Your Self-Care Rx with Dr. Trevor Cates

Transcript of Your Self-Care Rx

Dr. Cates:             Hi there. I’m Dr. Trevor Cates. Welcome to The Spa Dr. Podcast. On today’s podcast we’re talking about your self care. I recently did a self care prescription series and I want to share some highlights from that series because true healthcare starts with excellent self care. We often times are looking for a quick fix when it comes to healthcare and are quick to jump to medical interventions. But really when we talk about healthcare and what helps us feel great look great today and for years to come starts with your own self care. And there are certain aspects of self care that I find particularly important when it comes to a daily routine. And those include mindset, movement, food and skincare, your skincare routine. All of these are key for helping prevent and protect your health and prevent health issues down the road.

Dr. Cates:             So self care is oftentimes a last thing we prioritize, but it’s really one of the most important for our wellbeing. And if you’ve been viewing self care, something that selfish or that you don’t have time for, it’s time to look at it differently. So I encourage you to look at it differently because I know that a lot of times especially women will put other people’s needs first. They take care of other people, first children, spouses, parents, clients, even pets. But if you’re not taking care of yourself that it’s going to be hard to take care of other people and to truly show up fully in your life. And again we go back to your health and what is going to help you today and for years to come. So with my four self care prescriptions on mindset, food movement and skincare, I’m going to share with you today I recorded these as a four part video series and I’m going to share with you top takeaways from these videos in this series.

Dr. Cates:             I bust myths in separate fact from fiction around self-sabotaging behavior, thought patterns and lifestyle practices that just aren’t good for us. And then shifting our awareness into ones that actually do help kickstart a change and enhance your health and your skin. So first we covered positive mindset and stress management. Negative self talk is something we all do but it’s simply unproductive and unhealthy. It takes up way too much of our time and it adds to more stress and unmanaged chronic stress only holds us back and leads to another number of health issues including skin issues. So in my self care prescription, one video that I’m about to share with, I talk about how stress is impacting your health and a step by step self care prescription for today with specific examples to help you destress, unwind, refocus and shift into a more positive mindset.

Dr. Cates:             So in today’s podcast I’m sharing the part of the video that gives you a specific self care prescription to start today. So please enjoy self care prescription video number one. So here is the self care prescription that I’m recommending for you today calling this in for you. And this is, this is a four part prescription. The first part is, it might be, this is all, it might be a little bit new to you, but I want you to lean into this a little bit and give it a go. So for first part is looking at your skin as a positive magic mirror. You may have heard me talk about how skin is our magic mirror gives us great clues about our overall health. So I want to give you an opportunity to look at your skin as a positive magic mirror. So while we often beat yourself up over skin issues, I encourage you today to look at your skin differently.

Dr. Cates:             What messages, what secret messages is your skin trying to tell you about your health and your lifestyle before you start your skincare and beauty routine today? So before you put on any skin care products or makeup, I want you to take a close look in the mirror at your skin. And I want you to see what you notice. Is it dry? Is it oily, red, and inflamed? Is it splotchy dull you breaking out? Here’s the thing. Here’s this as really key. Avoid the temptation to criticize your skin or criticize yourself. No negative self talk here. Instead, we’re going to realize this as an opportunity to get information. Your skin is giving you valuable information. So Hey, let’s pay attention to it. So did you have these skin issues yesterday or last week? If not, maybe there’s something that you’re doing in your lifestyle that is contributing to this that think about your sleep, your eating, your skincare habits, what has changed.

Dr. Cates:             Or maybe you’re just more stressed lately and so you might be noticing you’re breaking out more, your skin is dull or dry or you might have dark circles and puffiness under your eyes. Your skin is trying to tell you something. So try and pay attention and you could use my book Clean Skin From Within to give you some of that information that messages or skin might be trying to tell you. If you haven’t taken the skin quiz. That’s another great way to find out your skin personality type and hone in on your root causes. So there’s some great valuable tools for you. So that’s the first step is paying attention to your skin and what it might be trying to tell you. So just start noticing. And if you don’t have the big aha moment yet, it might be that now’s when it starts.

