The Foundation Anonymous Report

In July, which is 4 months ago now (hooray math skills!), I decided to stop using foundation, after being a 9-year junkie.

Here is a recent photo of me now, still with no foundation - I'm only wearing some minimal eye makeup, and a tinted lip balm.

Yes you can even click on it for a larger image, because I know you want a close-up of my pores

Having my 4-month chip has taught me a lot of things.

1. My foundation was actually a few shades too light for my skin tone 
On the few occasions I decided to wear foundation (eg. to parties etc), I realized that I looked like I had a kabuki mask on. NOT a good look. It's weird how I never noticed this before.. I guess living in foundation, I  must have thought the kabuki mask was how my face naturally looked.

2. The difference between hormonal and environment caused pimples 
I can spot them now! I only get hormonal pimples now, and I know when I will get them. Recently, I trialled a few new beauty products and got different looking breakouts... they were more clustered, and were smaller.

3. All those little bumps on my skin were foundation caused 
I used to have tiny little bumps on my skin. They were not obvious, and always seemed to be there, so I just thought my skin was rough. They are now gone!

4. My face goes red when I drink alcohol 
This never used to happen. I guess the foundation masked it somewhat.

5. My face flushes/blushes easily 
When it's hot, my face goes bright pink. Also never used to happen.

6. I'm noticing more signs of aging now 
I guess I just never cared about signs of aging because I'd just slap some foundation on. I'm now noticing a difference in my skin texture... it's bugging me a little, but hey, we all have to grow old right?

7. I'm taking better care of my skin 
No foundation means the skin you wear is well... the skin you wear.

8. It was a huge self-journey
Part of the reason why I wore foundation everyday was self-esteem issues. Having to not wear it meant combatting these issues, and now, I'm quite comfortable going barefaced.


/end report

If you've already tried going foundation-free, I would love to read about your experience. And if not, would you?

CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY

In the spirit of Christmas, I am hosting my first giveaway, which is Louise Hay's You Can Heal Your Life. This is an amazing book, full of positive affirmation activities. It helped me to get through some really tough times in life, and I can't think of anything better than to have it help someone else in their hour of need.

For reviews and testimonials about this amazing book, have a look at the Amazon site. This giveaway is currently only open to Australian residents, and closes 7 December. A winner will be drawn, and the winner will have 48 hours to contact me, after which a new winner will be drawn. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Yoga Journal 21-Day Fitness Challenge completed

I finally finished the 21-Day Challenge. Not in 21 days though, my excuse is that I was mixing it up with other kinds of fitness activity.

I didn't end up making all the recipes... I live alone, and meal-planning is hard work. Whatever I make for lunch I generally have to bring to work for dinner (and then have it for lunch and dinner the next day), and I usually have no access to a fridge, and we have no microwave. So, everything has to fit into a little thermos food jar. But, I did attempt some, most were edible, some were extremely delicious, and some were... of interesting flavour...

Read through my account and sign up for the challenge! For a free yoga resource, it's pretty great.

Body Fat vs BMI

I only just discovered this thing called a Body Fat Calculator.

I'm not really quite sure how it works, but I measured myself and did the calculation, (you can click on images for a bigger, clearer image)

Screen grab from http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/metric-body-fat-calculator.php

and it says I have 24.94% body fat, which just gets me into the fit category.

Screen grab from http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/body-fat-chart.php

Only just. Apparently, the body fat calculator works on some formula used by the US Navy. I've always just been using the BMI calculator, and have always been within the normal BMI zone. Using the above stats, plus my height of 160cm, my BMI is 19.9. The healthy zone is 18.5-24.9 using the regular BMI stats, and and 18.5-23.9 for Asians.

In both BMI calculations, my weight falls into the healthy category, but I am carrying more body fat than what I originally thought. I'm sure it is possible for some people to be in a normal BMI range, and yet be obese in the body fat calculator, or just in the essential fat zone.

My current goal is to keep it within the 21-24%, perhaps... I'm barely scraping the margins of that category. I've never been too hung up on weight before, because I've always been fairly light but body fat... now that's another issue! Ultimately though, my belief is that no matter what your body percentage or your weight is, as long as you are fit, and you are exercising regularly, numbers don't matter in the end.

If you do work out your body fat, do share your reactions to your result. Was it what you expected?