Valen’s Vanity Square

I had a swollen and painful feet last week, but I still went shopping. In fact, I spent like 4-5 hours in the shopping mall. And I called it limping-shopping, haha! Even the salesgirl in Hush Puppies said I should be resting and not walking around in wedge shoes.

Funnily, the more I got excited with the clothes I tried on, the less pain I felt. By the end of the day, my feet felt so much better, and the pain was like 50% reduced. I found that the ache on my feet relieved a lot especially after going to the toilet. You know, the one that requires you to squat down. May be while squatting down certain muscles or tendons or ligaments got to stretch and relax, and therefore reduces the tenseness of the swollen area. Well, that’s just my ‘theory’. Haha!

The swelling and pain has gone now. I now wear boots or heels to work. Speaking of work, I actually have some work that I brought home to do… that’s my new working life!

I haven’t mentioned here before - I’m now an aunt to my sister’s baby girl!

Well, I’ve been an aunt for one whole month. Today my niece is exactly one month old. Chinese call this as Full Moon. The parents of the baby will normally on this day hold a special full moon lunch or dinner get together, or give away special full-moon food gift box to those who have sent them baby gifts earlier. My sister chose to do the latter as it’s more budget friendly.

On this day, the baby will also receive more presents. Close relatives usually give gold chain, gold pendant, golden anklet, etc. I choose to give something more practical - cash.

I would very much like to give my cute niece this uppababy vista special edition stroller, but I can’t afford it. This aunt just about to go back to work full-time again tomorrow, so she’s financially very unstable at the moment (yet to get her first pay, haha!).

No worry honey, I will buy you toys when you’re a bit older, okay?

In the Western medicine, a woman’s ovulation can be affected - be it irregular ovulation or lack of ovulation - if she has hormonal imbalance problem. But if you ask a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner, he or she will add on that even how fast your heart beats (pulse rate) can have an effect on the production and release of your ovum.

I didn’t make this up, that’s what my TCM doctor told me. He said my heart beats faster than normal, and slightly irregular. That, will not promote the healthiest egg production and normal ovulation. Eeeks!

Luckily I didn’t have any tight chest symptom, otherwise it might indicative of a heart problem! I hope the next time he won’t tell me that I didn’t have adequate oxygen in my blood, otherwise I would have to buy a pulse oximeter to check my own blood saturation level.

(A pulse oximeter is a medical device that indirectly measures the oxygen saturation of a person’s blood without having to take blood sample.)

You see, there are so many things that a TCM practitioner can tell you by examining your pulse rate - bad blood circulation, heavy or lack of vaginal secretion, inflammation at the hip, etc - without running the typical physical examination or blood tests like what the Western medicine doctors do. And they will tell you to adjust your diet in a way that is not likely to be advised by your typical nutritionist or family doctor.

It may sound unconventional, but TCM is actually treating a person holistically by finding out what the root problem is, and not just trying to eliminate the symptoms. If you have been suffering from some illness and haven’t got any better from your medications, may be you can try TCM to see if it could benefit you somehow.

Are you on a weight loss plan using diet pills? If yes, then there are some important steps that you need to follow to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the weight loss pill. For example:

• Don’t crush your diet pill and mix it in drinks or soups. Just take it in whole with a full glass of water.
• Take only the recommended dosage. Taking more may not necessarily help you to lose weight faster or more. In fact, it increase the risk of side effects.
• Diet pills have diuretic effect, i.e. you’ll urinate more frequently. So make sure you drink at least 8 glasses of water everyday when you’re on diet pills to prevent dehydration.
• Follow the diet plan your dietitian’s formulated for you, because diet pills will only work if you’re eating the right way.

If you decide to take over-the-counter diet pills (i.e. not prescribed by your doctor or dietitian), make sure you do a thorough research about the product before you start taking it. For instance, if you wonder what are the active ingredients contained in phosphacore, and what are the consumer ratings of this weight loss product, you can always look for the information you want by searching the internet.

My to-buy list for tomorrow’s shopping quest are mainly attire items - tops and slacks, a pair of shoes, a tote, plus some accessories.

Not going to spend money on cosmetics coz I already have quite a stash in my drawer, hehe. Well, I won’t need to put on full make-up to work anyway. Just apply BB cream, with or without loose powder, and lip gloss will do. Perhaps I’ll need an eyebrow pencil in case I trim my eyebrows too short, haha!

Since I’m going to work long hours in an air-conditioned office now, my main skin care regime will emphasize on skin hydration. As long as my skin is well hydrated and moisturized properly, the fine lines will become less apparent, and I don’t have to spend so much on wrinkle cream.

I won’t be having as much sleep as I’m having now. So I foresee eye bags and dark eye circles to become my new friends very soon. Haha! That means I’ll have to take extra care of the skin around my eyes. Luckily, I found this website EyeCream.org that features user reviews on various brands of anti-wrinkle eye creams and eye gels. it’s quite cool, you should take a look if you’re researching on the best eye cream around.

Is it bad feng shui or what? I’m just so prone to ‘disasters’ recently!

