Eight Hour Diet... Week Something

Hello, everyone!

So, it has been over a month since I posted anything. I really, really apologize for this. I got really busy with my summer class, and then I had to move back to school which involved a road trip and lots of heavy lifting and setting up my apartment. But it's good to be back.

I am still on the Eight Hour Diet! I have not been losing weight as dramatically as I had been. That being said, I have lost about ten pounds since then. That's not bad... at all. I have also adjusted my weight loss goal by a lot - right now, I have twenty pounds to lose whereas I would have only had about nine to lose a few weeks ago.

Now that I am back at school, I've been able to exercise a lot more. For instance, I walk to school, and that takes at least twenty minutes each way. I also am taking a physical activity class - swimming, which is pretty intense! 900 meters in an hour is A LOT.

Because of this new exercise regimen, this is what I have found works the best for my Eight Hour Diet schedule:

Wake up, drink loads of water, walk to school
After swimming class, walk back up to the apartment and eat my major meal, starting the Eight Hour cycle
Walk back down to school, drink loads of water
Walk back about forty-five minutes before the Eight Hour cycle ends, eat a peach and a hard-boiled egg

That has been working quite well in terms of losing a fraction of a pound every day, which is a very healthy way to lose weight. I don't ever really feel hungry anymore, and I definitely don't feel as if I am deprived of nutrients.

I highly recommend this Eight Hour Diet. I was a huge skeptic at first, but I really, really like the concept, and I think that I will continue to eat like this for possibly the rest of my life - perhaps not as religiously once I reach my goal weight, but I definitely will do my best. That is because I have noticed so many side benefits - my sleep is better, I'm not eating nearly as much junk food, and I have a lot more energy than I used to.

Thanks, everyone, for reading! I have a lot of beauty products that I want to formally review, so I will try to post those pretty soon!

Eight Hour Diet - Week Seven

Hello, everyone!

I have lost two pounds this week! I think that, from now on, I am simply going to be losing one or two pounds a week. That is still fine, considering I'm finding it really hard to find time to exercise now (thanks to a summer class I'm taking). I'm not unhappy with the results at all. If you do decide to follow this diet, just be sure to drink a load of water.

So now, I am down seventeen pounds, and I have thirteen more to go! Past the halfway point, yaay!!

Eight Hour Diet - Week Six

Hello, everyone!

Quick update. I've been really careful about drinking a lot of water this past week! That being said, I also had my period this week, so I'm pretty sure that I could have lost more. I did lose one pound, though - not bad, especially considering all the sugar I consumed this week due to stupid cravings!

I am...down fifteen pounds, and I have fifteen more to go! I am beyond excited that I am at the halfway mark!!

Eight Hour Diet - Week Five

Hello, everyone!

I apologize for not updating last week, but I got really busy with school and such.

That being said, I actually gained a pound or two last week. I think this is because I failed to drink much water. I've lost all that weight and an additional two pounds just in the past week, and the one difference is that I drank a lot of water.

So, over the past two weeks, I have lost a total of two pounds. Not terrible at all. If you are going to go on this, or any other diet, BE SURE to drink a lot of water!! It aids your liver in metabolizing.

I am...down fourteen pounds, and I have sixteen more to go!

Eight Hour Diet - Week Three

Hello, everyone! This is my week three update on the eight hour diet!

So, I've lost another three pounds, which I'm quite happy with. One thing I did notice is that it's really, really easy to fall into the trap of eating too little - probably the reason why I only lost three pounds as your metabolism is forced to go slower if you don't eat enough in order to conserve energy. If you're doing this, make sure you're eating your 2,000 ish calories (or whatever the requirement is for your gender/height) in that eight hours. My stomach has gotten so small that a few rice crackers will fill it, which is fine, but it also means that I have to eat small amounts constantly throughout the eight hour period to ensure that I actually get enough calories in one day.

So, let's see... I am down... twelve pounds, and I have eighteen more to go! I'm quite excited about this!!

Eight Hour Diet - Week Two

Hello, everyone! Here is my Week Two update for the eight hour diet.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was lucky enough to get my period this week. Generally, I gain about two or three pounds due to water retention during that week. So, imagine my surprise when I saw that I had lost two pounds this week. That is tremendous, considering that I usually gain weight during my period week! I am very happy. Also, this is without nearly as much exercise as I don't like to swim while I have my period.

I can tell that my stomach is a lot smaller - I no longer have as many hunger pangs during the sixteen hours that I don't eat. They still come, but a mug of hot water takes care of it very easily.

I am really quite hopeful that I will be done with my weight loss journey by mid-July. Fingers crossed!

I am at... nine pounds down, 21 more to go! And I should be able to actually exercise this week!

Thank you very much for reading!

Endometriosis Update

Hello, everyone!

So, alongside my herbal remedy, I've been trying out a basically vegan (excluding free-range eggs, wild caught salmon, shrimp, and crab), no-wheat diet. I was already a vegetarian that never drank milk (bad gag reflex), so the "vegan" part was less difficult than I thought it would be. I'm still struggling with the no-wheat aspect of it - that generally means no cakes, etc. as wheat is a component of the flour.

But what a difference it has made to my endometriosis! A few days ago, I started my period (after a full month of not having my period). And I had - not much pain at all. I had probably three hours of real discomfort, but I was fine enough to both tutor somebody and drive during that time. After that, I had some very, very minor twinging that I ignored by studying (I'm taking a class this summer at a local university). Nothing in comparison to crying and screaming for Vicodin or morphine or something to just stop. For the first time since I was 16, no desire for an immediate hysterectomy. I was pleasantly surprised.

I am guessing that part of this is the herbal remedy, but I'm sure that the new diet also contributed to my lack of pain this month.

Even though the no-wheat part of the diet really can be a pain, this new diet is definitely worth it. Thankfully, it's fairly easy for me to follow as my cultural diet pretty much follows "no wheat and lots of vegetables." However, if you are an endometriosis sufferer and are thinking of trying this out but have no place to start, feel free to e-mail me at frangipanialina@gmail.com and I can send you some recipes of the things I eat on a daily basis.

