ATB BB Series 7: Beauty Benefits of Weight Loss

Any change requires some motivation to help us pull through the adjustment period of ill-ease. You have to overcome the initial inertia of letting things continue as they were. I had been ‘trying’ to lose weight since the last couple of years without success. Partly because the ‘methods (read: diets)’ I tried were wrong bio-chemically and also because results on those diets were so less and took so long that I invariably gave up.

Everyone has different drivers aka reasons for losing weight. At the most basic level it could be to be healthier & build greater endurance. For me, it was Fashion. I love reading about fashion, and though I’m hardly the fashionista myself, I do enjoy dressing up. Some things really catch my fancy (like colored denims) others I dislike a lot (peplum & boy-friend jeans, anyone?). I don’t mean to imply that fashion is the sole prerogative of those with a certain body type. As fashion bloggers will tell you, it is just a matter of fit. 

Anyone can carry off anything.

It has been my experience however that I feel more confident about sporting trends now that I have lost weight. And maybe because of that confidence, it looks good. As I have lost weight, I have observed certain beauty benefits have accrued.

     

     1. I no longer need to stick to Cat-Eyes all the time. A plump face is generally soft & round. It is my experience that angular faces photograph a lot better as they appear sharper in pictures. In order to introduce some structure to a plump face, one very abused technique is the cat eyeliner technique. Aishwariya Rai wears it all the time. So did I for all important functions.

That's me!! Finally sporting colored denims, a high ponytail and some blush

    2. I can tie my hair away from my face in a pony tail.  Hair styles were a major issue for me when I was big. If it was open coz my hair is frizzy – it made my face look very big, but at the same time I wanted to leave it open to make the face appear slimmer by hiding the ears & sides of the face.

   3. I can apply blush again. I had stopped using blush for a few months (Ironic? I know! The blog is called Addicted to Blush!), as I felt that when I applied blush it called too much attention to my chubby cheeks. So I mainly concentrated makeup on the centre of my face – aka lips. I used dark colors on the lips to make them appear bigger so that the face looked smaller in comparison.

   4. I can now apply makeup on the lower lash line. One of the tricks to make a face look slimmer is to make the eyes look big. This is done by concentrating makeup on the upper lash line & lots of mascara, but leaving the lower lash & waterline bare.

   

   5. I can smile in pictures. I used to avoid smiling in pictures as I felt it made my cheeks look even more chubby. Of course I was also very reluctant to get pictures taken. Somehow I had deluded myself that I wasn't really *that* big. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I thought I looked good, a bit plump but fine otherwise. But I could hardly recognize the person I saw in pictures. I wondered why I looked so bloated and always put it down to being unphotogenic. 

   6. This benefit is exclusive to following the Wheat Belly Diet: No acne! I've been acne free since I began the diet 5 months ago. No more pesky pimples at that time of the month & no more marks to deal with. Also due to the high fat content of my diet I no longer suffer from weak-split nails, dry skin, rough hair. 

   Btw, I've lost a couple more kgs since I began posting about the diet. The tally now is 20 kgs in 5 months.

   A big shoutout to Ankita of Ank's Ramblings who has also decided to try out this diet. Good Luck Girl! I look forward to reading your success story soon. 

   Have any of you lost weight? What was your driver? How did losing weight change things for you?