A 6 year reflection

2020 has certainly been a year, am I right? I think it’s safe to say that this year has left all of us alone with our thoughts more than we ever expected to be, and that it has its benefits in a lot of ways.

For me, I’ve been able to fully focus on my nutrition degree and learn not only about how to fuel the body in a positive way, but also how to do so in a healthy way. In other words, I’ve learned a lot about diet culture and the dangers of diet culture. In many ways, I’ve been able to reflect on a lot of the posts I’ve had on here and really take a step back and realize that some of the posts I have made in the past have been uneducated, harmful, and stigmitized in a lot of ways.

So all in all, I want to firstly apologize for those posts that promoted diet culture. I never MEANT to do that, but I was very young and niave when I started this blog and I feel into a lot of scams of diet culture myself. Secondly, I want to apologize for not being transparent with you guys. It seems very unfair for me to over the past 6 years, give nutrition advise and talk about food when my relationship with food had been so toxic.

So, I really want to take a moment today to reflect on the last 6 years of Kat Classics and point out some of the things I may have said or done that I should not have, correct some of my wrong doings, and set the tone for what I want the future of this blog to be!

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My Personal Dishonesty

I don’t want to go into extreme specifics about this mostly because it is something I am slowly getting better at talking about and to be fair, I think this will deserve it’s own post in the future, but I want to be honest with you guys. During my own weight loss journey, which took place while I was working on this blog, I fell into very bad disordered eating habits.

Looking back, I think the signs were all there and I have had a few posts where you can tell I am eating extremely under calorie needs and working out way to much to sustain any sort of good energy balance. There was a lot of mental problems that went into this disordered eating, which I have gotten the appropriate help for, but some of that had to do with diet culture as well, and I think I played a role in promoting that on this blog as well, which I will talk about in just a minute. Any time I talked about my own diet, I talked about how little I ate and I felt like that was sometimes still too much.

Anyway, I have deleted many of those posts, and I do want to let you guys know that I am doing much better with my eating. And I can also say with certainty that I don’t want to promote those habits going forward. I am sorry for hiding this for so long and I do promise to talk more about this in the future, especially because it is such an important topic to discuss. But that post will deserve a full story and how I got help, so we’ll save it for a later day. If you are curious to follow my recovery my new instagram page Kat_at_Last, does talk a lot about my recovery and you are welcome to follow.

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The Diet Culture Trap

There are a few specifics that I can think about on this blog where I gave some awful advise about diet culture. For example, I remember saying to eat ahead of time when going to a picnic so you won’t feel like you want to snack or eat unhealthy foods. I probably suggested drinking more water when you think you’re hungry to quench your thirst instead. And on more than one occasion, I probably suggested the magic number of 1200 calories in order to lose weight. None of this advise is good, but it is what diet culture makes us believe is true.

1. When you’re going out to a party or event, eat what you want to eat there and don’t feel like you are guilty for doing it! Your body responds much better to intuitive eating, where you eat what you want to fill a craving or reach satisfaction, opposed to restriction which can leave you feeling like you have missed out and result in cravings that can lead to a binge later in the day. So, at the picnic, if you want a cupcake or a hotdog because that is what you are actually craving, go ahead at eat it. Don’t eat six of them just because you can, but if you feel satisfied after one, rest assured that your body will respond to the fact that you satisfied a craving.
   I’ve been slowly learning more about intuitive eating as it’s something I am learning to incorporate in my recovery, so you can expect to see a blog post about that soon!
2. There is actually no scientific evidence suggesting that thirst can trigger a hunger cue. In fact, thirst cues and hunger cues are two completely separate functions. So, logically, drinking water isn’t going to satisfy the fact that you are hungry. Eating, on the other hand, will. Of course, stay hydrated throughout the day, but don’t think drinking water will magically fill your stomach and make you full.
3. While 1200 calories a day might be enough to make SOME people lose weight, this is not the magical number for everyone. In fact, for a lot of people, this is still way too little and can cause metabolic changes that can be more damaging than helpful. There is a lot that goes into determining the number of calories someone needs for weight loss, including current dietary intake, weight, height, gender, and physical activity level, along with the percentage of weight that needs to be lost. So never listen to 1200 calories a day as a magic weight loss number, and instead seek out the advise from a health care professional when determining your own caloric needs. In fact, feel free to message me personally on IG (Kat_at_Last) if you want me to help you figure out your own needs (for real though, I don’t have my degree yet but I’m 8 months from it!!)

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The body image stuff

I would like to think that I didn’t do this on this page, but this is something that I have recently come to realize is extremely important for all of us to learn. We tend to see people we haven’t seen in awhile, or people we know who are trying to lose weight, or people who have been on the health grind lately and we make comments on their physical appearance.

