Author: Staff Writer

12 Signs That A Thyroid May Not Be Working As It Should

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date March 7, 2019

Do you have an overactive or underactive thyroid?

According to the American Thyroid Association, about 12 percent of Americans will have thyroid conditions at some point in their lives. By their estimate, 20 million Americans currently have thyroid conditions, but over half are completely unaware.
Why is that? Most people aren’t aware of the symptoms of thyroid dysfunction. In fact, a large portion of people are unaware of what the even thyroid does.
https://twitter.com/wellybadger/status/198021474152497153
The thyroid is a gland that controls metabolism and sends hormones throughout the body. It’s shaped like a butterfly, and it’s located near the base of your neck.

“It produces hormones that regulate your metabolism by controlling how many calories you burn, as well as how fast or slow your brain, heart, liver, and other organs work,” endocrinologist Christian Nasr, medical director of the Thyroid Center at the Cleveland Clinic, told Health.com.
Because it plays a critical role in your overall health, you should know some of the symptoms of thyroid dysfunction.

Before we get to the symptoms, however, an important note: If you have any of these symptoms, seek assistance from a qualified physician. Only a doctor can diagnose thyroid issues, and this article is intended to raise awareness, not to function as medical advice.
With that said, let’s look at 12 of the most common symptoms, as explained by medical professionals and sources.

1. Fatigue

A recent study in the journal Frontiers found a link between hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid) and chronic fatigue syndrome.
While further studies will help us understand the link, the Frontier findings make sense. The thyroid controls metabolism, which affects your weight and your ability to store and use energy . If the gland isn’t functioning properly, you may notice regular fatigue, even after you’ve had 8 to 10 hours of quality sleep.

However, note that between 50 and 70 million people in the United States have sleep or wakefulness disorders. Sleep disturbances are also linked to a number of other diseases and disorders, including depression, hypertension, sleep apnea, and more, so you should undergo a sleep study to definitively diagnose the issue.

2. Anxiety and Depression

According to Harvard Health Publishing, when the thyroid gland creates too much or too little of the hormone it uses to regulate metabolism patients often report mood disturbances.

These can manifest in a variety of ways, depending on the nature of your condition, but if you’re feeling anxious, jittery, nervous, or depressed, there’s a chance that your thyroid is to blame.

3. Constipation

Without getting too graphic, hypothyroidism is associated with constipation.
This is because your thyroid’s main role is—you guessed it—metabolism, and it therefore controls the function of your digestive tract. When your body isn’t producing enough thyroid hormone, you’ll have trouble “producing,” to use a very strained euphemism.

Thyroid hyperactivity, on the other hand, can have the opposite effect, causing excessive trips to the bathroom. Any sudden changes in your digestive habits are a good reason to see your doctor, since they can be indicative of other medical conditions.

4. Random Sweat

“Is it hot in here, or is it just me and my hyperactive thyroid?”

If your body is having a tough time regulating its energy production, you may start sweating at apparently random times. You may also feel extremely warm, even when the room is cold. You might also feel perfectly comfortable as you’re sweating up a storm, though this symptom depends on the person.

5. Weight Management Issues

This is the thyroid dysfunction symptom that most people know about: if you have an underactive thyroid, you might gain weight easily.

If you have an overactive thyroid, you might have trouble putting weight on.
Try not to get too obsessed with overall “weight,” though, since that can be misleading. Body fat percentage is a better metric to track, since weight varies considerably throughout the day.

More importantly, pay attention to how you feel, and note any sudden changes in your appetite. If you’re eating a lot, but you’re always hungry and you can’t put on weight, hyperthyroidism might be the culprit.

6. Changes in Taste

Thyroid dysfunction can change how you taste certain foods, since your body will incorrectly gauge how much nutrition you need—and what type of nutrition.

If you suddenly start craving certain foods and your appetite changes dramatically, you could be producing a different amount of thyroid hormone.

7. Thinning Hair

Severe and prolonged issues with your thyroid, according to the British Thyroid Foundation, can cause hair loss. When your thyroid isn’t functioning correctly, your body wrongly assumes that it needs to divert resources to essential body functions. In other words, your body thinks that it has very limited energy reserves, so it goes into a “conservation mode” that de-prioritizes anything that doesn’t keep you alive.

Unfortunately, your hair might be one of the top targets of these misguided conservation efforts. People with thyroid issues (especially hyperthyroidism) often notice thinning hair. In some cases, they’ll lose hair entirely, but the good news is that adequate treatment will usually restore hair.

8. Muscle Soreness

Thyroid issues can be painful. According to the Mayo Clinic, physical symptoms include aching extremities, muscle pain, tenderness, and stiffness. If you have arthritis, the condition may be worsened by thyroid dysfunction. Severe thyroid issues can also manifest with painful aches in the neck (where the thyroid is located).

You might also notice cold sensations in your fingers and toes along with occasional numbness. This is, again, due to changes in your body’s energy regulation.

9. Visible Lumps

If you notice lumps in your neck, these could be signs of a thyroid condition, but they could also be a goiter—an enlarged but perfectly functional thyroid—or simply enlarged lymph nodes.

The American Thyroid Association suggests that if you notice any visible change, see a doctor right away for proper diagnosis.

10. Dry Skin

While hyperthyroidism may make you sweat too much, as mentioned earlier, it’s also possible your body might not sweat enough due to hypothyroidism. The lack of moisture can quickly result in dry, flaky, or itchy skin.

The limited hormone production will also affect other parts of your body; you might notice cracked, brittle fingernails and toenails, for instance. Of course, dry nails and skin can also be caused by a lack of hydration, so make sure you’re drinking enough water.
The Mayo Clinic recommends eight 8-ounce glasses of fluid per day, noting that any fluid counts toward the daily total.

11. High Blood Pressure

It is known that both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism can result in high blood pressure, although scientists disagree about the specific mechanism that causes that high blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association.

The most popular theory is that low thyroid hormones will slow the heartbeat, affecting the flexibility of blood vessel walls and eventually resulting in high blood pressure. Likewise, high thyroid hormones cause the heart to beat faster, creating a more direct effect.
In either case, sudden changes in blood pressure always warrant a medical examination, so if this is something you’re experiencing, you should speak with your physician.

12. Menstrual Cycle Changes

Women with thyroid issues may experience sudden changes with their periods, although this isn’t always directly linked with thyroid hormone production.

Instead, metabolism changes may prompt a woman’s body to go into an anemic state (meaning a deficiency of red blood cells). This can cause fertility issues, so, again, it’s a symptom that shouldn’t be ignored. If you notice any changes in your menstrual cycle, tell your doctor right away.

So, what do you do if you have hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, or thyroid disease?

First things first: get to your doctor. No internet article can provide treatment advice—it can only make you aware of the potential symptoms and issues they cause.

For the millionth time, please get your medical advice from a doctor! Not from Twitter. Not from WebMD. Not from the Internet.

— Aditya (@adichandorkar) February 28, 2017

Typical treatment strategies involve short-term hormone therapy, which can restore normal functionality very quickly. Your doctor may also look into the causes of the thyroid condition, as some are commonly caused by autoimmune disorders, medications, and other obvious triggers that will need to be addressed for a long-term cure.

Remember, medical diagnoses should always be handled by a qualified physician. Many of the symptoms on this list can also apply to other conditions, so don’t assume that you have a thyroid issue when you speak with your physician.
There’s good news, however: if you do have a thyroid disorder, you can often treat it safely and effectively in a matter of months.

Tags 3/7/17, 50016941, care, hemingway, Publishupdate

Wellbeing

8 Things Your Nail Salon Doesn't Want You To Know

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date March 7, 2019

What’s more relaxing than a trip to the nail salon?
Well, pretty much everything, when you realize what goes on behind the scenes.

To be fair, many manicurists and pedicurists run well-cleaned, wonderful shops—we certainly don’t want to denigrate the profession as a whole. Each year, Americans spend over $7 billion on nail services, and the vast majority walk away happy.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind before heading in for your next appointment. For starters…

1. There might be hidden fees.

Let’s start with one of the most obvious (and least dangerous) secrets. Manicurists tend to charge by the service, but they’re not always upfront about what’s included for that single fee. For instance, they might charge separately for a base coat, a nail strengthener, and the polish.

The only way around this trap is to start a conversation. Ask what’s included for the fee you’re paying. When the manicurist goes to work, if you’re not sure what they’re doing, ask them before they begin. You have every right to refuse services or products that you don’t need—and that you’d really rather not pay for.
Keep in mind that you can always bring your own favorite nail-care products. When you walk into the salon and hand the manicurist your own favorite base coat and polish, they’ll usually be happy to charge you just for the application. Again, though, make sure that’s a conversation you have before they get started.

