Those awkward young adult years may be behind you, but that doesn’t mean you’re in the clear when it comes to your skin. “Our chosen lifestyle and diet can have many direct impacts on the skin, well into your 30s,” says Lauren Talbot, certified clinical nutritionist and founder of Glow Detox Diet.

The most common skin concerns for women in their 20s and 30s include adult onset acne, skin cancers, melisma (patchy, brown discoloration of the skin), inflammation, and premature aging and wrinkles, according to Talbot and Dr. Tanya Kormeili, board certified dermatologist and clinical instructor at UCLA. What’s more, “ethnic skin, including Hispanic skin, is harder because of a higher rate of discoloration and the difficulty in treating it,” says Dr. Kormeili.

Luckily, it doesn’t take much to mend your skin woes; following a healthy dieta and proper skin care regimen are two easy ways to achieve the glowing skin of your dreams. Here are tips for clear skin, even tone and a natural glow.

Secret Comidas

It’s not just what you put on your skin that affects its health, but what you put in your body. “The skin is the body’s largest organ, and serves as the backup organ for the liver and kidneys sending impurities through the pores when they are inundated with waste they cannot quickly and efficiently neutralize,” says Talbot. Real -- not processed -- foods like frutas and vegetables are naturally rich in vitamins and minerals that nourish the body and skin. Plus, many contain antioxidants that fight free radical formation and help to keep skin youthful. Incorporating these foods into your daily diet will put you on the path to clearer skin:

·         Berries: Filled with antioxidants, berries such as blueberries protect your skin from premature aging, says Dr. Kormeili.

• Greens: Broccoli, spinach and kale are full of minerals and B vitamins, which may help even skin tone, fight acne and rid your body of impurities.
• Fresh lemon juice: Lemons and lemon juice help promote a healthy blood pH, which is important for healthy skin, says Talbot.
• Seafood: Fish is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D, and helps your skin retain moisture -- crucial for skin health. Omega-3s additionally protect the skin from UV rays and reduce inflammation, while vitamin D both protects and rejuvenates skin.

Clear Skin Protocol

In addition to a healthy diet and consumption of skin-friendly foods, a proper skin care regimen will help your piel glow.

• Sun protection: Essential in preventing premature aging and hyperpigmentation, which especially affects ethnic skin. Choose a good SPF and wear all year, even when it’s overcast.
• Gentle care: Harsh products may have reverse effects, particularly on Latin skin. Instead of overnight miracle solutions and instant results, look for more natural products that focus on gentle care and cleansing, and long-term results.
• Moisture: Lack of moisture in the body can result in dryer skin, and production of oils to overcompensate. Consume plenty of liquids and foods high in water content (fruits and veggies), and always apply a moisturizer to skin.

And to keep your skin glowing and gorgeous, here’s a foundation routine that will play up your natural radiance!

Here’s another motivating reason to start exercising: Aside from weight loss, working out can help prevent diabetes, cancer and a number of other diseases. Luckily, it doesn’t take a lot of time or a gym membership to get moving. Las Fabulosas rounds up the best -- and easiest -- exercises anyone can do, and the diseases they may help ward off.

Walk to Prevent Heart Disease

An inactive lifestyle is a leading cause of heart disease. The reality is that Hispanic women are likely to develop heart disease 10 years earlier than non-Hispanic women. Along with a healthy, balanced dieta, exercise is your number one way to strengthen the heart, lower blood pressure and reduce cholesterol.

According to a Harvard study, being active for 2.5 hours a week can lower your risk of developing heart disease by 30 percent. Forget the leisurely stroll, and push toward a moderate intensity walk (3 to 4 mph) in which you keep your arms swinging bent at 90 degrees and experience heavier breathing than normal. For proper walking, keep your back and shoulders straight, take equal length steps and wear supportive shoes.

“Busy moms can push their little ones in the stroller for a walk jog,” says Pamela Peeke, M.D., American College of Sports Medicine spokeswoman for Exercise is Medicine. “Or put on a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps running after the kids.”

Dance to Prevent Cancer

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Latinas. Again, regularly exercising 2.5 hours per week, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, may lower the risk of getting breast cancer by up to 40 percent, and can lower the risk of recurring cancer. It is believed that vigorous fitness helps to regulate hormones, lowering the level of estrogen in the body.

