Feed Your Skin

Today’s Re-Powering information – I don’t mention the skin too much, however it’s our largest organ. If you are taking care of your body from the inside, the outside will take care of yourself (unless exposed to things from the external environment like too much sun). If you are having challenges with your skin, breakouts, moles, rashes, etc, more times than not, its from something going on in the inside that surfaces on the skin. The good news is that many skin conditions can be reversed with great nutrition. Not only that, but with exercise and good nutrition. You can appear up to 10 or more years younger. I’m 70 and don’t look too bad!!! (that was a joke). Read the article below for some skin saving and soothing foods that you can both consume for younger looking and feeling skin. You can even use real foods to make your own scrubs and masks..



Feed Your Skin

By Helen Hawkes
Forget plastic surgery. All you have to do is eat your way to great-looking skin.
Can you look younger by stuffing your face? Absolutely! The healthier the foods you consume are, the better your skin looks. No vitamin C and you'll have no collagen.

Too little vitamin A or essential fats and you'll have dry, rough skin, and too little zinc is a recipe for greasy skin and stretch marks.

So forget plastic surgery. For glowing, gorgeous, youthful skin, it makes sense to eat your way to fewer wrinkles, pimples, age spots and other beauty plagues.

Resurfacing your skin

It's no accident that vitamin A is the number one vitamin used topically to improve the texture and appearance of ageing skin.

Vitamin A is a powerful agent for increasing cell turnover, so that skin looks more youthful.

This skin vitamin comes in two forms: retinol, the animal form found in meat, fish, eggs and dairy products; and beta-carotene, found in red, yellow and orange fruits and vegetables.

Apricots, carrots, sweet potatoes and pumpkin are all good sources of beta-carotene.

Sydney-based naturopath Penelope Sach, author of Natural Woman (Penguin), advises: "Include a raw carrot juice daily for the natural vitamin A content, which helps to regenerate skin cells. "

Foods to tighten and tone

Thanks to New York Times bestselling author Dr Nicholas Perricone, we now know that good skin is a very fishy business.

Fish is not only a good source of the antioxidant co-enzyme Q10 (CoQ10), but an outstanding source of high-quality protein that helps with cellular repair and essential fatty acids (EFAs), which are responsible for healthy cell membranes, he says.

EFAs hold water, so the stronger they are, the plumper and younger your skin looks.

Fish also contains a powerful antioxidant compound called dimethylaminoethanol or DMAE.

"This chemical stimulates nerve function and the muscles to contract and tighten under the skin," says Dr Perricone in The Perricone Prescription (HarperCollins).

"It is a magic bullet for great skin tone, keeping your face firm and contoured."

Sach says: "For radiant skin, eat cold-water fish such as salmon, mackerel or tuna, three times a week."

Other good face firmers are walnuts and flaxseed oil, soya oil, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

Flaxseed oil may also be useful in the treatment of skin conditions such as eczema.

Natural wrinkle fighters

Perhaps your skin's biggest enemies are free radicals, produced by UV rays as well as pollution, stress and even breathing.

These nasties lead to skin inflammation, as well as the degradation of collagen, the support structure for your skin, according to Leslie Baumann, of the dermatology department at the University of Miami in Florida.

But nature has designed some pretty clever foods that, if eaten regularly, act as natural wrinkle fighters.

Start with apricots and tomatoes, rich in lycopene, nature's sunscreen.

For maximum anti-ageing, add a daily bowlful of berries, a glass of red wine or a freshly brewed pot of tea.

In a 2004 study by the veterinary science faculty at the University of Sydney, a potent free-radical scavenger called pycnogenol was found to reduce the amount of inflammatory sunburn in mice.

Pycnogenol can be found in grape seed, grape skin, cranberry, blackcurrant, green tea, black tea, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, black cherry, red wine and red cabbage.

Still want a stronger defense against free radicals and the surgeon's knife?

Here's a potent free radical-busting combination: vitamin C, vitamin E, glutathione and CoQ10.

A 2002 German study published in the Journal Of Pharmacological And Biophysiological Research found that, together, these antioxidants could reduce inflammation caused by UV rays.

You'll find vitamin E in vegetable oils, nuts and green leafy vegetables, and vitamin C in leafy citrus fruit, berries and green leafy vegetables.

Asparagus is high in glutathione and CoQ10 is found in seafood, spinach and nuts.

Other antioxidant-rich foods are prunes, plums, capsicum, beetroot, parsley, figs, raisins and legumes such as red kidney beans.

And don't forget herbs and spices, an often neglected way to boost antioxidants in the body.

"Herbs and spices contain several natural water-soluble phenolic acids and flavonoids that can protect the body against oxidative stress and inflammation," says Dr Michael Fenech, principal research scientist on the CSIRO's Genome Health and Nutrigenomics Project in Adelaide.

Add cinnamon to your cappuccino, drink tea made of fresh mint or ginger, roast lamb with herbs such as rosemary, sage and thyme, and indulge in turmeric-rich curries.

