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Acne…it affects a majority of teenagers and many adults well into middle age.  It is dreaded and despaired over by many who suffer from this common skin condition.  Clearing acne begins by understanding what acne really is and what triggers it.  Then we will consider how it can be controlled by lifestyle choices, skin care choices and wise use of make-up.
Who suffers from it?
Teenagers struggle with acne, but so do many adults. Acne breakouts can result from fluctuating hormone levels at various stages of life, such as puberty, pregnancy or menopause.  Outwardly, acne can reveal internal signs, such as poor elimination or buildup of toxins, a lack of exercise or high stress levels.  Both men and women contend with acne, and as good health and beauty are intertwined, the causes of acne can reveal the solutions to managing and reducing skin breakouts.
What is it?
Acne occurs when the oil glands produce excess sebum, the skin’s own oil, which accumulates with dead skin cells to form a plug which results in a clogged skin pore.  Bacteria trapped inside the pore feed of the sebum mixture, multiplying and producing agents which irritate the walls of the pore.  As the immune system works to attack the bacteria, pus is formed leading to an inflamed pimple, blackhead or whitehead.  Picking or squeezing a pimple can cause the pore to rupture, releasing the bacteria into the surrounding area, and can cause more pimples, cysts or scars.   For many, certain areas of the skin have overactive sebaceous, or oil glands which produce excess sebum.  These areas are typically the forehead, nose, cheeks and/or chin.  Comedones, or blackheads, are not caused by dirt, but rather by sebum which has clogged a pore, oxidized and discoloured by melanin.
What triggers it?
Often a spotty complexion denotes a diet high in sugar or saturated fats found in fried foods, refined or processed foods.  Conversely, a diet low in fat may lack  essential fatty acids, and can also affect the appearance of the skin.   Breakouts can  reveal toxin buildup, resulting from constipation, kidney or lymphatic problems.  Other triggers include a polluted, dry environment, and seasonal climate changes.   Genetics also determines whether a person will be predisposed to acne breakouts.  In general, acne is caused by a combination of four main factors:

Genetics
Skin Care
Lifestyle
Emotional State

We cannot change our genetics, but we can change the other three factors to help reduce the likelihood of acne breakouts.
How can acne be controlled?
Skin needs to be cleansed, fed and nurtured.  Externally, the skin benefits from a simple regimen:

Cleansing with a mild, slightly acidic and all natural soap.  Other kinds of soaps can cause redness, soreness, irritation or tightness because of the harsh chemicals, colorants detergents and fragrances they are made with.  Avoid any products which contain ingredients which may irritate or dry out the skin.  Most often culpable ingredients are petroleum derived, synthetic or animal based.
Tone with an alcohol-free, all natural toner, since alcohol is drying to the skin and will cause the oil glands to produce more sebum.  Toner also helps reduce the bacterial population on the skin, decreasing the number of bacteria which will migrate into the pores.
Moisturize with a petroleum free cream.  Petroleum is comedogenic and can clog pores unnecessarily.  Creams which contain natural waxes such as beeswax do not have a comedogenic effect on the pores.  At night, massage a facial oil into the skin as this helps increase circulation to the surface of the skin and suppresses the oil glands from producing excess oil.
Once per week, use a gentle exfoliant to remove dead skin cells which accumulate at the surface of the pores and lead to blackheads.   A mud mask used once every couple of weeks also helps draw out sebum in the pores as the clays present in the mask are highly absorbent.

