Ajenda by Dr. Jen Ashton

Not every health purchase is worth the premium price tag. These five are, in my personal and professional opinion:

Sneakers: Poor footwear changes your gait, and a changed gait puts stress on your knees, hips, and lower back long before you ever feel it in your feet. A proper fitting shoe, and orthotics if you need them, is one of the cheapest forms of injury prevention that exists.

Skincare: skin is the largest organ in the body, so I feel it's worth the spend. It's the category people often like to skimp on, and I understand why. But I made the investment myself, stuck with it consistently, and my skin is genuinely looking the best it has ever looked. The results don't appear overnight, so giving up in the shorterm is a common error; stick with it.

Sleep: this is where I'd tell anyone to spend first if they could only pick one. Poor sleep quality is linked to worse glucose regulation, poor brain health, increased risks of immune dysfunction, and hormonal dysruption. A GREAT mattress is not a luxury purchase, it's a medical one.

Air quality: An air purifier matters most if you live somewhere with high particulate pollution, dust, allergens or smoke...which describes many home environments. Look specifically for true HEPA filtration, since HEPA type filters are not held to the same standard and don't filter nearly as effectively.

And last, preventative blood work. Most chronic conditions, from insulin resistance to thyroid dysfunction, develop silently for years before symptoms appear. By the time you feel something is wrong, you've often lost your earliest and easiest window to intervene.

None of these are about chasing perfection. They're about spending in the places that actually compound over time, so the investment you make today is still paying off years from now.

I always recommend doing your own research, but if you want to know what I’m using, doing, and investing in specifically, subscribe to my Off Duty newsletter. Head to the link in my bio to sign up.

We spend most of our waking hours in shoes, and our feet quietly absorb the consequences of that every single day. The muscles in our feet and ankles don't get the exposure that they did (before shoes) and this takes a toll. One remedy for this? A technique from the Roll Model Method, taught by Jill Miller, and it works the fascia and muscles of the sole using a therapy ball built for exactly this. A tennis ball or a lacrosse ball won't do the job nearly as well. The density and size of the ball actually matter.

Begin at the heel with slow, sustained pressure, shifting gently forward and back, then side to side. Move to the arch and apply the same steady pressure in both directions. Roll toward the outer edge of the foot, curl your toes inward, and continue working forward and back. Then tilt your ankle inward, curl your toes again, and settle steady pressure into the ball of the foot.

End with the toes themselves. Anchor the joint where your big toe meets the foot as close to perpendicular to the floor as you can, then press down and hold. Work through the next three toes with a gripping and releasing motion, then finish at the smallest toe. The goal is real, sustained compression, not a light graze.

Give this a few minutes at either end of your day. The fascia running through the sole connects directly to the Achilles tendon and calf, then continues up into the hamstrings, glutes, and low back. Everything we talk about in the posterior chain has its foundation here, in your feet. For more info on the method and how to get the balls, Follow

Sole sister! :-)

I hate to cook, but I love to eat healthy, clean food... so what I do is closer to assembling than cooking!

Today's assembly: sourdough that had been frozen and then reheated and toasted, smoked salmon for protein and healthy fats, and half an avocado with a drizzle of olive oil, chili flakes, and salt. I almost forgot the lemon, which would have been a mistake. I also almost forgot the fermented onions and carrots, which are doing quiet work for my gut health.

None of this required a recipe or a culinary degree. It required a good bakery, a good fish counter, and about 3 minutes...and the comic support of my daughter Chloe dancing behind me, just to see if I could hold my concentration on my snack prep!

This is the kind of snack/meal I included in my Wellness Experiment meal plan because it has real ingredients, is genuinely nutritious, and is nothing that requires a culinary degree.

Every few weeks there's a new headline about GLP-1 medications causing muscle loss, and it gets shared like it applies to everyone taking these drugs. It doesn't, at least not the way it's presented.

Here's what's actually true. Sustained weight loss, whether it comes from a GLP-1 receptor agonist or any other method, consistently comes with some loss of lean mass. That part isn't in dispute. What we don't have enough long-term data on yet is what that actually means for muscle function and bone health 10-20 years in the future.

So before you let a headline scare you off a medication that might be right for you, ask these questions: "Who was actually studied, and does that population match my age, gender, race, and health history? And also, what are the things I can do to minimize risks and maximize benefits?" A side effect documented in one group of patients does not automatically transfer to you.

Context is everything in medicine and the things that go viral are rarely as simple as they are made to seem.

For my full deep dive on the side effects of GLP-1s, head to my Youtube channel

The posterior chain, our glutes, hamstrings, low back, and rear delts, is the muscle group that is easy to de-prioritize because it's not what others see as you walk toward them.

But, as celebrity trainer and my friend, Harley Pasternak told me 15 years ago, the posterior chain is the half of our bodies that fights the relentless pull of gravity over time that brings our shoulders forward, shortens our thorax, and pulls us into a hunched over position. We want expansion not contraction!

Here are five moves that really move the needle. Hip thrusts build the glute and hamstring power behind almost every functional movement we make. Assisted pull ups (I'm almost down to no assistance and ready to do it with my full body weight!) build back strength, bent over flies target the rear delts, kettlebell RDLs strengthen the low back and hamstrings, and 3 rounds of assault bike sprints to 10 calories pack a real punch in benefitting the autonomic nervous system as well as cardiovascular and metabolic systems.

Head to the link in my bio if you want my full fitness program, a daily meal plan, and the support of a community of women like no other.