January 01, 2019 at 01:00AM Sophia Roe is a healthy-food chef, beauty guru, and frequent Well+Good contributor. This January, she’s here to arm you with tricks and tips to make healthy eating year-round a cinch—no dieting, juice cleanses, or restrictions of any kind required. Keep reading for her sage (and empowering) advice. Let me be up front about something right away: I’m not a fan of the whole “new year, new me” thing. Not only is it super played out, but it’s also not very realistic. It sort of implies that whoever you are when December rolls around needs a complete overhaul. I think “reset, reevaluate, and restart” is a better approach. The first of the year is an excellent time to form a clear idea of what you envision for yourself, without using language like “lose weight,” “work out every single day,” or “become a vegan overnight.” It’s not that there’s anything wrong with those goals; they just don’t do a very good job of laying out a plan of intention. What works better is honing in on statements that aren’t layered with self-deprecation. Some of my faves: “I want to be more active this year.” “I want to learn a new way to move my body.” Or, “I want to cook at home more frequently.” A plan with simple and actionable tasks is the best way to keep your “reset, reevaluate, and restart” plan on track. Over the next four weeks, I’m going to arm you with the
Category: 2019 Health
The easy financial habits to form in 2019 that will pay off big time
January 01, 2019 at 01:00AM Chase Financial Education Ambassador Farnoosh Torabi is here to help you make dollars and cents out of your financial goals for the year ahead. Embark on a four-week journey in which she helps you assess your current situation, plan for what’s ahead, and set yourself up for financial success throughout the rest of the year. However many of your 2018 to-dos remain undone—and no matter how many glasses of Champagne you drank on December 31—January 1 still manages to feel like a fresh start. The pages of your brand-new planner are clean, crisp, and totally blank; and 12 gloriously empty months stretch out in front of you, open to all kinds of possibilities. Maybe you’ll move to a new city, or leave a job you can’t stand, or run a marathon. Or maybe you’ll dedicate 2019 to (finally) getting your finances in order. With most goals—but especially when it comes to your personal finances—it’s easy to set yourself up for failure by only giving yourself a week or a month to create new habits or change bad behavior. But a whole year? That gives you enough time to make some strides. Especially if you start strong in January, and especially if you get specific about what it is you want to accomplish. I’m a big believer in setting smaller goals along the way—they can create a lot of momentum to help you feel confident about doing the bigger stuff. So instead of saying, “I want to get out of
2019 is the year to level up in your career—and Claire Wasserman wants to show you how to do that
January 01, 2019 at 01:00AM Will this be the year you score that promotion, get a big raise, and finally get some help with your insane workload? Claire Wasserman, an advocate for women’s equality in the workplace, says it can be. As the founder of Ladies Get Paid, she’s making it her life’s work to help women earn better salaries and thrive in their careers. Here, the Well+Good Council member shares her boss-lady mojo and demonstrates how you can help yourself level up in all aspects of your career. While 2018 was dubbed the “Year of the Woman” (IMO, every year is the year of the woman), I believe that 2019 is going to be even more record shattering. Whether it’s the number of women running for office or more lady CEOs, I’m confident that we will continue to make huge strides toward a more equitable society. That being said, it will only happen if we all work hard to make it happen. Progress is not linear so we must be vigilant in holding those in power accountable, as well as continuing to advocate for ourselves in our jobs, our families, and our communities. My goal for 2019? Level. Up. That means making deliberate choices—in all aspects of my life—that lift me professionally, financially, and emotionally. In particular, I want seek help when I need it, learn how to say no to things that don’t serve me, make more money, and be more strategic about my financial contributions to people and causes that I
Confession: I Don’t Take Any Vitamins—So I Went to A Nutritionist To Find Out What I Really Need
