Absolute Essentials

A few days ago I was reading a post stating that this year heavy and a lot of makeup is in again (I just can’t remember which blog it was …). Ever since discovering an awesome skin care routine for my face (more about that in the next post), I realized that I have come to appreciate very little makeup. In fact, I’ve never liked liquid makeup, and even BB creams don’t feel good on my skin. I am a fan of glittery and bright eyeshadow, tinted lip gloss, eye liners in various colors and of course mascara (although I can’t decide whether I prefer waterproof or not).

If I had to choose three things I would not want to live without, here are my favorites that I keep coming back to, no matter what else I buy:

E.L.F. Tinted Lip Balm – Berry

Urban Decay Eye Shadow – Midnight Cowboy

Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara

1. Urban Decay Eyeshadow – Midnight Cowboy ($19)
   My absolute favorite eyeshadow. Makes blue eyes sparkle and gives them a bright look. You have 97 other shades to choose from, in case you are looking for variety. I find that this eyeshadow lasts pretty much all day, even without a primer.
2. Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara ($23)
   It’s a tight race between this mascara and Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes™ 4-in-1 Mascara. They are both great; the only reason I prefer Too Faced is because it does not clump as quickly inside the bottle, and the brush stays cleaner, which results in less clumping on your lashes. Currently I am using the regular but will try the waterproof version next time.
3. E.L.F. Lip Balm Tint – Berry ($2)
   Low-cost, cruelty-free, great texture and color … it really does not get any better. I am not a fan of opaque lipsticks, and I need something that I can reapply quickly, that does not feel sticky and looks good with virtually any outfit and eyeshadow. It just looks really natural. If they ever discontune this, I will cry 😛

What are your absolute favorite products you’d never want to live without? 

 

 

The Stinky Truth … Or … My (Seemingly Neverending) Quest to Find a Natural Deodorant

Adding to the great posts about striving towards a stink-free (or at least less stinky) life: Deodorants that didn’t work for me, and one that surprised me. 

By now, almost all of my personal care, as well as household items, are cruelty-free, and most of them are organic and without any harsh chemicals. Many of them are also vegan (although I am not a vegetarian or vegan when it comes to food). Pretty much the last conventional item that was still lingering around was my deodorant. I’ve tried to replace the regular stuff with natural alternatives in the past, but without real success. It wasn’t even the aluminum that bothered me so much. Truth to be told, no matter what aluminum-type I’ve used, I never noticed that I was sweating more or less with one deodorant or another. I just assumed that somehow the aluminum kept me from sweating more than I do (and I like to think of myself as an average sweater, so to speak). I just wanted a cruelty-free deodorant, but apparently, there is no such thing as a cruelty-free deodorant that still contains aluminum, aside from Tom’s of Main Antiperspirant, which didn’t work for me, and I was not a big fan of the scents. Of course, I’ve heard stories about how bad aluminum is for your body, but compared to some of the other crap that we come in contact with every day, I really didn’t think it was that bad.

It really bothered me though that I could not find a single natural deodorant that kept the unpleasant smell at bay for more than an hour, and so I set out (again, for the third time), to find something that works.

1. Primal Pit Paste – Lavender (Stick): I LOVE the smell of lavender, so naturally (no pun intended), this was my first choice. The product spreads well and truly keeps you smelling lavenderish all day long. Even my shirts were not smelly in the evening, even though the deodorant does not keep you from sweating. That in itself would not have been an issue since I actually don’t mind sweating. The problem was that the product irritated the heck out my skin. I’ve never had a reaction to any deodorant in the past, but within two days my poor pits were dark red and itching/burning like crazy. I tried not shaving in the morning, but that didn’t help. It took about 2 weeks for my arms to return back to normal (I was really worried they would not).

2. Primal Pit Paste – Lavender (jar): I am stubborn. As I’ve said, I love lavender, so I tried the jar version. Unfortunately, it had the same effect and had the added small inconvenience of having to be rubbed on with your fingers. Had it worked, I would have gladly dealt with that though.

3. Primal Pit Paste – Unscented Regular/Light (jar): P3’s customer service is pretty awesome. They sent me a sample of the unscented regular and light jar version. Both do not contain any essential oils, and the light version also has a lower amount of baking soda in it. The regular version still burned a little; the light version less so to the point where it was almost bearable (hey, I might get used to it …), but unfortunately it did nothing to keep the smell away 😦

I really, really wanted to like P3, I’ve heard so many good things about the company, but clearly, my skin begs to differ.

