With so many phones being launched left and right, it can get quite confusing as to which phone fits whom. After all, we buy phones based on what we need it for and how it will serve us in the long run. This is why in this write up, I will not be talking about the specs and what not of the Zenfone Max M2. Instead, I will tell you about the 5 types of people who need the Zenfone Max M2 in their life and how having this phone can make their life so much better.


The Social Media Maven 

If you are one of those Filipinos who check their phone at least 150x a day (mind you that this is the average) then you need the Zenfone Max M2. With 4000 mAh battery life, this phone can withstand your incessant need to check for notifications, new messages, tweets, posts, and likes.

You see, when you constantly check your apps, it uses a lot more battery life and if your battery is not the same as the battery life of the ASUS Zenfone Max M2, your phone's juice can easily dry up. Even with a power bank, it will be a hassle having to lug the power bank and cord around.

In my experience, this phone can last 3/4 of the day without needing to be recharged and that's with at least 14 apps running all at the same time. Pretty impressive if I may say so.

The Newbie Gamer 

If you are just a beginner in gaming, the Zenfone Max M2 will be absolutely perfect for you. The 6.3 all screen 19.9 HD+ Vivid Display is more than enough screen for you to be able to hone your skills in playing Mobile Legends and other games that will pique your interest.


We all know how important a big screen is when playing mobile games which is why the Zenfone Max M2 is the perfect partner for newbie gamers.

The Binge Watcher 

If you are the kind of person who watches or streams on their mobile phone, then this phone is perfect for yo. The powerful high-quality audio is meant to entertain you. Imagine being able to watch your favorite show while having an mazing audio experience via 5-magner speakers with metal voice coil and NXP low distortion smart amplifier.



Ugh.

I'd love nothing more than that while watching The Walking Dead or Kingdom.

The Mobile Photographer and Videographer

With advanced AI Scene Detection, you can concentrate on the subject, and get perfect shots every time. This automatically detects the scene or subject and optimizes the photo settings, giving you a simpler, smarter way to capture and share every magical moment.

This means that you can easily whip out your phone and expect to catch the perfect shot. You can also take great videos and easily stitch it together to upload on Facebook, YouTube, or even LinkedIn. It's so easy to hone your skills when you have an amazing phone that won't let you down.


Truly the Zenfone Max M2 is the perfect Battery King. Even if you are on a tight budget, you an easily snag one because this baby sells for only Php8,995. Definitely a Powerhouse King with budget price points. 


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With so many phones being launched left and right, it can get quite confusing as to which phone fits whom. After all, we buy phones based on...

10 years ago, I was broke and in debt. I couldn't afford to send my son to school and I had debts in my name amounting to more than 300k because I trusted the wrong person.

10 years ago, I was broke and in debt. I couldn't afford to send my son to school and I had debts in my name amounting to more than 300k...

I've seen people that I know get into esential oils. They even have a term for it, "oilbularyo" which is a play on the word albularyo which is all about traditional healing without the use of modern medicine.

My family and I, we believe in traditional healing methods. As much as possible, we don't go to the doctor to get a checkup unless it's absolutely needed but essential oils initially failed to make an impression.

I guess this could be because my first bout with essential oils have been the watered down versions or the ones where it's already been mixed together so much that the effects were not that strong. For whatever reason, I couldn't understand before why people were going gaga over essential oil.

Fast forward to 2019 and I've been doing research on slow living as well as the art of hygge which is all about being cozy and in the moment. I've realized that candles are a thing and essential oils are also truly a thing.

My interest was piqued.


When I received an invitation to learn more about dOTERRA essential oils, I immediately said yes. Finally, I was going to understand how essential oils worked, why it works, and if it can really change my life for the good.


This is their AromaTouch Technique Kit. I was able to try all these and I can tell you it is heaven. However, they do have a starter kit as well.
This one contained Lavander, Lemon, and Peppermint.

Now, what are the benefits of Essential Oils? 

First of all, it is 100% Natural which means that it is safe. It is also more effective than a lot of medications that are available over the counter. There's no side effects and it can work in as fast as 22 seconds.

