Yesterday I had the loveliest conversation with a sophomore at GW who was interested in becoming a group fitness instructor. It felt very full circle because during my sophomore year is when I met with Erin (the previous fitness and wellness coordinator) about becoming a group fitness instructor. But my conversation with Emily (fake name for anonymity) was so fundamentally different than my conversation with Erin 6 years ago.

It’s 12:15pm in the afternoon on a Monday. I’m on hour five of my first full day back in the office after 14 months of remote or hybrid work. I’ve refreshed my email 12 times in the past 15 minutes. No new emails. I sit at my desk in the windowless office given to me a mere two weeks before the pandemic, so the walls are white, covered with absolutely nothing. My faux wood desk contains a bottle of Clorox disinfecting spray, the work computer I haven’t touched since February 2020, and an empty bottle of lavender hand sanitizer from Whole Foods that was exorbitantly priced. What the hell am I doing?

I posted a reel on Saturday about how 16-year-old Mallory decided to give up sweets on a 5 day cruise from Italy to Greece. The apex of the story comes when we got off the cruise ship to explore a little town in Italy and my step sister bought a cinnamon roll from a market nearby and offered me a bite. I decidedly, with the discipline of a very tormented person, said that I was not eating sweets and did not want a bite. I’m sure I said it in a very kind way. I very much regret that moment. First of all, I remember it looking VERY delicious. Secondly, I was in Italy refusing a baked good?! Who does that? I’ve honestly thought of that moment multiple times since, imaginarily punching myself for not taking a bite of this probably-delectable roll.

During January on F*ck Wellness, Lara, Makena, and I discussed the Grit Scale, developed by psychology researcher Angela Duckworth. We knew about the concept at the time, but a lot of people messaged us that they were big fans of her work, so I felt obliged to give the entire book a read. 

On this week’s episode of F*ck Wellness, I had the privilege of chatting with my friends, Carrie and Zack, about what sexual health looks like on a college campus. Carrie and Zack are on the sexual health task force of the GW Capital Peers, a student-run peer health education group on campus. I was a part of the GW Capital Peers when I was in graduate school and met Carrie and Zack on the task force while I was there.

During the month of March, GTG has been focusing on sexuality and whew is there a lot of shame with that one. I don’t think I need to go into the details of how sexual repression or lack of acceptance can lead to shame. If you want more of that conversation check out our pod episodes this month.

On this week’s episode of F*ck Wellness, Lara, Mallory, and Makena bring on nine incredible and thoughtful women to tell their therapy stories to conclude our month of discussing relationships. This episode is dedicated to highlighting and normalizing therapy and those who go to therapy in our society. We want to thank each of these women for their vulnerability, honesty, and deep insights into mental health, barriers to therapy, and the lessons they’ve learned. Each woman’s story was unique, multi-faceted, and we feel so lucky to be able to share them on our platform.

The F*ck Wellness podcast this week focuses on normalizing and destigmatizing therapy. The GTG Team (with the help of Emily Schwerdtfeger, our future marriage and family therapist) put together some resources to help you navigate therapy and mental health services. Let’s dive in!

Love can be blinding, or -- should I say -- what you think is love can be blinding. It’s like being blindfolded, walking through life and not being able to actually see what’s right in front of you; not being able to appropriately react to the curb you’re about to step off of.

On this week’s episode of F*ck Wellness called “Body Con Dresses, High School Dances, & First Loves,” Lara, Mallory, and Makena reminisce about important relationships and friendships during their late high school and college years. The first iteration of this conversation can be heard on our first episode in February called “F*ck Fourth Grade.”

My parents got divorced when I was little. I don’t remember it being particularly traumatic. Then again, I was two years old. I had my fair share of Parent Trap moments over the years, but I liked my step parents. I loved getting gifts from four people (plus all of their families!) for the holidays and felt satisfied with the amount of love I had in my life. I generally existed in the world without the weight of divorce on my mind.

During the month of February, the GTG community is putting a spotlight on relationships. We know what you’re thinking -- these Bachelor obsessed girls are about to preach at me about how to spice up my relationship and give me tips that seem like they could come from that one podcast that rhymes with “tall her zaddy”. Well, hate to break to ya but we might actually be the complete opposite.

I’ve spent the last three weeks thinking about discipline for Generation Three Girls’ January theme and I have so many thoughts that my brain may explode. The more I research and learn about discipline, the more I realize how many layers there are. Discipline and privilege. Discipline and moral value. Discipline and responsibility.

On the fourth and final episode of January called “Is Your Discipline Expansive?,” Makena and Reena SenGupta chat about discipline in the world of spirituality. Makena starts the podcast by explaining why she prefers the term dedication over discipline.

On this week’s episode of F*ck Wellness, “The Allure of Discipline: A Case Study of Lara Vanderbilt”, Lara explores how growing up in primarily disciplined environments shaped her identity and personality. She talks about the challenges of transitioning out of the Coast Guard Academy, how she is relearning who she is after spending so many years with a structured and prescribed life, and how she believes discipline can be incredibly helpful, but sometimes destructive.

Generation Three Girls continues our January focus on discipline with a new episode of F*ck Wellness, “Discipline or Abuse? A Conversation about Athletics, Group Fitness, and Performing Arts”. Continuing the conversation from last week’s deep dive on discipline, Lara, Mallory, and returning guest, Meredith Clemons, discuss the good, the bad, and the hopeful of discipline in fitness. 

On this week’s episode of F*ck Wellness called “Discipline, the Grit Scale, and How Society Measures Success”, Mallory, Lara, and Makena unpack the term ‘discipline.’ Makena, our internet whiz, googled the term and came up with this definition based on the initial results: “the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior using punishment to correct disobedience.” YIKES. 

On this week’s episode of F*ck Wellness called “F*ck New Year’s Resolutions,” the GTG team talked about how we are throwing out resolutions and goals in favor of habits and intentions in 2021. New Year’s resolutions, a preferred sales tool of the wellness industry, have become synonymous with diets, workout plans, restriction, and control. The problem is that the research is pretty clear that resolutions are not effective. Most people drop them within days or weeks. So how can we meet our new intentions without goals, you may ask? The answer is habit-setting.

My mom sat across from me crying, choking down bites of french toast and scrambled eggs as the waitresses watched uncomfortably from a distance. She was distraught because for the past few days she had been unable to eat more than a few bites at a time without gagging. We had a lot on our minds, first and foremost the phone conversation we’d had with my step-dad the night before at a resupply station a third of the way through our backpacking trip.

Late in my freshman year, I was at a fraternity party on a random Friday night. I spent the good part of an hour talking to a boy my age who was friendly and engaging but who I had little intention of going home with. I wasn’t drinking because I had work early in the morning, and while he was drinking, it didn’t seem to be hindering our conversation. After an hour or so, I told him that I was heading home because I had an opening shift at work in the morning. When he offered to walk me home, I didn’t think much of it. The walk was less than 8 minutes, but somehow in that time he invited me back to his dorm multiple times. I kept changing the topic or ignoring his invitations, but I never explicitly said no.