4. Schmidt’s Rose & Vanilla deodorant: I came across this on a website (that I don’t remember) and bought it on Amazon. Pro: It smells really, really good, and it didn’t irritate my skin one bit (although it does contain baking soda as well)! Con: It comes in a jar with a little spatula, and you need to rub it between your fingers before applying it to your armpits. I don’t really mind, that, but unfortunately, it didn’t really mask the smell for more than a few hours. Sigh …

5. Tom’s of Maine – Deodorant Stick, Apricot: After spending quite a bit of money, I found myself at the grocery store around lunchtime, basically because I managed to not have any deodorant at work whatsoever, and I was going to take the afternoon off to watch a tennis tournament in DC. So I grabbed the one deodorant that I knew was at least cruelty-free: Tom’s, Apricot. “What the heck,” I thought, “it only has to get me through the day.” To my surprise, it got me through the day. With only a little bit of sweating (I was sitting in the sun for about two hours). Without smelling, even when I finally went home around midnight. I have since used it daily, and for now, I could not be happier.

What I can say for all natural deodorants: I am actually sweating a little less now than before, and the sweat does not smell as bad as quickly. TMI? Hey, this is a blog for people like me, who want full disclosure 🙂 I don’t think I will return to conventional deodorants. I am still not convinced that the aluminum is actually a danger to my health, but the fact that it actually seems to make me sweat more will keep me away for good.

I’d love to hear about your favorite deodorants that work for you?

Made my day: Stila gains cruelty-free status

Just this morning, I was looking at two of my favorite eyeshadow colors Jezebel and Barefoot (found in Stila’s palette Eyes Are The Window Shadow  – Spirit) … both almost gone 😦

I was already contemplating alternatives, given that Stila sells in China and is therefore not cruelty-free. Imagine my surprise when I came across this post on one of my favorite blogs, Cruelty-Free Kitty:

Stila Pulls Out Of China And Gains Cruelty-Free Status

Great news for all bunny- and eyeshadow-obsessed people like me! You can guess where I’ll be going this week 🙂

What are you favorite cruelty-free brands and colors? Let me know!

 

Keto Experiment … And so it Ends

Fourteen days of keto have passed, and I celebrated being done yesterday night by having some M&Ms at the movies. And you know what: All the carbs were SO worth it.

It was an interesting way to eat for a while, but I would not want to do this indefinitely. I admire people who can do this for months on end, but it’s just not for me. It requires a great amount of planning, especially if you are also watching calories (and I only eat about 1250 per day, so there’s little margin for error). It got better in the second week when I got used to it, but still, I miss my tomatoes, yogurt, berries, mangos, papayas, pineapples. And yes, I miss bread, pasta, pizza and disgustingly sweet frappucinos.

I have learned though that my body is happier if I restrict carbs a little. So now that I am going back to eating normal, I will try to stay below 60 grams of carbs each day and see how that works. I loved how calm my stomach was during the past two weeks. No bloating, no cramps. That was definitely a big plus.

Scale-wise I dropped from 129.6 to 124.8 pounds (62 pounds lost, 9 to go). With eating more carbs comes a little water weight (1 gram of carbs stores between 3 and 4 grams of water), but even so, I think that it was worth it. From experience I never “gain” more than two pounds of water weight, so I think I lost two real pounds in two weeks. Not to shabby.

I know now that I can get my body into ketosis relatively quickly, so I may do that for a few days every now and then, especially if I feel fat and need some motivation (and see a lower number on the scale).

I am off to the airport in a few hours to pick up the person that made these two weeks possible (by being out of the country and not tempting me with dining out :P), and I will happily greet him with a coffee in my hand. Although … maybe I’ll stick with the skinny mocha with whole milk for a while. It’s tasty and only has 11 grams of net carbs 😉

P.S.: Don’t ever try Paleo Bread, ever … trust me.

 

 

Day 11 … Or … Down The Rabbit Hole

So, today I messed up. Somebody brought chocolate to work, and I really really only wanted one of the small pieces. Ended up having six. Which was not so bad, all things considered, because even with that I was still just below 20 grams of carbs.

