Meow Meow Tweet | Sustainable Beauty Review

January 26, 2021

Hi, friends! Coming at you with the first of hopefully many sustainable beauty and skincare posts! I've been on a year long journey of trying to make my everyday routine more sustainable and it's been a lot of trial and error. It can take a lot of time to try out different brands to find what works best for you so I'm sharing my experiences in the hopes that it will help those of you on your own sustainability journey ❤️

Today's post is about the lovely brand, Meow Meow Tweet. Meow Meow Tweet is a great beauty and skincare brand that focuses on creating vegan, cruelty-free, low waste products that are good for both your skin and the planet.

Geranium Palmarosa Face Toner | $24

There are very few sustainable skincare brands that make a toner because it seems that toner is one of those products people often don't need or will give up when they try to go for a more sustainable skincare routine. But since I have acne prone skin, toner has become a very central part of my skincare routine so I've been on the hunt for a toner to replace the one I'm currently using. Meow Meow Tweet has two toners on their website. I opted for the gernaium palmorosa one because of the formula - the other toner they offer is a gel formula and I wanted one that could be sprayed all over the face.

I really really wanted to like this toner, but after testing it out for over a month, I could not get used to the smell or the feeling on my skin. Usually toners tighten your pores and make your skin feel fresh and smooth. I'm sure this one also tightens the pores but because one of its main ingredients is apple cider vinegar, the smell of it is SO strong and it leaves your skin a bit sticky. I always found myself cringing at the smell on my skin so unfortunately it was not for me.

On top of that, the price point of this toner is a whopping $24. Most of the time, with zero waste products you're paying a higher price that ultimately pays off in other ways (e.g., the product lasts longer, vegan ingredients, eco-friendly packaging) but for me, this price point was definitely too high for a product I didn't really like.

Lavender Coconut Milk Shampoo Bar | $12

There are only two shampoo bars listed on Meow Meow Tweet's website and I wasn't a fan of either smell but opted for the one I found slightly less offending (the other option is a rosemary avocado). Luckily, the lavender coconut smell wasn't too overpowering and it performed similarly to other zero waste shampoo bars I've used from other brands. Generally, these zero waste shampoo bars tend to dry out my hair more than a regular shampoo so it's important to remember that a little goes a long way. Although I liked using this shampoo bar, I felt like it melted away really quickly - more quickly than shampoo bars from Lush I've been using - so it isn't something I'm likely to repurchase since there are others that I like better. I'm hopeful that as Meow Meow Tweet continues to grow that there will be other shampoo bars that I'll try in the future!

Grapefruit Mint Body Soap | $10

Out of the products I chose, the grapefruit mint body soap was by far my favorite. Lush products are usually my go-to when it comes to body soaps but I find that oftentimes their soaps have a ton of coloring in them. Though the coloring never dyes my sink permanently, I'm usually left with a bunch of brightly colored streaks all over my soap dish. This soap from meow meow tweet didn't do that at all and I really liked that it was a more natural-looking color as well as a natural scent 🙂 - Although it didn't blow me away in any particular category, I liked it enough that I'll probably continue purchasing it in the future.

Verdict:

My favorite part of shopping with Meow Meow Tweet is feeling like you can do no wrong. They're a fantastic small, eco-friendly company that uses vegan and natural ingredients in their products. They also have a great refill program that allows you to save money on their products as well as save trash from being dumped into the environment. Although I didn't fall in love with any of the products I purchased this time around, I did fall in love with the brand and everything they're doing. All of these sustainable good for the planet initiatives make Meow Meow Tweet a pretty cool company. I'm going to continue testing out more of their products in the future and I'm hoping to stumble on some that I like as they continue to make more great products.

I Tried Intermittent Fasting for a Month | Something New

December 13, 2020

Hello, friends! I've been trying to keep up my something new project each month throughout quarantine in an effort to develop better habits and work on self improvement - even during this weird time. Especially when it comes to health and work-life balance, my habits were all over the place at the beginning of quarantine, so I've spent the better part of 6 months trying to develop better ones! Enter intermittent fasting.

What is intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is where you fast for a long period of time and only eat within a shorter eating window usually in the hopes of achieving some sort of health benefit. The theory of how intermittent fasting works is that when you fast, your body is in a state of ketosis where you are using the extra fat in your body as energy. Intermittent fasting purports to put our bodies into this state of ketosis and also boasts a ton of other health benefits. Intermittent fasting can be done for days at a time or only within certain hours of the day. Some people choose to fast for 2 days and eat for 4 days, some people choose 20 hours of fasting and a 4 hour eating window, but the most common intermittent fasting routine is 16 hours of fasting and an 8 hour eating window - usually somewhere around 12:00 pm - 8:00 pm

While there is a long history of fasting in humans (e.g., certain religions have been fasting for periods much longer than this throughout history), the research on intermittent fasting specifically is more sparse.

