May 07, 2019 at 09:17AM by CWC How do the people in on of the driest climates keep their skin and hair moisturized? One way is prickly pear seed oil. I first came across the Moroccan beauty mainstay in the Marrakesh Medina, during a beauty class with Around the World Beauty’s Stephanie Flor. The spiny fruit—which is basically a pear, but with spikes (AKA “prickly”)—flourishes in the arid climate of the Sahara, and has been an integral part of Berber women’s skin-care routines for centuries. They’ve used it as an antibacterial for medicinal purposes, but they’ve also made use of it to nourish and rehydrate hair and skin, too. “The extract contains a lot of vitamin E, oleic acid and linoleic acid. These oils have anti-inflammatory properties and do not clog pores, or cause acne,” says board certified dermatologist and founder of Visha Skincare, Purvisha Patel MD. “The fruit also has a lot of vitamin B, beta carotene and iron. This is a great ingredient for acne-prone skin. It is best used as a moisturizer in oil form.” And the plants are basically a fount of plenty of the buzzy beauty perks you’ll find called out on skin-care packages. “The plants have a strong polyphenol antioxidant profile,” says Moe Kittaneh, CEO of Herbal Dynamics Beauty. “The oil is also rich in omega 6 and 9, amino acids, and vitamins E and K. All of these nutrients help nourish and protect the skin from oxidation in order to maintain its’ health.”
Category: 2019 Health
6 all-natural ways to get rid of pesky fruit flies (which love more than just fruit)
May 07, 2019 at 08:45AM by CWC Hands sticky from watermelon, bouquets of happy sunflowers, leftover sweet potato salad from last night’s cookout—these are glorious signs of warmer weather, yes. But, alas, they’re also magnets for fruit flies. Nothing spoils a romantic evening cooking your farmers’ market haul quite like the little winged pests. Sure, they’re small, but they’re hugely annoying. And they’re cliquey, too, traveling in swarms. What’s the secret for enjoying spring and summer without ’em? If you need to know how to get rid of fruit flies (and fast!), there are a few simple tricks. The first thing to think about is what attracts fruit flies in the first place. According to the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides, fruit flies often are brought into your kitchen from overripe fruit (hence their name), but they can also fly right in through an open door or window. Fruit flies are attracted in particular to overripe bananas, melons, tomatoes, squash, rotten potatoes, and rotten apples. So it’s best to keep any of that out of your kitchen to avoid attracting them (including inside garbage can; they’ll find their way in there, too). One place many might forget to pay attention to that attracts fruit flies is the kitchen drain, where food scraps are often found. Some Reddit users have also found that fruit flies also gravitate toward succulents. The reason fruit flies gravitate toward houseplants could be soil of poor quality or that is too moist. Fortunately you don’t
Wendler’s 5/3/1 strength-training method is how you turn goals into gains
May 07, 2019 at 08:34AM by CWC I sometimes struggle to see the big picture of my workout routine. Today I combined sprints on the treadmill with upper body weights and core work. It felt great, but inquiring minds want to know, how the heck can I match this workout with others so that, as the woke fitness kids say, “goals become gains?” Trainers across the country agree: Wendler’s 5/3/1 technique is the smartest, safest ways to move up in weight. Unlike more rigorous plans that help you add to your weighted squats and deadlifts, Maillard Howell, owner of Crossfit Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, says that the 5/3/1 technique, founded by strength-training legend Jim Wendler, is more gradual. “It’s a form of progressive overload, and it’s meant to get you stronger over the long haul,” says the trainer. Over the course of 3-6 months, you build a stronger and more reliable foundation as opposed to adding 50 pounds over the course of a month. The program is popular among off-season athletes, but anyone can benefit from the comfortably rigid structure as well as the recovery periods incorporated into each month. (Note: recovery is often the missing ingredient in the recipe for getting stronger). At first, learning the pattern of 5/3/1 proves a little tricky. But once you find the rhythm, you’ll be throwing around weight (in a safe, non-obnoxious way) like an old pro. Put on your gym clothes and let’s get down to business with Wendler’s 5/3/1. Photo: Getty Images/Andersen
What’s in a work bag? A lot of things, including a message about your personality
