May 27, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC Let’s face it: As women, we have an awful lot of weight on our shoulders. One thing we shouldn’t have to feel like we’re carrying? Our boobs. The truth, however, is that back pain—whether caused by the dreaded desk slouch or the, ahem, gift of a larger chest—is a common foe for many. But it can be vanquished! With an assist from the proper undergarments, that is. Since finding a bra that works for you (sounds like a campaign slogan, no?) can be oh so complicated, I enlisted Ra’el Cohen, chief creative officer of intimate apparel company ThirdLove, and Michelle Lam, co-founder of True&Co., to share what to look for in bras in order to quash back pain. Cohen points to bras with snug bands and lightweight, supportive cups, which help take the burden of carrying the weight of your girls off of the shoulder straps (major ouch). “When your breasts aren’t supported, it can cause you to hunch or lean forward,” Cohen says. “This inevitably causes back pain.” Although most of the lift should come from under the bust, the straps do still have a bit of work to do. “Thicker straps are your best friend,” Lam says. Otherwise, they can dig into your shoulders and make you curve your back a bit to cope. Of course, the cardinal rule—when it comes to any bra struggles, really—is to make sure you’ve got the right fit. Have your checklist ready? Great. Scroll down to
Category: 2019 Health
Sorry guys, your ACV likely won’t help with your bloating—but this tropical fruit will
May 27, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC Maybe you had a little too much kombucha at your friend’s cookout. Or your high-fiber salad is making you feel a little full. Whatever the cause, alas, bloat happens. And while you might be tempted to turn to apple cider vinegar for assistance…well, hate to break it to you but that likely won’t be much help. (Betrayed by IG influencers yet again!) There are a few natural solutions for bloating and digestive issues that should get more attention, though: pineapple and papaya. Pineapple helps because of its secret weapon, bromelain, but papaya has its own gut-healing superpowers that shouldn’t be overlooked. Here, registered dietitian Malena Perdomo, RD, shares the low-down on all of the many papaya benefits for your health. Check them out before you stock up on the tropical fruit, which is in season in early summer and fall. What are the benefits of papaya for your health? 1. Papaya relieves bloating and constipation. “The reason papaya is good for gut health is mainly due to the enzyme papain that helps with digestion, [particularly] digestion of proteins,” Perdomo explains, adding that it works so well that papain is often sold as a supplement for digestion to help with bloating and heartburn. “I grew up eating fresh papaya all the time in Panama and find that it helps with staying regular and preventing constipation,” she says. 2. Papaya has fiber. Another reason why papaya is so great for gut health is because of all
Why connecting with your inner Virgo is essential right now (no matter your sign)
May 26, 2019 at 02:05PM by CWC This week, as the sun continues to move through Gemini while the moon wanes dark, pay close attention to the details: the pesky minutiae that require focus and clarity. Since Mercury (the planet of communication) zooms through the mutable Gemini (a sign Mercury rules), information travels quickly, asking you to integrate what you know and decide where you are going next. Ready? Set. Go! May wraps up fast, with frenetic energy. You want to ride this week like a surfer catching a big wave, as opposed to feeling overwhelmed by it. Speaking of Mercury and overwhelm, on May 29 Neptune (the planet of illusion and mystery) forms a mutable T-square with Mercury and Jupiter, putting pressure on you to not only decide, but sort through any looming confusion, too. Mercury will oppose Jupiter, expediting optimism and growth, but with Neptune squaring both Jupiter and Mercury at the same time, this can feel like bewildering perplexity, too. Ugh. Leaning into Virgo activities supports you to breeze through this week and surf, as opposed to getting swept up in the turbulence and crushed by this cresting wave. Neptune’s influence might have you feeling overwhelmed and like you want to escape, as opposed to committing to staying present. Even more so, Neptune’s dual square to both Mercury and Jupiter could mean that a well-intended after-work glass of wine might snowball quickly, setting you up for a decent hangover—so please do be mindful with drinking this week.
