Category: Body Harmony

Food, Fitness & Rest! Creating Body Harmony is so important to skin care, we decided to dedicate and entire section to this topic.  The best skin care starts with what goes in your body and how you treat yourself. Sometimes this is far more important than what goes into your skin care. You can reverse a thousand wrongs with choices in rest and fitness and the food you eat. We’ll talk about some of that here.

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Top 7 tips to get your beauty sparkling again

Tres Spa Featured Products in Harmony with Nature

These are some of our favorite tips to help you feel your magnificent best. So if you find yourself feeling a little blah or blue, try any one of these tips to help transform your mood. When we are feeling optimistic and positive it radiates all around us.

  • Aroma therapy – One of the fastest, and easiest ways to transform your mood is to use a good dose of aroma therapy. Essential oils have a way of transforming our perspective. Pick a blend that works for you. Partner your aroma treatments with some meditation for even more elevation.
  • Soak in a nice hot bath – There is something wonderfully trans-formative in the simple act of soaking in a nice warm bath. It only takes 20 minutes. Make it even more special by adding some Vegan Milk Bath or add in a Fizzy for some aroma therapy.
  • Never underestimate the power of a lovely hot shower – Add a nice frothy organic soap scented with pure essential oils and packed with some extra exfoliation and you are transported.
  • Try a nice stimulating body scrub – Body scrubs can be used dry or wet. Either way a body scrub works to help slough off the top layer of skin and debris. Your skin will glow fresh.
  • Surround yourself in aroma therapy – Something as simple as surrounding yourself in a pleasing natural scent can go far to nourish you Mind, Body, & Spirit. To really wrap yourself, use the trifecta of organic soap, lotion, and aromatic mist. Try the Awaken blend to really lift your spirits.
  • Spa inspired Pedicure – There is nothing better than happy feet. If you can carve out about 30 minutes you can have a life altering pedicure right at home. Our Lux gift set includes our step by step instructions as well as all of the pieces you will need.
  • Our favorite is a full Spa quality Facial – You’ll want to give yourself about an hour or so to really relax and enjoy the process. The effort is well worth it as you will be rewarded with a fresh glowing face. Our Petite Facial gift set has all you will need for a facial at home or on the road. The gift comes complete with the step by step instructions.
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The best way to keep cool and dry

What is the best way to keep cool and dry when the heat goes up?

Keep cool and dry even when the heat is up. We all feel a little heat from time to time. Either it is the climate outside or the pressures inside. Something happens and our temp goes up. Given the right conditions, so does our sweat. It’s time like this it may seem impossible to keep cool, calm, and dry. It can really become a problem. Sweating can leave you feeling sticky, slippery, and downright uncomfortable. Add any kind of rubbing action under these conditions and that friction is probably going to lead to some serious irritation. The best intervention to avoid this situation is to have advanced preparation.

Sweating is a natural thing and, for most of us, you should not try to stop the body from doing what it does naturally (dangers of antiperspirants). There are those who suffer from Hyperhidrosis, which is severe and may require medical intervention to help normalize sweat gland production. But how can the rest of us keep cool and dry naturally when the heat gets turned up? Depending on what’s getting you hot, try these techniques to help bring you cool comfort when you need it the most.

The top technique to keep cool and dry in any situation

I would never encourage the use of antiperspirants on a regular basis. But they are designed to stop you from sweating and as far as I know there is nothing in nature that can do that. The number one option for a person who wants to be in harmony with nature is to use nature to help ease the effects. Protect yourself with a natural hydrophobic layer of protection. The one thing I recommend to anyone and everyone, no matter what the circumstances is so simple even a baby understands: Powder up before you leave your home. No matter what the weather or what the life circumstance, you will never regret powdering up before you power up for your day.It is the best intervention you can do to keep cool and dry.

It wont stop you from sweating but it will help to create a barrier so you can dry faster and feel cooler. You can read more about what powders are best and how they work here.

