Natural Scrubs – budget friendly exfoliators

I often get questions about DIY cosmetics that can be made using natural ingredients from our kitchen. Today a quick post on body scrubs.

Body scrubs have an exfoliating function. Abrasive materials such as salt, sugar or coffee grounds can be used as a scrub to remove dead skin cells and to stimulate the growth of new skin cells. If your skin is dry rough and patchy and doesn’t absorb body lotions well, you are probably in need of a Body Scrub. Body Scrubs should be used 1-2 times and week in the shower to invigorate your skin. Although the variety of exfoliators in the drugs stores is huge, there is nothing better than natural organic scrub prepared in your own kitchen.

For coffee lovers…

Coffee scrub is particularly good for battling cellulite thanks to…the caffeine. When coffee is applied to the surface of your skin, it helps redistribute fat cells and decrease the formation of cellulite. The caffeine in a coffee scrub acts also as a vascular restrictor–shrinking blood vessels, thus helping to reduce varicose veins.

To prepare the scrub you will need:

• 2 cups of coffee grounds (Brand does not matter–the cheaper the better.)
• 1/2 cup raw sugar or sea salt
• 2/3 tablespoon of massage oil (Any plain, cheap massage oil will do.)

Mix the ingredients in the bowl. You can also add brown sugar or cinnamon for stronger scent and more texture.

When the scrub is complete, be sure to apply it to wet or damp skin. The best time to do this exfoliating scrub is in the shower so that you can rinse it off after application. Apply the scrub directly to your skin and rub it in circular motions with your fingers, or use a washcloth or loofah. Remember the circular motion helps to distribute the caffeine to eliminate cellulite and varicose veins.

Sweet Honey…

Honey scrubs can work well for your body but also for your face:

Honey scrub for dry skin:

Ingredients:
* 1/2 tablespoon of honey
* 1/2 tablespoon of hazelnuts grind in a blender
* 1 tablespoon of olive oil

Mix all the ingredients and carefully massage your face for 2 minutes. Then rinse off

Honey scrub for combination skin:

Ingredients:
* 1/2 tablespoon of honey
* 1/2 tablespoon of dry milk
* 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

Mix all the ingredients and carefully massage your face for 2 minutes. Then rinse off

Honey scrub for oily skin:

Ingredients:
* 1/2 tablespoon of honey
* 1/2 tablespoon of clay
* 1/2 of rice grind in a blender

Warm up 1/2 tablespoon of honey mix it with 1/2 tablespoon of white clay and rise grind in a blender. Add some water if the medley is too dry.

Just salt…

Salt scrubs are one of the easiest home spa products to make. To enjoy your own sea salt scrub you will need:

1/2 cup of oil (almond, grapeseed or sunflower oil)

1 cup of fine sea salt

5-10 drops of essential oils (Lavender is relaxing, lemongrass is refreshing and rosemary is stimulating. You can experiment and do your own blend).

Put the salt (or sugar) in a small bowl. Add the oil, mixing well with a spoon or wooden stick. The texture should be moist enough to hold together, but not overly oily. You can adjust the amount of oil to achieve that texture. Use once a week.

Enjoy your 100 % natural Body Scrubs!

Good Morning

Very Early Good Morning to all of you who follow my blog in Europe and Good Evening to subscribers from other parts of the World.

I have been involved in so many things in the recent months and overlooked the fact that my list of subscribers has extended significantly and I owe you all a big Thank you for waiting patiently for the next post. Here it is

Around this time of the day/night (it is precisely 1:55 am) my thoughts usually start getting blurry so just a very quick post.

As some of you know, I started this blog two years ago when I was setting up www.bodyconfidence.ie . Since then I have been involved in a few projects - both in a professional and personal field and learnt a lot about specifics of running a practice, studying, not sleeping enough, making good strong coffee and so on ;-). As people do, I also attempted to squeeze too many activities, plans, dreams and… ambitions in 24 hours.  Massive chunk of my work has been dedicated to pro-bono projects that, despite being hugely rewarding, didn’t help to make ends meet.  Having said so – I don’t complain at all. I worked with great clients and learners and even managed to commit a few hours a week to additional study and went to the Netherlands to complete my work internship. Well, haven’t mentioned catching a few colds and a very trendy swine flu. The point is: blogging suffered ;-(

But I am back and can confide in you that equipped with more time and working on a more organised schedule during the summer months I will blog more regularly. It will be interesting to see the difference between my last year posts and the coming ones…that is all I say.

