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Anna Akana’s Advice On Mental Health

Anna Akana’s Advice On Mental Health

 

Anna Akana Is Not Here for the Unsolicited Advice About Her Mental Health

From “least helpful” to “not helpful at all.”

ELLE BY ANNA AKANA

 

 

 

Actress, comedian, and filmmaker Anna Akana is a vocal advocate for mental health awareness and suicide prevention—she’s lived with clinical depression and anxiety for 10 years herself. For ELLE.com, Anna lists the least helpful unsolicited advice she gets about mental illness—from whether her diet might be to blame, to whether she’s all better because she doesn’t “seem” depressed. She also makes some suggestions for what to say to someone struggling with depression because—hey, here’s some helpful advice—you’re doing it wrong.

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World Mental Health Day Off 2018!

World Mental Health Day Off 2018!

World Mental Health Day 2018

YOUNG PEOPLE AND MENTAL HEALTH IN A CHANGING WORLD

Adolescence and the early years of adulthood are a time of life when many changes occur, for example changing schools, leaving home, and starting university or a new job. For many, these are exciting times. They can also be times of stress and apprehension however. In some cases, if not recognized and managed, these feelings can lead to mental illness. The expanding use of online technologies, while undoubtedly bringing many benefits, can also bring additional pressures, as connectivity to virtual networks at any time of the day and night grows. Many adolescents are also living in areas affected by humanitarian emergencies such as conflicts, natural disasters and epidemics. Young people living in situations such as these are particularly vulnerable to mental distress and illness.

Half of all mental illness begins by the age of 14

Half of all mental illness begins by the age of 14, but most cases go undetected and untreated. In terms of the burden of the disease among adolescents, depression is the third leading cause. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds. Harmful use of alcohol and illicit drugs among adolescents is a major issue in many countries and can lead to risky behaviours such as unsafe sex or dangerous driving. Eating disorders are also of concern.

Growing recognition of the importance of building mental resilience

Fortunately, there is a growing recognition of the importance of helping young people build mental resilience, from the earliest ages, in order to cope with the challenges of today’s world. Evidence is growing that promoting and protecting adolescent health brings benefits not just to adolescents’ health, both in the short- and the long-term, but also to economies and society, with healthy young adults able to make greater contributions to the workforce, their families and communities and society as a whole.

Prevention begins with better understanding

Much can be done to help build mental resilience from an early age to help prevent mental distress and illness among adolescents and young adults, and to manage and recover from mental illness. Prevention begins with being aware of and understanding the early warning signs and symptoms of mental illness. Parents and teachers can help build life skills of children and adolescents to help them cope with everyday challenges at home and at school. Psychosocial support can be provided in schools and other community settings and of course training for health workers to enable them to detect and manage mental health disorders can be put in place, improved or expanded.

Investment by governments and the involvement of the social, health and education sectors in comprehensive, integrated, evidence-based programmes for the mental health of young people is essential. This investment should be linked to programmes to raise awareness among adolescents and young adults of ways to look after their mental health and to help peers, parents and teachers know how to support their friends, children and students. This is the focus for this year’s World Mental Health Day.

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Preventing Post Workout Pain!

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POST-WORKOUT PAIN – HOW TO PREVENT, ALLEVIATE, AND OVERCOME IT

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Topics | Build Muscle, Perform Better, Recover Faster

   

How to Prevent, Alleviate, and Overcome It. We Answer Your Questions.

Q: I’m frequently very sore from my workouts, particularly after training legs—it’s sometimes so bad I can’t walk down stairs unassisted! Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to prevent it?

A: This is a common problem that occurs after weight training. We’ve even seen people walking backwards down stairs due to the pain from their hard leg workout. So rest assured… you’re not alone!

There are two types of exercise-related soreness. The first is immediate or acute soreness, and the second, more common type, is “Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness” or DOMS. Let’s take a look at these two, what causes this soreness, how to tell if the pain is good or bad, and perhaps most importantly, how to ease the post-workout “ouch.”

Acute Soreness

This type of soreness occurs during exercise or immediately after. It’s caused by a buildup of chemical waste in your muscles (technically known as “endotoxins,” which are measured by the rise in lactic acid within the blood). These toxins usually dissipate within a couple of minutes as you rest between sets when strength training, or if you are doing some form of cardio exercise, when you slow your pace.

During exercise, when these toxins reach a peak within the muscle, athletes refer to this sensation as “the burn,” and it’s normally a good indication our muscles are about to reach failure. Most athletes consider this a “good” pain as it signifies the high level of intensity you’re putting into your workout.

Fortunately, this pain goes away almost immediately.

However, if you feel this type of pain after your workout, then it may be caused by fluid moving from the blood plasma into the tissues, which can occur an hour or two after stopping intense exercise. As with acute/immediate soreness, which occurs during exercise, this pain should ease on its own within the same day. Normally within an hour or two after your workout.

DOMS

This may sound familiar: you work out intensely and leave the gym feeling great. You feel great the whole day. And then bam, the following day, you feel like you’ve been put on the rack in a torture chamber.

Welcome to DOMS or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.

Typically, DOMS occurs the day after you work out, but oftentimes you actually feel even sorer on day two. Think of the last time you trained your leg muscles… either with heavy weights or with super high intensity. Remember how you endured a full day or two of walking funny and screaming “ouch” every time you lifted one of your legs to take a step or, worse, trudge up a set of stairs? And sitting down, forget about it!

DOMS can be especially difficult if you’ve laid off for some time from training, and then, when returning to the gym, hit it hard. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about here.

Fortunately, this type of pain should subside after a couple of days, and once you’ve adapted to the new exercise, higher level of intensity, workload, or new workout program, the pain should lessen considerably.

Since DOMS is the one most people endure, this is the type of pain We’re going to be focusing on in this article.

DOMS is particularly seen in “newbies” who are just starting a workout program. So if this is you, please don’t let the temporary (and typical) soreness of DOMS put you off—it will get better! As any seasoned trainer can tell you, though, DOMS can also be experienced when introducing a new exercise or hitting a new, higher level on the weights you use.

Why Does Pain Happen?

When you train with weights, you’re actually breaking down the muscle fibers, and as current theories hold, this may be what causes general, localized soreness. Basically, what is happening when you train intensely with weights is, on a microscopic level, you’re tearing the muscle fibers. The muscle tears are essential, though, as you actually build new muscle when these fibers are repaired and, as a result, increase in strength and size. The “tearing of these fibers actually produces swelling and that swelling in turn puts pressure on the local nerves which causes pain.

Lactic acid was previously blamed for DOMS, however, recent research indicates this isn’t so: lactate concentrations return to normal levels within 60 minutes, whereas DOMS occurs after 24 to 72 hours. As mentioned, the theory is that DOMS may be caused in part from inflammation around the muscle fibers or even from damaged connective tissue. Research is still ongoing to give a conclusive reason for it. (In other words, the scientists aren’t 100% sure what causes it!)

Research so far does suggest that certain types of exercise are associated with persistent soreness.

For example, a study published in the Journal Ergonomics compared two types of strength training: concentric (as in ordinary flexion) and eccentric (as in lowering a weight). Subjects in the eccentric group complained of muscle soreness, while the concentric group did not. In other words, it appears from this study that micro tears (and thus the possibility of DOMS) are more common with the “negative” (or eccentric) portion of the exercise, versus the “positive” (or concentric) part. Therefore, if you want to increase your muscle size and strength, you need to concentrate more heavily on the eccentric/negative part of lifting weights. I’d say this goes hand and hand with the old theory that says “slow and controlled” movements stimulate the most muscle fibers.

Is There Any Way To Prevent DOMS?

Luckily, there are certain measures you can take to ease DOMS or even prevent it altogether. First, try warming up thoroughly before you start your workout. This could be as simple as five to 10 minutes of easy cardio (in other words, until you start to break a light sweat) or by performing a few “warm-up” sets, using lighter weights than you would normally use for the muscle group you’re about to train. Both these methods help you completely warm up your body, ensuring your connective tissues (that hold the muscle to the bone) and muscles are “warm”—meaning they are filled with fresh, flowing blood, and nutrients are being delivered to the local area, and you’re not just hitting the weights or going full-belt into cardio without “waking up” your body and preparing it for intense training. By the way, this is particularly true if you work out first thing in the morning and your muscles are stiff from lying in bed for eight hours.

What you do after your workout is important too. That is, you should “cool down” completely before leaving the gym. We recommend you again do five to 10 minutes of cardio and then some light stretching—concentrating on the muscle group you’ve just trained. You could even try stretching the working muscle(s) between sets as well. This works particularly well for people who just want to get out of the gym after their workout or are on a time constraint.

Stretching helps lengthen the muscle and increases blood flow, which helps flush out the toxins that have built up during your workout. Be sure to stretch only after working out, though, and not before—as you might have heard. You don’t want to stretch muscles that aren’t “warmed up” as this can potentially lead to injury.

You’re Already Sore… Now What?

Sometimes you just get sore, despite doing everything you possibly can to prevent it, so how can you ease the pain?

Don’t call me crazy but the answer is…more exercise. We’re not suggesting you go and repeat the workout you just did or run three miles at a hard pace after running five miles the day before. We’re talking easy, light exercise, which will increase blood flow to the area to diminish the soreness. Examples would be a light workout, like riding a bike; a nighttime walk at a moderate pace; or even performing another weight-training session but focusing on core body parts, such the abdominals (rather than limbs).

Other ways to ease the pain include more stretching, especially on the affected area. Yoga is great for stretching and a fabulous way to keep toxins from building up. Another way to flush out toxins from your body is to have a full body massage. Preferably, the type best known as a “deep-tissue” massage. Massage has been shown to help if done soon after you’ve finished working out. (Okay, this isn’t a proven fact, but do you really need an excuse for a massage?!) It will not only relieve some of the soreness, but it will keep your body free from potentially damaging toxins that build up over time. It’s a good idea to get a massage at least once a month. But if private massage is not something you feel comfortable with or can fit in your budget, you can always administer some self-massage to the affected area.

Icing can be very effective too and, if the pain is really persistent, try taking some ibuprofen or Aspirin. Take note that Aspirin increases Vitamin C excretion, so leave a few hours between taking your multivitamin and the painkiller.

You’ll probably find that if you have a desk job, your muscles feel worse after a prolonged period of sitting down, so get up every few hours and take a little walk and then stretch out.

Supplements for Pain Relief?

Preventative Pain Measures

While sometimes the painful aftershock of a workout can be inevitable, there are ways in which to reduce that pain and help your muscles recover at a faster rate. One product we recommend for this is AMINO-GRO™. The very essence of building muscle revolves around how fast you can recover from each intense workout. AMINO-GRO is scientifically designed to help accelerate and optimize your recovery. The combination of BCAAs, BIO-GRO, glutamine and CocoDrate™ (a proprietary combination of Cococin™ coconut water powder with other electrolytes) work together to prevent muscle breakdown, signal protein synthesis and hydrate the muscle for improved recovery. AMINO-GRO can help to deliver a noticeable difference in recovery time and muscle soreness. Even better, it tastes great and can simply be consumed before, during or after your workout!

Additional BIO-GRO should be consumed each day as it has been shown in clinical trials to decrease recovery time and soreness with continued use. The Bio-Active Peptides in BIO-GRO signal an increase in protein synthesis which helps improve or shorten recovery time. Taking in a minimum of 6 grams of BIO-GRO daily is a key factor in improving recovery and decreasing soreness.

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Spiky Hairstyles For Men 2018!

Spiky Hairstyles For Men 2018!

Men’s Hairstyles & Haircuts

5 Statement Spiky Hairstyles For Men

It can get a bad rep, but spiky hair is something that can really help to add texture and style to a simple cut. Whether you go for subtle soft spikes, or a messier, unstructured look, there’s a tonne of ways to make it work for you. So, if you’re wondering how to spike your hair as well as what style will work with the length and texture of it, then have a read through our handy guide on some of the best statement spiky hairstyles for men. 

Read more Men’s Hair features.

Spiky Hairstyles for Men

#1: Spiky Pompadour for Men

A pompadour is a style that’s great for a variety of looks, working as a formal hairstyle for men as well as casual, everyday one. Although there are various pompadour cuts, if you’re working with naturally spiky hair, there’s no reason not to show it off in the cut. Instead of opting for a smooth, rounded pompadour cut, follow the basic style but instead of sweeping the hair back, spike it up instead. 

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Long spiked hair can be hard to keep in a set position, so don’t be afraid to use a strong pomade and a bit of hairspray. As long as your careful with it, you won’t end up with crispy hair. It’s also important to remember to spike your hair up, rather than towards the middle, as you want a high, elevated look rather than a faux hawk. 

inspiration

#2: Short Spiky Hair for Men

Men’s short spiky hairstyles obviously don’t come in one set style, and you can vary up the look depending on your hair type, whether you want to go for a fringe or not, and if you want a simple cut or a more complex tapered or faded one. You can easily keep the sides short and opt for a slightly longer spiked front with your haircut if you want a defined look, or you can simply stick to an all over length. 

Style a men’s spiky haircut correctly, using a small amount of light wax applied generally over the hair, and you can get a subtle, clean look. Get it wrong and you’ll be channelling the very worst look of the 90s. If you’re wondering how to make spikes that don’t make you look like a greasy businessman, just follow these simple tips;

  1. Get a pea sized amount of wax or gel and rub it between your hands.
  2. Rub your hands through your hair, ruffling the hair so the wax is distributed evenly throughout.
  3. If you want definition in certain areas, run your fingertips through your hair, but don’t deliberately spike up sections, otherwise you’ll end up with the dreaded 90s look.

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#3: Faux Hawk Spiky Hair for Men

A faux hawk hairstyle and a pompadour might seem pretty similar, and, in a lot of ways, they are, however, the main difference in a faux hawk is the direction the hair goes in. While a pompadour is all about volume and tends to have the front of the hair swept back, the faux hawk is directed towards the middle, giving you a sort of triangle at the top of your head.

usefulproducts

We didn’t make that sound great, but this messy spiky hair is a great option if you want a vaguely structured look, but aren’t after anything too formal. For the best result, opt for faded sides to help accentuated the pointed top. If you’re wondering how to spike short hair use a slightly heavier clay or pomade over a wax to get a better hold.

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#4: Long Spiky Hair for Men

When we mention long spiky hairstyles for men we’re really just talking about thick, full hair that goes as long as the chin, not hair that’s shoulder length or longer. This means there’s really a tonne of men’s spiked hairstyles you can go for, from textured chin length hair with a sweeping fringe to a thick, all over length that can be worked into a stylishly messy look.  

When it comes to creating cool spikes that work with long hair, a lot of the styling depends on the texture of your hair. If you’ve got thick, coarse hair that’s hard to keep in place, then a strong pomade might be necessary to help keep the shape. If you’ve got fine hair then a light wax alongside a good hairspray should be enough to give it a textured, spiked style.

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#5: Side Part Spiky Hair for Men

A side parting can really help to define a haircut, giving it a more structured finished and an opportunity to play around with contrasting lengths. You can experiment with a range of looks, working in faded sides, long sweeping fringes and even buzz cut areas, to create different dynamic hairstyles. One style that’s simple to achieve is to smooth down the short side of hair and spike up the longer one, creating a high contrast and emphasising the textured fringe.

If you’re wondering how to spike long hair, such as a sweeping fringe, the key is prep and a good hairspray. Wash your hair with a shampoo tailored to your hair type then add a good hold hair mousse to damp hair. Then shape your hair with a thick wax or pomade, and finish off with a hairspray. It shouldn’t look overdone or crisp and will stay in place for the whole day. 

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5 Statement Spiky Hairstyles for Men

  • Spiky Pompadour – A modern take on the classic cut.
  • Short Spiky Hair – A neat cut that’s easy to style.
  • Faux Hawk Spiky Hair – A defined, statement style.
  • Long Spiky Hair – Messy, unstructured and great for a range of hair types.
  • Side Part Spiky Hair – The parting helps define the cut, creating a statement contrast in lengths.
mens spiky hair
Colin Farrell hair style

On That Note

There are various ways of creating a spiked hairstyle, and whether you’ve got thick or fine hair, it’s a cut that can be worked into a range of styles. Opt for a simple, short look for a neat, easy to style cut, or experiment with longer, messier cuts. Just remember to get yourself a good pomade or wax to keep everything in place.

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Homemade Gatorade

Homemade Gatorade

HOMEMADE GATORADE

Recipe by TommyGato

INGREDIENTSNutrition

  • 1(1/4 ounce) envelope unsweetened flavored drink mix (enough for 2 quarts)
  • 1⁄2teaspoon table salt(sodium chloride)
  • 1⁄4teaspoon salt substitute (potassium chloride; eg. Morton Salt Substitute)
  • 1⁄4cup sugar
  • 1⁄4cup granular fructose(can substitute 1/4 cup plus 2 tbs. corn syrup)
  • 1⁄2teaspoon citric acid (can substitute 2 tbs. lemon juice)
  • water, to make 2 quarts

DIRECTIONS

  1. Place all ingredients in a large pitcher or jug and stir or shake until well mixed.
  2. Chill and keep refrigerated until used.
  3. Note: Adjust sweetness to taste by adding (or in rare cases reducing) a little sugar since drink mixes can vary.
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Best Iconic Designer Bags 2018!

Best Iconic Designer Bags 2018!

Best iconic designer handbags to invest in for 2018

From LV to Mulberry, these investment-worthy handbags will keep you on top of your fashion game

Shutterstock / andersphoto

While many of us are constantly on the lookout for new trends, there are some timeless pieces we can always depend on. A carefully-chosen designer handbag is one of these great items, with the power to lift any and every outfit no matter what the occasion. So if you’re looking to splash out on arm candy, your best bet is to start with the unbeatable classics.

Whether they’re hanging on the arms of Beyoncé or Keira Knightley, luxury carryalls such as Givenchy’s Antigona have an appeal that just won’t fade. And while these designs will cost you a pretty penny, they’re guaranteed to earn you the most cash when re-sold. What’s more, some are estimated to increase in value by up to 8 per cent annually – which could do a whole lot of good for your bank account.

Before you hit the shops, we’ve listed some of the best iconic designer handbags to invest in now – from the slouchy Bayswater to the oversized Neverfall.

Chanel Classic Flap Bag

This iconic little handbag is on the sartorial wish lists of fashionistas from all over the world for all the right reasons. Style queen Coco Chanel wanted a bag that would leave her hands free, so she used double chains that would be easy to carry around to create this timeless wonder. Since its debut in the fifties, the Flap Bag has been re-designed by Karl Lagerfeld to feature the interlocking CC closure. From the diamond quilted pattern to its streamlined edges, it’s no wonder this carryall is coveted by trendsetters such as Victoria Beckham and Chrissy Teigen.

From £2,400 | Chanel | Buy it now

Céline Trio Bag

Loved by its loyal fan base, Céline is known for its minimally chic and effortlessly stylish pieces – as perfectly embodied by the Trio bag. One of the label’s star bags, it is comprised of three detachable zipped pockets that are fastened together with pop-buttons. This allows you to wear the versatile bag as a cross body with the adjustable over-the-shoulder strap or connect the outside two pockets together to form a clutch.

£730 | Céline | Buy it now

Gucci Dionysus Shoulder Bag

Gucci is famed for its eye-catching accessories and the canvas Dionysus shoulder bag is no exception. The star bag is emblazoned with the label’s signature GG logo. It features a Tiger closure, referencing the Greek god Dionysus and an adjustable chain strap.

£1,580 | Gucci | Buy it now

Loewe Puzzle Bag

The Loewe Puzzle bag has firmed its status as an iconic bag as a favourite with the style set. The cube-shaped must-have features both a shoulder strap and the ability to transform into a clutch. Ideal for travelling, it can fold completely flat, while also fitting way more than it appears inside.

£1,625 | Loewe | Buy it now

Saint Laurent Monogram Shoulder Bag

An elegant addition to your eveningwear, this sophisticated handbag from Saint Laurent is a timeless piece. The bag is embellished with the French house’s signature logo with a matching gold chain.

£1,280 | Saint Laurent | Buy it now

Prada Galleria Saffiano Shoulder Bag

Over the years, Prada has created a whole host of iconic bags but the most coveted would have to be the Galleria. In a range of sizes and colours, the leather bag has become a wardrobe staple for fashionistas everywhere.

£1,610 | My Theresa | Buy it now

Louis Vuitton Neverfall

Louis Vuitton’s famous monogram exudes luxury. While the classic Speedy bag has millions of fashion-conscious fans, the unbeatable hardiness of the Neverfull gives it a firm place on our list. Like all other LV bags, this spacious tote is tested by mechanisms that drop it from half a metre while it’s packed with 3.5KG weight. Just one of its straps can hold 200KG without it breaking – so you can expect years of durability.

Thanks to its sleek structured appearance, you can count on it to put a mark on every season. It’s also totally reversible, which is perfect when you want to switch things up without buying something new. If you’re looking for a throw-it-all-in tote that will stand the test of time, this is the one for you.

£920 | Louis Vuitton | Buy it now

Givenchy Antigona

Introduced in 2010 and named after one of the most famous Greek mythology figures, Givenchy’s Antigona is the French house’s most popular handbag – and rightly so. With its angular lines and roomy interior, it’s the perfect combination of edge and sophistication. Its rolled top handles and detachable strap create endless versatility, making it the ideal work-to-weekend bag. The design is complete with the brand’s logo for a signature touch, while silver-toned hardware adds to its clean minimalist style. Available in various sizes, colours and finishes, it’s no doubt the perfect carryall for daily essentials and hangs beautifully from the crook of your arm.

£1,590 | Selfridges | Buy it now

Mulberry Bayswater

A bag to buy now and love forever. With its extensive handbag range, Mulberry’s Bayswater was created in 2002 by designer Nicholas Knightly and named after the West London area. From then it has gained ‘it-bag’ status and a cult following, including the likes of Kate Moss and Alexa Chung. Boasting a chic yet simple structure and postman’s lock closure, it’s also known to look better with age.

£995 | Mulberry | Buy it now​

Dior Lady Bag

One of Dior’s most bestselling bags and Princess Diana’s favourite, the Lady Bag comes in almost every colour you can think of in various sizes. There are plenty of reasons to love it, from the soft lambskin leather base with the designer’s iconic cannage quilting to its gold hardware and sleek Dior charms. Our favourite is its ability to keep you glamorous in every situation.

£3,100 | Dior | Buy it now

Hermes Kelly Bag

The Hermes Kelly Bag was catapulted to iconic status in 1956, when Princess and actress Grace Kelly used the leather handbag to hide her pregnant belly from paparazzi. It takes a single craftsman around 18 hours or more on to produce one Kelly bag. Elegant and practical, it features a structured top handle that fits snuggly to the grip of your hand or can be worn hands free using the additional longer strap. This is the perfect day to night bag.

From £1,650 (second hand) | Collectors Square | Buy it now

The one to watch out for

HALM Chilluxe bag 

This gorgeous bag may not be on your radar just yet but we have no doubt HALM is certainly on its way to iconic status. Already adored by Dubai It-girls, HALM designs and produces some of the most luxurious handbags in the entire world – utilising the finest craftsmanship possible, the Chilluxe bag features 100 per cent natural grain and nubuck leather, custom palladium hardware and a signature webbing strap. With the weight and feel of true luxury, a bag from HALM has earned a worthy place in any collector’s closet.

€1,850  | HALM |  Pre-order now

ES Best product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing.

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Psychology Of Handbags!

Psychology Of Handbags!

The Psychology of Designer Handbags
Illustration by Jan-Nico Meyer for BoF

LONDON, United Kingdom — A woman walks into one of the large flagship stores on London’s Bond Street, where she is greeted by a vast display of handbags. Pouches, totes, cross-body, baseball style, shoulder bags and shoppers — the whole handbag family is there, with price tags upwards of £1,000 ($1,317). She is businesslike in her approach, wasting no time on handling them or deliberating over her choice. “That one.” “That one.” “That one.” “That one.” “And that one over there.” She points at five. “I’ll take the rest.” The story was told with both amusement and delight by the store manager.

Ah, the glory of the bag — it’s the item that every brand hopes will sustain them through good times and bad. The product that has been relied upon for sales when ready-to-wear is having a weak season, or in better times, is simply the lovely, high-profile icing on the cake, adorning store windows and providing catwalk fodder, while contributing only a small percentage to the bottom line.

You might have thought that there were enough handbags in the world to see us through to Armageddon. Yet, every season the showrooms of the world’s biggest fashion houses are crammed with new ranges to tempt the customer. Devoted PRs are given the task of enthusing about the newest and most telling details — the reworked links on the handles, the innovative clasp, the soft-sided capacious lightness, the elegant simplicity of the handheld style. And of course, with each season comes the introduction of the new ‘Icon’ bag — a phrase that every time I hear it makes me wince, for its overused appropriation, and which should only be employed in the case of something truly powerful. Not a calf leather tote, no matter how gorgeous.

Still, handbags do so much more than simply the role they fulfill. In the canon of fashion items, the handbag is a relative newcomer having arrived as the new kid in town in the early 20th century. Hermès’ fascinating monograph in “Carried Away”, a lavish illustrated volume, published to accompany a former “Le Cas du Sac” exhibition, features an ancient rock painting in Algeria, where one of the terracotta stick figures appears to have a bag in the crook of their elbow. But as civilisations evolved, bags were rarely attached to the body and were relegated to the company of animals and servants.

Along with showing off personal taste, a handbag suggests economic prosperity and acts as a soupcon of the childhood security blanket.

The handbag was part of the changes brought about after the First World War and the increasing emancipation of women, for whom carrying a bag became a sign of independence and stature. Women had their own cash and bank accounts, and keys to their own property and cars — and they wanted the world to know it. What better reason to flaunt the fashionable clutch of the 1920s rather than having to burrow for necessities in hidden pockets beneath voluminous skirts? Women carried cigarette cases and lighters and began to make a display of applying makeup in public, so lipsticks and powder compacts became part of every woman’s daily arsenal.

As the decades passed, handbags have grown in size, reaching the current outsize extreme shown by luxury houses like Balenciaga, Céline and Loewe. As the leading accessory of our times, they have even earned their own slot on Sotheby’s and Christies’ auction house calendars, where they are able to command bids of hundreds of thousands of pounds on occasion. This year, a Hermès Birkin broke records at $380,000.

Ironic then, that in certain milieus, the handbag has simultaneously been denoted to the more demeaning stature of ancient times where carrying such an accessory denotes inferior status. Today, the ability to be bag-free is a power move indicating that you either have a public relations person or personal assistant carrying it for you at a discreet distance or, for some people attending fashion shows, private views or dinners, keep a car and driver outside, enabling you to leave your bag and its contents in the backseat and sail around the event, unencumbered and unbothered by the hassle of cloakroom queue.

This, however, is not such a wide practice that it has dented the handbag business. For most women their handbag is a multi-tasking device that combines the virtues of practicality and utility: along with showing off personal taste, it suggests a certain economic prosperity and acts as a soupcon of the childhood security blanket. While women may often play it safe, either due to workplace convention or simply their lack of interest in clothes and so choose to dress unremarkably in their daily life, these same women will frequently have a standout handbag.

Yesterday, I saw a woman dressed in a cheap-looking black trouser suit and grubby faded pink plimsolls crossing the street in West London, while hanging off her was a Gucci Dionysus embroidered leather shoulder bag, retailing at £2,760 (about $3,637). Take any early morning flight out of Heathrow where the business traveller is on a daytrip to Frankfurt, Milan or Geneva and you’ll see the conveyor belt loaded with Mulberry, Burberry and Prada bags, costing upwards of £1,000 ($1,317). While shoes, coats, dresses, shirts and trousers are often bought by these women in middle-priced or high street stores, women are prepared to fork out substantial sums for an item that, in its most basic form, does nothing that a supermarket plastic bag can’t do.

Women are prepared to fork out substantial sums for an item that does nothing that a supermarket plastic bag can’t do.

Except make you feel good. There is something about colonising your new bag for the first time that is a rite of passage. Free of the general clutter that seems to unavoidably collect at the bottom of bags — pen lids, loose coins, elastic hair bands, coat check tickets, contact lenses (or is this just me?) — a new bag is virgin territory that allows you to become the best and most efficient version of yourself. Just add a smartphone, perhaps some headphones, a small wallet, and a makeup bag you have been inspired to clean out, so that it doesn’t sully its new home.

Given their visibility, a bag is like shorthand for conveying individual style. Are you a Mansur Gavriel type, canny and in-the-know? Or an I-just-love-Anya-Hindmarch-who-gets-what-we-really-need sort? Are you the kind of person who doesn’t believe you can ever beat Chanel for high-end luxury? Or are you someone who has zoomed straight into a J.W. Anderson Crochet Pierce, because “pretty well everything J.W. does is alright by me and isn’t the Crochet brilliant?”

Whoever you are, there’s no danger of supply slowing down, despite concerns that what had appeared to be an ever-expanding market might be contracting. Both Matchesfashion.com and Net-a-Porter currently offer an almost identical number of bags on their sites — Matchesfashion.com at 1,855 and Net-a-Porter at 1,865 — with Fendi topping the price list at £16,900 ($22,269) for a Peekaboo mini crocodile shoulder. At Mytheresa.com there are 2,938 styles while, at the other end of the market, Asos offers 926. Handbags are also one of the biggest categories on online resale sites, such as Vestiaire Collective.

Something for everyone then, as retailers get their hopes up for the approaching holiday period. Not everybody might be like the bulk buyer at the start of this piece, but ultimately, handbags have one huge advantage: there is no danger of gifting the wrong size. After all, no one has ever picked up a handbag and asked, “Does it make me look fat?”

Alexandra Shulman is an author and the former editor of British Vogue.

Featured

The Rise Of The MCM Bag

The Rise Of An MCM Bag

The world in a bag: the rise of MCM

Never mind Hermès and Louis Vuitton: MCM(Man Crush Monday) is the It bag for 21st-century global nomads everywhere. Hannah Marriott traces a success story from Germany, via South Korea.
  

The words “designer handbag” conjure up a certain image: a moneyed Parisian sitting in a 6th arrondissement cafe with a Chanel 2.55, perhaps, or a celebrity striding through Los Angeles airport with a Hermès Birkin.

