Month: December 2017

Have You Outgrown Your Food Allergies? There's A Test For That

Post author By Jennifer Purdie
Post date December 19, 2017

[People] should be hopeful, but they should not be in denial.

As a child, Allison Constantino of Winter Springs, Florida, experienced a shellfish allergy so significant it sent her to the emergency room.
The artist and nature lover described her childhood shellfish allergy as “HUGE.” As an adult, however, her allergy went away and never returned. She figures that as she aged, her immune system got stronger and kept the shellfish allergy at bay.

Sandra Hinchliffe, a writer and webmaster from northern California, tells a similar story. As a toddler, she endured her first anaphylaxis event—a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction—with eggs. As a child, she took allergy shots, but as she grew up, her allergies simply disappeared. But unlike Constantino, when Hinchliffe reached middle age, the allergies came roaring back, and she now follows her doctor’s strict orders to avoid egg and yeast. She carries EpiPens with her wherever she goes.

“[People] should be hopeful, but they should not be in denial. These allergies can and do return in some of us as our immune system ages,” she says.
Both of these women’s experiences are not unique, but they showcase the uniqueness of individual allergy patients. Some children eventually grow out of their allergies, others never do, whereas others grow out of them and have them return. The overall likelihood of outgrowing an allergy depends on a range of factors, such as the type of allergy and how severe it is in each child.

What is a food allergy?

A food allergy is a medical condition in which exposure to a specific food triggers an allergic reaction. In short, the body identifies a food as dangerous, and when it gets exposed to it, the body reacts.

Symptoms of food allergies range from mild, such as a skin rash, hives, wheezing, and repetitive cough, to life-threatening, such as an inability to breathe, swallowing difficulties, and weak pulse.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that food allergy prevalence has become a public health issue. The U.S. saw a 50 percent increase in food allergies between 1997 and 2011, and between 1997 and 2008, the prevalence of a peanut or tree allergy more than tripled in U.S. children. Overall, an estimated 15 million Americans have food allergies, according to the CDC, which includes 5.9 million children. This is approximately two children per classroom.

The Odds of Outgrowing a Food Allergy

According to Mayo Clinic, food allergies affect six to eight percent of children under the age of 5, but approximately 60 to 80 percent of youths with a type of dairy allergy (milk or egg) can eat these foods without any reaction by the time they reach age 16. Young children who can eat these foods in baked form, like in a cake, are extremely likely to be able to eat plain eggs or milk at an older age.

They also might outgrow other food allergies, like nut and shellfish allergies, though this isn’t as likely. For example, only about 20 percent of young children outgrow peanut allergies, and 14 percent lose a tree nut allergy. The number is even lower with shellfish allergies, as only four to five percent of children with any fish or crustacean allergy go on to adulthood and experience no reaction—Constantino got lucky and bucked the odds.

Types of Food Allergies

There is really only one type of food allergy: “true allergy.” These are IgE-mediated food allergies in which a severe allergic reaction can occur.

Stacey Galowitz, DO, a board-certified allergist with ENT and Allergy Associates in Somerset, New Jersey, says, “IgE-mediated food allergies are the reactions to food everyone is familiar with: you eat a peanut and break out in hives, have swelling, experience shortness of breath and vomiting, etcetera. The more severe form of this is called anaphylaxis.” She says anaphylactics are those who need to carry epinephrine devices.
According to The American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, eight types of food account for about 90 percent of all reactions: eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat, and soy.

People who are not diagnosed with a food allergy, but still experience some form of pain when eating certain foods, usually have a food sensitivity. Such sensitivities are IgG mediated, and “IgG-mediated food allergies are not actually allergies in the true sense,” says Dr. Galowitz. She says the difference between intolerance/sensitivity and IgE-mediated food allergies is that one might be uncomfortable (IgG) and the other might be fatal (IgE).

On Gluten

Gluten allergy—which is also called celiac disease, and is the allergy to the proteins in wheat, barley, and rye—is a bit different. According to the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, celiac disease differs from IgE-mediated food allergies, in part, because its symptoms take 48–72 hours to show up, whereas IgE-mediated allergy symptoms appear rather quickly.

Celiac disease, though, affects about one percent of the world’s population, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation. “Gluten sensitive” is a way to describe those who cannot tolerate gluten and experience symptoms similar to those with celiac disease, but do not experience the same intestinal damage.
This sensitivity type is a widespread condition. According to Beyond Celiac, an organization that helps people with celiac disease live healthy lives, researchers estimate that 18 million Americans have gluten sensitivity.

However, for those of you with gluten sensitivities, you might be okay eating gluten. A recent study published in the journal Digestion found that 86 percent of those who believed they were gluten sensitive could tolerate gluten with no issue.

Tests for Food Allergies

To determine if you have outgrown your food allergy, you can take a couple of tests:

A blood or skin test. For IgE-mediated food allergies, “You need a skin test or a blood [test] plus a clinical history of reaction,” says Dr. Galowitz. If a test reveals a high level of IgE, you are more likely to experience an allergic reaction; if the level is low, you might tolerate the food. The American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology says the test is not very invasive and produces quick results.
A food challenge. According to Food Allergy Research and Education, in a food challenge test, someone with (or with a previous) food allergy digests a small amount of the food they are allergic to in a controlled setting. The tester starts by giving a person a minimal amount of the food and then gradually raises the dosage. The tester will stop the food challenge immediately if the person experiences any reactions, and anyone taking the test gets closely monitored by a medical professional throughout the entire test.

The food challenge takes a number of hours. Most tests last from four to six hours, but it can go longer if someone experiences a reaction.

Feeling a little nervous to try a food challenge? You shouldn’t. Researchers conducted the largest national survey of allergic reactions in a U.S. non-research setting and published their results in the Annuals of Allergy Asthma & Immunology. The results showed that the food challenge is a safe method, as it resulted in very few allergic reactions—86 percent of the challenges had no reactions and 98 percent had no anaphylaxis. This means that adults can take the test to determine if they are still have their childhood food allergies, and they shouldn’t feel worried about doing so.

Getting Ready for the Food Challenge

If you feel the food challenge might help you determine if you can eat the foods you couldn’t as a child, you should speak to your doctor. If a medical professional decides this test could benefit you, here are some test tips to follow (provided by National Jewish Health):

Do not eat any other food during the challenge. Only eat what the medical professional says you can eat.
If you feel sick, you should cancel the test. This includes feeling any type of illness, such as a headache, stomachache, allergic reaction of any type, or fever. Your results could present false positives, or worse, the test could make you sicker. If you have any concerns, you should always speak with your doctor ahead of time.
If you do experience any type of reaction during the test, you might be given medication that makes you drowsy. Because of this, you should arrive to the food challenge with another individual who can drive you home, if necessary.
You should notify your doctor if you take any antihistamines, as they could affect the results. Most of the time, the doctor will instruct you to stop taking any oral antihistamines anywhere from three to five days before the test, depending on what brand of medication you take.

It is also best practice to tell your doctor of any medications you are currently taking prior to the test.

Oh, and you might get asked to bring specific food to the test. The doctor might even ask you to bring your favorite food with you “in which to place the food to be challenged,” per National Jewish Health.

If you had a food allergy in the past, it is possible you have outgrown it.

In fact, the odds are in your favor if you experienced a milk or egg allergy as a child, though less so with other food allergies.

With the safety of the food challenge and skin or blood tests, they’re likely worth it—afterwards, you’ll know if you can begin adding shrimp back to your barbeques or peanut butter to your sandwiches. As always, consult with a doctor and tell him or her your own personal history and family history with food allergies. From there, they can make an educated decision on if a blood test or food challenge is right for you.

