The Liz Moody Podcast - The Third Morning/Evening Routine Episode—My New Roots, Janea Brown, Chrissy King & Choosing Chelsea

Episode Date: September 30, 2020

Welcome to our third morning/evening routine episode! In these episodes, we shake things up a bit in this episode by going inside the morning and evening routines of some of the wellness world’s biggest celebrities. You can listen and just enjoy a sneak peek, or steal some of their genius ideas to try at home! In Part One, I shared the routines of Minimalist Baker, Kale Junkie, Rachael’s Good Eats and The Cutting Veg. In Part Two, we dug into the routines of Kelly LeVeque, Laura Lea, Inspiralized, and What’s Gaby Cooking. This week includes: Sarah Britton from My New Roots on free bleeding, vaginal steaming & her journey to balance her menstrual cycle—plus the coffee alternative to drinks for daily energy Chrissy King on the daily practice that helps her deal with trauma and negativity & the three books that have changed her life Jenea Brown on tricking herself to stay off her phone, plus three secrets to she uses to make her home calm, productive, and joyful Chelsean Culbertson from Choosing Chelsea on the one thing that’s helped her change the way she thinks about her body & the reality of quarantine parenting PS: Healthier Together is officially a number one best-seller! You can get your copy on Amazon or at lizmoody.com/cookbook. Please keep sending me your creations on Instagram—they make me so happy! PS: My foodie preset pack is officially live. You can get all 8 presets, designed to make your food pics look as good as they taste, at lizmoody.com/presets. It also includes a bonus preset for your lifestyle pictures AND my FREE guide to taking great photos with your phone. This episode is sponsored by Kyoto Botanicals, the first CBD brand I’ve recommended on this podcast! They believe every ingredient matters and should contribute to your overall health, which is why they only use USDA certified organic oils to deliver flavor with benefits. Their products only have organic, single-source plant extracts, not lab developed flavors and colors, so you get whole plant benefits as nature intended. Finally, their hemp is grown according to strict organic and biodynamic standards, and they only use only organic coconut MCT oil as a carrier. I recommend all of their products, but especially their tinctures. You can get a whopping 25% off your order (AND they always have free shipping!) by using the code “HEALTHIERTOGETHER” at kyotobotanicals.com. Healthier Together 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 healthier together podcast. I am your host, Liz Moody, and I am a longtime journalist and cookbook author. And today is the third edition of our morning and evening routine episodes, which are always so much fun. Basically, I interview some of my favorite people in the wellness world about how they construct morning and evening routines that help them live healthier and happier lives. Some are guests from previous episodes. You might recognize Chrissy King from my diversity and inclusion in the wellness world episode. and some are brand new voices. I am, for instance, so excited to welcome Sarah Britton from My New Roots to our podcast fam,

but all of them share thought-provoking insights and tons of amazing information. These always end up being some of my very favorite episodes because while they start with morning and evening routines, they always end up being so much more than that. On this episode, we talk about body acceptance, vaginal steaming, sinking your workouts with your cycle, using Reiki to overcome law. the most inspiring nonfiction books and so much more. I also love that you get to hear from four different extraordinary women with very different perspectives on health. To me, it just reiterates the idea that living your best life is all about taking in all of the information and the stories

and the science and then using that to figure out what works best for you in your very unique and beautiful and individual body. I'd love to hear what's resonating with you throughout the episode. So definitely screenshot and share on Instagram and write anything that you might try in your own morning or evening routine or are inspired to think about. I am at Liz Moody and my guests all share their handles throughout the episode. And if you love this type of amalgamation episode, definitely leave a rating or review on your favorite podcast app that just says like, love the morning and evening routine episodes, more please. And I will definitely make more. You can also request any guests that you want included in this type of episode or that you would

just love to hear from generally on the pod. My DMs are always, always open, and I love hearing from you. And if you love this morning and evening routine episode, be sure to listen to my first two, which feature guests like Kelly Love Beck, Jeanette from Shut the Kill Up, Rachel DeVoe, Dana from Minimalist Baker, and so many more. All right, without further ado, here is the third edition of my morning and evening routine episodes featuring Sarah Britton from My New Roots, Jene Brown from Jenea Daley, Chrissy King, and Chelsea Colbertson from choosing Chelsea. Enjoy. All right, Sarah, welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for having me, Liz. I'm really excited to be here today. I wish everybody could see you.

She's sitting in this like sun-dappled light. You look like an angel. You have like light glowing all around you and plants, like a plant angel, which is probably my dream of life. I do love my plants. It is true. They've been lifesavers for me, especially. in recent months. Can you tell anybody who does not, it's not familiar with you who you are and what you do? Sure. I'm a holistic nutritionist, a cookbook author and the creator of My New Roots, which is a blog I started in 2007. I'm coming up on, yeah, I guess my, yeah, I think it's 14 years this fall. Yeah, it's wild. Wild, well, 13? I'm horrible in math. Anyway, I obviously don't keep track. It's been a long time. And I created the blog right after graduating school, Holistic Nutrition School, because I learned

so much about our bodies, pretty much how to look after ourselves. And I just, I couldn't quite believe that I got my entire life without understanding how my system worked and how to take care of it and how to look after the people I loved. And I really believed that it was information everyone needed. So I created the blog really, really before blogs were a thing. So that others had access to this information as well. And I really hoped that I could be able to break down sort of more difficult to understand concepts into distilled sort of water cooler talk in a way. you know, like, oh, did you know that sesame seeds are a super high source of calcium? Or did you know that omega-3s reduce inflammation in the body?

Things like that. And it was just my mom reading for many years. And then slowly as I developed my voice and my confidence in photography and being able to translate these ideas. And then the recipes were really the thing that people gravitated towards. So now I'm a full-time recipe developer. I've written a couple books and got a TV show on Food Network Canada. And it's really my passion to inspire people to get back in the kitchen to reconnect with their food, to reconnect with their bodies and to really be their own healer. I don't know if I ever told you this, but during my time in London when I was experiencing like my really extreme couldn't get out of bad anxiety, your blog was like a lifeline for me. Like it was like the one of the very first things that I read, that I understood the power, the transformative power of food and what it could do for your body.

I just remember literally like laying in bed sideways with my computer and scrolling through your posts, which they gave me such hope for what my body could feel like and what my future could look like. And I have just, it was, it was really transformative in that time in my life. And I don't know if I ever thanked you for that. Wow, Liz, that's like the most touching thing. It's very humbling to hear that. Thanks for sharing. Your words and your approach to food and life are amazing, I think. And they're also really unique. I think you have a very unique, joyful, informed. You're like a wise fairy. Oh, wow. So let's start with some. Something interesting. We'll get into your morning, evening routine a second, but right before we started recording, you said to me that you were practicing free bleeding. Can you talk to me about that? Well, yes. Okay. So a few months ago, it was during sort of the beginning of quarantine, Christy Don, who is a friend of mine in Los Angeles, she's a dressmaker, she very generously hosted this session with a couple of women. One was an herbalist, and one.

was a parristeam practitioner. And I've heard of pelvic steaming before, but I didn't know that much about it. Pretty much only through like Gwyneth, like, Gweth. And, you know, bless Gwyneth. But when she comes out with something, a lot of people really jump on and critic, it's usually a lot of criticism around it. And yeah, I sort of, I was like, oh, that sounds like another like woo, woo weird thing. But when I heard this woman Kelly Garza, who owns a company called Steamy Chick,

When I heard her speaking about so the benefits of pelvic steaming and the issues that it can address, I had a real light bulb moment. I have had what is referred to as stagnation. So, or I have signs of stagnation, which can look like very, very long mencies. So I bleed for sometimes it's like 13 days. Oh, wow. I had a really long period before I had my son, but afterwards it's gotten even. longer. I also have had a lot of acne flare-ups in the uterine area on my face. So that's

like chin area, especially on my left side. That's a real sign of stagnation. I'm incredibly moody, depressive, cranky around, you know, premenstrual time. So all these things sort of started adding up and I decided to go ahead and have a consultation with one of her practitioners just online. And yeah, the intake form alone was really telling to me. Basically, I have to look at the last half year of your cycle and the patterns that you can sort of suss out, pull out from that. And yeah, I realized that I had been dealing with non-pain stagnation for a really long time. But because it wasn't painful, I wasn't addressing it. And it's really funny.

As a holistic nutritionist and being so connected to my body, it surprises me in retrospect that I ignored it for such a long time. But I sort of just thought, well, I just have a really long period. And I'm just really moody. These are very culturally accepted things. And when I spoke with this practitioner, she's like, no. I mean, it does bug me that I bleed half my life. That's kind of annoying. But I didn't really think that it was a serious problem or a sign of other.

underlying issues. So one of the things that I've been doing for years and years is using a menstrual cup. And I didn't realize that that could be exacerbating the problem because in essence, it is a bit of a plug. And it can actually cause some backlog in the system. And so free bleeding is the practice of just like letting it go, letting your men seats just flow out of you. Most of the time I use either period panties or reusable washable pads. I've been trying to use the cup less and less. It is really nice. So like I've got a long day and a lot of commitments. And yeah, it's nice to have it there. But I'm really trying as often as possible to just let it go. And it seems to be I'm kind of getting more in tune with it and again, more connected to the

the blood and that feels good. It's a topic we don't really discuss that much. I've been trying to more through my platform and last month the theme for August was flow and I talked a lot about the menstrual faces and what each one really means because most women are really just familiar with the bleeding time of month. We don't really know what else goes on. So I've been doing more deep dive into that stuff and really trying to get more connected to the cycle as a whole as opposed to just that one part of it. And I've also started pelvic steving regularly. So when we do the nighttime routine portion, I can talk more about that.

