February 11, 2020 at 08:00PM by CWC Fifty-one years ago today, the heavens broke open and down came Jennifer Aniston. Since her big break in Friends nearly 30 years ago, the SAG award-winning actress and producer has blessed us with her talent in countless TV shows and movies—hardly appearing to age in the process. So how does she manage to circumvent time? Good skin care is part of it, of course, but her habits go beyond just serums and scrubs. Aniston takes her health and fitness seriously. So seriously, in fact, that she can do a three-minute plank. She has a go-to elliptical routine, too. (Using the elliptical doesn’t just involve flailing around till you break a sweat? News to me.) But she’s also learned that true wellness is all about balance. “I went from being a crazy workout girl to sort of saying, ‘My body wants a little bit a of break,’” Aniston told Women’s Health in 2014. “I kind of stay with more simple stuff and taking walks and not being neurotic about working out and eating right. I started to enjoy life a little bit more.” Keep reading to find out exactly how she does it, along with the skin care routine that makes 51 look so good. These 5 Jennifer Aniston skin care and wellness tips are easy enough to add to your own routine 1. MOISTURIZER AND SPF ARE non-negotiable Aniston previously told Now to Love that she spends a lot of time in the
Day: February 11, 2020
Gabi Butler’s triple flips are hard to copy, but you *can* steal her ab workouts
February 11, 2020 at 07:00PM by CWC Watch Netflix’s hit docu-series Cheer and you’ll quickly see that the Navarro College cheerleading team practices pretty much all the time. That’s how you win national titles, after all. But what you don’t see on screen is that Navarro star Gabi Butler—a longtime cheerlebrity who now hosts her own clinics while flying and tumbling in Miami’s Top Gun squad—takes her cheerleader workout routine beyond the mat. When Butler is at home or at the gym, she always does a 10-minute core series consisting of one-minute sets of 10 different exercises: crunches, leg lifts, plank hip dips, and more. (Here’s a similar ab session led by star trainer Charlee Atkins.) She’s also a fan of the core workouts in P90X, an at-home fitness program. Abs aside, Butler loves getting a full-body workout at a boutique fitness class. “I love hot kickboxing. It’s in a hot room, and the whole time you’re going hard on a punching bag. 10/10, highly recommend it,” she says. You can also catch her sweating it out at SoulCycle. No matter which type of workout she does—be it cheer, kickboxing, or spin—Butler always refuels with her go-to protein shake. “It’s one scoop of vegan protein powder, a whole banana, honey, cinnamon, vanilla, almond butter, and almond milk,” she says. “It will change your life. It’s healthy and tastes like a milkshake. I drink it when I’m done with workouts because it’s such a good recovery drink.” Protein shakes are dietitian-approved, too:
5 curling irons that won’t damage hair, according to stylists who use them all the time
February 11, 2020 at 06:04PM by CWC Nothing quite says “I spent $60 on a professional blowout” (without actually having to spend $60 on a professional blowout) like knowing how to curl your own hair. Once you know how to give yourself effortless bends or bombshell waves, you’ll want to style your hair yourself all the time. (For free!) And with the right curling iron on hand, that newfound hobby won’t result in damage to your strands. Because, in breaking news to exactly no one, too much heat is bad for hair. Heat can crack your cuticle (the outermost layer of a strand), which can result in proteins leaching out. This leaves hair dry, frayed, and brittle. While you’d be hard-pressed to find any sort of hot tool that’s actually good for your hair, there are certain things you can look for to lessen damage. Keep scrolling for the best ways to protect your hair from heat. How to protect your hair from a curling iron Even the safest curling irons on the market still run the risk of doing some damage to your strands, so it’s important to take certain precautions during the styling process. 1. Prep ahead of time: “If you know that you are creating a hairstyle that uses hot tools like a curling iron, you should prep your hair the day before to avoid heat damage,” says Garnier hairstylist Millie Moreno. “I always recommend applying a hydrating mask and blowdrying hair the day before to have it ready
This woman set a world record with a 4-hour plank—here’s her secret
