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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The Benefits of Walking Uphill and Downhill

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The Benefits of Walking Uphill and Downhill

Today marks the start of the Pure Joy Wellness Fall Walking Challenge!! We’ll be walking 30 minutes every day for the next 30 days and I hope you'll join us!

Walking is one of my favorite activities because it’s low-impact and safe, making it accessible for everyone. You can walk almost anywhere, without needing to be especially athletic or coordinated, and there’s no special equipment required – just some supportive walking shoes.

As I’ve talked about on the blog before, walking briskly for 30 to 60 minutes, 3 to 5 days a week, offers a multitude of health benefits.

And if you’re already a seasoned walker, you can incorporate uphill and downhill walking into your routine to challenge your body in new ways.

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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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How To Reinvent Your Mindset As You Age

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How To Reinvent Your Mindset As You Age

I had a conversation with a client the other day and she expressed to me how hard aging has been for her. I asked her in what way and she said she felt less relevant and she no longer had a place in society. She said “I feel invisible” and “people used to look at me on the street, or pay attention when I talked. Now it feels like everyone ignores me, just because I’ve gotten older.”

Now, when I look at her, I see a highly successful, wonderful woman who women of any age would aspire to be like! I hear this sentiment from a lot of women. To help us all revamp our mindset towards aging, I brought in my new friend Jack Trama – host of the Mindset Reinvented Podcast.

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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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Trips To Recharge, Featuring Travel Expert Roman Sacke

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Trips To Recharge, Featuring Travel Expert Roman Sacke

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – finding time to unwind and recharge is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Whether it’s a weekend getaway or an extended vacation, spending time away from home can be a welcomed respite – a moment to relax, rejuvenate, and come back stronger.

In this week’s blog post, Roman Sacke, a seasoned luxury travel advisor, offers invaluable insights into the best places to relax and rejuvenate, drawn from his extensive travel experience!

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10 Books For Your Summer Reading List

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10 Books For Your Summer Reading List

Summer is here, it’s the season of reading! I like to have my nose in a book all year round, but there’s something about summer – maybe the slower pace of life, or the warm glow of the sun – that makes reading all the more appealing to me.

Whether I’m in Central Park or by the ocean, you can bet I’m bringing one of these books with me everywhere this summer. If you’re a reader, grab a pen and add these titles to your list!

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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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Double Cleansing: What It Is & How It Can Help Your Skin

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Double Cleansing: What It Is & How It Can Help Your Skin

Sometimes, breakouts are inevitable — in part because there are so many reasons why you could be having one. Maybe you slept with your makeup on one night, or you’re having a moment of hormonal ebb and flow. Whatever the cause, it’s frustrating, and I for one try to avoid breakouts as much as I can.

The most powerful tool in my arsenal for that is double cleansing — here’s why I love it and what you should know about it. 

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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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Fish Oil 101: What You Need To Know

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Fish Oil 101: What You Need To Know

Fish oil, best known and loved for its abundance of omega-3 fatty acids, is a key player in promoting overall health and wellbeing. Its positive impact on heart health, cognitive function, and skin health is unmatched, not to mention it can benefit our eyes, digestive system, joints, and more.

Fish oil is an out-of-the-park homerun supplement, and in this week’s blog post, I’m covering the benefits, where to get it from, and my tips for finding your own fish oil. 

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The Guide To Strength Training For Women Over 50

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The Guide To Strength Training For Women Over 50

Age is often seen as a barrier to fitness, but for the most part, that’s a made-up and arbitrary aging belief. Hitting a certain age doesn’t mean you have to slow down or give up on physical activity—on the contrary, we need movement even more as we age, especially strength training! 

If there’s one piece of advice I can give you to totally transform your health and the way you feel, it’s this: start strength training. Not only will it help you maintain your vitality and independence as you age, but it will boost your self-esteem and confidence, which we could all use. 

Here’s where I would recommend starting, if you’re a strength training beginner. 

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Do You Have IBS or Leaky Gut?

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Do You Have IBS or Leaky Gut?

According to the American Gastroenterological Association, between 60 and 70 million Americans suffer from gastrointestinal diseases—including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which affects between 25 and 45 million people. Statistics show that about 2 in 3 IBS sufferers are female—looking at us, ladies—but not everyone who thinks they have IBS actually has IBS.

In some cases, that IBS-looking condition is actually a different condition called Leaky Gut, which can have similar symptoms, but requires a different approach to fix it. 

In this blog post, I’ll show you the difference between IBS and Leaky Gut, with hopes of helping you understand which you’re dealing with (and hopefully giving you good info that you can use to improve your symptoms!).

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The Best Supplements For Women Over 50

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The Best Supplements For Women Over 50

Navigating the world of supplements can feel like diving into an endless sea of options, especially as we age and our bodies evolve.

While our primary source of essential nutrients should always be a balanced diet—check out my Top 10 Foods For Aging Well blog post here—the reality is that our plates don't always cover all the bases. That's where supplements can come in and bridge the gap between what we eat and what our bodies need.

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The Health Benefits of Orgasms with Dr. Laurie Mintz

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The Health Benefits of Orgasms with Dr. Laurie Mintz

Sexual wellness is an often overlooked topic, and the same goes for orgasms. I’ve never believed that sex should be an off-limits topic for people who want to discuss it, as demonstrated by the series on sex I did with Dr. Juliana Hauser (you can find Part One here and Part Two here), my post on the importance of a healthy sex life for aging, an interview I did with a sex expert about low libido, etc.

Until now, I haven’t really delved into the specific benefits of orgasms for our overall health or discussed the sexual wellness gap that exists between men and women.

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How To Do A Lympathic Drainage Massage At Home

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How To Do A Lympathic Drainage Massage At Home

While a lot of our physical traits are genetic, there are ways we can enhance our natural features by utilizing our bodies’ powerful detoxification systems—in this case, your lymphatic system. Similar to facial massage techniques like face yoga and gua sha (which have long been known to enhance facial shape), a lymphatic drainage massage can relieve puffiness and reduce fluid retention and swelling—but not just in your face, in your whole body!

Today, I’ll give you a quick primer on lymphatic drainage massage—with extra tips from a professional—and teach you how to do one yourself.

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10 Ways To Improve Your Foot Health

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10 Ways To Improve Your Foot Health

Aging can come with some aches and pains, especially in the foot department (if you know, you know). Our feet are the unsung heroes of our bodies—they bear the weight and pressure of our everyday activities, and most of the time, we don’t give them any love or care in return.

This can lead to discomfort, pain, and injury both in the short-term and long-term (think plantar fasciitis, bone spurs, the list goes on).

Everyone deserves to feel healthy and happy in general, and to walk around without foot pain. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say, so with that in mind, here’s what I recommend you do to care for your feet. 

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