May 30, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC For the sake of having the most moisturized skin that I can possibly have, I slather on hyaluronic acid-packed beauty products at least twice a day. Sure, I’ll also use skin-care products that have glycerin or fatty acids for some love—but when it comes to making my complexion truly dewy and hydrated, the only thing I’ll trust is my beloved HA-serum. Scientifically, the molecule of hyaluronic acid is known for holding 1000 times its weight in water, making it a humectant that’s always pulling in moisture to deliver it straight into your skin. But as I’ve been applying the hydrating MVP to my face for several years now, I’ve started to notice that many bottles of the stuff say they contain different “molecular weights” of the ingredient. And if you need Bill Nye to explain what the heck that means, you’re not alone. I did, too. The down-low is this: The molecule sizes of different hyaluronic acids vary from bigger molecules that sit closer to the skin’s surface to smaller ones that go in deeper into the epidermis. “For a hyaluronan serum to deliver both instant and long-lasting effects, you need a combination of molecular weights,” says Jeremy Muijs, co-founder of skin-care brand Grown Alchemist. “Low and medium-weight hyaluronan molecules penetrate deeper into the skin’s structure, providing maximum below-the-surface hydration and in turn rehydrating skin cells over time. High weight hyaluronan molecules deliver immediate intensive hydration to the surface layers of the skin
Category: 2019 Health
How to genuinely connect with people, even if you’re a serious social introvert
May 30, 2019 at 04:00AM by CWC Last month, while trying to escape a group work dinner because I didn’t know anyone yet (it was, like, my third day), I ran into my boss and admitted that I didn’t know how to connect with people. I felt as if I had transferred to a new school mid-semester, and texting my old coworkers made me wish I was back at my old professional stomping grounds. My boss was quick to remind me that overcoming my social anxiety and building up my harem of work wives (my words, not hers) wouldn’t happen overnight. Still, connecting with people is hard whether you’re introverted, starting over, have an intimidating RBF, or simply want to make basic human connections. It was true before we shielded ourselves behind the walls of iPhone screens, but its truer now. That said, if you are a classic introvert, even professionals agree this can be an especially tough obstacle. “Extroverts tend to ‘collect’ friends—sometimes at the expense of having quantity over quality. Introverts, when they do make friends, often connect by slowly forming solid, deep ties.” —psychologist Carla Marie Manly, PhD “Extroverts have it easy when it comes to making connections, yet learning to form genuine connections is an area where introverts can learn to shine,” says psychologist Carla Marie Manly, PhD, and author of Joy From Fear. “Extroverts tend to ‘collect’ friends—sometimes at the expense of having quantity over quality. Introverts, when they do make friends, often connect by slowly forming
10 healthy salty snacks that totally hit the spot when you’re hangry
May 30, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC Just like a sweet tooth craving that has you seeking out all the dark chocolate in the office, a yearning for something salty can be pretty hard to shake. Yet salt doesn’t have the greatest reputation health-wise (bloating! high blood pressure!). Isn’t it better to just avoid it? Not so, says registered dietitian Jenna Gorham, RD. “Our bodies do need some salt, but too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure,” she says. The key, she explains, is making sure you don’t go over the recommended sodium intake (1,500 milligrams a day, according to the American Heart Association) and choose snacks that have other nutritional benefits. “Include a source of protein, healthy fat, or fiber,” Gorham says. “These nutrients will help fill you up and keep you full until your next meal.” With that in mind, rounded up here are 10 salty snacks that are actually healthy. All of them are super easy to make and portable, so you can throw a couple handfuls in a Ziplock bag and take to work—or wherever you tend to crave something a little salty. Keep reading for the full list. Scroll down for 10 healthy salty snack ideas. Photo: Brendid 1. Homemade cheese crackers Salty, crunchy, cheesy…this simple snack checks off so many boxes. Unlike most of the cheese crackers you’ll find at the grocery store, this one from Brendid is completely free of additives, preservatives, or any weird ingredients. Oh, and as for the
10 healthy salty snacks that totally hit the spot when you’re hangry
