Liz Baker Plosser 🤸‍♀️

is the former Editor-in-Chief of Women’s Health, the founder of health and wellness Substack, , and the author of Own Your Morning. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, three kids, and very sweet Bernese mountain dog. Liz is also a NASM-certified trainer, and she hosts the YouTube show Lifting With Liz and writes for outlets like The New York Times and GQ. On top of all of this, she now leads retreats, moderates panels, makes regular cameos on morning television, advises wellness brands like Canyon Ranch and Sportiv, and—very excitingly—is currently training to become a sauna master. What doesn’t Liz do, is the question on everyone’s mind. I can’t say we’re going to find the answer today, but at least we can look inside of her fridge.

What is your fridge philosophy? 

Nothing gets wasted…sometimes to the dismay of my three children who are 15, 15, and 11. We're a leftovers family, so the fridge is full of containers—homemade pasta sauce, stews, fajita fixings—and I love re-imagining Tuesday's dinner into Thursday's lunch. A fridge that makes you stand there feeling confused at 6 p.m. has failed at its one job.

Your fridge is always always always stocked with ____.

Tons of whole milk (I have three growing children!), dozens of hot sauces, and pickles. There’s always ice cream in the freezer, too.

Top 5 condiment picks, go.

1. Ketchup! Fries are just a vehicle for it. I even put it on my eggs like my grandpa taught me to when I was a kid. (I know.)

2. Hot sauce. My husband Matt converted me into a spice lover in college.

3. Greek yogurt. I basically turn it into every condiment: mayo stand-in, sour cream for soup and nachos, crudité dip with herbs and spices. It also goes into my overnight oats.

4. Honey. I’ll put it on my overnight oats, drip a bit into my smoothie, drizzle on my toast with peanut butter.

5. Mustard. The grittier the grains, the better!

Fine, I’ll open it up to pantry too. Let’s hear your favorite snacks / pantry staples: 

• Dried kiwis and mangos. I nibble on some every day after reporting this piece on digestion.

• Bagged, pre-cooked beans. Pop them in the microwave and add to high-protein wrap. With some of those condiments I just told you about.

• Tortilla chips with salsa or homemade guacamole. And I’m not precious about seed oils. (I said what I said!)

• Pickles. I love them. I went through a pickling phase during the early months of the pandemic—I know, such a trope; Matt got into sourdough too—and I miss it. Maybe this fall?

A meal that’s on heavy rotation these days:

We do pizza night as a family most Friday evenings. I make the dough that afternoon and let it rise while I finish up work. My husband Matt and I debate the toppings over text. And then he puts it all together when he gets home, while I sous chef up a salad with homemade dressing.

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Let’s go a little deeper… 

What’s the mantra you keep coming back to?

After many years of ‘Let’s make better mistakes tomorrow,’ I have a new north star for 2026: ‘Is there a softer, gentler way?’

I’m not kidding myself about the long nights, 3 a.m. wake-ups, deadlines, or the 14 trips I’ve taken this year. I’m grateful for the opportunities, and my life isn’t suddenly becoming less full. But I’m getting better at taking a beat before I say yes—and, when I do say yes, asking whether I really have to take the hardest possible route there. I say this as someone with an extremely high pain threshold, figuratively and literally. My therapist might even say I’m borderline “masochistic.” I’m 47 years old and I’ll always be working on it!

What products / practices are part of your regular mental wellness habits? 

Contrast therapy is huge in my life; I live in Park Slope and regularly hit the new Bathhouse location on Atlantic Ave. My body and brain know when it’s been more than 72 hours since I got myself into a very hot sauna, so I do it whenever I can.

Speaking of, I discovered the Herbivore line at Lore—thanks to you, Katie!—and invested in the body oils. I love putting one on after I shower, and my skin is so much better hydrated. Plus, they smell amazing.

And your physical?

My morning workouts are essential to my mental and emotional health. I love to lift heavy. Even my kids will clock it if I’m dysregulated and ask, “Mama, did you work out today?” Give me awesome music, a heavy kettlebell, and some dancing between sets and I’m not just “good,” I’m fully lit up.

What do think is the most underrated part of wellness? 

That it gives you somewhere to feel things. Like, really feel them, without numbing the discomfort with scrolling or shopping or [insert your version here]. A big part of my inner work is metabolizing emotions and interrogating wonky dynamics in my life. Workouts help. Sauna sessions help. My weekly therapy sessions have helped me beyond measure.

I also don’t think we talk about the community aspect of wellness enough. When you get to connect with other people who are curious about well-being, it unlocks whole new worlds (and friendships!). I’m training to become a sauna master and learning the German aufguss ritual—moving heat through a sauna with towel choreography, set to music and with essential oils, 12 to 15 minutes of theater and bliss—and developing friendships in the community of sauna enthusiasts and bathhouse founders has been one of the best surprises of my year.

And overrated?

Optimizing and biohacking everything. I am curious about all of the “wellness things,” from peptides to NAD+ to health tech. But in my heart of hearts, I believe deeply in the five pillars of well-being: movement, nourishing food, connection, stress management, and prioritizing sleep. The basics aren’t that buzzy and they don’t promise a magic result in two weeks, but they definitively work.

Picture this: you wake up one morning and feel like shit. What’s your next move: 

I stopped drinking about seven years ago, so at least I’ve eliminated one major category of feeling-like-shit mornings. But mobility work in my living room followed by a very hot shower help. So does a nap, if possible. And I live by what I’ve dubbed “the four-minute rule,” especially for fitness. Even when I really, really, really don’t wanna, I put on my workout clothes and get myself to my YMCA. I tell myself if I still feel like shit after four minutes, then I can go home. I don’t think I’ve ever bailed, and I’ve never, ever regretted a workout.

One other thing I keep in mind: 100% of whatever you’ve got. That changes day to day based on hormone fluctuations, sleep quality, stress levels…so I don’t overthink if the barbell feels heavier today than it did yesterday.

Give us your ride or die wellness products:

• Essential amino acids and creatine mixed into a big glass of water every morning. They’ve made a noticeable difference in my strength and recovery. Put another way, and it’s no exaggeration? Paired with lifting weights 4–5 times a week and a high-protein diet, they’ve legitimately changed my body.

• Aesop everything. I’m obsessed with the scents ever since I discovered the brand at Dunton Hot Springs in 2018.

• Ouai hair oil. I put a tiny bit on my palms with hot water, post-sauna, then pull it through my hair. The way it dries is so good…I’ve had people ask me where I got the blowout.

One thing you do everyday that makes you the most YOU version of yourself: 

My mini yoga and mobility routine, as soon as possible after waking up. It’s a gentle way to wake up my muscles. This began back in 2020 after I broke my sacrum while skiing. Now, I can’t imagine starting my day without a supine twist. It helps that my Bernese mountain dog, Willa, tucks herself next to me. Cuddling her whooshes me into a parasympathetic state. I’m also really into scent and music.

Whose taste inspires you?! 

I’m such a denim girl—I basically live in jeans and jean shorts now that I work from home and for myself—so I have a huge crush on ’s Substack.

I devour Courtney Wittich’s dispatches on bathing from around the world and always come away with a new body spray, oil, or non-alc beverage to try. Your wellness experiments get me too, Katie!

For workout clothes, is my muse. Lately, though, my algorithm is mostly serving me hiking content—Dolomites, Banff, you get it—which has been a refreshing break from style. Though apparently not a complete break: I’ve been inspired to show more personality on the trail with bandanas, wrap-around sunnies, and Free People Movement track pants.

The biggest thank you to for sharing her light + life with us. You can follow her on Instagram, read her Substack, and find her fridge favorites + more here.

Feel free to leave a comment or respond to this email with questions you want asked, people you want featured, or anything else that’s on your mind. Don’t be shy, I love hearing from you.

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Truth be told, we can do all the reading we want about peptides—you should start with this huge glossary that was painstakingly crafted by a very diligent writer—but we’ll never know the actual experience of using them until, well, we do. Part of me wanted to try out every peptide that was reasonably accessible and report back my findings to you, but that might be taking my whole gonzo journalism schtick just a tad too far. Plus, I finally got my medication and supplement protocol in a good place per my bloodwork results, so I’m not trying to risk messing that all up.

So, we’re going to have to resort to the next best thing: hearing from people who are currently using and have previously used peptides for a variety of reasons to get firsthand perspectives on the matter. This is probably more journalistically sound, anyway, given that every person responds uniquely to different variables and n=1 (me) would be a rather… narrow experiment. Let’s go.

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Health Strategist at Chenessa, Writer of

What peptides are you taking?

Currently I’m on a short course of BPC-157 and TB-500 for a soft tissue injury and a topical GHK-Cu foam for hair growth. I also cycle a microdose of tirzepatide every few months to support glucose metabolism.

What are you hoping to get out of them? What have your results been?

I use peptide therapy as adjunct tools. They are signaling compounds that, I like to say, “help the body return to its former glory,” on a cellular level, that is. My results have been strong—faster injury rehabilitation, accelerated hair regrowth, improved insulin sensitivity, and body recomposition (simultaneous muscle gain and fat loss). The important caveat is that my peptide protocols are a small part of my overall wellness. They are layered over a healthy foundation (diet, movement, sleep) to drive precise results.

How did you decide to start taking them, and where did you source them from?

As a former wellness CMO, my job was to research growing trends and test new interventions, so peptides were on my radar back in 2020. They weren’t being prescribed for menopause related issues yet. Hormonal decline causes increased inflammation and metabolic dysfunction so when I started experiencing perimenopausal symptoms like a frozen shoulder and increased blood sugar in my 40s, it made sense to add peptides to my protocol.

Back then, I sourced from a reputable online supplier recommended by a performance physician. The landscape has since exploded, and quality control is now a serious problem. I strongly recommend working with a peptide-trained clinician who takes a full health history and labs before you start (plus body composition metrics if you’re on a GLP-1). Peptides should be sourced from a 503B facility or 503A compounding pharmacy like the one telemedicine provider, JOI+Blokes owns and operates.

Ken Lau

Investor

What peptides are you taking?

Microdosing tirzepatide, KLOW protocol (KPV, BPC-157, TB-500, GHK-Cu)

What are you hoping to get out of them, and what have your results been?

I started because I have had chronic inflammation in my joints for the last 5 years and no natural product has worked for me. The peptides have lowered the pain substantially and episodes of inflammation are less frequent, and I lost 5 pounds in 2 months.

How did you decide to start taking them / how did you go about sourcing them?

I started taking them when I had severe inflammation episodes and the rheumatologists were useless in helping diagnose and prescribe medication for me. I sourced them from a former venture partner who started a peptide concierge business.

Cosmetic Product Developer, Creator of

What peptides are you taking?

I’m taking GHK-Cu for skin but I think I’m going to phase out because I’m not convinced it’s actually done much for me at all; BPC-157 (oral) for gut health/healing and then I injected it for a month for knee pain and it really helped; NAD+ for cognition/energy and love it.

I microdosed tirzepatide for 2 months last year for “neuroinflammation” and totally think it’s a miracle drug—my knees stopped hurting and my brain felt clear. It was a tiny amount and, all in, I prob lost 4 pounds as a result. I stopped taking it because I didn’t want to lose any weight, but I would prob cycle on/off it for a month at a time again in the future.

I did Semax/Selank nasal spray for a bit but didn’t think it did anything for me.

Any unexpected side effects...?

None.

How did you decide to start taking them / how did you go about sourcing them?

I started feeling dumb. No other real way to describe it—I started feeling really foggy, forgetful, and just all around braindead. My body was kind of puffy but it wasn’t a weight thing, I just felt inflamed even though I eat pretty well and consider myself healthy. A client of mine in LA recommended me to her functional medicine doctor, who ended up explaining peptides to me (amongst other things), and I started taking them via her a year and a half ago.

Are there any that you want to try next?

I feel pretty good where I am and don’t have any plans to switch it up, but would be open to trying just about anything really.

Kirsten Ludwig

Co-founder of IN GOOD CO and Good Thinking

What peptides are you taking?

GHK-Cu, BPC, KPV, NAD+, and I rotate Ipamorelin, MOTS-c, Tesamorelin, CJC, and 3x year Epitalon.

What are you hoping to get out of them, and what have your results been?

Number one is feeling my best. Number two is looking my best.

Peptides occur naturally in your body and diminish with age. I am simply looking for my body to be operating at its best and do everything I can to support that.

How did you decide to start taking them, and how did you go about sourcing them?

I started taking them when my holistic doctor who I worked with for HRT recommended them, along with my best friend who is super knowledgeable on the body and always the first to know about the latest wellness hack (and I am always the first in line to try it).

Have you experienced any unexpected benefits or side effects?

I for sure feel the best I have in my life (although that is due to a slew of things—self-work, exercise, supplements, what I eat) and peptides being one of them.

Elizabeth Nakamura

Ex-Gallerina

What peptides are you taking?

A humble stack: Selank/Semax and Retatrutide.

What are you hoping to get out of them? What have your results been?

I wanted to lose 10 lbs and lessen my anxiety. I’ve lost 10 lbs and I’m neurotypical now.

How did you decide to start taking them, and where did you source them from?

While going through a bit of a crisis, a friend asked me: “What does a healthy person look like?” Instead of taking that as a critique of wellness culture, the DSM, or consumerism, that wisdom gave me the courage to start injecting myself subcutaneously.

I asked a friend in the Bay Area who’s been a peptide proponent for at least a year; she recommended a website called Peptidology (far less exciting than an anonymous vendor on WeChat…). I visited the clinically designed website, complete with descriptions of different batches and lab testing—all completely falsifiable, of course—and decided to order.

The unconstituted peptides arrived at my door in a hand-sealed FedEx package within a day. Claude was too lawful to help me figure out dosage and reconstitution, so I turned to Grok, YouTube, and Reddit.

Have you experienced any unexpected benefits or side effects?

I feel very little desire. Anhedonia? I think it’s been good for me; I’m speedrunning detachment.

Once I think I dosed myself improperly with something and gave myself Alice in Wonderland syndrome—very disorienting.

Joe Scugoza

Content Creator and Founder of The Peptide Collective

What peptides are you taking?

Right now I’m using Retatrutide, Selank, and Semax.

What are you hoping to get out of them? What have your results been?

I’m taking Reta mainly for appetite control. I’m really into the gym and have always gone through cuts and bulks, but having better appetite control makes dieting take up a lot less mental energy.

I wouldn’t say there’s a direct correlation, but even indirectly I feel like Reta has contributed to me being more successful because it lets me focus more on work and other parts of my life.

How did you decide to start taking them, and where did you source them from?

I’m taking Semax and Selank for focus and calming.

I originally got into peptides after an injury when I decided to try BPC-157. That got me really interested in what peptides are and how they work. From there I started learning more about them and eventually tried Reta for appetite control.

For sourcing, I mainly look for transparency, third-party testing, COAs, and knowing exactly what I’m getting.

Writer of

What peptides have you tried?

I took BPC-157 for my back when I was having disc issues for a couple of months. I probably would’ve kept going but I had TERRIBLE injection site reactions and couldn’t take it anymore.

Whoa tell me more. How did you decide to start taking them and what happened?

The long-story-short of it was that I was having crazy nerve pain in my hips for like, 6 months, which turned out to be a degenerative disc in my back pinching down on the nerves so bad until one day it crescendoed in me not being able to move at all. It was (and kind of still is) an intense rehab process. My husband works with a functional medicine doctor that he refers his athletes to, and he sourced peptides for me from Protide. He actually put me on GLOW which is widely used for skin but has better tissue regeneration properties than just BPC alone (it’s GHK-Cu, BPC-157, and TB-500).

Did you experience any benefits?

It’s hard to say what it did because I’ve never healed an injury like that without it, but I do think it helped. My chiropractor/PT was really stoked I was on it. I kinda wish I could’ve been on them for longer, but I was getting welts that felt like I had been stung by a bee basically every day for 2 months and I had had it.

Lauren Tassi

Creator of the Fertility Girl Gang

What peptides have you tried?

Currently, I’m not taking any because I’m pregnant. But here’s the list of what I took over the course of 6 months to help me conceive. These were cycled on and off, not all taken at the same time.

Tirzepatide, Epitalon, SS-31, MOTS-c, NAD+, Glutathione, Kisspeptin. Also BPC-157, TB500, KPV, and GHK-Cu to help heal a bad ankle injury.

I stopped taking all peptides as soon as I got a positive pregnancy test.

What are you hoping to get out of them, and what have your results been?

To get pregnant…and it worked! I’m in my 2nd trimester after 4 years of infertility and a lot of failed IVF. I chose to focus on improving my egg quality by lowering insulin resistance, improving mitochondrial function, and balancing my hormones.

Peptides were not the only tool I used to help me get pregnant, I also invested in DNA testing to see how my genes and hormones work together. I built a custom supplement stack with that information and also worked with a company to test a stress tracker being studied for fertility.

How did you decide to start taking them / how did you go about sourcing them?

