Introduction
Beauty is more than skin deep.
- Old saying
What woman, whether young or mature, whether she enjoys makeup or prefers a truly natural look, does not want to have beautiful, radiant, youthful, and healthy-looking skin? Whether you follow an intricate beauty regimen that includes cleansing, moisturizing, clay packs, exfoliation, and carefully applied makeup, or just perform the simplest skin care-cleansing, a bit of moisturizer and sunscreen, and you're out the door-you want your skin to reflect your real beauty, and you believe that it is worth putting time, attention, hopes, and money into accomplishing this.
This book offers a new approach to caring for your skin, one that addresses what goes on inside you in order to bring forth the most glowing, clear, healthy skin on your outside. As you will find out to your great benefit and delight, a beautiful face means beautiful skin. And getting beautiful skin is truly an inside-out process. Looking better, feeling better, having more confidence, and causing your exterior to reflect your beautiful interior (and vice versa) is what this book is all about.
This is good news, considering the huge amounts of money, time, attention, and, yes, worry that women tend to spend in order to have beautiful, clear, acne- and wrinkle-free skin. Nobody wants to look like they're aging. Pick up almost any glossy magazine (especially a fashion magazine) and you will see a good 10 percent of the pages are taken up by ads for skin-care products that promise antiaging and anti-acne miracles. Turn on the TV and, while watching your favorite shows, count the number of commercials for skin-care products that claim to be able to make you look like the models who are using them. Go to any department store or skin-care boutique and note the enormous number and variety of skin-care products, each claiming a different, much-needed, and alluring result and offering a bewildering choice of what to buy, for what purpose, with what ingredients, and at what price (sometimes the higher the price, the greater the allure). Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on lotions, creams, and coatings to be applied to the surface (the dead part) of the skin. Many of these concoctions do a wonderful job of smoothing out wrinkles and giving the appearance of younger, healthier skin. The illusion of healthier skin, however, rapidly fades when the beauty cream wears off-not to mention that none of these products can help you feel better in terms of energy levels or emotional outlook. Then there are the nontopical solutions: injections such as Botox, offering a blank screen of a face to women who may feel pressured by the media, their peers, and the fear of no longer having a presence in the culture if a smile line graces their face. The most invasive solution is plastic surgery. It may produce a dramatically new look on the outside, but it costs-in money, in time required to heal, in the potential need for repeat treatments over the years, and in the unexpected gap between "I look so great on the outside, how come I don't feel different on the inside?"
The road to beautiful, healthy, glowing, youthful skin is far easier and effective than all this. Why not beautify your skin from the inside? Clearing up problem skin and reversing the aging process don't require spending a small (or large) fortune. You can depend on yourself and work with what's inside you rather than being at the mercy of external products and processes. Simply knowing about four basic aspects of how your body works and giving them what they need to function optimally-a program I call FACE-will free you from unwanted outside influences, put much of your money back in your pocket, and give you the most beautiful skin you've ever had. And if this weren't enough, following my FACE program will also help you lose weight, gain energy, live a more relaxed and happy life, and develop a way of eating that's as close to you, and as natural, as the palm of your hand.
What's the secret to this "magic"? It is understanding cortisol control and the beauty connection and then, taking appropriate action.
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