December 23, 2019 at 06:00PM by CWC When it comes to improving gut health, there’s typically one common focus: food. People are obsessed with eating for better gut health, whether that’s adding more fiber or probiotics to their diets or cutting back on inflammatory foods like sugar. This is all sound advice—what we eat has a profound effect on the health of our gut microbiome—but focusing solely on diet means that you could miss out on some other aspects of your life that can impact your gut health. Yes, things like exercise and stress can also play a big role in your digestive health. We talked to a gastroenterologist to help us understand what they are and why they matter for your gut. Curious to know more about gut health? Here’s the lowdown from a registered dietitian: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpAjl3cFn6A] 1. Your dental hygiene It might seem strange to mention what happens in your mouth when talking about gut health, but it’s all connected. “Multiple studies, including one conducted by Cornell University, have found that harmful forms of bacteria that grow in the mouth often make their way into the gut or even the bloodstream,” says Niket Sonpal, MD, NYC board-certified internist and gastroenterologist. “Regular brushing can keep those potentially harmful microbes in check—and your gut bacteria in balance,” he says. He recommends brushing for at least 20 seconds a time to get the full benefits of cleaning. “Each time you brush, be sure to clean the inner, outer, and chewing sides
Year: 2019
A ‘potentially hazardous’ 2,000-foot asteroid is about to buzz Earth—here’s what that means for your sign
December 23, 2019 at 05:22PM by CWC I can think of few things more appropriate to end this year than a NASA alert stating that a giant asteroid will speed past Earth at 27,500 miles per hour on the December 26. Once again, we shall narrowly escape disaster. Just kidding. Space rock CH59 is technically classified as “potentially hazardous,” but I wouldn’t worry too much about that. The asteroid will be closest to our home planet—4.5 million miles away—at 2:54 a.m. ET the day after Christmas. This is 19 times farther away than the moon, in case you’ve also seen Armageddon one too many times and are alarmed by this splashy news. Also, it’s just one of 5,000 “potentially hazardous” asteroids whizzing around up there. All joking aside, this is an astrologically significant event, which is great because the zodiac is the only thing keeping most of my friends sane at this point. (Was there ever a more 2019 sentence than that?) “Asteroids represent very specific things in our natal charts, and you can tell what those are by looking at the name of the asteroid and its associated myth, as well as some of the events that were happening the time it was discovered,” says intuitive astrologer and healer Rachel Lang. “Since this one doesn’t have an exact name—just a number—we will have a clearer idea of what this one means after December 26, when it draws more attention to itself.” Lang tells me that whenever a new object in space
Drunk Elephant raised our expectations of what clean skin care can do and we’re never going back
December 23, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC Tiffany Masterson has always been an entrepreneur. As a Houston stay-at-home mom, she had a knack for the side hustle: She was a representative for the direct sales cosmetics company Arbonne, developed a healthy pantry renovation company called Holy Pantries, and sold an independent company’s bar soap that, used alone, was heralded as a save-all for skin. Then, of course, she founded Drunk Elephant, which grew to be a brand worth $845 million dollars in just seven years before being acquired by Shiseido in October 2019. Dazzled by the reviews and accolades from beauty editors, dermatologists, and consumers, it’s easy to miss that the “clean beauty” category didn’t exist outside of a choice few (e.g. Ren, Skinfix, First Aid Beauty) when Masterson, who was crowned one of our 2020 Changemakers, began creating her candy-capped empire. Yet, as the decade chugged along, her point of view on skin care—what’s in your products is only as important as what’s not—became the standard for clean beauty that the entire industry would come to know as gospel. It also catapulted the demand for clean, clinical products at large, which today has grown to be a massive section of the beauty industry. In fact, market researchers at The NPD Group have indicated that roughly half of all prestige skin-care lines make claims about their clinical ingredients (such as retinol, hyaluronic acid, or vitamin C). Of these clinical brands, those touting “clean ingredients” are rising by upwards of 100
Meet the 2020 Changemakers: These movers and shakers will change the face of wellness
December 23, 2019 at 03:42PM by CWC Ten years ago, boutique fitness studios like SoulCycle and Pure Barre were few and far between, “clean beauty” was of interest to just a niche audience, and we only wore leggings—gasp!—to the gym. Now, the wellness industry is worth an estimated $4.5 trillion—and all projections indicate it will continue to balloon in the coming years. When we look ahead to 2020 and beyond, the below 27 people are poised to be the driving forces behind innovation and advancement in this booming wellness space. Their brands, inventions, and organizations are changing the way we eat, move, and think—and they have their sights set on helping everyone, regardless of age, location or socioeconomic status, live a well life. Wellness is not—and should not be—an exclusive lifestyle for the 1 percent, and these influential people have made it their mission to make wellness practices accessible and available to more people than ever before. Learn their names now, you’ll be hearing much more from them. Keep reading to meet the Changemakers, the most influential people in wellness in 2020 (in no particular order) 1. Nicole Cardoza Founder and Executive Director, Yoga Foster Founder, Reclamation Ventures “All of us inherently have the right to feel good,” yoga instructor and entrepreneur Nicole Cardoza has said. And she’s made it her goal to share well-being practices with communities that are often left out of the wellness conversation, including people of color and children living in urban areas. Yoga Foster, Cardoza’s
