Reality of Weight Loss

Hello lovely readers,

Today I feel like talking about a topic I have rather mixed feelings about. The subject is weight loss reality TV shows. Programs such as "Shedding for the Wedding," "The Biggest Loser"and "Weighing In" all turn weight loss into a competition. Now I can't be entirely sure of how things are run on those shows, as I'm clearly not a part of the cast or crew, but I feel like it sends an unhealthy message to the audience and perhaps even the participants.

I applaud the participants for acknowledging their problems and for willingly accepting a change in lifestyle. I get that. However, it seems that these shows encourage fast results, with features such as weekly weigh-ins. They also encourage pushing people to their absolute limits, when in the reality outside of television it's actually much healthier for most overweight individuals, or those just looking to live healthier lifestyles, to take baby steps.

These reality shows seem to say, "Hey, you! Yeah, that's right, Chubby! Get up off the couch and run five miles. Cut out junk food completely, lose ten pounds a week and never look back!"

For some people, a total lifestyle change can happen overnight. Those "some people" would be an extremely small minority. For the rest of us non-superhuman beings looking to knock off a few pounds, that strategy is completely unrealistic and downright discouraging. The people on these shows are looked down upon and made fun of if they backtrack even a tiny bit in their newly reformed lifestyles. Let's be honest here: everyone makes mistakes.

I know some people think these shows encourage viewers to live healthier lifestyles and get up and get moving, and I understand that it can have that effect on some people. I'm entirely guilty of watching "Shedding for the Wedding" while working out. For me, it's kind of a motivator to not let myself go as much as these people have, and that's where I have another problem with the shows.

Though they have willingly put themselves in the spotlight for millions to ridicule them, I think it's unfair for me, and other viewers, to judge them and use them to make me feel better about myself. It's not healthy to use other people's failures to make ourselves feel better about our successes. On the flip side, it's not necessarily healthy to follow their paths of weight loss. It makes us think we can lose weight instantly, and if we don't improve right away, we're failures.

I suppose it's a love/hate relationship I have with these shows, but mostly a hate because the very thing that makes me like them makes them a somewhat cruelly guilty pleasure. I think there are much better motivators out there for weight loss, and much healthier ways of achieving it. I do appreciate the workout DVDs that have spun off the shows, but that's an entirely different category of media.

So there you go; those are my feelings on reality television weight loss programs.

What are your opinions on these shows?

To the best you, the healthy way.

xEsther

Mini Review: Paul Mitchell Smoothing Super Skinny Serum

Hello wonderful people,

Since my last mini review seemed to be pretty popular, I thought I'd do a review of a product I've been using for about two years. That would be Paul Mitchell Smoothing Super Skinny Serum.

Image from http://www.paulmitchell.com/Products/PaulMitchell/Smoothing/Pages/SuperSkinnySerum.aspx

The reason I got this product originally was actually due to a misunderstanding. You see, the woman who was cutting at my hair at the time, lovely lady that she is, was under the misconception that I wanted to blow out my hair straight every day. So she did a beautiful job of blowdrying my hair and leaving it frizz-free and voluminous. She told my mother and I what she used, and, of course, we bought the product. 

For the next few shampoos, I recreated the look my hairstylist at the time had done, to pretty decent effect I might add. However, I really prefer wearing my hair naturally, so I started using this in the morning on clean, dry hair.

Well let me tell you: It works great for me either way.

Here's what the website, which you can find if you click on the link under the photo, says:

Super Skinny® Serum

SMOOTHES AND CONDITIONS

Basics: La Básico:

Smoothes, conditions and seals strands.

Benefits: Los Beneficios:

Leaves hair smooth, shiny and frizz-free
in any weather.

Bonus: La Ventaja:

Speeds up drying so you get silky smooth results in less time.

Details: Detalles:

• Our exclusive Super Skinny® Complex penetrates deep into hair to displace water and constrict hair for speedy drying and styling.
• Lightweight silicones smooth, condition and seal hair with added shine.

