summer glow

                  

Summer diet changes

With summer approaching, it's time to revamp our lifestyle to suit the new weather, the longer hours. Quite naturally, we move into a different diet than what we were eating in winter. In summer we can make a large proportion of our food raw, as in fruits, salads, juices. These raw foods, especially those that grow above the ground, are high in life-force/prana from the sun, & can increase our own prana levels too.

Food can make our skin glow

When we eat foods which are high in carotenes, which are plant foods that have an orange base in them, they help to make our skin glow. Foods like oranges, apricots, canteloupe, orange kumura, peppers, tomatoes. Beta carotenes are found in leafy greens like spinach, & these can help protect our skin from the sun. So add these colourful carotenes to salads, & the fruits to smoothies or fruit salads, & steam spinach, watercress & kumura. Your skin will improve.

Water helps too

Drink lots of water to "feed" our skin & body. Skin seems to "plump up" when we do this. 

And surprisingly, we seem to need more protein in summer. In New Zealand, we have amazing kai (food) moana (sea), it is light food & so nourishing.

                          

Body brush for glowing skin

We can also make our skin glow by dry body brushing, before a shower or bath. I get my brushes from a $2 shop. 

• Do long sweeping strokes towards the heart. 
• Start with your feet, brush the soles & start doing upwards strokes. 
• The ankles to knees, 
• Knees to hips. 
• In the sides of the groin. 
• Do one side then the other. 
• Up the buttocks. 
• Do big circles on the tummy, going up your right side, across the top & down the left, following the route of our large colon. 
• Then big strokes up the torso towards the heart. 
• Down the chest. 
• Up backs of hands to wrists, wrists to elbows, elbows to shoulders.

At the end of your shower, start cooling down the water. Now is the time to start, so that you build up a tolerance for it. Cool water blasts tighten the skin, & makes it glow.

Oils for beautiful skin

After, apply a natural oil in the same manner & pattern as the body brushing. 

• Apricot oil contains vitamin A & is very beneficial to skin
• Olive oil is good for tired muscles
• Grapeseed  or almond, are lovely
• A friend makes kawakawa oil, which brings blood to the surface of the skin & increases our skin collagen levels. 

Collagen is a protein which keeps the skin young. I avoid any skin cosmetic that has collagen in it, as the only way that collagen would be added is by killing an animal. I can't see that harming animals is a good way to "help" our skin.

I know a woman with amazing skin: she gets baby oil for the $2 shop, adds some scented oil from the same type of shop, & uses this mix for her face, body, hair, & to take off eye makeup. So if you don't have much money, you could try something like this. 

When the singer Cher was about 40...so it was quite a while ago, she used a mix of aqueous cream & almond oil on her body, so that's another option.

Another option for those of us who are pressed for time, & I have done this "trick" also: 

• use body scrubbing gloves from the $2 shop, or supermarket. 
• tip some body lotion onto each glove, & give yourself a quick scrub after your shower.
• this brings blood to the surface of the skin & gives us better circulation, & better skin.

Be sun smart

• Try to keep out of the sun during the danger times: about 10-11am to about 3-4 pm. Use sunblock if you are in the sun during these times
• Sunscreens & sunblocks are full of chemicals so it's good if we can also find other ways of protecting our skin instead....like using sunhats, sunnies, loose cotton long sleeved tops, like a kaftan top. 
• Sunbathe during the "sunsafe" hours.....by getting sun on your torso & not washing after. The oils on your skin interact with the sun's rays for some proper vitamin D. So beneficial.