Creating Healthy Habits

I have to say that this pandemic lockdown has been a blessing and a curse all in one. It gives us anxiety, yet some more freedom, it gives us control and also takes away some of our control. My biggest issue right now is I’m allowing myself to stay up too late, and then that causes me to get up super late as well. Some of you might be thinking, well Madi that's great! But it honestly upsets me because I’m taking away hours in my day but giving myself permission to mess up my sleep schedule so much. 

I encourage you this week to write a list of habits you are doing right, are working on improving, and bad habits that you want to get rid of. The list would look something like this:

Healthy Habits I’m currently doing:

Meditation, Reading, Journaling, Exercising Daily, Eating Healthy

Healthy Habits I’m working on:

Making my bed, Working out in the morning, Closing my rings 6/7 days a week on my watch, following a weekly routine of tasks list, being consistent, listening to music to relax, listening to learning Podcasts 

Bad Habits I want to get rid of:

Snacking, Falling asleep after being on electronics, watching TV throughout the day, set up my light alarm so I have a designated wake up time 

This was the list I came up with thus far. But did you notice how the largest category I have in this demo are the healthy habits that I’m working on? We should all know what we are good at, but we should also have a better grasp of what we are actively working on!

What do you do when you aren’t use to HAVING TIME for YOURSELF??

It’s kind of funny how my last blog post walked through the fact that we have free time every single day. But crazy enough this pandemic has created an entirely different lifestyle for everyone. The fact that we are stuck at home, even if we are still working at home, most of us are AT HOME for AT LEAST THREE WEEKS!  For some people this might be a blessing, for others it if ruining their daily routine. But lets try to find a way to make the most of this time.

I went through a period of time where when my family decided to self isolate, and I was frustrated with the concept of being at home so often. The reason for this is because I was use to basically having somewhere to be at every moment of the day since I am known to overload my schedule. I think its okay to be frustrated not being able to get tasks complete or make the normal income I want to. I mean come on!! I have my Master degree classes to take and I would like to be living on my own before the age of fricking 30! (I think most people would agree), but this has already negatively impacted my pay and there was a period of time where it felt hard to understand how I could get through this, sanely. 

But how? How does being stuck in isolation, away from friends help me at all? Remember all those projects or side hustle things you’ve wanted to do? Now you have the time to do them! I have to think of it this way, I understand why everyone is being put on lockdown, I understand that everyone is going to suffer financially. So how can I turn this negative experience into something that brings positively or light to my own journey, but also others? Its time to do the damn thing!

Think about if any of these thoughts pertain to you, and now that you have the time and don’t have people you can physically be with, can we take some time for YOU in your life journey! ( I really wanted these ideas to be about your growth, there are plenty of other fun ideas to do with your family or for others)

-Whats your fitness goal?

-What are some tasks around the house you have never had time to do?

-Do you have a book you’ve wanted to read?

-Have you ever thought about starting a side career and never had time to START it?

-Whats your health goals? 

-How Is your mental health? Do you have positive ways to cope with your feelings? Journaling, meditating etc.

-Have you ever given your hair or face a break from always trying to make it look perfect?

-What are your favorite hobbies?

-What is something simple you can add to your daily routine that you feel like you could be missing?

Hopefully one or a few of those resonate with you and you can find a way to bring LIGHT to dark times and bring a sense of GRATIUDE for this new free time you have set in front of you! This being stuck in the house for 3 or more weeks is not ideal, but take a positive twist on it and make something happen that makes you a happier and stronger person inside and out.

Solution for the excuses, The 8 Hour Rule

So often we give ourselves a hall pass and decide that we have a good reason to not get something done. The sayings “I’m busy, I’m tired, I’m not motivated” ends up doing yourself a disservice because if you really know you, you know that you are capable of so much more than you are allowing for yourself. It’s frustrating how we can be the person that wants something so badly but we are not willing to risk anything out of our normal routine to make it happen.

In a 24 hour day think about this: The 8 hour rule

If we got 8 hours of sleep,

Work for 8 hours a day,

We still have 8 hours that we can use on us!!! 

