Yahoo Lifestyle How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Tinx
From an early age, Christina Najjar, better known by her moniker Tinx, recalls the grip that "Sunday scaries" had on her household. "I remember my dad being kind of stressed out, and it was the day that everybody went to bed early because we were getting ready for the week," she says.
Now that she's an adult, she's made it her mission to reclaim Sundays.
"It is literally half of your weekend, so you need to flip it," says Tinx, a content creator and author of the New York Times bestselling book "The Shift: Change Your Perspective, Not Yourself." I feel like people like Fridays way better than Sundays, but I just hate the idea that people waste their Sundays being afraid versus enjoying their day off."
Since making her first TikTok about four years ago, Tinx has amassed roughly 1.5 million followers who tune in for her satirical takes on rich moms, dating advice, daily vlogs and recommendations on everything from sexy perfumes to local restaurants. Her fans often make videos of themselves trying her favorite dishes, such as the tuna salad at Carla Cafe.
When she isn't hosting her podcast, "It's Me Tinx," on SiriusXM, writing a column for Grazia or DJing at a party (a new hobby), she says her ideal Sunday involves having a beach day with friends, drinking natural wine and ending her night with spicy noodles and a good TV series.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
8 a.m.: Get an iced Americano with whole milk from Verve
Usually, I get up pretty early, sadly, even though I’m sometimes hungover. I’ll get up at 8 a.m., even though I want to sleep in. Then I'll chug my water — it’s the first thing. I read about that in Cameron Diaz’s "The Body Book," and I’ve always thought about it ever since. Then I usually go to Verve for coffee. It's amazing. Shout-out to Mallory, a barista there; she’s actually the best person. I like to have local places to visit, especially if you live in a big city. It's nice to have people that you see regularly. Right now, I’m doing an iced Americano with a little regular whole milk. Shout-out to whole milk. We were so rude to it for so long and now everybody’s coming crawling back because we realized that almond milk is made of literal plastic or something. [Editor's note: That claim is unfounded, although some research says almond milk isn't great for the environment.] Then I’ll start texting my friends, trying to make a plan for the day.
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8:35 a.m.: Quick and easy hike at Runyon Canyon
I try to do a hike on the weekend. Even though it’s so cliché, Runyon is convenient, so I will go there, listen to music in my corded headphones and maybe I’ll plan for my podcast that week. It is such a nice time to unwind. I can do Runyon in 15 minutes now. I do the easy way, which is embarrassing, but I don’t care because I like paved roads. I’m an indoor cat, you know. I just hike because I like to get the good vibes. When I see people scaling the rocks, I’m like, “You don’t have to try that hard.”
10 a.m.: Recharge with a smoothie and a breakfast burrito from Dialog
After that, I’m hungry. I’m not a person who can skip breakfast. I don't do intermittent fasting. One thing about Dialog [Cafe] is — I don’t want to say it was my fault — it’s very, very popular. Honestly, order your smoothie, I swear to God, at the top of the mountain, when you are coming down Runyon. It’s going to take them 35 to 45 minutes on a Sunday to get your food ready. I’ll either get the Dialog Detox or I’ll do the breakfast burrito with brisket. You’re going to need to ask for extra spicy ketchup. It's so bomb.
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10:30 a.m.: Get ready for a beach day
I will usually go back to my house and pack a bag for the beach. Then I will go pick up my friends on the way to Malibu. It sometimes takes over an hour to get there, so you’re going to need to have your playlist and talking points ready. We will usually go to the Malibu Country Mart, Soho Beach House or just to the beach — anywhere along PCH [Pacific Coast Highway] in the Malibu Strip. I feel like there’s two types of people: people who like to submerge themselves in the water, and then there are people who do not. I’m a water creature, so I like to get into the water. I also feel like it’s the most natural cold plunge there is.
1 p.m. Lunch at Taverna Tony
My favorite place to go to lunch is Taverna Tony at the Malibu Country Mart. The best part about it is the dip. Nobody really knows what it’s made out of. There’s bread in it, and I think there's fish, but I don't care to know. It’s delicious, it’s free, and they bring out hot bread. And if you’re doing low-carb, you can ask for crudité, and they bring that to you for free as well. The food is just so comforting and good.
3 p.m.: Cure my Saturday night hangover with snacks
At this point, you’re like, “Well, I’m already on the Westside. What if I just went to Venice with my friends and we walked around Abbot Kinney and did a little bit more window shopping, then stopped in Gjelina for a little glass of natural wine?" Something effervescent. Something that is so fermented it tastes like kombucha but it’s alcoholic. The DD [designated driver] is driving us there. So at Gjelina, you’re like, “Let’s get the sweet potatoes as a snack,” because it’s a bottomless pit day on Sunday. You’re hungover, so you’re really hungry as well.
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7 p.m.: Order eye-watering spicy noodles from Night + Market
Sunday night can not end without some sort of spicy noodle, so to get us back home to the Beverly Hills, West Hollywood area, you tell your friends, "We should go to Night + Market.” If you have even 3% left of your hangover, Night + Market will cure it with their food. And it’s real spicy, like eyes watering. Have a cold beer with it. My favorite thing is the pad see ew. I like pad thai too. Also, the nam khao tod, which is a crispy rice salad, and the larb gai, which is minced chicken, but it’s actually so spicy, even for me, and I love spicy food. Whether we eat our food there or at home really depends on if [HBO] Max is doing their job and giving us something to watch on Sundays.
9 p.m.: "Never stop chilling" with my friends
We have this thing in our friend group called “Never stop chilling,” which means if you can make it go longer, you should. Half the time, I’ll make my friends sleep over because I’m like, “Why do I have this house?” The whole point of living in L.A. is so you can have more space than New York. I will definitely do some sort of mask on Sunday night because, you know, that takes away all of the bad things you’ve done. Maybe I’ll hand out sheet masks. The perks of being friends with an influencer is that my spare room looks like a Sephora. We’ll also need a sweet treat. I’m obsessed with Sidecar Doughnuts, but that’s not really a nighttime thing, so it’ll probably be Go Greek. We’ll probably open another bottle of wine. We love natural wine like Jumbo Time Wines, which is an independent, L.A.-based wine maker.
11 p.m.: Do "leg on wall falls" before bed
I’ll maybe go to bed around 11 p.m. Sundae School has a sleepy gummy that I take and listen to a meditation on the Calm app. I like the Lychee Dragon flavor. I'll scroll on my phone for at least 30 minutes, and I have to do 20 minutes of what me and my followers call “leg on wall fall.” Basically, what that means is you lie on your bed and put your legs up against the headboard. I have to do it everyday, and it just drains your legs. A lot of different cultures do this for different reasons and it really helps with stress. It's the best.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
