February 01, 2019 at 11:12AM by CWC We’ve reached that part of winter where it’s no longer magical or festive—it’s just cold, a little miserable, and overall pretty meh feeling. There’s, therefore, no better time to escape the gloomy routine of your day-to-day life by taking an affordable winter vacation that doesn’t totally undo your 2019 financial goals or blow your budget. How should you plan a budget-friendly getaway and where should you go? For women always on the go like Ally Betker, editorial director of Away, the millennial travel brand known for its covetable hard-case luggage, it starts with getting “great recommendations through friends and people I follow on my Instagram feed” in addition to finding inspiration from people local to places you might find yourself visiting. Then Betker says that she usually tries “figuring out a few places that I know I want to visit, and then I’ll set up flight alerts on Hopper to keep an eye on prices.” Betker also recommends having an account on Scott’s Cheap Flights and checking in regularly to find amazing last-minute deals. Once you have your flight locked into place, “Airbnb is great for finding the perfect place to stay at nearly any budget. Try staying a bit further outside the main city to find even cheaper places—you’ll likely find a few places to eat or see that might be off the beaten path, too,” she tells me. And to get around the Polar Vortex grounding your flight or dealing with
Month: February 2019
Everything You’ve Wanted To About CBD + Sex, Explained
January 31, 2019 at 11:00PM Women Are Using This Plant-Based Arousal Oil For Better Sex + Orgasms — Here’s Why Continue Reading… Author | Life by Daily Burn Selected by iversue
This Is Why You Should Eat More Vegan Meals (Beyond Free Beyoncé Tickets For Life)
February 01, 2019 at 09:33AM It starts with you. Continue Reading… Author Caroline Muggia | Life by Daily Burn Selected by iversue
This school’s vending machine drops knowledge instead of sweets
February 01, 2019 at 09:37AM by CWC When I was in school, the vending machines in the cafeteria offered little more than an assortment of prepackaged snack foods—sodas, candy bars, potato chips. But about 40 miles north of Orlando, in Central Florida, the principal of Umatilla Elementary School has introduced her students to a novel concept. With the addition of a book vending machine, sweet treats have officially been replaced by good reads. “The idea was to create some excitement around reading and to give students the opportunity to have books they could keep, no just check out from the library to be returned,” says UES principal Diane Dwyer. “These are their ‘forever books.’ They choose the books and take them home.” “These are their ‘forever books.’ They can choose the books and take them home.” —UES principal Diane Dwyer No need to struggle with a crinkled dollar bill, Umatilla’s book vending machine only accepts Bulldog Bucks, school currency honoring the mascot and earned with good behavior or completed assignments. “The majority of our population comes from low-income families, so a lot of times students don’t have the opportunity to purchase books that they get to keep for their own,” Dwyer tells me. In the first day of operation, the machine sold more than 100 books, and now UES is turning to the community for donations. Photo: Umatilla Elementary School A look through the glass of the visionary vending machine reveals titles like Kathryn Lasky’s Guardians of Ga’Hoole, Jim Benton’s Dear Dumb Diary, and
We’re calling it: 2019 will be the year of even more “alt-meats”
February 01, 2019 at 09:04AM by CWC It’s 2019 and honestly, there’s never been a better time to cut back on meat. It wasn’t all that long ago (seriously it was like, four years ago) when your meatless options were…well, just veggie patties and fake meat hot dogs. Not very tempting, TBH. Fortunately for vegans and vegetarians, the many alternative meat products now available no longer taste like cardboard—and the ingredients list doesn’t take up the whole back of the packaging. But the food industry has been so innovative in the sustainable meat and meat substitute departments that change is happening faster than consumers—and the Food and Drug Administration—can keep up with. Between vegan burgers that “bleed” just like real meat, to chicken breasts and beef patties grown in a lab from the cells of livestock, it’s complicated, and the lines between what’s truly meat and what isn’t are getting blurred. Three brands in particular are innovating at lightning speed: Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, and JUST. Consider this your comprehensive guide to the trendiest of alt-meats, breaking down everything that goes into bringing these products to life. Besides intel straight from the companies themselves, a food advocate and a registered dietitian also share their thoughts. Because like we said: It’s complicated. Confused by all the new “meat” options out there? Here’s everything you need to know. Photo: Beyond Meat; Graphic: Well+Good Creative Beyond Meat With a product line including plant-based burgers, sausage, chicken strips, and beef crumbles, Beyond Meat gets a
6 simple exercises that are *way* more effective with resistance bands
February 01, 2019 at 08:54AM by CWC You don’t need to spend big bucks on fancy gym equipment to get into the best shape of your life. In fact, one of the best tools at your disposal is completely affordable, easy to pack for trips, and incredibly versatile. We’re talking about how to use resistance bands. If you follow trainer Rhys Athayde on Instagram, you’ll quickly notice that he incorporates resistance bands into more than a few movements. As the chief experience officer and founding trainer of Dogpound, he works with a long list of celebrities who swear by them, including Josephine Skriver and Jasmine Tookes. Aside from building workouts around the weights and machines in his New York City studio, Athayde’s easy strength-training routines are made more challenging with the addition of a resistance band. From abdominal exercises to booty workouts, and everything in between, a little added resistance goes a long way. How to use resistance bands and really feel the burn 1. Bicycle crunches View this post on Instagram Lose EXCUSES, find RESULTS. @noelcapri #DOGPOUND A post shared by Rhys Athayde (@rjathayde) on Jan 31, 2019 at 11:01am PST //www.instagram.com/embed.js Bicycle crunches already bring on the burn, but a resistance band really makes you feel it in your obliques. 2. Treadmill side steps View this post on Instagram ALL THE WAY UP. @roosmarijndekok A post shared by Rhys Athayde (@rjathayde) on Jan 24, 2019 at 9:01am PST //www.instagram.com/embed.js Tired of your usual treadmill routine? Slip a resistance band around your thighs, just above
