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How to do Hair Spa at Home? Steps for At Home Hair Spa

Diposting oleh Unknown Selasa, 26 Juni 2012 0 komentar


How to Do Hair Spa at Home!
Hair spa today has become the most preferable treatment for damaged hair. If your hair looks malnourished, dry, brittle, and rough or with split ends, you are almost always advised to do hair spa treatment. However, a beauty parlour or hair salon might ask for a lot of money to make your hair look and feel good! Moreover, you need to have multiple sittings for your hair to get the desirable shine and strength. So, why not do hair spa at home?

Steps for At Home Hair Spa

There are 5 steps of hair spa- massaging, steaming, washing, conditioning and applying hair mask. As is obvious from these steps, we can easily do hair spa at home. At home hair spa is much cheaper as parlours will use branded hair cosmetics to do all these steps. More famous the brand, more will it cost. At home, you can use natural things to do hair spa. This will cost less and will be devoid of any chemicals that might harm your hair in the long run. Thus, At Home Hair Spa is easy to do, cheaper option and can be done regularly too! So let's know how to do hair spa at home!

Massaging Hair with Oil

At Home Hair Spa # 1 - Oil Massage


As the first step of hair spa at home, give a good massage to your hair with nourishing oil. This can be any one of the oils good for hair such as olive oil, coconut oil or almond oil. Massage the hair for about fifteen to twenty minutes.




Giving Steam to Oiled Hair

At Home Hair Spa # 2 -Hair Steaming
When you finish off with oil massaging, take some warm water and dip a towel in it. Squeeze and let out all the water from the towel. Now wrap this warm towel around your head covering all your hair. This helps oil penetrate deep into the scalp. This will take another 15-20 minutes.


Washing Hair with Shampoo

At Home Hair Spa # 3 - Shampooing

Now wash your hair with a mild shampoo. You can even let the oiled hair stay as it is for a night and wash the day after. If you are washing right away after steaming, remember to use lukewarm water for washing hair.





Applying Conditioner to Hair

At Home Hair Spa # 4 -Hair Conditioning
After shampooing, condition hair with a hair conditioner that suits your hair. You can even use natural hair conditioners like tea and lemon conditioner. For this, add tea leaves to boiling water and let it boil for another couple of minutes. Then strain it and let it cool down. Now take one lime and add its juice to the tea water. Rinse hair with this after shampooing. 



Applying Hair Mask

At Home Hair Spa # 5 -Hair Mask
The last step of hair spa is to apply hair mask to your hair. This gives the required nourishment to hair and makes it shine and look fabulous. You can always buy a hair mask but to cut down on cost and to get benefits of natural things, you might also use natural hair masks.

Egg hair mask is suitable for all types of hair. Mix two eggs with some coconut oil and make a smooth mixture out of it. Now apply this to hair while massaging. Take whole eggs for normal hair but only egg whites for oily hair and egg yolk for dry brittle hair. Cover the hair with warm towel again for about twenty minutes and then wash off with shampoo.

It was as simple as that! You have now successfully done hair spa at home! Repeat the above procedure to do hair spa once a week for about a month. Thereafter you can do it once a month or as required. Regular Hair Spa at home will make your hair soft, shining, strong, manageable and superbly textured!

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Cramps in Calf at Night- Causes and Remedies

Diposting oleh Unknown Rabu, 20 Juni 2012 0 komentar


Calf Pain at Night
In the middle of night when you are sleeping and its not more than an hour or so that you fell asleep, you suddenly feel a severe cramp in your calf or calves. You realize that you are half awake and sometimes moaning in pain! These are the charlie horses cramps or the cramps in calf at night. If you have been in this situation once or for multiple times, you are aware of how painful these nocturnal calf cramps can be! There are many causes of leg calf cramps at night beginning from your lifestyle, the food that you eat which can be deficient in certain minerals to certain diseases as well as medicines that you regularly take for your diseases! Why do you have calf pain at night and what can you do to get rid of these calf pain and cramps? Let's explore!


What are Nocturnal Calf Cramps?


As the term itself says, nocturnal calf cramps are the nighttime leg cramps felt in calves- the back part of the legs situated right below your knees. They are sudden spasms, or tightening of muscles in the calf. In fact, they are more serious condition than spasms because the calf pain at night is a sudden, uncontrolled contraction of a muscle. Calf pain at night often occur just when you are falling asleep or waking up and they can last a few seconds to a few minutes.

What Causes Cramps in calf at Night?


