( I was finished!) with such gifts and so on, if thinking and as she told " zamorachivatsya" of everything you eat, you can go crazy!" Booom! I was shot down!
    So it is very good that you know what you eat, and that you are interested, and that you are thinking of it and analyze and not throwing food into your mouth as an eating can.
    As for me, I don't like, I really disguise fried food, we use a frying pan just to fry onion and carrot for the soup, to add it into it, so I really love boiled food, especially meat, I think it is the tastiet thing in the world, but i am a sinner - I love sugar^ I lo ve black coffee with 5 spoons of sugar trice a day, I can't live without sugar candies, vanilla marshmallow sticks with my cofee and so on.. .
    So it again depends...
    Each person has its own habits, but as I think each system - Tracy or not - should teach to listen to yourself, your owm preferences and abilities and particularities.

    ReplyDelete