2017 !

And finally we are in 2017! I know that each time we say that but time flies. And I remember last new year’s eve like if it were yesterday!

Maybe it is because it has been a very busy year. I  moved out, I have slowly settled in my new job, I surfed in Morocco for one week, I ran my first races, I met incredible people and I finished the year with a new boyfriend. It was therefore a very positive year although tough since France has been impacted by several terrorist attacks.

2017 seems quite challenging : with my new boyfriends, we are already discussing plans and although I would never have done that with the previous men I met, with him, it seems natural. We are going to travel to Spain for a week-end in March and for one week in Croatia in May. We are also thinking about a big trip either to Namibia or to South America. And if everything goes well between us, we might take a further step…

I have also some personal plans that I would like to put in place: starting a new LLM, maybe settling in Spain for couple of months and passing my horse whisperer exams that I have postponed for years now. But most importantly, I am starting to have a better ecologic lifestyle. Although not perfect at all and if I look at the travels I want to do, my footprint will be quite high only with the flights, I have slowly started to reduce my waste. I have stopped purchasing fast fashion. That means no more Zara or H&M for a while. Two days ago, I purchased some cashmere gloves because my gloves from Uniqlo were dying. I bought them at Eric Bompard and you can see the difference of quality by just looking at them. I won’t say that Uniqlo is bad, I have several cashmere sweater that are resisting quite well but the gloves are not really well made compared to their cashmere sweater.

Finally, I will take care of my health more. I don’t sleep enough and with this new person in my life, it has been a struggle to find the right balance as we are not living together (and he lives at the other side of Paris on top of that). It meant a lot of back and forth between our two flats and a lot of organization. Slowly we are finding our way but  it is still work in progress!

I am always very optimistic at the beginning of the year. You always feel that everything is possible again. But I know that it will be a very busy year. So I am trying to get ready for it with the best possible health!

Happy new year again! And let’s do a mid-year review this summer!

 

How to survive end of the year holidays

Merry Christmas!

The next day after celebrating Christmas Eve, I woke up and felt so full. We always eat a lot for Christmas but this year, I almost didn’t eat the next day because of the fat I asked my body to take one. As I am a huge fan of natural treatments, here are some little tips to survive a heavy Christmas dinner:

SLEEP

The best medicine ever is to get plenty of sleep

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY 

If your body tells you not to eat, don’t force yourself to get something to eat

DRINK

I am not referring to alcohol but rather to water and herbal tea. I used this wonderful herbal tea that helped my stomach a lot :

GO OUT

Go out for a walk, take some fresh air. In one word, move! I am not referring to run or to train but to move your body to put it back on tracks.

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

Take a bath with essential oils, do a facial mask, meditate. Take it slowly that day!

THINK OF NATURAL TREATMENTS

Mint essential oil is good for your stomach. So is Curcuma or Ginger.

EAT LIQUID

You ate a lot of food and your stomach worked a lot so in order to relieve it, make yourself a smoothie for breakfast and some soups for dinner.

I cooked myself a Ginger pumpkin soup which was delicious, nutritious and was helping my stomach to digest the food from the day before by not making it work too much.

Next step is New Year’s Eve !

Add some green in your life

A small post on how to add some green in your life with really simple steps.

And let’s start in the bathroom!

Cotton pads

I used to use about four cotton pads a day to remove my make up and clean my skin. I was really fed up to use all those cotton pads that will just end in the trash, that have only one use and are trashing the planet (and I was part of that system). Due to the fact that I have a very dry skin, I couldn’t just use water and soap to clean my face. So I needed to find another solution. I am a huge fan of mondebio.com where I can shop my organic beauty product. I found out that they sell reusable cotton pads. I started with three and then decided to purchase additional ones to be able to have enough cotton pads before the next laundry. Because what is interesting with them is that you do not throw them away, you just wash them at 60 C° with your laundry and then  let them dry. And it is very soft for teh skin.

