Track Starts

Track Start Improvements

As I have taken more tips throughout my blogs I have seen suggestions to raise my hips higher into the air. This helps the feeling of the falling affect so I am able to get out of the blocks faster and be able to start my stride down the track faster.

Tips

Hamstrings are the most important muscle for a fast sprint.

Quadriceps are the second most important muscle for a fast sprint.

You are going to need strong calves for pushing off with your toes.

Your shoulders, chest, and back need to be strong for pumping your arms.

The core needs to be strong to keep your body straight and aligned properly.

Make sure to always stretch your muscles before an event to make sure you do not pull any important muscles before or after the event.

Proper Start Guide Lines

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In the “set” position, it is generally understood that the hips should rise above the line of the head. However, this is where things can go wrong, following the misguided concept that they must also lean forward, bringing the shoulders ahead of the hands and putting pressure on them. This can easily be checked in practice and made visible to the athlete by using a stick or weighted string to drop down from the shoulders.

Questions

If you have ran sprints in the past what was your best time for the 100, 200, or 400?

If you're an athlete what was the worst injury that you have had?

Cited

Pictures cited: Track & Field By Gabrielle Vanderhoof

Bicycle Safety

          Make sure your bike matches your size and height. Make sure you can straddle the frame with both feet flat on the ground. Some safety equipment's are a chain guard, reflectors, a bell, and a orange safety flag. "A bicycle is a vehicle, just like an automobile. To ride one safely, you must know not only how to balance, but how to avoid the situations in which injuries often occur" (Handal 270).

More and more often adults are riding bikes while following outdate or incorrect rules of the road. "Bicycles are, in fact, generally subject to the same laws as other vehicles" (Handal 270).

The following tips will help you become a safer bike rider:

• Wear a helmet. Make sure the helmet fits snug and comfortable for your head shape and size
• Be predictable, obey traffic signals, road signs and pavement signs
• Be visible, make sure you are riding where drivers would expect to see you
• Turn, look, signal. Before you start a turn, turn your head and look behind you, then give the proper turn signal
• Watch our for intersections. Most bike and car accidents occur at intersections
• Be prepared to yield the right of way, especially when approaching other bikes or pedestrians
• Don't ride at night, if you must then make sure to wear reflective clothing
• Don't pass cars on the right, drivers won't be able to see you clearly
• Avoid falls. Use a smooth, consistent routine when stopping and starting

          From now on, when I ride my bike I always have a reflective sticker on the back of my bike to warn cars or pedestrians that I am near or approaching. I also wear some type of reflective clothing at night when riding to make it more easily for others to see me.

Have you thought about anything you should change when riding your bike after reading this post? If so, what?

How to Apply Cushion to a Injured Ankle

          If a joint is overstressed, the bones that meet at that joint may get disconnected, or dislocated. When this happens, there's usually a torn joint capsule and torn ligaments, and often, nerve injury. "If more pressure is put on a bone than it can stand, it will fracture (split or break). Open fractures(in which bone pierces the skin) can easily become infected" (Handal 72). 

          Its hard to tell a dislocated bone from a broken bone. Both are an emergency. I have sprained my ankle before in PE class while sprinting across the gym and around corners. I used these steps to help keep my ankle stay mobilized and have less pressure from walking afterward. These steps are also very helpful if you do not have the right type of material at the moment. The general first aid steps are the same for emergency's.

• If you suspect that the victim has  dislocation or broken bone, and there is severe bleeding, call EMS.
• If you cannot completely immobilize the injury at the scene by yourself, call EMS 

"To immobilize an injured ankle, put a pillow or folded blanket underneath the foot and ankle" (Handal 73).

Steps:

1. First wrap one end of the pillow around the ankle and tie it in 2 places
2. Then wrap the other end of the pillow around the toes and tie it in 1 place
3. Leave the toes exposed
4. Elevate the ankle

Have you ever been in an emergency where you've seen or had to cushion a sprained body part?

