Four Tips to Make You Quit Singing the "Dry-Skin Blues"
Is smooth skin a hopeless goal for you?
Not really. These four strategies can help…
1. Hydrate your entire system with lots of water and high anti-oxidant green tea. During winter there’s a tendency not to drink as much due to cool temperatures. You may want to bring your water to room temperature to encourage drinking more. Or enjoy more warm green tea, like the Royal Matcha Green Tea sold elsewhere on this website.
2. Eat a healthy diet of mostly raw foods, foods high in omega-3 fatty acids which produce a hydrating effect from the inside out, and antioxidants which help fight signs of aging. Winter might be a good time to increase your intake of Krill oil also, for its omega-3s -- and antioxidants such as Purple Defense and Turmeric.
3. Take a revitalizing bath – in warm water, not hot! Himalayan salt baths are rejuvenating, and help dry skin to slough off. Hot water is damaging to your skin, so stick with warm water.
4. Moisturize daily with non-clogging organic moisturizers such as coconut oil or body butter. These nourish your skin instead of clogging it, as many toxin-impaired moisturizers do.
It’s especially important to cleanse and moisturize before you go to bed at night, to remove impurities from your skin before your revitalizing sleep time. Just be sure your moisturizer isn’t tainted with toxins.
Why do I stress organic so much?
Because what you don’t know – or even what’s intentionally hidden from you – really can hurt you.
Continue reading to discover just how dangerous many moisturizer ingredients can be – even some very high-end (expensive) ‘spa’ products.
Be sure to check your products against the list of dangerous ingredients that follows.
Always Avoid Applying Potential Toxins To Your Skin…
Many people – even those who carefully select organic or gourmet foods to eat choose skin care products that can do serious damage to their skin.
Now, realize that I’m not suggesting you’d intentionally apply toxins to your skin. You simply may not realize the extent to which many common skin care products contain suspect ingredients with unrecognizable or unpronounceable names.
Do you ever put things onto your skin that you wouldn’t think of eating? I hope not...
You see, I believe that what you put on your skin is absorbed into your bloodstream and integrated into your body’s tissues. A number of these potential toxins have estrogen-mimicking effects that can wreak havoc on all your good health intentions.
Besides avoiding these hazards, there are some other steps you can take to create that young-looking skin you really want…
What Can You Do to Keep Your Skin Looking Healthy?
First of all, if you’re doing many of the things I talk about elsewhere on this website, you may have already noticed a major difference in the way your skin looks — as well as other aspects of your health.
Eating according to your nutritional type with plenty of fresh raw organic foods in your diet, and getting enough omega-3 fats are ways to improve your health on many fronts...
And need I mention exercise? Through exercise, your skin detoxifies impurities from your system – what you know as perspiration.
But beyond that, here’s a critically important issue you need to be aware of...
Just 5 Minutes Per Day Gets You on the Road
to a More Youthful-Looking, Vibrant Face
Every day of your life, pollution, grime, and dust attach themselves to the surface of your skin.
If you don’t take a couple minutes daily to cleanse your face and unclog your pores, your skin may look sluggish -- instead of at its bright and shining best.
Cleaning your skin is important, just like keeping your internal organs clean and healthy is.
But here’s a caveat…
Take Your Own Hippocratic Oath for Skin Care ("First, Do No Harm")
It may seem like a cliché, but there are things you can do to prevent damaging your skin. Many of the visible signs of aging are caused by external factors that you can at least partially control.
These actions may be the easiest and least expensive things you can do to prevent damage to your skin, gain a more youthful appearance, and build a strong foundation for your pro-active natural skin care. Not to mention, creating a buzz about your new looks.
Please be aware that skin damage doesn’t always involve pain or immediate visible change, and can often go unnoticed for some time. But the cumulative actions you begin taking today can also improve your skin slowly over time. So get started today doing these simple things:
* Avoid or minimize damage from hot water and chlorine. Although taking baths and showers may seem like it’s health-promoting and relaxing, your skin may disagree – especially if you have chlorinated water, which is almost certainly the case (unless your water comes from a well).
Chlorine causes oxidative damage. The hotter the water, the more potential for damage – because the rate of chemical reactions increases with temperature. Hot water may cause your skin to age faster.
So what can you do? Adjust your water temperature to be a bit cooler, limit your showers to one per day, and decrease your soak time in the bath.
