November 12, 2019 at 10:36PM by CWC There is no quicker or easier way to make yourself feel like a grown-ass adult than throwing a blazer on top of your outfit. No matter what you’re wearing underneath, it will instantly morph you into the professional, well-deserving recipient of a Businesswoman Special—and that includes activewear. (Yep, casual blazer outfits are indeed a thing.) The blazer-meets-track-pants look is basically the wardrobe equivalent of “business on the top, comfort on the bottom,” aka the ideal way to make athleisure appropriate for literally any scenario (though, in 2019, it basically is already). In fact, I’ve officially decided we’re calling it “biz-leisure,” because this combo is so good it deserves a name of its own. Pair it with pumps for the office, your favorite sneaks for an easy weekend look, or some strappy sandals and a statement earring for a holiday party look that isn’t some iteration of a sequin dress. All you need to get the look are two things you likely already have in your closet: a blazer and a pair of joggers. But just in case you need some inspo or are looking to invest in a few new pieces that you’ll get just as much wear out of separately as you will when you pair them together, shop our picks for these on-trend casual blazer outfits below. Adidas Originals Cuffed Track Pants ($60), Everlane The Cotton Linen Blazer ($145) This look is basically a business suit, but 2,000 times more comfortable.
Category: Fashion
Double the number of servings in your favorite recipes with this budget friendly meal hack
November 12, 2019 at 09:00PM by CWC Whether you’re cooking dinner for a family of five or meal prepping for one, it’s easy to create budget friendly meals with the addition of a few sneaky ingredients. This hack won’t compromise the flavor of your favorite recipes, but it will increase the nutritional benefits. In a recent Reddit thread, a number of at-home chefs shared the all-star ingredients you can add to recipes to get more servings out of their meals and make them healthier. When you want to increase the number of servings in from four to six (or more), for example, add these wholesome and versatile ingredients to your favorite recipes. 14 healthy ingredients to help you create budget friendly meals 1. Black beans If you’re a taco or burrito bowl fan (who isn’t?), mix one can of black beans in with every pound of your protein of choice for an even heartier mix. 2. Cauliflower rice Cauliflower rice is currently gracing every freezer aisle. To put the time-saving staple to good use, add it to casseroles, soups, and blend it into sauces. 3. Spinach Spinach is such an underrated ingredient in warm dishes. Mix a bag into casseroles, soups, or any sautéed recipe. 4. Mushrooms Mushrooms add a meaty texture to any dish, no meat required. Make your dishes more filling by adding blended mushrooms to pasta sauces and whole or chopped mushrooms to casseroles and stir-fries. 5. Carrots Put that bag of unused carrots in your refrigerator
“Cardio yoga” will hands down give you the best full-body sweat you can ask for
November 12, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC When I hear someone complain that they “hate yoga” because it’s “boring” and “not a good enough workout,” I can’t help but get annoyed. Because clearly, they aren’t going to the right yoga classes. Not only can yoga double as a serious strength training workout (especially for your core!), but it can also double as your daily dose of cardio—or should we say cardio yoga—by way of one-beat flows. These series pair breath with movement, so that instead of holding poses for long periods of time you’re moving through them rapidly every time you inhale and exhale. This, understandably, will get your heart racing. “One breath per movement will increase the heart rate depending on the pacing and rhythm of the practice,” says Kajuan Douglas, founder of Merge New York, adding that timing is key with these types of flow. “Instead of moving like you’re taking a leisurely stroll in the park, move in your yoga practice like you a have some place to be five minutes ago. Create a tempo that means business.” In addition to getting your heart pumping, these one-beat flows can also be helpful for centering your practice, too. “I truly believe that the breath is the most powerful tool in a yoga practice,” says yoga instructor Bee Creel. “It encourages us to move fluidly and with intention, it establishes a point of focus, and most importantly, it helps us create space where we feel stuck, both physically and mentally.”
