Wednesday, July 2, 2014

My Weight Loss Story So Far

                                                                 
                                                               
Well my first blog post ever on this site already gave you a look into the struggles of being bigger for me.  After a year or so of trying to eat right, research food, exercise nothing worked. Sadly. It was hard to be positive which was half the reason I quit blogging. How could I be a good source of motivation?
Last year when I switched to an IUD birth control they tested me for PCOS but never got back to me. I figured it must not be that important and let me stick out this new birth control and see what happens. I went to a nutritionist to help me learn food as well on their recommendation and referral.  I tried what the nutritionist said, I've done everything you could ever find. I can't tell you how many hours I've sat trying to figure out what to eat and when.  Nothing worked. So much so that I started eating less and less just to see when I'd finally lose something.  That point was only drinking 1 cup of coffee, minimal water, and an apple and half a peanut butter sandwich for dinner. That's it. Even ten I'd lose one or two pounds after a week of it. Fast forward to a few months ago, I started exercising even more. I even joined a Bikini Series Challenge with a friend and worked out more than ever before.  Others in the community were losing weight and inches, seeing a difference somehow. Not me. I kept at it though until I had pains and ended up having to switch birth control.  At the same time I asked about the tests I had taken a year ago and this doctor finally listened and told me I had PCOS.
   If you don't know PCOS stands for Polycystic ovarian syndrome.  It causes a lot of things including infertility, acne, weight gain, hair loss, hair growth in different places and other things. This led them to giving me medicine called Metaformin.  It is a harsh little drug that you have to slowly build up to your full dose.  This tends to correct infertility (or at least boost chances) and help people lose weight.
I've been taking this for about a month now and with the right eating (most of the time) I have lost 5.5lbs. I have not been exercising because until your body is used to this it makes you sick.  Now that I'm accustomed to it I still get sick if I eat things that are too carby like pizza and bread or anything really sweet.  It's a bummer but it does make you more strict with what your eating and how much.  So if you have a craving, be prepared to not eat much and get sick for awhile. Though strangely the first week I started taking it I could only eat really late at night and it was things like nachos. Apparently my body is confused.
  I know this is a short random post but this is my beginning and I hope to have better updates in the future.  If you have any questions about what I've been through in more detail or any about Metaformin please just leave a comment below and I will get back to you!

                                                           
                                                                     

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

June Favorites

Hello everyone! Well I picked one of the craziest weeks to try and start my blog back up again. Hence the lack of posts. Today I want to share with you some of my recent favorite things.  This will include, well, everything I can't get enough of. Food, skincare, makeup, music, you get the drift. I love hearing about what people have been enjoying, especially if it becomes a staple in their life.

                                                          SKIN CARE

I suffer from acne and combination skin. I always have but recently it has been worse because of PCOS hormones and birth control craziness. absolutely nothing I did helped.  I still struggle and have a fair amount of scars but it's mostly under control now.  This mask I picked up maybe a couple months ago and had time to really test it out.
                                               
Peter Thomas Roth Therapeutic Sulfur Masque

This little guy is spendy but I have found it is so worth the price.  You can pick this up at Sephora for $40.  This seems to have the most bang for your buck having 5oz, and you don't need much at all.  Like I've said I've had this for probably 3 months and have not made it half way through the jar.  The first couple of times you use this mask it will probably burn, and burn your eyes from the sulfer, I know mine did and it sucked big time but I stuck it out and the feeling only lasted a few minutes.  After that though it just has a cooling, tingling effect. I like to assume it was really attacking all the gunk in my pores those first few times.  
I don't find this mask overly drying which is fantastic for anything getting rid of acne.  I always follow up with a moisturizer but my face doesn't feel tight after using this.  If you have those red angry acne spots you can put a little of this on it and leave it on for a couple of hours or overnight as a spot treatment, it really brings the irritation down.  All in all a fantastic try if you suffer from acne, and you can put this on your back or chest (it says so on the jar) if you suffer from those. Sephora's return policy is fantastic, just keep the receipt  until you know you like this.

