Everything She Wants

Wendy Williams has always been a friend in my head, as the former talk show host was fond of saying about celebrities she liked and admired.  Before her eponymous "The Wendy Williams Show" became a nationally syndicated treasure trove for all the goss, I listened to Wendy's daily chat fest on WBLS in New York City. That radio show was a source of afternoon delight while working 9 to 5, and  I've been a fan of the "Queen of All Media" for a long time. So it has been hard to watch Wendy devolve into a hot topic -- while publicly dealing with the embarrassment of infidelity in her marriage, a nasty divorce, losing her hit talk show and subsequent health and financial woes.  While she was still doing her talk show, which ran for 12 years, the gossip girl openly discussed her battles with substance abuse and her medical struggles with Graves' Disease and Lymphedema. I was even watching when Wendy fainted on live television during a 2017 Halloween episode of h...

As soon as  you wake up, it's easy for your mind to get cluttered with thoughts of the mountain of tasks in front of you -- work deadlines, bills that need to be paid, helping the kids with their homework, and household chores like grocery shopping, doing laundry, cooking and cleaning the house.   It can be overwhelming. To help quiet what is called "the monkey mind"in meditation (a term that refers to being unsettled, restless or confused), Everything She Wants was gifted The Good Morning Journal: 5-Minute Guided Reflections to Start Your Day with Inspiration, Purpose and a Plan  (Molly Burford, $14.99). Each day is a blank slate—a gift that we choose how to use. You can begin each day with clarity, purpose, and inspiration with  The Good Morning Journal . This beautifully packaged, easy-to-use guided journal is filled with quick, thoughtful prompts that help you recognize what you want to accomplish—and why—and create a simple plan to achieve your goals. You’ll al...

It's a myth that African Americans and other people of color can't get skin cancer. The truth is that s kin cancers, including melanoma, affect Black and Hispanic people at a disproportionately deadly rate when compared to white people. So if you see something suspicious like  a new, unusual growth or a change in an existing mole anywhere on your body , schedule an appointment with your primary care physician or dermatologist right away. Here are some key facts: An average five-year melanoma survival rate is only 67 percent in Black people versus 92 percent in white people. Late-stage melanoma diagnoses are more common in Hispanic and Black patients than in non-Hispanic white patients. When skin cancer is found in Black and Hispanic people, they tend to be diagnosed at a later stage and, as a result, have a worse prognosis. MedStar Health shares the following information to debunk common misconceptions around skin cancer and melanoma:    MYTH: SKIN CANCER ONLY AFFECTS F...

April is Stress Awareness Month .  But strategies to reduce and manage stress are welcome any time of the year.   Studies show that women are more likely  than  men to report high levels of stress, and for African American women  chronic or daily stress is even more problematic.  While we tend to think of approaching stress management from an emotional wellbeing and physical health standpoint, we don't often associate making  dietary  changes with reducing stress and anxiety.   While scheduling an appointment with your  primary  care doctor and seeking help  from a therapist or spiritual advisor may still be necessary to help address the underlying reasons for why you're feeling stressed and the degree to which your  stress  affects your life, here are a few food for thought tips from  Constance Brown-Riggs, MSEd, RDN, CDCES, CDN, nutrition consultant and author Diabetes Guide to Enjoying Foods of the...

It's American Heart Month, sis.  Risk factors like obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking and physical inactivity put Black women at a higher risk for heart disease. These factors can be controlled by lifestyle and dietary changes. So it's time to literally take the necessary steps to protect your heart.  Other factors, like a family  history  of early heart disease can't be controlled. For women, heart disease becomes a risk factor at 55. That’s because, as the American Heart Association explains, after menopause, women are more likely to get heart disease. Partly, this is because their body no longer produces estrogen. Also, middle age is a time when women tend to develop other heart disease risk factors. That's  even  more incentive to take  care of ourselves, physically and emotionally.  Stress can also wreak havoc on our heart health. So make self-care a priority, whatever that looks like for you. Light some candl...

(Tracy E. Hopkins) I’m a city girl. But year after year the daily concrete grind – weaving in and out of foot traffic set to an ear ringing soundtrack of honking horns and piercing police, fire truck and ambulance sirens – wears me down. “I’m walking here!” So at least once a year I escape the skyscraper cluttered skyline into nature -- be it to the mystical desert out West or an exotic beach locale with tranquil blue water.  This year, I'm tempted to venture on a snowbound  excursion (not my usual choice of climate) to Quebec. One nature girl getaway that stands out was a solo trip to Southern Utah. Yes, Mormon country. After a girlfriend raved about her solo excursion to Red Mountain Resort in St. George, Utah, I booked my trip. At the time, my web content job had become tedious and my coworkers were working my last nerve. Although diversity is normally a consideration for me when I travel, this time I threw caution to the wind. I desperately needed ...

