Heads up: some links below are affiliate or referral links. I only ever link things I actually use.

The story

Every so often I text a friend a Quince link with zero context. Just the link and “trust me.” If you know me in real life, you already know my Quince love is real, so odds are you’ve gotten one of those texts.

My obsession started with their clothes several years ago when I first saw the brand pop up with organic options at low prices by cutting out the middleman. Now it’s pretty much my entire wardrobe. What surprises some people is how much more they carry now besides clothing, and slowly I’ve branched out into almost all of it. I could list a hundred things I’ve bought over the years (sadly). Mostly clothes, sure, but also bed sheets, luggage, purses, wallets, furniture (yes, actual beds and couches), pillows, blankets, kids’ clothes and bathing suits, jewelry, shoes. Even area rugs.

At first, I kept going back because of the fabric. Their clothing lines runs heavy on organic and sustainable materials at really good prices. If you’re just getting started on lower tox living, clothing is probably nowhere near the top of your list, and that’s fine, it wasn’t at the top of mine either. But it’s an area I’m focused on now. Cotton, linen, wool, silk, no polyester. Quince has a lot of it.

Not only do they have the fabrics I want, but the quality is hard to beat and there is true transparency on the pricing. At these prices you’d expect cheap quality. It isn’t. They cut out the middleman and sell direct to you, and they’re upfront about how the pricing actually works. So that cashmere sweater that looks too good to be true? It’s just a really nice cashmere sweater for a really good price.

One thing I love when I’m browsing the site: under each product, they compare it to a couple competitors and show you the price difference. Quince workout clothes will list Lululemon and Athleta with their prices and features in a table right along side the Quince item so you can compare. They do it for everything, even furniture. Go look up the comparable item yourself, the quality is the same. Sometimes I think Quince quality is better.

If you’ve never heard of Quince, where have you been? lol. But seriously, it is worth checking out if you’ve not heard of it. It is the first place I look now when I need something. Tablecloth for a party? Check. Organic baby gift for a friend? Check. Shoes for a wedding? Check. Towels for the guest room? Check. Cutoff shorts for the summer? Yep. I could give you a million recommendations. Instead I’ll leave you my last few buys plus my ShopMy, where I try to keep it updated with the items I think others might love that I can affirm are excellent. Ask me anything specific too, if I haven’t already tried it there’s a chance it’s already in my cart and I can let you know soon what I think 😊

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★ The Shortcut

The short hit

Have you seen a Quince price and assumed the quality must be cheap? It isn’t. They sell direct and skip the middleman, so the too-good-to-be-true cashmere is just a genuinely nice sweater at a good price. Start with the natural fabrics: cotton, linen, cashmere, silk - skip any polyester. New customers get $20 off your first $100.

Links: Quince ($20 off your first $100) · My tested Quince picks (ShopMy)

The last few items I bought:

Clothes for me

• 100% Organic Cotton Gauze Smocked Sleeveless Maxi Dress — $60

• 100% Organic Cotton Gauze Long Sleeve Shirt — $44.90

• Bella Stretch Vintage Shorts — $40

• Organic Cotton Racerback Bralette (2-Pack) — $29.90

• Organic Stretch Ripstop Shorts — $34.90

Not clothes

• Italian Pebbled Leather Sling Bag — $74

• Bamboo Sheet Set — $134

• Kids’ Bamboo Long Sleeve & Pant Pajama Set — $22.90

• Brennan L Sectional (Performance Chenille Linen Blend) — $2,700

• Carry-On & Medium Check-In Suitcase Set — $229.90

Before you go

What’s the one Quince thing you want me to vet for you? I love talking about Quince!!

Talk soon,
Kristen ❤️

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Heads up: some links below are affiliate or referral links. I only ever link things I actually use.

LOVE WELL

Beach Reads and Bubbly: how I found my book club

How it started

One of the best things that happened to me at least six years ago now: I started following Katie of Beach Reads and Bubbly on Instagram (she’s on substack too!) At the time she was a gal in the Chicago area with no kids that loved to yap about books. Now she has three kids and still likes to yap about books. She is an avid reader like me and posts about books she reads with a really positive, fun energy. It’s a happy place on the internet.

Even though she’s blown up since I first started following her, she still gives the best book recommendations. From the very beginning I knew we had very similar taste because what she loved I had already read and loved or when I read what she recommended I would usually align with her final rating (usually but not always). She’s who got me into reading romance, among other genres. She coined the term B.R.A.D. which stands for “beach read after dark” and can be categorized as a spicy romance that’s short on plot but long on spice. It’s actually what you want when you don’t want something deep, or angsty, or thought provoking – it’s the equivalent of scrolling on your phone to numb out, just much more fun. She reads romance, thrillers, mystery, gen fiction, historical fiction, romantasy, etc, and I read all of those plus some non-fiction too. While Katie reads a little of this and a little of that, the core of what she wants are books that make you feel good and who can argue with that.

I started following her right around when I started back in my reading era. In 2020, at the start of COVID some friends and I were chatting about how we now had time to read some of us decided to read a book at the same time. It rekindled my old love of reading and I decided to try to read 20 books that year. Remember this was a time when we literally had no where we could go and nothing to do (and I had two toddlers at home) so while this felt aggressive, it also felt possible, even though I hadn’t been reading AT ALL for years. I ended up reading 21 books and I was so proud of myself! I had used to love reading but only ever read lying on a beach during vacation so it would be a few books a year (which was still more than most people I knew!) but then I had kids and all reading went out the window for 5+ years. For 2021 I was feeling good and decided to try to up it to 26 books, one every 2 weeks. I ended up reading 41! Nearly doubled from the year before. So in 2022 I decide to go all in and up it to 52 books as my goal, one per week. The result? 105 books! My mind was blown. I’d been reading nearly double my expectations every year. There was no way I could read more than 105 books so I set my 2023 goal at 104 books or two books per week. Drumroll please – I ended up reading 142 books in 2023. I know. It was too much. I was spending every free minute reading which was great and also an addiction so I intentionally cut back to limit myself to 90 in 2024 and way back to 75 in 2025 and 2026. I feel like that is a tolerable pace. I often feel like I’m not reading much at all these days but I’m still on track for 75 books a year which is obviously not insignificant. I also sometimes compare myself to my book club friend who has at times read 450 books in a single year!!!! Yes it is very hard to comprehend but I know it as true. If you’re into romance books – check out her IG where she can actually recall minute details from the 400+ books she reads per year: SuperSpecificRomance
(Also want to give some photo credits to another book club friend with a Bookstagram! Check out CLT.Reads and follow along on her reading adventures)

Then she made it local

Anyway, speaking of book club. In 2023, Katie from Beach Reads & Bubbly created local groups (through what’s now Bumble BFF) where people following her on IG could post their city and start a book club locally. I don’t think she expected it to take off the way it did. There are hundreds of these clubs now. She doesn’t actually run them or have anything to do with them – she just brought like minded readers together.

I’d wanted to join a book club since 2020 when I hit my reading stride, but the introvert thing is real (plus, COVID). I tried to get into friends’ existing clubs and they were full (once a cozy book club forms, it’s hard to expand). By 2023, my kids were 5 and 7 and I was ready to get out in the world more.

The first Charlotte meetup was in June. I missed it, and then I panicked a little that the group would form without me and I’d be the odd one out. So I made myself go to the second one in July. About 25 women met at a local brewery and I met so many lovely people! A subset of us got fixated on one book in particular (A Court of Thorns and Roses — someone was still reading it and we ALL wanted to know what she’d think…IYKYK), we swapped numbers, and that little group is now one of my closest friend groups. We travel together, do regular dinners, celebrate birthdays. Three years in, it’s one of the most important parts of my life.

We still go to the bigger Beach Reads and Bubbly Charlotte book club too. Charlotte’s split into a few location-based options now, and ours in South End is still the biggest, 15 to 35 people a month at a wine bar. It’s amazing the turnout we get! Usually two book options a month, one romance and one not, so people can pick (a lot of the time I read both). Every month new people show up after seeing Katie talk about her clubs online, and they get welcomed right in.

About the “bubbly”

As I said, Katie doesn’t run any of the local clubs. Each city votes and decides for itself. Some meet in homes, some in public, some do one book a meeting, some lean literary, some lean romance. In Charlotte we meet at a wine bar, and you can have a drink if you want, not required. The drink-with-your-book-review thing is more Katie’s brand. In Charlotte, you do what you want to do.

What makes a beach read (and how I actually read)

One thing I love about book club is everyone reads the same book but comes in with totally different opinions. Sometimes people love a book while others hate it, and sometimes for the exact same reason. Reading is so subjective. Books I’ve adored, some of my book club friends couldn’t finish, and the other way around. Though for the most part I think the reason the group has clicked is that our general taste in books is similar (we all love a B.R.A.D. too).

Sometimes you just want something brainless and fun, not deep, a.k.a the B.R.A.D. But most of the time, even for romance, I want character development or plot, something to actually keep me engaged. And I like to switch genres, never three thrillers or three romances in a row. Literary fiction, historical fiction, mysteries. The variety is what keeps me reading.

I read almost exclusively on my Kindle now. I gave up physical books, which was hard at first, but a real book feels heavy to me now, hard to lug around. I do audiobooks on walks or in the car, which is the only time it works for me, because my brain has to fully concentrate to listen. So I tend to listen to nonfiction and self-help type books. I process those better by ear anyway and I only listen in small doses.

If you’re on the fence about walking in

If you decide to join a local BR&B book club, you will not meet nicer people. Everyone at these meetups has been pre-vetted, in a way, because they all follow Katie, someone who’s a genuine positive light on the internet and prides herself on staying on the good side of it. The people who show up are connected to that and it makes a difference immediately.

So put yourself out there! I walked in not knowing a soul and walked out with some of my best friends. Everyone was new at some point, and there are always new faces. Having something to look forward to every month, a reason to get off my phone, a book waiting for me: it’s honestly made me a better version of myself over the last few years. If there isn’t a local one near you – be the first! I promise it will be worth it.

The short hit

Want to find your own book club? Follow Katie at Beach Reads and Bubbly on Instagram, see if you jive with her book recs, then look for your city’s local group (they run through Bumble BFF). If there’s one near you, just go and give it a try. You don’t have to know anyone, and everyone there was new once.

