HealthSmart Awards '08

And the winners are...

If there’s a proven way to get fitter, healthier and happier, we know you want to hear about it. And after 12 months of being bombarded with the latest health news, we also know you’re feeling a tad dizzy. Enter the Health Smart Awards ’08. We trawled through the advice, remedies and tonics of the past year and made a list of the items that live up to the hype, plus the people who inspired us to be the best we can be. There were also some notions and potions that were downright wacky, and these garnered one of our less coveted but very deserving Dumb Bunny Awards. If you change one thing about your health this year, make sure it’s on our list...

Smart Anti-Aging
It’s very exciting when we find a product that truly works, and HealthSmart beauty writer Elisabeth King believes Olay Regenerist Facial Treatment Mask ($39 for a pack of 5) does just that. “It’s a prestige product that outperforms skincare masks many times its price,” she says.

Smart Role Model
There’s something very attractive about a woman who refuses to be stereotyped. Chelsea Bonner, a former international size 14 model and founder of plus-size model agency Bella Models, is one. She believes many women sacrifice their health and happiness to fit a manufactured ideal of beauty, and she knows what she’s talking about. When Bonner, 33, was a teenager, her younger sister Hanna began a dalliance with dieting. Over time, the yo-yo dieting morphed into anorexia and bulimia; within four years, her adored sister weighed just 45 kilos. Hanna has since recovered and had a baby, but the ordeal changed her older sister’s attitude to body image forever. The curvaceous 1.76cm blonde tried dieting herself, but quickly realised that the effort to stay stick-thin wasn’t compatible with a fulfilling life. This realisation solidified when she worked for a Melbourne modeling agency in her early 20s; there she noticed a paucity of fuller-figured models on the agency’s roster. Bonner convinced her boss to put her on the books and a successful modelling career followed. At 28, after a stint in New York, she hung up her heels and opened her own plus-size agency that now represents 36 beautiful, voluptuous women in demand all over the world. “I’ve long been a passionate advocate for a more realistic portrayal of women in the media,” says Bonner. “It gives me enormous satisfaction to see these gorgeous women starting to get the appreciation they deserve.”
www.bellamodels.com.au

Smart Product
When johnson’s Holiday Skin was released back in 2005 there was nothing on the market like it. For years, women had searched for a foolproof way to apply fake tan without unsightly streaks and patches, and now here it was – a moisturiser with a touch of tanning agent that went on smoothly to build a natural, lasting tan over several applications. Competitors have crowded the shelves this past year, but we love Holiday Skin for leading the way, and showing us that it’s possible to look like you’ve had a break even if you haven’t left the house. Better still, it gives a healthy glow without burning you to a crisp.