Here's to good health!

It's been nearly 3 weeks since I started my new health kick. Notice that I'm not calling it a diet... In fact I've given up trying to loose the extra 4kg that I've been carrying around for probably the past 5 years, looooong ago. I tried and tried, but I've just don't seem to get my weight down, and that's ok.... It's of course good to know how much you weigh and to try and always keep your weight within 2kg of what I call your "happy weight". There is nothing worse than trying to shed 5-10kg (been there, done that got the T-shirt and definitely aint going back) but 1 or 2kg are easily manageable. Just a week of being "GOOD" and you're back!!!

But more than just the weight on the scale, I think your clothes are a pretty good gage for determining whether or not you have gained weight. Just pull that old pair of "skinny" jeans/trousers out of the closet from time to time and when they shout "O no" even before you get them over your knees you will know to order a salad instead of fries with your meal. Also, don't buy a size bigger when you go shopping - If it doesn't fit, don't buy it.

Prevention is better than cure:

I try to stick to my rule that "treats" (only when I crave it) ice-cream, chocolates, crisps etc. are only allowed on weekends. Unless it is a special occasion.

And when I feel that my favorite pair of pants are a bit tight I just cut my carb and sugar in take and try the NO carbs after 4pm rule for a week.

Having said that, it shouldn't only be about managing those unwanted kilograms. We have heard it all before...."eat more vegetables and fruit, drink water, consume less alcohol, don't smoke and the list goes on. There are so many books and internet sites dedicated to educating us about "what you put in is what you get out". And over the years I have read it all and tried it all. I've tried special supplements, received many different expert opinions, from online health plans to dietitians personalised diets, all attempts to achieve optimum health.

I am by no means an expert in any of this. But I have decided to go back to basics:

If there was something called "Good Health for Dummies" I would imagine that the fist thing they would teach you would be that you should eat 2 fruit and 5 vegetables per day. Now I know nutrition is a lot more complicated than "an apple a day keeps the Dr. away" . I have decided to try (very seriously this time) to change my lifestyle by just eating the required portions of fruit and veg. per day, rich in antioxidants and all the other good stuff that my body needs.

The problem with eating healthily is that it isn't always convenient. It is one thing grabbing an apple or banana but you can't exactly run out of the house with a bunch of spinach in your hands. And the leafy greens are what we need to eat more of. For a long time my vegetable in take consisted of capsicum, onions, zuccinni, eggplant, tomato, cucumber, lettuce and definitely not 5 portions per day, more like 5 portions per week.

I have been very good the past 3 weeks. I've been making sure that I always have fresh veg and fruit in the fridge, which forces me to use it before it goes off. Snacking on raw carrots and celery and making juice, blending carrots, celery and apple together.

After watching an episode of Oprah I decided to try the Dr. Oz green drink and I love it. There are a couple of different recipes on the internet but this is how I made it.

Green Drink (enough for 1 glass):

Blend together a hand full of Spinach, a celery stick, half a peeled apple and cucumber, fresh ginger and lemon to taste, add water and ice and voila you have a refreshing juice and you can actually taste the goodness.
















TRY IT!

According to the experts, eating your fruit and veg holds a promise of improved health and is also the best anti-aging prevention approach.

Take this quiz to find out if you are eating enought fruit and vegetables!

Still on the lip plumping...

I have been doing a bit of research on lip plumping products. There are of course many different lip pluming products on the market, incl. the wonderful lip fusion that I wrote about in one of my previous posts.

If you've ever used any of these lip plumping products, you would have realised that most of them contain either Cinnamon, Clove, Cayenne pepper or a combination of these spices. I decided to do a bit of research on "home remedies" for plumper lips.

I came across a lot of different tips: From, rubbing you lips with a wet cloth, scrubbing them with sugar and even recipes for making your own plumping lip balm by just mixing cinnamon, cayenne pepper into a bit of Vaseline.

I've decided to go with the easier suggestion of just rubbing clove oil onto your lips. I bought a small 10ml Clove bud essential oil from a pharmacy for approx $3.

Be WARNED though...in this case it is really painful to be beautiful!

Yes, it actually does work. So, for those of you with a high pain threshold, no taste buds (because it really tastes vile) go ahead and try it. It will definitely give you fuller lips.

So, if you are brave enough to try it, I would advise you to wait about 30 minutes for the oil to be absorbed, before you drink or eat anything and especially before you kiss anyone. Most men generally don't like to kiss us with stuff on our lips. So your man will definitely not appreciate a kiss that leaves him with a bad taste in his mouth and stinging lips.

Next I will try mix up my own lip balm, so watch this space for a post on that.

