December 16, 2019 at 04:30AM by CWC The first thing I did when I found out I was pregnant—after telling my husband, my mom, and my BFF who had predicted I was knocked up (accurately, it turns out)—was calculate the due date. The big day? December 25, 2019. Beyond hoping it didn’t happen exactly then—give the kid a chance at their own special day!—I didn’t think much about it as the months passed. And suddenly, I was in my third trimester. One benefit of pregnancy is you have a built-in reason to lean into JOMO (joy of missing out, for the uninitiated). If I’m too tired to make it to that holiday party, boom: I simply don’t have to go, no questions asked. It’s a beautiful, albeit Prosecco-free, thing. The one celebration I can’t skip, though? The one with my own family. And because I could be in labor on Christmas day, that means both sides are coming to me. But because the exhaustion and the swollen feet are real, I refuse to let hostess duties stress me out. Instead, I’m outsourcing the heavy lifting to these handy essentials, which, with one simple “add to cart” mean I don’t even have to waddle my way to the store. Pregnant? Not pregnant? Either way, these must-haves will save you from a hostess meltdown. Slip into your maternity (or non-maternity) leggings and cozy up: We’ve got shopping to do. Scroll down for the stress-free holiday hosting essentials you need—whether you’re in your
Tag: WFH
The hand and finger stretches you can do anywhere, anytime
November 28, 2019 at 09:00PM by CWC In the age of technology, you’re texting, scrolling, tapping at your mouse or touch pad, and typing on your keyboard all day—contorting your hands into weird positions. Whether or not you’re feeling the pain now, it could lead to worse problems down the road without a few hand and finger stretches. “Cell phones, tablets, laptops, desktops… all of the many devices at our literal fingertips are definitely predisposing young people to an increased risk for overuse or ‘repetitive strain’ injuries and future arthritis,” says Danielle Weis, PT, physical therapist and orthopedic clinical specialist at Spring Forward Physical Therapy. “To name a few: carpal tunnel syndrome, De Quervain’s tenosynovitis, trigger finger or trigger thumb, arthritic joints, and various other muscle strains and ligament sprains in the fingers, hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder.” It sounds scary, but it makes sense. “Just think about how many jobs require the use of a computer throughout the day. Add to that the many hours accumulated on cell phones and devices for personal use,” she says. “The amount of time spent with the hands and wrists in angled, arched, or curled positions create a perfect storm for pain and overuse injuries.” The good news is, despite putting your hands and fingers through so much every day, Dr. Weis says adding certain hand, finger, and forearm stretches into your daily routine can help prevent and fight off carpal tunnel and other overuse issues. “When you adopt certain postures and use
3 eye exercises an optometrist does to combat dryness
November 14, 2019 at 10:18PM by CWC Your eyes do a lot for you. And if you have a desk job that involves staring into the abyss of a computer screen, they deserve to be repaid for all their hard work. That’s where optometrist Weslie Hamada, OD, senior director of LensCrafters comes in with eye exercises to nurse your corneas back to health. “Thanks to our increasingly digital lifestyles, people are much more susceptible to digital eye strain than they once were,” says Dr. Hamada. “All this screen time can stress out the eyes and lead to eye fatigue. Constant digital stimulation or being on your computer for long periods can cause eye irritation, red eyes, and dry or excessively watery eyes.” We can’t just toss our laptops, phones (and wearables, and tablets) into the ocean and wipe our hands of the whole ordeal, but the eye doc says that there’s plenty we can do to look after the health of our eyes. Below, Dr. Hamada names four exercises to do in your spare time to ensure we can all keep squinting at Instagram for years and years to come. 3 eye exercises to keep dry eyes hydrated 1. Blink Oh. So you didn’t know that blinking was an eye exercise? Well, now you do. “Blinking cleans and moisturizes the surface of the eye. Insufficient blinking leads directly to eye fatigue, dryness, and eventually, to eye strain,” says Dr. Hamada. So wherever you are right now, bat those lashes. 2.