If ingested or applief topically, it only takes 2 minutes to get into the bloodstream and to penetrate the cell. In 22 minutes, it works on your entire body. Best part? This is also cheaper than traditional medical care.

There are 3 ways to use it: Aromatic which means you can diffuse it and simply smell for it to work, topical which means you can simply put it in the affected area or swipe on your forehead or other body parts, and internal which means it can be ingested. Make sure to always read the label so you know which is which.


Now I was lucky to take home and try some of the essential oils. I figured that I owe you guys to experience this first hand and try it out for a couple of days so I can do a better review and here are my thoughts.

ON GUARD

As one of doTERRA's most popular oils, doTERRA On Guard is a powerful proprietary blend that supports healthy immune function* and contains cleansing properties. I loved the smell of this. For some reason, it's effect on me is to make me feel more pumped up. Healthy and energetic.

LAVANDER 

I tried this for 3 straight days. The effect of this oil on me is to make me sleepy in less than 30 minutes. Seriously. It knocked me out cold and it was just really impressive how it worked out.

PEPPERMINT 

I loved the smell of this but then again I love anything minty. This oil is also good for digestion problems, clearing one's breathing if you are having a hard time due to cough and cold, and the best part for me is it repels bugs naturally.


I was also able to try out MOTIVATE and it was like MAGIC. I am telling you, I went from sleepy to energized and alive, ready to battle work. It was the weirdest thing because it was like I had an on and off button and the moment I got a whiff of this oil, I was ready to go to work.


I still have a few more that I will be trying out in the next coming days and weeks but I can officially tell you that now that I have met dOTERRA, they will be a permanent fixture in my life.

If you have any ailments and are taking medicines for it, do yourself a favor and give essential oils a try. You have nothing to lose anyway. If it doesn't work for you, you can always go back to western medicine but if it does, you will be doing yourself a huge favor.

I cannot wait for dOTERRA to officially launch in the Philippines this May. We need this in our life.

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I've seen people that I know get into esential oils. They even have a term for it, "oilbularyo" which is a play on the word al...

My original plan for the weekend was to just laze around and do nothing. I was able to achieve it on Saturday but at night, I was kidnapped by my friend coz she wasn't feeling too good about her work. Since she is the friend I also bother when I'm not in the best mood, I obliged.

Sunday, I had visions of doing absolutely nothing save for watching a series and diamond painting.  This was not meant to be because the boyfriend wanted to watch Captain Marvel.

I'm not really a huge fan but I obliged because for reasons unknown, he does not like watching movies on his own. Go figure. Meanwhile. I've learned to do this on my own way back and I really hope he eventually learns as well.

I love that the leg room of Vista Mall is so big. It's really comfortable, unlike other cinemas which is why M and I prefer it.


I can even stretch my legs and not bump into the seat in front of me.


After watching, we went around looking for hair clips. It's become my thing and I'm glad that M is the patient kind of boyfriend. He literally just went around with me to go and look for some hair clips.Thankfully, we found some.

My original plan for the weekend was to just laze around and do nothing. I was able to achieve it on Saturday but at night, I was kidnapped ...

With traffic so horrible these days, the need for more delivery at home service is on the rise. Most people have groceries delivered while others focus on milk tea. However, when you're a Mom like me, you know that having meat delivered can be tricky at times.

This ends with having to go to the groceries just to be sure that the meat that you get will be fresh all the time. Well, not anymore.

Rare Food Shop is an online delivery store that guarantees fresh meat and seafood will be delivered to your doorstep. For delivery time and other things, you can also visit this FAQ page.

I ordered salmon, oysters, and steak.


The salmon was really fresh. It's pre-sliced and tasted really sweet. It was definitely worth the price. 




I also ordered scallops which is a favorite of mine. I was so happy that this one turned out to be really fresh as well.


I dried it and made sure that it wasn't retaining water.


Then I seasoned it with salt and pepper.


After 2.5 minutes on each side, this is the end result.


