Baxtron{Life}

Friday, April 27

{Hate Love Your Body}

This month,

I asked my lovelies to

share

their favorite body part,

or feature.

Throughout this post,

you will see

their beautiful eyes,

long flowing hair,

and even an adorable button nose.

What you won't see

is the words that several used

to describe their current

struggle

with accepting their bodies.

For most of my life
I have struggled
with my body image.

I have struggled
with measuring up
to what I believed was

beautiful,

often based on
the culture of the moment.

I've always been

insecure

about my long nose,
rosy red cheeks

and

my long second toes.

No matter what I've weighed,

or even what size I've worn,

I've looked into the mirror
and often felt

disappointed.

Where does this devaluation come from?

Yes,

I can look at society,

Hollywood,

propaganda…

and I can

point the blame.

What would that really solve?

Nothing.

We have it all…
wrong.

Our culture tells us to first:
be skinnier,
be more fashionable,
be this skin color or that,
follow this trend,
buy this brand,
do this,
and definitely,
don't do that
then we will
feel good
about ourselves.

And we've believed them.

They tell us to
change first,
then we will love
our body.

But does that work?

Do you really spend time
taking care of the things in your life
that you don't
love?

Challenge yourself to
stop
thinking that
changing yourself
will result in
finally loving yourself.

Start
thinking that
loving yourself
will give you
the motivation to
make positive changes.

I've lost 28 pounds in the last four months.

I now can say

"I am no longer overweight",

but I'm not yet happy

with my body.

When I look in the mirror,

I still don't see a skinny person.

I still struggle to see

an acceptable version of myself.

Some people say that

your mind has a way of

protecting you emotionally,

especially after a significant weight loss,

just in case

you were to pack the pounds

right back on.

Some days I feel

larger

than I felt weeks ago.

In searching for the root cause

of my inability to accept and enjoy where I've gotten,

I realized that I have to

first love and accept my body

to see myself

the way I truly am.

***

Let us start choosing to

love

our bodies,

to value the gift and function

of each and every

part.

And in loving them

how they are now,

let us watch as

almost

effortlessly,

we begin to take better care,

and see ourselves

how we've always wanted

to be seen.

I'm starting with

my nose,

and ending with

my toes.

Thursday, April 26

{Feautured Lovely+GIVEAWAY!}
MeetAmy of Up Mommy Creek

I am a 30 year old mom.

I was a goody-two-shoes growing up.

I loved school (yes...I was one of THOSE kids),

I went straight from highschool to university and started a pretty decent job right after graduation.

However,

2 years in I felt like I was missing something in my life,

and decided to leave it all behind

and travel to Thailand.

A couple of years,

a few countries and many miles later,

I finally found myself,

and also found the love of my life.

We decided to head on back to the Great White North (I am a Canadian) and settle down.

Now,

I pretty much spend my days chasing after my little man,

trying to keep Kitty from destroying the house,

and when I get a spare second I try to squeeze in some yoga or

cuddle up on the couch with a good book.

Our little family consists of me, my husband,

my 9 month old son Finnley

and our dumb (but very pretty!) cat Kitty.

My husband and I met while travelling in Thailand, and

we knew pretty quick we were soul-mates

(as cliche as that is!).

It took us a couple of years to figure out we couldn't fight fate, and so we married, got a cat and eventually were lucky enough to be able to add to our family with a bouncing baby boy!

My family is silly, funny, loving

and I think we're perfect

(but I may be a bit biased...)

Once I found out I was pregnant,

and after the excitement wore off,

I started to realize that I really had no idea what I was doing.

So, I started

Up Mommy Creek

as a way to express my sheer and utter bafflement with the whole experience of pregnancy.

Since we've progressed now into the land of parenting,

it's really no different.

I am still clueless and just fly by the seat of my pants usually.

Parenting is hard work and it's been quite an adventure to figure it all out.

So on my blog you will usually find a story about something strange

or ridiculous that recently happened,

or a recipe that I love,

or some of my attempts at photographing my son.

It's pretty much an eclectic mix of all things me (and some things Finnley…)!

Courtney here:

Amy won my featured ad space giveaway last month!

I've enjoyed getting to know her family and son through her blog.

You can also find her on Twitter, Facebook & Pinterest!

Make sure you give her a visit and say hey!

But wait…

before you go,

Amy has generously offered up

a $15 Starbucks Giftcard

to one of you lovelies!

Enter via Rafflecopter below (click here if you don't see the widget):

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, April 25

Somme Institute
{Boost Mask & Eye Cream}

Where'd my wrinkles go?

Oh heya! But luckily, I don't make this face often. LOL!

Hey lovelies!