The Science:

Based on what I could find, the TL;DR of the science behind intermittent fasting is that there really aren't enough studies about it for us to understand the full benefits or harms of intermittent fasting. There are studies on rats (not the same as humans) and there are studies on intermittent fasting in small samples of humans for short periods of time, but none of these are truly indicative of what long-term effects intermittent fasting might have on us. Therefore, if you choose to try intermittent fasting, know that it's truly experimental in nature and that the effects that people claim to experience from intermittent fasting might be specific only to that person, so listen to your body and make sure that anything you do is best for you.

Why I wanted to do it:

To reduce bloating and re-establish healthier eating habits.

Pre-quarantine, I wasn't necessarily the perfect eater, but I was busy enough running around on campus that I didn't have the opportunity to sit in my living room and eat 24/7 🙂. Since quarantine, my eating habits have truly been aaaaaaalll over the place. I'm already generally a healthy eater (thank you, mom) BUT I am also 100% one of those people that eats when I'm bored and has very little self control around potato chips and ice cream (it's all about balance right? 😜). The only strategy that usually works for me is getting out of the house to keep my mind busy and banning junk food from my apartment because I know as soon as it enters the apartment, it's as good as gone. So, I wanted to try intermittent fasting to see if I could reset my brain into less snacking, better eating habits, and hopefully less bloating.

The Rules:

There aren't clear guidelines on what to eat during that intermittent fasting period and how long you should fast. This is part of the reason why the evidence behind intermittent fasting is spotty - there are no rules for how to do it, so the effects are inconsistent. I opted for the most common 16:8 fasting rule and fasted for 16 hours with an 8 hour eating window. I am an early bird so I chose an earlier eating window - from 10:30 am to 6:30 pm.

Since there weren't really any hard and fast rules for what you could or could not eat during intermittent fasting and what was supposedly okay to eat during your fasting period, I decided to do what I affectionately called "lazy" intermittent fasting - AKA I let myself drink coffee with creamer in the mornings before my fasting period was over because...let's be honest. I am a nightmare pre-coffee and I wasn't going to put myself (or my partner) through that 🙂

Outfit Details: Sweater: H&M / Necklace: Similar Here and Here / Lipstick: Colour Pop in Bumble (one of my all-time favorite reds!)

My Experience:

Alright, so I tried it for 30 days. What was it like?

The mornings were tough for a while: Hunger-wise, the mornings were tough for me. For the first 2 weeks, I was pretty hungry by 8:30 or 9:00 but had to wait another 1-2 hours to eat. Full disclosure, I wake up at around 5:30 in the mornings so waiting until 10:30 is a whole 5 hours!
Your body adjusts: Even though those first couple of weeks were difficult for me, my body started to adjust over time. I'd still be pretty hungry by the time 10:30 rolled around but over time, I was no longer hungry at 8 or 9 and it became easier to wait it out. Eating first thing in the morning has been a longtime habit of mine and it was interesting to see how quickly my body seemed to adjust.
Reduces the need to make decisions: As a social scientist, I'm all about the psychology here - and intermittent fasting definitely helped to reduce the amount of decision-making power I needed in the mornings. Studies have shown that your willpower is a limited resource so if you're using that making decisions about when, what, and how much to eat you have less willpower to make other decisions.
Challenges the assumption that you have to eat three meals a day: Another good thing I experienced from intermittent fasting was that it challenged my assumption that I needed to eat three meals a day. Don't get me wrong, I love eating any chance I can get but I often eat a meal at the "right" time just because I've been taught that I should be eating at that time - not because I'm actually hungry.
Listen to your body: There were a couple of days during my intermittent fasting period where I woke up with a headache or didn't feel 100%. On those days, I completely ditched fasting and took care of my body first.
I found it difficult to stick with it: Only being able to eat within an 8 hour window sounds easier than it actually is - especially during non-COVID times. If you're interested at all in socializing and eating/drinking with people outside of your eating window then you have to either break your fast or be the party pooper that doesn't eat. Since I decided to try intermittent fasting during COVID it wasn't as difficult since socializing is limited, but there were certainly still times where I broke my fast in order to have a glass of wine while watching the Bachelor 😂

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So, What Happened?

Well, not a whole lot changed in my body after trying intermittent fasting. This could have been partially because I was doing it "lazily" but I truly felt that a lot of the benefits I experienced from intermittent fasting were more psychological than anything.

