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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Arbonne: Skin Care's Best Kept Secret

Sometimes people ask me to review products and if they're a good fit I will do it and give my honest opinion. Other times I just get so worked up about a product that I just HAVE to share. This is one of those times. This is an unsolicited review about a product line I have recently come to LOVE.

I worked so hard this past year on my fitness and my health that it only made sense I should also try and take better care of my skin. Let me introduce you to Arbonne skin care and cosmetics. I say "introduce" because I recently heard a stat that only 1% of women had ever heard of the brand. It's one of those love it or haven't heard of it companies. Once you've tried their products, you're a fan.

Their entire line is developed around three words: Pure. Safe. Beneficial. There is a lot of great stuff to say about the company, but I'll try and capture the things I value most for brevity's sake. You can check out more about the company here.

Arbonne products are Vegan certified, i.e. the formulas are never tested on animals and do not contain animal derived ingredients or animal by-products.

All the personal care products are made from premium botanical ingredients and formulated without animal products or animal by-products, formaldehyde donating preservatives, petroleum based ingredients, Benzene, mineral oil, petrolatum, phthalates, Toluene or PABA.
They have skin care for various age ranges, they have awesome baby care products, fantastic make-up, the Aromassentials line is to die for...I'll try and drill down to a few of my favourites but you really need to try it for yourself!


Given that next week I'm reaching the ripe old age of 35, the skin care line that best suits me is the RE9 Advanced...you know, for my advanced years. Age-related insecurities aside, this line is fantastic. The "system" includes a cleanser, toner, serum, eye cream, day cream and night cream. You don't HAVE to use the whole system - I don't use the serum as I am prone to rosacea and it is a bit strong - but the set was designed to work together. I tried to go frugal my first go around, only getting the cleanser and day cream, but my skin really does feel better now that I've worked in the toner and eye cream.


I've always been a bit of a make-up junkie. Motherhood slowed me down a bit with sleep-deprived nights and showerless days, but I still enjoy "putting on my face." Now that I'm back at work this is a daily necessity that has to happen bloody early in the morning, so I wanted to find a pretty easy routine. Enter tinted moisturizer. This stuff is the bee's knees. It way lighter than foundation so you don't look cakey, but still provides a nice evening out of any redness that might be lurking.

The tinted moisturizer does not, however, stand up to the formidable foes that are the dark circles under my eyes. Thank God for the Arbonne concealer. Even before kids, dark circles were always a problem. At least I can now blame children and not genetics, but they are mighty dark. I have tried pretty much every drug store brand concealer on the market, and the little buggers always managed to show through. The Arbonne concealer is the ONE product I have found that actually covers them, and doesn't make me feel like I'm spackling my tender under-eye area with...well, spackle.

To further banish any hint of a dark circle, I have come to love highlighter. This is something I had always seen Carmindy use on What Not to Wear, but had never tried. A little bit on the top of the cheek bone, along the brow line and just in the inside corners of the eyes and BAM! You're a bright and refreshed version of yourself and no one knows you were awakened at 3:45am by a screaming three year old having a night terror. This stuff is magic.


I could go on and on about the yummy Aromassentials line of shower gels, sea salt scrubs and lotions. It comes in Awaken and Unwind, and they are equally yummy.



To end my onslaught of love for all things Arbonne, they've recently launched their Holiday Line with new scents like Ginger Citrus and Pampermint. The best part is that they're offering mini gift sets, where you can buy five mini lotions or gels for $29. Perfect stocking stuffers...and hopefully the ladies in my family won't read this and know what's going to be in their stockings this year - the ultimate test of who's actually reading my blog!


Arbonne operates kind of like Mary Kay or Tupperware, with home parties and hostess gifts. If you're in the Vancouver/Lower Mainland area and want to host a ladies' spa party, my Arbonne rep Thyra would be happy to help you out! She's awesome and I always like supporting women with the entrepreneurial spirit. Their are gift for the hostess, hefty discounts, raffle prizes and yummy foot soaks for your guests...she makes it fun and it's a great excuse to get the girls together.

Once you've "drunk the Kool-Aid" and are hooked on Arbonne, they have a really simple online ordering system and the products get delivered right to your home within days.

It's dangerous, but it's divine. We all need a little pampering, right?


Sunday, October 24, 2010

Super Mom isn't Home Right Now...

Even though I wrote a post ages ago about how I'm NOT Super Mom and I regularly proclaim how there's no such thing and women need to be kinder to themselves, I still have this niggling little secret. I want to be Super Mom. Which is utter lunacy, because that means that somewhere deep down inside I actually believe it's possible. I still feel frustrated when I don't achieve all the things I wanted to, even if they were so far out of the realm of possibility that not even June Cleaver and a full time staff of nanny, housekeeper and gardener could have accomplished them.

