Month: February 2024

Many of us struggle with chronically dry skin that is not satiated with continued use of topical moisturizers. Most moisturizers only barely penetrate the epidermis (top) layer of the skin, and therefore cannot have a long-lasting impact.

What’s the solution? In order to improve your dry skin, you need to take an inner-plus-outer approach that includes supplements and water as well as methods to encourage cell turnover. With that in mind, here are my top five strategies for dry skin that anyone can do!

Water

Over 75% of us are chronically dehydrated! Many times, we mistake thirst for hunger, and end up feeling tired and drained with no knowledge what it stems from. Water makes up 60% of the human body and is therefore key to adding hydration to its largest organ, the skin.

Even though we know we benefit from drinking water, we often struggle to drink the 64 ounces (8 cups) needed daily. How can you be sure to drink your necessary quantity of water? Try adding a few slices of lemon and cucumber to your water bottle for flavor, or drinking it hot with an herbal tea bag included.

Besides needing to run to the bathroom all day long, you will notice a huge improvement in your skin’s health, your mental sharpness, and your ability to eliminate toxins.

As a side note, drink spring water, even if it means doing the added work of buying it from a store. Taste wise, there is nothing yummier than spring water, and if you don’t like water, this alone could go a long way in making it more appetizing.

Omega 3-6-9 Oils

When I first started taking Omega oils, I noticed that my skin became more hydrated, shinier, and I actually lost weight! It’s counter intuitive that taking oils will cause weight loss, but your body desperately needs good fats to function in digestion, elimination, and so much more.

Post-menopausal women need more oils than pre-menopausal and should consider raising their intake to around two tablespoons morning and night. Having said that, I am not a natural health practitioner so please seek help if you are unsure of quantity.

In liquid form, try Nature’s Way Organic Flax oil for your Omega 3 oils. If you prefer gel tablets, try Super Omega 3-6-9 1200 mg and take two in the morning and two at night. If you are an oil superstar, take both, and wake up to a shiny face.

Induce Cell Turnover

Another counter-intuitive method to combat dry skin is to damage the surface layer of your skin through exfoliation in order to encourage cell turnover. When you do this, it tells the dermis layer of your skin to produce more cells and thus brings a new layer of skin to the surface.

Mind you, this works best if you are taking supplements like vitamin C, collagen, vitamin D, and other essential nutrients that create health in the body. Exfoliation of this type is best brought on by using AHA’s (alpha hydroxy acids), micro-dermabrasion, micro-needling, peels, etc.

If you use these methods over the long term, you will notice a rapid improvement in dry skin as well as a softening of lines and wrinkles.

Internal and External Vitamin C

Our body can’t create vitamin C, so we must take it in supplemental form. It is by far the number one most important supplement we need to take for health!

“But I eat oranges,” you say. Eating oranges will not be enough, as you would need to eat 15-25 oranges every day to get the same result. Personally speaking, I think I would throw-up oranges if I ate that many! Not good.

On average, a woman over 50 should take around 4000mg of vitamin C daily, and not in a multi vitamin. My favorite brand is NOW Foods C-1000, and I take two in the morning, and two at night. If I feel poorly, I take more.

External vitamin C is important as well, but keep in mind that your skin responds to 80% internal and 20% external measures. This is why I encourage you to start on the internal vitamin C above and beyond anything external that you apply.

Having said that, not all topical vitamin Cs are equal, and they come in different forms. The less expensive form is L-ascorbic acid and can be found in most mid-range serums on the market. One of my favorites is Image Skin Care Vital C Serum. At $75, it is an affordable and reputable C-serum.

For premium vitamin C, look for ascorbyl tetraisopalmitate in the ingredient deck. Any product using this form of vitamin C will cost anywhere between $150-$350 and will potentially do wonders for your skin.

My favorite brand with 80% premium vitamin C is Truth Treatments Transdermal C Serum. At $219, it’s on the pricier side, but with only two drops per day, it will last you around a month and a half to two months of concentrated, glowing skin nutrition.

Moisturizer

Moisturizers are a dime a dozen, so look for the ingredient tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate, a stable form of vitamin C for creams. This way, the moisturizer will sink beneath the epidermis layer and not just sit on the surface of the skin.

As with any key ingredient, you want it as close to the top of the deck as possible, as the further down the deck, the less of it in the product. For a mid-range moisturizer, check out Vital C Hydrating Intense Moisturizer for $70 from Image Skin Care.

For a total of four items in the ingredient deck and tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate in the number one position, try Transdermal C Balm. Here you’re paying for the active ingredients, not the fillers.

