I'm Baaaaaack

Hi,

So, I'm sorry I took this blog down. I was just pissed and stressed out and.....anyways, I'm back and I'm the healthiest I have ever been! :)

Here's a quick update on my life thus far:

• I have overcome one of my allergies! Yay! Isn't that wonderful? :)
• My weight is good and I am actually not worried about my weight right now. I like my body and I like where I'm at right now. Like even when for some reason, I feel bloated, I know by morning, I won't neither would I look bloated.
• I am full of energy and like no matter how late at night it is or how tired I am, I can drop and give you 20 pushups or 100 squats or sit ups!
• I haven't worked out as much as I used to because of stress and school and performances. However, I have started ensuring I do at least 100 squats and 50 pulses in squat position without breaks in between at least once everyday and also, some push ups. I seem to love pushups now and for a while, I was working out only my arms because I just like working them out. However, I was forced to remember that I need to workout my entire body especially my thighs and abs which aren't as toned as I'd like them to be right now. My arms look awesome flexed. Those biceps are on point! I can also balance on just my hands a little longer than I've ever been able to without spraining my wrists. That's amazing! Now, I'm just working on toning up everywhere and getting a faint 4-6pack :)
• I eat 4-6 times a day now. Yup! Not 2 or 3 anymore. Now, I eat 3 cooked meals and 1-3 raw vegan meals a day and I snack on raw fruits and vegetables and I seem to have a newfound love for Medjool dates so I love nibbling on them whenever! :) The raw fruits and vegetables help with digestion and bowel movements and it just cleanses me from the inside out.
• My skin looks awesome! I still get 1 or 2 lil zits towards that womanly month of the week, but once that week's ending, the zit(s) go and I'm left with awesome skin again. Mind you, I still have dry skin that peels in some areas if not moisturised after a few minutes out of the shower. It takes a bit longer before it starts peeling now and not all the places that peeled on my face are still peeling. I lock in moisture on my skin using just raw, extra virgin coconut oil now and as for my face, I use coconut oil on my lashes, lips and eye lids and organic shea butter (sent over from Nigeria by my grandmother. bless her) on the rest of my face. I use very little of the shea butter because I don't want a shiny face neither do I want to darken my face as my mum gets a dark film on her skin from shea butter and I've heard of some people darkening from it. So far, I haven't darkened. I don't use the coconut oil on the rest of my face because, as once mentioned on this blog, I seem to react to it on all other parts of my face (same with my cousin).
• Also, I'm going to end here as this is getting very long, I am no longer anaemic, I don't get dizzy, daily/frequent headaches or any of those things anymore! I am not excessively tired all the time. My immunity is up! Like the old me would get sick once someone coughed or sneezed around me, but now, people are getting sick at my school as a bug is going round and I feel just fine! I even went to the health centre to visit a friend who was very sick and I'm still fine! I haven't seen a doctor or nurse because I've been sick since the whole detox and lifestyle change! I haven't had any medications or supplements whatsoever! Even vitamins and paracetamol! Nada! I don't need them! I am healthy and I am happy and I'm glad my parents seem to be accepting my lifestyle and vegetarianism a little more now that I've been updating them on my health and everything. I wish I had learnt more and done more research on my diet and all that when I stopped eating meats as I could've reaped all these benefits a long time ago! It's terrible always being sick and now, I'm happy not to be anymore! It feels awesome being healthy for once! :)

See y'all later!

~Sammy :)

My Skincare Routine

Picture gotten from JenniferShelton.com 

Hey!

So, some people have commented on my skin and that made me decide to share with you all my routine. Well....basically with my face.

Okay! So, about a year or two ago, I ditched my Nivea body lotions because I started reacting to them and I also ditched my shower gels for the same reason (it was a weird time). I switched over to a certain brand of liquid black soap, but not long after, ditched it.

There was a time about 2 or so years ago when I used a certain product on my face and for the first time, I had a face full of zits/pimples. This made me so uncomfortable because I wasn't used to having zits and also because some people couldn't keep their mouths shut and made comments like, "what happened to your face?" "I always admired how smooth and clear your face was," and other stuff. Note that most of those people were older than I was, some were female, some male, and people talk amongst themselves. Oh! and two people who made comments like that were teachers at the school I went to back then.