Thank you so much for reading, and good luck in your own struggles with this horrible disease if you are unfortunate enough to have it!

Eight Hour Diet - Week One

Hello, everyone! So, I've switched myself off the green bean coffee extract as I believe it is a bit of a snake oil, and I've decided to do the eight hour diet instead.

You probably wouldn't know it based on the random fad diets I've been trying, but I'm usually pretty good about avoiding marketing hype, and I definitely learned my lesson the green bean coffee extract. However, the eight hour diet was something that I did in high school unknowingly. I didn't have time to eat breakfast, I was embarrassed to eat in front of friends so I naturally didn't have lunch. So, when I got home around 5 PM, I'd eat like three meals between then and about midnight. That's seven hours. I stayed a trim during my first three years of high school, and I gained about 5 pounds when my mother harangued me about not eating breakfast and that seven hour window crept to, like.... 16 hours, although I didn't make that connection at the time.

So, week one on this diet - I've lost five pounds. Not joking. It does suck feeling hungry, I'm not going to lie.  Water does usually solve that problem, though, or exercise. And I can tell already that my stomach has shrunk A LOT. I have exercised as much as I usually do. I've eaten as well as I normally do - rice, curry, etc. I did eat a few slices of pizza about this time last week, but I still lost a pound that day, so I'm not complaining.

I did check, and I have lost all body fat, no muscle. And I can definitely tell on my body that I've lost a lot of fat. My waist has shrunk - unfortunately, I didn't bother to measure my waist when it started, so I can't give you numbers, but it is a noticeable difference.

I will weigh in again next week and let you know if this trend continues. I will be completely psyched if I lose all this excess weight in the span of a month or two.

On the green bean coffee extract diet, I actually gained some weight after my initial five pounds off. So... I am at 7 pounds down, 23 more to go!

Thank you for reading!

Green Bean Coffee Extract Trial - Week Four

Hello, everyone!

So, I've actually stayed at the same weight for the last week. I am starting to believe that this green bean coffee extract thing really is a snake oil. I am going to continue taking it until the bottle is over, but I will not be repurchasing as I really don't think that there is much to this thing. I do think it works, just not as well as it claims to, so it's not worth it for me.

Instead, I will be starting the eight-hour diet. Basically, the idea is that you eat everything within an eight hour period to give your body time to digest. The reason I'm doing this is because this is essentially how I ate in high school - I started eating at around 5 PM and finished around midnight - and I stayed quite tiny in that time period. Combined with exercise, I think that this one might actually work. I will keep you updated again, every week.

Thank you very much for reading!!

MAC Cremesheen Lipsticks - Creme In Your Coffee

Hello, everyone!

So, the entire beauty world seems to rave about MAC lipsticks. I can definitely see why just because of the color selection. There are a LOT of colors and textures to choose from, and this is really great for somebody like me that has really, really tricky coloring. I have dark skin, but I also have a dark brown top lip and a pink bottom lip. It's just about impossible for me to find a lipstick that will actually suit me, so it's really lovely to get the entire MAC color range to choose from.

I mentioned this before, but I have really horrible dry lips. I am always putting Vaseline on them (unless I'm lazy, in which case I wait far too long and then apply my Tropic Skin Care Lip Love). So, when I was at MAC after finally deciding to buy a MAC lipstick, I mainly looked at the Cremesheen texture because I read so many reviews on how it was "super moisturizing!" and things like that. And, on the few occasions prior to my venture into beauty when I had worn lipstick (for a play and for being a bridesmaid at a wedding), my lips had turned horribly dry by the end. It took a few weeks of Vaseline both times for my lips to return to normal - and I figured that if I bought a lipstick and wore it on a regular basis, it couldn't be like that!

I've had this lipstick for about six months now and wear it quite frequently. And I can say with absolute certainty that I don't think the Cremesheen formulas are moisturizing. At all. They do still dry out my lips, although I will say that they are not nearly as bad as the other lipsticks that I've worn in the past. But the fact remains that if I want to wear it comfortably, I do have to put a thin layer of Vaseline or some other lip balm underneath it. This is mildly irritating, and I am not sure that I will repurchase the Cremesheen because I have found a different lipstick that actually is hydrating (more on that later).

I will say, however, that the color I bought, Creme in your Coffee, is lovely. It's a dark pink rose color, perfect to slightly brighten my bottom lip color (I bought it as my evening lip color). I can lightly pat the lipstick onto my top lip and blend it so that it looks natural. The effect is not at all chalky. Here is swatch on my hand so that dark-skinned people can see what it looks like against a dark background:

And then against white skin so that you can see the "true" color:

So, I realize that if the entire beauty world is saying that something is moisturizing when it's not, it could just be because I have incredibly dry lips. It's definitely not as bad as a lot of lipsticks with regards to that, but it's not good, either.

I hope this was helpful, especially to those with dark skin and for those with super-dry lips. Thank you for reading!

Green Bean Coffee Extract - Week Three

Hello, everyone!

So, I've decided that my scale at the gym is officially completely wacked up, mainly because before and after a workout, I managed to gain five pounds. Not possible. I'm now going with my home one. Even though it's wrong, it's at least calibrated to the point where the weight difference is fairly consistent. According to that scale, I've lost two pounds this week. Not terrible at all considering I only really worked out hard for a few days. I will keep you posted on how this thing continues to go!

So, we are at... 7 down, 23 more to go!

Maybelline Expert Wear Eyeshadow in Nutmeg

Hello, everyone!

I thought I'd do a post on my staple eyeshadow. This is actually the first eyeshadow I ever owned. I am dark skinned, so it really evens out the skin tone on my eyes and makes it look a little darker and a little more polished.

As it says on the back, it is a matte shadow. I am a no-makeup makeup kind of girl, so I'm really not into shimmers unless it's for a special occasion of some sort. This eyeshadow looks natural, but at the same time, does make me look better - it's just very subtle.

