December 04, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC My Bizzy Kitchen blogger Biz Velatini has a three-word mantra when it comes to her healthy eating philosophy: don’t be boring. “I have favorite meals and I’m a leftovers queen, but I try not to eat the same exact meal over and over,” she says. This can be challenging for two reasons. One, she relies on meal-prepped food during the week because of her three-hour long daily commute. Second, she has type 2 diabetes, which means she has to plan ahead even more than the average person. “I worked with a diabetic dietitian and she explained how to use carbs, protein, and fats together to avoid huge blood sugar spikes,” Velantini says. Registered dietitian and The Southern Comfort Food Diabetes Cookbook author Maya Feller, RD, says there’s no one-size-fits-all eating plan for managing diabetes, so it’s important for any diabetic to work with a doctor or dietitian specializing in the disease to figure out what will work for your individual numbers and lifestyle. “When working with patients, I recommend having a nutrition routine based on whole and minimally processed foods that promote euglycemia [normal glucose levels],” Feller says. That’s because diabetes affects a person’s ability to metabolize sugar, making balanced blood sugar levels especially crucial. To Velatini’s point, food pairings matter a lot when managing type two diabetes, Feller adds, as well as portion sizes. Eating just rice alone, for example, can have a more significant affect on a person’s blood sugar levels than if
Month: December 2019
The top relationship issue for you to overcome, based on your Myers-Briggs personality
December 04, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC No matter how solid a partnership may be, there’s always room for improvement. Whether the union has been in tact six months, six years, or any other duration, there’s likely at least one relationship issue that’s present. Maybe it’s control issues, commitment issues, staying quiet just to keep the peace, or something else entirely. So, where can you, specifically, aim to improve your relationship? Your Myers-Briggs personality type can distill for you what you should be focusing on in the weeks and months to come for the sake of overcoming your top relationship issue. (Don’t know what your MBTI is? Read this first!) Here’s the top relationship issue for you to overcome, according to your Myers-Briggs personality. Graphics: Well+Good Creative ISFJ: Stating what you want ISFJs typically want stability in their relationships, but they often get in their own way of cultivating this because they fail to adequately articulate their own needs. Once you’re in a healthy partnership, you have to start believing that asking for what you want—whether that’s support, care, communication, commitment, or something else—won’t be a burden to your partner. Burying your desires deep down in hopes that they’ll come up organically will lead you to feel unsafe in the embrace of your partner’s love and resentful that you’re not totally satisfied. So, be clear and speak up. ESFJ: Not taking things personally Whether it’s their partner staying late at the office several nights in a row or receiving an
The first ‘true HIIT bike’ promises to improve your cardiovascular fitness in just 8 minutes
December 04, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC Modern fitness innovations have made real the stuff of science fiction. A mirror brings personal training straight into your living room, fitness trackers diagnose sleep disorders overnight, and now an AI-powered spin bike called CAR.O.L. ($3,139) gives you a 40-minute workout in just 8 minutes and 40 seconds. Independently proven by the American Council of Exercise (ACE), CAR.O.L.—short for “CARdiovascular Optimization Logic”—puts fitness lovers through a type of HIIT called “reduced-exertion high-intensity training,” or “REHIT.” By guiding you through shorter sprints that require supramaximal (that’s science for “all-out”) effort, the workout squeezes the benefits of a long HIIT workout into a shorter time frame. For example, the “intense ride” includes a 2-minute warm up, a 20-second supramaximal sprint, a 3-minute recovery, and another 20-second supramaximal sprint followed by a 3-minute cool down. When the ACE enlisted Lance Dalleck, PhD, and his team of researchers from the High Altitude Exercise Physiology Program at Western State Colorado University, to test CAR.O.L.’s purported benefits, the results were pretty staggering. Of the 16 men and 16 women who participated in an 8-week training program, the group who consistently did the REHIT program had twice the VO2 max improvement as compared to those who didn’t. Meaning, the amount of oxygen they could access during exercise almost doubled that of the control group. View this post on Instagram Sounds too Good to be True?! If in Doubt. Try it Out! Yael’s Complimentary Session inc: •CAR.O.L Energiser Ride
The calorie is out, and qualitative eating is in. Finally.
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
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