Every Friday morning, my friend kicks the legs out from a folding table he keeps on his porch and sets out an enormous urn of freshly brewed coffee and a homemade loaf of sourdough. Friends, neighbors, and even strangers drawn in by the sound of conversation or warm welcomes (we recently summoned someone riding by on a tandem bike), stop by in shifts, each with their own mug. The concept is incredibly simple—coffee and bread—but the main draw is the invocation my friend hand-letters on the invitations, “Increase your surface area for luck.”

The phrase, which he first came across in ’s article, inspired the first ‘porch coffee’ last summer, and is centered on the idea that while you can’t create your own “good luck,” you can put yourself out there for luck to find you. The more people you meet, the more likely you are to have an exchange that inspires or helps you, in some way. Cate puts it this way:

It sounds stupidly simple, but it’s profound: the more times you interact with the outside world, the more chances you have to get lucky — to find the collaborators, friends, and projects that, together, provide the right soil for you to bloom in.

Since January, I’ve swung by the porch most weeks and have been amazed by the ways in which the chance meetings have already influenced my life. In the past month, I met the manager of a space that sounds perfect for in-person Morning Person events, joined the crew putting together a puppet show this summer, got connected to the woman I hired as my book coach, made friends, and met creatives who have inspired me in myriad ways. Of course, hosting a “porch coffee” is just one way of “increasing your surface area for luck” and, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I feel my most inspired and alive when I’m living my life in this way. As an experiment, I spent all of last week living according to this mantra, and came away feeling creatively super-charged.

Read on for low- to high-effort ideas for increasing your surface area for luck, and real examples from last week:

Read more

The Sunday Edition is Tuesday’s little sister—off-the-cuff updates I’d bring up over a coffee catch-up with a friend.

I have so many recs to share with you this week, but first a quick life update…

Earlier this week, I asked for your thoughts on whether you feel it would be worth it for me to move for a better neighborhood but less-nice house, and you passionately made your cases in favor of neighborhood! It was genuinely so helpful to read through your comments, and we made things official: I’ll be moving end of July to my dream neighborhood in Portland! The anxiety around moving is already starting to hit, but I’m dedicated to making this my most organized move yet, and sharing my tips with you.

It honestly feels like perfect timing that I’m heading back out in the van in a few days, to step away from over-thinking (How does one move a Peloton Treadmill?) and get some good time with friends and in nature. More to come! Until then, read on for…

• 6 tips to avoid buying shit you don’t need (and the foolproof outfit you already have in your closet)

• The first tv show I’ve been tempted to binge in a long time

• A foolproof tool for poaching eggs

• Chickpeas al limone (!)

P.S. I just wrapped up the Fountain Winter Intensive for novel-writing, and genuinely can’t recommend it more highly. It fully jumpstarted the book I’ve been working on, and they’re starting the summer cohort soon! They recently emailed to say we can share the code SUMMER with friends for 15% off, and said I can pass it along to you if you’re interested (I know there are a lot of writers here!). x

Wild Rose Ghee. I’m on a major kick this week (but also, consistently for the past fifteen years) and her recent Strategist interview included a love letter to ghee that made me laugh, it felt so recognizable, “Because ghee is used in Ayurvedic medicine, it felt sort of healthy, and my boyfriend had to be like, ‘You know you’re eating straight butter.’” I feel like I need her, and you, to know about my favorite small-batch ghee, from Wild Rose. It is expensive, and I’m going to try my hand at making my own as soon as I’m out, but I can’t tell you how much I’ve been enjoying this golden ghee, which contains so much turmeric, it paints my toast completely orange. Dying to try this one next, for research…

Read more

My friend Alice was about to move in with her boyfriend and debating between two apartments when she texted our group chat for our advice. The first listing she sent was gorgeous—a three-bedroom with ample space and a fireplace, but a ten-plus-minute drive from some of her favorite spots in Atlanta. The second was slightly smaller, with two bedrooms, but right on the Beltline, in one of her favorite neighborhoods. It took me about two seconds to text back, urging her to opt for the better neighborhood.

