Health Life Hacks

1. Start your mornings right with a glass of lemon water!

There are so many benefits to drinking lemon water. It makes you feel like a fancy country club person that likes finger sandwiches and bubbly water. (Adding lemon into your the water makes it fancy) It looks much cooler than regular water. And on to the serious benefits, lemon water flushes the toxins from your system, alkalises your body and keeps your digestive system working as it should. Furthermore, it is anti-fungal and boosts your immune system, especially perfect in the mornings to give you that extra boost of energy and all natural health boost to conquer your day.

Image Cred: Becca Matimba from Unsplash

2. Feeling sore after an intense workout? Try munching on some ginger.

If you feel sore the next day after you’ve worked out, you know you definitely did something right. Feeling sore is normal after you’ve had an intense work out session but sometimes it can be a tad overwhelming and using certain muscles may hurt. (For example, I can barely climb stairs after leg day at my gym.) If this is a problem for you, try including ginger in your meals. You can add ginger into stir-frys, teas and even juices! Researchers at the University of Georgia found that consuming 2g of raw or heat-treated ginger per day can reduce post-workout muscle soreness by 25%. The reason this is so is because ginger has anti-inflammatory compounds and oils that exhibit painkilling properties. It couldn’t hurt to give it a shot! (Pun intended)

Image Cred: Maeghan Smulders from Unsplash

3. Having trouble sleeping? Eat some kiwi.

I am sure everyone of you knows that kiwis are fruits (and birds but I’m talking about the fruit) and hopefully most, if not all of you, have eaten a kiwi at least once in your life. They are commonly found in all local supermarkets and they are loaded with Vitamin C. Kiwi has potent antioxidant properties, which help boost immune system functions and enhance cell protection and repair in our bodies. Researchers at Taiwan’s Taipei Medical University found that eating kiwi on a daily basis was linked to substantial improvements to both sleep quality and sleep quantity. People could sleep more, sleep faster and sleep soundly. Poor sleep is linked to low antioxidant levels in the body and kiwi has a high amount of antioxidants, its consumption thus replenishes what the body needs and provides us with better sleep.

Beauty Life Hacks

Image Cred: Priscilla Du Preez from Unsplash

1. Use baby powder for greasy hair

In Singapore, or Asia for that matter, it can get pretty hot and humid and that leads to sweat and greasy oily hair. (It is virtually impossible for me to not wash my hair everyday because I feel utterly gross and dirty if I do not) I’m sure many of you face the same problems as well. If there are days that your hair is greasy and all kinds of nasty but for some reason you don’t have a chance to wash it, use baby powder! Sprinkle some on your roots (and the bangs/fringe if you have them), and the powder will soak up the excess oil that makes your hair look greasy. You can do this at night so you can wake up with deceptively fresh looking hair.

Image Cred: Mike Wilson from Unsplash

2. Fresh out of plasters for your blisters? Use antiperspirant.

With new shoes, come new responsibilities. It takes a bit of time to break into your shoes (especially high heel shoes) and more often than not, you’ll end up with some little devil kisses from your shoes a.k.a. blisters. These monsters are usually so small but they can be terribly annoying and painful at times. I have to fight the urge to remove my shoes and walk barefoot. To prevent this from happening in the future, dab some antiperspirant on the bits of your feet that rub against your shoes. The antiperspirant not only reduces friction, it also keeps the area dry. (say bye bye to sweaty feet)

Image Cred: Anna Sastre from Unsplash

3. Make your own DIY Lip Scrub

The lip scrubs sold in stores can be very expensive and essentially, if you can make the same thing at home which also serves the exact same purpose at a much lower cost, why not! Did I mention your DIY lip scrub will be edible? Just take 1 tablespoon of organic coconut oil, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of organic honey and mix well in a bowl until you achieved the desired consistency. So you might be wondering, why these ingredients?

Brown Sugar = Exfoliator
Organic Honey = Natural Healing Properties (Antiseptic)
Organic Coconut Oil = Nourishing/Moisturizing

The brown sugar acts as an exfoliator to slough off the damaged top layer of skin, exposing a new softer lip that allows for better penetration of hydrating products and makes your favorite lipsticks go on smoother and last longer.