11 Simple Secrets to Maintaining a Youthful Healthy Glow ...

Rooibos tea is one of my favorite secret weapons for maintaining a youthful, healthy glow. Rooibos tea is high in antioxidants that clear your skin fast, and more efficient than most skincare products on the market. In fact, just drinking it one week can clear acne, prevent future breakouts, increase your skin’s vitality, and prevent and treat wrinkles. As a bonus, it also gives you a nice glow, and it helps calm your sweet tooth. So, what is rooibos tea? It’s a tea made from the leaves of the red bush tea from South Africa. It’s fermented like black tea, and develops a rich, sweet taste in the process. You’ll love it!

Another way to get rid of wrinkles, acne, and redness in your skin all through your diet is to eat your Vitamin A. Vitamin A is found in many foods in the form of beta carotene. It is always found in orange fruits and vegetables; it gives them their orange hue. The best sources are goji berries, sweet potatoes, carrots, winter squash, oranges, and cantaloupe. Greens are high in Vitamin A as well. The best sources are spirulina, spinach, kale, wheatgrass, collards, turnip greens, beet greens, and romaine lettuce.

Omega 3 rich fats are fantastic for you! They’re also incredibly high in anti-inflammatory agents that help improve blood flow in the skin, along with decrease acne and wrinkles. I notice my skin looks a thousand times better when I eat more omega 3 rich fatty acids than if I skip them. I like to take a pure, Norwegian salmon fish oil pill by MRM brand, along with eat omega 3 rich foods. My top favorite sources are raw hemp seeds, chia seeds, raw ground flax seeds, and wild salmon or halibut on occasion. These foods help keep my skin youthful, supple, and clear. What more could you ask for in a healthy fat, right?

One simple tip to keep your skin glowing is to be sure and wash it morning and night. Never go to bed with your makeup on, ladies! Plus, washing your face first thing in the morning with plain warm water will help clear your pores,and will wake you up too! It gives you a nice glow as well. Don’t use soap or harsh toners, just warm water is all you need first thing. At night when washing your face, I recommend using coconut oil to take your makeup off with since it’s the purest thing besides water you can put on your skin. It also helps remove bacteria from the skin, and helps remove eye makeup better than chemical based products. Then, wash with a plain sea salt soap bar to cleanse the skin naturally.

Caffeine in small doses from coffee and tea won’t hurt you a bit, but in excess, it will significantly hurt your skin. Whatever you do, avoid energy drinks at all costs. They have chemicals, added sugar, and are just plain terrible for you. Caffeine can actually improve blood flow to the skin, and in healthy forms like organic coffee and tea, it contains a good bit of antioxidants. However, when you add in creams and sugars, or use too much caffeine, your skin will suffer. Caffeine overdose can cause the exact reaction in the bloodstream as sugar. It causes a rise in glucose levels, which spikes your hormone insulin, causing not only fat storage, but also stress hormones. This can break you out, make you look worn out, and can make your skin look older than it really is. To keep caffeine in the healthy range, drink one or two cups of coffee or caffeinated tea a day.

Sugar is your skin’s worst enemy. It ages you, breaks you out, and causes collagen breakdown in the skin cells whenever you eat it. Even healthier sources of sugar like honey, coconut sugar, etc. are all sources of sugar and create the same reaction in your skin. No matter what health claims they come with, they act the same way once broken down in your body. So, to stay sugar smart, be sure you stick with stevia. Stevia is an all natural herb that can actually improve your skin health. Just be sure you buy the natural, unprocessed form of stevia, which is green leaf stevia. I also like stevia liquid extract, but avoid forms with alcohol added whenever possible. My favorite brands are NuNaturals and Sweetleaf for liquid extracts, and Frontier Naturals organic stevia for whole green leaf stevia. These cause no issues in the skin, because will keep your glycemic index down. As a bonus, they'll also slim you down!

Whatever you do, don’t go fat-free when looking to maintain that youthful healthy glow. In fact, healthy oils like olive, flax, hemp, avocado, coconut, and sunflower oil can all actually help improve your skin. Just be sure not to cook with any oils except avocado and coconut oil, which have the highest smoke points. All other oils turn rancid once heated, which is toxic to your body like trans fats are. Other oils, besides coconut and avocado oil, all change forms when heated, so be sure to keep olive, flax, hemp, and sunflower oil to use over your salads or pour them over steamed veggies or cooked dishes instead of cooking with them. Healthy oils can help treat and prevent acne, wrinkles, and they help lower your blood sugar. Just be sure to keep it to one or two tablespoons since oils are high in calories.

Obviously, I hope you already know that alcohol is a definite no-no for maintaining that youthful, healthy glow. Alcohol is toxic to your body, even in healthier forms like red wine. Just say no and your skin will thank you! Drink water whenever possible, or healthy teas like rooibos and green tea for great skin. Your liver’s health is key to your skin health, and without alcohol, your liver can filter out all the bad stuff much more efficiently. Otherwise, it gets bogged down and “behind” when it has to keep detoxing your system from alcohol. Whatever toxins it can't get rid of are forced to come out through your skin, in the form of acne. Because this process taxes your body, it also ages your skin more quickly.

Smoking is another big no-no for achieving healthy skin that glows. Smoking makes your skin wrinkled, and will age it much faster than foregoing the nasty habit. Whatever it takes, give it up, and be well on your way to youthful skin your entire life, not to mention better health!

Get rid of the processed foods if you're serious about your skin, ladies! Because processed foods are so refined, they contains little to no nutrients. This is incredibly harder for the body to break down, which ages your skin faster. Stay away from the processed stuff altogether, and your body and skin will thank you tremendously. Fresh, whole foods will give you pure, beautiful skin that looks timeless.

Many people tolerate dairy just fine, but others find it causes skin issues big time. I personally do quite well with organic, grass fed yogurt, but all other forms tend to bother my skin. So, I suggest seeing how dairy works for you. If your skin looks a little iffy, give up dairy for a week and see if things improve. Opt for unsweetened vanilla almond milk instead of dairy milk for that sweet, creamy flavor, and go for other vegan alternatives to dairy for yogurt, kefir, etc. Just watch the sugar contents on these since some forms have added sugars, which you want to avoid however possible. Regardless to what you think, you don't need dairy to be healthy. My favorite brand of almond milk, Silk, has 50% more calcium than dairy milk, and it's only 30 calories with added Vitamin D, B12, magnesium, and potassium.

Simple skin care tips and dieting tips can really make such a difference on your skin. You don’t need the fancy stuff, no matter what commercials and marketing ads try to sell you. Just follow these tips and your skin will thank you in a huge way! How do you keep your skin looking great?