Fashion/Beauty/Health
Fashion, Beauty and Health. By Meg
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Thursday, March 6, 2014
The Two Best Time to Eat Carbs
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
10 Tips For Getting Longer, Thicker, Sexier Hair
Thursday, February 13, 2014
5 ways to avoid harmful processed foods (without going nuts)
Have you a little freaked out that all of the processed foods you’re eating might be less than wonderful for your health? Do you feel overwhelmed about what on earth to eat instead, so you don’t do anything about it?
Sometimes the hardest thing about making a change is simply deciding where to start and realizing that you don’t have to know everything before you take your first step.
Sure, you could flip your entire diet upside-down all at once and embrace the cold turkey strategy for ditching processed foods. But I’m guessing you don’t find that idea very appealing, so I’m giving you five simpler strategies that will help you start ditching processed foods without losing your sanity.
What are “Real Foods”?
No matter what strategy you choose, you’ll need a way to figure out which foods are “real” and which foods are too processed to keep in your diet. Follow this simple rule: Read the ingredients label on everything you purchase. If you can easily identify every ingredient as having come from a plant or animal in nature, then it’s a keeper. If not, leave it on the shelf.
Sure, you can research even deeper with food additives information and animal welfare issues (which won’t necessarily be represented on food labels), but we’re just taking our first step, remember? So let’s just start with this one simple rule.
Pick Your Strategy
1. One Enemy at a Time
One popular way to start ditching processed foods is to target one food additive or chemical ingredient to avoid. You choose one additive (e.g., MSG, high fructose corn syrup, food coloring, natural flavor), and you stop purchasing anything that contains that ingredient. Once you’ve mastered that ingredient, you move on to another one. You don’t have to know everything about every food additive that exists; you just find one you feel may be harming your family’s health and then refuse to purchase it any more.
2. Weekly Recipe Make-Over
One of the most overwhelming things about ditching processed food is that you likely don’t know how to cook anything. Well, there’s only one way that is going to change—start practicing.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Should You Go Gluten-Free? The real deal on the popular diet trend
From those stirrup pants you rocked in middle school to swearing off carbs in college, we’ve all had our fair share of fads that maybe didn’t work out so well. But since the gluten-free craze hit the news, it seems like it’s here to stay. Here are the goods on gluten so you can decide for yourself if the gluten-free diet is the new LBD or just another trend.
First things first, gluten is a naturally occurring protein in grains like wheat, barley, and rye. But it’s also added to a lot of goodies, like salad dressings, soy sauce, and fried foods.
Gluten first got a bad rep because it has been associated with causing inflammation, stomach pain, gastrointestinal distress, and even osteoporosis in some people. People suffering these gluten-related ailments often have a condition known as celiac disease. And gluten is definitely a no-no if you fall into this category.
But then there’s another group of people who may not have celiac disease, but do seem to feel better and lose weight when they eat a gluten-free diet. A lot of this, however, has to do with the fact that when you eat gluten-free, you typically are eating fresh, unprocessed foods, which is a good practice in general.
If you eat a gluten-free diet that’s healthy and you feel better, more power to you. However, if you eat a diet that’s hell-bent on avoiding gluten but still includes things like gluten-free cookies and baked goods, you’ll be swapping one “bad” thing for another; companies often add fats and sugars as a replacement for gluten in goodies.
The moral of the story is that if you avoid gluten, eat healthy, and therefore feel better, then give gluten the boot. However, if you find yourself switching to gluten-free foods and not feeling better, you may want to add gluten back in because you could be missing out on important nutrients, such as B vitamins, iron, and fiber.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Top Ten Uses For Castor Oil
The medical uses of castor oil span throughout history. As early as the time of ancient Egypt, the oil had already been documented for its medicinal use. In addition, it had been recorded to treat certain ailments In India, way back to 2000 B.C.E., based on information from New World Encylopedia.
