Beauty is an Inside Job

You’ve probably heard this saying before: Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. But honestly, amongst us women, we’ve had it all wrong. What we should be saying instead is; “nothing looks as good as healthy feels.” Beauty is truly an inside job.

Let’s redefine sexy. I’ll start: Sexy is caring for your body by nourishing yourself from the inside out.

There are so many things that rob us from beauty including lack of sleep, eating a diet that is void of nutrients, not managing stress, exposure to toxins, insufficient self-care – the list goes on. What’s ironic is that so many women pay for products promising to make them more beautiful, but in turn, they are actually exposing themselves to harmful chemicals and risky procedures. And additionally, women are spending hard-earned dollars on a collective marketing scheme undermining their true worth and neglecting to acknowledge that your real beauty is already there to begin with. True beauty is yours, it can’t be bought or fabricated. My goal bringing you food as medicine each week with your meals is to bring forth what is already alive and beautiful inside of you by working with your body to function, feel and look your very best!

If you want to look younger, healthier, and more beautiful, you need to start on the inside and begin giving your body the raw ingredients it needs to sparkle and shine.

What Steals Our Beauty?

Sleep Let’s start with sleep. Many people think sleep is a luxury, but truly it is an absolute necessity and vital to our well-being and inner beauty. When we don’t sleep, our bodies cannot restore and detoxify at night. What ends up happening is our detoxification system becomes inefficient making it hard for unwanted toxins to leave our bodies. We can experience acne, eczema, and other skin issues because of this. Lack of sleep can also cause us to get more cravings, and we often gravitate towards the not so nutrient-dense options containing lots of sugar and processed junk. These foods wreak havoc on our skin and gut. So if you’re someone who prioritizes all other things but sleep, maybe you will rethink this.

Pro tip: Try to get in bed 10 minutes earlier every night until you are able to achieve 7-8 hours a sleep.

Stress is also a big factor that robs us of beauty. When we are stressed, our hormones begin to get all out of whack. Our stress response system kicks in, and we begin producing a ton of our stress hormone, cortisol. When this happens, blood sugar becomes impacted, and we start to have problems with insulin regulation. Because insulin is also a hormone, it can impact sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. When we get imbalances with sex hormones, we often have problems with acne and excess oil production. We also can have problems regulating our hunger and fullness cues.

Pro tip: If stress is an issue for you, try to encompass some stress management techniques into your daily life, like yoga and meditation.

Toxins Next up is toxins. We are exposed to toxic chemicals in the food that we eat, the air we breathe, and the products we use. It’s inevitable to have exposure to these toxins daily, however, our goal is to minimize exposure and help our body eliminate the toxins efficiently. Toxin exposure can mess with hormones, cause inflammation, impact the immune system, cause gut disturbances, and so much more. When we minimize toxin exposures and have a healthy detox system in place, our gut and skin are so happy. It’s super easy to get overwhelmed in this area, so what I would recommend is to start swapping out 1 product you think could be cleaner. An example could be shampoo, or makeup, or a household cleaner. Do some research and try to determine what a better choice might be.

Pro tip: Check out the Environmental Working Group for lists of products that are lower in toxins and better for our Earth. Specifically, their Skin Deep guide can be helpful to reference!

Gut Health Last up on the list is gut issues. Having a healthy gut and gut microbiome is super important. So many skin issues that may prevent us from feeling beautiful actually stem from problems in the gut – crazy, right? Issues like acne, psoriasis, eczema, atopic dermatitis can often be remedied by promoting a healthy gut ecosystem and reducing inflammation. When we eat excess sugary foods, saturated fats or foods that knowingly cause digestive issues for us, we are promoting inflammation and fueling the “bad” bugs. This causes something known as dysbiosis, or an unfavorable environment in the gut. Thankfully, there are so many therapeutic and beautifying foods that we can eat to enhance our beauty and support our gut! Spoiler alert, they’re mostly plant foods! Plants contribute to the growth of short chain fatty acids which can heal your gut and decrease inflammation.

Pro tip: Regardless if you eat meat or you are vegan, the goal is to increase the amount of polyphenol and antioxidant rich plants foods in your diet. Try to aim for 30 different plants each week.

Nutraceuticals to Enhance True Beauty

I want to introduce you to this term called nutraceuticals. If you haven’t heard it before, it essentially means any product that is a food or part of a food that has a health benefit. We can think of nutraceuticals as superfoods – foods that heal us and prevent disease or illness.

So how do nutraceuticals help us become more beautiful? Well, there are some amazing nutraceuticals that can help protect our skin and reduce wrinkles and fine lines, there are nutraceuticals that help support gut health and fuel our microbiome, there are nutraceuticals to promote healthy hair and skin, and there are nutraceuticals to protect us against environmental stressors.

When we consume foods containing these nutraceuticals, we are essentially making ourselves more beautiful from the inside out, in a very nourishing, protective way. So while we can’t bottle youth, we can eat for youthful appearance and a true beauty that stems from health. I am so excited to introduce you to our NeutriBeauty Plan which contains all of the nutraceuticals to support your beauty!

This plan was created by Melinda Farina and Paula Simpson who are aesthetic nutrition experts. This plan feeds your body with the right nutrition to support natural collagen production for healthy skin, hair, and nails, it boosts targeted nutrients to support cellular metabolism and skin cell renewal, it helps you glow with omegas and ceramides for a beautiful, vibrant complexion, it protects your skin with antioxidants to combat environmental factors, and it restores and purifies the microbiome and enhances the gut-skin axis.

Follow us in the next article (link to part 2) to find out what specific meals we’re cooking up in this plan!