Chapping Lips: Simple Natural Recipes and Easy Tips
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Q: What can we do to prevent lips from getting dry and chapped? Any useful tricks to protect lips in the winter?
Jessica, New York
A: Dry lips can be soothed and moisturized with olive oil mixed with beeswax. This is the purest thing you can apply to your lips. I love castor and coconut oils but I find olive oil more nourishing for winter time. Here’s a super easy recipe: take a tea cup and combine a small cube of beeswax, approximately half-ounce, and two teaspoons olive oil.
You can also add a small dollop of honey to this blend, if you like, but again, if you make the balm too sweet you will be prompted to lick your lips too often, and that’s not good! Thatâ??s why I prefer to make lip balms that are neutral to taste and are not fragranced. Unbleached beeswax always has a faint honeycomb smell, it’s more than enough to disguise the aroma of the oil.
Combine olive oil (or any oil of your choice) and beeswax, cover the cup with a non-PVC kitchen film and microwave for 15 seconds or until the oil and wax melt. I never use microwave for cooking but I guess it’s more or less OK for skincare!
Carefully stir the blend and pour it into any empty tins or tiny pots you have around the home. Empty jars from eye creams or mini size products or samples are excellent! You can add some color with raspberry, beets or even strawberry juice. You can also add some mineral shimmer if you like.
You can buy unbleached beeswax online, it’s a great money saver, and you can use it to make your own face moisturizers, hair balms, feet and hand treatments, virtually anything!
In my vegan line Petite Marie Organics, I use emulsifying wax which is non-animal derived, so you may prefer to use it, it’s very simple to use, and it’s absolutely unscented.
Green Solutions to Acne: Try These Simple Tips
Keeping your skin clear and free fro acne is no rocket science. Try these simple tips to see a visible difference in your skin condition.
Don’t overcleanse and overscrub. Too much pressure may lead to more pimples as your skin gets irritated and inflamed with constant mechanical pressure. Don’t use at-home microdermabrasion or peels more frequently than once a week.
Avoid benzoyl peroxide acne medications that can dehydrate your skin, increase free radical damage and lead to premature aging. This popular anti-acne chemical is a proven strong irritant and allergen and instead of healing acne can actually increase the inflammation.
Don’t attempt to dry out your blemishes with toothpaste or other drying solutions. Really dry top layers of skin can trap impurities and bacteria under skin making the acne worse.
Don’t pile makeup on your acne blemishes. Wear a concealer where needed. Use oil-blotting papers to absorb the excess shine during the day.
Don’t pick at your face. Keep your hands off the pimple until it’s ready to be extracted and never attempt to pop up a tender red blemish. If you have time, try one of the procedures described in the previous chapter, and apply a topical antibacterial product containing salicylic acid or tea tree oil.
Taking care of your acne-prone skin doesn’t end in your bathroom. Take a daily dose of vitamins and antioxidants with additional alpha lipoic acid and omega 3 fatty acid supplements. Don’t skimp on water. Drink 7-8 glasses of mineral or filtered water a day. Don’t replace water by carbonated sugary drinks and coffee. Remember your skin is the largest organ of your body and is the first to become dehydrated. Avoiding or at least diminishing iodides in your diet can aggravate your acne. Iodides occur in seafood, kelp products (seaweed), beef liver, soy sauce, turkey and asparagus.
Maintaining a proper diet, exercise routine and managing stress are all important elements in your acne skin care challenge. Once month spend a day or two cleansing your inner space to support your liver and eliminate waste matter that can contribute to the poor state of your skin.
You should also avoid acne triggers, such as humidity and heat. In summer or when in hot climates make sure you drink a lot of water and have a refreshing facial mist to cool down your skin. Don’t tan. Aside from being the number one cause of skin cancer and pre-mature aging sun also increases your skin’s oiliness resulting in more pimples. Remember that sunburns, hot wax depilation, peels, and strong chemicals can irritate your skin and lead to acne. Close-shave razors increase the risk of developing ingrown hairs, which can also increase inflammation.