What I’ve loved lately (recent 5-star reads)

• My Friends by Fredrik Backman — literary fiction. Everything he writes is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. A little slow to get into sometimes, but I’m never disappointed at the end. I did this one on audio (recommend it), and it was very well done.

• Dire Bound by Sable Sorensen — romantasy. Loved it. Sort of a Fourth Wing and Hunger Games type of vibe. The sequel Fury Bound just came out and it’s next on my list.

• Dolly All the Time by Annabel Monaghan — one of my favorites of the summer. She’s an auto-read author for me now. She writes women in their 30s and 40s (so hard to find in this genre), real characters that make you feel something, one book a year (I wish it were more!)

• Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino — something a little more out there. A girl who believes she’s an alien sent to earth to gather information. Funny, and also quietly a spiritual-awakening kind of book if you listen to the underlying message.

• Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea — The last thriller/mystery I truly couldn’t put down. About a cold case from 9/11…sort of.

• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy — literary fiction, I opened the year with it. Epic, a little mystery/thriller under it, but more literary. Short but it definitely stays with you.

• Windy City series by Liz Tomforde — sports-team romance, light on plot, easy, and you don’t have to read them in order. I just read book 4, Play Along, and liked it better than book 1.

My August stack (my actual TBR)

I read fast, so this is a best guess, but here’s what’s stacked up:

• Fury Bound by Sable Sorensen — the Dire Bound sequel.

• The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros — a tear-jerker romance with excellent reviews. It’s an older one that’s been on my list forever and I’m finally getting to it. Same author as Fourth Wing but very different vibes in her contemporary works.

• Into the Blue by Emma Brodie — a decades-spanning love story I keep seeing everywhere.

• Look Closer by David Ellis — a few years old but I’ve heard good things; a thriller.

• In Her Own League by Liz Tomforde — the Windy City spin-off.

Before you go

What’s the last book you couldn’t put down? Hit reply and tell me. I’m always adding to my TBR (to be read) and love to read books that come highly recommended by someone I know!

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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It has been a little more than a month since I launched Busy Living Well and I wanted to take a moment to say Thank You for being one of my first paid subscribers. Of everyone who reads Busy Living Well (which is now over 350 people!!), you decided this was worth real money and actually supporting me, and I don’t take that lightly.

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LIVE WELL

The clean manicure that dries without a light and lasts like gel

The story

A friend of mine, newer to the wellness world, asked me recently if I’d totally given up nail polish. Fair question, since she knew I don’t like to intentionally put toxins on my body. There aren’t many clean options out there, especially at a salon, and if you’ve tried the cleaner brands they typically last about as long as a regular manicure (aka 3 hours) before chipping – nothing like a gel mani that goes at least a week or more. Most people I know (the non-wellness crowd) have worn gel for over a decade, and I was in the same boat for a long time. They don’t even know there’s another option. I told her what I tell everyone who asks: you must try Dazzle Dry.

A little backstory:

I’ve had long nails my whole life. As a little girl, my punishment for hurting my sister (aka scratching) was getting my nails cut off. I’d cry and cry about it, because even then I loved having them long and painted. So the need for pretty nails ran deep. lol

When working my corporate job, I had a standing salon appointment every other week. It wasn’t that I loved getting a manicure. I actually hated it – it felt like such a waste of my precious time. I just felt like I always had to have polish on to look “polished” (pun intended.) And with gel, I couldn’t easily stop, because it really weakened my own nails. Every appointment also meant sitting there for thirty minutes just to soak the old polish off. So my thinking was, well, I’m already sitting here, might as well get them repainted too since that’s only a few more minutes. For years it was every two weeks: go in, soak it off, repaint.

Toward the end, after I partnered with Beautycounter and learned so much more about toxins, I started realizing how bad gel polish really was. Once I understood how many chemicals are in it, I was done. I didn’t want that in my body, especially pregnant. I got it off one last time and never went back. It was a bit of a “once I learn something I can’t unlearn it” moment, so I quit cold turkey (luckily at a time when I didn’t have a bunch of events coming up 😂).

After that, I was scared to wear any polish at all, and for a long time I just didn’t. Eventually, for a vacation or a wedding or somewhere I wanted to look nice, I’d reach for regular polish, the standard OPI or Essie, which are actually full of toxins too. And it always chipped in less than a day. It also took forever to dry, so I’d be stuck sitting there, unable to shower or get dressed or get in bed. That ultra fast dry was the one real thing gel had going for it (that, and not chipping). With babies and toddlers I never had time to sit and wait, so unless I planned it out before a trip, it chipped within a day or two. I basically gave up.

I kept looking for a clean gel. There just wasn’t one.

I don’t remember how I came across Dazzle Dry but it was during one of my deep dives down the polish rabbit hole. It was described as a kit. I assumed “kit” meant the whole gel setup with all the steps and a UV light, but no, it said no light. I was intrigued. The ingredients were much cleaner than typical polish, so I bought myself a mini kit for Christmas one year. (Mom tip: if you want something for yourself in the few months before Christmas, buy it, wrap it up, add a tag from Santa, and boom you got exactly what you wanted under the tree!)

Ok, so the Dazzle Dry process itself: two coats of base, two coats of color, one coat of top. No light, no UV, no dry time. You do the coats right in a row, and by the time you finish your tenth finger, the first one is completely dry and ready for the next coat. It dried as hard as gel, with nothing extra on top. I loved the fast dry, so I figured I’d at least get to paint my nails more often. I did not expect it to last any longer than regular polish though.

Spoiler alert: I was wrong! It lasts a minimum of a week. I’ve stretched it closer to 10 days on my fingers and definitely 2+ weeks on my toes. And at the two-week mark it’s just like my gel manicure used to be – you only need to redo it because of the clear nail growth at the cuticle, not because it’s chipping at the tips. That’s when I thought, okay, this is the winner for the times I actually want my nails painted.

I’ll be honest about my 80/20. I still don’t paint them every day like I used to. Even though the ingredients are much cleaner than gel, and cleaner than your Essies and OPIs, it’s not the squeakiest-clean option out there. There are a few cleaner regular polishes now, but they don’t give me the quick dry and the long wear that makes nail polish worth it for me. So Dazzle Dry is my cleaner-enough option, the one I reach for when I want color, not an everyday thing.

Removal might be my favorite part though. It comes off with regular nail polish remover, as fast as regular polish, and it does not damage your nails the way gel does! So I can wear it for a weekend or an event and take it off a few days later without it being a whole ordeal. With gel, if I got my nails done for a two-day thing, I felt like I had to leave it on as long as humanly possible, because taking it off meant more damage and such a time-suck that I dreaded doing it more than every two weeks.

Fair warning: a couple of my friends love gel so much they do it themselves at home (hi book club gals!). They’re not on the same toxin-elimination journey I am lol. Some say they’ve tried Dazzle Dry or other non-gel options and it just didn’t last as long as their beloved gel, so I think it might be a person-to-person thing. For me it lasts just as long, often longer, because it’s thinner. Gel always felt so thick that even in thin coats I could peel it off in sheets by the end. I don’t get any of that with Dazzle Dry.

One more thing people keep telling me (I believe it, I just haven’t tested it myself): you need the Dazzle Dry base and top coat, but in between you can use any color polish you want! It’s really the base and top that make it dry and last the way it does. So if you want a wider color range, or an even cleaner brand color layer, you can slot another clean polish in the middle. That said, Dazzle Dry already has a ton of colors.

The short hit

Want to paint your nails without gel, without a UV light, and without as many toxins? Dazzle Dry is the one. Two coats of base, two of color, one of top, no light. It’s dry by your last finger, lasts a week or two, and comes off with regular remover without wrecking your nails. The whole thing, fingers and toes, takes me about 20 minutes. I actually timed it (without rushing) for these photos and it was 14min for fingers AND toes and I let it dry 4min extra min to total 18min before I started making lunch. SO FAST. The salon was an hour minimum, more if they had to soak off the old polish first, and that was JUST for my fingers.

My picks

Buy direct from Dazzle Dry (they run sales often) or on Amazon. Pricing is the same, so it really comes down to whether Dazzle Dry has a sale going that week but I also like to shop direct when I can.

• Starter kit (mini), $39 — the easiest way in, and my top pick to start.

• Full-size starter kit, $80 — pick your own color, all full-size bottles.

• Mini flight, $48 — five colors, no base or top coat.

• My color: Hearts Caress, a medium dusty rose. I also grabbed the “Best of Pinks” mini flight.

Why I go mini: most colors come in full-size or mini, and since I don’t paint often, the minis are perfect. One bottle has lasted me at least ten manicures. You’re supposed to toss old polish every so often anyway (it doesn’t actually last forever, even though we all kept the same bottles for years growing up). With the minis, I’d rather run out than have to throw it out.

Either way it’s less than I used to pay for one salon manicure, and a kit lasts for many. (Quick tip: free shipping kicks in at $50+, so pairing the $39 mini kit with a full size color or a mini color or the mini flight gets you there.)

Before you go

Are you still using gel polish, or did you find a clean polish you actually love? Hit reply and tell me. I would love to explore more clean brands with real recommendations!

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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Heads up: some links below are affiliate or referral links. I only ever link things I actually use.

LOVE WELL

Three things that make the cut on every trip

A backpack cooler, a little spice stack, and a homeopathy kit smaller than my hand.

These three come with us when we travel. Not just in summer. I bring them on basically any trip, all year. But summer is when everyone’s actually going somewhere, so it felt like the time to finally write it up.

Two of them (the cooler and the homeopathy kit) tag along on just about any outing, right down to a pool day. The spice stack is more specific: it rides along on the trips where I know I’ll be cooking. None of the three are that exciting or revolutionary. All of them save me constantly. So, one at a time for the details.

The backpack cooler that actually fits our lunch boxes

This one comes with us most places, and it’s just the right size for a day out. The reason I love this particular one: the base is big enough that our PlanetBox lunch boxes (the metal, stainless ones that are built to last, so you’re not tossing plastic and rebuying every year) lay flat on the bottom. Buying a cooler bag that fits a lunch container sounds like nothing until you actually go looking for it. It is really hard to find a cooler that isn’t enormous that will hold those flat. Ours go on the bottom, stacked, and there’s still room up top for drinks or whatever else we need. Whether it’s just the four of us or my nieces are along too, everybody’s lunch fits.

