Secrets of the World Wide Sisterhood

Foods to Brighten Your Mood

Sometimes we feel stressed because of all we have to deal with on a day to day basis.  Did you know that there are actually foods that help brighten your mood, which in turn relieves stress?  Here are just a few:   almonds, lowfat yogurt, pistachios, salmon, scallops, shrimp, and walnuts.  B vitamins stimulate the brain's production of serotonin, helping you relax, explains Paul Lachance, Ph.K., professor emeritus of nutrition and food science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  Choose nuts for B6, fish and yogurt for B12.  If you're feeling mad seek out potassium which helps lower blood pressure.  Avocados, bananas, black beans, corn, potatoes, and white beans are a few foods to choose from if you need to manage your anger.   

Self Challenge

If you're wanting to get in shape for spring, you should take the Self Challenge.  If you're not familiar with Self magazine, you should pick up a copy.  It's got great articles about beauty, style, nutrition, health, fitness, etc. Every year Self sponsors a fitness challenge.  This year is the 13th year.  You go online to self.com and sign up.  Every month for the next three months you will get step-by-step instructions for your personal total-body (and life) makeover.  You'll get cardio workouts, curve-sculpting strength moves, a fell-full eating plan and motivational strategies.  It's completely free and simple to follow.  There are a lot of great prizes, too.  Good Luck! 

Younger-Looking Lips

It happens so gradually that you hardly notice it, but as you age collagen, oil and water diminish from the lips.  This causes the lips to shrink, wilt and droop. Eventually, you will notice that your lips appear smaller and are getting fine lines around them.  We tend to think that only smokers get the fine lines, but that isn't true.  Since lips don't have a moisture barrier, they don't retain moisture well which may cause constant dryness, fine lines, and wrinkles.  It is necessary to replace lost nutrients in your lips to plump them up and smooth them out.  The fuller your lips are, the more support they provide for the surrounding skin, which minimizes lip lines and wrinkles.  There are many good products out there to keep your lips looking their best.  Peter Thomas Roth Un-Wrinkle Lip works to plump up the lips while reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles with eight different peptides. Vitamins C and E protect the lips against free radical damage for smoother softer lips.  I found this for $30 at amazon.com. Grapefruit Archipelago Botanicals Lip Butter contains powerful antioxidants, including nourishing grapeseed extract to restore lost moisture to the lips.  It instantly smoothes even the driest, most chapped lips and leaves them with just a hint of shine.  I found it for $11.67 on amazon.com.  To prevent your lips from aging, try Carita Intense Smooth Out Express Patch for Lip Contour.   These are individually packaged lip masks which fit the shape of the lips, and are intended to smooth, tone and plump them.  When worn five to ten minutes twice a week, this anti-aging treatment helps to moisture, soften and restore the vitality of aging, thinning lips.  I found these for $112 for (5) on amazon.com.  Or for a more drastic approach, you could have your dermatologist or plastic surgeon plump your lips with hyaluronic acid injectables like Restylane, Juvederm, or Perlane. OR You could have your own fat injected into your lips from another fatty area on your body.  Only you will know what is best for you. 

Improving Skin Texture

I am the first to admit that I have been a sun lover since I was a teen.  People tried to warn me about the dangers of sun exposure, and everyone told me I would look like a leather boot by the time I was 30 years old.  Well, I'm 43 and I don't look like a leather boot--thanks to advances in science and technology.  My skin isn't great by any means, and there are a lot of people who look worse. But, on the other hand there are people who look better.  I've spent a lot of money on products, and peels, and botox, and you name it.  If I would have spent less time in the sun, I would have spent less money on trying to improve the damage.  However, over time, the texture of our skin naturally changes.  Your skin will eventually start to age regardless of sun exposure. (Sun exposure just speeds up the process.) Hydration, collagen and elastin are all important factors for smooth, soft, young-looking skin.  When hormones, pollution, diet and lifestyle come into play, they can diminish these key factors, causing dramatic changes in how our skin feels.  According to an article in New Beauty, Gravitational pulling coupled with loss of fat and a breakdown of skin constituents like collagen and hyaluronic acid lead to changes in the texture of the skin and the formation of lines and wrinkles.  Also, moisture levels drop and water is lost from our skin as we age. Drinking plenty of water helps hydrate the skin, as well as using deep-hydrating creams and masks.   Antioxidant-rich fruits, like raspberries, blueberries and strawberries, as well as those with vitamin C, can also help heal and smooth weathered skin. Dull skin and a muddy complexion is caused by a buildup of dead skin that stays on the surface for long periods of time.  Erbium lasers and fractionated laser treatments deeply penetrate the skin to increase cell turnover, diminishing the look and feel of dull, lifeless skin.  But, erbium and fractionated lasers require downtime or at least a week.  Topical retinoid, glycolic peels and microdermabrasion can also increase cell turnover. Even if your skin was completely wrinkle-free, if your skin texture is bad, you will look older.

