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Beauty

What Beauty Chick, Neema , Can Teach You About Dry Brushing!

Dry Brushing is exactly what it sounds like: You brush your skin! This technique creates significantly smoother skin as well as increasing the circulation in skin. Increasing skin circulation is one of the best ways to maintain smoother, brighter skin.

Benefits of Dry Brushing:

Reduces Cellulite

Dry brushing helps stimulate the cells and break down toxins from beneath the skin. It does increase the blood circulation which helps the extra fat to flush out from skin which is the major reason for having cellulite. Blood circulation also helps other organs release toxins, but our skin does not have that additional boost to help rid of toxins itself, so dry brushing is necessary to get rid of those toxins and bad fats inside our body.

Exfoliates Dead Cells and Unclogs Pores

When we are young, dry brushing doesn’t necessary because the skin automatically renews itself but when we are in our late 20s or after 30s, it becomes necessary to exfoliate our skin to get new skin cells.  Dry brushing helps to exfoliate dead skin cells and unclogs the blocked pores. Clogged pores can lead to ingrown hairs and acne, which is why dry brushing is needed.


Detox Your Skin

To detox skin, dry brushing is similar to massage. The light pressure against the skin and the direction in which we brush, it helps to move lymph fluid into the lymph nodes so that the waste can be eliminated from our body. Our body naturally detoxes the skin, but dry brushing speeds up the process and at the same time boost circulation, delivering oxygenated blood to the skin and other organs, which helps them do their jobs better.

Stimulates Lymphatic System and Improves Immune System

Lymph is a fluid in our circulatory system and it has white blood cells, so lymph also affects our immune system. It picks up bacteria, toxins, and other waste from our blood and filters it through the lymph nodes, where the bacteria are destroyed. Poor blood circulation means the lymph is not doing its job properly which results in cellulite, varicose veins, and a weakened immune system. Dry brushing improves the lymph flow.

How to Dry Brush

Brush your skin upwards with a dry brush, usually before showering. Brush your skin towards your heart, starting at the feet and hands and brushing towards the chest. Brush in a circular motion on your tummy and under arms. Shower right after, pat dry, and apply a body moisturizer of your choice. I like to use organic Coconut oil on my body in the winter!  See how fellow Chick, Sonia uses it in her hair here.

Don’t brush your skin too hard. Be easy on your skin and build a tolerance to the brush strokes. Don’t forget to wash your brush every few days to remove any skin cells.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see what happens when my fellow chicks give dry brushing a try!

Hope you found this to be helpful! Have you tried this? Comment below.

Your Chick,

Neema

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Motherhood

Breastfeeding – Maintaining and Increasing Supply

Many Mommas want to know how to increase milk supply at some point during their breastfeeding journey – whether you think you’re not producing enough or you had a cold and your supply dipped. 

Here are a few things that helped me breastfeed both my kids  until age 1 and donate some for NICU babies. 

Nursing often in those beginning weeks. This is what everyone probably tells you, but I know as a mom how daunting it can feel to think that you baby is not getting enough. A little patience, and a lot of nursing, those first few weeks will set you up with a good supply. Beware: your nipples will hurt and ache, but it will get better! I used Earth Mama’s nipple butter to help with any discomfort.

Try to nurse on both sides at each feeding to ensure your body knows to make more milk for baby. I also used the Haakaa manual suction pump on the opposite side while I fed. This helped with losing any leaked milk and to signal my body that we need the milk. GUYS I CAN’T SAY ENOUGH ABOUT THE HAAKAA – JUST GET IT! Using a nursing pillow will help with holding your baby properly and support your arm and back. 

Another good way to increase your supply, if you are really feeling that it’s low – try to pump right after a feeding to empty your breast completely – hence telling your body you need more milk. This always helped when I got sick and my supply would dip a little bit. I use the Medela Pump in style pump with my first and the Spectra S2 with my second. They both worked well for me. I did like the Spectra s2 a tad bit more because it was a quieter pump. 

Make sure your baby has a proper latch. Often times your body is producing the milk but your baby might not be feeding properly and getting all the milk due to a poor latch. I had this issue with my 1st and seeing a certified lactation consultant early on helped my nursing journey. You can find a certified lactation consultant near your through https://www.ilca.org/home

H2O, H2O, H2O – lots of fluids. I lugged my camelback water bottle around everywhere. Water sometimes gets boring, so switch it up with some flavored water. I don’t know the science behind it but COOL BLUE gatorade helped my supply significantly.

Healthy diet – it is SO hard to maintain a balanced diet during those first few months of chaos. I always kept stashes of lactation bars and mixed nuts on my night stand. Avocados were my go to during the day – they also helped to make my milk more fatty. 

Lactation Bars

As an Indian mom, my elders made me consume tons of organic teas and foods. Dill seed and fennel seed tea – soak the seeds in water and then boil. I drank this every morning religiously for 4 months. 

