The ugly duckling

Good evening!

6-years ago

Today

I'm continuing to write about the things I've changed in my life to become happier and more balanced person. Today's post goes a little bit further into my past and to the days of beginning to transform my life into better one. The post is about nutrition and taking healthier habits. (Also along with a little bit about my personal history. If you like totally happy & joyful stories this one ain't for you since I don't have particularly happy past :)

When the left photo was taken 6-years ago I was miserable in many ways. I had gone through quite a lot some difficult shit and mentally I was totally lost. I was depressed and didn't see anything much worth living to exist in this world. I had a tendency of comforting myself with food since I've always enjoyed tasty food a lot and been good at cooking something delicious. And back then eating something that tasted good was nearly the only thing that made life worth living for. So I ate. I ate a lot and plenty of truly unhealthy stuff.

At that time I had very very little knowledge of nutrition and how should you fuel the body the "right way" nor was I even interested in that. I didn't care much at all about anything. Until one day I just got enough of being a doormat to other people and talking down myself all the time. Got enough of being called unworthy, fat, ugly, useless etc. and it wasn't just me telling myself those things. That's rather what I heard most of my life as a kid and teen from others and that eventually became what I thought about myself and thus I let people continuously treat me as I was worthless which got me more and more miserable and depressed.
I was heavily bullied during my school years and yet the worst bully I've ever had in my life was someone I had to live with under the same roof nearly to my young adulthood years. Then he died but his words echoed in my head quite a long time even after his demise and those words defined me to be unworthy, useless fat and ugly.

Eventually I just got enough of the bad legacy he and all the bullies left me to carry. I decided I want to make my life better and that I deserve that. It started with learning to value myself, quitting all the toxic relationships and beginning to take care of my body for the first time in my life. I quit the emotional eating. I also got my asthma diagnosed and medication to it so I was able to start going to gym. Along starting gym and having an aim of making my physical condition better I started to get interested in nutrition and what does human body actually need for metabolism to work properly and how to give your body all that it needs. How to physically feel energetic and take good care of yourself. At that time I also tried the first time the Forever Living products and started using the amazing dietary supplements the company offers in addition to top notch cosmetics. (I still use the products and soon I'll have my own business with those!)

I got interested in nutritional value of the food I eat and cook. How to make something delicious - and good for you. Instead of cooking with the "traditional" habits taught to restaurant chefs. (Basically what's done in the most of the restaurants is using plenty of fat, salt and sugar to make the food tasty. Restaurant dishes simply are mostly incredibly unhealthy.)
That's one of the biggest reasons I didn't want to continue my career as a chef. I don't want anymore to cook dishes that merely indulge the taste buds and sicken the body in the long run but to cook dishes that indulge the taste buds + promote health and wellbeing of the body. I left and started seeking a new career path matching better with my interests. Finally I have found one!

 I'll be writing more about what eating the right kinda stuff does to your body and metabolism...And I'll also post some easy recipes of dishes that are good for you and to your taste buds! PS. I'm definitely not someone obsessing over clean eating and going to gym! I still do love pizza, beer, wine and junk food overall and having all that occasionally definitely doesn't harm anyone in my opinion (:

What I want to say in the end of this post is that you are not defined by your past if you don't allow it to be so. You can break free and get up from there no matter what's your starting point.
It's always a long journey but the journey of pursuing your dreams and becoming the happiest version of you that you can be is worth the ride. This post was quite a long one. Thank you for reading if you read my text until this last sentence!

~Hopefully you'll have a fantastic weekend!~

♥-Tiina-♥

xx

Perfectly imperfect

Hi!

 

I wrote in my last post that I want to speak a bit about the things that have helped me becoming a happier - and probably also a better person. One of those things was to grow myself a self esteem depending on completely other things than a dolled up face with flawless make up, nice aesthetic clothing and appearing as good looking as possible all the time. 