Greater awareness of the things I ate: Because I was doing intermittent fasting, I was more aware of the things I was putting in my body. The process drew awareness to what I was eating so I definitely ate healthier than I normally would have.
More intuitive eating: I was also listening a lot more to my body when it came to when I was hungry and why I was eating! Because I was intermittent fasting, my brain would do a double take every time I decided I was hungry and realize I was hungry only because I was bored...not because I was actually hungry 😛
I bloated less: Although nothing about my body really changed (e.g., weight, exercise routine etc), I definitely bloated significantly less than I normally do. I think this was mostly due to the fact that I like to enjoy snacks and a bit of booze in the evenings- which really didn't mix with intermittent fasting! Having an eating period that ended at 6:30 meant I snacked a lot less in the evenings and had to give up a drink I might've normally had at 8 pm ☹️

Will I continue?

Sort of. I'm a creature of habit and I like having a mixed drink while I'm watching my trashy reality TV, okay?! It's the simple things in life haha! The reason I say I'll sort of continue is because intermittent fasting has made me a lot more aware of when I'm actually hungry and when I'm not. Being more aware of my actual hunger cues has made me realize I'm actually not that hungry at 5:30 am - contrary to what my habits might tell me. So, while I won't be adhering strictly to an intermittent fasting schedule, I've tried to stick with eating later in the day when I'm actually hungry and trying to only snack when I'm hungry and not when I'm bored.

Long story short, while I think intermittent fasting was a valuable experiment, I think the primary driver of people seeing actual changes in their body is really driven by reducing their calorie intake because eating in a shorter window of time just means you're going to end up eating less overall.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope this was helpful for you! If you've tried intermittent fasting, leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear what your experience was like!

Notability vs. Goodnotes for Grad Students | What's the Best Notetaking App for Grad School?

December 8, 2020

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you click or purchase a product through these links I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support of my blog!

I'm now into my 3rd year of graduate school and honestly think to myself every day - what the heck would I do without my iPad?! BUT my iPad would be nothing without the slew of notetaking apps that have been my daily companions throughout my PhD program.

Here is my current iPad set-up:

My iPad Set-up

I've talked about How I use my iPad and what kinds of apps I use as a PhD student, but today I thought I'd do a deep dive on the two most popular note-taking apps, Notability and Goodnotes, and what you can expect out of each of them! I use both Notability and Goodnotes daily, so I think a case can be made for each of them!

Notability ($8.99)

Notability is a note-taking app that, for me, primarily functions as a PDF reader with a crazy sophisticated note-taking component attached to it. You can write, draw, highlight, insert a post-it note, type text, add an image, or even insert audio as you are taking notes. Although you can certainly use it without the PDF reading component and just use it as a blank page to take notes, I think notability is most powerful when you're using it with lecture slides or an article that you need to read for class.

Of all the apps on my iPad, for my PhD, I use notability the most by a landslide. I started using it at the beginning of my grad school career to download all of my readings so I could highlight, write, annotate etc all over the PDFs and not have to print out a mountain of paper every single week. Even though I'm no longer taking classes as a dissertator, I'm still reading tons of papers for my own research so notability is an app I use daily!

Organization: One of the key differences between notability and goodnotes is the way notes are organized. Notability is organized in more of a traditional "computer-y" style. You can organize your notes by subject, then group those subjects into dividers, and color code them to your heart's content! I have to admit that this isn't my favorite organization style. I don't find it very intuitive and it feels less like taking notes in a notebook and more like a collection of computer files. This is why I treat notability more as a PDF reader where it houses my library of annotated articles and books.

Use Cases:

Reading and annotating articles: This is the most obvious use case, but it should not be underestimated! I've been in grad school seminars where other students have printed out all of the readings and highlighted and written on paper. While there's nothing wrong with this, it's time-consuming, isn't great for the planet, and isn't easily accessible if you want to search for a certain note from your readings. For me, buying an iPad just to take notes on academic readings has been one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Taking notes and recording audio during classes: I think this is truly where I fell in love with Notability. You can also download lecture slides and take notes on them in real-time during lecture. On top of that, you can also record audio and take notes at the same time. Notability's audio feature has allowed me to record entire lectures via audio and it syncs with my written notes to show me at what point in the audio I took which notes.
Document scanning and taking notes on books: Depending on your field of study, you might be reading entire books for your classes rather than journal articles. I read a mix of both for my research and notability has been a game-changer in this area because I can check out books from the library, use the document scanning feature on Notability to scan important pages, and then annotate them without destroying a precious library book :)

Where Notability Wins: Notability definitely wins when it comes to being able to annotate. There's truly no comparison. The one thing that is common to nearly all grad school experiences is that you are constantly reading A LOT - and when you're reading hundreds upon hundreds of pages of research content each week, being able to highlight and write all over your readings is truly a godsend. Plus, I feel like the longer I've had it, the more uses I seem to find for it!

