my favorite multitaskers

Have you seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding?  If not, go do it, and thank me later.  For those of you that have, remember the dad who uses Windex to fix everything?  Well, my friends recently brought it to my attention that that's me and baking soda.
When I thought about it, they're completely right.  I use baking soda for everything.  Upon further contemplation, I realized I used petroleum jelly for everything too.
Since its likely that you already have both of these things in your house, here's a few ways you can use them that you might not have thought of:

Baking Soda

wash your face. I've posted about this before, but I'll recap: make a paste in your hand with baking soda and use it to scrub your face.  I've been doing this (plus some other all natural stuff, click the link above) for about a year, and my skin has never been better.

wash your hair. I'm planning a more informative post about this soon, but I'm sure you've heard about using baking soda to wash your hair.  I use a little of it in a small bottle (formerly a travel-sized lotion), and dissolve it in warm water, and use it in lieu of shampoo.  My hair is loving it.

unclog your drain.  Depending on how far gone your drain clog is, baking soda + ACV + warm water can unclog it.  Put baking soda around the drain, pour a little vinegar over it and let it sit for a few minutes, then pour hot water over all that and let it drain.  It may take a few times, but it works.

Petroleum Jelly

grow your lashes. Yep, I'm serious.  I've been using PJ as an eye cream for a few months, and I can definitely tell a difference in the length of my eyelashes.  In a pinch, you can also use it as eye makeup remover.

keep your hair color on your hair.  When I'm dying my hair (yes, I use a box and do it at home, and yes, I'm completely pleased with it), I'll put a layer of PJ around my hairline to keep the color from bleeding and dying my ears or forehead.

scrub your lips.  Around this time of year, my lips get dry and peel-y.  So I'll take a dab of PJ and some sugar and use it to scrub my lips.  It makes them baby soft and gets rid of all that gross dead skin that makes your lipgloss look weird.

you can get petroleum jelly in a tube here

Do you have any basic products that you use for a ton of different things?

Workin' On My Fitness

It's almost March. Thank the Lord, because I don't do well in the cold.
However, this also means that swimsuit season is fast approaching.
And also, you know, wedding.
So I need to be getting on track with my healthy-ness.
Here's my plan so far:
- start cutting out sugar. Not all of it, because then I would be a raging she-beast, but I do need to seriously cut down my intake, and not just for being hot reasons.  Hello, my name is Hannah, and I have a sugar problem.  I'm trying to start substituting fruit for cookies, and that works most of the time; I'm anticipating it getting easier as summer approaches and more healthy foods are in season.
- work out at least 5 days a week. What I define as a "workout" is probably pretty lame to some people... if I consistently exercise for 10 or 15 minutes, I call it a workout.  Fitsugar is an awesome website that has a ton of 10 minute fitness videos that will actually make you sore the next day, so I'll do one of those in the morning, 2 if I'm really feeling ambitious. They're mostly strength training, and that's what I'm focused on - I don't want to lose weight so much as tone up. It's only 10 minutes so it's super easy to fit into my daily routine and I don't dread it because it goes by so quickly.
- eat clean. This is hard and I can't do it all the time, but I'm attempting to stop eating prepackaed, chemicall-y things and just eat whole foods.  This isn't always possible, but I feel much better when I do it.
- lots of water and green tea. I did this before, but I'm trying to kick it up a notch now.
Any more tips for me? :)