December 28, 2018 at 09:24AM When it comes to health crises, experts tend to focus on the conspicuous, like obesity and diabetes. But the hidden struggles, like depression, anxiety, and loneliness, can be just as damaging to your health. And the sad thing is, according to a sweeping survey, we’re lonelier than ever. Fortunately, several organizations are working to change that. Global health service company Cigna recently launched a free online quiz to help people assess their loneliness, paired with steps to curb it if needed. And across the pond, the English government is pledging to direct more than £11 million ($13 million) toward ending the loneliness epidemic. The money will be used to fund more than 120 initiatives aimed at helping people feel happier and less isolated. From LGBTQ-focused organizations to a support system for displaced Pakistani women, a variety of groups will be eligible to participate in the program, according to The Guardian. There’s something everyone can learn from England’s nascent initiative to combat loneliness: Community is key. Find your people. If you have a chronic illness, connect with other people online who understand exactly how hard it is when you can’t leave the house. If you’re a single parent, grab coffee with someone who gets it. With apps like Vina and Bumble BFF, finding your tribe is easier than ever before. Do your best to get out there. Your health depends on it. Here are some tips for making friends as an adult. Plus, how friendships from your
Year: 2018
How to deep clean your dishwasher with vinegar (because you know it needs it)
December 28, 2018 at 09:15AM Believe it or not, even your lean, mean, dish-cleaning machine needs a good scrub down every so often. Cleansing your dishwasher helps prevent build up of food particles, grease, minerals, and soap scum, which over time can cause inefficiency at best (and a device that bathes your dishes in bacteria at worst— yuck!). Though this might seem like a chore to bury somewhere between cleaning your jade roller and sudsing up your shower head, there is a surprisingly quick, single-ingredient method you should be able to work into your cleaning routine with minimal hassle. Becky Rapinchuk, the voice behind Clean Mama and author of Simply Clean, offers expert advice on how to use vinegar to keep the dishwasher happily humming along. Dishwasher Maintenance 101 Rapinchuk suggests a deep clean of the dishwasher about once every three months (up to once a month if you use it more often than most households—say, if you’re known for throwing killer dinner parties). “If you can see residue built up or find that the appliance isn’t cleaning as well as you’d like, it’s time to clean it,” she says. Pro tip: A bit of light maintenance, including cleaning the sink disposal and the drain beneath the lower rack of the dishwasher, helps to prevent unpleasant odors between more thorough scrub-downs. As for materials, all you need is a towel to wipe down the dishwasher, a toothpick, an old toothbrush, and a cup of white vinegar. 4 expert-approved steps to make your
The beauty tips that gave Well+Good staffers their glowiest skin in 2018
December 28, 2018 at 07:00AM Over the course of 365 days, a lot can happen in terms of your beauty game. That’s plenty of time to slather on armfuls of new products, incorporate varying practices into your routine, get your skin used to new ingredients, and try all the buzzy treatments out there. Personally, I’ve had my skin zapped, needled, and peeled, and with each professional appointment I learned something new (like microneedling isn’t as scary as it may sound). Sure, 2019 will have a lot of exciting skin-care innovations to experiment with. But before you start slathering on bakuchiol (the modern-day retinol alternative) or integrate beauty IV drips into your regimen, the Well+Good team would like to take a moment to look back at the best-of-the-best skin-care tips we’ve picked up in the past 12 months. As you could imagine, just as everyone has unique skin types, so too, has everyone gleaned a variety of beauty tidbits that have upgraded their skin-care routines. For me, it’s that taking acne medication is totally fine (thank you, Spironolactone). It’s the year that some have discovered the game-changing benefits of retinol while others now incorporate beauty products they would’ve never touched before—regardless, one thing rings true: We’ve all gotten better skin for it. Photo: Getty Images/JulyProkopiv Well+Good’s top beauty advice from 2018 “My sister told me to ice my face for two minutes a day—AKA set a timer on my phone and rub an ice cube all over my face. It’s a total game-changer—it’s
How to deal with exercise headaches without giving up on your favorite workout
