Are you taking care of yourself?

These past weeks, I've been totally busy learning to take care of myself. It is not an easy process as I try to be more mindful of what I put in my mouth, how I cope with indirect stress, what I put on my skin, etc etc.

Been religiously scouting newspaper and online sites for job applications. Registered myself with 2 headhunter agencies. Got an interview coming up next week. Hoping for more to come. I am grateful for the hands that feed me but I just can't wait to get out of this god forsaken place. The mental stress is enough to send one into deep depression.

Been teaching myself to eat cleaner and healthier. For me, the caloric intake is secondary. What's more important is the list of ingredients. I'm slowly learning to avoid certain chemicals and preservatives that are harmful to our bodies. It's not easy because those stuff are everywhere in our food. I'm not going 100% organic, at least not yet but I am making better food choices. I will write more on those harmful preservatives soon.

Another area which I am paying greater attention to, is non toxic skincare products. This is not easy, I gotta admit. Our local health and beauty pharmacies do not carry products that are free of SLS, propylene glycol and paraben. I know, because I spent hours scouting for those products there, without any success, of course. There are some good brands out there such as Aesop or Jurlique but they are more high end products. Very expensive indeed. I have found a couple of sites/shops that do offer more reasonably priced skincare. More on that soon.

Eating healthy isn't enough. It has to be accompanied by exercise. It's not only good for the body but it is also good for our soul and mental. I'm spending more time on resistance and core training, and less on cardio. To begin with, I don't have great endurance level anyway. It is something that I need to work on but not for the moment. That is not to say, I'm abandoning cardio altogether. Cardio is good for the heart but I'm gonna hold back on it, for now, until I have a healthier weight to support this exercise on a regular basis.

I plan to explore in more details these subjects and as soon as I've done enough research, I will write more in the next few entries. In the meantime, please eat clean and live healthy.

Eating and listening healthy

Wow..this past 2 weeks I've been really putting lots of focus on healthy eating and healthy workouts. I've incorporated Pilates into my workout regimen, cut down on cardio exercise (that will mean fewer Body Combat workout, sucks), being more conscious of healthier food intake and I'm also istening to Jillian Michaels' podcast all the time now which I'm learning lots of stuff that I never pay attention to before. As she puts it "you might be thin but you're not healthy if you're not working out and you're not eating right....".

So, yesterday was the first Body Pump & Body Combat back to back classes for me due to the new schedule. I've not been to BC for a month so I wasn't sure if I was ready. Anyway, I did pretty okay in BP until we hit Triceps. Lots of kickbacks, lots, which I failed miserably surprisingly, considering that I had done that particular track sometime way back without too much difficulty. BC was equally bad. I was already tired by the third track and breathless by mid class. Somehow, having been absent from BC for a while, I felt like a little out of place in class yesterday. I may skip BC next week, maybe. Like I said, I plan to reduce on cardio.

Ok...back to listening to my podcasts.