Loofah Pad

Today I would like to blog about this amazing little wonder, called Loofah pad. Everybody should have one at home!

Exfoliating is an important routine for everyone, to remove dead cells. But most people can’t take any exfoliating lotions you buy, because they are too aggressive for the skin and sometimes they are actually very expensive! Here is a simple way to exfoliate your skin. You can use a loofah pad daily.

What is it? A loofah pad is made from a 100% natural, biodegradable & renewable resource. It’s absolutely perfect for people who have a very sensitive skin, as it is a very gentle exfoliator!

A loofah pad invigorates your body by gently buffing away dead skin cells and increasing circulation.

How to use it? Place your hand in the hand strap, moisten the loofah in warm water, apply cleanser, soap or gel & gently massage skin in a circular motion. Use under the shower or in the bath tub.

Don’t forget to moisturize your skin after exfoliating, and don’t forget that if you have an oily skin that doesn’t like too much body lotion, you can always gently whip the rest of lotion away with a clean towel. 🙂

You can use the loofah pad on your whole body, face and even to exfoliate your feet. 🙂

Using my loofah pad on my legs

Healthy Quick Dinner

Today was one of those days when I was very busy at work and came back home late. Here’s a quick dinner I made. It doesn’t take much time and it’s very healthy!

CUCUMBER WITH AVOCADO & TUNA :

Here’s what you need for 1 person :

• 1 avocado
• 1 cucumber
• 1 can of tuna fish
• a bit of pepper (optional)

Peel the cucumbers and cut them in 4, removing a bit of the seeds with a spoon.

In a pan, boil some water and put the 4 pieces of cucumbers in it. Let it boil for 5-10 minutes, to soften them a bit, but not too much!

Remove them from the water and let them cool down in a plate.

In a bowl, mix the avocado with the tuna fish. You can add a bit of pepper. No salt, as the tuna fish is already very salty!

Put the avocado/tuna on the cucumbers. And it’s ready to eat. 🙂 Best with a fresh glass of white wine! 😉

Cucumber with avocado & tuna

You Make Me Blush!

Attention ladies with a pale skin! This post is for you!

My skin is quite pale in the winter time, which makes it extra difficult to find a blush that would still look natural on me. I can’t use a bronzer, because the difference between its color & the color of my skin is too obvious. I also have a pink Bobbi Brown blush that I love, but it’s too pigmented and if I wear it in Winter, then I’ll look like a clown, or like someone just pinched my cheeks so much that they turned pink!

To sum it up, it’s very difficult to have a “natural makeup” when you have a pale skin.

For Christmas, I got an amazing blush that really changed my life! It’s from Bobbi Brown and the color is “Nude Peach”. The blush isn’t too pigmented, so you can either chose to apply only a little bit of it on your cheeks or make it look more apparent. It’s up to you! And the freedom you have is wonderful, because then you can use it for all occasions! For a light makeup during the day, or a more emphasized one for the night.

The blush looks very natural on my cheeks & you can barely notice it. Finally there’s a great color I can wear!! It makes me very happy to be able to add a bit of color even when the days are cold & now I don’t look like a zombie anymore. 🙂

“Nude Peach” Bobbi Brown blush

Add Colors In Your Plate

February is here, which also means the coldest month of the year (at least for us here in the south of France). People like to put themselves in “hibernating” mode.. They move less, the go out less, but they eat more thinking that it’s necessary to fight the cold. It’s also the moment of the year where people like to eat “fattening” things, including melted cheese! Then we gain weight & wait for the Summer to shed those pounds with salads…

It’s totally unnecessary to eat bad when it’s cold. You’re just weakening your body and there’s no wonder you’ll end up falling sick! Your body needs vitamins and good nutrients all the time, no matter the weather!

I admit that I used to eat really bad in the winter time, too, before. But since I’ve made positive changes in my diet, I no longer do that & feel the best I’ve ever felt! This month, I’m actually celebrating my 1st anniversary of not going to the doctor! One whole year of not being sick. If you were wondering if what you eat & drink has an impact on your health, I’m the living proof that yes it does!

