January 16, 2020 at 11:30PM by CWC If you’re in need of a new healthy recipe for dinner that won’t break the bank, I have a wonderful addition for you to add to your weekday lineup. Recently, I found myself perusing the highlights from the international food trends in the annual Pinterest 100 report: Filipino desserts with purple ube, Middle Eastern treats like rose water milk pudding, and West African soups and porridges. But it was a recipe for West African peanut stew that really got the attention of my tastebuds. Beth Moncel, the food blogger behind Budget Bytes, made it her mission to create a budget-friendly version of the peanut stew—and people can’t stop raving about it. “This unique peanut and tomato based stew is so incredibly flavorful, super comforting, and is truly a meal in a bowl,” she wrote. Filled with collard greens, peanut butter, brown rice, and other hearty ingredients, it’s a dish that will leave you satisfied and feeling good. This recipe makes six servings for a grand total of $6.38. Dinner for a dollar? Yes, please. Meal prepping? Moncel says it holds up well in the refrigerator and freezer if you make it in big batches. The next time you’re craving something warm and cozy, look no further than Moncel’s wholesome West African peanut stew. Vegan West African peanut stew Ingredients 1 Tbsp olive oil 4 cloves garlic 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger 1 sweet potato (about 1 lb.) 1 medium onion 1 tsp cumin
Day: January 16, 2020
How to pick a product if your skin is oily *and* dry, according to a derm
January 16, 2020 at 11:00PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXLjprqwVGs] Whether you’re dry or oily, the cardinal rule when choosing any skin-care product is to make sure it works for your skin type. But what the heck are you supposed to do if you’re… both? According to board-certified dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD, that’s actually the case for most people, and finding the right product isn’t as complicated as you might think. The way we talk about skin care makes it seem like you should fall seamlessly into only one skin category, but that’s not actually the case. “We don’t all fit perfectly into one skin-care bucket, which is why ‘combination skin’ is the perfect skin-care descriptor for most of us,” she says. “Some people skew more toward the oily side, while others are more dry, but in general we all have patches of oily skin in some places and dry skin in others.” All of this begs the question: If you’re dealing two skin types at the same time, how the heck are you supposed to find ingredients that work for both? In the latest episode of Dear Derm, Dr. Gohara lays out the info on exactly that. The trick? Understanding which areas are which, and targeting your products appropriately. Take moisturizer, for example: “You use lipstick on your lips and eye shadow on your eyes, so why can’t you use a heavier cream on the dryer parts of your skin, and a lighter lotion on the parts that produce more moisturizer?” says Dr.
‘1. 5 reps’ help you see results at the gym *twice* as fast
January 16, 2020 at 08:36PM by CWC Repetitions (the kids call them “reps”) are the building blocks of any strength training routine. Every rep carries you from the start to the finish of a move, but Katrina Pilkington, NASM-CPT, a National Academy of Sports Medicine-certified trainer, says that one secret to how to gain muscle faster lies in making a rep last just a bit more than usual. Gym friends, meet the 1 1/2 rep. The 1 1/2 rep involves doing the second part of the movement twice before returning to your starting position. For example, in a squat, you would drop your butt down, bring it back up just a touch, then drop it down again before returning to standing. It’s simple, but according to Pilkington, it can speed up muscle growth by, like, a lot. “The use of the 1 1/2 method helps to increase the challenge of muscle tension in order to help overall growth,” she says. In a full rep, there will always be a “primary muscle mover,” or a muscle doing most of the work. “By adding the 1/2, you can maximize tension and enhance the use of stabilizers in between the primary movers,” explains Pilkington. That means the muscles designed to carry heavy loads (the primary muscle movers) and the muscles made to stabilize your body (the stabilizers) will be working as a team. A true Swiss Army knife-skill, 1 1/2 reps can be added to any move in your playbook to make it
Suffering a miscarriage can cause long-lasting PTSD, research shows