Training to be a spin instructor is harder than it looks—here’s what happened when a W+G staffer tried it out
November 07, 2019 at 04:30AM by CWC https://content.jwplatform.com/players/CA3NOnD3-AjgxWzQ7.js Have you ever looked up at the instructor during a spin class and thought, “I could do that. All they’re really doing is sharing motivational platitudes and telling you when to pedal faster, right?” Well+Good social media manager (and indoor cycling enthusiast) Amanda Gaines has had that thought a time or two while clipped into the bike, so we had her put the theory to the test—by stepping out of her comfort zone and taking a crash course in what it actually takes to become a cycling instructor. To do it, she traded her laptop for a mic and a headset to spend a day out of office under the tutelage of Jenna Arndt, director of instructor operations at SWERVE Fitness, who condensed an eight-week training program into one day. One piece of insider intel Gaines discovered? You get sweaty while you’re up there dancing on the bike, so making time to refuel—with snacks like Smartfood® Smart50, air-popped, 100 percent whole-grain popcorn at 50 calories per cup or less—is a total must. For the rest of the behind-the-scenes lessons she learned from instructor training, watch the full video above. But spoiler alert: it was a lot more challenging—and a lot more fun—than expected. “Let me tell you: It is not easy,” Gaines says. “There is so much to consider when you’re up here on the podium, whether it’s the music, cueing the sprints, and giving off good energy to your class.” Watch
The most common things we do each day that can throw our body alignment off
October 29, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC You take time to stretch before and after each workout, and you see your doctor regularly for check-ups. You pay attention to your posture and try to incorporate yoga to build your abdominal and back strength. Generally speaking, you feel healthy and properly aligned, but still, sometimes you have unexplained aches-and-pains. What’s up with that? If you ask Emily Kiberd, DC, founder of the Urban Wellness Clinic in New York City, the culprit could be seemingly innocent everyday activities that challenge your spine. According to her, the same way we develop positive habits, so too can our body also learns negative ones. “We are a blueprint of our actions, and most times what we do all day is not balanced,” she explains. “Imbalanced loading of certain muscles and joints can lead to repetitive strain and sprains. We become susceptible to new injuries, as well as increased likelihood of exacerbating existing issues.” So what could be to blame? These rituals that we’re all pretty much guilty of doing on the reg. Sitting all day You probably don’t need us to tell you that sitting pretty from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. is bad news for your back. But in case you haven’t gotten the memo, consider this: “Sitting is the new smoking!” exclaims Kiberd. In addition to the stress it puts on your muscles, it can also compromise your ability to inhale and exhale effectively, especially if you are slouching or hunching over your
Blue-light blocking glasses: Workday eye saver or wellness scam?
October 15, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC He may not have realized it, but my grandpa unintentionally lived his life like a wellness influencer before the concept ever existed. He started every morning by plunging into his frigid upstate New York swimming pool. (DIY cryotherapy!) He never turned down a Nutty Buddy ice cream cone, no matter the time of day or time of year. (Intuitive eating!) And I never saw him leave the house without his BluBlockers, the original blue-light-blocking glasses, long before anyone was asking, “Do blue-light glasses work, or are they just a scam?” To jog your ’90s infomercial memories, BluBlockers are aviator-style sunglasses with orange lenses that block out all UV rays and the blue wavelength of light. The guiding premise here is that filtering out blue light from your field of vision can make objects appear clearer because blue-light waves are shorter and more scattered than other visible light frequencies. Well, fast-forward a few decades, and a new iteration of these specs are trending again for a different reason: We’re surrounded by devices that emit blue light from their screens, which, according to some research and sources, can sabotage sleep, contribute to headaches, strain eyes, and promote fatigue with extended exposure. Now brands like Felix Gray, Quay, and Warby Parker offer more modern-looking frames optimized for screen time that are fitted with clear lenses you can wear without looking like a Bono wannabe. But, if you’re into that aesthetic, options from Blublox and TrueDark still
I’m a relationship therapist, and I follow 4 rules to keep my marriage healthy
