Reasons To Laugh More To Every Single Day

Lower Cortisol Levels - Did you know that laughing can lower your stress? And this is great because this can majorly elevate your mood. According to The Journal of Medical Science, laughing can lower your levels of cortisol which is a stress hormone. And as less stress can equal a longer and happier life, this tops my reasons to laugh every day!

 
Lowers Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis - Did you know that laughing can actually lower your risk of arthritis and ease muscle tension? According to the Southern Medical Journal this is the case. How great would it be to wake up with less aches and pains? Make sure you laugh a little more today to better your health!

Lowers Your Risk of Cancer - Since laughing can increase your body’s T cell count, studies show it can actually lower your risk of cancer. This was studied and proven in the Journal of Clinical Research so get laughing and pull out some Seinfeld reruns or your favorite comedy movie. So laugh your way to a healthier day!

Breathe Better - According to the American Medical Association, by adding some giggles into your day you can clear your mucus plugs, improve ventilation and actually breathe better. Laugh a little more and you may feel a change in the efficiency of each breath! Say goodbye to common colds and hello to lots of laughs!

Feel Better - I love to laugh and let go because it just feels better so much better (especially when I am having a stressful day). Rather than sweating the small stuff, we need to just relax sometimes and laugh a lot more. Life is too short to dwell on things, so laugh your butts off, love a lot more and live each day to the fullest. Life is a journey that should be filled with as many smiles and laughs as possible because we never know when our journey can end. So make a conscious efforts to let go of your inhabitations and let out a good laugh.

Read more »

Reasons For Hair Loss

There are various reasons as to why people lose their hair. If you have started to notice more than normal hair in your brush each time you brush your locks, then you will need some remedies for hair loss.

Stress - For the number one factor of hair loss, I am going to include stress. Stress is something that many individuals in this world go through. I remember watching an episode of the Simpson’s where Marge kept losing her hair. It looked horrible and it was caused by stress. So, if you start to feel and look like Marge, try to distress yourself. There are various ways to distress yourself, like going on a vacation – even if it is for one day. If you’re like me and cannot go on a vacation as often as you like, then try having some “me” time. During “me” time, make sure you pamper yourself – you deserve it.

 Pregnancy - When I was pregnant with my first child, I noticed an excessive amount of hair falling out. If this is happening for you and you are pregnant, don’t panic – it’ll get better.

Poor Nutrition - Perhaps you have not been eating the right foods? When you do not get enough iron or protein or have poor nourishment, you can experience hair loss. Crash diets, eating disorders and those fad diets can cause you to have poor nutrition, which in turn leads to hair loss. So, make sure you start getting you proper balance of food. This is needed for many other reasons, besides your hair.

Medical Treatments - There are various medical treatments that can cause you to shed more than normal. When you go through radiation therapy or chemotherapy, you may develop what is known as alopecia. After treatment is finished, the hair usually starts to regrow.

Disease - Diabetes, Lupus and other diseases can cause you to lose your hair. This is why it is recommended that if you continue to experience hair loss, you need to go to the doctor.

Scalp Infection - Having infections and ringworms can cause hair loss. Ringworms can invade the skin of your scalp. Once you treat those infections, the hair should start to grow back. You can usually treat fungal infection and ringworms with an oral antifungal medication.

Hair Treatments - Yes, those hair treatments that we love so much could be the cause of your hair loss problem. Those chemicals from bleaching, dying, tinting, perms or straightening are harsh on the hair. Excessive brushing and overstyling can also be a reason you are losing hair.

Read more »

Yoga's Some Important Benefits For Your Body -

Whenever I hear about the hottest new fitness trend, I still turn to all of the many reasons to take up yoga. What I love most about yoga is that it is one of the few exercises that works your body and mind.Whenever I hear about the hottest new fitness trend, I still turn to all of the many reasons to take up yoga. What I love most about yoga is that it is one of the few exercises that works your body and mind.

Flexibility - This may be one of the most obvious healthy reasons to take up yoga, but that's because flexibility is one of primary benefits of yoga. There are many types of yoga, but they all involve poses that will strengthen different parts of your body. It may take some time to become as flexible as a passionate yogi, but you will feel great when you are able to master a pose that you were never flexible enough to do before.
Breathing - Another key benefit of yoga is it improves your breathing. You spend a good majority of your time focusing on controlling your breathing while in complex poses. Your body will get used to that controlled breathing and you will maintain proper breathing no matter what you are doing.
Balance - How can you be expected to do complex poses if you have poor balance? Yoga shapes your body and spine into creating the best posture and balance of your life.
Stress Relief - If you are living a high-stress life, stress relief is one of the top healthy reasons to take up yoga. Yoga brings together mind and body health to feel centered and relaxed. You will feel better about your body and will have a time in your day to forget about your worries and just tune your body.
Strengthens - The great thing about yoga is that it relies on your body to build your own strength. By using your own body as a weight, you can build lean muscles without having to lift weight at the gym. You won’t even know you are building strength until you see those awesome muscles in your tanks.
Inspires a Healthy Lifestyle - I know whenever I do yoga, I feel so happy and healthy that I want to bring that feeling into all aspects of my life. It inspires you to make healthier choices when it comes to exercise, diet, and lifestyle choices. Doing yoga is not only being healthy for an hour here and there, it will trickle into your entire life and lead you to live a healthier lifestyle.