2. There’s only one way to ensure sterilization, and your salon probably isn’t using it.

You’ve read the horror stories about people getting terrible infections from contaminated tools at a nail salon. There’s a simple reason why that happens: It’s actually really hard to completely sterilize what is essentially surgical equipment.
Surgeons use a machine called an autoclave to make sure they eliminate 100 percent of the fungi, bacteria, and viruses that can live on stainless steel tools. Autoclaves use a combination of pressure, heat, and steam to sterilize equipment.

“It’s a specific device that sterilizes equipment with steam, making it sanitary and safe, since no chemicals or irritants are used,” says Debra Lindy, co-founder of Sani Sak, a company that produces sanitized manicure tools. “This is very rarely purchased by nail salons, as it can be cost prohibitive.”
The problem with this is that only Iowa and Texas have laws on the books that require nail salons to disinfect equipment with autoclaves. In the rest of the country, manicurists typically use chemicals or UV light boxes to sterilize their tools.
Hey, UV light is better than nothing, right? Well, yes, but while those instruments might get rid of most of the infectious organisms that live on nail clippers, they’re not 100 percent effective.

Be sure to ask your manicurist how they sterilize their equipment before committing to a procedure. Many salons will also allow customers to bring their own tools; while that might initially feel awkward, it can help to prevent a painful infection.
Oh, and as this Answers user points out, it’s also not a bad idea to call your local health department if you’re especially curious about a salon’s practices.

3. Those UV lamps they use to dry your polish might increase the risk of developing skin cancer.

Granted, the risk that you’ll get melanoma from drying your polish under a UV lamp is pretty small, but it exists. Perhaps more importantly, the cell damage can build over time.

“Considering the low UV-A energy exposure in an average manicure visit, multiple visits would be required to reach the threshold for potential DNA damage,” wrote a team of researchers from Georgia Regents University, in a study published in JAMA Dermatology. The researchers also noted that typical exposure wouldn’t be enough to cause DNA damage, but customers who regularly get manicures or pedicures might be at risk.
Besides, the researchers found, there aren’t any good standards for manufacturers of UV nail lamps. Chris Adigun, MD, a board-certified dermatologist, told CBS News why this lack of regulation is dangerous.

There is little to no regulation on the manufacturing of these nail lamps,” Adigun said. “As a result, the bulbs, wattage and irradiance of these lamps varies dramatically from one manufacturer to the next, and individuals utilizing these lamps in salons have no way of knowing just how much UV exposure their skin is receiving upon each manicure.”

4. Nail techs are not necessarily trained to properly sterilize their equipment.

Podiatrist Robert Spalding, DPM, has the salon industry firmly within his sights. As author of Death by Pedicure, Spalding is a leading voice about the dangers of contemporary nail salon practices.
Spalding maintains that techs simply don’t have the training to verify when tools are safe to use. There is “industry-wide confusion about the definition of the term ‘sterilize,'” Spalding wrote.

Nail techs are “neither schooled nor licensed to work in the presence of blood or to maintain a surgically sterile environment,” he wrote. In other words, it’s not exactly their fault that they’re working on customers with infected tools. Rather, it’s the misunderstanding of what constitutes true sterilization.
“With years of experience as a nail technician myself, I cannot say I’m confident that everyone is trained to handle situations that may involve blood or sterile environments,” says Lindy.

As we’ve mentioned, only an autoclave can completely sterilize equipment. Anything less than this gold standard of sterilization might leave some microorganisms behind. That’s how people get infections. The point is that “some infective microorganisms are easy to kill, some are not,” according to Spalding.

5. There are even cases of customers getting warts from certain nail salons!

Forget fungal infections. How would you like to battle warts on your feet after an unclean pedicure?

The uncomfortable truth is that warts are often caused by a viral infection. If equipment and the environment of a nail salon isn’t kept to the most rigid standards of cleanliness, wart viruses might be present. All that stands between you and a lifetime of bumpy feet is the slip of the tech’s hand—if you get a wart virus in an open wound, you’ll probably end up with the infection.
That’s not even the worst of it. Serious viral infections, including HIV and hepatitis C, can also lurk in dirty nail salons. Make sure you attend a high-quality, trusted facility—preferably one with an autoclave. We’re not saying every nail salon is a hive of infections, but use common sense and stick with a salon that you trust.

6. If your pedicurist offers to “shave” your calluses, say “no thanks.”

We understand the temptation. Callouses aren’t the most attractive thing on the human body, and they can even be a bit painful. But remember that those are there to protect your skin—essentially, your body developed them for a reason.

That’s not the only reason to decline an offer to shave your calluses, though. The fact is, the procedure is probably illegal in your state.
You see, callus-shaving requires a tool called a credo blade. Technically, credo blades can only be used in “medical procedures,” which most states forbid from being performed at nail salons.
Instead of trying to lose the calluses altogether, podiatrists recommend smoothing them over with a little light pumice stone treatment. There’s a chance your nail salon offers this service, but remember that pumice stones are notoriously hard to disinfect. You might want to travel with your own.

7. Have you shaved your legs recently? If so, skip the salon.

If you’ve picked up one thing from this list, we hope it’s that breaking the skin in an unsterile environment is a great way to pick up a nasty infection. That’s true whether you get a cut on the cuticle or a tiny opening on a hair follicle on your ankle.

When you shave your legs, you create tiny, invisible openings in your hair follicles. These little holes may be too small for us to see, but for viruses, bacteria, and fungi, they’re like huge, inviting archways. They’re basically an invitation to move in and set up shop.
Jackie Sutera, DPM, a podiatrist based in New York, told HuffPost that you should wait at least two days between shaving your legs and heading to the salon for a pedicure. Otherwise, Sutera said, “you can literally end up in a hospital.”

8. It’s up to you to guard your health and safety at a nail salon.

No nail tech wants to get a customer sick. Still, salons are capitalist enterprises, first and foremost. Owners want to make as much money as possible, and that doesn’t create a strong incentive to turn away customers—even if they have a clear fungal infection and shouldn’t be anywhere near a nail salon.

“Because the industry isn’t regulated often enough salon technicians often slack off,” Lindy says. “…It doesn’t take much to transfer a contagious infection or spread bacteria. One negligent technician can transfer [microorganisms] to all the tools in the salon, especially if they’re all using the same disinfectant and the bacteria is resistant”
The danger, Spalding wrote, is “the transmission of infection from one client to another.”

In other words, be on the lookout—and, for heaven’s sake, if you have a viral, bacterial, or fungal infection yourself, don’t go to the nail salon. Beauty can wait. After all, what is beauty without health?

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Lifestyle

11 Ways To Be More Attractive, According To Science

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date March 1, 2019

Research has shown that attractive people can earn up to 14 percent more money annually than their less attractive peers. While some of this is based on appearance alone, attraction also relies on the way you carry yourself, how you treat people, and the kind of people to associate with.
Here are a few ways to be more attractive, according to science.
(Editorial note: Since we’re talking about body types here, we wanted to make this clear: Every body type is perfectly fine, and different people have different preferences. These studies look at averages, so take them with a big grain of salt.)

1. Keep your chin up.

People often see a large jawbone as a masculine feature, per the wonderfully named “Facial Attractiveness: Evolutionary Based Research,” a review piece published in 2011.
The authors note that secondary sex characteristics (such as defined cheekbones and large jawbones) may show genetic strength.

Why? Well, one theory is parasitic resistance. Stay with us: Hormones like testosterone drive the development of secondary sex characteristics, and since those hormones also promote a healthy immune system, strong jawbones can show your potential mate that you’re fairly resistant to parasites. That’s also a great bit of info to drop to make a decent first impression (well, not really; save the parasite talk for the second date).
Apart from that, men who keep their chin up come off psychologically as more assertive and confident—even if they’re secretly self-conscious. It’s also a more appealing position for the face because it helps define the jawline and create a slimming effect for the neck region, so try to keep your chin up when possible.

2. Consider wearing sunglasses.

Vanessa Brown, lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, designed a study to determine why sunglasses look so awesome. Granted, she put it in more scientific terms, but at the end of the day, she was researching why a pair of Ray-Bans can turn a dork into Brad Pitt.
In any case, she found a few possible explanations. Sunglasses obscure the eyes (duh), which Brown believes creates an air of mystery around the wearer.

“The eyes are such a tremendous source of information—and vulnerability—for the human being,” she told The Cut. If you’re trying to get romantic, it always pays to cultivate a sense of mystery.
Sunglasses also improve facial symmetry by obscuring any slight anomalies around your eyes. For instance, you might notice that one of your eyes sits higher on your face, or one pupil might be slightly larger than the other; that’s perfectly normal and natural, but people generally prefer symmetrical faces when choosing mates.
Finally, celebrities and models frequently wear sunglasses, so Brown believes that there’s probably some social factors at play. Never doubt the power of advertising when it comes to shaping our cultural ideas of what is (and isn’t) attractive.

