November 07, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC Why even shop throughout the year when you can save so much money by waiting until Black Friday? But it’s way too early to get excited about what awaits behind Target’s doors. Or is it? Target revealed the first sneak peek at what deals you can expect, and you might want to sit down because they’re good—really good. Whether you’re in the market for an Apple Watch or Fitbit to help you reach your health (and daily step!) goals, an Instant Pot or air fryer for home-cooked meals, or a weighted blanket to help you find your calm throughout the holidays, Target has you covered. This year, you can score tech, clothes, beauty essentials and more for a fraction of the cost when those doors open at 5pm on Thursday, November 28—and these are the best deals to look out for. 11 best Target Black Friday deals 1. Instant Pot, $65 Start stockpiling Instant Pot recipes, because the 6-qt. 7-in-1 Duo Nova multi-use pressure cooker will be available for $35 off its typical price. 2. Apple Watch Series 3, $170 If you haven’t quite bitten the bullet on getting an Apple Watch, give yourself an early holiday gift by scoring the Series 3 on sale. 3. Weighted blanket, $30 You’ve always wanted a weighted blanket to cozy up in, and now you can get the 12-lb. option on sale. 4. Ninja Air Fryer, $80 You know how amazing air fryers are. Whether you want to make
Tag: Well+Good
5 activewear items with pockets that hold more of your things than those mini bags you love
November 06, 2019 at 10:52PM by CWC This one time, not-so-long-ago, I boldly decided: “You know what sounds challenging? Running a marathon!” Having never run this distance before, I anticipated many, many obstacles including potential injuries, feeling fatigued, enduring soreness, and waking up at very (!) early hours to mark off miles. What I didn’t realize—or even think—would be an obstacle was where to put my keys (and other necessities). Honestly, this rings true for all forms of outdoor fitness from long walks on the beach to long walks up a mountain (also known as hikes). Hear me out: I love studio fitness (and gyms!), so even though I was exercising every day before marathon training, I always had a locker to place my belongings. This outdoor workout thing is fairly new to me, and well, it’s new for my stuff, too (read: keys, AirPod cases, and credit card and cash.) My storage problem came to a head when—as a last resort and as a pure act of desperation to free my hands—I placed my keys in an armband specifically designed to simply hold my cell phone. Five miles and about 45 minutes later, I found myself locked out of my apartment because the keys had fallen out. I’d had enough, and so, I embarked on a personal scavenger hunt (not to find my lost keys of course—that could have taken years!). Instead of pouting, I opted for some new clothing items. The best workout gear with pockets come in
Adding trace minerals to drinking water is the latest ‘healthy’ fad you can skip
November 06, 2019 at 10:23PM by CWC Whether it’s collagen or chlorophyll, there’s always some new product on the shelves calling your name and begging to be added to your water—all with the tantalizing promise of making your hydration experience even healthier. The latest? Trace minerals, a clear, liquid supplement that is added in a few drops at a time to your water to disappear…well, without a trace. It seems like a good idea. We already know that certain minerals are important for keeping the body running properly, from ensuring you have enough energy to providing your immune system with the support it needs to ward off that nasty office cold. While your body only needs trace minerals in small amounts (hence why they’re called “trace” minerals), Whitney English, RDN, a dietitian and certified personal trainer in Los Angeles, says they’re crucial for health. “These include minerals like selenium, which is required for making antioxidant enzymes and important for thyroid health; chromium, which is involved in metabolism and insulin sensitivity; and manganese, which is required for normal bone development and wound healing,” she says. “Most trace minerals have a very small window of optimal intake, meaning too little can cause deficiency and too much can cause toxicity.” Trace minerals sound important—should I add them into my water and food? Some companies argue that trace minerals are being stripped out of our water and soil by conventional farming practices—necessitating that we add them back into our diets. But English wants to
That’s it, CBD has gone way, way too far
November 06, 2019 at 09:13PM by CWC What do lip gloss, leggings, and lube have in common? Besides the fact that they’re all fixings for a really good date night, you can now get each of these products laced with CBD—for softer lips, better workouts, and steamier sex, supposedly. And that’s just the tip of the $5 billion iceberg that is the CBD consumer products market in 2019. Cannabidiol—a compound found in hemp plants that’s credited with various health benefits—is now making cameos in massages, facials, skin-care products, shampoos, and cosmetics including mascara. You can buy it pre-mixed in (not-quite legal) sparkling water, cold brew coffee, and cookies for humans and dogs alike. Even big brands like Ben & Jerry’s are developing new products with CBD on the ingredient list. This is all happening in a CBD landscape that’s still completely unregulated, and the products currently hitting the scene vary wildly in terms of efficacy and purity. So as increasingly, um, “creative” applications for CBD roll out faster than research backing its benefits can possibly keep up, it’s got many in the industry wondering one thing: Has CBD finally gone too far? “Even though CBD is a real therapeutic agent, it’s also definitely a fad right now so we’re seeing it in a crazy array of products,” says Anna Symonds, director of education at craft cannabis and hemp farm East Fork Cultivars. “I’ve seen some gross-looking stuff—CBD burgers, CBD pizza, that kind of thing—that are clearly just attempts to get
