How to treat and prevent stretch marks

Stretch marks, or striae, are scars created in the skin when it has stretched beyond its ability to recoil. The mark appears as a thin line that starts out red in color and fades to white.

To prevent stretch marks, keep your skin hydrated and healthy. Use an oil-based, thick moisturizer (like ShiKai's Borage Dry Skin Therapy) and drink six to eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily. Cocoa butter also has a reputation for preventing stretch marks, but there are no studies that show it works better than a regular moisturizer.

Exercises to tone your legs fast

Lie on your side on the floor with your arms crossed in front of your body. If this is uncomfortable, bend your bottom elbow and rest your head on your hand.
Place a large exercise ball in between your feet, and slowly lift the ball up toward the ceiling using only your hips and butt. Return to the start position. This counts as one repetition.
Complete three sets of 15 reps.

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Leg Swings : A great warmup move, this also works the inner thighs. Stand with the feet together, arms out wide. Raise your right leg out to the side, balancing on your left foot. Swing the right leg in front of the left, and then swing it back out to the side. Complete three sets of 10 to 12 reps, and then repeat with the left leg.

Natural Coconut Milk Shampoo for Hair to Grow Faster

Thin hair mistakes to avoid

Unfortunately, with fine hair you have to choose your products wisely. “Using too much product just weighs your hair down,” says hairstylist Sunnie Brook. “Also, applying conditioner to all of your hair instead of just at the ends is a huge mistake.” Concentrate any product to your hair tips — not your roots — to avoid adding extra weight.

Thin hair: It’s all about the lift. “An easy solution for the flatness of fine hair is to blow dry your roots away from your scalp,” says Speck. Grab a round brush and lift your roots up and out from your head while blow-drying for extra height. 

 

6 best fat burning exercises to look fit

HIIT - High intensity interval training workouts use short bursts of very intense activity to bump up your metabolism, burn fat, and even build lean muscle to some extent - many of these require no equipment at all.Examples:
45 Minute HIIT Cardio and Abs Workout - Insane At Home Fat Burner - Interval Cardio Training and Core
Brutal HIIT Ladder Workout Round 2 - Advanced Workout to Push Your Limits
Butt and Abs Tabata Workout - Fat Blasting Cardio Interval Workout

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Total Body Strength Training - Lift heavily enough to challenge yourself and you will raise your metabolism around the clock, making it easier to stay lean. Examples:
Kelli's Superset Total Body Strength Workout: Calorie Torching, Muscle Building, Fat Burning Workout
Non-Stop Endurance Kettlebell Workout - 33 Minute Total Body Kettlebell Routine
Total Body Boot Camp Workout for Lean Muscles - Work for What You Want.... click on link to see more

4 best home exercises for those flabby arms

Shoulder Press : Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold a 3 to 5 pound dumbbell in each hand. Next, bend your elbows to bring your hands to shoulder level, palms facing forward. Push up, extending the weights straight overhead while keeping shoulders down. 

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Get-Up Plank: Lift your hips so that your body is a straight line from knees to shoulders. Next, extend the kettlebell up to the ceiling, then slowly lower it back to starting position. Complete 3 repetitions, then switch to the other side. 

9 Yoga poses for a perky booty

The maximus is the primary gluteal muscle. Extending the thigh backward into any hip extension will activate the maximus. Poses that will strengthen the gluteus maximus are Crescent Lunge, Warrior 3, and Standing Splits.The medius is situated on the outer surface of the pelvis and works to abduct (pull the thigh away from the midline). 

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Working the medius will tone the upper hips and create a strong and well-rounded side booty. Work the medius by practicing Half-Moon (Ardha Chandrasana), Goddess pose (Utkata Konasana) and Reverse Plank. The minimus is the part of the booty that is responsible for “THE LIFT”. Practicing Bridge pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana), Bow pose (Dhanurasana), and Locust pose (Salabhasana) will target this portion of the glutes.

5 Ways to tone your arms without using weights

– Wall push-ups: These are supposed to be simple and effective. They take off the strain of gravity, and they focus on the concentration and extension of the triceps. Find a flat and sturdy wall and stand about 6 inches away from the wall. Place your hands at shoulder width apart. Step on the balls of your feet and take a deep breath as you descend towards the wall.

– Floor dips: This is one of the best exercises to tone the body. Sit on the floor and keep your knees bent with feet and fingers facing forward. Tighten your core muscles and glutes to raise yourself off the floor until a are a reverse table top position. Lower the body by bending the arms.

– Half circle rotations: Stand shoulder width apart and hold the arms out to the side. With palms facing the floor rotate your arms in a half circle forward until the thumb is pointing towards the ground, then rotate back.

– Weight free rows: bend your body forward, bend your elbow at your side and pull the arms back without bending the other elbow.

– Plank: start at a push-up position and keep your body in that position for at least 30 seconds or more... click to find out more

8 Simple ways to stay slim

Balance your blood sugar,Stable blood sugar helps you burn fat and reduces sugar cravings. Eat more vegetables and beans, and go easy on the sweet fruit and fruit juices. Eat a protein breakfast , Breakfast lights the fire of your metabolism, meaning it’ll burn calories more effectively all day. Scale down your starches, No one ever got overweight from eating too much grilled chicken. Instead, it’s the potato, pasta, rice and bread (even brown) that do the damage. Eat good fats, but don’t go mad. 