During the past couple of seasons, however, a new breed of It bag has emerged. It might be golden brown, cobalt blue or fondant fancy pink. It could be adorned with metal rivets or covered with menacing-looking spikes. Whether cross-body, bucket-shaped or a thick-strapped backpack, it is likely to be covered, unashamedly, with a repeated logo: a laurel, a diamond and the letters MCM.

If you haven’t heard of MCM, you have probably seen it somewhere. On celebrities ranging from Cristiano Ronaldo to Beyoncé to Rihanna, maybe, or on the backs of fashion students. In general, customers tend to be young: bloggers posing for photographs outside fashion shows, rather than the old guard of editors on the front row.

According to Maude Churchill, an editor on streetwear site highsnobiety, MCM burst on to the scene a few years ago and has since been seen in the hands of the right celebrities and in credible collaborations with designers and artists. “MCM crosses the boundaries of streetwear and high-end fashion,” she says. “It’s luxurious but kitsch.”

Cindy Crawford and MCM
 Cindy Crawford and MCM

Youth-sweeping trends are nothing new, but MCM’s ubiquity is surprising given that its prices veer so far beyond student-loan territory – think £380 for a small messenger bag, £530 for a roomier tote and, at the top of the line, £1,735 or even £3,135 for a limited edition snakeskin backpack. Beyond in-the-know fashion and streetwear circles, most UK consumers are unfamiliar with the brand. This is a tricky proposition in luxury leather goods, a market built on heritage; whether it’s Louis Vuitton equipping the maharajas with travelling trunks in the 1920s or Grace Kelly using Hermès bags as a shield from paparazzi in the 1950s, history and narrative are everything.

In fact, MCM does have a story – and a compelling one at that. The company was founded in 1976 in Germany, named after its founder as Michael Cromer München. With a hint of Louis Vuitton about its repetitive patterns, the bags were popular in the 1980s, when Diana Ross used its suitcases on tour, while trunks were carried by obsequious porters on Dynasty as a signifier of wealth and success. By the 1990s, MCM had more than 250 stores across the world and its advertising campaigns, shot by Herb Ritts, featured Cindy Crawford naked but for an MCM bag. In the noughties, however, the business floundered, becoming mired in financial problems. Its founder was investigated for alleged tax evasion, fakes flooded the market and the brand’s designs lost their appeal. For more than a decade, MCM was barely mentioned in western fashion circles at all.

MCM’s salvation came from South Korea, one of the few places it had remained prominent, when the company that had licensed the brand – Sungjoo Group – acquired the business in 2005. Then, MCM’s global sales stood at $100m (£60m). After changing the name (it is now known as Modern Creation München) and hiring Adidas global creative director Michael Michalsky to create sporty, dynamic, youthful designs, it boomed. In 2011 sales were reported as $400m; by 2013, $500m. This year, sales are forecast to hit $650m, with the company considering a stock market launch and projecting sales of $1.5bn within three or four years. Asia is the main market, by quite some stretch – China, Korea and Japan each contribute almost a third of MCM’s revenue – but Europe is ripe for expansion, as the opening of a dedicated 105 sq m MCM boutique at Harrods last month, and a planned opening in Bond Street next year, attest.

According to the company’s winningly titled chief visionary officer, Sung Joo Kim, its success so far has hinged on the understanding of major developments in the luxury market. First, she says, millennials “are born with computers, so they have a completely different approach to life and expect brands to be interactive and luxury to be functional”. The rarefied world of traditional high-end stores “like temples, one-sided and arrogant – come and worship!” holds little appeal. Second, she says, “today, without exception, more than 60 or 70% of [luxury brands’] revenue is generated by the Asian market, or by those people who travel around the world. And in Asia the young generation, not the established older generation, are the movers and shakers.” She calls these customers “21st-century global nomads” and says they do not, always, have a high income, although their parents might; but often they will save up for a piece of MCM – a new kind of luxury.

Kim believes the success of the company’s rucksacks backs up her theory about the new “global nomad” consumer. “It’s ironic that a handbag business is [selling so many] hands-free bags,” she says, “but it makes sense from a socio-economic view. The backpack is practical and mobile.” It is also unisex, a crucial element; in China, for example, one of the first markets to embrace MCM backpacks, “more men are buying luxury than women”.

Still, Kim does not see the brand as South Korean or Asian, but as resolutely German. She points out that design and production are mainly run from Germany and Italy, and that many other brands perceived as European – from Mulberry to Escada – happen to be owned by Asian companies. “All the major brands may have some Asian elements coming in, even Chanel, especially Gucci, with gold, crystals, white and colour. They know their growing customers are rich Asians and Russians,” she says; designs are becoming more globalised.

If anything, she says, MCM is “a global baby incubated out of a Korean cradle”. Which, as a narrative goes, is incredibly 21st century.

Featured

Sandwhich Making Tips!

Sandwhich Making Tips For College Students!

Sandwich-Making Tips For College Students That You Can Make In Your Dorms Or In Your Shared Apartment Or Housing!
1.  Choose a bread appropriate to the sandwich you’re making they are low carb breads you can buy also and can use tortilla’s also to make a wrap. If you have a toaster toast the bread or just have it simple but warning(it might be dry)
2  Sandwich spreads add flavor but also perform the essential task of lending moisture and sometimes creaminess to sandwiches. Mustard and mayo  are good and if you want to try something else feel free to try, pesto, barbeque sauce, sriracha sauce/mayonaise, or horseradish.3.   Toppings
Lettuce , Tomatoes, Spinach, Cucumber, Pickles, (adds crunch)4. Add Cheese and or  slices of deli meats  .5.Stack them on the slice of bread and add the last piece of slice of toast on top or feel free to eat on one slice of toast if you are watching your carbs!

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 
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Kareena Kapoor Khan Looking Good In Gym Wear

Kareena Kapoor Khan Looking Good In Gymwear

Kareena Kapoor Khan aces gym wear fashion

by kriti saraswat satpathy 

Femina

Kareena Kapoor Khan, who is touted as one of the most glam actors of Bollywood, is also known for her toned figure. She makes it a point to hit the gym regularly and the paparazzi doesn’t miss a chance to catch a glimpse of her as she is stepping out of or going to the gym. Thanks to this, we get our dose of gym wear fashion inspiration as Kareena sports simple but chic workout outfits. Her staples are a pair of sunglasses, a bottle of water and her phone that she carries along every time. From matching her sneakers to her top, to sporting some cool tank tops, here’s a peek into Bebo’s gym attire.

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Kareena Kapoor Khan

Featured

Who Is Gianni Versace?

Gianni Versace

ITALIAN FASHION DESIGNER

WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Gianni Versace, (born December 2, 1946, Reggio Calabria, Italy—died July 15, 1997, Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.), Italian fashion designer known for his daring fashions and glamorous lifestyle.

His mother was a dressmaker, and Gianni was raised watching her work on designs in her boutique. After graduating from high school, Versace worked for a short time at his mother’s shop before moving in 1972 to Milan, where he worked for several Italian ateliers, including Genny, Complice, Mario Valentino, and Callaghan. Backed by the Girombellis, an Italian fashion family, Versace established his own company, Gianni Versace SpA, in 1978 and staged his first ready-to-wear show under his own name that same year. His brother, Santo, served as CEO, and his sister, Donatella, was a designer and vice president. 

Versace designed throughout the 1980s and ’90s and built a fashion empire by producing ensembles that oozed sensuality and sexuality. His most famous designs included sophisticated bondage gear, polyvinyl chloride baby-doll dresses, and silver-mesh togas. Versace’s detractors considered his flashy designs vulgar. Unfazed by such criticism, Versace staged his seasonal fashion shows like rock concerts at his lavish design headquarters in Milan, with groupies and paparazzi awaiting the arrival of both his celebrity friends, such as Elton John and Madonna, and his loyal models, such as Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and Naomi Campbell, who were paid such high salaries that the press dubbed them “supermodels.” Versace was credited with turning the fashion world into the high-powered, celebrity-besotted industry it remains to the present day.

As his success continued to grow, Versace began establishing boutiques throughout the United States with the help of his family. He also focused on publishing a series of coffee-table books that featured his sketches and photographs of his creations by esteemed photographers such as Richard Avedon, who also worked on Versace’s advertising campaigns. Versace’s interest in the new and daring continued to flourish, and in 1989 he designed a line of haute couture for the first time. Also in 1989 he created costumes for the San Francisco Opera; a great enthusiast of the opera and ballet, Versace explored costume design as a side interest throughout his career. In 1993 Versace was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the inner ear. He battled this cancer successfully and then began to pass much of his business responsibilities onto his family.

On July 15, 1997, while returning to his Miami Beach home after a morning walk, Versace was shot and killed on his front steps by the serial killer Andrew Cunanan. At the time of his death, many believed that the designer’s 25-year career was at a peak; he had tempered his garish early work and begun to create increasingly refined yet colourful and sexy ensembles. His company had expanded to produce clothing for men, women, and children, as well as handbags, precious jewelry, perfume, and items for the home. Versace’s work was honoured by a posthumous retrospective held from December 1997 to March 1998 at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. After his death, his sister took over as head designer for the Versace label.

 

Featured

Total Body Workout

General Instructions:

Exercise 1-Jogging on the Spot

Choose between one of the following based on your fitness level.

  1. Beginner- marching on the spot
  2. Intermediate- Knee lifts
  3. Advanced- Jogging on the spot

Instructions:

1. Stand in place with feet hip width apart. 
2. Drive knee up towards chest and quickly place the foot back on the ground. 
3. Drive other knee up in a moderate to fast jog with minimal ground contact time.

Exercise 2- Push Ups

Choose between one of the following based on your fitness level.

Wall Push-ups 
Modified Push-ups 
Full Push-ups

Wall Push-up Instructions:

1. Start by placing your hands on the wall at shoulder level with your feet approximately 2 feet away from the wall. 
2. Bend your elbows so that your chest gets closer to the wall. 
3. Once your elbows are bent to about 90 degrees then press back out to the starting position. 
4. Repeat according to the required repetitions. 

Push-ups on Knees Instructions:

1. Start by lying face down and placing your hands near your shoulders with your elbows pointing up. 
2. Keeping your trunk straight press your hands into the floor so that your upper body and hips come up off the ground into a push up position. 
3. Now you are in a modified push up position from your knees. 
4. Bend your elbows so that your chest touches the ground and then repeat by returning to the top position.

~!!Standard Push-up Instructions 
1. Lie face down on the floor with hands palm down, fingers pointing straight ahead, and aligned at the nipple line. 
2. Place hands slightly wider than shoulder width, and feet should be at hip width with toes on floor. 
3. Start position: Extend the elbows and raise the body off the floor. 
4. Lower your entire body (legs, hips, trunk, and head) 4-8 inches from the floor. 
5. Return to the start position by extending at the elbows and pushing the body up. 
6. Remember to keep the head and trunk stabilized in a neutral position by isometrically contracting the abdominal and back muscles. Never fully lock out the elbows at the start position and avoid hyper-extension of the low back.

Exercise 3-Shoulder press and squat

Instructions

1. Start by holding the dumbbells at shoulder level. 
2. Proceed into a squat and when you start to stand up push the dumbbells overhead until fully extended. 
3. Bring the dumbbells back down and go into a 1/4 squat. Return to the starting position. 
4. Repeat this movement for the recommended repetitions. 

Exercise 4-Step ups

Instructions:

1. Stand behind box or step and place one foot on top of box, heel close to the closest edge. 
2. Step up on the box or step quickly then bring the other foot onto the box. 
3. Step back down with the same foot you stepped up with. 
4. Repeat with other leg and continue according to prescribed number of repetitions.

Exercise 5-Curl-ups

Instructions:

1. Start position: Lie back onto floor or bench with knees bent and hands behind head. Keep elbows back and out of sight. Head should be in a neutral position with a space between chin and chest. 
2. Leading with the chin and chest towards the ceiling, contract the abdominal and raise shoulders off floor or bench. 
3. Return to start position. 
Remember to keep head and back in a neutral position. Hyperextension or flexion of either may cause injury. 

Exercise 6-Side Leg Lifts with Bicep Curl

Instructions:

1. Start by holding a dumbbells in each hand in a shoulder width stance position. 
2. Squat down to parallel while simultaneously curling the dumbbells to shoulder height. 
3. Squat back up to the start position. Once you are near the top of the squat then laterally abduct your left leg out to the side. 
4. Return your leg to the starting position. Repeat exercise with other leg. 
5. Complete prescribed repetitions alternating your legs.

Exercise 7- Alternating Plank 

Instructions:

1. Start by forming a straight plank with your forearms and feet as the contact points on the ground. 
2. Once the plank is formed raise one foot off the ground and then return to the starting position. 
3. Repeat this movement for the desired repetitions alternating back and forth between legs.

Exercise 8- Lunge and Curl

Instructions:

1. Start by holding the dumbbells at your side. 
2. Lunge forward and down with your left foot. 
3. As you stand up curl the dumbbells up to shoulder height. Return to the starting position with the dumbbells. 
4. Repeat with the opposite leg until all recommended repetitions are completed. 

Attach:Plank.gif Δ

Exercise 9-Plank

Plank

Instructions: 
1. Start by placing your forearms on the ground and forming a plank with your forearms and feet. 
2. Hold this position keeping your body parallel to the ground for the required time. 
3. If you are unable to lift your body then start on your knee and straighten one leg at a time.

Exercise 10- Back Extensions

Instructions:

1) Lie face down on floor with arms extended overhead. You may place a rolled towel under forehead to clear face from floor. 
2) Raise right arm and left leg 4-8 inches off floor. 
3) Lower and raise alternate opposite arm and leg. 
Remember to keep head and back in a neutral position. Shoulders and hips should remain squared throughout movement.

Featured

Easy Apartment Meal For College Students

Quick and easy healthy recipe for college students  that won’t take  a lot of time!

Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken Breast and Steamed Vegetables

How to Cook
Microwave – Preferred method
1.  Arrange frozen breast fillets on microwave safe plate.
2.  Heat, covered, on HIGH: 
1 fillet for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes
2 fillets for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes
3 fillets for 4 1/2 to 5 minutes
Do not overheat
3.  Let stand 1 to 2 minutes before serving.

Conventional Oven
1.  Preheat oven to 375°F.
 2. Place frozen breast fillets on baking sheet.
3.  Heat 18 to 20 minutes.

                                                     microwavable

And Rice  Also  Brought From  Local American Store Called Target

                                                  Microwave 90 seconds!

Featured

Beyonce Wears Imitation Yeezys-Really?

Beyoncé Wears $49.99 Imitation Yeezys in Instagram Post Shared and Celebrated by Kanye West

by ROBYN MERRETT

Kanye West seemingly ended his feud with JAY-Z and his wife Beyoncé on Thursday when he posted a photo of the couple captioned, “famleeeeee.”

In the shot, Queen Bey, 37, and JAY-Z, 48, can be seen cuddling in a car. Fans were quick to assume the reason for the shoutout was because Beyoncé happened to be wearing a pair of Yeezy Season 6 PVC Wedges that cost around $850.

Turns out, she wasn’t. Instead, the “Formation” singer opted for a pair Yeezy-inspired heels by the brand Public Desire which sell for just $49.99.

The brand confirmed the shoes were not Yeezys by sharing the same photo Kanye, 41, posted captioned, “Cop Queen Bey’s EXACT style in PD,” adding the shoes are called “MALIBOO.”

It’s not clear if Kanye mistook Beyoncé’s shoes for Yeezys but the shoes are very similar sans for a slightly different heel and a very different price tag.

Like the shoes, Kanye and the couple’s relationship now is not a perfect match for what it used to be.

Kanye and JAY-Z’s beef began in 2014 when JAY-Z and Beyoncé decided not to attend Kanye’s wedding to Kim Kardashian West in Florence, Italy.

In May, the “Lift Yourself” rapper opened up about his strained relationship with JAY-Z during a nearly two-hour interview with Charlamagne Tha God on iHeartRadio’s The Breakfast Club.

“I was hurt about them not coming to the wedding. I understand they were going through some things, but if it’s family, you’re not going to miss a wedding,” Kanye said referring to allegations that JAY-Z had been unfaithful to Beyoncé.

“I’m not using this interview to put out any negative things, but I gotta state my truth,” Kanye continued. “You start coming up with all type of crazy things in your head, like ‘Why?’”

Yeezy Season 6 PVC Wedges
Yeezy Season 6 PVC Wedges

However, Kanye revealed he’s “past it, but at the time I was hurt.” He also said, “I don’t think I ever asked him that question, directly.”

The interview came a year after JAY-Z released “Kill JAY-Z” on his latest album 4:44, in which he included a few jabs to West.

“I know people backstab you, I feel bad too/ But this ‘f— everybody’ attitude ain’t natural/But you ain’t the same, this ain’t KumbaYe/ But you got hurt because you did cool by ‘Ye/ You gave him 20 million without blinkin’/He gave you 20 minutes on stage, f— was he thinkin’?/ ‘F— wrong with everybody?’ is what you saying’/ But if everybody’s crazy, you’re the one that’s insane,” JAY-Z rapped.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West

The two also battled over a money dispute involving JAY-Z’s streaming platform Tidal. Kanye also claimed that his daughter North and JAY-Z’s daughter Blue have never had a playdate during a concert in 2016.

JAY-Z addressed Kanye’s claim during an interview with Rap Radar hosts Elliot Wilson and Brian “B.Dot” Miller in August 2017.

“What really hurt me, you can’t bring my kid or my wife into,” JAY-Z said. “We’ve gotten past bigger issues, but you brought my family into it, now it’s a problem with me.”

JAY-Z and Kanye West
JAY-Z and Kanye West

RELATED: Inside Kanye West & JAY-Z’s Tumultuous Relationship Through the Years

Nonetheless, JAY-Z explained to Dean Baquet during an interview with T, The New York Times Style Magazine in November 2017, that they’re going to be okay.

“[I talked to] Kanye the other day, just to tell him, like, he’s my brother,” JAY-Z told the magazine. “I love Kanye. I do. It’s a complicated relationship with us… ‘Cause, you know— Kanye came into this business on my label. So I’ve always been like his big brother. And we’re both entertainers. It’s always been like a little underlying competition with your big brother.”

Kanye also spoke on mending their friendship with Charlamagne. “We’re texting each other,” he said. “It’s positive energy. I haven’t seen him, but I can feel him.”

Featured

Michael Kors Acquires Gianne Vercase

Michael Kors to Buy Versace for $2.1 Billion, Will Change Its Name to Capri Holdings

The deal marks one of the first times an American company has cracked the code of super high-end luxury fashion

By Lauren Hirsch | CNBC

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Michael Kors to Buy Versace for $2.1 Billion, Will Change Its Name to Capri Holdings

WHAT TO KNOW

  • The handbag maker is acquiring Gianni Versace for $2.1 billion, including debt
  • Donatella Versace, who has helped run the company since her brother Gianni was murdered in 1997, will stay on to oversee the brand
  • The global market for personal luxury goods was estimated to be worth $307 billion in 2017

Michael Kors is going high-end. 

The handbag maker is acquiring Gianni Versace for $2.1 billion, including debt, providing Kors a launching pad into the exclusive high-end European luxury market. 

Following the close of the acquisition, Michael Kors will change its name to Capri Holdings, inspired by an “iconic, glamorous and luxury destination” island, the company said on Tuesday. 

It plans to grow Versace to $2 billion in revenue globally and increase its retail footprint from roughly 200 to 300 stores. 

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[NATL] Top Entertainment Photos: The LA Premiere of 'A Star is Born'

Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

The deal marks one of the first times an American company has cracked the code of super high-end luxury fashion, typically controlled by LVMH, the owner of Guerlain and Givenchy, and Kering, the owner of Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent. Michael Kors had already dipped its toes in European fashion, last year buying shoe brand Jimmy Choo for $1.2 billion. 

As part of the deal, Donatella Versace, who has helped run the company since her brother Gianni was murdered in 1997, will stay on to oversee the label. That retention will be crucial to Kors as it looks to validate itself to other premium European brands and their visionaries. 

While the number of sizable U.S. brands to acquire has dwindled, the European luxury market has become rife with opportunity. As founders and owners of European luxury brands put an eye toward retirement, a number of businesses, like Prada and Giorgio Armani have have been turning up on wish lists for luxury retailers. 

The global market for personal luxury goods was estimated to be worth $307 billion in 2017, according to recently filed registration documents for luxury marketplace Farfetch, which went public last week. The luxury market is expected to reach $446 billion by 2025, according to the data. 

The push further into luxury serves also as a defense for the next economic downturn, more than a decade after the last one in the U.S. Those that can afford a Versace dress are among the most likely to continue to spend during a recession than those who shop more affordably, industry experts say. 

“Where Michael Kors has traditionally sat has been hit harder than true luxury [in recessions], so diversifying across traditional luxury may give them some insulation,” said Kathy Gersch, former executive vice president of strategy and change at management firm Kotter.

[NATL] Met Gala 2018: Red Carpet Looks

Still, Michael Kors has some challenges ahead of it with the Italian brand known for its bold prints in the U.S., where the brand has been under-invested, industry bankers tell CNBC. 

Michael Kors has been eyeing the space for quite some time. Both it and competitor Tapestry, the parent of Coach, suffered the repercussions of expanding their affordable luxury brands too widely, thereby diluting their stature in the process. Meantime, the malls in which shoppers often pick up their affordable luxury brands have become increasingly desolate as shoppers head online. 

Meantime, Michael Kors has also been eyeing Europe, where last quarter sales declined roughly 1.6 percent. The company has 192 of its 1,038 stores in Europe. 

“I think that if we can get our business turned around in Europe, which we are very focused on, I think that our performance, again, would rank probably in the middle of the pack of the real luxury players on a global basis,” Michael Kors’ CEO John Idol told analysts in August. 

Private-equity firm Blackstone, which owns 20 percent of Versace, will cash out as part of its deal

Copyright CNBC 

Featured

Keto Fat Snaxs Blowing Up!

Keto is blowing up.

CNNMoney (New York)

The ketogenic diet is a strict regimen of low-carb, high-fat foods that forces the body into a state of ketosis — when you burn fat, instead of carbohydrates, for energy. Content by MyFinance

With the help of social media and word of mouth, demand for keto-friendly products have gone through the roof. 

Like Whole30, where dieters cut out sugar, grains, dairy and legumes for 30 days, and paleo, modeled after eating habits in the paleolithic era, keto has become trendy. 

But interest in keto has far outpaced interest in other fad diets. A Google Trends chart over the past year shows searches for “keto” have dwarfed searches for “paleo” “Whole 30” and “intermittent fasting.” 

On Instagram, dieters share their progress. Accounts with tens of thousands of followers show before and after weight loss photos and snaps of keto-friendly meals. Often, users put their weight loss in their bios. 

“Probably our first six months of sales were through people talking about us on Instagram,” said Brian Hemmert, chief marketing officer for Fat Snax, which sells low-carb, high-fat cookies and matcha tea blends. 

Because keto is is so strict, snacks and meal replacements are especially helpful to those trying to maintain the diet. 

fatsnax 1
Fat Snax products are high in fat and low in carbohydrates. 

Hemmert said that demand for Fat Snax products, which are available online, has been growing rapidly. In the next few months Fat Snax will be sold at a national chain. 

“There’s been such a groundswell on this,” said Anthony Gustin, founder and CEO of Perfect Keto, which sells protein powders and other keto-friendly products and shares information on how to maintain the diet. 

“Growth has been pretty wild.” Gustin said that Perfect Keto averaged 20% growth each month in the last year. 

Ted Tieken, founder of Keto and Company, which makes keto meal shake powders, said that he’s noticed a change in awareness around the diet. 

About “six months ago, I stopped having to explain what keto was to the average person,” he said. And in the last several weeks, “people get offended when I explain.” 

Tieken is launching a meal-replacement shake, Sated, which is compatible with a keto diet. He used a Kickstarter campaign to gauge interest in the product. So far, hundreds of backers have pledged more than $172,000 dollars. 

sated keto craze
Sated is a meal replacement drink for people who follow the keto diet. 

Tieken said that he plans to produce somewhere between 1.5 million and 3 million bottles based on demand for the shake, a sweet, filling meal replacement. 

He estimates that right now, Keto and Company has about 5,000 customers per month. But he noted that “demand has been increasing consistently.” 

Critics say the taxing diet is unrealistic. When people adjust to a lack of carbohydrates, they often feel fatigue and light-headedness. When US News and World Report ranked the 40 most popular diets this year, it put keto — and the similar Dukan diet — last. The panel of experts that created the list said the keto diet is difficult to maintain and that the high-fat intake could be dangerous for some. 

But Keto fans say there are a number of health benefits to the diet, like more energy, better focus and, notably, weight loss. 

The US diet sector is growing overall. According to Euromonitor, the meal replacement product category grew by 12% from 2012 to 2017. In that same period, the supplement nutrition drink category grew by 23%. 

And people outside the niche keto community are paying attention. 

Vincent Kitirattragarn, founder and CEO of Dang Foods, didn’t set out to make foods that fit a keto diet. He started Dang six years ago to sell modern Asian snacks that are healthy. 

About a year ago, Dang started developing FATBAR, a keto-friendly snack bar. 

“It’s very, very clear to us, after interviewing people and doing market research, that there was a huge demand for keto products and that demand was not being met by the market,” he said. 

FATBAR will be available online this fall and in Whole Foods stores in early 2019. 

— CNN’s Sandee LaMotte contributed to this report. 

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify Gustin’s role at Perfect Keto and the company’s reported period of growth.

Featured

New J.Crew Look 2018

Before-and-after photos show how much J.Crew has changed in the last 35 years

Mary Hanbury  …Business Insider

J.Crew
A photo from J.Crew’s famous catalog.

  • J.Crew first launched in the form of a catalog in 1983.
  • The brand was originally targeted at price-conscious customers.
  • When Mickey Drexler took over as CEO in 2003, the brand gradually became more expensive.
  • These photos show how the brand has changed over the years.

J.Crew is in a period of change. 

In 2017, Mickey Drexler stepped down after 14 years as CEO, and Jenna Lyons, the brand’s well-known creative director, left the business after 26 years. 

The brand is struggling — same-store sales have been down at J.Crew for the past three years, dropping by 8% in 2016 following a 10% decrease the year before. In its most recent quarter, sales dropped by 12%. 

But this isn’t the first time the company has struggled. After launching in 1983 as a catalog, the store ran into some problems in the late ’90s. It wasn’t until Drexler became CEO in 2003 that the company turned itself around and enjoyed years of sales growth. 

Find out how the brand has changed over the years below: 

J.Crew launched its swimwear collection in 1989, when it was still a young company. This photo shows the simple, block-print bikinis that were typical of that time.

J.Crew launched its swimwear collection in 1989, when it was still a young company. This photo shows the simple, block-print bikinis that were typical of that time.

Fast forward nearly 30 years, and it doesn’t look too different. J.Crew still sells simple swimwear designs in plain colors. This bikini top costs $56.

Fast forward nearly 30 years, and it doesn't look too different. J.Crew still sells simple swimwear designs in plain colors. This bikini top costs $56.

The striped one-piece has been a staple since the swimwear collection first launched.

The striped one-piece has been a staple since the swimwear collection first launched.

Today, bold stripes are still are part of the collection.

Today, bold stripes are still are part of the collection.

The brand was initially targeted towards price-conscious consumers.

The brand was initially targeted towards price-conscious consumers.

Source: Forbes

In the 2000s, it became a more exclusive brand.

In the 2000s, it became a more exclusive brand.

This catalog cover from 1993 exemplifies J.Crew’s classic androgynous look.

This catalog cover from 1993 exemplifies J.Crew's classic androgynous look.

The style continued under the creative direction of Jenna Lyons, who left the company last year. The New York Times crowned Lyons as “the woman who dresses America” in 2013.

The style continued under the creative direction of Jenna Lyons, who left the company last year. The New York Times crowned Lyons as

Featured

‘Space Jam’ 2

LeBron James Sets ‘Black Panther’s’ Ryan Coogler to Produce ‘Space Jam’ Sequel (Exclusive)

"I loved his vision," James says of Coogler, who will shepherd production on the Warner Bros. project, which is tentatively slated to begin in 2019 during the NBA off-season.

“I loved his vision,” James says of Coogler, who will shepherd production on the Warner Bros. project, which is tentatively slated to begin in 2019 during the NBA off-season.

In his first project since directing the record-breaking Black Panther, Ryan Coogler is teaming with LeBron James on the long-anticipated follow-up to the Michael Jordan-Bugs Bunny hit Space Jam, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. 

Coogler will produce the new Space Jam movie and Terence Nance, who created HBO’s Random Acts of Flynessand directed the experimental film The Oversimplification of Her Beauty, will direct. Production on the Warner Bros. film is tentatively slated for 2019, during the NBA off-season. It will be James’ first starring role after a successful turn as a supporting character in the 2015 Amy Schumer comedy Trainwreck.

Getting Coogler, whose credits also include Creed and Fruitvale Station, is a coup. The director is among the industry’s most sought-after artists. Not only did Black Panther break ground as a superhero movie from a black perspective with a black cast, but it has set a number of box-office benchmarks on its way to grossing $1.34 billion worldwide, including becoming the highest-grossing film ever by a black director.

“I loved his vision” for Black Panther, James tells The Hollywood Reporter, noting that when he was a kid growing up in Akron, Ohio, there were no black superheroes. “So for Ryan to be able to bring that to kids, it’s amazing.”

Space Jam has been long-rumored, with various directors and writers attached to the project over the years, including at one point Justin Lin, the action auteur behind the Fast & Furious movies. The movement on the project coincides with James’ recent surge in Hollywood film and TV projects as a producer. Just last week, NBC and The CW announced separate shows in development with James’ SpringHill Entertainment.

The subtext of a James-headlined Space Jam sequel is the raging GOAT debate between James (who still has years left in the NBA) and Jordan (who has six NBA championships), players with pronounced personality differences. Jordan was a global superstar and endorsement king when he made the original 1996 film, which pulled in about $250 million worldwide and is still the highest-grossing basketball movie of all time. Space Jam was chock-full of cameos from NBA players (and Warner Bros.’ Looney Toons). So it’s safe to assume the new iteration will include a plethora of basketball’s biggest stars, especially given James’ stature in the league. It’s unclear at this point, however, if Jordan will be among those featured.

