On slumber, smoke & "happy hormones"

 Blowing your budget isn’t a prerequisite to enhancing your looks. Here are simple things you can start doing right now to boost your beauty without spending anything.

How many times have you heard someone explain the pretty looks or the radiant quality of women by saying that such women have the money to maintain their presumably pricey regimen? “Magastos magpaganda” or “May pera siya eh,” you yourself may have uttered at some point to dismiss fresh-looking ladies who seem beautifully put-together.

The good news is, while money can buy things that offer solutions (not necessarily the right ones) to your beauty woes, many of the things you need so as to bring out your natural radiance are a matter of lifestyle. And by making a few simple changes in your lifestyle, you’ll see positive results in your appearance and in your well-being, too.

If your body could talk, it will certainly tell you these three simple things:

“Give me enough sleep.”
Movies and fashion features may turn to zombies for inspiration, but aiming for a “night of the living dead” look in real life is not advisable. Is your shut-eye limited to 4 or 5 hours almost every night? If it is, it’s bound to show up on your face – and in your disposition – over time.

“Lack of sleep causes slackness in the skin, tension in the face, and frown lines, and makes the skin look lifeless,” says dermatologist Gail Dacudao, M.D. of Violets Salon & Skin Clinic in Las Pinas, adding that cells reproduce most actively between midnight and 4 a.m.  A good night’s sleep, therefore, is nature’s rejuvenating treatment for the skin.

Plus, when you lack sleep, you’re bound to be cranky the following morning. Listen to your body and give it adequate rest; this way it’ll be easier for your sparkling personality to come out (or at least more smiles than scowls will show up).

Here’s a tip: Find out what’s causing you to clock in too little time for sleeping, then make adjustments. Is Facebook keeping you up till late? Taking home work too often? Take determined steps to address the problem and you’ll feel the difference when your mind and body get the restorative benefits of enough peaceful slumber.  

“Go smoke-free!”
Let’s not go into the details of lung cancer and emphysema as potential consequences of smoking because you probably know that already. Let’s just underscore the fact that cigarettes can end up making you look ugly. Why? Because “haggard” is not among the adjectives that normally describe women who exemplify beauty. “Lovely” and “charming” will not come to mind when gazing at your parched skin, possibly hollow cheeks and overall gaunt appearance – which smoking, unfortunately, eventually leads to several years down the road. Authentic beauty goes beyond skin-deep, but in this case, your body must be pleading with you to at least think about your skin.

“Studies have estimated that people who smoke appear to be as much as 10 or 20 years older than their actual non-smoking counterparts by the time they reach mid-life,” Dacudao points out.

“Smoking causes accelerated production of an enzyme called matrix metalloproteinase-1 that breaks down collagen in the skin,” the doctor explains. Collagen, by the way, is a protein – found in the skin – which gives the skin its suppleness. “This means that you lose youthful plumpness of your skin far more quickly than you would if you don’t smoke.”

Besides, nicotine has been shown to have a diuretic effect, the dermatologist adds, thereby depleting the moisture in your skin and giving it a parched appearance. Now you wouldn’t want that for your skin, which happens to be the largest organ (not all body organs are internal like the heart or the brain), would you? So, the way to go is smoke-free!

“Make friends with endorphins!”
Simply put, your body releases hormones called endorphins whenever you exercise.  And these endorphins act somewhat as a “natural analgesic” by reducing your perception of pain. In addition, endorphins trigger a feeling of euphoria and a general state of well-being – a natural high, if you will.


Just think: if exercise is part of your routine, then you’ll be giving yourself a regular boost of “happy hormones.” But first, banish the thought that by “exercise” we automatically mean working out at the gym, 10-k runs, hours of zumba, or racket sports. Those are choices and many people do enjoy regularly engaging in such activities, but the key is to be physically active. Walking, if done on a regular basis, is considered exercise already.

So, when you get your heart rate up by brisk walking, running around campus or dancing, you stimulate blood circulation and thereby help your body maintain its health. And when your body is healthy, illness is kept at bay, you feel great, and this in turn influences your disposition and appearance. The natural high, too, from the release of endorphins is all you need to achieve that youthful glow which won’t cost you anything!

