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Okay, CrossFit athletes and sprinters, this one’s for you. As you saw in the section on body composition, your biggest fibers are your type I fibers, which can help you run a fast 10-K but don’t necessarily chip in much for kipping pullups or suicide drills on the soccer field. But that’s not to say you can’t build your type II fibers through strength training. You most certainly can.

With training, you can honestly get nearly as strong as a man, relatively speaking. For example, when researchers pitted 52 young men against 50 young women in max power tests on a stationary bike, the men frankly smoked the women—generating about 50 percent greater peak power. But the men were significantly heavier. When the researchers looked at how much power they could produce per kilogram of body weight, the difference dropped dramatically to 15 percent. Taking that one step further, when power outputs were adjusted for fat-free mass, the values plummeted to a 2.5 percent difference, or not statistically different—a pretty even match.

Just as is the case in the cardio realm, the strongest, most powerful woman will not out bench press or win a 100-yard dash against the strongest, most powerful man. But there are certainly plenty of women who can outperform and who are stronger than plenty of men. We are every bit as trainable. Even if we get less absolute hypertrophy (muscle growth and an increase in the size of muscle cells) through training than men, research shows that when women and men train equally, their relative strength and hypertrophy gains are pretty much the same.

Which brings me to the elephant that may be sitting in your room. Can women get bulky from strength training? Everyone says no, but then you read plenty of articles in women’s magazines that caution against too much muscle-building activity so you don’t get fat (never mind the fact that muscle isn’t fat). Case in point, an article came out a couple years back in Harper’s Bazaar titled “Is Spinning Making You Fat? A growing number of indoor-cycling devotees are abandoning the bike, convinced it’s making their backsides bigger.” Yep. It goes on to quote a celebrity trainer who forbids his fashion-model clients to ride at all, lest their lower bodies get too big. Sigh.

So what’s the truth? Yes, heavy resistance training in the gym or on a spin bike can make your muscles bigger. Have you seen track racers? Their quads are not small. They are powerful and yes, often large. That’s from heavy, hard work in the gym and pushing a monster gear on the bike. It’s the same for CrossFit enthusiasts, rowers, sprinters, and everyone else who trains for maximum strength. These women are generally not one bit bothered by the size of their muscles, because those muscles enable them to do the work and compete at the level they want.
Hypertrophy is what gives you nice muscle tone. That said, if you’re truly averse to larger muscles, you can still train to get strong without gaining unwanted mass. And in fact, as a woman, you might have an advantage there. Neural mechanisms (mind-muscle connections) are actually more important for women’s adaptations to strength training than they are for men’s. So by doing power moves and low-rep, high-weight strength training, you enhance the number of fibers recruited for a contraction but don’t really grow the size of your muscles very much. The short of it is that you end up with a stronger, more powerful contraction with less muscle bulk.

As you’ll see, there are many ways to get the strength and power you want and need without gaining mass. But please, don’t be afraid of a little muscle. Strong, as they say, is the new sexy. It’s also plain smart, because as you get older and start losing precious lean muscle tissue, you’ll be happy for all you kept in reserve!

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     Whether you run marathons, cycle gran fondos, compete in triathlons, or just exercise to stay fit and healthy, training works similarly for both sexes. As you train longer and harder, you get fitter. Your body can deliver and use more oxygen (that’s your max VO2); you can push the pace to a higher point before your muscles scream uncle (that’s your lactate threshold talking); you become stronger and leaner (building muscle, burning fat); and your performance improves.


     But that open-water swimming example aside, pound for pound, men still generally outrun, outwalk, and outcycle us. Female world records from the 800 meter to the marathon are about 11 percent slower than those held by men.

     Why? Well, for the same reason that a Prius will have to pull some wily moves if it wants to race against a Mustang—we start with a smaller engine. As a woman, you have a smaller heart, smaller heart volume, smaller lungs (25 to 30 percent less capacity than men), and lower diastolic pressure (the pressure in the arteries when the heart is resting between beats and the ventricles fill with blood), which predisposes us to have lower maximum heart rates and greater problems with dehydration in the heat. This also means we pump out less oxygenated blood with every beat—about 30 percent less cardiac output than men.

