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Getting Fit | Sleep Tips

May 13, 2019 in Lifestyle

You’ve set yourself some goals and started making better daily choices – So what’s next in your journey to get fit? Making sure that you get enough sleep.

Good health and good sleep are inextricably linked. Not only does a good night sleep improve your memory, productivity, and mood, it can also improve fitness performance, and reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. When it comes down to it, sleep is as important as food and exercise when it comes to creating a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.

So, without further ado, here are my top sleep tips, learned from books, years of experience, and many conversations with doctors.

Food – Try to avoid eating too close to bedtime. It can keep you awake or cause tossing and turning. You also want to avoid super spicy or highly acidic foods in your final meal of the day. If you can finish eating an hour or two before bedtime, that’s ideal.

Caffeine & Sugar – Everyone has different sensitivities to caffeine and sugar, but even if you don’t think they impact your sleeping patterns, they can hurt your quality of sleep.

Fitness – Getting your sweat on during the day is a great way to ensure that your body is fatigued, which will aid the falling asleep process. If you have a busy day or you’re traveling and can’t make it to the gym, a quick walk outside or a stretching session on your bedroom floor can help.

Lights – Our bodies are programmed to equate darkness with bedtime, so you want to start reducing your exposure to light as you wind down for bed. That means dimming overhead lights and turning off TVs, phones, and laptops. If you use your phone or a tablet to read in the evenings, download a red light app. These will give your screen a darkened, reddish hue and eliminate the blue light that stimulates your body and can keep you awake.

Routine – Our bodies crave routine when it comes to sleep so you should try to go to sleep at the same time each night. If you go to sleep at 9pm one night, 1am the next, and then 11pm the following night, your body doesn’t know when it’s supposed to sleep. Try to develop a consistent sleep routine. One thing that can help with that is creating an evening wind down routine to help you destress and prepare for bed – Calming Night Routine.

What’s YOUR top tip for getting good sleep?

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Sephora Spring Bonus | Skin Care Picks

April 27, 2019 in Lifestyle

I don’t know about you, but I look forward to the Sephora sales and I was especially excited for the Spring Bonus extravaganza because I’m in desperate need of a restock.

{If you’re a Rouge member, you get first access and an take 20% off with the code HEYROUGE through Monday, May 6th. VIB and Insider access begins May 2nd.}

Now for the important stuff – What to get! I’ve been working on transitioning over to clean beauty products for the last few years and while I still have some not-so-clean favorites, most of the new products that I try out are paraben, sulfate, and phthalate-free. I’ve been waiting for this sale and wanted to re-order some must haves, as well as try some new products to get my skin glowing and wedding-ready.

Long Time Loves:

sephora sale shopping st tropez sunless self tanner

New Products:

Are YOU going to shop the Sephora Spring Bonus event?

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Making Your Home Spring Ready

April 25, 2019 in Lifestyle

Spring is an amazing time of year. The seasons are shifting and suddenly it’s warm and light out. Trees are bright green, flowers are bursting into bloom around you, and Winter seems like a dim, dark memory.

It’s also the perfect time for a fresh start! From healthy living challenges to Spring cleaning, it’s a great time to tackle projects and refresh your living space.

Here are few recommendations to make your home Spring-ready!

Making your home Spring Ready Springtime San Francisco Bay Area Fashion Food Fitness Lifestyle Blogger

{Image from Belle Maison Pinterest Board}

No. 1: Clear Things Out

You can take this to different levels depending on where you’re at right now. If a full clear out of your home seems like an impossible pipe dream, just start small. Try going through your junk drawer. We all have them, and it’s a great place to start. If you’re like me and try to keep things tidy with semi-regular clear outs, now it’s time for the big one. Check out the posts below for some tricks & tips.

No. 2: Freshen Up Your Home

I always crave change in the Spring. I want something new to visually reflect that things are changing. Sometimes that means a new piece of furniture or art, sometimes that means rearranging existing pieces in the space, and sometimes it means swapping things from room-to-room. Regardless of how much I change, or spend, walking into a room and having something new and different greet me, is a great Spring feeling.

Here are few easy, and inexpensive, ways to spruce things up:

No. 3: Embrace Fragrance

Scent is very powerful. A whiff of something can conjure up memories long forgotten. The smell of your grandma’s perfume, the smell of your favorite dinner as a child, the smell of freshly cut grass and honeysuckles… It can change your mood immediately.

So why not apply that to your home. Home fragrances can be a great way to promote relaxation and make your home welcoming the second someone walks in?

Flowers, diffusers, and candles are all great ways to introduce a beautiful, subtle fragrance to your home. I for one love fresh, bright smells this time of year and favor citrus-based products in the Spring. See a few favorites below:

What’s YOUR favorite way to freshen things up for Spring?

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MCLV Weddings | Advice for the Newly Engaged

April 9, 2019 in Lifestyle

Welcome to the new MCLV Weddings series!