How to Apply a Pressure Bandage

          A minor would will stop bleeding by itself by forming a clot. With a serious injury, blood my flow from the wound so quickly that it does not have a chance to clot. Although, "If the bleeding stops, or if you need to free your hands to attend to other injuries or move the victim, a pressure bandage will hold dressings in place and maintain pressure on the wound" (Handal 67).  Make sure you have the right materials, and if able to, wash or clean the wound before bandaging to lower the change of infection. "Call EMS whenever bleeding isn't quickly controlled" (Handal 66).

To apply a pressure bandage, do the following:

1. Hold dressings/fabric firmly in place over the wound

2. Wrap a roller bandage or long strip of cloth firmly around the would, securing the dressings in place.

3. If the wound is on a limb, use overlapping turns. Do not wrap the bandage over and over the same spot

4. Split the end of the bandage into 2 strips, then tie the ends tight. Tie the knot directly over the wound

5. Check to be sure the pressure bandage is not too tight. It should be tight enough to maintain pressure on the wound, but not so tight that it cuts off circulation further down the arm or leg.

6. If you can't detect a pulse beyond the wound, or if the skin beyond the wound is turning bluish, the pressure bandage is too tight.

Once when my 3 year old cousin, fell against a table, we used these same steps to help secure and slow down the bleeding on his wound. It was one of the most effective ways to slow down the bleeding and cause blood loss. Have you ever been in a situation where you've seen or had to bandage yourself or someone? If so, what happened?

Track Starts

Track Start improvements

My improvement through out my track starts from the blocks has improved drastically. Some tips I found to help my momentum moving forward was to bridge my hands and have my legs bent to where they are comfortable and to be able to have the most power off of your push off.

Tips

Have fingers make a bridge

When running run off the balls of your feet not your heels

In stride have next foot ready to hit ground after your toe hits

When you are finishing do not stop right away this can cause shin splints

Advanced Running

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As seen in this picture Michael Johnson an Olympic sprinter is running off of the balls of his feet in his strides. To keep this going one must lift their knees to a angle where they can quickly get their next foot to the ground.

Questions

Do you guys have any other advice for me for when I come out of the blocks to keep my stride and speed continuously growing?

How can I keep my stamina?

Cited

 Pictures cited: Track & Field By Gabrielle Vanderhoof

Tips for a smooth and glowing complexion

To have flawless foundation application, having smooth and glowing skin is essential. To reach that, understanding how lifestyle can affect the skin is important. I am someone who struggles with combination skin - this can be considered an advantage, considering most foundations or face products work on my skin type. But when having oily and dry skin, finding a face wash, moisturizer, and more, can be a struggle.
Bobbi Brown, a professional make artist and the founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, states in her book that the condition of your skin can be impacted or changed due to many factor: the environment, diet, or overall health (33). This means that there are many things that can contribute to the type of skin someone may have, for example, skin that is red and dry can be caused by very hot or cold temperatures. For me, I have found that very cold temperatures lead my skin to be more flaky than usual. In the winter, the cold weather dries out my skin and minimizes my pores, which impacts my makeup application and often causes me to have to use a different, more hydrating foundation.

Brown goes into further description and analysis about all skin types, "Normal skin: comfortable feeling, smooth texture with small pores... Dry/Extra Dry skin: feels tight after washing, pores are small and sensitive... Oily skin: large visible pores, frequent breakouts... Combination skin: oily T-zone, dry cheeks or spot dehydration" (32). Before reading this chapter of the book, I did not know how to identify certain skin types. Brown led me to the conclusion of me having combination skin. I did some research on what products work best on combination skin, and I found that the brand Murad has a set of face washes and moisturizers for skin like mine.

This face was is a gel based cleanser, which Brown states is best for oily or combination skin that are prone to breakouts (34). Ever since following Brown's tip on using a gel cleanser, my skin has cleared up and my pores have been minimized, which leads to less breakouts.

A question I have for you guys is: what type of skin do you guys have? And what cleanser or facial products work for your skin type?

Brown, Bobbi, et al. Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual: for Everyone from Beginner to Pro. Springboard Press, 2011.