3. Boost your adrenaline levels.

Let’s say that you finally landed a date with that hottie down the street. Should you hit up the local coffeeshop, or get tickets to the symphony?
If you’re really trying to make an impression, consider something more exciting. Studies show that adrenaline works as a natural aphrodisiac, and it may even help calm your nerves in a weird sort of way (you won’t be focused on whether you’re likable if your attention is elsewhere).

You might even consider an extreme sport. A 2014 study from the University of Alaska found that women were more attracted to men who take “hunter-gatherer risks,” which include activities such as deep-sea scuba diving, extreme rollerblading, and mountain biking. We’re not sure whether ancient hunter-gatherers really donned scuba tanks, but we’ll take these researchers at their word.

4. Think androgyny.

Women want a big, burly, manly man, right?
Not always.
A 1983 study showed that people who have a blend of masculine and feminine qualities tend to rank as attractive. The effect goes both ways—men tend to appreciate tomboys, although they still generally prefer feminine faces.

If you’ve got somewhat androgynous features, don’t hide them. By sporting that pink shirt you actually love and showing your sensitive side you usually keep to yourself, you’re being more honest with your potential mate (and you’ll probably benefit from a moderate confidence boost, since you won’t be pretending to be someone you aren’t).
If you’re an ultra-masculine dude, don’t worry—we’re just talking about averages here, so your big beard isn’t going to disqualify you. The body spray, however, might…

5. Don’t overdo the perfume or cologne.

Body spray, colognes, and perfumes all have the power to make a person more (or less) alluring. Take a look at our video below to get a better understanding of how cologne interacts with your natural scent.
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6. Stop smiling (or smile a lot).

Don’t go all goth, but don’t smile, either. A study from the University of British Columbia showed that happy guys finish last.

Participants rated photos of men who were visibly displaying emotion; guys who seemed happy ranked behind men who showed visible pride (somewhat expectedly) and shame (somewhat unexpectedly). Granted, the study was intended to assess “gut reactions on…attraction,” so happiness might be a more endearing trait in a long-term partner.
In contrast, men found happy women more attractive. There’s probably a host of sociological reasons for this strange phenomenon, but the takeaway is clear: If you’re a man, you’d better start practicing your serious face.

7. Consider your facial hair carefully.

Although some women may prefer a bearded man, the majority do not, according to a study in the Oxford Journal of Behavioral Ecology.
Researchers found that most women didn’t find men with beards to be more attractive, although they did assume that the bearded guys had a higher social status than their non-bearded brethren.

However, another study published in Behavioral Ecology found that women’s facial hair preferences varied depending on their age. Postmenopausal women gave “higher scores for all degrees of facial hair, including full beards, than premenopausal and pregnant women.”
That doesn’t mean you should shave it all off; that second study found that women at “high fertility phases” gave higher scores to men with heavy stubble.
If you decide to keep your facial hair, keep it maintained. Nobody likes a neck beard (and shaving a neckline is pretty easy, once you get the hang of it).

8. Stick with a group.

People are more likely to be perceived as attractive when they’re part of a group. That’s commonly known as the “cheerleader effect,” for obvious (if slightly sexist) reasons.
Why? Well, humans tend to process faces in groups, so we form an average of all the faces we see. One study from the University of California at San Diego asked participants to rate the attractiveness of people in solo pictures, versus pictures of the same person in a group of people. Participants gave higher ratings to both men and women when looking at groups of people.

If you’re surrounded by attractive people, you will look more attractive. (That’s why we always hang out with our army of Brad Pitt clones.) Of course, this method won’t work all the time, because you’re eventually going to want to have some alone time with potential dates.
Still, if you’re hoping to take a great picture or impress some people you’ll never see again, groups are the way to go.

9. Arch your back (or work on your dad bod).

Body shape plays a role in attraction, and while genetic factors certainly play a role, you’ve got some control.
[pullquote align=”center”]As long as you’re healthy, you do you.[/pullquote]
For starters, the “dad bod” appeals to many women, and it actually seems to directly result from fatherhood according to a study in the American Journal of Men’s Health. Researchers found that new fathers typically picked up around three extra pounds of body fat, probably because it’s hard to hit the gym and eat healthy when you’re battling sleep deprivation (hooray, newborns!).
With that said, guys, feel free to maintain a higher level of physical fitness; women are less obsessed with body mass than men when evaluating potential partners, so as long as you’re healthy, you do you.

Women, you might want to arch your backs. Sounds weird, but there’s actually an interesting explanation for this one: A study from the University of Texas showed that men strongly prefer curvy backsides, potentially because a “45.5 degree curve from back to buttocks [allowed] ancestral women to better support, provide for, and carry out multiple pregnancies.”

10. Get a dog.

When in doubt, use your puppy as a pickup line.

Four independent studies researched whether men with dogs were more likely to attract others than men who didn’t have dogs. The participants asked for money, dropped money “accidentally,” or asked for phone numbers both with and without dogs.
The results were most significant when men asked for women’s numbers: Men with dogs were three times more likely to get a number than men who were dog-less.

Researchers believe this is the case because owning a dog shows that you are nurturing and capable of making long-term commitments. It also makes you seem approachable, loving, and happy. Plus, who doesn’t love dogs?

11. Wear red (or don’t).

For many animals, red is an important color. Humans certainly fall into this category, according to a 2010 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Through a series of seven experiments, researchers showed that women found men more attractive when those men stood against a red background and in red clothing. Interestingly, the color didn’t influence the men’s perception of women or of other men, although a separate 2008 study showed that men also prefer a splash of red (potentially due to social factors).
That doesn’t mean that you need to throw away all of your blue shirts, but if you’ve got a hot date, a red button-down might give you a subconscious edge.

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Happy x Mindful Wellbeing

Self-Love Is In The Air: Advice From 4 Self-Love Leaders

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date February 1, 2018

From the nearly 13 million mentions of #selflove found on Instagram to the thousands of books, articles, and research papers on the subject, no one can say that self-love has been neglected—at least the concept of it hasn’t.
But putting it into practice? That’s another story altogether.
We’re finding that loving ourselves (and the manifestation of that love through self-care) is more than just massages, face masks, and yummy candles.
It’s looking at what we each really need as individuals. It’s accepting differences in how people look at the world—and at themselves. It’s finding ways to make ourselves a priority, each and every day.
To find out how to make self-love a priority in our lives, we spoke to four women who are active in the self-love movement about how they see the purpose (and process) of loving yourself in today’s world: fitness instructor and mom Nadia Murdock; goal-setting coach Kingsley Delacato; wellness coach Lauren Bondi; and singer, YouTuber, and #bootyrevolution founder Meghan Tonjes.

What does self-love mean to you?

Nadia:

Taking care of yourself in a compassionate, non-judgmental way so that you can be the best version of yourself.
From treating yourself every so often [in ways] big and small to be[ing] accepting of the mistakes you may make … honoring your imperfections and avoiding self-judgment or hate is inclusive of what I consider self-love.

Lauren:

Self-love is the thread that weaves all experiences, all emotions, all beings, all lives together. In my opinion, love is the most powerful emotion in our human capacity—and when this is directed inward, we can move mountains.
Throughout the years, I’ve learned that offering myself genuine compassion is not a luxury, but rather a requirement. Self-love means showing up for myself in every season of life and embracing whomever that woman may be. This love is as strong as it is soft. It heals trauma, mends broken hearts, pours light into the pain, quiets fears, ignites passions, manifests dreams, cultivates connection, and—perhaps most importantly—mirrors an undeniable worthiness to take up space in this world.

Kingsley:

Self-love to me means knowing when to say yes and when to say no. Realizing that in order to be able to put energy out into the world, I need to give myself the input of energy that I deserve. Giving time to myself and doing things that make me feel like me. When I am practicing self-love, I feel like the truest version of myself.

Meghan:

Self-love is incredibly individual. It doesn’t look the same for any two people. Self-love is actively holding space for yourself, your emotions, your traumas, your desires and practicing kindness and honesty within those.

How do you practice self-love on a daily or weekly basis? How do you integrate it into your life?

Nadia:

Self-love has become a part of who I am, so it’s gotten easier to weave practices into my regular habits. I like to utilize my positive mind cards as often as possible during the week. I pull three cards that will remind me to do things like forgive, smile, and basically enjoy the simple things in life.
I always pat myself on the back if I have done a good job—from teaching a killer barre class to overcoming a fear. I strongly believe small actions in your everyday life will lead to a seamless incorporation of self-love.

