6 Secrets to Gorgeous Skin

Some people have complexions that are radiant. What can we learn from their daily skin care habits?

More than a great wardrobe or a skilled hand with make-up, healthy glowing skin is the key to turning heads.

Just ask Kelly Campbell, a Los Angeles public relations consultant and mom. She regularly gets stopped by strangers complimenting her on her seemingly poreless, lit-from-within complexion.

The key to that gorgeous skin? She was born with it.

“Honestly, I’ve always been lucky to have good skin," Campbell says. “Except when I was pregnant and I broke out from all the hormones, I’ve never had trouble with my skin.”

Yes, some people win the hereditary lottery when it comes to good skin, just as others are blessed with the kind of metabolism that lets them eat vast amounts of pizza, chocolate, and Chunky Monkey without gaining an ounce.

“Not all skin is created equally,” says Paula Bourelly, MD, a dermatology professor at Georgetown University. “You can’t underestimate the value of genetics.”

But genes are just the starting point. Beautiful skin is also about good skin care habits, practiced day in and day out.

Here are, from top dermatologists and Campbell herself, the secrets to stunning skin.

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Great Juicing Recipes for Cultivating Healthy Life - Ebook

Healthy fresh juicing recipes which include the details of home remedy findings and facts to share for everyone. This free eBook further breakdown into 6 section that covers 5 days per section of Body Cleansing, Slimming, Healing, Rejuvenate, Beauty and Anti-Aging. Enjoy!

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12 Foods That Triggers Weight Gain

A study on eating habits conducted by a team of researchers from Harvard University, USA, analyzed the diets of 120,877 people who are not obese.

The research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was conducted for over 20 years. Respondents’ weight were weighed every four years for 20 years and they are asked to complete questionnaires.

The result showed that on average, respondents experienced weight gain of 7.7 kilograms in 20 years. In four years, food choices contributed to weight gain of 1.8 kilograms, while exercise was only able to lose weight less than 0.9 kilograms.

“Diet and exercise are important in preventing weight gain. However, diet clearly gives a greater role,” said lead researcher Dr. Frank Hu. Well here are 12 foods that can trigger weight gain according to cbsnews.

1. Butter
Dairy products, such as butter and cheese has a long-term impact on weight gain. According to the research team from Harvard, someone who eats lots of butter experience weight gain of 0.30 pounds in every four years.

However, there are exceptions in one dairy product, which is yogurt. The results showed a person who regularly eat yogurt, has body weight that tends to be stable.

2. Fruit juice in packages
It sounds healthy and refreshing. However, fruit juice in packages have been mixed with lots of sugar. Drinking fruit juice in containers every day will make the body weight increase by 0.31 pounds every four years.

3. Fried foods
Fried food is one of the food which most triggers weight gain. Research shows that consumption of fried foods trigger an increase in weight of 0.36 pounds every four years.

4. Refined grain
Refined process will reduce the nutrients contained in wheat. This makes wheat or rice to be “bad carbs”. Eat them every day will lead to weight gain of 0.39 pounds every four years.

5. Sweets
Cakes, pies, and candies are always so tempting. Many consumption would trigger an increase in weight of 0.41 pounds every four years.

6. Potato
Regardless of how it is processed, either boiled, baked or fried, it triggers weight gain significantly, which is 0.57 pounds every four years.

7. Trans fats
Trans fats are found in many processed foods. Such as butter, chips, donuts, and pies. Often consuming it trigger weight gain of 0.65 pounds per year.

8. Processed Meat
Sausage, ham, corned beef or other processed meats are easy to prepare. But, do not eat them too often because it not only contains lots of preservatives, but also causes weight gain of 0.93 pounds per year.

9. Red meat
If you often eat red meat, the average weight will increase by 0.95 pounds per year.

10. Soft drinks
Soft drinks trigger more weight gain than fruit juice in packages. Consumption of soft drinks every day triggers weight gain of 1 pound every four years.

