GABRIELA YARELIZ

This Week’s Favorites 07.02.26

By: Gabriela Yareliz

It’s America’s birthday week. Let’s gooooo!

I love a good birthday. Always.

This week was a busy one. I felt like I was in two places at once, working across time zones and stupidity.

The southern heat was an intense one, and I am not one to complain about heat. On one day, my blue linen dress melted onto me basically, and I spent the evening scrubbing the Banana Republic navy off of my arms and chest. (Could have joined the Blue Man Group?) On another day, as I crossed a sunny intersection, it literally felt like my slacks (dress pants) were thick flannel and on fire. Thighs on fireeeee. 🔥

That’s what heat does— it consumes. I have sweat out my toxins, exorcised my demons (more on that later), and slept to the sound of Rose and Blanche arguing on Golden Girls. #comfortshow

Here we are in early summer— heat waves, airplanes with no AC (the one I am on now is struggling to cool) and extra strength deodorant.

While I was melting, these are some of the things that caught my attention this week:

“Every writer chooses herself if she is going to write honestly. There is no other way.” Rebecca Woolf

“They can knock you down, but they can never knock you out.” Kendall Toole

“I haven’t felt like myself lately. I must be growing.” Unknown

(What if our discomfort and the moments where we don’t recognize parts of ourselves— what if all of that is ok? What if it’s not a sign of something bad but of growth? What if feeling like yourself starts to feel different? Like when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Transformation means different. Been thinking a lot about this).

Yep. Some people will get my Tony Soprano.

Something that has been on my mind a lot has been the wellness industry. It feels like we are full circle to early 2000s and shrinking oneself. It’s easier than ever now, with all these injections and pills.

I enjoyed this Dr. Stephanie Estima interview with Diary of a CEO. Listening to it felt like an exorcism of sorts of the skinny demons that haunt me (and I am sure many of us). Dr. Estima’s message, along with Kendall Toole’s message (founder of the NKO Club) is similar: Don’t shrink yourself. Build yourself strong.

I hope you listen to it. I hope you put away every message that tells you that you aren’t enough, that you need to do more, that your legs are too big or short or that your shoulders are too broad. I come from a culture where it almost feels like people express love through judgment. People say the craziest sh*t to each other. You grow up with older women tearing you apart and saying things that leave your jaw hitting the floor. Some of those things stay with you. And they are unworthy of taking up space in your head.

I have found a lot of wellness things a bit triggering lately. Every other ad is a GLP-1 or some 19 year old who doesn’t even work out. This podcast was divine timing. It serves as interruption for this moment in culture. Dr. Estima’s message is one rooted in love and compassion. One that celebrates true health and strength (not obesity and not skinny). It’s a must-listen, for any age. 💪🏼

Loved hearing about the Olympics, aka the Tkachuk Summer Camp experience.

A fun pod.

I loved the message below. One of my takeaways is that sometimes, God doesn’t meet us in our faith, He meets us in our faithfulness.

This beautiful message on joy has stayed with me.

And lastly, happy fourth and happy 250 America! Celebrating the great USA 🇺🇸, this weekend. Proud to be American. There is no place I would rather be. I feel this to my core. I love this country. I love freedom. Freedom is a spiritual thing, you know. It’s a posture and experience we were wired for.

I was walking down a street to a sports bar to see U.S. v Bosnia, and this song was blasting from the speakers. It is forever a favorite. It reminded me of our team winning the hockey Olympics (men and women). On repeat.

Forever an American Girl.

Mine

“I’ve attended many funerals this year.

All of them were mine.”

Emma Zeck

Prayer PSA

This is your prayer PSA. I loved reading this as my devotional. A beautiful reminder:

“Prayer in Acts is never polite or passive.

It’s the mechanism by which ordinary, frightened people access an extraordinary, unshakable God.

So, where are you feeling the pressure today? Rather than strategizing, spiraling, or scheming, what if prayer was your first response, rather than your last resort?” Glorify

Mindset of Control

“She observed how New York is essentially set up to encourage rigidity in people: the city is physically set up as a grid; it requires grind in order to survive; the culture often makes people feel like they’ve never quite ‘made it,’ and as a result it’s easy to forget about pleasure or flow. It produces a mindset of control.” Nadia from Nouri Paris

The Story Continues

“As a doctor, I wish more people understood this:

Your body keeps score, but it also keeps forgiving you.

One walk helps. One good night helps. One real meal helps. One honest conversation helps.

It’s not over because you fell off.

