WELLNESS IN THE CITY
Want to improve your well-being from the inside out? From nutrition to exercise and beauty to fashion, The Shops at Columbus Circle is here to help with a 360 approach to healthy living. To get you motivated, we asked top wellness experts to reveal what inspires them to live a healthy lifestyle and to share their best advice for how you can look and feel great, too.
MINDFUL EATING
How closely do you pay attention to what you’re eating and how it’s impacting your body? As you become more attuned with your body, you’ll notice connections between foods that fuel you and foods that leave you feeling lethargic. “Mindful eating means figuring out the right plan for you,” says speaker, author, and social entrepreneur Cornell Thomas. “People get caught up in fads, and not reality.”
Mindful eating also involves getting to the heart of what your body needs. Lisa Hayim, founder of The Well Necessities, encourages everyone to pause and ask, “What am I really hungry for?” Sometimes the answer is a hamburger, and other times you’re actually craving emotional support. “At that point, calling a friend may be a better idea,” she says.
When it comes to helping your internal systems work efficiently, timing is everything. “Eating solid foods after dusk can burden the digestive system and slow down the metabolism, says Marcus Antebi, founder of Juice Press at Equinox. “To curb hunger until bedtime, I recommend drinking a raw, cold-press juice, diluted with water.”
MOVEMENT MATTERS
Exercise can sometimes be viewed as a chore, when it’s actually a tool that we have to feel healthier both mentally and physically. Hayim emphasizes finding “what works and feels good — and also to value rest or days with less intensity to reset your stress hormones and give your body time to repair.”
Elizabeth Endres and Dale Borchiver, founders of Sweats & The City, love to try group fitness classes around New York. But they also share a simple tip to keep active: “Walk as much as you can. We love popping on a podcast or audiobook and getting our steps in.” Luckily, The Shops at Columbus Circle is located right next to Central Park, one of the city’s best places to take a stroll.
Justin Livingston is the founder of the wellness and lifestyle blog, Scout Sixteen, which is full of healthy living advice. His secret to a flourishing wellness routine: Work out early to get it done. But for personal accountability, what really keeps him motivated are fitness trackers and fitness watches, which you can find at New York Running Company by Jack Rabbit.
CLEAN BEAUTY
When it comes to clean beauty, Aveda has always been ahead of the curve. Ever since this trailblazing company was formed in 1978, Aveda has been dedicated to tapping into the power of plants and flowers and eliminating useless chemicals. For Sara Noerper-Boujoulian, Team Leader at Aveda, clean beauty “is about the elimination of unnecessary ingredients that are damaging to the environment, humans, and animals.”
Laney Crowell, founder of The Moment, adds Sephora and Whole Foods Market to the list of trusted retailers. “Sephora has an entire clean beauty vertical, carrying some of my favorite brands like ILIA and RMS Beauty,” she says. “Whole Foods has a great beauty department, Whole Goods, which is the clean beauty Mecca. It’s really exciting. What five years ago was so niche is now exploding.”
When it comes to beauty, Crowell advice is to get back to the basics: “Bar soap is always going to be better than shower gel. It’s also better for the environment because there’s no plastic.”
CONSCIOUS FASHION
Devin Gilmartin and Tegan Maxey, cofounders of The Canvas by Querencia—an organization working with sustainable designers to stylishly save the planet — believe that conscious fashion is about taking responsibility for the industry’s global footprint. They encourage consumers to be conscious of the decisions they’re making and the ramifications they have on the world. “Consumers must take responsibility for their purchases and hold brands accountable,” says Gilmartin.
The duo is already seeing the results with collections at green-minded retailers like Eileen Fisher and H&M. “The world’s most influential fashion businesses are now paying attention and, even more importantly, taking action,” says Gilmartin. The wheels are spinning, and creativity is blossoming.”