On the outside it might seem like telling someone “Wow you look amazing!” or “You look so good, how much weight have you lost?” seems normal and like a great compliment, but comments like this are actually extremely damaging. For me, it was the driving force that made me want to keep losing more and more weight because I could keep deferring attention away from the negative aspects of my life into the fact that I “looked good”. All in all, you don’t know what is going on in someone’s personal life, and you don’t know how damaging complimenting their exterior could be.

Overall, it’s safest to not compliment someone’s body or appearance. Instead you can say things like.

-You look so happy.

-Your smile is radiating

-I love that outfit

I encourage everyone to stop focusing on the body as a form of a compliment. It promotes awful feelings, no matter your size, even if you don’t realize that it is!

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Moving forward with the next year of Kat Classics, I am hoping that I am able to use these reflections to post more positive messages about nutrition, food, and body positivity. I hope that is something you guys want to get behind! I’m looking forward to it!

In the comments below, why don’t we share some fun non-body focused compliments that we can start to implement in our day to day lives! I look forward to reading what you come up with!

Until next time,

Kat

4 Things No One Told me About Life after Weight Loss

So I talked about this a little bit already on the site, but between the start of this blog many moons ago and me sitting down to write this post, I’ve lost and kept off around 60 pounds of weight.  Now, the first thing I want to say is that I didn’t do this all right away.  This took a series of years to come off and I did it very slowly.  And I tried my absolute hardest to make it from a change in lifestyle opposed to from a crash diet so it was a healthy change.

This weight loss has come with A LOT of highs and a lot of lows. I’m still not 100% confident in my body image, but there are some days that I feel good about myself and what I’ve accomplished. That being said, there are a lot of very serious things that have changed for me in the years since losing the weight that I want to tell you guys about because I don’t think they are things that are often talked about enough and I want to let you know that underneath the glitz and the glam of a new wardrobe and feeling like a new you, there are some other issues.

So here are 4 things that no one ever told me about weight loss.

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Your relationship with food is completely different

I don’t know what the last time I sat down and ate an entire piece of cake was.  Or the last time I ate an entire donut.  The way I eat has completely changed since I started losing weight and have lost the weight.

I rarely eat food because I enjoy eating anymore.  And I don’t mean that from a scary eating disorder place or anything.  It’s just that the way I look at food has totally bent in a different direction.  When it comes to where I’m getting my calorie intake, I’m much more careful about where my food is coming from.  I eat to survive, not because I like the way food tastes.

Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the food I ate. While writing this blog post, I enjoyed a delicious veggie sandwich from a local coffee shop and shipped on a latte.  But what it does mean is that I don’t indulge myself any more.  I don’t sit down and eat a piece of cake whenever I want to.  If I want cake I’ll have a bite or two and that’s it.  That’s all I need. I’ll have a sliver of a donut instead of an entire donut.  I don’t buy things at the grocery store just because I crave it. It’s a lot easier to walk away from some kinds of foods now.

Similarly, I find it a lot easier to just eat light meals like fruit salad or cheese and crackers now because I don’t like the feeling of being full.  It makes me feel gross and heavy.

Sometimes I wonder if this change is for the better or not.  I still like food, but I just don’t see it the same way I used to.

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You don’t get a positive body image from being skinny

I had a huge break down last week because I didn’t like the way I looked in a shirt I had.  Weirdest part was, the shirt fit me fine and I’m sure I looked great, but I still don’t see myself in a really positive light.  Truth is positive body image doesn’t come from looking a certain way.  Even if you looked like that model on the magazine (which you definitely don’t have to in order to be beautiful), if you’ve struggled with body issues in the past, it’s not going to all magically go away.  It’s a long term struggle.

That being said, I have definitely seen small leaps and bounds in my body image over the years.  I hold myself with more confidence, but I still haven’t been able to buy a swimsuit since I lost the weight.  (Good thing I’m afraid of water).

I think it’s going to take a long time for me to create a positive body image of myself, and it’s something I work on a little every day.  So don’t be discouraged when the confidence doesn’t show up overnight.

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Skinny shaming is actually a thing

We’ve all heard what fat shaming is.  It’s that thing where people judge people who are overweight and tell them they need to be skinnier in order to fit in.  It’s disgusting and people who participate in such things are the lowest of low lives.