You are alive, which means your story is still not finished.” Brandon Luu, MD

Southern Whimsy

“Everything (in NYC) was meant to serve a purpose. There was hardly room for whimsy or femininity. Trust me, you do not want to wear a sheer, ruffled, floral duster on the subway. But in Florida…” Cara Alwill on life in NYC vs FL

By: Gabriela Yareliz

As someone who always ruled her life by practicality, often shunning beauty for purpose, Cara Alwill is right.

Here in the city, you think of what skirts won’t make the back of your thighs actually touch the subway bench, shorts underneath— in case the train blows your skirt up while you go up the platform stairs or in case you just blackout (skirt over your head) and end up in the post. You are ready to sweat bullets on old trains filled with stale air and as you switch trains multiple times.

Comfortable shoes because you have to walk everywhere. There was this firm attorney who I worked closely with, and before we would head to the negotiating table you could always hear her exclaim, “My shoes!” and she would run back to her backpack and pull out heels. No one is walking in those. And speaking of backpacks, we all look like construction workers carrying backpacks with all of the crap we will need or may need in the day’s long adventure— which will likely be filled with train delays, tourist chaos and maybe a sick passenger or a train that decides to take a different route unexpectedly (dropping you off God-knows-where).

NYC robs us of some femininity and whimsy. When you think of Palm Royale— Maxine doesn’t belong in a NYC subway. She just doesn’t.

But in the South, you drive a car. You sit in air conditioning. Your walks are short, fashionable and intentional. You carry a purse not a damn backpack. You carry lipgloss not a change of shoes. The only reason I am not going full Lilly Pulitzer is due to practical reasons. Practicality strikes again. But in all fairness, I will be walking the conference two mile radius.

Still, summer has just begun. Here is your reminder to not let geography (as much as possible) or practicality take all your whimsy and feminine flair. Let’s take a lesson from the South on whimsy. Maybe life would be more beautiful if we, like Maxine, dressed to play the part.

This Week’s Favorites 06.26.26

By: Gabriela Yareliz

My bag has the goods— and by goods, I mean bagels from Bagel Pub. Bless.

It’s Friday, and it’s time to clean and pack for a trip down South. I am going to dig through and find dressy pants that I can wear with flats and not worry about on my period. Do you have any idea how hard that is for someone petite? That’s the afternoon challenge. Even petite pants some times require something that at least gives you an inch off the floor or it drags. The plight of the short woman. I am thinking dressy linen shorts.

Why do I feel like I am packing for a nerdy camping trip? Except I would never bring this damn work laptop on that type of a trip unless it was to drown it in a river or something. Facts.

I packed my bronzer because I feel like I go nowhere without that bronzer, this summer.

Today, I finished my 21-day The Core challenge. Excited to start the Pyro Summer Strength one. It’s humid and sticky in NYC, today. World Cup tourists abound.

Here are some of the things that caught my eye this week:

Lionel and Candace. Never expected to see these two together back in the day.

“There’s a tiredness that isn’t about sleep; it’s about performing a life that looks good but doesn’t quite fit.” Madison Joseph

Rod Brind’Amour’s speech at the victory parade.

I am not going to lie, this victory parade felt more humble (in budget) than the Florida Panthers one. It lacked some Florida sparkle. Folks went tarps off, though. Raleigh still got lit.

Brind’Amour was all humble and professional, and they ripped his shirt off. Of course they did. This coach is going into his own hall of fame.

The meaning behind his new number eight.

“So when they tell you to niche down, hear the half of it that’s true: get clear. Own a word. Become impossible to confuse with anyone else.” Naomi Omamuli Emiko

(Codie Sanchez on her pregnancy and fear of miscarriage)

“If the baby stays, you’ll be the first to meet them.

If the baby doesn’t stay, I’ll tell you that too.

This is the contract I’m making with you, because the silence is what nearly broke me.

And I will not do it that way anymore.” Codie Sanchez

An old vlog featuring Publix subs 🙂

Song of the week:

Happy weekend! xx

The Secret Garden

“I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us.” Frances Hodgson Burnett

By: Gabriela Yareliz

When I was a teen, we regularly visited an office that offered certain services. The services were not for me, and I would sit in a waiting room for long periods of time. I remember the place had yellowish walls. It was clean, bright and had good snacks. I looked forward to going to this place even though I would just sit and wait.

The regular movie of choice on the corner television was The Secret Garden, one of my favorite books. I spent hours of my life watching this movie on repeat. Given the circumstances in my life, it was fitting. Definitely a comfort movie. No matter how many times I have watched this movie, it never gets old. It just doesn’t. There are so many lessons we can take from it about life.

