So its nearly still as cold and wet as December but March is just about over. We are one month nearer to Summer! I've picked a few of things that stood out to me in the last month. Here it goes:
Beauty: Maybelline BB Eye Cream
After a few days of my Internship, I quickly realised makeup is not an option for me at 7.30am. I'm too tired in the morning to put makeup on but I also look so tired without makeup that I could possibly scare people if they looked at me. This is why Maybelline BB Eye Cream is my miracle this month! It rolls on so easily and it gives my skins a refreshing boost in the morning, something I don't get with thick layers of makeup. I pair this with Maybelline BB cream on my face, mascara and depending how tired I am, bronzer and eyebrow mascara.
Health: Dermalex
When I started my bar staff job back in October, I got contact dermatitis on my hands. In the beginning it was really awful. The skin on my hands was cracked and raw. I was in a lot of pain and no creams were working. I even had super strength prescription creams and they weren't doing a thing. I went to the pharmacy to get a gentle hand wash for sensitive skin (Elave Handwash) and the pharmacist took one look at my hands and recommended a new cream, Dermalex. Its not like the steroid creams that thin your skin out. It creates a barrier in the skin to stop moisture leaving the skin. I noticed a difference within a couple of days! I had a gross stage of scaly skin but after that it was fresh skin. Now I'm not fully healed, I still get a few cuts and raw areas and the palms of my hands are very red but Dermalex literally saved me from so much agony! I'm recommending it to all my friends who have a similar problem from working in bars.
Food: Fruit/Seed/Yoghurt Lunch
I bring in a snack to work with me everyday and I wanted it to be healthy. This lunch is perfect. It's basically soya yoghurt, flaxseed, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, any other seeds in the press and any berries we have in the fridge, usually grapes, strawberries and blueberries, mixed together in a lunch box. It doesn't sound nice but believe me it is! Plus it really fills me up and gives me energy for the rest of the work day. I really notice the difference in my work performance depending on what I eat. We got pizza in work one Friday and I combined that with a strawberry milkshake. Bad Idea! Within half an hour, I had a headache, I was so tired and I couldn't concentrate at all. Health food all the way!
Entertainment: Parks and Recreation
I havent gotten obsessed with a new TV show in a while so its about time a new one came along. My cousin, Hannah, told me to watch Parks and Recreation about two years ago. She said it was definitely my kinda funny and I'd love it. I watched a couple of episodes and it didn't do anything for me so I left it. I was bored a few months ago and started it again. OH MY GOD it is hilarious! If I had just given it a couple more episodes I would have known how amazing it is! Amy Poehler is one of the funniest women alive! Chris Pratt comes out with some 'one liners' that have me on the floor laughing. The relationships between all the characters is believable. They have long running jokes but don't over use them at the same time. Its just brilliant. I finished the final season last week and now I don't know what to do with life... so I'm rewatching all the seasons again :) If you want a taster of it, heres one of my personal favourite scenes were they go to a club promoting a new kind of drink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fyEarGbpXM
So they're my favourites of this month. Talk soon!
Uiscebawn x
Like nearly everyone after Christmas, I set a goal to get fit and healthy for the Summer. I had been keeping up with yoga but I wasn't getting much more exercise than that and the food situation was not a good one. Plenty of takeaways, drink on work nights out and snacking on lots of chocolate meant I was getting a bit pudgy. I was in the local pharmacy and saw the Fitbit flex on sale for €79. It was an impulse buy but I was hoping it would help motivate me. I'm going to review the Fitbit Flex and the Fitbit app on my iPhone.
Fitbit Wristband
The Fitbit comes in a several colours. I got it in navy and regret it so much! haha There were much nicer colours. But apart from the colour its perfect. I barely notice its on my wrist and no one has ever commented on it so I'm guessing other people don't notice it either. The actual tracker inside the wristband has a battery life long enough to last at least a week so you don't have to take it off every night to charge.
iPhone App
You need to download a free app to track all the information from the wristband. It uses bluetooth to connect to the phone. My advice is to turn off your bluetooth when you're not on the phone because it eats up battery life! My battery went twice as fast as usual when the bluetooth was on. On the app, there are different topics for you to track how much you're exercising, how far you've walked, how you've slept etc. Its easy enough to navigate through and it starts tracking your movements right away. You can change the settings to suit your body such as gender, height and what wrist your band is on. You can also put your weight in and your target weight. This way the app can calculate how many calories you need to eat and burn to get to your target weight.
Steps, calories and distance tracker
Steps taken, calories exerted and distance walked are the top three options on the app. You can set a personal daily goal for all three. I find the Steps Tracker the most useful because I think it makes me get up and stop being lazy. If I still have a couple of thousand steps to go before the day end it forces me to bring my dog on a walk or do some home exercises. I think its also more accurate than the calorie tracker. I usually get my full 10,000 steps in a couple of hours of working at the bar and the wristband vibrates to let you know you've reached your goal. It's nice just to have this little achievement everyday.
Exercise tracking
Before I had the Fitbit, I used the Nike Running App to track my runs (my very infrequent runs.) I definitely recommend that if you don't have a Fitbit. But if you do have a Fitbit, the exercise tracker in the Fitbit App is just as good. It tracks running, walking and hiking. It's really handy for timing and tracking my location. I'm waiting for the weather to get nicer but I can't wait to try the hiking section out! Steps, calories and distance are still tracked while using this and it adds time to your active minutes.
Calorie input and output
I have mixed feelings about the calorie section of this app. The positive aspect of it is, when I actually started keeping track of my calories, I lost weight quite quickly. I knew how many calories I had left for the day so I could evenly spread them out through out the day. The bad thing I found by counting calories is the constant thought in the back of my mind about what I'm eating. I've never agreed with being obsessive about what I'm putting in my mouth. When I want to eat healthy, I simply try to cut out the unnecessary crap and eat mostly healthy; good carbohydrates, protein, fruit and veg. So calories aren't my main concern and I don't think I'll stick with the calorie counting section of this app.
Sleep and water
I like the sleep and water tracker. The sleep tracker tells you when you were restless or awake during the night. Don't ask me how it does it, I haven't a clue! haha It doesn't particularly help in terms of weight loss but its just interesting. The water tracker was very useful. I did't realise I had only been drinking about a quarter the amount of water I should have been drinking so its great to keep track of it.
Overall Thoughts
I don't think I have had the Fitbit long enough to really say whether I like it or not but I have found when I monitor the results of the app I am more motivated to be active, I'm drinking more water and I am not really eating out of boredom anymore. I have lost 2 or 3 pounds so far in the week I have kept it up, so that's a good sign! It just takes a lot of effort to keep it up which I suppose is what staying fit and healthy is! I would recommend it if you have the money to spare. If you have a Fitbit or are going to get one, let me know what you think of them :) Talk soon!
Uiscebawn x
