I'm Ready!

Hello, hello!

Today is the last day of January and it meant I wasted a whole full month again. I won't mind the negative stuff for now, and be thankful that tomorrow's a new month, a time to start yet again. It now sounds funny that I always start again...but I am giving myself some credit for still hanging on, for still wanting to try again, for not completely giving up. I know, it will be difficult to start again, but I don't want to have any regrets again.

Goals are still the same - lose 5lbs by the end of the month and strictly follow the schedules, but of course, given some circumstances, I know I can't do everything as I have to do other things, too. I plan to devote Mondays and Thursdays for toning the arms (means I will use the dumbbells), tone the legs and buns every Tuesdays and Fridays, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays, I will work on my back area. Time management will be the most difficult to do as I work, blog, and watch a movie a day, too, but I am already making a schedule that would allow me to do everything I need to do.

Tomorrow's Friday, meaning it's Legs and Buns day.  I will start the day doing a morning walk and jog at Colinas Verdes, do Hip Hop Abs, 8 Minute Legs workout (which I saw on YouTube), and the exercise I share here sometime back.

As for the diet, no drastic change, but I will continue eating fish and vegetables for now as I still don't feel like eating beef and pork after attending the events last weekend. I feel thankful that guests were served a whole lot of meat dishes during the wedding and the baptism receptions that I got tired eating meat dishes. I ate Hawaiian Pizza last Tuesday, but I immediately threw it up because my tummy can't seem to handle it. No matter how I tried not to throw it up, I can't control my body. I see that as a positive thing - because I don't have to force myself to eat healthy, my body is craving for healthy food. Since I got home, I am always eating fish and veggies, and I am eating less rice, too. I don't know what my weight is, I will find out tomorrow.

So yes, I am ready! No need to beg February to be nice to me... I will make sure I make this month count.

Before I sign out, let me just share this:


Very nice, eh?

My mom came home today with a copy of Becky Crocker "Cookbook for Women," and although most of the recipes  I can't cook because ingredients aren't readily available here in the Philippines, but what I liked about are the pages devoted to healthy eating and healthy living. I will read the pages before I sleep tonight, and try to share it here. Thank you mom, for buying this one.

See you all tomorrow!

Jay & Theresa's Wedding (The Ceremony)

Two of the closest cousins I have are siblings Theresa and Mhai. When I quit college in 1999 (I went back in 2001, if you wanna know), I lived for one year in La Union and although they were still high school at that time (Tere's 3rd Year, Mhai's 1st Year), I became real close to them - sharing things about crushes, dreams, and life.

When Tere left the country to live in England to pursue further studies, our communication stopped, but thanks to Facebook, we found a way to communicate again. There are many negative things about Facebook, I know, but I do agree that it became a very powerful tool to bridge people again - including Tere and Jay.

They were classmates in elementary, but after sixth grade, Jay and his family migrated to Canada. It was through Facebook that they found each other, rekindled the friendship and started their love story. I don't know the full story of it, but with her living in England, and him living in Canada, they found a way to make a long distance love story work. Last quarter of 2012, they announced their engagement and set the wedding day on the 26th of January here in the Philippines.


The ceremony was solemn, attended only by close friends and family. The wedding took place in St. John the Baptist Church in San Juan, La Union where both of them hailed from. We nearly missed Theresa walking down the aisle as there were miscommunications with the time (invitation said it will be at 10:30am, but we received a call that it was moved to 11am because there was a funeral service in the morning and they had to wait before they could decorate the church). The ceremony itself was short and sweet, but I did wonder why the priest didn't do a homily after the gospel. Anyway, I was wearing a pair of high heeled shoes so I couldn't roam around to take pictures, but I was able to find a good spot to capture images from afar without intruding the official photographers for the event.



My cousin and I haven't really got to the part of talking about relationships, but I know for sure how much they mean for each other. Long distance relationship was difficult, but they made it work. Of course it also meant sacrifices, and Theresa decided not to go back to England... she will just process some documents so she can live in Canada, after all, Jay is now a Canadian citizen.


Wedding days are always magical... and aside from celebrating love, it was also a celebration of close family ties. When my sister and I arrived in La Union a day before the wedding, I was surprised to see our Uncle Danny, whom I haven't seen for twenty years. It's amazing how an event could gather people and strengthen relationships.

To Jay and Theresa, may you love and take care of each other. Congratulations and best wishes!




{Pictures from the reception will be posted tomorrow}

Enough Already!

The last quarter of 2012 was quite a low time for me. The feeling of losing Mr. Pipoy in my life finally sunk in and I found myself feeling empty, lonely, and lost. Yeah I know, people would say, "So what? He's just a man..." and I do agree to some extent, but it's not actually the man that I am missing, it's the memories we've shared together.