Tags 50037096, care, hemingway

Wellbeing

7 Dental Myths You Probably Believe

Post author By Heather Vecchioni
Post date December 19, 2017

Did you hear the one about the fossilized teeth that were found in Germany that

According to research and interviews from National Geographic, the teeth were likely from a pliopithecoid, a member of an extinct superfamily of primates that predated the evolutionary split between Old World monkeys and apes, the latter of which later split off into another two categories, one of which contains humans.

Basically, these teeth are about as related to humans as your third cousin twice-removed’s roommate is to you.

Trying to find the cold, hard tooth, er, truth about teeth is a difficult task. And through the years, you’ve likely heard a thing or two about teeth that has left you scratching your head, making you wonder if you need to clean your ears or if what you were told is actually correct.

Here, we chomp down on some of the most common dental myths around and find out whether or not they have any real bite to them.

Myth 1: Pregnant women don’t have to worry about bleeding gums; they’re just sensitive because of the pregnancy.

Did you just floss, or did you turn into a sloppy vampire? If you’re not sure, there’s a chance you could be pregnant.

of the little guys are crawling around your mouth as we speak. And although that’s slightly more than a bit creepy, it’s totally normal.

“All of us share our mouths with thousands of species of bacteria,” Simon says. “Most of them don’t cause any problems, but some bacteria eat the same things we eat—especially sugar and carbohydrates—that get digested to become sugar.”

“As they consume the sugar, they produce acid that can create holes in our teeth, and thus, cavities are formed. Without the bacteria, sugar couldn’t form cavities; however, science hasn’t figured out a way to eliminate the bacteria that lives in our mouths!”

Until that fateful day, make sure to get your brush and floss on daily.

Myth 4: The more often and harder you brush, the healthier your teeth will become.

You know that feeling when your teeth are so covered in sugar that they seem to be growing hair? And to get rid of it, you brush your teeth until they are within a few inches of their lives? While it makes sense that scrubbing your chompers with some serious power is the best way to remove that icky film, it can actually do more harm than good.

Dentist told me that I brush my teeth too hard. Ah ma’am, pardon my biceps but you think I can control these pythons when I’m combatting gingivitis & tartar? Certainly not!

— Henry Dorgan (@HDtheTVman) December 1, 2017

“While brushing and flossing frequently is an important health habit, brushing with too much force can damage the gums and teeth,” Simon says. Instead, “always use a soft toothbrush, and don’t push very hard while brushing in small circles, angling towards your gums.”

Myth 5: You should brush immediately after every meal.

If you’re tempted to reunite with your toothbrush as soon as you finish swallowing your last bite of food, hold off for just a bit. Even if you think your food is attempting to make a lasting impression on your breath, it’s a good idea to allow it to marinate for a bit.

“You should brush after every meal; however, waiting a while immediately afterwards allows your saliva to restore the pH balance of your mouth and makes it less likely that you will remove layers of tooth enamel along with the plaque and bacteria,” says Simon.

If you can’t wait or just aren’t able to tend to your pearly whites anytime soon, Simon suggests chewing some sugar-free gum. It can increase the flow of saliva and help protect your teeth.

Myth 6: Poor dental hygiene alone is the cause of bad breath.

Sure, everyone has less than fresh breath after certain foods, but brushing, flossing, and mouthwash usually get the job done. If you find that you have a foul mouth more often than not, however, it may not have anything to do with your oral cavity.

“Bad breath can be a sign that you need to brush and floss, but it can also indicate more serious conditions,” Simon says.

“Mouth infections like periodontitis can cause bad breath, and so can medical conditions like liver disease or complications of diabetes. If you notice bad breath along with other symptoms, this can be an important thing to talk about with your doctor or dentist.”

Myth 7: You’ll eventually lose all of your teeth.

Getting dentures seems to be a rite of passage for most, and many believe that they are destined to a life of false teeth. After all, how many grandparents do you know that still rock their entire OG adult tooth set? You probably don’t know many, but this doesn’t have to be the case for everyone, says Simon.

“With proper care and regular dental visits, anyone can expect to have their teeth for the rest of their lives,” she says. “Losing teeth isn’t a normal sign of aging, and even people who are at high risk of tooth decay can work with their dentist to protect and keep their teeth.”

Dental care is serious business and is something you shouldn’t neglect. Not only can being a little lazy cause gum disease and problems with your teeth, poor dental hygiene can also result in serious problems with your health. In fact, cardiovascular disease, endocarditis (an infection in the lining of your heart), and premature birth and low birth rate are all linked to inadequate dental care.

So the next time you feel like skipping a flossing session or don’t want to brush, remember that your mouth—and your body—want you to stop being a slacker, and just do it already.

Tags 50036956, balance, hemingway

Lifestyle

10 (Not So) Harmless Habits That Age You

Post author By Gretchen Bossio
Post date December 19, 2017

Are you anxious to grow older?
I’ll admit, I am…at least a little. With age comes experience, and with more experience, I sense I am becoming wiser. I’m better equipped to handle situations and adhere to my convictions, and I enjoy life more often than not.
But even though I look forward to each birthday and the age it brings, I don’t necessarily want to look older. In fact, as each year passes, I’d like to [linkbuilder id=”6705″ text=”look younger”], fresher, and healthier. It’s my goal to somewhat maintain the look of my current age, at least.
You too? Well, some habits you and I have might be doing us a disservice—things like late weekend nights and ignoring that Brussels sprout recipe we keep saying we’ll give a try. They may seem harmless, but a few not so great habits over time really add up…and add years to our face, figure, heart, and more.
If staying young is on your agenda, perhaps it’s time to identify and eliminate habits that age you. Aging is inevitable, but no one should be unnecessarily rushing to the finish line.

What can benefit all of us the most is to take a step back, simplify, and listen to our body.

In my efforts to analyze habits that age us, I have the opportunity to connect with Stephanie Riley, a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified personal trainer with a certification in fitness nutrition. She is not only a coach of sorts, but an athlete who has participated in over 20 marathons and other competitions, like bodybuilding and Ironman distance triathlons.
“… all of us can learn from our own experiences and the ability to be brutally honest about where we succeed and where we can continue to grow,” Riley shares on the topic of habits. “I believe a lot of people can become disenchanted, frustrated, or confused by constantly following all the ‘noise’ that is out there on the market, never knowing who to listen to and who to ‘follow.'”

“What can benefit all of us the most is to take a step back, simplify, and listen to our body. It really, truly does not have to be that hard to make small changes that can and will create profound improvements in our lives.”
So, what habits should we begin resolving? Pick a few from below.

Allowing Too Much Screen Time

“The more strict I am with my screen time, the more my quality of life improves,” Gemma, a mom of three, says. “Setting strict limits on both social media and TV makes me more productive, less stressed, and I get to bed at a decent hour!”

Both stress and not enough sleep greatly impact overall wellness. If TV time and that iPad hanging out by your bed are producing worry and keeping you from rest, it’s time to say goodbye!

Not Drinking Enough Water

“Let’s face it, most of us have a hard time getting our water in,” Riley says. “It’s hard to remember when we get busy with work, family, and everything else on our plate. However, drink water. Period. Initially, it’s hard. You will have to run to the restroom constantly at first. Give it time, stay the course, and that initial running to the bathroom will slow down.”

“Your body needs it, uses it, and functions exponentially better with it. Give it a try for a month. Drink 64 to 100 ounces of water a day for a month. I guarantee you will not know how you functioned without it.”
Of course, be sure to spread your water consumption out over the day, and don’t overdo it if you don’t feel thirsty.

Postponing Checkups

My husband’s employer actually incentivizes their team in this regard—to the tune of $100! They know annual wellness appointments are that important.

Why? It’s simple. Checking in with your doctor allows them to address concerns and catch potential issues before they’re a life-altering problem. Blood work and screenings keep you healthy, alive, and flourishing. So, if you haven’t been to your doctor in the last year, call them. Today.

