October 10, 2019 at 06:30PM by CWC I’ve lived in New York City for six years now, and most of the subway ads I see fall into two categories: trendy start-up (Casper or Blume perhaps) or slightly sketchy flyers for local psychics and guitar teachers. Which is why I was so surprised to step on the subway one very hot summer day and see a new set of ads that defied both categories for a free mental health first aid training class offered by the city. As a health editor, talking about mental health is a huge part of what I do at Well+Good, whether it’s through sharing real people’s experiences with anxiety or suicidal thoughts or talking to mental health professionals about what they do to help maintain their mental well-being. But I had never heard of mental health first aid—which is how I found myself signing up for a class over Labor Day weekend at the Gregory Jackson Center in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. The mental health first aid curriculum was originally developed in 2001 by Australians Betty Kitchener and Anthony Jorm. It was adopted for use in the U.S. and 24 other countries around the world, including India, Canada, and Sweden. The City of New York City offers trainings for free through its Thrive NYC mental health initiative. “[Mental health first aid is] the ability to assess and approach someone in need,” explains Coach D. Williams, one of my two instructors. The goal, as she emphasized
Category: Your Regeneration
I’ve had bangs for 3-plus years—these are the tips that have saved me time-and-time again
October 10, 2019 at 05:15PM by CWC Bangs. You either loathe them with every inch of your being, or you’re so in love with them that you can never see yourself with another hairstyle ever again. Me? I fall squarely with the latter. I took the ultimate plunge three and a half years ago. I desperately wanted to refresh my style, but I also didn’t want to lose any length. After 30 minutes of consulting literally anyone who would listen about whether I should get the polarizing haircut (and then chickening out a few times), I decided I was all in. I left with a set of eyebrow-grazing bangs loosely inspired by my style icon, Jane Birkin, and I haven’t had a bare forehead since. Sure, I’ll wax poetic about the life-changing magic of fringe all day long, but I won’t deny the obvious: Having bangs requires serious commitment and daily maintenance. Luckily, with some practice and the right tricks in your beauty arsenal, managing them is totally doable. To prove my point, I shared some of my own and consulted with celebrity hair pro Mark Townsend, the man responsible for Dakota Johnson’s enviable fringe. Read on for the sound advice. View this post on Instagram Wherefore art thou… coffee? A post shared by Victoria Moorhouse (@tormoor) on Sep 12, 2019 at 6:10am PDT //www.instagram.com/embed.js Manage your expectations Not to be a broken record, but you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. “Don’t think that bangs is a wake-up-and-go style,” agrees
Traveling to Boston? Check out these 8 incredible farm-to-table restaurants ASAP
October 10, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC We totally get if you’ve had your fill of the term “farm-to-table” (I can’t help but think of the Portlandia scene). But this is a great thing! As news about the environmental consequences of the food system pours in, more restaurants are doing their eco-conscious part. It’s beyond a trendy schtick; transparency about where your food comes from can be good for you, local growers, and the environment. Boston’s flourishing restaurant industry features bright spots with good, clean food at the forefront of their mission. Maybe it’s working with farmers who embrace crop diversity, or promoting fair wages across their staff. The freshest part? Many of the below menu recommendations come at the time of writing, so your options could be completely different based on the day and season. And that’s what we like to hear. Here are eight of Boston’s best restaurants for farm-fresh food with a mission: 1. Craigie on Main You won’t find any out-of-season fruit or veg on your plate at this Cambridge mainstay. Since 2002, Chef Tony Maws has regularly switched up his French-inspired menu based on his daily haul from his network of go-to farmers, fishermen, and other local purveyors. Try marinated heirloom tomatoes, or head to the restaurant’s bar for their signature burger topped with cheddar from a farm in Shelburne, Vermont. Craigie on Main, 853 Main St, Cambridge, MA 02139, (617) 497-5511, https://www.craigieonmain.com/ 2. Bondir An ode to New England cuisine, Bondir’s cozy setting feels
A real witch’s 6 tips for using witchcraft to give your home an energy-clearing makeover
October 10, 2019 at 04:22PM by CWC My friend Amber recently became my 10th-ever roommate, and as someone who’s racked up many years of experience in the art of living with other people, I know how the dance typically goes when you move in with someone new: You set intentions to not leave dishes unwashed, you establish boundaries about not using each other’s shampoo, and you cleanse the whole place immediately, despite knowing it’s only a matter of (short) time before things skew dirty forever. But, this time—this time—was destined to be different…thanks to witchcraft and learning how to cast a spell. Meet Erica Feldmann, who identifies as a witch and initially moved to Salem, Massachusetts, to study witches and the sacred feminine at Simmons College, stayed, and eventually opened HausWitch, a metaphysical (or New Age) shop that sells handmade goods intended to “bring magic and healing into everyday spaces.” Earlier this year, she published HausMagick: Transform Your Home with Witchcraft, which pairs intel from her witchy background with her interior-design focus to provide home-cleansing intel from which all can benefit. Just in time for Amber’s move in, we decided to use the guiding spells to give our new collective home a positive energy makeover. The teachings of the book operate similar to feng shui, in that they call upon cleaning and redecorating as a means for changing and improving the energy of a space. Divided into six fundamental elements, the focuses are on decluttering, cleansing, and creating a harmonious environment.
