👍 is sterile. Transactional. Faintly hostile, if I’m being honest. The emoji equivalent of someone nodding at you while they walk away.

That is an enormous amount of power to give to a tiny cartoon hand.

(I get into it more starting at 23:45 in this week’s Across The Bar podcast episode, where I was back in the guest co-host chair talking work, culture, and well-being.)

Last night, somewhere over the Midwest on the flight home from a women’s retreat I co-hosted in Topanga, I finally worked out why it gets to me. The answer came from an Alanis Morissette song I’ve kept on a playlist called Epiphanies! for years: “That I Would Be Good.” Four minutes of naming every condition under which she’d still be worth something. And then, plainly, in the middle of it: even if I got the thumbs down.

She isn’t asking for the thumbs up. She’s arguing that she’d be fine without either one.

The problem was never which way the thumb is pointing. The problem is that I look.

And while I continue working on that, let’s jump into the news of the week…

Across The Wellness World

HEALTH & TECH

• Vanity Fair makes a case against wearable tech and health trackers, and days later Oura CEO Tom Hale tells Business Insider he wakes at 5 a.m. when things are going well and 3:30 when they aren’t, then checks his sleep score before his feet hit the floor.

• More wearable news. Fitbit’s co-founders are back, and this time the customer is your mom. Athletech reports that the forthcoming Luffu Link is a screenless band with geofencing, medication logging, and SOS capability for sending location and vital signs, even without a phone nearby.

• And Whoop’s new Meridian is a $149 titanium mesh band, not a new tracker—same 5.0 sensors, dressed for a wedding. Business of Fashion pegs the drop as Whoop turning toward women, at a $10.1 billion valuation and with an IPO in view.

• The FDA approves Rasonque (generic name daraxonrasib) for advanced pancreatic cancer after chemo, per STAT. Median survival ran 13.2 months against 6.7 on standard treatment—in a disease where progress is usually measured in weeks, one oncologist called it the biggest development in decades.

• The physical therapy company Sword Health is buying meditation app Headspace for somewhere between $200 and $300 million, according to Fitt Insider. The deal is expected to close Sept 14.

FITNESS

• I wrote about how gut health impacts your workout performance for the women’s lifting brand Danimas. Hint: Eat some kiwis.

• Nike closed a block of Orchard Street on Saturday for a 100-meter street race with heats, DJs, and a prize built for the actual crisis: up to $4,000 toward one month’s rent.

• Are gym-goers okay with a velvet rope? Life Time launches LT Social, an application-based club inside the club, launching with events Sept 12–13 at Life Time Sky in NYC.

• Hyrox and Amazon are officially partners, bringing the hybrid fitness brand one step closer to world domination. (Follow me on IG for breaking news in the wellness world.)

• Faces of Fitness, the Chicago festival its hometown press calls “the Lollapalooza of fitness,” will debut in Miami Oct 24–25, with Dwyane Wade hosting and Peloton instructors billed like headliners.

SPORTS

• Aww: Asics handed out love notes to Sydney Marathon finishers on Sunday. Basically the emo answer to the backlash from Nike’s Boston Marathon billboards back in April.

• It’s NFL preseason, and the NYT examined 878 former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 and confirmed CTE in 215 of them, which is at least one in four. Heartbreaking.

• This (since pulled) Good Good Golf commercial for a Callaway club collaboration (how’s that for a tongue twister) is legitimately disturbing in its cavalier depiction of violence toward women. Now Callaway has severed ties with Good Good, and Dick’s Sporting Goods and Costco have pulled their gear and merch.

MENTAL HEALTH

• It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with mornings. (I even wrote a book called Own Your Morning about them.) The women of Chief asked me to share my science-backed tips for building an a.m. that lights you up and preps you for the day ahead. Spoiler: My mornings look different now that I work for myself!

• Stanford researchers surveyed 1,131 Character.AI users and found that those with the smallest real-world social circles reported the lowest well-being. The researchers call AI companionship “social snacking,” which might sound cute until you think about who’s living on it.

• Should you add acupuncture to your depression treatment plan? Allure investigates.

• In a new RAND piece, writer Ryan McBain asks OpenAI to prove that its new teen safeguards actually work. About 60% of U.S. teens use ChatGPT, and roughly one in five people ages 12 to 21 have asked a chatbot for mental health advice. Nearly two-thirds hadn’t told anyone.

• Meta settled with 29 states for $18 billion rather than let a jury rule on whether it designed Instagram to addict children. I think the structural changes to IG and Facebook—two-hour daily default limits, a midnight-to-6 a.m. lockout, hidden like counts on posts, a ban on extreme beauty filters—are a huge step in the right direction. More details and thoughts here, at minute 26.

SELF-CARE

• Not your average celeb skincare collab…Lady Gaga revealed a new tech brand called Outer Bio on Instagram Friday with the caption: “We are building the future of skin health.” The company has raised about $23 million, and keeps donated human skin alive for four weeks so ingredients can be tested on real tissue.

• No one asked for this. Tarte’s new “contouring” Snatch Stick campaign sent creators a PR box with a photo marked in surgical dotted lines and a “treatment plan” recommending rhinoplasty, delivered as a press package to influencers. Unfortunately, this sh*t works—the product sold 2.4x its week one forecast.

• Target Beauty Studio opens Sept 10 with 1,600 products from about 90 brands, moving into the roughly 600-store footprint Ulta vacated this summer when their five-year shop-in-shop partnership ended.

• Hilton brings recovery in-house with Signia Restore, opening in Indianapolis in January: hybrid and red-light saunas, a cold therapy room, Normatec, an Aescape robotic massage table, and a concierge to sequence it.

CULTURE

• Harry Styles walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and onto Madison Square Garden in midtown for his final NYC rehearsal. In June he jogged from Hampstead to Wembley to reach his own show. Iconic active commutes are becoming a bit for him, and I’m here for it.

• Nike crashed sorority rush, outfitting at least six chapters at South Carolina, Texas, and Arizona State this fall. Nike’s college business director calls sorority members “powerful cultural forces on college campus” and frames them as campus athletes (via Front Office Sports).

• Searches for “creatine for women” on Amazon now top 174,000 a month—and grew more last month alone than in the entire year before it. Creatine sales are up 90%. That is a lot of powder. And gummies.

• Making bone density cool! Katie Couric, who’s 69, posted one of her strength sessions to IG. She uses TRX and kettlebells, three days a week. And Katie, call me. I’ll work out with you anytime.

THE FINAL WHISTLE

I don’t need your thumbs up, but I’d still super-appreciate a heart, share, comment—or best of all, your level-up to a Gold Star subscription. It all makes my newsletter possible. (This post was written on an Eight Sleep score of 51.) Thank you for reading BCS!

There’s a joke in my family that on days I start working crack-of-dawn early, I’m at higher risk of “hallucinating” by afternoon. Not in the medical sense. In the chatbot sense.

I’m often up before dawn puzzling through reporting and writing this newsletter. And at 5:17 a.m., I’m ninja-sharp. But give me a full day of interviews, studies, Slack, email, Zoom, 37 open tabs, half-written paragraphs, Instagram posts, and by late afternoon, I start to glitch. I forget a word mid-sentence. I text Matt something I’ve already told him twice. I walk into a room and lose the plot.

Context rot.

That’s the term for what happens when an LLM gets overloaded with information and its responses start to degrade. It also describes how I feel after a long day of consuming and synthesizing too much. My “context window” at 5 p.m. is not what it was before breakfast.

So I laughed while reading a new Atlantic piece this week—“Why Is Everyone in Silicon Valley Talking Like That?”—cataloging the AI vocabulary showing up in human conversations. You used to feel loose or maybe random. Now people describe themselves as “high temperature” when they’re in a say-anything mood. They “update their weights” when they learn something new. And if they can’t answer a question, it simply wasn’t in their “training data.” Guilty here, too: I’ve started telling Matt to “ask Claude” when he poses a question I can’t answer. (The new “Google it.”)

I think it’s pretty shivery that humans are starting to sound like the machines that were taught to sound like us. But at the same time: Isn’t this what language does? We pick it up from the worlds we spend time in. We’ve been spinning our wheels, reinventing them, and switching gears for a long, long time.

I’ll speak for myself. After more than two decades in the fitness and health space, “wellness” words have completely infiltrated the way I talk. I don’t sit with an idea; I metabolize it. I do reps. I pivot between protocols. I flex new muscles, professionally. I get dysregulated by deadlines, and then I need a deload week. I’m probably one sauna away from describing a challenging week as hormetic stress.

We end up talking like whatever we’re around all day. Which can be delightful or dystopian, depending on what fills those hours. So allow me to prompt you? (Gah!) Pay attention to your word choice.

And on the subject of attention: Here’s a beautiful new piece about the poet Mary Oliver (also in The Atlantic), whose life’s work was rooted in the practice of noticing the world around her. Excellent companion reading.

With that, let’s get into the news…

Across The Wellness World

HEALTH & TECH

• If you’ve ever wondered how many longevity clinics NYC can support, like I have, the answer is: apparently, more. Neko’s Soho clinic, opening in October, reportedly has a 25,000-person waitlist.

• The Atlantic digs into evidence that men’s average testosterone levels have been falling for decades. Obesity? Chemicals? Less exercise? Changes in how we measure it? There are plenty of theories.

• Vogue has been ramping up its health and fitness coverage recently. Exhibit A: this “Ferritin Face” explainer. I think rebranding iron deficiency as a “beauty” problem is a smart Trojan horse—it may get women to a blood panel faster than fatigue does.

PEPTIDES

• One in five Americans has used a GLP-1, and the workplace has no playbook for what you’re supposed to say—or definitely not say—about it. This week I guest co-hosted Across the Bar, my friends Peter Rahbar and Laura Brounstein’s awesome workplace and culture podcast, and we discussed GLP-1 office etiquette, employee gyms, and some opinions I typically avoid airing in this newsletter.

• Here’s the NYT on the normalization of needles in Americans’ lives: peptides, GLP-1s, Botox, etc.

• Would you use a skin-darkening, unregulated peptide that’s raised concerns about melanoma? I say heck no, but GQ interviews guys who say yep.

• I came of age in the era of SlimFast, fen-phen and magazine covers promising “Lose 10 Pounds in 2 Weeks!” Today’s teens have social media feeds filled with before-and-afters and GLP-1 journeys. Bloomberg looks at how this iteration of diet culture is shaping how teens think about their bodies.

MENTAL HEALTH

• Girls are walking into therapy appointments introducing themselves through a diagnosis—ADHD, OCD, anxiety. A psychiatrist’s advice in the NYT: Take therapy-speak seriously, not literally. For example, “I have ADHD” may mean I feel scattered, I’m overwhelmed, or I’m afraid something’s wrong with me.

• Therapists, they’re just like us. Complicated humans with opinions, political leanings, and lives outside each session. The WSJ explores where the line sits between having a worldview and prescribing one.

• This week in plant medicine: Scientific American explains new research about a brain signature for the “oneness” people report on psilocybin—and it may help explain the drug’s therapeutic effects.

FITNESS

• Fitness brands are making moves. Solidcore shakes off the Pilates label with an eye on strength training. Crunch moves boutique studios inside its big-box gyms. And per IG Stories, the Ladder workout app is cooking up some sort of non-gym content with Dr. Gabrielle Lyon.

• Exhibit B from Vogue: “It’s Time for Brands to Invest in Women Who Lift,” by Grace Cook, who also writes the excellent Salty newsletter. I’m here for it.

• In the name of service journalism, I wrote about constipation for Danimás—how your gut can mess with your lifts, runs, abs, and confidence—and what actually helps.

SELF-CARE

• Neutrogena responds to backlash over an alleged morality clause invoked after a TV interview that touched on postpartum depression, in the wake of Hayden Panettiere’s death. The company now says it regrets making her feel unsupported.

