Buvette du Port

Can't believe how much I've been able to travel this summer! :) I am on my last trip of the summer now, in London! I made a quick stop here for a wedding over the weekend and heading back to New York in a couple days. Just got in and laying in my unbelievably comfy bed looking at pictures from when I was home. I got to catch up with some of my Geneva based friends which was so nice and of course lots and lots of family time :) I got in my daily power walks in the country side almost everyday which felt great. Below are a few pictures from one of the days at the lake with my love Emily. Geneva is just gorgeous! I am excited to get back to filming (& juicing) when I get home! But for now, I am going to enjoy this beautiful city and do some shopping, British style! New Look, TopShop, Superdrug, Primark.. excited :) Hope everyone is having a fabulous start to the weekend! Hugs XOXO

Back To School With BH

Hi beautiful! Below is a preview of a blogpost I created for BH Cosmetics a few days ago. A really easy yet pretty back to school makeup look using some great affordable products. They are also doing a giveaway on everything I used to create the look! Love giveaways!! The makeup is very classic, something I like to do often. Also, when going back to school, you want to make sure you look like a more polished version of yourself, nothing to crazy but still beautiful! You can click here to see the full post. I also shared three of back to school confidence tips! Click here if you want to read about them and to enter the giveaway. Good luck everyone!
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Back to School Makeup

My Back to School Confidence Tips & Giveaway!

On My Wish List

Just about to go to bed when I stumbled across this picture of a gorgeous grey tote by Prada. I am in love! :) I checked it out on their website to find out the details, and it's called the Saffiano Tote in Clay Grey from their Galleria Capsule Collection. Even though it's well out of my price range, priced at nearly $2,000, it's always nice to get inspired. It's so chic and beautiful and still very practical. It reminds me of a Hermes bag, but more youthful. I love it :)

Pictures from Hawaii!

I was looking through my pictures from Hawaii and wanted to share some more with you. It is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to, so happy I got to go! The views and scenery were stunning and I had such a great time with my family and bff. The photos are a bit of everything, just chose some of my favs. A lot of you have told me that photos like this make you feel as if you were there too, so let's hop back in to Hawaii then! :) If you want to see more pictures from my trip, just go back in the archives to around the end of July 2012. 

Our hotel

The fresh fruit there was delicious! ♥ I usually had this for breakfast along with an omelet and/or oatmeal with cinnamon & raisins.  

My younger brother and I :)

 Grilled shrimp with unique Hawaiian-grown purple sweet potato - so good!

I laughed when I saw this :) Surfboard on the top! I like.

 This, was awesome. 

Yummy salad! We'd always get hungry for lunch by 11am, even after a huge breakfast! 

Must've been all the swimming and running around. 

Stunning at Ko'Olina's natural lagoon

My beautiful Taylor! ♥

How cool are those natural lava rocks!

The view from the top of a dormant volcano overlooking Waikiki!

 Dancers at a Luau we attended! So fun.

Sunset after dinner ♥

Have you been to Hawaii? If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you visit? Other places I'd love to travel to and explore are Costa Rica, India and Brazil. To all my Hawaiian readers, you are so lucky to live in paradise! I will come to visit again soon, next time Maui :)

Skinny vs. Strong

Every day I get amazing emails from girls around the world about various topics and I LOVE hearing from you. Once in a while I get emails from people who have overcome big health issues, from both extremes. Some of you have told me how you were overweight and with a little inspiration from my videos and lots of hard work were able to loose a lot of weight and get healthy. Other times, I read how someone was super thin and unhealthy, just to be "skinny", and how they were able to develop a great respect for their body.

I can relate to your emails because as you all know, I used to be overweight and unhealthy in my early teens. Through lots of research, healthy eating, exercise and discipline, I am now at a very happy state with my body. A result of being happy and healthy, is a toned figure.