* Use gentle and safe skin care products – organic whenever possible. Your skin absorbs it all. Don’t compromise your health and the health of your skin by using potential poisons.
* Be very sure to remove your makeup each evening. It's a really bad idea to flop into bed, leaving makeup – not to mention environmental grime – on your face while you sleep. Take a couple minutes to remove it, and you’ll find your face looking and feeling younger.
* Proper Sleeping Position Sleep on your back. Gravity creates a downward drag on your skin all day. Give your skin a break at night. By sleeping on your back, you reduce gravitational pull on your face. If you press your face to your pillow, you will likely experience increased puffiness in the morning.
(Sleeping on your back reduces gravitational pull on your face. Be sure you remove your make-up before sleeping. Leaving it on during sleep creates extra stress on your skin. Use botanicals from nature for a nutritional approach to your beauty.)
* Don’t smoke… for your general health’s sake, and for younger looking skin. Smoking causes free radical production, which is one cause of the signs of aging.
* If you will be in the sun for extended periods of time, use sunscreen with safe and effective ingredients, such as Mercola Natural Sunscreen.
* Limit exfoliation to twice per week and use a gentle exfoliator. Exfoliation refreshes your skin’s surfaces and brightens your appearance as it removes dead cells from the surface of your skin. But if you exfoliate too often or too aggressively, you risk damaging living cells.
* Apply your skin care products to warm skin in order to help your skin appear healthier. This maximizes absorption. If your skin is cold, use a warm towel to warm your skin.
* Never pull or rub your skin. Apply your skin care products gently, and lightly tap for a few moments to help your skin absorb them. Rubbing stretches your skin and can promote sagging and wrinkles. (Note: This principle includes leaning your face on your hand while sitting at a desk, which also stretches your skin.)
* Don’t expect overnight changes. Even if you start doing everything right today, don’t be discouraged with seeming lack of progress tomorrow.
It may take a month or even two to three months to notice changes. Plus, it’s quite possible that others will notice your increasingly youthful-looking face before you do.
Remember: it took years to get where you are today, so show patience when expecting changes and improvements.
Now that you’re taking these practical steps as well as choosing not to use dangerous and damaging products on your skin, let’s explore your skin care alternatives – organic food products from nature’s storehouse.
Healthy Living - 2011 Top Fitness Foods
Mike Geary
Certified Personal Trainer
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author/Founder of TruthAboutAbs.com
Smart choices start at the grocery store. What you take home will define what you and your family eat that week. What you prepare for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks has an enormous effect on your weight and your health. To embrace healthy living for 2011 grab hold of these foods in your grocery shopping and make sure they a part of the meals you prepare for yourself and your family.
Cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and yogurt These items make for a healthy, delicious mid morning or afternoon meal. Think of ways to combine these items with other healthy toppings to suit your fancy.
Yogurt topped with granola, nuts, berries. Or yogurt topped with your preferred fruit pieces.
Cottage cheese topped with tomatoes and pepper. Or use ricotta cheese instead if cottage cheese.
Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamias, Brazil nuts, etc.
These are healthy fats.
Choose your favorite nuts and use as toppers. Make raw almond butter spread for toast. You can use any nut you wish to make a raw natural nut butter.
Whole flax seeds
Always grind them fresh because the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable and prone to oxidation, potentially creating inflammation causing free radicals from pre-ground flax.
Grind up flax seeds to add in cereal, over yogurt, or sprinkled on toast with almond butter.
Whole eggs
One of natures richest sources of nutrients and high quality protein.
Chose your favorite way to eat eggs and make it a meal. ONE of the best things about eggs is that they keep you full for quite sometime. It's the perfect breakfast!
Salsa
Tomatoes and herbs in salsa is a spicy way to spice up your health.
Make your own salsa instead of store bought. Use it as an accompaniment with meats, with oven baked chips or potatoes, or as an egg topper.
Butter
Butter adds great flavor to anything and can be part of a healthy diet provided you use it in small quantities. Avoid margarine at all costs.
• Avocados - love them...plus a great source of healthy fats, fiber, and other nutrients. Try adding them to wraps, salads, or sandwiches.
• Whole grain wraps and whole grain bread (look for wraps and bread with at least 3-4 grams of fiber per 20 grams of total carbs).