September 19, 2019 at 06:04PM by CWC If you want to know how to have a healthy relationship, makes sense to ask people who seem to have them, right? Sure, but practicing what you preach is no small feat: We tell our friends to communicate openly with their partner but let our own resentment stew over time. We tell a coworker not to let wedding planning cause arguments at home but throw a hissy fit when our fiancé suggests salmon as a dinner option. We tell anyone with ears not to go back to their ex, but our 1 a.m. Instagram DMs tell a different story as to what we actually believe. But then again, not all of us are relationship therapists, right? Knowing how to have a healthy relationship is something many people claim to be able to do, but it may be most wise to put our faith in an expert. So, below, get four tips straight from the source, sex and relationship therapist Tammy Nelson, PhD, who shares the four specific rules by which she abides to keep her own marriage healthy. 1. Maintain an active sex life It’s easy to fall into a habit of passing out while watching The Crown in bed. After all, sustaining the same level of horniness common to the honeymoon phase is pretty tough. Still, keeping that connection (and excitement) alive means closing your laptop every once in a a while. “He and I both agree that when we are maintaining
How 2019 became the peak era of society’s infatuation with personality types
September 10, 2019 at 09:03PM by CWC These days, many dating profiles include the person’s Myers-Briggs type. And it’s tough to find any sort of publication that doesn’t cover astrology—though those pieces of content now have to compete hard with all the dedicated apps and platforms cropping up to serve the growing zodiac sect. Enneagram is also going more mainstream: 2019’s Millenneagram by Hannah Paasch speaks to a millennial audience that’s very interested in introspection, understanding why they do the things they do, and how that intel can inform where they fit in the world. I am among those millennials, and this cultural craze for tests and indicators that diagnose different personality types is indeed of high interest to me. Of course, personality tests themselves aren’t new and have had an audience for quite some time. “There has always been a lot of interest in quizzes that (purport) to tell us something deep about ourselves,” says Art Markman, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, Austin. Pre-internet, these quizzes appeared for the most part in monthly magazines and weekly newspapers, with horoscope offerings being available daily, depending on the publication. But the internet has changed the way we consume these systems in several ways. “First, online quizzes can give what seems to be more personalized scoring, because they don’t involve using a simple score sheet like they had in the magazines,” says Dr. Markman. “As a result, you only see the results applicable to you and not
This genius convertible tote is basically three bags for the price of one
September 08, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC I recently learned that I am a person who is perhaps prone to mistaking “instamacy” for intimacy. The key difference is that one is an instant, intense connection while the other is a connection that continues to develop over time. I’ve done this both in relationship-type situations, as well as with my wardrobe. (That initial rush after purchasing a new item you think will be life-changing is heavy, people.) I bring this up because the love affair I have with the Cuyana Convertible Satchel is definitely the latter. And as a person who has both owned and coveted many handbags in her lifetime, I feel qualified in saying that it is the perfect bag. At $425, it’s not exactly a steal, but believe it when I say that it is basically the only bag you’ll need for anything ever. It’s the J. Lo of handbags—a true multi-hyphenate. Going to work? Off to hide the body of your friend’s manipulative ex? This bag has got you covered. It nails the size-to-pockets ratio. You know what I’m talking about. Too few pockets, and there’s not enough space to store your lip butters and CVS receipts, so they end up lining the bottom of your bag like the world’s saddest “what’s inside your bag” segment. Too many pockets, and it’s like looking into Hermione’s bag with the undetectable charm, only without the magical ability to call forth exactly what you’re looking for. This bag serves an
WTF is trigger point therapy and how can it help your bod feel better?
September 03, 2019 at 11:33PM by CWC Even if you haven’t heard of “trigger points,” you probably still know what they is. Basically a fancy way of saying a muscle knot or kink, trigger point therapy refers to easing pain in an area on your body where you’re dealing with muscle spasms. Fortunately, there’s a simple way to alleviate that discomfort. Before you learn how to treat your trigger points, it’s important to know why they come about in the first place. And there’s one prime cause: repetitive activity. For adults who aren’t playing sports after school on a regular basis anymore, that mostly means being hunched over your laptop nearly every day, which causes your muscles to tense up. That’s where trigger point therapy comes in, which can safely get rid of those distracting aches and pains. Common trigger points are found in the neck and lower back. They feel like a small nodule that’s sensitive when you apply even gentle pressure. “There are many different techniques for trigger point therapy, including rubbing, massaging, and pressing, which help alleviate the symptoms,” says Roy Nissim, DC, a chiropractor at Active Therapy Center in Santa Monica, California. “Receiving trigger point therapy can help by alleviating pain, tension, and stress. This is because the tissue is able to glide more efficiently, and more blood flow is distributed to that tissue. The therapy can make you feel mentally and physically recharged.” While trigger point therapy sounds incredible, there’s one thing you should know