WHOOP Podcast - Women’s Health Editor-in-Chief Liz Plosser discusses trends in women’s fitness, the importance of sleep, and balancing work and family.

Episode Date: March 4, 2020

This month, WHOOP is honoring the extraordinary achievements of women across all backgrounds, lifestyles, sports, and professions. Liz Plosser, the Editor-in-Chief of Women’s Health, joins Will Ahmed to talk about her goal to help women lead better lives and how she balances her busy career with raising three young children. Liz addresses her mission at Women's Health (2:13), expanding coverage of mental health issues (3:57), her own fitness goals (9:21), why women should lift more weights (11:18), finding time to workout even when you're busy (14:09), the importance of sleep (16:21), optimizing your commute (23:45), the best ways to lead a team (25:09), staying fit while pregnant (27:57), why postpartum can be a challenge for many moms (31:32), and curating the clutter in the wellness world (34:34). Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

What's up, folks. Welcome to the Whoop podcast. I'm your host Will Ahmed, the founder and CEO of Whoop. And we are on a mission to unlock human performance. This is a podcast we've been doing now for about 60 episodes. I interview a lot of really interesting thought leaders around performance, around sports, around business, and really just try to understand what makes them tick. This all ties to our work here at Whoop, which is to build technology, better understand your body to improve performance. March is upon us and it's women's month. So here at Woop, we are kicking off a month-long celebration. We honor the extraordinary achievements of women across all backgrounds, lifestyle, sports, and professions. Whether competing

for a world title, raising a family, starting a business, or all the above, the women of Woop are commonly characterized by defining their goals and chasing after them relentlessly. And today's guest is a very special one, Liz Plosser, the editor-in-chief of women's health. Liz is a power player in the media industry and is a marathoner triathlete and an Ivy League grad. On top of it all, she's raising three young kids and balancing her family life with her busy professional life. Like so many others on Whoop, one of Liz's keys to success is getting a good night's sleep.

Liz is an expert on all things health given her role in the people that she works with, and we dive into topics specific to women's health and the female body. I think there's a lot here for everyone. I think you're going to enjoy this conversation. And without further ado, here's Liz. Liz, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me, Will. So we're recording this in Manhattan in your office.

You are, of course, the editor-in-chief of women's health. Was it obvious to you that you're going to end up doing that one day? Well, it was my dream job actually, but no, it was not obvious that I would actually have it. A zigzaggy path to get here, but it truly is the best job in the world. What do you like so much about it? Gosh, we have the amazing opportunity to reach millions and millions of women every single month and help them make positive, healthy choices in their life. That's a huge honor and such a powerful thing that we do.

And it's just really fun. I love my team. We get to do a lot of fun stuff all day. How big is your team? The core group of us, there's about 20, about 20 editors and designers. And describe exactly what that's spanning for people who are maybe less familiar with women's health? Sure. So it's a full force brand.

We have all sorts of different platforms. Many people are familiar with our print magazine, which comes out 10 times a year. And we also have a website. Which is on newsstands. everywhere just to be very clear newsstands everywhere yes um we have a website women's health mag dot com and then of course we have social channels we have an instagram handle we have facebook groups all the good stuff and this is spanning everything from fitness health diet you name it right that's right we um we believe health is really holistic so our main content pillars

really ladder up to that idea um and i would say those include fitness health mental health is really important, nutrition, and then a section or topic area we called love and life, which is sort of like your relationships, your work, all the extras that are really important too. Now, you've been at women's health since what year? I started in January of 2018. It's just over two years now. And how would you say women's health has evolved since you've been there?

Well, I mean, there's a lot of ways that I feel I've influenced the brand and that the team has evolved the brand right along with me. One big one I think is adding even more mental health content to the brand. That's always been in our DNA, but we made it a regularly occurring section every month in the magazine, and we really amped up our content on our digital channels as well. We just saw that it was resonating so much with our readers, which really makes sense. It's a stressful anxiety-prone time to be walking through our world, so we're here to help women whether it's from helping them sleep better and stress out,

de-stress to the more serious gravitas things like battling depression and things like that. What have been some interesting pieces of content that you've found in evaluating mental health? One that I'm very proud of is actually a partnership with our sibling brand, Men's Health. That's another way the brands have evolved. Actually, we've been working more and more regularly together. But on the one-year anniversary of when the Me Too movement really sort of came to be, men's health and women's health co-produced content that ran in each of our publications based on original exclusive research that we did together, where we polled men and women about what the health and mental health ramifications of the Me Too era were for them, how they were feeling a year later, now that people were talking more openly, et cetera, et cetera. So that was really fascinating to see how men and women responded differently. And of course, we customized the content to really resonate with our different audiences.

