Happy Monday friends! Or whatever day it is when you read this! I promised a blog post outlining my wellness routine last week and I’m finally getting around to typing it out! When I really sat down to think about it, I do a lot of small things daily or weekly that add up to my overall wellness routine. Once I realized how many little things I was going to be sharing, procrastination set in and it took me an entire week to finally get around to making myself write this! 😀 Anyways, here it is! I hope you enjoy it and it gives you some fun wellness-y things to try!
When I think about my wellness routine it falls into 2 main categories for me. I do things for my physical wellness and my mental/spiritual wellness. For me personally, they really go hand in hand. When I’m dong well mentally, it’s much easier for me to stay on track and do the things I know I need to do physically and vice versa. When I’ve worked out that day, I’m usually in a much better and clearer place mentally! So, on to the breakdown and list of things that I do! It may seem kinda of daunting and long at first glance but I promise it’s lots of small things that don’t take up your whole day!
Two main parts to my wellness routine:
Mental Health
Physical Health
Mental Heath
One of the biggest parts of my mental health wellness routine is my morning. I get up every morning, read my devotional, write in my gratitude journal and read a chapter or so from a positive book. I describe each part below in more detail but the entire process takes around 30-40 minutes just depending on how awake I am!
Positive reading – Like I mentioned above, I do my best to always have a positive or personal growth book around. These are books that help me to get in the right mindset, stay positive, to keep life in perspective (sometimes our problems seem so big until we step back and look at a bigger picture) and pretty much just grow as a person in some way. I’ll list a few of my favorites at the bottom!
Daily devotion – Something that’s very important to me personally is my faith life. Each morning I do my daily devotion (I share it nightly on my Instagram story). All this entails is writing out a few verses and reading a passage. It’s all laid out in the devotional book but it really helps me again to keep my life and my troubles in perspective. We all have ‘problems’ but no matter what they are, the most important thing we can do daily is choose to deal with those problems effectively. One thing that my faith really helps me to keep in mind is that every problem or challenge is a chance for us to become a better version of ourselves.
I realize that not everyone will have this as a part of their day. If you don’t and you find yourself anxious, or just feel like something is missing, I really encourage giving it a chance. It makes a massive difference in my own life.
Gratitude – If you follow the Get Fit Guide and read the ‘educational’ material at the beginning, you know that I recommend writing down 3 things that you are thankful for every morning. This is something that I personally make a habit of. You don’t really have to write it, but it definitely makes a difference to pause, take a minute or two, and write or think of 3 things that you are truly grateful for. It can be anything from the hug your husband gives you every day before work to your health. Literally anything that makes you grateful. This just gets my day started with the right mindset.
Sleep – Soo I realize sleep could also go in the physical health section (so we’ll touch on both:)) but personally, sleep wrecks my brain if I’m not getting enough. Not only will consistently not getting enough sleep make you tired (aka more likely to skip that workout) but it also makes you much more likely to mindlessly snack, crave sugar and be a lot less productive. My nightly goal is usually about 7- 8 hours of sleep. That’s what I function well at and can feel good with. We’re all going to be slightly different here so figure out what makes you feel good and do you best to get it consistently! Obviously there are going to be some times this just isn’t going to happen. That’s ok!
Free Time – This is one that I think is super undervalued. We often don’t take time to do things that we enjoy. Having some time, even if it’s just half an hour a day, to just unwind, relax, and allow our minds to quit thinking of the million things that need to be done, is super important. There’s always something that could take up your time. Kids, your spouse, laundry, cleaning, work.. it can feel endless and can be endless if we let it. Give you mind that time, no matter how short, to relax and unwind. It may seem unproductive but I promise you’ll function much more efficiently and effectively if you do it!
Physical Health
On to physical health! This is a varied list of things and I often end up doing them at the same times as a lot of the mental wellness activities as part of my routine so I’ll note that as well!
Fuel & Hydration – If you join in any of my Instagram live videos you’ve most likely heard this before. Sticking with real, whole foods that actually nourish your body and your mind is going to give you the best results physically and the most clarity mentally. We’ve all been on that sugar high and crash. Our mind is foggy and our body is lagging. I honestly never even noticed this was happening until I got away from lots of processed food and sugar. Now each time I indulge in some, I’m left wondering why I even wanted it in the first place when it makes me feel like that! 😀 So, I won’t drag this out, lots of real, whole foods, less processed food and lots of water! It’s amazing what a difference it can make in how you feel.
Fitness – Getting on a solid fitness plan is not only great for getting to your physical goal but it does wonders for your mental health as well. It gives you a little time away from all of the demands of the day, allows you to sweat, prove to yourself what you’re capable of, and feel good about yourself afterwards. There’s nothing like the feeling of being done with that workout and watching yourself get stronger. I workout 6 days a week with one day of full recovery. It’s all laid out in The Get Fit Guide.
Lemon Water – This is part of my morning routine. I get up, drink an entire bottle of water (about 24 ounces) then turn my tea kettle on to heat water for my lemon water. While it’s heating up I start my previously mentioned morning routine! Usually by the time I’ve done my devotional, my lemon water is ready and I drink it while I read a chapter of whatever book I’m currently reading. Lemon water is a great addition to your morning routine, lemon is acidic outside of the body but alkaline in the body. And you get a nice vitamin C boost!
Oil Pulling – Here’s something that I usually do in my free time/relaxing time at night. It can be done while showering, reading, watching your favorite tv show etc. Anything where you don’t need to talk for 15 minutes! Oil pulling consists of swishing around melted coconut oil in your mouth for 15 minutes. You can look up the benefits, there are quite a few, but I like to do it because of the tooth and gum benefits! It’s also supposed to help get stains out of teeth. I usually do this at night while watching and episode of the office or making overnight oats for the next morning. I will say that it feels weird at first! I started with 1o minutes for a few times and built up. Now I oil pull 3-4 times a week!
Greens – As hard as we try, sometimes we just don’t get all of our vitamins and minerals from food! One thing that can help with this is good supplements. I take either a greens powder or greens capsule daily for this! One thing you really want to make sure of when looking at supplements is that they are good quality and your body can actually use them. A lot of hard pressed compact pills are too much for your body to break down and use. They’re often coated in shiny substances and we end up wasting money because we aren’t getting any benefits. If you’re going to supplement, make sure it’s a quality one, do the research!
Chiropractic – One thing that I’ve been doing a long time is seeing a chiropractor. I don’t have any back or neck pain that sends me there, it’s just something that I choose to do a preventative care. Our spinal health has a massive impact on our health in general. This is something that has helped to me steer clear of more traditional doctors offices which is pretty much my life goal being scared of blood tests, shots and pretty much all things being sick entails :D.
One note here, I’m not into being cracked and popped and it’s important to note that there are alternatives to that! Activator and torque release are two ways that I enjoy much more. A lot less scary haha!
I know this was really long! I hope that you can use some of it, let me know if you have any questions about any of it! 🙂
Sweat, Smile, Repeat!
xx Niki
