Friday, February 20, 2015

Your inner wolrd defines your beauty-III

Hi all,

           So this will  be the final part of my tutorial "Your inner world defines your outer world."In this particular post and the next forth coming post, I am gonna share some of the daily yoga poses that I practice and the diet I follow regularly. So keep reading my posts so that you can gain an insight to a healthy living life style.

           OK. So to start with, I wake up at 5:30 in the morning and complete my morning rituals. As soon as I am done with brushing, I drink two glasses of lemon mixed with honey in water. The result- A flat tummy and less risk of acquiring Blood Pressure.

           Once I am done with it, I wait for five minutes and then get onto the yoga mat. Now, I just want to be clear here. Sometimes, I combine Pilates with Yoga when I need to concentrate on a particular area like knees or joints. It's because I love pilates and yoga equally and have fun in doing both at the same time.

           I warm up for five minutes and then start off with breathing exercises.  I am extremely sorry that I cannot publish any of my yoga pictures. It's because I am not having enough time to get photographed since I need to look after my son. Being a new mom, I am still getting adjusted to certain things and I am kind of adapting a strategy to maintain a little amount of time for myself. So my apologies to you in advance.

         Once I finish the breathing exercises, I concentrate on Pranayamam, a powerful yoga technique that enhances my mind, body and soul. This relaxes my mind completely and makes me confident to face my day with glee. I will be sharing about this in detail in the next post. So do not fail to check it out. I then do push ups for flat abs and then start off with some Pilates. I see to that my Pilates is just a seven minute session so that I can focus more on Pranayamam and other exercises.

        I practice pranayamam for a minimum of 30 minutes. Then comes my favorite part- Surya Namaskaram or the so called 12 sun poses that is extremely helpful for your entire body. Surya Namaskaram consists of 12 poses, benefiting knees, back bone, back, arms and stomach. I have listed a few benefits that I know. But I am pretty sure that there are many more benefits apart from this. For those who are not aware of  Surya Namaskarams, you can just search the internet so that you can gain an insight from it. And that makes one hour of my day so much productive!



Once I am done with my yoga session, I immediately consume a handful of green gram and black-eyed peas sprouts so that energy gets added to my body instantly. I also eat a whole banana and have a glass of carrot juice so that my body gets re hydrated and is kept fresh throughout the day.

Sprouts have high protein content and are natural products. I hope you all are aware of how to make sprouts. You can make your own sprouts with ground nuts, black chick peas, pearl millet, red millet etc. So this is my diet chart and my daily yoga schedule! Hope you enjoyed reading it. Do follow this as it is very beneficial. Always remember, sharing is caring:) So share and re share it. Follow me to my next post right away!




Your inner world defines your beauty-II

Hi lovelies,

            Hope you all are having a great time and leading happy lives. I am unable to catch up with my posts regularly as the amount of naughtiness exhibited by my son is directly proportional to the amount I get myself distanced from Internet. We all love kids. Indeed, who does not? But when it comes to mischief, I become a screamer who goes completely nuts and crazy. I get irritated to the peak level and show it on my hubby. It was then that my hubby suggested to take a long and relaxing bubble bath. He gifted me an assorted set of epsom salts to fade away the stress, irritation and tension. And the cost? A fortune!

           I was bewildered with the cost. I searched the internet for alternatives and I found quite a handful of tips . So today, I will share with you how to prepare your own bathing salts and enhance your beauty. But remember, to be beautiful outside, you need to have peace and tranquility on the inside.

To make your own bathing salts, all you need is
  • Grounded coffee powder
  • Sea salt
  • Essential oil (I used olive oil)
 
    Easy, isn't it? With just these three ingredients, I have made my own bathing salts and you can make one too. Coarse grind the coffee or chicory nuts in a mortar-pastel or in a mixer grinder. I did it in mortar-pastel as they give aromatic results that are very mild.

     Add half a cup of sea salt to the coarsely grounded coffee powder and mix it well. See to it that the mixture is in a 1:2 proportion with coffee being in a higher ratio. Now add your favorite essential oil or flavored oil and stir it well. Viola! Your bathing salt for daily use is ready! You can also add lavender oil if you want your bathing salts to be aromatic.

So try it out and let me know how it worked. Remember, sharing is caring :) Please do share the posts as it keeps me motivated! Follow me for the next post right away!

Mint speaks it all

Hi everybody,

         Hope you all are doing fine. Before I ask how are you, let me ask you a serious question. Do you sleep contentedly? Is your sleep cycle uninterrupted? Do you have a sound sleep? If the answer is a big No, then do not feel sorry, for you have landed on the correct blog where I post many tips for a sound sleep. In this post, I am going to list out the benefits of Mint or Pudina to our skin and health. So join me as I bring forth to you some amazing benefits of Mint.



