Superfoods for Incredible Hair

I’m convinced that if I could bottle the feeling of a good-hair day, its success would rival that of the iPhone. Call me superficial, but when my hair is smooth, shiny and full, I tend to feel a wee bit better about, well, everything. Unfortunately, I’m all thumbs with the blow-dryer, and my rush to walk the dog, work out and get to the office leaves me little time to play around with the latest styling products. So I was thrilled to learn that I can make my hair look better on a daily basis simply by eating certain foods. Feast for better hair? Even I, styling challenged though I am, can handle that! For more bounce, strength and shine, I’ve been mindful to have my fill of the key nutrients below. Put them on your plate, too, for heavenly hair, and a healthy body, too!

Iron
Iron helps bolster hair growth. Find it in meat, shellfish, fortified grains and leafy greens.

Protein
Protein is the building block of every strand, but it can be high in fat. To keep your saturated fat intake low, opt for lean cuts of meat, mix light meat with dark, or choose seafood.

Biotin, B6 and B12
Biotin, B6 and B12 promote new growth within the follicles. Good sources include whole-grain breads, oatmeal, skim milk, lowfat cheese, eggs, salmon, nuts and nut butters.

Zinc
Zinc strengthens natural oils that coat the hair shaft, creating shine. Feast on meat, nuts, chickpeas, pumpkin seeds and yogurt.

Vitamin C
Vitamin C helps promote cell renewal in the scalp. Get your fill in the form of brightly colored fruits and veggies. Strawberries and kiwis are surprising super sources, as are raspberries, mangoes, oranges and red bell peppers.

Vitamin A
Vitamin A is also a hair helper; look for it in apples, apricots and sweet potatoes.

Antioxidants
Antioxidants found in herbs, dark chocolate and fresh berries promote a healthy scalp by sparking cell turnover.

Want easy ways to weave these superfoods into your diet? Follow this sample menu by Lona Sandon, R.D., a spokeswoman in Dallas for the American Dietetic Association.

Breakfast:
Make your first meal rich in biotin and protein, hair’s primary components.
• Option 1: Whole-grain tortilla [BIOTIN] with 1 slice lowfat cheese [BIOTIN]; 2 scrambled eggs [BIOTIN]; 3 slices mango
• Option 2: 1 cup oatmeal [BIOTIN] with skim milk [BIOTIN] and a small handful of walnuts [BIOTIN] and dried apricots; 1/2 grapefruit

Lunch:
Munch on foods containing growth-promoting iron midday.
• Option 1: 3 oz roast beef [IRON] or turkey [IRON] on whole-wheat toast [IRON] with 1 slice lowfat cheese and 1/2 avocado (instead of mayo)
• Option 2: 3 oz grilled chicken breast; small baked sweet potato; salad of 4 cups romaine [IRON], 1/2 cup each red bell pepper and chickpeas; 1 tbsp olive oil and lemon juice to taste

Snack:
Antioxidant-rich bites between meals make for a healthy scalp.
• Option 1: 1/2 cup unsalted edamame [ANTIOXIDANTS] sprinkled with chili powder
• Option 2: 1 oz dark chocolate [ANTIOXIDANTS]; 1/2 cup raspberries [ANTIOXIDANTS AND BIOTIN]

Dinner:
Protein for your final meal boosts hair and your energy levels.
• Option 1: 2 1/2 cups veggie chili consisting of 1/2 cup each red kidney beans [PROTEIN], carrots, potato, peas [PROTEIN] and tomatoes
• Option 2: 6 oz grilled wild salmon [PROTEIN AND BIOTIN] or steak [PROTEIN]; a salad of 4 cups spinach, 1/2 cup orange slices, 1 oz goat cheese, a handful each of pumpkin seeds and raisins; 1 tbsp olive oil and lemon juice to taste

Source: http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthieryou/15872/superfoods-for-incredible-hair/

Hoolah!

My sincere apologies for the lack of entries! There has been a few hiccups recently in my family and close ones that has been hogging my brain. I hope they can recover very soon and stay healthy!!! And definitely will keep the entries coming in very soon!

