Tag Archives: beauty

Training Recap: 2/20 – 2/26

27 Feb

I completely stuck to last week’s training plan, and even got in some extra workouts with my bike seat testing. Yay for me!

Monday: 3.14 mile easy run (34:27, 10:58/mile); 3 mile easy bike (11:40, 15 mph); physical therapy exercises

Tuesday: 3.18 mile repeats (33:15, 10:27/mile); 3 mile easy bike (11:35, 15.5 mph)

I warmed up for .5 mile, then did 1 x 800, 2 x 400 (approximate), 1 x 800, and cooled down for the last .5 mile. My 800 times were 4:00 and 3:59, which I was very satisfied with (McMillan says I should run 4:05). I definitely pushed myself. I didn’t time the 400s, since they were approximate.

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 3.5 mile tempo hill run (36:32, 10:24/mile); 7 mile easy bike (30:00, 14 mph); 10 min strength

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 6.24 mile long run (1:10:37, 11:19/mile)

Sunday: 15 min dog walk; 11.75 mile bike on trainer (45:00, 15.7 mph)

Total Running Mileage: 16.06

Here are my splits from my long run:

It was pretty windy that day so I was pretty pleased that I averaged an 11:19 pace. Mile 1 and Mile 5 included stops for the dogs (and I just let the app run but stopped my watch), so that’s why they were slower, and why the minutes don’t add up to the final time (though I doubt any of you were actually checking that!).

Verdict of The Bike Seat: The combination of a new stem and my old seat is still not perfect but it’s a LOT better than it was. I made it 45 minutes on Sunday with minimal discomfort, but 60 minutes would’ve been a stretch – although I’m not sure if that’s because of the seat or because I was so bored! I wanted to ride outside, because that’s the real test, but it’s been SO windy here lately. Nonetheless, this is a good enough solution that I’m going to return the $90 seat I bought.

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Yesterday, I went to Walgreen’s and restocked a couple of my must-haves:

This Aveeno lotion is the only beauty product I “splurge” on (it’s $17.99 a bottle). I used to alternate between a heavy lotion like Eucerin in the winter and then a lighter moisturizer in the summer. But this one is great year round and it has SPF 15. They also have an SPF 30 version, but it’s the same price and a smaller bottle.

If you ever use lotion for removing eye makeup (it works really well), just don’t use this one. It will make your eyes water like an onion (because of the sunscreen). I learned the hard way.

I love Burt’s Bees – the original. There is no substitute.

And I also picked up some fun things:

Colors (l to r): On a Trip / Wet Cement / I Need a Refresh-Mint

This picture is pretty bad but the color on the left is bright purple, the middle one is a grey purple, and the last one is a bright teal. Can’t wait to paint my nails!

What is your favorite beauty product?

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Call a spade a spade.

31 Jan

All female health bloggers: Stop right now.

I see so many gorgeous female bloggers who have amazing figures, entertaining blogs, and impressive race times constantly demean, lament and berate their so-called flaws. Even if they have ripped abs that most women would have to eat only spinach and do 600 sit-ups a day to get, they joke about their love-handles or flabby stomach. Uh, right. If they run 30 miles one week, they were such a slacker. Their 4:00 marathon time was horrible because they could only manage a 9:00 pace for 26.2 miles.

I’m mentioning this because I think this is something that we as women, and humans, are tempted to do: We’re so afraid of being called proud that we take pride in nothing.

This is something I learned from my Grandma Dee. The last few years of her life, she lived with my grandpa in an assisted living home. Like a nursing home, they had all kinds of activities going on, and lots of other people living in the same building. Every once in a while, my grandma would say something like, “Dorothy came over and sat with me at lunch again today. She just really likes talking to me.” At first, I was taken aback by her frankness. Nobody I knew talked like that – because {hush} it was prideful. But my grandma said it so matter-of-factly and moved off the subject so quickly that I kept thinking about it. She got away with saying it. Why? Because she was just stating the facts.

{source*}

The Urban Dictionary describes False Modesty as:

To tell everyone that what you did is bad, knowing all the way that what you did is good, just so everybody says the opposite.
Usually used by women.

EmoGothgirl666: OMG , My blog is crap.
EmoboyLestatDarkness: Don’t say that, it’s great!

The Wiktionary describes it as:

Behavior that is intended to seem humble but comes across as fake and unflattering.

Usage: “Although having a large ego is considered undesirable, at times it is proper to take credit where it is due rather than display false modesty.”

And I think that last sentence sums up my point perfectly.

Sure, no one wants to be boastful and self-absorbed. But c’mon. Call a spade a spade.

