re:my health hacks

I need to admit that I had “write substack!” written in my planner for the past three weekends, but summer is my favorite season, and I wanted to spend as much time off my laptop and in the moment as possible. The past (seven?!) weeks since my last post have been a whirlwind of birthday dinners, bachelorette parties, beach days, long hours in the office and lots of wedding travel - I’m currently writing this on the Amtrak returning from Chittenden, Vermont. But we’re back! While I have fun entrepreneurship updates, I wanted to dedicate a full newsletter to something that I spend a lot of my time on, discussing with friends and listening to podcasts about. That is optimizing health - both physical and mental.

Mountain Top Resort, Vermont

I went to the movies with my sister last weekend (one of our favorite activities, we can tell you which theaters in NYC have the best chairs, snacks and AC) and we walked for a little bit together afterwards to catch up. At one point I saw her looking at my shoulders and she said “wow, you look really strong”. As a cardio and pilates junkie that’s not something I hear often! But I’ve made a conscious effort to lift more weights this year, and make sure every day of my workout routine looks different. I’m so happy it’s paying off, especially because building muscle is essential in your 30s (ahh!) for the rest of your life. I’ve previously made weekly workout schedules for friends and I often get texts asking for recommendations for everything from boutique fitness studios, to spas, to dermatologists to protein powder.

So here are (most of) the details on my approach to health and wellness.

Exercise

• My routine: I try to work out six-seven days a week. I used to think I needed to work out for a minimum of 45 minutes a day, and for a few months was working out for 90+ minutes a day, but I realized firstly, that’s totally unsustainable (especially with my current job) and secondly, I was being too rigid and leaving no room for rest, recovery and flexibility. My routine looks different if I’m training for something, on vacation, or just tired, but my upcoming (and typical) workout schedule looks like this - and I stretch my hips for 5-10 minutes every day:

  • Monday - PT, 15 minute core class

  • Tuesday - Strength

  • Wednesday - Yoga

  • Thursday - Barre

  • Friday - Strength/cardio (Barry’s)

  • Saturday - Pilates

  • Sunday - 5-6 mile run

• Running: I grew up playing sports and took to running at an early age. It’s always been a way to clear my head, I love the way I feel after, and training for a race in adulthood has been an enjoyable way to chase (pun not intended) new goals. Sometimes people say to me, “I really hate running”, and my response is “so don’t do it!”. For our heart health, we need cardio, but that can be biking, dancing, walking - exercise should never feel like a chore and figuring out what makes you excited to move is most important

• Pilates/yoga: Becoming a certified yoga instructor wasn’t something I always intended to do, but after a yoga studio opened up in my college town and I went 3-4x a week my senior year, I saw how transformational of a practice it was. For someone who spent their early 20s running as fast as possible, skipping over stretching, and doing SoulCycle, yoga and Pilates have been a way to sloooow down and focus on intentional movement

Mental health/mindfulness

• As someone with anxiety, I’m far from a mental health expert. But that does mean I’ve tried many different things to soothe my racing thoughts, overthinking and all of the other things Inside Out 2 depicted so accurately!

• Meditation: Meditation is an incredible tool. At first it can be intimidating to sit with your thoughts, so I do a lot of guided meditations (I like Kirat and Jackie’s classes on the Alo Moves app). I can sense an immediate shift in my nervous system when I start my day with meditation. There are so many different types of meditation (e.g., mantra, guided, TM), and just like exercise, it’s about finding what works for you

• Journaling: I journal on the first of every month and always use the following prompts:

  • What went well last month? (I don’t focus on what didn’t go well, because this exercise is centered on positivity)

  • This month I want to feel

  • This month I am actively manifesting

  • What do I need to pick or shift this month to be my best self?

  • What do I want to make more time for?

