When bra shopping the other week, the sales girl informed me that I was what you call "wide and shallow". Needless to say, I wasn't really in the mood for lingerie shopping after that.
As a woman of Chinese descent I have always secretly wanted a bit more bust as we're not really known for our voluptuousness - hairlessness: yes (it has its downside though as I pluck the wrong eyebrow hair and I get a bald spot) - aging well: yes (though I don't believe this one). But because I am not into the idea of surgery and completely turned off by ads for Firm and Gro, I figured it would be an act of God to change the size of my assets (or lack of).
But that day, feeling especially small, I remembered back to a lecture I sat in on by Dr. Vasant Lad in which on one of his many off shoots he mentioned the wonders of Shatavari Ghee for breast enlargement. For those of you who don't know, ghee is butter that has been boiled and clarified, and Ayurveda uses it as a nourishing food as well as a vehicle for herbs and medicines. Ghee is great because its an oily substance that is not heating, but an anti-inflammatory.
Shatavari on the other hand, is an herb used to increase Kapha qualities (Earth and Water) and has been prescribed especially for the reproductive system (governed by Kapha) to increase fertility, libido, cleanse semen and breast milk and restore the tissue of the sex organs. Shatavari Ghee is ghee which has simmered Shatavari into it. So I decided to try it out.
Because I find medicated ghees hard to find, I went onto Dr. Lad's site Ayurveda.com and ordered some online. For $14.00 USD - what's there to lose?
I will tell you that its not glamourous -- it doesn't come in a pretty container and it smells of butter. But every night I applied this salve to my bust, and while the scent made me feel like I was at the movies, there was no other inconvenience.
Its been a week and I can honestly say I have found a means for natural bust enhancement -I promise this is not Spam (and there no penis enlargement or phone sex follow ups). I feel more fullness and my bras more snug.
Now, Yvonne at the office is pressing me for actual measurements, as she is a much more meticulous person than I (which is why she does all the Ad copy), but I can only go by feel because unfortunately I didn't measure myself first. Ben did mention to me he noticed a difference, and I take that as an indication of success because he doesn't usually comment on my changes even when I urge him to tell me if he can see my eye bags in different lighting. So I'm happy.
Dr. Lad had said the best results will come after doing this for one month so we will see how it goes after using it longer and like most natural therapies, we have to be realistic. He estimated that it would increase the bust line by an inch or two around, so its not going to mimic implants. But hey, I'm not looking for a miracle, I'd be content with being wide and medium.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
The Wild Rose Cleanse Continues. But where have all the flours gone?
Its true, I threw in the dish rag and stopped soaking lentils on day ten of twelve of the cleanse due to illness, but this decision came from the realization I needed to listen to my own body (something I was trying to ignore. And it is hard to ignore this when you feel like vomiting everyday). Now I may be a Pitta, but even my stubbornness has its limits. I didn't want to admit it, but this cleanse just wasn't for me.
But I did discover a few things that you may want to consider if you are thinking about this cleanse, or any other cleanse for that matter. The following are the factors which I think made me react the way I did.
1. Dehydration: These herbs were very dehydrating. Dehydration taxes the kidneys, and this can cause nausea as the kidneys dump toxins into the G.I tract. Kat and I also both found that this dehydration actually impeded our elimination (!). I find this odd because according to Ayurveda, cleansing should begin with moistening and oiling the internal organs in a process referred to as "ripening the body for detoxification". This lubrication (through massage, sweating and ingesting butters) helps loosen build-up and toxins.
2. Bile Stimulation: The Biliherb pills made me feel the worst. And while others found it fine on their tummies, I think it is my high heat (Pitta) which caused this reaction. Pitta governs secretions and bile as well as digestion and assimilation, so this may have been overly-stimulation for my body type.
3. Eating Enough: I felt the sickest when I took my supplements with breakfast. And because bile breaks down fat and I was eating fruit for breakfast (no fat) this may have prompted how I felt. I still feel it is only part of the reason I felt sick -- but I definitely suggest anyone taking a bile stimulant take them with a hearty meal.
But it was not just an upset stomach that yielded discovery. It also shed light on my addictions.
Now I thought this no flour, no sugar, no dairy, no fermented and processed food diet would have me daydreaming about lemon gelato and ciabatta buns, but to my surprise I was quite content with my Sunday brunch sans eggs florantine. This restrictive diet actually ousted a much more powerful dependency than one to sugar or carbs... my addiction to eating out.
