December 02, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC You’ve heard the old adage: “calories in, calories out.” It’s the concept that a person can manage their weight by simply burning more calories through exercise than they consume in food—and it was one of the guiding forces in nutrition for the past twenty years. (Hell, a Reddit community named after and dedicated to the concept has over 24 million members.) For decades, people were fixated on calorie counts as a primary consideration for what they put on their plates. But we’re happy to report that this narrow mindset is something we’re firmly leaving behind in the new decade. “In recent years, there’s a recognition that not all calories are created equal,” says health coach and nutritionist Jess Cording, RD. “There’s a shift from just calories to factoring in satiety, blood sugar, and other factors that go into weight management [and healthy eating].” In 2020 and beyond, the emphasis will be on the full nutritional profile of your plate and how these foods support your brain, energy, gut health, and mood. A history of calorie counting While calories are also used in chemistry and physics, in nutrition, calories generally refer to the amount of energy that foods provide us. The concept of the calorie hit the mainstream in the U.S. in the 1920s with the publication of Diet and Health by Lulu Hunt Peters. The book, which praised the merits of calorie counting for weight management, went on to become the number-four nonfiction book
Day: December 3, 2019
3 breakfast combinations with warming foods for cold winter mornings
December 03, 2019 at 11:00PM by CWC Nourishing the body with warming foods is a staple of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) year-round, but it’s especially relevant during the colder months. “In Traditional Chinese Medicine, we believe that starting the day with warming foods is an essential part of keeping our adrenals happy and securing longevity,” says Mona Dan, LAc., MTOM, an herbalist, acupuncturist, and the founder of Vie Healing. “Preserving the body is the biggest factor in living a long healthy life,” she says. “Making sure we have a warming start with blood and energy boosting ingredients is key.” To put it into practice at the start of your day, Dan and Feng Ye, the founder of Sage Collective, recommend a few warming breakfast combinations. Breakfast combinations with warming foods fo energy 1. warm cauliflower rice with dates and berries Dan loves making a homemade congee bowl with either oats or cauliflower rice, milk (or alt-milk), dates, and berries. “This breakfast is full of blood- and energy-boosting ingredients,” she says. Ye loves this breakfast combination, too. “It’s easy to digest and it strengths the blood and qi [energy],” she says, adding that she likes to add ginger, a warming spice, to her bowl. 2. bone broth with hard boiled eggs If you like a savory breakfast, Dan recommends this one by the spoonful. You can load it up with vegetables to make sure your breakfast has plenty of fiber. “This bone broth soup holds tons of collagen; both the marrow
Sorry sweatsuits—these sweater suits are the chicest way to wear your cozies everywhere this winter
December 03, 2019 at 10:30PM by CWC While some people refer to the months between November and March as “cuffing season,” I prefer to call it “the season in which I refuse to take my sweatpants off no matter what.” But as a professional woman who is also in the process of trying to find a boyfriend (if you know anyone, HMU), I can’t exactly walk around New York City looking like a schlub… which is why I’ve made it my recent life’s mission to figure out how to wear the comfiest clothes possible without having to sacrifice style. Enter: the sweater suit set. These matching cozy sets have all the benefits of their faithful cousin, the sweatsuit, but instead of being made of ratty sweatshirt material these babies are made of sumptuous fabrics like cashmere and wool. They give off chic grandmother vibes (versus the “it’s 1986 and I’m leaving the gym” ones that sweatsuits often do), and make you feel like you should be curled up on a white couch in front of bay windows at Grace & Frankie’s beach house. You can dress these suits up with chunky jewelry and a pair of slides, or way, way down with a blanket and some slippers. When I say you can wear them everywhere, I really do mean it…. and you can trust me on this, because I’ve personally tested the theory. The only issue with these dreamy cashmere sweater suits is that they’re kind of a pain to
Should you say something when you’re in a toxic work environment?
