The Liz Moody Podcast - The Secret To Making This Summer Your Best Ever (Without Spending $$$)

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

My team took a long weekend for the holiday so we’re resharing this fun episode I recorded last summer with my good friend Justine Doiron, aka @justine_snacks. We share 21 summer novelty ideas and activities to help you savor summer, have more fun, and make lasting memories. I hope everyone had a great weekend and can continue on the summer fun! 🎧 What you’ll learn: • 21 ideas to make your summer great • The one question to ask yourself before every activity this summer • How to find the best outdoor summer events near you • Why adding novelty makes life feel richer and more meaningful Products mentioned in this episode: • Tripod standing desk • Laptop sunshade • Bug bite relief zapper The previous episode of The Liz Moody Podcast discussed today: “The Novelty Rule: How To Use My Neuroscience Hack That’s Changing Millions Of Lives” • Listen on Apple • Listen or watch on Spotify • Watch on YouTube For more from Justine Doiron: • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justine_snacks/?hl=en  • Website: https://justinesnacks.com/  • Book, Justine Cooks: https://justinesnacks.com/the-cook-book/  Check out our NEW YouTube Channel with tons of YouTube exclusive Shorts, exclusive podcast content, and full video episodes: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@LizMoodyTV⁠  Ready to uplevel every part of your life? Order Liz’s book 100 Ways to Change Your Life: The Science of Leveling Up Health, Happiness, Relationships & Success now!  Connect with Liz on Instagram @lizmoody or online at www.lizmoody.com. Subscribe to the substack by visiting https://lizmoody.substack.com/welcome.Buy our cute sweatshirts, conversation cards, and more at https://shop.lizmoody.com/. Use our discount codes from our  highly vetted and tested brand partners by visiting https://www.lizmoody.com/codes.  This episode is brought to you completely free thanks to the following podcast sponsors: • Puori: visit https://Puori.com/LizMoody and use code LIZMOODY at checkout for a discount and special offer. • Wildgrain: go to Wildgrain.com/LizMoody to get $30 off your first box + FREE croissants for LIFE. • Pique: head to PiqueLife.com/LizMoody for 20% off + a FREE Starter Kit on $100+ of subscriptions.  The Liz Moody Podcast cover art by Zack. The Liz Moody Podcast music by Alex Ruimy. This podcast and website represents the opinions of Liz Moody and her guests to the show. The content here should not be taken as medical advice. The content here is for information purposes only, and because each person is so unique, please consult your healthcare professional for any medical questions. The Liz Moody Podcast Episode 445. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome to the Liz Moody podcast. Today, we are talking all about the novelty rule and specifically novelty rule ideas for summer. So if you're not familiar with the novelty rule, we have an entire episode about it that I will link in the show notes. But in brief, it's a neuroscience hack that I created that helps you slow down time. It helps you keep the days from blending together. It helps your life feel really rich and long and satisfying and meaningful, which is what we want from summer because summer is the best season and not just because my birthday is at it. Today I'm joined by one of my dear friends, the incredible recipe developer, content creator, author of one of my personal favorite cookbooks, Justine Dorn, who you may know is

Justin Snacks. Justin, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Welcome back to the podcast. Are you excited for summer? Very excited for summer. It's my best season. It's your best season. We've talked about this. I like extremes. Oh, we have talked about this. And you can tell you your extreme theory? Because I disagree completely. Yeah, I remember you saying, like, can I out you on Instagram stories and I said no. My extremes theory, I like either being really, really hot or really, really cold. I like like blizzards and I like like Fourth of July sweaty heat. The in between some fine. Why? As somebody who has spent my life trying to be at 70 degrees at all times, if possible, in like maybe 68 so the sun can gently warm my body. Okay. Why? So 70 is what you think is

the middle. But that where I live is wrong. The middle is like 60, 65, which I think is the most comfortable. This is not an all you need is a light jacket situation. You're like, you're either a sweatshirt. It's horrible. Hate. So I like the extremes because I'm like, okay, if it's winter, I want to be in winter. I want to be in a parka. I want to be sledding. I want to feel all the winter things. Okay, but in New York, when it's winter, you put on all your clothes and then you go inside anywhere and it's sweltering hot. So you take off all your clothes. I don't see the issue. Okay. Layers. No, so I also like summer when I can wear as little clothing as possible.

Yeah, you do. Yeah, I do. It's the onesie, the jumpsuit. It's never going to not be my thing. Or what is it, a romper? A romper. A romper. Love it.

