Red Lips, Protein Surprises & the Quote You Needed Today

Yoyo’s Top Five | Volume 1

“Did you know your voice changes when you’re smiling? It alters the sound somehow.” — Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman

That line stopped me mid-commute, earbuds in, completely caught off guard. The book had been sitting on my metaphorical shelf (fine, my Audible queue — don’t judge, the real shelf has a waitlist too) for years. I finally let it cut the line. No regrets

1. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine — Gail Honeyman

I’ll be honest: Eleanor annoyed me at first. She’s prickly, painfully literal, and socially… let’s say, unfiltered. But that’s exactly the point. As the story unfolds, we begin to understand why. Eleanor is a young woman living a meticulously solitary life in Glasgow, quietly surviving a past riddled with trauma and loss. When an unlikely friendship sneaks up on her, the kind she never asked for and absolutely needed, everything begins to shift. It’s funny, heartbreaking, and ultimately a love letter to the messy, redemptive business of being human. The beauty of life, right? You just never know. But the journey? Always worth it.

2. Red Lipstick & the Art of Becoming

I used to think red lipstick was for a certain kind of woman. Fast. Bold. Unapologetic.

Turns out, I was describing myself and just didn’t know it yet.

This past weekend I found myself at a MAC event, and somewhere between the testers and the mirrors, I met Locked Kiss Ink 24HR Lipstick in Gossip. It’s a deep, saturated red that goes on like a statement and if the packaging were honest, would come with a disclaimer: may attract a man with six-pack abs and a body only a Greek god would recognize. Is that an exaggeration? Possibly. Probably. But this lipstick has me feeling things, and I refuse to rule anything out. I’ll keep you posted on what materializes. Science is ongoing.

Red isn’t a color for a type of woman, it’s a color for a woman who knows exactly who she is and has stopped apologizing for it. Highly recommend the shade. Even more highly recommend the mindset.

3. Protein Soda — A Costco Love Story

Everything has protein now. Your water. Your popcorn. Your existential crisis probably has 10 grams of whey in it. Apparently, new research suggests we’re not eating nearly enough protein, so the food industry responded by lacing everything in sight with it, like it was, well… you know. The other white powdery stuff.

Now add to this: me, at Costco, on a weekend that landed on the first of the month. If you know, you know. A “quick trip” to Costco that day is a fairy tale told to children.

But something good came of it. I picked up a Protein Pop Plus Clear Protein Drink boasting added protein, fully prepared to be skeptical and underwhelmed. Reader, I was neither. It hit that fizzy, refreshing sweet spot without the sugar guilt or the carb crash and yes, it counts toward my macros. Tasty, functional, and Costco-quantity sized. I’m a fan. You’ve been warned.

4. The Quote That Will Live in My Head Forever

Viola Davis at the NAACP Image Awards delivered this:

“The definition of hell is on your last day on Earth, the person you became meets the person you could have become.”

I’ll just leave that right there and let it do what it needs to do to you.

5. Fifty Squats and a Standing Invitation

I’m up to 50 squats a day. Not all at once, not perfectly, but consistently. And consistency, it turns out, is the whole game.

So I’ll ask: what strength training did you do this week? And if the answer is nothing, that’s okay too. There’s no shame in the starting line. In fact, the best time to begin is exactly when you’re reading this.

Now. It’s now.