You Might Have Loved Your Sober January, But I’m Never Doing It Again

February 1, 2016, 10:30 am

≫ Next: Game-Changing: This Headset Will Track Your Brain While You Meditate

≪ Previous: Food and Fitness Diary: Basketball Pro Skylar Diggins

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I’ll say it: I’m a drinker. I’m no Lindsay Lohan, who reportedly keeps a bottle of vodka next to her bed, but drinking is a significant part of my social life, and I’ve been known to have a couple glasses of wine on a school night, too. I don’t always indulge to the point of outright drunkenness, especially not during the week, but many of my Friday and Saturday nights are spent hanging out in bars with friends until 3 a.m., then paying for it the next day when my heart is pounding out of my chest and my head ...

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Game-Changing: This Headset Will Track Your Brain While You Meditate

February 3, 2016, 8:00 am

≫ Next: Everything You Need to Know About Zika Virus

≪ Previous: You Might Have Loved Your Sober January, But I’m Never Doing It Again

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Meditation’s kind of like sashimi: You’re either into it, or you’re not. And while I’ve written plenty about why you should take up the practice, the fact remains that meditation is tough—it takes persistence and a level of commitment to get to a place where you actually enjoy and look forward to meditating every day. It took me at least a month of daily practice for it to stop feeling like a chore; for the first week I had no idea whether I was doing it right, and it wasn’t until four or five weeks in that I started seeing benefits. However, there’s ...

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Everything You Need to Know About Zika Virus

February 3, 2016, 12:50 pm

≫ Next: Here’s What Going to a (Sober) Morning Rave Is Really Like

≪ Previous: Game-Changing: This Headset Will Track Your Brain While You Meditate

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If you’ve been too busy dealing with immediate concerns to really research Zika virus, now might be the time to arm yourself with some information. New sites have been reporting cases of the disease with growing alarm in recent months, but now the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Zika virus an international public health emergency on Monday, which is a rare move and a clear indication that the outbreak poses a real threat. One of the major concerns is the virus’s link to microcephaly, a birth defect that causes babies to be born with small heads or with brain damage. Numbers of affected babies ...

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Here’s What Going to a (Sober) Morning Rave Is Really Like

February 3, 2016, 2:28 pm

≫ Next: Why Soup Cleansing Is Winter’s Answer to the Juice Detox

≪ Previous: Everything You Need to Know About Zika Virus

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I don’t enjoy loud noises or being touched by strangers before 7 a.m., so hauling across town to a “wellness rave” at sunrise wasn’t ever exactly at the top of my bucket list.  Still, when Clinique invited me as part of a promotion for a new eye cream, I figured it might be more exciting than going for another early-morning run.    I arrived before the sun was up to join a line of people snaked around a midtown Manhattan corner for Daybreaker, a pop-up dance party held in cities across the world, and for such an ungodly hour, the energy was quite literally palpable. People were wooing and ...

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Why Soup Cleansing Is Winter’s Answer to the Juice Detox

February 4, 2016, 10:00 am

≫ Next: Athleisure Goddess Jennifer Bandier Reveals Her Food and Fitness Diary

≪ Previous: Here’s What Going to a (Sober) Morning Rave Is Really Like

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If you’re the kind of person who swears by juice cleansing, you’ll love that there’s a new, heartier winter alternative in town: soup cleanses. And if you’re not pro juice cleanses, well, don’t dismiss the cold-weather variation just yet. Personally, juice cleanses have never been my bag; I’ve tried a couple, and both times felt exhausted, hungry, cranky, plus I never experienced that glowy skin and burst of energy some women get from living on liquid. So it was with a healthy level of skepticism that I agreed to test out Splendid Spoon, a new New York-based soup delivery company offering ...

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Athleisure Goddess Jennifer Bandier Reveals Her Food and Fitness Diary

February 9, 2016, 8:00 am

≫ Next: Why Are Millennials Ditching Hormonal Birth Control?