Dr. Cates:             And when you start noticing your skin, so that down the road when your skin is either better or worse, then you have something to compare it to. And if you want to take a picture, you certainly can do that too. Again, the point is to not beat yourself up about what’s going on with your skin. Realize it’s giving you messages. So the second thing, the second part of this self care prescription is to, while you’re looking at the mirror, while you’re taking this time, give yourself a heartfelt compliment. Give your skin a heartfelt compliment. So do your best here. I know for some people this is a stretch, but so maybe you’re really good at this and you and you’ve have experience of that and you can look in the mirror and you can say you’re beautiful and you might be talking to yourself. It might be just focusing on your skin, talking to your skin, or you might start with something simple like thank you skin for giving me messages, I appreciate you. Just something simple like that. And if you feel really bold and you want to embrace this, and take this even a step bigger, get some lip liner, eyeliner, lipstick or something like that and write it on the mirror. Thank you. You’re beautiful. Whatever it is. So all day long when you go and you look back in the mirror, you’re seeing that message and maybe even stays up past today, but the idea is you’re giving your skin some positive feedback and some gratitude. The other thing is to tell your skin one thing you’ll do today to honor it. So it might be, you know, I really think this is a self honoring choice. So I see you’re telling me I need more sleep. So I promise to set up for our restorative nights sleep tonight. Or, skin, I know how hard I’ve been on you so I promise to make healthier choices starting today. So these are just a couple of ideas, but the idea is to tell your skin one thing that you commit to today to help it out. And if you’re talking to yourself or your skin, whatever works easiest for you. The idea is that we’re bringing in a positive and we’re creating a shift and that starts today. So the fourth part of this self care prescription series for today is to use a five to 10 minute stress management or mindfulness practice to incorporate into this and really anchor it in. And so I, in my book I talk about some of these and so I’m going to go through them there. Their examples are breathwork, gratitude, meditation, a relaxing bedtime ritual, and also the ability to just step into nature. So these are some examples. I’m going to go through each one so you know how to do that.

Dr. Cates:             And if you want to do all of them, that’s great. But I’m just asking you to take five minutes to do one of these. In addition to that are things that I just mentioned and it’s just really to anchor it in there. Pretty simple. And five minutes. I think we all probably have five minutes that we can spend doing this. After talking about mindset, it’s important to talk about nourishment.

Dr. Cates:             So next we have self care prescription number two nourishing foods. In the full video I covered the biggest dietary mistakes I’ve seen people make in my almost 20 years of seeing patients, the top five trigger foods and my favorite food in each of the top nourishing food categories in today’s podcast. Next I’m sharing your self care prescription for food to fully embrace the clean skin from within approach today. So please enjoy this video.

Dr. Cates:             So let’s now shift into talking about the best foods for your skin. I go in so much detail in my book, but I want to highlight my favorite of each of these different categories of food. I want to make sure you’re getting in every single day. So here are the most important things to be eating. Of course, vegetables are the top one. Vegetables are high in fiber, they’re high in phytonutrients. They’re high in a lot of the nutrients that we need for healthy skin and repair. Things like Vitamin C and so my, my favorite vegetable is broccoli. That’s, I’m going to give you an each one of these categories. My absolute favorite and so for this one is broccoli and broccoli or really any, any of the vegetables in the cruciferous vegetable family. So I think about Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, radishes, anything in the cruciferous brassica vegetable, family, they are high in indole three carbinol, sulforaphane and something called dim, all of these components help with and they have strong antioxidant properties and they help with liver detoxification, which we all need. And also there’s a, they can help boost with. They can give you a little boost of estrogen metabolism that can help with playing into too hormone balance, which is one of those big root causes. So I love that brassica vegetable family. I do recommend steaming in this family, uh, vegetables a lightly to help increase the nutrient absorption and especially for people with any thyroid issues. Then we’ll move in to any of those goitrogenic compounds in there. The second category of foods that I want you to make sure you’re getting is fruit. Now, it depends on your level of health and your blood sugar balances, how much fruit is best to consume, but really one to three servings of fruit a day and especially if you’re focusing on those low sugar content at like uh, berries for example, or pears and apples.