Now, how did men and women respond differently? I think what was interesting was how men sort of felt more sensitive or a little bit more like on eggshells in the post Me Too months. You know, like things that they might have not considered to be things that were more part of regular day-to-day work life. they were suddenly questioning, and that has positive and negative implications, of course. I think for women, we were surprised by how deeply this affected them and just how intense, I guess, you could say the repercussions have been. So if you think about that from a strategy standpoint in terms of delivering content that your readers are going to care a lot about, is that an opportunity to interview more

people around mental health, interview more women who have been affected by the Me Too? movement like how do you think about that as a leader yeah definitely when we find a story or a topic like that that really resonates with our audience we don't want it to be a one and done type of thing we like to continue beating that drum and exploring it from new angles so I know that was really important to Rich the editor of men's health as well as us at women's health just constantly taking the temperature on you know how our audiences are thinking and feeling about this now But before women's health, you were at Cosmopolitan and you're also at Welling Good. Yes.

What are the readers like of these different organizations you've been a part of? I would describe the women's health reader as a woman who we don't have to drag off the couch or convince that her health and well-being are a good thing. So some level of motivation. There's already the motivation there. She's just looking for ideas and tips to make it happen. So having said that, there's, I would say, a whole spectrum of readers from kind of what we call the wellness curious who are just starting to dabble in this and get interested to folks who are really more advanced and they already know about macro and, you know, counting their macros and the importance of sleep and, you know, every type of lunge you can do at the gym. So I think our challenge and opportunity is to meet them wherever they are.

and to make sure that there's content that will help readers wherever they fall along that spectrum. And for you personally, what are some of the topics that you're spending the most time on? Right. What's really thematic in your life, do you feel? In Liz's personal life? Yeah, in Liz's life. I'm a constant work in progress.

I'll put that out there. But you strike me as someone who's very healthy. Like, I bet you've got some healthy lifestyles. I've seen you doing your workouts with Heb on Instagram. Yes, I do love, I do love working out and exercise. It makes me really happy. I'll be honest, there are plenty of mornings. I don't feel like doing it just like every other human being.

But I know I'm always going to feel better, stronger, more confident, clearer in my mind when I do it. And you try to exercise every day? I try to exercise every day. Even, I mean, you know, probably five to six days of more intense workouts and then one just like move my body in some way, like a while. walk or something. What do those workouts look like? So I have two big goals that I'm chasing right now. One is I will be running a half marathon in early April. Exciting. Have you run a half marathon before? I've run too many to count. Oh, okay. So this is all in your lane. It's in my lane, yes. But it's been a really long time since I tried to run one fast. So that's what's different this time. That'll be fun. Yeah. So for the first time,

in quite a while, I'm integrating speed workouts into my training run. and sort of pushing myself to go fast, which is actually kind of a scary thing to do, especially when you haven't done it in a while. So that's a big goal for me right now. And then simultaneously, I am trying to execute 10 full push-up, sorry, 10 full pull-ups right now. Oh, there you go. Yes. So, yeah, it's something I've actually wanted to do since I was a kid.

And here I am in, you know, adulthood, and I'm finally trying to make it happen. I am currently at 5.75, almost at 6. Pull-ups. Pull-ups, yeah. Nice. So that's my goal in 2020 to get to 10. Pull-ups became a bit of an obsession for me over the last 10 years because I realized that I was a 20-year-old athlete who considered himself very fit,

who could barely do one pull-up. Yeah, exactly. And so over the last 10 years, I've gotten, like, really into pull-ups. How many can you do? That's a good question. I bet if I were to just go straight. and we're talking about like shoulder widths apart I bet it's somewhere between 17 and 20 it's pretty good yeah now I've also gotten into seeing how much I can do with weight around my body

oh wow which is another interesting I have I have a bet with my trainer that I'll be able to do one pull up with 100 pounds around my weight weight so we'll see if we can we'll see if we can pull that off yeah the interesting thing about the pull up is you don't necessarily get better at them by just trying to crank out as many as possible it's about breaking down the move and learning each element of it and it's kind of like a great life lesson in many ways. There's also something about doing them that's a lot more frightening, I feel, than any other workout because it feels like you're going to fall if you don't finish it. Yes.