For stress induced situations:

Practice: If you know you are going to be in a stressful situation ahead of time, like a presentation in front of an audience, rehearse as many times as you can beforehand.  It’s not enough to read a presentation, you need to stand up and speak the words even if no one is in the room with you. Something triggers in your mind as you hear the words you speak.

Tres Spa Aroma Therapy with aromatic mists

Meditation: If you adopt a regular habit of meditation, then you will be able to center yourself no matter what the turmoil is around you. A practice of only 10 minutes a day can have a profound impact on your overall sense of well-being and your ability to handle stressful situations.

Watch the caffeine: I’m not one to say walk away from coffee; I love my coffee. However, if you are under stress, reducing your coffee consumption might prove helpful.

Introduce Herbal Teas:  Among your daily beverage choices, add an herbal tea that has botanicals that help to relieve stress and anxiety. Look for organic herbal blends that have chamomile, peppermint, lemon balm, passion flower (my personal favorite), and, of course, green tea. All of these herbs have relaxing qualities to them.

Carry a high quality Aromatic Mist with you: Aromatics can alter your state of mind and the general energy around you. Ever notice how no one can ever frown when they smell a strong citrus? It’s more than just a coincidence that Lavender causes so many to relax. Not to sound like I’m bragging, but we happen to have quite a collection of different blends at Tres Spa. Check out our Aromatic Mist category.

If the climate has you in a sweat

Sometimes it’s just plain hot out and this causes you to sweat more. What can do you do to naturally keep cool and dry? Sure, it’s easy to keep cool if you’re in front of a fan or tucked inside in the air-conditioning. But that’s not always possible and not a natural way to control your body’s temperature. So how do you beat the heat?

Drink plenty of water: Staying hydrated is important any time of year but even more important in hot conditions. You sweat more so you need to replenish those fluids. Sweat is your friend. In fact, it is your natural air conditioner. Sweat on the surface of your skin catches a breeze. The water interacts with the air to give your skin a cooling feeling. I know it can be hard to get enough water when you don’t like the taste of it, so try some life hacks to help you out.

Dress for the occasion: Drape yourself in lose fitting flowing clothes that breathe well. Loose clothes can help create a natural air-conditioning effect because they ride over the surface of the skin and don’t cling too tight.

Mist yourself: It may sound like you’re tossing gasoline to the fire, but you aren’t. I know you want to dry out, but sometimes the fastest way to dry out is to cool off first so use a high quality mist to spritz over you. That moisture will catch even the slightest of breezes and cool you off. Another positive side effect is you will smell really, really, really good and so will your surroundings. Especially if you are using one or the Très Spa multi-purpose skin safe Aromatic Mists.

Keep a cloth handy: Running a cloth under cool water and applying it to your body’s heat points will instantly cool the body. Most common points are the back of the neck, the inside of the wrists, the inside of your elbow, behind your knees, on your ankles, and on the tops of your feet, to name a few.

Take your time: When the heat is on, this is the perfect time for you to slow it down a bit. Take your time and try not to be in such a rush.  Channel your inner sloth and make each movement purposeful and slow.

Other articles you may find interesting:
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4 Skin Loving Foods For Super Healthy Skin

Choose These 4 Skin Loving Foods During Your Holiday Festivities

Tres Spa 4 Skin Loving Foods

These 4 skin loving foods have a great reputation in supporting healthy vibrant skin. Best part is they taste good too! You can find them anywhere you go so you can incorporate them into your travel and festival meals.

For many of us, we get set into a pattern in life. We get our daily routines in almost every area of our life because predictability and dependability make us feel warm and comfortable.  Our days come and go and change is gradual. We settle ourselves into nice healthy patterns of fitness, food, and skin care with nourishing products for every aspect of our bodies. But there are times in the year that there is anything but predictability! Times when the food is not anything you would have in your everyday well adjusted personal habit. The Holiday’s with friends and family!

