It’s understandably easy to introduce seven new wellness routine steps late on a Sunday night when your hangxiety has successfully convinced you that your life is in shambles and something needs to change. Unfortunately, the whole idea of health and wellness is effectively pointless unless you have one crucial aspect - consistency.
By paring your routine back and including things that are achievable, effective, and enjoyable, you will have a much higher success rate at actually maintaining this health (and better yet, you’ll see results). I’ve tried a multitude of health and wellness things but my standout faves have been:
1) finding a naturopath I trust who prescribes supplements at a reasonable level. I cannot tell you the number of times I have come home from a naturopath appointment with more than I will ever be bothered to do on a daily basis. A naturopath who understands what your priorities are, and is willing to focus on the bare minimum initially, is one to keep. Big shoutout to @breezenaturopathy on instagram who gives realistic, approachable and sage advice without making you feel like you’re being taken for a ride.
2) red light therapy, stretching, rollers, oil massage and a shakti mat. Why have I put these all together? Habit stacking, baby. Every night some sort of combination of these things is happening while I watch masterchef or survivor. Post-dinner, peppermint tea to my left, and ultimate relaxation achieved. My fave red light mask is therabody but I also use one on my muscles from Lumaflex. Also note that post red light mask I will pop on my fave hydrogel mask to get my skin hydrated and glowing before the rest of my skincare but it feels a bit gauche to do a self promo here. While the red light or hydrogel masks are doing their thing, I will do about 10-20 minutes lying on a shakti mat. Then I’ll go in with maybe a muscle roller on my legs and lower back and finish with some stretching. I’ll also use my favourite By Katia body oil throughout this to massage my traps, shoulders and neck. I’ve found this routine to do wonders for my sleep quality
3) eating. And let’s say it again for the people in the back. EATING. I wish I didn’t have to highlight this as a key health and wellness inclusion but girls, I’m getting scared. I’m not immune to it either! I’ve definitely done my embarrassingly common share of holding myself back from a certain volume of food, ignoring hunger signs or pushing myself to extend periods of fasting. I’ve come to learn, however, that this was only doing me a disservice. I now eat three full meals a day and focus on anti-inflammatory foods that make me happy. As long as I’m eating high quality, balanced meals, I don’t have to worry anymore about how much I'm eating. I can truly intuitively eat. The difference this has made on my body has been great. I am less puffy, I get less bloated, and I have more energy to be more productive in gym classes as well as actually do workouts more often.
Each of these wellness things has had a great impact on my life. Any while there are a million more things I could chat through, I fear overloading you with information on my routine could do the opposite of what I’m trying to achieve which is to communicate the importance of achievable habits that allow for consistency.
I’ve had to stop myself from letting health and wellness become an intense hyperfixation. The thought of missing out on plans with friends or fun experiences because I'm ‘locking in’ actually makes my skin crawl. I read somewhere once that “you can quit all the things that will make you live to 100, but then you won’t want to live to 100”. In essence, it’s all about balance. Obviously don’t write yourself off every weekend in the name of enjoyment, but find what works for you. You can create rules for yourself if it keeps you in check, but also know when to break them. If you’ve been doing a sugar-free diet for a few weeks and a loved one offers you a dessert that they worked hard on, I’d say live and let live.
Maybe you adopt one of these things I’ve discussed, and that one thing might even be the mentality of not adopting anything at all, and allowing for balanced enjoyment to be your driving force.