About Lizzie Braicks-Rinker & Well*ish
Thanks for stopping by Well*ish! My name is Lizzie.
When I graduated college in 2012 I was juggling a lot; learning what life was like without the structure of college athletics, coping with the recent death of my mom after a long battle with colon cancer, and building my career in Seattle’s wild tech scene. Like most twenty-somethings, I felt isolated. Instagram was just starting to take off (SERIOUSLY dating myself here), and I turned to the app to find community. I missed the community of college athletics, I wanted to find vegan recipes that weren’t going to completely destroy my 23-year-old budget, and wanted to find people who didn’t think I was completely insane when I suggested we try cryotherapy.
I found a lot of that in my late night scrolling, but I also found a lot of stuff that, frankly, made no damn sense. I saw bloggers pushing 10 day juice cleanses, famous yoga teachers demanding their students practice for a minimum of 90 minutes a day in a hot room, and laxative teas galore. Mostly, though, I saw a lot of really awful, if not downright dangerous, advice around how to be “healthy” and “fit”. I distinctly remember thinking; “If I just finished training at the college level and I think this stuff is overwhelming, I can’t be alone.” I wanted straight-forward advice from somebody that I could trust, workouts that wouldn’t take me 3 hours to complete, recipes that weren’t just cult-y diets and disguise, and ultimately, a version of wellness that felt sustainable. Since I couldn’t find it, I set off to create it myself.
I’m a holistic health and fitness coach, which means that I work with women to empower them to find their own version of strength and energy in a way that doesn’t suck. I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all training plans. I don’t believe in scarcity diets or militant meditation schedules. Instead, I do the heavy lifting (pun intended!) of investigating what works and why, and then share that information with you through informative blog posts, workout classes, 1:1 coaching, wellness guides, and more. Think of me as your very honest, very unfiltered wellness BFF. I promise to never bullshit you. Or try to sell you laxative teas. Or to put you on a diet. You deserve so much better than that.
Hey, I’m Lizzie
Donuts + Down Dog came to life in 2016. I was teaching at a yoga studio a few blocks away from one of my favorite donut shops, and went so regularly after class that I knew all the staff. On a more serious note, it represents my approach to holistic wellness and fitness. I believe strongly that true wellness and lifelong fitness can and should be balanced.
The Name
The TED Talk
Through the lens of losing my mom to cancer while I was a college athlete, the talk dissects the problems with wellness and diet culture and reframes health holistically… for more than just thin white women.
Experience & Qualifications
D1 Women’s Rowing, Gonzaga University
TEDx Speaker, TEDxUofW 2022
200 HR Vinyasa Yoga Certified, CorePower Yoga
ACE Personal Trainer
Certified Holistic Health Coach/Nutritionist , Institute for Integrative Nutrition
Hot Pilates Certified, Inferno Hot Pilates
Certified Barre Instructor, Bohemian Studios
Yoga Nidra Certified, The Grinning Yogi
USRowing Coach at nationally ranked programs, Mount Baker Crew and Holy Names Academy