Welcome back to Health Gossip Top Shelfies, a series peeking into the medicine cabinets, vitamin shelves, and beauty rituals of our dear readers. Today, we have a fridge and supplement shelfie by Audrey Lee, a runner and writer living in Philadelphia.
Top Shelfie: Audrey Lee
Philadelphia, PA
Can you tell us a bit about yourself, and how you like to spend your time?
My name is Audrey Lee. I am a writer living in Philadelphia. My debut short story collection, Utter Goodness (from Farthest Heaven), was released earlier this year. I go by @tinndfishmonger on X and write Audrey’s America on Substack.
When not reading or writing, you can find me running around the city, in a vinyasa flow, cooking, at Sunday evening mass, shopping at the Tuesday Rittenhouse farmer’s market, or sunbathing next to the Delaware River.
How would you describe your approach to beauty and wellness?
My approach to wellness is all about balance — literally in the form of yoga, and figuratively. I am constantly finding a medium between operating with the rigidity of an n=1 clinical trial and not taking myself too seriously. I joke that I subscribe to the Gwyneth Paltrow school of wellness: “It’s what makes life interesting, finding the balance between cigarettes and tofu.” To no surprise, I am a Libra sun.
Most of my life has been spent in extremes. I was a three-sport athlete in high school, but was sedentary in college. I moved between different homes, across the country to a mountain town in Utah, and back again to Philadelphia. I am a product of my environment, and my East Coast neuroticism was aggravated by the instability and uncertainty of my teen years and early twenties. Some of my best stories owe themselves to this time, but I prioritize structure, schedule, stability, and balance in my late twenties over lore acquisition — possibly a reactionary swing of the pendulum against my prior lifestyle, but for the better nonetheless.
Throughout all, my most firmly held wellness belief is that quality food comes before any supplement or beauty product. I went to college in the most Amish county in the world, and worked early mornings at a dairy and a farmer’s market before my 9 AM classes. This taught me about buying and eating locally, regenerative agriculture, and what a sustainable supply chain looks like. My college budget went to grass-fed meat, local produce, and vodka Red Bulls at the campus dive bar that I closed down every weekend. My budget still goes to grass-fed meat and local produce, but I stopped drinking alcohol about a year and a half ago.
I introduce supplements and beauty products one at a time. If I like them, they stay in my routine. If I don’t or if there is a negligible impact, I move on. Because of this, my routine — of supplements, diet, and beauty — is relatively minimalist and highly vetted. The products that I latch onto stay in my routine for years. I appreciate long-term stability and efficacy.
“Balance” is boring. It is unsexy. It does, however, work as a guiding principle for consistent, disciplined, and highly effective wellness.
What are some of your kitchen must-haves?
I am constantly in motion and have no intentions of slowing down. I run 35 to 50 miles a week, love a hot vinyasa yoga or Pilates class, strength train, and am always stretching in my kitchen while dinner cooks. An object in motion, however, cannot stay in motion without consistent fuel. My diet is structured to support this: whole foods that are high in protein, complex carbohydrates, fatty acids, and electrolytes. I avoid seed oils, processed food, milk and meat substitutes, and minimize foods high in phytoestrogens.
I eat a tin of fish every day, and have done so for the past two years. No food or supplement has helped my physical and mental well-being more than eating copious amounts of sardines and other oily fish. I owe my skin and hair to tinned fish. They are a great protein source and are packed with omega-3s, selenium, and vitamins D and B12. Women in particular benefit from DHA omega-3 fatty acids that support fertility, brain health, and lower inflammation in the gut and joints. I love artisan tins — my favorites are from Les Mouettes d’Arvor and Island Creek — but I keep a backstock from Wild Planet and Trader Joe’s for everyday consumption.
For all of the blessings that running has brought me, it wreaks havoc on my gut and brain-gut connection. My fridge is stocked with jars of pickled and fermented food: kimchi, sauerkraut, carrots, red onions, dill slices, and blueberries, all for their probiotic benefits and to get some sodium in my system.
My current supplement stack is a magnesium and B6 complex from Source Naturals, DHA fish oil from Nordic Naturals, D3+K2 from Zhou, creatine, Vital Proteins collagen peptides, colostrum, Amazing Herbs black seed oil, ConcenTrace electrolytes, and a spoonful of Coconut Cult. I also make my own ginger shots and take two ounces a day.
Any health or beauty secrets you swear by?
Sweating it out. Dry brush and stainless steel gua sha for lymphatic drainage. Vellum Street Soap Co. tallow lotion over another moisturizer to lock it into my dry skin. Lying on an acupressure mat. Making my own bone broth, butter, pickles, and ginger shots. Incandescent lightbulbs and only incandescent lightbulbs. Going to mass every Sunday, and when I’m feeling spiritually fatigued. Kinetic chain release massage before I run a race, or when I’m feeling out of alignment. Fresh flowers throughout my home. Living Libations sea buckthorn oil on the ends of my hair. Thinking about anything else besides myself to avoid incessant self-criticism. The world around me is much more interesting!