That means your hobbies, exercise, meal planning, social time etc. But this time we end up WASTING on essentially nothing, from watching tv, to scrolling through social media, texting and none of this is helping us work on our goals, or helps us move forward in life. To be frank, the people I see who are the most efficient spend the least amount of time “ on themselves” when it comes to careless leisure time. Don’t get me wrong, everyone deserves it. But imagine if you spent 2 hours a week watching TV or on social media sporadically instead of 8 hours of sleep. Imagine going to bed without spending 3 hours watching TV beforehand, imagine being able to wake up earlier since you didn’t waste your evening staying up too late doing absolutely nothing. 

Now how do we change the script?

By telling yourself that it’s “about damn time I actually do this”. Set your intention and don’t just say that you’re going to do something, follow through with it with your actions. 

Use the 21/90 day rule. “It takes 21 days to build a habit, and it takes 90 days to build a lifestyle”. So rather than wait for life to knock you in the face to tell you to finish something, why don’t you start it because you know you need or want to! All the creative, smart and driven people did not reach success or happiness by doing nothing. They got off their bums and took charge of situations and didn’t wait in order to make things happen. You have it in you, you just need to look at your schedule, your month, your week and hour to hour days and ask yourself, what am I doing to move me forward in my life? And what are you doing that's holding your back? 

Write down two columns and separate your good habits from your bad and start to figure out how you can alter your bad habits into spaces where you are creating more productivity in your life. It’s time to own your good and your bad and make space for what you want more from your life! I have a list of so many things I want to accomplish, and now I’m looking at taking them on in the spaces that use to be my bad habits. 

Before I leave you, I use to wake up at the bare minimal to jolt out the door in the morning. Now I wake up earlier to devote time to myself for a happy morning. This gave me enough time for a mediation, a morning HIIT workout, getting my bathroom routine going, as well as getting my breakfast together for me this morning. We are ALL capable, its time to make this happen, and not later but NOW! 

Simple ways to Help Heal your Mind

We spend so much time being “busy” in life that although we can say that anxiety, depression or stress is part of our daily lives, we spend very minimal time trying to help treat what we are feeling. I personally spent so much time trying to train my physical body, that for years I lacked my ability to treat my reoccurring, constant stress levels. Something important to think about is that if you’re not helping treat your mind and put yourself at ease, your essentially like a person who is suffering with physical signs of sickness. This just so happens to lay within your mind rather than be symptoms of cold. I’m humbled enough to admit that I deal with forgetting to take care of my mind, and my physical body tends to suffer when I’m not taking the time to heal my thoughts.

Venting

Talking your feelings out with someone that you trust can feel like the best thing in the entire world. A lot of people choose not to voice their feelings out to people close to them because its scary, uncomfortable and not everyone has been raised to feel like its “okay” to express your emotions. Have you ever bottled something up and then just EXPLODED? Well the point of venting is to help these explosions to not to occur. Being open and honest with how you’re feeling IS NOT A WEAKNESS! It just means that you know that you can’t deal with your feelings alone and need someone to listen, give advice and be a supportive presence in your life. For the most part I choose my true and close friends to turn to as my warriors, and since I’m close with my family, there are essentially 10-15 people I would say I feel comfortable venting to. But its not easy when you first get started, but after awhile you will understand the importance of having someone to be there for you. There are people in your life that love you and want you to be the happiest version of yourself. You just have to let them be there for you. 

Write that sh*t Down

I have to be honest and admit that I’ve personally struggled with picking up on using a journal because I wouldn’t allow myself enough time to get into the consistent habit. If each day we could write out our frustrations, its helping us to not keep them in our minds and instead be able to just word vomit on a piece of paper without feeling any regrets on what you’re writing down. Then, after you have gotten all your negative thoughts on paper, end your time spent in your journal with five positives. It could be what you love, what you are grateful for or five things that have gone well for you. Rather than leave your notes on bad thoughts, wrap up your time spent venting with something that can help you walk away from a journal feeling happy and ready to move on. 

Meditate or even just sit in silence 

Sit in a low lit room and breather. Try not to think. We spend so much time thinking and don’t allow ourselves to rest. I would advice you to sit up and not doing this in a bed. Don’t associate meditation with sleep, but rather staying awake and challenging the mind to not overthink. 