Also on the back, though, it says that it's an all-day, crease proof shadow. This claim could not be more wrong. I will mention that I have fairly oily eyelids, but after wearing this every day for six years, I can tell you that after about three hours, it creases really, really badly. Of course, because I was very uninformed about makeup until about a year ago, I didn't know that these things called primers existed, so I just dealt with the creasing for years! When I finally learned that they existed, I.... waited until about four weeks ago to buy one. I'll do a post on my primer later this week.

What I used to do until about a week ago was take a sponge applicator and apply it on my eyelid. Now, I use a MAC 217 brush, which is very, very new to me, and apply the shadow with it. I don't like sponge applicators, but I didn't have enough money to get a good brush until recently.

This eyeshadow definitely blends well. I have tried it against some higher end ones, and I actually like this texture a lot better than some more high-end brands. It is quite well pigmented as well, so a little goes a long way. It's definitely good for someone like me on a college budget!

Sorry about the bad lighting - it's very hard to capture exact shades on camera, but you get the general idea. It's a deep, dark, very matte brown. For people with fairer skin than I - which is most of the world's population - it's a very good crease color. I used it on a fair-skinned friend in her crease, and it worked beautifully. Although the eyeshadow is very pigmented, you can take a lot of it off on the back of your hand if you just want to apply a sheer wash. I did this on a blue-eyed girl, and the effect was gorgeous - her blue eyes really popped out as a result of this eyeshadow.

So, overall, this range of eyeshadows is very good texture and pigment wise. If you have oily lids... you're going to need a primer, unfortunately. I have no idea how well this works on non-oily lids. I've used it on myself, my sister, and two friends, and all of us have oily lids so we used a primer. I would recommend it because it is not very expensive - I believe I paid something like $5 at most, and this particular one has lasted me a year. It's recommended that you change your eyeshadows about every two years, so this will definitely last me the duration of that time if not slightly longer.

Thank you very much for reading!

Green Bean Coffee Extract Trial - Excluding This Week

Hi, everyone!

So, I actually haven't taken the extract at all this week. This is because I had my period and couldn't exercise properly, and I really want to only combine the extract with exercise to keep the results consistent. I started exercising again today, though, so I will be continuing the trial starting.... later today, as it's really early morning on Friday. Thank you very much, and my apologies!

Birth Control Withdrawal

Hello, everyone!

I think I've figured out another reason why I gained weight last week - I was about to get my period. Two weeks after my last one - ugh. What a nightmare! This has NEVER happened to me before, so I can only assume that it is the result of getting off birth control - my body is still trying to get back to normal with regards to hormones.

I've been told that odd periods are normal for those that are trying to get off birth control, so if this is happening to you, don't be worried. It apparently takes about three to four months for your body to get back to normal post-birth control - it really is like your body getting off pregnancy mode. That often means that weight loss will be difficult until after that time period (annoying for someone like me trying to get back to normal with regards to that), periods can be sporadic, you can feel get headaches and the random vomiting. Not to mention the horrible mood swings. Don't be scared! Things are going to happen when you mess around with your body chemistry - just tough it out and know that everything will be okay in the long run!

Tropic Skin Care - Lip Love Balm

Hello, everyone!

I already did a post on Tropic Skin Care's amazing and fabulous cleanser, and there, I mentioned that I had bought two more bottles of cleanser on eBay. I bought one cleanser independent of any other item, but with the second cleanser came the Skin Revive Firming Nourishing Cream, the Vitamin Toner, and the Lip Love Balm and as a result cost a lot more. To be honest, I wasn't too crazy about spending more than I had to, but I figured that I'd never get the cleanser that cheaply ever again and that I might like the other products as well.

Up to now, I haven't really used the cream or the toner all that much. However, I have used the Lip Love Balm. And it is lovely.

It retails for £5. That's $7.78 (USD) - in my opinion, a heck of a lot for a 10 mL pot of lip balm. So, when I received the package about two weeks ago, I chucked the lip balm along with everything else in that package into my skincare box in my bathroom. I wasn't expecting amazing things from the lip balm - I mean, honestly, lip balm is lip balm, right? They all perform about the same - or so I thought.

Normally, I use Vaseline on my lips because it's very easy and cheap (and, I might add, a big pot costs about $3 at most). However, I had become a bit on the lazy side about putting on Vaseline for about a week, so my lips had gotten a bit more chapped than usual. I decided that, as I had it, I might as well try the Tropic Skin Care balm that I had gotten.

Within the first few hours, my lips had gotten a LOT softer - not unchapped, but they had become a lot softer, and when I rubbed my lips together, some of the excess skin came away very easily. I was quite impressed. Then I put it for two more days (one application per day). On the end of the second day, my lips were completely back to normal. COMPLETELY back to normal, and actually, they were softer than than usually were. By this time, I was EXTREMELY impressed. Three applications took my lips from quite chapped to wonderfully smooth? WOW!

This product has forced me to come to the conclusion that not all lip balms are the same - it was an absolute revelation, I can assure you, because I had tried a LOT of lip balms before deciding to just stick with Vaseline.

Although I'd love to use it every day, the balm is still rather expensive in my eyes, and it is very difficult for me to get. So, I've decided to only use this product when I really need it - when my lips really need help because they are chapped due to my laziness. Vaseline is still great at maintaining what the Lip Love Balm has done (I've tried this for the past week, and my lips have maintained that smoothness), but it doesn't do lip repair-work quite as well or as fast as this balm.

So, if you can get hold of it or if you live in the UK, go get the Lip Love Balm! It's really, really nice. Yes, it is £5, which is a lot for a lip balm, but it is definitely, definitely worth it (especially if you earn in sterling pounds and not the USD!).

I am not being paid by Tropic Skin Care to write this review - I bought the product with my own money, and these are my own pure, honest thoughts.

Green Bean Coffee Extract - Week Two

Hello, everyone!

This my second week update of being on the green bean coffee extract.