Why It Is Important to Keep Low Amounts of Stress (Health)

Did you know that having high amounts of stress leads to overdosing of eating unhealthily, making bad decisions, increase of laziness, decrease and sleep and much more pitiful, and alarming harms towards your human health?

Well, in return there are factors to play around that type of stress life. throughout this blog post I will be covering the three ways of thinking terms that I used to develop a stress free life. The three terms are simply think positive of yourself, gain self-confidence and keep yourself around people that make you happy. 

In addition, if you think positive of yourself, you are on step one of the road to a stress free life. From the book Change Your Brain Change Your Body by Daniel Amen, he states, “How Stress plays tricks with your mental health is by draining your emotional well-being and associating anxiety and depression. Stress activates the limbic system of the brain, which is your emotional center.” (Amen 221). Here Amen is reconsidering that stress also builds up depression of mental health. This can come into play in relationships, with friends and family, etc. One of the biggest ways that I built up mental stress was when my mom died of breast cancer 4 years ago. With my mom being dead and not being here for me I had to build up a mindset of thinking positive and being able to do things for myself from now on. I’ve noticed that most teenagers my age have a mom to do most things for them and they’re spoiled. But I have to overcome these issues myself. For example, cooking dinner at night for myself. If you think positive of yourself and set yourself up for success you will feel a decrease of stress throughout your life.

Furthermore, if you gain self-confidence, you will eventually think positive of yourself and not develop any internal stress. Amen brings up the topic of “how chronic stress harms the brain.” He states, “Stress is a normal part of every day life. Don’t give me wrong I little stress can be a good thing. But, there is more negatives than positives between stress. The stress hormones are the primary chemicals of the fight or flight response in there especially useful when you face on immediate threat. The stress hormones majorly come into play around mental states like death of a loved one” (Amen 215). Amen Is corresponding the differences between positive stress and negative stress. I too agree that there is more negative stress than positive stress. An example way that I developed positive stress was when I lost a soccer game against a rival team that we usually beat every year. Though losing in competitive sports games leads to stress, me losing to that rival team motivated me for next time to work harder. That’s developed me to gain self-confidence prepare myself for my next journey without stress. So yes stress can be good to motivate yourself but on the Flip side majority of stress falls under the negative categories.

 

Lastly, if you surround yourself around people that make you happy and are good influences you will positively generate yourself closer towards a physical stress free life. Amen brings up the topic of stress by stating, “You can literally scare your body into a stress response the brain is a very powerful organ. Brief surges of stress hormones are normally beneficial. The motivate you to do a good job that work, Study before a test, how Your mood is with your friends or paying your bills on time. The problem with stress in our modern world is not these short bursts of aline and cortisol. Chronic stress constricts blood flow to the brain, which lowers overall brain function and prematurely age is your brain. Researchers found that stress flip-flops your mood swings when you are with friends or family and create temporary effects on young adults thinking and memory skills” (Amen 211). Overall, having stress in your life develops your body to response in positive ways by motivating yourself. But, also, in negative ways by mentally and physically constricting your body. I have surrounded myself with positive friends and family members that make me happy. I also surround myself with people that think positive of me and support me through my times, and I do the same back to them.

Though stress is a normal part of every day life, You can indeed decrease the amount of stress by the three topics of thinking positive of yourself, gaining self-confidence and keeping yourself around people that make you happy and a positive influences. If you succeed in doing that, I will promise that you will see a decrease in stress, because it worked for me in multiple ways, for example, mental stress and physical stress.

One statement that I could leave you off with is why set yourself up for failure by gaining stress on your shoulders, if you could set yourself up for success by living in a positive happy life around people you like?

If you had the chance to get one thing back in your life that you regret doing, wanting or having what would that be?

Amen, Daniel G. The Brain-Body Solution. Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get the Body You Have Always Wanted, Piatkus, 2012.

How To Stay Healthy By Exercising

Do you physically exercise on a regular basis? Maybe once a month? Or maybe once a week? Or maybe even more than once a week? Or maybe even not at all?

Well, it’s a fact that if you do not produce physical activity daily you will become unhealthy physically, internally, and in many more ways.