But I wish there was, I guess, less shame, less, yeah, more embracing of this really sacred time. But our culture, we don't really have the conversation about it. Our periods are really something to survive and get through until the next one. And that's sort of what I grew up with. That's the mentality I was raised with. And now I'm looking at all the phases as real opportunities to have an experience that's more connected and more in tune. And I really love it.

I think it's such a gift. And if we look at the menstrual phase as a time for us to really go inward, connect with ourselves, be quiet, be still, like the resting portion of that is so important. And I am a real, like, product-oriented person. I'm very driven, I'm very go, go, go. And even just when the consultant said to me, I would like you to go to bed when you're bleeding at 10, 10 p.m. every night. And I was like, what? Really?

Like, I'm not that far off. I usually am in bed, asleep, lights off around 11. She's like, I want you to take it down another hour, and I'm still working on it. I'm still working on it. And she's like, and even if you could lay down for 20 to 30 minutes a day when you're menstruating, that would also be really helpful. I'm like, oh my gosh.

It just seems like really overwhelming to me. And why is that? Why do I feel so guilty about resting? Why do I feel like instead of this is an opportunity to rest and take a load up? I really see it as like a roadblock as like to my productivity. And that's such a sad narrative that's been looping in my head for years. So I'm really trying to work with that, really trying to honor my body and myself as a whole. and carve out that time for myself. I really have noticed a difference by doing that.

Interesting. It's interesting that the rest thing has now come up in my life like three times in the last week where my therapist said, my therapist has assigned me with doing 20 minutes of nothing and not meditation, just literally sitting and doing nothing. And I was like, well, is that more productive than meditation, do you think? And she's like, that is like the point of why you need to sit there and do nothing. You just answered your own question. And it came up in another podcast. Like one of my guests was like, coasting is fine.

Like you don't need to always be attaining and achieving and productive. And I just, I've realized how much of myself worth I've put into being productive. And I only feel like I have value when I've accomplished things. And I'm really working on that. So it's interesting that even, it's like the universe is beating me. over the head at this point. Knock knock, knock, knock this. All right, so let's start with your morning routine. What do you, what is the goal of a morning routine to you? What's the point of it? Well, it's a really good question. I guess it's to set myself up for the day. I really love

being with my body first thing in the morning. So my husband and I sort of alternate days looking after our son, like doing breakfast and getting dressed and making a bed and all that stuff. So if I'm with my son in the morning, my morning routine really consists of my leader of lemon water. That's how I start every morning. I mean, I've never been a lot. Yes, it is a lot. But then I'm halfway hydrated for the day.

I've like done it. I really think, I mean, you have to listen to your body. You should never force drinking. Like you should never be drinking so much water and you're like, ah, it's miserable. But for me, I'm thirsty when I wake up and I just, I'm obsessed with the feeling of that warm liquid, that tangy warm liquid entering my body. It's like, oh, it's amazing. Like I said, I've never, I've had two cups of coffee in my whole life. And yeah, the lemon water is my coffee, I guess. It just makes me feel so good. And I really feel it flushing everything out.

Why have you not had any coffee? I, okay, well, the original reason is because, yeah, I guess in grade 10 or 11, it started getting really cool to go to Starbucks, you know, sort of like mid-morning break in high school. Oh, for sure. For sure. It was like the cool thing to do. And I would go with my friends and they were sort of getting into coffee around that age. and I was like, this is like four or five dollars every day.

It's like over $20 a week. And then that's over $80 a month. And I did the math and I thought, wow, I'll be spending a lot of money if I drink coffee. Like cumulatively in your life. Yes. And I am a very, a pretty money conscious person. I was raised really like valuing the dollar. And I, you know, I babysat from a pretty young age.

and then I was a camp counselor and I've always had jobs and I've always, you know, saved my money up. I've never been a spender. And I just thought, wow, that's at a lot of hours of babysitting or that's a lot of summer's camp counseling to just support a coffee habit. Like, it's not that important to me. So I never started. I just never started drinking coffee because I was a cheap skid. And you never like got into it at home or when you lived in Denmark, which is such a coffee culture. Oh, yeah. No, never. I it makes me so the two times I did have coffee I got like heart palpitations I felt very like nervous and jittery it just does not drive with my body at all yeah I don't drink it either because I'm I feel like I'm

predisposed to anxiety and so I can't really do caffeine but I can't remember the last time I met another non-coffee drinker there's not very many of us actually like what I tell people that are like who are you It's literally like, I think, the most alien thing that you can do for people. They're like, well, wait, where do you get your energy from Ben? But you get yours from your lemon water. Okay, and then what's next? Well, again, if it's me and my son, there is really not much else. It's like getting him organized for the day.

I make him a really good breakfast. You usually make my revolutionary pancakes or waffles or porridge or smoothie bowl or something. and yeah, hang out, play Lego. That's pretty much it. And then once I get, before COVID, once I got him to school, then I would do my walk. And on the mornings where I'm not looking after him, I do my lemon water and then I go for a walk or like this morning I did a workout. And it's really all about, yeah, just setting myself up, the things that make me feel the best. I try and get them in.

And that's really simple thing. So the lemon water's a big one, like getting really hydrated first thing. Having good poo is really important. Does the lemon water do that for you? Because a lot of people rely on the coffee for that. Yeah. I don't really know. In fact, a lot of times I wake up and I go immediately.

Sam, it makes morning sex really hard that, like, my most regular thing I do is waking. Like, it's the thing that gets me out of bed is that I, need to go to the bathroom in the morning. You need to poop. Okay, well, I am not a morning sex person. Much to my husband's sugar in. I am at the Sahara Desert down there in the morning. It is like...

Interesting. Yeah, there's nothing happening. I love it. I can't do night. Like, I can. I will. I have had sex at night. But like, I feel like at night, I'm like, it's me time.

And my husband's like, okay, fine. And in the morning, I'm like, good morning. I'm the total opposite. That's so interesting. Morning is me time. I'm like, get away. from me. And I'm not, I'm not a morning person. Like it really, oh, yeah, having a baby was a really tough because, yeah, he'd get up sometimes like 5 a.m. for the day. And you're like,

excuse me, sir. Yeah, excuse me. If I was left to my own devices list, I would sleep at least till 8.30 in the morning, if not 9. And a good weekend for me, I, I require one sleep in a week that I get one morning on the weekends where I can go. And I usually, even if I wake up, up at 8 or 8.30. I'll usually just like lay in bed until 9 o'clock. I love it. I actually love what you guys do though with the tradeoff because I think with a lot of families, either one person will always take on morning duty or the family will do it together. And it's kind of nice that you guys switch off so you can each have your own morning half the time. Yeah, well, we're really, we really got in a good rhythm and we're extremely good at spelling each

other off when we need breaks and and mickle is really a morning person so the mornings for him like he gets up way before i do just naturally without an alarm i'm always so amazed and i need a lot more sleep and i need a lot more morning time to just like zone i love waking up and just staying in bit just being cozy is there a type of workout that you like to do well i'm glad you asked i have been sinking my workouts with my cycle lately, and that's also been really great because if the first half of our cycle is a really like very outward energy, you can get into more intensive things, more cardio, more like high intensity interval training, things like that. And then the second half of the cycle in this, well, especially the ludial phase, you really want to be sort of scaling back,

doing more Pilates, Matt Pilates, yoga. and more strength training, muscle conditioning. And then during the menstruation phase, you really want to be actually almost doing nothing, which is also really hard for me. But I'm trying. This morning I did cheat a little bit and I did a muscle conditioning workout just online,

just like a free one from YouTube that I really love. But I had the energy for it today. I felt great. So I thought, I'm going to do it. Yeah, I love sweating. I love to sweat. Yeah, I love that feeling. as well or feeling like your body be tired in a physical way because so often I feel like we just

wear ourselves out mentally throughout the day but not physically and it's nice to have those synced up. Is there anything else that you do in the morning? I love walking. So again, if I take my son to school, I'll do 30 to 45 minutes around onto the beach, which is so great. I love going to the water and looking at the water and I live on Lake Ontario, which is one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world. So it looks like the ocean. It's a completely flat horizon line. There's nothing on the other side, although there is New York on the other side. You just can't see it. There's something about looking out at a complete expanse of water with no end in sight that is just so soothing to my mind. So I go down to the water. I just look at that horizon line for

as long as I feel like I need it and then come home and then I'll do a little more stretching or some I love dancing a lot too I just like yeah putting it on some music and jamming out yeah yeah or I'll do another I'll do a dance workout I do dance I don't know if you know about dance church I do know dance church I love dance church you do we've even talked about dance church dance church is amazing so that's like a Sunday Sunday afternoon thing here or Wednesday night night. Yeah, the morning is hydrating, getting in my body. Yeah. Just figuring out the day before. That's really it. Yeah. All right. So then you have your full day. You work. You might be developing recipes or writing or doing all sorts of things. And then in the evening, what's the point of an evening routine to you?

