Turning to comfort food during these cold days is the worst thing for your waistline. But you can stay warm this winter on our fantastic reduced energy weight loss plan. It’s comforting, delicious and easy, and you’ll love the results. And the best thing is, if you are feeding the family they can enjoy the same evening meal as you!
Stick to the portion sizes.
Eat nothing raw.
Stay hydrated by drinking warm or hot water with grated ginger, water at room temperature or herbal teas throughout the day.
You already know about the powerful disease-fighting antioxidants found in green, black and white tea. Now a study from Germany, published in Nutrition and Metabolism, has revealed that, compared with other types of tea, white tea helps prevent new fat cells from forming, and also breaks down the fat content in those already present.
Lead researcher Dr Marc Winnefeld commented that the white tea appeared to reduce activity in those genes that are responsible for the growth of new fat cells. Another explanation is that white tea contains more caffeine and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), which both stimulate metabolism.
Your say: What do you think of these findings? Do you drink tea? Share with us below…
Hands up if you would like a holiday? Wouldn’t we all! For those of you taking time out this year to jet overseas, drive up the coast or go to the local holiday park with the kids, there are a few must-haves that you shouldn’t leave home without.
Leaving on a jet plane
If you’re heading overseas for travel, first of all, have fun, but second, you don’t need to leave your daily beauty routine at the baggage scan. Most cosmetics, these days, come in travel-friendly packaging perfect for the in-flight experience. Yet there are a few items that you should pack in your check-in luggage because you will need them when you land.
We love: Remington Travel 1800, $22.95, 1800 623 118. Nivea Touch of Happiness, $6.25, 1800 103 023.
Just after you’ve eaten your dinner and before you settle down for an in-flight movie, take some time to care for your skin. The recycled air on aeroplanes is not your skin’s friend, so fight it with a good moisturiser. Make sure you drink lots of water – always accept some when it’s offered (especially if you’re partial to an on-board wine).
We love: Ecotools Bamboo Sleep Mask, $6.95, (02) 9526 0777. The Body Shop Vitamin E Face Mist, $23.95, 1800 065 232. Estée Lauder Take It Away Remover Towelettes, $45, 1800 061 326. Recipe For Life, by Nicky Pellegrino, Orion, $32.99. SK-11 Facial Treatment Mask, $28 each, 1800 012 169.
If you’re off to a beach holiday or somewhere tropical such as Bali, the different weather conditions are likely to wreak havoc on your skin and hair. Protect your skin with a moisturiser that won’t leave your skin feeling oily and which has a high SPF. To protect your hair, Brad Ngata, from Brad Ngata Hair Direction in Sydney, says you can win the battle against humidity. “It’s a good idea to use products containing UV protection, which guard hair from losing natural oils, while preventing the drying effects of the sun,” he advises.
We love: L’Oréal Professional Série Expert Solar Sublime protection spray, $24, 1300 651 141. Kérastase Soleil Gelée Aqua-proof, $41, 1300 365 552. L’Occitane Shea Butter Foot Cream, $16.95, (02) 8912 3000. The Affair, by Santa Montefiore, Hodder and Stoughton, $32.99.
Snow bunny
In sunny Australia, we’re not always prepared for the harsh winters of other countries. If your passport is taking you somewhere the powder will be soft and the chairlifts plentiful, you’ll need a moisturiser with SPF and a good lip conditioner.
Some jobs require more travel than others and not just the glamorous ones. Often, conferences will be held out of town, so you have to pack a work wardrobe, plus your beauty routine, and relocate them. A great way to make sure you’re looking and feeling your best for the breakfast meetings is to get a professional blow-dry just before you leave home, if possible, and prolong the effect with dry shampoo.
“The best tool to travel with, in order to keep your hair looking fabulous, is a GHD iron. This will make styling easy and as efficient as possible,” according to Brad Ngata. If you’re spending the whole day in meetings, you probably won’t have a lot of time to check and fix your make-up, so choose products that are designed for the long haul.
We love: M.A.C Fix+, $27, 1800 613 828. Lee Stafford Poker Straight Dry Shampoo, $13.95, www.priceline.com.au. ORLY Limited Edition Matte Couture Collection in Blue Suede, $18.95, 1300 769 355. Napoleon Perdis Auto Pilot Napoleon Complex Skin Renewal Serum, $79, 1800 814 572.
