The Liz Moody Podcast - The 5 Habits That Have Changed My Life The Most

Episode Date: October 18, 2023

In this solo episode, I share the science and stories behind the five habits that have changed my life the most. Plus, I answer all of your Qs about forming habits, the book launch process, my personal journey, and more.  To join the Healthier Together Podcast Club Facebook group, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/healthiertogetherpodcast. Ready to uplevel every part of your life? Pre-order my new book 100 Ways to Change Your Life: The Science of Leveling Up Health, Happiness, Relationships & Success now!  This episode is sponsored by: AG1: visit http://drinkag1.com/lizmoody and get your FREE year supply of Vitamin D and 5 free travel packs today.  ZocDoc: go to ZocDoc.com/LizMoody and download the Zocdoc app for FREE and book a top-rated doctor today. Osea: get 10% off your first order at oseamalibu.com with code LIZMOODY10. LMNT: go to DrinkLMNT.com/LizMoody a to get a free LMNT sample pack with any order.  Podcast cover art by Zack. Healthier Together music by Alex Ruimy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the 200th episode of the Liz Moody podcast. I'm your host, Liz Moody, and I'm a bestselling author and long-time journalist. I honestly cannot believe that this is the 200th episode and that it lined up with my book launch date. That was literally not planned. I saw it on the calendar last week and I was just mind-boggled. Like, what are the odds? We have a lot to celebrate today. You getting to finally read this book that I've worked on.

for so long that I am so proud of, and 200 episodes of getting to learn from the world's biggest experts about getting richer, dealing with grief, helping our pets live as long and well as possible, climate change, style secrets, tapping into our creative selves, dismantling the patriarchy, healing our guts, our hormones, our anxiety, tackling negative body image, and so, so, so much more. I am so proud of the wide range of topics we cover on this podcast because I believe it is all connected. Our microbiomes impact our brain and our mental health. We know this. This is proven science. And then our mental health impacts our relationships and our ability to perform at work and experience the success that we desire. And then both of those

things impact our stress levels. And then our stress levels have a huge impact on the health of our microbiome. It's all connected. So when we address one thing on its own, we're never going to be able to actually experience the change that we want to see in our lives. And that's what this podcast has been about since the beginning, giving you the science and the action steps to solve your problems, addressing anything and everything that's keeping you from living your unique best life. And along the way, giving you plenty of food for thought, laughs, and interesting conversation starters for your friends and family, I always say that one of the many reasons I feel so lucky to get to host this podcast is because I always have something new and interesting to talk about

with Zach and with my friends. Hosting this podcast and getting to have these conversations is my absolute dream job. And I am so grateful for every single one of you for making it possible and coming along on this journey with me. Today, in celebration of my book's launch, I'm going to share the top five habits that have changed my own life the most. In the book, you're going to get a hundred ways to change your life. And every single way has both the science, which is made really accessible and interesting and fun and an action step, something that you can do today to actually apply that science and change your life. I found with so many books I buy, especially in the personal growth or self-help arena, I read them and I feel really good

while I'm reading them. I'm like, oh yeah, I can do it. I am awesome. But then that feeling wears off almost immediately afterward and I'm like, well, wait, what should I actually do? It's almost like eating a Cheeto. It's almost satisfying but not quite so you immediately need more and it's kind of designed to be that way. So you have to buy more and more and more to be satisfied. This book is designed as the antidote to that. Everything is grounded in reality. It's not like, woohoo, you can do it. Love yourself. It's like, here are these signs. scientific reasons behind why you're not able to love yourself. And here's exactly what to do today in this moment to tackle them. Here's exactly why you don't have the energy that you want.

Here's what to do about it. It's like a personal growth book for people who are very frustrated by personal growth, which is my entire MO here on the podcast and on my social media. Because the thing is, you can actually change the way your brain thinks. There's literal neuroscience behind it. And we have a number of tips in the book designed to take advantage of our neural plasticity and literally rewire our neural networks to feel happier, to think more positive thoughts, et cetera. There's real science there. So why not take advantage of that instead of the platitudes and empty words that litter the self-help space? Okay, so today I will start by sharing the five habits that have changed my life the most and that I attribute my success, my happiness,

being at the place that I am in my life right now too. And then I will dive into your questions about habits, about my journey to get here, about the book writing process, all of that type of stuff. It's going to be an entire party. So buckle up. I want to caveat this with saying that these are the five habits that I feel have changed my life the most right now. And that's important because the tools that we need, the habits that we need,

are going to change throughout our lives. It's the reason I design the book the way that I did. It has 18 categories that span all sections of your life. So you can use it as a forever resource as your needs and goals change. Maybe one month you're feeling especially lonely. So you flip to the chapter about how to make and keep friends and you start to use the tools from the tip about how to attract your dream friends. Maybe another month you're feeling the stress of the world. And you flip to the section about how to restore and reset, the section about building resilience, or the section about how to how to feel calmer. A key thing that's often missing from the conversations we have about habits and wellness tools is that we should always be reevaluating them so that we don't end up wasting our precious time, our precious money on things that aren't working for us or we no longer need. It's kind of like relationships. Some habits and tools are meant to serve you for short periods, but they are so, so critical and important in those short periods, while others are meant to last for a lifetime. And both are important and both are okay. But that awareness is so critical.

