Category: Health & Wellness

Inner Peace for Busy Women

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date February 28, 2022
2 Comments on Inner Peace for Busy Women

Contrary to what we were led to believe, adulting is not doing whatever we want, whenever we want. Instead, we’re constantly responding to our bosses, our families, the news cycle.… And while we deeply wish that finding inner peace was as easy as ordering a new pair of shoes or polishing off a pint of Chunky Monkey, turns out it’s more elusive.

But what if a silent retreat isn’t in the cards? Who among us hasn’t closed her eyes and tried to meditate, only to give up in frustration? If yoga makes you crack up or cringe, what’s a girl gotta do to center herself?

Bare it All is here to help you find a few moments of Zen without resorting to weird breathing techniques. Read on for eight low-effort ways to clear your mind.

Health & Wellness Relationships

Breast Changes During Pregnancy—and the Bras That Will Help Get You Through

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date August 3, 2020
2 Comments on Breast Changes During Pregnancy—and the Bras That Will Help Get You Through

We talk a lot at Bare Necessities about how important it is to get a bra fitting when your weight fluctuates or you go through a major life event, and that definitely, 1,000 percent (still the understatement of the century) includes having a baby. In fact, if it’s your first time, expect to be shocked by how much the chest you’ve known so well for so long changes on you.

To coincide with World Breastfeeding Week, Bare it All asked our nursing bra buyer Heather Viskovic to tell all about the wild ride her own breasts have gone on two kids later, and what she’s learned that can make life easier for anyone going through it now.

Health & Wellness Pop Culture

The Summer of Self-Care

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date June 29, 2020

In these unprecedented times—if we never hear those words again, it’ll be too soon—we’re all learning to sit with some degree of uncertainty and angst. (And if somehow you’re not, we want to live on that planet.) While 2020 hasn’t exactly gone according to plan, Bare Necessities remains, as ever, here to support you.

To that end, we’ve rounded up 10 of the best pieces of wellness advice for this challenging moment in time to help you keep your calm and carry on this summer. Let us know in the comments what’s been working for you personally; the more strategies we can all draw from, the better off we’ll all be.

Health & Wellness Personal Style

The Right Sports Bra Will Get You Out of Bed and Into the Gym

Post author By Virginia Sole-Smith
Post date March 16, 2020

I don’t know about you, but I have had a lot of workouts derailed by the wrong sports bra. Actually, I’ve had a lot of workouts never even happen because of the wrong sports bra.

Let me back up a little and explain: I love yoga and hiking because they improve my mood, help me be in my body and feel strong and flexible. But I’m a busy journalist and working mom (find out more about me and The Eating Instinct); ninety-minute vinyasa classes and leisurely afternoon rambles through the woods are a thing of my past. So my best shot at getting any kind of physical activity into my day is to wake up at 5:30 AM and squeeze it in before my kids are up at 7:30. I’ve been doing this pretty consistently for the better part of a year now, and I truly do crave and adore that time to myself when the house is quiet and nobody expects me to find their socks.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”Many of the sports bras that fit and support me also require knowledge of lock-picking skills to put on”[/perfectpullquote]

But I am also human, so I do not adore getting out of bed at 5:30 AM. I do not adore scrounging around in the dark for workout clothes. And I really do not adore struggling into a sports bra in my cold bathroom before I’ve even had my coffee. I wear a 38DDD, and many of the sports bras that fit and support me also require knowledge of advanced yoga postures and lock-picking skills to put on. So even if I make it out of bed, there have been a lot of days when I left the bra on the floor and used my two hours of work/child-free time to read a novel instead. Which was probably a pretty decent choice from a self-care perspective. But! I’m here to tell you about the sports bras that solved it all.

Breast Cancer Awareness Health & Wellness Inner Beauty Relationships

Diagnosed at 30: Chelsey’s Breast Cancer Journey

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date October 7, 2019
4 Comments on Diagnosed at 30: Chelsey’s Breast Cancer Journey

Breast cancer is nothing if not personal, and the net it casts is wide. There are more than 3 million women with a history of breast cancer living in the US, according to BreastCancer.org in 2019. They’re our colleagues, our friends and, in this case, our family.

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I got personal with my cousin Chelsey Goldman, a 30-year-old office administrator, wife and mom to daughter Abigail, 4, and son Rory, 3. One year and 6 days from her diagnosis, she has beaten the disease. Still, there is a ways to go to get back to life B.C. (before cancer). She opened up to Bare Necessities about what it’s like to wonder if you’re going to live to see the day your kids start school.

Health & Wellness Personal Style Pop Culture

The Best Nursing Bra is Just Like the Bra You’re Already Wearing

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date August 5, 2019
2 Comments on The Best Nursing Bra is Just Like the Bra You’re Already Wearing

Nursing bras may very well be the most challenging kind of bra to buy. They have to fit and support just right at a time in life when your size is a moving target and your stress level is dialed up to eleven.

The solution is deceptively simple: Whenever possible, choose a nursing bra from your favorite go-to brand. “You already know you like how they’re made, and you know it’s going to work for your body,” says Heather Viskovic, Bare Necessities maternity buyer and mother of two.

This World Breastfeeding Week 2019, Heather is sharing her picks for the best nursing bras. She recommends picking up two or three to start using in the third trimester, when breasts really swell. Then wear them for as long as you need or want to postpartum: “When a bra is well-made and comfortable, you might even wear it after you stop nursing, like I did.”

These new-mom must haves look good, feel good, are easy to use (even in the dead of night) and wash well. You and baby both should be able to get behind these picks.

