I can’t really remember when my obsession with gua sha began.
Maybe it was a friend who suggested it or I could’ve discovered it on my own in a desperate attempt to erase the fine lines and wrinkles that were starting to appear on my face or even slightly before that.
In any case, I’m so into it!
I can’t think of anything else that’s safe and natural that could awaken the cells, promote healing, blood circulation, increase blood flow and oxygen to the skin like gua sha can!
Because of that, I’ve been diligently performing gua sha on my face everyday, morning and night, if I can manage. Or at least once a day and I love how alive I always feel after that. People always wonder why I have this glow about me, especially since I don’t really use makeup, not on my face that is.
Friends who haven’t seen me in a while never fail to notice that my face is slimmer, sharper so I’m telling you, this gua sha stuff really works!
The only thing to note though is if you’ve had surgery or botox or fillers done recently. You’d wanna avoid doing gua sha because the friction between the bian stone gua sha tool and our skin is going to cause some things to rearrange, move around and you really don’t want that.
Apart from that, gua sha is very much a natural technique to safely erase years off your face without surgery or downtime. In fact, I find that I always look younger, my skin feels tighter and my features are generally more lifted especially after I’ve done gua sha.
I hope you give it a go and follow closely the gua sha video step by step.
❤️ Always use an oven thermometer for a more accurate reading
❤️ Always use room temperature ingredients
❤️ Use a digital scale for more precision
❤️ Use grease-free equipment
❤️ Use grass-fed salted butter for a nicer flavour
❤️ Use eggs that weigh between 58g to 60g each, for best results
❤️ Ensure eggs are free of shells for good peaks
❤️ Use quality bakeware but avoid baking with silicone
In this recipe, I made almond milk from sprouted organic almonds. After separating the almond meal from the almond milk using cheese cloth, I roasted the almond meal in the oven at low heat for about two hours. Finally, grounding them into flour in a food processor.
Hope you're inspired to try this low carb spice cake recipe! Let me know how you go! Love, Lynette Tan
1In a bowl, combine cream cheese, coconut oil and fresh lemon juice and blend till smooth.
2 Spoon them into the silicon trays
3Decorate with lemon zest
4Refrigerate for one hour
5 Enjoy!
More quick tips:
❤️ Leave the cream cheese and coconut oil out in room temperature for half an hour or more before mixing.
❤️ Use a teaspoon to scoop the mixture into the silicon mould.
❤️ Use a butter knife to level it, to make it look neater.
❤️ Alternatively, you could also use small fancy cupcake liners or baking cups to hold the mixture. If you love snacking as much as I do and have other recipes for easy keto snacks, do share in the comments below! Also, if you do try out this simple keto recipe, let me know how you go. I'd love to hear from you! Meanwhile, you have an amazing day ahead! Love, Lynette Tan
Do you remember flipping through magazines and wishing you had curls like the girls in there?
I do.
I was so fascinated with how big and bouncy those curls were. So natural looking, so full of life! Then, I remember marching into several potential hair salons, clinging on to that miserable magazine cut out, determined to get those same exact curls.
"Those are not permanent, you know.", was the usual response. "They won't last.", was the other standard response.
Then, almost all of them would promptly follow up with a suggestion that I get a more permanent perm.
After several rounds of this, I started thinking maybe that's it! That's how I'm gonna get me some long lasting natural curls and silly me, I succumbed.
I got my first permanent perm when I was 14 and I hated it and so did everyone around me. Yup, I could tell. It was in their eyes.
After the colourful rollers came off, and the perming solutions were washed away, I couldn't hide the massive disappointment that was written all over my face.
It wasn't like anything I had imagined.
The curls were way too small and tight, think instant noodles, and they made me look so much older than I really was.
I deeply regretted it.
To make me feel better though, the good people at the hair salon styled my hair so that it vaguely resembled those big, juicy curls I first fell in love with in the magazine.
The magic only lasted for a while. Right after I washed my hair, they were gone.
As you can imagine, I was desperate to get my straight hair back. I would wet my hair ever so often and fine comb through those teeny, tweeny curls but they were so... long lasting!
I just had to live with it for six arduous months. During which I would hide them in a bun, wear a cap, a hat, whenever I could.
Perhaps that'll help you understand why I have in my possession around 19 (and counting...) curling tongs, straighteners, crimps - barrels of different sizes to create the kinda curls I desire. Yes, those big, bouncy curls.
That's why in this new series "How To Curl Long Hair Fast and Easy" I hope to share with you the best tips and tricks that I've picked up over the years. After experimenting with so many different kinds of hair tools, I hope to be able to show you how you can readily re-create the looks you want, yourself!
S-curl, C-curl, soft curl, lazy curl, natural curls, sexy waves, you name it! I have just the tool for it. So to make sure you don't miss a thing, do consider subscribing to my channel - click here!
"Health is not valued till sickness comes" - Thomas Fuller
It's been 75 days since I embarked on this keto journey and I must admit, I quite like it!
I like how I look but more importantly, I love how I feel - a million bucks!