So a meta habit, a little bonus habit on top of all the other habits that I'm about to share, is to constantly be asking yourself, what is my goal with this habit? How am I measuring success in terms of reaching that goal? is the habit actually helping me reach that success? And then being okay with changing it up, trying something new if that's what you need at the time. It's interesting. And some people have told me like, wow, a hundred ways to change your life is a lot. That's kind of an intimidating title for a book. And first of all, like I said, the book is not designed to have you do everything at once. There's a hundred ways in there so you get the value of 50 books in one.

So it can be a long-term tool in your life. But second, our life, our life is a lot. Lives are always changing. To be human, to live is to change. Every moment, every day, things are shifting, whether it's in our relationships, in the world at large, in ourselves. This book and this podcast, too, they're just about having the tools to embrace that change, to have it feel positive instead of scary. Life is change, and I'm here to give you the tools to deal with that. Okay, habit number one, focusing on the base of the pyramid. This is based on tip 91 in the book, which is in the How to Build Resilience section. It's called Create a Mental Health Checklist, and it's from famed psychologist Dr. Julie Smith.

She shares the five things that make up the base for our mental health. Social connection, good nutrition, routine, sleep, and movement. The idea is that you put that list on a sticky note or on your phone or something. somewhere you see it regularly to remind you to prioritize those things. And then also so that when you find yourself in a less than ideal mental health day, you can run down the list and ask yourself, how's my sleep been lately? Am I missing good routines? Have I eaten a vegetable recently or have I been eating a lot of food that doesn't make me feel my best? And you can go down the list like check, check, and then if one is missing, that is a great sign that you should focus on that thing and you will

start to feel better. I extrapolate that idea, though, to focusing on the base of the pyramid. What do I mean by that? The base of the pyramid is made up of those boring basic habits that we so rarely talk about, but that really make up the vast, vast majority of how we feel on a day-to-day basis. I cannot tell you how many DMs I've gotten from people who are stressing out about whether they should buy this specific supplement or that one, or they're asking if they should do a vitamin IV. And I get further down the conversation and I find out they're not adding vegetables into their meals. They don't have a single stress relief practice. They don't prioritize time with their community. They don't prioritize sleep. These are the things that are actually

responsible for our health. Look, there's a lot to be said for top of the pyramid wellness. There's great science behind the efficacy for a lot of supplements and certainly behind any of the ones that I take or will ever recommend to any of you. If you want to stress out about every single ingredient in every bite that you eat, I am not going to be able to stop you. But just know that, even though it's not sexy, even though you can't make it into trends that drive article clicks or products that you can sell for money, the base of the pyramid is always going to be responsible for the foundation of how you feel. The rest are tweaks. They are optimization. They are icing on the cake. The icing is good, but you need a cake underneath. People always ask me,

what was the thing that truly turned the tables on my agoraphobia? I was having panic attacks whenever I got out of bed. I couldn't leave the house. I get asked on social media, on TV, in podcast interviews, what was the thing that made the biggest difference? And the true answer is that it was a lot of things. The tools experts shared when I reached out about my anxiety, starting to eat better. Green smoothies were a big, big, big part of my early wellness journey, a movement practice. But if I am really honest, the thing that made the biggest difference was getting a full-time job in an office. That happened maybe a year after the worst stage of my anxiety. I had gotten to a place where I could go on walks, I could go to the grocery store, but I was still

really, really anxious. I remember going to a friend's bachelorette party at the time and not being able to go out to any of the bars or clubs because they felt so overstimulating. And I was also asking a lot of questions at the time. Like, I wanted to know every element of the plan. And I was trying to make the room, which like six of us were sharing this one little room with two double beds. I wanted to make it super dark and quiet because I was so nervous about not getting a good night's sleep. And then that being a big anxiety trigger. And one of the girls was like, wow, Liz, I thought you were like a chill world traveler. I didn't realize that you were so high maintenance. And it just felt devastating in the moment because I had self-identified as this person who had traveled by myself for

years, who was chill and fun and go with the flow. And now I was uptight and high-strung and I was still too nervous to tell anyone that it was because of my anxiety. It just felt like such a blow to the person that I wanted to be. Anyway, that's where I was mentally when we moved back to New York City and I got hired full time at Mind Body Green where I ended up being the food director, better than in bed, but not by a ton. And I remember thinking, is this job going to send me back into full-blown agoraphobia? I'd have to wake up consistently early. which would stress me out about getting a good night's sleep. I'd have to commute. I'd have deadlines and people relying on me. I'd be in an office filled with people all day long. I honestly

barely took the job because I was so nervous about its impact on my mental health. But it was my dream job and also I just really needed money to, you know, live. But that job was the true turning point in my agoraphobia journey. And do you know why? Because that, job provided a routine that gave me structure. My anxiety had convinced me that structure was the enemy, but all brains, and especially anxious brains, crave structure. And that job provided me with community. I'd thought people were adding to my anxiety because I'd spent so long trying to hide my panic from them so as not to be perceived poorly. But people were the antidote to my anxiety. At that point, I'd been taking the aschwaganda and the magnesium and doing the breathwork practices and all of that.

But the job provided me with the community and routine that served as the base of my pyramid. Social connection, good nutrition, routine, sleep, and movement. Really go through and ask yourself if any of those need your attention. I know they sound boring, but they are the foundation. and a solid foundation is what keeps us safe and secure. The second habit that has changed my life the most is prioritizing how much I focus on my relationships. For years, I, like I think a lot of us, viewed hanging out with my friends as something that I got to do after I checked off everything on my to-do list, after I finished my work for the day, after I worked out, after I did my chores around the house. But then I interviewed Dr. Robert Waldinger on the January 25th, 2023 episode of the podcast.

