February 19, 2020 at 05:00PM by CWC If you’ve ever been to Italy, you understand how beautiful it is—it’s verdant, markets are filled with fresh fruit (like lemon, the country’s staple), and rich scents of rosemary and tomatoes waft through the air. Given that Italy plays host to such varied, fresh ingredients, it’s no wonder that the country’s skin care reaps the benefits. Italian elixirs, serums, and creams are packed with vitamins and good-for-skin oils that are a direct product of the rolling Italian countryside. “In Italy, we’re all about using high-quality ingredients, eating the right things, and putting good oils and fats on skin,” says Irene Forte, a native Italian and founder of her eponymous skin-care line. “We’re not about quick fixes [in beauty], but about a relaxed way of life with balance.” Italian skin care takes a minimalistic approach—it’s more about using fewer, nourishing products than a 10-step routine. “The few [beauty products] we use are packed with super botanical ingredients,” says Italian beauty pro Gabriel Balestra, founder and president of Skin&Co Roma. “Beauty for Italians is a ritual of wellness that starts every morning when we wake up by choosing the nutrients we put in and on our bodies.” “In Italy, we’re all about using high-quality ingredients, eating the right things, and putting good oils and fats on skin.” —Irene Forte A lot of these ingredients happen to be the same ones that make up the Mediterranean diet, like healthy fats and oils. “The ethos of my
Tag: Well+Good
I haven’t worn pants all winter, thanks to these under-$100 faux leather leggings
February 19, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC Putting on real pants is never a particularly appealing task, but during the hibernation that takes place from January to March, it often feels downright impossible. Thankfully, it’s become socially acceptable to wear athleisure almost everywhere, but there are still a handful of instances that—sighhh—call for a button and a zipper. Except… maybe not. Because, I found a pair of faux-leather leggings that are as at home in my everyday leggings rotation as they are for nights spent out with friends. Commando Faux Leather Leggings ($98) are damn near the most comfortable thing I’ve ever put on my body, and yet, they also look like legit leather pants. They fit like a regular high-wasted legging, so they can be a little hard to get into, but as the website declares, they’re “worth the wiggle.” Once on, they don’t stretch out and sag, which means that laundry days can come as few and far between as you want them to. However, unlike real leather pants, which can be a serious headache to wash, you just toss these in the load with your other Spandex. If you’re ready to procure a pair for yourself, you have choices ahead of you: These cruelty-free leggings come in navy, black, and white, as well as four different shades of faux patent leather, and four different animal prints. I’m the proud owner of a black patent leather pair and haven’t wanted to take them off since I got them.
The key to enjoying a plant-based diet is embracing food inclusion, not restriction
February 19, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC Back in the late 2000s—way before everyone was obsessed with oat milk and Beyond burgers—a facialist recommended that I cut back on my dairy and meat consumption for the sake of my skin. At the time, I felt like she was sentencing me to foodie prison. How could life be worth living without mac and cheese? Wouldn’t I wither away on a diet of sad, chicken-less salads? Still, I slowly (!) started phasing out animal products and have been happily vegan for about two months now. In the decade since I first bid adieu to Brie, I’ve come to realize that plant-based meals are far from restrictive—in fact, I’m eating a wider variety of foods than ever before. (And not just because there are now vegan dupes for just about every animal product imaginable.) Think about it: In the average grocery store, the produce section is a lot bigger and more diverse than the deli counter. “There are hundreds of different varieties of fruits and veggies and things that we often skip over at the store,” says Catherine Perez, MS, RD. She says that many of her clients fill up on the same handful of animal proteins over and over—chicken, beef, and pork on repeat, for instance—whereas there are dozens of readily-available, affordable plant-based proteins to experiment with, from tofu and beans to lentils, seitan, tempeh, and beyond. “You can make your meals different every single night if you want to,” she says.