“The Space Jam collaboration is so much more than just me and the Looney Tunes getting together and doing this movie,” says James, “It’s so much bigger. I’d just love for kids to understand how empowered they can feel and how empowered they can be if they don’t just give up on their dreams. And I think Ryan did that for a lot of people.” WATCHRyan Coogler Teams Up With LeBron James to Produce ‘Space Jam’ Sequel | THR New 

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History Of Peet’s And Starbucks

The Intertwined History of Peet’s and Starbucks

image

image

Few people realize that the owners of Peet’s once owned Starbucksand that the Starbucks we know today was created when Howard Shultz (Starbucks current Chairman, then a disgruntled executive) bought out the original Starbucks owners (who then purchased Peet’s) after a dispute as to whether or not to include espresso bars in their coffee bean stores. 

I fell in love with Peet’s coffee when I lived in Silicon Valley from 1998 to 2002. To this day I have a couple pounds mail ordered to Canada every few weeks.  Over many cups of Peet’s coffee, I took the following notes as I read Howard Shultz’s book – Pour Your Heart Into it: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time. It’s quite the interesting, intertwined history.

  •  Alfred Peet (pictured on the top) formed Peet’s in Berkley, California in 1966. (click here for more info on Alfred Peet) 
  • Originally Peet’s locations just sold beans – no drip coffee, latte’s etc. 
  • While attending college at Berkley, a Starbucks Founder (I forget his name, let’s call him “SF1“) strolled by and bought some beans. SF1, a native of Seattle, fell in love with Peet’s beans. 
  • SF1 returned home after college and continued to purchase coffee from Peet’s by mail order (as I do today). 
  • SF1 enjoyed the beans so much that he decided to open a similar bean selling store, Starbucks, in Seattle with Starbucks Founder II (“SF2“). SF2 had ran a local Seattle Coffee shop prior to that point. [I note from this Wikipedia entry on Starbucks that there were three founders, Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel and Gordon Bowker. I’m not sure which of these three were SF1 and SF2] 

  • Starbucks beans were originally purchased, pre-roasted, from Peet’s. 
  • More Starbucks stores were opened over several years. At some point Starbucks began roasting their own beans. But the green beans were still sourced from Peet’s for the first decade. 
  • In early 80’s Howard Shultz (pictured on the  bottom) was selling espresso machines from New York. He noticed that a ton of machines were being ordered from these Starbucks stores in Seattle. 
  • He decided to find out why and checked them out during his next vacation. He fell in love with the concept and, in 1982, convinced the Starbucks founders to hire him as Director of Marketing. 
  • Schultz set about expanding Starbucks (still beans only – no liquid coffee being sold) 
  • Subsequently he went to a trade show in Milan Italy. He noticed how Italians loved their espresso coffee bars, how social they are. 
  • Schultz tried to convince SF1 & SF2 to open espresso bars in their Starbucks stores. At first they said no, but after relentless nagging, they allowed Schultz to try it out in one store. 
  • About the same time Peet’s and Starbucks decided to merge their operations and buy out Alfred Peet. 
  • The espresso bar in the one Starbucks location was a hit. Nonetheless SF1 and SF2 still didn’t want to expand the concept. 
  • Starbucks bought out Alfred Peet and, for a time, Starbucks owns both Peet’s and Starbucks. All Peet’s locations were, for a time, folded into Starbucks. 
  • Upset that neither Peet nor the Starbucks founders wanted to add espresso bars into other locations, in 1985 Howard Schultz quit Starbucks and started his own espresso bar chain called Il Giornola. 
  • A year later SF1 and SF2 decided to sell off the Starbucks brand and retail locations, and retain sole ownership of the Peet’s brand. 
  • Schultz saw an opportunity, raised venture capital, bought the Starbucks brand and locations and merged them with the Il Giornola, each location of which was rebranded with the Starbucks name.  
  • Shultz put espresso bars in every Starbucks store. 
  • The former Peet’s stores were spun out and renamed Peet’s.
  • The two companies signed a 5 year non-compete whereby Schultz/Starbucks was precluded from opening coffee shops in the San Francisco Bay Area for five years. The Peet’s chain was to have exclusive rights in that market during that period. Interestingly, the Peet’s location on Chestnut Street in San Francisco’s Marina district was a Starbucks for its first two weeks. But, under the new arrangement it was spun out and became a Peet’s store – as it remains today. 
  • Five years later Peet’s hadn’t grown much while Starbucks had expanded into Chicago, New York, L.A. and other places. When the five year period was up Starbucks expanded into San Francisco too. 
  • Somewhere along the line, Peet’s owners (the Starbucks Founders) saw the light and started selling liquid coffee as well – Thank God for that!!!! 
  • Starbucks ultimately became the North American, then global, phenomena that we all know. 
  • To this day Peet’s remains a largely a regional player though it has expanded to a few other U.S. states. It still makes the best chain-store coffee I’ve ever had – far surpassing the coffee made available at Starbucks. 
  • While Peet’s trundles along, slowly expanding its retail stores, primarily in California, it continues to focus on its mail order business. 
  • Starbucks went public and conquered the world. 
  • Peet’s went public in October 2000 – and has conquered my taste buds. 

Featured

Amazon releasing 8 New Devices

Amazon plans to release at least 8 new Alexa-powered devices, including a microwave, an amplifier, and an in-car gadget 

  • Amazon plans to release at least 8 new Alexa-powered devices before the end of the year.
  • The new devices include a microwave oven, amplifier, receiver, subwoofer, and an in-car gadget.
  • It reflects Amazon’s ambition to make its Alexa voice assistant ubiquitous, especially in areas where people spend most of their time, like the home and car.

Eugene Kim | @eugenekim222  CNBC.com

In order: The Echo, the Echo Plus and the original Echo

Amazon unveils Fire TV Cube

Amazon unveils Fire TV Cube  3:27 PM ET Thu, 7 June 2018 | 04:05

Amazon VP: We expect the Echo interaction to continue

Amazon VP: We expect the Echo interaction to continue  Aug 2018 | 01:51

Featured

Nijjar Garam Masala Eggs

Growing up Mom and Dad would ask how you would like your eggs? Sunny Side Up or Down, Boiled ,  Omelette or Egg Bhurji (  Scrambled Eggs with lots of vegetables)   Please see below  recipe’s of one of the omelets  & Egg Bhurji My Mom & Dad made for us and so many other people enjoy making. The Scrambled Eggs are fun and easy & can be enjoyed with a slice of toast, Parantha ( Indian flatbread), rice or simply on its own.

By:  My Mom & Dad

  •  2 large eggs or 1/3 cup Egg Substitute
  •  1/2salt to taste
  •  1/4 tsp Garam Masala(1/4 tsp Garam Masala( spice mixture , which you can purchase at your local Indian grocery store or some grocery stores have it in the International Isle)
  •  8 cilantro leaves chopped
  • 1 small onion chopped
  • ½ tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1 ounce sharp cheddar (or any cheese of your choice ), grated or slice( my moms favorite was Kraft American Slice Cheese as it melts)
  • cooking spray or 2 tsp butter

How to Make It

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a medium bowl, combine onion, cilantro, , salt and garam masala and mix well. Divide into two small bowls.
  2. Add two eggs to bowl and combine.
  3. Heat a nonstick 8-inch skillet, coated with cooking spray or 2 teaspoons butter, over medium-high heat.
  4. Pour in one bowl of egg mixture and cook.
  5. Cook, tilting the pan so that the eggs cover the surface evenly, until the mixture is just set, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle cheese over half of the egg mixture.
  6. Fold over the omelet and slide onto a warm plate.
  7. Eat and Enjoy!

Egg Bhurji

Saute  your  favorite vegetable’s ( mom & dads favorite, spinach, mushrooms, onions, and peppers)

Add sa

Egg bhurji recipe

Egg bhurji is a simple scrambled eggs dish made in Indian style.

Ingredients  

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 onion , large , finely chopped
  • 1 green chili slit or chopped
  • ¾ to 1 tsp garam masala  
  • ½ tsp ginger &  garlic  chopped  
  • ½ to ¾ tsp red chili powder
  • 2 pinches turmeric (or haldi)
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • ½ tsp cumin (or jeera)
  • coriander leaves or curry leaves
  •   bell peppers, mushrooms, &  spinach(any vegetable that you like)
  • 1  small potato and or  tomato   (optional)

How to make the recipe

Making egg bhurji

  1. Heat oil in a pan. Add jeera. When they begin to splutters add onions, chilies and fry until golden.
  2. Add ginger garlic paste and fry till you get a nice aroma.
  3. If using tomatoes, add them to the pan. Fry until they turn soft and oil begins to separate. If using capsicums, add them now and fry till they are partially soft for 2 to 3 minutes.
  4. You can also add garam masala and chilli powder at this stage. Fry until the masala smells good. I prefer to add later after cooking the eggs.
  5. Pour the eggs and scramble lightly. Keep cooking and scramble once more. Stir egg bhurji constantly to prevent burning.
  6. Add masala powder, red chili powder, curry leaves or coriander leaves. Stir well. Check the salt and spice and adjust as needed.
  7. Cook until just cooked. Switch off the stove.
  8. Garnish Egg bhurji with coriander  or cilantro.
  9. Serve egg bhurji with toast bread, Parantha, Pita , or roti(tortilla)

Featured

Jordyn Woods Launching Activewear!

Jordyn Woods Has a Heartfelt Reason for Launching Her Activewear Line

by ANNA LAPLACA 

PHOTO: 

@JORDYNWOODS

Jordyn Woods didn’t intend to become a body-positivity advocate. The 20-year-old model and influencer actually calls herself an “accidental spokesperson” because her fans and followers look up to her as an activist for a more inclusive industry. But whether or not she meant for it to happen, Woods now stands for an entirely new generation of models breaking boundaries left and right.

Today, she announced the news that she’s launching an activewear line tomorrow, August 30, that will continue to give visibility to the plus-size community. Called Secndnture—because, according to Woods, the clothes you work out in should feel as comfortable as a second skin—the ’80s-inspired color-block windbreakers, bike shorts, and leggings will be offered in sizes from XS to 2X and priced from $45 to $79.

“Even though this is about all size ranges, I made something for everyone and I made things people wouldn’t want to make for curvier girls, like fun cutouts,” Woods told WWD. “It’s really about owning who you are in these outfits and having fun. I want people to feel confident to own every part of their body and go out in that cutout.”

Woods has another, more personal reason for launching Secndnature, aside from a desire to offer more stylish options in extended sizes. After her father died of cancer last year, she started cycling, hiking, swimming, and working out with a trainer as a form of therapy, according to WWD. Exercising has helped her cope with her intense loss, so here’s to seeing Secndnture serve as that outlet for many more people to come.

Featured

Athlesiure Trends

The 6 Athleisure Trends Everyone Will Wear in 2019

by ANAA SABER 

PHOTO: 

THE STYLE STALKER

If there’s one trend that’s reigned supreme over the last few seasons, it’s athleisure—we’re talking sneakers, track pants, hoodies, and everything in between. Looking for new ways to test out the look? That’s where athleisure enthusiast Anaa Saber comes in. In her new column for Who What Wear, the fashion girl behind @oursecondskin will offer up her best styling tricks for those of you looking to inject this cool trend into your everyday lives.

Compared to previous years, Copenhagen Fashion Week proved to be one of the buzzier occasions of the season. Especially with brands taking new creative direction—as in the J.Lindeberg showing and, of course, heartthrob brands like Ganni, Saks Potts, and Cecilie Bahnsen—Copenhagen Fashion Week became the sort of occasion nobody wanted to miss.

If Scandinavian fashion has taught us one thing over the years, it’s that floral dresses and softer silhouettes reign supreme. But this year, Copenhagen Fashion Week was one to remember, and not just because it was my first time attending the burgeoning, trend-forward scene in person. As an athleisure enthusiast, what with the trend at its utmost height, I wanted to see the influence it would have on the Scandinavian design scene firsthand, and let me tell you: I was more than impressed.

Between noteworthy street style moments—picture Haviannas with fancy printed dresses—elaborate set designs, and warehouses to waterfront views, what really stole my heart were the combinations of beautiful silhouettes paired harmoniously with edgy hints of sport and athletic influences. With all that said, behold my most noteworthy athleisure takeaways from S/S 19 Copenhagen Fashion Week. Considering how much hype this fashion week created, it’s safe to assume the six athleisure trends ahead will be everywhere come 2019, so get ready.

Business-Sport Casual

After appointing Jens Werner as creative director, this season J.Lindeberg took on a new direction to redefine the brand by blending its core classic pieces with a focus on its heritage sport.

This season, this J.Lindeberg suit with Bermudas and sneakers gave new meaning to business casual. Adding a sport element to your business look is a great way to make it casual and add that element of cool. The way J.Lindeberg paired sporty pieces with trousers, suits, and blazers was most definitely a refreshing and attainable styling note.1/6J.Lindeberg S/S 19

PHOTO: 

COURTESY OF COPENHAGEN FASHION WEEK

Flirty Utility

As one of the most hyped shows of the season (and rightfully so), this showing did not disappoint. Known for its flirty silhouettes, Ganni gave new meaning to being part of the #GanniGirls by infusing utilitarian edge into its S/S 19 collection.

Models gallivanted down the runway to Nirvana setting the tone for a little rebellion—dresses paired with tie-dye vests, backpacks, Western doll dresses, and bucket hats with oversize strings. Ganni collaborated this season with Icelandic brand 66° North to bring functionality into the technical gear. But let’s not forget what really stole the show. Two words: hiker boots!2/6Ganni S/S 19

PHOTO: 

COURTESY OF COPENHAGEN FASHION WEEK

Workwear

This season, Baum und Pferdgarten took place in a quaint little art gallery. The walls decorated with beautiful paintings and the ceilings with exquisite chandeliers, setting the tone for a true Danish brand. Models wore a range of clothing from floral-print dresses to tailored suits, a gorgeous silk robe, and two-tone denim while carrying briefcases showing a versatile breadth of garments. I particularly enjoyed the street influence, especially with the pairing of an office-friendly skirt and a coach jacket.3/6Baum und Pferdgarten S/S 19

PHOTO: 

COURTESY OF COPENHAGEN FASHION WEEK

Soft Edge

Following none other than the beat of her own drum, Cecile Bahnsen tells us that this season she decided to embrace her perpetual affinity for breathtaking pieces, staying true to her aesthetic.

Bahnsen without a doubt demonstrated her commitment to ultimate craftsmanship, design, and attention to detail, from puffy puckered sleeves to lacy two-piece sets to bow-ties. Stealing the show were the combination of black Suicoke sandals with the soft fantastical tops and dainty dresses.4/6Cecilie Bahnsen S/S19

PHOTO: 

COURTESY OF COPENHAGEN FASHION WEEK

Track Is Back

Marching down the Østerbro Stadium this season was a cascade of futuristic, Olympic-inspired garments. Sitting there watching the drama and theatrics, I was truly reminded why I love fashion, and Saks Potts reminded me that it doesn’t always have to be so serious. Between dramatic leather jackets, high-top braids, and puffy printed coats, sport influences were everywhere.

If attending Saks Potts confirmed one thing, it’s that tracksuits are here to stay. Bonus points for a logo print!5/6Saks Potts S/S 19

PHOTO: 

COURTESY OF COPENHAGEN FASHION WEEK

Futurist Street

I was stoked to hear Heliot Emil was showing this season at Copenhagen Fashion Week, especially because I’ve been swooning over everything it makes for quite some time now. Naturally, I was excited to see what direction their deconstructed and reconstructed looks would take this S/S 19.

While the color palette remained true in Heliot nature—white, gray, and dark colors with ashy tones—cascading down the runway was a mix of different fabrications including sheer fabrics coupled with technical wear incorporated with bomber vests and gloves.6/6Heliot Emil S/S 19

 

Featured

Exercise To Make You Feel Better About Yourself!

One Exercise Sure to Make You Feel Better About Yourself

With a minimum of effort, change the way you see your world.

Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock

Source: Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock

I have been treating patients using cognitive therapies for almost 15

years, and one of the most successful exercises I have ever seen work to help them re-engage their sense of well-being is so simple that each and every time I convince someone to do it, I am still remarkably struck by how effective it is.

Before I share this exercise with you, I want you to know that the difficult part is not doing the activity. It is making yourself believe that the activity will have enough benefit that you will put forth the actual effort to do it, and experience the results.

Often when I give this assignment to patients, they come back for two or three weeks afterward, still not having tried it. That’s OK; I’m so certain they will not try it initially, that I generally don’t even assign it until I have been working with them for several weeks and have had sufficient time to coach them into understanding the benefits of shifting their attention and thinking; how it relates to brain functioning; and how it affects their mood, so that they understand the value of what I am asking them to do.

OK, so what is the exercise?

  • Keep a pad of paper next to your bed and every night before you go to sleep, write down three things you liked about yourself that day.
  • In the morning, read the list before you get out of bed.
  • Keep adding 3 new things to your list everyday to keep the list growing.
  • Do this everyday for 30 days.

These don’t have to be big things, like I am a kind person; they can be simple, such as I like that I held the door for my co-worker, or I like that I didn’t lose my temper in traffic today, or I like that I am making the effort to try this exercise even if I’m not sure it will work…

For someone who is depressed, this activity feels like a lot of effort. Why? Research shows that people with depression have what is referred to as an attentional bias for negative self-relevant materials. They also have impaired attentional control, which means that once a negative schema is activated, they tend to ruminate on it and have difficulty disengaging and shifting their attention to something else; consequently, there is sustained negative affect.(1) Essentially, people with depression generally spend a good deal of time thinking about what they don’t like about themselves—and they have a hard time stopping.

The more time you spend thinking about something, the more active it becomes in your mental space—and the easier it becomes to access. Also, the more you think of something, the more it primes your brain to keep looking for similar things in your environment, creating a selective filter that not only causes you to sift your environment for things that match up with what you are thinking about, it actually causes you to distort ambiguous information in a way that matches up with your dominant thoughts.

Someone with depression who goes to a party might get 10 compliments, but if one person mentions the shirt he is wearing is “interesting,” that person may likely go home and fixate on the ambiguous comment and turn it into a stream of thinking like this: I wonder what was wrong with my shirt, I probably looked silly in it, I bet they all thought I looked like an idiot. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I ever get anything right? This is so humiliating. The 10 compliments have long been forgotten.article continues after advertisement

So how will this exercise help you?

Research also shows that it requires more attentional effort to disengage from a negative thought process than a neutral one.(2) This simple-to-do but nonetheless effortful exercise essentially helps you build the strength to disengage from any negative thought stream; redirects your attention to positive aspects of yourself; and retrains your selective attention bias.

As you do this, you not only start to become aware of more of your positive attributes, they become more available to you as you interpret events around you. Compliments become something you can hear and accept because they are more congruent with your new view of yourself. You start to interpret events occurring around you in a less self-critical way. If you stick with it, over time this has a compounding effect that elevates your overall sense of self-worth—and, subsequently, your well-being.

But remember: There is no benefit to your mental health in just understanding how the exercise works, just as there is no benefit to your physical health in knowing how to use a treadmill. The benefit comes from the doing.

Want to know if this exercise really works? Read one Psychology Today reader’s experience trying it.

1. Rudi De Raedt, Lemke Leyman, Evi De Lissnyder. (2010). Mood-congruent attention and memorybias in dysphoria: Exploring the coherence among information-here. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48 (3), 219–225article continues after advertisement

2. Marie-Anne Vanderhasselt, Simone Kühn, Rudi De Raedt. (2011). Healthy brooders employ more attentional resources when disengaging from the negative: an event-related fMRI study. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 11(2), 207-216

New World Library

Source: New World Library

Jennice Vilhauer, PhD is the author of Think Forward to Thrive: How to Use the Mind’s Power of Anticipation to Transcend Your Past and Transform Your Life, and the developer of Future Directed Therapy.

To view my 2015 TEDx talk on Why You Don’t Get What You Want click here.

Featured

Indian Punjabi Saag (Spinach)

Indian Saag

Sarson ka Saag & Makki ki Roti is a quintessential food cooked during the winter season in the North part of India . Sharing Sarson Ka Saag recipe with step …

Recipe by: VALONE”Indian saag is a curry of cooked mustard or similar ‘bitter’ greens (kale, collards, turnip greens), and spinach or similar mild greens (chard, bok choy, beet greens). Any combination of greens works! Use more spices and peppers for hot saag, or less for mild.”

Ingredients

50 m6 servings182 cals

  • 1/2 cup butter365 Everyday Value® Organic ButterEveryday Savings: $4.49 per 16 ozLEARN MOREADVERTISEMENT
  • 2 teaspoons cumin seed
  • 1 green chile pepper, seeded and diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons ground turmeric

  • 1 pound chopped fresh mustard greens
  • 1 pound chopped fresh spinach
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • Add all ingredients to list

Directions

  • Prep30 m
  • Cook20 m
  • Ready In50 m

  1. In a large skillet or wok, melt butter over medium-high heat, and cook and stir cumin seed, chile pepper, garlic, and turmeric until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
  2. Stir in the chopped mustard greens and spinach a little at a time, adding the tougher parts first (the stems and thicker leaves). Continue to add greens, and cook and stir until all greens have been added and all are thoroughly wilted. Stir in the cumin, coriander, and salt. Cover; reduce heat and simmer until greens are tender, about 10 minutes, adding water as needed to keep the greens moist.

Footnotes

Nutrition Facts

Per Serving: 182 calories; 16.2 g fat; 7.6 g carbohydrates; 4.7 g protein; 41 mg cholesterol; 565 mg sodium. Full nutrition

Featured

Power Suits!

9 Ridiculously Cool Power Suits to Buy Now

Blake Lively

Fleek/MEGA

This article originally appeared on People.com. For more articles like this visit people.com.PEOPLE.COM/KAMI PHILLIPS Sep 09, 2018 @ 1:00 pmEach product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.

Few things in life are certain — but feeling empowered, beautiful and badass while rocking a perfectly tailored pantsuit is one of them.

There’s just something about wearing a power suit as a woman that’s, well, powerful. Not only is it appropriate for work and play but with so many different styles, colors, and textures you can infuse your personality and fashionsense into whichever you choose — and that is also a powerful feeling. Because in 2018, suits are no longer reserved for men. In fact, we’re rocking suits inspired by them, but better than them. Just take a cue from stylish ladies like Blake Lively, Tracee Ellis Ross and The Duchess of Sussex who each rocked a pantsuit in their own fabulous way.

If you’re looking to rock a matching suit this fall, you’re in luck because there are plenty of amazing options to choose from. From trendy menswear-inspired plaids (like Blake Lively’s look) to bold hues (like Tracee Ellis Ross’ look) to classically chic and perfectly tailored (like Meghan Markle’s look) there’s something for all styles — at every price point. Scroll down to shop nine of our favorite picks, and get ready to turn heads because these suits mean business.

inRead invented by Teads

The Best Classic Suits

Nothing says modern and chic like a classic black suit. Whether you prefer an oversized blazer or a shorter cropped style, these suits are a timeless addition to any wardrobe. Add a Victorian-style blouse for a polished office look, rock a t-shirt and sneakers for a casual and cool vibe, or ditch your shirt completely under the blazer and add some pumps for a sexy date night look.

Buy It! DSTLD Womens Oversized Blazer, $125 and Cropped Pant, $85

Buy It! ASOS The Boyfriend Blazer, $72 and Highwaist Cigarette Pant, $45

Buy It! Theory Edition 2 Custom Gabe Blazer, $425 and Edition 2 Custom Max Pants, $295

The Best Bold Colored Suits

Nothing says power more than a bold hued pantsuit. From cobalt blue to fuchsia to burgundy, wearing color has never been so on trend — and so much fun. If you’re hesitant about wearing so much color, just keep the rest of your look neutral and let your suit make the statement. For a more bold approach, play with textures, monochromatic colors and statement-making accessories.

Buy It! Milly Stretch Crepe Blazer, $495 and Stretch Crepe High Waist Pants, $325

Buy It! A.L.C. Vernay Blazer, $595 and Javier Split Hem Pants, $445

Buy It! J.Crew French Girl Blazer, $148 and French Girl Slim Crop Pant, $80

The Best Mens-Inspired Suits

Borrow one from the boys and opt for a colorful plaid or checkered print suit. Not only are menswear patterns and fabrics huge for fall, but wearing them head-to-toe in suit form is one of the biggest trends of the season. Go full menswear-inspired and rock your suit with a graphic tee, glasses and a pair of loafers. Or add some ladylike accessories such as Mary-Jane heels, a top-handle satchel and some pearl earrings. The possibilities are endless!

Buy It! Anine Bing Madeline Blazer, $349 and Cindy Pants, $249

Buy It! Mango Pockets Structured Blazer, $130 and Check Crop Trousers, $80

Buy It! Club Monaco Borrem Blazer, $298 and Borrem Pant, $199

Featured

Janet Jackson Dropped 70 lbs

Janet Jackson dropped 70 pounds after baby

By Francesca Bacardi

Janet Jackson in 2005 (L) and in 2018

Janet Jackson in 2005 (L) and in 2018Getty Images

Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. A prominent figure in popular culture, she is known for sonically innovative, socially conscious , and elaborate stage shows. The youngest child of the Jackson Family.  Janet Jackson has one child with Wissam Al Mana his name is Eissa Al Mana. 

MORE ON:

Janet Jackson credits her personal trainer for her successful pregnancy at 50.

“I give it up to Paulette [Sybliss]. She’s incredible. And she never made me feel like I have to deprive myself of anything,” Jackson, now 52, told InStyle’s beauty issue. “She would say, ‘What do you like? OK, I’m going to put that in. What do you enjoy? OK, I’m going to put that in.’”

Since having her son, Eissa Al Mana, and going on tour, Jackson’s adopted an incredibly healthy lifestyle, though she doesn’t deprive herself of a few sweet treats.

“I don’t eat meat anymore, just fish occasionally and veggies,” she shared. “But I love catfish. I love a fried fish. But I’m also crazy about grilled fish. I love Snickers.”

Thanks to a healthy diet and training at least four times a week with Sybliss, Jackson dropped 70 pounds after giving birth to Eissa. Much of that probably has to do with the fact that despite her love of Snickers, the “All for You” singer hadn’t really tried any other candies.

“There were a lot of sweets that I have only tried as an adult. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Is that the little round one? I just tried that last year for the first time. It’s very good,” Jackson noted. “I finally tried a KitKat a couple of years ago.”

Even though Jackson is thrilled with where she’s at physically and mentally, growing up in the entertainment industry wore on her with its expectations to be skinny.

“I remember growing up and being in this business was always this important thing. Because it was the thing. And you had to be a certain size, you had to be thin to be an entertainer. Stupid crap like that. That’s just this business I’m in,” she explained. “I think it’s changed, thank God. People are more accepting of others. Which is the way it should’ve been from the jump.

Featured

Burt Reynolds A True Icon

Burt Reynolds: Hollywood pays tribute to ‘a true American icon’

 Viola Davis, Mark Wahlberg and Adam Sandler were among the actors to remember the 82-year-old star

As word of Burt Reynolds’ death spread through Hollywood, people from all corners of television and film took a moment to offer warm remembrances of a “legend”, “icon” and “trailblazer”. The 82-year-old star of Deliverance, The Longest Yard and Boogie Nights, died on Thursday after going into cardiac arrest at his Florida home.

Interviewing Burt Reynolds was a revelation which still shocks me today

Hadley Freeman 

Sally Field starred with Reynolds in the 1977 hit Smokey and the Bandit. In a statement, she described him as the “love of my life”. The two dated for many years and Reynolds discussed her with similar fondness in interviews.

“My years with Burt never leave my mind,” Field said. “He will be in my history and my heart, for as long as I live. Rest, Buddy.”

The actor and singer Dolly Parton, who sang with Reynolds in the film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, said in a statement: “Oh how sad I am today along with Burt‘s millions of fans around the world as we mourn one of our favorite leading men. I know we will always remember his funny laugh, that mischievous sparkle in his eyes, and his quirky sense of humor.”

Social media was abuzz. “He was my childhood,” said Oscar winner Viola Davis. The director Kevin Smith called Reynolds “a true American icon” and lauded him for showing “the fun of movie-making”.

Arnold Schwarzenegger called Reynolds one of his heroes: “He was a trailblazer. He showed the way to transition from being an athlete to being the highest-paid actor, and he always inspired me.”

In a tribute posted to Instagram, action star Sylvester Stallone said: “He had a great sense of humor and I enjoyed his company so much … RIP”.

Mark Wahlberg, who appeared with Reynolds in Boogie Nights, shared a picture of them on the movie’s set in a tweet with the caption: “Rest in peace to a legend and a friend.”

Adam Sandler, who worked with Reynolds in a 2005 remake of The Longest Yard, tweeted: “Burt Reynolds. True legend. Our hero. Funny as hell and a for-real badass. So many great movies. So many great stories. Such a great Dad. Will be missed by all. Deepest condolences to his family.”

Kristy Swanson, who worked with Reynolds on the 1989 TV series BL Stryker, said: “I can not stop my tears right now. You were one of the greatest guys I ever worked with, u had my back.”

The Shield star Michael Chiklis, who also worked on BL Stryker, added: “I owe my career, at least in part, to the great Burt Reynolds. Heartbroken to learn of his passing. He was one of a kind. A fun loving, charismatic talent who did many good deeds quietly, without personal expectation but rather out of the kindness of his extraordinary heart. RIP.”

Since you’re here …

… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.

The Guardian is editorially independent, meaning we set our own agenda. Our journalism is free from commercial bias and not influenced by billionaire owners, politicians or shareholders. No one edits our Editor. No one steers our opinion. This is important because it enables us to give a voice to the voiceless, challenge the powerful and hold them to account. It’s what makes us different to so many others in the media, at a time when factual, honest reporting is critical.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $1, you can support the Guardian – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

Featured

Mom’s Spaghetti by Eminem

Mom’s Spaghetti Recipe: An Ode To Eminem

Eminem recently came out with his new merchandise line, Stan, an ode to his character off of his album “Slim Shady LP.” His website is full of plenty of clothing options, including hats, t-shirts and hoodies. Of course, all we could think of when hearing of the news was, “mom’s spaghetti,” the infamous line from “Lose Yourself.” So, you can thank Eminem for inspiring this delicious spaghetti recipe that’s good enough to be your mom’s famous dish!

