Tips for that Summer GLOW
Image via pinterest
WHY GLOW? Let me first start by saying, I talk a lot about glow as you may have noticed, supporting your skin and your health in general.
This is such an important and layered topic and one I believe is so important to address, for two reasons;
how you look, the texture and tone of your skin, the colour of your eyes, your inner radiance, and that VIBRANT GLOWING ENERGY you bring into the world when you are truly looking after yourself, is the best indicator of your health on the inside.
how you show up in the world, how you present and how others perceive you, determines your experience within it and very often dictates, the way you feel about yourself in your day to day. If you have blemishes, dark circles, dull skin or you’re exhausted and lacking the energy to get through your day, it’s very difficult to feel your best.
So, if I’m advocating for you to LIVE LIFE ON HIGH, how you feel about yourself and therefore the time and effort you allow for yourself and your daily routine, will go a long way in determining the outcome. So with that being said, let’s dive in.
Summer this year seems like the gift that keeps on giving here in Melbourne and whilst officially we are only a few weeks away from a change in season, I wanted to share a few of my favourite ways to keep that SUMMER GLOW and relaxed summer vibe, for a little longer.
For us summer brings a sense of lightness, a sense of adventure, dinners al fresco, evenings at the beach and easy catch up’s with friends and I don’t know about you, but for me it also brings more of the temptation for sundowners and a different type of summer glow!
80/20 LIFESTYLE
As I’m sure you’ve heard me mention before, I am a huge advocate of an 80/20 lifestyle, being a little cleaner and more focused 80% of the time, ensuring I am getting what I need to support a healthy and vibrant body + mind, so I can feel good about taking the handbrake off the other 20% of the time.
In short, prioritising all the nutritious things for most of my day/week and enjoying what comes during the rest. In reality, this is something that is SO IMPORTANT FOR ME, as someone who has healed disordered eating, this gives me the freedom + flexibility to actually enjoy eating, without the stress. I’m always looking to find that balance and support myself all of the time, WHATEVER MY CHOICES.
Below are my favourite ways to support that ‘healthy summer glow’ and as with everything we do here, the focus is on both inside + out.
hydrate, hydrate, hydrate
Make water your primary drink, it helps hydrate your cells, flush out toxins and helps keep you regular.
Eat fruits and vegetables with high water content as your body has a much easier time absorbing and using the water from these sources and it also means you get the extra fibre and vitamins and nutrients you need.
eat the rainbow
Eating an array of antioxidant rich foods like those found in fruits and vegetables helps your body deal with the damaging effects of the sun and potentially give you extra protection, both as a natural SPF from the inside out and increasing the SPF benefits from your sunblock. You can read more on this here.
Antioxidants sweep up free radicals caused by inflammation, (including that from the sun, as sun burn is essentially inflammation of your largest organ), and if left in the body, free radicals can cause damage to your tissues. In short, EAT colourful fruits and vegetables!
Dry Body Brushing
acts like any exfoliator and sloughs away dead, dry surface cells, removing the dead skin layer and allowing the body to breathe, leaving you with smooth and even-toned skin in no time.
HOW TO DRY BODY BRUSH:
Brush your body before you shower or take a bath in long, upward sweeping movements, toward your heart. Starting from the soles of your feet, up the legs, stomach, (watching the delicate areas of the tummy and breasts) and down the arms and back, toward the heart. Following with moisturiser to lock the moisture in when done. More on HOW from S&C here and BENEFITS here.
Dry Body Brushing is a powerful tool to use in support of your lymphatic system, which we will cover in more detail separately.
Moisturisers for Nourishment + Summer Glow
It’s no secret I’m a fan of using The Travelista Products and even more so in summer, as they are so rich and nourishing, my skin just drinks them in and gives me a noticeable glow! The Travelista are clean, easy + natural, so they won’t add to the toxic load (more on that below).