Why connecting with your inner Virgo is essential right now (no matter your sign)
May 26, 2019 at 02:05PM by CWC This week, as the sun continues to move through Gemini while the moon wanes dark, pay close attention to the details: the pesky minutiae that require focus and clarity. Since Mercury (the planet of communication) zooms through the mutable Gemini (a sign Mercury rules), information travels quickly, asking you to integrate what you know and decide where you are going next. Ready? Set. Go! May wraps up fast, with frenetic energy. You want to ride this week like a surfer catching a big wave, as opposed to feeling overwhelmed by it. Speaking of Mercury and overwhelm, on May 29 Neptune (the planet of illusion and mystery) forms a mutable T-square with Mercury and Jupiter, putting pressure on you to not only decide, but sort through any looming confusion, too. Mercury will oppose Jupiter, expediting optimism and growth, but with Neptune squaring both Jupiter and Mercury at the same time, this can feel like bewildering perplexity, too. Ugh. Leaning into Virgo activities supports you to breeze through this week and surf, as opposed to getting swept up in the turbulence and crushed by this cresting wave. Neptune’s influence might have you feeling overwhelmed and like you want to escape, as opposed to committing to staying present. Even more so, Neptune’s dual square to both Mercury and Jupiter could mean that a well-intended after-work glass of wine might snowball quickly, setting you up for a decent hangover—so please do be mindful with drinking this week.
This easy trick keeps your fish from sticking to the grill
May 26, 2019 at 12:00PM by CWC Is it even Memorial Day weekend if the grill isn’t fired up? Between veggie burgers, greens, and fruit, that thing sees a lot of action from here on out. But if there’s one food that’s a little tricky it’s grilled fish. With all its healthy fats, grilled fish is an delicious part of the Mediterranean diet. But it’s a major buzzkill when your fish sticks to the grates and goes up in flames. (Okay, so maybe that’s a little dramatic, but still, it’s not great.) Not to mention how annoying it is to clean the grill after. It turns out there’s a simple hack for that. Arranging a layer of lemon slices between the fish and the grill keeps it from sticking while also multitasking to flavor to the dish. All you have to do is place the enough lemon slices on the grill bars to create a bed for the fish to rest upon. No stuck fish. No need to scrub the grill later. Why are the most genius things so simple? It’s actually a cooking trick you can use year-round, too. You know how when you bake fish, it can get stuck to the baking sheet? A layer of lemon slices works the same way in that case, too. Talk about the hack that keeps on giving! Get more cooking hacks by joining Well+Good’s Facebook group, Cook With Us. And here’s how to avoid getting food all over your phone when
This move will turn your pull-up dreams into a reality
May 26, 2019 at 11:00AM by CWC My gym pipe dream is simple: I want to learn how to do one (just one!) pull-up. Every time I get to the bar, I hang there and grunt in frustration as fellow gym-goers shake their heads in disapproval (or, at least, I imagine that they are). To see if there’s any hope for my future gain goals, I asked a CrossFit trainer to teach me the beginner version of this impressive move. His suggestion? Go for a jumping pull-up. “Jumping pull-ups are excellent conditioning practice for all levels,” says Maillard Howell, owner of Crossfit Prospect Heights in Brooklyn. “Coaches generally use them as a pull-up regression, so like a pre-pre-pre-cursor to pull-ups.” All you need to get started is a box or stacked weights plates, a pull-up bar (duh), and—of course—an attitude that says “I believe in myself!” Ready to master the jumping pull-up? [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJuhX386xGg] Before you commence jumping, stand on the box and make sure your head is only 6 inches below the bar. (Grab a different box, if necessary.) Your body should look like a column from hands to hips, and your feet will be slightly forward on the box. To test if you’re in the right spot, pick your feet up and make sure you don’t swing back and forth like a pendulum. Step 1: Once you’re in position, shrug your shoulders as you jump and pull your chin over the bar. Look straight ahead, not up at the ceiling.