So, according to the scale at the pool, I've gained a pound. I'm quite willing to believe that as I believe that I gained quite a bit of muscle this week due to exercising a lot, so I'm not too fussed about it. I have noticed a lot of fat come off of my abdominal and inner thigh areas, so I do believe that the extract is working despite the weight gain (leading me to believe that the weight gain is due to muscle gain). I am hopeful that this increased muscle will lead to even more rapid calorie burning, so we'll see how it goes.

Thank you very much for reading!! 26 pounds to go!

Tree Hut Shea Body Butter - Hawaiian Kukui

Hello, everyone!

As I mentioned before, I have really, really problematic dry skin. It borders on eczema. A lot of this is because, when I was little, I was the laziest person at applying lotion on my body. I think a lot of this had to do with the fact that I hated feeling greasy, and the lotion that I was given, Cetaphil, is literally the most greasy thing ever. Ugh. It does a very good job, I must say, but I hated the feeling on my hands when I moisturized, and I hated how slippery my body was afterwards. We finally got off Cetaphil after my begging my mother to buy something else, and we switched to Aveeno. Aveeno is good - and feels less greasy - but it still is a bit greasy, and I didn't really like to apply that either. So, the avoidance of moisturizing continued unless my mother bugged me to do so.

Needless to say, when I went off to college, I didn't moisturize. I got a lot of dry patches on my skin as a result. Finally, I realized that I had to do something. I had heard of this item called a "body butter" from somewhere off YouTube, so I decided to try it. I went to the grocery store, looked at the body butters, picked up the only one they had, and brought it home to use every day.

This is the body butter I picked up, and it is still my favorite.

Body butters work best if you apply them right after you shower. Their purpose isn't really to moisturize - it's to lock your skin's natural moisture and oils in so that it naturally moisturizes. It's a completely different concept from a lotion or a regular body cream.

First of all, it's not greasy. Thank GOD. I can apply it on my skin and not feel gross, and I don't need to immediately wash off my hands with a load of soap after I apply it. And it's still really effective. My dry patches are gone, and I no longer have scaly legs (yes, that's how dry my skin was and how little I cared about how I looked, if that tells you anything).

Second - the smell. Oh, my gosh. The smell is divine. But the best part about the smell is that it isn't overpowering. I really dislike people that wear scented lotions AND perfume because the smells mix and it just doesn't work. This thing is scented, but not much, and I can easily wear a perfume with it. I am terrible at describing scents, so I'm not going to try, but it's really subtle and lovely.

Third - it lasts a long time. A little bit goes a long way. This is my second pot of this body butter, and I had the first one for about six months (the tub contains 7 ounces of product). That's incredible, especially for a poor college girl. Of course, I'm really bad at remembering to moisturize - old habits die hard - but I would hazard a guess that this would last about four months very easily if you applied it every day.

I really recommend this body butter. I haven't tried any others mainly because of the smell factor - I hate walking around like two different scent bottles, and all the other ones I've smelled have really put me off - so I can't compare. But I can tell you that this performs beautifully - it is very effective.

I bought mine for about $10 at a grocery store, and I actually haven't seen it in any other grocery store than that. However, you can buy it on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/Tree-Hut-Butter-Hawaiian-7-Ounce/dp/B001ET7BZS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367214942&sr=8-2&keywords=tree+hut+shea+body+butter

This is a pack of three. You could probably search further for individual ones to buy. Also, look at treehutshea.com for more information.

Just as a disclaimer - I bought this product with my own money, and I'm not being paid by the maker to write this.

Thank you for reading, and I hope that this was helpful!

Spring Rolls as Fast Food

Hello, everyone!

So, one of the great problems the United States has created is the conundrum of healthy, fast food. There... really isn't much to offer besides Subway. I happen to greatly dislike Subway because I dislike bread - I believe it's not something our bodies are used to processing, so I avoid it at all costs in my diet. I adore Noodles and Company, but they don't exist in my area! On the other hand, let me list the number of national chain unhealthy fast food options we have:

• McDonald's
• Wendy's
• Arby's
• Burger King
• Jack-in-the-Box
• Chick-Fil-A
• Panda Express (don't try to tell me they are healthy, it's loaded with salt and oil)
• Carl's Junior
• Dairy Queen
• Sonic

I could go on, but you get my point. Not all that much healthy fast food out there in comparison to unhealthy fast food.

So - I was out driving a couple days ago, absolutely famished because I hadn't eaten for about six hours. I had been on the road all day for a load of reasons, and I just needed food. I don't like eating the fatty foods offered at the above fast food chains,so I was feeling a bit depressed. I resolved to just tough it out until I got home in about three hours. Then I passed a Thai restaraunt.

I pretty much love all Asian food. Lovely, lovely flavors - I love the spices because so many of them are good for you, not to mention the amazing taste! Anyway, I saw this random Thai restaurant, and I had a brainwave - I could go inside and ask for some spring/summer rolls! Every Thai/Vietnamese restaurant has them, so I figured, why not? They don't take very long to make - a matter of a minute or two, usually - so I figured I could pop in and out in five minutes. 

The rolls I am referring to are the NON-deep fried rolls. They consist of rice noodles, fresh lettuce, sometimes fresh mint, sometimes bamboo shoots, lean, boiled pork, and boiled shrimp, and they are wrapped in rice paper. Some places call it a spring roll, other places call it a summer roll. Make sure you ask the person at the counter - at the place I went to, the spring roll was the deep fried version, which I definitely didn't want! The contents are basically the same across all Thai/Vietnamese restaurants. And it's always DELICIOUS - unless that particular restaurant overpacks the rolls with too many rice noodles. 

Four dollars and two rolls later, I was full. And I felt good. Five dollars for lunch - not bad, especially for restaurant food. And healthy, too! A spring/summer roll has a load of fiber so that you feel full, and the ingredients are nothing but healthy. Plus, it's wrapped in rice paper - no deep frying involved, so no extra oil, and really easy to eat. The meat and/or seafood is boiled, so no extra oil there, either. I was in and out in five minutes. It truly is a perfect fast and healthy food.

Not only that, but they are really easy to make, too. I have done so myself in the past. I'll make another blog post sometime about how to make these lovely and tasty things.

