October 22, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC Now that I have a what feels like a part-time job training for the New York Marathon, my fleet of recovery tools have swiftly become my most-prized possessions. Like a mother with many talented children, I’ll never admit which one’s my favorite. What I will say is that only one is tiny-yet-mighty enough to warrant carrying it with me wherever I go. Everyone, please allow me to introduce Gaiam’s Restore Mini On-The-Go Muscle Massager ($9). I was introduced to this palm-sized accessory during a recent visit to New York City’s Stretch*d studio. While I cherish my foam roller and can’t rave enough about my Theragun, neither is exactly, well, portable. The restore mini kind of resembles a small chew toy intended for a dog, but it’s equipped to massage out the knots in your biceps, back, hamstrings, calves, and more. Gaiam even offers a massage guide, but it feels great pretty much anywhere on your body. Bethany Chang, my “stretch*r”, tells me that the mini-roller’s ridges let it go deep (and I mean deep) into the tensest parts of your muscles. “The small ridges on the roller allow it to get into deeper layers of muscle, whereas a traditional foam roller with a smooth surface hits the muscles more superficially. The inconsistent surface area, coupled with the smaller size of this tool, allows you to get deeper into more specific points,” she says. What it’s like to get professionally stretched: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQrwJp2E4Rc] Chang loves
Day: October 21, 2019
Research Finds These Mediterranean Diet Foods Protect The Gut Microbiome
October 21, 2019 at 11:43PM It’s good to go Mediterranean. Continue Reading… Author Jamie Schneider | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC
Why OB/GYNs say it’s so important to get a flu shot when you’re pregnant
October 21, 2019 at 10:02PM by CWC With flu season now in full swing, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that about 65 percent of women who are pregnant haven’t received the influenza vaccine this year. The nation’s health protection agency recommends flu shots during any trimester of pregnancy to safeguard the health of both mother and unborn child. Getting a flu shot when pregnant is in fact the safest choice. “I want to reinforce that all expectant mothers should be up-to-date with recommended vaccinations as part of their routine prenatal care,” says CDC director Robert Redfield, MD. Women who are pregnant arguably need the flu shot more than anyone else, says Kecia Gaither, MD, a double board-certified OB/GYN. “In a pregnant woman, the immune system downgrades, and changes to lung function predispose them to getting the flu,” she says. “But when mothers who receive the flu shot, they pass some of that immunity to the baby via the placenta—thus helping to provide immunity to the baby for the first few months of life.” The CDC’s case for vaccination is compelling. Pregnant women are more than twice as likely to be hospitalized if they contract the flu during pregnancy as compared to women who are not pregnant. “Since 2010, among women ages 15 to 44 years who were hospitalized for influenza, 24 percent to 34 percent of them were pregnant—even though only approximately 9 percent of U.S. women in this age group are pregnant at any given
4 moves to loosen up your lower half if you’re dealing with restless legs
October 21, 2019 at 09:19PM by CWC If you have restless legs syndrome, you know the feeling: It’s been a long day and all you can imagine doing is settling on the couch to catch up on your fave Netflix show. As soon as you sit down, your legs start tingling and aching and then your blissful TV sesh is interrupted by the fact that your legs are screaming at you to move around. Sound familiar? “Restless legs syndrome is ultimately a slightly impulsive and erratic electrical signal in the lower nerves of the spine,” says Eric Goodman, DC, chiropractor and creator of Foundation Training. “Symptoms often worsen as you get neurologically tired, so typically it’s worse at the end of the day, and of course, while you’re trying to sleep.” You can still take actionable steps to help ease the urge to move. “It’s very important to continue to work out when you have restless legs syndrome, but it’s even more important to not overexert yourself or push yourself hard. You should only do you exercise to a point where you don’t feel aches or fatigue, and avoid overtraining the muscles,” says Nonna Gleyzer, founder of Los Angeles-based Pilates studio, Body By Nonna. That means low impact workouts that don’t involve a lot of repetitions are great options since they don’t over-fatigue your muscles (which can aggravate the symptoms). Gleyzer also suggests exercise like restorative yoga, stretching, or light walking since they can help relax your nervous system and calm
7 delicious vegetarian slow cooker recipes that practically do the cooking for you
October 21, 2019 at 09:15PM by CWC Having a slow cooker is basically like having a private chef. You do the prepping in the morning by putting all the ingredients into the Crock-Pot or Instant Pot, and when you return home after work, there’s a healthy and delicious meal waiting for you—one you hardly remember putting together. Instead of trying to find the energy to cook yourself something after a long day, dinner is served. Vegetarian slow cooker recipes are the easiest way to add more plant-based dishes into your routine. When you load it up with veggies and spices and let those flavors get to know each other throughout the day, you’ll be left with a final product that’s just as healthy as it is satisfying. And these cozy meals are a great place to start. Vegetarian slow cooker recipes that are just as easy as they are healthy Photo: Two Peas & Their Pod 1. Slow cooker black bean tortilla soup Vegetarian tortilla soup? Count me in. This version contains a wide variety of healthy veggies, including onion, bell peppers, black beans, tomatoes, and corn. Photo: Inspiralized 2. Crockpot cauliflower bolognese with zucchini noodles Pro tip: You can make a hearty bolognese sauce using cauliflower. And when you pour it over zucchini noodles, game over. Photo: Gimme Some Oven 3. Lemony lentil soup Loaded with flavor, this lentil soup gets an energizing zest from the addition of lemon for a unique—and a mouth-watering!—twist on the classic. Photo: Jessica