Internally, the skin is fed and cleansed by a diet rich in fresh fruits, whole grains and vegetables.  These foods provide more water, nutrients and  fibre into the diet and can make a remarkable difference in the appearance of the skin.  Relaxation, adequate sleep, exercise and stress reduction also play an important role in keeping the skin clear and healthy as they assist the body to repair and detoxify itself.
Seasonal or climate changes, such as winter and humid summers in addition to dry, polluted environments also contribute to acne breakouts by drying out or irritating the skin.  As the skin is exposed to dry temperatures  moisture is lost through the skin, triggering the oil glands to produce more sebum.  Keeping the skin clean and moisturized is essential to preventing the pores from  becoming clogged with excess sebum.  In humid conditions, the skin loses moisture through sweat and evaporation, triggering the same process which can lead to breakouts.  Moisturizing and regular cleansing in dry, humid or polluted conditions can reduce the onset of acne.
Makeup can also trigger breakouts.  If they contain comedogenic ingredients, such as those derived from petroleum, they may contribute to acne despite a clean and healthy skin regimen or lifestyle.  Choose all natural makeup which is in harmony with the rest of your skin care regimen and less likely to contribute to breakouts.
Acne treatments which contain salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide worsen acne, as these are skin irritants and very drying.  Tea tree essential oil is a natural alternative, and works by  sterilizing the infected area upon contact without damaging the surrounding skin cells.  It can also prevent microbial growth in that area for hours.  Other treatments for acne include hydrocortisone which thins the skin over time, or antibiotics which can contribute to microbial resistance in the long term.  Hormone treatments work by decreasing testosterone levels in the body, since this is the hormone responsible for sebum production.  There are natural alternatives to aid in controlling acne, such as tea tree, lemon and juniper berry essential oils.  These are effective and much safer to use for treating acne.
Acne can be a source of frustration for many.  Much can be done, however to minimize the occurrence of breakouts thereby reducing the impact of acne on our lives.  Making healthy adjustments to our diet, lifestyle and skin care product choices can lead to clearer, more radiant and healthy skin, free at last from acne.

If you eat at restaurants very often (more than three times a week), you’re going to be carrying extra weight unless you take steps now to make some different choices. Here are seven easy ways to shave calories from restaurant meals.
When I eat out I want it to be special, consequently I don’t eat out often. You may have seen the advice on how to shave calories at restaurants but really, are you wanting to pay high restaurant prices for undressed salads and plain steamed vegetables? If not, how then can you solve the dilemma of too many calories when you eat out?
Here are seven tips for getting the calories out of restaurant meals while still ordering your favorites.
1. Say NO to super sizing. The size you ordered is already too big. Stop super sizing and you’ll save money. Better still, order one dinner and ask for an extra plate. Many restaurants will do this for a dollar or two, and it’s well worth it. Then share the meal with your friend and you split the cost straight down the middle. Another option is to order from the so called “appetizer” menu. Two people could order three entrees, one dessert and split the whole thing and it’s still a ton of food!
2. Skip the bread and rolls. Most family restaurants still serve a bread basket with your meal. Unless it’s a fresh baked loaf or some really special bread, just skip it. You don’t need to fill up on ordinary bread when you’re paying good money for a meal. Just ask for it to be taken away if you can’t resist, but frankly, you’re an adult, you can resist, if you want to. You can simply choose not to put a roll on your plate. Try it, just once and see if you don’t walk out of that restaurant feeling strangely powerful.
If you can’t skip the rolls, at least skip the butter. That’s right. Eat it plain. Whole grain bread is delicious all by itself.
3. Stop Ordering Drinks. Soft drinks are a huge cash cow for restaurants. For pennies they sell you a squirt of syrup and carbonated water and act like they’re doing you a big favor by only charging you $1.29 for a giant 64 ounce soda. Start saving those dollars. Especially if you’re ordering “to go” skip the drink. If you’re eating it there, ask for water, or at least switch to diet drinks. Never drink “fat pop.”
4. Slow Down You Eat Too Fast! What’s the rush? Take your time, savor the moment, enjoy the flavors. A big part of getting in touch with your hunger signals and learning to eat what really will satisfy is learning to recognize the subtle signs of hunger. You won’t know when you’re approaching satisfaction if you’ve gobbled everything down in five minutes. Take a bite then notice how many times do you chew before you start wanting to swallow? Once, twice? Make an effort to chew your food and your body will be much happier. A very large part of digestion begins in your mouth, not to mention you’ll get much more pleasure if you let the food linger.
5. Trim Visible Fat and Skin. I know, you really love the skin–of course you do, it tastes good, it should, it’s pure fat. Do you want to get leaner, or do you want to eat fat? You choose. I never eat chicken skin and never eat the visible fat hanging off a steak, good taste or no. You have to decide what you want more, the second’s worth of pleasure of a yummy taste, or a lifetime of carrying around an extra 40 lbs? I know this is counter to the low carb crowd’s belief that fat is good, carbs are evil, but I’ve maintained an 80 pound weight loss for 18 years without dieting and I don’t eat visible fat or skin. Enough said.
6. Ask for a Doggie Bag at the Beginning of Meal. When the food is served, immediately portion off some to take home for tomorrow. Most restaurants in the US serve way too much. There is no law you have to eat it all. Do this frequently and soon you’ll find you’re getting an extra lunch out of that meal.
7. Get a copy of Restaurant Confidential by Michael F. Jacobson and Jayne Hurley, and start checking out how many calories you’re really eating. If you eat out frequently and you carry extra weight, then that’s probably the problem right there. This little book can help you realize why it seems you don’t eat that much yet you can’t lose any weight. Hardees recently introduced a new burger that clocks in at just under 1200 calories all by itself! Now that’s frightening.
If you really want to get a handle on your weight problem, look first to where you eat, second at what you eat, and third how much you eat. Where, What and How Much? Try these steps choosing one tip at a time, and see how easily you can take some of the calories out of restaurant food.

