So, I asked CJ Cassaday, hair stylist to many industry professionals at gavert/atelier, “what do you tell your clients when they ask for your advice on how to get their hair, health & mind ready.” And here is what CJ had to say:

” They always tell me what they’ll be wearing and that they are nervous it won’t fit the day they walk down the Red Carpet. I tell them to watch their carbs, eat lots of protein, always drink plenty of water and don’t eat anything after 6 PM.  I’ve seen my clients drop 5 – 7 pounds in a week and their skin looks great from all of the water.”

What do you recommend for their hair?

I recommend that before anything else…those roots get done!!!  It’s important to do this a week before the event so that the color has time to soften & settle.  To help make their color and style look best under the camera lights I then recommend an “Ionic Treatment.” It’s applied with a flat iron and takes about a half hour after your color is done. This treatment consists of releasing moisture, protein & silicone to the hair, bonding it to the hair shaft with the right temperature of the flat iron.”

According to CJ this treatment will increase the thickness of your hair without loosing body and makes your color & hair look and feel the best it ever has.  Sounds like a treatment for me…He recommends the Ionic Treatment every 2 months.  The cost is $75.00 at gavert/atelier.

xo,

b

photo image:  CJ

Post from: Aging Fabulous

It’s a new year, and what better time to make a few changes, and be open to a new and improved you! Sometimes the simplest tips or suggestions can make the biggest difference in someone’s life.  Not in any particular order but all good to know.

My first, which some of you may not like, is tossing your diet books and just eating a little healthier. Eating lots of multicolored foods that were recently alive like vegetables or fruits is a good start. So good for you, with many long term benefits.

Love your teeth? If so then you’ll want to rinse your mouth out after drinking a soda. This will help wash the enamel-eroding acids off your teeth.  If you don’t floss, try using an electric toothbrush to get into the hard to reach crannies and fight gum disease.

I love olive oil, I really do, but since I am obsessed with making sure I get enough fatty acids in my diet I also use canola oil as often as I can. Canola oil has less saturated fat and a lot more omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to do everything from lift your mood to help fight heart disease.

Eat less salt… That’s a tough one for me. I usually sneak into the kitchen when my boyfriend isn’t looking and add more. You may think oh please what’s a little salt going to do, but did you know that many women over the age of 45 have high blood pressure, and a lot is due to high sodium in their diet. Can’t have that:-)

Having trouble sleeping? It may be that TV you have on, or the reading light that’s disrupting your sleeping cycle. Keeping things dark will keep your melatonin production happy and make for a better nights sleep.

Try a yoga class and make a new friend. Hot yoga, or as it’s called in the yogi world, Bikram is my favorite and addicting too. If you can’t handle the heat, Hatha yoga is excellent as well. In just a few weeks you will begin to notice your body getting toned and your skin looking fabulous.

Need a quick work out? Take the steps instead of the elevator or escalator. Any activity helps your heart and waistline, and who doesn’t want that:)

Always take time for yourself. Sometimes we put our own needs last forgetting that even the littlest things like sneaking away and reading a book, taking a long hot bath, or just listening to a great song can set the tone for your day and make all the difference in how you feel.

Be good to your skin. Just putting on a bit of moisturizer can take your skin from dull to dazzling. Try a shimmer creme instead of foundation and tap over your cheekbones for a beautiful sheen. One of my favorite looks when I have only seconds to do my face.

And my last tip for staying healthy in 2009…love yourself! I mean really love yourself. Wake up in the morning, get in front of that mirror and say “good morning beautiful!” It may feel funny at first, but It’s a great way to start your day, and your mind and body will thank you.

Hugs,

Beth

Post from: Aging Fabulous

Did you know that walking really is the easiest exercise? Walking can be done at just about anytime and anywhere. You can walk outdoors on the sidewalk, at a track, on a treadmill, at the mall. Or you can even walk in place, getting that heart pumping!

With a good pair of shoes that have heel support, walking is simple. Walking not only makes you feel good, you will start to notice in just a very short time, that by adding walking into you daily routine, you will soon have more energy. Walking will also help decrease your stress level, to make you feel more relaxed. Overall, it will improve your fitness, and by gently increasing your speed or distance every day, walking will improve your stamina.

Most of the time I like to walk alone, with my iPod, and sing along as I walk around town. Sometimes I do walk with a friend though, and that is when I seem to pick up the pace and walk longer. It all depends on my mood, I guess.

Whatever my mood, I do enjoy it, once I get out there and walk.

Who will join me in my new walking routine?

Post from: Aging Fabulous

I was equally thrilled when I saw this recent article on Yahoo! from HealthDay News:

Yoga’s postures, controlled breathing and meditation may work together to help ease brains plagued by anxiety or depression, a new study shows.