I took a course from Lindsey Strong. I felt confident using her trusted sources based on her research and years of experience. The peptide space is full of bros, and Lindsey’s course is focused on peptides that benefit women the most.

As someone who’s been through a few rounds of IVF, injecting myself was no biggie. In fact, the insulin needles you use for peptides are much smaller and less painful. And peptides actually make you feel good vs. egg freezing and IVF meds, which make you feel like crap.

Have you experienced any unexpected benefits or side effects?

I had more energy, slept better, and my skin was glowing. I miss the way I felt on peptides! I’ll be back after my postpartum period.

BIG thank you to everyone who was so open and generous with their experiences on peptides. I appreciate all of the insights here. If anyone else wants to share, the comments are a certified safe space…

Jessica Menuck 🫧

is a creative strategist and model based in New York. Her work is centered in the culinary space, having been a part of companies like Cherry Bombe and the James Beard Foundation. She’s also the voice behind Baby Binx, a newsletter full of recipes and fanciful gift guides. She’s a (very talented) self-taught home cook, who views food as a way to take care of herself and others—which will be obvious to you very soon.

What is your fridge philosophy? 

I always try to buy whole foods and eat with the seasons (buying locally is a huge plus too).

Your fridge is always always always stocked with ____.

It honestly changes. I go through intense food phases where I’ll crave the same thing for months and then suddenly move on to something completely different.

Some items in my current rotation are: Cocojune yogurt, a variety of vegetables (like leeks, celery, and carrots), and sausage, which is a newer fixation of mine. Ever since I started shopping at Marlow & Daughters, I love grabbing their sausages for an easy dinner or special brunch.

Also always: eggs, arugula, avocado, navel oranges, Honeycrisp apples, and lots of lemon. Never enough lemon.

Top 5 condiment picks, go.

1. Maille Whole Grain Mustard

2. A goooood olive oil

3. Miso paste

4. Toasted sesame oil

5. I love having a homemade herby green sauce in the fridge

Fine, I’ll open it up to pantry too. Let’s hear your favorite snacks / pantry staples: 

Pantry items I love to have on hand for cooking: chicken broth, Rancho Gordo beans, and jasmine rice.

Snack items I love: homemade peanut butter (I honestly have to be careful with this one because I’ll eat it excessively), mixed nuts, cut-up carrot and celery sticks, Bjorn Qorn, Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips (my favorite late night snack to eat out of a bowl with a miniature spoon), and Castelvetrano olives.

A meal that’s on heavy rotation these days:

I’ve been loving ground pork over bone broth rice with a vegetable on the side. I usually make the pork with lots of sautéed leeks and shallots. To make it extra special, I’ll add a soft-boiled egg and avocado. It feels like such a simple, nourishing meal.

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Let’s go a little deeper… 

What’s the mantra you keep coming back to?

Do the best with what’s in front of you.

Shit can get hard, and when it does, it’s frustrating. If you’re anything like me, you’ll spiral and crumble into frustration. I have to stay positive and stay proactive, and sometimes that means taking a step back and adjusting.

What products / practices are part of your regular mental wellness habits? 

I try to practice gratitude and positive thinking everyday. Every morning I write in my journal 3 things I’m grateful for, 3 daily intentions, and 3 things I’m dreaming/manifesting.

And your physical?

I am very disciplined when it comes to physical activity and will always make time to work out. I especially love spring, summer, and fall in New York because I’ll take my Pilates ball, resistance bands, or jump rope to the park and work out outside. I really only work out in a gym when it’s below 45 degrees, otherwise I’m layered up and moving outside. I also love to walk. I religiously hit 10K steps a day, rain or shine. And I try to listen to music really loud and sing out loud to blow off steam.

In terms of beauty, I always wash my face. No exceptions here.

What do think is the most underrated part of wellness? 

Listening to yourself and actually figuring out what your body needs and requires. It’s actually quite hard and taxing to determine this with the extremely loud and disruptive noise the commercial wellness industry stirs up. Simple things like taking a deep breath before a meal, eating in the company of others, and hydrating are key rituals I always come back to.

And overrated?

I have a lot of thoughts here. I actually centered my undergraduate degree around the commercialization of health at NYU’s Gallatin School (major shoutout to Gallatin). Maybe I’ll publish my concentration on Substack one day, because it really gets into the nitty gritty of how I feel.

But for the sake of keeping it simple here, I’ll say fad diets. And the rapid popularization of GLP-1s.

Picture this: you wake up one morning and feel like shit. What’s your next move: 

Listen to Aston Martin Music really loud. And then Ribs.

Give us your ride or die wellness products:

1. Warm water: I always start my day with a large mason jar filled halfway with room temperature water and half way with boiling water.

2. Aloe vera juice: I take a 2oz shot first thing in the morning and right before bed. Keeps me regular and my skin clear.

3. Foam roller: I struggle with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and hyper-mobility. Learning how to work out and properly restore what my body needs has been a journey.

4. Jump rope: My favorite form of cardio. The minute the temperature warms up, I try to jump rope for 10 minutes outside every day.

5. Sofie Pavitt Face Mandelic Acid: I literally don’t think there will be a time where I don’t use this product.

One thing you do everyday that makes you the most YOU version of yourself: 

I try to do some form of workout everyday and cook at least one meal for myself.

Whose taste inspires you?! 

This is so hard! There are so many people. I’ll say my friends Aimee France and Smith really inspire me to cook for myself.

My boyfriend’s mom, Andrea Gentl, is such a legend. I’m constantly learning so many amazing things from her.

Two people who were really foundational in my learning to cook for myself were my close family friend Lilly Jacobson and my old friend Mia Chae. Oh and Hello Kitty. I really love Hello Kitty.

Big thank you to for sharing this taste of her life with us. You can follow her on Instagram, read her Substack, and find her fridge favorites + more here.

Feel free to leave a comment or respond to this email with questions you want asked, people you want featured, or anything else that’s on your mind. Don’t be shy, I love hearing from you.

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For someone who has quite a few opinions on design, I don’t have much technical knowledge (amazing combination to have). Well, that’s a lie, I took an intensive semester of art history in college. Not the point. The point is that a huge element of design is our relationship with it. Our intuition, this intangible compass that points us all in our own directions, is at its strongest when looking at a piece of art. There are, of course, empirical qualities to the objects and designs we feel an aesthetic attraction towards, but it feels more…extraordinary…to believe in an energetic force that’s bringing us closer to what is meant for each of us. You can take the girl out of wellness, etc etc.

Interior design has been a concept I’ve appreciated and admired—from afar—for quite some time. It’s filed under my preferred subsection of art: functional. I think pieces that can be used, whether a chair or a garment, are the highest form of artistry, because the expression of its beauty is enhanced, sometimes even validated, by its utility. Aside from being function-forward, interiors are essential considerations in our overall well-being.

We spend so much time in our homes—especially those of us who also consider it a place of work—and their appearances can have such a strong bearing on our emotional state1. In my past apartment, I’d feel creatively dull after spending a day working from the dark room, staring at my drab, grey W*****r couch, wishing there was more fresh energy, more light. In hindsight, I can see how uncomfortable I felt bringing my friends, new and old, into my home because it felt so unrepresentative of me.

This past winter, I was fortunate to perform the best kind of move (one floor upstairs to a newly renovated unit), and with this forced beginning I was determined (mentally, financially) to make the new space finally feel like an expression of myself. I was even MORE fortunate to have a dear friend who is an interior design expert. Without her, I wouldn’t have understood what a deeply intimate process this creating a living space can be—or the technical and artistic prowess required to do it the right way.

Let me introduce you to my dear friend . She’s a talented interior designer based between New York and Paris, whose work has been featured in Architectural Digest and Domino. She believes that your home should be the most aspirational place in your life, one that inspires you to show up to each day as the highest version of yourself. That said, she’s never equated elegant design with exorbitant price points. In fact, she’s one of the thriftiest, creative shoppers I know, and I love that her work is a mix of fancy statement pieces and Facebook Marketplace steals.

Getting to work with Tenlie taught me so much, both about the art of interiors and the way I inhabit my space, so I figured it would only be right to share some of that with you. My perspective, as you know, is one of a design novice, so my advice will lean slightly more esoteric. Thankfully, Tenlie is here to share more of the practical, actionable tips for living in a space that makes you feel, well, good.

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1. Inconvenience yourself

TM: We live in a world that relentlessly optimizes for convenience, and our homes often reflect that. But I’d encourage you to resist it. Live like it’s 1994! Touch your food, your belongings, your décor with your hands. Get close to the things you own and the things you consume. Make what you can. There is something deeply grounding about a home where you are genuinely in contact with your life — where very little is on autopilot. When you slow down enough to actually inhabit your space, you stop decorating it and start living in it.

2. Make it fit your actual life

KS: Speaking from experience, it is VERY easy to pick out a bunch of pretty items that look like they belong in your Pinterest board, upload them into a rendering of your living room, and assume that it’ll set you on your way to becoming the new you. But the problem with these idealized designs is that they leave very little room for the life you actually live.

For instance, every single room that I was attracted to on the internet was lacking a television. Unfortunately, and I do think interiors without televisions are significantly more elegant, but I need one of those. I like watching dumb YouTube videos on a big screen and tuning into Sunday nights on HBO. Designing a home that I love means designing a home that I will actually use. So if you know that you’ll need a full office setup, just get one. But if you, like me, are okay without a monitor, then you can eschew the whole faux-office corner and work comfortably from your kitchen table.

3. Take one thing off

TM: Coco Chanel famously said to take one thing off before you leave the house. The same is true of a room. More is rarely more. The most common mistake I see is spaces that try to say everything at once. Find your focal point, whether that’s a piece of art, a beautiful sofa, an architectural detail, and let it be the star. Edit ruthlessly around it. The things you remove will do as much work as the things you keep.

4. Your other senses matter, too

KS: Expanding on Tenlie’s earlier point about getting tactile with our belongings, the other four senses are equally integral to our experience in a space. Sight is obvious—that’s why we’re designing this whole thing so thoughtfully—and I’m also going to leave out taste because my furniture is too white. This leaves us with sound and smell, both of which can completely change our states of being, for better of for worse.

On the smell front: including small touches of scent, or the potential for scent, has been such an underrated source of pleasure. Candles are the front runner in this department, and can often provide more than just a soothing aroma. I personally feel a strange sense of accomplishment when I’m able to burn through an entire candle, and I like to try new ones and check them off as if it’s a book on my Goodreads account2. Room sprays are a fabulous alternative for people with pets or babies or prefer a shorter-lived fragrance. They’re also design object unto themselves.

On the sound front: I definitely considered purchasing a set of Sonos speakers off of eBay, but I’m pretty content with the performance from my waterproof portable speaker that looks like it belongs in a frat house. I do, however, have a vinyl record player that anyone who knows the bare minimum about audio equipment would scoff at (my best friend’s ex-boyfriend once called it, and I quote, “pretty shitty”), but I throw something on there when I need to switch things up, aurally. I listen to music pretty much all day, everyday, so keeping that in mind while creating my space was key. Adjacent tip: record jackets make for easily interchangeable art pieces that offer some personal flair.

5. Frame the view

TM: In so many apartments (especially modern/renovated ones) people assume bare windows are a design choice. They’re not. Appropriately sized curtains or shades are what take a room from “done” to finished. The difference is visceral once you see it. To get them right: always hang your rod as close to the ceiling as possible, and size your panels wide enough that when open, they frame the window rather than cover it. As a starting point, each panel should be at least as wide as the window itself.

6. Get the light right

KS: This is not necessarily esoteric as promised, but I prefer practicality anyway. I know myself, and I know that light can completely influence my mental health. I spend an upsetting amount of time in my home/office, so it is mandatory that the lighting situation—ideally natural—is as good as it can get.

Truthfully, the improvements in natural light is the main reason I moved apartments. While I don’t want to complain about the exposed brick in my previous space, I will say that it doesn’t encourage that room-flooding sunshine effect that my favorite AD tours all have in common. At present, my living room has two lighting options: overhead and sconces. Overhead is reserved only for workdays while the sconces (both Tenlie and my favorite up-level for this room) become the primary light source once the sun enters setting territory. I could probably use one more floor lamp by my chair, the apple of my eye, but we’re still working on it (see below).

7. Make bold choices

TM: Your home is a laboratory for self-creation. Unlike most places in your life, the stakes are low. A paint color can be repainted. A chair can be reupholstered. Don't let the fear of getting it wrong keep you in beige. The rooms that feel the most alive are the ones where someone made a decision and committed to it. Take risks here, learn from them, and let those lessons follow you out the door.

8. Leave some wiggle room

KS: I had a really difficult time committing to a fully fleshed out design because I was nervous that everything would repulse me in a matter of a year. The truth is, that may be true, but it’s not worth sacrificing the near term pleasure for a future version of yourself that resents everything you consider cool today. The thing to remember is that not everything has to be permanent. A piece of art hanging on the wall can be swapped out in under 10 minutes. Switching out ceramic accessories can create a whole new mood. Even a couch can be replaced. (I will not be the one physically replacing it, but you know.) There are still little projects I’d like to work on down the line, and I think that’s part of the fun of it. Our inspiration and creative expressions are constantly changing, and that means so should the space that reflects our inner worlds, right?

Thank you for joining us for a special edition of Plant Based with Studiolo. I’m feeling sort of shy now that I just opened up my apartment to the internet. Too late, I guess. I should also plainly state that I think my home and its furniture is a great use of money given the impact it has on my happiness after the sheer amount of hours I spend there. That said, I was not able to take on outside investment so I balanced the big ticket items with majority sale / secondhand / homemade items. I am true to my word after all.

You should follow Tenlie and read her newsletter for more design tips and under-the-radar finds.

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Lynette Nylander 💯✅🇬🇧

is the Executive Digital Director of Harper’s Bazaar, a writer, podcast host, & creative consultant living in New York City, but is, and forever will be, a Londoner. I truly adore Lynette’s writing, and I can’t wait to adore her fridge too.

What is your fridge philosophy? 

Keep it exciting and keep it clean. I don’t get the chance to cook as much as I’d want to but when my fridge is stocked with fun beverages, organic produce and meats (usually from the farmer’s market), and one-off treats, it makes those moments I feel like making a huge spread a lot more appealing.

Your fridge is always always always stocked with ____.

Aspirational drinks. I will try anything from the bodega’s latest and greatest. Cans of Spindrift (lemon preferred). Something & Nothing Orange Mandarin soda, juices from Happier Grocery, Loonen and San Pellegrino sparkling waters, La Colombe cold brew, POUCH drinkable IV (I like the Hydration+ one), Fermensch Kombucha.

Top 5 condiment picks, go.

I hate condiments. I am notoriously known for this. I have an irrational fear of mayonnaise. The thought of ranch breaks me out in hives. My favorite condiments I’m not even sure are condiments. Balsamic vinegar, olive oil. Is soy sauce a condiment? That’s okay. Teriyaki glaze. I don’t mind if things are like a glaze. Is sea salt a condiment? Probably not. Miso?

Fine, I’ll open it up to pantry too. Let’s hear your favorite snacks / pantry staples: 

I don’t really snack, to be honest. It’s my way of keeping shit in check but if I was gonna snack, I like those Flamingo Estate spicy strawberry fruit snacks that are hideously expensive, so I just wait for people to give them to me as gifts. And the Blazing Foods Crack Balls in the 7-Pot Primo Lemon Pepper, XXX hot. Those things are fucked up, but they’re actually good.

A meal that’s on heavy rotation these days:

It depends on how I’m feeling but I make this kind of chicken stock that works as a soup on its own or can be the base of a really good pasta. It uses a mirepoix as its base, so onions, celery, carrot. Then I sauté chicken that’s been seasoned in garlic and thyme and rosemary. Add loads of lemons and soak it with lemon juice. I either add orzo or pasta to it and a bit of spinach, or I cook it a little longer so it gets more brothy and then I make a soup.

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Let’s go a little deeper… 

What’s the mantra you keep coming back to?

What is for you won’t go by you. It really guides me and my principles and how I flow through the day. Another one I’ve been thinking about recently is that you never know what another person has been through. I think we really don’t think about that enough.

What products / practices are part of your regular mental wellness habits? 

Disconnecting. So not speaking to anyone, not looking at a screen. Trying to break through the digital churn that we find ourselves in. I find it really, really hard to meditate, but I would like to do it more. Honestly, I think just going for a walk as a regular mental health wellness habit and getting enough sun. I was told by a wellness doctor recently that my vitamin D levels were shockingly low, so that was a sign that sitting and laying in the sun is important.

And your physical?

I get an incredible sense of pride and accomplishment from making sure my grooming is intact. I don't really know if that makes me sound superficial, but having my nails and making sure my hair is good, my eyebrows. Getting a wax makes me feel like I'm Superwoman, it really does. I think when you look good, you feel good. So I try to make sure these things are done, even though I often never have time for it or sometimes let things lapse. I have this silver face roller, the OG ReFa Carat one from Rescue Spa. For exercise, I have weights and a mat, and I’ll just do stuff at home. I downloaded that app, Ladder, but I’m still figuring out what programs I like.