Well, like I mentioned before, I'm not a morning person. So the night is definitely a more, I don't say elaborate routine, but it is, it's the time when my son's asleep and I can, I have sort of an unlimited amount of time, uninterrupted time where I can just really dive in and connect with myself. So it could be a bath. It could be, if I didn't do any sort of movement during the day, I'll do, well, dance church on Wednesday nights, which I love. I will do some stretching. I'm going through a lot of physical, dealing with a lot of stuff in my physical body these days, quite a lot of pain and stiffness. Just from working at a computer so much?

No, well, yes, that definitely exacerbates it. But I guess it was, it's been about 18 months or so. I was diagnosed, I'm using air quotes everyone. I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease, which is degeneration of the, intravertible discs in my back and it's sort of l lumbar four and five and s one or it's sort of the the ones that are really giving me a lot of issues and so I am doing literally everything under the sun to help myself and I have been for the last year and a half but I'm still yeah things I don't know why lately it's been quite intense so I have a couple lacrosse balls that I'm rolling out on

doing legs up the wall, doing stretches, just trying to like, very yin style, whatever I'm doing. It's very opening, restoring, all that stuff. And then lately I've been doing a lot of pelvic steaming at night. And I come in here to land. So what is that? Do you just sit over like a pot of hot water with your legs displayed? Well, so there's so many different ways that people can do this. I, after my consultation, I realized that I needed what's known as an advanced steam, which is a 30-minute session. And that's because I have signs of like really deep stagnation in my body.

So I need a longer steam time. Some women are good with five to ten minutes. And in that case, it would be, yeah, squatting over just a bowl of steaming herbs. In my case, I have actually built a paris steam sauna. So it's a box. Actually, it's in the corner of my, can you see it right here? Yeah, I can see it. It's like a little wood box with a hole in the top.

It almost looks like a toilet from the old days. Yeah, it almost does. So I built that myself and the lid right here, it flips up. And then there's a little burner inside, like a cook burner. So I prepare the infusion downstairs in the kitchen. It's like a herbal blend. And then I bring it up here. I turn the stove on and I put it inside, take the lid off, sit on, take my clothes off.

And then I sit over that for half an hour. So it's actually really comfortable. The issue with steaming is one of them. I mean, the whole point is to relax. So you need to find a comfortable position. And most women prefer sitting on something. If you're a great squatter, yeah, and you only need five or ten minutes, then, yeah, you can do it that way. but because I needed a longer amount of time, and I knew that this was probably something I'd be doing for the long haul that I decided to, yeah, it was about 50 bucks to put together.

Okay, I have two questions. One is the, is it about the herbs getting into the mucous membranes of your vagina? Is that sort of the therapeutic effect, or is it about the hot steam, or is it something that's less easily explained in sort of a Western perspective? It's both of those things, actually. you nailed it. So the herbs could actually travel, yes, like you said, through the mucous membranes, because they're in water. So that, it's like medical doctors using vaginal suppositories. Those membranes in our vagina are so permeable and they absorb everything. So, yeah, the water will, the steam will actually go into into that, so the herbs will definitely help. But it's also,

So the whole front of our pelvis is really about relaxing and loosening up that whole area. And heat is used to relax muscles. It always has been. So it's both internal and external, and they work synergistically to move a lot of things that have been stuck for a long time. Interesting. Yeah, it's working. Yeah, there's stuff that's coming. I mean, hope it's not TMI, but stuff that's coming out of me is like pretty mind-blowing.

Like black black black black old old blood that's so interesting and then my second question is I I'm immediately like I'm intrigued but if I did this Zach would make fun of me so hardcore and I'm just curious if your husband is like oh that's you go girl like take care of your body or if there was like a moment where he was like you're going to steam what no he I mean he's married to me I mean I'm like I will guinea pig myself. Yeah, I'll beat anyone in that game. And nothing surprises him anymore. And he knows that, yeah, he even struggles with the length of my period.

So he's like, whatever you think. It's a long time, man. So he's like, honey, whatever you can do to help, if you think this is the pathway, then that's great. And he helped me, you know, Jake saw the hole in the top of the box with all of his tools. and he was helping me with the, yeah, I'm not the most like, I'm a handy lady, but I need a lot of guidance, especially with tools, electrical tools and stuff. So, yeah, no, he's right there every simple way. I do feel like that's a good way. Like, I could get Zach on board if I was like, it's a fun building project. He would be like, oh, sounds good. Oh, cool. Let's get the hammering

out. Yeah, exactly. He's so supportive. He really is. And, yeah. Is he like as well, Wellnessy as like I mean, soon he eats like you do, obviously, but is would he do wellness eat stuff on his own? Not at all. No. No. He's we're we're, like I said, we're we're such different people, but our values are totally aligned. And we had the same vision for our life. And but we, I mean, he was, he's Danish for crying out loud. He's like Mr. Mean Potatoes. And, you know, the candy in Denmark, Danes are obsessed with candy, especially. especially like being goming. What would those be in English? Are those the long licorice? Yeah, the long gummy strips. I got addicted to those when I was in Denmark,

just because they were at every street corner, I feel like. Yeah, pretty good. Yeah. No, he's, and he will be the first person to say, what a difference he noticed in his, in everything once he started eating my food. So, yeah, he's my biggest cheerleader for sure. But he's not as exploratory with his health like I. It always makes me feel better, though.

Like, I like when my wellnessy friends are married to people who are, like, Zach's not skeptical, but he's just like, oh, we're doing this now. Interesting. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. No, he's pretty tolerant. And I shouldn't even say tolerant. He's so supportive and encouraging. And I'm always on a journey trying to, I'm always trying to optimize every day.

It's like, okay, how can we make, how could I? feel my best today and all about, I always say health is not a destination. Health is really a journey and an ongoing process. And to be under the impression, like you're going to get somewhere someday. I think really, well, it will be very frustrating for you in the end because you're a moving target. I mean, you literally, your needs, especially as women, are different day to day. Yeah. And we need to remember that.

I think we sort of, I don't, well, we do live in a bit of a man's world here. And we're really expected to behave the same way every day and to feel the same way every day. And as women, we definitely don't. And I think it's really key that we honor that and remember that it is a moving target. We have to adapt every day. And that's what I've learned over the years. And I love, I'm in love with the process of it. I'm in love with the discovery.

of different modalities for healing. Like whatever worked last week, suddenly doesn't work anymore. So instead of getting frustrated, I'm like, ooh, this is an opportunity to learn something new and to discover something else that I don't know yet. Like the pelvic steaming is one of those things. Like, that's fairly new to me. And that's so exciting. And I love it.

It's incredibly relaxing and so nice to connect to my body in that way. I love that attitude. It's such a good attitude instead of getting like frustrated. Like, why didn't I find this earlier? or I've had these problems for years or whatever to treat it with such an exploratory joy. I think that's really lovely. Well, I think if we don't approach aches and pains and pimples and headaches and whatever with, if we don't approach it with curiosity, because these things are really, they're just messages.

It's just information. And I know as a holistic nutritionist and as someone that cares so much about health and as someone who is basically my life revolves around being well. It's easy for me to get frustrated with, yeah, with pain, for instance. Like right now what I'm going through, I definitely feel like, oh, why am I, why do I hurt? I'm doing everything right. Yeah. But it is, yeah, it's, I have to approach it with that open-mindedness and that curiosity

and that mindset that it is an opportunity to learn something. and that I perhaps haven't gone down all the avenues that are available to me and that I just need to keep trying because otherwise we give up and then things get worse and yeah then where do we go? Yeah, I love that. I think that's a beautiful perspective. Okay, so we steam, do we meditate? Do we eat anything special? Yeah, I mean, when I'm steaming, I'm meditating.

It's sort of like a, yeah, I usually listen to. usually listen to a guided meditation because it's a half hour or more that I steam for. And don't eat anything. I sort of have dinner and then I'm done for the day. I've been practicing intermittent fasting for many years now. And even though I just discovered this, actually not the greatest thing for women. All the studies on intermittent fasting have been done on men. And again, not really taking into account the cyclical nature of women's systems.

but it just feels really good for me. I feel so much better when I, I usually, it's like a 16 hour window, 14 to 16 hours that I go for. So I have dinner and then no snacking, maybe have water or herbal tea at night, but that's it. And then what one habit I'm trying to release is scrolling on Instagram right before bed. It's just, it's really what I will have to do from now on is carve out time before. for going to bed to do it because when I'm laying in bed, the house is quiet. I'm all alone. That's when I can really take my time and read everyone's captions and comment and otherwise during the day. I don't really have the space to do that. And I get so much inspiration from

Instagram. I follow the most incredible people. And I really, I love that time, but I know that it's really stimulating right before bed and got the blue light going. It's just like, I know it's really not good for my mental health but can i ask so that's one thing i'm trying to shift a lot of people find it's they find it equally inspiring but also maybe like detrimental and i think it all comes down to the people you follow who are the could you say just like a few people you follow that are so amazing that make you excited about the platform well you yeah that was the whole setup was to get you But Liz's really like, you are on fire these days. It's amazing. I just have loved watching your trajectory and I can't believe the goodness that you're offering to people. So like you're right

up there. Seriously, top of list. For real. For real. To hear you say that who's like been my top of as I said like forever is very I'm taking that in and I really appreciate it. But who else like really brings joy and life to your feed? Tabitha Brown is one that I just, love so much. She is incredible for anyone who doesn't follow her. She's her voice alone is like a blanket. I mean, I, and she does these sort of check-ins, these family check-ins, and she'll drop these beautiful pearls of wisdom. They're like two or three minutes, but wow, like her, her joy and her positivity and her genuineness just really comes across on that platform. And I just love her to death. My gosh, what a woman. Who else do I? I mean, I have one more. There's one more.

