Dry January is the public health campaign that encourages people to abstain from alcohol for the first month of the year. Since it’s inception, the campaign has had some mixed reviews. On the one hand, much like Movember and other campaigns of the sort, participants can get a little annoying and loud. On the other, the benefits of quitting alcohol for an entire month are undeniable.
Dry January is a plan you can actually follow. Unlike a lot of New Year’s resolutions and fad diets, this plan has a beginning and an end, making it much easier for you to commit to it than to promise that you’ll quit drinking alcohol for the rest of your life.
A 2018 study conducted by the University of Sussex demonstrated that users who participated in Dry January ingested less alcohol throughout the length of the year. It also showed that even those who attempted to participate reported better sleep, saving some money, and losing weight.
The simple act of taking a month off alcohol helps people drink less in the long term: by August people are reporting one extra dry day per week. There are also considerable immediate benefits: nine in ten people save money, seven in ten sleep better and three in five lose weight.”
The study consisted of surveys that were filled out by 800 subjects at the beginning of the year and then at August, allowing for them to document their progression and health benefits. Dry January even has an app that allows you to check on your progress and track how much money and calories you’re saving.
The campaign may get a little crazy and participants can make for some really bad company, but the results are there. Maybe download the app and drink soda and lime quietly whenever you go out. It’s only for a really long month.
The technical definition of a tincture does not involve oil, but many products on the market are using a base of edible oil to deliver cannabinoids and calling it tincture. This is usually because it’s easier to manufacture with oil than most other bases. So without being a stickler for details, you can call any concentrated liquid cannabinoid preparation a tincture for simplicity’s sake, we don’t think anyone is going to stop calling them tinctures anytime soon, or that anyone will stop using oil as a base in certain lines.
The major challenge with these oil based medicines is that they’re not water soluble, so unless you dose sublingually, they’re going to float around awkwardly on the top of your drink. It’s true that sublingual and buccal dosing are speedier than drinking your cannabinoids, but if you have any type of systemic issue or illness, you’ll want to dose internally as well.
Here’s three strategies to mixing oil based tinctures into your drinks:
Smoothie
Ice, blenders, and fruits are an excellent way to hide a little oil. In fact many people already put hemp and coconut oil into their smoothies for this very reason. Emulsifying fruits such as banana and additions like almond butter will spread the oil through the smoothie in a uniform fashion.
Photos and illustrations by Danielle Guercio
Try this smoothie for a CBD splitting headache saver:
Combine all ingredients with a blender until completely mixed. Serves two with 12 mg CBD each.
Coffee
Coffee is an easy win for cbd tincture, but it requires a little more effort than the pour-and-go method many of us are used to. If you can prepare a week’s worth creamer ahead of time, adding CBD to your coffee is simple, but for an on-the-spot oil tincture coffee, you need a little elbow grease too.
If you have a milk frother or immersion blender, you can whip this up in a snap by frothing up the ingredients. To make a quick mixture with a more analog method, shake up the tincture with the creamer until they’re well mixed, you can use a cocktail shaker or small lidded jar. Each coffee has 20mg CBD.
Cocktail
The too many bartenders are squirting hemp-y, oily stuff on the top of a drink and calling it mixology. Though it’s true many cocktails call for a dash of bitters or aromatics as a float, no one wants to sip on an oily slick, plus you waste the CBD as much of it sticks to the ice and glass to avoid the watery mixture of the alcohol. Blended drinks do the physical work of emulsifying for you, but if you want to cheat a bit to allow using cannabinoid tinctures in shaken or stirred drinks, try using some science!
Emulsifying ingredients can help you add oil and water, so try a few drops of food grade polysorbate 80, a sprinkle of xanthan gum or maltodextrin and get to drinking.
Upgrade your daiquiri with this cocktail recipe
1 dropperful CBD tincture
2 oz rum
1oz lime juice
¾ oz simple syrup
3 drops food grade polysorbate 80
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Shake all of the ingredients except for the Angostura bitters on ice. Strain into a glass and add 3 dashes of bitters.
If you want to avoid having to work for it, tinctures that are alcohol or glycerin based will dilute easier and you don’t need any tricks at all to incorporate them into liquids. With these three tricks, making cannabinoid drinks won’t be as messy and greasy.
