These Are The Best Workouts To Do Before, During & After Your Period

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Originally published in mindbodygreen

When it comes to enjoyable activities, exercising during your menstrual cycle ranks lower than walking home in the rain without a jacket. Seriously, has anyone ever craved exercise during a period? (If so, please refer them to me—I need their secret.)

Even though the time surrounding your period may feel like the worst time to work out—because you feel achy, cramp-stricken, or just don’t want to—it’s actually one of the best times to move your body.

But the question still stands: What workout should you do, and when? Here’s what Ellen Vora, M.D., recommends for each phase of your cycle.

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Can Working Out Make Your Anxiety Worse? Experts Weigh In

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Originally published in mindbodygreen

To get some answers, we asked holistic psychiatrist Ellen Vora, M.D., and trained gynecologist and obstetrician Anna Cabeca, D.O., to weigh in. 

Both Vora and Cabeca agree that yes, exercise can make anxiety worse for some people. You may be asking yourself why. Some exercise can trigger a stress response in the body, meaning it increases our cortisol levels, which can contribute to anxiety.

Again, this will not be the case for everyone, but it is definitely possible, and if it’s happening to you, you probably have a few questions like…

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Postpartum Nutrition

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Taking care of a new mom’s nutritional needs is a great way to help prevent post-partum depression, decrease risk of mastitis, and ensure that a nursing baby is getting the best nutrition possible. So what are the best ways to feed mom, and how the heck do you do this when you have negative time?

20 Little Changes You Can Make Throughout The Day To Boost Your Mental Health

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Originally published in mindbodygreen

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, I’d love to shed some light on the fact that you are in control of your mental well-being. We’ve been taught that mental health conditions are a genetic chemical imbalance and therefore destiny, but it’s simply not so. Often, it’s all those little decisions we make throughout the day that have the biggest cumulative impact. As a holistic psychiatrist, I can confidently say that the ways you eat, move, and think are far bigger determinants of your mental health than your genes.

Here are 20 steps you can take to empower yourself and elevate your mental wellness. 

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Sleep Like A Caveman

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Sleep issues are epidemic. When you pay attention to the ways we slept for millennia, you can figure out how to correct the modern causes of insomnia.

How Do You Actually Make Cooking Realistic?

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Eating real food is the key to wellbeing, and cooking is the key to eating real food. But cooking can be a relentless, time-consuming, exhausting pursuit. Here are some hacks to make it at least a bit easier.

Dance Therapy

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Today will be a departure from my usual. This is a clip from my birthday party, which was a sweaty throwback dance party. Here are some of my takeaways:

  1. When it’s your birthday, let yourself be celebrated. Can we move past the societal conditioning that we all need to be so modest as to practically hate ourselves? What I’ve learned from years of seeing patients is that we’re in a crisis of self-love and self-acceptance. When I was in Brazil in March, I was struck by how we celebrated birthdays there. We stood around singing not one but 9 back-to-back happy birthday songs while the woman whose birthday it was smiled, clapped, and jumped up and down with glee. In the US, we sing one dinky song, while the birthday person sits there awkward and sheepish, wanting to recede into the background, and willing the whole thing to be over with as soon as possible. I decided to try on for size letting myself be celebrated. It felt amazing.
  2. When it’s your birthday, think about what lights YOU up, and make it happen. The default birthday for my circle is dinner and drinks. That’s all well and good, except that’s not what lights ME up. I want to DANCE! To Whitney Houston, and a micromanaged playlist of my choosing, heavy on Beyonce. There’s pretty much only one day of the year I can impose this on people. This year my dancing dreams came true. If you like bowling, or making music, or baking cupcakes and watching Jane the Virgin, or getting tea with one person, then drop any expectation to do the standard thing and DO THAT for your birthday. Do the thing that lights you up.
  3. I’m equal parts proud and feeling vulnerable about this video. I don’t typically wear pleather tube tops. I showed up to this party in athleisure and was promptly re-styled by someone with more pizazz (thank you Maryellis Bunn). As a mom/doctor/not-a-model, I felt like I couldn’t pull this off. Then the music came on, and I just let it go. I let EVERYTHING go and joyously danced for 4 straight hours. It was therapy.

Let yourself be celebrated, pick what lights YOU up and do it. Tube top optional.

One Step For Self Love

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Self love requires that you behave in a way that earns your own respect. Remember that you’re always witnessing yourself.

6 Ways To Optimize The Time You Have With Your Kids & Create Lasting Memories

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Originally published in mindbodygreen

Ten minutes ago I was sitting here writing this when my 3-year-old daughter climbed onto my lap. My goal was to have this article done yesterday, so my initial reaction was that she was getting in my way. And then the irony dawned on me—this is l-i-t-e-r-a-l-l-y an article about spending quality time with your kids—and I closed the laptop and devoted my full attention to snuggling her.

Even though work and our other adult responsibilities feel weighty, overwhelming, and important, once you have children, there are even more significant deadlines and milestones in your life…

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