Category: Yoga

May 24, 2019 at 09:33AM by CWC Every once in a while, when I’m in the passionate throws of Tetris Blitz, I get an ad for one of those brain games. You know, the apps that say if you’re able to make a bunch of words out of six letters, it’ll strengthen your memory tenfold. I’ve always been skeptic ’cause I figure, like, opening a book might be better swiping my screen, and that pause isn’t unfounded. According to a recent report by MarketWatch, consumers have spent over $1.9 billion on digital brain health and neurotechnology—but evidence as to whether they actually work is a little, um, lacking. While certain speed-of-processing cognitive training can lower risk of dementia, trying to fight the good fight against cognitive decline takes more than an app. Aside from brain games, we’ve got a pretty good idea as to what might help you stay sharp as a tack. Dig into some mind sharpening food Loading up on fiber, for example, helps boost protective proteins in the brain, and you can get your fill from red cabbage or cauliflower. (As if you needed another reason to make buffalo cauliflower or cauliflower parmesan bites!) And here’s some great news for fans of fungus: mushrooms have powerful antioxidants and one recent study shows that there’s a link between mushroom lovers and a decreased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. And with the arrival of barbecue season, keep in mind that grass-fed organic red meat helps improve cognitive function,

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May 23, 2019 at 09:21AM by CWC By the time she was 29 years old, Quinn, now 32, had grown accustomed to life on the weight-loss roller coaster. She says she’s been overweight since childhood, and points to two reasons her repeated weight-loss efforts never lasted—namely, genetics and a thyroid condition that developed in her twenties. She’d clean up her diet, lose a few dozen pounds, and then gain them all back whenever she inevitably paused her regimen to catch her breath. At 5’3″ and nearly 300 pounds, her primary-care doctor eventually presented her with a more permanent solution: bariatric surgery. Although Quinn didn’t have any obesity-related health issues at that point and felt comfortable with her size, she knew that wouldn’t always be the case. “What scared me was getting to the point of becoming a mother,” she says. “I’m still not a mom, but it was in my five-year plan, and I was worried about being the overweight, sideline mom who couldn’t keep up with my kids or run around the playground. I loved my body, but I wanted it to be the healthiest it could be.” So in April 2016, she underwent a sleeve gastrectomy, a surgery that reduced the size of her stomach by around 80 percent and helped her lose more than 100 pounds. “The sleeve works by restriction—you can only eat about a half-cup of food before you feel that sense of fullness—and hormonal changes,” says says Shauna Levy, MD, MS, a surgeon and

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May 23, 2019 at 09:21AM by CWC By the time she was 29 years old, Quinn, now 32, had grown accustomed to life on the weight-loss roller coaster. She says she’s been overweight since childhood, and points to two reasons her repeated weight-loss efforts never lasted—namely, genetics and a thyroid condition that developed in her twenties. She’d clean up her diet, lose a few dozen pounds, and then gain them all back whenever she inevitably paused her regimen to catch her breath. At 5’3″ and nearly 300 pounds, her primary-care doctor eventually presented her with a more permanent solution: bariatric surgery. Although Quinn didn’t have any obesity-related health issues at that point and felt comfortable with her size, she knew that wouldn’t always be the case. “What scared me was getting to the point of becoming a mother,” she says. “I’m still not a mom, but it was in my five-year plan, and I was worried about being the overweight, sideline mom who couldn’t keep up with my kids or run around the playground. I loved my body, but I wanted it to be the healthiest it could be.” So in April 2016, she underwent a sleeve gastrectomy, a surgery that reduced the size of her stomach by around 80 percent and helped her lose more than 100 pounds. “The sleeve works by restriction—you can only eat about a half-cup of food before you feel that sense of fullness—and hormonal changes,” says says Shauna Levy, MD, MS, a surgeon and

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May 22, 2019 at 11:33AM by CWC A trainer recently told me mid-workout that the flexibility of your big toe is really important. I basically said WTF (with my face), and proceeded to get on with the workout. But then I brought it up amongst other fitness and physical therapist pros, who all confirmed the truth: Big toe flexibility is a legit necessity. My mind immediately bounced back to that scene in Kill Bill when Uma Thurman’s character has to get her body capable of moving again. Her first tactic? Wiggling her big toe. It was the beginning of Thurman’s mobility in the movie, and it’s often the beginning of every human’s mobility in life. Your big toe is a fundamental player in movement, and it’s own proper functioning impacts the rest of your body. “Your foot is super complicated, and big toe flexibility is really important in terms of the rest of your body,” says Stephen Pasterino, founder of P.Volve in New York City. “It’s the first point of contact with the ground, and there’s a chain reaction. So the rest of the body reacts to what’s happening with the foot—which starts at the ball of your foot with the big toes, and transfers to the midtarsal joint and then the ankle, up to the knee, to the hip, lower back, the spine, and up to the shoulders. It’s amazing how important and yet under-addressed big toe flexibility is.” The importance of big toe flexibility Flexibility-wise, your big toe should

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