De-bloating Tools for Corseting!

Mint: Aids in digestion by promoting the movement of food through the digestive track. Just put some in water or drink mint tea.

Calcium: Causes the body's cells to burn the fat instead of holding on to it, and is most absorbed with food's containing vitamin D, such as milk in small amounts.

Peanut Butter: Free of added sugar, small amounts like 2 tablespoons a day is great for a vigerous digestive system because of the niacin content. 

Asparagus, Cucumber, Watercress, Watermelon: All great diuretic foods, high in fiber and a lot of water, which flushes out your system of toxins held in your fat causing you to bloat.

Dandelions: Ranked top 4 for the overall most nutritious veggie, not only are they great for you the weed acts as a diuretic and releases both water and reduces gas. Eaten in a salad or made into a tea, make sure they are chemical free!

Coconut Water: Has potassium which flushes sodium from the body. Sodium retains water and causes bloating. Make sure there is no sugar added and replace your high sugar soda with it.

Avocados: Have more potassium than bananas and also are high on the good fats your body needs.

Grapes: Helps to cure a sweet tooth, usually caused by the body lacking natural sugars which we often fill with processed sugars that cause our body to swell.

Pineapple: Contains an enzyme called Bromelain which aids in digestion, great to eat after a meal.

Yogurt, Keefer, Kombucha : Look for no or low sugar content that has live and active cultures. Not only do these have major health benefits but they aid your gastrointestinal system in digestion and to absorb your food properly.

Fennel Seeds: For fast relief this is a bloat blaster, so either have as a tea or eat them directly on foods or with cereal or yogurt. The Fennel allows your muscles in your digestive track to relax and allows trapped gas to pass.

Cutting out drinks such as soda or beer will help greatly.

Avoid sweeteners at all times! Use honey or agave nectar

Too little fiber, fluids, and physical activity can cause constipation that can result in bloating.

Having Allergies to wheat and Lactose Intolerance are common factors of bloating, to find out if this is a problem for you ask your doctor it takes just a simple test.

Eating too fast can cause you to swallow air, also the more you chew your food the faster the body can break it down.

 

Drink Plenty of Water!!!

My visit with Tess Munster coming to Orchard Corset

Bored in bed one night and scrolling through the popular page on Instagram, obsessively refreshing and hoping to find some sort of inspiration in the hundreds of images I was shuffling through, I stumbled on one lovely, and inspirational women's page.

Her name.. Tess Munster: Her message.. "Eff Your Beauty Standards"

Immediately after checking out her bio, I knew I loved this girls attitude and it was exactly the kind of confidence Orchard Corset needed to present to our Big Beautiful Ladie's to kick any last stereotypes or negative thoughts floating around, poising their brain with the idea they too, can't look just as sexy in a corset as anyone else!.... When in fact, you can! This woman had one message which was determined to spread, to love yourself shamelessly, which has turned into an entire online movement today, known as #EffYourBeautyStandards. This does not just pertain to over-weight individuals but to our society as a whole. To love ourselves so we can appreciate and love one another with the same respect we have for ourselves. And what a beautiful message this is, and one with my full support. Tess was voted into the top ten Plus-Sized Models of the year by Vogue earlier this year.

Shortly after getting into contact with Tess and getting her into a couple of corsets From Orchard Corset, I was soon to be amazed. Our larger sizes started flying off the shelves and the sudden boost of confidence from our plus sized fans rang on our social media sites.

Three months later, I had the privilege of hosting Tess Munster for three whole days and showing her around the Washington Warehouse, official headquarters of Orchard Corset...

For those of you who are our loyal fans, this is where the magic happens everyday! 

On a Thursday night, I was eagerly SeaTac Airport bound to pick up Our Special Guest, Tess, which I had recently spilled to our fans hours before through our various social media sites, and boy were they talking! After months of preparation and hours making sure that for this brief visit everything went accordingly, it was finally here! As I approach the carrousel of baggage working it's way around the maze, the first thing I notice about Miss Munster is that amazing palette of reds and oranges cascading down from the top of a head that came to about nose level on me. A colorful personality began to emerge as well, learning very quickly we were both social butterflies, and we continued to fill my car with stories for the next three hours, home to Wenatchee.

Being greeted by the owner Jeff (above), Tess was welcomed to the warehouse and taken through the land of "corset heaven" as she referred to it on her Instagram. We were able to collect a ton of beautiful imagery of Tess down at our local train tracks to give an edgy-punk feel. Having never done this kind of theme, the pictures turned out great and have been getting very positive response from fellow O.C. followers. Here is the video to check out this fun photoshoot (coming soon)!

I also had the privilege of being able to Interview with Miss Munster, and find out exactly where all this personality and self-drive came from. Come to find out, Tess hosts a wonderful story, and one worth taking a few minutes to watch, here is the video. Body image issues and bullying have been a very large part of Tess Munster's life, and she has learned to direct the negative into being very positive for not only herself, but to many others that struggle with similar issues.

Orchard Corset had a fantastic visit with Tess, and it was a pleasant hosting experience for me. We hope to have her back in the future, and keep her and her fans rockin' corset's from Orchard Corset all year round!

Also got to meet Glamorous Plus-Size Model Kerosene Deluxe (pictured above on the Left) in Seattle while we were at Pike's Place Market. She was an absolute doll, and Orchard Corset will hopefully be working with her in the near future, because she looks Fantastic in a Corset!

Our travels took us to many stops in Washington State, and made quite the fun little road trip. Tess was gone, but the painful throb of my overactive cheek muscles from the permanent smile and discontinuous laugh I had for three days straight, was certainly not going anywhere, anytime soon. Tess Munster is a fabulous role model for those that are struggling with their own confidence issues and she continues to "shape" our world, loving every-BODY, one body at a time.