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1/3 c. breadcrumbs
1/4 c. finely chopped parsley
1/4 c. freshly grated Parmesan
1 egg
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 tbsp. olive oil, divided
1/2 c. Onion, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1 35-oz. can crushed tomatoes in puree
kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 lb. spaghetti, prepared according to package instructions

Steps:
1. In a large bowl, combine beef with breadcrumbs, parsley, parmesan, egg, garlic, salt and pepper flakes. Mix until just combined and form into 16 balls.
2. In a large pot over medium heat, add1 tbsp oil. Add meatballs and cook, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes.
3. Remove meatballs and reserve on plate.
4. Add the remaining olive oil and onion and saute until onion is translucent. Add bay leaf and crushed tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Add the meatballs back into the pot, cover and simmer until the sauce has thickened, 8-10 minutes.
5. Serve pasta with a healthy scoop of meatballs and sauce. Top with parmesan and serve.

Recipe courtesy of Delish

Featured

Eminem’s New Fashion

Eminem and Rag & Bone Collaborate on New Fashion Collection

They’ve designed three T-shirts and a hoodie

Eminem

Eminem, photo courtesy of Rag & Bone
Eminem, photo courtesy of Rag & Bone

Eminem is releasing a new capsule collection with Rag & Bone, the fashion label that often works with Thom Yorke. They designed the Icon Hoodie, which comes in three colors and features references to his music and Detroit hometown, including the area code “313.” Eminem has also co-designed three T-shirts called the Kamikaze (a reference to last year’s anti-Trump freestyle), Success, and Graffiti. Below, watch the promo video, filmed by Darius Khondji, and check out the designs.

The capsule, which was made and manufactured in America, will be available at London’s the Sun & 13 Cantons pub on Friday, July 13. Rag & Bone will also release limited batches of the Eminem collection online, starting July 14. The capsule price ranges from $95 for T-shirts to $250 for the hoodies.

Eminem’s last album Revival arrived last year. He recently jumped on Royce 5’9”’s “Caterpillar” and released an anti-NRA version of his Kehlani-assisted song “Nowhere Fast.” Read Pitchfork’s Sunday Review of Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP

Featured

Eminem and Workout Songs

Eminem Rules Workout Songs, Says Spotify

The streaming service has more than 25 million workout playlists created by its users.

ByKIRSTEN CHUBA

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CREDIT: REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

In light of the popular new year’s resolution to get in shape, Spotify has released its list of most played workout songs by users of the music streaming platform.

For the second year in a row, Eminem’s 2002 track “Till I Collapse” tops the list for most streamed global workout song, and the rapper also nabs a third place spot with another “Lose Yourself” — as anyone attending a spin class is likely already aware. Post Malonenabs  second place on the global list, with his 2017 hit “rockstar.”

For the list of most streamed workout songs in the U.S., Malone’s “rockstar” lands at No. 1, while Kendrick Lamar’s “HUMBLE.” comes in second, and “Till I Collapse” is third.

Also included in Spotify’s trend report are the most popular workout playlists around the globe, which include “Beast Mode,” “Workout Twerkout,” “Latin Dance Cardio” and “Throwback Workout.” The streaming service has more than 25 million workout playlists created by its users.ADVERTISING

Spotify revealed that the top international cities for workout music are led by Oslo, Norway, and followed by Miami, Washington, D.C. and London. Listening data showed that streaming workout playlists is at a high between Jan. 1 and Feb. 14, reaching its peach on Jan. 24 and dropping off after Valentine’s Day. Spotify recently announced that it had reached 70 million paid subscribers.

See the full list of Spotify’s top workout songs below:

Top Global Workout Songs

  1. Eminem – Till I Collapse
  2. Post Malone – rockstar
  3. Eminem – Lose Yourself – Soundtrack Version

  1. Kendrick Lamar – HUMBLE.
  2. Axwell /\ Ingrosso – More Than You Know
  3. J Balvin – Mi Gente (feat. Beyoncé)
  4. Camila Cabello – Havana
  5. Jax Jones – You Don’t Know Me – Radio Edit
  6. Dua Lipa – New Rules
  7. Kanye West – POWER

Top Workout Songs in the US

  1. Post Malone – rockstar
  2. Kendrick Lamar – HUMBLE.
  3. Eminem – Till I Collapse
  4. G-Eazy – No Limit
  5. Cardi B – Bodak Yellow
  6. Eminem – Lose Yourself – Soundtrack Version
  7. Imagine Dragons – Thunder
  8. Demi Lovato – Sorry Not Sorry
  9. Kendrick Lamar – DNA.
  10. Migos – MotorSport

Featured

Eminem’s album- Kamikaze

Mark BeechContributor 

Eminem at Bonnaroo 2018. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

Eminem’s album Kamikaze is already on track for some chart-topping records. Other artists can learn some business lessons from the U.S. rapper’s textbook surprise release, which is set to boost his $100 million fortune.

The album is rising up charts worldwide. The U.K.’s Official Chart update has just been released and is the first to put Kamikaze in prime position. The “midweek” list shows that Eminem is almost certain to have his ninth straight official British No. 1 when the final figures are released on Friday. That breaks the record for the most consecutive chart toppers that Eminem currently holds with Led Zeppelin and ABBA.

The picture is similar in the U.S., where Eminem’s last album, Revival, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in December 2017. Its placing made him the first act in history to have eight straight chart entries to do that. While Eminem has a fight on his hands thanks to South Korea band BTS, he will be hoping to continue his top placing.

The contemplative Revival last year contained duets with Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran. It was downbeat enough to leave the critics and fans divided and it had only half the sales of its predecessor.

While Revival was rigorously promoted, Kamikaze was launched on August 31 with no advance notice apart from simple announcements on social media. Eminem had hinted he was working on something after the muted reception to his last album, though few observers expected something so quickly.

While any Eminem album gets noticed, the star has done plenty to make the headlines and help sales this time. Kamikaze is a return to the old persona of the angry Slim Shady, who has scores to settle. Eminem derides his rival Drake, and declares that every rapper “is a goner” apart from a few like Kendrick Lamar, who gets one co-writing credit. President Trump is also attacked:  “Agent Orange just sent the secret service,” the rapper warns us at one point.

The “surprise album” release strategy is now becoming increasingly common. We have seen it with Beyoncé’s Lemonade and her Carters album with her husband Jay Z this summer. Kanye West’s surprise The Life of Pablo had a confusing surprise launch via Tidal as the star reworked it.

Eminem’s release is much more carefully planned and ties in with Kamikazemechanize such as $70 bomber jackets and $60 hoodies already announced.

Artists are trying various release methods to maximize sales. There is the option of just allowing physical releases initially, as was the case with Adele; and the method of restricting digital platforms, as used by Taylor Swift. Eminem is adopting the course of not making the record currently available in physical formats. As the result, as many as 60% of the album’s sales tally is from digital downloads, with the rest made up of streaming equivalent sales, the Official Charts Company said.

Eminem’s earnings will be further boosted when the physical versions of the album follow. According to his official website, the Kamikaze CDs will start shipping in four to six weeks. Red vinyl LPs and cassettes will follow in three to four months.

In Britain, Kamikaze has 27,600 combined chart sales so far, 20,000 ahead of Slim Shady’s nearest competition, the sophomore album by U.K. band Idles titled Joy As An Act of Resistance.

In the Forbes Five of hip-hop’s wealthiest artists compiled in March, the fourth and fifth names were Drake and Eminem, tied at an even $100 million apiece. Eminem is less of a businessman than some other hip-hop artists. He is long trumpeted as the bestselling rapper of all time. On this evidence, he is far from done yet, critically and commercially.

Featured

Exercises To Improve Hearing

Exercises To Improve Hearing

5 Activities to Improve Your Hearing

By

Worried about your hearing loss worsening? Not sure if you’re experiencing hearing loss? Here are five types of exercises you can do to help boost your hearing abilities!

Solve Puzzles to Combat your Hearing Loss

The brain plays such a major role in processing the sound information our ear receives that we can’t ignore it. Research has shown that there are links between hearing loss and mental conditions such as anxiety and depression.

This could be a result of brain atrophy, which is when brain cells and connections shrink or are damaged. Like muscles, your brain needs a good workout to stay strong and continue pumping.

Solving a variety of puzzles like crossword puzzles, word searches, and Sudoku throughout the day or the week are fun exercises to get your brain juices flowing and prevent brain atrophy. Playing bingo and card games, such as hearts and poker, are also great ways to work your brain with your friends in a social setting.

Do Yoga to Improve your Hearing

Yoga is known and widely practiced for its wide variety of health benefits. Thankfully, there are yoga exercises that help with your hearing too! The main goal of these exercises is to increase circulation in your ear and your brain, since increased circulation helps improve nerve functions and removes waste and toxins.

Yoga poses that help with circulation include the tree pose, lotus pose, cobra pose, and triangle pose. Yoga can also help with tinnitus, and there are many videos. YouTube that teach poses and postures for specific health benefits.

 

Exercise Daily to Help your Hearing

Keeping your body in tiptop shape is important for keeping your ears and brain healthy. Exercising every day by going out for a walk or job, doing yoga, or even just gardening or doing housework is great for getting your blood pumping and circulation going strong.

We recommend not exercising with headphones, earphones, or any source of loud music, since repeated exposure to loud noises can damage ear hairs, which are irreplaceable. If you decide to exercise with music, keep the volume relatively quiet and comfortable.

As a rule of thumb, if people around you can ear the music playing in your headphones or earphones, your music may be too loud.

Meditate to Improve your Hearing

Meditate in a park or other public area where you will be surrounded by various sounds. As you meditate, take deep breaths to help blood circulation and increase oxygen in your body. Focus in and out on each sound around you and try to locate where each sound is coming from.

This exercise will help you concentrate on deciphering sounds in noisy environments and determining the location of each sound.

Practice Focusing on and Locating Sounds to Sharpen your Hearing

Hearing exercises can help you hone in on where sounds are coming from and who or what is making the sounds. Place a radio or speaker in one area of the room, and play music or a sound at a comfortable volume. Place another sound source in a different area of the room, and turn up the volume until the combination of the two sounds creates a noisy environment.

Have someone move around the room while reading sentences from a book or newspaper. Close your eyes, repeat the sentence back to them, and try to locate from where he or she is reading the sentence.

These are only a few types of activities you can do to keep your hearing from getting worse. If you have any activities of your own that you to do help your hearing, comment below and let us know!

Featured

Samsung Galaxy Watch 2018

Samsung Galaxy Watch 2018

 

Samsung Galaxy Watch: Everything you need to know

Steven Winkelman
Digital Trends 
Samsung Galaxy Watch
Samsung Galaxy Watch
Samsung Galaxy Watch
Samsung Galaxy Watch
Samsung Galaxy Watch
Samsung Galaxy Watch
Samsung Galaxy Watch
Samsung Galaxy Watch
Samsung Galaxy Watch
Samsung Galaxy Watch

Ignore the initial stumble. Although the original Galaxy Gear was anything but awesome, Samsung wearables are solid devices, notably the Gear S2 and Gear S3, which combine great design with a simple interface and a cool, rotating bezel. At the company’s Galaxy Unpacked 2018 event in Brooklyn, New York, Samsung took the wraps off of its latest smartwatch, simply called the Samsung Galaxy Watch — which promises to make you not just healthier but a better person overall.

Whether you’re in the market for a new smartwatch, or simply interested in the new device, here’s everything you need to know.

Pricing and availability

Like the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, the Galaxy Watch is now available online and in-store. The watch comes at $330 for the 42mm Bluetooth model, or $350 for the 46mm Bluetooth model. Those who order the device before September 8 will also get a free Samsung watch band.

You can also order the T-Mobile LTE version of the Galaxy Watch through Samsung’s siteor straight from T-Mobile. For LTE, the 42mm rose gold option is priced at $380 and the 42mm midnight black model will cost you $380. The 46mm silver color model is priced at $400. All models will ship starting the week of September 2. T-Mobile is also offering customers the ability to buy one Galaxy Watch and get a second one half price, with 24 monthly bill credits, when they add a new line.

All other LTE versions will be available later this year.

Design

samsung galaxy watch news lead technologies inc v1 01
samsung galaxy watch news lead technologies inc v1 01
samsung galaxy watch news lead technologies inc v1 01
samsung galaxy watch news lead technologies inc v1 01
samsung galaxy watch news lead technologies inc v1 01
samsung galaxy watch news lead technologies inc v1 01

As with many smartwatches these days, the Samsung Galaxy Watch is available in a few different models, one 42mm and one 46mm — which is good news for those who often feel like smartwatches are too bulky and too big for their wrists. In our hands on preview of the device, we found it relatively lightweight and supremely comfortable on the wrist.

The Galaxy Watch is similar to previous Samsung smartwatches in many ways, but there are also a few major tweaks to the design. Like some previous iterations, it has a round watch face that’s built to look like a “normal watch” in day-to-day life. This stands in strong contrast to Apple’s smartwatches; even the upcoming Apple Watch Series 4 is likely to retain its square face — which for better or worse announces to the world that it’s anything but an ordinary watch.

On the back of the device, you’ll find a heart rate sensor — which is a welcome feature and will come into play for fitness tracking.

Like previous Samsung smartwatches, the device also features a rotating bezel, which is another way to interact with the device apart from the touchscreen and the two buttons on the right of the device. The Super AMOLED display inside that bezel comes in at 1.3 inches or 1.2 inches, depending on the size device you go for, and has a resolution of 360 x 360.

Samsung has taken durability pretty seriously, too. The company touted “military-grade durability” coupled with Corning’s DX+ glass at Samsung Unpacked 2018. The device also features 5ATM water-resistance, meaning it’s perfect for those who don’t want to worry about their device while swimming and should be able to withstand up to 165 feet of water.

When it comes to colors, the Galaxy Watch is available in three colors — silver, for the 46mm model, and either midnight black or rose gold for the 42mm model. There is also a host of watch band styles, so you can tweak the device to look exactly the way you want it.

Specs

Samsung Galaxy Watch

View photos

 

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Under the hood, the device features an unnamed dual-core 1.15GHz processor that’s built specifically for Samsung’s smartwatches. Battery life was a big consideration here — and the processor was built to conserve as much energy as possible. In fact, coupled with a 270mAh or 472mAh battery, depending on your model, Samsung says the larger device should last around 4 to 6 days on a single charge. We’re not currently sure how long the smaller device will last, but probably less than 4 days.

While you may not use the device to store tons of files, you do have 4GB of storage anyway, coupled with either 1.5GB of RAM in the LTE version of the device, or 768MB of RAM in the Bluetooth version.

Software

Samsung Galaxy Watch

View photos

 

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

While some early rumors hinted at Samsung switching to Google’s Wear OS for the new Samsung Galaxy Watch, those, unsurprisingly, turned out not to be true. Samsung has put a heavy emphasis on fitness tracking here. The device features a heart-rate monitor and will detect when your heart rate goes up and give you guided breathing exercises as a way to manage stress. The device also tracks up to 39 workouts, and 6 of the most common workouts can be tracked automatically. And, last but not least, the watch tracks sleep. All this data goes straight to the Samsung Health app, so it’s easily accessible on your Samsung phone.

The device also features and updated version of Bixby, Samsung’s own digital assistant — though we’ll have to wait and see if the digital assistant actually turns out to be useful on the device considering its rough track record.

The device is built to work seamlessly with Samsung phones, but it will also work on any phone with Android 5.0 or later, as well as any iPhone 5 or later with iOS 9.0 or above. Will it interact in some special way with the forthcoming Galaxy S10 or the futuristic, foldable Galaxy X phones? Only time will tell.

Featured

Diablo Fall Fashion 2018/2019

Fall Fashion Guide
Usher in the changing season with colorful plaids and textured knits, oversize jackets and strong silhouettes, pops of color and unexpected sparkle for a collection that’s sure to make a statement.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNIE EDMONDS // STYLIST JENEFFER JONES // HAIR & MAKEUP BY CASSIE CHAPMAN // MODEL AGA WOJTASIK
2

Published: August 24, 2018
Well Suited: Tibi tartan oversize tuxedo blazer, $895, and Mendini twill bra top, $245, at tibi.com; Tibi tartan Stella wide-leg paperbag pants, $595, at McMullen; chain link necklace by Sharon Z Jewelry, $800, at Crown Nine.
Well Suited: Tibi tartan oversize tuxedo blazer, $895, and Mendini twill bra top, $245, at tibi.com; Tibi tartan Stella wide-leg paperbag pants, $595, at McMullen; chain link necklace by Sharon Z Jewelry, $800, at Crown Nine.

Coat Du Jour: Akris Terrance reversible button-panel houndstooth wool coat, $3,990, at Saks Fifth Avenue; The Elder Statesman sweater, $990, at jinny; Vince ribbed skirt, $275, at Neiman Marcus; Tibi Adrian boots, $850, at tibi.com.
Coat Du Jour: Akris Terrance reversible button-panel houndstooth wool coat, $3,990, at Saks Fifth Avenue; The Elder Statesman sweater, $990, at jinny; Vince ribbed skirt, $275, at Neiman Marcus; Tibi Adrian boots, $850, at tibi.com.

Shine Tuned: Nomia croc vegan leather jacket, $595, at McMullen; Lizzie Fortunato pastel column earrings, $250, at McMullen; Gucci Ophidia small shoulder bag, $1,980, at Neiman Marcus.
Shine Tuned: Nomia croc vegan leather jacket, $595, at McMullen; Lizzie Fortunato pastel column earrings, $250, at McMullen; Gucci Ophidia small shoulder bag, $1,980, at Neiman Marcus.

Back Magic: Tibi silk paisley patch asymmetrical dress with fringe, $1,295, at McMullen; Collette Ishiyama silver stingray stripe stud earrings, $300, and Christina Bohn Silva bronze Luna ring, $125, at Crown Nine; Freida Rothman stack rings, $275, at Heller Jewelers.
Back Magic: Tibi silk paisley patch asymmetrical dress with fringe, $1,295, at McMullen; Collette Ishiyama silver stingray stripe stud earrings, $300, and Christina Bohn Silva bronze Luna ring, $125, at Crown Nine; Freida Rothman stack rings, $275, at Heller Jewelers.

V Formation: Givenchy textured turtleneck jumper, $1,720, and Loewe solid leather leggings, $2,150, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Aquazzura Optic mule 85, $850, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Meira T drop circle earrings, $825, and Freida Rothman wide-band ring, $195, at Heller Jewelers.
V Formation: Givenchy textured turtleneck jumper, $1,720, and Loewe solid leather leggings, $2,150, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Aquazzura Optic mule 85, $850, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Meira T drop circle earrings, $825, and Freida Rothman wide-band ring, $195, at Heller Jewelers.

Holding Pattern: Sea Coco striped sweater, $365, and Bacall cuffed pants, $380, at Nordstrom; Chanel high boot, $1,600, at Neiman Marcus; Lizzie Fortunato pastel column earrings, $250, at McMullen.
Holding Pattern: Sea Coco striped sweater, $365, and Bacall cuffed pants, $380, at Nordstrom; Chanel high boot, $1,600, at Neiman Marcus; Lizzie Fortunato pastel column earrings, $250, at McMullen.

All About Hue: Helmut Lang furry hooded bomber, $695, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Roksanda Keeva silk-satin midi dress, $1,195, at Nordstrom; Maral Rapp stud mesh earrings, $185, at Crown Nine.
All About Hue: Helmut Lang furry hooded bomber, $695, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Roksanda Keeva silk-satin midi dress, $1,195, at Nordstrom; Maral Rapp stud mesh earrings, $185, at Crown Nine.

Mad for Plaid: Isabel Marant Étoile checked wool coat, $575, at Nordstrom; Nomia long-sleeve mesh turtleneck, $165, and Ulla Johnson Rhodes trouser, $360, at McMullen; Lizzie Fortunato gold-plated brass and faux pearl hoops with rose quartz stone tops, $188, at McMullen; Christina Bohn Silva bronze Lunar ring, $125, at Crown Nine.
Mad for Plaid: Isabel Marant Étoile checked wool coat, $575, at Nordstrom; Nomia long-sleeve mesh turtleneck, $165, and Ulla Johnson Rhodes trouser, $360, at McMullen; Lizzie Fortunato gold-plated brass and faux pearl hoops with rose quartz stone tops, $188, at McMullen; Christina Bohn Silva bronze Lunar ring, $125, at Crown Nine.

Indigo Girl: Tibi raw denim trench with removable collar, $995, at tibi.com; Co floral dress, $1,095, at Nordstrom; Chloé Suzanna 30mm booties, $1,380, at Neiman Marcus; Bea Bongiasca silver long rice balls earrings, $370, at McMullen.
Indigo Girl: Tibi raw denim trench with removable collar, $995, at tibi.com; Co floral dress, $1,095, at Nordstrom; Chloé Suzanna 30mm booties, $1,380, at Neiman Marcus; Bea Bongiasca silver long rice balls earrings, $370, at McMullen.

Soft Sparkle: IRO Fordon sweater, $596, at Nordstrom; McQ Alexander McQueen sequin miniskirt, $415, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Meira T diamond feather earrings, $900, at Heller Jewelers.
Soft Sparkle: IRO Fordon sweater, $596, at Nordstrom; McQ Alexander McQueen sequin miniskirt, $415, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Meira T diamond feather earrings, $900, at Heller Jewelers.

Courtside Cool: Anine Bing Madeleine blazer, $350, and Frank and Eileen Tee Lab hoodie, $300, at jinny; Rag and Bone Milo track pant, $395, and Via Spiga Freya pump, $275, at Nordstrom; Heller Jewelers 2.39 carat diamond drop earrings, $5,940, at Heller Jewelers.
Courtside Cool: Anine Bing Madeleine blazer, $350, and Frank and Eileen Tee Lab hoodie, $300, at jinny; Rag and Bone Milo track pant, $395, and Via Spiga Freya pump, $275, at Nordstrom; Heller Jewelers 2.39 carat diamond drop earrings, $5,940, at Heller Jewelers.

Green with Envy: Sea Solange dress, $525, at McMullen; Hearts On Fire diamond hoop earrings, $4,900, and Freida Rothman droplet necklace, $365, at Heller Jewelers.
Green with Envy: Sea Solange dress, $525, at McMullen; Hearts On Fire diamond hoop earrings, $4,900, and Freida Rothman droplet necklace, $365, at Heller Jewelers.

Seeing Spots: Khaite sweater, $520, and Ganni leopard skirt, $275, at jinny; Amanda Hagerman chain and pearl necklace, $1,600, at Crown Nine; Lizze Fortunato post-modern cuff, $225, at McMullen.
Seeing Spots: Khaite sweater, $520, and Ganni leopard skirt, $275, at jinny; Amanda Hagerman chain and pearl necklace, $1,600, at Crown Nine; Lizze Fortunato post-modern cuff, $225, at McMullen.

Regal Ruffles: Ulla Johnson Clemente dress, $595, at McMullen; Hearts On Fire diamond earrings, $12,990, at Heller Jewelers; Amanda Hagerman Denora bangle set of 5, $500, and Kate Ellen 14K gold White Crow bracelet, $2,100, at Crown Nine.
Regal Ruffles: Ulla Johnson Clemente dress, $595, at McMullen; Hearts On Fire diamond earrings, $12,990, at Heller Jewelers; Amanda Hagerman Denora bangle set of 5, $500, and Kate Ellen 14K gold White Crow bracelet, $2,100, at Crown Nine.

Where to Shop
Crown Nine: 515 Ninth St., Oakland, (510) 251-9000, crown-nine.com.
Heller Jewelers: 2005 Crow Canyon Pl., Ste. A, San Ramon, (925) 904-0200, hellerjewelers.com.
Jinny: 1575 Botelho Dr., Walnut Creek, (925) 476-5857, shopjinny.com.
McMullen: 1235 Grand Ave., Piedmont, (510) 658-6906, shopmcmullen.com.
Neiman Marcus: 150 Stockton St., San Francisco, (415) 362-3900; 1000 S. Main St., Walnut Creek, (925) 279-3000, neimanmarcus.com.
Nordstrom: 865 Market St., San Francisco, (415) 243-8500; 1200 Broadway Plaza, Walnut Creek, (925) 930-7959, shop.nordstrom.com.

Fall Fashion Guide

Usher in the changing season with colorful plaids and textured knits, oversize jackets and strong silhouettes, pops of color and unexpected sparkle for a collection that’s sure to make a statement.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNIE EDMONDS // STYLIST JENEFFER JONES // HAIR & MAKEUP BY CASSIE CHAPMAN // MODEL AGA WOJTASIK

Well Suited: Tibi tartan oversize tuxedo blazer, $895, and Mendini twill bra top, $245, at tibi.com; Tibi tartan Stella wide-leg paperbag pants, $595, at McMullen; chain link necklace by Sharon Z Jewelry, $800, at Crown Nine.Well Suited: Tibi tartan oversize tuxedo blazer, $895, and Mendini twill bra top, $245, at tibi.com; Tibi tartan Stella wide-leg paperbag pants, $595, at McMullen; chain link necklace by Sharon Z Jewelry, $800, at Crown Nine.

 

Coat Du Jour: Akris Terrance reversible button-panel houndstooth wool coat, $3,990, at Saks Fifth Avenue; The Elder Statesman sweater, $990, at jinny; Vince ribbed skirt, $275, at Neiman Marcus; Tibi Adrian boots, $850, at tibi.com. Coat Du Jour: Akris Terrance reversible button-panel houndstooth wool coat, $3,990, at Saks Fifth Avenue; The Elder Statesman sweater, $990, at jinny; Vince ribbed skirt, $275, at Neiman Marcus; Tibi Adrian boots, $850, at tibi.com.

 

Shine Tuned: Nomia croc vegan leather jacket, $595, at McMullen; Lizzie Fortunato pastel column earrings, $250, at McMullen; Gucci Ophidia small shoulder bag, $1,980, at Neiman Marcus. Shine Tuned: Nomia croc vegan leather jacket, $595, at McMullen; Lizzie Fortunato pastel column earrings, $250, at McMullen; Gucci Ophidia small shoulder bag, $1,980, at Neiman Marcus.

 

Back Magic: Tibi silk paisley patch asymmetrical dress with fringe, $1,295, at McMullen; Collette Ishiyama silver stingray stripe stud earrings, $300, and Christina Bohn Silva bronze Luna ring, $125, at Crown Nine; Freida Rothman stack rings, $275, at Heller Jewelers. Back Magic: Tibi silk paisley patch asymmetrical dress with fringe, $1,295, at McMullen; Collette Ishiyama silver stingray stripe stud earrings, $300, and Christina Bohn Silva bronze Luna ring, $125, at Crown Nine; Freida Rothman stack rings, $275, at Heller Jewelers.

 

V Formation: Givenchy textured turtleneck jumper, $1,720, and Loewe solid leather leggings, $2,150, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Aquazzura Optic mule 85, $850, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Meira T drop circle earrings, $825, and Freida Rothman wide-band ring, $195, at Heller Jewelers.V Formation: Givenchy textured turtleneck jumper, $1,720, and Loewe solid leather leggings, $2,150, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Aquazzura Optic mule 85, $850, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Meira T drop circle earrings, $825, and Freida Rothman wide-band ring, $195, at Heller Jewelers.

 

Holding Pattern: Sea Coco striped sweater, $365, and Bacall cuffed pants, $380, at Nordstrom; Chanel high boot, $1,600, at Neiman Marcus; Lizzie Fortunato pastel column earrings, $250, at McMullen.Holding Pattern: Sea Coco striped sweater, $365, and Bacall cuffed pants, $380, at Nordstrom; Chanel high boot, $1,600, at Neiman Marcus; Lizzie Fortunato pastel column earrings, $250, at McMullen.

 

All About Hue: Helmut Lang furry hooded bomber, $695, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Roksanda Keeva silk-satin midi dress, $1,195, at Nordstrom; Maral Rapp stud mesh earrings, $185, at Crown Nine. All About Hue: Helmut Lang furry hooded bomber, $695, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Roksanda Keeva silk-satin midi dress, $1,195, at Nordstrom; Maral Rapp stud mesh earrings, $185, at Crown Nine.

 

Mad for Plaid: Isabel Marant Étoile checked wool coat, $575, at Nordstrom; Nomia long-sleeve mesh turtleneck, $165, and Ulla Johnson Rhodes trouser, $360, at McMullen; Lizzie Fortunato gold-plated brass and faux pearl hoops with rose quartz stone tops, $188, at McMullen; Christina Bohn Silva bronze Lunar ring, $125, at Crown Nine. Mad for Plaid: Isabel Marant Étoile checked wool coat, $575, at Nordstrom; Nomia long-sleeve mesh turtleneck, $165, and Ulla Johnson Rhodes trouser, $360, at McMullen; Lizzie Fortunato gold-plated brass and faux pearl hoops with rose quartz stone tops, $188, at McMullen; Christina Bohn Silva bronze Lunar ring, $125, at Crown Nine.

 

Indigo Girl: Tibi raw denim trench with removable collar, $995, at tibi.com; Co floral dress, $1,095, at Nordstrom; Chloé Suzanna 30mm booties, $1,380, at Neiman Marcus; Bea Bongiasca silver long rice balls earrings, $370, at McMullen. Indigo Girl: Tibi raw denim trench with removable collar, $995, at tibi.com; Co floral dress, $1,095, at Nordstrom; Chloé Suzanna 30mm booties, $1,380, at Neiman Marcus; Bea Bongiasca silver long rice balls earrings, $370, at McMullen.

 

Soft Sparkle: IRO Fordon sweater, $596, at Nordstrom; McQ Alexander McQueen sequin miniskirt, $415, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Meira T diamond feather earrings, $900, at Heller Jewelers. Soft Sparkle: IRO Fordon sweater, $596, at Nordstrom; McQ Alexander McQueen sequin miniskirt, $415, at Saks Fifth Avenue; Meira T diamond feather earrings, $900, at Heller Jewelers.

