September 27, 2019 at 11:37PM by CWC Most people either have a nail salon horror story, or they know someone who has had one. As someone whose nail upkeep could at best be described as “minimal” (at worst “negligent”), I fall into the latter category. There’s nothing quite like your friend texting you unsolicited pictures of her infected cuticles to make you not want to go to a nail salon. (See also: tales I’ve heard of nail fungus.) But that doesn’t mean you need to forego manicures altogether. There are a few ways to tell if your nail salon is running a tight ship—meaning sanitary and clean. “To ensure your manicurist is using healthy and clean tools, you should ask how the tools are being sanitized,” says Evelyn Lim, chief educator of Paintbox. I cannot stress this enough, but in what world is it okay to reuse tools that have literally been shaving and cutting part of someone’s body without sanitizing them? No world. Your salon should absolutely not be doing this. It seems like a no-brainer, but apparently this is a thing that happens. “Tools should be scrubbed with germicidal soap and submerged in hospital grade Barbicide for 10 minutes as a standard,” Lim adds. What’s more, many nail salons have UV sterilizing equipment in plain sight, which can help to kill bacteria that lurk on reused tools. Look for those, too. She adds that a major red flag your nail salon isn’t clean: If you see them reusing
Month: September 2019
One-pan baked zoodles never looked (or tasted) better
September 27, 2019 at 11:30PM by CWC Don’t hate me, but I’m just going to say it: As amazing as veggie noodles may be, you can only eat so many of them before every meal turns into a total snoozefest. Even with all the different sauces that pair perfectly with zoodles, boodles, and swoodles (yep, those are very real names… Google it!). I’ve been praying to the pasta gods for an upgrade. And it looks like I’ve finally been granted with a dinner game-changer. I came across a veggie noodle recipe that takes the dish to the next level with essentially no extra effort at all. Lauren Kirchmaier, the recipe developer behind Flora & Vino, places veggie noodles on baking sheet and roast them in the oven. Roasting veggie noodles is speedy and also adds depth to the flavor flavor. Kirchmaier uses the one-pan method to limit the amount of cleanup. She spreads out beet noodles, sweet potato noodles, and zucchini noodles on a baking sheet with some chickpeas, for good measure. But the options are endless when it comes to this meal. “Feel free to add an extra color to the veggie rainbow, or substitute in your favorite veggie noodle. I think butternut squash, turnip noodles, or daikon radish noodles would be great here, too,” she writes on her blog. After about 25 minutes in the oven, the veggies are tender and ready to eat. This time, however, you should ditch the pasta sauce and drizzle on Kirchmaier’s topping of
Overtraining Can Lead You To Make Worse Decisions—New Study Says.
September 27, 2019 at 11:00PM Protect your brain—don’t overtrain. Continue Reading… Author Ray Bass, NASM-CPT | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC
Low-impact ‘triplets’ offer stress relief on your most taxing days
September 27, 2019 at 10:56PM by CWC I rarely think about my mental state before I choose my workout of the day. My go-go-go Aries mentality usually makes me gravitate towards difficult runs or muscle-quaking strength training—regardless of my current headspace. When Maillard Howell, owner of CrossFit Prospect Heights and founder of the The Beta Way, posted that he goes for low-impact workouts on low-energy days, I was intrigued. Should we all be turning to less strenuous moves on days that are mentally tough? The trainer tells me that the one word answer is “abso-freakin’-lutely.” For him, a bad night of sleep is a deal-breaker when it comes to high-impact, laborious workouts. So on days following a not-stellar night of rest, he’ll opt for something more chill. “I feel really good when I’m well-rested. Am I able to perform even when I’m not well-rested? Yeah, maybe 70 percent of the time. But sometimes when you have a really bad session, it’s best to just pack it in,” he says. In the battle between what’s most important for your well-being, sleep always wins over exercise (just ask experts). “There’s a fine line between being totally sedentary and keeping the body moving and feeling good.” —Maillard Howell, owner of CrossFit Prospect Heights Beyond the sleep aspect, there are other reasons you may choose a recovery-focused workout over an intense cardio or weights session. Let’s say a day at work has left you wiped. That means you already have a great deal of the stress hormone, cortisol,
10 Of Our All-Time Favorite Ways To Make Your Bedroom Better For Sleep
September 27, 2019 at 10:36PM We’ve heard a lot of sleep tips over the years, and these are our favorites. Continue Reading… Author Emma Loewe | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC
The people with the most positive relationships in the world share 1 trait
September 27, 2019 at 10:30PM by CWC There’s a cliché that you can’t love someone if you don’t love yourself, and sure, there’s some merit to it, but as with all clichés, there are also serious limitations involved. That said, science is doing its darnedest to prove me wrong. According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, self-esteem is the key to having great relationships—social, romantic, professional, and otherwise. Furthermore, boosting self-esteem is an effect of these positive relationships. This synergistic conclusion was reached after analyzing 53 studies from 13 globe-spanning nations with more than 46,000 participating who ranged in age from 4 to 77. Suffice it to say the sample size was pretty robust. Each study identified a link between great relationships and high self-esteem, time and time again. The results do make sense; for instance, one study notes people with high self-esteem are more caring and attentive listeners—and who wouldn’t want a friend who can lend an ear with Van Gogh-like readiness? Everyone feels satisfied and loved and fulfilled in this scenario, which caters to, yep, boosting self-esteem. The conflict to contend with is the reality that many people have low self-esteem, because the cyclical nature of this positive-relationship-high-self-esteem finding, the loop is closed to that whole population. While I can’t change the results of this heartwarming if not psychologically exclusive finding, I can advise a few tips for boosting self-esteem from subterranean levels, thus opening you to the bliss of positive relationships. Because though self-esteem is
