By Tonya Zavasta
Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: BR Publishing; 1st edition (September 18, 2008)

Admittedly, facial exercise is a controversial topic. I found that, while long-term practitioners rave about the benefits, most dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons are against the program. Well, that's understandable, I thought. It's called a conflict of interest. Doctors are also not in favor of my 100% raw foods lifestyle. Since most of what I do to stay in great health goes against a doctor's advice, I decided that was probably a plus for the exercises. What intrigued me was that people who practice facial exercises generally look better than others of the same age. Many of them do not even follow healthy lifestyles - at least, not to the degree that I, and others like me, do. Everyone agrees that we all need to exercise for health and improved self-image. But our ideal picture does not include droopy eyes, eye bags, double chins, no lips, and a jawline that looks like that of a melting cartoon character. You probably work out. Yes, we want ripped abs, a slim waist, and well-toned thighs. But what about the part of us that we look at most closely every day? Your facial muscles, as much as or even more than body muscles, can sag, bag, droop, and go all-over wrinkly. While many are concerned with their facial complexion, we don't talk much about exercising the face. Not enough, at least. Facial exercises don't receive as much publicity as those which emphasize other areas, but they are just as beneficial.

Cosmetic surgery often requires cheek implants to plump up the face. Why? Because facelifts drag the face backward. While this eliminates sags, it pulls away the fullness of youth. Occasionally, cosmetic surgeons suggest the addition of exercises after a surgery, but generally, they ignore the benefits because exercise doesn't cost thousands of dollars. Surprised? You shouldn't be! A young person s epidermis continuously develops to accommodate new growth in both musculature and skeletal structure. The challenge is to make our mature skin respond like young skin. The raw foods diet is our only chance. On raw foods, our system works as efficiently as a much younger person's. If you have any doubts about using facial exercises, look around at your yoga, Pilates, or gym class.

The phenomenon I explored in my first book, Your Right to Be Beautiful, is getting more pronounced than ever. People with thirty-year-old bodies have faces that look decades older. You've seen bodies reshaped by exercises, haven't you? In the same way, you can actually reshape your face. Exercising your facial muscles is not nearly as pretty as yoga or Pilates. I think that's one reason I postponed even trying them. But I know for a fact now that they will definitely beautify your face just as other exercises improve yoyour physique - but facial exercises work much faster and more dramatically. Imagine a rubber band that is permanently stretched. Then you'll have a good image of the way muscles have weakened, lengthened, and drooped in your face. As muscles weaken, they make the whole face sag. So what's the good news? These flabby muscles can be shortened by facial exercises that ultimately lift and firm your face.

Exercises shorten loose, slack muscles, making them firm and taut, and helping to diminish the fat around those muscles. Your facial muscles are the only muscles in your body that insert (or attach) to skin at one end rather than being attached to bone at both ends. Toning your facial muscles will directly affect the appearance of your skin. Through facial resistance training, you can build muscle, stretching the epidermis and reducing wrinkles. Facial exercises also strengthen and tighten the understructure of your face and neck. Droopiness, flabbiness, furrows... you can say goodbye to all of them.

Review

Before doing the Rawsome Flex exercises, I could not even stand to look at myself in the mirror. I am not exaggerating. Even though my skin looked pretty good, having been a raw eater for over 7 years, I was dismayed by my sagging jowls and drooping eyebrows. I was beginning to look my age - and I hated it! But after about 4 weeks of doing the exercises daily, I noticed that every time I would meet someone I hadn't seen in a month or more, they would remark, 'WOW, you look so GREAT!' or 'What have you been doing? You look fantastic!' I had not received such a flood of compliments since going raw 7 years ago. I am too busy in the AM to do the exercises, so I decided to do 40 minutes at night along with my yoga and trampoline routine. I just watch my Netflix shows and the time goes fast. This way I don't feel guilty about watching TV because I am multi-tasking. (I have gone through all seasons of Desperate Housewives and am now on Brothers & Sisters--I love it without the commercials!) I also do the exercises during a movie if the person next to me doesn't mind. With the "chin push ups" and "upper jaw builder" exercises, which use spoons as weight lifting props, I soon graduated from a very heavy tablespoon to 2 of them. But today I had to go out to Home Depot and get some serious weights (crown bolts for a dollar or two) because the 2 heavy spoons are too easy. I have been doing these exercises for 6 months and I swear they have wiped about 5 years off my face! Thank you, Tonya! --Susan Schenck, author of The Live Food Factor, The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet

Dear Tonya, I have been researching and using different forms of facial exercises for a long time as most of my work involves natural healing and natural beauty too! ...you actually deserve to charge a whole lot more than you do for it. These exercises are very powerful and I felt the effects straight away, how clever to use the [...] too. In love and in health. --Dr. Marilyn Golden, Sydney, Australia

About the Author

Facing several reconstructive hip surgeries to enable her to walk, author Tonya Zavasta sought a way to offset the devastating effects of anesthetics on her health and appearance. Using the same determination and intelligence that allowed her to achieve advanced degrees in engineering and mathematics, she immersed herself in scientific data on health and nutrition. She became more and more convinced that the solution to her lifelong quest for beauty and health was to be found in raw food lifestyle or the Rawsome Diet as she calls it. Tonya has been following the raw food lifestyle since 1997. The raw food lifestyle not only helped her to sail courageously through troublesome times, brought her general health and appearance to an all time best, but also opened a new chapter in her life. Firmly believing that the roots of under-performing and under-achieving lie in feeling and looking less than your best, she is now on a mission: she wants every woman to look and feel beautiful.

In her seminars, Tonya Zavasta- a dynamic motivational speaker--delivers unforgettable messages about the possibilities available in personal transformation. Through her own example and lifestyle, she demonstrates how to transform yourself from sick and weak to vigorous and youthful, from plain to beautiful, and from insecure to self-confident. Tonya Zavasta is a raw foods expert, lecturer, and the author of seven books on the Rawsome Diet and lifestyle, including Your Right to Be Beautiful, Quantum Eating, Rawsome Flex, and Raw Food and Hot Yoga. With her math/science background, Tonya's creative thinking reaches from quantum physics to cellular biology to the salad bowl. Her tireless research has led her to understand and harness raw foods' beautifying powers. Tonya, now in her early 50s, is walking testimony of the power of raw foods to reveal the natural beauty within us all. Radiating health in every sense of the word, she teaches raw eating the world over.