What I do to develop myself to produce physical activity is motivate myself by strengthening my brain to develop health strength. For example, I create procedures for my daily routines. Or I produce brain power by learning New ways to work out and exercise.

From the book “Change Your Brain Change Your Body” Daniel Amen states, “ physical activity is A natural part of daily life. Physical activity is the single most important thing you can do to enhance brain function and keep your body looking young. Physical exercise acts like a natural wonder drug for the brain. It improves the hearts ability to pump blood through the body, which increases blood flow to the brain. That supplies more oxygen, Glucose and nutrients to the brain, which enhances overall brain function.” (Amen 109).

I believe that I can relate six main exercises for your body and brain. The six exercises would be, exercise encourages the growth of new brain cells, physical activity enhances cognitive abilities at all ages, exercise enhances your mood, exercise calms worries and anxiety, exercise helps alleviate depression, and people who exercise regularly sleep perpetually better. The six brain exercises are truly facts due to my experience of exercising. I’ve noticed that all these six exercises can relate to making you intelligently smarter, gain higher abilities in strength, calms your mood, makes you happier about yourself and relax happier.

Exercising can be as easy as going to the mountains and snowboarding, playing sports, stretching/acrobatic apprentices, going to the gym, walking your dog, jumping jacks, and even sleeping. If you take the time to add exercise into your busy schedule it will definitely be a success and act leading to happiness for your life. 

One major concept that I’ve noticed you my experience of working out and exercising is The fact that it plays a major role on your health benefits. When I work out what I’m trying to do is gain strength and make myself stronger physically. I do this not only because it makes me feel better about myself but also physically is healthy for me.

If you develop the correct mindset to stay healthy it will indeed be progressed by your brain/minds motivation and dedication towards keeping yourself healthy. To do this I have realized that you have to have a lot of dedication. Dedication in a way of strength in your brain. It can be driven by motivation and just straight up thinking.

I will leave you with a comment/motivational question, it is, if you desire to stay healthy you will join me and develop a correct mindset to stay healthy by asking yourself, who do you really want to be strength wise, what will you do to make it there, when will it happen, where will happen, and why will you do it?

Amen, Daniel G. The Brain-Body Solution. Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get the Body You Have Always Wanted, Piatkus, 2012.

How Getting the Right Amount of Sleep Keeps You Healthy

Do you have trouble falling asleep? Do you go to sleep easily but wake up repeatedly throughout the night? Do you find it hard to drag yourself out of bed in the morning? Does your mom or dad tell you stories about how you sleepwalked or snored loudly throughout the night?

If so, all of these problems can lead to decreased brain function and a second rate body. A second rate body is when your brain develops a lesser quantity and quality of the action. For example, if your brain desires five hours of sleep a night you are incorrect because the requirements for each age group of humans lifetime are different. On average each human being needs around 7 to 14 hours of sleep a night. If your body does not correctly adjust to these amounts of sleep, you are in debt of developing a loss of sleep creating an unhealthy environment for your body.

From the text Change Your Brain Change Your Body by Daniel Amen, in chapter 10 under the sleep solution, Amen states, “ having a static function of sleep hours throughout your life can discreetly sprain function and lower positive health. Getting less than six hours of sleep a night has been associated with lower overall brain activity, which can affect your weight, your skin, your mood, your Health and your athletic performance” (Amen 196). He stated a direct response from the four questions I directed at the start of the post. Amen is implying that getting less sleep develops your body to change physically and actively in decreasing your success in staying healthy in all standards. Sleeping the correct amount of hours for your age Is essential for positive health.

I’ve noticed throughout the 15 years of my life that developing a procedure for yourself at the start of the day when you wake up can change how you act throughout the day. It will also change your mindset to arrange a fulfilling success to your health standards. An example of this would be right when you wake up in the morning on a Sunday before you have a full week of work/education, plan out what you will be doing throughout the week each day and the order of that. Then scale out the amount of workload that is needed for each day. If you believe that you need extra energy for certain days go to bed an extra hour or 30 minutes early that night before. If you are a teenager like me I have also noticed that going to bed early helps you be fully energized, educated,Happy and non-deteriorated. If you successfully get the correct amount of hours of sleep for your age, there is no doubt that you will feel energized and have enough energy for the workload you are doing that day.