My Mom also cooked the steak in a slightly different manner but it turned out really good as well. The taste was just amazing.




And here is our final meal. Though this was a home cooked meal, it felt like we were dining in a fancy restaurant because everything was first class in terms of taste and freshness.

It felt so good to have a meal like this without having to go out.


METRO MANILA AND CALABARZON:

Mondays to Fridays
8 AM - 4 PM
Saturdays
8 AM - 12 NOON

OUTSIDE METRO MANILA & CALABARZON:
Mondays - Thursday
8 AM - 12 NOON

Rare Food Shop
Rare Food Shop Facebook 

With traffic so horrible these days, the need for more delivery at home service is on the rise. Most people have groceries delivered whil...

Yesterday, I was invited to a soft media launch of the dOTERRA essential oils at Belleza Spa. Now if you've been reading this blog for quite some time, you would notice that I rarely cover events starting late last year. This one though, I couldn't pass up.

You see, I've been reading up on intentional living and essential oils played a huge part in it. It talks about how essential oils help alter your mood, help you focus, fix mild ailments, and make you sleep better.

I've also seen how some former schoolmates of mine have gone gaga over essential oils so my interest was truly piqued. I was feeling a bit apprehensive though because the expectations have been set really high.

Was I going to be disappointed? Was I going to be a convert? Going in, I really didn't know what to expect.


They introduced the AromaTouch Technique Massage. It's a soft massage using 8 of the dOTERRA essential oils. When I was watching how they were doing it, I noticed a couple of things:

1. They weren't really massaging the person. It was more of light caresses.
2. The person doing the massage never ever takes off her hand. There is always one hand that remains connected to the body of the person being massaged.
3. It felt very intimate, but in a good way.
4. The person being massaged immediately fell asleep, like within 10minutes.


 My initial thoughts: 

1. How can you fall asleep that fast with just light touches?
2. Is he faking it?
3. Are the oils really that effective?
4. Isn't that sticky?

Luckily, I was also able to try it myself and here are my final thoughts. Mind you that when I was about to start, I was telling myself that I will not fall asleep no matter what. I wanted to be able to experience every single hand stroke so that I could understand what was happening.

Here's what happened.

I laid down and was asked to take my top off. I then felt the drop of oil on my back. The way they do it is they layer the oil. They use two at a time and then add two more. There are 4 layers involved which was why I thought it would be sticky.

IT WAS NOT.

What it was though was the most soothing massage I have ever had which was really weird because as mentioned, they simply stroke your back. It's really the oil that gets into your system and then does its magic.


I was in and out about 3x in this 45mins massage. My body felt warm on the inside and refreshingly cool outside. It felt like I was in a cocoon of happiness and zen. It was revitalizing, rejuvenating, and definitely refreshing. It was the kind of massage that I wanted my Mom to experience. IT WAS THAT GOOD.

4 drops was all it needed and here are some guide.
1. For stress management: balance & lavender 
2. For detox: tea tree & on guard 
3. For inflammation, AromaTouch and deep blue 
4. For homeostasis, wild orange & peppermint


There are 9 steps involved in this AromatTouch Technique. The oil is initially placed on your back, in the middle of the spine because this is where all of our nerve endings are. Only the tips and the palm of the hand is used when doing the AromaTouch Technique. The 1st to 8th step is illustrated above. 9th is what they call the lymphatic pull where they gently pull on your feet 15sets for 3x. It's to wake up your blood and make sure everything is circulating well.


What I loved the most was the smell of the oil and how it made me feel. My body felt light. My mood was in a really good place. I felt loving towards people around me and I smelled like a walking spa. 

Best effect of all? I was asleep by 11pm and woke up at 8am. BEST SLEEP EVER.

For someone who normally falls asleep at 3am and wakes up at 6am everyday feeling like an exhausted pigeon, this was definitely a breakthrough.

I'm excited to know more about these essential oils which I will be testing in the coming days. I will update you guys on which one worked best and how it works or does not work. As you know, I'll always tell you guys the tea on this blog because we are always real, never perfect.