So, Justine and I have both put together novelty rule ideas for summer to make the most out of summer. And I use the novelty rule all of the time in my life because I do find when I am not doing novel activities, the days do blend together. And I feel like I'm just like waking up, doing my work, eating dinner in front of the TV, and then going to bed and doing it all again the next day. So I created this rule and shared it. And I know it's helped so many of you, but also it really helps me in my life. Yeah. What I like about the novelty rule is it was something I had noticed, but before you put a name to it, I didn't really notice how to identify that, oh, like, weeks feel longer when I do more things that are different or out of the ordinary, like, packed it to them. The novelty rule has us doing one little novel thing every single week and one larger novel thing every single month. Did you divide up your stuff per chance or is it just like a hodgepodge? Hodgepodge. Okay, cool. Do you want to share one?

Yeah. Okay. So my first one is really designed to bring novelty to the boring things. And this is mostly for me because I've been really putting off chores lately. So my whole thing is noveling up my chores and trying to make them a little bit more enjoyable than what they normally are. So this I use to apply to laundry. but instead of doing laundry at the same time like the Sunday that you normally do it, which I put off and then had to do it Monday morning. I was like, okay, I'm going to wake up a little bit earlier Monday morning, just throw a load in, have my coffee, listen to a great podcast, plugging the Liz Moody podcast or whatever podcast of your choice.

And kind of taking something that is annoying and making it at a different time of day. And so that's like, your brain's like, oh, this task is a little bit different. How can we make this task a little bit more pleasurable? Oh, I love that. You can't do it with vacuuming because, like, you can't be vacuuming at 9 o'clock at night. But, for example, like tidying up the house. Like put on your favorite show, straighten up instead of doing it as you're like, okay, Sunday reset, I need to do everything. Taking it and making it novel different and then a little bit more pleasurable has been really, really big for me.

It's not like a hot girl summer novel girl summer hack, but it's a say, let's make summer a little bit more. You know what else I love about that is it gets you back your weekends a little bit more? And I think a summer necessity is having as much of our time back as we can possibly steal to get outside and enjoy the weather and enjoy our lives. Making the most of these long nights. Absolutely. So it's kind of especially since we are usually working from home a little bit more than we were five years ago. Like it's kind of nice to be able to slot those things in and then have a summer, like a real summer. I love that.

What are you cooking for summer? Oh, my God. Okay. So, ooh, Liz Moody podcast exclusive. I'm revealing this when it's done. My kitchen's under renovation right now. I should have showed you a photo. My kitchen, like, I have no walls.

Oh, I just saw your kitchen. I know. And then two... You're like, wedding's over. Oh, yeah. Going into Renovet. Okay. 50 people left after that brunch.

And then, like, two guys came in and, like, knocked down my walls. Oh, amazing. So I'm cooking all these salads, and it's been wonderful. Oh, wait. I love this. So you can give us tips for, like, how can we make delicious dinners when we can't really cook because our kitchen's under renovation or we're lazy. What's nice about summer is the produce is so good.

So it's like, okay. we're getting really excited about stone fruit, tomatoes, throw that with a good vinaigrette. I'm a vegetarian, I'm a vegetarian, so I kind of sear like a piece of fish or a piece of tofu, and those big salads have been my packable lunches. Shout out to Violet, a witchel, Violet cooks of like the dense bean salad. That's like a great thing to make with all your summer produce. So that's kind of a one I've been cooking. And then for dinner, Eric and I have been really into like the plant-based sausage, rice cooker game,

and then sauteing a bit of vegetables on either the grill, because I'm cooking outside. I can cook outside. I can cook outside. out of my grill and look up at my kitchen with no walls and be like 56 more days. Yeah, it's long. I know. Oh, my gosh. I know. And I am doing content. I'm filming only like grilling content and seeing how long it takes for people that catch on. I love that. What would you say to a woman listening who wants to have the benefits of grilling, i.e. having the labor that lets you be outside just hanging out like the fun job, but is maybe intimidated by grilling. Oh my gosh. Okay. I'm screaming now

because grilling, I realized, is just if you have a propane gas grill. It is just giant burners outside. What have I been doing my entire life? So I was putting down a cast iron pan to saute up some broccoli. A little bit of lemon, a little bit of anchovy, you know, getting fancy. And I was like, I can just put this cast iron on the grill, and it's like having a burner. And I did not realize that because I have lived in a city my entire life where charcoal grills are seen as this big scary thing. And then I was like, oh, you can get a gas grill.

