Daily Archives: July 6, 2010

Hydrate Your Skin!

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Before you invest on those expensive wrinkle creams that work, make sure you are doing everything you can to hydrate your body.

I learned this from a great article:

Maintaining your skin’s moisture balance and keeping it hydrated is fundamental to keeping your skin healthy. Weather, environment, changes from indoor to outdoor temperatures, time in the sun and even diet can all affect the moisture level of our skin. Regular moisturizing will help your skin maintain its vibrant elasticity and prevent premature wrinkles and fine lines.

Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about moisturizers is that it hydrates the skin. The truth is moisturizers form a film over the skin and lock in the skin’s natural moisture. This in turn not only increases the skin’s water content, but also protects the skin and encourages an orderly desquamation (shedding) process that makes the skin appear smoother.

So drink up!

Practice Portion Control

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We all have heard it, diet is not enough, one should also know the basics of portion control.

 

Your stomach is about the size of your fist. Use the palm of your hand to get a good sense of how much protein you should eat at any given meal. Make the rest of the plate full of vegetables.

Don’t forget to take a daily multivitamin too. Here is a quick reference list of popular food:

  • 1 cup of cereal = a baseball. For example, a cup Cheerios has about a 110 calories.
  • 2 Tbsp of salad dressing = a shot glass. Most salads in restaurants have 2 ladles of dressing on them; 2 Tbsp is a relatively small amount and will average about 240 calories. Adding lemon or mustard or something like balsamic vinegar can make your salad "moist" without adding extra fat and calories.
  • 1 Oz of Nuts = a cupped palm. For example, an ounce of cashews has 163 calories. 
  • 1 Oz of Cheese = a ping-pong ball. An ounce of Cheddar has about 110 calories.
  • 3 Oz of Hamburger = a mayonnaise jar lid. To get a good idea of how big that lid is, move your fingers into a "grab and open a lid" position. It’s a full one ounce smaller than a quarter pounder. Some higher end restaurants serve 1/2 pound hamburgers.
  • 1 Tbsp of Peanut Butter = three dice. Most peanut butter labels have 2 Tbsp as a serving, which is 200 calories. You can make a decent sandwich with 1 Tablespoon. Peanut butter is also delicious with bananas and celery.
  • 1/2 a Cup of Rice = an ice cream scoop. A 1/2 cup of white rice has about 205 calories.
  • 1 Potato = a computer mouse. A potato only has a 100 calories. It’s the stuff you put on the potato that makes the "portion" get out of control. 
  • 1 Dinner Roll = a yo-yo. A dinner roll has about 66 calories.
  • 1 Tsp of Butter = a Scrabble tile. Usually about a Tablespoon of butter is used at about a 100 calories. It’s virtually all fat. Better alternative to butter is olive oil.
  • 1/2 a Cup of Cooked Pasta = a golf ball. There are roughly 200 calories, depends on what kind of pasta.
  • 3 Oz of Fish = a checkbook. A serving of cooked salmon has about 175 calories.
  • 3 Oz of Beef = a bar of soap. There are roughly 200 calories (no marinade or other flavorings)