That being said, there is also this thing called skinny shaming.  It’s not a cookie cutter term and there’s a lot of hurtful articles about it out there about “skinny privilege” and how “skinny girls have no issues.” And let me just say right here: I am not comparing skinny shamming to fat shamming, but I am going to point out that when I was  180 pounds, no one ever made me feel bad or hurt about the way my body looked.  Now that I am 120 pounds, I am almost weekly told that “I am disappearing” or that “I have no right to complain about my body” or that “I can’t complain about watching what I eat”.  Some of these comments I’m going to address in my next point, but the overall take away from those things is that they don’t make me feel good about how I look.  They make me scared and they make me self conscious about my own lifestyle decisions.

Here’s a not so fun story to drive the point home. Awhile back, I moved away from my home town for awhile.  When I moved away I was probably around 140 pounds.  While I was away that was when I started going to the gym daily and started running.  When I returned back to my hometown I had bridged that 140 pound plateau and was around 125 pounds.  The first time I walked into my old work place, I was confronted by my co-workers who were also my “friends” at the time, and was bombarded with comments about my weight loss.  They made comments about how I must have been sick or must have stopped eating in order to have lost that much weight.  Their comments were so bad and so constant that I eventually ended up at the doctor getting my thyroid checked because they had me convinced that I was unhealthy.

My thyroid was fine.  My weight loss was fine.  My doctor was proud of me.  My point is that I let other people shame me so much that I thought there was something wrong with me.

Any kind of body shamming is humiliating people for the way their body looks and none of it is okay, ever.  I’ve cut a fair share of the people who made those kind of comments to me out of my life, but I still have a fair amount of people who tell me they’re “worried about my weight and health,” and those comments really cut me deep.

What do I do to combat it? Like I said, I cut a lot of toxic people out of my life.  I also make sure to go to my doctor yearly to have blood work and my weight taken.  I take a multi vitamin daily and I keep track my own body.  As long as my health is in my own hands, I know I’m living a healthy lifestyle and my weight is perfectly fine. No matter what people say.

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Your life has 4 different types of people in it, and you categorize them that way

Losing weight creates this divide of how you see people in your life.  I have people in my life who knew me before I lost the weight and the people who knew me after.  And each of those categories have two sub categories.  Basically there are 4 types of people in my life and some of them are really toxic.

First, there are the “I’m concerned about how skinny you are” people.  These are the people in my life who I knew before I lost the weight and can’t get over the fact I was able to lose weight.  Those are the people who make those comments about my body and make me feel self conscious about it.  And these people don’t just mention it once.  They mention it constantly when they see me.  These aren’t the greatest people in the world.  They’re going to constantly be comparing you to who you used to be. Whether it’s because they think “you’ve change” or because or something else, I don’t even know, but they want to always let you know that you look different.  You really don’t need these people in your life, but sometimes they’re unavoidable.

Then there are the “hey congrats, you look great. Let’s not talk about it every again.” people.  Those people you knew before and are super happy for you and congratulate you for your hard work (and they recognize your hard work), but they mention it once and let it go.  I love these people because they let you know they respect what you’ve done, but they don’t actually care about how your body looks.  It’s a breath of fresh air.

And of course you have the “Your skinny, what do you have to complain about?” people.  And to be fair, it’s not their fault they act like this.  After all, these are the people who didn’t know you before you lost weight and don’t realize how hard you worked to make yourself healthier.  Usually, with these people a quick explanation puts them in their place and you get mad respect after.  Usually. There’s always the rare case that it doesn’t, and usually it just means those people are jealous.  It sucks, but it happens.

And then there are my all time favorite people.  The “Oh hey, that’s your body? This is my body! How cool it is that we have bodies.” Those are the people you meet who don’t care at all what you look like. Who never make a comment about your size or their size in comparison.  They’re the best kind of people because you can just coexist in a world without needing to feel self conscious.  I wish there were more people like this in the world!

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I’m in no way trying to complain about this stuff here.  I don’t want this to come off as some rant about “skinny girl problems”. These are just things that I think as women (and men) we should talk about more often.  We should talk about how our bodies make us feel and how other people make us feel about our bodies.  We all have different journeys to being our best selves and we all have barriers in getting there.  For me, it’s been a lot to do with my body image.  Talking about it, helps to fix the problem.

So what’s the take away message here? 1. If you’re losing weight don’t be surprised when you don’t see food the same way anymore, it’s not a bad thing. 2. Love yourself no matter what you look like. 3. Be careful how you speak to other people.  You never know what they are going through or have been through.

Let me know about things you didn’t know about getting healthy in the comments below! And let me know if you want to hear more personal stories like this in the future.

Until next time,

Kat

DIY Sugar Scrub

I have talked numerous times on this blog about how much I love using a sugar scrub once a week to exfoliate my skin, keep it smooth, and remove any dead skin cells.  I have recently began running out of my normal sugar scrub, a little gem I picked while I was in Hawaii, and I figured that instead of forking out the cash to buy a new container of it, I should try to make my own scrub and how I liked that.