While doctors are still not sure about the exact causes of leg cramps at night, there are many reasons stated by them on the basis of patients who sometimes have fluid imbalance or a vitamin deficiency in their bodies. Some studies, however, link nocturnal calf cramps with increased electrical activity in the affected leg muscles, but doctors still don't know what causes nocturnal leg cramps. In some cases, calf cramps at night may be caused by a fluid imbalance or a vitamin deficiency. Apart from these main speculative causes of calves cramps, there are many other causes cited as responsible for these cramps at night.

Overused and strained calf muscle. You might have tried a new exercise or overdone some of the exercises that strain your calf muscles.

Injury to Achilles Tendonitis tendon. Pain due to some injury to Achilles tendon which joins the calf muscles with the heel might also intensify your calf cramps at night. This type of leg pain often will extend itself to the heels where the Achilles tendon is situated.

Occurance of Varicose Veins. If you keep yourself standing for most of the time in the day, you might develop varicose veins- a condition when your veins in calf get wider and enlarged. This is due to the unusual accumulation of blood in the veins that fail to travel back to heart.

High cholesterol leevels. If you suffer from high cholesterol levels, it might lead to clogging of the arteries due to cholesterol deposition in them. This, in turn, affects the blood supply to the calf leading to pain and cramps. You must therefore know How to Control Cholesterol

Increased blood sugar levels.If you are diabetic, there can be yet another cause for your calf cramps at night- high blood sugar levels that damage the peripheral nerve known as diabetic neuropathy. Use this Checklist for Diabetes which talks about best diet for insulin dependent persons.

Knee pain and knee joint inflammation.If you suffer from arthritis or knee pain that causes inflammation in the knee joint, it is quite possible for you to have calf pain at night. Read about these Knee Pain ManagementDo's & Don'ts 

Other causes of calf cramps at night may include sleep disorders; dehydration; deficiency of potassium, calcium, and other minerals; excessive body weight; sitting for a long time during the day; keeping your legs in awkward positions when you sleep; consuming certain medicines like diuretics for urine problems, statins, steroids or birth control pills; diseases like thyroid and kidney problems.

Remedies for Nocturnal Calf Cramps


You must first identify as to what causes your calf pains at night! If its is high cholesterol or blood sugar then you must take steps to treat these conditions. However, when you wake up due to cramps in calves at night, to get immediate relief, stretch out your leg or legs and stay in that position for sometime (about 10-15 minutes). You can gently massage your calves with your fingers too. Stretching of legs are a must for people who experience calf pain – either at night or anytime. So, how to do stretches for calf muscles?

Here's how you can do stretching exercise to get relief from your calf cramps at night.
  • Lay down on your back and extend both your legs.
  • Take a rolled up towel and wrap it around the ball of your foot.
  • Keeping your leg straight, pull your toes towards yourself. You will feel the stretch at the back of your legs.
  • Take your foot up and then down keeping your leg straight. Repeat this without stopping. You should not hold the stretch. Keep doing this for about 2 minutes.
  • Repeat the entire process with the other leg.
See this Calf Pain Rehab Video to get idea about how to stretch calf muscles to get relief from calf strain.


You can also do a simple calf stretching exercise daily for three times. 
  • You have to stand against a wall with your hands placed at wall infront of your chest. 
  • Keep one of your leg at a distance of one feet from the wall. 
  • Keep the other leg at a distance of two to three feet from the wall (see image below). 
  • Take it far from wall till you feel a stretch in your leg. 
  • Hold for 1-2 minutes in this position. 
  • Repeat with the other leg.

If you get calf cramps at night, almost every night, you should consult your physician to identify the cause. If its a badly pulled calf muscle, it would need treatment which include medicines and physical therapy with deep tissue massage and gentle stretching exercises. If its an injury involving severe rupture in your calf muscles, you might have to go for a surgery too. Varicose veins can be treated with compression bandage and crtain exercises.

Other things that you can do to get relief from your night calf cramps include the following
  • Have optimum sleep.
  • Drink enough water.
  • If overweight, lose weight
  • If having medicines that cause your leg pain, see your doctor and resolve either by asking for alternative medicines or other ways suggested by your physician.
  • Quit smoking as it constricts the blood vessels giving you more cramps.
  • Follow a healthy lifestyle and have healthy foods rich in potassium. Bananas, grapes, beans, apricots, dates, raisins, cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, oranges, grapefruits, potatoes, corn, saltwater fish like tuna, all are good sources of potassium and other required minerals. Diabetics should avoid bananas, they can have coconut water instead.
  • Do regular calf muscle exercises so that your calf muscles get strong and flexible.
If you do regular calf muscle exercises and pay attention to a balanced diet, you can get rid of the cramps in calves at night. If this doesn't work, you must see your doctor to get relief from your calf cramps at night!

