Weigh in day, again!

Today was a really good day, went really fast, was busy doing my thesis product so that I'll maybe graduate one day. The thing that I was really waiting, was my weigh in at 7 pm. I had the normal feelings, thinking if there would be any loss or not, hopefully not any gain. First we talked about my upcoming weekend, because my dear friend V is coming from Finland and I'm going to eat some normal food.

So starting from tomorrow, I'm going to be on Sole Source Plus until next Wednesday. If I would not do this transition, I would crack and eat really much of unhealthy food and on plus I'm allowed to eat this small amount of protein and veggies. Meaning I can use a fork and knife, use my teeth, chew the food. Well of course you can chew the Cambridge bars, but sometimes it is really nice to eat somethings else.

This is on my wall, motivating me to lose those 8kg! I like these motivation notes on my wall. I have so many of them :)

Next week I will return on Sole Source, because there is so much to lose and I put another goal for me. In six weeks I'm flying to Finland and participating to our annual family party and I want to be -20kg lighter and lost quite many inches/centimetres. I want to see their reactions when they notice that I have lost weight. That might be vain, but I am. I have always been one of the fattest there, other relatives have lost weight or they just are slim, but I#m just this fat cousin/niece/some distant relative but no more.

On today's weigh in I lost 1.9kg from last week and that is more than I had put on my weekly goal. So now I have 8kg to lose in six weeks and I can do it. There will be no crackings, I have my goal and I'm going to reach it. This next week is going to be hard, but I've got two bars for every day, one Malt Toffee and one Lemon yogurt. We'll also be doing so much and walking around London, so I think that one thing I have to be worried about is drinking enough water.

Now of to bed and having happy thoughts about everything.

Happy selfie afterwards! 

Freezing feet

Today was again a London day. My normal London days are that I'm going to London in the morning, taking a paper to legislation office, waiting there 30 to 60 minutes that its ready and then head back to the office. So mostly I just sit in a train or a bus, because it takes quite some time.

It was okay weather when I left home, forgot my jacket home, but luckily did remember my umbrella. It started pouring when I arrived to London. I was so soaked even when I took the tube, there were these huge puddles and I had to step on some to get on the other side of the road. My converse shoes are not waterproof so my feet got soaked. Like totally. You could hear the splish splash noises when I was walking. So not good for my poor feet.

Need a washup

Short story even shorter, I did not drink enough water during the day, got a really back headache, freezing feet that started to get little warmer around eight pm. I decided to have a lazy day, just browsing different blogs, watched The Prince of Egypt and drank lots of water and some Chamomille tea. No evening Bootea today, next time tomorrow.

My aunt gave me those woollen socks as a Christmas present quite many years ago, but I still love them. They say "Left" and "Right" in Finnish, because when I got them, I was in the army and had to remember which is which. Maybe I should learn how to knit socks. Its not that hard.

Now off to bed, normal day tomorrow, maybe even to the gym before work, we'll see.

Makeup

The saviour of a bad day, but only if used well. There was a time, when my makeup “routine” included on putting on mascara, sometimes maybe lip gloss. Nothing more. Would have thought that there would be more makeup in my life, because having two older sisters, but no. They never taught me anything about it, so I never gained interest. Until few years back, when starting university. Watched so many tutorials, learned more about applying makeup and different kinds and now I can say that I’m okay doing it. Still trying to learn how to make some nice looks, but I’ve got time.

 Many of the brands that are sold in supermarkets or those kind of stores, are bad for my skin. Tried so many and every time my skin decided flare, pushing the pimples, annoying the living hell out of me. So more research in the future. Read about mineral makeups, people were saying that their skin problems vanished. Then my sister told that she has tried brand called BareMinerals, have worked okay with her so I decided to give it a go. Bought some, first it went okay, but my skin seemed to get little bit worse on some areas. Some of the BareMinerals makeups have this ingredient called Bismuth and it can cause some skin problems with people. Not with everybody, but I got them as did my sister.