Lots of love,
Novia

Fried Sticky Rice Cake

Feeling the post CNY effects? I have a sudden crave for fried sticky rice cake! Pouts.... I'm suppose to be on diet from now onwards... So pictures and recipe from Elinluv's Tidbits Corner for viewing pleasure! =P


This sticky rice cake / nian gao is a must have item for the Chinese celebrating CNY in Asia . For the businessmen it meant prosperity and for the working people it meant they get their promotion every year ;))) Most Chinese love to eat it either steamed and rolled in freshly grated coconut or fried it sandwiched between taro/yam and sweet potato.

A delicacy which my Piggies and I love very much and an item we looked forward to during the CNY. My Piggies never failed to ask ? Mom, you bought nian gao ??? ? A sigh of relief was heard when I answered " Yesssss ":))))

It can be kept in the fridge for a year or so , provided you sliced it first ( easier to cut when it is still soft) and stored in air-tight container . Many of us do that so that we get to eat this sticky rice cake through out the year!

Last Sunday , I fried this nian gao sandwiched between taro and sweet potato as afternoon snack for the Piggies . The oooos and the aaaarrs can be heard when I served these for their tea snack. The crispy outer layer and the gooey sweetness of melted nian gao oozing out was sweet heaven itself, truly a bomb in the mouth !!!

sandwiched the rice cake with taro/yam and sweet potato

the crispy outer layer and gooey sweetness of melted nian gao inside gives you a taste of heaven you will never forget :)))

The oooos and the aaaarrs can be heardwhen I served these bombs for their tea snack.

Fried Sticky Rice Cake Sandwich

Ingredients:

1 big sticky rice cake /nian gao (sliced into ¼ inch thick ,1.5 inch square slices)
1 taro/yam (sliced into ¼ inch thick ,1.5 inch square slices)
2 large Japanese sweet potato (sliced into ¼ inch thick ,1.5 inch square slices)

Batter:

1 cup rice flour
½ cup superfine flour

½ cup corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 ml water
1 egg
1 tsp salt
3 cup oil for frying


Method:

1. Peel ,cut and wash taro or yam,sweet potato and nian gao,set aside.

2. Preheat oil in wok .

3. Combine egg , rice flour , superfine flour , corn flour, salt , baking powder and water in a medium bowl,whisk all ingredients till you get a smooth batter.If the batter is too thick, add in some water, little by little at one time, do not make the batter too watery, coz it's can't hold the nian gao ,taro and sweet potato together. If the batter still have some lump, sieve with a siever in another bowl. Leave to rest for ½ hr.

4. Place 1 slice of sticky rice cake /nian gao between a slice of sweet potato and and a slice of taro/yam. Dip the sandwiched sticky rice /nian gao into the batter and fry over slow medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on paper towel before serve.

Enjoy !

By Elinluv's Tidbits Corner (Visit website)

Why We Put On Weight During CNY

Love from Mummy! Who cares about weight?

Happy Chinese New Year!

HUAT AH!

Digital Imaging Magic - Rainbow Sparkle

I'm really thrilled to learn advance masking and rendering on this image. Turns out to be really cool! Thanks to Aylwin for allowing me to "mess" around his images! Hope you guys like it! Kaka!

Black Pepper Salmon with Spinach

Attempting to eat healthier, I prepared dinner using salmon (high protein, high Omega-3 fatty acids, and high vitamin content) & spinach (rich source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, iron, folic acid, protein, omega-3 fatty acids and many more)

Ingredients

2 salmon fillets
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup vegetable broth
salt (if broth is not salty enough)
1 med. onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 Tablespoons of freshly cracked black pepper
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch fresh spinach, washed, stemmed, and dried

Directions

Combine broth, wine and salt (optional) in a bowl. Pour half of the liquid in a zip lock bag and add salmon and onion. Chill both the salmon and reserved marinade for around 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Spread cracked pepper on a plate. Remove the salmon and onion from the marinade. Pat salmon dry with kitchen towel and press the cracked pepper into both sides of the salmon fillets.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil with medium heat. Add onion and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove onion from skillet and set aside.

Increase the heat to medium high, place salmon skin side down in the skillet and cook until crispy, about 10-15 minutes. When salmon is just cook through, remove from the skillet.

