Living > Lifemaxxing

This outfit was a dream because I actually did dream of it.

Meant for another evening with another backlit backdrop per slide 4 on my Canva-made Mallorcan itinerary, I was supposed to wear this sparkly see-through number on the swanky rooftop bar of Hotel Jumeirah. However, to avoid a hike up the hillside and a meltdown from my five-year-old, we settled on a well-reviewed paella spot along the pedestrian pathway, savoring the golden hour with gelato afterwards, my extended arm serving as a protective barrier between Parker's delicious cioccolato and my designer dress. Meanwhile, Arthur snapped some shamelessly elegant photos of me while reluctantly dodging tourists and perhaps breaking his no-photos-in-traffic rule. Meanwhile, I broke the golden rule, putting my face in the sun in exchange for that golden-hour light.

After Parker finished his gelato — in Spain, nonetheless, but I don't believe the Spaniards themselves know a true equivalent — and I felt sufficiently captured in my chic "fit," as the kids say, we headed to a seaside playground, because why wouldn't I wear a sheer, silver-disc-adorned, midriff-baring frock to play pirates with my child? After the sun went down and Parker refused to let language barriers interfere with his newfound friendships, we headed back to our hotel way past bedtime, swapping reading time for a movie on the iPad, falling asleep to Sing 2, dreaming of my future double-shot espresso solo on th balcony the next morning.

In a world now obsessed with #LifeMaxxing, this is the beauty of simply #living.

As a self-proclaimed recovering perfectionist, I've spent many years living in fear of being out of bounds, especially when it comes to travel. My interest in avoiding uncertainty has eclipsed my own instinct, my desire to document it online upping the ante. However, I've been pursuing peace ever since I turned 30, and now, nearing 37, I'm quite keen on the undertones quietly baked into our various cultural trends. When we asked for body positivity, we were essentially begging for self-acceptance; the push for work-from-home, an attempt at meeting the needs of our families (mothers especially) and lives outside of work; and now, with Lifemaxxing, it's an attempt at perfection, under the guise of so-called physical and psychological wellness.

I didn't do it because of the trend. I did it because it made sense at the time

The trend is not surprising, given our cultural focus has shifted more toward themes around health and wellness, more people have become open to therapy — yay — and therefore terms like boundaries, organic, and strength training have become part of society's general vernacular. To be clear, I am in support of all this information being shared, and I, like the rest of the world, have turned towards the new media landscape of podcasts, social media, and now AI to obtain it. The conversation around non-traditional media's impact is ripe for an entirely separate essay; however, my point remains clear: most concepts are simply repackaged.

A century ago, we called it physical culture — "weakness is a crime" — and a barefoot magazine tycoon named Bernarr Macfadden sold Americans fitness, clean eating, and distrust of doctors through the mass media of his day. His messaging was close to what we see today: some legitimate questioning of institutional medicine and some genuinely interesting ideas. His methods, however, were not based in science. Some of what he promoted was completely disproven and wild — barefoot magnetic-earth walking, curing illness by fasting, or refusing all medicine — which seems to parallel many of the viral fads in 2026. We've simply swapped his magazine for the algorithm.

I also feel the dissatisfaction in our food and general healthcare system, and I would argue many of our current trends are moving in similar waves: the desire to know where our food is coming from, what we are feeding our kids, and the impact of hormones and preservatives on our health outcomes and overall wellbeing. We've even romanticized the idea of growing our own vegetables, ditching the big city for farm life, or making food from scratch. All of these concepts are born out of a very legitimate desire most of us hold, myself included, to feel better physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And I will be honest with you: after two nights in a row surveying Palma's croquettes, my favorite Spanish tapas, of course, there's a part of me longing for an overpriced Erewhon smoothie.

The question remains: how do we realistically get to feeling better — and enjoy a greasy paella on vacation? And my answer to this will forever remain the same: learn to listen to your body. Intuition will always outweigh counting macros, heart rate, and cucumber juice (ugh, remember that?). How we feel each day is the truth. Oftentimes this remains a major challenge, especially if we are fully addicted to sugar, live with chronic pain, or suffer from anxiety. Regardless, the answers are always within us. Starting with "what can I do" versus "what should I be doing" is always going to take us further. Using the trends as tools can be helpful; however, "insider info" will never replace gut instinct.

You are the expert of your own experience. Not the other way around.

And my gut instinct on this trip was to prioritize feeling good — hence my runs each morning, my avoidance of alcohol during the majority of the trip and the gallons of bottled water I made Arthur lug to our hotel room from the supermercado. I didn't make these choices to follow the "sober-curious movement" or to "stimulate blood flow," but rather because they just made sense at the time. Lifemaxxing, or over optimizing your health is simply perfectionism repackaged. Control is essentially a false attempt at managing fear. Fear we might not get what we want or face adversity along the way. I completely support the concept of a healthy lifestyle, but in a world where the sun sets at 9pm, the paella is simmering after a long swim in the ocean, and industrialization has led us to mass production of Toblerone ice cream — yes, I found out on this trip that my favorite candy bar makes an ice cream; they were out of the pints, but they had the most delicious bars, which I am still thinking about now — we must not forget that we are the experts of our own experience, not the other way around.

Living always > Lifemaxxing.

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