Make good habits a part of YOU (Part 1)

Three simple (and obvious) lifestyle tips to have great looking skin--drink plenty of water, exercise, eat right, stay happy, and know moderation.

At this point you are probably thinking: “ok, that’s what EVERY beauty expert would say, but it’s not easy to do!”  Here is my honest advice--Make them a part of you.  To adopt a habit comes down to nothing but repetition.  This is almost like having a new color to your room.  Say it’s a color you don’t like.  First month you hate it.  Second month you dislike it.  Third month you guess you will live.  After a year, you probably don’t think about it anymore.  If you keep at something everyday for a period of time, you will get used to doing it.  So let’s get down to how to start good habits and slowly make them a part of you.

Drink plenty of water
Water is 70% of our bodies.  Water takes away toxins in your bodies and helps with many discomfort and sickness, including constipation.  And...I don’t like the taste of water and I am too busy to remember something like drink a glass (1/2 pint) every 2-hour.  But I do like the taste of tea, soda, and coffee!  I also notice that I would unconsciously take tiny sips if I use straws.  So here’s what I did.  

Every morning before I drink my coffee, I drink 250 mL of room temperature water.  It begins with a rule--if I really want to drink coffee, I have finish the glass of water.  At first, it takes me...20 minutes to drink that glass of water and I hate every second of it.  Now I do it every morning without thinking about it.  I actually feel like I cannot wake up if I don’t have my glass of water in the morning.  Drinking a huge glass of lukewarm water first thing in the morning can help lubricating your throat (so virus and bacteria don’t get too comfortable hanging out there and give you a cold/flu) and waking up your digestive system (diluting excessive stomach acid and helping with constipation).

From the list of beverages I like, tea is about the healthiest one.  I make batches of unsweetened iced tea and drink it throughout the day.  I can drink about 2000mL of tea ( = 8 cups of water)  in a day.  This part of the drinking-water-habit is easy to adopt because I love tea.  It’s not all about torturing yourself to adopt a habit.  It’s fitting a good habit into your lifestyle.  I’d recommend if you don’t like water, find the best substitute for it.  There are plenty good choices other than tea; for example, carbonated flavored water with zero calories is a great substitute for soda-lovers.

I like drinking with straws (as weird as that sounds).  Instead of setting an alarm clock to remind myself to drink every 2-hour, I just use straws to drink tea.  Even as I am writing this post, I am...*sip*...drawn to...*sip*...drink...*sip*...more...*sip sip*...fluids!  What makes you wanna drink more water?

( I am trying not to write very long posts...and failing at it.  So you can stop here if you’d like or go on and read other parts of this.)

Less carbs = less breakouts

Most of us think of low carbs diet as a good way to stay skinny, but recent research has shown that low carbs diet may also improve acne.

Dr. Alan Shelita at SUNY Downstate Medical Center theorized that people with pimples may have hyperinsulinemia (Oh no, really big word!!).  Basically, when we eat carbs (sugar, rice, bread, milk, chocolate, and deep fried food all have carbs), our bodies produce a hormone called insulin.   Insulin cues the body to remove broke-down carbs from our bloodstreams and store it as energy.  So, eating lots of carbs makes our bodies produces lots of insulin, and we are considered to have hyperinsulinemia when our blood has too much insulin.

Now we can see why chocolate and fries may be the cause of acne.  Choclate has carbs and fries is nothing but oil and carbs.  To prevent horrible breakouts, I highly recommend following three general rules.

1.  Keep a regular schedule and don’t over-stress your body.  Don’t pull an all-nighter for whatever reason.  It’s not only bad for your pimples but for your liver also.
2.  Have healthy light meals.  This is not just for keeping you in shape.  Eating better will help you become more productive, have better moods, and stay away from bad breakouts.
3.  Start a good skincare routine but don’t overdo it.  Here I have the MEOW routine, which is generally how I keep my skin clear.
-- Moisturize often to neutralize the oil on your face (and this will help build a barrier to prevent bacteria from attacking your skin).
-- Exfoliate your skin to keep dead skin cells from clogging your pores (again, don’t overdo and take away the healthy cells too).  
-- Oil-free products only.  Look for products that are labeled “non-comedogenic” (meaning “won’t clog pores”).  You also want to stay away from mineral oil/petroleum oil products.
-- Wash your face at most twice a day and use gentle cleanser (the strong ones take away your skin’s natural defense against bacteria and weather).  

Benefits of keeping your skin hydrated

The human body is made up of 70% water.  Doctors recommend us to drink 8 cups of water every day.  Water is important for all living beings...and our skin!  Yes, the key to beautiful healthy skin is drinking plenty of water.  Water can help transport waste and toxin out of our bodies.  But do you notice that when you have dry skin drinking water doesn’t help much at all?