If you’re a cannabis user and are in the dating pool, a lot of the time you’ll find yourself gravitating toward other weed imbibers. There might be someone in your circle of friends you’ve had an eye on or perhaps an acquaintances who you’d like to know better. But sometimes that spark happens from across a crowded room, eyes meet and then so do the two of you.
Sparks fly between people of all proclivities and sometimes, even if it’s an emotional, mental and physical match, it may not be a weed match. If you meet someone and can’t get enough of them, whether they use marijuana or not, you may need to have an engaging conversation, not to explain yourself, but to educate. Not everyone’s gotten the memo that reefer madness has gone by the wayside.
The last thing you want to do is keep your cannabis use a secret for long. Maybe it’s not in the first conversation, but it should come up in a timely manner, especially if you’re in the cannabis lifestyle. This can be a sticky situation where marijuana is yet illegal for any type of usage and where stigma still swirls.
Make sure that when you do break the green ice that you’re doing so in a stand-up manner. One of the greatest concerns among non-users is that pot makes people lazy, disinterested or a stay at home stoner. Highlight your active life and when you do bring it up, talk about how cannabis enhances many of your day to day activities, rather than hinders them. And if you use it medicinally, be as open as you can about why.
If you’ve been dating someone for a few weeks and still need to bring it up, pointing out that you’ve not been abstaining during that time may help or backfire, depending on the person. They may feel let down that you waited to say something or they may feel pleasantly surprised because the stereotypes don’t apply.
You can start the convo with a question, “Hey ______, have you ever smoked weed?” is a simple, casual starter. Listen to the lilt of their voice when they answer. If it goes up with a yes – or no – you’re likely in the clear. If it goes down in unmasked disdain, you may want to drop the mostly casual attitude and start the next sentence with, “That’s cool. I myself enjoy it/use it for…” and start an honest discussion.
Hopefully the sparks still sizzle and you’ll have opened up a new realm to the budding relationship. Some people aren’t going to come around though, and pot smoking/vaping/ingesting may be a deal breaker. If so, keep your chin up and smoke a conciliatory jay when you get back home. There are plenty of buds in the field and you can rest easy knowing that you were honest, both to them and to yourself.
The only thing worse than setting up Christmas and holiday decorations is the long and tedious process of tearing them down. It’s understandable then when a lot of people simply throw them in a box and stow them away for an entire year.
Even though that is the easiest and fastest way of getting on with your life, poorly stored decorations only make it that much harder to decorate your place when the holiday season returns 12 months later. Here are the five most useful things you can do when it comes to packing up Christmas:
If you’re not the type of person who gets creative every time Christmas comes around, take pictures of your holiday decorations and store them away. This will save you some time next year, helping you remember the purpose of each light and decoration. Marking boxes with their contents is also a great way of saving your sanity and tons of time.
Since string lights are the most annoying and problematic Christmas decoration, you can wrap them around large pieces of cardboard. This method will prevent tangles and will also preserve their shape. The pieces of cardboard can also be labeled according to the lights they’re holding, so you’ll have an easier time setting up your decorations and differentiating the lights.
Plastic bags are useful for resistant items like tree bases and lights, allowing you to put each item on a separate bag and avoid getting them all mixed up and tangled. Label each bag with a marker and stow them all away; by the time Christmas comes back next year you’ll only have to open your bag and get to work.
Tree ornaments are very easy to break and dent. For storage purposes, the best thing you can do is buy a large container with separators or make some of these yourself with cardboard, packing the items carefully so that they don’t get damaged. You can also buy fabric boxes to store these items since they’re softer and pretty cheap.
Artificial trees are great but they need to be taken care of if you want to use them several times. Avoid cramming the tree into the original box and buy a tree storage bag or wrap the boughs of the different sections with strong and durable tape. This method will preserve the shape of the tree and will allow you to use it for many years to come.
Working out and improving your fitness are extremely popular goals, especially during the beginning of the year when people are feeling hungover and bloated from holiday indulging. A less popular, but equally important New Year’s resolution — especially one for those who aren’t all that experienced — is strength training. This type of exercises is the one that actually changes and improves the shape of your body.