1. Cosmetic Warrior from LUSH 2. Just my clean face 3. Putting on some moisturiser (Enzymion from LUSH) 4. Well moisturised skin.  

So the next step was to find something to replace BareMinerals. Luckily my sister found this brand called Everyday Minerals, the company is based in US and seemed okay. Other good thing with Everyday Minerals is, that you can order a sample kit, because you want to try the different tones, which one fits your face. I ordered one, the tones are awesome and no skin problems. I have decided to wait sometime when ordering more of the base makeup, because I have some from Clarins. I do not want to have this huge collection of makeups that I won’t use. This is me trying to save money.

5. After Adding BareMinerals Prime Time Foundation Primer 6. After adding light layer of Clarins Skin Illusion 

Now days I feel like that I'm taking better care of my skin, washing it in the morning and evening, using right type of moisturiser, not using too much make up, using gentle face masks few times per week, cleaning the pores. Here in pictures I've shown you my daily makeup routine before work. Well I do not use the mask everyday, but I do wash my face well in the morning. Now I'm waiting for some Everyday Mineral Makeup samples to arrive, hopefully they do not take long.

7. Final stage is coloring my eye brows, putting on Lumene Natural Code Mascara, Burts Bees lipbalm, Max Factor Scarlet Ghost and on top of it Power lipstick from LUSH, gives it a nice tint. 

There is also picture of my makeup "station". Good height for me and enough room for everything I have. There are also the new EM Makeup Brushes that I ordered last week. They work like a dream.

Pictures after six weeks!

Short post about the change in my body. There has been times when looking in the mirror and not seeing any change. But today it is so different! I decided to take a lovely mirror selfie before going to gym and after coming home made a before after picture. And I love it! I just stare at it. It rules!

First picture taken on 8.7 and second today (22.8.) 

I just feel so awed that I have managed to make the change and now I can see it, not just imagine it. This really motivates my journey to continue forwards. Sorry about that I'm not smiling, just too serious in the morning time. Now my smile is huge.

Styles changing

After going through my photos, I wanted to make a collage about how my hairstyle and colour has changed from January to this day. I look so different in the first picture.

This kind of monthly face picture collage could be my next project.. Let's see what happens.

Bootea

After trying so many things, it really feels like they do not work for me. Maybe it's that Cambridge is not that suitable for my body, because the constipation is starting to annoy me so much. On Wednesday started my seventh week on CWP and I can truthfully say that I usually go on number two once a week and that is usually after long work and effort.

First I just tried over the counter Senna Laxatives, they did not help me at all. Followed the directions, but nothing. The only effect that I got was growly stomach, so annoying. Before buying the Fibre from M, I wanted to try some other things as well. So I bought another laxative, this time it was Dulcoease, some flaxseeds and chamomile tea, because it was said that flaxseeds and chamomile tea should help getting rid of constipation. The tea should also help to get better sleep, so that would be perfect for me. I did not notice any difference with the tea or flaxseeds, but Dulcoease helped a bit, not that much, but some. Number two came twice a week with that, but still felt bloated.

After opening to my sister A about my annoyance for this whole subject, she recommended this really good stuff, called Dulcolax Pico Liquid. It worked really well, going to the bathroom was awesome. The instructions said that you should not use it too much, because if you did, there might be problems later to go without it. So maybe once a week using it, but also eating the Cambridge Fibre, so that maybe it would be good, getting a normal rhythm. First it worked and then it stopped working. Went on last Sunday, felt way bloated whole week, dropped only 0.6kg on Wednesday, took a dosage of the Dulcolax liquid on Wednesday night, hoping that it would work well and could use the bathroom before work on Thursday. But nothing happened on Thursday. Finally today around noon came number two, but it hurt. No need to tell you more, you get the point. 

My coworker L suggested Bootea Detox for me. The concept is that you drink morning tea after waking up every morning and one just before going to sleep every other night. They also recommend that you start it on weekend or a day off, because if your body reacts badly to the evening tea and you have to run to the bathroom all the time. So I drank my first tea today around 5 in the evening, because I really want to have the evening tea and start the whole process. In few hours I'm having the evening tea. I bought two 14 day packages so I'm doing 28 days aka four weeks of detox. Tomorrow morning I'm taking pictures and measurements so that I can compare it. This is like scientific research for me. 

