My Fitnesspal

Ever since my roommate told me I shouldn't wear white on my own wedding because it would make me fat, I got into thinking. I don't consider myself fat, not even close but it's true that I gained a few kilos under the couple trap. Gaining weight in a relationship is quite normal. Cooking for my boyfriend mostly turns out to be less lean and healthy (he doesn't like green salad and complains about veggie meals) and going out to restaurants does its share, too. I don't like gyms but I'm a big fan of dancing (haha - who would have guessed that??) - I stepped it up to 4x2hours per week. Thus I don't think, I can handle any more sports, so it must be the food.

When I went to the US to study, I started counting calories for my yoga class because it was combined with a nutrition class once a week. And it really startled me how many calories I was capable to eat and I became more cautious... also because the US is famous for making big people. The homepage, the teacher recommended used to be really great because it contained all kinds of meals - of course, it was more tailored for the US market because it was a governmental project. It really helped me to restrain myself. But it has changed and somehow I wasn't able to give the homepage my measurements anymore. Looking for a better homepage, I found My Fitnesspal << click >>.

from today, including dancing and breakfast :D

It works just fine - you can type in almost all meals and it comes up with calories, carbs, fat, proteins, etc. I found out that if I want to lose weight, I'm only allowed to eat only 1200 kcal on my normal days - dancing for 2 hours increases my possible intake to 2000 kcal. It's nearly impossible to eat only 1200 kcal for me - I can't help but feel hungry. The good thing about this homepage is, everyone is able to define new meals / food with its nutrition facts or sports with the exact kcal consumption and all the other users are also able to use it. It is very easy and convenient. Since it seems to be quite famous,  a lot of German groceries are also included. For people with smartphones, you can even use an app. Besides the weight, you can also write down your neck, waist, hip measurements. Especially if you just start to work out, your weight might not change but the rest will because muscles are heavier than fat. For people who have difficulties to drink enough water, you can also keep track of your water intake ˆ.ˆ

from Saturday because it's complete...
incl. 2h hip hop and 1h zumba

I almost lost 2 kg within the last month - thanks to this homepage...

Shaun Evaristo

Shaun Evaristo is a professional dancer and choreographer from California. He is only 27 but has already worked with several major artists, such as Omarion and Vanessa Hudgens, and also major Korean popstars like Taeyang, Big Bang, 2NE1 and Se7en. Could you guess? I love precision combined with his musicality.

Edit:
Shaun just wrote down the story of his life as a dancer << click >>. So, I'll update my post from last year (July 2011). There are many things I haven't known before.

He moved to LA in 2006, trying to succeed as a dancer. LA has always been the Mecca of all dancers. If you want to take classes, the probability of finding the best teachers is the highest over there... It only took a month until he started teaching for Millenium Studios (again this is THE place to go). It's also the time around when youtube started to evolve and he became famous... That's how he got to Kpop and to travel internationally to teach all over the world.

He now has his own dance studio Movement Lifestyle << click >> but it's much more than "only" a dance studio... it's a concept - evolving from dance, combining art and artists through dance, choreography, design, filming.

It is because of him and other major dancers that dance is truely a profession nowadays. Something one can really do for a living. Please don't laugh - apparently, that's making him angry when someone doesn't take his job seriously...

We're still far away from that point in Germany but it's a great start...

Photoshooting

Last week, my dance group and me went to a photoshooting. Thanks to the photographer Florian Schmitt (http://www.photofloh.de/), I can show you some of the pictures. From the whole day, each of us could pick 2 pictures to be profesionally edited but we can keep all of the other small jpg-pics for our homepage, for Facebook etc. I haven't decided which ones I want to be edited... For the pictures below I did it myself using Gimp - just to make the color pop out even more and to cut some of the edges...

What makes the shooting very special is the photographer. He's sitting in a wheelchair but still can make great pictures. His wheelchair is also a bit like an elevator so that he can take pictures from all perspectives... It's very impressive!

photographer Florian Schmitt
(http://www.photofloh.de/)

photographer Florian Schmitt
(http://www.photofloh.de/)

photographer Florian Schmitt
(http://www.photofloh.de/)

Outfit #10 - Smooth Criminal

Although I'm not a big fan of Carnival, my group had a performance on "Rosenmontag" (In Germany it's on Monday, not Tuesday like Mardi Gras).

We danced to Smooth Criminal from Michael Jackson. Thus, here's my Outfit. It's basically only black and white. The hat is from New Yorker (5 EUR), the white button-up from H&M (15 EUR), the vest from Orsay, the black shirt underneath from New Yorker (~10 EUR), pants from the Dominican Republic, shoes from Deichmann.

The Nailpolish was P2 #650 Fever which used to be P2 #221 Charismatic.

For the Make-Up...
It was more on the heavy side because it was for the stage. Everything as to be so much more dramatic.

