Eating & Drinking

I think the #1 thing that helped clear up my skin and keep it amazingly clear in Portugal was the clean, pure, unfiltered, direct-from-the-mountain water.

Some people think they're ugly. I think they're beautiful!

The second, was eating natural grown-in-the-backyard fruits and veggies.

And during that time, I actually ate MORE meat, seafood, salty things, sweets, deep fried things, daily ice cream bars, chocolates and soda than I’d normally do.

None of that extra deep fried stuff seemed to affect my skin because I was taking care of it by splashing clear mountain water on it each night, drinking good water, and eating pure, ugly looking, natural foods that were grown without pesticides, chemicals and weren’t genetically modified.

Now that I’m back in Canada, I noticed 3 or 4 pimples pop up within the first week.

It may also be due to the climate but I cannot confirm that.

Not wearing makeup

I didn’t wear much makeup in Portugal. But that didn’t seem to affect anything because I don’t wear much makeup here in Canada.

I go au naturel most of the time, and if I can manage to swipe on some eyeliner, blush and undereye concealer, it’s a big day for me… or I am going to a client site/meeting new people.

I suppose wearing makeup leaves a lot of chemicals, grime and grease on your face that can be difficult at times to clean out of your pores, which causes pimples.

And you NEED to wash it off with a cleanser.

Skin Washing Regime

I washed with only splashing water and dabbing it off in Portugal.

I’ve kept that same regime back here. Just washing my face and dabbing it off.

No cleansers because I don’t go out every day, and I don’t wear makeup when I do go out.

If I do wear makeup, I do use a cleanser.

Acne-battling Regime

I only got 3 or 4 pimples that have since disappeared because I’ve found a routine that works for me that gets rid of my pimples within 3-5 days.

During the day, when I see a pimple pop up, it gets an immediate dab of super fine Panoxyl Benzoyl Peroxide Aquagel 5%.

It has a water base for sensitive skin and is the best one I’ve used for my skin out of all the benzoyl’s out there.

At night, I splash water on my face, dab it off, and every other night, I put on a dab of Proactiv Sulfur Refining Masque and leave it on while I sleep.

(Yes, I HAVE scared BF, but he’s too nice to say anything.)

Any kind of cream or masque with sulfur in it will work.

If you find a cheap cream or masque that says “Chemical Ingredient: Sulfur 6%” or something, it’ll probably work just as well.

Mario Badescu also has a sulfur-infused drying cream but I found it a tad more expensive than Proactiv. Read Rae’s review of it here.

Every other night, I also dab salicylic acid on the pimples.

This seems to work for me. Not too aggressive, not too gentle.

So that’s it. Eat and drink well, do as little as possible to your skin, and have a quick acne-banishing routine ready.

This is a great informative video on how fat gets stored in your body and why some people may be fatter than others.

However, this is not an excuse to blame your body, slack off and have bad eating habits.

Nor is it an excuse to avoid eating carbs (as you will watch in the video).

E.g. I eat a LOT of carbs but I don’t consider myself overweight at all. We’re talking at least 3 cups of cooked rice each meal, or noodles.. anything. I can’t eat just meat and veggies.

And here is another great video on the history of eating grains.

(I prefer eating rice more than anything else, so this may not apply to me)

… has never been so much damn fun.

Via Geekologie.

I hate the gym. I hate working out and I feel good after it, but getting myself there is a problem.

I’d rather trick myself into working out such as walking around downtown and window shopping but not buying anything, or taking a little hike (which is walking uphill)..

Or even try walking to a convenience store instead of taking the car.

There are other things you can do to burn calories without heading to the gym such as taking the stairs!

Did you know, that a 140-pound person will burn about 4 more calories per minute compared to standing and riding. Over the course of a year, you might lose over half a pound if your only lifestyle change was taking the stairs for a minute a day.

You can also try cutting your meal portions in half rather than eating the whole thing (use a smaller plate).

Another way to disguise exercise is to go to the park or the beach. You’d be surprised what a day of Frisbeeing with friends or running around on a beach and swimming can do for you.

ONE FB GIVEAWAY THIS MONTH!

FB Reminder: I am away on vacation right now. This post has been scheduled ahead of time.
I won’t be moderating comments until end of August 2009. Thanks for your patience!

My family has a strong history of lifestyle diabetes. My grandfather died from it, and my father is now considered “borderline”, which means he has since chopped out sugar ruthlessly from his diet, even in the most unlikely places.

Just the other day, my dad warned me to start cutting out the sugar when I’m young, because it’ll make it easier on my body as I get to his age.

So.. enter Project Eat Less Sugar.

It’s going to be pretty straightforward, but I need to set a solid goal to reach.

I am not going to shun ALL sugar products (chocolate.. how could I ever abandon you, my love!?).. but I am going to cut back on a lot of meaningless sugar eats and drinks, and only eat sugary things as a treat.

GOAL: Cut down consumption of sugar by at least 50%, with an ideal goal of 10%

PLAN:

Eliminate all soft drinks/soda/pop/juice
Unless in dire situations, am v. thirsty & need to quench it because I still refuse to buy bottled water

Drop back my brown sugar addition to my teas down to 1 teaspoon
Am currently at 3 teaspoons, but I drink only one cup of 12 oz. tea a day.

Pressure BF into modifying all of his recipes to contain half the sugar when he bakes
We’ve dropped the sugar content in the biscotti down to 50%, but it’s still too sweet for me

Only eat sugary items as a treat, not more than once a month

I think it’s pretty doable. I’m already halfway to my goals, and I’ve consciously been avoiding the chocolate aisle.

Along with that, I think I’m going to start cutting down on salt too, as a precaution.

Update:

Just the other day, I ate a scoop of my favourite Haagen-Daaz Vanilla Bean ice cream and I felt sick from the overload of sugar!!!

It was kind of disgusting how sweet it was.

Even BF noticed how sweet it was. Now we’ll be hard pressed to finish the tub

We’re switching to the half sugar tubs from now on.