Monday, April 20, 2009

Vanity Insanity Part 1

It is true, it’s coming to fruition in probably about a few years. Imagine, a fat cell that doesn’t look like a fat cell, instead it looks like muscle cell. That’s not the end of it; it helps metabolize your white fat.

Wow, now all I have to do is just probably a little bit of weight training and a little bit of cardio, and yippy, I don’t have to slave myself in the gym anymore!!! It’s a win win.

Here I have to stress that the entire working out five days a week for me is purely vanity, and if the up side to this vanity benefits my health? Hey I’m not complaining.

Recently, I have been working out five days a week. It is though to wake up in the crack of dawn and hit the gym at 7am in morning, by the way, I love working out at this time is because I don’t have to wait for any machine. There are less people around so the air is way fresher in the gym in the early morning.

Everyday, Monday to Friday, I have my share of about 1 to 1.5 hours of work out and 10 to 15 minutes of shower room routine, i.e. from hitting the shower to finishing up my hair to walking out the gym looking like a supermodel just finishing a fashion shoot. It’s not narcissistic talking; I can sense numerous pairs of eyes following me everyday when I get out of the shower room heading towards the exit. I might strike a magnum to just shock them while they are working out sometime, and be content when they drop their weight.

Pop two hydroxycuts, two eggs in 30 minutes before workout, 30 minutes of Cardio follow by another 30 minutes to an hour of free weight exercise, an hour thereafter before I eat my breakfast for energy, all for in the name of vanity.

The heaviest I’ve ever been is 90kgs or 198 lbs, after the routine, though I weigh in at 83kgs or 182 lbs. Although I wish I could have gone back to my 78kg or 172lbs, I’m happy that I have gain muscle mass and loose at least 15% of body fat. If I’m consistent, I might be able to reduce my body fat to 12%.

That’s just the anatomy side of the story. I haven’t even touched on the subject of exterior and inner beauty yet. I have been plugged, and buffed and quaffed for at least a quarter of a century. I will disassemble my body into three parts, head, torso and lower body, and explain what I have to do in order to be a “contemporary perfect” person. I’ll explain what I meant by “contemporary perfect”.

First, let’s start with my head, top down. I’m a guy who knows what I want and can actually direct my hairstylists to create a look that I look good in. In hindsight, I believe that one style should be able to create several looks. I have been a model since I can remember, I have seen million of looks been created on me during photo shoot and fashion shows. Process of elimination allows me to understand myself better, and trust me, not all the looks that were been created suited me. Now that I’m older and wiser, I understand that you don’t have to look like a clown even when the situation ask for it.

In a perfect world, you will be able to work with the only one hairstylist who know how to create a perfect hairdo for you, and he will experiment his new stylistic expression that quaff a perfect hairdo that compliment your face structure.

Ask yourself this question, who knows you better then yourself? The answer is not really simple but obvious; it’s obvious because you spend 24/7 with yourself, and it is not simple because if you aren’t a sensitive person, it’s hard to know yourself even if you spend your sleeping hour dreaming about yourself.

Maybe I’m luckier than many people for I have been through all these makeover, or maybe I’m the unlucky one for been scrutinized and judge by the circle I’m in, may it be my work or social life, how I look everyday. Either way, I never complaint for this is what I have chosen and I’ll live with the consequences. In my opinion, this influences my judgment on beauty. They say, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but when a colossal of people didn’t appreciate the beauty, the beauty in that beholder will fade.

Let’s continue with my face, I plug my eyebrow as soon as my eyebrow start bushing up. I’m Chinese and Chinese eyebrow tends to be less streamline. I have friends that urge me not to even touch my eyebrow cause that’s the sign of manliness. I ask them, so when your hair starts growing, and you feel like it’s out of control, you look bad when your hair has grown out, you look like a scarecrow, what would you do? The answer is usually, “a haircut”.

Well, what’s the different between cutting one’s hair and plugging one’s brow? Different era defines beauty differently; in the western world, there are words like baroque, gothic, rococo, art deco, modern and post modern to name a few. These are words that describe art movements in a certain era. So, aren’t these movements a way beauty standards are defined? We live in a different era right now, an era that uses the word metrosexual to describe man with an “exquisite” taste that is acquired by a straight man with gay sensitivity.

We, or at least my friends and I, are more cosmopolitan these days, we are expose to the latest trend, and there is a certain etiquette we must observe to make the cut. We manicure ourselves from head to toe, taking the cue from InStyle, GQ, Esquire and Wallpaper alike, to make us feel like super stars. Their skins are smooth and flawless, their brow are streamline and symmetry, lips are plum and bee stunk…

There are also this thing that pertain to the bible and Confucius that I find explain my point of view; bible says: “Do to others what you would have them do to you”, and Confucius said: “己所不欲,勿施于人”; having seen these images, we can’t help ourselves but to subscript to the new definition of beauty, in my case, these new standards of male image, lure me into plugging my brow, wearing light, “almost invisible”, makeup when attending events, manicure and buff my nails, wax armpit and legs even when my sight of body hair is negligible. I even have mankini waxed and trimmed to look like a porn star.

What I do don’t take away my masculinity, neither does it take robe me from my appeal to whoever I go to bed with. Many, when they notice, were amazed at how much I have to go through to keep myself “perfect”. People might think that keeping this “perfect” image is taxing, but you will come up on top of anyone within your age group.

For my facial routine, it’s very simple, let me break it down:
Cleanse, tone and moisturize - daily
  • Exoliate or Peal - 2-3 times/week
  • Deep Cleasing Mask - 2-3 times/week
  • Detox Mask - 2-3 times/week
  • Deep Moisturizing Mask - 2-3 times/week
  • Vitimin Mask - 2-3 times/week
While you are doing that, don’t neglect your hands and neck. These age many times faster then your face.

I know this article sounds like a drag, but if you know how you want yourself to look like in the mirror, that’s just what you to have to do to achieve that, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I haven’t even dwelt upon the subject of inner beauty, that’s even more taxing then your appearance maintenance.

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