Actually, casual conversations are legitimately helpful for keeping you healthy
November 11, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC Society at large seems to harbor a collective goal of limiting human connection as much as possible. We ask people out through dating apps instead of striking up conversations IRL. We board planes avoiding eye contact with our seat-mates, fearing they may have a crazy idea: saying hello. We place our Starbucks order ahead so we can just pick up our coffees and go, and if we do stand in line, it’s almost certainly with earbuds in and eyes glued to a screen—i.e., the universal code for “don’t talk to me.” Starbucks, taking note of what customers clearly want, recently opened its first pickup-only location in New York City, completely removing even the notion that humans are meant to interact. That innovation comes on the heels of Uber’s Quiet Mode rollout earlier this year, a feature that lets drivers know passengers are opting for the sound of silence. And ‘quiet chairs’ at various hair salons have allowed for getting a new ‘do without a side of dish. On the one hand, limiting low-stakes interactions can make life easier, faster, and more efficient. But it’s hard to ignore the potential link between Americans being lonelier than ever (especially millennials) to epidemic proportions and our simultaneous desire to minimize our interactions with one another. Maybe the two situations aren’t related, and talking to strangers is an annoying fact of life that’ll become extinct? in the not-so-distant future. That way, we can persist moving about, headphones
The meditative act of baking bread
November 10, 2019 at 08:00PM by CWC When I was traveling in India ten years ago, I learned a lot about meditation. More than could inform a lifetime, I had thought. But while so many of those lessons, lectures, and hours I spent in contemplative pursuits have slipped away, something that English meditation teacher Christopher Titmuss said has stuck, coloring, even, my days on the faraway coast of Maine. “If you want to know about your life,” he told a crowd of seekers gathered in a Buddhist temple in Bodh Gaya, “simply watch your hands.” What you value, how you spend your time, your habits, your kindness, creativity, or agitation are so easily—and almost unnervingly so—revealed through what your hands do all day. Do they help or hurt? Do they bring happiness into your life? Over the years, I’ve used his technique as a diagnostic tool whenever things have felt out of balance, asking myself, “Well, to start with, what are my hands doing?” Training my mindfulness on this physical expression of my life, for the most part, I’ve seen that the issue at hand is a matter of too much texting, typing, or driving, and not enough of the good stuff. At my most happy and serene, however, my hands knead bread. Baking at home is one of the pleasures I’ve found in choosing a quieter life in Maine, one outside of my old city job as a fashion editor and its high-intensity lifestyle. Baking from scratch is a
What it actually means to ‘close your rib cage’—in yoga and beyond
November 10, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC No one ever really masters a yoga pose. Even the greats still make tiny tweaks to strengthen their practices, and for many, learning how to close the rib cage is one of those. Despite consistent cues from instructors, it’s not always so easy in practice. Tucking in your ribs is code for “engage your core,” says Lindsay Pirozzi of New York City’s Y7 studio. “It’s important to knit or close the lower ribs together to help lengthen the spin and also take the curves out of the lumbar (lower) and thoracic (upper) spine,” she says. “Drawing the ribs closer together activates your core muscles and protects your spine health.” John Kasten, dancer, gymnast, and co-founder of The Beta Way, agrees. “The ‘ribs in’ cue is what I use to help people stay aware of keeping their core contracted,” he says. According to the two movement experts, the tendency to flare the ribs happens most commonly in handstand (which is done in CrossFit and other strengthening regimens apart from yoga), mountain pose, chair pose, high lunge, Warrior II, and goddess squat. So when you’re in any of these poses, you’ll want to pay special attention to the state of your mid-section. Pirozzi recommends teaching your body what the proper movement pattern feels like. “What helps my students the most is to feel it out of alignment first, to flare the ribs by sticking out the chest in an exaggerated fashion, then feel the difference when you
There are 9 basic relationship structures—this quiz helps you find which is best for you