• Rice bran and wheat germ - these may sound way too healthy for some, but they actually add a nice little nutty, crunchy taste to yogurt or smoothies, or can be added when baking muffins or breads to add nutrients and fiber.
• Leaf lettuce and spinach along with shredded carrots - for salads with dinner.
• Home-made salad dressing - using balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Udo's Choice oil blend. This is much better than store bought salad dressing which mostly use highly refined soybean oil (source of inflammation-causing free radicals).
• Frozen fish - I like to try a couple different kinds of fish each week. There are so many varieties out there, you never have to get bored. Plus, frozen fish is usually frozen immediately after catching, as opposed to fresh fish, which has been in transport and sitting at markets for days, allowing it more opportunity to spoil.
• Frozen berries - during the local growing season, I only get fresh berries, but during the other 10 months of the year, I always keep a supply of frozen blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, etc. to add to high fiber cereal, oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, or smoothies
• Frozen veggies - again, when the growing season is over and I can no longer get local fresh produce, frozen veggies are the best option, since they often have higher nutrient contents compared to the fresh produce that has been shipped thousands of miles, sitting around for weeks before making it to your dinner table.
• Frozen chicken breasts - very convenient to nuke up for a quick addition to wraps or chicken sandwiches for quick meals.
• Frozen buffalo, ostrich, venison, and other "exotic" lean meats – Yeah, I know, I'm weird, but I can tell you that these are some of the healthiest meats around, and if you're serious about a lean healthy body, these types of meats are much better for you than the mass produced, hormone-pumped beef and pork that's sold at most grocery stores.
Alright, now the staples in my cabinets:
• Oat bran and steel cut oats - higher fiber than those little packs of instant oats.
• Cans of coconut milk - to be transferred to a container in the fridge after opening.
• Various antioxidant rich teas - green, oolong, white, rooibos are some of the best. Surprisingly, even chammomile tea has been shown to provide important trace nutrients and antioxidants.
• Stevia - a natural non-caloric sweetener, which is an excellent alternative to the nasty chemical-laden artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose.
• Organic maple syrup - none of that high fructose corn syrup Aunt Jemima crap...only real maple syrup can be considered real food. The only time I really use this (because of the high sugar load) is added to my post-workout smoothies to sweeten things up and also elicit an insulin surge to push nutrients into your muscles.
• Raw honey - better than processed honey...higher quantities of beneficial nutrients and enzymes. Honey has even been proven in studies to improve
glucose metabolism (how you process carbs). I use a teaspoon or so every morning in my teas.
• Whole wheat or whole grain spelt pasta - much higher fiber than normal pastas • Brown rice and other higher fiber rice - NEVER white rice
• Cans of black or kidney beans - I like to add a couple scoops to my Mexican wraps for the fiber and high nutrition content. Also, beans are surprisingly one of the best sources of youth promoting antioxidants!
• Tomato sauces - delicious, and as I'm sure you've heard a million times, they are a great source of lycopene. Just watch out for the brands that are loaded with nasty high fructose corn syrup.
• Dark chocolate (as dark as possible) - This is one of my treats that satisfies my sweet tooth, plus provides loads of antioxidants at the same time. It's still calorie dense, so I keep it to just a couple squares; but that is enough to do the trick, so I don't feel like I need to go out and get cake and ice cream to satisfy my dessert urges. Choose dark chocolate that lists it's cocoa content at 70% or greater. Milk chocolate is usually only about 30% cocoa, and even most cheap dark chocolates are only around 50% cocoa. Cocoa content is key for the antioxidant benefit...the rest is just sugar and other additives.
• Organic unsweetened cocoa powder - I like to mix this into my smoothies for an extra jolt of antioxidants or make my own low-sugar hot cocoa by mixing cocoa powder into hot milk with stevia and a couple melted dark chocolate chunks.
Of course, you also can never go wrong with any types of fresh fruits. Even though fruit contains natural sugars, the fiber within most fruits usually slows down the carbohydrate absorption and glycemic response. Also, you get the benefit of high antioxidant content and nutrient density in most fruits. Some of my favorites are
kiwi, pomegranate, mango, papaya, grapes, oranges, fresh pineapple, bananas, apples, pears, peaches, and all types of berries.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this special look into my favorite lean body meals and how I stock my kitchen. Your tastes are probably quite different than mine, but hopefully this gave you some good ideas you can use next time you're at the grocery store looking to stock up a healthy and delicious pile of groceries.