Prior to attending Keto On lessons, I was stuck at 47kg for the longest time. I had done all I knew how to do to try and shed those extra two kilos so I could achieve my ideal weight of 45kg, but nothing worked. Until keto, that is.
Some of the improvements I noticed about my body include heightened mental alertness and clarity. I also experienced increased energy levels. And because we're encouraged to have 70 per cent fat per day, I feel full almost all the time. Hence, I stopped snacking and very soon I was down to 45kg, almost effortlessly.
Now if you're thinking of making that switch to keto, let's go through some basics.
Just as a general guideline, aim to have, everyday:
25 per cent protein and (eggs, cheese, meat and seafood)
5 per cent carb (green leafy veggies)
Here's how to calculate your macros:-
70 per cent fat is calculated as three times your ideal body weight in grams. So for example, you currently weigh 55kg and you'd like to go down to 50kg (ideal weight), then:-
50 X 3 = 150g (daily fat intake)
25 per cent protein is simply your ideal weight in grams. Again, if your ideal weight is 50kg, then your daily protein intake should not exceed 50g (weight of raw food)
5 per cent carbs refer to green leafy vegetables not exceeding 20g (daily carb intake)
The key here is really to cut out all processed carbs like rice, noodles, breads, pasta, flour products including cakes and biscuits from your diet. Unless you're an Olympic athlete or training for a marathon, the excess carbs will not only spike your insulin levels but also turn to sugar in your body and store as fat.
Over-consumption of proteins can also have the same effect and promote fat storage in our bodies.
Follow this guideline as best you can and you should be in ketosis in five to ten days.
Whilst waiting for your body to adapt from running on glucose to running on ketones, it's a great idea to clean house, literally.
And a good place to start is actually your kitchen.
Throw out all the unhealthy food. Foods, laced with sugar or hidden sugars, that usually come in pretty packages that you can keep for months on end. Another way to identify unhealthy food is by reading the label. Usually the first three ingredients listed come in larger quantities. Then, there's usually a salt marker and then after that, all the other listed ingredients come in negligible amounts usually less than one per cent.
Another thing to note while reading food labels is this. Look out for super long ingredients lists with hard to pronounce names or words starting with the letter E or E-numbers. These are usually artificial food chemicals, additives or preservatives that help increase their shelf life.
So as a standard, buy foods that'll expire within a week and only buy foods that have no more than three or four ingredients listed.
If you have children at home, and they love cheese. Make sure you're getting them the real deal and not some "cheese product". Natural cheese is usually made from not more than four ingredients namely: milk, salt, cheese culture and non-animal rennet.
Closely related to cheese is butter. Again, it's always good to check that you're getting real butter made from 80 per cent milk fat from grass-fed cows, pasteurised cream, water and salt.
With all that in mind, what can you eat? Lots of great tasting, natural, whole foods!
Here's a quick keto shopping list to get you started:
cauliflower, finely chopped, to replace rice
zucchini or omelet, julienned to replace noodles
lettuce to replace tortilla wraps
coconut/almond flour to replace normal flour
Olive oil, coconut oil, lard or other animal fat, butter to replace all vegetable oils, which are inflammatory and toxic in excess
Natural spices to enhance the flavours in your food
Pink Sea Salt/Celtic Salt to replace normal table salt
Tamari to replace soya sauce
Sprouted nuts (not more than a handful a day)
Seeds (not more than one tablespoon a day)
Eggs
Fish
Haloumi cheese
Chicken, duck, turkey
Lamb
Beef
Seafood
Bone broth
Notice sugar is not in the above list? That's because our bodies cannot tell the difference between natural and synthetic sugar. Both cause our pancreas to overwork and spike insulin so it's best to cut it out, especially "diet sodas". But, if you must include a little in your cooking or baking, then plant-based xylitol would be the best option.
Hope that helps but what if you don't have the luxury of cooking at home? Or it's just the two of you and you'd much prefer to eat out?
Of course there are options.
Generally, you'd wanna avoid fast foods or deeply fried foods simply because the "vegetable oils" or more accurately inflammatory seed oils used are toxic in excess. It can also significantly increase your risk of heart disease. Further, although it's mandatory to refresh and change out these "vegetable oils" weekly, some don't.
So that leaves us with still many other food choices like stir-fries, grilled or barbequed meats and seafood, soups and steamboat.
Stir-fried foods are broadly ok but, it's the sauces they come in that contain hidden sugars and "vegetable oils". So one way to remove them is to do the food spa - cleanse and wash away the harmful sugars and "vegetable oils" in soup and eat the food as is.
Speaking of hidden sugars, when eating salads, ask for extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) instead of the commercial salad dressings that contain tons of chemicals and sugars. Or you can always bring your own EVOO.
But say you don't have the means to wash away the unhealthy sauces and "vegetable oils" and you can't convince the chef/food vendor to replace or leave out processed carbs. Then, order your food as it is on the menu, eat the proteins and leafy greens and just leave the processed carbs behind.
More tips coming up on how to keto adapt, whether you’re switching to the keto diet for weight loss, or contemplating a complete change to keto lifestyle long term to stay healthy.
Remember you still get to enjoy your favourite foods, keto style!