And I love to eat out. It dates back to the early days of Pure + Simple when my mother and I would eat out at least five days a week (Does this mean I can blame my upbringing?). But while I have tried to cut back now that Ben and I have moved in together, I have to admit we often shrug off making dinner after a long day at work, unenamoured with my plans for steamed veggies and tofu. The idea of peeling carrots and zucchinis is enough to make me lose my appetite on nights like this.
Perhaps its peer pressure. More often than not we get an enticing text to meet up with friends for food or drinks giving us a perfect reason to abandon the boredom of our kitchen. And while some people are social smokers, I'm a social eater. I hardly ever get together with our multi-tasking friends without eating or sipping something. I mean, what isn't more fun over Vietnamese cold rolls?
So during the Wild Rose my social life definitely took a beating as avoiding fermented and processed foods are difficult while dining out because you never know what they put in your sauces and side dishes. My mother dated a chef once who put spoonfuls of sugar in his meat sauces (We won't say which resto he owns). And even the healthiest restaurants which tout organic produce and local ingredients will never measure up to a good home cooked meal because you make it fresh (even high-end restaurants will pre-blanch their vegetables to prep for a night of high volume) and know exactly what is in it. It was definitely a good thing to help me re-examine my habits. But I won't lie and say I wasn't craving conversation and curry at Rangoli.
So if you are thinking of doing a detox, unlike myself - do not have preconceptions before doing it. Kat and I were pretty disappointed to find we, unlike many others did not feel significantly different. But as the Buddhists say: one should not be attached to the outcome. I will confirm though, you definitely find out more about yourself, your body and the changes you can make for the better long term.
But I did discover a few things that you may want to consider if you are thinking about this cleanse, or any other cleanse for that matter. The following are the factors which I think made me react the way I did.
1. Dehydration: These herbs were very dehydrating. Dehydration taxes the kidneys, and this can cause nausea as the kidneys dump toxins into the G.I tract. Kat and I also both found that this dehydration actually impeded our elimination (!). I find this odd because according to Ayurveda, cleansing should begin with moistening and oiling the internal organs in a process referred to as "ripening the body for detoxification". This lubrication (through massage, sweating and ingesting butters) helps loosen build-up and toxins.
2. Bile Stimulation: The Biliherb pills made me feel the worst. And while others found it fine on their tummies, I think it is my high heat (Pitta) which caused this reaction. Pitta governs secretions and bile as well as digestion and assimilation, so this may have been overly-stimulation for my body type.
3. Eating Enough: I felt the sickest when I took my supplements with breakfast. And because bile breaks down fat and I was eating fruit for breakfast (no fat) this may have prompted how I felt. I still feel it is only part of the reason I felt sick -- but I definitely suggest anyone taking a bile stimulant take them with a hearty meal.
But it was not just an upset stomach that yielded discovery. It also shed light on my addictions.
Now I thought this no flour, no sugar, no dairy, no fermented and processed food diet would have me daydreaming about lemon gelato and ciabatta buns, but to my surprise I was quite content with my Sunday brunch sans eggs florantine. This restrictive diet actually ousted a much more powerful dependency than one to sugar or carbs... my addiction to eating out.
And I love to eat out. It dates back to the early days of Pure + Simple when my mother and I would eat out at least five days a week (Does this mean I can blame my upbringing?). But while I have tried to cut back now that Ben and I have moved in together, I have to admit we often shrug off making dinner after a long day at work, unenamoured with my plans for steamed veggies and tofu. The idea of peeling carrots and zucchinis is enough to make me lose my appetite on nights like this.
Perhaps its peer pressure. More often than not we get an enticing text to meet up with friends for food or drinks giving us a perfect reason to abandon the boredom of our kitchen. And while some people are social smokers, I'm a social eater. I hardly ever get together with our multi-tasking friends without eating or sipping something. I mean, what isn't more fun over Vietnamese cold rolls?
So during the Wild Rose my social life definitely took a beating as avoiding fermented and processed foods are difficult while dining out because you never know what they put in your sauces and side dishes. My mother dated a chef once who put spoonfuls of sugar in his meat sauces (We won't say which resto he owns). And even the healthiest restaurants which tout organic produce and local ingredients will never measure up to a good home cooked meal because you make it fresh (even high-end restaurants will pre-blanch their vegetables to prep for a night of high volume) and know exactly what is in it. It was definitely a good thing to help me re-examine my habits. But I won't lie and say I wasn't craving conversation and curry at Rangoli.
