8-Day SPRING Makeover
Look Younger Naturally
Shake up your daily routine, turn back the age clock, and bring out the best in your skin and your looks. Yes, all are possible, right now! This plan will revitalize you, inside and out. Result: Look and feel years younger…relaxed, radiant and renewed.
(*I recommend you start this on a Saturday so the relaxing day coincides with Sunday)
Spring is the perfect time for new beginning and to deepen or renew your “green” resolutions. Each time you are about to put something in or on your body, ask yourself the question,
“Is this bringing health, beauty and harmony to my body?” If not, just don’t do it! Going green is about respecting yourself enough not to trash your beautiful body.
1. Remove Toxins: Make sure that ALL your skincare and make-up is absolutely free of any toxic ingredients like preservatives or fragrance. If not STOP using them at least for this 8-day makeover. I cannot state this enough, more and more scientific studies show that these toxic ingredients are not only bad for your health, but they make you age faster by creating free radicals.
2. BASIC 4 your Skincare Routine: Your regimen should include at least: Cleanse morning and night with gentle cleanser (nothing foaming on your skin), Tone, Day Cream, Night Cream.
If you’ve never experienced what our fresh skincare can do for your skin, try our 7-product Discovery Kit for only $29 (Value $75). This is a super complete beauty treatment.
3. Add Exfoliation to your Skincare Routine: Every other day with our Jojoba Beads exfoliant. This will slough off all dead winter skin. Don’t forget neck décolleté and hands. This Jojoba Beads Exfoliant is a real miracle worker; tough enough to remove dead skin cells, yet gentle enough not to damage fresh new ones. An absolute key to fresh glowing spring skin!
4. GREEN your Diet: An easy way to achieve a “greener diet” is to start your day with a green smoothie. For those who missed my Green smoothie Detox, download the PDF for some great recipes.
5. Go Meat and Dairy Free for a Week: I promise you will LOVE the results. First, you will shed off pounds; second, your skin will clear and glow; third, it will help all of us breathe better. The United Nations estimates that greenhouse gas emissions from meat/dairy production accounts for more than the combined emissions from planes, trains and automobiles. Scary no?
Replace meat with avocados beans, lentils, quinoa, brown rice, and baked potatoes. Pair them with big mixed salads. Dare to mix greens and fruits like mangoes, apples, and pears… Top with a few nuts (walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, sunflower seeds) for a boost of omega 3s. Dress with a little lemon juice and virgin olive oil.
6. Choose Organic: This is the most powerful way you say NO to pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics, that all wreak havoc on your hormones with terrible consequences on both your skin and health. Check out the dirty dozen, clean 15 lists. I know organic is more expensive but when you go meat-dairy free your grocery bill becomes cheaper and SO much healthier!
7. Go Outside and Take in Nature:
Spend at least 20 minutes outside today – and for the 7 days to come. Soak in some ‘vitamin G’ (for green). Mother Nature can be extremely therapeutic and the fresh air will do you, and your skin a world of good.
Relaxing never seems to make it onto the to-do list but today, relaxing is your to-do list!
1. Make time for yourself: If you have kids, arrange for someone to take care of them. Book ½ day with yourself; write it in your agenda so you are sure to not miss the important meeting with yourself.
2. Give yourself a facial: Run a nice hot bath; charge it with a few drops of essential oils. Let the steam from the water open your pores. Exfoliate with the Jojoba beads exfoliant to remove all dead skin cells. Rinse and follow with a thick layer of the Deep Hydration Masque to infuse your skin with revitalizing antioxidants. Let it sit for 10 min, while you soak and rest in your bath. Rinse off masque, and with a loofah exfoliate your entire body. If you are courageous finish with a quick cold water shower.
3. Pamper yourself: Get a massage, stay in bed all morning or do anything that makes you feel like a queen, you are one!
4. Practice deep breathing and do it at least twice a day for the next 7 days, preferably at around the same time each day. This will help establish a breathing routine that calms you, refocuses your energy, and brings very soothing oxygen to stressed skin. Here is one I like: Inhale and exhale through your nose, mentally counting "in-two-three, and then "pause-two-three” and then “out-two-three," During the pause, don’t breathe in or out; just rest comfortably. Do this 5 times. Over time, increase the count to four ("in-two-three-four, out-two-three-four"), then to five, until you reach a number that’s comfortable to you.
5. Have Sex! Yep, sex (with a partner or on your own) can help relax you and get your skin glowing again.
Stay green of course!
You are already Greener since day one. Remember that healthy glowing skin comes from proper skin care paired with an antioxidants rich diet. Plants are the only real source of antioxidant, with fish that is high in vitamin E. Plant foods also have a very low amount of calories compared to animal food. So, if you want to maintain a healthy weight, plant-based food is also a better choice.
1. Replace your coffee with green tea and sip all day long.
2. Drop ALL skin destroyers: Processed foods, alcohol, artificial sweeteners, soda (diet and regular), processed meats and cheeses, refined flour, sugar, saturated fats, fried food, cigarette smoking.