Sophia Roe. Oh, she's great. She's so great. She's been doing also really incredible little 15 minute videos on a topic and phenomenal. Really inspiring. Her storytelling, I think, is so, she's such a beautiful writer. And it's the thing I like about Instagram is even though it's a photo platform. As a writer, I like that the captions people read them and you can make them lengthy. And I think she does that so, so beautifully. Okay. Are there any other sort of like non-negotiable steps of the nighttime? Skin care routine. Yes. I love taking care of my face. Like so much. Well, and anybody who hasn't looked at your face recently, I feel like you should pause this podcast and go find a photo of Sarah because her skin is your skin is insane.

Like, what? It's so like poreless. I don't even want to say poorless because I feel like we're supposed to have pores, but like I don't know where yours are. Well, I mean, this is not an extreme close on this camera. No, it's just, it's so glowing. So tell us about your skincare routine, please. Well, I will say before getting into it that skincare is,

inside out. It's an inside out job. It's really, it's water, it's good fats, it's good proteins. It's lots of produce. I mean, my diet's based on vegetables and fruits and nuts and seeds and beans. So that is, that's number one thing. I think people are trying to chase like perfect skin with slathering all this stuff on their face. It's not where it starts. It starts from inside your body. It's like your teeth. It's like your eyes. It's like your hair. It's like your nails. Everything is an inside out job there. But what you put on your face definitely really, definitely matters. So I've been using, I'm not sure if you've heard of the company living libations,

but I have been, I met Nadine over 12 years ago. A mutual friend of ours took me up to her beautiful place in Halliburton, Ontario. And, I mean, talk about a fairy. This woman is, she is a fairy. She's living, it's called the Land of Is, IS, Land of Is, is what they've called the property and they have like seven waterfalls feeding this private lake. They have a private lake. And she like goes outside and downloads these blends.

And she sources the highest quality oils from all over the world. And she creates like truly divinely inspired skincare. So that's all I've been using on my face for over 12 years. So I do, I exfoliate probably two to three days a week. No more than that. You never want to go more than that. It's too much. And then I'll do like spot treatment.

It's like right now, I have like a really good break out here. You just can't really see it. Yeah. Zoom lighting is like video chat lighting is nice. Not great. But it's there. So I'll do a spot treatment on that. Usually I make, sometimes I use one of her products.

But other times I'll do like a French green. clay and some tea tree oil and just a little mask on those areas. And then I've got a serum and I only washed my face with oil now, which has been a big game changer for me. So no surfactants, no foaming agents, none of that. Those are really designed for you to become addicted to those things, unfortunately. So I grew up thinking, oh, you really need to like scrub your face and it's like foamy. There should be foam and bubbles. and then through reading Nadine's book, which is also, I don't know, have you read Renegade Beauty?

I have it. Game Changer. Again, she really approaches this idea of beauty as an inside out job and it's really all about what you're feeding yourself with. But it's really phenomenal. I highly recommend the book to anyone with a face or a body. And so no foaming face cleansers or anything like that. It's all oil-based.

and then some cream. I use the rose glow cream from her. Sometimes I'll do like a toner or something, but it's just those few minutes. Probably takes me five or ten minutes to wash my face and moisturize it. I use guasha as well. Do you know what that is? Yeah, I do, but just can you say briefly what it is?

Sure. It's a little tool. It's usually made out of some kind of stone like quartz or jade. and you start sort of at your collarbones, working your way up along your neck, and then on your face, always going in an upward motion, and you're dragging this stone tool across your face. There's different shapes on each of the sides of it, so you can get into the little nooks and crannies, the bridge of your nose,

under your eyes, your cheekbones, your jaw. One thing it does is it's incredibly relaxing, especially if you have any jaw tension, which a lot of us do. I noticed when I'm scrolling on Instagram, I could be like squeezing my jaw together. I think because I'm just like, it is a very stimulating thing. So I really get into my jaw when I'm doing the gouache app. And then it's also incredibly stimulating just for circulation on your face. So you usually end up with a bit of redness after it because all the blood has been drawn to the surface,

which is, of course, like deeply nourishing where blood flows, energy, flows, nutrients flow. So the more we can be opening up the channels of our body, the more vitality we're going to bring to those areas. So Guasha is a really cool technique for doing that. I feel like that's the theme of this interview is opening up the blood flow in all parts of your body. All parts. Got to do it everywhere. Well, I do a lecture called the seven channels of elimination, which you used to be all about detoxification. But the more I lived and the more I studied, the more I realized our bodies are detoxing all the time. It's really about keeping our channels open. It's really about getting out of the way of our bodies. They are perfect. They are doing the best job

they can every single day. It's just we're the ones getting in their way, throwing all kinds of weird stuff in it, lots of stress, you know, not the most supportive food choices, not drinking enough water, whatever it is. If we give ourselves, we give our systems, everything they need to function, we will come back to equilibrium every single time and be experiencing our optimal wellness at every moment. But it's really a fine balance. We've got to be in the world. We've got to be taking care of our kids and our family members and our friends, ourselves. And we can't be perfect, of course. But it's pretty amazing when you do get out of your own way, what happens to your system? So we don't really need to be detoxing. We actually just need to be giving ourselves

the most support we can and allowing, allowing our systems to do what they do best. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's such a powerful concept. All right. Skin care, anything else? Do we're missing anything for the evening routine? I think that's everything.

Yeah. Just eight hours of sleep, please. Are you a good sleeper? Oh, yeah. Champion. I'm a champion sleeper. I never wake up. I, well, I guess that's it.

I never wake up. I literally, I think I'm in the same condition from the time I fall asleep to the time I wake up. I love waking up without an alarm, but that doesn't happen very often because like I said, if left to my own devices, I'd be out for, yeah, I'd be, I'd sleep for nine hours or more if I, if I was allowed to. It's amazing. I just did you go to bed earlier. I'm jealous of that.

I'm not a good of sleeper. Well, I do feel very lucky for that. And I think a big part of it is that balance of mental energy expenditure and physical energy expenditure during the day. So that, excuse me, so that I am actually tired. We're so, our brains are going so much during the day. And that's usually where our energy is spent. And we often, we often ignore the physical. And it's really important to get a good night's sleep that you have worked your body in some way.

Yeah, I agree with that. Well, clearly, I feel like this is like a sampler of the fact that we clearly need to get on a much longer interview because I feel like we just touched so much that we, I really want to dive into further. But this was so lovely. And thank you for sharing your morning and evening routines. And you just hear like really beautiful, empowering thoughts about living your life. I appreciate it. And I appreciate it. And I appreciate it. It's such a pleasure to talk to you always. And I really appreciate you creating a space for you. Thank you. Okay, Janae, thank you so much for taking the time to join me today. Yeah, hi Liz, happy to be here. Can you, for anybody who isn't familiar with you or who just wants to hear you tell your story a little bit, can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do? Definitely.

My name is Janae and I currently create home decor and lifestyle content for kind of the modern day woman who just want some daily encouragement. to live her best life when it comes to her home and her overall wellness. And yeah, I'm very lucky and blessed to be able to do that every day now. What I love about your page is that you do such a great job of turning social into like an actual two-way street. I feel like a lot of times it can be hard. You know, you feel like you have this community and you want to engage them and you

want to not just feel like you're talking at them and you really make it feel so conversational. which is really impressive and refreshing. I appreciate you saying that because that definitely was my main goal when starting to be more active on social media. And it sounds cheesy, but to put the social back in social media and actually have conversations with people from all different walks of life. And I love that people actually are conversing in the comments. And it's really nice. Yeah, it's really nice. I was telling you before we started recording that it's just been such a source of light and

positivity and also thoughtfulness. Like you ask these questions and I'll be like, I'll ask them to my husband or something. They're like thought starters for your day. So I really appreciate that. All right. So let's get into your mornings. To you, what is the point of a morning routine? Well, I'm really glad you're asking that because I was just thinking about it recently.

And for me, it's all about giving to myself first before I have to give to the world. because we all know the minute we get up, people have a lot of demands for us. So I'm really focusing on what five, 10, 20 minute thing can I focus on that really just kind of either brings me joy or refreshes my mind or my body, all of that. And that has been a game changer for me. I love that framing of it, of the idea of like almost we deserve to give to ourselves for a second, first and that that makes us more able to give to the world later. So how did you go about figuring out what would fill your cup in that way? I just started exploring a few different things. And honestly,

it changes from day to day. Some days it's, you know, I'm going to make myself a really decadent cafe style breakfast or other days it's I'm going to do some hip hop dance workout videos. And sometimes it's just starting the day talking to like my mom or my grandma's on the phone. So I kind of just will check in and see like what could I use more of right now? And because it changes from day to day, you know? Are there any non-negotiables that are always part of it? Non-negotiables have been making my own matcha latte, which now I don't think I'll ever be able to buy one at a restaurant or a coffee shop because they're usually like $8. And now I know how to make them myself like a lot of us. So that is definitely not negotiable. And then lastly,

doing my skincare routine has become a non-negotiable. And I never was a skincare person, but during 2020, we are at that place. Was it because it felt like this little bit of pampering, you could give yourself in sort of tumultuous times or something you could control or like, why was 2020 the year that shifted things? Yeah, definitely just putting some control back in my hands and then also it forces me not to immediately hop on to email or immediately be looking at messages that people are sending. I cannot be online if I'm, you know, touching my face and moisturizing my skin. So it just forces me to go offline for a minute and it's really nice. So do you wake up and you don't look at your phone at all? So I try not to do that.

