Dear Lee #3: How my wellness habits shifted after leaving the industry

Dry brushing, period cups, tongue scraping and oil training

Welcome to Dear Lee, the advice column for this newsletter where we dive into topics like clothes fitting too tight or letting go of how our Instagram content will perform. Each month, I answer a question from a reader. This column is for paid subscribers only. Have a question? Submit yours here.

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Hi Lee! I know you’ve stepped away from your life as a wellness influencer and you speak openly about the relationship between wellness and eating disorders in a way that has opened my eyes to the insidiousness of diet culture.

Has your opinion on other wellness trends changed after stepping away from your restrictive lifestyle? Things like tongue scraping, dry brushing, period cups, not washing your hair often? In a lot of ways, I can see how hyper-focusing in these things can provide a distraction from life’s real problems (for example, saying period cups are better than tampons because of toxins may make others feel morally “less than” for their choices, while also distracting from a larger worldwide problem of access to feminine products)

I’m curious to hear what your opinion is on these habits and if you still practice any of them.

Dear Reader,

I think this is a really interesting question, and I’m going to answer it, but I just want to be clear: this is just what I did. You don’t have to do it my way. There is no “right” way to leave wellness, or change their relationship to the industry. So please just know that while you read on.

When I left wellness, I stopped doing all that stuff (tongue scraping is the only thing you mentioned that I can remember continuing). Personally, I needed a complete overhaul of my life, a divorce from all the things in my life that reminded me of my influencer days, wellness, or “being good to my body”.