 

Good Morning…

New starts

You know what they say about September – ” it is the January in fashion”. For so many of us September is the January of the school year – the month of ‘new starts’. Fresh start in college, secondary school or new job is very exciting but also really challenging. It has been proven that transition, when mixed with other difficulties and risk factors, can trigger eating disorders. My own battle with BED started shortly after I moved from primary to secondary school. So if you are starting college this year - share your thoughts with people you love because a problem shared is a problem halved. If your son, daughter, brother or sister is preparing  for college or university – support them. New start can be a life changing experience – positive or negative or, most likely, both.  Enjoy it. Best of luck to all first years!

Stress of freshman year can trigger eating disorders for some young people
ScienceDaily (2010-08-24) — While the start of college is a positive, momentous event for many young people, it also can be an episode that pushes some into a dangerous battle with eating disorders, says a psychologist who fought her own battle against bulimia as a college student. Hear her story. … > read full article

Can we stop ourselves from perceiving our body bigger than it actually is?

Hand study reveals brain’s distorted body model
ScienceDaily (2010-06-16) — Our brains contain a highly distorted model of our own bodies, according to researchers. A new study on the brain’s representation of the hand found that our model of our bodies is out of sync with reality — with a strong tendency to think that the hands are shorter and fatter than their true shape. … > read full article

I don’t want to search for the perfect male body !

Just read the article in the Observer Magazine (link below) about thin male bodies.

It makes me sad to watch men joining the race for the perfect body trophy! It’s bad enough that women struggle with lack of self-acceptance every day. We need our men to criticise our dieting, to tell us that we are beautiful just the way we are, to laugh at our ‘big hips’ problems, we need normal guys! What is going to happen if we all become addicted to punishing our bodies for being just OK? Who is going to be normal? A bunch of therapists, coaches and doctors? And who is going to believe them?

…

Check todays article in the Observer Magazine:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/27/mens-health-weight

It makes me sad to watch men joining this idiotic race for perfect body! It’s bad enough that women

November in June

 Last Monday was our take-away dinner day. The local shop must have had some really complicated recipes for fish and chips as my boyfriend and I spent half an hour waiting for food that was later covered with so much salt and vinegar that I couldn’t resist but to ask: what’s the point… But to the point: Having nothing more entertaining to do I went through all women’s magazines in the newsagents section and consumed more information than could digest.  All covers were screaming at me: Summer has arrived-Alert-Get Your Neglected Body Ready-Lose weight-Wear cute bikin-Check our tan products. I also found summer tips for dates and summer tips for sex (yes you are right – in COSMO).

 A few more pages and loads of advice later  it became obvious that getting ready for the Summer is less fun and more work, so is Summer really the best season of the year? Or maybe we lose common sense and simply can’t stay cool when the temperature rises?

I know it sounds strange at the end of June but can I mention November? Let me remind you that in November all issues of women’s magazines are full of articles about how to fight depression, stay positive despite dull, short days and how to battle first symptoms of flu. You see, I don’t get it and it always makes me laugh because Autumn is awesome! Yes it is, we are all ‘back in town’, all type of courses start in Autumn, little cafes are full of charm when it’s dark outside and conversation are deeper after dusk. Cinemas and theatres have better repertoire, I love Halloween and of course I can’t wait for Christmas. People are more focused than in summer time and holidays tickets are cheaper.

Autumn can be really cosy and very interesting both professionally and socially, there is always something going on and most importantly: women don’t worry about their bodies. In Autumn our body is part of us, we eat, we walk, we laugh, we accept ourselves and layers of warm clothes make us feel safe.

So back to June: Summer inevitably  means exposure: what used to be our private body zone during the winter months has become ‘public’ and visible in the direct sun light. Some people may like it, others dread it. I was in the latter group for years. Each summer was taking me by surprise. Because I didn’t particularly like my body (gently speaking)I was far from excited to buy summery clothes and usually ended up getting some sort of last-minute crap t-shirts ans shorts on emergency ‘shoppng spree’ . For me November was a real relief, once again everything depends on the perspective.

Research shows that women become overstressed about their bodies during summer months and the more insecure they feel the more  money they spend on beauty products and slimming aids ;-(

So what can you do to avoid summer-time stress that affects tens of thousands of irish women? I think that there is no need to spoil your sunny mood by thinking about imperfections. Do what I like doing – get active, try to join walking group or hiking association or/and volunteers organisations and surround yourself with people who love summer for its long days, warm evenings and new adventures  not for holiday body competitions.

 Have some fun and enjoy your time off. I will stay here and work until at least November

Ps. I love Summer  by the way

Check the Beauty Secret of Pop Stars

 Loving it! At last we all can look perfect… in photos

Do you want to be as glamorous as you can stand to be?

Have you ever seen Mattie Roberts Show on YouTube? I actually came across it only in the early hours of the morning while doing Internet research for my work. Mattie has bright shiny smile, super volumized  smooth hair and speaks with confidence about what she knows best: Glamour.  Needless to say, I got distracted from my work for  a while. Roberts gives little tips to keep her viewers as glamorous as they can stand to be and as thin as they can stand to be, so thin in fact that she encourages all of us to wear SPANX (no matter what size we are) and counting all our calories intake because Mattie believes that big or small everyone needs to keep a close eye on their weight. (!?)