Remember a few weeks ago,

when I shared my love of the Somme Institute's MDT5 Skincare Regimen?

You just have to compare the pictures from that post to this one!

Look at my skin after continued daily use!

Can you find those forehead wrinkles anywhere?

Of course, just when I thought it couldn't get any better,

I received their Boost mask and their Eye cream to try out.

This stuff is delicious…it goes on silky smooth and instantly begins to warm up.

Want to know the best part?

It smells like pumpkin pie.

No, seriously, like...I want to eat it off my face when I use it, thats how delicious it smells.

After a few minutes,

I feel as though I'm lounging at a day spa,

feeling tension and stress leave my face.

Voila…dewey fresh skin,

ready to "Boost" the rest of my MDT5 skincare regimen.

Overall, I'm highly impressed by the Boost mask (it even made it on my top ten favorite beauty products list)! I love the feel of it on my skin and how it amplifies the effects of the MDT5 regimen!

How old do I look in this picture?

My use of the Somme Institute's Eye cream has resulted in several compliments I have received over the last couple of weeks.

I don't buy alcohol often (because I don't drink),

so when I was picking up some wine for a brunch,

and was asked for my ID, I was SHOCKED.

Hello, biggest compliment ever!

Here is a before shot.

You can see fine lines and darkness around the inner part of my eye.

The most noticeable difference you are about to see is

the darkened skin in the inner eye area is almost completely gone.

This is after a few weeks of using "Eye."

With make-up on.

The Eye cream goes on super silky and a little teeny bit goes a long way.

The bottom-line…you have got to try these!

I received free product to review for this post, however; all of the opinions expressed are authentically my own.

Disclosure Policy.

Tuesday, April 24

{10 Favorite Beauty Products}

1} BareMinerals Matte Foundation / Fairly Light

2} Balms Away Eye Makeup Breakup

3} Aquaphor Advanced Healing Ointment

4} Sephora Atomic Volume Mascara / Black

5} Somme Institute Boost Mask

6} Avon Lipstick / Vintage Pink

7} Scunci Grip Hairband

8} Lolita Lempicka Fragrance

9} Nivea Creme

10} Kristina's Homemade Coconut Oil Lip Balm

A Sneak Peek & Introduction...

This month I asked my lovelies to share their favorite body part/feature. I am really excited to share their responses with you this Thursday as a part of my Meltdown series, and thought I'd give you a sneak peek…by introducing one of my newest lovelies: Jill.

***

Hey guys! I'm Jill and I blog over at I Know the Plans I Have for You! Some of the things that you will find there are furniture redos, crafty creations, home decor on a budget, tutorials and some of the {crazy} that is my everyday life! I'm thrilled to be here today, and I love that Courtney is creative in the way that she does introductions.

Although I thought this would be an easy one, (capturing my favorite body part/feature) I found my self struggling to highlight a body part! I'm not one to be the subject on the other end of the lens, but with that said, my favorite feature has always been my eyes. I love to do my eyes up when I go out! Eyes are the one thing that doesn't feel fat when they get dressed up (except for mornings lately, lol), and you can make such an impact with just a little mascara or a great smokey eye!

Congratulations Courtney on your weight loss success! Your doing great! Thanks for having me, and I would love for you guys to come by and browse through I Know the Plans I Have for You! I have some exciting things coming up that I would love for you to be a part of!

You can follow me here:

***

Remember to SPREAD THE WORD about the MAY DAY FOLLOW FEST!

There is a $20 STARBUCKS CARD up for grabs!

Monday, April 23

{Eat Your Veg}

Welcome to "Pinning!"

(Inspired by Charlie's, now famous, "Winning!")

A Weekly Pinterest Link-Up

(Share pins, meet others who love "Pinning", get inspired!)

First Time? It's simple just follow these rules:

Please follow your hosts: Courtney & Kimberly

then

Link up your favorite pins post for the week

and

Link back to the party

<center>
<a href="http://www.baxtronlife.com/search/label/Pinning" target="_blank"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gbvryU40_Qo/Ty_cGnh2JNI/AAAAAAAAB9k/iwfB9OZ7SFo/s200/PinningHalf.jpg" height="150" width="150" /></a></center>

Each week a winner will be chosen to flaunt the title of "Pinning-est" for successfully wowing us with the best Pinterest find. The winner will be featured/announced in the following week's post!

***

I've been on a weight loss journey for the past 14 weeks and am down 27 pounds. This week, I'm inspired to share with you my new found love of VEGETABLES. Mmmm yes. Composed mostly of water, veggies are the best thing you can increase consumption of when trying to lose weight! They are filling, extremely low calorie and you can pretty much eat as much of them as you want without consequence.