There have been weeks where I've been able to succeed and others where I have. But I have removed my email notifications from my phone, which sounds, I think, a little bit crazy, but I've removed all email notifications and, of course, social media notifications just so that I'm not hearing that ding. For some reason, the dings bring instant anxiety for me personally. And so it forces me to only tap into those things when I choose to, which is after I do my skincare routine, have breakfast. work out if I want. So yeah, that has. Yeah, it's a huge goal of mine as well is to not look at my phone, although I just find on these days, like I was telling you before we got on that I'm current, as we're recording this, I'm in sort of the smoke from the fires in the Pacific Northwest and I've been sort of depressed and down. And on these days where I'm feeling sad, which are probably

the days I really shouldn't be on my phone, I find myself just like laying in bed and scrolling on the internet and I'll do it for hours and then I'll feel bad about myself and it's like a vicious cycle and I know it's a negative impact in my mornings and if I could just get up and not look at it, I'd be so much happier. But it's hard to do. But sometimes it is what we need sometimes because you can truly find some like great entertainment if you just like, you know, spend a couple hours in bed watching whatever it may be on your phone. But like you said, that kind of balance definitely helps. For sure. Okay. So you'll sometimes do workout. You'll sometimes make a lovely breakfast, you're just kind of like checking in with what you need. I'm curious because you're so big

on home decor. You have such a chic space. If you've done anything to sort of curate a space that gives you the energy that you want in your morning or throughout your day. Definitely a few things. Very thankful to live in a space that has so much natural light right now. You used to live in New York, so I'm sure you can relate to having windows that face cement walls and maybe an apartment with literally no windows. So having natural light has been a game changer. So doing small things, like making sure I'm opening up the curtains in the morning. And then for me, having a cluttered space, this also sounds so cheesy, but having a cluttered

space really does lead to a cluttered mind in my daily life. So when I wake up, I usually will take a couple minutes just to, like, put some things away and try to make my bed, even though some days I just want to be. be a total rebel. And I'm like, I'm not making my bed today because I don't want to. But majority of the time, doing small things like straightening up my space and then doing small things like making sure I have fresh flowers in the house, those have really helped in creating a space that brings me joy and has a nice little morning routine. Fresh flowers are such a good one. I'm one of those people. I'm not like good at spending

money on myself. Like I really have to talk myself into, you know, even getting my hair dyed or like any sort of expenditure on myself. And I'll sit there at the store and be like, it's $7. Liz, just buy yourself the flowers. But it'll be like, no, they'll die. And I, you know, I will have wasted it because it's not. And I don't know. It's an interesting thing. I had a woman on the podcast and her her name's Taras Houston. Her book is literally called Buy Yourself the Effing Lillies. and it's like just buy yourself the flowers, you deserve the flowers. And it's such a good, it does brighten up a space. I also think anytime you see a design tour in a magazine or like a home tour,

they always, half of what makes it so beautiful is how they've styled the space with like fresh flowers and plants and branches and stuff like that. It makes such a big difference in how your home looks. I mean, it is seriously a game changer. And I didn't used to do it either because like you said, they die. you're like well what is the point but i once i did it one time and then i noticed that week every time i looked at the fresh flowers i was so happy i have no idea why but it just brought like instant joy and i was like okay if it's something that small and it makes me feel this good

the seven dollars is worth it you know um yeah during those weeks when i can afford that so and it's kind of fun going to a flower shop or even if it's just trader joes and picking out what's inspiring you Yeah, I love it. It's like a little way to get in touch with your creative side, like for a tiny moment too. Definitely, definitely. Which is cool. Do you, what type of workout do you do? And what sort of your relationship with working out? Like, have you always been good at doing it? Did you hit a tipping point at some point? Girl, no. I have not always been good at doing it. It comes in waves. And I think we all kind of struggle with either being 100% on or falling off for like seven months and not putting on a sports bra.

100%. 100%. So for me, there's been seasons where I was like really into weightlifting or really into spin classes. And now I've just started to do more of a intuitive what will make me feel good type of workout and not really pressure myself. And so also not being like, I need to work out for an hour. Just like, okay, if you can do 20 minutes of something that you find enjoyable,

whether it's an online like bar class or someone's YouTube workout video. That's what I've been trying to channel. And lately these hip hop dance videos I've really liked on YouTube, as well as a few other people who do just like weight training videos. Are there ones you would recommend that you could say sort of offhand? So there's this young guy named Mike Peel and he does these dance workout videos and they're not tacky or cheesy. His playlists are bomb. And you don't have to be a good dancer to follow along. He makes it super, I guess, user-friendly or for anyone. And then he has some backup dancers.

And everyone's just having a good time. And it's a good mix of oldies and new music. I highly recommend it. I love that. I will check that out for sure. I think a lot of people have gotten into dance workouts during the pandemic because you can't like go out dancing anymore. And so we We've got to get our dance on somehow, but I do think it's the happiest form of a workout. It really is. And especially when, you know, I like that I can't see my reflection. So I'm just going along and doing whatever I want and it's very freeing for sure. Speaking of your reflection, what is your relationship with your body?

That's a good question. I'm in my late 20s right now and I really like what my relationship with my body has become. definitely off days where I'm not saying the nicest things to myself like we all go through that but I have gotten really good at practicing shutting those type of thoughts down and finding ways to say positive things about my body and it's really helped to I guess for me it's really helped to look at my body in different types of outfits that people who are mid-size or plus size you wouldn't usually see us in so things

like crop tops and short skirts where you can see my cellulite. I've been just trying to explore different looks like that and it has helped immensely with my confidence big time. Just seeing other women rocking outfits like that on social media has really helped as well. Well, that's, I was, I asked because your page helps inspire me to be like nothing's off limits for me. I think it's a, we can put categories of clothing like crop tops. Crop tops. Crop tops. I put crop tops off limit for myself until January of this year. And then once I started wearing them, I'm like, what a weird thing that I just put this entire category of clothing off limits for my body.

So I'm curious what that self-talk looks like, like how you, I don't know what your personality type is and if you're even the type of person who'd spiral, but at least at the beginning when I would put on a craptop, I would be like, this isn't how a craptop supposed. just a look, you can see, you know, things that I don't see in the ads and maybe on all the social media pages and stuff like that. Or if you see the cellulite, what does that self-narrative go like? And how do you make it feel good instead of feel bad? Yeah. It's a bit of saying something like, you know, my body is going to go through different phases and different seasons. and I owe it to myself to respect that, honor that,

and love it no matter what that season or phase is. And also realizing that, I mean, well, let me backtrack. It also, for me personally, I think because of my line of work in the sense that I create content to encourage other women, I try to remember like, okay, if I share a picture of me in this outfit, even though I may not feel the most confident right now, You never know what one person who might see this, who it might encourage to try something new with their wardrobe or try wearing high-wasted jeans or something like that. So it helps me to think of other people it might encourage.

And then, yeah, just overall accepting this is where my body's at right now and it deserves the respect that it's due at this time. I love that. I think thinking about even for people who don't have platforms, I do think that thinking about the fact that even if you wear what you feel good into a grocery store that you might have considered off limits for yourself, another woman could see you at the grocery store and say, oh, that's something that I could wear too. Like, why was I putting that off limits for myself? I think the more women that sort of take, the more people that take the stance that there is

nothing that's off limits for any type of body, the more people's sense. it and the more people internalize it and then hopefully it's a cascading effect. Right. And you just never know. Even within your own households, if you have daughters or if you work with, I used to be a nanny for young children and then also mentor teenagers in New York. And so that also helped me kind of practice, what am I saying about my body? Like I wouldn't want them to pick up those type of things.

So just being aware of what you're saying to yourself, about yourself, seriously or jokingly. is majorly important. Yeah, for sure. The jokes is so true. Somebody said to me recently that anything you say is a joke, like your brain doesn't necessarily know the difference, so you're still internalizing those words. And I was like, oh, my God,

the amount of things I've been forcing my brain to internalize that are terrible about myself is just so mean. I know. That is so relatable. But I'm so glad we're in a place now where there's so many fun slang terms for different things. Like if you have booty going on or no booty, but calling it something like cake,

I'll put on some type of like trap song or trashy hip-hop song and we'll just like dance in the mirror and refer to my body in those ways. And it's been really nice. I love that. I love that. Is there anything that we're missing from your morning routine, anything else that sneaks its way in there? Oh my gosh, yes.

My plants. They require a lot of nurturing, and they are a big part of my morning routine at least once a week, for sure. So you just go around, do you sing to them or do you just water them? What's your relationship with your plants? I know there are people who do talk to their plants and sing to them. I don't go that far, but I'm not a seasoned plant owner. I've only been, I think, owning plants for maybe almost two years now. And before that had killed so many.

