a few of my favorites.

i'm sort of a skin care junky. always a sucker for anything that makes promises of glowing translucent, spot free, wrinkle free skin. to the point that i even had my mom make a request to her doctor that he prescribe her retina-a {for her to give to me of course} just because i had read all of the benefits of that wonder cream {article here}. however, i do try to keep my arsenal a little more on the organic, all natural products side so for now i've forfeited that Rx and only use that magic ingredient in my eye creams.
here's a little bit of what i've been loving lately.

1. clarisonic mia. oh my mia, my mia. love this thing. morning AND night. i've been using it for almost two years now and seriously, it works wonders on dull skin.
2. turbo booster c powder by philosophy. a newbie on the block, thanks to the recommendation from one of my aunts, i add this vitamin c powder to my tinted moisturizer {#6} every morning and the results {think *GLOW*} were instant.
3. when hope is not enough omega 3.6.9 serum by philosophy. i actually think this was the first philosophy product responsible for the recent *glow* in my skin. #2 just gave it that extra boost {hence the BOOSTER in turbo booster powder}.
4. b&b thickening conditioner. i seriously use this for the smell and smell alone. it's perfect. but yeah, it does also thicken.
5. kiehl's coriander body wash. another winner in the scent department. and to think that they almost discontinued this product!
6. bobbi brown tinted moisturizing balm. i've seriously been obsessed with this magical moisturizer for years now. ever since i read how great it was over at goop i haven't bought any other brand. i use to jump around from brand to brand of tinted moisturizers from josie maran, to origins, to physicians formula organicwear.....everything. every one of them was either too much "tinted" and not enough moisturizer or the other way around. but this one is a perfect balance between the two. it doesn't leave you feeling greasy, your skin looks great AND it's spf 25 which is a lot more than most others. it's also a little pricey but it lasts for about three months, and that's coming from someone who uses it everyday.
7. sabon body lotion in their signature patchouli lavender vanilla. apparently i'm a sucker for scents too. i love love LOVE the smell of this lotion {the salt scrub is pretty amazing too}. and it's thick and wonderful feeling too boot. but since it comes in a glass jar it's incredibly expensive to ship, like double the cost of the lotion expensive, which means the next time you go to ny, you should really stock up!

hope y'all are able to get your hands on some of these things and give them a try, i promise you won't regret it!
footnote: yes, i do realize that most of these products are not 100%, or even 10% for that matter, organic. i said i try and this is me trying.

really needing it today.

as you saw earlier, i definitely did not get an adequate amount of sleep last night. normally i wouldn't recommend continuing your normal schedule without a nap after sleeping as little as i did, butttttt....being the 'early day' person that i am, i just know that a nap is not coming anytime soon. so far, i've trained clients twice today (pilates session at 6am and a personal training session at 9am). i have definitely stuck with my normal diet (protein pancakes for breakfast and a toneitup protein bar dipped into just a bit of greek yogurt for a mid-morning snack), but for my pre-workout stack, i'm going to have to give myself a little oomph!

all for the lowest price possible, thanks
to bodybuilding.com

when i said i need a little extra 'pep' today, i'm doing this in the form of n.o.-xplode + atrophex (both bsn products). normally i just rely on n.o.-xplode for my pre-workout energy and take atrophex early in the day to really get me going, but i have a feeling that my body might not be ready for the toll i'm about to take on it.
although i'm providing my body with an extra supplement, i still plan on keeping the weight pretty low when i get to the gym today. had i actually rested my little head last night, i would train my booty but instead i'm going to do some serious cardio and about twenty minutes of all-over, light-weight circuit training with a little bit of plyometrics.
how do you recover from a night of minimal sleep? would love to hear how i could be doing this better!!
j

running on a serious lack of zzz's.

so, last night found me tossing and turning like i've never tossed and turned before. i woke up at about 1:45, remained completely resistant to the possibility that i wouldn't immediately return to sleep. not to mention that i had these kinds of winds blowing on our window

backyard

.....finally gave in at about 3:30 by opening a book and sipping on a glass of warm almond milk. unfortunately, the book proved much more interesting than i had anticipated and therefore didn't shut out the light until nearly 4:45. probably fell asleep at about 5:00 only to wake up at 5:20 for my 6:00 pilates session. clearly i will not be a high-functioning human being today. despite my shortage of shut-eye, i immediately kicked my butt into gear when i woke up and started on some protein pancakes. thanks to the ever dependable bodybuilding.com, i received my vanilla creme muscle milk light on friday.

bokusuperfood.com

bodybuilding.com

this morning i followed the tone it up protein pancake recipe (surpise, surprise) and a protein mix of about three-quarters of a scoop of muscle milk (the vanilla flavor makes the pancakes SOOOOOO sweet and yummy) and one-quarter scoop boku super protein. the combination equaled perfection...some veggie protein plus whey....loves it.
i'm hoping to get a little-shmittle nap in sometime today so that my workout can be just as successful as if i had a complete eight hours of sleep....let's just hope my plan works out!
more later.
plus, my friend jacqui's spanish rice recipe.
j