Like, you know, for some reason doing a squat or something, like there's less of an ego when I get up there and I decide like, okay, I'm going to do four reps instead of five. Right. Whereas it's something like if you set out to do 10 when you get up there and you're at like the ninth one. And you're like, shaking, trying to make it happen. Yeah. So I think that's a great goal. One, it seems like theme right now for women is lifting weights and getting stronger. How have you noticed that evolved even over just the last five years? I completely agree with you. And this is something we talk about a lot at women's health and something I share with my friends

who are getting more and more interested in fitness or looking to change their bodies. I think weightlifting is the fastest way to do that and not just from an aesthetic point of view but it just makes you sort of move through life in a better way but I do think years ago like running and cardio was all the rage and I think there was almost an addiction amongst exercisers that if you didn't get your heart racing and feel that you know feel breathless that it wasn't a workout and truth be told as a marathoner it took me a long time to wean myself off of those personal feelings totally um but there's something that clicks once you start to lift weights and especially when you start adding weight and going heavier and heavier and i think and one of our

missions is to show women that um you can be like lean strong sculpted feminine and lift really freaking heavy weights and in fact that's one of the best ways to get your best you know a body that you're like really proud of so um yeah it's exciting that more and more women are into weight lifting and power lifting and crossfit um it's really taken off now do you feel like this is a trend that's here to stay or in you know another few years is there going to be sort of a backlash to everyone all the women lifting weights and now deciding oh it has to be more yoga has to be more Pilates has to be more cardio. I think it's here to stay.

Having said that, I do think it's like there are always going to be trends and spikes and valleys, right? Yeah. There's always some new thing that comes along and is hot for a little bit. But I think weightlifting is like that constant foundation that it's going to stick around. I hope so. Well, I had a guest on this podcast who said that men should,

train more like women and women should train more like men. Interesting. And I thought that was a fairly, you know, insightful thing to say because it does seem true where you see these men who are strong, but they can barely touch their toes. Right. And then on the flip side, you know, you see women who are, you know, seem seemingly pretty lean, but to your point, maybe can't do one pull up. Right. Right. And it's, at the end of the day, I do think you are trying to strive towards some form of balance. Totally agree. In your fitness regimen. Yes. What are some other things that women should think about in their fitness regimen? I think one big thing that I would like to put out there is that every little bit counts.

You get a high five, even if it's just a few minutes of movement. That's such a good point. I think there's this mindset that unless it was 30 minutes, it didn't count. Or, oh, I only have 15 minutes today. It's not even worth doing it. The truth is, it matters. You feel so much better for even that little short burst of activity. and it all adds up.

So I think that's a big myth I would like to dispel is that you have to exercise for a certain number of minutes to like check the box and say that it happened. That's amazing feedback. And actually I interviewed someone, Don Saladino on this podcast. I love Don, yeah, he's a friend. And this was, I don't know, maybe six months ago.

And he was talking about how sometimes you only need 15 or 30 minutes to get, you know, do something great for your body. And I was realizing that personally, because I travel a lot, I'm sure you travel a lot. You know, you get on these cycles where you're a little bit jet lagged, you're staying in a hotel, does it have a good gym anyway? And you kind of just talk to yourself out of not doing a hard workout because, you know, it's like you want to dedicate an hour to it or 90 minutes to it. You don't think you're going to have the facility to do it.

But that lens really changed my point of view on it in that I'll go into, you know, I'll go into the gym for 20 minutes, like a little small hotel gym and just lift something heavy or jump around a little bit. it does make, I think, a meaningful difference in the way that you feel. I completely agree. I have my go-to 10-minute workout, which I'm glad you mentioned the hotel and the travel, because a lot of times you don't have equipment, there might not even be a dark little dusty gym hotel. Totally. Hotel gym.

But my go-to 10-minute workout is alternating push-ups for one minute and jump squats for one minute, no rest in between. And you just go for 10 minutes straight? I do go for 10 minutes straight. Wow, you must be good at push-ups. Well, I will admit at some point I go to my knees because form is more important than how many you do. Good feedback. But, I mean, that's a killer workout and you feel like a new person after you do it.