Under-Hydrating Your Skin

M’Lissa Fleming, an independent consultant with anti-aging skincare brand Rodan + Fields, can’t emphasize enough how important using moisturizer is: “The human skin is the body’s largest organ. Keeping your skin hydrated and moisturized helps avoid many skin problems such as blemishes and wrinkles.”

“Moisturizer with SPF is the best way to multi-task keeping your skin healthy,” Fleming adds. “If your skin is not hydrated and becomes dry and cracked, you’ve lost protection and your skin becomes … vulnerable to outside elements.”
So, don’t forget it! When you appropriately moisturize, you’ll prevent those lines and wrinkles, and no doubt you’ll look younger.

Not Keeping a Bed Time

Our bodies benefit from a regular sleep schedule, which means Saturday night should look very similar to Tuesday night. “Your body is either trying to survive or flourishing,” says Riley.

“How can it flourish when its exhausted? Quit asking your body to do more when you give to it less. Sleep! It’s okay!”

Avoiding Counseling

“I don’t know how its become a perception that counseling, coaching, or therapy is a negative or that it somehow shows weakness,” says Riley. “My husband and I have had a life coach for 20 years.”

We don’t have all the answers. Nor should we have all the answers.

“I have had marathon coaches, triathlete coaches, and medical doctors at training clinics to help my athletic performance,” she says. “So how is a coach in life any different?”
“Would a person then say ‘Oh, she has a coach, she must be terrible in the sport,’ or ‘She sure doesn’t know what she’s doing,’ or ‘Boy, she must really not know how to do it on her own.’ No one would say that. How is a counselor any different?”

Besides being a safe space for exploring one’s feelings, counseling also offers scientifically-proven benefits. According to a study from the University of California-Los Angeles, verbally expressing feelings calms negative feelings. Additionally, research in Psychiatry 2007 says that social support, like the kind a life coach or therapist provides, is a key part of maintaining one’s mental and physical wellbeing.
“Finding a counselor who you connect with and who can listen to your life’s experience with not only professional training on the human condition but also their own life experiences is a tool that everyone could use,” Riley says. “We don’t have all the answers. Nor should we have all the answers. I highly recommend a counselor for all of us … .”
Amen to that! Counselor up!

Letting Stress Rule

“Stress will always be an element in our lives. But we can control it, or it can control us,” says Riley.
In most of our lives, I’d venture to say that taming stress is a minute by minute task. But gaining control of those minutes really adds up—according to Psychology Today, emotional distress can speed up aging on a cellular level. No thanks!

Forgetting Outdoor Exercise

We all know that outdoor exercise feels amazing once you’ve actually completed it, but it often gets left out of busy routines in favor of the ever-convenient treadmill. In the video below, certified health and life coach Sabrina Renee shares the benefits she gets from taking her exercise outside:
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Falling For Fad Diets

Fad diets come in many shapes and sizes. Some only include raw food, others needlessly cut gluten, others include only liquids to “cleanse” your system, and a few even include things that aren’t food in the first place.
As an athlete, Riley knows food. Her training has led her to delve deep into nutrition. When it comes to fad diets, she shakes her head.
“I cringe at people trying to make a buck on misconceptions, false advertising, and ‘studies’ that are bogus to get buy-ins on their products,” she says. “Quite simply, there is no one size fits all. I recommend stepping off the hamster wheel and remind yourself that all this food thing doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t.”
“Many people are looking for that new special thing out there, that ‘new’ ideology that has all the answers, that ‘ah-ha’ revelation. When we try to follow all the minutia out there, all it does is create this odd, fearful relationship with food, confusion and anxiety.”

“Allow yourself to enjoy good food, be aware of what you are eating, allow treats in moderation, and get your fruits and vegetables in on a regular basis. That’s it. Chop, cook, and eat at home. Make it a priority.”

Not Nourishing Your Body

Food is complex, and our choices are vast. But bottom line, nutrition is crucial to fueling our bodies and keeping them in their prime. “Many people I see are extremely undernourished,” says Riley.

… with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.

Some women in particular, she says, have been undernourished “for so long that they have issues with hormones and are malnourished in many vitamins and minerals … We are depriving our body of what it desperately needs. Make it a habit to get in the nutrients one needs through proper [linkbuilder id=”6706″ text=”food choices”].”

MyPlate, the successor to the classic Food Pyramid, is a good place to start for those unsure about their nutritional needs. The MyPlate site even offers daily checklists for healthy eating and optimum nutritional intake. The National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute also provides an easy-to-read roadmap for maintaining a healthy weight and meeting nutritional goals.
Nutrition calculators, like MyFitnessPal and MyPlate Calorie Counter, are easy ways to keep track of and manage your nutritional intake.

How many of these not so harmless habits are part of your life?

They say it takes at least 21 days to break a bad habit. Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of The Power of Habit wrote, “Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.”
You can reshape your habits. Reading this article alone means you have initiative. So, set some goals, make it happen, and remember Duhigg’s Golden Rule of Habit Change, “You can’t extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it.”

Tags 50036896, care, Commerce, hemingway

In Season Lifestyle

Winter Solstice Wellness: Self-Care Suggestions For The Shortest Day Of The Year

Post author By Cammy Pedroja
Post date December 19, 2017

In 2017, the start of winter and the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere falls on December 21. But this particular Thursday is more than another pre-Christmas date on the calendar. There’s a long history all over the globe of using the winter solstice—the darkest day of the year—as an opportunity to turn inward and celebrate the light inside the individual and the community. Ancient cultures including the Pagans, Celts, Norsemen, and even Romans used the solstice as a time to celebrate the death and consequent rebirth of the natural world that happens because of winter.
In addition to its spiritual traditions, the winter solstice is astrologically and astronomically significant as it marks the point in time when we in the northern hemisphere are tilted as far away from the sun as we’re going to get. So it’s not only the season of the shortest days with the least light, the winter solstice also marks the longest night of the year. Basically, the cold and dormant landscapes many of us are surrounded by combined with decidedly moody light conditions are ripe for tempting mere mortals to retreat from the world into a person-sized nest on the couch.
While a little hibernating with Netflix is certainly understandable, a self-care focused solstice celebration could be the perfect chance for you to check in with your whole self and make sure you’re tending to your needs and living intentionally, even during the darkest time of the year.
From the more recognizable December traditions like feasting and gathering around Yule logs, to the seemingly otherworldly customs that historians believe were nature and light-worshipping rituals at Stonehenge, there’s lots to be inspired by when it comes to honoring the winter solstice and the woman within.

Witchy Wellness with a Modern Twist

The “witchier” aspects of celebrating this darkest day are coming back into style (yay!), providing the perfect opportunity to reconnect with yourself and the natural world. So whether you want to go solo with some soothing solstice-inspired rituals for yourself or celebrate the season of spirit with your coven of friends, we have a few ideas about how you can mark the day in a meaningful and wellness-focused way.

Try This: Mind

Pagan author and educator T. Thorn Coyle writes that “for contemporary people, solstices … are a chance to still ourselves inside, to behold the glory of the cosmos, and to take a breath with the Sacred.” Whether you have an established mindfulness practice or are merely interested in meditation, a great way to help yourself focus on and take stock of the inner you is to try a guided meditation for inner reflection, acceptance, and celebrating the light within. Here’s a great one from meditation expert Esther Teule of Ekhart Yoga.