I thought I'd welcome the new year feeling refreshed, ready to face the challenges of losing weight, getting back into the routine, living the life I long to live. I did have a few attempts, I'd go walking and jogging at times... I'd mind the food intake in some occasions, but most of the time I'd drown myself in reading books and watching TV.

Cutting the story short - I gained more weight and is currently between 214 and 216. First week of January, my weight spiked to 218 (which made me sulk in the room the whole day), but lessening the food intake made me lose a little. Still, I know I have to get back into the hang of things...not for anybody, but for me.


Last week (21 January), I went out with my family to celebrate my parents' wedding anniversary (even if dad's no longer around to celebrate it). It was my first time in a long time to wear sleeveless outside, and I wasn't at all impressed at how I look like. In my head, I should never feel ashamed... drilling into my head that I should be thankful I have arms, but, if you have lost weight in the past and gained back more than half of it, the feeling will wear you down. Losing weight is such a difficult thing to do, and now, I am letting all the hard work go to waste (and waist, too).


Obviously, I didn't wear a dress during my cousin's wedding last weekend (26 January). I just couldn't take the courage to show off my big arms and big tummy bulges, knowing I'd have pictures taken with my family having slim figures (my siblings and I are the biggest ones in the family). I did swallow my pride and decided to wear a rather short skirt, showing my big legs full of scars... I don't know if anyone whispered bad words about me, but I somehow, allowing myself to wear the skirt (when I can always wear a pair of leggings) was the only pride left I have. :)


As part of my "A Movie a Day Project," I got to watch this Korean movie called "200 Pounds Beauty" (you can click the play button and watch the full movie). It's a story of a fat woman who had a full body makeover in order to be accepted. Some things she did I don't agree with, but as with anyone having problems, we do make our own choices to give solutions to our problems. I did learn a lot from this movie, but one of my most memorable scenes was the that one when Hanna overheard her boss (who is her crush) talking to another woman about her, which made her decide to go to the doctor for a makeover (22:46 - 28:10). The doctor telling her, "You could die from all these..." to which Hanna answered, "I died yesterday," was something that made a lot of impact on me.

I died yesterday.

Some things in life are bound to happen and it's how we react to those things that makes us who we are now. I am missing the memories I shared with Mr. Pipoy, but it's over now, and I have to move on. I am already tired feeling lost and alone, I am already tired feeling jealous of people losing successfully losing weight, I am already tired of hurting and punishing myself. It's true that life throws sh_t at us and the way we react to it makes us who we are now. I want to be victorious.

I want to live again.

My Nails on My Cousin's Wedding Day

I know for sure that I don't have the talent to do intricate nail art, but every time a special occasion comes, I try to look for easy nail art so that my nails won't just be wearing one solid color.


"Tomato Red with a Touch of Tiffany Blue" was my cousin's motif for her wedding. Ever since she told me this, I have searched for nail art I could do, but whenever I test it out, I often get a little disheartened especially when doing my right hand, as I would be using my left hand. Checking YouTube, a certain "Saran Wrap Nails Tutorial" caught my attention, and after watching it, I knew I found the nail art I would be doing.

For this, I used Caress "Sparkle Pink" and Etude House "CBL601." First, I painted all my nails with "Sparkle Pink" (two thick coats) and allowed it to dry completely (that meant keeping it overnight). The next day, I cut out pieces of saran wrap (or cling wrap) and crumple them so it will be handy afterwards. Going one nail after the other, I painted my nails with one thin coat of "CBL601" and while it was still wet, I dabbed the crumpled cling wrap gently, taking out a bit of the blue polish while creating a cute effect. I allowed it to dry for a few minutes, cleaned the excess nail polish around my cuticles and some parts of my fingers before applying a top coat.


The result was cute, and my relatives were actually curious about it. One niece commented my nails looked like quail eggs, and for a minute I did agree with her. Anyway, lessons learned about doing this nail art -

1. Don't be too thrifty with materials. The cling wrap I prepared were only about 2x2 in size and it was quite a small one to do the design. It doesn't mean I have to use big ones next time, it's just that I learned that I have to use big enough of a crumpled ball of cling wrap to get the results I hoped.
2. Dab the cling wrap lightly. Even if the base color was very, very dry prior to doing the next step, applying a new coat of nail polish would make the existing one fragile as well. Dabbing too hard or too much might cause for both nail polish colors to blend and might cause rough, uneven layer on your nails (I learned this while testing this nail art weeks ago).
3. Don't neglect the sides of the nails. I have very curvy nails, so even if I would use a big saran wrap ball, the sides won't get as much effect as the middle part of my nails. As you can notice on the very first picture, there were quite a lot of blue nail polish on some of my nails. If you have similar nails as mine, you can address this issue by either dabbing the saran wrap ball on the sides of your nails, or rock your fingers as you dab on it.
4. There are two ways of doing this art. One is to pour a small amount of nail polish (the second color) on a sheet of paper or plastic, dip the saran wrap ball and dab it on your nails. The other is the one I did.
5. Dabbing too much might "erase" the second nail polish color you applied. So go easy on it to prevent wasting nail polish, but just in case you erased quite a lot, no need to re-do the whole thing from the start, just apply another thin coat of nail polish and dab again.