≪ Previous: Why Soup Cleansing Is Winter’s Answer to the Juice Detox

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In the super-crowded world of athleisure, it’s hard to stand out from giants like Lululemon or Athleta. But Jennifer Bandier is doing just that, carving out a niche for herself with what has been appropriately called “workout couture”—high-end pieces that have roots in the art and music world. That combination is hardly a surprise when you find out that Bandier has had many careers under her belt, including manager of seminal ’90s R&B band TLC. In a career 180, she started an activewear shop in the Hamptons in 2014, which eventually led her to open her new flagship in New York City’s Flatiron District ...

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Why Are Millennials Ditching Hormonal Birth Control?

February 9, 2016, 1:00 pm

≫ Next: I Tested 4 Types of Period Underwear So You Don’t Have To

≪ Previous: Athleisure Goddess Jennifer Bandier Reveals Her Food and Fitness Diary

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A recent wine-fueled conversation with a group of twentysomething-year-old friends revealed something I found to be shocking: Almost none of us were using any kind of hormonal contraception. Among a group of six women, only one was using the pill, one used—and swore by—her IUD, and the remaining four were firm proponents of the rhythm method, or the fertility awareness method, after struggling on regular contraception. For the uninitiated, this essentially involves abstaining from unprotected sex when you’re most fertile, but it takes a good deal of insight to work out exactly when that time is. Dr. Prudence Hall is a gynecological surgeon and practitioner turned advocate of regenerative ...

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I Tested 4 Types of Period Underwear So You Don’t Have To

February 10, 2016, 9:25 am

≫ Next: Insertable Vagina Weed for Your Period Pain Officially Exists

≪ Previous: Why Are Millennials Ditching Hormonal Birth Control?

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It’s a universal truth that periods are not fun. They’re a necessary part of the circle of life, but hardly what I—or any woman—look forward to each month. This is probably due to the fact that despite dabbling with birth control and natural remedies, my period remains somewhat erratic and spontaneous, not unlike my own life. My solution since high school had been to keep a steady supply of tampons on me, since those were pretty much foolproof and as discreet as any “feminine hygiene” product was going to be. But after learning of recent horror stories of toxic shock ...

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Insertable Vagina Weed for Your Period Pain Officially Exists

February 10, 2016, 1:15 pm

≫ Next: Can Instagram’s #TeaTox Trend Really Help You Lose Weight?

≪ Previous: I Tested 4 Types of Period Underwear So You Don’t Have To

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Forget popping an Advil and spooning a hot-water bottle, the new way women are warding off period pain involves insertable weed—specifically, sticking cannabis inside your vagina. Weird, but hear us out. The tampon-like product is a new offering from Foria, the company known for its “weed lube,” and is getting a lot of buzz this week on the health blogger scene. According to the company’s website, the $44 product called Foria Relief is “the first vaginal suppository designed to ease menstrual cramps” and contains all-natural products like organic cocoa butter, THC oil, and CBD (another active ingredient in marijuana). These cannabinoids are supposed ...

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Can Instagram’s #TeaTox Trend Really Help You Lose Weight?

February 13, 2016, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Elsa Hosk Shares Her Food and Fitness Diary

≪ Previous: Insertable Vagina Weed for Your Period Pain Officially Exists

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Wellness bloggers, fitness models, and buzzy athletes all have huge followings on Instagram, but there’s another power player you probably haven’t considered yet that wields huge influence in the #fitspo space: Detox tea companies. With catchy names like “SkinnyMe Tea” and “TeaTox,” these brands promise to offer dramatic weight loss—and hundreds of thousands of Instagram users are huge supporters. Australian company SkinnyMe Tea has more than 380,000 followers, British alternative BooTea has nearly half a million, and Skinny Fox Detox in the U.S. has 500,000 followers. There are countless before and after pictures on Instagram under the hashtag #teatox show twenty-somethings with toned, flat abs and drastically transformed physiques—the ...

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Elsa Hosk Shares Her Food and Fitness Diary

February 16, 2016, 8:00 am

≫ Next: On Hating—and I Mean Really Hating—Working Out

≪ Previous: Can Instagram’s #TeaTox Trend Really Help You Lose Weight?

