September 16, 2019 at 07:22PM by CWC An armor-clad rescuer fighting off fire-breathing beasts in an effort to save the princess trapped at the top of tower might be the tropiest of all tropes. Outside the realm of fairy tales, there’s a fine line between being supportive and stepping in to solve someone else’s problems, says psychotherapist Sarah Jane Crosby, MA. Before taking action to help a friend in crisis, consider whether your intended action is slipping into white knight territory. After all, it’s the 21st century and we’re all perfectly capable of slaying our own dragons (with our friends cheering us on from the sidelines). “We rescue by taking on the responsibilities of another,” writes Crosby in an Instagram post. “Supporting involves actively listening to someone, without betraying ourselves or our boundaries.” While the urge to help others is in itself human and empathetic, it often comes at the expense of sweeping our own feelings aside. “We attempt to rescue someone from feeling distressed when we provide solutions without being asked, or tell them what we think they ‘should’ do. Support asks what is needed and doesn’t say, ‘I told you so’,” explains the psychotherapist. View this post on Instagram T H E R E S C U E R [p a r t 3] [art/words: @themindgeek] —— In this series, we’ve been looking at the role of the Rescuer; signs we may play this part in relationships + reasons we do so. But how can
Tag: Well+Good
8 foods to avoid that cause constipation—because the struggle is real
September 16, 2019 at 06:51PM by CWC I might regret asking for too much information, but when’s the last time you pooped? If it was earlier today—or, be honest, right now as you’re reading this—congratulations. But if it’s been a minute since you’ve had an Instagram scrolling sesh in the bathroom, there’s a good chance you might be dealing with a case of constipation. A lot of people—one in five, to be more precise—are constipated. Particularly women. And even if you’re having a bowel movement every day, experts still say you could be constipated. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, all you need is one of the following symptoms: fewer than three bowel movements per week, straining to start or complete a bowel movement, having a stool consistency that looks like rocks and pebbles, and/or having a feeling of incomplete emptying. If you think you might be constipated, there are plenty of possible explanations behind it, from a lack of exercise and water to too much stress. But your diet is one of the biggest. Here are eight foods that could be part of the problem. You might want to avoid these foods that cause constipation 1. dairy Milk Drinking a lot of water can help with constipation, but milk only halts your progress. According to the Cleveland Clinic, it can cause constipation in some people because it’s harder to digest. In fact, an older, smaller study of chronically constipated participants found after up to 15 days of not having a
Real talk: Taking a break from working out can do wonders for your body
September 16, 2019 at 06:30PM by CWC In my mind, a workout break is essentially a rest day. It’s those 24 hours when I luxuriate on the couch as my muscles recover, and it’s typically never more than three days before I’m HIIT-ing the gym once more. However, recently, a few days out of the gym melted into a week, which then extended another, and then another. It made me wonder if I was going too hard…at resting. In reality though, it’s just what my body —and my mind—needed. We know the importance of proper rest and recovery in a healthy fitness routine, sure—but an actual, lengthy break from regular workouts does more than just allow your muscles to repair themselves. “The human body is a totally adaptable machine, but it needs time to heal,” says Cat Kom, founder and head trainer of Studio Sweat onDemand. “Cranking it up to the red zone and going full bar every day, all year-round is simply unhealthy and you can really hurt yourself. Having good rest periods in your routine is key to your overall health, healing, and progress.” If you’re a fitness devotee like me, Kom points out that while a proper break—a true week or more off of working out—may feel like you’re somehow slacking or failing yourself, it’s actually necessary to properly meet your goals. “Giving your body a rest is essential so that you can exert yourself at a higher level, which you can’t actually do if you’re just continually
Being an awesome S.O. to someone with ADHD doesn’t mean ignoring your needs
