Beauty and Charm Course

Week 1, Day 1- Sunday

Yesterday I began the first day of Anita Colby's beauty and charm course as laid out in her Beauty Book.  First step on my way to a more beautiful me- wash that damn face, gurrrrl. 

Cleansing Your Face

Anita lays out the different types of skin- normal, combination, oily, dry- and the best ways to wash and clean them.  I have normal skin, not dry, not oily, just kinda... normal.  She advices not to wash your face with any special expensive soaps or cleansers. She says that the best way to beautiful skin is to eat what she calls "beauty-clean" foods, so that you feed your skin from the inside out, and to wash with soap and water.  Here, she says, is all you need:

1. Clean hands.  Only touch your face with "fanatically" clean hands.
2. A pure, bland soap with no special perfumes, chemicals, or dyes.
3. Soft water.
4. A set of clean, soft washcloths and towels that only you will be using. Wash you washcloths in very hot water before using and to use your fingertips to massage the soap into your face, behind your ears, on the back of your neck, and under your chin. Oh, and dry your face very well.

Now, for my skin (normal), she says to wash morning and night with the mild bland soap and lukewarm water.  I use Neutrogena Naturals facial soap, if you were wondering.  After massaging the soap into my skin in a circular motion, upward and outward, I will rinse at least 3 times, the last time with cold water.  Now, it does take a few more rinses to get all the soap off, and that is okay.  But I must admit that I like to splash cold water on my face A LOT. When I was younger and thoroughly obsessed with every little tidbit I get find out about Marilyn Monroe, I read where her first husband said that she would rinse her face 16 times with cold water.  So being the fan that I was, I rinsed my face the same way. But I digress. I must say though, I really love the feeling of icy cold water on my face. Plus, it wakes you up like no other thing can.

So yesterday, I got up and dragged my half awake behind to the bathroom sink to start my new daily beauty ritual. Not too bad.  Then I did it last night before bed, which actually made my skin feel incredibly soft when I woke up this morning. Now remember... I don't wash my face except when I'm in the shower and use a bit of cleanser. But even that is only once or twice a WEEK.  So time will tell if there is a more noticeable change.

Your Posture

The other first step in my beauty and charm course is establishing good posture.  For this she had a little exercise: Hang a weight string down the middle of a full length mirror and stand down the middle of the string.  Starting with your feet parallel and toes point forward, lean your weight forward onto the balls of your feet. This is your "Foundation Block".

Next you tuck your tailbone down to the floor, at the same time contracting your abdominal muscles just below your navel. When you stand with your pelvis pointed down, then "it spills out your innards, gives you a bulging stomach and sway back".  Eeww. Not a good visual.  But after standing up straight like she instructs, you can definitely SEE a difference in the way your shape looks and how flat your tummy is.  Hell, it looked like I was a few inches smaller in my waist!  When you've aligned your pelvic region, this establishes your "Trunk Block", which then sets up your "Shoulder Block".

Last thing in establishing your good posture is to keep pulling upward so that the straight line going up your spine continues to the crown of your head. She says that if you don't hold good posture here, then the vertebrae holding up your head will drop and give you a double chin.  And this is your "Head Block".

So now that I have PERFECT posture... it's on to exercise!

Exercise

She recommends a few warm-up stretches in the morning when you wake up and then again at night before doing your nightly exercises.  These warm-ups include:

The Elastic Band- lying in bed or one the ground and stretching the right side from toes to finger tips, repeat on left, 4x.

Then stand in a doorway and stretch from your toes, through your hip and rib cage, and up through your fingertips, touching the top of the doorframe.  Repeat.

The Cat Stretch- Basically the same arched-back exercise as cat pose in yoga, but adding in stretching out each leg behind you one at a time like a cat when they stretch. All 3 stetches done 6x each.

The Knee-Chest Position- While down on hands and knees, fold hans down in front of you and lay head on hands.  Bring hips up until they are almost a straight line down from floor and push your chest towards the floor.  Push down towards the floor 5x.

Now when it comes to the exercises, Anita recommends worrying mostly about the areas of your body that either need building up or slimming down.  She puts forth at least 3 different exercises for each part of the body- the "bosom", the waist, the hips, legs, calfs, and ankles, thighs, knees, and inner thighs.  I thought it would be fun to try doing a couple workouts for each part of the body.  Most of these are just stretching exercises, with no real hardcore sweating involved.  I don't think I burned any calories doing them, but just like yoga or pilates, I'm sure they helped more than I realize. 

These exercises didn't take me more than 5 minutes for the warm-ups and 20 minutes for the special exercises.  I felt great when I finally laid down in bed (after washing my face, of course.) and I didn't wake up with any strained muscles, which is good.  But I think mama is going to get herself an eliptical for future exercising once this experiment is over.

What do you think of my first day?

xoxo
Cherie