Read more »

Skin Care Tips for Women in their 20's

Skincare tips for women in their 20s differ much from women in their 30s, 40s, and even teens. Regardless that women in their 20s aren’t that far out of their teenage years, or that far away from nearing their 30s, there are still specific skincare tips for women in their 20s that most of us don’t give enough thought to.

   
Exercise - Exercise might not be one of the usual skincare tips for women in their 20s we often hear about, but it is an important one! Exercise helps control stress levels in the body, and it also helps with hormone regulation. When your hormones, primarily cortisol, the stress hormone, are out of control in unhealthy levels, havoc occurs on your skin. Then, take into account that being overweight from not exercising can also lead to hormonal issues such as PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), or to problems with your metabolism, and you’ve got a whole other issue on your plate probably causing you stress. Exercise also improves blood flow and moves lymph flow through the body. Lymph removes toxins from the body, including those that lead to acne. Be sure when you exercise, you do it without makeup so you avoid unnecessary breakouts. What’s more important to you? Option A, good skin or option B, impressing the people exercising with you with a full face of makeup on? I choose option A anytime!


Eat a Clean Diet - I know, you’re tired of hearing this. We all are, but it really is true! A clean diet does more than give you a great body, hun! It also improves your skin like you wouldn’t believe. Avoid too much salt, highly processed foods, sugar (even natural sources), and avoid problematic foods that might cause issues like gluten for some, dairy for others, and for those of us without intolerances to either of those, just eat clean in general. Don’t eat refined foods or processed diet foods. Foods with an ingredient label should be only from whole food sources, not tons of names you don’t understand. Just remember, drink your water, avoid sugar, and eat lots of greens and fish. Those 4 things will do more for your skin than anything else because each one of those fight inflammation that leads to acne and aid in clearing the skin. For women in their 20s, this is a critical time to eat healthy, especially coming out of the teenage years where junk prevailed most likely, and before you get older where you just stop caring.

Moderate Your Stress - Along with exercise, there are other things you need to do to take care of your hormone health at this time. The 20s are very, very stressful, and doing whatever you can to start helping your hormones and not hurting them will only help your skin, your heart, and your sanity! I control my stress through journaling, meditation (not too serious, just deep breathing), yoga, and daily walks. I also like to spend alone time during the day when I can, even if it’s just during my coffee in the morning, or eating lunch outside in nature. Do what you can and your stress levels will drop, which contributes to helping your skin.

Add Fats - I’m sure in your teens you probably heard fats would make you fat, but by your 20s, I hope you’ve stopped believing this myth. In fact, when I started eating healthy fats, my skin turned around for the better. Healthy fats do two things for your skin. First, they fight inflammation that leads to acne, and secondly, they ward off wrinkles. I don’t know about you, but I’m eating my healthy fats, what about you? I choose raw coconut, fish, almonds, walnuts, hemp, chia, flax, and dark chocolate. Other sources include avocados, olive oil, and coconut oil. Generally, avoiding animal saturated fats is best overall, but don’t avoid plant fats. You’re literally feeding your face when you eat them! Your 20s are the best time to start eating healthy fats so you don’t lose essential collagen in the skin, which is made of protein and fat. Without it, sagging and wrinkles occur much faster and are much harder to reverse. I eat a good bit of fat and look younger now than I did at 16, and in fact, most people don’t believe me when I tell them I’m out of high school and nearing 30.

No Tanning - I know a lot of you aren’t going to like this, but please stop caring about looking like a golden goddess by tanning in the sun and tanning bed. This comes from someone who spent 8 years doing so, and couldn’t get rid of my skin issues no matter what I tried. Trust me, tanning ages you faster than anything else. I had sun damage, wrinkles, and acne, and thought I was doing myself a favor by tanning. Now, I never lie out in the sun, and have accepted this might mean I’m a little paler than I wish. So, I use toxic free tanning lotion during the summer, and during the winter, I just don’t worry about it. Your 20s are a critical time to take care of your skin and stop aging it faster than necessary.

Be Birth Control Smart - If you’re on birth control, you should know you have options. Not all forms of birth control help control acne, and some can even lead to weight gain that causes acne. There are many forms of birth control available, and whatever you choose to do is your decision, but be sure you discuss all forms, including more natural ones that might not affect you the same way the pill typically does.

Supplement Savvy - Another tip you should consider in your 20s is being supplement savvy. What does this mean? It means choosing smart supplements that aren’t diet pills like you’ve heard so much about, but instead, help with your anxiety, hormones, and your skin. I choose to take magnesium daily for controlling anxiety and nervousness, along with helping recover from exercise. Magnesium also helps with staying regular, which is important for clear skin, believe it or not. Other supplements for your skin include fish oil, chlorophyll tablets, and also a good multivitamin with 100% of your daily selenium needs. Selenium wards off wrinkles and also helps your hormone health as a bonus.