Woman Today magazine
September 2013

Love and self-worth, 'in the flesh'

Here's an excerpt:

The clothes I wear do not make me who I am, but ultimately reflect my beliefs. Immodest dress reveals that I do not see my worth. If I knew my worth, I wouldn’t be tempting guys. I wouldn’t be using my body as an object.

Here's the graphic:

And here's the piece that puts things in perspective as regards self-worth, love, and a "little black dress".

(I so admire writers who can express so much -- clearly -- in so few words)

Hype, hip, and hope in real beauty

I remember one summer in the '80s when my parents spent about a month in the US, visiting relatives and friends, enjoying the sights, and experiencing what they could in that limited time from coast to coast.

When they came back to the Philippines, among the "treasures" in their suitcases were back issues of Seventeen magazine. Those were for me, they said -- a gift from one of my cousins who, I assumed, outgrew them already as she was several years my senior. I was in high school and it was just the sort of thing to give me a thrill!

As far as I remember, this heralded my entry into the world of fashion & beauty (as the commercially driven mainstream culture then knew it), and into the eye-candy-but-often-authenticity-empty world of products, looks, effects, allure, and everything else that has for its foundation a "look good, feel good" dictum. It's possible that there were, of course, articles or fashion layouts meant to enrich the soul or underscore the primacy of virtue in the grand scheme of things...but I must have missed them. To be sure, I did develop a reasonably okay sense of overall style thanks partly to the years of fashion magazine-flipping. But I developed much more than that. And I believe that a lot of grownup women now will agree with me when I say that looking through women's magazines habitually -- particularly those that revolve around the themes of fashion and beauty (treated the conventional way, of course) -- prompts a feeling of inadequacy in the reader. In fact, I've read somewhere that subtle feelings of inadequacy regarding one's physical features are felt by some women after going through a magazine of this nature only once. Now I can't remember if this slight blow to one's self-confidence is primarily caused by the ads (visuals and text combined), or by the ideas put forth by both the ads and editorial content, or only by the visuals encountered by the reader as she leafed through the mag.

Needless to say, anything that sees print and is presented well seems to achieve "pedestal-status." It tends to be more easily believed or given importance (ideas) or regarded as ... ahem, cool (or hot, hip, wicked, astig, etc., depending on the generation and the colloquial terms of the times) or as something to aspire for (images) -- especially where impressionable and sometimes-unthinking media consumers are concerned.

Was I delighted to come across a blog post about one mom's vigilance and humorous take on a clothing company's apparently desperate moves in order to increase sales. This is not fresh news but it does warrant publicity. Too bad the link to the post is gone, but here's an excerpt:

...I'm not sure what led you to resurrect the old trashy t-shirt campaign, but I'm guessing it's a last ditch attempt to get back in the news. Perhaps you are relying on your once loyal market demographic: Young women with zero self-esteem and zero self-respect. You know, the kind of girls who are so desperate for attention that they're willing to settle for the wrong kind of attention. Because let's be honest, the only person who would wear one of the t-shirts above is someone who doesn't think they have anything else to offer other than well, their parts and services. But here's where your thinking is severely flawed: Girls have become much more adept at identifying the real M.O. behind marketing schemes such as yours.

I love it :-)

Women at any age can feel this bombardment (whether explicit or more subtle) of messages from the media that they're either too fat, too skinny, too short, too old or maybe not smart enough, pretty enough, perky enough, white enough... or simply, not good enough. And teenage and tween girls are probably the most vulnerable when it comes to believing and accepting such messages. Here are two things to make you think and, hopefully, help you guide them to be happy, healthy and well-adjusted individuals. You may even find these a tad helpful for yourself if there's something that's keeping you from appreciating yourself and striving for genuine self-improvement.

The first is part of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty. The one that follows is the piece I wrote for the April 2009 issue's Editor's Notebook (bigger version here). I had blogged about that issue of Baby Magazine when it came out but decided to post the piece again for anyone who may find it helpful.

[Enlarge]  

Two comments, one sentiment

Really now, why do most people whom I get to talk to seem to regard dark skin as inferior to fair skin? It sure looks like it, based on the conversations I remember having in recent years. But then it could probably mean that I should meet more people from different parts of the world--those who may have a totally different viewpoint about the whole thing.