So today, I want to share with you the sugar scrub that I made in my own kitchen and give you an idea of how you can make your own at home.

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What you’ll need

• Pot or jar to put everything in (I used a recycled pot from one of my old Lush products)
• ¼ cup sugar (Amount may vary depending on the size of your container)
• Liquid Coconut Oil
• Kukui Nut Oil
• Tea Tree oil (or other essential Oil)
• Fragrant Essential Oil (make sure it is safe for skin)

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How to put together

1. Make sure that your pot or container is clean.  Your pot can vary in size depending on how much scrub you would like to make.
   
2. Place sugar in pot. You can use normal white sugar, cane sugar, or even brown sugar if you prefer.  In my recipe I used normal white baking sugar.
   
3. Soak the sugar with Coconut oil. Make sure to stir it around so all the sugar is soaked.  Add a little extra so there is some to continuously soak the sugar.  (I used a little over ¼ of a cup)
4. Add about 2-3 tablespoons of Kukui Nut Oil. You can use more or less of this as you please.
5. Add about 10 drops of Tea Tree Oil or other essential oil
6. Because I do not like the smell of Tea Tree Oil, I used about 10 drops of a Fragrant Essential Oil (Serenity Blend) to buffer the smell of the Tea Tree Oil. Lavender, found in Serenity Blend, is also great for the skin.
7. Mix well.
8. Use on face once a week. Store at room temperature between uses.
   

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What essential oil to use

I used Tea Tree oil in my blend because it works as an anti fungal and is therefore great for fighting acne and break outs.  The Kukui nut oil is great for keeping skin moisturized, so together they are a great combination.

Other essential oils great for skin include Frankincense, Geranium, Lavender, and Neroli which are beneficial for acne prone, oily skin.  Geranium, Lavender, Myrrh, and Ylang Ylang are great for dry skin as well.   Check out this article for more information on essential oils that are good for skin care.

I found my Tea Tree oil in my local grocery store for around $6.  They also had plenty of other essential oils as well.  Some are more expensive than others, so keep that in mind when thinking of what blend you are going to use on your skin.

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Overall Review

As far how much I liked my DIY sugar scrub, I can definitely say that it worked at keeping my skin feeling exfoliated and soft.  I think next time I would use a larger gradient of sugar, maybe a larger cane sugar, just to feel like it was exfoliating more, but overall it felt a lot like my usual sugar scrub.  My face isn’t currently breaking out, so I can’t say too much for if the Tea Tree oil worked for that, but I can say that my face hasn’t broken out in the days since I used the product, so that’s good!

I was afraid that the smell from the Tea Tree oil was going to linger.  Tea Tree has a very spicy, strong scent to it, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if it stayed on my skin for awhile, but it didn’t!  My face didn’t smell like Tea Tree oil at all after use, so that was a bonus.  It does not detour me at all from using Tea Tree oil again in a sugar scrub in the future.

Overall, I do prefer the scrub that I got from Hawaii, it has more natural oils in it than just the few in this and I like the smell a lot more.  But as far as a cheaper, just as effective sugar scrub is concerned, I think this works just as well or is a good alternative for in between buying scrub!

Have you ever made your own sugar scrub or body scrub?  Share your recipe in the comments below.

Until next time,

Kat

Lush Product Review

If you’re not familiar with Lush, they’re a cosmetic company that creates all hand made products from shampoos to lipstick to hair dye.  You name it, they’ve probably made it.  They also promote the fact that they do not do any testing on animals and actually aim to fight against animal testing used elsewhere.

Lush stores are located all over the US and in about 48 other countries, so they’re pretty easily accessible, but if you don’t live near a lush store, they also ship right to your door.  And because they’re located practically anywhere, the shipping fee is pretty standard.

I don’t have a Lush store in my town, so when I was out of town to see a friend, I stopped by her local store and picked up a couple of products to try for the first time.  I picked up some products similar to what I use all the time to begin with, but there is a large variety of products out there to try and I plan to expand a little next time I go.

One thing I really liked about going to the actual store was the fact that the workers there were so friendly!  They let me test whatever products I wanted to see and even explained to me what each one did and how to use it.  I got to test out more products than I even intended to buy and they didn’t even mind at all.  It made the experience so memorable and worth every second in the store.

