November 06, 2019 at 03:50PM by CWC After I first heard of the concept of “vaginal shame,” I found myself flipping through an educational (read: not sexual) slideshow called The Labia Library. It’s exactly what it sounds like—a collection of close-up photos of labias belonging to various women, which made me realize that I’m a cisgender heterosexual woman in her 30s who doesn’t understand the vast diversity of human female anatomy. “Your experience isn’t uncommon,” gynecologist Jen Gunter, MD, assures me. Many women typically see so few vaginas in their lifetimes that aren’t in porn—where the preferred aesthetic is decidedly narrow—that they’re often vulnerable to suggestions from their male partners around what’s “normal,” or, more critically for a woman’s self-esteem, “not normal.” “I see so few gay women who are vulnerable to [vaginal shame]—in fact, I can remember just one—simply because they see all kinds of vaginas and vulvas,” says Dr. Gunter, author of The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina—Separating the Myth from the Medicine. “And gay women don’t get that horrible destructive messaging of, ‘You’re not wet enough,’ or ‘What do you mean you can’t orgasm with just my penis?’ And so on, that so many straight women do from heterosexual men.” In other words, she says, the person who is the least educated about female anatomy—the man—may be the one telling you how your body should work or look. When his suggestions don’t match your reality, the result is often shame, which is big business under
Category: Your Regeneration
Has burnout culture made you addicted to ambition and busyness?
November 06, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC Like most freelancers who juggle multiple clients, projects, and deadlines—sometimes seven days a week—I often feel like the dogs in this meme. That’s to say, while I might be smiling on the outside, I’m completely overwhelmed by my circumstances, many of which are by my own choosing. But since society has conditioned me to believe that keeping a frantic pace is a sign of self-employment success, whenever another request for my time comes up, I generally say yes without question. And I know this is also true for my friends with full-time gigs, who often raise their hand to work on projects outside their job descriptions, and sometimes also juggle an after-hours side hustle in the name of forward momentum. Despite this existence of living on the edge of burnout, if we experience what feels like too many slow days in a row, it’s easy to assume something’s wrong, leading us to start wondering: Am I lazy, or something? The problem here is many of us are conflating calmness with complacency. And it is a bona fide problem, to be clear, because not only are the two states simply not the same, but the construct itself is dangerous. On the work front, burnout is so rampant that this year the World Health Organization recognized it as an official condition that’s “resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” You know, the kind of unrelenting tension one experiences from the heavy
This 30-minute pimple-popping facial proves treatments don’t need to take forever to *work*
November 06, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC embed: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkm1OY6tRfw] Curious what can be done in a 30-minute facial? Watch it go down, here. We tend to think of facials as deluxe occasions to really indulge in self care—a chance to spend about an hour letting a professional do your skin care for you, and using every advancement in facial-boosting technology you can imagine. So why on earth would you schedule yourself for a quick-hit facial, when theoretically you can do the job yourself? Ella Dove, our senior video producer, investigates in our latest episode of What the Wellness, Well+Good’s YouTube series where she tries the wildest things the industry has to offer to uncover whether they’re weird or worth it. As this episode proves, a pimple-popping-packed facial, which takes only 30 minutes flat can be effective. It all happens at Glowbar, a new-ish facial destination in New York City’s TriBeCa neighborhood, which touts itself as a “no-frills” spa that delivers results efficiently—like so quick you could do it over your lunch break (for $65 or $55 with a membership). How do they speed up the luxuriating? Well, for one, you have to come with clean skin so that your esthetician can get right to work assessing your needs. The treatment can include anything from extractions to dermaplaning (ya know: lightly shaving your face to rid it of peach fuzz and dead skin cells), LED light frequency, exfoliating masks, oxygen infusion, and the list goes on and on, depending on the state of
Craving ramen? Here’s how to give it a health boost