Hyperpigmentation is notoriously hard to battle—but a derm says it’s possible
February 01, 2019 at 08:43AM by CWC I used to think that getting rid of acne was hard. Then, I had to get rid of what acne left behind: hyperpigmentation. Hyperpigmentation is darkening of certain spots on skin compared to the rest of the complexion. Truth be told, there are plenty of ways that hyperpigmentation can occur, but whatever the cause, it’s traditionally difficult to deal with. “There are 3 major causes of hyperpigmentation,” says Heather Woolery-Lloyd, MD, a Miami-based dermatologist. “One is dark spots from pimples in adult women—it’s from female adult acne. The other is melasma, which shows up as brown patches on the cheeks usually. And the other is general uneven skin tone, which happens as the skin changes with age.” Thankfully, there are various methods out there that can help, and no surprise here: Sunscreen is at the top of the list. “The sun really drives those processes in the skin, and when you cut off its exposure, it allows your skin to heal,” says Dr. Woolery-Lloyd. “Treating pigment without sunscreen is like pushing a rock uphill—you can try all day but without SPF nothing will be effective.” So slather on the SPF and keep on scrolling for the intel on how to tackle all the different types of hyperpigmentation. Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) Had acne? Yeah, then you’re probably familiar with post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, which is just a scientific term for those pesky dark spots that show up once a zit goes away. “These dark spots occur after a pimple
SOS: I’m a health-conscious person, and my biggest turn-on is smoking cigarettes
February 01, 2019 at 08:12AM by CWC I’ll ignore everything I know about tobacco and health to watch the object of my desire wrap their mouth around a cigarette à la a ’60s-era advertisement (or Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca). I know that cigarettes are behind many of the estimated 480,000 deaths related to tobacco each year in the United States, and yet, I’m into smokers. My attraction is certainly at odds with my identity as a CrossFit athlete and as a health and wellness writer, but again and again, I lust after James Dean types and their ashtray-scented skin. My biggest turn-on though, according to experts, doesn’t paint me as a hypocritical hack. Phew. “Many of the things that that we are aroused by bring up a sense of nostalgia or comfort,” says Liz Powell, PsyD, a sex educator, coach and licensed psychologist. Well, a quick stroll down memory lane reminds me that my first significant other was a smoker. (Check, nostalgia. Check, comfort.) The first time we kissed, we were in her car listening to Bright Eyes (don’t @ me—I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning is a quality album) while she smoked and then put out the flame on the dashboard. A string of smokers followed in her trail of cigarette butts, and they all contributed to cultivating my attraction to people who light up. But most notably and enduringly, there was J, who had been smoking for close to 20 years when we connected. Throughout our year together, her habit (nay, addiction)
What the “four temperaments” theory can tell you about your personality
February 01, 2019 at 07:49AM by CWC You’ve gotten some insight from Myers-Briggs, but do you know which of the four temperaments from Ancient Greek medicine aligns with your disposition? Consider this the Mediterranean diet of personality tests—a palatable questionnaire that can provide healthy insight into how you communicate in relationships, best use your skills at work, and what your personal needs are. Greek physician Hippocrates believed that humans could be divided into four temperaments—distinct yet overlapping personality types. These temperaments—Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, and Melancholic—are based on “humors,” bodily fluids within the microcosm of the body that cause illness if imbalanced. Hippocrates incorporated these beliefs into his medical teachings. While the theory of humorism has been widely discredited and debunked by modern psychology, a temperaments test was used thousands of year ago as the underpinnings of medical diagnoses in Ancient Greece. Like any good personality type indicator, this one involves a fun quiz. Here’s what each of the four temperaments means , once you get your results: Sanguine: If you have a Sanguine temperament, chances are that you’re a people-person. You like being in a lively environment, so if you’re feeing bored at work, it could be because you’re not interacting with people enough. A sampling of some things Sanguines are good at: group sports, business, politics, and entertainment. Phlegmatic: Phlegmatic temperaments love to help people and often work in service-oriented jobs, such as health care or hospitality. They’re pretty mellow and go-with-the-flow. Phlegmatics are great to be around in a crisis because they aren’t
We can’t stop wondering: Why are Birkenstocks so popular right now?
February 01, 2019 at 05:34AM by CWC There are two types of people in the world—people who love Birkenstocks and people who hate them. I’m staunchly in the latter camp. But I have to admit, I’m curious. Both classic Birkenstocks and their high fashion iterations are so popular at the moment, that it begs the question: Why now—more than 50 years after the company sold its first pair of cork-soled sandals? Style influencers and designers anointing them an “it” shoe a couple years ago has something to do with it. After Phoebe Philo (R.I.P. old Celine) sent her fur-laden versions down the runway in 2012, Birkenstocks began making a comeback. It’s not just granola hippies who are wearing them, either—it’s celebrities, models, and lots of women who don’t work in fashion from Los Angeles to New York City. And things don’t show any signs of slowing down—in the last two months alone Birkenstock has rolled out collaborations with high fashion cult-favorites Opening Ceremony and Rick Owens. There are people, many of whom sit feet away from me in this very office, who wear Birkenstocks religiously, who love them, and who only swap them out for real shoes when a polar vortex hits—sometimes, not even then; they just invest in fuzzy versions or slip their OGs on with a cozy pair of socks. So, in an effort to understand the appeal of Birkenstocks circa 2019, I set up a slack roundtable with a few of my coworkers—video producer Ella Dove, associate fitness and beauty editor Rachel Lapidos, and