Two brief comments from two people in two conversations really had me wondering if I should just forget about it every time I encounter this all too obvious lack of appreciation of dark beauty--or of diversity in general.

The first conversation was over lunch, not too long ago. Talk was on Michael Jackson's sudden demise, the memorial tribute, and the expected scrutiny of other issues surrounding his death. I hadn't caught a glimpse of the singer's two sons and was wondering if they resembled their dad more than the daughter did.

"Do they have more African-American features?" I asked. "Wala!" was the reply I got, uttered with a bit of horror. "Guwapo sila, mga puti! (They're handsome, they're white!)"

"Oh," I said, too stunned (and a bit saddened) to say anything else.

The other chitchat I had was with a simple middle-aged woman who is in Manila to earn some money to help pay off some debts incurred back in her hometown. She is good-natured and, as mentioned, simple, which is why opinions she held would occasionally be revealed easily. I think she was looking at some photos of the family, then while gazing at a recent picture of one of my nieces, she remarked, "Maganda na siya ngayon, ano? Dati maitim..."

"Ikaw talaga!" I chided her with a smile, part of me finding her bias quite humorous (for reasons I didn't--and still don't--understand). "Bakit ba kung maitim ang tao, pangit agad para sa 'yo?!" and she broke into a smile, then laughed. She probably realized the implication of what she had just said, and remembered our casual conversations about the obsession of some people with turning their brown skin into ivory (she related more than once how quite a number of impoverished neighbors back home would spend whatever little money they had left on skin-whitening products even if it meant incurring debts for daily meals, fiesta celebrations or hospitalization expenses).

Well, what can I say? In this part of the planet at least, white skin is highly regarded. Aggressive marketing of products and services that promise this aspired-for whiteness don't help in any way to ingrain a love for one's own when it comes to the skin tone that's fit for the tropics.

It goes beyond skin-deep for me. The way I see it, the inability to appreciate one's own (be it our skin color, traditions, language, products...) is tantamount to being overly impressed by what's foreign. And this is partly what's responsible for our people's overly welcoming attitude toward principles, fashion trends, and even legislative measures that come from foreign shores--betraying an inability to hold on to what ought to be held dearly. Sometimes, it's not even a matter of holding on to one's own--culturally-speaking--but a question of holding on to what is true, good and beautiful, which is mirrored more closely by the various facets of our Filipino culture.

What's your take on this whole attitude about maputi-maitim?

This matter of skin color figured in the piece I wrote in Baby mag's summer issue this year. Click here for a look at Kayumangging kaligatan.

The ride

The past week has had me riding the MRT more often. Frankly, I was not prepared for the deluge of commuters during the rush hours. When did the number of people in Manila swell to such proportions??

First of all, there are the queues. Queues, queues and queues everywhere. Queues to enter the elevator. Queues to go up the escalator. Queues to have your belongings inspected. Then when you finally get to enter the station, more queues to buy a ticket. Then, queues to swipe your card. Then queues to board the train. Now these are not your ordinary queues, but queues that are pretty long and go around this way and that in a snake-like manner.

Needless to say, using the public transportation in Manila is a test of patience.

One wonderful thing about this mode of transportation, however, is the all-female car, which is the first car of every train that passes. Anticipating riding a car whose only men (if any) would be little boys and elderly gents is a delight. I don't feel like elaborating at this time, but if you're a woman and you know how life is in a Third World tropical country, you know what I'm talking about. =)

Last week I happened to catch my ride seated all the way to my place of destination. Then on one of the stops, a woman found herself standing right in front of me, holding on to the safety handles. She looked 30ish and her belly was kind of bulging, but I wasn't sure if the bulge was of the flabby kind or of the expectant kind. For a few minutes I was trying to figure it out, glancing at her midsection from time to time. I wanted to offer her my seat 'cause a pregnant lady is sure to take a lot of comfort in getting off her feet. I thought of asking her outright but was afraid to since I didn't want to risk hurting her feelings. Need I explain? My question could be interpreted as somewhere along the lines of "you're fat."

So, I ended up sitting comfortably the whole way, passing up the chance to give that comfort to someone else. And I felt like something I hadn't felt for a very long time. I felt like a coward.

