Taking proper care of your skin can delay the natural aging process. It also keeps your skin healthy. Make these habits parts of your life and you’ll see your skin will start looking younger and glowy:
Protect yourself from the sun: UV rays damage skin causing wrinkles, dry skin, sun spots and cancer. Avoid spending time outdoor from 10 am to 4 pm. as the sun rays are more intense during these hours. When going outside, wear protective clothes like long-sleeved shirts and hats. And always use sunscreen. Apply it about 20 minutes before going out and reapply it after a few hours, esp after being in water or heavy sweating.
Wash yourself gently: limit bath or shower time to 15 minutes and use warm, not hot, water and mild soaps. Long baths, hot water and strong soaps remove oils from skin and should therefore be avoided. Afterwards, pat your skin dry gently with a soft towel and apply a moisturizer.
Moisturize: moisturizers form a layer on the skin which keeps water from evaporating and seal in moisture. They therefore help maintain the skin’s natural moisture level, leaving it smooth and soft. Choose a cream that contains SPF of at least 15 to protect the skin from UV rays.
Eat healthily: to stay healthy, skin needs omega-3 fatty acids. They help build the lipid layer of the skin as well as help locking in moisture. Omega-3 fatty acids can be found in fish, red vegetables, citrus fruits, berries and nuts.
Drink water: this keep skin from drying out. You should drink about 1.5 to 2 liters of water a day, but if you can’t, eat lots of foods that contain water, like lettuce or melon.
Exercise: it boosts circulation, improving the delivery of nutrients and oxygen to the skin, making it glow.
Get your beauty sleep: sleep eight hours a night. Lack of sleep will make you stressed and feel fatigued as well as making your complexion look washed out.
Don’t smoke: smoking accelerates the aging process. In fact, it narrows the blood vessels in the outermost layers of the skin, decreasing blood flow. This slows the delivery of nutrients and oxygen to the skin. Smoking also reduces collagen production and destroys elastin, which give skin strenght and elasticity and keep it smooth and wrinkle-free. In addition, the facial expression you make when smoking (like pursing lips when inhaling) may cause wrinkles.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Those are really great tips for the new year! Good job, Gio!
from all your list above, i have the one thing that i still can’t do well. SLEEP!!! i am such a light sleep person that i have the bags hanging… sigh… i am tyring to cut down coffee (now 1 cup a day max and hope to cut it off 100% in the end) and see what happens.
great tips.
I was so mad earlier I left a long comment but it didn’t get approved, I guess they blocked it at my work
thx
Don’t smoke, Wash yourself gently, Moisturize, Drink water are what I am good at
I used to put sun block all the time because I heard that even you are in indoor there are still UV rays, but I stopped wearing sun block cream all sudden because I don’t like the thick feeling on my face. I also heard that toner make your skin lazy, by using the toner on your skin, your skin cell doesn’t regerate since toner helps your moisturization.
Very good info
Dao: thanks Dao! I thought the start of the year was a good time to start new good habits and drop the bad ones.
Jojoba: I try and sleep 8 hours a night but like you, I’m a very light sleeper and I have teh bags to prove it. Thank goodness for makeup! Good luck with cutting down coffee, hope it’ll make you sleep better.
Digital Angel: I’m sorry your commend didn’t go through. That happens to me sometimes as well and it’s very frustrating.
That’s right, you should always use sunscreen, but if the thick consistency bothers you then you could try using a moisturizer or foundation with SPF. And I had never heard that about toner!
So many good tips, so hard to follow…
Beside the sun part and no smoking part, I am not doing any of those…I remember during th elast school week of last spring, I drank more than planty of water:I drank 8 liters of diet dr.pepper (it’s like cherry coke) just because I was stressed out….
nice haul btw, I am looking foreard to see the review on all of those products!
I know, it sounds easy to follow the tips, but it really easy. It’s just a matter of getting started though, which reminds me I really need to start exercising more, that’s the thing I’m worst at, I’m soo lazy!
thanks, I’ll review everything really soon, stay tuned!
In this day and age, it’s hard for one to get all of those 8 habits (for me it’s sleep the most) incorporated into their daily lives. I’m with the others here that as easy as it sounds, It takes a lot of discipline and good time-management to make sure you can get all facets of this plan to go into action. As for myself, I was born with good genes and my skin is relatively good for the most part, but recently I have begun to see the beginnings of wrinkles under my eyes. This is the best time to start taking care of my skin or else I’ll wound up being like old-skool elderly: Non-elasticity in my skin and wrinkles from the top of my forehead to the bottom of my chin.
I agree, it’s really difficult to start, but if you stick to it, after a while it’ll come naturally to do all those things.
I recently switched to only using face creams that contain real plants, fruits and/or juices. No more chemicals for me! Chemicals in skincare products will cause your skin to sag in the long run. That’s because those chemicals don’t belong there and impact your skins elasticity.
So far the only real good product I can recommend is the 3 Berry Face Serum, from the Made from Earth product line. I found them in a Whole Foods Store and tried out a bottle and I love it. Its thick enough to moisturize deeply, but my skin really just absorbs all of it once applied, so it doesn’t have that heavy feeling. Definitely recommend it…the website says it contains real blueberries, raspberries and cranberries – I guess that makes the “3” in three berry serum….
Hello Nancy,
I personally don’t think that all chemicals are bad, but I still prefer to use organic products whenever I can as I think natural is always better. You just need to be careful when shopping for organic products as some of them still contain chemicals. I’m glad that you found something that works so well for you, the product sounds great!