50
Certified Personal Trainer
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author/Founder of TruthAboutAbs.com
Smart choices start at the grocery store. What you take home will define what you and your family eat that week. What you prepare for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks has an enormous effect on your weight and your health. To embrace healthy living for 2011 grab hold of these foods in your grocery shopping and make sure they a part of the meals you prepare for yourself and your family.
Cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and yogurt These items make for a healthy, delicious mid morning or afternoon meal. Think of ways to combine these items with other healthy toppings to suit your fancy.
Yogurt topped with granola, nuts, berries. Or yogurt topped with your preferred fruit pieces.
Cottage cheese topped with tomatoes and pepper. Or use ricotta cheese instead if cottage cheese.
Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamias, Brazil nuts, etc.
These are healthy fats.
Choose your favorite nuts and use as toppers. Make raw almond butter spread for toast. You can use any nut you wish to make a raw natural nut butter.
Whole flax seeds
Always grind them fresh because the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable and prone to oxidation, potentially creating inflammation causing free radicals from pre-ground flax.
Grind up flax seeds to add in cereal, over yogurt, or sprinkled on toast with almond butter.
Whole eggs
One of natures richest sources of nutrients and high quality protein.
Chose your favorite way to eat eggs and make it a meal. ONE of the best things about eggs is that they keep you full for quite sometime. It's the perfect breakfast!
Salsa
Tomatoes and herbs in salsa is a spicy way to spice up your health.
Make your own salsa instead of store bought. Use it as an accompaniment with meats, with oven baked chips or potatoes, or as an egg topper.
Butter
Butter adds great flavor to anything and can be part of a healthy diet provided you use it in small quantities. Avoid margarine at all costs.
• Avocados - love them...plus a great source of healthy fats, fiber, and other nutrients. Try adding them to wraps, salads, or sandwiches.
• Whole grain wraps and whole grain bread (look for wraps and bread with at least 3-4 grams of fiber per 20 grams of total carbs).
• Rice bran and wheat germ - these may sound way too healthy for some, but they actually add a nice little nutty, crunchy taste to yogurt or smoothies, or can be added when baking muffins or breads to add nutrients and fiber.
• Leaf lettuce and spinach along with shredded carrots - for salads with dinner.
• Home-made salad dressing - using balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Udo's Choice oil blend. This is much better than store bought salad dressing which mostly use highly refined soybean oil (source of inflammation-causing free radicals).
• Frozen fish - I like to try a couple different kinds of fish each week. There are so many varieties out there, you never have to get bored. Plus, frozen fish is usually frozen immediately after catching, as opposed to fresh fish, which has been in transport and sitting at markets for days, allowing it more opportunity to spoil.
• Frozen berries - during the local growing season, I only get fresh berries, but during the other 10 months of the year, I always keep a supply of frozen blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, etc. to add to high fiber cereal, oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, or smoothies
• Frozen veggies - again, when the growing season is over and I can no longer get local fresh produce, frozen veggies are the best option, since they often have higher nutrient contents compared to the fresh produce that has been shipped thousands of miles, sitting around for weeks before making it to your dinner table.
• Frozen chicken breasts - very convenient to nuke up for a quick addition to wraps or chicken sandwiches for quick meals.
• Frozen buffalo, ostrich, venison, and other "exotic" lean meats – Yeah, I know, I'm weird, but I can tell you that these are some of the healthiest meats around, and if you're serious about a lean healthy body, these types of meats are much better for you than the mass produced, hormone-pumped beef and pork that's sold at most grocery stores.
Alright, now the staples in my cabinets:
• Oat bran and steel cut oats - higher fiber than those little packs of instant oats.
• Cans of coconut milk - to be transferred to a container in the fridge after opening.
• Various antioxidant rich teas - green, oolong, white, rooibos are some of the best. Surprisingly, even chammomile tea has been shown to provide important trace nutrients and antioxidants.
• Stevia - a natural non-caloric sweetener, which is an excellent alternative to the nasty chemical-laden artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose.
• Organic maple syrup - none of that high fructose corn syrup Aunt Jemima crap...only real maple syrup can be considered real food. The only time I really use this (because of the high sugar load) is added to my post-workout smoothies to sweeten things up and also elicit an insulin surge to push nutrients into your muscles.