Try This: Body

Get outside! Pull yourself out of a hibernation funk by celebrating the things you love that you can only do in winter or that are made even better by the cold. If you’re in a snowy locale, plan an ice-skating or sledding date with your significant other, your kids, or your circle of female friends in true pagan tradition. Get in a little heart-pounding exercise while you celebrate the way the so-called harsh conditions of winter make this kind of fun possible. Just add a hot cider and cookie-fueled fireside (or rather, Yule log-side) chat afterward for the perfect afternoon ritual.
For solo reflection, try this cold-weather self-care practice: Fill your tub up with extra hot water, add a few drops of some of your favorite essential oils, light candles, and listen to relaxing music as you make time to melt into the tub. You can make this ritual special and specific to the winter solstice by using a mixture of oils like frankincense, pine, cinnamon, and clove, which have ties to ancient solstice celebrations.

Try This: Spirit

Whether or not you believe in divination or have experienced the cards truly speaking to you, the tarot is a time-honored tool that encourages self-reflection. The way you interpret your tarot spread can really give you insights into your personal psychology and the state of things in your head and heart that you might not have been able to realize via other means.
If you have your own deck, the solstice is a great time to use a past, present, and future spread to take stock of your life as it is and start thinking on your intentions for the new year. If you don’t have a deck handy, consider visiting a reader or exploring options that really demonstrate the modernization of the tradition, like having your cards read over the phone or even online.
Whether you want to connect to your own witchy roots or you’re just wanting another excuse to feel festive and focus on your own wellbeing, celebrating the winter solstice with one or all of these modern riffs on the theme is sure to inspire you through the long winter months.

Tags organic

In Season Lifestyle

How To Maintain Your Peace Of Mind While Traveling For The Holidays

Post author By Abigail Rasminsky
Post date December 19, 2017

The Christmas our daughter was barely 5 months old, my husband and I boarded a plane with her from Austria, where we were living, to Southern California—a behemoth of a trip, more than 30 hours door to door. (This doesn’t include the nine-hour time difference.)
Our families were dying to meet the baby, and we figured: She’s small! It’ll be easy! And it’s so lovely in Orange County! Goodbye, dreary Viennese winter.
The minute we got to the airport and saw the lines stretched out to eternity, I broke down sobbing. I was out of my mind with sleep deprivation, and breastfeeding was still touch and go. How on earth would we survive? Had I brought enough formula, changes of clothes, burp cloths, diapers? Had I forgotten Sophie the Giraffe? (Had I even packed my own passport?) I literally turned to my husband and said, “Forget it.”
We went anyway: flew 11 hours to Chicago (the baby slept for an hour and didn’t even fit in the bassinet), endured a four-hour delay at O’Hare due to a storm, and got zero assistance from airline workers, who lectured us on why travelers with kids didn’t get to pre-board (“Studies show that the plane doesn’t fill up any quicker.”)
By the time I got to change my daughter’s diaper—many arguments and terminals later—she had soaked through all her clothes into the Ergo carrier. The image of her pinned to my husband’s chest in the Ergo, wild-eyed with exhaustion while we waited on a delayed flight, will haunt me forever.
By the time we got to SoCal, I was a wreck, as was our daughter, who did nothing but scream from 1 to 4 a.m. We never made that trip again.

Holidays really are the worst time to travel.

According to AAA, Thanksgiving travel in 2017 was the busiest it has been in more than 12 years, with 51 million people on the roads, train, and in the air—an uptick of over 1 million people from last year.
Holiday travel is notoriously awful for everyone, but it creates a particular kind of hell for parents and pregnant women. Gone are the days of settling in with a tiny bottle of wine, People magazine, and a Julia Roberts movie.
For pregnant women, there is often the issue of intense morning sickness, the constant need to pee, uncomfortable seats, awful smells, and strangers reaching for your bump. And for parents? Between air and car sickness, sufficient changes of clothing, enough activities to keep kids occupied, foiled naps, ear popping, kids who won’t sit still or stop whining or wailing, time changes, and unpredictable schedules, it is a recipe for disaster.
So what can you do to keep your cool?

Plan, Plan, Plan: The Basics

Choose your travel time wisely.

Pick a travel time that will be least disruptive to the kids’ schedules. If you’re flying, try not to take off around, say, dinnertime, or in the middle of the toddler’s nap. If it’s a long-haul flight and you think your kid might sleep, choose an overnight and prep them in advance: “Tonight you get to sleep on an airplane!”
If not, make sure they’re well rested before you get on the plane. (So leaving on a 6 a.m. flight that requires you be at the airport at 4:30 a.m.? Not a great plan.) If you’re driving, consider leaving right before a nap, or if it’s a long drive, putting the kids in PJs and taking off right before bedtime.

Choose the right seats.

If your kid is just starting to walk, get an aisle seat. There’s nothing more annoying to a person trying to watch a movie than being asked to get up 107 times so a toddler can wander up and down the aisles. If your child is older, the window seat is great for cloud-watching and pinning stickers to the window. Just make sure they use the bathroom before you board.

Buy travel insurance.

There’s what seems like a 50 percent chance one of your kids will get sick before you leave. It might feel like a waste of money if you don’t use travel insurance, but when two kids are throwing up the night before you take off, you’ll be thrilled that you aren’t losing thousands of hard-earned bucks only to stay home and empty out a bucket.

Strategize about the stroller.

The Mountain Buggy Nano stroller and the YOYA stroller count as carry-on luggage. They fold up so small they can be stored above your seat, so no waiting for everyone to deplane to get your stroller back! It is especially useful if you’re traveling alone with a kid or two and need to know you’ll have access to it at all times.

Get the kid on board.

Fill your child in on the travel plan ahead of time, and keep repeating the information until they really seem to get it. This is a way to get them psyched for the trip—“I’m going to go on a long airplane ride to see cousin Susie!”—and also to make sure they’re not alarmed by any of the steps you’ll take along the way.

How and What to Pack

I spoke with Kitt Fife and Joni Weiss of Practically Perfect. These two—who have six kids between them, as well as a thriving organizing and lifestyle company based in Los Angeles—are experts at getting from A to B with a big brood and everyone’s sanity (mostly) intact.

Practical Stuff:

Pack all activities in a backpack for your child. If they are old enough, they should be the one to carry it.
Bring an empty water bottle for each kid to fill up after you get through security. For car travel, give each kid a full water bottle before you leave. It’s best if they have straw tops to avoid spills.
Do not forget the chargers. It’s awesome that you remembered the phones, iPads, computers, and Kindles. But did you pack the chargers, too?

Necessities:

Medication. Doesn’t your kid always spike a fever when you’re halfway to Grandma and Grandpa’s? Make sure you have enough Tylenol on hand. If you’re worried about TSA requirements, buy chewables. Also bring enough Kleenex.
Extra clothing. For the kids and for you (yes, you: You do not want to smell like puke for hours on end). If you have a toddler or baby, bring at least two changes per kid. If you’re going on an overnight flight, pack pajamas, too. Once the kid starts to look tired, get them changed and create a more sleep-inducing environment with a favorite luvie, a book, a bottle or breast, and, if possible, dim the lights or bring a sleep mask.
Snacks. Plan for a combo of healthy snacks (sliced apples, nuts, dried fruit, fruit pouches) and snacks that will excite the kids because they rarely get them. A few great sweet treats for kids are chocolate peanut gems or mini chocolate chips.
Trash bags and Ziplocs. Ziplocs are the best for vomit (seal in the smell!) If someone’s clothes are soiled due to a spill on a flight, a trash bag or Ziploc can also come in handy.
Wipes. Enough said.
Hand sanitizer. You can go DIY, buy natural, or grab the Purell.
Toilet seat covers. BYO. These are great for toddlers who want to touch the seat.
If you’re pregnant: Compression socks.
If you’re nursing: Bring swaddle blankets. These can be used to cover dirty surfaces, shield the baby from light to help them sleep, cover your breast, or for warmth.