Limit your time on social media 

Do you ever follow people or see people on your social media that make you jealous or upset? But you allow yourself to feel that way about them?

Maybe its time to one, stop allowing yourself so much time following other peoples lives and focus on your own life in front of you. And two, maybe it’s time to stop following people that don’t feel like positive influences on your life. Its so easy to get caught up and allow our mind to be jealous which ends up making us feel worse about yourself. Follow people that inspire you, make you happy and bring positive energy into your life everyday. It shouldn’t matter about quantity at this day and age but quality. 

Therapy 

“I don’t need therapy” is a famous line of almost any person. Because feeling okay doesn't mean everything is okay. But you’re not crazy and your brain isn’t falling out of your ears so why would you need to seek advice? You need to realize that therapy is not a weakness. If you break your ankle, you don’t just leave it, you seek help and go to the doctors. In the same way, you need to seek help if your mind needs help healing. You get a third party perspective of someone who is unbiased, is going to listen to you and try to find the BEST alternatives to help you see what they see. Its great to vent to people close to us, but its also great to be willing to seek out strangers who are trained and want to help you feel happy. Love yourself enough to not count everything out. 

I went to a yoga instructor one time and it made me not enjoy yoga anymore so I stopped going for awhile. Don’t all of them are the same, just like therapist, keep searching for one until you find one that fits your criteria. Its okay to get a new perspective that is not the same as your own, but be receptive and allow yourself to be open to what they think after you tell them your thoughts, feelings and opinions.

If you want to be the best version of yourself, you can’t just work on your physical but your mental state must be nurtured as well. 

Waking up to Electronics verses having a HEALTHY morning routine

When we wake up, the first thing almost every person does is check their phone. Cell phones are associated with stress. Even just looking at social media, it is not the most ideal way to start your day because your mind starts to wander and think about what other people are doing, your to do list and in a way it just acts as another depressant. More and more research has come out about the fact that electronics in itself is a form of stress. 

Why no electronics first thing in the morning?

This is something that is in our face more and more everyday, yet we accept the overuse of it in society, because almost everyone does it. Social media has been a blessing for the progress of speed and awareness in the world, but it can also hurt individuals in so many ways. With electronics in our faces, the “work” and “to do list” never really ends in our heads. You can check your likes, what other people are doing, you can be bullied, lack of family time and also a general decrease in everyone's ability to be social. Seeing other peoples lives can bring on forms of jealously, self comparisons etc. Don’t get me wrong I love using it in other ways which I will talk about in another post. But its not good for us to get on our electronics first thing in the morning. 

I think there needs to be more detachments in the day in order for the world to reduce in total stress. My lowest level of stress is normally when I’m laying in bed or when I’m on vacation. And typically, both of those have something to do with me not being as connected to my social. I know that  I need to set aside more meditation time and time apart from my computer and phone because I allow myself too many reasons to be connected to people via internet verses in person. I don’t want to lose myself so much from nature that I lose my ability to manage stress. Some people become reliant on the internet and electronics out of habit and the social media form of stress starts to become more present every day. So lets find ways to reduce this daily stressor. 

Madi, How should we wake up then?!?!?

Create a healthy morning routine that makes you EXCITED to wake up in the morning!!

This could be:

1. First thing you do is go look at the Sun (I know this is harder in winter)

2. Give yourself enough wake up time in the morning WITHOUT RUSHING 

3. Drink a glass of warm water

4. Move your body if you have time (Morning walk, jog, morning yoga)

5. Mediate (Even just for a few minutes so you can set intention for your day)

6. Make yourself breakfast or have enough time the night before to prep it

Do what makes you Happy but in Healthy ways (In regards to fitness)

I love the phrase that says “Do whatever makes you happy” but I also like to point out that it should be moving you in a positive and healthy direction. People might say “well I’m happy” but then you have to think about all the ways your benefiting from doing ‘said’ activity.

I have used gym a lot as my outlet. But now I have started to expand my horizon and learn new forms of fitness that help me reach my goals but don’t get repetitive. 