Holiday festivities are wonderful times to be with friends and family and even to travel to different locations. But sometimes this throws us completely off our routines which can leave us feeling a little defenseless. Try adding these 4 vegan friendly gluten free foods that support super healthy skin. These are very common at festival gatherings year round so no matter where you roam, you are bound to find these 4 things. Heck, one of them you can take with you!

Chocolate Rich in Cacao Really Is Good For You

1) Chocolate that is at least 70% Cacao
Get your cacao on! This tasty temptation is bound to be plentiful at celebrations of any kind. Go ahead and indulge a little with this skin loving food. Cacao is one of the foods rich in flavinoids. Flavinoids are anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory power houses. If that weren’t enough, it’s also rich in skin protecting Magnesium and vitamin C, Omega 6 which helps to restore cells, enzymes to help with skin luster. The list goes on.

Loving Legumes

2) Beans, all of them! Yes, hand over those Green Bean beauties!

Skin loving foods from the inside out. Sure you know all the benefits of the bean family for a healthy well balanced digestive system (fiber, protein, B vitamins, iron, magnesium, potassium, copper and zinc to name a few) but did you consider  the double bonus phytonutrients offer?  With the bean family you also get a food rich in phytonutrients. These can help prevent disease. If you are traveling to areas far from your normal surroundings, you will be exposed to bacteria and germs you are not normally exposed to. You are going to need anything that helps support your bodies defense system.

Try a more healthy alternative to the traditional Green Bean Casserole  (I like this one since she uses sun dried tomatoes) You can do this one Raw Vegan or bake it for 20 minutes for Vegan

Sweet or Savory, These Roots Are a Delight

3) Carrots. I never met a carrot I didn’t like!

My favorite of the skin loving foods is one of the most versatile foods. Raw, sautéed, steamed, stewed. pureed, sliced, diced, shaved. Served as an appetizer, main course, or even desert. I will never complain about a carrot. One of my favorite veggies if you cannot tell. You can find this lovely root any time any place. Fresh is best when you can but frozen if you can’t. So what can a carrot do for you? Plenty! But most notably it is a rich source of beta-carotene and that converts to vitamin A and that goes to work at repairing tissue.

Seeds Of Life

4) Seeds

Last but not least of the 4 skin loving foods are the seeds of life. I would think this one would be obvious as to why I would recommend them for good skin health since I use just about all of the seed oils in the skin care I create for Très Spa. But in case you missed it… seeds are nutrient rich in essential fatty acids. They contain an alphabet of vitamins. We need fatty acids for digestion as well as healthy supple hydrated skin. My personal favorite seeds are He.mp seeds, Flax seeds, Sunflower seeds (snacking on some now), Pumpkin seeds, and Chia seeds in no particular order. 

Happy travels to you. Enjoy your celebrations with friends and family and exploring new, or rediscovering old familiar places!

P.S. You don’t have to be Vegan to eat these foods. Did you know you can eat like a vegan whenever you want?

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Gluten Free Tabbouleh and Skin Care! What They Have In Common

Gluten Free Tabbouleh and It’s Raw Vegan Too!

Tres Spa's Gluten Free Tabouli Raw Vegan OK I’m gonna share my favorite Raw Vegan food that happens to be gluten free as well. Gluten free Tabbouleh made with hemp seed nut meat (it’s what’s inside the seed shell). This dish is so nutritious and perfectly balanced it’s a meal on it’s own. My favorite salad that is also a condiment. I used it as a dip even. Try spreading it on celery stalks! Yumm!!!!

What Does It Have To With Skincare?

You may be scratching your head and asking “What does Gluten Free Tabbouleh have to do with skincare”. I get it, you wouldn’t think food would play a roll in nutrient rich skin care but it does. The best skincare treatment you can give yourself is in what you choose to eat and drink. How you nourish the inside of your body will have a direct (and even profound) effect on your healthy skin. By eating whole foods that are rich in vitamins and compounds our body needs to function and thrive, we are giving our skin support from the inside out. It also has one of my favorite ingredients I use in formulating skin care for Tres Spa, Hemp seeds. You can find the seeds in some of the soaps and the oil in many of the skin care formulations from face care to body oils to body scrubs all of the organic hand and body lotions and lets not forget the  organic shampoo too!

