October 16, 2019 at 07:00PM by CWC About a month ago, while in Thailand with Airbnb Animal Experiences, I walked into a massage parlor. I had no idea what a Thai massage entails, and was solely focused on getting my muscles some TLC after hiking. Quickly I learned that Thai massages are pretty freaking intimate, not at all what I was expecting, and also—most importantly—fantastic for the body and mind to experience. It’s also not offered exclusively in Thailand. “Thai massage is a kind of dance with gentle stretches and movements that are continuously being engaged in between the muscle-tension release and activation of acupressure points along the Sip Sen lines,” says Thai massage practitioner Leslie Lyons, founder of One Mi Body in New York City. Below, learn about what, exactly, the Sip Sen are, along with all the other facets of how traditional Thai massage works and what to expect from your first session. With Thai massage, muscle tension is drawn from you “Most people who have ever had massage of any kind will be familiar with muscle-tension release,” says Lyons, who worked with doctors at Chiang Mai University for nearly four decades using massage as physical therapy. “This is laying on the muscles with pressure and then releasing or sometimes using body oil with a sliding technique.” With a Thai massage, though, there is no sliding along the body, save for some parts of the neck or feet. “The technique is a rhythmic flow of laying on the
Tag: Well+Good
I started each morning dancing like I was in the club—and it was beyond freeing
October 16, 2019 at 06:00PM by CWC In 2008, my 11th grade boyfriend turned to me in the middle of a high school dance and told me I was a terrible dancer. It was an off-handed comment that stopped me in my booty-shaking tracks, and has stuck with me ever since. It’s been in the back of my mind at every wedding, party, and nightclub that I’ve been to since, and has made me wildly self-conscious for over a decade—despite the fact that I really, really love to dance. Earlier this year, I actually signed up for a dance squad in the hopes of finally becoming a “good dancer,” but had a full-on panic attack on my way to the first rehearsal and quit without ever showing up. After that whole disaster (which left me $200 poorer for no good reason), I decided it was time to take extreme measures, and signed myself up to take 20 dance cardio classes in 30 days at New York City’s 305 Fitness. The workout is described as a “cardio dance party,” and I committed to doing it five mornings a week to see if it would make me a better dancer. Of course, this paled in comparison to our What the Wellness star Ella Dove, who managed to squeeze in three dance cardio classes in a single day: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYRG0gUGOvc] Club-inspired workouts, like 305, have become increasingly common in the last few years. There are at least five cardio dance studios within a
What a ‘healthy plate’ looks like in 6 different countries
October 16, 2019 at 03:30PM by CWC Welcome to Passport Nutrition. We’re mapping the flavors of the world one country at a time by speaking with people who wrap their careers around cuisine as well as those who simply savor an hour spent in the kitchen after work. You’ll find that a “healthy plate” isn’t one size—or country—fits all. Looking for some inspiration to switch up your avocado toast, or just curious how other people eat elsewhere in the world? Ordinary people living in all corners of the globe have different yet sometimes strikingly similar ideas of what an extraordinarily well-rounded diet looks like. From veggie stews and raw fish to vegan lattés and gluten-free pancakes, here’s what international food looks like for six people in Japan, France, India, Martinique, Ghana, and Canada call a “healthy” meal. All Graphics: Well+Good Creative India “For me, healthy eating is focusing on the foods that are closely attached to your roots and eating traditional, ancestral recipes,” says Shikha Tibarewala, a nutritionist, recipe curator, and diabetic educator in Mumbai. She notes the importance of fueling your body with complete and balanced meals, which means not obsessing over any one nutrient. A typical dinner includes millet flatbread, vegetables with cottage cheese, and Indian curry made with beans and vegetables. The pictured meal features black chana masala (curry made with black chickpeas), Dal chawal (spiced Indian lentils and rice), and kadhi (yogurt-based curry served with rice), paired with sliced cucumbers and millet flatbread, served alongside a
8 products your bathroom needs so you can have seriously great shower sex
October 16, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC The general consensus that shower sex isn’t good sex hurts my soul, because when done correctly, it’s so fun. The problem is few people are familiar with how to have shower sex in a way that lets them reap the steamy benefits of it. It’s about time we fix that. To be clear, though I’m clearly a fan of shower sex, I do understand why so many aren’t. Despite how effortless the act often looks in pop-culture references (i.e., making out and lathering each other up, giggling, and having all feet firmly planted on the tub floor), such is rarely the case in real life. “People may be against shower sex because it’s really hard, especially if what you’re going for is intercourse,” says Gigi Engle, certified sex coach, sexologist, and author of All The F*cking Mistakes: A Guide To Sex, Love, and Life. “You usually have to do it standing up, there’s very little lubrication, [and] it’s dangerous.” But that doesn’t mean we’re not continually trying to make it work. Because let’s face it: Showering with a partner is super hot. “You’re both wet, you’re slippery and soapy, the water is warm and inviting, not to mention, you’re naked,” Engle says. “People have never failed to have interest in it.” Unfortunately though, many simply haven’t optimized the experience, and the solution there is twofold: 1. Rethink the goal of the experience, and 2. Make sure you have the necessary tools and accessories
