Welcome to The World of Modern Woman

If you always has want to know how to take care of your facial skin in Winter you are at the right place! Our skin deserves attention the whole year through, but just in the winter is it sensibly to give the skin extra protection against cold and dry (winter)air.

Daily I receive mails with the question or there are special facial masks for Winter. The answer is yes. Therefore I have decided to describe a number of self-made winter masks for you women that you can try this Winter.

As many of you know I’ve post an article about self-made facial masks earlier. Many readers of this blog has tried these home-made masks that I’ve had wrote about. and I got amusing and positive reactions on that (thank you!).
I hope to amuse you also with this special winter edition

These 5 self-made (winter) facial masks will make you forget about the cold and nasty winter outside!

1. Banana Mask

Try a (softening) banana mask when your skin is suffering from winter elements.
It will moisturize, soften, smooth and nourish your skin whenever it is necessary.

What do you need for this?
Bananas
Sweet cream

Crush the bananas and mix with (fresh) sweet cream. Then put this mask on your face (keep your eyes free).  After 30 minutes you remove the mask of your face and wash it clean with hand warm water.

2. Oatmeal Mask

This mask is probably not your favorite mask (cuz it stinks ) but it is a great remedy for your skin for example by a cold wind. For all the people with a dry skin; An oatmeal mask has a lovely scrubbing effect  and is a good moisturizer too.

Needs for this:
raw oatmeal flakes
egg yolk
honey

The next step is to mix  the raw oatmeal flakes, egg yolk and honey together.
Let it absorb on your face for about 20 minutes, wash off with lukewarm water, and pat dry.

If you do it right, your facial skin should feel very soft, refreshed and reborn after the application.

3. Cultured Milk Mask

A cultured milk mask protect your skin  from negative influences of winter air and it restores the natural PH balance of your skin too.

It’s easy to make and this mask is an effective cure for the tired skin.

You need:
natural yogurt
buttermilk
sour cream or kefir

Bring on a little bit of natural yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream (or kefir) on your face. Please avoiding areas around the eyes!! 
Now you can relax for 10-15 minutes.  When the 10-15 minutes has been gone, wash your face with cold water. 

Because this mask has a rejuvenating working your skin will feel much softer after using it.

4. Avocado Mask

Lot of people have a dry or irritated skin in Winter, this can be very annoying.
This easy to make mask is perfect for dry skin because it is full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants  and soothing means that nourishing your skin. 

To make an avocado mask you need:
Avocados
extra-virgin olive oil

Then crush the meat /flesh of avocado with a fork, add a drop of extra-virgin olive oil. The mixture must look smoothly now. 
Put the fragrant mixture on your face and wait for 15 – 20 minutes.

These (used) constituents are necessarily to fight against the winter dryness and this is why it can protect your skin good.

5. Egg White Mask

An egg white mask is good for an oily skin.
This mask will refresh and tighten your oily skin and will make it look much healthier than before.

I honestly tell you that I haven’t  tried this facial mask my self.

The only thing you need is an egg.
Separate the egg yolk from the egg white.

I know it sounds awful but hey, you must do something to look well  
Spread beaten egg white over your face, let it absorb for half-an-hour, and rinse off with warm water.

Some people say that  it will create a natural barrier in Winter to protect your skin from hard/ bleak winds and frost.

* Foto credits to:
- For the Kefir grain picture: flickr user muckster
- For the egg white picture: chefspencil

(I don’t know these persons, but I used a photo they had make that I found on the Internet, So I think a credit is on the right place )

It’s almost flipflop time again  wiihoe. Not only because I love summer time but I am a real shoe- and flipflop addict   I can say that I own dozens of pairs of shoes and flip-flops. There is a big chance that when you walk into my room, that you stumble over a few shoes of mine. If it were up to me I’d walk on flip-flops the whole year thru. But unfortunately the weather in Holland do not permit this  )

Today I saw an advertisement about healthy flipflops, called Fitflops. Marcia Kilgore (personal trainer) came with the idea to make a shoe that burns your fat, take care for a better posture, ánd strengthens your muscles.(developed by Darren James and Dr David Cook at London South Bank University) This wonderful and definitely great idea came reality and are now the UK’s hottest fitness shoe’s.

