Sparkled Beauty

This week is going to be quiet on here guys. I'm officially burned out packing two weeks before the move. It was a gorgeous, sunny and warm weekend and I didn't even make it outside :( Needless to say, I did not have a trace of makeup on and only wore a strengthening base coat on my nails. And I missed Super Redemption days, gasp!

So we talk food today :) I started the FastDiet two weeks ago, before all this craziness rushed in but it is still not very good timing. But again, it's never a good time for dieting, is it? Don't worry, this is not a sponsored post.

I'm tired of being tired all the time and putting more weight on slowly but steadily, so with a huge doubt of myself being able to do this, I tried anyway.

Emily Eddington (emilynoel83) mentioned this book by Dr. Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer in one of her BBLive sessions, so I went and read it. I never tried any diet systems before, mostly because there were just too many restrictions I just knew I couldn't follow. The way the FastDiet works is do-able and makes sense. "You have nothing to lose but weight" - they said.

Basically I need to do a 500-calorie diet (1/3 of my regular level) two non-consecutive days a week. They called it the 5:2 diet, as you eat normally 5 days of the week and fast the other 2 intermittently. Fast days pretty much include light breakfast and dinner, no lunch, no snack, lots of water and non-sweetened herbal tea (my drink of choice). Mondays and Thursdays work well for my schedule.

The prospect that I can always come back to my regular diet the next day is what gets me through fast days but, never counted calories in my life before, it's surprising how little food it takes to reach 500 calories lol.

Product labels and myfitnesspal helped me a lot in counting the calories, so my job is just trying to slow myself way down with food intake, especially snacks. I survived my first few fast days with only some tingling feeling on my fingertips (don't know why), a light headache at the end of the day and having to go to bed early (so I wouldn't be tempted with more food and snacks).

The morning after, I was not starved and did not faint - 2 things I worried about the most :) Obviously my body adjusted itself and got through the day with that little food. And believe it or not, fast days kinda train your body to eat more controllably on non-fast days, which leads to overall less calorie consumption.

My goal was not losing a huge amount of weight so I did not weigh myself at the beginning but I no longer feel heavy at the end of the day nor feel like I want to eat more. It's awesome to admit that I did not need that much food to go on. Weekends were hard because I was surrounded with snacks in the apartment but I managed not to go over my regular calories. The most visible result of this "diet" to me was when I felt bloated after eating an Original combo at Harvey's on Friday, which was not big by any means (but the calorie and sodium numbers would scare you lol). So I know I am on the right track and will keep going. Cheer me on?

This post is all about food :-) A few days ago, my sis and cousin took us out for a hot pot experience. Hot pots aren't new to me, as we grow up eating so many of them, but this special place served them a little differently, so I was eager to try.












We basically ordered a base broth from a selection of 6-7 different kinds, ranging from regular, mild to hot. We choose the mild version, as Squirt couldn't eat spicy food yet. It came with green onion (green and white parts), corn, carrots, some herbs and some pig bones to sweeten the taste. We then picked out the ingredients that would go into the broth from a long list of vegetables, meats, noodles, etc. which came in some little plastic trays or bowls.












For those of you who aren't familiar with hot pots, we throw the ingredients into the broth to cook a bunch of things at a time, then throw in another bunch when we finish eating the first bunch. When we get to the end, the broth becomes very tasty, thanks to all the good stuff that goes into it. That is when we add the noodles and eat it with the broth. Nothing is wasted :-)

Can't forget the sauce as it plays a very important role in adding extra flavors to the items after being cooked in the broth.

The mixed sauce on the left had garlic, chilli, chopped herbs, etc. I can't even tell how many ingredients were in it, but it was very flavourful. We just transfered the items from the broth to the sauce, then in the mouth they went, lol.

On the right was some extra chilli sauce to add some extra kicks to the sauce, as the broth was only mild.

I had a really good time. It has been such a long time since I had one that good. When I was still in school, I had a group of friends that got together for hot pots quite often. Lots of them has moved away after graduation, and it sucks.

Across the street from the restaurant was an ice cream shop, so we went there for some sweetness. Omg, I was like in a dessert heaven, as there were about 20 ice cream flavours to choose from, most of them were tropical - mango, lychee, taro, guava, jack fruit, etc. I was drooling at the counter before I could make a decision on what to order.

So 4 of us, 4 cups, 8 scoops, gone in a jiffy. It was so good that I wanted to try all other flavours they offered. I definitely will come back to this place at least once more before I leave, so I could satisfy my thirst for tropical taste.

I had limitted my ice cream consumption in Halifax, due to its high fat level. But to this goodness, I couldn't resist. There were frozen yogurt places around here that I haven't had a chance to try either. Why oh why do I have too many things I haven't tried when it's almost time to leave?

