Valen’s Vanity Square

One of the things that Dr Lenis mentioned in his talk was about losing weight. What do you think is the most natural and cheapest way to lose weight?

Sleep.

Yes, sleep well, and sleep a couple more hours extra. That’s the secret to losing weight!

How? I’m not really sure. Can’t recall if Dr Lenis explained about it. My own ‘theory’, hehe, is that when we have sufficient sleep, our body has the time to repair itself, and when we wake up, we will feel fully energized and alert. Our body won’t be craving for energy replenishment, which we usually achieve by consuming food, haha!

Also, if we go to bed early or take a nap in the afternoon, the chances of us munching on supper or afternoon snack are greatly reduced. So, we won’t be taking in extra calories.

However, in real life, how many of us have the luxury of sleeping a full 8 hours or more, right? The only time that one can sleep till the sun hits the butt is only during weekends, and that is if you have no morning plans with family or friends.

Sleep to lose weight, theoretically it sounds very easy but not everyone can do it. Otherwise, there won’t be so many weight loss products, such as appetite suppresant and fat burning teas etc, available in the market, right?

Sometimes spending a little bit of money and effort is more practical and effective in achieving a goal than doing it at no cost at all.

Went to a health talk last weekend with hubby. It’s a talk about anti-aging secrets and it’s FREE! When you have the opportunity to learn the secrets to a younger body and soul, you would not want to miss it, would you?

The speaker is Dr Dimitrios Lenis from Greece. He is an expert in natural healing as well as numerology, and who can converse in Mandarin! Cool! (You can read a bit more about him on this page.) He is 50 years old, but surely doesn’t look like he’s half a century old! Proof below.

The talk was held in a seminar room at Sin Chew Jit Poh and the response was overwhelmingly overwhelmed. Haha! The talk last for almost 2.5 hours, including a demonstration of some stretching exercises before concluding.

In essence, below are some points about healthy living and anti-aging from his talk.

• We are consuming ‘toxins’ everyday from food - preservatives, MSG, coloring, high salt, high sugar, foods cooked at high temperature, etc. Avoid these stuffs if you want to stay longer and healthier.
• Steaming is the best way to prepare food. Chinese Dim Sum and steamboat are actually good options. However, when you eat out, the foods are usually loaded with MSG, salt, sugar or flavorings. So, it’s best to prepare your own food at home.
• Not all oils are suitable for high temperature cooking (e.g. baking, stir-frying). Vegetable oils are not stable when cooked in high temperature, and may produce elements harmful to the body when consumed in the long term. Don’t be shocked if I tell you that the two most steady oil suitable for most of our Asian cooking are - coconut oil and lard (pork oil)!
• Eat more anti-aging foods - berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries), avocado, mocha tea (not the same as green tea), dark chocolate, red wine (not suitable for those who are allergic to alcohol), olive oil (gulp two spoonfuls everyday if you like…eeek)
• Be careful when you HAVE to eat barbequed, baked and fried foods - remove any burnt (and oh so crispy and delicious) parts to avoid putting carcinogenic stuffs into your system.
• You have to be emotionally healthy as well if you want to fight aging and sickness. In fact, it is the most important factor, followed by diet and physical well being.
• Look at something beautiful or smell something pleasant for 20 minutes every day to boost your emotional level. An easy way is to hug someone you love and immerse yourself in his or her natural body smell for 20 minutes every day. Haha!

There are  so much information that Dr Lenis shared about eating right and staying happy, but these are so far that I can remember. Hope that with these few simple steps, every one is able to live a little bit healthier than before.

So many things to buy, so little money to spend… But no matter how difficult the situation is, I can’t save on ‘necessity’, such as facial masks.

I haven’t been diligent in applying mask for several months, and finally realized that I cannot stinge on the basics if I want to maintain my skin hydration and keep pore size minimal and fine lines less visible. So last week I stocked up on:

• From SASA: SKINLITE Grapefruit Facial Essence mask (RM19.90/box, 3 pcs in each; current promotion: buy 1 free 1), and Hydrating Cucumber masque (very good for my skin!)
• From ELIANTO: Royal Jelly Essence, Revitalization Caviar (not bad!) and Ginseng Essence Masks (RM6-RM8 each)

These are the only things that I can afford with my own pocket.

Luckily, hubby received a small bonus this month. Got him to sponsor some new clothes from TREAT in Midvalley Megamall, hehe. Actually, I think I should also ask him to buy me an external hard drive, coz I have so many downloaded games, songs, ebooks and other digital files sitting in my laptop’s hard disk, and that is slowing down the machine. I won’t want to back up these files into CDs yet, as I may still want to use them from time to time.

Went for a mini-facial today, and the ‘beautician’ is my sister!

I don’t know how she managed to find such an offer - free facial course for 6 months, you can go anytime and learn as much as you can, but you have to complete the beginner’s level facial cleansing phase by practising your skill on 20 people, and approved by your teacher before you can proceed to the next level. And, once you fulfill 50 hours of lessons (including practical hours) within that 6 months, you will receive free product vouchers some more!

I’m the second person to be practised on, my sister’s hubby was the first one, haha!

