September 2010

How to Feel Young, Fast!

September 24, 2010 at 4:26 pm , by Louise Sloan

I have discovered the Fountain of Youth and it lives in my apartment. It goes by the name of Scott and strongly resembles a 4-year-old boy. My downstairs neighbors will tell you that instead of a soothing tinkle, this fountain sounds like stampeding herd of elephants. But he does help me feel young by providing me with a powerful drug.

Don’t worry—the drug’s all-natural. Dopamine, straight from  my own brain.  I get it because Scott gets me to be more playful than I would normally be and persuades me to try new things. Both of these activities stimulate your brain to produce more of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which makes you feel happy. And—for me at least—happy feels younger. Play also stimulates the development of new neurons, so even if my body looks its age, Scott helps my brain stay young. (Check out our recent article on all the benefits of play.)

Case in point: At the beach this past summer, Scott started doing forward rolls in the surf. “Try it!” he urged, his scalp full of sand. “It’s really fun!” I did not think it would be fun in the slightest. But, what the heck, I did it just to humor him. You know what? It was, as Scott would say, really, REALLY fun, sort of a cross between body-surfing and riding a rollercoaster. The sand washed out of my hair eventually. (If you called it an organic exfoliating scalp treatment with Atlantic sea salt, it would probably sell.)

Having a kid late in life is a great way to stay young, but there are easier options. Read more

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Cheat Sheet: Four Things You Maybe Missed This Week

September 24, 2010 at 3:56 pm , by Catherine LeFebvre

1. First, a Word of Warning

Never say no to Panda. Just don’t.

2. Remembering Eileen Nearne
I wish we could’ve featured Eileen Nearne in Ladies We Love. The 89-year-old British woman, who died earlier this month, was one of 39 women who parachuted into Nazi-occupied France as part of “Churchill’s secret army.” She gathered intelligence for Allied Forces and coordinated weapons drops to the French resistance, helping prepare them for D-Day. Eventually the Gestapo caught up to her, placed her in a concentration camp and repeatedly tortured her, but she managed to escape with two French women and meet up with American soldiers. She led a quiet life after the war, and never sought celebrity status for her actions. “It was a life in the shadows, but I was suited for it,” Nearne said in an interview years earlier. “But I wasn’t bored. I liked the work. After the war, I missed it.”

3. OK Go Is Always Welcome on Cheat Sheet

We’ve already featured a fun video by OK Go here before, but they keep coming out with great ones! This one, for White Knuckles, has some special four-legged guest stars.

4. Season’s Change
It’s officially fall: time for apple cider, pumpkin picking and my personal favorite, sweaters! As always we’ve got great fashion advice here on Ladies’ Lounge, but I have to say, these 22 kitties, pups and pigs are very on-trend for the season.

(Dog photo via Rover Dog)

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Now What: Life After My Mom’s Death

September 22, 2010 at 10:00 am , by Amanda Wolfe

I ended our November story of my mom, Janice Alexander’s, fight with (and death from) ovarian cancer with her memorial service. But of course that’s not the end of the journey for my sister and me, or the end of her legacy. If you’ll let me share a little more (and Lord knows I’ve already taken up a lot of your time and, I suspect, tissues if you made it through all 4,375 words with me), I’ll tell you what it’s been like in the eight months since my mom passed away.

BATTLE SCARS
Those 21 months of stress and worry and exhaustion and pain—it’s funny how that sometimes feels like the easy part now. I feel fundamentally changed by my experience of being my mom’s caregiver. I can’t put my finger on what’s different, exactly. I imagine this must be (a very small version of) what a soldier feels when she returns home from battle. I’m still myself, of course. I miss my mom constantly, but I’ve gotten to the point where most of the time I can go about my day in good spirits, and feel that I’m living the life she’d want me to live. But in a strange way I feel simultaneously stronger from my experiences, and more brittle.

I went to a grief counselor for a few months after mom’s death (through Cancer Care, a wonderful organization). She said something that stuck with me. “It’s always going to be sad, but hopefully time will make it less painful.” So deceptively simple, but true. It’s okay to be sad. Forever. It’s just plain sad. But it’s going to be (and already is) less raw, less sharp. I’ll always carry this with me, but time will help dull the edges.