I know...you’d think...duh! That’s what lotion is for.  It’s great for repairing dry and cracked skin, so you use lotion only when your skin is cracked (daily use is for girly girls who like to smell nice).  Wrong!  Using lotion, moisturizer, or serum to keep your skin well-hydrated can prevent a lot of unwanted skin issues.  Here I just want to name a few benefits of having a good habit to keep your skin moisturized.

1. Balance out the oil on your skin.  On a hot or humid day, your skin would naturally secrete oil to help form a protective layer on your skin.  The oil is only one component of your protective layer, and it takes time for all the components to mix together.  The first reaction that people have toward an oily face is to rinse it off or use facial blotting paper.  That just makes it worse because your skin reacts by giving off more oil (it still wants to form that protective layer).  But if you use a light-weight moisturizer along to help expedite the forming of the protective layer, your skin will gradually stop secreting too much oil and your skin will look supple.

2. This one is for the girls who have everything.  Normally when you look for a new skincare product, you look for functions/results.  You seek words like “age-defying”, “oil-control”, or “reduce visible pores”.  Those are all good things but skipping out on moisturizing means none of the wonderful ingredients can enter your skin.  Human epidermis is consisted of many cell layers, but the outermost layers are all dead skin cells.  In well-hydrated skin, those dead skin cells can protect living cells underneath from premature death.  If too many living cells die early, more layers of dead skin cells are formed blocking all the ingredients from seeping into your skin.  Well, in short, don’t skip moisturizing after you wash your face.  Otherwise, more dead skin cells equal to rougher skin, and that equals to useless skincare products and lots of disappointment.

3. Reduce and prevent enlarged pores.  I mentioned premature skin cells deaths in 2.  Some of the dead skin cells may clog your pores, leading to clogged pores (comedos and some of them blackheads).  The clogging also stretches your pores.  To avoid blackheads, comedos, and ultimately, acnes, keep your skin well-hydrated!   The other cause for enlarged pores is dehydration leads to shifts in skin’s tissue structures, resulting in visible pores.

These are only a few benefits explained in details.  Other benefits are preventing sensitive skin, delaying wrinkles and fine lines formation, protecting skin from environmental damages, soothing skin after exposure to the sun, etc.  So...grab a bottle of moisturizer and quench your skin’s thirst!

The right way to wash your face

A lot of people may think facial cleansing is common sense.  Washing your face should be no harder than eating a piece of cookie.  Turn on the faucet, lather the soap, rub your face a little, rinse and done!  Easy...right?

Well, not quite as easy as that.  Just think about the following questions for a bit.  What’s the right temperature for washing your face?  Should you choose the temperature based on season or your skin type?  What kind of cleanser should you choose?  Should you be washing your face using soap or special facial cleanser?  Can body soap be used on your face?  Do you lather first in your palms then apply the foam to face?  Or wet your face first and then apply the cleanser directly?  How should you rub your face to achieve the most effective cleaning?  The manly way of palm over face and rub around or daintily use your fingertips to brush the dust off your face?

Feel overwhelmed?  (I promise this is the last question.)  Washing your face incorrectly can worsen your skin problems or cause other issues to arise.  On the other hand, correct facial cleansing can increase the absorption of subsequent serum/lotion that you apply, lessen the severity of other skin problems, promote cell growth and circulation, etc.   So here is a few tips to washing your face...the right way.

1.  Water temperature should be lukewarm.  I never actually know how warm/cold that is, so here is what I do: test the water (with my palm) to be slightly cooler than my body temperature.

2.  Do not use the shower head to spray your face.  I know it feels great, but high pressure can rinse away too much of the oil on your face, leaving your face feeling dry.  The best way to wet/rinse your face is scoop up the water and gently splash onto your face.

3.  Choose a gentle facial cleanser.  I would highly recommend going through the ingredients.  I believe in that the fewer the ingredients the better (and I don’t have to filter through too many).  Watch out for ingredients that you are allergic to.  I know a lot of ingredients names are all frightening and long, and most of us wouldn’t bother memorizing what’s good and what’s bad.  So...listen to your skin.  If your face feels dry/tight after washing, your facial cleanser is too strong.

4.  The harder you wash...NOT the better.  You only want to clean off all the dust, dirt, sweat, extra oil and dead skin cells.  Rubbing your face really hard would take away too much of your skin’s protectant.  Just gently massage your face with your fingers.  To know how “gently massage” would feel like, find a table/desk and put both of your forearms on the tabletop.  Overlap your hands so that your fingers of one hand is on top of the back of your other hand.  Relax your wrists and feel the pressure with the back of your hand.  That’s how “gently massage” would feel like.  You can put your head on the table/desk too, but that requires some flexibility and a secluded location.

5.  Do not wash your face often.  The maximum number of facial cleansing is twice a day.  Washing your face too often is the same as washing too hard or using strong cleanser.  It takes away your skin’s natural defense barrier.