FYI...Red LED Light Treatment

Just to update regarding the red LED light treatments for my eczema.  I no longer have the eczema issue on my face.  It's been completely abolished and has not relapsed since my last posting about the subject.  I am still doing the red LED light treatments on my face a couples of time a month.  Usually during the week after I do a chemical peel.  So far so good.  Really happy with the results.

My Spa Weekend at Home Part 2

Ok, compared to today yesterday was a breeze. How many of you have heard of coconut oil? To use for the face, body and hair? Well if you have then I must have been living in another dimension for the last few decades because apparently coconut oil has been known and used worldwide for quite a few centuries. Why didn't I know that? I don't want to get into all the specifics, you can google it yourself, but it has been proven to be a healthier oil to cook with and use as part of a beauty regimen for the hair and skin. There has been some controversy regarding using it on the face. If you read the reviews some people have benefited from it's antimicrobial properties but some claim that it's comedogenic. I think it just depends on the person and how their body reacts to it. So, I spent most of this morning googling coconut oil and by the afternoon I was excited enough to go run to the nearest Whole Foods Market and purchased myself a jar. When I got home I was dubious as I looked at the white solid oil. It smells delicious but it looks a lot like that Crisco lard that people use to fry some fried chicken in albeit the coconut oil looks a lot prettier. So standing in front of the mirror I had to plan my strategy. I wanted to use the oil as a pre-shampoo treatment so I used a clean spoon and scooped out about a teaspoon full and warmed the oil between my hands by rubbing my palms together. It melts quickly. As soon as it was melted I saturated my hair with it concentrating on the ends and working my way up to my scalp and then massaging my scalp with the oil. When I was satisfied that I had slathered on enough to saturate each strand I rolled my hair up and secured it on top of my head and covered it with a plastic cap. While the oil was doing it's thing I prepared my face for the fourth installment of my chemical peel treatment. I did the treatment leaving it on for five minutes and then rinsed it off with cold water. I then got in the shower and did a sea salt and honey body scrub. I massaged my entire body with the scrub. It felt invigorating. I then took off the plastic cap, let my hair down and shampooed it. After rinsing the shampoo and all of the scrub off. I got out of the shower and towel dried my hair, while it was damp I scooped out maybe 1/3 of a teaspoon, melted it by rubbing my hands together and softly ran it through my hair concentrating on the ends and avoiding my scalp. I don't want my hair to look too greasy and then I scooped a little bit more of the oil, melted it and massaged it on my face. I know I'm taking a huge risk experimenting with an unknown product right before Thanksgiving but I'm just too curious to not give it a try. Hopefully I don't wake up Thanksgiving morning with a break out of acne or pimples. Knock on wood. So here I sit on my bed feeling soft, relaxed and smelling like dessert. My dog keeps sniffing me and looking like he wants to take a bite...

*Allene Angelica*
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My Spa Weekend at Home Part 1

Saturday:

During my teenage years I used to indulge in weekly hot oil treatments for my hair because I used to change the color of my hair on a monthly if not weekly basis. I was never into the out of the spectrum of natural hair colors like green, blue or pink but I did range the shades from jet black to red and every shade in between. No matter the abuse I managed to do to my hair it felt and looked healthy because I conditioned it well on a regular basis. As I got older I started falling short on the regular conditioning treatments and my hair just became another extra nuisance I tried to ignore. Eventually my hair started showing it's dislike of the neglect by becoming dry and frizzy. There was nothing I could put on it that would ease the dryness or eliminate the frizz. Until one day after getting my hair color touched up a couple of weeks ago by my hairdresser, I asked her about hair cellophane. She had no idea what I was talking about. I told her I used to go to another salon a many number of years ago that would cellophane my hair every few months and my hair would turn out smooth and shiny. She had never heard of it but she suggested doing a hot oil steam treatment for my hair. I thought why not might as well try it. She took some oil and a heavy cream conditioner and mixed it together in a bowl and slathered on my hair. Then she rolled my hair up on top of my head and put a plastic cap on and stuck me under a steamer. I was under the steamer for a good 30 minutes. After it was done she rinsed my hair out and dried it. My hair felt soft, supple and healthy. And no frizz. Amazing! She suggested I do the treatment once a month. I agreed because I loved the results but I knew a month would be too long so I started doing a similar treatment at home. Because I don't have a steamer I did the treatment in the shower. I mixed a plant based oil with a heavy cream conditioner, slathered it on all over my hair then secured my hair on top of my head and put a plastic cap on. I left it on my hair for about as long as it took me to soap and scrub the rest of my body, then removed the plastic cap and rinsed my hair thoroughly. Right now this very minute as my hair is air drying it feels wonderfully soft. I plan on doing this every weekend because I've decided it's time to stop neglecting my poor head of hair.

