Eating Your Way to Healthy Skin

I am turning 40 this year. And one of my biggest birthday “resolutions” made back on December 2nd (my actual birthday) was to be in the best shape ever on the big day. So I am doing tons of research on how I can take better care of myself – how I can add more veggies and fruits to my diet, how I can reduce my own fine lines and wrinkles – as well as adding in a much bigger dose of exercise and willpower:-)

What I am finding is that there is a lot you can do to improve your diet that will actually help your skin. Eating tomatoes for example provides a healthy does of anti-oxidants from the inside which is good for your skin and body. Bell peppers contain a lot of good things including folic acid which helps your body to produce new, healthy cells everywhere. Click here to read about some other pro-skin foods and a few yummy recipes to boot!

Making Nail Services Safe

We don’t offer nail services at Inspire for a number of reasons, including some of the sanitation challenges presented by offering those services. I won’t go into dirty details, but let’s just say that there are more possibilities of getting a nail fungus or other issue from pedicure baths (and public whirlpool baths) than anything else in the spa. I personally am happy to be done with that kind of liability and stress in my business:-)

I just got an update from one of my new favorite web sites about beauty tips, www.TotalBeauty.com, that talks about how to protect yourself in a nail salon. Here is one tip they offered: Avoid spa chairs with jet baths. Salons are supposed to change the filters that recycle water after every use, but that rarely happens. The result? Used water gets circulated through the system. Look for porcelain or stainless steel basins without a spa chair, or ask the salon to change the filter in front of you before you soak.

My comment on this is that there is actually advanced technology – pipeless jets – where the water is not recirculated through the tub but actually blown with a mini fan. So if the mini fans are sanitized along with the rest of the tub between clients, you are never getting someone else’s used water mixed in with yours.

Want to read the whole list? Click here and be sure to read it before you get your next manicure or pedicure!

Why Hydrate? or (Is Water Really All It’s Cracked Up to Be?)

We all know we should drink water, right? Bottled, tap, distilled, spring or purified, water is supposed to be an essential part of our diets. But yet, sometimes we resist and grab a sip of something else instead. Juice or milk? Maybe. But probably a big majority of people I know go for soda, coffee (or a BEvERage) instead.

There’s nothing wrong with any of those choices in moderation I suppose. But I just stumbled across an article that makes me remember one of the reasons I rarely drink Coke. Aside from the calories and caffeine that I really don’t need in my diet, coke is kind of…how do I say it…abrasive or corrosive to your system. I remember when I was a teenager working in a fast food joint (Al’s Hot Dog on a Stick at Carolina Circle Mall, believe it or not), the Coke guys would not drink the stuff they sold to us because of what they’d seen it do. Stuff like removing rust from a car bumper. Whoa.

Anyway, despite the fact that I love the way Coke tastes, I want you to read this list and see why we serve water at Inspire instead of soda. And why I encourage you to drink more water at home. So go have an H20 and a smile!