ALWAYS remove your make-up

The first rule we all learned (should have learned ;-) about wearing makeup is...to take it off! I can honestly say that I can only count the times I woke up looking like Marilyn Manson, gone bad, on my one hand. I have always been very good with that and it doesn't matter how late it is, I can't sleep without washing my face.

If you are guilty of doing this I would strongly advise you to STOP! Make a point of ALWAYS removing your make-up, especially your eye make-up. By removing your eye makeup daily you can actually avoid those early signs of aging. Leaving make-up on will result in those unwanted lines and wrinkles and can even cause blemishes/blackheads and impact your complexion.

Removing your eye make-up:

As I've mentioned in one of my earlier posts, you have to be very gentle when you remove your eye make-up, as that can also cause lines. The correct way to do it is to remove your eye make-up first, using a eye make-up remover and a cotton ball/pad. Then cleanse your face, avoiding the eye area. Unless your cleansers is suitable for the eye area. Have you ever checked that? Most cleansers are to harsh and dries the skin around the eyes out and that, (yes you guessed it) can also cause lines.

The "Ultimate beauty tool" commonly known as Q-Tip, Cotton Swab, Cotton buds or just plain old ear buds are of course the best thing you can use, to ensure you remove all the make-up from your eyes.

If you don't use Q-tips, why don't you do a little test:

After you've cleansed your face like you usually do, take a Q-Tip and put a little bit of eye make-up remover (some people prefer to use good old Vaseline, lotion or baby oil, which also works) and just trace your lashes and spin the Q-tip over your lashes and underneath your eyes. You will be surprised how much make-up still comes off! The best thing about using Q-Tips is that it is really gently on the eye and there is no pulling or hard wiping.

I'm sure we are all guilty of doing this too, but the next time you jump in the shower and start lathering up the face wash, washing and scratching under the eyes to get all the make up of, rather reach for the trusty Q-Tips, they really are the best!

Product Recommendation:

I've been using AVON Conditioning eye make-up remover for the past couple of months and it really works well. Another product that I really dread "finishing" because I probably won't find it here. Sniff, sniff...

The wonderful world of Make-up

When I was researching waterproof vs. normal mascara I came across a couple of forums that discussed this as well as the topic "why we wear make up, at all" and it got me thinking....This is my thoughts around it:

Even though I admit to being a "product junkie" I have never been one for a lot of make-up. I guess I owe that to my mom. My mom is a beautiful woman and she has never really needed to cake on the make up. A little bit of mascara and lipstick was all she ever needed. Even now at the age of 53 my mom hardly ever wears foundation or heavy eye make up.
















Left: My mom (Christa) with only mascara and lip gloss Right: More make-up

Having said that, I also remember my mom telling me that they used to use shoe polish as mascara when they were younger. I used to love watching my mom "doll up", doing her evening make-up, thinking and commenting on how amazing she looked with make-up. And like most little girls I also remember playing dress up and using my mom's make-up, even doing her make-up for her (okay, so she probably re-did it in the end). And then of course the very important milestone in any young girls life, the first time I got to wear make-up to a school dance.

Make-up has been around since the time of the Ancient Egyptians. "Everybody else is doing it, so why can't we" right? It is just one of those things we learned to do, just like brushing our teeth, cutting our nails or cutting our hair. And it has become something that most women (and even some guys) just can't live without.

I remember being so shocked when I found out that one of my friend's, (then) boyfriend had never seen her without make-up on. But then again, I don't think anyone ever did. This was more than 10 years ago and I haven't seen her for years, but I really hope she doesn't still do this. It isn't just bad for your skin but also very sad that someone can be so insecure and unhappy with themselves, that they end up hiding behind a mask, and that no one ever really knows what they really look like.

Another friend of mine once visited a mutual acquaintance of ours in hospital and when she walked into the ward she looked around the room but couldn't see her friend. She thought she had the wrong room so she went back to the nurses station to check but as it turned out she was in the right ward. The friend must have seen her walk out because when she went back in, she of course said "hey, why did you walk out, everything okay"? Truth is, she didn't have any make-up on and because my friend had never seen her without make-up (and she used to wear a lot), she looked straight at her but didn't recognise her.

Make-up sure is a wonderful thing though and I would hate to live without it. But, it should be used to enhance our features and not become a mask we hide behind. I prefer the "Al natural" look during the day.

"Less is more"

If you have to choose only 2 make-up products that you absolutely can't live without, let it be your mascara and a lip balm/gloss. And if you (like me) have the occasional blemish or 3 to try and disguise, try using a concealer rather than foundation.