Oh, and the cost, if any of you want to know: the hot pot was about $20-25, and the ice cream was a bit more than $1 per scoop. Told you it was good :-)

It is Sunday night over there (Monday morning here), so I thought I would post up some food pictures, for fun.

I had a great time yesterday hanging out with a friend from uni. We hit the spa for some relaxing time. I had a body scrub, and a hot stone massage. Again, it cost a lot less than what I paid in Canada, so I certainly spoiled myself. And the funny thing was, the owner didn't allow tips for any of her staff. I was surprised.

We went to a night market after 2 hours spending at the spa. I bought a few fun things but they would need some demonstration pics, so I'll save them for another post. I started to accept the fact that I won't be able to find the price point I paid last time I was home (2 years ago), so I had to go with the flow. Didn't shop as much as before, for sure, but I did get some stuff anyway.

We found a Thai restaurant nearby for dinner. The bf and I have a favorite Thai restaurant in Halifax, so I was curious to see how Thai food played out over here. It certainly embraced local taste, and didn't taste the same. I expected that. The deco inside was pretty cool, even the chairs that we sat on, felt like we were sitting on a throne, lol.

This is Pad Thai at that place, prepared with vermicelli instead of the white wide noodle. The little net on top was a thin layer of fried eggs. Nice presentation huh?

The food was a bit oily but tasted fine. Not much on the veggie side which I didn't like. The ingredients were mainly fried tofu and eggs. We didn't touch the raw coleslaw on the side of the plate, as I didn't think they went well together.

I wouldn't order this dish again if we come back to the place.

This second dish, however, is delish! Green curried seafood and veggies. They had fried fish, shrimps, squids, green beans, eggplants, and Thai basil. Served with sticky rice, came in the little tube you saw on the left upper corner.

The sauce was so good, especially on top of the sticky rice. I could eat a whole bowl of rice with just the sauce and call it a meal, lol.

And we "polished" this plate clean, didn't leave anything behind. For drinks, we had iced tea (loved the tea, it didn't taste like the cheap tea version we had at regular restaurants), just so we didn't confuse our tastebuds with too many flavours.

The desert was also great, but I forgot to take pics :-) Tapioca balls with water chesnuts inside, served in slightly sweetened coconut milk with ice. Soooo good! It was a good time overall.

Just while we are on food topic, this is the little treat that I have had quite often around here: Bubble tea.

I know I could find bubble tea in Canada, but it is more reasonably priced here for me to drink daily. I love the "pearls" (tapioca balls, the black little dots you see in the cup on the right) as they make the drink into a fun treasure hunt. I always try to stick the big straw on them and sucked, otherwise, I'd finish the tea before digging out all the pearls, lol.

The cup on the left is just pearl tea, the one on the right has milk added. The plastic lid was sealed on to avoid spilling, and we could just stick the straw through it to drink. The tea come in so many flavours (I picked taro this time), tastes a little sweeter than I wanted, but I was fine with that. Very good to cool down a hot day.

Hope you had a good weekend. I heard it was snowing at lots of places on that side of the globe, so you guys take care on the road.

How's everyone's weekend? Mine was busy. Squirt wasn't feeling too well, but I had to do some last minute shopping for my family, so we were at the mall for an hour.

I got my sister a Fruits & Passion massage oil in Grapefruit - Guava for 40% off (the coupon is in my Weekly flyer deals post, still good until the end of the month). The little booklet in the picture is their Holiday catalogue.

I'm always a big fan of guava, both the fruit and how it smells. Adding grape fruit, itt smells so good. I was looking for a gift set with this scent (as gift sets are always of better value) but they didn't have any.

Urban Behaviour was having F&F, 50% off regular prices. I got 2 scarves, CAD5 each, really like the colours. They were the last one in their styles in store when I found them. Also found the very cute gold necklace with a golden flower, some pearl-like beads, for CAD6.50.

If you are looking for some cheap buys, the F&F sale is still going on until the end of the day tomorrow.

We ended the trip with a quick dinner at Salvatore, one of the best pizza places in town. They were celebrating the 15th anniversary, so the prices were brought back to 1994's ($3 less for pizzas and $1 less for almost everything else). I loved the idea :-)

Their pizzas had some intersting topping options I hadn't seen anywhere else. It was my first time there, so I was a bit adventurous. We got 2 specialty pizzas - the Clam Pie Marinato (which was full of chopped baby clams, basil and garlic, with cornmeal on the edge), and the Pizza Miguel (garlic, onion, mushroom). We found the garlic was a bit too much, and toppings were very generous. The bf said maybe less would be more in this case :-) I liked the food, but maybe next time we went for the originals, so we could pick our own toppings.