What do think is the most underrated part of wellness? and overrated?

Wellness, definitely in New York, is so incredibly commodified. It scares people because you think you need a bunch of money to shop at Meadow Lane or that you need a bunch of fancy fitness classes or you need to go to the Alo Gym. You don’t need any of those things.

Also, I think wellness is kind of subjective. Of course, there’s some markers of being actually healthy, but you should do what’s right for you. And that shouldn’t be predicated on money.

Picture this: you wake up one morning and feel like shit. What’s your next move: 

If it’s alcohol induced, no matter how bad I feel, I drag myself to the shower. That terrible feeling will be at least, I would say, a third of the way gone after taking a warm, clarifying shower. Then I eat something immediately. I normally get a spicy bowl of pho and a salty Vietnamese lemonade, and that normally boots it. Then the rest is just sleeping it off. If it’s not hung over induced, then my next move…to be honest, I probably just go right back to bed. I’m sorry but sleep is the biggest healer.

Give us your ride or die wellness products:

A really good Genmaicha tea from Ogata in Paris. I have recently started taking an all around multi-vitamin and I like that additional support. I love fresh lavender—I used to put that in my pillows, and in my underwear drawer. And herbs. I find a lot of medicinal things tend to work. I like eucalyptus, so taking eucalyptus showers and sniffing eucalyptus vapour when I don’t feel well, especially in the wintertime.

One thing you do everyday that makes you the most YOU version of yourself: 

It’s always my shower in the morning. I like my getting ready routine: I listen to a podcast while I shower, or I listen to music, and that time is the calm before the storm. It’s when I really have time to actually tap in and mentally prepare for the day. I make it my business to have a nice routine, use a nice body oil, etc. I like the L’Occitane Almond Shower Oil and the 39BC Fig Milk Oil Cleanser. I love candles—burning candles really makes me feel like myself.

Whose taste inspires you?! 

All of my friends. The socialite, Jacqueline de Ribes. Sofia Coppola, Anna Sui, Kelis, Betty Davis, Nina Simone.

lynettesaid

I Dress Boring, I Only Have Good Accessories

I got you with the HED, didn’t I? Well now you’re here, welcome to another week on lynettesaid. This week I’ve been thinking about my foray into Substack—what I have to say and what would make this worth your time and attention amidst all the writers, thinkers and style set that dominate Substack (BTW: I’ve so enjoyed deep-diving on Substack of late and…

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5 months ago · 264 likes · 21 comments · Lynette Nylander

Big thank you to for sharing this glimpse into her very glamorous life with us. You can follow her on Instagram, listen to her on Harper’s Bazaar’s podcast, The Good Buy, and read her Substack, . Find her fridge favorites + more here.

Feel free to leave a comment or respond to this email with questions you want asked, people you want featured, or anything else that’s on your mind. Don’t be shy, I love hearing from you.

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I am once again telling you how much I adore the sauna. Surprise, surprise. The beautiful interiors, the physical and mental catharsis that comes with sweating and plunging, the mandatory disconnection with the outside world—all reasons I’ve repeated on record too many times.

One thing I haven’t touched on, though, is how unique the experience of a sauna can be for each person, each time they arrive. It’s both deeply personal and undeniably communal; the sauna is meant for connection with ourselves and with those around us.

I find it fascinating how some of us are more drawn to pre-programmed, social-first classes, while others prefer to slip in and out of their neighborhood spot almost anonymously. With almost endless options thanks to the Great Bathing Boom we find ourselves in—especially in its epicenter, New York—the sauna-curious are able to explore the different formats, levels of privacy, and temperatures available to us across the city.

Which spaces resonate with us, where do we feel most comfortable, and what style of sweating is right for us are all deeply intuitive questions that I, for one, am enthusiastic about answering. As a self-appointed sauna critic (side note: if any major publication is looking to add one to their roster of columnists, feel free to bang my line), I’ve sweated all over this great city, judging the quality of wood and the hand soap in bathrooms like I’m being paid to do it, when, in fact, the opposite is always the case. I never mind. Because you see, the thing about trying new saunas is that, unlike workout classes or expensive meals (two of my other amateur critic jobs) that can leave you feeling disappointed at the end, you’ll never feel like you wasted time or money at the sauna. The physical benefits are invariable; releasing your stress through sweat—even in a sauna that could stand to be a few degrees hotter—is always an intimate, and always worth it. And it always feels good to come back home.

I’m quite lucky to live just a short walk away from Lore, Noho’s finest bathing club, which has become a staple in my weekly wellness routine. I can bring my magazine, a friend, or strike up a conversation with someone sweating nearby, depending on the day’s mental state. My favorite products are there—a small gesture that makes the place feel both familiar and luxurious—and I know I’m in the company of others who feel the same way.

Well how, exactly, do I know this? I don’t, it’s just a feeling. A feeling that I’m going to validate by speaking to my fellow bathers to learn about how they got into sweating in public, what individual rituals they’ve created for themselves, and what their time spent in the bathhouse means to them. Let’s get into it.

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Allegra Lorenzotti

Brand Director at Ash Hotels

Tell us about your relationship to the sauna. What inspired you to try it, and what keeps you coming back?

The sauna is my moment in the day to go inward—to repair, to detox, to reduce my inflammation, and help my body heal. As someone with an autoimmune condition, I started saunaing as a way to counteract my inflammation, and I quickly realized how much relaxation and presence I felt in the heat.

It’s become truly ingrained in my weekly routine—when I’m not saunaing regularly, I feel an acute difference in both my body and my mind. After a workout, after work, early in the morning to start the day—it keeps everything moving and regulated, and gives me a moment to unwind.

What’s been fun with Lore is that, as much as I love coming alone, I also love bringing a friend. Catching up over a sweat and a plunge instead of a drink is such a nice way to find time to be social without the scheduling fatigue.

Walk us through your hot, cold, or hot and cold routine. How often are you coming, for how long, etc.?

I try to come 3x a week—once in the evening after work (usually a Monday), once after a very early weekday morning workout to maximize my recovery, and once on a Saturday or Sunday to unwind. I normally start with 15 minutes in the dry sauna followed by 2 minutes in the plunge (and please don’t forget to shower!), and then cycle through that two more times. If there’s an aufguss session, I’ll do that. Some days I have 60 minutes, other days I have 30—but I always fit in at least one cycle when I’m there.

What’s one thing that takes your sauna experience to the next level?

Minerals in my water—I love Trace drops. I also tried the Corpse Reviver sold in the upstairs fridge and really enjoy how refreshing it is post-sauna (petition for them to change the name). My experience is especially elevated when I’ve timed it just right and it’s not too crowded—that’s one of the things I initially was super drawn to at Lore, how intimate it is.

Lore Bathing Club

Aufguss

Before wellness was trending…

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7 months ago · 8 likes · 2 comments · Lore Bathing Club

Anaïs Cooper-Hackman

Programming and Partnerships Director, RAY

Tell us about your relationship to the sauna. What inspired you to try it, and what keeps you coming back?

I’ve always been incredibly averse to cold water: the initial shock, the sore joints and contracting muscles. But that’s the poetic part of the sauna-cold plunge circuit: the extreme of one experience turns the opposite into a balm, unlocking an ecstatic equilibrium.

Walk us through your hot, cold, or hot and cold routine. How often are you coming, for how long, etc.?

Ok, so, the first thing I do during my weekly trip to Lore is hit the infrared sauna. I spend time stretching, sitting quietly, observing what my fellow sauna-goers are reading at the moment. It takes about half an hour before I really start to sweat, and then I head upstairs, guided by wafting copal incense (my favorite scent!). I rinse off and then head into the sauna, ideally for an aufguss. Then it’s 90 seconds in the cold plunge up to my neck (I time it on the clock, closing my eyes, and opening one to peek at my progress every 10 seconds or so as I focus on relaxing each muscle) and then back to the sauna for anywhere from 5-15 minutes. Repeat!

What’s one thing that takes your sauna experience to the next level?

Post-Lore pierogies, black tea, and Ukrainian borscht at the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant on 2nd Avenue, hair still damp from the post-sauna shower.

Hugo Mendoza

Brand Director at Awake NY

Tell us about your relationship to the sauna. What inspired you to try it, and what keeps you coming back?

For me it’s simple. It makes me feel better, lighter. I’ve been going to saunas since I was in my early 20s. I’m 33 now. I can’t really pinpoint a specific thing that made me wanna try it. I like the feeling of sitting in the heat and knowing that the day’s stress is washing away one sweat drop at a time.

Walk us through your hot, cold, or hot and cold routine. How often are you coming, for how long, etc.?

I try to come in as much as possible. Some weeks I do five or six days straight. I like to start in the infrared sauna and stretch a bit. Then I rinse off and head for the cold plunge. I spend two to three minutes in there. Then I head for the big sauna for 15 minutes. I make sure I always end my session with cold plunge, especially in these hot summer days.

What’s one thing that takes your sauna experience to the next level?

For me it’s most definitely the aufguss ritual. There is no better feeling than when that hot air hits your body. I can’t explain—you just have to experience it for yourself. The mixture of the essential oils and the music with the hot air is quite euphoric.

That is all for this special edition of Plant Based, in partnership with my friends at Lore. If you have a special sauna ritual of your own, we’d love nothing more than to hear it.

Sue Chan 😇

Sue Chan is a New York-based connector, natural-born host, and community builder. She’s the founder of Care of Chan, a hospitality-driven experiential marketing agency known for creating visually magnificent parties and delicious meals for clients like J.Crew, A24, The New York Times and more. Perhaps it’s the former athlete in her, she says, but she approaches everything with a competitive spirit and an unwavering commitment to excellence, always striving to be the best at whatever she sets her mind to. So it only makes sense that her Substack, Ready to Host, is a pleasure to read and her home cooking game is next level…

What is your fridge philosophy? 

Oh golly, I’m almost embarrassed to admit that while I can cook—and, if I may say so myself, I’m actually pretty good at it—my fridge is usually filled with little more than condiments and beverages. I’m out a lot for work, dinners with friends, or traveling, so there isn’t much opportunity to keep it stocked. I will say my condiment collection is pretty darn dope, as it’s one of my favorite things to bring back from my travels. That and housewares.

That said, when I am home for a longer stretch, I usually stock my fridge with produce from the Union Square Greenmarket, just a few blocks away, and staples from Eataly. I’d say I value craft, quality, and simplicity when it comes to what’s in my fridge. I gravitate toward recipes with just a few ingredients—but really, really good ones—or prepared foods made by the best. After all, why make my own pasta when the fresh pasta at Eataly is pretty darn good?

Your fridge is always always always stocked with ____.

• A variety of kimchis and pickled things

• Vichy Sparkling Water

• Siggi’s Coconut Yogurt

• Farm fresh eggs from the farmers market

• Sprouted Spelt from She Wolf Bakery

• Avocados

• Persian cucumbers

Top 5 condiment picks, go.

1. Flor de Sal Sea Salt by Sal de Menorca

2. Shichimi Togarashi

3. Crystal Hot Sauce

4. Yuzu Kosho

5. Hawthorne Foods Kimchi

6. Churned Salted Butter by Bordier

(sorry, that was 6!)

Fine, I’ll open it up to pantry too. Let’s hear your favorite snacks / pantry staples: 

Dried mangos, roasted unsalted almonds, dark chocolate bars, Bjorn Qorn popcorn, chickpeas, anchovies, really good rice, lentils, sour gummy candy.

A meal that’s on heavy rotation these days:

I love doing food prep on Sunday nights. It’s how I prepare for the week, and it keeps the Sunday Scaries at bay. Since I eat out most evenings, I try to bring my lunch to work whenever I can.

My go-to meal prep is a DIY grain bowl setup. I stock the fridge with different kinds of kimchi and pickled vegetables, roast a chicken or tofu, soft-boil a few eggs, make a couple of simple vegetable sides like cucumber salad, slaw, or roasted vegetables, and cook a few grains such as brown rice, farro, or quinoa. If I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll also whip up a couple of dressings, usually a carrot ginger or green goddess.

When lunch or dinner rolls around, I can mix and match everything depending on what I’m craving that day. It keeps meals interesting, minimizes waste, and makes healthy eating feel effortless.

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Let’s go a little deeper… 

What’s the mantra you keep coming back to?

Never waste a meal. I care about what I put into my body, not only for health reasons, but because it’s more sustainable and, frankly, much tastier.

What products / practices are part of your regular mental wellness habits? 

When I do have time to cook, it’s one of the most meditative things I do. The same goes for playing tennis. Both activities get me into a true flow state.

I’m also a big believer in taking one solo vacation a year and treating myself to the occasional meal alone at the bar with a good book. Learning to enjoy my own company has been one of the best things I’ve done for my happiness.

And your physical?

I was an intense tennis player as a kid—tournaments, daily training, ranked in Southern California, the whole thing—so I burned out on intense training at a pretty young age. These days, I believe in building movement into my day rather than relying solely on workouts: walking everywhere, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and riding Citi Bikes whenever I can.

My favorite Pilates class is with my friend Kayla Principato, and I recently started strength training at The Fort, thanks to my friend Christina. Beyond that, I’m big on drinking lots of water, keeping alcohol to a minimum, and avoiding processed foods. I should probably learn to sleep more, but there’s just too much life to enjoy to go to bed early.

I also love taking Epsom salt baths, which I try to do about once a week, along with a face mask or skincare routine a couple of times a week. And after a long stretch of events, I pretty much need a massage and a trip to the spa about once a month.

What do think is the most underrated part of wellness? 

Drinking water, eating well, getting enough sleep, sunscreen. And operating with integrity.

And overrated?

Botox.

Picture this: you wake up one morning and feel like shit. What’s your next move: 

Sleep in. While I have a hard time getting to bed because I’m such a night owl, I’m actually a great sleeper and love sleeping in. It’s probably the laziest thing about me—and one of my favorite indulgences.

Give us your ride or die wellness products:

Eating the rainbow. I try to always eat the most colorful foods possible!

One thing you do everyday that makes you the most YOU version of yourself: 

I love exploring new things and also building things. Being curious and growing really makes me feel good.

Whose taste inspires you?! 

My friends Thessaly La Force, Anna Polonsky, Christina Topsoe, , and have the best taste in things ranging from fashion to literature to homewares to travel to just about anything.

Big thank you to Sue for sharing this lovely taste of her life with us. You can follow her on Instagram, learn her ways at , and find her fridge favorites + more here.

Feel free to leave a comment or respond to this email with questions you want asked, people you want featured, or anything else that’s on your mind. Don’t be shy, I love hearing from you.

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Hello hello. Welcome to this month’s Status Update. We’re talking about a new concierge healthcare membership, Akari’s third location on Orchard Street, and the items that have now become permanent fixtures on my packing lists.

Plus, another month, another giveaway. We’ve got a big-ticket item today: the Carepod One Plus Humidifier ($350). I know it’s an inappropriate time to offer you more humidity considering the weather outside in many parts of the world, but I promise you’ll want this very badly in two months. Or you can be as freaky as I am and use a humidifier in the summer too.

Travel Requirements

I used to hear the phrase “bit by the travel bug” and think it was the cringiest statement known to mankind. That is until I, myself, experienced the unique momentum that comes from seeing new places and experiencing new things once you get on board a plane for the first time in a while. Anyway, I had a few trips this summer—Whistler, Greece, Detroit—you know, the usuals, and I’ve landed on the items that will officially be in my carry-on from here on out.

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As a privileged American with an obvious interest in health and wellness, I spend a lot of time thinking about the wider landscape of privileged Americans who are also interested in health and wellness.

I sit, armored by my red light mask, scrolling through social media, where I’m subjected to videos of mothers yelling about red dye 40 in their children’s lunches, bros giving us their “banya” routines, rather unserious-looking men mansplaining the benefits of GLP-1s for women with endometriosis, and women who preach the benefits of feminine biohacking. These are the extremes, and of course, they’re loudest on social media. But they all exist on a wide spectrum of beliefs that we all know by now is shaped less like a line and more like a horseshoe. The cold-plunging venture capitalists and the all-natural trad wives converge at a central thesis, whether they know it or not: Wellness is more than an interest, it’s an identity that can be distilled down to consumer behavior (or lack thereof), and dedication to the input makes for a prosperous, goal-achieving output.

You see, wellness, in the American sense, is two-pronged. First and foremost, it’s a pursuit. There’s a goal, a finite achievement: the best biometric data, the most regulated nervous system, the smoothest skin, the best physique. We want to win, and while that’s not always a bad thing, it’s a rather ambitious quest to embark upon.

