December 31, 2018 at 06:49AM At your neighborhood coffee shop, the price difference between a plain old cup of joe and an ultra-foamy option probably rings up to be about $2—and day after day, week after week, that oh-so enjoyable upgrade can seriously add up. So if you, like me, have wondered how to froth milk at home and DIY a fancy latte without investing in a frother, go ahead and rejoice. The only equipment you actually need is your microwave. Here’s how it works: Once you’ve booted up your coffee or espresso machine—or prepped your Chemex, or whatever other caffeinated-beverage-producing device you’re coveting these days—and the sweet aroma of fresh brew wafts through the air, grab your milk of choice (so. many. options.) from the fridge, instructs Trusted Reviews. Then, find a mason jar—or another microwave-safe container that has a lid—and fill it up no more than half way with your milk (or mylk). Put on the lid and shake it up for a good minute (hello, arm workout), remove the lid, pop it in the microwave 30 seconds, and then pour it immediately—and, I mean immediately—into your waiting mug. Seem too easy to be true? I thought so as well, which is why I put the method to the test. What I wound up with though, was a creamy latte-esque concoction. Seem too easy to be true? I thought so as well, which is why I put the method to the test this morning. What I wound up with though, was a creamy latte-esque concoction that
Category: 2019 Health
This year’s best relationship advice will keep your love life happy into 2019 and beyond
December 31, 2018 at 06:10AM No matter your relationship status, romantic goals, or feelings about dating in general, fact remains that 2018 offered a lot of information to consider about that good, old battlefield of love. During the summer, for instance, many of our celebrity friends made the case for just doing the damn thing. And when the sprint to matrimony didn’t pan out for some, they taught us to find the empowering silver lining. Aside from star-powered relationship advice, expert-backed tips to increase happiness and health also came to light this year. Of the bunch, my personal favorites include the health reasons to never hold in your poop around your significant other (let nature take it’s course, people!); some real talk about what to do if you just can’t sleep around your snoring special someone (because, seriously, I’ve wondered how many divorces citing irreconcilable differences are just thinly veiling a deviated septum issue); and sex-free ways to build intimacy with your partner (because who’s always in the mood?). But those are just three of a whole corpus of stellar dating and relationship tips from 2018. Rounded up below are the takeaways that stuck with Well+Good staffers that you can bring into 2019 and beyond. Photo: Instagram/@daxshepard Don’t expect perfection “It was a big year for me and my boyfriend: We moved into our first apartment together and learned a lot about each other. Nothing ended up being a deal-breaker (phew!) but the shakeup that comes with sharing so much more space
Wanna become a yoga teacher? Here’s where to get certified in NYC and LA
December 31, 2018 at 05:00AM Being a yoga teacher sounds like a low-stress, high-vibe life. You get to hang out in an airy studio all day, wear yoga pants year-round (without even having to worry about shoes), and, of course, enjoy the reward of teaching yogis how to bend their bodies while getting a serious mind-body refresh. Namaste to that. There’s a lot that goes into becoming a certified yoga instructor, though. Yogis actually have to know a lot about the body, learn Sanskrit names for poses, and explore the history of the practice. To get a better idea of what it’s really like, I spoke with the two founders of Los Angeles’ Love Yoga. “Yoga teacher training is an experience,” says Kyle Miller, yogi and co-founder of the space. “It’s an investment in yourself, it’s a step forward on the path of self inquiry, it’s a leap of faith. It’s a multi-faceted, communal introduction into the theory, history, practicum, and technique of yoga.” “It’s an investment in yourself, it’s a step forward on the path of self inquiry, it’s a leap of faith.” —Kyle Miller A certain amount of hours are required in order to get certified, so it won’t just be a couple of classes and then bam, you’re a yoga teacher. “Yoga Alliance deems 200 hours for the most basic training, but of course this is arbitrary and really depends on the individual,” says Sian Gordon, co-founder and yogi at Love Yoga. “Some people feel ready to
These were the 10 most popular healthy recipes on Well+Good this year
December 31, 2018 at 04:00AM By now you’ve probably seen people posting their #Best9 on Instagram, sharing their year-end book lists and Spotify 2018 Wrapped playlists, or writing long Twitter threads keeping tabs on all their big 2018 career accomplishments. (That’s basically the last week of December on social media in a nutshell.) Well, consider this Well+Good’s more delicious take on a year-end list. We put together the top ten most popular recipes on the site so you can start the new year with some legit-good ideas in your back pocket. Some are from celebs, some are from our favorite wellness influencers, and all of them are full of good-for-you ingredients. Bookmark this page and come back to it whenever you need a little meal-prep inspo. Keep reading for the 10 most popular healthy recipes on Well+Good this year. Photo: Getty Images/Samir Hussein 1. Meghan Markle’s 3-ingredient creamy, vegetarian pasta sauce Ah, the Meghan Markle effect. The Duchess is well-known for her love of healthy eating (anti-inflammatory banana bread, anyone?), and after her healthy pasta sauce recipe resurfaced online, everyone wanted to know how to make it. And good news: it’s just as easy to make as Markle’s go-to comfy shoes are to wear. Photo: Jenny Carr 2. Gluten-free, anti-inflammatory lemon bars Can we bust the myth once and for all that you don’t have to give up dessert to lower inflammation? Health coach and recipe creator Jenny Carr’s lemon bars are made with all clean ingredients and no added sugar. Oh, and they’re
Sipping champagne is great and all, but have you tried bubbly in your skin care?
