Maintaining Your Beauty

Beauty. When we think of beauty, especially women, our mind might go straight to makeup, fashion, salon, or perhaps aesthetic plastic surgery (I'm totally against the last one!). All these things might help, but the best way to maintain our beauty (yes, maintain.. because every woman is beautiful) is to take care of our health, not only physical but also mental health.

Doing a regular exercise at least three times a week is recommended. It doesn't have to be a hard and exhausting exercise. A simple one that takes only 15-30 minutes but done regularly makes more impact to our body (and mind). If you usually go to work by a motorcycle, a car, or a public transportation, perhaps it's the time to shift to a bicycle! ;) Or if you usually take a lift to go up or down at your office or a shopping center, now is the time to start taking the stairs. In Indonesia, people often use motorcycles to go anywhere, even just to go to a shop that's not even 500 meters away! Let's use our feet, walking is not only healthy but could also be enjoyable (especially if you walk with your friends). I know the temperature is very hot there, but you can always use an umbrella (and sunglasses). :D Regular exercises will make you feel good, light, and fresh! Aren't these going to enhance your beauty? ;)

Besides exercise, our food intake also plays an important role. As I'm talking about beauty, skin beauty is obviously part of it. Weeks ago, I found a few articles discussing the types of foods that are good for your skin. The sources vary, but most of them I found from reading posts on social networking sites. I was trying to look for the sites again, but couldn't find them. So, here I'm just going to list all the foods (and beverages) that I remember. Here they are:

1. Berries, such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and all other berries. They are rich in antioxidants! Not only good for skin, berries are also good to protect your hair. Tip: berries + yogurt = perfect snack :9
2. Avocado. It contains vitamin A and E, and the oil in them is usually used in many beauty products. Did you know that avocado is categorised as a berry? As mentioned earlier, berries are good for skin, so there you go. :)
3. Almonds. They are stuffed with vitamin E, which helps defend against sun damage. Vitamin E is an antioxidant, which is well known as an excellent substance for skin.
4. Salmon. It's rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are able to erase spots and reduce fine lines (wrinkle fighters). Besides salmon, flaxseeds also contain omega-3.
5. Tomatoes. They contain lycopene, which helps eliminate skin-aging free radicals caused by ultraviolet rays. Oh, watermelon also contains lycopene. ;)
6. Sweet potatoes. The vitamin C they have smooths out wrinkles by stimulating the production of collagen.
7. Spinach. They contain folate and iron, which are not only good for skin but also able to reduce the possibility of cancer-cell growth. Actually, all green vegetables are good for your skin as they contain plenty of fiber, loads of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents.
8. Carrots. They are loaded with vitamin A, which is not only good for your eyesight, but also good for reducing blemish on your skin and reducing the development of skin-cancer cells.
9. Green tea. It's known to contain antioxidant with proven anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties.
10. Dark chocolates. (Yay! I love dark chocolates! :D) They have antioxidant that can reduce roughness in the skin and provide sun protection.

 If you want to know more about what other foods that are good for your skin are, you can always google. :D 

So, regular exercise and healthy foods should be our best friends. But on top of that, our beauty will shine brightly if we do these 2 things: let it go (forgive) and smile. :)

"I was smiling yesterday, I am smiling today and I will smile tomorrow simply because life is too short to cry for anything." - Santosh Kalwar -

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." - Thích Nhất Hạnh - 

* .. and the source of other people's joy :)

source of the picture: http://img2.timeinc.net/health/img/web/2013/01/slides/berries-for-heart-400x400.jpg.

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Do you fancy Irish breakfast?

Picture 1. Full Irish Breakfast

IRISH BREAKFAST. I've seen this phrase many times, either on a menu list or a small board in front of a restaurant or cafe in Ireland. I didn't know what it consists of, but wasn't curious to order one either. I thought, "Hmm.. It's Ireland, a country where the people LOVE drinking alcohol. I wasn't surprised if the breakfast also contains a taste of it." That's my presumption. :P

One day, I and my friend went to a cafe to have breakfast. We ordered some normal meal for breakfast (I think it was scrambled eggs, hash brown, and a cup of tea if I'm not mistaken). Out of curiosity, I asked the waitress who took our orders about what are in the Irish breakfast. She said a lot of things, which I can't remember all, but I remember saying, "Nice!" when she mentioned pudding (black pudding to be precise). Pudding for breakfast, didn't sound bad at all. I love pudding!

So, what does Irish breakfast have? It has sausages, bacon, one pack of black pudding, one pack of white pudding, eggs, tomatoes, hash brown, mushrooms, and beans (Picture 1). That's quite a big portion for breakfast, isn't it? Well, the size might not matter anymore once you know these two "things/specimens": black and white pudding. I thought pudding always correlates with sweet and spongy dessert with wonderful and mouthwatering taste. Ladies and gentlemen, I was wrong!! >_<

Black Pudding

Picture 2. Black Pudding

Black pudding (Picture 2) is a blend of oatmeal, pork fat, blood (usually from a pig), onions, and flavourings. OK, I don't eat pork, bacon, and their friends.. lol, but blood! I didn't expect that at all! It's official, one pudding has ruined my imagination of what a pudding is supposed to be. >_< What about white pudding?

White Pudding

Picture 3. White Pudding

White pudding (Picture 3) is similar to the black one, but without blood. Sounds better, right? Hold on. My colleague said it's worse. How come? Before I tell you what he said about white pudding, I'm going to let you know a proper recipe I got from the internet. In that recipe, white pudding is a blend of oatmeal, onion, beef suet, onions, spices, and seasoning. Sometimes, people also put pork, sheep's heart, liver, and lungs in it. My colleague said it wouldn't be surprising if you find a white pudding that contains any part/organ of a cow/pig/sheep, like nails, ears, everything! :-o How do you know? They're all blended together. Can you imagine how much saturated fat contained in the pudding?

I found these two puddings in particular very weird. I kinda feel lucky I've never tried one. Well, I guess every country has some unusual meal. To name a few, octopus in Hungary (tastes fine btw), pig's *a** in Portugal (shocking and disgusting!), bats in North Sulawesi (Indonesia), frog juice in Philippines, etc.

Anyway, readers, going back to my first question, after reading this article, do you (still) fancy Irish breakfast? :P

sources of the pictures: thedublinerbangkok.com, farm2table.co.uk, eurobrits.com. 

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