Life is far too short to waste hating your body and scrutinizing every pucker and pore. Here are some easy tricks for looking tighter, feeling smoother, and simply liking yourself better in the buff.
1. Camouflage the dimpling and puckering. Until there's a cure for cellulite, the best treatment isn't a pricey cream. It's self tanner.
- After you've exfoliated, apply self tanning lotion evenly all over your body, blending well in a circular pattern to prevent streaks or spots.
- Wait at least 8 hours, then shower to remove any residue.
- This is the magic: a second layer. Take a can of self tanning spray, and spray it over your butt, thighs, and any other areas where you have cellulite.
2. Stand up straight. Good posture can take an inch or two off your midsection instantly. Imagine lifting up your rib cage as if there were a string going from your breastbone to the ceiling. At the same time, gently pull your shoulder blades back toward your spine.3. Install a shower water filter. If your shower door or curtain has a chalky residue, you have hard water, and hard water dries out skin. It only takes 5 minutes to install a shower head water filter which will strain out the worst of the glow-sapping minerals.
5. Get moving. It's the act of exercising that makes you feel better about your body--even more so than any actual physical improvements.
6. Flatten your abs. Doing hundreds of crunches a day may seem virtuous, but they don't do anything for the muscles that run around the entire core of your body like a corset. To really flatten your abs, practice the yoga plank position--it strengthens the core and the obliques, drawing your midsection up and in.
7. Consider springing for sclerotherapy. If your legs are a web of spider veins, sclerotherapy can help. It's a procedure in which a dermatologist injects the veins with hypertonic saline solution so they collapse and disappear. It costs about $500 for both legs, which is a fraction of the cost of laser treatments, which don't even work as well.
9. Battle bloat. Eliminate the sweeteners known as sugar alcohols from your diet to flatten your belly. Check your favorite mints, gum and protein bars for sorbitol, mannitol, and lactitol--dietitians have pinpointed all three as major causes of gastrointestinal bloat.
10. Pick up the pace. To see more results at the gym, put more energy into it. If you feel like you are snowshoeing on the elliptical machine, you're doing it wrong. Add a 15-second sprint to the cardio workout of your choice every two minutes--and kick that up to a sprint every minute during the last 10 minutes on the machine. This will keep you engaged in the activity, and time will fly by faster.
11. Abolish 'bacne'. Try a body wash with salicylic acid in the morning and a spot treatment with benzoyl peroxide at night. Just be sure to sleep in an old t-shirt or pajamas--the ingredient may discolor clothes.
12. Get rid of red bumps. You know those little red goose bumps on the backs of your arms or thighs? They aren't pimples or a rash, but a common inherited condition called Keratosis Pilaris (KP). You can get rid of them with twice a week exfoliation and a daily lactic acid moisturizer such as AmLactin. You have to keep it up though, if you stop treating KP, it will just come back.
13. Cover up bruises. To really cover them up good, you have to knock out the dark purple color first. Dab an apricot-colored lipstick all over the bruise, and blot with a tissue to reduce stickiness. Then apply a creamy concealer that exactly matches your skin tone, and set it all with a dusting of translucent powder. (You can also do the same thing with unsightly small tattoos)
15. Quit smoking. Women who smoke have a more negative body image than those who don't. And the more you smoke, the worse you feel about yourself.
16. BEING KIND TO OTHER WOMEN. There's a reason this one is in all caps. This is one of the most important qualities a woman should have under her belt. It's obvious that feeling good in your own skin requires that you take it easy on that creature looking back at you in the mirror. Less obvious is being kind towards other women. There's nothing positive or attractive about criticizing another women's appearance. Even sitting around with your friends talking about how fat a certain celebrity looks or calling women 'cougars' is destructive--and it certainly doesn't make you feel any better about yourself. Quite the opposite in fact.
17. Banish sun spots. Just because you committed the sin of lying out in the sun in your youth doesn't mean you have to do penance forever. To banish sun spots on your chest, arms, and anywhere else, you can religiously smear on a product that combines a lightening agent--such as soy, kojic acid, or 2 percent hydroquinone--with an exfoliator daily for at least 2 months. If the spots haven't faded in 2 months, ask your dermatologist for prescription 4 percent hydroquinone--which can work in as quickly as a month, but can also irritate skin. Whenever you use it, be sure to prevent new spots from forming with a daily broad-spectrum sunscreen that has an SPF of at least 30.
18. Consider a few sessions of laser hair removal if you get ingrown bikini line hairs. Not everyone has the time or money for the full course of six treatments, but even one or two sessions can really help thin out regrowth, making ingrown hairs less likely.
19. Minimize new stretch marks. Old stretch marks aren't going anywhere. But you can minimize new ones with a retinoid, which will accelerate healing. And if you want to at least try to reduce your chances of getting new ones from pregnancy or weight loss, rub cocoa butter or another heavy emollient on those areas--it makes the outer layer of the skin more pliable.
20. Tone your glutes faster. We all say we'd like a firmer butt. If you really mean it, try this: single-leg movements. Do 12 reps of a single-leg squat on each side. Stand up straight with your left leg out behind you and dip down as far as you can, then switch sides and do 12 more. You can bang out 4 or 5 sets in under 3 minutes. And you WILL see a difference.
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