Amen starts another chapter by stating, “Rest your brain for a slimmer shape and smoother skin” (Amen 195).

This sentence starter develop me to think of the time when I needed to study for finals Freshman year. Two weeks ahead from the date I was going to take finals I created a procedure of what I was going to do to be successful for finals. Are used my mindset skills to create a list of every day study tools to use and how to use them. I first created the tools then I used them the second week. To fully be successful one of the major components was studying and eating healthy but another one was rather getting enough sleep. Every night for two weeks before the final date for finals I forced myself to be in bed every day at 9:00 PM. So obviously I had to study before that so usually I would do at 8:00 PM. I did that for the two weeks and I became very successful my freshman year. And I do advise myself to do that for my sophomore year this year too.

In addition Amen then informs, “ good sleep is essential for optimal brain and body health. Is involved in rejuvenating all the cells in your body, gives brain cells a chance to repair themselves and activates neuronal connections that might otherwise deteriorate due to inactivity. Temporary sleep issues are even more common and will affect almost everyone of us at some point in our lifetime” (Amen 195).

This reflects the procedure that I used for finals completely. Basically if you and your body can cooperate and desire yourself to get the right amount of sleep by using your Brain to think. You will have the dedication of the ideas to keep a healthy body by getting the correct amount of sleep. Getting the correct amount of sleep is a very essential rock in the ocean.

If you don’t get the right amount of sleep you can develop the illness of sleep deprivation, which is the situation or condition of suffering lack of sleep. This is caused by laziness. And if you use laziness to not get the right amount of sleep you can develop sleepiness throughout your day, less energy to do stuff, no changes, difficulty concentrating, poor performance, memory and thinking problems, disorientation and disruption of sleep cycle.

Do you want to have this disruption in your lifetime?

If you would not like this large cycle of disoriented problems, I would advise getting the right amount of sleep as an essential key component of your daily procedures.

Amen, Daniel G. The Brain-Body Solution. Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get the Body You Have Always Wanted, Piatkus, 2012.

Developing a Mindset For Healthy Eating Habits

Have you ever thought about your diet? Maybe what you eat or drink? Or maybe even the amount that you eat or drink? Maybe even the affects to what you eat and drink does to your body. One of the major key components to staying healthy and keeping or getting the body you want is eating healthy.

If you simply change or keep the correct diet that your body desires for , you will definitely be on the right path to staying healthy and suddenly see changes in shape, size, or maybe looks. 

From the book Change Your Brain Change Your Body by Daniel Amen, in chapter 4 called The Nutrition Solution he states, “Three truths about food to eat. The first one is you are what you eat. Throughout your lifetime your body is making and renewing it cells. Your skin cells make themselves new every 30 days. See you at fuels cell growth and regeneration. What you consume on a daily basis directly affect the health of your brain and body." (Amen 83).

This first "Truth About Food" developed me to understand that if you eat fast food you will become like the fast food. for example, becoming unreliable and last thought worthy. If you use fast food as a direct source for food weekly it will affect how you and your body health wise will look and change. I've noticed that I eat fast food once every week. Eating this trashy, greasy, unwanted fast food developed me to want to change my exercising limits. So now knowing and researching about unhealthy foods like fast food, I generated a mindset to exercise everyday to stay healthy. 

"The second one is food is a drug. Food affects your mood and energy level. You have probably noticed that as a child snacks and cookies affects you to bounce off the walls. Or when your boss guzzles coffee she gets impatient or demanding. That’s because food is affected as a drug manner" (Amen 83).

The second "Truth About Food" developed an understanding that eating a food over and over again creates you to become okay with eating the food many times. If you ate a lot of cabs like Oreo's it will develop your mind to say I want more of this and will force you to eat more. But what I do is think of it this way. If you want to turn out to be lazy and ugly, eat foods that will change you. But if you want to stay healthy and look beautiful everyday, you will have to eat healthy. Another example to relate to is smoking. Its addicting and supposedly "good and cool." But it really not and what else is not good and cool is eating unhealthy. That is how i am motivated to think and translate to stay healthy. 