I have no interest in counting anything (especially calories) at meal time –  it’s probably because I have always been crap at maths and because I’d rather enjoy my food not stress over it.  I have also no interest in SPANX body shapers which are nothing more than modernised corsets, they certainly do the job, but you wouldn’t like to have a big meal while wearing them or use the toilet, in some cases you wouldn’t even be able to put them on without getting extra help. Inevitably I am passing the whole glamour thing.

I guess what I want to say is: I forgot that women like Mattie still exist, women who look so polished and perfect that you wonder what time do they wake up to have enough hours to spare for their morning routine, women who wear shaping pants more often than once in a blue moon. Mattie may be a walking glamour but she is also a walking effort and probably that’s why so many of us will never meet her standards. Nowadays, when we can make our life as pleasurable and as comfortable as we can stand to live the old Jane Fonda motto ”no pain no gain” isn’t very convincing to me, I just love my comfort, my freedom, my good night sleep, I wouldn’t be able to skip a meal when I am hungry.

Mattie isn’t attainable, her style , her make-up, her hair, her whole glamour is a full-time work, it is hard, that’s why we need her instructing videos I suppose.

I actually feel relieved that Natural is higher on my list than Glamorous , or maybe I am just making things easy for myself?

Check Mattie Roberts videos and make up your own mind about low-fat Glamour dressed in SPANX.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcRAR6Vyb5g&NR=1

What Special K does to you ?

I don’t like Special K, I really don’t. I don’t like cereal, bars and these little cookies that supposed to replace desserts. I think that Kellogg’s chose a very smart way to advertise their product to insecure women and after a few years of intensive marketing campaigns Special K is not just a product, it is THE product for YOU if:

1) you are still hoping to fit into your old faded jeans that you wore in college. Well, it may be a better idea to buy a new pair in the contemporary shape and colour.

2) you are naive enough to believe that bowl of cereal can kill your cravings for a nice chocolate cake . Believe me if you want the chocolate cake you will end up eating it after that bowl of cereal which will make you feel super guilty and super stuffed.

3) your friend brought a box full of donuts to work and you honestly think that 5 dry cookies made out of cereal that you have already had for breakfast can make you feel satisfied and happy just because they have fewer calories and no taste.

4) you are passing the best bakery in town and you are totally insane to skip a beautiful tart and have … a cereal bar. You would have burnt that extra energy from the tart by the time you got home!

5) you want to be good and start your day with a bowl of Special K just like you did yesterday and the day before and…well, not on Monday because there was no milk left…

6) you fell in love with a gorgeous red dress but you can’t buy it because  for some strange reason you insist on  getting that stunning red dress in size 10 not your own size 12 -  then yes, of course Special K is the way to go.

7) you are hungry, simply hungry -  how about no food and some Special K Protein Water Mix instead? Yyyy, NO!

It is funny and very sad in the same time because we fell for it. I know girls as young as 7 years of age making their first aware choice in supermarket by telling their mums that they want Special K instead of Coco Pops because Special K “is healthy and it keeps you in shape”. They are kids for God’s sake! They should eat Coco Pops! But if they feel guilty doing so then we can be sure then they are on the way to developing an eating disorder.

It would never be possible to advertise alcohol in the middle of family programmes because it would have a bad impact on young viewers so why Kellogg’s can feed young girls with their rubbish ads that can seriously affect their relationship with food? Ads that scream: ” Choose between Special K or an awful guilty feeling of putting on weight with every bite of normal food.”

Spacial K is indeed a very proud sponsor of all Next Top Model competitions, how appropriate…

This post is really against all brands playing with our emotions especially when they are related to food. Ads are created to increase sales not to tell us the truth about the product, fortunately it takes only one try to find out what the truth really is. Funny enough Kellogg’s has a special page on their irish website telling us “The truth about our food” however they start and finish with one statement: cereals for breakfast is good for you

Have a great ‘No Diet Day’

Today is The International No Diet Day (INDD). . No Diet Day is an annual celebration of body acceptance and bodyawarness and is dedicated to raise awareness of the dangers of dieting. The concept of INDD originated at 1992, when British Feminist  Mary Evans Young decided to fight the diet industry and to raise awareness of the dangers in anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating disorder.

Let me take this opportunity to encourage all of you to make this day a week or a month or hopefully a year. The last thing we want is to turn No Diet Day into Stuff Yourself and Go Back on Diet Tomorrow Day…Today is all about positive change, introducing healhy eating habits and respecting our bodies.