#50: Lara Joy Evans

"A child makes me think of what I do in terms beyond my lifetime."

Apr 06, 2025

Lara Joy Evans (@larajoyevans) is an American artist. She recorded these responses in March from her studio in downtown Los Angeles — “in an art deco high rise, skid row adjacent.” She has a Libra sun, Capricorn moon, and Aries ascendent.

Health Gossip with Lara Joy Evans
Responses logged March 12, 2025

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

LJE: The struggle for an ideal, rather than to survive. Vitality, energy, growth, prosperity.

HG: How would you describe your current lifestyle?

LJE: Thriving for aesthetic ideals, in motherhood and art. The pursuit of intellectual and artistic endeavors. I’ve lived rural lifestyles and city lifestyles.

I wake up early every day, when my son wakes up. We make breakfast, get dressed, and play a little before the day really starts. He gets to play in the dirt at daycare or with grandparents on weekdays. I workout first or head straight to my studio downtown.

I lift weights 4 times a week for around 45-60 minutes at Gold's Gym in Venice Beach, where I regularly see bodybuilders, RFK Jr., Arnold [Schwarzenegger], Calvin Klein, and ripped men and women on steroids, high T, and silicone breasts. Each week, I try to do an accumulation of 2 hours of cardio — usually 15-30 minutes after lifting, and in the form of tennis, hiking, walking, and swimming on the weekends.

Day 1: Chest/shoulders/tris/bis/arms
Day 2: Legs/Glutes/Calves
Day 3: Back
Day 4: Legs/Abs

I typically end the day thinking about art or discussing philosophy, politics, and ideas with my husband and/or our neighbors (two orthodox Christian bodybuilders and one libertarian rationalist). I contemplate, schedule, and pray before bed.

HG: Can you recall a moment when you became more aware of your health, or your relationship to it changed?

LJE: There have been several different moments in my life that made me more aware of health, but overall I did not experience much death or disease until my late twenties. Growing up I was lucky not to think about health very much; I was almost never sick. My dad was an Olympic athlete who pushed me to constantly be working my body to physical extremes.

Seeing body horror as a prepubescent girl online and in the streets of Los Angeles were some of my first moments becoming aware of health or mortality. My dad would take me to places like skid row and third-world countries as a child, make me smoke a cigar at ten like my WWII vet grandfather did to him. Still, the biggest catalyst for my research into health was caused by pregnancy, birth, and raising a child.

Having a child really grounded me; it forced me to have a strict routine and schedule, and be deliberate in every minute of the day. Whereas as a younger 20 year old, I would read theoretical texts or draw or go out until late at night. My sleep schedule now has to be very regular. There’s no off day, room for failure or wastefulness. A child makes me think of what I do in terms beyond my lifetime.

HG: Are there any principles or mantras that guide your day-to-day?

LJE: I know all the memetic diets and permanently-online esoteric health gurus who started posting in 2019, but I stopped reading anything in 2021 — especially after getting a lot of body horror on my algorithm. No seed oils, no soy, Berkey water filter, prenatal vitamins, homemade gelatin gummies, thiamine, pine pollen, EMF blocking, phone out of the bedroom, walking barefoot, no xenoestrogens, BioGaia Probiotics, black seed oil, coconut oil, incandescent light bulbs, 70’s glass cookware and tupperware, cast iron, natural materials, silk pillowcase, beeswax candles, and aminos.

HG: What’s your relationship to self-healing?

LJE:

HG: Do you work with any practitioners, texts, or modalities on a regular basis?

LJE: No, I get a blood and hormone panel every six months. When I was pregnant I went to midwives and an acupuncturist to flip a breech baby and induce labor. Other than that, I don’t visit doctors or specialists.

HG: What types of foods are you typically drawn towards?

LJE: Protein: 1g+ per lb of body weight (meat and diary), carbs: 1-3g per lb of body weight, fiber: 35g+ (4+servings of veg a day), fat: 0.3lb per lb

Breakfast: Smoked or baked salmon on sourdough toast, raw red onion, capers, arugula. Steak and eggs. French omelettes. Handfuls of arugula. Orange juice, coffee with raw cream.
Lunch: Ray Peat raw carrot salad. Lots of green tea. Meal-prepped proteins; steak, ground beef, or grilled chicken, with broccoli or asparagus and rice or potatoes. Chicken soup, ancestral blend hamburgers, sashimi or sushi. Usually nothing spicy, lots of ginger, pickles, animal fats, coconut oil, mostly homemade. Lemon water.
Snack: Bone broth, gelatin gummies, dark chocolate, pâté on toast, salmon roe, lots of fruit: bowls of pomegranate seeds, blueberries, and smoothies with raw whey protein, bee pollen, raw milk, yogurt and collagen. Mastic gum.
Dinner: Salmon creamy pasta or rice bowls with vegetables. Lots of stew. Buckwheat risotto. Meatballs, beef tartare. Sparkling water, juice. Raw egg on rice. Caprese salad, caesar salad, or more handfuls of arugula. Kefir, magnesium glycinate, and probiotics before bed.