Why dermatologists say “strong skin” is the one thing everyone should aim for
October 16, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC You can use a lot of fluffy, abstract terms to describe your ideal complexion. For instance: I would like my skin to look as glowy as an alien’s (IDK what glowy actually means, but I want it). I also prefer my complexion to be happy and calm, not irritable (my mood is enough for that). One pillar of good skin that could actually use more fleshing out in hopes of achieving it? Strong skin. Yet most people slather on products to solve problems, like brightening dark spots or squelching breakouts. Strong skin, though, should be the baseline that you’re aiming for to have a healthy complexion. “Everybody wants strong skin,” says Ashish Bhatia, MD, FAAD, dermatologist and associate professor of clinical dermatology at Northwestern University. “It’s not just that your skin looks good, but that it functions the way it should.” It’s a lot like having a strong skin barrier—another important aspect of good skin—but overall skin strength is more than that. “The barrier is one of the components of it, but the skin has two main layers,” says Dr. Bhatia, who points out that there’s the skin barrier, which acts as your first defense from outer elements and keeps moisture in, but also the layer with your hair follicles, sweat glands, and oil glands. “These need to function well, or else you’ll have issues like acne,” he says. Holistic facialist Tammy Fender thinks of “strong” skin as having “enhanced immunity,” meaning it’s protected
These are the 4 golden rules for fighting inflammation, according to doctors
October 16, 2019 at 12:00PM by CWC Keeping chronic inflammation far, far away is pretty much everyone’s top wellness goal. While low-levels of short-term inflammation can actually benefit the body and protect it from infection, prolonged inflammation can lead to a whole slew of health problems, ranging from the frustrating (acne!) to the more serious (like chronic disease and autoimmune disorders). Inflammation is complex, and chronic inflammation can be caused (or exacerbated) by a variety of factors, from diet to stress levels and other lifestyle factors. So what can the average person do about it? Functional medicine expert and The Inflammation Spectrum author Will Cole, DC and physician and How Not To Die author Michael Greger, MD, share their best inflammation-fighting tips that they wish *everyone* would follow. Keep reading for their advice. 1. Try an anti-inflammatory diet While you may have to make some dietary tweaks depending on what does and doesn’t work for your body, Dr. Greger says following an anti-inflammatory diet (read: limited on potentially inflammatory ingredients like wheat, dairy, and sugar)is a great place to start if you have no idea how to eat. “This eating plan was developed by researchers who did thousands of experiments where they fed people a wide variety of foods and measured their markers of inflammation,” Dr. Greger says. What does putting this diet into practice look like? It means filling up primarily on leafy greens, healthy fats, and produce high in antioxidants, and avoiding processed foods. 2. Fill up on
How to marry strength training and yoga so you can be stretchy-strong
October 16, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC Stretching and strength training are like the sister-and-law and grandpa you don’t want sitting together at family gatherings. That is, you love them… but separately. Not every school of fitness thought thinks the two modalities should be separated, however. Anabolic stretching, a fairly new way to train your muscles, asserts that you can get strong and stretched at one fell swoop. Peter Tzemis, trainer and founder of TzemisFitness, says that anabolic stretching essentially “bulletproofs your body” by replacing static stretching with a more active alternative. Simply add a minimal weight to any strength training or stretching posture and the benefits change entirely. “The key thing is that you’re not really ‘stretching’ the way you do with most static stretching. You’re resisting the load in the stretched position,” he says. For example, imagine you’re grabbing two (light!) dumbbells and lying down on a bench for a set of dumbbell flies. Only, rather than repeating a certain number of reps, extend the weight to either side of your body and hold them there until exhaustion. Two things will happen at once: your muscles will activate and you’ll feel a stretch as a result of the pull of the muscle. Or, complete a deadlift variation and feel the stretch and burn in your arms and hamstrings simultaneously. The modality makes your workout a twofer. Phil Timmons, a program manager at Blink Fitness, says that anabolic stretching falls under the umbrella of “isometric concentration”—or exercise that involves static holds.