September 16, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC Every relationship comes with a unique set of challenges. (What, you thought romance was easy?) Add a mental health condition into the mix, and things can feel a lot more complicated. If you’re married to or dating someone with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, which can present in different ways and is the clinical term for what’s often called ADD) you may find that you feel ignored, neglected, and frustrated, Erin Nicole McGinnis, LMFT, says. (In addition to being a psychotherapist, McGinnis has ADD and has been in relationships with people with ADD—which is all to say, she is uniquely qualified to speak on this topic.) “People with [ADHD] can be very attentive one minute, and then not follow through the next. The partner can often feel like they aren’t cared about, filling in the blanks and making assumptions that aren’t true,” McGinnis says. ADHD—which, according to Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), affects an estimated 10 million adults—can manifest as hyperactivity or inattentiveness, McGinnis says. If the person with ADHD is hyperactive, it often shows as fidgeting, impulsiveness, and talkativeness. If they’re inattentive, it looks like daydreaming and spacing out, McGinnis says. “Both [presentations] have an inability to stay on task. They have a problem starting a task and finishing it. They also have a problem staying focused…[and] lose things frequently, which can make it very frustrating for their partners.” She explains that to have a functional relationship, you need to be able to complete
10 myths about fertility that experts want you to stop believing
September 16, 2019 at 03:00PM by CWC Fertility is such a complicated topic (and simultaneously so fraught with emotions) that it’s a breeding ground for myths. Some people want to be pregnant so badly that they’ll do anything to achieve it, whether it’s listening to old wives’ tales about what to eat to ensure a certain sex or Googling their questions for hours on end to get answers from increasingly sketchy blogs. It doesn’t help that actual facts about fertility were pretty hard to find in high school health class. As you can imagine, fertility experts spend a great deal of time correcting false beliefs. We talked to several to learn the most common fertility myths that they want people to stop believing, ASAP: 1. Myth: Birth control pills can either protect or harm fertility Bat-Sheva Lerner Maslow, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist at Extend Fertility, says she sees first-hand a lot of misinformation around birth control and its potential impact on fertility. “Some women feel that birth control must protect their fertility by ‘saving’ their eggs from ovulation. Others worry that pills harm their fertility, especially if they’ve been on them for a long time,” she says. In reality, neither are true. “Once a woman goes off of birth control pills, she is no more or less likely to get pregnant than she would be if she had never been on the pills in the first place,” Dr. Lerner Maslow says. 2. Myth: Irregular cycles are a sign of infertility
We tried 21 days of at-home workouts—here’s how it changed our outlook on fitness
September 16, 2019 at 02:59PM by CWC At-home workouts are pretty ideal for people with busy schedules (so, pretty much every human). You roll out of bed, throw on your activewear, and get straight to sweating. The problem? Finding the motivation to actually power through at your maximum potential. It’s easy to slack off when it’s just you looking down at your sneakers, willing yourself to bust out one more rep, versus having a professional trainer cheering you on IRL. Enter LES MILLS On Demand—the all-in-one fitness platform that features over 800 workouts from HIIT to yoga to dance—that’s essentially an entire boutique fitness studio in your phone. Our editors’ question: Would the at-home format really be as motivational as the studio classes they’re used to? To find out, two editors signed up for the Back To You 21-day challenge, which was created to help people “bring the focus back to their own health after the summer break,” explains Dr. Jinger Gottschall, a former triathlete who works with the head of research at Les Mills to test exercise programming. Because lets be honest, packing your sneakers on vacation takes up valuable real estate in your carryon. Les Mills proposed two workout plans for the challenge: Level 1.0 (for the wellness curious, designed to ease your body back into exercise with fun, short workouts) and Level 2.0 (for wellness fanatics who are ready for an amped-up challenge). Since no workout is complete without the right outfit (duh), our editors sported the
5 exercises a physical therapist wants you to do every day to prevent stiffness as you age
September 16, 2019 at 02:01PM by CWC If you’re already feeling a little stiff, just wait—this is just the beginning. As you age, your joints only become stiffer, and usually that goes hand-in-hand with bodily aches and pains. And there’s typically one thing behind the problem: not being active enough. “Stiffness often occurs when we’re not exercising enough, so the best way to prevent stiffness is by being regularly active,” says Katie Sun Worrall, DPT, physical therapist at Zion Physical Therapy. “There’s a lot of research that shows how sedentary behavior—aka sitting at work all day and not exercising—can lead to a number of health problems: obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure, to name a few. Whether it’s walking, running, yoga, cycling, lifting weights, or another exercise of your choice, all of it is good for you and your health in the long run.” To help you fight off stiffness in the future, you’ve gotta start now. Here are Worrall’s top exercises to combat stiffness—particularly the kind that occurs in the spine, neck, and back, as they’re some of the most common complaints. A physical therapist’s top 5 exercises to fight stiffness as you age 1. Cat-cow Start on hands and knees in a neutral spine. Inhale, drop the belly, widen the collarbones, open the chest, and arch the spine. Make sure to keep the back of the neck long (often people crunch the back of the neck trying to look up in this posture). Then exhale, draw the belly in,
