February 01, 2020 at 09:00PM by CWC What came first: cauli-mania or Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi? This is definitely a chicken-or-the-egg situation, but one thing’s for sure: the cruciferous veg owes a large part of its comeback-kid status to good old TJ’s. The grocery store’s 11th Annual Customer Choice Awards Winners confirms as much. Cauliflower gnocchi took first place of the vegetarian products at Trader Joe’s—but what of its plant-based runner-ups? We asked dietitian Amy Gorin, MS, RDN, owner of Amy Gorin Nutrition to spill the tea on each. A dietitian offers a nutritional breakdown of 4 of the most popular vegetarian products at Trader Joe’s (you know, behind cauliflower gnocchi) 2nd place: Soy Chorizo “I like that this is an excellent source of vegetarian protein, providing 11 grams per serving. You also get a slew of other nutrients, including eye-helping vitamin A, bone-helping calcium, and iron—which is important for many functions within the body, including the transport of oxygen,” says Gorin. Because the soy chorizo 730 milligrams, or 32 percent of your daily value of salt, so make sure you drink plenty of water and space out the yummy meals you include it in. “You can also include a source of potassium, which helps to counteract the negative effects of sodium on blood pressure, with your meal. For instance, pair the chorizo with some avocado slices,” Gorin recommends. Everything you’ve ever wondered about soy, answered: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lO254Ecgpo] 3rd: Vegan Kale Cashew and Basil Pesto Eat up, vegans! Our bronze-medalist
Month: February 2020
Rock-Star Energy: How to make the most of mystical and powerful February
February 01, 2020 at 08:00PM by CWC There is nothing more important in spirituality and healing work than honestly facing yourself, embodying your unique gifts and high vibrations, and not spiritually bypassing anything. With monthly Rock-Star Energy forecasts, “Rock-Star Shaman” Alyson Charles represents those elements by communicating the wisdoms of both Earth (rock) and sky (star). Focusing on these Rock-Star elements for monthly energy forecasts assures that throughout our respective spiritual journey, we are grounding, rooting, and working on our lower chakras and our earthly, human tasks and behaviors. At the same time, we are also expanding, rising, working with the upper chakras, and connecting to the cosmos and stars to collaborate with the divine energy of the universe. February is a very mystical and powerful month, delivering a healthy dose of rooting, rising, and expecting long-awaited miracles to reveal in deep, clear ways. Below, learn grounding techniques for channeling the earthly energy of the “Rock” and also the ambitious growth energy of the “Star.” Rock Right now, there is a feeling of holding Mother Earth’s blessed energies in an incubated way around the seeds we planted for our lives before the winter’s cold came in. Some essences of these beautiful seeds have already begun to rise to the surface, providing a miraculous glimpse of what’s to come. As this positive energy percolates, we must not become resistant to the still-evident dark, cold days. Instead, let’s revere them with knowledge that the roots of our greatest dreams are being fortified,
Therapist-vetted tips on how to get the most out of a ‘mental health day’
February 01, 2020 at 06:00PM by CWC It’s the resounding advice from mental health professionals that’s often said but rarely followed: Take a mental health day. But mental illness—particularly burnout—is a rising problem in the workplace that not only impacts a person’s well-being, it also can lead to poorer work performance and more missed days if not addressed early on. “Running on empty is never a good idea, especially when it comes to mental health,” says therapist and anxiety specialist Laura Rhodes-Levin, LMFT. “I encourage my clients to get used to filling their gas tanks when they are between half and three-fourths empty.” Taking a day off can help refill your mental tank, so to speak. Of course, there are a lot of barriers that prevent people from truly taking a day off for the sake of their mental health, from enduring stigma that makes it hard to be open about needing help to company policies that don’t support taking mental health days (much less sick days). However, if you’re in a position where you are able to miss a day of work in order to recuperate, you might wonder how to best optimize that day for your mental well-being. Here, mental health professionals explain how to know when to take a day off and how to structure it so that’s it’s truly time well spent and you go back to work feeling more refreshed. When to take a mental health day The short answer: When you need one. More
Criss-cross crunches will work the hardest-to-target muscles in your core
