You are Here

Month: November 2018

2019 Health Yoga

How to nail crow pose without face planting on your mat, according to a yoga instructor

3 min read

November 28, 2018 at 06:41AM Crow pose (AKA bakasana) is a hard-to-nail arm balance that’s on many yogis’ bucket lists. Those who’ve mastered it swear that it’s all about perfecting your form, but for the rest of us, the pose often serves as a call to go splat right on the mat. However, with some simple tweaks, you don’t have to expect to face plant every time you try the pose. Like all tricky yoga poses, crow pose requires a little extra finagling and some serious technique. According to obé yoga instructor Francesca Valarezo, who’s leading the next Well+Good Retreat in Miami, anyone from yoga-nubes to bendy Insta-yogis can fall victim to improper form. Valarezo’s good-form solution is to incorporate two yoga blocks into your bakasana training: one for your forehead and one for your feet. How exactly do you do crow pose with two blocks? First, place one block horizontally on the ground and stand on it, feet one to two inches apart, with the palms of your toes resting comfortably on the block. Then, place the second block at its highest setting three feet from the block you’re standing on, so that it’s about two feet from your head. Place both hands down on the ground so you’re creating an equilateral triangle between your hands and the tall block, making sure that your wrists are in line with your elbows. Then lift your hips (if you’re tight, you’ll feel this stretch in your hamstrings) and bend your arms straight back at the

Read More

2019 Health City Fashion

Please meet the love of my life: the coat I’ve worn every winter for nearly 10 years

4 min read

November 28, 2018 at 06:27AM Every woman has those power pieces that supercharge her personal style. And we’ve found, by walking up to enough strangers on the street (and women in our own office), that if you gas her up, she’ll share her best fashion advice with you. We’re collecting these pearls of wisdom in a new series, Good Style. Today our Senior Food and Health Editor Jessie Van Amburg waxes poetic about the one winter coat that’ll always have her heart.  Here’s a fun fact about me: I never owned a real winter coat until I was 18 years old. No, my parents were not horrible, neglectful people straight out of Oliver Twist—we lived in Los Angeles, where it rarely ever gets below 50 degrees, even in the winter. I had peacoat-type jackets, and lots of sweatshirts and sweaters…but no winter coat. But then I went to college in Boston, and my flimsy $30 jacket was not going to cut it for a frigid East Coast winter. So for Christmas during my freshman year, my mom got me a beautiful red wool car coat. I have worn this coat every single winter since—going on a decade now. I get compliments on it all the time. And every time someone asks me where I got it, I proudly say, “Land’s End.” Photo: Jessie Van Amburg No, Land’s End is definitely not the sexiest of brands. It doesn’t have the tried-and-true caché of L.L. Bean (why people get so lit over those duck

Read More

2019 Health Relaxation

How to give a killer maid of honor speech that’ll actually benefit your career

5 min read

November 28, 2018 at 03:00AM Being a maid of honor comes with some major responsibilities: planning a bachelorette party, shopping for the dress, and, of course, making a meaningful speech at the reception. Regarding that last line item on the to-do list of the bride’s right-hand lady, the and nerves and stakes are both undoubtedly high, but the payoff can be huge—in more ways than one. Turns out that special, tearjerking speech can actually be repackaged and repurposed in a way that’s totally useful. (And no, not in the same vein as a bridesmaid’s dress you can “totally shorten and re-wear!” Cue: eye roll.) Not to be hyperbolic or anything, but a MoH speech can make or break a wedding—and a friendship, for that matter. But when you get the skills necessary for an epic oration down pat, you can also apply ’em to your job, thus propelling your career to new heights. Upcycle your killer MoH speech for career gains The key to a great MoH speech is zeroing in on the positives and not paying attention to bumps in the road, even if for comic relief, says lifestyle and etiquette expert Elaine Swann. “You should focus on the positive traits of the bride, the couple, and how much positivity and hope they bring to others.” Wendy Toth—career coach, Power Suiting founder, and two-time maid of honor—echoes that sentiment, adding that you should “never want to publicly embarrass” the bride. But sometimes it’s tough to decipher whether a certain anecdote

Read More

2019 Health

Why being born in a Mercury retrograde is actually awesome for your personality

2 min read

November 28, 2018 at 01:00AM Tell any astrologically-versed gal that her birthdate just so happened to coincide with the notoriously turbulent planetary event known as Mercury retrograde, and she’ll likely assume her life is destined for disorder. According to rockstar astrologer Susan Miller, however, the opposite is actually true: Being born during one of these thrice-yearly celestial occasions basically makes you #blessed in the personality department. Why? The cosmos will conspire to make you more philosophical. “Don’t worry—I was born in Mercury retrograde,” said Miller at a recent event in New York City. “It makes the baby more philosophical because they’re always going back to look at things.” In other words, MR children use retrospection to inform their present decisions, making them the Platos of the current era. (I mean, I’m just guessing—since no one actually knows Plato’s real birthdate.) “It makes the baby more philosophical because they’re always going back to look at things.” —astrology Susan Miller Just in case you’re not quite sure what exactly Mercury was up to on the day you entered this world (I mean, fair), you can easily search to see if you’re one of these profound individuals by using this online tool. Just enter your D.O.B. and scroll down to the Mercury section to see if the planet was “direct” or “retrograde” during that time. For fun, I did a little digging to find out which celebs possess cosmic gene of sorts. Among them, you’ll find Julia Roberts (October 28, 1967) and Angelina Jolie (June 4, 1975). Sounds about right,

Read More

1 … 5 6 7 8 9 … 67