Sizes (oz): Tamaños (onzas): .85 5.1 8.5

Now, this product really does seem to cut down drying time for me. You only need a very small amount, maybe a dime to a quarter size depending on the thickness of your hair. I use closer to a quarter sized amount, usually on dry hair that's been scrunched, though, like I said, I do also use it when I blow dry. The way I use it is to run it between my hands and then work from the bottom in the back towards the front and upwards, scrunching it into my curls and adding shine and softness. I'm even able to put the excess very close to the roots without making my hair look greasy.

I do realize that this is a rather pricy product ranging from probably around $14 to $24 depending on the size if you get it in stores. It's probably cheaper on places like Amazon. My reasoning for the price is that if you get 8.5 oz for $24, that's less than $3 an ounce, whereas if you go for John Frieda's anti-frizz serum, you could be paying $7 or more for one ounce. I'll let you do the math.

I hope this review was helpful. Just in case you didn't know, my hair type is very thick with medium bouncy curls.

What products do you like to add shine and smooth hair?

Here's to shiny, smooth hair!

xEsther

About Me

Hello readers,

As I was struggling to come up with a new idea for a post, I thought, wouldn't it be fun to do another survey? Floating around YouTube these days is the "About Me" tag, so I decided to post my answers right here on my blog.

Here goes:

1. Do you have a middle name? 
I do indeed. My middle name is Meira. Just about no one is able to pronounce it when I tell them.

2. What is your Favorite subject in school?
Currently my favorite subjects are Intro to Communication and Culture and an English literature class focused solely on William Faulkner. All my friends think I'm insane because they can't stand Faulkner.

3. Whats your Favorite drink?
Water!

4. What is your Favorite song at the moment?
Well this isn't a new song, but my favorite at the moment is "Melody" by Kate Earl. It was free on iTunes in the summer and I quite like it.

5. What would you name your kids?
I really don't know. I used to think about this much more carefully when I was younger, ironically enough. I can't even remember the names I used to think of but they were the weirdest names. Truly. I  obsessed over my family's name dictionary as a child, picking out the strangest sounding ones, but I don't recall the names now.

6. Do you participate in any sports?
This one gives me a giggle. I've got absolutely no hand-eye coordination and I'm rubbish at sports. In P.E. in middle school and high school I just ran around pretending I knew what I was doing and letting everyone else play. I really appreciated that we got to choose P.E. junior and senior year, so I took dance. I danced when I was young, and I consider that a sport, but otherwise I much prefer exercise on my own to any kind of team sports. Well, that was a long answer to a yes/no question.

7. Favorite Book? 
The Harry Potter series are some of my favorite books, especially the seventh but I do love them all. I also love anything by Neil Gaiman. I wish I had more time to read for pleasure, but these days homework gets in the way.

8. Favorite Color?
I really like aqua and turquoise. Very beautiful and calming.

9. Favorite Animal?
When I was younger it was always horses. I'd say I still like horses quite a lot, as well as monkeys. As for an animal I could actually have, definitely dogs.

10. Favorite Perfume? 
I really don't own too many, and I generally prefer body splash/body spray, but my favorite of those I own has got to be Strawberry Champagne from Victoria's Secret.

11. Favorite Holiday?
Thanksgiving. My birthday occasionally falls on Thanksgiving. It's done so at least twice, and will again next year. It used to bother me a lot for some reason, but now I think it's a wonderful treat.

12. Have you graduated high school?
Yes I have.

13. Have you ever been out of the country? if so how many times? 
I've only ever been out of the country twice: once with my family to Canada, and once with a group of students from across the U.S. on a trip I won to Peru. I'd like to travel more, though, and I'm contemplating study abroad for my junior year of college.

14. Do you speak any other language?
I can speak Spanish, but since I've only taken literature and linguistics classes in Spanish this year, I'm a bit rusty at the moment. I can read and write and understand fluently, but speaking comes slower for me. This is my eighth year studying the language.