May 07, 2019 at 08:07AM by CWC The modern woman has spoken, and she really can’t be weighed down any longer by the accumulation of S’well bottles, journals, or a packed lunch. In what’s perhaps the most functional throwback trend ever, backpacks are officially…back. According to market-research firm NPD, sales for the posture-improving carryall have shot up 28 percent this year, with proponents citing comfort as a main impetus (in conjunction with the rise in ubiquity of sneakers, athleisure, and the general pilgrimage toward self care). Of course, not everyone is ready to re-embrace the trend, back-to-school-style. I, for one, still come into the office every morning with a raw-red shoulder indent. Hey, old habits die hard, and I tend to live and breathe symbols of hyperfemininity, even when they’re problematic—like a classic shoulder bag that might as well be full of heavy stones, weighing me down and keeping me from reaching any ceilings including glass ones. (I know, I know, backpack offerings have expanded since the days of those monogrammed L.L. Bean numbers—and if anyone wants to gift me a sleek Gucci model, I’ll wear it. Until then, let me and my sore shoulder live.) But I digress. Amid this transitional period of the backpack renaissance, I looked around my own office and saw a veritable buffet of carryall options. On the continuum between my old-guard staple and styles so minimalist they could make Marie Kondo break out in song and dance, I quickly realized how many varieties exist. So,
How belly breathing can help you activate untapped energy in your workout
May 07, 2019 at 06:00AM by CWC I was in a Pilates class the other day when my instructor suddenly stopped me and said: “You need to be breathing out of your diaphragm.” It’s something I’ve been told to do before in yoga or meditation classes, but have never quite been able to nail it. As all the pros say, though, diaphragmatic breathing can be incredibly helpful. It differs from shallow or thoracic breathing because it’s all about drawing inhales through your nose and all the way down the stomach. As a result, it has a deeper effect. “When the diaphragm contracts and moves lower, the chest cavity enlarges, reducing the pressure inside the lungs,” says Payel Gupta, MD, a New York City-based allergist and immunologist. “It allows us to inhale and take a deeper breath in. When we take a deep breath, we use our diaphragm even more, and the diaphragm moves down further and allows more room for the lungs to expand and for more air to enter into our lungs.” As a result of breathing more conscientiously and deeply, more oxygen begins flowing throughout your body. Because of this newfound air flow and slowing down of the breath, it has a soothing effect on your nerves. “There’s some thought that deep breathing is a way of interrupting the fight-or-flight response and triggering the body’s normal relaxation response,” says Dr. Gupta—hence why she points out that it’s particularly recommended and useful during a yoga practice, meditation, or simply when
We’re calling it: Magnesium is officially the new melatonin
May 07, 2019 at 04:00AM by CWC As a society, our collective stress levels are, well, not great. (Need I remind you that 95 percent of Well+Good readers reported feeling stressed in a 2018 survey?) Is it any wonder that the CBD trend has reached new heights in popularity? We know we need to chill out—we just need a little help doing so. And while five years ago stressed people might have turned to melatonin to help them sleep (and perhaps now, it’s CBD), more and more people are better starting to understand the perks of magnesium. “Magnesium is a mineral that is part of many metabolic processes in the body,” says neuroscientist Tara Swart, MD. “We need it just as much as we need all the essential vitamins and minerals.” Some of its benefits include supporting higher brain function and helping produce melatonin for a better night’s rest. But the nutrient doesn’t just help the mind recover; it helps muscles recover, too. “One of its primary roles is to regulate muscle function,” says Nick Bitz, ND, a licensed, board-certified naturopathic doctor and the chief scientific officer at Youtheory. “Whereas calcium is needed for muscles to contract, magnesium is needed for muscles to relax. So if your body is low in magnesium, your muscles will stay contracted, resulting in muscle tightness and cramps.” While certainly a person could take a magnesium supplement if they so chose (with their practitioner’s blessing, of course), a lot of brands are taking the mineral to
The reason ‘vacation brain’ makes you want to up and move to paradise, stat
May 07, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC I think it took, oh, 14 hours and two tomato-jam-slathered egg sandwiches before I decided we were moving away to Providence, Rhode Island. My significant other and I picked the vacation spot on a whim and fell head over heels in a forever way. Cut to: The two of us googling real estate options by a river, because uhh…honestly, eff our home in New York City, a sweaty, godless rat palace where dreams curdle and rent costs eclipse even the thought of first-born child. We’re never moving to Providence, by the way. I’m such a New York lifer that I’ve spent many a post-happy-hour blur weeping while just looking at the Manhattan skyline. My boyfriend is such a New York lifer that he wrote an entire album about—of all boroughs—Staten Island. But ever since we left [googles nickname for Providence] the Divine City, I’ve been wondering why so many of us delude ourselves into aggressively fantasizing about our vacation spots as a possible next home. Especially when going through with the change-up often just isn’t feasible in actuality. As it turns out, vacation brain leads many of us confuse leisure experiences with real life. “This is a very common dynamic,” says clinical psychologist Nancy Irwin, PsyD. “We tend to idealize places when we are catered to, are not working, are not cleaning or cooking.” It makes sense that we’d romanticize the places where we have fun—and for us, Providence was a blast. It
