Healthy Habits
By Anna Sachse - CTW Features | posted on September 21, 2011 at 10:08am
Amidst hectic planning, follow these tips for feeling great
Planning a wedding while simultaneously trying to maintain a job and a life can be immensely stressful – and immensely hard on your body.
If this sounds familiar, read on. The experts have a handful of quick, easy tips to help busy brides-to-be stay or get healthy, inside and out.
Get Glowing Skin
The smartest path to a clear complexion is exercising, eating healthy and drinking lots of water, says Dr. Sandy Johnson, a Fort Smith, Ark.-based dermatologist. “Water – as well as applying a bland moisturizer – helps hydrate the skin, which minimizes the appearance of wrinkles and maximizes that glow,” she says.
You also should slather on the sun protection and avoid scrubs that may irritate the skin, says Johnson. And if you’re not pregnant, use a topical retinol or retinoid to exfoliate.
Boost Energy
Making wise food decisions – like lots of fruit, veggies, and 6 ounces of probiotic-packed yogurt, daily – can increase your energy, help with regularity and keep the sniffles at bay, says Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian and author of “The Flexitarian Diet” (McGraw Hill, 2009).
Blatner also recommends drinking three cups of green tea, daily. “In addition to having two-thirds less caffeine than coffee, green tea has a compound called L-Theanine that buffers the caffeine to give you a gentle perk-me-up without the jitters,” she says.
Stay Calm
The author of “The Secrets of Happily Married Women” (Jossey-Bass, 2008), Dr. Scott Haltzman, strongly advises taking time to take a break and care for yourself, whether that means yoga, a long walk or a bath. “It’s impossible to work on invitations when you’re in the bathtub,” he says.
He recommends focusing on the fact that a wedding may be a special day, but what really matters is the marriage that follows, when favors and seating charts are long gone.
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