Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Finishing My Degree This Fall and Intermittent Fasting Update
Was gonna do it last year but then COVID happened...so I'm doing it this year. Just officially registered my classes on Tuesday! So I'll graduate next spring and I can't tell you how excited I am. One of my classes is criminology. I'm salivating for that class...this is my passion...law.
When I finish my associates, will be moving on towards my bachelors and I have a year to decide if I wanna make that more criminal justice or legal studies, because my long-term goal is to go into law. But I'm also interested in profiling...not sure. Law school or masters after that...plenty of time to decide.
I'm a young minded 42 - never too late. I hope this inspires someone out there that it's never too late to continue or further your education if that's a dream of yours. Also, I got my GED at 16, so I didn't get that graduation ceremony experience. Next year I'll get that experience and my kids will watch me. We're all looking forward to it, so exciting...
My dream is to help people who get rammed by the broke system (<----good vid on transformation in the system) - the wrongfully accused, getting the shaft during trial, defamation, slander, fighting against slumlords, family law, advocacy, fighting to get laws changed or passed. When I say "system," I mean everything, not just the above scenario. There's so much I want to do... But my other good news is my intermittent fasting update.
Wow, I'm shook! When you do it right it works SO FAST! The weight is literally falling off of me now that I've sacrificed my morning coffee. It really is mind over matter and it's so empowering to know that I can start my day without my coffee, which is shocking for me considering I used to be like this when it came to coffee... My self-esteem is worth it...so I have my first cup of coffee at two, which is when I break my fast.
I'm only doing this Monday-Friday, not on the weekends. I eat normal between two-eightish but still try to eat healthy and be mindful of what I'm eating. Not gonna lie, I'll eat a couple potato chips, or a cookie or two, or small portion of ice cream. I'm not dieting. This is different...
But I also eat fruit, veggies, and just like I normally would. I eat healthy and I eat some junk. I don't over indulge on junk. I believe in balance and that wasn't my problem. Nothing else worked for me in my over 40 weight loss journey - nothing, not even working out an hour a day.
And like I said, this wasn't a problem till I was in my mid to late 30s and had also developed gut issues. They say the gut health is the key to overall health...my gut is healing and this is helping while it heals. I think for me it was a combination, like I said before, of metabolism changes, sedentary work, and my gut issues.
But it's WORKING! Intermittent fasting works and I wish I didn't waste the first four weeks of my journey with my morning coffee. I would have reached my goal sooner. I'll weigh in at eight week mark which I believe is coming up in two weeks, then I'll share pounds lost. We'll just have to keep in mind that I messed myself up with the first four weeks.
Till next time...
With Love,
Carmen
Friday, April 30, 2021
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Aging with Grace and Age Shaming AKA Ageism
I've been wanting to write about aging for a while now but wasn't ready to wrap my mind around everything I wanted to say, cause I have a lot to say on this one.
The inspiration for my rapid thought production on this one is that I recently came across a video where a man was rating beautiful aging women (I think they're beautiful - he called them "spoiled milk") in Hollywood on his top list of women that age like "spoiled milk."😲
In fact, he says that "men age like fine wine and women age like spoiled milk," 😲 and this was coming from a man that, dude, seriously needs to take a long look in the mirror. Have you looked lately?🧐😂I never knew this was a "thing" till I got closer to 40. It seems like it just popped up, but, no, I think it's always been a thing in Hollywood anyway.
In the real world, in my world, the way I was raised is you're born and then you begin to age. Everyone ages.😃It's not something that only happens to a select few... However, the way we age depends on: genetics, health, maybe even wealth but really doesn't have to be the case, skincare, and fitness.
I also believe stress reduction and spirituality can make you live longer too, along with the ability to have a good laugh daily. Laughing keeps us young. Let's dive into this one a bit further... The women he examined, who shall remain nameless because I'm not down with age shaming, are to me all beautiful women.
Some of them are women that have had work done in the past and I personally have noticed that women that have had things like face lifts, botox, etc. age the worse. Still beautiful but I do feel that if you just take care of your skin, exercise, take care of your health, you age better.
There's so many beautiful women in Hollywood over the age of 40 that just take care of themselves without "procedures" and they're ageing "like fine wine." I think this can go both ways. It's not a male female thing. I've seen men that age like s**t and vice versa. It's all in how we take care of ourselves.
If you don't take care of yourself and/or have bad genetics you won't age so well. Is it bad to age? Come on. Aging is a part of life! We all age. As much as we'd like to look like we're in our 20s till we're 90, 😂, that's just not happening. We can prolong it as long as we're able to and that's about it.
What we can do is "age gracefully," so as we age, we age in the best way possible - naturally and beautifully. Embracing the changes that take place in our body and taking care of ourselves the best we can, giving it our all. As a kid I was the little girl that loved old people. I've always had a soft spot for the elderly or disabled. I've never viewed my elders as anything but my elders.
I never looked at anyone over 40 and thought, ew, they're aging like s**t. I mean, what is wrong with people? Aging is part of life! The reaper is coming for us all...that's why we age. From dust to dust...we begin to age from the moment we're born. For me, my aging process has been an interesting one and here's what I've noticed with myself... I've been one of the lucky ones.