Now to let you know how I feel about the products that I bought:

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Ocean Salt Cleanser

This product is meant to be used mostly for the face but it can also be used as an overall body scrub.  The salt in this product helps to soften and exfoliate skin by cleaning away dirt and dead skin cells.  Fresh avocado and coconut oil help to hydrate the skin and keep it soft.  This product also uses vodka and lime (which the product gets its pungent smell from) to help clear the pores of blackheads and clear blemishes and acne.

I have dry skin, almost eczema like skin, to begin with, but it’s been managed lately, so I wouldn’t have considered my skin to be sensitive, especially since I’ve never had any problems with products. I used the Ocean Salt as a face scrub a few times.  The first time it worked great, very similar to a product I was already using to exfoliate my skin, and I had no problems with it at all.  My skin felt clean and very soft, just as it was supposed to.  The second time I had a few splotches of dry skin on my face and using the salt scrub burned horribly.  They do precaution on the website, not to use this product on sensitive skin, but as I said I never considered my skin to be sensitive.  This begin said, I don’t think I would use this product as my weekly face exfoliation.

I have also used this as an all over body scrub and have been much happier with the results there.  I actually feel very clean and soft after using this on my arms and legs.  I also feel invigorated after use whether it’s because of that citrusy vodka smell, or because the product actually works to release some toxins from the body like an Epson salt would, I’m not sure but for me it seemed to work that way.  That was the thing I really liked about the product and stuck out to me the most.

The smell, the citrus vodka, is not my favorite scent, especially while it sits in my closet unused stinking up everything else in the vicinity.  I like to choose my own scents with the products that I use on my body, and a lot of the time with Lush you aren’t able to choose between scents.  However, as time as gone by I have grown fonder of the scent and now I actually enjoy it.  It’s a nice change from my usual scent of lavender and jasmine.  Overall, I don’t think I would get this product again, and instead I might try some of the other Lush scrubs.

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Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner

I actually didn’t buy this product, one of the workers at the shop gave me a small 1 oz. sample size to try out because he said that it paired well with the Ocean Salt (according to the website it pairs better with one of their body smoothies, but I love free samples no matter what).

This product is just what it sounds like, a conditioner for the body.  This works by using natural products like almond oil, cypress leaves, brazil nut oil, shea butter, argan oil (which surprisingly isn’t the first ingredient), cocoa butter, and goji berries, along with many other products that are great for hydrating the skin.  The argan oil actually helps nurture your skin as well and makes it healthier overall.  The goji berries feed your skin with antioxidants which helps to make your skin healthier as well.

I used this product as a basic moisturizer, just using it when I came out of the shower after using the Ocean scrub.  I’ve liked the product so far.  It leaves my skin moist and fresh for up to 24 hours which is pretty impressive.  And a small amount goes a long way use wise.  I’ve only used a very small portion of my sample and I’ve gotten a handful of uses out of it.   Turns out though, it should be used as a normal conditioner would be used, you rinse your skin, apply the conditioner, and then rinse it off.  I’ve done this with the product once or twice and it works with very similar results as using it without rinsing it off.  My skin still feels soft and smells great.  However, I do feel like using it in the conditioner fashion requires more product to be used at one time in order for the “lather-like” form they show on the Lush videos to be seen.    I think the product can be used either way though.

As far as smell goes, this product again has just one sent that it comes in.  This one being a rose floral smell.  It smells very fresh and clean and it lasts as long as the conditioner does.  It’s not my favorite smell ever, but I do enjoy a slight floral smell, so I can’t complain too much.  I would probably purchase this product again.

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Butterball Bath Balm

I have always wanted to try a bath bomb from Lush ever since I found out they made them.  They looked like so much fun!  I was a little conservative with my first bath bomb, I wanted to try it out but was a bit cautious when it came to a fun color or fun use for a bomb.  Plus, I was traveling and didn’t want to be too attached to the bath bomb in case something happened and it got broken up completely.  So I kept it simple and bought the butterball bath balm (say that five times fast).

The butterball bath balm is supposed to keep your skin soft while you bathe and is great for long baths that can dry out your skin otherwise.  As the bomb sizzles away in the bath chunks of cocoa butter are released which help to moisturize your skin while you soak.  It also has a strong vanilla fragrance which helps to sooth your mind and body as you soak.

I loved to watch the bath bomb fizzle in the bath water (I took a video of it to show you, but wordpress won’t upload it).  Since the ball is simply white there wasn’t much of a show, but it was still fun to listen to it sizzle away and grow smaller.

As far as the bath went, I didn’t really notice that my skin was that much softer, but then again I don’t suffer from severely dry skin all over my body (just my face surprisingly enough).  However, I loved the smell and I was very relaxed as I soaked.

I think next time I buy a bath bomb I am going to be a little more adventurous and try a fun color or shape!