• The quantified-self optimization era is coming for our pores. Lumeria’s Lumoscope, a $199 clip-on that turns your phone into a clinic-style skin scanner, sold out its first batch in under 24 hours.

SPORTS

• It’s almost U.S. Open time (yesss), and NY Mag says the tournament is getting super schmancy. The signature Honey Deuce will reportedly still cost $23…practically a bargain considering you’ll definitely post a portrait-mode pic of yours. It’d be cool if they’d debut a mocktail version for the non-drinkers; we love melon balls, too!

• One of my favorite swim brands, Left On Friday, just became the first-ever apparel sponsor of Volleyball World’s beach tour. As someone currently learning to whip a sauna towel (aufguss is becoming my personality) around in a bathing suit, I can confirm: their stuff stays put.

• Related: Women’s sports continue to be a very good place to invest your money. Nielsen’s new report says viewership is up 18% year over year, ad spend is up 120% since 2022, and NWSL sponsor valuations are up 82%. LFG!

CULTURE

• This LA Times headline—“The Santa Monification of NYC”—seems specifically designed to bait wellness creators into covering it. So here I am.

• Organic produce, meet artificial intelligence. According to a leaked invitation that went viral, Gwyneth Paltrow is hosting a private, off-the-record Hamptons dinner in honor of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman this weekend. Between this and OpenAI’s recent wellness-focused press trip in the Hudson Valley, AI seems pretty interested in courting the wellness world.

• First The New Yorker gave us the sauna-subway cover. Now we have “Before the Plunge.” Message to the art department: I feel seen.

• Degree’s new “Sweat Central” campaign leans into the city’s famously steamy subway platforms, complete with “Boiler Room” signs. Pairs nicely with the explosion of sauna/subway Reels taking over my IG feed.

TRAVEL

• I get a lot of great travel ideas on Substack, so it’s cool to see Travel + Leisure joining this platform with a newsletter titled The Fast Track. (They didn’t import their marketing email list; 2K subscriptions so far.) And a heads up: I’ll be speaking about wellness travel at the brand’s World’s Best Summit in London in October. Obviously I’ll conduct BCS research while I’m on the ground.

• Dallas is making a serious play to become a wellness destination. It already has WorldSprings; now Therme is one step closer to building an $850 million resort near downtown.

• I’d like to send a passive-aggressive message to fellow passengers by wearing Lufthansa’s new sweatshirt on my flight to L.A. later this week: “Middle seat gets the armrests.” What a delightful campaign.

THE FINAL WHISTLE

Thank you so much for reading! This post required a 4:07 a.m. alarm and used a healthy portion of my context window. If you want to keep BCS coming to your inbox, your paid subscription makes my work possible. ♥️

When I’m stressed out, my body tells me before my to-do list does. My heart rate goes sky high and stays elevated. My chest feels tight. Adrenaline can make my fingers so shaky that I start making typos as I peck away on my laptop. It’s hard to fall asleep. I might develop a headache. I may even feel a little nauseated, which affects my appetite.

Each of those reactions is a physical manifestation of my body hanging out in fight-or-flight mode, and each one flares along its own spectrum. The symptoms and their severity depend on whether something acute has happened—you know the triggers, your boss Slacks you “Can you meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow?” with no context—or whether I’m simply overworked and overwhelmed.

You’ve heard me on the five pillars of well-being before: fitness, nutrition, prioritizing sleep, connection with other humans, and yes, stress management. They fuel one another; it’s a never-ending feedback loop. When my sleep is good, I eat better and I’m more dialed in during workouts. When I’m hanging with my friends more often, I’m calmer.

At some point it becomes a chicken and egg situation. Am I tense today because I didn’t sleep well last night? Because I haven’t hugged a friend or a family member? And so on.

But even when I’m doing everything right, there are times I still feel like a live wire. This post is about that feeling.

You can’t simply think your way into being less stressed out, in my experience. So I collect alternative techniques like tiny treasures. Full disclosure: some of them are weird. One involves a bowl of ice water. Another came straight from my therapist. All of them soothe me when my nervous system is going haywire.

Gold Star readers, let’s get regulated…

Read more

Then I did a quick mental audit and changed my reply to: Pilates this morning and just finished a little nap, so definitely good.

I’ve been thinking about that exchange ever since, because I’m not sure either answer was exactly right. Or more accurately: They were both right.

My career revolves around things I love, and I don’t take that for granted. Twenty-two-year-old investment-banking-analyst Liz would 100% cry happy tears if I told her that one day, writing about fitness and health—and practicing sauna towel choreography on her perfect Bernese mountain dog in the park—would be her job.

Which means a Pilates class not only zings my abs, but is also grist for posts about pelvic floor health. A trip to the bathhouse is how I want to spend a Sunday and it’s a growing part of my beat. An experience becomes an idea becomes a post or a pitch or a story—or just a detail I file away, its relevance TBD. I’ve learned that the things I can’t stop thinking about usually lead somewhere good.

This is all awesome. It can also be disorienting. When so much of my life doubles as research, what exactly counts as being off the clock?

Last week I got a message from a reader who’s been in a corporate role for 16 years, but fitness is her entire personality on weekends. She thinks she’s ready to blow up her career and build a new one around well-being—the thing she can’t stop thinking about. So let me be careful here: the blurring I’m describing is what she’s hoping for. It’s worth hoping for. It’s also not free.

Here’s what my weekend actually looked like. You tell me what counts as work…

Friday night

• Zoomed with two writer crushes turned friends, Bill Gifford (Hotwired, Outlive) and Leslie Schrock (Bumpin’, Fertility Rules), and got so lit up I spent the evening on my—dum, dum, dum—book proposal.

• Crafted text and designed graphics for the Built For Strength retreat I’m co-hosting. I’m trying to be less precious about overthinking how I share my appearances. (P.S. This event is coming up hot—August 28–30—if you want to join us.)

• Texted with some wonderful sauna-master friends about my towel-waving technique, then took their tips for a spin in my backyard at dusk.

• Showered at around 8:30 p.m. Air-dried my hair and…

• Walked to Double Windsor in Windsor Terrace to split a cheeseburger, fries, and the “grape gazpacho” with Matt. Fizzy water with lime for me, IPA for him.

Saturday

• Slept in till 7 a.m. That’s not a flex. It’s just how I’m wired.

• Walked Willa in Prospect Park and pulled over into an empty clearing to practice some towel choreography on her. A guy walked by with his dogs and a raised eyebrow. Hi?

• Worked on revisions for forthcoming NYT and Vanity Fair pieces, plus guest posts for a couple of other Substacks. Hyped for all of it to land soon.

• Picked up sourdough croissants and a giant cinnamon roll at Winner in Park Slope for my family to share. (Get there early before the best stuff is sold out.)

• Took my second class at the new-ish Craft Pilates in my neighborhood. My abs still feel so alive today.

• My sheets were clean and crisp. I napped.

• Wasted Spent way too much time teaching myself to make a label graphic in Canva.

Saturday night

• Matt and the kids went to see the new Spider-Man movie. I stayed home and worked. I’ll stream it someday.

• Finally took an Everything Shower at 8 p.m. and finished with my favorite Herbivore body oil. (Postponing showers is a recurring weekend problem for me.)

• Attempted a late dinner at Mash Inn, the new bar in a former laundromat that just added food. Predictably, it was packed. So, night two at Double Windsor, with a—let me live!—non-alcoholic Bloody Mary with extra olives.

Sunday

• Turned my attention to the newsletter you’re reading right now.

• Jogged to Life Time because they have the best platforms for deadlifts, followed by a contrast therapy pit stop at Bathhouse. I don’t mean to be dramatic, but I felt reborn.

Sunday night

• East Village with my family for an early dinner at The Smith, followed by The Odyssey. It made me want to write about Trojan horses and Zeus’s law of hospitality this morning. Too soon—I’m still metabolizing the film.

• Got home late for a Sunday (10 p.m.). Prepped the coffee, reviewed my calendar for the week, and read in bed.

So: not just so much work. A nap, pastries, aufguss in the backyard at dusk, three nights off from cooking dinner, and abs that still zing. I still can’t tell you which parts were the job.

How was your weekend? Tell me in the comments. And with that, let’s get into the news of the week…

Across The Wellness World

Much love to the friends and family of actor Hayden Panettiere. I met her in early 2023 in Malibu at a Women’s Health cover shoot, where we talked about being sober. She was a sweet, bright soul.

MENTAL HEALTH

• NY Mag asks: Is admitting you’re struggling social media’s last taboo? We’ll post the breakup once we’ve healed, the layoff once we’ve landed somewhere better, the crisis once it has become a growth story. But we’re terrible at revealing the messy middle, when we have no idea how the story ends. (My low-stakes version: sharing my awkward aufguss journey.)

• Before we outsource therapy to bots, do we know what makes human therapy work? This NYT opinion piece argues neuroscience holds some answers.

• The New Yorker published a beautiful feature about death doulas, and the powerful relationships they develop with the people they care for.

• A UK psilocybin trial published in Nature Medicine found a 50% treatment response at six weeks versus 3% on placebo—and showed the depression treatment could be delivered safely in a community NHS setting, not just a hospital.

• And an ultrasound procedure on the brain is showing intriguing early results for substance use disorder, reports Wired.

FITNESS

• Get it, girls. Jessica Alba’s trainer and Lifting With Liz guest Betina Gozo Shimonek will open a fitness studio called LiftHer in Dallas next month. Olivia Figueroa opens Figure in Nolita. Y7 founder Sarah Levy opens up about leaving her yoga brand after it was acquired. And Amanda Freeman’s Func Fitness opens soon on the UES.

• Speaking of trainers going out on their own, a former Barry’s instructor went public alleging that the brand’s new non-compete restricts how coaches can monetize their personal brands, followings, and star power—which Barry’s relies on to fill its classes. My jaw dropped hearing that an update with potentially massive consequences for instructors’ livelihoods arrived in a staff email—if that’s how it went down.

HEALTH & TECH

• Eli Lilly sues six companies for allegedly selling black-market retatrutide⁠—its much-hyped next-gen weight-loss drug that’s still in Phase 3 trials and isn’t FDA-approved.

• Oura files a patent for “pregnancy complication detection,” which would continuously track blood pressure and arterial stiffness to signal possible hypertension, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes.

• The longevity clinic business is trying to write its own accreditation rules, which is good considering no one regulates it.

• Amanda Mull writes about the “optimization backlash” for Bloomberg Businessweek. Veneers and social media are just two of the villains in her telling.

BEAUTY & SELF-CARE

• In a lightning-rod NYT essay, Molly Jong-Fast writes that she’s not ashamed of her facelift. She invokes the male gaze, but the piece is really about how women in media are judged on appearance, weight, and above all, age. I’ve lived in that public-facing world for more than two decades, and the pressure she describes is real.

• Amazon searches for hair growth products more than tripled year over year, peaking at 2.5 million last quarter. It may be fueled by GLP-1 side effects.

• The Cobble Hill Collective published a wellness guide to the neighborhood, and now I want a scalp massage.

• Alex Cooper’s Unwell Beverages—the electrolyte brand with hangover energy—is so unwell, it’s done. On the sober side, I just discovered the Zero Proof Nation Substack with a global map of mocktail bars and nonalcoholic spirits shops. I’m checking out Park Slope’s Dry Humor this week.

SAUNA

• A Virginia Woolf adaptation paired with freestyle aufguss? Could it be any more Liz-coded?! My friends at write about Sauna Theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe, the UK’s biggest sauna, running through Aug 31, with musicians playing behind protective glass.

• Air France permanently closed the sauna in its Paris airport lounge because passengers were “doing things in there that they should not have.” The heck?! This is why we can’t have nice things.

• A French engineer who models nuclear safety wants to help astronauts sauna in space. The snag is that without gravity, steam doesn’t circulate normally, potentially leaving you sitting in a cloud of hot fog. The Finns call that steam löyly, a word rooted in breath, spirit, and soul. You can launch the heat. The soul is harder.

