September 21, 2019 at 12:01PM by CWC If I were stranded on a desert island and could only choose three items to bring with me, they would be Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter, Trader Joe’s Cinnamon Schoolbook Cookies, and Trader Joe’s Absolute Black Dark Chocolate. The general themes here are fairly obvious: I would want all the sugar and all the TJs. When it comes to choosing a healthy breakfast, the last point still applies. Trader Joe’s helps me pull an a.m. meal together in minutes. One of the many wonderful things about the frugal supermarket the ready-made, starter breakfast kits you can snag in the frozen food aisle—then dress up as you so please. Below, you’ll find five recipes that do just that (with less than five ingredients, I might add). These 5 healthy Trader Joe’s breakfasts require less than 5 ingredients Photo: Unsplash/Brenda Godinez 1. Homemade ACAI bowls My major beef with premade acai bowls is that they’re way overpriced. I mean, who wants to spend $14 on something that essentially boils down to blended fruit and almond butter? No one? That’s what I thought. Part of the joy of making your own bowl with TJ’s unsweetened acai is that you get to choose exactly how much fruit and added sugar goes into your breakfast. That sounds like winning to me. What to buy: Unsweetened Organic Açaí Puree Packets and your desired mix of nut butter and fruit toppings 2. YOGURT PARFAIT Parfait is (obviously) the French word for
Category: Fashion
Let the Global Climate Strike inspire you to take 5 steps to save the environment
September 20, 2019 at 04:53PM by CWC The Global Climate Strike is taking place right now in more than 150 countries. From September 20-27, ahead of the United Nation’s 2019 Climate Action Summit in New York City, millions of strikers will exit their schools, homes, offices, factories, and farms to protest the environmental atrocities occurring in their respective zip codes. “Some will spend the day in protest against new pipelines and mines, or the banks that fund them; some will highlight the oil companies fueling this crisis and the politicians that enable them,” reads the official website of the Global Climate Strike. Unfortunately, not everyone is in a position to walk out of their lives right here and right now. But that doesn’t mean you have to sit out this momentous event. On an individual level, there are moves you can make to lessen your own environmental footprint, and to demand the your representatives do the same on a larger scale. Here’s how to make an impact. 5 ways to help the environment, inspired by the Global Climate Strike 1. Ditch your car whenever you can Back in 2017, a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters compared 147 individual actions on climate change. They found that cutting down on driving time is the single-best thing anyone can do for the environment. So ride your bike, walk, take public transportation, and do what you can stay far away from fossil fuels. 2. Eat less (or half the amount) of the
What being on the perfectionist, indecisive Virgo-Libra cusp means for your personality
September 20, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC Each month with On the Cusp, we point our astrological magnifying glass on all the people born between two zodiac signs. Because when your birthday falls at either the tail end or the very beginning of your sun sign’s season, your personality may be influenced by your cosmic neighbor. As we lean toward the fall equinox and seasons shift, Virgo (August 23 to September 22) and Libra (September 23 to October 23) compete for the astrological spotlight. Below, Stefanie Iris Weiss, astrologer and co-author of Surviving Saturn’s Return: Overcoming the Most Tumultuous Time of Your Life, explains what happens when zodiac’s perfectionist queen Virgo blends with just and fair Libra. The scales are tipping toward Libra season, meaning it’s time to kiss away those last vestiges of summer and wave goodbye to the reign of Virgo. Well, unless you’re born on the Virgo Libra cusp, that is. If that’s the case, you teeter between both cosmic worlds and may live life in a bit of a neurotic power struggle. “The autumnal equinox reminds us that these cusp babies are in a constant quest for balance,” Weiss tells me. “Many misunderstand the nature of Libra—assuming that because the sign’s glyph is the scales, they’ve always got it under control. The truth is that Libras are always searching for that ever-elusive balance. And when they’re born near the cusp of Virgo, they tend to experience this anxiety more acutely.” “Libras are always searching for that ever-elusive
There are 7 different types of rest—this quiz reveals which you need right now
September 19, 2019 at 09:22PM by CWC I always smash the “Like” button when a photo of a cushy twinkle-light adorned bedroom ends up in my Instagram feed because like, oh, everyone, I can only dream of getting more rest. Finding an hour to unwind in my (crumb-filled, device-cluttered) bed at night is a privilege, not a right, you know? And if you’re trying to maximize the quality of your rest time since who has the time, you might be interested in this: there are seven different types of rest, and you can find out right now which is best for you. In her book Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity, internal medicine physician Saundra Dalton-Smith, MD, addresses the seven types of rest her clients frequently require. As you probably know by now, rest and sleep are not mutually exclusive, so that’s why it splinters off into so many different facets. And if you hate spoilers, heed the next few lines! Which type of rest do you need right now? Physical: Resting to relieve the body of physical stress, such as muscle tension, headaches, and a lack of sleep. Mental: Resting to silence your anxious mind and refocus to the things that are important Spiritual: Resting to tune into your spiritual beliefs and higher power. Emotional: Resting so you’ll be able to express genuine feelings and nix people-pleaser tendencies. Social: Resting so you can recognize which relationships are replenishing, and limit exposure to energy vampires and
I’m ready for a promotion—how can I convince my boss?
