Health Gossip with Sofie Royer

Guest Questionnaire #45

#45: Sofie Royer

Sofie (@sofieroyer) is an artist and classically trained musician (3rd album out now). Sometimes I don’t know much about a guest before inviting them on, relying more on instinct than qualifying information, and this was partly the case with Sofie. But her responses reaffirm the basic message of this newsletter — that, by virtue of being alive, everyone has some kind of relationship to ‘health,’ and that these relationships are worth exploring. Enjoy!

Health Gossip with Sofie Royer
📍 Paris (“but I live in Vienna”)
🌌 Leo/Leo/Sagittarius

What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

I measure my health very energetically. If I have energy, I equate that to feeling good. Not necessarily aches, or pains, which I have quite frequently from exercise or playing/lugging around instruments (flight cases are so heavy!).

Can you recall a moment when your relationship to your health changed?

I grew up in a very health conscious family, but it wasn’t obsessive or “almond.” When my parents were in the US they would send me to school with homemade dried fruit, meals would be cooked at home, no junk food, soda, or candy ever. As a teenager I realized how normal this should be, but as a little kid I was horrified to pull out my shriveled brown dried pears and saffron zucchini with rice which stood in stark contrast to square cafeteria pizza and gushers (my dream meal as an eight year old).

I did so many sports when I was younger (tae kwon do, rhythmic gymnastics competitively, ballet for over a decade) and though I do it less intensely as an adult, it changed the way I approach exercise and my body. I also grew up with herbal medicine, which is still reflected in Austrian health today (there’s herbal pharmacies where you can get any herb under the sun…). That’s something I enjoy.

In terms of negatives, my father is a huge hypochondriac. I feel like that’s invariably rubbed off on me. I already had slight inclinations towards obsessive compulsive behavior with hygiene; my mother’s diagnosis of multiple myeloma six years ago kind of made me veer off into the deep end.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

I’m a self-employed musician and artist, so there’s not a lot of built-in routine. I’m trying to create more routine for myself but commitments get in the way fast! So I try to keep it small. I walk a lot, I do a twenty-minute calisthenics exercise routine almost every single day, stretch… good quality sleep.

I do smoke the occasional cigarette (and have been smoking on and off since I was 15). I don’t even really drink, so if there’s one habit I’d love to kick for good it’s smoking.

How do you start and end your days?

It really depends where I am and how I’m feeling. When I’m home, after I brush my teeth, I drink hot water that’s been steeped with lemon, ginger, goji berries, or some type of green tea. Maybe shilajit. Whatever kind of hot beverage I’m in the mood for that day. Then I have AHCC, which I take religiously. Sometime before lunch I’ll end up having my first coffee, usually black, sometimes with a teaspoon of MCT oil. I’m not a big breakfast person and usually skip straight to an early afternoon lunch, but it also depends — my boyfriend has been making plain oatmeal with cinnamon, turmeric and black pepper and whatever berries or bananas we have at home, sometimes I like a simple Mürbes kipferl with fresh butter (a very Austrian crescent-shaped bun made from unsweetened yeast dough). If I’m somewhere else, on the road, it’s usually tea or coffee and an egg dish and some fruit because I likely won’t be able to eat lunch.

If I’m at home and have time, I’ll stretch, foam roll, and jump on my rebounding trampoline before getting in the shower. I wish I could start every day like that!

I have a crazy amount of gummy vitamins. My favorite at the moment are vitamin C and zinc toffees from a Swiss pharmacy, and my all-time staple is something called ‘Vitalité 4G’ that you can get at French pharmacies (4G stands for guarana, ginseng, gelee royale and ginger). Iron supplements, red meat here and there — if I don't manage to stay on top of this I have an iron deficiency. Also, chlorella! I love chlorella!

I also had some great Russian fish oil gelatine gummies that tasted so good that I bought in Tbilisi and can’t seem to get ahold of here. It’s such a fun way to take vitamins and I’m convinced (or deluded) that they’re absorbed better by the body, with the minimal sugar making the vitamins enter your bloodstream faster.

I drink so much water (maybe too much sometimes), especially when I’m singing or performing or rehearsing. I try to throw electrolytes, magnesium, or collagen powder in there so I don’t flush myself of minerals; travel-sized sticks are knocking around my purses always.

Evenings I’ll do a 20-minute Lydia Magnoli full body workout, which is easy to upkeep since it’s so short. The bonus is you can do them from anywhere, with your own bodyweight (at home I’ll add ankle weights and dumbbells). Magnesium, steep some vervain from my mother’s garden, castor oil, sleep. Sleep is so important. My bedroom is my sanctuary, I love it so much. My bed with a sheepskin-covered hot water bottle in the winter... heaven!

I am also really obsessive about ‘Lüften,’ which I don't know the name for in English. It just means opening all the windows in your home multiple times a day to let fresh air in (specifically in the fall and wintertime; in the spring and summer, I will have several windows open all day and night anyway). I don't like air conditioning and every time I'm back in the US it really bums me out. I feel like the air isn't fresh.