Geisha School Dropout

Sponsored: Natural Presents for EVERYONE - including Myself!

Thanks to Walgreens for underwriting this post. I was paid as a member of the Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all mine. Visit http://www.walgreens.com/beauty.

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I am a firm believer in natural and organic food and products, but as a mom I just can't bear to spend a ton of extra money trying to create an non-toxic household.  Luckily, the market for these kinds of products has grown to the point where you don't have to go to exclusive stores or pay a high premium anymore.  In fact, here are some examples of healthy, environmental, and reasonably-priced gifts you can find in your neighborhood drugstore.

For the Kids

I believe it is especially important to provide kids and babies with natural products as much as possible, but often the steeper price tags make us moms a little hesitant to buy organic or all-natural stuff on a day-to-day basis.  However, that's also the exact reason why they make great holiday gifts, though!

Here is an example of a bath and body set that is sulfate-free, isn't tested on animals, and has gentle vegan ingredients.   I've always thought grapefruit is such a great scent for kids; it's fresh- and clean-smelling, and matches their sunny dispositions.

 

 

 

 

For Men

This category is super-easy.  There is a brand called Every Man Jack that specializes in men's products, and their stuff is vegan and sulfate-free.  Best of all, they work really well and they smell great too (although they do have unscented versions of almost all their products for the sensitive guys out there).  Every Man Jack makes it easy to introduce the man in your life to the cleansing/toning/moisturizing/sunblock regimen he really should have been doing for years now without overwhelming him.  Grab a few skin, hair, and shaving products, arrange them in a shower caddy, and voila, you will have a cleaner, handsomer man!

 

 

For the Ladies, Including Moi

My friend got me some Out of Africa products for my birthday last month, and I am a total shea butter fanatic now.  It turns out that shea butter is absorbed into the skin much faster and keeps your skin moisturized for so much longer than normal lotions, and my skin looks so much healthier now, especially my hands.   I just figured that the little crackles and crosshatch patterns were a result of aging; turns out my skin was just dry!  No Parabens, Sulfates, Petrolatums or Phthalates; Cruelty-free and Eco-Friendly.  Try it and see if your skin will lap it up like mine does.  

 

 

While we're on the subject of hands, another recent discovery is non-toxic nail polish.  I had no idea it existed until I saw this Keeki Holiday Nail Set online.  I am aching to try it out!  Manicures and pedicures are two of my favorite ways to unwind and pamper myself, but I always feel uneasy smelling all the chemicals and wondering what they are doing to my nails.  My curiosity is piqued.

 

 

 

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Merry Christmas and happy shopping!  If you have encountered any other great finds, please let me know!

Emi After the Dentist

Emi was scheduled for her very first filling this morning, and both the dentist and I were a bit apprehensive as to how she'll handle it.  Turns out she was a model patient after a little bit of bubble gum-flavored "happy air."  Kids nowadays are so lucky!  Nitrous, a numbing gel, then the novacaine?  When I was their age, that needle went straight in right after your cleaning!  Harrumph!  Lucky bums.

Look at her loungin' in that dentist's chair!  I haven't seen her this relaxed in forever.

Afterwards, I asked her how it all went.  

"Uh...fine," she grumbled, the way she does when she's a embarrassed about something.  

"And how was the happy air? "

"It was a little...fantastic."

"We have to go back in two weeks, are you excited?"

"Will there be happy air again?"

"Yup."

"YES!"

A girl after my own heart, that one.

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NaBloPoMo is done!!!  And I did it!  Thank you so much for bearing with me last month.  Additional thank yous to the people who submitted questions for me to answer; it really helped me keep up the writing habit!  There are still a few more to go, so the fun ain't over yet, ha ha.  Also, if you have a question, please IM (module is to the right), email, or post a comment here or on Facebook, and I'll answer them this month!

Cardio Jam of the Week

Who can get me to speed up the pace, no matter how discouraged or tired I am?  It's Britney, bitch!

Not to say that I did anything remotely healthy this week other than the Turkey Trot.

Wagon, back on its.  On Monday.  Promise!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, I'm thankful for family!  Especially Tim, who watched the kids so I could go see the Cure Reflections concert last night with my sister and best friend from college! 