Lauren:

In my present chapter … self-love is absolutely a daily necessity. With the strong sense of emotional awareness and somatic attunement that I’ve developed throughout the years, the specific practices vary [based] on what I need most. One day, it may mean a loving-kindness meditation. The next day, it may mean lighting several candles and feeling my body melt into a steamy bath. Every day, though, it entails starting my morning with an affirmation and ending the night with gratitude journaling. These are practices I recommend to everyone, no matter their circumstances.
As I wake up and pull myself out of bed, I take a peek into my heart and ask myself what I need to hear. Without analyzing or forcing, I allow whatever comes up to intuitively act as my guide. One whisper that many of us may feel calling from our authentic selves is “I am enough.” Say I choose this as my affirmation. Well, I then walk up to a mirror, close my eyes, place my hand over my heart, and breathe into the space. With five-second inhalations and exhalations, I feel the sweet peace start to wash over me. I open my eyes and meet my gaze in the mirror, then recite aloud, “I am enough.”

Kingsley:

Self-love for me looks like spending time with myself. It means reading a book, getting a little extra sleep, working out, spending time with someone I love—even if it means scheduling an appointment with myself in my calendar and blocking off that time … realizing that I am just as important as anyone else in my life and that I need to take care of myself first so that I can show up for those around me as well.

Meghan:

For me, self-love doesn’t look the same week to week or even day to day. The biggest thing I do is check in with myself. I do a lot of journaling and that’s a great way of tracking how I feel, what I want more or less of.
Once you can be honest with yourself about what you’re actually anxious, sad, or overwhelmed with, you can start problem solving. If I’m feeling sad, maybe it’s important that week for me to reach out to friends and spend time outside of the house. If I’m overwhelmed, maybe I need to take a day off and fine-tune my schedule so I feel less anxiety about my days.

Do self-love and self-care differ for you? If yes, how so?

Nadia:

I think in many ways they overlap, but to me there are a few distinct differences. Self-love to me is being mindful of loving the person I was, am, and will be. So many times we live with regret or fail to live in the moment. Loving the person that has brought me here today and will shape who I am in the future is so important to me especially as a fairly new mom.
Self-care is about indulging in and paying close attention to habits that will keep me relaxed, healthy, and focused, for example massages, exercise, meditation, journaling, diet, and sleep.

Lauren:

Personally, I feel that self-care is simply an outward expression of self-love. While I can be madly in love with myself, it takes much more than vocalizing the emotion (although this is undoubtedly important). Imagine you’re in a long-term, committed relationship. You would certainly need your partner to demonstrate his or her love through appropriate actions, correct? The same applies to the relationships we’re actively creating with ourselves!
Self-care is one expansive umbrella term for every way this may be done. Weekly aromatherapeutic baths and meditations … are wonderful examples. While self-care is a budding topic in today’s society, it goes far beyond the “bumper sticker” of getting [our] nails done. It also means eating a nutritious diet, moving our bodies, declaring boundaries, vocalizing needs, and removing from our lives what is no longer serving us. Like I said: expansive!

Kingsley:

I see self-love as just that: doing the things that I love for myself. Self-care I see as taking care of the things in my life that make me feel supported, successful, and healthy. Self-care is doing what you need to do in order to take care of yourself, in order to operate from a place of abundance rather than depletion or exhaustion.

Meghan:

Self-love and self-care are pretty integral to one another. …Self-love is really the thought process: my desire to find more kindness and patience for myself. Self-care is the action.
The majority of wanting to love myself and feel good inside my own body is mental. But my ability to give my energy to that pursuit comes down to daily acts of self-care and the choices I make to support the wants.

How has self-love impacted your life?

Nadia:

I had heart surgery at the age of 18 years old. I had an atrial septal defect that needed to be corrected. As a young girl, I [placed a lot of importance] on how I looked, so the idea of scars just before heading off to college was not easy for me to handle. It took a long time for me not to be embarrassed by my scar or have it define my worth.
Fast-forward to 2015 when I again had to have a major surgery. This time it was my thyroid. Growth definitely helped dramatically when it came to my attitude with this surgery, but also learning to love myself no matter what I looked like and being less superficial. I am more focused on what’s on the inside. Experiences like these have drastically impacted me.

Lauren:

My path towards a regular self-love practice was rocky, at best. Growing up, it was an altogether foreign topic. When a therapist first broached the topic with my deeply hurting self, I immediately huffed and puffed—admonishing something so lax. After all, how the bleep was self-love going to get me and my array of perfectionistic tendencies to XYZ?
This is a belief that many women share, which is precisely why these campaigns are so necessary. Moving from self-hate to self-acceptance to self-compassion to outright self-love took time, and allowing it to unfold in that order was the only way to make it genuinely feasible. Now having made it to the other side, I can honestly say that self-love saved me. Without it, I never would have healed from my trauma, my disordered behaviors, or my limiting narratives. I would have remained stuck in a cycle of terrifying self-destruction, tearing myself to shreds believing that it was this unforgiving nature that would eventually raise me into “enoughness.”
However, that wasn’t my fix; nor would it ever be. As it turns out, my own love was what I had always been searching for. Because of this realization, I have my life. Despite what many of us are conditioned to believe, we need not be our harshest critics. There is undeniable power in being gentle, and in this gentleness, I found I could be fiercely in love with myself and my purpose. That same fire is what has kept me—and will continue to keep me—going.

Kingsley:

Self-love has helped me love myself through both the good and the bad times. It’s one thing to love yourself when everything is going well. It’s another thing to love yourself when things feel really hard.
Those moments of self-love and self-care help you stay connected to yourself and remember how special you truly are.

Meghan:

Self-love allows me to grow into the best version of myself and know that I’m enough. With it I’m less worried about other people’s opinions about my body and my choices. I’m able to trust my intuition. I’m able to advocate for myself in ways I didn’t before I valued my own needs.
The world often tells you how it sees you, how it wants to see you. Self-love has helped me feel strong in telling the world who I am and how I’ll be seen. It gives me strength in putting myself out there, allowing myself to take up space in life and online. I wouldn’t feel as comfortable showing my body or being proud of my accomplishments if I didn’t fundamentally believe I deserved to be seen.

What advice do you have for someone wanting to establish or strengthen a self-love practice?

Nadia:

It’s hard to achieve self-love if A) You are not surrounding yourself with people that acknowledge the importance of self-love themselves, or B) You haven’t truly committed to loving yourself.
Avoid self-hate talk, not giving yourself positive chats, etcetera. Keeping company with people that will build you up will only make it easier for you to continue to build yourself in a positive way.

Lauren:

My few pieces of advice are to start small, be patient, and make it your own. Your self-love practice is as unique to you as your fingerprint. Don’t look to others when trying to cultivate a “perfect” routine. Instead, take a deep look inside and get your hands dirty. What do you need most?
Your first dip into the ocean of self-love may be as simple as asking those questions and sitting with what comes up without judgment. Feel your full spectrum of emotions and acknowledge what makes you human. Then celebrate what makes you you. Set aside a block of time each week to do something nice for yourself. If … affirmations or gratitude journaling [resonate] with you, these are wonderful places to begin. Find your flow with them and ride that energetic wave wherever it may lead.
When you master the weekly practice, try it three times per week. Nail it? Great, move on to a daily practice. Remember, though, we’re developing self-love. Within this, there is no such thing as perfection. You may set a few intentions, but these are not deadlines or obligations. Love is a priority, but it should never be a source of shame. Show up with what you need as best you can and watch yourself blossom.

Kingsley:

Follow what feels right. Listen to your heart and your intuition. Don’t be afraid to put yourself first. Being successful in anything starts at the source, so take good care of yourself so that you can then go out and be great at all the things you want to achieve. The way you love yourself is the way you teach others to love you. So make sure you give yourself the time, love, and energy that you deserve.

Meghan:

Pay attention to how others do it. Take notes. Narrow down the things that work for you, that feel good and right to you. Rearrange and practice until it feels like the right combination. Most importantly, be patient with yourself. Your practice isn’t going to look exactly like anyone else’s and it’s going to be constantly changing as you grow up and dig deeper.

Looking for more self-love inspiration?