11. Potato chips
Its size may be thin, but this is what makes a person eat a lot. From a research it is noted that consuming them often lead to weight gain of 1.69 pounds every four years.

12. French fries
Are you a fan of french fries? Be careful, since according to a study, someone who frequently eat fries tends to increase by 3 pounds of weight in four years.

How to Stop Smoking

Everyone knows it can be hard to stop smoking. After all, the nicotine in cigarettes is a powerfully addictive drug. But with the right approach, you can do it. Millions of Americans have kicked the smoking habit by following some key steps, like lining up support from friends and planning ahead how they'll respond to cravings.

First, congratulate yourself. Just reading this article is a huge step toward becoming tobacco free. Many people don't quit smoking because they think it's too hard to do. They think they'll quit someday.
It's true, for most people quitting isn't easy. After all, the nicotine in cigarettes is a powerfully addictive drug. But with the right approach, you can overcome the cravings.

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Ways to Beat Summer Weight Gain

5 Ways to Beat Summer Weight Gain

When we think summer, most of us think outdoor fun. So it seems like we should naturally lose weight over the summer — not gain it.
In reality, though, summer isn't all beach volleyball and water sports. Lots of summer activities can work against our efforts to stay at a healthy weight (campfire s'mores and backyard barbecues, anyone?). The good news is it's easy to avoid problems if we know what to look out for.
Here are 5 ways to beat summer weight gain:

1. Get going with goals. When we don't have a plan, it's easy to spend summer moving from couch to computer, with regular stops at the fridge. Avoid this by aiming for a specific goal, like volunteering, mastering a new skill, or working at a job. Just be sure to plan for some downtime so you can relax a little!
2. Stick to a schedule. With school out, we lose our daily routines. If you don't have a specific job or activity to get up for, it's easy to sleep late, watch too much TV, and snack more than usual. Make sure your summer days have some structure — like getting up at the same time each day and eating meals at set times. Plan activities for specific times, like exercising before breakfast, for example. If you have time on your hands, offer to make dinner a couple of nights a week so your family can enjoy a sit-down meal together.
3. Stay busy. When we're bored, it's easy to fall into a trap of doing nothing and then feeling low on energy. In addition to helping you avoid the cookie jar, filling your days with stuff to do can give you a sense of accomplishment. That's especially true if a dream summer job or planned activity fell through. Limit your screen time — including TV, computer, and video games — to no more than 2 hours a day (write it in that schedule you put together!).

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Exercise & Fitness Tips

Exercise and Fitness Tips to Improve Your Health

High Blood Pressure and Exercise

 

A sedentary lifestyle is a major risk factor for heart and blood vessel (cardiovascular) disease. For example, people who are less active and less physically fit have a 30%-50% greater frequency (incidence) of hypertension (high blood pressure) than their more active peers. Furthermore, clinical trials have shown that physical activity may reduce blood pressure in hypertensive and normotensive (having normal blood pressure) individuals, independent of changes in weight.

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Tips to Improve Your Health

We all experience stress. And, just as stress comes from many areas of life, effective stress management comes from combating stress on many different fronts.

Part of a comprehensive stress relief plan involves finding ways to calm down quickly so you can more effectively manage stress as it comes, while avoiding the negative effects of chronic stress. Another important way to relieve stress is to maintain healthy lifestyle habits.Maintaining a balanced, healthy lifestyle is important for several reasons:

1. Healthy lifestyle habits can also help you reverse your stress response, enabling you to avoid or even reverse the negative effects of chronic stress.
2. Healthy lifestyle habits often bring additional benefits, such as an endorphin rush, a release of frustration, or added longevity.
3. Many of the healthy lifestyle habits discussed here can also help you to become less reactive to stress in the long run, providing protection against stress you haven't even experienced yet!