So that's my number one thing. charcoal-based grills a little bit different, but they still operate the same. You just have to get your temperature control a little bit more regulated. And that's fun because that's where you get like smoky flavor. You can get like that nice char on corn on corn on the cob. But my whole thing is, and I say this with everything, just start the scary activity. This goes into the novelty rule. Like if it's a new activity, just do it once. And it's going to feel really scary and unstable the first time. But then you're like, oh, that was that was it. So get on the grill is my like rant there. I love that. You gave me two segways and I don't know which way to go,

but I'll go with one of my novelty rule summer activities is have one never be the one to say no to yourself moment. So have one thing you would normally say no to yourself about this summer. So it could be I would never be the one to grill. It could be I would never go to the beach without a cover up. It could be I would never go whitewater rafting. That's too scary for me. I would never try stand-up paddleboarding. But take one thing that's always kind of felt a little bit outside of your comfort zone. One thing you've been saying no to yourself about and say yes to yourself and see where it leads you. Oh, I like that. Yeah. Do you have anything that comes to mind? Like a little scary? Ooh, it's not, for me, it's never a little scary. It's always, I never make time for

things because I always let the, oh, but I could be using this time to get more work done. Or I don't want to do this activity because that's going to take three hours out of my day that I could be using to do the things I'm supposed to do. So my saying no to myself is not. I can't do this. It's in this like roadblock of I don't want to do this because what if that takes away this for me or it makes me slightly less comfortable. So I think mine would be actually making time to do these big summer activities that I always plan. Like go to Rockaway. It could not be easier. It's a train right away from my house. That's the beach in New York City for anybody who's unfamiliar. Are you a person who's able to enjoy the beach or does any like body bikini stuff

get up in your head about it? That's really interesting because going through my wedding really brought up some body stuff and I was not expecting it to. In what way? I had my second look, which you remember. And my first look was very easy to wear. Like I had no body issues first look. Second look like pinched and poked in certain places and made me, I thought it wasn't the most flattering. I was like, oh, it's like I know I have no problems with my body. Why is it making me feel like I have problems with this part of my body? I then six weeks before the wedding was like, do I need to diet down, which was so 1999 of me. And probably just like a startling thought for you to recognize in your own head.

Yeah, because I feel like I have come so far. So I was not expecting that to creep back in. And it was something that I really had to sit with myself about and talk with my fiancé, now husband, about and kind of be like, that's never what I wanted our marriage to be about. And now that it's summer and it's kind of like past that phase, it's so interesting how your neurons, like, as they start firing together, they just can repeat that pattern easier. So I had to be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, like a bikini up my honeymoon is no big deal. Like, we are past this being a big deal. So I'll have to say it's like you think you're fully healed, but not every journey is linear. So that's been, that's been interesting. Yeah, for sure. My never be the one to say no to myself thing is to wear the like cute little flirty summer dresses. Because I've always had a narrative. about my legs that like my legs aren't cute or like even yeah I just I've never like my legs I've never thought my legs looked how their legs are supposed to look and so in the name of like living

my one of my life mottoes which is your bodies for living not looking I'm like I've always wanted to like walk around in one of those little cute flower dresses it is so baffling hearing your friends talk about there never be the one to say no to yourself moments because you're just like what you like I'm baffled that that would be one of your insecurities and I'm very excited for baffled that you had any second thoughts about your second wedding dress. It was like the cutest little flapper look that everybody was just like obsessed with. Thank you. It was a fun. It was a fun one to it is. I mean, I do think like one of the core things we talk about on this podcast is, is there a way you can talk to yourself or try to see yourself the way that your friends see you or talk to you? Absolutely.

And I think it's actually talking about those insecurities that make it easier to be like, oh wait, I'm being a little crazy, being a little hard on myself. And we all do it. And we all do it. Like talking about it shows like, wow, this is like a crazy thing to hear myself. say and look we're all kind of in the same boat which is really nice too so I would challenge everybody listening to have one never be the one to say no to yourself moment and then the other thing that you segued me into is one of my I think you could do this as a weekly or monthly go to the farmer's market and pick out a vegetable or a fruit that you normally wouldn't buy oh that was on my list oh really well I told you I have five things and then I was like I have actually have 10