January 16, 2020 at 07:36PM by CWC Although miscarriages are fairly common (occurring in about 10 percent of pregnancies), the psychological consequences are often overlooked. Researchers at Imperial College London and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium led a study examining the link between early pregnancy loss and post-traumatic stress disorder. They found that nearly one in every five women who had a miscarriage still suffered from PTSD many months later. Nearly 600 women from the prenatal clinics at three London hospitals completed emailed surveys containing psychological assessments, including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Post-Traumatic stress Diagnostic Scale. Those who miscarried or had an ectopic pregnancy were emailed the assessments one, three, and nine months after their loss. A small group of controls were sent the assessment soon after the 11 to 14 week ultrasound that confirms the viability of a pregnancy. The study, published in the in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that 29 percent of women with an early pregnancy loss reported symptoms of PTSD one month after later, and 18 percent still had symptoms after nine months. (More than 150 women who filled out the initial survey did not complete the final survey.) “The fact that 18 percent still experience symptoms is very important to note, as this suggests longer-term impact of the problem,” says Sudhakar Selvaraj, MD, PhD, a clinical psychiatrist with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston. Since about 25 percent of the respondents dropped out over time, Dr. Selvaraj
Resistant starch is yet another gut-healthy reason to eat carbs
January 16, 2020 at 07:17PM by CWC With seemingly everyone and their neighbor on keto lately, carbs have unfortunately become a dietary devil. Many food experts say that’s unfortunate, since avoiding carb-filled foods like oats, potatoes, and lentils means we collectively are missing out on fiber—which can have health implications on our gut and microbiome. “People could be depriving themselves of very valuable nutrients for not only GI issues but long-term health and disease prevention,” says Lisa Moskovitz, R.D., CEO and founder of New York Nutrition Group. You’ve probably heard of the importance of insoluble and soluble fiber and prebiotics (another type of fiber) for gut health. But these fiber varieties have a less well-known cousin: resistant starch. “I hear a lot from clients about prebiotics, but resistant starch never comes up in my practice. Most people haven’t heard of it,” says Moskovitz. Yet despite its under-the-radar vibe, it plays an important role in our digestive health. What is resistant starch, and why is it good for me? Resistant starch is both a starch and a type of fiber. Let us explain. Carbohydrates consist of fiber, sugar, and/or starch. Your body uses both starch and sugar as its main source of fuel. Fiber is unique because it isn’t broken down into glucose (aka sugar), giving it special health-boosting properties. Resistant starch passes through the small intestine intact and is fermented in the large intestine, producing short chain fatty acids that, similarly to probiotics, feed healthy bacteria to support a balanced
Some of the best moisturizers money can buy are hiding at the drugstore for only $20
January 16, 2020 at 06:46PM by CWC If you had to choose a hot commodity in the beauty aisles right now, I’d bet that it’d be a moisturizer. One of the most important things that your skin needs is hydration, and a solid moisturizer is your best bet when it comes to delivering and sealing in moisture. The good news is that you don’t have to shell out top dollar to get a good one—the best drugstore moisturizers are just as good (if not better) than ones that you’d pay a bunch of bucks to put on your shelf. After all, the main thing you want your moisturizer to do is, well, moisturize skin, and there aren’t exactly endless ways to do that. “Most moisturizers are pretty similar actually,” says Adarsh Vijay Mudgil, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City. “There are a few ingredients to look for. Moisturizers with ceramides and hyaluronic acid are great at locking moisture in the skin.” Aloe vera and glycerin are hydrating superstars, too. To get the most out of your product, Dr. Mudgil says it’s key to apply it the right way. “Don’t dry skin off completely after showering or cleansing,” he says, suggesting that if moisturizer is applied to damp skin it has better penetrability into your complexion. Ready to reap the benefits of an inexpensive moisturizer in your own routine? Keep on scrolling for the best ones out there that won’t break the bank. Burt’s Bees Daily Face Moisturizer For
The 12 most unforgivable gym etiquette offenses during the busiest month of the year
January 16, 2020 at 06:42PM by CWC Growing up, my family never missed church on Sunday. Never. As such devout practitioners (aka helpless charges of a devout mother), we liked to complain about the twice-a-year church-goers, the ones who made it unbearably crowded at Easter and Christmas and who never knew what the hell (sorry, mom!) they were doing. Gym etiquette is a lot like church etiquette. I can’t help but be reminded of those disruptive folks when I visit the gym or take a fitness class in January (the exercise equivalent of Christmas), when all the people who make a yearly pilgrimage flood the territory well-trodden by year-round devotees. It is, of course, an intensely positive phenomenon, as exercise is good for the body and the mind, and therefore the more the merrier for a happy, healthy society. That said, if you are among those who don’t frequent sweatboxes and may not know the proper etiquette within them—or, if you’re a 365 exerciser who needs a refresher on how to appropriately navigate more crowded spaces—there are a few things to keep in mind if you hope to not be that guy/gal. To help all of us avoid such a fate, I polled some gym rats for their etiquette pet peeves. Gym Etiquette 101: What NOT to do in fitness spaces this month and every month 1. Hog the treadmills I feel so seen (and amused) by this one that I have to (anonymously) quote it in full: “When you