December 31, 2018 at 06:30PM True Life: I’m a 23-year-old editor at a wellness publication, and I’ve never ingested a vitamin. Okay, I tried gummy vitamins at a friend’s house when I was like 10, and my mom made me take fish oil once (but I hated the way it tasted and promptly spat it out). Before you start lecturing me, just know I totally get it. After my literal vitamin deficiency was brought to my attention by my coworkers—who have mounds of vitamins surrounding their workspaces—I got to thinking: Am I living my best life? Aside from being the most millennial-sounding question to ever leave my mouth, it’s something I’ve really been wanting to address. Does my skin or mood suffer without me even noticing? Is my digestion as good as it could be? Am I as happy as I could be? Okay, let’s pause the existential crisis for a sec. It was about time that I take my vitamins by the horns (guess that’s a saying now), so I made an appointment with Melissa Rifkin, CDN, to see what I should be taking to make sure I’m operating at peak Alex level. “I always say, even if your diet is perfect, you could be missing out on some things. I don’t think it’s harmful for anyone to take a vitamin,” says Rifkin. So, here goes. “I always say, even if your diet is perfect, you could be missing out on some things. I don’t think it’s harmful for
Your energy forecast for 2019: There’s a *major* paradigm shift ahead
December 31, 2018 at 01:12PM January’s cosmic divinations from “RockStar Shaman” Alyson Charles set the stage for a new year—and what a year it promises to be. Here’s her full report on what she sees for the month ahead, energetically speaking, as well as the spirit animals to support you in January and throughout 2019. And so it begins, dharma-fulfilling 2019! It’s a year that has the potential to bring manifested lifelong visions and desires and foundational changes, while you are truly living your soul mission and purpose. As we come off a most-potent month of December—a fitting end to a year that held wild transformation, transmutation, healing, and release—we now enter into a time that holds within it energetic medicines that will provide experiences, feelings, and connections that our souls have most likely never experienced before, yet we are deeply ready for. These experiences will take us to levels of love, soul fulfillment, and depth—as well as connection with ourselves, all aspects of the planet and other humans—that is more heart-led, uniquely inspiring, authentic, and more grounded than ever before. So, what will take us there? Various elements of fire, including the magnificent power and medicine of the sun, revealed to me as a key ingredient in infusing the spiritual essences needed for us to be in our full power. The first element of fire we will explore is lava—the fire we’ve felt alchemizing inside of us and building over the past year, bringing inspiration and ideas, will now become more anchored and
7 places around the world where you can see the majestic Northern Lights
December 31, 2018 at 09:20AM There are few natural phenomena as visually impressive as the aurora borealis, or northern lights. One of the oldest and most well-known types of astrotourism, you likely know the northern lights as the occasion when the night sky lights up and looks like the fumes of a lava lamp. In fact, the aurora borealis happens when charged solar particles meet certain atmospheric gasses and the Earth’s magnetic field. Technically the phenomenon behind the northern lights can happen year-round but for best visibility, you’ll want to be somewhere with low light pollution and go during a time of the year when the days are dark. There’s no exact information or way to tell if and when or for how long the northern lights will happen, but it can be anywhere from mere minutes to days at a time. The best place to see nature’s light display is somewhere with a magnetic latitude above 55 degrees. This is, understandably, probably not the easiest parameter to use when planning a vacation. Instead, below you’ll find a list of the best places to see the northern lights—as well as the ideal time of year to do so in each location. Photo: Getty Images/Sjo 1. Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is home to one of the country’s most revered nature escapes, the Denali National Park. It’s one of the US’ northernmost (and thereby best) options for catching a glimpse of the aurora borealis. The northern lights are visible yearly from late August until
If you take one thing into 2019, make it Elizabeth Gilbert’s call to stop tearing yourself down
December 31, 2018 at 09:20AM There’s a clichéd (but 100 percent true) meme circulating on the internet that goes: “If speaking kindly to plants helps them grow, imagine what speaking kindly to humans can do.” Actually putting the statement into action though proves much, much more difficult for some reason. In a recent Instagram post Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love, explains why. Simply stated: We can’t hear all the things we admire about ourselves over the chorus of cruelty we repeat each day like mantras. “You guys, I can’t do it anymore. I can’t attack myself. I can’t insult myself. I can’t respond to a compliment by offering up a list of my flaws. I just…can’t. It feels like such a violation of the sacred. I don’t have the heart for self-deprecation anymore,” she writes in the caption. View this post on Instagram You guys, I can’t do it anymore. I can’t attack myself. I can’t insult myself. I can’t respond to a compliment by offering up a list of my flaws. I just…can’t. It feels like such a violation of the sacred. I don’t have the heart for self-deprecation anymore. Somewhere along the way, over the past few years, I’ve lost the dark (and particularly female) talent for self-criticism, and for tearing myself down. It feels like sacrilege. My mouth can’t form the hateful words. And I can’t bear it anymore, to hear another woman demean, degrade, or diminish herself. It shocks my senses and hurts my heart. To witness