It's the one called The Secret to Happiness from the World's Longest Study, and it is one of my favorites. I highly, highly recommend it. But the primary finding of that study is that the quality of our relationships determines the length and happiness of our lives. There were a lot of other findings from the study, which spanned literally over 80 years. but that was the bottom line, absolute key takeaway. Our relationships determine the quality of our lives. Yet, we treat them like an afterthought. We act like they're a little treat for us when we finish all of our real life things. There's a tip in the book that's really helpful for switching this thinking. It's in the how to be happier section, and the tip is called Make Your Schedule Match Your Values. And I'm just going to read you a small snippet of it really quick.

When we put things into our calendar, we give them priority in our lives. And when we consistently add nothing but work tasks to our calendar, well, it's not a surprise that the work task get accomplished, often at the expense of the relationships with others and with ourselves. My entire life changed when I started to add my personal goals to my calendar. I'll put a recurring meeting on my calendar to call my mom or pencil in a five-minute block to text a friend to check in. I have have date nights with Zach on my calendar, blocks to drink a smoothie with him outside before a long day, and quarterly finance check-ins. Beyond that, I also schedule in my commitments to myself. Meditation goes in the calendar, along with daily workouts. My beloved cirque walk, in the calendar.

My workouts in the calendar. Even time to relax, to read a book and just chill. It goes on the calendar and not just in the leftover space from my many to-dos. My rest is a priority, key to my mental health and enjoyment of life, and as necessary to my productivity as my moments of go, go, go. If I can take a break another time, great. But putting it in the calendar ensures that it will happen at least at the minimum of what I'm okay with. You can read more about that in the book, but for now I want you to think about giving your relationships the priority level

that they deserve in your life. It makes such a huge difference in health and happiness. This tip extends further than even day-to-day choices. I actually haven't talked about this publicly yet, but after a lot of contemplation and thought, Zach and I have decided to rent a place in the Bay Area for a year starting this winter right after my book tour. And while I love a lot of things about the Bay Area,

I think it has some of the best nature of any urban area that I've been to, the primary reason behind that decision was that right now, that's where most of our community is. We've been debating where to live for years, and we've been debating things like weather and the types of restaurants and job opportunities and what type of nature we'd be close to. And we've had hundreds of hours of conversation about these things. And on basically every stop of nomad life, we've been like, could we live here? What about here? But it was so clarifying to have that conversation with Dr. Waldinger.

Of course, at different times, it makes sense for people to prioritize different things, and a lot of people don't have a choice about where they live. But for me, I was like, I should be prioritizing my community. I have the biggest concentration of people that fill my cup that soothe my soul in the Bay Area. Why would I pass up the opportunity to immerse myself in that? There are a ton of tips in the book about enhancing all types of relationships in your life. But the The starting place for this one is really considering the priority that you give your relationships in your days and decisions. Science shows that they are the literal number one thing, the thing that matters the most for our longevity and happiness. And we need to start acting accordingly. When it comes to wellness, you're going to get the best results by focusing on the big needle movers.

A lot of us spend a lot of time trying to optimize that last 1%, which creates a ton of stress and it actually doesn't help our help that much. At the top of the needle mover list, sleep. And one of the best ways to optimize your sleep is to optimize your mattress, which is why I love avocado green mattress so much. First of all, this mattress is so comfortable. I have the one with the pillow top, which is medium firm, and it's just a dream. I miss it when I travel. It's better than even the fanciest hotel beds. Having a mattress that supports your joints and your body and feels good is going to help you get more sleep and better quality sleep. But then, on top of that, avocado mattresses are made with certified organic cotton, wool, and latex, and they are made safe

and Greenguard Gold certified. They're also Okotech certified, which is the gold standard. I look for it in any mattresses, sheets, or towels that I buy, which means the materials have been rigorously tested for harmful substances. You can actually look for the Okotech standard 100 label right on the product, and I love this part. It includes a traceable certificate number and the name of the testing lab so you know exactly what you're getting. There are no toxic chemicals. There's no harmful off-gassing. It does not smell like it's going to kill you when you unbox it. This is what I mean. I'm not going to swap out all of my clothing, which is that top 1% of optimization. But by making sure that my mattress and my bedding are as good for me as possible, I literally reduce my exposure

during a third of my life, which is a huge needle mover for a one-time swap. I will also know, and this is a me thing, but I sleep super hot and avocado's materials are really breathable, and it makes me sweat the least of any mattress that I have slept on. And avocado is a certified B-Corp and a 1% for the planet member, because caring for yourself and caring for the planet do not have to be separate things. You can get up to 20% off organic mattresses and more by shopping Avocados Presidents Day Sale right now at avocadogreenmatress.com. That is avocadogreenmatress.com, no code needed.

I very rarely get genuinely excited about skincare, but this is one of the most innovative products that I have come across in years, and I'm so obsessed with it. I've been telling all of my friends to get it, so now I need to tell you guys. Here's some science first. Your skin isn't just getting older. It's being actively broken down by something called senescent cells. These are cells that have stopped functioning but refuse to die. They sit there releasing inflammatory signals, breaking down your collagen, degrading your skin barrier, and accelerating every visible sign of aging. Scientists call them zombie cells and as they accumulate, they are one of the primary drivers of how old your skin looks and feels. The team at one skin, a group of female longevity researchers

