I love that today's look is to be healthy and natural. I know there are still some fashion loops that encourage lots of makeup or funky hairstyles, but I'm glad that a pretty large one supports not torturing your face and body. Most magazines will show you women in shape, no more stick figures for us to continually try to emulate. I think a lot of it may have to do with the fact that today's women are so informed. We know what to put in our bodies to make them healthy and not sickly, we know not to go out in the sun without sunscreen. We know better. My beauty resolution this year has been to embrace the natural beauty God has given me. But we can't all be naturally flawless, so there are a lot of products out there that you can use to "enhance" that natural beauty. Some of them are a bit ridiculous, and I prefer the more practical. We want to be the girl who looks relaxed and calm, sort of like we have just come home from an awesome vacation in the Bahamas. Well I don't know about you but I can't exactly afford the Bahamas, so here are my "healthy & relaxed" beauty resolutions and products.1. STOP dying my hair!! I have literally not seen my natural hair color since the 4th grade. So for starters I dyed my hair as close to it's natural root color as I can get and resolved to stop messing with it! This also means a year of some sacrifices, such as using my blow dryer as often and to start using heat-protectant spray. I want my natural hair to come in as flawless as possible. Here's what I'm using (and loving) on my hair so far:
Tresemme Heat Protectant spray. I just bought this a few weeks ago and I LOVE it. I normally don't buy Tresemme because I think I always figured since it's pretty cheap it probably isn't very good quality, but this stuff has been everything the pricier stuff has and more. I even bought the shampoo and conditioner (the Thermal Recovery kind) and really like that too. 
I hate, hate, HATE sticky hairspray hair. In fact I don't like to use any products at all when I can help it. But I've been using this one for years and like it a lot. A quick once-over of your whole head and some leave-in conditioner at the ends made my hair look amazing when it was longer the year before last. Now that I'm trying to get my natural color back I'm cutting it more to get rid of dead ends, so I mostly only spray this into my hand and scrunch the ends to give them definition. I also love that it smells like salt-water (ie: the beach). 
I discovered Hayashi through a friend of mine years ago and still get giddy when I can find the packets of 911 reconstructor pak. It's a little pricey for a bottle but probably a good investment. This is, without a doubt, the BEST deep conditioner I have ever used. And I've tried a lot.
2. Start eating and drinking more health-mindedly. This means more water, more vegetables, and less heavy cream-based products and fried food. Whenever I eat greasy, heavy food I can't help but think of that grease seeping out of my pores. It usually turns me off to it pretty quickly. I know we've all been hearing for years how important it is to drink water, but something I read last night really struck me. I read that we not only lose water through exercise and when we "go," but also just doing nothing because it evaporates from our skin. Even when we sleep we are losing water, which is why it's important to drink a glass before we go to sleep and another when we wake up. We wake up in the morning with 8 hours of not hydrating ourselves, and if we don't "refill" our hydration levels we start out the day in the red zone. Being dehydrated causes us to lose focus, mistake thirst for hunger, and get cranky. Drink up, ladies! As for food, I am trying to get more vegetables this year... even if I have to be sneaky about it! Most women don't get nearly enough vegetables and are seriously lacking in nutrients that would normally help us fight off disease, weight gain, and help us stay strong. It's so easy to sneak extra veggies into salads, sandwiches, or soups. The way I figure it, the more I fill myself up with vegetables the less hungry I will be for bad snacks later on. For this reason I have kind of allowed myself to eat vegetables "at will," and with no limitations on how much I'm allowed to eat.
3. Take vitamins! This is a duh one. You'll probably notice that I often refer to "duh" things and moments. This is because if you don't know this already, you really should. You need a ton of vitamins to be totally healthy. You probably aren't getting them. Vitamin supplements have them. Vitamins are usually pretty calorie-free. Therefore: take vitamins. Yous skin, hair, body, and mental health will thank you for it. I like USANA's Body Rox (despite the awkward name) and am working on Very Green Dietary Supplement from Trader Joes. 
4. Stay active, but stay relaxed. This is my MOST difficult area. I am severely lazy and I work full time. By the time I get off work I usually feel like taking a shower, eating dinner, and vegging out or reading. This is why I am trying to incorporate some body time into my work day. If I can get my lazy bum to a yoga class or on a walk with my boyfriend and his dog, AWESOME. Unfortunately these days are rare. I'd love to sit here and lie about how active I am, but I'm just not. So what I have been trying to do is factor is some physical activity wherever I can. I'll park my car father from the grocery store so that I have to walk. I clean my house (a lot) so that I can squeeze in some physical activity rather than sitting on the couch after 5pm. I stretch at work, and if there's no one in the office I may even throw in a couple of Sun Salutations. And then I obviously try to eat as much healthy food as possible. I recommend you try to be more active than that, but for days that you just can't get there- squeezing some sneaky activities into your day will help.
5. Get my skin looking radiant! Winter wind and inside heaters can cause some pretty nasty skin. Mine tends to get dry, dull, and whiiiite! The best solutions for winter skin (in my opinion) are a great scrub, an even greater lotion, and a tan. No, I'm not telling you to hit up the tanning bed! But those spray tans are getting better and better in quality so I say go for it! If you're looking to save a bit of money on multiple trips, go with St. Tropez's line of self-tanners. They're the best! Be sure to scrub off any dead layers before tanning. Body brushing is all the rage right now, for instructions go to: http://healingtools.tripod.com/skinbrush.html. As for face exfoliation I still have yet to find anything that works better than adding a little bit of plain white sugar to your regular face wash (no foam washes, it won't work). I also like St. Ives line of scrubs. When I was younger they seemed too oily but their newer formulas are fantastic. For a good cheap lotion for any type of skin, go with Cetaphil Cream. I don't care much for the kind in a dispenser but the tub of cream is perfect for my combination-oily skin.
To Recap, this is what you want to look like (except maybe with a bit more meat on our bones because, well, we can't all be bikini models!):
...And not this (although I'll give Posh credit for not overdoing it with the tanner like she used to):
Love,
Lula Mae.
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