So 10 minutes, it's all it takes. Great piece of feedback is to get a workout in, even if it's 15 minutes, even if it's 20 minutes. What are some other pieces of feedback for women out there that you think are critical? I mean, I know you're going to high-five me on this one, but I feel like sleep is so important. and it's definitely something that I talk about a lot. I think it's a wonderful thing that the perception of not sleeping as this badge of honor is really changing

that people used to brag about how they could get by on three hours or they pulled in all night or last night, or I only need six hours to function at my best. And I think more and more research is coming out and tools like whoop or proving, that no, sleep is incredibly important. And actually what we should all be bragging about is if we got enough last night. And so, you know, I have a really busy life. I have a crazy job and I've got three

little kids at home and I like to get up really early in the morning. But I still figure it out. And I think when you do that, it just makes you better at every single facet of your life. You're a better mom. You're a better friend, you're a better colleague, everything. So that's a big one. We talk about a lot in women's health too. What are some of your personal sleep hacks? I joke that I have a superpower that I can just shut it down when I'm... Fall asleep immediately. Yeah, exactly. And I think my little son, Charlie, who's eight, has inherited that. He was at his first slumber party a couple months ago with a bunch of third grade boys play date well it was a sleepover sleep over yeah so that's a that's actually another level another level that was first one and I went to pick him up in the morning and I was

talking to the mom like hey how did it go and sort of nervous like Charlie's going to be a zombie because I'm sure they stayed up all night and they did stay up up all night except for Charlie who at nine o'clock pulled the plug and told his friends hey guys have fun I'm going to bed and he went and put himself to sleep in his sleeping bag, which he does at home, too. He just, like, he'll shut it down. What a well-behaved young man. He is such a, he is wise beyond his years.

But I think that really is a superpower to know when you've reached your limit and that sleep is important and to just be able to hit the pillow and follow up. Do you take any sleep supplements? I take magnesium for muscle recovery. Yeah. But that's it. I try not to drink. I love coffee, but I try.

try to stop drinking it at about 11 in the morning. That's great. I have lots before 11. So you'll go hard up to 11. I go real hard until 11. Okay. And then I have a whole routine at night. I really like to take a hot shower before I go to bed.

Nice. I feel like it resets my body temperature. I like to wash my face and use my favorite products and just sort of get in that mindset. Sort of a spa-like feel. It is a spot-like feel. And this might sound crazy, but while I'm, doing that, I have this vision of myself sort of like washing the day away, washing the bad energy, the good energy, like, just sort of like resetting to Liz and sort of letting everything

else roll off me. Yeah, when I, when my kids were babies and I would bathe them, I would say, we're washing the day away. So I think there's something to that. I like that. It kind of freeze your brain power. And will you stay away from your cell phone or will you take a Unfortunately, no. I'm on my cell phone because I, yeah, I'm, as the leader of this brand, yeah, I'm, well, some of it I could do less of, like Instagram, but yes, it's, it's my way of unwinding. So then you're in bed and you're out, just like that. Yeah. What time do you wake up?

I wake up at 517. Why 17? 7 is my lucky number. And it's a little weird. Now, will you get to. always got a seven in my wake-up time will you get a little weird with it like if you see the clock is 515 will you not get out of bed no I'll get up I'll get up but um so it's just an alarm clock thing it's an alarm clock thing and I set a second alarm just in case and it's also on a seven

27 yeah okay yeah okay so then you get out of bed what's what are some of the things you do in the morning what's your morning routine immediately go to the coffee pot and start consuming coffee okay um it's what kind of coffee do you drink my husband buys the beans from i don't know where i mean we we buy like costco size bags of beans and grind our own yeah i feel like you know what you're doing with coffee it's based on this go hard but 211 we've we keep taking it up a notch now we have i mean matt i love you this is so matt that's my husband he just bought a kitchen scale for us oh so you can put the filter you know and it's little container on the scale and then net it out so it's zero and then we measure out exactly 70 grams

of the yeah so it's a pretty scientific it's pretty scientific and that that is that is a good pot of okay so you get up you've got you've got the coffee machine now going hopefully I have set out my workout clothes the night before so coffee then immediately into workout clothes yeah exactly as I'm sipping my coffee I'm putting on my workout stuff and I always have a plan the night before I don't leave it to like while I'm sipping my coffee to figure out what my workout's going to be. I actually tend to plan them like on a Sunday. I figure out what my week is going to look like. So I'll know X and Y days I'm meeting my friend Brooke to go for a six-mile run.