This obsession with achieving the best health (don’t reread this clause in Trump’s voice) is a pretty apt parable for manifest destiny. Americans are hellbent on conquering what they believe is their rightful possession—land, longevity, etc—at whatever cost—people’s lives, money, a social life. (I should say, I’m obviously flattening the gravity of the former for metaphorical impact. I would hope you know that, but just keep it in mind as you keep reading.) The times in my life in which I’ve been the most, uh, physically supreme have also required the highest price tag and the deepest feelings of loneliness. On the flip side, when I’ve felt peak emotional fulfillment, I’ve neglected my ideal nutritional intake and would imagine my muscle mass (…) suffered too.

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The second prong to this notion of wellness is, of course, the industrial sense. There’s nothing more American than bottling up an interest, a passion, an element of an external culture—and mass-producing it to turn a profit. Sure, #notallbusinesspeople. I know there are entrepreneurs who are interested in helping people—using their own struggles to create a solution for the larger public. But it only makes sense that the “wellness” Americans think of can be boiled down into physical goods and services: fun gadgets, healthy snacks, fitness fads.

At its best, this looks like refillable water bottles, blenders, even sports bras—all results of innovation and creative thinking that have proven beneficial to our quality of life. Positive capitalism. At its worst, it’s a fasting app that you literally pay for to help you not consume things. We’ve actually found a way to capitalize off an absence of behavior. Dark capitalism.

These two prongs—pursuit and industry—could not exist without each other. In fact, they’re glorified nicknames for supply and demand. The more devoted we as a society become in this quest for good health, the greater an opportunity there is for some to capitalize off of it. I won’t and wouldn’t claim moral superiority over any of this—I want to feel good in my body, and I’m willing to use the tools and pay the fees to a healthy (pun intended) extent. We famously only live once, so c’est la vie, and any other cliché you’d like to use to justify acting without inhibitions.

This is all yet another incarnation of the American Dream: good health is achievable with enough hard work, dedication, and cold hard cash. We might be the only country that’s turned being well into a purchasable project, one that’s distinct from the rest of our lives. The practices we carve out time in our schedules for—healthy meals, bathing, fitness, rest—are simply facts of life everywhere else.

Part of this comes from our relatively recent history. Other cultures have had centuries upon centuries to develop a way of living that relies on their natural resources, shared values, and millennia of experience that we can’t come close to competing with. Instead, we’ve found shortcuts—treadmills, social media, protein powder—to replicate the physical activity, community gatherings, and nutrient-dense diets that have been nourishing generations of people before America was even an idea. Though for all of the health practices we’ve adopted from the Japanese (elements of their cuisine, saunas, time in nature, etc), their loneliness epidemic is perhaps even more severe than ours…

Americans have always been ones to seek and uphold the customs of international success stories for “democratic”1 use. Sometimes these originate from immigrants trying to share their cultural norm with the masses in an attempt to a) turn a profit (can’t blame them, capitalism) and b) spread the good word. Sometimes these originate from a well (or malicious) meaning (white) person who experienced the life-changing effects of a foreign people’s practices and decided that their friends, family, and fellow patriots needed to do the same. Now whose practices are we actually appreciating and/or appropriating? And is it another example of American colonization? Or America as the famed melting pot? An essay for another time, I suppose.

Embarking on any odyssey is not without its costs, and the quest for perfect health is not exempt. It’s hard to come up with a better example than the story of Narcissus, the man so vainly enamored with his own reflection that he was unable to walk away from it, eventually starving and dying. I bring him up because a) his story is incredibly dramatic2 and b) vanity in this case is, I’d argue, spiritually connected to excessive interest in vitality. When we’re so laser-focused on this pursuit of ideal well-being, we’re disconnected from the world around us. Trade-offs are being made, whether we’re aware of them or not. Inevitably, the more time, energy, and money we spend dedicated to our personal projects, the less of these resources we’re able to devote to friends, family, and our other extracurriculars.

And notice I say ideal well-being and not optimization—this dynamic exists outside the realm of ‘biohacking,’ though, of course, less apparent. A purity complex around “clean food,” a lifetime of training for fitness event after fitness event, a never-ending need for “balanced hormones”—all of these are the same pursuit in a different expression. Back to the moral of Narcissus’s story: a disproportionate focus on our health is a disproportionate focus on our selves, and this American pursuit of perfect health is marked by only the most American value of them all: individualism.

My own approach to wellness is a product of the American ideal—how could it not be given that I am, after all, American—but I like to think it has some personal flair. I work out, I drink my bone broth, I do a few face masks a week, and treat myself to a massage now and again. Like every true American wellness warrior, I spend time in a Finnish sauna and I eat Japanese-inspired macrobiotic plates for dinner most nights. If left to my own devices, I’ll try to make the choices that will create the greatest health output.

But I try equally as hard to not be left to my own devices—to spend time with my friends, among strangers in public3, and in communal spaces that detach me from the self-centered thought patterns that are only natural in one’s own brain. After all, to be well the American way is to be full of contradictions. And in my culture specifically, it’s also custom to psychoanalyze yourself and the society you find yourself in to a point of sickening excess. It’s only healthy.

I’d like to nominate ’s wonderful piece about health being a byproduct as a great companion to this train of thought, if I may be so bold. Also, I’m officially done loudly identifying as American for the time being.

Rachelle Robinett 🥭

is an author, herbalist, recovered entrepreneur, and self-proclaimed explorer of the human experience. For over a decade, she worked at the intersection of health, nature and the pursuit of a well-lived life, helping to build companies at the forefront of natural wellness in NYC. She’s the author of Naturally: The Herbalist’s Guide to Health and Transformation and her Substack, Thinking, Naturally. Rachelle is currently based between Costa Rica and New York, as evidenced by her rather fruitful (ha) fridge (and life).

What is your fridge philosophy? 

Fresh colorful essentials. It should be pleasurable, abundant, and a little playful.

Your fridge is always always always stocked with ____.

Greens, fruit, eggs, fresh coconuts, local butter, gluten-free bread, dark chocolate, and natilla, a local Costa Rican soft cheese.

Also: supplements and skincare.

In the freezer: Local meats and fish, açaí and frozen bananas for smoothies.

Top 5 condiment picks, go.

Ketchup! That is all.

Fine, I’ll open it up to pantry too. Let’s hear your favorite snacks / pantry staples: 

My pantry is pretty minimal as I’m not big on packaged stuff. Granola, corn chips, local peanut butter, rice and beans. I also live in the land of freshness, so most food is purchased and cooked same-day.

What’s new in my pantry since moving to Costa Rica is an emergency kit for when the power goes out, which is often in the rainy season. Flashlights and candles, bottled water, tinned fish and cans of beans. We’re never offline for too long, but often it’s right around dinner time.

A meal that’s on heavy rotation these days:

Gallo pinto! This is the traditional Costa Rican breakfast of rice and beans with fried egg, sweet plantain, avocado, tomato and cheese. It’s always perfect and especially so after surfing.

Also on heavy rotation: An açaí bowl topped with fruit, granola, and a big scoop of local peanut butter; red snapper carpaccio; and my daily smoothie, which has been more or less the same for like ten years now (rotating protein, fruit, greens, and fiber types for variety).

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Let’s go a little deeper… 

What’s the mantra you keep coming back to?

Life is short.

It sounds a bit dire but I’ve had this sensation for as long as I can remember and, for obvious reasons, that awareness is highly motivating. I don’t take a single hour for granted and am very selective about how and who I share my time with. This mantra motivates my smallest decisions on a daily basis, and also the biggest ones—like my recent choice to leave marriage, home, and country to move to a beachside jungle in Costa Rica.

What products / practices are part of your regular mental wellness habits? 

Journaling has been a lifelong practice for me, though I wouldn’t even call it a practice so much as an extension of my mind or manner of breathing. I write every day—often multiple times a day. It’s how I think, how I record and understand what I feel, and how I honor the good fortune of knowing my calling.

Beyond that: daily exercise (my medicine—this is non-negotiable), regular psychotherapy, and strong boundaries around inputs—social media, media in general, and forms of stimulation other than the natural. These boundaries aren’t defined, I just feel them—and they feel like a sensitivity to the imbalance and distraction that overconsumption causes. The cost of constant consumption is the loss of direct experience.

And your physical?

For fitness, it’s sleep first and always. Exercise next, and every day. I live to be active so am constantly adjusting my routine and trying new things. Most of all it includes: Strength training multiple times per week, surfing as much as possible, cycling, running, tons of walking, and dance (freestyle or salsa, which I’m taking lessons for now). I also eat according to my training, and since moving to Costa Rica that’s meant eating as much as I possibly can in order to keep up with the energy expenditure.

For beauty, and because I’m outdoors most of every day now, SPF is huge. On my face and neck, I’m also regular with vitamin C (SkinCeuticals) and retinol (purchased here locally). When I go back to the states, I get BBL + Moxi lasers (a couple times a year if possible) and need to start with the microneedling. I’ve also started using exfoliating and retinol creams on my body, which gets a ton of sun exposure.

Despite the fact that I was even more dedicated to fitness and beauty when I lived in the U.S., I’ve never been stronger, happier, or healthier than I am now—which is a testament to finding the right life to live.

What do think is the most underrated part of wellness? 

The basics. I’ve said it thousands of times and wrote about it in my book: the foundations of health haven’t changed! It’s wildly unsexy in an era of endless wellness stacks, biohacks, and optimization, but it’s true. If we get our sleep, stress, movement, nutrition, and community right—often by doing less, not more—we need remarkably little else, despite being constantly encouraged to consume more in pursuit of feeling well.

Also: Herbalism! I truly believe herbalism is what so many of us are seeking without realizing it. It’s a system of health—of, really, life-care—that offers deeply personalized support for nearly everything: from the physical to the emotional to the psychic. It is entirely natural and not only improves our health, but expands our self-awareness and changes lives in surprising and profound ways. Herbalism isn’t just about better digestion, deeper sleep, or balanced hormones, it’s a guide for redesigning our relationship with ourselves, our bodies, and the living world.

Okay also: Bloodwork. Get your labs, get the most comprehensive ones you can (I love Function for this) and only then eat / live / buy the products and supplements you actually need. It’s fun to consume stuff we simply want as well—I’m all for experimentation and nice-to-haves—but guessing about whether or not we need something for our health is not my preferred way to spend time or money.

And overrated?

I don’t even know where to start. Honestly, the current state of wellness is why I no longer work in wellness.

Picture this: you wake up one morning and feel like shit. What’s your next move: 

Fun question. First I’d self-reflect and try to determine the cause. But, assuming it’s a mystery, this is what I’d do:

Drink more than enough water with electrolytes; eat as well as possible with an emphasis on protein and fiber (because poor sleep destabilizes blood sugar which makes us feel crave-y and overly hungry at odd times, and also because unstable blood sugar is often why we don’t feel well when we don’t know why we don’t feel well); exercise and do it early and outside if possible; early afternoon nap.

Those are the essentials. On top of that, for those inclined, I’d use herbs:

• Nervines (like chamomile, lavender, or passionflower) if I feel anxious

• Digestive bitters and carminatives like gentian and citrus peels if it’s my gut

• Ginger, turmeric, oregano, and functional mushrooms if it seems to be a cold or flu

• Nourishing diuretics like nettle, red clover, and alfalfa if it was related to alcohol (which it wouldn’t be because I don’t drink ;))

I also really like amino acids, which are some of the quickest-acting easy-to-use supplements out there. L-theanine for calm focus, 5-HTP or tryptophan for mood, or GABA for sleep.

Give us your ride or die wellness products:

Internal: Metagenics SeroSyn, ashwagandha (Gaia Pro’s is great), NOW’s Chaste Berry and Black Cohosh blends, turmeric/curcumin, kava (I love a tincture, or Up Side’s lozenges), l-theanine. Rose Los Angeles Deep Sleep gummies (if I’m in New York or writing a book in my head instead of sleeping), electrolytes.

External: Oil cleanser (Living Libations makes a gorgeous one though I recently started using straight jojoba oil, which is far more economical), Shiseido and Supergoop SPFs, SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic and P-TIOX serums, retinol (face and body), a good moisturizer.

One thing you do everyday that makes you the most YOU version of yourself: 

I write.

Whose taste inspires you?! 

I’m inspired by local Costa Ricans who live happily and healthfully with so little—who choose to be grateful, reverent, playful, and positive simply because it’s a new day.

I’m inspired by my friends—my girls as I call them—who have all chosen so tastefully to live lives of their own.

And, I’m inspired far more by an intrinsic sense of preference than by external sources. Much of my life and work centers on beginning from within because it is genuinely a way of life for me. I see so many people struggle to make sense of which influences to follow or absorb, but I don’t believe that’s the best approach. We know that the creative process is ultimately one of channeling an inner—and often from-beyond—set of forces into a creative output. Our lives are no different; they, too, are works of art.

Big thank you to Rachelle for sharing this glimpse into her life with us. You can follow her on Instagram, read her Substack, and find her fridge favorites + more here.

Feel free to leave a comment or respond to this email with questions you want asked, people you want featured, or anything else that’s on your mind. Don’t be shy, I love hearing from you.

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Welcome back to Wellness Around the World: City Guides. Once a month, I’ll be tapping a resident wellness aficionado in their home city, asking them to share not only their must-hit spots, but also a glimpse into their community’s culture around wellness. Today we’re getting an insider’s tour of Lisbon, courtesy of Emilina Lomas.

is the owner of The Contrast Club, Lisbon’s newest beachside wellness studio. She made her career as a health writer, working with leading brands in the space like Nike and Oura. Now, she spends her time writing her best-selling newsletter, Feeling Good with Emilina, where she shares BS-free health and wellness tips. Emilina is a fixture in Lisbon’s wellness scene, so there’s no better person to show us around town.

A Little Backstory

What is your relationship with wellness, personally?

I have always been deeply interested in wellness. I grew up playing sports, and then after university I fell in love with lifting weights. I quit my graduate job in consulting to train as a personal trainer and do a master’s degree in nutrition and public health. I’ve spent the last decade research, writing, and engaging with all things wellness. It’s a true obsession.

What are some traditional or typical wellness practices of people living in your community? Any specific outlook or history?

Some fun facts about Portugal: it has the lowest processed food consumption in Europe, the risk of preventable diseases is 17% lower than the European average, and overall, people have very healthy lives.

Some specific things I’ve noticed: lots of fish! Lisbon is a prominent European seafood and port hub. So pretty much any Portuguese restaurant will offer an array of fish, which is full of omega-3 fatty acids and thus very good for you! Also, extra virgin olive oil on everything. The average consumption is 6 to 8 liters per person, per year, which is among the highest globally!

The most important wellness practice I’ve seen in Portugal is the focus on community. Traditionally, Portuguese people meet at pastelarias in the morning for an espresso and a pastry. In the evenings, many Portuguese people eat their meals at tascas (cheap homemade traditional food) with friends or family. The focus on eating in community is so important—especially considering the staggering rates of global loneliness, and how profoundly this impacts health and happiness.

Community and connection is ingrained in daily life here, and I think it’s one of the most overlooked wellness practices within this industry.

What is the wellness + beauty scene like today?

The absolute essentials in each category:

Read more

Zoë Johnston 🥛

is a culinary creative and the owner of Spilt Milk Collective, a culinary production studio creating immersive experiences for gatherings rooted in food, function, and design. Originally from Maine, now based in Brooklyn, she writes a Substack named after one of her favorite things, Raw Milk. Few people are having as much fun, visually speaking, with food as Zoë, so we’re in for an especially beautiful edition of Into the Fridge today.

What is your fridge philosophy? 

More is more. I want to see the rainbow and always have fresh food on hand—but waste bums me out big time, so I’m constantly playing efficiency Tetris. Food is where my dollars go, so I’m intentional about where I buy and when.

Your fridge is always always always stocked with ____.

Lemons, Castelvetranos, something leafy, butter, raw milk, coconut water, organ meat, a too-sweet creamer I can’t quit, and pesto.

Top 5 condiment picks, go.

• Pickled Mustard Seed

• Sunny Miso Caesar Dressing (not pictured unfortunately, please come to NY)

• Lemon

• Olive Oil

• Does Maldon count?

Fine, I’ll open it up to pantry too. Let’s hear your favorite snacks / pantry staples: 

White beans, avocado, lentils, sweet potato, garlic, shallots, rice pasta, Knead Love Bread, dark chocolate. Lots of dried herbs for herbal infusions.

A meal that’s on heavy rotation these days:

Really into a Greek-ish salad with chicken or fish plus white beans and really really good Castelvetranos (usually Frankie’s or Partanna).

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Let’s go a little deeper… 

What’s the mantra you keep coming back to?

Food is for fun.

What products / practices are part of your regular mental wellness habits? 

I red light mask every AM, I take a bath or sauna mat most evenings, sometimes I use my Shakti mat. Love some nasal expanders. My TMJ retainers are a godsend (though unfortunately not a fix, more of a bandaid FYI).

