Just in time for summer, this vitamin C scrub can be used on the face and body. Gently exfoliate dead skin cells with circular beads infused with vitamin C and Hyaluronic Acid. The skin is left feeling soft and smooth.
Using a manual exfoliate helps moisturizers, treatment creams and serums to penetrate into the skin. It is especially beneficial in the summer months as sunscreens can clog pores.
Scars on the body or face can cause emotional distress and bring down an individuals self esteem. Until recently, scar revision has been painful and includes downtime from daily living.
Palomar Factional laser treatments use pulse light to reactivate healthy tissue in all skin types with minimal down time.
Learn more about Polomar Fractional Laser treatments
You may have seen yogurt and margarine brand television ads proclaiming their new cholesterol-lowering products made with phytosterols, also called plant sterols. Having recently been approved in Canada for use in food products, phytosterols have quickly become a popular health topic and an even more popular health claim on supermarket shelves. But what exactly are phytosterols—and are they doing you any good?
Phytosterols are natural components of plants and plant-based foods. Because they are structurally similar to human cholesterol, they are thought to prevent cholesterol from being absorbed by the small intestine so it is excreted from the body rather than building up in the blood and on artery walls.
Consuming 2 grams of phytosterols per day has been shown to lower cholesterol by up to 10%. Consuming up to 3 grams per day may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by 20%.
Plant sterols have been shown to work in conjunction with cholesterol-lowering medications like statins. They have been shown to enhance the effectiveness of heart-healthy diets in lowering cholesterol, but positive effects have also been demonstrated in people who do not eat a healthy diet.
So, do you need to start hitting the grocery shelves for products that contain plant sterols? Not necessarily. Remember that plant sterols come form plant-based foods, and plant-based foods have always been encouraged on the heart-healthy menu. So the grandma rule still applies: eat your fruits and veggies!
This filling meatless meal delivers phytosterols and 15 grams of fibre.
Ingredients:
- 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
- 1 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- ½ onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 cup of broccoli, asparagus, and red pepper, chopped.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 4 artichoke hearts in water, drained and quartered
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 1/4 cup sliced black olives
- 1/2 cup whole-wheat penne, cooked
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
Preparation:
Combine tomatoes, onions, garlic chickpeas, broccoli, peppers, asparagus, salt, spices and 1/2 cup water in a medium pot and simmer until liquid reduces by half, (~20 minutes). Add the olives, artichokes and peas; simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
Toss with penne, top with chopped basil and serve. Can be frozen.
You work, you sweat and, best of all, you get results! Boot camp workouts are a great way to get into shape while having fun. Here are some of the benefits you’ll enjoy by enrolling in boot camp this summer.
Boot camp workouts are efficient because they target the entire body and address all areas of fitness including cardiovascular and muscular endurance, fat loss and weight loss, full body strength, flexibility, balance, and agility in each session.
Each session will take you through high-intensity strength and cardio exercises designed to challenge your body’s strength and endurance while burning calories like crazy. Programs typically welcome all fitness levels; even those with specific limitations can participate. Qualified instructors will be able to provide exercise modifications to accommodate all levels of ability and will happily answer all fitness-related questions.
Benefits of Boot Camp
Motivation. When you exercise in a group setting there is built-in motivation. You receive encouragement from your instructor and your peers, giving you that extra boost of confidence.
Change of pace. Boot camp workouts eliminate the boredom and monotony of your typical gym workout. You are given a variety of exercises, preventing workouts from becoming stale and helping you avoid reaching a fitness plateau.
Educational. Instructors will provide you with helpful tips as you train. Additionally, the exercises you learn at boot camp can be done almost anywhere with minimal equipment, so you will learn new exercises to incorporate into your regular routine.
Interval training. Boot camp is a great way to perform interval training on a regular basis. Incorporating interval training in your fitness regime allows the muscles to develop a higher tolerance to fatigue and strengthens the heart muscle. These adaptations result in improved performance, especially in cardiovascular fitness. Finally, interval training allows you to increase your training intensity and prevents over-training or burnout injuries, which are often associated with repetitive endurance exercise.
In this article I detail how marriage has weakened to such a state where it is now a choice among many options. This shift away from traditional marital unification is one that has proven disadvantageous to people and, more specifically, children.
The trend towards deinstitutionalization, a situation where marriage became less of the prevailing norm for adults in a relationship, started in the 1970s with the growth of cohabitation in North America. The movement/trend initially was seen as an avant-garde phenomenon, a rebellion of sorts against the norms of society. Social scientists anticipated that, with the exception of the poor, it would be a passing fad for childless couples who would break up to marry.
