Drink, drink, drink!

Not just any liquid will do. Drinking water is one of the simplest ways to hydrate your body at a cellular level. As experts have been telling us for years, once you are thirsty, you are already on the road to dehydration. Dehydration is not only dangerous for your heart health, but being chronically dehydrated is bad for your skin as it speeds up the aging process.

Read more about preventing dehydration in kids

Many people find drinking plain water to be boring but there are far more effective and tasty ways to hydrate. My personal favorite is coconut water, especially after exercise. The electrolytes hydrate you more quickly, there is more potassium than a banana (which you need to replace if you sweat) and it tastes good. It’s not just my secret – Madonna drinks it too!

Eat More Cooling Foods

Eating more “cooling” foods is an effective way to lower your body’s core temperature. They also perform double duty because they contain more water than most other foods. Try adding more of these foods to your diet in the summer months: 

• Cucumbers: Slice them up and sprinkle in a salad, dip in hummus, or juice for a refreshing drink
• Watermelon: Just slice and enjoy
• Iced green tea: Simply make half a cup of tea then top up with lots of ice. You’ll get a healthy dose of skin-loving and cancer-preventative antioxidants too!
• Citrus fruits: Lemons, grapefruits and oranges are water-dense, sweet and delicious. Plus they pack a healthy dose of vitamin C – one of your body’s most commonly used antioxidants. Slice them up for a salad or eat as is.

Read more about fruits and vegetables to keep you hydrated

Read Your Labels 

Lastly, it can be tempting while grocery shopping to stock up on frozen yogurt, ice cream and popsicles for a cool treat. But do yourself a favor and avoid these types of foods unless you are confident the ingredients are simple, healthy and natural. For instance, most popsicles contain artificial flavors and artificial sweeteners which have been linked to everything from allergies to obesity to tumors in animals.

Cool Summer Recipe

Here’s my favorite cool treat to beat the heat; not only is it super simple to make, but it’s as refreshing as jumping in a lake!

Peaches N’ Cream Popsicles

• 2 peaches, peels removed, sliced
• 1 cup of organic vanilla yogurt
• ½ cup of almond milk

Place all the ingredients into your blender and process on high until completely combined. Transfer to your popsicle mold and freeze. At about 3 hours into the freezing point, place wooden popsicle sticks into the mold, freeze overnight and enjoy the next day.

Image: Jennifer Chait

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Tips for staying young and aging gracefully

Eliminate or eat as little sugar as possible. You’ve likely heard that insulin is secreted at a higher rate when you eat sugar and refined carbohydrates rather than if you eat complex carbs, lean protein and “good” fat. This hormone allows glucose (sugar) to enter your cells to be used as fuel or stored as fat. It also tells your body not to release any stored fat, leading to excess body fat if you eat a diet high in sugar and carbs. Insulin has a double whammy-not only does it help fat stay on your body, it also accelerates the aging process and the formation of wrinkles. Chromium piconlinate is a mineral that aids in blood sugar balance, but the best thing to do is just cut out sugar and limit refined carbohydrates.

Read more about blood sugar and mood

Avoid caffeiene. Simply stated, caffeine from any source acts as a diuretic and causes you to urinate more leading to dehydration. Chronic dehydration results in premature aging. Caffeine from tea, coffee, pop and energy drinks and bars are to blame and they cause a massive surge of stress hormones too – the same hormones responsible for the “fight or flight” response. Stress leads to premature aging. Choose herbal teas instead which provide antioxidants and keep you hydrated: peppermint, rooibos, chamomile, açai berry are all wonderful tasty options that will help keep cravings away too!

Be active every day. A recent study found that not only does exercise make you happier; it helps you stay young at a cellular level. In fact, scientists received a Nobel Prize for discovering this incredible way to prevent premature aging. Basically, when telomeres shorten (which are the bookends of your DNA), you age-this is essentially like reading the biological clock of your body. Bring in cardiovascular exercise and you slow the process of the telomere shortening because it ignites the enzyme telomerase which in turn, stabilizes the telomere. Science aside, exercise to stay young, active, happy and fit.

