best beauty products review

If you could read Chinese, Kimiss is a beauty product review website that you should definitely check out!

I was simply looking for translation of a Chinese product, and chanced upon this website. This website is so well organized: by brands, by category (skin, body, lip, eye etc). There is ranking of the best products and the reviews are all clearly classified with star ratings.

Banana dieting plan

This is one of those times when I feel upset looking into the mirror. I bought this new tee-shirt on impulse – loved the graphics on it and did not care less how I looked in it. When I try it on again back home, my tummy is visibly huge under that unflattering body-hugging tee. As much as I love that tee, I am hating it now.

Hating the tee is not the best solution. I need to get rid of that tummy.

Last month when I was in Shanghai for a business trip, I get my hands on my favourite local beauty magazine, 都市丽人. There is an article about diet plan – Breakfast Banana Diet Plan – get slimmer in 3 weeks! Sounds great, isn’t it?

Here’s what can be done:

1. For breakfast: Have bananas with lukewarm water. That will help you clear your bowels. Have as many bananas as you like. 🙂 This will seemingly make you feel full and eat lesser during lunch.

2. For dinner: You can still take what you usually have for dinner (of course, you have to avoid those deep-fried stuff). Have your dinner before 8pm, because food stuff like meat needs 4 hours to be fully digested. If you feel hungry before you hit the bed, grab some fruits – typically only need 15-20 mins to digest.

3. For your body restoration: Sleep before 12 midnight. (Really tough especially on girls’ night out days). Anyway, the reason behind this is for your body to restore when you are asleep. Base on some research, your body restores during the first 5-6 hours of your sleep. However, apparently, after sunrise, the process will cease. Ok, this sounds really scientific. Let’s just do our best to hit the bed before midnight.

4. For your drinks: Drinks with artifical flavourings would deteriorate your taste bud and will result in you eating more. (This is horrifying!) So, before lunch, you should only drink plain water. After lunch till before dinner, you may have drinks with less sugar or no sugar content.

Do not seem too difficult. Hopefully I will be disciplined enough to carry out this plan for 3 weeks!

three ways to eat and yet still be slim and healthy

Tired is my physical and mental state. Disappointment is my reflection on my time management skills. I have decided to put everything down, and post this long-due entry.

After three months in Shanghai, I have put on much weight, and the fats build-up is visible (yes it is sad). The food is fantastic, because much oil has been used to make it so good. Anyway, it is time to be focused on my get-into-shape plans. There are three good ones that I could consider. These tips are from a beauty magazine I bought in Shanghai – it is an irony, I know.

Get-into-shape Plan #1: Only eat rice, vegetables (steamed, boiled or raw) and fruits (except bananas). Do not put salt in your food, drink water/juices/oolong tea. Never drink coffee.

Why rice? It helps to reduce water retention. In addition, this rice-plan works well because you will not feel hungry as easily and rice contains fibre for good bowel movement.

Get-into-shape Plan #2: No food after 5pm, well, at most an apple. To be ensure that you can still get a good night sleep (without grumbling noises from the stomach), eat a little portion of rice with vegetables (non-oily).

I have tried this couple of times and I can see a visible flatter tummy. It is amazing, and I definitely felt good about it. However, for beginners, it is adviced that you carry out this plan on alternate nights so that you will not suffer from gastric or stomach discomfort.

Get-into-shape Plan #3: Only after every five hours, take small meals with lots of vegetables (non-oily). Do not take seafood and chemically-treated food products. This plan would also gives you a better complexion through detoxification.

This plan sounds simple, but it means you must resist from snacking in school or office. This is again a test of determination.

Girls and guys, stand up, breathe in, tuck in that tummy, if you cannot tuck it in (just like myself), let’s take on one of the get-into-shape plans.

I am back, finally!

I am back in Singapore from Shanghai last night, finally! I am so glad that I could access WordPress without any problems now.

While I felt so sorry about my absence for three months, I am so grateful that so many of you are still coming to my blog. Thanks everyone.

There are many great beauty and wellness tips that I read on female magazines in Shanghai. I will dish out the tips and definitely hope to see your comments.

Food for good skin and health

I am sorry for my absence for almost two weeks. I am extremely upset that I am unable to access WordPress in Shanghai. I am trying to tap on proxy servers to get through the firewall.

I have been in Shanghai for a more than a week. I do like this place very much. The weather is cool but sometimes the wind sends down a chill into my bones!

Everything is great except my skin – it is cracking. I have been putting on more moisturizer for the past few days. I am heading to the mega supermarket to get baby oil later.

I came upon an advertising newsletter which is distributed out at the subway station. There is a section on lifestyle that talks about the type of food you could eat to improve the condition of various parts of your body.

Here are the tips:

Tip #1: Improve your hair condition

Eat small wheat which provides organic and natural nutrients. It also helps to prevent the growth of white hair, balding, and it provides a healthy shine to your hair!

This is really new to me. I am definitely going to try this out.

Tip #2: Care for your brains

It is really simple – just eat biscuits. With a well-balanced level of sugar, biscuits help our build our brains cells and improve memory.

I should have eaten more biscuits during my examination period.