While maintaining healthy habits is a bit more challenging than trying a stress relief method only once, the benefits you receive from maintaining a healthy lifestyle are more than worth the effort it takes to maintain it. The increases in health and wellness that you experience, and the reduction in stress, will make you wish you'd made these changes sooner, and can be wonderful sources of continued motivation.

Many people feel intimidated by making healthy lifestyle changes for a few reasons:

1. There are so many changes that can benefit health and wellness that it's difficult to know where to start.
2. People often try to make too many changes at once, then find it too difficult (or let perfectionism sabotage their efforts), and give up the effort.
3. Let's face it: change is difficult, especially when you're stressed. Sometimes lifestyle stress takes over and diminishes momentum. 

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Ways to Live a Healthy Lifestyle

You hear a lot about living a healthy lifestyle, but what does that mean? In general, a healthy person doesn't smoke, is at a healthy weight, eats healthy and exercises. Sounds simple, doesn't it?
The trick to healthy living is making small changes...taking more steps, adding fruit to your cereal, having an extra glass of water...these are just a few ways you can start living healthy without drastic changes.
Exercise
One of the biggest problems in America today is lack of activity. We know it's good for us but avoid it like the plague either because we're used to being sedentary or afraid that exercise has to be vigorous to be worth our time. The truth is, movement is movement and the more you do, the healthier you'll be. Even moderate activities like chores, gardening and walking can make a difference.
Just adding a little movement to your life can:

• Reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes
• Improve joint stability
• Increase and improve range of movement
• Help maintain flexibility as you age
• Maintain bone mass
• Prevent osteoporosis and fractures
• Improve mood and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression
• Enhance self esteem
• Improve memory in elderly people
• Reduce stress

So, even if you opt for small changes and a more modest weight loss, you can see the benefits are still pretty good. One study has found that just a 10% weight reduction helped obese patients reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and increase longevity.
Simple Ways to Move Your Body
You can start the process of weight loss now by adding a little more activity to your life. If you're not ready for a structured program, start small. Every little bit counts and it all adds up to burning more calories.

• Turn off the TV. Once a week, turn off the TV and do something a little more physical with your family. Play games, take a walk...almost anything will be more active than sitting on the couch.
• Walk more. Look for small ways to walk more. When you get the mail, take a walk around the block, take the dog for an extra outing each day or walk on your treadmill for 5 minutes before getting ready for work.
• Do some chores. Shoveling snow, working in the garden, raking leaves, sweeping the floor...these kinds of activities may not be 'vigorous' exercise, but they can keep you moving while getting your house in order.
• Pace while you talk. When you're on the phone, pace around or even do some cleaning while gabbing. This is a great way to stay moving while doing something you enjoy.
• Be aware. Make a list of all the physical activities you do on a typical day. If you find that the bulk of your time is spent sitting, make another list of all the ways you could move more--getting up each hour to stretch or walk, walk the stairs at work, etc.

Learn about more ways to fit in exercise.
Eating Well
Eating a healthy diet is another part of the healthy lifestyle. Not only can a clean diet help with weight management, it can also improve your health and quality of life as you get older. You can use the new MyPlate to determine how many calories you need and what food groups you should focus on or, if you're looking for smaller changes, you can use these tips for simple ways to change how you eat:

• Eat more fruit. Add it to your cereal, your salads or even your dinners
• Sneak in more veggies. Add them wherever you can--a tomato on your sandwich, peppers on your pizza, or extra veggies in your pasta sauce. Keep pre-cut or canned/frozen veggies ready for quick snacks.
• Switch your salad dressing. If you eat full-fat dressing, switch to something lighter and you'll automatically eat less calories.
• Eat low-fat or fat-free dairy. Switching to skim milk or fat free yogurt is another simple way to eat less calories without having to change too much in your diet.
• Make some substitutes. Look through your cabinets or fridge and pick 3 foods you eat every day. Write down the nutritional content and, the next time you're at the store, find lower-calorie substitutes for just those 3 items.