Goals

I always have many things in my mind, and most of them are health related, or rather beauty health related. I want to make myself follow some routines that are to be done daily, weekly and monthly, I even wrote them down, but the problem with me is, the routine will die down after a while.

I thought I should just write down those that I have yet to achieve in my blog to motivate myself and set a target to accumulate them overtime. So far, my skin care regime has been almost “routinise” except for the tedious few.

Honey Lemon Juice
I read in an article that honey lemon juice when consume over a long period of time will result in fairer skin. I was a swimmer when I was young and it resulted in a badly toasted skin colour. I have been avoiding swimming in the day since secondary school days, and have achieved a better skin tone now, but it will not go back to the natural fair skin I’m born with.

Honey lemon can be prepare every week, I mostly dedicate Sunday for all preparation work for food and home cleaning. First disinfect a jar with boiling water, and leave it aside for use. Slice 2 lemons thickly and put the sliced lemon and honey layer after layer into the jar (1 layer of lemon followed by 1 layer of honey and continue until you fill up the jar). Close the jar and refrigerate for 7 days, after which dilute 1 tablespoon of honey lemon with water to drink. This should last for a week, and so I should prepare the next jar when I’m starting the first jar. Besides whitening, it is a good source of vitamin C to fight cold.

Soaked Hada Labo Cotton Pad Mask
Hada Labo is a concentrated hydrating serum that is selling very well in Japan. I like the after effect too, deeply hydrated and plump skin, but I don’t like the continuously patting of the serum with my hand into my skin. Instead I use a method my colleague introduced, soaking cotton pad with the serum and lay them over my face for 5 minutes. She read this from a book – skincare revolution – by a Japan leading beauty expert, Chizu Saeki. We are free to choose any lotion we deem fit, there is no hard and fast rule, and some people just use water. To me, I think Hada Labo works well for this regime, and I will like do it every night after cleansing and toning, before moisturising.

Ice Cold Towel
The cotton pad mask is considered time consuming for morning regime, since I practically have not much time left after bathing, preparation and breakfast. Usually in the morning, I will just prep my skin with SKII facial treatment essence and sunblock. That’s all! But now, I will like to add one additional step, which should not take up much of my time. Cover my face with ice cold towel after bath and relax for a good 3 minutes before the usual skin prep. Basically I will have to diligently put in a fresh clean towel into the freezer every night before bed. This seemingly simple daily routine can help to minimize open pores and prevent pimples production.

Exercise
I totally believe in exercising for a better health, which will in turn show on your body – a better body and better skin tone, even your hair and energy will be better. My husband and I came up with a plan, to wake up earlier on 3 days in a week for a run before the day starts, good exercise for my dog too. How ambitious! We decided to try out on 1 weekend first, to see if we will get used to it because the other 2 days are supposed to be work week. I thought this is a good idea, and I’m glad I have a husband who is supportive of a healthy lifestyle (after talking about it to him for years, it dawn on him that healthy is good). He now went jogging with his colleague two days a week after work, and even initial badminton weekly, which his colleague is also very enthusiastic about. But that plan have not started because we simply can’t get a court.

I have a gym membership, but it was so underutilised. Instead of the usual gym, I have thought out that it’s best to go for the yoga classes, twice a week if possible, the two days when my husband will be away running with his colleague. Reason for attending yoga instead of the cardiovascular exercises is because I will be running with my husband 3 times a week and I think that’s enough. Yoga is more for posturing, breathing, and controlling the energy (qi) in my body which I think I lack a lot. And not forgetting the steam bath after my lesson, that helps to force out perspiration and toxin, which is good for skin and health.

Body Moisturising
This is one thing I will do when I feel like it, but that is so wrong. I am supposed to do it every day! But I’m just plain lazy. Also I only apply sunblock to my face and neck and neglected my body totally. I came across palmers brand few months back and I bought the olive butter formula body lotion to try, and I love it. I finished one bottle already, and I thought of getting another 2 bottles, one for night use (cocoa butter formula which is more intensive) and another for day (olive butter formula with SPF 15).

Every time I moisturise, it’s really a bottom to top process while watching the TV. I will massage throughout from my legs to my hands, and even my neck. Women body is different from men as we have cellulite, which will accumulate due to prolong sitting and poor circulation. Massage helps to disperse the lump, which should be done daily by us. I will visit the spa every month with my girlfriends for milk bath and massage, this helps too, but we can’t do that every day because we simple need to spend elsewhere. So doing it ourselves is a must.

Healthy Eating
May I say, this is really hard! Although I work in a healthcare industry, I don’t see a lot of healthy food around. And at times, healthy food means expensive food, or rather healthy food equals “not nice” food. Packing bento to work is my goal. I want to control what I eat, with as little or no preservative as possible, as healthy as possible, and yet taste good. I read about paleo diet, but I don’t think I will go into the full paleo diet. I will still love my deep fried chicken wings, braised fatty pork meat, but I will minimise them, and complement with healthy choices to have a balance.

Healthy eating also means that I shall not overeat and over indulge. I’m glad I dislike sweets like chocolate, cake and ice cream, and I seldom go for soda or syrup drinks. The problem in my diet lies in high salt intake (I love bacon and chips), and perhaps oily food.

Maintaining a Clean Home
I will not say my home is dirty, but my expectation of clean is daily cleanliness. We do not have budget for a full time maid, nor do we want one because I am uncomfortable to have a stranger at home. We used to have a part time maid who came over every two weeks, but her schedule is pretty unreliable so we cease using her. Even if she continues, once every two weeks is not enough to maintain the cleanliness especially so when I have a dog at home. I mop the floor every week, but I thought of increasing the frequency to twice a week, mid-week and Sunday. My aunt gave me the rotating mop which is much easier to use, and I think that will greatly motivate me to mop more frequently.

Vacuuming of floor, wiping of furniture, and cleaning of toilets are mostly done over the weekend. I’m fine with those, but just have to maintain the cleanliness of my toilets because it is most damp and bacteria harbouring place. I use the magic clean paper mop to go around my house after work to remove dust and hairs on the floor.

Wardrobe Maintenance
I have clutter and clutter of clothes in my wardrobe, and some of which have not been use for many many moons. I need time to think through my style and clear away the clothes that are no longer what I need. Instead of throwing or donating them away, I thought of making them into blankets, those checkered blankets made up of numerous fabric.

Allocate Time for My Hobbies
I love baking, I do that. I love cooking, I do that too. I love reading, I do that, hooray!

I love decorating, I love sewing, I love craft work, but I did not put aside time for them. Having to put time for my parents, my aunt and uncle, my siblings, my friends, my husband, I’m just running out of time. It’s time to sit down and really work out how this can be done. Recently I added in planting into my hobby, and my cuts out mint leaves are producing tiny roots!

The list can go on, and on, and on. But I think these are some of the major ones that need to be done and focus on. I just love being a woman and having things to fuzz about, always on the look out to learn and cultivate myself to be better.