Most importantly, hone your organic consumer skills by reading ingredient lists and avoiding potentially toxic chemicals that may affect your hormonal balance and result in more acne. If you eliminate hormone-disrupting chemicals early you may avoid many devastating health disorders later in life.
Simple Fitness Tools to Amp Up Your Workout [Giveaway!]
Rainbow-striped sweat towel? Check. Hair pulled back? Check. Sports bra adjusted to move armpit skin inward so I can pretend it belongs on my chest? Double check! Dumbbells, Harbinger weighted jump rope, and My Trainer 100-Calorie Workout cards? Check! After a set-up routine that would make a shuttle launch jealous, the Gym Buddies and I were finally ready for today’s sweat fest. Well, except for one thing. Nodding solemnly, we slipped on our weight gloves, wrapped the velcro around our wrists and flexed our hands into fists just to hear that leather creak. Now we were ready for some serious workout action.
I’m wearing the Harbinger Flexfit women’s glove. I love it because I have really tiny hands and these are the first weight gloves I’ve found that actually fit me!
We love our weight-lifting gloves. Not only do they help protect our delicate lady hands from unsightly blisters and help us keep a good grip on the ‘bells when our palms get sweaty but they also make us feel, well, bada**. There’s no other word for it. There’s just something about strapping on our black fingerless gloves that makes us feel tough. It reminds me of when I used to strap on my gymnastics grips before doing bars. Just the act of wrapping the straps around my wristbands gave me confidence. (Random bit of trivia: people often think gymnast wear grips to prevent tearing the skin on their hands or getting blisters. The grips are just there to help you grip the bar better – your hands will still shred until they make zombies jealous or until you get your callouses built up.) And thanks to some gym drama that I can’t talk about on this site because it was partially caused by this site (wait, I think I saw this once in a movie… it ended with Sandra Bullock killing some dude with a fire extinguisher), the Gym Buddies and I need all the toughness we can muster. Yeah that was mean, if you’re really curious e-mail me and I’ll fill you in. We’ve even been known to wear our weight gloves long after we’ve finished lifting just, you know, ’cause we can. We swagger. Steal candy from babies (which is a lot harder than you’d think!). You know, tough stuff.
See how tough we are! Like mad… chipmunks! It might help if we stopped smiling.
Today’s workout was a circuit made up of Tabata intervals of speed jump roping alternated with weight lifting and plyometric moves from MizFit’s new 100-calorie workout cards. This was awesome for two reasons: first, I love combining weight lifting with high-intensity intervals, so much more bang for your workout buck! And second, because I have long had a deep desire to workout with the inimitable MizFit. Ever since I started blogging, I’ve had a major girlcrush on her and have daydreamed about pumping some iron with her whilst discussing toddler horror stories (even though she’s already told me she doesn’t like talking while she works out but hey, it’s my daydream!). So since she posed as the fitness model demonstrating all the moves on the cards, as I toted her tiny cardboard-mounted self around the gym with me it was almost like living out my dream. She’s an amazing listener, in case you’re curious.
I tried out the My Trainer 100-calorie workout pack and the home workout pack.
For our weight lifting portion, My Trainer and MizFit provided six cards with moves on both front and back. Each card = 1 workout that will burn approximately 100 calories. We’ve already established that I don’t care anymore about how many calories I burn during a workout but I do love a good sweaty challenge so the Gym Buddies and I decided to do all 6 cards back-to-back. Three times through. We’re insane. I know. While the moves were simple – lots of squats, lunges and lateral raises – they were effective and covered all the major body parts, leaving us feeling well worked out.
I get a lot of e-mails from readers asking me for a good program for someone brand new to exercise (sometimes I get so caught up in what we do that I forget that most of our workouts aren’t really beginner friendly) and these cards would be perfect! They’re broken up into totally manageable chunks with each workout card taking us between 6 and 10 minutes to complete 3 sets of. In addition, MizFit provides clear instructions and adorable pictures of how to do each move. Equipment is minimal -some dumbbells, a hula hoop (!!!), and resistance bands.
A close up of the removable weights inside the jump rope’s handles.