THE FINAL WHISTLE

Thank you for reading! Tell me about your weekend in the comments. And if you want to keep BCS coming, a paid subscription makes this newsletter possible. ♥️

In mid-December, at the Lift Off weightlifting competition in NYC, I attempted a 280-pound deadlift for the first time in my life. I pulled the bar off the floor, got stuck at knee height—gah, it still haunts me!—all while I peed myself in front of at least a hundred strangers.

I locked eyes with my partner Jen. Then I cleaned up the puddle.

That is a pretty good summary of being a 47-year-old woman with three children. It was also a spectacular clue that my pelvic floor had been struggling for years. I was getting really strong while simultaneously neglecting one of the muscle groups that mattered most.

They’re the same ones that contract when you come.

“A Better Sex Workout” (Oh Boy)

Full disclosure: Professionally, at Cosmopolitan more than a decade ago, where I oversaw health content and led a (way-before-its-time) streaming fitness video channel called CosmoBody, there were many versions of a “better sex workout” on the platform, with companion pieces in the magazine.

The trainers and I were not leading with vascular physiology. The premise, unstated but implied, was that a hotter body would get you a better sex life.

It’s true that how you feel about your body is closely tied to what happens in bed. Among 214 women, body image predicted sexual functioning independent of BMI, per a study in Psychology of Women Quarterly. And exercise moves that dial whether or not it changes your body composition: across 57 exercise interventions, people who lost no fat and gained no fitness felt better about their bodies anyway, according to research in the Journal of Health Psychology.

I’m glad for every woman we got into a gym. The framing we gave her is the part I’d expand. That’s what this post is about.

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There are 43 days of summer left, and mine already feels like it’s winding down. I have never hiked, soaked, and saunaed this much in my life—all over Colorado, across Switzerland, and during the layovers back home in Brooklyn. I made driving playlists. I built a growing queue of sauna songs. I crafted my new “To The Moon 🌙” hiking mix while crunching pine needles on the trail to Blue Lakes.

I scored my own summer like a film.

I fly home today, which I’ve dreaded all week but suddenly don’t this morning. My rollie bag has been packed and unpacked so many times that the zipper sticks. I want my own bed, my dog, my shower products, my coffee mug. And I get to take my three children home with me!

Still, getting on the plane this morning changes my summer soundtrack from alpine air to Brooklyn sidewalks.

The kids don’t go back to school until after Labor Day, so what’s left of summer is the Brooklyn version. More Aufguss practice. Longer walks with Willa. Faster runs by myself in Prospect Park, where I’m about to cash in on a month of altitude training. Soft-serve ice cream with the kids just because. (FYI, ice cream and longevity are linked.)

Forty-three days. Side B starts now.

And with that, let’s take a spin through the whispers and news of the week…

Across The Wellness World

HEALTH & TECH

• Cleveland Clinic and Zipline are flying prescriptions to patients within five miles of Beachwood, Ohio. The drone hovers at 300 feet and lowers your meds on a tether. Anyone who has spent 40 minutes in a CVS line watching one pharmacist work three registers can see the appeal.

• Hims & Hers rebuilt the Hers app so the AI sits inside the conversation with your provider. And weight-loss members now get a free smart scale that syncs their GLP-1 metrics back to the app.

• Persperion says it can pull a glucose reading out of the trace sweat on your fingertip.

• I just bought my kids old-school Casio sports watches for backpacking camp. Now the brand has put a health and fitness tracker on your finger with a tiny watch ring. Aww

• Bank of America spends $250 million a year on weight-loss meds for employees, a number its CEO volunteered to CNBC.

MENTAL HEALTH

• Vox goes deep on GLP-1 stigma and how damaging the judgment can be for users. Related: at Provincetown Bear Week, a community built around a body type is negotiating what happens when the bodies lose weight. And Business Insider investigates how GLP-1s are creating uncomfortable new office dynamics that require HR support.

• Rosecrans Baldwin writes bravely for GQ about his crush on his therapist. The essay illuminates Freud’s concept of transference, and explores the weird, complicated intimacy of therapy.

• Couples are hiring “mental load coaches” to arbitrate things like who remembers the family dentist appointments, per the NYT.

• Psychedelics for mental health have long been associated with left-leaning people. The New Yorker digs into why that may be changing.

• And the Washington Post examines how cannabis-before-bed impacts dreams, and what that might mean for emotional well-being.

SEXUAL HEALTH

• Can extreme morning sickness be cured?

• U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shares on social media that she’s freezing her eggs.

• Women’s Health reports on the rise of (very expensive) designer babies.

• Every Whoop membership now includes a free year of Natural Cycles, a birth control app with FDA clearance.

• Ulta begins selling plusOne vibrators after Sephora dropped sexual wellness devices without a press release.

SPORTS & FITNESS

• Bloomberg Businessweek maps the mess Lululemon’s new CEO, a former Nike exec, inherits when she starts in September. Extra points for the art in this feature. And in an NYT Opinion piece, former CTO Julie Averill reveals the problems with how the company (and many others) are thinking about AI.

• Saturday was kinder to the brand: SeaWheeze, lululemon’s beloved Vancouver half-marathon, returned after six years, and the running world seemed delighted. I get it! I ran the event three times back in the day. Epic.

• Nike debuts Hybrid, its first footwear system for people who run, lift, and race in the same session. The trainer lands October 8, the racing shoe April 2027. Nike never says the word Hyrox—but the competition rocketed to 1.5 million athletes this past season, with events like XENOM, ATHX and DEKA chasing it.

• Spotify debuts a running mode feature.

• A new world record for the fastest stroller-pushing mile has been set. Four minutes and 17 seconds!

NUTRITION

• The early rumors were true: P&G is buying Thorne for $3.8 billion in cash from L Catterton, which took it private in October 2023 for $680 million.

• Sweetgreen and Fishwife’s Summer Niçoise salad lands tomorrow, for two weeks: albacore, roasted sweet potatoes, hard-boiled egg, lemon tarragon vinaigrette. Assembly required, which is the best part.

• Supermodel Miranda Kerr went on Kristin Cavallari’s Let’s Be Honest podcast, and detailed her breakfast of noni juice, marshmallow leaf tea, and venison. No eggs, dairy, wheat, seed oils, sushi. Caviar is okay, though.

SELF-CARE

• Hotel critic Ryan Walker, who pays his own way and posts even-handed luxury reviews on YouTube, was turned away at the new Amanvari in Mexico, and the story is wild.

• An Esquire writer searches for the perfect night of sleep.

• Here’s Allure on the psychology and the economics of irreversible aesthetics procedures, like getting veneers.

• And Vanity Fair says the “no-makeup makeup” era is over.

• “Hair longevity” is now a category according to Glossy, anchored by K18’s $120 serum for premature graying. Meanwhile, new research in The BMJ ties GLP-1s to a 37% higher rate of hair loss.

• Boey is approved across Europe, the first serotype-E toxin: frown lines soften in as little as eight hours, and it wears off in two to three weeks instead of three months.

• Brooklyn’s wellness scene is on a roll. I’ve already told you about sauna studio Marshland in Dumbo, and the forthcoming King’s Athletic Club. This winter brings Saunter, a sauna-meets-coworking space, reports . Life Time opens in downtown Brooklyn this fall (with Gowanus coming in 2027). Now all we need is for Bathhouse Atlantic to open that rooftop pool before the weather turns.

Thank you for reading BCS in between your own summer adventures. If you enjoyed this post, I’d be grateful for a heart or a comment before you head out. They majorly make my day. ♥️

Yesterday, I hiked to Blue Lake, an impossibly turquoise glacial lake tucked in the mountains between Ouray and Telluride. It was eight miles round trip, with stops along the way because the views kept getting more ridiculous and the piñon scent was so strong I felt a little high.

Then, somewhere around mile four, a completely irrational thought broke the spell: I wonder how much my deadlift is slipping? My legs were cooking and my heart was pounding. I was climbing a steep mountain. Nature was hitting my glutes, hamstrings, calves, and quads from angles I’d never find in a squat rack. So who cares about the RDLs and weighted hip thrusts I would’ve been doing at home?!

It reminded me that a tiny, stubborn part of my brain still believes strength only happens with a barbell. So when someone asked me this on Instagram—”How do I get over the ‘it’s not a workout if I didn’t run at least five miles’ mentality?”—I felt very seen. And I have thoughts!

Below the paywall for Gold Star subscribers: a new batch of your wonderfully nosy (fitness, this time) questions on everything from body recomposition to travel workouts—with my honest answers.

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For seven years, I traveled for work representing Women’s Health. These days, I pack the same sneakers, lip gloss, and creatine, do the same early-morning hotel gym workouts, and show up as...me. That’s a little surreal to type.

But this is a big part of my professional life now: I fly places, teach people how to deadlift, talk about aminos, sweat in saunas, hike mountains, and—my favorite part—meet Best Case Scenario readers. If that sounds like your idea of a good weekend, here’s where I’ll be hanging out this fall.

• Topanga, California (August 28–30): I’m hosting the first-ever Built For Strength retreat with my friend Dr. Mariza Snyder, and Commune’s own Schuyler Grant will make some yoga class cameos. Expect great food, lots of nature, challenging movement, and excellent sleep. Gold Star subscribers receive the friends-and-family rate ($850, plus travel). Message me for details.

• Lenox, Massachusetts (October 1–4): I’ll be co-hosting a Level Up With Stacy Sims retreat at Canyon Ranch with (yes) Dr. Sims herself, plus Super Age Games founder David Stewart, and Canyon Ranch’s Head of Human Performance, Jen Wagner, M.D. If you’d like to join us, you can hop on the waitlist.

• Ozarks, Missouri (November 12–15): Missouri, I’m coming home. I’m heading back to Big Cedar Lodge’s Wellness in Nature retreat, where I’ll lead rucks, workouts, and a handful of talks.

Alongside the questions about protein intake and programming at the gym, I’ve been getting another one more and more: Where can I actually find you? So my retreats now have their own home, which I’ll keep up to date. (If you want to know about my macros, etc., here’s my recent “You Guys Are Nosy” post.)

And my Playbooks—including guides for scoring your first Pull-Up, doing a full push-up, a two-week stronger abs plan, and my mobility routine—now live in one place, too. Housekeeping, done.

Now, here’s what I’ve been reading, bookmarking, and texting to friends…

Across The Wellness World

FITNESS & SPORTS

• Over on IG, I shared my hot take on the new NikeSKIMS collection that purports to be “built for the body in motion.” (The blue satin bandeau sports bra is in my cart.)

• Equinox appears determined to play the role of villain. Its latest ad sparked backlash over imagery many viewed as dehumanizing toward Asian women. The brand first accused critics of manufacturing outrage, then apologized and pulled the campaign.

• Bloomberg unpacks MothTech from running brand Satisfy—where the holes are intentional, and the $140 tees and $350 shorts have become status symbols for people chasing PRs and post-run pastries.

• Twenty-year-old Dominique Malonga became the youngest player ever to dunk in a WNBA All-Star Game—and the youngest to post an All-Star double-double, with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

HEALTH & TECH

• The FDA approved Lipfendra (enlicitide), the first oral PCSK9 inhibitor. One daily pill lowered LDL cholesterol by 56–59% in trials. We already know lower LDL is a good thing; the remaining question is whether this particular drug delivers the same reductions in heart attacks and strokes seen with other LDL-lowering therapies.

• Tylenol’s new acetaminophen + naproxen sodium combo pill hits retailers soon. While reporting on pain, I learned that we don’t all respond to these meds the same way.

• First Fitbit made moves to dethrone Whoop, now Garmin wants a piece of the market with a new screenless wearable called Cirqa.

• Researchers at UC San Diego built a smart ring that reads glucose, ketones, and other biomarkers from sweat—no blood required. It’s still a lab prototype.