one of mine was like eat novel but I like the like pick one novel thing yeah just because I feel like when I go to the farmer's market I have like my go two things. I'm going to get like berries. I'm going to get stone fruit. I'm going to get some type of greens. There's whole categories of things that I just gloss over. And I think a really fun summer activity because the farmer's market is so robust this time of year is go pick out something that you maybe don't even know what it is and then go home, look it up online or ask the farmer who's selling them and say, hey, what is this? How would you prepare this? I used to be so scared to talk to farmers until I met chatty farmers. So to anybody who that is there, never be the one

to say no to yourself thing is like, oh, I'm afraid to chat up the farmers at my farmers market. Oh, they love it. Oh, they have so much. I mean, universe, maybe there's some people out there who are like, no, I don't. But like, they also have so much information. Oh, right. And it's nice to be like, what would you do with this? Yeah, 100%. 90% of the time they're going to say just like grill it with a little bit of olive oil and salt. But would you say that's what we can do with 90% of the things we buy the farmers market? A hundred percent. All right. Excellent. What's your next one? Okay, so my next one is kind of aligned with what we've been talking about, is make it all outdoors.

And that is whatever you are doing, can you do it outside? Then you should do it outside. Case in point, Liz and I were just at a spa recently. And she got a sandwich and I was like, oh, do you want to eat this in here? And she was like, no, we're going to eat this outside. If I could, I would live my entire life outside. And then I would just go into a dark underground cave with no windows to sleep at night, like a cold, like a wine cellar. Okay.

Bugs. Not your problem. Don't care. I mean, I live in California. Okay. So in my grilling journey, in my grilling journey, in my grilling in New York City journey, I'm currently, bugs are an issue. Okay.

So that's my only deterrent from outdoors. So my best two tips for bugs are they, I do think that those like mosquito incense, they're in like the bright green package. I forget what the name is of the brand. Those work pretty well. And then also my best, best, best tip for bugs that people do not use enough for like natural keeping bugs away is a fan. Oh.

Like if you're going to sit out and read on a chair, point a fan at your direction, bugs can't land on you. They're like little weak, little lameos. Mosquitoes can't like drive their little bodies to a fan. You got me hooked on the zapper. Like you zap your mosquito bites. Did I? It's really good. Okay. Did you actually buy one? Yeah. I just remember. So I have this thing. It's called, what is it called? Is it just called the zapper? I truly just Googled like bug bite zapper. Okay. So this is another hot tip if you're listening. It is the best thing for bug bites, especially if you get to the bug bite right away. But I remember the first time I did, so you got legitimately mad at me. Yeah, we were new in our friendship. We were building trust.

Because I wasn't expecting it to hurt so bad. Yeah, and I'm like, you're going to love this. Yeah, I know. I had met her for two days. I had known this one for two days and she burns my skid off. But now you're addicted. You love it. I do love it. So it does, it just concentrates heat and it somehow kills some protein they say that like makes it itchy and it's 10 out of 10 summer to say, Ooh, should we do other, do you have like other summer staples that make summer, like, easier, better? I have one off that top of my head, which is the Megababe thigh-shape stick, especially if you're going to wear a little cute dresses. Like, it's just kind of like a deodorant stick. You put on your inner thighs and it keeps them from rubbing together so you can do like your

steps and get outside and enjoy it. Shout out Katie Strinos. Shout out Katie Strinos. Changing lives. No, my only good one is clear SPF because I used to never put on the right amount of SPF until I started getting the glossier clear version. and now like I love how it feels so it's just like all over my face at all times. All right. That's good one. Yeah. Okay. Everything inside, everything that was once inside is now outside.

Is now outside. What are examples of that? So I have a million because I only live outside. Yeah. Well, you're like, whenever I visit, you're like, do you want to do a cirque walk? And I'm like, give me five minutes. No, I truly think meals outside. Why not? Working outside if you can. And wait, meals, including like breakfast. Every meal. Like have your breakfast outside. It feels so decadent. and fun in summary to take like your bowl of cereal, your plate of eggs and just eat it outside. It's just so easy to have your cup of coffee out there. And like when I'm walking my dog, I also now take a cup of coffee with me. And I'm just like, this is the most romantic thing ever. Like romanticize your life. That is. Like romanticize your life moments. Yeah. So eating outside,

love it. I love answering emails outside. I have been looking for redeemable qualities of our phones ever since we have started realizing how bad they are. And the fact that you can do work from them is the one redeemable quality where you can just answer like, those quick emails. I just take my whole dang computer outside. But for me, I have to have a shaded area or else the sun. I have a thing. It's called the sun shield. And you put it around your community. You have so many contraptions. It's called the sunshield. You put it around your computer and it basically shields it so that your screen is in the shade. So you can work in like a park. And then I also have a standing desk that's on a tripod. I will link both of these things in the show notes. They're phenomenal.