Here are the products:

1. Catrice Photo Finish Foundation #050 Deep Bronze on the outside of my face
2. Maybelline Jade - Mati Teint Make-up in Natural Beige - for the inner parts of my face like the T-zone and part of my cheeks
3. Jade - cover stick #24 (green corrects redness)
4. Maybelline - pure. cover mineral concealer #1 (nude beige).
5. Astor - Anti Shine Mattitude Powder (# 005) to set the foundation and concealer.
6. P2 - Bronzer - Sunshine Powder #030 (Bali Heat)
7. Sleek Blush - Scandalous
8. Essence - eyebrow pencil #02 (brown).
9. ELF - mineral eyeshadow primer
10. Essence Ballerina Backstage LE # 01 Dance the Swan Lake - Eye Soufflé
11. Essence Ballerina Backstage LE # 03 Grand-Plié in Black - Eye Soufflé 
12. Essence Eyeshadow #01 Chill Out (Shimmery white) for the inner corners of the eye and as a highlighter underneath the eye brow
13. P2 matte dream Eyeshadow #010 black attitude for the outer corners of the eye (also to set the eyliner later)
14. Astor Eyeshadow #740 Silver to blend 
15. MNY eyeshadow#625 (shimmery dark black) - to darken the outer corner even more
16. Catrice Gel Eyeliner #010 Black Jack with Jack Black to line my upper and lower lash line and doing a little wing
17. Catrice - All Round Mascara Waterproof #010 Blackest Black
18. Essence Lip Liner #08 Red Blush
19. Mac Creamsheen Lipstick - Brave Red

That just got me thinking - I need to buy the Mac Russian Red... Can you believe it? I can't find a Douglas store which sells MAC products.... *grrr*

Bachelorette plans - Update

As I mentioned before << click >>, my two soon-to-be-married friends are a bit complicated when it comes to their bachelorette party. The new turn is that we won't go anywhere together...

It's just like I thought, one doesn't really want to go on any trips. She rather wants to spend her bachelorette party with her friends in her new home. That's perfectly okay - BUT couldn't she have said so earlier?!?

Thriller Live (Musical)

My boyfriend got two tickets for the Michael Jackson Musical Thriller Live in Mannheim (Rosengarten) from his students, which is a very generous gift considering that one ticket costs 67.50 EUR (about 90 USD).

What we expected
At first, we were a bit afraid that everything would be in German because that's what they usually do in Germany - translate texts and lyrics for musicals like The Lion King, Cats, Dance of the Vampires but fortunately, they didn't. It was all in English.
We were also unsure about the plot, if it was about MJ's life or just a collection of his famous songs, which we of course expected to be played like Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, Man in the Mirror, etc.

What we got
There was no storyline but all the famous songs starting from the times of Jackson 5 to his later albums were played quite chronological (except the songs that were released after MJs death). The band was also on stage, mostly hidden by a huge gate with a big screen - so the music was played live (great band) - the singers also sang live.
The opening was a desaster. The dancing was bad and the singers had flat voices with a couple untuned tones. But the show became better with time.
There were a lot of costumes but they looked cheap. There are better Halloween costumes in the stores than what they got.

The singers
There were five lead singers - one little black boy who sang all the Jackson 5 songs, one female and four male singers. What they did for The Way You Make Me Feel was quite cool - the woman sang it and a whole bunch of guys followed her and were seduced by her confidence. We liked Sean Christopher the best because he had the most similar voice and also the moves and charisma, followed by the little boy who was just too cute. Actually, I think they shouldn't have taken any other singers... Unfortunately, the sound engineer did a really bad job adjusting the sound system for the boy - the high tones were way too loud which made it unpleasant to listen. But other than that I liked the singers.

The dancers

Michael Jackson always had the crème de la crème of everything in his cast - best musicians and best dancers. It used to be every dancer's dream to be on stage with the legendary Michael Jackson. And maybe it's because both my boyfriend and me dance for quite a long time but we thought the dancers were not as good. In general, they had no clue of Locking - and I mean, come on... If you choose this dance, do it great. Anything else is just embarassing.
Especially the ladies were horrible (for this musical at least). They might be better for something with jazzdance but they had no power and no style. Then, a couple breakdancers did some little tricks but oh boy... I don't even know where to start... Anyway, in the end I would say, there was a bunch of amateurs and only one single great dancer (the guy with the mohawk).

Conclusion

It was a nice evening with a lot of great songs but we don't think, it's worth the money. We would never have spent it on this musical. Anyway, there were a couple highlights. The singer Sean Christopher and the dancer with the mohawk were outstanding. If they had more people like them, it could be a great show. And if it wasn't for them, it would be quite devastating.
Looking at the homepage (<< click >>), I can't help but wonder if it was a cheap production. If you go to Cast, there are no unified pictures - colored, black and white, background in all colors. It's not very professional.

Nailpolish - MNY #342

I've got a gorgeous new nailpolish - the MNY #342. Wow, great name, isn't it?! Who's working on those names? But anyway, coral colors are just my new thing for 2012. It just reminds me of the summer and lifts my mood...