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List of Healthy Snacks for Weight Loss

Diposting oleh Unknown Jumat, 15 Juni 2012 0 komentar


Healthy Snacks for Weight Loss
When you say that you must have 5-6 meals a day, you almost always mean to say that there should be two main meals (lunch and dinner) and 3-4 mini meals that we popularly call snacks. When it comes to snacking options, there too you have the choice of having a little more than just a snack once or twice like in the morning when you breakfast. So, here we have two lists of healthy snacks that will help you in suggesting what to have as 'heavier snack foods' and the other list that will tell you about 'light snack foods' that you can even have frequently within a gap of two hours or so! Heavy snacks might require a little effort in preparing them and the light snacks may be eaten as they are- they are the easy healthy snacks too! However, the one common factor among these two types of healthy snacks is that they are also the top foods to help with weight loss!

List # 1 of Healthy Snacks for Weightloss- Ready to Eat Easy Snacks

Now ready-to-eat not always means the packaged snacks foods that you get from your superstore shelves! The nature also provides certain ready-to-eat good snack foods though you have to buy them too. This list of healthy snacks contains both types of easy snacks for weightloss assistance. 

Yogurt
Plain or mixed with fruits or other healthy foods, yogurt is a magical snacking otion for weightloss. This is because of its protein content which takes longer to digest keeping you satiated for longer. In this matter, Greek yogurt is even better choice as it has double the amount of protein than other yogurts have in them. If you want to use yougurt as a snack that would keep you full for even longer, you can just add some blueberries, apples, pears, dates, apricot or any other food that will add fiber to this protein! If not going for Greek yogurt, have the low fat yogurt made with skim milk.

Fruits
 
You guessed it right. Fruits can never escape from a list of healthy snacks! You like it or you don't, if you want to lose weight, you must add fruits in your snacks options. Some of them have high water content like watermelonand grapes. The water content in few grapes or a few chunks of watermelon will make you so full that you won't feel like eating anything for the next couple of hours. Other fruits like grapefruit, pears, apples are also good snacks ideas for weight loss due to their high fiber content. Pears and apples are high in water content too and if eaten with the peels, they'll give you some extra fibers to keep you satisfied for hours. You can even dress your apple with a little peanut butter which will give you long lasting energy too. If you are in search of naturally sweet fruits that are high in both, water content and fiber, nothing competes berries, especially the blue berries They are loaded with antioxidants to keep you looking good while you lose weight!

Raw Vegetables and Salads

Have you ever tried raw crunchy vegetables when you feel like having those crispy chips? If not, its time to do so because you are wanting to lose weight after all! Take some baby carrots and dip them in hummus, you won't regret not having that packat of chips with the fat filled dip! You can even take celery or zucchini sticks, green beans, pieces of green, yellow and red bell peppers, cucumbers etc. And have them with peanut butter. These are all tasty, healthy and good snack foods when it comes to weight loss. Use lettuce lavishly in your salads and make salads interesting by adding a an assortment of fruits and vegetables with grated low fat cheese. Better options would be to add salsa, hummus, or black bean dip as salad dressing. 

Whole Grain Crackers and Crispbreads

Whole-grain snack foods are good for weightloss because they are rich in fiber and complex carbohydrates. This will give you energy with staying power. You can have a stock of low-fat whole grain crackers, whole-grain pretzels and whole-grain crispbreads or the rye crackers. 


Nuts and Seeds
Nuts and seeds are rich in protein and fiber to make you feel fuller for longer. Although they are high in fat, but they are mono-unsaturated fat -the healthy fat. However, when having nuts and seeds as your snacks, eat them in moderation, never opt for large quantities as they are high in calories too. Opt for walnuts, raisins, pistachio in shell so that you slow down while eating, almonds. Cashews are only good once in a while as they are highly packed with calories. 

Air Popped Popcorn
Yes! You can have popcorns too but the air popped popcorns. Forget the butter popcorns if you are serious about losing weight. You can have a big bowl of air popped popcorns as they are more of air apart from the healthy whole-grain carbs, fiber and even a little protein. Enjoy while you snack healthy!  



List # 2 of Healthy Snacks for Weight Loss- Mixing or Making Snacks

Now here's a list of good snack foods that are healthy and will help you in losing weight too but they are not so easy as the above mentioned ready to eat snacks! You have to put some efforts to make them- only a little effort.

