June 06, 2019 at 12:00PM by CWC I remember my first facial like it was yesterday. I was 14, my skin was flaring up from breakouts on a regular basis, and nothing seemed to be working. As a last ditch effort, my mom booked me an appointment with an esthetician, and the experience was, let’s just say, nothing like the relaxing luxury I had expected. She spent a 45 painful minutes extracting blackheads out of my nose, forehead, and upper lip. I left in tears, albeit with skin that looked clearer than it had in years. As the resident beauty editor in my group of friends, I get a text at least once a month that starts with “I want to get a facial” and ends with “But I don’t know what to get.” Over the last few years, facial bars like HeyDay, Silver Mirror, and Skin Laundry have popped up to make the skin-soothing experiences more affordable, and thus more accessible to people who may not want to shell out $300 for pus to be extracted from skin. With so many options out there, I’ll be the first to admit that trying to decipher the list of spa offerings can be nothing short of overwhelming. To make things easier, we quizzed the experts on exactly what people need to know before choosing—and going in for—their first ever facial. Know that there are different facials out there There are two different types of facials. First, there’s the relaxing kind that
Category: Relaxation
The best thing to fuel up on post-workout isn’t what you think it is
June 06, 2019 at 11:35AM by CWC For as long as I can remember, I’ve been guzzling protein-spiked smoothies or eating some form of protein like a robot post-workout. Because that’s what I—along with everyone else—have been conditioned to think is the healthiest thing to refuel with. But then, I found out that chowing down on antioxidants is actually a smarter idea in terms of recovery. The key thing about antioxidants is that they’re the antidote to free radicals—and free radicals are flying around in your body like crazy after a grueling sweat sesh. “When you exercise, it triggers more free radical activity—and free radicals cause oxidative stress and inflammation,” says Carla Oates, founder of The Beauty Chef and expert on inner beauty health. “Antioxidants help mop up these troublesome molecules, so it’s important to consume antioxidants post exercise.” Antioxidants are always healthy, of course, because of their benefits to your digestion, immunity, and, well, overall health (considering a lot are found in fruits and veggies). But they’re smart to load onto your plate post-workout because of the free radical-fighting aspect, which give it a one-up on protein. “Many people take antioxidants before and after exercise in the hope that it’ll combat oxidative stress and reduce muscle soreness,” says Lisa Richards, certified nutritionist and creator of The Candida Diet. Though she says that antioxidants don’t work that fast in regards to the muscle recovery aspect, one study has shown that they do reduce the oxidative stress from your workout. “Taking antioxidants can reduce
The best thing to fuel up on post-workout isn’t what you think it is
June 06, 2019 at 11:35AM by CWC For as long as I can remember, I’ve been guzzling protein-spiked smoothies or eating some form of protein like a robot post-workout. Because that’s what I—along with everyone else—have been conditioned to think is the healthiest thing to refuel with. But then, I found out that chowing down on antioxidants is actually a smarter idea in terms of recovery. The key thing about antioxidants is that they’re the antidote to free radicals—and free radicals are flying around in your body like crazy after a grueling sweat sesh. “When you exercise, it triggers more free radical activity—and free radicals cause oxidative stress and inflammation,” says Carla Oates, founder of The Beauty Chef and expert on inner beauty health. “Antioxidants help mop up these troublesome molecules, so it’s important to consume antioxidants post exercise.” Antioxidants are always healthy, of course, because of their benefits to your digestion, immunity, and, well, overall health (considering a lot are found in fruits and veggies). But they’re smart to load onto your plate post-workout because of the free radical-fighting aspect, which give it a one-up on protein. “Many people take antioxidants before and after exercise in the hope that it’ll combat oxidative stress and reduce muscle soreness,” says Lisa Richards, certified nutritionist and creator of The Candida Diet. Though she says that antioxidants don’t work that fast in regards to the muscle recovery aspect, one study has shown that they do reduce the oxidative stress from your workout. “Taking antioxidants can reduce
How to find your spirit guide clique and call upon each specific one for guidance