Check out our 28 Days of Self-Love lists of questions, actions, and affirmations for self-love.
Join our All You Need Is (Self) Love mailing list for access to bonus content and weekly reminders.
Fill your feed with love: Connect with us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

[related article_ids=1004777]

Favorite Finds Nosh

Bread Ties Are Color Coded (And More Grocery Store Secrets)

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date January 29, 2018

You might not realize it, but you probably spend quite a bit of time shopping for food.
In the United States, consumers make an average of 1.5 trips to the grocery store every week. For most of those people, it’s a pretty simple process: Grab your cart, walk down the aisles, check out, and ride your grocery cart back to your car while quietly saying “Whee!” under your breath. What could be easier?
However, there’s actually quite a bit going on behind the scenes. We spoke with a former grocery store worker and researched some of the closely guarded (and not so closely guarded) secrets of the supermarket.
For instance, we had no idea that…

1. Bread ties are color coded.

Those little twist ties (or tabs, depending on the brand) tell grocery store restockers when a particular loaf was made.
Here’s the code that’s been floating around the internet for the past few years:

Monday = Blue
Tuesday = Green
Thursday = Red
Friday = White
Saturday = Yellow

How is anyone supposed to remember that? Well, astute readers will notice that the colors go in alphabetical order. Keep that in mind, and you’ll never get an old loaf of bread again.

Then again, you probably don’t have to worry in the first place. As Snopes reports, grocery stores cycle out old loaves every day, so you don’t really need to memorize any color codes unless you’re looking to get the absolute freshest breads possible. Even if you do take the time to commit that list to memory, you might be disappointed, as there’s no industry-wide standard—some bread manufacturers use completely different methods to note freshness. The best way to find the real code is to ask the brands themselves.

2. Customers make all sorts of annoying mistakes when checking out.

First of all, the good news: Nobody’s judging your purchases. Well, not really.
“We’d see some older customers trying to hide embarrassing items—fungal treatments, things like that—under other items,” says one former supermarket worker, who worked primarily as a bagger and stocker for four years (he asked to remain anonymous to avoid disparaging his former employer).

“We don’t care what you’re buying. Everyone buys embarrassing stuff,” he says. “However, we do care when you’re holding up the line.”
In many stores, managers time transactions, and cashiers with long transaction times might face unpleasant repercussions. You can help by doing some quick organization and by having your money ready when the cashier asks for it.

People are still writing checks at the grocery store in the year 2018. My God, madam. There’s a 9-cart line behind you. The emotional carnage is enormous:

— Ryan Burns (@FtblSickness) January 29, 2018

“Towards the end of my time as a bagger, I started to hate [bank] checks,” says our source. “We’re trained to move on to the next customer as quickly as possible. What’s frustrating is that some customers want to take their time. In a perfect world, that’d be completely acceptable, but management software has sort of changed that.”

Try to keep similar items together to help the cashier and bagger move as quickly as possible. If you have coupons, let them know right away.
Oh, and make sure that your fruits and vegetables have visible code stickers, because…

3. Those produce codes aren’t random, and they sometimes contain some useful info.

They’re called Produce Lookup Codes, and they’re the bane of every grocery store worker’s existence. The little stickers come off easily, and cashiers need them in order to accurately price your fruits and vegetables.

“I learned codes for gala apples, russet potatoes, and a few other items, but that was it,” our source says. “There’s too many of them, and our selection changed constantly. It was annoying when customers got impatient when we had to look up the codes, like they expected us to have them all memorized.”
“I wanted to say, ‘Lady, there’s hundreds of these things. Don’t get mad at me because you didn’t pick out a starfruit with a sticker on it.'”
PLU codes are typically four or five digits long, and generally speaking, a five-digit code starting with the number nine means that the product was organically farmed. PLU codes in the range of 3000-4999 are reserved for “conventionally grown” produce.

With that said, the codes change regularly, so don’t depend on that little sticker if you’re looking to buy organic. Instead, research the farm or ask someone in your grocer’s produce department.

4. On a related note, be sure to bag your meats.

Most grocery stores provide disposable bags near their meat, poultry, and seafood sections, but if your store doesn’t offer them, consider bringing your own bags from home. Meat juices can seep out of the packaging and into your shopping cart, contaminating items and causing a mess.

Even if you’ve never noticed liquids seeping out of those packages, your local grocery store’s staff certainly has.
“We had to constantly wipe down the conveyor belt because [customers’] steaks would leave fluid all over them,” our source says. “I’m as eco-friendly as the next guy, but use those little bags. We’ll appreciate the effort.”

If you decide not to buy a meat product, give it to the cashier. They’ll happily put it back for you. However, some customers aren’t so considerate. If you find something perishable in the middle of the store, don’t try to put it back.
“You might think you’re doing a good deed,” our source explains, “but unless you know exactly how long that item has been sitting there, let us handle it. It’s a food safety issue.”

5. Know the store’s busiest hours.

Nobody loves waiting for half an hour to pay for a peach. Grocery store workers hate overloaded checkout lines, too, but they can’t really do anything when customers start pouring in.

grocery shopping late at night > grocery shopping during the day

— laurieee (@___laurieee) January 14, 2018

“One of my biggest pet peeves was when a customer would tell us to ‘just open another checkout line,'” our source says. “Believe me, we would if we could. At peak times, we’re going to be busy, and we can’t simply call in more people every time there’s a rush.”
There is, of course, something that you can do: Shop during non-peak hours. While traffic varies by location, most stores see big jumps in traffic on weekends. Sundays can be especially brutal.
“Holidays and big sporting events were the worst,” our source says. “Don’t go shopping on Superbowl Sunday, especially if your town’s team is in the big game. If you are shopping at a busy store, please try to be patient, and certainly don’t take out your frustrations on the workers.”

To avoid the crowd, try shopping early (before 8:00 a.m.) or late (after 8:00 p.m.) on a weekday. If you’re particularly averse to crowds, you can also ask the staff to tell you the best times of the week for a quick, painless shopping trip.

6. Likewise, if you love seafood, make friends with the people in the department.

Every store’s policy is different, but most stores receive deliveries on a particular day of the week. Ask someone who works in the seafood department when those deliveries come in, and you’ll know when to arrive to get the freshest possible fish.

By the way, “fresh” is a relative term. Food often arrives frozen, and some farmed or frozen fish might not be explicitly labeled as such. If you’re familiar with the workers in the seafood department, you can find better deals on better-tasting products. Some stores will even season and fry your fish for you, which can be awesome if you’re in a rush.
We’d recommend sticking with local fish species, if possible; according to organizations like the One Fish Foundation, that’s the best way to make a tasty, eco-friendly purchase.

7. The store is set up to make you buy more than you need.

As we mentioned earlier, the grocery industry is big business. It’s also insanely competitive, and stores need to sell as many products as possible to stay profitable.

The most eye-opening thing I learned was that I’d been wasting so much money by not planning my trips more effectively.

To that end, they engage in some clever tricks to get their customers fill up their carts. Stores might keep their shoppers in a good mood by putting bakeries and florists near their entrances (the memorable smells make for a better shopping experience). If that fails, they’ll simply pipe in the scents with a professional aroma machine. They play specially curated playlists to keep shoppers happy, and every inch of your local store’s layout is carefully planned to keep you buying.
Don’t be surprised if you end up at the checkout counter with more than you need—and don’t be surprised when most of that food ends up in your trash can. According to a study from the National Resource Defense Council, the average American wastes about 33 pounds of food per month.

Store workers notice when shoppers have poor spending habits, but of course, they can’t tell their customers to put back the extra bag of chips.
“The most eye-opening thing I learned was that I’d been wasting so much money by not planning my trips more effectively,” our source says. “These days, I’m more careful. I don’t really clip coupons or anything, but I make sure to eat a good meal before I go to the store. I make a list and watch for specials, and I avoid impulse purchases.”
“It’s easy to waste money, but it’s also pretty easy to stay within your budget.”

Tags 50038241, fuel, hemingway, social

Motherhood

5 Things Parents Do That Could Have Serious Consequences (And What To Do Instead)

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date November 3, 2017

Every parent wants to do everything perfectly.
Unfortunately, that’s impossible—we all make mistakes. Raising children is a real balancing act, as holistic psychologist Ellie Cobb, PhD, will tell you.
“The key is balance,” she tells HealthyWay. “Providing children with [a] full free range of choice can send the signal that they are not being cared for and can create anxiety for them. Providing no choices can hinder a child’s individual development.”
The trick is to find the right combination of freedom and restriction for your family, she says.

“Providing some choice and also some structure creates the most effective space for children to grow, develop, and learn,” Cobb says.
Note that she does not say it’s easy. As we said, every parent makes mistakes, and some of those mistakes are common enough that they deserve some attention. We reached out to experts in a variety of fields and asked them a simple question: What could parents do differently?
For starters…

1. Your kid’s backpack is dangerously overloaded.

Not only that, it might not be the right type of backpack, according to Scott Bautch, chiropractor and president of the American Chiropractic Association’s Council on Occupational Health. Bautch has consulted on backpack design projects, and while he believes that technology is helping to push parents in the right direction, they frequently force their kids to bear a heavy load.

