October 09, 2019 at 10:24PM by CWC This Sunday brings the next full moon, and given the time of year, there’s always the chance on that night, your dreams will include some spooky, Halloween-leaning frights. If not, though, you’re still likely to spend part of the night tossing and turning, because according to recent research, full moon effects on sleep are real and disruptive. Sleep-tech company Dreem recently conducted a study for which it analyzed a million nights of sleep from thousands of participants, CNBC reports. Some findings skewed obvious (like, it’s not wildly shocking that solo sleepers get 20 percent more deep sleep, ostensibly because they don’t have to worry about being elbowed mid-snooze, #amirite?) while others were far more illuminating. For instance, take the finding that full moons are grade-A troublemakers when it comes to your REM game. On nights with a full moon, people required 9 percent more time to fall asleep, and clocked 7 percent less deep sleep once they were successfully snoozing. And if you’re thinking the full moon effects on sleep are simple to explain—that it’s the increased brightness tampering with your circadian rhythm—your line of thinking makes sense. After all, experts do recommend total darkness (or at the very least, some middle-ground red lighting) for optimizing sleep health. But the study found that even when the full moon took to the skies on particularly cloudy nights, sleep suffered for the participants. The full moon is historically associated with lunacy, disorder, danger, and bad
Category: Your Regeneration
The best-of-the-best foundations for every skin condition, from acne to eczema
October 09, 2019 at 09:53PM by CWC Fact: A lot of inconveniences can be blamed on Mercury retrograde, but being late for work in an attempt to calm and cover a sudden skin flare-up might be a bit of a reach. While the obvious solution is often to apply a treatment and let the affected area breathe, we get it—you’ve got things to do, people to see, and the last thing you want is for the issue bringing you stress to be on full display. No need to stress the cover up, though. We picked the brains of pro makeup artists to get their very best tips on how to calm the situation, then cover it up without further exacerbating the unique needs of your skin type or the skin condition that you’re dealing with. Keep reading to get pro-approved suggestions on how to apply foundation and be out the door in five flat. Photo: Stocksy/Lumina Acne-prone skin Asking for a friend: At what age does this whole “adult acne” thing eventually give it a rest? Resist the urge to proceed with the motions of your heavy middle school foundation routine at all costs. According to makeup artist (and budding pop star) Neil Scibelli, your best course of action is to find a lightweight, water-based formula that allows your skin to breathe, but doesn’t veer towards a dewy finish. “When covering active breakouts, I would suggest steering away from any foundations or products that have luminous or shimmery qualities to
6 foods guaranteed to make you gassy, according to a gastroenterologist
October 09, 2019 at 09:01PM by CWC Lest you forget the scene in Bridesmaids when farting quickly landslides into explosive diarrhea (and laughs), gastric distress can come out of nowhere. Thank the food gods that not every burrito will end with you “sh*tting in the street!”… in a designer wedding dress. But if you’re curious about which foods are the prime suspects for causing uncontrollable flatulence—that’s the fancy word for farts—I consulted gastroenterologist Niket Sonpal, MD. Dr. Sonpal says the usual wind-producing suspects (like beans and cruciferous veggies) are in good company with several diet staples. Without further ado, here are the six foods to avoid for a silent and scentless gut. Watch out for these 6 foods that make you gassy 1. Beans “Beans contain a lot of fiber, but they also have sugars called alpha oligosaccharides. They get taken up by the bacteria from your colon and gas is a byproduct of the process,” explains Dr. Sonpal. Over time, the digestive tracts of those who consume a lot of legumes will get used to processing chickpeas and other beans, but those who don’t usually partake often may have digestive issues. “If you’re someone who’s not used to legumes, and then you take in, you’ll notice that you’re going to have a lot of bloating, gas, distention. You’ll experience discomfort,” says the gastroenterologist. For the record, Dr. Sonpal says that pinto beans and black beans are much easier on your digestive system than kidney beans or mung beans. So keep that
Four words from dermatologists that’ll change your life: Stop showering every day