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Victoria’s Secret Angel Elsa Hosk is the MVP of workout inspiration. Not only does she look like, well, that, but the 27-year-old model is a confessed boxing and basketball obsessive (so badass), and also follows a refreshingly normal diet filled with everything from green juices and lentil soup to fried cheese, bacon and eggs, and potato salad—which we obviously love. Ahead, Hosk shares a page from her food and fitness diary, including the way she works out, how she’s snacking at Fashion Week, and the one thing she would never eat. For breakfast I had: Eggs and bacon. For lunch I had: A mozzarella and ...

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On Hating—and I Mean Really Hating—Working Out

February 17, 2016, 11:00 am

≫ Next: I Saw a Life Coach—and She Changed Everything

≪ Previous: Elsa Hosk Shares Her Food and Fitness Diary

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For as long as I can remember, body-image issues have been my thing. Crying and pinching my stomach in front of the mirror at age nine; EDNOS from 12 through 16; calorie restriction, binge exercise, and a diet of grilled chicken and arugula at 20; a steel-reinforced armor of self-deprecating jokes and a falsified DGAF attitude today, at 23. At my lowest (during the Year of Arugula), I weighed 89 pounds. Now, I hover in the 130 range. Needless to say, I have a terrible, terrible relationship with food and exercise. And you know what everyone, from a string of ...

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I Saw a Life Coach—and She Changed Everything

February 18, 2016, 8:45 am

≫ Next: 9 Super-Fit Pilates Gurus to Follow on Instagram

≪ Previous: On Hating—and I Mean Really Hating—Working Out

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“You’re being a chicken,” my life coach told me matter-of-factly. Within minutes of our first meeting she also called me a brat, and that I needed to “aim higher.” I’ll be honest: I’m not the type of person who thought they’d ever even consider seeing a life coach—the term itself is too touchy-feely, and the only therapy I’ve had is the free kind you do over spicy margaritas with a group of girlfriends. However, I got swept up with some pretty grand resolutions this year, and decided I needed to outsource my goal-setting immediately if I was to be a successful adult in 2016. Which is how ...

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9 Super-Fit Pilates Gurus to Follow on Instagram

February 19, 2016, 8:00 am

≫ Next: 10 Baby Animal Videos to Remedy Your Seasonal Affective Disorder

≪ Previous: I Saw a Life Coach—and She Changed Everything

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There’s a certain kind of body you get only by either a) winning the genetic lottery or b) becoming a Pilates devotee. You know the type we’re talking about: long, lean, strong, and toned with perfect posture and superhuman levels of flexibility. Those new to Pilates, as well as those who just dabble in the exercise form, can look to Instagram to progress their practice. Here, trainers are sharing how-to videos, tips, and motivational snaps that are a hell of a lot cheaper than paying $35 to visit your neighborhood studio. In fact, in the gallery ahead we’re highlighting nine of our favorite female ...

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10 Baby Animal Videos to Remedy Your Seasonal Affective Disorder

February 19, 2016, 8:30 am

≫ Next: Supermodel Jasmine Tookes’s Food and Fitness Diary Will Definitely Surprise You

≪ Previous: 9 Super-Fit Pilates Gurus to Follow on Instagram

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Winter is in full swing, and it’s the time of the season where snow is no longer charming, the hours of daylight are far outnumbered by the dark ones, and the biting cold and bitter wind know no end. If you’re anything like me, a born-and-bred California girl, a dark and chilly winter can affect so much more than just your shoes—in fact, since I moved to New York from the West Coast about five years ago, I’ve dealt with seasonal affective disorder every time the weather starts to freak out. Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, its rather apt acronym, is ...

