Social Diet, hydration, less sugar and at the right pace: new year, new good habits

This article is published in issue 2-3 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until January 19, 2021

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We are in that moment of the year in which the point is made with the list of good intentions. For this 2020, do not worry: there is a moratorium for all those goals related to career, lifestyle and travel, which have not been achieved. Acts of God have reduced our space for action and our power to shape our reality.

A new year, however, is upon us: it looks uncertain, as it was – surprisingly – 2020, and how life is in the end. Yet, in a “smaller” world, without overseas travel (not to mention those beyond one’s common, in some cases a real mirage) and weekly routines full of activities, our attention can finally stop on the here and now and weighing the way of life before: was it right for us and our body? These atypical parties represented a good time to express reasoned and long-range intentions with evidence also on an aesthetic level. Because there is a common thread between what we do every day and our skin, our first dress.

This is the theme of the podcast episode Call the Coach! (which you can also find on Itunes, Spreaker and Spotify). With Luca Mazzucchelli, psychologist and author of the book Factor 1%. Small changes for big results (ed. Giunti) we talked about great revolutions that can start from micro changes in habits and Pareto’s law also known as the 80/20 law according to which 80% of our results come from 20% of our efforts.

Social diet and Venus rings
That is a dangerous triangle between smartphone abuse, posture and wrinkles on the neck, décolleté and around the eyes. A widespread problem considering that in April there was an increase in digital users and a spike in time spent on the web, between personal and work video calls, and online entertainment through social media, video and movie on demand platforms. Result: the neck was bent forward for too many hours a day and the eyes fixed on a screen with a great effort from the periocular muscles. Good resolution: check how much time we spend online (each app has this detector) and reduce it by a good 30%. With the time saved you can do some stretching, and give your eyes a relaxing cream and massage.

At the right pace
Close to the place of residence, spaced apart, only outdoors: this year the sport was an obstacle course so to speak (only allowed to agonists). Those who have not resigned themselves to the limitations have created their own gym even in the few meters of the living room. The famous 10,000 steps suggested by the World Health Organization as a benchmark for a healthy lifestyle are currently the subject of criticism. The suggestion derives from an old Japanese slogan to promote the first pedometer in history, born in 1964, after the Olympics. Current studies, on the other hand, are investigating the quality of the steps more than the quantity of them: it seems that 100 per minute and a light breath are already a good indicator of the effectiveness of physical exercise. Performance to be combined with stretching and a self-massage with a body butter to ward off lactic acid and ensure elasticity to the skin.

… And then relax
But in the true sense of the word: see point 1. Starting with keeping social media away from the bedroom: blue light interferes with the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, and therefore with the quality of the same. Rather, the evening hours could be dedicated to reading combined with a face mask to optimize time, that ritual that during the lockdown experienced a season of popularity between a video call and another. Or even better: treating yourself to a hot bath with scented candles on the bathtub, essential oils and some well-deserved silence.

A new-old mantra: H2O
Like the Om of yoga, drinking must become a recurring ritual punctuated by eight glasses of water a day. Too many for those waiting for the stimulus of thirst (ie when it is already late) to hydrate. Before any face cream with magical anti-aging powers, that of hydrating yourself sufficiently is the most important beauty rule and at the same time the most disregarded, especially due to forgetfulness. In this regard, it is good to know that on the market there are small devices to attach to the bottle, which ring at regular intervals to remind us to quench our thirst.On the skin, however, we can wear masks before going to sleep that limit perspiratio insensibilis, evaporation of water. The Japanese brand Sensai was the first to launch a device, the Biomimesis Veil Diffuser, which creates a veil on the skin that limits its dispersion at night.

Food for the body and mind
The only really short distance in 2020 was between us and the fridge, the data say, thanks to spending at the speed of a click. In March there was a jump in food consumption of + 19% with a greater supply of meat (+ 29%), eggs (+ 26%) and vegetables (+ 24%). And in the days before Easter, the record for purchases of ingredients for desserts, such as flour (+ 213%), brewer’s yeast (+ 226%) and mascarpone (+ 100%). Data that underline how food and especially sugars are “emotional patches” to soothe discomfort, if not “pastimes” against boredom. A good resolution could be to go back to the shopping list thought, which restores its value and role to food.
A special chapter deserves the sugars lived as comfort food: the risk is to be the victim of a loop of glycemic peaks (confused for happiness) and moments of uncontrollable hunger. All to the detriment of our mental clarity and skin health. In fact, sugars trigger a mechanism called glycation that accelerates skin aging. If we want to give valid support to anti-aging face creams we must simultaneously reduce the intake of carbohydrates and sugars, especially the refined ones.

Hair: special guard
Lhe reopening of the hairdressers in May has happily interrupted the strenuous strategy of camouflage of signal regrowths, out-of-control haircuts and dyes on the way to final fading. During the lockdown many of us were videoguided by our trusted hairstylist, others watched and compared all the tutorials available on the net to climb lengths and fringes at our peril. Still others took advantage of the pandemic to bury the hatchet and hug a head of hair silver. In the current period of alternating closures, the coiffeur has seen the merit of carrying out an essential job, even if the trench work at home done in styling for the Zoom meetings and retouching of the regrowth is not finished. For 2021, let’s promise to learn how to read the Inci, or the list of ingredients of the products and to choose “clean” formulas, also for the planet. If for a long time we have been able to do without aggressive straightening and phoning, we give the hair a respite of a few days a week, accompanied by a scalp scrub to re-oxygenate the skin and, who knows, maybe even thoughts.

Colorful messages
The Pantone color chosen for 2020, the Classic Blue, did not bring much luck. So for 2021 Pantone, a company of technologies for graphics and color cataloging, proposed two with an almost philosophical message: Ultimate Gray (Pantone 17-5104) e Illuminating (13-0647), a bright gray and an intense yellow: “In a historical moment in which people try, in every possible way, to find energy, clarity and hope to reinvigorate themselves and overcome this continuous phase of uncertainty, these are shades that instill grit and courage by responding to our need for vitality “, let the brand know in the note presenting the Color of the year 2021. In cosmetics, many fashion houses have already equipped themselves by declining glazes, eye shadows and eye pencils in the two shades to offer optimism and resilience ready to wear . In addition to color, a perfume or an ambient fragrance can have a similar power. The fragrances speak directly to our unconscious and can help us find a quiet space within us, or to travel far, without violating the prohibitions of the DPCM.

A wait that is worthwhile
After the long work on oneself, after having implemented one’s beauty routine of new good habits, or even having revolutionized it, it would be nice to be able to rely on truly expert hands. There is still no talk of reopening spas and wellness centers, but it is worth putting on the whish list of treatments to try in 2021. Deep Natural Manual Lifting of Seticrei in a suite of the Galleria Vik Milano Hotel (galleriavikmilano.com), overlooking the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It is a face and intrabuccal massage that relieves tensions in the jaw area, combined with special products such as diamond powder, to give brightness to the skin, or snail slime to treat inflammation and acne. It’s really worth the wait.