28 days worth of Detox Tea.

So if any of you readers have any experience, feel like asking questions or just curious, please comment them. If you have done this detox, it's really nice to know about your experiences. Luckily the daytime tea tasted quite good.

Slowly but surely

Sunset at Prospect Park on Tuesday

Anticipation. [An-tis-uh-pey-shuh n]. Noun. There are different meanings for this word, but for the last week, all of these have been going through my mind and the feeling grew bigger and bigger until yesterday 7pm and I stepped on the scale again. 115.0 kg. The number had gone down from last week, but only 0.6kg. Not that motivating. But we took the measurements too. Those were really nice. We usually take them every three weeks, so that is one reason that the numbers drop is good.

1.        The act of anticipating or the state of being anticipated.
2.        Realization in advance; foretaste.
3.        Expectation or hope.
4.        Previous notion; slight previous impression.

Sometimes when looking in the mirror, I believe that I can see the change, but my brain tries to tell me that it’s not right, you’re really not getting thin or skinny or fit, you’re not losing weight, it’s just your imagination or wishful thinking. That is the biggest reason I do not own a scale. I would be going on it way too much, maybe every morning, wanting to see change, especially with a diet like this. But it’s not good for me. Trying to concentrate on the light feeling, fitting in the clothes that did not fit me before, because that has happened already with a pair of jeans and a dress.

When doing a lifestyle change, brains are the hardest muscle to train. Everything between your ears might be fighting the change, make you think about all the things you think you want, but really don’t. Like especially when it’s certain time, you think you’re hungry, but you’re not. It’s just the cravings shouting, wanting sugar and everything that is bad for you.

Yesterday after the weigh in I felt like going to Sainsbury’s, buy some small cakes, biscuits, cookies and sweets. Just because I did not meet my weekly goal. My brains tried to tell me that, because I failed, I should comfort myself with something that would give me a sugar high. Have done it so many times in the future. Eating for the problems I have, eating when celebrating, eating when sad, eating when mad, just eating when anything good or bad happens to me. Yesterday the same thing almost happened. But it did not. Went home, messaged with my sister, changed clothes and started walking towards the gym. In the pouring rain. So many times when walking there I thought about taking the bus there or completely just skipping the gym. But I did not.

I was almost soaked when arriving to the gym, but had change pair of pants, changed them on and started my routine. It went well, felt great doing it, next week I have to add little more weight on some parts, because it felt too easy for me. Same time I was at the gym, there two guys going bench pressing and biceps and two girls first on treadmill and stationary bikes. It was little cliché that the guys concentrated only on their upper body, same thing that they did on Monday when I was there. Hopefully they do not forget leg days. Insert laugh here. The girls were quite cliché too. Seen them there before, just doing cardio. I don’t have the right to judge anybody but myself, but when seeing them just doing cardio, in quite slow pace, I felt like going to talk with them, asking about their goals, why they are going to the gym. I know that I’m no personal trainer or have so much information about the subject, but I know some. Maybe one day I’ll go and ask if they want any help, but now I’ll just concentrate on getting myself into awesome shape.

After my gym session, I walked home and it was not raining anymore. All the disappointment that I felt towards the weigh in scales melted away at the gym and that is the biggest reason I could go there every day. Even left my phone home, had some really awesome me time without any technology and did not miss it. You should try it too. Put your phone on flight mode for certain amount of time, just doing something that does not include technology.

Now I’m trying not to think about the weight that is not going down as fast I would like it to and concentrate more on feeling good and going to the gym. Maybe even volunteering on something. I’ll never know what might happen when I really start doing things and not just thinking about doing them.

Everyday Minerals Makeup Brushes

 I also ordered some Everyday Mineral makeup brushes from eBay, posting about them on weekend and some of my makeup habits, skin conditions and other stuff.