Gua Sha: An Effective Technique That Provides Relief

If you’ve visited any beauty brand’s social media platforms over the last year, you’ve probably seen the sleek, smooth and pastel Gua Sha tool. Despite its recent popularity, Gua Sha goes way back.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Gua Sha is one of the most efficient and natural ways of treatment. With the reputation of relieving muscle pain and improving circulation, this traditional Chinese technique involves scraping the skin with a smooth-edged instrument. Read on as we share the different symptoms that Gua Sha may help alleviate the pain of!

Alleviates neck and shoulder pain

When working the usual 9 to 5, you might find yourself with your eyes glued to the computer screen for at least 6 hours. Without proper ergonomic support, the probability of straining your shoulders and neck is quite likely but it can be alleviated with Gua Sha. Gua Sha practitioners will palpate the neck area for muscle tightness and other abnormalities, before applying press-strokes with Gua Sha. It involves a significant amount of pressure, but not as much force as a deep tissue massage.

Reduces engorgement while breastfeeding

Breast engorgement is experienced by many breastfeeding women, which occurs when the breasts overfill with milk. It causes the breasts to become swollen and painful, making it difficult for babies to latch. While this is usually a temporary condition, it can be relieved with the Gua Sha technique, which is effective at reducing engorgement and discomfort.

Relieves headaches and migraine

Sometimes, your migraine or headaches might not respond to over-the-counter medications. Plus, after repeated and regular exposure to certain drugs, our body might develop tolerance – which means that your current dose of medicine might not work as effectively as it once did. In any of these situations, Gua Sha makes for a great alternative!

Decreases liver inflammation

As you might already know, Gua Sha is famous for relieving inflammation. It is believed to address stagnant energy, called “chi”, in the body that practitioners believe to be the reason behind inflammation. Conversely, inflammation is the underlying cause of various conditions related to chronic pain. Hence, rubbing the skin helps break up this energy, which in turn reduces inflammation and promotes healing.

Conclusion

At the surface, Gua Sha might seem like another popular trend, but there are significant differences when you engage in the help of a professional to perform the treatment for you. As a natural healing remedy, the usage of Gua Sha is completely safe. The rubbing and scraping motions are not painful, and can help to improve the appearance of your skin.

At Slim Couture, we have a team of professionals who specialises in the Gua Sha technique in our TCM Slimming treatment, also known as Divine Slim. As Gua Sha stimulates blood flow, it also helps to promote better metabolism. Coupled with other methods, Divine Slim makes for the best weight loss program that is all natural. From start to finish, you’ll have experts guiding you throughout the process. To illustrate, a comprehensive diet plan will be given to you after treatment to sustain the results of Divine Slim. Drop us a call via our hotline for any enquiries on this program or if you want to schedule an appointment!

Home Workout: 5 Fitness Instructors To Check Out On YouTube

Regardless if you’re back to work or if you’re still working from home, it’s our part to do what we can to stay fit. This means that it’s time for us to get creative in the pursuit of getting our daily fitness fix!

While gyms and fitness centres are already open during Singapore’s Phase 2 re-opening, some people might not feel comfortable going out yet. But staying active is essential in one’s overall health, especially if you desire to lose weight healthily. With your laptop and Wi-Fi connection, roll out a fitness mat and check out either one of the following fitness gurus on YouTube!

1. Emi Wong

Not everyone can have the luxury of spending both time and money to spend hours in the gym. From posting videos of a 10-minute clip on a full-body high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout to short clips on Instagram of exercises you can do with regular household items, Emi Wong believes in keeping both your health and immunity up while staying at home. Even while watching the television, Emi Wong has the perfect workout routine in store for you, meant to strengthen both your arms and shoulders.

2. Joanna Soh

If you’re still transitioning from a sedentary lifestyle to an active lifestyle, then performing rigorous exercises could be detrimental to your joints. Instead, start slow with Joanna Soh’s “10,000 Indoor Step Challenge”. Since walking is a low impact and safe workout, this routine is perfect for beginners. Most importantly, it does not compromise on the number of calories lost! Check out her “21 Days #StayAtHome Workout” playlist on YouTube, which contains full-length workout videos to follow along as you work towards attaining your fitness goals.