Read more about exercising on a busy schedule

Get your greens! Skin loving foods including kale, spinach, arugula and swiss chard are jam-packed full of antioxidants which prevent your skin from free radical damage that can lead to wrinkles. As well, many people are surprised to learn that greens are an excellent source of protein. Protein is a building block of every cell in your entire body and this is essential for cells to regenerate, especially skin and muscle cells.

Image: The Memory Keeper

The post 4 Ways to Stay Young and Age Gracefully appeared first on NaturallySavvy.com.

Pick: A base of fiber rich, mineral dense, leafy greens. Pack your plate with greens including spinach, arugula, kale, Swiss chard or romaine – the darker the better. This will ensure a healthy dose of vitamins A, C and folate and minerals such as magnesium, potassium and iron.Skip: The lighter greens such as watery nutrient-poor iceberg lettuce.

Read more about leafy green vegetables and digestion

Pick: Your favorite lean protein. Choose grilled salmon or chicken, hard boiled eggs, beans or a scoop of quinoa to keep your blood sugar balanced and your belly happy. Aim for portions the size of your palm or ½- ¾ of a cup.Skip: The mayo-drowned chicken, crab or egg salads made with unhealthy fat and unknown additives.

Pick: Go for colorful veggies. Add about one cup of those antioxidant soldiers to dress up your plate with color and vibrancy. Include shredded carrots, chopped tomatoes, sliced sweet peppers or grated beets for a substantial dose of disease fighting minerals and vitamins. For some crunch, add blood pressure lowering celery and crisp, freshly sliced cucumbers.Skip: Just like the mayo-drowned protein, pass over the mystery dressed coleslaw and carrot-raisin concoctions.

Pick: Healthy fat. Remember you must eat fat to lose fat and to boost your brain happy chemicals. Sprinkle on skin-loving cubed avocado (about ¼ cup) or a handful of heart healthy nuts and seeds such as walnuts, almonds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.Skip: The unhealthy fats including cheddar cubes, salty bacon bits and preservative-packed croutons.

Pick: Your flavor enhancer – dressing! This is the final step that will make your salad go from simple to sassy. Drizzle on heart-healthy fat such as olive oil or a dollop of balsamic vinegar and spice it up with pepper and your choice of herbs. Herbs are an instant flavor and mineral booster.Skip: Those mystery dressings with unhealthy fats which may contain more sugar than a candy bar and more salt than a French fry.

Read more about harmful food additives in salad dressing

Now you have a delicious and nutritious meal with all five components to make your salad taste great and keep your health in check. And remember, one trip to the salad bar is enough. Enjoy!

Image: II-5 Design & Manufacture

The post Salad Bar Smarts: What to Pick and What to Skip appeared first on NaturallySavvy.com.

Lift weights 2-4 times per week to look and feel your best.

Every time I hit the gym, I see line-ups at the cardio equipment and people running endless hours on the treadmill in an effort to achieve their best body ever. Cardio exercise such as running or cycling helps to strengthen your heart, but it’s not the most efficient way to get your best body.

Read more about exercising on a busy schedule

When you have more lean mass (which you attain from lifting weights), you burn more calories at rest because you raise your metabolic rate. When you lower your body fat mass, your body is healthier and happier with more lean tissue and works harder to convert fuel into energy. If hitting the gym is not on the horizon, aim to do some form of weight training activity everyday whether it means taking the stairs or doing step-ups on a bench.

Eliminate absolutely everything white in your diet for two weeks.

This means, no white flour bread products, white pasta, white rice and all products with sugar. Read your labels carefully because sugar can be deceiving and comes in many forms including: corn syrup, malt syrup, sucrose, glucose, fructose, dextrose, corn syrup, sorbitol, lactose, maltose, mannitol, invert sugar, fruit juice concentrate, galactose, polydextrose and maltodextrin. These refined foods are stripped of their nutrients and cause a quick rise in blood sugar levels. This excess sugar gets converted to fat and is stored on your belly, hips and butt. Taking a break from these foods will likely result in a renewed sense of health, energy and your waistline will thank you for it.

Eat breakfast like a KING, lunch like a PRINCE and dinner like a PAUPER.