"The third one is diet influences everything in your life. Everything you consume affects your physical health and well-being. Food affects your; overall health, ability to think quickly and clearly, energy level, physical and athletic performance, weight and appearance.” (Amen 83).

This third "Truth About Food" developed me to understand that if you consume unhealthy food or an overdosing amount that your stomach can't hold, and you do it many times, you will become unhealthy and lazy. How I changed my standards of eating is using common sense. If you eat healthy meals and maybe have one cheat day a week, you will stay healthy. 

Common sense and the 3 "Truths About Food" made me noticed in my body mostly that food you eat can develop muscle growth or decrease in muscle growth. Throughout the retaliation of my motivation to eat healthier, has developed me to work out and exercise. This changed my standards by getting me off my but and develop a better mindset on Health. Eating healthy has also motivated/developed me to notice a change in facial recognition. Throughout my teenager life I noticed I have monthly breakouts with acne. I have tried many different face washes, many different toners and moisturizers, and hey couple different pills. The one that most successfully stopped my acne breakouts was the pills.

In the end the main truth about foods people and myself eat is that if you want to stay healthy do what is right and don't be lazy about putting extra time into creating a meal in the long run that will change your life successfully. That is truly a fact. The quote I chose from page 83 improves my performance in staying healthy by changing eating mindsets and habits.
Do you have the correct mindset inside of your brain to eat/diet correctly and stay healthy?

Amen, Daniel G. The Brain-Body Solution. Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get the Body You Have Always Wanted, Piatkus, 2012.

The American Red Cross First Aid & Safety: The Heimlich Maneuver

In my book "The American Red Cross: First Aid & Safety Handbook" I was taught and showed how to save a person's life by performing with rapid first aid for choking by doing abdominal thrusts, also called the Heimlich maneuver. My author Kathleen A. Handal explains that "choking is your body's way of trying to remove a foreign object (such as food) from the airway. A choking person's airway may be completely or partially blocked" (Handal 108). Without oxygen the brain can begin to die within 4-6 minutes. Some signs and symptoms of choking are grabbing of the throat with the hand, gagging, pale and bluish skin on face, weak, ineffective coughing; noisy breathing; high-pitched crowing sounds, convulsions and/or loss of consciousness.

"Choking is often associated with eating; alcohol consumption, trauma to the head or face, and young children" (Handal 108). Some warnings are:

• DO NOT interfere if the victim is coughing forcefully and has good air exchange. However, be ready to act instantly if the victim's air exchange worsens
• DO NOT pinch or choke an object that is lodged in the victim's throat. This might force it farther down the airway.

Steps to proceed with Heimlich:

First ask the victim if he or she is choking. If the victim can't answer, the obstruction is life threatening. Call EMS. Then tell the victim you are going to try to help and ask for permission to proceed.
1. Perform abdominal thrusts
2. Stand behind the victim
3. Wrap your arms around the victim's waist
4. Make a fist, place the thumb side of your fist in the middle of the victims abdomen, just above the navel and well below the lower tip with your outer hand
5. Grasps your fist with your other hand
6. Keeping your elbows out, press your fist with a quick, upward thrust into the victim's abdomen. Each thrust is a separate attempt to clear the victim's airway by forcing air out
7. Continue performing this maneuver until the obstruction is cleared or the victim loses consciousness

Have you ever been in a situation where you have almost or had performed the Heimlich maneuver, and what was the situation?

Importance of Skin Preparation

Beauty Routine: Importance of Skin Preparation

Why would skincare involve makeup? Beauty starts with smooth, healthy, glowing skin. Many people tend to forget about skin care beforehand and place makeup on directly, resulting in damaged, clogged pores. Preparing your skin before the application of  makeup will ensure you flawless results, as well as increase the longevity of your makeup. Based on the individual products may vary whether you have normal, combination, sensitive, dry, or oily skin type. Include a cleanser, exfoliator, toner, moisturizer, as well as SPF to your daily routine as it creates a barrier between your skin and the harmful UV rays given off from the sun.

