Dec 31, 2009

CHEAP Beauty Tip! Exfoliate your face!




I tend to have dry skin on my face. Especially in the winter. It is flaky and NOT flattering when mixed with my makeup. Yes, I do use a moisturizer and a makeup that is right for my skin type...but that doesn't always make a difference when you have a less than smooth surface to begin with. I also tend to get that really annoying acne on my forehead. The kind that feels and looks like medium grain sandpaper. Well, here is a beauty tip for both of these problems and it REALLY works and it is CHEAP! I have tried all sorts of face scrubs. Expensive ones, cheap ones and I am not saying that they don't work or I don't like them, but this works better and I like it best. Now, this is so easy when I tell you, you will think...it won't work, that is too simple. But it does! All you need is a bowl, table sugar and water. Wash your face BEFORE you do this so it is free of oils and makeup. Put about a 1/8-1/4 cup sugar in a bowl and add a LITTLE water so it is like a thick paste, yet wet all the way through the sugar. You don't want the sugar to be dry. Now just rub in small circles all over your face and neck. Get those trouble areas well like your forehead, around nose and your chin. Then rinse away! So simple. If you see blood, you are rubbing too hard. :) If you can not feel any friction you are not rubbing hard enough. :) Do this two days in a row if you have a problem with the forehead acne or dry skin, then twice a week for maintenance. Just do it twice a week if you want glowing skin but don't need to work off some dry stuff or acne. It really works, and well. I do it right in the shower. Makes your skin SO smooth. PLUS it tastes good if you get some in your mouth on accident. LOL. Give it a try! You have nothing to lose unless you are allergic to table sugar. :)


P.S. There is no reason why men can't do this as well!


-Liz-

Stevia: The Sweet Herb

I could go on and on about all the things wrong with artificial sweeteners.  I mean volumes and volumes about how they cause cancer, they still make you fat and they give you diarrhea...  I'm not going to do that because you should know that a few calories is better than cancer.
Now, sugar addicts, don't despair.  You don't have to choose between eating your weight in calories from sugar or getting cancer and diarrhea!  You can try Stevia. Stevia has been around forever.  Why haven't you heard of it before then?  Well the FDA has claimed it wasn't a safe food additive. Why am I talking about it if the FDA didn't deem it safe?  Well the truth is the FDA did virtually no studies on it, therfore they did not deem it safe. It's not because they did study it and found it to be dangerous.  No, in fact many like myself believe that the reason they did no studies and even blocked it from being imported like it was some kind of crack is because it's an herb.  And you can't own the patents or copyrights on an herb.  Therefor there aren't many companies who would make massive profits on the hopes and dreams of overweight people, hoping to satisfy their addiction to sugar with a non calorie substitute.  If there are no companies making massive profits who's going to "give" you that vacation to Bermuda for 6 weeks?  (I am indeed an FDA conspiracy theorist)

So really stevia has been used forever as a sweetener, just not here (USA). If you google it online "stevia side effects", you may find some  references to a small study on lab rats where they had a slight decrease in testosterone.  I tend to believe that if you force feed anyone an excessive amount of anything it will have side effects.  But because Stevia is so sweet you only need the smallest amounts.
Now there are great Stevia products at the store.  My favorite and the most affordable is Sun Crystals. It has a small amount of sugar mixed in it.  They do this because the packets are equivalent to 2 tsp sugar in flavor and that much stevia is such a small amount it would be difficult to package.  Each serving is 5 calories.  It's really good in teas, coffee and makes really good lemonade. Just follow the recipe on the bottle of lemon juice and substitute Stevia.  You can even bake with it.  Unfortunately the flavor does not meld well with chocolate.  So I suppose we will all just have to continue using will power to keep ourselves from eating our weight in chocolate every month!

-Val


Posture Exercises


Bad posture can be corrected by stretching the shortened tendons and muscles and shortening the lengthened muscles.  It's not really a quick process but its not necessarily hard.  For rounded shoulders you need to stretch your arms back to lengthen the front of the chest and do strenghthening on your back to shorten those muscles and pull your shoulders back naturally.  Strengtheing the core can also improve posture.  You need the muscles around your spine to be in tip top shape to pull it into correct alignment.  I found a work out video called 10 Minute Solution: Target Toning for Beginners.  It's not the most exciting workout, but I've found it to be quick, easy and effective.  It specifically targets posture muscles in the ab and upper body sections of the workout.  What I really love about it is you can pick and choose what workouts you want to do in the menu section and it will automatically play them.




Remember not to do the floor exercises for your tummy if you have a diastisis.


-Val    

High Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie, No protein powder

This smoothie recipe has NO protein Powder.  Protein powders contain very high amounts of free glutamate (MSG) and they make a lot of people...