• Raw honey - better than processed honey...higher quantities of beneficial nutrients and enzymes. Honey has even been proven in studies to improve
glucose metabolism (how you process carbs). I use a teaspoon or so every morning in my teas.
• Whole wheat or whole grain spelt pasta - much higher fiber than normal pastas • Brown rice and other higher fiber rice - NEVER white rice
• Cans of black or kidney beans - I like to add a couple scoops to my Mexican wraps for the fiber and high nutrition content. Also, beans are surprisingly one of the best sources of youth promoting antioxidants!
• Tomato sauces - delicious, and as I'm sure you've heard a million times, they are a great source of lycopene. Just watch out for the brands that are loaded with nasty high fructose corn syrup.
• Dark chocolate (as dark as possible) - This is one of my treats that satisfies my sweet tooth, plus provides loads of antioxidants at the same time. It's still calorie dense, so I keep it to just a couple squares; but that is enough to do the trick, so I don't feel like I need to go out and get cake and ice cream to satisfy my dessert urges. Choose dark chocolate that lists it's cocoa content at 70% or greater. Milk chocolate is usually only about 30% cocoa, and even most cheap dark chocolates are only around 50% cocoa. Cocoa content is key for the antioxidant benefit...the rest is just sugar and other additives.
• Organic unsweetened cocoa powder - I like to mix this into my smoothies for an extra jolt of antioxidants or make my own low-sugar hot cocoa by mixing cocoa powder into hot milk with stevia and a couple melted dark chocolate chunks.
Of course, you also can never go wrong with any types of fresh fruits. Even though fruit contains natural sugars, the fiber within most fruits usually slows down the carbohydrate absorption and glycemic response. Also, you get the benefit of high antioxidant content and nutrient density in most fruits. Some of my favorites are
kiwi, pomegranate, mango, papaya, grapes, oranges, fresh pineapple, bananas, apples, pears, peaches, and all types of berries.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this special look into my favorite lean body meals and how I stock my kitchen. Your tastes are probably quite different than mine, but hopefully this gave you some good ideas you can use next time you're at the grocery store looking to stock up a healthy and delicious pile of groceries.
50
MSM
Dr Andrew Jones on MSM
What is MSM?
---------------------------------
MSM or Methylsulfonylmethane is found naturally in some raw fruits
and vegetables. It a sulfur containing compound, and it is
essential for normal cell function. MSM decreases inflammation and
pain, and acts as an antioxidant.
-----------------------------
HOW it works for arthritis
-----------------------------
It replenishes sulfur stores within arthritic joints, allowing
cartilage to rebuild.
There is also evidence suggesting that it increases the
effectiveness of glucosamine.
---------------------------------
Should you use it?
---------------------------------
In supplementing for arthritis, different animals respond to the
variety of supplements.
Some ONLY need Glucosamine, while others respond much BETTER to
combinations of supplements.
In treating dogs and cats for arthitis, I have had the best success
in supplementing with Glucosamine, Chondroitin AND MSM.
-------------------------------
Where to start?
-------------------------------
I have formulated my Ultimate Canine and Feline Health formulas
with therapeutic levels of MSM.
It is very safe, and I have found it to be surprisingly effective.
Grab your trial bottle here:
http://www.thedogsupplement.com
http://www.thecatsupplement.com
What is MSM?
---------------------------------
MSM or Methylsulfonylmethane is found naturally in some raw fruits
and vegetables. It a sulfur containing compound, and it is
essential for normal cell function. MSM decreases inflammation and
pain, and acts as an antioxidant.
-----------------------------
HOW it works for arthritis
-----------------------------
It replenishes sulfur stores within arthritic joints, allowing
cartilage to rebuild.
There is also evidence suggesting that it increases the
effectiveness of glucosamine.
---------------------------------
Should you use it?
---------------------------------
In supplementing for arthritis, different animals respond to the
variety of supplements.
Some ONLY need Glucosamine, while others respond much BETTER to
combinations of supplements.
In treating dogs and cats for arthitis, I have had the best success
in supplementing with Glucosamine, Chondroitin AND MSM.
-------------------------------
Where to start?
-------------------------------
I have formulated my Ultimate Canine and Feline Health formulas
with therapeutic levels of MSM.
It is very safe, and I have found it to be surprisingly effective.
Grab your trial bottle here:
http://www.thedogsupplement.com
http://www.thecatsupplement.com
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