Experts unpack all the difficult decisions breast cancer survivors must make when getting reconstructive surgery
October 16, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC When Paige More had a preventative double mastectomy at 24, the main thing on her mind was survival. She’d recently discovered that she had the BRCA1 gene mutation, which meant she faced an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer—a disease that had taken several of her close family members. Put simply, she was terrified. So when the time came to meet with a plastic surgeon and talk breast reconstruction, her emotions were running so high that there were a lot of questions she didn’t even think to ask. “I went into my surgeon and they said, ‘This is what we’re going to do.’ They presented it to me like it was my only option,” says More, a women’s health activist and co-founder of breast cancer support community The Breasties. She ended up having breast implants placed below her chest muscles—a common procedure for post-mastectomy patients—but wasn’t aware of how much physical discomfort they would end up causing her, especially during workouts. “I went into it thinking I would have perfect foobs [Breastie shorthand for “fake boobs”], and that’s just not the case,” she says. “I still have a lot of moments where it’s painful to move a certain way, and I can’t do certain workouts because my implants are too far apart.” To be fair, research shows that disappointment over breast reconstruction is rare—most women under 60 who have undergone the process are just as satisfied with their breasts post-reconstruction as they
There are 3 stages of a relationship—and 1 where most couples get stuck
October 16, 2019 at 01:00AM by CWC It’s easy to forget that there are stages of a relationship until the moment you trip and fall face-first out of the honeymoon phase. You know the feeling, right? For some amount of time, no one and nothing can touch your love, because your romance is a beautiful, sparkling, Baz Luhrmann jukebox musical. Then you see your partner’s bedroom and learn they still have a twin-size bed, or something equally appalling. All of a sudden, you realize, “Oh, wait, everyone dies in those Luhrmann movies.” Out of the honeymoon phase you go immediately, and into something quite a bit trickier. To quote one of those doomed Lurhmann flicks, love is a many splendored thing. And one of the key elements to finding, experiencing, and—most importantly—keeping love is navigating the hard stuff with empathy, communication, and patience. Understanding the three major stages a relationship is also helpful so all parties involved can have a sense of what to expect and anticipate, good and bad. Below, get expert tips for surviving and thriving in all stages of a relationship. Stage 1: Infatuation and the honeymoon period Are cartoon hearts floating above your heads? Fireworks exploding outside your bedroom? You’ve made it three or four dates with the same person, so what else could this be other than true love? Or, at least, true lust? During this phase, hormones like norepinephrine and dopamine (yes, the intoxicating happiness-churning dopamine) surge through you. You’re ecstatic, excited, and aroused. During
Trader Joe’s Dukkah is the healthy spice that’s even better than Everything Bagel seasoning
October 16, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC To say people are passionate about Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel seasoning is an understatement. The blend—black and white sesame seeds, sea salt flakes, poppy seeds, and minced garlic—is a cult favorite for a reason. In the flick of a wrist, it transforms a bland dish into something flavorful. Eggs, fish, chicken, even waffles…the possibilities are endless. What could be better? Dukkah, according to Trader Joe’s VP of marketing Matt Sloan. On the latest episode of his podcast, Inside Trader Joe’s, Sloan goes so far as to say it’s even better than Everything But The Bagel seasoning. Bold words, my friend. Bold words. “I think dukkah is a better product,” he says. “I think dukkah is more versatile, less salty, and has far more interesting flavors.” If you’ve never heard of dukkah, it’s a blend—similar to the Everything seasoning—made of nuts and spices, typically sesame seeds, coriander, curcumin, salt, and pepper. The inclusion of the curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric) mean that this spice blend contains anti-inflammatory properties. How to use Trader Joe’s dukkah 1. Cooked with Green beans “[With] just simple preparation, green beans tossed with the dukkah, is just a whole new version of kind of boring green beans that are delicious,” says Sloan. 2. Blended with olive oil If you’re looking for a Mediterranean diet-approved snack using dukkah, simply blend it with olive oil and use it for dipping with a crusty bread. Sometimes the best uses really