If you struggle with eating healthily on a busy schedule on the road, as I do a lot of the time, I hope this gives an option.

Thank you for reading!

Green Bean Coffee Extract Trial - Week One

Hi, everyone! This is my green bean coffee extract trial update for my first week on it.

So, I have to say that I wasn't quite as vigilant about exercising this week as usual. I had my period, which meant a lot of bending over and ice packs. Not fun. I did exercise on Thursday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and I will be going to the pool later today. Better than nothing.

I also have to say that my exercise on Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of walking for about an hour and fifteen minutes instead of my usual pool exercises. This is because I was feeling a bit bloated. I do believe that this was due to the green bean coffee extract.

So, the plus side - I'm pretty sure I've lost about five pounds. In one week. Pretty incredible. This is based on the scale at the pool I go to which is about seven pounds heavier than my scale at home - I'm really trying to be brutally honest with myself. I did find that I had a lot more energy, and this is probably due to the caffeine. I didn't get tired as easily when I exercised, which enabled me to go longer. The extract definitely makes you drink more water, I noticed - I was drinking a LOT of water, maybe a glass, or even two at some times, an hour. That huge ton of water plus the feeling of fullness that just the pill gave me did suppress my appetite, which isn't a bad thing. I have a humongous appetite, which was built into me by my parents and which I really started regretting about last year. Therefore, I'm really glad that I'm no longer eating huge, huge meals.

The downsides - as I mentioned, my stomach hasn't been all that happy. I've felt bloated, my stools are a lot looser than usual, and I'm having to go to the bathroom a lot more frequently. The stools loosening up may be because I am drinking a lot more water, but I think the bloatedness does come from the extract. I hope this lessens up this week - it's not very pleasant.

I also have to say that I didn't feel the need for sweets as much. I adore chocolate - it's a huge weakness of mine - and I usually go through about one Cadbury bar a week (or more...). But I didn't eat any chocolate at all this week. I didn't need it or even want it. I didn't eat any other candy, either - for some reason, the thought of sugar just repulsed me. That has never happened to me before, so I'm quite happy about that. I didn't change anything else about my diet this week, but remember - I eat healthy already.

So, to conclude - I think that the chlorogenic acid in the extract itself so far has been working for me. Nobody drops five pounds in one week, ever. However, in the very shoddy studies they did on the extract, the subjects tended to lose about two pounds a week. Therefore, I have to conclude that the side effects of the extract - eating less and the drinking more - also had a huge effect on my weight loss. I'm going to continue to take this and see how the weeks go by, and I will definitely keep you posted.

I initially took two pills a day, but I then decided to reduce that to one pill a day. I think that that is more than enough. I don't particularly want to repurchase this extract - I want to be done with my the majority of my weight loss in two months with it.

So, 5 down, 25 more to go!!

Tropic Skin Care Smoothing Cleanser Review

Hello, everyone!

So, during the last semester, as I mentioned, I was sick quite a bit, and as my friends restrained me from doing homework a lot of the time, I didn't have all that much to do. So, I got into quite a few shows. In addition, following my entry into makeup, I started following two makeup channels - one, I'm never going to mention. I started to follow her when she was not very well known, and she was good then. However, even though she was the one that got me into makeup, I have since started to dislike her since she has gotten more subscribers - she has tried to turn herself into a celebrity, and the quality of her videos aren't nearly what they used to be. From her channel, though, I somehow got to following SORTED Food - check them out at www.sortedfood.com. They are AMAZING. Hilarious, yummy food - everything. Well, on their Facebook page, they said that Ben Ebbrell was going to make an appearance on the show Young Apprentice.

I'm not from the UK, so I couldn't watch the show on BBC iPlayer, but someone very kindly did upload to YouTube, so I watched the episode. And I really liked it! I watched the previous episode as well, then watched the entire series as it happened. Then I went back and watched the two previous series of Junior/Young Apprentice. And then, I watched The Apprentice UK - from Series 4-8. I tried to watch Series 3, but I couldn't stand most of the people on it.

From Series 7, I always really liked candidate Susan Ma and Tom Pellereau, the eventual winner. Susan was my favorite, though, and I was sad when she didn't win. She always knew what she was talking about, even if she was mostly ignored by everyone else, and she really seemed like a lovely, genuine person. And she kept talking about her skincare range. So, I looked her up online. Even though she didn't win the show, Lord Sugar did eventually invest in her company - good choice! So I looked into her products - her range is called Tropic Skin Care, which you can find at www.tropicskincare.com - and I decided to try the Smoothing Cleanser. I bought it on eBay because the international shipping price is horrendous on the actual website.

This is my first ever high-end cleanser. Prior to this, I had been using the very popular St. Ives one on the recommendation of a college dorm-mate back when I had just gotten into makeup and had learned/realized that this thing called a cleanser existed and that I needed one. However, I was starting to get very concerned that it wasn't good for my skin because of the harsh abrasion. So, this cleanser was a treat. It smells of lemongrass - lovely scent - goes on silky smooth, and takes off everything. Absolutely everything - as long as you massage it well into your skin. The bamboo cleanser that comes with it is perfect for gentle exfoliation. And your skin feels so refreshed afterwards - I can't even describe it. I love the feeling of being completely clean because, to me at least, it is just so refreshing. Ever since then - I've been using it for about a month - I haven't had any blackheads, and my breakouts are not nearly as frequent as they used to be. I highly recommend this to everybody. It is a very luxurious product, and it is on the expensive side, but my gosh, is it worth it. I actually was so impressed that I bought two more of these, and they are on my shelf, waiting for the current bottle to be finished. I use the cleanser both in the morning, when I shower, and, if I wear makeup, to take my makeup off and cleanse my skin afterward at night. If I don't wear makeup, I don't cleanse twice a day. I probably should, but I'm far too lazy.