The 10 Biggest Health Food Trends of 2020, According To Whole Foods
October 21, 2019 at 08:46PM If you thought the food and beverage industry couldn’t get more innovative, think again. Continue Reading… Author Jamie Schneider | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC
4 signs it’s time to get rid of old faithful—your beloved, falling-apart bra
October 21, 2019 at 08:44PM by CWC I remember the very first time I retired a bra. Purchased in the the tween section of Target, what was once a beautiful neon-pink number with gold stars had degraded into a faded, stretched out shadow of its former self. Even though the garment brought me heaps of discomfort (boo you, underwire), it was hard to say goodbye. The bra had loved me faithfully; now, I had to let go. The circle of (undergarment) life should repeat itself every six to eight months, according to Jessica Pfister, vice president of lingerie brand Le Mystere. “When your bra is worn out, you are not getting the support or shape you need to give your clothes a good foundation to rest on,” she says. In other words, a bra kept for too long ultimately defeats its one, true purpose. So if you’ve been holding onto Old Faithful for quite some time, Pfister says that a few signs indicate that it’s time to recycle the closet staple and move on in life and lingerie. 4 signs that you should replace an old bra, according to a lingerie expert 1. Your cups are bulging or gaping “If it’s bulging, the cup is too small or your straps are too tight,” says Pfister. Gaping, on the other hand, indicates that the cups are too big. 2. The underwire doesn’t lay flat against your chest Pfister says that the underwire in your bra should cup the breast tissue and
Jenna Dewan’s delicious go-to meals make me want to step up my cooking game
October 21, 2019 at 07:30PM by CWC Actress Jenna Dewan is the first to admit that she has done a lot of out-there things in the name of wellness. “Juice cleanses, colonics, charcoal rinses…I’ve done it all,” she says. Dewan—who announced in September that she’s pregnant—writes about the parts of wellness that actually resonated with her in her new book, Gracefully You: Finding Beauty and Balance in the Everyday. The book is full of tips on how to use everything from mantras to movement to connect with your deeper self and to feel more balanced. Of course part of feeling balanced is eating in a way that makes you feel nourished. For Dewan, this means following the 80/20 diet, an eating plan that’s defined by eating healthy 80 percent of the time and in a more “anything goes” way 20 percent of the time. “I’ve tried a lot of different eating plans, and this is the one that works for me,” Dewan says. Here’s a peek at the plant-forward meals that Jenna Dewan typically eats in a day. Photo: Getty Images/Foxys_forest_manufacture; Graphic: Well+Good Creative Breakfast “Every day, I wake up and make a Glowing Green smoothie, using nutritionist Kimberly Snyder‘s recipe,” Dewan says. “I met Kimberly about seven years ago and have been making these green smoothies pretty much every day since. It’s made with spinach, romaine, celery, apple, and pear, so it’s loaded with really good fiber.” “Every once in a while, instead of the smoothie I’ll have a
IRL beauty horror story: I over exfoliated my face and wound up looking like the Crypt Keeper
October 21, 2019 at 06:44PM by CWC Once I discovered that exfoliation is an essential tool in fighting acne, I went bananas. So besides my collection of pimple patches and spot treatments that I use to treat my breakouts, I began to hoard exfoliating e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g—from facial scrubs to peel pads to acid toners to enzyme masks. And then I went to work. Rather than a streamlined, simple skin-care regimen that all dermatologists and facialists tell me to have, my routine became jam-packed with steps. One peek into my beauty cabinet and you’d think you were looking in a laboratory for, I don’t know, rocket fuel. I still washed my skin, moisturized, and used serums, but I also used as many exfoliants—physical, chemical, you name it—as I had the patience for all in the hopes of ridding my face of hormonal pimples. That literally meant I used so. many. exfoliants. that were all meant to slough away the old, dead skin cells to reveal happy new ones in their place. I’m sure you could imagine what happened to my skin. After acid upon acid, physical exfoliant upon physical exfoliant, I looked a lot like the Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt, which used to scare the crap out of me as a child. I mean, maybe I had just a tad more skin intact than that guy did, but let’s be honest: not much. That was when I learned an important beauty lesson. Your skin barrier is there to protect you
Bear planks make your whole body roar—and that’s a good thing
October 21, 2019 at 06:42PM by CWC Most trainers would agree that it’s a great idea to begin every workout with a plank. Whether you’re trying to remain sturdy on your forearms, balancing on one leg, holding a pushup position, or alternating arm lifts, there’s really no easy variation. But nothing makes your whole body roar quite like a bear plank. Like alligator crawls or inchworms, the bear plank is an extra challenging full-body workout. A bear crawl involves getting down on all fours with your knees hovering a few inches off the floor and using your strength to get you from point A to B, but the bear plank is stationary. And even though it might seem like holding still would be easier, you’ll quickly realize that’s not always the case. A few seconds in and your core—and the rest of your body!—will be on fire. Here’s exactly how to perform a bear plank [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGfvmD9k3v4] The 4 steps to the bear plank: Start on all fours with your shoulders lined up with your wrists and your knees at a 90-degree angle. Keeping your back flat, lift your knees, allowing them to hover a few inches off the floor. Flex your core and hold the position for up to a minute, making sure to breathe. Slowly bring your knees back down to the floor. Rest for 10 seconds, then repeat. Here’s a six-move core workout with trainer Meg Takacs: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsSBamlIhSc] This 7-minute, plank-centric yoga flow will fire up