Year: 2019

February 19, 2019 at 02:18PM by CWC I’ll ignore everything I know about tobacco and health to watch the object of my desire wrap their mouth around a cigarette à la a ’60s-era advertisement (or Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca). I know that cigarettes are behind many of the estimated 480,000 deaths related to tobacco each year in the United States, and yet, I’m into smokers. My attraction is certainly at odds with my identity as a CrossFit athlete and as a health and wellness writer, but again and again, I lust after James Dean types and their ashtray-scented skin. My biggest turn-on though, according to experts, doesn’t paint me as a hypocritical hack. Phew. “Many of the things that that we are aroused by bring up a sense of nostalgia or comfort,” says Liz Powell, PsyD, a sex educator, coach and licensed psychologist. Well, a quick stroll down memory lane reminds me that my first significant other was a smoker. (Check, nostalgia. Check, comfort.) The first time we kissed, we were in her car listening to Bright Eyes (don’t @ me—I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning is a quality album) while she smoked and then put out the flame on the dashboard. A string of smokers followed in her trail of cigarette butts, and they all contributed to cultivating my attraction to people who light up. But most notably and enduringly, there was J, who had been smoking for close to 20 years when we connected. Throughout our year together, her habit (nay, addiction)

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February 19, 2019 at 02:15PM by CWC As someone who could singlehandedly keep the dry shampoo economy afloat, I’m a big believer in powdered personal care products. You can keep your whipped moisturizers and jelly cleaners, thanks—I’d be thrilled to have an entire beauty regimen filled with things that resemble old-school astronaut food. (If only for the fact that they won’t ruin my stuff if they explode in my carry-on luggage.) Over the past few years I’ve come a little closer to realizing my dreams, thanks to products like Botnia’s Kale-Yeah Mask ($32, plus the cost of goat’s milk yogurt to mix it with), Eminence’s Strawberry Rhubarb Dermafoliant exfoliating powder ($48), and The Ordinary’s 100% L-Ascorbic Acid Powder ($6), a highly stable form of vitamin C that can be mixed into other skin care products. But a new beauty brand, PWDR, just arrived on the scene totally dedicated to snow-textured skin care, with a debut product line that includes the world’s first powdered hyaluronic acid serum. According to founder Carrington Snyder—a cofounder of face-grade body care brand Kayo, whose family has been in the cosmetic chemistry business for decades—going the powder route allowed her to formulate products using water-soluble ingredients, like hyaluronic acid, without the water. (You blend the powders with water yourself, right before applying them.) This allowed her to forego preservatives and other “filler ingredients,” like emulsifiers and stabilizers, to which some people are sensitive. “When you have water in a product, you generally need a preservative to prevent the

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February 19, 2019 at 02:04PM by CWC Wander the aisles of any health-food store and you’ll be bombarded with all sorts of buzzwords emblazoned upon food and drink packaging. “Free from artificial colors,” “high in protein,” “naturally flavored”—you know, all the things we’ve come to associate with healthy eating. Of course, language like this is now commonplace, as mainstream brands rush to capitalize on consumer demand for packaged foods with wellness cred. On one hand, all of these qualifiers can be helpful in providing a quick glimpse into a food’s nutritional info. But a growing number of products trumpeting their healthier attributes are still…not that good for you (or just misleading!), creating a more confusing environment for all of us. This trend was driven home a few weeks ago when Bud Light aired a series of Super Bowl commercials celebrating the fact that, unlike Miller Lite and other light beer competitors, it doesn’t brew its beers with corn syrup. To be clear, we aren’t talking about high-fructose corn syrup here—the sweetener linked with type 2 diabetes and heart disease—but regular corn syrup, which beer makers often use to facilitate fermentation. (Sugar is necessary for fermentation to occur; Bud Light says it uses rice as its sugar source, rather than corn.) Here’s what’s tricky about the non-corn syrup stance: There’s no corn syrup in finished beer. “It’s more of a processing aid and is 100 percent fermented out,” Kaylyn Kirkpatrick, a brewing extension associate at Cornell University, told TIME. (Basically, it’s used to

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February 19, 2019 at 01:07PM by CWC Out of all the strengthening toys you can find at the gym, resistance bands hold the (unfair) title of being the least intimidating. Those couldn’t possibly give me a good workout, say the haters. Go ahead, underestimate me, whispers back the resistance band. Okay, so I’m personifying inanimate objects here—but, for real: The rubber bands can make your muscles quiver when used correctly. Aaptiv master trainer Meg Takacs knows first-hand how stealthily brutal these bands can be. When she dropped by our office last week, we challenged her to come up with a full-body sequence you can do anywhere using your band of choice. Whether you tack the moves onto a fartlek workout or bang them out for a speedy sweat sesh right before work, you’ll be breathless in a good way. Below, Takacs shares her 5-move, full-body resistance band workout. View this post on Instagram Break a sweat without even leaving your house! Swipe through for 5 moves from @aaptiv master trainer @meg_takacs to try this weekend! 1. Push-up into single row⠀ 2. Single Leg RDL 3. Diagonal squat walks⠀ 4. Shoulder taps keeping your leggings at 90 degrees 5. Burpees with plank jacks #iamwellandgood #fitness #workout #saturdaysweat #fitnessmoves #homeworkout A post shared by Well+Good (@iamwellandgood) on Feb 16, 2019 at 6:39am PST //www.instagram.com/embed.js Get ready for this resistance-band workout 1. Push-up into single row: Begin in push-up position with the band wrapped around your wrists. Push-up, then pull your right elbow back in a row. Return to push-up

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February 19, 2019 at 12:31PM by CWC There’s an annoyingly long list of things that most people know to protect their skin from. Sunlight, for one. The cold weather, for another. Your cell phones, for yet another. And recently, I found out there’s an entirely different element that could be wreaking havoc on your face: heat. I know, I know—cue the “womp, womp.” But, according to derms, doing things like sitting in an infrared sauna or blasting yourself with hot air from a blowdryer can present its own set of not-so-ideal skin situations. “While UV is much more damaging, over time infrared light can also have an impact on skin,” says New York-based dermatologist Kaveri Korgavkar, MD. Though it’s important to note that regular sunscreen won’t help with this, she says, so you need something that’s specially formulated to tackle infrared rays, like SkinMedica Total Defense + Repair ($68). “Heat from blowdryers or other sources can damage skin as well,” she explains. “First, some hair dryers emit energy in the infrared range. Also, heat itself can damage the skin by inducing oxidative stress, which  can trigger conditions such as melasma.” This, she says, is more common in people with darker skin, and can be treated with regular use of antioxidant serums. “Extremes in heat can also trigger rosacea flares,” confirms NYC-based dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, MD, who points to infrared saunas as particularly problematic for anyone prone to hyperpigmentation. “Heat can lead to free radical damage and hyperpigmentation in the skin.” So, uh, what are

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