I also haven't had any facial skin problems since. My face skin is ridiculously sensitive, and I think it is because my parents are from a tropical country, so my skin is used to that climate and the associated fruits and vegetables there. It's not used to pears, apples, etc. - it's used to papaya, mango, pomegranate, kiwi, wood apple, and a hundred other things. My face is always fine in tropical climates, but it's terrible here. However, this cleanser made my face skin normal again - and I think it is because of all the tropical ingredients in it that my skin should be having. So - I think this has become my cleanser. Unfortunately, before I ordered this cleanser, I also ordered the very popular - and similar - Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish cleanser, also from eBay. I'm going to give that one a shot after my current bottle of Tropic Skin Care Cleaner is out.

Pre-Clarisonic, I used one pump of cleanser all over my face to get rid of makeup by really massaging it into my face for a long time. I rinsed it off with hot water and cotton pads. And then to actually clean my face, I made sure my face was wet and then used one to two pumps - depending on the day - again, taking care to really massage it into my face. I take my cleansing routine from how Lisa Eldridge does hers - she is the other makeup artist I follow on YouTube, and I trust her advice 100% because she is a very well known and very well renowned makeup artist outside of YouTube. She just shares tips via YouTube for fun, not as a job - and thank goodness she does. I have learned so much from her. Check her out at www.lisaeldridge.com, and you can search for her cleansing routine there if you're interested.

Just as a disclaimer - Tropic Skin Care did not pay me to write this review. I bought the cleanser from my own money. These are my honest thoughts.

I hope this was informative, and thank you for reading!

Endometriosis

Hey, everyone!

So, the illness I have been battling with is called endometriosis. I want to take some time to discuss it because my guess is that a lot of you may have it and not know that you do. I'm going to talk about my personal journey as I think it may help some of you.

I started my time of the month when I was eleven years old, and for about a year, I had no clue what my mother was talking about when she was talking about menstrual cramps. I thought she was crazy. I did feel bloated, but I had no clue what she was talking about with regards to pain. A year later, I started getting cramps, and they just kept getting worse and worse and worse to the point where I lay on my bed, crying because it hurt so much. I try not to take painkillers because, over time, it does increase your body's resistance to the those drugs, and I want them to be as potent as possible when I actually need them. I figured I could probably deal with the pain without painkillers. Then, for my first few years of high school, I once again had no cramps. I was quite ecstatic about this as I now knew how painful they were. Unfortunately, it was not to last - in my junior year, my cramps came back, and this time, they were at least three times as painful as they were in eighth grade. I felt like someone had taken a knife that was just dull enough to hurt like nothing else to that area and was slowly twisting it into my skin, enjoying my pain. It was horrible. But again, I didn't take painkillers - I thought I was just weak and couldn't deal with it. Even when it became debilitating - I missed classes, almost fainted a few times just by walking, had to be carried some days - I just kept blaming myself. I only took Tylenol if I had to take an exam or something and actually had to concentrate. Even the Tylenol didn't take away all of the pain, but it took the worst of it off to the point where I could train myself to ignore it.

This pattern continued into college, but it just kept getting worse. Every period became an absolute nightmare. By my second semester, I would cry for about six hours straight on the first day because that is how badly it hurt. And by about July/August, that period very quickly began to lengthen to seven, eight, nine, ten hours. And in July, I ended up having to go into Urgent Care because, the day I got my period, I couldn't stop throwing up both food and liquid. By the time I had effectively not drunk anything for a full day, I decided that I should probably seek some medical attention, so I went to Urgent Care. They gave me an anti-nausea medication along with a saline bag, which solved the vomiting problem.

Even with the increased pain, I was still committed to not taking painkillers. I would go to class, make it through lecture by punching myself on my arm or pinching my leg to distract myself from my tummy, go back to my dorm room to cry for a few hours, and then go to another class. I thought if I just managed to train my body to manage the pain, I could learn to live with it eventually without compromising my body's ability to be potent to acetaminophen, naproxin, or ibuprofen when I really needed it. This continued for a few months.

Then came December 2012. Finals week. I had had some other medical problems all through the semester that I don't particularly want to discuss, but they had made me spend the majority of my time in the hospital, trying out treatments and medicines. I now know that it was completely unrelated to what was about to happen, but I didn't know that at the time. However, I was pretty sick of being in the hospital and being continually told that there was nothing wrong with me when I knew that something was wrong.

Unfortunately, my body had other plans besides sitting in peace and letting me study. I got my period in the middle of the night about four days before my first final, so I groaned and tried to go back to sleep. However, a half hour later, I could pinpoint a spot in my right, upper stomach where the pain was so intense that touching that spot made me scream uncontrollably. This was new - this was not in my womb area, this was my stomach area. Of course, my first thought was appendicitis, so I called my friend who had a car, asked her to come over, and then called the nurse's post with my insurance provider. The nurse basically told me to get to the ER as fast as I could and to not eat or drink anything in the meantime.

My friend was very kind, ran me to the hospital, and stayed with me. After a few hours, the doctor came back, told me that I didn't have appendicitis (I groaned - ANOTHER no-answer visit) or a bad gall bladder, and proceeded to do a very, very painful pelvic exam as he thought it may be ovarian cysts. Nothing came up, so he gave me some prescription Vicodin to take with me if the pain ever came back, and he gave me instructions to return to the ER if the pain did come back.

Well, the morning of my first final, the pain came back after disappearing for a few days. I went back to the ER at 2 AM the day of my first final with my very, very kind friend, got put on morphine because I was screaming so much, had a doctor tell me that there was nothing wrong with me (of course, screaming due to pain means that there is nothing wrong... but I was in no state of mind to argue while I was on morphine), and I went back home. I e-mailed my professors, telling them that I would take their final another day because I couldn't think on morphine.

So, another couple of days later, the pain returned, but it had moved to a different area of my stomach. I had been told by the second doctor to go back to the ER if that did happen, so back I went - again with my lovely friend. Three times in one week. Not fun. They did another CT scan (I objected because twice in one week is a really bad idea, but again, I was on morphine, so I was in no state to argue), told me I had a swollen lymph node that was causing all the problems, gave me more prescription Vicodin, and sent me home. The third ER doctor was very nice and wrote a note to my school saying that I was in no condition to do any work for at least a week (thus exempting me from all finals), so my teachers agreed to give me my finals within the first week of the next semester.

