Health and Beauty

My good friend Charlene was part of a special diet program for Hydroxycut. She lost an amazing 55 pounds in less than a year! I’ve seen her ads everywhere - TV, US Weekly, People, etc.. Here’s a YouTube clip of the commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc1PKXU78pc

The photos are NOT photoshopped. She look’s gorgeous now..I’m very proud of her. Highly recommended for anyone looking to lose some weight. (Eating healthy and exercise required!)

Speaking of diets, I’ve been getting a little chunky in the tummy area. Vic and I have been running recently to burn off some calories. Exercise is tiring and time consuming!! argh!

One thing you may not have known about me is that I’ve been battling super dry and sensitive skin my entire life. I’m allergic to almost all lotions, cleansers, lipstick, chapstick, and so on.. The past six months or so have been the worst ever, which was a big reason why I didn’t go out as much and drowned myself in work to keep busy. It’s discouraging being seen in public with this condition.

Symptoms: dryness, peeling, flaking, redness, and itchiness on my facial skin

Things I tried, but didn’t work:

• Not wearing ANY makeup for a whole week
• Not using facial cleanser the next week
• Not using any facial products for a few days (the dryness got even worse! eek!)
• Using a new face lotion that was supposedly hypoallergenic - boy did I find out the hard way! I looked like Freddy Kruger for a whole weekend

The last trial was the last straw for me.. I decided to make use of my health insurance and went to a dermatologist. I was diagnosed with genetically inherited dry skin. (Great! Just what I wanted to hear, NOT!) And lucky ole me, this condition is incurable. :sigh: The best they could do was write me a prescription for Protopic to help reduce redness from the bad face lotion incident - $130 a pop! Ack!

While I was waiting for my prescription at the pharmacy, I decided to pick up some Cetaphil cream and facial wash - over $20 worth. I know this brand has been out for ages, but I just never gave it a shot…I’m skeptical about everything at this point. So I’ve been using it for over a week now and guess what..my skin is completely smooth! w0ot!