Breaking News

I have just read something both incredibly mind-blowing and incredibly intuitive (as many mind-blowing things are) : Having strong relationships and friends that you can confide in can increase your life span more than quitting smoking!

So, just imagine the emphasis everyone puts of quitting smoking these days. These days, smoking is treated like a contagious disease. No one wants it near them and so many people judge smokers as harshly as any criminal. The primary complaint that people have is that it is wildly unhealthy, which it is, but so is having meaningless relationships, or no relationships.

It's easy to publicly acknowledge that someone smokes because you can't hide it very well and really, it's largely just affecting you (unless you're not a very considerate smoker who blows smoke right in people's faces). But even though you can identify (usually) when someone has no friends, we know instinctively that it is an awful fate that no one would wish upon another. It's so awful, we can't bear to acknowledge it publicly.

So, if you've been thinking that you'd like to see some positive change in your life, go make some friends. Say hi to a stranger, help someone out or call up an old acquaintance. It will serve you far better than just about anything else you could do for yourself.

Sick

I just started a new job a couple weeks ago, got booked for a show in two weeks and I'm sick. Fortunately it's not a head cold so there's no sore, runny nose or congestion. Up until two days ago it was just a sore throat and really wasn't bad. Then the coughing came, and it just would not go away. The worst part is that I'm not coughing up anything, it's a dry cough and it's set off whenever I breathe essentially.

I can put up with being sick, but being sick while having to work 8 hour days in the service industry sucks. My solution was to down as much cough syrup as I felt was safe. It certainly helped the coughing, but it made me very disoriented. Luckily I now have two days off, but if I'm not better by the time I go back I'll have a stretch of 5 consecutive work days. So...today I'm taking it easy. Eating healthy, drinking tea and resting up.

My Horoscope Told Me To

I'm going to share a dirty little secret about myself : once a month, I read a very long, very detailed horoscope. And take it seriously.

Yes, I realize that people who are all learned and university edumacated tend not to believe in silly things like astrology, but I think I just can't let go of my 13 year old self. The one who read book after book about witchcraft, paganism, astrology and divination. The one who, in all seriousness, took her parents aside and sat them down to tell them that she had thought a lot about it, and she was going to convert to paganism. I just can't admit to myself that magic(k) doesn't exist.

More to the point, I was reading said horoscope and among other directives, it said I should take care of any nagging medical issues I'd been having. Since the last time I went to the dentist, I've had the most incredible sensitivity to temperature in the area where my last cavity was filled. I finally decided to bite the bullet and make an appointment...because my horoscope told me to.

Yesterday was the appointment and to my delight, nothing too painful happened. The dentist did some tests and an x-ray and decided that I should be on antibiotics for a week. It's possible that all I need to do to fix this several month issue is take some pills for a few days. Obviously I am now on antibiotics.

The downside though...is that if the antibiotics don't work I only have two options. Pull the tooth, or get a root canal done. Neither option sounds particularly good. So, here's hoping the drugs do their job!

Self-Improvement Challenge

So...I took a wee bit of a break from the milk mask. Partially because I've run out of honey to mix it with and partially because I realized that I was breaking out a lot because of a poor choice of medication so even if it was effective, I wouldn't notice until I switch meds. I've since seen the doctor and will be switching meds shortly. Then I'll resume the milk masks and watch it work its wonders.

On the clothing front: I got rid of clothes that were either disintegrating noticeably or didn't fit anymore and I've started, bit by bit, to add better pieces to my wardrobe. Just a couple shirts thus far, and they were from Value Village, but it's a start.

Hair-wise I'm planning on getting a REAL haircut, from a REAL hairdresser for graduation. Just something as a bit of a pick-me-up and hopefully it'll be more flattering than anything I'd be doing myself.

Health-wise, my husband and I have been doing a lot of sporty activities. Each day we play tennis or roller blade and other things might get thrown into the mix. I've also been trying to challenge myself in my morning yoga routine, toning muscles in my lower back and abs. Groceries have also been edited a bit. I've been trying to eat more fish and lean meat as opposed to the heavier meats and I've been buying more fruits and veggies than normal. I've also cut down on the sweets :(

So, lots of changes! I'm hoping they'll stick, but it is a challenge to fit it all into my daily routine....and it'll be even more of a challenge when I'm working all day. We'll see how it goes.

Shocking

I don't own a scale. Nor have I for a number of years. I've been running on the assumption that my body weight hasn't changed in a long time and likely won't for a while longer. I had been 125lbs from grade.....7(?) until about grade 10/11. Somewhere around there I moved up to 130lbs and then I moved out to university and never bought a scale. I haven't grown vertically since I was about 12.

Yesterday, my husband and I went to Value Village and he wanted to know how much he weighed, so we went to the scales. He had gained a few pounds in muscle mass. I had also gained some weight. According to three separate scales, I'm just a hair under 150lbs now. That's 20lbs more than I was! What the hell?! I didn't think I'd really gained any weight...in fact, I thought I might be losing weight.

I'm telling myself that it's because I'm turning flab into muscle since my husband and I have been so active lately. But....20lbs?! That's like a baby. And not a little newborn either. Yet, most people I talk to seem to think I'm borderline underweight based on the look of me....my BMI is bordering on overweight. What gives?! I could probably handle being 140lbs...but, 150? This is going to take some adjusting.

Self Improvement Challenge

Ok, so, remember when I decided to start taking better care of myself? Or something like that....