So I'll just stand there at my little tripod desk outside with my sun shade up. I know the tripod desk well. Yes. Because in your old house, I was always like, oh, nice. It is nice. Yeah. So do you, I'm like, get your gear and do all your workouts out of kin. That and your workouts. Like, if you're an at-home workout person, it just makes it better.

Your casual Bravo watching. You're reading. You have like, you have, like, you have a ritual. Definitely not you're watching your Bravo. But didn't you have a ritual last summer where you'd, like, go out on your balcony and like read and have like a little fun drinky drink? That was a long time ago. That was right after I finished my cookbook.

So I had, and this is another one of my novelty rules, but I had just turned in my cookbook manuscript the end of July. And it was a summer where I had just worked on the cookbook. And so I had, I told myself, I was like, you have seven good weeks of like summer technically left. And so to make the most of it, I did all these little, didn't note at the time, but I was packing in all these little novelty rule things to make the most of my summer. And one of them was like, when the workday's done, I had a little, cute little balcony. I'd go out with my kombucha or whatever, and I'd read my book. And it was really lovely because it was kind of like cementing the day in a way that I had never cemented it before. Yeah, I love that. And taking advantage of

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right? Yeah, perfect. Go stargazing with hot chocolate. So, like, this is one of my very favorite things to do. And there's a meteor shower called Perseids, and that's from July 17th to August 23rd. It's just showering. And it's, you'll, you're way more likely to see shooting stars. I think it peaks around mid-August for my birthday.

You can look up stargazing spots near me, and it'll be places that are like the most dark sky near you. Make a thermos of hot chocolate and just like go out, bring a blanket, and stargaze. I love that. Yours are like very specific and mine are more like vibes. But I like that having specific things gives you like one really cool thing to do in the summer. And that's my other thing is the days are so long. So you're not really taking advantage of the fact that it's so nice out and you can just chill outside all night if you want to. Yeah.

I mean, especially on the East Coast, I do miss that about East Coast summer, is that it's warm at night. Yeah. Like in California, it gets cold at night pretty much no matter what. But, yeah, it's really magical. It reminds me of Midwest Drive and movie culture. That was a big part of my summers growing up is you'd go to the drive-in and then the stars would all come out. And after the movie was over, you'd just lie in the back of the truck bed and just chill. Oh my God.

That sounds so romantic. It was a mixture of, like, a mixture of, like, kids and teenage chaos. That sounds so fun. I would say I was going to put Drive-in movies on my list. But then I was like, do they exist still? The one in Williamsburg just closed down. I like look up if there's drive-in movies near you and if there are ghost or outdoor movies. Yeah.

And I know in L.A., they do outdoor movies in a number of different places. I know here they do some rooftop ones. But like just Google, is there outdoor or drive-in movies near me? Oh, yeah. And if there is go, because that is such a summer vibe. Such a summer vibe. So fun. And they are usually free at the, in St. Louis where I used to live.

There is a park called Forest Park. It's gigantic. And there's an art museum on the top of a hill. so you have this huge hill and they would put a movie screen down there and it's free and you just sit on the hill. Dreamy. Such a summer bag. That's one of my other ones is Google outdoor concerts near me because I think listening to music

outside, if it is not on your summer bucket list, it needs to be on your summer bucket list. Like find a street performer, find a classical music in the park on like Friday night, go to a proper concert of an artist that you like. Find a way to listen to music outside the summer. Yeah. And it's like a rolling boil. Once you start doing the fun summer activities, then you're like, well, what is my next summer activity. Yeah, 100%.

Yeah. Oof, this goes into my next one. It doesn't have to be like a novelty rule thing, but it's a mindset thing, which you talk about a lot. If you put yourself in the mindset of, oh, I'm a healthy person, you do those healthy things. We actually, you put me into the mindset of being like, oh, I'm the friend who comes up with the novel idea. Or if you just tell yourself, like, I'm the novelty idea person, then the ideas start to just like snowball effect. So my suggestion was be, quote unquote, the enhancer, which is the challenge. Which is the term you gave me, you know? You were like, I'm tired of enhancing everybody else's life and coming up with the outdoor concerts and stuff like that. And so now whenever we hang out, I'm like, okay, what is

something new and different that isn't just dinner that we can do? So like, same thing with finding the outdoor concerts and then you find like the next community activity and the next. It's like just put yourself in the mindset of this summer, I'm going to be the person who comes up with the new and different ideas. I love that, despite sounding very complaining in that recap. No, no. It was years. That was years and years and years. But I love, I do think that it also, a huge, huge benefit of the novelty rule is that it does enhance relationships. A huge motto of mine is that you need interesting inputs to have interesting output. So if your conversations feel stale with your partner, with your friends, you need new inputs. You don't need often new friends and a new partner.