May 30, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC Just like a sweet tooth craving that has you seeking out all the dark chocolate in the office, a yearning for something salty can be pretty hard to shake. Yet salt doesn’t have the greatest reputation health-wise (bloating! high blood pressure!). Isn’t it better to just avoid it? Not so, says registered dietitian Jenna Gorham, RD. “Our bodies do need some salt, but too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure,” she says. The key, she explains, is making sure you don’t go over the recommended sodium intake (1,500 milligrams a day, according to the American Heart Association) and choose snacks that have other nutritional benefits. “Include a source of protein, healthy fat, or fiber,” Gorham says. “These nutrients will help fill you up and keep you full until your next meal.” With that in mind, rounded up here are 10 salty snacks that are actually healthy. All of them are super easy to make and portable, so you can throw a couple handfuls in a Ziplock bag and take to work—or wherever you tend to crave something a little salty. Keep reading for the full list. Scroll down for 10 healthy salty snack ideas. Photo: Brendid 1. Homemade cheese crackers Salty, crunchy, cheesy…this simple snack checks off so many boxes. Unlike most of the cheese crackers you’ll find at the grocery store, this one from Brendid is completely free of additives, preservatives, or any weird ingredients. Oh, and as for the
Is your plate 70 percent vegetables? Here’s why it should be, according to an RD
May 29, 2019 at 06:30PM by CWC https://content.jwplatform.com/players/I8NioZ8j-AjgxWzQ7.js Meet Wellness Collective, our immersive curriculum with Athleta that hooks you up with actionable advice from the smartest experts and brand founders in wellness right now. Get the goods at our monthly event series in New York City plus our online one-month wellness plans. There’s so much nutrition information floating around now, sometimes it can feel paralyzing simply trying to figure out what to eat for lunch. Been there? Next time you’re stumped, try RASA founder Mia Rigden, RD’s golden rule: “I like to recommend that 70 percent of your plate be vegetables,” she says. “The more variety and diversity of plant-based foods in your diet, the more nutrition you’re going to get from the food you’re eating.” The 70-percent trick is one of Rigden’s go-to pieces of advice for anyone looking to go plant forward (which translates to just eating more fruits and veggies, plain and simple). “Plant-forward eating is certainly less restrictive,” Rigden says. “You don’t have to give up any of the foods that you love—just add more vegetables to your plate.” Tune in above for all of Rigden’s top plant-powered tips. Watch the video above for three concrete tips to living a plant-forward lifestyle from a holistic nutritionist. Want more Wellness Collective? Hit up our monthly events at Athleta’s Flatiron flagship in New York City and click here for more wellness intel. In partnership with Athleta Continue Reading… Author Well+Good Editors | Well and Good Selected by iversue
A sleep specialist’s top 7 tips for how to deal when you just. can’t. sleep.
May 29, 2019 at 03:00PM by CWC It’s easy to find yourself searching for what to do when you can’t sleep when, well, you’re staring at a smartphone screen in the middle of the night with bloodshot eyes. You want to be well-rested, like desperately, and yet you’re struggling with insufferable bouts of insomnia like you’re Edward Norton in Fight Club. Well, spoiler alert: Not sleeping created lots of problems for him and it’s probably not doing you any favors either. So if you find yourself stuck in a no-sleep holding pattern, read on for a few short- and long-term strategies from experts for breaking that detrimental cycle in favor of a surplus of REM. You know, before you go full Tyler Durden. 1. Your bed is only for sleep (and, okay, sex) Here’s where I’m doing this wrong, because I use the bed for sleep, sex, The Sims, self-care, and eating a plate of chocolate chip cookies while watching Labyrinth. This behavior fools our subconscious into thinking the bed is NOT a place for rest, and thus, we teach ourselves that it’s not for sleeping. “You can’t force sleep to happen, and staying in bed awake, frustrated, tossing and turning only continues to teach your mind and body that the bed is for wakeful activities, not sleep,” says Shelby Harris, PsyD, sleep-health expert and author of The Women’s Guide to Overcoming Insomnia. “The more you only sleep—and have sex—in bed, the more your body learns that the bed is only
Paging the career guru: My coworker friend is becoming an energy vampire and my work is starting to suffer
