The time is right for you to bid farewell to the world of disposable dressing and sign up to the investment wardrobe. Shopping in the credit crunch can be fun and focused; don’t think of it as depriving yourself.

“This is the year to invest in an image consultant,” asserts Robyn Mooney, buyer for the iconic Quinns in Christchurch. An image consultant who can go through your wardrobe, cull and sell the things that aren’t working. Then you can invest that money in that one really good piece. Look for a perennial, a good designer piece, that you won’t get rid of next season. In Robyn’s 20 years in the fashion business she’s learned it is not the safe boring pieces that get the outings season after season, but the fabulous highlight pieces. With some looking for trends, pieces are still relevant long after their first season. So with this in mind a mix of “wow factor’ pieces and high-quality basics that will wash and wear forever. Buy less, but focus on the more expensive statement pieces and accessories to round out the keepers. Some women worry does this make my bum look big? So they need to be shopping with someone who can help. That’s how we differentiate ourselves. Update the classics with a skinny trouser that is perfect under tunics or a softer wide pant with a tucked-in chiffon blouse. Look for something gorgeous with a wee bit of an edge.

Sexy beautiful colours. You may live in black, but now it is the time to add the interest with colours. Stock up on fuchsias, purples or aubergines, or try the just-right-red, cobalt’s, even mustards. Black feels too ‘doom and gloom’, people want to walk out with colour. It’s that wow factor, people will look at you.

Wear time. The wardrobe planner’s rule of thumb is based on time spent wearing pieces: for a working woman, devote 60% of your wardrobe spend to investment pieces, 20% to basics and treat yourself to the trendy come-and-go items only with the last 20% of your budget (you have a budget, don’t you?)

Life cycle. How do you know when to buy a trend? A lifetime from runway to chuck-out bins is around three years for a dramatic trend. So, if you spot something that really hits your personal style, buy it when you first spot it and you’ll get a least three years’ wear of an on-trend update to your wardrobe. Then, if you must, retire it (not clogging your main wardrobe) for when it makes the inevitable comeback.

400 g small, waxy potatoes
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper
4 tbsp Pams vegetable stock
sugar
200 g salmon fillet
100 g spinach
1-2 tbsp roughly chopped fresh dill
2 tbsp sour cream

Boil potatoes in their skins for 20-30 minutes, or until soft. Drain, leave to steam briefly and cut into halves or quarters depending on size. Place in a bowl. Mix the vinegar, 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, salt, pepper and vegetable stock and add sugar to taste. Pour over the potatoes. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil and quickly fry the salmon fillet on both sides. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Take out of the pan and break into pieces. Mix the spinach, dill and salmon with the potatoes. Divide between 2 bowls and add a spoonful of sour cream to each.

Trish Buckman H.A.B.I.T.S. 12 Week Challenge is for everyone who requires motivation and professional support. Stop trying to figure it out for yourself and sorting through conflicting information. Work in a team while focusing on your own individual goals. H.A.B.I.T.S (Healthy Active Bodies In T Shirts) is a 12 week Challenge that is an affordable, informative and a fully supervised programme that provides a fun safe way to achieve your fitness/fat loss/wellbeing goals. Every workout is carried out with Trish Buckman Personal Trainer as a group with 4 or 6 like-minded people once a week for 1 hour. It also includes an educational lecture programme for 1 hour a fortnight with notes, menus, exercise and shopping hints, recipes and ideas for staying on track once the challenge is complete. This is accompanied with before and after photos and regular weigh and measure.

This is a competition and the winner is decided by the person who accumulates the most number of points per week by doing the following: Each is worth 5 points (max 30 points per week)

· Completion of food and training diary for at least 5 days of each week
· Following their exercise plan for at least 5 days of each week
· Planning shopping and eating nutritious meals for at least 5 days each week
· Record plenty of rest and at least 1 fun activity per week
· Progressive progress of fitness/fat loss/personal goals
· Attendance at each of the H.A.B.I.T.S fortnightly meetings

The WINNER receives a 2 hour Colour or Style Image Consultation worth $195 and everyone who completes the Challenge is invited to a FREE wardrobe planning evening worth $95 each – check out my blog www.trishbuckman.co.nz

What does it cost?