Not only do I not believe that you truly hate your abs of steel or think a 4-hour marathon is an absolutely pitiful time, your false modesty makes it seem like any stomach that can’t bounce a quarter or any turtle coming across the finish at 6 hours, 30 minutes is something to be even more ashamed of. If you’re complaining over what is almost unanimously the goal, standard or aim of others, what becomes of anything that falls short of that?

What about the women who hardly dare take their shirts off in front of their husbands?

What about the runners who have put their hearts and souls into training for athletic event of their life, only for the aid stations to be packing up by the time they get there?

The unfortunate side effect of false modesty is that all of those women who will never have a rock-hard stomach and never run a 4-hour, 5-hour, or even 6-hour marathon even up thinking, “Well, if she’s flabby and if she’s slow, then what am I?”

I’ll tell you what would be refreshing. A female runner who runs a 8:00 pace on an “easy recovery run” and is happy about it. A woman who has worked hard to tone her biceps to get excited over them without adding the caveat, “But I still have a loooooong way to go” or “There’s still toooooons of room for improvement.” A recovering chocoholic who makes it through the day with only one Oreo to rejoice over improvement, instead of gut out an extra 15 minutes on the elliptical because she has absolutely.no.willpower.

If you don’t want to gush and aw over your rockin’ bod or your killer time, I get it. But at the very least, don’t knock it. State the facts and make no judgments. Let the cards fall where they may.

If we as women want to create an environment of acceptance and body-love, then we have to STOP CRITICIZING ourselves instead of poking, pinching and lamenting our imperfections.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. (Marianne Williamson)

Delighting in who we are, what we’re capable of, and our accomplishments gives other people the permission to do the same. Be a source of inspiration to others.

What are your thoughts about pride and false modesty?

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*The sunrise is not actually ugly; I’m using it to illustrate how ludicrous false modesty is.

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My body is not my own.

17 Nov

A while ago, I mentioned that I was going through the book Love to Eat, Hate to Eat with a group of women from church. My first realization was that my body does not represent who I really am. I am not the sum of how I look. There is more to me. That reminder has been very helpful over the last month, whenever I was tempted to think I should be skinnier.

But the past couple of weeks, I’ve swung the other way by letting myself eat whatever I want. I’m still eating mostly healthy with whole grains, lowfat dairy and fruits and veggies, but I’m also eating a bunch of extra crap – some Hershey’s kisses here, a cupcake there, a couple pieces of cornbread before dinner, a slice of ice cream cake from the break room. While I am in favor of diet freedom because I obsess less about food when I allow myself to eat whatever I am truly craving, these extras aren’t cravings – just convenient. I eat them because they’re right in front of me. I guess I wouldn’t mind a piece of cake right now.

Whenever behaviors like this go on for weeks at a time, they end up becoming habits. My habit becomes grabbing any sweet sitting out, instead of saying no to the “meh” ones. I eat a snack before dinner, even though the actual meal will be ready in 30 minutes. I have both wine and ice cream after dinner, instead of choosing one.

I realized this morning that these habits come out of my not recognizing that my body is not my own. I have been blessed with a genuine desire to eat (mostly) healthy and stay active so it’s never really been that much of a battle to take care of my body. Sure, I get off track now and then but I usually get back to healthy habits after a week or so because I honestly like it. But when I do get in funks like my current one, where I find myself eating more sweets and carbs than normal, I just brush it off saying, “This isn’t that big of a deal. I’ll get back on track soon enough.”

I started thinking, what if I did that with money? I’ll just splurge on this and that and next week I’ll get back on my budget. The consequences of my actions would still be around next week. Or what about with unhelpful books or movies? I’ll just watch Sex and the City this one time. The mental pictures don’t disappear the minute I turn the TV off.

Because I know that about money and unhelpful books and movies, I avoid them. I just don’t even go there. And I don’t feel restricted by not living beyond my means or watching inappropriate shows. I feel more free because I’m not encumbered by all the temptations and consequences that go along with those things.

Why is eating any different?

I know that I feel better and don’t think about my body image/weight/food as much when I’m exercising self-control and eating wisely. I know that eating a bunch of sugar in one day makes me feel gross. So why do I do it?

I’m pretty sure it’s because I don’t look at the consequences of eating poorly as being a big deal. Sure, I don’t feel the best when I eat too much food or too much sugar but the next morning, I eat some oatmeal, I go workout and I’m back to feeling pretty good. Easily solved, right?

But I forget that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. When I go to church, I treat the facility and furniture with respect because it’s God’s house. I don’t pour garbage all over the floor and write on the walls, saying “Don’t worry. I’ll clean this up later. You’ll never even know.” Those behaviors would be disrespectful. In the same way, filling my body full of garbage that I’m not really enjoying but eating “just because” is treating my body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, disrespectfully. If I lived in the acknowledgment that my body is not my own because I was bought at a price, I believe my approach to eating would be different.