Dr. Cates:             They have a lower sugar content some than some of the other fruits like bananas and pineapple which have a higher sugar content. My favorite fruit, which you may not typically think of as a fruit are avocados. Avocados of course, low sugar content, and they have these great monounsaturated fat, so as good fats that help nourish your skin from the inside out. Also very high in antioxidants like polyphenols and vitamin E that help combat oxidative damage. Oxidative damage speeds up the aging process, so we want to do whatever we can slow that process down and when you get antioxidant rich foods, it helps with that. The third category is clean animal protein and I’m you want to get one to three servings a day of these. Now if you are vegetarian or vegan for philosophical reasons, then you can certainly look at substitutions for animal protein.

Dr. Cates:             But I do want to say that animal protein does provide a lot of nutrients for the skin that are really hard to get on a plant only diet. It’s not impossible, but it’s harder. I must admit, I have to work harder with my vegan patients, making sure that they have the nutrients they need because it’s hard to get every single nutrient we need from plants alone. There are certain ones like B12 and iron that are tough to get from plants. So I generally will recommend supplements like a, a B complex or B12 supplement for my vegan patients if they have philosophical reasons for not eating any meat or any animal protein. But when we look at meat, the problem is that a lot of times people overdo it. They eat too much of animal protein. It’s not sustainable for our planet and it’s not particularly healthy for our bodies.

Dr. Cates:             So we definitely want to take care of our planet. So eating just, you know, one to three servings of animal protein per day is sufficient for most people. Some people can even go a few days. I mean many people can go a few days without having any animal protein. So just look at your level of health and other nutrients you have in your diet as to how often and how much you need to eat. But when we eat protein, our body digestion breaks them down into amino acids. Amino acids, some of them are actually called essential because we could only get them through our diet and we need amino acids for repair and growth. And so we need them for healing, including our skin to keep it healing smooth from unhealthy aging gracefully. And then make sure you get really clean, sustainable sources of animal protein.

Dr. Cates:             That’s so important. If you can’t find clean than it is better to go vegetarian if you’re eating out, better to go vegetarian. If you can’t get grass fed, organic wild fish, then then choose more plant based protein sources like nuts and seeds and legumes because you can still get some of those important amino acids from things like nuts and seeds and legumes. So all of those, those amino acids also help with collagen production, with amino acids like arginine, glutamine, lysine and proline. These are helpful at building collagen. We need collagen for our body, for our skin and for other areas of our body to help, with graceful aging. And, and also, you know, just being healthy with our gut, our joints, all of that. My favorite animal protein is Wild Alaskan Salmon because it’s rich in Omega three which have anti-inflammatory benefits which is so important to have that for the skin. Also there it’s high in astaxanthin which studies have shown have sun protective benefits from the inside out and we get astaxanthin. You can also take astaxanthin Omega 3 as supplements, but you can also get them and the diet. Always opt for wild when it comes to salmon, farm salmon does not have the same kind of benefits and has more environmental contaminants. The next category is nuts and seeds. I want you to try and get one to two servings a day. They possess essential fatty acids, minerals, vitamin E and protein. My favorite nut is coconut, so you can enjoy the whole cook, coconut water, milk, the meat, the oil, all of that are fantastic. Coconut contains lauric acid, which has immune boosting benefits and that’s also great for the skin.

Dr. Cates:             The next category is legumes those are beans and peas. I want you to aim for one to three servings a day and legumes and beans and peas they contain important nutrients. Fiber and protein also help with blood sugar balance. All of these are great for helping it be a skin nourishing food. My favorite legumes are black beans because that colorful like colorful bean means they’re rich and antioxidant. If you’re not typically a bean person, then you might want to look for peas because those are a nice close second for my favorite. Other important foods that I talk about in my book are fermented veggies, healthy oils, herbs and spices. So check that out, Clean Skin From Within and got a book at TheSpadr.com to get a copy.

Dr. Cates:             After getting a handle on the foods that nourish your body inside from the inside out next I’m going to share with you self care prescription three which is movement in the full video I cover how exercise benefits your skin and your body, which types are most beneficial, how often, and what research shows versus what might simply just be a myth because those are certainly a lot of myths out there. In this podcast and this clip of the video I’m about to show you, I walk you through step by step how to care for your skin before, during, and after exercise, including specific suggestions for your unique skin concerns. So please enjoy this video.