For the cardio intervals, Harbinger Fitness provided us with four 2-lb weighted jump ropes. I’d never used a weighted rope before – the removable weights are stored in the handles – and was amazed at how fast it burned out my biceps! Clipping my Gymboss interval timer to my cleavage a la Zuzana of Bodyrock.TV (which I then had to move after remember that I have no cleavage and jumping rope with a piece of plastic thumping against my sternum is really uncomfortable), I tried out a variety of jump rope techniques. Did you know they have whole workouts built around just the humble jump rope? I would love to try one of these classes! We did jumping jacks, one legged hops, the boxer skip, high knees, butt kickers, double unders and crossovers but our favorite was just the regular speed jump. Why? Because we could compete with each other, silly! Krista started it by telling us she did 48 hops in 20 seconds. I beat her with 52 hops. And then Allison spanked us all with a killer 67 hops in 20 seconds!
Gym Buddy Allison knows how to work that rope!
We got a great cardio and weight interval workout with time to warm up and cool down (i.e. take pictures of our sweaty selves – normally we take pics before the workout but today I thought we’d give you the gross sweaty-bangs version) in less than an hour!
Do you wear weight gloves? Have you ever done a jump rope workout? What do you do (or wear or say) that makes you feel seriously bada**??
Interested in getting some of your own gear? Leave me a comment and one GFE winner will get their own weighted rope and 2 different sets of My Trainer workout cards! U.S. only for this one, sorry:( But anyone can still enter my PlanetGear giveaway! Both giveaways end Saturday at midnight.
P.S. At the risk of turning this post into one huge product placement – FTC, I got the rope, the gloves and the cards for free but was not compensated in any other way – I want to add how much I love my Gymboss timer. They’re not paying me to say this. I don’t get an affiliate fee or anything from them. I just really think it’s a great workout tool; we use it all the time. And also, because I know someone will ask, my supercute tunic top and capri tights are from J.C. Penney. I know! They have some seriously cute and durable workout gear for amazingly cheap. Again, not getting paid nor did I get any free stuff from them (although if you read this J.C. Penney and want to sponsor me, I’m your girl!) but I adore their stuff.
One of many outtakes of me trying to look tough. See why I need the gloves?? I’d have no credibility on my own!
25 Deceptively Simple Exercises [We made the front page of Shape.com!]
Why yes that is Gym Buddy Allison’s adorable grin gracing the front page of Shape.com!
One-legged squats. Push-ups. Plank. Burpees. We’ve all seen them done so many times that, admit it, sometimes we write them off as too easy or boring. But in an article I wrote for Shape, I discovered that while these humble exercises may be simple they sure aren’t easy! Check out the Gym Buddies and I on the homepage of Shape.com and read up on all the exercises we think are harder than they look. (And of course, us being us, we got kinda silly during the photoshoot so there are some pretty hilarious pics up there! My fave is Allison elbowing me in the face as we race up the stairs. Fitness models we are not but sure had a great time doing it!)
If you haven’t read it yet, you have to check out my article for Redbook on The 8 Messiest Mom Chores (that no one ever warned you about). Bodily fluids are always funny!
Things got a little serious though with my post on 10 Thing to Never Say to a Mom of Boys. Mostly I wanted people to stop criticizing my boys for acting like boys but the commenters got all crazy with the circumcision debate… which I don’t mention anywhere in my post. Ah well, such is the Internet.
And don’t forget – there’s still time to enter my Olay $100 gift card giveaway! (Yes, I know it feels like I’ve been touting this one forever but they set the giveaway to be open for a month.)
Tune in Monday for a great giveaway!
Simple Homemade Pizza
For the record: I love pizza. I think it should be consumed on a weekly basis.
I also love the smell of homemade bread and dough. It’s the yeast. It’s fabulous.
Speaking of love, I also love Jenna. She was the first food blogger I started reading a few years back and she has definitely been a staple in my recipes, cooking tips and just an overall fun blog to read.
She posted a pizza dough recipe, claiming it to be her go-to, fail proof recipe. Awesome. I need something that is fail proof in my life.
The Best Pizza Dough – by Eat, Live, Run
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/3 cup warm water
- 1 packet yeast
- 1.5 tsp sea salt
In a mixing bowl, combine the warm water and yeast.