Fenugreek sweets (Methi pak), you can also just take the fenugreek capsules.  

Supplements

Sunflower lecithin – The product helps with increasing fatty acids in your milk. It also helps clogged ducts, pushing milk through the ducts – hence increasing your output of hind milk: the fatty part of your milk

Legendairy Milk – A company that has various organic supplements to help with various breastfeeding issues. I occasionally took their Liquid Gold Supplement which helped with making my milk more fatty. 

Take the prenatal vitamins that your obgyn or pediatrician recommends for you. 

I also took an extra vitamin C to help through winter cold months. 

Surviving Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is a tough and stressful journey. Try to let go a little, at the end of the day happy mommy makes for a happy baby. No matter the situation: FED IS BEST whether through breastfeeding or through formula. You are the best Momma to your baby!

Your Chick,

Neema

Beauty, Health, Lifestyle

How I Whitened My Teeth! #GiveawayAlert

I was so excited to partner with Smile Brilliant. I wasn’t really in the market for any teeth whitening products, but when they came my way: why not, right!?

I’m very weary when it comes to using products on my teeth (and even my skin/body in general). I did some research and found that the ingredients are vegan and that’s right up my alley. And I’ve tried those whitening strips but never really notice that much of a result. I have pretty good teeth overall and didn’t want to use something that would make them sensitive. The desensitizing gel was what I loved and made me want to try it in the first place!


Home Teeth Whitening

How it works:

Smile Brilliant sends over a dental impression kit, which includes: catalyst paste & base paste. The impression process is pretty easy and self-explanatory. Once you make the impressions, let them dry, and then mail them out in the smile brilliant package they send you (it’s pre-paid!).

You then received your custom fitted whitening trays within a couple weeks. They keep you updated on when they receive your impressions and when they have shipped your trays out. Overall pretty simple process in the comfort of your home.

When do you notice a difference?

I noticed a difference after the first application. After the 4th application my teeth looked amazing!

The actual process for the one-hour teeth whitening takes a bit of time: closer to 75-80 minutes. I always did it after I put the kids to bed and I could just sit and read or watch TV. One hour for the tray, 20 minutes for the desensitizing gel, and then waiting 30 minutes after to eat or drink. I would just go to bed after so never had to worry about not eating.

Why would you want to go to a dental office, spend a ton of money and time when you can do the same exact thing at home in your PJS and its way more economical.

Want to try it out??? Get your set free by clicking here and be
entered into our #Giveaway!


Thanks for checking out my post!

Your Chick,

Neema

**The post was written in exchange for the products shared, however the opinions are all my own.**

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Lifestyle, women

#MomsOffDuty – What Does That Mean? Celebrating 100 Posts!!

This is our 100th Post!!! That is more than two years of Chick Picks, Fashion Posts, Motherhood Rants, and Party Tips and we could not have done it without you!! Thank you so much for supporting Chicks And Salsa!!

One of our most frequently used hashtags is #MomsOffDuty.  It was brought to our attention that ‘life outside of motherhood’ and ‘Moms off duty’ implies that we did not have children or did not care about them. This could not be further from the truth!  It just means that we are not going to beat ourselves up about taking a little ‘me time‘ every now and then.

Yes, we are moms and yes we are obsessed with our kids (as most Moms are). BUT the blog is a way for us to find an avenue outside of the realm of crafting, cooking, and career. Chicks And Salsa is a way to use creativity and media to connect with other women in a way that encourages us to develop ourselves as members of this society.

Reflections:

As women, especially those of ethnic descent, we have a tendency to place ourselves last — behind spouses, kids, career. If there is anything I have learned in these past few years, it is that putting yourself first can feel good sometimes, too. It is also important to realize that ‘mom guilt’ never goes away: we will always wish that when we try a new restaurant with friends, that our husbands were there or when we discover a new park to run at, that we could exercise and watch the kids at the same time.
Moms Off Duty—that is how we feel when we squeeze in a coffee with friends during the day or get a babysitter and vent to a friend over cocktails after school. It is all-encompassing. It is the food that we eat, the activities that we participate in, the civic work that we do, the obligations we have at work, and our responsibilities at home. It is about taking a moment to build yourself as a woman, no matter what corners that life brings your way. Stringing together the moments outside of our routines are often the ones that we remember and cherish.
Celebrating Each Other
You Do You
We challenge you to be ‘off duty’ once in a while and do something for yourself with or without someone else. Push yourself to a new limit and rediscover an old hobby. Or listen to some old tunes and dance like no one is watching. It is possible to be a great mother, an influencer, a career-builder, and an independent woman — find your way to putting yourself first and in doing that, find yourself.
Lastly, thank you for all the love that you have shown us these past few years, hopefully we have more to offer as we learn more about all of you!!
With so much love, your chicks,
Rina and Sonia
Shout out to Neema, one of our contributors and Mom-extraordinaire, see her posts here.
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