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Month: May 2019

2019 Health Fashion

How the keyhole became the swimsuit’s most functional feature

3 min read

May 01, 2019 at 06:00AM by CWC Swimming laps in the wrong type of bathing suit is the swimwear equivalent of playing with fire. Sure, bikinis look great in Instagram pictures, but the minute you attempt to wear one while performing the butterfly, you run the risk of flashing your top half, bottom half, or in the case of my eighth grade pool party, both at the same time. One pieces are problematic in an entirely different way, because they fill up with water and slow down your strokes. And don’t even get me started on tankinis, which deserve their own place in the 10th circle of hell. So what’s a burgeoning Katie Ledecky to do? Invest in a keyhole swimsuit, which I hereby declare to be the holy grail of all the fashions that are actually meant for swimming. You know the ones I’m talking about—those ultra-chic, yet functional, one pieces that have a circular-shaped cutout right below the boobs.  We love ’em because aside from giving the girls a little bit of understated airtime, the artfully placed hole allows for water to move in and out of the suit so it won’t get stuck and make you feel like a waterlogged—albeit well dressed—pufferfish. “We’ve used a keyhole construction on the front of our Peak Suit as a way to allow water to easily flow out below the bustline, says Shannon Savage, co-founder of Left on Friday. The brand also offers a suit with a keyhole in the back, which helps

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2019 Health City

Are you there, God? It’s me, a grown-ass woman trying to learn to love her period

10 min read

May 01, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC I got my first period at the underripe age of 10. I looked down into my sparkly, frog-print underwear from Limited Too one night, and there she was. I immediately started sobbing. By that point, I had already spent hours of my life poring over Judy Blume’s The Care and Keeping of You in anticipation of this exact moment, but even so, when push came to flow, I was confused, horrified, and embarrassed. Holy hell, was I embarrassed. Even though I was the only girl I knew who had been wearing deodorant and a training bra for two-plus years, I still figured I was years (light-years, even!) away from having to deal with cramps and mood swings and panty liners. After all, the average age for getting a first period is 12-and-a-half…guess I was advanced. Ugh. Aside from my mom, I didn’t tell a soul. I didn’t want to divert my friends’ attention from blissfully decorating their Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers and learning the since-forgotten art of cursive. I didn’t want anyone to know my mom had to teach me how to use tampons during spring break so I could take my cool new tankini for a spin in the water without the scene looking like an outtake from Jaws. I wanted total anonymity because I felt like a freak. For years. Even when the rest of my friends eventually got their periods, I never got totally comfortable with the notion of my

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2019 Health Vegetarians

6 benefits of peaches that make me really want it to be summer already

5 min read

May 01, 2019 at 04:00AM by CWC Few sweet snacks embody summer quite like a peach. Feeling the soft fuzz against your upper lip, its slight tartness hitting your tongue, and sweet juice dripping from the corners of your mouth onto your hands are what warm backyard nights are made of. However, peaches have a lot more to offer than just that summertime feeling (although that’s definitely a big plus, IMO). Here, integrative and functional dietitian Nour Zibdeh, MS, RDN, CLT, explains what exactly it is about peaches that makes them so good for you. What are the benefits of peaches? 1. Peaches are a good source of vitamin C. Sorry oranges, you aren’t the only fruit in town good for this. One medium-sized peach has 10 milligrams of the important antioxidant (about 13 percent of your recommended daily intake). “This is good for the immune system, reducing free radical oxidative damage, and reducing the risk for chronic diseases,” Zibdeh says. 2. They’re full of vitamin A. Zibdeh points to peaches’ high vitamin A content as another reason why the fruit is a healthy win. “Vitamin A is important for healthy skin and eyes, reducing inflammation, and boosting the immune system,” she says. “It’s also needed for building a healthy gut lining which is going to help fend off pathogens that we might encounter in our food or environment.” Carrots tend to get all the attention when it comes to vitamin A, but as Zibdeh points out, it’s far from the

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2019 Health

Talking about sex is SO much easier with this step-by-step guide

10 min read

May 01, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC Why can it be so difficult to talk about sex? Well, for starters, it’s because our culture doesn’t really encourage it. Here, sex expert and relationship coach Lila Darville points out how to begin solving this problem—and start to enjoy sex more—in her latest for the Well+Good Council. There is this idea that great lovers shouldn’t talk and instead just know exactly what they are doing. But the truth is that the most skillful lovers are the ones who are attuned to themselves and their lovers—and they are asking great questions. To have great sex, you have to talk about it. This is a new paradigm of sexuality. It’s a different mindset from what we have picked up from our culture, media, and porn, where sex looks like it flows seamlessly. The reality is, asking for what we want is something that all of us don’t do enough in every area of our lives. To have great sex, you have to talk about it. We don’t ask for what we want because it is scary. We are scared of being rejected, ruining the moment, displeasing or hurting someone, and here’s a big one: We’re scared of actually getting what we want. Fear stops us from diving fully into relationships, from communicating, from requesting what we desire, from knowing what we desire, and from getting what we need to feel safe so that we can authentically be in pleasure. On any given day our

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2019 Health

If your lower back is sore, this is the sneaky place you might not be stretching enough

4 min read

May 01, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC Despite the fact that I’m teetering on the edge of 30, I often come home from work with the same issues that a full-on grandma would have. “Alexa, my back hurts,” I complain to the closest thing I have to a roommate (bonus points: she doesn’t complain about my incessant complaining). And it’s true: After spending over eight hours a day hunched over my laptop, things start to hurt—so much so I’ve spent many an evening on the couch with a hot water bottle parked above my derriere. And while I’m cool spending my weeknights acting like an 85-year-old (hot tea, Turner Classic Movies, and single-serving candies? Um, yes please), I would prefer to have my bodily issues act my age, thank you very much. While my heating pad admittedly helps with my lower back issues to some degree, there’s one other thing I should be doing to help ease the pain, and that’s stretching—but not necessarily the way you’d think. “More often than not, a tight or sore muscle is caused by a problem elsewhere,” says Brad Walker, founder of StretchLab. “The lower back is one of the most common areas where people experience consistent chronic pain, and one of the most common causes of this pain is tight hip flexors. When the muscles in the front of your body, around your hips and quads, became tight and restrictive, they pull your hips out of alignment, which puts a lot of strain on

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