Thursday

I'm still at my grandmother's house, which is super nice. It's so relaxing, which is great.

Things I've done today...

Sleep, a lot. I don't know why I've been so tired (maybe because I haven't been sleeping well at school), but I took two realllly long naps today. I hope I'm going to sleep well tonight :S. Hopefully I can get back on a more reasonable sleeping schedule. I'm also thinking that I might try to get on more of an early to sleep early to wake up kind of schedule when I get back to school. What is everyone else's preferred sleep schedule?

Went to the dermatologist. As I said yesterday, I'm still not delighted with how my skin's looking with all the hyperpigmentation but the dermatologist seemed confident that they'll fade in a few months. She wants me to keep doing what I've been doing (duac in the morning, atralin once a week at night) and come back in six months. Hopefully, things will start to clear up soon.

Thesis...I at least started on my goal for this week. I wrote about 2.5 pages of the introduction and I'm going to spend time tomorrow thinking about what else to put in the introduction. At least I'm getting going on it!

I didn't get a chance to go to the gym today, or really do any exercise, but my eating was generally pretty good. I had salmon with onions and tomatoes for dinner which was super yummy! I also had sweet potato, which was so good. I haven't had it in a while and I really missed it :(

PS I'm really bummed - I bought my camera to Connecticut with me, but I didn't bring the cord so I can't upload all the photos I've taken. I promise lots of photos on Saturday or Sunday when I get back to school though!

January Recap

January was an interesting month, with lots of highs and lows.

The Highs....

Exams and Grades

This was basically a month of exams, but at least I'm done now. I'm still waiting on one more grade (Econ), but my others were good, and I was really pleased with them. There's been a bit of stress because my boyfriends grades weren't as good as he was hoping they'd be (as always). He's a bit of a perfectionist and he's also not great at taking exams. Plus his writing style isn't...exactly the clearest. Anyway, it's been a bit stressful trying to make him feel better about that.

Thesis

I'm not sure if this should be a high or low. It's a low in that I'm miles way from finishing (so so far). But...it's a high in that I've at least started and I've come up with a plan to set weekly goals for myself.

And the Lows...

Food

My eating's been...so far from great this month. I seriously seriously need to work on eating less sugar. In a really weird way I'm looking forward to lent when I'm giving up dessert because then I'll have a big incentive not to eat sugar.

On the plus side the boyfriend and I got to cook a lot during the last week, and we made a bunch of really yummy dinners including shrimp, tomato sauce and pasta, chili con carne and rice and pork with apple sauce and pasta. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures because my camera was out of battery :(.

Exercise

I haven't gotten in anywhere near as much exercise as I'd like over the last month. I did get in some great weights workouts at the end of the month because I went with my boyfriend.

Goals For Next Month

Thesis

Set weekly goals

Feb 1-5: Write the background section and read 30 pages

Feb 6-12: Talk to my advisor, come up with an overview plan, [other things...]

Get a new sub-project (a few new compounds in the series I've already been working on)

Spend 2 days/week working in lab (probably Tuesday and Thursday)

Food

Lent is starting during February, so I'll be giving up desserts when that starts.

Two of my closest female friends have a pact to only eat dessert once a week starting at the beginning of next semester, so I'm going to start off doing that with them.

Trail mix - I'm going to make up some "healthy" (as healthy as it can be) trail mix. I'm going to put in cereal, pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds, golden berries, chocolate covered goji berries, yoghurt covered cranberries and some nuts. Does anyone have any other suggestions for what to put in?

Exercise

I'd like to get a regular exercise routine organized. I'm going to try to get one set up with my friends, because I'm far more likely to go when I'm going with others. I'd like to get a mix of cardio (~twice a week) and weights (~twice a week) and maybe pilates once a week.

Sleep

I'd like to try to sort out what's happened to my sleep schedule. I want to try to make whatever changes I need to make so that I'm not tired during the day and feeling like I could nod off at any moment.

Skin

My skin is looking at bit better, but still not anywhere near as good as I want it to be. The main problem now is the darkened pigmentation on my chin, which kinda looks like scars. I'm going to the dermatologist tomorrow, so one of my goals for this month is to follow whatever advice she gives me to reduce the pigmentation.

Resolutions

I've looked back at my resolutions for this month and I've haven't done too much on them. I'd like to continue working on my posture (with my back support - 30 minutes/day, working up to an hour or so/day), improving my clothes choices (I'm going to try to take photographs of my outfits twice a week) and epilating (more than I've been doing).

Skin

My skin has got so much better since I started my new skincare regime, in a really short period of time, which is obviously great. My forehead used to be covered with red marks and bumps and they’ve almost fully disappeared. In the new regime, I’m only washing my face once a day in the evening with my normal face wash. I’m also making a big effort not to prod and poke at my skin, which I think probably made the biggest difference. This is a bit tmi, but I also got a blackhead remover, which has helped with my nose. I also got some witch hazel to put on after to keep my pores small, and I think that’s also helped. Witch hazel is alcohol based, so is a little drying, so I’m probably just going to use it 2 or three times a week.

In other news…Catie has lost 5lbs, which is great! She still has about 45 to go, but that’s still a great start. We’re going to measure tonight to see if she’s lost any inches!

I made some peanut butter balls over the weekend, I'll be posting pictures and what I used to make them on here soon (ie tonight)!

Also, I’ve been asking around to see if people suck their tummys in when they’re standing and walking, and apparently a lot of people do. I know it’s strange, but now that I actually have muscle there (from all my gym trips recently!) I can actually do that, and I’m going to make a big effort with that. It’s good for both making me look like I have a flatter tummy and also to support my weak back, which is definitely a good thing.

Do you guys suck your tummy in when you stand or walk? Why yes or no?

My skin...

has got a lot worse since I started wearing sunscreen everyday. I guess that's not really that surprising, but it's still a pain. I have have red spots, and spots in general, on my forehead, as well as white bumps on my cheeks :S.

I've kinda decided that there are two main approaches to skin care - the first is that you should pretty much dry it out (ie the people who think you should put things on spots that basically dry them out). The second is that you should do things like put oil on skin, in lieu of any other kind of face wash.

I've been talking to my friends here about their skin care routines, and I have a plan! I have almost two months before school (uni) re-starts and I've decided that in that time I'm going to try two different skin care regimes (unless the first one works really well). So...for the next month or so I'm going to try only washing my face once a day (in the evening). It sounds totally scary to me, but I really do need to find a better regime. My best friend rarely washes her face because she has very dry skin. I have fairly dry skin, but now I'm putting greasy sunscreen on my face, so I'm not quite sure where I am in terms of dry/oily skin. (And I can't really change the sunscreen I'm using. It was recommended by my dermatologist for people with very sun-sensitive skin.)

EDIT: I'm also going to make a big effort not to touch my face with my hands, because I have a really bad habit of doing that.

How does everyone else take care of their skin? Any recommendations for my second skin care month?