Unlike jogging or doing some basic cardio, strength training demands that you know what you’re doing in order to see changes and development. Poor strength training could lead to injuries and a lot of pain, so before you do anything you have to do your research. Check out five ways that can help you grow stronger in the New Year:
If you’ve never done strength training before, you need to get to know your options and be clear on your goals. You can use dumbbells, your own body weight, a barbell and more. What’s important is that you start off easy and improve gradually as you grow stronger and are able to do more reps with higher weights. Apps like Nike Training Club and Freelectics are good options, helping you grow stronger, and teaching you basic routines that can fit in to any schedule.
Yoga is the rare activity that develops your muscles and is actually fun. Positions like dolphin pushups and headstands are challenging and take a while to learn, but they’re also extremely helpful when it comes to toning your body. Yoga is a big relaxant and an extremely popular activity, with hundreds of apps and classes available online and on local gyms.
Strength training and lifting weights breaks down your muscles, with protein rebuilding them in size and strength. The more you lift weights and train the more your body will demand protein in order to rebuild and grow stronger, so always remember to consume healthy proteins if you’re looking to improve your body’s results.
Resistance training – the one that strengthens and develops muscles – should be done at least twice a week in order to build muscle, grow stronger and tone your body. The New York Times reports that only 6 percent of adults commit to this standard, avoiding the long term benefits that the practice provides. Someone who does the minimum strength training will have a better metabolism, lower amounts of body fat and more.
Muscle recovery demands protein and a minimum of eight hours of sleep. When you rest, your body releases the human growth hormone, which keeps your stress levels in check and repairs and rebuilds your muscles. According to a study published on the Journal of American Medical Association, sleeping for five hours or less reduces your muscle building testosterone levels by 10 to 15 percent. Get your sleep.
Don’t mess with my Bichon Frise. Always alert, these fluffy clouds of personality are great watchdogs, while also greeting strangers like a friend they have yet to meet. Loving, curious, and cuddly, this breed is truly happy-go-lucky. The Bichon Frise stands under a foot tall, and is known for its white hypoallergenic and plush coats.
Here, we find the five fluffiest, most-loving Bichon Frises of Instagram.
My advice is that if premature ejaculation is due to anxiety and the patient is already an occasional smoker, a low dose of cannabis may help the situation.
Here is our doctor’s take on cannabis to last longer in bed.
All of us in the sexual healthcare profession are asked about premature ejaculation, its causes and treatments. It is an embarrassing topic for many men to address and therefore is not often discussed among friends. Those of us in healthcare are open to discussions, but we have not had major improvements in our treatments for many years.
Premature ejaculation may be underreported, but estimates of those who are affected range up to 30 percent. Basically, this means that men experience an ejaculation within a minute of penetration, ejaculate prior to penetration or they are unable to delay ejaculation some or all of the time.
Most commonly, I have seen this in men early in their sexual experience or with anxiety, intermittent sexual experiences or erectile dysfunction. There are other less common causes, however.
As a urologist, I have taught men and partners the “squeeze technique” to delay orgasm. This is done by squeezing behind the head of the penis during foreplay to decrease sensation and reset the orgasmic pattern over time. This requires time, work and, if another is involved, a committed partner.
We have also used local anesthetics (which can have a side effect of being less pleasurable to the partner), condoms to decrease sensation, and antidepressants (which can also have a side effect of a decreased libido).
So a question remains: Will consuming cannabis help delay orgasm?
This is a very intriguing question with very little reported data. A landline telephone study of the ages 16-64 was done at La Trobe in Australia in 2009 and reported in The Journal of Sexual Medicine. The findings were very interesting. There were 126 people using cannabis daily. It was found that in this group men were four times more likely to have difficulties reaching orgasm, but also were 3 times more likely to have premature ejaculation. These results certainly make it difficult to decide if cannabis will improve a romp in bed.
One of the weaknesses of the study has to do with the fact that only landlines were used. Could this be a different population than what we would see in cell phone users?So the jury is still out as to whether or not a specialist in sexual medicine should recommend or discourage cannabis for ejaculatory issues in men.
My advice is that if premature ejaculation is due to anxiety and the patient is already an occasional smoker, a low dose of cannabis which can alleviate anxiety may help the situation. A higher dose may have the effect of causing impotency or difficulty in reaching an orgasm.
