nuts4chic - beauty
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by Lynn Nicholson We all want good skin, and during the Summer months we generally take better care of our skin, but when the Winter heads towards us it can make you breathe a sigh of relief, after all, you can hide a lot under a polar neck jumper and trousers!
Now, there are two ways to take care of your skin. One from the inside the other from the outside, so let’s look at the best, and the easiest, ways of doing this, using natural ingredients from start to finish. I have never been a great one for advocating hugely expensive creams to make your skin glow how you would like it, I mean, if you let your skin get into a terrible state from your diet alone, no amount of expensive cream is going to make a huge difference unless you change your eating habits also. Many people look to celebrities to see what creams they are using, normally provided free so they indorse them, but let us not forget that for a lot of celebrities their face is part of their profession so they take care of their diet and they also exercise. Do not believe for one second that they live on junk food and because they slap on a 200 dollar cream every night they have a complexion to die for! Look at some of the celebrities who slip along the way, how they get photographed with spots just like the rest of us, and this normally happens when they have taken a break from filming or touring with their latest album and they have slipped off the wagon of healthy eating. Remember also that your skin is the largest organ in your body, it is actually about 16% of your total body weight so it is important that you find time to look after it properly, just as you would your other organs. Nutrition And Your Skin From The Inside So many people suffer with bad skin, in fact, a lot of the people I deal with have, to start with, poor skin usually linked to their diet, their lifestyle, often simply because they are unsure how to look after their skin, but in time, with the correct care you can change your skin, it can be hard work, but when you consider the benefits it is worth every moment. One of the most important things you can do as a parent is to start explaining to your children, casually not a lecture, on what foods are good for skin and which are bad. If you start educating early you can help prevent things like acne in their teens, plus you are encouraging them to eat healthily from an early age, saving yourself a bigger job later. Now, imagine a plant, there is usually one of these in a Doctors Surgery or in the Dentist, which has been put near a radiator and has not been watered for quite some time. It looks wilted, dry, old, dusty and generally fed up. Now ask yourself, how much water do I drink a day? Your skin will reflect the amount of water you drink, so to start making a difference to your skin start drinking plenty of water, and by that I am talking about 8 – 10 glasses a day. If that seems a struggle, ask yourself do you want to look like a beautiful flower at the Chelsea Flower Show, or the wilted, dehydrated old thing in the waiting room? Whilst on the subject of hydrating your skin, start to cut down on caffeine and fizzy drinks which all suck the moisture out of your skin, until eventually, and I am talking metaphorically here, you will look like a prune rather than a juicy plum! Again, I am not suggesting you never drink a cup of coffee again, but limit your intake replace cups of coffee with water or herbal tea. Now your skin is full of pores that help it breathe, if you block these you will have a problem. This is when spots form, you get black heads; generally your skin looks bad.
Now if you want to slow down the aging process you need to make sure you have plenty of antioxidants that will slow the process down. These come from fresh fruit and vegetables so start to include many more of these in your diet. The clue here is in the word ‘fresh’. Again, it will reflect in your skin just like ‘junk’ will. Make sure you eat things like an apple or a banana instead of a chocolate bar, or a packet of crisps. It really is just about changing how you eat and getting into the habit. Olive Oil is great for your skin; start to include this in your diet. Instead of using butter or margarine, start to replace it with Olive Oil. Use really good extra virgin oil on your salads or over grilled fish or chicken. This will also have an effect on your hair and nails. It is wonderful for dry or cracked skin, simply rubbed onto the skin, or added to bath water. Used as a treatment on your hair once a week, will make it shine. Do not allow yourself to run low on Oil! Your skin is your third Kidney, so if you are not eliminating your waste properly it will show in your skin, so make sure you include plenty of fibre in your diet. Bad skin can be a sign that your kidneys are overworked and you need to get your digestive system working a lot better. Have oats for breakfast and plenty of grains throughout the day like brown rice, which is brilliant, and it is a slow releasing carbohydrate so it will keep you active for longer. Again, drink plenty of water and fruit juices to flush your system through. Start the day with a cup of warm water with half a lemon squeezed in, this helps cleanse your system and clear the way for the day. Stress can give you terrible skin, and stress comes in all forms, including some foods, so monitor your food and identify anything that ‘upsets’ your skin. It is about balance and some things may upset you. I encourage everyone to get to know their bodies so they know which foods work for them. Get into this ‘mind set’. Learn to understand yourself. Nutrition And Your Skin From The Outside So, eating a healthy diet is the first step towards having good skin, but just like a good leather sofa or jacket, you need to look after it from the outside also.
Buy yourself a skin brush, a natural one usually found in health food shops, and everyday start to give your body a ‘rub down’. Start from your feet and work up, always move towards your heart, and this will help you remove dead skin cells and get your circulation going. Do it before you get in the shower and whilst your skin is dry. NEVER do this on your face. You will remove skin but it will be down to the bone, so do not use a skin brush on your face! After your shower take a few minutes to rub in Almond Oil, again, from the health food shop. This works wonders and makes your skin feel a million dollars. This process also speeds up the process of removing toxins from the skin, so it is well worth doing. Now, your face, and I hope I am not going to have to say always remove your make up before you go to bed, as I cannot imagine why you would not want to do that, unless you enjoy black heads, however, everyday wash your face in something mild, something like an Aloe Vera soap, and then moisturise. Now, for some people they have a moisturiser they are happy with, which is great, but one word of advice, it is not about how expensive a moisturiser it, it is about being consistent. My Mum always used a famous moisturiser, which changed it name a little while ago, without fail. Every morning and every night. She had wonderful skin. So if you have a moisturiser you are happy with great, just stick with it and use it properly. At night time, when you have removed your make up, remember to moisturise and maybe once a week use something like Almond Oil to really give it a feed. If you have managed to get sunburn, use Aloe Vera Gel, which is great for burnt skin and many other conditions. Once a week, using a really good honey, cover your face and leave it for 30 minutes and them rinse off, you may want to use dampened cotton wool for this as it can get a bit sticky, and this will also help to nourish your skin. The main thing with your skin is to allow it to breathe, so once a week try and go all day without any make up, let the air get to your skin. If you covered your head in a plastic bag, at the end of the week you would not look your best, so give your skin a chance to breathe. With skin prevention is better than cure, so make the effort and take some time with your skin, it really is worth it, and as you get older you will be rewarded for all your hard work! Written by Lynn Nicholson S.N.H.S Dip
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But this is the time to really get to work, because your skin likes to breathe, so you need to work extra hard to keep it looking good all year. 
So, avoid things that block up the pores like red meat, dairy products, processed foods (usually full of salt) fried foods, junk food, you know what I am talking about. You look like what you put in, so if you fill yourself up with junk your skin will tell the world about your diet. This works both ways. Not many people are lucky enough to have perfect skin; it is just a reflection of what is going in. 
Many people say ‘I do not have the time to give myself a rub down everyday’ to which I always respond, ‘rubbish!’. You would never say that you do not have time to clean your teeth, or have a shower, or get dressed, so please, no excuses, make the effort. If you need to get up 10 minutes earlier then do so. Once you have let your skin go it is a lot more difficult to get it back, so now is the time to start prioritising yourself and taking care. There, I have told you off now and I feel better for that, but I do really want you to look your best! 
