Tag: beauty

Challenge Accepted Day 11

I’ve got to say I didn’t feel like writing today. It has been one of those days and I am in one of those moods! I got up ready to start a new day and found myself finishing it on a not-so-high note. My workout (cardio) was fabulous! I enjoyed it and only needed Tania’s assistance on one thing! Yay me! I even enjoyed myself whilst doing it! 

Hubby left shortly after I finished the T25 workout and I was ready to have a quick run before heading out to a potential school for dear son, with my neighbour at 10. The phone rang just as I was getting set up to run and it was my brother-in-law giving me an update on the situation there – the water has risen to its highest peak and he is good as long as the don’t open the floodgates from another dam (that would put him plum out of luck), I’m not sure why there’s talk of opening another gate opening from a dam but I guess the water is that high that they are looking at every option, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed that there is no need to do so. But we’ll take a victory for now! He is safe, our niece is safe, his house is safe, hubby’s truck is just fine, his car is just fine and all goods contained within the house/garage are just fine too! Let’s hope it stays that way! 

Ok, so got off the phone to him and thought I’d better have a shower and get ready as it was 9:15, phone rang again, it was our realtor (Korea is weird, but when you’re an expat, your realtor pretty much takes care of everything for you – bills, parking tickets, you name it) anyway, she said the men working on our patio needed access to water and electricity so could I open the upstairs door? Fine, no probs. Then they needed something on the floor to protect it so I found old towels and said they would have to figure the rest out, looked at time again, crap, need to rush now. I race around to get ready, hubby calls, I fill him in on what his brother has said. Get the son ready and run over to the neighbour’s house because we had talked about 10. Well, I guess it was only me who thought we had plans. Because she wasn’t home. She got back just after two with her husband and they had gone for a drive and visited a naval station and had a lovely day out. Just me then! Weird. 

Tried to call the doctor to get my son in for an appointment as we think he is developing asthma because of the pollution here. I have exercise induced asthma (yes, I know that’s weird too, but it only happens if I really exert myself and because I got fairly fit in Hawaii then Colorado (where the elevation is over a mile above sea level) I’m pretty good with it, I know what my triggers are and when I need to slow down, but it’s a bit scary to think he might have it because of the dirty air here. Honestly, it’s awful! The smells, the pollution! Yuck! I ordered an air purifier today and an infuser because I need to do what I can to protect my kids and apparently it’s only going to get worse over the next few weeks when the red dust comes in??? Seriously? So, I’m also keeping an eye out for a couple of air purifiers on secondhand websites here. Back to the call to the doctor; I ask for an appointment, not urgently, but sooner, rather than later and was told that the next available ‘same day’ appointment is on March 22nd but I won’t be able to book it until March 21st, right…. All makes perfect sense to someone!

Then, it was quite a nice day, no wind, so I collected all my painting stuff and about 30 minutes later, had everything set up outside ready to go, it was as I took my seat, the wind decided to blow and blew my canvas away! Then knocked over my water cup holding my brushes then calmed down for a bit, just long enough for me to put a first layer down before blowing again, this time blowing my wet canvas onto me! Crap! I possibly swore a little. The small boy then decided it was the perfect time to go number two. 

“Mummy, can you wipe my bottom?”

Oh, your timing is perfect child! Just perfect! Then another neighbour’s dog got loose and came running to our fence where my dog went ballistic knocking over all of my paints! Some would call it comical, something the three stooges might have gone through. The painting really wasn’t going so well anyway and clouds had come over my once beautiful day, so I proceeded to move everything back inside, only to see the time was nearing bus pick up. Needless to say, my kitchen is filled with painting stuff, because upstairs is filled with all the stuff from outside where they are re-tiling, and we have too much stuff for this little house as it is and now I have to somehow make dinner but I would really like to accomplish something with my painting, but I think I’ve taken on more than I can chew and I’m frustrated and just plain worn out! 