Younger-Looking Chest

Has the aging process affected the way you feel about your chest?  Normal aging, sun exposure, and other environmental assaults can cause freckles on your chest and crinkly, weathered skin.  Luckily there are treatments for this problem.  You could have a series of Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) or Fraxel laser treatments.  Ablative and non-ablative frantionated laser treatments improve skin texture nicely, and work well when used in combination.  While ablative laser treatments are not downtime-free, non-ablative ones typically are.  IPL (non-ablative lasers) penetrates the skin without visible wounding to the skin's surface to treat sun damage.  The average cost is $200-$500 per treatment, depending on the size of the treated area. Fractional laser treatments use a laser of microscopic thermal light to restructure layers of skin, improving or erasing fine lines, uneven pigmentation and scars.  The average cost of this procedure is $1200 to $5000.  I have been using my Evis MD Platinum hand-held LED on my chest.  It is non-ablative.  I'm seeing some improvement of my sun spots.  You can order these directly from sight by clicking on the box.  I've also had chemical peels on my chest.  Probably the best one was the vi peel.  You can find these on ebay.  If you haven't ever had a chemical peel, you probably shouldn't attempt this one at home.  It is very strong--and very effective.  But, your first experience should be in a doctor's office since you don't know how your skin will react.  Isn't funny how most of us never thought about an aging chest?  We were always warned about keeping sunscreen on our faces, but no one ever really stressed the importance of sunscreen for the chest!!  I know I always tried really hard to get a dark tan on my chest and used very little sunscreen.  I'm lucky mine doesn't look any worse than what it does.  And now I'm trying really hard to spend as much time on my neck and chest than I do on my face. 

Pressure Cooking for Healthy Food

I haven't thought about a pressure cooker in several years until my friend, Lori, told me about hers and how she loves to cook healthy meals in it.  I was always afraid of pressure cookers. I can remember my mom talking about how they would explode and food would be everywhere.  The old-style classic, weighted pressure regulators have become a memory.  The new easy-to-use modern pressure cooker has taken over the old noisy, rattling, cookers that we remember as kids.  Pressure cookers enable us to cook nutrious, homemade meals in less time.  Pressure cooking retains more vitamins and minerals than other cooking methods because foods are cooked quickly in little water or air, and that means better nutrition, taste, and value.  It makes the food virtually fat free because fats are drained away from meats while the meats stay moist and juicy.  The superheated steam within a pressure cooker actually intensifies natural flavors, so you can use less salt and still get a great taste.  I just bought one a few weeks ago.  JC Penney has several good ones to choose from and mine was on sale for $39.99.  I also ordered a book from amazon.com called Miss Vickie's Big Book Of Pressure Cooker Recipes by Vickie Smith.  It has hundreds of recipes. Click on the ad in the left column on my site and order yours immediately.   I can't wait to try them all!!      

