Like White on Rice

 You'll hear nothing but rave reviews from me about Japanese or Korean skin care. One of the reasons being their integration of rice into products. Asian cultures have known for centuries what we as Americans are just now learning… that rice can radically change your skin! 

That's because rice has an extensive list of healing benefits. And it doesn't just stop with your skin. Here, I will show you how to incorporate this beauty-secret-weapon into your routine— and explain why it's definitely something you want to try out. 

FOR CRYSTAL CLEAR SKIN: Wash your face and use the rice water as a toner by applying it in upward strokes with a cotton round. The B Vitamins in the water improve blood circulation on the face, tighten pores, and promotes cell growth (which slows down the aging process.) Rice water also has a property in it that binds to the trace amounts of copper naturally found in the human body— this binding helps prevent the formation of melanin in the skin. Which in short— means that you'll pigment less easily during the times that you are in the sun. 

BODY BENEFITS: Homemade rice water sheet masks can help to relieve chronically dry skin. It can also heal lesions of eczema on the body and soothe the itching associated with it. Just soak a paper towel in cold rice water and apply over the areas of concern for anywhere from 15-25 minutes. You can repeat this 2-3 times daily until healed. You may notice a tingly, cooling feeling as it's drawing impurities from the skin and nourishing the wounds. 

HAIR RESTORATION: After shampooing and conditioning, douse hair in the rice water solution and saturate well. Leave on the hair while washing the rest of your body (or shaving your legs). The rice proteins work to fill in the gaps in the hair shaft. (This is especially great for those of you who use bleach on your hair.) Filling in those gaps helps to repair hair that's easily broken…making it strong enough to grow nice and long. Not to mention, it gives it a killer shine. Don't forget to rinse the rice water out of your hair before getting out of the shower! 

HEALTH BENEFITS: If you can stomach it, drinking rice water actually has tremendous health benefits as well. It's filled with 8 different amino acids, which are essential to muscle repair, energy levels, and tissue regeneration. A great time to try this challenge would be a shot glass of it before going to bed….as nighttime (sleep) is when we do all of our regenerative healing anyway. If anything, it seems to me that it would help to give our ZZZ's a nice boost. 

You can use any kind of rice that you'd like, however, organic is best. I'm personally from a half-Filipino family, so rice is ALWAYS being served at mealtime…and white or jasmine rice is what I usually use just because that's what I EAT. But, there are several different kinds of rice you can choose from. Using black wild rice is actually more beneficial for the skin. I normally choose not to use it because I do not enjoy the taste of it and I hate wasting food. But feel free to try these tricks using black rice or brown rice. Brown rice has more antioxidants than regular white rice…and black rice will have the MOST antioxidants out of them all. In fact, it's antioxidant powers are pretty strong— on par with blueberries and blackberries. So it's really up to your discretion. 

Let me know how adding rice into your beauty routine helps!! And if you like these tips and tricks, don't forget to share them and add them to Pinterest so that you can revisit them often! 

xoxo, B.

BEAUTY SPOTLIGHT || TRACY ANDERSON

Today I wanted to do a spotlight post on one of my favorite fitness experts ever: Tracy Anderson. I know that it's freezing outside right now (by California standards at least) but bikini-season or not, we can always benefit from good self-care. And let's face it— we are coming up to 2 months of complete indulgences with the holidays merely weeks away. (I personally plan to eat my weight in pumpkin pie so I depend on a backup plan to keep me fitting into my jeans.)

 Tracy Anderson provides just that— a perfect plan!…

For those of you who aren't familiar with Miss Anderson, she just-so-happens to be the personal trainer to some faaiirly fit individuals like: Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Ritchie….Madonna. 

It's not just her celebrity clientele that makes her worthy of a mention though— no, in fact, it's her ability to relate to normal everyday women that really makes Tracy special to me. A former dancer myself, I LOVE the long, lean lines that her Method creates. I love that she seems to voice exactly what I've always felt... that women don't want to do the same workouts as men, because women are built differently than men! 

We are affected by different things. We have different metabolisms. And we crave a different kind of "fit". 

The key to the T.A. Method lays in what she refers to as our "accessory muscles": the muscles in and around our primary muscles— and it is precisely how she avoids adding bulk to a feminine frame. By building and toning these accessory muscles, she helps to draw everything inward, closer to the bone. The best way to think of it is like tying your shoelaces— as if pulling these little "strings" of muscle back toward the foot. You'll repeatedly hear her using words like "knitting" and "bolting"— & once you've begun the Method (and have seen the results) will you begin to understand why. 

Beyond tightening every inch of your body up through toning— her Cardio Compliment, which is an array of various high-intensity movements— burns fat at an astonishing rate. By tapping into these unused accessory muscles you begin awakening parts of your body that have been longing to be active— doing exactly what your frame needs in order to not plateau… by keeping it GUESSING! As most of us have all experienced— whether it's skin, hair, muscles, etc.— our bodies quickly grow accustomed to whatever it is that we provide it; making it become "lazy". But by utilizing ALL of your muscles (at different variables and intensities) your body is constantly "tuning in"— which in a nutshell means that it's constantly burning energy. 

While T.A. has several different workout plans geared to give every woman the svelte body of her dreams, her 30-day Kick-Start is where it's at if you need a complete lifestyle overhaul. (Which is exactly where I was at fitness-wise when I was introduced to her Method 2 years ago.) Her book includes detailed instructions of movements, a month-long menu to rev up your metabolism, and a Cardio-DVD to follow along. (I also suggest YouTubing her videos or visiting her weekly liveCam to spice up routines) 

The thing that I like the most about her workouts are that they're geared toward everyone. I wish that she'd been around during my pregnancy cuz I could've seriously done without the whole puffy-limb, chipmunk vibe I had going on…

All-in-all, I can't say enough GREAT things about The Tracy Anderson Method and I have a feeling that if you've tried other diets and exercise to no avail— or if you're having some trouble losing those "last few pounds"— that investing the $30 in her book could be the best decision you've ever made. I know it was for me. The 30-day Method may just be a jumpstart…but her outlook on fitness has become a way of life for me. And no joke—  I'm in better shape at 30 than I was at 19! That's reason enough for me to want to spread the word ;)

Visit her website HERE to learn more about how you can ring in 2016 loving your body and achieving what you never thought was possible. 

{And while you're at it…don't pass up her athletic collection! Chick's got some seriously cute workout duds}

{❤︎, b.}