I hadn’t spent a lot of time in my current neighborhood when I came across the listing for my house three years ago. It was well outside of the circumference I had been centering my search in, but I began to push aside my concerns the moment I stepped inside. Sure, the neighborhood was less-than ideal, but I felt transported and safe in the welcoming living room. Everywhere I looked, I saw evidence of the care the previous owners had poured into it: the clementine tiles lining a closet floor, the Japanese maple and fig tree in the back, the beautiful, open shelving in the kitchen. It felt like a place in which I could rebuild my life post-divorce, and I wasted little time creating a space I adore, adding to the garden, and buying furniture for my colorful living room and bright bedroom. As time went on, however, it became harder for me to feel excited about the neighborhood…

Read more

The Sunday Edition is Tuesday’s little sister—off-the-cuff updates I’d bring up over a coffee catch-up with a friend

I love how completely chaotic the weather in Portland was this week, like Mother Nature was trying to hurry up and get to summer but couldn’t quite decide what to wear before running out the door. In the midst of a sunny walk, I heard a crack of thunder and about ten seconds later found myself in a complete downpour; on another morning, I went to collect kale from my garden and found the beds filled with hail. Yesterday, I left the house in a down jacket for what I thought would be a chilly morning walk around Mt. Tabor, but ended up stripping down to my tank top and spending hours basking in the sun with Toast and my boyfriend.

While on our walk, C and I kept talking about all the books, shows, and movies we’re excited to dive into this spring and I thought it might be fun to share my own list with you here! Would love to know what’s on yours! x

Read more

There’s a tangle of bare branches at the end of my neighbor’s driveway that I spent weeks going out of my way to walk past. Each day, I rounded the corner of our block, my anticipation heightened by each budding bush and tree I passed on my way—daphnes first, then cherry blossoms, followed by wisteria. Finally, overnight, the tight lilac blossoms exploded, releasing their intense, powdery perfume.

The timing felt uncanny, given the recent progress I’ve made on the novel I’m working on. After months—years, really—of dormancy, when I could barely write a word of fiction, it feels like everything is suddenly coming together at once. My outline is fleshed out and the moleskine where I’m handwriting my first draft is half-filled with messy paragraphs; arrows connect ideas and dialogue that keep coming to me.

Read more

The Sunday Edition is Tuesday’s little sister—off-the-cuff updates I’d bring up over a coffee catch-up with a friend.

I’ve had a lot of irons on the fire recently, across my creative, personal, and professional lives, and it felt like everything started to click (solder?) into place by the end of this week. It felt so good to see things finally begin to come to fruition, but it also means that my to-do list has exploded. I know, from past experience, that to-dos can dampen my creative spark, so this week I made an effort to notice and collect moments of inspiration, from the food I ate to the clothes I wore, and the culture I consumed. Read on for 13+ things that sparked joy and inspiration this week, including:

• My latest hyper-fixation meal and a magazine I read cover-to-cover

• Springtime playlists and new music I’ve been loooving

• A mind-expanding new book

• My new favorite pan, flowers, and so much more (it’s packed!!)

Casual, meandering hangs with friends. I’ve been a really big fan lately of heading to friends’ houses, or meeting up at a park, with no specific destination in mind. On Friday, I met a friend at Laurelhurst Park, and we eventually strolled over to Navarre for dinner. On Saturday morning, I headed to a friend’s and we tried to stop by Pip’s Bagels (basically the new Courage Bagels of Portland) but the line was literally three blocks long by 9 AM, so we drove over to Tabor Bread, then spent the morning hanging at her house. Bringing more of this spontaneous, casual energy into the summer!

Read more

It came as a surprise to me when I realized that… I don’t have the best time management skills. In the same way I can enter a flow state and get so much done in a short amount of time, I can just as easily let an entire afternoon slip by as I toggle between tabs and open my email for the thousandth time. What ends up happening is, more often than not, I pay for it at the end of the week, and spend my weekends catching up on all the work and myriad to-dos I didn’t get to.

