What I'm Learning

I decided this year to take advantage of the classes offered through the community ed program. It's been pretty fun. The first class I've been going to is learning how to do make-up. I've been wearing it for how long and yet I'm just now seeing if I'm doing it right. I've never felt like I was slathering it on, but some days are better than others. I was supposed to be taking this class with my friend, but it was full before she was able to register for it. The good news is I don't think I was too far off (especially since I'm already in love with mineral make-up and that's what Kari Romney really pushes). Of course, she has a huge long resume to prove why she's best to do this class, but I'm not going to go into that. As she's gone through some of the "rules" I find myself a little bit paranoid when I go to apply my make-up the next day, but it's feeling more and more natural, and I don't think I'm doing anything too different than I was doing before - other than applying the oxygen water spray to "activate" the minerals, which I am not sure I am a fan of yet. But, since I have a bottle, I'll keep using it until I'm done. I've learned that I have warm/neutral tones for my make-up, my face shape is oval/heart, my eyes are average (not wide-set or close), and I have a small mouth. And just in case you want to be scared (I'm in a little bit of denial), look at the ingredients in your make-up, deodorant, lotions, etc., and find there are a lot of parabins. One of the ingredients (which I can't remember the full name and I don't have it written down) is used to de-ice planes. Really probably not the best thing to be putting on your skin. I think I am in some denial since I admit I see it in a lot of the lotions I've been using, but I just can't get myself to throw them out and waste the money. I tell myself I'll look closer when I buy things next go around. I'm doing more of a skin care workshop from her at the end of February (for some reason my skins been kind of bugging me lately so hopefully that will help me out with that). I guess if you're interested her website is http://www.kariromney.com/.

The title for the next workshop was "How to Get Rid of Your Pot Belly and Body Fat in Hard to Reach Places." How's that for an attention getter? It was taught by Larry Craig who is a former Mr. Universe. This picture is actually of him at age 60. I think that's insane - and, no, I am not a fan of the Speedo or really being that big. So here's the things that I learned from him. Really you only need to do three minutes of aerobic exercise per day. It's called the 20:10. Run full out for 20 seconds then kind of run at a more natural pace for 10 seconds. Repeat three times. He had a story behind this that I don't feel like going into. I haven't actually tried it yet, but will eventually. He also talked about doing the "Ring of Fire" for yours abs and the muscles around. I've ordered his free DVD from his website to try to really get that down. My notes make sense to me, but I don't know that they'd make sense to anyone else. Again, I need to work on practicing what he was preaching. In order to really lose wait you need to look at your Nutrition Ratio. It's the ratio of proteins to carbohydrates. There were seven factors going into that, which I didn't get all of them (I did get gender, weight, height, age, waist size). As of right now, my ratio should be 2:1. I've started paying closer attention to that. My big thing is looking at my breakfast drink (habit I started on my mission - it's really easy to do your hair while drinking something for breakfast). FYI, Slim Fast has at 1:4 ratio. So I have actually started drinking a protein powder drink. The ratio is 7:1 of the one I chose, but there is also one that's 13:1, which I may go to, but I think for my system's sake I've got to build up to it. That feels like a lot of protein to be taking in at once, even if it is all in a drink. The other little tidbits I learned (according to Larry Scott and whoever he works with) flaxseed oil is better than fish oil for the omega-3, take lots of b-complex vitamins to help build muscle, and sleep and exercise on an empty stomach that way the growth hormone that helps stimulate weight loss can do it's magic (apparently it doesn't do it's magic so much on a full stomach).

The final class I am taking right now is a beginning belly dance class. Now, you will NEVER see me in an outfit like that. But each week I borrow a coin belt and get the coins shaking. I really do have fun with it. So, I have to share my belly dance story. When I was in fourth grade, my best friend was Toni. Her mother was a belly dance (which always seemed really weird to me because she was not a small woman, which was what I pictured a belly dancer being). Anyway, she was frustrated because her daughter, Toni, was not picking up on the skills. I was sitting a little weird on the floor and she decided I would be a natural. So, on the floor of my living room, she taught me a move. I thought it was awkward since my mom was sitting right there - and, again, I so didn't have a concept of what a belly dancer was (I don't know if I was thinking it was the same thing as an exotic dancer or stripper or what, but it was weird to me). Now whether or not I am a natural or doing overly well, I don't know (there aren't mirrors in the place we do our class and the teacher hasn't specifically said you're great or you're horrible to anyone). I am having fun, one way or the other!