Month: December 2020

2020: Did You Survive or Thrive? (*spoiler – either answer is totally valid)

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I’m laughing as I look back at my post from January 4, 2020. I wrote, “I’m really optimistic about 2020 – I think big things are going to happen for me. I have no proof of this, just a feeling.”

Well big things certainly did happen for all of us!

Despite 2020 being a year that none of us could have predicted, I don’t look back on it with disdain. 2020 was different for sure, and not what I expected, but it still brought me a lot of good. (P.S. It’s okay if this is not how you feel! It’s okay if you never want to hear the word 2020 again!)

My focus word for 2020 was “thrive.” I just wanted to feel good about myself, and to make more time for things like exercising, eating healthy and spiritual growth. Amazingly, by the end of the year I find myself doing exactly those things – I’ve been jogging again and even lifting some weights at home (I joke with Dean that he better watch out since I’m getting so muscle-y). Around mid-August I started being more purposeful about the food I was eating (less sugar, more veggies). And with some encouragement from friends (or perhaps more accurately, accountability) I have made more time to pray and meditate and do feel like I’ve grown spiritually this year.

I know not everyone is able to express positive feelings about 2020, and that’s okay. I’ve seen many iterations of the following, but as the image states, it’s okay if all you did this year was survive.

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Would You Eat Salmon Every Day for Clear Skin?

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***Check out my follow-up post (written 3 months later) here!***

I’ve had really bad acne in the past – it was so bad that when I was a teenager, I had to go on Accutane because nothing else would clear it up. I don’t think I have (or at least I didn’t keep) many pictures of myself during that time because I was so ashamed of the way I looked. Thank goodness smart phones were not a thing back then!

As an (almost) 34-year-old, one might assume that my days of dealing with acne are behind me. Not true! Unfortunately, I still deal with breakouts a lot. Normally it is a minor annoyance, a few here and there that most people probably wouldn’t notice all that much.

The past few weeks however, my skin just exploded! I was getting at least 3-4 pimples a day, and many of them were large inflamed ones. Everything I tried seemed futile. I cut out gluten, sugar and dairy from my diet (which often seems to help), I was using a skin-clearing mask nightly, I tried to make sure I was drinking plenty of water… but the breakouts kept coming in full force.

If you’ve ever had bad acne, you understand that feeling of fear, of feeling like your skin is not in your control anymore. You feel helpless, and it’s one of the worst feelings in the world. And if you’re like me, you also feel really ugly – I think due to my past struggles with acne, my skin condition really affects how I view myself – whether I feel good or bad, pretty or ugly…

I was desperate and didn’t know what else to do, so I turned to my trusty Clear Skin Prescription book by Nicholas Perricone. Maybe you’ve heard of the “Perricone diet?” Nicholas Perricone has written numberous books about anti-inflammatory diets that are supposed to be anti-aging and help you get clear, beautiful skin.

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Measuring Time in Hair Removal

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Do you ever think about how much time we spend removing hair from our bodies? Shaving, waxing, plucking… This idea keeps me up at night sometimes. How much more time would I have in a week, a month, or a year if I gave up hair removal cold turkey? Let’s attempt to do the math and find out.

In an average week, I would say I spend this much estimated time on the following:

  • Shaving legs – 10 minutes a day, every other day = 35 minutes per week
  • Plucking eyebrows – a few minutes here and there each day = 15 minutes per week
  • Shaving armpits – 5 minutes a day, every other day = 20 minutes per week
  • Bikini area – shaving, trimming, etc. = 15 minutes per week
  • Waxing upper lip – 15 minutes every 3 weeks or so = 5 minutes per week
  • Removing other random stray hairs – 5 minutes per week

Altogether I’m at 95 minutes a week of performing hair removal tasks. That’s an hour and a half, which means in a month I spend about 6 hours every month, and 72 hours a year removing hair! 3 entire days of my life every year just trying to look less hairy!!!

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