*Allene Angelica*
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Day 2 SharePoint 2010 Class

I'm home, just finished eating dinner. The class today was interesting and fun. Met some nice people, one is a Kaiser employee, 2 Federal Reserve employees and a Macy's.com employee. We were all in class together. The Macy's.com employee and I got along great since we were the only women in the class. She lives in S.F. so she knows all the great places to eat. For lunch she took me to The Galleria. Tons of restaurants to choose from. She was craving Japanese food so we went to a little Japanese restaurant. Once again I ordered a salmon dish. Delicious! For dessert she took me to Specialty's for some awesome cookies! These last couple of days was a great experience. I got to not only learn a valuable tool but I also got to experience a real city environment because realistically living and working in San Jose is suburbiaville compared to San Francisco.

*Allene Angelica*
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Day 1 -SharePoint 2010 Class in S.F.

The day is going fabulous so far. It's 1:06 pm and I'm half way through my class. Just finished doing five Lab exercises. I took a window seat on the third floor so I have a great view of New Montgomery St. People busily walking up and down the street going about their day. Outside my window across the street is a parking garage. The building is old and beautiful. I love that about S.F. All the great architecture.

6:03 pm. Been home for a half hour. It was great day and an interesting class. Very nice teacher. Very informative. If it was my choice I would take all my classes there in S.F. I don't think my company would go for that, though. It's nice to be in a classroom environment, you tend to concentrate more and are not interrupted by work related issues. Looking forward to day two of my class...hmmmm...where will I have lunch tomorrow?

*Allene Angelica*
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Happy Veterans Day!!!

Happy Veterans Day to my daddy and all the other veterans out there.  I thank you for fighting for our freedom and defending our country.  I'm sorry I couldn't be there at the parade to watch my dad walk proudly along with his fellow soldiers but my thoughts are with them.

Third Installment of My Chemical Peels

Just finished my third round of a series of five DIY at home chemical peels.  I'm getting better at applying the chemical peel, more confident.  My hand was steady and knew exactly where it wanted to go and what areas it wanted to concentrate on.  My previous two applications I was a little apprehensive and was much more timid with the acid.  My skin must be getting used to it because it didn't burn as much as the last time.  I left the acid on for a total of five minutes before washing it off.  We'll see how my skin does in the next couple of days.  I also want to mention that after the last chemical peel I thought the peeling had ended after about the third or fourth day but I noticed over a week after the peel that my skin was still peeling in random areas on my face.  I feel really good about doing the peels at home.  If I would have gone to a salon it would have cost me $100 per treatment so not only am I giving myself a beauty treatment my skin really needs but I'm saving money in the process also I am able to control the procedure so that if things go well I have only myself to thank but if things go sour I also have only myself to blame.  So far so good though.

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*Allene Angelica*

I'm Getting Better

I'm improving! Tonight I ran longer than I have in the last week. Can I get a woop woop! I'm a happy camper. I can go to sleep tonight dreaming sweet dreams. I'll continue this distance for the next couple of days but I think starting Monday I'm going to add another 1/2 mile to my route. I don't think I'm pushing myself too hard do you? Thanks to my sis for her breathing tip I'm no longer feeling my throat burning when I run and I feel my stamina has improved quite a bit. I'm really proud of myself for getting off my lazy ass although I sure love being lazy...
*Allene Angelica*
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