December 31, 2018 at 03:00AM Nothing says “New Years Eve” quite like popping champagne. IMHO, that sweet, sweet bubbly is the most celebratory of all drinks, and is synonymous with the exciting fresh start that 12 a.m. on January 1st inevitably brings. But in honor of the fact that 2019 is “the year of the homebody” (you heard it here first, fam) we found an entirely new way to use champagne to ring in the new year that doesn’t require leaving your couch and braving the NYE crowds: Champagne skin care. “Champagne has several benefits in skin care,” confirms dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, MD, a New York City dermatologist. “Just like in wine, champagne is rich in skin-calming antioxidants, while the acidic pH can help tone the skin.” There are dozens of products with champagne as an ingredient—cleansers, moisturizers, and toners (oh my!)—which give your complexion a hand, while also quietly making every day feel like a celebration. NYC-based skin-care haven, Savor Spa, even offers a champagne facial, which utilizes a cleanser made with a champagne grape seed exfoliant. It helps to remove the the top layer of dead cells without irritating or inflaming pores. Having treated my skin to a little pre-holiday champagne facial to make the final days of 2018 feel extra bougie, I can attest to the fact that the treatment left my skin with an otherworldly glow. The grape seeds were so teeny tiny that it was exactly the type of gentle sloughing my dry, winter skin needed. When the treatment was
Doing cat-cow to this (Obama-approved) deep cut from Prince is self-care magic
December 30, 2018 at 02:19PM No matter how you feel about former President Obama as a politician, you have to admit his year-end lists are solid. Plus, this year’s best-of-2018 recs dropped ahead of the laziest weekend in memory. (With Monday and Tuesday off for New Year’s, and Christmas over, why do anything but nothing?) So for the first time in months, I had time to actually be curious about something—and on Friday, it was the ex-president’s picks. And now—thanks to Obama’s recommendation of a deep, deep Prince cut, and my need to stretch out airplane-scrunched back muscles—I’ve conjured some kind of crazy self-care magic. (New year’s resolution: Be bored more often. Even science says it’s good for you.) The recipe is basically: one part yoga (cat pose and cow pose, specifically), with a generous helping of whatever Prince was channeling from the heavens during “Mary Don’t You Weep” from his 1983 Piano & A Microphone recording. Maybe shamans would say I’m moving stuck energy, and fitness pros would simply say I’m stretching longer (and getting more of the benefits) because I’m enjoying the music. But all I know is it has unlocked something I struggle to feel on a daily basis: boundless, smiling-to-myself, can’t-help-it joy. It has unlocked something I struggle to feel on a daily basis: boundless, smiling-to-myself, can’t-help-it joy. Let me say up front that I already have deep respect for the cat-cow sequence, where you’re on your hands and knees, alternatively rounding and arching your back. As Joseph Pilates once said
6 stories that changed wellness in 2018
December 30, 2018 at 06:00AM Let’s just say it: 2018 came with its fair share of garbage-fire headlines. But if we could all kick back to watch a sequence of the highlights of 2018, we’d also find plenty to celebrate: We nominated a record number of women to serve in Congress. Aly Raisman, Christine Blasey Ford, and so many other brave people told their #MeToo stories on an international stage. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry said “I do.” The whole world got to know—and love—Adam Rippon. The $4.2 trillion wellness industry had a pretty groundbreaking year, too. CBD seeped into, well, every part of your self-care routine—from your moisturizer, to your post-workout recovery, to the honey you add to your afternoon cuppa tea. The idealizing of “me-time” got a reality check. And we officially unsubscribed from the belief that being pro-science and pro-wellness was impossible. In short, this year was mega for all things falling under the category of “living your best life.” For your 2018 wellness debriefing, just keep scrolling. Photo: Getty Images/Nastasic The 2018 Farm Bill laid the groundwork for CBD to go fully mainstream To elaborate on the above, the non-psychoactive element of the cannabis plant known as CBD, cannabidiol, has gained traction (read: blown UP) in the wellness world as an anti-inflammatory superstar capable of quelling maladies ranging from insomnia to psoriasis. And even more innovations are on the way to your beauty cabinet and pantry thanks to this year’s Farm Bill—a piece of legislation that, among other things, removes industrial hemp from the illegal Schedule 1 drugs list.
