Lessons of Self-Care From a Daughter
My mother is wonderful, and I am grateful. It’s taken years of growth to recognize this, and I undoubtedly challenged her along the way. As I mature, so does my appreciation. This week I share secrets of self care that I gleaned from my mama. My mother is a natural beauty, and has invested in her health and skin for as long as I can remember; and it shows. People have even stopped us on the street to ask her secrets! I can’t share all her secrets, but this week I share with you a fundamental few.
Regular Exercise
My mother is a mover. She would lift weights 3-5 days a week when I was a kid. Over the years she has frequented Core Power, Orange Theory, Manduu, and The Mirror Programs to name a few. In short, my mama exercises! Numerous studies show that regular exercise decreases your chance of dying from heart disease, prevents some cancers, decreases osteoporotic risk, and increases longevity (1).
Home Cooked Meals
My mama’s a chef and most of our meals were prepared fresh and daily. The best part about going home these days is eating her meals. I recall walking through our local grocers as a kid and being regular that she was, she was always saying hello to friendly faces. In fact, the literature reveals that higher home cooking frequency is associated with living longer (2)!
Avoiding the sun
My mama was always a stickler for sunscreen. I was often the kid wearing a t-shirt in the pool to protect my skin. I can’t remember her ever tanning her face, and she was often adorned in a hat. It’s well established that sun exposure potentiates skin aging; the more wrinkles one has, the more sun exposure they have had (3).
Regular Facials and Skincare
Facials and skincare is a staple to my mother’s self-care. She is dedicated to caring for her skin, engages in some sort of treatment every month, and has for years. A good ol’ facial with extraction and exfoliation is one of her favorites. This is a ritual that I carry on, although at a slightly less frequency (I recommend Stacy at Wholeness Face and Body). She has also dabbled in: lasers, peels, microneedling, ultratherapy, and other available therapies shown to rejuvenate the skin. We know that skin rejuvenation therapies like microdermabrasion, lasers, and peels can improve the results of photoaging (4).
Botox
My mom has used botox for about 20 years to reduce and prevent wrinkles. Funny enough, I can very much remember saying “MOM, I would NEVER do that to my face!” Ha, how my position has changed! My mama’s long term use of botox may have prevented wrinkles from forming. In a study tracking identical twins over 13 years, the twin who regularly treated the brow, forehead, and crows feet avoided lines from forming as compared to the untreated twin (5).
I’m a lucky lady to have the mama I do. I’m also proud to be able to offer her botox treatments, because what better way to show your appreciation! Perhaps the mama in your life would appreciate a gift as such.
Resources
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378512212003015#:~:text=Numerous%20studies%20have%20shown%20that%20maintaining%20a%20minimal%20quantity%20and,of%20osteoporosis%20and%20increases%20longevity.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22578892/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10709362/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14502051/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17116793/