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I really do like Lush products and what Lush stands for.  Most of the ingredients found in these products are all natural, which I am all for, and the products work well.  There is such an array of different products to try that it could take awhile to find the perfect products just for you.  It’s definitely worth the testing though because I don’t think there is an all bad Lush product out there!  I can’t wait to try more.  I might even get adventurous and try some of their makeup products.

What are some of your favorite Lush products?  What should I try out next?  Let me know below.

Until next time,

Kat

Moku Pua Product Review

Over the summer, I took a cruise through the Hawaiian Islands, a graduation present from my parents.  On this trip, I was lucky enough to get to experience not only the Hawaiian culture, but also learn about some of their all natural products and life views.

While on the island of Maui, I was able to visit the Maui Tropical Plantation.  There, I got to take a tour of the plantation where they grow all sorts of fruits and vegetables and I even got to sample some.  I also got the chance to go to the small soap shop, Moku Pua, which was located inside the plantation.  At this shop, they make and sell their own soap, body wash, body butter, bath bombs, and a variety of other products.  The best part is that they make them all nature with oils from locally grown fruits and nuts and keep out as many damaging chemicals as humanly possible.  That means no parabeans, sulfates, or formaldehyde in any of their products!  And everything comes in recyclable containers, so it is all environmentally healthy.  While there, I got to test out some of the products that they sell there, not because I’m a blogger but because they let ALL of their customers try a variety of their products, and I even bought some too.

Despite the large variety of different products they have ranging from soap to diffusers (you can imagine how hard of a time I had deciding what to buy) I ended getting their Island Gift set which included a bar of soap, a purse size (1 oz.) of body butter, and a 4 oz. jar of exfoliating sugar scrub.  I also got a container of scented bath salts.  All of these products I would like to review for you today.

All their products come in a range of scents from vanilla to toasted coconut to even no scent at all.  I bought all my scents (Besides the bath salts which I got a variety of) in Plumeria Jasmine, but you can see the full list of fragrances here:  http://mokupua.com/products/fragrances/

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Body Butter

Of the products that I bought here, the body butter is probably my least favorite, although not to say I didn’t like it at all.  I still loved it.  Before my visit to this shop, I had been using a body butter I found at the local drug store that I had liked very much, however it did not have the all natural seal of approval, so I was more than happy to try something new.

1 oz. purse sized body butter

This body butter works great overall.  It spreads well, covers nicely, and it leaves my skin soft and smooth for hours!  But no wonder it does that considering it’s made with avocado oil, almond oil, macadamia nut oil, jojoba oil, kukui nut oil (which I will talk about in depth sometime on this blog), mango butter, and shea butter!  Talk about all natural!  Those aren’t the type of products you are going to find in your normal body butter, trust me.

In fact, let’s look at what’s in this product compared to what I had been using.

The first five ingredients of what I had been using (Village Naturals body butter):  purified water, coconut oil, glycerin, isopropyl palimiate, cetearyl alcohol (and the list doesn’t get much better from there).  There is nothing all natural about that!

The first five ingredients of Moku Pua’s product: Aloe, Purified water, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, emulsifying wax (And the rest of the products are all the oils and butter I had stated earlier with glycerin being one of the last ingredients used).

Which would you rather put on your skin? For me, the answer is easy

However, there is one thing I did not like about this product.  I found with my small sized body butter that the consistency of it seemed a little chunky.  It wasn’t as smooth as the body butters that I was used to.  It still worked fine though.  That being said, my mother bought a large size in the vanilla scent that the shop had, and upon using her product I have not found the same problem.  So, I’m not really sure if it was just an issue with that batch, everything being homemade I can see how that could happen, or maybe it was just because it was a smaller sized container?  I definitely would still buy this product again though.  It is great to even just have the small size to carry in my purse in case I need to moisturize while I am out and about.

Large 8 oz. Body Butter

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Hand Soap

I am not usually a bar soap kind of girl because I feel like it always leaves a residue on my hands and I do not like that at all.  Plus, sometime I have no idea what they make soap out of. I’ve heard horror stories of animal fats being used.  Ew.  So, when I got the hand soap in my island gift pack, I wasn’t sure I was going to try it.  But boy, was I glad I did!

Made with coconut oil, canola, castor and kukui nut oil (again something you will soon learn about), this product actually leaves my skin completely soft and residue free after washing!  I have never had a soap that leaves me feeling so clean and refreshed before!  Plus, there are no weird animal fats or mysterious products used.  I understand completely what each and every one of these ingredients is and I know where they come from which is ever cooler.  This is a product that I without a doubt will buy again.