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Eat a third of your food raw, Eating more raw food not only increases your intake of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, it will also keep the calorie count down. A big bowl of salad may only contain 100 calories (without dressing), less than an average chocolate biscuit. The simplest way to keep your daily calorie count under control is to skip pudding, replacing it with a piece of fresh fruit or a little bit of dark chocolate. Reduce snacking, Eat three balanced meals and two protein/carb snacks a day (e.g. celery and cottage cheese or an apple and a yoghurt) to keep your weight under control..... click on link to see more

Yoga Poses to Get Rid of Lower Belly Fat

The cobra pose really strengthens and elongates the stomach. It will help keep your dorsal spine strong and flexible. This move is great for people with minor back aches andpains. It also helps in the reduction of belly fat. The biggest of Dhanurasana is the reduction of belly fat. You’ll also get a good spine exercise in by compressing the spinal column which can help increase blood flow. An increase in blood flow to the abdominal region will help in toning as well as flexibility.

The boat pose is more for intermediate to advanced yoga goers. This pose is one of the best yoga poses for belly fat. If you’re looking to get rid of lower belly fat, start sitting like a boat!. This popular pose is sometimes referred to as the cat camel or simply just the cat pose. It is one of the most effective yoga exercises to help tone the abdominal muscles.. Click to find out more

Beauty and health uses for epsom salt

Face cleaner – To clean your face at night, mix a half teaspoon of Epsom salt with your regular cleansing cream. Just massage into skin and rinse with cold water. Hair volumizer – Combine equal parts of deep conditioner and Epsom salt. Warm in a pan. Work the warm mixture through your hair and leave on for 20 minutes. Rinse. 

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Sprinkle Epsom salt where they glide and say good bye. Make your grass greener – Epsom salt, which adds needed magnesium and iron to your soil, may be the answer to your green lawn. Add 2 tablespoons to 1 gallon to water. Spread on your lawn with a garden sprayer and make sure it soaks into the grass. 1 cup per 100 feet will help create the perfect gardening mix for this summers bounty. Use a fertilizer spreader and mix into soil. Remove burnt food from pots and pans – Scrub pan with about 1/4 tablespoon of Epsom salt and some warm water and rinse. Click on link to see more

3 easy overnight hair tricks

The smaller the braid, the tighter the wave will be. If your hair is thick, do two braids to ensure all over texture. When you’re ready to let your braids loose, gently run your fingers through them and spritz with a texturizing spray. Be careful not to use a brush as it will create frizz and turn hair into one big wave. Before going to bed, twist hair into a bun. For more voluminous curls, use damp hair. For softer curls, mist hairspray onto dry hair before twisting.

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If fighting frizz is your morning hair struggle, then this tip is for you. Before hitting the sack, smooth an argan-oil based serum through strands and wrap all of your hair into a silk scarf. The oil works to soften hair while the silk prevents friction to reduces frizz.

10 hair mistakes to avoid

Using Hairspray Before Styling. Ever hear a sizzle when curling or straightening hair that has hairspray in it? Alcohols in hairspray burn on contact with heat. Always use hairspray AFTER curling or ironing. Using Hot Irons on Damp HairWet hair and hot tools don’t mix. Curling and flat irons can burn the follicles of damp strands, leading to weak and broken tresses. 

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Hair should be completely dry before heat styling, period. Even when you’re in a rush. Many women use a round brush that's too small which is not good for hairs. Once hair has split at the ends, there’s no product that can mend it. The only solution for split ends is to prevent them in the first place (e.g. avoiding over-washing, rigorous towel drying, and abusing heat tools)—or to get a trim. Click on link to see more

3 Secrets for growing your hair

Constant brushing can cause physical harm to your hair. "When you detangle wet hair, be sure to start from the bottom and work your way up — we often instinctually go from the scalp down but that just brings small tangles into one large knot and can cause you to lose a lot of hair," Townsend explains. He also suggests reaching for the Sheila Stotts Natural Boar Bristle Brush, as boar bristle brushes are good at distributing your scalp's natural oils down your hair and being extra-gentle on strands too.

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Ditch your cotton pillowcase. Townsend recommends switching to a sateen fabric such as Calvin Klein Sateen White Sheeting because it has a softer surface that won't cause friction the way that regularly woven cotton does with your hair, so you'll wake up with fewer tangles. Click on link to see more

Diy beauty treatments with baking soda

Mix baking soda with your favourite shampoo to get a wonderful purifying shampoo that will cleanse your hair from the residue that styling products leave behind.mix 3 table spoons of baking soda with 1 table spoon of milled oatmeal and add 3 table spoons of water. You will get an amazing hydrating and refreshing body scrub. Rub this paste into your body in circular motions and then, wash with warm water. This baking soda body scrub will help to remove dead cells from the surface of your skin, making your body baby soft and very smooth. 

Before taking a bath, add a half cup of baking soda into your bathtub. It will make your skin softer and smoother. To create an easy baking soda mouthwash, mix 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 3 drops of peppermint essential oil (or eucalyptus essential oil) in a glass of water. For whitening your teeth you can simply apply baking soda on your toothbrush and brush your teeth with it as usual, but I prefer a slightly different variation. Wash your makeup brushes using baking soda, it will help to remove oils build-up and residue from cosmetic products. One of the most common uses of baling soda – wash fruits and vegetables with it. It’s natural, easy and efficient. click to find out more