Healthy Lifestyle Choices to Reach Your Highest Self

January months are saturated with those new year’s resolutions trying to make an appearance in everyday routines. But let’s be honest, so often they have dropped off by the end of month one. Instead of using harmful self-talk like “I can’t believe I’ve already failed” “If Jenny can lose 20 pounds, I should be able to as well” or “If I cannot stick to something for even 30 days, how will I ever be someone my friends and family rely on?” Do any of these thoughts sound familiar? How about a change of focus in 2023—a focus on finding what healthy lifestyle choices you can implement into each day that help you reach your highest self, with the least amount of resistance. Here’s how I have built habits to support my goals and nurture my relationships with others and myself.

Bookshelf of author’s referenced in this post:

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Pillars of Healthy Lifestyle Choices

The Allie In Her 20’s Blog is focused on five pillars of healthy living: Relationships, Fashion, Food, Beauty, and Travel. And while I briefly talk about these blog pillars after each blog post, the pillar method also applies to healthy lifestyle choices. I read a book in the summer of 2020 when everything was COVID-closed, that still affects the way I plan and execute tasks every day. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg discusses this “to change a habit, you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.” This strategy, in conjunction with Daniel Pink’s book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, highlight the importance of habit stacking, when to just do it, and incorporating healthy lifestyle choices into each day that feel effortless. So, after a few weeks of showing up every day for your highest self, your goals will become the new norm. 

• Pillar 1 Getting Honest 
• Pillar 2 Morning Routine 
• Pillar 3 Night Routine
• Pillar 4 Relationships (Others & Self) 

Getting Honest

Growing up, I often heard the saying—that’s like a fool leading a fool. It was used about life carrying on without a clear sense of direction. This is what new year’s resolutions are like when you don’t first start with intention. And to find intention, we must get honest. 

How to get honest? Write some of the questions below down as journal prompts and see where it takes you. 

• What am I good at?
• What do I need to work on in my personal life?
• What makes me tired (just thinking about it)?
• How do other people view me? How would I want others to describe me?
• What are the things I value most in life?
• How much sleep do I need? Am I a morning or night-time person?
• In situations do I feel most stressed?
• What past habits and behaviors are no longer benefiting me?
• Who are the people that lift me toward my highest version of self?
• What hobbies have I been thinking about starting and haven’t?
• How often am I incorporating movement into my day and how can I be more consistent with this?

To set goals in motion, there must first be an intention. After the intention is uncovered, it’s time to make a plan. Don’t forget to plan how to celebrate the little moments and milestones along your way toward larger goals. 

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Your New Morning Routine

Imagine this: All your “swallow-the-frog” tasks are completed by the end of the morning and each task completed, creates a momentum wave to carry you through all those to-dos. After the lunch break, you have the plan to make the most of the rest of your day. You complete your responsibilities by the end of the work day and have time to make it home in time for dinner, the kids’ ball game, happy hour with girlfriends, or to take that new hobby class you’ve been pushing ahead on your calendar for months. 

In 2019, I read Good Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. This book reshaped the way I view the A.M. and expanded what I thought could be accomplished by noon each day. Elrod provides tools to create a good morning., every morning. He talks about creating a morning routine aligned with personal goals and provides an acronym, S.A.V.E.R.S., to help equip readers with the tools to truly make those healthy lifestyle choices work for them. 

S.A.V.E.R.S. = silence, affirmation, visualization, exercise, reading, scribing

In the years since reading this book, I have used it as a blueprint for using the morning to set myself up for a great rest of the day. Give it a read!

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4 Ways to Make Better Mornings

1. Set an alarm and get up within five seconds of the first ring. This is the first commitment you can keep to yourself during the day. Cue: The alarm goes off. Action: I get out of bed. Reward: Start morning ritual to feel like highest self. 
   
2. Make your bed right when you wake up. Seems silly and simple but it’s much more than pulling the sheets up. This routine creates a brain pattern that says, “Okay, first thing completed for the day, what’s next?” Checking things off a list, no matter how quick or seemingly small, creates momentum for those grander (and often more difficult) tasks throughout the day.  
   
3. Wait at least an hour before having coffee. If the very first thing consumed every day is caffeine, this trains the body that it doesn’t have to produce natural energy. This will result in more tiredness, not less. Here’s what I like to do instead of starting to sip my coffee straight away: Pour a tall glass of water while I step outside to get natural light on my face. Then I read, journal, visualize, and get some movement (like yoga, Pilates, walking, and breath work) for about 45 minutes. After giving an hour to my adapted version of S.A.V.E.R.S., I start the percolator coffee machine and turn on an audiobook/podcast to listen to while enjoying my first cup of coffee. 
   
4. Spend about 15 minutes reaching out to family and friends. For me, this looks like sending “thinking about you” texts, checking the calendar for birthdays, and messaging a meme/TikTok that makes me think of them, etc. P.S. In case no one has said it to you recently: Call your mama. And your dad, brother, sister, and grandparents! I like to schedule routine weekly calls with some of my family members. This makes it easier when you both have busy schedules. It also gives something to look forward to throughout the week. 