This month, since the sun is pale and it’s often cloudy & rainy, I add colors in my plate when I eat. There’s nothing better to lift up my mood! So here’s a yummy recipe that I like to eat for dinner during the week. It’s quick and simple, doesn’t require any cooking and it’s full of health benefits! Not to mention that the colors are so beautiful, too. 🙂

SHRIMP & AVOCADO SALAD 

Here’s what you need for 1 person :

• A handful of shrimps (shelled, without the head)
• 1 avocado
• 1 tomato
• 1 lime
• red onion
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

In a small bowl, add 1 table spoon of olive oil, a bit of salt & pepper, and a bit of red onion cut in small pieces (I usually use 1/4 of a red onion each time). Press the lime and add the juice in it. Let everything marinate for at least 5 minutes. Cutting the rest of the vegetables takes a while, so do the sauce before starting cutting the veggies. This way it has plenty of time to marinate. 🙂

In a bigger bowl, add the avocado cut in dices, the tomato cut in dices and the shrimps cut in small pieces, too.

Pour the sauce and mix everything together.

And it’s ready!! Best to eat it with a small glass of cold white wine. 🙂

Colorful Shrimp Salad

I’m Gluten Free & Happy :)

I’m back after a 2 months hiatus! I’ve revamped my blog a little and have a clearer vision of what I want to post about. So stay tuned and keep coming back. 🙂

Today I want to share how difficult the Christmas holidays have been for me & my health. Last year I made huge changes in my life to be healthier, and this included being gluten free, almost dairy free and cutting on sugar a lot. Although it was a bit difficult at the beginning, I never regretted it, because I felt SO much better!! Just to sum up what my life was before :

– I’d wake up in the morning having stomach pains, feeling bloated & wondering why!
– I’d have stomach pain all day long, would feel bloated all day long and could not digest anything at all.
– I’d go to bed with a stomach ache and would feel bloated.

This was my daily routine. I was sick all the time, I’d go to the doctor often and would stuff my body with tons of medicines. I felt awfully tired & had no energy at all.

Then in early 2013, after I got sick again, I made some research online and read a lot about gluten intolerance. I decided to give it a try & noticed amazing changes on the very first day! My stomach felt “light”, the pain was gone and other symptoms that I had no idea were related to it disappeared, too (i.e. migraines, skin irritation… ). For some people it may mean nothing, but to me it was a huge change to finally spend one day without any pain!

I started to enjoy life again. I gained more energy. I fell in love with food again & started to enjoy cooking!

Unfortunately, many people have a bad reaction when I tell them about my diet changes. Being gluten free appears so difficult & horrible for them. Yes it was a bit difficult for me, too, at the beginning. I had to change completely how I thought about food before, reorganize my kitchen, learn new recipe… It wasn’t easy! But it definitely was worth it!

So then came the Christmas holidays. Although I’m happy to be gluten free, almost dairy free and a lot healthier, I didn’t want to impose anything to my family & friends during the holidays. So I just went with the flow, so to speak, cooking & eating things that I had not touched in months. Of course it was awful… I gained a lot of weight, got bloated again and had this horrible stomach pain all the time. I felt sad that after spending so many months doing efforts & feeling well, I’d actually ruin everything in only 2 weeks!

When 2014 finally came and I went back to my healthy routine, I started to feel better and promised myself to stop feeling guilty about this. Being gluten free is not a shame, it’s not a burden, it’s awesome because I feel so much better! Knowing where my issues came from and be able to heal them is not a punishment : it’s a blessing!!

On January 23rd, I celebrated my birthday. Last Saturday, I had a dinner with friends & family. This time, I had promised myself to have a gluten free dinner, but NOT tell anybody. I didn’t want them to apprehend the food, but wanted to surprise them with that! To be fully honest, the meals were not the healthiest ones out there, but they were all gluten free at least. I bought gluten free appetizers & made a chestnut mousse with some gluten free speculoos biscuits for dessert. Everybody ate everything & everybody seemed to LOVE everything. It’s only at the end that I told them that everything was gluten free! I wanted to show them that being gluten free can be yummy, too. 😉

This was a small victory for me. I’m proud of taking care of my health and want to show that people can enjoy food & life while being healthy at the same time! 😉

For those who are wondering if they have any gluten intolerance symptom, check this short list out on this website :

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7482/10-signs-youre-gluten-intolerant.html

I will soon be posting recipes that are gluten free, too. So stay tuned! 🙂 And a happy new year! 😀

My Zen Spot. I got the bonsai tree for my birthday. 🙂