So don't think highly. But in the mornings, it's nice to go around and just kind of like check in the soil, check on the leaves, see if any of them need any dusting and see who's going to need watering that day. And it is, it has become kind of like a therapeutic ritual in a way because, again, it forces me to be offline. And it's nice nurturing something else. I'm 28. I don't have kids or a partner. but nurturing my plants is kind of nice.

And then, yeah, just seeing something thrive because of what you're putting into it or seeing it totally buzzed. There's something kind of nice about that. Yeah, it's like a real life consequences of action. It's almost like a lot of the stuff we can do these days feels ephemeral. Like you're sending emails and what is that? It's like some code and space and it feels very grounding and real that these plants exist. can cease to exist if you don't take care of them, right? But they can also thrive if you do.

I love how many little tricks you have to keep yourself away from your phone. It has to be physical because if it's still, I will like close out of Instagram and then reopen the app 10 seconds later. I'm like, what just happened? I just close out of the app. How am I even here? So it sometimes feels mindless in a way. So doing things where I have to be more hands-on, like trying new recipes, which I love that you cook all the time and make so many fun recipes. I did not used to do that, but in 2020, have started. And it's been really nice. I do think that a lot of people can feel almost like a failure when they're like, oh, I don't want to be on my phone. So I'll close it and set it to the side. And then they

find themselves doing it 10 seconds later. And I do think it's a good realization that the phones are wired to keep us in that pattern and that it's sometimes you're not a failure if you can't do it, but actually creating that impediment of physically occupying your hands or physically occupying your attention in that way. It's not a failure. It's actually just like the way to break this cycle that the phones are designed to create. Exactly. And I know a lot of us are super overwhelmed right now just because the state of the world and the state of our country. And so it's just really easy to constantly be on our phones, and I understand that. But even doing something easy that's not overwhelming to take your mind off of it, like FaceTiming a loved one,

you know, it doesn't have to be anything elaborate that will also overwhelm you during these times. Yeah, or taking care of some plants. Get a little plant baby. Yeah, definitely. Is there, do you meditate or do you do affirmations or is there any supplement routine, anything like that? No, I don't meditate. Something I do do, however, is brain dumping. I feel like it's fairly common, but just getting out either my notes app, my journal, whatever I can access easiest in the mornings especially, just writing down everything that's stressing me out, scaring me, causing any type of anxiety. Also, anything that's exciting me at the moment or that I'm looking forward to, just writing it all down. There's something about that, like, actual process

that takes it out of your mind, it kind of off of your shoulders for a bit. And you can see it, you know, at face value on paper. Something about that has been really nice. So is the idea to action that in any way, or is it literally just to write it down and then move on? Literally just to write it down, look at it. And for me, it kind of just shows like, okay, wait a minute. A lot of these things are not that bad. I think when we have so many things like stockpiled in our mind that we need to get done, it just makes you, I don't know, can bog you down heavily and just releasing them onto some paper is so simple. But for me, it's effective because I can see that, okay, this is not that big of a deal. There are many people who have done these things before and they are okay. And I also

have overcome worse things, meaning I can get through these small tasks when I have done. to-do list and it allows me to see what can I put on hold you know until tomorrow or next week and see what's pressing in this moment and what's not oh i love that i think i actually think one of the biggest hamper's to productivity is feeling overwhelmed by how much you have to do and i think that i might try it's certainly for me that's the case so i think i might the the brain dump is an interesting idea for sure yeah it's kind of fun too i don't know if you ever remember in school when teachers would have us do free writing. And it was just like, write whatever you want.

Yeah, I love, I have a hard time with that because I think I self-ident. My career was as a writer for so long. So I have a really hard time writing for things that aren't professional or like, I don't, like that won't be seen by a lot of people or stuff like that. And I really need to get back into the idea of writing for myself in any way, shape, perform. So I do remember free writing and I, um, I liked it a lot. And it's interesting how as I became a writer for my job, I kind of moved away from that. That makes sense. I feel like a lot of us, if we start working in an area of something that we generally enjoy a lot of times we don't really

end up doing it for our own and, you know, personal enjoyment that much. Yeah, it's like the side effect of the whole like do your passion as your work thing, I think. Right. No, definitely. But yeah, the bring up's nice because you don't have to think about much. you just, you know, let your hand do whatever and move on. It just sounds like very restful because I feel like my brain is like a thousand tiny ping pong balls bouncing around and to like just get all the ping pong balls out of there. So it's like, oh. Definitely.

All right. So we move on to evening. I don't want to make, because brain dump was good and I don't want to miss another brain dump worthy thing in the morning. So if we don't have anything else like that, then we can move on to evening. But if you have more secrets, don't hold out on them. No, that's pretty much it for mornings. And not necessarily that every morning has all of those things. It just depends on what I feel like I need that morning.

For sure. I think that's a big, big message I'm getting from you is the idea of flexibility, is the idea that you don't need to be rigid. A big part of the routine in itself seems to be just checking in with yourself, getting to know yourself and getting to know what you need at any given moment. Yeah, 100%. Because I've been rigid before and it just didn't work. It paralyzed me pretty much. That's fair. That's fair. Okay. In the evenings, are you like a good sleeper? Do you have a lot of anxiety to calm at the end of your day? What sort of your mental state by the time you get to the evening?

By the time I get to the evening, for what I do for work, it is a little bit challenging just because I do like to connect with the people. on my online community or within my online community but it's hard sometimes like put my phone down and not actually constantly be responding to comments or DMs so in the evenings i definitely do that a little bit but i try to make myself a nice dinner sometimes it's cereal to be honest um but other times it's actually something wholesome and nourishing and then other than that it's just watching a show with my roommates and just plopping on the couch until it's time to go to bed nothing crazy. And do you find that you're able to kind of transition from TV watching right into sleep? You don't need a wind down, I guess, from that. I feel like I should be doing some type of wind down,

but even having a nice morning routine, that's only something that's happened in the last year or two. So I'm like, okay, I can't tackle everything at once. And when I've tried to do like, you know, a nice night routine. It sometimes is just a bit too much. So I try to just kind of completely zen out and then sometimes I'll do little things like painting my nails, maybe a mask. I don't know why the idea of doing a mask sometimes seems overwhelming. Same. I think it's the getting and off. I'm like, I can put it on, but the idea of like standing over my sink getting water everywhere trying to get a mask off my face just feels so intimidating. I agree 100%

So yeah Sometimes that I mean not sometimes Most of the time that doesn't happen But transitioning from TV to bed Isn't I feel like this is bad to say But yeah no I don't really have a problem with it I actually like hearing that because you do get I even think if I'm recalling correctly

In this episode you'll get people who are like No screen time before bed And I actually had the worst insomnia in my life The week that I decided to cut out screen time before bed because I put so much pressure. It was the thing I'd used to fall asleep for so long. And then I put so much pressure on myself to fall asleep without it that I, of course, didn't fall asleep.

So I do think that there's something to be said for, yes, there's general rules that are good to follow. And then also there's what works for you and leaning into that. Right. Definitely. And for me, I just personally am working all day. And I feel like a lot of us are working or doing schoolwork or something all day long. and you're giving that time to everything else,

something like watching television is a nice way to just kind of clock out for a second and give your mind a break. So before we go, the last thing I need to ask you because you've mentioned skincare and just getting into skincare and having this great skincare routine is if you have any holy grail

skincare products that you could share. Okay, something that is more body care but has been amazing. If you want to take like an extended shower where you're listening to your favorite music, grab the Osea body scrub. It is the best body scrub I've ever tried. I don't know if it's, I don't think it's grapefruit. I'm not sure what the scent is, but it's just a really nice sugar scrub and your skin feels like

butter afterwards. And this is going to sound a little bit weird, but I've been using it also on my armpits before I shave during times whenever I want to shave, and they're just so soft afterwards, and I highly recommend trying that. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat. I hope you enjoy your little getaway. That sounds super fun. Yeah, I'm super excited.

I'm literally leaving after we hop off of this and going to a cute little bed and breakfast. Oh, that's lovely. All right. And if anybody wants to find you, it is at J-N-A-Y daily, and I highly encourage you. people to do so. You have really a wonderful account to follow and lots of inspo in life and decor and plants and all of the things. So I highly encourage people to do that. And thank you so much for taking the time to chat. Definitely, Liz. Thanks for having me. This was super fun. And I hope you have a great rest of your day. You're listening to the Healthyer Together podcast. This has been

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I'm so excited to be here chatting with you again today. Yeah, welcome back to the podcast. For anybody who is not familiar with you, can you just give us a little bit of background into what you do? Sure. So I'm a Brooklyn-based brighter speaker, I work mainly within the wellness and fitness space. and do a lot of work around anti-racism and diversity inclusion and fitness spaces. I still do a little bit of one-on-one coaching, but not very much.