December 28, 2018 at 07:00AM Going to your favorite SoulCycle class is all fun and games until your head is on the verge of exploding. You know that feeling: the pulsating pang that seems to throb with every step and jump. What’s going on? First of all, you’re not imagining it: Exercise headaches are a real thing. Also known as exertion headaches, they’re typically caused by “abnormal rapid expansion of the arteries that supply oxygen-rich blood to your head,” says Elroy Vojdani, MD, IFMCP, and founder of Regenera Medical. The rapid increase in blood flow that happens during a workout, he says, can make the arteries throb and can actually trigger a headache after exercise, he says. Exercise headaches don’t happen to everyone, Dr. Vojdani says, and it’s unclear why some people are affected by the increase in blood flow differently than others. “It’s theorized that for some [the widening of arteries] doesn’t happen to the full extent that is needed, which leads to a buildup of pressure—think putting your finger on the end of a hose—thus triggering pain centers in the brain,” he says. What exactly is causing my exercise headaches? Everyone reacts differently to certain activities and again, headaches after exercise aren’t a thing for everyone. But some workouts are more notoriously headache-inducing than others, like weight lifting, distance running, or other aerobic activity, says Nicole Schultz, PhD, MPH, director of training at EverybodyFights. “Intensity of exercise has been shown to be a factor that influences exercise headaches, with
How to choose a Champagne with the least amount of sugar
December 28, 2018 at 06:24AM With the holidays going strong and New Year’s Eve right around the corner, chances are you’ll be raising a glass of bubbly sometime between now and January 1. And if you’re tempted to skip it due to its sugar content, don’t refuse a flute just yet. According to Champagne expert Chantelle Corbo — ambassador to Champagne Taittinger, sommelier, and partner of RBC Hospitality Group — there’s a super-easy way to select a low-sugar varietal. Take a quick peek at the label. “The dosage [of added sugar] determines the category of Champagne: brut nature, extra brut, brut, extra dry, demi-sec,” Corbo explains. Brut nature has the least amount of sugar and demi-sec has the most. She adds that while wine producers do add sugar to Champagne to balance the naturally high acidity of the grapes and help with the aging process, “one of the most fascinating things about wine is that it doesn’t take much sugar to make it taste sweet,” she says. “The grams of sugar in a 5-ounce serving glass are actually quite low compared to other beverages.” “One of the most fascinating things about wine is that it doesn’t take much sugar to make it taste sweet.” According to Corbo, 90 percent of Champagnes are dosed as brut, which have less than 15 grams of sugar per liter—about 2 grams of sugar per 5-oz. glass. (By comparison, a 16-oz. bottle of kombucha has 10 grams of sugar on average, or roughly about the same amount per 5-oz. serving.) For a slightly
How to set New Year’s resolutions that will *actually* make you happy, according to science
December 28, 2018 at 06:06AM As a glass-half-full kind of gal, I’m of the opinion that 2018 wasn’t all bad. It did gift us inspirational moth memes and cauliflower tots in bulk, after all. But admittedly, this year had its share of challenges—like political scandals and natural disasters—and it’s pretty clear we could all use a fresh start. So let’s begin 2019 by revolutionizing resolution-setting. Instead of, say, vowing to quit sugar or pay down debt (which are definitely important but sound quite dreary, IMO), why don’t we all just set the intention to be happier in the New Year? I know, this nebulous advice goes against all the conventional goal-creating wisdom of making resolutions that are specific, measurable, blah blah. But that’s the whole point, says happiness coach and Arrive at Happy founder Tia Graham. (Yes, that’s a real job—Graham is wrapping up her certification at the Happiness Studies Academy, created by former Harvard professor Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD. And Graham already has a busy slate of corporate and private coaching clients in Los Angeles, plus a Malibu retreat on deck for March.) “From what I’ve studied, a lot of people set their New Year’s resolutions to attain something, whether that be weight loss, a promotion, a bigger bank account, or a relationship,” she says. These goals sound fine, in theory, but we’re largely falling short of them. According to a 2002 study from the University of Scranton, more than half of us completely abandon our resolutions within six months. If we focus on simply cultivating
Check out the 15 best books we read this year (like actually, go check them out)
December 28, 2018 at 06:00AM It’s been a year. There’s been good stuff, great stuff, strange stuff, and stuff that makes me want to cry at the mere thought of it. But happy, sad, bored, or totally energized and ready to learn, books are trusty (and, TBH unparalleled) source distraction or inspiration or any other kind of escapism you might be jonesing for at a given moment. In 2018, Well+Good staffers and Well+Good Council members read a lot of great material that filled hours of self-care Sundays, nourished our souls, and—quite simply—made us happy. Below, check out the tomes we couldn’t put down this year, and add ’em to your TBR stack, stat. Leaf through the 15 books the Well+Good family loved in 2018. Photo: Getty Images/fotyma You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, by Alexandra Kleeman “I loved reading this gorgeously strange novel. To me, it seems like the author is digging at the root of what it means to be a woman in 2018. And as a result, the story follows you around, wherever you go. It’s insidious and so, so satisfying to consume. (In fact, it kind of feels like it’s consuming you—but you’ll have to read it to see what I mean.)” —Kells McPhillips, news writer From Atoms to Angels, by Paul D. Walsh-Roberts “Change is all around us, and no aspect of our lives remain untouched…. I found this book full of practical insights and tools. It’s thought-provoking and challenging, yet clear and liberating.”