December 03, 2019 at 09:30PM by CWC There’s your garden variety toxic work environment and then there’s the nuclear power plant toxic work environment. That is to say that Gabrielle Union’s experience on the set of America’s Got Talent leans toward the latter. According to an exclusive report by Variety, Union was subjected to “a very specific critique—that her rotating hair styles were ‘too black’ for the audience of AGT, a note she received over half a dozen times,” among other alleged transgressions by guests, hosts, and other staff working on the show. When a workplace becomes a breeding ground for intolerant, discriminatory behavior, fighting the good fight for yourself and others is infinitely important and incredibly hard. Do you speak up? How do you speak up? Who do you speak up to? Not sure if you know this already, but we live in a country where such institutionalized discrimination is, well, an American institution. People fear their job security and reputation when deciding whether or not to come forward, worrying that their complaints will be rerouted or fall on deaf ears. “While on book tour, I traveled to 26 cities, and in every state, I heard stories of Black women being discriminated against due to their hairstyles to the simple usage of their government names,” Minda Harts, educator, consultant, and author of The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table, told raceAhead reports Fortune. “And whenever they tried speaking out on those workplace inequalities,
A financial therapist’s take on the guilt you feel after making impulse purchases
December 03, 2019 at 09:00PM by CWC As of late, my road to happiness seems to be paved with impulse buys. Between velvet dresses, festive earrings, and a million-ish lavender lattes, I can’t seem to escape a single day without frivolously swiping my card. This streak of retail therapy isn’t sending me into a spiral of crushing debt, yet I still often feel a sense of guilt linger in the aftermath of my impulse buys. But why is it such a common experience to punish ourselves for choosing to spend any amount of money on products for ourselves that we want but definitely don’t need? “We might feel guilt and shame around these types of purchases because we see ourselves putting our money toward more impulsive desires, leaving long-term goals undermined and shortchanged,” says financial therapist Amanda Clayman. “In the calculus of life happiness, we believe that we would be happier—or at least less anxious—if we had more money in savings or invested for the future.” The other side of this is that our shame often reflects a sense of discomfort with facing the emotional needs we aim to satisfy in the present with our purchases. “But the truth is, being too restrictive and too judgmental of our needs and feelings can actually make us more inclined to act impulsively and with less self-control,” Clayman says. “For example, I use the concept of a ‘dissociative splurge’ to explain to clients what’s happening when they go into a spending experience and
It’s been a big decade for sunscreen—so we’ve filtered what you need to know about the state of SPF
December 03, 2019 at 09:00PM by CWC The year is 2009. Barack Obama is president. Everyone’s talking about Kanye interrupting T. Swift on stage during the VMAs. Apple launches the iPhone 3G. And people are taking selfies with those brand-new devices to show off their sun-kissed skin, glistening with tanning oil. Flash forward to the present and instead of whipping out the baby oil, people are now bragging about who’s scoring higher on the SPF scale (bonus points if you’ve got zinc). The past decade has seen massive changes in all areas of our lives, sun protection attitudes included, and while many of these are positive, there are both existing and new challenges present in the quest to keep people safe from the sun. “There’s still so much confusion and misunderstanding around sun protection,” says New York City dermatologist Elizabeth Hale, MD, senior vice president of the Skin Cancer Foundation. “We know that sun exposure is responsible for over 90 percent of all types of skin cancer and contributes to 90 percent of premature skin aging. We need people to practice safe sun habits and get in to dermatologists for skin checks. That’s the most important point and that hasn’t changed,” she says. So, what has? One of the greatest tangible differences from 10 years ago is the shift away from sun worship (aka tanning) and towards sun protection (we know tanning of any kind damages DNA and tanning in a bed ups a person’s risk of melanoma by an
Superbugs are crawling all over your favorite cosmetics—here’s how to get rid of them