Fun:

Mad Libs are super entertaining for older kids.
Water Wow is wonderful for younger kids (the best for mess-free art on-the-go).
Action Plates are self-contained and super entertaining.
Pack a notebook for each child and markers in a pencil case. Fife has these for her kids and breaks them out only on trips.
For road trips, Weiss’ kids are obsessed with the license plate game. Good, old-fashioned fun. A “letter hunt” (or number hunt) is a great idea for kids who are too young to read the names of the states. A clipboard/notebook for recording comes in handy here.
Bingo sets for the car!

Keeping Calm

Move, move, move.

When our family went on road trips back in the ’80s, I always bolted out of the car at rest stops and cartwheeled across the lawn. I didn’t do this for any logical reason, I just knew I needed to move. Adults need this, too! When you’ve spent hours in a car, it is absolutely vital to move your body at every opportunity.
If you have kids, you can make a game of it—race them around the rest area, see how many jumping jacks you can all do. Get your heart rate going a bit. Even if you’re in a rush to get somewhere, frequent stops can help make the whole trip much more pleasant.
On a flight this is obviously a little more challenging, but you can walk quickly to your gate (f your kids are old enough or take them in strollers) and you can walk around the gate area, do jumping jacks, or be that person doing a handstand next to the baggage claim!
Looking for ways to move on the plane? Walking up and down the aisle with a squealing toddler might be enough, but you can also do in-flight yoga—poses that can easily be done in your seat. Take standing breaks in the rear of the plane, and make sure you’re drinking enough water.

Dealing With Anxiety

Oh, the anxiety of travel. Sometimes all goes smoothly, sometimes it doesn’t. But according to LA-based clinical psychologist Vanessa Katz, PsyD, there are a few things you can do to set yourself up for the sanest possible trip.

Give yourself enough time to pack. This might seem obvious, but it is never wise to start your packing at 11:00 the night before you leave only to realize most of your underwear is dirty and you can’t find any sunhats.
Make lists. You can even divide things into different categories: carry-on, suitcase, kids’ bags.
Read up on your destination. “Find things other travelers have said about a place,” Katz says. “This helps reassure you that others have been okay.”
Think about what’s really making you anxious—and share it with someone. Your partner, your mother, your therapist. Talking it out almost always helps relieve the anxiety.
Know that you will be coming home. Vacations are finite. Try to enjoy your few days or weeks away, knowing it’ll all be over soon.

Extra Time With Family

If your flight home is delayed because of weather, make sure you have enough stuff to keep the kids occupied. Chances are they will have a lot of new Christmas gifts to dig into, but this might be a time to indulge them a bit by allowing them to watch their favorite shows or taking them to a movie. If the weather is okay where you are—and you can’t stand one more day with your extended family—use it as an excuse to see some sights nearby, even if it’s just the local mall! Scope the options out ahead of time.
Holiday travel can be stressful, but remember that even if everything goes wrong, there is almost always something wonderful to be found in the adventure—or at least a good story to tell!

Tags mid-tier

Motherhood

Cyberbullying: Social Media And Teen Depression

Post author By Mary Sauer
Post date December 18, 2017

This summer, after endless bullying from her peers, 15-year-old Sadie Riggs took her own life. She had experienced bullying in school, but it was social media that made it so difficult for her to escape the torment, according to NBC. Classmates were seeking her out, sending cruel messages through multiple social media platforms and messaging apps, encouraging her to end her own life.
The cyberbullying became so intense that her aunt, with whom she lived, went to the school and even reached out to Instagram, hoping someone would make the bullying stop. In June, she took Sadie’s phone and broke it, hoping to keep her from experiencing any more hate. Tragically, it seems that Sadie had already reached her limit, as she took her life less than a week later.
Teens are spending more time online than ever before. The average teenager between the ages of 13 and 18 spends an average of six and a half hours a day online, according to research by Common Sense Media. Unfortunately for many children, all of this time spent online isn’t healthy.

Social Media’s Impact on Empathy

Heavy social media use has an alarming impact on how children think and feel about one another. For starters, we know that social media is designed in a way that makes it incredibly easily to get hooked.

“There are behaviorists that work alongside programmers in the industry to develop the apps and the platforms [to make them] highly, highly addictive,” says therapist Lisa Strohman, JD, PhD, and founder and director of the Technology Wellness Center and Digital Citizen Academy.
From the start, parents should understand that their children and teens will feel compelled to use social media excessively. And the more they use social media, the more their behaviors—particularly their senses of empathyx—will be impacted.
Because technology provides a perceived distance between individuals, it actually decreases the empathy experienced, according to research in the Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace. Empathy plays a role in inhibiting aggressive behavior. Additionally, being online provides the perception of anonymity. These two things are believed to contribute to increased levels of aggression online.

“So when you’re dealing with social media, if you don’t do a preventative training or education with your kids to let them know what it is that they can expect, which is kind of this negative, hostile, aggressive behavior from other kids,” Strohman says, “then a lot of times, kids get sucked into that world.”

Social Media, Cyberbullying, and Depression

It makes sense, then, that so many teens report having experienced cyberbullying. According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, in 2016, over 33 percent of middle and high school students said that they’ve been cyberbullied, and 11.5 percent admitted to cyberbullying others.

Alarmingly, only a little over 10 percent of parents are aware of just how prevalent cyberbullying is, and most teens admit they would never tell their parents if they were being bullied online. Instead, our culture has embraced limitless access to smartphones from a very young age, giving children privacy and autonomy in an online world where boundaries don’t exist unless created by parents.
The average age for a child to get a smart phone is 10, with 39 percent of kids creating a social media account around age 11 and 11 percent creating one before age 10.

At the same time, the rate of teens taking their own lives has risen significantly in the United States since 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While many factors are at play, one belief is that social media has played a role in this tragic uptick of depression and self-harm in teens, according to an NBC News interview with CDC expert Thomas Simon.
Excessive exposure to the online world seems to be impacting children and teens in two ways. First, we know that all social media users, even adults, have tend to filter what they post online to put out the best version of themselves and their life, but we’re generally not great at acknowledging that what we see online isn’t always accurate or true.

“Teenagers know that what they see on social media are idealized versions of their friends’ lives, but it still makes them feel bad about their own,” explains family and marriage therapist Amy McManus. “Teenagers, whose brains are wired for connection to their peers during adolescence, are driven to social media by FOMO—fear of missing out. Consequently, they spend more time on social media and less time actually engaging in social activities than previous generations. Ironically, this leads to isolation and depressed mood.”
Secondly, since social media use lowers empathy and increases aggression in teens, it is the perfect environment for cyberbullying. And, for the victims of bullying, it doesn’t let up when they leave school and head home. In Riggs’ case, her bullies went out of their way to attack her on multiple social media platforms after school hours.

“Teenage brains are not yet fully capable of restraining impulsive behavior, and unlimited anonymous opportunity is more temptation than many of them can handle,” says McManus. “I have to imagine that many of the kids who engage in anonymous bullying online would never bully someone in real life.”

What Parents Can Do

It’s a discouraging topic. Some parents may feel powerless to protect their children online, especially if their child is not likely to speak up and admit they are being abused on social media. The truth is that parents do have agency in the issue, but the steps are counter-cultural, giving some parents pause.

Evidence suggests that restricting exposure to social media is a best first step. This idea is certainly catching on among some communities. Wait Until 8th began as a community effort by parents to support one another in their decision to withhold smartphones from their child until they reach the eighth grade. It quickly gained national attention.
Although many families are still giving their children access to the online world at a very young age, Strohman feels that parents should feel empowered to do things differently for the sake of their children.

You have to take that whole concept of privacy out of your mind.