Eating your smallest meal at night makes sense when you are burning fewer calories and getting ready to hit the sack. One of the most common mistakes we make is eating our biggest meal before bed when our metabolism is slowing down.

Never go to bed with a full stomach. As many of us try to sleep eight hours a night, try to limit food consumption a couple hours before bed. Sleep is meant for rest, relaxation and repair. If your body’s energy and blood is focused on your digestion, how will you repair the rest of your body like your brain and your muscles?

Read more about how to get a good night's sleep

Experiment with these tips for a couple of weeks and you will be pleasantly surprised at the changes you see in your overall health. Remember that getting your best body ever is a side effect of good health!

Image: thephotographymuse

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What if we just ate these same nutrients in our food and created beauty from the inside out? The benefits would extend far beyond simply improving our appearance.

The truth is, beauty comes from the inside out – literally. What you eat and drink everyday impacts the health of your skin. Next time you go shopping, add a few of these items to your cart. You won’t find them in the beauty aisle at your supermarket; you will find them in the grocery aisle!

Read more about why you should drink water everyday

Lean Protein

Your skin is made of proteins called collagen and elastin. Wrinkling and sagging skin indicates a deficiency of these proteins. Wrinkles don’t just happen overnight; they take years to develop and a diet lacking in good quality protein such as salmon and turkey is the likely culprit. It’s never too late. Sure, you may not be able to completely reverse the signs of aging, but you can most certainly slow the process by eating a diet rich in lean protein to increase collagen (which is responsible for toning) and elastin (responsible for elasticity of your skin).

Olive Oil

This skin loving monounsaturated fat is nature’s perfect moisturizer. You need to eat fat to have supple skin-plain and simple. Olive oil is a good source of polyphenols which are antioxidants known to help slow the aging process. In fact the ancient Greeks used to bathe in olive oil! Add olive oil in your diet everyday – on salad or whole wheat pasta or dip some whole grain bread into extra virgin olive oil. Avoid cooking with olive oil because heat destroys the beneficial properties of olive oil.

Citrus Fruits

If you want to get rid of blotchiness or blemishes, make sure that you are eating foods that contain vitamin C and vitamin E. Citrus fruits are very good for your skin so try to include fruits like oranges, grapefruits, and limes. You can also find vitamin E in any green and leafy vegetables as well as in certain lean meats, nuts, and beans. Remember to always choose organic to avoid exposure to chemicals and hormones.

Selenium

Brazil nuts, whole grains, salmon, halibut, shiitake mushrooms.

What do all these foods have in common? They are a good source of selenium which is a mineral and a powerful antioxidant that protects your skin from free radical damage that you may encounter from the sun and air pollution, especially if you live in a big city. Selenium is a skin rejuvenator and protector of your cells. Interestingly, selenium also plays an important role in the health of your thyroid. One of the symptoms of a hypothyroid is dry skin. Next time you are grocery shopping, aim to purchase at least one or two of these skin protecting items.

Read more about thyroid diseases and your health

The key thing to remember is that beauty comes from the inside. Invest in yourself with the foods you put into your grocery cart rather than fancy products that promise the world, but don’t deliver. Not only will you see the benefits on your skin, but you will feel better from the inside out. And nothing says beauty more than when you FEEL beautiful and happy.

Image: .craig

The post Beautiful Skin from the Inside Out appeared first on NaturallySavvy.com.

Joy McCarthy is a certified Holistic Nutritionist and Fitness Coach with a passion for inspiring people to make positive and simple changes to improve their overall health and feel more joyous on a daily basis. Her own health challenges with hormonal imbalance lead her to the Institute of Holistic Nutrition where she recently graduated and discovered the true power of how food can be our poison or our medicine. She is a successful business owner of Joyous Health, a health writer and corporate speaker on a variety of health topics. When Joy isn’t doing a nutrition workshop or nutrition coaching a client, you can find her at her local farmer’s market shopping for the perfect organic apples!

To reach Joy, email her at joy(at)naturallysavvy(dot)com

For more information about Joy, visit www.joyoushealth.ca

To follow Joy on Twitter, visit http://twitter.com/joyoushealth

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