Benefits for skin:

To get softer and smoother lips, apply two leaves of fresh pudina leaves to your lips for two minutes. Squeeze the juice of the leaves on to your lips so that it acts as a moisturizer aiding in smotthing of your lips.

Problems with dark circles? Don't worry! Take two spoons of mint juice and dip a cotton ball in it. Apply it in circular motion around your eyes and let it dry for 15 min. After you wash it, you will feel fresh and rejuvenated since the aroma of mint enhances your brain cells and wades off even the slightest traces of insomnia.

To two spoons of mint juice, add three drops of lemon drops and apply it on acne affected spots on your face, neck, arms and shoulders. Mint aids in reducing pigmentation of the skin and also preventing acne.

Also applying mint juice on your face helps tighten your skin and removes bacteria and open pores. It revitalizes your skin with it's natural herbal value. You can apply as many times as you want, as it does not have any side effects :)

Boil mint and basil leaves and store the water in an air tight container. Use it as a toner whenever needed. This water does not only act as a toner, but also acts as an SPF blocking UV and harmful sun rays. Get set Go!!

Health benefits:

Suffering from insomnia or depression? Here's a solution:

Keep two to three fresh mint leaves below your pillow for an hour or so. When you are about to sleep, flip the pillow so that the aroma from the mint leaves makes you to get a sound and release sleep throughout the entire night :)

To reduce itchiness on your skin, dab a few drops of mint juice on the affected area. This will relieve your skin from burning and itchiness and acts as a coolant on your skin.

Many women suffer with cracks on their heels and feet. Even though getting a pedicure proves fruitful, one cannot get a pedicure quite often. The best way to treat cracked heels is to apply a few drops of mint juice, lemon juice and olive oil to the affected parts. Leave it on cracked heels over night. Repeat this process daily before you go to bed. You will notice dramatic changes. The cracked heels tend to close on its own leaving a smooth and soft texture on your skin.

Adding a dash of leaves or a few drops of mint juice in your diet can detoxify your system and increase oxygen supply to your body.

So that's it for today my dears! There are umpteen number of benefits with mint. But I have chosen to post only the best tips. So feel free to add your valuable suggestions on mint if any, so that we can make this an interactive session.

Keep reading my posts, sharing and resharing them so that everybody can be benefited. Meet you in next post.

Until then, take care :) Love you loads :)

Friday, February 13, 2015

Papaya to the rescue


Hola sassy ladies!

             Salam, Namaste, Hello and Adaab to everybody. Hope you all are doing great. My son has slept and hopefully, he will not be waking up for the next two hours. I have once again turned into a blogging bird where I can enjoy posting tips for beauty and health.

              So today, I am going to post about the combined benefits of papaya and cilantro, papaya and honey, and much more. Papaya as a whole does have its own benefits. But when combined with other natural products, it shows the most amazing results. Unlike the routine technique where I post about general tips, today I am going to give you a sneak peek into my personal home made beauty kit which I normally don't share with everyone :) I certainly am in good mood I suppose. A small sense of euphoria since my son has given me a vacation time for 2 hours!! So I think this happiness has driven me to share my beauty secrets with you. What are we waiting for still? Let's go!

                I am listing out the beauty tricks and techniques that I follow with papaya. You too can give it out a try as all the products that I combine along with papaya are completely natural  and do not have any side effects on your skin.

1. Papaya scrub:

           To make this scrub, you definitely need to preserve the peel of this fruit. Take a big sized papaya and cut it into medium sized pieces. You can either peel off the entire process before you cut it or you can grind it along with the fruit. Whichever method you choose, be sure that it's not completely ripened. See to that the fruit is hard so that the skin can be peeled off easily. Grind the fruit along with the peel and add some sugar to it. Keep it in an air tight container and store it in refrigerator for two days. The grinded mixture will now become into a thick paste. You can either apply it as a scrub to your face or add some other products to it. I add some cilantro paste to this scrub. Here's how I do it.