  
On the up side. My face actually looked a little bit better for the first time this morning. I’m not going to lie, I was starting to wonder if the products were actually going to do Anything this time round, when I saw a small glimmer of difference! I know, I know, you want an up close and personal photo, you’ll get one, I promise. I just don’t know when, as I want you to understand the small changes that are taking place but before and afters only look dramatic when you see huge differences! So you may just have to wait. Patience is a virtue and all that! I tell you what, I’ll even post a picture of my painting if it ever comes out ok! 

That’s all for me on this St Patrick’s Day, I’m off to drink some green wine (just kidding, can’t do it!) some red wine and see if grapes can assist in my art endeavors. Ciao for now! 

Challenge Accepted Day 7

Good Sunday to you! How is it Sunday night already? Feels like my weekend flew by as per usual! I hope you have made the most of yours. I’ve been doing quite a few different things this weekend, trying to really get into my new life here as well as my want to treat my body somewhat better, nonetheless, I have an Aussie friend who lives in England and has been drinking a turmeric hot drink for a very long time, she has told me about it before and I’ve thought about making it but never actually gotten there, until today. I made the base for it late last night then drank the turmeric latte this morning. It was actually quite lovely. I can assure you, I was very skeptical given the ingredients and I over compensated on the honey, try it with only one teaspoon full of honey before you add a second. I also used regular ground turmeric (that was all I had) but I did have organic coconut oil so used that. No non-dairy milk either, so regular cows milk it was. I’m going to look next weekend at Costco to see if they have any cashew milk so I can just drink it with this drink, but I wasn’t too concerned, it was really the health benefits of the turmeric I was looking for. It is also known as golden milk or turmeric tea and you can find a great recipe for it here:

http://kellybroganmd.com/so-long-coffee-hello-turmeric-latte/

And here’s my cup this morning:

  
There are plenty of recipes out there though and as I was searching for my cardamom this morning, I came across ginger and thought oh I bet that would be a lovely addition to it also, I think the key thing is to get the incredible benefits of the polyphenol antioxidant curcumin that is known to help many different ailments and what is also the key factor in giving turmeric its golden colour. 

Whilst on my turmeric kick, another recipe came across my newsfeed for turmeric toothpaste (isn’t it weird when Facebook reads your mind like that). Apparently Indian dentists swear by it so I thought why not give that a try too? Here’s a link to that recipe:

Turmeric toothpaste
  
It doesn’t look pretty, but it didn’t taste too bad when I used it this morning, I followed it with my regular toothpaste brushing as I didn’t see the harm in using both methods either, so we’ll wait and see. I will take my 1 week photo tomorrow smiling so we can look at how my teeth are in another week after using this method. 

Okay, let’s get to talking about my favourite thing I’ve done today, macro exfoliation! Rodan + Fields have this amazing tool called the Redefine Macro Exfoliator and I LOVE it! It is honestly the best 5 minutes of my skincare regimen all week, especially when I haven’t done it in over two months! Anyway, I think last Monday I had mentioned that I had found the empty box but not the tool, well I found the tool a couple of days later and had to charge it up so I decided Sunday night was going to be my macro night. 

How does it work? Well it’s this handheld personal tool (it’s the main photo for this article) that works using some great patent-pending technology called DOC-SMART, where the level  and length of time varies depending on which part of your face you are exfoliating. It is basically like your at-home microdermabrasion but with med spa quality results and all for a fraction of the price. It is a big investment to start with, retailing for $279 + tax & shipping but it is so worth it in my humble opinion. I seriously love this product. I used it tonight and my face feels amazing, I almost took a photo of all the yucky dead skin and crap that came off my face into the filter but I couldn’t bring myself to, it really wasn’t a pretty site! Instead I took a couple of close ups for you of the diamond tip head and the little picture on it that shows you how the DOC-SMART technology works, she literally shows you where to go next with the force of the exfoliation adjusted to the sensitivity of that area of your face and neck. I do go against her recommendation when it comes to the neck and I go with upwards strokes rather than downward and then I switch it to manual to use on the back of my hands every now and again, and it really shows when I do.  Everything just feels much softer and lighter and happier! 
 