I see my acupuncturist (Chris Chen), Therapist (AJ), Wizard (Thomas), and Functional Health Doctor (Herbal Alchemist) regularly. I exercise daily—I love yoga, heavy weights, long walks, pilates, kickboxing. I do Subagh Kriya and Qi Gong every AM. I say no a lot. I love sleep so much, at least 8 hours. I love it so much. I prioritize my friends and fam.

And your physical?

This is super tied into the mental for me so it bleeds over a bit. I don’t inject or laser or scalpel anything, but I buy whatever Gil tells me to. I go to White Rose Collective for hair and I really love a massage.

What do think is the most underrated part of wellness? 

Slowing down.

And overrated?

Quick fixes—botox, GLP-1s (not medically prescribed), etc... No shade to anyone who does—I respect the hustle—I just think if you can, and most can, go the long route it’ll pay off in the long run.

Picture this: you wake up one morning and feel like shit. What’s your next move: 

Go back to bed. If I can’t: shower, move, guzzle water, qi gong, somatic shaking, healthy breakfast, cry, voicenote a friend.

Give us your ride or die wellness products:

My bed. My bath. Gua sha. A whole bag of Epsom salts. Being single. Dogs.

One thing you do everyday that makes you the most YOU version of yourself: 

Voicenoting my best friends. Moving my body. Good sleep. Running my business.

Whose taste inspires you?! 

Devyn, Kelly, and my Grandma.

Big thank you to for sharing this taste of her life with us. You can follow her on Instagram, read her Substack, and find her fridge favorites + more here.

Feel free to leave a comment or respond to this email with questions you want asked, people you want featured, or anything else that’s on your mind. Don’t be shy, I love hearing from you.

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I’ve been putting this conversation off for a little longer than is probably responsible for someone who writes about wellness on the internet, mostly because I considered my perspective on the matter to be pretty, well, reasonable.

I think GLP-1s are largely good for the world. They’re a fascinating scientific discovery; they’re treating what has long been America’s biggest medical issue—obesity—as well as its life-threatening co-morbidities (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc). That’s only the tip of the iceberg, of course. Every day we’re alerted to new off-label use cases for these drugs: preventing cancer, curing addiction, easing ADHD. Subclinical doses are improving people’s lives by eliminating the physical symptoms of inflammation that previously elicited a “looks like you’ll have to live with it” response from doctors. The more I read, the more I believe the “miracle drug” claims.

When you consider human nature, it’s completely unsurprising that they’re our newest subject of abuse. The easeful weight loss they promise is hitting many of us (read: women) in the “nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels” trigger point. But hair is falling out and skin is sagging and low blood sugar is making people faint. They’re available at suspicious-looking med spas and the long-term effects, particularly around withdrawal, are not completely understood yet.

Like I said, my perspective is logical, if boring. The conversation, like most on the internet, has been reduced down to emotional threat-slinging and blanket reverence. It’s easy to pass judgment on topics we don’t fully understand, people we can’t empathize with, or, more commonly in this case, feel jealous towards. There’s a hint of “why can’t they lose weight the normal way, like I did?” which sounds a lot like “if I had to pay student loans and get aggressively hazed in my fraternity, why shouldn’t they have to?” It’s new fodder for gossip threads and group chats, proving once again that (usually women’s) bodies continue to act as a societal focal point while remaining the least interesting thing about us.

Sure, it’s easy for me to say all of this as a relatively thin white woman, and yet, I’m not immune to the “I wish I was 5 lbs skinnier” thoughts that bubble up in my head. However, my prevailing feeling towards these drugs is curiosity, which I’d like to imagine is an alternate, healthier expression of the aforementioned hysteria. Thus, it was only a matter of time before my desire to learn more got too big and I was forced to pester an expert with all of my (our) questions and reveal my rather middle-of-the-road opinion in the process.

Dr. Kathleen Jordan is an internal medicine physician, Midi Health’s Chief Medical Officer, and Menopause Society Certified Provider. After studying at Stanford University and UCLA School of Medicine, she scaled her own practice, which she left to serve as Chief Medical Officer at Dignity Health. From there, she shifted to leadership roles in women’s healthcare startups—Chief Medical Officer at Tia, which focused on young women, and now serves women in midlife at Midi Health. Her expertise has been tapped by The Washington Post, CNN International, Time Magazine, Yahoo News, and many other media outlets (including Plant Based). We’re lucky enough to have Dr. Jordan explain GLP-1s, how they work, and the conversations she has with her patients on the topic.

(Note: some answers in this piece have been trimmed for length and clarity.)

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Overview

Let’s start off with the basics. Can you quickly explain what a GLP-1 is?

GLP-1 stands for glucagon-like peptide-1, an essential hormone naturally produced in our gut to signal fullness directly to the brain. These medications mimic glucagon, helping to regulate blood sugar, slow down digestion, manage hunger, and quiet down constant background “food noise.” It is an evidence-backed approach that treats weight management as a matter of underlying biology, rather than a moral failing.

What about a GIP?

GIP is another naturally occurring metabolic hormone that works hand-in-hand with GLP-1 to manage how our bodies process and store energy. It targets insulin secretion and works directly on the cellular level to dictate how fat cells break down fat. When we utilize a treatment that combines both pathways, it creates a powerful synergistic effect that significantly enhances both blood sugar control and weight loss results.

What’s the difference between semaglutide and tirzepatide?

Semaglutide, found in brands like Ozempic and Wegovy, targets only the GLP-1 receptor to suppress appetite and manage insulin. Tirzepatide, known as Mounjaro or Zepbound, is a “dual-agonist” that targets both GLP-1 and GIP receptors. Since it activates two biological pathways instead of one, tirzepatide can deliver slightly greater weight loss results for patients.

And what is all of this we’re hearing about retatrutide (a.k.a. reta)?

Retatrutide is a highly anticipated new player to the market. As a “triple-agonist” that targets GLP-1, GIP, and a third mechanism of action via glucagon receptors in the liver, we are seeing even greater responses in weight loss in the drug trials. Recent findings show those on the highest dose of retatrutide lost an average of 28.7% of their body weight over 68 weeks. This is even more loss than seen with other drugs in the class that are already on the market (Ozempic, Zepbound, etc.). While retatrutide is not FDA-approved yet, it is currently being developed by Eli Lilly with excellent early clinical results and is expected to be approved soon (predicted in 2027). (Note that a black market has developed online for compounded versions of this highly anticipated drug—these are not regulated or certified, and reputable providers don't touch them.)

What’s the difference between regular and compounded medications?

Commercially manufactured medications are standard, brand-name formulations produced in mass-manufactured, fixed doses by major pharmaceutical companies. Branded formulations include Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound. Compounded medications are custom-blended solutions prepared by specialized, licensed pharmacies for individual patients. Compounded pharmacies can use the same studied and active ingredients in the branded care solutions, but often with unique dosing and/or a change in additives. Additives can be adjusted with compounding to avoid allergens in the branded mass-manufactured drugs or to add vitamins or supplements that improve tolerability.

For the GLP-1 class of drugs, compounded care solutions were also used to meet the overwhelming patient demand due to shortages in the branded care solutions. Compounding pharmacies are certified and regulated for safe practices but quality oversight can vary more than in the mass-manufactured branded medications so it is especially important to have a trusted, vetted compounding pharmacy.

Can you explain the difference (in efficacy and potency) between the shots and the pills?

Because these drugs are broken down by our gut with poor absorption when swallowed, injectable treatments have led the market in proven potency. The injectable formulations bypass the digestive tract entirely to deliver reliable levels of active ingredients to the bloodstream–and only require once-weekly administration, allowing for easy adherence. However, modern high-dose daily oral options are rapidly narrowing that gap, offering a highly effective daily pill alternative with improved absorption. These can be an option for patients who prefer to avoid needles, who understand that they might be less efficacious or they may get to their weight goal more slowly. Ultimately, a good clinical strategy focuses on a patient’s unique lifestyle, biological absorption patterns, and personal preferences to determine the best delivery system.

GLP-1s in Action

What have GLP-1s been effective in treating (aside from obesity in general)?

These drugs first came to market to treat diabetes—and they remain effective tools in controlling and improving diabetes—but also in improving pre-diabetes. When used to treat obesity, the clinical research demonstrates that GLP-1s significantly reduce the risk of strokes, heart attacks, and death. Essentially, by addressing obesity, they have been shown to help patients live longer and better. In addition to weight reduction and associated blood glucose and cardiovascular improvements, these drugs have demonstrated improvements in sleep apnea, kidney disease, and fatty liver disease. A wide range of other health benefits have also been observed. These medications also have been associated to reduce systemic inflammation with patients reporting improvements in a variety of inflammatory conditions like psoriasis, arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and others. As inflammation is associated with several cancers, cardiovascular disease, and even with dementia, there is great interest in using GLP-1s to help drive lifelong wellness and even longevity.

Some studies report trends towards neuroprotectivity with associated reductions in neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s noted in some of these medications. Many studies have reported significant reduction in alcohol intake and improvements in other addictive behaviors, with ongoing studies looking at its use as a standalone treatment for alcohol and other addictive behaviors. In my patients, they've also been a powerful tool for reversing insulin resistance and general metabolic dysfunction—and some women's clinicians consider them more powerful for PMOS1 than metformin.

Are its effects on lowering cholesterol and improving metabolic health simply a function of weight loss? Or is there another biological system at play?

While the weight loss associated with GLP-1 drugs drives many of the health benefits, there is also a direct drug effect independent of weight loss. The medications interact directly with cellular receptors in the liver, blood vessels, and immune system and can drive reductions in inflammation and alterations in metabolism. This means patients can reap critical cardiovascular and metabolic rewards from day one, with improvements that can begin before any weight loss. This also drives further interest in using these medications outside of obesity and/or diabetes management with many already using them off-label for a wide variety of indications.

Can you talk to us a bit about women’s health and GLP-1s? Specifically PMOS, hypothyroidism, endometriosis, etc.

For women navigating PMOS, hypothyroidism, or endometriosis, where we know insulin resistance and/or inflammation contribute, GLP-1s may make sense, too. We have observationally seen women taking these medications for weight or diabetes and also have these syndromes improve, and there are a number of publications and increasing user experience and interest in using them as tools for these other clinical scenarios even outside of weight or diabetes—with many experts already doing so. Pairing metabolic treatments with hormone replacement therapies to support a woman's shifting biology holistically can make all the difference. At times, when patients have more than one thing going on, the holistic issues and history of responses to other therapies and severity of symptoms can drive the selection of therapeutic options.

How does it affect hormone balance? What about reproductive health?

By systematically reducing visceral fat and optimizing insulin sensitivity, GLP-1s work beneath the surface to help restore a more balanced metabolism and endocrine environment, noticeably lowering excess testosterone that is seen with Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS). Even beyond PMOS, this leveling of metabolic health and improved insulin resistance can resynchronize a woman’s ovulatory cycle, triggering a boost in fertility. Because of this biological shift, we advise our patients to be exceptionally proactive and intentional regarding fertility and birth control choices during treatment.

And relatedly, what is its impact on our libido?

We are still learning about these medications, with mixed feedback on their impact on libido. For some women, improved body image can reawaken sexuality while the improvements in sleep apnea can relieve fatigue—which can help libido, too. Others report that the early side effects of nausea can negatively contribute and the satiety they bring can contribute to complacency sexually. Ultimately, we know that libido is complex with many contributing factors—ranging from relationship issues, fatigue, arousal challenges, hormone changes, or even medication use. We encourage women to talk about this with their clinician as there are evidence-based approaches that can help them navigate these issues.

How do its effects differ between men and women?

Studies show women often lose more weight than men on GLP-1 medications—although they are highly effective in both genders. Midlife women face extra challenges with perimenopause and menopause—where declining estrogen directly accelerates weight gain, body composition changes with visceral fat around the belly, and rising insulin resistance—all things that GLP-1s can help address. There is emerging evidence that women on menopausal hormone therapy have improved responses to GLP-1 medications, so working with women on both (when needed) makes sense.

I’m personally really fascinated by its off-label usage in treating addiction. What’s going on in that sector of things?

Many studies have observed reduced alcohol intake in persons taking GLP-1s, with the data suggesting them as an effective treatment for alcohol use disorder. It makes sense: GLP-1 receptors are active in the reward centers of the brain, and these medications alter the dopamine response linked to cravings. Patients frequently have reported that they unexpectedly lost interest in alcohol, smoking, or even compulsive shopping alongside their “food noise.” Clinical trials are actively studying this right now. The results could completely reshape how we treat substance abuse and addictive behaviors. I can tell you that many women seem to benefit from this well-documented effect, and it's a consideration when selecting the right medication.

We’re hearing a lot about how GLP-1s are pretty much a solution for everything. What has it not been helpful in treating? Does it make anything worse?

These therapies help many processes at the cellular level, and supporting cellular health turns out to help so many health issues. These drugs initially came to market for diabetes and we have since added obesity, sleep apnea and fatty liver to the list of indications and we expect many more formally recognized indications to follow. Outside of the FDA indications, we are still learning about which formulations and doses bring the most impact. Note, however, that they do have side effects and can actively aggravate severe underlying gastrointestinal conditions like gastroparesis or gallbladder disease and there are situations where other care solutions may be more effective and/or safer. This is why we believe women considering these medications should have an informed conversation with a trusted care provider prior to initiating therapy.

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Side Effects + Coming Off

Can you tell us a little bit about the side effects of these medications and how they actually happen? I.e. We know it causes hair loss, but how specifically? What do you recommend to mitigate the most common side effects (constipation, hair loss, low libido, decreased muscle mass)?

For most people, the huge health gains from resulting weight loss and improved blood sugar control far outweigh the risks of what are usually very manageable side effects. But there are side effects and anticipating and managing these side effects can help you stay on the drugs successfully–achieving your health goals. The most common side effects are a result of the drug slowing down your gastrointestinal tract, sometimes triggering nausea, constipation, worsening reflux or (more rarely) even vomiting. Starting on lower doses and titrating the dose up slowly, while adjusting eating habits, hydrating vigorously, and sometimes even using laxatives can help mitigate these side effects.

Going slow and managing the side effects if they happen helps most patients to stay on these medications safely and effectively while minimizing or eliminating any discomfort. More rarely, serious side effects can occur such as a gallstone attack and/or pancreatitis—both of which are hallmarked by significant abdominal pain—so if abdominal pain occurs while on these medications, one should check in with a clinician for evaluation.

Weight loss can also result in loss of muscle mass alongside fat loss, so it’s important to lean into physical activity and muscle building while engaged in any weight loss program. Women are encouraged to have high-protein intake and engage in muscle-building exercise while taking a GLP-1s to protect their muscle mass and optimize overall healthy body composition.

Not necessarily a side effect, but I do want to talk about shame for a moment. It’s a pretty loaded conversation, and I wanted to hear what sorts of conversations you’re having with your patients around feeling embarrassed of taking it or nervousness around talking to their friends about it?

Using a GLP-1 is absolutely not “cheating,” it’s being smart and supporting your best health. There is so much stigma out there around weight and an unfair paradigm that it’s about self-control or lack thereof, but the fact that these medications even work to empower women in their weight loss journey shows us that it’s about biology—with support of their biology, women can do it.

Taking care of your metabolic health is protecting your health and wellness—it’s smart. All patients deserve privacy on their health journey, but there is no reason to avoid being loud and proud about supporting your best health with a GLP-1 based program. Unfortunately, our societal norms on women in particular and our individual complex relationship with weight and body image at every stage of life has translated into shame about “needing” these medications—which just shouldn’t be. In some surveys 1 in 5 adults have tried these medications—so know that you are not alone on this journey!

A big part of this conversation is the perpetuity of these drugs. Is it true that when you get off these drugs, you’re likely to gain the weight (and then some) back?

We are continuing to learn about the chronic maintenance needs of women who have achieved their healthy weight goals while on a GLP-1 medication. The initial clinical trials suggested everyone stay on the maximum dose indefinitely, but subsequent observations and data have helped us better understand that this may not be the only or best path for every woman.

Some women are able to reach their goal weight and come off the medication entirely and maintain their weight over time–but this is the minority of patients. Many women continue to benefit from some type of long-term maintenance program—sometimes the doses originally used are needed, while others benefit from either intermittent use or chronic lower dosing to maintain their healthy weight. I encourage patients to reframe this entire conversation from a temporary quick-fix to a lifelong, proactive health strategy.

Do you view GLP-1s as something you’ll have to be on forever? If not, what does weaning off look like?

We help women adjust their long-term strategy with check-ins and shared decision-making with each patient. There are many paths to success here. Some come off. Some use them intermittently while others stay on the medications at either a low, medium or high dose. We help women first achieve their goal weight, and then work with patients on a plan to support their long-term success. This can involve quick telehealth check-ins over time to adjust as needed with the plan then informed by your biology and what is happening with you.