The key here is higher intensity activity, all cardio is great, says Dr. Peeke. Don’t like the gym? Don’t worry. Anything that raises your heart rate and causes you to break a sweat counts. Grab a partner for a dance class, or pop in a Salsa dance DVD.

Bike to Prevent Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes, with which the body does not properly use insulin, affects about one in 10 Latinos. This disease may be caused by obesity, but even a small weight loss can reduce the risk for a diagnosis. A study from the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise showed that a reduced activity level increased levels of blood glucose after eating.

A healthy diet along with leading an active lifestyle can help to manage glucose levels. The Diabetes Prevent Program suggests 30 minutes of physical activity, five days per week. Riding a bicicleta is an easy and fun way to fit exercise into your schedule. If possible, ride to and from work instead of driving. Or, take your bike to run your errands instead of your car.

Stretch to Prevent Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis, a disease of the bones, occurs when you lose too much bone, make too little bone, or a combination of the two. To keep bones healthy and strong, include enough calcium in your diet as well as a variety of exercises. The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends two types of exercises for building and maintaining bone density: weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening.

Weight-bearing exercises include activities, such as stair climbing, hiking and jumping rope, in which your lower body supports your weight. Skip the elevator and take the stairs, or just run your stairs in your house. On the weekends, bring the family for a healthy hike.

Muscle-strengthening exercises include activities, such as weights, yoga and water exercises, which force you to move a weight or involve resistance. Invest in a set of free weights or a yoga mat to exercise at home. “Using high intensity interval training is optimal,” says Dr. Peeke. If you have a little one, consider a swim class so the both of you can get the healthy exercise your body needs. Any activities in the water make your muscles work harder.

As the sultry days of summer wind down, the sexy-time in your relationship may be dwindling with it and you’re wondering how to increase libido and keep that summer passion alive. But just because puffy coats are in your near future doesn’t mean the heat in your relationship needs to disappear too. The first golden piece of love advice: “Build up your inner sexy and the passion will seep into your relationship daily,” says relationship expert Sujeiry Gonzalez, author of Love Trips and owner of LoveSujeiry.com. Las Fabulosas gives you proven love advice to renew your energía every day of the year.

Focus on You First

Your thoughts may immediately go to ‘how can I make my partner happy?’ But before you seek love advice about your partner, focus on yourself. “Keeping the passion alive in all relationships really begins with how we feel about our sensuality and sexuality as women,” says Gonzalez. “When women feel sexy and feel good in their skin, they’re more open to trying new things in the bedroom, being creative and letting go.” Find ‘me’ time in addition to the ‘we’ time. Treat yourself to a mani/pedi, a run, or even a kid-free shopping spree. Bonding with yourself will help you bond more deeply with your pareja.

Find Common Interests

Take an entire day and night to connect with your significant other. For example, sign up for a yoga class together, to help improve balance and connection. Exercise promotes blood flow and circulation, important for sexual function and can increase libido, according to researchers at the University of Texas at Austin. Do you like to spice up the kitchen -- literally? Bring the kids to casa de la abuela, and hire a chef to teach you how to make a romantic meal with aphrodisiacs that increase libido such as oysters, chile peppers and asparagus. Top it off with the madre of aphrodisiacs: chocolate and vino rojo. “Once you know your partner’s needs and likes, and how you work as a couple, renewing love will come much more naturally,” says Gonzalez.

Surprise Him

Climb out of your relationship rut and surprise him with simple reminders about why you love each other and how the passion started. “Send your partner love messages via text or even slip a post-it note into his work bag or behind the medicine cabinet mirror,” says Gonzalez. After all, everyone loves a compliment. Your partner will feel appreciated, making you that much more desirable. Turn it up a notch with sexy, scandalous notes.

Let’s face it. We want to go full-force when it comes to losing weight. But often factors beyond our control get in the way of shedding the pounds or keeping them off for good. We need an easy weight loss plan, but with the best weight loss results. Losing weight doesn’t just depend on how much ejercicio and cutting back you do; how you do it is just as important. Las Fabulosas culled easy-to-implement tips from three experts on how to go about losing weight.

