Becoming Phoenix

Fitspo, weightloss, pretty people, comics, and a random mishmash of other stuff

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HER STOMACH. I want to look like this.

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Sugar Scrub and Natural Products

I love to try out natural, "home treatment" beauty remedies, mostly to see if they work. So, I have super dry skin but don't have money for expensive lotions and crap. However, mucking about online, I found a fantastic solution - sugar scrub. It's basically just sugar and oil (olive or vegetable will work), though I added in some lemon juice and vanilla extract to make it smell good. My skin is the SOFTEST THING EVER now. Like, softer than kittens, even. Well, almost. Even my feet are soft, and I had extremely dry, alligator-tough feet. The sugar seems to exfoliate a bit, and the oil I think softens.

Basic recipe is 2 parts sugar to 1 part oil (for example, if you use 1 cup of sugar, use 1/2 a cup of oil). You may have to add more oil, depending on how the scrub looks - it shouldn't be too thick, but it shouldn't be super runny either. Then add whatever you want, essential oils or herbs or kitchen stuff if you want a scent.

To use it, just scrub your body with it in the shower after you wash and then rinse it off. It's supposed to be okay for your face too, but my face is sort of oily already, so I didn't chance it.

Also, rinsing your hair in vinegar makes it very soft (my aunt told me about this one). I used apple cider vinegar so it wouldn't smell quite so strongly. It's probably best if your hair is clean first. Then you just soak it with the vinegar and rinse it out. While your hair is drying, the smell goes away (though keep in mind I let my hair dry naturally. Not sure how well this works with hair dryers).

Does anyone know of any other "natural remedy" type things?

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grilledlemons:

thehappiestnumber:

AND SO SHOULD YOU!

<3

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Your body on Coke

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artandopinion:

The Watercarrier

1908

Eugene de Blaas

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Babe Didrikson - Rockin' female athlete from the 1940s, and a harmonica player. Very awesome. Unfortunately, press of the time got on her case a lot for being "too masculine".

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Photo from the 70s. I love the wierd circles of colored light in the foreground.

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Shredding Day 2

This should have been posted yesterday, but one of the perks about living on a hill in the middle of nowhere is that the wind loves to murder your internet. I did day two of the 30 day shred yesterday, and today I'm taking a break because I'm already hobbling around like an old lady from the soreness in my thighs.

Really. Yesterday my friend offered me a cane.

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Comics and Fancy Bread

I have a terrible habit of wasting time on the internet in the name of "research" when I know the main thing that will improve my drawing skill is, well, drawing. However, sometimes I run across awesome things when "researching", such as Today Nothing Happened, a journal comic by Shazzbaa (of which I proceeded to read the whole archive). The facial expressions are ADORABLE, and I like the original idea, which was to create a journal comic once a day for a month, except of course that REALLY nothing happens to me, since it's summer and most of my friends live elsewhere or have one of those job things I'm trying to get. But, if you like comics about cats and nerdy things and awkward moments, then you should check out TNH here: http://www.todaynothinghappened.com/

Also, I have not been on tumblr for a while, because of vacations and wisdom tooth surgery. Tuesday, I finally went back for my post-op session with the (really attractive) oral surgeon. Afterwards, my mother and I went to a store she had heard of called Fresh Market. It's like a fancy grocery store.

Okay, you guys don't know me, but my idea of fancy is buying the three dollar cheese at Walmart instead of the Kraft cheese. I'm cheap, because generally I'm broke. So we go in here, and I'm in shock. They have purple sweet potatoes? Crackers with almonds in them?? Chips made of dried green beans (which by the way are kind of delicious)??? I'm sure I looked like a total hick, but I didn't care. I was too busy gawking at the different kinds of fancy bread and the women shopping in cocktail dresses (I'm totally not kidding. Apparently grocery shopping is SRS BUSINESS). We ended up with a tin of the green bean chips and a round of basil and thyme foccacia bread (which tastes amazing). I LOVE THAT PLACE. I have found my inner fancypants, apparently.

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Shredding, Day 1

So, on myfitnesspal (the calorie tracking website I use) I was browsing the forums and came across some before and after pictures from people who did the 30 Day Shred, which is a 30 day exercise dvd from Jillian Michaels. Some are actually pretty impressive (there's a girl who did it twice, and her stomach looks like it's carved out of wood). I still have the dvd from an ill-fated attempt at a workout program with my former roommate, so I decided: okay, I'm going to do this, since the heat has been limiting my outdoors exercise. (I am very heat-intolerant. I blame my English/Irish ancestry.)

As with any experiment, I figure I should keep track of the results, so my beginning measurements are (in inches/pounds):

calves: 15 thighs: 26.5 hips: 43 waist at belly button: 33 natural waist: 31 chest: 38 upper arm: 11 forearm: 9.5 Starting weight: 148.2

Yes, I have teeny tiny arms and big fat hips. Yes, you may laugh.

Level 1, Day 1 reaction: grragahrlaghl...ow. Clearly, it's been too long since I did any proper sort of exercise. I couldn't even do the jumping jacks, because I didn't want to thump too much and wake up my mom's fiance, who works night shift, but I was still puffing like a chain smoker. Aaaand the pushups kicked my ass (although to be fair, I've never been able to do pushups). This will get better...I hope. Kind of wish I had something lighter than 8 pound weights to start with. Calories burned (according to heart rate monitor): 149

Think I will begin doing yoga afterwards, to keep my muscles from stiffening up. Has anyone else tried the 30DS? Any advice, complaints, etc?

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I have been missing due to surgery and vacation related issues. I am back now! I am sure all of my 11 followers will rejoice, haha.