The pockets are the other reason it earns its spot. The outside side pockets are actually big enough for today’s giant water bottles (one side will even hold a bottle of wine, with a strap on top so nothing tips). I keep the top pocket loaded with napkins and disposable utensils and the front pocket stuffed with paper plates, so when we’re out and grabbing food I never have to think about it. There’s a dry compartment for a wallet and phone, elastic bands on the front for a trash bag or whatever else, and a wipeable, leakproof liner inside. We use frozen ice packs instead of straight ice for less mess/water when they melt but either would work.

I tried a bunch of coolers before this one. The others were either too small to fit the lunch boxes flat, too flimsy once you loaded them up, or their bottle pockets couldn’t fit a normal water bottle (which sort of defeats the purpose). And the ones big enough to hold everything were too heavy and bulky to actually want to wear. This one is on the bigger side (35 liters), but once it’s on your back, with the padded straps and the chest clip, it honestly doesn’t feel like it.

We generally use it as the backpack for the day that just happens to be a cooler too, which is exactly why it travels so well. We’ve used it as a carry-on on for long flights (pack the food, use frozen ice packs, refreeze when we land for the return trip), and as the grab bag on road trips so everything stays in one place. And the shoulder strap is quietly overachieving: there’s a stainless steel bottle opener built right into it, a stretchy loop for your sunglasses, and a little card slot too.

Ours is a Maelstrom (a brand you’ve almost certainly never heard of, same). One note: if you don’t have PlanetBox lunch boxes and don’t need a cooler that fits them flat, this Tourit backpack cooler is another one I loved— so much so that after we lost ours once, I bought it again. It’s only slightly too small for the lunch boxes, and if we aren’t packing those then this is the one I grab.

The little spice stack I never travel without

Quick and important distinction: I’m not hauling spices to a friend’s pool. This one only comes on the trips where I’ll actually be cooking — a week in an Airbnb, a camping trip, anywhere I’m making our meals (even just breakfast) instead of eating out.

I stole the idea from my neighbor Andi years ago. She had a medically complex kiddo and had to make all of their food from scratch, even on a week in Europe, which meant cooking every single meal. She posted this little stack of tiny containers that all clip together, each one filled with a spice or a blend from home. It clicked for me immediately, because I cook most of our food from scratch too, and I have blends and brands I actually like.

The thing about cooking on a trip: you don’t need full new bottles of anything (they take up room and it’s a waste of money), but you do need variety, because spices are how you make food taste good. And finding organic spices while you’re traveling is hard. At an Airbnb you never know how old anything in the cabinet is, or if there’s even salt. Camping, you’ve got nothing but what you brought.

So I made my own kit to take with me. Mine is a little airtight stack of six containers, a couple uses of each, and everything stays fresh. I throw it in my bag and I’ve got spices for the whole week. Mine usually has pink Himalayan salt (the salt at rentals is always the cheapest one they could find), organic pepper, organic garlic granules (I put garlic in everything), and my go to blends: Italian, Taco, and Steak, all from Primal Palate (Thrive Market carries them too!). Italian is my most-reached-for. One little section can carry a whole meal. Every friend who’s seen it says the same thing: oh, that’s such a good idea. Because they’ve all hit the exact problems I just described.

If you want more room, or you’re feeding a bigger crew, this cheaper version comes as a set of four 5-container stacks - great for a longer trip, or if you want to pack them up for different purposes (basics vs blends? Bfast vs dinner?)

My homeopathy kit (the one I actually won’t leave without)

This is the number one thing I pack, every time, whether it’s a day trip or a month, whether it’s just me or the whole crew. I know homeopathy isn’t for everyone, and that’s fine. I’ve just seen it work in my own family too many times to leave it home.

The reason it travels so well is the size. A full kit can hold 30 to 50 remedies and still be smaller than the palm of my hand, so it goes anywhere. I’ve reached for it on trips for bug bites and bee stings, for someone feeling carsick, for a reaction after too long in the pool, and for my own nerves before a flight. With that many remedies in one little case, there’s almost always something that helps in the moment. Even a small travel kit usually has enough overlap to cover you.

If you’re brand new to this, a 30c kit is a great place to start. There’s also a kit made specifically for travel, which is the one I’d grab if you just want the on-the-go version. I personally keep a bigger 200c kit everywhere I go, but I’ve been using homeopathy for a while so I’m comfortable with it.

A couple of honest buying notes, because this is where people get burned. I don’t trust one-off single remedies on Amazon. I’ve literally peeled back a label and found a different remedy underneath. Buy a sealed full kit (like the ones I’ve linked), or get the bigger kits straight from a reputable source. The places I trust: Homeopathy Works / Washington Homeopathic, Ollois, Boiron, and Professional Supplement Center as a retailer. A sealed kit in a box is always safer than a loose bottle.

For those that are skeptical of homeopathy, I get it. I was too. But here’s a story about how I became a believer years ago: my son was maybe two or three, up all night, throwing up, crying, frantic, couldn’t settle, wouldn’t let anyone put him down. Hours of it. I gave him a remedy in desperation and nothing changed, so of course you think, see, it doesn’t work. Then I sat down and did a little more research (with homeopathy you match the whole picture, not one symptom), found a better fit, and gave it to him. Within 15 seconds, and I am not exaggerating, he calmed down, fell asleep, and slept the rest of the night. Woke up totally himself. That fast. After that I was all in, because I had proof with my own eyes that it worked.

(I know homeopathy seems too woo for some people so I’m not saying you have to put these kits in your summer bag, but I do! If you’re curious about it, I’m planning to Dive Deeper into my homeopathy journey and how you can get started in some future posts. Keep an eye out if that’s of interest to you.)

The shortcut

The short hit. If you just want the picks: a cooler that holds real food, a stack of your own spices for anywhere you’ll be cooking, and a tiny homeopathy kit. This is exactly what I’d grab.

1. The backpack cooler (my top pick of the three). Fits our metal lunch boxes flat, big bottle pockets, dry compartment, wears like a normal backpack. Ours is a Maelstrom. No PlanetBox to fit? The Tourit is the other one I loved.

2. The travel spice stack, for trips where you’re cooking (Airbnb or camping). My six-container stack, or the bigger four-stack set for longer trips. Fill it with your own blends, mine are Italian, Taco, and Steak from Primal Palate.

3. The homeopathy kit. New to it? Start with a sealed 30c kit. Want the travel version? Here it is. Skip loose single remedies on Amazon; buy sealed kits or go direct to a source you trust (Homeopathy Works, Ollois, Boiron, Professional Supplement Center).

Before you go

What’s the one thing that always ends up in your bag when you travel? Hit reply and tell me. I’m always looking to add to mine.

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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FLOW WELL

The shortcut

It’s a three-year monthly calendar. A half-size notebook where the lay-flat spread is a full month, one page per month, three years of them in one book. I keep two: one for life, one for meals, and I run them side by side.

Why three years instead of the calendars you already own? Because I’m always planning further out than they reach. The dentist you book a year ahead. The summer trip you’re mapping in November. A three-year book gives all of that somewhere to live instead of rattling around in your head.

Easiest place to find them is on Amazon (search “three-year monthly calendar planner”). There are plain professional ones and beautiful hardback ones. There are tiny ones and there are big ones. These are the actual ones I’m using right now: Plain One and Pretty One

Extra hack: I use an erasable pen when writing in these – because obviously things can change over time. And pencil is just a mess. Extra fine point refillable erasable pens is where it’s at for calendar planning! Try these (my fave) – they also come in COLORS for those that like a pretty planner.

Why paper, when I’m all about the tech these days

White space on the page means the day is open. And the second I can see that at a glance, I feel calmer and know that there’s room for whatever I’m working on next. No tapping into every single day on my phone to figure out where I have room. I just look down and see it.

When I’m planning rather than reacting, a digital calendar can be overwhelming. I can really only see one day at a time on my phone, and even on a big screen the text gets cut off. When I need to plan something further out, say a dentist appointment for one of my kids, I want the whole week in front of me so I can find the day with space. My kids are sensitive to doing more than one thing in a day, so if there’s soccer that night, that’s not the day. Paper does the one thing my phone can’t. It shows me the shape of the month all at once.

And I’m not anti-tech (I promise). I use my Google Calendar in parallel. I have a hundred tricks and apps for running my day-to-day (more on that later – I’m looking at you Todoist!) But I share a Google calendar with my husband, so my digital view is my stuff plus his plus a few other calendars all layered on top of each other. I like keeping my real stuff clean in the paper book. Once a month I do a true-up between the two. When something new comes up while I’m sitting in my office, I add things to both at once. Away from my desk, I put it in the digital calendar and catch the paper at the next true-up (with a reminder to actually do the true-up, because otherwise I might forget lol). Paper stays for the big stuff. Trips, appointments, plans. And the digital one gets loaded with all the smaller stuff.

How it started

For years I printed out a blank calendar page every single month and filled it in by hand, even with Google Calendar right there. I just need to see the whole month on one page. How it’s spaced out, weekdays versus weekends, how many times a week I’m actually getting to yoga. One day at a time on a screen doesn’t give me that. So one day I thought: I do this every month, why don’t I just buy a book. So I bought a basic calendar book.

Then I hit the wall every planner hits. School-year calendars end in June. Regular calendar years end in December. By early winter I’m already planning summer, sometimes further, and those months don’t exist yet in some books. So the appointment stays in your head, or you leave yourself a note to write it down once you finally have a calendar that reaches that far. Then I found out three-year calendars are a thing. (They make five-year ones too, but three made me feel a little less like a psycho.) Three years of dated monthly pages, one slim book, because it’s only a page a month. My Type B friends (I’m looking at you Adrienne) could not comprehend, but for my Type A brain it was a sigh of relief.

Then I bought a second one, for dinner

I realized I was doing the same thing for my monthly meal plan – printing out a blank calendar and filling it in monthly. Seeing it all at once lets me balance things out, so we’re not eating chicken three days in a row, and I can write “tacos” on every Tuesday and be done. Fewer boxes to fill in, less overwhelming.