SEXUAL HEALTH

• For your watch list: Sex in Menopause with Naomi Watts, a new documentary-style master class from my friends at Commune.

• “Clit Tox”: A Botox injection to the clit reportedly can lead to improved arousal and desire. I mean, at least it’s something for women?

• Therapist Esther Perel shares her theory about America’s “eroticism shortage” in The Atlantic: People are “too scared for sex.”

• Bryan Johnson is freezing his girlfriend Kate Tolo’s menstrual blood at −80°C to assess uterine tissue and screen for microplastics, PFAS, and endocrine disruptors to learn (alll) about her endometriosis.

• And Vanity Fair publishes a feature with the very clicky headline “A Top One Percent Vagina.”

• Ahead of her 60th birthday, Halle Berry debuts a collaboration with Joylux: Juicy Like a Peach, a vaginal moisturizer meant to relieve painful sex.

SELF-CARE

• More Botox—but make it expressive. Patients are increasingly asking dermatologists to preserve movement instead of erase it, according to the WSJ.

• Heated. Vibrating. Recovery slides. I spend more money on foot rubs than mocktails, so this Nike x Hyperice launch has my attention (especially because they’re $249). Related: On Running debuts the Cloudsoma Moc recovery slippers as part of its new hiking collection.

• Sephora launches sensory-friendly “Quiet Hours” for the first hour after opening on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

• Women are taking oral minoxidil, the hair-growth pharmaceutical popular with men, according to Allure.

SAUNA

• Outershed opens in Williamsburg next week. Founder Abigail Higgins says infrared sauna helped her through a quarter-life crisis, inspiring 30- and 40-minute private sauna and contrast sessions designed to fit into a busy day.

• I hung out with some very cool Women in STEAM (as our host Courtney Wittich of called us) at the new Akari studio on the LES ahead of this week’s opening. I left with branded blue socks, a tiny towel, and the Pocari fizzy drink I mentioned above.

• While we cooked ourselves in the birch-smelling sauna, I learned about Cul De Sac, which brings pop-up saunas to NYC’s public spaces.

• Wild swimming is taking off in the U.S.A., reports Elite Traveler.

• National Geographic says cold plunging is not a health panacea. Exactly right. Do it if and how it feels good.

CULTURE

• I would add sauna to this list, but otherwise, no notes: “Can rock climbing, weight lifting, and after-practice lattes keep people sober?” asks the NYT.

• Also: The U.K. opens its first “sober hotel.”

• I watched this ad three times. Dancing. Magic. Zero alcohol and zero preachiness.

• Matt Damon says the best biceps in The Odyssey weren’t his—they belonged to stuntwoman Devyn Dalton. Let’s go!

• Architectural Digest publishes a deeply reported piece about how GLP-1s are transforming home design. But I’m crushing on the trend of supplement-and-smoothie counter stations.

• Zosia Mamet joins the cast of the final season of Industry on HBO as a “fitness influencer turned wellness tech founder and CEO.”

• Enough doomscrolling! I absolutely love these two.

I’m back in southwest Colorado this week for one last solo adventure before picking up my three kiddos at their backpacking camp. Send me your favorite hikes, hot springs, lattes, and boutiques. Or just leave me a comment. Or a heart. ♥️ They light me up. Thank you for being here!

If you’d like to join me, I’d love to see you at one of the events below. Message me if you book one!

2026

• Topanga, California (August 28–30): I’m hosting the first-ever Built For Strength retreat with my friend Dr. Mariza Snyder, and Schuyler Grant will pop in to lead yoga. Expect great food, lots of nature, challenging movement, and excellent sleep. Gold Star subscribers receive the friends-and-family rate ($850, plus travel). Message me for details.

• Lenox, Massachusetts (October 1–4): I’ll be co-hosting a Level Up With Stacy Sims retreat Canyon Ranch with (yes) Stacy Sims, Ph.D., Super Age Games founder David Stewart, and Canyon Ranch’s Head of Human Performance, Jen Wagner, M.D. If you’d like to join us, you can hop on the waitlist.

• Ozarks, Missouri (November 12–15): Missouri, I’m coming home. I’m heading back to Big Cedar Lodge’s Wellness in Nature retreat, where I’ll lead rucks, workouts, and a handful of talks.

I knew we’d crossed into a new phase of the GLP-1 era when I added a “Peptides” section to my weekly Across The Wellness World roundup on Monday.

The headlines aren’t just about weight loss. Researchers are studying these drugs for heart disease, inflammation, addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, kidney disease, and longevity. Women are asking how they intersect with menopause and hormone therapy. Physicians are debating microdosing.

Some are even doing it themselves.

Jen Ashton, M.D.—board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and obesity medicine—is one of them. She takes a fraction of the standard dose, sometimes less than once a week, to support her cardiometabolic health. (If you’re new to GLP-1s, check out my recent “The GLP-1 Diaries,” which follows six people taking these medications. And if you're curious about microdosing, I recently examined the evidence behind that trend in “Should We All Be Microdosing GLP-1s?”)

Jen and I go way back. More than a decade ago, I edited her monthly sexual health column at Cosmopolitan; later, when I was editor-in-chief of Women’s Health, I asked her to join our advisory board. What I’ve always appreciated about Jen is that she’s unusually transparent about where the science ends and her own clinical judgment begins. After leaving her role as ABC News’ chief medical correspondent, she launched Ajenda, where she goes even deeper into the topics she’s most passionate about.

Jen and I recently got on Zoom together for a webinar I moderated on behalf of Alloy, a female-founded healthcare company providing evidence-based, physician-led care for women in midlife. A few hundred women joined us, and the chat filled with questions faster than I could pose them to Jen. We covered microdosing, body composition, hair loss, fitness, nutrition, supplements, hormone therapy, cholesterol, inflammation, the next generation of GLP-1s—whew—and how to think through choices when the evidence is evolving in real time.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and flow.

Liz: I hear this on the sidelines of soccer games constantly. A mom friend leans over and says she’s doing everything right—working out, prioritizing protein—but her midsection is different. Are we imagining it?

Jen: No. As estrogen drops, it directly affects the amount and the location of fat distribution in the body, and it shifts toward visceral adipose tissue—VAT—centered around the midsection. That fat is hormonally active and pro-inflammatory. It is not where we want it. My kids used to call it the FUPA [“fat upper pelvic area,” in internet slang].

It catches women off guard because it seems to happen overnight. But it isn’t overnight. It happens gradually, and then one day you notice it all at once. Most of it comes from estrogen, but testosterone drops too. And there’s a separate bucket I’d file under behavioral and social: the way a lot of women grew up moving and eating is night and day from how we live now.

Liz: It’s validating for women to hear that it wasn’t all in their heads.

Jen: And I’ll tell on myself here. Ten years ago, in my mid-40s, patients in their 50s would come in and describe this to me exactly, and in my head I’d think, well, you must be eating the wrong things, or not working out the right way. Then it started happening to me and I thought, Oh. This is real.

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I don’t collect souvenirs. I collect evidence.

Evidence that I was somewhere. Evidence that I felt a certain way. Evidence that for a few days, I lived differently.

Matt and I just got back from a week in Switzerland to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Bad Ragaz, Pontresina, and Vals: thermal baths, mountain hikes, and more hours sweating in saunas than I can count. Between hikes and soaks and train rides, I ducked into little shops, tried things on, admired beautiful objects, and mostly walked back out again.

I don’t buy much; I try to purchase little portals. A few specific objects that keep a trip alive long after my tan fades and the photos are buried in my camera roll.

The first is jewelry. Something small and wearable, cheap enough that if I lose it in the ocean, I’m not devastated. Matt and I road-tripped through the Southwest a couple of summers ago, and I bought a silver ring with gold flecks in Taos that I still wear every day. (It works better for kettlebells than my engagement ring.)

Last summer, after my Ice Lake hike, I walked into Silverton covered in dust and left with two cuff bracelets from a Native American artist. Every Fourth of July when we’re in Fernandina Beach, my 15-year-old daughter Lucy and I stop by our favorite little shop and pick out matching beaded bracelets. They’re on my wrist as I type this. But hopped up on high-altitude Alps endorphins, my version was two new hiking bandanas—one green, and a pink one that I chose because Lucy would’ve if she’d been with me.

I also bring home the hotel slippers. (They’re complimentary—don’t judge!) I love padding around my Park Slope apartment in the memory of a good stay, and each hotel does them slightly differently—weight, weave, color, logo. I came home with three pairs from Switzerland.

Next, scent. Every getaway has one, and I’m always hunting for it. Sometimes I discover it in the hotel bathroom, sometimes in the spa, sometimes in a little shop I wander into along the way. If I fall in love with it, I buy a bottle before I leave so I can smell my way back later. This is how I first became obsessed with Aesop—I discovered the brand at Dunton Hot Springs eight summers ago and can’t quit it.

The winner in Switzerland was the 7132 bath line at our Vals hotel: mineral, clean, a little herbal. My long-term plan is to smell like Peter Zumthor’s quartzite labyrinth of chambers forever and ever.

And then, music. Each trip gets a playlist. Whatever songs follow me through my adventures—on the train, during the flight—become part of the place. I can’t remember what I had for lunch on Tuesday, but a spin through my new synth-heavy, dreamscape-y mix, and I’m whooshed back onto a gondola, floating toward an alpine hike like I’m the lead character in a fairy tale.

While in Aspen for a summit earlier this summer, I fully lost the plot and splurged on cowboy boots and a long denim skirt. In my defense: Aspen has some of the best shopping in the world. In my prosecution: I have not worn either once.

Travel has a funny way of making you think you’re about to become someone else. Cosplaying is real. I’m usually much better at noticing the difference between buying the thing and buying the fantasy. So! Small stuff, no special shelf or occasion required. A ring. Hotel slippers. Scents and playlists. Two bandanas. My tiny talismans.

But this trip followed me home in a way others haven't.

The morning after we landed back in New York, I opened the door to what we affectionately call “Willa’s bathroom”—home base for our 6-year-old Bernese mountain dog’s food, brushes, and toys—and cleared it out. Because it houses our apartment’s one and only bathtub.

I found a tray for a book and a mug of tea. Tucked my Santa Fe candle in the corner. Positioned my new 7132 bath salts just so. Then I ran some hot water, pressed play on my mix, and soaked.

I couldn’t stay in Switzerland forever, and I couldn’t pack up the Alps and take them with me. But I brought home the feeling. Not just a reminder of a place I love, but a new way of living in the place that’s already mine.

And now, this week’s news…

Across The Wellness World

FITNESS & SPORTS

• A NYT writer argues that men want better fitness role models. “If the behaviors fitness influencers are promoting were extreme but effective, that would be one thing,” Sebastian Langdell writes. “But they are often ineffective and, sometimes, patently unhealthy.” I love that he references cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s book The Secret to Superhuman Strength, which I used to gift to colleagues.

• Meanwhile, women just want more research! Enter a new Gatorade Sports Science Institute study of 500+ women that found 43% show up to workouts already dehydrated, and most are replacing only about 20% of the sodium they lose during activity versus the 50% recommended by GSSI. (More female data is very welcome—even from a company that sells electrolyte drinks.)

• Marathoners will run 17 laps around an Ikea in England this December. Which makes each lap how long? Leave the number in the comments. Gold star for anyone who gets it right.

• Spotted in multiple hotel gyms on my trip: a $25,000 contraption called the Sensopro. Invented by Swiss ice hockey players, it’s a mashup of Pilates and resistance training on wobbly bands, designed to train balance and coordination.

• A new twist from DEKA, Spartan’s functional-fitness answer to Hyrox: Gym vs Gym, a synchronized weekend this fall where gyms compete based on collective performance via a global leaderboard.

HEALTH & TECH

• Menopause startups are minting billions. Mainstream medicine is still writing antidepressant prescriptions. Bloomberg Businessweek reports on an $18.7 billion gap.