So a little bit of everything, but all kind of within like the wellness and fitness industry. And I also, I love your, are we, is body positivity something you would call it or is it body activism? What would the words you would use around? I like to call what I do body liberation work actually. Yeah. So, and yes, I do a lot of my work is focused on body liberation. as well. And because for me, like body positivity, I think is a good introduction for people, but I feel like the my, the work I do in that I hope, you know, it helps people is to find true

liberation and peace within their bodies. And to recognize that ultimately, um, our value has nothing to do with what we look like, right? And, and our body is just a vessel that allows us to have this human experience. And life is so much bigger than that. That's, I always say my body is the least interesting thing about me. Like I enjoy it. Yeah. And I think so your work around that space and your words around that space really resonate with me. All right. So let's get into it. Let's start with morning. What time do you wake up? What does your morning routine look like? Yeah. So these days, I am usually waking up probably between like seven and eight. I used to, when I still had a corporate job, I was like 430, 445 every morning. I know. I don't even know how I did it now because I used to

wake up that early and go to the gym before I, like, I literally hop out the bed, put on my gym clothes and run to the gym. And then I had like a full day ahead of me, like no breather. I can't even, I don't know how I did it. Like, I guess you just do what you have to do. But, um, but these days, you're not going to catch me up but 445 in the morning. So usually I'm between like seven and eight and my mornings are so, I'm so grateful because, um, I get to make my own schedule because I love a slow, easy start to the day. So I'm usually waking up between seven and eight. I'm doing a few minutes of meditation, somewhere between like 10 and 30 minutes, depending on like, when I'm really in my meditation groove and I've been like hitting my meditation frequently and like every day

really consistently, I'm probably like close to the 30 minute. And if I'm not, I'm like, okay, let's at least do like 10 to 15 minutes of meditation. And is that guided? Is it a mantra? I always usually do guided meditations. Yeah. Every once in a while I'll just do like a, like I'll play like quiet music and just meditate like myself, but typically I'm doing a guided meditation. Is there an app that you like or recommend? So sometimes I have used the calm app before, but also I go on YouTube sometimes and just find cool guided meditations. There's a woman named Miriam Hasna. She has a lot of guided meditations on YouTube. And so I will do her sometimes as well. So I kind of like, I kind of bop around a little bit. Is there anything that got you into meditation in

the first place. I know so many people who want to start finding their meditation groove, and it just feels really intimidating. Yes. So I did not meditate for a very long time, and it was the same thing like I wanted to, but it felt like, I don't know what I'm, like, how do I meditate? So, and which I'll talk about this a little bit later, too, as part of my self-care practice, but I ended up going to Reiki for the first time in, like, February of 2019. And I had wanted to go to Rakey for a while, but had never went because I didn't, I don't know, I just didn't. But I was at like a really rough time in life. My dad had passed away unexpectedly.

And I was just feeling like out of sorts and nothing that I was like normally when my go to would work was helping me at all. And so anyways, I went to this Rakey session and was like completely transformational for me. Like I can't even explain how amazing that first session was for me. And so anyways, through that work, my practitioner really was like, Like, you know, have you thought about just doing, you know, some meditation in the morning, like to ground yourself? Because at that time, I didn't really have a grounding practice at all. And I was like, yeah, but I don't know, like, what I'm doing. And she was like, you don't have to know what you're doing. Like, just, you know, start slow, five or ten minutes, you know, do a guided and just, you know, also like, don't put pressure on yourself. Because my thing is in the past when I meditated, I always like my mind wandered. So I felt like I was doing it wrong. And she was explaining to me, there's no wrong way to do meditation. Right. And like if you see your mind going away, just try to gently bring it back. It's not like a, a. trying to get it right or perfect. And so that really eased the idea that I like had to, there was a right or wrong way to meditate. And so then once I got into it, I was like,

wow, this is really, this is really great. I really like this. Dan Harris, who wrote the book 10% happier, he described the act of your mind wandering and coming back as like a rep. So if you're lifting weights, that that is the practice. Is your mind wandering and coming back? Which made me feel so much better because instead of doing it wrong every time my mind wandered, I was actually doing it right and getting stronger. Oh, I love that analogy. That's perfect. Yeah, it's great. I love him. He really inspired my meditation practice, but I have to ask about the Reiki. I know you said you couldn't really describe it. But Reiki for me is one of those wellness things that feels just a little on the side of woo-woo for me. It's just like they're not touching my body. What's going on? I don't understand

how this is working. So for my sake, can you try to describe how it transformed you? I'm so curious. Yes, yes. So same thing. Like I didn't have, this is my first time. going to Reiki and like I didn't really know it to expect. And so I had like met this woman at an event I went to just briefly. Like we didn't really talk or have any conversation. But she mentioned that she was a practitioner. And at the event that I was in, it was like a kind of like a little healing circle. We did a little meditation. And so she didn't do any Reiki, but she like led us through another practice. And I just really loved her energy. So I was like, oh, I'm going to go to her for Reiki. And so I had my first session. She just basically told me briefly what she was going to do. And basically

the same thing. She doesn't do touch with Reiki. So I'm just, I'm just going to lay on this table. And I'm like, okay, that seems easy enough. So I lay down. I close my eyes just because I chose to. And again, this had, this was about like maybe six weeks after my dad my dad passed away really unexpectedly. And so I like three minutes into the session maybe, no mind she's not touching me. Three minutes into the session, I am crying, like bawling uncontrollably. And so I'm like, what is happening? Like I don't even, I feel like I'm in a therapist. therapy session, but like I'm not talking. And the first time I had it, it was almost like I could really feel like energy moving around in my body. And, you know, and like I felt like a lot of,

especially like around my heart chakra, I felt like, like it was almost like physical heat. Like I felt like my heart was like warm. And so it was just all these sensations. And I was like, wow, this is a, it was like 30 minutes session. And then when we got done, I already, I just felt like so much lighter when I got off the table already. And, you know, she asked me after we're done. She's like, you know, she was just, she kind of like talks through the session and like what came up. And she was like, yeah, I sensed a lot of grief. Like, did you experience a loss recently? And I was like, oh, yeah, my dad passed away like six weeks ago. And she was like, oh, yeah, like I can sense that someone really important close to you passed away. And so it was just, I literally couldn't believe it.

I went home and I journaled about the experience because I had never felt something like that before in my life. And since then, like, like, I. And since then, like, Like, I've never stopped going to Reiki. I try to go, like, twice a month maybe, like, forever. And I've just felt like I've had so much healing from, like, past trauma and, like, childhood stuff. I always tell people, like, I love talk therapy and I do go to talk therapy. But for me, like, Reiki is almost like a therapy session.

So I do both. But it's just been really incredible for me. Interesting. Okay. So after the meditation, what happens next? Yeah. So after the meditation, I do journaling. just like whatever's going on. Sometimes they're wrong. Sometimes they're really short. I don't really

put any pressure on what to journal. It's just like for me journaling. Um, it's just, like when I, I get really caught in my head with my thoughts sometimes, right? So when I journal and just get my head, my thoughts out of my head onto paper, it just feels a lot better for me. And again, sometimes I really don't have that much to journal about. Sometimes I do. And then I do a second journal, which is a gratitude journal. And it's literally, I don't have a special journal. It's just that I take a minute and I write like for five minutes, all the things that I'm grateful for. And I try to be very specific. You know, I think gratitude is one of these things that sometimes sounds a little cliche about like how gratitude changes things. And I know sometimes it can feel a little like whatever. But I love being very

specific about things that I'm grateful for. Like, I'm so grateful for this wonderful conversation I had with my best friend yesterday. Or I'm so wonderful. I'm so happy that like I got to go on the walk and I saw all these beautiful flowers. I just really try to take the time to really practice gratitude for like all the things in life. And even like for the same. And even like for the situations that aren't so great. I read a book by Pam Grout, and she's kind of like does like manifestation stuff. And, you know, it's just about this practice that like the idea of gratitude and being grateful in our lives all the time and also like as odd as a sounds, like giving thanks for the things that maybe aren't our favorite parts of all the things in our lives right now and the

lessons that we're learning through them. And so I've been in the practice of doing that too. probably for like a year now. And I honestly, it's such an important part of my day. Could you give an example of what being grateful for something slightly more negative would actually look like? Yeah. So like for me, for example, I would like in my journal, especially like, you know, with coronavirus and being quarantined. I live in New York. I'm in a small apartment. I feel like really many times during the pandemic, I felt like I was like, you know, just going a little stir crazy in the apartment. And I would just be like, wow, well, I'm really grateful that even in the midst of the coronavirus and being quarantined, I'm grateful that, like, I have

just this room that feels really peaceful and that I can wake up and have a quiet morning here in my room, even though everything in the world is chaotic. Or I'm really grateful that I have the opportunity to work from home. And even though I would rather be out in the world right now, I'm still able to make a living in the midst of all of this. And also just, and for me, that's like a good point of reflection, because there's no such thing as compared to, I shouldn't say there's such a thing, but I don't get into the practice of like comparative grief and such that like, you know, during a time like coronavirus where I can look around and recognize that people have it way worse than me, I still allow myself to be like to feel sad about whatever I'm experiencing, even though I'm still really,

really privileged and really, really fortunate in the midst of the situation. So I think it's important for me anyways to acknowledge what I'm feeling and also acknowledge that I have a lot to be thankful for and that things could be a lot worse. And so it's like trying to find the joy in all of the situations as much as I can. I love that. I love that. I definitely, I have a gratitude practice that I sometimes try to make the act do with me, which is like its own whole thing. But I've never done it that way where you acknowledge the negative and then find the gratitude in that. And I think that's really powerful. So I'm going to try that. All right. So after our journaling, do we eat anything special? Do you work out in the morning still? No, my morning. So after a journal,

I read then and it depends on usually, I don't know, like I don't really read fiction in the morning. I usually read something else and then drink my coffee. I don't really eat breakfast right away. I'm not hungry in the morning usually. So it's like reading and coffee. And depending on the day, I will either get in a workout, take a walk maybe or if I have a lot of work to do, I might just jump into work at that point and push that stuff to later. But in an ideal world where I have, you know, the schedule allows, it's always at least go for a walk in the morning. And then I'll usually maybe do a workout later in the day. What is the walk do for you? Um, I really love, again, I think it was something I started doing more during the quarantine just because I felt like

I was stuck in the house a lot and I noticed my energy. Like I, when I found myself like in a really, like, negative mood, it was probably because I haven't left the house in three days. And I'm like, this is probably just not good. So, um, I started saying like, you know what, I should least get out and walk every day. And for me, walking is really a time where I get a lot of good ideas. It just, my creative energy seems to flow really well. And I love just being outside and being in nature, even in Brooklyn where it's not, you know, like, it's not super green. But there's parks and stuff like that. So just being outside and being in nature just really helps clear my mind. And I don't know, something about walking just always makes me feel better. It raises my mood.