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Zzzz Night Routine

I have watched many morning routine vlogs and videos over the years but have not found much content focused on the other bookend of the day: nighttime. Nights have always been difficult for me—mostly because it takes my mind a long time to turn off in preparation for sleep. This has a lot to do with all the stimuli often happening way past dark around the house: bright lights, loud sounds, and late-night eating. All of which interrupt the natural cycles of each day. Here are 4 ways I have been unwinding before bed.

• Detach from thoughts of work or other stressors by stimulating creativity– with a craft, cooking a new recipe, or reading a book.
• Turn on an essential oil diffuser with a calming scent like lavender, eucalyptus, or Ylang Ylang. If you chose to light a candle instead, be sure to check the ingredients—many fragrances and fillers used are harmful and can cause headaches and long-term health complications. Try soy-based candles for a less toxic option. 
• Switch electronics to night mode when the sun goes down and if you are using screens, wear blue light glasses. It’s always a good idea to turn off the tv, close the laptop, and silence the phone at least 30 minutes before bedtime. 
• Have a cup of tea. My go-to herbal favorites are spearmint, peppermint, chamomile, and a detox tea blend. 

While we’re talking sleep: don’t knock naps. I used to have an aversion to naps—even as a kid. I didn’t want to miss any of the days. As I got older, I equated naps with laziness, but according to Daniel Pink, nothing could be farther from the truth. He says in his book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing that naps when taken for 10-30 minutes, help improve productivity and excitement for the remainder of the day. After learning about the caffeine and nap combo, he has coined the term: Nappuccino. Caffeine takes 5-10 minutes to enter the bloodstream so when it is consumed right before laying down for a brief nap, it has positive effects upon waking. Including increased awareness, energy, and productivity. 

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Relationships (Others & Self)

When I started reading self-help and psychology books in high school, I had no idea the resilient impact this would have on the way I approach and maintain relationships with both myself and others. 

With Others

Boundaries: I have learned the importance of setting boundaries and saying no—in all situations that call for it. This can be difficult when it’s with family and close friends, but it is essential for building lasting relationships. Brené Brown talks a lot about boundaries in her book, Atlas of the Heart.

Planning: Schedule fun events and host themed parties with loved ones. Document it with polaroid pictures. I like to keep fresh film on the table during holiday dinners. After, I Sharpie the date on the bottom and throw them in a memory jar. Also, A few times a year, I go through my phone photos and print some through the Walgreens photo app. 

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With Self

Health: Schedule regular health checkups and stay consistent with vitamins and supplements. Find the foods that fuel your body type and incorporate time to try those recipes you keep saying you don’t have time for. The truth is, there is nothing more important than what we consume. This means food, media, etc. It’s always beneficial to your health to take a media detox—even just for a few hours. This takes the focus off what everyone else is doing or might be thinking and places the focus back on personal endeavors.  

Garden: Water yourself first. For me, this starts with my morning routine—and continues with self-talk. I focus on the soundtracks that play in my head and remind myself that “One of the greatest mistakes you can make in life is assuming all your thoughts are true.” Jon Acuff reminds us of this in his book, Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking.

Newness: Try something new and stay curious about learning the way the world functions. This can be broken down into three categories: career, hobbies, and education. What is something you’ve been wanting to change in your work life? How can you schedule in a new class or course? When the day is ending, what do you find yourself wishing you had started that day?  

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Cooking Tip of The Week (Healthy Choice)

As mentioned with relation to self above, eating in a way that aligned with the body and lifestyle you crave is an essential addition for 2023. 

Here is a recipe that I make almost every day. It is easy, cheap, delicious, fast, and low-calorie.

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Allie’s Go-To Breakfast: 

• 3 egg whites
• C. spinach
• 1/4 onion, diced
• 1/2 zucchini, sliced
• Top with feta
• Side of salsa

P.S. All of these are estimates, I don’t normally measure. 

I sauté the onions and zucchini in a nonstick pan and then add the spinach last. After add egg whites and flip. Finally, top with sea salt and feta and add a side of salsa. This is my favorite salt. Sometimes I add fruit and or a small Greek yogurt parfait on the side. 

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CONCLUSION: Healthy Lifestyle Aesthetic

I talk about making a vision board in the blog post “How to Make 2023 the Best Year Yet.” This is one of my favorite ways to set intentions, reach goals, and build that healthy life aesthetic that lives on my Pinterest boards and on my book shelves.

I constructed my first vision board in college when I was trying to gain clarity on my career direction. As I flipped through old magazines and newspapers for inspiration, I remember looking for images of delicious-looking recipes, tailored suits paired with pumps, an apartment view with floor-ceiling windows, and mostly just taking time to discover what a maintainable work-life balance looked like for me. I kept this physical vision board on my bedroom wall for three years before remodeling and shifting to a more digital approach.

Both digital and physical vision boards are beneficial in keeping the important areas of life at the forefront as you focus on the new year. For example, I like to keep this on my desktop, as a screensaver, and taped to my bathroom mirror. This way I am seeing it all the time, and subconsciously imagine having all the vision items. I like to make digital vision boards throughout the year and keep them on my phone and computer while making a physical vision board to hang in the house. This is a good activity to do with friends.

In addition, check out my Instagram Reel about my steps for making it! (scroll to the bottom of the page for IG Feed)

xxx

Allie M.