Read more »

Tips For How To Stop Biting Your Nails

Are you wondering how to stop biting your nails? It can be a terribly hard habit to break but it can be done. There are many benefits to be gained once you do stop. Your hands will look so much more attractive.

 Make The Decision -  Part of the equation in how to stop biting your nails is making the decision that you are going to do it. You need to harness your willpower and just decide this is going to be done. Deciding to do something and feeling determined gives you much greater odds than deciding to do something half-heartedly. You may even want to make it a little public and tell those you are close to. Not only does this encourage you more but it can help to keep you accountable. 
Buy Some Bad Tasting Polish - There are many products on the market that can help you when you are trying to stop biting your nails. You apply the product to your nails and the bad taste should give you a deterrent to stop this habit. Why would you want to continue to put something in your mouth that tastes unpleasant? A few times of getting a taste of this should be enough to stop you from continuing. Another benefit is if you do forget and begin to bite your nails, you will get a quick reminder.
Chew Gum - Chewing gum is a great thing to do in place of biting your nails. When you catch yourself wanting to bite your nails, reach for a piece of gum instead. This gives you something to do with your mouth and will hopefully alleviate some of the urge you have to bite your nails. This is also a very simple alternative. It is cost effective and you probably already have gum on hand, anyways. 
Realize It Is a Nervous Habit - You know, biting your nails is a nervous habit. I know this because it is something I did years ago myself. It is something people do when they are nervous in any given situation. Realizing that can help you to break the habit. It helps you to be aware that the temptation to bite your nails may rise when you are in certain situations. 
Reward Yourself along The Way - You know, I do not know about others but rewards work very effectively for me. I try to build rewards in for myself when I am trying to reach a goal. It can be something small like swinging by a coffee shop for your favorite beverage or something bigger such as a pair of boots you have been wanting. Whatever fits your personality and your budget. You know what works best for you in this situation. 
Think about All The Germs You Are Putting in Your Mouth - This is a great, great motivator, especially for germaphobes like me. I do not want to come in contact with any germ I can avoid and many of you are the same way. Just thinking about all of the germs you are introducing to your body when you bite your nails could be a great deterrent. This is especially true in cold and flu season. When you get ready to bite your nails, think of all of the different illnesses you could catch if you do.

Read more »

How To Get Perfect Skin

Having nice looking skin is a goal for many people. These 7 ways to get perfect skin are useful for both men and women, even though it seems that women are more concerned with how their skin looks than men are. Feel free to add your own tips for improving your skin. I don’t think there can be too many tips!

Drink Lots Of Water - Water is such a huge part of the human body. A lack of water causes the skin to look dry and gives people an overall haggard appearance. Drinking 8 cups of water isn’t as difficult as it seems. Remember that a cup is only 8 ounces, which isn’t much at all. People try to stick to 8 glasses of water and they choose the biggest cup in their cabinet. They spend more time running to the bathroom than anything else The body can only absorb so much at a time and the rest is turned into urine, so it isn’t necessary to guzzle 32 ounces every couple of hours.

Don’t Sleep With Makeup On - Makeup is an excellent substance for clogging pores and sleeping in it just allows all your pores to remain clogged for a longer period of time. Washing your face before bed time is highly recommended to reduce the number of outbreaks in acne. Clogged pores are basically what acne is. Sometimes acne outbursts are due to stress as well, so it wouldn’t hurt to get rid of some stress in your life as well.

Wash with a moisturizing soap - I find that using certain types of bar soap causes my skin to feel itchy as soon as I dry off. Using a moisturizing liquid soap seems to be more beneficial for my skin. There are quite a few brands of liquid bath soap that have those cool little oil beads in them that burst as you wash. I love those! They really do the trick on keeping my skin from feeling so dry and tight after I shower.

Use A Face Peel Twice A Week - I love how fresh my face feels after peeling off a chemical mask. These are a lot different than the masks that use clay or mud for the main ingredient. Clay and mud masks are great for reducing oil content in your skin, but the chemical peel is better for unclogging pores and getting rid of black heads.

Use Moisturizer - Apply facial moisturizer with an SPF of at least 15 to reduce the damage sun can cause. Use a body moisturizer right after showering, so your body can better absorb it. Winter weather here is so dry that I find using an oil instead of a lotion keeps my skin feeling softer longer.

7. Stay Out Of  The Sun Or Use Lots Of Sunblock - If you have an occupation that has you out in the sun most of the day, then you probably already know how important sunblock is. Wearing a large brimmed hat, long sleeves, and slathering on the sunblock is the best way to reduce the effects of the sun. The general rule tends to be that the lighter your hair color is, the more sun protection you need.

Read more »

Some Cute Flats for Ladies Of 2014

Will you be wearing cute flats ? Okay, so there’s something fun about putting on your highest heels, but dancing the night away in five inch heels is almost certain to lead to blisters and foot pain. Flats, on the other hand, will leave you feeling cute and comfortable. There’s some great choice around these days, too! Here are some of the cute flats I’m lusting after right now, all of which are available On Stores.

Floral Favorites Flats - 

Panda Flats -

Laser Cut Flats -

Edgy Flats -

Ballet Flats -

Read more »