June 05, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC If you’ve ever watched Aladdin and fantasized about how amazing it would be to have your own personal genie to fulfill your every wish (well, three wishes, but still), then you’re going to want to sit down to receive some great news: It turns out, you kind of do have one—or rather, several. But instead of genies that have to be coaxed from magic lamps, they’re spirit guides. Rebecca Campbell, spiritual teacher and author of Light Is the New Black, describes spirit guides as beings specifically chosen for you. Their number-one purpose is to support you and guide you. “Many have had lifetimes here on Earth,” Campbell says, adding that there is quite a spectrum of types of spirit guides (angels, ancestors, gods, goddesses, and spirit animals, for example), and each offers its own unique blend of skills and wisdom to share. Wondering how to find your spirit guide? The cool thing here is you don’t need to have special powers or possess any other prerequisite spiritual skill in order to find your spirit guide. “I believe that we are all intuitive and that we can all receive guidance,” Campbell says. “It’s just about relaxing your conscious mind and getting out of your own way so the connection can happen.” Most people, she adds, have an entourage of about six guides, and each is useful in different ways and called upon for different purposes. For example, you might have a spirit guide that
Dealing with shin splints? Here’s what a physical therapist wants you to know.
June 05, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC Have you ever been walking, running, or just laying down in bed and suddenly felt a shooting pain in from the top of your foot to your knee? Kind of like you had a toothache… but… in your leg? Yeah, then you’ve experienced shin splints. If you’re not familiar (and therefore extremely, extremely lucky), shin splints are a very common problem in your lower leg, and it all stems from inflammation. “Shin splints is a layperson term for inflammation of the fascia and covering of the tibialis anterior muscle,” says Lara Heimann, physical therapist and yoga guru. “It covers the front part of the shin, but goes more to the right from the midline over. If you lift your toes up in dorsiflexion, you’ll see this muscle kind of bulge there—that’s the tibialis anterior. So it’s more on that lateral side of the shin.” I’ve never realized this before, but that area of your shin is actually quite thin, in terms of muscle to bone… which is precisely why inflammation in the area hurts like hell. “In that area, you can see that it doesn’t have a lot of space for inflammation to go,” says Heimann. “It’s a compartment—so all of that irritation and swelling is kind of stuck in that anterior compartment.” The inflammation for shin splints typically stems from running or high impact walking. Your shin area is responsible for literally lifting your toes up to clear the ground, so when
There are 294 million yoga videos on YouTube—these are the best ones for lower back pain
June 04, 2019 at 11:50AM by CWC What is clear from hours spent hunched over my computer and doing some pro-level slouching while relaxing at night is this: My posture sucks for the majority of the day, resulting in pain and knots in my lower back. While the aches can be combated through certain exercises, my favorite way to help stretch things out involves nothing more than mat and a handful of yoga twists. “Twisting poses will help restore your spine’s natural range of motion and stimulate circulation,” writes Julie Gudmestad, physical therapist and yoga teacher. “Many people lose full spinal rotation in the course of living a sedentary lifestyle. If you don’t lengthen the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and connective tissues to their full length at least a few times a week, they will gradually shorten and limit the nearby joint’s mobility.” According to Gudmestad, practicing yoga twists regularly will help prevent these problems from occurring, as well as improve how your body feels and moves every day. Basically, they’re just as important as your workouts, and reaping the benefits doesn’t require nearly as much time. Whether you stick with simple spinal twists for a few minutes or follow along with in-depth restorative videos, these are the best options on YouTube to help you beat your back pain for good. Try these 6 yoga twist videos for the ultimate lower back pain relief: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgQaILIiyO0] 1. If you only have 10 minutes In this video, you’ll be taken through a series
Could special activewear give me better posture? I put a new slouch-correcting line through the motions