Dr. Cates:             I want to give you some tips on taking care of your skin while you exercise that will help you get the benefits of the perspiration but not the down side of them. Because the problem that occurs with perspiration is more having to do with whats combined with whats in your sweat. So here’s some tips before, during and after exercise. The first thing is take off all your makeup. You can leave your mascara on, your eye makeup if you need to if you want to that should’t impact your skin but all that foundation the coverup just take all of that off because its just going to block your pores and impair your bodies ability to perspire which is really healthy. Also when your makeup combines with the sweat thats when your skin microbiome can get out of balance. So really important to take off that makeup. Now after you take off your makeup if you still need some hydration if you have dry skin go ahead and apply some moisturizer, you could use The Spa Dr.’s Steps 2, 3 maybe even a little bit of Step 4 before you exercise.

Dr. Cates:             If you have oilier skin, you want to stick to light serums and light moisturizers before you work out and if you’re going out in the sun, make sure that after that you apply your zinc oxide based sunscreen and put on your hat and do all that good cover-up stuff. The third thing, actually, I guess it would be the fourth thing if you’re applying sunscreen, is to when you’re working out and you’re sweating is to pat your the sweat off at the towel if you feel like you’re perspiring a lot. If you feel like you have light perspiration, you don’t really need to do this, but if maybe you’re at hot yoga class or you’re doing a really intense workout and you feel like, or you’re one of those people that sweats a lot more than other people, that’s a healthy thing, that’s all good, but just use patting instead of rubbing your skin because that rubbing can actually irritate your skin, especially if you’re prone to breaking out or if you’re prone to rosacea or eczema, some of the common skin issues. Then you really want to look at patting your skin rather than rubbing it. The next thing is keep your hair off your face while you’re exercising, and so if you need to wear a hairband or however you need to pull your hair off your face, especially if you tend to break out around your hairline and acne, then you want to make sure that you’re keeping your hair off your face. And the next thing is after you work out to take a shower and change your clothes after exercising. This is particularly important again, if you tend to to break out in acne, then that can make sure that your skin is clean.

Dr. Cates:             Make sure you’re using a really good cleanser that doesn’t strip your skin, but actually cleanses while hydrating and protecting the barrier function of your skin. So of course at The Spa Dr. we have a facial cleanser as well as body cleanser products coming that will help keep your skin and that and that nice balance to help protect your skin microbiome.

Dr. Cates:             The next thing is to give your skin a chance to cool down before applying makeup. If you’re going to be going, if you’re working out, maybe you’re going to the gym and then you’re going to go back to work. You want to put makeup back on, by the way, I think you look beautiful without makeup I don’t think you need it, but if you do want to wear makeup then give your skin a chance to cool down that pinkness to subside, perspiration to have to finish off before your player makeup. Just so you’re not creating more imbalances in the skin microbiome, that delicate balance of bacteria and microorganisms that are actually trying to protect your skin and keep it healthy. The next thing is, um, if you use hairbands or you’re wearing a hat when you exercise to wash them often because that can also disrupt the skin microbiome or make you more prone to breakout if you have that, especially the Olivia skin types. The last recommendation I have is more of, on a weekly basis and that is exfoliating your skin and you could use the our Pearl and Rose Pedal Facial Exfoliant you could use that once or twice a week, making sure that your skin cells are turning over properly and you’ve got that nice healthy glow in your skin can perspire the way it’s supposed to.

Dr. Cates:             Okay, so I have a few tips for specific skin issues. Acne, rotation, eczema, because these are the most common skin issues. Exercise does not cause acne. So I want you to make sure that you understand that exercise does not cause acne, but it can trigger acne if you’re not cleaning your skin properly. You’re not caring for your skin. So make sure you follow the tips that I just mentioned because it’s really when the sebum and your skin that oils in your skin mix us with dust, makeup or other impurities in the skin, that’s when it becomes a problem. You also might want to consider Chinese medicine and therapeutic exercise like Tai-Chi. I’ve seen some good results with some of my patients. Rosacea, if you have rosacea, your skin tends to be inflamed and heavy exercise, intense exercise, hot yoga, those sorts of things, especially if you’re doing exercise and you’ve got a heat component to it like sun or hot yoga or you also could expose to intense cold or wind.