For a large number of patients, some type of long-term maintenance therapy is clinically indicated to continuously manage their chronic metabolic disease, much like traditional blood pressure care, cholesterol management or many other health programs. We frequently titrate patients down to a lower “maintenance” dosing or expand the dosing interval to reach the threshold required to sustain results and optimize health. We use check-ins, a stepwise process and a lifestyle anchored by nutrition and exercise to best support long-term health goals.

Last Words

If someone is considering getting on these medications—be it for weight loss or something else—what do you recommend they do as a next step?

The first step is to schedule a visit with a clinician. At Midi Health, our clinicians understand these medications and the other options as well, and sit down with you to complete a diagnostic review, evaluating your specific metabolic profiles, unique life stage factors, and comprehensive bloodwork to rule out contributing factors, too. For many women a GLP-1 medication can offer a highly effective, safe therapy. Expert clinical care and a supported process ensures you have an easy, supported roadmap to success—rather than a fragmented, quick prescription online.

How can you tell if the source you’re considering getting your GLP-1s from is reputable?

I recognize that the internet can feel like the Wild West right now, offering a wide variety of care options of varying quality—some using uncertified pharmacies, recommending poorly advised care, and many that seem to push and provide only ONE care solution, regardless of whether it’s best for you. Look for a provider that can help you figure out the best solution for you—and can support you if GLP-1s are right for you—but also support you if other options are best, too. We frequently prescribe the branded options. If compounding options are needed, we work with accredited, third-party-tested pharmacies with assurances and testing on purity and sterility. Make sure to look for continuity and partnership on this care journey—supporting you should any bumps or changes occur along the way.

Any other words of wisdom you want to leave us with?

Remember that your health today is foundational to your future longevity. You deserve to feel good—without any guilt or confusion. Weight gain and metabolic shifts are often driven by real biological changes, not a lack of willpower, so please give yourself some grace as you explore the tools available to you. Lean into modern science, prioritize your strength, and partner with clinicians who listen to your unique story and health needs.

Big, big thank you to Dr. Jordan for answering all of our questions and discussing this topic with such empathy and care. Because new articles come out on this subject multiple times a day, I’d love to leave you all with some additional reading that’s been of interest to me lately.

• Teenagers are getting their hands on peptides, apparently. New parenting fear unlocked.

• As Dr. Jordan mentioned, weight loss and reduced appetite can leave room for nutritional gaps. Clare is a new supplement that’s promising to close them.

• The benefits women are receiving from GLP-1s go way beyond weight—they’re socioeconomic.

If you have any follow-up Qs, feel free to drop them in the comments and we’ll see if we can get them answered. That’s all for now. Reply to this email or leave a comment if you want to reach me. :)

Alexis Page 🫠

is a lifelong beauty junkie and indie product developer based in the East Village of Manhattan. Known as “the most important person in beauty you’ve never heard of,” she has worked with brands like MAC, Glossier and Pat McGrath. She recently launched a Substack, Self Involved, where you can find all her personal product recommendations, beauty opinions and sicko health protocols that she’s decided to finally share with the public at large. I’m eternally grateful for that, and for the related tidbits she’s about to share with us.

What is your fridge philosophy? 

Little of this, little of that. I like cooking, but more often employ the meal-cobbling technique of having a bunch of little things together as a full meal. I like having multiple flavor profiles and textures at once.

Your fridge is always always always stocked with ____.

• Various forms of dairy: whole milk, raw milk, kefir, yogurt, cottage cheese

• Lemons: I started craving this whole lemon/coconut milk/olive oil concoction 24/7 and am now burning through lemons at a psycho rate.

• Carrots

• An unreasonable amount of dips for a single-person household: hummus, tzatziki, tyrokafteri, salsas, tapenades

• Feta cheese and kalamata olives

• Fizz-Free Peach Mango Green Tea Celsius

Top 5 condiment picks, go.

1. Zhug

2. Maldon

3. Really coarse peppercorn

4. Specialty mustards: I like Edmond Fallot, obsessively finding all the flavors Pokémon-style. Gotta catch ‘em all.

5. Frank’s Red Hot - I’m from Buffalo, legally required to just have it on hand.

Fine, I’ll open it up to pantry too. Let’s hear your favorite snacks / pantry staples: 

• Chickpeas and cannellini beans

• Sourdough

• Peanut butter

• Unusually shaped pastas

• Tuna

• Random crunchy toppings: crispy fried onions, gomasio, seeds, nuts

• Treats are jalapeño kettle chips and some form of gummy candy

A meal that’s on heavy rotation these days:

Giant bowl of chopped cucumber, red onion and feta with olive oil and lemon. It lives in said bowl, with spoon included, where I pop into the fridge and eat it in passing over the course of the next 48-72 hours. Then the whole cycle starts again.

I’m on a real toast kick out of nowhere, which gives me a reason to now hoard weird jams and spreads.

When I have people over, I tend to go a little nuts with making a charcuterie/crudité spread. This ties into my regular eating philosophy where I need to ensure I have a little bit of everything and that all flavors, textures, and categories are covered.

I somehow got into baking, which I’m not exactly great at and I don’t even really care about desserts, but find it soothing and the logistics of it are easier for me to understand than making an elaborate entree. Recent success stories have been a gluten-free grapefruit olive oil cake and a berry clafoutis.

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Let’s go a little deeper… 

What’s the mantra you keep coming back to?

“You already know what to do.” I’ve gotten really good at trusting my intuition and blocking outside noise and opinions.

What products / practices are part of your regular mental wellness habits? 

Mental health wise, I spent my 20’s and 30’s going the traditional therapy/pharmaceutical route. It was maybe what I needed at the time but later on I felt like I’d hit a wall and was not necessarily any “better.” I believe that focusing on “your stuff” too much for too long keeps you stuck in the idea that your issues are your identity and, for me, prevented me from taking real action or moving forward.

I did a full course of ketamine therapy. I turned into an exercise person. I turned into a TM head. I figured out a way to balance my need for alone time with also being social. I stopped taking birth control because it made me feel bad. I stopped drinking because I noticed that it had an outsize effect on my mood and anxiety. It ended up being kind of basic stuff that made me feel the most better so I kept up with it. A form of when I got busy, I got better mentality.

Walking while listening to music, TM, watching Bravo, calling a friend and cleaning my apartment are the easiest ways for me to center and self-soothe.

And your physical?

Pilates, calisthenics, ballet class. I get a facial usually once a month. I like to steam when I can. I use a red light mask and Normatec recovery boots while watching Housewives. I got pretty into the vibration plate, which I use while scrolling and the 15 minutes fly by.

What do think is the most underrated part of wellness? 

The basic stuff. It’s not particularly interesting, there’s truly not much you can say about it and everyone thinks you’re a grandma if you do. Sleep, movement, sun, breathing. I’m super into all the newer forms of wellness and hack-y stuff—peptides/devices/etc—but it’s all kind of a waste if you don’t have the foundational elements dialed in tight.

And overrated?

The obsession with going to Korea for beauty treatments. I have a much more extensive soliloquy on this but the TLDR is that I think it’s all fake. I’ve been to Seoul for work multiple times and have found that the beauty landscape there is one giant hype machine, stuck in an endless trend cycle that completely changes course every six months. This renders everything sort of meaningless. It’s definitely fun to shop for product there, it’s weird and cool and you find stuff you won’t see anywhere else. And then you go back less than a year later and all those items are gone and suddenly you’re told to buy completely different items and there’s always some new laser that no one can explain but it’s “the newest and the best” and around and around you go. I find it quite spooky and depressing.

Another unpopular wellness opinion—micro-dosing mushrooms is rotting everyone’s brains. I won’t elaborate further.

Picture this: you wake up one morning and feel like shit. What’s your next move: 

Chug pomegranate juice, orange juice, coconut water, Wellness Formula, hot shower, new sheets, as much sleep and horizontal rest time as possible. And if I’m truly sick, I allow myself to eat Saltines in bed.

Give us your ride or die wellness products:

I work with a longevity doctor in LA who took me from fine to really good through bloodwork, hormones and peptides. I’m pretty obsessed with this oxytocin nasal spray and all my little tinctures from her. I don’t know that I really believe in supplements for the most part, but she made a few OTC recommendations that have worked for me and I’ve stuck with them for over a year:

• Ion Gut Support - tasteless liquid you drink with water first thing in the morning; helps heal gut inflammation.

• Metagenics Adreset - have never really bought into the adaptogen conversation but I do feel like this helps with overall resilience to stress.

• Integrative Therapeutics Cortisol Manager - I’m a good sleeper but if I need extra help, this keeps me asleep. Melatonin-free.

  

One thing you do everyday that makes you the most YOU version of yourself: 

Workout early and listen to music while walking there.

Whose taste inspires you?! 

Lisa Eisner, the queen. My friends and , who are both aware of every single thing going on culturally without being beholden any form of trend.

Big thank you to Alexis for sharing this incredibly fun dose of her life with us. I’m loving her Substack, Self Involved, so I suggest you make your way over there. You can follow her on Instagram and find her fridge favorites + more here.

Feel free to leave a comment or respond to this email with questions you want asked, people you want featured, or anything else that’s on your mind. Don’t be shy, I love hearing from you.

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Hello, I’m back with another monthly status update. I gave a brief synopsis of this new series last time, so if you don’t mind, I’ll just get right into it today. One quick thing (sorry, I realize I just said I would get right into it), this month’s giveaway will be the very best tote of all time (according to the Strategist): Loeffler Randall’s Dina. Paid subscribers can enter to win by leaving a comment.

How to Deal with Perioral Dermatitis

This rash is the bane of my existence. I’ve spent hours on Reddit and WebMD, plus hundreds on derm appointments and random prescriptions, all in the name of curing this weird red itchy goatee that seemed to flare at the most inconvenient times. I even wrote a whole piece about it which included interviews with some of the fanciest dermatologists in NYC and LA only to be ghosted by an editor at a major publication (this is a story for a different time). All of which is to say, I am very knowledgeable about this topic from both a personal and a professional (well, you decide) point of view. After a few BAD flareups and a countless number of small outbursts, I now have the knowledge I wish I had when I was desperately combing through r/skincare.

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Before we get into this showdown, I have to be honest. I really don’t like sheet masks. I think they’re slimy, impractical, unwieldy, and frankly, ineffective. I can definitely appreciate them in theory; a good sheet mask can leave you feeling hydrated, bright, and refreshed. However, the reality is that most of them do nothing. On that note, let’s get into my big comparison.

Do you need to use sheet masks?

Absolutely not. However, they can be fun, depending on the type of fun you like to have. Wearing a sheet mask feels like the epitome of self care, a superficial demarcation that is relatively harmless. You could certainly make a case that their disposability is wasteful, but it also means that they’re excellent for travel (post-flight hydration is their best use case) and stuffing into gift bags.

What makes for a good sheet mask?

A good sheet mask—a rare feat—must have the following characteristics:

• Ease of use. This is a purposefully vague criterion because easy masking can look like a few things: not too slimy and/or wet, intuitive or clear-to-follow instructions for application, and obvious slits for your mouth, eyes, and nose (you’d be surprised).

• Efficacy. Of course, this thing has to be worth all of the hassle. I want my skin to feel moisture-rich, glowy, or a combination of the two. If a mask is particularly irritating to apply, but the results are astounding, it can absolutely make up for its shortcomings.

• Value. Price is a factor that cannot be ignored. I’m willing to spend on products that work for me. Key word: work. Especially in the case of the single-use sheet mask, the combination of big spend and low return feels particularly disappointing.

The Key Players

I can’t even make a dent in the current marketplace of sheet masks, so here are the top picks I’ve chosen to review.

Self-proclaimed sheet mask dominators, Mediheal is a K-beauty brand I’m excited to try.

I’m already a fan of Bioeffect’s eye masks, so I’m excited to try their facial counterpart.

Biodance makes the overnight mask you’re probably familiar with if you exist on TikTok.

A brand known for their anti-aging and anti-acne claims, Clearstem has entered the sheet mask game.

Dr. Jart+ and their horrifying Cryo Rubber masks are hard to forget.

A rich brand in many ways, Augustinus Bader has put their TFC8® into a hydrogel mask.

Loyalists of SK-II are loud, and they swear by the Japanese brand’s facial treatment mask.

OMAD is the maker of two specialty sheet masks with formulas rooted in Chinese medicine.

Skin1004 is everywhere in New York City, and they’re pushing centella hard.

I should also add, my definition of sheet masks is any single-use face treatment in a face-resemblant shape. I’m open to a variety of materials, but the idea is that I’m putting a single object on my face instead of, say, painting myself with mud1.

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Mediheal

Things are starting off on a good note. I actually loved this one. Mediheal’s Rose PDRN masks are, like all sheet masks, saturated in its serum, but the beauty of this one is that it sticks to my face very well. The edges are creased, not unlike a pie crust, which makes the mask hold to the perimeter of my face without needing to continuously adjust. I’m sorry—I’ve gotten ahead of myself. A moment on PDRN (polydeoxyribonucleotide) before we proceed: this is a biological compound derived from salmon DNA that’s used for collagen production, cell regeneration, and fighting inflammation. You may recall its application in the “salmon sperm facial,” but the truth of the matter is that it’s a much more sophisticated scientific breakthrough than its breakout role.

Back to the mask. I put this one on after I got home from a cross-country flight and was very pleased with the situation I had created for myself. It’s a very comfortable wear and my visibility was unhindered, which meant I could unpack and clean my apartment all while the mask stayed firmly on my face. When I removed it, my face felt reborn, as if I hadn’t spent a full day on an airplane just hours prior. It’s advertised as having a “faint floral scent” which ordinarily would freak me out since my skin is quite sensitive, but somehow I missed this (see: cross-country flight) and was completely unbothered by it.

Price: $8.80 for 4 ($2.20/mask)

Hero Ingredients: Rose-infused PDRN, Glycerin, Squalane

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Bioeffect

The expectations for Bioeffect’s Imprinting Hydrogel Mask are high, given their eye masks were the winners of my recent Strategist hunt. I’m also an avid user of their EGF serum, both for face and eyes. Their face mask is a close relative of the eye mask, made of a firm hydrogel material that has a cooling effect. It’s a two-part mask, which took me a minute to wrap my head around, but once I understood that one sheet was for my upper face and one was for the lower half, it was smooth sailing.

It’s meant to maximize the effects of their EGF serums, so the ideal way to use this is to follow your serum application with a quick mask to lock it in. I did not do that (user error) but the good news is that it contains glycerin and hyaluronic acid to make it worthwhile on its own. I have only positive things to say, even with my subpar direction-following skills. I put this on my bare, recently cleansed face on a particularly hot summer day, and all I can say is that the cooling effect is worth the (high) price tag on its own.

Price: $76 for 6 masks ($12.67/mask)

Hero Ingredients: Hyaluronic Acid, Glycerin

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Biodance

I am no longer on TikTok, but from what I hear from those who are, this is THE sheet mask du jour. Its functionality is a bit different than the other hydrating, serum-rich alternatives on this list; Biodance’s Bio-Collagen Real Deep Mask is meant to be used on top of your existing skincare routine to enhance its effects, while adding moisture and boosting elasticity.

It’s recommended to leave this mask on for at least 3 hours, which essentially means you can only do this on a plane (respect) or overnight. I went with the latter, putting what felt like cold Swiss cheese over my face before getting under the covers. I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of having this wet thing draped over my face all night long (would it interfere with my sleep? I wouldn’t be able to use my eye mask. Are my pillows going to be gross?) but I am committed to this report and had no choice but to put my sleep score on the line. I assumed that realistically I’d wake up in the middle of the night and find the mask hanging off my face and I could just toss it as I got up to use the bathroom. So I’m surprised and delighted to report that it actually stayed secure throughout the night and had no impact on my overall sleep quality.

In the morning, my skin was exceptionally moisturized, verging on too shiny. I don’t think the results were anything outstanding, but I definitely see the appeal of trying to a) maximize the efficacy of the expensive products you invested in and b) prepping for a shoot or an event by using one of these the night before.

Price: $27 for 4 masks ($6.75/mask)

Hero Ingredients: 243Da Ultra-Low Molecular Collagen, Galactomyces (omg), Oligo Hyaluronic Acid, Niacinamide

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Clearstem

The Glass Effect Sheet Mask is the first Clearstem product I’m trying, and I have zero expectations going into it. These are their newest sheet masks, which are intended to hydrate and “plump” with “eight multi-weighted forms of hyaluronic acid,” bakuchiol, and allantoin for calming. The best part about this product is that it comes with masks for both your face AND neck, which started to make me slightly anxious about the fact that I’ve neglected the latter up until this point.

I look like a serial killer when undergoing the allotted 20 minutes of treatment, but it’s (mostly) worthwhile. I also tried this one out after an extended period in a hot environment (read: sauna), and once again, I find myself indebted to the cooling properties. On a technical level, the mask is a bit flimsy, and there are enormous gaps for your orifices (sorry). This means that I had to press it down periodically to make sure the product was actually in contact with my face. This is a good mask that certainly hydrated and calmed my red face. It’s not my favorite mask, but it is a good one—especially for people concerned with comedogens.