Yep, your warmup really is just as important as your workout
May 06, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC When you walk into the gym, chances are you’re ready to hit the ground running (or spinning, or strength training, or elipitcal-ing) from the outset. Your playlist is queued, your sneakers are laced, and it is go time. But, according to the pros, you could be missing out on getting the most from your sweat sesh if you make the common mistake of skipping out on your warmup exercises. Sure, they aren’t as exciting as pumping the treadmill up to a level 10 and starting out with a full sprint, but they are a necessary element to your entire routine. “It is important to warm up before you work out to prevent injury and also to get the most out of your work out,” says Alisha Ciolek, a Tier 3 trainer at Equinox Chestnut Hill. “A warmup puts your body and mind in the right state to exercise.” It’s tempting to skip out on this critical few minutes for the sake of the other zillion things on your to-do list (and admittedly, they can often feel better spent emptying the dishwasher or responding to emails), but trainers agree that you’ve gotta do it. After all, there’s a reason why literally every workout class you’ve ever set foot in starts with at least a song or two of warmup exercises to ease you into what’s to come. “A quote I use often is ‘motion is lotion,’” says Katie Merrick, Gold’s Gym Personal Trainer, NCSF. “A tight
Restless legs keeping you up at night? These home remedies may help bring some relief
May 06, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC “Restless legs” may sound like a clever name for a running group, but it’s actually a real medical condition that’s anything but cute. It’s marked by tingling, aching, or creepy crawly sensations in the legs (and sometimes arms), and as if that weren’t bad enough, there’s not always a reliable treatment. “Restless legs syndrome is a condition that causes an uncontrollable urge to move your legs, usually because of an uncomfortable sensation. Moving eases the unpleasant feeling temporarily,” explains Christopher Cooke, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at the Detroit Medical Center. “It typically happens in the evening or nighttime hours when you’re sitting or lying down, therefore making it difficult to sleep.” He says restless legs sufferers (who are more often women than men) also commonly experience fatigue, depression, and irritability because of the sleep loss they experience from RLS. Are there any home remedies for restless legs? Here’s the thing: Doctors don’t know exactly what brings on restless legs, although genetics may play a role. Dr. Cooke says the condition is more common among people with low iron levels, as well as conditions like kidney failure, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes mellitus, and rheumatoid arthritis. It can also crop up during pregnancy, or with the use of some prescription drugs, like antidepressants and antihistamines. The various (and mostly unknown) causes makes restless legs syndrome difficult to treat. If it’s triggered by a specific situation like the ones listed above, symptoms may
How to preserve a friendship when your bestie’s baby makes you feel like the third wheel
May 06, 2019 at 03:00PM by CWC Seemingly in the blink of an eye, hanging out at the hippest bars or rooftops or wellness retreats gives way to baby showers, canceled plans due to flaky babysitters, and backyard gatherings with bouncy castles. I’m a childless lady in her mid-thirties, yet since most of my best friends have children, I’m with little kids a whole bunch. I do love the kiddos, but they’re part of a world that doesn’t feel like my own. I don’t plan on having kids (and I’m not alone in this decision), and I sometimes worry that line I’m drawing in the sand will put an ocean between me and my friends, who are like my family and are also parents. Will we end up with too few things in common? Will the lifestyle choices force us to grow apart? Not necessarily, say experts, who have tips for maintaining friendships when not everyone’s a parent. Shifting priorities don’t ruin friendships—lack of communication does If you and your friend(s) with kids had a rock-solid foundation before babies came into the picture, there’s a really good chance you’ll stay close. But like with any good relationship, you have to channel your inner Tim Gunn and make it work. “When there’s a will, there’s a way. With a little love and some direct communication, it’s totally possible to carry our friendships with us through different phases of our lives,” says psychotherapist Rena Staub Fisher, LCSW. This life-phase disparity supports a