#69 MONTHLY MEDICINE... TikTok's 'weight loss' drama, Beyoncé's rule for work-life balance and what the gym girlies are wearing now

Serving up what's been well and unwell in the health and wellness space through September, just before we lean into that Winter Arc...

My birthday, which lands at the end of September, always feels like it marks a shift in how I look after my mind and body. Adapting my routine—probably like many of you too—to befit the increased nesting, slowing pace and change in general mood (it’s palpable) that’s happening. However, the pre-fleece days of Well, Actually… have been busy. I wrote about our summer of an unspoken female anxiety—generating much lovely feedback in my DMs, emails and comments—and dug into a slowly ripening health trend. The latest Buy This, Not That… special also revealed the expert verdict on the stress-tracking feature of ‘smart’ wearables like Oura, supplements that promise to help you digest gluten more comfortably and those whole-body deodorants popping up on your feed. Now, let’s get to it: what’s been happening of late in the worlds of nutrition, fitness, mental wellbeing and more…

TikTok

Sure, a surprising inclusion in these health-consciousness rankings. However, in a positive move, the platform has banned controversial New York-based influencer Liv Schmidt, 22, who was accused of spreading her ‘unhealthy devotion to being thin’. More specifically, they have said she was removed for violating ‘community guidelines’, which hearteningly (or is the bar too low?) include ‘promoting disordered eating and dangerous weight loss behaviours’. The 22-year-old insisted to the Wall Street Journal that ‘weight is a touchy topic, but that’s what the viewers want.’ Which is something that, as Teen Vogue point out, is symptomatic of a resurgence of problematic diet culture online.

Boundaries

None other than famously busy Beyoncé has got real about overwork. ‘There was a time when I was pushing myself to meet unrealistic deadlines, while not taking the time to enjoy the benefits of why I was working so hard,’ the singer recently reflected to GQ. ‘There aren’t many of us from the late ’90s who were taught to focus on mental health. Back then, I had little boundaries, and said yes to everything…now I work smarter.’ On the subject of clever hustling, research has shown that reducing smartphone use increases work satisfaction. Powerful stuff.