take care of myself

This is day 3 of my SparkPeople four day mini challenge. It is going well. After this four days, I’m going to challenge myself for four work days in a row. Work makes me really hungry, so I’ll have to build on the success of my first four days.

I’m loving my water drinking goal. It’s a relly good habit to develop.

Today I took Audrey on a walk. Cranked up the MP3 and enjoyed the scenery. I wonder how hard it would be to make this a habit.

That’s what it all seems to be about, habits and routines. I have never been that kind of person. As a matter of fact, I’ve been darn balky about habits and routines. And it has been to my detriment. The hardest part is kicking off and following through.

My friend and I went for facials, manicures and pedicures today. The manicures and pedicures were incredible and together only came to $20 (I’ve paid a lot more for much less pampering treatments). The facial left a lot to be desired – I can do better at home – but the lady did a very soothing face massage.

This is a selfish goal but we all have our weaknesses and the desire to pamper myself with luxurious products is one of mine. I enjoy these little beauty rituals so I’m usually pretty good at “taking care of myself”, but I want to make sure that I have routines and appointments that are regular to sustain good health and a good appearance. When these are strong, I feel great.

• Simple but effective daily cleansing and moisturizing routines
• Exfoliation and hair care a few times a week
• At-home “beauty day” once a week: face mask, hair mask, foot care
• Haircut, epilation, manicure & pedicure at the salon&spa every six weeks (+at-home henna treatment)
• Using my favourite, most expensive beauty goodies, getting a massage on special occasions
• Making sure my wardrobe is always excellent; that I love every piece it contains and couldn’t do without it, that they all fit; that they all flatter
• Using good quality products, buying well-made clothes, and splashing out on some luxury items (buying less paying more) while remaining within my means and not being stupid/gullible
• Drinking plenty of water, having a disciplined & healthy approach to food
• Being active every day: walking, dancing, running, lifting weights, stretching
• Sleeping enough
• Always being perfectly clean; clean skin, clean clothes, clean scent, clean breath
• Using sunscreen without fail when I will be exposing my skin to the sun
• Investing in a pair of good sunglasses
• Never overdoing or overusing make-up
• Yearly visits to the dentist and optician

I’ll outline some of my steps in more detail soon and track myself on how well I stick to it.

I’m writing about this today, because I find I am more successful if I challenge myself with my 43T friends watching and supporting. This is a four day mini-challenge to follow my SparkPeople. No excuses. I have four relaxed days to establish better self control.

This is too easy for me!lol. Well now I am focusing on preserving my lovely face from the sun. I stocked up on Shiseido sun screan for the face, which I highly recomend. And i got a little tube of sun screan for the eye area for free and I like it. Annnd I make an apointment for a free face massage where they will surely talk me into buying even more awsome stuff to put on my face lol. I love shiseido sun screan but i HATE their other skin care so no way am I buying any of that again. My friend said that Oil of Olay total affects is better than my lancome and way cheaper too, so inshallah i will get some of that. my friend’s skin is perfect mashallah, so she is probably right. And every night I am taking special care to wash and moisturise my face and a bunch of other stuff i am doing special for my face i will not go on and on in a boring way. Anyway it looks great mashallah if I do say so myself and so soft. I do think i am getting on stupid wrinkle. Over one eye that i raise alot in an expression of surprise i guess. Does anyone know how to get rid of a wrinkle besides botox because thats really not something i would do to myself. I could work on this goal forever because there is always something nice I would like to do for myself.( :

I tried to start going to a Weight Watchers meeting. Well, darn it, the location changed since I last did WW and I did not know where it had moved to. It takes a big motivational push to get me to try something like this, so I was really disappointed

On the way home, I bought some salmon, celery, dill pickles, cherry tomatoes…I really need to/want to lose weight.

I’m working on my determination to meet certain goals, like take better care of myself. I decided to look up SparkPeople, recommended to me by 43T’s own RuthG. What a great find! I’ve got myself signed up and started. This may be all I need and it’s free.

quit smoking today. gonna try to stick to it. got patches from NYC health department. let’s see if this works.

I need to break it down into doable pieces.

I am worried about my blood pressure lately. I have been having conflicts regarding my husbands family. I can not talk to my husband about this because his solution is “just blow it off”. When I try to talk to him… he then gets moody and all he wants to do is sleep. Then I just get in my downward spiral and of course my mood is affected.

I need to do Yoga every day!!!

Finish reading Garth Stein book.