I Can Make You Hot! (21 page)
Read I Can Make You Hot! Online
Authors: Kelly Killoren Bensimon
Tags: #Health; Fitness & Dieting, #Diets & Weight Loss, #Other Diets, #Diets
A portal that provides links to all government Web sites having any information about diet and nutrition, including the new guidelines for MyPlate.
www.organic.org
News, reviews, and sources for just about everything organic.
The Web site of the Organic Trade Association; offers information on the benefits of buying and eating organic.
Read articles from
Self
magazine, watch workout videos, and find a calculator to help you figure out your own healthy weight.
Get health and fitness tips from
Shape
magazine online.
The United States Department of Agriculture provides information on nutrition and health, food safety, conservation and much more.
Useful, up-to-date, trustworthy information on medical and health issues.
Product information and online shopping from the world’s largest retailer of natural and organic foods.
Claims to have “every recipe in the world” and lets you search by ingredient, calories, taste, price, and other considerations.
To keep track of how you’re doing and how your body is changing, I suggest that you take a picture of yourself every day—not to obsess about your weight but to observe the progress you’ve made. Some days when you’re feeling your fattest, you may be surprised to see that you really look great. And you’ll also be able to notice when you need to step up your exercise or cut down on your calories. People say the mirror doesn’t lie, but the mirror doesn’t help you to keep a record of where you’ve been. Having been photographed so often has provided me with a permanent retrospective catalogue of my life—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Pictures also point me to the looks that were good for me. They can do the same for you. Take pictures of your favorite looks and stick them up on a corkboard. That way you can see what works and what doesn’t. And it’s fun for both you and your friends to see how you see yourself. Also, if there’s a picture in which you really look great, you can always go back to that look when you’re stuck or need a quick and authentic boost.
The best kind of vanity is being vain about what you put in your body.
Friday: Hot Couture
What’s hot to me is dressing to flatter your shape, whatever shape you’re in. To do that you need to figure out what shape your body wants to be and then wear whatever it is that’s going to flatter your figure. Just be sure it’s also appropriate for the occasion. When going on a first date, a job interview, or to dinner with his parents, keep it simple. Wear basic, neutral colors and let your personality shine brighter than your fashion style. When you’re with good friends who you love and trust, that’s the time to take chances and expand your fashion horizons.
We all have days or occasions when we feel fat, and for a lot of us the go-to fat outfit is a great big shirt or something else big and baggy that we think we can hide behind (or under). I’ve done it myself, but it just doesn’t work.
When my second daughter, Teddy, was just four months old, my then-husband invited me and my then-two-year-old, Sea, to come to Los Angeles, where he was photographing Madonna for the cover of
Elle
magazine. I thought it would be a nice bonding time for me and Sea after she’d been sharing me with her new sibling, and I really wanted to meet Madonna. She’d had her second baby at about the same time I did, and I somehow thought we’d bond over our recent pregnancies. So Sea and I went to Smashbox Studios in L.A. on a field trip. I even remember what I was wearing that day: a white men’s shirt. My dark eyeliner and blond highlights were the only features differentiating me from a beached whale. I’d gained a healthy fifty pounds with Teddy, and breastfeeding wasn’t helping me take it off. There was Madonna, tiny, flat-stomached, and wearing dark glasses. She didn’t say a word…and then it got worse. I saw a bunch of photos my husband had shot of her in what looked like very awkward yoga poses.
So, yeah, she was (and is) HOT and cool. And even if I didn’t have the post-baby body she did at sixteen weeks, I slowly lost the weight I’d gained. Six weeks later I was actually thinner than I’d been prepregnancy. Running after kids, picking up after them, and lugging car seats is the best cardio exercise and strength training on the planet. I kept the eyeliner but went with the Ava Gardner, top-lid-only look. Those raccoon eyes were necessary during my white-shirt phase, but not for being supermom.
So what’s the lesson here? That Madonna had personal trainers and chefs to whip her back into shape, and I didn’t—and still don’t. I shouldn’t have been comparing myself to her in the first place. My advice to you is: don’t compare yourself to anyone else, only to your own personal best. Eat well and take care of yourself so you can take care of your kids. And, worst-case scenario, tasteful eyeliner works!