Groups of 4 – 6 people for a 1 hour workout once per week with Trish Buckman Personal Trainer $25 each per hour (can be paid each session) and H.A.B.I.T.S lectures for 1 ½ hours once a fortnight includes folder and notes $75 each. COMPLETE PROGRAMME $375.00 (12 workouts). So what are you waiting for, get your friends together and lets get started to get the body ready for summer.

It’s not just the wrinkling of the out skin that makes a 60 or 70 year old look older than that of a 30-something. It’s also what’s happening to the stuffing inside – when muscles start shrinking, bodies sag and posture droops. This doesn’t just effect how a body looks, but how it functions – ever-weakening muscles make it harder to get up the stairs or out of your chair.

That’s the bad news. The good news is there’s an antidote – strength training. It was great to hear Professor Hal Kendig, head of the ageing, work and health unit at the University of Sydney, recently telling media that if older women want to stay out of nursing homes, they should lift weights. He’s right. But wouldn’t it be better still if women got the strength message earlier, say, in their 40s when creeping muscle loss begins? It’s not like men don’t need this message too – they do. But women need it more because they generally have less muscle to begin with and get frailer faster than men. Women also put less value on strength. If you were to guess which physical feature would be high on most women’s wish lists, you can bet strong muscles wouldn’t be up there.  All our lives we learn we need good hair, good skin, good boobs and good legs, but strength? Not really our department.

Yet muscle is a real asset and building it has anti-ageing benefits for women, in how they look and how they function. Here are just some of the ways…

• Regular strength training helps your body look younger. It fights the sagging, ageing effect of dwindling muscle and gravity, and makes it easier to stay at a healthy weight. Cardio exercise is important, too, for both general health and weight management, but it can’t boost muscle in the same way as strength training, so you need a combination of both. And it’s a myth that working out with weights makes women bulky – women don’t produce enough of the male hormone testosterone to grow muscles like a man.
• Strong muscles make you less accident prone. We hear a lot about preventing osteoporosis, but hands up who’s heard of sarcopenia? It’s the medical term for loss of muscle and preventing it is as important as preserving bone. After all, it’s the unsteadiness caused by dwindling muscle strength that leads to falls – that lead to fractures.
• Regular strength training helps prevent diabetes. To get the link between muscle and diabetes, it helps to know that muscles soak up blood sugar to use as fuel. The more muscle you have, the more blood sugar they take up and the lower the risk of high blood sugar levels that lead to diabetes.
• Stronger muscles give you more energy. How’s this for sad news? A study of 34 to 58 year old women by the University of Michigan found that those who’d lost around 2.5kg of lean muscle walked more slowly and had less strength in their leg muscles. These women were hardly ancient, yet muscle loss was already eroding their strength.

500g pumpkin, chopped coarsely
2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
4 small brown onions (320g), halved
2 green onions, chopped finely
2 teaspoons oil
800g veal rack (8 cutlets), trimmed
1/4 cup (60ml) orange juice
500 g asparagus, trimmed
1 tablespoon finely grated orange rind

Preheat oven to moderately hot (200*C/180*C fan-forced). Place pumpkin, brown onion and half the oil in large shallow baking dish; toss to coat vegetables in oil.

Combine remaining oil with juice, rind, mustard and green onions in a bowl. Place veal on wire rack over vegetables; coat with mustard mixture. Roast, uncovered, in a moderately hot oven for about 40 minutes or until veal is cooked as desired. Stand for 10 minutes.

Boil, steam or microwave asparagus until tender; drain. Serve veal with roasted vegetables and asparagus.

To celebrate the new “Trish Buckman” brand I want to offer you the opportunity to

COLOUR WITH CONFIDENCE, STYLE WITH FLAIR, WARDROBE PLAN & ACCESSORISE

Are you ready to be the new you?  All three image consultations for $585.00.  Book before the end of May 2010 and receive $100 worth of May Kay skincare cosmetics OR book any one of the three consultations for $195.00 before the end of May 2010 and receive $50 worth of Mary Kay skincare cosmetics.

For more information please go to the www.trishbuckman.co.nz

enjoy good things…