“If you can keep them off that technology through middle school and wait until high school, I think you are far ahead of the curve and will protect them from a lot of the dangers and the impulsive behaviors that we see happening, damaging the psychology and mental health of these young, young children.”
Outside of restricting use, children and teens who do have access to social media should never have privacy, according to Strohman. She suggests that parents spot-check their child’s social media. Parents should have the passwords to all social media accounts being used by their children, they should be monitoring all apps being downloaded to the phone, and they should know how to monitor what websites their child is visiting on their phone.

“You have to take that whole concept of privacy out of your mind,” she says. “Your kids only want privacy from you. They don’t care about anyone else, so that’s the challenge we face.”

Stepping in When It’s Gone Too Far

In some cases, parents may not realize the dangers of unlimited access to social media until things have gone too far. If a parent learns that their child is being bullied online, Strohman always recommends that parents take the situation very seriously, since school leadership often has too much going on to properly intervene in situations of cyberbullying.

“The first thing I would suggest if you have a child who is being cyberbullied is to remove them from the situation,” she says. “If you really have a child who is exhibiting either self-harming behaviors, talking about that behavior, becoming withdrawn, showing signs of depression or anxiety, I would immediately take action to get a therapeutic professional involved.”
Taking a child off of social media may be especially difficult at first, according to Strohman, who says that it takes around two weeks for children and teens to adjust to life offline. The first few days may be especially difficult, as newly tech-free children may become emotional and even aggressive. With time, however, they begin to feel safer now that they are disconnected from abusive online behavior.

I think too many parents rely on their kids to do it alone.

If parents discover their child is the one participating in cyberbullying, Strohman instructs parents to avoid sweeping it under the rug or feeling nervous about addressing it with everyone involved. She suggests formal sit-downs with the children involved, along with their parents. Parents should get everything on the table, making sure all parents understand what has happened, and then have their child apologize in person for their behaviors.

Additionally, Strohman instructs parents to talk to their child about how they can move on from their own abusive behavior online, teaching them empathy and providing them with the guidance they need to use social media in a moral and healthy way.
“Stand by them when they do it,” she adds. “I think too many parents rely on their kids to do it alone.”

Tags 50036981, hemingway, parenting

In the Kitchen Nosh

8 Healthy Side Dishes That Your Dinner Guests Won’t Be Able To Resist

Post author By Sian Ferguson
Post date December 18, 2017

The holiday season is upon us, and many of us will be hosting dinner parties and brunches for our loved ones. Holiday season or not, having dinner guests can be both exciting and overwhelming.
One of the tricky aspects of cooking for a crowd is deciding which side dishes to serve. As the host, you want sides that suit your entree and the tastes and dietary requirements of your guests. You also want to cook up something interesting that won’t take too much time to prepare.
We have you covered! Here are some delicious and healthy side dishes your guests will love, no matter the occasion.

1. Roasted Cumin Carrots With Creamy Turmeric Sauce (gluten-free, vegan)

This takes a bit of time to roast, but the flavorful combination of spices makes it worth it. Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A, and turmeric is an anti-inflammatory, healing addition to any meal. It’s an excellent side to any meat dish. Make more turmeric sauce than necessary and keep it on hand to add to vegetables, eggs, roast potatoes, and sandwiches.

2. Mashed Sweet Potatoes (vegetarian)

Sweet potato mash is a fun, vibrantly colored alternative to traditional mashed potatoes. Sweet potatoes are a great source of vitamins A, B6, and C, making them a healthy addition to any meal. It would go well with any meat-based entree as well as a veggie dish that doesn’t already include sweet potato. Even better? This recipe only takes about 25 minutes to prepare!

3. Hot Pink Coconut Slaw (vegetarian, gluten-free)

Did you know that red, purple, and pink vegetables are usually full of antioxidants? This recipe embraces the nutritional and aesthetic appeal of red cabbage and radishes to make a delicious, antioxidant-rich slaw. It also incorporates coconut, a well-loved and tasty superfood. Enjoy the slaw with tacos, chicken, or a range of other salads.

4. Garlic Parmesan Green Beans (gluten-free, vegetarian)

If you’re pressed for time, this 15-minute side is a huge winner. Although this dish is really healthy and simple, it’s far from boring. After all, who doesn’t like copious amounts of garlic? Green beans complement any meat or fish entree, and they’re packed with vitamins and fiber.

5. Roasted Beets (gluten-free, vegan)

Rich in antioxidants, beets makes a versatile and delicious side dish, and they add a pop of color to your dinner table. Excluding baking time, this dish takes less than 30 minutes to prepare, which means you have more time to work on the entree. This pairs particularly well with roast beef or poultry, especially since you can pop the entree in with the beets at the same time.

6. Spicy Couscous With Salmon and Yogurt

If you want a particularly interesting side dish, this is a fantastic choice. It’s deceptively easy and quick to make. It makes a great addition to a poultry meal or to a spread of different salads. Salmon is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and protein, and couscous is also a nutrient-rich, tasty ingredient.

7. Strawberry and Kiwi Salsa (gluten-free, dairy-free)

We often associate strawberries and kiwis with dessert, fruit salad, and breakfasts, but this salsa is brilliant as a side to a savory meal. It works well with chicken or fish, and it could also be enjoyed as a dip with chips and guacamole. If you’d like a side that’s vegan and Whole30 compliant, simply omit the honey. Strawberries are packed with vitamins and antioxidants, so the more opportunities you have to eat them, the better.

8. Cauliflower Rice (gluten-free, vegan)

Cauliflower rice is a plant-based, grain-free alternative to traditional rice that suits nearly everyone’s dietary needs! It has a great taste that isn’t too overpowering or bland. It’s even easier to make than rice: The entire side dish can be made in about 10 minutes. This can be served with nearly anything from stir-fry to curries to stew.
A side dish is just as important as the main part of a meal but we don’t always have time or energy to create something elaborate and interesting. May these healthy side dish ideas provide some inspiration for your next dinner party or luncheon!

Bonus Dish

Check out our video for a squash apple cranberry bake. Super simple, nutritious, and delicious!

Tags Featured, organic

In the Kitchen Nosh

Quick And Easy No-Bake Dessert Recipes For The Holiday Season

Post author By Ashley Linkletter
Post date December 18, 2017

If you’ve ever planned a dinner party during the holiday season, you know how easy it is for the dessert course to fall by the wayside. Despite your best intentions, making a dessert that requires valuable oven space just isn’t practical sometimes, especially if you’re making multiple hot dishes for the main course.
But never fear! These no-bake dessert recipes are super simple to put together and—best of all—don’t require any valuable oven real estate. Surprise your guests with these delightfully festive no-bake desserts and they’ll never suspect you opted for an intentional shortcut…

Mixed Berry Eton Mess

A traditional English dessert, this recipe for Eton mess uses freshly whipped cream, pre-made meringues, and macerated berries to create an elegant dessert that comes together with ease.

Active Time: 10 Minutes

Total Time: 30 Minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

4 cups of mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and diced strawberries all work well)
1 Tbsp. white sugar
2 cups of whipping cream (keep chilled for best results)
4 meringue nests

Special Equipment:

Medium-sized mixing bowl
Large glass bowl
Whisk OR hand mixer OR stand mixer
4 small dessert bowls or glasses

Method:

Tumble the mixed berries into a medium-sized bowl, stirring in the sugar until combined.
Use the flat side of a fork to gently mash the berries until they are just beginning to break apart. Allow the berries to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
Pour the whipping cream into a large glass bowl and whip until soft peaks form using a whisk, hand mixer, or stand mixer.
Crumble the meringue nests into the whipping cream, taking care to leave generous chunks of meringue for texture.
Gently fold all but a scant cup of the macerated mixed berries and their juices into the whipped cream and meringue mixture.
Divide the Eton mess into the small bowls or glasses and top with the remaining mixed berry mixture. Serve immediately.

