Polished Lifting

After taking a whole week off from lifting, I am getting back at it. My allergies planned a sneak attack and took me out last Tuesday. All last week I was itching to go lift, but my body said otherwise. I was dizzy, congested and flat out couldn't breathe. The funny thing is that after a week off, I was feeling decent yesterday. The problem was that I didn't want to lift. After having a "vacation" style week, I had become complacent.
I LOVE lifting, and pretty much everything about it, but occasionally I'm just not feeling it. There are several ways I break through that mental plateau. Yesterday, it was all about getting out there regardless of what I ended up doing. I focused on my regular routine and added in some up-beat, high energy music. Some days I decide to do more, and others I just stick to the bare bones. The important part is getting to that higher level of activity so your endorphins kick in and remind you why you love being active.
How do you deal with working out when you lack motivation?

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends! Today I have a quick tutorial for some 4th of July nails that anyone could do. For this manicure I used OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress, Sinful Colors Blue by You and Sally Hansen in Timeless White.

You will need:

red, white, and blue polish

topcoat and a basecoat

make up sponge

q-tips

nail polish remover

a small glass of water (not pictured)



Start by painting your nails with a base coat followed by a coat of white. As you can see, the white does not need to be opaque.

Once the white coat is completely dry, wet your makeup sponge in the glass of water and wring out 80% of the moisture. Next, paint stripes of color onto your sponge so that the colors will be enough to cover your thumb nail. You can paint them horizontally like I did, or whatever direction you feel like.



Align the sponge over your nail and rock it back and forth, side-to-side until you get the desired amount of coverage. As you can see, I didn't use enough polish on the first nail I tried.



Reapply polish to the sponge after each nail and complete the rest of your nails to the desired opacity. At this point I decided to do my clean up in order to avoid smudging the topcoat. Take a q-tip dipped in nail polish remover, and gently touch up the sides and cuticles.



Wait until your nail polish is completely dry before using a topcoat to avoid smearing colors into the white areas. I used Poshe Super Fast Drying Topcoat.



If you wanted to jazz this up even more you could apply silver or gold stars before sealing with a top coat.



I am really pleased that my first gradient turned out so well. Are you rocking something festive for the 4th? Link me up and share the pretties!