            For the cilantro paste, I take a few bunches of cilantro, separate them carefully and boil the leaves. I do not cut them into pieces as they tend to boil too soon by sticking together. I boil them  along with tender green stem like structures that hold the leaves. The green stems contain the juice; so I carefully pick the short and plump ones. I boil them for nearly ten minutes and preserve the water in a jar. I then grind the boiled leaves with papaya and sugar and add this rough grinded paste to the boiled cilantro water. I preserve this in refrigerator. (By the way, my son has woken up :( )

             The reason I add cilantro is I prefer natural oxy-genators to be applied on my face.  Cilantro has the property of supplying natural oxygen to the skin, allowing the skin to breathe even though a scrub or mask is applied on our face. Moreover, the boiled cilantro water removes bacteria, dead cells, black heads and acts as a natural cleanser. The aroma from it is completely refreshing. I just loooooove it's aroma. Add this natural herbal product to your papaya scrub and you will be left amazed with the end result. Let me know how it worked out for you :)

2. Papaya mask: 

               I wear this customized and personalized papaya mask when I notice acne and black marks on my face. I once suffered from a severe dandruff problem which left my shoulders and my neck area with several black marks. My skin lost its glow and I was worried. None of the medications worked. I wanted to create my own medicine which will be useful and effective even in the long run. It was then that I started experimenting with natural products.  Papaya was the first product that I tried on, and it was an instant hit! I will now teach how I prepare my papaya mask. You can apply this to your face, neck, arms and shoulders.I generally apply it to my neck and arms.

               Squeeze out the pulp from papaya and keep it in a bowl. Add a big tomato cut into pieces to this and grind it. You will notice that the paste will contain more water content. Keep it in refrigerator so that the paste absorbs the water completely. I usually deep freeze it for two days so that it becomes hard. But for instant purposes, you can keep it in refrigerator. Once the water is absorbed by the paste take it out and add half piece of ripened banana to it. Apply it on your face and wash it off after twenty minutes. Tomato acts as an antioxidant and works on acne, pimples and black marks. Banana adds glow to your skin and keeps it healthy. You can easily notice the change in your face tone when you apply banana as it soothes your face evenly and balances the tone throughout the edges.You can add other fruits like pine apple and grapes to this paste. But keep in mind that grapes and pineapple are to be added if you are preparing an instant face mask and do not want to store it. Grapes and pineapple do not last for more than a day and they spoil the entire paste if preserved for more than a day. I add grapes to this paste if I am to attend any evening party or wedding reception.

3. Papaya face pack :

           This is an instant mix face pack that will leave your skin full prepared for any occasion. I use this when I am off to weddings. To half a cup of gram flour, add half a cup of boiled papaya. You can also Fuller's earth (Multani mitti) for this purpose. I just use gram flour. Add some water and make it into a paste. Apply it directly on your face without preserving it in refrigerator. Wash off your face after 15 min. Do not preserve this face pack in refrigerator as gram flour becomes so hard that it cannot be used for the next time. Prepare this face pack whenever you need it so that the pack is fresh and does  not get wasted.

            So this is it for today my dears. I still have many tips in store for you. I cannot take everything on a single post as it becomes complicated. I will be posting in installments :) So stay tuned and share your valuable suggestion and comments in the box below so that I can get to learn new techniques too! Let's share and re-share it. Hope you enjoy reading it.

          Meet you in next post. Until then, take care. Love you loads :)






Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Your inner world defines you beauty-II

Hi my dear ones!

                  Hope you are doing great. Sorry for not being able to update the three day tutorial as my baby has mastered the art of mischief. I honestly think that 24 hours a day is not enough for me as I am continuously running round and round the clock attending to his needs. Phew! Motherhood is a perilous journey. Its 10:30 P.m here and my son has not yet slept. I had given him to my hubby and escaped to blogging. What a pleasure, yay!!

                 So in the previous post, I kind of spoke about the basic veggies that are helpful for your mind and body. All the veggies that I mentioned can be used in multiple ways to achieve multiple results. So what I am gonna do is, I am gonna write about each veggie in individual posts so that you can refer them conveniently. Today, I am gonna list down the benefits of cucumber. So let's get started.


Scrub:

As we all know, cucumber can be used as a moisturizer. But what most of us do not know is that it can be used as a gentle and mild scrub to keep your face and skin ultra smooth. Scrap a big chunk of cucumber and keep it in a separate bowl. Add two drops of glycerine and half table spoon of sugar to it. Apply it to your face, hands, elbows and knees and wash it off with luke warm water after 10 min. This is very effective in removing the tan from knees and elbows. Also, this keeps the face smooth and glycerine keeps your face oil free.

Intake: 

Cucumber is known to reduce and expel heat from your body. My body gets heated so quickly that my skin becomes chappy and dry. Eating at least one full cucumber can help you overcome this problem. Since cucumber contains more water content, it keeps your body cool from inside. You can include it in your salad. I intake it with salt and pepper combination as it adds salts to our blood levels. Regular intake of it will keep your body hydrated.