3 self-love tips for accepting who you are right now—not who you wish you could be
February 19, 2020 at 03:00PM by CWC The critical mass of messaging about self-love that’s circulating right now has conditioned a number of us to believe that it’s a state of being waiting to be achieved. That, maybe, if we just try really hard and do the right workout and commit to a daily meditation and eat well and force ourselves to love the parts of our body we sometimes wish were different, we’ll arrive at the destination of self-love. And once we get there, we’ll finally be happy and feel at ease with who we really are. While I am absolutely a proponent of committing to any practice or ritual that facilitates feeling good and thriving, I can’t help but remain skeptical of an approach that’s so…intentional. Might we be missing key component of the entire concept when we believe tips for self-love are lead us to a concluding point of something to be gained or earned rather than remembered or practiced? And, furthermore, is there a danger to only recognizing the presence of self-love through the lens of joy and bliss? I, myself, have struggled with these questions over the years. I’ve also experimented a lot—testing all kinds of tips for self-love to see which strategies cultivate authentic compassion for my authentic identity, not my aspirational one. The strategies that have ultimately been the most effective and have invited the most ease and steadiness into my life are also the strategies I consider to be the least intuitive.
The mistake of assuming mindfulness is for other people
February 19, 2020 at 02:00PM by CWC It’s Monday morning and I’m sitting at my work desk. In my inbox, dozens of emails await and I have a slew of meetings crammed into an already jam-packed day. I feel my body start to tighten, succumbing to the stress, so I close my eyes. I inhale for six seconds, hold my breath for a count of two, and exhale loudly. I remind myself that I’ve got this, one breath at a time. The truth is I wasn’t always this way. I used to think that mindfulness, the practice of being fully engaged in the present moment with no judgment, was for other people. Specifically, it was for white people, and definitely not for me, a Black woman. It was an elusive concept like “finding yourself”; it was for the privileged few who could have a quarter-life crisis (and knew what that meant). It was for the people who could afford to believe in the storybook endings where you get the guy, the job, and the affordable dream house. I used to think that mindfulness, the practice of being fully engaged in the present moment with no judgment, was for other people. Specifically, it was for white people, and definitely not for me, a Black woman. Despite growing up in the predominantly white city of Seattle, I had very little exposure to mindfulness. When I was in high school, I attended special weekend retreats for “inner-city” brown girls to learn about social
Why it’s so easy to feel jealous of other families, even into adulthood
February 19, 2020 at 01:00PM by CWC Growing up, I couldn’t understand why my mother held me to what felt like a zillion rules and regulations, and I desperately wanted her to be more like my friends’ parents. I remember feeling jealous of a friend whose parents let us eat chocolate after school and watch whatever we wanted on TV and then, in later years, were okay with boyfriend sleepovers and distinctly illegal activities because they’d “rather it at least be in the house.” You know, cool parents—not regular parents. As I got older, I grew to appreciate that my mom’s rules were really for my benefit and she held me to them because she wants the best for me. (Not that the cool parents didn’t want the best for their cool kids, just that, you know, there’s more than one right way to do something). But still—even knowing this, and even though I’m an adult—my feelings of family jealousy sometimes still act up. For instance, my mom isn’t always the most helpful source of comfort to me as I navigate mental-health struggles—and this isn’t the case for one of my friends, who shares every aspect her depression symptoms with her mom. While I don’t deny that my emotional journey is valid, envying other people’s familial relationships is uncomfortable, largely because it’s distinctly teenage seeming. Whenever I have a bout of it, I feel as though I might as well shake my fists above my head and scream “but it’s
Here’s what a healthy chef puts in his 5-minute anti-inflammatory salad dressing