 

Courtside Cool: Anine Bing Madeleine blazer, $350, and Frank and Eileen Tee Lab hoodie, $300, at jinny; Rag and Bone Milo track pant, $395, and Via Spiga Freya pump, $275, at Nordstrom; Heller Jewelers 2.39 carat diamond drop earrings, $5,940, at Heller Jewelers.Courtside Cool: Anine Bing Madeleine blazer, $350, and Frank and Eileen Tee Lab hoodie, $300, at jinny; Rag and Bone Milo track pant, $395, and Via Spiga Freya pump, $275, at Nordstrom; Heller Jewelers 2.39 carat diamond drop earrings, $5,940, at Heller Jewelers.

 

Green with Envy: Sea Solange dress, $525, at McMullen; Hearts On Fire diamond hoop earrings, $4,900, and Freida Rothman droplet necklace, $365, at Heller Jewelers.Green with Envy: Sea Solange dress, $525, at McMullen; Hearts On Fire diamond hoop earrings, $4,900, and Freida Rothman droplet necklace, $365, at Heller Jewelers.

 

Seeing Spots: Khaite sweater, $520, and Ganni leopard skirt, $275, at jinny; Amanda Hagerman chain and pearl necklace, $1,600, at Crown Nine; Lizze Fortunato post-modern cuff, $225, at McMullen.Seeing Spots: Khaite sweater, $520, and Ganni leopard skirt, $275, at jinny; Amanda Hagerman chain and pearl necklace, $1,600, at Crown Nine; Lizze Fortunato post-modern cuff, $225, at McMullen.

 

Regal Ruffles: Ulla Johnson Clemente dress, $595, at McMullen; Hearts On Fire diamond earrings, $12,990, at Heller Jewelers; Amanda Hagerman Denora bangle set of 5, $500, and Kate Ellen 14K gold White Crow bracelet, $2,100, at Crown Nine.Regal Ruffles: Ulla Johnson Clemente dress, $595, at McMullen; Hearts On Fire diamond earrings, $12,990, at Heller Jewelers; Amanda Hagerman Denora bangle set of 5, $500, and Kate Ellen 14K gold White Crow bracelet, $2,100, at Crown Nine.

 

Where to Shop

Crown Nine: 515 Ninth St., Oakland, (510) 251-9000, crown-nine.com.
Heller Jewelers: 2005 Crow Canyon Pl., Ste. A, San Ramon, (925) 904-0200, hellerjewelers.com.
Jinny: 1575 Botelho Dr., Walnut Creek, (925) 476-5857, shopjinny.com.
McMullen: 1235 Grand Ave., Piedmont, (510) 658-6906, shopmcmullen.com.
Neiman Marcus: 150 Stockton St., San Francisco, (415) 362-3900; 1000 S. Main St., Walnut Creek, (925) 279-3000, neimanmarcus.com.
Nordstrom: 865 Market St., San Francisco, (415) 243-8500; 1200 Broadway Plaza, Walnut Creek, (925) 930-7959, shop.nordstrom.com.
Saks Fifth Avenue: 384 Post St., San Francisco, (415) 986-4300, saksfifthavenue.com.

 

Featured

What Happens After You Drink An Energy Drink?

What Happens After You Drink An Energy Drink?

Everything that happens to your body after you have an energy drink

The Government has launched plans to make it illegal to sell energy drinks to children CREDIT:REUTERS

Energy drinks could soon join alcohol and cigarettes in having an age limit amid fears they’re damaging children’s health.

This week, the Government launched plans to make it illegal to sell the drinks – which often have promises like “Instant alertness” and “5 hour energy” on their packaging – to children.

Energy drinks contain even higher levels of sugar and caffeine than regular soft drinks, and have been linked to obesity, sleep disorders, tooth decay, digestive disorders and behavioural problems.

“We all have a responsibility to protect children from products that are damaging to their health and education, and we know that drinks packed to the brim with caffeine, and often sugar, are becoming a common fixture of their diet,” says Public Health Minister Steve Bine. “Our children already consume 50pc more of these drinks than our European counterparts, and teachers have made worrying links between energy drinks and poor behaviour in the classroom.”

The proposed ban would apply to drinks containing 150mg of caffeine or more per litre. And while a 330ml can of Diet Coke contains 42mg of caffeine, a typical energy drink will contain around 80mg in a 250ml can.

Smaller so-called “energy shots” contain up to 160mg of caffeine in a 60ml bottle.

After 60 minutes your liver begins treating the caffeine like a poison and tries to eliminate itDr Stuart Farrimond

So just what are these drinks doing to our body? “Well for a start, they have varying levels of caffeine and sugar,” says Emer Delaney, a dietitian and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association. “And it depends on the age and size of the person drinking them. Children are more sensitive to the effects, but adults also respond to caffeine differently so the effects can vary hugely from person to person.

“These effects begin from the first sip,” says Dr Stuart Farrimond, author of The Science of Cooking. “Energy drinks contain lots of sugar, sweeteners and diluted acids like citric acid, to give them their appealing citrusy tang. The PH level is approaching the level of lemon juice or vinegar, however, which creates acidic conditions in the mouth that are extremely damaging to teeth.

“The acidity and high caffeine levels then have an irritating effect on the oesophagus, so if you’re prone to stomach ulcers or gastritis – an inflammation of the stomach – it can make it worse.

“Energy drinks don’t linger, quickly pass through and within ten minutes have made their way into the intestines where their sugar is quickly absorbed, leading to elevated blood sugar levels. By twenty minutes levels have reached a maximum and drinkers will feel euphoric, stimulated and alert from the sugar.

“By now all the caffeine will also have been absorbed and you’ll be at peak caffeine levels and your brain will be maximally stimulated. At around 40 minutes your brain will release a chemical called dopamine, which is a ‘reward chemical’ – the type that’s released during smoking, gambling or sex. So around now you’ll be feeling good.

“But by 60 minutes your liver begins treating the caffeine like a poison and tries to eliminate it, which is why these drinks have a diuretic effect which can be dehydrating. And between 90 minutes and two hours later you get what’s termed a sugar crash.”

“This comes just as the caffeine is also beginning to wear off,” says Emer Delaney. “So you’re likely to feel exhausted and irritable and teachers have reported seeing higher levels of anxiety, destructive and attention seeking behaviour, and lower moods among pupils who drink energy drinks.”

Delaney also calls the combination of sugar and caffeine a “potent mix”. One recent study found that drinking sugary, caffeinated drinks is more dangerous than drinking caffeine alone. The study – published in the Journal of the American Heart Association – found that drinking four cans of energy drink leads to abnormal changes in blood pressure and heart rhythm within two hours.

Study author Dr Emily Fletcher, from the US Air Force Medical Centre in California, found the study participants who drank the energy drinks still had elevated blood pressure six hours later and said that ingredients other than caffeine, most likely the high levels of sugar, also had “blood pressure alternating affects”.

Women taking birth control pills also take up to twice as long to process caffeine, so like children they’ll feel the effects of these drinks for longer.

One study published in the International Journal of Health Sciences found that drinking more than 200mg of caffeine from energy drinks can cause caffeine intoxication, with symptoms including anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, muscle twitching and digestive irritation.

“The gut doesn’t like caffeine at all,” says Delaney, “and it particularly doesn’t like it in large doses. So energy drinks can cause digestive problems, like diarrhea and IBS-type symptoms.”

The high sugar content of energy drinks is, according to Delaney, a factor in the rates of type 2 diabetes among young people “increasing in leaps and bounds.” Plus, consistently high blood sugar levels can damage your nerves and blood vessels over time, which can lead to heart disease and kidney problems later on.

“If you drink energy drinks regularly you’ll gain weight, which increases your risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes,” she says. “Again, the mix of the sugar and caffeine is a problem because it makes them highly addictive. So when people begin drinking these drinks, they find it hard to stop. And the huge amounts of sugar and artificial sweeteners they contain increase their appetite and contribute to poor food choices overall.”

“Today’s energy drinks have come far from their origins as a sports aid,” says Dr Farrimond. “They’re not being drunk by people doing sports wishing to improve their game, but rather by people who simply enjoy the taste and the feeling they give.

“As for the claims on the cans about added ginseng or B-vitamins, that’s simply fairy dust marketing. There are far healthier ways to stay hydrated, energised and top up your B vitamins than drinking a cheap, sugary, brightly coloured energy drink.”

 

Featured

Lagerfield Creating For Macy’s-In September 2018!

Lagerfield Creating For Macy’s-In September!

MACY’S

Lagerfeld For Macy’s

 by LAUREN MILLIGAN

AS we all recover from the Lanvin for H&M fever that has gripped us for the past few weeks (see the mayhem of the launch here), the news comes that Karl Lagerfeld is creating a collection for Macy’s. The designer, who has previously designed a range for H&M, will unveil his line in 250 Macy’s stores – as well as online – in September. His collection will part of a designer series for the department store which begins with Kinder Aggugini.

“Karl Lagerfeld holds a unique place in the world of fashion, an icon who is the ultimate modernist,” Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Macy’s Inc told WWD. “Through the decades, his style and vision have marked the history of design. It is a tremendous honour to bring his inimitable perspective to our fashion customer.”

Like Lanvin for H&M, the collection will feature menswear as well as womenswear.

Featured

How Smiles Are Contagious?

How Smiles Are Contagious?

How is a smile contagious?
Why smiles (and frowns) are contagious. … Smile! It makes everyone in the room feel better because they, consciously or unconsciously, are smiling with you. Growing evidence shows that an instinct for facial mimicry allows us to empathize with and even experience other people’s feelings.
Featured

Getting Ahead Autumn/Winter 2018/2019

Getting Ahead Autumn/Winter 2018/2019

The Style Agenda: 10 Ways To Get Ahead On The New Season

As autumn approaches, bringing with it a host of box-fresh ideas set to transform your wardrobe, Vogue rounds up the style rules for the season ahead. From the perfect animal-print trench coat to the new stacked mule, these are the autumn/winter 2018/2019

2018 trends to buy into now and wear later.

1. Paco Rabanne
1. Paco Rabanne

Paco Rabanne’s girl has long been wedded to a glistening after-dark dress; now, it’s the unexpected daylight appeal of metallic medallion panels with wool that’s impossible to ignore.

Cardigan, £460; sleeveless knit top, £930; skirt, £2,350; slides, £420, all Paco Rabanne. Hoop earrings, from £100 at Jennifer Fisher.

NICOLE MARIA WINKLER
  • 2. The scarf-neck blouse
    2. The scarf-neck blouse

    Fashion is in a generous mood: capitalise with a lavish neckline and dress your throat with a jaunty knot.

    Ellery Salvador neck-tie blouse, £485 at Matchesfashion.com.

  • 3. The perfect shade of yellow
    3. The perfect shade of yellow

    Sunny Delight-yellow is the ultimate mood enhancer. Wear it head to toe – with a splash of optic white – and consider it therapy for those inevitable post-holiday blues.

    Lemaire autumn/winter 2018.

  • 4. The skirt suit
    4. The skirt suit

    A skirt suit is strait-laced by nature, but cut long and lean and rendered in sumptuous blush wool it becomes a wild-card wardrobe entry. Take it out for a spin with a vampy pump.

    Gabriela Hearst autumn/winter 2018.

    5. The pendant necklace
    5. The pendant necklace

    Seventies disco chains have the edge on chokers. Pair with bitter chocolate or chestnut brown à la Chloé, for instant sophistication.

    Necklace, £660 at Chloé.

  • 6. The shoe-string belt
    6. The shoe-string belt

    We challenge you to come up with a neater way to a waist than a quick double knot on a pair of shoelaces. That thrifty feeling has never felt better.

    Acne Studios autumn/winter 2018.

  • 7. The croc bag
    7. The croc bag

    Not real crocodile, mind. There’s just one rule: the dinkier the better.

    Leather bag, £396 at Rejina Pyo.

  • 8. The stacked mule
    8. The stacked mule

    If shoes are the new bags, then Gucci’s mules are the “it” hit of the season. Style them with louche suiting or a pleated skirt.

    Leather mules, £620 at Gucci.

  • 9. The cardigan coat
    9. The cardigan coat

    Doesn’t a body-cocooning cardi look right again? And, more importantly, doesn’t it look easy?

    Chanel autumn/winter 2018.

  • 10. The animal-print trench
    10. The animal-print trench

    Animal print has a gauche, wayward energy this season; rein it in with a subtle trench coat template that is fluent in ladylike complexity.

    Wool coat, £1,025 at Sykes.

Featured

Oprah Released Easy Good Pizza’s

Oprah Released Easy Good Pizza’s

Featured

Bollywood Style Changing Fashion

Bollywood Style Changing Fashion

An Alternative to Bollywood Style

Bodice, the winner of the Woolmark prize, wants to change how the world sees Indian fashion.

By Phyllida Jay

Image
A look from Bodice Studio, which shatters many stereotypes of Indian design.

NEW DELHI — Off a smoggy, six lane highway in India’s capital, past a Catholic church and an elegant mosque painted white and green, is a low-slung, 1950s-style bungalow on a pink bougainvillea-lined lane where wild peacocks roam. This is the studio of Ruchika Sachdeva, the women’s wear designer British Vogue called “a bellwether for a new kind of generational change.”

“I don’t want to make more things,” Ms. Sachdeva said, as she sorted through swatches of fine Indian hand-loomed textiles. “I want to make clothes that are meaningful for both the wearer and the world around them.”

Ms. Sachdeva, 31, moved one large step closer to her goal earlier this year when she won the International Woolmark Prize for women’s wear (the same prize that Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent won years ago, and which was reintroduced in 2012 as a consciously inclusive and wide-ranging hallmark of new talent) with her label, Bodice Studio.

Now, with release of the Woolmark collection at retailers including Mytheresa and Farfetch this summer, her approach is about to go global.

“I feel when you are from India, people only focus on tradition, but when I use traditional craft, my idea is to ensure that it’s not limited to the place it comes from,” Ms. Sachdeva said. “Growing up in West Delhi, I often felt restricted. There was just too much bling and an excess of embroidery on everything. My mother always taught me the values of Sanskar balance, of being secure in yourself, and I feel that has had a big influence on me and the clothes I create.”

Image

Ruchika Sachdeva, the designer of Bodice Studio.

Fine gauge merino wool, some of it hand-woven in the Himalayas, is used to create pieces that are structured and fluid. An innovative binding technique results in knife-sharp, color-contrast pleats.

The fall collection, which ranges from $400 to $1,900, includes midi-length skirts, prim but sporty dresses and a standout powder pink wool suit dyed with madder (a flowering plant with roots containing a compound that produces a nontoxic dye) by artisans in central India.

A twist on the traditional tailored suit, it has graphic lines that make references to classic sportswear, but its graceful flared cut evokes 18th-century Indian dancers of the Mughal Empire, a constant inspiration in Ms. Sachdeva’s work.

Indeed, Bodice Studio shatters many stereotypes of Indian design as shaped by its Bollywood-influenced bridal market or the rapturous kitsch excesses of diaspora designers like Manish Arora and Ashish. Perhaps that is why, since its introduction in 2011, it has become a go-to label for Indian women across the creative industries.

Ms. Sachdeva has a presence that exudes quiet authority, gleaned in part from becoming the first woman in her family to study abroad. She left Delhi in 2007 to attend the London College of Fashion.

“My mother got calls from extended family, saying, ‘Ruchika’s going to come back with so many Westernized ideas,’” she said. “They were focused on the idea of me being a good, dutiful daughter who shouldn’t be allowed to go off and study by herself. You can send your son but not your daughter. There’s that kind of double standard.”

Her mother resisted the family pressure and, Ms. Sachdeva said, “always told my sister and I that we should become women of our own means, not be dependent, work hard and run our own lives. She was the feminist in our house.”

The London College of Fashion led to an internship with Vivienne Westwood. That, led to the decision to return to India to create clothing that gives expression to the wealth of craft and hand-woven textiles that often languish undervalued in the place of their birth.

“London with its subcultures, history of punk and galleries of contemporary art has a huge culture of questioning aesthetics,” Ms. Sachdeva said. “It was very formative for me to be challenged about my own preconceived notions of beauty.”

Image

A bomber jacket in light wool.

Such challenges came into play with the Woolmark Prize collection. “There were so many things I wanted to do that often get pushed to the side in the process of running a fashion business,” Ms. Sachdeva said. “The Woolmark process gave me a full year to focus on textiles, to experiment with craft and also with cutting-edge technology, and to push the boundaries with color.”

A pleated shirt and pants, for example, is tinted an earthy pink made from madder. A bottle green bomber in light wool with navy ribbed cuffs and pocket flaps is both sporty and elegant, the sleeves and front breast panels lent abstract surface texture with a traditional kantha (running) stitch inspired by an old family tradition and lore.

“In Bengal women use kantha to recycle old, worn-out saris into quilts,” Ms. Sachdeva said. “Traditionally, it’s believed that the bonds of love between the women who wore the saris, and the care with which they stitch layers of them into quilts, makes them auspicious, protecting newborns who are wrapped in them.”

An original way of thinking about recycling, and perhaps, new Indian aesthetics, too.

Featured

BioDatix Health Band Launch

iGambit Inc. Announces Innovative BioDatix Health Band Launch September 2018

Globe Newswire

(GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — iGambit, Inc. (OTCQB:IGMB) is pleased to announce our first pilot launch on our much-awaited BioDatix Health Band.

HealthDatix will begin shipping our BioDatix Health Bands this month to a select group of clients, whose Care Team of professionals will embark on a September 2018 pilot program.

Over the past 18 months, HealthDatix’s focus has been on the software development on the new BioDatix Health Band, Android and iOS applications. The BioDatix Health Band will provide the ability to passively collect a wearer’s Heart Rate, Blood Oxygen, Blood Pressure, Sleep and Steps/Distance/Calories.

The data is then transmitted to our FDA approved back-end application producing trend reports and alerts. Identified “out of limit” or “unusual” baselines can then be managed by HealthDatix or our clients’ Care Team of professionals.  The Care Team professionals can receive alerts and send messages to any or all of the Wearer, Caregiver, Physicians and Physicians’ staff to facilitate better user engagement in managing their overall health.

This new product offering offers strategic synergies in multiple markets, healthcare, fitness, and employee wellness programs.

John Salerno, CEO of iGambit, stated: “The ability of our product and services to seamlessly integrate day-to-day, health-related activities into an application-health-based module is a game-changer in the healthcare market.”

 *The global wearable market has a potential to reach $32.9 billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 67.6% during 2014 – 2020, according to new research published by Allied Market Research. Increasing demand for technologically advanced wearable medical devices, rising awareness regarding physical fitness, advent of new smartphone-linked healthcare applications, and growing demand for wireless connectivity in the healthcare industry are the key factors propelling the overall industry.

 About HealthDatix

Healthy, Longer Lives, that’s our mission. Within the population of any group or organization there are people who are healthy and those that are at risk. Our mission is to aggregate their data and deliver accurate reporting necessary to make vital decisions on a course of treatment or education for those at risk. We empower you with the data needed to negotiate future health costs. We’re helping to shape the future of our nation’s health care system, with robust leveraging of technology that delivers value-based healthcare and payment without extra staff or additional efforts on the part of the caregiver. Our proprietary data analytics management uncovers new opportunities for health wellness visits and 24/7/365 monitoring of people with chronic conditions. For more information, please visit www.healthdatix.com.

 iGambit (OTCQB:IGMB) is a fully reporting publicly-held company. For more information, please visit www.igambit.com. Information on our website does not comprise a part of this press release.

Featured

Sportswear That Doesn’t Sacrifice Style

Sportswear That Doesn’t Sacrifice Style for Function

Seattle’s long had the leisurely athletic look on lock, but nowadays local outfitters help sportswear feel as sartorial as it is practical.

By Rosin Saez Photography by Justin Gollmer

IMAGE: JUSTIN GOLLMER

1. Best in a Supporting Role

Monroe bra in powder blue ($48) at Girlfriend Collective.

2. Channeling Our Inner Sporty Spice

Vigor vest in frost ($90) at Oiselle, 2632 NE University Village St, University District.

3. A Stylish Leg Up

Ghost high-waist mesh crop pant ($90) at Brooks Running, 3400 Stone Way N, Fremont.

4. Sleek Sneaks

Revel 2 running shoe ($100) at Brooks Running, 3400 Stone Way N, Fremont.

Featured

Plyometric Exercises

Plyometric Workout 17

Complete in straight sets with 1 min rest in-between sets.

Broad Jump

1) Stand with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart in a semi-squat position.
2) Swinging the arms forward, jump forward as far as possible.
3) Repeat according to prescribed repetitions.
4) Remember to keep the back and low back straight in a neutral position.

Jump Up to Box

1. Stand facing box with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart.
2. Lower body into a semi-squat position and jump up onto box. Feet should land softly on box.
3. Step back down (not jump back down) and repeat according to prescribed reps.

Single Arm Throw

Stand with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart.
Grasp kettleball and lower body into a semi-squat position. Explode up extending the entire body and throwing the kettleball up into the air.
The goal is to throw the ball as high as you can and generating most of the power in the legs.
Catch ball on the bounce and repeat according to prescribed repetitions.

Plyometric Depth Pushups

1. Start by placing feet on a bench and your hands on steps or blocks of your desired height.
2. Begin by getting into a push up position with your hands on the blocks.
3. Proceed into a pushup and when you push to extend your arms you should push hard enough to allow your hands to leave the blocks and land on the floor.
4. Once your hands have landed on the floor proceed into another pushup. Press up off the floor with enough force to have your hands leave the floor and land back on the blocks.
5. Repeat this cycle for the desired number of repetitions.

Single Leg Lateral Hops

1. Start by standing on one leg with your hands on your waist or at your sides.
2. Proceed to hop to the side while maintaining your balance and hop back to the starting position.
3. You can place a rope on the ground or any object on the ground. The object can be small in size and height or large to increase difficulty.
4. Continously repeat for the recommended repetitions.

Multiple Barrier Jumps

1. Stand with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart behind the first barrier.
2. Jump over first barrier, immediately jump over next barrier and so on down the row.
3. Repeat as prescribed.

Plyometric Exercises

Plyometric  Exercises

  • Complete in straight sets with 1 min rest in-between sets.

Broad Jump

1) Stand with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart in a semi-squat position.
2) Swinging the arms forward, jump forward as far as possible.
3) Repeat according to prescribed repetitions.
4) Remember to keep the back and low back straight in a neutral position.

Jump Up to Box

1. Stand facing box with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart.
2. Lower body into a semi-squat position and jump up onto box. Feet should land softly on box.
3. Step back down (not jump back down) and repeat according to prescribed reps.

Single Arm Throw

Stand with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart.
Grasp kettleball and lower body into a semi-squat position. Explode up extending the entire body and throwing the kettleball up into the air.
The goal is to throw the ball as high as you can and generating most of the power in the legs.
Catch ball on the bounce and repeat according to prescribed repetitions.

Plyometric Depth Pushups

1. Start by placing feet on a bench and your hands on steps or blocks of your desired height.
2. Begin by getting into a push up position with your hands on the blocks.
3. Proceed into a pushup and when you push to extend your arms you should push hard enough to allow your hands to leave the blocks and land on the floor.
4. Once your hands have landed on the floor proceed into another pushup. Press up off the floor with enough force to have your hands leave the floor and land back on the blocks.
5. Repeat this cycle for the desired number of repetitions.

Single Leg Lateral Hops

1. Start by standing on one leg with your hands on your waist or at your sides.
2. Proceed to hop to the side while maintaining your balance and hop back to the starting position.
3. You can place a rope on the ground or any object on the ground. The object can be small in size and height or large to increase difficulty.
4. Continously repeat for the recommended repetitions.

Multiple Barrier Jumps

1. Stand with feet slightly wider than hip-width apart behind the first barrier.
2. Jump over first barrier, immediately jump over next barrier and so on down the row.
3. Repeat as prescribed.

One Step Wall Throws

1. Stand with both feet parallel with knees slightly bent. A partner or wall should stand approximately 5-10 yards away.
2. Pull medicine ball back behind head, take one step forward and forcefully throw ball forward as far as possible.
3. Catch ball on the bounce from your partner or wall and repeat according to prescribed repetitions.

Power Jacks

1. Start in a shoulder width stance with your knees slightly bent.
2. Jump up into the air and spread your legs out into a wide stance and land in this position.
3. Immediately proceed into a squat and then stand back up into a jump to land with both feet at a shoulder width stance.
4. Repeat this movement for the recommended repetitions.

Featured

Gut Bacteriria Play’s A Role In Weight Loss!

Gut Bacteriria Cause Of Inability To Lose Weight!

Makeup of an individual’s gut bacteria may play role in weight loss

Source:
Mayo Clinic
Summary:
A preliminary study suggests that, for some people, specific activities of gut bacteria may be responsible for their inability to lose weight, despite adherence to strict diet and exercise regimens.
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FULL STORY
Gut bacteria that provide people with more energy from food may be responsible for the inability of some people to lose weight.
Credit: © adrian_ilie825 / Fotolia

A preliminary study published in the August issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings suggests that, for some people, specific activities of gut bacteria may be responsible for their inability to lose weight, despite adherence to strict diet and exercise regimens.

“We know that some people don’t lose weight as effectively as others, despite reducing caloric consumption and increasing physical activity,” says Purna Kashyap, M.B.B.S., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and co-senior author of the study. Dr. Kashyap and his colleagues wondered if there may be other factors at work that prevented these patients from responding to traditional weight-loss strategies.

“Gut bacteria have the capacity to break down complex food particles, which provides us with additional energy. And this is normally is good for us,” says Vandana Nehra, M.D, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and co-senior author of the study. “However, for some individuals trying to lose weight, this process may become a hindrance.” Drs. Kashyap, Nehra and their colleagues decided to test if certain functions performed by gut bacteria that provide people with more energy may be responsible for the inability of some individuals to lose weight.

The Mayo Clinic research team collected and analyzed gut bacteria samples from a group of 26 participants enrolled in the Mayo Clinic Obesity Treatment Research Program between August and September 2013. They found that gut bacteria among individuals who did not lose weight were different from gut bacteria in patients who lost weight. Specifically, the bacteria Phascolarctobacterium was associated with weight loss success, while the bacteria Dialister was associated with failure to lose weight. More importantly, the increased ability to use certain carbohydrates was associated with failure to lose as much weight. “This suggested to us that gut bacteria may possibly be an important determinant of weight loss in response to diet and lifestyle changes,” Dr. Kashyap says.

Dr. Kashyap emphasizes that this is a preliminary finding in a small study, and more research is needed to confirm the role of gut bacteria in weight loss. “While we need to replicate these findings in a bigger study, we now have an important direction to pursue in terms of potentially providing more individualized strategies for people who struggle with obesity,” Dr. Kashyap says.

Journal Reference:

  1. David A. Muñiz Pedrogo, Michael D. Jensen, Carol T. Van Dyke, Joseph A. Murray, Jeffrey A. Woods, Jun Chen, Purna C. Kashyap, Vandana Nehra. Gut Microbial Carbohydrate Metabolism Hinders Weight Loss in Overweight Adults Undergoing Lifestyle Intervention With a Volumetric Diet. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2018; 93 (8): 1104 DOI: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2018.02.019
Featured

17 Healthy Back-To -School Lunch Box Ideas

17 Healthy Back-To -School LunchBox Ideas

17 Healthy and Simple Back-to-School Lunchbox Ideas

By

LINDSAY CHAMPION

Summer is nice and all, but you’re not, like, that disappointed when it’s time for the kiddos to head back to school. (Nine-to-five childcare? Yes, please!) Here, 17 lunchbox ideas to help you send them on their merry way.

RELATED: THE BEST 5-INGREDIENT SCHOOL LUNCHES

mason jar taco salad

POCKET CHANGE GOURMET

MASON JAR TACO SALAD

Turn lunchtime into a fiesta.

GET THE RECIPE

rainbow hummus wraps

TASTY THIN

RAINBOW HUMMUS WRAPS

Colorful and nutritious.

GET THE RECIPE

chicken salad recipe

JOYFUL HEALTHY EATS

LIGHT & EASY CHICKEN SALAD

Shhh it’s even gluten-free.

GET THE RECIPE

baked chicken tenders

PHOTO: LIZ ANDREW/STYLING: ERIN MCDOWELL

CRISPY BAKED CHICKEN TENDERS

We recommend making extras for yourself.

GET THE RECIPE

avocado hummus quesadilla

COOKING CANUCK

MINI AVOCADO & HUMMUS QUESADILLA

We’d like to eat all of our lunches in mini form.

GET THE RECIPE

cheaters vegetarian pizza zucchini bell peppers recipe hero

PHOTO: LIZ ANDREW/STYLING: ERIN MCDOWELL

VEGETARIAN PIZZA WITH ZUCCHINI AND BELL PEPPERS

Your kid will love eating pizza for lunch and you’ll love loading them up with veggies. Win-win.

GET THE RECIPE

veggie pan nachos

TWO PEAS AND THEIR POD

VEGGIE SHEET PAN NACHOS

They’ll never fight you on nachos.

GET THE RECIPE

 

pita

THE FOODIE AND THE FIX

CHICKEN CAESAR PITA POCKETS

The best way to make your kids like salad: Disguise it in a pillow of carbs.

GET THE RECIPE

cucumber cream cheese sandwich

PIP AND EBBY

CUCUMBER CREAM CHEESE SANDWICHES

Definitely better than a bagel.

GET THE RECIPE

thai lettuce wraps

ERIN MCDOWELL

THAI LETTUCE WRAPS

A lunch that lets them get their hands dirty.

GET THE RECIPE

banana

THE VILLAGE COOK

PEANUT BUTTER, JELLY AND BANANA HOT DOGS

Dear Mom, just wondering why you didn’t think of this.

GET THE RECIPE

RELATED: PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICH COOKIES

salad pizza

PHOTO: LIZ ANDREW/STYLING: ERIN MCDOWELL

CHOPPED ITALIAN SALAD PIZZA

Creativity at its finest.

GET THE RECIPE

RELATED: WATERMELON PIZZA IS YOUR AWE-INSPIRING 5-MINUTE DESSERT

skewers

RELUCTANT ENTERTAINER

TURKEY SANDWICH KEBABS

Skewers are wayyy more fun.

GET THE RECIPE

RELATED: 16 SATISFYING SUMMER SKEWER RECIPES

chickensalad

YUMMY ADDICTION

CRANBERRY CHICKEN SALAD ON APPLE SLICES

This DIY meal will be a classroom favorite.

