ChristineConnor, Author at Christine Connor

This Time Last Year

Do you remember what you were doing this time last year? I certainly do! On 1st April I had left my clinic early for the day as I had a meeting with the school that evening. Luckily I did and luckily it was also on Monday, which is typically a quieter day, and my colleague had left work on time at 5.00pm. At precisely 5.10pm I received a call from the Centre Manager advising me that a car had just driven into my clinic. This is what I was fronted with when I arrived. In my short time as a small business owner I have certainly been presented with challenges that I never imagined and I’m sure none of us ever imaged the current scenario we are experiencing with the advent of the COVID-19. Whilst life may seem like a car crash for some of us at the moment, in…

Ageing Gracefully vs. Ageing Well

“Ageing gracefully” is often used as a euphemism to describe women who choose to grow older and embrace the natural signs of ageing without undergoing any aesthetic procedures to help them maintain their looks. We all know that getting older is inevitable and while you can’t control your age, you can slow the decline of ageing with smart choices along the way. Most of us are aware that looking after our bodies, including the foods we eat, exercising, limiting alcohol intake, reducing sun exposure and not smoking all has an effect on how fast or slow our body ages. So what about looking after your skin? Why is it that many people don’t choose to consider what they can do to slow the decline of ageing skin? Is it because we want to age gracefully? In my experience over the past year and in speaking with many of my customers…

What’s in a Peel?

Feel like you want one but don’t know where to start? That was me! I thought they were some chemical treatment related to cosmetic surgery that meant days of downtime and hiding away until my skin repaired. How wrong I was! Here I look under the skin of peels to share what I now know so you can understand how they can help improve skin health! In simple language, peels are a deeper exfoliant to remove the top a top layer of skin and help skin cell turnover. Dead cells are found on the exterior of our skin, are always flaking or washing off and are constantly being replaced by new cells. We all slow down as we age and the skin is no different – infants skin turnover cycle takes about 3 to 5 days whereas when you reach your 50s’ it can slow to 60 – 90 days.…

Why Should I [Skin] Care?

It’s a good question. If you had of asked me this 18 months ago I would probably have said the normal … wash, tone moisturise to keep you looking young and prevent ageing. Nothing more. And sure, the outcome of looking after your skin may be a more youthful appearance with less fine lines and wrinkles but there is so much more! So let’s shift the conversation from beauty clichés and talk about why you should [skin] care. I’m sure, back in the day as some would say, I learned in a science lesson that skin was the largest organ in your body. But I had truly forgotten this and the function it performs. The skin is like Tupperware for our innards – it holds everything in and provides an airtight, watertight and flexible blockade to the outside world as well as helps with temperature regulation, immune defence, vitamin production,…

When the Stars Align

Very early on in my career I learnt the importance of organisational alignment. What is organisational alignment I hear you say? By dictionary definition, an organisation is a group of people with a particular purpose and, alignment is a position of agreement. So in very simplistic terms, organisational alignment is a group of people who have a common purpose and shared beliefs. A beautiful example of organisational alignment in sport is a rowing team. The rowers must stroke a the same pace, ensuring they pull in the same depth of water. The team members all know the game plan for success, follow the lead of the coxswain (who’s role is to execute the race strategy and keep the boat on course), understand their role and rely on the skills, technique and commitment of their team members while the race is on. I want to challenge the current status quo by…

Emily Rovere

Emily and I connected in the Clinic over one simple saying – when I asked her what she did she said her goal was to help people become the best version of themselves. She runs a group called The Power Women Project which is a global community that prides itself on connecting & empowering women to be their best. The Community is a group of authentic, real women – that get real results with four pillars of focus – Health, Mindset, Freedom & Connection, proudly aligning with Herbalife Nutrition. Emily has grown to appreciate that the greatest gift we can give ourselves is self-love and living an authentic life. The feeling of connection, peace, freedom and faith in the person you are becoming. In saying that, as much as this is a gift, it is also equally one of life’s greatest challenges – to accept and love yourself for all…

Bootylicious Downunder

In my recent article about instant gratification, I talked about my weight gain since opening the clinic and set myself a goal to be under 70kg by 18 July. Well I thought it was time for an update … I’m pleased to say (if I must say so myself!) my skin looks amazing! However …. The past couple of months has been an absolute roller coaster and I have found it challenging establishing routine and discipline and in fact when I returned from holidays at the end of July I actually weighed 78kg!!! It’s not all bad news though! My dear friend Emily Rovere is helping me establish good eating habits again and by participating in her Body Transformation Challenge I was able to lose 4kg over the past four weeks and am now down to 73.7kg and already feel much lighter and brighter! And I have set myself a new…

Shona Saves Lives

Recently I was introduced to Shona Kim. Shona is a Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse who works at Monash Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), one of the four largest in Victoria that provides exceptional care and treatment for sick and premature babies. I asked Shona what is was like to work in NICU. To my disbelief she said she nearly gave it up. I was surprised at this as I thought it would be very rewarding caring for and tending to little babies needs and watching them grow and become healthy, eventually being released from hospital. Shona helped me understand, as with all specialist areas of nursing, there are pros and cons. Obviously one of the pros (which is the only one I was thinking of!) is that you can play a part in saving the lives of babies, which is very rewarding. However Shona highlighted that it is a stressful…

Paying it Forward

Recently on my holiday in Lombok I learned of an amazing story of Paying it Forward. Pictured here with me is Sonya. Sonya was born and raised in Kuta, Lombok. Her family were unable to afford to send her to school, so at 8 years old she started selling pineapples on the beach. At 15 years she started selling sarongs and did this for the next 12 years. Sonya was married at 13 and had her first child when she was 14. She now has eight children and is 34 years old. In 2010 she met Jessica, a then 19 year old on holiday from England. Jessica lent her money to start her own restaurant best known as …. well … Sonya’s! Sonya’s sells fresh fish and seafood off the boat that day and it is cooked in front of the restaurant on the BBQ. Sonya has repaid the loan…

Let’s talk about men!

Personally, I’ve always liked men – they are not complex, say it how it is, are able to forgive fast, don’t compete with each other, have an air of naughtiness and are generally always fun and easy to be around! But when I look at my client database there is one thing noticeably missing – MEN! This has caused me to ponder the question, why don’t men look after their skin? I think gender assumptions and societal influences play a big part. Even with the emergence of the metro male and men becoming more conscious of their appearance, most advertising in the skin health domain focuses on female beauty, youthfulness and anti-aging. Men seldom feature in advertisements, beyond razor blades and shaving creams, with marketing primarily targeting women. So, is it fair to assume that most men don’t care about their skin? Not necessarily … men are becoming more conscious…