February 11, 2020 at 05:06PM by CWC Just a one-minute plank makes my whole body shake, so my jaw dropped to the floor when I heard about a new world record of 4 hours, 19 minutes, and 55 seconds. Dana Glowacka, a vegan athlete, and yogi, makes her world-record plank hold look easy, but she’s the first to admit that it took a lot of dedication and hard work. “My son found a record plank in the Guinness World Records book and told me I could do it,” she tells me. “We even didn’t know who the person who hold the plank was, but I was ready to plank right away and see how long I could stay strong. My first attempt was four minutes.” Four minutes to more than four hours? If you’re wondering how she did it, she says the biggest thing is simply starting your day with a plank every morning. “Holding planks in sets is safe and helps develop the mind-body endurance,” she says. “Let’s say you can hold one for two minutes. Start with three sets a day.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dana Glowacka (@dbg_plankdoyoga) on Oct 22, 2019 at 6:44pm PDT //www.instagram.com/embed.js You can spread those sets all throughout the day to build up your mental and physical endurance. Glowacka recommends doing your first set in the morning, second before lunch, and third later in the evening: Set 1: 2 minutes in the morning (can be on
It’s 2020 and burnout is still ablaze—here’s what we need to do about it:
February 11, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC “It’s what could happen—it’s completely possible. We don’t know how bad things can get.” That’s the message functional medicine practitioner Will Cole, DC, wants to spread about the 2008 Pixar film WALL-E being a prophetic, cautionary vision regarding the future if we don’t take steps now to fix burnout. Though he admits we’re still functional humans—unlike the physically atrophied ones in the film who don’t move, are permanently affixed in front of a screen, and rely on computers to take care of them as a result of longstanding unsustainable environmental and lifestyle practices—he calls burnout the elephant in the room we can’t afford to ignore. The state of being burnt out, Dr. Cole says, facilitates the fatigue, exhaustion, and depletion contributing to inflammation, stress, chronic illnesses and autoimmune diseases, which are on the rise and now affect an estimated 50 million Americans. To be fair, society isn’t ignoring burnout conceptually. In fact,Well+Good noted in July 2019 that the year had become largely defined by burnout: Last January kicked off with Mary Helen Petersen’s article in Buzzfeed outlining how millennials became the burnout generation and Boston-based health-care organizations naming physician burnout “a public health crisis” in a published research paper. A few months later, the World Health Organization knighted occupational burnout with a diagnostic code in the International Classification of Diseases. Given all of this, it’s an unequivocal truth that burnout is on our minds, affecting our bodies, and, as Dr. Cole cautions, compromising
This sex toy looks like an electric toothbrush and will make your head spin with pleasure
February 11, 2020 at 03:00PM by CWC When I unwrapped my brand new Zumio sex toy ($140) in plain sight on a couch at work, all I could think of was Beanie Feldstein. Deep purple with a slim, rotating tip, I had never seen a sex toy like this before…one that more closely resembled an electric toothbrush than a vibrator. Cue: Feldstein’s line from Booksmart: “I once tried to masturbate with an electric toothbrush, but I got a horrible UTI.” Well, no need to be concerned about UTIs when using the Zumio. It may aesthetically resemble a dental tool, but its rotationally powered tip works in place of a different kind of oral care. There are many things to love about the innovative Zumio sex toy, but a good place to start is that it’s not a traditional vibrator. Its rotating tip provides an entirely different, swirly approach to stimulation, which feels simultaneously familiar and completely new territory in comparison to what other buzzy feel-good gadgets supply. “Its circular movement, adjustable speeds, and pressure sensitivity allows Zumio to deliver an extremely unique sensation, exactly where you want it.” —Joan Highet, Zumio’s chief retail officer The rotation was originally developed to mimic the natural motion of a finger, yet the design offers much, much more. “The combination of the precision SpiroTip, its circular movement, adjustable speeds, and pressure sensitivity allows Zumio to deliver an extremely unique sensation, exactly where you want it,” says Joan Highet, Zumio’s chief retail officer. “The lack of
Why sea moss is the latest hot add-in to healthy smoothies
February 11, 2020 at 02:00PM by CWC Sometimes it seems like we’ve seen anything that could possibly trend in the wellness world have a moment. Jade eggs? Check. Eating all fat? Check. CBD everything? Check. But just when you thought you’ve seen it all…enter the rise of sea moss. No, it’s not your imagination—sea moss is having a moment. The slimy seaweed has sparked a torrent of colorful #seamosssmoothies and other recipes splashed across our Instagram feeds. According to Pinterest’s 2020 Trends Report, search volume for “sea moss benefits” increased 380% from 2018 to 2019. Even Kim Kardashian-West recently tweeted to her fans in a Q&A that she enjoys the occasional sea moss smoothie. It appears the algae has really grown on the wellness world (pun very intended). But, uh, what exactly is it? And is it worth the hype? Sea moss—aka Irish moss—is a species of red algae found on the Atlantic shorelines of North America, Europe and the Caribbean Islands. Historically, the seaweed has been harvested and dried to create carrageenan, a common thickening ingredient akin to a vegan gelatin. Carrageenan has actually been the center of wellness controversy for years due to its potential links to inflammation and other illnesses (although research on the subject is mixed). Now the seaweed itself—not its extract—is making a splash. “This algae has been used for many years as an alternative medicine in Jamaican and Irish cultures, but is becoming quite popular in the health and wellness industry,” says Lisa Richards,