So if you are thinking of doing a detox, unlike myself - do not have preconceptions before doing it. Kat and I were pretty disappointed to find we, unlike many others did not feel significantly different. But as the Buddhists say: one should not be attached to the outcome. I will confirm though, you definitely find out more about yourself, your body and the changes you can make for the better long term.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Spring Cleaning with the Wild Rose Cleanse
I recently went my friends' wedding in Montreal, and while it was a terribly romantic service, I couldn't help but be distracted by how fantastic the bride looked. She's always been very attractive, but since the last time I saw her, her skin was more glowing, she had lost weight, and her eyes were sparkling and bright. So, when she told me it was due to the Wild Rose Cleanse, I made a mental note to start my own as soon as I got back to Toronto. How quickly I go from admiration to gimme, gimme (I better open the heart chakra and do more fish pose).
Now when I had acne, detoxing was a sort of past time of mine - the more extreme, the bigger the sense of accomplishment I would feel. I have done liver cleanses that required me to drink Epsom salt water followed by a concoction of olive oil spiked with grapefruit juice; I have done a series of colonics paired with daily drops of milk thistle, dandelion and burdock (too much info?); and I have done the classic Master Cleanse, a fast in which your main source of sustenance is water, laced with lemon juice, amber maple syrup and cayenne pepper. So this twelve day program of a cleansing diet and a few supplements didn't scare me. It even came in a kit!
First thing I did was recruit a partner to keep me motivated, compare notes with and share the burden of food preparation. Luckily for me, I had committed Kat my neighbour, who not only was located conveniently, but more prepared than I, having bought supplies, researched online discussion boards and made notes on Wild Rose blogs by the time I had skimmed the basic do's and don'ts.
And the these do's and dont's were very straight-forward: no dairy, no sugar (including tropical fruit), no flour of any kind (not even kamut or spelt), no fermented foods (or drinks), no inorganic meat (with lenience toward poultry and fish), and no processed foods. This sounds difficult, but it left us tons to eat (plenty of rice and other grains, most fruits and veggies and all the fish we wanted). The kit provided, contained three bottles of pills: a laxative, a general cleansing complex, a bile stimulant and a dropper of some sort of cleansing tincture. This was going to be great -- I was even giving myself a break midway as I wouldn't be able to uphold the diet on Saturday as we were accepting an ACCE award (Annual Chinese Canadian Entrepreneur) that night, and banquet food is always bad for you.
So pushing my cart through the aisles at Whole Foods, I had a plan, a cartful of outrageously expensive produce, and the feeling that I was on the road to optimum health!
But the first day I took the prescribed dosage of all four different types of herbs, I immediately felt nauseous. Kat blackberry messengered me that she was dizzy at work. We concluded that this meant it must be working. And you know what they say: cleanliness is Godliness, and I felt a little more holy with every mouthful of millet.
But in the following two days, my motivation started to wane as each time I took the herbs I felt as if I was going to throw up. And despite, Kat's delicious latke-like chickpea squash patties drizzled with lemon tahini sauce, and my tasty grilled sole topped with roast almonds, I began to dread meal times as they included a nasty illness which lasted a good hour or two.
This puzzled me as no one else I knew had had my reaction. They cited cravings, dizziness, fatigue and stomach cramps, but no nausea. Kat suggested that I use a process of elimination to find out if one component was aggravating me. I found that the bile stimulant was what made me feel particularly sick. But while I started to feel less sick, I was definitely no a blushing bride.
"Maybe this generalist cleanse is not good for you. You need to do things which are tailored to your body and needs, " my mother said while eating a Turkey pot pie in front of me. "...or maybe you're just really toxic."
During my weekly visit to Dr Sharma, he said nothing when I mentioned my cleanse -which usually meant disapproval (How Asian) - but did remind me that I had heat in my digestive tract.
I couldn't decide if it was because it didn't suit me or if it was the rough I needed to endure to achieve the prize of radiance. And I wanted that radiance, so I carried on feeling like I wanted to ralph up my quinoa salad everyday - twice a day - and dreamed about Saturday.
The night before the awards ceremony I skipped taking my herbs to be on the safe side. And in the morning I skipped them again. To my relief, I felt fantastic! Perhaps the effects came after the cleanse was over? Perhaps this small pause in the cleanse will spur the breakthrough I need, I thought over my breakfast of rice and mung beans. I was hopeful.
My body felt light and refreshed. And while a small part of me felt like a kid who snuck sweets in before dinner, I revelled gleefully in my mind's clarity.
Needless to say, that night, I felt victorious for more reasons than our award.
Look forward to next post where we conclude the success/failure of this cleanse and why.
