Latest / Blush / The Key to Being Hotter & Happier in 2026

Transcript

The Key to Being Hotter & Happier in 2026 · Blush

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When I really analyzed my life, I think what I'm truly after is
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to be healthy, hot, and happy. And I think that there is one
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word that's truly the cheat code for achieving that.
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Now, before I get into what the word actually is, I want to kind
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of talk about what I mean when I say hot, healthy and happy
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because different people mean different things.
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I'm not saying these are like the dictionary definitions of
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these words. It's just what I mean when I say
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them. So when I say hot, I think that
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there is kind of three elements to hot and that's skin, body and
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what I called the toppings because I think those two are
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the base and the rest is the topping.
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And specifically with skin, I strive to have a clear skin
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that's blemish free, that's kind of even in tone and texture
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etcetera. I strive to have skin that's
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really plump and juicy, so not a lot of visible lines and you
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know, just like sagginess and whatever.
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I strive to have skin that's naturally glowy without having
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to put on makeup. Just like very radiant, shiny.
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Yeah, radiant. And trying to hear the words
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that come up for glowy. And the last thing that I strive
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for with my skin, which honestly leads into the body thing, is
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like not having a lot of puffiness like I actually do
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currently in this moment, a lot of puffiness all over, including
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in my skin. Actually, right now, my skin is
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kind of failing on all accounts. I'm about to get my period.
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I'm having a very strange cycle where I'm having so much acne.
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Wait, by the way, happy New Year.
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We can talk about this. Like, welcome to the first.
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I mean, obviously the podcast has been here for a while, but
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the first episode of this year and the first official blush
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dish session. How fun is that?
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OK, so back to this. Yeah, I am about to get my
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period. I, I, it must be a weird cycle
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for me hormonally because my skin wants to break out a lot
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now because I do so much skin care, it's having a hard time
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truly breaking out. Like it's kind of getting nipped
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in the bud but I have like little red dots all over my
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face. I have sunscreen on right now so
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it might not be super visible because my sunscreen has a tint,
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a bit of a tint and shimmer to it.
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Not like as much as foundation but enough to kind of cover it
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up. So it might not be super visible
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right now, but my skin is like not doing so good body wise.
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What I aim for is being really strong, not being like puffy,
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bloated, things like that. And then also like feeling
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comfortable in my body. And there is like a threshold, I
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don't know what weight it is or anything like that, but there's
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a moment where I feel not inflamed in my body.
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That's what I always strive for. And when I say the toppings, I
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mean things like being put together or feeling comfortable,
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like accessorizing things like that, just like feeling put
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together rather than my go to tends to be, especially when I
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don't feel good about myself is to like completely let myself
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go. I wear like old ratty T-shirts,
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you know, things with stains on them, things that are like
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dirty. Like that's, that's kind of how
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I've been living. I am recording this kind of a
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bit ahead of time because I'm about to go to Australia for a
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month. Like I have been living the past
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two weeks in like really kind of like ratty, dirty, gross clothes
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because I just haven't been feeling very good about myself
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and I haven't wanted to put in that effort.
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But like, that's not hot, you know?
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Now, when I say happy, I really don't mean like being happy all
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the time, but more so like being bubbly, being confident, being
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pleasant to be around, being fun to be around.
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And when I say confident, by the way, that's also a term that I
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think people, like, use differently.
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I know Mel Robbins has like a little definition of confidence.
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I don't know if hers is like necessarily accurate or if it's
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just what she made-up. Who knows.
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Who literally who cares what I mean when I say confident is
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secure and self assured and self validated.
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That's what I mean by that. I mean, like if someone doesn't
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text you for a few hours, like I, I'm currently not very
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confident. So one of my best friends hasn't
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texted me in like a day and I'm like, oh, she hates me.
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Fuck her. I'm never going to talk to her
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again. Instead of just like sitting and
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be like, maybe she's busy, maybe she's with her family, maybe
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she's doing things, maybe her phone broke, you know, like you
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haven't even texted her. What is it that you need from
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her? You know, I'm not going through
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those spirals. Like not like I'm currently in
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this era, like I said, where I'm not very confident.
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I need so much reassurance from Ozzy constantly that I'm like
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doing well in life. Like that's unreasonable.
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Like I should be giving myself that validation.
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I should be secure enough and I should just like feel good
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enough about myself to be able to go for the things that I
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want, which I also lump under happiness.
