Day: March 11, 2019

March 11, 2019 at 12:46PM by CWC All the job opportunities and institutional knowledge you could ever need will suddenly be revealed to you, you think, if only you could find a mentor. Ehhh, not so fast. In this week’s Good@Work column, all-around boss Amy Odell—whom you may know as the former editor (AKA HBIC) of Cosmopolitan.com and founding blogger of New York magazine’s The Cut—shares why, when it comes to career advice, mentorship might be the biggest myth out there. Question: I love my boss and my job, but feel I would really gain insight from having a more senior person in my industry as my mentor outside my company. Do you have any recommendations on how to find someone? Answer: The idea that you need a work mentor, that your professional life will be somehow stifled or unfulfilled without an older, allegedly wiser person waiting in the wings for whenever you think you need advice, is a load of crap. I understand why you and many other young professionals (particularly women) feel this way. The idea that you Need a Mentor like you Need an Annual Physical is drilled into your brain by cliché’d “boss babe” books written by professional personalities who don’t know what work is actually like and random articles you find when you Google “how to negotiate for a raise,” also probably written by people who don’t know what work is actually like. Or maybe you got this idea from your career services department at school, which would be of better service to

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March 11, 2019 at 11:31AM by CWC When I first overheard my colleagues discussing the benefits of “worm tea,” I nearly gagged. The idea of sipping on a warm cup of slimy invertebrates gave me the creeps, I don’t care how healthy it is. But unlike chamomile or hibiscus varieties (and much to my relief), this tea isn’t for you. It’s for your indoor garden. While the name of the beverage would suggest that you might find full-sized earthworms wiggling about a vat of brown stew, Jim Shaw, founder and owner of Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, explains that the process is a little more complicated. “Worm tea is ultimately the end result of steeping worm castings or vermicompost in water,” Shaw writes on his website. “Worm tea is known mostly for its ability to boost microbiological activity in soil by adding bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, and protozoa to the soil.” When I ask him to translate for those of us just developing our green thumbs, he tells me that quite simply that it’s a fertilizer to make you feel like a plant-whisperer. So, if you’re flirting with fiddle leaf figs for the first time, worm tea is the key to vibrant greenery. Once you’ve obtained the worm castings (which, of course, you can purchase on Amazon), it’s easy to DIY your own tea bag. “Take a porous bag—a big burlap bag or a small burlap bag or whatever—and load it with scoops or shovelfuls of the dirt that the worms

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March 11, 2019 at 11:00AM by CWC If you’ve ever seen a Hallmark Christmas movie set in New York City, you likely know that ice skating in Rockefeller Center is just about one of the most festive things you can do during the winter time. Despite living here for six years of my adult life, though, I’d never actually done it. I talked about it all winter, every winter, to anyone who was willing to listen, but every time it seemed like it was actually going to happen, the massive crowds and freezing temps stopped me in my tracks…and so did the fact that I didn’t know how to ice skate. So when I got an e-mail inviting me to take an early morning skating lesson at the Rink at Rockefeller Center with former Olympic figure skater Jojo Starbuck, I was positively giddy with excitement. I was going to be the next Tara Lipinski (or Jonathan Van Ness), and I couldn’t wait.  When I showed up to the semi-private class at quarter of 7 a.m. on a freezing Tuesday morning in the middle of February, I was blown away by the fact that the movie-famous attraction was completely empty. It was totally devoid of the usual tourists that tend to swarm to the area all winter long, and when I laced up my skates and hit the rink (…is that a thing actual skaters say?) I was one of only nine people on the ice, all of whom were there to skate

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March 11, 2019 at 10:24AM by CWC Now that we’ve all “leapt forward” in time, having been robbed of a precious hour of sleep (thank you so much, daylight savings time), the pre-spring excitement has commenced. Even though the seasonal switcheroo isn’t quite calendar official, we’re all thinking of the best ways to avoid the colds and outfit confusion during the early days of spring. According to the ancient science of Ayurveda, what happens with the changing seasons is aptly called a “glitch.” You can navigate it seamlessly with a cleanse of easily digested foods amplified by spring-specific vegetables and aromatic spices. (Pssst! If you cringed at the word “cleanse,” fear not. Think of this as more of a reset or a reboot. The dishes you eat during the glitch are more cozy and satisfying than, say, green juice.) “We do these nutritive, light cleanses throughout the year in Ayurveda,” says Laura Coburn, certified Ayurveda yoga specialist and director of serenity at The Inns of Aurora in New York State. “The energy of spring will [soon] be upon us and this is a very verdant time. It’s very rich with moisture and growth, and there’s a heaviness to the air.” Since we’re all part of nature—it’s true!—Ayurveda teaches that we, too, have springtime blooming inside of us. If we take the time to take care of our bodies properly throughout this inner and outer-metamorphosis, Coburn explains that we’re helping the “agni,” or the digestive fire of the bodies burn out what’s left of winter

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March 11, 2019 at 09:56AM by CWC This weekend, I broke the cardinal rule of beauty. I fell asleep in my makeup. After a Saturday night out with girlfriends, I zonked out on the couch with a full face of foundation, eyeshadow, and mascara—the works. When I woke up the next morning, my eyes were not only glued shut, but my face felt greasy, gross, and dirty AF. As someone who spends upwards of 30 minutes a day taking care of her skin, this was more than enough to make me cringe. I immediately launched into panic mode, knowing that there was only a matter of time before a massive breakout showed up all over my face. Was there anything I could do, I wondered, to prevent the (seemingly inevitable) fallout? “The best initial step after waking up is to remove the makeup with micellar water, and then gently exfoliate,” says Dr. Ted Lain, a dermatologist based in Austin, Texas. “Do not scrub your face vigorously; this will over-exfoliate and worsen any underlying inflammation, as well as increase the risk for acne.” Dr. Jennifer David of Schweiger Dermatology Group in Northfield, New Jersey, confirms this method of triage, noting that micellar water will act as a mild surfactant to get rid of excess dirt and oil. She also recommends following up with a second gentle cleansing step before exfoliating. Basically, micellar water, gentle cleanser, and light exfoliation = good; hardcore scrubbing = bad. Since this seems like a fairly quick

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March 11, 2019 at 08:49AM by CWC You do push-ups primarily to increase arm strength and tone those triceps. When you want to train the rest of your body, you whip out the squats, planks, and burpees. But there’s a way to work your upper and lower body with TRX push-ups. You just need the right equipment. When it comes to push-ups, evidently the most popular and well-known version (on the floor) isn’t the best you can be doing. In an older study, published in the Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness, researchers compared push-ups done on the floor to those utilizing wobble boards, stability disks, fitness domes, and TRX suspension trainers. It was no competition. GQ reports that while the other instability devices did help the exercise hit more muscle groups, performing a push-up while suspended in the air was by-far the best way to fire up the lower body. Now, finding a TRX suspension trainer isn’t nearly as easy as grabbing an exercise ball at the gym. But if you do have access, you’ll feel the lower-body effects immediately. In the video below, Nike trainer and certified TRX instructor Joselynne Boschen explains exactly how to perform the exercise. Start by standing with your knuckles in line with your shoulders and slowly bend your arms into a push-up position, then straighten them to bring yourself back up. Once you want to add more difficulty, step back a couple feet and perform the push-ups at more of an angle. Instead of just your arms aching after you’re finished, you’ll be

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