#94: Alexis Page

"Celsius has been the one thing I refuse to quit and I won’t apologize for it."

Alexis Page is an indie product developer and beauty brand strategist. Obsessive Into the Gloss readers — which I assume many of you were — may remember her from her days at Glossier, which she helped launch alongside Emily Weiss. You can read more about her health and beauty escapades on Self Involved.

#94: Alexis Page
East Village, NYC

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

Health is the feeling of freedom and ease in mind, body, and spirit.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

The past year has been a bit weird because my mom got diagnosed with glioblastoma last June and I moved back home to Buffalo temporarily. I’m still in the in-between space of my “real life” in NY and then posting up in my childhood bedroom. It’s been a really expansive experience and an unsolicited test of my own resiliency. My world quite literally got turned upside down.

Because I had already been very dialed in on my own health when this happened, I doubled down in Buffalo as a way to stay sane. I do best with routine, so really the only thing that shifts when I’m not sleeping in my own bed is my diet. I’m a much better eater in New York than I am in Buffalo, the junk food capital of the world. Otherwise, I stick with my morning supplement/injectables routine, found an amazing Pilates studio in Buffalo that’s randomly owned by my childhood ballet teacher (a sign from the universe), maintain my twice daily meditation schedule, keep in close touch with my group chats, and ultimately it has been really nice to be with my family.

I stopped drinking last May because I was testing out some new protocols and wanted to eliminate any variables. It was meant to be temporary, but I just never picked it back up. It’s been kind of a blessing in disguise. I didn’t necessarily drink a ton before, but I noticed that as I got older, I wouldn’t have a physical hangover the next day but an emotional one — morbidly depressed, totally anxious about every little thing. If I had been drinking last summer under all that stress, I would’ve totally lost it.

I have a tough time giving myself credit for handling challenges because I think challenges are meant to be handled, but the past year has given me a strange and foreign sense of pride over how I've been able to show up for myself and for other people.

How do you start and end your days?

I wake up naturally around 6:30-7. I like having mornings to myself and don’t like scheduling work stuff first thing. I do 20 minutes of TM then my little supplement routine. I stare out my kitchen window for a while and listen to music. Celsius has been the one thing I refuse to quit and I won’t apologize for it. Half a can of fizz-free peach mango tea while doing the soundtracked window stare. Demented.

I’ll go to Pilates or ballet class. I need to get my workout out of the way first thing, otherwise it won’t happen. Sometimes I’ll do a weight class at LiftTonic, which is so deeply un-me and I hate going but it’s perfect for what it is.

If I don't have meetings in the afternoon, I'll stack beauty treatments while working from home — face masks, paint my nails, occasionally self-tan. Stuff that requires time and no movement, to be done alone while typing away at emails, etc.

In the evening, I try to shut off pretty early. I work with clients in LA, so sometimes calls go a bit later. If the sun is still out, I do an evening window stare. If I’m home, I’ll cobble a weird meal together, do a fairly simple skincare routine and red light situation. I’ll often watch Bravo in bed with compression boots on.

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

The first time was in 2018, when I was fake living in LA after a breakup. I was living in a friend's guest house and completely out of my mind. I got really into LA type health stuff, probably as a form of control in what felt like an uncontrollable situation. I became totally devoted to classical Pilates, was eating really, really clean, not going out, researching and trying all kinds of modalities.

When I came back to NY, I decided to do a full course of IV ketamine therapy and found it to be completely life changing. It was the first time that I felt like I made a choice, regardless of what other doctors told me, and it resulted in a huge, positive change.

More recently, I started doing calisthenics three years ago as part of a friends’s workout group in Tompkins Square Park (shout out @iggy.nyc). The idea of doing strength training had never occurred to me — I thought it was “for boys” and found the idea of it very intimidating.

Long story short, I couldn’t walk the next day and became absolutely obsessed. I had never really experienced the feeling of being “strong” and it became a way for me to structure my mornings, which I hadn't ever had a real handle on before. The accountability of it was really important to me. If you told the group chat you were gonna go the next morning, you had to show up. It felt good to learn something new and be around people who took their health seriously.

What’s your relationship to self-healing?

I have always felt very connected to my body and think we intuitively know what we need. It took me a long time to understand how to trust that instinct. I used to have the sense that unless I was bleeding, things weren't important enough to pay attention to. I got over that, but it's also really hard to find help and answers within our current system. I spent many years thinking therapy was the solution to many of life’s ills, and while I think it can certainly be helpful, it eventually dawned on me that you have to actually put everything into practice or else your stuff becomes your identity. I find the modern therapy-speak situation to be totally out of control and often a way to avert personal responsibility or action.

I’ve also now come to understand that really everything considered old-fashioned is actually the most important: sleep, sun, food, movement, being of service, having close relationships with people you can rely on. The basic foundation really never changes. I've gotten pretty good at building a personal toolkit so that when things do go weird I can quickly identify what’s off track. I also got into this thing a few years ago where I was like, “What did I used to like doing when I was little?” I grew up really serious about ballet and so I got back into that and it made such a huge difference in my life. We’ve always been exactly who we are, it's helpful to go back there.

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

I have a longevity doctor in LA that I work with and trust, which sounds and is bourgeois and high maintenance. I’m extremely committed to my Pilates teacher, who has been such a mainstay in my life for years now. Same with my ballet teacher. I think it's important to work with experts and people who are older than you and have more life experience. I did a TM course a little over a year ago and it made sense to me right away, after years of thinking I wasn’t able to consistently meditate. I have a whole slew of beauty related people that I am very loyal to —facials, hair, scrubs, lymphatic, nails, wax, etc.

Do you have a spiritual practice?

I definitely have a sense of the fact that we are not in charge of the universe and that life goes on with or without you. I go through phases of having a formal gratitude or manifestation practice. I got very into TM last year and found it to be tremendously helpful for not future tripping and imagining every possible outcome of a scenario that hasn’t happened yet and maybe never will. I've worked a 12-step program for 15 years that was the catalyst for figuring out that spiritual health is important and doesn't have to mean religion.

When do you feel the most nourished?

I’ve had the same best friends for 25 years and our lives have taken so many insane turns together. Spending time with them is so fulfilling.

How do you reset?

I need a fair amount of alone time. I allow myself some days where I don’t leave the apartment and I don’t feel bad about it. When I feel overwhelmed or unmoored, I clean the house, take a walk listening to a very specific playlist, or lay flat on the floor and call a friend. Also, if possible, I get on a plane.

Do you have a favorite meal?

I grew up eating Greek food all the time, so my body sort of naturally sets off an alarm when it needs olives and feta. I like crunchy, briny things and sweet, creamy things. A custard taiyaki from a Japanese 7-Eleven is my personal idea of heaven.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

You already know what to do, trust yourself. Try to not be so hard on yourself. Be less terrified of money. Don’t try to force solutions, go where the water’s warm.

What advice would you give to the person reading this?

Before you say no to something, figure out what your fear is around the situation and consider what’s the worst that could happen. A lot of things are worth doing for the experience.

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

The dream is that everyone and everything chills out but that most likely won’t happen. So creating more balance for myself internally and being of service externally is ultimately the best thing I can work towards.

Related reading:

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