Goodnotes ($7.99)

Goodnotes is the most common note-taking app pitted against Notability - and while they have many similar functions, Goodnotes' organization system is slightly different than Notability's which means it may be better for you if you are someone who prefers to have things organized by notebook rather than by file. With Goonotes, you can also upload files, annotate files, insert images, etc. In essence, Goodnotes can do everything that Notability can do, but is organized slightly differently which can make a huge difference if you are someone (like me!) who has very strong preferences for how things are organized!

Organization: I have always been an avid notebook, planner, and journal user so I find that Goodnotes is a much better replacement for that due to its notebook based organization system. In Goodnotes, you can actually create a notebook OR a document and then you can nest those notebooks or documents within folders. While the document storing on Goodnotes is fine, it is definitely more catered to the notebook system because you can create a cover for each notebook that is visible when you open the folder. In addition to that, Goodnotes offers a whole host of built-in templates like different notebook paper, graph paper, and planner pages.

Use Cases:

Planner: I have been an avid planner addict for years and purchasing Goodnotes, it has become the home of my digital planner where I use daily, weekly, and monthly spreads to plan out my teaching, research, and dissertation-related responsibilities. I love having a digital planner because you can pick templates that work best for you and switch between templates if you have a busier vs. more relaxed day.
Goal Setting: Like I said... I am a big planner nerd 😅 so I've gotten into the habit of doing all of these goal setting worksheets and planning goals at a weekly and monthly level. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - but Goodnotes has always been the home for my goal-setting planner because I can collect different goal setting templates and fill them out all in one place!
Notebook - Like I mentioned before, Goodnotes has essentially eliminated the need for all of the notebooks I had floating around my home before! If there are any thoughts or to do's I want to jot down quickly, I'll jot them in a catchall notebook on Goodnotes so I can re-visit and even search for them later.
Scrapbook/bulletin board: In my free time I enjoy doing crafts or DIY projects and I've found Goodnotes to be the perfect fit for planning out those projects. For example, I'm currently loving making my own polymer clay earrings and to plan this project out, I've collected photos of my favorite designs and put them all together in a scrapbook style Goodnotes notebook where I take inspiration from my favorite designs and make them my own.
Doodles, illustrations, coloring: I also find that Goodnotes is a great place for me to collect simple coloring pages and create simple doodles and illustrations. It's definitely no Procreate, but if I'm just designing my own sticker for my planner - it does the trick!

Where Goodnotes Wins: More flexibility and as a notebook replacement. If you're looking for a true notebook replacement, Goodnotes is where it's at. You can choose notebook paper templates that work best for you and replace just about any type of paper based notebook in a way that is easy to understand and user friendly. It also has a lot more flexibility when it comes to how you want to organize your notebooks - which allows for a more free flowing, creative application.

The Lowdown on Both: Syncing & Cost

The downside is that they both cost money - something that isn't true of all notetakings apps- and I know that with the low stipends given to most grad students, an expensive app may not be in the cards. The good news for both Goodnotes and Notability is that they are one-time purchases (not subscriptions) so once you buy it, it's yours to keep. The bad news is that if you want it to sync across your different devices (e.g., your Mac) you will need to buy the Mac version of the app. If you buy the iPad version of Goodnotes or Notability, you can automatically download it to your iPhone, but if you want it to sync to your Mac, it requires a separate Mac app.

I wrestled with buying the Mac app in addition to both iPad apps but in the end, I think it was well worth it. I use both apps daily and when I'm writing notes on my iPad but then want to switch to typing up a summary on my laptop, it's nice to be able to swing around to my laptop and have it available there as well. For me, paying for both the iPad and Mac versions of both apps has been WELL worth it because of how much headache and trouble they've saved me.

Another downside I wanted to point out for both apps is that syncing your notes across both apps is not always a seamless process. I have had issues with both apps not syncing and needing to troubleshoot the apps by updating them, deleting them, redownloading them, forcing it to sync over and over again - you know the drill. 80% of the time the syncs work well, but that remaining 20% of the time is frustrating AF. If you choose only to have the apps on your iPad though - which is still GREAT - then you'll never run into this problem 😝

It's common for students to either use Notability OR Goodnotes - but not necessarily both. I use both apps but for slightly different purposes and have found that both apps bring a whole lot of value to my PhD and personal life. Whichever notetaking app you choose, I think, largely depends on how you plan on using the app and what your personal notetaking style is like. I hope this deep dive was helpful! If you have any other questions, drop me a comment below and I'd be happy to help!