March 20, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC I miss the smug feeling my Fitbit used to give me. Living in a dense, walkable city like New York, it was easy to rack up the miles—even on days when I skipped the treadmill. I walked everywhere under two miles: work, Whole Foods, the bank. My mom would call me from North Carolina, bragging about her step count. Step count? Please. I think in miles, I’d think to myself, priding myself in not knowing how steps calculate out. But now that I moved down south to be closer to home, I no longer have to walk anywhere. In fact, I hardly walk anywhere at all, partly because I now work from home (and thus don’t have a commute). My Fitbit numbers became so low (miles and steps) that I stopped wearing it on the days that I didn’t work out because it depressed me. For years, having the privilege of living in a walkable city allowed me to ignore all the headlines about the importance of movement. Suddenly, I was Googling ways to be more active during the day and talking to pros to figure out what else I could do. It’s been three months now, and I think I’ve figured out some lifestyle hacks that work—as well as some that definitely don’t. I’m sharing my intel here, in case it helps you—my fellow friends who have to rely on your car, and not your feet, to get around. Why regular movement
Year: 2019
How to quash those pesky ants in your pants and finally just relax
March 20, 2019 at 03:00PM by CWC I excitedly anticipate every weekend the same way: With a gravitational-pull-strength desire to kick back and binge-watch reality television after waking from an extra-long slumber. “I’m going to have such a relaxing, restorative weekend!” I habitually say to myself come Friday evening, after an inevitably long, busy AF week. But then, like clockwork, after about a whole two hours of straight chillin’, I get restless. So begins the process of texting all my friends to make last-minute plans for…right at this very second, or finding errands to run, or a museum to visit, or a a movie to see, or whatever—anything to get me out of my apartment. My sister says both my dad and I have a serious case of shpilkes, a Yiddish term describing nervous restlessness. I.e., I chronically have ants in my pants, and I know a ton of other people have trouble leaning into their valiant hygge intentions to do a whole bunch of nothing. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong, per se, with having a go-go-go personality—but there is a downside: Come Monday a.m., you’re likely still exhausted rather than recharged from your weekend. You know, because of those ants, or according to clinical psychotherapist Jennifer Silvershein, LCSW, an inability to relax, largely supported by the millennial lifestyle. “Growing up, we had to do all of these things in order to be amazing—get good grades, be in extracurriculars, get a scholarship, go to college, get a job,” she says. “Where in that
Being an awesome S.O. to someone with ADHD doesn’t mean ignoring your needs
March 20, 2019 at 02:18PM by CWC Every relationship comes with a unique set of challenges. (What, you thought romance was easy?) Add a mental health condition into the mix, and things can feel a lot more complicated. If you’re dating someone with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, which can present in different ways and is the clinical term for what’s often called ADD) you may find that you feel ignored, neglected, and frustrated, Erin Nicole McGinnis, LMFT, says. (In addition to being a psychotherapist, McGinnis has ADD and has been in relationships with people with ADD—which is all to say, she is uniquely qualified to speak on this topic.) “People with [ADHD] can be very attentive one minute, and then not follow through the next. The partner can often feel like they aren’t cared about, filling in the blanks and making assumptions that aren’t true,” McGinnis says. ADHD, which, according to Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), affect an estimated 10 million adults, can manifest as hyperactivity or inattentiveness, McGinnis says. If the person with ADHD is hyperactive, it often shows as fidgeting, impulsiveness, and talkativeness. If they’re inattentive, it looks like daydreaming and spacing out, McGinnis says. “Both [presentations] have an inability to stay on task. They have a problem starting a task and finishing it. They also have a problem staying focused…[and] lose things frequently, which can make it very frustrating for their partners.” She explains that to have a functional relationship, you need to be able to complete tasks
Drinking Tea This Way May Be Harmful — Here’s What To Do Instead
March 20, 2019 at 01:18PM Take this extra precaution and enjoy your next cup even more. Continue Reading… Author Caroline Muggia | Life by Daily Burn Selected by iversue
This Is How Blue Light Is Affecting Your Skin & What To Do About It
March 20, 2019 at 12:45PM It’s affecting skin, but not necessarily the way you think. Continue Reading… Author Stephanie Eckelkamp | Life by Daily Burn Selected by iversue
