November 15, 2019 at 01:00AM by CWC I am a beginner cook. Today I cooked boneless, skinless chicken thighs in a pan, and the amount of accomplishment I felt after doing so is normally reserved for people who invented something that contributes to society, like the HPV vaccine or cauliflower gnocchi. Most of my cooking happens on a sheet pan, or in the only pan that I own—the very same one I used to expertly (read: not set off my smoke detectors) pan-sear that chicken earlier. But my palette has begun to get bored of a diet that can be described as “baked anything,” and not even copious amounts of Everything but the Bagel seasoning has been able to help. I wanted to know how I could upgrade my kitchen with a few accoutrements that would improve my healthy cooking without, you know, making it too difficult. So I enlisted Keri Glassman, MS, RD, CDN, and Chef Luca Moriconi from Culina at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, to share the essential, must-have kitchen items every beginner cook needs for easy, healthy cooking. 1. Cutting board As someone who has tried cutting various vegetables, cheeses, and even meats on a porcelain plate, I agree with the power of the cutting board. “A chopping board is the first thing that you need in the kitchen,” Moriconi says. “Make sure that you have a solid base that does not move around when cutting items and you can also use
Tag: Well+Good
The pro-approved secret for removing lipstick without wrecking your pout
November 15, 2019 at 12:30AM by CWC I consider myself a pro at washing my face. I spend at least two minutes lathering my skin with cleansers—two of them, actually, since I am an avid double cleanser—making sure to get every last millimeter of gunk and makeup off of my face. And I’m successful at doing this, save for one exception: removing lipstick. Whether I’m rocking a bold fuchsia lip or a more subtle neutral, my makeup abolishing abilities end at my lips. I just don’t know how to remove lipstick. Even makeup remover wipes don’t usually do the trick. Post-cleansing, I’ll usually have to scrub so hard with either a tissue or my poor not-white-anymore towel to get the pigment off, which leaves my lips dry, flakey and all shriveled up from the aggression. So I had to ask a makeup artist: Just how do you remove lipstick without wrecking your lips or leaving behind a crime scene in the bathroom? Pro tip: It’s all about oil. “I love to use an oil-based cleanser to remove lipstick,” says Jeannie Vincent, a Boston-based makeup artist. “Or you can use a straight up oil with a few drops of water. You can use either a cotton, Q-tip, or reusable cotton round to remove it.” Her go-to is sweet almond oil, which works particularly great on makeup (plus it tends to be cheap, like this $3 option from Amazon). Also helpful is emulsifying the oil via some H2O. “Putting a couple drops
These are the healthiest hummus varieties that go way beyond chickpea
November 15, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC Just like that one friend who always insists on getting to the party early, hummus was in the fridge long before healthy eating was a whole scene. (And also at the party, next to the crudités platter, readily scooped up by everyone who doesn’t like ranch dressing.) But chickpea hummus isn’t the only option you’ll find in the refrigerated section at your local grocery store. Like the pasta, hummus has embraced a variety of ingredients. There’s hummus made out of black beans, white beans, lentils, edamame, beets. How’s a healthy eater to know which one to go for? Are brands just using clever marketing to stump us? Answering the questions in Well+Good’s Cook With Us Facebook group is registered dietitian and The Better Period Food Solution author Tracy Lockwood Beckerman, RD. How to choose the healthiest hummus made with a variety of ingredients Best for fiber: black bean hummus Both chickpea hummus and black bean hummus are good sources of protein, but Beckerman says the black beans win with fiber content. “Black beans have a slightly higher fiber amount than chickpeas—15 grams verus 12.5 grams in 1 cup—and black beans have 20 calories less than chickpeas,” she says. While more fiber is definitely a positive, Beckerman says chickpea hummus is slightly higher in iron, although both have almost two times as much iron as a three ounce serving of steak. best for protein: edamame “Edamame takes the cake because it’s a complete protein,