• Testosterone supplementation used to be a bodybuilding hack, reports Men's Health—and now everyday dudes are on it. (Photo essay included; 40% of the men they surveyed say their T levels matter more than they did a year ago.)

• Meanwhile, the Pentagon made testosterone screening mandatory for all active-duty and reserve personnel 30 and up. (That likely means men, though the Pentagon won’t clarify.) The Endocrine Society says there’s “insufficient evidence” for population-level screening, while one Johns Hopkins endocrinologist was more blunt: “I think it is crazy.”

• Fueled by posts on Reddit and TikTok, teens with ADHD are pairing Adderall with elaborate supplement stacks.

PEPTIDES

• Performance peptide BPC-157, which is marketed for tissue healing but is not FDA-approved, got a favorable vote from an FDA advisory committee last week on whether it should be eligible for compounding pharmacies to prepare. (The recommendation is not the same as FDA approval.) Here’s my recent “Peptide Curious” deep dive.

• Novo Nordisk (Wegovy, Ozempic) sues Eli Lilly (Zepbound, Mounjaro) over ads Novo claims mislead patients about efficacy comparisons. The GLP-1 wars continue.

• A new PwC report out of the U.K. finds 27% of GLP-1 users are spending more on fitness. The drugs are reshaping more than restaurant menus.

• A Washington Post column argues that women with GLP-1 prescriptions are getting better jobs, citing new Harvard research. It doesn’t mention a National Bureau of Economic Research study, published two months earlier, that found no similar effects in diabetic users. Both are working papers. (Related reading: the underlying reality of workplace lookism.)

• [Trigger warning: ED content.] The WSJ ran two GLP-1 stories 12 days apart, illustrating the paradox with these drugs: one on how the drugs may activate dormant eating disorders, the other on emerging evidence they help people recover from them.

• “There’s going to be a lot of [GLP-1] babies,” predicts one Cambridge professor, pointing to concerns that delayed gastric emptying may affect absorption of oral contraceptives. Add in the wildly mixed reports around libido—some users report a boost in desire, others a crash—and the takeaway is the same: there is no single GLP-1 experience.

KIDS

• CNN reporter Nathaniel Meyersohn argues that the gym is gaining traction as a “home fixer-upper project” in young adults. “Everyone is lifting weights,” Meyersohn also observes. “Today, I often see more women lifting at Equinox than men.” You betcha.

• After The Athletic’s recent deep dive examining the financial mess that is youth soccer, Bloomberg explores why high school volleyball is booming, and Wired investigates why high school track times keep dropping.

• No-show socks are cool again, according to the Gen Zs interviewed by NY Mag. Then again, they also love jorts. And long lines.

SELF-CARE

• The New Yorker cover this week is so Liz-coded and I love it.

• “The Zyn-ification of Everything” from Business Insider connects the dots on the proliferation of oral wellness pouches. (I don’t like having to use phrases like that either.)

• Clinics in South Korea are reportedly injecting patients with treatments made from—apologies in advance—the skin of donated cadavers, per Bloomberg.

• Apollo—the wrist wearable that stimulates the vagus nerve with gentle vibrations—was associated (my emphasis) with 46 additional minutes of sleep a night per a new peer-reviewed study. (Heads up: It was funded by Apollo.)

• Bloomberg Businessweek puts the growing “sleep market” under the microscope. (Also, Bloomberg? You’re crushing it with your health and wellness content these days.)

CULTURE

• Musician Maggie Rogers blesses Substack with her reflections on the joy of sports and the parallels between artists and athletes.

• Adidas Originals went vertical with a dance-choreographed fashion show on the side of The Edge, a skyscraper in NYC. Personally, I think it was a missed opportunity to unfurl a giant banner like these daredevils.

• This NYT mini-documentary about the rise of AI-generated wellness influencers did not, unfortunately, surprise me.

• The week’s most inspiring human? Dale “Grey Beard” Sanders, 91, is more than three-quarters through the 2,197-mile Appalachian Trail. That’s roughly six miles a day, every day, for a year.

• Having just spent a week in Switzerland—where four languages coexist in one small country—it was serendipitous to come across a New Yorker feature titled “Sometimes It’s O.K. to Let a Language Die.” It got me thinking about what else we might be allowed to let go of. Jobs. Relationships. Resentments. Expectations. Then again, I was reading this in a place with a sauna culture that’s turned surrender into an art form: take off your clothes (all of them; “no textiles” allowed), leave your phone behind, sit quietly in a very hot, dark room, and soften your edges. Someday soon, I’ll tell you about my private Pirt ceremony, which deserves its own post.

Thank you for being here! If you enjoyed this week’s wellness rabbit holes, leave a heart, comment, or share BCS with a friend—it all helps me find new readers. One last souvenir: my Switzerland playlist, a vulnerable, 90-minute window into my Alps-loving, cinematic soul.

Every morning I scoop creatine into a big glass of water, and most mornings my oldest son, Charlie, watches me do it.

He’s 15. He fences competitively, lifts at the gym—nothing extreme—and runs a couple times a week. He also sleeps late, plays video games, and is, in every way, still a kid. But he is a kid who wants to get better. Earlier this summer, he nodded at my glass on the kitchen countertop and asked the obvious question.

Would that help me, too?

Creatine is one of the most researched supplements in sports nutrition, with hundreds of studies behind it. But for a still-growing kid? I didn’t actually know. So I consulted someone who would: , Ph.D., who runs the Applied Physiology Laboratory at UNC, has spent years studying creatine, and is raising two boys of her own.

And this isn’t only about Charlie, or only about boys. My 15-year-old daughter Lucy plays tennis and can talk skincare with the fluency of a Sephora regular. Back in March, she bought herself a bottle of melatonin gummies at CVS before a school trip to Spain—no prescription, no conversation. (She wanted to fend off jet lag.)

And my youngest, George, is 11. He recently spent his allowance on cologne because, as he put it, he wanted to smell nice for “fancy occasions.” (My heart.) In other words, he wants to smell like his big brother.

Three kids, three different products, three versions of the same idea: that there might be something they can stir, swallow, or spray to become a little more like the person they want to be. Including, I’m acutely aware, whatever I model. No pressure.

Note: This piece is intended for general education, not medical advice.

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I live in Brooklyn, and we don’t own a car. My modes of transit include Citi Bike, the subway, Lyfts, and—when I have to get George to a soccer tournament or Charlie to a fencing meet—a Zipcar that smells faintly of someone else’s fries, with crumbs and a few rogue M&Ms thrown in for good measure.

So my long weekend adventure through the Four Corners region was a genuine luxury, because this time I splurged on the Hertz version of a chariot: a Toyota Highlander. I have no idea if that qualifies as fancy—I just needed the biggest vehicle I could find to fit three children, three camp trunks, three enormous hiking backpacks, three overstuffed bags of linens, plus my little roller bag and a backpack.

We were living large! Charging ports. Functional A/C. Seat warmers. A stereo that means it. It felt—dare I say—empowering to zoom that thing through valleys, hills, and mountain passes for five days.

Road trip music is a democracy in our family. We take turns being the DJ. George is deep in a Michael Jackson phase. Lucy likes to match the artist to the landscape—that’s my girl!—so we listened to a lot of Lord Huron. Charlie, sweet boy, sentimentally surfaced a former camp counselor’s band. When it’s my turn, I’m ready: weepy emo-girl anthems about heartbreak and longing that Matt would’ve generously called “a cry for help” if he’d been with us. Plus the same four bangers I’ve had on repeat all month.

My turns may be short, but I make them count.

I love to travel, but I’m almost never simply “on the road.” There’s usually a panel, a story to file, a retreat to lead—or, in this case, kids to wrangle and deliver to camp. Add an itinerary I’d engineered within an inch of its life, and you have my default mode of operation. I’m great at building the plan. I’m terrible at loosening my grip on it.

My solo stretch didn’t start until Saturday morning, after I’d dropped the kids at their backpacking camp. I queued up some Taylor Swift, pointed the Highlander toward Pagosa Springs, and every turn was mine. Weepy ones included, on repeat. No one to scream “Skip!” Just me, singing out of key at the top of my lungs like the lead in a rom-com.

Truth is, I’d been losing my grip since we left home at the crack of dawn on Thursday. Flights were delayed. The kids and I sprinted through the Denver airport and made our connection by seconds. A surprise storm rolled onto the Ice Lake peak before I could take a dip, thwarting the annual tradition I’d been hyping myself up for all year. A migraine leveled my youngest hiking partner, Georgie. (Buddy, I’m so sorry.) It was a lot of plans, interrupted.

So by the time I had the car—and the music—to myself, I was already cracked open. For once, I didn’t try to force the day back into shape. I skipped the big hike to the hidden hot spring outside of Pagosa. I pushed this newsletter from Monday to Tuesday. Instead, I did an easy workout, waded in the San Juan River, wandered the mountain shops, and soaked in the hot springs.

I’d arrived in the mountains scheduled, disciplined, unable to sit still. An ice cube holds its shape by staying frozen; I hold mine by never stopping. But during 44 unhurried hours in the searing Colorado sunshine, I melted.

Not dramatically. I didn’t become a new person. Just...more of the easygoing person I am when I’m not rushing. Softer around the edges. A puddle. Lukewarm. And I have to admit: I like that Liz.

I live and breathe wellness for a living, so let me put it plainly for all of us: sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is stop optimizing for health. Discipline gets me up mountains. But lukewarm turns out to be a pretty great place to visit.

I’m taking a real, actual, unhurried vacation next week. So here’s the plan: a gated deep dive for my Gold Star subscribers later this week, then a week off ATWW. But first, buckle up—there’s a lot to cover…

Buy me a coconut water? 🥥

Across The Wellness World

HEALTH & TECH

• The Information reports on an “eggmaxxing” Silicon Valley group chat—80-plus tech founders and professionals, cheekily named “To Make an Omelette”—trading strategies for preserving as many eggs and screening as many embryos as possible. The tools of choice: polygenic embryo-screening startups like Orchid and Herasight.

• Also in femtech: Oova, a hormone-tracking platform, has integrated with the Oura Ring, putting daily hormone patterns, sleep, and symptoms on a single timeline—so women can see how their cycles and recovery scores interact.

• A number making the rounds: a new meta-analysis presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), Europe’s big fertility conference, reported men’s average testosterone levels fell 54% between 1972 and 2019. Eye-catching—but worth a squint: the findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal and combine studies across five decades and multiple countries. The jump to “a major crisis in male reproductive health” is the researchers’ framing, not settled science.

• Sonata launches today in NYC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles with a $2,500 annual doctor-led membership model combining whole-genome sequencing, 140+ biomarkers, wearable data, clinical AI, and ongoing physician care. The goal: turn the flood of personal health data we collect into patterns that help members take action.

• Longevity obsessive Bryan Johnson has spent millions of dollars trying to slow aging. Last week, the entrepreneur shared that he’s been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that affects his stomach lining…a reminder that even the most optimized among us are still human. I was impressed by how his team framed such a deeply human moment for someone whose brand is built around optimization.

• Elsewhere, the WSJ profiled Kate Tolo, Johnson’s longtime girlfriend, who opened up about her reproductive health and sex life—and about Immortals’ forthcoming expansion into women’s health. The company, which sells blood-testing kits tied to Johnson’s longevity protocols, is betting women want the same data-driven approach.

FITNESS & SPORTS

• NYC emerges as the first city to require gyms and fitness studios to make it easier for customers to end memberships, reports Athletech. I know this will be controversial among fitness founders, but I think the “click-to-cancel” mandate is a huge win for gym-goers.

• Cult yoga mat brand Manduka debuts P/ROX—a foam-free, footwear-proof mat built for strength and HIIT, in addition to sun salutations. “Hybrid athlete” is a full-fledged category. (It even made Puma cool again!)