Weighty issues

It looks like some people in the fashion and health industries are getting serious about doing their part to battle eating disorders (even skinny mannequins in Spain's shop windows will be replaced with ones of size 10 and above).

"It is not reasonable for a modern and advanced society to establish stereotypes of beauty that are far removed from the social reality of a community. It is everyone's commitment that beauty and health go hand in hand," Health Minister Elena Salgado said at a signing ceremony Tuesday.

The agreement follows last year's unprecedented decision by Spain's main fashion show, Madrid's Pasarela Cibeles, to ban some models from the catwalk on grounds they were too thin, saying this looked encouraged eating disorders among young people.

The Health Ministry's program aims to end a situation in which a woman who buys a size 40 dress from one designer may not fit in a size 40 garment from another designer. The ministry said the differences sometimes lead women to feel compelled to lose weight.

Read Spanish designers change women's sizes

Related news:

Spanish shop dummies to put on weight

Top British brand bars size zero models from fashion week

* * * * *

Addendum: Just in case that photo up there of the mannequins somehow ends up making thinness look glamorous and something to aspire for, maybe a photo of a real-live woman will bring home the point that maintaining a skeletal physique, even if you bask in the spotlights on a runway, is NOT a good thing when you are still alive in the first place.

They're not walking toothpicks

The fashion industry has to ask itself: Why do we want to be represented by a model who the average person would suspect is sick? Why shoot an advertising campaign using a model that women would pity rather than envy? The fashion industry likes to point out that a lot of these models are naturally super-skinny because of their metabolism, age or genetics. So what? Pear shapes are natural, too, but the industry has no trouble rejecting them.

The industry needs to think of models as women -- not as girls, mannequins, coat hangers or any of the other terms typically used to describe them. Think of them as women, and perhaps that's what they'll more often resemble.

Read They're Going, Going . . . Gaunt
The Washington Post

Yet another one on beauty and image

A previous post delved on self-image, body image and the attraction of imitating (or aspiring for) the "perfection" of models in the media. It's not only adolescents who fall into the tendency to have their standard of beauty dictated by what media present; women of all ages, especially those who don't realize their innate worth that has nothing to do with shape, size and color, can look too much to manufactured images to anchor their self-esteem on.

While we ought to take care of our physical well-being and strive to look our best, too, real beauty -- which has more to do with doing good than looking good -- is what's worth aiming for.

Dove's campaign is one positive presence. Check this out --

Commercial explores photo manipulation of models
Before and after pictures expose dramatic changes and conception of beauty
Thursday, October 12, 2006
by Spero News

Dove soaps continues their North American "Campaign for Real Beauty" advertising with a television commercial that explores the alterations that can be done on models.

Labeled "a Dove film", the commercial is entitled "evolution". Beginning with a woman walking into a photo shoot. From there, she is primped and plucked by hair and makeup artists, then tweaked on a Photoshop-like program.

The photo-manipulation is then posted on a billboard for the fictional "Easel Foundation Makeup" brand. Two young, teenage girls walk past, glancing at the board.

"No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted" ends the ad in text, "Every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is."

Full article at Spero News

The BONES of contention

I would be dishonest if I said that the images I saw in fashion magazines that I pored over for years -- especially during my teen years -- didn't plant silly ideas in my head. What silly ideas? Several, such as "looks are and should be a girl's top concern." And "thin is in, stout is out." "Sex appeal equals happiness." "You're so out of it when you don't have the right clothes in your wardrobe." I roll my eyes just thinking about the misconceptions that most teen magazines (and many fashion/beauty mags) propagate -- purposely or not is beside the point. Fortunately, proper guidance and maturity quelled those silly ideas.

But girls these days get stronger messages from the media, and many of them don't have the benefit of proper guidance to help them navigate through those messages.

From "Do thin models warp women's body image?"

"This unnatural thinness is a terrible message to send out. The people watching the fashion shows are young, impressionable women," says van der Wal, host of Cover Shot on TLC.

Psychologists and eating-disorder experts are worried about the same thing. They say the fashion industry has gone too far in pushing a dangerously thin image that women, and even very young girls, may try to emulate.

It begins in youth

There's no question younger girls are getting this message, says Murnen, who has studied this for 15 years. "We have done studies of grade-school girls, and even in grade 1, girls think the culture is telling them that they should model themselves after celebrities who are svelte, beautiful and sexy."