I spent some time getting the stuff I bought to bring home ready for packing. I'm a pack rat, buying stuff and put them somewhere then couldn't remember where when I needed it. It was frustrating, lol, and packing didn't go so well for that reason. Squirt still has a temperature, don't know whether I'll have to stay home tomorrow. So much to do, so little time!

Back to work after a day off, I felt like it was Monday all over again :-) Thought it would be fun to post up a few things I found on the web that I found very interesting. Everything I mention here is open for your interpretation :-)

I have always been amazed by the number of talented makeup artists on youtube, but what amazed me even more is this little girl - candyglitter1.

This video was what brought me to her the very first time, introduced by Beauty of the Earth.


She is only 11 years old and has so much potential in this industry that I can't even imagine. At 11, I didn't even touch a lip gloss yet, let alone doing a look like this. Would you wish yourself or your daughter could be this great at 11?

I know you would question the privacy and stuff on youtube for such a young girl like her. Her mom monitors her youtube account and all the correspondence on there. I think it's wonderful that she supports her daughter's passion for makeup and let her get on youtube. Wait until she becomes your age, lol.

On to food, introducing Burger King's Window 7 Whopper. Are you up for it?


And fashion!

You have probably seen these Bikini jeans around, but I thought it'd be funny to follow up after the whopper :-)

The idea was it's hip to wear low rise jeans, but then they are too low that we need to take care of the underwear showing issue. Then ta da, problem solved, 2-in-1 Bikini jeans.

What do you think?

Photo credit: denimology.co.uk






Last but not least, Alexander McQueen's latest heels, for the shoe lovers out there. I think there's even a term for them: ballett heels! A whole different level from the ballett flats, I'm afraid, lol.

They are 12 inches high!!! Very pretty but I couldn't imagine how hard they are on your spine and feet. Still want to be a model after this?

Feel free to check out the artile on InStyle UK for more "inspiration" :-)

Photo credit: instyle.co.uk

Hope I beat the "Thursday blues" with this post. You all have a good day!

This is not gonna be a makeup-related post, as I was being good the whole weekend, didn't buy any makeup :-) I skipped the eye event at the Bay (hated the $20 limit), and Shoppers didn't really have anything on sale that I wanted.

The bf was back on Saturday and was lovely enough to drive us to blueberry U-pick. I mentioned a bit about the place, Blueberry Acres, in the Canada is priceless post. Basically we come and pick as much as we can carry, they weigh the berries in recyclable waxed paper boxes, and we pay (CAD2.15 per pound). We did some healthy damage with 3 boxes, about 27 pounds in total, during 2 hours at the farm. It took about half an hour to fill up a box in average which wasn't bad at all. We are professional pickers with 3 years of experience, lol.

The blueberries were just lovely, at the right size for picking. Just to show you the size, here was one berry in my palm. It was big and juicy :-) This was the beginning of the season, so the trees haven't been picked much. Pickers were sent to different sections of the field to assure equal picking activities.

The funny thing I found at Blueberry Acres was that they did not discourage pickers eating the berries while picking (before weighing them in). In fact, we were told not to get back on the bus without blue tongues (from all the eating). Squirt and I sure enjoyed a few snacks at the spot, but most of the time, we were too busy harvesting them.

I love blueberries and hate to pay outragous price during the off-season. So when the season comes, I sure stock up. With the cheap price offered, Blueberry U-pick is my favorite choice. Blueberry Acres also has a restaurant on site serving dishes with blueberries, plus blueberry drink and wine. I quite enjoyed the food there.

Every year, Nova Scotia, as the second largest blueberry producers in the world, celebrates Wild Blueberry Fest with different restaurants around the province featuring blueberry dishes, farmer markets and stuff. Check out the site for more info.

Hope your Monday has been going well.

How has your Canada Day been going, ladies? Mine was fine, but quite long. I'm exhausted. But I miss blogging, so I gotta get on here writing a few words :-)

I'm still at the conference, and got bored for sitting in the conference room all day. The food was fabulous though, I didn't have a single thing to complain. I normally have a bit of oatmeal or cereal, an omlette, some juice and fruits in the morning. Love those blueberries that they put out, I could basically just eat blueberries all day and be just fine. Lunch is a lot harder to control though, so many choices. Today they had watermelon & mint soup, Canadian bacon & cheese panini, turkey with stuffing and smashed potato, veggie curry, corn bread, lots of cut up veggies, 3 kinds of salad, and 3 big trays of fruits. Desserts were Canada Flag strawberry shortcake and berry cheesecake. Trust me, I tried to eat more veggies and fruits to make up for the fatty desserts I had, as it was way too hard to skip desserts all together. The snacks were addictive too. I'm not doing very well, haha...

Last night we went on the ferry to get to a restaurant on Wolf island, across the lake from downtown Kingston. I kinda had my expectation up, as people kept talking about the place. The ferry ride was about 30 minutes. It was busy at the time, as the car platform was full (approx. 50 cars were there). We were sitting on the upper floor, and it was still sunny out, so the ride was nice. Did I say it was free?