If you're like us, you're the only one at the Thanksgiving Day table who doesn't eat turkey, ham and forget the pigtails and sauerkraut ( it's a Baltimore thing ).  To make matters even more complicated, we recently stopped eating dairy and sugar products (goodbye mac and cheese and pecan pie).  But thanks to the new cookbook, 28-Day Plant Powered Health Reboot: Reset Your Body, Lose Weight, Gain Energy & Feel Great   (out January 3, 2017) , by registered dieticians and social media superstars Jessica Jones and Wendy Lopez, vegans and vegetarians like us  can prepare and bring our  own yummy, plant-based recipes to  the Turkey Day grub-fest. With any luck we might even inspire our families to eat healthier all year long. Everything She Wants : How can we give Turkey Day a "plant power" boost? Jessica and Wendy : Holidays and healthy don't have to be mutually exclusive. We are big proponents of adding vegetables to...

Most women are perpetually in pursuit of a slimmer waist.  While many of us are willing to make the necessary changes in our diet and whittle away at the gym, wearing a waist trainer is a popular trend. Back in the day, these were called girdles. And way, way back in the day, they were called corsets.   So what's up with the renewed interest in "waist training?" Perhaps Kim Kardashian is to blame since interest in the constricting body-shaping technique peaked after she started posting photos of herself wearing a waist trainer on Instagram. And PreMadonna, the creator of Kim K's coveted corsets, has attracted even more Waist Gang Society converts thanks to her appearances on Season 4 of Love & Hip-Hop Atlanta . But women should think twice before they wear a waist trainer.  According to Yahoo! Health , although wearing the compression garment for a short amount of time is usually harmless, it can cause fainting, acid reflux and indigestion...

Are you stuck in a dead-end job? Or perhaps you want to transition to a new career?  If you answered yes to either question, you may benefit from the services of a career-focused life coach like Nicole Orisich . A Certified Tough Transitions Career Coach (CTTCC), since 2010 Nicole has established herself as one of the top coaches in New York City. We chatted with the entrepreneurial Get Unstuck NYC coach, who also runs the  Pretty Hard Body fitness studio for women in Harlem, about her inspiring career path. Everything She Wants: What is it like working as a career coach in NYC? Career coach, Nicole Orisich. Nicole  Orisich:  I have four appointment slots a day and my sessions are each 90-minutes long. No two sessions have ever been alike. It's like watching a really cool Woody Allen movie, with fascinating characters sharing fascinating tales. I'm always left in a state of gratitude after my sessions, because you can't engage in people's lives around...

Another Fashion Week has come and gone.  But could this bi-annual event have long-lasting negative effects on how average women view their bodies, or worse, plant the seed for an eating disorder?  How thin is too thin?/IBTimes The weight debate has raged on for years amongst fashion industry insiders, feminists and fashion spectators, and some designers have admirably refused to hire rail thin girls for their runway shows. In a bold step, Israel recently enacted a skinny-model ban and requires both female and male models working in the country to have a body mass index (BMI) of at least 18.5. As reported by the IBTimes , that means a model who is six-feet tall must weigh at least 136.5 pounds and a model who is five-feet, eight inches must weigh at least 119 pounds. According to Stanford psychologist Dr. Megan Jones, also Chief Science Officer of Lantern — an innovative mobile tool that helps prevent the onset of eating disorders and other emotional ...

(Tracy E. Hopkins) When I found out I had uterine fibroids* nearly a decade ago, they were small and inconsequential. But over time, my fibroids quietly grew and I started to get a lot of unsolicited questions about my “baby bump.”  That’s the sneaky thing about these non-cancerous tumors (more than 99 percent of fibroid cases are benign.) They can grow slowly, rapidly, or remain the same size. They range from pea-size seedlings to bulky masses that distort the shape of the uterus. Now my biggest fibroid is a whopping 12 cm, about the size of a grapefruit. According to  The Mayo Clinic , 3 out of 4 women have uterine fibroids sometime during their lives. African-American women are at an increased risk and suffer the most complications from fibroids. African-American women are at a higher risk for uterine fibroids. While the cause of fibroids is unknown, their growth has been linked to an imbalance of the hormones estrogen and progesterone, and heredity.  So...