     Less oxygenated blood means we have to breathe more often, and as a consequence, our respiratory muscles—such as the diaphragm and intercostals between our ribs—need to work harder and use a lot of energy. Like other skeletal muscles, the contracting respiratory muscles require enough bloodflow to meet oxygen demand. If you have a greater oxygen cost of breathing, you also likely dedicate a greater amount of bloodflow toward your respiratory muscles during maximal exercise. When you push the pace and breathe hard, it can be difficult to race against the guys because less bloodflow is going to your legs.

     Testosterone also gives men a bit of an edge because the male sex hormone increases the production of red blood cells, which absorb and carry oxygen to working muscles. On average, men have 6 percent more red blood cells and 10 to 15 percent more hemoglobin (which is the molecule in red blood cells that carries the oxygen) concentration than women.
Our combined smaller heart and lungs and lower oxygen-carrying capacity means we have a lower max VO2 (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use to make fuel) than men, about 15 to 25 percent lower on average, as shown in the chart below. So if two athletes are doing the same amount of work, the woman will have a higher heart rate and need more oxygen to get the job done.
Because of our hormones, we also use energy differently during aerobic exercise. We’ll get into this in much greater detail in the following chapters, but in general, because of our high estrogen levels, we rely less on carbs and more on fat than our male counterparts. That sounds like a good thing, and in some ways it is, since fat is the main fuel for aerobic exercise. But it’s not such a good thing when we need to go really hard, because that tendency to spare glycogen (which is really strong during the high-hormone phase of your menstrual cycle right before your period) can make it harder to hit high intensities. We really need those carbs to fuel the anaerobic energy system when we push past our threshold. If you’re running low on carbs in your bloodstream, it may mean slamming on the brakes instead of hitting the gas because your body just can’t get the glycogen stores it needs to make the energy you want.

     Speaking of energy, because men have bigger type II fibers and the energy-producing enzymes that go with them, they have a higher glycolytic capacity than women, which is a fancy way of saying that they can burn through more glucose in the absence of oxygen. That helps them outperform us in short-intense bursts of effort, but it also means they accumulate more lactate (a chemical your body makes and uses for energy during very high-intensity efforts; accumulating more than you can use leads to muscle acidity or “the burn” and forces you to slow down) and need longer recovery time for all-out efforts. Women, on the other hand, have a greater advantage in the endurance world, as our type I fibers are much more efficient at using fat as fuel and sparing glucose.

     Finally, women are also more likely to sweat out excess amounts of sodium and are more likely to eat into their muscles for energy. We also have a harder time rebuilding and repairing those muscles after exercise during the high-hormone premenstrual time in the cycle when progesterone levels are high.

     What’s a woman to do? Well, let’s go back to that wily Prius for a moment. Sure, that Mustang is going to beat her in a drag race. Maybe even in a race across New Jersey. But that efficient little vehicle will hum along much longer on less fuel and may even beat the high-horsepower vehicle in the long run.

   
On the pointy end of the field where the very elite athletes are, the fastest woman probably won’t ever break the tape in front of the fastest man because they are too close in body size (top marathoners—male and female—often weigh within 5 pounds of each other). But for the rest of us, it means hanging with and passing or “chicking” the dudes is very much in the realm of possibility, so long as we know and work with our unique physiology. In this case, it’s a matter of building up your plasma (the watery part of your blood) volume through training and feeding your body what it needs to keep your metabolism humming, which we’ll cover in great depth in the chapters to come.
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ALL THE PHYSIOLOGICAL STUFF THAT MAKES YOU “LIKE A GIRL”
You “throw like a girl.” The “like a girl” insult is so ubiquitous, such a strong underlying current in our culture, that a maker of feminine hygiene products took it head-on with the #LikeAGirl campaign, which turns the insult into an inspirational compliment.

Look, I’m not one to sugarcoat anything, so I’ll give it to you straight. Yes, in head-to-head objective physical performance comparisons, women have some disadvantages. We also have some distinct advantages, but you never hear about those. So let’s set the stage here with a complete look at your female physiology in action.

SUGAR AND SPICE AND EVERYTHING NICE: WHAT WE’RE REALLY MADE OF
No surprise: Women tend to be smaller and lighter and have a higher portion of body fat (hello breasts, hips, and all things childbearing!) than men. But dig a little deeper and the comparisons become more interesting and revealing.

