Roll up, Roll up, It's the annual Countdown to Christmas "look after yourself" thread

[Helgathehairy]

It's 120 days to Christmas Eve!

Now that I've got your attention.

Call it what you will - Princessing, amazoning, Operation Renovation - the ideas behind the threads are the same. We want to look good for all those Christmas parties, get togethers and critical family members and we want to start building small habits into our days NOW so we're not trying to find something to wear when we should have left 5 minutes ago.

This will be the third Christmas thread but I can't take too much credit. I basically took most of the ideas from this thread.

The idea, in a nutshell, you make a list, it can be as long or as short as you like of small habits that will help make you feel better, look better, feel more in control, more prepared for Christmas.

The original princess thread had one list that everyone worked off of. I think it's better to personalise your own list but I'll post that list here for inspirtation.

1. 8 glasses of water a day
2. Exfoliating
3. Using some kind of teeth whitener
4. Using some kind of regenerative face cream
5. Intensive nail care (feet and hands)
6. Some kind of eyelash growth serum
7. The Shred / other intensive exercise
8. At least 2 extra fruit & veg
9. Healthy breakfast daily.

10. Hair oil (moroccan hair oil for eg, or kerastase etc) 11. No alcohol during the week 12. Daily vitamins 13. Body brushing 14. At least 2 servings of salmon or other fatty fish per week. 15. One early night once a week. Suggest 9PM. 16. Regular hair removal 17. Give up one naughty favourite item e.g. chocolate/crisps 18. No more fizzy drinks 19. DAILY body moisturising. 20. Warm water with lemon first thing in the a.m.

This is the shout out I did to see if anyone was interested the first year and there are a lot of list ideas in there.

As I said before (I think, this is getting long now) not everything on your list has to be style and beauty related. Other incarnations of this thread have included things like sorting clothes and decluttering in general. On my list I have an item to meal plan and make sure 2 days a week I'm prepared for the 5:2 diet. I'm also going to try and follow Organized Christmas so I'm not flapping at the last minute (although I have it easy, very small house and we go to the PIL for Christmas Day)

I'm going to include a few links now that are helpful. I'll get my list up soon, at the moment I just have it written in a notebook, and the notebook is in the same room as a sleeping baby so I'm not risking going in there!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/1771443-Fuck-I-look-like-a-middle-aged-frump
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/1406737-How-to-be-groomed

I thought I had more links than that but can't seem to find them right now! Not a bad start though. Will be back later with my list.

Well done those of you who have made a start!

70 does your Soap & Glory pink water work well as eye makeup remover then? I use coconut oil as a cleanser but find I need to take off my mascara separately.

As for my targets, so far I've laid off the crisps, drunk more water and continued to meal plan. I need to get on with the rest of it though!

What teeth whitener does everyone use?

newbie I'm wary of damaging my teeth and gums so I just use the whitening version of my normal toothpaste and to be extra sure I alternate that with a non-whitening one! Paranoid much?

Are we all ready for tomorrow?!

I'll start a new countdown thread and post the link here.

What's happening tomorrow?

I'm in!!!

I am on Day1 of no alcohol - I have been drinking too much and it is no good.

I am getting back on the bandwagon with beauty regimes (cleansing, doing nails, body moisturising, etc) and drinking lots more water.

I will make a concerted effort to eat cleaner and take multi vits

We should all be looking fab soon

smiles tomorrow is the official start of the Countdown to Christmas. We start with 115 days to go.

I start properly tomorrow. To prepare I have booked a dentist's appt for a check up and clean to get rid of stains. I also treated myself to a couple of nice products - body lotion etc to get me in the mood! My list is:

1. Cleanse, tone & moisturise (inc. serum and eye cream) morning & evening
2. At home DIY facial once a week
3. Dry body brush, body lotion & foot cream daily
4. Body scrub & foot scrub twice a week
5. Hair mask once a week
6. Do nails once a week
7. Drink more water
8. No alcohol 4 days per week at least
9. Cut down on sugar

10. Have at least 5 portions of fruit and veg per day 11. Cut out gluten 12. No snacking (or at least healthy snacks) 13. Exercise 5 times per week 14. More sleep - in bed by 11.30pm Now I just have to stick to it!

day 1-good luck everyone! Am having a glass of water with my black coffee. Will have fruit and yogurt once school preparation is out the way. Painted my nails a lovely nude colour last night which stops me biting them!

New thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/2173183-Its-the-Countdown-to-Christmas

Please post on the new thread only.

Good morning ladies... just place marking this morning but I want to join in please. I started my own princessing about 3 weeks ago, and was feeling great, lost 5lb! but then last week stinking cold put paid to the diet, injury has put paid to exercise for a few weeks...feel rubbish and want to make sure ill get back to it when I'm able. Previous threads have been inspiring but I never joined in before. Anyway will come back later to join in properly

Ha that'll teach me to rtft

Please can I join? I have always wanted to do better with myself, and I do do little bursts of effort, but then I give up and feel worse about myself than ever! Slightly restricted at the moment as we are skint, but so far I've got;

1. drink more water
2. start couch to 5 k
3. clear out wardrobe as it is bursting with stuff I'm too fat for!
4. paint/keep nails neat nails twice a week.

I will definitely have more. Whilst I'm here could I ask any of you for tips on how to manage my awful skin? It's very spotty and greasy. I do have a cleansing routine that I stick to (using spot products) but it makes zero difference. It's been bad since my teens, so over the years I've tried a lot of stuff. I wear make up to cover it but feel this is exacerbating things, any budget friendly suggestions would be really gratefully received

Should've RTFT!