Thank you also to Belleza Spa for hosting us.

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Yesterday, I was invited to a soft media launch of the dOTERRA essential oils at Belleza Spa. Now if you've been reading this blog for q...

I was recently introduced to dOTERRA, a brand that I have been quite curious about for quite some time now. The only thing I know about dOTERRA is that it's available in Southeast Asia and will soon be available in the Philippines.

Now dOTERRA is known for essential oils but they actually have other products and one of the things that got my attention was the hydrating cream. You see, I'm almost 40 now which means that my skin is no longer as elastic as before. In layman's term, it's easier for me to get wrinkles now than it was before.


dOTERRA Hydrating Cream aims to enrich the skin with it's unique moisturizing and hydrating properties while assisting the natural components of the skin in their regeneration process. This is something that I need because as mentioned, when you age, your skin stops doing what it's supposed to.


Now this hydrating cream is not yet available in the Philippines so I felt really lucky when I won this in a raffle.


First impression: I loved that this container was small and compact. It makes it easy to travel with. I also love that it contains lavander, jasmine, and geranium. IT SMELLED SO GOOD.


This cream is thick and a little bit sticky initially but when you put it on your face, it is easily absorbed. It doesn't feel sticky at all which is a good thing because I really hate it when creams feel sticky.

So far I am loving it. It smells good and it is not sticky. It also felt really nice when I woke up from my sleep.

I'll make another update in a month to show if it made any visible change on my face.

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To check out where you can buy this and their essential oils, you can go here. 

I was recently introduced to dOTERRA, a brand that I have been quite curious about for quite some time now. The only thing I know about dOTE...

What is the one thing that Filipinos love?

Eating of course. After all, we have breakfast, lunch, merienda, dinner, and midnight snacks. Eating is just a way of life for us and something that we are very proud of. We like our food and we are not afraid to admit it.

Eating healthy however is a challenge especially when it comes to snack time. We tend to go for the sugary sweet pastries or junk food. I'm pretty guilty of this and I have always wished that I could snack on something healthy YET delicious.

A friend of mine suggested OH SO HEALTHY which is a revolutionary snack that claims it is both healthy and tasty. My interest was piqued.


These are the 4 regular variants that they have of their Fruit Crisps line. These are made of all natural ingredients with no artificial junk. They also claim that there is no sugar, no dairy, no soy, no gluten, no preservative which means that there is no cholesterol so no guilt.

Each bag has only 160 calories which is pretty amazing for a snack.

Now I was able to try out all 4 and here are my thoughts.


I didn't like this one simply because the taste of mango felt like a whack in the face. It was a bit too strong for me.


The Purple Yam was really good. You could taste it but it wasn't over the top. It was delightful.


The Oh so Healthy Jackfruit variant delivered. You could taste the jackfruit and there was also a hint of pineapple. This one was okay in my book.


Now among the 4, this was my favorite to think that I'm not a fan of guava but the combination of guava and purple yam was just really good. They complimented each other and it was really delicious.

My most favorite though was the newest variant which was really surprising because when I first saw it, I had the ultimate bias. You see, I don't like kimchi. I've tasted kimchi and I just don't get it.


However, when I tried the Kimchi Crisps, I LOVED IT. It was weirdly satisfying and the spiciness was just right for me. I think I finished 4 bags in one sitting. I loved it that much.

Defnitely recommending these healthy snacks. Anything that lets me snack without guilt and tastes good definitely gets a thumbs up from me.

This is available via Lazada, Beauty MNL, Shopee, HonestBee, MetroMart, Robinsons Supermarket, Starbucks, Shopwise, SM Hypermarket, Echostore, and Mercury Drug among others.

For more quick reviews:

Quaker Oats Drink
Dayrits Chorizo
Big Guys Pizza

What is the one thing that Filipinos love? Eating of course. After all, we have breakfast, lunch, merienda, dinner, and midnight snacks. E...

