Personal Lore

Not everyone has it. Plus: protein soda, pelvic floors, new forms of "maxxing," and more.

Circa 1992, probably writing a story in my head.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve lived inside a story. Middle school is when I realized I was the one holding the pen.

On days without an after-school sports practice, I’d go outside to shoot hoops. As my basketball shot improved, my brain was running sprints. I began turning my life into a story on the driveway—a series of events with meaning, arc, consequence.

(If it was cold or raining, I’d take a book and a ramekin filled with pretzels and pickles into my parents’ room and burrow into their bed to do the opposite: disappear into whatever novel I was reading at the time.)

I haven’t been able to stop. An uncomfortable conversation connects, somehow, to a teacher’s comment from decades ago. A recent career pivot makes perfect sense when I follow the thread backwards. Last week’s sunny midday walk inspires me to mentally relitigate my 20s. My temperament, my mistakes, my triumphs, my relationships…it’s all one long, neverending story.

I am, at my core, a narrator. I assumed everyone was.

Then a new Vox piece sent me down a rabbit hole that I haven’t climbed out of. The link led to a philosophy essay anchored by one disorienting idea: not everyone experiences their life as a story. The philosopher behind the theory, Galen Strawson, posits that some people live almost entirely in the present tense, feeling no need to weave their past and future into a coherent self. Strawson calls them “episodic.” He labels people like me—always mentally narrating—“diachronic.” (From the Greek: dia (through) + chronos (time).) Neither is better, he says. They’re simply different architectures of being human.

My orientation is what drives me to make meaning out of difficulty, to extract the lesson, to keep going so new chapters unfold. But it also means I carry everything forward. Each setback becomes part of the plot. And the story must always be going somewhere—somewhere good—otherwise I live with a low hum of agita that is not quite unbearable but never pleasant, either.

What would it feel like to exist in a moment without investigating what it means? I genuinely cannot access that. Some days it feels like a gift. Some days it feels like a trap.

Beam, March 2023. A poet on Congress Street in Austin wrote this for me on his typewriter.

My bias tells me that episodic people are rare. But maybe they’re everywhere, navigating a Western framework built around the narrative self. Therapy. Memoir. Self-help. Personal growth. If you’re episodic, you’ve spent your life in a culture that treats your way of being as either aspirational (“she really lives in the moment”) or slightly unserious. Buddhist philosophy, interestingly, centers the episodic experience as the more accurate perception of reality…the self as a series of present moments.

I’ve spent years going to therapy—and years more lying on my pillow at night—connecting dots, finding patterns, writing drafts. Even my approach to self-examination is diachronic. (This lede could be Exhibit A.) The episodic person probably doesn’t need to reflect on their childhood to contextualize their Tuesday. I’m not sure whether that’s freeing or just a different kind of weight to carry.

It’s Monday. And before I turn this post into a full personality audit, let’s get into the news of the week…

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Across The Wellness World

HEALTH & TECH

• The FDA approved a higher-dose Wegovy injection—7.2mg, up from 2.4mg—for people who plateau on the standard dose. Trial participants lost nearly 21% of body weight.

• The Pelvic Health Conference just wrapped in NYC. Endometriosis affects roughly one in 10 women—comparable in prevalence to conditions like diabetes. There’s a massive gap in doctor responses.

• Feisty headline for a new first-person piece in the Wall Street Journal: “The Tyranny of the Oura Ring.” Women’s Health also wrote about omni-tracking this week.

• GQ reports that men are “spermmaxxing” now. As in, optimizing fertility through diet, supplements, and lifestyle the way they’d optimize a workout. An Oxford study out this week adds fuel, suggesting that more frequent ejaculation may be linked to improved sperm quality.

FITNESS

• The brand Timothée Chalamet made cool refuses to embrace coolness. So sayeth a new Bloomberg Businessweek profile on how the former Army lieutenant running Arc’teryx turned “we only make things that keep you alive on a mountain” into a $2.7 billion business.