Heal your chakras in the most colorful way using rainbow crystal light therapy
September 27, 2019 at 10:00PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjOkoLEX46Y] Curious about what to expect from a full-sensory crystal light energy treatment? Watch the video to find out. It’s hardly new that crystals are a wellness-world staple for healing. But in the latest episode of What the Wellness, Well+Good’s YouTube series that investigates whether practices weird or worth it (or both), video producer Ella Dove ratchets things up a notch by getting a seriously intense crystal light energy treatment. Meet MODRN Sanctuary’s Sensory 7 Light Sound Energy Therapy treatment, a luxe experience that utilizes every hue of the rainbow…and then some. To give you a…sense…of what to expect, the crystal-focused treatment combines seven healing modalities into one: vibration therapy, sound therapy with binaural beats, frequency therapy, magnetic therapy, an infrared Biomat, chromotherapy, and crystals with reiki. No worries if those aforementioned words don’t offer you too much meaning; Alexis Alvarez, the intuitive energy worker and spiritual advisor who administers the crystal light healing treatment, can clear the air. Take for instance, chromotherapy, which she says is an ancient science. “It’s just the idea of colors as a general energy being a therapeutic benefit to us,” Alvarez says. “We use the rainbow of lights, or the visible light spectrum, so that’s the energy that we can see, which relates to the chakras. Each chakra is a different color, so we’re basically lining up that appropriate color with the appropriate chakra center.” That means that if Dove is feeling exhausted (and seriously, who
6 bra styles that every woman should own by the time she hits 30, according to a lingerie pro
September 27, 2019 at 09:48PM by CWC I have long aspired to be the kind of woman who has a bra wardrobe. It just feels so… adult. In this fantasy, I also don’t have clean clothes piled on top of every available surface in my apartment aside from my actual closet, and can keep plants alive for longer than a few days. It’s a nice daydream, but I wouldn’t even know where to start. But, baby steps. To find out how to pursue my dreams of becoming a grown-ass woman with a bra-drobe, I consulted luxe lingerie brand Fleur du Mal‘s founder, Jennifer Zuccarini, who recommends having at least five bras to cover the basics… and at least one just for fun. “A strong lingerie drawer should have closer to 10 or 15. If you wear a bra every day, they will last much longer if you rotate wear,” she says. In other words, wearing the same nude t-shirt bra all day, every day, is highly *not* encouraged. Whoops. I have two real bras and an assortment of bralettes that I somehow manage to always misplace even though my apartment is like 500 square feet, so I’ve clearly got a ways to go. But to get started, Zuccarini suggests adding the following bras to your collection. Photo: Fleur du Mal 1. An everyday bra: Fleur du Mal Satin Scooped Balconette Bra, $108 …. But not like, a boring one. Zuccarini says to get one that’s “smooth and feels great against
The most hydrating thing to drink after a workout isn’t water
September 27, 2019 at 06:30PM by CWC You know those times when you’re, like, really thirsty and water suddenly tastes like the nectar of the gods? If you want to rehydrate after a particularly sweaty workout—and fast—your first instinct might be to turn on the tap and guzzle glass after glass of H2O. But a new study published in the The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that milk (gasp) might be the better option. Researchers at St. Andrews University in Scotland investigated the rehydration effects of 13 different beverages on 72 male test subjects by measuring their urine output and fluid balance. When you’re just putzing around and living your daily life, the research indicted that sparkling or still water will suit your hydration needs just fine. In the aftermath of a particularly tough HIIT session or training run, however, skim milk reigns supreme. And there’s a really fun, science-y reason what that’s the case. Study author Ronald Maughan, PhD, a professor at St. Andrews’ School of Medicine, tells CNN that milk’s post-workout merits are due to the fact it contains sugar lactose, protein, and fat, which slow down the natural process of your body emptying fluid from the stomach. These three components perfectly combine to help you stay hydrated over a longer period of time. The sodium in milk also helps your body hold the water and keeps it from producing as much urine. Ranking right after skim milk was oral rehydration tablets, full-fat milk, orange juice, cola, diet
Your Apple Watch now gives the most important skin advice you’ll ever need
September 27, 2019 at 05:50PM by CWC When you first get your hands on an Apple Watch, it’s perfectly natural to feel bogged down by all the features. I mean, the heart-tracking metrics alone make my head spin. (Resting heart rate, who?) When it comes to protecting your skin though, there’s a number hiding in the face of the Apple Watch Series 5 that dermatologists really, really want you to pay attention to: the UV index. “The UV index is a measure of the strength of [ultraviolet] rays reaching the surface of the earth at a particular time and location,” Joshua Zeichner, MD, a New York City-based dermatologist, previously told Well+Good. “The higher the UV index, the more powerful the UV rays are and the more likely our skin is to get sunburned.” To find this metric in the wearable, search for a new watch face under the Face Gallery tab of the Watch app and look for the little sun icon with a number floating somewhere around it (or, you can simply check the weather app). Once you know the number, consult the World Health Organization (WHO) breakdown. It rates UV rays as follows: low (1-2), moderate (3-5), high (6-7), very high (8-10), and extreme (11 or more). Depending on the how high that number on your Apple Watch skyrockets, you’ll need to protect your largest organ in various different way (please see the cute chart below for details). Obviously, you should be wearing sunscreen every day (rain or