I kept the old printed out calendars so I could look back at past meal plans so as not to reinvent the wheel every month. What did we eat last month? What did everyone actually like? And then copy the winners forward. Summer eating is nothing like winter eating, so pulling up what we ate last June beats guessing from last month. And now the two notebooks sit side by side. Soccer on Tuesday means an easy early dinner. Date night already on the calendar for Friday means pizza for the sitter. The meals just key off the life I’ve already got planned.

The part I didn’t see coming

As I said, I’m the stereotypical Type A. I like knowing what’s coming as far out as I can, and honestly, I like having things to look forward to. So the calendar ended up doing more than just keeping me organized. I’d look a few months ahead, see empty pages, and think: room. Room for a trip, room to go see someone. And when a month is already covered in writing, I know I’m done saying yes. So the white space kind of tells me when there’s room to reach for something, and when to protect what’s left. It only works for me because I can SEE it on the page.

If you want to try it

This is for the paper person. If you’re happily all-digital, more power to you, I’m not going to switch you (though the meal one might get you anyway if the meal planning apps aren’t working for your family’s needs). But if you’re already a girl that loves paper and you’re frustrated because you can’t get everything out of your head and onto the page, because the page keeps running OUT, that was me. I wanted it out of my brain and into a format I could “see” across time. I kept having to hold things or leave myself reminders about the dentist appointment six months out. This fixed it. Like I said above, things can change so I use an erasable pen so nothing is locked in. That was another key to making this system work for me.

The easiest way to start is just to put in what you already know. Birthdays, standing appointments, the trips you’ve booked. Then pull up your school’s calendar and dump the whole year in at once. That’s the fastest way to fill the pages, and to feel how much you’ve been carrying around that you didn’t even know you were still holding. And SEE where there might be space between sporting events or appointments for you to just BREATHE (or take a trip).

Before you go

Paper girlie or fully digital? Type A or Type B? And what’s the one thing stuck in your head right now that needs to get onto a page? I’m testing out some digital meal planning things lately that MAY get me to give up my dinner notebook, but I’m not there yet. I’ll keep you all posted when I’m ready to give it up.

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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EAT WELL

The story

A decade of these

Every summer we take a big family beach trip to our house in Isle of Palms, SC. I don’t really drink anymore, but I can’t pass these up while we’re there. Mostly because I don’t have to make them myself - years ago we officially deemed my brother-in-law the mixologist. Now he just makes big batches of these all week, and nobody argues. (He also makes a perfect (decaf for me) espresso martini – maybe I can get that recipe sometime too 🤔)

It started back when I was strictly paleo and collecting all of Danielle Walker’s cookbooks. I’d recently made tequila my liquor of choice, so I went looking for a margarita I could make at home. I found one of hers that looked easy, tried it, and it’s been our go-to for more than ten years now. Everyone I’ve served it to falls in love with it, mostly because it’s so simple and the ingredients are so clean but it tastes so fresh.

The first spicy rim was an accident. One of the first years we made these, we’d just been to HomeGoods stocking the beach house and I grabbed a jalapeno salt grinder, basically salt and dried jalapenos. I thought it would be perfect to use it on the rim. After a few rounds we got lazy and ground it right over the top of the drink instead. When at the beach we’re trying to keep things as simple as possible, right?!

The Tajín came not long after. I had a spicy margarita at a charity event with a Tajín rim, my husband and I loved it, but then never saw Tajín anywhere else (not true these days – I think most spicy margs out there come with a Tajín rim!) Later that year I was doing Christmas shopping on Amazon and a box of mini Tajín bottles popped up randomly. I thought they’d be a perfect Christmas stocking stuffer for him! Since the box was so big, we ended up taking a bunch to the beach, which turned out perfect because the humidity there turns a full bottle into a clumpy mess. The minis you use up in a day or two, and the rest stay sealed and ready for the next trip. We kept it stocked there for whenever we were visiting - it really does take the drink to another level.

Eventually the clean-ingredient part of my brain caught up. I knew Tajín probably had some caking agents or something in there that wasn’t up to my standard. But YOLO! It’s a few times a summer, so we drank it and didn’t overthink it. Recently I found the upgrade I wanted: Simply Organic makes a chili lime seasoning that’s basically an organic Tajín, so we’ve switched. To me it tastes the same! Or at least it feels the same, hits the same spots on your tongue, works the same in the drink. No mini bottles, unfortunately. But I use it enough now that I’m going organic from here out. In my most recent search, Redmond Real Salt has an organic one too – I may try that next.

The kids got in on it too

My kids weren’t drinking margaritas, obviously. But they’d tasted the Tajín and loved it too, and I kept catching them stealing the mini bottles and “drinking” them in secret. So we set out to find them a real use for it. The winner: slice up a watermelon, squeeze a wedge of lime over it, and sprinkle on some Tajín / chili lime seasoning. It sounds crazy, but the sweet-salty-spicy thing is honestly perfection, and now they ask for it every time we have a watermelon in the house.

The short hit

The best margarita

It seems too simple, but I swear it’s the best. Best part is it scales up to however big of a batch you need.

• 2 parts tequila

• 1 part lime juice

• 1 part honey syrup

Add all to a shaker with ice, shake shake shake, strain over a fresh glass of ice. Not a traditional marg ingredient, but add an optional splash of club soda (lime Spindrift is preferred) if you want to be sipping all day.

.

The honey syrup sounds scary but is easy. It’s 50/50 honey to hot water, mixed until the honey dissolves. Make it ahead and keep it in a jar in the fridge, which is what we do, especially on a beach week when we’re making batch after batch. You ideally want it cold when you’re mixing the drink. Fresh-squeezed lime tastes best, but if you’re making it in bulk, or drink after drink, bottled organic lime juice that’s not from concentrate works too. Not as good as fresh, but after the first one, you can’t really tell at all.

The recipe credit belongs to Danielle Walker, and I’ll link it here.

To take it up a notch, you rim the glass with chili lime seasoning (Tajín or similar) by rubbing a little lime around the rim so it’s sticky, then pressing the glass into the spices. I recently found this that makes this easy! Or my lazy girl method, just shake some on top. 😂

(Mocktail side note: I wrote this post and then told my husband he had to have a margarita so I could take a photo for my Substack. We had a busy week and he just wasn’t feeling it, so yesterday I decided I’d just make one (at 9am) and not drink it. Then I figured you couldn’t see the difference between tequila and water in the photo, so I used 2 parts Lime Spindrift instead of the tequila to get the shot. It was delicious!!! Especially with the chili lime rim. So we’ve now got a go-to mocktail version worth sipping on all summer. And yes, the photo is actually the mocktail. 😉)

Before you go

I’m always hunting for new ways to use the chili lime seasoning. Hit reply and tell me yours. I will absolutely try it!

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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LIVE WELL

The clean cleaner that actually cleans

The story

For many years, I didn’t think about my cleaning products at all – I just bought whatever my mom used to buy when I was a kid. Windex, 409, Clorox, Scrubbing Bubbles, etc. When I started working with Beautycounter back in 2018, I started to learn how many chemicals are in the products we use every day. It wasn’t just about the ones that go on your skin like deodorant, lotion or shampoo, but what about the things you touch constantly? Realizing everything you touch goes into your body too, I knew that cleaning supplies and laundry detergent would be the obvious next things to swap.

The problem was I didn’t know what to actually buy. So many brands out there today are greenwashing. They use all the right words, convincing you it’s “clean” and don’t back it up with the right ingredients. The tool I leaned on was the EWG (Environmental Working Group) database, where you can search a cleaning product and see its score. More than once I’d find something I was sure was clean, look it up, and unfortunately it wasn’t. Mrs. Meyer’s is one a lot of people grab because they think it’s “clean” based on the label, but if you look it up in the database, it’s actually rated a D.

So at first we just used Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap. Unfortunately, for cleaning, it just didn’t do it for me. It felt like I was smearing soap around my counters instead of actually cleaning. It felt nothing like a real countertop cleaner, like the 409 I used to reach for. Then I heard about Branch Basics, saw how clean the ingredients were, and tried it. I’ve been using it almost exclusively for years now.

It was a little intimidating at first because it’s a concentrate you mix yourself. It seemed complicated. I was wrong. It takes about three seconds now. You get multiple bottles out of each concentrate, so it lasts a long time, and I use it on basically everything: bathrooms, kitchen, glass, mirrors. The bottles even tell you exactly how much concentrate to add for each job. We also use the concentrate for foaming hand soap, just a splash into a foaming pump with water. When on the go I keep a travel-size bottle in my bag – I’ve used it as hand soap when the airport bathroom fragrance is overwhelming, as laundry detergent in an Airbnb, or even for a quick hotel room sink wash. There are so many uses!

The thing people really want to know: does it actually clean when something is genuinely gross? My experience? Yes. Honestly, for day to day I mostly use a wet Norwex cloth (if you don’t have one, find someone who sells them, it’s worth it!). But when my 8 year old has been baking with honey and I’ve got a big mess to clean up, Branch Basics works perfectly. Since you can adjust how much soap goes in each bottle, you can make it as strong or as mild as you’d like. When we get the house deep cleaned, we ask the cleaners to use our Branch Basics only, and the house is sparkling after. The one honest caveat: if you’ve got heavy buildup in your shower, this might not strip all of it. I’m still figuring that one out myself lol. For everyday cleaning, including big kitchen messes and dirty kids, it pulls its weight as well as anything I’ve ever used. Big bonus points from me for the fact that there are no toxic “fragrances”!! (ALWAYS avoid Fragrances – it’s by far the worst possible ingredient to find on a label.)

When you buy from the Branch Basics website, they have an awesome subscription program so you don’t have to think about reordering (I love a subscription for products I use regularly). But you can buy one-off as well. They also sell bottles in both plastic and glass with lines so you know how much concentrate to use (but you can also use your own bottles if you break theirs!) If you are in a time crunch though and need it NOW, they recently started carrying Branch Basics at Target, which is awesome! The Target concentrate bottles are smaller than the ones you buy direct, and I assumed they’d be more expensive, but me being me, I did the math per ounce. It’s not more expensive! So I recommend the direct site if you want the $10 off your first order (and to have the subscription option, so there’s no thought when it’s time to reorder) and grab it from Target if you want the ease of picking it up ASAP!