• Speaking of…you’ve probably seen this one ricocheting around fitness newsletters: L Catterton—the LVMH-backed firm behind Solidcore and Peloton—is reportedly circling a major stake in Hyrox at a rumored $1 billion valuation. A couple weeks ago, I was at the World Championships press conference in Stockholm when co-CEO Moritz Fürste was asked about the rumors. His answer was a masterclass in the art of the non-denial denial: “We were also reading [about] it with a lot of excitement…there’s zero information we can share.”

• With the U.S. knocked out of the World Cup, The Athletic explains U.S. soccer’s pay-to-play problem—our country’s development pipeline, where the road to elite play requires fees many families can’t afford. As a mom to a kid who’s played club soccer since he was five, I found this “who gets to become a soccer legend?” piece illuminating (and heartbreaking).

• Before the Norway–England World Cup quarterfinal, Norwegian Air and British Airways made a bet: the loser wears the winner’s logo on Instagram for 24 hours. (The wager was reportedly sealed by an employee flying to London to hand-deliver the assets in person.) England won 2–1, so Norwegian spent a day in BA livery. Clever, gracious, and free: the marketing trifecta.

CULTURE

• Quitting, made chic. Nicotine-replacement brand Jones rebranded its lozenges (and behavioral app), ditching the pharmacy-blue bottle for something you’d actually leave on your nightstand—right down to a $295 sterling-silver lozenge case that doubles as a necklace. Aww.

• The cannabis beverage category is bracing for regulatory blowback by debuting THC-free alternatives, reports . Cann is swapping THC for magnesium and L-theanine, while Cantrip’s founders are betting on kanna, a botanical ingredient marketed for delivering calm and social ease within 20 minutes. The science here is intriguing, but I cannot find a peer-reviewed study supporting that specific promise.

• You’ve heard of “the Alpine Divorce”? “Instagram face”? These two new features in The New Yorker are so shivery and unsettling.

• Job stuff. The NYT brings on contributor Danielle Friedman (who I’ve linked to approximately two dozen times in ATWW) as the Well desk’s full-time fitness reporter. Let’s go! Meanwhile, Condé Nast is looking for a health editor to work on branded content. And has some more full-time leads on the brand side in this week’s Sweat Lookbook.

• My favorite IG post of the week, right this way.

SELF-CARE & SAUNA

• Outside reports on Therme Group’s plan for stadium-sized thermal-bath complexes across the U.S.—up to 10 over the next decade, starting with an ~$800M resort in Dallas. Are Americans, raised on the private tub, ready to bathe together?

• File under yessss. A new bathhouse called Marshlands is opening in Dumbo in 2027. Its Brooklyn creators say the name comes from “the places where water meets land, a threshold, somewhere to set down what you were carrying before moving on.” Founding memberships are $3,600 annually (noooo).

• Eater digs into bathhouse dining, scrutinizing the menus at spots like San Francisco’s Onsen and Detroit’s century-old The Schvitz.

• The Atlantic launches a newsletter course called “Ordinary Extraordinary”—a guided nudge to notice the small, overlooked wonders of daily life. Which is to say: a whole syllabus for what Mary Oliver already told us to do up at Halftime. Or as I like to say, Celebrate everything!

LIZ, LIVE!

• My new guide for maps hot springs in Southwest Colorado, from the 50-plus terraced pools at The Springs Resort in Pagosa Springs (where I became a puddle over the weekend), to the luxe soaking at Dunton, to the nude springs in Ridgway, plus everything in between.

• This was, I think, my favorite interview I’ve ever given. ’s Courtney Wittich asked me all sorts of introspective questions for her delightful What’s In Your Spa Bag? franchise. I share stories you’ve never heard before!

• I’m excited about this one: Tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. ET, I’m talking hormones, fitness, nutrition, body composition, and more with Stacy Sims, Ph.D. The webinar is hosted by Alloy and it’s free to register. Come with questions; nothing is off-limits.

• Last week’s Kelly & Mark Fitness Week segment sparked hundreds of comments and DMs from people sharing their sitting-rising test scores (and asking me to grade theirs). Also, the braids the glam team gave me are 100% making me reconsider how short to go with my next haircut.

I hope you learned something, laughed at something, or found something worth sharing. A heart or comment helps more people find Best Case Scenario—and fuels my writing. Thank you for being here!

I love the ritual of it. I love how it smells inside a sauna, especially during an aufguss. I love the tingly rush as I warm up after being icy cold. I love the music. I love that I always have an excellent conversation—with a new friend (or myself)—while I’m sweating it out. I love the feeling of walking out calmer than I walked in.

I’ve also become convinced that I sleep better on the days I do contrast therapy—which is exactly the kind of thing I’d side-eye if someone else told me that. I’d love to believe there’s a measurable physiological benefit. But have I simply built myself a very expensive placebo?

I talked to exercise physiologist Andy Galpin, Ph.D., to find out.

Andy spent 13 years leading an exercise-science lab at Cal State Fullerton before becoming Executive Director of the Human Performance Center at Parker University. He’s coached Olympic gold medalists and world-record holders, hosts the podcast Perform (such a good, nerdy listen—check it out if you don’t already subscribe), co-founded the sleep technology company Absolute Rest, and has published dozens of peer-reviewed papers.

We got on Zoom to talk about sleep—and the Deep Rest Reset, his new 14-day sleep program with neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris, Ph.D., in the Waking Up meditation app. (Join me in the 10–20 minutes a day challenge; sign-ups close tomorrow.) Andy founded a sleep company, and he told me to ignore my sleep score. From there we got into supplements, evening workouts, what women in midlife actually need from cardio, and a whole lot more. Geek out with us.

Our conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and flow.

Liz: I’ve gotten really into sauna and cold plunging over the last six months. I feel like I sleep more deeply on those nights. Am I crazy?

Andy: No. If you swapped out the sauna and the cold plunge and told me you cut your toenails every night and you sleep better, I’d say, Okay, if you’re sleeping better, you’re sleeping better.

Here’s how sleep works.

Read more

There is nothing like the outdoor shower at the top of the boardwalk.

The one after a final dip in the ocean. After galloping out of the water, weaving through the shell-studded shoreline to grab your tote bag and towel. After that frantic barefoot dash across scorching sand to the flip-flops waiting at the bottom of the stairs. After the final climb back to civilization.

And then: the shower.

Eyes closed. Ice-cold water on sunshined-skin. Salt rinsing from tangled hair. Sand spiraling down the drain. A reset so satisfying it feels almost medicinal.

Yes, I was at the beach over the long weekend. It was indeed glorious. And I haven’t even told you how much tennis I played! (Enough tennis that I tweaked my wrist. No regrets.)

Now it’s almost time for the mountains. I’m heading to southwest Colorado to drop off my three kiddos at backpacking camp and to breathe in that magical alpine air. Don’t worry…I’ll find more water. There’s a glacial lake shimmering at 12,260 feet with my name on it, and a secret hot spring that requires a hike.

But before I hit the road again, here’s what’s happening across the wellness world…

Treat me to WiFi on my ✈️

Across The Wellness World

HEALTH & TECH

• The New Yorker profiles Dr. Sally Greenwald, a concierge gynecologist charging Silicon Valley women up to $30,000 a year to optimize their “sexspan” through some controversial prescription protocols. Which, as I’ve argued here (and here, and here), is a very real pillar of health.

• Fertility used to be framed as her problem. Now it’s a team sport—and that’s good. A new Wired report finds men are “sperm-maxxing”: cold-plunging and stacking supplements to boost fertility, spurred by TikTok and a “sperm counts are crashing” panic that’s more contested than it sounds. At-home tests (Legacy, Fellow, YO, Bird&Be) now let you check your numbers from the couch, and a newer crop—like PS Fertility’s PS Detect—claims to test whether a sperm sample can actually fertilize an egg. Destigmatizing men’s fertility is a win; the rituals, though, are mostly theater. The stuff that actually helps is boring: sleep, weight, alcohol, and keeping your laptop off your lap.

• IVF odds depend partly on which embryologist is handling the delicate steps by hand. A new company called Conceivable will bring an automated lab to a U.S. clinic in 2027 to standardize that. (So basically, robots.) Their pitch is consistency and—eventually, hopefully—lower costs and wider access.

• The Cut flags a sharp increase in shingles cases among millennial women. Stress may be part of the story—it’s a documented risk factor—but experts say the uptick is likely multifactorial. Under 50 and concerned? Ask your doctor about the vaccine.

• Medicare now covers Ozempic for weight. The new Bridge program went live July 1, getting eligible seniors GLP-1 drugs for obesity at $50/month. Up to 20 million Americans could qualify.

• This week, Boston biotech Terrestrial Bio dosed the first humans in a trial of a needle-free semaglutide patch—a stick-on alternative to the weekly Wegovy injection (95% of people in an earlier, company-sponsored study preferred it to the pen). It’s very early days. And not to be confused with the herbal “GLP-1 patches” that contain zero actual drug.

FITNESS

• The WSJ reports that Equinox—the gym that invented the status-as-membership model—is scrambling to keep spending as boutique fitness brands chip away at its luxury turf.

• Salomon, which sells serious trail gear you’ll wear to brunch, just opened in the Flatiron district. The largest of its four NYC shops, the merch inside is 60% performance and 40% sportstyle.

• My scout on the ground in Williamsburg shared a whisper: Red-hot running brand Bandit is adding a neighborhood storefront.

NUTRITION

• A new study in Metabolism found the body burns more energy digesting identical meals in the biological morning than the biological evening. Give another point to the “eat breakfast like a king” crowd.

SPORT

• World Cup, gahhh, you’re really something. I was rooting for Team USA (obviously) (cry), but I am also fully obsessed with Norway’s Erling Haaland, who appears to be a Viking incarnate: enormous, blond, terrifyingly talented, a true Norse legend. (He has more IG followers than 10 Norways!)

• Wilson’s second “Marta Dress” (co-designed by Marta Kostyuk) is lacy, sporty perfection according to my daughter Lucy and me. (We’re right, by the way; it’s already sold out.)

• How do we feel about players sneaking in underhand serves? I know it’s fair play, but sheesh! I wish the delightful “Overheard at Wimbledon” social franchise would tackle this tennis mischief.

• Nikki Hiltz just pulled off one of track’s biggest upsets at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon. The Lululemon athlete outkicked Faith Kipyegon—three-time Olympic champ and mile world-record holder—to run the fastest mile in the world this year and end Kipyegon’s five-year unbeaten streak over the mile and 1500m. Their smile at the finish line! Kara Goucher’s call for NBC! If you have four minutes and 17 seconds to remind yourself why sports matter, start here.

CULTURE

• Maybe the oldest people on Earth aren’t actually that old? A new book called Morbid: Debunking Modern Longevity Science digs into the messy world of extreme longevity, where missing records and pension fraud may help prop up the business of blue zones.

• I hope Kate Middleton’s gorpcore moment gets more people outside this summer. She wore these red North Face shorts for the final leg of her Three Peaks Challenge for the Royal Marsden—the hospital where she was treated for cancer—then hugged her three kids at the finish line. It was a royal photo op but also a reminder of something bigger: life is fragile, fresh air and movement are gifts, and hugs are everything.

• One of my favorite reads this week is from The New Yorker and asks a deceptively simple question—why does sex exist when cloning yourself would be so much easier? The tour through nature’s wildly inventive reproductive strategies—the Red Queen and Vicar of Bray hypotheses! The tangled bank theory!—is worth the ride. Honestly, science has the best names.

LIZ, LIVE!

• I’ll be back on the Kelly & Mark Show tomorrow morning, this time for Fitness Week. Let’s get physical!

I’m hardwired to thrive on positive reinforcement. So if you’re feeling generous today, leave a heart and/or comment. Thanks a ton for reading BCS.

Somewhere in my carry-on is a Ziploc bag of creatine that I will protect with my life when it’s flagged by a TSA agent. I’m heading to Florida tonight for tons of tennis, bodyboarding with my kids, hunting for shark teeth, and—finally—reading the book I’ve been hauling around for two months (Hotwired by Bill Gifford).

