DIY All-Natural Beauty: Age-Defying Coffee Sugar Scrub

Do you eat right? Exercise? Take moments to pause, breathe and reduce stress? If so, you’re doing just about everything right to lead a healthy lifestyle. A well-balanced diet full of fruits and veggies and low on junk food combined with movement and meditation are all key components to overall wellness.

One area that most of us neglect, however, are the products we put on our skin. Like our stomach, intestines and liver, our skin is an organ and it too can benefit from a little detox every now and again. The best part about detoxing your beauty regimen is you’ll save a lot of money—makeup and spa products are expensive!

Today, you’ll learn how easy it is to make an all-natural, age-defying spa treatment at home using ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen or pantry.

MOARfit DIY Age Defying Coffee Scrub via www.moar-fit.com

This DIY remedy’s active ingredient is coffee. Coffee is not only loaded with free radical-fighting antioxidants—those are the pests that lead to drooping skin and age-related disease—but the caffeine in it acts as an anti-inflammatory and may even lessen the appearance of cellulite. Three cheers for that!

MOARfit DIY Age Defying Coffee Scrub via www.moar-fit.com

It’s so simple to make your own age-dying coffee scrub at home, and here’s how to do it:

MOARfit DIY: Age-Defying Coffee Sugar Scrub

What You’ll Need:

  • A mason jar-or any other air-tight container
  • 1/2 cup coffee grounds
  • 1/4 cup granulated raw cane sugar
  • 2 Tbs raw honey
  • 1 Tbs ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil, softened—you can also use sweet almond oil

How to Make It:

Combine all ingredients in your mason jar, stir well and close the lid until you’re ready to use it.

MOARfit DIY Age Defying Coffee Scrub via www.moar-fit.com

To Use:

Scoop out a small amount and rub it onto your skin, massaging the area thoroughly to increase circulation. Let it sit for a few minutes then hop in the shower to rinse off. You can do this daily on the body, and once or twice a week on the face.

Have another favorite DIY beauty remedy? I’d love to learn about it. Start a conversation on Twitter @MOARfit or find me on Facebook.

{originally published on The DC Ladies blog, August 12, 2014}

Bored with Supported Shoulderstand? Change It Up with Lotus Legs

Whether you’ve been to one yoga class or 1,000, you’ve likely tried your hand at an inversion. From the most restorative of options like Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani) to a full-blown Scorpion (Vrschikasana), there is an inversion suited for everybody. They can be challenging, it’s true, but in the words of Leo Buscaglia:

“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love. Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom. Only the person who risks is truly free.” 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained–am I right?

By definition as human bipeds we spend most of our day upright, head above our heart. Inversions flip that anatomical predisposition on its head, hands, forearms or shoulders, providing a rare opportunity for increased venous return from the lower body (anything below the heart) and improved lymph drainage. Lymph drainage may help reduce swelling, promote healing, alleviate headaches and decrease the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Whether you drink the inversion health KoolAid or not, done properly they are safe and fun, so why not give them a go?

For athletes, I would definitely suggest Legs Up the Wall for post training and competition recovery. For the rest of us, I’d recommend starting your inversion play with Supported Shoulderstand (Salamba Sarvangasana)–though both are good for everyone, athlete or not. To get into Supported Shoulderstand check out Yoga Journal’s excellent step-by-step. Once you’ve got that down, you may start to feel the desire to move your legs around, spreading them wide or dropping them in opposite directions into an inverted split. As long as you’re still supporting your back with your hands and keeping your neck straight (no peeking at your neighbors!), you’re safe to play around.

My favorite variation is Upward Lotus in Shoulderstand (Urdhva Padmasana). To get into it, you’ll want to start in Plow Pose (Halasana). From there, pretzel your legs, left over right, into Lotus (Padmasana). With your hands on your back, fingertips pointing toward your booty, stretch your pretzeled thighs up towards the ceiling. Hold this for 8-10 breaths then slowly come out the way you went in, using your hands to gently untangle yourself then slowly rolling down your mat, vertebrae by vertebrae.

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Setting up, feet hip width apart, before sending legs overhead into Halasana.
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Upward Lotus in Shoulderstand, a.k.a. pretzel time
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Lotus Legs: check. Now time to work those elbows and shoulders back in

Have fun with this asana but be careful. If you don’t already have full Lotus (Padmasana) in your practice DO NOT attempt this variation–it can be really tough on the knees.