When I was in my 20s people would tell me I still looked like I was in my teens. Literally in my late 20s, early 30s, people said I still looked like, to quote, "you look like you're 16 yourself." Cause I had teenagers - teen mom story to come... In my 20s I was obsessed with skincare and since I was 19 I've always honestly just washed with oatmeal soap which is really good for the skin.
Later I added in African black soap, also good for skin, along with other things that I love. I went to a spa and had two light peels, but that's it. The rest was just me taking care of my skin. Oh, and, duh, how can I forget things like dead sea mud clay masks, the Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay, and microdermabrasion products. Homemade masks are my absolute favorite though.
So fast forward...I was aging great till I was 38. I used to smoke but only had 1-2 a day. That's how I ended my sorry day was to sit on my porch at night and have one or two cigarettes before bed, eww. Been smoke free for over a year now. But smoking adds to the aging process, I digress...
Anyhow, I still got "carded" buying cigarettes till I was 38. Then I started having health problems, a s**t ton of stress between age 35 and 38 began to add up as well - stress ages, and wasn't taking care of my skin. I was in full on mom mode and honestly, didn't give a f**k.
I just wanted to work, pay my bills, and have time for my kids if there was any time leftover after working. Me, went out the window. Carmen who? Once my health problems began, I started taking better care of myself again and now I'm throwing the damage that was done (aging began to accelerate) backwards and this has always been easy for me, although this time was the hardest I must add.
Skincare, facial massage, the right skincare products, serums, astringent, masks, and I'm dabbling with derma rolling. I think I'd like to maybe leave that one to the professionals though. That one makes me nervous. I'm afraid I'll do it wrong. And it's also on my list to treat myself this year to some facials, etc.
Working on getting fit again because when I'm at my best weight and my skin is in check, I look my best. I've embraced my aging hair. Hair ages too. It's more thirsty now than ever and the texture has changed. I have my father's Puerto Rican hair, so this is a work in progress and I'm proud of how far my hair has come. Embracing my curls more and straightening less.
Embracing the little white hairs I'm getting cause once this starts happening you have to make the decision - dye or leave natural. I've personally never been one to dye my hair, just on occasion. I had a pretty natural brown with auburn highlights. So I tried dying my hair, not because I felt I had to, but because I wanted to and what I found for me is that dying my hair made me look older.
Maybe if I had it professionally done I'd feel different, I don't know. What I do know is I think gray hair is sexy. I also thought this in my 20s. I think a young face with some salt and pepper hair or graying hair is hot. I've got that Elvira thing going on, 😂. I don't mind it and I embrace it. I like my aging self.
So with all of that said...I wanted to share MY top 11 list of beautiful aging women in no particular order:
That's all for now...I think I've said enough. I mean, if you're gonna come at people for aging and shame women you better be looking like a young Brad Pitt. Look in the mirror before judging others...lacks class to age shame anyone. Just sayin...And I apologize for the censored profanities (I censored myself) but this s**t had me tight...😂✌️
With Love,
Carmen
Sunday, April 25, 2021
Saturday, April 24, 2021
Saturday mornings and Intermittent Fasting with Coffee Update
French Toast and Coffee...mmm
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| Our Saturday morning breakfast today. |
So first and foremost, I've decided to post when I have something to say, not just once a week. Today's inspiration is coffee and Saturday morning breakfast...mmm.
So coffee, I have an interesting history with coffee and it goes a little something like this - cause you know I have a story for everything, yes, even coffee...
When I was a kid and I'd visit my father on the weekends, my little brother and I were allowed to have small cups of coffee with our breakfast. My dad's coffee was bomb. Never had coffee like my dad's.
He made it from scratch on the stovetop, Puerto Rican coffee. Still till this day haven't had a cup of coffee like my dad's. One of my goal's for 2021 is to teach myself how to make it from scratch like my dad and see if I can finally find that coffee from my childhood.
So we had coffee as kids but only at our dad's and they were small cups. Not sure if this is a culture thing, but it made me feel like a big girl, lol.🙃 And it was so good. My father left the country when I was 11 going on 12, like I said before, so after that the next time I tasted coffee was when I was 15 and working my first housekeeping job at a hotel.
I would drink it on my breaks. I can remember that it would give me a headache and stomachache so I wasn't really feeling it back then. Didn't really care for it. Then I had kids young, which is a story I'll share another time, my teen mom story. I had kids young and eventually I became drawn to coffee to help wake me up during my mornings.
I "think" I started drinking it regularly around age 18? Not the age I became a mother, but I think that's when I started to drink it. By age 22, I was a coffee fein, drinking, not gonna lie, up to two pots a day. And it didn't go to my waist cause I also had an eating disorder in my early twenties, something I'll also share another time...
I cut back on coffee in my mid to late thirties when my newfound weight problem began, cause I realized my body and metabolism were changing and later of course found out I had stomach issues as well. Bringing me to the present and my inspiration for this post - intermittent fasting with coffee. I've had to choose between my love of coffee and healing my stomach and of course I choose health.
