Category: Women

Illumination

Illumination establishes a sense of energy, serenity and a mood for pampering.

Pampering spaces requires careful attention. A pampering area needs plenty of ambient or general illumination as well as task lights dedicated to each station of pampering space. If you take time to plan it to fit your moods you should be fine with what you end up with. Your lighting is a reflection of what you like, want and need so do it like you want it done. The main thing you’ll have to remember is your room’s lighting must be subtle and stirring, functional and atmospheric. It must be adjustable to meet the demands of day and night or to vary the mood of the space. Well-planned lightning can meet all of these needs.

Planning Your Lighting
Before you plan your lighting think about the space you are placing the lighting. Bathrooms and bedroom lighting are different. You would not want to rely on natural light in a bathroom, but it would add lots of ambience to a bedroom. Your pampering pleasure lighting plan begins at your focal point and moves from there.

Surround mirrors with clear soft lighting to avoid shadows and glare on your face. Scones and strip lights are great for this. In the shower where space is often enclosed and limited lighting should be bright enough to shave during day or night hours.
Bathtubs need good lighting. Try a recessed fixture or a can light, and direct the beam outside the tub to prevent bounce back off the water.

If you really want lighting that makes you feel totally pampered seek fixtures with translucent glass shades, because they reduce glare significantly and can help create a diffused glow. Pay attention to the direction that your fixtures aim their light: scones can cast light in different directions, including up, down and sideways. For a nice ambient radiance, think about indirect lighting, which usually recesses the light source in an overhead cove (hence the term ‘cove lighting’).

It’s important to understand what qualities of light will work best for pampering times, both with your skin tone and the materials in the bath. The goal is to provide the room with a background of flattering, even light. If your bath has lots of high gloss figures or surfaces, use low-wattage lighting on the walls and ceiling to help avoid glare and to create a soft glow. Think of how wonderful you will feel after pampering yourself. Getting out of the tub in the most flattering light and seeing yourself will enhance your inner spirit

To change the mood of installed lighting in the bath or to add a decorative flourish, use accent lighting. Floor lamps, table lamps, or chandeliers can all function as accent lights. To further change the mood of bathroom lighting, install dimmer switches. Nightlights can provide a needed beacon in a dark house or illumination for a midnight pampering moments.

Create a Room for Reflection
Light is both a great wave and a tiny particle. Take inspiration from the wonders of physics to design personal lighting plan for your bath. Use natural light by day and make it a romantic retreat at night using spots and sparkles of candlelight and crystal.
Be bold. Be flexible. The more types of lighting you use and the variety of fixtures, the greater your ability to adapt the ambience to suit your mood. Dress up your bath for the evening with candles (more on candles later in this chapter) and accessorize that sparkle and shine. Dress it down in the daytime with draperies that allow lots of natural light to shine through. Add reflective accents so that light dances from surface to surface. Maybe your bath could incorporate suspended fixtures hung with beads and crystals, and uses silver accessories to establish a mood more alluring than the traditional bathroom.

Lights and candles are tools that help you shape your space. Different intensities and wide to narrow light beams can highlight distinct areas within a larger environment; different wall colors can make the light in a space seem brighter. A lush jewel tone like matte, sapphire, blue, or cobalt blue absorbs light and remains a vivid backdrop, even in full sun. At night, candles and chandeliers describe their own magical circles, creating soothing pools of light around a room.

Does your bath have large or numerous windows that flood the interiors with lots of daylight? Is your bathroom generous with dramatic or romantic lighting? Do have intriguing light fixtures that draw attention and create luminous points of interests? All of these things give your bathroom space more presence. Take a look around your bath and imagine the possibilities.

Light is a natural luxury. Capture its flickering radiance with mirrors, glass and other silvery surfaces. Find bulbs that approximate the intensity and color of light at your favorite time of day, and then use them with dimmers so that you can increase or decrease the level of light. Experiment by using bulbs of different wattages to create lighting contrast. Lower-watt bulbs produce a softer cast of light than brighter high-wattage bulbs.

Light Fixture Tricks
Be creative with light fixtures. Just by changing the number of watts, the color or the wash of light in a bathroom you can create a variety of moods. Try different lamp shades for different qualities of light; colored silk softens and tints light; paper and linen provide a gentle milky glow. Create a radiant atmosphere around the bath with candlelight hung low overhead and mixed with fairy lights at one side. Candelabra on the floor, below the level of your face will cast light upward for a glamorous effect. And don’t forget candles.

 

 

 

Eat More Fruits

Eating fruit provides health benefits — people who eat more fruits and vegetables as part of an overall healthy diet are likely to have a reduced risk of some chronic diseases. Fruits provide nutrients vital for health and maintenance of your body.

Nutrients
Most fruits are naturally low in fat, sodium, and calories. None have cholesterol.
Fruits are sources of many essential nutrients that are underconsumed, including potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin C, and folate (folic acid).

Diets rich in potassium may help to maintain healthy blood pressure. Fruit sources of potassium include bananas, prunes and prune juice, dried peaches and apricots, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and orange juice.

Dietary fiber from fruits, as part of an overall healthy diet, helps reduce blood cholesterol levels and may lower risk of heart disease. Fiber is important for proper bowel function. It helps reduce constipation and diverticulosis. Fiber-containing foods such as fruits help provide a feeling of fullness with fewer calories. Whole or cut-up fruits are sources of dietary fiber; fruit juices contain little or no fiber.

Vitamin C is important for growth and repair of all body tissues, helps heal cuts and wounds, and keeps teeth and gums healthy.

Folate (folic acid) helps the body form red blood cells. Women of childbearing age who may become pregnant should consume adequate folate from foods, and in addition 400 mcg of synthetic folic acid from fortified foods or supplements. This reduces the risk of neural tube defects, spina bifida, and anencephaly during fetal development.

Health benefits
Eating a diet rich in vegetables and fruits as part of an overall healthy diet may reduce risk for heart disease, including heart attack and stroke.

Eating a diet rich in some vegetables and fruits as part of an overall healthy diet may protect against certain types of cancers.

Diets rich in foods containing fiber, such as some vegetables and fruits, may reduce the risk of heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Eating vegetables and fruits rich in potassium as part of an overall healthy diet may lower blood pressure, and may also reduce the risk of developing kidney stones and help to decrease bone loss.

Eating foods such as fruits that are lower in calories per cup instead of some other higher-calorie food may be useful in helping to lower calorie intake.