Dr. Cates:             Those can be a combination for making rosacea worsen, so just use caution when you have those weather or temperature elements is to maybe tone it down a little bit with the exercise. Maybe do something more mild or moderate rather than a high intensity workout. Also, if you’re in a in times of emotional stress or you’ve been eating some spicy food, that could also be a time when you might wanna ramp up too much exercise and stick with more mild to moderate exercise and watch your body temperature because that could trigger rosacea. Hot steam and hot yoga, again, those could be irritating for you so just use caution and I’m not saying that you can never do that. Hey, I do those things. I to have a tendency to rosacea, but as long as I’m eating the right foods, eating a healthy diet and being mindful, you won’t have a problem, I don’t have a problem. And also be mindful of wearing some sunscreen too when you go out in the sun just to protect your skin. Eczema there is actually there’s sort of a myth out there that eczema is worsened by exercise. But when you look at the research and when you look at it conclusively, if you look at all of the studies compared to each other and you look at it, there’s really no conclusive evidence that eczema, the exercise alone worsens eczema, the studies that showed a negative correlation between exercise and eczema, have more to do with the fact that people were outside. And so environmental allergens may have been a triggering factor for the eczema worsening. So something to think about. Now I’m not saying that you know, it’s not an issue for you, but certainly with all of this you want to be in touch with your own body.

Dr. Cates:             Every single one of us is different. So know your unique triggers and oftentimes triggers like exercise, if it does appear to be a trigger for you, it’s oftentimes in combination with something else. So if you’re noticing it’s at like this time of year you might notice that your allergies are worse so you might be triggered more easily. So just pay attention to your body and what you’re noticing. Last but definitely not least is about nourishment on the outside, on your skin.

Dr. Cates:             So self care prescription four is on skincare in the full video I start by common skin myths. We’ve heard them all right, so there’s so many of them. Then I move into the three keys for truly nourishing, effective skincare. Then I walk you step by step through your self care prescription for your skin. I think you’ll enjoy this video clip because it takes you through your senses as well. So not only your skin will love us, but it’s truly embracing self care and a self honoring practice.

Dr. Cates:             A daily ritual helps awaken your skin in the morning and restores your skin while you’re sleeping. So here are the steps in your daily routine that I recommend. The first is to cleanse in the morning. So you want to remove that perspiration and balance oils and microbiome of your skin, the micro organism of your skin. And then at night you want to have a cleanser that removes any makeup, debris, sweat, dirt, pollution residue from the day. And while it should effectively clean your skin, here’s a key. It should not strip your skin of its beneficial oils or disturb that natural pH. This is the problem with a lot of cleansers. When you feel your skin is squeaky clean and we’ve been trained to think that that’s what it’s supposed to feel like.

Dr. Cates:             But unfortunately that’s actually not healthy feeling because when it’s squeaky clean, you’ve stripped your skin, you remove the beneficial oils and your skin, your pH of your skincare products, those foamy cleansers is probably too high. So what we want is our products to clean but not strip, we want it to still hydrate. And the second thing, second step you want to make is to nourish your skin with a serum. I like serums because they, they absorb easily into the skin. It’s a great way to get antioxidants and other nutrients to help nourish and protect your skin. So you want to do this in the morning to revitalize your skin and prepare your skin at night again for a restorative sleep and opportunities for your skin repair at night. And if you do have a good cleanser, you will not need a toner. A lot of things people ask me about toners, I don’t find that they’re necessary, if you have a good cleanser and you have a good serum.

Dr. Cates:             And then you want to moisturize your skin both morning and night, to help hydrate and plump up your skin, it’s not really, you don’t want it to strip your skin, you want to help. You really don’t want to do that and you want it to hydrate and balance your skin. So many moisturizer just simply sit on the surface and make you glow and then you wash it off and you losing all those great benefits. So instead look for ingredients, look for products that have plant-based oils like sea buckthorn fruit oil, argon oil, pomegranate fruit oil, some of these are great combination oils to use. My skin care products we offer a moisturizer for all skin types and then we have a fourth step called our Glow Boost and is a plant based oil blend that adds extra hydration, particularly great for evenings.

Dr. Cates:             The last step in your skincare routine is to protect. This is for the mornings or anytime you’re getting ready to go out into the sun, you want to make sure you’re using an SPF sunscreen made with zinc oxide. Make sure it’s free of any harmful ingredients like oxybenzone. And any weekly additions might include exfoliation is another important step a part of your routine, but that could be weekly or maybe twice a week. That gentle exfoliation helps get rid of the dead skin cells and it helps enhance the effectiveness of your daily skincare routine. You also might want to consider masks, purifying masks and other treatments to address other skin issues and to help kind of give your skin a little reboot.

