Miss Ashley Pants

Most of us look crappy when we wake up.

But do you ever have those fat, fat, FAT face days? Where the rest of your body is seemingly normal, but your face just won’t deflate? Ever have a bunch of them in a row? What’s going ON?!

Well, for my girlfriends who aren’t bio dorks like myself, I’ll break it down nice and easy. The answer behind the “fat face” problem is usually SALT (causing water retention).

I’m guessing most of my instant gratification friends want results first, reasoning later; so I came up with this easy breakdown for you.

S – SODIUM (salt) intake should be at or under 2300 mg per day!
A – AQUEOUS (water) ingestion can prevent water retention in your face
L – LEVEL your head higher with an extra pillow at night.
T – THAW an ice pack slowly on your face to help drain excess fluid out.

If you stuck around for the “explanation” part, good for you! Many of us retain info best by “knowing why” – the same way we retain fluid when sodium is high in our bodies.

QUICK MORNING FIX

For my A.M. sisters, instead of hitting snooze, wake up early enough to:

1. Grab an icepack from the kitchen on your way to turn on the coffee.
2. Thaw the ice pack out on your face, rotating it around to the puff-prone areas like your cheeks and eyes.
3, While you need to spend roughly ten or fifteen minutes to make this effective, remember, it’s not a body wrap; you can also multitask.
4. Turn on the news to listen to the traffic or weather
5. Pick out your clothes for the day if you haven’t already
6. Drink your coffee
7. If you don’t drink coffee, drink WATER

Why? Ice causes something called vasoconstriction (or “tightening up”). Think of how when you get an injury – like if you sprain an ankle or twist a knee – the injured area gets puffy too, doesn’t it? In that case, you use ice to take down the swelling, right? With a puffy face, you do the same: use low temperatures to cause that “tightening up”. The result? Less swelling or “puffiness”!

Additionally, the coffee is also a vasoconstrictor. So you’re doing yourself two favors: One is immediate and topical, the other should be taking effect by the time you start putting on your makeup or heading to work!

Or, if you opted to drink the water instead, great choice! Water and sodium levels in your body correlate with one another to ultimately make for your Monday Morning mirror frustration as you fumble to figure out why your face won’t “de-puff”.

In fact, while the steps above are a good “quick fix”, your long term regimen really depends on your ratio of water to sodium intake; But is your salt intake too high? If it is, the quick fix above may not help you as much as you’d hoped. Keep reading and learn about the salts that most women don’t know are making them puffy

WHAT’S ON THE LABEL?

Our salt (or sodium) intake correlates with our water levels in our body. Thus, I made my memory mechanism from the word “SALT” itself. So, the next time you girls pick up a bag of snacks and turn it around to look at the nutritional label – don’t just tell yourself “It’s okay because it has X calories in it”. What does the sodium intake read?

WHAT FOODS ARE HIGH IN SODIUM?

You might just think the typical snack foods in the vending machines are the enemy. They are, but some of the worst things for you won’t even have labels – like when you go out to eat and order a meal that’s doused in a delicious seasoning and sauce that leaves you asking for more of the same… and more water.

But many of you probably knew that.

Or maybe you’re a self proclaimed proud and healthy sushi lover? That’s great! But steer clear of the soy sauce; that stuff has tons of salt in it. However, many establishments know that, and will cater to a low sodium diet. If you do love your sauce, see if your sushi spot has the “low sodium” type; it usually will have a green cap on it.

What other foods harbor face fatteners? How will I know? Well, if you are at a restaurant and don’t have a “nutrition label” available, just remember that anything that makes you fairly thirsty after you eat it, is probably going to be high in sodium. Pizza, burgers, chips, pasta, and snackfoods are just some of them.

Aside from food, a heavy night of cocktailing will also cause a puffy face the next morning. Keep in mind also that if and when you binge drink, you probably will come home from your night out, throw your diet out, and reach for the salty snackfoods. Don’t expect to wake up Sleeping Beauty style after a night like that 😉

What else?

THE SALT THEY DON’T TELL YOU ABOUT!!

So, you finally committed to the skinny betch diet, you definitely don’t eat salty foods, but you still get that damned “puffy face” way after you wake up and into the day! Before you scream and stab the mirror, think about any medicines you’re prescribed to take: If you have to take any meds on the daily, know that many medications harbor a a decent dose of sodium. Look it up and see what’s in it. Anything that ends in a “chloride” is probably the guilty party in your puff-fest.

What do you do?! You have to take your medicine!

AQUEOUS TRANSMISSION (Drink water)

While there’s obviously nothing you can do about your medical regimen, you can make sure that your water intake is high enough to balance out those salts you’re involuntarily ingesting. Studies say we don’t take in enough water, and that’s probably because we don’t understand its importance.

Try to think of your salt/water intake ratio the way you do with your “eat/workout” ratio. If you eat a lot, you know you need to workout more to burn it off, right? Likewise, if your sodium intake rises, you’re going to need to balance it out with more water…whether it’s from food or medicine alike.

When in doubt, drink water.

Just keep a bottle with you at work. If you’re okay with drinking tap water, refill the same bottle. If you’re a Voss or Fiji gal, buy a pack of them to keep at work. Try to make sure you get through one or two bottles by the day’s end. Force it if you have to!

Seriously… If you’re working hard to follow through with your New Year’s Resolution to drop the lbs, don’t let your face make it look like you haven’t! If you forget everything else…

…THINK, DRINK!

xoxo
<3~A