How to put together a recovery toolkit to nip knee pain in the bud
November 14, 2019 at 11:30PM by CWC When you’ve got knee pain, it’s kind of like an annoying younger sibling, tagging along in everything that you do. Whether you’re running, spinning, squatting, or contorting yourself into some sort of a Warrior pose, it’s just kind of…. there. And while many of us just kind of learn to deal with it (respecting our body’s limits, of course), we shouldn’t have to—and putting together a stretch-heavy “recovery toolkit” for knee pain can help make that happen. “A lot of knee injuries, or even chronic knee pain, can be avoided if you figure out where your imbalances are,” says Samantha Pell, founder of Samantha Pell Pilates. So for example, if you’ve got super tight hamstrings and not-so-strong quads, you’ll start to feel it in your knees. Same if you’re working your quads too hard and not giving those hammies their airtime they deserve in your strength training sessions. The fix? Hack your recovery regimen so that your muscles are getting the equal love they deserve (and those pesky pains will be less likely to happen). As with most recovery hacks, this one starts with a foam roller. While you never want to roll your knee (or any other bone in your body for that matter), rolling the muscles around it can help relieve some of the tension that’s causing you pain. “When you roll slowly and correctly, it can really break up any of those knots and lactic acid buildup in your muscles,” says
There are *five* different types of acne scars—here’s how to treat them all
November 14, 2019 at 11:00PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt57es1bWhY] I’ve got some tough skin-care knowledge to lay down for you: Every time you get a pimple, there’s a six percent chance that it’s going to leave behind a scar. And as any dermatologist will tell you—and you may have learned this the hard way on your own over the years—that number goes up if you pop it or pick at it. Woof. Though they may be (frustratingly) common, all acne scars are not created equally, and neither are the ways you’re meant to treat them. There are five different types of scars your pimples can leave behind: keloids, which are raised and reddish; hypertrophic scars, which are slightly smaller than keloids and mostly happen on your chest and back; ice pick scars, which look like deep, pitted holes; rolling scars, which are slightly shallower and smoother than their ice pick cousins; and boxcar scars, which look like fingernail indentations. In the latest episode of Dear Derm, board-certified dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD, gives us the 411 on how to treat scarring from acne. But in order to understand what to do about a scar, it’s important to first understand why they happen in the first place. “When a pimple forms, collagen is damaged, and when that collagen starts to heal in a wonky way, it leads to scarring,” says Dr. Gohara. “When you get any sort of a wound, including a self-inflicted one from a pimple you had to pop, your skin
3 eye exercises an optometrist does to combat dryness
November 14, 2019 at 10:18PM by CWC Your eyes do a lot for you. And if you have a desk job that involves staring into the abyss of a computer screen, they deserve to be repaid for all their hard work. That’s where optometrist Weslie Hamada, OD, senior director of LensCrafters comes in with eye exercises to nurse your corneas back to health. “Thanks to our increasingly digital lifestyles, people are much more susceptible to digital eye strain than they once were,” says Dr. Hamada. “All this screen time can stress out the eyes and lead to eye fatigue. Constant digital stimulation or being on your computer for long periods can cause eye irritation, red eyes, and dry or excessively watery eyes.” We can’t just toss our laptops, phones (and wearables, and tablets) into the ocean and wipe our hands of the whole ordeal, but the eye doc says that there’s plenty we can do to look after the health of our eyes. Below, Dr. Hamada names four exercises to do in your spare time to ensure we can all keep squinting at Instagram for years and years to come. 3 eye exercises to keep dry eyes hydrated 1. Blink Oh. So you didn’t know that blinking was an eye exercise? Well, now you do. “Blinking cleans and moisturizes the surface of the eye. Insufficient blinking leads directly to eye fatigue, dryness, and eventually, to eye strain,” says Dr. Hamada. So wherever you are right now, bat those lashes. 2.