PICKING UP THE PIECES
And then there’s the practical stuff. It turns out that managing my mom’s Ohio estate from New York is nearly as challenging as managing her care was. She did an amazing job of getting her affairs in order for us, but there were still a ton of decisions that had to be made and tasks to be done. My sister, Audrey, and I have made almost as many trips back to Ohio for the estate as we did while we were taking care of her. There was, I’m not ashamed to admit, a feeling of relief after the ordeal of her illness was over. Of feeling like, “This is a really crappy time, but maybe I’ll at least get a break.” Not so much. Mom lived alone and since neither of us want to move back to Ohio, Audrey and I had to deal with all of the usual legal and accounting stuff, plus her house and a lifetime’s worth of possessions. Because we’re out of town and the house is empty, every little task is about 10 times harder than it should be, and requires a ridiculous amount of coordination.

Read more

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Shopping With Sue… At LOFT

September 21, 2010 at 4:28 pm , by Sue Erneta

As I’ve mentioned in the past, the ladies of LHJ are lucky enough to have a LOFT store right downstairs in our office building. And believe me, we use it! Each day, my keen fashion eye picks up on several LOFT pieces worn by my co-workers. Even the woman at the top of the masthead was rocking her LOFT boyfriend chinos this past summer. Let’s just say the obsession has reached fever pitch.

So, I decided to share with you some of my latest LOFT obsessions:

Painted stripe boatneck tee: I know, I know. I probably have too many sailor stripe tees already but when I tried this super soft one with a perfect rounded boatneck, I just had to have it. Good luck finding the blue version (its sold out just about everywhere) but the plum and gray versions are also super pretty. (Wait–should I go back and get those colors, too?)

Scuba motorcycle jacket: I’m totally obsessed with this–motorcycle zipper details but in a soft knit fabric. LOVE! But I will certainly be waiting for the sale price. And with the way LOFT throws sales around, I probably won’t have to wait long. It’d be cute over a little dress or just with cargos or jeans.

Petite Marisa Slim Cargo Pants: Yay for LOFT petites! As someone who is only 5’1″, most pants I buy are too long on me. And though many brands offer petites only on their websites, LOFT carries petites in 503 stores.  I’ve barely taken these off since I bought them a few weeks ago. And lucky you: They’re so marked down right now, you can get them for $15! If you don’t need the petite version, click here, and know that I’m totally jealous of you and your long foxy legs.

Chunky twist gem necklace: The creamy rope will add a nice lightness to heavier fall clothes but I can certainly see myself wearing it all year round.

Shilla Tie Suede Bootie: I love the way the LOFT stylist put these boots with the cropped pants, so I guess I’ll take those, too!

I asked our own oft LOFT-clad Senior Designer, Cathie Yun why she likes the store and she said “Their designs are chic and pretty. They also have my size, petite, which is so hard to find. It’s a perfect fit! Also, love the accessory collection. What’s not to love?”

Cathie, I couldn’t have said it better myself. So, tell me, what have you picked up at LOFT lately?

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Melissa d’Arabian: A Lady Who Does Not Lounge

September 21, 2010 at 1:55 pm , by Rachel Shippy

You know her from The Next Food Network Star and more recently from her Food Network show 10 Dollar Dinners with Melissa d’Arabian, but now Melissa joins us in the Ladies’ Lounge to dish about motherhood, back-to-school, and her recipe for Doing Good.

Kids are back-to-school and moms are back to stressing about getting food on the table – what is your experience as a busy mom, and how do you make it all work?
Sometimes I find myself at 5:00 wondering where the day went and realize I didn’t plan any dinner. That’s where my experiences as a stay at home mom, and now as a career woman, really inform my recipes for 10 Dollar Dinners. I give the example of using pasta and turning it into a very quick and nutritious meal on those days where you forget to plan something. I try to gear my recipes and tips toward leveraging pantry ingredients into weeknight meals because it is very practical for busy moms. Another version of that is the ‘crisper drawer pasta’ – How do you take what’s wilting in your crisper drawer and turn it into dinner? I think the more people can walk away with not just a recipe but also a strategy and an approach, the better because my recipes are meant to give people ideas of their own.