Soaps

When I lived in Germany, my skin suffered a lot due to the weather (very dry) and the lot of stress I was suffering from my failing relationship. I always had eczema, it was never really treated, doctors just gave me some cream to apply on my skin when eczema was popping up. So I was treating the consequence but not the cause. My eczema got worse in Germany. I got eczema almost every where on my body: on my hands, on my neck, on my arms. Before paying another visit to the doctor, I decided to look for natural treatment and found out that Alep soap is recommended when you suffer from eczema. I had nothing to lose so I ordered mine online and since then, I have religiously use it to wash under the shower. First thing, my eczema disappeared. Until today, I have almost no eczema. Secondly, Alep soap comes with no packaging and I always choose the most natural one with only oil and Laurel oil (at least 20%). At that time, I was not interested in saving the planet, just saving my skin. But I did both with one stone !

Argan oil

I have talked a lot about Argan oil before. All my body loves it: my hair, my body skin and my face. I used to put some Argan oil instead of cream on my face. Now I only use it on my face during the night, on my hair every day and on my body as well. I also add some on my lips when I can’t find my lip balm. I have a very dry skin from head to toe. It has always been the case. And I put a lot of different products from very different sources. When I was surfing in Morocco, Argan oil was the norm. Everybody there uses Argan oil, including the men and especially the surfer. It preserves your skin from dryness and makes a great after sun lotion. No need to buy sophisticated products, just buy a bottle of Argan oil!

In a relationship

 

That took me five years to find the right person. Yes, five years. I was in a relationship for 9 years so I knew that I could be in a relationship. But I couldn’t find the right person.

Was it because I was working my ass off? Was it because I was not in the mood? Was it because I was not ready yet?

I think it is a n´mix of everything. When I look back at those 5 years of dating men, all of them were not bad but I could not express a real interest for them. I was also looking for the perfect man: I had an idea in my mind of what the perfect man for me should be: older, wealthier, a traveler, older than me etc… And I think that this is the main issue: like I had an idea of the perfect me which was fake and unreachable, I made the mistake to do the same with the man I wanted to share my life wife. I wanted him to be perfect. And of course, I didn’t find him because none of us are perfect.

So how it happened? I don’t really know except that this year I decided to take risks and to travel on unknown roads. And to date men who did not meet my standards. And it worked. I have been in a relationship for about two months and I am truly happy with this person. But you know what? He is totally imperfect: he is a bit younger, he has traveled less than me, he is not wealthy, but I don’t care at all. Because we really get along and this is priceless!

And the most interesting part is that it could not have happened if I had not spent those 5 years dating other men and asking myself questions, it could  not have happened if I had not started a therapy, it could not have happened if I had not changed my job. Those 5 years have been hard but have been a real life lesson. I wouldn’t change anything even for the sad moments, because I grew so much. It is in the hard times that you learned the best lessons, because it challenges your believes.

Of course, I have no idea how this relationship will evolve but I know one thing: for once, I feel good and calm with a man and that is definitely a big win for me! So don’t lose faith, don’t think that you will spend your life all alone. Just try to see things under another angle, to see men differently. And take some risks when you think a man worth it.

And more importantly: there is no obligation to be in a relationship contrary to what the society or the media are telling you. I have been single for a long time, but I was not unhappy and frustrated. I loved my life back then and I had a lot of fun! Being single is not a curse, it is not a status by default. It can also be a life choice that, like any personal choice, should be respected.

Cheers

C.

Natural shampoo

So I am back with a natural shampoo recipe. I have curly hair even if it is less and less curly (it seems that the nature of your hair changes with time…). I use to use a lot of different shampoos for dry and damaged hair until I decided to make my own shampoo.