I was fortunate, later in life, to share this book with my stepdaughter. Its emotional weight for me I think was somehow transmitted, and she understood.

The garden—

The things that lie dormant. The beauty waiting to burst forward. The healing that awaits us all.

What has been locked away for you? Sarah Ban Breathnach says, “We all have a ‘Secret Garden’ in the depths of our soul and the state of that garden depends upon the health and vitality of our inner life, not our outer one. When, through death, debt, divorce, or illness, we are abruptly pulled away from the life we expected to be living, planned for and dreamed about, and suddenly find ourselves in an alien landscape, it is staggering to all our senses: the five physical senses as well as the two spiritual senses-intuition and wonder. What’s so shocking is that this new reality has no timetable.”

Every day, we can take out some weeds, redirect a vine, plant a seed and place hope in the future in the hands of the present. And little by little, a space, a life, a world can be transformed.

Make Meaning

By: Gabriela Yareliz

How do we measure life? I was reflecting on this when Ranier Wylde’s words came to me. Wylde discusses Sisyphus. His piece is great, and it reminded me of how much Stoicism has impacted how I think of things in the world. When faced with a dilemma, I do often stop and think about what is within my control.

Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the mountain— Rainier Wylde describes Albert Camus’ perspective (emphasis added):

“This, Camus said, was life.

[…] He says you have to imagine Sisyphus as happy. Not happy because he changed his mindset in order to like the boulder. It’s not like you can trick yourself into enjoying the suffering. He’s not adopting a stoic zen way of making peace with the world. He’s happy because the boulder is his. The mountain is his. The hours of his life he’s spending on this task are the only hours he’s got and nobody else is going to spend them for him! This is something only he can do. […] But more than that he refuses to let Sisyphus hand the hours over to despair instead of living them fully.”

Wylde writes, “Most days I get up, I push whatever the boulder is in front of me, because it’s there, and I must. I make. I make meaning.”

***

What boulder is in your hands? What is your mountain? What are you doing that only you can do? How do you make meaning?

Saoko

By: Gabriela Yareliz

NYC has felt the influx of people for the World Cup. I have seen large clusters of Brazilians, Algerians, French, and Colombian visitors.

I have been listening to Saoko on repeat. It’s all about change and transformation, after all.

Some of the moments collected in the week (culturally and personally):

The Tkachuks Take Florida

Brady Tkachuk (my fav Tkachuk bro) has been traded to Florida from Ottawa. The Florida Panthers welcome the red blooded American who was in Canada for too long.

The Tkachuk brothers chat about it here. I am excited for this. He is self described as heavier, faster and a more physical player. All the things that make him fascinating to watch.

The comments to the breaking news were iconic. My favorite is that the Florida Panthers now have the best of the U.S. and Canada Olympic rosters. Almost. Practically. Yes.

Some comments said we should just give the cup to Florida already. Ha. Call it, they said.

We’ll see how Paul Maurice works his magic.

Skims Cotton Campaign

Skims tapped Hailey Bieber for its cotton campaign, and it’s iconic. The way Skims campaigns are so on point. Always. It’s something to be studied.

And you know who trains Hailey Bieber for these campaigns? Kirsty Godso of Pyro.

Energy Fusion

I am almost done with The Core’s 21-day Challenge. When I started, I felt the ache and exhaustion in my bones. In my last week, I am feeling different. I feel like I have more energy than I have had in like two years. I am not kidding. And that is better than all the aesthetic marketing out there in the wellness world.

This burst of new-found energy came from a decision to pivot from Pilates-centered workouts. They are great for period days, but I am sort of over it on the reg. I am transitioning into a season of heavy weights and HIIT. Next up is the Pyro summer workouts getting added in. High energy and impact. Going for combustion. (So much sweat guys). Can’t stop, won’t stop.

Maia Henry and Haley Wheeler are launching IT GIRL, next week. Can’t wait to see what that announcement will be.

The Best is Yet to Come

Sometimes, in many aspects of life, we look back and wonder if the best is behind us. It sounds cliché, but we fall into this in subtle and obvious ways.

It can feel nostalgic, sweet, and sometimes, sad. We can take an Eras Tour in our memories. If there is anything I know, it’s that I want this moment and the future to be the best era ever. It will be. It can be. It’s all about what you decide to make it.

Sweating to make it the fullest, most fantastic (and fittest) era of them all. No regress. Only progress.

“Lluvia de estrellas; yo me transformo.” Rosalía