and PhDs, spent five years testing over 900 peptides to figure out how to help reduce the accumulation of senescent cells. And they finally landed on it. OSO1, the first peptide scientifically studied to reduce skin's biological age at the molecular, level. OSO1 goes in and it clears out the senescent cells so it helps skin function like healthier, younger looking skin. It is not masking the signs of aging. It's not targeting one thing. It is actually rolling the clock back at a cellular level. I've been using the face moisturizer for almost six months now and I love it so much. It feels amazing. It goes on really smoothly. It's not tacky at all. And I actually see a difference, which I just feel like is never

the case with skincare. You want to always like see a real difference. and you're kind of like, do I? Do I? And this, I genuinely do. Because it's clearing the senescent cells, it doesn't just target one thing. So my skin looks firmer. It looks glowier. The texture feels dramatically smoother. And I feel like you can see that too. I also love the body moisturizer. It dries down really quickly, which is always a pet peeve of mine with moisturizers. I hate that, like, sticky feeling when you go to put your clothes on. This does not do that. But it does moisturize really, really well. And then again, I'm reducing my skin's biological age. I am not making it just look younger. I am making it actually younger. One Skin has four peer-reviewed clinical studies in over 10,000

five-star reviews. The data backs everything up. For a limited time, get 15% off with code Liz at oneskin.com slash Liz. Again, that's 15% off at oneskin.co with code Liz. Habit three is seriously re-evaluating my relationship with alcohol. I know I've shared a lot of my intentional drinking journey already, so we don't need to dive too deep into that. But about a year and a half ago, I completely changed my relationship with alcohol. While I'm not completely sober, I went from drinking at least two or three times a week, and I would say getting properly tipsy or drunk a few times a month, probably, to drinking two or three times a year. And I haven't actually gotten drunk at all in that year and a half. The podcast series from January 2023 is called the

health effects of alcohol, and I am incredibly proud of it. It's not scary or shaming at all. Like almost every single one of the doctors that I interviewed still drinks on occasion. But it gives such important information about how alcohol is actually impacting our cancer risk, our brain health, our gut health, our hormone health, and more, and exactly what we can do about those impacts. I'm going to read you a little passage from the book. Having this information made me look at alcohol differently. Were the results I was experiencing actually worth the harm I was causing to my body? Was it actually enhancing my life on net?

I stopped drinking almost entirely then and found out that, in fact, it wasn't. Because we're all already the person we think alcohol is making us. All alcohol does is lower our inhibition so we let that person come out. If you dance for hours on end when you're drinking, you are already that dancer. If you're witty and charming, you are already that delightful conversationalist. If you think you're gorgeous when you're drunk, you are already that stunning person. The alcohol just let you silence your inner critic so those parts of yourself could come out without fear of rejection. Moreover, not drinking hasn't been nearly as awkward or embarrassing as I thought it would be.

If someone judges you for not drinking, well, isn't that embarrassing for them? Why do they care so much? I also find there's an initial hump right at the beginning of a night out or social gulf. gathering where everyone is ordering drinks and loosening up, and I have to use my own mental resources to relax and get into that conversational flow. But once that happens, I am set. I'm off to the races, ready to be a sparkling conversationalist for the rest of the evening, while everyone else is getting more cognitively impaired. I actually find people enjoy spending time out with me more now because I'm able to bring more to the table. Not drinking has also been an encouragement to be

more creative with the time I spend with friends, resulting in game nights filled with belly aching laughter, cookbook potluck parties, and outdoor adventures. I've also found new ways to relax after work that leave me feeling truly restored, relaxed, and ready to take on the next day. And then I share all of those specific ways in the book. We actually have an entire how to restore and reset section, but I wanted to read that part because flipping my mindset around alcohol has made such a huge difference in my need for it. If you'd told me even three years ago that drinking wouldn't be a regular part of my life, I would have laughed in your face. It truly felt like everyone drank and like I had to drink too to fit in to be the person that I wanted

to be. And I can tell you assuredly, after barely drinking for a year and a half, I fit in fine. My friendships are stronger than ever. My favorite drink at dinners or bars right now is I ask for half unsweetened lemon juice and half sparkling water, and it makes basically an unsweetened lemonade that is so, so good, and I sip on that all night and I am just happy as a clam. Or if it's a bar that can make interesting mocktails, I love a really complex and sophisticated mocktail so much. But I do find a lot of bars these days make them really sweet and not that interesting, hence usually just going with the sparkling lemonade. But my social life is thriving. My relationships are thriving. And I feel so much better in my body than I ever have. Not drinking

has helped my anxiety so much. It's helped my energy. It's helped my sleep. Zach actually stopped drinking or mostly stopped. He's an intentional drinker like I am. he got an aura ring and he realized how much drinking was impacting his sleep, even when he did not feel drunk. If you are listening and any of this is resonating, I'd recommend picking up a copy of the book and flipping to tips 72 about alcohol. And then there are also a bunch of tips in there about solving problems you might think giving up alcohol is creating.

Like we have tips about being a sparkling conversationalist and making more friends and being a fun magnet. And then I highly recommend that podcast series that I mentioned. It's called the health impacts of alcohol, and it is from January 2023. Habit 4 is keeping promises to myself. This is in the book under the self-love chapter. And the reason for that is this. Self-love is dependent on self-trust, and self-trust is created by keeping the promises that we make to ourselves. Think about it like this. Let's say every day you tell yourself that you won't reach for your phone first thing in the morning and then every day you're like, eh, whatever, and then you pick it up first thing and you scroll. Let's say you tell yourself you're going to do a workout and then later you don't feel like it and you

don't do it. These moments feel so little, but in them we are teaching ourselves not to believe our own words. So then when we look in the mirror and we say, I believe in you, I love you. When we try to to say these kind things to ourselves, we don't believe them. Why should we? We've trained our brain into thinking that our word isn't believable. Keeping promises that I make to myself both small and large has been an absolute game changer in my life. And just having this information, making this connection between self-love and self-trust has changed everything. Because then in the moment when I don't want to do that meditation, I promise myself, when I'm scrolling, when I told myself that I wanted. I can catch myself and I can say, this is chipping away at your self-trust.