I saw this flipflops today (03 may 2008) just for the first time but they already exist since 2007. . Meanwhile already in various variants and color to obtain and now also for men!
This evening I told about these fitness shoes against my boyfriend, maybe he can write about it on his own blog if he like.

Note: I have not tried the shoes yet, but all I have read about is very positive and I think to buy some pair of them.

But one important thing: you must not OVERUSE them because this can damage your health. Doctor Barry Francis says “people wear flip flops all the time they are constantly scrunching their toes up into a claw. ‘That can cause problems such as tendonitis and even shin splints. People go to work in them and stand in them all day. They are also extremely unstable so you are more likely to trip over and hurt yourself. “

But for summer periods it’s ok to wear flipflops, fitflops or flat shoes. Make sure you save them for the beach and replaced with shoes with backs or proper straps to hold the foot in place.

So, if you are too busy? Is there no time to go to the fitness but do you really want to sports daily? Then these FitFlops are perhaps something for you!

Why wearing FITFLOPS?

1. FitFlops give you a workout while you walk.
2. They challenge hard to reach muscles more.
3. Every step you take in your FitFlops helps tone and trim your legs
4. FitFlops work your bum muscles more. FitFlops have been clinically proven to increase the amount of time that the gluteus maximus muscle is ‘activated’ during every single step. 
5. FitFlops have been shown to have a significant effect on the toning muscles of your thighs: The rectus femoris muscle (one of the large muscles in the group of muscles in your thigh) is activated for a longer period of time while walking in FitFlops than while normally shod or barefoot.
6. Walking in FitFlops is like walking barefoot, but a little bit better
7. FitFlops make it easier to stay in shape.

Wanna know where to buy these lovely fitflops? Or in wich styles you can get them?

Check the official fitflop site at http://www.thefitflop.com for more info and get yours today!

Mental exhaustion and overstrain through unusual tiredness a more frequently common problem in the business world. Perhaps you had one yourself or you know someone who ever had a burnout (or have). A burnout  expresses itself in wane and cynicism. This problem, the so been named burnout, can become a real  serious personal drama.  A burnout happens most often with people with a large involvement. These people have earlier burden of work stress.
This will not say that everybody with a large involvement is subject for burnouts. You must have a weak spot for this and this can have several causes. These can be for example negative things that are happing at your work or your private life.
The deeper lying causes are often much more drastic and historic and might relate our education, emotional damages and unfilled wishes and ambitions.

Actually a burnout is nothing more or less than a warnings signal of our body.  Your body can’t take the psychological pressure that reaches us of all sides any longer, it’s become too much and the body reacts to this.

How do you recognize a burnout?

If you want to recognize a burnout early you’ll need to be alert to the signals below, only then you can prevent worsening.

·         Bad sleep

·         Waking up earlier

·         Tired very quickly

·         Restless and hurried feeling

·         listless

·         concentration problems  

·         Vague physical complaints

·         Addictive behaviour  

·         Lot of  worry and puzzle over

·         Forgetful

Frequently it starts with overwrought and overstrained feelings. The characteristics are mostly the same: bad sleeping, tiredness, concentration problems and depressive/low spirit. When we do nothing about it, these symptoms can lead to an exhausted feeling.

Complete burnout
This variant of a burnout is quite serious. As person you feels emotional exhausted, weary (nights of 12-14 hour its no exception), and the pleasure in work and life is (totally) disappeared. Sometimes this goes coupled with other physical complaints. Mostly a burnout is assigned at work, but quite often privately-factors plays also a role.

Prevent
To prevent a burnout we must do something with the causes. Only relaxing is not enough, we must change our live and way of thinking to prevent worsening. How about work? And our relationships? What do we do with the plenty of choices that we need to make? 

Cure
To cure of a burnout we need to go a step further. Finally we’ll must be aware of our subconscious, to become process of our unprocessed experiences and there for the cure of a real burnout is most often a good accompaniment of a physician and/or a psychologist indispensable. Finally we need to change our total life: How we work, what we eat, our leisure activities and other (business) activities.