It’s the new backpacking – travelling overseas with a slightly more generous budget, but still looking for the fun and adventure that comes with backpacking. Chances are there will be late nights, fabulous dinners and lots of driving. So, make sure you’re prepared for getting ready quickly, but still looking picture perfect.
We love: Sebastian Professional Liquid Gloss, $36, 1300 728 333. ORLY Limited Edition Matte Couture Collection in Purple Velvet, $18.95, 1300 769 355. Flexi Flats, $15.90, flexiflats.net. Ms Money Spending Diary, $24.95, (03) 9486 0925,
On the road again
A driving holiday can leave you with great family memories, but it can also mean that packing space is limited and there won’t be a lot of “me-time” to attend to your skincare routine. When you set up camp for the night, spend a few minutes looking after your skin. Choose products that are easy to pack and don’t need a fully equipped bathroom to use.
We love: Kleenex Tissue Tubes, $1.99, 1800 028 334. Nivea Visage Gentle Facial Cleansing Wipes, $7.50, 1800 103 023. L’Oréal Professional Série Nature Source de Tendresse Shampoo for children, $28, 1300 651 141. Sally Hansen Miracle Cure for severely dry hands, $19.95, 1800 812 663.
Liquid, aerosol or gel products must be in containers of 100 millilitres/grams or less.
The containers must be carried together in one transparent, resealable plastic bag, like the one in the image below, and must be sealed for the inspection before you get on board.
The four sides of the bag’s sealed area must add up to no more than 80 centimetres (e.g. 20cm x 20cm or 15cm x 25cm).
Only one bag is allowed per passenger, with exceptions for carers, who may carry the bag/s of the people in their care, including children.
Your say: What products are your must haves for travel? What tips can you share for keeping your skin and hair in good condition while travelling? Share your with us below.
There are many benefits to exercising in the cold. You use more energy in winter, which equates to burning more kilojoules. And as you’re burning more energy, you sleep better at night.
Regular exercise is also one of the best ways to boost your immune system and fend off wintertime colds and other illnesses.
But there are a few things to be aware of when you’re exercising in the cold:
Warm-up is important at any time, but particularly so during the colder months, as the body’s temperature is generally a little lower and the joints take a little bit longer to warm up properly.
Stretching is especially important in the winter months when it’s easier to cramp up or pull a cold muscle.
Remember to moisturise. Put a moisturiser on your lips, face, hands or any other area that may be susceptible to the drying effects of the colder air.
Drink plenty of water. It’s as easy to become dehydrated during the cold months, as in the scorching summer heat, so carry a water bottle with you and drink plenty of fluids after your workout. Most people forget the importance of water during the colder months.
People who are prone to asthma should make sure they carry Ventolin, as they are more susceptible to asthma with the cold air.
Whenever exercise is stopped or paused for any longer than a couple of minutes, take off any wet clothes as soon as possible and put on a jacket and tracksuit pants to avoid getting a chill.
Detective Anna Travis’ worst nightmare comes true when a sadistic killer she helped put behind bars claims he can help her with a murder investigation.
A redhead, clad in snappy suits and starched collars, Lynda La Plante’s Detective Inspector Anna Travis has crime investigation in her blood. Her late father was a detective chief superintendent and his smart, sexy daughter eats and sleeps the job – eats from a microwave and sends her linen and clothes out to be laundered and dry-cleaned. Anna is no longer the rookie of the earlier novels – this is the sixth book in the detective series by La Plante – and she is brought in to join a team of detectives on a triple murder investigation.
An unidentified young woman’s body has been dumped close to a highway service station, a favourite late-night pull-in for truckies seeking coffee, a fry-up … and more. The police are well aware of the prostitutes and it becomes evident that the victim, who was raped and strangled, displays the same MO (modus operandi) as two other unsolved murders of young women in the area.
In true La Plante style, the police station is vividly set up: incident board pinned with photographs, piles of statements and files, press calls and briefings. Yet when the trail goes cold, the murder team is forced to take seriously a chilling offer of assistance from sadistic killer Cameron Welsh, serving life in a secure prison unit.