Needless to say, our skin becomes drier as we age, but there are many positive strategies we can employ to not only maintain a high level of hydration, but to encourage our skin to look better than ever. The healthier our skin, the less makeup is needed, and the more delicious it looks and feels. Who wouldn’t want that?

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice. Please consult with your doctor to get specific medical advice for your situation.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What does your skin look like? Is it too dry? Have you experimented with different products to make it look and feel healthier?

Photo: @heatherdubrow

Originally posted at: Erin Lichy’s White Leather Pants

Photo: @whitneywildrose

Originally posted at: Whitney Rose’s Grey Pocket Detail Sweater

Let me say right off the bat that there’s nothing special about me (my grandma wasn’t a Rockette and my people never brought home the gold).

True to my genetics, I was “well-insulated” for three-plus decades of life. Never reedy, I always looked like I’d been double-dipping on school lunches and chowing ice cream at night (because I was).

By my mid-30s, I hit bottom. My health problems and the “nothing fits” thing wore me down. I was done eating poorly. I said buh-bye to Hostess, Ben & Jerry’s and Olive Gardeny restaurants.

I began the trek of losing 55lbs. and lost the final weight by the time my boys turned two and I, 42.

But that’s not the cool part. Learning how to maintain the loss after age 50 was my true eureka moment. I’ve kept all 55 pounds off now for 16 years. I’m 59 today (way past meno).

Let me repeat: there’s nothing unusual about me; plus I’m not a dietician, a nutritionist or a doctor.

But I took notes on my trek and know exactly how I lost and maintain the 55.

Sure, it took a gazillion micro-shifts and embedding new habits, but it’s been totally worth it. It’s very hard, but doable.

I want to share with you one of my favorite micro-shifts: how using my lazy gene keeps me on the straight and narrow.

First, We Go Back to Go Forward

Your lazy gene only works if she’s set up for success. We begin with knowing the enemy territory: the grocery store.

Do not cross into this perilous world without first eating a small meal in your car. Eating at home doesn’t count. The magic lies in eating from our cold-tote – packed in smart foods like petite carrots, a tiny carton of yogurt, cut-up apple and so forth – again, in our adversary’s parking lot so that we don’t enter the terrain hungry and/or tired.

Our mission inside the store is to maintain a “clean cart” as we shop (i.e., ice cream, cookies, candy and the like stay on the shelf where they can nab some other poor soul).

Remember, Kroger doesn’t care if you lose weight or not. They’re in business to make money.

The Art of Lazy

Second, don’t bring junk food into your home in the first place. Instead, work to make your kitchen a wonderful, safe place packed in smart food items. (This includes ridding the pantry of cake mixes and chocolate chip bags.)

Yeah – But!

What if you live with a foodie partner, and simply can’t keep a “safe” kitchen? I hear you. Learning to coexist with a scarfer – my husband loves his nickname – is a learn-able skill. I’ve been doing it for decades.

When your foodie partner brings junk food into the kitchen, ask him or her to put all treats on the very top shelf that you can’t possibly reach even when using a step-stool and spatula.

Also, one great benefit to aging is that my memory isn’t so hot, so I often forget about my husband’s stash. Keeping junk food out-of-sight results in out-of-mind, works wonders.

New Problem

What if your partner won’t hide the loot? Here’s the strategy: crinkle wrappers like you’re opening a Hostess cupcake or tortilla chips and exclaim how thrilled you are to have found the “good stuff.” (Watch your foodie come running. Most freak out that you’re about to eat their junk food and will put their “treasure” out of reach).

I also know a woman who asks her husband to keep his calories at work. He can go Cookie Monster on his stash at the office, but he’s never to bring it home.

My point: we’re taking full advantage of our lazy gene when we make it extremely annoying to access junk food. Ice cream might sound heavenly, but if there’s none at home – no way will I change out of PJs and drive to the store for rocky road.

One more example. The hardest time of day for many of us to ignore our sweet tooth is in the evenings. So, after dinner, I brush my teeth and get into jammies and so forth. If I take a good book to bed with me, I’m way too lazy to walk downstairs to eat fake-food (that I can’t reach anyhow).

Advance Lazy

My foodie husband actually loves to grocery shop. Conversely, I’ve never been a fan. So about seven years ago, my scarfer became the grocery shopper in the family.

The Art of Easy

At the same time, we can make it super easy to access smart food. For example, my fridge is stocked in hardboiled eggs, salad fixings, sweet potatoes and broccoli all kept in full view (not hidden in a drawer). Fruit sits in a pretty bowl on my counter.