Moisturizer:

To create your own moisturizer, cut cucumber into circular pieces and store in the refrigerator for one hour. Meanwhile, steam up your face with warm water  and wipe off with a soft towel. Take the cut pieces of cucumber from the refrigerator and softly scrub the circular pieces along your face, allowing the juice from the pieces to flow on your face. Do not wipe this off as it will eventually get soaked inside your skin. Cucumber acts as a natural moisturizer and blocks all opened pores.

Mental peace:

If you are yoga lover or a fitness freak, do not forget to consume cucumber after every session of your exercise as it aids in balancing your mind and body. As said earlier, I am a yoga freak and do yoga for nearly an hour a day. I never skip consuming cucumber after my practice as yoga is mainly about balancing mind and body and cucumber is something that keeps me cool both inside and outside. Also, research has proved that consuming green veggies, especially cucumber will reduce your stress levels and temper.

Face pack:

There are no specific face packs for cucumber exclusively, but it can used by combining other natural products. however, to create your own face pack, mix some scraped cucumber with two spoons of honey and a pinch of turmeric. Honey maintains the glow of your face, while turmeric removes bacteria and dead cells your face. Cucumber aids in soothing the skin.

So that's it my dears. Hope you enjoyed reading this post. Watch out for future posts which will be definitely helpful for your health. Share and re-share it so that everyone can be benefited from this. Feel free to drop your views and suggestions below.

Meet you in next post. Until then, take care! :)

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Your inner world defines your beauty -I

Hello my lovelies,

               Hope you all enjoyed my previous post. Today, I am going to be a bit philosophical (Yes, what you read is correct!) to actually define "What is you." I do not wish to extend the introductory part more than this. So let's get started. 

              Till today, I posted on topics like what makes you look beautiful on the exterior side. But many of the readers do not know that our exterior beauty is purely a result of our interior beauty. In this particular post, I am going to start a tutorial for three whole days where I will be speaking about our inner selves, journey of life and how to attain peace by following some simple tips. This is not gonna completely be a philosophical tutorial as it will contain many beauty tips. This tutorial will teach you how to gain balance in life, both internally and externally. So keep reading these posts whenever you feel down, dejected or depressed. Also, keep following the healthy tips as these are the essential ones that boost up your confidence levels.       

                As I said, real beauty depends on our mindset. Our face is a reflection of our thoughts. When we have positive and peaceful thoughts, the face reflects those thoughts by maintaining a natural glow and a calm texture. Our mind is a monkey and wanders from one thought to another. It keeps on wandering through infinite thoughts so much that we almost get confused at the end and we tend to become more depressed and afraid of the future. The mind generates unwanted thoughts and invokes in us a phobia of future. We are scared to accept the truth; at the same time, we are too scared to deny the truth. The solution to this is simple. Never let the mind to master your thoughts.  

            How to achieve mastery in controlling your thoughts and mind? This is real simple folks. With a daily dose of 20 minute mediation and 30 minute Yoga, you can become the master of your mind. Yoga and meditation alone are not enough to strike a balance between your inner beauty and outer beauty. You also need to take the right nutritious intake that compliments Yoga and meditation. Only then can you be benefited by the outcome.

          I am a Yoga freak and I am practicing it for the past 5 years. The results I achieved are inexplicable. I felt an enormous transformation within me. I saw a whole new me with a better perspective for life. I wanted to share this internal never ending happiness with everyone that I know or don’t know because Yoga is an asset handed over by Indian ancestors. The real secret to being beautiful is living a healthy life style with peace and harmony.

           I am a strict vegetarian and stick to green vegetables. Apart from this, I consume sprouts (Hope everyone are aware of that). Some of the veggies/fruits that provide ultimate beauty to your mind and body are

Cucumber

Papaya

Broccoli

Spinach

Pomegranate

           In the upcoming post, I will share in detail about how to use these supreme veggies to get a beautifully toned body and mind. So keep reading these posts and don't forget to share and re-share it, as it is beneficial for each and every one. Meet you shortly. 

Until then, take care :) Love you loads :)


             

             
               

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Golden glow for skin

Hi, my dears,

                Hope you all enjoyed reading my previous post. In continuation of the previous post, today I will post about how to get the golden "Midas" touch to your face with just three ingredients that are right in your kitchen shelf. We all dream to have a glowing skin that's completely flawless without any makeover. But we do see some black spots, blackheads, acne, crow's feet so on and so forth on our face. The worst is the wrinkles.

