A New Hobby

image source Miracle Aesthetic Clinic

I’ve been hit by a strong drive to reboot myself in the image department this year. It might be driven by the fact that I am post-pregnancy, it certainly seems as though I’ve enjoyed the longest streak of “I don’t care about my looks” ever, and now it’s biting me in the arse.  Along with wanting to do something about my clothes (or the lack thereof) came the realization that I can no longer get away with the au naturel look without some outside help.

Enter the mushrooming of beauty clinics in Batam, the newest of which is Miracle Aesthetic Clinic. With their  large attention catching adverts at every major road-side, Miracle Aesthetic Clinic promises miracles where everything about youthful looks is concerned.  Now if you remember this episode, you’ll rightly guess that these adverts were like siren calls to me. To my stoic and change-opposing mind, I justified it as – a reason to get out of the house and expose myself to the language, a chance at some regular quality me-time and that all encompassing “I don’t have time to do it myself so I need to outsource it” 😇😘

Reception and waiting areas. For some reason I’m quite particular about waiting areas 🤩

So last Saturday in order to get a feel for the place, I went in for a consultation. I was a bit dismayed that the reception staff couldn’t speak English.  All their road side adverts, all the headlines on their website & leaflets are in impeccable English so just maybe 🙄🙄 Fortunately the specialist I spoke with, together with an assisting technician, knew enough to help me consider my options.

Although I was interested in the Miracle Power Retinol Facial, retin-A/tretinoin being touted as the holy grail of youthful looks by my beauty gurus on Youtube, the specialist recommended the 3 in 1 Super Facial which also promised to lift my face to reveal better contours.

I scheduled the 2-hour session for the following day 🤩

I don’t know about you but in this example I’m really not seeing any difference between the before and after photos. I think they could use a better model 🤔

And, I absolutely loved the experience! 😘 The 6-step process was administered with great care and enough technical commentary to keep you updated of what was being done and put on your face. There was great emphasis placed on the newness of the materials used, they all came in sealed packs. I didn’t understand 80% of what she was saying but everything smelled so lovely and fresh that I just kept nodding and congratulating myself for having found a new fun and rewarding hobby 😁

I am not yet sure if the hobby part is in the vigilant observation of a monthly facial treatment schedule, or the curiosity to try the other beauty clinics in the process of hunting down the best. I already blogged about the idea of identifying your “special nooks” as a way of anchoring yourself to a new place in this post. At the time of writing, I admitted to not having any special nooks yet. But getting monthly facials could definitely change that!

In any case, here I am typing this with smoother skin that’s feeling a bit sunburned. It’s not actually sunburned it just feels that way. I am staying away from the sun in the next few days, should wear sunblock if outdoors, and might experience some peeling. But definitely looking forward to the next schedule, whichever beauty clinic this might be.

New House New Strategy

Nothing like a new environment to upset the old and bring in the new! 😃 I’m talking about my diet-n-fitness regime here which went through some sort of upheaval last week when I decided to do intermittent fasting, quitting ALL sugar and carbs cold turkey and … hoping that the seas would part for me as it did for Moses 😵😁

Oh and, I also tried butter in my [black] coffee 😬😬😬

Now I’ve NEVER even tried black coffee before. My coffee has always had cream and enough sugar to take most of the bitterness out. But nope, I had to be the madwoman that I (sometimes) am and do everything at the same time! Including buttered coffee

So OF COURSE I had almost zero energy and couldn’t even make it halfway through a Fitness Marshall dance video without feeling totally deflated 😩

(I think the absence of my bats, rats and roaches has gone to my coconut! 🙃)

Fortunately I’ve since gathered my marbles 😁 and decided to just focus on ONE thing this week and up until that ONE thing becomes second nature. I’ve decided to focus on intermittent fasting (IF), which for me is until 11AM (the equiv of a 16h fast).

Since this week is already my second week of IF, the struggle is a bit less and black coffee (sans the butter, thank you!) is optional. I just make sure to drink plenty of water and keep myself mentally engaged.

I’m still doing my workouts but I’ve scaled down the intensity and make sure to just do about 30 mins per day.

Why am I doing this, you ask? Good question! 😁

As the title of this blog implies I’m also a vain creature. My vanity is mostly expressed through weight management, looking good in my birthday suit and enhancing the natural. (Nurturing great skin as opposed to wearing lots of make-up, for example).

IF falls into the weight management category obviously. Not that I need to lose weight – although there’s always those pesky last 5 pounds 😒😒 Just that anything that I think will simplify weight management for me is worth the exploration.

And there you have it, my little adventure of the week (or maybe month).

Have any of you guys tried IF (intermittent fasting)? What is/has been your experience of it?

Lessons From A Breather

Howdy y’all! 😉

I’m fresh back from a well-appreciated, 1 1/2 week holiday – which effectively gave me a break from everything 😀 I love it when this happens because I always come back with a handful of mini resolutions or mini challenges for better living 👍🏻 Like …

… increasing fiber intake:

Most often while on a holiday I allow myself to completely slack off on any fitness & nutrition guidelines I have set for myself. I’m not active & I eat everything I want.

I then get bloated and constipated and then become hyper-critical about my “self-consciously gigantic” midsection each time I catch a glimpse of it on any type of reflective surface. 😶 😶 (Come now, don’t tell me you haven’t done this yourself! 😊 😊)

Instead of countering this with mad eye-make up skills to bring everyone’s (imagined) focus up instead of on my midsection, of course all that’s really required (once I stop the exaggerated reaction) is to be mindful of my fiber and water intake.

Challenge #1: add more fiber to my life (interpret in more ways than one 😉)

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As usual, I buy a couple of books from an airport bookstore because, although I have a Kindle, nothing beats the high of burying my nose amongst the pages of an actual, physical book. (Yes, I don’t read it I just smell it!😆 😆). One of these books had this reminder/challenge #2 for me:

Increase movement throughout the day.

Also to be read as: beware sitting on your bum for long, uninterrupted stretches of time. (Calling out all fellow yarnies! 😆)

Because apparently, doing so significantly decreases our lifetime. In fact, uninterrupted bum time is more lethal than an addiction to smoking. Think about that!

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Coconut Oil-Will-Save-the-World

My mom is 69 years old. The last time I saw her was during the Christmas holidays, on this visit however, I was amazed. Her face was brighter, even toned with a hint of pinkish glow, and somehow less wrinkly (if that is at all possible) 💁

She truthfully looked younger than last I saw her, we all noticed! When I complimented her on it, she said she started using extra virgin coconut oil (EVCO) on her face upon advise from her sister.

I also had coffee with a good friend who, as it happens, carries a vial of EVCO in her bag wherever she goes. She poured a tablespoon of the liquid into her coffee without batting an eyelash and, at my surprise, rattled off the billion and one uses for EVCO, and credits it for her beautiful & abundant mane and flawless complexion.

Conclusion: the coconut universe is conspiring for me! 😄 😄 I’m reading up on the billion and one usages for EVCO right now and …

Challenge #3: … will use it to replace my 4-step nightly face cleansing ritual.

I want to see if it will work for me too 😀 I’ll let you know how it goes after a month or so.

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And that is all for now. (Yay!)

How about you, any healthy resolutions you’ve taken up recently? Let me know! 😀 😀