So, I am forced once again to realize that I am NOT Super Mom. With one stipulation. I believe that it IS possible to be a Super Mom a little bit at a time, and on some fantastic, relaxing, my three-year-old-is-being-an-angel days, maybe even for a full 24 hours.

Another thing. Maybe we need to redefine our understanding of the word SUPER. Maybe "super" is your best on that given day. Maybe "super" is staying awake at bedtime and holding a conversation with your child when they've woken you up at 4am three days in a row. Maybe sometimes "super" just means not unleashing all your fury on the whiny kid that has just dropped the 812th pants bomb this year in his Lightning McQueen underpants when you JUST got up from the potty 30 seconds ago. "Super" is your best self in that moment. Super is taking 30 seconds to actually crouch down to your preschooler's level to talk to him and really let him know you're listening. Super is driving the extra thirteen blocks just to see the backhoe around the corner because you know it will make him happy.

Striving for Super Mom status goes to a whole new level when you're working. I started back to work this week and now I have the (very, thanks to the little man's inner alarm clock) early mornings and a short time in the evenings to cram any efforts at Super Momishness in. Plus weekends. I am very lucky and due to some longer hours each day and a shorter lunch break, I get Fridays off. It was only the first weekend of many on this new schedule, but I actually think I did pretty well.

Saturday was the little miss's first birthday. We threw a birthday/Halloween party for our closest friends and their offspring, if applicable. (Most of our friends without kids know to steer clear of these gatherings but a few braved the chaos and seemed to emerge fairly free of battle scars.) Because of the little man's sleep patterns, I was up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am. By the time the guests had arrived at 2pm I had baked, frosted and decorated cupcakes (NOT something I do on a regular basis), made hummus, cleaned the house, vacuumed, gone to the gym, done some last minute shopping, made caramel apples (with the caramel wraps, no "from scratch" caramel for this girl) and put up some more Halloween decorations. I do have to say that Mr. Awesome was particularly awesome as he was a big help in getting the place tidy, he chopped up the veggie platter and gave me some "me" time to get to the gym.

Not one to shy away from additional challenges, today I made soup (from scratch this time!) for lunch and to freeze for work, some baby food as our freezer stock was getting low, and a chicken pie for dinner. I even did some Halloween crafts with the little man. But wait.

I was feeling pretty good about my proximity to Super Mom status when the little man filled his shorts. Again. I did not handle it well. I didn't scream or yell or anything, but let's just say I could have handled the situation better than I did. I am JUST. SO. TIRED. OF. POO. We have been at this potty training thing for so long and there's no discernible light at the end of the tunnel. It's just messy underwear as far as the eye can see.

So, like I was saying, Super Mom status is something that comes and goes. For a brief time this morning I think I got there.

Maybe I can get there again for a little while tomorrow.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

A Surprising Realization and a Business Idea

This morning I had to do something that surprised me. I withdrew my application to be a Weight Watchers leader.

Being a leader was something I had been planning since I started Weight Watchers last December. I had spoken to my own leader about it a couple of times, and once I hit Lifetime I took in my resume and she passed it along to the Territory Manager. Last Friday I had my interview and it went perfectly. Halfway through the meeting I was signed up for the training weekend and we were discussing potential meeting times. It really couldn't have gone better.

At one point she mentioned in passing that if I were to be away for a weekend or have to miss a meeting, it was my responsibility to find a replacement. A totally fair expectation and it makes perfect sense. But it stuck in the back of my brain and started to bug me.

It really hit me the commitment I would be making, not just to Weight Watchers but to the members in my meetings. Losing weight can be an emotional journey. There are ups and downs, celebrations and frustrations. When you join Weight Watchers, your meetings leader becomes a big part of that. You develop a relationship with your leader and they provide support and advice if you need it. I take that relationship pretty seriously, and hate the idea that one of "my" members would need me one week and I wouldn't be there. I'm sure that any replacement leader would be fabulous, but they wouldn't know the struggles or successes that member had experienced along the way. What if I missed a member reaching his or her goal? Maybe I am taking this a little TOO seriously, but that's a big deal!

Tied into that is the fact that our family does like to take off on little getaways every now and then. Mr. Awesome works for himself so it affords us a bit of flexibility and we love it. We like the ability to decide Wednesday night that we're heading up to the Okanagan on Friday afternoon. Any spontaneity would have to disappear or I would be frantically calling fill-in leaders anytime we wanted to get away. Plus the guilt I would invariably feel for "abandoning" my members would be so strong I wouldn't have any fun!

I am SO passionate about the program and believe I would be a fantastic ambassador for the company. It just so happens that the timing isn't right to make it all work for my family and our lifestyle. It's disappointing but a reality I will have to accept.