Over the past few months, I’ve developed a strategy for myself I’m calling ‘schedule blocking’ that has completely changed the way I work and approach each day, helping me pace myself and focus so that I can work efficiently and have more time for rest. The idea is to map out a schedule in your calendar, as scaffolding for a daily routine. Here’s how I created mine:

• Begin with priorities. I began by writing a list of everything I have to do in a day, like work on Morning Person, answer emails, work on my book, eat lunch, workout, etc. Then, I made a list of things that are important to me, like slow mornings, long meals, a midday walk. I estimated how much time each “task” should take me, and created blocks—two hours for writing, an hour for lunch, etc.

• Map onto your day. From there, I arranged the blocks into a schedule I felt made sense, giving equal weight to both my responsibilities and things that are personally important to me. (I found it easiest to use my Google Calendar for this!).

• Rearrange until you find your fit. For a few weeks, I tried different schedule combinations. For example, I worked out at lunchtime, until I found it really pulled me out of my work flow and took too much time in the middle of the day, so I bumped it to the end of the day.

• Add in flex days. While Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday are always the same, I try to schedule all of my meetings and appointments on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, to block them together.

• Remember it’s just a scaffolding. While I follow it most days, I also listen to my body and my needs. If I’m in a great writing groove, I keep going with it; or, if I need to get out of the house, I go for a walk. It’s there to support, not punish.

When I wrote about ‘schedule blocking’ last month, it became my most-read post in March, so I figured I would go into more detail here, with a ‘day in the life’ so you can see how it looks on a fairly average day!

Read more

The Sunday Edition is Tuesday’s little sister—off-the-cuff updates and recommendations I’d bring up over a coffee catch-up with a friend.

On a walk with Toast Monday evening, I listened to a lecture by Buddhist teacher Dr. Tara Brach. Through my headphones, she shared a reflection that literally made me stop in my tracks.

Usually what happens is, when there’s stress, we postpone spirituality. We get into a mindset of, I want to take care of this, fix this, get through this, and then I’ll go to the top of the mountain and meditate and have a great experience […] and the irony is, when those times happen that you’re most bothered, that’s exactly when your particular karma is coagulating you around a separate self sense most intensely that’s the time when there’s the most potential to really wake up to the depth of who you are.

As many of you likely already know from reading this newsletter, I am a chronic future-tripper: I’ll be happy when X changes, I’ll rest as soon as I’ve finished Y, I’ll get back into my practices after Z. I’ve long fallen into the trap of believing that as soon as my external world is taken care of—be it, cleaner, simpler, or calmer—I can finally do the more difficult, deeper work I’ve been putting off.

Tara goes on to explain that stress and difficult times can serve as a “Dharma doorway,” for spiritual work. I didn’t know it then, but on Thursday, I received some surprising and heartbreaking news that, because of the foundation I had set, I was able to see as an invitation to step into deeper practices that nourish and fuel me. Sitting here Sunday morning, calm, happy, and at peace, I can see the ways in which these practices buoy and support me in riding life’s waves. Read on for:

• Practices that deepen my connection with myself

• 3 recommendations from this week

• ’s ‘microdose’ method for establishing a daily journaling practice and the daily morning beverage she swears by

P.S. Happy Easter to those who celebrate! Let’s dive in. x

Read more

Like most of my pieces on relationships, this is a deeply personal post so I’ve put most of it behind a paywall, but access includes audio of me reading it with some additional bonus insights on the process of writing it. Thank you for your support and sensitivity around such vulnerable pieces as I casually bare my soul (and messy, growing self) to the internet once again! x

Years before the revelation that would break our marriage, my ex-husband and I had one of our only fights.

Read more

The Sunday Edition is Tuesday’s little sister—off-the-cuff updates I’d bring up over a coffee catch-up with a friend.

This morning, I returned to a breathwork practice my yoga studio hosts monthly during the spring and summer. This particular practice begins by moving through each of the chakras—deep, grounding breaths for the root, progressing all the way up to the crown. As I breathed in and out, feeling my body loosen, it struck me how cathartic this week was. There was the No King’s March yesterday, a few days of sunshine, and the return to traditions that laid dormant over the winter… as a result, today’s issue is packed with recs and photos from a week that felt like a release. x

Read on for…

• 3 recommendations from this week (including a gorgeous book)

• A simple cucumber-avocado salad

• My start-of-the-summer-season ritual

• My four favorite ‘special occasion’ dinner spots in Portland

• Tons of photos, and a helpful reminder…

Read more

It didn’t take much to convince me to go on a weeks-long trip to Canada. Within moments of my physical therapist’s offhand mention of his annual ski trip, which follows a loop that goes up into Banff and down through Vancouver, I had already booked two campsites. I have several long trips beginning in May, but one quick look at my calendar revealed that April was technically, blessedly free. The empty space, combined with my physical therapist’s greenlight to start skiing, felt like a sign.