3. Blogilates

Cassey Ho of Blogilates has been sharing her exercise routines on YouTube since 2008, so you’re guaranteed to find an extensive range of fitness videos from POP Pilates to PIIT28 (Pilates Intense Interval Training). As you catch your breath while following her movements, the happy-go-lucky Cassey Ho of Blogilates will enthusiastically throw motivational remarks to keep you going. And of course, if you’re find yourself struggling, she’ll remind you why you hit play on her video in the first place.

4. PopSugar Fitness

No matter what stage of the fitness journey you’re at, you’ll find an assortment of weight loss programs on PopSugar Fitness’ YouTube channel! PopSugar Fitness is a holistic channel that offers fitness tutorials, healthy eating advice, workouts routines, and more. Browse through their playlist on YouTube where you’d find an extensive range of videos that are already categorised to ease your navigation. For those who aim to live a healthy and balanced lifestyle amidst your hectic schedule, PopSugar Fitness is worth a try!

5. Cosmic Kids Yoga

Most of us do yoga for flexibility, stress relief, and strength, amongst a myriad of reasons. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you can introduce the world of yoga to your younger sibling, children or grandchildren? That is what Jaime Amor had in mind when she founded Cosmic Kids Yoga! When you think of yoga, the instructor’s soothing voice might come to mind. Through Cosmic Kids Yoga, Jaime Amor lets your imagination run wild as she walks you through various stories such as “The Wizard of Oz” and “Frozen” while incorporating many kinds of yoga poses that are easy for kids to follow.

Conclusion

While doing exercises at home can help you to stay fit, sometimes, getting rid of muffin tops or stubborn fats on your own can be quite a challenge. With TCM Slimming, working towards your ideal body is much more attainable!

At Slim Couture, our Divine Slim treatment allows you to lose weight healthily with long-lasting results, as opposed to consuming slimming pills or crash dieting. Let us enhance your weight loss results with the best slimming treatment for you!

All About Keto: A Beginner’s Guide To The Ketogenic Diet

The ketogenic diet’s (keto, for short) fast ascent to fame probably has you wondering if it’s just another fad that’ll fade away with time. Actually, this diet has been around for a while and possesses a diverse testimonial of all kinds of people who cited great results from it.

What is a keto diet?

Like most diets, the keto diet has a strict set of rules as to what you can and cannot eat. Here’s a fun fact: your body loves glucose! If it has glucose on hand, then your body is going to turn to glucose for energy.

But by cutting down your carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat, it’ll put your body into a state of ketosis, which is when the full effect of embarking on a keto diet takes place! This means that your body will start burning fat for energy on top of converting these fats into ketones in the liver, which supplies energy for the brain.

There are several versions of the keto diet, but the standard ketogenic diet (SKD) is the most well-researched one – making it the most recommended type. The SKD is a very low-carb, moderate-protein and high-fat diet, typically containing around 75% fat, 20% protein and only 5% carb.

What to eat on a keto diet

A keto diet typically limits carbs to 20-30 grams per day. Cutting out carbs is easier said than done. But by incorporating the right amount of nutritious food, then hopefully you can easily fit into this way of eating. Here are some examples of food you can eat: seafood, low-carb vegetables, cheese, avocados, meat and poultry, eggs, plain greek yoghurt, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, shirataki noodles, and more.

How it aids in weight loss

Your body burning fat for energy is beneficial for weight loss. As fat burning is increased, insulin levels drop significantly – making it easier for body fat loss to occur without hunger. Having around 200 calories of protein and fat makes you feel full faster, as compared to 200 calories of heavy carbs.