This day I'm going to go to the gym and do pull-up drills. This day I'm going to try to get to a yoga class and here's the one I'm going to sign up for. So that sort of thing. And by the way, there's a lot of strategy to knowing that the night before. I mean, a lot of executives I've met will even talk about. putting their clothes out the night before because it's just like one less decision you have to make and it fast tracks your day completely agree um oh you mean like work clothes not just workout clothes yeah literally like what outfit am i going to wear today i should do more and it's even why

famously people like uh steve jobs and others have had the same exact uniform yes because you then aren't draining your brain power flipping through your closet right which whatever you may disagree with that as a concept but the I think the the overall idea that if you know what you're doing first thing in the morning it gets your day going faster how you start your day is how you live your day right yeah agree okay so you do your workout then you come home then I come home my workout is done by seven because that's when my kids get up though actually Charlie is usually up because like me he's gone to bed very early and I start getting the other kids out of bed my husband doesn't work out in the morning so he's starting to get up around then you know just so

I can have family time I want to be present for them so I want the sweat to be done by them and then so you're straight off to work will you do any kind of mindfulness anything like that this is no I need to I you're already too zen um no I'm not already too zen um I mean I joke that my workout is my moving meditation and i mean in a lot of ways it is yeah it's my me time um you know i will say as much as i aspire to have like a true meditation practice there one way that i make it work in my life is on my commute into manhattan i live in brooklyn great um it's about 45 minutes on the train and i use music to set my intention for the day so if i want to get my energy up like i did for this podcast. I might listen to some J-Lo like I did this morning. Nice. And if I'm really feeling

like hyper extra adrenalineized and I want to like even out and calm down a little bit, I might choose something slower and softer. So it is in a way it's a meditation what I'm listening to and thinking about while I'm while I'm making my way in. Do you find yourself visualizing things for the day? What are you trying to do while you're listening to the music? Such a good question. I never thought about that. I do. I'm going through my day. I'll take a glance at my calendar and kind of think about what are the big meetings. Oh, we're creating our April cover right now. What kind of cover lines do I want to make sure are on there? Are there words that are kind of sifting to the surface for me? So yes, I do visualize my day. I never thought about it like that. And how specific

Are you, okay, let's go to that for a second, the process of picking the April cover, right? Are you someone who is agonizing over every word, looking in great detail at the design? Are you someone who's kind of delegating a lot of that and taking a big step back? I mean, I care very much about every word, and I do read every word, but one of the biggest lessons I learned from a manager or leader who I admire, Joanna Coles, who was a big influence in my life. She was the editor-in-chief of Cosmo while I was there. Awesome. Was to hire awesome people and then empower them to be awesome at their jobs.

It's great advice for any leader. I try really to stick to that and to not tinker with something unless it really catches you off guard. Yeah, like passionately that I want to do something to it. I've gotten better and better at that. And I find, and I know I felt this way when I was, when I had managers like her, I felt so much more empowered as a human and as a team member that my contribution was respected and my expertise was first and foremost on her mind.

So I try to pay that forward to my team. And I honestly think it makes our brand so much better. I think about that all the time. Like you want to hire great people for them to tell you what to do. Exactly. Right. Exactly. What's been an example where, and maybe there isn't one,

but where you put a story out or you put a cover out and there was some backlash afterwards. I'm going to be honest. I feel very lucky. We haven't had that. But another great mentor and leader in my life, Cindy Levy, who was the editor-in-chief of Glamour. I never worked for her, but she's been a big influence on me and we know each other. She once told, I asked that exact question, like, I'm terrified that I'm going to miss something and that the brand is going to be taken to task for it. And I don't want that on my team.