Tip #3: Protect your eyes

Yes, it is definitely carrots which are rich in Vitamin A. It helps to improve eye sight, prevent astigmatism. Besides protecting your eyes, chomping down carrots would also make your skin happy.

Tip #4: Love your heart

Eat the silky, white and soft tofu which helps to prevent blood clots and high blood pressure. Tofu also contains calcium for your body.

I love tofu, and it is pretty easy to find tofu in Shanghai.

Tip #5: Protect your digestive system (This has been my health problem for ages)

This is not something everyone would like – garlic. It is reported that people who consume garlic often enough, would face lesser indigestion problems.

Tip #6: Get good skin (listen up everyone!)

The orange and funny looking vegetable that is iconic for Halloween – the pumpkin. (I am surprised too.) Well, pumpkin contains Vitamin A and helps reduce the risk of developing skin cancer.

I am posting this entry with the help of my dear friend in Singapore, Elaine. Thanks a lot my friend. I will definitely try to tap onto some proxy servers so that I can post more often. 

The healthier-unhealthy food – Part 7

I will only be away from Singapore for four months, but I am already missing all my favourite local dishes. I will miss Nasi Lemak, for sure. I love to have my Nasi Lemak served with lots of chilli, especially those sweet-spicy type.

 

Well, where does Nasi Lemak stand in the “healthier-unhealthy food” fight? This fight is Nasi lemak against Hainanese Chicken Rice.

 

 

      Nasi Lemak                            Hainanese Chicken Rice

(Source: wikipedia)

 

Here is what Simply Her researched on.

 

“Gram for gram, chicken rice is much lower in calories, higher in protein, lower in carbohydrates, and gives you about the same amount of fat as nasi lemak. To cut your fat intake even more, opt for steamed rice, and ask for extra cucumber to up your fibre and vitamin intake.”

 

I have to agree that Nasi Lemak is less healthy as compared to Hainanese Chicken Rice for the various reasons based on my own analysis:

 

1. The rice served for Nasi Lemak is cooked with coconut milk.

2. Nasi Lemak comes with other side-dishes that are usually fried, for example, fried chicken wings (my favourite!), fried ikan billis (aka anchovies).

3. The chilli served with Nasi Lemak is cooked with lots of oil.

4. (This is personal) I will do not feel full eating one packet of Nasi Lemak, so I will usually eat another dish! (You can tell what a glutton I am.)

 

I am busy preparing for my examinations now, and I will be off to Shanghai on Friday. I hope I can get my Internet connection fixed quickly so that I can update my posts once I am settled down. 🙂

 

The healthier-unhealthy food – Part 6

In 10 days’ time, I will be leaving for Shanghai for my 16 weeks internship. I am beginning to miss Singapore’s local food, especially the hawker food.

 

Now, my love for hawker food brings my attention to today’s contestants – char kway teow and carrot cake.

 

(Source:boo_licious of Masak-masak blog)                                               

 

(Source: www.ourawesomeplanet.com)

 

As we know, both are fried with a lot of oil, and of course, they come with lots of calories and fat.

 

But here is what Simply Her has to say: “Gram for gram, char kway teow wins hands down – it has more protein and less fat, even if it’s slightly higher in carbohydrates.”

 

(Rejoice) I am pretty shocked with the verdict, however, because I love fried carrot cake, it is a dish that I can eat for breakfast, snack and supper.

 

Nonetheless, please refrain from eating char kway teow and carrot cake too frequently.  They are good for occasional treats.

The healthier-unhealthy food – Part 5

The food battle on healthier-unhealthy food continues to amuse me. Today, the contestants are berry jam and kaya.

    

(source: gettyimages)              (Source: www.kaya.sg)

Kaya seems more unhealthy as compared to berry jam. Kaya contains sugar (lots of it), coconut milk and eggs.

However, Simply Her magazine found out that Kaya gives you more protein, less sugar and about the same amount of dietary fibre as jam.  If you really love jam, opt for a fruit conserve, which has a higher vitamin and fruit content, and less sugar.

It is time for teabreak in Singapore, and I am craving for some kaya toast.

(source: www.singaporefoodrecipes.com)

 

The healthier-unhealthy food – Part 4

The healthier-unhealthy food battle continues…

For this round, the contestants are tiramisu and brownie.

      

(source: gettyimages)

Tiramisu is contains mascarpone cheese, while chocolate brownie contains chocolate and butter.

Gram for gram, tiramisu has fewer calories and is lower in fat than a brownie. You may wish to read more about the nutrition facts of tiramisu and brownie.

Tiramisu is “healthier” also because of the added nutritional value from the cheese content – cheese is rich in calcium and phosphorus.

What is your take on this?

I love brownie, so I will just eat it at all cost. (Well, maybe after a gym workout.)

 

The healthier-unhealthy food – Part 2

Now, our next food “contestants” would be honey and maple syrup.

(source: stockxpert)

The winner is honey, because maple syrup has fewer calories in terms of sugar content while honey has trace amounts of vitamins and minerals. The former is also an excellent source of trace elements like manganese, ribofalvin and zinc.

Once again, the above analysis is provided by Simply Her magazine, March 2008 issue. 🙂

There are many ways you can consumer honey. Mix it into a drink, spread it onto your bread, or add it as a seasoning for chicken. 🙂 Try it!