Dental Health

Spent the whole day at the dentist's. Fixed a cracked molar, got a new crown, and poorer by a few grand.

I'm a big believer of dental health. Nip the problem in the bud, always. It will be a small price to pay against the potential prolonged suffering - orally and financially.

Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen

No, not the song by Baz Luhrmann. Although it is one of my favourite song. I'm writing about sunscreen.

My Sunday morning was spent at the sea wakeboarding. Damn right, your Lifestyle Queen is getting all healthy and sporty lately, what with the yoga and the wakeboarding. Although this was a common phenonmenon today...
I woke up to an overcast sky this morning. It was perfect for the girls and I since we're not too keen on the tan-look. My friend brought along her spray-on sunscreen and I had a go at it.I hereby declare sunscreen spray is the only way to go for sun protection! Spray-on is so easy to use and is the most efficient way to get the sunscreen all over your body evenly. Also, no more white patches on your skin that happens when the cream sunscreen is not rub into the skin sufficiently. Run out and get this from your nearest drugstore.

Especially when doing water sports, one must remember to keep replenishing your sunscreen. Everytime I was in the water and I wipe the water off my face, I removed some sunscreen from my face too. Thus, the result is a nose as red as Rudolph the red nose reindeer. And my lips are burning and slightly raw as if I just drank tom yum soup. Not a pleasant feeling. Or sight, to say the least.

I also remember my cousin lamenting the tan lines around the top of her feet after our holiday in southern France recently. Or my sister teasing her boyfriend about his sunburnt scalp after their Kota Kinabalu getaway last week. Splattering on sunscreen is only the first step to sun protection. Here are other top tips to sunscreen wearing:

1) Check the expiry date.
Yes, they have expiry date. The active ingredients in the sunscreen may break down and lose their effectiveness after certain period. The last thing you need is a case of a bad sunburn and bad rash from the expired chemicals.

2) SPF 30
This is more than enough. Sun Protection Factor 30 allows you to stay in the sun 30 times longer before you get sunburnt. SPF 30 already blocks out 97% of the harmful UVB rays. Do you really need more? Feel free to use higher SPF, the difference is little.

3) UVA and UVB
Did you know sunscreen is not the same as sunblock? Chemicals in sunscreen absorbs the UV radiation whereas those in sunblock reflects the UV rays to protect your skin. Absorb? Reflects? I say potato, potahto. Just use a sunscreen/sunblock that has UVA and UVB protection. Period.

4) Apply half an hour before going into the sun.
This is to allow the active ingredients in the sunscreen to start working on the skin.

5) Reapply every 15-30 minutes.
I say 30 minutes. I'm really not keen on running for my can of spray-on every 15 minutes in a game of beach volleyball, or putting down my book before I can finish one chapter in that 15 minutes on the beach chair.

This is the crux of the matter -- the list of places one always miss while applying sunblock:

1. Eyelids
   The skin around your eyes are much thinner than the rest of your face. Surely one shouldn't neglect this delicate region.


2. Lips
   Do you want goth-inspired dark lips? Use a SPF 15 lip balm for goodness sake.


3. Ear
   Earlobe and back of ear are the spots we most often missed.


4. Top of feet
   Do you know how difficult it is to get rid of the tan line of your sandals or mary-jane strap if you forget to apply sunblock on your feet?


5. Back of neck
   Flaky wrinkly neck is not pretty. You don't want others to think you're diseased.


6. Scalp or exposed hairline
   Mostly for guys with really short hair. Take note, please.

This shall be your checklist the next time you apply that sunscreen. Now I have to go nurse my tender nose and burnt lips.

Full Of Crap

Today we're going to talk about a rather unpleasant topic.
Constipation. (Or being full of crap, literally.)