February 19, 2020 at 10:00AM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTUeyLGyjkk] Hot take: Salad dressing is the differentiator between a homemade salad that tastes like you paid $20 for it, or a bland bowl of greens you’re ready to toss in the trash after a few bites. But if you’ve been nervous to try your hand at homemade dressings (PSA, the store-bought stuff can often contain lots of preservatives and gums), it’s really not as hard as it might seem. On our latest episode of Cook With Us, senior food and health editor Jessie Van Amburg challenged Sam Kass—cookbook author and former White House chef to the Obamas—to whip up an anti-inflammatory meal in less than 30 minutes, and the star of the show was his five-minute turmeric salad dressing. Why all the hype over a salad dressing that doubles as an inflammation fighter? Because Kass believes that food is the foundation of our health. The dressing is made using just six ingredients—olive oil, lemon juice, turmeric, mustard, ginger, and garlic—and can be used on a variety of dishes, which Kass illustrated by sharing not one, but two salad recipes that are veggie-packed conduits for slurping up the golden topping. Why all the hype over a salad dressing that doubles as an inflammation fighter? Because Kass believes that food is the foundation of our health. “The best medicine we have is the nourishment we get through the foods we eat,” Kass says. “Inflammation is one of these things that is a root
5 dietitian-approved tips for using Trader Joe’s ‘Everything But The Elote’ seasoning
February 19, 2020 at 03:00AM by CWC There’s a new spice in the aisle at Trader Joe’s, and its name is Everything But The Elote. Like the idea behind Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel seasoning before it, the goal was bottling the mouth-watering flavor of a beloved staple. This time, that was elote (aka grilled corn on the cob sold by street vendors throughout Mexico and the United States). And TJ’s has succeeded once again. The second the $2.49 bottle hit the spice section at TJ’s, the masses went wild. To capture the flavor of the delicacy—which is typically coated in crema, cheese, chili powder, and lime juice—the company used a blend that lights off those same dopamine receptors. Essentially, like the name suggests, it has you covered on everything but the corn. “It contains spices like chile pepper, chipotle, cilantro, and cumin that add a nice kick for relatively few calories when combined with the sea salt, corn flour, Parmesan, and other ingredients,” says Amy Gorin, RDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist in the New York City area. “I don’t love that the first ingredient is sugar. But ideally, you’re only using a little bit of this—a serving is ¼ teaspoon—so using the seasoning wouldn’t add too much added sugar to your day.” While this stuff is great on corn (duh!), there are also so many other ways you can use it to create healthy meals at home, too. View this post on Instagram : “Elote-Jalapeño Cornbread
Ever wonder what to do before getting a tattoo? We asked the pros for you
February 19, 2020 at 02:00AM by CWC I walked in to get my first tattoo with five of my best friends, a grainy photo of an infinity sign from Pinterest, and zero idea what I was in for. Spoiler alert: That wasn’t the right way to play it. Knowing what to do before getting a tattoo is as important as knowing what to do after you get one. After all, you want to make sure that you won’t wind up with permanent body art that you’re going to regret five years (or five minutes!) after the ink has dried. While the Internet is chock full of knowledge about what to do before getting a tattoo, it can admittedly be hard to wade through all of that intel. To make things easier, we went straight to the pros, and asked celebrity tattoo artist Winter Stone (who’s responsible for inking some of your favorite celebs, like Mandy Moore and Lady Gaga) as well as tattoo removal specialist and owner of the Finery, Carmen Brodie, to share the inside scoop. Read on for what they wish every client knew before going in to get inked. Think it through While it might be tempting to get, “I HATE JASON” tattooed on your arm immediately after a breakup or “RIP, Spot” on your leg after your dog dies, Brodie urges you not to do it. Instead, she suggests giving yourself some time between any major life event and getting ink to commemorate it. “You want
How my endometriosis diagnosis taught me the importance of respecting my own limits
February 19, 2020 at 01:00AM by CWC My mother and my grandmother were my first introduction to superheroes. They overcame various adversities as African American women migrating from the South to NYC for a better life. They always taught me when I encounter moments which seem impossible, I can overcome them with resilience and strength. Their strength was always an example to me throughout my life. But when I was diagnosed with endometriosis—a chronic condition where the tissues that lines the uterus grows in other parts of the body—at age 27, the strength that I’d relied on my whole life suddenly didn’t feel so tangible. Endometriosis can cause severe pain, making it sometimes unbearable to move, or even do normal daily functions like making dinner or going to work. It explained a lot of the frustrating, painful experiences I had been dealing with since I first started my menstrual cycle at age 9. (Yes, you read that right—nine years old!) I would have to leave class to go to the bathroom quite often in fear that my heavy bleeding would mess up my clothes. I suffered from terrible cramps, was nauseous all the time, and experienced excruciating leg pain at any given moment. These symptoms could happen separately or simultaneously. Having endometriosis has definitely taught me a valuable lesson: I am stronger than I ever thought I could be. After years of struggling with these symptoms, you’d think that a diagnosis would be a relief. But knowing what was wrong