Stir in the salt and flour and mix on medium high speed on your KitchenAid for 5 minutes. While the mixer is going, drizzle in the olive oil.
When the dough is soft and elastic, take out of the bowl, rub with olive oil and then place back in the bowl, cover with a dish towel and let rise for one hour.
After the dough has doubled in size, cut in half to make two large pizza doughs or make mini doughs. You could also do what I like to do and freeze the dough in a plastic baggie for another time! When you are ready for your pizza, roll out the dough, cover with your toppings and bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes.
**You could also make this dough without an electric mixer…..just knead by hand for about 8 minutes and then follow above steps! I’ve made it by hand many, many times and it always comes out right.
====================================
While Jordan was taking a nap this afternoon I thought I would surprise him and have fresh, hot pizza waiting for him when he woke up. This kid has great taste in food. I topped his with red sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese and fresh pineapple.
I created my pie with red sauce, onions, artichoke hearts, basil leaves, ainkalamata olives and pepper flakes.
Thank you Jenna. Thank you pizza.
Allergic Conjunctivitis: Simple Allergic and Vernal Keratoconjunctivitis
It is the Inflammation of conjunctiva due to allergic or hypersensitivity reactions which may be immediate( humoral) or delayed( cellular). Conjuctiva is highly sensitive to allergens than our skin( upto 10 times). Allergic conjunctivitis is prevalent around the world.
Classification-
- Simple Allergic
- Hay fever Conjuctivitis
- Seasonal Allergic Conjunctivitis
- Perrenial allergic Conjunctivitis
- Vernal Keratoconjunctivitis
- Atopic Keatoconjunctivitis (often associated with atopic dermatitis)
- Giant papillary Conjunctivitis ( Contact lens related)
- Phlyctenular Keratoconjunctitvitis
- Contact Dermoconjunctivitis
We will be discussing details on Simple Allergic conjuctivitis.
SIMPLE ALLERGIC CONJUNCTIVITIS-
It is a milder, non-specific allergic state of conjunctiva, Acute or subacute urticarial reaction, with symptoms like itching, hyperemia ( prominent vessels and redness) and mild papillary response .
Occurs in response to pollens (grass, weed, or tree) . Weed pollens – summer and the beginning of fall, grass – tree pollens -spring and well into the summer.
Sometimes- cosmetics, cigarette smokes,dust and dust mites, fungal spores, and mold can cause perennial problem.
Etiology or Cause-
- Hay fever conjunctivitis- Very commonly occurs in association with allergic rhinitis. Common allergens like pollens, animal dandruff and grass are responsible for this condition.
- Seasonal Allergic Conjunctivitis- Very commonly occurring condition in response to seasonal allergens like pollen grass.
- Perennial Allergic Conjunctivitis- Occurs in response to allergy to house d
ust and mites that person remains exposed to all the time. It is rarer.
Pathology- Vascular , Cellular and Conjunctival response are responsible for SAC.
Symptoms-
- Intense itching,
- burning in eyes,
- watery discharge and
- mild photophobia ( sensitivity of eye to bright light).
Signs-
- Hyperemia and chemosis: swollen boggy appearance of conjunctiva,
- Edema of lids and mild papillary reaction.
Diagnosis is made from clinical features, normal flora on culture and abundant eosinophils in discharge.
Treatment-
- Allergens – source of dust, mites, pet animals must be avoided.
- Local measures- for immediate relief
Vasocontrictors like adrenaline,ephedrine
Sodium Chromoglycate drops are quite effective
Steroids drops must be AVOIDED.
- Systemic antihistaminics
- Desensitization- may be tried.
Reference- Comprehensive Ophthalmology-A K Khurana, allergyescape.com.
Safeway’s Simple Nutrition Review & Giveaway
If you’ve been to Safeway recently, you may have noticed new tags on their shelves. These tags are part of their Simple Nutrition program which is designed to help you make better nutrition choices. It includes a “Gluten Free” tag category. You can view and read about the other shelf tags here.
It is important to note that the gluten-free category is defined by products that are identified as gluten-free by the manufacturer. Since there are no laws currently regulating the use of the term “gluten free” on labels, you still need to use caution and read labels.