First, let’s talk about body mass and how it’s distributed. Our mass is the stuff we’re made of, which everyone commonly refers to as weight—the number you see on the scale. That’s not exactly accurate. For one, technically weight is determined by gravitational pull, so you’d weigh less on the moon and far more on Jupiter, but that’s being picky. The more important factor is that the number you see on the scale—your weight—fluctuates widely depending on fluid intake, what you’ve eaten during the day, salt intake, and how much glycogen you’re storing in your muscles (for every 1 gram of glycogen, you store 3 grams of water; as you get fitter, you become better at glycogen storage, so before a big event, you can gain  or more pounds that you will blow through during your event, but you haven’t gained or lost any fat). Body mass, by contrast, is the actual stuff you’re made of—bone, muscle, fat, and organs—which requires tissue loss or gain and is harder to change.

We’ll cover bones  , because a strong skeleton is essential for vibrant living, and women’s bones are vulnerable to getting brittle. For now, however, let’s focus on muscle and fat.

When researchers take core needles and pull out a column of muscle tissue from the designated muscle of interest (usually the shoulder, biceps, or quadriceps) of men and women, what they find might surprise you. There’s not much difference. Men and women generally have the same muscle composition as far as the percentage of type I endurance (aerobic) fibers and type II power (anaerobic) fibers. What is different is that the largest fibers in women’s bodies tend to be type I endurance fibers, while in men the type II power fibers take up the lion’s share of real estate.
Since type II fibers are used to hoist barbells and push broken-down cars to the roadside, it’s not surprising that in head-to-head strength comparisons, women fall a bit short. Studies show that women are about 2 percent as strong as men in their upper bodies and 66 percent as strong as men in their lower bodies. In well-muscled women, those strength differences evaporate a bit. When you look at sheer strength relative to lean body mass, a trained woman’s strength shoots up to 70 and 80 percent as strong as men in the arms and legs respectively. Still less powerful, but definitely closer.

Women give men more of a run for their money in the leg-press department because we tend to carry most of our lean muscle tissue below the waist. This is also why women’s-specific bikes are designed with geometry that balances our center of gravity over the bottom bracket (where the pedal cranks are attached). Our power comes from our hips and legs.

Then there’s fat, which is still a four-letter word for most athletes I work with, even though you can’t train, race, or even live without it. Most of us think of fat as the stuffing we see under our skin (usually in places where we don’t want to see it). That’s our storage fat. Those are energy reserves we accumulate. That fat also acts as padding and generates key hormones such as adiponectin that regulate insulin (the hormone that helps your body use and store blood sugar). We need some, but not an abundance of, storage fat to perform our best. Most of the fat you don’t see in the mirror is essential body fat, which is in your nerves, bone marrow, and organs. Essential fat in men is about 4 percent, but in women, it is about 12 percent (because we are designed to reproduce!). As a woman, your breasts are also largely fatty tissue.

How much fat either men or women carry depends largely on lifestyle, but you can’t dismiss the fact that there are also very distinct body types. For instance, there are people who are simply endomorphs. They tend to be larger, and they carry more body fat. On the other end of the scale are the wispy ectomorphs, who are naturally slim. And in the middle are mesomorphs, who tend to be lean and naturally muscular. You can also be a blend of the two; for example, a mesomorph with endomorph tendencies. How active you are and the type of activity you do can impact the dominance of one body type over another. Your physical activity directly affects your body-fat levels and distribution.

We’ll delve into the topic of body composition in great depth  , but generally speaking, healthy body fat ranges span from 12 to 30 percent in women and  to 2 percent in men.
In the athletic world, muscle is usually prized, while fat is shunned. As I see it, however, what you’re made of is important, but more important is the impact of what you’re made of on what you do and/or want to do. Take two cyclists, for instance. A man may have big pectorals (pecs) and biceps, but those heavy upper-body muscles will only weigh him down when faced with a 10 percent climb. A woman who is lighter in the torso but still powerful in the hips and legs will have a far easier time pedaling her way up the mountain.

Likewise, women often dominate in the sport of open-water swimming. According to Open Water Source, female swimmers often perform better than their male counterparts, especially as the swims get longer. In fact, the average time for women in the Catalina Channel swim—an arduous 20-mile swim from the Southern California coast to Catalina Island—is 7 minutes faster than the average time for men. What’s more, women hold the overall records in both directions—mainland to island and island to mainland. (In 176, Penny Dean set the record from mainland to Catalina in 7:1:, and Karen Burton set the record from Catalina to mainland in 7:37:31 in 14.)