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I like when I'm happy. My life looks a lot more like
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the way I want my life to look. And because like being happy
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allows me to pursue the things that mean a lot to me, whether
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that be like socializing, having friends, having community, or
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whether that's my job. Like, I'm far more productive,
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I'm far more creative, and I'm far more prolific when I'm
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happy. Like I'm excited to show up and
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do things. And I found that to always be
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the case even before I did this, even when I just had like a
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regular office job. So that's what I mean by hot,
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and that's what I mean by happy. Now moving on to healthy again,
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this is not how other people define the word.
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It's just truly like when I like say I do like health or Wellness
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content or whatever, Ultimately my goals with being healthy
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isn't to like live to 100 and whatever 80 like I just heard
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Dave Asper say on a podcast. My goal isn't, I don't know, to
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like have these like some people like brag about their biological
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age being so much trigger. I don't give a modicum of a fuck
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What I kind of care, but I only care as a measure of like, OK,
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are the things that I'm doing working?
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You know what I mean? But it's not about any of that
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stuff. When I say healthy, I mean the
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ability to be hot and happy. Like to me, being healthy is
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like the foundation for everything else that matters.
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Like a good analogy I think would be healthy is the seed.
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Hot and happy are like the branches and the leaves and the
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flowers and the fruit of the tree.
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Like no one really cares about the seed.
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You have to have the seed in order to have the other things.
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But it's not like the seed is the end goal.
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The fruits and the flower and maybe the leaves and the
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branches and stuff like that are the end goal.
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That's why you plant a fucking tree.
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It's not so you have this like beautiful seed.
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And I think the same thing here. Like I don't do all of my
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Wellness things just so I can like check, check a box and be
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like, look at me. I'm so healthy.
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I do it so that I I can be hot and I can be happy.
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Like that's what matters to me. Maybe that's wrong, I don't
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know, but I think it's good anyway.
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So let's move on to the one word.
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Now. I actually realized this when I
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was in San Francisco a few months ago.
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I think I talked about on the November Blush Kitchen episode,
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I believe that was it. I talked about how it became
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really transfixed by Japanese culture while I was out there.
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And there are certain kind of like principles and philosophies
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from Japanese culture that I know about, mainly because I've
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seen dumb like memes about it on Instagram years ago.
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Like one that I think we all know about now is ikigai, which
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is like the reason, reason for being.
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It's like your purpose on this planet.
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If you're not familiar with that, actually let me know.
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I'm happy to do a full episode on it.
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You know what's more less problematic than someone who's
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not from a certain culture taking a concept from that
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culture and doing an entire episode on it?
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Like there's some kind of fucking expert.
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And I'd heard of other things. Like, I know there's this thing
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in Japanese ceramics where if it breaks, then you put it back
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together with a little gold and you don't try to hide the crack.
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And the concept is that like the crack makes it stronger or
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whatever. Like I knew about these like
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little concepts from Japanese culture, but while I was there
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and I became so transfixed by Japanese culture, I asked Trachi
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BT I was like, oh, what are some concepts from Japanese culture,
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like philosophies, whatever. And as I was reading through
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them, one really jumped out at me.
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It's Ma. MA was how it was transcribed,
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so I I assume it's pronounced ma, but what the fuck do I know?
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It means the power of space. And this is how Chachi BT
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defined it for me. The meaningful gap between
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things. It's the pause in music that
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makes the notes beautiful. The empty space in a room that
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creates calm. The silence and conversation
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that lets ideas land. It is an emptiness but
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purposeful breathing room that gives shape, clarity and
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appreciation. Appreciation for whatever
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surrounds it. So in that moment I have this
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week, aha moment where I realized all of my problems can
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actually come down to a lack of space.
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So for example, one of the big problems that I had last year
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was overwhelm, poor time management, overspending,
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rebuying things that I already have, creating a lot of waste,
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creating a lot of clutter, etcetera.
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All of that really comes down to a lack of physical space.
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Another problem that I had big time last year was a lot of
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bloating, puffiness, potentially even my sinus issues, I think
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could come down to a lack of physical space in my stomach,
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like a lack of gastrointestinal space.
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And lastly, something I really dealt with Auster was
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overthinking spiraling mood swings, just like being very
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impulsive and rash. And that I think actually comes
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down to a lack of auditory space, like just an inability to
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deal with empty space truly is the root to all of my problems.
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And all of that led to me not taking up space.
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You know, when I was in law school, one of my, my kind of
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best guy friend at the time, I like really had friend zone.
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This one guy who like literally was in love with him.