October 09, 2019 at 06:55PM by CWC I used to really like showering. I would linger underneath the spout and luxuriate in the hot water, which helped wake me up in the morning and/or release all my body’s tension after a really long day. These moments let my mind come up with all sorts of creative ideas that only occur when you’re washing your body. These days, though? I’m over it. Showering’s annoying. It’s just a whole ordeal. And guess what? Dermatologists back me up on this. You have expert-approved permission to not shower every single day. “It doesn’t matter what time of year it is—your entire body does not need to be washed daily,” says Rachel Nazarian, MD, board-certified dermatologist with Schweiger Dermatology. It’s not just one derm that says this, either—Mona Gohara, MD, another dermatologist (and star of our Dear Derm video series), says “you’re fine to skip a shower day or two.” “Your entire body does not need to be washed daily.” —Rachel Nazarian, MD Before you go carefree frolicking about and allowing your tub to collect dust—you still have to tend to those particularly smelly parts of your bod so that you keep all of your friends. “All you need to do is clean the smelly parts,” says Dr. Gohara. The parts in question are the usual suspects: your pits, your groin, and your feet, which Dr. Nazarian says harbor more bacteria than other areas of your bod. “I recommend those areas be washed daily with a
Follow this simple AF gym cheat sheet to feel like Queen Bee of the weight room
October 09, 2019 at 06:30PM by CWC The weight room at the gym gives me stage fright. I know, I know: exactly zero people care what I’m doing. But the aimlessness I feel between the squat rack and the free weights makes me feel like I’ve been plopped into the arena from The Hunger Games. Which is why, when I uncovered an Instagram cheat sheet for creating a full body gym workout, you better believe I screen-shotted that ish immediately. Designed by the trainers at Achieve Fitness in Boston, the formula makes whipping up a killer workout a lot like picking what you want in your burrito at Chipotle. To target every muscle in your body, you’ll create two “tri-sets,” each of which contains three workouts. Here’s how to do it. Create a full body gym workout in 3-2-1 steps View this post on Instagram Putting together a workout for yourself can be super stressful! It can be really hard to know where to begin, so we wanted to take some of that stress away and give you some general guidelines for how to put together a total body workout that is smart, well-rounded, and suited to your goals. While this certainly isn’t an exhaustive breakdown of program design, we do think it’s a great starting point and will be much more beneficial than just haphazardly throwing a bunch of exercises together! If you have any questions at all, please ask in the comments! We’re happy to be here to
Memorize this conversation formula to stop gaslighting before it starts
October 09, 2019 at 05:34PM by CWC It’s happened to me countless times before: I’d voiced a feeling, an opinion, or a firmly held belief to an ex, only to be told that I was making it up, faking it, or—my favorite—“crazy.” I wish I could say I ran faster out of that relationship than an Olympic track and field champion, but that was far from the case. Instead, I made excuses for his behavior, clinging on to that charming and supportive display that lured me in in the first place. This is what gaslighting is. What makes gaslighting so dangerous is that we often don’t realize it’s happening to us until years down the road. “It’s a technique used to manipulate and distort. The greater the level of self-doubt, the easier it becomes for the gaslighter to dictate situations to their liking,” explains Sarah Jane Crosby, a Dublin-based psychotherapist. It’s a relief to know I’m not the only one who couldn’t see the signs. Crosby says that since gaslighting is a relatively new term, many of us never had the language to defend ourselves—let alone identify how we felt. “As a collective, it was something we’ve been largely unconscious to.” But that’s slowly changing. Fortunately, Crosby proves it’s possible to have the foresight and tools to stop a gaslighter in their tracks (so that, unlike me, you don’t spend another moment tethered to an abusive situation you assumed was your fault). In a series of recent Instagram posts, she
We need naked yoga (and its confidence-boosting magic) now more than ever
October 09, 2019 at 05:33PM by CWC Yoga has approximately four bajillion variations within its fitness umbrella. There’s vinyasa, yoga nidra, kundalini yoga, mandala yoga, ashtanga, bikram, goat yoga, and the list goes on and on (and on). Rounding out how flexible the options for practicing out there are (see what I did there?) is, of course, naked yoga. Naked yoga, as you’d probably imagine, is like regular yoga but sans leggings…and a shirt…and a sports bra…and, yeah, underwear too (though you can wear these if you want). It’s not something that’s just offered as an exercise class at nudist colonies, but it’s actually done in naked yoga studios all over the United States, and it’s been around for a while now. “It’s not a fad,” says Willow Merveille, yogi and founder of Naked in Motion, which offers classes in New York, Seattle, and Boston. “It’s been practiced for centuries.” In actuality, naked yoga looks just like regular yoga (with bare bodies), but the purpose behind it is more abstract than just getting your flow on. “There’s heightened self-awareness and freedom,” says Monika Werner, yogi and co-founder of Bold and Naked, a studio in NYC. “You have to experience it for yourself, but the freedom of movement, the energy of the class, and the openness and increased self-awareness are the main benefits.” Before you actually start practicing the yoga, it’s typical for a naked yoga class to begin with a clear explanation of rules. “At Naked in Motion, we read