November 06, 2019 at 04:30AM by CWC There’s just something about tucking into a giant bowl of ramen that’s like a hug in soup form. Plus, it’s cheap, totally customizable to your tastes, and *gasp* healthy? Yep, ramen can totally be a good-for-you dinner option—by making just a few tweaks to the microwave version. Tweak number one: Give it a protein boost with this ramen egg recipe. With just six ingredients in the DIY marinade, it’s much less nutritionally questionable than the ingredients in those mysterious seasoning packets, and way tastier. The real nutritional star of the show? Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs, which are Certified Humane Free Range and come from small family farms. Basically, they’re about as close as you can get to just-laid eggs without having a personal chicken coop. The difference in quality is evident from the dark orange yolks and rich taste, and eggs from hens with outdoor access have been shown to be higher in omega-3s and vitamin D. See? Told you ramen could be nutritious—just add an (organic) egg. Watch the video to see exactly how to make a perfect ramen egg, and get the full slurppable recipe below. https://content.jwplatform.com/players/R7KZSNMy-AjgxWzQ7.js Continue Reading… Author Well+Good Editors | Well and Good Selected by CWC
My ‘winter feet’ look better than my ‘summer feet’ thanks to this combination of Amazon buys
November 06, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC “Hot girl summer” has come and gone. Now, cooler weather has ushered in knee-high socks and comfortable boots, but that doesn’t mean you need to ignore your foot beauty regimen. I found two Amazon buys that guarantee silky soft skin from heel to pinky toe. Recently, I added a pair of heated microwaveable booties ($31) to my wardrobe. Apparently, microwaveable socks aren’t extra enough all on their own, so the company adds “12 natural herbs and other aromatic ingredients” to the material to give your feet a full luxury experience. Slipping them on is like a hug for your feet. Like the first step into a freshly-drawn bath. Like dancing on laundry that just came out of the dryer. In fact, the only thing that can improve the experience of microwaved booties is slathering on your go-to lotion beforehand. I prefer Kiehl’s Honey Whipped Body Butter ($69), which smells like a coconut cake, while Well+Good’s beauty director likes Curél’s Fragrance Free Comforting Body Lotion ($9). You may think this level of self-care is reserved for the home, but I’m here to tell you that this whole sock-lotion situation works with boots. If you ask me, hot feet winter is the new hot girl summer. Here’s a closer look at a dermatologist’s skin-care routine: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUcLNzPWVEA] So… what’s the deal with compression socks? And if you’ve got blisters, it may not be because of your shoes. Continue Reading… Author Kells McPhillips | Well and
Exactly what to do when you need an appointment with the therapist you ghosted
November 06, 2019 at 01:00AM by CWC “Why are you the way that you are?” is a Michael Scott-ism that I ask myself almost every day. Usually it’s because I’m doing something like ordering tacos for the third night in a row (instead of cooking my fresh groceries) or binge-watching Love Island (instead of, oh, I don’t know, reading a book). But the other week, it was because I was facing crippling anxiety about therapy, because I had essentially ghosted my therapist and needed to make an appointment. I was way overdue for a visit at this point and needed to see my psychiatrist because I had run out of refills on my anxiety medications, thus perpetuating said anxiety. Beyond that big-deal reason for my anxiety uptick, though, I worried he would judge me, or tell me to find someone else out of frustration for my lack of compliance, or straight up just not respond to my request for an appointment. I wondered if I might be better off just seeing someone new, but didn’t really want to go that route, because finding a mental-health professional who fits your needs is hard, and I really liked this one. Well, one thing I had going for me is being in good company because therapist-ghosting is actually relatively common. Psychologist Laura Athey-Lloyd, PsyD, notes that studies and meta-analyses have found, repeatedly, that premature therapy dropout happens often. “The reasons for ghosting vary based on when in the therapy the ghosting takes place,”
Arms day is about to get a whole lot more effective thanks to “centimeter workouts”
November 06, 2019 at 12:34AM by CWC The arms section of spin class is the biggest mindf**k in the fitness world. Because: How can a series of different curl variations with three-pound weights burn out your arms to the point of complete exhaustion in a matter of less than five minutes? The answer is all thanks to micromovements. By making teeny, tiny tweaks when you do curls via “centimeter workouts”—those where you move your arms just a smidge and feel a whole lot of difference—you’re able to target entirely different subsets of muscles in your arms (fun fact: your biceps are actually made up of three different muscles!). “By moving your arms a small amount during curls, it changes the angles you are working, thereby activating different parts of your muscles you might not otherwise use,” says RYDE instructor Kaitlin Parker, who coached my arms to the point of exhaustion this morning. “It also shifts your focus a bit, so instead of focusing just on squeezing your biceps for example, a different angle or pace might make you focus also on activating your triceps on the way down.” In addition to moving the angle of your arms, you can also benefit from switching up the resistance you’re facing, which is why trainers so frequently ask you to switch from full extension of a move to a series of pulses and back again. “Small adjustments force you to use your muscles differently which tires them out,” says Parker. “The more variation
Is working out (and getting really sweaty) going to ruin my eyelash extensions?