And let’s not forget that in 2013 Diana Nyad became the first person ever to swim the 110.86 miles between Cuba and Florida in a mind-boggling 2 hours and 4 minutes. Fat is more buoyant than muscle, so that extra padding may be a distinct advantage in the open water.
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It’s hard to conceptualize all the toxic chemicals that are in our skin-care products. When a product comes in a beautiful tube and is labeled “organic oat honey and lavender body butter,” it can be easy to think that it’s good for us. The front of the label is often used to sell us what the brand thinks we want to hear, or what we’re meant to believe, so we slather away unknowingly. When we look closer and read the actual ingredients, sadly we can see the all-natural and organic branding is not the real story. If we were given the same chemicals contained in that lotion in a shot glass, would we drink it? By taking control of what’s in our products, we can swap out toxic chemicals in favor of ingredients that are beneficial to our skin and our overall health.

1. You’ll save money. Walk into Sephora or Nordstrom, and you’re bound to find “luxury” body scrubs selling for $30, $50, or even $70. A lot of those scrubs include a lengthy list of toxic chemicals on their label, which can cause skin damage. On the flipside, the scrub recipes in this book contain ingredients you might have at home or can easily buy in the grocery store and use for cooking, too. Pick up some avocado oil for the Basic Body Oil (here), and I bet you’ll use it to dress salads as well. Mix a few of these oils to make a versatile body oil, stir in some used coffee grounds (they’re more effective than unused ones), and add a little sea salt. You’ll have a powerful cellulite-eliminating scrub that will save you a lot of money, and not take a lot of time.

2. You control the quality. Would you rather cook with a fresh, sweet, vine-ripened tomato or a canned one? How about indulging in store-bought cookies or warm chewy cookies from the oven? The same is true with skin-care products. A commercial product might tout certain ingredients on its label, but it’s hard to know if they used a high-end, organic, and fresh version of the ingredients, or an old or cheaper version. And without having access to their formula you can’t know how much of this ingredient is actually contained within the product. When you’re making your products at home, you’re in charge of everything that goes into the jar and in what quantities.

3. You’ll know the products are at their peak. The longer a product sits on the store shelf, the less effective it will be. When you’re creating your own products, you’ll know exactly when it was packaged and how long it should ll (g it shast. Ingredients have an expiration date, and if you use them when they’re fresh, you can use less and get more out of them.
4. You’ll be helping the environment. Mass-produced body products contribute to pollution with chemicals when they’re being manufactured and are then packaged in plastic and, oftentimes, boxed up in cardboard. A large number of these products will go unused or wind up down the drain when you wash them off, further adding to their toxic effect on the environment. I call it the triple threat. First, during manufacturing, the chemicals pollute the environment, then they pollute our bodies when we use them, and finally, they pollute the environment again when they go down the drain.


5. You can make DIY products into great gifts. When my daughters were school-aged, we loved to make bath bombs and scrubs for their friends and teachers. It was amazing to me how in demand our homemade products became around holiday time. Everyone appreciates a gift made from the heart, and natural beauty products really show the love.


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THE SKIN YOU’RE IN

Skin is amazing. It is our largest organ, covering about 18–22 square feet of the average-size adult. Our skin literally holds us together and provides a barrier between our insides and the outside world. It’s the first line of defense against pollutants, illness, and disease, making the health of your skin a priority for overall health. While it does protect us, skin also absorbs what it’s exposed to into the bloodstream—like some of the toxic ingredients in skin-care products. That’s why healthy skin is so essential for looking and feeling great.

The outer layer of skin, called the epidermis, is continually replacing itself with cells from the layer beneath it. This process is one of the key elements to keeping skin looking youthful. As we age, the renewal process slows, but it doesn’t stop. We can help it along. For example, exfoliating daily with a good cleanser can enhance cell turnover and help maintain our skin’s youthfulness. Unfortunately, in our sometimes crazy-busy lives, we often put daily skin matters at the bottom of our to-do lists. However, small steps each day can have a profound effect on keeping pores clear and restoring vitality to tired skin. Proper care can keep our skin healthier longer and slow the skin-damaging effects of the aging process.
When we scan the beauty aisle in search of products to help our skin, we may come across lots of lotions claiming to be the latest miracle in a jar. These products are often loaded with chemicals that may actually cause skin to age faster or exacerbate the problems they claim to fix. Magazine ads, featuring celebrities who never seem to age, urge us to run out and buy whatever cream promises to take 20 years off our skin—just like it did for the (photoshopped) spokesperson!
I’ve built my career on the fact that natural products can keep skin looking amazing, and even I occasionally get tempted to buy into the outlandish sales pitch. But I do know that these products and images aren’t what they seem. This is just a reminder of how persistent and powerful these misleading messages can be.