June 03, 2019 at 01:05PM by CWC Any fitness instructor worth their headset will give you tons of posture cues during the course of a workout—shoulders back, chest up, spine long. But for me, at least, all those anatomical nuances go out the window when I’m, say, pushing through the last minute of a treadmill sprint or struggling to do just five more push-ups. (Or, you know, just five push-ups total.) This is problematic, however, because my poor form has resulted in some pretty gnarly mid- and lower-back issues over the years. So when I heard about IFGfit, a new activewear line that promises to correct your posture as you sweat, I immediately sat up a little straighter. Created by orthopedic surgeon Stephen Liu, MD, the brand uses FDA-registered, patented technology to help guide your shoulders, rib cage, and spine into an optimal position—one that allows for deeper breathing and less stress on your back and joints. So how does it work? According to Dr. Liu, each piece in the women’s collection—sports bras, leggings, and T-shirts—was engineered to draw force to the back of the body. “The posterior elements are the biggest muscles we have,” he explains. “If you can rely on those muscles to work for you, it really opens you up.” Take the Lisa Posture Bra ($168), for instance—resembling a cap-sleeved crop top, it consists of five different materials, including two types of mesh and inner and outer fabrics with different weave tensions. It gently draws your shoulder blades
Could special activewear give me better posture? I put a new slouch-correcting line through the motions
June 03, 2019 at 01:05PM by CWC Any fitness instructor worth their headset will give you tons of posture cues during the course of a workout—shoulders back, chest up, spine long. But for me, at least, all those anatomical nuances go out the window when I’m, say, pushing through the last minute of a treadmill sprint or struggling to do just five more push-ups. (Or, you know, just five push-ups total.) This is problematic, however, because my poor form has resulted in some pretty gnarly mid- and lower-back issues over the years. So when I heard about IFGfit, a new activewear line that promises to correct your posture as you sweat, I immediately sat up a little straighter. Created by orthopedic surgeon Stephen Liu, MD, the brand uses FDA-registered, patented technology to help guide your shoulders, rib cage, and spine into an optimal position—one that allows for deeper breathing and less stress on your back and joints. So how does it work? According to Dr. Liu, each piece in the women’s collection—sports bras, leggings, and T-shirts—was engineered to draw force to the back of the body. “The posterior elements are the biggest muscles we have,” he explains. “If you can rely on those muscles to work for you, it really opens you up.” Take the Lisa Posture Bra ($168), for instance—resembling a cap-sleeved crop top, it consists of five different materials, including two types of mesh and inner and outer fabrics with different weave tensions. It gently draws your shoulder blades
Is it even possible to have a chill wedding?
June 03, 2019 at 04:00AM by CWC I’m sitting in front of my laptop right now, a document open in front of me titled, ominously, “Wedding Spreadsheets.” That’s right, not just one spreadsheet, but many. The first has nearly 300 lines and stretches 10 columns across. It’s filled with an array of information: names of guests, likelihood of their attendance, actual costs of everything ranging from rental chairs to lemonade, estimates for whatever we don’t have real numbers on, things for which we’ve put down a deposit, things we haven’t decided at all. Move to the second spreadsheet and you’ll find a “Wedding Weekend” log, which will eventually contain a variety of tasks and who’s in charge of each. The last spreadsheet is a play-by-play of the wedding day itself, a minute-to-minute scheduling mastersheet that I hope to hand off to some TBD person (or people)—TBD because I can’t really afford a planner and also feel the masochistic need to do as much of this as I can myself. This all kind of flies in the face of the note I wrote to myself about the kind of wedding I wanted to have when I started planning 6 months ago: Not a pain in the ass; good food & booze; NOT TOO EXPENSIVE; can party late?; enough room for people/not too hard to get to? Also: chill/quirky/fun like us, not super fancy or uptight or boring/bland/basic. Spreadsheets are not remotely quirky (even if they are color-coded), and they’re certainly not
Feeling Overwhelmed? Try This Simple Relaxing Exercise
June 02, 2019 at 11:37PM You can do this anywhere, anytime for a greater sense of calm. Continue Reading… Author Sarah Bowen | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC