Gwyneth Paltrow’s former right-hand man in Goop has been critical of “toxic health and cleansing culture”, revealing that she went on a “total riot” against the woo-woo lifestyle when she left her role in the actress brand after years of “punishment”. ‘ her body.
Elisa Loenen, 42, from Los Angeles, served as Goop’s chief content officer until October 2020, when she abruptly stepped down from her position, saying she was going on sabbatical at the time to write a book.
However, Loenen, who appeared alongside Paltrow, 49, on the controversial Netflix series The Goop Lab and hosted the brand’s podcast, has now given further insight into the true reason behind her departure from the company in a new Instagram video in which she talks about the devastating impact of “toxic” wellness regimens and cleansing procedures.
“So when I left my last job at Goop almost two years ago, I decided to give up all purges,” the mother-of-two began her video.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s former right-hand man at Goop, Elise Loenen, has spoken out against the “toxic” health culture less than two years after leaving the actress’ company.
In a video posted to her Instagram, Loenen, 42, from Los Angeles, says she has spent years “punishing” her body by following strict cleansing measures like those advertised by Goop.
“For me it became synonymous with diet and restrictions and I felt like I didn’t have a healthy relationship with my body when I was always trying to punish it, take control of it.”
In the caption for the clip, Loenen went into detail, explaining that she “turned into a complete rebellion” after leaving Goop 17 months ago in an attempt to “break the tendency to criticize and punish” her body.
“When I left Goop I vowed never to clean again and totally resented which was pretty fun and definitely great in terms of letting go of ideas of what my body should look like at 42… the old one who had two kids ‘ she wrote.
“I needed to overcome the tendency to criticize and punish. To punish myself. All this. I completely stopped weighing myself.”
In her video, Lonen admitted that she “ate like a teenager for two years,” adding that she “enjoyed” the freedom gained by breaking the rules and restrictions associated with food.
However, she admitted that she reached a point where her “stomach often hurts” before embarking on advertising the “new, beautiful” Kroma Wellness detox program, which she describes as a “five-day reset.”
The Kroma program is not currently among the cleaning products sold or shown on the Goop website.
Loenen said the five-day cleanse was “really excellent” – despite her initial misgivings that she “hates it all.”
“I’m doing something like this in a completely different way this time,” she continued, apparently comparing her latest detox to the types of strict cleansing that Paltrow and Goop use so often.
“I don’t weigh myself, I allow myself to eat beyond what is required by cleansing. But I’m just trying to get to a place where I can talk to my body again because those conversations have become distorted.
Loenen said she “refused to do any cleansing” after leaving her job at Goop and “rose into complete rebellion” after spending years “punishing” her body.
“I needed to overcome the tendency to criticize and punish. To punish myself. All this. I completely stopped weighing myself,” she explained.
Loenen served as Goop’s director of content until her departure in October 2020; she also appeared alongside Paltrow, 49, on the controversial Netflix series The Goop Lab (pictured).
“It wasn’t a restriction at all, I wasn’t hungry and after that I felt much better. What’s even more interesting is that I didn’t immediately eat badly in response. It just put me on a new, healthier path.”
Goop currently offers more than a dozen different cleansers and detoxes on its website, ranging from DIY programs and recipes to pre-made packages, including a seven-year “reboot kit” created by the Paltrow brand.
Loenen noted that she is trying to lead a more balanced and healthy lifestyle – while not having stomach pains, but without any of the “punishing” restrictions that used to govern her diet, and has been seen regularly “punishing herself with food”. ‘.
“I refuse to punish myself with food or keep myself under the weight of my body,” she wrote in the caption to the photo.
“Fortunately, I have neither energy nor interest. (And more importantly, I realized that I really like my body, and I am grateful that it belongs to me.) I hope I broke this vicious cycle forever.
Lönen’s public denunciation of a “toxic” wellness culture comes less than two years after she left her position at Goop, where she worked for six years, being brought on in 2014 as Paltrow’s second employee for the brand.
The former chief content officer was Paltrow’s second-in-command for most of her time at the company, appearing alongside the actress on the controversial Netflix series The Goop Lab, in which they explored many different health trends and treatments, from energy healing to psychedelics.
In January 2020, Loenen defended Goop and Paltrow against critics who said the company was promoting “dangerous” fads and “pseudo-science”, telling Digiday that the brand has never claimed that there was “convincing evidence” behind the trends they are trying. and advertise.
The former Goop executive pictured with Paltrow was one of several employees to step down between 2019 and 2021 amid claims about the company’s “tax culture”.
“We are clear,” she said. “People like to say it’s pseudoscience. But pseudoscience is when you present something and say, “Science shows it can cure cancer,” which we would never do.
“We label all of our content, and most of it comes from Western doctors, PhDs from leading institutions, and is part of the scientific canon at the moment. As a rule, research is ten years ahead of doctors in terms of how long it takes to bring it to life … But we never say: “Oh, there is all this irrefutable evidence.”
For years, Loenen was seemingly happy not only to drink Goop-flavoured Kool-Aid, but also to promote it, which made her sudden departure from the company all the more surprising.
However, her departure comes at a time of turmoil for health brand Paltrow, with Business Insider reporting in October 2021 that the company had lost 140 employees in just two years.
While the pandemic has resulted in some staffing losses, sources told the publication that Goop’s high turnover problem preceded COVID-related layoffs, arguing that tight pay, a “tax culture” and Paltrow’s habit of picking favorites and then seemed to to change your mind, there were reasons.
Other former employees who complained about the company on Glassdoor also criticized the “hooligans” and “mean girls” who rely on “fear-based management”, saying that Paltrow, in particular, “wanted to spend their days trying on clothes when The company desperately needs a real CEO.
Loenen wasn’t the only senior employee to drop the brand; former CFO Erica Moore left last August in favor of self-employment, and former CTO Juan Paul Ramirez left Goop in May 2021 after three and a half years on the job and moved to Boosted Commerce a few months later.
CRO Kimberly Kreutzberger, who joined Goop in 2015, also left at the end of 2019 to start her own company. General Counsel Virginia Llewellyn also left.