In my head I have created the perfect Weight Watchers role. I want to be a part-time Weight Watchers consultant. I want the training they provide the leaders so I know I'm armed with the best information and representing the company properly, but I want to help people on my own time. In the past few months I've had a few people contact me to chat about Weight Watchers. I've written emails with my best tips for success, I've had coffee with people to chat about ways to get past plateaus, I've had phone calls with friends to chat about the program and how I made it work for me. I LOVE doing this. I wish there was a job that allowed me to do this more regularly. I could meet people at the gym, for coffee, for walks, or just email or chat about the program and hurdles they might be facing. I love the idea of motivating people and inspiring them, helping to get to somewhere they want to be.

I'm not a personal trainer or nutritionist so I am in no way qualified to give "real" advice, but I do think I have something to offer when it comes to lifestyle tips to do with fitness and weight loss. Is there a certification program out there for this?! I have a couple of friends that are studying to become Life Coaches. I don't think I want to go that far, but what would call someone you just talk to about your weight loss journey that helps you brainstorm ideas for success? Ummm... a friend?

So, for now, I am not going to be a Weight Watchers leader. But if you ever just want to chat or go for coffee, I'm your girl. Well, I have to be honest. I'm actually going to order a Grande Nonfat Chai Tea Latte, but we can still sit together. :)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

How Much Does It Cost to Save the World?

We recycle. We use energy efficient lightbulbs. I use a manual lawn mower. We have cut parabens out of our lives. We use environmentally-friendly cleaning products. I make 95% of the little miss' baby food. I make my own deodorant, for Pete's sake.

While I'm by no means a goddess of environmental responsibilty, I do try to make smart decisions for our family. I emphasize TRY. Yes, we could live off the grid using no power, making and growing all our own food, drinking well water and making our own clothes out of cotton we pick and weave ourselves. That may work for 90's fitness maven Susan Powter, but it's just not for me.

I don't even buy organic on a regular basis (insert audible gasp). A few items here and there, but not all the time. I would love to buy all my fruits and veggies locally at a farmer's market, but sometimes the large corporate grocery store is just a lot more convenient. Sue me.

I'll be perfectly honest. It is a constant battle in my mind between cost, convenience and impact. Does the cost outweigh the environmental guilt? When it comes to health it's almost always no contest and I will pay the extra. The problem there is I'm pretty uninformed when it comes to most health risks - except for cancer. Given my employer I'm pretty up to speed on the cancer causing ingredients out there, hence the removal of parabens from our home.

Then again, there is something wrong with EVERYTHING on the grocery store shelves when you really start looking, whether the research is reliable or not. Is it certified organic or does it just say "natural" on the label? "All natural colouring" could mean it includes that red colour made from crushed up beetles. YUCK. But how do you know? And where do you draw the line?

I was recently asked to review diapers from Seventh Generation. I was familiar with the brand and their environmentally-responsible products, but have to admit I had never purchased any of them before because of price point. I'm sure ALL of their products are amazing, but unfortunately there are competing products making almost as good claims sitting right next to them on the shelf and they're half the price.

I was very curious about the diapers, however, as that's a pretty hot topic in my circle of friends. Cloth vs. disposables, the new hybrid variety like G Diapers, diaper services, the laundry, the landfills... I've done some research and given the resources used to launder cloth diapers I'm not 100% convinced there is really that much to choose between them. Where I do see a diference is between "regular" disposables and something like Seventh Generation. If we ARE going to use diapers that end up in a landfill, isn't it better to use something that is hypoallergenic, chlorine free, fragrance and latex free? Absolutely.

We tried them and were very impressed. I have this skeptical little voice inside of me that is sure these "natural" brands won't work as well. We have used Costco's Kirkland brand (do I hear another gasp?) since the little man was born and we've never had an issue. We tried the odd Pampers, Huggies, etc, but always had the best success in terms of no leakage, etc with the Kirkland brand. Seventh Generation was facing some pretty tough competition. They actually stood up very well, I have to admit. Good absorption, good containment, good fit. The only fault we found with them was the little tabs were a little harder to open in a quick change situation than their Kirkland counterparts. Definitely something I would suck up in order to have diapers that were better for my baby and the environment.

There's just one catch. They retail for between $15.99 and $18.99 per pack of 35. That's approximately 50 cents per diaper. Costco diapers come in at around 20 cents per diaper. A baby will use somewhere in the neighbourhood of 8,000 diapers over his or her lifetime, so that cost difference equals about $2,400. That's pretty significant to go from one disposable to another. Given that the most diapers are used in that first year of your baby's life, and that for most Canadian moms they're on mat leave at 55% of their income already, it makes it hard to pay over 50% more for something you throw away.