I’ve got a couple other concentrate brands I’m starting to test and I’ll report back. But if you want one simple swap toward a lower toxin burden for you and your family, this is the one I’d start with.

The short hit

If you want one easy swap to lower the toxin load in your house, start under the kitchen sink or wherever you keep your cleaning products. Branch Basics is a multi-purpose concentrate you mix with water, and it’s one of the only cleaners I’ve bought for years. One bottle of concentrate makes multiple bottles of cleaner, so it lasts a lot longer than the other stuff you’re used to buying. Buy it one of two ways: direct from BranchBasics.com (for $10 off your first order), or if you need it ASAP, at Target!

Before you go

What’s the one product under your sink you keep meaning to swap? Hit reply and let me know and I’ll tell you if you can use Branch Basics for it instead!

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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I’ve been quietly building something, and I want your help pointing me in the right direction of where to dive deeper.

For years the systems that keep my own house running have lived in my head and in my spreadsheets (the meal plan, the holiday timeline, the whole operation), and a few of you have been telling me for ages to just make them shareable already. So I plan to, but I’d so much rather build what you actually want than to guess and hope it lands.

Two quick polls and one open question and I’ll go back to building. It should take you only a minute or two but would mean so much to me!

First, the big one. Here are five systems I could build out this year, the exact systems I run in my own house. If you could only start with one, which would it be?

The poll only lets you tap one, so tap your top pick. Then PLEASE reply and tell me any others you’d actually grab, even if that’s all five. That helps me more than almost anything.

Okay, one more quick tap. This one just helps me figure out HOW to hand these to you:

And the part I most want to hear: what’s missing? What would you pay for that isn’t on that list up there? Reply and tell me, even one line. I will take all of the replies seriously and share what I can!

As I am trying to help lighten the mental load for as many women as a I can with this little Substack and these systems are what have lifted it for me over the years. I’m excited to share more and want to start with the biggest need first!

Please reply!

Talk soon, Kristen ❤️

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If you’re new here, read: Part 1 - The Trading Floor and Part 2 - The Breadcrumbs

The two things in my way

So there I was, silent tears running down my face in my own guest room for the first time in thirty years, seeing an energy healer on my laptop between work calls. And somewhere in the year and a half that followed, the fog kept lifting bit by bit until I could finally see the thing I’d been avoiding. I wanted out.

But wanting out and actually leaving are two very different animals, and two things stood squarely in my way. My identity. And the money.

The identity piece went deep. If I wasn’t the corporate badass juggling everything, then who was I? I was so tangled up in being the capable one that walking away felt like erasing myself. Not to mention that ingrained part of me that kept telling me walking away was failing at something. And there was a specific shame I could not shake: the thought of having childcare but no corporate job (since I already had the 10 week experience of being home alone with them and what that did to my mental health). I was embarrassed by it. Who keeps the nanny and quits the job? (Plenty of people, it turns out, but at the time I was certain I’d be judged for it.) Katie and I worked in session on the identity piece for a year and a half, maybe closer to two. Not “talked about it.” Worked on it, until the story I was carrying about who I had to be actually loosened its grip. The mind is really really good at telling stories and then holding on to them for dear life.

Then the money. After climbing the ladder for close to 15 years at an investment bank, I made good money. Many would say really good money. The thought of giving it up because I “didn’t love going to work” felt insane, and borderline irresponsible, especially to me. My parents divorced when I was really little and I came out of it with a bone-deep need to be able to take care of myself no matter what. The thought of handing over the reins and relying fully on my husband’s income terrified me. Even though he made enough to support our family easily, it was more about how it would make me feel than the real actual money.

The thing that finally shifted it was something my husband pointed out that I’d somehow never counted. All those rental properties I was managing, making every single decision on, pouring my nights and weekends into, they brought in real income. And because I did all the work, he’d always thought of that income as mine. I had genuinely never framed it that way. Once I did, a lightbulb just went off. I already had another job. I already brought in income. I could leave the bank, run the real estate full time, keep our childcare, and have a hundred times more flexibility in my life.

COVID, of all things, made it obvious. Our real estate business took off during that period. I had multiple properties under construction, and because we were all home anyway, both laptops sat side by side on my desk. When the market closed and my trading day wrapped up, I’d close the work laptop, open the personal one, and pour my evenings and weekends into the properties. At some point it stopped being a side thing. It was a job. I’d just been doing it after hours, on top of another job, plus being a mom and a wife and a whole human being. When I looked up and really took a moment to take my office in, seeing it physically set up for TWO jobs gave me the permission to go back to just one (just happened to be the OTHER one rather than the original).

Even then, it took me lots of real inside work with Katie to actually get ready and take the leap. To become the version of me who could walk out the door. And then, right after I hit the tipping point and put it out there, the universe did something I still can’t fully explain.

In February 2021 I went to my boss and told him I was ready to step away, that I was burnt out and wanted more time with my family. He told me I was a rock star employee and that he wanted to support me, and he offered me a six-month leave of absence. A test drive. Try it, and if I hated it, come back; if I loved it, quit from the leave. It was genuinely generous, and I went home fully planning to take it.

Then I woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and just knew. The leave would just be kicking the can down the road. That seat wasn’t mine anymore, my heart wasn’t in it, and if I didn’t rip the bandaid off, the decision would hang over the whole “time off” and I’d never actually land in my new life. The next day I thanked him and told him I was sure. We set up a three to four month transition, and I’d be out by late June.

What happened next is what solidified for me the idea that the universe always has my back, what’s for you can’t land until you make space for it, and we are ALL powerful manifestors.

The sign I couldn’t explain

That May, while I was working out my last stretch, another bank came to my husband with a job offer. He didn’t even want it, he liked his job. I said, what’s the harm in interviewing, we’re still working from home for COVID (yes, still, in summer 2021), go gather information, nobody will even know. So he interviewed. They offered. He said no thanks. They asked what job he would want, and he basically designed his own dream role. They said sure. He ended up leaving the trading floor before I did, even though I was the one who decided to leave first! (Annoying! LOL)

The sign from the universe that I was on the right path? The new job included a pay raise for my husband, and what they offered him was almost exactly the amount of income I was walking away from. Our household income didn’t change. One of the biggest blockers I’d spent over a year clawing my way over - the money - was just taken care of like that. And neither of us had engineered it. I just trusted that we could make it work if I left and we would figure out how to live a slightly different, less expensive lifestyle, and before I was even gone we had a way to “make up” my income without any extra effort. If you’ve ever wondered whether I believe in manifestation, that’s the moment I stopped wondering. And I now tell that story to everyone I meet that is afraid to move forward – you never know how you will be taken care of until you put it out there that you’re ready to let go!

The leaving itself was anticlimactic. After fifteen years, I never got to walk the floor and say goodbye, because we were still in lockdown all that time later. I sent messages to the people I would miss, closed one laptop, and kept working on the other. My husband had an industry required 90 day transition period between firms (still paid!), so that summer we were both not working, both still getting paid (I had negotiated a severance package), with two little kids, three and five. We looked at each other and thought, this will never happen again where we all 4 are home and have this kind of flexibility?? So we decided to go to Hawaii for a month with the kids. (The irony that TODAY we’re both working from home for ourselves and the kids are homeschooled and we have the same flexibility we had that summer, is not lost on me. 😂)

That was five years ago. My life today looks nothing like anything trading-floor me could have pictured. I travel the world on spiritual retreats. I homeschool my boys (elementary age is my jam!) with a wild amount of flexibility. I do 1:1 biomagnetism sessions and energy work, the exact kind of work that pulled me out of my own hole. I still love a spreadsheet, some things don’t change, but the grind of fifty and sixty hour weeks in a windowless seat is just gone.

And Katie. I owe so much of this to her that words feel too small for it. Over the years we went from healer and client to actual real, close friends. Right after I left my job, she created a little weekend retreat for women who needed community, and a group of us went, not just to receive from her, but to build something together. That group stuck for several years. We would meet twice a year for a weekend, with smaller check-ins in between, and it quietly became the support system I didn’t know I’d been starving for.

Last year, hosting another one of these weekends, Katie and I looked at each other and said the same thing at once. We’re really good at this. We know how to build a space where women actually feel held. What if we opened it up, beyond just our circle? Katie has already been leading worldwide retreats with her husband for years, and I have been hosting and creating these intimate spaces for others for most of my life (remember - I’m used to taking care of everyone else?? These days I know how to do it while taking care of myself too.)

The invitation

So we are doing it! Rooted.Rested.Rising was born this year. We hosted a beautiful one-day women’s retreat here in Charlotte this past June and the women walked out lighter and more connected than when they came in. We’ve got a Biomagnetism Sound Healing combination workshop coming up in August locally in Charlotte (We had one in June as well). And we’re just now opening registration for the most important one yet.

It’s called The Way Home. October 8-11, 2026, on the Isle of Palms in South Carolina, just outside of Charleston.

We built it for a specific woman, and I think you might know her. She’s me, seven years ago. She’s running the whole show for her spouse, her kids, her parents, her job, everyone. She has it all together on the outside and no idea who she is underneath anymore, because she hasn’t had a real minute to herself in years. She’s genuinely forgotten what it feels like to be taken care of.

The Way Home is four days where none of that is her problem. No logistics. Dietary restrictions aren’t a hassle, they’re just handled, by a private chef. There are quiet solo walks on the beach, and there are games and crafts, and there’s also ceremony, sacred time, channeled energy healings, and a room full of women who know exactly what it’s like to carry all of it. It is, truly, the way home. Back to the version of you that existed before you put everyone else first.

I know how hard it is to put yourself first, to actually spend the money on something like this. And to ask for the time/support from those around you to take over the spinning plates. I lived inside that fear for a very long time, remember. But I promise you, if you go, you come back with momentum, filled all the way up, better able to take care of everyone you love without running on empty. Every retreat I have ever been to did that for me. The more I poured into my own cup, the more I had to give when I got back home.

If any of this is landing a little too close to home, that might be your breadcrumb. You can find everything about it here: The Way Home. And you can find Katie and her work at Zen Within Academy.

Come home to yourself. We’ll hold the space for you.