Foundations, Powders, heavy eye liners, eye shadows, mascara and that kind of 'face painting' is only really required in the evening.

Normal vs. Waterproof Mascara

I need new mascara and have been looking for my L'Oreal Double Extention Mascara which I've been using for some time now.

I really like this product. It actually does extend your lashes and it feels soft and looks natural. I do find that it works better when it's new though. Don't know if it's just me but once you've used it for a while, even if you make sure not to use the extender side with the white mascara over the black and making sure that you wash all the mascara off before you re-apply, it still somehow gets discolored after a while and for some reason doesn't extend as well as a brand new one.

I have used other brands of more expensive mascara's like Almay, Estee Lauder etc. but found that L'Oreal, Maybellene and Revlon was just as good. But to my frustration I can only find waterproof mascara here (at least in all the shops I went to) and I HATE waterproof mascara.

I was in the shop again today and I was very tempted to just buy a waterproof one but I decided against it. I will first go to the mall where they sell the big houses like Clarins, Este Lauder, Clinique etc. and hopefully they will have normal mascara.

I did a bit of research on the Internet about whether or not waterproof mascara is actually good for you. I was happy to find out that I'm not the only person that doesn't like it (clearly the Indonesians love it though).

Why I don't like using waterproof:

Though I don't believe waterproof mascara is necessarily bad for your eyelashes I just find that it is a real mission to remove, even with a good eye makeup remover, you might think you do but, you never get it all off and your lashes are left dry and worse of all, I found that my lashes fell out.

After reading up on some tips and comments about using waterproof mascara I realise that I wasn't gentle enough and probably pulled them out, rubbing to hard, trying to get it all off. And that, I also believe causes wrinkles. The area around your eyes are super sensitive and you should never pull, rub or wipe to hard around your eyes. That is also why you have to use your ring finger to dab and not rub your eye cream in.

But like most things in life, it is a personal choice. But, I do believe that if you've always used waterproof you should perhaps just try using normal once. You will really feel the difference and I even believe you might decide to change to normal or at least only wear waterproof when you know you'll need it.

Because really: Unless your job is reviewing tear jerker movies, why would you need to wear waterproof every day?

Flax Seeds - It really does work!

I've never watched it before but 2 weeks ago I watched an episode of Nip Tuck when a beauty obsessive woman (I think they all are in this series) said that she had a new beauty secret, Flax seeds and that she cancelled her last appointment at the beauty salon because her skin has never looked better.

Being a beauty obsessive myself, I did some research and started taking flax seeds almost 2 weeks ago. I bought a packet of whole seeds which I asked them to mill for for me. I take 2 tablespoons of the milled flax seeds a day, either in yogurt, juice or sprinkled over my cereal. NOTE: Remember you should drink plenty of water after consuming flax seeds.

I can really notice the difference in my skin. I have less blemishes and my last break out (which usually happens once a month) was definitely a lot less.

I have also used flax seeds as a facial mask. Which is a natural way to cleanse the skin by normalizing oily, dry or blemished skin. My skin was soft and smooth.

Flax Seed Facial Mask
Ingredients
2 Tbsp. (30 ml) ground roasted flax
1 Tbsp. (15 ml) honey
2 Tbsp. (30 ml) wheat bran
¼ cup (50-60ml) hot water

Directions
Moisten face with luke warm water. Gently massage the mix on your face with a circular motion. Leave the mask on for 5-10 minutes. Ground flax works to lubricate the skin and relieve dryness. Rinse your face with water.

Besides the obvious "beauty benefits" of flax, nourishing the skin, hair, and nails, there is a lot more to these little brown seeds.

Flax, dubbed the "forgotten oil" has been rediscovered as true health food. Those who are nutritionally in the know continue to rank flax high on the list of "must have" foods. Besides being the best source of omega 3's, flax is a good source of omega 6, or linoleic acid (LA).

Flax seeds contain a high quality protein. Flax seeds are rich in soluble fiber. The combination of the oil and the fiber makes flax seeds an ideal laxative. Flax seeds contain vitamins B-1, B-2, C, E, and carotene. These seeds also contain iron, zinc, and trace amounts of potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, and vitamin E and carotene, two nutrients which aid the metabolism of the oil. Flax seeds contain over a hundred times more of a phytonutrient, known as lignin, than any of its closest competitors, such as wheat bran, buckwheat, rye, millet, oats, and soybeans. Lignins have received a lot of attention lately because of possible anti-cancer properties, especially in relation to breast and colon cancer. Lignins seem to flush excess estrogen out of the body, thereby reducing the incidence of estrogen-linked cancers, such as breast cancer. Besides anti-tumor properties, lignins also seem to have antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties.