Why I Started Taking Testosterone

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Why I Started Taking Testosterone

There’s been a lot of talk lately about testosterone and whether or not women should be taking it – so I want to share my decades-long experience with HRT, aka hormone replacement therapy.

Hormone replacement therapy (or HRT) has long been used to treat menopausal symptoms in women caused by hormonal changes, like hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, and vaginal dryness.

I’ve personally been using HRT for over a decade, but not just the kind you might expect. Most HRT contains estrogen and progesterone – which are female sex hormones – but I’ve actually seen the greatest benefit from testosterone. (And it was something I had to research and ask for – no doctor suggested it to me upfront.)

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The Health Benefits of Chocolate

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The Health Benefits of Chocolate

Valentine’s Day has been known as the holiday of chocolate for decades, in part because of its association with love and romance. In some parts of the world, chocolate is considered an aphrodisiac, and at various points in history, it was used in significant ceremonies, like marriages. Now, chocolate is best known as a tasty treat that we give to others to show our love and appreciation. What some people don’t know, though, is that chocolate can offer health benefits!

Here’s a look at a few of the primary health benefits of chocolate, and a few tips I have for finding the healthiest chocolate bars out there.

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5 Exercises For Lower Back Pain

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5 Exercises For Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is no joke, friends. This often chronic pain affects the majority of people (80% or more) and it can significantly impair your quality of life. To combat the pain, we all need to introduce mobility and back-strengthening exercises into our routines.

That’s why we called on our resident Pilates expert, Jenavieve Adams, to show us a few moves. As she puts it, to strengthen and support the lower back, it's crucial to focus on exercises that enhance our flexibility, build strength, and improve stability.

Here are five effective exercises that target the lower back,

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Why You Still Can’t Sleep Well (& How To Fix It)

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Why You Still Can’t Sleep Well (& How To Fix It)

With 2025 being our year of longevity, I feel that now more than ever, we need to focus on getting better sleep. I know I’ve written about sleep in the past, but insomnia is an increasingly common issue, especially for older adults (including myself).

As we age, our sleep becomes less efficient and decreases in quality, meaning we feel less rested even when we do sleep enough. And in general, older adults have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, which means unless we take proactive action, insomnia can become a regular occurrence. 

This is the year that we combat insomnia and get the sleep we need to thrive. If you’re ready to sleep better, here’s what you should know.

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What is Longevity?

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What is Longevity?

Here at Pure Joy Wellness, we’re calling 2025 “The Year of Longevity” – and for good reason! 

The majority of conversations about aging revolve around “chasing youth” or “surviving” (not thriving), and we want to shift the focus away from all that. That’s why we chose longevity as our word of the year, because it’s more about creating a life that makes us feel good – in short, living better, for longer.

But what does longevity really mean? 

The way I see it, longevity means living a longer and healthier life

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Are You Aging Well? Discover Your Insights with This Year-End Assessment!

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Are You Aging Well? Discover Your Insights with This Year-End Assessment!

Have you ever wondered whether or not you’re aging well? Do you want to know if you’re considered healthy for your age, or where you stand in terms of your health? 

Look no further! Take the Pure Joy Wellness Year-End Assessment! 

Made up of a quick 7 minute test, this interactive quiz will give you a health score based on various measures of health – from sleep and diet, to exercise and mental wellbeing.

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Our 10 Most Popular Recipes of 2024

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Our 10 Most Popular Recipes of 2024

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a foodie! When I come across a healthy recipe that sounds too good to pass up, I immediately add the ingredients to my next grocery list and get to work making it. This year, I discovered some of my all-time favorite recipes – from savory proteins and soups, to healthier versions of sweet treats.

Below, I’ve listed out our top 10 recipes from this year – I encourage you to try one whichever one (or two) calls your name! These recipes are well worth the effort, trust me. 

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Our 10 Most Popular Blog Posts Of 2024

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Our 10 Most Popular Blog Posts Of 2024

As it’s been tradition for us to do since 2021, from now until the end of the year we’ll be sharing our “Best Of” series, starting with our Best Of Pure Joy Wellness Blog Posts 2024! 

You will find our 10 most popular blog posts from this year – based on your engagement and feedback.

As you’ll see, 2024 was a pretty transformative year for our content. We interviewed numerous experts, covered a wide range of topics, and did some serious self-reflection.

I hope you enjoy this roundup, and that you learn something new, interesting, and valuable from these 10 posts. 

I

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10 Ingredients I Keep On Hand For Healthy Meals

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10 Ingredients I Keep On Hand For Healthy Meals

Leading up to Thanksgiving, I shared a list of shelf-stable ingredients I keep on hand for all of my winter holiday cooking and baking. This week, I’m dishing on the 10 ingredients I always (always) have in my kitchen that make throwing together a healthy meal easy, cost effective, and delicious! 

Whether you’re a cooking beginner or you cook all the time, these ingredients (and categories of ingredients) are worth adding to your shopping cart on your next trip. I’ve even included recipes for each one that I hope you’ll try!

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The Unexpected Risks of Being Too Thin After 50

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The Unexpected Risks of Being Too Thin After 50

When I was growing up, women were taught that they could never be too thin and that “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” This “thin is best” viewpoint has dominated for decades, and it certainly made a lasting impact during my childhood and teenage years. But as I got older and learned more about fitness and longevity, I realized just how damaging this belief really is. 

Aside from the serious psychological issues that arise from society expecting all women to be stick thin (think eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and more), the long-term physical effects can be debilitating.