This is the weekend everyone leaves town, sleeps badly somewhere that isn’t home, eats gas-station or airport food, and hopes their digestive system doesn’t notice.

I’m not proud of this, exactly, but I’ve racked up serious Delta status. In the last two weeks alone I’ve flown round-trip from New York to Sweden, Aspen, and Kansas City. Which means I’ve stress-tested my own body in enough last-row seats to know what to pack, how to outsmart jet lag, and what to do when I’m bloated, backed up, and wide awake at 11 p.m. in a hotel or my mother-in-law’s guest room.

So consider this your summer travel field guide: what’s in my carry-on, the suits I swim in, and the unglamorous body stuff that makes or breaks a trip. I hope you find something below that upgrades your Fourth of July weekend.

I’ve unlocked the swim edit and electrolyte pieces for everyone. The rest are behind the paywall, where Gold Star (paid) subscribers keep my newsletter running—thank you.

My Travel Playbook

I have strong opinions about packing light. And I’m sharing my list of snacks, tech, and gear that help me feel healthier and happier on the road. (Just add deep breaths; airports are a lot.) Read it. →

Electrolytes: When, How, And Why

Last summer I hiked up to a Colorado glacial lake, dove in, and came down the mountain with hands so swollen I had to loosen my watch band—all because I’d downed a full CamelBak of plain water and replaced zero minerals. This deep dive unpacks the science of electrolytes, when and how to take them, and what cabin air and adventures at altitude do to your body. I’m hitting the same trail again in two weeks. Thanks to this reporting, I’ll be ready. ’Tis the season. →

Why You Can’t Poop While Traveling

Your gut keeps a schedule, and travel throws it completely off—new food, new time zone, new everything. I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of energy trying to solve this, including talking to experts about travel constipation plus tips, supplements, food, and products that really do help. You’re welcome. →

Creatine For Jet Lag

Early research suggests the supplement may help support cognitive performance after a night of bad sleep. (Which applies even when you’re not on the road, obviously.) I’ve changed how I dose—10g a day—because of what I learned while reporting this piece. Now you know. →

My Swimsuit Guide

I take my swimsuits as seriously as my workouts—they have to survive ocean bodyboarding with my kids, sauna and cold plunges, and the rare, glorious afternoon by the pool. This is my swimsuit short list, sorted the way I actually shop: bikinis you can be active in, cool-girl one-pieces, and the Amazon steals worth every penny. Freshly updated with a few new favorites I’ve added this summer. Shop it. →

The Mobility Routine That Rebuilt Me

Yes, I’m the person doing World’s Greatest Stretch by the gate, and no, I’m not embarrassed. This routine came out of the worst injury of my life—I broke my sacrum skiing, and getting healthy required rewiring how I move, train, and warm-up. It’s exactly what a body folded into a middle seat is begging for. These moves also work great while you’re watching the World Cup and Wimbledon this weekend, just sayin’. Try my routine. →

And if you want the higher-tech version, here’s how an AI body scanning app with customized movement plans brought me back to 100% from a slipped disc and a torn meniscus this year. I’m lifting heavy again! →

What’s the one thing you never travel without? A reader’s comment once sent me straight to Amazon for this snuggly flight MVP, so tell me in the comments—I'm always looking to borrow a good idea before my next flight.

After more than two decades in health media, I know one undeniable truth about summer: traffic cools waaay down. I get it! Everyone’s traveling and World Cup–watching and enjoying the beach or mountains. (At least, I hope they are.) And yet, this week’s wellness news is piping hot. I’m glad you’re here, and I’ll keep sharing the good word, even in the off-season. Let’s get into it…

Treat me to a lemonade?

Across The Wellness World

FITNESS

• My latest for GQ: a dark tunnel in Stockholm, strobe lights, music loud enough to rattle your sternum, and a row of shirtless men bouncing on their toes, waiting for the horn. I followed one of them—a 41-year-old sales director from Minneapolis who trains at 3:30 a.m.—through the gauntlet of the Hyrox World Championship, where the over-40 crowd is now the fastest-growing group in the sport.

• Amazfit debuted the $199 Helio Strap Pro in Stockholm: a two-sensor system (arm and waist) that tracks muscular exertion across all eight functional fitness stations, not just how hard your heart is working.

• Xenom, the new “decathlon of fitness” competition, debuted in Dallas over the weekend. I was invited, but will have to raise my barbell skill level considerably before I’m ready to crush the 10 events spread over two days. (I did attempt toes-to-bar at the gym yesterday. That was interesting.) Founder Keith Barlow is betting that the same fixed, repeatable format that turned endurance running and Hyrox into global sports can work for the barbell-and-gymnastics crowd, too.

• The 2027 London Marathon will run across two days (April 24 and 25) for the first time to fit a record 100,000 runners, after a bonkers 1.3+ million applied to race. Elite women lead one day, elite men the other.

HEALTH & TECH

• Ovaries…still so much we don’t know. In a just-published Molecular Human Reproduction paper (note: on mice), researchers found that the menopausal ovary may take on a new gig as an immune organ. An exciting development like this, my friends, is just one example of why we need more female biology research.

• Google researchers published a paper in the journal Nature showing that a phone’s front-facing camera can passively read your heart rate—and resting heart rate—from faint color shifts in your face, as accurately as a wearable and across all skin tones. It’s a proof-of-concept, not a feature you can flip on yet. But the implication is big: 5 billion people own a phone, far fewer own an Oura ring.

• Neko Health—Daniel Ek’s no-radiation scanning company, opening its first U.S. clinic in NYC this year with a waitlist—adds body-composition readings, joining a crowded preventive-scan field (Prenuvo, Biograph, Fountain Life). Its edge is the bundle: skin mapping, ECG, bloodwork, and now visceral fat, all with no radiation. Whether all that intel is worth the risk of false positives and follow-up testing is a post for another day.

• The NYT untangles one of the wellness space’s buzziest, most fear-mongering topics (and there’s a long list): cortisol and workouts.

• Outside digs into the new research on GLP-1 use and daily activity patterns. New York files a dispatch from the American Diabetes Association’s annual meeting, where the next wave of GLP-1s got its first big reveal. And Bloomberg maps the pharma wars behind the drugs’ boom.

NUTRITION

• Thorne—the third-party-tested supplement brand where I buy my magnesium—is an acquisition target: Unilever is reportedly weighing a $4 billion bid, roughly six times what it sold for three years ago, with Haleon circling too. It would join Unilever’s growing wellness shelf: Liquid IV, Nutrafol, Olly, Grüns.

• I can’t keep up with the parade of new “natural, injection-free GLP-1” supplements promising to mimic the drugs. (Spoiler alert: that’s not how it works.) June alone brought HUM Nutrition’s Flatter Me Fiber GLP-1 Booster and a GLP-1 Probiotic from Designs for Health.

• A new study found that creatine taken only on training days worked no better than a placebo in trained young adults. The catch wasn’t timing—before or after lifting didn’t matter—it was frequency. Creatine needs to build up in your muscles, so the takeaway is five grams every day (or 10 grams, like me!), rest days included.

SELF-CARE

• Wellness hub 113 Spring in SoHo is hosting an Energy Summit tomorrow. The TCM Herbal Masterclass sounds cool.

• Two oral-health launches for your wellness-cosplay file. Dayly splits toothpaste into a.m. and p.m. formulas because “your mouth runs on a clock”—the evening version contains magnesium, for example—which is true (saliva drops at night, leaving enamel exposed), but the science simply backs brushing before bed. Bastét’s new “microbiome” paste is buzzword framing for its nano-hydroxyapatite ingredient, a legit enamel rebuilder and fluoride alternative.

• Midi Health, the menopause telehealth company with a $1 billion valuation, rolls out a prescription skincare line for hormonal skin: five Rx topicals targeting the dryness, melasma, and collagen loss of midlife.

CULTURE

• Fitfluencers and athletes were all over Cannes again this year. But the shift I’m clocking is that they’re not hired faces anymore. They turn up as founders, investors, and media companies, on panels next to the CMOs who used to just book them.

• Fitness was also big at Paris Fashion Week. A few examples: the Balenciaga Boost pop-up—tied to the activewear launch I get into below—served smoothies like the Main Character with marine collagen ice cubes. On hosted a buzzy party with hand-blown sugar flowers for dessert. And Magliano collaborated with Diadora on a new runway collection (thanks for the tip !).

• This pop star negative-splits to work. Harry Styles jogged six miles in blue shorts from his Hampstead home to Wembley for night three of his 12-show residency. He ran a 2:59:13 Berlin Marathon last September.

STYLE

• No gatekeeping! I’m obsessed with the Roam mesh clogs I bought last week after a hot-yoga class in Aspen at fitness studio O2. Which, no hyperbole, doubles as the best activewear store I’ve ever stepped inside. (Also: Mesh footwear was everywhere in the ritzy mountain town.) I’ll dance to and from my sauna sessions in them all summer.

• Oner Active, Krissy Cela’s British “women who lift” brand, signed a 10-year lease for its first-ever store on Bond Street in NoHo, opening this winter, with Miami and L.A. next. NoHo is becoming the gym-brand district; Gymshark’s new flagship is around the corner. Via Fitt Insider.

• The Reformation x Umbro collab just dropped, timed to World Cup fever. It’s all very Liz-coded! There are six pieces, including these faves of mine: the Aitana track pants, Scottie shorts, and a knit dress with Umbro’s double diamond.

• Balenciaga has a new TechWear fitness collection, and is taking over Barry’s studios from NoHo to Sydney. The clothes are moisture-wicking, built to sweat in, and couture-priced: $995 leggings, a $975 track short, a $2,690 cropped jacket (that’s sick and it’s sick, you feel me?), $180 “technical” socks, and a $450 sports bra.

• A whisper to close: Alo is teasing something with a floating tennis court in the middle of the ocean (the yacht that hosts influencers must be nearby) and the caption “a shade that serves.” The wordplay points to a new hardcourt-green tennis collection. But I think it’d be cool if they sponsored a pro tennis player.

LIZ, LIVE!

• Today at noon ET, I’ll talk with Dr. Jennifer Ashton in an Alloy webinar—GLP-1s, Hormones, and Midlife Weight: What Actually Works. Free registration is here.

• Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be on NBC News Daily for a couple of segments unpacking my recent NYT piece about the rise of menopause workout programs from fitness brands.

• Last week I was at Aspen Ideas: Health, speaking on a panel about wellness misinformation and the creator economy—how to distinguish real science from a sponsorship, something I suss out as a reporter and navigate as a micro-influencer (shivers!) myself. You can watch the session at this link.

Thank you for being here, and don’t forget to leave a heart or a comment before you click away if you enjoy reading BCS. It helps new readers find me, and candidly, keeps me motivated in the off-season.

I walked onto the tarmac on Monday in Aspen looking forward, and then up—at the pine trees, the mountains, the week ahead. Colorado is the land of my favorite memories: the top of Ice Lake last summer with a PB&J; 10 years of my three kids in their jammies at the family cabin in Durango, hands sticky from backyard-fire-pit marshmallows; my own childhood in Estes Park, begging my parents to let me try rock climbing. (They did.)

By the time I reached the bottom of the jetway, the crisp Colorado air, the song in my earbuds, and the view hit me all at once in a sensory pileup…and for a second I was 7 and 47 at the same time.

I’d come to speak on a panel at Aspen Ideas: Health—three days of authors, doctors, scientists, founders, and journalists exploring the future of healthcare and well-being—but the session I’d flagged first to watch from the audience was about nostalgia. And it did not disappoint, including clarifying what had happened to me on the jetway.

Moderated by writer and historian Kate Bowler, the talk was really a duet: Steve Burns—the host of the kids’ show Blue’s Clues, who talked into the camera and waited for you to answer—and Clay Routledge, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist and psychologist who’s spent 25 years studying nostalgia.