Now when I had acne, detoxing was a sort of past time of mine - the more extreme, the bigger the sense of accomplishment I would feel. I have done liver cleanses that required me to drink Epsom salt water followed by a concoction of olive oil spiked with grapefruit juice; I have done a series of colonics paired with daily drops of milk thistle, dandelion and burdock (too much info?); and I have done the classic Master Cleanse, a fast in which your main source of sustenance is water, laced with lemon juice, amber maple syrup and cayenne pepper. So this twelve day program of a cleansing diet and a few supplements didn't scare me. It even came in a kit!
First thing I did was recruit a partner to keep me motivated, compare notes with and share the burden of food preparation. Luckily for me, I had committed Kat my neighbour, who not only was located conveniently, but more prepared than I, having bought supplies, researched online discussion boards and made notes on Wild Rose blogs by the time I had skimmed the basic do's and don'ts.
And the these do's and dont's were very straight-forward: no dairy, no sugar (including tropical fruit), no flour of any kind (not even kamut or spelt), no fermented foods (or drinks), no inorganic meat (with lenience toward poultry and fish), and no processed foods. This sounds difficult, but it left us tons to eat (plenty of rice and other grains, most fruits and veggies and all the fish we wanted). The kit provided, contained three bottles of pills: a laxative, a general cleansing complex, a bile stimulant and a dropper of some sort of cleansing tincture. This was going to be great -- I was even giving myself a break midway as I wouldn't be able to uphold the diet on Saturday as we were accepting an ACCE award (Annual Chinese Canadian Entrepreneur) that night, and banquet food is always bad for you.
So pushing my cart through the aisles at Whole Foods, I had a plan, a cartful of outrageously expensive produce, and the feeling that I was on the road to optimum health!
But the first day I took the prescribed dosage of all four different types of herbs, I immediately felt nauseous. Kat blackberry messengered me that she was dizzy at work. We concluded that this meant it must be working. And you know what they say: cleanliness is Godliness, and I felt a little more holy with every mouthful of millet.
But in the following two days, my motivation started to wane as each time I took the herbs I felt as if I was going to throw up. And despite, Kat's delicious latke-like chickpea squash patties drizzled with lemon tahini sauce, and my tasty grilled sole topped with roast almonds, I began to dread meal times as they included a nasty illness which lasted a good hour or two.
This puzzled me as no one else I knew had had my reaction. They cited cravings, dizziness, fatigue and stomach cramps, but no nausea. Kat suggested that I use a process of elimination to find out if one component was aggravating me. I found that the bile stimulant was what made me feel particularly sick. But while I started to feel less sick, I was definitely no a blushing bride.
"Maybe this generalist cleanse is not good for you. You need to do things which are tailored to your body and needs, " my mother said while eating a Turkey pot pie in front of me. "...or maybe you're just really toxic."
During my weekly visit to Dr Sharma, he said nothing when I mentioned my cleanse -which usually meant disapproval (How Asian) - but did remind me that I had heat in my digestive tract.
I couldn't decide if it was because it didn't suit me or if it was the rough I needed to endure to achieve the prize of radiance. And I wanted that radiance, so I carried on feeling like I wanted to ralph up my quinoa salad everyday - twice a day - and dreamed about Saturday.
The night before the awards ceremony I skipped taking my herbs to be on the safe side. And in the morning I skipped them again. To my relief, I felt fantastic! Perhaps the effects came after the cleanse was over? Perhaps this small pause in the cleanse will spur the breakthrough I need, I thought over my breakfast of rice and mung beans. I was hopeful.
My body felt light and refreshed. And while a small part of me felt like a kid who snuck sweets in before dinner, I revelled gleefully in my mind's clarity.
Needless to say, that night, I felt victorious for more reasons than our award.
Look forward to next post where we conclude the success/failure of this cleanse and why.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Holistic Vanity Part One
"There's a part of me wants to do so much good for the world, and then there's that other part that just wants to buy sh!t," my friend Emma recently said to me. Emma, who is doing her masters, in social work is probably the most well-groomed, attractive social worker I ever met, and when she said this, I laughed because I feel exactly the same way.
One side of me wants to strive for higher consciousness, learn to be still, and give back to the community, while the other side of me is delighted by my new cream-coloured pumps and is quite happy to stuff my face with corn puffs while watching Project Runway. Perhaps this sums up the sentiment in our modern age. Maybe its the struggle of our generation? But whatever it is, I think so many of us see this dichotomy between having substance and being superficial, and are confused about the choices we are to make.
And looking for a balance between these two worlds also presents itself in my work. While we work so hard to promote (and believe) that beauty is not about impersonating celebrities but attained only through health and self-empowerment, there is a part of me that could obsess about myself in my bedroom full-length mirror forever... and, oh, I do.