This is chipping away at your ability to affirm yourself and believe it. Life is spent building our relationships with ourselves. At a minimum, we need to give ourselves the same courtesy and kindness that we would give a partner or a friend. I want you to imagine Imagine this. You are in a relationship with someone and they keep saying, I'm going to take the trash out. I'm going to take the trash out. But day after day, the trash piles up. Are you going to believe them the next time they say they're going to do something? Are you going to believe them when they say they care about you if you've told them that a way that they show their care is in part through their contribution? Our words don't stand alone. Our beliefs don't stand alone.

Both are the product of a long history of actions. Keep the promises that you make to yourself. If you say you're going to meditate, meditate. If you say you're going to set boundaries at work, set boundaries at work. If you say you're going to finish a project to write a book or go after a dream, do it. If you need to set the bar way lower to actually stick to your word, then do that. Stop setting yourself up to full. fail. If a five-minute meditation is what you can stick to right now, do a five-minute meditation.

If a one-minute meditation is what you can stick to right now, do that. But whatever you say that you're going to do, do it. Even if it means sometimes letting other people down. We avoid letting other people down because we're worried about the impacts on our relationships with them. But then we spend years letting down ourselves instead. What about the impact that has on the relationship with ourselves? All right, Habit 5 that has changed my life is to think about my death. Yes, it sounds morbid, and I apologize to anyone who clicked into this episode thinking they were going to get like a list of fun workout routines or supplements to take. And I also, I also promise that there are a ton of tips that get into all of that nitty-gritty stuff in the book.

We have tips on micro workouts on eliminating jealousy and imposter syndrome, on making metabolically optimized meals, on healing childhood wounds, and really just so much more. There are, after all, 100 tips in 18 categories. But this one is the third tip in the whole book. And while the book is designed to jump around, to be left out on the coffee table so that you can read the tips you need at that specific moment in your life, I really encourage every single person to read the first three tips, which make up a section called How to Define Your Best Life. Because without that North Star, we can lose sight of the direction that we ultimately want to go. And for me,

thinking about my death is one of the most guiding things that I do. It zooms me out to gain a sense of perspective and clarity on what I do and don't want to spend my time on this moment. Like every single second that I spend hating my body, I know 90-year-old me is screaming at me. I can hear her loud and clear. Enjoy every single second you get to be alive on this beautiful planet. What an insane gift. Also, to be completely honest, I don't need 90-year-old me screaming at me to stop thinking about my cellulite or not having a flat belly or any of that because I can feel

a far more near future self doing the exact same thing. You know that thing where you look back at photos from two or three years ago and there are photos you didn't want to share at the time because you thought you looked terrible? And then you look back now and you're like, holy cow, I was gorgeous. Why did I waste that time berating myself? Why did I feel bad about myself? Well, you from three years in the future is doing the same thing to you right now. So listen to them and just enjoy the photo now. Okay, but I digress. Thinking about my death, it puts my relationship with social media in check. When I'm scrolling on the couch for hours, I can tap into that 90-year-old version of me and think about what I'll wish the shape of my days looked like.

It snaps me out of arguments with Zach, especially ones that are petty and about absolutely nothing, but I am standing my ground because I am stubborn and I just want to win for the sake of winning. What a waste of these precious, limited years that I get to spend with the love of my life. Thinking about my death makes me call my loved ones and read novels and ask good questions and travel, even though planes terrify me and linger in bed with my cat for a few extra seconds and put my phone away for the love of all things holy when I'm getting to spend time with the people that I love on this planet. Thinking about my death makes me take risks like writing books and leaving my dream job to start this podcast.

Thinking about my death clarifies the people that I want to spend time with. And if I'm being really, really honest, the people. I'm less interested in spending my hours and days with. Thinking about my death helps me work out and eat things that fuel my cells because it crystallizes the fact that this is my one body. It doesn't exist to look a certain way for other people. It exists to carry me through this short time I have on this planet and I need to treat it like the absolutely irreplaceable thing that it is. Zuming out and getting that, that sense of perspective changes everything. The next time that you're faced with a problem or a

challenge or an anxiety or a stressor, I would love for you to think about the you on your deathbed. What choice will they be happy that you made? What would they want you to let go of? How do they wish you'd spend your days now? The answers are unique to you and they are so, so powerful and so guiding. So we have focus on the base of the pyramid and making sure that we have that base before we add in all of the icing at the top of the pyramid, which is a very mixed metaphor, but you get me. We have prioritizing how much I focus on my relationships. Habit three is reevaluating my relationship with alcohol. Habit four is keeping promises to myself and habit five is thinking about my death. I'd encourage you to try any of these that resonate. And I would

love to hear from you about the habits that have changed your life the most. And of course, we have more on these habits and 95 other ones in 100 ways to change your life. Okay, let's get into some of your questions. I will try to get to as many of these as possible. You sent in a ton of good ones, so I'm going to do my absolute best. Question one, do you have an agent or a manager or both. I have a literary agent whose job it was to sell my book to publishers, and then I have my manager who kind of walks the line between manager and talent agent. She's the one who negotiates the brand deals for this podcast and for my social media with obviously a lot of input from me. I say no to incoming companies that want to place ads all the time because I don't think that