I love doing this nail art! It's very simple and easy to do, and the results aren't as messy looking compared to cracked nail polish.

If you're doing three or more colors, do it one color at a time, and depending on how much nail polish you applied, you might use 10 saran wrap balls (one for each nail), but if you're asking me, I used only 5. :)

Smell Good with Fiona Cologne

I am such a cologne person.  I like that it allows me to smell good without having too much of an overpowering scent, and that I can splash or spritz on some cologne every now and then, which I can't do with perfumes. I don't have a favorite brand, but I do have a soft spot for fruity scents.


It was in 2009 when I first discovered Fiona Cologne. That time, I had to attend a meeting, but because I fear I might be late, I decided to run to get there in time. Thankfully, the meeting hasn't started yet, but the hot, humid weather made me a bit uncomfortable at how I smell like. I was a little shy to ask any of my friends if they have cologne or perfume, so I just went out to check the nearby pharmacy. I just needed something to make me smell good (not that I smell so bad, okay?), so I bought the Fiona Cologne "Raspberry Drops" in 25ml, which was only 13 pesos that time. For such a small price, I gained my confidence back.

I have had such raves about that small cologne. It did smell like raspberries and the scent wasn't so overpowering. I tried to look for the bigger bottles (if they have any), but the supermarket where we always do our grocery shopping doesn't carry the brand, so after I emptied that itty bitty bottle, it's either I take a trip to the pharmacy where I first bought it, or I'd just use a different one.

Last Saturday, I received an invitation to a special movie screening of Les Miserables, and in the event, Skintec also re-introduced Fiona Cologne, along with the launch of their newest product (which I will talk about next time).


Currently, there are seven scents:

> Cool Burst - A fruity sweet scent that captivates, with cucumber, melon, and musk.
> Raspberry Drops -  Wonderfully sweet, fruity blend of raspberry, white flowers, and white musk
> Bubbly Pink - A bubbly fruity-floral burst of cassia and peach


> Youthful Bliss - A nostalgic fragrance that's fruity with freesia, jasmine, and sandalwood
> Pretty Mist- Leaves skin lightly fragrant with the pretty and pure scent of flowers and strawberry
> Ice Glacier- A sensational mix of nectarine, green notes, and lavender
> Snow Breeze- A cool refreshing splash to revitalize your senses (not pictured)

Among the six scents I have tried, my favorites (aside from the obvious Raspberry Drops) are Bubbly Pink and Youthful Bliss. Actually, at first, I didn't like the smell of Youthful Bliss, but as I smell my wrist to check if the scent was still there, I started liking it. "Fiona" might be a girl's name, but the Ice Glacier scent can also be used by boys, guys, and men. :) I wonder if Snow Breeze also has that masculine scent.

Fiona Cologne uses top quality fragrance oils (the same kind used by worldwide brands). It takes pride that each of the variants last up to six to eight hours, making it one of the longest lasting fragrances in the Philippine cologne market. It is safe to use on babies and little girls, and is available in most supermarkets, sari-sari stores, and pharmacies.


Fliptop bottles carry different sizes - 25ml (15 pesos), 50ml (25 pesos), 75ml (35 pesos), 100ml (39 pesos). The 100ml bottle may be the best buy given the price range, but I suggest you also buy a bottle of the 25ml (aside from the100ml) so you can put it in your little kikay kit or purse - truly a space saver. I also like that this kind of bottle allows users to control the amount of cologne they want to use, but pouring the cologne on to the palms before applying it in different parts of the body can be a little difficult (especially on the back). Also, there will also be instances that one would pour a lot on the palms and that may cause a little problem, because of course, it would mean wasting precious liquid.


The spray bottle on the other hand is only available in 50ml (32.25 pesos). Personally, I prefer the spray bottle more than the fliptop because I can just spray and spray when I want to (no need to worry if the palms are quite dusty already). The 50ml bottle is just the right size for me, but I hope there will be 25ml spray bottle available, so it can fit my little kikay kit.

Aside from its awesome scents, I also love the shape of the bottles. It's slimmer at the upper half part of it, making it easier to grip when using the product.

Ease of use, affordability, and long lasting scents. I just love this product!

To know more about Fiona Cologne, please check their Facebook pages - facebook.com/FionaCologne (Twitter - @FionaCologne) and facebook.com/skintecphilippines (Twitter - @SkintecSocial).




PS - I just realized... it's nearly 4 years since I first used Fiona Cologne and there was only 2 pesos price increase? Wow!