mbg Beauty Director
mbg Beauty Director
Alexandra Engler is the beauty director at mindbodygreen and host of the beauty podcast Clean Beauty School. Previously, she’s held beauty roles at Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, SELF, and Cosmopolitan; her byline has appeared in Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and Allure.com.
Image by mbg Creative / courtesy of source
August 05, 2024
We love celebrating women on top of their game. In our new series Game On, we’re interviewing top athletes about their well-being routines—covering everything from nutrition that makes them feel strong to the moments that bring them joy.
Five-time Olympic gold medalist and world champion swimmer Missy Franklin may be retired, but she’s still holding court at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris—this time as a correspondent. Joining a roster of Olympic superstars like Allyson Felix, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Shawn Johnson East, and Katie Hoff, Franklin is serving as Yahoo Sports’ swimming correspondent during The Games.
This is a very welcome return.
After retiring from the sport in 2018, Franklin kept busy with a variety of projects—both personal and professional, in the spotlight and not. Through her podcast Unfiltered Waters with fellow swimmer Hoff, she talks with fellow elite athletes about their journeys and untold stories. She became a mom in 2021 to a now 3-year-old daughter. She also became an advocate for kidney health and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), a genetic disease that runs in her family.
“My grandfather had it. My dad is one of four, and three of his siblings had it. All of them have undergone kidney transplants,” she told me. “Clearly, it affected our family.”
During a recent call, we spoke about her advocacy work, the next phase of her career—and how she cares for her body in retirement.
The number one thing we should be considering with the most amount of seriousness is our health, right? So if there’s something that feels wrong, try not to push it aside—but instead seek the help you need.
We love celebrating women on top of their game. In our new series Game On, we’re interviewing top athletes about their well-being routines—covering everything from nutrition that makes them feel strong to the moments that bring them joy.
Five-time Olympic gold medalist and world champion swimmer Missy Franklin may be retired, but she’s still holding court at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris—this time as a correspondent. Joining a roster of Olympic superstars like Allyson Felix, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Shawn Johnson East, and Katie Hoff, Franklin is serving as Yahoo Sports’ swimming correspondent during The Games.
This is a very welcome return.
After retiring from the sport in 2018, Franklin kept busy with a variety of projects—both personal and professional, in the spotlight and not. Through her podcast Unfiltered Waters with fellow swimmer Hoff, she talks with fellow elite athletes about their journeys and untold stories. She became a mom in 2021 to a now 3-year-old
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mindbodygreen: What made you want to speak out more about kidney health and ADPKD?
Missy Franklin: On a personal level, watching my dad go through it was challenging. Watching his health and quality of life decline affected me. We got to a point back in 2021 where we needed to reach out for a living donor transplant. He was on the organ transplant list—but for the kidney and liver in the U.S., that could be four years or more to get those organs. So we knew it was either dialysis or finding a living donor.
We had been pretty private about it up until that point—out of respect for my dad—but we were…
And we had several people—by the grace of God and through the kindness…
…
Franklin: It starts with just creating a safe place. So, having the conversation somewhere where you know that everyone is going to feel very comfortable. And then it’s just about approaching it with so much love and grace for yourself and for the people that are around you.
I think recognizing right off the bat that it is hard to talk about and that it is a tough conversation helps. But at the end of the day, the goal is that everyone has their health, longevity, and well-being. With those things in mind, ask each other, “How can we best support each other and put a plan in place moving forward for our family?”
…
Franklin: Just always making sure that you’re staying in open communication with your health care provider: looking out for signs and being aware of what’s going on in your body.
…
Go to your health care provider. And yeah, it may be nothing, but it also may be something. And if it’s something, it could end up saving your life.
…
uber of 10. I think it’s great that we’re now realizing we probably need more sleep than we are getting.
The second thing I’d say is to use sleep aid tools. If you’re coming up on something big, you may have some anxiety and a hard time sleeping. But don’t be afraid to use tools to help you.
I absolutely love this company called Dream Recovery. They have an amazing sleep mask and mouth tape. Mouth taping not only helps me sleep, but it gives me a better quality of sleep—the difference in my sleep score when I’m mouth taping versus when I’m not is significant.
…
The number one thing we should be considering with the most amount of seriousness is our health, right? So if there’s something that feels wrong, try not to push it aside—but instead seek the help you need.
…
Franklin: I recently discovered a franchise called Burn Boot Camp. I’m obsessed.
Every day it’s a different protocol, but it’s a mix between strength training and conditioning days. It’s one of the best communities I’ve ever been a part of. And that’s what’s made it so special for me. Ever since I retired…
It was really also based on
