The Happies and the Crappies

Thank God it's Friday... but even if it's already the start of the weekend, I still have so many tasks to do, so let me now recap the week that was before I continue doing my assignment.



Happie:
Great product purchases.

♥ Mom and I went to Watsons to buy her choice of hair tint, and while paying, the cashier told us about TRESSemme hair products, which were being sold at 50% off, as part of their introductory offering. We do have our own choice of hair products, but 450ml bottles for 165 pesos? That was quite a steal! Was it good? Heck yeah! Well, my hair has natural light curls (it's never really straight) and it's always frizzy, but our hair is just so soft and it smells so good. It wasn't able to tame my always fly-away hair, but we were happy with this purchase.

♥ More books at reasonable prices, making the worm very happy.

♥ I still have about 10+ nail polish bottles I haven't used yet, but it's been so long since I last bought this other addiction I have, so one time I satisfied myself buy buying more local branded nail polishes. I bought - Chic Nail Color {Grainy - Montana}, Klik Nail Polish {Ube Shake, Navy Blue, Lazy Pink}, Color Trends Nail Polish {Celebrity Seen}, and OMG Nail Colors {Purple Passion, Sunny Tan, Bunny, Salsa}. Quite a handful... but it will take more months before I will have another nail polish haul.

♥ Rains brought in a lot of mosquitoes and for some crazy, irritating reasons, it also drove some cockroaches out of their hiding places. This Baygon insect repeller + protector took care of our worries, and while there were still a few mosquitoes, I haven't seen any cockroaches since we sprayed nearly a week ago. It has an orange scent, too!


Happie / Crappie
Silver Shoes

Sister still hasn't bought her silver shoes for the wedding, so on her last day off, we went to the mall and checked out Payless Shoe Source. The store currently has a sale - some pairs as low as 375 pesos, something that really drove my Imeldific sister crazy. This was a happie and a crappy at the same time, because the salesperson told us that one of the pairs (right image) was priced 375 pesos, making sister bought it along with the other pair (left image - 575 pesos) and another one, which she can use at work. We were given 10% more discount for all the pairs of shoes, but when we got home we noticed that the supposed to be 375 pesos pair of shoes was priced at 500 pesos. We went back to the store to ask for an explanation and the cashier told it was the salesperson's fault... that the pair was actually 500 pesos and not 375 pesos. The incident was quite stressful (will tell more next Wednesday), but in the end we just accepted it. Afterall, 500 minus 10% was still a very cheap price for a good pair of shoes. However, crappy selling on their end now caused us to have second thoughts if we are going to purchase there again.


Happie:
Baking my first oven toaster Fudge Rocky Road Brownies! Well, it wasn't 100% successful, but my gosh... it was so good that I don't think I would buy brownies anymore - I will just bake it at home!


Happie:
Spending time with my family

No fancy food trips with the family, but each of the food we ate was made special because we were together.


Happie:
Balancing the food intake.

Last week, I had food trips with the family, and one day my sister went home with grilled pork belly, which caused me dizziness and headaches for two days. I am pre-hypertensive, and even if I never had my blood pressure taken, I knew eating fatty pork was giving me negative effects. For the last three days, I haven't eaten pork yet, and was consuming mostly vegetables.

Crappies this week weren't that much, for which I was thankful.
Have a great weekend, everybody!

* Jenn *

 

My Hair Savior!

I have been having problems with hair fall since I entered college. It may be due to stress, pollution, or a combination of many factors, but I have come to live with it, after all, we all shed hair.. it's just that I shed more than the usual.

When I embarked on a weight loss journey last year and started eating lesser than I normally did, losing weight boosted my confidence and morale, but the downside to it was that my hair fall worsened. Again, it might be due to many factors (Jessie told me it might be because eating less also meant less nutrients for the hair), but one thing was for sure: I was quickly losing my newly gained confidence.


This was a "stolen" shot Jessie took last January (2012) while we were at the Quezon Memorial Circle. At that time, my mom and I were checking the stalls selling clothes, and while the image was taken from afar, I was quite alarmed when I saw how my head looked like. I edited this image to concentrate on me - original picture shows mom and the stalls at the tiangge.

I started worrying about my situation. I thought of purchasing this product at the Home TV Shopping, or maybe purchase that product endorsed by a renowned beauty consultant, but the price held me back (both were too pricey). In the end, I just embraced the problem, and worse comes to worst, I will just either wear a turban or maybe shave my head entirely.