• If I were still an EIC, I’d be jealous: Vanity Fair puts ski icon Lindsey Vonn on its new cover in a Mônot gown, bandaged leg and all.

• The gym has been packed this year, whether I’m working out at the YMCA, Life Time, or Equinox. But is a backlash coming? A new national survey finds that overcrowding is one of the top reasons people cancel fitness club memberships.

• Dick’s Sporting Goods is winning with kids. I can confirm this is true: George asked for a gift card for his 11th birthday last week.

• As a Park Sloper and regular Citi Biker, I love this: Prospect Park is finally getting a protected cycling lane around its perimeter.

NUTRITION

• Danone just acquired Huel—the U.K. protein shake and meal-replacement brand—for ~$1.2 billion. Big Food is betting the future of food looks a lot more like functional nutrition than traditional grocery aisles.

• Buffalo Wild Wings put an Espresso Proteini with 10g of protein on its menu, and I am not okay.

• Proda is a new soda launching this spring with 10g of protein per can, and positioned for everyday people rather than gym rats. The protein-everything era isn’t slowing down.

~HALFTIME~
Since seeing Project Hail Mary over the weekend, I’ve been coveting Ryan Gosling’s very gym-adjacent, very vintage wardrobe. The science joke tees, the hats, the corduroy space suit. Etsy sellers are riffing on it all, and here’s a dupe for his fox cardigan. Outer space is awesome, I loved the film.

SELF-CARE

• Did you catch the giant shower installation in the Meatpacking district? A well-played activation celebrating Ouai’s new Bond Repair Balm.

• After years of sharing her acne journey, podcaster/investor Alix Earle debuts her skincare brand, Reale Actives.

• I checked out the new Le Labo products at Equinox because I heard a rumor that they weren’t as good as the real thing. My testing notes: that’s a fair assessment of the shampoo, which is not sudsy. But the basil body wash? It scores a refreshing 10/10.

• Rhode’s new caffeine reset sculpting mask describes itself as “a cup of coffee for your face.” Skincare brands are leaning hard into fatigue as a marketing category. Welcome to the Great Exhaustion of 2026.

CULTURE

• United Airlines announces Relax Row for economy passengers on long flights, a couch-style sitting/sleeping situation.

• Aerie doubles down on its no-retouching pledge with a new campaign starring Pamela Anderson, plus a promise to never use AI-generated bodies in its marketing.

• Harry Styles’ Pleasing vibrator sells out in minutes and resells for $300 on eBay. Bloomberg asks why Wall Street still treats sexual wellness like a liability when the demand is this obvious.

• Dazed makes the case for “funmaxxing”: prioritizing enjoyment and whimsy over optimization.

• Gigil (“ghee-gill”) is a Philippine English word describing the urge to clench your hands, grit your teeth, and squeeze whatever you find unbearably cute, per this New Yorker feature, which went deep on dog-human relationships. I’ve had a phrase for this phenomenon my entire life: “violent affection,” with apologies to my Golden retrievers growing up, my Bernese mountain dog Willa, and my three human children.

LIZ, LIVE!

• Business Insider’s “Power Hours” column featured a day in my new life this week. I’ve been a fan of this franchise forever, so this one meant a lot!

• Last week I appeared on NBC News Daily to unpack the rise of hybrid fitness competitions. I am loving these wellness trend sit-downs, and it must be said, doing live TV.

• The newest episode of Lifting With Liz is now live on YouTube, featuring Alloy Health co-founder Monica Molenaar…and her very badass pull-ups.

• I’ll be speaking and leading a workout at the Enchant beauty & wellness festival at Canyon Ranch Tucson later this month. Desert air, sunshine, spa treatments, awesome programming, a gifting suite of beauty products…join me!

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A lot of the country is on spring break right now. If my roundup gave you something to read in a lengthy TSA line or at the beach, let me know by tapping the heart. Or leave a one-sentence comment…I’d love to know who’s reading this newsletter. Thank you for being here.