“For younger children, backpacks are designed to carry about 10 percent of their weight, up to 15 percent for kids over 12 years old,” Bautch says. “If the backpacks are carrying more weight, they would be designed differently to shift the weight [to kids’] hips.”
But Bautch says that the average fourth-grader carries an incredible 33 pounds—about a third of their body weight—which can lead to injuries and musculoskeletal disorders. To put that in perspective, it’s the equivalent of a 150-pound adult carrying around a 50-pound weight every day, and that’s a real issue. Per the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as many as 7,300 kids per year end up in emergency rooms due to backpack-related injuries, reports CNN.

To avoid injuries, parents should carefully monitor the weight of backpacks on a day-to-day basis. Just as importantly, parents should choose backpacks that are sized and designed appropriately with broad, padded straps and multiple compartments, which help kids intuitively load their backpacks correctly so that heavier loads are towards the bottom.
Finally, kids should learn to lift their backpacks onto a chair or table before lifting them onto their backs; this prevents a harsh twisting action, which can cause an injury.

“We buy backpacks because they have Scooby Doo or Big Bird, but we really need to think, ‘how are these affecting my child?'” Bautch says.
The American Chiropractic Association offers more tips for avoiding backpack-related injuries here.

2. Attempting to ease your child’s fears might inadvertently reinforce them.

Let’s say that your child is afraid of strangers; as a parent, your immediate inclination might be to guide them through interactions with teachers, relatives, and children in a safe, controlled environment. That’s a good intention, but it can be somewhat misguided.

“Things that they are doing to ease the child’s anxiety, fears, and phobias are often the very things that make those problems worse,” clinical psychologist Anna Prudovski, MA, C.Psych, tells HealthyWay. “Parents often try to protect the child, answering questions for a shy child, allowing a child who is afraid of the dark to sleep in parents’ bed [or] keeping the lights on at night. But this is exactly what [keeps] the fears and anxiety going.”
[pullquote align=”center”]”Avoidance reinforces the child’s fear by demonstrating that the stressor is something that cannot be talked about.”
—Ari E. Fox[/pullquote]
Prudovski recommends a different approach.
“As difficult as it is, gradually and consistently exposing the child to the things they fear is the only way to get rid of the fears (and to avoid therapy in the future).”
Psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker Ari E. Fox of Cope With School NYC agrees.
“The best way to overcome anxiety, fearful situations, [or] phobias is by recognizing the challenge, making a plan, and gently exposing the child to whatever makes her anxious in the most benign form possible,” Fox explains.

“For example, if a child is afraid of travelling by subway, rather than taking only taxis or the bus, they can read about the subway, then visit a station, then take the train for a stop or two and continue to take longer trips gradually as the fear subsides,” Fox says. “Avoidance reinforces the child’s fear by demonstrating that the stressor is something that cannot be talked about.”

3. The “never wake a sleeping baby” adage can cause sleep issues.

“This results in fragmented sleep and can prompt nighttime awakenings,” says Dennis Rosen, MD, a pediatric pulmonologist and sleep specialist working at Boston’s Children Hospital. Rosen is assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and he authored the school’s guide for children’s sleep strategies.

Rosen says that while parents shouldn’t disturb sleeping infants during their first few months, babies should start getting most of their sleep at night by the time they’re around 3-6 months old.
“Maintaining and enforcing a regular and balanced sleep schedule winds up making everybody’s lives easier, even if it means keeping that toddler from taking a three hour nap in the middle of the day,” Rosen wrote for Psychology Today.

4. Introducing kids to computers without setting firm rules can cause issues.

These days, kids need to know how to use computers in order to succeed, but too much screen time is definitely problematic. As tempting as it might be, parents shouldn’t let their computers, tablets, and smartphones play the role of babysitter.

“By introducing screen time early on, they are potentially creating numerous problems and conflicts that they could have avoided otherwise,” Prudovski says.
Those problems include sleep issues, likely prompted by blue-spectrum light, which may suppress the production of the hormone melatonin. Per the Harvard School of Health, that might raise a person’s risk of obesity, diabetes, and other serious disorders. There’s even some limited evidence that bluelight could contribute to vision problems.
[pullquote align=”center”]”Parents can set expectations and boundaries to make sure their children’s media experience is a positive one. The key is mindful use of media within a family.”
—Megan Moreno, MD[/pullquote]
“We’ve seen a substantial increase in myopia [also known as nearsightedness] over the last 20 years, and that’s coincided with an increase in computer usage,” says ophthalmologist Gary Heiting, OD.
Of course, we’re just scratching the surface here; a 2001 review found that children who use computers early in life may have trouble distinguishing between the real world and the electronic world, and psychologist Aric Sigman, PhD, has repeatedly warned that excessive screen time is “linked with significant measurable biological changes in their bodies and brains that may have significant medical consequences.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends limiting screen time to one hour per day for children 2 to 5 years of age. For older kids, parents need to stay engaged to determine how much screen time is too much.
“Parents play an important role in helping children and teens navigate media, which can have both positive and negative effects,” said Megan Moreno, MD, author of the study, in a statement relayed on the AAP’s website. “Parents can set expectations and boundaries to make sure their children’s media experience is a positive one. The key is mindful use of media within a family.”

5. There is a right and a wrong way to praise your child.

As parents, our instinct is to heap praise on our kids so that they grow up with a healthy self-image. There’s just one problem with that impulse: Certain types of praise can actually damage self-esteem.

That’s according to a 2014 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. When you praise children for their personal qualities, the researchers found, they later felt greater shame following an experience of failure. Over time, that feeling of shame—the sense that they are themselves the failures—can add up to the poor self-esteem that every parent wants to save their children from.
That doesn’t mean you should stop praising your kids, of course. Quite the opposite. It’s just important to choose the right kind of praise. Those same researchers that demonstrated the negative effects of personal praise found that process praise, or compliments on specific behavior, rather than the self, does not lead to greater shame after failure.
In fact, it’s a pretty good bet that process praise is the way to build your kid’s self-confidence right from the start. So next time your kid brings home straight A’s, don’t say, “You’re the smartest kid in the world!” Instead, say, “I love how you studied so hard all year long to earn those grades!”
Of course, the style of your praise isn’t the only factor at play, here. There’s also the question of quantity. A more recent study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science suggests that parents should strive for a happy medium—neither overpraising nor withholding praise from their children.

These researchers asked parents and children if parental praise was commensurate with actual academic successes. When parents said that they over- or under-praised their kids for their schoolwork, those kids were more likely to do poorly in school. They were also more likely to have depression.
The takeaway, at least for now, is that parents who confer praise when and where children do something praise-worthy have the right idea. If hearing someone complain about how “everyone gets a trophy these days” makes your skin crawl, you’re not alone. But the science seems to suggest that they might have a point.

Tags 50036871, Commerce, hemingway, parenting

Lifestyle

These Are The Bathroom Habits It's Time To Ditch

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date October 24, 2017

The bathroom: To some, it’s a sanctuary, a place for long candle-lit baths and elaborate self-care rituals.
To others, it’s a necessary evil, every inch covered in pathogens.
As with anything else, the reality is somewhere in between. Think of your bathroom as a series of water-powered tools: sink, shower, toilet. Tools are only as good as you are at using them. We hate to tell you this, but there’s a decent chance your bathroom technique could use some work.
Yep, you’ve been using the bathroom wrong. We’re talking about mistakes like…

1. Taking long, hot showers.

This is the most heartbreaking fact in the world, but those luxurious, toasty showers on a crisp fall morning could actually be ruining your skin. Before you cry, “You can take my hot showers when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers,” hear us out.
Actually, hear out board-certified dermatologist Joel Schlessinger, MD, who knows way more than we do about skincare.

“Long, hot showers actually dry the skin,” Schlessinger tells HealthyWay, to the newsroom’s great despair. “The heat and moisture dilate blood vessels and open pores—a set-up to lose moisture. Evaporation afterward aggravates the loss of hydration.”
Even worse, that bliss-inducing stream of hot water blasts away the skin’s natural oils. The shower stream is a perfect storm for dry skin.

*takes 30 minute showers in boiling hot water daily*
I just don’t understand why my skin is so dry :////

— scout (@SquidneyNilles) January 8, 2018

“Our skin has proteins, fats, and oils that protect it and help keep it plump,” explains Claire Martin, a nutritionist and former esthetician who also writes for BeingHealthfull.com. “Heated elements from furnaces to hot water can strip our skin of this natural protection.”
Ugh. We don’t want to choose between the sweet sensation of a hot morning shower and healthy skin. So what can we do to limit the damage after indulging in a steamy soak?

