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.

Posted on by

Mosquitoes and Ticks: Why do they bite & How do I get them to stop

Why Do I Keep Getting Bitten?

Are you one of those people who feels they are a target for biting bugs? Do mosquitoes and ticks have it out for you? Ever feel like nature has it out for you? Like there is a network of biting bugs that have you on the most wanted list? You step outside and it seems like they are chasing you down.

Bugs bite for a couple of reasons, usually to defend or to feed. I can’t think of any bug that bites for fun or world domination. In fact, most would rather you never darken their door or cross their path. If you are standing over an ant hill and you stomp your feet, you can expect some angry soldiers to come out and attack you. They are defending their turf that you are trying to invade. Same goes for spiders, don’t expect them to be happy to see you coming. You step into their web, well your just asking for trouble.

But what about the ones that seem to hunt you down like prey. You know the ones that come from the sky and dive bomb your outdoor activity. It seems like they knew you were coming and targeted you like you were painted with a bulls eye. How do they know? It’s in their sense of smell.

The Scent Of You

There are somewhere around 175 different varieties of Mosquitoes in the US alone and they have been around for about 170 million years, they’ve had lots of time to perfect their homing instincts. So if you are feeling like they targeted you, they probably did. They smelled you coming from over 50 yards away. The female mosquitoes (the men don’t bite) are mainly attracted to scent. Some of the scent signatures that attract them are the carbon dioxide we exhale and the lactic acid from your sweat glands. They haven’t nail the exact scent trigger, but the scientists do know that some of us smell quite delectable, giving off a lovely bouquet, and the mosquitoes can’t wait to dig in and feast.

While Ticks can’t fly, or jump, or parachute from trees. They are also attracted to scent that they pick up from sensors in their legs. Ticks like to hid in ground cover or grassy areas where it’s moist (dry heat will kill them). They wait for the right smelling host to brush by and they hop on, crawl around to find their favorite spots ( ears and heads are preferred), then dig in to feast.

Don’t Let Them Get You

So how do you protect yourself? The top two methods to defend you from both are to cover up and to change your scent or cover your scent. There are several synthetic compounds out there that have the power to destroy, but they can harm more than just the mosquitoes so thankfully those are falling out of favor. There are some plants that have a reputation of dissuading bugs from biting or at least throw them off of your scent and natural formulators rely on them to develop a kinder gentler bug repellent that can work in harmony with nature. We developed Hikers Heaven using three of these essential oils and we created an Organic Soap, Aromatic Mist, and a full Organic Body Lotion. While you could use one or two of them, we always recommend the three used together. After all, they are natural plant oils.

We are not your Doctor

The Très Spa website may contain articles on science, or medical topics; however, no warranty is made that any of the articles are accurate.There is absolutely no assurance that any statement contained or cited in an article touching on science or medical matters is true, correct, precise, or up-to-date. The overwhelming majority of such articles are written, in part or in whole, by nonprofessionals. Even if a statement made about science or medicine is accurate, it may not apply to you or your symptoms.

The information provided at Très Spa is, at best, of a general nature and cannot substitute for the advice of a medical professional (for instance, a qualified doctor/physician, nurse, pharmacist/chemist, and so on). None of the individual contributors, nor anyone else connected to Très Spa can take any responsibility for the results or consequences of any attempt to use or adopt any of the information presented on this web site.

Nothing on Très Spa’s site or included as part of any project or product of Très Spa, should be construed as an attempt to offer or render a medical opinion or otherwise engage in the practice of medicine.

Posted on by

Top 5 Life Hacks to Get The Water You Need!

Just Can’t Seem To Make It?

Trying to get down the water and you just can’t seem to get it done? You aren’t alone. We all know how important it is to drink fresh clean water every day. Yet, knowing and doing are two different things. If you are like me, you may be struggling with it. It’s time for you to take control and give yourself the water you deserve.

I am not partial to water. I never have been. You see, I was raised with flavored drinks as a kid and that reached into my adult years with soda. Probably one of  the worst inventions that could have ever happened to the human population is soda. There is nothing beneficial in soda and in fact, over consumption of carbonated beverages can cause significant damages .

My Top 5 Tricks

Here are my top 5 hacks to drinking enough water

  1. Start each day with a fresh glass pitcher or jug of water. My goal is to get a half gallon so I have a glass jug that I fill every morning and I use this to drink from all day. 64 ounces is eight  8 ounce servings.  This way I know what the goal is and I can see myself get closer as the water goes down.
  2. Break it up into servings. Easier to tackle a bit at a time rather than think of the whole half gallon. For example: First thing, before my fitness and before my coffee (yes I drink coffee), I down a  full 8 ounce glass of water with fresh squeezed lemon. Double bonus since it is a metabolism booster. I will also sip on a serving of water while I drink my coffee. Then I pour a full glass before a meal and add another during a meal. (This takes care of all my servings and helps curb my appetite) Of course you can always drink more water.
  3. If you find it hard to drink plane water, then try making a really weak tea. When I say week, I mean unbelievably weak.   To flavor a half gallon of water, I would use only three herbal tea bags. Use an herbal tea that you really enjoy and one that has a strong scent like peppermint or spice. This is my personal favorite Organic Herbal Tea: Good Earth Teas Organic Sweet and Spicy
  4. Make a Spa tea. Spa teas are lovely and refreshing. Some of the spas I have been to will even change the water depending on the time of day. Say you want a bright pick me up, how about sliced citrus water. Cooling and soothing, add some cucumber. Try spicing it up for extra kick. Some of my favorites are Mint, Tarragon, Basil, Rosemary, and yes Lavender.
  5. In a pinch or if I am on the go, I will squeeze a tiny shot of water enhancer.  I’ve used Stur Drinks –  Natural Water Enhancer and its pretty good in a pinch and it can travel with you. Hey, it’s not perfect but I’m picking the better of two evils here! Better to get the water in!

Eventually you will become accustomed to just plain ‘ole water. I never thought I could handle it, but now I actually enjoy it now. Just straight up room temperature.

 

The More You Drink, The Easier It Gets

Drinking Water becomes naturalNo matter what method you need to use to try and get the water down, eventually you will find you have acquired the taste for plain old fresh water.  Either that or you just get to lazy to fuss with the extra flavoring work and you are hooked on plain fresh water with no tricks.

Mission accomplished!