Porciones

1. “Eat small meals every 3 hours,” says Jenny Patrizia, author of Big Taste, Little Money: Healthy & Delicious Family Meals For Under $10. “We are meant to graze. It keeps our sugar levels at a balance and therefore controls our hunger.”

2. Serve your meals on salad plates. “It helps with portion control and caloric count,” adds Patrizia. “It also helps you stop when you feel full and keeps you from over eating.”

3. Aim for 80 to 90 grams of daily protein (pending you have no kidney problems). “Protein requires more energy to digest than carbohydrates,” says Lauren Minchen, RDN, CDN, explaining that we burn more calories by simply digesting the protein. She also suggests eating adequate protein, particularly when losing weight, to decrease the amount of lean muscle mass loss.

Ejercicio

1. For easy weight loss, build a body that loses for you. According to Minchen, adding weights, two to four times per week, to a thirty-minute ejercicio schedule, makes mujeres lean and toned. “Many women refuse to participate in weight training because they are afraid that they will bulk up,” she says. But, unlike men, they do not produce the testosterone levels, so they won’t become bulky. “One pound of muscle burns an extra 40-50 calories per day,” she says, adding that more calories burn at rest when you add lean muscle tissue. So choose ejercicio that helps your body help you!

Scheduling

1. One of the best weight loss tips is eating to lose weight. Start your day by eating desayuno within an hour of waking up. According to nutrition expert Manuel Villacorte, MS, RD, it is the most important meal that drives your entire day. Having a healthy and complete breakfast “determines how much you’re going to eat at 4:00 p.m.,” says the San Francisco-based author of Eating Free: The Carb-Friendly Way to Lose Inches, Embrace Your Hunger, and Keep the Weight Off for Good. Villacorte also points out that a sound breakfast keeps ghrelin, a hormone that “controls our hunger and drives our appetite,” in check.

2. According to Villacorte, combining carbohydrates and protein at every meal gives the “optimal blend of nutritional elements to fight cravings, control hunger, gain energy, and stimulate fullness.” Carbohydrates, for example, lower ghrelin, help with brain function, and decrease cravings. Protein, on the other hand, “increases your metabolism and helps keep ghrelin down.” Villacorte suggest a salad with chicken or fish for lunch. “Add a carbohydrate such as quinoa, garbanzo beans, lentils, or brown rice,” he says. And for a snack, have “an apple and a piece of turkey, low-fat cheese, or a hard-boiled egg.”

Small changes make for easy weight loss, but the best weight loss promises big results. Follow these small but poderoso steps for weight loss that is as easy as it is successful.

This month, we put you on the path to feeling and looking más joven with top tips to refresh your skin, face, hair, hands, feet and nails.

Put Your Fresh Face Forward

An orange yogurt mask is the perfect remedy for tired skin. The yogurt nourishes dry skin while the Alpha Hydroxy Acids in the orange repair and rejuvenate it. This treatment is also cool and relaxing. Stir one tablespoon of plain yogurt and one-quarter cup of juice from a fresh orange in a bowl. Smooth onto face, and leave for five minutes. Rinse and see the improvement.

Restore Shine to El Cabello

Once a week after shampooing, rinse your hair with a cup of apple cider vinegar. The acids strip the build-up in your hair, leaving your mane soft and shiny.

Massage Your Scalp

The only part of our hair that is alive is the root, which is embedded in our scalp. Massaging your scalp stimulates the flow of oxygen and blood to the root of your hair, invigorating it to grow and thrive. For relaxing, give yourself a mini-scalp massage before you go to bed. You can also do it in the morning, at work or even when you’re stuck in traffic. It will make your tresses look better and keep you stress-free.  

Remember Your Ojos

Alleviate tired, puffy eyes with chilled cucumber slices to take off the edge. You can even try potato slices or chilled chamomile bags, which act as an anti-inflammatory.

Treat your Hands and Toes

For a foot-abuloso indulgence, soak your tootsies in a bowl of warm whole milk. The lactic acids soften skin. After 10 minutes, take a pumice stone to your feet to slough off dead skin. Rinse off the warm water, file and buff you nails, and push back your cuticles. Finally, paint your nails a gorgeous color.