Price: $38.00 for 3 face and 3 neck, which I’m counting as one mask session ($12.67/mask)

Hero Ingredients: Hyaluronic Acid, Bakuchiol, Allantoin

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Dr. Jart+

Dr. Jart+ makes some of the freakiest looking masks on the market (see: cryo rubber), but the standard-looking Vital Hydra Solution masks were the ones recommended most to me. Well, standard-looking is as standard does (you get what I mean)—I don’t believe these did anything positive for me. In fact, this mask gave me a perioral dermatitis flare and I will never forgive it for that.

The user experience is typical of a sheet mask—wet, slimy—and I’m sure it suits other skin types more than mine. It has some big hydration hitters—hyaluronic acid, a compound called Pentavitin—and while I’m sure my skin was marginally more moisture-rich, these are unfortunately not my girls.

Price: $37 for 5 masks ($7.40/mask)

Hero Ingredients: Hyaluronic Acid, Pentavitin™ (plant-derived carbohydrate complex that mimics the skin's natural moisturizing factors)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️/5

Augustinus Bader The Hydrogel Face Mask

Say what you will about AB, but I think The Rich Cream rocks. Of course, the brand is objectively expensive, so for a category of product that I already consider to be largely superfluous, I was highly skeptical of their face mask. The headlining ingredient of all of Bader’s products is their patented TFC8®, a proprietary combination of lipids, vitamins, and peptides that Dr. Bader created while working with burn victims to support cellular renewal.

I put the two-parter on my face and immediately loved it. First off, the holes for your eyes and mouth are ACTUALLY big enough to give you room to drink water and see clearly, but not TOO big that they prevent full face contact. The mask has some heft to it, and while it feels substantial on your face, it surprisingly doesn’t slide down constantly like other, lighter ones. In general, the hydrogel material is my preference for one of these (see: Bioeffect) because they feel more plush, and as a result, premium.

My skin lapped this serum right up; I wasn’t shiny or damp after, and I think I prefer this lighter, less, uh, wet experience. Also, the gold is a fun touch.

Price: $185 for 6 masks ($30.83/mask)

Hero Ingredients: TFC8® (AB’s proprietary amino acid complex), Acetylated Hyaluronic Acid, Copper Peptide, Allantoin

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

SK-II

This Brightening Serum Facial Treatment Mask is a cult classic, so I’m a bit nervous to say anything adversarial about them. Good thing I have mostly positive things to say. These are effective, if overpriced. I also recently learned while browsing Procter & Gamble’s website (don’t ask) that SK-II is a member of their portfolio. Do with that information as you will.

I don’t love the way they sit on my face; they’re a bit heavy and cumbersome, which makes them slip off and sit strangely around my eyes, nose, and mouth. However, after a solid 10 minutes and a few quick adjustments, I took the mask off and my face felt completely replenished. I wasn’t even particularly dry beforehand, but these made my skin feel so much smoother and ultra-moisturized for a solid hour. I don’t think the value is great—not the best bang for your buck pick—but if you’re already a devotee, I can respect your decision.

Price: $100 for 6 masks ($16.67/mask)

Hero Ingredients: PITERA™ (SK-II’s proprietary, natural bio-ingredient derived from fermentation that contains 50+ micronutrients)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

OMAD

I will come forward and say that OMAD has been the only sheet mask I’ll entertain willingly for a couple of years now. I think they’re very worth any hassle that occurs. They’re gentle and soothing for my sensitive skin, but they actually do something. I get compliments when I meet up with friends after doing one of these masks, usually containing adjectives like “glowy” and “vibrant.” After I use the mask, I squeeze out the serum left in the packet and slather it on my face because I love it so much (and it, unlike most others, absorbs quickly).

Both masks are great, but my personal favorite is the Bio Cellulose Restore & Repair Serum Mask, because I find the ectoin, schizophyllan, and hyaluronic acid combination particularly anti-inflammatory. I also have the pleasure of knowing Ze, OMAD’s founder, personally (I’d say all of this if I didn’t though) and I trust his knowledge of TCM and the innovation he’s put into these products. And for what it’s worth, OMAD has my favorite branding of any of these options.

Price: $48 for 4 masks ($12/mask)

Hero Ingredients: Probiotic and Fermented Rice Serum, Ectoin, Schizophyllan, and
Biosaccharide Gum-1, plus 8 TCM Botanicals

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Skin1004

K-beauty brand Skin1004 is laying claim to the soothing effects of Madagascar centella. According to their site, the Centella Asiatica they use “contains significantly higher
concentrations of madecassoside and TECA” which are considered to be the main actives that make this plant so soothing.

While they have a variety of centella-containing sheet masks, I went with the Hyalu-Cica varietal to keep with the hydration theme that’s prevailed here. These are pretty widely available, in store at Ulta and Asian markets like DIGISO, and online at a variety of retailers, K-beauty focused and otherwise. They’re also quite inexpensive and VERY effective on the hydration front. They’re not the most comfortable (once again, sliding down my face and into my eyes), but after 10 minutes of wear, my skin has never been subjected to more moisture. In fact, it took another 10-15 minutes for the remaining serum to begin to soak into my pores, but once I followed up with my usual barrier support and moisturizer, my skin was feeling noticeably more hydrated for the rest of the day.

Price: $9.67 for 5 masks ($1.93/mask)

Hero Ingredients: Centella, Hyaluronic Acid, Squalane, Ceramide

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The Big Takeaways:

• For a really good, really inexpensive K-beauty pick, go with Mediheal Rose PDRN or Skin1004 Centella Hyalu-Cica Mask (whew).

• I’m happy to confirm Augustinus Bader’s Hydrogel Face Mask is a worthwhile treat.

• If neck-care is a big priority, you’re best off with the Glass Effect from Clearstem.

• Based on the criteria I’ve put forth, it’s clear that OMAD’s Restore & Repair mask is the overall winner.

My face has gone through so much in the hopes that yours won’t have to. Reply to this email or leave a comment if you want to reach me. :)

Danya Issawi 🤩

is a New York-based writer and editor whose work is (mostly) at the intersection between self-expression and culture. She traverses this crossover in her newsletter, Mish Mashy, where she writes essays and features on introspection and moving through the zeitgeist. She’s previously been on staff at The New York Times and New York Magazine and is now working under everyone’s noses here (i.e. at Substack). Her stomach is an utterly hostile environment for dairy, and yet she keeps coming back for more. I, for one, have been obsessed with Danya’s writing for years now, so naturally, I must see her inside of her fridge.

What is your fridge philosophy? 

Be able to fend for yourself, by which I mean, there are few worse feelings than going to the fridge and finding nothing within to eat and or make. I always want to feel like I can provide for myself at any given moment, which means having groceries on deck.

Your fridge is always always always stocked with ____.

Lactaid cottage cheese, which is so lame that it’s kind of chic.

Also, pickles, olives, diet fizzy drinks (it’s too late for me to care about aspartame) and whatever my hyperfixation food is at the moment (I’ve rotated through gouda, carrots, butter lettuce, peaches, greek yogurt with a spritz of whipped cream on top).

Top 5 condiment picks, go.

1. Mayo. I’d actually like to take a minute and talk about mayo. I love mayo mixed into literally any savory food. It is my firm belief that this condiment enhances everything: corn, rice, burgers. Just look at all the good work it’s done for tuna. Everyone looks down on me when I tell them “hey, this white pasty thing is actually my favorite little treat.” First of all, I didn’t invent mayo so wipe that look off your face. Second of all, I’m Arab as hell, so this is technically a cultural exchange — are you against global unity? Third of all, it’s practically just vinegar, grow up.

2. Ranch

3. Dorothy Lynch (midwest real ones know)

4. Special batch Palestinian olive oil from the West Bank

5. The bright yellow lemon poppyseed dressing in my college sorority’s dining hall that I’ve never encountered in the wild since

Fine, I’ll open it up to pantry too. Let’s hear your favorite snacks / pantry staples: 

I’m not a big pantry girl — I kinda like my snacks fresh and cold, but I still need microwavable popcorn, graham crackers and semi-sweet chocolate chips. I like that I can have literally 80 or so chocolate chips and it’s still kind of fine.

A meal that’s on heavy rotation these days:

I’m obsessed with making my own little slop bowls at home: crispy lettuce over white rice with corn, black beans, tomatoes, pickled red onions (which I make at home. It’s actually pretty easy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought to myself “God, I wish I had this thing I’ve mostly only eaten at restaurants” just to google a recipe and find I can do it myself in 20-30 minutes. Women in STEM) and some whole milk greek yogurt and salsa.

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Let’s go a little deeper… 

What’s the mantra you keep coming back to?

Trust yourself.

What products / practices are part of your regular mental wellness habits? 

Time with friends but also ample time at home and time alone. Every season of life I’ve ever been in has been a battle between my existential need to recharge in silence and my gnawing FOMO.

And your physical?

Strength training at least three times a week — I’m hypermobile and have a back that would make a used bendy straw into an empath. If I don’t work my muscles in specific ways I’m 1. in pain and 2. my body can’t function how it’s supposed to. Like my scapulas are really just kinda floating out there.

What do think is the most underrated part of wellness? 

Listening to your body without falling into self-fulfilling prophecies.

Also, balance. Like many girls, I spent the entirety of my young adulthood torturing myself over every calorie. MyFitnessPal was my overlord. It took a lot of internal work to be able to enjoy pizza and Taco Bell and ice cream again. I truly do think life is meant to be enjoyed, however that looks to you.

And overrated?

Barry’s Bootcamp.

Picture this: you wake up one morning and feel like shit. What’s your next move: 

If I have a stomachache, I’m eating a piece of sourdough toast with a tiny bit of butter on it.

If it’s just general enshittification of the mind and body, I’m chugging water and coconut water in succession (Once Upon a Coconut is the best), toast with cottage cheese, probably an Advil if there’s a headache involved, and a warm shower. If more reinforcements are needed, I’m calling my mom so I can satisfy my emotional need to groan: “ughhhhhh, mom ://///.”

Give us your ride or die wellness products:

Spironolactone, Tretinoin, Dieux moisturizer, La Roche Posay tinted mineral sunscreen (when I was 25 my skin erupted in ways previously unseen by man), MaryRuth’s liquid multivitamin, cotton sheets from Hommey and Brooklinen, a firm Tempur-pedic mattress, a trip to the beach, driving with the windows down, calling my mom, crying when I need to and often, the purring of my cats.

One thing you do everyday that makes you the most YOU version of yourself: 

Talking to my boyfriend.

Whose taste inspires you?! 

The girls 10 years younger than I am loitering around Alphabet City and Tompkins Square Park. My friends and women in my orbit: , , , , , Kat Thomas, Emma Oleck, Arsh Raziuddin, , Sarah Elawad. Also, Renaissance and Victorian era nobility. :/ My Achilles heel.

Big thank you to Danya for sharing this delightful journey into her fridge—and life—with us. You can stay up to date with her writing at and follow her on Instagram. Find her fridge favorites + more here.

Feel free to leave a comment or respond to this email with questions you want asked, people you want featured, or anything else that’s on your mind. Don’t be shy, I love hearing from you.

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The former are guest edits by residents of specific locales in which they share the culture around wellness in their community as well as their must-hit spots for fitness, food, and other healing modalities. We’ve got quite the collection of city guides to browse from—spanning across 6 continents (if you live in Antarctica, my DMs are open)—including favorites like San Francisco, London, Melbourne, Seoul, Lagos, Paris, São Paolo, and more.

The latter are my firsthand accounts of particularly special hotels and resorts, more often than not with exceptional wellness amenities. That comes with the very tired caveat that wellness is a vague and almost meaningless catchall term—a term that I define as simply taking care to feel good. Our first resort review is already live; you can read my overview of the Family Coppola Hideaways’ Turtle Inn property nestled in this lovely collaboration with travel writer .

This week, my travels are taking me to a very different setting: British Columbia. I stayed at Four Seasons Resort and Residences Whistler, and my take that ski destinations are better in the summer is even stronger than ever.

About Whistler:

Whistler is a mountain resort town in British Columbia, Canada, just a two hour drive north of Vancouver. It’s home to two mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb, which are part of the Coast mountain range and together make up North America’s largest ski resort. Whistler-Blackcomb was where a lot of the 2010 Olympic games took place, which is all to say that the outdoor activities are world class.

In the summer, Whistler is home to a whole host of outdoor activities, the most popular of which being mountain biking. Whistler mountain becomes a bike park, and visitors can take lessons or rent bikes / equipment and explore on their own. Of course, there are plenty of hikes, as well as (regular) bike trails, lakes, golf opportunities, and forest walking paths.

The village itself is car-free, a quaint mountain-side town with hotels, eateries, souvenir stores, clothing (mostly activewear) stores, and ice cream shops. Because of the wide range of activities and ease of exploration, it’s a pretty popular location for family trips, but couples and adventurous groups are also big demographics.

About the Property:

The Four Seasons, as you likely know, is a luxury hotel and resort company, with experiences ranging from short-term stays, long-term residences, private jets, yachts, fine dining, and world-class spas. In total, they have 135 properties around the globe on six continents, and their first was opened in 1961 in Toronto. Being that they’re a Canadian based company, it felt particularly fitting to visit their Whistler location.

Named to Travel + Leisure's 2026 list of the 500 Best Hotels, the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Whistler is both a winter hot spot for skiers, and a summer destination for mountain biking enthusiasts and wellness-oriented outdoorsy folks. It’s a 270+ room resort, located on the base of Blackcomb, one of two mountains in town, and features a wide range of activities including bear safaris (I did this, stay tuned), ATV buggy rides, ice fishing, white water rafting, personal training, golfing, private painting classes, heli-skiing, forest bathing, and treatments in their newly renovated spa, to name a few. Obviously, the season dictates the types of activities you’re likely to do, but as a now retired skier, I’m particularly excited about the summer offerings.

A Diary of my Trip:

Tuesday:

My day started at 5:15 when I woke up and headed straight to Newark for my flight. After a flight to Seattle, a second flight to Vancouver, and a two-hour drive along the Sea-to-Sky highway that takes you up to Whistler (with some incredible views in the background), I finally arrived at the hotel in the late afternoon. Of course, the first thing I did after putting down my bags was to take a quick shower.

After being reunited with Grown Alchemist’s body care line, we took a quick stroll around the property to get our bearings1. Starting off in the spa area, we had a look at the two-room fitness center, one studio room for stretching and daily group fitness classes, another machine room with high-end treadmills, Pelotons, strength machines, and benches with free weights. Across the hall are gendered locker rooms, each with a steam room and multiple showers, meant to be used after your workout, after your spa treatment in the neighboring room, or during your pool time on the other side of the doors.

The pool area was probably my favorite part, complete with a barrel sauna and multiple hot tubs, as well as some games like Foosball and NBA Jam that I regrettably did not touch. We wound our way through the fire pit area which was situated next to the small cabin serving ice cream, s’mores, and slushies, back into the downstairs reception where local British Columbia wines were being sampled next to some very fun bear statues.

Dinner this night was part of their Villa & Residences Rentals program, a section of the resort reserved for longer term stays where guests can welcome in a sushi chef to prepare them a private meal. This has to be some of the best sushi I’ve eaten in recent history; you don’t realize how the freshness of your fish (specifically from British Columbia) makes the world of a difference even in your maki rolls until you taste it. I truly can’t believe how much I was able to fit in my stomach. At this point I was exhausted and stuffed and I had no recollection of falling asleep that night.

Wednesday:

I woke up bright-eyed and bushy tailed at approximately 6am local time, which I was pretty stoked about given that was 9am in New York. With so much time on my hands before my first activity, I decided to put the gym facilities to use for a moment of solitude to start my day. I know some people are anti-exercise on vacation, but I personally think there are few things more exciting than a clean, renovated, almost-empty gym for me to take my time in. I also, for better or worse, need to maintain some semblance of routine to feel normal.

Next came the breakfast buffet which was awesome. Hotel breakfast buffets are one of life’s greatest pleasures, in my opinion. This one had eggs, breads, fruits, congee (!), and pancakes, so needless to say I was once again stuffed.

At 9am on the dot, I embarked on my first ever bear safari. Bears are (mostly) harmless in these parts, often moseying around golf courses and bike paths in search of some berries to snack on. I was quite eager to see some out in the wild, so it’s with great displeasure to report that we did not see a single mammal2 on our 3-hour-long endeavor. I had a premonition that we’d actually see a bear during a more unassuming time—I think they could pick up on our desperation—so when we spotted a mom and her cub hanging out on the mountain while riding the gondola, I felt like a proper psychic.

We had a lengthy lunch at Christine’s at the top of Blackcomb mountain where some people (not me) tried their first Caesar. I can’t get into that here. Afterwards, it was hiking time. Most of the intense trails were still closed for the season—there was still snow on the ground up there—so we took a nice 3km3 walk around the top of Blackcomb. The goal was to take the peak-to-peak gondola across Blackcomb mountain to Whistler mountain (the two peaks in the area), but due to some inclement weather, we were actually ordered to shelter inside the lodge until the thunder and lightning were far enough from our current location. Cut to an hour and a half later, the gondolas were back up and running and we, slightly anxiously, returned home.