Today, castor oil is used extensively in the treatment of many ailments. Although not widely applied in mainstream medicine, it is considered an alternative remedy that can help you naturally cure various kinds of health conditions - 10 of the most common include:
- Constipation - Castor oil is a well-known laxative. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) actually certifies castor oil as an over-the-counter, "generally recognized as safe and effective" laxative that you can use for chronic constipation and diarrhea.
- Labor Induction - For several years, natural castor oil has been used to stimulate labor induction. Traditionally given by a midwife, it is ingested by the pregnant mother to induce labor prior to childbirth.
- Inflammations - The oil has anti-inflammatory properties that make it an effective treatment for sunburns, minor cuts, and abrasions in the skin.
- Lymph Problems - An important medical use of the oil is in promoting the activity of the lymph, which is the main vessel that takes the toxins and wastes out of the body. It eliminates lymph congestion and helps improve your body's metabolism.
- Skin Disorders - The oil acts as a natural emollient that hydrates, moisturizes and rejuvenates your skin. If you have wrinkles and dark circles under your eyes, castor oil helps you to get rid of these and makes your skin smoother and softer. The oil's skin conditioning benefits also help reduce the appearance of acne, eczema and other related skin problems.
- Hair Loss - Here, the oil is an alternative solution to hair loss. It helps promote hair growth in people who are suffering from baldness and hair fall. This oil makes the hair thicker, stronger and full of life.
- Sciatic Nerve Pain - Sciatica, which affects your sciatic nerve and is characterized with pains in the lower back, buttock, thigh, calf and foot, is also one of the medical conditions treated. So if you are suffering from symptoms of sciatica, consider using castor oil for treatment.
- Tumors and Cysts - The oil is a folk remedy for tumors, cysts, and other swellings in the skin. It is applied externally to reduce or dissolve the tumors in the body.
- Fungal infections - The oil contains undecylenic acid, which fights ringworm, yeast and athlete's foot infections.
- Arthritis - The anti-inflammatory characteristics of castor oil heal arthritic joints and muscles and anywhere in your body that needs temporary relief.
These are just 10 of the most frequent medical uses of this oil. But in reality, the list goes on as the oil is continuously applied in numerous illnesses and health conditions. If you are experiencing any of the conditions listed above, why don't you consider using the oil today and start feeling the healing benefits of this organic oil?
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Try These Winter Workouts!
Mix it up with these cold weather routines
For the Great Outdoorswoman:
Go tobogganing. What exactly is a toboggan, you ask? Simply, it’s a sled without runners. Sure, tobogganing may not seem like much of a workout, but take a few trips back up that hill, and you’ll understand just how good this activity is for you — especially when it comes to perking up that booty! Plus, you’ll be having too much fun to even notice that you’re in the middle of a winter sweat sesh!
Slip on a pair of snowshoes. There are endless health and fitness benefits to taking a stroll outdoors, not the least of which include weight loss, lower blood pressure, and reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. But throw on a pair of snowshoes, and you’ve got a whole new level of outdoor fitness since snowshoeing can burn anywhere between 400 and 1,000 calories an hour! Now that’s a great reason to bundle up and enjoy the scenery.
For the Warm Weather Wisher:
Take yoga practice off your mat. Love yoga but feel like taking your practice to the next level? Enter aerial yoga, a workout that uses a silk hammock to suspend yogis above the ground — a fun, new twist on an ancient practice. Plus, Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow swear by it, and have you seen their physiques? Check out AntiGravity Fitness for more info.
Hit it, then quit it. 2014 is the year of the High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout. Lasting anywhere between four and 30 minutes, a HIIT workout consists of brief periods of intense movement followed by brief recovery periods. There are a number of variations to try, from Tabata to Focus T25, the 25-minute workout from Insanity creator Shaun T. The fact that we can get a complete (and we mean complete) workout in less than half an hour makes this one regimen we can definitely fit into our hectic schedules!