Good Morning, New Leaves! I hope that you all had a wonderful Saturday!  Today, I have plans to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Well, I am going to give myself a pedicure and watch TV with my husband… but that’s it for me.

I hope that you, too, will give yourself a day off: You’ve been working hard all week, exercising, planning and eating well balanced nourishing foods. I hope that the most work you do today will be treating yourself to a spa day.

Here’s what you can do:

Before you begin anything, boil enough water for one cup of tea. Brew two tea bags in the water and let them remain there.

Cleanse your face as you normally do: Don’t pat the water dry after you’ve rinsed your cleanser off. Instead, place a big spoonful of baking soda into your palm and sprinkle a few drops of water into it (enough to make a paste). Close your eyes and use your fingertips and very little pressure to scrub your face, avoiding your eye area. Don’t forget to scrub near and under your jaw. Rinse well.

Next place about 1/2 a cup of plain unflavored yogurt into a clean glass bowl. Add a tablespoon of honey to the yogurt and mix well with a fork (as though you were beating eggs).

Fill a basin (large enough for you to soak your feet in) with warm water. Add 1 cup of whole milk and tea (without the tea bags) to the water. Put those tea bags in a Ziploc bag and store them in the refrigerator (we’ll be using them next week). The tannins in the tea help neutralize foot odor. The lactic in the milk will help soften the skin on your feet and ankles.

Slice two fairly thin slices of cucumber.  Apply your honey/yogurt masque to your face, avoiding your eye area. The yogurt is loaded with skin nourishing nutrients, including zinc and lactic acid. The honey is antibacterial, antimicrobial and extremely moisturizing.

Bring your cucumbers with you, get comfortable and soak your feet.  Lean back, close your eyes and place one slice of cucumber on each eye. Cucumbers are WONDERFUL for the eyes: They reduce puffiness and provide lots of moisture to the area of the face that needs it most.

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL day! Don’t forget, we’re doing a mini-fast in a few days, so get ready to rumble!

Good MORNING my New Leaves! Happy Saturday to you all!

I hope that you’ll all overcome any shyness you are experiencing and join in on the on-line blog conversation! I have received some lovely, heart felt emails from many of you, so I’d like to reiterate part of my reponse to you:  Please, post here on the blog! My hope is that everyone can draw from one another’s strength and encouragement as we endeavor to make exercise and good eating a way of life.

I told you that I would be giving you a homework assignment, so here it is: I want you to practice the proper way to do a push-up.  Real push-ups, not the so-called “modified push-up” where you are performing the movement with bent knees.  The push-up is one of very few exercises that works a number of major muscle groups at the same time. The pectorals (chest), deltoids (shoulders), triceps (back two thirds of the upper arm) and latissimus dorsi (upper back) all benefit from a properly executed push up. Pushups also strengthen your core muscles (upper and lower abdominals and lower back).  The only way to build up enough strength to perform a push up is by doing one. You will never build up enough strength to do a real push-up by doing modified ones. If you are unable to do a pushup, no worries!  I will film a demonstration tomorrow morning and post it for you. I’ll give you instructions on how to gradually build up enough strength to do a full push-up. Performed properly, pushups will actually strengthen weak lower back muscles, so if you have lower back pain, you really NEED to make pushups part of your exercise regimen.

I will also demonstrate the proper way to lunge and squat.  Both exercises use nearly every muscle and muscle group in the lower body, including the gluteus maximus (buttocks), quadriceps & hamstrings (front and rear of the upper legs, respectively) calves, abductors (inner thigh) and adductors (outer thighs or “hips”). These movements also engage and strengthen your core muscles.

Finally, I will also demonstrate three basic movements for the abdominals, that will work the upper, lower and side sections of your abs.  Next week, you will be performing these exercises on your “off” days, so your workout routine will look something like this:

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: 45 Minute DVD workout or equivalent strength, cardio and stretching exercises.

Tuesdays & Thursdays: “Basic Training” Workout, which will consist of one set of all of the exercises I have listed above (push-ups, lunges, squats and ab work).

By exercising on a regular basis and eating well balanced meals every day, you are providing your body with the nutrients needed to strengthen (and in so doing, firm and tighten) your muscles.  At the end of our 30 Day Challenge, you will see VISIBLE changes in your body provided you are following the guidelines I have set out for you: Please, be sure that you are making time (it only takes a few minutes) to plan your meals. Of equal importance, be sure that you are exercising on a regular basis in the manner outlined in my previous blog entries.

This is Day Six of our 30 Day Challenge, so I think everyone has earned a spa day!  Tomorrow, I’d like for you to set aside an hour (a whole hour! 60 minutes!) to spend on yourself. This week, we’re going to do an at home facial and pedicure.

• Before your shower, remove your nail polish, if you’re wearing any.
• Cleanse your face and hair.
• Apply your favorite Phat Head deep conditioner and then put on a plastic conditioning cap (a thin shower cap).
• Steam your pores by following the instructions in the Daily Spa Ritual for my Pore Me masques
• Apply your favorite Pore Me Masque (do not use the Pore Me a Pumpkin masque, as the 5% alpha hydroxy acid content might cause irritation to freshly steamed pores).  If you don’t have one of my masques, you can use raw egg whites (for oily skin) or a whole, beaten egg (for dry skin). Some alternative pantry items for DIY masques include honey, mashed banana, avocado or yogurt. Add a teaspoon of pure baking soda to give the masque some body. The baking soda will also help restore your skin’s pH balance.
• Once you have applied your masque, fill a large basin with very warm water and add a generous scoopful of The Good Foot Herbal Soak OR 1/2 a cup of Epsom salt and about two tablespoons of lemon juice (the natural alpha hydroxy acids in the lemon juice will help soften the skin).  You can also cut open an orange, squeeze the juice into the water and then add the whole orange to the water.
• Put your Phat Head Hair Therapy Cordless Conditioning Heat Cap on (if you don’t have a heat cap, wet a large towel with very warm water, squeeze out the excess and wrap the towel around your head), soak your feet and relax for AT LEAST 30 minutes.
• Remove your heat and conditioning caps and then shower, rinsing off both facial masque and deep conditioning treatment. While you’re in the shower, use a pumice stone or The Good Foot Scrub on your feet: Any thickened or calloused skin will be much easier to remove after your long foot soak.
• After your shower, go ahead and finish your pedicure with a colorful nail polish that will make you happy every time you look down at your toes… while exercising next week!

It is SO important to have some “alone time”. You should never feel guilty about this. We all need to recharge & revitalize.  If you’re a mom or dad with children who are still young enough to rely on you for many things, this “me time” is absolutely MANDATORY. You cannot take care of others if you are not in a healthy state of mind, body and spirit. So, instead of viewing a spa day as selfish or indulgent, look at it as an investment… preventative care and maintenance.

OH! I made some awesome cranberry/orange scones last night. They are NOT low fat/diet scones… they’re “dessert” scones.  I’lll type the recipe and post it for you at some point over the next few days:  It’s a recipe from one of my many recipe books.  I’ve made the recipe a few times already and I had to keep “tweaking” it, to get it where I wanted it to be.  I am REALLY happy with the results.

I am REALLY looking forward to your thoughts, comments and observations. Please share! I wish you all a fabulous day!