                We think wrinkles do not affect us as we are on the right diet plan and then bam! There's the presence of wrinkles the next day! Luckily, I have no wrinkles on my face as I strongly stick to homemade facial pastes that act as anti-tan packs, antioxidants and face protectors. So let's begin today's session.

                   For the golden face pack, all you need is

1. Half cup of turmeric


2.  Two spoons of curd
3. thick layer of skimmed milk


                          To start with, add a sufficient quantity of thick layer of milk that is skimmed, to the turmeric powder. Mix these two well and add two spoons of curd to this. Make it into a fine paste and apply it to your face and neck immediately. Do not use any gram flour or Fuller's earth (Multani mitti) as this will make the paste harsh on your face leaving some crude rashes. Make this into a thick paste as a light layer of paste will not show any effect on your skin. Apply it in circular and anti circular motions on your cheeks. The cruder the paste, the better the result. 

                          Once you are done applying on the cheeks, apply the paste above and below your chin. Scrub it lightly in these areas as turmeric removes unwanted hair above your lips. Rub the paste mildly in a circular motion around your eyes. You can skip this step if the paste you made is too crude. Leave this mask on your face till it dries and wash it off with warm water. Do not use cotton as turmeric and cotton stick together and do not come off your skin easily. 

                            After you wash off your face, you will realize a radical change in the texture of your face. You will see that your face will now have a natural yellowish gold look. Not only does this add beauty to you, but also brings many benefits to you. 

                            Turmeric acts as a natural sun blocker. It protects your face from getting tanned and also blocks the pores in your face naturally.  Also, turmeric removes hair from the upper lips and on your face. It saves the money that you spend on threading, facials, and cleansing! Also, it kills some of the bacteria on our face that are responsible for acne and puss-filled pimples. It is a natural antibiotic that heals acne and pimples. 

                          When the pimples are touched, they leave a black mark on the face. Turmeric has the capacity to wade off even the black marks on your face that have been on for so many years. One of the next amazing benefits is, it completely removes and blocks blackheads and whiteheads and heals our skin with natural repairing ingredients face. Also, wrinkles and crow's feet stay away from you as long as you apply turmeric to you Awesome, isn't it? Milk and curd act as moisturizers to soothe your skin and bring an even tone. So there you go! Awesome homemade face pack that has multiple benefits of a salon! 

I hope you enjoyed reading this post. I will meet you in the next post where I will write about a whole new topic. So stay tuned to receive more exciting tips. Meet you in the next post. Until then, take care. Love you loads :)




Monday, February 2, 2015

Beautiful you

Hello my dear beauties and my besties!

             It's been a very long time since I had written any posts. I have missed blogging so much that I was waiting to cut out some time from my busy schedule. Now that my son is 8 months old, I have once again started to blog, yay!!
       
             Parenting, especially motherhood is not as easy as we think. I am still unable to cope up with time since I need to be attentive to all my baby's needs. He cries, pees, poops, oh God, there are many to describe and I get tired when I do so. I did not even have the time to pay a visit to my nearby salon. My hands were completely tanned, legs completely dried due to lack of moisture and my skin looked chappy. To make this worse I had overly grown eyebrows and blackheads on my nose. I felt kinda odd to step out of my home.

            Whenever I went out, I was on very low confidence levels due to my dull and duller appearance. My baby is a night bird. So black circles started to love my eyes. I loathed my appearance each and every day but there was nothing I could do about this. Time was something that I needed. It was then that I started to do my long forgotten yoga. Yes, I am a yoga freak and I work out every day for one hour. But pregnancy and motherhood never allowed me to do so. One fine morning, I started with a couple of breathing exercises, focusing on how to gain time with this busy and hectic schedule.

            I got the solution when I was in deep concentration, focusing on my breaths. If I am not able to go to the salon, why not I bring myself a home made salon like experience? Why not I create my own beauty products with the natural resources present in my kitchen? India is the home to Ayurveda and Yoga. Why not I make use of these two combinations and make myself look prettier day by day?

          As soon as I got all the answers that I needed, I rushed to the kitchen and grabbed some of the natural products in my kitchen and back yard. My most frequently used products are

1. Turmeric powder

2. Dry ginger powder

3. Curd


 4. Gram flour.

               With these, I had created the best of face packs, anti acne powders, scrubs and  much more. I personally have experienced how the Indian spices and other natural products works best on our faces and retains the natural glow without any side effects.

                So come on and join me in discovering the beautiful you by using the products that are present right in your kitchen. Tomorrow, I will be sharing the secrets to beautiful skin by using these products. So get ready to become more beautiful and re-discover a new you my dear Barbies! Meet you tomorrow. Until then, take care. Bye bye!

Love you loads :)