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Stressed About The Election? Here’s How to Manage Your Anxiety

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Stressed About The Election? Here’s How to Manage Your Anxiety

If you’re reading this on November 3, election day is just two days away! The race to the finish line has been anything but predictable, with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump dominating the social discourse. Even though all votes will be cast on Tuesday, we likely won’t know the outcome until several days later, which means until then, we’re stuck with election stress. 

If, like me, you’re not sure how to best handle your election stress and anxiety, and want an outlet for your pent up energy, you’ve come to the right place

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My 5 Secrets For Aging Well

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My 5 Secrets For Aging Well

Come this November, I will have spent 68 years on this planet… I can hardly believe it! I feel lucky and proud to say that I feel better now than I did 30 years ago – and I want you to feel as good as I feel. That’s why, in the blog post below,

I am sharing a few of my secrets for aging healthfully. To do that, I’m providing in-depth answers to the questions I get asked all the time by my clients, friends, and members of the PJW Community.

So, let’s not waste any time… 

What are some of the daily habits that contribute to feeling better as you age?

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5 Steps For Better Bone Health

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5 Steps For Better Bone Health

Of all the possible health concerns that can arise as we age, I think loss of bone density is the most pressing. Bone density, also called bone mineral density (BMD), refers to the amount of minerals in a specific volume of bone.

In other words, it’s indicative of our bone strength – bones with higher mineral content are denser and stronger, while bones with less mineral content are more fragile and likely to break.

Bone density starts to decline when we turn 35, and in the first five years following menopause, women lose an average of 10 percent of bone density.

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5 Movements For Strengthening Your Feet with Jenavieve Adams

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5 Movements For Strengthening Your Feet with Jenavieve Adams

I am SO excited to share this week’s blog post with you – featuring our resident Pilates expert and movement extraordinaire, Jenavieve Adams! I have been taking Pilates with Jenavieve for a long time and I can tell you there is no one better out there. She is a thoughtful and engaging teacher who has become a trusted and caring friend – and this week she’s giving us a tutorial on five of the best movements for strengthening your feet! 

But first, why does foot strength matter? 

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Understanding Cholesterol: What's The Deal?

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Understanding Cholesterol: What's The Deal?

There’s so much buzz (and misinformation) about cholesterol circulating right now – specifically about high cholesterol and how it can often sneak up on us without any apparent symptoms. While this can certainly be the case for some people, it’s not as black and white of a topic as the media can sometimes make it seem.

So, in the interest of keeping the PJW community happy and healthy, I wanted to explain cholesterol a bit and provide a primer for those who aren’t familiar with it. 

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Does Your Health Routine Need A Reset?

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Does Your Health Routine Need A Reset?

The season is a’changing and autumn will soon be here in New York City. Summer comes to an official end in less than a month, and in preparation for the change of season, I’m taking full inventory of my health, mindset, and routines. I’ve had a very enjoyable summer – I got to take a little time off to rest, and I made a lot of fun memories. However, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t stray from my usual healthy path the past few months…have you?

Summer always ends up being my most indulgent season – probably because of how social it is – and now I’m ready to clock back in and do the work. 

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Your Wellness Check: Annual Health Screenings For Women Over 50

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Your Wellness Check: Annual Health Screenings For Women Over 50

If your goal is to prolong your life – and to live happily and healthily while you’re here – it’s going to take more than just healthy eating and exercise.

Don’t get me wrong, those are two major components, but another core piece of the puzzle is staying on top of your health from a medical perspective, including seeing doctors for regular check-ups. Right now, the only way we can truly investigate our symptoms and know if we’re living with a disease is by seeing a doctor and getting tested for it.

Once I hit 50, I made it a priority to get these regular health checks each year, to make sure if I did have anything going on, I could catch and treat it early.

So for this week’s blog post, I’m sharing a list of the most important health screenings and tests for women over 50.

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Are You Sleep Deprived? An Interview With Dr. Janet Kennedy, NYC's Sleep Doctor

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Are You Sleep Deprived? An Interview With Dr. Janet Kennedy, NYC's Sleep Doctor

With everything we have going on in our lives – jobs, relationships, extracurricular activities, other commitments – it’s easy for many of us to let sleep fall by the wayside. Sometimes sleep feels like the one part of our day where we can steal some time from, when really it should be the last place we look to make cuts. Prolonged periods of poor sleep have pretty devastating health effects – especially when someone enters into a state of sleep deprivation. 

For this week’s blog post, I interviewed Janet Kennedy, PhD, otherwise known as the NYC Sleep Doctor, to learn more about sleep deprivation – including how to identify it and how to treat it.

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The 411 On Ultra Processed Foods

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The 411 On Ultra Processed Foods

In case you didn’t see it, The New York Times recently published an interesting article about ultra processed foods, shedding light on their prevalence and potential (negative) health impacts. The article explores the work of Carlos Monteiro, a nutritional epidemiologist from Brazil, who identified a rise in obesity rates linked to changes in food consumption patterns.

As someone who has always valued nutrition and its role in longevity, I wanted to summarize this article for the Pure Joy Wellness community and give you the gist of what you need to know from these new findings. 

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Why I Started The Walking Challenge

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Why I Started The Walking Challenge

The Pure Joy Wellness Walking Challenge officially starts next Sunday, April 28! 

Ooo I am so ready for this one! Myself and the rest of the Pure Joy Wellness community will be walking for 30 minutes a day, for 30 days straight. 

If you haven’t joined our free Facebook Group yet, now is your chance! Tap the link here to join so you’re ready to go on April 28!

In honor of the occasion, I wanted to share a bit about why I started the Walking Challenge. Read on for a brief history, plus a few words of encouragement to kick us off! 

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