This Snack May Be The Key To Long-Term Brain Health, New Study Finds
March 20, 2019 at 11:50AM We’ll eat anything in the name of brain health. Continue Reading… Author Ray Bass | Life by Daily Burn Selected by iversue
Trainers say it’s *totally* fine to leave in the middle of a workout class
March 20, 2019 at 11:32AM by CWC Three minutes into my workout class yesterday morning, I knew I shouldn’t be there. I had been pushing myself every day (sometimes twice a day) for two weeks straight, and I realized almost immediately the intense HIIT class I had signed up for was not a good idea. My body was telling me that I needed to GTFO and give it a much-needed break, but I was too worried about offending the trainer—and, okay, looking like a quitter—to get up the guts to walk out. This turned out to be a big mistake on my part, because over the course of 45 minutes, I fell off my riser, pulled something in my hip, and tweaked my knee. As I hobbled home, I cursed myself for not doing what I knew I needed to do for the sake of my body. “Never again,” I promised myself. And then, I set on a mission to find out what the best practice would be the next time I found myself in this situation. “Listen to your body! It’s never rude,” says Lauren Kleban, creator of LEKFit. “Just let the instructor know you aren’t feeling it today, but you’re okay.” Fithouse trainer Tiffani Robbins echoes the sentiment of “listen to your body,” and notes that if you don’t want to stop your trainer in the middle of class to let them know why you’re peace-ing out, you should stop by the front desk so that they can relay the message to the trainer.
Wearing wet socks to bed probably won’t prevent a cold, but you do you
March 20, 2019 at 10:07AM by CWC I’ve heard plenty of myths in the wellness world that are seemingly bizarre but that we follow as gospel: Going out into the cold gives you a cold, sitting too close to a TV can hurt your eyes, and eating a shit-ton of carrots gives you great vision. But I was introduced to another such myth, which I find particularly odd: Wearing wet socks to bed can help you prevent a cold. Let’s just say…I have some thoughts. First of all, as a hot-blooded person, I can’t even imagine wearing dry socks to bed—my feet would feel suffocated and make my whole body overheat. So, the thought of wearing something to not only cover my feet, but to cover my feet while soaking them in water, is a pass from me. But, some people say that it’s a thing, and I’m here to hear them out. “Wet socks are actually an old European hydrotherapy spa trick,” says Alan Christianson, MD, a naturopathic physician and author, who adds that the purported benefit is that these help with circulation (though, it’s important to note that there’s no scientific evidence, per se, to support this). “Improving your circulation leads to better muscular energy, less pain, and less symptoms of fatigue.” I guess when you think about it, having wet socks on your feet will certainly stimulate something—if only a strange feeling (because who wants damp socks?!). Dr. Christianson says you should try the trick if you need better sleep
We Might Soon Be Able To Suppress Bad Memories Using Anesthetics
March 20, 2019 at 09:44AM It might help people struggling with their mental health—but we should proceed with caution. Continue Reading… Author Kelly Gonsalves | Life by Daily Burn Selected by iversue
9 things that actually make you happy, according to science
March 20, 2019 at 09:40AM by CWC What’s the one thing you’re pining for in your life that would make you happier, if only it would happen? A new job? Romance? More Instagram followers? There’s always something, that’s for sure. Research shows external factors have the power to make us happier in the moment, but cultivating a deep sense of happiness is a much different project that spans far beyond any promotion or number of likes. “It’s a very personal thing,” says Sheenie Ambardar, MD, a Los Angeles-based psychiatrist who specializes in happiness. “It’s something internal, it’s some kind of peace or contentedness, some kind of psychological well-being that you have inside of you, so it’s not related to any of those external things.” Dr. Ambardar says many of her clients find themselves struggling against external ideas about what should make them happy. “There are so many conceptions out there that you have to have something by a certain age, you have to have everything in place,” she says. “That’s such an insidious, oppressive idea.” Instead, there are some science-backed ways to find true happiness—and they’re not nearly as complicated as you think. So how do we go about cultivating true happiness? Here’s what the research says. Photo: Stocksy/Lumina 1. Get more sleep This one should be a no-brainer by now, but getting enough sleep is so important for our overall well-being, on so many levels, that three American scientists won the Nobel Prize for work on the biology of sleep. And