The Phelan Well Journal Is Now The Well Hell Substack

About Helen & Well Hell

Why subscribe to Well Hell on Substack?

In my experience teaching boutique fitness in NYC for nearly 10 years, people tend to think of wellness as a binary:

The hardcore, diet culture-y, body shame-y, “never miss a Monday”, quarterly Prolon fasting, “we all have the same 24 hours in a day” girlies that encourage disordered toxic fitness behaviors…

….and the anti-diet world that definitely means well but can sometimes villainize fitness goals or any movement practice outside of Yoga or gentle stretching.

I created my online pilates studio, and now this new Substack newsletter, to reach the real life people in between:

Those who actually DO enjoy working hard in a class but also want to divest from diet culture. Those who get off on PRs but know counting macros and obsessing about “clean” foods isn’t healthy. The people who think the beauty myth is patriarchal propaganda but can’t yet surrender their inner girl’s girl who loves makeup and fashion. (I myself recognize the problematic aspects of skincare marketing but I am not yet evolved enough to part with my daily routine). The people who understand that anti-diet doesn’t equal anti-health and the ones who know how the fitness world can be simultaneously empowering and dangerous. Truthfully, I think there are a lot more of us out there like me than social media would have us believe. Two things can be true at once.

And if you’re still an intuitive wellness skeptic— I definitely get it! You can cut yourself some slack if you’re not quite ready to quit dieting yet. While practicing intuitive eating and exercising has been nothing short of a radical transformation that improved my mental and physical health in myriad ways, it also took me years to get to this place. As the saying goes “hate the diet, not the dieter”. Wherever you land on the spectrum, I’m glad you’re here. Well Hell a play on my name, and an exploration of how hypocritical and counterintuitive the wellness industry can sometimes be.

The free subscription includes my monthly wish list (check out this free post to get a sneak peek), product recommendations, articles/podcasts/books worth reading around “wellness”, spirituality, and self care. If you love it and want to support my small business, the paid version dives a little deeper on making sense of an industry that seems to care more about the beauty myth and capitalism than your actual well-being, intuitive eating tips and recipes attempts, pilates technique Q+As, and of course memes making light of all of the above!

Stay up-to-date and trial it out

You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox and you can check out the archive all in one place on Well Hell. There’s a free week trial for you to scope out the paid version to see if it’s a fit for you, and you can always drop down to the unpaid tier at any time.