  
Now onto the T25 side of the challenge, I must say that both hubby and I really enjoyed the stretching today! It was amazing how it felt to relieve some of the tension in your body after working it so hard! I have never done that side of it before and I should have, it definitely gives you hope that the week to come will not be anywhere near as hellish as last week! I did want to do more exercise today as I felt I was slacking off a little but I also knew my body had worked hard all week and it was ok to give it some rest today. Our original plan was that the  family would bike ride through the rice paddies but it was overcast and cold and hubby hurt his back last night so it just seemed like the best idea was to hang out with each other and watch movies (well the kids and hubby did this afternoon whilst I pottered about). We had a really nice pot roast beef for dinner tonight but I’m feeling a bit blah right now as I definitely ate too much! And I have to do a personal weigh-in in the morning 😩 oh well, them’s the breaks right?

Have an amazing day/night, no matter where in the world you are and I’ll see you on Monday for another great week of challenge fun! 

Challenge Accepted Day 6

Super short and sweet today. My skin felt amazing this morning when I did my morning regimen, so my break from the Amp MD roller did me the world of good, it also felt quite lovely and velvety, so I’m definitely happy with how it’s feeling. I’m also looking forward to doing the macro exfoliation tomorrow night, more on that to come.

It warmed up here to a balmy 3C so it was actually warm enough to go for a quick run with my darling eldest daughter (who did nothing but complain the entire time) & my crazy, lovable puppy dog, you know the ‘golden doodle’, who thinks that anything short of a three minute mile is slow, therefore pretty much ripped my arm out of its socket throughout the run! Anyway it was a short but sweet run, maybe 3/4 mile, I’ll have to borrow hubby’s Fitbit equivalent and see what it says as far as distance goes. It was a day off from T25 (YES) so my body has been thanking me all day! 😜

I went out with the family and did some grocery shopping and finally got some potting mix so I could repot some plants we bought when first got here. Cannot wait until it starts really warming up and we can spend some more time outside. I also started a little project I saw on Pinterest, spray painting any tin cans we use so we can line them all up on the railing interspersed with spaghetti sauce mason jars with tea candles in them so we can give a little bit of colour and life to our little patio (photos to come when that project is finished). I think it will look really cute and if it means I can upcycle and stop the copious amounts of waste we seem to be putting out along with everyone else here in South Korea, then that will be something. I’m not going to be taking any of it with me when we leave but I can always just try to give them to someone else can’t I. It’ll be really nice to see it all come together. 

  
Alright, it’s pizza night tonight, I told you guys I wasn’t dieting right? I’m too old for that, but I do need to get into shape again so that’s the whole point of this. Normally our pizza night is Sunday night, but we didn’t have a roast in the freezer so we did a swap (I bought a roast today) so I can get the roast on early tomorrow in the crock pot so it literally melts in your mouth. We’ll do a salad with pizza I think too. Otherwise, it’s all about trying to put this never-ending mess of a house together. I feel like we take two steps forward and three steps back on some days! I just want everything to have a place and I have done such an amazing job of throwing so many things out and still the crap seems to be everywhere! Yes, my hoarding problem has had to come to an end and I’m pretty sure I’ve already gotten rid of at least 400 pounds of extra stuff and I have at least another 200 pounds ready to sell at a garage sale in the near future! So everything is a big thumbs up from my hubby at the moment. Again, we’ll have a deep & meaningful (D&M) about my real hoarding problem that I’ve had to deal with over these past few weeks on another day. 

We are going to go for a family bike ride tomorrow through the rice paddies, so that will be really fun! I’ll make sure to take some photos so you can get an idea of what I’m seeing. Have a great night/morning, whatever the time may be in your neck of the woods! 