The number one thing that I realized when we began to plan our wedding is that I had absolutely no concept of the sheer volume of things that would need doing. Things that I didn’t even know existed. I primarily blame myself, 35 years of disinterest in weddings doesn’t exactly prepare you to take the plunge…

That being said, I wanted to keep a positive attitude, stay on top of the timeline, and end up with a fun party at the end of the planning process. And since I am a classic Type A personality, I immediately started drafting spreadsheets, Googling checklists, and making To Do Lists. Since I found some great websites and blogs, and learned some lessons, I thought it would be helpful to round-up those online resources, along with what I’ve learned along the way, to benefit future generations of wedding planners.

As this is the first post in this new series, I thought I’d start with a little {unsolicited} advice for the newly engaged.

Engagement San Francisco Bay Area Fashion Food Fitness Lifestyle Blogger

Set Your Intention(s):

Regardless of whether you’re like me and a bit unsure about the whole wedding thing, or whether you’ve been planning a princess wedding since you were a kid, there’s an important thing to remember. It’s not about the wedding – It’s about the marriage.

Especially if you find yourself getting caught up in the whirlwind of momentum and losing sight of the end goal, this can be a helpful little affirmation for you. While we all love a great party, the party isn’t why we all go through this insane process – Building a strong, happy marriage is the ultimate objective.

Bask:

I beg of you – Upon getting engaged, take a moment to stop and smell the roses. It’s easy to get swept away in the excitement and all the questions people are asking and start planning immediately. But you have a lot of planning to do, so why not stop and enjoy being engaged for a bit? There’s no rush. You’ve just found the person that you want to spend your life with, and that’s huge. Hold them close. Enjoy the excitement together.

Communication:

Planning a wedding is an extremely stressful, time consuming process that involves lots of people, and an endless number of decisions. You spend so much time worrying about everyone else that you tend to lose sight of your own wishes and desires. I highly recommend sitting down with your partner before things get underway and discussing what you want. I wrote down a page of questions early on and we sat down and went through them. What’s important to you? What doesn’t appeal to you? What traditions do you want to uphold?

Get an idea of what page you’re on and check back in with each other throughout the process to make sure that you’re still a united front. It was important to me that I not be the one doing everything, so we made sure to schedule appointments and meetings when we could both attend. We were also extremely lucky to have our families involved and helping out.

Make It Fun:

We happened to get engaged right in the middle of a period where many people around us were getting engaged and married. Which meant tons of helpful advice and suggestions and tips. We even got spreadsheets and binders sent to us!

One of my favorite recommendations was about handling all of the details and decision making. Rather than handling it all ad hoc and answering questions as they came in, this couple set aside time to do it all at once. They opened a bottle of champagne, toasted, and worked through the list together. We’ve been doing that and I highly recommend it. It’s a great way to stay united and keep it fun.

Be sure to stay tuned for some fun posts on wedding dresses, accessorizing, beauty & skin care, and more!

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Skin Care Junkie | Hydrating + Calming Winter Skin

January 24, 2019 in Lifestyle

Today we’re here to talk about Winter skin and some products that are great for hydrating and calming your skin this Winter. Between the low temperatures, snow, rain, and wind – This isn’t the best time of year for your face, neck, and hands. To avoid dry, irritated, or cracking skin, here are some of my tips, tricks, and favorite products.

Drink more water – Seems like a no brainer, but this time of year it’s easy to cozy up to your coffee mug and forget to add water to the equation. If cold water sounds awful, try warm water with lemon or adding some other fruits. Spa water, if you will. 

Cream Cleansers – Swap your gel or foam cleanser for a cream cleanser. It’s a great way to give your skin a little TLC. Try some Korres.

Add a Serum – Using a serum with hyaluronic acid can help your skin retain moisture and give it all-day hydration. I love this Drunk Elephant Vitamin C Serum.

Moisturize, Moisturize, Moisturize – You don’t want a lightweight moisturizer this time of year, you want a heavy duty cream moisturizer. When in doubt, turn to the experts – Kiehl’s.

Add Oils – It took me a while to get comfortable with facial oils. I worried about looking greasy and getting break outs. But I have to say that adding an oil to my regime has made a world of difference. My current favorite is the Biossance Squalane + Vitamin C Rose Oil. It’s amazing!

Night Cream – Your body does a lot of healing overnight so you want to treat your skin and use a rich, luxurious night cream before bed. My go-to right now is REN Overnight Recovery Balm.

Are you a big fan of skin care and beauty products? 

Check out some of my other Skin Care Junkie posts: Alaska Glacial Mud Mask, Sibu Sea Berry Seed Oil, Musely Hydrogel Eye Mask, Raw Beauty & Coconut Oil, Natural Beauty & Hair Products, Mix Rx Apothecary Collection, Balanced Guru Facial Toner, FRE Skin Care, HerStyler Hair Styling Products, Favorite Anti-Aging Products, Travel Beauty, Current Beauty Must Haves, Daily Beauty Routine, Self Tan Luxe Face Oil, My Latest Sephora Order, My Favorite Cleansers, 5 Minute Makeup Routine, Monthly Favorites, and Evening Skin Care Routine. 

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