The question was how? I have a lot of natural products that I keep in my bathroom but I had never tried my own shampoo. After having looked for recipes on internet I made my own and was very surprise about the result. I used it first like a mask and then washed my hair under the shower. The result is the same as making a shampoo directly from a bottle except that there is no bottle (so no plastic) and that you know all the ingredients in it. Here is my recipe :

• Rhassoul : Two tablespoons
• Honey: Two tablespoons
• Argan oil: one tablespoons
• Lemon essential oil: five drops
• Water

I started mixing first the rhassoul with water and honey, then I added the Argan oil and the lemon essential oil as any essential oils only mix in vegetable oil. Then I put directly the mixture on my dry hair and let it pause for 30mn.

Once completely dried, I put a bit of water to humidify the mixture and scrubbed my scalp with it. I rinsed my hair like I would have done with a normal shampoo and that was it. I didn’t use a conditioner (which is quite unusual) simply because my hair was enough moisturized with this natural shampoo. I let it dry and I have to say that it was just perfect!

My hair reaches my shoulders so if you have longer or shorter hair, you may adapt the quantity for each ingredients. I was not believing that natural shampoo would actually work until I created my own. And my hair is not easy…Rhassoul is definitely a good way to clean your hair gently and if you had ingredients that will fit your hair according to its nature, you may be surprised by the result!

Some changes…

I have been away on that website for quite a lot of time but that was for good reasons. The main one is that I met someone and I am spending more and more time with him. The second reason is that I thought about the direction I wanted that blog to take that should correspond to the direction my life is taking.

I have been thinking a lot about my consumption and I am not very happy about the way I spend my money. I love fashion and I have spent quite a lot of money in fashion this year. But now that I am reaching somehow my optimum closet (with my last purchase being a JCrew Blazer), I don’t want to spend my paycheck in bags, make-up and clothes. So there will be less discussions about fashion on this blog even if this is an area that I am really interested in. And more about environment, sustainability and how to spend less. It will be more about enjoying life and less about spending your money.

Maybe I am just following a trend but I don’t think so and since I have less time with this new person who has entered into my life, I want to focus on what is really important to me. And what is important to me today is how I spend my life and not what I spent during the month.

I am not changing my life completely. This kind of 360° changes never work, at least for me. But I am inserting some new components little by little, like removing plastic from my kitchen or going back to the kitchen to cook more. One good thing: my new boyfriend loves the way I cook!

I will be back soon with the new articles that reflect those changes. And I hope you will like it. But more importantly for me is that I feel like little by little I a back to being myself. It is a very long process that started two years ago and that is still going on until now. Or more importantly, I am rediscovering myself.

Talk to you soon!

Mid Year review

I was on holidays until last week and didn’t find the time to write. Now that I am fully back, here I am again writing. It is time to do a mid-year review. To be honest, that year has been already pretty full and I am really happy about all the challenges I have met, all the progress I have made and all the new people that have come to my life. I am living a very positive moment right now like I was finally happy with who I am and with my current situation. Have I finally reached some kind of serenity? I don’t know but those days have been happy days.

It is also a time where you do mid-year review on your objectives at work. I thought it would be great to do a mid-year review on my personal objectives:

1. Run: I run now and did my first race in September last week. My time was not that good but not that bad neither and for somebody who never runs before, it is quite an achievement!
2. Surf: I went back surfing in Morocco and loved both the surfing (but this I knew already) and the country (and his people). I have seldom been that welcomed in a country! Highly recommended but I believe that my next surfing destination will be Portugal next summer.
3. Russian: I will take my first classes of Russian next week. I have always been passionate by this country and its history. I work a lot with Russia right now and it feels totally normal to me to deepen my understanding of that country by starting Russian classes.
4. Yoga: I have applied to the yoga medicine teacher training and have been accepted! I will start next year and will attend it in Spain
5. Work: I am transitioning to a new direction at work. I have been a commercial counsel for 10 years now and I feel the need to do something different, not entirely different but to explore a new side of my job. I have a meeting on Monday to discuss a possible new master at a French university which is really exciting to me!
6. Nutrition: I have started to be completely obsessed by nutrition due to the fact that I had a stomach issue this summer. Now I am lactose free and gluten free and so far so good. But that means that I need to delete a lot of food from my diet such as cheese for example… I thought I could never do it but guess what? I can.