Something that's important to remember is to not think "I want to be skinny", instead to think "I want to be strong and healthy" - looking good and toned is a result of that (not the other way around). It's also motivating to think "I want my heart to be healthy, I want my muscles to be strong, I want my immune system to kick butt, I want my skin to glow..." when exercising or choosing healthy food, rather than "I'm doing this just to be skinny".

A few days ago, I got an email from a girl in the Middle East, telling me about her story of how she recovered from a bad eating disorder that she suffered with for many years. She told me she was able to find motivation through watching my videos and I was over the moon happy to hear that. I asked her if it would be ok to share her story with you all on my blog as I can only imagine how much pressure girls are under these days to look a certain way. But at the end of the day, it's about being the best you that you can be. She wants to remain anonymous but was more than happy to share her story in more detail.

Even though this is a heavy topic, it's definitely not one that should be left unspoken of. I love beauty, but beauty is more than pretty hair & makeup. It's health, confidence, happiness and more.

Here is her story...

"My cousin moved in with us 5 years ago and she would always tell me how fat I was and how no one would like me if I was fat. She was constantly on my case about losing weight! I wasn't even that big. She started to tell me to skip dinner, or to barley eat through out the day. I was 12 so I didn't know any better. I went down to 95lbs (43kg). I also found out that she influenced her best friend to stop eating too. I guess a lot of the girls in the Middle East look up to skinny girls and want to be skinny really bad. They thought it was beautiful to be skinny but have big boobs and a butt too? Doesn’t make sense right! lol I learned now that no one is perfect! You shouldn't try to force yourself to look like the way society wants you to look, its impossible!  Everyone is different and they are all beautiful. I remember all of my cousins telling me that they’ve thrown up before but personally I always thought they were all beautiful the way they were. I guess they just were pretty closed minded about things.

After a while I started to diet. Which led me to binge a lot. My weight eventually shifted up to 180lbs (81kg). It's scary how addicting eating disorders are. It’s not cool to stop eating, nor will it get you any real results. Its dangerous to start something like that, once you start its hard to stop. Eating disorders are so destructive! Your hair falls out, your nails become brittle, you teeth rot, bruising easily and so much more like diseases, psychically damage to your organs. I became obsessed with counting calories and dieting. And it just led me to binge even more! I struggle with depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety so eventually I lost all my friends because I didn't think I was good enough to leave the house or have a life. I became really shy and I didn't really talk about my life to anyone.

Then I lost 50 pounds! The 50 pounds was a combo of trying to recover with eating healthy/exercising and relapsing here and there. Recovery is hard but I had a lot of inspiration :) it started out with your videos! When I watched them I was inspired! You seemed so happy and healthy I started to look up to that instead of sick skinny girls. Also from the tumblr community! If you know anyone struggling with an eating disorder, or just want to get in shape, tumblr is a very friendly place! There are so many recovery blogs and fitness blogs.

This summer was the worst I’ve ever been though. I got stuck into a binging cycle. I couldn't stop binging every single day. It was so hard to control it. I’m still trying to get out of it today. I started to buy laxatives because I felt so guilty, I had a lot of self-hate towards myself. I started to self-harm too. Then the next day I'd eat only 500 cals to try to make up for it, or id excessively exercise. I'd workout all day, I never told anyone or asked anyone for help, I just kept it all to myself (except for my family) and its weird because on the outside I seemed so happy but on the inside I really wasn't!  

I started to also see a doctor, eating disorders can also harm you psychically not just mentally and that’s what I hope all girls know before they give up and stop eating or purge after they binge. I still till this day don't know what the damage is exactly. I just get a lot of rectal bleeding and abdominal pain along with many other problems. My doctors are still trying to figure it out. But I’ve read of much worse damage than that including death.

And you know what? Starving, binging, purging- none of that will make you beautiful nor will it solve any your problems. If looking great is what you want, then just eat healthy and exercise! It’s really not as hard as it seems.  It’ll give you better results and its healthier for you! Why wouldn't you want to love yourself and your body and try to be happy? And if you struggle with depression or anxiety then find other ways to cope with it then your eating disorder. Because I know that eating disorders are much more than just a problem with eating.  I advise people to get professional help also if they need it. There are a lot of other girls sicker than me and I hope the best for them.