February 01, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC If your harder-to-hit core muscles had a campaign slogan, it would be “stronger together.” Allow me to explain. Instead of working each of the 12-ish muscles that make up your trunk on their own, you’ll get better results when you work them together, particularly when it comes to strengthening those harder-to-target muscles (like the lower abs and the obliques). “When we use the body as a system instead of through isolation movements, we are able to really maximize the potential of our strength,” says Obé fitness trainer Emily Diers. This is particularly applicable to your core workouts, since incorporating numerous muscles at once makes your moves more effective. Sweating through combo ab moves is helpful in getting to spots like your adductors, lower abs, and obliques, which are hard to hit on their own in isolated exercises to begin with. “When we use our adductors and obliques together, they form a really powerful team to streamline our strength at the midline of the body,” she says. “Our adductor muscles help to draw the legs closer to the midline and flex at the hip, and our obliques help with rotation of the trunk.” When you do combo movements targeting all of them, it’ll stabilize your pelvis, improve your core rotation, and of course, strengthen your muscles. Below, Diers shares three go-to combo moves that’ll have your entire core quaking… and feeling stronger together, for sure. Lower ab and oblique workout 1. Elbow to knee: Start
How to heal cracked lip corners fast, because…ouch!
February 01, 2020 at 02:00PM by CWC Having perpetually chapped lips is one of those annoying side effects of winter weather or dry heat that you often have to learn to grin and bear (after slathering on copious amounts of lip balm, that is). But if you let things go totally untreated for too long, sometimes the dryness spreads to the lip corners and then even grinning and bearing it hurts. Cracked lip corners can happen for a few different reasons, the most obvious being that your lips are hella chapped and the dryness has started to spread to the outermost edges of the mouth, due to a lack of moisture. But, if you find this happens to you on repeat, take note that there can be some other things at play, too, which you’ll want to get checked out by your doc. “Chapped lip corners could be caused by an allergy to something you’re eating that’s causing over dryness in the corners of your lips or mouth, so some people need to figure out what that allergy is,” says Rachel Liverman, CEO and co-founder of Glowbar, who also points to acidic foods like oranges and grapefruits as purported culprits. Another condition, called angular cheilitis, that could also be at play, according to board-certified dermatologist Rachel Nazarian, MD. “It happens often because people breathe with their mouth at night, usually when their nose is stuffy, like during allergy season,” she says. “Small bits of saliva collect in this area and
How social anxiety can look different for Black women
February 01, 2020 at 01:00PM by CWC Watching the video footage of musician Summer Walker timidly accept her award for Best New Artist at the 2019 Soul Train Music Awards brings me back to my middle school days. In Ms. Turberg’s sixth grade class, I was standing in front of my peers to present a book report when suddenly, it felt like someone hit mute on the room—all I could hear was the loud thudding of my heart. My stomach started doing somersaults in place and my face was burning hot, as if I had a fever. I was completely unaware of the words coming out of my mouth, but I just kept moving my lips until the kids in my class started laughing and my teacher told me I could take a seat. Like many young Black girls, I didn’t have a name for what had just happened to me. We didn’t talk about mental health at home and I had no understanding of anxiety as a medical condition. Yet these strange symptoms followed me through the years, with different consequences: getting me kicked out of class in high school because the teacher mistook my nervous ticks for mocking, pigeonholing me as the “angry Black woman” in college because I wore my heart on my sleeve, and eventually creating a perception in the office that I was “unfriendly” because I kept to myself and preferred not to attend company outings. Summer Walker has gone public with her struggles when
This protein-packed meatless meatloaf is totally delicious—and 100% vegan
February 01, 2020 at 12:00PM by CWC Meatloaf has been a family dinner staple since ancient Rome, and—without giving you a full-on history lesson—let’s just say it’s changed a lot since then. (The recipe used to call for animal brains, okay?) It’s safe to say that a transformation was very necessary, and a meatless meatloaf recipe makes it worth a bite. Vegan meatloaf recipes are increasingly popular. But don’t let the all-veggie recipe fool you: It’s just as packed with protein as the real deal. Lauren Kirchmaier, the recipe developer behind Flora & Vino, created a Lentil Oat Loaf that—between the 3 cups of lentils and 1 cup of oats—offers upward of 165 grams of protein per loaf. “It’s super hearty and filling with just oats, lentils, and veggies,” she tells me. “It’s also the perfect vegan and gluten-free comfort food main dish for winter.” Even though this meatloaf is primarily made up of lentils and oats, along with flax eggs, bell peppers, carrots, and plenty of spices, it still has a similar taste and texture. “The secret to the best texture is a mix of smashed and whole lentils,” Kirchmaier says. “I also found I found sautéing the vegetables first helped to soften them and infuse flavor before adding to the rest of the mix.” After putting your mixture into a loaf pan and topping it with refined sugar-free ketchup, it’s ready to bake for 45 minutes. The next thing you know, you’ll have a meatless meatloaf ready to devour.