If employers can commit to these 10 culture goals, a burnout-free workplace is possible
September 16, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC “I’m so burned out,” is a phrase many of us have called upon to describe a state of being tired or stressed, but this year especially, the condition of burnout has been percolating in the public conscious as a condition to regard in measures more serious than colloquial. And in May, the World Health Organization‘s International Classification of Diseases sanctioned it as an “occupational phenomenon.” In other words, burnout at work is a serious issue of which we should all be aware. “Generally, burnout is described as emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness in the workplace, and chronic negative responses to stressful workplace conditions,” says Mary Ann Baynton, director of strategy and collaboration for Canadian advocacy platform Workplace Strategies for Mental Health. It’s not rare, either. A 2018 Gallup poll of 7,500 workers found that 23 percent reported frequent burnout at work and 44 percent reported occasional burnout, meaning nearly three quarters of employees surveyed had experience with the phenomenon. So, what we can we do about it? Richard Summers, MD, chair of the American Psychological Association’s Workgroup on Psychiatrist Wellbeing and Burnout, tells me that to really change, the intervention needs to happen on the organizational level, not the individual level. “Burnout is the problem that a well individual has with interacting in a stressful and complicated workplace, so the intervention has to be in the workplace.” Essentially, if the people you manage are burnt out, the onus might be (gulp) partially on you.
The 9-minute, at-home Pilates workout that targets every muscle of your core
September 16, 2019 at 12:01PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaQwt8_c6Sk] Welcome to Trainer of the Month Club, our brand-new fitness series, where we tap the coolest, most in-the-know fitness leaders to create a month-long fitness challenge. On Mondays, we have our “sweat drops,” where you’ll get access to the week’s workout that you can follow along at home. This week, Kimmy Kellum from East River Pilates is taking us through a Pilates workout focused on your core and glutes. As I browse fitness classes to take, these days, those that target “abs and ass” seem to be in excess. There’s just something so satisfying about working your glutes and core in one workout. So I’m thrilled to present this week’s Trainer of the Month Club workout from East River Pilates founder Kimmy Kellum—a Pilates sesh that’s going to work your booty and core all in one go. “This is an obliques and outer thighs workout, or, in other words: abs and ass,” says Kellum in this week’s video. All you’re going to need is a mini stability ball, or you can grab a blanket and roll it up. These props are simply to increase your range of motion for more of a challenge, since you’re balancing your torso on top of it the entire time (we’re working on balance, too!). In the course of nine minutes, you’re going to feel your obliques, your bum, your outer thighs, and your abdominal muscles burn—trust me. Let’s get to it, shall we? The Pilates core workout to
Want to get into investing? Here’s your beginner-friendly guide to deciding which route is best for you
September 16, 2019 at 04:30AM by CWC Meet Wellness Collective, our immersive curriculum with Athleta that hooks you up with actionable advice from the smartest experts and brand founders in wellness right now. Get the goods at our monthly event series in New York City plus our online one-month wellness plans. Here, Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, shares her insight on how to go deeper with your investing know-how. Real talk: Unless you have a degree in finance, listening to someone rattle off investment terms can sound like a foreign language. And a lot of you agree—when we asked you to share your most pressing investing questions, the response was overwhelmingly “can someone please translate for a beginner?” To break it down for you, we asked Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, to explain why women still feel a barrier to investing—and how to combat that. “Ellevest’s mission is, to put it simply, to get more money in the hands of more women,” explains Krawcheck. “The entire investing industry was built by men, for men. In fact, 86 percent of financial advisors are men. Is it any surprise that all this wasn’t working for women?” Nope. That’s why Krawcheck built a platform “that takes our real lives into account—things like the fact that women get paid less, on average. And that they take more career breaks in order to care for children or other family members. And on average, women tend to invest less of their money than men do.” Not down with those