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Exfoliating Sugar Scrub

I had never used a sugar scrub before in my life aside from when I would go get a pedicure, so when I tested this product in the store I was really excited about it.  Sugar scrubs are supposed to exfoliate your skin and are great for your pores.  They can be used all over the body, or, as the woman at the store assured me multiple times, are gentle enough to be used on the face about once a week.

4 oz sized sugar scrub (4 oz only sold in gift sets).

And that is what I do.  I use this product once a week on my face (I have naturally dry skin and an occasional break out here and there so my skin could always use the extra boost).  After use, my skin feels so natural.  It’s soft and fresh, and my skin just looks so natural and pure after use.  And it doesn’t take too much product to get this result.  I use maybe a teaspoon at a time on my face and that’s more than enough to get the effect I need!  Given a 4 oz. bottle, there’s more than enough to get me through at least six months of use, if not more!

Approximately the amount used for one facial.

So what’s in this product that makes it so awesome? Well, it’s just cane sugar that sits in all nature oil.  In fact, I am going to share the entire list of ingredients with you because it’s so amazing how easy and natural this product is:  Hawaiian Cane sugar, Coconut oil, Macadamia nut oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Grape Seed Oil, Olive Oil, Vitamin E, Aloe Vera, Essential oil and/or Fragrance oil.  No chemicals at all!  Plus, if I’m not mistaken the cane sugar comes straight from the plantation the shop is built on!

This product overall, is a must have for me and I never plan to go without it!  Also, just as a side note, it’s completely eatable and tastes pretty great (I only licked some accidently I promise!)  Just saying.

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Bath Salts

I am going to review this product even though it is not available on the online store (I think you can still get it at the actual shop though).  However, you can buy a similar product which is the bath bombs.  They do the same things and I actually think they are made the same way and just packaged differently for shipping purposes.

Remember when you were younger and you made those little colored sand arts?  You know where you layered the different sand colors in the different shaped containers?  When I walked into the shop there was an entire table set up with bath salts and containers to do just that!  So instead of doing it with sand, you were doing it with the product that you were going to buy and eventually use.  It didn’t matter what shape you got, or which scents and colors you got, it was all the same price.  I picked a simple shape since I was traveling with it, and stuck with the purple and pink colors since those were generally the jasmine scents (jasmine is one of my all time favorite smells!)

Bath salts and recyclable container.

The bath salts work to nourish and moisturize your skin due to coconut oil, fix damaged and dry skin using Kaolin Clay, and most importantly use Epsom salts to pull toxins from the body and help soothe tired and sore muscles.

I don’t use my bath salts on a regular basis mostly because I don’t take baths a lot because, let’s be honest, sometimes it can be a chore compared to a shower.  Instead, I use them on special occasion particularly if I’ve had a really long, tiring work week and am feeling sore or stiff.  I use about two tablespoons at a time in my bath water (with the bath bombs you would just use the entire thing I assume) and soak for a half an hour or so.  I come out of the bath feeling relaxed, less tense, and a lot less sore!

I’ve even used it once when I went out to a dinner and ate way too much food that wasn’t particularly healthy for me and therefore I was feeling extremely gross and bloated.  I drew a bath, put in some bath salts, and took a nice long soak hoping that the bath salts would draw out all the toxins I had retained.  And through some amazing magic, it worked!  I felt great afterwards!  No more bloating, or at least not feeling bloated, and I felt much more comfortable.

I know plenty of people who make their own bath salts, but this product has some extra scent, and added bonuses such as the clay that makes it that much more unique compared to something that can be made at home.  I know when I run out of this product I am going to be sad, so I plan to stock up on plenty of bath bombs because they work so similarly.

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So now that I’ve raved on and on about these all natural Hawaiian products, you might be thinking if these products are really worth it or if you should keep using what you’re using.  The way I look at it is that our skin is one of the most important parts of our body.  Not only is it that thing that literally everyone sees on us, but it’s also our first line of defense for diseases and other toxins.  So we should definitely take good care of our skin, nay, we should SPOIL our skin.  So why would you put products that have loads of chemicals and other ingredients you aren’t familiar with or know where they come from on your skin?  If you can use all nature products on your skin where you understand all the ingredients and know exactly where they came from, wouldn’t that make more sense?  I think so!

So how can you get your hands on these products if they’re all the way in Hawaii?  They ship literally everywhere.  But is it expensive?  If you’re inside the US, then shipping prices are pretty comparable.  For example for them to ship to me, it runs between $5 and maybe $15 depending on the size of the package they have it send. In my opinion, it’s definitely worth it especially considering some of these products last for months.  If you’re outside of the US, then shipping prices are around $24 minimum, so I understand if you think that’s a little pricey, so that’s completely up to you.