Eggs- high quality protein of eggs in your breakfast can keep you full for very long. Just don't fry them- eat boiled or poached.

Oatmeal-avoid the sweetened oatmeal and prepare it with anything that will suit you- water or skim milk. For flavor, use cinnamon or nutmeg.

Soup-not the creamy soups or even the packed ones that need a littlle boiling and they are done. It is the home made soup with lots of water with vegetables, beans, fish or chicken and herbs for flavoring that will make up a healthy snacks idea for weightloss!

Beans-they are good source of protein and fiber. Just toss some beans into soup or salad and your healthy snack food for weightloss is ready! You can even mash the beans up and use it as a dip.

Sweet Potatoes-the starchy vegetable can keep you full for hours. Although rich in calories, sweet potatoes are fat free. The fiber of sweet potato makes it a healthy choice for snacks when weight loss is in question. So, have mashed or baked sweet potatoes as one of the many good snack foods for weightloss.

You might also be interested in knowing other ways to reduce your tummy.  Read How to Reduce Tummy - Know Your Tummy Type & Lose Belly Fat!

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5 Healthy Ways to Celebrate Environment Day!

Diposting oleh Unknown Senin, 04 Juni 2012 0 komentar

5th June is the World Environment Day celebrated every year all over the world! We are safe only when our environment is safe. For this, we must conform to the rules of nature. Then only we’ll be able to safeguard our environment- and save ourselves! Being healthy the natural way is one of the essential ways to pay respect to our Earth’s environment and also to protect it. So, here we go with the 5 healthy ways to celebrate Environment Day. In fact, these are the ideal ways to lead our whole life and be healthy forever. Start today – on Environment Day- and form the habit gradually to follow these tips to be healthy for a lifelong health!


Have Green Healthy Food Menu!

Have lots of fruits and veggies. Use the right way ofcooking vegetables. If can’t do without a little bit of meat, try to have fish. If that won’t do, go for organic meat only! Avoid all aerated drinks and have natural beverages like fruit juice, coconut water, fresh lime juice etc.


To give environmental touch to your food menu today, try to buy locally produced foods that put minimal impact on environment. Instead of mass farmed meat, buy organic meat. The same applies to all your other food purchases- buy organic vegetables, fruits, spices and pluses. If planning to party today, decorate your table with recycled articles!

Reduce Global Warming while Exercising!

When you hit the gym and use that treadmill or the other gym equipment, you are consuming lots of power and releasing global warming ingredients into the atmosphere. Its good to exercise for health- just try to switch to natural mediums like yoga, aerobic exercises, walking, running, jogging, swimming etc.


Reduce Carbon Footprints while Traveling!

What applies to exercising, applies to your traveling options too. Let your car be parked in the garage and start car pooling to go to work- right from today! You will not only reduce carbon footprints but will also bond with your colleagues, share ideas, be more efficient at work- positive health effect to lessen your stress at work!

And when you go for shopping in the evening to the grocery shop, don’t ride your bike. Either use your bicycle or just walk down to the shop. This will make you fit giving you the right dose of exercise that you need after the whole day’s sitting at your office chair and will do a favor to the environment too!

Buy and Use Environment Friendly Products!

Because they are health friendly too! For example, you may use ‘vinegar-and-water mix’ to clean your kitchen counter. The same applies the toxic bleach cleaner that you use to clean toilets. You can, instead, use herbal toilet cleaners. This way, you are doing favor to your health too that gets deteriorated with the toxic fumes emitted by the chemical cleaners.

Other examples of environment friendly products include jute or cloth bags instead of plastic polythene bags, wooden toys in place of plastic or metal toys with lead content, recycled paper, herbal cosmetics, natural pesticides, and the list goes on- you just have to put a little effort to find them out- for the sake of your health and our environment!

Opt Green Fashion- Wear Natural and Organic Clothing!

When you can eat healthy then why can’t you wear healthy? Synthetic clothing or even the cotton ones made with conventional cotton grown with the help of pesticides don’t do any good to your skin’s health. So, wear organic cotton and other organic clothes made of such fibers as linen, bamboo, hemp and even soy fabric. You will be amazed at the soft feel and touch they’ll provide to your skin. Additionally they are cool too, considering the hot days we have in June! Those living in the parts of world experiencing colder climate in this month can wear Cashmere and Alpaca clothing.

Where there’s a will there’s a way! If you really want to give yourself and your kids a healthy life, you must first make your planet healthy. Adopt greener living options- not only on the Environment day but for all your life. Be Healthy, be Happy!

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