A Day In The Life: How I'm *Actually Doing Wellness Every Day 📆
I read the news today, oh boy.
5 min read
PINK PINK MOON
🍓This week treated us to an unusual phenomenon with Wednesday’s Strawberry moon. It was the lowest full moon in 19 years, it was huge, it was pink (actually not named for its hue but for the start of strawberry harvest season), and it fell on my birthday, which shall bode well for the year ahead!
See here for more stunning photos of this unique celestial event.
See here for the best birthday gift you could possibly give me. 📕💝
525,600 MINUTES/365
How do you measure a day? I am often asked about what wellness stuff I’m actually doing vs. what stuff I’m just writing about to spread the word and be a good stewardess of the industry (or are we saying “flight attendant?”). The answer is: both. I try to walk the walk as much as possible, but there’s plenty of wiggle room for being human, whether that means a skipped workout, a too-late episode of Severance, or pizza with extra cheese. So here’s a snippet from an average day for me, warts and all. Any products mentioned are those I legitimately use, and I only wish they were paying me to say so.
6:45 wake-up by Loftie clock, with a glow-free screen and a range of settings, including gradually increasing volume and an optional sun-like glow.
🤳🏻Against the conventional wisdom, I sleep with my phone on my nightstand and I look at it when I first wakeup. However, I do NOT look at any email, social media or other messaging platforms until I am up and about.
🪥 Brush teeth with nano hydroxyapatite toothpaste and wait 10 minutes to let it work its magic before drinking 24 oz of room temp water, sometimes with a squeeze of lemon.
🕯️7am: I light a candle and a stick of Palo Santo and do 10-20 minutes of meditation or breathwork, either self-guided or with the Insight Timer free app.
🎧Listen to the Headlines podcast from the NYTimes while feeding cats and preparing coffee. On alternating days, also wear the HigherDose red light mask while listening. The cats prefer I do not wear this mask while they are eating. 🙀🙀
🧈 Fat first. The butter/MCT oil trend taught me that my system is happier when I have some fat before coffee (even decaf) to help neutralize the acid and any chance of jitters. So next up is a spoonful of nut butter before Four Sigmatic Calm blend decaf with organic grass fed half-and-half. You can take the girl out of the mushroom coffee biz, but…
☀️ Morning sunshine. Have I mentioned this before, at least 17 or 18 times? Yes. My coffee and I go outside every day for at least ten minutes unless blizzards or rain, in which case I rely on the lightbox for as long as I’m puttering around the kitchen.
8am: Check email at last, set up tasks and goals for the day using old fashioned pen and paper notebook. ✍🏻
Move 5 days/week. I aim for 3 days of strength training + 1 HIIT + 1 Zone 2 cardio. Sometimes there’s tennis, dance, or Pilates; anything as long as there’s intentional movement. Most resting days I aim for 6-10K steps and/or a contrast therapy session with sauna and cold plunge. On the restiest of rest days, I read, cook, eat, watch TV, do hobbies, and get up to walk around every hour or so. There are days with <2K steps, and I’m ok with them.
Drag a comb across my head. I will spare the male readers my “Get Ready With Me” routine, which is not that interesting anyway, as I am pretty agnostic with beauty products. I will only say that I recently started properly brushing my hair again after years of blowing it dry and then not touching it til the next wash, and the improvement in shine is shocking.
Protein. I applaud anyone who embraces the 30g of protein within 30 minutes of waking rule, but it’s just not for me. I have a protein + carb snack before my workout, but my breakfast comes after, and it ain’t broke so we’re not fixing it. The menu varies: Greek yogurt with nuts + berries, eggs or cottage cheese on seed bread or sprouted English muffin, or a protein shake with bananas and nut butter.
10am at my desk. I’m at my most productive in the morning, so I try to structure my day with creative and strategic thinking work before noon, menial and admin tasks in the afternoon, and calls between 11am-2pm, if I can control it. Work blocks often involve the Pomodoro technique, and during the breaks I get up and move around. I walk, but I don’t use a standing desk as much as I would like to. This is on the 2025 Improvements list.
Grazing. I find that a big lunch makes me sluggish in the afternoon, so I prefer to eat lighter around 1pm, maybe a salad with tofu or tuna, and then have a good snack around 4:30. My salty tooth kicks in for this afternoon ritual, so it’s often popcorn, a protein/fat snack mix like Catalina Crunch, or as a born-again part-time carnivore, I’m digging the spicy BBQ beef sticks from Chomps.
More sun. We spend a lot of time on morning sun, but don’t underestimate the equal importance of late afternoon rays, which also impact circadian rhythm and signal the brain that it’s time to start preparing for sleep and rest. I find it harder to motivate for this at the end of the day…which is all the more reason to do it.
Dinner and wind down. At home, we try to finish dinner by 7:30 to leave three full hours before bedtime. We turn the lights down by 9pm, put on the red glasses, and break from screens by 9:30, per the 3-2-1 method. Sleep is noticeably better when these levers are pulled, but this system only works when life is not a factor.
Example: Wednesday night I had birthday dinner and drinks until 10pm while watching a cabaret show, and then climbed into bed at 11:30 with not a red light in sight. I slept horribly, and come to think of it, I practiced about 60% of these preaches that day. And it was one of my favorite days ever. 🫶🏻 Such is life.
GOOD VIBRATIONS
❤️🩹 Music lost another legend while we were at the cabaret – RIP Brian Wilson. While today’s Beatles theme song is arguably one of the best there ever was, Sir Paul McCartney himself considers Wilson’s “God Only Knows” to be “the greatest song ever written." That is all.
Happy Friday the 13th!