September 19, 2019 at 07:00PM by CWC One of the grave injustices of the working world is that raises and promotions aren’t automatically awarded to smart, hardworking employees who are good at their jobs. As career expert Amy Odell—whom you may know as the former editor of Cosmopolitan.com and founding blogger of New York magazine’s The Cut—sees it, it’s much more of a numbers game than you may realize. In this week’s Good@Work column, she breaks down the best way to make the case that it’s time for you to move to the next wrung of the ladder. Question: I’ve been in my current position for two years now and I feel like I’m ready for a promotion. In the past few months, I’ve taken on more responsibilities and I’ve only gotten positive feedback from my boss. Considering annual reviews are around the corner, do you have advice on how I can make the best case that I deserve this? Answer: Promotions are the result of a number of factors, some of which are directly about you and some of which have nothing to do with you. Yes, you need to be able to handle the responsibilities that come with advancing, and you need to have earned your place there by being a hardworking employee with a professional manner. But no matter how amazing you are, the company needs to have the resources to promote you. They’ll have to allocate budget for your promotion: They’ll need to give you a raise and
I’m a relationship therapist, and I follow 4 rules to keep my marriage healthy
September 19, 2019 at 06:04PM by CWC If you want to know how to have a healthy relationship, makes sense to ask people who seem to have them, right? Sure, but practicing what you preach is no small feat: We tell our friends to communicate openly with their partner but let our own resentment stew over time. We tell a coworker not to let wedding planning cause arguments at home but throw a hissy fit when our fiancé suggests salmon as a dinner option. We tell anyone with ears not to go back to their ex, but our 1 a.m. Instagram DMs tell a different story as to what we actually believe. But then again, not all of us are relationship therapists, right? Knowing how to have a healthy relationship is something many people claim to be able to do, but it may be most wise to put our faith in an expert. So, below, get four tips straight from the source, sex and relationship therapist Tammy Nelson, PhD, who shares the four specific rules by which she abides to keep her own marriage healthy. 1. Maintain an active sex life It’s easy to fall into a habit of passing out while watching The Crown in bed. After all, sustaining the same level of horniness common to the honeymoon phase is pretty tough. Still, keeping that connection (and excitement) alive means closing your laptop every once in a a while. “He and I both agree that when we are maintaining
This makeup artist trick will make your lashes look five times thicker—no mascara required
September 19, 2019 at 06:00PM by CWC There’s a lot most of us are willing to do in pursuit of more luxurious eyelashes. Between lash lifts, lash extensions, lash serums, false lashes, and good old-fashioned mascara, there’s clearly no shortage of options out there to help women get the longer, fuller and lashes of their dreams. But you actually don’t need to shell out hundreds of dollars on semi-permanent treatments or invest in a pricey mascara to get the job done: All you really need is a steady hand and a little bit of eyeliner. Enter “tightlining,” which involves lining the upper rim of your eye (aka the waterline beneath your top lashes) with eyeliner, and will instantly make your lashes look fuller and thicker “It makes you look like you have more lashes than you actually do,” says makeup artist Allyson Wisel. “It accentuates the eyes.” And though it might sound intense, it’s shockingly easy to do on your own. To get the look (and fool everyone you know grab either a black or brown eye pencil—Wisel is a fan of Milani Supreme Kohl ($6) and Cargo Swimmables ($18)—and apply it “connect the dots” style. Dab on a few small strokes of liner as close to the lash as possible, then connect them to get your thickest and most efficient line. Leave your lower waterline liner-free in order to give your top lashes an added element of oomph. While tightlining undoubtedly works wonders on its own (I tried it for myself,
The grown-up version of ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ stretches the tightest muscles in your body