Here Is What You Need

Here are the ingredients for you to experiment with. I am estimating the measurements since I rarely ever use measuring cups or spoons in the kitchen. I need one creative outlet that allows me to compose with reckless abandon! So when I am in the kitchen, I cook with wild abandon. 🙂

  • Tres Spa and Hemp Seed for Skincare1 cup Hemp Seeds – the taste is heady with warm earthy notes. Super rich in nutrients and excellent source of Omega fatty acids.
  • 1 bun of Parsley chopped. You can use cilantro if there is no parsley around but the end resulting taste is very different. From what I understand they are both excellent to support the liver. For all your liver does for you, you want to support it any way you can so if you can’t find herbs try some dark kale!
  • Onion – Now I like Spring onions ( I know I said yellow in the video but I was holding a bundle of green onions) and I use a bundle of them since they tend to be mild. Red Onion is also an excellent choice but you would only need a tablespoon or three.  Shallots? Okay if you want.
  • Tomatoes! I use a cup or two – I love love love tomatoes. I always have and I crave them!! I remember when I was first diagnosed with Psoriasis – they told me not to eat them. It wasn’t until years later when I was reading research that said dig in and eat tomatoes (as well as others). I was so happy! I had cheated all along, but now I didn’t need to hide my obsession. 🙂
  • 1 Lemon – fresh squeezed and oh so nice. Did you know Lemon juice is a metabolic booster?
  • Pepper to taste – use what pepper you want. There’s a few to choose from out there so feel free to experiment.
  • Sherpa Salt – just a little. I like to add a bit of mineral rich salt
  • Apple Cider Vinegar or ACV as many of us call it. Okay I use a splash or two – depends. But I love Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar and I try to use it whenever and wherever I can. If you are not used to ACV, then go easy at first.

Here Is What You Need To Do

Simple steps! You can whip this up in minutes

  1. Get a bowl
  2. Start tossing. Toss in the Hemp Seed, toss in some chopped parsley, toss in some salt, toss in some chopped onion, toss in your sliced or diced tomatoes.
  3. Dash in some black pepper – or hey, why not try some Cayenne pepper for an extra metabolic boost.
  4. Drizzle in a fresh squeezed lemon. I always like to add some Apple Cider Vinegar as well. You can’t go wrong with ACV!
  5. Mix and eat! Or chill it and eat it later.
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Say Cheese!

My Favorite Vegan Cheese

What is a Raw Vegan Cheese recipe doing in a skin care blog site? Ok, first let me say I am multi-dimensioned and I have loads of interests so you never know what you will find here. Second, good skin care starts with what you eat. Third stress causes the skin to age, and if you are like me, being cheeseless causes me stress. So here is a helpful treat to help relieve stress while you try to do the right thing and support Vegan for you and the environment. 

Cheese Is Hard To Let Go Of

True confession, one of my biggest addictions is cheese. During the time I was a Raw Vegan it was the hardest thing for me to let go of. Yes, harder than coffee. I’ve loved cheese all my life and it was the biggest treat for me, more than cookies or candy or cakes. While I never found a truly satisfying replacement for the melted molten cheesiness of dairy, I did find this Raw Vegan Cheese very satisfying. So give the cows a break and try this supper easy recipe.

Feel free to change it up and make it your own be creative. I find I often switch things around and change the spices or I’ll add things like spring onions or jalapenos or red bell pepper.Play with your food! 