Next is a drugstore spot treatment.  There isn't much to say about this stuff except my skin doesn't respond to salicylic acid very well, it always prefers benzyl peroxide. For a long while I could only find the clean and clear spot treatment with the benzyl peroxide, maybe I was just blind.  But it soon became way too harsh on my skin and while it may have gotten rid of the spots, it dried out my skin like you wouldn't believe. I decided I'd rather take a couple extra days getting rid of a zit than drying it out and dealing with the flaking.  

                                                         
Neutrogena On the spot acne treatment

This is gentle but I believe helps. I'd give this a shot, especially if you don't have extremely stubborn acne.  This has 2% benzyl peroxide instead of the 10% you see in other brands a lot of the time. I also like that this doesn't leave a horrible white cast (even though it comes out white) so you can wear it in the day.  

                                                       Entertainment 

Sadly I don't have many product favorites this month, I wasn't fully planning on needing any.  

I discovered a new youtube channel that I adore, it's always a good laugh.  These two men have two channels that I watch that is basically a little talk show called Good Mythical Morning and Good Mythical More.  The latter is the after show of the first.  

If you would Like to click to Good Mythical Morning click here.


Next is a little show called Supernatural.  I know I'm probably super late to this wagon as I believe it is on the 9th season but I just stated watching it on Netflix. Me and my husband have been marathoning it for two weeks and are on season 5. It's so addicting.  
It's about two brothers hunting down urban legends in different towns and saving people. Then the continuing story line develops further as well. So ghosts, demons, vampires, changelings, it's all fair game.  I don't want to spoil it too much in case some of you haven't discovered this awesome show yet.  But let's all take a moment to appreciate one of the brothers named dean.  
                                                                  
Dean Winchester played by Jensen Ackles

Who doesn't mind staring at this for hours ;) 

So these are my favorites for the month, I'm hoping to have more for July but sometimes you get to stick with the old favorites. Let me know if you also enjoy some of these or if you try them out! 

Monday, June 23, 2014

Quick and Easy Teeth Whitening

Hi everyone! I know I probably don't have a huge audience but I just wanted to say I'm sorry for being gone for roughly a year I'm guessing.  It has been a very long crazy year and it still is. However I really want to try to make this blog a thing of mine. Not just a whim hobby.  I set up a word-press account but I'm still figuring it out.  The address for that is afternoonramble.wordpress.com. I will be following a rough schedule there and here so I will be posting Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  My current idea is Rambling Monday, Weight loss Wednesday, and Foodie Friday.

So now that that is out of the way onto the title of this post.  I apologize beforehand for not having before and after pictures. This is just something I do when I feel it's needed.

Imagine, you wake up and enjoy the most delicious cup of coffee before getting ready for the day.  Today you feel fierce and decide to rock a red lip.  Looking into the mirror you think "I'm hot!" and then you smile.  Your mojo pools onto the floor as you see yellow teeth.
   Has that happened to you? It has to me.  I always gt confused how yellow they seem to turn overnight.  No way am I paying 40 bucks for white-strips so I came up with the easiest way to whiten your teeth.  Depending on your store you might spend $6 or you might just have these on hand.  You will need hydrogen peroxide and a Q-tip, whitening toothpaste is optional.

  • Take your Q-tip and dip 1 side into the peroxide
  • Smile like you're applying for clown school, teeth bared
  • Brush peroxide on top set of teeth (don't put on fillings, it will hurt), Keep smiling!
  • Repeat process for bottom teeth and you guessed it, keep smiling
You want to keep this ridiculous smile on so the peroxide doesn't wash away right after you put it on. Stay like this for roughly 30 seconds. During this time I like to put everything away and get my toothbrush ready.  I like to use the Crest whitening toothpastes for good measure and just brush your little heart out. And that's it!  Easy thing to add to your routine right? I only do this once a day for about a week but depending on your teeth sensitivity or if you feel your teeth are really yellow you can do this two times a day.  
   You might prefer this method because it's cheap, quick, easy, isn't as harsh for those with sensitive teeth, and doesn't give uneven whitening. Are you confused by that last one?  Well I used a sample whitestrip and when I took it off I had blinding white polka dots on my teeth. As soon as I smiled you could tell, cute right?  So I had to warn my husband so I didn't scare him away when he got home. Luckily I fixed it with the peroxide trick after a couple of days. 

If you try this out please comment and let me know below!