All of this is very user-dependent and may require trial and error which can be very satisfying or very frustrating for one or two people. Hopefully our doctor’s take on cannabis to last longer in bed if helpful.
This Week’s Music is a weekly column that discusses the weeks’ best, worst, and most interesting songs. We try to select songs of different artists and genres to keep things interesting and to please a variety of music fans.
This week’s column features Beabadoobee’s romantic and sweet song, Justice’s wild new anthem and music video, and Lil Xan’s latest mopey single. Check them out!
Indie
Beabadoobee – Dance With Me
Baebadoobee has a small but powerful following and once you listen to her music you understand why. Her dreamy voice and songs are just the right amount of quiet and thoughtful. “Dance With Me” is a deceptively simple song, lovely, youthful and awkward in the best possible way, managing to strike the perfect balance between theme, lyrics and melody. With only 18 years old Baebadoobee (say that three times fast) is bound to become one of the most inspiring and cool artists of her age and genre.
Justice’s latest single is a good time, like an angrier version of Daft Punk, at least for the first minute before the song starts to drag. The band is made up of french DJs Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay and both have acquired a lot of critical acclaim, especially with their last album which nabbed a Grammy nomination. Justice’s latest music video features the 220 band members of Norfolk State University and blends the original recording of the song with an instrumental performance of the band, resulting in a surreal experience that’s fun and slightly disturbing. Is this party music? I really don’t know.
Rap
Lil Xan – Watch Me Fall
Known as Miley Cyrus’ little sister’s ex-boyfriend, Lil Xan is a 22 year old rapper who’s collaborated with some famous people and who even had a song on the Billboard charts. I don’t know much about him or his music, and his latest single doesn’t give you much of a glimpse inside his mind, or at least it doesn’t show off anything interesting. “Watch Me Fall” is a mopey and whiny song that manages to drag despite the fact that it only lasts three minutes. There’s not a lot of text or subtext; the one highlight is the music video, which is hilariously emo and embarrassing.
The Emerson Resort in the Catskill Mountains in New York found that adding CBD treatments to the spa menu was a big hit. The retail products sold out in the first week and the massage customers are booking repeat visits after their first ever CBD treatments.
There are well over 1,000 strains of cannabis out there to choose from, and there are obvious standouts, favorites and competition winners. There are also new combos that will light up 2019 with heady highs, body highs and all around highs. These 5 contenders are sure to enhance the New Year and get things off to a proper start.
This indica works wonders for medical users, as it comes on fast and heavy and packs a serious medicinal punch. Averaging around 29 percent THC, from pain relief to appetite stimulation to the slowing down of racing thoughts, Kosher Kush is a literal winner, having taken home three Cups already in the indica category. Do you have a busy year ahead? This is the one to soothe those nerves at the end of a long day.
This purple indica named for the famous Grateful Dead song is a little lower in THC, but is still an indica to write home about. Dark Star is a pure hybrid of Purple Kush and Mazar-I-Sharrif and is extremely aromatic. With a blackberry finish, these dense nugs are sure to delight and almost act as a dessert. They’ll have you going back for dessert at least, as this is most certainly a munchie strain.
This classic hybrid was touted by renowned activist Jack Herer himself. A great daytime strain for its sativa dominance, this cultivar will never go out of style, much like the memory of the man who believed that hemp and cannabis are the keys to healing our world, from environmental issues to pampering our bodies. If you haven’t read Jack’s tome on cannabis and hemp, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, it’s available for free at jackherer.com. (To learn is another great way to kick off a new year…)
Better than the endless mimosas served at brunch, this fantastic hybrid mixes the sativa Clementine with the indica Purple Punch. Bred by Symbiotic Genetics, the fruity, citrusy under and overtones make this a delicious choice for day or evening use. It’s not a heavy or overly heady high, but is effective and uplifting to a tee.
This sativa heavy strain by Rare Dankness clocks in at around 25 percent THC. It’s won multiple awards from different venues and is lauded for its strength. With notes of citrus and pine, you know the terpenes are working overtime to enhance your experience. If you’re not a heavy imbiber, go slow with this one. It’s so strong that it’s on the edge of psychedelic when smoking a bowl to one’s head, taking that third big dab or having an infusion binge…