they're a good fit, and she is so, so, so supportive of that. And then I also give her lists of companies that I love so she can reach out to them, which is my absolute favorite way to do partnerships. And at this point in my career, I'm lucky enough to get to do that quite a bit. So that way my ads are more of a way to recommend my favorite products to you and to make all of my content free for you to consume, which feels like such a win-win. And then on the manager side, she is involved in all aspects of my career. She helps manage me into getting where I want to go and she advocates for me getting there. My literary agent is just involved in the book, but my manager, who, Ali, if you're listening,

shout out, you are amazing, is by my side for the vast majority of things that I do. Next question. Would a television or episodic talk show ever be in your future? On one hand, I think that would be really fun because I love going on TV. It's just incredibly exciting and I love the teamwork element of it where all of these people are coming together to produce this amazing content. But I also think that the conversations are so short that they're forced to be fairly surface level, and that would annoy me so much. It is the thing that I hate the most about social media. The vast majority of things suffer. They're flattened and they lose their nuance when you're forced to communicate them in these

quick snippets. And it's one of the number one things that I love about this podcast is that we have the time and space to go deeper and to have the types of conversations that my brain is just craving in this quick hit world. So for now, I would say no because I would lose the long form element, which is what I love most about podcasts and my job in general. The number one rule of habits is to make the things that you want easier and the things that you don't want harder. Yet so many of us want to eat healthier, but so few of us actually take the steps to make eating healthy. healthier, easier. That's where Marley Spoon comes in. What I love about this company and what's different than all of the other companies out there that are doing stuff in the same arena is that you can

customize your choices based on the effort that you want to put in. So if you want them to send you ingredients, so you can make your own 20-minute meal and get into your chef energy, they'll send it to you to all be in perfect portions so you eliminate waste. Great, that's sorted. But they also have meals that you can just heat up. They have ready-made breakfast, which is always such a tough time of day to get a healthy meal in. They have grab and go snacks. Everything is made from farm fresh produce with high quality proteins and you can select by dietary preferences, including Mediterranean diet, which is the top diet that doctors on this podcast recommend. Also things like gluten-free, dairy-free, low sodium, anything that you need. The food is so good and it's so gourmet

feeling like you feel like you're at a nice restaurant. We're talking like chicken Milanese with a crunchy cucumber arugula salad or everything bagel salmon with truffle chive potatoes. My favorite recent meal was the creamy lemon chicken tray bake. I had one of those moments where I looked at my plate and I was like, wait, I made this. And so quickly, like so easily, it's just so little effort for so much reward. Marley Spoon just makes eating well feel easy instead of stressful. And honestly, that is everything. This new year, fast track your way to eating well with Marley Spoon.

Head to marly spoon.com slash offer slash Liz Moody for up to 25 free meals. That is right, up to 25 free meals with Marley Spoon. That is marley spoon.com slash offer slash Liz Moody. So remember to get the offer slash Liz Moody for up to 25 free meals. When you think about strength and resilience, like your ability to feel energized, to recover well, to stay strong as you get older, what do you think that actually comes from? Most people say working out or good nutrition, and yes, of course that matters. But there is a biological foundation underneath all of that that most people are completely overlooking. I have been diving deep into this lately with the team at timeline and what I've learned

has genuinely shifted how I think about my own health. Every single movement that your body makes every step, every workout, every muscle contraction depends on energy produced at the cellular level. And at the center of that is your mitochondria. Here is the thing that, no, you know, Nobody tells you, certainly nobody told me, starting around age 30, our mitochondria naturally become less efficient. More get damaged, more become sluggish, and over time that impacts your energy, your strength, your recovery, and your resilience. Most of us respond by pushing more.

We're like noticing these things and we're adding in more protein. We're trying to fix it with more supplements. We're trying to do harder workouts. And those things do help. But timelines research suggests that we also need to be supporting the cellular machinery underneath. And that is exactly what their supplement, Mitopure, does. It contains urolithin A, which helps your body clear out damage mitochondria and support healthier ones so that your cells can produce energy more

efficiently. Because this is happening to your cells, it's going to impact your entire body, your immune system, your muscles. One study found that taking mitochondria increased muscle strength by 12% in four months with no change in exercise routine, it's going to impact your energy, your sleep, your skin, your cell health impacts all of this, and urolitha keeps your cells healthy. Timeline has done over 15 years of research and testing on this one product, urolithin A, which by the way, most of us lack the gut bacteria to synthesize naturally. That's why many of us need to supplement it to get the benefits. This has become a staple supplement for me. It is my top way to support how I want to look and feel as I age.

Support your cells and how you age with mitopure gummies from timeline. Visit time. timeline.com slash Liz and save up to 39% on your mitochondere gummies. That is timeline.com slash Liz. The next question is, where do you see the podcast in five or 10 years? I'm just going to be very honest with you. I would love to be one of the top podcasts in the world. And I say that not because I particularly care about vanity metrics like what spot I occupy on the charts, but because the bigger your podcast is the more resources you have that you can devote to it, the more you can reach out to any person in the world and have them come on as a guest. I would love to keep our incredible world-class experts, but I would also love to have on notable figures to tell their personal stories, how they've

overcome the struggles in their own lives. I would so love for the podcast to be the thing that I get to completely focus on without the distractions of creating content for social media. This podcast, having these conversations, learning and thinking and growing with all of you is 100% the thing that I feel like I am best at in the world. And I feel so, so strongly that it's the contribution that I'm meant to make on this planet. When you write to me about the ways things that you've learned on this show have changed your life, I'm like, this is what I am here for. That is why I'm always asking you to show. share episodes with people in your life so that we can continue to grow this show and make it even

