Category: Health & Wellness

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

From 38DD to 32H, Torrie Finds Her New Figure’s Bra Size

When it comes to bra shopping, we’re all Torrie Rathjen at some point.

We are weight fluctuations and trial and error and not knowing for sure if what we think is a good fit actually is a good fit. We are confused by US, UK and EU sizing. We are busy, lacking the leisure time to devote to coddling our chests.

Torrie, 38, The MAX Challenge marketing director, had to try on 30 bras and almost 20 bra-sized swimsuits before she found The Ones.

In the past five years, her body has been through it all: Torrie had twins and recently lost 40 pounds (she went down in dress size from a 14 to an 8) by ramping up her workout routine. Nothing fit her anymore, least of all her bras, and she really didn’t know where to start.

Bra Fit Expert Melissa, who’s lost a lot of weight herself, helped Torrie know for sure when they’d finally gotten it right.

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Health & Wellness Power Figures

Author Suzan Colón is About to Change Everything You Thought You Knew About Yoga

If you’re one of those people who’s ever said, “I can’t meditate! I can’t clear my mind! I don’t have time for that!” hear Suzan Colón out.

In her new book, Yoga Mind: Journey Beyond the Physical, the magazine editor-turned-yoga teacher is your medium between dusty Sanskrit chants and warp-speed modern reality.

Turns out the poses practiced by some 36 million Americans aren’t the half of it; you don’t even have to be able to move to do yoga’s true heavy lifting. Its real power, Suzan explains to Bare Necessities, is in transforming your mind, as she found when helping a friend who was paralyzed after an accident.

By changing your thinking, Suzan found, you could change your life. She walks readers through how to do that in 30 mini-lessons, near-effortless ways of adding mindfulness to the daily grind. She breaks down each concept into woo-woo-free terms—so Saucha becomes “spiritual spring cleaning,” Pratyahara is “quiet time for the senses” and Santosha simply means “being okay with what we have and who we are now.”

Each meditation comes with an assignment, from breathing exercises to coming up with a mantra to finding ways to treat yourself more kindly. This Power Figure upends what you thought about yoga by helping you find the critical distance needed to see yourself for who you really are—not your body, not your thoughts—regardless of the last time you hit the yoga studio.

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Bra Fit Experts Health & Wellness Inner Beauty

Jessica’s CrossFit Experience and Health and Wellness Breakthrough

Bare Necessities Bra Fit Expert Jessica never considered herself a natural athlete, but she’s a fitness devotee because working out does wonders for her mood. That’s why she recently took it to the next level and made the leap from student to instructor at her local CrossFit gym.

Read on for how Jessica makes working out her number one priority each day, the accomplishments she’s proudest of and her motivating mantra for pushing through even the toughest workout.

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Bra Fit Experts Health & Wellness Inner Beauty

Kathy’s Health Transformation & Weight Loss Surgery Recovery

After years and years of ups and downs with her weight, Kathy, our lead Bra Fit Expert here at Bare Necessities, summoned the courage to have weight loss surgery this past fall. While she could envision the healthy lifestyle she wanted to live, she never could have imagined the side effects that took her out of commission for six miserable, seemingly endless weeks and left her questioning what she had elected to do to herself. 

Today, Kathy is in way better shape—better, in fact, than she’s been in ages. Read on for what she wishes she’d known then that she knows now….

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Bra Fit Experts Health & Wellness Inner Beauty

Mette’s Health and Weight Loss Journey: Her Mission to Find Balance

This week, Bare Necessities certified Bra Fit Expert Mette opens up about her on-again, off-again relationship with the gym. Weight-wise, she’s not where she wants to be, but if something’s got to give, it’s for sure not going to be time spent with her family—or her nightly glass of wine—and, at this moment, she’s 100 percent okay with that.

THE BACKSTORY
“I’ve had a slow metabolism since I was 13. Apparently, I started a trend, because we have no history of hypothyroid issues. My whole family is thin and can eat whatever they want without gaining weight. Not me.

When I was younger, I was more active, plus I was on medications to manage my thyroid. I’m 5’6”, and the sweet spot for me is right around 150 pounds.

The weight gain started around the time I was trying to conceive. I gained 10 or 15 pounds on the expectation that I would be having a child and could eat whatever I wanted. I thought the weight would just drop off when the baby came. It took a year of trying before I got pregnant with my son. I gained 55 pounds and was at 203 when I gave birth. It took a while for the weight to come off. I got pregnant again five years later. I gained 23 pounds with my daughter and was only five pounds off my pre-pregnancy weight after she was born.”

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Bra Fit Experts Health & Wellness Inner Beauty

Melissa’s Weight Loss Journey and Ultimate Life-Changing Decision

Happy 2018! This month, as we dust off our gym memberships with renewed enthusiasm, we’re hearing from four of our Bare Necessities Bra Fit Experts about their very real, very different paths to health and wellness. First up is Melissa, who underwent weight loss surgery after a lifetime of struggling with food and body image. Since the procedure last June, she’s already lost over 80 pounds, but she’s just beginning to get to know her new self.

THE BACKSTORY
“Even when I was 7 years old, I was overweight. We have a family history—we’re the short, chubby Italians, not the willowy, Mediterranean Italians. I didn’t make the best food choices 100 percent of the time, but I was an active kid: color guard, cheerleading, theater, softball. I don’t remember the last time I was under 200 pounds. I’m 5’3” and have lived most of my adult life between 230 and 250. At my heaviest, I was 315 pounds.