3. Amp your intake of vitamin A, C, E rich food; checklist below.
4. Quench your thirst: Make sure you drink enough water. The rule is ½ your weight in oz. If you weigh 120lbs, you need to drink 60 oz. If you have a hard time with this add slices of lime, lemon, cucumber or mint in your water. Skin will wrinkle faster without adequate moisture. Just like the plant, when skin loses moisture, it gets dry. Dry skin shows wrinkles more and causes skin to sag faster than it would normally. Skin will plump up nicely when the skin cells are hydrated.
Keep going green and relaxing!
1. Include at least 30 minutes of physical activity today, and schedule time for more active half hours over the next few days. Choose something you enjoy. There’s no point in being miserable. The goal is to raise your heartbeat. Whether it’s turning on some music and dancing, going for a power walk/run with your dog, taking a bike ride – there are plenty of options for doing your body good. Exercise during the day helps you fall asleep at night and improves the quality of your beauty sleep. Just another one of the health benefits of physical activity.
2. Treat Yourself to Something Special! Reward yourself with an hour today or tomorrow (1 full hour) to do anything you’d like. Get a nice hair cut/color, go shopping, have a mani/pedi or simply veg in front of the TV!
Remember to go green, relax and eat well!
Laughter is the best medicine and is so good for your looks. Happy vibes will do more for your looks; now that’s a facelift! We are so caught up in busy schedules and responsibilities, we often forget that fun should be part of our day.
1. Connect with a friend: Today schedule time to spend an evening of fun time with people who are meaningful in your life — who make you laugh or inspire you. Pick up the phone and call someone you love and who loves you. Arrange for sharing a tea or maybe your 20 minutes in nature. Try the co-counseling routine: If you are going to be 20 min together, each one gets 10 min to talk while the other one is only listening – Not offering advice or sharing their personal life experience. This is all about expressing for one and listening for the other one. Then switch. You will be amazed at the result. Here are some subjects ‘What do you love about yourself?’ ‘What are you truly passionate about?’ ‘What makes you happy?’
Keep moving, eating right, going green and relaxing!
"Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties." Hellen Keller
Inner Beauty is a concept used to describe the positive aspects of something that is not physically observable. Feelings have dramatic effects on our beauty. We all have experienced days when we feel beautiful and other days when we feel just awful for no given reason. When we are in love, it shows…Pregnant women have a radiating beauty…
Your face reflects your emotions. Why do we smile on camera? Because we look better with a happy feeling on our face rather than a feeling of anger, fear or resentment.
1. Focus on the Positive. Try this tonight: Make a gratitude list for the day. Write down three great things that happened during your day. They don’t have to be out of this world. They can be as simple as the fact that you ate well all day, or that you hit a big deadline at work or that the sky at sunset was beautiful. Just three good things, simple as that! Tomorrow when you wake up, before you get out of bed, bring to your mind three things that you are grateful for. Again can be as simple as a bird singing. At any time during the day when stress hits, recall your gratefulness and let it melt away the adverse effects of bad energy.
Continue to have fun, move your body, eat well, go green and relax!
Get More Beauty Sleep: If you don’t have any early obligations today, sleep in as long as you like. If you have to get up early, take a nap later in the afternoon. The ideal time for a nap is about 8 hours after you get up — that’s when your body temperature naturally takes a little dip (a sleep inducer); it’s part of your normal biological rhythm. So give in, and experience the beauty benefits of a little power nap.
How to Power Nap:
1. Take off your shoes, and get comfy on a reclining chair, couch, or bed. Close the blinds, or turn away from any direct sunlight.
2. Set an alarm for 30 minutes. That gives you 10 to fall asleep and 20 for your actual nap.
3. Avoid napping after 3 p.m., it can disrupt your nighttime sleep.
Continue focusing on inner beauty, greening your life, having fun, moving your body, eating well and relaxing!
CONGRATULATIONS! You’re about to complete our 8-Day Spring Make-Over! You should be looking and feeling younger but also happier, healthier, proud of your accomplishment and more whole; less stressed, more you.
By continuing some of the new habits you’ve picked up in the last 8 days, you’ll keep looking and feeling terrific, not just for now, but for life. When it comes to staying young forever, preventative measures are more effective than treatments. People who work to maintain their youth are often in better physical shape and experience a sense of well-being that promotes good emotional health.
1. Keep your personal care products free of toxins and your skincare routine consistent.
2. Renew your commitment to your facial exfoliator. As we age, our once-fresh complexion can start to look a little sallow. To combat this, exfoliate — twice weekly, no excuses — and don’t forget the skin below your neck!
3. Make a lemon pledge!
Skin-cell turnover slows as you age, causing your complexion to look uneven. Combat this with a simple homemade peel: Apply two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice on your face using a cotton ball, avoiding your eye area. Leave on for about 10 minutes, and then rinse with tepid water.
4. Check your vitamin D level. It is a simple blood test and most women are deficient. A growing body of research shows that deficiency of the nutrient can trigger a slew of health problems.
To health and beauty,
Valérie Grandury
CEO and Founder |
Greening Beauty 