“I always recommend applying a moisturizer on skin after lightly towel drying,” Schlessinger says.
Other experts we spoke to were less permissive. Many health care professionals recommend avoiding hot showers entirely, if you have the courage to do that.
“Make sure to limit your showers to 10 minutes in warm water (not hot water),” Rebecca Lee, registered nurse and founder of RemediesForMe.com, told us. “Pat dry with your towel and apply a lotion to the skin afterwards to keep the skin moisturized.”
Lee is not alone in her preference for the tepid scrub. Fayne Frey, MD, is the board-certified dermatologist behind the FryFace consumer assistance site; she gave us the cold, hard truth about long, hot showers. It turns out that we’re working against nature when we indulge.

“The skin moisturizes itself,” Frey says.
However, she explains, “The problem with long hot showers is that they remove these necessary compounds that the skin needs. Hot water and soap cannot distinguish between the dirt and unwanted residue [and] the helpful, necessary proteins and lipids the skin needs to stay moist. It is definitely a mistake to take long hot showers.”
Huh. Maybe we’ll just stop with the showers entirely, then, or at least limit them considerably—which brings us to our next point.

2. Showering too often.

Showering habits differ considerably from country to country, as The Atlantic reports here. And the less-frequent showerers of the world aren’t suffering from their lack of steam-time, our experts tell us.
“Daily showering is a cultural habit,” explains Frey. “There is no consensus on how often a person with healthy skin needs to shower. Yes, a person’s odor may change with fewer showers as bacterial flora changes on the skin.”

That last point seems to be the cultural rub here in the States. We don’t have much tolerance for the natural scent of our own bodies. But don’t mistake an odor for a health problem. People who take fewer showers—or even zero showers—don’t face a greater risk of skin problems than the folks who soak every day, Frey explains.
“I’ve been to parts of the world where the residents have no access to water and rarely if ever shower,” she says. “They have no more skin infections than the Western countries.”
We’re addicted to our showers in the United States. It’s part of our cultural make-up. If you doubt this fact, try showering once a month. Announce your plan to the whole office and check out the reaction.

So instead of going cold turkey on hot showers, maybe we should start by limiting ourselves to a more minimal cleaning routine—unless, that is, you’re an unusually sweaty or oily person.
“We like to shower daily,” Martin says. “But it’s not really necessary unless you’re a naturally sweaty person or you like to hit the gym seven days a week … I would recommend showering every other day if you [don’t engage in] strenuous, sweat-inducing activity daily, and seem prone to dry skin year-round.”

3. Using (most) soap on anything but your hands.

Your typical bar of soap is designed to cut through oils, which unfortunately include the natural protective substances that keep your skin healthy. Luckily, Frey says, “There are many types of cleansers.” While we often call all of them “soap,” there’s actually a very particular definition for this ubiquitous skin cleanser.

“Soap, an alkali salt, has a pH of 9-10,” Frey explains. (The pH level of natural skin is about 4.7.) “[Soap is] harsh and very drying to the skin … Non-soap cleansers called syndet bars and soap-free lipid cleansers are more pH friendly … and therefore much less harsh or drying. But they also remove the … compounds necessary for skin health.”
Great. So if even the soap-free cleansers are drying out our skin, what should we use when we start to get a little too ripe to go out in public?
https://twitter.com/dvlnts/status/939028517508997120
“Use a mild soap designed for ‘sensitive skin’ instead,” says Lee. “An oil-based cleanser is also beneficial for replacing the natural oils that the skin loses during showers and baths.”
Gina Pulisciano, esthetician and founder of Alchemy Holistics, trusts all-natural bar soaps to be friendlier to the skin.

“Go for natural soaps whenever possible,” she advises. “I like using bar soaps free of tallow. You can also use castile soap, such as Dr. Bronner’s.”
Whatever you do, don’t fall for the old body-wash-and-sponge routine, she says.
“Avoid using those shower sponges if you can,” Pulisciano tells us. “They’re breeding grounds for bacteria.”

4. Brushing with an old toothbrush.

Quick, think about how long you’ve had your current toothbrush. If you can’t remember, it’s probably time for a new one.
“Toothbrushes should be replaced every three months,” says Meenal Patel, DMD, dentist and founder of Preston Dental Loft in Cary, North Carolina. “If you use an electric toothbrush, the same rules apply.”
Patel’s response is right in line with the American Dental Association, which says you should replace your toothbrush “approximately every 3–4 months or sooner if the bristles become frayed with use.”
Oh, and if you get sick, don’t use that contaminated toothbrush without cleaning it.
“Bacteria and viruses can live on … toothbrush bristles for weeks,” Lee says. “Deep cleaning your toothbrush after every use can help you fight off the microorganisms faster and … feel better better quicker.”
To deep clean toothbrush bristles, Lee recommends soaking them in hydrogen peroxide for 10 minutes. Of course, she adds, you could always just get a new toothbrush. It’s probably time for that, anyway.

5. Flushing with the seat open.

By now, you’ve probably heard of the toilet plume, that microscopic mushroom cloud of…you know…that sails out of your toilet every time you flush. If not, well, we’re sorry to be the ones to tell you: Toilet plumes are real.
Whatever’s in your toilet, it’s there in the plume. Whatever’s in the plume, well, it could easily get on your toothbrush, your soap dish, or even your rubber ducky. If it’s in the bathroom, it’s fair game for a toilet plume—which can carry some serious nasties.

Let’s get gross.
“E. coli and Salmonella in bathrooms can cause stomach illnesses such as stomach aches, cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting,” Lee says. “These bacteria are transferred to the bathroom through fecal matter. They are commonly found on bathroom surfaces, so make sure to close the toilet seat before each flush and to wash your hands thoroughly.”
Beat the plume. Please. For your own good, beat the plume.

6. Using toilet paper.

Yep, you read that right. Toilet paper is dry and harsh and way too rough for the tender parts of the body. (Hey, you’re reading an article about “Bathroom Habits.” What did you expect?)
A world without toilet paper might not be as horrifying as you think. In fact, there’s already an excellent technology that could lead to a happier life from top to bottom, so to speak.

“In my professional opinion, it’s time for toilet paper to give way to a superior form of personal cleansing,” says Jamie Gold, a San Diego-based certified kitchen designer and author of New Bathroom Idea Book (2017, Taunton Press). “There’s increasing availability of bidet toilets and bidet seats to make water cleaning and drying available.”
Even better, today’s bidets offer heated streams.
“Warm water is a more thorough and less abrasive form of hygiene than paper, and is favored by millions of users in Europe and Asia,” Gold says. “It’s starting to take root here in North America, too.”
We should certainly hope so. After all, we have to give up our hot showers. At least some part of us deserves a nice, warm spritz every now and then.

Tags 50036206, care, Commerce, hemingway

Lifestyle

Making Good On The Pinktober Promise: 8 Perfect Picks That Benefit Breast Cancer Awareness

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date October 23, 2017

With all the pink ribbons on shelves and homepages tricked out in rosy hues, doing good during Breast Cancer Awareness Month can be confusing. Some companies do little more than revamp existing product packaging. And that brings us to pinkwashing—the practice of leveraging breast cancer awareness (BCA) primarily to boost sales.

The purchase of a pinkwashed product may deliver as little as $1 or 5 percent to charity. But here are eight products that have earned their pink stripes. These standout buys result in 100 percent of the proceeds or profit from your purchase (or an equally meaningful donation) being donated to a worthy breast cancer charity.

1. Jane Iredale Magic Mitt

This specially-knitted Magic Mitt removes makeup without any cleanser. The incredibly fine micro fibers break down the oil that bonds makeup to skin while gently exfoliating.

It’ll be both a time and money-saver, and all profits from the purchase of this product go to Living Beyond Breast Cancer, an organization that focuses on connecting people impacted by breast cancer with information and support.

2. Rastaclat Classic and Miniclat Bracelets

Rastaclat’s Breast Cancer Awareness collection includes both Classic and Miniclat bracelets that are designed to spread positive vibes. The Miniclat bracelets feature shoelace style braids with a breast cancer ribbon on the barrel and white aglets. The Classic bracelet is the same, only wider.

Rastaclat is also offering two limited edition “I Love Boobies” bracelets inspired by the Keep A Breast Foundation logo. All proceeds from the entire Breast Cancer Awareness collection will go to the foundation, which focuses on educating young people about breast cancer through art and education at youth-centric events such as Vans Warped Tour.

3. Select Stila Products

All of the proceeds from sales of select Stila products will be donated to the Foundation for Living Beauty, which aims to provide holistic emotional and physical support for living beauties—women living with cancer.

You can choose from foundations, lipsticks, eyeliners, blush, and even tools like this one step complexion brush.

4. Lisa Hoffman Globe Fragrance Necklace

A stunning piece, the Globe Fragrance Necklace is made of rose gold–plated sterling silver. The attractive globe encases a rose quartz gem and fragrance beads in your choice of eight scents. It hangs on a 30-inch rolo chain.

