Beth Skwarecki

Pittsburgh

Senior Health Editor at Lifehacker

Moved to bluesky: https://t.co/8U5SFTDoUb 510 lb Dinnie lift. She/her

Articles

What We Know About RFK’s Announcement to Reduce Access to the COVID Vaccine

1 week ago | au.lifehacker.com | Beth Skwarecki

If you wanted to get a COVID vaccine during pregnancy, to protect yourself and your future baby from the virus, that may soon be difficult to impossible. According to ashort video posted on X, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who is also a noted anti-vaccine activist, said that the COVID-19 vaccine “has been removed” from the list of vaccines recommended in pregnancy, as well as the list of vaccines recommended for healthy children.
Garmin’s New Trail Finder Sounds Good, but It Doesn’t Have My Favorite Trails

2 weeks ago | au.lifehacker.com | Beth Skwarecki

Garmin has launched a new feature in its Connect app (the companion app you use when you sync your watch to your phone). It’s called Garmin Trails, and it purports to help you find hiking trails near you. With a Connect+ subscription, you can even sync courses for those trails to your map-enabled watch. It sounds pretty great. Unfortunately, its selection of trails is pretty disappointing at launch—it doesn't even suggest I try out my own favorite trails.
Garmin’s New Trail Finder Sounds Good, but It Doesn’t Have My Favorite Trails

2 weeks ago | flipboard.com | Beth Skwarecki

3 hours agoSave on every type of outdoor gear from socks and jackets and running shoes to backpacks and mountain bikes. It’s REI’s anniversary, and the company is celebrating with its biggest sale of the year. As a result, many of our favorite outdoor gear products are deeply discounted at prices you’d only …
How the FDA Might Make It Harder to Get COVID Shots This Year

2 weeks ago | au.lifehacker.com | Beth Skwarecki

The U.S. government has not yet made its official recommendations for who should be able to get COVID booster shots this fall, but FDA officials published a policy position in the New England Journal of Medicine announcing that it intends to make some drastic policy changes. The changes could result in healthy people under age 65 losing access to COVID vaccines, according to vaccine experts who have spoken about the policies.
A Garmin Update Just Added a Weighted Rucking Setting to These Watches

2 weeks ago | au.lifehacker.com | Beth Skwarecki

A new update to Garmin watches brings a rucking activity, with a pack weight setting, to the Instinct 3 (both regular and Tactical), the Fenix 8 series, and the Enduro 3. Rucking is also available at launch for the new Forerunners, the 570 and the 970. The same software update also brings breathing variation detection to a wide variety of watches, including Vivoactive, Venu, Lily, and Forerunner models.
The Best Deals on Fitness Trackers and Smartwatches I’ve Found in Amazon’s Memorial Day Sale

2 weeks ago | lifehacker.com | Beth Skwarecki

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Credit: Garmin/Google/Suunto Amazon’s Memorial Day Sale is already happening, and plenty of fitness trackers and smartwatches are on sale. This event intersects with some recent Garmin price drops, too, making it a really good time to shop for a new watch. Here are the best deals I’m seeing.
Try ‘Japanese Walking’ If You Hate Running

2 weeks ago | au.lifehacker.com | Beth Skwarecki

If you find running intimidating, know that there is another way to get some fresh air while doing a reasonably intense workout. It’s called interval walking training (IWT), or sometimes "Japanese walking" or "3x3 walking." It’s a form of HIIT, but it won’t end in you collapsing on the floor, hating your life. Here’s how to do it.
Oura’s Activity Tracking Is About to Get a Lot Better

2 weeks ago | au.lifehacker.com | Beth Skwarecki

The Oura ring is great at tracking sleep and keeping tabs on your healthy habits, but as I noted in my review of the Oura ring 4, it’s really not great at activity tracking. That may be changing with a rollout of new activity-tracking features that the company has announced today. These still aren't enough to replace, say, a proper sports watch, but they do look like a significant improvement on Oura’s previous abilities.
23andMe Found a Buyer for Our Genetic Data, and I’m Kind of Optimistic

2 weeks ago | au.lifehacker.com | Beth Skwarecki

The last time we talked about 23andMe’s bankruptcy sale, we suggested you might want to delete your genetic data from the site, since we didn’t know who would end up owning it. Now, a buyer has been announced, and they’re promising to “prioritize the privacy, security and ethical use” of customer data and to keep offering the company’s services uninterrupted. This is all—probably—good news. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic, anyway.
These Older Fitness Watches Are the Best Value Garmins, and They’re Always on Sale

2 weeks ago | au.lifehacker.com | Beth Skwarecki

If you're looking for a Garmin watch at a great price, the recent drops of the Forerunner 570 and 970 is excellent news—not because you should pick up those models (they're fine, I guess) but because the older generations of Forerunner, which remain excellent watches, are now going for ludicrously low prices.