I’m not claiming that a natural skin-care routine (or any skin-care routine, for that matter) can stop time—and nor would I want it to. Our laugh lines and wrinkles are signs of experience and part of the natural and inevitable process of aging. I love sharing what I know with my clients and helping them set realistic goals to find a routine that works for them. It’s my hope that the advice and recipes in this book will empower you with the natural tips and tricks estheticians use, allowing you to create products and habits that garner the results you’re seeking.


SKIN TYPES

Our skin can be a mirror for what’s going on inside our bodies and can also reflect what it’s exposed to in our environment. I’ve found that most of my clients have accurately assessed their skin type, and you likely have as well. While I find most self-assessments to be fairly accurate, I do have to remind people that skin type isn’t a permanent marriage. It can change as we age or even over the course of a few months. Some women have dry skin for most of their lives, and then staodu and thrt to get a few oily patches here and there. Or some may relocate, and their new environments leave once-oily skin feeling parched. Being open to the fact that skin type can shift can help you adapt if changes occur. Sometimes skin can seem as unpredictable as life itself. Nevertheless, knowing your current skin type will help you create DIY products that will work best for you.

NORMAL

Normal skin is neither overly dry nor overly oily. Women with normal skin still deal with environ mental concerns (like sun protection and air pollution), the occasional breakout, or normal aging. Even “normal” skin has issues that need attention. However, I often see people with normal skin reaching for products that are not appropriate for their needs. If you have a few blemishes, you don’t need to switch to an entire acne-fighting regimen. You can simply spot treat the blemishes until they disappear.
I always encourage women to use products with active ingredients only if they need it; for example, when I see women in their twenties with beautiful, youthful skin applying a high-powered anti-wrinkle cream, I explain that they don’t need these ingredients just yet. It’s kind of like taking antibiotics when you’re not sick. Not only won’t the antibiotics work, but it’s also possible to build a resistance to them. Skin can work the same way, so if we’re using strong ingredients too soon, they may be less effective when we actually need them. With normal skin, the best strategy is to maintain healthy habits to preserve skin’s youthfulness by protecting it from damage, spot treating problem areas, and restoring luster as needed.

DRY

Dry skin can exhibit slight scaliness, flakes, tightness, or be ashy, red, or rough. Dryness can result when the skin is lacking fluids (dehydration) or oils (moisture). You need a balance of both fluid and oil to have properly hydrated skin. There are many factors that contribute to dry skin—from constant exposure to low humidity, air conditioning, and heating in office buildings and homes to chemicals in skin-care products. Given that we’re all exposed to some of these drying elements, there are steps everyone can take to help protect the skin from these agents, such as washing your face with lukewarm water (as opposed to hot), eating foods with omega-3 fatty acids (like flaxseed and nuts), and limiting dehydrating foods (like caffeine and alcohol).
Some skin-care products that aim to treat dry skin are filled with dehydrating chemicals or lack necessary ingredients for transdermal penetration (a substance’s ability to get into your skin). This means that even though some women are regularly applying moisturizer in the morning and evening, they still experience dryness because the product they are using simply sits on top of the skin or is packed with moisture-robbing chemicals. If you battle with dry skin, switching to products with ingredients that will neither impart, nor rob, your skin of fluids and oils can provide you with relief from dry skin.