I headed back home, thrilled by the prospect of another adventure, even as I settled back into the groove I had found that week: reliably working on my book each morning and establishing a work schedule that left weekends open (something I’ve long struggled to maintain). I envisioned myself fitting it all in—I would begin each morning writing my novel in the van at camp, take Toast for a brief hike, head to the mountain and ski for a few hours before lunch, then work on Morning Person, and drive to my next destination before nightfall. It was, in that fantasy, essentially a writing retreat, albeit with more skiing, driving, logistics, and a very needy dog.

Read more

The Sunday Edition is Tuesday’s little sister—off-the-cuff updates I’d bring up over a coffee catch-up with a friend.

Good morning from not-Canada! As you may have surmised, despite my best intentions and an impeccably planned trip, I made the call to stay in Portland another few weeks. There are a number of reasons and personal updates that influenced my decision to stay (I’ll share much more in this week’s Tuesday Issue!), but the gorgeous weather this week certainly didn’t hurt. Although we’re probably still in “Spring of Deception,” it felt so good to be in Portland for such a sunshiney week! Read on for a few recent obsessions , including…

• A pantry spring cleaning and insanely delicious slow-roasted salmon

• 3 new obsessions, including a new gym routine and serveware

• The nettle soup I make to help with spring allergies

Read more

You all know by now how much I adore my acupuncturist, Helen Spieth, who has taught me so much about incorporating Chinese Medicine practices into my daily life. When I began working with her three years ago, for treatment for PMDD and gut issues, I had never been to acupuncture before, but quickly felt its benefits and the wisdom in her advice, which fundamentally shifted the way I eat and care for my body. Since taking her biannual nutrition course last spring, I’ve gotten so much more intentional about eating hyper-seasonal foods, like stinging nettles. The moment I see nettles at the farmers’ market (they popped up last week at mine!), I begin a weekly ritual of preparing this nettle soup, which, despite its short ingredient list, tastes so rich and layered, and is packed with anti-inflammatory vitamins and minerals that help, among other things, spring allergies! I’ve been trying to convince Helen to create a cookbook… but until then, she graciously agreed to share her recipe here! Enjoy and happy spring! x

Nettles are only in season March/April-May, with some variation depending on the weather. Therefore, this is obviously a Spring soup and no surprise that nettles are particularly good for the liver and the blood. They also bring a variety of other medicinal benefits including stimulating the lymph and excretion of toxins via the urine, support the detoxing function of the liver and are rich in a variety of minerals and vitamins to support this, they are an excellent blood tonic and so good for anemia and fatigue, and are especially beneficial for Spring seasonal allergies due to their antihistamine properties. — Helen Spieth

Subscribe now

You will need:

Large pot of boiling water
2 tsp salt
1 pound stinging nettles
Cold water for rinsing nettles
1 Tbsp ghee
1 onion diced
1⁄4 cup white rice (rinsed and soaked) OR one largish yellow sweet potato peeled and cubed [I always use rice!]
4 cups chicken stock / broth (or veg broth)
Salt and pepper to taste

How to make it:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add 2 tsp of salt and drop in the nettles. Cook until they soften, 2-3 minutes. This will remove most of the sting. Drain, rinse in cold water, then cut off the tough stems and roughly chop the nettles. [Save this liquid, which has many of the nutritional benefits of nettle tea; be aware it may be slightly more bitter so I sometimes add honey to taste!]

2. Heat the ghee in a saucepan and cook the onion until soft and translucent. Add the rice or potato, the broth and chopped nettles, bring to a boil and simmer until the rice/potato is cooked, about 15 minutes.