And novel activities gives you new inputs. It gives you a band to talk about while you're out. It gives you a game that you're playing. Maybe you're doing conversation cards while you're at a picnic in the park. Maybe you went to some lecture or you're listening to a podcast together. You need new input. And humans are cool. And so when you are doing things that you're interested in, you're going to meet people who share those interests. And then they are probably doing other interesting things. And then those backpack onto your interests. And then it's like, that's how you build community. A hundred percent. You took me to this outdoor spa on Governor's Island. It's called QC Spa. If you're in New York, 10 out of 10 novelty rule summer activity. But like that day stands out to me

in a way that maybe going out to dinner of another time wouldn't stand out to me because it was novel. It was different. My brain has to wire those circuits together so that I remember it. Yeah, cemented that day. Okay, next one. Buy a copy.

This is also really specific of scary stories to read in the dark. Do you remember that book? It was like black and white and had like a spooky person on the cover. There's like five of them. Oh, my God. They're the scariest stories.

And read it to your friends or your family around the campfire. Like find a campfire somewhere and read these scary stories. They're so scary. We're at Liz Moody. summer camp right now. We're going to outdoor concerts. No, it's so summer. I think you'll remember these from childhood if you went to Girl Scout camp and were

scared forever as a result of these things. There's one where somebody adopts what they think is a chihuahua and it's a rabid rat. Oh, no, I do remember these? Everybody had everybody. Or do you remember the one? This mess me up for my entire life. There's one where like there's a woman driving and the guy behind her keeps like flashing his lights and she's like, oh my God, the guy behind me is really scary. And so she drives to like a police station or something. I don't know what she drives to, but it turns out there's a guy in the backseat of her car who keeps, like, rearing up to kill her with a knife, and the guy flashing his lights is the only thing that makes him, like, not do it.

So she's afraid of the wrong thing. So I'm always like, is there something in the back of my car with a knife trying to kill me? He's, like, an escaped prisoner or something. Can we do this before you leave? I leave on Wednesday. But it's really fun. I really recommend it if you add in marshmals, which also leads me to my next one, which was pick a kind of weird recipe.

This is one for kids specifically. Okay, okay. And make it with kids, but tell them that they have to figure out what they're making. Ooh. So, like, I did this with marshmallows when I was a kid. It was a part of a family fun magazine challenge. Oh, like, you didn't know what you was like. Yeah, it was like, here, use these ingredients, follow this and like figure out what this recipe is.

And it was so delightful. And marshmallows is a particularly good one to do it with because I think a lot of people are not aware you can make marshmallows. Yeah. And you feel like a magician. And it's a really like fun mystery. activity to do. Yeah, especially because like you put the gelatin in, you whip it. Yeah, you're like, what is going on? Then you can make s'mores. And then you can make smores. So then you bring those to the campfire, you roast those marshmallows. You can put in some like orange zest or like seasoning

and make them interesting flavors. I was hoping we could novelty up the smores. Okay. I came prepared. Okay. So to novelty up your smores. So instead of a marshmallow, hear me out, a date, take the pit out of the date, put it on the stick the same way you with the marshmallow. Toast the date. You can't burn it like a marshmallow. But people who are burning marshmallows are crazy. Wait, does it just get like warm and gooey? It gets warm. really warm and gooey. Also, we'll come back to the marshmallow comment because I fully disagree. You burn your marshmallow? I burn them hardcore. And then I peel off the top layer, eat it, and then I burn it again. And then I peel off the layer and I eat it and I burn it again. We have been

over this. Yeah, sorry. Carry on. Oh, that's so weird. Okay. So the date gets all gooey and perfectly toasted through as it should if you're properly browning a marshmallow and getting it melted all the way through. Anyway, date all gooey, you peel it off. You put a little bit of coconut butter in the middle of it. Very different than coconut oil. Coconut butter is like... Vibur. It has fiber in it. Yeah, and it's really sweet and really delicious. And so coconut butter and dark chocolate and gets all melty, you put the date in between graham crackers. Amazing. Interesting. Not a smore, but just as like sweet and delicious and like you get everything you want from a smore. Put a marshmallow in there. Properly toasted. I don't care. Okay. It's my first novelty rule for your smores. My second one, rhubarb jam. So good. I had it in Alaska because Alaskans are very, very proud of their rhubarb. It's like a big thing up there. So they had a ton of rhubarb jamb. So they had a ton of rhubarb jamb. So they had a ton of rhubarb. jam and so we're making smores and they were like dark chocolate, rhubarb jam, marshmallow. Amazing smore. Very on your orange zest vibe.