I’ll leave you with the website here: http://mokupua.com/ and you can peruse and look at all their products for yourself.

Let me know if you buy any of the products and what you think of them.

Until next time,

Kat

NaNoWriMo update:  When this post goes up, it will be day 13 of NaNoWriMo and I am currently at the halfway point. So overall I’m a couple days ahead of schedule and going strong.  Let’s hope it keeps up!!!

For the Ladies: Why do I retain water when I’m on my period?

Recently a co-worker of mine was telling me about how she always ends up gaining 2-3 pounds right before and during her period.  She wasn’t worried about it, because most women experience these conditions during their periods, but she was curious as to why it happens.  So I broke out some of my old biology texts, did some digging online, and have come up with some potential reasons for why this happens.

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Why do we retain water during menstruation?

To understand why we retain water when we are menstruating, we must first understand our ovarian and menstrual cycles.

The Ovarian Cycle (legacy.owensboro.kctcs.edu)

Stage 1 is known as the follicular phase.  This is when the ovary follicles begin to develop.  During each cycle, 1000 or so growing follicles are lost, however those that continue to grow fill the antrum.  Out of all of these follicules, one is selected to go to full maturity, the others are discarded.  The important thing to note during this phase is that the growth is stimulated by FSH (a hormone) and estrogen secreted by the follicules.  Estrogen secretion rates actually decrease during this phase before finally slowly increasing as the follicle continues to grow before ovulation.

Stage 2 is the Luteal Phase.  During this phase, the wall of the follicle ruptures causing a flow of antral fluid which carries an oocyte to the ovary’s surface.  This follicle then transforms into a glad cell called the corpus luteum which secrets estrogen and progesterone causing a rise in LH (another hormone) levels.  The oocyle enters the uterine tube and if not fertilized, the corpus luteum degenerates to a scar tissue called corups albicans.  During the end of this phase, estrogen and progesterone levels decrease.

This decrease in estrogen and progesterone triggers, the menstrual cycle marked first by its menstrual phase (stage 3).  During this phase the dead tissue of the uterus causes the lining of the uterus to shed.  This is when we actively bleed. Then, during stage 4, the Proliferative phase, the uterus renews itself preparing to restart the cycle (Stanfield).

We only talk briefly about the actual menstrual cycle because most of the things we want to note happen during the ovarian cycle.  The most important thing to note here is the hormone changes that take place during the follicular and luteal phase.  Researchers believe that this is the main cause to many of the changes females experience while on their period.

Ovarian cycle, body temps. and hormone cycles during menstruation. Note the changes in Estradiol (estrogen) seen in orange along with the hormones LH (blue) and FSH (green). (sportsmd)

This constant change in LH, estrogen, and progesterone cause many hormonal changes during menstruation (which I probably don’t have to tell you about!) Researchers believes that because of the estrogen changes during the luteal stage, our bodies respond by retaining fluid in the feet, hands, legs, and as we all experience, the abdomen.

However, the cause of fluid retention could also be as simple as dehydration during menstruation.  Many women do not drink enough water to properly hydrate their bodies while they are on their period.  During dehydration the body retains water in order to save what water it has available (Period Vitamin).

Please note that there is still debate as to the exact reason women retain water while on their period, and the answers given here are not definitive.  As more research is done, more definite answers will come about.

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What else can cause weight gain during your period?

Again, we can’t be completely certain what the cause of weight gain during menstruation is, but some reports claim that because of the gas build up during menstruation bloating can occur.  This is most likely because women are less active during the early stages of their period.

And you know those food cravings you have during your period?  That is due to the changes in your metabolism during your ovarian and menstrual cycle.  This can cause increased sodium and sugar consumption which can cause additional weight gain.  So maybe it’s finally time to ignore those cravings for chocolate cake when on your period! (Period Vitamin)

Finally, it is important to note that hormones and genetics play a role in how you gain weight during your period.  Everyone’s body is different.  Your hormones act differently than your friends’ or neighbors’, so you may gain weight or lose weight differently than others.

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What should you do to combat the weight gain?

• Drink more water to stay hydrated.
• Increase Magnesium consumption during your period to fight the additional glucose in the body.
• Decrease sodium intake while on your period.
• Take iron and multivitamins when menstruating
• Stay active, especially in the early phases of your period.

I hope you’ve found this article interesting and helpful.  Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Until next time,

Kat

Sources:  Period Vitamin website: http://www.theperiodvitamin.com/water-retention-during-period.html

Stanfield, C.L. (2013). Principles of Human Physiology.  Pearson. 5: 649-654.