I used my hour or so of downtime here to hit the sauna which was most certainly the right call. A solid 15 minute in that 190+ degree heat, followed by a few laps in the pool and some shower + robe time, and I was feeling reborn for our big dinner at the property’s renowned SIDECUT steak house.

Seafood tower. Miso eggplant. Wagyu. Mashed potatoes. Kale. (I’m smirking.) There were also some expertly crafted cocktails (and mocktails) with cute names, but it’s hard to think about what you’re drinking when there’s an enormous steak looming over the table.

Thursday:

This was the more relaxing day, although I still woke up fairly early and did a quick Pyro video in the gym. I rushed back to the room in time to meet a delightful British man wheeling in a—get ready for it—breakfast tower. I chowed through my ornate display of breakfast tapas while gazing out at the mountain view, feeling that ever-so-special sensation of awe. Joie de Vivre Index at an all time high.

Next was time for forest bathing. Otherwise known as Shinrin Yoku, forest bathing is a Japanese practice that involves immersing oneself in nature—ideally without technology—to reconnect with the earth and combat stress and other physical ailments. Our particular forest bathing session was special because we grounded, a personal favorite wellness practice of mine. Sitting on cushions, we were guided in a quick meditation, our feet in the dirt, the soothing sounds of a stream rushing by us. Not to give away a future Will This Chill Me Out?, but I loved it.

After a quick lunch back at the Four Seasons, it was time for my highest anticipated activity yet: my massage. Their spa facility was recently renovated, meaning the treatments, the products from a local indigenous purveyor Sḵwálwen Botanicals, and the meditation room are all fairly new. I’ll preface this massage review by saying that I think we are currently living in a low pressure epidemic here in New York. Any time I get a massage in the city,4 the practitioner does not believe me when I specify that I want my pressure level to be “deep,” and so I’m left with an expensive rub. I finally felt seen and heard by a practitioner, and it took me going all the way to Whistler to find her. She went IN on my back and hamstrings in a way that was borderline masochistic of me, and I loved every second of it. When my massage was over, she handed me my robe, fresh out of the warmer, and I sat on the bed for a moment, stupefied and immensely cozy.

I’m going to admit something upsetting to you all which is that right after this intense relaxation experience I went back to my room and sent some emails. It grounded me in reality which I sort of needed, and I won’t be made to feel guilty about it. I made sure I had an hour or so before our final dinner, which I spent checking out the village of Whistler (a 15 minute walk / 3 minute drive from the hotel). I gave the souvenir shops a quick one-over, admired all of the moose and bear paraphernalia, and appreciated the Olympic Ring statue (?) before strolling back home.

For our last meal, we had a big Latin dinner as part of their Summer Thursday “Pura Vida” dining series. Once again, I stuffed myself to the brim, this time with ceviche and Peruvian chicken. To digest before our evening sound bath, I made my way back to the village to catch the end of the USA vs Turkey World Cup game and e-biked back along the nearby trails.

The sound bath was actually Plan B—we were actually supposed to celestial bathe (a.k.a. stargaze)—but the cloudy skies had other plans for us. I recently wrote that I’m anti-sound bath, but I may have spoken too soon because this one was inoffensive to me. Lovely, even. I think it’s because our guide, Chelsea, refrained from using chimes, which I’m now realizing is my main gripe with this modality, and led us through some gentle breathing exercises. It was the perfect way to wrap this very restorative few days up, energetically speaking.

Friday:

I visited the gym once again, this time for a simple treadmill walk in anticipation for a long day of sitting ahead of me. I took my two-hour drive back to Vancouver and returned to one of the cleanest airports I’ve ever stepped foot in. There are approximately eight Tim Hortons in there. I had a GoMacro Square (somehow more delicious than the original ones) and a coffee from Joe and the Juice and called it a day before boarding my flight. I know you were curious.

Big Takeaways:

• As expected, the hospitality was excellent. Everyone I spoke to was incredibly kind and interested in helping me have the smoothest experience possible.

• The scenery is unparalleled. I know that sounds like a silly thing to say, but I was truly stunned every time I glanced at the horizon and saw snow-covered mountains and lush green trees looking back at me. Nature is healing, for real. Summer is the best time to go, IMO.

• Bears are not scary, just really cute.

• I wasn’t expecting Whistler to be such a culinary overachiever (no offense), but the quality of produce—and the seasonal fish—is astounding to my New Yorker palate. Definitely get sushi while you’re there. Also, wine from British Columbia is top tier, so if that’s your thing, you’ll want to do a tasting of sorts.

• Even if you don’t stay at the Four Seasons, you need to go to their spa. Everything from the robes to the treatment to the tea to the relaxation rooms are 10/10. I haven’t found a massage like that…anywhere.

  More Plant Based

Worth Noting if You Plan a Trip:

• I would recommend spending a solid amount of time in the actual village of Whistler. It’s a quintessential ski town, but with a few summer adaptations (read: ice cream shops), with a nice array of casual dining options, gear shops, and touristy trinket stores. I found it rather charming and wish I got to explore it a bit more.

• There’s also a confusingly inexpensive yet highly rated restaurant called Wild Blue that I would also check out. If you’re there before peak summer season, their tasting menu is less than $50CAD, which again, makes no sense.

• A regret of mine, and I realize this sounds like a death wish, is that I didn’t go mountain biking. Whistler is one of, if not the most, elite downhill mountain biking destinations in the world, so I feel like it’s a must-do if you’re the slightest bit adventurous.

• If you’re coming from the East Coast, you’re going to want to take an early flight over there. I was dreading my 5am wakeup, but I got to Vancouver by 12:30pm which got me to Whistler at 3pm or so. If you were to go any later, that all gets shifted back and your day is lost.

There you have it, a big synopsis of an incredible trip to Whistler. Currently an underrated—although I bet it will be standardly rated soon—travel destination. I’m curious which places and/or wellness experiences you’ve got your eyes on these days…

Daphne Javitch

is a health coach and the founder of Doing Well. Her specialty is helping busy people build healing routines that are doable not dreadful. As a former client of Daphne’s, I can personally attest to her excellence in the above, as well as her impeccable taste in everything from food to fashion. With that, let’s get into her fridge.

What is your fridge philosophy? 

Full of life!

Your fridge is always always always stocked with ____.

Lots of leaves, greens, veggies and fruits. Herbs! Lemons! Limes! Homemade almond milk. Olives, pickles, dates. Yogurt, butter, Pali’s cow milk, cold filtered water, Pellegrino. Leftovers.

Top 5 condiment picks, go.

1. Tamari

2. Nutritional yeast

3. Yuzu furikake

4. Salt

5. Olive oil

Fine, I’ll open it up to pantry too. Let’s hear your favorite snacks / pantry staples: 

Bjorn Qorn, El Machete corn totopos, basmati rice, lentils, black beans, coconut oil, coffee beans, a variety of teas, and honey. Dried mango, chocolate.

A meal that’s on heavy rotation these days:

We eat our fresh beet salad weekly as a dinner side. There’s always a white sweet potato baking for someone’s lunch. And we’ve been doing a lot of whole fish branzino lately.

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Let’s go a little deeper… 

What’s the mantra you keep coming back to?

Consistency heals.

What products / practices are part of your regular mental wellness habits? 

Hiking, time with friends, good sleep, and most importantly a daily ‘no phone zone’—I have zero contact with my phone until my children leave for school.

And your physical?

Exercise, green juices, gravity woods colonics, infrared sauna, and myofascial massage.

What do think is the most underrated part of wellness? 

A friendly and swift return to routine when things fall apart.

And overrated?

Sky high protein targets.

Picture this: you wake up one morning and feel like shit. What’s your next move: 

It’s been a while, so first I would groan quite a bit. Then I’d have lots of water, electrolytes, take a shower, and go for a walk outside.

Give us your ride or die wellness products:

Seed Probiotic before bed, Moon Juice Magnesi-Om, Vi02 Mouth Tape, and Gaia Oregano Oil when I’m fighting a cold.

One thing you do everyday that makes you the most YOU version of yourself: 

Alone time. Even just 15 minutes.

Whose taste inspires you?! 

Valentina Akerman, Eliana Rodriguez, Rachel Chandler, Andrea Ámez, Gillian Garcia, Janicza Bravo, Ezra Woods, Cassi Namoda. And princess Caroline of Monaco in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Big thank you to Daphne for sharing this glimpse into her life with us. You can follow her and Doing Well on Instagram and Substack, and access her health coaching membership on her site. Find her fridge favorites + more here.

Feel free to leave a comment or respond to this email with questions you want asked, people you want featured, or anything else that’s on your mind. Don’t be shy, I love hearing from you.

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Last time I tried breathwork, grounding, magnesium supplements, and cupping, if you want to get up to speed. As you’ll recall, I’m accruing experiences across the Chill Out spectrum, ranging from cliché to absurd, in an effort to bring my type A eldest daughter disposition to a rest and digest nervous system state. Today, we’re covering sound baths, journaling, sensory deprivation float tanks, and sauna sessions. Let’s not waste more time on the intro.

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Sound Bath

A sound bath, broadly speaking, is an immersion in deep sound vibrations. Typically, this looks like a group of people laying in Savasana while a practitioner plays different instruments like chimes, gongs, metal bowls, tuning forks, and Tibetan singing bowls to create healing vibrations. The idea is that these resonant sound vibrations can activate your parasympathetic nervous system, reducing your heart rate and decreasing physical manifestations of stress. Some scientists say that they can also shift your brain waves from active beta waves to slower alpha, theta, or delta waves which are typically associated with meditation.

I will be honest, I went into this experience feeling a large amount of dread. The idea of laying on the floor in public while listening to gongs for an hour sounds—what’s the word—awful to me, but I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised a la my breathwork session. They’re not that dissimilar; the room is serious and smells of incense, with a group of yoga mats laid out, adorned with pillows, eye masks, and blankets for optimal calming conditions.

Before I could step into the sacred space at Official Ritual, I had to turn my phone off and put it in a Yondr pouch in the separate lobby area which all felt a bit gratuitous but I of course let it go because I am a guest in their space. The session was an hour long, and the agenda was as follows: brief yoga-teacher-esque sermon about finding inner calm, 40 rounds of quick inhales and deep, humming exhales to activate the throat chakra, followed by a 50-or-so minute freestyle set of “relaxing” instruments.

The sequence was well done—starting with breathwork instantly dropped me into a calmer state and by the time the tuning forks started singing I was verging on nap territory. I should add that I’m vehemently anti-nap, mostly because I’m physically incapable of it, so it’s pretty remarkable that this had me dozing off—on top of a pillow stuffed with beans, no less. That said, every time I felt myself drift into a dream state, I was quickly awoken by the sound of chimes which were far too close to the iPhone alarm. This made me cranky, and by extension, unchill. Unlike my breathwork session which it resembled superficially, this left me feeling groggy and irritable.

The Verdict:

Technically, this did chill me out in brief increments but only because it was essentially just glorified nap time. It gets a point for the hour-long—albeit military grade—phone embargo though.

Journaling

I’m not going to explain journaling to you because that would make both you and I look ridiculous. I will, however, share numerous studies that posit journaling’s positive effects on our mental—and as a result—physical health. Journaling demonstrably improved mental distress in people with heightened anxiety symptoms. Its effects exceed those of cognitive behavioral therapy on occasion. It’s also been proven to reduce blood pressure, improve immune responses, and enhance lung function. I can keep going.

Of course, there are many different types of journaling—gratitude, list-making, free-writing, etc.—but I personally try not to be too prescriptive in my own practice. In the mornings upon waking up, I try to make a point of jotting down a few sentences1 before I go about my day. Often, I don’t have anything too pressing to discuss, so I resort to a good old fashion gratitude transcription to get the wheels turning in a positive direction. If I’m feeling particularly cloudy or confused or generally just mentally itchy, I’ll do a brain dump of sorts. I write down my hopes and dreams and plans on a semi-annual basis. All of that good stuff.

Have you ever seen those nasty hydrafacial videos where you see all of the gunk that was living in the person’s pores in this external holding vessel? That’s how I feel about journaling. It’s like all of the junk floating around in my brain is released into this safe receptacle for disposal. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, allegedly, so in order for the anxiety to exit my mind, it has to go onto a page. Seems logical enough.

The Verdict:

This chills me out every single time. Seeing my worries on paper minimizes them significantly from the big scary presence they wield in my head. Writing down some form of gratitude on a near daily basis makes me feel connected to my life in a tactile way which is probably also good for my nervous system regulation.

Sensory Deprivation Floatation

Sensory deprivation floatation, also known as float tank therapy, also known as REST (restricted environmental stimulation therapy)—bear with me—is when a person floats in dark silence in a water-filled sensory deprivation pod to enter a deep state of relaxation, thereby promoting physical and mental healing. There have been some limited studies demonstrating its stress-reducing, optimism-increasing effects. It also, allegedly, helps improve sleep quality and decrease chronic pain and muscle aches (the latter is perhaps a result of the 1000 pounds (not exaggerating) of Epsom salt that’s necessary for floatation to occur).

Let me first say, before I get into the details of this experience, that I am claustrophobic. It doesn’t impact my life on a day-to-day basis, but I definitely prefer to take stairs over an elevator and I have nightmares about getting trapped in a Subway car, if that gives you an idea. I expressed this fear to the lovely man at the front desk of Lift Floats, a studio in a residential building in Cobble Hill that refers to itself as “Brooklyn’s preferred floatation center,” who showed me to my pod and reassured me that I wouldn’t be locked in and that I could keep the door (?) ajar if I pleased and if I was really panicked, I could try the “float room” with more accessible features instead. I’m not sure what got into me—probably my deeply-rooted journalistic duties—but a small seed of courage sprouted inside of me and I went for it.

I rinsed off in my treatment room’s shower before stepping into the pod naked (as recommended), shutting the hatch, laying on my back, and silencing the optional music and turning off the glowing blue lights. I floated like that for about 30 minutes, just letting the water lightly jostle me around while I tried to shut my brain off and submit myself to the nothingness. I’m impressed that I lasted 30 minutes, even though the session is an hour long, at which point the Alicia-Vikander-in-Ex-Machina voice wakes you from your meditative state and turns on the light. I stepped out of the pod slightly embarrassed that I paid $90 to meditate naked in an enclosed public pool when I could have just done so on my couch, but also proud that I tried something new and slightly terrifying. It took two thorough showers to sufficiently remove all of the salt particles from my skin.

The Verdict:

This is likely one of the more ridiculous things I’ve done in the name of wellness, and I can’t really imagine doing it again. Surprisingly, I didn’t hate it, but I also didn’t love it or feel necessarily relaxed. I found it hard to detach from my thoughts because I kept internally laughing at the image of myself from a third-party perspective. As always, however, 30 minutes without my phone is definitely beneficial.

Sauna

Sauna, as previously defined in our Bathing Glossary, is “a general term for heated rooms designed to raise core temperature and promote sweating.” When we spend an extended period of time in high temperatures, our blood vessels naturally dilate which promotes sweating. This, in turn, increases blood flow and reduces blood pressure, both of which are good for cardiovascular health. There are plenty of studies detailing the physical benefits of sauna-going, but the literature on mental benefits are more scarce. One Japanese study claims that repeated thermal therapy reduced the “number of complaints in mildly depressed patients” (nice) and another associates its positive mental health effects on British adults with feelings of social belonging. You can do all the research you want about sweating in a hot room either by yourself or with members of your community, but the truth of the matter is that cultures around the world have been doing this for centuries.

I try to sauna twice a week, usually at , and I’ve been especially consistent for the sake of this relaxation endeavor. I switch it up between quick (15-20 minute) sessions in the 190 degree+ Finnish sauna and longer (40ish minute) sessions in the infrared with my book or a friend. The physical release of sweating is cathartic and calming in and of itself, but with the added benefit of—one last time, sorry—detaching from technology, really exacerbates it. When I’m in the Finnish sauna, I tend to go to an aufguss session (essential oils, towel waving, calm music) which adds a few extra variables to this relaxation experiment, and the same can be said for the immersion in a good book which happens in the infrared. Also, saunas, in my experience, tend to be thoughtfully designed spaces, and being in a beautiful environment is a soothing bonus.

The Verdict:

Yes, every time, without fail. One of my favorite, and therefore most consistent, chill out modalities.

That concludes Chill Report number 2. I said last time that we’ll talk about acupressure mats. I mean it this time. I’m considering adding forest bathing, cold plunging, and cortisol-balancing supplements to the line up as well, but I’m open to any other requests. Once again, I’ll leave you with the sweet sounds of my hand-selected, recently updated(!) Will This Chill Me Out? playlist.