‘Friend-mirroring’ is the confidence-boosting reason to send selfies to your pals
February 11, 2020 at 01:00PM by CWC I’m single and I live in New York City, which is something I admit with the same enthusiasm I’d dedicate to “I have to get a colonoscopy.” What I mean by that is my relationship status isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it is certainly a pain in my rear. I personally prefer to be partnered, and making that happen in a city full of small-talk-minimizing headphone-wearers makes achieving that uniquely difficult. I’m doing my best to get out there by resisting the seductive lure of staying in to watch Netflix, instead resolving to RSVP “yes” to everything. But if I ever need an extra self-esteem boost to get out the door—even after I doll myself up in any number of flattering LBDs—I send a picture of myself to a friend, or practice “friend-mirroring.” It’s not a compliment-fishing exercise, but rather the elicitation of an assist to help me evade any potential spiral of negativity. Because showing up somewhere alone can make anyone feel vulnerable, and doing it while wearing the wrong dress or over-application of blush can feel extra-awful when you don’t have a baseline level of self-confidence at a given point, like when you’re, say, fresh off a breakup. If I ever need a self-esteem boost to get out the door—even after I doll myself up in any number of flattering LBDs—I send a picture of myself to a friend, or practice “friend-mirroring.” That’s why I started practicing friend-mirroring
I’m not a runner, but in the spirit of marathon season I tried CBD-fueled runs—here’s what happened
February 11, 2020 at 10:30AM by CWC I won’t lie to you, I’m that person who peeks out from under my blankets to look out the window at passing runners, wondering why on earth they chose to leave their warm homes to go for a run outside. It’s not that I don’t enjoy exercising. I’ve played soccer my whole life, and I take part in group workout classes regularly. But setting out on the open pavement just to run? Doesn’t exactly strike my fancy. But, after spending a recent afternoon getting lost in an internet wormhole of inspirational running stories related to the upcoming Los Angeles Marathon, I somehow found myself lacing up my sneakers and jogging down to the path near my apartment. (If you’re ever lacking in workout motivation, I highly recommend this tactic, because clearly it worked on me.) One unpleasant element of running I was quickly reminded of by my sore calves and tight hamstrings? The importance of recovery. Determined not to let soreness get in the way of my new workout of choice (the inspo was real, y’all), I decided to dabble in a new trend I’d been hearing about: Topical CBD for running. I’m no stranger to CBD skin care, but for more intel on its connection to workout recovery, I asked Kerrigan Behrens—co-founder and co-CEO at Sagely Naturals—for her take on how to use CBD to keep my muscles happy after pounding the pavement for several miles. “Recovery is imperative for runners, regardless of
Never heard of circadian entrainment? Here’s how the method can boost your wellness routine (plus how to do it)
February 11, 2020 at 10:00AM by CWC If you’ve ever struggled to break out of your foggy morning haze or felt ravenous for sugar-filled snacks after a night of just okay sleep, it’s not your lazy-Sunday mentality taking over—it might be that your circadian rhythm (you know, your internal clock that tells you when to feel sleepy) is out of sync. There’s no need for panic, though, because you can do something about it—it’s called circadian entrainment. Sounds intimidating, but it’s really just exposing yourself to the right kind of light at the correct time of day, so that your body can produce its natural responses (re: getting sleepy once it’s dark out and feeling alert when it’s sunny). “Our bodies function and respond in synchrony to the natural patterns of the planet: The sun rises and sets each day, seasons come and go, and temperatures, humidity, [etc] are all perceived through our senses to determine our physiological responses,” says Dr. Doug Steel, transitional scientist with NerouSense. But, modern life and tech have sent nearly everyone indoors (ugh, jobs), which means we now control how we reproduce these previously natural responses, Dr. Steel says. “We work indoors during the day with moderate intensity light exposure, which is about 100 to1,000 times dimmer than sunlight,” he says. Basically, the way we interact with light as modern humans goes against everything our bodies are naturally programmed to do. Once we’re in wind-down mode at home, we’re still exposing ourselves to light that’s