Scale Back on Sugar

Consuming too much sugar not only leads to weight gain, but may also be a contributor to diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancers.  According to the USDA, Americans take in more than twice the maximum recommended limit of 40 grams of sugar a day.  The average woman consumes 69 pounds of sugar every year! We all know that sugar is found in cookies, candy, cakes, etc., but it may also be found in foods you'd never suspect.  Most people are aware of table sugar, or sucrose, and are careful about their intake.  But sugar goes by many different names.  Watch out for granulated, brown, and raw sugars, as well as maltose, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, corn sweetner, corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, malt syrup, and brown rice syrup. (Read your labels!) Some lowfat or fat-free products contain higher amounts of process sugar to mask missing flavor.  You should also go easy on the sauces.  Barbecue, spaghetti, and hot sauces may get more than half their calories from added sugar.  Beware of "all-natural" foods.  That doesn't always mean they are "sugar-free".  Some of these products are packed with added sugar, such as high-fructose sugar.  Here are some suggestions for sugar substitutes you won't even notice.  Instead of 2 tbsp. bottled honey mustard salad dressing, try 1 tbsp. fat-free mayo with 1/2 tbsp. mustard and 1/2 tsp. each honey and lemon juice.  Instead of 1/2 cup canned sweet peas, try 1/2 cup frozen baby sweet peas.  Instead of 1 cup jarred pasta sauce, have 1 cup crushed tomatoes with 1 tsp. each basil and oregano.  Instead of 1 small bag of Skittles, have 1 small bag o peanut M & M's. The bottom line is....Read the Labels, and make an effort to reduce your sugar intake. 

A Diet for Healthy Hair

A lack of protein in your diet can affect the health of your hair.  If you're a vegetarian, you probably aren't getting enough protein for your hair, so you should supplement your diet with protein-rich foods such as nuts, milk, cheese, and yogurt.  Zinc is also important for strong hair.  Zinc helps to build and reinforce hair protein and cell production.  Zinc is also necessary for maintaining normal oil levels in the scalp.  Zinc works best in conjunction with vitamin A.  Some foods, such as spinach, peas, and crabmeat, contain both.  If your hair is lacking luster you should try taking a multi-vitamin, it you're not already.  If you are wanting your hair to grow quickly, try taking prenatal vitamins.

The Wedding Date

If your're looking for a great romantic movie to watch on Valentine's Day, The Wedding Date is really good. Kat, Debra Messing, doesn't want to attend her sister's London wedding, where her ex-boyfriend, who had ceremoniously dumped Kat  close to the altar, will likely be a guest. But she can't miss the wedding wo she must fly in for the torturous affair, which she decides may be more palatable if she seeks companionship of a different sort … that of a male escort , Dermot Mulroney.  You've got to see this one if you haven't already! Add it to your Netflix Queue.  It is pretty much a "Chick Flick" but your significant other will probably like it,too.  

Losing Weight by Sleeping More

I wrote a post before about how losing sleep meant gaining weight.  Well, I just read an article in Glamour that supports that theory. Sleep and medical experts Michael Breus, Ph. D., and Steven Lamm, M.D., created a plan for seven Glamour readers of varying weights.  The women's one simple goal was to get at least seven and a half hours of sleep a night.  They were also asked not to make any diet or exercise changes.....Just sleep.  Amazingly the women lost from 6-15 pounds.  Science shows that sleep deprivation wreaks havoc on hormones that control appetite, cravings and the metabolism of fat.  When your tired your body craves simple carbohydrates (chocolate, pastries, candy) that it can break down fast for quick energy.  Also, during deep sleep, your brain secretes a large amount of growth hormone, which tells your body how to break down fat for fuel.  Deprive your body of deep sleep and when extra calories get stored as fat, there isn't enough growth hormone to break it down.  So your body takes a short cut and stores it away in your butt, thighs, belly, or wherever you tend to put on weight.  And of course, if you got enough sleep the night before, you have more energy the next day.  You will feel more like exercising.  However, it might take a little effort on your part to get more sleep.  You need to go to sleep and wake up at the same time everyday.  You can change your bedtime on weekends when you don't have to get up early, but make sure you still get seven anda half hours of sleep. Start a bedtime routine such as reading, a hot bath, stretching, etc. about 45 minutes before bedtime.  Soon your body will start to associate specific actions with relaxation and falling asleep.  Watch your caffeine and alcohol habits.  Don't have any caffeine after 2:30 p.m. and avoid sipping alcohol three hours before bedtime.  Experiment with exactly how much sleep you really need.  You might actually need more that seven and a half hours of sleep.....And don't forget the added bonus, you will look better, too.