Where do you draw the line at what's worth the extra cost and what's not? If we had masses of disposable income and money was never an issue, I would absolutely pay the extra and use Seventh Generation diapers. They work really well and my conscience would be clearer. Unfortunately we're not in that magical place, so I will have to live with a guilty conscience and cheaper diapers. For now.

Friday, October 8, 2010

A Will of Iron: The Little Miss Revealed

We are so totally screwed. The little miss is a twelve year old in a one year old's body - she's a drama queen that can weep and sob with the best of them, and she's as stubborn as a mule.

She actually doesn't "cry" that often. The drama queen makes an appearance if the little man has pushed her, or if she doesn't get the attention she feels she deserves at a specific moment. Other than that, it can't really be described as crying. Yelling is the only way to describe it. And this kid is LOUD.

For the first six months I really didn't talk about her very much, let alone write about her. She slept well, she had a lovely disposition and she was the exact opposite of the whiny pooping monster in the next room. I was afraid if I talked about her it would jinx things and she would change. She hasn't changed per se, but her personality is coming out loud and clear. And this girl has some at-ti-tude.

90% of the day she's a fantastic baby, laughing a lot, rarely complaining. But when she's tired or hungry she gets downright ornery. Our friends have taken to calling her "Ida," conjuring the image of a little old lady sitting in her rocking chair yelling for people to bring her things in a voice developed over years of cigarettes and whisky, loud enough so she can hear herself over her failing hearing aid.

Even with standard menu of whining, crying, pooping, and tantrums that coming with living with a three year old, the little man has always been fairly manageable. I now know that the three-year old hell we experience with him is completely normal and in most cases we've gotten off fairly easy. We sleep trained him within a few nights and there was never any doubt that when he was left to cry he would eventually settle himself and go to sleep.

Compared to a lot of babies the little miss still is a really great sleeper, but every few nights "Ida" pays us a visit. And since we're not prone to handing over whisky and cigarettes, she's mad as hell. Where the little man would cry and then settle himself within half an hour after we've popped our heads in a couple of times, Ida will yell forever. And if we go in, it's worse. She's not even really crying, she's just mad. She's fed, she's changed, she's warm enough, she just doesn't want to be in her bed. The second I go in she stops yelling and starts smiling. And then the second I make a move to leave, the yelling starts again. Last night she yelled for over an hour and a half between 2:30am and 4:30am.

It's a good thing she's our second child. We at least had some practice before Ida moved in. We became good at tuning out the crying during sleep training, but this yelling is taking things to a whole new level. The little miss turns one on October 23rd. I'm hoping by then Ida settles in nicely at her retirement home and our little girl can just be one for a while.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Deadlines, Deadlines...

I go back to work in 12 days.

I'm not going away, I'm not changing jobs, I'm not moving houses, but for some reason I feel this deadline looming. I feel this enormous pressure to get a huge laundry list of things done before I return to work.

My continuously growing list includes everything from getting my hair coloured to planting yew trees in our front yard. Making the little miss' Halloween costume, renewing the little man's passport, fixing the fireplace draft blocker so it stays in place... Some of the things on my list have "real" deadlines, like the newspaper article I'm writing or October 31 for that darned Halloween costume. Most of the items on my list have no deadline at all, like "put fuzzy feet on the cedar trunk" so the floors don't get damaged. That, my friends, is a time-sensitive list item if I ever heard one.

It's a bit ridiculous. I will still have evenings, weekends and I even have Fridays off through an arrangement with work. Plenty of time to get things done. So why, WHY is it imperative that I "return bottle steamer to Dana" when I haven't used it since the little man was an infant three years ago and she's not even expecting a baby?! It's been in our closet since we moved two years ago and she hasn't even asked about it once. Not exactly a high priority but it's on my list of things to complete.

It's like every single outstanding detail in our lives must get done by Monday, October 18. I've always worked better with a deadline, so I suppose I am using that date as a marker to get as many of these outstanding details as possible taken care of. Will the world end if I don't get everything done? No. I am causing myself stress for absolutely no good reason.

Well, actually, I shouldn't say NO good reason. Two good things will come from my obsessive, controlling behaviour. I will have taken care of a hell of a lot of nagging items, leaving more time on my weekends and days off for my family. Second, this list and the systematic crossing off of completed items has slowly been preparing me for the return to work. Apart from the enforced routine of preschool days and soccer or swimming lessons, the past year has been pretty free of non-housework "to dos." I need some practice before I'm back at a desk!

Having this list gives me some direction for the next 12 days. I can make sure I'm using my time wisely, so I actually get stuff done while still making the most of my last days of leave with the munchkins.

Call it mommy guilt, call me a control freak, you're absolutely right.