I don't want that on the brand. Like, I live in fear of that. And she was like, it's not if it's going to happen. It's when it's going to happen. So just like once you resign yourself to that, you feel this like freedom to move forward because if you're doing everything from a place of fear, I really think it dilutes the power of your product. Now, having said that, of course it's important to be really sensitive.

and think through things and I mean that's why you have amazing people around you and you have a diverse set of team members who are coming at it from different perspectives and mind spaces and hopefully between all of those very smart humans you catch the important things so I don't want the win to happen but it probably will and until that I mean we'll be doing the very best we can to avoid that sort of situation well it sounds like you've done a terrific job managing it and you've got great people around you so definitely uh no surprise that you haven't had uh haven't had that issue come up yet what are some things that people should know about being pregnant and that process for their bodies so i think i'll just put the disclaimer out there

that i would recommend women talk to their doctors about how they're feeling and before they you know decide to embark or continue a fitness plan but i at women's health we're huge proponents of staying active throughout your pregnancy. There's a lot of awesome science that suggests that you're, the fitter you are by the time you get to giving birth, the faster it goes, the fewer birth complications, there are the quicker you recover from it. So for all of those reasons, and just because it feels good to feel like yourself during your pregnancy, we are like very pro staying as active as you feel comfortable and is safe

for you and for the pregnancy. But yeah, I mean, it's like a science experiment is happening in your body. Your hormones are surging. There's a hormone called relaxin that makes you more flexible, which is kind of cool and kind of creepy because you're suddenly more prone to like ankle sprains. Oh, interesting. It's a big reason why there are certain exercises that doctors might tell you to be more cautious with. That's fascinating. I didn't know that.

Yeah. How about just from a diet standpoint? From a diet standpoint, I mean, all bets are kind of off. in the first trimester, a lot of women feel a little bit nauseous from all the changes that are happening. And so for most of, I would say, that first 12 to 13 weeks, it's about just getting calories in you and eating what feels good and that you can keep down in many cases. It's such a cool thing that's happening because you're feeling not only yourself, but you're literally growing a little human. So I found in my own pregnancies, I have twins and a four-year-old, so I've been pregnant twice,

that as already a health conscious, nutrient conscious person, I became even more aware of it, just knowing that there were other living beings who were growing and thriving based on what I was putting in my body. So in some ways, I mean, yes, I had a lot of milkshakes more than I would in my normal life. But I also, I was really thinking about my daily protein intake and all the good vitamins and antioxidants, all the good stuff I could get in me. I was. Were you hungrier with twins? I was I was so interesting question I couldn't help but think about it yeah I was quite hungry and I did I had a lot of milkshakes interestingly and I'm I'm not a vegan I do eat meat um usually only in the evening I don't tend to eat it for at breakfast or lunch um but I had a visceral reaction to to meet during my first pregnancy with twins and I couldn't eat it until about 20 weeks so that was super unusual for me because I'm Kansas City girl, I grew up on barbecue, I love a cheeseburger, and I like, actually the night that I realized I had this aversion was, um, as my husband was cooking like a 10 pound brisket in our kitchen, which he was so psyched when I was like, I think I'm going to be sick. You're going to be eating that brisket by yourself for the next 10 weeks or whatever. Um, because there was so much. Yeah, right. That's a lot of brisbee. But it just suddenly the aroma of it, I couldn't. So. And I guess you just file that under, like, like,

listen to your body, right? Like there's no real scientific explanation for that. Yeah, if there is, I'd love to hear it. Okay. And then let's talk about after pregnancy, postpartum. So again, consult your doctor. There's, there's a lot of outdated rules about when you can be cleared to exercise. Many women don't have their first doctor's appointment until six weeks postpartum, which more and more research is coming out and saying for all sorts of reasons, but especially for your mental health, it would actually be better to check in with your doctor sooner.

It's a funny thing that happens. It's a long time, but it's like when you're pregnant, everything's focused on you, down to like random strangers on the street who touch your stomach. Like you are in the spotlight. And then the moment you give birth,

no one cares about you. It is all eyes on that baby. Look at the baby. Look at the baby. And the woman who's just given birth, that's like a traumatic epic experience they've gone through. Their body needs to heal. The fluctuations in hormones are incredibly powerful. They are not sleeping.