A dermatologist uses this $3 multi-tasking beauty product every night
October 10, 2019 at 12:00PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUcLNzPWVEA] Welcome to ‘Dear Derm,’ our new beauty series in which dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD shares serious skin-care realness. In each episode, she’ll answer your most burning beauty questions and give you all the tools you need to take your glow game to the next level. Dermatologists have access to the best skin-care products and ingredients on the market (it is, quite literally, their job to help mend skin from whatever aggro situations confront it), which means their routines tend to be stocked with the types of high-end, medical-grade products you’d expect to find in their offices. But as Mona Gohara, MD, recently revealed, it’s not just the luxury stuff that makes it into the haul they take home: Her favorite multi-purpose product makeup remover a $3 pick from the drugstore. We already know that Vaseline is considered the “Swiss Army Knife” of beauty products for its skin-soothing properties. But as Dr. Gohara spills in the latest episode of Dear Derm, it also works as a makeup remover, which is why it’s a permanent staple in her evening regimen. “One of the really cool things I do is use Vaseline under my eyes,” she says of the first step she does after cleansing her face. “I think it’s a great eye cream actually, but it also gets rid of any residual concealer that I’ve had on my face, too.” Because of the oil base in Vaseline, it’s able to whisk away old eye makeup,
Egg freezing rates are on the rise—but experts warn it’s not a fertility ‘insurance policy’
October 10, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC Hoping to freeze your eggs now so you can get pregnant after you’re well settled into your career 10 years from now? It’s tempting to think of egg freezing as exactly that kind of security deposit on your future—and certainly the plethora of splashy startups and celebrities trying it for themselves make it sound like the smart thing to do. But in reality, spending tens of thousands of dollars doesn’t necessarily guarantee a healthy baby. “Egg freezing is frequently sold to the general public as an insurance. It’s anything but,” says Norbert Gleicher, MD, the medical director and chief scientist at the Center for Human Reproduction. “When you buy car insurance, you know what to expect if you get into a car accident. But no one can tell a 25-year-old exactly how many eggs she needs to freeze, or her pregnancy chances should she use those eggs.” The history of egg freezing Technologies have advanced a lot since the first baby was born from a frozen egg in 1986. Today, vitrification (aka snap freezing) helps prevent ice crystals from forming in frozen eggs, which ensures many more survive the thawing process. “Eggs are the largest cell in the human body, so they have the most cytoplasm, or water. And ice crystals can damage the DNA in an egg,” says Mindy Christianson, M.D., the medical director of the Johns Hopkins Fertility Center, who works mostly with cancer patients who are trying to preserve their fertility.
Ankle mobility exercises will soothe your aching feet
October 10, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC There’s a lot going on in your feet. I’m talkin’ 26 different bones and 33 joints, all of which support you and connect with the rest of your body, allowing you to spin it out, achieve your dreams of running a marathon, and book it to work so you get there on time. For everything you put your feet through on a day-to-day basis, you have to make sure they get the TLC they deserve. And one way to do that is to grab a lacrosse ball for an exercise to improve ankle mobility and range of motion, which is directly related to foot discomfort. While tennis balls are great at working out knots and tightness in your neck, they’re too squishy to allow you to really dig into the soles of your feet. But a rubber lacrosse ball—which stays nice and firm—is one of the greatest tools you can use in an exercise to banish pain and improve your foot and ankle mobility, says chiropractor Lance von Stade, DC. “It puts mechanical input and sheer force into each one of those joints individually,” he says in a YouTube video, which can help relax tight muscles and mobilize your feet. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqL_anvKajI] To get a quality massage with a lacrosse ball, Dr. von Stade suggests working into different parts of your foot step-by-step—almost like a yoga flow, but for your feet. Whether you’re putting pressure into your feet in a lunge position or
What’s the real difference between day and night creams—and do I need both?