Do you remember the day you first joined your gym? Wasn’t it a great feeling, knowing that you had finally taken that first step towards living a healthier life? Making a conscious, positive decision to improve is rewarding, and hopefully we’ve all kept that promise to ourselves. But try as we might, it seems that there’s always a handy excuse to not exercise.
While gym attendance peaks around January, it slacks off every March/April as people forget about their New Year Resolutions. Summer BBQ’s and vacations tend to make people stay away from the gym, and six months later holiday parties and planning to the same thing. Finally, we can all relate to those days when we simply don’t want to work out!
The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, a trade association serving the health and fitness club industry, reports that the average health club member in the United States spends only about 90 days at the gym per year.
Our goal at Pick Up The Pace (www.letspickupthepace.com) is to help you STAY MOTIVATED to exercise! We don’t just want to help you with the ‘how’ of exercise – we want to help you with the ‘why’ too!
That’s why we regularly bring new music into the gym, offer games and contests, provide fitness education materials, weigh and measure monthly, provide a fun environment, make it easy to get to the gym with expanded hours, and basically just do what we can to help you stay motivated. We want you to look forward to exercising!
So what can you do to stay motivated? Here are five great ideas to help us all keep that inner fire burning…..
1) Find an exercise buddy! When we know that someone else is going to meet us at the gym at a certain time, we will automatically be much more likely to show up ourselves. After all, who wants to abandon their friend? Don’t have a friend at the gym? Invite one along! She will appreciate the invitation, and will be much healthier for it!
2) Get to know people in the gym! One of the many reasons why women enjoy Pick Up The Pace so much is that it’s part exercise facility and part social club! Visiting with friends and family while we’re exercising makes the time go by so fast it hardly even seems like we’re doing something good for us. It’s great to get out of the house or office and just have some fun with other ladies!
3) Talk with your doctor! We all know that exercise is good for us. From helping to prevent cancer to lowering our blood pressure to helping us fit into that swimming suit, exercise is the best thing we can do for ourselves. Even with that knowledge, it’s sometimes encouraging to hear about our progress from our doctor. Here’s a hot motivation tip: ask your gym for a copy of your fitness records (monthly body fat analysis and measurements) and then share that information with your doctor. He or she will be so happy that you’re exercising, and will encourage you to continue!
4) Chart your progress! The CEO of a Fortune 500 company once said “What gets measured gets done”, and that advice is as good for us as it was for that business. Take the time to keep a food journal, an exercise log, or simply write down your fitness goals. Post it where you will see it every single day (on the ‘fridge, in the car, on the mirror, etc.). Life is just so busy these days, a constant visual reminder of our goals may be just the motivational push we need.
5) Give yourself a reward! Sometimes the ‘big picture’ can be too intimidating. For example, if you have 80 pounds to lose it’s tempting to think “It’s too much! I shouldn’t even try.” That’s one of the biggest motivation-killers out there, so combat those discouraging thoughts by rewarding yourself for smaller accomplishments. Treat yourself to a manicure when you lose that first five pounds. Buy a new outfit when you’ve lost ten pounds. Take a mini-vacation when you’re halfway to your goal. Give yourself small rewards for achieving smaller goals, and guess what…..many small steps make up a long journey! Before you know it, you’ll have accomplished your overall goal!
There are many other ways to give yourself the motivation to succeed. Try some of these tips today – the only thing you have to lose is the fat!

