Month: October 2019

October 25, 2019 at 08:00PM by CWC Your instincts may tell you that sex isn’t the same as training for a race. And while it’s true that sexual encounters carry more emotional weight and physical intimacy than, say, interval running, you can still take a beginner’s approach to pleasure. If you’re trying to figure out how to get better at sex, sexologist Shan Boodram, author of The Game of Desire, says that a simple shift in perspective can revolutionize the way we think about our sex lives. “The thing about sex in relationships and intimacy is that we other it from every other skill in life. If we substituted sex with sewing or archery, there’d be a really easy path to mastery,” she said at a self-love panel at The Wing in New York City. “There’s no real magic to [getting better at sex]. If you want to get better at something, it’s time plus effort plus humility and enthusiasm.” These three components come together in a steamy sexual equation. Lucky for you, the first part of the equation is easy. If you’re willing to put in the effort, there’s no shortage of resources for making yourself a student of sexuality. Podcasts on the topic abound, sexy self-help is in your local bookstore, and—not to toot our own horn here—but we talk about sex at Well+Good a lot. “You enlist the help of experts, you learn from the best, you research, you practice in low risk environments where it’s okay

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October 25, 2019 at 07:30PM by CWC Breast cancer has long been on people’s radars, but the BRCA gene? Not so much. Despite having been discovered in the mid-1990’s, the term didn’t become part of the national conversation until Angelia Jolie revealed in 2013 that she’d had a preventative double mastectomy after learning that she had a BRCA1 gene mutation. Since then, of course, we have a lot more understanding about the gene (technically two: BRCA1 and BRCA2) and how a mutation of it can majorly affect a person’s risk of cancer. Companies such as 23andMe offer at-home testing kits so people can more easily find out if they have a BRCA gene mutation. Non-celebs have opened up about their own preventative mastectomies inspired by a positive BRCA testing result. The government very recently changed its guidelines to widen the pool of people who should be screened for potential BRCA testing. It’s become a huge focus of breast cancer awareness and prevention. BRCA literally stands for “BReast CAncer gene,” so it makes sense that we think of a person’s breast cancer risk and potentially a woman’s ovarian cancer risk when we talk about BRCA gene mutations. The thing is, though, that harmful BRCA mutations can impact a person’s risk of developing several other cancers—including pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer—and they’re just less talked about. How the BRCA gene works (and when it doesn’t) Everyone has two copies of BRCA1 and two copies of BRCA2: one from mom and one from dad.

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October 25, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC The first time a fitness trainer told the class we were doing AMRAPs, I went into panic mode. If you’re not familiar, AMRAP stands for “as many reps as possible,” which means you’re about to kick your body into high gear and work. This puts you in charge of how much time you get to recover, because the faster you get done with the exercise sequence, the more time you have left to breathe… before you start all over again. It’s definitely intense, which is why you’ll find AMRAP in so many HIIT workouts like Crossfit or Barry’s Bootcamp, but it’s a really effective way to push yourself to work harder. “AMRAP is a popular training method that results in muscle fatigue, or near failure,” says Kate Lemere, an instructor at Barry’s Bootcamp. “You’ll do as many reps or sets as you can in a given period, and they’re a fantastic way to progress any given drill by introducing both elements of intensity and frequency, thus recruiting all available motor units within your primary muscle driver.” So when you’re working with AMRAP in a workout, time is your variable—so it “will push you to your limit and create an incredible burn and pump that you can feel,” says Lemere. The AMRAP that I did the other day, for instance, involved cycling through seven reps of three different arm exercises within a minute, which repeated for about five minutes… so my speed determined my recovery.

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October 25, 2019 at 03:40PM by CWC Up until this morning, I hadn’t touched a tube of concealer since middle school. Not because I haven’t had my share of blemishes and skin woes (oh, believe me, I have), but because using the stuff always leaves me looking like an over-iced cake. That is, until I got my hands on a bottle of L’Oréal Infallible Full Wear Waterproof Concealer ($13). I fully intend to use the product to dab, dab, dab my under-eye circles away for my remaining year on planet Earth. Found in the beauty aisle of any drugstore, the concealer comes in 25 shades, ranging from “porcelain” (it me) to “espresso.” After making an emergency trip to Walgreen’s for what Well+Good’s beauty director calls “the Holy Grail of Concealer,” I carefully read the instructions to recall how to apply the beauty staple. A little bit “goes a long way,” and I took this to heart. I dabbed a small amount on my ring finger and began the application to my face. The formula’s smooth texture means it goes on without creasing and seamlessly blends away the blue and purple shades of sleep under-eyes. Clearly on a roll here, I went ahead and concealed the acne scarring my BB cream never quite hides as well as a very much alive pimple on my left cheek. I emerged from the bathroom with skin that looks ready for the day (not ready to crawl into bed). The best thing of all? The

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