Brushing for better skin

I'm a lowcarb dieter. I was on Atkins for 4 weeks and South Beach for 2. After dropping 8 lbs., now I'm on ... my own :)

I don't eat a bowl of rice like I used to but I'm still eatting it. I eat fruits, I drink latte and snack a whole bag of toasted almonds. Not a very good plan for a diet but hey~ it's not too bad. I managed to keep my weight stable as is for a while now. I even had two slices of hawaiian pizza & Papa John's Garlic Butter sauce over the weekend, Mwahaahaaahaaaa ~

My favorite forum is at http://www.lowcarber.org. Great people and useful info. are there. Today I found this interesting thread about "Brushing" for better skin.

I'm gonna try it as soon as I have time to go get a brush...

Body brushing is a good way to stimulate blood circulation. Because the skin is an organ of elimination (and the largest one in the body), many toxins can be eliminated if you stimulate the circulation and the lymph system by brushing the skin. Use a loofah or a body sponge and brush in circular motions to remove the dead skin cells. Pay special attention to the elbows, knees, shoulders, the back and thighs. Do this every day before bathing or showering. Also, keep the temperature of your bath water a little higher that of your skin so as to stimulate sluggish circulation.

Smoother skin is a spin-off of this toxin-eliminating regimen, which leaves you feeling invigorated and truly bright-eyed.

Body brushing
I’m becoming evangelical about dry body brushing. After years of seeing models and celebrities strip to their smalls on shoots, I can testify that all the ones with little or no cellulite recommend body brushing (the Big Breakfast presenter Amanda Byram is also a recent convert). Elemis and the Body Shop both do body brushes; use long, gentle sweeping strokes from the feet upwards, over the abdomen, then along the arms, and down from the shoulders to the chest, always moving in the direction of the heart. It stimulates the lymph system, which aids the elimination of toxins, and it boosts blood flow, aids circulation and removes dead skin cells to reveal the smoother, firmer surface beneath. It takes only two minutes a day, but it’s the fastest, cheapest, most effective body treatment around.

If you can’t spare an extra two minutes to body brush in the mornings, a good scrub keeps that holiday feeling alive — close your eyes and think of sand on your legs. But don’t be tempted to moisturise a tan to make it last — nothing looks less attractive than scaly skin clinging on by the sheer force of heavy-duty body lotions. Better to scrub and go paler but have smooth, glowing legs.

I have kept up the brushing and some of the exercise (until just recently when I started another program). The brushing has made a huge difference in the softness and elasticity of my skin. This time of year I find my skin is very dry and itchy, so far so good, the brushing and then mosturizing after a shower has taken care of that.

While I was doing the awesome legs moves I noticed a change in my thighs, Theresa claims if you do the bootcamp religiously w/in 2 weeks you'll notice a one inche loss in your thighs, I noticed this in about 3 weeks (where there had been no change the first 2 months of PP) of not so religious use of the move. Could have been that I was due to lose there, could have been because of the move. I will tell you though, it's a killer

It did make a difference - that combined with the LC and exercise has noticeably improved the cottage cheesey-ness of my thighs. In fact, 90% of the cellulite is gone. Since starting back I've noticed that my skin is softer and smoother.

I do the brushing before the shower (now that my skin is used to it) but I'd start in the shower (unless you don't mind a bit of hard brushing) at first. I use a regular body brush (picked up at the body shop) and moisturize afterward.

you brush upward from the legs and downward from the torso, as though you were pushing everything up toward your middle/chest area. Strokes are circular and repeated about 8 times per area. Brushing should take about 5 minutes once you have it down pat. Try with a softer brush at first, and do it in the shower. Then you can graduate to a harder bristle and do it dry. It took me about a week of consistent brushing to be able to do it dry.