better for everyone listening. I appreciate all of you so much and I think that this is the best community in the world truly. And also, I think it's okay to have big dreams and to voice those big dreams. It's not bragging. Men have been doing it for years. That is how we make dreams come true. Okay, next. What is the best way to stay consistent with healthy habits when you travel. I'd pick two or three foundational habits and I would focus on them and then I would be far more flexible with everything else. So for me, I try to eat vegetables as often as possible. I try to meditate every single day and I try to get some form of movement in. But with each of those, I am not very rigid. I might wake up a few minutes early to do

a five-minute meditation or sneak in a meditation on the subway. Walking meditation, which Insight Timer has a ton of for free. I know a lot of other apps have them as well. They are so, so nice for traveling because then you're out, you're seeing the city, and you're getting your meditation in. For veggies, I'm usually doing my AG1, so that's at least something. And then at restaurants, I'm always looking for, can I add a salad to this or a veggie side?

I also love staying in Airbnbs or VRBOs because then I can go to the store or a farmer's market at the beginning of a trip. get some eggs and some broccoli any or herbs or some type of fresh produce and ideally a loaf of sourdough and some pastured butter and then I can make scrambled eggs with fresh veggies using the butter and then I can serve that on top of the toasted sourdough and that's my breakfast every day. It always makes me feel so good and also I feel like there is nothing more annoying than going out to breakfast every day on vacation. It is the least rewarding meal to go out to by far, and it's the one that makes you feel the worst for the rest of your day, the time

that you are supposed to be enjoying your vacation if you eat something without protein or fiber, which is most of the breakfast that you can get out. That's another thing. When you're traveling, really focus on the habits that will help you enjoy your trip more versus take away from it. So some people love doing workouts when they're traveling because it gives them the energy and the calm to really savor where they are, while for some people, it feels like it's taking away from the time that they're in the new place and they would rather just walk 30,000 steps all over the city. I'm not not eating a croissant for breakfast because I am depriving myself, but because I want the energy to enjoy my trip. And then I can have my croissant later in the day when I have some

healthy fat, fiber, and protein in my stomach and I get all of the deliciousness and not. None of the blood sugar spike in crash. I want you to think about your habits as the tools to enable how you want to feel when you travel. And then I want you to try not to stress about it too much. To the point of the first habit we talked about in this episode, what we do 90% of the time is far, far more important for our overall health than the last 10%. Relax.

Some things are going to slide and that is okay. we are not on planet Earth to accomplish all of our habits every single day. Okay, next question. How can I stay consistent with habits? I'll do great for months and then get disrupted. The first thing that I will say here is that not all habits are meant to be forever. Habits are tools that we can rely on to get to our goals. We are not meant to be serving our habits.

Our habits are meant to be serving us. Like I said at the beginning of this episode, it's one of the reasons I designed 100 ways to change your life, the way that I did. There are 100 different tools you can rely on at different points in your life because your needs and goals are going to change. So the first question I would ask yourself is, is the habit you're trying to be consistent with still serving you? or is it may be time to pick a different tool that's more aligned with your current needs and goals.

Sometimes falling off a habit is our brain and bodies subtle intuition at work. But let's say it's a habit that you do want to stick to. I think this is a classic case of objects in motion stay in motion and objects at rest stay at rest. You've gone from a state of momentum to inertia and that inertia is keeping you in a state of a state of rest versus the motion that you want to be in. And if you've heard me talk about this mantra before, you know that the best way to get back into motion is to do the tiniest thing to break that inertia. In the case of a lost habit, I would do the tiniest thing relating to that habit. So if you've fallen off of a workout routine, can you do a 15-minute home workout in your pajamas?

and then really pay attention to how you feel after and tap into your why. The reason you're wanting to incorporate that habit right now. If you've lost the habit of keeping your house tidy, can you tidy for 10 minutes and then really sit back and notice how you feel in the space? The tiny motion will create the momentum, but you'll notice the other thing I'm having you do is really tap into the reason behind why you're incorporating that habit, because that's the flame that's going to really take that flickering kindling and turn it into a full-blown fire. That's what's going to keep you going. So first, dive into if that habit is still serving you and really explore the why,

because you're going to need that later, and then pick one tiny thing you can do right now that's a step toward the habit that you want to have and then remind yourself of that why. Really tap into it and use it to create the motivation that you need. Okay, I think we have time for two more quick ones. Let's do, how is the process different for publishing a fiction versus a nonfiction book? So the primary difference is that fiction books are sold to publishers as completed books, and nonfiction books are sold as proposals. So for nonfiction books, you write a few chapters, you write a table of contents usually,

and then you write a number of pages about what the book is all about. And then you work on that with your agent, and then your agent, that's your literary agent again, they will sell that to publishers. And then after the book is sold, that's when you write the book and you edit that with your editor, and then they publish it.

For fiction to even get an agent, you usually need a fully completed manuscript, which is honestly insane to me. Like you literally write a book for years before you have any idea whether it will be published, which is why all of my friends who are successful fiction writers really say you have to find the love in the process. And because you have a completed manuscript by the time you're even looking for an agent, you'll often work on a lot more edits with that agent, and then you will do another round of edits with the editor. Okay, last one. Let's do, oh, I love this one.