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He was so fucked up. I've talked about it in the past
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how I would friend zone guys all the time and like take these
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guys who like literally had crushes on me and like make them
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kind of my de facto boy boyfriend without any of the
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perks of being my boyfriend. It's really fucked up.
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Like I'm not, I feel like I'm not a great person, you know,
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but I'm really trying. I think I, I think I've gotten a
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lot better and maybe in a few years I'll actually be a decent
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person. I don't know.
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Anyway, we went to Seattle together to see fish Play and we
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met up with my best friend at the time and her husband and
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they actually came to fish with us, but I think like the day
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before because we were there for a few days.
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So before we went to see Fish, I remember all these details don't
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matter, by the way, We were out to dinner and my friend's
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husband said he had just finished his MBA program and he
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said that he had seen this Ted Talk.
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Now, this was back when Ted Talks actually meant something.
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You know, it was like not everyone could give a Ted Talk
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back then, but he saw this Ted talk about how you should do the
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Superman pose for confidence, which is, I think you like kind
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of X out your arms and your legs.
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It's like a way to take up as much space as possible.
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And so he said he did it. He would go in the bathroom when
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he was doing his interviews in Business School for jobs.
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He would go in the bathroom right before the interview and
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just stand in the Superman pose for like a minute and then go
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in. And he said that it made him so
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much more confident. And now this is all very
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metaphorical and dare I say poetic a little bit.
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But I think that by having such an extreme lack of space in
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every area of my life, it made it so that I physically could
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not take up space. And I just started shrinking.
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Like I didn't want to do anything.
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I didn't want to be seen. I didn't want to be on camera.
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I didn't want to socialize. I didn't want to do any of the
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things that actually matter to me.
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And it's because instead of having the space for those
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things that matter to me, I filled all those spaces by
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overeating, by over consuming, by over shopping, by just like
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cramming things in. You know, when I moved to New
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York in the end of 2018, I brought one big suitcase, one
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carry on size suitcase, a few of my plants and Samantha's stuff
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and that's it. That's all the stuff I had.
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I didn't even have boxes. OK, somehow over the course of
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the past, just over six years or No, no, like just over 7 years,
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I should say 7 years and like 2 months, I have accumulated so
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much shit that the drawers in like anything, my coffee table,
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the TV stand, my well, not so much my dresser anymore because
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I did do a big decluttering project on that last year.
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Like drawers are overstuffed, everything is overstuffed.
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Like I've accumulated so much physical crap, 90% of which I
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never even fucking touch. OK, like that's how out of hand
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it's gotten. I like to, in the latter half of
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last year would eat to the point where I'd feel physically I'll
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like if there was even a modicum of space, I would fill it all of
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like the time, time in the day. I'd be playing podcasts, playing
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music, like talking to friends. Like there was never silence.
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There was just never empty space.
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And what I'm really yearning and craving for so much this year is
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more space. And do you remember how last
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year, I think I talked about this on the podcast, I mentioned
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how my word of the year was light.
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I actually, so my word of the year this year I would say is
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space. But I think that they're
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completely connected because you need space for light to come in.
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Like if everything like think if you have a window that has no
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empty space in front of it, there's just like shit covering
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the window, light isn't going to get in.
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But when you have space, then light comes in.
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Without space, there's no light, but I don't think vice versa
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works anyway. So all of that to say, these are
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the things that I want to do differently this year.
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I'm not going to go very deep into any of them because of the
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new format of the show. You know, I'm trying to be a lot
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more respectful of your time, but let me know if there are any
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of these that you want more details on.
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And I'm happy to do its own episode on the subject.
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So number one is I want to create physical space.
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So for that I really want to get rid of like 75% of my
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possessions. I want to keep my counters and
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surfaces largely clear other than intentionally placed design
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elements, right? Like, for example, my kitchen
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counter has a big fruit bowl on it.
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That's not clutter. That's like aesthetically
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pleasing. Or like putting a vase with some
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flowers on it. Again, aesthetically pleasing.
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But what I don't want is like a billion things covering it.
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Like it can be a few select items.
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Like when my counters are clear, I think so much better.
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I breathe better. And you know, it's funny,
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actually, Ozzy's friend and I were having a conversation the
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other day. He's a professional
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videographer, and I was talking about this clutter stuff to him.
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And he's like, oh, yeah, when you get rid of some of your
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stuff, you're going to see your creativity flow in a way that
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you haven't seen before because there's space for it to come.