No, I will say a big rule I have for smores is like there are no rules and it's really weird that we're just kind of like Hershey milk chocolate, plain marshmallow graham crackers. I'm like, throw saltines in there. Throw an Oreo in there. Like any potato chips. Potato chips. Like anything that's like hard and crunchy can be the outside. Anything that's gooey to your date point can be the inside. And then any type of chocolatey melty, like get some of the fun flavored ones. Like put that in the middle. Reese's guy, Reese's thin. Oh, so good. That sounds so good. Do you have more? Do I have more? Of course I have more, Liz. My next one, shop novel. So it's so easy to go to like the same stores we always go

to, grocery stores, whatever, but small stores need our support always now, forever. I really felt this when I was promoting my book. Like the indie bookstores have such a community to them. And also, like, it's so easy to just be like, oh, I need this and like quickly order it online or get it from the target that you always go to. But if you're like, okay, is there a mom and pop store that I I can get this from. Is there a local bookstore that I can go to? That's where you find out about the fun summer events and like the places that are having outdoor concerts. That's where you get to know like the people in your community who are really trying to build something. I just love like shopping at new places. This goes to food and restaurants too, to like food trucks,

shop novel. What I love about that is it goes with your tourist thing too. It's like take the things that normally feel like a burden and make them fun. And what's like a little twist you can do to make them enjoyable so that we are actually enjoying all these moments that we otherwise wouldn't be. Okay, you have two more, right? Yes. Okay. Do you want to do those two? And then I'll go through. I've like a few more specific ones. Yeah, I like that yours are specific and mine are like very macro. I feel like they match vibes somehow. I don't know why. I'm a big picture personally. Okay, so my second to last one is novel your genres. And this is something that I did recently and I really like it. But it's kind of like step out of your comfort zone of what you think you

normally like with TV shows, books, not podcasts, because this is the only podcast you need. But I usually always tell myself, I'm like, oh, I don't like these small, quippy comedy television shows. So what was the show you really liked? It was the one with Kristen Bell. The Good Place? No. Oh, nobody wants this? Nobody wants this. Everybody loved it. And I was like, oh, it's not for me. It's not for me. And so now when the four seasons came out with Tina Faye, I was like, oh, it's just nothing enough for me. I like, I like Game of Thrones. I like big dramas. So like the four seasons, I was like, oh, it's not for me. It's not for me. And I was like, okay, this year I'm going to, this summer, novel up with my genres, watched it, loved it. But I also think it applies to books. Like I also never thought I was a fantasy person until my husband was like, let's read this book together. It'll be super romantic reading a book together. Like going up to our wedding, like as a thing to connect us. Wait, which one? Six of Crows.

Okay. It's really good fantasy novel. It's like a heist. I also love the idea of reading a book with your partner. Zach and I've done that a few times. And I think it is so fun. and talk about like interesting inputs. It gives you something interesting to talk about all the time. All the time. And if we're going into like a summer activity, having your vacation book together is so nice. Oh my God. It's so romantic. Very romantic. But that was stepping way outside of the genres that I normally read and I loved it. And I think it was something that was just not necessarily a specific novelty thing, but it cemented a different moment in my mind. It was like, oh, this was like that time period in my life where I was reading this thing that I never normally would read. I love that, and it's a perfect weekly novelty rule example because weekly novelty rules are just meant to be these little tiny shifts that we make that make the time more memorable. So I love the idea that you're going to sit down and watch a show anyway, pick something that you wouldn't normally watch. Yeah, and just give it a chance. Yeah, I love it. What was your last one? My last one is make an imperfect novelty list. And this goes in with like a story. So we talked briefly about when I had just turned in my cookbook manuscript. And I was like, I wasted the entire summer. So I told Eric, my husband, I said, let's make a summer checklist of all the things I want to do this summer to feel like I actually got to have a summer. And what I didn't realize at the time was it was a novelty rule list. I was like, I want to go to this outdoor concert. I want to go to Coney Island for the