Add and heat up reserved marinade into the skillet. Add spinach and onion into boiling marinade and cook until the spinach is just limp, around 3 minutes.

Place spinach and onion mixture on the plate and place the salmon directly on top.
Spoon some of the sauce over the salmon and serve hot.

Digital Imaging - Convert Color Images into Black and White

There are numerous methods you can adopt to convert a color image into black and white. I will like to introduce and compare two useful quick tricks of conversion, and will also highlight certain enhancement to make your image look better.

In this tutorial, I will be using Adobe Photoshop CS4.

The quickest and easiest method to convert an image to B&W will be using Desaturate tool.

Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate

A ten seconds job, but as you can see in the top right hand image, it has very low contrast, and it appears darker and flat.

Another method will be using Photoshop Black & White tool.

Photoshop's Black & White Tool is new to CS3 and CS4 and it works differently from the Channel Mixer and Lab Colour methods that have been well adopted previously. The black and white tool is easy to use and you don't need a degree in graphic design to get to grips with it.

Image -> Adjustments -> Black & White

When you look at the Black & White dialog box, you will see that there is an option called Present. You are recommended to trial and error with the different types of presets. For this image, I am using High Contrast Red Filter where Cyan is reduced significantly, along with Blue and also Green. Red, Magenta and Yellow are all drastically increased. This tends to produce a bright, but contrasted effect as per left lower image.

To make life easier, download the Photoshop action Here and use it to automatically convert your image using Black & White tool in one click.

To install or import the action, refer to the following link:

http://eatcookshoot.blogspot.com/2010/02/installing-photoshop-actions.html

Very often in low key shoot, the eyes of the subject tends to look slightly dull. Using a soft white brush with 40-50 percent opacity, create a catchlight and moon as per lower right image. As eyes are often the crucial factor in a portrait, this will instantly liven up the image.

Good luck & have fun!

Credits:
Rebecca Chen & Aylwin's Photography

Installing Photoshop Actions

An action is a series of tasks that you play back on a single file or a batch of files - menu commands, palette options, tool actions, and so on. You can create an action that changes the size of an image, applies a filter to the image for a particular effect, and then saves the file in the desired format. Nice, isn’t it !

Installing actions on your computer is rather straight forward. You can install the action file anywhere on your computer hard disk. It does not have to be installed in the Photoshop directory hierarchy.

Once you have copied the action file onto your computer, you have to load the actions within Photoshop so that the actions are available for use. To load the actions, select "Load Actions ..." from the Actions palette menu as shown below:

Locate your action file and select the "Load" button. Your actions are added to the Actions palette.

Reference: http://www.imphotography.com/downloads/installactions.htm
http://www.visual-blast.com/photoshop/

Alopecia Areata / Patchy Hair Loss Part III - Maintaining it

After you have found your suitable treatment, are there additional ways that you can maintain your scalp condition better?

Firstly: Start with your shampoo and conditioner. Opt for a milder shampoo and junk the chemical infested ones. Personally, I'm back to basic, Johnson & Johnson conditioning shampoo. Well, if babies can use it, why can't adults?

2nd: Stop dyeing/chemical treatment on your hair. This is a personal recommendation as all chemicals have a risk on affecting your scalp. If you really have to color your hair, get a highlight as it reduces the contact of chemicals with your scalp.

3rd: Get a reliable hair stylist. You will not be able to stop the hair loss immediately but you definitely can change or enhance your hairstyle to cover the bald patches. I stopped going to salon for quite some time due to low confidence level and my denial of letting any one see those patches on my scalp. However, if you have a dedicated stylist that you are comfortable with, he/she will be able to advice you how you can maintain your hair without anyone noticing a single bald patch.

4th: Anxious about your prom night, D&D, photoshoot? Use or bring along eye shadows that matches your hair color when you style up your hair at home or in a salon. This is a neat trick used even in professional commercial environment. Rub a small amount of eye shadow on the visible bald patches and they will significantly be less visible under a gorgeously styled hair.

5th: And the most important. ATTITUDE! Keep the stress level down and the positivity going. Being one of the hair condition that has as high as 90% recovery rates. Staying happy and positive will aid your hair grow faster!

