Natural body exfoliator
How do some women get glowing, healthy and smooth-looking skin? The answer: they exfoliate. Exfoliating helps to remove dead skin and will reveal the fresher, brighter skin beneath. Before you run out and buy an expensive exfoliating scrub, make sure you check your kitchen cupboards first because you might just have the perfect ingredients to whip up your very own scrub.
There are lots of different recipes you can use. For example, you can make a moisturising scrub using olive oil and rock salt. Add three tablespoons of rock salt to a bowl and then add one and half tablespoons of olive oil. Mix the ingredients together and then rub the mixture into your body in circular motions. It’s best to stand in the bath or shower when you do this, as it can get quite messy. Once you’ve scrubbed your body rinse the mixture off and admire your gorgeous glow. It’s a good idea to exfoliate once a week.
Swap
Restricting the amount of treats you have is no fun and sometimes being overly strict with your diet can lead to you bingeing and eating more unhealthy foods than you normally would. A great trick to learn if you want to eat healthily is to learn the art of the swap.
The art of the swap is all about finding out what healthy (or healthier) alternative you can eat when you have a craving for one of your favourite foods. For example, if you enjoy your afternoon chocolate snack why not eat a few squares of dark chocolate instead? Or if you like crisps try vegetable crisps. If your weakness is a cake try making some ‘healthy’ cookies instead to snack upon. These little swaps will help you to feel like you’ve had a treat, but won’t make you divert too far away from the path of healthy living.
Workout hair
Be honest with yourself now, how many times have you skipped a workout because you’d washed your hair that day or styled it? More times than you care to admit probably. There are several tricks you can use to make sure your hair never stands in the way of your workout again though.
Firstly, find a hairstyle that doesn’t get ruined when you workout, such as a slick ponytail, a ballerina bun or a French plait. Other useful tricks that will help you work out even on a day when you’ve done your hair are using pins instead of hairbands. Pins will help you to avoid that dreaded post-pony hair kink. You can also use a cooling headband to sweep hair off of your face and keep it clean. Other handy products that can save you from having a bad hair day include dry shampoo, a volume boosting spray for reawakening your roots and a hair perfume, which can mask hair that smells.
Firm skin
If you’ve lost a lot of weight recently or you’re thirty plus, you might find that your skin has changed and that it is no longer as firm as it used to be. Sagging skin isn’t something any of us particularly want, but there are some great tricks to help firm up your skin and help it become more taut.
One way to combat baggy skin is by doing toning exercises, which help shape up your muscles beneath the skin. Try doing Pilates or some strength training exercises to tone up those muscles. You could also drink the recommended amount of water each day and moisturise regularly to help boost the elasticity in your skin. These simple tricks should help you to firm up your skin and help you get back your body confidence.
Foods you love
All too often people bail on their healthy eating goals because they are bored by their food or fed up of being unable to eat the foods they enjoy. Eating is a highly personal and often pleasurable experience, so eliminating the pleasure factor from food will normally always lead to a healthy living lapse.
To remedy this problem, you need to find healthy foods you love to eat. To do this, you have to begin by experimenting. Buy a healthy cookbook or download some recipes you think you might like to try. Then get cooking. If you’re uncertain about where to start, try looking at some healthy curries. Curries are a great place to begin because even though they are healthy they can be full of flavour and can be comforting. Honey sauces, creamy cottage cheese and natural yoghurt with mint and lime are all great ingredients to play with and they should help you start to reignite your love for food again whilst sticking to a healthy eating plan.
