Thursday, April 3, 2008

Taking Care of Your Momma Skin

(Apologies for my absence - I've been creatively impotent this week!)
This past weekend, I had a spa day with my mom - and I urge each of you to add this to your wish lists for birthdays and holidays right now!  Any spa treatments are worth their weight in gold - I had a message, facial and a pedicure, and it's the facial that really opened my eyes!

First off, I discovered that I need to drink even more water than I originally thought.  As I wrote in The Importance of Water, you should take your weight in pounds, divide in half, and that's how many ounces of water you should drink.  But I was mistaken in how much water you should add for every caffeinated or alcoholic drink - rather than ounce for ounce, it should be two ounces of water for each ounce of beer or wine, or coffee or soda.  

So....I weigh 136, and typically drink two 6oz cups of coffee a day.  Therefore, I should drink 68 ounces of water, plus an additional 12 ounces if I drink my normal coffee.  And even more if I have a margarita at the Mexican restaurant!  Wow!

Second, the esthetician recommended a facial every 4-6 weeks, as that's the cycle of your skin cells, and that would generate the best results.  But who has $62 once month to spend on a facial?  Not this momma.  But that doesn't mean this momma doesn't need to take care of her skin - between age, sun, stress and pregnancy hormones, my skin is not what it used to be, and given that it's the largest organ of my entire body, I better take dang good care of it!

Serendipity is a good friend of mine, and today it brought a speaker to my MOPS group to discuss....at-home spa escapes!  Translation - recipes for awesome skin care that you can use in your home.  Much cheaper than $62 for an hour facial.  

The speaker provided a host of recipes, most of which she gathered from the KitchenCraftsNMore.net site.   This link will explore specifically facial care recipes, but check out the site as you have time, as you'll find everything to bath and body recipes to homemade cleaning products - much better than all those chemicals most of us use around our home and on our body.

My favorite recipes from today?  
Olive Oil & Sugar Body and Face Scrub - Gentle on the skin, and oh, so simple!
Equal mixture of olive oil and sugar, wet your body down in the shower, and message into your skin.  Rinse well - but beware that the olive oil will make the tub slick!

Avocado Mask - for those of us with Dry skin.  
2TB honey
2 TB dry milk powder
1/4 medium avocado, mashed
Combine, stir until smooth, leave on face for 10 minutes.  Gently wipe off with damp warm washcloth

Cucumber Mask - for those with Oily skin
2TB honey
2TB dry milk powder
1/4C cucumber puree
Blend cucumber into a puree, combine with other ingredients until smooth, leave on face for ten minutes, gently wipe off with damp warm washcloth.  

One of the best things I got out of today - another affirmation that what we put in and on our bodies has a huge impact on how we feel!  Chemicals have a place in our lives, but frequently, nature has provided most of what we need for our bodies and homes!  

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