On Sundays I prepare various smart foods like brown rice, so I have one less thing to do during the week. Brown rice, frozen veggies, and lite soy sauce. Easy and tasty.

Also, I’ve eaten the same meal every day for decades: my oatmeal, blueberry, apple, and yogurt bowl. It’s so helpful to have one meal of my day be a no-brainer.

But staying moderately full is one of my strongest tools that I use to this day. For example, I never run errands without car-banana or my lunch tote riding shotgun. Getting hungry while out in our food-porn world is the quickest way to careen right off the smart eating path.

For decades our diet culture has pushed the notion that “it’s easy to lose!” But it was never just your imagination. If losing after 50 seems really hard, next to impossible, that’s because it is.

Once you and I fully understand what’s before us – that losing weight after 50 is akin to trekking up the Matterhorn – the right tools (like micro-shifts and awesome habits) can make such a difference that losing and maintaining after 50 can be ours.

Prepare for take-off.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Has weight loss always been a challenge for you? Have you lost weight to bounce back again? What maintenance strategies and tools are you using?

Oh, February 14 – love it or ignore it! It makes me think of the movie Love Actually, and all the types of love in the world – romantic, unrequited, familial, love across languages and races, love despite status, love after death, brotherly/sisterly love… and so much more.

Remember, it’s a Hallmark holiday. February was most likely a dead retail month – and this day invigorated sales: candy, flowers (A friend of mine who works with UPS told me about the planes full of flowers being flown in from South America just for 2/14!), perfume, anything pink or red!

No Date on the Horizon for Valentine’s Day?

No worries as a first or second date can be majorly weird and stressful with all the media attention this day gets… so unless you are in relationship, it may be an uncomfortable date.

As a top dating coach, I always have clients bring this question up to me, and they start asking in January!!!

My advice? Stop thinking about it, and once we hit Cupid’s Day just unplug. Don’t look at dating sites or social media all that day.

Other Tips for That Day

1. Do something your ex hated. For example, order that Indian food he complained about.
2. Take the Love Language quiz online – hey, it’s free and fun. Plus, you’ll know what some people are talking about on their profiles!
3. Thinking of a new volunteer endeavor? Check out some options.
4. Hit the cosmetics counter at Nordstrom for some retail therapy and see what’s new. Time for a new fragrance or a free makeover?
5. Research a trip you’ve been thinking about since Covid.
6. Get a facial. You’ll feel like a million bucks.
7. Plant an herb window box with mint, basil and thyme – yum, fresh muddled cocktails at home.
8. Repair a rift. Remember that dumb fight you had with your brother? You love him – so tell him.
9. Bake something sweet and deliver it to your awesome neighbor. Don’t bake? It’s Girl Scout Cookie season!
10. Work out with a great new cardio playlist you made today. Oh, those endorphins.

Love of All Kinds

February 14^th is just a day – but a day filled with all sorts of love, not just romantic. And we all love someone, right? Pick up your cellphone and call someone you haven’t spoken to in ages. I’m thinking of my favorite aunt who recently lost her husband, so while I think of her often, today I’m settling in for a good long chat with her.

Another fun idea for Valentine’s Day is “Galentine’s Day,” a celebration with you and the “gals.” Over the past 10 years, this has turned into a real thing: ladies getting together for a golf day, a spa day, a shopping and lunch day. Now, doesn’t this sound fun and easy to put together?

But If You Just Started a New Relationship – Go Low Pressure

On the other hand, I have clients in new relationships – mostly in the one-to-three-month range. What do I tell them?

For instance, Jeff, 64, met Anna two months ago, and they’ve been seeing each other twice a week. He really likes her and asked me what was appropriate. After some brainstorming, he is taking her back to the place they first met – for lunch and has a small gift for her, a book they’ve chatted about as she loves to read.

Another example is Tim, 67, who has been dating Laura for a month. They are both super athletic and avid pickleball players. He’s planning a pickleball date with another couple, then invited her back to his home for his favorite Italian dinner (Yes, this man can cook!). He’s planning Pasta Carbonara, Caesar Salad, Tiramisu (no, he’s not a baker – he’s buying that) and a good Chianti.

Laid back is the way to go for Valentine’s Day in the early throes of dating. I have one client in Asheville, NC planning a hiking date and another client in Sarasota planning a bike ride followed by lunch. Wow, people seem athletic this year, don’t they!?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Let’s Have a Conversation:

What was your best Valentine’s date ever? What made that date special? If you’re not currently dating, what special thing are you planning for 2/14?