The importance of Health! Which life are you designing?

This image popped up on my Dashboard on Tumblr, and it really struck a cord with me. I may not be the healthiest person in the world, but I have a great respect for it, and thankfully a knowledge of it.

I get really annoyed by people who assume that because they are slim or skinny, whatever, they believe that they are healthy. Because I can tell you many of them are not. Your weight is not a representation of your health, you can be slim yet still have unhealthy fat around your organs that can damage them. You can be skinny, yet be unfit, and not have strong bones and muscles to support you, that will quickly deteriorate with age. There are plenty of people out they who may be classed as overweight, due to their high BMI's yet, they are healthier than people who are deemed healthy because of a lower weight.

I am not consistent with my health and fitness, but I do try, and I know that although "overweight" I am a lot fitter and healthier than some of my friends. Nutrition has a lot to do with it, and since drinking smoothies everyday for breakfast, which include on average half a mango, quarter of a cucumber, handful of berries, one banana, and a handful of spinach, I can't believe the crap I used to start my day with. Even just walking for 30 minutes a day is better than nothing. I believe that everyone should be active at least once a day. There is no excuse for not working out these days, especially with the computer games and DVD's that mean you don't have to trek to a gym, they make working out work round your schedule (although exercise should always BE part of your schedule). Even if injured with a bad back, or leg etc, do some gentle exercise such as yoga (which is amazing!)

Overall you may be young now, but how you live your life now will effect how you live it when you are older. Your body has a very good knowledge of how you treat it, and it will treat you the same as you age. Treat your body well and it will look after you for years. Abuse your body and it will soon shy and retire from yourself, and will refuse to work properly.

Just take the picture for example, or look to Jane Fonda for inspiration. At 73 she has just release a new exercise DVD. She admits she can;t do everything she used to, but she tries. (And she still looks fabulous doing it.)

Please just think about how you treat your body. Even just aim for 4 days healthy, 3 days not, and try and build it up and up. Aim for healthy breakfast and lunches, every little bit will help, and the more you do it, the more it become a habit.

Winter brings dark nights and dark eye bags

So as much as I love winter, I do not love eye bags, but according to anti-aging experts winter ages a woman's eyes by four years and eight months! Great, so we all look nearly 5 years older!

These science boffins discovered that due to the reduced sunlight hours,and the reduction in the time we spend outdoors during the winter months we have paler skin which emphasizes bags. We also feel more tired due to lower levels of vitamin D (generated by the body in sunlight).

Lacking vitamins D and K has considerable effect on the appearance of dark circles and puffy eyes. So not great news to us tired students who sleep very little at this time of year also.

A few ways to help us girls get rid of dark eye bags;

1. Sleep! Even if it is 15 minutes, it tricks your body into thinking you have slept for longer, and we all need our beauty sleep!
2. Using a cooling compress (wet cotton wool/cucumber slices) to help temporarily shrink the blood vessels, reducing puffiness.
3. Eye creams that contain vitamin K and retinol can also help.
4. Eat less salt (healthier diet) as it encourages fluid retention, thus puffiness.
5. If all else fails, hide it through makeup. Personally I use Rimmel Match Perfection 2 in 1 Concealer and Highlighter. It really is a great highlighter and the tube lasts a long time. 

What are your tips for reducing puffy, dark bags?