This has not proven to be the case. Cohabitation is prevalent today in North America (more so in Canada than the US), and is accepted as an alternative to marriage. According to Kathleen Kiernan (2002), Professor of Social Policy and Demography at the University of York in London, England cohabitation occurs in stages. In stage one it is perceived as a stylish thing to do. In the second stage, it appears to be a testing ground for marriage that is presupposed to come later. Then, in stage three, it becomes acceptable as an alternative to marriage, followed by stage four where it takes the place of marriage itself.
In Sweden and Denmark, Kiernan argues, cohabitation has moved to stage four, while in Canada it is at stage three and the US is defined by a transition from stage two to three.
Generally though, in the mind of the average person, cohabitation is a transitional step to marriage. However, if cohabitation is a prelude to marriage, the numbers do not bear this out. According to Smock and Gupta (2002), in the US the proportion of cohabiting situations that led to marriage within three years dropped from 60% in the 1970s to 33% in the 1990s. This means there is a sharp decline in the possibility that living together will lead to marriage.
Aside from the normalizing of cohabitation, a variety of other cultural trends have lead to the weakening of marriage. Amongst these trends is the normalizing of sexual relations outside the realm of marriage, the normalizing of childbearing out of wedlock, change in the stigma of divorce along with the easing of divorce laws and the entry of women into the workforce in the 20th century.
Moreover, marriage itself is redefined. An emphasis on emotional satisfaction and romantic love, which intensified earlier in the twentieth century, is the defining norm of marriage today. This phenomenon has weakened marriage to the extent that an ethic of individualism now prevails in marriage so that personal satisfaction, growth, bonds of sentiment, development of one’s own sense of self are priority over the ethics of being good providers, responsible parents, good homemakers and being people who derive satisfaction from playing the roles of husbands and wives.
A transition, then, to an individualized marriage happened in which a person only had to stay as long as his personal needs were met and not because commitment to social roles, responsibility to children or the well-being of the partner was necessarily relevant. The change in stigma of divorce, as noted earlier, and the acceptance of divorce as a social reality further nurtured this individualized nature within marriage.
It follows that, in the current context, one may first live with a partner before getting married (or not get married at all), or one may live with several partners sequentially without any explicit commitment to marriage. One may have children with one’s eventual spouse or with someone else before marrying. One may, in some jurisdictions, marry someone of the same gender and set his own rules of marriage. As well, one may leave a relationship if one feels it does not provide one with the individualized rewards one seeks, live with someone else or marry another, divorce, remarry one’s previous spouse, or go back to living with one’s previous spouse without any commitment to marriage. One could also live alone without any significant expectations from society that one should marry.
Given the changes, the question as to whether or not people are better off is doubtful. Rates of depression are higher than they have ever been. People live with more stress today than they ever have (many of the stresses are directly related to the situation of intimate relationships, single parenthood, etc.). Overall, there is a greater sense of anxiety and uncertainty concerning life.
In effect, it is the children who have borne the brunt of this relational/marital flux. Rates of depression in children are at an all time high. Increasing, as well, are problems such as chronic anxiety, attention deficit, stress, delinquency and substance abuse. All of these, it would seem, are linked, in great part, to the destruction of the institution of marriage – once a constant buffer from the pressures of society and a safe haven from the threats and tensions of the world. With the loss of their stable sanctuary children have become exposed, and left vulnerable; therefore, making them easy pickings for those who would prey upon them.
References:
Beck, U., & Beck-Gernshein, E. (1995). Individualization: Institutionalized individualism and its social and political consequences. London: Sage
Boden, S. Consumerism, romance and the wedding experience. Hampshire, England: Pelgrave Macmillan
Cherlin, A. (1978). Remarriage as an incomplete institution. American Journal of Sociology, 84, 634-650.
Kiernan, K. (2002). Cohabitation in Western Europe: Trends, issues and implications. In A. Booth & A.C. Crouter (Eds.), Just living together: Implications of cohabitation on families, children, and social policy (pp. 3-31). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Smock, P.J., & Gupta, S. (2002). Cohabitation in contemporary North America. In A. Booth & A.C. Crouter (Eds.), Just living together: Implications of cohabitation on families, children, and social policy (pp. 3-31). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
About the Author
Alexander is a Registered Psychologist specializing in Weight Management, Addictions, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, PTSD, Chronic Pain and Self-Esteem.