At the end of the day, calorie is still calorie. In order to lose weight effectively, you have to burn more calories than what you eat. So, a balanced lifestyle is essential in this diet! As the keto diet is somewhat known in Singapore, it’s best to look out for the best weight loss programs with activities catered to those on this diet.

The keto diet isn’t for everyone

There are various groups of people who should avoid attempting on the keto diet. To illustrate, people with diabetes, at risk of heart disease, and pregnant or breastfeeding women shouldn’t try this diet. To be on the safe side, it’s best to consult your doctor or a registered dietitian before drastically changing your eating habits!

Conclusion

Since its high in saturated fat, the keto diet isn’t sustainable in the long run. Most experts recommend staying on keto for a maximum amount of six months only, before slowly reintroducing carbs to your diet. For another natural alternative of weight loss, TCM slimming treatments can be considered. It makes use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to improve your health and metabolism, aside from helping you lose weight. As an all-natural treatment, the results are sustainable and doesn’t require you to undergo diet changes or consume diet supplements!

Staying Home? Here’s How To Keep Healthy And Active

As we practise safe distancing by staying at home due to COVID-19, we’re bound to get in a slump. If you’re working from home, then you’d find yourself sitting with your eyes glued to the digital screen for at least 8 hours. As we focus on getting work done, we fall into a monotonous routine of mindless eating, working, sleeping – and repeat.

Staying at home for a long time can be rather challenging for remaining physically active. A sedentary behaviour paired with unhealthy eating can be harmful to your health and wellbeing, such as leading to weight gain. While self-isolating, let’s not neglect our physical and mental health as well. As we stay put, here’s how to keep healthy and active!

Sit less

Take small breaks of sitting in your desk, at least every 20 to 30 minutes. Take a walk around your house or play with your pet. Or, you could perform two tasks at once by sweeping or mopping the house! Not only will that get you up on your feet and moving, but you’ll also spend your breaks productively. Afterwards, you can continue working in a conducive environment.

Stick to an exercise regime

At home, there are many forms of exercises we can do to keep physically active. One of them is callisthenics, which is a form of exercise that utilise your body weight to train. It’s perfect for doing at home, as you can do exercises such as sit-ups, squats and planks. You could even attempt some cardio workouts like running in place and jumping jacks. With many businesses going online, you could also sign up for the best weight loss program in Singapore offered by gyms or slimming centres, for an exercise routine or diet plan for you to stick to. To illustrate, some gym coaches guide you through video sharing platforms like Zoom! And don’t forget to protect your feet from blisters – put on a pair of non-slip socks or clean shoes.

Take a moment to breathe

Yoga is a great way to stay active and flexible. When we’re too overwhelmed with all the events that are going on, take a deep breath as you focus on keeping yourself centred. Additionally, yoga helps to manage back pain on top of relieving stress and anxiety! With the internet, you could go online and search up for yoga channels that you can follow.

An alternative to yoga is putting your thoughts on paper. There’s an activity called ‘morning pages’, where you write anything on your mind for up to three pages before you start your day. This is a helpful exercise as it allows you to unload instead of keeping your thoughts bottled up.

Plan your meals

With trends like dalgona coffee and banana bread brewing up in the kitchen, everyone seems to be more active in preparing their own meals. However, what you eat influences your state of health and mind. If you exercise but eat unhealthily, then it may not have that much effect on your health. By planning your meals, you can aim to have nutritionally well-balanced meals throughout your week. You also save time from frantically thinking of what to cook! However, we highly recommend preparing a grocery list to keep your trip to the supermarket short.

Conclusion

Just because we’re home, it doesn’t mean that our physical activities or healthy eating should come to a halt. This is the time for us to stay healthy so that our internal systems would be healthy and strong! If you keep eating unhealthily without much movement, then it’s bound to take a toll on your mental health too. The journey to losing weight is both extrinsically and intrinsically rewarding. Once everything soothes down, you could even consider going for TCM slimming treatments, available at Slim Couture, which not only focuses on trimming unwanted fat, but also prioritises other factors like improved sleep and stress relief, that influence your health.