    I also use journaling as an outlet when I’m feeling stuck, frustrated, sentimental or confused. Just getting your thoughts out of your head onto paper can provide so much clarity and relief

• Therapy: Everyone should be in therapy. It’s the best! You get to have an hour each week to talk about whatever you want. I’m very lucky that my current and prior therapist are fantastic at what they do, but I’ve also had not great therapists. I would highly recommend interviewing as many therapists as possible before deciding who to work with, and know you can always switch or pause if needed. Alma is a great website to get started looking for a provider

Diet

• I follow a 90% vegan diet and haven’t eaten meat, fish or dairy in 14+ years (aside from a semester in Milan when it would have been criminal not to eat croissants and burrata). I added eggs back into my diet about 4 years ago as a source of protein, and love a hard boiled egg on sourdough with avocado, salt and red pepper flakes for breakfast

• My main sources of protein are form protein powder, tofu, eggs, beans and legumes, nuts and tempeh. Sometimes I sneak protein powder into a vegan yogurt, or add banana and granola to a Siggi’s protein yogurt. I also love gomacro and barbells protein bars, but do my best to focus on foods that don’t come in a wrapper

• Being vegan is much bigger than just my diet and is honestly part of my identity (so dramatic). It genuinely impacts decisions I make on where to shop, products to purchase and how to consciously think about what I put in and on my body. On that note, unfortunately so many alternative milks and products contain gums and other harmful ingredients, so be be sure to check out the labels when you’re buying something like oat milk

  

  Image sourced via Pinterest :)

Supplements

• Because of my vegan diet, I take a handful of supplements under the guidance of a registered dietician. Those are methylated B12, fish oil, vitamin D and a probiotic. Supplement brands I trust are Jarrow, Sakara and Pure Encapsulations. So much of the health and wellness industry isn’t properly regulated and products are either overpriced because of branding, or aren’t properly FDA approved and contain questionable ingredients

• Every year after my physical I send my bloodwork to my RD so we can review it in depth. My GP always says my results are “within range” but for example, this year, my vitamin D levels were close to dangerously low. If you can, it’s important to leverage as many resources as possible to assess if there are any potential red flags you should be aware of when it comes to things like vitamin levels that aren’t always easy to detect

  

  

Fish oil, probiotic and collagen gummies I was gifted. I wouldn’t take them again but they did taste delicious

Sleep

• Sabina Gal writes a great Substack about health and wellness and wrote how important sleep is better than I can (I can forward you the full email if you’re interested):

  If you’re not rested, you are more likely to skip a workout because you don’t have energy, and if you muster the willpower to exercise, you might not see the desired results. Poor sleep negatively affects both strength and endurance, leading to suboptimal workout performance and hinder the body’s ability to repair muscle tissue - think poor recovery and decreased muscle gains. As for stress management and productivity, sleep deprivation reduces your ability to cope with stress while heightening irritability, frustration, and other negative emotions that can contribute to depression and anxiety

  

• I saw a CBT-I specialist (cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia) last year after struggling with on and off insomnia that seemed to appear out of nowhere. I could write multiple newsletters about sleep - how important it is, but my high level tips are:

  • Put away your phone 30 minutes to an hour before you go to bed, and minimize blue light, so also put away your laptop and TV. If possible, sleep with your phone outside of your bedroom

  • Wear an eye mask. An eye mask makes it easier for me to sleep when traveling and in a new environment, because I’m already used to how it feels. I love Lunya masks but Graham swears by his Ostrich mask

  • Limit caffeine. I don’t drink coffee and don’t drink caffeine after 1PM (unless it’s an espresso martini and I’m going out dancing). Caffeine can be deeply addictive and disruptive to your body

  • Wear a wearable if that’s your thing. I have a Garmin but the Oura ring definitely does a better job of tracking sleep. It’s really helpful to understand how much light, deep and REM sleep I’m getting each night, and see how long it takes me to fall asleep each evening

As those of you who read this know, I’m not a doctor, nutritionist or therapist, and firmly believe that there is no one size fits all approach to health and wellness - we all have different genetics, blood types, sensitivities to foods and are in different life stages. If I had to strip away my entire routine and only keep three things they would be deep, restful, sleep, walks in the sunshine and whole, fresh, plant based foods.

Another thing I would be remiss not to mention a little more in depth - I am also mindful of the beauty, skincare and cleaning products I purchase because what we put on and around our skin usually gets absorbed. For makeup I love ILIA, Kosas and Merit and for household products I love Blueland and Who Gives a Crap. I don’t use 100% vegan/clean products because they’re pricier but I’m doing my best!

This newsletter is longer than I intended but in non health related news I was accepted to an nonprofit cohort dedicated to female founders (I can share more details after the press release goes live) and the latest Remy samples finally meet our ethos of stylish and functional heated apparel. It was so helpful to have our wear testers feedback to incorporate into the latest version, so if you’re in the NYC area and willing to wear test, please let me know!

Ok! That’s all for now. As always, thank you for reading. Enjoy the Sunday of summer - August 💗