Isn't he so handsome?  And he's a doctor to boot!  Sorry ladies and gents, he's taken!

Tim also watched the kids so my sister and I could walk the Long Beach Turkey Trot!  Who is crazy enough to walk/runs three miles only six hours after getting home from an epic concert?  The Kangsters do.  And we do it with a smile!

My sister is demonstrating the proper way to choke one's chicken.  Apparently, her method involves two hands!

To my fellow Amurcans, I wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving!  For the rest of you, happy Thursday!

Cardio Jam of the Week

I have a confession to make: I haven't done much cardio at all this past week, oy!  I keep feeling the itch to, and I even change for it, but I just can't seem to head out the door. 

Therefore, this song goes out to Weight Loss:

Cardio Jam of the Week

Fast and uplifting is always welcome during one of my walks, but sometimes the miles melt away when the music empathizes with the suffering part of working out too.

When the strings take over, it's nothing short of glorious.

Cardio Jam of the Week

It rained yesterday, so I did my 5k walk on a treadmill.  It was actually pretty fun thanks to my "Workout" playlist and "Good Morning America" playing on the flatscreens.  In the middle of my walk, I was riding a glorious high, thanks to this song right here:

I felt invincible, and I started walking on that treadmill like it was a catwalk.  Must have been odd for the other gym patrons, though.

Finally Growing Up

Today is my birthday.  I am 33.

I just took this picture a few minutes ago.  I don't look too different from last year, but I feel like I have grown up a bit; I can see it in my eyes.

Nine weeks ago, I started a diet and exercise regimen.  It's under the guise of participating in the Long Beach Losers challenge, but mostly my brain just decided to do it, actually do it, for real this time.  I've lost 12 pounds so far.  

They have been by far the hardest, slowest pounds I've lost in my life because I'm not taking any shortcuts.  I walk a 5k four times a week and the other three days I work on strengthening my upper body.  I'm recording everything I put into my body to make sure I am staying on target nutritionally; I wear a heart rate monitor to make sure I'm not working out too easy or too hard.  I keep reminding myself that these changes have to be slow in order to be permanent.  But I am so impatient!

At this rate, I'll be at my high school graduation weight in April.  My BMI will still be considered unhealthy, but I think I'll be happy stopping there.  I will never be a petite person, but I'm totally fine with that.  My milkshake will still bring a couple boys to the fence, if not into the yard.  But more importantly, I'll be able to keep up with Emi in a footrace (Isaac is already way faster than me).

Here are some personal goals I have for the following year of life:

1. Camp outdoors with tents, sleeping bags, the whole nine yards.

2. Travel to a country or state I've never been to before.

3. Teach the kids to sing in harmony on a Simon & Garfunkel song.

4. Bike from my house to my parents' house via the San Gabriel River Bike Trail.

5. Run a 5k!

6. Build something with wood (maybe a new coop?).

7. Work harder to spread the love and help my fellow man.  I am admiring the Occupy movement from afar; maybe it's time to lessen the distance.

This year's birthday jam: "Thirty-Three" by Smashing Pumpkins, of course!  I've forgotten how stunning the video is.

Labor and Delivery

Every morning at sunrise, Rosie walks over to the patio door and croaks for her breakfast.  During the summertime, that means she wakes me up around 6.  However, on Monday morning, I woke myself up at 6:30.  Rosie was around, hanging out behind the coop, but she just didn't do her normal routine.  When the same thing happened on Tuesday morning, I knew something was wrong.  

Her eyes were still alert and she didn't look thin, but she was very quiet, acted hesitant to walk anywhere, and the small feathers under her cloaca were streaked with white.  After some research, I guessed she was egg-bound, which means there was a traffic jam inside her, starting with a deformed or too-large egg, which blocks other eggs and poop from leaving.  If I didn't do anything quick, she would die in a couple days.