The 7 best sex tips we learned this year, so you can come into 2020 totally satisfied
December 23, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC A whole bunch happened in 2019, but in recounting all of it, I’d be remiss to not acknowledge all the great sex advice I soaked up. For some broad strokes: The world finally awoke to the pleasure revolution; e-commerce finally got some credit for making sex (and sex toys) as widely accessible as it is; and sexual self-care grew from a term into a full-on movement. Of course there’s still a lot of sex advice to be had, given that countless years of pleasure-gap injustice simply won’t be resolved by a single clitoral-sucking vibrator. (Though, FWIW, that vibrator does help.) While we can certainly commit to continuing to push the dialogue of what sexual wellness means, let’s take a moment to celebrate all the great sex advice we learned this year. Below, allow me to get you up to speed, so you can come into 2020 as satisfied as possible. Have yourself a naughty end of the year with the 7 best pieces of sex advice we learned in 2019. 1. There are many ways to speed up your orgasm, including the Kivin Method If you’re receiving oral that doesn’t have you seeing stars, do we ever have a treat for you: The Kivin Method, also known as “sideways oral,” allows for more stimulation than the traditional diving-headfirst-betwixt-both-legs way. Need some convincing? Fans of the method report that it can work in three minutes, flat. Not bad, huh? 2. The best beauty hack for a
Given everything we learned about food this year, here’s how we’ll be eating in 2020
December 23, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC If you want to adopt a healthier way of eating in 2020—but you’re totally confused about what that even means—it’s not just you. The nutrition news space is about as noisy as Times Square on New Year’s Eve, and it can be hard to discern the facts from the fads. Luckily, several studies published in 2019 made it clearer than ever which foods promote health and longevity, making it hopefully a bit easier for us all to make dietary decisions in the new year and beyond. Here, we distill the findings of 2019’s most notable nutrition news into easy-to-follow meal planning tips. As you’ll see, they telegraph several truths loud and clear: You can’t go wrong if you’re eating lots of plants, following Mediterranean diet guidelines, and avoiding processed foods. Follow these suggestions, and you can rest assured that you’re eating in a way that’s actually approved by science (even if it’s not the diet du jour on Instagram). 1. Prioritize fruits, veggies, and grains in the name of planetary (and personal) health Concerned about the climate crisis? Same. But this year, we learned it’s possible to make a difference by consciously planning our meals. A large-scale analysis published in October showed that vegetables, fruit, and whole grains are the three most sustainable foods a person can eat. Not only are they nutritious—they’re the foods to load up on for a healthy gut and cardiovascular system—but they also have a 40-times lower environmental
London art exhibitions 2020 – MUST SEE!
January The year starts off with a roar – meet, if you dare, the mighty Tyrannosaurs in the National Museum of Scotland’s groundbreaking exhibition. In Bath, discover the early ceramics of Grayson Perry, many of which were retrieved from obscurity after an appeal to the public. Anne Katrin-Purkiss‘s photographic portraits at the Lightbox in Woking celebrate pioneering women, both in and out of the public eye. The Foundling Museum explores 500 years of Portraying Pregnancy in art, and asks why it’s still a controversial subject (below). And Naum Gabo‘s kinetic sculptures are given a major retrospective at Tate St Ives, 100 years after the Russian Constructivist published his electrifying manifesto on the purpose of art. Textile panel with embracing figures, c1600, © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Part of Portraying Pregnancy: From Holbein to Social Media at the Foundling Museum February It’s best of British in February as Tate Britain delves into the overlooked period of British Baroque. Some of the works on display will be leaving their stately homes for the first time in centuries. At Dulwich Picture Gallery, the focus is on the origins of British Surrealism in an exhibition bringing together works by more than 30 artists from a fascinating 170-year period. Art Deco by the Sea at the Sainsbury Centre looks at how mass tourism changed British coastal culture between the First and Second World Wars (touring to Laing Art Gallery in July). Meanwhile, the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath turns its attention to Bohemian Paris with an exhibition of iconic colour posters by Toulouse-Lautrec and his contemporaries.
