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
Tag: Well+Good
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
‘Blended meat’ products aim to reconcile our love of animal protein with a need to eat more plants
October 09, 2019 at 01:05PM by CWC There’s absolutely no denying the popularity of alternative meat products. (Looking at you, Impossible and Beyond lovers.) What is surprising is how popular they are with carnivores, who make up the vast majority of the people buying these foods. Yet despite growing interest in plant-based eating for health and environmental reasons, the reality remains that people continue to love and consume meat—in 2018, the USDA estimated that the average American would consume 222.2 pounds of red meat and poultry that year. This reality has laid the groundwork for the latest healthy food trend: blended meat products. A combination of meat and veggies, these products aim to appeal to healthy eaters who still eat meat and love the taste of it, but want to cut back—and up their veggie intake while they’re at it. It’s a new food category that startups like Misfit Foods (which announced their new line of blended chicken sausage earlier this month) and mega companies like Tyson and Perdue (who both launched blended products this year), are trying to target. But can they truly compete with the alt-meat products taking up more and more space on grocery store shelves? What sparked the trend Food companies—especially ones that operate at the massive scale that Perdue and Tyson do—don’t create a new food category without doing their research first. Which is why it’s not surprising that Eric Christianson, the chief marketing officer at Perdue Foods, says their Chicken Plus line—which combines chicken
Is it ever a good idea to go on a break in your relationship?
October 09, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC Ah, taking a break: It’s a tale as old as…well, at least the third season of Friends. But, does the strategy ever actually strengthen a relationship, or is it more so a tactic for delaying the inevitable (read: a full-blown breakup)? Short answer: It depends—and on a lot of different variables. For instance, how serious are you and your partner? And, is the reason for the break a clear and present problem? While teasing out these answers isn’t always the most straightforward of tasks, first understanding an expert’s definition of what a break is can help you ensure you’re never in Ross Geller’s boat of bemoaning, “But we were on a break!” to anyone with ears. “An effective and functional break involves an agreement with terms and conditions,” says relationship expert Susan Winter. “Both parties acknowledge that they’re still a couple and still exclusive, but have embarked upon doing the interior work needed to bring their relationship to a better place.” Below, Winter advises on when a taking break might just be a helpful—necessary, even—choice and also how to navigate actually going on one. When taking a break in a relationship can be productive If you two are serious and you’re facing a real, tangible problem, yes, a break can help. “Breaks are taken in an effort to correct a major flaw within the relationship,” Winter says, adding that without a major flaw, there’s not really a huge point to them. “There’s no
Leggings with pockets are the best thing since dresses with pockets
October 09, 2019 at 01:00AM by CWC By this point, you’re probably well aware of the amazingness that is dresses with pockets. Once it became a trend, women all around the world rejoiced for finally having a place to put their things. And now that the practical trend has expanded to leggings with pockets, going about your workouts hands-free is a breeze. Whether you’re heading to the gym, a class, or going on a run, rocking a pair of leggings with pockets enables you to have a safe place for your phone, keys, and credit card—basically everything you need. That means no more storing anything in your sports bra (we’ve all done it!) or putting your important possessions in a cubby… and hoping they’re still there once you return. If you want to give leggings with pockets a go, these nine options are both cute and functional. 9 pairs of leggings with pockets that’ll change your life 1. Lorna Jane All Day Booty Ankle Biter Tight, $120 It’s not just the cozy, supportive fabric that will make you fall in love with these ankle-length leggings. It’s the phone pocket, which gives you a place to store your cell while you’re getting your workout in. 2. 90 Degree By Reflex Power Flex Yoga Pants, $25 You won’t believe these high-waisted leggings are only $25. With nearly 8,000 reviews—and a 4.2 of 5-star rating!—they’re just as high-quality as what you can get from pricey boutique fitness brands. Aside from the comfortable material and