OILY

Oily skin is not necessarily oily all the time; it often makes its presence well known around midday with shiny patches on the nose, forehead, or chin. People with oily skin might experience frequent breakouts due to an excess of sebum (an oily secretion produced by the sebaceous glands) that mixes with dead skin cells and causes a plug in the pores. Bacteria that can live on your skin thrive in the excess oil in your pores. Keeping congested pores clean is a top priority to help the skin function properly and reduce oil production.
We’ve all heard cosmetic companies touting the importance of using oil-free products, but I’ll let you in on a little secret: oil on oil actually stops the skin’s overproduction of oil. However, when it comes to your skin, not all oils are created equal. You want to use oils that are noncomedogenic (meaning they don’t clog pores) and will help your skin balance and maintain normal oil flow. Jojoba oil (which is actually a wax that closely resembles your skin’s sebum) is a perfect example—it can be used to help rebalance the skin, assist with oil regulation, and keep the pores clear. I recommend steering clear of oil-free products, which seem like the perfect fix for an oily complexion, but they can instead dry out your skin and lead to increased oil production. This might sound a bit crazy, but putting the right oil on your oily skin will actually reduce the overall oil and balance out your skin, and oily skin still needs moisture. So instead, look for products that rebalance oil production and keep pores clean. Here’s a bit of good news: oily skin tends to age more slowly than dry skin.

COMBINATION

Combination skin can be dry on the cheeks and oilier in the “T” zone (the forehead, nose, and chin), presenting challenges that are common in both skin types. Women with combination skin are often unsure how to care for their complexion, as it can be unclear which products will best suit them. There are several approaches for combination skin. You can use a serum (a skin-care product targeted to a specific issue) only on the area where the skin is having an issue. You don’t need to treat all your skin with the same active ingredients. Or you can work on cleaning and unclogging your pores. Oftentimes, women will develop combination skin with weather changes, or through hormonal changes. By deep cleaning your pores, balancing your pH, and proper oil and hydration balance, some women find this the effective solution to restoring a unified skin type. Other women will always have a bit of excessive dryness in one area or excessive oil in the T-zone; for them, the deep cleaning will help along with spot treating the problem area with different products.
A facial oil, such as jojoba oil, can moisturize dry areas while bringing balance to oily zones. This makes it the perfect choice for both oily and dry skin. Choose an oil that also has skin-loving ingredients, like carrot oil (which is high in vitamin A) and rose hip oil (which is high in vitamin C). Additionally, using a pH-balancing toner, like the Tea and Vinegar Detox Toner (here), can keep dead skin cells turning over and prevent clogged pores.
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Mineral-rich clays are unearthed from natural quarries around the globe


and have been utilized in skincare routines for hundreds of years to
cleanse, tone, and revitalize the face and body. Depending on the type
of clay, they can be used to gently exfoliate skin or significantly absorb
oils and tighten up pores. There is a perfect clay for every skin






Understanding the most popular types of clay : 

From the renowned bedrock quarries of France,  
the fertile Atlas Mountains of Morocco, and the
plentiful volcanic ash sediments in the United
States, naturally occurring clays are rich in
silica, magnesium, aluminum, calcium, and
other beneficial minerals, which make
wonderful ingredients in skin-pampering
beauty recipes.
Bentonite clay (1): Also known as sodium
bentonite and sodium montmorillonite, this
light gray, odorless, and very fine clay has a
high content of the minerals silica and
aluminum. It is found in natural volcanic ash
sediments in Montana and Wyoming, in the
United States. Used in facial mud treatments,
body powders, dry shampoos, and scrubs.
Color: Pale to light gray
Odor: Neutral
Price: Economically priced
Country of origin: Wyoming and Montana,
United States
Notable mineral content: Silica, aluminum,
iron, magnesium
French green clay (2): Also known as illite clay
and sea clay, this light- to medium-green clay is
mined from quarries that can be thousands of
feet deep in France, China, and the United
States. French green clay is rich in silica,
aluminum, calcium, iron, and magnesium. A
very fine-textured clay that is used to absorb
oils and impurities from the face and body.
Color: Light to medium green
Odor: Neutral
Price: Expensively priced
Country of origin: France, United States, China
Notable mineral content: Silica, aluminum,
valcium, iron, magnesium, potassium
Fuller’s Earth clay (3): Contains a high amount
of silica, magnesium oxide, and sapphire
crystal. This off-white clay is the most popular
clay for oily and congested skin. Very drying
and oil absorbing.
Color: Pale to off-white
Odor: Neutral
Price: Moderately priced
Country of origin: United States, Japan, Mexico
Notable mineral content: Silica, magnesium,
iron oxide, and sapphire crystal
Rhassoul clay (4): Also known as red Moroccan
clay and red clay, this light grayish/pink clay
comes from Morocco and is high in silica,
magnesium, calcium, and aluminum. This
particular type of clay is used in spas
throughout the world to pamper the skin.
Color: Light gray to pinkish
Odor: Neutral
Price: Moderately to expensively priced
Country of origin: Morocco
Notable mineral content: Silica, aluminum,
magnesium, calcium
White kaolin clay (5): Also known as white
cosmetic clay and China clay, this pure white
clay is used extensively in numerous beauty
products, including soaps, face masks, natural
deodorants, and face and body scrubs and
powders. High in kaolinite, silicon oxide, and
aluminum oxide.
Color: Pure white
Odor: Neutral
Price: Economically priced
Country of origin: United States, Germany,
United Kingdom, China, Australia
Notable mineral content: Kaolinite, silicon
oxide, aluminum oxide