Try Gourmet Garden's herb tubes if you can't buy fresh.

Out, darn spot
There are two types of spots that detract from youthful skin: age spots and pimples.

And Australasian soils are notoriously short of a trace element called selenium.

This deficiency, along with sun exposure and sugar in the diet, is believed to be a factor in age spots, says Erica Angyal, an Australian nutritionist now based in Tokyo and author of Gorgeous Skin In 30 Days (Lothian Books).

To stop spots, you should not only wear an SPF15+, but eat selenium-rich foods, including garlic, brazil nuts, macadamia nuts and sesame seeds.

A study published in 2003 in the British Journal Of Dermatology also showed that skin was less likely to suffer oxidative damage when selenium levels were high.

Eating garlic, which also contains vitamin C and sulfur, can help banish blemishes.

Zinc is another natural substance that is necessary for good skin. Rich sources of zinc are oysters, ginger root, lamb, pecan nuts and brazil nuts.

Softening up

Extra-virgin olive oil has a high concentration of a monounsaturated fatty acid called oleic acid, one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory foods in existence, says Dr Perricone.

"Oleic acid is a member of the omega 9 family," he says. "It can make the difference between a complexion that resembles a piece of old shoe leather and one that looks and feels like a rose petal."

For younger-looking skin, aim to eat about 20g - or two tablespoons - of good fats a day, including olive oil.

Avocados contain oleic acid, as well as the antioxidants vitamin C and E.

Try having some on toast with lycopene-rich tomatoes, accompanied by a cup of green tea, for a super skin-boosting meal.

For baby-soft skin, avoid dehydrating drinks too, like alcohol and caffeine.

"Try Campari and soda during summer, as this is less dehydrating than wine and champagne," says Sach. Of course, cool, filtered water is great too.

Debloat and depuff

Your capillaries are the pipelines for your skin cells, says Angyal.

"When they are weak, or not working efficiently, your skin cells don't receive all the oxygen and nutrients they need."

This leads to poor elimination and sallow, puffy, prematurely aged or dull skin.

Bioflavonoids in citrus fruits can help to protect your capillaries, as well as support collagen production. So, next time you're at a juice bar, mix pink grapefruit, orange or lemon into your fruit or vegie blend.



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If you are following the 30 Day Detox Fat Burning Meal Plan, yesterday was your first detox day. Fruit in the morning, veggies in the afternoon and a regular dinner from the list of foods provided. Continue following the plan for the best results. Below is a recipe I make, but I eat it without the tortilla’s (I do eat them occasionally)

BurbMom.Net- Connect with Mom's in Argyle

I wanted to share a neat website / blog that I found for moms in Argyle and the surrounding area’s. Regardless of the age of your child, there is something for everyone. They post local events, real stories that hit home, add a sense of humor and it’s a great way to connect with like minded moms. They have asked me to feature one of our boot campers to follow along with their story for about 4 weeks. They want the good, the bad and the ugly. The don’t’ want to hear how perfect camp is (ha ha), they want to know what lifestyle change is really about.



If anyone is interested in volunteering, I would love to feature you. If not, I’ll be picking someone!!! The website is www.BurbMom.net. Please check it out. One of the articles I noticed was where to find the best donut in the area – in case anyone is interested. It’s basically a mom’s guide to her suburb from dining to parks, hair stylists to concerts.

Feel Younger

Today’s re-powering information – Lets finish up today and the week on a positive note. Here’s a fact. Regular exercise can make your real age 9 years younger than your biological age. I’m not tooting my own horn, but I recently started using face book and have connected with some friends from high school. From what I can see of their head shots, many have round faces, the guys have full heads of gray hair and maybe I am kidding myself, but they look much older than me (I’ll be 40 this December – Yikes, I think that’s the first time I said that!). Exercise is your fountain of youth. When I was on the beach 2 weeks ago, I could clearly see the fit bodies confidently and briskly striding along the beach. You can tell that they are older, but they look younger and burst with energy. You have seen these people on the beach and can quickly identify the fit ones who exercise. In comparison it’s also easy to identify the unfit bodies who are meandering or sitting in lounge chairs with snacks in their mouths and supersized beverages in their hands. I’m not judging, but it’s clear the differences in lifestyle.



When exercise is an important part of your life it is the one thing that has the most far reaching effects on the rest of what you do here on earth. When you are fit, you make more conscious nutrition choices, you sleep better, you manage stress, have better mental clarity, more patience for relationships, are more concerned about your environment and much more. There is research to prove all of this which is in addition to the health benefits. People who exercise make more money, they live longer, they are happier, have higher self esteem, recover faster, have better immune systems and more and more and more! I know I am preaching to the choir, but I wanted to reinforce the importance of keeping exercise a priority in your life in hopes that you don’t take it for granted, but also being to positively influence those in your circle by your example.



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