My sister is still unfamiliar with some of the steps in facial cleansing now. I think I will let her practise on my face again after another 5 or 6 more persons. Although there is no extraction or face massage, it is still nice to get a free facial with exfoliation and mask, hehe.

Jeez, I’m overdue for my fortnightly facial treatment. Should have gone last week, but was so caught up with work. (Yes, work that will put money into my bank account 1 month later, so that I can start spending again, ha!)

Alright, I will call my beautician for an appointment next week, before my skin condition goes hay-wired again. It currently is pretty much under control - less oily, less pimple. But fine lines are still apparent.

Sometimes going for facial is just not merely for the purpose of skin care. It can be about pampering and rewarding ourselves after accomplishing a big project at work, letting our body and soul taking a much-needed break after going through so much stress. It can also be just our vanity calling, ‘Hey! Let’s try something new!’

Like me, I actually would like to try different facial treatments from different skin care salons - comparing their products, services and pricing, and experiencing the difference in the beauty therapists’ face washing and massaging skills. Names such as Sothys, Cellnique an Dr Murad, have come across my mind several times. Too bad, my current financial status does not allow me to do so.

So sad….

And I still have few more months to finish paying the installment for my current facial treatment package,urrgh!

Money, money, money. When we have a full-time salaried job, we always want to make more money, right? Be it buying a lottery ticket, setting up some form of online business, or do some direct selling of household products. Needless to say, when we lost our job, we MUST find ways to make money in order to survive (with shopping)!

Just like my sister and myself, we got some clothes from wholesalers overseas and sell them online, hoping to earn some extra pocket money. Many people are doing this because it is a business with a low start-up cost. Some people sell handmade jewelry, which is also part of my plan.

Actually, besides wholesaler, there are other sources to purchase goods at low price and sell for good profits. I wasn’t aware of it until recently. Following the closing down of numerous brick-and-mortar businesses, there are a lot of liquidated merchandise and surplus stock available for grabs these days. The problem is to know where to find them, how to deal with those closeout and salvage dealers, etc. It is really important to know how to go about it to ensure the investment does not go to a waste.

But I think this type of project is rather huge for my sister and myself to handle at this point. We’ll just stick to our little business plan for the time being.

I don’t get it, why at my age, err thirty something, I still experience pimple problem on and off. I blame it to the dusty environment, blame it to the weather, blame it to skincare products that cause my face to be oily. Other than that, I can’t think of any other reasons.

Fortunately, my pimple problem is not some serious case. I don’t need a whole range of acne care products or some best acne pills to treat them. I think all my skin need is extra tender loving care from me, haha!

So what I do in the evening is, when I apply my SIMPLE soothing facial toner, I add 3-4 drops of The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil onto the cotton pad damped with the toner. I first wipe it all over my face, and then lightly pat the still damped cotton pad on affected areas more intensely. This helps remove traces of oil and dirt from my face, and at the same time it’s cooling and hydrating. This is followed by application of night moisturizer.

I know it’s probably more convenient just to get hold of a bottle of The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil Toner, but I’m just trying to be resourceful, hehe, using whatever I have on my dressing table. Well, after doing this for more than a week, it seems to work for me so far. My pimples are under control now.

I started using Garnier’s Age-Lift anti-wrinkle day cream more than a month ago, and now decided to switch back to L’Oreal’s Revitalift anti-wrinkle firming day cream (I refer it as ‘Gong Li cream’ when I talk to hubby). Why?

Firstly, I don’t really like its smell, it’s so fruity. May be it’s the blueberry extract ingredient?

Secondly, my face seemed to become more oily than before since I started using it, even though its texture is lighter than Revitalift. And it didn’t give me the instant glowing complexion after application, as what I have had with Revitalift.

Thirdly, the cream neither improves the fine lines on my face nor preventing them from becoming worse. I wonder if that’s why my beautician said that my skin sagged a lot recently.

I bought Garnier’s Age-Lift because it was RM10 ringgit cheaper than Revitalift, ha! Luckily, there was a promotion for Revitalift (now with elastin) in Jaya Jusco last week (not sure if the promotion is still on now). I got it at RM34.90, the actual retail price is RM49.90. So now I’m back to using ‘Gong Li cream’ again, my face ‘feels’ so much better now, haha!

Are you planning to celebrate your baby’s first birthday with a themed party but are cracking your head for ideas and party supplies? No, I can’t help you with your party plan, but 1stBirthdayParty.com can!

While I yet to have any kids myself, but I can’t help to imagine the day I celebrate my kid’s first birthday with a Winnie The Pooh theme after seeing what the website has to offer, haha! All their party supplies - invitation cards, plates, napkins, cups, banners, centerpieces, etc - are OH SO CUTE!

There are also other theme-related party supplies, such as Mickey’s Clubhouse, Minnie Mouse’s Clubhouse, Fairytale princess, jungle buddies and garden fairy. Kids sure love to see the cartoon characters! I think adults will enjoy the colorful and fun party settings, too.

Mickey’s clubhouse invitation card and centerpiece

Pooh’s first birthday cups and beverage napkin

Garden fairy dinner plate and candles