I do believe in balance and that God has given us delicious foods, including sweets and alcohol, to enjoy in moderation. But I know that when I eat too many of them, my enjoyment of them diminishes. Because they’re no longer a special treat – just a daily sugar bomb.

So just as I have been reminding myself that my body does not represent who I really am when I am tempted to base my worth on appearance, I am going to try to remind myself that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit when faced with poor food choices. “Your body is not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

Lord, help me to treat my body in a way that glorifies You as the only One that satisfies and that gives me life and joy, as well as energy and health for living with vitality. Health is an amazing gift and I thank You for it – help me to not to take it for granted or squander it on things that don’t satisfy.

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In other news, I signed up to participate in the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge 2011 that starts this Saturday. (For the details, follow the challenge hyperlink.) Hopefully this will give me that extra kick of motivation to keep going on my training plan!

What helps you strike a balance in your eating habits?

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Save the Suave

21 Jul

As a person interested in health and fitness, I consistently try to improve my daily habits to promote my health. I’ve already done that with drinking 64 oz of water daily (still going strong!) and trying to maintain the balance between training and the rest of life. My latest focus has been on not washing my hair every day.

Here’s the dish on my hair:

  • It’s color-treated (from a box) to be slightly blonder than natural.
  • It’s naturally pin straight.
  • I get it cut every 6 months, usually going from shoulder length to chin length and back again.
  • I often get the comment at salons that my hair is thin but I have “a lot of it.”
  • I also get the comment that my hair is “very healthy” — since I use Pantene or Suave shampoo, [used to] wash, blow-dry and curl my hair daily, and only get it cut every 6 months, this comment usually makes me feel rather smug for thwarting the system of expensive shampoos, hair treatments and the like.

Even though my hair has always tended to be on the drier side and as such, has never really necessitated daily washings, I couldn’t fathom not washing my hair. I feared waking up with the hair that is just slightly greasy enough that you can tell it needs to be washed. I also enjoy a clean head and the smell of just-shampooed hair.

An additional objection I had to this notion of not washing my hair everyday was that I exercise a lot and I get really sweaty. I was trying to be considerate of those around me by washing my hair after every workout (some days I even washed my hair twice).

But then one day at work, I was talking with some of my female co-workers about a blog called My Yellow Sandbox. Abby, whose blog it is, only washes her every “fourish” days. Apparently, washing your hair every day makes it drier (because you’re washing out the natural oils your scalp produces that are good for your hair). She even says that the less you wash your hair, the less greasy it will be.

That was pretty intriguing to me. Less greasy the less I wash it? I’ll try it!

And you know what? I’m a believer. Here is photo evidence of me going 3 days with washing my hair once (I don’t think I could go 4 or more like Abby, because of the whole buckets-of-sweat thing).

This is my strategy:

Day 1

Wash and blow dry hair. Style with curling iron or flatiron; minimal product (as in none). Leave hair down.

Day 2

{Disclaimer: I went swimming and got my hair wet this morning so I wasn’t styling my hair from a dry state.} Blow dry hair and spray with dry shampoo before styling with flatiron. OR Blow dry hair halfway and pull hair into messy ponytail. Spray with hairspray.

Day 3

Pull hair into messy ponytail and spray with hairspray.

Since I go swimming every 2-3 days, I can’t really get completely away from blow-drying (wet hair is not very professional looking) or heat-styling (my hair does kinks instead of wavy) on the days I swim, unless I go swimming at night. If I do that, I towel dry my hair so that it’s not sopping wet, pull it into a braid, and go to bed. The next morning, I either put my hair half-up (and curl the ends, for reason aforementioned) or into a messy ponytail (Reason #1 Why I’m Loving the Length My Hair Is Right Now.)

I’ve also discovered that after a particularly sweaty workout, my hair looks better (i.e. less greasy from sweat) if I get it wet before styling it, rather than just trying to blow-dry the sweat out. Even then, I try to only blow-dry my hair until it’s slightly damp, then put it in a messy ponytail. Not only does that save me time and lessen the damage, my slippery straight hair stays up better if I put it up when it’s damp.

I’m still working on getting my routine down and trying to minimize the amount I use the blow-dryer and heat tools. Last night, I went on a run after work and then let my hair dry after my shower. (Win!) This morning, I still curled my hair (Lose!) and pulled it into a low ponytail. I suppose I could have foregone the curling iron but I felt that curling it would look better.

I do feel better about not washing my hair as often, and haven’t really had any or much trouble with it being greasy. (Dry shampoo also helps — I have TRESemmé Dry Shampoo for Dry Hair). Most of all, I like being able to get ready so much faster in the morning! Now if only I could find a way to keep my hair dry while swimming, I’d be set.

How often do you wash your hair?

What type of hair do you have?

Any tips for me on how to avoid blow-drying and heat-styling?

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