After finally managing to get home - my father had to fly to my school just to get me through the airport as I needed a wheelchair - I started going to my team of doctors back home. My primary physician had no idea and my gastroenterologist (throat/stomach specialist, on whom I had been banking all my hopes as my pain had been in my stomach) had no idea. Finally, I visited my naturopath. As you can probably guess by my aversion to painkillers, I am very into natural medicine, and my particular naturopath, in the past, has cured me from twice-yearly sinus infections and has greatly reduced my severe allergic reactions to dust mites and cats. She looked at all the reports, CT scans (and said that the radiologist's diagnosis of a swollen lymph node was, to put it politely, "complete hocum"), x-rays of the last six months. There was a lot to go through, as between my other problems and these ones, I had been to the doctor's office at least fifteen times in a span of four months. Finally, she asked me how bad my period was on a regular basis. I had no idea why she asked, but I mentioned that I thought it had been getting worse and worse over time and that it was very debilitating. She mentioned endometriosis and giardia. I got checked for giardia, which it wasn't, so then I went to see a gynecologist.

After hearing about my horrible periods and my very sharp pain in my stomach, the gynecologist immediately told me that I had endometriosis and that I likely had had it since I started my period. I asked for an in-depth explanation as to what endometriosis was as my naturopath had told me a little bit, but I wanted the full story from a person in the field.

Basically, endometriosis happens when your uterus cells do not just stay in your uterus - they also climb up into other parts of your body, usually on your bladder and gut lining, and they form cysts. Some very unlucky women have endometriosis in their lungs - that must be awful. As a result of those cysts, when you have your period, other parts of your body also start bleeding, which is why the pain is extra bad. Endometriosis is often only thought of and treated when other parts of your body besides your womb area start hurting, when intercourse is painful, or when women find it hard to get pregnant. Apparently about 6-10% of women are actually treated for it, but it is estimated that possibly a lot of the female population does have it - maybe even up to 60-70%, but it is hard to tell because - who goes to a gynecologist for a bad period or even tells their doctor that they are having a bad period? Bad menstrual cramps are not something either you or your doctor think about as being a problem - unless you are my very clever naturopath, who did think about it. To make things even more complicated, some women apparently have very severe endometriosis but never feel any pain, and some women have very slight endometriosis but feel a lot of pain. It depends on the person. As of now, there is no actual cure or even a good way of determining whether or not women have it. The only way to really cure it is a hysterectomy with an ooectomy, which is a pretty drastic, life-changing surgery and not a good option for most women, especially those that want children.

My first question was, "why on earth was this never mentioned in the loads of doctors visits I had gone to or, at the very least, in the ER during my stomach pain after it was confirmed that I didn't have a swollen gall bladder or an about-to-rupture appendix?" The gynecologist said, "who tells a doctor of a bad period? Every girl is told that PMS is awful and feels terrible, so if a girl has an extra-bad period, she has no way of comparing it to other people's periods and thinks that her period pains are just as bad as everybody else's."

When all of this got explained to me, I said, "well, I had two CT scans done of my stomach and pelvic areas - why did this not get caught earlier? Wouldn't the extra cells have shown up there?" My gynecologist said, "unfortunately, no - the cysts are so small that they cannot be seen by any scan imaging technique - CT, MRI, x-rays, and ultrasounds don't catch it. It can only be seen with surgery." I groaned, and I asked about treatment. Then she gave me another blow. "Endometriosis cannot be removed except with a laparoscopy, and even that can be useless as it is often unwise to remove those cells from bladders, abdominal lining, major blood vessels, etc. in case something goes wrong. The only way to treat endometriosis is to assume that you have it based on your symptoms [in other words, it never actually gets confirmed with most people] and then to take birth control to suppress your ovaries. That will make your periods less painful and will mean that the cysts will not continue to get worse."

I was not too happy about this. Birth control for life? Really? I know two girls personally that have been on birth control for medical reasons, and I had heard, and personally observed, the horror stories - weight gain, out-of-control breast growth, nausea, vomiting, headaches - and I was none too eager to start. But it had to be done - even my naturopath said that I needed to take birth control. However, she also gave me an herbal remedy that she said could start to take effect in about six months if I took it regularly - she said that about 60% of her endometriosis patients did respond positively to it and that I may as well try. She told me to take it alongside the birth control and then to go off it for a full month in a couple of months to see if it was taking any effect with the goal of eventually not having to be on birth control.

Right now, I am off birth control. I took it for two months, but it was the reason why I had to leave school for the semester as it meant loads of migraines, vomiting, constant nausea, dizziness, weight gain, mood swings etc. However, as annoying as it was, the birth control did help, thereby confirming that I do have endometriosis - well, as much as it will get confirmed without me having surgery. My periods were almost painless in comparison to the hell I was going through without it. This is my first month off it, and although I was given a different birth control prescription to try in the meantime of a lower dose than the previous one, I decided to go off it for a month to see what effect the herbal remedy was having. I have to admit that I have been really bad about taking the herbal remedy, but even with my forgetfulness, I believe that the remedy is helping a little bit. I gritted my teeth and ignored my Vicodin bottle during this last month, but my period was not nearly as painful as it was in the past. It was still debilitating, but it wasn't making me cry, so progress! I will keep you posted as to whether or not it works over time as I myself am really curious. I will ask my naturopath more with regards to the science of it during my next visit with her and share it with you.

I hope this helps some people with really painful periods. If your periods really are debilitating - and I hate to suggest this because not everybody is like me in their aversion to medicine, but there is some logic to doing this - don't take painkillers for a few months. See if your periods are progressively getting worse. I am so happy that I didn't take painkillers because, otherwise, I may have never figured out what was actually going on with me in the ER, and that pain may have continued without an explanation for years. If your periods are progressively getting worse, go see a gynecologist just in case. Although the birth control did have a lot of unintended consequences for me, most girls seem to be able to take birth control without any major, unwanted side effects, so it is worth a try. Also - if intercourse is painful for you or you're having problems getting pregnant, both have been observed symptoms of endometriosis, so if that is happening to you, ask yourself how bad your periods are and talk to a gynecologist. It may really help you in the long run.

