#86: Lee Tilghman

"I was so obsessed with healing that I lost myself."

Feb 01, 2026

Lee Tilghman (@leefromamerica) was one of the OG wellness influencers of the 2010s, widely credited with bringing trends like smoothie bowls and charcoal water into the mainstream. After stepping away from the industry, she went on to write If You Don’t Like This, I Will Die (2025), a memoir charting the darker side of the influencer economy. You can find more of her writing on Hand Wash Only.

#86: Lee Tilghman
Aquarius/Cancer/Gemini
Brooklyn Heights, NY

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

Putting yourself first.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

Ritualistic, intuitive, energetic, courageous.

How do you start and end your days?

I start my day by getting up around 6:00 and laying in bed with just my thoughts until 6:30. Then I go up and make coffee while my fiancé sleeps in. I enjoy a few moments of stillness in the living room which are vital for my day. I light incense or palo santo then whip out my journal and fill 1-3 pages with everything I’m thinking, feeling, and fearing. It’s a brain dump. Most often it’s just light record keeping, like what we’re doing that weekend and what I have on the docket for the day. But I love it and it keeps my head on straight.

Then, I lace up my shoes and go on a long walk with my dog Samson. We walk by the water for anywhere from 30-90 minutes, depending on the day. 4 days a week, I’ll keep exercising after that, either strength, cardio, pilates, or sculpt. Then I am at my desk or filming content by 9:30/10. I break for lunch around 1:00, leftovers or a big tuna salad. Keep it simple. Then I keep working until 5 or 6, which is when I try to log off and work on dinner. Sometimes I’ll work more after dinner, and I try not to, but that’s just how it is right now.

I’m in bed or the bath by 9:30. I love to read, do a red light face mask, or a little face massage / lymphatic drainage before bed. I love climbing into bed and talking about my day with my fiancé. It’s such a silly time of day, the liminal night. We’re both the silliest then.

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

I’ve had a pretty crazy and extreme health journey. I got really into wellness in 2013 and was doing everything that was put in front of me. Acupuncture, red light therapy, cupping, oil training, oil pulling, plastic-free, non-toxic, zero-waste, breathwork, ecstatic screaming...

Listen, I love all those things, but I was doing it to fill a hole. It was also my brand.

I was one of the first wellness influencers on Instagram. I got started in 2014 before there was ever such thing as #sponcon hashtag FTC requirements. It was the wild west and I put the smoothie bowl on the map! It was such a fun time, and I’m all about encouraging people to try a bunch of things, and I think your 20s should be for that. My community and I were all about #selfcare. But I burnt out. I was so invested and obsessed with healing that I lost myself. Truly, I didn’t know who I was if I wasn’t obsessed with health.

So, I stepped back from Instagram and attempted to find myself offline and away from wellness influencing. It was what I needed at the time because I could feel the disconnect. I was preaching balance and wellness while living in this little online silo...

But then I swung the other way. While offline and away from wellness, I started vaping, eating processed foods, and stopped exercising. I was advised to by therapists, etc., because they called it “healing.” And maybe it was healing and what I needed at the time.

Of course, a few years later I started to feel far away from myself again. Had I gone too far? Maybe some of the things I used to preach were true. So I started re-incorporating little wellness things bit by bit.

And that leads us to where I am now. At 35, I finally feel like I’m back in my body and tending to it in ways I feel so much gratitude for. Daily movement, spirituality, nourishment, stillness... The little decisions we make throughout our day make such a difference.

Do you have a spiritual practice?

Oh yes. I am a very spiritual person, and I also consider myself religious. I don’t think we should be afraid of that word. I don’t read the Bible so I’m not religious in that sense, but I adore the devotion and sanctity of religious places of worship. I can’t not be spiritual. I believe in a higher power or God or whatever you want to call it. I meditate and in May, I’ll be getting married by a minister. I think God and spirituality are sacred and everyone is on their own journey to find that. But a belief in something larger than myself has saved me many, many times.

What’s your relationship to self-healing?

I try to listen to my own body until it starts to hurt and talk to me, then I go to a professional! For instance, I had some tendonitis pain in my glute from running this summer. I started seeing a P/T after it got really bad while in Mallorca and walking a lot. I believe in seeing professionals for stuff, but also listening to yourself and other expanders in your life who may have some information that you have yet to unlock.

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

I love Pema Chödrön texts. I love my friend Kacie Carter and her work through her restaurant, Honey Hi. But in general, no, I do not have any modalities or texts…though I love life-changing books like Big Magic and The Artist’s Way!

When do you feel the most nourished?

While sitting at a candlelit table across my fiancé eating a grounding, slow-cooked meal of red meat, veggies, and pasta. YUM.

How do you reset?

24-48 hours without Instagram.

Do you have a favorite meal? What do you keep in your fridge/pantry?

Skillet chicken with mushrooms and onions on country sourdough or a tomato tortellini cream soup. I have both of those 1-2 nights a week.

My pantry is intense. I keep bulk dried beans, grains, seeds in glass containers, and I always have a variation of dried fruits and nuts. I’m an ingredients girl — I don’t keep a lot of snacks at the house, so you need to know how to make a meal if you want to feed yourself.

In the fridge, there is always a robust assortment of cheese: raw cheddar, Gruyère, Comté, Brie, Manchego.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Honestly, the advice I need the most right now is: “Nobody is thinking about you.”

To the person reading this?

Do the thing you’re feeling the most afraid of or resistant towards. I swear to God, it’ll glow up your life so much; in three months, it’ll be unrecognizable. Maybe that means picking up that hobby or starting to run again. Whatever it is, just do it. Do it yesterday.

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

More relationships and networking events. That is a part of my health journey that needs nourishment.