Dr. Cates:             Okay, so that’s the skin care routine. Now I have something to take it up a notch. This is a self care pampering ritual that I want, this is your skincare prescription for today and I’m going to walk you through this self care pampering ritual for your skincare routine. And so as you do your skincare routine today, I encourage you to follow this and it’s about embracing all of your senses. This takes your self care of your skincare routine to a whole new level. The first thing is your sense of smell. Notice the sense of smell enjoy, the sense your olfactory experience of using your skin care products. Notice the essential oils or the natural ingredients in the products. Even if it’s unscented, natural products will have a scent, those natural ingredients will have a scent. So to really take in the sense, close your eyes and take a few moments to enjoy those smells. Notice that appreciate the healing powers of nature and the lack of any synthetic fragrance that is unhealthy for your skin as well as your body.

Dr. Cates:             The second thing is to take in your sense of touch. What do your skincare products feel like? Enjoy the luxurious feel and touch, the hydrating, the soothing, the nourishing ingredients, and each step of your routine plays a role, the cleansing without stripping your skin. Then the nourishing and hydrating, replenishing ingredients or rebalancing formulas. The third is what you see. Appreciate your skin when you put the products on. Notice how it glistens and glows from all the cleansing, moisturizing ingredients. And then finally, what do you hear, take a moment to listen again, close your eyes so you can truly hear what’s going on around you. Maybe you hear the sounds of the water trickling from the faucet or if have the window open, you can catch us on of a bird or the wind in the trees. Or you can play some soothing music while you’re doing your skincare routine, so you can really take in the sounds and relish the moment. For morning routines, this is your opportunity to set the tone for the day embrace this as a self care ritual. And for evening it’s a chance to unwind, relax, and get a sense of peace and calm healing time for restorative night’s sleep. This is your time. This is your opportunity to truly show this as a self honoring choice. And after you’ve taken in your senses of your self care, skincare ritual, notice how you feel and an excellent nourishing skin care routine can really help feed your not on your skin, but your soul and help relax your mind. So remember, this is your time to connect and to also express some gratitude. You can thank your skin, thank your body or think something that happened throughout the day that you’re grateful for. The key with self care is consistency.

Dr. Cates:             Doing this on a daily basis, I’ve been giving, sharing you with you self care prescriptions but you want to do things that nourish your body, helps support you on a day to day basis, find your self care rituals that you can sustain. So I hope you’ve enjoyed this video of self care prescription and the other videos of the self care prescription series and that you find time to do these as a self honoring choice for you.

Dr. Cates:             I hope you enjoyed the clips of these four videos of the self care prescription series and you’ll start using these self care practices today to help you look and feel your best today and for years to come. And I hope this gives your confidence a little boost because after all, that’s where true beauty, real beauty comes from that inner radiance and confidence. And self care truly nourishes you, helps set you up for successfully achieving that.

Dr. Cates:             If you want to catch the full versions of each video from the self care prescription series, then you can go to The Spa Dr. YouTube channel. That’s where you can find each one of these four videos, the full versions. You can also find them in my blog at thespadr.com/Blog. I wrote a blog about each one of these self care prescriptions and if you’re not sure which skin personality type you are, then you can go to theskinquiz.com this is really helpful information to help you customize your self care and your approach to addressing the root cause behind your skin issues. So you can go to theskinquiz.com and then I encourage you to go grab a copy of my book Clean Skin From Within at book.thespadr.com, that’s where you can find it.

Dr. Cates:             You can get a free copy, just pay the shipping and handling to get it to you. And that way you’ll get the full two week plan to help you with your self care and to help you with having that healthy, glowing skin from the inside out. And you’re welcome to join the Clean Skin From Within Natural Beauty and Skincare Tips Facebook group. This is a Facebook group that Clean Skin From Within Facebook group is a great, if you have my book and you’re doing the program you want support, or if you’re just looking for some natural beauty and skincare tips, you can join us there. So again, you can find that on Facebook. Hope to see you in the Facebook group and I’ll see you next time on The Spa Dr. Podcast.