Some girls can reject that image, but it's a small percentage: 18% in Murnen's research. Those girls were shown to have the highest body esteem. Murnen and her colleagues reviewed 21 studies that looked at the media's effect on more than 6,000 girls, ages 10 and older, and found those who were exposed to the most fashion magazines were more likely to suffer from poor body images.

Read the whole thing at USATODAY.com

* * * * * * * * * *

As if that's not enough to give girls and women wasted images to emulate (face it: at first, horrid images may look repulsive, but somehow they eventually morph into being, ahem, "attractive" and something to be aspired), here's another all-time low on trash TV. Jeannine Kellog of Modestly Yours blog relates an episode of America's Top Model she happened to see --

For Tyra’s judging, each girl had to do a “pose” for the competition. Each required pose had a prechosen title-- images chosen by the artistic directors, all pre-selected model stereotypes.

One girl had to pose as the “Bulimic Model.” They stuck her on what looked like a toilet seat, posing like she just vomited everything eaten in the last three days. She was surrounded by vomit on the floor, on her face, and on her hand. Her arm was extended and her hand was thrust towards the camera, covered with vomit. The girl looked destroyed.

The others? The “Narcissistic Model.” Then there was the “Jealous Model” in which the model posed walking down stairs while yanking the long blond hair of the model in front of her such that it all looked like a couple beat-up cheerleaders overdosed at a Rave party.

Another title was the “Drug Addicted Model” where the girl was made to look as though she had suffered a few violent blows by a drug pusher and was also about to overdose.

Another was “Anorexic Model” in which the model didn’t have to work hard to match that title and frankly looked like she might need to be hospitalized and hooked up to an I.V. And so on it went.

Really, to me all this gives a whole new meaning to the word "mutilation."

Model behavior

Audrey is a magazine writer and was in the modeling biz as a teen. And now her book, All Made Up: A Girl's Guide to Seeing Through Celebrity Hype and Celebrating Real Beauty, has been climbing its way up readers' to-buy list if the stocks at Amazon.com are to be the gauge.

Here's part of an interview that Respect Rx had with the young author:

Respect Rx: When you were a teen, why did you want to be a model?
Audrey: I wanted to be a model for all the obvious reasons: the fame, glamour, preferential treatment that's showered on women who have that look and label. I heard the way guys talked about models...the way everyone in a room took notice of a girl if someone said 'Oh I heard she's a model." It didn't matter if she worked for a local newspaper or was on the cover of Vogue. Labels like model, actress, celebrity, pop star etc. get noticed...and I wanted that for myself, too.

What did you learn about that world that you want every girl to know now?
That there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with wanting to be pretty or liking magazines, movies, pop music etc. BUT that we all need to ask why these things are so important in our country. Like, why are we on a first-name basis with women who entertain us or who fit a certain beauty standard. But yet we can't name women who are changing the world? THAT'S what I want to get everyone thinking about.

What are the top five myths that we learn from teen and celebrity magazines?
Myth No. 1: That we should pay attention to every little "flaw" or "imperfection" we have like the size of the pores on our face or whether or not we get a few razor bumps. Remember the Maybelline slogan from a few years ago that went along with their Great Lash Mascara? It went "Maybe She's Born With It... Maybe It's Maybelline" and all the commercials were showed a model with enviable long eye lashes. That always made me think "Oh come ON! NOW we have to worry about the fact that our EYE LASHES aren't as perfect as the next girl's?!" I mean please. Just think about how different the world would be if we all spent less time being trained to worry about scrutinizing, plucking, tanning, manicuring, waxing etc our bodies and spent more time on saving the environment or trying to solve the world's AIDS crisis.

Myth No. 2: That the women in magazines (and on reality TV shows, sitcoms, movies etc) deserve all the recognition they get. Sure, some celebs work really hard to get where they are, but where are they ultimately? They're just entertaining us. I bet if you made a list of the most important professions out there, you'd probably include things like doctor, teacher, human rights activist, etc. So then why aren't any of those women in the public eye???

Read the rest here

Check out Audrey's blog, Don't Believe the Hype. I've also included it in the list of links here.