I coaxed her toward me, and I could tell it hurt her to move.  I took her inside, soaked her bottom in a sinkful of warm water, rubbing her underside like a midwife, and placed her underneath Tim's desk with some towels, some feed, some Greek yogurt, and water.  I covered the entrance with a sheet and left her alone.  She acted so strange, standing stiff and still as a statue, not daring to sit, not even complaining from the pain.  I wrapped a hot towel in a plastic bag and placed it in with her, in case that would help with the pain, and left her alone for a few hours.  

When I checked in on her after lunch, there lay a cracked, empty shell.  It was thinner and more brittle than normal, but at least it was out.  Rosie was in better spirits, now croaking and clucking like normal.  On her own volition, she walked out to the backyard and climbed up to her normal nest box.  There she lay another egg, this one very thinly-shelled and cracked, but with a yolk.  After that, she seemed 90% back to normal, foraging for bugs in our tomato garden.

There was no egg yesterday, but hopefully we'll see one today.  Otherwise, I may have to do this all over again, which isn't that big a deal, but the worrying is the hardest part.  For now, Rosie seems just fine, passing the ultimate Rosie Personality Test: she croaked for her breakfast, and when I finally got it for her, she ran towards me like a puppy, her legs pumping ridiculously in circles like the Looney Tunes Road Runner.  It was such a blessing and relief to see that, I couldn't help but cry.

Image from How Not to Draw

Why There Needs to be a Different Standard of Depression for Koreans

When I feel like shit, it's hard to tell the cause: is it stress in my life, my mood disorder, or merely because I am Korean?

Talk to any Korean person of my parents' generation about depression, and most likely they will equate it with laziness ("When we don't want to get out of bed or work hard, we don't call it depressed"),  privilege ("They don't have to worry about anything else"), or  insanity ("Are you going to tear up your clothes and put flowers in your hair?").  They just don't view it as a real chronic illness.

But yet, it obviously exists, even for Korean people.  Domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, and suicide are major societal problems, and those often are side effects of mood disorders.

I'm starting to wonder if the problem lies in the usual criteria for diagnosis.  If you look at the normal list of symptoms for depression and you knew Korean people at all, it seems like we are ALL depressed!

According to the Mayo Clinic, depression symptoms include:

• Feelings of sadness or unhappiness
• Irritability or frustration, even over small matters
• Frequent thoughts of death, dying or suicide
• Crying spells for no apparent reason

In Korea, these are all considered normal.  We even have a word for it: han.  An excellent article in the LA Times on han can be found here.  We all carry around a sadness and trauma that is so ingrained it might as well be part of our genome.  Suffering and death are recurring themes in our art, our folklore, our history.  Hell, it's even the main philosophy of kimchi: preserve everything you can for the day -- and that day definitely will come -- when there is nothing.  It is the reason why when you piss off your mom, she says things like "Do you want me to die now?  Will that make you happy?"  Sigh.

• Reduced sex drive
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or blaming yourself when things aren't going right
• Changes in appetite — depression often causes decreased appetite and weight loss, but in some people it causes increased cravings for food and weight gain
• Agitation or restlessness — for example, pacing, hand-wringing or an inability to sit still
• Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches
• Loss of interest or pleasure in normal activities
• Insomnia or excessive sleeping

These things are also very common...but these I put the blame squarely on nurture, not nature.  I am still convinced that my parents had sex only two times in their lives: that is why my sister and I exist.  And Korean parents are the kings of the extreme guilt complex, unconstructive criticism, harsh-ass punishments, mysterious aches and pains, the neverending war against dust and hair on the floor, and equating food with love...which take care of the rest.  Again, a Korean would look at that list and think, "Yeah, so what?"

• Slowed thinking, speaking or body movements
• Indecisiveness, distractibility and decreased concentration
• Fatigue, tiredness and loss of energy — even small tasks may seem to require a lot of effort
• Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things

These might be real bellweathers for us, but then again if I told my Korean doctor that I felt these symptoms, he would probably give me some nasty Chinese herbal potion to flush out my liver and reprimand me for being fat (in all seriousness, my childhood doctor's nickname for me was "Cow" and would constantly nag me to take diet pills.  He was a friend of my dad's.).  Maybe some Korean-specific research needs to be done, so we can get an idea of what depression looks like for us, or maybe we are indeed all afflicted with it.