Editions of Me

This isn't going to be much of a post, because I haven't not trained this week, but I did want to impart my take-away to you:  Prioritize sleep. Wellness isn't just a fancy spa mask and a yoga class. Those are nice, but they're still doing  something, and sometimes what you need is to not  do anything.  I haven't trained this week because I've been dealing with some major insomnia, and my personal rule has always been that if I didn't sleep enough (under 6 hours) or sleep well, then I wouldn't allow myself to work out. Of course, in a week like this, it means that I have gone several days without training or anything, but as they say, you can't pour from an empty cup. And this up is DRY, my friends. But just so I'm not leaving things on a sad note, I do want to share that I bought myself a new pair of running shoes, and I'm planning to get (very slowly) back into running. It may be weeks, even months, before I actually start doing more than a

I've been super excited about the influx of new makeup brands lately at Target, especially since they are designated as "Clean at Target" (though YMMV when it comes to the label "clean"). One of them is a brand called Jason Wu Beauty , by a Taiwanese-Canadian artist/designer of that name. (Sorry, I don't know anything about him. I had to google that.)  His collection looks to be lots of neutral, natural tones, in an assortment of products for all over the face, but not enough to do a full face. (Like, I see tinted primers, but no actual foundation or concealer?)  After watching some other reviews on YouTube, my interest was piqued, and I decided the first thing that I really wanted to pick up, actually, was his eyeshadow palette in Matte Agave, as the only all-matte palette in his line. I've been in search of an clean-beauty all matte palette that would function really well as a collection of base shades, because I'm very into wearing my highlighters

 Ayooooo! You know how I started doing "Makeup Monday" posts? I chose that name with the full intention of adding other themed days into my repertoire, but gradually, because jumping into blogging multiple days per week is... a lot. I had to work up to it. So thus, we begin Fitness Fridays. This will just be a weekly check-in about my health and fitness--a little progress report of what I've done for the week. To begin with, both of the gyms that I called home closed this year.  Now, full disclosure: I hadn't been lifting much at all this past year due to being pregnant, and then when gyms had to close due to the pandemic, I definitely was trying to get some workouts in at home. And then both gyms (not at the same time) have permanently closed. I was already in the process of putting together a garage gym anyway, because I was too apprehensive about working out at a gym, but my long-term plan was to train in person when the time came for me to start competing again. 

This week's topic comes from YouTuber Allie Glines: she recently posted a video called 21 Questions about her makeup collection and tastes, and I thought this would be fun: 1. What is the oldest makeup product in your collection? At this point, I've decluttered most of old makeup. The oldest things I'm still keeping around are some Urban Decay eyeshadows that I bought in the mid-2000s (that I depotted). Remember their old matte eyeshadow singles? I have all of them. Their Deluxe Eyeshadow Palette? It's there too. They're not moldy or bad or anything, but I don't use them anymore either. I kinda just keep them for nostalgia. 2. What is your most recent makeup purchase? Uh, I literally last night just repurchased the Fenty Matchstix Trio because I wish I hadn't decluttered them, and they're on sale now. But the most recent thing I've purchased that I actually have in my possession is the new Fenty powder foundation (shown below) and an Ilia Multi-Stic

 First off: I missed posting last Monday! The day just completely got away from me. The idea for this post came from a video from a beauty YouTuber that I follow, Reagan Hart, called 20 Products I Don't Like from 20 Brands I Like . It got me thinking about my own list, but I don't think I can even name 20 brands that I like, from which I've tried enough products to determine what I like or don't like, so I'm just going to NOT put a number on it :) Please note that just because I didn't like them, it doesn't mean that they're bad products or that no one should buy them; they just didn't work for me. (So please don't take any of this personally.)  1. Ere Perez's Rice Powder Blush and Bronzer in Roma Ere Perez is one of my favorite clean beauty brands, but I found that this was hard to work with. It may have been just the one I received, but it was dry, and I had a difficult time picking up product. (I have heard similar critiques of their eyesh