Vitamin F
Every morning, my feet hit the floor and I go through the same ritual: a big glass of water, vitamins lined up on my bathroom counter, and a sense that I am, at the very least, trying. So when my doctor went through my supplement lineup at last week's annual checkup, he basically said overkill, and I laughed. He told me that all I need is a balanced diet, strength training, moderate cardio, decent sleep and a good sex life. And I said, okay, fair. But I said there is one vitamin I absolutely cannot give up. Vitamin F. He looked at me sideways for a second. And then he got it. Friends.
Before I do almost anything else in the morning, while I am having my coffee, I'm texting my girlfriends. Good morning. Thinking of you. Did you see this? It's a small thing, but it anchors me. Some days it's the first real moment of connection I have, and honestly, it sets the tone for everything that follows.
And lately I find myself thinking about this more, about friendship as its own kind of health practice. We spend so much energy talking about what we eat, what we take for supplements, how we move, how we sleep, and how we manage all these shifts that are happening inside our bodies. But what about what's happening outside of us? The people holding us up while we figure it all out?
I caught myself grinning at an Instagram reel the other day, two grey-haired women, very Thelma and Louise, absolutely cracking up over something together. This morning I walked past two women pushing walkers down the sidewalk, deep in conversation, and then a little later I saw a group of young moms at the diner, just from school drop-off, engrossed in conversation over coffee. I smiled at all of it. There is something so quietly beautiful about women doing life alongside each other at every stage.
Because that's what it really is, isn't it? Not the big planned brunches (though those are fun too), but the quieter, more sustaining version of friendship. A friend who says yes that happens in my family too and suddenly you feel fifty pounds lighter. A conversation where you don't have to explain yourself from the beginning. A walk with your friend or getting a two-line text that somehow shifts your whole afternoon.
In a way it reminds me of intuitive eating, that sometimes what we're hungry for has nothing to do with food. Sometimes it's a person. Someone who knows who you were before all this shifting began, and who isn't trying to fix anything. Someone who can laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all, because sometimes that's the only sane response.
I'm also noticing that friendships change as we move through different seasons. They deepen, or they go quiet, or they ask more of us. And maybe that's actually the practice, the reaching out, the staying open, the willingness to be seen and supported even when it feels easier to just handle things alone.
I'll keep paying attention to what my body needs. That matters. But I don't want to miss this other layer of nourishment, the kind that steadies you from the outside in.
Vitamin F may not be trending on wellness TikTok yet. But I'm convinced that it's essential.