Girls who wear the dress size 14 rated their general happiness higher than any other, with a quarter rating their mood as extremely happy.
More than 43 per cent of size 14 women also said they were as happy as they could be with their career, while almost a third say they couldn't be more content with their love life.
Second happiest were women who wear a size 12 followed by those in a size eight. The unhappiest women were those in a size 24, size 20 and size 22.
This is good news for Americans since the average woman in the US is a size 14.
But if you're not 100% happy with your current shape (or even if you are and want to get more fit), the fall issue of InStyle Makeover has a lot of handy workout tips. A few of the good ones:
- Strength training won't bulk you up like most people think. Using heavy free weights a few times a week or doing yoga can increase strength without drastically changing muscular appearance.
- Skip the sports drinks! Most of them are loaded with sugar. Instead, try milk, which builds muscle and burns fat. A lot of celebrities have also started drinking coconut water, which has become trendy for its hydration ability, electrolyte content, and other health benefits.
- Working out doesn't need to be hard. Walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes, then follow that with crunches or push-ups for a simple routine to stay in shape.
- Variety is important. This sort of contradicts the last point, but varying your routine (trade in the treadmill for the rowing machine, try free weights instead of push-ups) can help prevent your body from finding new ways to store fat and work different muscle groups.
Add Bananas with ice and milk and you can get a nice banana smoothie, which goes with the milk is a better drink thing. Of course you need a blender too.
ReplyDeleteThe banana ice cream sounds great!! I'm going to try that tomorrow. When I was little, my mother would freeze peeled bananas (put them in waxed paper first), and we would eat them like a popsicle. Yummmmm........
ReplyDeleteBlueberries (and berries in general) are also great for post-workout smoothies. The nice thing about them is you can get the frozen ones and they're just as good.
ReplyDeleteHowever, isn't the UK size 14 the equivalent to the US's size 12? (http://www.simetric.co.uk/siclothing.htm)
ReplyDeleteLooks like the gym and banana ice cream are in my near future!
I'd love to try the banana ice cream myself, but I broke our food processor! So if any of you try it please let me know how it is!
ReplyDeleteAnd I probably should have realized that UK->US sizes don't convert directly. D'oh! Thanks for the reminder!