Anyways, so, I had had skin discolouration for some time which was really annoying. It started with really dark bulb shapes coming from the corners of my eyes to my lower-cheek area like speech bubbles. Not fun. I rubbed honey into those parts for a few minutes then rinsed it off to try and lighten them up. I also started using fresh aloe vera gel and/or coconut oil as a skin moisturised. After some months, I started having areas of my right cheek that were WAY fairer than the rest of my face and that bothered me so much. You see, many people want to be "light-skinned" and as a toddler, I wanted to be fairer (thanks to people referring to my mum as beautiful and asking why I wasn't fair skinned/"white" like my mum), but I've grown to love how I look and that fairness on those parts of my face totally freaked me out. So, I saw a GP who gave me a product and since then, I guess this is how my skincare routine has been:

MY ROUTINE

Morning:

• On most days, I wash my face using my shower gel which is now Sanex 0% (used to be Original Source Mint&Tea Tree (stopped using it because I felt like going with something with less ingredients)). *I always use the pads of my fingers when washing my face and just move them in circles.
• After getting out of the shower, I pat dry my face with a terry cloth towel and then, as usual, my face looks so dry and starts to peel (and so do my lips). This is because I have STUPIDLY DRY skin.
• So, I gently running the nail of my index finger over my lower lip to take off the peeling skin (please note, this is not the dry lip people get from the weather or whatever), rinsing my lip and patting it dry.
• Afterwards, I walk over to a mirror with my jar of extra virgin raw coconut oil and the product the GP gave to me which happens to be ASDA's Aqueous Cream BP (the ingredients in it don't particularly thrill me, but it's what the doctor ordered).
• I get a cotton bud and roll it round in my jar of coconut oil (which is usually solid) then I move the cotton bud down the length of my eye lashes like it's a mascara wand then I gently rub it on my eyelids and blend it in by smoothing/tapping it out with my finger and getting it on the skin at the corner of my eye too.
• Next, I get some coconut oil on a cotton bud again and smooth it over my lips. If I don't use a cotton bud for this, I use my index finger (same with the above), but I prefer to use a  cotton bud.
• Okay! then I open up my jar of BP Cream, touch the surface of it with a cotton ball and smooth the cream out on it by making circular motions on the cotton ball using my index finger. Next, I make a stout line my forehead, cheeks and chin, and a dot on the outer side of my eyes and on the corners of my lips then in circular motions, starting from my forehead down, I work it in still using the cotton ball. This helps blend the product in and aids in an even distribution. I prefer to use a cotton ball and not my fingers also because sometimes, I end up with parts of my face like my forehead looking shiny and I don't like parts of my face looking like I put more product on them than others.

Night:

• My night routine is simple. I either get a disposable cup and brew some of my pure, organic green tea (in an unbleached tea bag) or I dilute some apple cider vinegar with some water, dip a cotton ball in whichever I made, squeeze out a bit of the liquid and work the cotton ball around my face cleansing and toning it at the same time.
• If I have a zit, I get a cotton bud, get straight apple cider vinegar onto it and in a circular motion, get it over the zit. This zaps the zit right out. Sometimes, before it even reaches the surface.

So, that's basically it!

*However, on some days, once or twice I month, in a bowl, disposable cup or something, I mix up some sugar and oil. I used to use coconut oil for this, but I noticed that I break out on my cheeks and forehead when coconut oil goes on there so, I prefer to use a mixture of sunflower and olive oil and sometimes, I add a dash of salt or apple cider vinegar to the sugar and oil mix. I work this all over my face. It sloughs away dead skin cells, cleans out the pores and lets my face breathe. After this, depending on how much time I have, I clean off the sugar and oil with a hot towel (dipped in hot water and wrung out) or I wash my face regularly (if I don't have much time). After the sugar scrub (note that I scrub my lips too), I don't really require the BP Cream or coconut oil for that day (or most of the day).*



And this is basically what I do to maintain clean, clear skin! :)

Please note that I do get 1 zit towards that womanly week of the month. So I basically have about 1 zit or so a month.


Hope this helps somebody!
~Sammy

p.s I don't wear makeup (unless I'm dressing up in a costume kinda thing and that's rather rare). Also, coconut oil, or any oil like that, enhances parts of the skin that it's placed around so, using it around my eyes brings out my eyes and it actually looks like I have a light, slightly shimmering eyeshadow that makes eye are glow :) Makeup can tend to clog pores and also, I have pretty sensitive skin so, I prefer to avoid makeup (also, I think I look pretty good without makeup on 😊)