May 29, 2019 at 12:47PM by CWC It’s great to have friends at work—really, research proves it!—but when friendship means your coworker’s personal life takes up more of your mental space than that report due next week, that’s an issue. In this week’s Good@Work column, career expert Amy Odell—whom you may know as the former editor (AKA HBIC) of Cosmopolitan.com and founding blogger of New York magazine’s The Cut—tells a woman how to handle her work wife’s draining demands for her time and energy. Question: One of my coworkers (with whom I’m also friends) is having a hard time right now personally and at work. I want to support her, but she also messages me (or pulls me aside) constantly to complain and vent. It’s getting to the point where taking care of her at work feels like almost a full-time job, and interferes with my ability to do my own job. How can I set boundaries with her without causing offense or making her feel like I don’t care about her (because I do!) Answer: It sounds like this coworker is a two-hour friend. A two-hour friend is a person you love and want to spend time with but can only do so for a maximum of two hours. A two-hour friend requires too much emotional labor for the interaction to be enjoyable for any longer. We all have two-hour friends, and admitting you have two-hour friends doesn’t make you a bad person or a bad friend. In fact, it makes you a better
Wanna say buh-bye to the full bush? Here’s how to do it without getting ingrowns
May 29, 2019 at 12:20PM by CWC Around middle school or high school, my peers started telling me that they shaved their entire bikini area. Like…all of it. The complete opposite of a full bush. What they refer to as the “Brazilian” in the waxing studio. And so, since then, I’ve been shaving it…all of it. (Sorry, TMI.) Not that this is still the trend—now we are experiencing a resurgence of the full bush—but I can confidently tell you that I know people who still prefer to rock a hairless vagina. So if you’re looking to say buh-bye to the full bush, it’s important to know how to get rid of the hair without all manner of ingrown hairs, irritation, and red bumps arising in their place. “Hair removal of any kind is an investment—time, money, and sometimes, pain—so you owe it to yourself to take the time to find out what makes the most sense to you,” says Allie Melnick, general manager of grooming brand Flamingo. And that may very well just mean, doing nothing but give it a trim now and then, and that’s cool, too. “However you choose to groom your pubic hair and skin is up to you,” says Laura Schubert, CEO and co-founder of Fur, who notes that it really doesn’t matter how you choose to rock your bikini area—it’s just about proper care for whichever route you take. With that said, if you want to removed some (or all!) of the hair down there, here
Wanna say buh-bye to the full bush? Here’s how to do it without getting ingrowns
May 29, 2019 at 12:20PM by CWC Around middle school or high school, my peers started telling me that they shaved their entire bikini area. Like…all of it. The complete opposite of a full bush. What they refer to as the “Brazilian” in the waxing studio. And so, since then, I’ve been shaving it…all of it. (Sorry, TMI.) Not that this is still the trend—now we are experiencing a resurgence of the full bush—but I can confidently tell you that I know people who still prefer to rock a hairless vagina. So if you’re looking to say buh-bye to the full bush, it’s important to know how to get rid of the hair without all manner of ingrown hairs, irritation, and red bumps arising in their place. “Hair removal of any kind is an investment—time, money, and sometimes, pain—so you owe it to yourself to take the time to find out what makes the most sense to you,” says Allie Melnick, general manager of grooming brand Flamingo. And that may very well just mean, doing nothing but give it a trim now and then, and that’s cool, too. “However you choose to groom your pubic hair and skin is up to you,” says Laura Schubert, CEO and co-founder of Fur, who notes that it really doesn’t matter how you choose to rock your bikini area—it’s just about proper care for whichever route you take. With that said, if you want to removed some (or all!) of the hair down there, here
These butt exercises are so good, J.Lo will be asking you for your routine
May 29, 2019 at 11:05AM by CWC With the peach emoji at its all-time high, it’s no wonder we’re looking for new ways to get our booties into shape. The only question is, how exactly do you do that? Sure, there are squats, but what else? If you’ve been wondering how to work your butt, you’ll be glad to know that some of the industry’s top trainers shared their favorite glutes workouts to take any old sweat sesh up a notch. Whether you choose to add all of these movements to your routine or test out just a few, there’s no denying that toning your bum can have major health benefits. “The glutes are one of the strongest muscle groups of the body and have important roles in movement including thigh extension, rotation and abduction, and pelvic stability, so having a strong seat is instrumental in everyday life,” says Pure Barre’s VP of training and technique Katelyn DiGiorgio. In other words, keep scrolling to learn how to tone, tighten, and lift your cheeks with the exercises below. Single leg glute bridges Flywheel master instructor Kara Liotta and co-founder of Tone It Up Katrina Scott agree, you simply can’t go wrong with single leg glute bridges. To perform the exercise, begin on your back and bend your knees so that your feet are flat on the floor with your knees over your ankles. “Lift your hips three inches off of the floor and slightly round your tailbone under,” instructs Liotta. “This is