This summer, if you go to the beach or use the swimming pool, you will probably be wanting to protect your skin from damage from sun exposure.

While you are at it, you may want to try a hair beauty treatment to reduce damage from the sun, salt, wind and chlorine with a beauty remedy that you can use to restore and protect your hair from sun damage. 

Our beauty remedies recipe uses lightweight hair oil as a styling aid to protect our hair and is adopted from the book Green Beauty Recipes by Julie Gabriel.

Hair Restoring Beauty Remedies Treatment

Please note that citrus oils should not be used on your skin prior to sun exposure.

Beauty Remedies Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup jojoba oil
• 1/2 cup sunflower oil
• 10 drops orange oil
• 5 drops mandarin oil
• 5 drops neroli essential oil

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a spray bottle and shake well. Leave for one day in the dark place for oils to infuse.

Application: Spray liberally on your hair after sun exposure. Do not rinse. Style as usual. Can also be used to mend split ends.

Storage: Store up to eighteen months in a closed container.

Click to listen to more tips on  Holistic Beauty Remedies for Your Skin and Hair by author Julie Gabriel.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition Counselor and Coach

To look fabulous in Summer, we need to eat more lycopene rich foods, such as cooked tomatoes, apricots, pink grapefruit, papaya, water melon in order to protect our skin from sun damage.

New studies show that lycopene in our diet can help our skin block UV rays and that there is a connection between lycopene and skin cancer.  Because our body doesn’t produce this antioxidant,  we should incorporate more lycopene rich foods in our diet, to protect ourselves from skin cancer.

Try these three healthy simple and easy summer recipes to keep your skin sun damage free.

1. Grapefruit and Walnuts Salad Easy Summer Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 medium grapefruits
• 1 avocado
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1/2 cup Immunity Boosting Turmeric Dressing

Directions:

Peel grapefruits and section. Peel avocado and remove pit, cut into chunks. Place avocado and grapefruit into the bowl and gently toss. Drizzle lemon’s juice. Add nuts and drizzle with Turmeric dressing.

2. Spaghetti Sauce Easy Summer Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 medium onions chopped
• 2 Portobello (or 1 cup shitake) mushrooms sliced
• 4 tomatoes chopped or 2 tbsp tomato paste (for paste you need 1/3 cup water)
• 2 clove garlic minced
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• salt and fresh grounded pepper to taste
• 8 ounces spaghetti or angel hair pasta

Directions:

Sautee onions in olive oil for 10 min., add mushrooms and cook for 5-7 minutes. Add tomatoes (if you use tomato paste, add some water), parsley, salt and pepper.

Drain pasta. Toss with tomato sauce and serve.

3. Papaya Fruit Salad Easy Summer Recipe

This recipe is from one of my favorite books Eating for Beauty by David Wolfe:

Eating this fruit salad is a great way to begin the morning. The cinnamon contains the mineral chromium, a great blood sugar balancer, this fruit salad is loaded with enzymes to help stimulate elimination in the morning.

Ingredients:

• 1papaya
• ½ avocado
• 6 fresh figs
• 2 nectarines
• ½ tbsp Cinnamon
• 1 lemon juice
• 1 tbsp raw honey

Directions:

Chop all ingredients, mix and serve.

Bon Appetit!

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Coach and Counselor

If you want to feel and look fabulous in Summer, by which I mean feel healthy, you should sun protect your skin from UV damage and skin cancer without using sunscreens and sun lotions that are full of harmful sunscreen ingredients and chemicals  (which I talked about it in How to Protect Our Skin from Sun Damage Part I), but also how to help your body to deal with the UV sun damage that has already occurred.

Unfortunately, many of us don’t realize that ultraviolet rays can do significant damage to our skin by forming free radicals in the skin cells; recent research indicates a strong link between free radicals and the risk of disease.

Fortunately, our bodies can produce antioxidant compounds on their own naturally to neutralize free radicals before they can harm our biological processes. We can help the process by eating foods rich in antioxidants, including vitamins A, C, E and D as well as selenium and omega-3, all of which can significantly reduce the inflammation and skin damage caused by over exposure to the sun.

Some basic steps you can use to sun protect your skin in summer with antioxidant organic whole foods:

1. Incorporate more healthy natural Super Foods in your diet = foods rich in antioxidants

  (dont forget to buy them organic to take advantage of their organic food benefits)

bright-colored fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, kale, collards, cantaloupe, peaches, apricots, watermelon, berries to get more Vitamin A;

oranges, lime, kiwi, green peppers, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, berries, tomatoes to get more vitamin C;

walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, green leafy vegetables, barley, millet to get more vitamin E;

incorporate more lycopene rich foods such as cooked tomatoes, watermelon, papaya, apricots to protect your skin from sun damage;

shellfish, oatmeal, barley, buckwheat, eggs, legumes, chicken and garlic to get more Selenium; and

wild salmon, walnuts, flax seed to get more Omega-3 fatty acids;

2. Be moderate and be selective with your exposure to the sun – the healthiest sun is before 10:00am and after 5:00pm.  This is the best time to minimize the most harmfull peak exposure you get when the sun is overhead, while still getting sufficient exposure to produce vitamin D, which is required for the absorption of calcium, necessary for protecting muscle weakness, important for preventing and treatment breast and colon cancer, and osteoporosis, necessary for normal function of thyroid and normal blood clotting.

We also can find vitamin D in: fish liver, dairy products, dandelion greens, oatmeal, salmon, sardines, sweet potatoes, tuna and vegetable oils.

3. As I mentioned in How to Protect Skin from Sun Damage – Part I, avoid eating carrots, celery, parsley, parsnips and limes before going to the beach - they may make – your skin very sensitive to the sun;

As for me, I always try to obtain antioxidants from whole foods instead of supplements and try to get a healthy suntan by exposing myself to the direct sun only very early in the morning instead of using sunscreens full of harful sunscreen ingredients and chemicals.  At other times, I use sunblock clothing and sun protection hats to reduce sun wrinkles and sun damage on face.

A healthy life style and a healthy diet are the keys to a younger and healthier skin as well as to a younger and healthier You. Let us be Sun Smart, shall we?

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Counselor and Coach