Before you go

Thank you for reading this vulnerable post. My hope is to connect with women that can see themselves in any part of my story. If you think that might be you, I’d love for you to reply and tell me which part resonated most with you. Looking forward to connecting with other women taking the leap into finding their true selves and quieting all the noise telling you what you “should” be.

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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If you haven’t yet, go back and read Part 1. At the end, you left me quietly coming apart at a windowless desk, running on no sleep, sure that something was wrong with me. Let me back up to the fall of 2019, because this is where it all started to unravel. And then, weirdly, start to heal.

We had to let our nanny go. I won’t get into the details, but it was a child-safety thing, the kind that makes your stomach drop and your decision instant. We gave her a month’s notice and we worked with an agency to find a replacement. We hired one after a couple weeks and lots of interviews. Our kids were one and a half and three and a half, right in the thick of stranger danger and slow to warm up to anyone new. So I took two weeks of PTO to be home and help the new nanny settle in and learn all our little routines.

Within the first three days, my husband and I looked at each other and just knew it wasn’t going to work, so we let her go fast. And then we were back to square one, except now my two weeks were evaporating while we interviewed frantically, called in different agencies, reached out to everyone we knew for recommendations, and did all the things you do when you’re desperate to find the right person who can also start immediately. My two weeks ran out. So I had to do something I’d never thought I’d do: I took a leave of absence.

I was home with my babies for ten weeks.

I know how that sounds. Ten weeks home with your kids, what a gift. And I love them more than anything. But that baby-toddler stage is genuinely one of the hardest things I have ever done, harder for me than any trading floor, and every single day I felt more of myself slipping away. Looking back, I think I was somewhere in postpartum depression or anxiety, I just didn’t have the words for it then. I was also grieving the sudden loss of the original nanny. I felt like I was drowning. I was desperate to get back to work to feel a little more like myself, and I also didn’t even love my work. Both things, at the same time.

At the very end of 2019 we finally found her, the nanny who would go on to be the perfect fit for our family for the next few years. I went back to work and for a minute it felt good to be back in my groove. But something in me had shifted. My nervous system was still stuck in that white-knuckle, fight-or-flight place from the whole ordeal, and it would not let go.

So I did another thing I’d never really done. I started seeing a therapist. I’d been exactly once before, in a crisis, about ten years earlier, and opening up to a stranger did not come naturally to me (understatement of the century at the time). Around the same time I started seeing a homeopath too, who I still see today. I was throwing everything at the wall, trying to find my way back to myself.

And then came the wellness expo.

The thing about the expo is that I almost didn’t go. My old massage therapist had a booth and knew I was struggling, and she told me to swing by on a Saturday, that there’d be all kinds of vendors. Going somewhere by myself, for myself, on a weekend, was so far outside my normal that it’s almost funny now. But I got dressed and I went, even though I had an undercurrent of anxiety running through me.

I walked in and it was a lot. Vendors everywhere, mediums, psychics, massage therapists, sound healers, all these things I knew absolutely nothing about. I texted my friend, “I’m here, where’s your booth?” She wrote back that her daughter had come down with the flu and she wasn’t there. Uh-oh.

Old me would have turned right around and driven home. The whole reason I’d come wasn’t even there. But something in me said, well, you’re already here, and this is a big deal, you showed up somewhere completely alone. Might as well look around.

There was a room running rotating sessions, and I checked the schedule, and five minutes from right then there was a “Group Sound Healing Session” with someone called Zen Within Academy. I didn’t know what sound healing was. I didn’t know what any of it was. But it was what was happening next, so I walked in.

Katie and her husband Josh were at the front of the room. She led a guided meditation and then they used their instruments for what she called frequency healing while the rest of us just sat there quietly and took it in. I’d tried meditation in the past and never really got anywhere with it, so I didn’t have high hopes, but maybe the guided version was exactly what I needed because I was able to drop right in. I was shocked and felt drawn to the woman up front. She looked about my age. She mentioned she’d spent many years at another major bank before doing this work, and something in me sat up. Here was a woman from my exact corporate world who had crossed over into whatever this was. I could not stop noticing her energy.

At the end I did something completely out of character. I walked up to her, thanked her, told her I’d never experienced anything like it and that I was only there by total fluke. I took her business card. And something told me to book a one-on-one session, even though her website was vague and I could not have told you what the session even was. I just thought, I’m following these breadcrumbs, and the breadcrumbs led me here.

That was six and a half years ago. I’ve seen her at least once a month ever since. (She’s also become one of my dearest friends, but that part comes later.)

Funny timing: right after I booked, I got sick. Twelve days flat in bed, a kind of sick I’d never known. This was March 2020, so, yeah, I guess it wasn’t the flu. By the time I surfaced, the world had shut down, and my scheduled in-person appointment became a virtual one. Me, at home, in lockdown, husband working down the hall, new nanny with the kids downstairs, about to have a session I could not have described to you if you paid me.

I had no idea what “12th dimensional healing” was. I went in anyway, feeling weirdly called to it.

We talked a little about what was going on, the whole nanny spiral, how my body was still stuck in survival mode even though the actual emergency was long over. And then she did something I’d never done: inner-child work. She spoke to a younger version of me. At the end there was this guided activation where she did all the talking and I just listened.

And while she was talking, tears started rolling down my face. Silently. I wasn’t trying to cry. I wasn’t even sad, exactly. They just came.

Today these kinds of tears happen to me fairly regularly, but back then? I hadn’t really cried in about thirty years. Not at sad movies, not when someone was hurt, not at anything. I’d gone numb somewhere back in childhood and just stayed there. And now here I was, sitting in my own house in front of a Zoom screen with tears sliding down my cheeks and no idea why.

I said to her, “I don’t know what that was. I don’t know what’s happening. But I guess I’m supposed to come back.” Because clearly something had moved in my body that I did not consciously do. That was the moment I was hooked.

The thing I’ve come to love about this work, more than the talk therapy I’d tried, is that I don’t have to show up already knowing what’s wrong. I don’t have to dig for the topic. It just surfaces. I’ll think we’re going to talk about some argument with my husband, and then something small from the drive over comes out instead, and that turns out to be the real thing. For once in my life, I don’t have to have it all figured out.

What I didn’t know yet, sitting there with those thirty-years-late tears, was that these monthly sessions would end up doing something all my spreadsheets never could. They were going to give me permission to blow up the entire life I’d spent fifteen years building.

But first I had to get past two things standing in the doorway blocking my exit: my identity, and the money.

I’ll save that part of the story for Part 3 tomorrow.

Before you go

Have you ever followed a breadcrumb that made no logical sense at the time, and it turned out to matter? Hit reply and tell me. Those are my favorite stories to read.

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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For fifteen years I worked on a major bank’s trading floor. If you’ve never seen a trading floor, picture this: No walls. Just row after row of desks shoved together into one long table that never ends, and every person has four to six monitors that literally touch the monitors of the person on their left and the person on their right. Behind your screens you back up to more screens, more people. Behind them an aisle, then another row of people. TVs bolted everywhere, most of them turned up. Phones ringing. You get your own little volume knob at your seat, which would be a lovely idea if anyone actually used theirs. Most of the floor has no windows. I sat in that, all day, for a decade and a half.

How I ended up there

Wanna hear something funny? When I took the job, fresh out of college, I didn’t even know it was on a trading floor 😂. I was interviewing all over finance - traditional investment banking, a couple other corners, and “Structured Products” was just one of the roles. Nobody spelled out where I’d actually be sitting or even doing for that matter. In college, I was the one who found an empty nook deep in the stacks of the microfilm room of the library, shut the door to the room, and worked in total silence. That was how my brain worked.

So my first day, when they walked me out onto the floor, it was like someone turned the volume of the entire world up to a hundred and handed me a spreadsheet.

At the very beginning I couldn’t do a single piece of real work during the day. I did the surface stuff, the triage, the learning-from-everyone-around-me stuff, but anything that took actual focus I had to save for later. We were a hybrid banking and trading team back then and most of the junior people stayed until 10 or 11 at night, so I just did my deep work from five to ten, after the floor emptied out and I could finally hear myself think.

And then, somewhere in the next couple of years (honestly, probably only months), my brain rewired itself. I could write an email, track what was happening on the TV, follow the conversation of the two people behind me, and be on my own phone call, all at the same time. Constant scanning. Constant multitasking. And I was PROUD of it. I genuinely thought it was a flex. Look what I trained myself to do. Twentysomething me thought she was invincible.

In my last role on the floor I was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the quants, the people who build the financial models the traders use. My days were back to back meetings, implementing new systems, and keeping everyone on track so nothing would fall through the cracks with constantly changing rules and requirements. In essence I spent my days “herding cats”. The fifteen years before that covered a lot of seats though: structuring & trading, risk management, and finally business management. And in every one of those years, I ate lunch at my desk. That’s just what you do there. Bring it from home, heat it in the floor kitchen, carry it back to your windowless seat, work straight through. Forgot it? Run downstairs, five minute walk for a salad, back at your desk in twenty. Early on a friend and I would walk for a “real lunch” once or twice a year – and eat our salad on a table outside and be back in 30 instead of 20. Lol.

Then I became a mother

Once I got married (my now husband also worked on the trading floor in case you thought I had time away from the desk for meeting people and dating lol) and had kids, the slog of it all got heavier.

We’d been commuting together since we started dating in 2012, which I loved. But add two babies to the front end of that commute and the mornings turned into a sport. Up early, nurse the baby, feed the toddler, get everyone dressed, get myself showered and presentable, all before seven, because that’s when our nanny walked in. Seven fifteen we were out the door. Seven thirty at the desk. (We’d moved from Lake Norman to near Uptown by then, so at least the commute was ten minutes. Small mercies.)

I wish I knew then what I know now about what I was doing to my body. I’d spent over ten years training my nervous system to run at trading-floor volume, and I truly thought I’d found the ceiling of what a person could absorb. Then I became a mother. Motherhood adds a kind of stimulation you don’t even know exists until you’re standing in it. The physical part especially. Someone is always touching you, on you, needing you, and if you’re nursing your body isn’t even fully your own anymore. It’s one more channel of input running all day long, on top of every other channel. Add postpartum hormones on top of that and, looking back, that’s the exact moment the thing I’d been so proud of started to crack.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I was also quietly running a second business through all of it. Early on, when I basically moved in with my husband immediately after we started dating, my own house sat empty. I’m a planner (and a worrier, and fiercely independent) and I couldn’t stomach just letting it go, so instead of selling we decided to rent it out in 2013. That went well enough that by 2016 we decided to look into buying more places in the same neighborhood and renovating them. On paper we had a project manager through the construction company. In reality I was the one making every single decision, every finish, every design call, every this-or-that along the way, in the evenings (after the bank job all day) and on the weekends, while pregnant or with one to two toddlers underfoot. Two renovations basically back to back. So the “after work” part of my day was just another job. Looking back, it was a LOT, but at the time it was just my normal. Keep plugging and chugging like I have done my whole life.