Hoping that this personal guide helps and may all our hair grow faster and stronger!

Digital Imaging Magic - Simply Dreamy

Combining vector with images. Results turn out quite well indeed. =D

Langkawi 2010 4D3N Suggested Itinerary

Posting my initial itinerary for sharing here. Of course some of the plans did change during the trip due to unforeseen circumstances but everything still went really well. Do let me know your comments!

Digital Imaging Magic - Dimension

Thanks to Rebecca Chen and Aylwin for this amazing picture!

Langkawi 2010 - Day 4

The final day was spent on the beach lazing with cans of cold beer. Our flight back to Singapore was around 5pm and we set off from hotel at 3pm. Did some duty free shopping and gotten some skin care products for my girlfriends. Tiger Airways set off on the dot and reached Singapore around 615pm.

Do also note that arrival hall for Singapore budget terminal has very limited duty free shopping and they mainly carry only perfume products.

Berjaya Resort was reasonable but requires more maintenance and improvements. I tried arranging for some Birthday decoration in the room but the hotel said it was chargeable! We paid around RM400 per night and they wasn't supportive to throw some nice flower petals on the bed for me.

Stardust cruise was a huge disappointment as I had high hopes and really looking forward for our sunset dinner cruise. Being the most expensive dinner cruise available (RM 295 per pax), I was not too satisfied with just a verbal sorry over the phone.

Nevertheless, the trip to Langkawi was pretty awesome. The sea was quite alright but the weather is a bit too hot for me. Rustic with interesting culture, there were definitely tourist traps with prices to rip you off, but there were also duty free booze and quite a fair bit of shopping, sightseeing and friendly people in town. Thank you Langkawi!

Langkawi 2010 - Day 3

Despite aching calves from island hopping and shopping, I was really excited for day 3! Berjaya provides free shuttle transport as it is pretty near Oriental Village.

Off to Oriental Village around 10am for cable car and some duty free shopping.


Hat was "forced" on me as someone thinks it looks really cute.... Cute indeed, but you will have to kill me first before I will actually wear it.


Traditional noodles to kick start the day.



Got two tickets. Ticket purchase was pretty fast but queuing up for cable car took us around 30 minutes.


Giant rotatory wheel



Cable car going off


Setting off!



The view was really scenic and it feels very breezy and peaceful.





Awesome view from top


Big grin on face with beautiful sunshine and soothing breeze.





Next stop


Walking down








View from cable car on the journey back to main station


There was a pretty run down deer & rabbit farm.


Trancing the bunny. This refers to the fact that many rabbits will become totally still if flipped onto their back as if they were comatose.


We proceeded back to the hotel around 330pm to freshen up and to get ready for the evening. Arranged sunset dinner cruise and they were suppose to pick us up around 430pm at the hotel lobby.

I specially gotten a new sundress and bikini for the specially arranged cruise dinner. But big hiccup came when the cruise manager called the recreation desk and told me on the phone that they are experiencing technical issue and will not be able to set sail.......................!!!!!!

As the trip was suppose to be a Birthday surprise for my beaut (I arranged a Birthday cake with his name written on it several weeks ahead), I was really disappointed as I do not have any backup plan.

After composing myself, we decided to go for a sumptuous seafood dinner.

Around Cenang beach, Orkid Ria which serves Chinese cuisine is really outstanding!


Oriental setups


Grilled tiger prawn


Look at the giant size!


Baby kailan with garlic


I'm still amazed by the size of the prawn


Teow Chew Steam Grouper


Butter lobster!!! - This is heavenly!!!


Strolling down the beach and found a chill out place with live band by the sea.




Lead singer on the left.


Close up on stage


Zoom in and you will find me singing on stage. Did a Birthday song and Yellow by Coldplay. My exclusive surprise Birthday gift just for my beaut. =P


Totally weird fella meditating on the beach just around the beach bar


He stayed really still even though the tide came in


And no response despite me placing a can of beer next to him


No response with close up flash


He finally moved when the band stopped playing close to midnight. He's totally awesome and friendly to have a snapshot with me! You ROX!


Back to hotel after midnight. Taxi fare cost RM25 for a 25 minutes ride back.