There’s never been a better reason to grab a kettlebell than this butt-sculpting workout
December 23, 2019 at 12:00PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG7cJvXZomk] Adding a kettlebell to any workout is a surefire way to make it more intense. Case in point: This seemingly simple, six-move lower body series might look easy at first glance, but it’s anything but a piece of cake. In her final week as our Trainer of the Month, Roxie Jones shows us how to amp up a lower body workout simply by bringing two kettlebells into the mix. First things first: For this lower body kettlebell workout, you’ll want to grab one light kettlebell (ranging from five to 15 pounds) and one heavier kettlebell (ranging from 20 to 40 pounds). To determine if you’ve got the right bells before you get into the workout, make sure you can rack them correctly. “The most important thing is to do this with correct form above anything else,” says Jones. “So if you feel like your form is starting to crumble, take it down to a lower weight. That’s how we get stronger.” Despite the fact that you’ll be holding the kettlebell with your hands, nearly all of the actual work in this workout will come from your lower body—so be sure to focus on squeezing your glutes and holding your core tight throughout every move. Follow along with Jones in the video above, and be sure to check back next week (or should we say, next year!) to meet our first trainer of the month for 2020. The lower-body kettlebell workout that’ll
This foolproof hair gloss repairs and defines natural curls without any frizz in sight
December 23, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC After my mom finally cracked and let me get a keratin treatment in high school, I lived the dream of any 16-year-old that’s in a codependent relationship with her flat iron: I had glossy, Cher Horowitz-straight hair for a full year, without any hot tools required in my a.m. routine. The treatment’s effects ended up lingering for several years, and by the time I turned 19, I actually started to miss my curls. Now, after much experimentation with curl gels, oils, and other hair goos, I’m really just starting to embrace my hair’s natural waves. So for a present this year, I’d really love to try Oribe Curl Gloss ($42). The bottle itself resembles the one in The Little Mermaid that Ursula uses to whip up Ariel’s mermaid-to-human potion—and what’s inside Oribe’s concoction is just as transformative. It’s a vegan styling product that contains aloe vera, a strand-repairing superstar, and moisturizing panthenol, which works to volumize each curl with care. Its formula is also hair-inclusive, offering shine and definition to all kinds of curls, spanning from “wavy” to “coily,” according to the brand, plus it’s made to protect your ‘do from the sharp UV rays of the sun (an environmental threat Ariel definitely didn’t consider when she decided to ditch the tail). Best of all though—and this is key, folks—Oribe Curl Gloss works just as well on air-dried hair as it does when blow-dried by a diffuser. Sure, piles of products exist to tackle curls,
A special new moon solar eclipse this week ensures a super-positive holiday time
December 22, 2019 at 10:00PM by CWC As we enter the last days of the year and decade, we have exciting astrological aspects to look forward to as well. With the solstice behind us, and yuletide festivities in full effect this week, the cosmos throw even more magic into to mix. On Christmas night or early in the morning on the 26th, depending on your geographic location, the new moon solar eclipse in the sign of Capricorn will glisten with potential and power. An eclipse can often feel like an astrological wild card, but trust that this one brings robust positivity. The sun and moon conjoin at 4 degrees of Capricorn, with Uranus in Taurus making a beautiful trine to the sun-moon conjunction. This formation creates the potential for breakthrough, power, surprises, and creativity. Furthermore, Jupiter, the planet of good luck, good fortune, and expansion, also joins the sun and moon for a rare and glorious combination that assures the feel-good vibes to roll this holiday. On the 27th, in fact, Jupiter and the Sun conjoin, forming what many astrologers refer to as the most promising aspect and day of the year. On the 27th, Jupiter and the Sun conjoin, forming what many astrologers refer to as the most promising aspect and day of the year. New moons provide an opportunity to set intentions for desires and growth, and solar eclipses (which only occur during new-moon phases) magnify the potential of these unique new-moon moments, multiplying the potential exponentially. Add