GET THE RECIPE

slow cooker meal prep burrito bowls recipe hero

PHOTO: LIZ ANDREW/STYLING: ERIN MCDOWELL

SLOW-COOKER MEAL-PREP BURRITO BOWLS

A big-batch recipe you can cook once and eat all week.

GET THE RECIPE

RELATED: 5 CLEAN-EATING MEAL-PREP RECIPES YOU CAN MAKE ONCE AND EAT ALL WEEK

quinoa

SALLY’S BAKING ADDICTION

CITRUS CHICKEN QUINOA SALAD

Portable and packed with protein.

GET THE RECIPE

blt pasta salad recipe hero

PHOTO: LIZ ANDREW/STYLING: ERIN MCDOWELL

BLT PASTA SALAD

They won’t even notice the veggies.

BLT Pasta Salad

By ERIN MCDOWELL
PREP: 10 MIN
COOK: 30 MIN
TOTAL: 40 MIN

BLT Pasta Salad

PHOTO: LIZ ANDREW/STYLING: ERIN MCDOWELL

Raise your hand if you adore salad. (“Bueller…?”) We get it. That’s because you haven’t met BLT pasta salad. It combines all the crunchy, savory, creamy ingredients of the classic sandwich—minus, well, the bread (because pasta is way more fun).

RELATED: GLUTEN-FREE CAULIFLOWER GNOCCHI POMODORO

8 servings

1 pound bacon

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound pasta

½ cup mayonnaise

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

Kosher salt

3 medium tomatoes, cut into small wedges

1 avocado, diced

1 head romaine lettuce, chopped

Featured

What Does Loneliness Do To The Body?

What Does Loneliness Do To The Body?

What Loneliness Does to the Human Body

By

When Daniel Russell and his colleagues at UCLA set out to create a standardized way to measure people’s loneliness in 1978, what they came up with was arguably the least fun 20-item questionnaire in history. On a four-point scale from “never” to “often,” it asked individuals: How often did they feel they had no one to turn to or talk to? How often did they feel their relationships with others were not meaningful? How often did they feel left out?

It was probably not the most painless way to learn about the inner lives of people who reported feeling bummed-out and alone. But over the course of 40 years, the UCLA Loneliness Scale has become a valuable tool in studying what’s now being called an epidemic in some Western countries. Case in point: The United Kingdom last week announced the creation of a Minister for Loneliness role within its government. Tracey Crouch, the former minister for Sport and Civil Society, will now be tasked with carrying out the prescriptions of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness (named for a member of Parliament who was murdered in 2016), which released a reportlast year declaring that over 9 million British adults reported being “often or always lonely,” approximately 15 to 20 percent of the adult population.For comparison, while research on loneliness among all adults in the U.S. is scarce, a 2012 study found that between 20 and 43 percent of American adults over age 60 experienced “frequent or intense” loneliness.

When researchers study loneliness, they tend to define it as “the perceived discrepancy between one’s desired level of social connection and their actual level of social connection,” says Brigham Young University psychology and neuroscience professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad. Some people who are socially isolated don’t necessarily feel lonely, and some people who are lonely are surrounded by people who make them feel morealienated, not less.

But 9 million lonely people probably aren’t just a damper on the national morale; they’re likely to be a strain on national productivity and health-care systems, too. The bodies of lonely people are markedly different from the bodies of non-lonely people. Prolonged loneliness, Holt-Lunstad says, “can put one at risk for chronic health conditions, exacerbate various health conditions, and ultimately put us at increased risk for premature mortality.” The bodies of lonely people are more likely to have:

High blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Loneliness, it turns out, is bad for both your figurative heart and your literal one. As Holt-Lunstad points out, feeling lonely can make our environments feel just plain unsafe or unfriendly, which — as most of us have gleaned just by being alive and sometimes feeling acutely, anxiously alone — can make our heart rates faster and our blood pressures go up.

Those cardiovascular effects are frequently attributed to cortisol, the “stress hormone,” and studies of loneliness have shown lonely people have consistently elevated levels of cortisol. Which can contribute to other sorts of problems: “Chronic high blood pressure can lead to hypertension,” Holt-Lunstad says, “and hypertension is a risk factor for heart disease.”

These effects can accumulate over time, too. A 2002 National Institutes of Health study showed that lonely participants’ cardiovascular systems responded less acutely to laboratory stress tests, but only because their cardiovascular systems were more constricted and pressurized in general. And according to one NIH review of the physiological effects of loneliness, consistently feeling rejected or lonely early in life is a good predictor of high blood pressure in young adulthood — and of more exaggerated high blood pressure in middle age.

Reduced immunity. Lonely people can also be more susceptible to illness. A 2005 study of 83 healthy first-semester college freshmen found that those who reported feeling lonely also responded more poorly to getting the flu vaccine; their bodies didn’t produce antibodies quite as well as those of non-lonely people. “Those with both high levels of loneliness and a small social network had the lowest antibody response,” the study authors add.

Why does this happen? One pathway researchers have identified is that stress hormones, in conjunction with other hormones and peptides secreted from the brain, “talk” to specific parts of the body’s white blood cells, affecting their distribution and function.

Inflammation. Lonely people are especially susceptible to chronic inflammation, which is considered a key component in a wide range of health maladies. Heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and potentially even certain cancers can stem from it; so can rheumatoid arthritis, clogged arteries, and periodontitis.

As UCLA genomics researcher Steve Cole explained to NPR in 2015, he’d found in his research that “when people felt lonesome, they had significantly higher levels of norepinephrine,” the hormone that shuts down viral defense but escalates production of certain white blood cells “coursing through their blood.” At the same time, NPR writes, lonely people develop a genetic immunity to the inflammation-curbing properties of the “stress hormone” cortisol, so the defensive inflammation response increases.

Poor sleep. When the NIH conducted its loneliness study in 2002, researchers found in their labs what stressed-out, lonesome-feeling people have found in their bedrooms for centuries: Lonely people took longer to fall asleep than non-lonely people, slept for a shorter time, and had “greater daytime dysfunction.”

And, of course, whatever damage loneliness itself doesn’t do to you physically, the sleep loss it causes will. Sleep-restriction studies have foundsleep-deprived people are more likely to suffer from lowered glucose tolerance (which sometimes leads to type 2 diabetes) and elevated stress hormone levels in the evenings. Plus, the authors of the 2002 NIH study add, “If individuals are lonely chronically, it is conceivable that the effects of impaired sleep diminish nightly restorative processes and the overall resilience of lonely individuals.” These findings also suggest that sleep loss can exacerbate those effects in older age.

***

So how, exactly, would a Minister for Loneliness be able to help a country full of people feeling lonesome? The Cox Commission endorses measures that aim to both find and engage with lonely people where they live and draw them out into community gatherings — like citywide “Door Knock” events and “The Great Get-Together” weekends organized by county councils. When I asked Holt-Lunstad whether one could really expect these kinds of programs to work, her answer surprised me.

“People ask me, ‘What are we supposed to do, make people go around and hug each other?’” she says. But we have “good evidence,” Holt-Lunstad says, that a loneliness epidemic is developing in the United States, too — and the U.S. should consider following Britain’s lead in making loneliness a public-health priority.

Holt-Lunstad testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging last spring to propose some measures aimed at doing just that. For example, she helped usher in new legislation designed to make hearing aids more affordable, since hearing loss is a risk factor for social isolation and loneliness, especially for older adults. “If you can’t hear, it’s hard to be part of a conversation,” she says. “It’s easy to start to withdraw and disconnect from others.” Holt-Lunstad has also endorsed programs like Oprah Winfrey’s “Just Say Hello” campaign and the AARP’s efforts to combat social isolation, but cautions that meaningful public health benefits will emerge only when the measures taken are firmly rooted in research findings.

Additionally, Holt-Lunstad says, assessing the risk of loneliness and loneliness-related health problems should be part of medical training; doctors should communicate to patients how to prevent loneliness and encourage them to take it seriously as part of a healthy lifestyle, “just like you would take sleep, exercise, diet, all of these kinds of things seriously.”

But it’s not just the elderly who need loneliness intervention, she says. She thinks social education should be taught in schools the way physical education is. In K–12 curriculums, it’d be beneficial to educate kids on “not only why it’s important for our health but what good relationships look like. How to be a good friend,” she says. “Just like being physically active, we need to be socially active.”

Research on young people’s loneliness isn’t abundant. But what does exist suggests loneliness might not go away anytime soon as a health crisis: A UCLA Berkeley study published last year found that even though adults between 21 and 30 had larger social networks, they reported twice as many days spent feeling lonely or socially isolated than adults between 50 and 70.

Featured

Self-Love Exercises 2018

Self-Love Exercises 2018

By Erin Cinney

null
Thought Catalog / Unsplash

The truth is, we all want to better ourselves. The difference between some of us is how far along we are in that process. Are we denying the work we need to do? Are we actively pursuing a better life? Or have we merely accepted that this is as good as it’s going to get? At the end of the day, it all boils down to you. You have a lot more power to change your life and circumstances than you realize. It begins with a lot of internal work that isn’t always pretty, but is always worth it.

1. Take note of the things you are clinging to that you have outgrown.

This goes for more than clothing, although you could definitely start with cleaning out your closet. Ask yourself what you are keeping in your inner circle that is no longer contributing to your growth. This could be friends, a relationship, a bad habit, an addiction. Take note and then clean out your closet.

2. Listen to how you speak about the people around you.

Do you sound happy for them and supportive? Or do you sound jealous, judgmental and bitter? This is a direct reflection of how you feel about yourself and where you are in your life. A great way to shift yourself in the right direction is to speak positively about who you are, who you want to become, and who you spend your time with. If you can’t do that, make some changes until you can do that.

3. Listen to how the people you spend time with speak about anything and everything.

Do they mock others’ successes? Do they constantly complain? Do they scoff when you or anyone else tries to make a change to better their lives? Or do they support you? Uplift you? Have their own goals that surpass monetary and social status? This can be a difficult decision to make, but you must be ruthless when it comes to your mental health and growth. If someone is hindering it in any way, wish them well and let them go.

4. Find one positive quality in every person you once felt affection for.

I know, this can be a tough one. This is so necessary though. It not only frees your mind and heart of guilt and anger, but also allows you to focus on what it is you want in your next relationship, or what it is you appreciate in the relationships you already have. You have to give to get, and you can’t get anything worthwhile if you’re constantly speaking ill about the people in your past. If it helps, instead of finding a specific quality, focus on everything that you have learned about yourself from these relationships (both good and bad).

5. Differentiate between what you actually want and what you are “supposed” to want.

Oftentimes, we convince ourselves of something that we want because it is what everyone else wants or what we are conditioned to want at a certain age. The truth is, if we want something, truly deeply want something, we won’t stop until we get it. We will put up with difficulties, detours, and investments of time and money. That’s an awful lot of effort to put into someone else’s opinion or a societal fabrication of what’s ideal, so make sure you are being true to your own goals.

6. Recognize the areas in your life you want improved. Let go of the guilt for that and get honest.

Stop feeling bad for wanting financial security. Wanting more money does not make you an evil shallow person. Stop feeling guilty for wanting a meaningful relationship or wanting to be single. It does not make you unlovable or difficult. Stop feeling bad for wanting to be healthier. It does not make you boring or lame to not want to go out drinking or pass on the junk food. The only thing you should feel bad about is neglecting yourself, starving yourself of love, and suppressing your true desires because of something someone else convinced you.

Listen, you rock. Honestly. You are worth the time and effort. Most importantly, you are worthy of loving and you will begin to feel that way when you successfully cut through all the other crap.

Now go clean out your closet. TC mark

Featured

Opa! Greek Restaurant!

Review Of Opa Restaurant & A Recipe

Opa

 

When one hears the word Opa it usually brings with it

a sense of excitement and happiness

From the earliest times, the Greeks have always celebrated life to its fullest! It is this celebration and feeling that we at Opa! want to bring to you.

We pride ourselves on providing fresh, homemade foods that we can all afford and enjoy. All of our meals are prepared daily in the homemade traditions and spirit of our Greek families.

VISIT ONE OF OUR

SIX LOCATIONS

IN THE BAY AREA

When you walk into any of our Opa! locations we want you to feel at home in the warmth of our cozy and friendly environment. We hope you will take notice in the value of our meals. We serve fresh, delicious Greek food at affordable prices. Value and customer satisfaction are our pillars!

CAMPBELL,LOS ALTOS,LOS GATOS,SANTA CLARA,

WALNUT CREEK & WILLOW GLEn

 


Refreshing Greek Salad…..Opa!

Greek Salad

It’s been unusually warm these past few weeks — not your typical fall weather at all. Not that I’m really complaining but it does make me turn to lighter dishes instead of slaving away in a hot kitchen.

The other day I picked up a bunch of produce at my weekly farmer’s market and decided to make a refreshing Greek Salad for lunch.

Greek Salad

The salad is full of bright flavors from the fresh veggies, feta and the olives. Delish!

 

Greek Salad
Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 Cups Cucumbers, diced
2 Cups Grape Tomatoes, diced
2/3 Cup Kalamata Olives, pitted and chopped
½ Small Red Onion, thinly sliced
1 Cup Feta Cheese, cubed or crumbled
1 Tablespoon Fresh Parsley, finely chopped
½ Cup Quality Olive Oil
¼ Cup Red Wine Vinegar
1 Garlic Clove, finely minced
¼ Teaspoon Dried Oregano
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper

In a small bowl, combine vinegar, garlic, and oregano. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl combine the rest of the ingredients. Drizzle dressing over salad, and toss to coat.

 

 

 

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Fossil Launches Its Smartchwatch

Fossil Launches Its Smartchwatch

Fossil Unveils Its Most Tech-Packed Touchscreen Smartwatch to Date

Fossil Unveils Its Most Tech-Packed Touchscreen Smartwatch to Date

Gen 4 updates includes Heart Rate, Untethered GPS, NFC, and more

 

 

It is with great excitement that Fossil brand announces its fourth generation of smartwatches under its Fossil Q line. With several new technology features, this new line provides consumers with the tech functionality they have been asking for in beautiful designs and styles they have come to expect from Fossil. With a robust list of new features, it is the brand’s intent to provide customers with one all-inclusive device—both in function and design.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180806005100/en/

(Photo: Business Wire)

(Photo: Business Wire)

As one of the first fashion brands to introduce this level of technology to their collection, Fossil shows consumers you don’t have to sacrifice fashion for function. Powered with Wear OS by Google and the Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear™ 2100 Platform, the new devices offer enhancements to every facet of the day, with hardware including Heart-Rate Tracking, NFC, Untethered GPS and Swimproof Functionality. Thanks to optimized charge time, users can now charge their device within an hour to last all day.

Fossil entered the smartwatch market to fill the growing desire for tech that was beautifully designed and could be personalized. This new generation is no different: it is packed with the unique design traits allowing users to customize from strap to dial. There are 36+ exclusive dials, from fashion forward to novelty dials, and users can integrate an increasing number of third party apps to their device experience, as well as set social media photos as watch face backgrounds. Fossil is continuing to design smartwatches as only Fossil can, with a vintage-inspired approach to modern technology that lets customers find a watch that perfectly suits their authentic selves.

‘’Since our entry to the smartwatch market, it has always been our first priority to be nimble and adapt quickly to innovations-both in technology and design’’ says Steve Evans, EVP of Fossil. “We know a lot of watch wearers have both a traditional watch and some kind of an activity tracker— by adding significant features in terms of technology, without compromising our design standards, this new generation of smartwatch will provide consumers with one device that fits all of their needs. Ensuring the best possible experience for our customers has always been important, which drove the innovation of this product; we cannot wait to see the consumer response around the globe.’’

Called Fossil Q Venture HR and Fossil Q Explorist HR, these devices can transition through all parts of daily life thanks to added functionality packed into fashionable designs. This new generation of smartwatches ushers in a more holistic user experience from a Fossil smartwatch with key features and personalization options that consumers care about.

Key updates include:

Heart-Rate Tracking:

Heart rate functionality was an important ask from consumers and a top priority for the Generation 4 Fossil Q line. Additionally, Fossil wanted to create exclusive watch dials that allowed users to easily access manual readings directly from their watch face. Whether going for a run outside or hitting the gym, you can automatically track your heart rate during logged exercises with Google Fit.

  • Take a manual heart rate reading and automatically track heart rate across multiple types of workouts using Google Fit
  • Heart rate graphs show progress throughout a large variety of workouts and improves workout tracking experience
  • Exclusive-to-Fossil dials have heart rate integrated into the designs, showing users their beats per minute on their watch face at a quick glance

NFC

NFC allows users to have payment and transit capabilities directly on their device. Exclusively compatible with Google Pay (transit and pay currently available in select countries), NFC prevents users from having to pull out their card every time they need to complete a transaction. With a few taps, your card is ready on watch to streamline any checkout experience. Security is an obvious consideration, and users set up a unique lock code on their watch to help protect from any identity or data theft.

Untethered GPS

New untethered GPS capabilities allow the users track walks, and runs, hikes, bike rides, and more via Google Fit and third-party fitness apps without having to bring your phone along. Your watch will automatically map and track your location and distance during logged workouts!

Thanks to added swimproof functionality, users can track swim workouts, hang poolside or hop in the shower without risk of damaging their smartwatch. For consumers ready to hit the trails for a run or ride without taking their phone, music can be downloaded from third party apps directly to device.

With this new generation of watch, Fossil is bringing a unique, fun take on technology. With function-based dials, social sharing abilities and an immense amount of personalization opportunities, these watches truly allows users to “Make it Your Own.” The added functions like Heart Rate, NFC, and GPS will give users a 360-holistic way to track all parts of their lives, while keeping true to the authentic creative spirit of innovative watch design that Fossil was founded on more than 30 years ago.

This watch retails for $255-$275.

Features include:

  • Stainless steel case (Q Venture HR: 40mm / Q Explorist HR: 45mm)
  • Stunning touchscreen digital display
  • 24+ hours battery life (based on usage)
  • Interchangeable straps and bracelets (Q Venture HR: 18mm / Q Explorist HR: 22mm)
  • Connect via Bluetooth® technology
  • Wireless syncing + magnetic charging
  • Compatible with iOS 9.3+ and Android 4.4+ (excluding Go edition)
  • Sensors: Heart Rate, NFC, GPS, Altimeter, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Ambient Light, Microphone
  • Powered with Wear OS by Google
  • Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear™ 2100 Platform
Featured

Self-Love Into Obesity

Self-Love Into Obesity

I Self-Loved Myself into Obesity

IT’S KIND OF LIKE THE FIRST TIME YOU GO TO AN AMUSEMENT PARK
by: Alanna Cardona

It’s nothing new when resolutions are broken by the fourth month into the new year, because sticking to diets, not smoking, or exercising 6 times a week is really difficult – and also, doughnuts are really fucking delicious.

For me, the reason I fell off the wagon (this time) was slightly different. Three months ago, I started a new job after enduring the worst year of my life (F-you, 2017!) and had a ton of personal breakthroughs. For my entire life, I had pushed people away, and I finally understood why. All of a sudden, the “self-love” Instagram accounts I scoffed at made sense to me. For the first time in my life, I let my guard down and accepted that it was okay for me to be happy and that I wasn’t this disgusting piece of shit I always assumed I had been. I actually don’t need to drive people away with sarcasm and a shitty attitude, because hey, I have value – how about that?

29 years in, and I felt I was finally getting into the swing of things – the problem is, I went too hard into this whole “self-love” thing. It’s kind of like the first time you go to an amusement park – you get so excited and eat all the funnel cake and then immediately go on a roller coaster, and like, of course you’re going to puke. I was eating everything and anything I wanted without a care in the world because, why shouldn’t I? I love myself as is, which is true, I do love myself. Big IS beautiful, but I’ve eaten my way to unhealthiness through mindless eating habits and thinking that 3 hot yoga classes a week means I can eat whatever the hell I want. Nope –that’s not how that works!

Before ever reaching this idealized image of myself, I’ve always had in my head, I can say I do love myself and mean it. I have come a long way in accepting my flaws and forgiving myself for past behaviours that have hurt friends and family, but while it is really important to love the skin you’re in, as I do and as we all should, I’ve self-loved myself into obesity. As you can tell by now, my issues are very much rooted in body image, like most privileged people who don’t have real problems. Believe me, the fact that I’m whining about have TOO MUCH access to food while there are millions of starving children in the world is not lost on me.

But, within my bubble of security, I’ve tipped the scales in which I am officially obese. That’s not an easy pill to swallow because now I’m super unhealthy. That’s not how someone who’s undergone this life epiphany should be treating her body. I think the larger part of self-love is fueling your body with clean food and exercising regularly to keep the engine running smoothly.

Self-love means loving yourself so much that you choose to treat your mind, body, and soul like a temple. Respect it, love it, and share that peace with the world.

 

IMAGE SOURCE: @THEFIELDGUIDE VIA TWENTY20
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2018 Breakfast At Tiffany’s

2018 Breakfast At Tiffany’s

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History Debate Behind Breastfeeding

History Debate Behind Breastfeeding

Desperate Women, Desperate Doctors and the Surprising History Behind the Breastfeeding Debate

circa 1950: A woman sitting in a chair breastfeeding her baby.
circa 1950: A woman sitting in a chair breastfeeding her baby.
Three Lions/Getty Images

By LILY ROTHMAN

For something that’s supposed to be a natural process, breastfeeding can be surprisingly complicated — and not only for new mothers literally strugglingwith the process. Breastfeeding debates can leave families feeling embattledfrom both sides, but controversy over who should breastfeed and for how longand where shows no signs of letting up. For example, in July, news broke that the United States had fought a seemingly uncontroversial resolution in support of breastfeeding at the World Health Assembly earlier this spring.

But, though such controversies can seem like a distinctly modern problem, breastfeeding has long been fraught. When historian Jacqueline H. Wolf began researching the history of breastfeeding, the questions she found American women facing a century ago weren’t so different from those faced today: who gets to do it and how, and what everyone else thinks about that.

With World Breastfeeding Week starting Wednesday, Wolf — who is a professor of the history of medicine at Ohio University and the author of Don’t Kill Your Baby: Public Health and the Decline of Breastfeeding in the 19th and 20thCenturies and, recently, Cesarean Section: An American History of Risk, Technology, and Consequence — spoke to TIME about the historical “baggage” that makes breastfeeding such a controversial topic.

How did you come to research the history of breastfeeding?

I was a graduate student when I was pregnant. I was going to be an environmental historian, but I was sitting in my study beginning that dissertation and lying at my feet was a copy of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, and I thought to myself, ‘Breastfeeding! Now that’s a topic historians haven’t looked at!’

Was there anything you found in your initial research that really surprised you?

My central research question was at what point and why did American women begin to bottle feed as opposed to breastfeed. I assumed I’d be writing a dissertation about probably the post-World War II era. I kept going back and back in time trying to find when the change happened, and it turned out it was the late 19th century, so I ended up writing a completely different dissertation — and eventually book — than I had anticipated.

Was there ever a period when breastfeeding was not complicated? I was thinking there must have been one, but then on the other hand you have something like the idea of a wet nurse going way back.

Wet nursing actually was a visible occupation until the 1920s in the United States. We know that from wanted ads in newspapers and from doctors’ papers. Hospitals in the U.S. had wings of wet nurses, who were usually impoverished desperate women. It was not a pleasant occupation. Wet nurses were usually single women who’d been abandoned by their families or the father of their children, and you could see their desperation — mainly because if they went to work for a private family, that private family would almost never allow them to bring [their own] baby with them, so the baby had to be relegated to a foundling home. Really, what it meant was that a wealthy baby lived and a poor baby died. That was the history of wet nursing in the U.S.

Did this make it seem like breastfeeding was something that only poor women did?

It was never that cut-and-dried. There’s evidence of wealthy women who were just heartbroken that for whatever reason they weren’t able to breastfeed. And there’s other evidence of women who were just as happy to hand over their children to a wet nurse. There’s no one answer. Yes, there’s evidence in some ways that it was class-based, especially as time went on, but on the other hand up, until the last 120 years in the United States, if you didn’t supply your baby with your own milk, the chances of the baby dying were very, very great.

When does formula enter the picture?

Interestingly enough, the word formula stems from the 1890s and it literally was taken from mathematical formulas — physicians were absolutely desperate to find a way to save babies’ lives. They thought that they could “humanize” cow’s milk if they could make it mimic the substances they could recognize, like the percentage of fat, the percentage of protein, the percentage of milk sugar. But they also wanted to gear the substance to specific babies, so they had very elaborate theories.

When does formula start being produced by businesses rather than individual doctors and chemists?

It was the Civil War that [widely] introduced canned milk, because that was given to the troops, and it was around that time in the 1860s that a lot of proprietary infant food companies first made an appearance as well. They didn’t tout themselves as being superior in any way to mother’s milk, quite the contrary; they would compare themselves to another infant food. It was around that time Nestlé’s food came on the market, and they touted themselves as being powdered and so not requiring any mixing with cow’s milk, which could be spoiled in urban areas because there were no dairy farms nearby. Cow’s milk at the time was a scandal, which is why infant feeding could be so deadly.

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In many medical fields related to women’s health, there’s a moment where it switches from being something that laywomen and midwives worried about to something that doctors worry about. Is that what happens to breastfeeding?

This goes back to how I ended up looking at the 1880s and the 1890s as a turning point. The U.S. was rapidly urbanizing and industrializing, and that changed everything for American culture. People were starting to work in factories and they had to pay more attention to time. We see the introduction in infant-care manuals of very detailed feeding schedules. The theory was that adults were having a hard time with scheduling, but if you can adapt a baby to scheduling, they wouldn’t have that tough time.

The reason that’s really interesting is that anyone who knows anything about breastfeeding works knows that the more a baby sucks, that’s what stimulates milk production. If you put a baby on a strict schedule, mothers’ milk supplies go down. So you see mothers beginning to complain that they didn’t have enough milk and it was then that the medicalization began, because doctors became involved in what seemed to be a very serious problem of lactation failure. No one connected it to the change in culture and the change in infant feeding habits. The doctors came up with all these theories. One of them was that [lactation] was simply a disappearing function. There was a large group of doctors who feared that when girls were in school during the time they were going through puberty, their reproductive systems were competing with their brains for energy, and their brains were winning — the over-education of girls. The medical community was really worried that they had to come up with a solution for infant health, because they feared that this inability to lactate was going to become a permanent problem.

That’s interesting to think about in terms of what happens in the 20th century as women enter the workforce in greater numbers and need to be on a schedule that’s not a baby’s. How does the history of breastfeeding intersect with the larger history of women’s place in society?

It’s a big reason why any discussion of infant feeding creates so much emotion and controversy. Women who are mothers, that tends to be a big part of their identity. We want to perform well. We want to do the best for our children. It feels very threatening to be criticized. I should say that infant feeding absolutely is a woman’s choice and there are all kinds of reasons why women choose to feed their babies however they decide to feed their babies. But you can’t talk about breastfeeding in the United States without pointing out that every other wealthy country has found a way to accommodate breastfeeding mothers, and usually in the form of lengthy paid maternity leave. It’s very hard for American women to breastfeed, even according to our own medical guidelines, because the social supports are not in place.

So would it be fair to say that the history and the social structure can’t really be separated from those individual choices?

Health choices are rarely truly voluntary, and certainly breastfeeding is a great example of how we may think we’re making a voluntary choice but there’s so much baggage behind it.

When does pumping become a thing?

If you look at the Sears catalog from the 1890s you’ll find breast pumps, but they were for a different purpose. If a baby were born prematurely in that era, often they’d be born too weak to suck. So breast pumps were so they could pump the milk and feed the baby with a spoon or a cup. Pumping didn’t become a major practice until really relatively recently.

The women most likely to breastfeed are privileged women, women who are wealthier, who are college educated, who might have their own offices at work where they can close the door and have some privacy to pump. Pumping has become so common now because so many women work — but it’s become a phenomenon of women who are privileged enough to be able to take time off in the middle of the day.

Where do you think the history is leading us next?

The effect of infant feeding habits on public health was very stark more than a century ago. You didn’t breastfeed a baby, the chances were enormous that the baby was not going to survive infancy. Today, still, the ramifications for public health have been profound. The structure of human milk is largely unexplored territory and scientists are just beginning to look at this truly living substance. It has effects not only on the neonatal gut and immune system but on lifelong health — the list is very long and we’re just beginning to understand the mechanism of action. It’s really important that we be able to have a sane discussion not just about the public health ramifications of not supporting women who want to breastfeed, and that [in doing so] we also look at the formula companies. They have real clout.

I am not anti-formula. Thank goodness formula is safe now, whereas it wasn’t 120 years ago. Thank goodness if families and children and mothers need formula, we have it there. It should be there in case of emergencies, and thank goodness it is.

Featured

Oribe Hair Products For Natural Hair

Oribe Hair Products For Natural Hair

Why Pros Swear By Oribe For Natural Hair

Anyone who’s familiar with natural hair products knows that there are plenty of drugstore and professional options out there, but most are packaged with “earthy” colors and boast tropical scents. Which is cool, I guess, but sometimes, individuals with coily hair want to splurge on the luxurious conditioner in the cool-looking bottle. Oribe comes to the rescue every single time, and Taraji P. Henson, Kerry Washington, and Yara Shahidi are all hip to it. Their stylists — along with countless pros that we’ve interviewed — all swear by the professional line for textured hair.
According to Davide Marinelli, an Oribe educator and owner of Davide Hair Studio, it’s all in the product list: Natural hair and natural ingredients are made for each other. “Oribe products are formulated without silicones, yet include natural extracts to hydrate, volumize and tame naturally-curly or textured hair,” he tells us. “All Oribe products include the OribeSignature Complex (which is watermelon, lychee, and edelweiss flower extracts) which defends hair from oxidative stress, photoaging and the deterioration of natural keratin, all while protecting from the drying, damaging, and color-depleting effects of the elements.”
Just as one would change skin care products seasonally, Marinelli recommends changing hair products according to the weather in order to provide the best benefits for your hair. Because curly and textured hair tends to be drier than naturally straight and wavy hair, it’s important to maintain hydration when it’s still cold out — which is what most of the products ahead are best for. Bonus: They’re all awesome additions for that perfect wash day shelfie, too… and we’re not mad at it.
The best Oribe products for natural textures, ahead.