I still need to improve on a lot of things:

1. Meditation: I have completely dropped my meditation practice but will get back to it now
2. Wardrobe: almost there. I still need a few pieces more to have the closet I was dreaming of.
3. My back: I have back issues due mainly to my posture and horse riding. I can’t quit horse riding so I will need to do something about my posture then!
4. Reading: still need to read more books. I am always reading 4 books at the same time, maybe that is why I have troubles to finish one!
5. Photography: completely dropped photography as well :-(. I don’t feel like it anymore. Don’t know why although it is still an art I enjoy…

I still have a lot to do before the end of this year, but I am on the right track. Hopefully, I can manage all my objectives and finish the year on a very bright note. But definitely, this year has brought so much light already, I am really thankful for all the experiences it brought to me.

 

A new diet

I am passionate about food but recently, for a reason I do not really know, I started having regular stomachache and one day it was so strong that it prevented me from going to work. I felt during the whole day very weak and tired. I still don’t know what really happened but it is not the first time it happens to me.

Some time ago, I bought Clean by Alejandro Junger. I didn’t know what to expect but I thought that reading about nutrition would peak my interest. And I was right. Although I didn’t follow at the time what he recommended, his thoughts about nutrition stayed somewhere in my mind. I have several cases n my family of stomach cancer and I always thought that although, there is certainly a genetic path there, the way my relatives were eating also helped the cancer  develop in their body. And when a new stomachache crisis raised again, I went back to the book.

I am a big fan of dairy like many French. All our pastries are with butter, we even cook with butter. My heart belongs to cheese, although I know for a while that I am lactose intolerant and that it is killing me slowly, but surely. When I read the book again and found out that I had to remove dairy from my diet, I was almost crying. Then I continued reading it and saw that I had to remove gluten as well as sugar. So I gave away the food that was packed in my kitchen to friends and went to the supermarket. The thing is that sugar like gluten is everywhere even in products that do not need sugar. I found sugar is mustard. Sugar is a cheap conservative and the food industry puts sugar everywhere it can. So is gluten. And dairy.

That means that I had to cook most of my meals. I was already cooking quite a lot but sometimes, when coming home late, I was just grabbing a piece of cheese with some bread and Voilà! Now, I will have to think seriously about what I was putting into my body. I also bought some proteins shake for my morning’s shake, unconvinced that it would be good for me. I looked for raw chocolate without sugar and found some vegan chocolate which was really good. Surprisingly. I had  all kind of prejudices against vegan products and although this diet allows meat and fish, it also showed me that vegan products are not only for grass eaters and can also be tasty.

More importantly is my reasoning behind. Before going to the doctor and asking for medicine, I wanted to try to heal my body naturally. I have been following this CLEAN diet for one week now and so far so good. No more stomachache and fat stomach. And it forces me to cook quite a lot. I haven’t missed cheese so much which was a surprise as I am a real cheese lover. I may have little pieces of Parmesan on my pasta tonight because it is really low with lactose but I am not even sure.

I am off in one week going to Morocco to surf so following strictly my diet with no gluten, no dairy, will be difficult. But I am convinced that the first step to health goes through food and not through medicine that can only solve the problem temporary except in case of serious illness such as a cancer. In any case, this diet is far more healthy than what I was eating before. So in any case, this is a good change!

 

Discoveries

A new brand

I have known Vanessa Seward when she was working for Azzaro. Then she had a collection at APC for several seasons. She has now launched her brand and what I can say is that it is stunning! Really nice materials, nice cuts, very feminine and elegant. The prices are expensive but reflect the quality of the clothes so you could see that as an investment. I have bought a coat during the Sales for 50% off the price. It came in a very nice box, with a protection, all the options that make me say that it is not mass market. The A/W collection is now out and I have seen some really nice pieces such as these great boots.