I decided to start working on my posture. I used to have fantastic posture because I actively worked on it every day back in high school. When I was about 12 or so, my doctor told me I was developing scoliosis. My dad who blatantly ignores the advice of every professional ever, decided not to do any sort of physical therapy or anything like that. No, he gave me a yoga video and expected me to fix my own damn scoliosis. Well, I did that yoga video every day and practiced sitting up straight and standing properly. Over the years, my good posture kind of became my thing. People could recognize me from a distance because no one stood that straight.

Since attending university and hunching over textbooks and laptops my posture has downgraded quite a bit, and I've been noticing more lower back pain than I had before. Yesterday I took a good look at myself in the mirror and realized that I've been holding my stomach area forward and my shoulders were hunched. I had a bit of an S shape going on. It made me look pretty weird.

I tried to correct the flaws in my posture and after having done so, and I was standing up perfectly aligned, most of my bodily complaints about looking disproportionate went out the window. My posture was making me look bad. Well, no more! I am going to add postures to my daily yoga routine (which has downgraded over the years to a few minutes of stretching) that improve my posture. I'm going to work on strengthening my core muscles to help straighten it all up and try to remind myself to keep my shoulders back.

I'll let you know how it goes...

Suuu...ooo....ggaaaaar..?

So....I may be neglecting my health. I realized that I've been up since 8:30am...it's now 7pm and all I've eaten is a bowl of cereal, a yogurt snack and some biscotti. Plus ya know, some coffee and tea. I came to this realization when I was writing cover letters and realized I was barely writing coherent sentences and was making an incredible amount of typos. I proceeded to slump over on my couch and lay there for a while. Then I realized....I was probably running out of energy. Literally. Like, you know how they list 'Energy' on the nutrition labels? Well, I believe I was pretty low on it. Like, if I were a Sim, my Energy bar would be verging on red and I'd fall asleep on the floor, then wake up a few hours later and start cursing and swearing. And yet, I don't feel hungry yet....and really...my husband gets home from work a little after 8...and then we can have dinner....so it seems silly to eat now, when I'll be making dinner within the hour.

Speaking of biscotti, I will soon post a before and after-type entry about making them. It would have been a step-by-step entry, but I forgot to take pictures in between.

New Purpose in Life?

It is no secret that I am easily influenced. You may recall my last post made...a couple hours ago regarding using up the milk in my fridge with milk masks and bathing and whatnot. I YouTubed a ton of videos about milk masks, made a milk and honey mask for myself, put it on and while I was waiting for it to dry, started watching more beauty-related YouTube videos.

Through this random selection of videos, I stumbled upon Kandee Johnson's videos, went to her website and became completely captivated by her beauty abilities and the amount of discipline she seems to have when it comes to taking care of herself. I too like to think I take good care of myself, but I've been lacking quite a bit in my appearance over the past couple years. I'm sick of looking in the mirror and being unimpressed, so I think I'm going to embark upon a beauty challenge.

By beauty challenge, I don't mean that I'm going to try a 30 day detox, or a special diet or fitness program. I don't like gimmicky things like that because I find they don't tend to work. Instead, I'm just going to make it a personal goal to take better care of myself and to search for more and better ways to look and feel great.

A while back I tried to do a skin care regime involving a lot of benzoyl peroxide, moisturizer and exfoliant. It worked relatively well...sort of....after a long time, but it left my skin hopelessly dry and I felt dependent on all these harsh chemicals. Not to mention it was extremely costly especially since I've been a student for the past four years with more expenses than income, so really any amount of money spent on personal care seemed frivolous.

Then more recently, in part inspired by the frugality of it, I endorsed the no shampoo movement. This was a mixed blessing since I live in a city with very hard water. Hard water is the arch-nemesis of the no shampoo movement. Though my hair no longer had split ends and no longer became frizzy, it would often feel "gluey" so after almost a year, I was forced to go back to shampoo. Fortunately, I had learned so much about shampoo that I was able to go to Winners and get a massive bottle of Peter Coppola shampoo that smells amazing and isn't as harsh as most other shampoos. I spent $10 and use incredibly small amounts so it will last me a long time.

Then around New Years, I became aware of my particular form of OCD - skin picking. I hadn't really done anything about, at least not successfully but I'm contemplating a trip to the doctor for some help (as recommended by counseling services).

So really, there've been a number of ups and downs and confusing variables in my appearance and though I don't know exactly what's to blame, I have noticed a lot of breakouts that aren't healing well. I also cut my hair a few weeks ago in response to some fairly extreme stress....which kind of needs to be fixed. To add another layer to all of this, I've also been going through my clothes and realized that just about all of my clothes are either deteriorating or don't fit me so I need a new wardrobe and have no money to do it.

Sorry, I realized this post is very unstructured and rambly, but I felt it necessary to add in all the different angles to consider in my sudden, and possibly temporary, decision to improve how I look and feel. Summary: I'm broke but every aspect of my appearance has been degrading...rapidly...and it makes me sad.

What does this mean? I've got a fresh start and the motivation to make myself the best I can be. As I come across different things, I'm going to try them out and update you all on this blog. The first thing on the agenda is the milk and honey mask I mentioned before. You take nearly equal parts milk and honey (slightly more honey than milk though) and mix them really well so it's all a cohesive liquid. Spread it on your face with clean hands and let it dry for 10-15 minutes. Rinse with cool-ish water. Do it a couple times a week and there we go. I'll let you know how it turns out after a few times of doing it.