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And I think he's so right. And I also really want to stay
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on top of cleaning. But yeah, like, I want my
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drawers, everything inside of drawers, to be really organized
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and not overstocked. Like everything has to have room
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to breathe. The second thing I really want
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to do differently this year is to aim to be 80% full.
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And this is actually another Japanese principle that I would
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argue has a lot of intersection with MA.
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This Japanese principle is called harahachi Boo and it
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means to eat until you're 80% full.
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There is some evidence to suggest that people who practice
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harahachi Boo live longer, have better metabolic and
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cardiovascular health, are happier, fitter, more
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productive, have better skin. All that being said though, I
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didn't personally come across any like double-blind controlled
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studies on this. Maybe they exist, but you know,
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I'm not like trained in searching pub meds, so I don't
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like really know what I'm doing. Everything I came across is more
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of like observational studies where there's correlation, which
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obviously we know isn't causation.
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And I'm not saying that like having no clutter automatically
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means that you're going to live longer.
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That would be a crazy assertion. But I do think the type of
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person who doesn't have a lot of clutter in their space is also
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the type of person who's going to do a lot of other things that
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coincide with their health. Now, when people say like, oh,
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aim to be 80% full or whatever, that's something that I find
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very, very hard to implement. So I really did a lot of
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research and a lot of thinking, and I tried to come up with
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really concrete ways that I can implement this this year.
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And here's what I came up with that I'm going to really try to
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practice #1 is eat slowly. So take small bites.
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I'm not going to overfill my mouth and I'm going to chew each
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bite at least 15 times. Now for a small bite, that's a
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lot of chewing. If it's like a massive, I was
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like testing this out earlier. If it's a massive mouthful of
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food, then 15 times really is not that much.
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You know what I mean? But that's it, goes hand in hand
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with taking smaller bites. And the other thing I really
19:07
want to do is put my fork or chopsticks or spoon or whatever
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the fuck I'm using to eat with down in between H bites.
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So literally what I would like to do is pick up swork.
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Pick up swork at this point. Spork, Take a small bite, put it
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in my mouth, put swork down. You know what I think we need
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Blush branded sporks. Now Put spork down 2 minimum 15
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times, swallow, then pick up spork and do it all over again.
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But that's only the tip of the iceberg.
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The other thing that I want to implement that I think will make
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it easier to eat till I'm 80% full is use a smaller plate that
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I that I usually use and serve myself 3/4 of the amount I would
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usually serve myself. And then once I'm finished with
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that amount, wait. 15 minutes and if I'm genuinely still
20:08
hungry, like to the point where I'm like, no, all I can think
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about is food. Like I really need to eat more
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than go serve myself a bit more. And the last kind of tip I found
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that I really, really want to try out for aiming to be 80%
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full is to stop eating when food stops tasting super good and
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becomes just like, oh, this is pleasant.
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Now, this only really works if if, if your food is good, you
20:41
know what I mean? If you were eating something
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that tasted mediocre to begin with, then it's going to be a
20:46
harder one to gauge. But I still think it works if
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you started eating when you were actually really hungry.
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You know, I majored in economics when I went to the college, when
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I went to the college, when I went to college, you know, back
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in the 1500s, like back at like the turn of the century, back
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when I used to ride my horse and buggy to school, I studied
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economics. And in economics there's this
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concept called diminishing marginal returns.
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So if you've like taken any economics, I'm sure you know
21:19
what I'm talking about, Although I think it's something that a
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lot of people struggle to understand.
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So I'll actually explain what it means, like from the get go.
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So returns are the benefit that you're getting, the pleasure,
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let's say that you're getting from something marginal.
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Returns are the difference between the amount of returns
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that you're getting in each go. So let's talk about a pizza,
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right? Let's say you're really, really
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hungry and you buy a whole pizza.
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The amount of pleasure that you get from eating slice one is the
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returns that you're getting from slice one.
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The amount of pleasure that you get from eating slice 2 is the
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returns that you're getting from slice 2.
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The marginal returns for slice 2 are the difference between the
22:12
pleasure, the pleasure that you got from slice one and the
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pleasure that you got from slice 2.
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Now in economics, which is a little bit imperfect, your total
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returns are always going to go up.
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So no matter how much pizza you eat, you're always going to be a
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little bit better off from eating more and more and more
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pizza. Obviously we know that to not be
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entirely true because you do hit a point like let's say, OK, you
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finish one whole pizza. I would imagine by pizza too,
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you're actually starting to get like physically uncomfortable if
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you keep going. But let's just say your returns
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keep going up. Your marginal returns are always
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going to go down. The amount of pleasure that you
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get from slice 2 is more than just slice one because you got
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more pizza. But let's say you get like 10
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units of pleasure from slice one.
