The Best Part of Machu Picchu Was the 5 Days Before It It was the night before the trek. 10 of us crammed into a little briefing room in Cusco, listening to our guides run through what the next 5 days would look like. A family from Colorado and California, a couple from Chicago. Everyone decked in proper hiking gear, asking intelligent questions about the trek and the camping. Liam and I were very much not asking intelligent questions. We felt so intimidated, everyone else looked like legit...
16 days ago • 4 min read
I’ve Taken Thousands of Photos This Year. I’ve Barely Looked at Any of Them. I was catching up with a friend on Whatsapp recently and she asked me why I haven’t posted more about my LATAM adventures on Instagram. What I wanted to say was: “Because I’m busy BEING” But she’s a dear friend and a sweetheart and also someone who posts A LOT so I wanted to be careful with my response. And honestly I felt a bit defensive, like there is something wrong with me for not wanting to post every landscape,...
23 days ago • 5 min read
The Lost Art of Doing Nothing Badly I can’t plan a long travel journey without immediately thinking: How am I going to use the time productively? So when my hubby booked a 6-hour bus journey going from Oaxaca to Puebla, Mexico, you bet that I had the most productive plan for it. I made sure all my files were available offline on my MacBook. I had a week of Substack Notes to write. 2 newsletters to finish. Emails for my LegalTech job to draft. All types of cables to charge my devices while on...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Eat the F*cking Bread I’ve eaten very, VERY well in Mexico. Tacos. Mole. Big breakfasts. Late dinners. Food I’d never tried before and immediately wanted again. For years, I could have sat at those exact tables and missed half of the experience. Not physically. Mentally. I spent years being physically present at wonderful meals while mentally somewhere else, calculating what they meant. I refuse to miss my life that way anymore. Was that too much? Should tomorrow be lighter? Had I walked...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
In Defence of The Missed Workout The last few weeks have been a lot, in the good way. Wrapping up a fabulous month in Mexico City, where I ate the best food of my life and watched the World Cup in packed bars (we don’t talk about France and the semi-final…) Then on to beautiful Oaxaca, where I’ve mostly been swimming in mole. In between: packing, moving, and closing out sessions with my coaching clients. And despite having access to a genuinely great gym this whole time, I have not visited it...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
A Health Coach's Case for a Less Impressive Summer Every year, summer arrives with the same weird pressure. Relax, but make it meaningful.Have fun, but don’t lose your routine.Be present, but also document everything.Rest, but come back glowing. Eat the ice cream, but somehow also maintain the body, the habits, the steps, the sleep, the inbox and the version of yourself who had a very sensible plan in June. Honestly, it’s exhausting. And the best parts of summer are usually the ones you can’t...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Diet Culture Isn't Dead. But I'm Writing the Eulogy Anyway. Let me save us both some time, because I have done all of it. The meal-replacement shakes for lunch. The fat-free biscuits eaten by the sleeve because fat-free meant they didn’t count, right? Noom. MyFitnessPal. Weighing every single thing I ate. Tracking calories burned as if my life depended on it. And when none of it worked in the long run, which it never did, I did the only thing any of us were trained to do. I assumed I was the...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
I Have Never Once Survived a Digital Detox I am writing this from Mexico City during a very football-heavy month. My laptop is open. There is football on in the background. My phone is close enough to keep checking the group chats every time something happens in the match, which is apparently every 18 seconds. Technically, I am working. Technically, I am also watching the football. Technically, I am also keeping up with friends commenting on the match, because apparently none of us can simply...
2 months ago • 1 min read
I Was Too Zonked to Remember My Own Livestream. 'Old Me' Would Never Have Let It Go. I finally did the thing I've been dreaming about for months: I stopped moving. After 6 months of packing and unpacking and working out which adapter goes in which wall, Liam and I landed in Mexico City for a full month! A full month with the same Airbnb, the same morning walk, the same gym, the same Walmart Express, the same café across the road. And I love it here. I had really high expectations and CDMX has...
2 months ago • 6 min read