How to make and use a basic clay face mask :

 This simple face mask does not call for any measuring or weighing out of
ingredients, making it a quick and easy beauty fix. See pages 86–87 for some
more great face mask recipes.

1. Measure out a
heaping tablespoon of
clay into a small bowl.
2. Mix in just enough
warm water, herbal
tea, or fl oral water
(hydrosol) to create a
spreadable paste.
3. Apply a thick layer
of clay to your cleansed
face (avoiding the
delicate eye area).
4. Allow the mask to dry
and then rinse off with
some warm water.

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Being able to focus (and see) well influences the development of good vision. But how does sight develop? How does vision evolve as a newborn turns into a child? We don 't know. We do know, however, that if the two eyes do not grow and develop together in childhood, any number of visual problems can arise in adulthood.

Every child must have an eye exam before the age of 5. Parents should be even more vigilant if (1) there is a family history of eye or vision problems; (2) the child has some complaint; (3) one eye appears to turn in (or out); (4) the child has headaches; (5) the child has trouble recognizing letters with either eye; or (6) the child has multiple physical or developmental problems. It is almost always the parent who recognizes a vision problem in a child of preschool age, so trust your instinct and judgment.
       The part of the eye exam in which the doctor determines how well your child sees and corrects to   œbest vision   with glasses is known as refraction. The technology used by the eye doctor to ask,   œWhich is better, number one or number two?   depends upon his or her training, and whether the doctor 's practice is dedicated to pediatric ophthalmology. The doctor will often need to hold the lenses in front of a small child.
      Some people are unable to see well at distance because of the refractive error called nearsightedness, or myopia. Other people (usually adults) don 't see well close up, which is called farsightedness, or hyperopia. Farsightedness is less likely to be detected in children because they have a lot of accommodation. But both these conditions can begin in childhood, and each can be corrected by glasses that make light focus at the proper place on the retina.
       Nearsightedness (seeing better close up than at distance) develops when the eye is longer than normal (23 mm), Only by bringing the object closer does the image come into focus on the retina.
Farsightedness (seeing better at distance than close up) is less easily detected in children who can still see well at both distance and near, because they still have accommodation reserve. A farsighted individual has a short eye or flat cornea, and doesn 't refract, or bend, light enough. This produces a blurred image that can be focused on the retina only by viewing an object far away or by using the muscles in the eye to accommodate or focus.
        Astigmatism is another type of refractive error that can develop in children and can be corrected by glasses. Remember that your child 's eyes are different from every other child 's eyes. The cornea, unlike the dome of a church, may not have the same curve in all directions, and an uneven corneal curve is usually responsible for astigmatism. While most people have a small amount of astigmatism, it has no effect on their vision because the tear film neutralizes it. If your child is astigmatic, however, it should be corrected by his or her glasses prescription.
      It 's important to realize that the eye exam performed in a pediatrician 's office often screens for visual acuity in each eye separately. The ophthalmologist, optometrist, or pediatric ophthalmologist will take the exam one step further and look for refractive error in both eyes at the same time. Are the eyes working together? Is there appropriate depth perception? There is also an important distinction between visual acuity and perception. In other words, the child may see the fine print, but may not be interpreting it meaningfully. Multiple learning disabilities also exist in which visual acuity may be normal, but reading, perception, calculations, and writing may not follow.
     Sight is a physiological trait, but vision is learned. When the eye doctor talks about sight, he or she is usually referring to visual acuity. This means that the child doesn 't have significant amounts of near- or farsightedness or astigmatism, that his or her eyes focus (accommodate) properly, and that both eyes work together.

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