I still do love to do a make up, to decorate my face, to dress up beautifully and to play with cosmetics. I'm an aesthetic and I love to decorate things overall. Many females love doing that and there's nothing wrong with that...But if our feeling of self worth depends on and is based on the perfect make up the clothing the fitness of our body and other completely shallow things there's something wrong. At that point we become quite unhappy about ourselves since that 'perfection' people praise is surreal, shallow and at some level even artificial for no one of us wakes up every morning all dolled up. 

When we are unhappy about ourselves we tend to get addicted to the reassurance given by others and beg for the positive attention based on the dolled up appearance and go to desperate measures to look as good as possible all the time which makes us feel even worse about ourselves since we feel like we are loved only when we appear "perfect" looking.

 We are also quick to judge the "flaws" and the appearance of others when we are unable to accept and embrace the real not at all dolled up image in the mirror. 

Eventually we must learn to love the imperfect and the real image of ourselves if we want to be happy. That's the only way to truly feel good about yourself and be able to be good to the people around you as well. 

Being real sort of also makes you much more vulnerable to possible mean comments and the hecklers internet is full of. Still being real is worth it (and also much effortless tangibly and mentally than trying to appear as good good looking and flawless as possible all the time!)

 You have to remember that people with the need to bully or criticize others based on ones face and looks are not the happy and balanced people. 

Still I do see many things I don't particularly like when I'm looking at myself and I definitely don't consider myself the prettiest girl on earth...but I've learnt to own who I'm and I want to encourage people to just be real and embrace who you really are! You are not any less you or less beautiful without all the make up and effort. I think it's time to bring back the real instead of praising and considering something utterly surreal to be how we should look like and appear all the time.

You might get surprised how good being real feels like - and also about that how much people still love you whether you appear perfect all the time or not! You are good just as you are. 

~Hopefully you'll have a wonderful week!~

xx

♥-Tiina-♥

Destination happiness

Hello!

♥ The beautiful little things ♥

It's quite obvious that I actually didn't start writing again after the post I wrote declaring "back again." One post after that and then total silence. Why?
I wasn't back then actually so motivated doing blog posts and it rather felt like one of the many to do's and things to take care of. Life had been very busy with starting in a new job and going to school simultaneously. I was a bit exhausted of all the to do's and always being in hurry and having something that I should take care of. The summer was starting and I felt like now I actually want to just spend time out, enjoy the daylight, enjoy the little good and beautiful things in life instead of rushing from a to do to taking care of some another responsibility or must do.

I made a decision to drop everything I don't feel good about doing and don't have to do. Back then it

Beauty of simple things.

honestly felt like I don't actually have any thoughts to borrow, any energy for planning posts and that probably anyone wouldn't even enjoy reading some posts that I haven't even enjoyed doing.

How about now?
I'm not going to promise I'll write 3-times a week or actually anything but now it feels good to write again. Daylight hours are quite few out there. I'm not so busy anymore. I've taken out of my calendar permanently the things I don't truly want to be involved in. I've learnt to enjoy the good simple things and take it a bit easier...not trying to push myself accomplishing a million things or making myself do things that I don't really desire doing.

I still do have the "day job" that I don't enjoy so much, but I'm very exited to start my own business soon in the field of my passion; cosmetics and wellbeing.
Counting out that it still startles me to look into mirror a bit after dyeing my hair on Friday (it was supposed to become copper brown...not incredibly dark-brown and slightly reddish :D) I'm quite fine.
I'm on a mission to make my life my own and to pursue what makes me happy. I've learnt to arrange enough time to do more of what makes me happy in order to stay happy instead of drowning in the sea of different responsibilities and unnecessary to do's. That's something I want to encourage people to do with their life. Finding and pursuing what makes you happy!
We only have this one life and it's supposed to feel like worth living.

Now I might actually have some thoughts to borrow and stories to tell...And I certainly will want to talk about the things that have helped me becoming happier. Maybe I'll write soon again ;)

Autumn colors ♥

~Hopefully you'll have a fantastic week!~
♥-Tiina-♥

Smoothies & oatmeals

Hello!

