BEAUTY & GRIT
As the wellness industry explodes, these two mavericks come from highly different backgrounds, yet both are seriously elevating their game.
One came from Hollywood royalty and integrated wellness into her life and work. The other overcame obesity through a military career and enduring the unimaginable rigors of ultramarathons. These two standouts will keep you inspired to sweat and glow while on the road.
KATE HUDSON
Actor Kate Hudson, 42, was barely over 30 when she began to infuse her life and public profile with wellness. The shift came in 2013, when she co-founded the fitness brand and membership program Fabletics; her efforts continued with her 2016 book, Pretty Happy: Healthy Ways to Love Your Body. Of course, the archetype for the movie star-fitness guru was Jane Fonda, who launched a cottage industry of exercise videos in the early ‘80s, pioneering an industry while her film career was thriving. Like Fonda, Hudson, the daughter of Oscar-winning actor Goldie Hawn, has long been wise to the vagaries of show business and decided early on not to put her eggs in one basket — and to seek a more balanced personal and profession life.
What Fonda was to the VHS video, Hudson is to social media. She enjoys an Instagram following of 14.8 million — a staggering following cultivated by inviting viewers into her workout routines. In one post, she shows off her impressive dancing prowess (in bare feet and sans makeup) to the strains of “All Through the Night.” In another, she’s in the kitchen, concocting a lemon and ginger smoothie turbocharged with products from her travel-ready nutritional powder and supplement line, INBLOOM. If the videos lack the slickness of Hudson’s Hollywood hits Fool’s Gold and Bride Wars, that’s the point. Hudson has mastered the form — daily unpretentious glamour and relatability — and her wellness entrepreneurship might lead to a longer shelf-life, prove more lucrative, and provide the key to a healthier life than movie stardom. --tobeinbloom.com
DAVID GOGGINS
Forty-seven-year-old David Goggins is a different kind of fitness role model, rougher-edged, to say the least. His 4.8 million Instagram followers are well-versed in his aggressive, often expletive-laden lessons, delivered in his signature military-man cadence while he’s working out. In a typical post, the sweat collects during a stationary bike session; the triceps strain and striate in the middle of a set of cable pulldowns, performed shirtless. Travelers know that a cable pulldown machine can be found in most luxury hotel gyms, but if equipment isn’t available, Goggins shows his enthusiasm for a simple outdoor run. No surprise there: Goggins is an ultramarathoner who, in 2008, was named a “Hero of Running” by Runner’s World.
The fitness icon was once obese, but that was during the “before times” — before his 20-year military career (he served in Iraq and Afghanistan, first in the Air Force, then as a Navy SEAL). Goggins’ journey to peak physical achievement is a story of overcoming adversity — from the abuse he suffered as a child, detailed in his memoir Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds (2018), to slights he still receives from his family, even now, about his obsession for running. “Those that criticize others—they’ve really got something going on with themselves,” he notes via a post, a reminder that peak fitness is as much about discipline of mind as it is discipline of body. --davidgoggins.com
WELLNESS FOR WOMEN
Cal-a-Vie Spa’s female inspired event series.
As women are leading increasingly busy lives — whether a stay-at-home Mom or an on-the-go CEO, taking a time out can be just as critical as go time. Nestled along gorgeous land near San Diego, the European inspired Cal-a-Vie spa and retreat hosts specific Women’s Weeks throughout the year. Expect to sweat, decompress, enjoy spa treatments, plus find inspiration among a group of like-minded women.