3. Puree with an immersion blender (or transfer to a regular blender) and season with salt and pepper. You could experiment with substituting some of the nettles for dandelion greens, though beware that they are a little bitter.

TW: I briefly touch on disordered eating and suicidal ideation in this post. I’ve also included a voiceover, in case you prefer to listen to me reading this piece. x

In the weeks after spraining my ankle, I developed a habit of calling it my “stupid ankle,” so often that the words ran together to become a compound. I could be traveling in my van, or skiing, or running, if not for my stupidankle. My stupidankle became a scapegoat not only for my limited mobility, but for all of the myriad frustrations and depressive thoughts that emerged during the three months it took to heal to the point that I could walk without pain. Over lunch, my friend gently admonished my new naming scheme. She’s a therapist, and has a way of looking at me before delivering something I need to hear. “Leslie,” she said, the look in full force, “Your ankle is not stupid. If anything it is wise. It is telling you to rest.” I laughed, even as I could see the truth in it.

For most of my life, I’ve treated my body as a machine, and its interruptions as inconveniences to push through. When I developed chronic stomach issues in college, I got my gallbladder removed, only to learn later that my symptoms were caused by stress. When I tore a tendon in my foot a month before the L.A. Marathon, I treated the pain with handfuls of Advil and beat my goal time by fifteen minutes—it wasn’t until years later that I learned about “cross-training” and “mobility.” I don’t think I’m alone in this. Like other Millennial women, I was raised in a culture where our relationships with our bodies were built on discipline and management. I hid tampons at the back of my locker, spent a week in middle school surviving on cantaloupes alone (ill-advised diet advice from a friend’s older sister), and spent hours scrutinizing every inch of my body and scanning the pages of Seventeen Magazine for solutions. Psychologist Hillary McBride uses the metaphor of standing outside the body rather than living inside it; evaluating and managing it from a distance, instead of truly listening to it.

Read more

The Sunday Edition is Tuesday’s little sister—off-the-cuff updates I’d bring up over a coffee catch-up with a friend.

Last week was among the most productive and creatively generative weeks I’ve had in a looong time. I finished a rough outline for the book I’m working on, jumped back into running and training, mapped-out my entire Canada trip (leaving at the end of next week!), and began to scaffold a new editorial strategy. More to come, since I’d love to get your take!

To reorient myself with the van, I went camping this weekend in Nehalem Bay (with someone I’ve been seeing!), one of my favorite places a two-hour drive from Portland. Read on for:

• A meal-planning strategy for a tenish-minute chicken bowl

• Recs from the week, including a book I’ve been dying to tell you about for months

• A tip for falling in love with the items already in your closet

• Some favorite reads from this week

As always, never any affiliate links just genuine recs!

1. “Landman” on Paramount+. Though it leans heavily on overwritten speeches (my issue with Taylor Sheridan’s earlier project, “Yellowstone”) and caricatures of people (the overtly sexy daughter, and the tough Texas dad), I can see this show becoming a guilty pleasure. The foreshadowing isn’t subtle but the storyline is intriguing enough.

2. Whidbey by T. Kira Madden. I’ve been dying to tell you about this novel, out this week, which uniquely alternates between two gripping, twisty perspectives. In one, Birdie has escaped to a small island of the coast of Washington for a much-needed retreat from her past and the man who sexually assaulted her as a child. When he is found murdered, we see his mother’s side—mourning her son and determined to find his murderer.

3. An earlier version of this post recommended a protein powder that is associated with politics that couldn’t be further from own values. I’ve removed the recommendation after this was pointed out to me (and leaving the comments in case you’d like to see). I do my best to vet brands I purchase from, but clearly did not pay close enough attention here and I’m deeply sorry for any damage I caused or confusion I created. Thank you so much to all who brought this to my attention.