It's been quite dreary and cold in Finland for couple of days. I've had early mornings at work and thus I've fallen in love with making over night oats for breakfast! So easy, quick and so many ways to make a delicious overnight oats bowl that is waiting for you all ready in the refrigerator on the busy mornings. Additionally it's good for you! In this post I'll share one of my recent favorite overnight oats bowl recipe I've created. I'll make another post as well containing couple of different oatmeal recipes since lately I've been doing a lot of these! (:

Rosehip - raspberry overnight oats

Packed with nutrition and dietary fibre + it's delicious. At least me and my love absolutely love this :D

• rolled oats (old fashioned :)
• vanilla flavored soy milk
• ~3/4 cup of rose hip puree
• a little raisins/dates
• sunflowerseeds
• pumpkinseeds
• frozen raspberries

Take a bowl or a soup plate, put into it a suitable amount of rolled oats for you and the amount of vanilla flavored soy milk adjusted to the amount of rolled oats, so the oats will mostly absorb the "milk". Add the rose hip puree and mix a bit. Toss over the oats a few raisins, or pieces of dried dates and place to the refrigerator over night. In the morning just top the bowl with some seeds & a few frozen raspberries. :) (You can smash the raspberries a bit so they will spread more evenly!)

With gluten free rolled oats it's gluten free portion. It's also a dairy free & vegan friendly breakfast. 

Rose hip puree is delicious with a bit added sweetness, particularly rich in vitamin C and contains the carotenoids, beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin and lycopene which all give us plenty of nutritional benefits and are very good for us!

In a scheduled day a smoothie is an easy, quick and effortless way to have something delicious, healthy and packed with nutrition to keep you going. For the weather has been rainy and cold I decided again to create something refreshing to drink.

On yesterday evening I created this perky smoothie blend packed with vitamins and fresh flavors to wake myself up for work today :D I named this yellow drink as 

Sunny day... and for recreating it you'll need:

• 2-bananas
• 2-granny smith apples (or a bit sour apples)
• a handful of fresh mint leaves
• a cup of pineapple chunks
• a cup of mango chunks 
• 1/4 cup of sea buckthorn
• an orange, squeezed
• ice cubes & protein powder

These amounts of ingredients made a little bit over one liter of ready smoothie. You can easily adjust the amounts also to a smaller portion of smoothie. Peel the fruits and chop. Place everything to the blender and blend! (:  

Now it's time to prepare the overnight oats bowl for tomorrow morning and then start to orientate myself towards the bed so I'm able to get up at 5.45 in the morning.

~Hopefully everyone has been having a nice week!~

Good night to U, or what ever time it's for U 😘

-♡Tiina♡-

I'm back!

Hello folks! (:

Been a long time without writing a post. The weeks simply got that hectic and busy with starting at the new job, having classes at school on evenings and having to finish all the compulsory course tasks in addition to desperately trying to prepare for the final exams as well that I dropped everything I didn't "have to do". Now the school is over for summertime and I have just work and my life so there will be posts more often again!

Last week the life almost felt like a vacation :D I had total three days off work and neither tons of assignments waiting for me nor any actual commitments. I did some cooking and the ordinary household chores, went to gym and went to see my grandmother (she's recovering from a stroke.) On Saturday evening I got a chance to participate in a Kangoo Jumping class and it was awesome, even I nearly had an asthma attack. 😄 If you have a change to try it I recommend you to take a try! It's very efficient exercising, fun and it wont hurt your joints. Also went out with my sis on Saturday evening and met some friends. On Sunday some time with my love and family.

Now a new work week has started and this week I have just one day off work, but now I do have time and most importantly some enthusiasm again to write blog posts when I've actually gotten to relax a bit.

Recently I created for lunch a tasty and quick grain free and dairy free tuna salad, packed with good amount of nutrients.