If it feels like nostalgia is everywhere right now, you’re not imagining it. Gen Z is deep in a Y2K and 2016-core revival, mining a past many of them barely lived through—the 4th and 5th graders in the newspaper club I lead at my 11-year-old son George’s elementary school even wrote a story about it.

I’ve never thought of nostalgia as some soft, embarrassing weakness, the way the culture often frames it. To me it’s more like a memory you feel in your body rather than picture in your head. Science is on the side of the tenderness. Routledge’s book Past Forward makes the case that nostalgia isn’t backward-looking at all. He even calls himself a “nostalgia futurist.”

We don’t move toward the past, he writes; we bring the past forward to build a better future. “The past is where we go to gather the resource,” he said in Aspen, “but that’s not the destination. The destination is really the future.” The most creative people he studies are the most nostalgic ones. They aren’t hiding in the past. They’re mining it.

(I feel seen.)

The catch: not all looking back is healthy. Routledge draws a hard line between nostalgia and its dark side, declinism—the creeping conviction that everything’s sliding downhill, that the best is behind us. The song I’d had on repeat the whole flight suddenly sounded different. Now it sounds like a description of this fork in the road. In “It’s Not My Fault, I’m Happy,” Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos sings:

When your past lingers like rain clouds
Casting shadows below
I could live with so many burdens
I’ll take all your hope and yearning…
I used to glow, glow, glow, glow, glow…

That’s declinism set to a hooky synth beat—the past as a shadow you live under, the glow firmly in the rearview. Nostalgia is the opposite move. The two can feel almost identical from the inside, but a growing body of research—including work from this team published this year in the European Journal of Personality—finds the opposite: nostalgia tends to track with social connectedness and openness to new things, even AI, while declinism tracks with less of both. One sends you toward people and possibility. The other traps you in a spin cycle.

Three of my own pieces here, it turns out, are field notes on the good kind—each opens a different door into the past…

The Science Of Scent

Smell directly triggers nostalgia—it skips the thinking brain and lands straight in the limbic system, which is why one breath can collapse 20 years. This is personal nostalgia in its cleanest form: your memory, breathed directly into your body.

For me the real beginning of a new school year smells like the library in the basement of my elementary school…after they remodeled the space one summer, it didn’t smell quite the same. I missed the mustiness.

Read it. →

I Play Songs 77x In A Row

Music is a time machine that works on command—Routledge’s lab literally uses songs to trigger nostalgia on cue. Sometimes a track pulls you toward a whole era rather than one specific memory, which is how I recently lost count of the plays on one Noah Kahan song.

Elizabeth Margulis, Ph.D., a Princeton professor who directs the Music Cognition Lab, has found that enough repetition flips your relationship to a song. You start to inhabit the music, listening with it rather than to it, until it feels less like sound and more like a place you can go.

Read it. →

I Am Better Sober

The third portal isn't a sense—it’s a thread. Routledge calls it self-continuity: the knowledge, looking back, that I’m still that person—even the harder, earlier versions of her. It can hurt to look. But it’s also how I see how far I’ve come.

There are photos where I appear upbeat, but I know how anxious I felt. Others where I can see how tired my eyes are, and I remember exactly what dark, not-great stuff was going on behind my smile. And then there are the ones from 2019, when I stopped drinking.

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Near the end of the panel, Steve—who gets recognized in airports by grown-up Blue’s Clues fans who sometimes burst into tears—admitted that he worries about them.

The crying isn’t the concerning part. It’s whether he’s helping someone reach back for fuel, or keeping them stuck. Steve's word for the good kind is “vitamin N”—a nutrient, not a trap. Nostalgia is supposed to ache a little; it’s an ambivalent emotion, warmth laced with loss, because you only long for what you’re standing apart from. So the tears are fine. What counts is the direction they leave you facing. The goal is to look toward the trailhead, not away from it.

I flew home yesterday, listening to that Passion Pit song a few dozen more times—the rain clouds, the past, the glowing—doing my best to be a good seatmate and not sing out loud. (There may have been some air drumming.) Not to wallow there. Just to mine some gold for whatever adventures come next.

Still Curious?

A few more doors, if you want to keep wandering:

• The original Frontiers in Psychology paper, which makes the case that nostalgia is a future-oriented experience—the academic spine of everything above.

• Margulis’s research on repetition and why a song you’ve heard a hundred times can hit you like a lightning bolt.

• For the existential thrill-seekers: the study showing nostalgia buffers us from the fear of mortality. Light beach reading!

Scents That Move Me Right Now

Some of my go-to nostalgia gateways, in case you want to borrow them: the New Savant Dreamgirl candle (notes of Coca-Cola, brushed leather, and washed denim—nostalgia for my teenage years on a wick); Aesop’s Rind Concentrate body balm, the closest thing I have to a signature scent; Othership’s herbal deodorant spray (only sold in studios), which is a rocket ship to the cracked-open feeling you get in a Palo Santo–scented sauna.

What scent or song time-travels you—and where does it take you? Leave it in the comments. I read every one, and I’m building a reader playlist (and maybe a scent list) for a future issue.

I was in the land of eternal sunshine—Stockholm, Sweden—during the summer solstice last week to watch the Hyrox World Championships. From the stands, I made a prediction before the women’s Elite 15 race started. American Alyssa McElheny, who recently qualified for the 2028 Olympic marathon trials, was going to win. The odds had her at 15%—after all, she was a mere six months into the sport and lining up against the world-record holder. But I’d seen her at the press conference the night before and came away certain.

Alyssa was locked in. She had a winner’s aura.

She won! (If only Polymarket took Hyrox bets, and if only I gambled.) On an ankle she’d rolled so badly in a training workout that she couldn’t walk on Monday. The 35-year-old smiled—and I am not exaggerating—every step of her race. It was wildly awesome watching the thousands of people in the arena get behind her, pounding the sides of the stadium every time she sprinted by.

The next day, she told me about the decade before Hyrox, when she was an elite distance runner. “It was a lot of looking at other people’s bodies,” she said, noting that she rarely did strength training, “and being like, my body’s not small enough.” But with Hyrox, which intersperses functional fitness stations into 5 miles of running, her mindset—and body—changed.

“The second I started, it was so easy for my brain to slip to: how can I make my body perform the best? How can I make myself the most powerful, capable version of myself?” And her body—lit up by lifting weights and fueling well—answered. “Before, when I was running 100-mile weeks, my nails were brittle, my hair wasn’t growing, I had to nap every day. A month into Hyrox, I didn’t need to nap. My nails were growing. My body gave me so many signs. I feel like I was more myself.”

She wasn’t the only one. Great Britain’s Sinéad Bent, who took third place and is charmingly partial to big bows in her long blonde hair on race day, felt that same pressure as a distance runner herself. She’s built a career out of refusing to look like anyone else’s ideal. “You are that shape, so don’t change it,” she told me. “Stop trying to diet yourself into a prototype body.”

I raced one myself in New York last month, worked out next to age-group athletes in the Hyrox hotel gym at Worlds, and cheered relentlessly for the elites and age-groupers from the stands. From every angle, the same thing floored me: the sheer range of bodies that show up for this sport, and how good each one is at it. Tall and short, broad and compact, powerful in every form, people in their 70s (!), every kind of strong.

We spend an absurd amount of energy measuring our own bodies against everyone else’s. Plenty of strangers have felt entitled to make a verdict on mine—social media can suck that way—and it has never once made me fitter, faster, or happier. I get to decide what mine is for and how it performs. (And you do, too.)

And the goal, as Alyssa put it, is “being strong, being powerful…fueling for that.” Looking around the Hyrox World Championships, it was hard to argue with the results.

And now, let’s sprint through the wellness news of the week…

Buy me a smoothie?

FITNESS

• Adults who started a GLP-1 logged 560 fewer steps a day and nearly six fewer minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise once the drug kicked in. A new, not yet–peer-reviewed study presented at the Endocrine Society’s summit used Fitbits to track participants. An unexpected counterpoint to Danielle Friedman’s NYT piece from earlier this year, in which the drugs did the opposite—motivating the people she interviewed to hit the gym more.

• The Atlantic digs into whether GLP-1s count as performance enhancers, using Serena’s recent comeback as the way in. She lost 34 pounds on a GLP-1 from Ro (she’s a spokesperson; her husband’s an investor) and just won her first match back at Queen’s.

• Speaking of Serena, Wimbledon hands her two wildcard entries: one for singles and another with sister Venus for ladies’ doubles. This will reunite the sisters at the All England Club for the first time since their 2016 title there—six doubles crowns, and Serena’s first Slam appearance since 2022. Combined age: 90.

• On announces its first Hyrox sneaker: the Cloud X Tempo Pro, a carbon-plated racer with a reinforced cage and sticky outsole for the sleds and lunges, built with sub-52 record-holder Alexander Roncevic. Out in August, it puts On in the mix with Puma, Nike, and Adidas chasing the fastest-growing format in fitness.

HEALTH & TECH

• The AI-image generator Midjourney gives the world whiplash as it unveils an “Ultrasonic CT” full-body scanner that lowers you into water and images you in about 60 seconds, plus plans for a “Midjourney Spa” in San Francisco stocked with saunas and cold plunges by late 2027. Founder David Holz says it rivals an MRI. But, wait! The device has no FDA clearance, the company has never built hardware, and the reveal landed as a cinematic launch video rather than a peer-reviewed anything.

• Portable sunshine is now available for $2,995: Solius launches the Solius Pro, the first over-the-counter UVB device the FDA has cleared for stimulating vitamin D production. It reads your skin tone, calibrates a personalized dose, and claims a year of weekly sessions adds up to less UV than five minutes of midday sun.

• Does the menopause movement have a blind spot? The NYT turns its attention to the women the HRT renaissance skips—breast cancer survivors and others for whom estrogen carries real risk—even as the FDA pulls black-box warnings and the rest of the conversation races ahead.

• The future of health looks a lot like early detection. The WSJ gives a head-to-toe rundown on the tech and treatments on the horizon.

CULTURE

• Bookings are now open for Canyon Ranch Austin, for stays this fall and beyond. (You want to go, trust me.)

• The Women’s Health team spotlights the rise of bathhouses. BCS readers and my IG followers already know that I think sauna and cold plunge life is the best life.

• Whaaa…Le Labo makes incense now! Thanks for the hot tip, GQ.

LIZ, LIVE!

• I’m headed to Aspen Ideas: Health today and I’m hyped! My plan is to spend the next few days collecting wisdom from the smartest people in wellness, then turn around and share it all with you. I’ll also be speaking on a Wednesday morning panel called “Wellness to the Max,” which sounds delightfully BCS-coded. Message me if you’ll be there too.

• I had so much fun geeking out with Dr. Fiona Lovely on her Not Your Mother’s Hormones podcast about creatine, amino acids, and healthy aging. The unexpected side effect was an even greater appreciation for Canada, where Dr. Lovely lives.

I snuck this one in between two trips, an elementary-school graduation, and a thousand other things, because I love it here. If you do too: The little heart button and comments are, functionally, my entire marketing department that helps me find new readers. Put them to work!

Between sets of bench pressing and biceps curls at the gym yesterday morning, I listened to the same slow, aching ballad on a loop. To be clear, this is not a hype-up song. My usual lifting fuel is Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift at full volume; yesterday I went with an emo heartbreaker instead, hitting “repeat” and letting it ride.

The song is “Orbiter,” a deep cut off The Great Divide, Noah Kahan’s new album, and I’ve lost count of the plays. I have a habit of finding a song I love and playing it into oblivion, which I’ve proudly owned.

For years I figured it was a quirk. Then I went down a research rabbit hole, and now I’m pretty proud of it. When researchers at McGill University scanned people mid-song, they found the biggest hit of dopamine lands just before their favorite moment, while they brace for it. And I am a certified dopamine-chaser.

So every repla…

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