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

Learn How a Sports Bra Should Fit with Hazel-Anne’s 36DD to 34F Sports Bra Makeover

Hazel-Anne M. Johnson, Ph.D., 38, is a professor and the director of a university undergraduate program, a mom of two toddlers, deeply involved in community activism and a CrossFit devotee. She’s been going to the intense workout for the past 5 years and can do a headstand or deadlift 150 pounds like it’s the easiest thing in the world. “It’s the most inspiring workout I’ve ever done,” she says. “I actually enjoy burpees.”

In other words, Hazel-Anne is basically Superwoman, and finding time for herself is her Kryptonite. She tries to get to CrossFit three or four times a week—a lofty goal even with a less intimidating schedule: “My mission is to figure out how to carve out me-time despite an ever-busy agenda.”

So you can pretty much guess where bra shopping ranks on Hazel-Anne’s priority list. “I don’t like shopping, and I’ve been pregnant or nursing for over three years, so I’m at a loss when it comes to understanding what my bra size is at this point. When I saw some of your swimwear makeovers on Bare it All this past summer, I was intrigued by the women’s transformations.” That’s where the Bare Necessities Bra Fit Experts come into play. Hazel-Anne wanted to experience the same revelation with her bras, especially her sports bras.

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Bra Fit Experts Breast Cancer Awareness Health & Wellness

10 Things to Know About Life After Breast Cancer from Survivor Theresa Specht

Four years ago this month, Theresa Specht, a preschool teacher and mother of two, was lying in bed watching television when a public service announcement about Breast Cancer Awareness Month came on. At 29, she had never really thought to thoroughly check herself out.

That’s the night she felt the lump in her left breast.

“My husband told me, ‘You didn’t have cancer an hour ago; you don’t have it now” and to relax and get some sleep,” Theresa recalls. Her gut told her otherwise.

Just before her 30th birthday, Theresa was diagnosed with stage III lymph node-positive breast cancer.

She had no risk factors or family history and tested negative for the BRCA gene. Her cancer, in her breast and lymph nodes, appeared to be estrogen-driven and was positive for the HER2 protein. “It’s a nasty cancer, but for that reason, a lot of research has gone into developing drugs to target the protein,” Theresa says. (It’s unclear whether her Cowden syndrome, a rare genetic variant, played a role.)

After six cycles of chemotherapy, a year of targeted biological therapies, a bilateral mastectomy and prophylactic hysterectomy, six weeks of daily radiation, reconstructive surgery and ongoing use of Tamoxifen, Theresa is still here, showing cancer who’s boss. She shares with Bare Necessities 10 truths about what happens when you’ve emerged from the fight of your life and it’s time to pick up where you left off:

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Health & Wellness Inner Beauty Relationships

Guide to Bravado’s New Arrivals: Our Best Nursing Bras for Moms

Back in 1992, when two friends couldn’t find comfy nursing bras that were also fun or fashionable, they sat down at the kitchen table and made one—out of leopard print fabric, no less. That’s how Bravado Designs was, well, born.

Fit and comfort are paramount to this brand by moms, for moms. “We get it: Breastfeeding has its ups and downs. We want to help women feel comfortable and confident with maternity and nursing bras that make sense for this crazy, exciting stage in life,” says Tara Hoth, head of design. “We firmly believe bras shouldn’t be bland. We offer fun colors in addition to classic beige and black, and a little bow, polka dot or print isn’t out of the question.”

Like Bare Necessities, Bravado Designs is “pretty much obsessed with fit,” says Tara. She and her designers are black-belts when it comes to feel-good fabrications and sanity-savers like easy-release clasps and cups that fully drop down for those zonked-out 4 AM feedings. (Look for band sizes 32-46 and cups B-M.)

What’s extra cool: an innovative Test Wearer program in which real moms road-test the bras and nursing tanks, from new prototypes to existing designs. Their input helps Tara’s team fine-tune the details that make all the difference. And since necessity is—pun intended—the mother of invention, here’s what’s new and exciting for moms right now from Bravado Designs:

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Health & Wellness

7 Healthy Evening Snack Ideas to Curb Your Cravings

It’s early in the year, and many of us are still trying to make healthier decisions. (It’s practically the universal New Year’s resolution.) But it’ll never be realistic to banish sweets and snacks from your life—and what kind of life would that be, anyway?

Luckily, there are delicious and tasty snack options to satisfy cravings in a healthier way. You just have to swap in some creative low-calorie and low-fat snack options that give you the same tastes and textures. Err on the healthy side with quick and easy evening snacks since your body won’t be burning through much energy while you’re sleeping.

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Health & Wellness Inner Beauty

Melanie Buck’s Weight Loss Transformation

Melanie Buck, 27, is pursuing her Masters in counseling for mental health and wellness, and she works part-time at SWERVE Fitness, a team-inspired spin studio, and as a business manager for a wellness coach. The most remarkable thing about all this: None of it would be true if it wasn’t for her 180-degree diet and fitness transformation.

“I think I was in denial for a long time that I had a problem, but I consistently gained weight for three years after undergraduate school. I finally realized I was really unhealthy and needed to do something about it,” says Melanie. “I honestly just couldn’t live the way I was living anymore.”

Since 2015, Mel has lost 175 pounds.

“She’s having so much fun,” says Roz, Melanie’s incredibly supportive mom who accompanied her to Bare Necessities for her transformation photo shoot. “Her weight was getting in the way of the life she wanted. The changes were all her idea—the surgery, what she ate, how she exercised—and she changed everything. It all went hand-in-hand, and she saw how much better she felt. It’s been inspiring to watch her.”

Here’s how Mel did it….

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Health & Wellness Personal Style

Sports Bra Reviews: Road Test Part 2

Welcome to the second installment of our sports bra road test. May your resolutions be holding strong! This week, seven sporty women tried out six of our most popular sports bras during weightlifting, Pilates, hiking, cycling and more. Keep in mind their no-holds-barred feedback as you try to meet your own sports bra match.

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