September 18, 2019 at 05:41PM by CWC When I picture my own personal hell-scape, the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” loops endlessly while scary cartoon characters dance around me with ritualistic fervor. But I really shouldn’t be so fast to dismiss the lesson at the heart this nursery rhyme. Learning how to use your head, shoulders, knees, and toes as an outline for stretching out your full body each day is something worth carrying well into adulthood, says yoga teacher Lindsay Pirozzi of New York City’s Y7 studio. “Stretching keeps the muscles flexible, it increases our range of motion, protects our joints,” says the yoga teacher. “Both joints and muscles are so necessary in everyday functional movements that we rarely think twice about—sitting down to go to the bathroom, walking up the subway stairs, bending down because we dropped our cell phone, or even lifting your arms to reach something overhead.” When you make head-to-toe stretching part of your daily ritual, everything else becomes that much easier. The same tender loving care also helps keep your mental dashboard free and clear, according to Pirozzi. She explains that in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), skipping physical self-care is believed to lock stagnant, stale energy inside the body. “Stuck energy in the body feels a lot like tension, and tension is the least natural sensation we’ll experience as humans. It’s a sign we have lost sight of our breath, and our connection to self,” she says. Um, no thanks. Below, Pirozzi shares an all-grown-up
Keep every sweater looking brand spankin’ new with these genius laundry hacks
September 17, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC September is in full swing, which means that by now you’ve likely traded your iced coffees for hot matcha lattes, your bike shorts for leggings, and your flimsy tees and tanks for cuddle-worthy knits. Sweater season is officially upon us, but But if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably spent the better part of the last week realizing that some of your favorite go-tos didn’t exactly hold up quite as well as you’d hoped. Sure, some (literal) wear-and-tear unavoidable, but a lot of that stretching, pulling, staining, and overall pilling could easily have been avoided. If only we had all taken a little bit better care of our sweaters. This Fall, however, we vow to be better. So, in preparation for the chilly days ahead, we turned to Valerie Macaulay, co-founder of knitwear brand La Ligne for tips. The three pillars of success, which should become wardrobe commandments from now through spring? Wash, store, repair (repeat). Read on for how to do all three properly for your coziest fall yet. Wash: As knits are most often layered over at least one under top, you don’t have to wash them after every single wear. That is, unless you’ve spilled something that needs to be attended to stat, in which case we’ve got you covered. For every other situation, Macaulay suggests either a dry clean or hand wash, never something as harsh as a washing machine cycle. “Depending on the sweater, I will either dry clean or
It’s your socks, not your shoes, causing that colony of blisters on your feet
September 16, 2019 at 10:37PM by CWC I’m smack-dab in the middle of training for the New York City Marathon—and FYI (perhaps TMI?), my foot hygiene situation is not good. Heading out for 15-milers might be the exact opposite of getting a pedicure, and none of my scrubbing has yielded any aesthetic results. I’ve pretty much come to terms with the fact that my feet will look decidedly not cute for the next couple of months, but I refuse (refuse!) to accept the blisters. Little did I know that my socks might be what causes blisters. Through the fitness grapevine, I heard that working out in cotton socks is a very bad idea if you’re hoping to keep your feet blister-free. Doug Tumen, DPM, FACFAS, a board-certified podiatrist based in New York’s Hudson Valley confirms as much. “Cotton socks can be a primary cause of blisters because of how they handle the moisture,” he tells me. “Although the cotton can absorb moisture, it leaves it in close contact with the foot making the foot more vulnerable to blister development.” Even more of a problem arises when cotton socks are too small for you, adds Miguel Cunha, DPM, founder of Gotham Footcare. When your socks get wet, they’ll rub against your skin barrier and create even more friction. (So, yeah, that pair of Hello Kitty one you still have from middle school need to be tossed—like, yesterday.) Now that we’ve covered why cotton socks basically suck, the podiatrists have a few ideas