A Morning of Hiking and Photos

I'm off work this week so I'm trying to get out and take some photos.  I've always loved photography as far back as I can remember.  There's something magical about capturing a moment.  Here are my moments from my morning hike:

Why I Stopped Wearing Makeup

It has taken me a long time to win the war against makeup.  I grew up with a mother who never left her bedroom until she had her "face on".  I came to believe that I only looked my best when I had foundation on.  For decades I wore it like a mask.

The ironic thing is that so few women in my real life wear makeup.  Almost none of the women I work with now or ever have worn makeup.  I have been in the minority and yet my concept of myself continued to be attached to wearing makeup.

I have this year, for the first time begun to separate myself from that concept.  For the first time I recognize that I look perfectly fine without makeup.  I'm almost 54 years old.  No matter how much or little makeup I wear is going to make me look 20 or 30. 

So, this year I have only worn tinted sunscreen; no foundation.  And as my supply of that runs out I'm not going to repurchase anymore.  It's scary and it's empowering at the same time.  I find value in other women because of the kind of people they are, not what they look like or their makeup.  I'm hoping, as I continue to look more and more natural that those around me, who I work with and live with will do the same for me.

So, as I use less and less makeup, I've become more interested in my skincare.  I've been working on being consistent with that for more than ten year now; since I was diagnosed with recurring skin cancer.  We should all wear sunscreen all day long, but those, like me who battle skin cancer should all the more pay attention to protection their skin.

Here's what I'm using right now:

I concentrate on several areas that I think are important for women my age:
Sunscreen, Moisturizer, Fighting wrinkles and Teeth.

Neutrogena Age Shield Face Sunscreen spf 70 and spf 50 sunscreen for my body.  I've been wearing Neutrogena face sunscreen for years.  It's a formula that's not greasy and it doesn't break me out.  It's a little more expensive than the others but it's the best I've found so I keep buying it.  I also use at least a 50 spf on my arms and neck.  For that I use a store brand that's the cheapest.  I only recently started wearing sunscreen on my arms during the work week.  I realized that I sit right next to a huge window where I get natural light all day long.  That means I'm getting extended periods of sun every day so I need to wear sunscreen on all parts of my body that are exposed.

CeraVe Daily Moisturizing Lotion, plain and with 30 spf.  I switch brands of moisturizer depending on what's on sale.  I've heard good things about CeraVe so I'm decided to try the brand.  I use the one with sunscreen in the mornings.  I put a layer on my face and neck and once that dries I put my 50spf sunscreen over that.  I don't know if I get extra protection by layering sunscreen but I figure if it doesn't help it won't hurt.

Differin Gel.  This is my second tube of Differin.  I'm using this to fight fine lines and wrinkles.  I love this stuff.  I really do see a difference in the texture and overall look of my skin.  I will definitely continue to use this product.  It is a fraction of the cost of Retin-A and dues the same thing.  This product was previously a prescription product only.  For about $12 there's no reason to try this.  I get several month's use out of each tube so it's very cost effective.

Plus White 5 Minute Speed Whitening Gel.  This is another product that I've been using for years.  Dingy looking teeth can instantly age us.  I don't want to look any older than I am.  This product is inexpensive and really works.  I put a big dollop onto my toothbrush and lightly apply it to my teeth in the mornings.  After five minutes I rinse it off.  It's easy and quick and I feel like it keeps my teeth from getting yellow from the coffee I drink daily.





So this is what I'm focusing on now instead of foundation, blush and eyeshadow.  I think it's a better use of my limited income and I feel that in the long run what I'm doing now will help me look my best.

Two More Pounds Gone - What I Ate This Week

As long as I keep it tight Monday through Friday I continue to loose weight.  Not every week, but my weight gradually continues to go down. 

 For Breakfast every morning I had oats, blueberries and a sliced up banana.  This is really the only sweet breakfast that I like.  The weeks I don't eat this I eat vegetable soup.  I prefer a hot, savory breakfast, but for variety, some weeks I do oatmeal with fruit.  It's very filling.  Try to eat a cup of oatmeal.  It's dense but there's twice as much liquid as there is oats so it's very low calorie dense.  That makes it perfect for weight loss.

 This is a combination of slaw mix, brussel sprouts and onions.  I steamed the mixture in a nonstick pan.  This is layer one of my lunch bowls.

I

 Layer two was baked potatoes.  I like to eat white and red potatoes that don't need to be peeled.  I love potatoes.  I can eat them often and plain.  They are low in calories and nutritious.  Again, perfect for weight loss.

My third layer was roasted vegetables:  Zucchini, carrots and bell peppers.  All these vegetables are low calorie dense; perfect for weight loss.

For dinner each night I had sliced fruit.  I eat as much as I want.  I love fruit but it's not very filling.  The reason I switched back to eating fruit after work instead of starches is so that I go to bed feeling a little empty.  It's just part of my overall strategy to continue to loose weight. 

So that's what I ate last week.  It was a good week for food.  I was never really hungry.  I did go to bed feeling empty because I workout an hour in the evenings and fruit isn't very filling.  But I did that purposefully because I'm trying to continue to loose weight.  I'm at 137 and I want to get down another 10 pounds at least before I work on a maintenance program. 

This week is Thanksgiving so my food strategy is different than normal.  I'll post about that at the end of the week.

For right now I'm just staying the course.

November Weight Loss Update

Two things happened in the last week.  My boss's boss said to me that there seemed to be a lot less of me around the office, lol.  I said yes, almost 50 lbs. less.  He was shocked and asked me how I did it.  I didn't want to be too specific because I don't tend to get positive reactions when I say the word vegan, so I just said it was a combination of diet and exercise.

Secondly, I went to the funeral of a beloved uncle that I haven't seen in almost 20 years.  I haven't seen most of the people who were there.  At least ten people came up to me and told me that I looked fabulous; like I hadn't aged at all since they last saw me.  This time it was me that was shocked.  I just smiled, blushed and said thank you.

So, even though I'm still not where I want to be ultimately, my hard work is paying off.  I feel better than ever and apparently I look pretty good for an old gal of 53. 

There hasn't been any change in my weight.  I would really like to loose at least five lbs. before the end of the year.  At this point I think I'll either have to add exercise or subtract calories.  I'm already exercising about an hour in the early mornings and again in the afternoons.  What I haven't been doing is exercising on the weekends.  So I got up at 5 am this Saturday and walked two miles.  I'll do that again tomorrow, Sunday. 

As for diet, I'm going to tighten that up too.  I've been eating starch in the evenings instead of my usual fruit.  It's definitely more filling, but I'm going to go back to just fruit.  Fruit is much lower in calories per pound than starch.  That means I'll go back to being hungry when I go to bed, but it also means I'll probably start loosing weight again.  It's a trade off that I'm willing to make to get back on the weight loss train.  I was hoping to avoid any more food cutbacks but I have a goal and I want to get there, No Matter What.  That's the mantra that got me almost 50 lbs lighter and I want it to carry me further.