City dwellers like you and I are faced with high stress, fast paced lifestyles. The direct consequences of this are irregular eating habits, unsound sleeping patterns, and aplenty illnesses and pains. Especially for women, the problem of constipation is one that plagues many. I have had this problems for many years (decades, even!) and so I'm totally qualified to share with you the remedies that work. I've tried medicine, exercise, alternative chinese medicine, etc. They are of little use. There are only two things that has ever work for me. Ever.

1) Drink water first thing in the morning
As one of the reason for constipation is the lack of water intake in the body, this results in the body absorbing the water from the digested food in the colon. Hence we must replenish the water loss. Drink (at least) a glass of water when you wake up. Let it be the first thing you do once you open your eyes -- before you brush your teeth, before you check your blackberry, before you figure out how you get home the night before.

Drink a glass of room temperature water. Forget warm water, or water with lemon. Or apple cider vinegar. Just plain water of any source (yes, even tap water if they are potable.) I place a bottle of water next to my bed and reach for it even before I hit the first Snooze button. Then when I finally hit the 63rd Snooze and ready to get out of bed, my body is well-rehydrated after the night's sleep. Your body absorbed this water quickly as it has been devoid of water during the your sleep. This water is imperative in preparing your bowel for the day's activity ahead.

2) Have oatmeal for breakfast
If you are like me who love having hot breakfast, then oatmeal is the best thing you can have! Oatmeal is full of fibre which is the nemesis of constipation. Insoluble fibre (like wheat and oat) adds bulk to the stools by softening them so they move easily through the digestive tract. Cook your oatmeal with lots of water so to make it into a watery porridge. Add two tablespoonful of condensed milk and you'll have a perfect healthy breakfast recipe! It's totally yummy! There are days when I wake up craving for the smooth warm cereal first thing in the morning!

Some days when I am lazy to cook, I'll have oatmeal for all three meals! I have a superb savoury oatmeal recipe that'll nurse my hungry stomach in matter of minutes! That's the time one takes to cook the wax-coated, deep-fried, MSG-laden instant noodles! I ♥ oatmeal!

Water and oatmeal have to work hand-in-hand to resolve the problem of constipation. Fibre retains the water we take in. So without fibre, the water we drink gets absorbed directly into the bloodstream or removed from the body as urine. So we need to increase the fibre we eat as we increase the water we drink.

I've never believed these methods when others encouraged me to try -- I'm a pretty skeptical person, you see. But out of desperation, I did. And it's changed my life forever. Two simple things you need to do to make those toilet trip more pleasant.

Remember:
Drink water first thing in the morning + Oatmeal breakfast
No more expensive colposcopy or Ducolax or sweat-breaking toilet trips.

Yoga

I went for my very first Yoga class yesterday evening. It was easier than I had expected. Love the Tree pose, Lotus pose, and all the exotic names the instructor used. Hell, I even like just saying "I just came from Yoga". (In fact I did. Bump into a friend on my way home and told him that. Like the sound of it.)

My limbs are aching so much today. The Yoga poses really stretch your muscles. I had worked muscles I never knew existed! The leg lifts were really difficult for me and my whole body was quivering with exhaustion just holding that pose for 20seconds. But when I feel the achy feeling in my abdomen, my back muscles, my upper arms and my calves and thighs, I knew I had a good workout yesterday.

For someone who hasn't exercised for the last two years, signing up for Yoga class is a major milestone for me. Why did I decide to break my exercise fast? Age. And health. As we get older, exercise is more important than you imagine. Oh well, you won't understand that until you realise you recover slower from an illness than five years ago, your paper cut takes days instead of hours to heal, your giggly tummy takes weeks to disappear even though they used to flatten after two days of dieting.

Also, I've been having a persistent upper backache for the last 10 years. Yes, a decade. It's time to do something about it. I'm confident the stretching poses in Yoga will help.

And every lifestyle queen needs tone arms and flat stomach to pull off those Cavallis and McQueens. Not to mention the healthy glowing skin after you work up a sweat. What better way to achieve them than some chi chi Yoga class?

I'm going to Yoga tomorrow. (I really like the sound of it.)