Sorry for the long post. Good luck, and thank you for reading!

Green Bean Coffee Extract Trial - Start

Hi, everyone!

So, about a week ago, I stepped on the scale. I am on a mission to get back to my normal weight, which is about 25 pounds less than what I weigh currently. However, when I looked down at the scale, I almost cried - I had gained ten pounds in one week! Ten pounds!

I was feeling absolutely and completely hopeless, so I went online to do some research on weight loss techniques. I found this green bean coffee extract thing. It is supposed to kick your liver to metabolize fat faster. To be honest, the research looked pretty shoddy to me - the focus group consisted of only sixteen people, it wasn't done over a long period of time, etc. However, I was so desperate that I decided to try it.

According to people for whom this actually worked, they said to make sure that the extract you were buying had at least 45% chlorogenic acid or svetol with no fillers or binders. I found a thing on Amazon that seemed to match this description fairly well, so in my fit of desperation, I bought it.

I have since learned that that horrible weight gain incident was due to my scale getting stuck - at least, that is what I presume, because two hours later, I had somehow dropped eleven pounds. But I had already ordered the thing, and I figure that I may as well give it a shot. It can't hurt - it is a natural product with absolutely nothing else besides the extract. That is the only reason I decided to try it in the first place - at the least, it didn't look harmful, and it wasn't promising a dramatic weight drop - just two pounds a week. I also don't drink any caffeine at all - I drink hot water. That's literally it. No tea, no coffee, no soda - just hot water - so the tiny bit of caffeine in it shouldn't be a problem.

Just for people's information - I do exercise quite a bit. I either swim rigorously for, at this point, almost an hour every day (more information on my exercise habits later), or I go for a a rigorous, hour-long walk during my time of the month. In other words, I am going to do this trial in conjunction with exercise and along with my regular, fairly healthy diet. People think I am making this up when I say this, but a typical lunch for me is brown rice, three vegetable curries, and a fish dish. Dinner tends to be vegetable rice or vegetables in cous-cous. I eat cereal or some hard-boiled eggs in the morning. I eat a lot of fruit in the summer, but I have a really hard time eating apples, pears, and oranges. I am more of a berries, peaches, nectarines, and plums kind of person. If I can find a decent mango around now, I will eat it, but they are hard to find. Believe it or not, I really do enjoy my food - probably because this is all I have really eaten since I was two or three. I do have to say, though, that I am really bad about eating chocolate, although I've scaled back on that quite a bit lately. I do have the occasional pizza or salty/oily Chinese food, but I do try to limit how much of the more greasy and oily foods I eat.

I am not getting paid by the maker of this company to do this review - these are purely my own observations, and I hope I help those that are considering giving this green bean coffee extract thing a run/aid people in deciding whether or not it is a hoax. However, as with all herbal things, I am guessing that it will work for some and won't work for others, as I have read a lot of testimonials on how amazing it is and a lot on how it is all a hoax. Then again, whenever I read these things, I always wonder how many people have been paid to say what they do. Probably not the most fair thing to think, but with the amount of advertising/methods of advertising techniques out there these days, you never know.

So, this starts tomorrow. I think I will give weekly updates as to how this is going, so the next time I write about this will be April 25, 2013.

Again, thanks for reading!

My First Post

Hi, everyone! This is my first blog post - I'm not really sure what to expect of the experience. My name is Alina, and I'm a university student of the chemical engineering realm that is currently home due to some medical concerns. I don't have all that much to do beyond getting better, so I guess that is why I am starting this. I genuinely do love the degree that I am doing, and I am quite sad to not be studying right now. I have loved school since I was a little eight year old.

Beyond loving school, I'm very abnormal for being a nerdy science and math girl. For instance, I am quite into beauty, which is an expensive hobby, I must say. I noticed that after being in a school with a 3:1 male/female ratio, I turned into a lot more of a girly-girl, much to my own dismay - perhaps that was a natural reaction to the huge amount of boys on campus. I was a little into beauty in high school, but not that much. I wanted to look nice, but I didn't have the time - I had a lot of homework, and I cared about my grades! I didn't care that I had horribly dry skin on my body or that I broke out a lot on my face. I did wear powder on my face, some eyeshadow, and a black pencil eyeliner, but that pretty much all I owned in the beauty world. Thank goodness my mother bugged me to moisturize my body, otherwise I might have eczema by now.

As a result of getting into beauty, I also really started getting into skincare. Also expensive. My face was an absolute mess - I had loads of breakouts, it was patchy, blah blah blah. Long story short, after not owning a cleanser until ten months ago, I now have a cleanser, a spot treatment, and a Clarisonic. I really do believe in good skin and not covering everything with a ton of makeup, and I try to go makeup-free as much as possible.

Besides beauty, I am a HUGE figure skating fan. By huge, I mean humongous to the point where I will get up at 2 AM the night before a huge exam just to watch a live stream from Japan or Russia. I'll probably talk a lot about that obsession as well.

I also love to write and read. This is really unusual for an engineering student - most of us HATE to write, and reading that is not related to the field is as bad to most as getting rid of wisdom teeth. But I really enjoy both, and I am considering a career in law after I earn my engineering degree because I really do love technical writing.

I am currently on a mission to lose weight. Due to my illnesses/the medications I have been put on, my body - which used to be able to tolerate literally anything I stuffed into it - has started actually putting on weight. Before I knew where I was, I had gained 25 pounds. I am currently about 25.5 on the BMI scale - very barely outside the "normal" range - but I don't look good, and above all, I don't feel good. So, I think I may as well talk about my weight loss journey on here as well.

I don't know if anybody will be interested in my blog, but if anybody is, my posts will probably be very sporadic, especially after I return to school. I am usually a fairly busy person.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy my random thoughts.