P.S. I’ve moved my weekly recommendations to “Sunday Edition,” and expanded them beyond just newly released media, because I found that I was watching and reading things just to generate the recs. Instead, I want them to be more organic, to better reflect what I’m actually consuming and enjoying each week. Let me know your thoughts! x

Leave a comment

Read more

The day I returned home from Ojai, I texted my group chat, “It’s all I can do to keep myself from falling into a deep depression at the fact that I no longer live in California.” I was, of course, mostly kidding… but the abrupt transition from 75° and sunny to 50° and rainy hit me hard. Granted, vacation isn’t real life, but my weekend in the idyllic small town, nestled in a valley in the hills above Santa Barbara, felt like a dream. Each day included morning walks (in shorts and a sunhat!) on windy, oak-lined streets to grab an iced matcha from Three Birds and citrus, plucked straight from the tree.

Since moving to Portland six years ago, there hasn’t been a March where I haven’t seriously considered running home to California. Sure, the rain gets to me, but what really does me in is the wall of clouds that covers the sun from November until June. While I actually welcome the initial change in weather—fall brings golden leaves and the rain over the holidays feels cozy—I really begin to struggle in February and March, when summer is still a faraway blip on the calendar. (I promise it’s worth it; summer in Portland is, in my opinion, as close to heaven as it gets.)

I’m currently in the midst of planning another adventure in the van, but until then, I have a few rituals to get me through the final stretch of winter. Read on for tiny practices I’m implementing to make the grey days feel a little brighter, including:

• A $34 home addition and $5 farmers market purchase that signal spring

• My Sunday reset ritual for winter

• A two-week windowsill project that makes February feel like April

• Why I've started taking dance breaks (and a collaborative playlist to do it with)

Read more

The Sunday Edition is Tuesday’s little sister—off-the-cuff updates I’d bring up over a coffee catch-up with a friend.

So you might have realized… I haven’t been in my van for a bit. When I returned home in January, I was only planning to stay for two weeks. In that time I saw every friend I know in Portland and doubled-down on appointments. I was all set to leave, but proceeded to kick my projected departure date down the road. As many of you know, I got emotionally and physically steamrolled by the holidays and my ankle sprain, both of which seriously slowed me down. As much as I wanted to bounce back, I knew I needed more time, to rest, recover, and develop some semblance of a stable routine. It’s taken this long—over two months—to finally feel the ground beneath my feet again and actually feel excited by the prospect of another adventure. On Friday, around the same time I began to feel better emotionally, my physical therapist gave me the go-ahead to return to some of my favorite sports, and slowly build back into running. I don’t want to rush anything, and a lot depends on the weather, but I’ve started to plan the next leg of my journey: a Canada ski adventure (!).

My rough plan is to head to Banff with Toast, hit some mountains on the Ikon Pass (which I still have yet to use!) then loop home through Vancouver. I’m not sure how long it will take me, but I’m setting aside a few weeks for the journey—I’ve learned how important flexibility is to me! In May, I’ll head back to California, then continue on to visit my friends on the east coast. I can’t wait to bring you along with me! Until then, here are a few highlights from this week, including:

• Three products I bought immediately after my recent girls’ weekend

• The new way I’m blocking my weekday schedule (it’s a bit unhinged, but it works!)

• My new hyperfixation snack and favorite outfit this week

• Everything I ate yesterday

Before we jump into things, I wanted to share the exciting news that I hit 50,000 subscribers which is honestly insane to even think about. When I started Morning Person, I didn’t have a single email or subscriber. Still, I believed in myself and trusted that I could create and grow the newsletter I wish I had in my inbox, packed with recommendations and essays on living an intentional and meaningful life. It has been such a joy to put this little corner of the internet together every week. You’ve all seen me through grad school, my divorce, van adventures, and buying a home on my own. It’s been a wild ride and I can’t wait to see where it goes!! Thank you, thank you for being here! xx

Leave a comment

Read more

I have always loved food, but it’s only been in the past few years that I’ve begun to draw the connection between what I eat and how it makes my body feel. As a food editor, I idolized critics like Jonathan Gold and rejected the possibility that my test kitchen scores and adventures in New York’s culinary scene had anything to do with my constant stomach pain and insatiable appetite. My weight has always been consistent—the barometer so many of us were taught to measure “health” by—so I paid little attention to the other signs my body was giving me. It was only in my mid-twenties, with gentle encouragement from a nutritionist friend, that I began to eat a larger protein-focused breakfast, and was surprised to find how much more satiating it was than my avocado toast. When I stopped drinking alcohol the month before my thirtieth birthday, I experienced what I can only describe as a spiritual shift when it comes to my food consumption. I began to recognize the ways in which the things I put into my body impact me both physically and emotionally, through the gut-brain connection.