Asking for a friend: Do some white sneakers stay whiter longer?
February 01, 2020 at 01:00AM by CWC When you buy a pair of white sneakers, it’s because you love what a bright white shoe can do to an outfit. But, you know what you’re signing up for. Soon, and sometimes much sooner than you’d like, those sneakers will be a shell of what they once were. Less effortlessly sporty and polished, more like what you wear en route to an event with proper shoes in your bag. Is it just me, or, do some shoes get dingier faster? Vincent Rao Jr. of Vince’s Village Cobbler, a shoe-repair shop in Soho, says it’s true. “I noticed that my leather sneakers stay a lot cleaner than my fabric sneakers,” Rao says. “Once fabrics get stained, they’re very hard to paint, hard to clean. Leather is a lot more durable, and if it does get scuffed or if it gets damaged it’s very easy to correct.” When searching for a white leather sneaker, Rao says to avoid patent leather and suede, because those two are the most vulnerable. “They’re extremely hard to clean, and they’re prone to getting damaged,” he says. Opt for genuine calf skin leather, which he says is the most durable. If you’re into the chunky sneaker trend, you’re in luck, because Rao says thicker soles make a huge difference. “The higher the upper of the shoe is from the ground, the safer you’re going to be,” he says. Snow, salt, and water are enemies of white sneakers, so keep
I’m a gyno, and this is the #1 most misdiagnosed condition I see
February 01, 2020 at 12:00AM by CWC Any owner of a vulva/vagina (two different, non-interchangeable parts of the female anatomy!) knows that things get funky down there from time to time. Occasionally, you’ll know why something’s amiss—unprotected sex with a new (STI-tested) partner, a sugar/starch binge (just me?), some type of sweat situation, PMS, etc. Other times, the origins of said funk can be mysterious. Regardless, Alyssa Dweck, MD, a board-certified OB/GYN in New York, tells me the go-to diagnosis for most women with unexplained funky nethers tends to be “yeast infection.” This, she says, is often a miss. “Many women consider every vaginal itch or discharge a ‘yeast infection’ when in actuality, they may have a bacterial imbalance or infection [such as] BV or bacterial vaginosis, a sensitivity to an external irritant such as body wash or a bath bomb, a skin condition like eczema, or even an STI,” Dr. Dweck says. Part of the problems is that the symptoms of a yeast infection—like itching and burning, unusual discharge, and redness or swelling—are similar to what pops up from other conditions. “Yeast can be the great imposter sometimes, because if a yeast infection goes unchecked, you can get little cuts and fissures on the external genitals as well as all the usual fun symptoms inside the vagina like discharge and itching and all of that,” says Dr. Dweck. “It’s easy to confuse different syndromes.” “Yeast can be the great imposter sometimes… It’s easy to confuse different syndromes.” —Alyssa Dweck,