Always tired at work? Blame your highly personalized chronotype
December 31, 2018 at 08:35AM There are a number of ways to sum up 2018. One in particular? It became the year we started taking biohacking really seriously. We discovered that optimizing our environment and our workouts alike allows us to supercharge the proverbial “cards we’re dealt” at birth. And FYI, sleep is no exception: A growing body of research suggests that your personal chronotype—your underlying circadian rhythm that dictates the ideal time you fall asleep and wake up—is very likely messing with your focus at your day job. A study conducted in Germany in 2015 split steel workers into those who liked to work during the day (early birds), and those who preferred to hustle at night (night owls), reports The New York Times. Early results showed, both parties clocked 16 percent more sleep than they had on their previous work schedule. Just to put that into perspective, it means 35 hours of sleep per week could magically turn into more than 40 hours. Why, you ask? Well, experts believe that each of us has an encoded “rhythm” to our sleep cycles, and when you don’t follow along to the beat, your quantity and quality of shut-eye suffers. (And need I elaborate on how harmful a lifestyle choice it is to skimp on sleep?) “It really makes sense to think about when people have the most energy and when they’re peaking mentally.” —Camilla Kring, PhD “It really makes sense to think about when people have the most energy and when they’re peaking mentally,” says
Fleece-lined shoes are so cozy—but should you be wearing socks with them?
December 31, 2018 at 08:26AM It’s officially peak fuzzy shoe season. And this begs the question: Should you wear socks with shearling shoes—or does it defeat the purpose of swaddling your soles in fuzzy fleece? It seems cruel to deprive your toes of such a cozy experience… but as podiatrist Suzanne Fuchs points out: “The moisture or sweat from your feet will be worsened by the fabric and friction in your shoes. You need something that will absorb, and/or help decrease the amount of moisture.” So basically, yes, please wear your enclosed shearling shoes (boots, loafers, sneakers) with socks. Fuchs recommends looking for socks that are made with copper and silver, as they are antibacterial. She also suggests socks made with temperature-regulating and moisture-wicking fabrics, such as merino wool or a nylon blend. Skip the cotton socks, as Fuchs says they can actually keep heat and moisture in, causing more sweat. Mules and slides with shearling are a little trickier because they’re designed to be worn sans full socks. However, a quick Google search reveals that you can actually buy half socks designed specifically to be worn with slides and mules. Moral of the story: It’s probably in your best hygienic/not-making-your-shoes-smelly interest to wear socks with your shearling-lined shoes, even though it’s tempting to just let the aforementioned fleece envelop your feet in its fuzzy softness. Le sigh. Suffering from style SAD? Add these mood-boosting pieces into your rotation. Then, check out the personal style tips 5 fashion writers are taking into the new year.
You should actually start eating your parsley garnishes in the name of good health
December 31, 2018 at 08:00AM As a college student in the early aughts, I worked at a restaurant where there were two different garnish options for the dishes: kale and parsley. Obviously, kale has come a long way since those days, going from background actor to star ingredient in salads, grain bowls, and smoothies. But what about parsley? Its name may not be popping up on sweatshirts and in punny Instagram handles like kale, but it, too, has a ton of health benefits worth celebrating. To get the scoop on this unsung herbal hero, I checked in with Brynn McDowell, RD, creator of The Domestic Dietitian. As it turns out, this peppery Mediterranean herb deserves to be way more than just a visual flourish on your plate. 4 parsley benefits you should know about 1. Parsley contains anti-cancer compounds: Parsley’s leaves may be small, but they’re packed with antioxidants that have been linked to cancer prevention. One is a flavonol called myricetin, which is also found in cranberries, tea, and fennel. “Myricetin is a naturally occurring compound found in parsley that has been linked to the prevention of certain cancers, including breast and skin cancer,” says McDowell. Another study found myricetin to be effective in killing certain types of thyroid cancer cells. “Parsley also contains vitamin C, which is [another] antioxidant that has been shown to help cancer prevention,” McDowell says. More research is needed to confirm how these compounds interact with the human body, but the Mayo Clinic agrees that the more antioxidant-rich