Brain scans of yoga practitioners showed a healthy boost in levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) immediately after a one-hour yoga session. Low brain levels of GABA are associated with anxiety and depression, the researchers said.

“I am quite sure that this is the first study that’s shown that there’s a real, measurable change in a major neurotransmitter with a behavioral intervention such as yoga,” said lead researcher Dr. Chris Streeter, assistant professor of psychiatry and neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine.

She believes yoga could prove a useful tool to help people battling depression and anxiety disorders. “We’re not advocating that they chuck their medication, but I would advise that they could use it as an adjunct and see how they are doing,” Streeter said.

Her team published its findings in the May issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

In the study, the Boston researchers used high-tech magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging to gauge levels of GABA in the brains of eight long-time yoga practitioners and 11 non-practitioners. The participants were healthy, and none was diagnosed with a major psychiatric condition.

Brain scans were taken before the beginning of the experiment. Then, the yoga group was asked to engage in the meditative practice for 60 minutes, while the non-yoga group simply read. The researchers then re-scanned each participant’s brain, looking specifically at GABA levels.

“We showed a 27 percent increase in the brain GABA levels of those doing yoga — a really significant increase,” Streeter said. No such change was noted in the non-practitioners who had just read.

She said the style or school of yoga practiced didn’t seem to matter. “We had hatha, ashtanga, bikram, vinyasa, and kripalu” practitioners included in the yoga group, Streeter said, “and many had been trained in several different schools.”

According to Streeter, “this all gives us one of the mechanisms by which yoga may be having a beneficial effect. There could be other mechanisms.”

But another expert pointed to what he considered flaws in the research.

Zindel Segal, chairman of psychotherapy and a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Toronto, has for years studied the use of behavioral interventions to alleviate psychological woes.

He said the Boston researchers were to be commended for using brain scan imaging technologies to investigate the effectiveness of these techniques. But he questioned why the yoga group was simply compared to a sedentary reading group and not to another movement-based group.

“Exercise itself may have some effects on GABA, so I think in this study, you’d really want that comparison,” he said. Including such a control group would make it clear that it was yoga and not just an hour of physical exertion that was responsible for the brain changes.

He also pointed out that all of the people in the study were mentally healthy, and clinical depression and anxiety disorders involve more than the “daily fluctuations in stress and tension” that healthy individuals are prone to.

“We know that yoga can have a profound effect” on smoothing out life’s daily ups and downs, Segal said. “But so does working out on a Stairmaster for an hour.”

Segal also questioned the role of GABA in depression. While it may play a role in anxiety disorders, “GABA is not one of the main neurotransmitters that seems to be a part of the depression story,” he said. Other neurochemicals — most notably serotonin — play much bigger roles in the disorder, he said.

None of this means that the study’s findings are without merit, Segal said. “In fact,” he said, “we have a program called ‘mindfulness-based cognitive therapy,’ where we do use yoga, as well as mindfulness meditation,” as therapeutic tools. Streeter’s findings “suggest the need for more study of these practices,” he said.

Streeter agreed that her study is probably just a beginning.

“I think what’s important about this study is that it shows that by using really cutting-edge neuroimaging technology, we can measure real changes in the brain with behavioral interventions — changes that are similar to those that we see with pharmacologic treatments,” she said.

I am hoping that Yoga relaxes my mind while it strengthens my body. And if it helps ease a bit of anxiety – that would be a great benefit too!

Post from: Aging Fabulous

The first walk I take is in the morning, and that walk is just over 2 miles. It is a nice easy walk, with only one hill up in the beginning, and another one at the end – which is sometimes a killer, depending how I am balancing my time. This little over 2 mile walk is taking me just about 35 minutes, which is great time, if I say so myself. I have my iPod all geared up every morning, ready to go with the same 35 minutes of song, that lets me walk to the beat. And when I see people looking or sometimes staring at me, I just smile and say a warm, welcoming, “Good Morning!”. You see, it is early, the kids are off to school, and I need to get my day going – so as I am walking, I am belting out the tunes – oh yeah!

My second walk of the day is usually taken right after dinner. This walk is about 3 miles. I walk to the high school track, which is 1/2 mile away. I love the track. It was just built last year, and it is this really weird spongy/asphalt kind of material. It is almost rubbery – and so easy on the joints! I walk around the track 8 times, which someone told me is 2 miles then back home, which is another 1/2 mile. On this walk, I am bit more subdued, as there are a bunch of us walking on the track, and inevitably there is someone that joins in with me, and starts conversing with me. It is not so bad, but I don’t keep the pace like I do in the morning. But it is exercise nonetheless.