All profits from this purchase will go to the National Breast Cancer Coalition, a non-profit, grassroots advocacy organization that has established what it calls a breast cancer deadline—a goal of knowing how to end breast cancer by January 1, 2020.

5. Ralph Lauren Fragrances

Each bottle of Romance or Tender Romance eau de parfum is fastened with a limited edition Pink Pony keychain, a bonus included only through October 31, 2017.

All of the profits from the purchase of one of these fragrances will go to Ralph Lauren’s own Pink Pony Fund, which works to reduce disparities in cancer care and facilitate earlier detection.

6. Aerie Supports Tee

Trumpeting a worthwhile reminder, “Take Care of Your Girls,” this heather gray limited edition Aerie Supports Tee makes a perfect sleep shirt.

Bright Pink, a non-profit that supports the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancers in young women, will receive 100 percent of U.S. sales.

7. Saks Fifth Avenue and Missoni Key to the Cure Tee

This year’s Women’s Cancer Research Fund ambassado
r, Jennifer Lopez, has teamed up with Missoni and Saks to promote sales of the 2017 Key to the Cure Tee.

100 percent of the gross revenue from sales of the tee, which features a vivid geometric design, will be divided equally among 12 cancer research organizations including the American Cancer Society, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the TGen Foundation.

8. IT Cosmetics Love Beauty Fully Powder Brush

It would be tempting to spring for the fluffy-soft, luxe Love Beauty Fully Powder Brush even without the one-for-one deal your purchase will entail. Still, for each brush sold, IT Cosmetic will donate one to a woman facing the effects of cancer treatment through Look Good, Feel Better.

Look Good, Feel Better is a public service program that teaches beauty techniques to people with cancer to help them manage the appearance-related side effects of treatment.

Tags 50036606, care, hemingway

Lifestyle

8 Things To Add To Your Fall Bucket List

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date October 18, 2017

It is finally the best season of the whole year: autumn. Before you Instagram your quintessential PSL, let’s think about how to make this a fall to remember. Sure, you can go apple picking with your beau…it’s fun, supports local farmers, and you get a bunch of delicious apples out of the deal. But we’re thinking this fall you should take your bucket list up a notch with some less common autumnal activities.

1. Line up a nostalgic movie night in.

Grab your gals, pop the wine corks and the popcorn, and enjoy your favorite fall movies from childhood. We’re talking Hocus Pocus (obviously), Halloweentown, Mom Has a Date With a Vampire, the works. Or for quicker laughs, pull up a few classic Halloween-themed episodes of your favorite shows.

2. Knit a scarf.

Winter is coming, and you can prepare early by knitting a cute scarf this autumn. Whether you’re just learning or a knitting queen, you can never have enough scarves. We love this beginner-friendly fluffy scarf tutorial.

3. Roast all the veggies.

Fall goes hand in hand with comfort food. Roast your favorite fall veg (squash, sweet potato, pumpkin, Brussels sprouts) to eat for lunches and dinners. Pro tip: Sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon on top to turn up the fall feels. Our go-to guide for roasting vegetables is from The Kitchn. Or try these drool-worthy honey balsamic roasted Brussels sprouts from Kevin Is Cooking.

4. Ride a bike to a fall festival.

Kill two birds with one stone with this bucket list item. Biking in fall is a fun, healthy way to get from point A to point B. Grab your favorite date, crunch some leaves under your tires, and head to a local festival.

5. Hunt down a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” screening.

Rocky Horror is an experience everyone should have at least once! Many theaters—both big and small—will host Rocky Horror shows close to Halloween.

6. Travel to see the leaves change.

Find the best fall foliage near to you and road trip it with your family. You can camp, find a cute Airbnb, or do a day trip if there’s a spot nearby. Living in New Orleans means that if I want to see the leaves change colors, I have to travel a bit farther north. Last autumn, my fiancé and I spent a long weekend in Athens, Georgia, which serves up beautiful fall colors this time of year. It’s the perfect backdrop for a few golden hour selfies, too.
If you’re looking for a great book that details out some fun road trips, check out Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways.

7. Pack a reading picnic.

Pull together your favorite books, a blanket, and some snacks and get ready to enjoy a few hours in the sun. Just be sure to prep with sunscreen (yes, you need it even in cool autumn weather!) and bring an extra sweater just in case. Some of my favorite autumn go-tos are Good Omens (soon to be an Amazon Prime show!) and nostalgic rereads of Harry Potter.

8. Host a Friendsgiving.

If you live away from family or you just need an excuse to have a big meal before heading home for Thanksgiving, host a Friendsgiving dinner. Have each member of your chosen family bring a dish and enjoy all the comfort food together. Living away from family means it’s Friendsgiving for me most years, and it’s always a blast!
Whatever you add to your fall bucket list, make sure it helps you craft memories that you’ll want to last a lifetime. Never forget to cherish the little things that bring you joy, from a piece of Halloween candy at lunch to a perfectly spicy mug of apple cider.

Tags 50036566, care, hemingway

Wellbeing

Everything You Need To Know About A Digital Detox

Post author By Staff Writer
Post date October 12, 2017

Are you reading this on your smartphone? Or is it within reach as your eyes move over the computer screen? It takes nothing more than a quick glance around any populated coffee shop, office, or park to see how media frenzied our world has become. From smartphones that badger us with a steady stream of notifications to robotically checking our email every few minutes and scrolling through hypnotic Instagram feeds, we’re flooded.
The issue? Technology dependence has become the new norm. With various studies suggesting how this dependence is linked to myriad negative outcomes (such as insomnia, reduced empathy, heightened anxiety, and struggling relationships), the call for a “break” has become increasingly popular.
We’ve all sat around with our girlfriends and chatted about the latest and greatest detoxes. From fruit fasting to charcoal elixirs, any bodily ailment seems to have a fix. Many of us, though, need the type of detox that goes beyond fruits and veggies (though we love those too!) to shift our relationship with this hectic digital age and cleanse the soul a bit.
So, what exactly does it mean to embark on a digital detox? Well, it’s essentially an escape. Whether it takes the form of a heart-opening, tech-free weekend at Camp Grounded or simply an easy day at home with your phone hiding in a desk drawer, it’s a chance to refrain from using electronic devices and disconnect from the digital chaos.

A detox offers an opportunity to reduce stress and re-center yourself in the present moment. One study has even taken the benefits one step further to demonstrate how parting from our beloved devices can improve posture in a way that opens our chakras to greater energy, deepen friendships with meaningful conversations, encourage childlike creativity and spontaneity, strengthen short- and long-term memory, and enhance the restfulness of sleep.
Yeah, it’s that good.
The key factor behind many individuals’ decision to detox is their diminished presence. Instead of finding joy in the passing moment, our thoughts race to posting pictures, perfecting status updates, and answering texts and emails the moment we receive them. The question then becomes, “Is this good for us, and how can we reset ourselves?”
Enter the digital detox.
This can be done anywhere, anytime, and for any length of time. If you’re looking for a true physical escape, perhaps one of Digital Detox‘s getaways is just what you need. But if a less extreme option—one that you can commit to this weekend—is more your style, here are a few tips to help us find the middle ground we’re all searching for.
Disable push notifications. Instead of hopping on each social media platform as soon as you see the banner on your phone (and watching a half hour fly by), create scheduled blocks of time to check each app. Think of this as taking some of the power back by deciding when and where to invest your energy.
Buffer your bedtime. Turn your devices off an hour before hitting the sheets, and refrain from checking for the latest posts until 30 minutes after you wake up. The former rests on the concept of proper sleep hygiene and eliminating the negative effects of blue light. This light has been shown to suppress melatonin levels in the body, contributing to greater feelings of restlessness. Instead, opt for reading, candle-lit journaling, or restorative yoga in your aromatherapy-filled abode.

Each morning, remind yourself that you are setting the tone for how the rest of your day goes. In a matter of minutes, your subconscious has decided your mood and started directing your flow. Instead of hopping onto the most tempting app, take some time to decide what you want to feel and how you would like your day to look. Stretch, turn on your happy music, drink a tall glass of water, and jot down a quick gratitude list. See what happens.
Build your tolerance. If disconnecting for an entire day sounds impossible, start with an easy 30 minutes. Establish boundaries and leave your phone out of the mix when it’s simply adding unnecessary distraction. Leave it in another room when you’re eating with loved ones, listening to your partner debrief you on their “you-wouldn’t-believe” type of day, or curling up with Brené Brown’s latest book and your favorite glass of red.
When you’ve mastered 30 minutes, set your next intention to a 45-minute break. Pretty soon you may just find yourself blocking off an entire weekend for your next technology-free retreat.
In a world that expects us to be constantly reaching for our phones, be the one who pulls her hand back to her heart.

Tags 50036446, balance, hemingway