Need a Quick Skin Refresh? Try This Weekend Trick
It’s almost springtime, and though we are excitedly waiting for our favorite season to kick off, we are also still feeling the effects of winter and a year indoors on our skin and hair. That might look like dry, flakey winter skin, dull hair, or just an overall feeling of bleh.
There are some very simple things you can do this weekend to reset your skin and hair for the season.
#1 Change What’s In Your Dish:
Your body requires certain nutrients to rebuild itself, like certain enzymes, vitamins and minerals to ensure that the rebuilding process is done properly. Skin repairs itself at a pretty rapid pace, so you can expect to see improvements within a month of adding the following to your diet:
– Vitamigas: Add a good multi-vitamin/multi-mineral supplement to your daily diet. Pick one with great reviews on Amazon.
– Antioxidants: Add an antioxidant supplement (A, E, C, selenium or equivalent).
– Oils: Replace your salad dressing with olive oil, and change your cooking oil to coconut or avocado oil. (Polyunsaturated fats like canola and soybean oil commonly used today; they oxidize at a lower temperature – this means that they throw off free radicals at body temperature, which cause cellular damage and accelerate aging.)
– Vegetables: If you aren’t already, add at least one serving of dark leafy green vegetables, one serving of yellow vegetables and one of dark red vegetables per day. This will add important enzymes, phytonutrients, minerals and fiber. The easiest way to do this is to have one salad or kale bowl with olive oil for dressing on everything. A squeeze of lemon goes nicely with this, and the combination of olive oil and lemon helps balance liver enzyme function as well. Sometimes I may add some bits of mozzarella to amp up the protein. I really love Dr. Andrew Weil’s kale salad, which marinades in the fridge really nicely and has a delicious sprinkle of parmesan.
– Eggs: Protein is vital to cellular regeneration. Although carbohydrates can give you energy, and in the long run your body can use vegetable proteins to synthesize human proteins, only eggs contain every single amino acid necessary to rebuild human cells. This weekend, start by adding one or two eggs to your breakfast every day. Or for lunch, you can hard boil and chop it over that salad or have an egg as a snack.
– Yogurt: In addition to the protein, yogurt also adds calcium and important digestive enzymes to your diet. Eat at least one serving of live-culture yogurt daily. It’s cheap, it tastes good and it’s good for you – what more can you ask for? Full fat yogurt is preferable, since the low-fat kind is usually filled with food starch for texture and adds empty calories. Avoid the kind with lots of added sugar if you can, since sugar has little to no real long-term nutritional value. A fun project is buying yogurt starters from places like Thrive Market, adding it to a quart of milk, and making your own yogurt on the stove or instapot. It seriously tastes even better than store-bought versions.
#2 Put Some Water On It:
Your body requires adequate water to move nutrients and enzymes throughout the body. But how much water does your body need? The rule of thumb is to drink at least half your weight in ounces. So, if you weigh 150 pounds, you should drink at least 75 ounces of water per day.
#4 Go Sleep
Although it’s hard to find especially if you’re a new parent, adequate sleep is one of the most important things you can do for yourself – and it’s easily tweaked in just one weekend. Your body spends most of your sleeping hours regenerating itself, rebuilding cells, balancing hormone levels and brain chemicals. Adequate sleep will not only help you look good, it will help you feel good as well. Neurochemicals that control mood and pain levels are produced during sleep, which is why so many chronic pain patients are found to have an underlying sleep disorder.
– Adequate Sleep: Make it a a goal to get enough sleep this weekend. Most experts claim seven to nine hours per day is the required amount. Some experts say that setting the total amount of sleep to coincide with the natural 90 minutes per sleep cycle is best. This would mean either 7.5 or 9 hours of sleep per night. Five cycles would mean 7.5 hours, six cycles would be nine hours of sleep. Try experimenting with setting your clock for either 7.5 OR 9 hours, depending on your schedule, so that you can complete each and every sleep cycle naturally. On the other hand, if you find that 8 hours or 8.5 hours is what makes you feel best, by all means, do what works for you.
– Napping: Make a habit of grabbing naps. Humans were meant to take naps. That’s why those of us who are permitted to live according to our normal biological cycle (babies, small children and the elderly) take naps. Humans are designed to nap during the afternoon. Current studies show a natural rise and fall of hormones that indicate a programmed “nap” time in the afternoon. That famous mid-afternoon slump isn’t just lack of sleep at night, a heavy lunch, or stress – it’s your instincts kicking in and telling you to take some down-time. Take a nap during the weekend if you can, and start this weekend. Instead of sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday, get up at your normal time and then take a nap in the early afternoon. Hand the baby to your partner and take a 20 minute power nap. It doesn’t need to be a long nap, a simple twenty minute “cat nap” will do just fine. Your body will thank you. And hey, if all you end up doing is resting in a warm, cozy room with your eyes closed and clearing your mind, that’ll help too.