Last year, when I attended the Blogapalooza, we (the attendees) received some Human ♥ Nature products along with the current magalogue. The kit didn't include any hair products, but thru the magalogue, I have learned about their Strengthening Shampoo and Conditioner, which I hoped to try, but I was having hesitations because the time Jessie and I first bought the Human ♥ Nature products and I tried the shampoo Jessie bought (I forgot the exact name of the variant, but it did have guava scent), my scalp itched. Still, I hoped to try it, but the chance never came, until mid this year, when I found out our neighbor started selling Human ♥ Nature products. I quickly placed an order for the Strengthening Shampoo and Conditioner, in 50ml.


The shampoo was obviously not as thick as the usual shampoo I have used in the past. Despite that "Creamfoam" technology it has, do know that it wouldn't be as sudsy as the usual shampoos (it wouldn't really bubble a lot, no need to add more shampoo on your hair, in time you will get used to it). Some people didn't like that - but I actually did, because it allowed me to massage my scalp thoroughly and not just coat my hair with bubbles. The aloe vera scent was mild, but somehow I didn't like it that much - hopefully they can come up with a different scent or a range of different scents to choose from.

I was happy that my scalp didn't itch when I used this. In fact, my hair loved it a lot because it was bouncier and much easier to comb, even if I just used the shampoo.


The conditioner on the other hand also had a different consistency to the conditioner we have in our shower rack. It was a little airy and light, and it was so easy to use. Because of its light consistency, rinsing my hair didn't require too much water. As for its performance, I personally love this (as well) because even if I don't comb my hair after showering, nobody would really notice (but that's also because I have wavy hair). One time I went on a sleepover and forgot to bring my comb... I used my fingers as my comb and all just went well.

It took me nearly a month to use the 50ml. bottles, and even before I finished it, I already saw a significant change. Just within a week of using it, I noticed that my hair brush didn't have that much hair, I also didn't shed a whole lot of hair while shampooing/conditioning it, and no more hairs on my pillow when I get up in the morning. Of course, I still have hair falling every now and then (it's normal, we all know that), but not as alarming as before. I call this shampoo and conditioner my hair savior. No need for me to buy the expensive hair fall products!


This is how my hair looks like now. See the change? No more runway... and I am starting to have bangs, too!

I still use other shampoo, though, as I don't want my hair to get used to this formula (I learned we don't have to stick with just one product). What I do is, use the Human ♥ Nature Strengthening Shampoo on Day 1, then use a different shampoo on Day 2 (I try to stick to the hair fall products, but at times I do use any other shampoo), then use the Human ♥ Nature Strengthening Shampoo and Human ♥ Nature Strengthening Conditioner on Day 3.. and repeat Day 1 again. 

In conclusion...

• I love that these products are (nearly) 100% all natural product and do not contain SLS/SLES. 
• I love that they have the 50ml. trial size bottles; if it didn't work for me, I can just toss it and wouldn't feel guilty about it. Of course, I also love that they have the bigger containers, which what I am using now.
• I love that even if I use just the shampoo, my hair is still soft and easy to comb.
• I love that it's priced reasonably - the 50ml. bottles are (I believe) just less than 50 pesos each.

 
 I will always be forever grateful for these products.

The Traveler's Toiletry Kit

I am not a frequent traveler, but when I do travel, I make sure I pack as light as possible. I guess being a big woman, I already know my body would take up bigger space (like walking along the road or along the aisle of the bus) compared to the "normal" people, so taking a very big bag would mean taking more space. The longest time I was away from home was when I went on a holiday with my British friend K for two weeks straight. I did pack light that time - just one luggage. Halfway through the holiday, we did avail for a laundry service so we had fresh clothes to wear.

Part of traveling is packing some toiletries as well. At home, we do use big versions of different products, and since I wanted to travel light when I went to La Union last 25 October, I also made sure I'd pack toiletries in small packages, after all, I would just be away from home for a week, no need to bring with me 200ml bottles of shampoo and conditioner.


These are just some of the items I packed during my travel. I am not really particular to the brand of certain products, but for the shampoo and conditioner, I really made sure I would bring Human ♥ Nature natural strengthening shampoo as it was my hair savior (will blog about why next time). Right now I am using the 200ml bottles, but thankful that I didn't throw away the 50ml bottles I bought the first time I used the product.