Try this easygoing (and effective!) way to relieve aching hip flexors and inner thighs
October 09, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC Just like I naturally start dancing whenever I hear Gloria Estefan, so too, do I immediately drop into a butterfly stretch once I finish a workout. Both are reflexes of mine—and the result of both just feel so good. Seriously though: The butterfly stretch, which is probably one of the most popular seated stretches in the stretching universe, instantly opens up your lower body and hip flexors, making them feel divine. If you don’t know it by name, the butterfly stretch is when you’re sitting down with your feet together in front of you and your knees are splayed open. “There’s a reason we all sat in a butterfly position in preschool,” says Toni Melaas, method architect and partner at Outer Reach. “The butterfly posture is a perfect example of how it takes strength and mobility in equal measure to create stability and alignment in your form.” It’s specific to opening up your lower body, which is where so. much. tightness happens. “This can be a great exercise for people who want to find more flexibility in their hips and inner thighs, and is fantastic to undo the slumping that’s typically done at a computer all day,” says Rebecca Lubart, Pilates instructor and founder of Dynamic Body Pilates. “The pressing of the soles of your feet together combined with the pull of the arms and a long, neutral spine means that you’ll not only get a great stretch sensation in your hips, but
Before you say your skin is ‘sensitive,’ you might want to check with an allergist
October 09, 2019 at 03:00PM by CWC Not to be dramatic, but if you have sensitive skin your entire life may have been a lie up until this point. You’ve been hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hoodwinked, led astray! According to Dr. Purvi Parikh, allergist with the Allergy & Asthma Network, sometimes sensitive skin isn’t really sensitive skin—it could actually be a skin allergy. In addition to people being like woah about finding that out, “often people are also surprised that something you have been using for a while you can become allergic to,” Parikh says. It be like that sometimes. The best way to tell if you’re having an allergic reaction is to go see an allergist or dermatologist and get patch testing done. “Short of that, it is hard to know unless you have a pattern of reactions, like you only react to hair dye versus fragrances versus a variety of products,” Parikh says. “If there is a similar pattern to your reactions, it likely is an allergy rather than reacting to multiple things which may be more of sensitivity—or what we call an irritant reaction.” (There’s some allergist lingo for ya.) The most common allergens in skin care products, according to Parikh, are fragrance mix, formaldehyde, quaternarium 15, isothiazolinones, balsam of Peru, nickel, paraphenylenediamene, and antibacterial ointments. If you think you’re having an allergic reaction but can’t make it to an allergist, your best bet is to choose products that are fragrance-, dye-, and paraben-free, she says. A few brands
The exact way you feel stressed after socializing, according to your personality
October 09, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC The most annoying aspect of being an introvert is how quickly we fall victim to social burnout. Simply surviving a party often requires a reading break or at least two weekend days spent recovering from the ordeal with a binge-watching marathon of literally anything on Netflix and zero human interaction. But that’s just introverts—and introverts, friends, aren’t the only people who experience social stress, a Thrive Global piece recently pointed out. In fact, ambiverts and even extroverts can end up drained as a result of human interaction. That said, if you’re a classic introvert, you likely already know how to heal yourself from the effects of social burnout. (Take breaks, take breaks, take breaks!) And you’ve no doubt developed a whole self-care routine for handling the unique stress of group dinners. But if one of the more outgoing personality types best describes you, how do you identify your social stress and, more importantly, recover from it? Below, a mental-health expert breaks down the experience of social stress (and strategies for mitigating it) for all the extroverts and ambiverts out there. How extroverts feel after socializing With extroverts, the issue with over-socializing isn’t that you have trouble with and anxiety about talking with others. On the contrary, you actually love talking—talking is your favorite! The problem is, rather, that others are so familiar with your reputation that you sometimes feel locked into the social-butterfly-friend role. “Extroverts don’t usually get tired from socializing the way