First, skin allergic reactions. Now, some ligament or tendon tear on my left foot. Well, actually I don’t know if it is a tear indeed, but the point is - my left food hurts like hell when I stand and walk! :<

The pain is located at the right side of my left foot. It is a bit swollen now, not very obvious, but painful. I don’t remember hitting my foot on anything. May be it’s an after-effect of Sunday’s family gathering at my house, where I basically stood and walked around entertaining guests the whole evening, and my foot is now overstressed?

Started to feel some mild pain before going to bed last night, but when I woke up this morning and stepped on my foot, it was so many times more painful than last night. Now I’m practically limping as I walk.

Oh dear, I have planned to do so many things tomorrow - to collect the letter of appointment from my new employer, then to the bank to sort out some banking issues, then to shopping for working clothes. I wonder if I will be able to accomplish my shopping quest tomorrow!

Went to the pharmacy to get my allergic medicine during the weekend. I showed the pharmacist the prescription my doctor gave me - an antihistamine and a steroid. Antihistamine is to stop the itchiness, while steroid is to relieve inflammation and swelling (i.e. the bumps and rashes).

The itchiness subsided two days ago, but there was some redness on the skin yesterday. Today, my skin looks pretty much back to normal. What I noticed is that the skin around my eyes and eyelids tend to become dry and flaky after the allergic reaction, may be because I scratched the area a lot. I know the best eye creams won’t be of any help now, as I need to use eye gel according to the pharmacist.

When I told the pharmacist how my skin allergic reaction happened the first time, and how it occurred again 2 weeks later after my facial, she said I shouldn’t go for facial so soon since the first incidence. And she also advised to avoid allergenic foods, such as peanuts, eggs, prawns, etc, for the time being. Eeeks, I already have had those. Anyway…

And on the skin care aspect, she told me not to use facial cleanser that has bubbles (I think she meant foamy facial cleanser), but simply rinse my face with clean water (not sure if I want to follow that), and use gel-base moisturizer. I wonder if Hada Labo Super Hyaluronic Acid moisturizing lotion is considered a gel-base moisturizer. I’m using it now and it doesn’t appear to cause any problem.

I have to be careful with my other skin care products this week. No facial mask from now onwards. No facial treatment in the next 4 weeks. I’m going to start on a new job next week, and I don’t want to meet new colleagues with a face with rashes all over. Haha!

Has anybody tried adipex diet pill? Can you tell me about it? A few diet pills might help me a bit after the dinner feast held at my home yesterday…

Just kidding! As much as I want to lose weight fast, diet pills are not for me. Just that I feel a bit guilty after enjoying ‘good’ food yesterday. The ‘good’ is defined as chicken curry rich in coconut milk, fried glutinous rice, Chinese herbal pork stew, some cheesecakes, etc. I didn’t eat a lot, but I’m eating the same stuffs for lunch and dinner again today!

There’s so much leftover. Well, I don’t really want to consider them as leftover; my parents in law purposely cooked extra large portions because they are so generous that they want everyone who came for the dinner to have more food to bring home. And it’s as if it’s their responsibility to even prepare containers for them to pack the foods!

What can I say, a family tradition? This just happens every year. Well, I don’t mind eating the same old food every year (as long as I make myself workout a bit after that), but I hope next year it won’t take place at my house! So much cleaning up to do afterward. I can’t stand seeing oily fingerprints on my leather sofa and food residues on the floor! And they are all adults!

Hmm, looks like I’m not a hospitable person after all.

Jeez, what’s wrong with my immune system? I thought my previous favorite facial mask was the culprit to the skin allergic reaction on my face. It seems that even my facial treatment is giving me problems!

Went for facial yesterday. Everything was fine after that, my complexion looked more supple and my pores were reduced. So, I window shopped, had my afternoon snack and coffee, waiting for hubby to meet me for dinner at the shopping mall.

About 2 hours later, I started to feel itchiness on my neck, face and around the eyes. And there were small bumps and big bumps emerging on my face, too! Oh no, it’s here again. The allergic reaction!

I didn’t have my allergic medicine with me, and my face just becomes redder and had rashes all over. I couldn’t do anything but sat in the ladies washroom (there’s a make-up area with sofas) and waited for hubby. I didn’t want to walk around and scared away the patrons of the shopping mall. Haha!

I still can’t figure out what causes my suddenly sensitive skin. Facial masks that I have used without problem, facial treatment that I have undergone for more than a year, they both now trigger skin allergy on my face.

I don’t know if that means I can’t ever go for my facial again (but I still have 12 more treatments in the course!), or they just have to change the type of treatment to suit my current skin condition. *sigh*

If I had acne and blemishes now, I don’t think I would even bother to look for the best acne treatments, coz I have a more urgent problem to deal with now - a sensitized skin. As to exactly what my skin is sensitive to, I don’t know! Other skin care products that I’ve been using don’t seem to trigger any undesirable reaction so far.

Looks like tonight I have to visit the pharmacy and get some anti-allergic medicine in case a flare up happens again!