Do I have any more walking buddies out there? More importantly are there any more crazies out there that sing at the top of their lungs when they are walking to the beat of their own drummer? I can’t be the only one!

Post from: Aging Fabulous

One of the most important things for those in their 50’s to do is to incorporate exercise into your daily routine.

By exercising, you should be able to keep your blood sugar levels in good control, preventing diabetes and positively affecting your blood pressure and heart rate. Exercise is also very important for healthy bones – osteoporosis prevention, possibly.

An easy thing to do is to incorporate weight bearing/resistance exercises to strengthen your bones. Resistance exercise to help build your bone means that you exercise to the point of exhaustion. Lets say you are lifting a dumbbell, you need to do as many reps in order to exhaust that muscle. And you will know when it is exhausted when you simply can’t do another lift with that muscle. This is the point that the resistance is enough so that you begin building more bone.

The Exercise Data Base has a great selection of resistance exercises for you to follow. Try it and let me know how you feel.

Post from: Aging Fabulous

Why the pain being alleviated is where in the question lies. Some believe that is because the joints are being worked out and have less of a chance to become arthritic. While others believe that by simply exercising, you are losing weight in places that may lighten the load on the joints.

Either way, get moving, now. It will benefit your joints later.

By the way, Denise Austin (pictured) is 50 years old, and yes – quite FABULOUS!

Post from: Aging Fabulous

By rolling around on it in certain ways, it should help alleviate some of my back pain by strengthening the core back muscles. I have found that one of the easiest ways to use it is by simply sitting on the ball while I am writing away here on the computer. Yes, by simply sitting on it. By sitting on this ball, it requires me to constantly balance myself on it by using my abdominal and back muscles – whether I know it or not.

It is simple to use and almost fun.

These exercise balls can be picked up from major discount and sporting good stores, and start around just $15. There are even exercise books and dvds to guide in specialized exercises for different parts of your body.

Post from: Aging Fabulous

In profiling the residents, Buettner states he has discovered both unique and common characteristics of people who not only live much longer than most of us, but are defying the stereotype of what it means to age. They are healthy and active well into their 80s, 90s, and beyond.

What are the secrets to longevity? Buettner shares his observations at Blue Zones.

In Loma Linda, a healthy social circle was important, as well as snacking on nuts. In Okinawa, the lack of urgency about time, being likeable and turmeric stood out. In Sardinia, fava beans and drinking red wine high in polyphenols were common factors in longevity. In addition, overlapping lifestyle and behavior traits included women who felt empowered by the society they lived in, adequate daily exposure to sunshine, gardening, constant moderate physical exercise, not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, keeping meat in the diet to a minimum, staying connected and actively involved with family, friends and community and living at a higher altitude. It appears that people who live in higher altitudes have lower blood pressure.

Buettner has partnered with the University of Minnesota, Allianz Life Insurance and the National Geographic Society to create the Blue Zones Compass, a program that can predict how long you might live based on your current lifestyle. To learn more about this and read the latest in Buettner’s quest to continue to discover the secrets to living a long and happy life, visit Blue Zones. To watch an ABC News video interview with Buettner, visit Searching for the Fountain of Youth.

Post from: Aging Fabulous

Not necessarily. With a few changes in routine, we can keep the spring in our step and maintain a pain-free vitality we have come to expect and enjoy. UCLA physical therapist Ziya Altug offers an anti-aging program designed to turn back the hands of time. In The Anti-Aging Fitness Prescription, Altug outlines an exercise and stress reduction program in maintaining flexibility and strength of both body and mind; simple skin and hair tips to regain a youthful look; recipes, meal plans and nutrition diary to make the most of our efforts.

While no one is telling us we will eliminate all the aches and pains of aging, there are proactive steps we can take to greatly minimize the annoying pain that creeps into our muscles and joints when we were not paying attention to the calendar. Foremost, is managing weight gain. Carrying around extra weight is hard on the joints. Basically, losing weight results from portion control in eating less — and in eating the right foods.

The more our body hurts, the less we move — the less we move, the more our body hurts. The less we move the more weight we are likely to gain.

Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, walking, swimming, biking, dancing, low-impact sports and exercising with weights are some of the ways to incorporate the kind of exercise that will make a difference as the candles on the cake continue to increase in number.

Stretching exercises add flexibility, weight-bearing exercise add strength. After that, Altug recommends chondroitin and glucosamine supplements, aspirin and/or ibuprofen to manage and control the aches and pains of aging.

Bottom line though, we should not accept the pain that slows us down as a fact of life as we age.

Post from: Aging Fabulous