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Every wash day should begin with a little bit of Oribe’s newest balm. “Gold Lust is perfect for protecting curly or textured hair from the damaging effects of water,” Marinelli says. “The balm-to-oil formula is easy to apply to hair to protect against harsh aggressors such as washing, styling, and pollution. It’s formulated with a Bio-Restorative Complex which includes caffeine, biotin, and niacinamide to strengthen hair at the cuticle, coconut and macadamia oils to protect against damage and moisture loss, rice bran and rosemary leaf extract to provide deep hydration without weighing hair down, and more hydrating ingredients.”
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ORIBE
Gold Lust Pre-shampoo Intensive Treatment
$68.00

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Most naturals know that lather can be the devil while shampooing. Thankfully, Oribe’s Cleansing Créme is low on suds, but high on results. “It’s rich in purifying oils, citrus extracts, and refreshing water mint essence which remove buildup, dirt and impurities from the scalp without stripping moisture,” Marinelli notes. “It also includes caffeine to stimulate scalp circulation and promote healthy oil production. Most importantly, it cleanses without foaming so it doesn’t strip natural oils from the hair.”
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Cleansing Crème For Moisture & Control
$46.00

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Your twist-outs will last all week long thanks to this formula, which Marinelli describes as a satin, creamy, rich crème without hold (but amazing memory), for shorter straight or curly hair. “It hydrates, molds, and softens. Plant oils add wet ‘comb-ability’ and prevents frizz,” he says. “The geranium, lavender, and chamomile extracts hydrate the hair while the silicone-vitamin blend provides two levels of shine, instant and long-lasting, in a multi-layered gloss.”
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Crème For Style
$42.00

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Celebrity stylist Kendall Dorsey, who works with Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, doesn’t let any client leave his chair without a mist of this. “It smells so good,” he says. “I like a luster and I like a shine. And it really is designed like skin care: the formula lifts, plumps, and hydrates.”
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Shine Light Reflecting Spray
$39.00

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“I discovered this product on accident, actually,” Dorsey says. “The only reason I started using it is was when I was out of my normal conditioner, and now I can’t get rid of it from my kit. Naturals should try the entire range: clarifying shampoo for once a month and, with the conditioner, you can use it as a treatment and as a styler. Rope a handful of the product through your curls, and then air-dry or diffuse. You end up getting something out of this world.”
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Essential Antidote Replenishing Conditioner
$46.00

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“Honestly, I use Oribe on all my clients,” Nai’vasha Johnson, who works with Shahidi and Uzo Aduba says. “I use it because it has all the nutrients necessary to give my clients’ tresses a luxurious experience. A while ago, a colleague of mine had the products on his station — I was so obsessed with how beautiful the packaging was that I wanted to immediately try it. I’ve been hooked ever since.” Johnson likes to diffuse this cream into Shahidi’s curls for maximum moisture and hold. “She can go days with her curls still intact,” she says.

ORIBE
Curl By Definition Crème
$55.00

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Jennifer Lopez Aging In Reverse

JLO Aging In Reverse

 

This Is Why Jennifer Lopez Seems to Be Aging in Reverse

by SARAH GROSSBART |

ESC: Jennifer Lopez

Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Appearing as youthful in your forties as you did in your twenties is impressive. Looking even younger? That’s some Benjamin Buttons-style magic.Ask your standard celebrity how they maintain an ageless appearance and you’re likely to get a rote answer about drinking lots of water, using sunscreen and getting plenty of sleep. (All arguably important when it comes to skin care.)But Jennifer Lopez swears her secret potion boils down to the power of positive thinking. And since she’s turning 49 today and looks like that, we’re inclined to listen.Stitched onto a pillow at her estate in L.A. Bel-Air neighborhood are the words, “I am youthful and timeless at every age,” a phrase she repeats to herself several times a day. “It sounds like clichéd bulls–t,” she recently admitted to Harper’s Bazaar, “but it’s not: Age is all in your mind. Look at Jane Fonda.”

Photos

Jennifer Lopez’s Best Looks

And, okay, she also guzzles water, enjoys regular facials and is “a firm believer” in sunscreen. “She really leans in to the big fundamentals,” boyfriend Alex Rodriguez explained to Harper’s Bazaar, “like getting her rest, eight to 10 hours. She doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke. She lives a very clean life.”A disciplined one at that. Because despite a schedule that would fell mere mortals—the multi-hyphenate juggles producing and appearing on three TV shows with a film career and a Las Vegas residency that will wrap this September—she exercises a minimum of five days a week to maintain her famed curves. (You know, the same ones some misguided manager once instructed her to shed.) And skipping out on a scheduled session is not an option. “Sometimes I work too late the night before and I’m like, ‘Ugh, I can’t do this,'” the mom of 10-year-old twins Max and Emme admitted to Us Weekly. “But I tell myself, ‘Just do it. It’s only an hour.’ It’s just talking yourself off the ledge of being a lazy bum.”We’re going to go ahead and assert that’s a phrase that’s never been applied to Lopez. Even her boyfriend, a retired professional athlete, marvels at how hard she trains. “We work out together all the time,” he told E! News of the former track star last year. “She is a fitness enthusiast and she’s a much better athlete than me. She does all types of workouts which I don’t try to keep up.”

Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez, 2017 Thanksgiving

Instagram

Ms. Do It All subscribes that same line of thinking to her fitness. Depending on the day, you might spot her sweating with Rodriguez at the hot yoga-bootcamp blend TruFusion, which the sports analyst invested in last year, or running alongside him, waiting for her moment to best the baseball player in a sprint. “He and his friends laugh at me,” she told Harper’s Bazaar, “but in my head I really believe I can.”Other days, she calls in the pros. With a bicostal lifestyle she relies on the wildly varying methods of trainer David Kirsch in New York and Tracy Anderson in L.A. While filming her role as corrupt NYPD detective Harlee Santos in Shades of Blue (the third and final season is airing now) “I do Kirsch,” she told E! News. “It’s a different feel. It’s more lifting and doing core stuff and planking and all of that.”At NYC’s Madison Square Club, Kirsch (he’s also trained Heidi Klumand Kate Upton) leads her through a full-body routine using free weights, medicine balls, TRX straps and resistance bands. If Rodriguez has tagged along, they double up with partner exercisessuch as two-person sit-ups passing a medicine ball and partner pushups along with reverse crunches, dumbbell rows and triceps extensions.
In Las Vegas, her grueling Planet Hollywood show seems reason enough to skip a workout. Presumably she’s torching enough calories dancing her way through hits such as “Let’s Get Loud,” “On the Floor” and “Booty” to feel okay with ditching the gym. But the World of Dance executive producer tells E! News she actually uses her morning session as pre-performance warmup. “Because it’s a physically demanding show, think of it like a basketball player, they do a morning practice and then at night, they have the game,” she explained. “We do the same thing. We have our morning workout. We don’t kill ourselves, but we get loose, the body gets ready to move around because you just can’t get out there and shock yourself.”This is where Anderson’s dance-based method comes into play. “With Tracy it’s more dance choreography-type stuff,” noted Lopez, with a side of toning using light weights.No matter the workout, she appreciates its effectiveness and efficiency. “For me, who doesn’t want to be in the gym three hours or two hours,” she said, “they get it.” In an hour or less, she insisted, “They get it done. They understand the body.”

Photos

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez’s Blended Family Photos

Perhaps most crucially, Lopez understands how to fuel her 5-foot-5 figure. Twenty-plus years in Hollywood ingrains in a person a certain low-sugar, no-caffeine, no-alcohol, low-fun type of diet. So despite an affinity for chocolate chip cookies and ice cream, she keeps it clean, or, as Anderson describes it, all organic, “very well thought out, with the balance of very high-quality proteins and a lot of nutrient-dense food.”That often means a protein shake for breakfast, salmon and salad (piled high with veggies like broccoli, zucchini and peppers) for lunch and protein-heavy Latin food for dinner. “I like pork and chicken,” she told Us Weekly, “especially Puerto Rican style!” And like any good celebrity, she totes fruits and vegetables around for snacks. “I do try to eat right,” she told People, “and I don’t always want to.”

Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez

Splash News

That discipline has helped her avoid caffeine (she sips decaf coffee in the morning) and alcohol for years—two indulgences she labels as skin-wreckers.The rest of her beauty routine is tried-and-true. She avoids the sun and certainly never submits herself to the harmful rays sans SPF. Before bed, the L’Oréal Paris spokeswoman always removes her makeup and layers on a night cream and for cleansing purposes she relies on “glycolic acid to get that healthy glow and clear skin,” she told People.When it comes to maintaining that glow, fans wouldn’t be faulted for believing rumors she lathers herself up with $325 a pot La Mer but she confessed on an episode of Watch What Happens Livethat it’s actually Dr Hauschka’s Rose Day Cream from her local Whole Foods. As she told In Style, “I am pretty low-key when it comes to my day to day beauty routine.”

Jennifer Lopez, 2018 Met Gala, Red Carpet Fashions

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

For those looking to go full J.Lo, she now has a capsule collection with Inglot Cosmetics—a mix of lipsticks, eyeshadow palettes, bronzers and highlights that she recommends using with a light touch. “People want to see your natural beauty shining through,” she stressed at an April launch event.She enhances hers with regular mediation, swearing that it can help anyone look, while maybe not Lopez-esque, certainly the best version of themselves. “I also definitely think beauty comes from within—you have to have keep your mind, soul, body and spirit in sync,” she offered up to In Style when asked for her best advice. (Though her top tip remains her non-negotiable eight hours of shut-eye per night.) “When you are happy and feel joy and love,” she said, “you radiate beauty.”

Jennifer Lopez

MediaPunch / BACKGRID

So maybe that’s the true secret of it all. After a few stumbles in the romance department, Lopez does seem to be living her best life with Rodriguez, the athlete who grew up mere miles from her Bronx neighborhood and seamlessly entered her life last year with daughters Natasha, 13, and Ella, 10, in tow.With four divorces between them, the duo insist they’re not in any rush to become Mr. and Mrs., but their attempts to bat down rampant rumors of an impending engagement are half-hearted at best. And Lopez’s decision to release a song titled, of all things, “El Anillo” (translation: The Ring) felt like a not-so-subtle hint, though she insisted to E! News, “I don’t like to pressure anybody for anything.”
Because when you’re a quadruple-threat multi-millionaire whose fame has permeated every inch of the globe, there’s no need. Lopez simply has no qualms about being upfront when it comes to what she wants.”Women get more confident as they get older,” she detailed to Wmagazine last year. “Men in their 20s are very confident and cocky, and women are super insecure. And then it flips: Men get super insecure, and women get comfortable in their own skin, in a way that makes them more beautiful.”

Photos

Jennifer Lopez & Alex Rodriguez’s Best PDA Comments to Each Other on…

Back when she was transitioning from In Living Color Fly Girl to Selena star to Jenny From the Block, “I never appreciated my body or my looks,” she admitted. “Now I’m like, ‘Look at me! Look at you!'”
We get it, Jennifer. We’re in awe, too.
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Competition Among Women Not Good!

Competition Among Women Not Good!

Competition Among Women: Myth and Reality

By Lynn Margolies, Ph.D.

Competition Among Women: Myth and RealityWomen seem to have a reputation for being “catty” and competitive with other women, unlike how men behave with other men. This is a curious notion, especially since women are actually less competitive than men out in the world and less comfortable being competitive.

How can we make sense of this paradox?

Healthy competition and confidence are encouraged in boys but often seen as undesirable traits in girls. Team spirit and friendship provide the glue that strengthens and bonds men when competition prevails. Not surprisingly, men are typically comfortable with competition and see winning as an essential part of the game, rarely feeling bad for others after a victory, and maintaining camaraderie with their buddies.

Because women learn that they are not supposed to be competitive and win at others’ expense, their natural competitive spirit cannot be shared openly, happily, or even jokingly with other women. In such situations, when aggression cannot be channeled into a healthy, positive edge, it becomes inhibited and goes underground. What could have been healthy competition becomes a secret feeling of envy and desire for the other to fail – laced with guilt and shame.

Thus, what looks like hostile competition between women may instead mask feelings of insecurity, fear of success, and healthy aggression. Women, often experts at being tuned in and sensitive to others’ feelings, may easily overidentify with other women’s insecurities, projecting how they would feel in the other’s shoes and then feeling bad about their own success. Women learn to feel guilty for feeling happy and successful – and with their female friends who may not be having such luck, they may experience their own success as hurtful to their friend. This can make it uncomfortable for a woman to share and enjoy her accomplishments with her female friends.

In a common example, women may feel uncomfortable or self-conscious discussing their dieting success or weight loss with certain friends. They may even eat high-calorie foods they don’t desire when with a friend who is struggling with her own weight but having trouble being disciplined with food. In such situations, women may succumb to what they experience as an instinctive pressure to protect their friend in this way, sabotaging themselves but insulated from becoming the object of envy and resentment.

Interestingly, in friendships with men, where men and women are often competing in different arenas, these issues of competition usually do not come into play. Women don’t perceive men to be as vulnerable and sensitive as women, or threatened by success, and are therefore freed up from worrying about their feelings in this way. Further, women seek approval from men and often rely on them to validate their desirability, creating an interpersonal context in which success and confidence are rewarded. (Note that this “safer” dynamic with men applies to platonic friendships but is more complicated in romantic relationships, where women may diminish themselves with their partners as they do with other women.)

Women often rely on the approval of others to feel good about themselves.

Women often take care of people emotionally and rely on the approval of others to feel good about themselves. Women’s fear of triumph over others may lead to keeping themselves down and even (conscious or unconscious) subversion. Dependency on other people to maintain self-esteem creates a double bind, impeding women from embracing and using their own edge to achieve success. Constrained by internal conflict and over-focus on others’ reactions, many women endure the frustration of being unable to fulfill their true potential in terms of aggression, sexuality, and power.

Women’s trepidation and ambivalence in the face of their own strength and power often underlies their mistrust of the power of other women. Discomfort with their own power can make women alternate between inhibiting themselves to protect a female friend, and feeling mistrustful and helpless in the face of another woman’s perceived destructive power. A good example of this is when women whose husbands have had an affair blame the other woman more than they blame their spouse, holding the other woman more accountable – and seeing men as helpless in the grips of a desirable woman.

Autonomy cannot be achieved when actions are based on fear, and without the self-protective capacity to experience anger and aggression, which are part of drive. Being able to experience and utilize these states adaptively is different from acting them out in hurtful ways. If women are frightened of aggression in themselves or others, and threatened by success, their experience of themselves will be muted, leading to depression. How can women feel comfortable with their own (and other women’s) drive and power, without feeling threatened or worrying that their own success will hurt others?

Inspirational Tips for Women

  • Women who feel more confident within themselves are less vulnerable to feeling threatened by, or threatening to, their female friends in the face of success.
  • Good fortune, happiness and success can be used to help others and as a source of inspiration.
  • Women can allow themselves to be separate and autonomous and still maintain close connections. An example of this is giving oneself permission to be happy (or unhappy) even if someone else is not.
  • Feeling confident and whole involves allowing one self to know, accept and hold onto one’s own inner experience without being reactive to the anticipated, imagined or perceived feelings of others.
  • Taking responsibility for a friend’s feelings is different from being caring and empathic. Being over-protective at the expense of one self weakens relationships by leading to an insidious sense of burden and resentment, passive aggressive behavior, or withdrawal.
  • Competition does not have to be dangerous or hurtful but can be motivating and allow for healthy sublimation of aggression. Sports works well for this.
  • A healthy balance of competition and compassion means allowing oneself to do well and embrace a positive feeling of empowerment and strength while at the same time caring about friends’ feelings and supporting them in their own growth.

Lynn Margolies, Ph.D.

Dr. Lynn Margolies is a psychologist and former Harvard Medical School faculty and fellow, and has completed her internship and post-doc at McLean Hospital. She has helped people from all walks of life with relationship, family, life problems, trauma, and psychological symptoms including depression, anxiety, and chronic conditions. Dr. Margolies has worked in inpatient, outpatient, residential and private practice settings. She has supervised others, and consulted to clinics, hospitals, universities, newspapers. Dr. Margolies has appeared in media — on news and talk shows, and written columns for various publications. Dr. Margolies is currently in private practice in Newton Centre, MA. Visit her website at drlynnmargolies.com.

 

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Alzheimer’s A Woman’s Disease

Alzheimer’s A Woman’s Disease

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN
Elderly woman with walker in a hallway, black and white© Shutterstock Elderly woman with walker in a hallway, black and whiteAt the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Chicago this week, researchers are exploring biological and social differences that might explain why more women than men develop Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.A study to be presented at the conference found a link between a lower risk for dementia and the number of births a woman has. Women with three or more children had a 12% lower risk of developing cognitive issues than a woman with only one child, according to initial results of the study of nearly 15,000 women. Pregnancy failures, however, increased a woman’s risk, according to the Kaiser Permanente study. Compared with women who never lost a pregnancy, women with three or more miscarriages had a 47% higher risk for dementia.

It’s just one of several studies at the conference looking at how pregnancy, female hormones, age of menarche and menopause, and even a woman’s innate cognitive advantages might affect her risk for the condition.

A woman’s disease

Alzheimer’s is a progressive mental deterioration of the brain that destroys memory and thinking skills until the person is unable to do even the simplest of tasks. The disease is thought to be caused by a buildup in the brain of beta amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles called tau.

Of the approximately 50 million people around the world living with dementia and Alzheimer’s, most are women. In the US alone, two-thirds of the 5.7 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s are female. Women 60 and older are twice as likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s as breast cancer.

The results are devastating. The World Health Organization calls dementia one of the top 10 global causes of death for women. In the US, Alzheimer’s is now the sixth leading cause of death, killing more seniors than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. In England, Wales and Australia, 2016 death statistics show that dementia and Alzheimer’s kill more women than heart disease.

Yet for many years, experts say, science wasn’t focused on why Alzheimer’s affects more women than men.

“Age is the greatest predictor of Alzheimer’s, so for a long time, there was this notion that women are at higher risk only because they live longer,” said University of Illinois psychology and psychiatry professor Pauline Maki, who is presenting at the Alzheimer’s conference. “No one was paying attention to what was going on in the female brain throughout a woman’s life.”

“I was requesting grant money to research estrogen, and I was getting comments from reviewers asking, ‘Why are you doing this?’ ” said presenter Carey Gleason of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Over the past few years, that’s been changing.

“We’re at a very exciting time in the field,” said Rachel Whitmer, professor of public health sciences at the UC Davis School of Medicine. “Rather than just brushing it aside as ‘women live longer and that’s the end of story,’ science is now breaking it down to a deeper level to understand the where, when, why and how.”

Role of reproductive life

The Kaiser Permanente study, which looked at number of births and dementia risk, followed women who have used the company’s health care most of their lives. This allowed researchers to access each woman’s medical records between 1964 and 1973 and then again from 1996 to 2017.

That was important, the researchers said, because they weren’t relying on a woman’s memory of her reproductive and medical history, a key flaw in many study designs.

“I myself have trouble sometimes with remembering what happened last week,” said Whitmer, who co-led the study. “But we actually have the questionnaires they filled out from the ’60s and ’70s.”

“We could then compare that to their midlife risk factors such as hypertension, stroke, diabetes and heart disease and factor those out,” added Paola Gilsanz, a staff scientist at Kaiser Permanente who co-led the study. “So in that sense, it’s very, very powerful.”

When the study began in 1964, all of the women were 40 to 55. Their medical records documented reproductive history, education, race and midlife health status, as well as when each woman began menstruating, when she went into menopause and the length of those reproductive years. Dementia diagnosis and later-life chronic conditions, such as heart failure and diabetes, were pulled from records between 2016 and 2017.

In addition to finding that multiple pregnancies were protective against dementia but multiple miscarriages were not, the study found that women who were fertile for only 21 to 30 years had a 33% higher risk for dementia than women who were fertile for a longer time period.They also found that women who started their first menstrual cycle at 16 or older were 31% more likely to have cognitive problems than women who began at age 13.

What do all of these results mean? It’s too early to tell, Whitmer said.

“This is an observational study,” she said. “It doesn’t tell you the mechanisms, but it’s telling you who is at higher and lower risk. This information allows basic scientists to take the next step and do more experimental work and really delve in.”

The Kaiser study conflicted with recently published research that found South Korean and Greek women who have given birth five or more times may be 70% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s later in life.

“Korean, Greek and American women are pretty different genetically,” said Alzheimer’s researcher Dr. Richard Isaacson, who was not involved in either study. “You have to be very careful with generalizing these studies. Take for example, studies done in China on stroke. You can’t generalize those findings to stroke patients in the United States unless they’re Chinese American or born in China and moved here.

“Alzheimer’s disease is a life course disease in my opinion,” said Isaacson, who founded the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “The risk starts in the womb and is then affected by your genes, your early life risk factors, your educational attainment, your diet and exercise and so much more.”

Better cognitive assessment

A new study released claims scientists in Australia and Japan have developed a new blood test to detect the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.© Florey Institute/University of Melbourne A new study released claims scientists in Australia and Japan have developed a new blood test to detect the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.Another study presented at the conference focused on the need for more accurate screening tests for Alzheimer’s — tests that would consider a woman’s innate advantage over men in verbal memory.

“If you go to the store without your grocery list, a woman is going to do the better job of remembering it,” said Maki, who led the study. “A man will be better at visual-spatial things, like finding the way home.”

Cognitive tests used to diagnose Alzheimer’s rely heavily on recalling word lists, stories and other verbal materials. That means women who have mild cognitive decline can score as normal, Maki said, thus keeping them from possibly beginning medication and making appropriate lifestyle changes. It could also mean that some men might get a false positive on the memory test, she said, and be diagnosed with brain changes when they are actually normal.

Using data from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, a multicenter study designed to develop biomarkers for Alzheimer’s, Maki found that women performed better even when they had the same level of disease as a man. It also took high levels of disease for that advantage to be eliminated. This could explain, she said, why women seem to deteriorate faster than men after diagnosis: They are further along in the disease.

Maki then tested a new scoring mechanism for the Alzheimer’s memory test, making it harder for women to get a “passing grade” while making it easier for men. She found that 10% of women who showed Alzheimer’s pathology on brain scans could now be identified; she also found that 10% of men who would have been considered cognitively deficient now ranked normal.

“More research is needed to apply these results to larger populations,” Maki said, “but it shows the need for a re-evaluation of the tests we use to diagnose Alzheimer’s so both men and women can get the help they need.”

The role of estrogen

A third study at the conference, presented by Gleason of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, looked at more recent studies on the cognitive effects of hormone replacement therapy, a topic with a controversial history.

“We’re recognizing that our models were too simplistic,” she said, “and that there’s a lot more things to pay attention to, including a woman’s underlying health, genetic profile and the timing of when hormone replacement therapy is started and stopped.”

For years, science believed that giving women hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, at menopause was beneficial for the aging brain and would help prevent heart disease. But then came shocking preliminary results from the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-term national study designed to look at ways to prevent heart disease, osteoporosis and breast and colon cancer in women.

Those 2002 and 2004 results found that the estrogen-progesterone combo of HRT actually increased the risk for heart disease as well as stroke, blood clots, dementia and breast cancer.

The use of HRT plummeted. Then, 10 years later, the Women’s Health Initiative reversed its findings. Because the original analysis looked at older women, who were already at risk for heart attacks, blood clots and stroke, the initial results were flawed because they failed to consider a woman’s age at the start of replacement therapy.

Today, it’s believed that HRT could be helpful in controlling menopausal symptoms at the time when most women undergo the change, in their late 40s and early 50s, when their risk for chronic disease is lower.

Women who wish to take hormones later in life, when the risk for blood clots, stroke and cancer is higher, should look at their risk factors and discuss the option carefully with their doctor.

HRT also might not help the older brain: Women who start hormone therapy in their 70s, said Gleason, showed persistent declines in cognition, working memory and the ability to organize and get things done, which is called executive functioning.

For younger women, Gleason said, more recent research has found no cognitive harm or benefit to several forms of HRT if started within a few years of menopause, unless the woman has Type 2 diabetes.

“If you’re a diabetic, you’re at increased risk to progress to dementia, period,” she said. “But the risk is bigger if you’re on hormone therapy.”

It’s complex and often confusing, but researchers in the field say that all signs point to more definitive answers within the next five years.

“We need a personalized medicine approach to menopausal hormone therapy,” Gleason said. “We are in a really exciting time in terms of understanding the complexity of estrogen, menopause and menopausal hormone therapy and how all of these things combine.”

“No one size fits all,” agreed Isaacson. “We need to use imaging, biomarkers, blood biomarkers, clinical history, such as when they started their menstrual period, when they stopped. Different women are going to need different therapeutic interventions. This will be precision medicine at its finest.”

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5 Ingredient Pasta

5 Ingredient Pasta

Ayesha Curry’s Recipe for Stephen’s Five-Ingredient Pasta

  • Ayesha Curry’s Recipe for Stephen’s Five-Ingredient Pasta
By Nathan Rush

Ayesha Curry’s NBA champion husband Stephen Curry loves this dish.


Ayesha Curry, 29, is the author of The Seasoned Life: Food, Family, Faith, and the Joy of Eating Well, star of Food Network’s Ayesha’s Home Kitchen and ABC’s The Great American Baking Show, one of the faces of CoverGirl cosmetics and creator of a cookware line available at Target. Oh yeah, and she’s pregnant with her third child with husband and Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry. We chopped it up with Ayesha to talk about her passions, both personal and professional.

 

Is cooking an art or science? It’s an art to me. You can be so creative and imaginative with cooking.

 

Were you a fan of a particular celebrity chef before you became one? Rachel Ray has been a huge influence.

 

Your food empire keeps expanding. What’s new?My meal kit, Cook Homemade (cookhomemade.com), delivers boxes filled with my favorite ingredients and recipes that are familiar and family-inspired, and sure to please even the pickiest young eaters.

 

Are your daughters, Riley (5) and Ryan (2), picky eaters? I’m lucky to have two little girls that are willing to try almost everything. When it comes to snacks, they usually request fresh fruit and veggies over sugary snacks. Riley has even tried her first black truffle!

 

Talk about your charity work with Cheeky Kids and No Kid Hungry… It gives me a chance to combine my passions for parenting, cooking, and ending childhood hunger with No Kid Hungry (nokidhungry.org). For every Cheeky (cheekyhome.com/kids) item purchased, Cheeky donates one meal! A dream come true to help children in need.

 

What is Steph’s favorite meal? He loves for me to make him chicken parmesan any day of the week.

 

 

Stephen’s Five-Ingredient Pasta

While Steph might love eating Ayesha’s chicken parm, the two-time NBA MVP and three-time champion isn’t as handy in the kitchen as he is on the court. When “Chef Curry” is cooking, he makes different pasta dish. “He’s a pro,” Ayesha says. “It’s become his signature. Any time he’s in charge of dinner, it’s pretty much guaranteed that this is what we’ll be eating.”

 

Starting Five

• 12 oz. egg noodles

• 8 oz. chopped pancetta (about 1 ½ cups)

• 2 red bell peppers, seeded and diced

• 1 cup finely grated Parmesan

• Generous handful of fresh basil leaves, larger leaves torn

 

3-point Shot

• Bring large pot of salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook according to package directions

 

• Meanwhile, heat large skillet over medium heat. Cook pancetta until crisp, about five minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer pancetta to a bowl and pour off about half of the fat. (About ¼ cup fat left in pan.) Add peppers and cook, tossing occasionally, until they are softened, about five minutes.

 

• Drain noodles, saving ½ cup of pasta water, and return the noodles to large pot. Stir in crispy pancetta and peppers. Add about ¼ cup of reserved pasta water and stir in cheese, adding more pasta water if pasta looks dry. Stir in basil right before serving.

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Basketball Knee Pain Exercises

Basketball Knee Pain Exercises

Partner Sites

Top 5 Basketball Exercises to Fix Knee Pain

Luol Deng on Handling Injuries

Chicago Bulls sensation Luol Deng offers advice on how to prevent injuries on the hardwood.

 

I often train high school basketball players who are extremely explosive and can jump through the roof, but they can barely Squat a 45-pound bar with good form without knee pain. This is a recipe for disaster, because their bodies can create a ton of upward force, but when they land, all of the impact goes to their knees. Over time, this can lead to knee tendonitis, inflammation of the tendons around the knee. There’s nothing worse than seeing a young athlete hobbling around the court, saying, “Coach, my knees are killing me.”

The most common factor in knee tendonitis, especially for players making the jump from high school to college, is lack of VMO strength. The VMO (vastus medialis oblique) muscles (in the mid-thigh) extend the knee and are key to decelerating, absorbing force when landing, and closing out on defense.

As a trainer, it’s my job to get my athletes’ legs strong so their bodies can handle the jumping, cutting and overall demands of the sport. The goal before the season should be to squat one and a half to two times your body weight for a 1 rep max, going slightly past parallel. This ensures your legs are strong enough to handle the demands of the season.

Building Blocks for Squats

For those explosive freshmen who have trouble squatting, I like to Front Squat them until they can Squat their body weight (on the bar) for six reps. I do this because Front Squats are a great tool to reinforce proper squatting mechanics. They force you to keep a vertical posture (if your elbows drop, so does the weight). It’s easier for athletes with tight hips to get lower in a Front Squat than a Back Squat, and the repetitions done in the front squat phase will actually work to open up the hips. When the athletes transition to Back Squats, they’ll be smooth and solid. It also helps to keep the weight lighter.

It’s easy to back squat heavy weight with bad form, but it’s almost impossible to front squat heavy weight with bad form. Once my athletes can front squat their body weight for reps, I transition them to Back Squats, and we start the climb to squatting one and half to two times their body weight. This is just one example of what goes into our fall training phase.

Here are my five preventative knee tendonitis exercises, which, done in-season, will prevent knee tendonitis from flaring up, maintain leg strength, improve activation and keep your players from saying, “Coach, my knees are killing me.”