Unfortunately it didn’t stop there. Came home, made dinner, and afterwards had some more chocolate. Not huge amounts, but enough to get me well over my carb limit. And while it will just be interesting to see how long it takes my body to get back into ketosis, this was one of the moments when my younger me clawed her way out of the corner of my mind and started to remind me about the temptation, about how easy it was to eat whatever I wanted just to get rid of it afterwards again in the bathroom.

This, you see, is where my thoughts start to tumble down the rabbit hole. I remember the temptation of giving in and feeling better and more in control afterwards. The question is though: Is “throwing up on command” being in control, or is “resisting the temptation to do so being” in control?

I think my younger, bulimic self would have chosen the first option. But while I’m still pissed at myself, my older (and hopefully a little wiser) me knows that it takes far more willpower to not give in.

So, the next time you feel that you messed up, be kind to yourself and don’t beat yourself up. After all, we have to make mistakes to learn and grow, even though that’s hard to take sometimes.

Day 6 – 9 … Or … Snowed in

Most notably during the last four days: We had snow. Lots, and lots of snow. On Friday, it started snowing heavily around 2:00 pm, and by eight that night there was already a good amount of snow of the ground. Woke up on Saturday to the picture below.

Since I had lots of time on my hands, I read through a bunch of blog posts. The first few sentences in one particular post, on a blog called Beauty Beyond Bones, made me think about why I decided to embark on these two weeks of keto. Despite the fact that it’s touted as great weight loss diet, I didn’t (and still don’t) expect to lose a whole lot. Yes, the scale weight went down from 129.8 lbs to 125.3 lbs since Jan 16, but I know that some, if not most, of it is water weight and will creep back once I start eating carbs again. Still, the number is still a nice motivation.

The reason why I am putting myself through this (which is how my friend Ros describes it) is because I want to prove to myself that I can. There’s so little in life we have control over, but my body is something that I, and I alone, control. I wanted to prove to myself that I have the willpower to overcome cravings for chocolate, Starbucks coffees, bread. Pretty much everything I really like.

Sounds silly/ridiculous/stupid?

Maybe it is. But to me, it’s important. I didn’t have control over my ex divorcing me. I didn’t have control over my feelings while trying to heal, and over the self-destructive things I did. That’s not something I am proud of. I still won’t be able to control the actions of people I love, but then again I am not trying to. But I will be able to control how I react to situations, how I get through them.

So, while being on a two-week diet is a far cry from trying to pick up the pieces of the past, it’s still part of my life. To me, getting through this is an accomplishment. So whatever small things you embark on, be proud when you emerge victorious, and don’t let anyone discredit what you did.

 

 

Day 4 & 5 … Or … Some Numbers And a Question

So, over the past few days I’ve almost hit my 20 g of net carbs. I wanted to see if that somehow affects how I feel, if I get cravings again etc. These days I am usually pretty in tune with my body, but as far as I can tell there is no huge difference between eating 10 g and 20 g of net carbs, at least for me. I’ve read plenty of other blogs and articles in which writers explain that they are feeling better/worse with a few more/less carbs.

Since the last two days were not too super-exciting, I wanted to share a question that one of my colleagues asked yesterday:

In three sentences, how can you describe your weigh loss success?

Yeah, that sounds a lot like “Tell me about your strengths/weaknesses” in a job interview 😛 However, it was actually really simple, and since she has not been the only one asking this, I thought I’d share it with you:

1. Weight and log what you eat to make sure you are staying within your calorie limit.
2. Pay attention to your macros, especially when you are plateauing, sometimes a small change in how many/much carbs/protein/fat you eat can make a huge difference.
3. Eat everything in moderation, don’t deprive yourself of anything.

It’s not new or mind-blowing advice, but it works. It will take a while to get used to logging, and many people make the mistake of saying “I will not have any soda/chocolate/bread anymore”. That’s not sustainable. You’ll falter eventually and then will feel bad because you could not stick to your goals, at which point most people throw the towel. Don’t make that mistake. There were plenty of days in the past 18 months in which I ate way more than I should have. Acknowledge it and move on. No need to beat yourself up.

The next two days should be interesting since we’re supposed to get a lot of snow and a big storm. I hope I bought enough food that I can eat right now 😛 Stay warm if you’re in my area.

 

Day 3 … Or … How Do I Get Through The Day?