These 14 personal essays show there’s no such thing as TMI
December 28, 2018 at 05:04AM Full disclosure: This list was originally going to include just 10 stories. But, as I started combing through the 2018 archives, I turned into a shopaholic at a sample sale—And I want this one! And this one! Oooh, this one is too beautiful to pass up! As managing editor at Well+Good, I read almost everything that gets published on the site. And so often, the stories that stay with me—that I think about during my commute, bring up in dinner conversations, and send to my friends—are the personal essays. And this year, our writers really brought it in the realness department. From acne to anxiety, body image to body hair, these stories went there. And I’m so, so glad they did. I had elective breast reduction surgery at 18 and the changes were more than skin-deep By the time Tamim Alnuweiri was 16, she was a J cup. Tying her shoes was tricky, running was painful, and wearing cute bralettes was completely out of the question. After she had surgery two years later, the weight that had been lifted felt so much greater than a few cup sizes. “I thought my high-functioning anxiety made me better at my job. I was so, so wrong.” Alicia Lutes thought her anxiety, which made her go, go, go like the Little Engine That Could, made her a better manager and more productive worker. It took a career fail of epic proportions to shatter this illusion. As a complete
I tried the Peloton of jump roping—and I’m no longer dreading cardio day
December 28, 2018 at 05:01AM Not-so-secret confession: I absolutely despise pretty much all forms of cardio. The only time you’ll ever see me running is when my editor asks me to write a story about it. (And I’ll likely be complaining the whole time.) If you ask me to go to spin class, you’ll get the same reaction as if you asked me to go throw rocks at puppies. I’d rather give up matcha than do endless tuck jumps at boot camp. Luckily, I do love dancing and playing tennis—so it’s not like I’m not totally neglecting my heart health. But all of my go-to aerobic activities require more than an hour’s commitment, and who has time for that during the work week? A half-hour is pretty much all I can squeeze in Monday through Friday, and I usually default to strength training via my Tone It Up app. So when I received an email about Crossrope‘s Infinity Rope system—a set of weighted jump-ropes billing itself as “the world’s most efficient workout,” with an obsessed community of over 75,000 fans on Facebook—I was intrigued. First of all, I was the queen of jump-roping at elementary school field day, and picking it up again sounded kinda fun. Then, there’s the fact that the system includes an at-home guided training app à la Peloton, with workouts as short as 10 minutes. (Although unlike Peloton, these are audio-only and not led by superstar instructors.) I can do anything for 10 minutes—including raising my heart
Take a look inside Karen Lord’s calming Venice Beach bungalow
December 28, 2018 at 05:00AM [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFOBDoZf7oU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281] If there’s anyone you should be taking notes from on how to create the ultimate healthy home, it’s Venice, California-based Pilates instructor Karen Lord. After walking up the potted cacti-lined stairs of her airy bungalow and taking a step inside, one thing instantly becomes clear: This rockstar trainer definitely practices what she preaches. Lord’s house is just as calming as she is during her Pilates sessions. The plant-filled oasis has an abundance of natural light, providing the ultimate mood-boost, whether she’s playing the guitar or sweating it out in her home studio (sometimes even with her pup!), which comes complete with a reformer and ladder barrel for spine exercises. And instead of filling every kitchen cabinet with plates and mugs, there’s one special area reserved for her self-proclaimed supplement addiction. “It’s a healthy addiction,” she says. And there are plenty of finds worth adding to your own collection as well. “This Quinton Hypertonic—they’re little glass vials, and it’s just sea water. When I get my period, I have really intense endometriosis on the first day, and this helps stave off the pain by raising my blood pressure.” As for her bedroom, Lord keeps things extra Zen by drawing the shades and, instead, getting a light glow—and all sorts of loving energy—from rose quartz lamps. With the help of an eye mask and a diffuser for her own special essential oils blend, it’s a seriously soothing space. “I put eucalyptus, frankincense, some lavender, and a little bit of citrus so