November 08, 2019 at 08:00PM by CWC If you’ve ever felt pressured to conform with the rules of monogamy or casual dating, you may actually be better suited for one of nine different relationship structures, according to certified sexologist Shan Boodram. To help you determine whether or not this is the case, she’s devised an online relationship quiz, which takes about 15 minutes to complete and helps you better understand your own needs, beliefs, and tendencies. “I think it’s a great entry point to starting a conversation about dating, to say, ‘How do you like your love? How are you interested in partnering at this time? What feels good for you?’” says Boodram, author of The Game of Desire. The key is to let go of your expectations around the results and reactions of another person (your partner, for example). “There is no wrong response, there is no ideal response, there is only somebody’s truth and your ability to get to it as fast as possible before making an investment that’s not logical based on your incompatibility.” Broaching the subject of relationship structures is touchy with someone new—like the guy who told me he’d like an open relationship before we’d even met—and it’s likely to be even more sensitive with a current partner. For example, I know that my boyfriend would not be super stoked read my result: “open relationship.” (Oh, the irony!) But Boodram says this doesn’t mean I should shy away from discussing it with him. “We can
If I could use only one makeup product for the rest of my life, it’d be this $18 foundation stick
November 08, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC I remember the day the Flesh Beauty foundation sticks came across my desk. It was about a year and a half ago, and the just-launched line (a brainchild of beauty industry vet Linda Wells) exploded into the makeup world with its 40 shade range and other fun pigmented products. I plucked my best shade match out of the pack—adorably named “Crème Brulee”—and started playing around with it. Cut to today, and I’m still using that exact same Flesh Thickstick Foundation Stick ($18)… and I haven’t used another foundation or concealer since. Seriously. While it’s technically called a foundation, it does it all. Wanna color correct some under-eye circles? This stick’s got you covered, literally. Into wearing concealer without any foundation? That’s what I do practically everyday. Full-coverage more your thing? You’re in luck, because it’s fabulous as a foundation, too. Photo: Flesh Beauty The stick’s got a nice, thick circumference, which makes it super easy to swipe or dab on. It’s also easily portable, so you can do that swiping and dabbing wherever you go. You can choose to make it really subtle and light, or build it on for fuller coverage. It goes on really creamy, so it never cakes, and still makes me look like I’m not even wearing makeup. You’d have to be Nancy Drew to figure out that I’m spot concealing with the sneaky, natural-looking foundation. There are 40 shades to choose from, ranging from a very fair “Froth”
Petroleum jelly is the best (and least expensive) skin moisturizer you can buy, according to derms
November 07, 2019 at 01:45AM by CWC The best skin moisturizing ingredient might be the one your mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother have known about all along. It only costs $4 to add it to your own collection—if it’s not a part of it already. Petroleum jelly, most well-known under the brand Vaseline, has many uses, and one of its best is fighting off dry skin. Petroleum jelly is thick like peanut butter, so it’s not something to slather all over your body like lotion, but it’s a great choice for areas that are dry or prone to dryness, says dermatologist Sandra Lee, MD, aka Dr. Pimple Popper and the founder of SLMD Skincare. “Petroleum jelly is very occlusive, meaning it works to keep moisture from leaving your skin by blocking exposure of the skin to air, because dryness in the air can really pull moisture from your skin,” says Dr. Lee. “In some ways, that’s wonderful, as this type of thick formula can strengthen the skin’s barrier, making it less likely for water to evaporate from your skin and dry it out. However, this isn’t true for all skin types.” If you have oily or acne-prone skin, Dr. Lee doesn’t recommend using petroleum jelly. “It can clog your pores and promote breakouts or the development of milia, which are really superficial tiny cysts,” she says. Other skin types really benefit from using it as a spot treatment for super-dry skin. “In the winter, many of us need to switch to
Nike just built a shoe that cut injury rates in athletes by over 50 percent
November 06, 2019 at 07:06PM by CWC No matter what kind of runner you are—whether you’re clocking a casual three miles or a record-breaking two-hour marathon—nothing puts a damper on your daily grind like getting injured. You’re cruising through mile-number-whatever when all of a sudden you’ve got a shooting pain in your knee, and the endorphin high you’ve been working toward comes crashing down. It sucks, full stop. For over 40 years, Nike has been studying why we get injured, and with the launch of the new React Infinity Run shoe, the brand is set to take the first step in helping combat this. In an external study, researchers at the British Columbia Sports Medicine Research Foundation found that 226 half marathon runners (who collectively logged 60,000 miles, NBD) cut injury rates by 52 percent while wearing this sneak as compared to another Nike motion control (read: stability) model. “There is kind of this fear of injury that’s plagued runners in our sport for a long time, and really been one that, ourselves included, haven’t really been able to find the right solution,” say Bret Holts, Nike’s VP of Running Footwear. Part of the reason why injuries are so hard to end forever is because every runner’s biomechanics are different, and while some injuries do come from the bottom-up, others are top-down problems, so to speak. While many shoes aim to help runners find more stability by packing the mid-sole of the shoe with foam that adds space between the