15. How many siblings do you have?
Two: a brother and a sister, both older.

16. What is your favorite store? 
I love Ulta and Target, as well as Barnes and Noble. I do also like Forever 21.

17. Favorite restaurant? 
I think it's local to where I live, so I won't say it here, but it's Italian.

18. Do you like school?
I do like my school. I was absolutely in love with it first semester, but this semester is a bit tougher and friends are transferring to other universities for various reasons so it's like starting over again.

19. Favorite youtuber? 
I can't pick one favorite! But I do love Anna Saccone, EGHearts, Community Channel, A Model Recommends, Pinkiecharm and SlightlyScented. There are many more, of course.

20. Favorite movie?
Again, I love the Harry Potter movies and "The Princess Bride". I also love "27 Dresses", "The King's Speech", "The Devil Wears Prada", "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Alice In Wonderland" [the new one], "Megamind," and "Tangled," to name just a few.

21. Favorite TV show? 
It was "That 70s Show" when that was still on. I rather enjoyed watching both seasons of the discontinued "Flight of the Conchords" this year as well. Now I'd have to say "Castle" is my all-time favorite, as well as "America's Next Top Model." I am partial to "Glee," but some of the recent episodes have just been disastrous.

22. PC or Mac?
Mac! Before my family got our first Mac, I was terrified of them. Now I've got a MacBook of my own and I love it!

23. What kind of phone do you have?
A rather unexciting red little Samsung sliding phone. It's cute and it does the job, so I don't feel the need to get a fancier one.

24. How tall are you?
5'3." I still consider that average, even though I'm pretty sure average is actually 5'4." Call me vertically challenged; what can I say.


I hope you enjoyed that little tag, and if you'd like to do it, I'd be thrilled to read your answers!


Hope you're having a lovely weekend.


xEsther

Bright Lips and Blue Skies

Well, dear readers, it's another sunny day [I'm very tempted to say "here in the U.S.A.," but I seriously doubt it's sunny everywhere].

The weather has inspired me to wear one of my favorite bright lip colors, slightly toned down. It is Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in 038 In Vogue. I applied it lightly straight from the tube to my bottom lip and applied the rest and smoothed it out with my fingers.

As you can see in the bottom picture, it looks like a reddy pink in the tube and more of a bright pink in the swatch. When I apply a solid layer from the tube, it does look red on me but it really is just a very bright and intense pink. My camera isn't working at the moment, so I'll have to keep using my webcam until I can sort it out. The swatch at the end shows true to color, and the pictures of the lipstick on are slightly less bright than the color appears in person.

I haven't tried many other lipstick brands, but so far Rimmel, both the Moisture Renew and Lasting Finish, is a top contender for my favorite.

What lipsticks do you love? Do you enjoy a bright lip, or prefer more neutral colors?

To bright lips and balmy days!

xEsther

Nothing Wrong With a Beautiful Day

Hello lovely readers,

Today was one of the cheeriest days I've experienced in quite a long time. The reason? The weather, of course. It was 75 gorgeous degrees fahrenheit here on campus. Yes, I have returned from an interesting and emotional spring break to the most amazing bout of actual warm spring weather. Back where I live, spring tends to be colder, wetter, and on occasion really rather nice. Here I'm finally experiencing the wonders of what spring should be like.

I'm a warm weather girl, and my year-round makeup works the best in this season, since, overall, I don't wear much! Here's my minimal makeup for the day. I was super excited to break out my go-to warm weather lipstick, L'Oreal Colour Riche Tropical Coral, which I first mentioned here.

Please excuse the webcam's fabulously bad quality and my monumental and unstoppable dark circles.

I really like the way my hair and skin looked today, and you can tell from the first picture that the lipstick is really quite natural looking on my lips. I just have on CG Aqua Smoothers Tinted Moisturizer in Fair to Light, and I used my e.l.f. concealer and Almay Smart Shade Concealer under my eyes, though they clearly don't do the trick. I used the elf concealer on blemishes as well.