Challenge Accepted Day 3

So, I have to start today’s blog with the funniest thing that came out of my son’s mouth this morning; but you’ll need a little bit of background information first. In Australia, doodle is another term for penis. In America, doodle means to scribble on a piece of paper (same thing in Australia) but it is also the name given to a dog that is a mix of two breeds, one of them being poodle. We have a dog who is half poodle, half golden retriever, ergo, a golden ‘doodle’. I have used the name doodle interspersed with penis when discussing my son’s private bits with him ever since he was a baby (he’s now 3.5). He walked into the bathroom this morning as I was about to get in the shower and said, “Mummy, I can see your doodle!” Giggle, giggle. I then told him I didn’t have a doodle because I was a girl, his response: “I can see your golden doodle!” OMG! I cracked up! I am still laughing as I write this down and it hurts! 

Why does it hurt? Because T25 is kicking my butt! I so didn’t want to do it today! And my run was very slow and I’m fairly sure I looked like Eddie from Ab Fab as she attempted to run and I use the word attempted very definitively! Seriously, everything is sore today! As I was doing total body circuit, I wanted to beat every last one of those buff people, including Tania and her ‘I’ve just had a baby and I’m still fit and kicking your arse’ body! When is my day off? Oh crap, not for a little while and if memory serves me correctly, there’s a double workout on Friday! NOOOOO! 

Let’s talk about something a little more fun than that now, let’s talk about needling! Never heard of it? Have heard of it, but not really sure what it is? Have had it done? Well I’ve not had it done but I’ve heard about it and the amazing results that can be achieved after 4-6 micro-needling procedures. Unfortunately, each procedure costs anything from US$250 – $1000! You also bleed after having it done, then there’s the risk of infection when using products that haven’t been tested as post needling serums. Rodan and Fields offers their own, at-home version of a needling tool. It is called the Amp MD and I have one. It is part of the treatment I am using over the next 57 days. Every night I am rolling the Amp MD over my face & neck for approximately 1 minute, followed by the night renewing serum or ‘liquid velvet’ as I like to call it. The Amp MD feels a bit weird at first, and you should be delicate when using it for the first time and follow the guidelines as to how to use it very closely. I started on Monday night and am incorporating it into my nightly routine. I have honestly seen some incredible before and after photos, and I want some of those results, hence my dedication to giving this full commitment for a total of 60 days. It sounds scary, I know, but it’s not, it’s just weird. But when you get to a certain age, you want results, well I do anyway, without scary, invasive surgery type treatments!
So, here’s cheers to getting fabulous results! By the way, lunch today was similar to yesterday, though not as good as I didn’t have any avocado! Insert sad face here! Here’s a photo of it for you to enjoy anyway, just in case you’re hungry right now 😉

  
I didn’t sleep much again last night but this time it was because of silly Vonage! Don’t get me wrong, I love it, we’ve moved all over the USA and now the world and still have our same Texas phone number, but it also means people call it thinking we are on Texas time zone, so the first time it rang at 0140 local time with a recorded message telling me I’d won a cruise, yes ok! Sure! The second time it rang it 0530 telling me Fedex was delivering a package today that needed a signature! Yes, that’s great, unfortunately the package we are expecting isn’t coming to our house here in South Korea, it’s going to my Brother-in-law’s house, and I don’t have a pen on me when it’s 0530 to be able to take note of the tracking number and what to do if no one is there. Most people aren’t home during the day, they do this thing called working. Anyway, I guess they attempted delivery and he wasn’t home so they’ll attempt delivery again tomorrow and again he won’t be home, so we’ll continue to play this game of cat and mouse until Fedex can give me the tracking number again, when I’m in a state to receive it. It’s an important package too and one we’ve been trying to get sent to us here in South Korea ever since we found a house, but obviously there are some anti-us-receiving-it, forces at play, and it’s not going to happen any time soon! 