How do you involve your kids in the kitchen?
I cook with my kids a lot, and while my oldest is just five, it’s important to remember that kids, even young kids, can really do a lot – I tend to stretch them out of their comfort zone in the kitchen, and am often surprised at what they can do. For instance, my {then} 3-year old learned how to dredge cutlets. It just started out with her helping, mixing the egg and whatnot, while I mixed up breadcrumbs in the food processor, but eventually she could manage the entire breading station start to finish. We rise to the occasion around us, but it’s important to involve kids from a young age.

Tell us about your involvement with The Grain Foods Foundation and why their cause is so important to you?

The Grain Foods Foundation raised $50,000 for Share Our Strength through the Bread Art Project, which I got involved in this past Spring – the effort is meant to increase awareness about hunger in America, and is close to me because I’ve seen first-hand what a gesture or helping hand can do for a child. Going from my childhood where we didn’t always have a full fridge to being able to put myself through business school, and to do everything I’ve done so far is, I believe, a direct result of the help I’ve received along the way. I think people probably don’t realize how pervasive hunger in America is, but the fact remains that 1 of every 4 kids struggles with hunger. It’s not always obvious who is struggling through this, when kids see each other at school, or when you see other people’s kids, you often wouldn’t know that some are going home to not enough food or not the right food. As a kid, you sort of accept your circumstances for what they are, and I think that the problem is it’s closer to home than we realize. I was glad to get involved with the Bread Art Project to raise awareness.

To catch more Melissa, tune into 10 Dollar Dinners airing on Food Network Sundays at 12:30pm/11:30c.

Pictured {L-R}: Judi Adams, President of Grain Foods Foundation, Melissa d’Arabian, and Chuck Scofield, Chief Development Officer of Share Our Strength

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Get a Free Consultation with a Registered Dietitian

September 20, 2010 at 12:43 pm , by Catherine LeFebvre

Hershey’s thinks you should have a kiss. Okay, have two. Maybe stop at four though, since that’s about 100 calories.

Strange that they’d want you to show restraint when it comes to eating their product, isn’t it? Actually, no. The candy company just launched Moderation Nation, a campaign to help people learn how to keep a balanced diet and exercise regularly. It’s based on the “everything in moderation” advice you hear from most weight loss experts, including Cheryl Forberg, a registered dietitian and the nutritionist on The Biggest Loser.

“A lot of people think when it comes to losing weight, they have to deprive themselves,” Forberg says. “Sweets and especially fats: a lot of people are really fat phobic. But eventually the craving is going to overwhelm you. It’s all about a lifestyle change.”

To get started on a well-balanced life, Hershey’s is going to pay for you to have an initial consult with a registered dietitian. Just go to the Moderation Nation site and follow the steps to download a voucher and a food journal to fill out before your visit.

“Most people don’t realize how many calories their body needs and don’t know how to divide that up throughout the day,” Forberg explains. “At an initial consult, an RD will assess your typical eating patterns, create a calorie budget that’s catered to you and describe a healthy eating plan for you.”

The process is pretty simple. I just downloaded the voucher and found an RD about a mile from where I live. I’ll let you know what she thinks of my Hershey’s kiss consumption.

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A Strong Woman Protecting Our Environment

September 20, 2010 at 11:53 am , by Amelia Harnish

Last week I attended my first big event as LHJ’s new health editorial assistant: a meeting with Lisa Jackson (right), administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. It was a small, informal round-table session with magazine health editors (including our health director Julie Bain). We met on the 30th floor of one of New York’s beautiful old federal buildings downtown, with spectacular views of the harbor.

Given my interest in the environment (I’ve been known to pick cigarette butts off the beach; I often chase floating plastic bags for what seems like miles), I was excited to meet Jackson, but unsure of what to expect. A stuffy bureaucrat? A stern woman in a suit, proselytizing about recycling or, worse, spinning the EPA as the entity with all the answers?

I was pleasantly surprised when a warm and bubbly mom of two (and chemical engineer!) wearing platform heels arrived, but it was her honesty and intelligence that really sold us. She told us about her background, and it’s clear that this woman, originally from New Orleans, had worked hard to get where she is and truly cares about creating a cleaner world for future generations. Read more

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