They're breastfeeding. So there's potentially, you know, that's like 500 calories. They're burning a day right there. I mean, there's, it is an intense, intense time. And no one really checks on mom. so we've written about this a lot in women's health and we definitely recommend that you see your doctor sooner rather than later and if you are feeling a little bit more blue than just the typical ugh I'm really tired that those can be early signals that you might be suffering

from postpartum depression the sooner you catch that and can get help the better um but again I do think physical activity is hugely helpful in counteracting that um so that might just mean getting outside, getting fresh air and walking around the block in the beginning and then sort of slowly working your way back up to whatever form of exercise and intensity level you were doing before you got pregnant. Well, really good advice. And I actually read the postpartum piece that you guys put out before this. Really? Yeah. So for anyone listening to this, that was good content and I learned a lot. What do you feel like is something that is being undercover, you know, in and around wellness. Or on the flip side, you can start with something that you feel is being overcovered.

People are talking about this way too much. I've been in the health and wellness space for almost my entire career. And my first job in publishing was as a editorial assistant at Self magazine back when there was a print version of it in the fitness department. And I think about how I sourced and sleuthed down stories back then to where we are today. And it's like back then I had to go hunting now our job as editors is curating through all of the stuff like the wellness industry has just exploded you know this this is like yeah trillion dollar industry at this point that might not be the exact number but it's in definitely in the billions estimates we vary yeah depending on me you ask um let's say trillion since we're both in okay deal and so I think our job at women's

health where we are so committed to being science-backed and expert-based is to put experts and research studies up against some of the health claims and trends that are out there. So I'll give an example I like because I actually have some on my desk. Crystals, for example. They've completely taken off. It's like a whole wellness industry, whether they're being infused into beauty products or carrying them around convey gives you by the transitive properties you know strength or energy or whatever it is and yet there's really not science so explain just for a second in great detail what exactly like what kind of crystals are we talking about we're talking about things like quartz or opals or not like yeah and and and uh and you've got a bunch on your desk

and you're not feeling like a spiritual energy coming no i'm actually sorry i was going somewhere with this which is as an editor with um a passion for science i know that there's no scientific reason why these crystals on my desk make me feel good or why why I want to like pick one up and pet it before I have an important meeting. And yet I do. But, you know, actually, maybe you're actually, so you're finding benefits from the crystals. I am. And so actually, I think it's indicative of how we talk about health trends at women's health,

which is we will tell you what the science is and we will put it through the ringer. But at the end of the day, we're giving you information and you are still free to choose what makes you feel good and what makes you happy. And if that is petting a crystal, so be it. It makes me feel good. So even though I know there's not a research study that says my, like, pink quarts is making me have more courage today. If I believe it or it makes me feel good. Placebos work.

Yeah. I think so. Now, who, when you hear the expression, peak performance, who comes to mind? The United States with swim and soccer team. Peak performers. They just started their qualifying matches again. So you're thinking of them. I'm thinking of them right now. Who is someone you've met that's really interesting?

inspired you? You know, I had the amazing opportunity to interview Carly Lloyd, who's one of the team captains. Cool. She's such a badass and so articulate. And it's so, like, calm and purposeful. And it was a great conversation about practice and resilience and also how she motivates her team as a, from leader to leader. I was, like, hanging on her every word because she's not one of, She's, of course, charismatic, but she's not, like, a loud, she's not loud. It's not the right word. She's not a Megan Rapino. You know, it's a different vibe.

Different vibe. And yet she's an incredibly successful and impactful leader. So she's a badass, and she is at the peak of her game. Now, you guys have a very interesting issue in September, the naked issue, which actually is a bit of a play on words because it touches on mental health as well. This is true. Yes. This is one of my favorite brand tent polls.

we have done three issues now, two since I've been at the helm of women's health. The first was our naked truth issue. And last year we did the naked strength issue. And we're in the process right now of deciding who's going to be in our September issue in 2020, which is amazing because there are so many strong, empowered women with different voices and different thoughts and feelings about just how they feel and about their bodies. And that's really the whole point of the naked issue is to get honest and real. And we believe it's okay to feel awesome, but it's also okay and normal to not feel awesome. We call that body neutrality.

It's a big initiative. We partner with our sister publications around the globe. More than a dozen women's healths internationally. Together, we put out a survey and ask women around the world, all sorts of questions to take their temperature on how they're thinking and feeling about their bodies. And we're really excited to put out another package this year. I love it. Well, Liz, this has been terrific. You as well are calm and purposeful.

So thank you so much for coming on the WOOP podcast. High praise. I really appreciate that. No, it's been a true pleasure. And I love the content that you all are putting out. So keep doing great things in the world. Thanks, Will. If you're not already a Woop member, you can join our community for as low as $30 to begin.

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