Tuesday, 3 April 2018

Rant warning for the post ahead

Some time ago, two acquaintances had some really bad health related new in the same week. It freaked me out quite a bit because they're both my age and working the same type of job and everything. So it left me with some soul searching and wondering about how I can prevent this from happening to me too.

The main problems are that 1) I work too much, 2) so I don't exercise at all and 3) therefore I don't always get a lot of sleep. I try to stay under 50 hours a week, but...Yea, not doing so well with that.

Hubby and I started consciously eating a lot better and healthier last year. That's good.
We also started doing what I call "The Team effort" for cleaning and generally tidying up. 

Slight detour on the way to my point: I love the forum Get Off My Internet. Although it has its problems, I love how it picks apart the ridiculous pinterest-style of life and double standards that a lot of those social media/bloggers have. I find it ridiculously inspiring to read about the healthy living bloggers that just cannot lose weight and are picked apart on the forum for faking it and their lies upon lies. Before and after pictures where you just suck in your gut on the after? Fail. Instagram and blog telling two different stories? Fail. Same dirty sock on the floor in pictures supposedly two weeks ago? Yuck and fail.
It's really inspiring to see how people cut through that kind of bullshit. It actually helps to keep me from lying to myself about how little I actually move. Or what I eat. 


It has helped to bring healthier food for work (Here, a delicious grilled salmon, cream cheese and avocado sandwich on high fiber bread) instead of being tempted to getting takeout with my coworkers. I appreciate that.

Anyways.
I tried to find the thread I'm thinking of, but haven't been able to. In this particular thread, a poster says something along the lines of "Eat a vegetable once in a while, get some fresh air and clean your home some time". So simple, but yet so awesome. It puts all the weird, crazy "diets" and "get healthy quick!"-self help books to shame.
I brought it up to Hubby and had him read some of the thread too. We put a little more effort into things like cleaning, and it evolved into these little exercises where we clean together. One of us grabs the vacuum cleaner and starts from one end off, the other starts airing out, disinfecting our work surfaces, sorts and takes out the trash, changes the bed sheets, cleans the kitchen or whatever else needs to be done. Then when we're done, we high five and feel really good about ourselves. 
It's pretty awesome actually.

Back to the point. 
Everything that I could do better right now, points back to my work load. If I worked less, I would probably bother to train, I would sleep more hours and I would have more time to relax or even have a hobby.
The thing is, I don't want to lower my hours/workload at the moment. I love Work #1 and Work #2 and they're great for my career.
So, what can you do?
I have asked my bosses at both works for a meeting each to discuss changing my work days around a little. Basically I want more work days in a row, to free up more days off in a row. When I only have one day off, I usually just end up doing chores and preparing for the upcoming work days. Not really something you relax with.

Please cross your fingers for me that I can get my way with this.

But. We have also made another change...


Hubby and I got Fitbits. 
I have the Alta HR and Hubby has the Charge 2. I have some really conflicting opinions on these though.

On one hand it really helps by tracking how much you move during the day. Which is great! No more "Oh, I think I did pretty good today?", now we know for sure. It also tracks my sleeping pattern and helps me put more effort into getting a good nights sleep. It makes it a lot easier to adjust our diets, because now we know how much we burn.

But. But...
These things absolutely refuses to sync calls, texts or calendar entries up from any phone or tablet in our household. 
Which #¤%& pisses me off, because this was the claim that made us pick fitbits to begin with. I hate when companies lie to you like that! And I hate when their customer service representatives only respond with "Have you read the FAQ?" or something similar when you contact them about their stupid product not working as promised.
If I had know the claim had been a fat lie, I would have picked another brand. 
Of course we could have returned them but we ended up keeping them. They just only have half the actual functions we were promised. Not cool. I/we will replace them as soon as I find another brand and model I/we want.

I do not recommend anyone getting a Fitbit ever due to the product not working as advertised and the customer service being so condescending and useless.

It's still good for something though. And I feel it helps me stay on track.


Badass.

Anyways. Does anyone have a recommendation for me?
I'm looking for a smartwatch with activity sensoring or an activity band that can synchronize to other devices.
Requirements:

  • Not Apple
  • Not Fitbit
  • Small and slim design

Wednesday, 28 March 2018

Tonight's braids

Just washed my hair and put it up in double dutch braids for tomorrow.


Feeling clean and happy with some good base braids.

But there's something missing...
...Hmm...


There.
Perfect! 


So cute and sexy.
Some times I amuse myself. Hah.

Monday, 26 March 2018

Jojoba

I just received a skincare order, and among it was some sheet masks with jojoba oil.

I was a little creeped out how alien-like the jojoba nut (?) on it looked. Did anyone else know it looks like this? Weird little tentacles coming out of a pod-like thing? 


Some googling showed that maybe it was just an unflattering drawing, so WTF?
Why would you deliberately make that nut look creepy?


And then I had a strong feeling of nostalgia thinking of the time where jojoba oil was the "IT" thing in haircare. Heh. Funny how certain things are trendy and even resurface....

Friday, 23 March 2018

Hair density serum

I got this back in Skinstores Christmas calendar but never actually used it. Just haven't been bothered, I guess? Also it smells distinctly masculine, so... ugh.

Hubby found it in my stash of "semi rejected stuff" and asked if he could try it. Of course he could, so at least it gets used up now. 

This is one of those "I guess it can't hurt" things when it comes to haircare. I mean, some massage and moisture on your scalp can't be a bad thing, right?

Anyone ever tried this thing?

Tuesday, 20 March 2018

Today's hair

The double braids are getting pretty messy, but it still held up alright. At least no one noticed I was being lazy, heh.


Sunday, 18 March 2018

Today's hair

I have a few busy days ahead, so I hope these braids can be used for bun-bases and keep looking nice for two days. That would save me some time...

Monday, 12 March 2018

We're going to Tenerife

...In about a month. Yay!



Hubby and I had some trouble deciding where to go for our next vacation. There are just so many cool options it was hard to chose.
Also, it's going to be seriously hard to beat our Madeira trip from last year. That was awesome!
(Do you all want to see pictures?)

We ended up deciding on Tenerife just because we want to see those strange pyramids


Of course we also have to see Teide national park (This tallest volcano in the world when measured from the sea bottom) 

We're also going on a "Stars and sunset" trip with a real astronomer, which we're really looking forward to. Tenerife has a lot of telescopes from different countries because of the clear weather and good conditions.

Also we need to spend some time just relaxing at a pool and eating fresh sea food. Ah...