Gingersnap and Dark Chocolate Gelato Sandwiches

Store-bought cookies and gelato make this elevated ice cream sandwich recipe a snap—a gingersnap, that is! These frosty but decidedly sophisticated treats are a cinch to make and can be wrapped in parchment paper and tied with ribbon for a festive presentation.

Active Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

8 large store-bought gingersnap cookies
4 oz + 1 oz candied ginger, finely chopped
1 pint dark chocolate gelato
4 oz good quality dark chocolate, finely chopped

Special Equipment:

Spatula and large glass bowl OR stand mixer with paddle attachment
Ice cream scoop

Method:

Remove the gelato from the freezer and allow to sit at room temperature for 8 minutes.
Transfer gelato into a large bowl or stand mixer. Working quickly, fold in 4 ounces of chopped candied ginger using a spatula OR stand mixer paddle attachment until evenly combined.
Place gelato and candied ginger mixture back in the freezer for at least 30 minutes or up to 12 hours.
Take the gelato out of the freezer 5 minutes before you’ll begin assembling the gingersnap sandwiches.
Combine the dark chocolate and remaining ounce of candied ginger on a plate or in a shallow bowl.
Using an ice cream scoop, top 4 gingersnap cookies with the gelato and ginger mixture. Being careful not to break the gingersnaps, place the second gingersnap on top and press down until the gelato has reached the edge of both gingersnaps.
Roll the gelato edge in the dark chocolate and candied ginger mixture until covered.
Freeze the gingersnap and gelato sandwiches for at least 1 hour before serving. This will help the gingersnaps soften up so they don’t break the instant someone takes their first bite.

Tags organic

Happy x Mindful Wellbeing

Happy, Healthy, And Strong: What You Can Learn From These Celebs’ Wellness Routines

Post author By Katie Martin
Post date December 18, 2017

I have a confession to make:
I’m 31 years old, and before this year, I had never been able to do a “real” push up.
I’ve always had to do a modified version, and even then I struggled.
That is, until I started following fitness star Kayla Itsines on Instagram. Her before-and-after photos of regular women just like me getting stronger and more fit inspired me.
I downloaded the app, treated myself to fancy workout clothes, and got to work.
It hasn’t been pretty, but thanks to Kayla, I can now carry my son in his car seat without having to stop and catch my breath every five feet.
Itsines is just one celeb dishing out some serious wellness inspiration.
Check out these seven celebrities’ routines for restoring health to mind, body, and soul.
Drew Barrymore
Recently, internet trolls tried to come after my girl Drew for posting a photo of herself without makeup. Even though she looked totally gorgeous in the photo, Barrymore admitted that the comments stung. Instead of wallowing in self-pity though, Barrymore practiced self-love.
In a pic posted to Instagram, Barrymore commented, “Yesterday I saw comments on my Instagram feed about my post that were mean, cruel, and ugly. It hurt me. And you know what women do when they get hurt???? They pick themselves up! Go get a haircut. Put on some lipstick and chant ‘if you don’t have something nice to say… don’t say anything at all’ thank you @markishkreli @yumi_mori for picking a girl up and dusting her off. And more than anything, helping me feel pretty. Pretty is on the inside. But a little love on the outside never hurts.”
Whitney Thore
I love Whitney Thore, the star of TLC’s My Big, Fat, Fabulous Life, and not just because she’s from my home state of North Carolina. Thore has become a vocal advocate for body positivity and self-love, both on her show and through her website, No Body Shame.
Thore became YouTube famous with her viral “fat girl dancing” videos, which seek to show that women don’t have to be a certain shape to practice wellness—or have fun doing it.
Thore believes that wellness isn’t just about a particular workout or diet. In an interview with The Gloss, she says:
“It’s not just about body image … I want to reach anyone that has something they feel is holding them back from just living in the moment and being happy.”
Jessamyn Stanley
Another Carolina girl (we really are best in the world, y’all), Jessamyn Stanley is a body positivity advocate and yoga instructor.
One reason I love Stanley is how refreshingly honest she is. Even though she’s written a book, amassed more than 300,000 Instagram followers, and now teaches yoga all over the world, Stanley did not always love yoga. In fact, she hated it. According to a post by Stanley on Tumblr: “I think it’s really important for me to say that my first yoga experience was hell on earth. Are you hearing me? HELL. ON. EARTH.”
Lucky for us, Stanley gave yoga another chance and has this advice for wannabe yogis:
“Don’t be intimidated by your inexperience—even world weary yoga teachers are lifelong students. We are all constantly learning and evolving, and your evolution is absolutely perfect from the start.”
Julianne Hough
Julianne Hough is serious fitness goals. I mean, have you seen her abs?
But Hough is so much more than a rockin’ bod. She created her website, JulianneHough.com, as a space for women to be the “best versions of ourselves through style, fitness, and giving back to the world around us.”
Most recently, Hough shared her struggle with endometriosis, a painful condition in which uterine tissue grows outside the uterus. Other famous celebs like Lena Dunham have recently revealed their own battle with endometriosis, but the condition is still a mystery for most women.
Hough is committed to raising awareness for endometriosis through her organization MeInEndo and says, “Through this campaign aimed at inspiring women to learn about and understand endometriosis, I too have learned so much. Most importantly, I’ve learned I’m not alone. … Together, we can change the way endometriosis is understood.”
Ashley Graham
I typically think of Dress Barn as being a place women of a certain age might shop, but Ashley Graham changed my mind. When her Dress Barn collaboration came out, I bought every. single. piece. She’s almost (but not quite) replaced Dolly Parton as my style icon. And that’s not a statement I make lightly!
One of the best things about Ashley Graham is the way she stays true to her own wellness routine and shuts down haters. Recently, Graham had the best response to some ugly comments about her workouts on Instagram:
“Just for the record—I work out to: stay healthy, feel good, get rid of jet lag, clear my head, show big girls we can move like the rest of em, stay flexible and strong, have more energy … I don’t work out to lose weight or my curves, bc I love the skin I’m in…”
Preach, Ashley!
Paloma Elsesser
The new face of Fenty, Paloma Elsesser is not just a bombshell but an advocate for body positivity and women’s wellness. Recently Elsesser appeared in Glossier’s campaign for their new Body Hero line. In an Instagram post, here’s what she had to say about the experience:
“I did this to show that being fat isn’t a burden. Being fat isn’t ugly or shameful. To prove to one person that it isn’t BRAVE to be fat, but bountiful. And for that young girl looking on Instagram, or walking down Spring St, that she is … perfect despite the precarious and irresponsible versions of beauty we are urged to digest.”
Like Ashley Graham and Jessamyn Stanley, Elsesser also wants women to know that wellness has nothing to do with size. In an interview with Coveteur, Elsesser says, “This image that we’re now unpacking is that there’s no one body type—we all have different body types, everything can sit differently.”
How does Elsesser maintain a wellness routine while also being a jet set supermodel?
“There is so much chaos [in the world], so it’s important that we, as women, as human beings, are able to tap out in a positive way. [I was living in a] negative, destructive way that I was just not willing to participate in anymore. [And for me] that was wellness, having tranquility.”
Serena Williams
I don’t know about you, but when I was in my first trimester, it was all I could do to drag myself to work on time, much less work out.
That’s why Serena Williams is and always will be the GOAT.
Not only did she slay on the court, but she won the Australian Open while in her first trimester.
Serena’s secret to wellness?
Killer self-confidence.
After the birth of her son Alexis, she posted on Instagram, “’I’m ready to get back at it. My belief in myself has never been stronger.”
In an interview with Fitness magazine, Williams revealed that although she eats a healthy diet and maintains a wellness routine even when she’s not training, she does have days where she feels a little inadequate. “When I was young I thought I should be built more like an athlete—long and lean—not with a womanly figure. But then people my age started coming up to me, saying, ‘I love you because of the way you look.’ They could relate to me. That was really motivating.”
Williams’ advice for women?
“I learned to be proud of my curves and to embrace my large boobs and my butt. It’s all about loving who you are and realizing that you’re beautiful.”
In my opinion, that’s the only wellness routine women really need to follow.

