It was 1990 and I was fresh out of college.  I had earned a degree in English with a concentration in writing and minors in Psychology and Social Work from Radford University.  I wanted to stay in South Western Virginia  and apply my degree to something other than teaching.  No offense to the profession but I feel one should be called with all their heart and soul to teach and I just never heard the holler.

As I scoured the want ads in the Roanoke paper, I found one for a job with Eastern Airlines (now I’m really dating myself).  The light bulb went on and I thought I could get a job with the airlines and travel and write freelance articles.  So I applied and was chosen as one of twenty new hires from the seven-hundred people that showed up for the first round of the interview process.

For part of our training, we were sent to Miami for a couple of days for a make over with the Estee Lauder company.  The top sales producer in the company, Miss Ginny stood across the room and spouted the importance of “lips and tips” and how they should most definitely match.  She could look at each woman and call out the foundation color, lip, eye and nail polish color that would perfectly match her skin tone.  I was pretty impressed.

Miss Ginny, probably in her sixties at the time, was a full figured gal in full make up. Her thickly teased blonde shoulder length hair, turned plaster with hairspray, sat still as she gesticulated wildly in backdrop to her beauty advice. With her huge presence and a cigarette voice, she dispensed the advice that I have always heeded and I seriously think she may have been right.

She said, “Studies have shown that if you do not wash your face every single night, it will age two weeks for each night that you DON’T wash it.” I thought to myself, how could they possibly accurately measure that? I mean, don’t people age at different rates? Even with my questions, I thought it just makes good sense to clean and moisturize the face every night – especially when you wear makeup.

Now, it is twenty five years later. My face is still beautiful with very few lines or wrinkles. For years I used what ever soap and lotion was close by. I now use Alba Organics and an olive oil based cream each night. I have never had any work done on my face, no chemical peels and maybe one professional facial in all that time. I am in the sun a lot and I don’t use sunscreen (due to the carcinogenic ingredients.)

Honestly, I believe that my diet has a whole lot to do with my healthy face. In fact, I believe diet determines healthy skin more than any other factor, along with healthy thoughts, exercise, living a life you love (and/or loving the one you’ve got), meditation and a connection to a force great than yourself.

So I guess the moral of this blog is, do all the above mentioned things and wash your face each night!

Dr. Meg Haworth, Ph.D. is a private chef to the stars in Hollywood, cookbook author, instructor at Whole Foods Markets and wellness coach. You can find her on the web at www.deliciousandhealthy.com or email her at meg@deliciousandhealthy.com for menu plans tailored to your needs for food allergies, healing diets for specific conditions and healthy weight loss. For her cookbook, click here.