Five Healthy Steps to Pure Beauty

One of the first things I've learned about staying beautiful wasn't in the curriculum of my first ten weeks of school, but was taught to me by both my wonderful parents throughout my childhood, teenage awkwardness and into this stage of early adulthood.
What keeps the image attractive, skin glowing, eyes shining, and hair glossy? A healthy life style.

This include:

* Exercise (more later)

* Eating habits (more on this in later posts)

* LOTS of water

* Chemical free hair (more on natural hair color enhancements in another post later)
* Natural skin care products (not organic, or "Natural Skin Care" lines, but right out of the garden, bulk, fresh produce)

1) Exercise.
Running, jogging, weight lifting, even five pound dumbbells in your bed room in the morning works wonders on your health, strength and psychology. Exercise is the cure-all for negative moods. And there are SO many different types of exercise! Yoga, palates, weights, running, swimming, hiking, rock climbing.
I tend to be a more hands-on person, so it really drives me crazy to make myself go to a gym and run laps around the gym. I feel like a hamster on a wheel - spin, spin, spin... Run, run, run... lap one, lap two, lap three.... Ugh! My favorite type of exercise is walking, running, jogging up and down the road, especially with my brother or mom. Great time for conversation, meditation and prayer.

2) Eating habits.
Eat healthy. eat smart. Eat a well rounded, well balanced, full food pyramid diet. Eat decent portions, don't starve yourself, don't binge, don't purge. Be smart :)
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
http://www.myfoodapedia.gov/

3) Water
Not flavored water, not extra vitamins added water, not fruit water, pure two hydrogen on oxygen molecule water! Not additives, no sugars, no salts, no flavorings. Tea, coffee and alcohol cannot replace a cool glass of water. It really does keep wrinkles at bay, break outs less frequent, your body functioning well and your head clear. When in doubt, chug a glass down!

4) Chemical free hair
Highlights, low lights, in between lights, full head colors, half head colors, bleaching, straightening, perming, relaxing.... any and all, to some degree, damages your hair. If you are going to put chemicals into (not on, your hair is porous just like your skin, and soaks up all those chemicals) at least be good to your hair and feed it nutrients regularly. Moroccan oil works wonders on frayed tresses. Leaving this stuff on overnight will help rejuvenate your locks, add gloss, shine, health and put proteins back into your hair (p.s your hair is made up of keratinized protein; chemicals, especially lightening your hair color, removes those proteins from your hair, so be sure to put proteins back in after you've fried it).
Also, cut back on showers. Some people are quite anal about every morning, every evening and once a day showering. Honey, relax. If you absolutely have to, then by all means do so, but too many showers dry out your hair, skin and nails. you have natural oils, and those oils are better than any creams, lotions and products you buy at a store. Every other day showering is about right for an adult.

5) Natural Skin Care Products
If you look into your refrigerator, you may see a lot of food. But in that food there are natural oils, vitamins, cleansers, and antiseptics. The library offers a variety of holistic healing books, which are a blast to read, have awesome recipes and awful a more edifying ointments for your skin and hair.



I am planning on spending more time on these subjects. But the time between now and then is the perfect time to research holistic health on your own :)

The Empowered Traditionalist offers some fantastic health and beauty techniques, ideas, and information.

Blessings!
Miss Elisabeth