A new lipstick

I love lipsticks and as already said my favorite are Chanel ones. But I also saw that Dior was doing colored lip-balm and wanted to try one. I chose the Lys Rouge color and was very surprised by the texture. Usually before applying lipstick, I put lip balm due to the fact that I have very dry lips. But with that balm, no need. It is rich enough to keep your lips moisturized and the color is quite rich even for a balm. I also use the 8 Hour colored balm from Elizabeth Arden but the color is not as rich as the Dior one. For women who are looking for color and care, this is the perfect option.

A new movie

I just came back from the cinema where I went to see Colonia. I had not read the script and did not know what it was about although I knew that it took place in Chile during Pinochet dictatorship. Emma Watson is playing in that movie and I was surprised to see that she was quite good in it. I didn’t know anything about Colonia Dignidad and the horror as well as the terrified atmosphere is quite well described. As usual in religious communities, women are described as whores who have to purify themselves from the devil. The bad treatments that these women have to go through are just unbearable and unacceptable. Women were not the only victims. Men as well and children were separated from their parents and when old enough,  raped by the guru of the place. Charming environment that also serves as a secret torture place were prisoners were kept and tortured under Pinochet’s regime.  The last minutes made me think of Argo. You don’t know if they will escape or not (and I won’t tell you). The film was not a success and it is a bit sad but this is the treatment of any movies that is out in summer and which is not about super heroes…

One year ago

I have noticed that my life has changed since last year. Last year at that time, I had quit my job in the crazy environment I was working for 4 years and I was preparing my trip to Bali. This year, I have just moved out and have moved in my new flat which is still work in progress.

But the biggest change is that I have never been so peaceful and happy. I like my work and the place where I work. I like my colleagues, I have a very good relationship with my manager and I am happy to come to work everyday. And this is priceless. During the last 4 years I spent struggling in my last job, I totally forgot that feeling : feeling Ok in one place. And now I am. I am thriving and it had not happened to me for almost 5 years. What a pity!

I won’t say that those four years of struggle were unnecessary because I learned a lot from them but I would never come back to that place even for the best salary in the world. In fact, since I left, I haven’t put my feet into these offices again whereas I had several lunches with my former colleagues. This is, for me, a place of suffering, a place where even if I met great people, will always mean struggle and anger. And therefore, I can’t go there anymore. I also don’t want to go because I have moved on. It is part of my past now.

Although, this year I won’t go to a fancy place such as Bali as all my money went and is going to my flat, I am OK to stay in Paris for the summer. I know that next year will be filled with new adventures. I am thinking about Japan, Korea, Lapland, Balkans, I still need to choose. Meanwhile, I am enjoying practicing yoga, riding my horse, arranging my new flat and seeing my friends. This is my life now and I like it !

One big step forward as well is that I will train as a yoga teacher next year. I have applied and have been accepted to do a 200 YTT at yogamedicine. I have been thinking about YTT since I started yoga and I am finally ready. Little by little, I am creating a life that looks like the one I truly want. For quite a long time, I had designed my life according to other people’s choices: my parents, my boyfriend, my friends, my society. I was doing those choices because it pleased others but I was never thinking about me. My first step was to buy Mid Night, my beautiful baby horse (well not a baby anymore). I was also feeling frustrated for a long time because the life I created was not the one I wished for. I wanted everything RIGHT NOW. I hadn’t understood that it takes time to truly shape the life you want.

In one year, I have achieved a lot. I am finally healthy and happy. And all of that was triggered by a choice that changes my life: changing my job. Sometimes you are just one step away from happiness but you don’t realize it.

One advice if I may : I won’t say that you always have to quit your job but if your job or anything else is the source of your issues and that you have done everything to fix it and it still does not work, maybe it is time to pack and to go. I have learned that leaving is not a failure, it is sometimes the only solution that you have left.

C.