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You're not going to get 10 more units from slice two.
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You're going to get like 8 units of pleasure from slice 2.
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This is such a stupid example, I don't know if anyone's even
23:16
following it anymore. So your marginal returns for
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slice two or two, but then for slice 3, let's say you're
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getting 6 units of pleasure or no?
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No, you're getting 5, 5 units of pleasure.
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OK, You know what? The system is falling apart.
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What I'm trying to say is like when you eat slice three, yes,
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you're going to feel like fuller and more energized than when you
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just have two slices. But the amount that you're like,
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the difference in pleasure is consistently going down.
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And I think everyone knows what I mean, OK?
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Like when you're really fucking hungry, that first bite of food
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is like the best thing you've ever had.
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Bite 4 is like, still good, but it's not nearly as good as bite
24:01
one. And then eventually, if you get
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to bite like 4882, it's just dog shit.
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You know, You see what I'm saying?
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So you want to stop eating when the food stops being like,
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really good. And it's just kind of like,
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yeah, it is what it is. Or another way to think of it
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that I think actually might be a lot more concrete for most
24:21
people and doesn't involve this stupid economics example that I
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clearly didn't think through and probably should have never
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fucking brought up. Stop eating.
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This is what I'm going to do. I'm not going to tell you to do
24:33
anything. Also, if you have any sort of
24:36
history of disordered eating, maybe not for you.
24:39
I want to stop eating when I could comfortably take five more
24:44
bites of food, but not stop eating to the point where like
24:50
30 minutes later I'm like, Oh my God, I'm still starving.
24:53
And I think that it might require a little bit of
24:55
experimentation for me to actually see what that sweet
24:58
spot is. Anyway, these are the things
25:01
that I wanted to, Oh, I forgot the very last thing.
25:05
So as far as the quote UN quote auditory space, I already talked
25:10
about last year how I was starting to implement more
25:13
silent time. One of my concrete goals for
25:16
this year is to have a 12 hour phone fast every single day.
25:21
And I think that'll automatically give me more quiet
25:24
time because right now I'm not even that far off from 12 hours,
25:29
by the way. So the way that I currently at
25:32
the time of this recording live is I, I got in the jazz shower
25:40
between 8:00 to 9:00 PMI usually am still using my phone at that
25:45
point 'cause I put on jazz, you know, you know, that works.
25:49
So I do still touch my phone screen and then I after the
25:54
shower, I put it away. I don't touch it again till
25:56
after my morning pages the next day, which I usually finish
26:00
around like 7:10 to 7:20 AM, That's when I start using it
26:04
again. So let's say from like 9:00 PM
26:08
to 7:00. So it's like I'm already doing
26:11
like 10 hours, you know what I mean?
26:13
I just have to tack on a little bit more at night and a little
26:16
bit more in the morning. So that might look like my Josh
26:19
hour becoming a silent shower. Sure.
26:22
It might look like not touching my phone until right.
26:28
I mean, I think I'm going to have to kind of do both of
26:30
these. So basically I'd have to take a
26:32
silent walk to solid core in the morning and then right before
26:36
solid core, I open my phone just to track my workout in the aura
26:40
app. And then after that I can
26:41
probably properly use it. That's going to be a that's like
26:45
that two hours of waking time that I'm tacking on where I'm
26:49
completely phoneless. I think it's going to be a bit
26:51
of big game changer. Like I'm really fucking excited
26:54
to do this. OK, that's everything.
26:57
You know, we're not doing foods that make you blush anymore.
26:59
We're not doing grateful's anymore.
27:00
Although we already kind of had fallen off of these.
27:03
But on Thursday, go check out blush kitchen.
27:07
I the episode is like basically one ingredient that's going to
27:12
help you be hotter, healthier and happier.
27:15
So very much In Sync with this episode.
27:17
And I make two really comforting, nourishing, but
27:21
super, super, super healthy recipes with this one
27:24
ingredient. I'm so fucking excited for you
27:28
to watch. Like the food is so good.
27:29
This is actually one of the recipes that I've had to test
27:32
and retest and tweak the most, but I think it's going to be
27:36
really, really good. So I'm really excited for you to
27:38
watch. That's it.
27:40
Don't forget rate review, subscribe, all of the, you know,
27:44
dumb shit, share the episode with people, yadda yadda, yadda.
27:47
Love you. We'll talk next week.