When you mention acne most people instantly think of hormonal teenagers standing in front of the bathroom mirror refusing to go to school because of a pimple on the end of his or her nose. Acne isn’t necessarily like that, though. It’s true that Acne does appear to be a hormonal affliction but it isn’t true that it’s only teenagers who can get it. Adult men and women can suffer from adult acne at any age and it is not uncommon to see people of 40 suffering quite badly. Adult acne can be just as serious as teen acne causing depression and social anxiety in people of all ages and from all backgrounds.
1- Adult acne really is a lot more widespread than you might imagine. 25% of adult men and up to as many as 50% of adult women are expected to suffer from adult acne at some point during their adult lives. It really is a lot more common than you probably imagine and there is no reason to be ashamed by it.
2- The exact causes of adult acne, like teen acne, remain unknown. Certainly hormones have a big part to play in people of any age contracting acne but the exact relation nobody knows. Because of it’s similarity, though, the treatments and prevention for adult acne are virtually identical to those of teen acne and are easy to use or follow.
3- Acne, in general, is one of the most common medical problems in the world and it is estimated that 30% of all visits to dermatologists will be due to acne. However, because the world looks at acne as a teen problem they fail to realize the mental anguish that adult sufferers can face. Adult acne can lead to serious depression and social anxiety as grown men and women become afraid to go out in public.
4- Scrubbing and scrubbing your pimples will not help. It is more likely to open up sores that can become easily infected. These will look a lot worse than any acne pimples and can leave some quite visible scarring. Cleansing is fine but you should avoid scratching or picking.
5- There are a large number of natural botanical remedies to help with adult acne that you may want to consider trying. Dandelion and Burdock are both proven to help as are Lavender, Dock Root, Turmeric and Strawberry Leaves. There are many more natural solutions that are very easy to find and even easier to incorporate into your daily lives.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO SPEND A FORTUNE BE YOUNG LOOKING!
As we age facial muscles weaken, and skin begins to sag. But just as gym workouts can promote the body’s youthful strength and suppleness, facial exercise – based on the same principles of dynamic resistance – can strengthen facial muscles. If sagging muscles in your face chin and neck are aging you beyond your years there is a way to reverse the process and make you look healthier, more vibrant, younger.
Facial exercise can transform your looks without cosmetic surgery. One thing facial exercises won’t do is cause wrinkles, but some people think they do. This is absolutely wrong. Properly done facial exercise most certainly does not cause wrinkles.
In fact, exercising the face helps to make women and men look younger for longer, by toning and tightening the facial muscles, just like toning the muscles of the body firms them up.
But, don’t make the mistake of thinking that all facial exercise programs are the same. Expensive devices will not give you better results. Electrodes are very hard to position properly and can be painful if you have sensitive skin.
Sagging, bagging and deep hanging folds in older looking faces are, caused by lack of facial tone. Exercising the muscles in your face is crucial to maintaining a young appearance. Beauty treatments with creams can’t lift sagging muscles.
Surgical facelifts can be costly, painful and sometimes dangerous. Give your face a structured work out and you’ll reap the benefits for all the years to come. Our program includes deep breathing to enhance your exercises. The deep breathing will not only bring extra oxygen to your facial muscles, but to your whole body. Oxygen is the key to these exercises.
Some surgeons even give facial exercises to their patients after their face-lift. Why not, just skip the surgeon and do the exercise? A good facial exercise program lifts and tones the facial muscles. My program comes with a guarantee, and I have yet to refund any money.