In Practice: Zoe Paknad
On why "movement" gives her the ick and how her elderly neighbors have it all figured out
In Practice is an interview series from Align, featuring movement enthusiasts, tastemakers, and creatives as they share their current practices: how they move their bodies, care for their minds, find inspiration, and return to themselves. We are all practicing; this is theirs.
Welcome to our second edition of In Practice, featuring Zoe Paknad!
I first stumbled upon Zoe’s Substack, First Rodeo, this summer when she wrote about living in a Long Island beach town where I used to spend many a summer day growing up, 15 minutes from my hometown. Turns out, she’s also engaged to a Portuguese man and (I think!) currently in Portugal! As I wrote about here, I always love connecting with other Portuguese/American families and have loved learning more about Zoe.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
Woof! I don't know. I'm a writer and former founder with a day job buying, operating and building back-of-house systems for consumer brands. I write First Rodeo, a Substack bestseller, where I started to process what it felt like to fail publicly as a startup founder. It's turned into a reflection on life, work, and getting back on the horse after you've been bucked off 100 times.
I spend my summers living out on Long Island with my fiancé and our Chow Chow mix, Canela. I'm in a very busy season of my life-- I have a full-time job, I publish on Substack about twice weekly, I'm planning a wedding, I'm working on a novel that I write before work, I take Portuguese classes twice a week1— but most importantly, I spend every second that I can as a Beach Chad, with a cold one in my hand and a volleyball under one arm. I'm on the beach every day, at least once a day.2
What’s your relationship to movement these days? How do you move your body, and how does that support your mental or emotional state?
Truthfully, I have a bit of an ick from the word movement. For me, it's gone the way of other words that have twisted under the weight of overuse in the zeitgeist, like, I don't know— community? Or content? Or even "ick" itself? I think that exercise doesn't necessarily have to be a grounding or spiritual practice and I sort of resent "movement" for making it sound as though everyone has that relationship to it.
My own relationship to it is kinda fraught and full of "should"s, and I suspect I'm far from alone: I should lift weights (my doctor says so) but I'm barely doing the minimum, I should rise with the sun and start each day with a mat stretch or yoga like wellness influencers do, I should join a gym instead of doing bridal arms TikTok videos in my work clothes at 2PM in the living room.
To try to push past my unwillingness to talk about exercise as grounding or spiritual or calling it movement, I can confirm that I am my happiest when I am playing pickleball each week, or beach volleyball, or Kadima, or riding my beach cruiser to a friend's house, or taking one of my two daily walks with my dog and fiancé around the church courtyard. I love getting outside and I love spending time with the people I love, and if we can play a game while we hang then I'm all the better for it.3
What are some non-negotiables in your daily or weekly routine that help you feel like yourself?
I've been getting up every morning and immediately trying to get my ass up and to the beach. (This is only possible because right now I live in a summer rental that is less than 50 feet from the beach.) Most of the time I'll make coffee and just stand there and look at the waves, if I feel ambitious I'll walk all the way out to the lifeguard chair and climb up. Some days I'll set intentions for the day, most of the time I kinda just stand there and slowly power on without any real deep thinking.4 Then I go back home, get ready to walk the dog and go about the rigamarole of getting ready for work. I try to "work on my novel" every morning but realistically once or twice a week I will just find one mega productive pocket of time and go at writing for a few hours.
You’re feeling off, overwhelmed, or out of alignment. What do you do to find your way back?
These days, it's usually a walk, reading my Kindle on our deck for an hour, or venting to my fiancé.
Are there any particular foods, meals, or nourishing routines that help you feel most at home in your body?
I don't repeat dinner recipes all too often, so there's no "go-to", but I have started ordering our meat and dairy directly from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania. They deliver it every Saturday in an igloo cooler with a handwritten letter from the farmer recapping his week,5 and it's awesome. The rest I get from the farmer's market, which I bike to every Wednesday morning. It's an infinite leg up on Whole Foods delivery and I am much happier for it.
How do you rest? What does true rest look like or feel like for you?
These days, we have a porch that overlooks a walk-only street in our neighborhood that runs parallel to the beach. I like to sit on our deck and just watch the people in our neighborhood go about their lives, wave to our neighbors as they go about their predictable routines. (This is even more fun if you smoke a joint.) I have an across-the-street neighbor who is elderly and spends all day doing this, and I really enjoy when we both sit across from each other and watch the passerby at the same time. Last week we both had a turkey sandwich for lunch on the porch at the exact same time and I was positively giddy about it.6 I did not think that sitting and watching people walk by would become such a big pastime for me so early in my life, much less my thirties, but my elderly neighbors have the right idea about almost everything.
What practices or boundaries help you protect your energy — especially in a busy or overstimulated season of life?
I work and exist in what can feel like a very "online" industry— eCommerce and private equity, plus I moonlight as a microinfluencer— and in all these spaces, there are circles where the uber-successful monetize and mine their personal lives for work. Sometimes I do this too, but letting it be on my terms and when I decide to is the best mechanism I have for protecting my energy.
I don't really post on social media because I don't have the apps on my phone. I have made a very purposeful decision to not work in sales or to accept jobs where my network or hard-earned relationships will be monetized for someone else's gain or company. (Finding a job where this wasn't the case has actually been really hard.) I don't really like industry events, and so I rarely go. I do everything I possibly can to avoid a conference. Those things may all be really good for my career, but they make me feel bad, so I just can't do them anymore. If that means my career will be a little less explosive, whatever.
What are you currently unlearning or working through in this season of your life?
As a former founder, I've been working on unlearning my urge to take full fiduciary responsibility for any company I work on. Sometimes I have felt like I am personally responsible for the success or failure of my employers— and sometimes I have been!-- but I am no longer entertaining that concept. I am really working on internalizing that I am not my job and my job may not permeate a certain barrier in the part of my brain where I set and store boundaries.
What are you practicing toward right now? What is something you’re excited about or that’s calling you forward?
I don't really have any gas left in the tank for anything else at the moment! I am at 🙅🏻♀️ maximum capacity 🙅🏻♀️. I don't think this is my season of life for a new calling, though I welcome that energy in 2027.7
Have you read, watched, or listened to something lately that has inspired you?
I am a big reader and trying to read 150 books this year— I chronicle my progress and what I'm loving right here!
What are you loving right now?
Gabby George's bridal arms series on TikTok, lol.
Is there a place that always brings you peace?
Many, I feel lucky for that. I'm a Sagittarius and I love travel and tend to fall in love with or want to move to wherever I go— that is sort of the only constant or desire that remains consistent in me, the ability to go somewhere, love it, and immediately want to move there.
For more from Zoe, subscribe to her Substack. Interested in being featured on In Practice or know someone who should be? Send me a note here.
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Goals!!
Also goals!
I think we can all relate to the “shoulding” from all sides in the fitness and wellness world. The things Zoe shares like playing volleyball and pickleball, riding her bike to and from the beach, taking walks with her people - that’s what it’s all about! I think it’s all about doing more of what you love to do and that makes you feel good! If we could all have that mindset around “movement”, I think we’d all be better off.
This sounds like a dream
This is so cute
I love this so much
We love realistic expectations!!