first time. Check, we're good. And it was all these things that I wanted to do. And I was like, there's no way we're going to be able to do them all. But it was nice to have like this checklist that you just put on your fridge, kind of like reverse manifestation. You don't have to think about it all the time, but it's there to check off all the novelty things we discuss, like going to the campfire, reading those terrifying stories, finding all these outdoor places, doing everything outdoors. It's just nice to have that reminder in the back of your head of, oh, this is what I'm doing to cement these moments in my summer. And it doesn't have to be perfect because I think perfection in being like, I need to do all these things. I need to get my

novelty rule checked off every week. Gets us in the way of the whole point, which is just to make life longer, happier, like feel more meaningful. Yeah. I love that. That leads me to one of mine, which is to kind of do nothing, too, because I do think we put a lot of pressure on summer. And so the one I wrote specifically for a way to do nothing that I really like is just go to the park with a basket of berries and your book and just have no time limits or restrictions on it. Like you can just hang out in the park for as long as you want. I do think that the pressure of summer can feel like a lot too. I do think it's the best season. I love it so much. And I do think it's important to make the most of our time on this planet.

but part of making the most of our time on this planet is to treat ourselves with gentle care and to give ourselves the rest that we deserve. Yeah, there's beauty and stillness, but I feel like our minds don't let us have stillness. Yeah. And I think setting... We're in this like productivity-obsessed culture.

So we want to even be productive with our play. We want to be productive with our rest. And I think anything you can do to turn off that like, I have to play in the best way. I have to have the most fun this weekend. I have to rest in the best possible rest way that I can rest. Like anything you can do to turn that off is really, really helpful.

Yeah, I like that. setting aside time for nothing. For park reading, for nothing, whatever nothing looks like to you. Okay, quick ones I had on my list. Look up an e-bike rental near you and ask them what a good trail is and then ride on it. Oh, love. E-bikes, the best thing in the world. Like, why do people ride normal bikes anymore?

I'm just like, this is like a magic bike that you don't have to do any work and you just get to go places. What else do I have? Ice cream taste test. You could also do the popsicles. Get every brand of a certain flavor of ice cream and then do a blind taste test to find out like the best one of that flavor. That's good. Like vanilla.

We did that with vanilla when I was a kid. That's a really fun one to do with kids. And also keep track and send me the results. I'm so curious. I'm out of them, but I'll leave people on this note, which is we should make time to do nothing. We don't need to rest perfectly. And we think we have so many more summers left than we actually do. If you actually do the math on the amount of summers you have left in your life or the amount of summers that you have left with your loved ones or the amount of summers that you have left with your parents or with your kids before they leave the house or with your pets,

It is so many fewer than we think. And I think having that general awareness of like this time is precious and it is limited and I should do what I can to really be present for it is really important. Yeah. I think it's nice to go into things with intentionality. I think that's what's nice about the novelty rule is you can release a lot of pressure for things, but no, you're still being really intentional with your time. If people want to find more from you, where should they do so? They can find me at justine snacks.com and at justine underscore. snacks on truly every platform. I've claimed the name. We love that. And what's your best summer recipe

in your cookbook and on your website? Oh, easy. So in my cookbook, there's a grilled swordfish that has a blistered corn salsa. You can do it on the grill with no kitchen, which I will be doing. You can do it inside in the air conditioning. It's amazing. On my blog, let's go for the berry cobbler. delicious, perfect for all of your summer get-togethers. It's like just prep it all in one bowl, throw it in a baking sheet, bake it. It's delicious. It's delicious. It tastes like summer. Thank you, Justine.

Thank you. That is unfortunately all for this episode of the Liz Moody podcast. I hope it inspired you to Carpe some DM this summer. If you could do me a favor and just take one second and copy paste the link to this episode and send it to somebody that you think would love it, I would so appreciate it. It is the best way to support the podcast. And then you can have somebody who gets the novelty rule that you can do all of these fun activities with.

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The Takeaway at Liz Moody.com. And follow me on Instagram. I am at Liz Moody. I will be sharing all of my novelty rule summer plans and inspiration. And yeah, we can have fun together. You can share yours with me too. I would love, love, love to hear what you guys are doing. Okay, I love you. I cannot wait for all of us to have an amazing summer, and I will see you on the next episode of the Liz Moody podcast. Oh, just one more thing. It's the legal language. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, a psychotherapist, or any other qualified professional. The mattress that you sleep on is one of the highest exposures that you have. Like, if it's off gassing, you're breathing that

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