Tags organic

Lifestyle

That Pins-And-Needles Feeling (And 6 Other Freaky, Totally Normal Things About The Human Body)

Post author By Mary Sauer
Post date December 18, 2017

When I brought my first child home from the hospital, I was a nervous wreck. I worried about her every minute for the first several days, and I would spend hours watching her sleep. When I finally dozed off at night, it was only because I was resting my hand on her chest to feel her chest rise and fall.
Imagine just how freaked out I was when, that very first night, she fell into a deep sleep and her breathing started sounding weird. She would breathe normally for a long time, and suddenly she was breathing loudly or her breathing would speed up for a short period of time. First, of course, I Googled it, and then I called my mom.

“It’s normal,” my mom told me. Apparently, newborn breathing is pretty weird, and they can’t be expected to sound like we do when we sleep. I tried to stop obsessing, but the weird way my daughter breathed at night just ended up on the list of freaky medical things I worried about without due cause.
I’m not alone. There are a ton of strange things about the human body that make people worry but are totally normal. Here are seven examples of bizarre, but normal, conditions.

That Weird Way Your Baby Breathes

First things first, let’s revisit my first month of motherhood and talk a little about the weird way that newborns breathe.
Babies don’t breathe at a consistent rhythm when they sleep. And according to Susan Besser, MD, a primary care provider at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, newborns don’t breathe through their mouths until they are several months old.

“One more thing about babies and breathing: The nose and airway of the baby is smaller than an adult,” she says, “so the breathing noises may seem very loud.”
Of course, difficulty breathing is not something to brush off. If you suspect your baby is actually struggling to breathe, Besser offers some criteria for deciding if it’s time to seek care: Babies that are nursing well, able to cry vigorously, and seem alert are doing fine—even if their noses are stuffy. However, if the baby is showing any blueness around their lips or seems unresponsive, head right to the emergency room.

That Pins-and-Needles Feeling

This abnormality isn’t limited to children. Anyone can get a static-y feeling in their limbs, and it’s actually fairly common, so there’s no reason to panic. However, as the video below shows, sometimes this tingling can be a sign of something more serious.
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Your foot ever go numb and you stand up abruptly, forgetting?
Yea, that just happened to me.’#Jellylegs pic.twitter.com/mA84Qmn6iC

— CyBplaysgames (@cybplaysgames) December 9, 2017

The Post-Fever Rash

When you’re a parent, sick kids are just par for the course. Even if they’re not in daycare, they seem to share germs with each other any chance they get. A rash on a young kid, especially a baby, is pretty scary, but it’s much more common than you might think.

It’s totally normal for a child to develop a rash 12–24 hours after a fever breaks. It’s called roseola, and it’s common in kids under the age of 2, according to Healthline. There is no way to treat roseola, so, in most cases, you can just wait for it to go away on its own.
When do you know that a rash is something more? When there are additional, serious symptoms happening at the same time, according to Besser.

“Rashes, of course, can be due to lots of things: viruses, dry skin, poison ivy or other contact, reactions to foods or medications,” she explains. “The only time an emergency room visit is advised is if there are other serious symptoms associated with the rash—primarily difficulty breathing.”

That Weird, Stabbing Feeling

Experiencing chest pain makes a lot of people worry—and rightfully so—but not all chest pain is reason for concern. As it turns out, it is fairly normal for children and young adults to experience a specific, sudden onset of chest pain in short bursts.

It’s called precordial catch syndrome, and it is benign. It’s a sharp, localized, stabbing feeling in the chest that lasts somewhere between 30 seconds and three minutes, according to the Health Service at the University of Wisconson–Stevens Point.
The pain, UWSP document says, doesn’t even come from the heart. “The pain probably comes from nerves in the inner lining of the chest cavity called the pleura which becomes pinched or irritated.”
They advise people experiencing precordial catch to “Relax, knowing that the pain is completely harmless and needs no specific treatment.”

“… everyone occasionally has palpitations or skipped beats.”

But while precordial catch syndrome isn’t a reason for a visit to the ER, that doesn’t mean you should ignore chest pain. If you’re experiencing chest pain on a regular basis, it’s probably a good idea to see your primary care physician to rule out any other issues.
“If you are young and/or in relative good health, it’s unlikely that chest pain or palpitations signal a serious heart problem,” explains Besser. “But this is an instance I strongly recommend you call your [primary care physician]. For the record, let me state, everyone occasionally has palpitations or skipped beats. It’s normal, but if it happens continuously, that might be an issue.”

The Ice Cream Headache

Okay, so most people know better than to freak out when experiencing a brain freeze. One thing most people don’t know is that this common experience has a not-so-common name.

You may call it a brain freeze, but the medical world calls it sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, according to ScienceDaily. It may be harmless, but it actually happens for a reason.
When you enjoy something super cold, the treat changes the temperature of the arteries that feed blood to the brain, causing them to contract and dilate. As a result, your brain believes you’re experiencing pain, and that’s why you experience a brain freeze.

“They are usually not life threatening unless accompanied by other symptoms …”

Scientists are actually using the brain freeze to learn about more serious headaches. By observing the brain after inducing a brain freeze, researchers hope to learn more about the causes of and treatment for headaches.
A brain freeze is certainly not worth an emergency room visit or a visit with your primary care physician, but what about other types of headaches? Even incredibly painful headaches don’t require a visit to the emergency room, Besser says, because they’re typically not life threatening.

“If your only symptom is a headache, call your doctor,” Besser explains. “They are usually not life threatening unless accompanied by other symptoms such as [fainting] or signs and symptoms of a stroke, such as loss of use of a limb or the ability to talk.”

Lumps in Your Neck When You’re Sick

Since most people know at least one person who has been diagnosed with cancer, finding a lump anywhere on your body can be scary. Not all lumps are reason for concern, however: Your lymph nodes regularly become enlarged when you’re fighting off an illness.

When your doctor feels around on your neck when you’re sick, they’re checking to see if your cervical lymph nodes are swollen. The name for this experience is lymphadenopathy, according to Medscape, and it typically happens because a pathogen is present in the body.
The remedy for lymphadenopathy is fighting the cause. As you and your doctor treat your infection, your lymph nodes should recede.
In rare cases, swollen lymph nodes are due to something more serious, like lymphoma. According to Mayo Clinic, if your lymph nodes swell for no reason, are present for two to four weeks, feel hard or rubbery/don’t move, or are “accompanied by persistent fever, night sweats or unexplained weight loss,” you should recontact your doctor.

That Time of the Month

When it comes to menstrual cycles, there are many symptoms, both painful and annoying, that are considered to be within the range of normal. And unfortunately for those who experience it, heavy bleeding is common and not a reason for alarm. Women do visit the emergency room on a regular basis because of their concerns about menstruation, according to Besser, but it is usually unwarranted.

“Unless you are having a lot of pain or have bled so much to the point of fainting, which implies significant blood loss, save the visit for your primary care physician,” she says.
Heavy bleeding during your period might not be life threatening, but it is definitely a difficult experience that many women deal with. It’s called menorrhagia, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, and it is technically defined as bleeding that soaks a tampon or pad every hour and cramps that make it difficult to continue daily activities. Don’t visit an emergency room if you are experiencing this, but do call your doctor if you’ve never talked about managing your symptoms before.

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Myth 2: Baby teeth cavities don’t need fillings because the teeth are just going to fall out anyway.

Myth 3: Sugar by itself is bad for your teeth.