Cut Sugar RIGHT NOW

Sugar is inflammatory, and inflammation causes you to age quicker. It causes a hardening of the skin, wrinkles, and a look of sallowness or blotchiness. Your skin just naturally looks more stressed and tired when you’re eating a diet that includes simple sugars and highly processed foods. 

Don’t be so sad. You can still have sweets without sacrificing your youth-- just make sure they are in the form of fresh fruit. (But sadly, candy, cereals, and cookies packed with high-fructose corn syrup will date you faster than a quote from a John Hughes movie.) When you drop the refined sugar from your diet, your skin looks so much better and brighter in a matter of days.

 

Antioxidants are the True Skin Saviors

Antioxidants help your skin defend itself from insult—from UV rays, from pollution, from stress, and from the bad sugars you end up eating anyway.

Load up on foods that are high in antioxidants, like blueberries, spinach, tomatoes, beans (you know the list), and slather on an antioxidant cream or serum morning and night (Day prefers formulas with a blend of different antioxidants). Make sure to also add a supplement to your routine.

 

You’re Probably Not Wearing Enough Sunscreen

Make sure you apply enough sunscreen. The higher SPF the better and as often as you can to reapply it. 

Try a new breed of sunscreens that are reinforced with skin-protective antioxidants and DNA-repair enzymes to help fight against UV damage. 

You just need a dime-size amount of sunscreen for your face and another dime-size for your neck and chest, apply it in two layers. Rub it on, wait until it dries, and then do it again to make sure that you’re getting enough.

Smooth on sunscreen from the peripherals of your face toward the center, because you’re always going to get more to cover your nose and upper lip, but you will not always go back to get more to cover the skin along your hairline and in front of your ears.

Don’t forget your chest and neck including the sides and back of the neck. 

 

Sleep Is Beauty’s Secret

Getting eight hours of sleep isn’t just a break for your mind—it’s the equivalent of a spa getaway for your skin, allowing it the time and conditions it needs to undo some of the damage it incurred from the environment and your less-than-stellar habits throughout your day.

At night, your stress hormone, cortisol, goes down, and your growth hormone levels go up. This shift allows for [cellular] repair.

 

Try Intermittent Fasting 

That means a 12 to 14-hour-a-day fast—eight hours as you’re sleeping at night and then two to three hours on either side of that. It helps regulate metabolism and energy even more than sleep, and that allows the skin to repair itself.

Taking a break from late-night snacks will not only help you drop a size over time, but it also optimizes your skin’s ability to function properly in terms of barrier repair and everything else.