Tags world breastfeeding week

Health & Wellness Power Figures

Chaise Fitness Founders Used What they Knew to Create a Brand New Workout

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date July 1, 2019

Former gold-medalist competitive figure skater Lauren Piskin has trained everyone from the Olympic national team to Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler for Blades of Glory. After opening a Pilates studio in Manhattan, Lauren realized that, in a lot of ways, the workout could use an update.

Lauren’s daughter, Rachel, danced with the New York City Ballet from age 7. When Rachel retired from the company after a 20-year career, her body rebelled against her, physically rejecting the sudden change to her diet and fitness routine. That’s when she decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps, emerging as one of New York’s most sought-after physical trainers.

Just over seven years ago now, the mother-daughter duo co-founded Chaise Fitness, a boutique studio that revolves around the “Reinvention Method,” their custom chair-based workout class that mashes together Pilates, ballet, cardio and strength training in a low-impact, body-sculpting regimen accessible to women of all ages and abilities. Three locations offer 10 different classes, plus there’s an on-demand platform to give clients access to live-streamed classes and pre-recorded workout videos.

Bare Necessities talked to these two Power Figures and took a class to get a firsthand feel for what the family-run fitness empire is about.

Tags chaise fitness

Health & Wellness Personal Style

10 PERFECT SPORTS BRAS FOR ANY WORKOUT

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date January 7, 2019

Forget reinventing your life because a calendar page flipped. Call it a resolution or don’t, but working out has always been on the to-do list, and it continues into the new year.

When you’ve already got a drawer brimming with sports bras you don’t exactly enjoy pulling on, our annual guide comes to the rescue! This week, Bare Necessities is crowning both the latest and the greatest MVPs. In one of these all-stars tailored to your workout and your figure, it’s game on in 2019. If the clothes really do make the woman, you’re about to be unstoppable.

Read on to find the reason you’ll love working out this season, then get a move on.

Tags sports bras, top 10 sports bras

Having a B.R.A. Fit Health & Wellness Inner Beauty

From 36DDD to 36G, Irene Wins in Wacoal

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date December 30, 2018

Irene, 38, works out at The Max Challenge with Torrie Rathjen, and once she saw her workout buddy’s bra fit makeover, she had to have one.

Now that her three young sons are getting more independent, Irene can shift a bit of her focus to her own well-being. New Year’s resolutions have got nothing on her: Since Irene already works out five days a week, what she needed was new sports bras that were up to the challenge.

So was Bare Necessities Bra Fit Expert Kristyn, a certified personal trainer and a mom of three boys herself. She instantly got where Irene was coming from: more of a feel-good style makeover than a dramatic size overhaul. These two showed us how to end the year on a high note….

Having a B.R.A. Fit Health & Wellness Inner Beauty

From 32D to 30DDD, Lauren Russo Finds Her Best Bra Brand

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date November 5, 2018

Lauren Russo, 36, is a mom of two, a teacher, a certified personal trainer who runs a baby boot camp class and, with her husband, a partner in a health and wellness business.

“I love being an advocate for others to feel their best,” Lauren said.

With the help of Bare Necessities Bra Fit Expert Kristyn, it was time to turn the tables. Lauren wasn’t getting the support she deserved from 32D T-shirt bras and sports bras from Victoria’s Secret and Target—mass retailers cater to the general population rather than specialize in designs for busty, petite women like her.

“I never even had a bra fitting until after my first son was born. I walked into Victoria’s Secret, and that was that. But those don’t cut it anymore,” said Lauren. “Aside from needing better-fitting bras, I hope I gain some knowledge what’s available out there, and some confidence.”

Given her day-to-day, she was hoping to find a superior sports bra (“I tend to wear them to teach, then linger in them”) and a good everyday bra with some lift. So that’s exactly what Kristyn found her.

Having a B.R.A. Fit Health & Wellness

From 38C to 34D, April Salazar Proves Size is Just a Letter

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date September 24, 2018

Feeling confident in her own skin is really what April Salazar, 41, was after with this bra-fit makeover: “I’m finally at a place where I feel confident about who I am and where I’m going.” Which isn’t to say getting there has been easy. After more than a dozen fertility treatments, four pregnancies and three losses over the last few years, April gained 65 pounds she’s now in the process of losing.

“My body has been through the grinder. For so long, I didn’t have control over it. I have no idea what size I am,” said April, the managing editor for a technology nonprofit. “With a three-year-old, only now do I feel like I can take time for self-care. I think it’s important that, at any size, I model self-acceptance to my daughter, and I’m afraid I’m not doing that.”

April bonded with Bare Necessities Bra Fit Expert Kristyn over their shared experiences with miscarriage; Kristyn knew firsthand of the mental and physical fluctuations April was experiencing: “It’s tough to keep track of where your body is. Maybe you were a different size before, but we’re going to go by where you are now, and we’re not going to stop until we get it right. We’re going to get you into something that fits.”

Or, as it turned out, a lot of somethings.

Health & Wellness Inner Beauty Personal Style Pop Culture

Happiness Advice to Take You Through the Rest of the Year

Post author By Brooke Glassberg
Post date August 13, 2018

Summertime, and the living is arguably easier. What is it about a little sunshine that makes this the happiest time of year and, more importantly, how to bottle that feeling for the other nine months?

Bare Necessities looked into the science behind summer’s golden touch. We’re here to share ideas you can draw on when fall and winter start getting you down. Bookmark this for when you need it in the back half of the year!