I must confess I take a full inventory of my complexion every morning, taking stock of my black heads, broken capillaries and any dry patches. I monitor the progress of both my eye bags and jowls (which my girlfriends insist are a delusion - but you know how generous girlfriends can be) and run my finger over areas I am sure will one day have expression lines. I usually end with the daily examination of my pigmentation spot on my left cheek bone, which is the bane of my existence. When everything accounted for, I make note of my various plans of action based on the morning's assessment (maybe I should start using neck firming serum). Now while you may think I'm a complete narcissist, at least I'm honest.
But despite my vanity, my plans of action never include compromising my health. At the risk of sounding condescending (and as a former vegan, I am not unfamiliar with sounding this way), my belief system just doesn't include chemical medications, fillers or injections of any kind, or unnecessary surgeries. I also do not believe that any of our beauty ailments can truly be treated without examining the state of our mind, body and spirit.
As an Ayurvedic Practitioner, I attribute my pigmentation to high internal heat, my eye bags to kidney dysfunction and my onset of jowls to excess dampness. And I take a more holistic approach, misting my skin with organic rose hydrosol, decreasing my salt intake, and going to I am Yoga at least three times a week (my treasured neighbourhood hot yoga studio). I found that this approach worked also with curing my terrible and persistent acne, and if you can overcome the kind of acne I had with these health-focused principles, its something to spread around. I think in the Ayurvedic community, its the closest thing I am going to get to street cred.
But even though my skin is thankfully blemish-free, my journey to clearer skin also made way for my addition to alternative health treatments. I now employ a team of practitioners to keep me looking and feeling my best - bankrolling two acupuncturists, a colon therapist, an RMT, stress councillor as well as a psychoanalyst, an Ayurvedic doctor, and on occasion, a muscle tester. Its because of my habits that someone suggested I start a blog outlining what I found worked and didn't work to help others who are looking for the same marriage of health and gorgeousness.
This is my way of synchronizing our modern expectations with more positive values and hope that readers will find familiarity, humour and useful beauty information in my posts.
One side of me wants to strive for higher consciousness, learn to be still, and give back to the community, while the other side of me is delighted by my new cream-coloured pumps and is quite happy to stuff my face with corn puffs while watching Project Runway. Perhaps this sums up the sentiment in our modern age. Maybe its the struggle of our generation? But whatever it is, I think so many of us see this dichotomy between having substance and being superficial, and are confused about the choices we are to make.
And looking for a balance between these two worlds also presents itself in my work. While we work so hard to promote (and believe) that beauty is not about impersonating celebrities but attained only through health and self-empowerment, there is a part of me that could obsess about myself in my bedroom full-length mirror forever... and, oh, I do.
I must confess I take a full inventory of my complexion every morning, taking stock of my black heads, broken capillaries and any dry patches. I monitor the progress of both my eye bags and jowls (which my girlfriends insist are a delusion - but you know how generous girlfriends can be) and run my finger over areas I am sure will one day have expression lines. I usually end with the daily examination of my pigmentation spot on my left cheek bone, which is the bane of my existence. When everything accounted for, I make note of my various plans of action based on the morning's assessment (maybe I should start using neck firming serum). Now while you may think I'm a complete narcissist, at least I'm honest.
But despite my vanity, my plans of action never include compromising my health. At the risk of sounding condescending (and as a former vegan, I am not unfamiliar with sounding this way), my belief system just doesn't include chemical medications, fillers or injections of any kind, or unnecessary surgeries. I also do not believe that any of our beauty ailments can truly be treated without examining the state of our mind, body and spirit.
As an Ayurvedic Practitioner, I attribute my pigmentation to high internal heat, my eye bags to kidney dysfunction and my onset of jowls to excess dampness. And I take a more holistic approach, misting my skin with organic rose hydrosol, decreasing my salt intake, and going to I am Yoga at least three times a week (my treasured neighbourhood hot yoga studio). I found that this approach worked also with curing my terrible and persistent acne, and if you can overcome the kind of acne I had with these health-focused principles, its something to spread around. I think in the Ayurvedic community, its the closest thing I am going to get to street cred.
But even though my skin is thankfully blemish-free, my journey to clearer skin also made way for my addition to alternative health treatments. I now employ a team of practitioners to keep me looking and feeling my best - bankrolling two acupuncturists, a colon therapist, an RMT, stress councillor as well as a psychoanalyst, an Ayurvedic doctor, and on occasion, a muscle tester. Its because of my habits that someone suggested I start a blog outlining what I found worked and didn't work to help others who are looking for the same marriage of health and gorgeousness.
This is my way of synchronizing our modern expectations with more positive values and hope that readers will find familiarity, humour and useful beauty information in my posts.
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