Anna was part of the team that arrested him for the torture and rape of his female victims, whom he held captive for months in the cellar of his large house before burying one of them in his garden. Welsh, an obsessive, highly intelligent killer, defended himself at his trial and has taken a degree in child psychology while in jail. Reluctantly, Anna and her sidekick relent and allow him to view the case work.
Welsh revels in studying developments in the latest case and clearly gets as much of a thrill from discussing the mind-set and anatomy of a sex killer as he does from seeing Anna in the flesh. Pacey and menacing, La Plante’s narrative is filmic, putting the reader side by side with DI Anna Travis through every step of the investigation.
Welsh has a warning for Anna, telling her, with relish, that behind the most welcoming of front doors and most amiable of family men lurks an animal and a hunter. In the hands of La Plante, the now veteran DI Travis is well aware of this – and she will only solve the serial killings at the cost of the most terrible of personal sacrifices.
HITCH 22 BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, ALLEN & UNWIN, $35.
A memoir from the thinking woman’s crumpled crumpet, the dishevelled but always wildly articulate Christopher Hitchens.
The younger son of a British naval officer and an effervescent beauty, he overhears them plotting his future: “If there is going to be an upper class in this country, then Christopher is going to be in it”. And so on to Oxford, Fleet Street and a gilded life as a writer, commentator and self-styled contrarian. Hitchens tells all, from his dramatic conversion from lion of the Left to passionate supporter of American capitalism, to his astonishing capacity for hard work and alcohol. His two wives don’t get much of a look-in – his true love turns out to be novelist Martin Amis. The writing is brilliant and his most savage lines are saved for himself.
The author has plucked a nightmare straight out of the nightly news – the abduction of a young girl and her incarceration in a locked room – and turned it into a novel as intriguing as it is chilling.
The story is told by the captive’s five-year-old son, Jack, fathered in captivity by a vile sexual predator they call Old Nick. Jack knows no world but “Room”, believing the sun, sky and people he sees on TV to be created images. It is the world outside that seems scary. This contrast between Jack’s happy innocence and Ma’s growing terror as she plots their escape gives the novel a thriller-like tension.
The author concedes her debt to real-life captives Elisabeth Fritzl and Natascha Kampusch. Don’t be scared off, you’ll find a strange tenderness and even humour.
Question I'm 14 and am attending my auntie's non-traditional wedding soon. I'm wearing a simple short white dress with silver heels. I was wondering, what jewellery would look best with it? Meg, via email.
INHERITANCE BY NICHOLAS SHAKESPEARE, HARVILL SECKER, $32.95.
Andy Larkham, a 30-something pen-pusher about to be dumped by his fiancée, is rushing to attend the funeral of his favourite schoolteacher.
He’s one of just two mourners. A stranger takes down their names after the service, though it turns out it’s the wrong man’s funeral. Within a week, Andy learns he’s inherited $31 million. He wrestles with his conscience, then starts spending, only to be confronted by the dead man’s only child and true heir, Jeanine.
A book of many strands, at its centre is the mystery of how a successful man can be so disappointed by life that he would play such a strange game with his fortune. Yet it’s also a love story, a vivid portrait of a con-artist and a cautionary tale about the perils of unexpected wealth.
SEX & STRAVINSKY BY BARBARA TRAPIDO, BLOOMSBURY, $32.99.
This is Barbara Trapido’s seventh novel and a glorious read it is, with a cast of fabulously flawed characters, whose lives cross and re-cross over decades and continents as they chase their dreams, pick the wrong partners, madden their children, suffer the tyranny of monstrous parents, yet somehow emerge from the other side wiser and happier – though not at all better – people.
Trapido fans will recognise the ingredients, but this is one of her best. The novel focuses on two mismatched couples, each with discontented daughters. The link between them is a changeling called Jack, a pale-skinned boy born to a black maid, who coolly seizes every opportunity that comes his way. He gives steel to the story and a bittersweet tang to this funny, wise book.
A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNSBY KHALED HOSSEINI, BLOOMSBURY, $24.95.
Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his best-sellingThe Kite Runnerwith another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil.
Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, loss and fate. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman’s love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that, in the end, it is love – or even the memory of love – that is often the key to survival.