Alright, I’m calling it a day as my iPad has gone into funky slow motion mode and looks like a ghost is typing on it. I think that’s a sign for me to stop! Have a great day/night, wherever you are! 

Challenge Accepted! 

So I’ve been thinking about the direction my next blog should take and I’ve had numerous ideas but it just hit me when I was in the shower; I’m going to test products (one of which I actually sell) & let you follow my 60 day journey. 

I’m a Rodan & Fields Consultant and I’ve lost my vibe over the past couple of months because we’ve been in the middle of a massive relocation from Colorado to South Korea, I’ve had three kiddos to take care of in between the big move, we went on a cruise, my hubby has been away for a fair amount of the packing side of this move, we had Christmas in between, I said goodbye to quite a few wonderful friends, and we’ve only just had our household goods arrive here (with my R&F products included). The other challenge is an exercise challenge. I was a heavy smoker for a very long time only giving up smoking forever when I found out I was pregnant with baby number 3! Exercise was something I really didn’t do. I put on a lot of weight with my only son and ate and ate and ate! When he finally came I was bigger than I could ever remember being and I knew it wasn’t going to just drop off me given I was that little bit older now (unfortunately age has a way of slowing down all things weight related). I started to run and found I really enjoyed it. I rigged up a stroller/carrier to hold the baby and my 4 y.o. little girl so I could run after walking my eldest DD to school. We lived in Hawaii right near the beach so it was very easy to enjoy my daily run! I decided I wanted to take part in the Great Aloha Run and I did, eight & a half months after my son was born and I averaged 9.05 (or thereabouts) minutes per mile for the 8 mile run. It was wonderful! I was so proud of myself. I did another run prior to leaving Hawaii and averaged just over 7 mins per mile on that one. Then we moved to Colorado. 

Hills became part of my run. I continued to run but not as much as I used to. Then one day the wheel of my stroller came off as I was running and that brought an end to the outdoor running. We didn’t want to spend the money on another jogging stroller given our son was now almost three so we bought a treadmill instead. It wasn’t the same, but it helped. Unfortunately though, we went to Australia for 5 weeks and I didn’t run as much. We came back and found out we were moving so I repaired and renovated and packed and sorted and ran less and less. Then winter hit and I ran less….. and less. Finally I just stopped with only an intermittent run on the treadmill. We went on a cruise on January 2nd of this year and I did run in the onboard gym on the boat but honestly it makes you feel queezy when you run on a treadmill in a gym and look at the water going by. And it was too cold to use the outdoor track. We came back, packed up, moved to hotel after hotel and started eating out every day. Running went by the by and here I am in very cold South Korea with my newly arrived treadmill.

Where am I going with all of this, where does Rodan & Fields meet running? Well, I am challenging myself to 60 days of running 5 days/week & doing some sort of exercise program (probably a Beach Body program like T25 or Insanity) & to taking the 60 day Rodan & Fields Redefine challenge for my face! I turn 42 years old on May 7! 42! How did that happen? If I can’t get the results I want from my Rodan and Fields products then I’m going to get Botox as my birthday present to me for this horrible verticle wrinkle I have in the middle of my forehead and I am sharing this journey with all of you. As far as the exercise goes, no I’m not going on some crazy diet, I just noticed things getting a tad flabby and I need to tighten them back up as well as reinvigorate myself! Anyway, let’s go on this journey together, let’s see these products/programs in action! If, in 60 days we see the amazing things happen with my skin that I’ve seen happen to others who have diligently followed the prescribed regimen, then you can order your products through me (😉) & I have a friend who’s a Beach Body Coach so I can send you her way if whatever program I choose gives me some good results! So come along with me on this journey. I’m starting on Monday (March 7, South Korean time of course) and I can’t wait. I’ll post daily photos and what I’ve done that day and how I’m feeling as far as both body and skin go. Don’t worry, there will be other blogs in between, I’ve got so much to say and very little time now that my house is in chaos! But more on that later…..