Alternately, I also love using a simple Extra Virgin Olive Oil for moisturising my skin, which has the additional benefit of offering a little natural SPF protection, (I am in no way saying don’t wear sunscreen, just saying it’s a great addition to your summer protocol).
support your body’s natural detox system
Because for many of us, summer brings that pursuit of pleasure element, long summer holidays, vino with friends and lazy days at the beach, I really like to focus on supporting my detox system as best I can and below I outline a couple of reasons for this.
In order for your body to function optimally, your detox system needs to be working well and not under too much pressure, as every system in you body is connected, meaning if your detox system is overloaded, there will be a knock on effect throughout the rest of the body.
Secondly, glowing skin, comes from within and given your skin is your largest detox organ and the last resort in the detox chain, anything that cannot be processed through your liver and kidneys (your detox system), can show up on your skin as breakouts or skin rashes.
detox 101
Let’s just do a really quick overview of why detox is so important and what that looks like.
The process of detoxification is happening in every cell, every minute of the day. Detoxification is the body’s process of removing potentially problematic substances and is NOT specifically a food, a pill or a diet, (even though you can follow specific plans to ‘do a detox’ for extra support).
Detox is an ongoing vital process, that your body does all on its own in order to survive, it happens 24/7/365.
Hopefully, now you can see, if you’re pursuing all things pleasurable and adding to the load your body has to detox over this time, with Christmas dinners, new years parties, summer bbq’s and all the fun things, it’s helpful to give your body some extra support, it’s also worth mentioning that everything we put on our bodies is absorbed straight into the bloodstream and needs to be eliminated or detoxed, so all that extra sunblock, even if it’s a cleaner, more natural version, is still ‘extra’ on your skin.
lemon water
I’m sure you’ve heard this many times before, that lemon water is great first thing in the morning!
Juice half a lemon
+ boiling water and drink warm, or add to a glass of room temp water (not cold)
to make it even easier and perfect for summer holidays, our friends at Land have created a beautiful organic lemon juice powder. Just add water!
THE BENEFITS | of lemon water in the morning, range from waking up the metabolism, kick starting digestion and supporting detox.
ALCOHOL
Alcohol comes into your system, sirens blazing, like an ambulance, alerting you to the fact that it needs to be seen to first and everything else has to wait. Just something to be mindful of, as on the days you drink alcohol your body will give priority to detoxing it first, meaning it may not get to the other waste, (food particles, body products and all of the other cellular waste that your body produces daily), so hopefully you can see why it’s important to have alcohol free days and support your system on the days you are drinking alcohol.
BITTER FOODS + HERBS
Bitters, support your detox system and can be found in dark leafy greens and specific herbs, like dandelion, milk thistle and nettle to name a few. They can be eaten, drunk as tea, taken in tablets/powders or my favourite, Orchard Street Liver drops, as you can just add them to water or straight under the tongue. They stimulate the taste buds, elevating digestive and cleansing potential.
EAT PLENTY OF FRUITS + VEGETABLES, PARTICULARLY CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES
Flood your body with nutrients and it will love you for it. Not only will you up your nutrition, the fibre will ensure you go to the bathroom and eliminate those toxins that your body has been working so hard to eliminate. Make sure you include plenty of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kale as they are essential for all phases of detoxification.
SUPPORT YOUR GUT
I won’t go too much into it here as this is a bigger topic for another day, however, if you support your gut, your gut will support everything else. I will mention, on the subject of alcohol, that alcohol can cause holes in your gut lining, which can lead to leaky gut and glutamine an ingredient found in the Gut Co’s REPAIR, can help repair this damage, it’s also full of a high level of ANTIOXIDANTS! I take this daily and sometimes twice a day around alcohol.
You can find further reading on ‘Skin + The Gut’ here.
Please note, this is not a specific protocol, as we are all so different, it’s simply an education around the benefits of supporting a healthy glow and how I like to support myself daily. Any questions, reach out. Trish
A few of our favourite easy ways to support DETOX, below. Add them to your daily routine and see for yourself!