We all feed our stomachs daily, but are we really giving them what they want and deserve?

Sometimes it’s hard to fit healthy food into a busy schedule, making it even harder for us to keep our digestive tract happy and healthy.  Unfortunately, one of the most common side effects of an unhappy tum-tum is bloating (ew).  Luckily, with a few easy tweaks to our diet, we can get on our way towards a fitter and flatter stomach.

Tummy Tip #1: Drink tons of water.  Water is probably the closest thing to a silver bullet you’ll ever find.  Not only does it improve the look of your skin and stimulate mental clarity, it also aids in digestion.  This translates into a flatter, bloat-free stomach for you.  Make sure you’re getting enough agua by listening to some advice from the Institute of Medicine.  They recommend that the lovely ladies, like ourselves, drink about 9 cups of H20 a day.

Tummy Tip #2: Hold the salt. As a general rule of thumb, wherever salt goes water will follow.  This is good for maintaining a good balance of minerals in the blood, but can be bad when it comes to belly bloat.  You don’t have to cut out salt completely to diminish bloating, but try to avoid overly salty foods like chips, canned soups, frozen meals, and salted nuts. Read More »

I know I’m not the only one who gets a little (okay, a lot) lax in the beauty department around finals week. Between papers, tests, and procrastination, my makeup and hair regime are the first things to go. Usually, it’s no problem—all of my fellow students look just as unkempt and ragged as I do around this time. But when it comes to date night with the BF or an early meeting at work, the last thing I need is to look as tired as I feel.

Last week, I had been up for over 24-hours straight. I finally crawled into bed two hours before I needed to be up to take a final, promising myself that I would wash my hair in the morning instead of before going to sleep. Needless to say, when the alarm clock buzzed, I hit the snooze, forgetting all about the product-overload-induced greasy hair I was sporting. By the time I got myself out of bed, I had 15 minutes to make my bus. I panicked, picturing myself walking into work after my final donning a pencil skirt, nice blouse…and a baseball cap on top of my head.

But before I ran out the door in a panic, I stopped it. My lifesaver—Batiste Dry Shampoo. Sure, it says on the bottle that it “refreshes and revitalizes hair between washes,” but I hoped it could also work its magic instead of a wash. I flipped my hair over, sprayed generously, and massaged it in, before brushing it out. The result? Well, besides smelling like clean laundry—clean-feeling, soft, hair that was full of the body it was used to. I threw the bottle in my purse just in case I needed a touch-up in between work and a date with the boyfriend, but there was no need. Read More »