WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A 'WELL WOMAN'

When I met writer Amy Larocca at a cafe in the Boerum Hill neighbourhood of Brooklyn on a recent afternoon, I could not help but notice: She had the glow. Or seemed to.

- MARIE SOLIS

The glow, as Larocca explains in her new book, How To Be Well: Navigating Our Self-Care Epidemic, One Dubious Cure At A Time, is what happens when you purify yourself "from the inside out" When you never miss a day of your skincare routine, regularly drain your lymphatic fluids and take your collagen supplements.

But to truly glow, you must also practice mindfulness, self-care and, ideally, transcendental meditation, avoid processed junk and sleep at least eight hours every night.

Such are the exacting standards of a contemporary wellness culture that has swelled to encompass nearly every facet of life. Not just the serums we slather on our faces or the Pilates classes we scurry off to but the food we eat (always whole foods), the bowel movements we pass (must be “firm and beautifully formed”) and the very thoughts we let enter our minds (intentional ones only).

It sounds like a lot of work. Or one might say it sounds like a lot of work — if it were not so incumbent on a well woman to be perpetually at ease.

After talking to Larocca, 49, for an hour, I learned she did not do everything a well woman should. She tries to sleep a lot. She exercises regularly. And yes, she wears an Oura ring, the latest in wearable tech for tracking one’s blood oxygen rate, body temperature and other biometrics.

But she does not observe 12-step routines of any kind. She is aware of the fact that dry-brushing may be a great way to exfoliate but that it probably does not drain your lymphatic fluid.