Also, keep in mind that many products at the grocery store are gluten free, but are not identified as such by the manufacturer, and therefore will not have a gluten free tag such as this pineapple.
The tags can be helpful, particularly for people new to the gluten-free diet. While I have never known any ketchup to contain gluten, it might be helpful to some to see that a particular brand is identified as gluten free by the manufacturer.
It’s probably more helpful with items that do often contain gluten, such as frosting. Many cans of frosting have wheat listed on the label, but some brands are gluten free. In years past I have stood in the isle reading lots of frosting labels. Having tags that identify gluten-free items does not eliminate the need to read labels, but it narrows down how many you need to read.
There is also the possibility that an item will be tagged wrong or that you will misunderstand which product the label is referring to. So please, don’t depend entirely on these labels. They should be a time saving guide but not your sole source of information for determining if a product is gluten free.
The Giveaway: I have a $25 Safeway gift card (provided by Safeway) to give to one reader. The giveaway is limited to US residents.
To enter you must leave a comment on this post, not on my Facebook page and not an email. If you receive my updates by email, click on the title and it will take you to my blog page where you can leave a comment.
Leave a separate comment for each entry:
- Leave a comment telling me if you have tried any French Meadow Bakery products.
- Subscribe via email or RSS (or tell me you already do)
- Post this giveaway on your Facebook page
- Mention this giveaway in a blog post
- Tweet about the giveaway (include @gfhomemaker)
- The giveaway will end on Friday, March 25th at 11:00 pm eastern time. The winner will have 24 hours to respond after being contacted. The winner will be posted on my Facebook page.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a $25 gift card that I used while checking out the Simple Nutrition tags. The opinions in this post are my own.
Safeway’s Simple Nutrition Review & Giveaway originally appeared on The Gluten-Free Homemaker on March 20, 2011.
Simple Ranchy Breaded Fish Fillets
Simple Way To Reduce Your Weight
There are a lot of effective methods to reduce weight nowadays. The majority of options are pretty boring, but we still give them a go and will them to work. Most people who begin diet programs, do not get anywhere, and revert back to old habits.It is an unfortunate thing that occurs often. The failure of weight loss plans is quite high, which is a sad fact of life. Recently, a decidedly new product has been released which will change the way you look at dieting forever. Try using healthy Tava Teas Wellness Mix tea daily and begin to cut excess weight simply. Before you scratch your head, examine the costs of drinking Tava tea to regular diet methods, and you will decide that it really is worth trying. So what are the other choices open to you
You could decide to go to a health club, as many people do, however they can cost a lot of money. You are often asked to sign a contract and should you do not go, you still have to pay the fees for the agreed term. Many of people today join these sort of clubs and never use them, that is such a waste of money. You will end up spending hundreds of pounds each month on a membership that just sits there. Yet another weight loss plan that many people adopt is punishing low extra fat, low carb weight loss plans. By planning to follow a plan that’s difficult to follow, eating is not any enjoyable anymore, people get despondant, and attempt fail.
Tava Tea is proven to assist drinkers get rid of excess weight simply, and it is 100% natural,and organic. This drink cannot be found in the shops, it major health giving uses that have been included in ancient Chinese medicine for over 5,000 many years. This unusual blend has Sencha,and Puerh to give a mixture of powerful ingredients to help the body naturally reduce excess weight The third key ingredient is Wu-Long, wu-long has been proven to improve the function of excess fat metabolism thus controlling obesity. As well as this, many studies over recent years demonstrate that drinking Tava Tea can have a marked beneficial effect on the immune system, and stop the onset of certain infections. In a different experiment at Japan’s Shiga University of Medical Science, they demonstrated that drinking Tava tea can reduce acne in a short period of time!
Drinking Tava Tea – 1 to 2 cups per day, has been demonstrated to reduce the onset of diabetes, dialate blood vessels, and will help to cut cholesterol levels. You will find plenty benefits to bodily well-being with this amazing natural tea.
Please Visit for Vitamin Code Reviews for great multi vitamins
People that are want to get more info about the topic of lose weight fast, please make sure to visit the web page which was mentioned right in this paragraph.
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