Zero-waste activist Lauren Singer defines wellness as living in alignment with your values
January 16, 2020 at 06:00PM by CWC Lauren Singer, a zero-waste influencer who founded Package Free Shop and blogs under the cheeky alias @TrashIsForTossers, inadvertently created waves in my personal community last year when she helped me detox my home from single-use plastic. After she opened my eyes to the myriad ways in which I was not just creating unnecessary waste, but also spending money I didn’t need to spend and making myself less healthy in the process, I couldn’t help but preach her gospel to friends and family. A couple of months later, my best friend’s brother begged me to tell his sister to stop harassing the whole family about their plastic use, to which I responded that I couldn’t because I was the one responsible for converting her to a zealot. This is what I call the “Lauren Singer” effect, and it’s why she’s been named one of Well+Good’s 2020 Changemakers. Singer got her start in the environmental science program at NYU, where eventually the dissonance between what she was learning and how she was behaving struck her as problematic. So, she embarked on a zero waste journey at a time nearly a decade ago when, to our collective shame, waste awareness was still extremely fringe. She began sharing tips for following her lead on her blog and Instagram and, in 2015, gave a TedX Talk which has been viewed almost three million times. In 2018, she opened her first Package Free shop in Williamsburg, New York, the brick-and-mortar
How to use each of the moon’s 4 main phases to help you conquer your goals
January 16, 2020 at 05:00PM by CWC Given its skill at motivating us to take risks, encouraging us to let our freak flag fly high, and pushing us to follow our heart, it’s clear that the moon’s energy is powerful, often affecting us when we don’t even realize it. Another opportunity it offers that may not be widely known? The moon’s potent energy, which changes throughout the full moon cycle, can actually be harnessed and used to help us achieve our goals. Here’s how it works: Each of the main four phases of the full moon cycle brings a unique energy. The energy of the full moon, for example, is all about celebration, whereas the waning moon has more of a chill vibe that encourages stillness. “Being in tune with the moon is a way to do the self work you would have to do anyway, but more gently and intentionally.” —Ani Ferlise, spiritual coach and astrologer The power, then, that can come with working in accordance with the energy of each phase of the full moon cycle can provide a roadmap for achieving goals with a sense of ease. “Being in tune with the moon is a way to do the self work you would have to do anyway, but more gently and intentionally,” says spiritual coach and astrologer Ani Ferlise. “Utilizing all of the magic and medicine each of these phases have is key to living a soulful, rooted, connected, and vibrant life.” Ready to bring your goals
Divorce under 30 isn’t unique, but it is often uniquely isolating and lonely
January 16, 2020 at 02:00PM by CWC Calla* remembers exactly what it was like realizing at age 28, a year into her marriage, that it wasn’t going to work. Before she and her husband got married, she thought they were on the same page about everything: having kids, their finances, and how their general future together would look. But quickly, it became clear that they didn’t seem to share the same vision anymore. They didn’t even seem to share the same values. For Calla and her husband, the process of getting divorced was quick, which felt bittersweet to her. Not having kids or owning property simplifies a process infamous for being awful, but that ease can also feel devaluing of what was once a promising future. “It kind of makes me sad how easy it was because I don’t want to undermine the commitment of marriage—but it was very easy, just signing a paper and being done with it,” she says. “We didn’t even have to go anywhere together because it was all done over email.” Though statistics show many are getting married later than they used to (according to the United States Census Bureau, the average first marriage age for women was 23.9 in 1990, and now it’s 28), people like Calla are still getting married well before turning 30. And for an estimated 10 percent, divorced, too. Even without experiencing the messiness that often comes with the process of dividing assets, Calla says her divorce was uniquely terrible