Last spring, I enrolled in a six-week nutrition course led by my acupuncturist Helen Spieth, L.Ac, M.Chem. that fundamentally changed the way I eat, and deepened my relationship to food and our food systems. Helen’s methodology draws on principles of Chinese Medicine (which is incidentally having a moment), centering gut and microflora health and seasonality, while reducing the burdens on our digestive track by enhancing the digestibility of food and bioavailability of nutrients. Since taking her course and applying her advice, I’ve felt so much more satiated, with consistent energy, and just better overall—I literally haven’t gotten a cold in a year (fingers crossed I didn’t just jinx myself).

Similar to her advice on avoiding colds, Helen’s nutrition principles are grounded in practical changes and ancient wisdom that feel incredible connective (to nature, to food itself, and to our bodies) and are surprisingly easy to apply and maintain. As she puts it, “I’m the antithesis to Martha Stewart” and, I would add, fad diets. Read on for my recent conversation with Helen, where she generously shared the heart of her nutrition practices, including:

• Why she’s a proponent of eating a large, protein-rich breakfast and smaller veg-based dinner, according to Chinese Medicine

• How to maintain a healthy diet (no counting macros here), even with a completely packed schedule and family

• My full conversation with Helen Spieth, that dives into so many aspects of Chinese Medicine and nutrition

• A downloadable recipe for the spinach sauce I eat most days, and an incredibly easy way to cook chicken in a slow cooker

P.S. There is nothing restrictive about this post, but if you are worried that reading about what someone eats, or nutrition, will trigger disordered eating or any bad feelings, please skip this! You may enjoy this post on fleeing a meditation retreat (lol) or self-care instead!

Read more

The Sunday Edition is Tuesday’s little sister—off-the-cuff updates I’d bring up over a coffee catch-up with a friend.

When I first moved from New York to L.A., I received an invitation to coffee from another woman new to the city, who read the blog I worked for. It was love at first sight and our duo quickly grew to a crew of five women who, even ten years later, I hardly go a day without texting. Between babies, cross-country moves, and demanding jobs, our schedules are more complicated than ever, but this weekend, three of us managed to gather from our homes on opposite corners of the country, and meet in Ojai, California.

This week’s Sunday Edition is packed with recs from my weekend, plus:

• Favorite easy outfits I wore

• 3 weeknight meals I made this week

• A little living room tour and update

• Culture recs from the week, including a heart-warming book

I loved your comments in response to my post on turning 34. It was unbelievably comforting to see how many of you feel the same way and to receive advice from women who have been here before! I took some time on my birthday to journal a few promises and reminders to myself for this year:

• Notice the magic already inherent in my life.

• Simply ask yourself, “What do I need today?” How will you take care of yourself and others?

• Journal every single day (!)

• Be honest with what you need for yourself. You know what’s best for you—if you’re confused, take time and space to think and attune to yourself before responding.

• Less, less, less.

Leave a comment

Read more

It isn’t often that I see something on Pinterest and immediately stop what I’m doing to go make it, but something about this orange-banana smoothie sounded so appealing, especially considering I’ve been fighting off a cold the past couple of days and it’s loaded with immunity-boosting ingredients like an orange, turmeric, ginger, and kale. Here, I made a few tweaks, like adding in kale and protein powder, to make it my own. Enjoy! It’s so good, I made it two days in a row.

You will need:

Greek yogurt, about 1/2 cup
1 orange
1 frozen banana
1 scoop high-quality vanilla protein powder (this is my favorite)
1 tablespoon almond butter (I prefer sprouted almond butter)
1 small knob fresh or frozen ginger (available at Trader Joe’s)
1 teaspoon ground turmeric (or a small, fresh knob with the skin removed!)
A few grinds black pepper
A few leaves of kale (optional, good with or without!)
Granola (optional, to top—I used this one!)

How to make it:

Throw it all in a blender and blitz until smooth! Add granola on top for a nice little crunch.