Walkin' on a thin line

The power's back!!!!! "Alleluia!!" never seemed so appropriate to a situation till now!!!

Since Thursday morning, Luzon (the northernmost major island of my country) has had a blackout due to heavy rains and strong winds brought by typhoon "Milenyo." Though some areas had their electric power restored on the same day, or a little over 24 hours after it went off, our part of Quezon City only saw light again tonight shortly before 9:00. That's about 84 hours with no electricity! It really is easier to appreciate something when you suddenly lose it. On the other hand, it was a refreshing change to try to make do without television, the pc, cold drinking water, electric fans -- even drive around Metro Manila sans traffic lights!

So back to blogging...




While this isn't fresh news, I still delight over the news about excessively thin models being banned from Madrid Fashion Week. I never thought I'd see the day, seeing how fashion models have acquired quasi-icon status over the decades, as if a skeletal frame is something to aspire for.

A few days after the ban on size-zero women was reported by Yahoo news, a related news article came out, this time with designer Giorgio Armani pinpointing stylists and the media as the culprit in propagating "ultra-thin chic."

Today's The New York Times editorial page contained a brief commentary on the same issue, and only here did I learn of the South American model who, after months of consuming only lettuce and diet soda, died of heart failure in August:

Yes, You Can Be Too Thin

If fashion models were purebred dogs instead of underfed women, there would be an outcry over the abusive standards for appearing in shows and photo shoots. The prize for women who aspire to the catwalk is a ridiculous size 0, though overachieving undereaters seem to be reaching for size 00, which invites further starvation, serious illness and worse.

If the industry needed a wake-up call, it got one last month, when Luisel Ramos, an Uruguayan model who had been advised to lose weight, died of heart failure after taking her turn on the catwalk. She reportedly had gone days without eating, and for months consumed only lettuce and diet soda.

Neverthless, organized of Madrid's Fashion Week caught designer and fashionista scorn for banning the unreasonably thin from their show. The Madrid standard: a minimum body mass index of at least 18 -- a measure of body fat based on weight and height. A reading of 18 is still underweight (18.5 to just under 25 is considered normal), but it is outsized among supermodels, many of whom hover between 14 and 16.

While the recently completed New York Fashion Week carried on as usual, Milan Fashion Week officials were considering applying their own healthy standard for models.

Ending the parade of starved and sickly seems like a fashion trend worth following.

I couldn't agree more, though I hope it's a trend that won't go away.

"Perfection" according to magazines

Another great piece from Feminine Genius (cartoon from Neocitrus).

An excerpt:

This article from the Telegraph is so utterly depressing:

The average British woman worries about the size and shape of her body every 15 minutes ... Research among 5,000 women with an average age of 34 found that just two per cent were happy with their body.

I suppose with the constant media glare on glamour and how one looks, what else are women to be thinking of?

Many respondents were dissatisfied with every part of their own appearance - 87 per cent hated their "podgy thighs", 79 per cent were unhappy with their waist, 65 per cent were disappointed with the size and shape of their breasts, the same number were unhappy with their feet (65 per cent), and 59 per cent were unhappy with their face. More than half of those polled were even disappointed with their hands and fingers.

Obviously, a huge part of this is the fault of contemporary fashion. If women weren't expected to show virtually all their flesh (and the actual shape of what little remains hidden) then these minutiae wouldn't matter -- to anyone, least of all women. Try using extra fabric, try buying a size larger, try draping horizontally -- and then for heaven's sake stop obsessing!

The last statement says it all:

Women, you are made for so much more than this.

Read the whole piece here

And here's something from the CBS News archives about the retouching that is done to practically every photo of models on magazine pages -- thanks to technology's magic.

[More cover girl Jamie Lee Curtis] says the fraud is perpetrated by magazine editors who rely too heavily on photo retouching - which gives models and actresses a “digital diet” long after the photo shoot is over.

Kate Betts, former editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, says most fashion pictures are retouched nowadays. But what can a good retoucher do?

“A good retoucher can basically make the person in the picture look better, enhance the way they look,” says Betts, who was also a former top fashion editor at Vogue. “They can do anything. They can open eyes wider, make them brighter, change the shape, contour the face a lot.”

Read "Re-modeling for Perfection" here