There are so many different ways to stay physically active. Yoga, pilates, boxing, weight lifting, running, biking, HIIT, sports and so on are all ways you can try to find what “works” for you. I say try them all and try to have a few that you do each week. Because after getting into a routine you really want to change it up. Or maybe do more yoga focused things for 2 weeks and then do more cardio for the following few weeks.

Personally, I like to have a mixture of weight lifting and cardio each week. And this is based off my goals to lose/maintain a healthy weight and look the way that I want to.

When it comes down to it, its all about trial and error and want your goals are. But I just want to put it out there that there are so many different healthy physical ways to make you happy and boost your endorphin levels to a perfect amount.

Cutting all the BAD

Although I am a health and fitness guru I also am a person. And though my lovely 22 years of living I have found that one of the biggest road blocks in my health and fitness journey was being able to cut out the bad things that were holding me back.

From my sports teams, mean coaches, controlling/cheating/damaging boyfriends, fake girls and bad mental self images myself..... it. all. adds. up.

I know its easier to say get rid of the bad but I honestly cant tell you how nice it feels once you’ve moved on from all the things preventing you from being your absolute best. And now you can be. There is a period of loss and grief but after awhile you start to realize how damaging and awful those situations and people are. It starts to make you feel more proud of yourself for having the courage to move on and be a better you.

Speaking from experience I’ve left two colleges because of amount of pain the situations were bringing me. I had to leave everything behind in order to start out fresh and more importantly, happy. It’s not me walking away from problems instead of facing them head on but I knew deep down that I would never be happy if I stayed in the environment I was in. There is no point in fighting a current if you don’t want to fight it. Sometimes it’s better to change the scenery and move on.

The point of talking about cutting out the bad in your life is so general but is so true for your health journey. If you eat when you are upset you are putting unwanted heightened hormones but also toxins from the unhealthy food into your body which ultimately effects your mental and physical health. 

My biggest advice is to start to search for small things and activities that bring you joy and invest your time into that. Now make sure they are healthy alternatives that are pushing you in a better direction for your future and are long term sources of pure joy.

My goal is to keep my life out in the open so that others can understand that there is a happier way of life if you choose to accept it. I’m not always happy but I’m smarter and have learned to cut out things that don’t bring me joy. 

Why you should never call your eating habits a “Diet”

I’m sure some of you have heard of the phrase “It’s not a diet, its a lifestyle”. But as cheesy as it sounds, thats how I started being able to start to understand the reality of a healthy lifestyle.

Diet is a word that means short term. “I’m on a diet so I’ll be in shape and have my spring break bod”. But in reality, you gain more weight by restricting yourself from the foods you crave. In most cases, you gain weight after a diet because you deprive yourself from certain foods, and in a way, you aren’t happy.

My biggest advice to anyone that wants to change their eating habits is to do it slowly. Cutting out everything that your body is use to is going to cause it to freak out. You don’t want to run into the problem of your body hating you and you one night binge eat everything you’ve stopped eating and want again.

Slowly. Don’t rush the process.

Slowly start to cut out foods that are processed and contain ingredients that you don’t know. The easiest way I found to cut food out is to find a healthy alternative, that way I still beat the craving with something LESS bad for me.

A healthy lifestyle also pertains to MORE than just your diet. Your stress relievers, physical activity, sleep, friend group and mental health all play into the lifestyle. You have to be willing to work on all aspects to truly find happiness and improvements in your life.

I could talk on about this for awhile, but this is just a tid bit in regards to what I mean when people say “Healthy lifestyle”.

I think I’ll go into each level of healthy lifestyle at some point in the near future!

Coping with your Cravings

Fact is everyone gets cravings. I use to have the hardest time because I LOVED to snack late at night on chips and or salty foods that have that delicious CRUNCH! BUT the hardest part about late night cravings is what it does to our body. Eating at night doesn't have to be bad if you are actually hungry. But majority of the time the late night snacks comes from cravings and careless eating while watching tv or something similar. When I was younger and I wanted to lose weight (low metabolim and hormone imbalance). And she would always tell me; "Eat carrots if you want a snack at night, once you don't want them anymore, you aren't hungry and you are just wanting to eat". So I kinda started to get that philosphy but it was still hard when all I could think about was crunchy chips.