For one serving you'll need:

• canned tuna chunks in olive oil (about half a cup to one cup)
• one tomato
• handful of frozen peas
• handful of cooked kidney beans (self cooked, or conserved)
• small piece of zucchini
• small piece of scallion
• 3-leaves of romaine salad
• handful of watercress

Just adapt the amount of ingredients to the amount of servings you want to make (: 

Chop the salad and the watercress + zucchini and the scallion into a strainer. Rinse and let them trickle in the strainer for a while. Pour the salad onto plate and slice the tomato to the serving. Add the tuna and the kidney beans and melt the peas in the strainer under warm water for a while and cool off the peas with cold water. Pour the peas into the salad, mix it a bit and it's ready!

You can also add some herbs or spices to this, if you want to! (For instance fresh basil would taste great in this salad) Also avocado would taste good in this salad if you want to add some!

Today it's been a very grey cold and rainy day. My mind wondered back to memories of beautiful warm summer evenings and magical summer sunsets. I had an inspiration to create a fruity and fresh smoothie tasting like a perfect summer day :)

Summerday smoothie

For this one you'll need:

• 2-bananas
• one pear
• half of a red grapefruit, squeezed
• 3/4 cup of pineapple chunks
• handful of fresh mint leaves
• a small piece of fresh ginger
• cup of mango cubes
• 3/4 cup of strawberries
• + protein powder & ice cubes

These amounts of ingredients will make about 1-liter of ready smoothie! Put everything into a powerful blender and blend! (:

Now it's my time to prepare the lunch box for work tomorrow and soon head to bed. Early morning at work ahead.

~Have a nice week!~

♡ -Tiina-♡

Moment of relaxation

Hi everyone!

The first two days in the new workplace done and man there's a lot to learn. Too much information to intake! :D But so far everything has gone fine and I'm sure I'll learn all those different technical protocols and devices related to the work and all the different the cash desk functions. My job is to be a sales person and a warehouse worker in a whole sale shop for professional kitchens and restaurants. Mostly the company sells via deliveries straight to customers and we have to gather ready all the ordered items for different companies by the delivery time. We also ofc refill the shelves in the shop and arrange new products to the shelves, do inventory, be sales persons to the customers in the shop, keep everything in order in the shop etc.

I should do assignments I guess, but I already did some before going to work and after work I had school. Now I feel like no assignments anymore. 😏 :D Besides my head is so tired of trying to learn something new right now that I probably wouldn't actually even learn anything anymore if I tried! 😄

Time to relax a little bit. I mentioned already in one post of mine the Forever Living's Marine mask. I have it on my face and I'm having some sparking water with lemon.

This is very refreshing experience every time you use it! Just apply into rinsed face a layer and let it be 20-minutes! Simple, easy and good also for males. As Forever's products typically this as well has been made to match the needs of all the skin types and it gives your skin just what it needs! The Marine mask combines deep cleansing, toning, refreshing and deep moisturizing of the skin with cucumber extract, honey, aloe vera and sea minerals. A perfect all in one facial skin care product.

I just rinsed it off and my skin feels all clean and refreshed. I also applied a little bit of this luxurious serum into my skin for wanting to give some true pampering to my tired face! :D

This lovely soothing and excellent skin care providing serum earns its own post and I'll write more about it later on!

In this post I'm about to share a refreshing little bit kind of sweet and sour smoothie blend that always zests my day with it's fresh taste and excellent nutritional value.

For about one liter of this smoothie you'll need:

• 2-bananas
• 2-apples
• an avocado
• one lime, squeezed
• two handfuls of fresh spinach
• piece of fresh gincer
• a cup of frozen mango cubes
• a small handful of sea-buckthorn berries
• ice cubes & some protein powder

Blend in a powerful blender, enjoy the refreshing taste and this smoothie as a nutrition packed snack, or a breakfast smoothie (Ps. if you want it to be a bit sweeter, pineapple would do that perfectly!)

Recently I've gotten plenty of dm requests on instagram. I'm sorry, but I don't have much time or interest for dm conversations since I do have quite a busy life currently and a lot to do. The time I can spare to socializing I'll spend with my love, family and the closest friends of mine. I'm very thankful for all the appreciation though and I'm doing my best to be able to respond all the comments I'm getting to my gallery. Want to say thanks to all of you lovely people leaving me such lovely and encouraging comments!

