The Health Diaries
How This Food Journalist Manages Anxiety
CBD, Vedic meditation, and airplane mode are her saviors
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There are many ways to live a healthy life. The Health Diaries is a weekly series about the habits that keep notable people living well.
Liz Moody started her career as a syndicated newspaper columnist, traveling all over the world. These days, you can find her living with her husband in Brooklyn, New York, and writing about food. She’s currently a contributing food editor at Mindbodygreen, where she was the food director for two years. She also hosts a podcast called Healthier Together. Moody’s new cookbook of the same name was released in April 2019.
This week, Moody shares with Medium the inspiration for her new cookbook, her morning routine, and the recipe for a perfect smoothie.
It took me a long time to get on board with a morning routine, because I always thought it was wellness bullshit. I was like, “Who has time for that?” I just wanted to get up and launch my day. But then I went through a bad bit of anxiety about a year and a half ago. In desperation, I was like, I’m going to try this morning routine thing and see what happens. And I actually liked it.
For me, a morning routine is all about grounding myself in what I want and what I feel. I wake up around 8:30, usually without an alarm. I’ll set an alarm if I have an important meeting, but I try to fall asleep when I’m tired and wake up when I’m awake. I also try not to turn on my phone for 50 minutes. The second you turn your phone on, you become reactive, so I keep it in airplane mode. I cuddle my husband and my cat. Then I brush my teeth and do a brushing rinse with hydrogen peroxide. I think you should brush your teeth first thing, before you even swallow, because you accumulate bacteria overnight. Then I have a big glass of lukewarm water and a probiotic.
After that, I sit down and meditate. I am not a cute meditator. I don’t sit on a pillow with my legs crossed. I do Vedic meditation, in which they teach you to sit on a chair with your back straight. I go over to the couch and put a pile of blankets on top of me. I put on my noise-canceling headphones and find a white-noise video on YouTube so my husband can get…