Fast and Easy

Time to make: 5 minutes (including prep and clean up and photoshoot)

Here is what you will need for my basic recipe (I never measure anything when I make food, I go by feel and taste and smell. When I make skin care, I am tediously exact):

  • 1 cup Cashews (raw)**- only enough that you can eat it in the next 3 to 4 days You do not need to soak these soft nuts, unless soaking is a compulsion with you then you can soak for 30 minutes. **For a Low Fat option use white beans or yellow potatoes or for a low starch version try using roasted bell peppers
  • Nutritional Yeast – about 3 – 4 tablespoons.(optional if using cashews but a must with the low fat options)
  • dash Salt (For a salt free version use dried celery or your favorite salt substitute)
  • splash ACV
  • dash Paprika
  • dash Turmeric
  • Garlic to taste
  • Water – enough for the texture or consistency. So if you are making a sauce to drizzle on roasted veggies or a creamy blend to toss with pasta you will want to add more. If you are making a dip or thick spread, use less water. Start out with 1/4cp you can add more as you go but you can never subtract it.
  • A really good blender or a food processor. Whatever tool you use that can grind a soft nut. I’ve used a variety of tools and basically they all work since the cashew is a soft nut.

Let’s Create!

Toss it all in a blender and blend away!

Blend until you get a creamy texture so give it time to really pulverize the nuts. Bon appetit!

Bon appetit

OK so here are the very brief “whys” for each of the ingredients. It’s good to know what is so good about what is good for you right? So I like to know if it is good for my body and for my skin. Of course because I make skin care and the best skin care starts with what you eat (hair care too).

Cashews- The Cashew is really a seed not a nut that has a mild flavor and can be used for dishes from sweet (cashew cream) to savory (toasted roasted and tossed with any number of spices), making it very versatile protein source. The nut is a favorite and nutritionally, it’s actually pretty good for you with unsaturated and monounsaturated (heart healthy) fats, vitamins, fiber and rich minerals. 1/4 cp of raw cashews is about 170 calories. I always encourage folks to buy Raw Organic Fair trade cashews. **If you elected the low fat options then you are adding nutrient density while minimizing fat. So basically, a cheese sauce you don’t have to feel guilty about indulging in.

Salt – I use pink Himalayan Sherpa salt or Celtic sea salt. Salts are mineral rich and  minerals act as important electrolytes in the body. They help with fluid balance, nerve transmission and muscle function. The fact is, we all need salt to keep our bodies functioning properly.  So feel free to salt to taste!

Garlic – One of my personal favorites for cleansing and keeping a happy healthy balanced inside. Allicin is a form of sulfur and this is what gives garlic the medicinal benefits, fighting radicals, boosting the immune system, and lowering blood pressure. Topically? I have never heard of topical skin care but old wives tales say if you wear a garland of it you will ward off evil. There is about 5,000 years of recorded use of garlic and lots of tales to go with it.

ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar) – I use Braggs. There are others but I like this one the best. Some say the “mother” strands (extra proteins, enzymes, and important bacteria),  in Braggs make it the “only” one to use for health benefits. There are so many uses and benefits to using ACV that I really don’t think I could do it justice in this little piece. Perhaps another time I’ll do a piece on skin care with ACV.

Paprika – Is a lovely blend of chili and bell peppers. While it can spike up your dish it also delivers antioxidants and nutrients. Vitamin A, E, B-6, Iron, and the treasured Capsaicin which can help lower blood pressure. I’ve never used it for skin care but there are some that tout the benefits of Paprika for a variety of treatments from skin lightening to acne treatment to hair growth.

Turmeric – This spice is well known for its anti-inflammatory aid and has been used for centuries in the East. But another notable use is in Cancer prevention. While I personally do not formulate skin care with this wonderful spice, I have seen others coming out with Turmeric. For now, I stick to using it for healthy skin care from the inside out!

Water – OK this is easy. By now we all should know the value of a glass of good ole plain water so no need to go into it here. If you need some tricks on how to drink more water, you can read my post Top 5 life hacks to get the water you need

Nutritional Yeast (optional unless using the low fat options) – The flavor is slightly nutty and a bit cheesy. I use about 3 – 4 tablespoons for this recipe. You can use more if you want or none at all if you don’t have it. Beyond flavor, I’m not sure what other benefits it would have since the yeast is not active. Do you know?