Musiccosmos

Here’s why this woman avoided foreplay with her partner – in her own words… “I haven’t had many sexual partners, but from each one I’ve learnt important lessons about myself, what I like in bed and how I feel about my body. My first boyfriend, at 17, was the first guy who made me feel good about my body. When his friends teased me about my big bum, he’d defend me by telling them how much he loved it. I was a size 32 then – the biggest I’ve ever been, and probably the most insecure. “Another relationship taught me about my needs and what turns me on – and what doesn’t. And the more certain I became about what I wanted in bed, the more my hang-ups started to fall away. Once, when I dyed my hair blonde, men would hit on me, calling me J.Lo. I loved that. Finally I was seeing myself the way others saw me. READ MORE: “I Had Sex For The First Time On My Wedding Night – This Is What Happened” The Figure Fixation “My fixation with my figure started as far back as junior school. As a gi...

Mindful eating: The key to effortless weight loss What if the rise in obesity was directly correlated with the rise in our modern distractions?  After all, we are more distracted than ever.  Never before in human history have we been eating with so many things competing for our attention.  As a result, we are eating more calories than we could ever need.  We can’t even eat a meal without checking our phone.  Simply reconnecting with your food and eating without distraction can result in eating less food, while being MORE satisfied. For years, I’ve wanted to write about my own weight loss journey on this blog, but there were so many things holding me back. For one, I don’t like to talk about adult weight loss, on a platform for kids.   It’s a struggle for me to balance my personal physical goals with parenting.  I don’t ever want my kids to see me “obsess” about my weight, or have them misinterpret my weight loss efforts as being unsatisfied w...

The  5:2 Diet , the  16:8 Diet , time-restricted eating—intermittent fasting diets are everywhere right now (and are being done by everyone; hi, Halle Berry and Jenna Jameson!). Now, there’s another version of intermittent fasting to keep on your radar: the ‘Eat Stop Eat’ diet. Intermittent fasting, in general, sounds both totally doable—and totally miserable. Basically, you’re instructed to go for long periods of time without eating (sometimes 24 hours, sometimes 16 hours, depending on your plan); but when you do eat, you can eat whatever your heart desires (within reason, of course; you probably shouldn’t go full-on Supersize Me). It’s that freedom from food-restriction that may pique peoples’ interests—but intermittent fasting of any kind isn’t necessarily right for everyone. Okay, what is the Eat Stop Eat diet? Eat Stop Eat was founded by Brad Pilon, who,  according to his website , came up with the plan while he was doing graduate...

Healthy, tasty snacks that are also under 100 calories – is that even possible? Yes, and the Healthista team have become experts in tracking them down – Marie Pan rounds up our favourites  Often, snacking can be the downfall to one’s weight loss progress. Whether it be mindless snacking (of lots of ‘healthy’ foods – there’s over 600 calories in that tub of hummus) or not realising how many calories are in, say, one protein bar (and there can be up to 400 since you ask), snacking can lead to a steep increase in your daily total calories. The trick is to snack smart. Many foods can be more calorie dense, so they have a greater number of calories in a given volume or weight. In simpler terms, this means that they can be high in calories but not at all filling. Therefore, focusing on low-calorie but nutrient-dense and high fibre foods allows you to eat a larger amount of food while consuming fewer calories. Snacks under 100 calories don’t have to be just leaves and cele...

For meat lovers, typical diets can seem like such a drag (load up on veggies, opt for healthy fats, limit big juicy steaks and bacon, etc.). So when a diet actually  encourages  you to eat as much meat as possible, it might seem too good to be true. That’s the case with the carnivore diet, the newest eating trend that claims to help you lose weight and get healthier in the process. But before you toss out your leafy greens and stock your fridge with cuts of meat, there are a few things you should know. Tell me: What does the carnivore diet entail? Get a load of this, bacon lovers: People on the carnivore diet eat only meat and animal products, and avoid all plant foods. “I call this a mono diet, which means you’re basically eating one food,” says Abby Langer, a Toronto-based dietitian and writer. “It’s meat, eggs, and coffee. Some people will eat dairy, but most believe that the lactose in milk makes it off-limits, because that’s sugar. No plant food...

“It’s been a year since I began my fitness journey… But I haven’t been alone, I recruited my whole family into it and it’s been amazing.” Being fit and healthy was never on Mpuse Bulane’s radar. Until she gifted herself with ‘fitness’ on her 20 th birthday on 17 th  March 2017. “Fitness was something that had been long overdue in my life. For the longest time, I’d been unhappy with the person I was becoming. The time had come for me to change my lifestyle for the better,” she says. READ MORE:   “I Went From Having A Two-Pack To A Six-Pack — Here’s How” After having taken the decision to make changes to her lifestyle, she recruited her entire family into it as well. “My mother got motivated and later signed up at the gym herself. We would work out together often. She’s also changed her lifestyle, which influenced everybody else in the house to do the same,” she says. The Change READ MORE:   “I Figured Out Some Really Cool Ways To Stay Fit While I Was Travelling” ...

I’ve never done a bikini shoot, nor have I particularly wanted to. These days, every second Cape Town Girl is posing for the ‘Gram on Clifton beach, looking all sorts of hot. But my butt has never been that perky, nor have my abs been that defined. But for this year’s Staff Fitness Challenge, the annual competition the people behind Women’s Health do to stay in shape in winter, I took up surfing . Every year, we also do a photo shoot for said challenge. This year, I was to be clad in a bikini. My moment had arrived! And I was woefully unprepared. My goal was to look something like… If I had this body, I too would be really happy to be friends with it. However, I am otherwise endowed and so in desperation, I consulted a part-time model friend (let’s call her Adriana, cz duh) about my lofty goals. She responded in kind: I pressed her for more and after a bit of back-and-forth gif-ing, she deigned to share her bikini-ready plan with me. I also consulted several websi...