Want to thank all of you for reading my writings here as well! :)
Now I'm still relaxing a while and then it's time to go to bed again so I can get my ass up early enough tomorrow to get everything done I need to get done, before I must go to work and after work to school again! :D

~Good night to you, or what ever time it's for you!~

♡-Tiina-♡

Busy Life

Hello!

Already Friday! The days just fly by when you have plenty to do! :D
I've tried to study as much as possible in addition to attending the classes at school during this week. Next week I'll start in my new job and have classes during evenings. The week after next one will be the exam week and for working the days and attending on the classes the evenings and having to take care of all the assignments to pass the courses I won't have much time for preparing to the exams I'll have. Two very busy weeks ahead and then finally it will be the summer break at school and I'll have just the work and rest of the time I can actually do what I want to :D

It was a stunning sunset tonight! 😍

When there's a lot going on in life we might easily get tired or stressed. So will our skin, if we are exposed to stress too long time, sleep too little, eat irregularly, make poor nutritional choices, drink too little water etc... I guess everyone who's even a little bit interested in taking good care of her (or his!) skin knows what's bad for our skin but not necessarily how to treat the mixed, oily, dry, tight or dull skin and what kind of products are good for it.
I'm not a cosmetologist, but I actually do have a degree of  make up artist & stylist. As I mentioned in my very first blog post in English, I've always been interested in cosmetics and skincare and thus I've educated myself a bit further into the world skincare products as well.

 I also mentioned in my first post that I've fallen in love especially with the products of Forever Living company. Why are these ones so superior then? Take any body or face lotion or skin care product you use: Dior, Lancôme, YSL, Lauder, Chanel, Lorèal, Nivea...Anything! And check out the ingredient list, I bet the first word on the list is aqua. Mostly all the cosmetics of the world is based on water and I'm not saying all of those products are lousy or bad, NO! Not at all necessarily, but water based cosmetics always treats only the outermost layer of our skin. Forever's cosmetics is based on aloe vera gel, prepared from hand picked organically and ecologically grown aloe vera. The gel is made with Forever's unique stabilization method keeping it as fresh and flawless as possible.
 What makes aloe special in skincare is that aloe's molecules will pass your skin layers and will be effective on the outermost layer of our skin and also deep inside our skin! Forever's products are also very affordable, considering they are luxurious quality and majority of the products are made to be suitable to all of the skin types. Ofc there are some products custom made for oily or especially dry skin as well! (:

No matter what your skin type is, it needs exfoliating for couple of times a week, if you wish to maintain an even skin tone, want the skin treatments you use to work effectively and the make up to be easy to apply and spread evenly on your skin. After exfoliating the dead cells of the outermost layer of your skin the skin gets refreshed, it breathes, feels even and also all the treatments and lotions, serums etc will absorb much better into your skin and work effectively on the "living" skin since the dead cells don't block their way. Each skin type will get better with regular exfoliating if you use a gentle and effective scrub.

The affordable (in Europe around 20€) and effective, but gentle Forever's aloe scrub is my favorite. Jojoba microspheres exfoliate the skin and moisturize it effectively with aloe vera simultaneously. Just wash the face with water, dry it a bit with a towel and apply the scrub all over your face except around the eyes. Keep rubbing until the scrub forms white dots on your skin. The white dots are your dead skin cells the scrub has gotten off your skin. Rinse off with comfortably warm water and feel the refreshment that you achieved with the effort of about 3-minutes! (Ps. You can use this for the whole body as well!)

After the scrub apply a treatment product, which is suitable for your skin type and your skin feels great! (: If you haven't tried this before I'm warmly recommending to give it a try!

I'm going to take my make up off and do a scrub with this right now. It's getting late here in Finland and it's soon the bed time! Now it's time for me and my skin to relax.

~Happy weekend to everyone!~

♡-Tiina-♡