Valen’s Vanity Square

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year to you if you’re celebrating this festive.

Today’s the second day of CNY. Yesterday, we visited my father in law’s relatives. Today, we’ll be visiting my mother in law’s. Well, this is the ‘tradition’ of my hubby’s family. Anyway, I’ll be going back to my parents’ this evening for dinner. The second day of CNY is the day where the wives get to visit their own family.

I think the city is pretty quite today, so are the highways. The highways were super duper jam last Friday and Saturday, where many drove back to their hometowns to be in time for reunion dinners. Lucky for us, we moved back to KL more than a year ago, so we didn’t have to go through the ‘balik kampong’ traffic agony anymore.

When there’s such heavy traffic on the highways, naturally there will be increased incidence of road accidents or cars breaking down. You have to call for help, then wait by the roadside for assistance to come, it might be a very hot day or raining cats and dogs, your journey is delayed…

Can’t imagine if you’re driving a heavy duty automobile, such as a motor home, and this happened. That would be such a big spoiler to your plan, be it a RV or camping trip. Of course, if you’re in US or Canada, you don’t have to worry a bit coz there’s good sam motorhome towing ready to your rescue if your motor home breaks down.

Anyhow, the best way to prevent all those unfortunate road incidents is to get your vehicle checked and serviced before you set off, and drive carefully on the road.

Have a safe journey, wherever you’re going!

Drug rehabilitation, in short drug rehab, is a broad term describing the processes of treating dependency on psychoactive substances, such as alcohol, recreational drugs such as amphetamines and cocaine, and other drugs of abuse. Through medical and psychotherapeutic treatment, the goal of drug rehab is to make sure the patient cease abusing and depending on substances.

A drug rehab program involves a detoxification process, which is very uncomfortable for the patients, as they will get all sorts of withdrawal symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, irritability, insomnia, seizures, schizophrenia, etc. The drug rehab program will help patients to cope with those physical and mental withdrawal symptoms from the drug they regularly used.

Many drug rehab programs also teach patients how to interact in a drug-free environment, change habits related to addiction, and not to associate further with people who use addictive substances. This is to ensure a successful rehab and prevent them from getting back into drug abuse.

For those who have been suffering from acne, you might be wondering if there is any effective natural acne treatment to help solve your problem, so that you would no longer have to rely on OTC or prescribed acne medications. You then might also wonder what the best natural acne treatment is.

Well, the best and most natural treatment for acne is none other than…. live a healthy life! Eat a healthy diet, be physically active, and learn how to manage the stresses of life.

Proper diet as a natural acne solution

Increase fruits and vegetables in the diet, preferable at least 2 pieces of fruit and 1 cup of vegetables daily.

Eliminate sugar and sugary foods because sugar makes the skin sebaceous glands more active and secretes more oil. These glands are easily infected by acne-causing bacteria.

Avoid junk foods, fried and oily foods, and dairy products, as they tend to aggravate acne.

Take vitamins and supplements. Vitamins that will help improve acne skin are such as vitamins A, C and E. You can also take garlic and evening primrose oil capsules.

Other natural remedies for acne

You may also try herbal acne remedy  and homeotherapy to help cure acne problems. To use homeotherapy, it’s advisable to have a trained homeopathic health care provider to prescribe your acne medication.

Last but not least, practice good skin care. Cleanse your skin well every day to remove dirt and oil as well as acne-causing bacteria. Exfoliate your skin once or twice weekly to remove dead skin cells and prevent clogged pores.

Last night I finished baking cookies around midnight! So didn’t get to exercise on my elliptical machine. So today I have to double my exercising time to 30 minutes.

The main purpose of having an elliptical machine at home is so that hubby can exercise any time he wants. He doesn’t need to go to the gym, and we don’t have to struggle to wake up on weekends to go to the park. Also, I read that exercising using an elliptical machine has less impact and is therefore gentler for the knees compared to running on a treadmill. Since I occasionally experience knee pain, I figure having an elliptical machine at home is to my advantage as well.

However, I’m worried that I might eventually have to start taking joint supplements, and visiting websites like www.jointsupplementreviews.net to learn more about supplements for joint health or to relieve joint pain. You see, my left knee gives out a cracking sound whenever I climb the staircase, or bend my knee. Well, not always though, and it doesn’t necessarily hurts. This could be an early sign that I will be developing some form of knee arthritis 10 years down the road.

Jeez, perhaps I have to start researching on this topic to help my knee if I want to remain active and still be able to walk by the time I’m 60!

Jeez, I’m so hungry. I had a very light lunch - a simple tuna sandwich and one of those small oranges. I forgot to pack something for today’s lunch when we’re out shopping last night. And I’m bored of eating instant noodles.

I’m now waiting for hubby to come back with packed dinner. I’m not cooking tonight coz it’s another cookie-baking night.

You know how one can so easily gain weight by baking cookies? Coz you tend to bake and eat at the same time, haha! And I told myself last week I have to lose 2 kg by CNY. There’s only 4 days left to CNY, and I don’t think there’s any weight loss product can help me now, haha!

And what I’m going to bake tonight is gonna kill, really kills - peanut cookies - made purely from of peanuts, flour, sugar and peanut cooking oil. That’s oh so fattening!!

I think I have to get onto that elliptical machine and workout for at least 15 minutes before I go to bed and zzzz.

Not everyone has the habit of taking vitamins or other supplements everyday, despite we all are well aware that we are unlikely to meet our daily nutrient requirements even with the healthiest diet.

If you are pregnant, then it’s even more important to make sure your daily needs are met, for the sake of your health and the health of your growing baby inside you. The vitamins needed while a woman is pregnant is called prenatal vitamins. Prenatal supplements contain numerous vitamins and minerals, and are specially formulated to make up for any nutritional deficiencies in the mother’s diet. Several substances are especially important - folic acid, iron and calcium.

You can easily find information about the recommended prenatal vitamins from books and the internet.

For women who are planning to get pregnant, doctors also usually recommend prenatal vitamins (or more correctly, preconception vitamins). Folic acid is particularly essential even before a woman get pregnant, because it is needed to prevent serious birth defect of the brain and spinal cord. These organs develop very early after conception, and the reserve of folic acid in the mother’s body must be enough as soon as she is conceived.