55 is a great time to reevaluate.
If you don't know this about me, I like clothes. Always have.
I have photos of myself in every decade posing in some outfit I thought was the bee's knees.
Here's me at 13. I'll let you guess what decade this is in 😄
This snap features my Dad's jacket, a beloved Benetton sweater, my brothers when they were little—not shown —my cool slip skirt, and lace-up boots.
Cut to today. My size has remained stable over the last decade and a half, so I've been loath to toss anything (it still fits!). But in that time, my closet had outgrown my life. My knees don't love high heels anymore. I don't need so many dress-up things.
I noticed that I felt so overwhelmed walking into my closet that I had trouble seeing everything I had. Plus, I tended to gravitate to a few high-quality pieces that were comfortable, flattering, and worked well with one another.
COOK! Module: Tools I Recommend
I'm in my classics era.
It was time for a big 'ol cleanout. I'm at the tail-end of sorting through every piece of clothing I own. While it was a giant pain, I'm already loving the result.
I can see my clothes, not hunt for them.
Getting dressed is now simple.
I like what I'm wearing, and outfit repeats aren't boring at all.
You know, the exact approach that's kept me eating healthfully for a decade and a half.
Modularity. Quality. A curated selection.
There's a real joy to making a dish on repeat, but before I opine on that, what you see in these various photos is more than some glorious salads.
It's one salad (this one's a meal) that I refine and remake week after week.
Just like my wardrobe, I pull from a stable of high-quality ingredients to combine them into a slightly refined effect.
COOK! Module: <START HERE> Dressings Are Cooking Architecture 🏛️
Olive oil, tahini, garlic, lemon, sherry vinegar, chili paste, salt.
The salad can be lacinato kale or any fresh leaves.
COOK! Alongs Module: How To Make a Kale Salad That Doesn't Suck
I add smoked canned tuna, roasted potatoes, or both. Roasted beets and grated, fresh beets. Really, whatever's in season.
Chopped apple counters the spicy dressing.
The key: every one of these ingredients can be used in multiple ways.
No outfits that can only be worn one way.
It's healthy, wildly delicious, and always a little different.
That's the whole trick — with clothes, and with food.
Dressing became easier because I built a smaller, better system: fewer pieces, higher quality, endlessly recombinable. Decisions I made once, in advance, instead of fifty times a week in a crowded closet.
You need a dish you can make from memory with veggies you keep on hand.
COOK! Module: (Dark, Leafy) Greens Make Life Good 🥬
Eating well works the same way. It's about designing a system easy enough that healthy is just what happens by default — the same way pulling together an outfit is easy now that my closet only holds things I actually reach for.
A stable of good ingredients. Making one insanely delicious salad over and over.
A few reliable moves you don't have to relearn every night.
That's it. That's the whole closet. That's the whole plate.
Health at midlife is closer to an apprenticeship than a plan
–and it's definitely not another diet.
If you don't own these courses and want them, here are the links to buy.
- Don't diet. COOK! — A no-recipe, modular cooking system that teaches you to make real food every day without gadgets, meal planning, or hours of prep.
- It's The Food — A method you can learn in one day to quickly identify if a food is overprocessed junk, regardless of what the package claims.
- Hey Sugar — Teaches the fundamentals of having sugar without letting it rule and upend your life.
Yours in joyful living,
Rebecca
PS. This might be a surprise to researchers, but not to me. Food and food by-products behave differently in the body. I've been pointing this out for almost two decades 👌
PPS. I'm writing a book! I'm about halfway done. Details forthcoming.
