Aug 2, 2017

It always seems healthy habits come with some sort of downfall.  Like you eat more greens, you miss pizza. You destress and step away, your to-do list stacks up.  And it’s hard when the downfalls just feel like they out weigh the benefits.

But keeping our bodies and minds healthy is possibly the most important thing we can do for ourselves.  So here are some habits that keep me happy  a n d  healthy.

Drink kombucha.

In the spirit of full disclosure this healthy habit is borderline an obsession. L and I brew this at home and absolutely adore going to our local kombucha bars.  We always get excited when local grocery stores have kombucha on tap and new flavors are our weakness.

So you can imagine we cling to any of the promised health benefits.

Kombucha is essentially fermented tea and thus hosts a large number of healthy bacteria, or probiotics.  Probiotics help your digestive tract as they absorb nutrients and fight infection.  As of now I’m currently having to repeat – balance. Balance is best.  Otherwise I swear I’d be having kombucha for every meal!

Create tech free zones.

Granted this is something I have yet to figure out for our new home in Montana, but by far my favorite addition to any home I’ve ever lived in was a tech free zone.  A no cell phone – no laptop – no excuses kind of place.

Things I’ve done in my tech free zone:

• Read
• Nap
• Cuddle with Zeus
• Literally nothing

 

It took me a couple of usages to start to enjoy such an unlimited space.  And switching my idea of it being limited to unlimited was half the battle!  So start small.  Give yourself five minutes of no tech and slowly grow it from there.  I was never very good at doing nothing (without it eventually leading into a nap), but benefits of mediation possibly far out weigh my obsession with kombucha.

Add oil to my skincare routine.

You didn’t think I was going to let a healthy lifestyle post go without the mention of skincare, did you? 😉

I’ve struggled with my skin for years and it wasn’t until I started using oils I saw the biggest change yet.

It’s incredibly scary to put oil on oily skin (definitely took me a couple weeks getting over that), but now my skin seems to almost crave my favorite clarifying oil and to really treat it I try to go at least one day with only Pai’s oil on it.

Take a few supplements.

With all knowledge that the web now has it seems to get a little…. clustered with tips for staying our healthiest. And I seriously swear every week there is a new company that’s going to ‘cure’ anything and everything I have.

My answer? Keep it simple.

I take one multivitamin for iron replacement (I’m pretty anemic), one fish oil tablet (seriously gorgeous hair + nails… and something about healthy bones 😉 ) and then an echinacea tablet (for keeping colds away.)  And that’s it.  I also make sure I’m not just depending on supplements to keep healthy, and try to keep my diet healthy so the supplements act as an aid and not as a replacement.

Work out with weights.

The only way I can understand how people hate doing cardio is my hatred for weight training.  It’s been that way my whole life.  And it took me reaching my ‘goal weight’ (a random number I decided I would be happy at) to understand that the scale has very little to do with happiness.

From there I looked into something different.  Something that would make me strong and not just a number.

Kayla Itsine’s Bikini Body Guide was a complete 180˚ for my workout routine and while at first I frustrated with it, I’ve now become a complete convert.  She focuses on strength and challenging your muscles, not a number.  In fact many of her ‘After’ photos show women weighing more than they did in their ‘Before.’  C r a z y.

I don’t think I’ll ever be proclaiming #lovemyfitlife on Instagram (it’s just not my attitude), but the difference I feel after adding in some weights + gaining muscle tone is amazing.

 

Its a little refreshing finding healthy habits that come with big benefits and very little downfalls.  While I still have to talk myself into getting to the gym some most days and I can get lazy with my skincare, these are habits I’ve truly enjoyed and always find myself happy to get back to.

What is a healthy habit you swear by? Anything I should be adding??