How to go about dating your friend’s ex without feeling like an awful person
December 30, 2018 at 05:30AM You know that scene in Mean Girls when Gretchen Wieners explains to Cady Heron why it would be absolutely unacceptable to date Aaron Samuels? “Ex-boyfriends are off-limits to friends,” she says—nay, screeches. “That’s like the rules of feminism!” I’ve often thought about that scene (and not just in light of Gretchen’s…creative understanding of feminism), wondering whether the spirit of her statement might hold some merit. Is it true that dating a friend’s ex would be ill-advised? It does, after all, seem like a hard line to draw in the sand. Abiding by the principle means cutting off the potential to be with a person before you’ve explored whether or not there’s a romantic spark. On the flip side, it might also impact your relationship with your friend, depending on things like how they broke up, how long they dated, and whether or not they still harbor feelings for this person in question. “You can date whomever you’d like, but it’s likely that you’ll want to consider your friend’s feelings too,” says sexologist Jess O’Reilly, PhD. If the breakup was recent, for example, your friend may have some lingering feelings. They may also feel awkward about situations in which the three of you might hang out after these new relationship lines are drawn. Or they could simply hate this person from their past, whom you’re now curious about (hey, some breakups are especially painful). And in that case, your friend may not want you to have
The barre class secret to making any pair of heeled boots more comfortable
December 30, 2018 at 04:00AM On a recent Sunday, I rode my bike over to one of my girlfriend’s apartments to eat dinner, which was really just an excuse for her to get me and her new boyfriend together, in the hopes that we’d hit it off. Anyone who has participated in this particular new relationship ritual knows it can involve a certain amount of awkwardness that can only occur between two strangers who are trying too hard to convince the other person to like them. (To be clear, I’m talking about me and her boyfriend.) And, understanding this, I was prepared for us to share at least a few uncomfortable silences over the course of the next couple hours. I just didn’t think it’d happen before I even entered the house. As he held the door open while I slipped off my shoes, we both found ourselves staring silently at my feet. You see, beneath my black cowboy boots, I was wearing a pair of bubblegum pink footie socks with the words “be mine” printed across the toes. They were clearly a carryover from Valentine’s Day…11 months earlier…and the sock equivalent of being caught wearing your bathing suit instead of real underwear. I could almost see the questions forming behind his furrowed brow and frames: “Is it laundry day?” “Did she lose a bet?” “Is she the idiosyncratic BFF you rarely see outside of Netflix rom-coms?” As if to answer his unspoken query, I leaned over and lifted one
A yoga pro explains the correct way to do chair pose in order to truly work that bum
December 30, 2018 at 03:00AM I like yoga just as much as the next person. You get the meditative, mind-boosting benefits as well as the physical perks, and going through a couple of flows works your whole body without requiring you to push it too hard (sorry, HIIT class)—not to mention that post-vinyasa feeling is as chill as it gets. That’s not to say that, while it’s definitely gentle and low impact, it doesn’t fire up numerous muscles. In fact, certain yoga positions rival the most intense strength training moves—like chair pose, for example, which can work your glutes and quads about as well as any old squat. Whenever my yoga instructor demands that the class segue way into chair, I always cringe because of how it burns my bum (plus it’s also targeting your ankles, calves, and back while opening up your chest and shoulders—phew). But—despite how multi-beneficial the move is—there are plenty of ways to do it incorrectly, therefore nixing all of its muscle-strengthening perks. “The wrong way is when the knees collapse towards one another, the knees are past the ankles, and the lower back is rounded,” explains Francesca Valarezo, obé fitness yoga instructor. “Then your shoulders are collapsing, the chest is collapsing, and the vision is down.” So basically you don’t want to curve your body downwards or bend back too far. The good news? “Doing it the right way actually feels better,” says Valarezo. This is what the correct chair pose looks like: “Your feet are