Nike just built a shoe that cut injury rates in athletes by over 50 percent
November 06, 2019 at 07:06PM by CWC No matter what kind of runner you are—whether you’re clocking a casual three miles or a record-breaking two-hour marathon—nothing puts a damper on your daily grind like getting injured. You’re cruising through mile-number-whatever when all of a sudden you’ve got a shooting pain in your knee, and the endorphin high you’ve been working toward comes crashing down. It sucks, full stop. For over 40 years, Nike has been studying why we get injured, and with the launch of the new React Infinity Run shoe, the brand is set to take the first step in helping combat this. In an external study, researchers at the British Columbia Sports Medicine Research Foundation found that 226 half marathon runners (who collectively logged 60,000 miles, NBD) cut injury rates by 52 percent while wearing this sneak as compared to another Nike motion control (read: stability) model. “There is kind of this fear of injury that’s plagued runners in our sport for a long time, and really been one that, ourselves included, haven’t really been able to find the right solution,” say Bret Holts, Nike’s VP of Running Footwear. Part of the reason why injuries are so hard to end forever is because every runner’s biomechanics are different, and while some injuries do come from the bottom-up, others are top-down problems, so to speak. While many shoes aim to help runners find more stability by packing the mid-sole of the shoe with foam that adds space between the
4 nonverbal ways to convey max confidence, according to a body language expert
November 06, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC There’s the radical thing I’ve been trying out recently called “looking people in the eye.” It’s not my natural inclination to look up from my iPhone and directly at a human being, but I’ve long known it’s a worthy endeavor to prioritize. It’s also an entry point to maximizing body language for confidence. I’ve weathered self-esteem issues for quite some time, and I’d now like to start exuding stronger energy. Enter: nonverbal communication. That’s where body language can help: Classic research by Albert Mehrabian, professor emeritus of psychology at UCLA, led to his communication model in which body language accounts for 55 percent of communication (vocal tone takes 38 percent and actual words spoken 7 percent). This means, in terms of conveying confidence, I need not worry so much about my voice getting lost in the crowd or introvert tendencies leading me to hide in a corner. So, whether you’re about to give a work presentation, have jitters about an upcoming date, or are preparing to mingle with your billionaire former classmates in a real-life Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion situation, it’s great to know what kind of body language for confidence is best to project. Below, body-language expert Patti Wood shares how to literally put your best, most confident foot forward. 4 expert tips to use body language for confidence 1. Eliminate barriers between you and other people “Be awake and aware of the situations where you find yourself protecting yourself,
Tapping into the ocean’s power, “blue beauty” has become the gold standard in skin care
November 06, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC “The ocean is medicine,” says One Ocean Beauty founder and CEO Marcella Cacci. She’s right: Research has proven that being near the coast boosts your mood and calms you down by lowering your cortisol levels. But in addition to our body, mind, and soul a regular dose of vitamin sea is also great for our skin. Think about what it must take for one of the ocean’s two million organisms to thrive in such an extreme environment, where salt and harsh currents would seemingly make it impossible to survive. Not only are the plants found in the deep blue adaptable, but because they live in a mineral-rich waters, they’re also primed to be great for our mineral- and vitamin-loving skin. Cacci founded her brand on exactly that principle. She wanted to harness the powers of the great blue beyond and turn them into lotions and serums that will make complexions happy. And while some seriously powerful stuff can be plucked straight from the ocean, brands like One Ocean are finding ways to use technology to replicate their benefits in a more sustainable way. “We take a single cell or micro organism out of nature, and then we regrow it in the lab through biotechnology, so it’s completely sustainable production,” says Cacci of the process, adding that the brand sources algae from all over the world, including France, Japan, and Antartica. Luxury skin-care brand Algenist has also developed a more eco-friendly take on marine
Everyone is trying to make you feel ashamed of your vagina—so here’s a much-needed reality check
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
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