Looking back, what advice would you give your pre-podcast self? I would say that it will all work out completely differently, but somehow way better than you ever imagined. To be honest, this is advice that I would give my past self at almost every phase of my life, and I need to be better at remembering that this is likely the advice that my future self would give me. I hope you loved this episode. I always love sitting down and getting to really chat with you on these solo episodes, and I hope you're taking away some nuggets that are useful for your own life. If there's anything that you think would resonate with anyone you know,

any habit or approach to forming habits that you think would help out someone in your life, please send them a link, as we've talked about today. Sharing is the best way to support the podcast, and it is so, so appreciated. And you can now grab 100 ways to change your life wherever books are sold. I've heard from a few podcast listeners who are worried that the book will feel redundant with the podcast, and I want to address those concerns really quickly. First of all, I created this book first and foremost for you, my podcast family. I wanted you to have an all-in-one resource that you could quickly turn to the tip that you needed the most to address the problems you wanted solved.

It is much easier to flip through a book than to listen back through hundreds of hours of episodes. Second, there is so much science that is in this book that was not on the podcast. Once we had our categories to find, I built out tips based on them to make sure that I was addressing every aspect of your life. And then within each tip, I added so much science to the information that podcast guests had shared. And then there's all of my best wisdom, much of which I've never shared anywhere else in the book.

And then each bit of science comes with an action tip, all of which are specific to the book. You find out exactly what to do to change your life today. And then finally, one of the most interesting parts is you can see where the experts overlap, the habits and tools that they all agree on. It also makes an incredible gift. So if you love the type of stuff we talk about on here, grab a copy for a friend or family member to have on hand for the holidays. You can get your copy today at 100 Ways to Change Your Life.com or wherever books are sold. And yes, there is also an audio version and it's read by me. a cute little studio in Colorado, so you can also grab that. If you were new here, if this is your first episode of the Liz Moody podcast, welcome. I am so happy to have you here. Make sure that you're

following the podcast on whatever app you like to listen on. You're just going to go to the main podcast page. That's the one that lists all of the Liz Moody podcast episodes. And you'll see the word follow under the logo on Spotify. And then there's a little follow with a plus sign button on the top right of that same page on Apple Podcasts. That way you will not miss out on any new episodes. They will appear right in your feed every single Wednesday. And you do not want to miss out because we have some very exciting ones coming up, including an amazing series on why we are all so lonely and exactly what to do about it,

and a very juicy advice episode that gets into all of your NSFW sex questions. Trust me, you do not want to miss out, so make sure that you are following. Okay, I love you and I will see you next Wednesday on the next episode of the Liz Moody podcast. I'm genuinely confused how masterclass gets literally the absolute top people in every single field to teach every single one of their classes. I use it when I want to learn things directly like the cooking class from Thomas Keller has all of the wisdom that you would normally have to go to culinary school for. But also, I'm being honest, this is like a use case I don't hear a lot of people talking about. I'll just watch it for entertainment when I want to do something that's far more interesting than scrolling. Christina Aguilera taught me to sing.

Shan Boudrum's Art of Mastering Confidence and Sex Appeal class is 10 out of 10. There's menopause classes with leading doctors. There's script writing with Mindy Kaly. Literally, you name it, they're on master class and it is such a good way to get off your phone but have something that's like not quite as long or hard to get into as a TV show or a movie and that it just keeps you entertained and interested. and you are learning. There are over 200 classes from the world's best,

all for just $10 a month when billed annually, and you get unlimited access to every class on the platform so you can learn at your own pace whenever you want on your phone, your computer, or even in audio mode like a podcast. If you're looking to stop scrolling and start consuming entertaining content that makes you feel excited and helps you learn,

masterclass is it. And the best part, every membership comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can start learning risk-free. Right now our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual membership at Masterclass.com slash Liz Moody. That's 15% off at Masterclass.com slash Liz Moody, Masterclass.com slash Liz Moody. If you have headaches, allergies, brain fog, skin irritation, or you've been dealing with hormone issues, you are especially going to want to listen to this ad.

Every single thing that I just listed has been linked to chemicals and household cleaners. One study found that regular use of cleaning sprays was associated with a lung function decline comparable to smoking 10 to 20 cigarettes per day. Synthetic fragrances are a well-documented migraine trigger and a number of studies have linked ingredients in common household cleaners to fertility issues, thyroid dysfunction, mood changes, and more because of their impact on our endocrine systems. Luckily, you can just make one simple swap and you can eliminate all of those risk factors that you get from common household cleaners. Branch Basics makes cleaning products that are plant and mineral based, completely fragrance-free, and made safe certified, meaning they are screened against thousands of known and suspected harmful chemicals.

And best of all, you literally use one product, but you mix it with different amounts of water to make your kitchen spray, your bathroom cleaner, your laundry detergent, your produce wash, your glass cleaner, literally everything. It does not smell. It does not give me headaches. It does not give me rashes or itchiness from clothes because you are. we're using this for laundry. We're using this for literally everything. And it works so well. Everything gets so clean. And I know that I'm protecting myself from all of those long-term issues, too. And I'm protecting my kittens who are much tinier than me. So anything they're exposed to has a much greater impact on their little tiny systems. And they're running around on their little paws and then

they're licking them. So I'm protecting them too. branch basics is now available at Target, Target.com, Amazon, and branchbasics.com, so it's easier than ever to make the switch. And if you want to grab their premium starter kit, you can use code Liz Moody for 15% off at branchbasics.com. That's code Liz Moody for 15% off the premium starter kit at branchbasics.com. And when they ask you where you heard about us, please make sure to mention the show. That is branchbasics.com and use code Liz Moody.