Why a woman needs to take care of herself.... the absolute importance for all women...

I've always believed in the importance of looking after myself first.

I have been neglecting myself a bit... well... not a bit.. I must confess ALOT!

I have not looked after myself for months. I have been so busy with work and life getting in the way, moving houses, getting back into a new routine, finding and starting new jobs.

I have no excuse...

I have not been looking after myself! I now feel like I have burrowed myself out from the "otherside" of the town... There I said it...

Looking after oneself is not only good for the mind and spirit and honouring yourself as a woman. I always feel refreshed and rejuvenated. I feel better to tackle things and get things done.

My answer is two fold, I pamper myself first, then I feel good about myself. It is a very simple math.

Why should women pamper themselves?
We work, we look after our family unit, we run the household, and more often than not- we manage the household fianances. Damn it, we deserve it!

Of course there is no right or wrong answer, but I can tell you right now, women neglect themselves far too often, and I am guilty of this too. I am always rushing to do one activity and go to the next. I need to sit back more often and breathe!

To look after myself, I;

• go to bed early every night (decent sleep is important, the key is quality not quanity).
• drink lots of water.
• read a book a few minutes each day before bed
• make a delicious meal for dinner each night.
• take my own delicious lunch to work each day (my lunch is wayyyyy superior than the cafe around the corner, yeah!).

These are things that I make sure I do each and every day. While I have always eaten fairly well since I moved out of home, I have modified my eating habits significantly since I fell ill with glandular fever two and a half years ago. I feel so much better now.

This is why I make sure I look after myself every day. If I don't, I don't feel good and get very tired. Obviously that is not good in the begining of a working week. I will talk about food another day, let's just focus on pampering today.

How about a little time to ourselves?

It is important to give ourselves the gift of relaxation. If you are a woman, please learn to pamper yourself. Even if it is only 5 minutes, it doesn't matter- make the time!

Do something that will make you feel better:

• Have a Sunday afternoon nap.
• Paint your toenails in a pretty colour.
• Tweeze your eyebrows.
• Make a homemade face mask (or buy a packet at the shops if you prefer).
• Have a bubble bath and read a book.

When I lived in my old house (the first hourse I moved into after moving out of the family home), I used to look after/pamper myself religiously every Sunday. I'd make a yummy brunch on Sunday morning, bacon, tomato, eggs and turkish bread then later that night, I'd take a hot bath and light some tealight candles all over the bathroom and just spend the time thinking to myself. Bliss!
However sadly in the name of water conservation and water restrictions, I can't do this, but I can find other things to do.

Anyway, timely discussion came up in Simple Savings about making your own Nads style wax. For years I have heard about sugaring but never entered in my mind to google about it.

I can't tell you how much I hate, hate, hate shaving my hairy little legs.
While it may be a quick and an instant job, you also get the problems of getting stubble or ingrown hair. Then having to do it at least twice or 3 times a week, just to keep on top of it.
Why the heck would you want to save your whole leg every couple days? I just can't be bothered and I have better things to do with my time.

I prefer to be waxed but I can't justify the cost of having my chin, eyebrows, forehead, legs, lips and underarms waxed (and throw in a brazillan as well). I often find the beauticans in beauty salons are very young and inexperienced, especially you mix an inexperienced beautican with a brazillan, oh boy you're in for a world of pain!

The general cost of getting waxed with the list of things I want done, would cost me... $253. I got this off a beauty salon website, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't cost that much but you get the general idea of how much it would add up if I got it all done at the same time. I'm a bit stunned... with the price actually!

So...I can't remember the last time my legs were shaved, so over the last few months I've just left my legs au naturale.

I was curious and did some investigating online for tutorials how to make and use sugar wax etc.
I am telling you right now, this stuff is... GOLD..... absolutely gold.. EVERY woman should have this recipe. The upside of this is, it's cheap to make and hurts way less than normal wax. All you need is some organisational skills and your time!



Sugar Wax

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of lemon juice
• 1/4 cup of water
• glass jars

Instructions:

1. Place the glass jars in the oven with the door slightly opened.
2. Turn on the oven to 180 degrees celcius (or 356 F). Warming up the jar will prevent the glass from cracking when you put the sugar wax mixture in it.
3. Set stove to medium and combine ingredients in a pot. Stir the sugar mixure constantly. (i.e., do not walk away and leave it to cook by itself- stand there and stir until it's done!)
4. When you see that the sugar granules have pretty much disappeared, crank the stove up a little and allow to boil a little and keep stirring and turn the stove down again. It will get foamy and frothy, that is fine, this is normal. Do not allow it to boil too hard. If it starts boiling vigorously, take the pot off the stove and let it settle down then put it back on the stove and keep cooking and stirring.
5. When you see that the sugar wax mixture has become a nice amber/brown colour then it is ready. It should take about 10-20 minutes, depending on the humidity and elevation.
6. Once ready, turn the stove off and stand the sugar mixture for about 5 minutes.
7. Turn the oven off and place glass jars somewhere safe and pour the mixture slowly into the glass jars.

Note: The sugar wax is very hot and can cause severe burns. Wait until it is completely room temperature and then use accordingly.
The important thing to keep in mind is to make sure that you do not burn the sugar mixture. I did this and the result was rock hard. Not good! Don't worry if it seems to take a long time to turn into a nice amber/brown colour, I would rather cook on a lower temperature for longer than do it quickly and burn it.


Who says you need to spend hundreds and thousands on looking and feeling beautiful?