For a long time I loved all of it. Truly. Early in my career, work was where all my friends were. It was fast and competitive and I was good at it, and good felt amazing. It was a great place to show everyone around me how capable I was. How much I could achieve. How I could keep all the balls in the air and be praised for it. I rarely had a complaint about work until I became a mom.

The knot

But those last couple of years, getting to that desk got harder and harder. My first and second didn’t sleep through the night until they turned one, and they’re two years apart. I also did extended breastfeeding so I was pregnant or nursing (or pumping at work) for essentially five years straight. Sleep wasn’t the priority. It just wasn’t a possibility. And while I was running on no sleep, the floor was quietly changing around me. Friends got married, had kids, moved cities, moved roles. The people I used to walk to lunch with, the ones who made a snack break feel like a bright spot, they were gone. My husband was on the same floor but our jobs were so different that we barely crossed paths all day. Work was just work. Nothing to look forward to when I got there.

And then came the thing that scared me most, because I’d never felt it before. Brain fog. Real, thick brain fog. I couldn’t do the work I’d done without much thought for twelve, thirteen years, and I couldn’t figure out why. It made me feel like something was fundamentally wrong with me. That is a terrifying feeling when your entire identity is built on being the one who has it handled.

That was the real knot building inside me. I was not a quitter. I could not fail. Leaving would mean I’d failed, full stop. But I also knew, way down deep, that becoming a full-time stay-at-home mom wasn’t my answer either, that that particular brand of nonstop would spiral me straight into anxiety and depression. So I was stuck between two doors I didn’t want to walk through. And underneath all of it sat the question I couldn’t shake: if I wasn’t the corporate badass who could juggle every single thing, then who even was I? Mother didn’t feel like enough. Worse, it didn’t feel like ME. Not the me I’d known for thirty-five years.

I carried the whole thing alone. Saying it out loud to anyone felt like admitting the exact failure I was terrified of. I’d complain to my husband, sure, but only ever “ugh, this is so annoying, I don’t want to go in,” never “I think I need to leave.” I never told him about the brain fog. And since I’ve never been a morning person anyway, me dragging my feet out the door didn’t register as anything unusual. From the outside, I still had it all together.

From the inside, I was quietly coming apart.

I didn’t have a plan yet. I didn’t even know I was looking for one. But the thing that would eventually crack all of this wide open was already on its way, and it started in the least likely place I can imagine. A nanny falling through. A wellness expo I almost skipped. A friend who wasn’t even there when I showed up. And thirty minutes in a room with a total stranger that changed the entire trajectory of my life.

If you’d told trading-floor me that, I’d have laughed you right off the desk.

But more on that in part 2...

Before you go

Part 2 is where it all starts to unravel, and then, strangely, starts to heal. If any part of this story felt familiar, the too-muchness, the fog, the who-am-I-if-I’m-not-this, hit reply and tell me. I want to read about the fact that I’m not alone in those feelings.

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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THE SHORTCUT

The short hit

If you go to the beach even once a year, a Shibumi Shade is something you need to be packing. If you’re not sure what it is, it’s the blue sail-looking shade you’ve likely seen flapping almost any beach up and down the coast. Lightweight, sets up in about three minutes, and stays up all day on wind alone. Yes it seems pricey at $300 but I’ve had mine for over 7 years and it still is in perfect condition and is used constantly. Worth it. (Unless your beach is Myrtle or a small handful of others where only traditional umbrellas are allowed – check their site for the short list of no-no beaches before buying!)

The deeper cut

You’ve probably seen one even if you don’t know the name. A friend a couple weeks ago wanted to use mine and called it a “kablami.” I have no idea where that came from but it made me laugh, and it made me realize not everyone knows what these are. Plus given the price, people may be scared away from buying it, so I have to say my piece on them.

I’ve had mine for over 7 years – I got it way back when the small North Carolina company had just launched. It was close to $300 even back then which felt absolutely crazy for a beach tent. But we had a bunch of young kids on the beach that year and needed lots of shade. They pitched it as lightweight and quick to set up, so we decided to try it. I have never in all my life had more people walk up to us on the beach that trip (that year really) – everyone wanted to know what the deal with the shade tent was. It was so unique so people were stopping to chat constantly - I’m talking 10 people a day – it was wild! Now when we go to Isle of Palms it is a sea of Shibumis. Hundreds of them. But I still recommend it!

One other thing people get stuck on besides the price: how does it stay up with no poles staked into the ground? The pole has an elastic bungee cord running through it, so the segments fold down small and snap together (they’re already connected by the cord, you’re really just sliding the pieces into place). The shade is one big piece of very lightweight fabric with a sleeve sewn into one end. You slide the fabric onto the pole, dig a small hole and set one end in, bend the pole into an arc, dig a second hole about ten feet away facing it so the fabric blows with the wind, and set the other end. Cover the ends. The bag it all comes in attaches to the pole, and you fill it with a little sand as a counterweight. It sounds complicated written out. It’s not. It’s really: unfurl the pole, slide on the fabric, dig two holes, set the ends, fill the bag. I’ve done it by myself in about three minutes. Two people is easier, but you can absolutely do it by yourself. The wind catches the fabric and lifts it into a little roof, and that’s your shade.

The wind question is also a real one. In the last eight years that we have had it, there have been maybe three or four mornings total without enough wind for it. In all of those cases by the afternoon the wind had picked up and the shade worked. They’ve had enough feedback on the no wind thing since launching though and have since handled it: they now come with wind-assist clips which connect the back of the shade down to the ground at an angle to make some shade even when there isn’t much wind to catch.

When I ordered it, and for many years after, the only color option was blue-on-blue. It was their signature look. But recently they’ve branched into other colors, including some limited edition options. They also seem to have a bunch of new products too – different sizes, tents for parks, chairs, etc. I’m intrigued and if I check out some of these other products I’ll keep everyone posted.

I’ve heard the haters say “it’s too loud” speaking about the flapping fabric in the wind. Excuse me, but have you heard the ocean? To me I don’t even notice the “white noise” in the background because to me the ocean is the ultimate sound machine and there’s always a loud background noise at the beach. If you are super noise sensitive maybe try before you buy (see below), but I never understood this particular complaint.

It’s a big purchase, so if you’re not sure, check whether anyone near you rents one before you buy. I keep one here in Charlotte that I’ve rented to other moms who wanted to try before buying, and most only rent once, because if they’re going to the beach at least once a year, they realize it’s worth just having it. If you’re in Charlotte and want to rent mine to try it out first, email me here and I’ll hook you up!

Before you go

Are you a Shibumi person already, or still talking yourself into it? Do you have any other beach paraphernalia you recommend?

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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THE SHORTCUT

What it is

LMNT is an electrolyte mix you stir into water. I know, I know - electrolytes are everywhere right now. LMNT was one of the first I saw a few years ago, and what sets it apart is that it’s saltier than most. Too much for some people. Perfect for someone like me who runs low on salt from dysautonomia. If you need less sodium in your diet, this one probably isn’t for you and check out another recommendation below.

The move

Make a pitcher with cold water and a couple of packets of the new Lemonade flavor. That’s it. So refreshing, with electrolytes and minerals built in. My whole family drinks it, and one packet a day really does help your mineral levels, especially when you’re sweating all summer.

• Use my referral link to get a FREE Sample Pack with any purchase. If you’re not sure what to grab, I highly recommend the Lemonade or the Lemonade/Iced Tea combo (Arnold Palmer! It is only lightly caffeinated so it won’t make you jittery.) I just tried the Pink Lemonade this week and that’s good too but I prefer the plain or the tea combo.

The deeper cut

Probably five years ago I bought a variety pack to start and I didn’t love the flavored ones. Too sweet for me, and I really can’t stand many kinds of sweeteners in things like this. My husband and kids loved all the flavors though so we’ve had lots of different ones over the years. I stuck with the plain OG unflavored salt version for a very long time. Everyone I’ve met says that one is awful. I love it. So I’m clearly the weirdo, because most people like the flavors.

Then this spring they dropped new flavors and the Lemonade is THE one. Different from the citrus they already had, and I’m obsessed. I don’t put a full packet in one glass - too strong for me - but one packet lasts me a couple glasses of water and that’s what works for me. Try a little to start and build up if the flavor is too strong for you. I’ve tried plenty of other brands (Ultima, gross; ReLyte, yuck; Liquid IV, I wouldn’t touch the ingredients). The one other line I like is Just Ingredients, especially the Raspberry Lemonade (get $10 off through my link). Just Ingredients uses real fruit for flavor, you can taste the difference, and my kids love those best so I keep them around. Real fruit means a few carbs, so while I’m in my low-carb era I’m sticking with the LMNT Lemonade.

Before you go

Hit reply and tell me your electrolyte of choice. I’m always testing new ones, and I want to know what’s actually working for you this summer.

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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Heads up: the link below is a referral link. I only ever link things I actually use.

EAT WELL

Thrive Market: most of my pantry, delivered

The short hit

Thrive Market is a membership grocery store for clean, healthy products, delivered to your door. If you’ve ever wished the good stuff from Whole Foods would just show up without the hunt or the markup, that’s the whole idea. I’ve been a member for over ten years.

The offer, the hack, and my cart

• New here? Use my link for 40% off your first order. It easily covers the membership.

• Membership runs about $5/month, paid annually. Renewal hack: when you’re near the end, go in to cancel and they’ll usually offer you a lower rate to stay. I’ve kept it for as little as $19.95 for the year ($1.66 a month). You’re not threatening anything, just saying it feels too expensive. They want you shopping, so they work with you.