Knee Pain Workout

  1. Backwards Walk on the incline treadmill, 1×20 steps
  2. Reverse Sled Drag, 1×40 feet
  3. Knee Band Press Outs, 1×20 each leg
  4. Small ROM Leg Press, 1×20 each leg
  5. Eccentric Leg Extension, 1×20 each leg

Players who have a history of knee tendonitis should do this routine daily. The closer you do it to the start of practice, the better. This ensures the muscles around the knees are warm and ready for the demands of the game.

Recovery

After our fall lifting and conditioning phase—which is usually six to eight weeks of four days a week of lifting and two days a week of conditioning—my guys are strong, in shape and ready to take on the season.

The next challenge is to maintain this strength throughout the season, especially for guys who are expected to play a lot of minutes. It’s all about finding a balance between workload and recovery.

  1. Rest: Get eight hours of sleep a night. TV off, iPad off, social media off.
  2. Hydration and eating healthy: Stay hydrated and make healthy eating choices. “If you eat potato chips, you’ll play like potato chips.”
  3. Treatment: Cold tubs after long practices or games, massages, foam rolling and stretching.
  4. Maintenance lifts: Lift at the right time of the week to ensure proper recovery before games. Keep lifts simple in-season.
  5. Preventative maintenance and activation exercises: Do muscle activation daily before practice and movement prep exercises daily to keep problem areas under control.

If you don’t have balance, eventually your players will “under recover,” and you will see flareups with knee tendonitis and breakdowns, which will lead to losses.

Read More:

Photo Credit: Getty Images // Thinkstock

Topics: KNEE PAIN | TRAIN | RECOVERY | BODY WEIGHT | RECOVER | TENDONITIS

Updated: March 16, 2014

Scott Thom – Scott Thom is the head strength coach for men’s basketball at Washington State University. Previously, he was the strength coach for the University of California-Berkeley men’s basketball team and the head basketball coach for Vintage High School (Napa, Calif.) He has over 10 years of experience worki
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Salvatore Ferragamo

Salvatore Ferragamo

FLORENCE, Italy – In 1914, Salvatore Ferragamo left Italy, aged just 15 years old, to seek his fortune in the United States and realise his dream of becoming a famous shoemaker. Setting up shop in Hollywood, Ferragamo soon gained a reputation for creating fabulous and inventive footwear, enticing the leading female stars of the film industry and a host of other luminary figures through his door.

After a few years, through word of mouth the young Italian from the little village of Bonito in Southern Italy was unable to keep up with the demand for his product. In 1927, Ferragamo chose to return to the country of his birth, setting up his business in Florence, the capital of Italian elegance at the time and the centre of Italian leather craftsmanship. “We owe to Florence a lot, because if it wasn’t for Florence I don’t know if we would have achieved what we have achieved,” Ferruccio Ferragamo, Salvatore’s son and the executive chairman tells BoF.

“He came back because he had dreams of making shoes that were unique, for him it was creating that partnership with the incredible [Florentine] artisans that could help him make those dreams a reality,” adds James Ferragamo, vice chairman and the grandson of his family company’s eponymous founder.

We don’t really believe in one single individual that knows it all, we believe that it is a team effort.

Today, Salvatore Ferragamo is a public company with revenues in excess of $1.3 billion. However, despite evolving from a single individual to a global team of over 4000 employees during its 90-year history, the same spirit of shared passion, teamwork and respect for communities, established by Salvatore Ferragamo’s first partnerships with Florentine craftsmen, continues to define the company today.

“We don’t really believe in one single individual that knows it all, we believe that it is a team effort. It is that ability to have the best people around the table that can help in making the decision,” says James Ferragamo. Salvatore Ferragamo has committed to an ambitious CSR agenda, entitled: Responsible Passion. The comprehensive programme is designed around 9 pillars, addressing both sustainable and environmental issues, as well as initiatives seeking to nurture and protect the global cultures and communities Salvatore Ferragamo plays a part in, from craftsmen and women, to Florence and the world beyond it.

Just as Salvatore Ferragamo’s company culture continues to be informed by its founder’s approach to collaboration, its operations and strategy are rooted in its heritage of innovation. In addition to investing in state-of-the-art fulfilment facilities the size of four football fields, designed to empower the company’s global distribution, the brand is consistently reimagining its production processes to ensure its product is in “a constant state of evolution,” explains James Ferragamo.

“Now, we are in a situation where we are trying to see how we can grab our opportunities and make them into a reality. We really don’t think about leadership, we think about teamwork. It is very much about making sure that we are making decision together,” he continues.

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Apetamin For Weight Gain

Apetamin For Weight Gain

Apetamin for Weight Gain – Is It Safe? Does It Work?

 Kay Mitchell

If you are trying to gain weight, you have probably heard of the weight gain syrup called Apetamin. It is all over social media with many women claiming to see rapid weight gain within a few weeks span, and the accompanying before and after photos to prove it. For those who have difficulty gaining weight no matter how much they eat, this sounds promising. But is Apetamin for weight gain safe considering the rapid results that its consumers describe? Some women have reported gaining up to 20 pounds within 2 months. It is evident that this syrup works, but what is actually in its formula that allows one to gain weight so quickly?

 

So What Exactly Is ApetaminApetamin for Weight Gain

Apetamin, or Cyproheptadine Lysine, contains Cyproheptadine as one of its main ingredients. This component is found in other medications including uses for allergies, headaches, and in this case weight gain.

When taken for weight gain, it causes an increase in appetite. This ingredient in Apetamin not only boosts your appetite, but it also inhibits histamine processes. Histamines can have an effect on your metabolism by way of drowsiness, which can cause other bodily functions, like your metabolic rate, to briefly slow down. However, Apetamin itself has not been found to slow your metabolism rate entirely. This ingredient is supposed to allow your body to keep the added fat and/or muscle gained through your diet and exercise.

What to Expect

When taking Apetamin for weight gain, the most common side effect reported is intense drowsiness. This is why some women choose to only take this syrup at nighttime, to avoid interfering with daytime activities – driving, work, etc. as it can become a hazard. With the use of Apetamin, it will definitely cause you to gain.

Most women who take this syrup have experienced weight gain within the very first week, and over 10 pounds in a month. However these added pounds may not go where you want them to. Some women have said they’ve only gained weight in their faces or stomach area, and as a result had to stop taking Apetamin. To deter this, it is important to exercise to help shape where the added weight goes.

Is Apetamin for Weight Gain Safe?

Biologically and physically speaking, this rapid weight gain is not healthy for the body. There can be multiple negative health effects, much like with rapid weight loss. As previously stated, the weight gained may not go to the places where you want it to. This can result in a long-term deposit of fat instead of muscle. Additionally, if you have certain medical conditions, the rapid weight gain can trigger, or make those symptoms worse.

Specifically with the use of Apetamin, drowsiness, constipation, and nausea, are just a few side effects that can develop. You also have to keep in mind that once the weight is gained, in order for it to be maintained you either have to continue taking Apetamin, or increase calorie intake / exercise. Otherwise, all of the added weight can be lost just as fast, especially if you have a fast metabolism.

Fortunately, most consumers who have taken Apetamin have proclaimed positive results and interactions, with no major or harmful effects. Ultimately, it is up to the consumer to decide whether or not this syrup is worth the plausibility of side effects.

The Takeaway – Consult With a Doctor First

Before starting any type of medication, it is always recommended that you consult with your doctor first. Specifically with Apetamin, it is essentially altering your normal bodily functions causing you to gain weight at a rapid rate.

Quick weight gain or weight loss is not healthy for the body, which is why you should first ask your doctor if you are in the right state of health to start this syrup. Additionally, Apetamin should not be taken with alcohol, during pregnancy, or with other certain medications.

If you do decide to take Apetamin, make sure it is from a legitimate and peer-reviewed source / vendor. There are many sellers claiming to be official, but are actually scams. If it seems fishy, it probably is. Also be sure to review the ingredients, real Apetamin contains Cyproheptadine Lysine, and should be listed at the beginning.

 

What are your thoughts on using Apetamin for weight gain? Or if you have tried it, how were your results?

Click here to check out other ways to gain weight healthily and quickly:

 

Sources:

1“Cyproheptadine (Cyproheptadine Hydrochloride) Patient Information: Side Effects and Drug Images at RxList.” RxList, www.rxlist.com/cyproheptadine-drug/patient-images-side-effects.htm.

2“Histamine, Metabolism & Weight.” Healing Histamine, 28 Mar. 2018, healinghistamine.com/histamine-metabolism-weight/.
3Hochlowski, Natasha. “Do Antihistamines Affect Calories & Metabolism?” Woman, 14 July 2016, woman.thenest.com/antihistamines-affect-calories-metabolism-16605.html.
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New Beauty Launches

New Beauty Launches

BEAUTY NEWS

These are the new beauty launches you need to know about this week

From a metallic liquid lipstick to a soothing retinol serum, these are the best beauty launches the GLAMOUR team is obsessing over this week.

BY LOTTIE WINTER

Hydrating serums, iridescent lipsticks, and light-reflecting powders. When it comes to summer beauty, we’re ready to get glowing.

Here’s your insider look at the week’s latest launches…

  • Retinol Rescue Face Serum, £89, Clark’s Botanicals
    Launching: Out now!
    The sun is out, and layers have been locked away – in our wardrobes, and our beauty cabinets. To keep your complexion looking great sans foundation, this night-to-day serum teams skin-perfecting retinol with botanical ingredients that nourish and soothe.

    Always On Petal Metal Liquid Lipstick, £19, Smashbox
    Launching Out now!
    Matte metallic may sound like a contradiction, but for Smashbox’s liquid lipstick, it just makes sense. In three rose gold shades, this luminous and lightweight formula is also long-lasting and budge-proof.

    Bar of Gold Palette, £49, Charlotte Tilbury
    Launching: Out now!
    A trio of highlighters can be blended together or singled out in Charlotte Tilbury’s latest palette. Its petal pink hue brings life to cheeks and eyes, while bronze and pearl tones sculpt and contour with light.

    Easy Bake Loose Powder, £28, Huda Beauty
    Launching: Out now!
    Not to be mistaken for cake leavener, this reflective baking powder helps to brighten the complexion whilst knocking back shine. And, let’s be honest, if it’s good enough for Huda…

  • Fix Stix Blush in Watermelon, £10.95, Nip + Fab
    Launching: Out now!
    Not only does this creamy highlighter provide a weightless yet dewy flush to the cheek but it comes in three universally-flattering shades (our favourite is Watermelon – the perfect balance between rouge and hot pink).

    Youth Revealed Dry Mask Face, £95, Nannette de Gaspé
    Launching: End of August at Selfridges
    Pioneer of the dry sheet mask trend, Nannette de Gaspé is about to drop *another* world first with her new mask techology that acts as an alternative to mesotherapy – minus the downtime. The intelligent, patented fabric is able to deliver potent ingredients deeper into the dermis for superior results.

    Palette Essentielle Été, £52, Chanel
    Launching Out now!
    The star of Chanel’s first ever beauty Cruise Collection, this oh-so-chic palette has all your essential summer shades; two beautifully golden highlighters and a lip and cheek colour for a pop of playful pink.

    All Nighter Waterproof Setting Powder, £24.50, Urban Decay
    Launching: Out now!
    The handbag friendly version of Urban Decay’s hero All Nighter Setting Spray, this wonder powder will set makeup while keeping shine at bay all day – and night – long.

    Scandaleyes Wow Wings Mascara, £6.99, Rimmel London

    This innovative mascara has two different types of bristles for 11 x more volume. Plus, the formula is long-wearing, smudge-proof and flake-proof, making it perfect for summer wear.

    Travel Pro Hair Dryer, £30, BaByliss

    If you’re going on holiday this summer you *need* this foldable hairdryer in your suitcase (and your life). It’s all the power and frizz-fighting technology in half the surface area.

    Face and Body Foundation, £28, Dior

    Six undertones (red, pink, beige, yellow, olive…) and forty shades makes this foundation one of the most inclusive offerings we know. It’s super buildable and no matter how much you layer on, you’ll still get that second skin finish.

  • Cleanance Mask, £15, Avêne

    This clever face mask flushes excess sebum and exfoliates with a combination of AHA, BHAs and environmentally-friendly cellulose beads. The results? Clean and calm skin that radiates with health. Yes please.

    Diamond Concealer, £35, Rodial
    It’s creamy, highly blendable and provides high coverage without being the slightest bit cakey. Oh, and it contains diamond dust to create a radiant finish. No big deal.

    Eye & Lip Crayon Trio, £18, Crayola Beauty
    Throw it all the way back to childhood colouring-in with these super cute Crayola beauty products. The best bit? The formulas are actually incredible.

    Hello Happy Soft Blur Foundation, £25.50, Benefit
    Launching: Out now!
    Breathable, blurring and buildable, this new foundation is giving us life. The demi-matte finish and soft-focus effect effortlessly blends into skin so it looks like, well, skin.

    Born To Run Eyeshadow Palette, £39.50, Urban Decay
    Launching: Pre-sale tomorrow (for 24hours only!) and permanently from 28th June.
    If you’re anything like us, you have every single Urban Decay eyeshadow palette*ever* and rather than using up half your luggage allowance taking them all on holiday, there’s the Born To Run palette of 21 shades ranging from shimmery brights to matte neutrals.

  • Elite Collection Makeup Brushes, from £30, Artis
    Launching: Rolling out nationwide this month.
    Every beauty junkie will know about Artis makeup brushes for their superior blending, hi-tech construction of cosmofibres and weighted handle and they’re about to get even better. The updated range boats a new metal alloy, similar to that uses in supercars, for unparalleled durability.

    Le Volume Revolution de Chanel Mascara, £28, Chanel

    Launching: Out now!
    In case you missed it, last week Chanel launching the world’s first 3D printed mascara and it’s as epic as we had hoped. Jet-black formula, zero-clumping and endless lashes in one sweep? Um, yes please.

    Neo Nude A-Blush, £30, Giorgio Armani
    Launching: Out now!
    Part of the Neo Nude collection from Giorgio Armani, this liquid blush is both weightless and undetectable on skin bar a natural-looking flush of colour on the cheeks. The highlighter and contour come in the same fluid format and promise foolproof application.

    Lip Velvet Crush, £24, Burberry
    Launching: Out now!
    Everything you ever wanted in a summer lip colour; the endurance of a stain, the colour of a lipstick and the feel of a lip balm. Plus, it comes in twelve shades ranging from a pop of pink to a luscious, evening red.

  • Cold Cream Moisturizing Cleanser + Makeup Remover, £41, Kate Somerville
    Launching: Out now!
    Facialist to the famous, Kate Somerville’s range of super skincare never fails to amaze and this cleanser is no different. As well as deeply cleansing pores, it contains White Honey to soothe and a floral complex to soften.

    Infusion de Mandarine, £102.50, Prada
    Launching: 23rd July
    Speaking of summer, a zesty citrus scent is a necessary accompaniment for all sun-frolicking activities. Prada’s soon-to-be released fragrance features an energising mix of orange, mandarin and neroli. It packs a punch.

Featured

Burma Chicken With Mint

Burma Chicken With Mint

BURMA SUPERSTAR’S CHICKEN WITH MINT

Loads of mint and cilantro give this minced chicken dish vibrancy.

Loads of mint and cilantro give this minced chicken dish vibrancy.

If you’ve been to Burma Superstar in San Francisco, you’re all too familiar with the constant lines of diners waiting to get in.

Who can blame them, because once you get a taste of Burmese food, you can’t help but crave it again and again.

Now comes a way to satisfy your hunger while bypassing those queues — by making it yourself.

The restaurant’s first cookbook, “Burma Superstar: Addictive Recipes From the Crossroads of Southeast Asia”
(10 Speed Press), was released this year. It was written by Burma Superstar owner Desmond Tan and San Francisco food writer Kate Leahy.

The restaurant opened in 1992 on Clement Street. But it wasn’t until Burma-native Tan and his wife Jocelyn Lee, who were regulars there, bought the restaurant in 2000 that Burmese food really found a foothold.

Tan and Lee took pains to explain the food to patrons, steering them to favorites they knew would capture their taste buds. They were so successful that they now own five restaurants, as well as Burma Love Natural Foods Company, which imports and produces Burmese ingredients.

Burma shares its borders with Thailand, China, India and Laos. As a result, its food is a unique blend of all of those influences, and characterized by salty, tangy, spicy and  fermented funky flavors.

The book features such signature dishes as “Coconut Chicken Curry,” “Pumpkin Pork Stew,” “Mohinga” fish soup, and “Tea Leaf Salad.”

BurmaSuperstarBook

With my backyard mint plant flush with big leaves right now, I gravitated to the fragrant “Chicken with Mint.” It’s a Burmese-Chinese version of the Laotian dish of laap.

It’s a quick dish of ground chicken, heady with cumin seeds, black mustard seeds, Thai chiles, and a shower of fresh mint and cilantro.

In fact, the part that takes the longest is mincing the chicken by hand. Of course you could just buy ground chicken at the grocery store. But as Tan and Leahy note, you will achieve a more toothsome and interesting texture by chopping chicken breasts or thighs, yourself, with a sharp knife. If you’ve ever bought ground chicken from a supermarket that seemed more like chicken paste in texture, you will agree with them.

It’s not a saucy dish. In fact, the dark soy, fish sauce and sambal coat the minced chicken completely without excess, concentrating the savoriness in the meat where it belongs.

This dish is super flavorful. It’s spicy, with that lovely surprising note of cumin to shake things up. The final flourish of fresh herbs and squeeze of lime juice really give it a burst of vibrant freshness, too.

Enjoy it with steamed rice. Or use it as a filling for lettuce cups. It would probably be fabulous tossed with rice noodles, too.

And just think, you didn’t even have to twiddle your thumbs while standing in line on the sidewalk to relish its wonderful taste.

Chicken with Mint

(Serves 3; or 4 as part of a larger meal)

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 small) or 4 to 5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds

2 tablespoons sambal oelek (chile sauce)

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce or 1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fish sauce

1/4 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons canola oil

6 to 8 small garlic cloves

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1/2 jalapeno, chopped, or 2 Thai chiles, sliced

1/4 cup chopped cilantro, plus extra sprigs for garnish

1/4 cup chopped mint

Lime wedges, for garnish

 

To mince the chicken, place the pieces on the cutting board so the smooth side is facing up. With a knife blade parallel to the cutting board, slice the chicken in half width-wise, opening it up into two thinner, even pieces. Cut the chicken against the grain into thin strips, then chop the strips finely. Run the knife over the meat until it looks evenly minced. (Cutting the chicken by hand results in a better texture than using ground chicken.)

In a dry wok or skillet, toast the cumin seeds and mustard seeds until the cumin is fragrant and the mustard seeds start to pop, no more than 30 seconds. Transfer to a mortar with a pestle or a coffee grinder used for grinding spices and pulverize into a coarse powder.

In a small bowl, mix together the sambal, soy sauce, fish sauce, and sugar. (If not using soy sauce, you may need a pinch more fish sauce.)

In a wok or large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Tilt the wok so the oil pools to one side and add the garlic cloves. (This helps the garlic cloves stay submerged in oil so they fry more evenly.) Fry until light golden and softened, about 1 minute. Use a slotted spoon to remove the garlic cloves. Leave the oil in the wok.

Heat the wok over high heat. When the oil is hot (but not smoking), add the minced garlic and ginger. Stir-fry for a few seconds and add the chicken. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, stir-fry the chicken briefly, then press the meat against the sides of the wok to increase the surface area and decrease how much the chicken steams. (If using a skillet, spread the chicken evenly across its base.) Water will start to pool in the center of the wok, but that’s okay — it will cook out. After a minute, give the wok a stir so the chicken pieces don’t stick together. Repeat this step until the chicken is light brown in places and pale in others, about 3 minutes depending on the wok and the burner strength.

Stir in the mustard-cumin blend, sambal mixture, fried garlic cloves, and jalapeno. Stir constantly, until the liquid just lightly coats the meat. Mix in the chopped cilantro and mint. Serve with cilantro sprigs and lime wedges.

From “Burma Superstar” by Desmond Tan and Kate Leahy

Featured

Summer 2018 Boho Chic

30 Best Outfits That Bring Boho-Chic Into Summer 2018

 

Boho-chic is a style of female fashion drawing on various bohemian and hippie influences; it is all about looking individual and natural. The long flowy dresses, the headbands, the John Lennon glasses, the whole hippie look is definitely a great style for this time of year.

This style are very comfortable and practical as you’ll likely be wearing it for some time. Shorts are a great choice as they’ll let you move freely while staying cool. A skirt or dresses can also do the job, however, if you’re after something a little more feminine.

If your concert or festival goes into the night, keep your look warm with cropped jeans or culottes. As for tops, a simple black T-shirt or ruffle blouses is perfect.

how to style an embroidered bag : white maxi dress and slides

Source: www.instagram.com

  Suggested Items to Buy on Amazon

Catherine Malandrino Bera Womens Fashion Pearl Velvet Slide Sandals, Burgundy Velvet, Size 7, US

$60.00

VIVIENFANG Full Metal Double Circle Wire Frame Oversized Round Sunglasses Polarized 86613A Gold

$26.88

how to style a pair of boots : hat and printed dress

Source: www.instagram.com

  Suggested Items to Buy on Amazon

Sloggers Women's Wide Brim Braided Sun Hat with Wind Lanyard - Dark Brown - UPF 50+ Maximum Sun Protection, Style 442DB01

$16.64

Floerns Women's Striped Button Front Lantern Sleeve Embroidered Dress Blue S

$22.99

kensie Womens Garrett (Garry) Ankle Boots-Brown (7)

$19.99

summer outfit idea : bag + white dress + loafers

Source: www.instagram.com

  Suggested Items to Buy on Amazon

Steve Madden Women's Jill Slip-on Loafer, Black Leather, 8 M US

$89.95

Women's Ethnic Style Embroidered Round Crossbody Shoulder Bag Top Handle Tote Handbag Bag

$24.99

AmyDong Hot Sale! Ladies Dress Women Summer V-Neck Dress Loose Lace Boho Beach Short Mini Dress Three Quarter Sleeve (3XL, White)

$9.79

cute boho outfit / white top + printed pants + hat

Source: www.instagram.com

summer outfit idea with a printed v-neck dress

Source: www.instagram.com

  Suggested Items to Buy on Amazon

Adibosy Women’s Plus Size Bohemian Floral Printed Maxi Dress Summer Beach Botton up Split Long Dresses Black XXL

$21.99

boho style addiction / white v neck top + denim shorts + long printed cardigan + bag

Source: www.instagram.com

  Suggested Items to Buy on Amazon

Mavirs Loafers For Women, Womens Loafers Velvet Backless Slip On Loafers Embroidery Mule Slippers

$51.99

luvamia Women's High Waisted Jean Shorts Frayed Raw Hem Ripped Denim Shorts Light Blue, Size S

$20.99

ShyVelvet Women Summer Cami Camisole Halter Top Plus Size Tank Top Sexy V Neck Crop Top

$13.99

Women Shoulder Bag Jelly Clutch Handbag Quilted Crossbody Bag with Chain (Green S)

$19.90

Yayu Womens Fashion Kimono Print Fashion Long Sleeve Leisure Long Baggy Cardigan Green XS

$16.43

amazing summer outfit_hat + floral dress + loafers

Source: www.instagram.com

bohemian look | hat + platform sandals + orange top + printed pants

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summer boho style perfection / printed chiffon dress + bag + flip flop

Source: www.instagram.com

  Suggested Items to Buy on Amazon

Cape Robbin Womens Evelyn-6 Open Toe Pearl Embellished Slide Sandals Black 8 B(M) US

$22.99

Sharon Monogram Canvas Palm Springs Backpack Mini Handbag (small)

$83.00

amazaramu_vivi Women's Lace Chiffon Blouse Loose Tunic Tops Pintucks Floral Print 3/4 with Sleeves (Flower Blue, Asia XL=US L)

$17.44

NYKKOLA Unisex's Round Mirror Polycarbonate Sunglasses Green

$7.44

awesome summer outfit / hat + flip flop + white set

Source: www.instagram.com

trendy boho outfit / hat + round bag + boots + floral maxi dress

Source: www.instagram.com

  Suggested Items to Buy on Amazon

Luoika Plus Size Short Ankle Boots for Women, Autumn Winter Spring Mid Chunky Block Stacked Heels Round Toe Slip on Waist Zipper Wide Sole Boots for Lady Black US Size 9 WW

$39.99

CYPER TOP Unisex Classic Wool newsboy Hat Fall Winter Cabbie Beret Caps Black One Size

$9.98

Bbalizko Womens Sleeveless Long Party Dress Floral Print Embroidered High-Low Hem Maxi Dress, Black, Large

$25.99

what to wear with a brown hat : black loafers + printed romper

Source: www.instagram.com

best summer swimsuit

Source: www.instagram.com

bohemian chic outfit | white slodes + blue maxi dress

Source: www.instagram.com

 

bohemian summer outfit / round bag + platform sandals + yellow dress

Source: www.instagram.com

cool outfit idea _ lace top + western high boots + printed skirt

Source: www.instagram.com

gypsy style addict / crop top and printed maxi skirt

Source: www.instagram.com

gypsy style inspiration_belt + printed dress + boots

Source: www.instagram.com

ootd | off shouler top and printed shorts

Source: www.instagram.com

simple summer outfit / hat and printed dress

Source: www.instagram.com

  Suggested Items to Buy on Amazon

Lanzom Women Wide Brim Straw Panama Roll up Hat Fedora Beach Sun Hat UPF50+ (Brown)

$14.99

what to wear with a white swimsuit : hat + converse + long lace cardigan

Source: www.instagram.com

  Suggested Items to Buy on Amazon

Converse Women's Lift Canvas Low Top Sneaker, White/Black/White, 7 M US

$48.75

SOMALER Women Floppy Sun Hat Summer Wide Brim Beach Cap Packable Cotton Straw Hat For Travel (Beige)

$15.99

Kimono Beach Cover up Womens Summer Long Embroidered Lace Cardigan Half Sleeves White Blouse (one size, 1051)

$21.00

 

beautiful floral bohemain dress

Source: www.instagram.com

boho style obsession / hat + boots + wide pants + crop top

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boho style obsession | hat + printed top + silver top + silver jewelry

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gypsy summer outfit / pink crop top + boots + maxi skirt

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how to wear a pair of shorts : hat + bag + printed blouse

Source: www.instagram.com

stylish look | white crop top + backpack + lace maxi skirt + cardi

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what to wear this summer : nude polka dots dress

Source: www.instagram.com

what to wear with a biker jacket : boots and printed dress

Source: www.instagram.com

cool outfit idea : white lace dress + striped bag + boots

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trendy summer outfit | hat + white belt + platform slides + red derss

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Featured

Lines Of Our Palms & Health

Lines Of Our Palms & Health

This Line On Your Palm Means Your Health Is Suffering

Katherine Marko

–

We all have lines on the palms of our hands. Some can be positive and others negative, depending on where they lay on your palm. But there’s one line in particular that has a negative undertone. The health line, if visible on our palm, is associated with — you guessed it — health and wellness.

The thing is, not actually having one may be better for your health. And having a health line that’s weak, wavy or long, well, that could indicate some trouble ahead. Here’s what your health line maybe trying to tell you.

Where is the health line located?

The health line runs from the mount of Mercury downwards via the mount of Mars. The mount of Mercury is located on the palm below the base of the little or pinky finger. The mount of Mars is located between the head and the heart line below the little or pinky finger.

If you’re right-handed, look for a health line on your right palm. Alternatively, if you are left-handed, then look at your left palm for a health line.

Absent health line

As mentioned, if your palm has no health line showing, that’s a good sign. You’re healthy and have no health problems to speak of.

Deep and firm health line

Another indication of excellent health is a deep and firm health line on the palm. In fact, the straighter the line, the better your health is.

Wavy and broken health line

A wavy health line is a warning. You may have potential health problems ahead, particularly in the digestive system and a decline of liver or gallbladder function. There’s a good chance you suffer from a gastrointestinal disorder. If your health line is bent into an arc, you may be experiencing a loss of strength or vitality. Breaks in your health line indicate a problem with your digestive system.

Crossed with short lines or made up of many short lines  

If your health line is crossed with shorter lines, it’s an indication that you may be prone to accidents. If your health line is very short or made up of many short lines, it indicates an overall weak and sick body.

Island or chain link in the health line

An island on your health line indicates that you may suffer diseases of the liver and gallbladder. Or you may have a poor kidney function or respiratory system problem. If the island is large, it may indicate a mammary gland disease in a female. If the health line is chained, you usually have a poor health condition due to the diseased liver.

A star on your health line

A star on your health line generally indicates little support from family members. If you are a woman and have a star right at the point where the head line and health line cross, this may mean you suffer from infertility or may experience tougher deliveries when giving birth. For men who have a star on their health line, it could indicate a low sex drive and infertility problems as well.

If a star appears right at the starting point of your health line on the mount of Mercury — located, at the base of the little finger — this may indicate you are childless. It could also mean that you suffer from problems with your kidney or have gynecological issues.

A square, spots or cross on your health line

A square on your health line may indicate surgery due to the heart problem. Meanwhile, spots is an omen of illness and red spots may suggest fever and inflammation. A cross beside your health line could indicate that you are prone to accidents.

A triangle on your health line

If you have a triangle on your health line, you could suffer from mental health issues. If your headline is also broken and wavy this could be an indication of an even more severe psychological problem.

What about the length of your health line?

If your health line is long, and crosses the head line, it may indicate stress and general brain fatigue, especially later in life. You may require more rest and perhaps a little meditation to calm your mind. If your health line extends to the mount of Venus — located at the base of the thumb — you might have issues with blood circulation. Watch out for heart disease or a cerebral hemorrhage.

When your health line touches your lifeline

If your health line extends to the lifeline and ends there, it’s may indicate a weak cardiovascular system which affects your normal blood circulation.

Between your heart and head line

If your health line sits between your heart line and your head line this may suggest you suffer from lesions in your brain. Lesions in the brain refer to any type of abnormal tissue caused by trauma, infection or even dementia.

Extending to bracelet line

If your health line extends down to the bracelet line, your health may have been poor your entire life. Throughout the day you may be easily fatigued and have difficulty recovering from illness.

The bottom line: if you discover any of the abnormalities noted above within your health line, don’t panic. Consider this a wakeup call to pay a little more attention to your health and ways you can improve it.

— Katherine Marko