As for my hair, since it's curly it looks shorter than it is but I was so happy to get a small trim and have the majority of the bulk taken out. My hair doesn't look like a bush! And it's curling nicely thanks to Aveeno Nourish + Style Soft Hold Gel Creme.

Unfortunately, my favorite hair gel-cream was discontinued in December of 2010 without my knowledge! I called the company and a very nice Suave representative informed me that the company no longer makes Suave Professionals Weather Protection 365 Anti-Frizz and Flyaway Cream Gel. Maybe it was the long name that detracted customers, but I really liked the product. However, I must admit that the Aveeno works as more of a gel than the Suave did, providing a better hold but still helping to eliminate frizz. For a laugh, you can check out what I thought about Suave here.

In any case, the weather did wonders for my mood today. I'm currently sitting in the lounge of one of the dorms with a couple of friends who have yet to start their homework. Now before you go scolding me for being the pot calling the kettle black, let me point out that I've nearly finished mine. Yes, I can finally say I started my homework at a reasonable hour.

How was your day?

To sunny days and happy faces!

xEsther

Mini Review: e.l.f. Tinted Moisturizer SPF 20

Note: PLEASE READ THE UPDATE BELOW!

You're probably tired of "Hello dear readers" for the night.

Ok, ok. I promise this is my last post of the night! I wanted to do this before I forgot. I recently mentioned that I was out shopping with a friend at Target and she bought, as you might have guessed, the e.l.f. Tinted Moisturizer SPF 20, in the shade Nude. At $3 you might not think it does much, but she's pleased overall. She didn't give me a ton of details, but she mentioned that she thinks it actually worked. She wanted her tinted moisturizer to give her a bit of glow without making her facial skin a different color and necessitating application of the product all over her neck just to match it. So I would guess that this did indeed give her a bit of a glow and some sheer coverage.

UPDATE: My friend just told me that this is not an oil free moisturizer. She thinks it was breaking her out, and has stopped use. This would probably be better suited to those who are not acne prone.

Image from http://www.eyeslipsface.com/studio/face/tinted_moisturizer/tinted_moisturizer_spf_20

That is my highly sped up secondhand review of the product. In any case, if you're in dire need of a tinted moisturizer and hard pressed for cash, it can't hurt to try this out for the price. The tinted moisturizer that I'm using now is mentioned here and here, and I plan to give you more information at a [slightly] later date.

To glowing skin and flawless faces.

xEsther

100% Guaranteed

Hello everyone!

So it seems that my blogging inspiration comes in quick succession, short bursts, and long paragraphs. I'll make it quick this time. Ok, I'll at least try.

I wanted to let you know what my 100% fail proof, foolproof way to wind down and relax. That, my friends, is my nighttime skincare routine. Yes, I'm quite proud of myself for that. My skin care has become absolutely a religious ritual for me. Whether I'm using my favorite cleanser, dotting on one of my spot treatments, or luxuriating in the bliss of a very pleasant moisturizer, I just can't help but feel great about the fact that I'm doing something beneficial to my skin that will help it look beautiful and, in turn, help me feel beautiful.

I've been getting lots of compliments on my skin lately, and to be honest that has as much to do with my skincare as the makeup I've switched to. I'll describe my current go-to makeup in another post, but I do think it's helping to make my skin look wonderful. That being said, my skin does seem to be clearing up for the most part. My problem area is always my chin due to hormones, but I think it's starting to clear. Right now I'm broken out a bit on my forehead, and I think that's due to poor diet.

Now I know skincare isn't as romantic as saying I like to relax with a bubble bath, candles, and my favorite magazine and not as ambitious as running a marathon, but it works for me. In any case, in order to wrap up what may soon become another ridiculously long post, I just want to say that my nighttime skincare routine seriously helps me relax. Now if only doing great things for the rest of my body calmed me down this much!

To a beautifully relaxed tomorrow!

xEsther