I am thankful there are brands that offers their products in small packages. It doesn't just help travelers travel light, in a way it also serves as a trial kit for people who would like to test their product without burning their wallets in the process.

Like I said, these are just some of the items on my Toiletry Kit; some items didn't come in small packages, so I took them even if they're big. :)

An Update and Some Realizations

I was supposed to make an update yesterday, but my sister borrowed my camera, so I wasn't able to get images from my camera's memory card. Lemme now recap my Saturday and Sunday.

Day 126
04 February 2012


Friday made my legs very, very tired, so I decided to stay in bed longer. Mr. Pipoy understood my reasons, and I was really thankful.

After eating lunch, sister and I went to the salon for the much needed haircut. My hair is very limp and so thin, so having it so long made it look thinner. I am actually having hair fall problems - it was okay then, but lately hair falling seemed to increase in number. I am getting alarmed, so I decided to have a haircut so it would be easier to comb.

I liked the outcome of the haircut... the hairdresser used the hair iron instead of hair blower and I liked how straight my hair was; sister was suggesting I should buy a hair iron, but I didn't want to as it might damage my hair more.


We went to a nearby boutique to check clothes and I was able to buy a pair of cargo pants and a blouse (it was on a sale, that's why I bought the items). After that, we went to Tri-Mo Shawarma Co to have some snacks, which became my early dinner. I wasn't able to jot down the other food I ate today... my bad.


Day 127
05 February 2012


I went to walk and jog this morning, but because I was wearing my leggings, I decided to just take my water bottle and leave my camera and/or cell phone at home. When I got home after a good two hours walk and jog, I had my breakfast and walked back to the market, because mom needed to prepare something for their prayer meeting. It was a good 45 minutes walk (I still went to this "special" bake shop that sells yummy pan de sal), half of the way I was carrying about 4 kilos of goods. Good thing I brought my eco bag with me!

I helped mom cook and I just stayed in her room while they were having the prayer meeting. I wasn't able to do my video workout, but I guess it was just fine - it's Sunday anyway.


My food for today -

• 8:30 am - 1 cup Nescafe Brown and Creamy 3-in-1 coffee; 1 piece sliced White bread + thin spread of Chiz Whiz
• 12:11 pm - 1/2 cup rice; Salmon Head Sinigang (60g salmon head meat cooked in Sour broth with yard long beans and sweet potato tops)
• 6:40 pm- 1 cup Pansit Bihon (cornstarch noodle sticks with chicken, cabbages, carrots, green beans, seasoned with soy sauce, salt and pepper)

Total Cups of Water: 14
First time to drink coffee after a week... my tummy surely had a difficult time adjusting to it. I told Mr. Pipoy this might be a good avenue to lessen coffee intake...maybe I might just have 3 cups this week.

- * - * - * -

When I started my journey, I just wanted to lose weight and hope to wear a two-piece swimsuit in public. It might be a shallow reason, but it was reason enough for me to strive and lose weight. When I am finally seeing the scales going down, I sort of hoped people will notice it-of course, losing weight is an achievement and part of me wanted to really shout it out to the world.

29lbs gone... and people have started noticing the weight loss.

Last Friday, while walking back home, one neighbor (who I am not so close with - I just know she lives near our house) saw me and made a comment that there sure are improvements. She asked if I am taking diet pills / supplements to boost the weight loss, and I told her I wasn't... I lost the weight by exercising and diet.
Saturday after lunch, my friend and neighbor Charmy went to our house to use our phone and after her call, she went to interview me. The very first attempt for me to lose weight, she was the very first person I consulted about... and she was just happy that after all the years, I am finally shedding the excess weight. We went to talk about concerns and fears and future plans...

...and I realized there is more to weight loss than losing the weight. It comes with a big responsibility - that more than ever... I should strive harder to lose more weight and / or maintain my weight. Now that most of my family members and friends - and possibly the part of the blogosphere know about my journey and its results, it is my responsibility to become a role model - that a big girl can definitely lose weight just by lessening the food intake and exercising.

I still have 47lbs to lose... thanks to this responsibility, I am definitely going to work hard to reach my goals as fast as I can -by doing it right.