The day at work that is. Since today was a holiday, tomorrow will be my first day at work while in ketosis. Usually, my breakfast consists of Greek yogurt with mango or orange, some flax seeds and hemp seeds. Since that won’t work, I am taking scrambled eggs with some green bell pepper, cheese … basically what I ate Saturday, Sunday and today. Lunch is usually a salad, oftentimes tomato salad with mozzarella. I guess the mozzarella would be fine, but the normal amount of tomatoes that I usually costume probably won’t work either. So it’s 2 links of chicken sausage and some sour cream. Took some cheese in case I get hungry during the day. For dinner I’ll see if I can squeeze in some broccoli with some more cheese and … sour cream. Basically I am dumping sour cream on everything right now. What can I say, I like it!

I also went to the movies and to lunch with a friend. Went to the Lebanese Taverna in Silver Spring. It was hard enough to not eat the pita bread, but what really annoyed me was the fact that the guy who took my order got exactly one thing right: Shawarma Salad. Wanted beef, got chicken. Wanted no dressing, got dressing. Asked what else there was besides shredded lettuce (according to the guy: nothing), and turned out there were tomatoes, onion slices and radishes. Those I could pick out, and the dressing was not too much, but I hope that this did not kick me out of ketosis. Grumble. It probably sounds totally stupid, but right now every carb counts, and I have NO idea how many carbs that dressing had. I could’ve sent it back I assume, but I hate wasting food.

Oh, and btw, the movie we saw was “The Big Short”, and it was interesting in a weird way. The effects also gave me a headache, and I was really depressed when it was over. So if you watch it, make sure you’re not in a bad mood already.
***

Stats for today (slightly pointless today since I had no idea how to count the dressing; I’ll see tomorrow if there were too many carbs in there):
Macros: 68% Fat, 27% Protein, 5% Carbs
Net Carbs: 9 grams (but I’m betting it’s more)

Day 2 … Or … Regular Coffee Sucks

Good news first: According to the test strip this morning, I’m in ketosis. Yay! That was a lot faster than I expected, but hey, I’ll take it. In addition, the scale also showed 1.5lbs less than yesterday. That, of course, is just water weight, but it’s still a nice motivation.

I somehow expected to feel different, but I don’t, really. I expected to have more cravings for sugar and carbs, but I don’t. I actually feel good (and not homicidal :P). My stomach feels calm, my nose isn’t as stuffed up as it was and I haven’t sneezed all day. It’s a pretty good feeling 🙂 I am wondering if this also helps with anxiety and related issues.

What I did want today though was a Starbucks drink. Not liking the keto-friendly options though. If you like dark coffee with just some heavy cream or milk, you are in luck. If you’re like me and love those latte macchiatos, then you’re screwed. So I got an Americano with some heavy cream and sugar-free caramel syrup … and it was an epic fail. I’ll have to come up with something else for the next two weeks.

And now back to watching Fast and Furious.
***

Stats for today:
Macros: 63% Fat, 29% Protein, 7% Carbs
Net Carbs: 10 grams
Note: I have no idea why MFP is miscalculating the total amount of some macro-nutrients. Math is hard (right, Ros?), but not THAT hard! Something to look into, that’s actually very annoying. 

 

 

 

 

Keto-Experiement: Day 1 … Or … Thank Heavens For Quest Bars

Well, since my friend was sick today and couldn’t go to lunch or the movies, I’ve decided to start my experiment today instead of Monday. Got up late, so I started my day with lunch: some scrambled eggs with cheese and butter. Turned out that four eggs were a bit too much to eat all at once, so I had a few pieces left over, which I ate later. Below is a screen shot of my food diary for today. Charles, try not to scream when you see the bacon 😛

Went shopping later in the day. Now my fridge is filled with meats, cheese, full-fat dairy products and mostly green vegetables. After I left the store, I basically devoured some Serrano ham and a white chocolate-raspberry Quest bar. Thank heavens for those because I really needed something sweet.

According to my diary, I’ve eaten 18 grams of total carbs today and 18 grams of fiber (don’t ask me why the diary shows 19 grams …). That means that essentially I’ve eaten 0 grams of net carbs (which are the carbs that count for keto).

So far, I don’t feel like killing anybody. Let’s see how tomorrow goes. I really hope that the scale will show a drop in weight … water weight, of course, but whatever! Every bit of motivation counts!

Food Diary for Jan 16, 2016: 

Macros: 68% Fat, 27% Protein, 5% Carbs