November 06, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC I like to think of myself as a low-maintenance person (cut to: my entire family laughing hysterically). This at least holds true when it comes to my beauty routine. Example: I once went an entire year without getting a haircut, and lately my skin-care routine has fallen decidedly into the “less is more” camp. This is part of the reason why I love lash extensions. Yes, at first they feel high-maintenance, but then you get a few solid weeks where you can wake up, do nothing, and look like Bambi. But if I’m going to sit there for two hours (the initial appointment), then an hour (when they need to be filled in), I want to make sure that I’m extending the life of my lashes for as long as possible. Naturally, I was concerned that my super sweaty CrossFit workout routine was going to make my faux lashes fall out more quickly. After all, you’re advised to avoid getting them wet while you’re in the shower, and you legit sometimes have to use a little spoolie to brush them when water drops wind lashes together. Naturally, sweat presents these same problems, and so I asked Tirzah Shirai, lash expert and founder of BlinkBar, whether or not a sweaty lifestyle was a stop sign for fake lashes. Short answer: Not at all. Finally, an instance where we can have nice things. Initially, you want to keep your lashes totally dry for 24 to 48
How to reframe your sad singleness into empowered self-partnership
November 05, 2019 at 10:39PM by CWC Emma Watson is happy being single. In fact, she’s self-partnered, she says. My mother sent Watson’s interview with British Vogue to me in an attempt to make me feel better (?) about being single. Later, a personalized astrology app sent me the following notification: “Instead of looking for validation from romantic interests, try to give that to yourself.” So apparently I have a brand, and it is Deeply Single—or, self-partnered. “Cut to 29, and I’m like, Oh my God, I feel so stressed and anxious. And I realize it’s because there is suddenly this bloody influx of subliminal messaging around,” Watson said. “If you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby, and you are turning 30, and you’re not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career, or you’re still figuring things out… There’s just this incredible amount of anxiety.” Wow, Emma Watson is out here reciting my daily existential crisis like she’s telling someone how to properly pronounce leviosa and I needed to hear this. Being single can be empowering and awesome (you get the bed all to yourself! No one is there to witness you eating leftovers while standing in front of the fridge, because you’re too lazy to do dishes!), but it can also feel really lonely and sad, as Watson articulated. While I’ve cultivated a healthy amount of self-deprecation about it, I also feel the pressure to
5 strength-building yoga poses that are also full-body stretches in disguise
November 05, 2019 at 08:37PM by CWC Your favorite yoga pose says a lot about your preferred kinds of movement. Love forward fold? You must find freedom in flexibility. Can’t get enough of chair pose? You’re all about strength. Some asanas have singular purposes, it’s true. But plenty of poses work double-duty to strengthen and lengthen your muscles at the very same time, says Jess Penesso, yoga teacher and founder of The Sweat Method. “It is so important to balance strength with stretching for healthy joints that allow you to practice yoga your whole life,” says Penesso. “If we are only stretching and not strengthening in our yoga practice, we run the risk of putting unnecessary stress on our cartilage where our bones meet at our joints. Because we don’t have nerves in our cartilage, we don’t realize we’re wearing this down until it’s gone and there is an injury.” A handful of yoga poses strengthen the muscles while you stretch to decrease wear-and-tear in the cartilage. 5 yoga poses for strength that stretch your whole body, too 1. High lunge “High lunge strengthens the glute muscles, quad of the front leg, arms, and back muscles while stretching the hamstring and hip flexor on the back leg and chest,” explains Penesso. How to do it: Start standing with your feet hip-width apart. Place your hands on your hips and step your right foot forward 2 to 3 feet. Stay on the ball of the back left foot and bend into right