The restaurant was ok, nothing spectacular. They had a guy playing piano there for us while we picked up some appetizers and a glass of wine (on the house, how nice!). They had basa fish served with mango salso which sounded like my dream meal. Back home, I had a lot of basa for dinner and I quite liked the fish. It is not very popular in Canada, so I was surprised seeing it at Wolf island. The dish came out quite nicely decorated, but tasted bland. I think they did a quick batter on the fish, couldn't figure out why. I hate battered fish. If they wanted to add a bit flavour on it, they could have done a sauce or marinade. Failed!

Dessert was Italian-style ice cream, served with a thin bread crust around it. The server couldn't pronounce the name of it for me, so I had no idea what it's called. On the way out, I checked their regular menu and was kinda shocked. Their entres ranged between $25 and $40, quite a price to pay at an island restaurant like this, if you asked me. And if the food was fabulous, I could understand when people are willing to pay, but it was meh. Oh well, the meal was paid for, so I can't complain.

Tonight was Canada Day boat cruise and fireworks. The conference was long without enough breaks, I wanted a nap so bad. They made me come downstairs for the bus at 5:30 which didn't leave me much time to even freshen up. Turned out, the boat wouldn't leave until 6:30, so I wasted my time waiting around for it at the waterfront. I have to rant. Planning was poor, as we left the center too early, and the cruise was supposed to be 3 hours long. Way too long for such a long day like this. Too late to turn around. We cruised around Thousand Island area (there were supposed to be 1800 islands all together, I didn't count, lol), having a few appetizers and anxiously waiting for the food. There were like 300 people on that boat, so obviously dinner would take a long time to be prepared. I chose pork tenderloin with a grainy mustard crust. Let's just say it didn't actually come out that way. Well, at least I enjoyed the conversation at the table and got to know a few more people. The fireworks were meh as well - I have seen better ones, and took too long of a wait. I guess they changed the time to 9:30, as it was still too bright at 9. By the time the boat turned around to get back, and the bus took me back to the conference center, it was 11pm. It was a long night. The sunset was probably the only positive thing about the night that I embraced. Picture taken on the top balcony of the boat.

Hope you all had a fun Canada Day. Thanks for stopping by.

Now this is not makeup-relevant, but I think our beauty also depends on our diet - what and how we eat. Don't get me wrong, I aprreciate what makeup could do to a regular gal like me, and I can't say that enough. Makeup rescues my self-confidence, helps me be more presentable to people around me and brings me joy. But food is a such a big part of my culture, so I thought I would bring it up today.

I was growing up eating a wide variety of food. Our basic meals at home normally have steamed rice and a combination of some meat/seafood, some vegetables and some kind of soup that we have at the end of the meals. We don't have appetizers as everything is presented on the dinner table at the same time :-) And dessert is normally some fresh fruits. In the weekends, we normally prepare fancier meals with les - There are like 100 different kinds of noodle dishes, depending on the ingredients, the type of broths and the spices added into it, and the type of noodles being used. Or we can eat out. It doesn't have to be a fancy place, as there are many eating place, mom-and-pop's style, inexpensive.

Canadian food is a whole way different, and I do adjust to that. I have cereal for breakfast, a main meal at lunch, and a light meal (like a salad, or leftover) for dinner. Here, eating out is a break from cooking, a way to spend some family time, or to celebrate something important. I never thought of what I ate, just went with whatever I felt like having at the time, as I thought food was about fun and I could eat anything. Until 2 years ago when I joined a Healthy Workplace Committee at work. I was just doing it for fun, something different from my main job, but as I go along, I learned so much about healthy diet and what bad food could do to me (first I had to learn what "bad" food meant, as I didn't have that concept to start with). I did more reading online and came to "Lunch and Learn" sessions when the pros came and talked to us about what we didn't know (and should have known).

The reason for this post is actually a little article on Canadian Living about 8 healthy comfort foods. I found it interesting when they didn't tell you not to eat ice cream but told you to have something else instead, something healthier but is still a comfort food.

You can click on the link to read the whole article and see the reasons behind their suggestions, but here's the summary:

Splurge	Solution
Ice cream	Sorbet
Spaghetti	Soba Noodles
Mashed Potatoes	Mashed Cauliflower
Potato Chips	Salted air-popped popcorn
General Tao Chicken	Szechuan Chicken
French fries	Baked fries
Hot Chocolate	Homemade Hot Chocolate
Candy Bar	Dark Chocolate

What do you think? Would you reach one of the items in the solution list instead of our good old comfort foods that we have been very comfortable of? I am trying to.

Thanks for stopping by. I have a beauty post lined up after this one, promise!

Photo credit: CanadianLiving.com