Personally, through all four seasons I have very dry skin. Without properly hydrating beforehand, my foundation looks like the Sahara desert. My skin will often flake, and when your base is not cute, you're not cute. Especially in person. But neither is looking like an oil spill appealing. People tend to always complain that, "oh I don't have time". But sad truth is that, we can't all be blessed with normal skin, and have to work for it in the long term

Analyzing your skin will help you recognize your own particular routine that is beneficial for you. So you can go slay all day. But here is some information for educational purposes. Normal skin is ideal as it is neither too dry nor too oily. People with combination skin tend to have an oily t-zone, while having the cruel experience of dry cheeks, or spot dehydration at the same time. Us dry skin people can be flaky, and tend to have a dull complexion. Oily skin is shiny throughout your entire face as it is caused by overactive oil-producing glands. But on the positive note, you'll have beautiful youthful skin longer than me. I'm also very sensitive, and sensitive skin is more complex because it ranges from dry to oily skin, and is easily irritated by many cosmetics  and skincare products.

According to Bobbi Brown, an internationally renowned makeup artist, and CCO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, “The skin’s condition can be quickly impacted by changes in the environment, health, diet, and even products chosen in which irritate the skin” (Brown 33).

Cleansing, and toning will tighten pores, and remove excess oil, promoting longevity of the products. Exfoliators will improve skin texture by removing dead skin cells, as well as decreasing the appearance of hyperpigmentation on skin’s surface.

But, hydration is the most significant step of skin preparation as our skin’s tone and flexibility relies on the water content of our tissues drawn from the humidity of the air, as well as moisture added onto the skin’s surface. Adding moisture will help maintain luminosity, and firmness. It's truly the secret to having youthful skin. Products entitled as a moisturizer will plump your skin. Enhance the look, feel, and overall health of your skin. No one likes wrinkles, and big pores am I right? Hence, the right moisturizer will help your makeup application to go on smoothly, and properly adhere to your precious skin.

I tend to go towards products in which don't tighten my skin and tend to be quite hydrating, so it may not appeal to oilier skin. But please, no matter what skin type you have, avoid alcohol. It'll only irritate, and dry out your face significantly causing your pores to create even more oil.

While I could continue to rant about the different types of skin, and the significance of preparing your face before applying makeup, there are 6 tips in which are beneficial, and adhere to all skin types. Use a broad spectrum sunscreen that blocks UV rays, and avoid long periods of direct sunlight. Too much sunlight can cause aging process to quicken. Stay hydrated by drinking water, as well as moisturize. Not only will it help the condition of your skin, but bodily functions as well. Obtain a moisturizer that works for you. For oilier skin types, I recommend using gel bases rather than creams. Do not ever smoke, nor try any form of narcotics. Most importantly, wash your skin gently everyday, and never wear any form of makeup to bed. Will you incorporate skin care to your lifestyle?

Having the Right Mindset For a Healthy Body

Are you thinking what i'm thinking? Well if so I advise you to read this whole post due to tips and engagement that will rise you to a happier lifestyle. 

The non-fiction text "Change Your Brain Change Your Body" states, "It is your brain that decides to get you out of bed in the morning to exercise, to give you a stronger wiener body, or to cause you to hit the snooze button and procrastinate your work out. It is your brain that pushes you away from telling the table that you have had enough, or give you permission to have a second bowl of rocky road ice cream, making you look and feel like a blob. Is your brain the manages the stress in your life and relax with you so that you look vibrant, or when you left unchecked, send stress signals to the rest of your body and wrinkles to your skin. And it is your brain that turns away cigarettes, too much caffeine and alcohol, helping you look and feel healthy or give you the permission to not. Yes all create a system of health" (Daniel Amen 3). 
The text is applying the figures that if you use your brain the correct way and develop your brain to have strong, successful and healthy habits, it will develop you to overcome a procedure in life. That procedure will make you get and keep the body and habits that you will have always wanted. If you succeed to have strong, successful and healthy habits you will indeed  see changes quickly if prohibited. 
I have been through the challenges of being stuck with fast food for almost every meal of the day, lack of sleep on school nights and having a weak mindset of wanting to workout but then not being able to due to laziness. This all can affect your mindset of staying healthy but can be revoked by saying "No i am doing this today." Or "I'm making the promise of staying healthy for a year or my whole life."