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Supermodel Jasmine Tookes’s Food and Fitness Diary Will Definitely Surprise You

February 22, 2016, 8:00 am

≫ Next: How Kayla Itsines Is Changing the Face of Fitness

≪ Previous: 10 Baby Animal Videos to Remedy Your Seasonal Affective Disorder

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A model who enjoys steak and mashed potatoes for dinner? Just another reason to fall in love with 25-year-old Victoria’s Secret Angel Jasmine Tookes. She, like you, will dive into a sausage-and-egg sandwich for breakfast, hates juices cleanses, and gets her workout motivation from Instagram. Supermodels—they’re just like us. The L.A. native—whose beautiful looks are thanks to European, African, Brazilian, and West Indian ancestors—earned her Angel wings last year and got her start on the commercial side, landing campaigns for Gap and DKNY in 2010. Then she booked a DKNY campaign in 2011, along with a spread for Italian Vogue, which set her on a trajectory ...

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How Kayla Itsines Is Changing the Face of Fitness

February 23, 2016, 6:00 am

≫ Next: This Age-Old Beauty Ingredient Is Primed to be the Next Big Drinkable Wellness Trend

≪ Previous: Supermodel Jasmine Tookes’s Food and Fitness Diary Will Definitely Surprise You

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Kayla Itsines is probably the only person on the planet who became famous without actually realizing she was famous. But after an attentive younger cousin pointed out that the personal trainer was gaining thousands of followers on Instagram—the platform on which Itsines had been posting before-and-after photos of her clients, thinking the account was private—the then-21-year-old Australian realized she’d unknowingly become a very big deal on social media. Those progress pictures have since become an Itsines trademark, shared by millions of women every week who bow at the altar of her printable 12-week Bikini Body Guides, a $69 program that ...

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This Age-Old Beauty Ingredient Is Primed to be the Next Big Drinkable Wellness Trend

February 24, 2016, 8:45 am

≫ Next: 8 Talc-Free Alternatives to Johnson & Johnson’s Allegedly Cancer-Causing Baby Powder

≪ Previous: How Kayla Itsines Is Changing the Face of Fitness

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Every season there’s inevitably a healthy drink trend that sweeps Instagram. In 2014 green juices and kombucha hit, and then last year we were all #blessed with endless snaps of coconut water, and—later in the year—charcoal water. So now that it’s nearly the end of February, you should prepare yourself for an all-new drink craze to take over in 2016—and my money’s on drinkable rose water. Yes, just the stuff you’ve been using in beauty products for years. During the past two months I’ve noticed a shift at the health and fitness press events I attend; instead of passing out cold pressed juices after the work out or ...

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8 Talc-Free Alternatives to Johnson & Johnson’s Allegedly Cancer-Causing Baby Powder

February 24, 2016, 10:30 am

≫ Next: Is Reiki the Easiest Way to Reduce Stress?

≪ Previous: This Age-Old Beauty Ingredient Is Primed to be the Next Big Drinkable Wellness Trend

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Earlier this week, the news broke that Johnson & Johnson was ordered by the state of Missouri to pay out $72 million in damages to the family of Jacqueline Fox, who died of ovarian cancer last year at 62, after her death was linked to her frequent use of the megacorp’s body powder products. According to the family, Fox used Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based Baby Powder as a feminine hygiene product each day for nearly 50 years—and she’s not the only one, as several hundred women have reported similar adverse effects as part of a larger lawsuit. It’s been suggested ...

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Is Reiki the Easiest Way to Reduce Stress?

February 25, 2016, 8:00 am

≫ Next: This ‘Too-Skinny’ Aussie Health Blogger Had the Best Response to Body Shamers

≪ Previous: 8 Talc-Free Alternatives to Johnson & Johnson’s Allegedly Cancer-Causing Baby Powder

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While Reiki hasn’t gained the same mainstream attention as other alternative therapies like, say, acupuncture, there are millions of people around the world who swear by the Japanese healing method. If you’ve never heard of it, here’s a quick rundown: Reiki involves a healer either lightly touching or holding their hands over different chakra areas on your body, channelling energy through their hands and onto you. The idea behind it—stay with me here—is that energy supports the body’s innate or natural healing abilities, which is why treatments can help you heal from stress, illness, and addiction. So yes, energy healing is certainly on the touchy-feely end of the alternative ...

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