The solution: How do we get over the cravings, maintain our physical goals, and still live a healthly lifestyle? Well to shock your brains there is a healthy solution to EVERY unhealthy snack. If you are craving something, you can get creative and create a healthy alternative to FILL THAT MOUTH WATERING NEED.

A few examples:

Coffee and Creame I am a BRTISH COFFEE LOVER (I'm American but its in my blood). So I loved my coffee, creame and sugar. Well I didn't want to banish myself from cofee so I limit my sugar in my coffee and use milk instead of creamer!! (You slowly adjust to the taste and now I don't crave it).

Chips There are so many things that are crunchy and yummy still healthy alterntatives. I like nuts/dried berries/chocolates/seeds mixed together because its healthy, all natural and fills my crunchy food craving!!!

Pizza Pita bread or english muffin, organic tomatoe sauce (minimum ingredients), and cheese... normally only 230 Calories for the whole thing!!!

Burger Use lettuce instead of bread for the bun, or make your own turkey burgers (low sodium though, minimum ingredients)

The most important thing is to acknowledge the craving and not avoid it. If you try to eat a salad when you are craving chocolate... you will NEVER feel satisfied. But if you can get creative and find healthy, minimum ingredients, alternatives that still make YOU AND YOUR TUMMY HAPPY!!!! There is ALWAYS a solution, and a way for you to maintain your fitness/health levels while still enjoying your life!

Weighing on Pros and Cons of Whey Protein

This has been a huge promoted product for people to get protein in their diet. The common trend is to let people get the idea that protein is necessary for people to make progress. But protein is in so many foods that are WHOLE FOODS AND PLANT BASED! The point is, there are so many other healthier options for you, no matter what your goal is. Don’t be fooled by needing to go along with the trend.

Especially for women like me, I retain weight a lot easier and need to be careful about what kind of protein and overall foods that I’m putting into my body. I too was fooled and ate whey as a supplement for protein.

So what are good alternatives? Brown rice or green pea protein powder. I found one at Walmart for $13 that is a blend of superfoods so check out my link!

Pros:

-9 essential amino acids, neurotransmitters, antibodies, strong muscle and strong bone

-Enhances recovery 

-Support immune system

Cons:

- If used in high heat when processed it can denature the proteins, processing causes carbs and fats taken out of mixture 

-99% of whey protein have a sugar additives to make the whey protein taste good

-Its easy to use too much of it

Take home Message:

If lactose intolerant make sure to get protein isolate NOT concentrated 

Not saying don’t ever use it, use it for the right reason 

Whole foods are for optimal health

IF you decide to take whey protein make sure to: that is from grass fed dairy (with no added hormones [rBGH], steroids or antibiotics), non-hydrolyzed, non-denatured and has no sugars or artificial sweeteners

Supplement cite I’d recommend:https://www.gardenoflife.com/content/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpv6_iryY2wIVAv5kCh2n8w4FEAAYASAAEgI9vvD_BwE 

Superfood Blend with protein:https://www.walmart.com/ip/Betterbody-Foods-Organic-LivFit-Superfood-Powder-12-7-Oz/47375853?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&wl13=2354&adid=22222222227036829004&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=82862917952&wl4=pla-163126989872&wl5=9016977&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=local&wl12=47375853&wl13=2354&veh=sem 

My goal from here on out is to try to find better ways for us to get in our daily nutrients. Especially from plant based food sources such as this one.

CACAO powder

Today so many people are using coco powder that is filled with sugar and unnatural ingredients. CACAO powder is a natural plant based superfood PACKED with antioxidants. It also contains magnesium and is a great source for adding in sulfur to your diet! CACAO is a natural energy booster, a healthy form of chocolate in powered form, and organic. Try this out if you’re looking for something new in the diet!

Facts: 

This has more magnesium per serving than 1 serving of spinach!

Magnesium helps keeps homeostasis in our body by keeping a healthy immune system, nerve and muscular function, strong bones, steady heart beat, helps with the production of protein/energy and also regulates blood glucose levels

Link for purchase:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CEOOZK6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1