Here I am reading the book "Change Your Brain Change Your Body." This book is very inspiring and gives great tips and lots of mindset tips on changing you brain to be successfully healthy.

The text again states, "Your brain is the command and control center of your body if you want to have a better body the first thing is to always start having a better growth mindset"  (Amen 4). 
This is left me with a message that when you do something your brain has muscle memory to want to make that a habit and do it over and over again. If you do that habit over and over again it will affect you in the long run badly. But if the habits that are strong, successful and healthy they will make you proficient and headed towards a successful mindset. 

Even i have tried and tried to keep a confident workout mindset throughout every summer and School year but sometimes you just need to take a break. Breaks are good but never procrastinate and let them get off the hook. Always have a backup plan and ease off the workout. don't just say "Okay well i'm done with this" and stop. Force yourself to start up again in another week. It is worth it trust me.

Do you want to improve your looks, style, eating habits, strength and health in general? Well, if you can develop a growth mindset to keeping a long term healthier lifestyle you are indeed ready to start a fresh "I will stay healthy" rather than a "I can't stay healthy".
Is your mindset healthy enough to keep your body sturdy? If you have any concerns follow my steps above and you will see changes in your health standards. 

Amen, Daniel G. The Brain-Body Solution. Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get the Body You Have Always Wanted, Piatkus, 2012.

Meal Planning 101

Something I have done recently is planning my meals. This means writing everything you’re going to eat down on paper, typed or other ways you could write this down so you have a physical form of what you’re going to eat. This has really helped me get healthier because it’s something I can look at for my meals like dinner to know and not end up eating a frozen pizza or frozen dinner, which seems to happen too often.

In The teen eating manifesto, Stollman includes a section about meal planning and provides templates for the reader to see. The section also includes around how many calories should be eaten for genders which showed for females about 1500 calories and for men about 1800 calories (Stollman 178). For the meal plans, it even planned snacks along with the 3 major meals.

Not only does it show examples of “menus” but it also said how often you should be eating, “Try to eat every three to five hours. If you don’t eat regularly, you may find that you get excessively hungry and then eat too much at the next meal” (Stollman 177). I hope some of you consider meal planning and try out being a healthier you! Thanks for checking out my blog posts.

Do you believe in calorie counting when trying to eat healthier/ lose weight?

MLA: Stollman, Lisa, MA, RD, CDE, CDN. The Teen Eating Manifesto: The Ten Essential Steps to Losing Weight, Looking Great and Getting Healthy. Northport, NY: Nirvana, 2012. Print.

Working out

Eating healthy is hard but something I have trouble with is working out. I’m a lazy teenager who doesn’t like working out so I never have the pull to go to the gym or go on a walk and etc. but then once I’m ready, I never seem to know what exactly to do or how to work out properly.

When you work out, there are so many benefits including, “improved energy levels, increased ability to handle stress, improved mood, reduced risk of many chronic diseases, enhanced self-esteem, more positive outlook on life in general” (Stollman 33). I personally know I should start working out more to receive some if not all of these great benefits.

Now onto what to actually do to work out, the book detailed some ways to work out including: Walking, Using a Work out DVD, Cardio, Strength training, and flexablitity training (Stollman 33-39). I’m going to try to start committing and doing these different exercises often to obtain some of these benefits as noted before.

The last section Lisa Stollman added about Exercising was 10 tips to make exercise part of your routine which includes trying to walk a lot each day, sign up for activities, and make sure to move at least 60 minutes a day. These are just some of the tips for daily exercise!

Do you like working out? What do you do to exercise?

MLA: Stollman, Lisa, MA, RD, CDE, CDN. The Teen Eating Manifesto: The Ten Essential Steps to Losing Weight, Looking Great and Getting Healthy. Northport, NY: Nirvana, 2012. Print.