There’s a specific kind of late-summer afternoon I chase: the door shuts, the phone lands face-down on a towel, and the cool-down playlist goes on low while the heat does. It sounds small. It’s not — it’s the single best drop in resting heart rate I get all week, and I’m not the only one who refuses to quantify why.
Here’s the honest version of this week. Legs took one full session apart, upper body stayed accessible, and I walked more than I expected to. Fall training is sneaking up on us — the emails say so, and so do the afternoons — so I’m already planning around it. Below is everything I’m actually using: what I’ve been wearing to the gym, what I listen to on recovery days, where I might send you next, and what’s landed on the table since I coined “dinner that works twice.”
Quick disclosure up front, because there are a few products in here from places I get a commission through. None of that changed a single rep or rest period. It’s just what I happen to reach for.
Wearing
I’m not trying to make the season skip ahead, but the fall stuff is everywhere in my inbox and I can’t help it. So most of the stuff I’m adding right now is transitional — things that work for a late-September session in the gym. Zara’s linen Henley is light enough for summer but has that cozier fall feel, and their contrast polo runs in the same lane. I’ve been loving the fall-like color on it.
The pullover fleece from Halfdays is the one I’d grab first — they started as a ski brand and have been getting better by the season. And I replaced my walking shoes: ASICS Gel-Kayano 14 from FWRD. I try to rotate my walking sneakers every few months, simple foot-care habit — you cover a lot of ground between walking sessions and after a heavy day, and the cushioning gets old.
Listening
Recovery days are where podcasts live for me, and I found one worth flagging: A Really Good Cry with Radhi Devlukia. Her background is nutrition and Ayurveda — something I’d known about for years and only recently got properly curious about. I gave her the time away from the phone just to read and listen, and the simple practices slowed me down more than adding another modality ever has.
Also on rotation: Melissa Wood-Tepperberg talking through her experience getting off stimulants. I’ve been on and off different stuff over the years for anxiety and ADHD, and anyone’s medication story is their own — but honest accounts are the only reviews that matter in that space.
Then, complete gear-brain: Angelo Keely, the founder of Kion, on what goes into the supplements he actually sells. I’ve been using their aminos, creatine, and Omega-3, and I wanted to hear the reasoning behind them, not just the label. The episode with Arielle Lorre on Omega-3s was the one I’d send you.
Travel thoughts
My family usually heads out together in late July or right before school starts in August, and this year the pull toward something new is Morocco. Family went to Tangiers the last Thanksgiving — a day trip over from Spain — and now I’ve found photos of Tamuda Bay and can’t stop scrolling. I don’t know much about the country, which is exactly the kind of gap I want to close in person: explore properly, learn the culture, and find out for myself why Asher’s favorite meal of the year happened to be in Tangier.
At the same time, my travel agent Emily Lutz keeps showing me a resort in Stari Grad off the coast of Split, and everything I’ve seen for Croatia this year says go. So that’s the open question right now: Morocco for the completely new, or Croatia for the coastline.
Here’s what I tell my clients when the plans wobble: the trip that scares you a little is almost always the one you’re most glad you took. I come home with a new perspective and a longer list. That’s the whole argument for pushing out of routine.
Around the house
Everything is rolling out fall collections — Anthro, Pottery Barn, Terrain — and I’m the exact same person as everyone else in that one moment: browsing. The Anthropologie stuff is genuinely almost more decoration than products, from the board games to the vintage-inspired pieces.
If you’re shopping for someone with a newborn, Boll & Branch bedding is the one I’d point at — percale specifically. It’s the crisp, hotel-sheet cool you can’t get from heavier weaves, and it holds up through a baby’s nights.
Small thing at home that actually works: the new Flamingo Estate Fig candle. Warm fig, woods, spice, and cardamom — it reads September without being full-on fall yet, which is exactly where we are. Real add: put it in the corner near your stretching area, because fall will be showing up around the corner in the next few weeks.
From the gym kitchen
Full week on the stove, and weekdays stayed simple — which is how most of us cook when the family’s schedule is full. The pattern I’m on: make one dish that earns a second dinner.
The anchor was a quick chicken chili on a Sunday night — cheddar corn polenta underneath, a dollop of yogurt, avocado, cilantro, cheddar on top. I made extra on purpose. I knew I’d have it again.
Wednesday got the pierogi: homemade sweet potato pierogies, grilled sausage, brown butter sauce, and a huge salad.
Friday was the one I actually get asked about: the slow-braised one-pot beef bolognese. Crockpot is not a compliment, it’s a personality. That mess is the point — one pot, barely any cleanup, and it tastes like it took all day. That one-dinner-two-meals pattern is the whole strategy if your week is anything like mine: chili Sunday, enchilada Tuesday, something you make once and feed the whole week from.
Eating
One habit that stuck: a half dozen bagels and schmear from Popup Bagels on the weekend — pretzel and sesame. I’m already planning a pumpkin spice version for when the season actually turns, with a homemade syrup. You can’t be too early for it.
I’ve also been putting Ancient Organics salted ghee on nearly everything. They kettle-cook it traditionally, and that’s the difference — it’s rich, a little salty, and reads almost caramelized. For training cookdays, keep a jar on the counter and use it in place of butter on the base of a carb dish. One flavor bump for a cheap energy boost.
Little joy of the week
Morning light. It’s still hot out, but the light has started to change, and no matter where you are in the world the sun has a way of announcing the season. I caught myself feeling genuinely grateful to be outside most mornings this week. Payment is cheap. Take it.
Looking ahead
September is nearly here, and I’m already sketching the fall block: fewer maxing days, more total volume, and a lot of that slow, boring, effective stuff — walks, sleep, the same meal twice. One more thing I think you’d like: we’re working on an announcement that’s being drafted to land this fall, and I’ve been running the details in my head for a few nights. Fingers crossed it gets the green light. More soon.
The Science, Simplified: the one unglamorous truth from this week that research actually agrees with: a post-workout 20-minute easy recovery walk is one of the cheapest ways to lower resting heart rate, line up the next session, and start to break the stress cycle of a training block. Science is boring, and it works. So here’s the actual move: put the 20-minute walk in tomorrow — the cold-water kind is fine too — and run it for six weeks before you judge it.
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