3 telltale signs you’re in the deep end of a one-sided relationship
May 26, 2019 at 10:00AM by CWC Realizing you’re in a one sided relationship—or, as I referred to them in my early twenties, a relationship—is usually a slow burn you wait too long to treat. It sizzles with each unanswered text, and every friend’s birthday party they last-minute flake on attending, and every trip to Chipotle for dinner—which is clearly not a date, by the way. You get more resentful, more anxious, more frustrated, and yet for some unknown reasons remain unable to break it off (to be fair, it doesn’t help if your partner won’t answer their phone). Finally it becomes too much, and one day you straight-up snap and set all their clothes on fire (no? just me?). Ideally with age and dating experience, we’re all able to grow in a way that facilitates approaching matters of the heart more mindfully and with a little less arson. Part of that journey requires being super-proactive by learning the signs of a one sided relationship before things get too far along on the wrong track. Because as sex and relationship therapist Tammy Nelson, PhD, has seen with her own clients, these situations of mismatched emotions and their emotionally taxing effects can drag on forever. “Anna had been in a relationship with Jack for four years,” Dr. Nelson tells me. “She was in my therapy office every week, telling me how miserable she was because she wanted to marry Jack, and Jack had no interest in getting married. Anna said that
Derms say to skip these super common skin-care ingredients if you’re heading to the beach
May 26, 2019 at 07:00AM by CWC Wearing sunscreen to the beach is skin care 101. It’s literally the number one most basic skin-care rule there is, and one that pretty much all of us know that we should follow. But while we all know the VIP (very important product) that we should be slathering on from head to toe before heading out into the sun, there are also certain items that should stay far, far away from our beach day beauty routines. Some common ingredients are sun sensitive, which means that when they get exposed to UV rays they can create some not-so-nice reactions on your skin. As you definitely already know, you should be covering your entire body with a shot glass-sized amount of sunscreen every two hours no matter what other ingredients you’re using. FWIW, many dermatologists have told me that if you’re doing it right, you should go through an entire bottle of the stuff by the end of the day. And even if you are an A+ student who follows all of the ingredient rules, laying out in direct sunlight is really never recommended. Here, derms break down which ingredients you should leave behind if you’re heading to the beach (leaving plenty of room in your bag for all those extra bottles of SPF). Retinol First up, the biggie: Vitamin A derivatives, AKA retinoids, a la retinol and tretinoin. “Retinol makes you a bit more sensitive to the sun, so I always make sure it’s on
Need your inner voice to speak the eff up? 7 ways to pump up the volume on your intuition
May 26, 2019 at 06:00AM by CWC You don’t need to wave a pendulum or carry crystals in your bra to channel spiritual guidance (but like, you can if you want!). Call it your gut, your intuition, or universal guidance, but your inner voice acts as an insanely powerful GPS to guide the decisions you make—whether that’s following the internal nudges to ditch your corporate job and sign up for yoga teacher training or just knowing when you need more sleep in your life. You just have to learn how to tap into your intuition and then act on those whispers, even when they seem to make no logical sense. Okay, but what if crickets is all you hear? How do you actually hear that inner voice? To help us answer that question, we sat down with Los Angeles-based life coach and breathwork teacher Gwen Dittmar to ask for her tips on how to hear your inner voice. 1. Create space for your inner voice to come through “One of the reasons why people aren’t hearing their intuition or trusting it or following through on it is because there is no space for it to come in,” Dittmar says. The solution? More quiet time. “Prayer is actually asking [for guidance] and then meditation is the space that you create to be able to hear the answer,” she explains. Whether you sneak away for a brisk nature walk or meditate in your car before work, incorporating more quiet time into your
The biggest mistake you can make during your workout is actually *so* easy to avoid
May 26, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC Whether I’m cycling at Flywheel, toning at SLT, or standing on my tippy toes at Pure Barre, one thing remains the same: My instructors always tell me to keep my hips squared off. In short, this just means to not put too much weight on one side or the other, but to keep it balanced throughout both the right and left sides of the body. While it may not seem like a very big deal, the reality is that when you forget to stay square in your movements, you can actually throw your entire body out of whack. “A few things that will get in the way if you don’t practice good form during exercises are imbalances,” says NASM-certified Tone House head coach Aleix Dreiss. “So for instance, if I am doing a back squat and I don’t keep my hips square, I might consistently turn out my right leg ever so slightly, which essentially loads more on my left quad, glute, and hamstring.” So if you’ve ever wondered why one side of your body feels stronger than the other, or why one side seems more flexible, you might want to start by looking at what’s going on with your hips. “Our hips are our home base. They help keep our spine in line, many of our organs safe, and they bear the weight of our entire body,” explains SLT instructor Kate DeGennaro. “In a class like SLT—one that is rooted in alignment—squaring