Liana Satenstein

FaceGym, Natalie Imbruglia, and the power of a public restroom

#59: Liana Satenstein

Liana (@liana_ava) is a fashion writer, consultant, and the creator of Never Worns — a closet confessional-turned-newsletter and live auction series (her last shopping event was themed after ultimate HG dream guest, Norma Kamali).

In her writing, Liana focuses not only on the garments themselves but the ways in which we move in them. Her breakdown of the styling in Unfaithful (2002) shows how an unremarkable cotton top became the film’s most erotic costume; her piece on sweat-stained activewear, cited in last month’s natural fiber activewear roundup, makes the case for a new level of gym intimacy.

Anyway, enough about clothes… here’s Liana on HEALTH!

Location: Brooklyn, NY
Astrology: Taurus/Cancer/Leo

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

Not feeling pressured or bullied to do something by someone. Feeling forced to do anything by an outside source wreaks absolute havoc on my body.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

As I write this, I’m four months postpartum. He just went down for a nap. I’m doing mom stuff, which I love. I’m working…a lot. I worked for about nine years at Vogue, which I loved, but I needed to move on. Now I work for myself, and I have more time to do what I like, which includes writing whatever I want, whenever I want. I’m busy…busier than I was at an office, but I feel freer and lighter.

How do you start and end your days?

I loved cycling so much in the morning…I was having contractions on the bike…woops. I used to run at least a 5K every morning, but my body can’t handle that quite yet since I gave birth. I took up stationary cycling when I was roughly six months pregnant and couldn’t run anymore. I still ride every morning. At the end of the night, I do try to shut off and read. I should get into the habit of doing a to-do list now that I think about it...

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

Around 2017, I was drinking so much that it was really gross. I was a fashion writer at Vogue, and my work began to suffer. Random mistakes. Missed appointments. Mood swings. I was also going to Eastern Europe every three months to cover the local fashion weeks. Endless flights to Tbilisi, Kyiv, and Moscow. And all over again. I’d return after a 15-hour flight to get off the plane in New York and go to the office the next day after covering shows, writing profiles, and coordinating shoots on the ground. I loved it, but I got no sleep those weeks. I eventually started to buy these massive over-the-counter Ukrainian sleeping pills that looked like Alka-Seltzer tablets just to get used to the time change, and I would turn into a zombie. I was so, so exhausted. I began to look horrible, not to mention I was horrible to be around.

During this period, I got in a huge fight with a then-significant other one night and woke up with a gross hangover. That was a wake-up call, sure, but soon after, I entered an incredibly long and arduous interview process for a position that required me to have an immaculate record when it came to THC/marijuana use. The excessive amount of alcohol I had been drinking fell into this “no-no” scope, so I basically didn’t touch anything for a year and a half. That’s really when everything changed.

When I stopped drinking, I picked up running. Early on, I could barely run a block. Little by little, I started running more and more. A half a mile. A mile. Three miles. You get the picture. Finally, I started doing these “destination runs,” where I forced myself to run somewhere in the city. I began to pick locations further away, like my old apartment in Queens next to JFK, which was about seven miles. Then to Central Park, which was also roughly seven miles, and then I’d do the loop…another seven! Eventually, I began running every single weekday from my apartment in Brooklyn over the bridge to the Vogue offices at the World Trade Center, which was about five and a half miles. I’d go rain, shine, snow, whatever.

Liana on her work commute, c. 2019

I was in the mindset of, “Well, I just need to get to wherever I need to go, no matter what.” I became a bit…militant and it cut into my social life, but I needed this way of thinking to rewire my brain. I went to bed early, I woke up around 5:45, and I’d get to work feeling incredible. Right before COVID, I ran the Chicago Marathon. I loved the discipline running gave me.

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

Does going to FaceGym once a month count?

What’s your relationship to self-healing?

I don’t think I do that.

How do you reset?

I am lucky enough to take Friday night to Saturday night off for Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest. To give you a breakdown, we eat dinner together and then I don’t use my phone or watch television. I don’t work. I don’t make plans. I spend it with my husband and son. No matter who you are, if you have the opportunity, I suggest taking a full 24 hours once a week to turn off. Every second you don’t have to be on your phone or at work is a blessing. Who wants to die knowing that they spent all those minutes and hours sitting on their phone?

When do you feel the most nourished?

What makes me feel nourished is a day that never ends and feels like it goes on forever??? Like fat and full with everything and everyone.

Here’s my fantasy 24 hours, a mix of satisfying adult things and early-20s longing: Sweating in the morning, a coffee and perpetually long walk with my husband and my son, late slipping on a comfortable kitten heel, buying a stupid overpriced waterproof mascara at Sephora (okay, and maybe a lipliner), listening to Natalie Imbruglia (obsessed with “Wrong Impression”), running into someone I haven’t seen in a while on the street, being happy that I did, sucking down a massive bottle of water, peeing at a just-cleaned bathroom at, like, Restoration Hardware, reading a book on the train, meeting a close friend (or two) in Brighton Beach and engulfing five kebabs and drinking half an ice cold beer, then smoking two cigarettes cause one isn’t enough but I also can’t inhale a full pack because I have an adult life now, just making the Q train right before it pulls out to go back home and planting a juicy kiss on my husband’s mouth and seeing my son sleep.

What types of foods are you drawn towards? Do you have a favorite meal?

I engulf a rotisserie chicken from Union Market. I will devour all of the dark meat. I take a handful of arugula and will eat it raw out of the container. I love buckwheat with salt and butter…sometimes with fried onions and mushrooms. I like simple meals.

Have you ever seen a Balkan breakfast? Intensely red, plucked-from-the-garden tomatoes dipped in huge grains of salt, a whole cucumber, maybe a slab of cheese. I spent a lot of summers in Odesa before the war: Every day, I’d go to the local cafeteria (shout out Puzata Xata) and get a chopped cucumber and tomato salad, buckwheat, and a slab of grilled chicken before going to lie out on the beach for hours. I’d live on corn cobs and tiny shrimp that old ladies would sell from buckets until sundown. That’s my dream meal for every day.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I would not drink as much as I did. Like I said, I had a heinous two-year streak where I was boozing like crazy. I was living in a windowless room in Bushwick (cheap rent!) but never wanted to be there (windowless!), so I was always going out (spending more money!), and ended up drinking just to do something. I think I spent so much money on alcohol that it negated my cheap rent. I was depressed. I gained weight. Then again, I’m glad I did it and got it over with.

To the person reading this?

A few hangovers are necessary to understand the state of your life…just don’t make it a habit. Also, no one is thinking about you, so do whatever you want with your life.

What would you like to see or create more of in the world?

I’d like to see people hang out and fill their days with meaningful activities. People shouldn’t have the time to yell at each other online.

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Thank you for reading this issue of Health Gossip. You can follow along on IG here, and shop community picks here. If you have a guest you’d like to see featured (including yourself!), feel free to reach out. And a reminder that paid subscribers gain access to the full guest archive, along with the private community Discord + a bonus monthly letter ;)

XO Lily