October 10, 2019 at 01:00AM by CWC Your skincare routine can either be really simple with a few different products you use on the regular or super-intense with a #shelfie chock-full of creams, scrubs, and serums. But to get back to basics, experts typically agree that night cream and day cream can both play an important part in your regimen for sure. But it’s a little more complicated than that. As someone whose skincare routine only consists of a face wash, moisturizer, and sunscreen, I’ve always figured companies that sell both day cream and night cream were just trying to get you to buy essentially the same product in different packaging in order to make an extra buck. According to Boston-based dermatologist Gretchen Frieling, MD, that’s not the case at all. Each serves a unique purpose and contains different ingredients that work best during certain times of the day. A day cream frequently contains SPF and is lighter than a night cream, making it easy to apply before makeup, says Dr. Frieling. “Day cream also typically excludes active ingredients like retinol, glycolic acid, or alpha hydroxy acids that could cause photosensitivity during the day,” she says. Night cream on the other hand includes ingredients that do their best work while you’re fast asleep away from the sun’s harmful rays. “Sleep is when the skin does the heavy lifting, so nighttime products help maintain healthy skin and reduce signs of aging overnight. It’s when your skin works to restore and repair,
The only piece of fitness equipment you need right now is a heart rate monitor
October 10, 2019 at 12:02AM by CWC First there were FitBits, then came the Apple Watch, and nowadays, you’d be hard-pressed to walk into a New York City fitness studio without some acknowledgement that you can track just about every part of your workout. That’s especially true for tracking your heart rate in conjunction to how hard you’re pushing yourself in your workout, which is why heart rate monitors are the single best buy you can make to up your fitness game. It’s also why you’re about to see them as a central part of every. single. workout. “Your heart rate is an amazing tool to showcase how your body’s reacting to the individual workout, and it’s a significant upgrade versus just going by ‘feel,’ which levels up the knowledge base around overtraining, lack of sleep, and other effects that aren’t recognized by the average fitness consumer,” says Joanna Stahl, trainer and founder of Go2Practice, who’s definitely noticed heart rate tracking dominate the wearables market. “Heart rate training is now incorporated into every personal tech platform from products like Suunto, Garmin, Polar, and has spread into mainstream products like Fitbit and Apple Watches—it’s on the rise from a health tech perspective, and there’s no doubt it’s making the average health-minded consumer smarter and more aware of their bodies and heart-related issues.” “There’s no doubt it’s making the average health-minded consumer smarter and more aware of their bodies and heart-related issues.” —Joanna Stahl Of course it’s always been beneficial to measure your
Looking for an afternoon energy boost? Try this delicious chia seed pudding
October 10, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GWATOYi-bU] A chia seed pudding that isn’t a mushy mess? Tell me more, please. When I need a boost of energy—which is basically all the time thanks to the 24-hour news cycle/being an adult/the impending demise of our planet—my first instinct is to drink my fourth cup of coffee and scroll through cute dog videos on Instagram. But apparently I’ve been doing it all wrong, because TIL that chia seeds (yes, really) are also excellent for raising your energy levels. In the latest episode of Well+Good’s YouTube series Plant Based, herbalist and holistic health coach Rachelle Robinett breaks down what makes chia seeds such a super, well, superfood. “It’s kind of notorious for energy,” Robinett says. “It isn’t that [chia is] directly stimulating, it’s that it’s so nutrient-dense that we get a ton of available energy and calories and nutrients in a very small amount.” You can thank chia’s high amounts of fiber, protein, and calcium for that. “That efficiency can be helpful for guiding our [weight management], for when you need a quick little snack, something that can energize you but not be an entire meal.” Seems like we all should be paying the humble chia seed a bit more respect. Of course, you’re hardly about to pop a handful of chia and call it a snack. Instead, Robinett shares her secret to making a truly delicious chia seed pudding (hint: caramelized pineapple is involved!) that will take your afternoon pick-me-up