May was my birthday month, which means it's automatically one of my favorite months of the year 🥳.

I particularly love Taurus season because it’s the one time of year I get to lean fully into my natural state of self-indulgence and call it an astrological personality trait. 😆

Here are a few of my favorites from May…

📖 Book: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid​

I devoured this one.

Big historical fiction fan here, and this was no exception. Atmosphere follows one of the first women training to be a NASA astronaut in the 1980s. She's navigating a male-dominated program, forming deep bonds with the other candidates, falling into unexpected love, and trying to hold her whole life together while chasing her life’s purpose.

Women have come a long way, but we have not come far enough. We are still fighting for the respect we have earned in a hundred different rooms in a hundred different ways.

​This book hit.

🎨 Experience: Getting My Colors Done

Okay I went down a rabbit hole and I regret nothing.

I got my colors done and found out I'm a “Soft Summer”. This means muted cool tones look best on me. Despite having olive skin, it turns out I have a cool undertone.

What?! Folks - I’VE BEEN DOING IT ALL WRONG!

Here are some cool muted colors that work well for me:

Surprisingly (or not), I already gravitate toward many of these colors but I do have a few items that are not suited to me. Basically anything too dark or bright aren't harmonious for me.

That also means black and white are not great for me 😱 . So my new neutrals moving forward will be navy, cool grey and muted taupe. My face recesses in anything too bright but “comes forward” in these cool muted tones.

That will take some getting used to. Obviously I'm not getting rid of all my black and white clothes but I did commit to not buying anything in black and white for the next year.

I've been low key decluttering my closet ever since, and now I can’t stop looking at color in a new way.

There is something genuinely powerful about knowing what works for your body, your coloring, your actual self, instead of chasing whatever the algorithm is serving up this season.

I think about this with health all the time. The answer for you is not the same as the answer for the woman next to you. Your labs are different. Your hormones are different. Your history is different.

Your colors are different too, apparently. And knowing mine feels like a small, satisfying act of self-knowledge.

10 out of 10 recommend the rabbit hole. It was a super fun experience.

🔬Study: Walking Your Way to Better Brain Health

Interested in preserving brain health? Yeah, me too.

A study published in Nature Medicine followed 296 older adults with step counters and brain imaging for up to 14 years. They were looking at amyloid (the sticky protein that builds up in Alzheimer's brains) and whether daily movement could slow the build up.

Turns out, it can.

People who moved from under 3,000 steps per day to just 5,000 to 7,500 steps saw 40 to 54% slower cognitive decline over nine years.

Folks, that's crazy!

We need consistent, moderate daily movement. Even "just" walking is necessary.

Your brain is counting on it!

One more thing before I go...

Next month I'm sharing insights from my DEXA scan and my DUTCH test results, and I think you're going to find it interesting.

You can look forward to real talk about what I found. Stay tuned.

XO,

Kristen