My next scope (endoscopy) is in June and I know if I continue to drink it in the mornings or even three or four cups a day, then I'm gonna be told it's still bad or worse again. I know it's not helping matters. Also, it's hindering my fasting. Even with a little bit of cream, I know I'll see better results with my weight loss if I sacrifice my, dun, dun, dun, beloved coffee.
My health and loving myself are more important to me than my coffee. So I tested this out yesterday...my stomach's been bothering me lately and I said F this, I'm not having coffee in the morning. The problem was that I'm not eating till two during the week (I fast Monday-Friday) but still having my morning coffee, which was wreaking havoc on my stomach.
But I also "felt" like I literally couldn't function or wake up without my coffee. But, you see, this is all in the mind. It's mind over matter. I knew that was bull**t, so yesterday I woke up and did not have coffee till about 1:30-2:00. Instead, I started my day with water, chamomile tea (which is gentle on the stomach) and I moved my a**. I just woke up and started moving and did all of my morning things and tasks that I do normally, and before you knew it I felt "awake."
When I realized I was fine without it, it was actually sort of empowering, lol.🥳😎 But I was still excited nevertheless at 2:00 p.m. when I had my coffee with a little cream and sugar. Yes, that was so yummy. By the end of the day though, I felt my pants get looser and my stomach didn't hurt, so I knew I made the right choice.
As for my "Saturday mornings," the inspiration for that part of my post is that for the past over ten years now I've always made Saturday mornings our pancake day and Sunday mornings are our egg day. But last week I switched it up cause pancakes every Saturday got boring.
My kids let me know this...and honestly I was sort of sick of it too. So now we'll have one Saturday pancakes, the next waffles, the next French toast. Today was our French toast day, so yummy. Definitely good to switch things up in life, otherwise things get repetitive and boring...
Till next time...
With Love,
Carmen
Friday, April 23, 2021
Name Change Tonight...
Changing my website name tonight and Jesus Christmas, Jiminy Cricket, Roger Rabbit, this is the last one. I've already bought my new domain name and will make the switch tonight, then I'll have to go through and update all of my inbound links.
I liked this name but there's too many other entity's with similar names, not identical, but similar and I don't want the stress and I don't like that.
Sucks cause my name really is "Carmen" not a pen name, or an acting name, or screenname - it's my name I was born with and named after my grandmother who died of leukemia before I was thought of.
And the funny thing with my name is, when I was a kid I hated my name cause everyone else in my school was a Jessica, or a Sara, or a Nicole. I was the only Carmen and I hated that. I couldn't appreciate how beautiful my name really was. I didn't even understand that I was half Puerto Rican till I was 12 and had a BFF that was obsessed with Puerto Ricans.
I mean, like I said before, my father didn't teach me Spanish even though he spoke it fluently because it was so hard for him to learn English when he came here. He didn't want to confuse my brother and I. With that said, this also wasn't strange for me to not know the language.
When I'd visit his home and he got married to a Mexican woman later, they always spoke Spanish around me when I'd visit for the weekend. And this wasn't strange for me. It was just "my dad" if that makes sense. So back to the name, later I learned how special my name was, that I was named after my grandmother and I grew to love how original my name was.
I also met one more Carmen, just one in real life, and she was like a motherly figure to me. So anyhow, do, do, do, do, do, I'm changing my domain name tonight. That's how my Friday's going down, lol. I usually work anyway on Fridays and Saturdays, and...Sundays so why not work on my blog. I work seven days a week basically, just less hours on some days than others.
I should make my dot com nolifecarmen.com (I haven't even dated in over five years and have no desire to - it's a choice and a good one for me - celibate, baby), but, nah, I like the name I picked better and this new name will be permanent. No more changing my name - this is it, finito. Once it changes, you'll get redirected to the new name. But this is it. I will not change it again. I promise.
P.S. Edited to add that my new name is perfectlyimperfectcarmen.com but I can't update till tomorrow now. Server issues, ugh. ✌️
P.S.S. Was not able to redirect from old domain because the hosting was Google and domain name owned by elsewhere, so...it is what it is...
With Love,
Carmen
Carmen's Funny Cat Pics: Well hello there...meet Tazzy
This is my cat Tazzy...😂. There's actually a story behind this pic... I bought my cats this cute new mini tower with a hammock and scratching posts and Tazzy likes to chew his toys off of anything dangling. That's what he was doing here... Looked so funny that I just had to turn it into a meme 😂.
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Carmen's Funny Ecards: You know you're getting old ecard
This is a phenomenon that I've now experienced myself. Still don't always agree with my mother on things, like that whole Mariah Carey thing for example, of many examples I could give, but there's times where I've been like, yeah, you're right and her jaw hits the floor and she feels special for a while. But now, I, too, know how it feels when your kids don't need your advice cause they know everything. Ah, the circle of life...🙃😂
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The Dreaded Coffee Crisis What to do if you're out of sugar? photo credit: Rayani Melo via photopin cc First of all, if you... -
To be continued...