So many people out there will try to break you simply because they themselves are already broken. As they say, misery loves company and nothing makes a miserable person feel better than seeing someone who is more miserable than they are. It's a really negative thing but that's just how miserable people are.

How do we avoid these people? How can we make sure that we will never fall victim to them? How do we recover if we have fallen victim?

Here are 5 steps that I took to learning to love myself after I fell victim to these kind of people. I hope that these work for you as much as it did for me. It may seem small steps but these small steps will all pile up into one big move. One day, you will realize, you have finally come to love yourself.


1. Choose you. 

A lot of people are raised to be a people person. This means most of the time, you will be inclined to make things comfortable for others even at the cost of your own comfort. In short, you are programmed to choose someone else over yourself. While this is not a bad trait, it can become toxic especially if you keep choosing others over yourself.

Choose you. It's also not a bad thing to choose yourself over others. When something is asked of you and it makes you uncomfortable or it goes against your will, then choose you.

You need to come first. After all, how can others respect you and what you stand for if you don't do it yourself?

2. Say NO. 

If you are one of those people who just keep saying YES to everything, you will find yourself exhausted all the time. While it's not a bad thing to help other people out, it can lead others to abuse you and take you for granted.

Don't wait for the day that you will just snap or break out of exhaustion. If it's not within your scope of work, if it's not something that you should be doing, if it doesn't make you happy to do, then SAY NO.

People will get over your no and those who don't, you don't need in your life. 

3.  Date yourself.

Sounds simple right? If you haven't learned to love yourself, you will find this hard to do.


Learn to go out by yourself and BE HAPPY about it. There's a difference between being forced to eat alone or be alone then feel miserable about it. When you learn to love yourself, you will love being on your own: eating by yourself, watching a movie by yourself, and having ME time such a a salon and massage appointment where you can indulge yourself and rejuvenate your body. You can also have coffee on your own while reading a book, listening to good music, or simply doing nothing while sipping your cup of joe.

4. Solo Travel 

When you travel, you learn things about yourself. You learn tolerance. You learn what you like, what you can deal with, and what you can't absolutely accept. You see, traveling tends to bring out the best and worst in you.

When you are taken out of your comfort zone, you are forced to reevaluate yourself and your life. It helps you find out who you truly are and the things that matter to you.

5. Forgive and start over 

Most of the time, when we can't love ourselves, it is because we can't forgive allowing someone to hurt us in the past or hurting someone in the past. What's good about the past is that it's already behind us. What's good about the present is that we can make it what we want it to be and what's good about the future is that we can still plan and make things happen.

Forgive. It's not for other people but for yourself, your heart, and most importantly, your sanity.

It may sound simple but all these steps help to teach me how to love myself and when I finally learned how to, I learned to respect myself and that was also how other people started treating me ... with love and respect. 

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So many people out there will try to break you simply because they themselves are already broken. As they say, misery loves company and noth...

I'm 38 years old and I never had insurance.


Sure I had some before but it was always company initiated and not really meant for my personal use. Soon as I was out of the company, the insurance was also out the window.

I've been trying to get insurance for over 10 years now but have not been able to because no one wanted to explain things to me. They just wanted me to sign the dotted line and that was it. Sadly for them, I'm not the type of person who would invest my hard earned money just like that.

I need to understand what is happening and I need to know what is going to happen to my money and how things work. JM , my SunLife adviser was just what I needed. He was patient in explaining things to me. He provided details, options, and the like to me. He never badgered me or made me feel bad when I took my time in making a final decision.

Since he did not pester me, I was able to really prep for this and even convince my sister to also invest since she's very young. By the time she's in her late 20s, she'd be stable ... something that I didn't have when I was at that age. 


Today, we finally made the decision to invest with SunLife mainly because of JM. We trust him and we love how he handled things when it comes to "selling" this plan to us. I honestly could not have asked for a better financial adviser.
 

After signing the paper, I felt a sense of relief. Finally, I am truly adulting. I may be late in the game but in life. I am never too late.

I'm 38 years old and I never had insurance. Sure I had some before but it was always company initiated and not really meant for my ...