Salary transparency is key to the future of workplace wellness
November 14, 2019 at 09:01PM by CWC Earlier this week, someone forwarded me a Google spreadsheet filled with real-time salary information from hundreds of journalists and editors around the country. You might think that as a journalist and editor myself, I’d already know the salary ranges within my industry, but the truth is that I had no clue—and I was fascinated to see so much variation (even among people in the same city, working for the same company, with similar seniority levels and job responsibilities). But that’s exactly why the spreadsheet was anonymously created in the first place: There’s a whole lot of mystery and confusion around what constitutes fair pay—and not just in journalism. “Talking about how much or how little money you make feels taboo, and it shouldn’t,” reads a statement at the top of the document. “Wouldn’t it be great to know what your peers make so you can use that to leverage a raise? Let’s share what we make and any relevant info to help each other learn our worth!” Like many people I know, I’ve always believed that going public with my salary isn’t a good idea, not just out of fear of retribution from my employer, but also out of concern that my colleagues might resent me if it turns out I’m making more money than they are (or that I might resent them—and my managers—if the reverse were to be true). But a growing number of experts agree that salary transparency initiatives like
Meet Sweetgreen 3.0, the higher-tech salad innovation no one asked for
November 14, 2019 at 08:00PM by CWC Here’s how this is going to go: Your eyes are going to roll way back into the darkest depths of their socket as you decide you hate me, and then I’m going to win you back—promise. Two weeks ago, Sweetgreen 3.0 personally victimized me and my lunch, and I’m still not over it. (Yes, this is when you hate me.) Allow me to explain: Sweetgreen 3.0 is the newest concept from the customizable-salad eatery that I’ve come to rely upon when I have $12 to $17 to burn on a healthy yet satisfying lunch. That’s not something that happens so often, so when I splurge, it’s to treat myself to a lunch that’s more exciting that the tired options in my meal-prep rotation. Which is why I was so enraged (I’m not being hyperbolic here) when I stepped into the new store a few days after its October 28 opening and enjoyed exactly zero percent of my experience. There was no assembly line of employees tossing greens and cheeses and proteins into lunch art. Rather, Sweetgreen 3.0 uses what it calls concierge ordering, wherein you either order ahead, from an on-site kiosk, or from a iPad-armed staffer. Your order is prepared in a kitchen that’s not visible to you and when it’s ready, your name is called for pickup. The company’s founders, according to the Wall Street Journal, envisioned this as being “a cross between an Apple store and a farmers’ market” designed
Here’s what to do with your empty tubs of moisturizer instead of throwing them away
November 14, 2019 at 07:30PM by CWC Now that it’s freezing cold outside—the season of super-dry, flaky skin!—you’re probably flying through tubs of moisturizer like crazy. Instead of letting those empty tubs build up in your recycling bin, repurpose them by turning them into DIY recycled plant pots. The idea gives new life to an empty tub of moisturizer. For example, the container for one of our favorite products, derm-approved CeraVe Moisturizing Cream, easily transforms into a chic plant pot that’s the perfect size for succulents and little cacti. All you need to do is remove the lid, cut off the top of the tub where the screw lines are (it’s plastic, so you can do it carefully with scissors). Then, use sandpaper to smooth it out. Next, drill a hole in the bottom so your plant doesn’t get waterlogged. It’s that easy. Turned a moisturizer tub into a succulent bowl. Cut off the top and drilled a drain hole at the bottom. 5 minute DIY project from r/houseplants //embed.redditmedia.com/widgets/platform.js Countless beauty products come in perfect plant-sized plastic or glass containers. Just think about all possibilities among the numerous face masks and body scrubs in your bathroom that are almost empty. You can also keep your new repurposed pots as is, or give them an upgrade with a little paint. Think of your DIY recycled plant pots as a reward you get every time you finish a product. For keeping your skin healthy, you get to gift yourself a new
8 grippy, non-slip sneakers that will keep you secure and up your gym game
November 14, 2019 at 07:00PM by CWC Footwear is probably the most technical piece of equipment that you slip on in your day-to-day gym regimen. A shoe has to fit properly, it’s got to suit the workout that you’re doing, and it has to hold your foot in place to stave off injury and make you feel super secure. So, as much as you might like your chunky tennies and HIIT trainers for everyday wear, finding a pair of well-fitting non-slip sneakers is never a bad idea. The trick to finding a pair that’s both slip-resistant and comfortable all comes down to design. Namely, a rubberized sole with intricate tread patterns for extra grip, and a form-fitting upper that melds to the position of your foot. Fortunately, whether you’re looking for walking, jogging, running, hiking, or training shoes, some of our favorite brands have us covered. From APL and Puma to Merrell and Keen, ahead you’ll find eight pairs of non-slip sneakers, all of which have a little something extra to offer. Photo: APL APL Women’s TechLoom Bliss, $200 These celeb-fave non-slip sneakers are renowned for their intersection of performance, comfort, and style. The slip-on sneaker is super light, weighing just 6.8 ounces. What’s more, thanks to the wide-stain elastic strap over the top of the foot, you never have to worry about them slipping off mid-stride. Photo: Puma AL x PUMA LQDCELL Shatter XT Leather Women’s Training Shoes, $130 We’ve all seen the “train like an angel” workout videos circulating