• My current autoship staples: Thrive Market Organic Chicken Bone Broth (best price for the real, no-junk stuff); Birch Benders Paleo Pancake & Waffle Mix (my kids make it themselves); Native Forest Organic Simple Coconut Milk (no gums); Thrive Market Organic Pasta Sauce (the Sicilian Gravy is legit like my grandma’s); and the Thrive brand for basics and baking (coconut sugar, coconut flour, baking soda, nuts, spices, mustard, rice, applesauce, beans, pumpkin).

• Other brands I grab a lot: Simple Mills, Quinn, Acure, Hu, Primal Palate, Enjoy Life. Want my full cart? Just reply and ask.

The deeper cut

When I started writing this, I had to look up how long I’d been a member. Turns out 2015. My account tracks how much I’ve saved buying through them instead of retail: $13,042.20.

I’ve spent more than a decade looking for ways to outsource and automate, and having all the healthy stuff I used to hunt down at Whole Foods just show up was exactly what I wanted. I’ll be honest, I balked at the membership fee at first. I didn’t have a Costco membership then and couldn’t see why you’d pay just to shop somewhere. But the prices beat the stores and the convenience was real, so I tried it and stayed. Eleven years later, I have a Costco membership now and still pay for Thrive too. Worth it.

Another honest take: it used to be every price beat the store, and that’s not always true anymore. Plenty of items still are cheaper than in stores or even cheaper than Amazon, but not all. But the convenience is worth a lot to me, and the autoship is the real magic. It’s a box of the stuff we use constantly, on a schedule, and I adjust it before it ships. I also use it to test new gluten-free and paleo snacks my stores don’t carry yet. I used to love walking every aisle of the grocery store for something new -now I do that from my couch, because who has time for stores??

My whole pantry basically comes from here: snacks, canned goods, beef sticks, crackers, cleaner candy for the holidays, even cheaper clean shampoo. Their own brand is as good as the name brands for less - if they have their own brand item as an option I don’t hesitate to get that one instead of the brand name.

One more of my favorite Thrive hacks: I’ve been known to ship a box to a vacation rental or to my family’s place in NJ for the holidays. That way I know the kids’ favorite snacks and our staples are waiting without me figuring out what the nearby stores carry.

Before you go

Hit reply and tell me the one clean product you can never find at your regular store. I’ll tell you whether Thrive carries it, or what I’d swap in.

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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LIVE WELL

Sunscreen: read the label before anything else

The short hit

If you change one thing this summer, flip your sunscreen over and check whether it’s mineral or chemical. Mineral is the one you want. The same brand will sell you both, sitting right next to each other, so the label is the only thing that tells you. It won’t say “chemical,” but it will say “mineral.” No “mineral,” assume chemical. That’s the whole first step, and almost nobody does it.

My picks (mineral only)

• Easiest, in stores: Badger Mineral Daily Sunscreen. Short organic ingredient list, easy to find, worked great for us. My top pick if you just want to grab one and go.

• For your face: I used Beautycounter for years and still reach for the face one (now called Counter) on all-day sun days. Lightweight, more like a lotion, absorbs fast.

• Face with coverage: Crunchi’s Sunlight Tinted Sunscreen. Hot take, I never loved Beautycounter’s Dew Skin, but this one I was hooked on. Less dewy, more coverage, higher SPF. I wear Medium Light or Medium depending on the season.

• Cleanest, order online (tallow): Sky & Sol. Rubs in easily, not greasy at all. Get 10% off your first order shopping through my link or with code KRISTENM.

• Also tallow: Primally Pure Sun Cream. A little thicker, smells great, no white cast. I love everything I’ve tried from them. Get $10 off your first order shopping through my link.

• Grab-and-go at the store: Sun Bum MINERAL, the white packaging not yellow (spray, lotion, roll-on), and Blue Lizard for sensitive skin (my kids love the stick). I find both at Ulta or Target. Heads up: Costco’s Sun Bum this year is the chemical one, but they’re carrying mineral Blue Lizard.

The deeper cut

There’s a lot of confusion in the sunscreen aisle, but it comes down to two types. Chemical sunscreen is what most of us grew up with, the sprays, the Coppertone, the drugstore brands. It soaks into your skin, and after everything I’ve learned in the last ten years, I’d rather it didn’t. Mineral sits on top instead. It’s what I reach for every time, and honestly I’d toss the chemical ones (yes, they’re expensive, but once I learn something I can’t unknow it).

The trap is that the same brand sells you both, right next to each other on the shelf, so read the label every time. The Costco Sun Bum I was so excited to find last year turned out to be the chemical one. Whomp whomp.

There’s also a diet piece I didn’t expect. When we cleaned up how we eat, more whole foods and fewer seed oils, my family’s skin stopped burning so easily. I don’t have hard proof beyond my own house, but I heard about it and then watched it play out. The idea is you can sort of eat your sunscreen: cut the seed oils, eat more real food, and you burn less. We run an 80/20 clean diet and our sunburns dropped way off. But I know that’s not always enough.

I actually think most people aren’t getting enough sun, not too much. We’ve been scared into covering every inch, every day. A little sun at different points in the day is good for you. Not high noon, not for hours, and never to the point of burning, because burning is what cancels out the benefit. When we’re out all day, we do faces, noses, ears, and pale spots early in the season. Once we have a base tan the burning mostly stops, but I still cover the sensitive areas. Factor in your own skin type, but for us it’s some bare sun early and late, and mineral only when we need it.

The tallow ones have to be ordered online, but they’re the cleanest and work best for us. We haven’t burned in a long time. My younger son used to react to the Beautycounter one even though it was clean, so he stuck with Blue Lizard Sensitive or Badger for a while. Now he can use the tallow ones too. Sometimes it just takes a few tries to find your one.

Before you go

If you do one thing this week, flip your sunscreen over and check the label. Then hit reply and tell me what you’ve been using. I read every single one, and I’d love to know what’s been overwhelming you to research so I can help.

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️

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Around the same time, another friend started calling me Kroogle. Not Google. Kroogle. Because she’d just ask me anything she needed help with instead of opening up her search engine.

I remember these two specific instances from 15+ years ago, but the reality is that’s been my life since I was basically a kid. People text me questions, I have answers. I’ve already gone down all the rabbit holes around the things I needed to figure out, whether it be for my own health, my family, the homes I’ve built, the vacation I was planning, etc.

A couple years ago another friend told me I should be sharing this stuff with more than the people who have my number. She kept insisting that my thoughts and recommendations are worth sharing more broadly, and I ignored her for a long while. It seemed like a crazy idea — who would even care? But she insisted.

I’ve spent weeks (err, months?) circling the edges of this Substack while organizing notes, researching the best way to launch a Substack, debating on what to include in my first post, waiting for the “right” time to begin. Before THAT I spent months (err, years?) compiling a list of all the tips, tricks, hacks, products, resources, tools and ideas that I’ve felt called to share with others in some way. It finally hit me that the “right” time never actually will come, and if I keep waiting for it then all of this information gold I’ve been holding onto will only live in my head, or just continue to be shared with a single friend here or there.

I told myself I was waiting for clarity on what I needed to do, but really I was waiting for certainty. I wanted my first post to feel solid, meaningful, and worth your time, but unfortunately I have a lifetime of using perfectionism as my most common form of procrastination, so that’s where I’ve been living. But I’ve brought awareness to that fact, so here I am, writing before the plan feels clear and before I know the clear next step to take.

Here’s why this won’t read like every other wellness newsletter you’ve opened: none of it came from wanting to be a wellness person or an influencer or someone with any kind of online presence. It came from need. A mystery illness that traditional medicine kept shrugging at, so I became my own researcher to get anywhere. Two kids whose health threw curveballs with no tidy answers. More than a dozen homes built from the ground up, which is how I learned what actually goes into the walls we live inside. Fifteen years in banking (I left in 2021 and haven’t looked back), a real estate management business, a wellness practice, and two homeschooled boys – all of it leading to the experiences that require me to dive deep for my own sake. I dig into this stuff because I have to, not because I love making content. Everything I share here, I needed first, but I’m hoping that someone else can skip all the research and angst and just have the answer, so that’s why I’m sharing.

If you’ve ever delayed something because you didn’t feel ready or things weren’t perfect yet, then maybe we can both start something new before we’re ready. This space is still under construction, and while I have a general plan on how I see things playing out, I’m just going to go for it. So the format might change week to week. It might not. It might be very consistent. It might not. I’m giving myself permission to just let it be whatever it is.

What you’ll get here: tips, hacks, products, and ideas I’ve actually tested. Clean living without the preaching. One practical thing at a time. And I’ll sprinkle in some stories about my own experiences so you can get to know me better – it’s always easier to trust someone’s recommendations when you feel like you know something about them.

Here’s one quick thing on my mind to get us started.

The Shortcut: morning light walk

Every issue I plan to give you one thing I’m using, recommending, or a little obsessed with. This week: the habit I notice most when I skip it.

First thing in the morning I go outside, face east, and walk around my block. No contacts, no sunglasses. Just morning light on my skin and in my eyes. Sunlight in the first hour after waking sets your circadian rhythm, which means better sleep, more energy, a body that knows what time it is. The research on this is real and mostly ignored. Sometimes it’s HARD to make this a priority early in the day when it feels like the chaos starts the moment I open my eyes, but I really do notice a difference in my energy and my sleep when I’m consistent.

I resisted doing this for years because I’ve worn contacts since I was twelve and can barely see without them. I didn’t feel like I could even function outside of my bed without my contacts. This year I got a new pair of glasses for when I’m home, and I tuck them in my shirt while I walk. Everything’s blurry but I know my block, and the glasses are right there if I need them. My prescription has improved three years running (really!) and I think this is a part of why. The sun is truly amazing – it has all the information (light) that the body needs, but as a society we’ve really forgotten that.

Start with five minutes. Even just two minutes. Face east. Naked eyes. No sunglasses. That’s it.

By the way, that’s my whole point for doing this. Everything I share is here to make your life easier, better, safer, more efficient, more fun — the stuff I’ve stored in my head (and in my spreadsheets) over the years. I hope it makes yours feel that way too.

If there’s one thing you’ve been meaning to change but haven’t found the starting point for, hit reply and tell me. I’m building out what to cover, and your question might be the next thing I write about.

Talk soon,

Kristen ❤️