Category Archives: Skin

My Dry August: No Alcohol Challenge

I have written many times about having insomnia and my attempts to cure it. In that spirit (no pun intended) I embarked on a month long challenge in August to see if abstaining from alcohol would improve my sleep.

I am not a big drinker but I tend to be a daily one.  I would regularly have one to two glasses of wine with dinner.  I didn’t really think that I drank enough for it to impact my sleep but I was wrong. I slept better than I had in years.  With few exceptions, I slept through the night and if I did wake up I was able to go back to sleep fairly easily.

Improved sleep was only one of many benefits I listed when I reviewed the month.  Here’s the full list:

1. My skin improved. It became more supple and silky.  I think we can chalk this up mostly to increased hydration.  Alcohol is a diuretic.  So, I was losing less water by abstaining.  Alcohol is a also toxin.  So, by avoiding it, it stands to reason that the skin-the largest excreting organ in the body- would improve.

2. I lost weight.  I had already lost about nine pounds this year by eliminating processed food and most oil from my diet but I lost another three after cutting out wine. I felt less snacky at night and didn’t continue to eat after dinner.  (I didn’t really consume fewer calories by not drinking wine because I switched to Non-Alcoholic Beer.)  Also, my digestive organs were no doubt functioning better without having to drop everything to filter out the toxicity from the wine. So, more fat was getting metabolized and less was being stored.

3. Bloating was greatly reduced.  Even though I had already lost nine pounds, I still had a popped out belly from being bloated all the time.  When I stopped consuming alcohol, all my pants suddenly got loose again.  Hallelujah!

4. No more tummy aches.  Fun fact: Alcohol wreaks havoc on your microbiome. That’s the colony of beneficial bacteria that lives in our digestive track and helps break down our food.  Those little guys got to work after I started this challenge.

5. Brain fog started to dissipate. I suspect my thinking became clearer because I finally got some real, honest to goodness sleep for the first time in years.

6. I felt a little happier. I found myself laughing, singing and wiggling my butt more. (I wrote what I wrote!)

7. My energy was a bit better.

8. I became tidier.  This is embarrassing but sometimes I was so tired in the evening that the dishes never made it from the sink to the dishwasher.  Sometimes, I was so tired in the morning that my bed didn’t always get made.

9. I felt more grounded and peaceful than I had in a long time. While I was not drinking heavily, I was drinking regularly.  So, in retrospect, it’s not surprising that alcohol was affecting my moods. It’s a depressant that I was imbibing almost daily.

10. I began to feel more aware and conscious. I wasn’t just getting through my day anymore. I felt more like I did when I was younger- less jaded and more appreciative.

11. I also look younger in my opinion.  I think this a by-product of more sleep, better hydration and my organs working more efficiently. My face isn’t puffy anymore and my skin is a bit more dewy again.

12. Better sleep.  I don’t know if you have ever been so tired that you feel like you could cry but I have and it’s not fun!

Given all these benefits, I was curious to see if any more could be gained by continuing this experiment.  So, I decided to keep this challenge going for 100 days.  I’ll let you know in November what happens.  Have you ever done a Dry Month or Sober Season?  Please let me know in the comments.

Natural Beauty DIY: Better than Store-bought Facial Exfoliant

Most people know by now that commercial facial exfoliants with those little plastic micro beads are bad for the environment and have looked for alternatives.  Thank Goodness!

However, I don’t understand why people are willing to still buy products, containing other harmful ingredients, in packaging (that may or not be recyclable) and throw down a huge chunk of change to do it.  I just did a quick search and saw a dozen or so facial exfoliants, ranging in price from $5 to $50.  My facial exfoliant is all natural, only has two ingredients and costs practically nothing.  You can make it right now.

Honey-Sugar Facial Exfoliant

Pour approximately a tablespoon of honey onto a dish or in a small bowl.  Add a teaspoon of sugar. Mix them together.  Apply to damp skin in gentle circular motions with your fingertips.  Avoid your eye area.  (If any gets in your mouth, eat it!)  Rinse with warm water.  Voila! Beautiful smooth skin!

Sometimes, we seem to consume for no other reason than …just because.  Our inner child is lured by a shiny new package (destined to crowd landfills and pollute our oceans.)   We are looking for a quick fix to assuage our fears and insecurities.  So we buy something that we not only don’t need but may cause us harm either through artificial ingredients or by befouling Mama Earth.  Let’s top the madness; shall we?  Let’s take care of ourselves by being creative instead of blindly consuming.

How do exfoliate your skin?  Do you DIY your beauty products?  Leave me a reply.  I would love to hear from you.

Many blessings,

Cynthia

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justdragonfly

Scars: What can ya do about ‘em naturally?

It’s been five and a half weeks since the accident.  While Doc fixes the inside of my mouth, I’ve decided to focus on the outside, namely my upper lip.  You can see in the photo below, I still have quite a fat lip and that jaggedy scar is what remains of the deepest cut you can get.  Basically, I ripped my lip all the way through in two places.  So, the scar continues on the inside of my mouth and loops around in a U shape back out again…Ugh!

Unretouched photo of my lip 5 weeks and 3 days after the Fall

Unretouched photo of my lip 5 weeks and 3 days after the Fall

 

So, how do I fix it naturally?  Well, since I got home from the hospital I have been rubbing aloe and organic lavender oil on it at least twice a day.  Most people know about using aloe vera to soothe burns but may not realize that aloe has swelling reduction and skin rebuilding properties.   Lavender oil, according to herbalist Brigitte Mars, “is an essential oil that is antiseptic and anti-inflammatory. It can be applied topically to wounds, burns, bruises, insect bites and blisters. Lavender reduces the risk of infection, reduces pain and stimulates skin regeneration. When inhaled it has a calming effect on the nervous system and gives comfort during times of trauma.”

My mom has offered several times to buy Mederma for me.  An offer I appreciated but being a nature gal, I wanted to find out what was in Mederma before I tried it.  It turns out that the active ingredient is an onion extract.  There is much debate about whether Mederma is effective or not.  However, I did learn that rubbing onion on a scar may well work on its’ own. Onion is believed to inhibit the over-production of collagen thus suppressing the formation of scar tissue and is an also an anti-inflammatory.   So, I have added rubbing raw onion on my scar to my routine.  (Smelly?  Perhaps… but after being on a liquid diet for 5 and a half weeks, I kind of like it.)

Doc suggested I massage my fat lip to keep scar tissue from forming and because he thought felt a salivary gland dropping down.  (Weird, right?  I had no idea we have secondary salivary glands in our lips either! )  Anyway, I had already been using coconut oil to keep my lips soft and chap-free.  So, now it is massage oil as well.  Coconut oil is also good to use on scars because it may prevent and reverse free radical damage.

I ordered Vitamin E oil and Shea Butter too. Vitamin E is good for skin because it increases circulation and is also a very effective anti-oxidant against free radicals.  Shea Butter is a good source of Vitamin E and Vitamin A.  Shea Butter is also an incredible emollient that will moisturize your skin and make it silky soft.  Keeping the skin soft is important because the last thing you want is for damaged skin; is for it to get dry, leaving it even more vulnerable to further damage.  To that end, I have also been wearing a hat outside to protect my face from the sun, to avoid it getting dried out or burned.

So, what are your tips for treating scars and damaged skin?  I would love to read them.  Please share!

Love and Many Blessings,

Cynthia

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