I needed two coats to make it opaque. I don't use topcoats if there's no nailart because I'm lazy ;-) Anyway, it's very long lasting - 3 days and no chipping, not even tip wear...

Sorry for my hands. As much as I use hand cream and try to eat enough veggies and fruits, it doesn't help too much... But the color in this picture is quite realistic.

Edit:
MNY is a sub-brand of Maybelline. It is sold in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Norway, Sweden and Netherlands.
http://www.mny.com/

Outfit #9 + Make-up

Finally, a cold weather outfit... It's normally too dark outside to take any good pictures but here we go :).

Since it's almost always warm inside, I like to wear layers over layers. This is a 3 layer outfit for the university. Underneath the black body from Tchibo, I wear another black spaghetti top and underneath the pants (Levis) two pairs of leggings... it's freezing outside... I found this cute little salmon colored pullover at Tally Weijl - it was reduced to only 10 EUR. They also had a deal of three for the price of two but I didn't like any of the others.

And here's a close-up to the make-up to my outfit. I'm sorry, there were no good close-ups for the eyes but they basically look like the other brown eye make-ups. I just switch between the products - the result is the same more or less...

 

The products:

1. Jade - cover stick #24 (green corrects redness)
2. Maybelline - pure. cover mineral concealer #1 (nude beige).
3. Astor - Anti Shine Mattitude Powder (# 005) to set the concealer.
4. Essence - eyebrow pencil #02 (brown).
5. P2 - Bronzer - Sunshine Powder #030 (Bali Heat)
6. Alverde Mineral Rouge #2 (Cherry)
7. Rimmel 1000 Kisses - Lipliner Pencil #014 (Wild Clover)
8. Mixed Lipsticks
• Alverde Lipstick #55 (Rosy Caramel)
• P2 - Pure Color Lipstick #059 (Copacabana)  
9. ELF - mineral eyeshadow primer
10. Essence Ballerina Backstage LE: 01 Dance the Swan Lake - Eye Soufflé 
11. P2 - matte dream eyeshadow #050 rose charm all over the inner eye lid and up to the eyebrows
12. Catrice - eyeliner pen - Kajal Designer #150 (Up&Brown) at the outer corner of my eye lids to darken it (smudging it with the tool on the other side of the eyeliner pen) - it's a great taupe color
13. P2 - matte dream eyeshadow #070 (grey pleasure) on top of the smudged catrice eyeliner pen (has the exact same color)
14. Catrice - gel eyeliner #020 (It's Mambo No. 2) to line my upper and lower lash line and doing a little wing
15. P2 - matte dream eyeshadow #020 (brown chic) on top of the gel eyeliner to set it and avoid smudging
16. Nivea - Extreme Resist Volume and 24h hold mascara waterproof #01 (black)

Oh and this is how I look, when I'm outside - fully packed with hat, ear warmers, tube scarf and jacket. That's why I don't ever bother what to do with my hair - it's messed up by the hat anyway.

No Go Lip Primer

The lip primer from u.m.a. dries out my lips which makes the lipstick look flaky - big NO GO... Besides it feels like foundation or concealer. I cannot recommend it!

Bye bye lip primer...

Price: 
ca. 2,50 EUR
 
Rating: 

0 out of 5 points

Bachelorette vacation plans

It's driving me nuts. My two best friends from childhood are goint to be married to their boyfriends and wanna make a bachelorette week-end in another city - actually, one girl wanted to have separate parties but didn't say it out loud. Well, we discussed about several destinations without ever finding a satisfying result. It was either too expensive, no flight was found, no hotel, no breakfast, too big, too small... What makes it even more difficult is us living in three different places so we can't fly together.

Finally, we at least found a date and location. I looked up the flights, hotels and transfers but no... 4 hours were too much waiting time at the Palma airport for one girl... After one week of no communication, I told them, the only important thing for me is to spend time with them and the location doesn't matter for me but I was tired of looking up flights and hotels. Thus I suggested Amsterdam as a last choice - and surprise, they all liked it... but THEN one girl didn't want to get up early and go to the airport alone and thus resuggested Palma again because she was now willing to wait but now the other one didn't wanna go there anymore because looking at the budget and time, Amsterdam would be a lot cheaper for her. 

It's so complicated *sigh*

I suggested to go to the airport together but I'm not sure if that was the issue... Maybe she doesn't want to go on that trip anyway and she'll find another reason against whatever city...

EDIT: Amsterdam it is... ˆ.ˆ yay good things come to those who wait...

Pacman aka Phillip Chbeeb

Pacman aka Phillip Chbeeb is a member of IaMmE Crew who won America's Best Dance Crew Season 6. He also participated in So you think you can dance - Season 5. He's not necessarily my favorite dancer but he certainly has talent. The following video (once more by Shawn Welling from Planet Funk Dance Studios) is genious - it shows dance as an art. There are a lot hip hop dancers complaining about commercial New Style but they forget that it's commerce that allow dancers to raise their salaries. The more famous the more money. It's that simple.