You should respect your body because it’s the only one you have. Even just taking care of yourself can make you feel better about yourself. It’s also not just about what you look like. People always focus on your personality. If you are a nice person. And if one person doesn't like you, then there are 10 others who love you. Confidence is also beautiful. And in the long run, your body will thank you for taking care of it instead of destroying it because of some little obsession.

When you love yourself, so do others. After I started watching your blogs I started to research and learn more about the effects and risks of eating disorders, that it opened my eyes and brought me back to reality.  I also love your new videos with all the healthy eating tips! I love to eat healthy now. I feel so much better and cleaner and so much happier and confident. I have enough energy to go out and have a life now. I am also making new friends as well :) my favorite video of yours is how to stay positive and motivated. I realized that there was so much more to life that I was missing. I love to think positive now because life becomes so much easier to handle with confidence. I have dreams and goals when I’m positive and I achieve them because I believed in myself!

I know that recovery is hard but I know I can get through this and become healthy again. And I hope to inspire others as well. That’s why I’m so glad you wanted to put my story on your blog :) I was so honored! Thanks again for listening and everything. Sorry if it was a long message! It just feels good to let everything out as I usually keep everything to myself." 

I am sending you so much love for being so brave and sharing your story!! It's not easy & I thank you for allowing me to put this up. Hopefully it will inspire other girls too.

At the end of the day, it's about being strong and respecting your body. Imagine all the wonderful and amazing things it does for us without us even having to think about it. Breathing, fighting off viruses and infections, digesting our food, providing our cells with nutrition. It's pretty amazing when you think about it, so treat it right! :) XOXO

Power Walk in the Countryside

This afternoon I went for a beautiful power walk in the adorable countryside of Geneva. Since living in New York, I have this new appreciation for beautiful nature lol, we just don't get to see much of it in the city! The air of course is so clean and crisp - another thing I greatly appreciate :) Upon my walk I stumbled across this gorgeous little flower garden where you can pick your own bouquet to take home. You could also buy fresh sweet corn and potatoes grown right there. Not something you see everyday :)
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After my walk I did a few muscle toning exercises on the grass in my backyard. A few squats, lunges, plie squats, half aka "girlie" push ups etc and then stretched. The post-workout shower was bomb. I also met up with one of my besties here in Geneva for snacks and a drink later in the afternoon overlooking the lake. Really nice and relaxing day at home. Hope everyone's having a good one too! XOXO

Back To Basics!

Hello lovely readers! Happy friday :) I want to show a couple pictures of my new hair cut & color. I definitely needed to fix up my blonde ombre as it was getting a little too light for my skin tone and started looking a little unnatural towards it's final days :) The ends were also really dry and needed to be cut. It feels so fresh and healthy now! Couldn't be happier with it. Of course a good blow dry doesn't hurt either :) but I'll get the hang of styling this new do soon.

The color: The blonde was fun for the summer and really wanted to change my hair up, but I was ready to go back to my natural color. To remove the golden ombre I had before, my hairdresser just applied a dark toner all over, as opposed to coloring it. A toner is great as the color just sits on top of the hair and therefore doesn't penetrate and damage as much. It also moisturizes the hair by adding protein back to the hair (which is usually lost while bleaching). Another benefit of a toner, is that the hair wont appear dull since a few highlights will still peak through, giving it nice dimension. Since toners are semi-permanent however, I'll need to get a touch up now and then, but this should last me about 2 months. 

The cut: It's so much shorter! But I love it :) Feels so fresh & sleek. The cut is a lightly layered style, with some shorter layers in the front to frame my face. I always like having bangs or shorter pieces in the front because it gives a nice airy light feeling to the hair. Tip: When you have bangs, you want to make sure they connect with your other layers, so you dont have too much of a drop between the bangs and the next section of hair (if you like this hairstyle of course). Layers creates lots of nice movement in the hair.