December 03, 2019 at 07:30PM by CWC I’ve used the same old makeup palette since December 2014. It features three different sparkly hues, a pale pink blush, and a bronzer that makes me look like I live in sun-soaked Miami Beach. Oh, and (apparently!) about a million “superbugs.” A study published Monday in the Journal of Applied Microbiology found that “a vast majority” of cosmetic bag items—particularly beauty blenders, mascara, and lip gloss—are contaminated with superbugs. And yes, the researchers out of Aston University did use the words “life-threatening” in their report. Amreen Bashir, PhD, and Professor Peter Lambert, PhD, who led the study, found the highest levels of potentially harmful bacteria in beauty blenders. In fact, 93 percent of people surveyed said they’d never washed the blender, even though 64 percent had dropped the foundation-blending tool on the floor at some point. Bacteria found in old makeup items can cause illnesses ranging from a mild skin infection to blood poisoning—particularly when the infected makeup is applied near the eyes, mouth, or an open wound. “Consumers’ poor hygiene practices when it comes to using make-up, especially beauty blenders, is very worrying when you consider that we found bacteria such as E. coli—which is linked with fecal contamination—breeding on the products we tested,” said Dr. Bashir. “More needs to be done to help educate consumers and the make-up industry as a whole about the need to wash beauty blenders regularly and dry them thoroughly, as well as the risks of using
Feeling a little lost? Jupiter Return helps you find your personal compass
December 03, 2019 at 06:30PM by CWC The cosmos and their transits can really do a number on you. Whether that means getting all your technological lines crossed during Mercury Retrograde or being delivered nothing but break-ups and career upheaval during Saturn Return, we’re wary of any sort of planetary movement. Cue my stomach tenseness the first time I heard of Jupiter Return, the 12-year transit when Jupiter swings back to the place of your birth. (WTF, Milky Way Galaxy, can I live?) Scary as it sounds, though, your Jupiter Return is the opposite of cosmic discord. Instead, this planetary return focuses on luck as well as the magnification and transformation of our values. And Jupiter Return is when our convictions become clear, according astrologer and author of the upcoming You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance Chani Nicholas. “A Jupiter return is a time that helps us to gain a deeper understanding about the nature of our faith, what we hold to be true, what we tend to overdo, and what we need to put in place in order to grow,” says Nicholas. Your Jupiter Return—which happens at age 12, 24, 36, 48, and so on—is also largely about being able to seize opportunity. Jupiter is known to be a planet of abundance and good fortune, so your Jupiter Return also tends to be your Emerald Year, in which you are the Cosmic Prom Queen. This year Capricorns are going to get the sash, which means you get everything you’ve wanted and worked hard
It’s been 5,000 years, but yoga just can’t be stopped
December 03, 2019 at 06:00PM by CWC Every yoga class shares a guiding principle: Listen to your body. And clearly, there’s something to this golden rule that resonates with yogis, because it’s been 5,000 years since the practice’s inception, and it has a larger following than ever before. The number of American yogis rose by 50 percent between 2012 and 2016, and in 2019, the Global Wellness Institute crowned yoga the world’s most popular workout. Take a quick glance at a chart showing the climb of Google searches for “yoga near me” over the past decade, and you’ll notice it looks more like a handstand than a plank pose. The versatility of the practice is a major contributor to its spike in popularity. After all, yoga isn’t one thing—and there’s a style for everyone. Hatha-style classes focus on breathwork, meditation, and foundational poses, while hot vinyasa classes raise your heart rate and offer the sweaty satisfaction of a HIIT workout. As we enter a new decade, and yoga tacks another 10 years onto its five-century track record, we asked some of the biggest names in yoga today to talk about why the mindful practice has such staying power and why so many of us will keep asana-ing our way into the future. The history of yoga—and why it just keeps growing in popularity Before the mid-20th century, the physical practice of asana (or the body postures associated with yoga) hadn’t arrived in the United States. While the exact history of
Reebok is launching a plant-based running shoe, and I can’t wait
December 03, 2019 at 05:34PM by CWC Words I did not expect to type today: plant-based running shoe. And yet, Reebok just announced the arrival of their Forever Floatride GLOW, which you guessed it, comes from plant-based matter. Sure, when you tell your mom that you want “plant-based running shoes,” she might tease you about being “so L.A.” like she did with your collection of crystals or your favorite farm-to-table pizza (who’s keeping tabs?!), but I can assure you that it will be well worth the initial reaction. Reebok set out to create a sustainable version of their Forever Floatride Energy shoe, as part of a larger initiative to create products from natural or recycled materials. For example, in 2018, the brand launched vegan sneakers made of cotton and corn, but the Forever Floatride GLOW will be their first foray into plant-based performance running shoes. “The biggest challenge in making a shoe like this was developing plant-based materials that could meet the high performance needs of real runners,” says Bill McInnis, Vice President of Reebok Future. And so, the brand spent three years developing the shoe, which will launch next fall. The upper is made from sustainably sourced, biodegradable eucalyptus tree, and the outsole is made from real rubber from rubber trees—versus petroleum-based rubber—that is also sustainably sourced. The midsole, AKA the part of the running shoe that cushions and absorbs shock, is made from sustainably grown castor beans, a unique material that was exclusively developed by Reebok with the