And can I ask because you were in the corporate world before. I think a lot of people listen to these morning routine interviews and they're so inspiring but they're also like yeah like i wish i could journal and meditate and all this stuff how did you when you were in the corporate world how did you sort of zero in on the things you could do that would make the biggest difference in setting up your day and how did you make time for those yes actually to be honest with you i was really bad at that for a long time um because i would like i said i would wake up at 4.45 in the morning and then just like pull my gym clothes on and go right to the gym and then go shower and go right to work and it was just just like never, I just wasn't doing that. And then I eventually, I got tired of waking up at 445,

but also like just life events. My life was different. And so I stopped working out in the morning. And so then I would at least, and I, again, it's like one of these things, right? When I was waking up at 445, I had no problem getting up to go to the gym. But then when I wasn't working the gym every morning, then I'm like, oh, waking up 20 minutes earlier, I can do a morning routine seemed so hard, but it obviously wasn't. So then I started just trying to take 20 minutes in the morning instead of morning routine. And again, I always like to recognize like the privilege in all these conversations. I don't have kids, right? Like I don't have to worry about getting anybody else ready. It was just me. But even then I would just like try to take 20 minutes and just do like a five minute

journaling session, like a five minute of meditation and then just like either read or sit in silence or just drink coffee. It just. try to have like 20 minutes of just like peace before the chaos starts in the day. I actually love the idea. I think we can get caught up in like, okay, my morning routine needs to include this, this, this, this and this. And then you look at it and you're like, oh, that's an hour and a half. There's no way I can do that. But I love the idea of limiting the time. I have 20 minutes. And then I can fill that however I want to fill that. I think that that's brilliant. Yeah. And I mean, so I read a book. I can't remember the name of it now. But I read this

book and it was about a morning routine. and this person was like, once I started doing this, my whole life changed. And so I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm going to do that. But again, that's the problem, right? When I, it was like this step. It was like an hour process. And I was like, I don't have an hour. I can't do this.

And so I was trying to pressure myself to do it for a long time. And then I was like, or I could just do a modified morning routine that feels good for me. And if it's 15 minutes, it's 15 minutes. And this is that person's experience. But that doesn't have to be my experience, nor do I have the time for that right now. Right. And just being okay with that. Yeah, I think that that makes it feel a lot less intimidating.

Yes, absolutely. Is there anything we're missing from morning or should we move on to evening? No, that's it. That's the morning. All right, that's the morning. Okay, so at nighttime, what do we do? What's the goal of a nighttime routine for you? So for me, the goal of the nighttime routine is to unplug from devices.

And I'm not always great at this, but the goal is to unplug from devices and it takes some time to just like settle down from the day, like energetically and just kind of like calm my energy a little bit if I've been like on the go or working a lot or my mind is all over the place and just try to like calm myself down a little bit before I go to sleep. I'm really fortunate that I'm the type of person that I can literally fall asleep in two minutes pretty much anytime. Oh my gosh. I hate you. So even if I don't get my evening routine like it's not going to like I can I can be watching TV on my phone and then like two minutes later, I'll be passed out like nothing ever happened. This is genuinely the most angry I'm going to do in any of our conversations. Yeah, I'm really fortunate that way. So I do like to

adhere to an evening routine still because I like to, like I have a tendency to like just be up unreasonably late for no good reason. So I do like to like have a more a night routine to like try to like just get myself ready for the idea of going to sleep. Okay. So what do we do? So for me, I love to read before bed. So I talked about reading or in the morning, but like fiction. I love reading fiction. And I love to read fiction at night before I go to bed. So usually I give myself time because I know like I'm like, want to go on social,

not that I actually need to do anything on there, but like I just know myself. So I will give myself some time to like check messages or scroll mindlessly do what I want to do. And then I'm like, okay, now we're done with social media for the night. Turn that off. And usually I'll have like the TV on while I'm doing that. And so when that time is done, I turn the TV off as well. Oh, one thing I forgot to talk about in the morning, which I do in the morning and at night, which I'll talk about now, is that I sage my room like every day in the morning and at night.

And so I do the same at night. So at night, once I turn the TV off and my devices off, I sage, do a little ritual around that. And then light candles usually and turn my bed lights, stay at the, um, my table lamp on and get up my book that I'm going to read and just read for probably like a half an hour or 45 minutes. Sometimes I do meditation before I go to sleep, just a really quick one. But not always. It's not like something I have to do, but I do do it sometimes. That's so cozy.

I also, I've been doing nonfiction in the morning because it's so motivating for your day. And then fiction just like drifting off into a different world at night. I think it's such a nice bookend for your day. I love that. And I really like to turn the TV off. like at least an hour before I go to sleep because I noticed that I was like for a while having these really bizarre dreams when I was watching. It depends on what I was watching, but like certain shows I'd be having the most like a wild and bizarre dreams. I was like, okay, we're not watching that

before bed anymore. It's so stimulating. You don't think about how many TV and movies. They're just designed to literally hit every one of your senses except for like taste and touch. Right. It's so stimulating. Yes. Which is a lot. Okay. What about do you do any like special skincare or anything. You're very glowy. Oh, thank you. So actually, for the longest, I wasn't, I was just like all over the place with my skincare. And I was just like, you know what? I'm like 34. I should really get a skincare routine. So I do have a skincare routine now, which I do morning and night. I'm very proud of myself. I've been doing this for like a month. And I'm very proud of it. I'm like, yes, I've been doing my skincare routine. I literally tell Zach every time. I've been

washing my face at night for a month, like consistently. And I tell him every time. And I tell him every time and he's like I'm not going to applaud you for doing the bare minimum of adult human interaction here like so I was always really good about washing my face at night but then I like wouldn't I didn't have any like products now I do a face wash and then I do a like a toner and it's like a hydroconic acid it's called I wouldn't did some research on this and by research I mean I asked my friends for a good scared good routine and um Then a serum and then a moisturizer or eye cream and then a moisturizer. So before my step, my process is like once you wash your face and then like maybe throw

some moisturizer on. That was it. But now I have like a five step process and do the same thing in the morning too. Any holy grail products? Not yet. Like again, I've known this is, it's too new to have holy grill products. But, you know, maybe in the future I will have someone. I will update you at that point.

Okay. And then last question, because books have figured prominently into your. routine. Are there any sort of life-changing books on either the fiction or non-fiction end if somebody wanted to adopt that routine element they could start with? Yes. So life-changing books for me and the non-fiction is the untethered soul. I absolutely love the untethered soul. Why? Could you do like, yeah, like a sentence about why? Yeah. So that book helped me a lot because I have a person who traditionally really like to be in control of everything. And the whole book is really about the fact that we have no control over anything. And it really talks about how to navigate all of the things in life

with the recognition and the idea that, one, and this is going to sound really morbid, but one is that we're all going to die. That's just the truth of the matter. And then secondly, we have no control over anything realistically. And so that book, you know, again, I talked about this before my dad passing away, but then that same year my dad passed away, I also left a long-term relationship. My previous husband, we had been together for like almost over a decade. And so all of things happened in a very short period of time. And so I was just like feeling completely like out of sorts. And so that book was really, really, really helpful for me. And another book that I really love is Bell Hooks, All About Love. So Bill Hooks has a three-part trilogy on love, but All About Love is my

absolute favorite. And I think it's such a beautiful book about love, romantic and platonic relationships in general. So I always recommend all about love. I just, I love that book so much. And on the fiction side, I have so many fiction books that I like, but the one that I always talk about is because for the longest in my adult life, I wasn't reading fiction. I mean, I grew up loving reading. It's always been a part of my life. But then, I don't know, at some point in adulthood, I was never reading fiction anymore because I was just like, I just need to learn things. I'm just going to read to learn. And then again, around the same time, like in around all those events I was talking about, I was just like, you know what? I want to do something that just take my mind off

of things. And I'm like, I'm going to read a fiction book. I haven't read fiction forever. And the first book I read was an American marriage. Oh, I love that book. And it was such a beautiful book. Although it's so dev, like, the injustice in that book, you just close it and you're just like, like, God, like, ah. But it's so beautiful. It's such a beautiful story. And it's just so well written.

And I was just like the perfect book to like reignite my love for fiction because after that book, I was like, why have it not been reading fiction? Like, what is it wrong with me? And I also like secretly hope they make that into a movie, but they have to do it. it right. So anyways, yeah. You know what I love about your story is that you went through this period of quite intense and trauma in your life and that that seemed to spark all of these beautiful practices that stuck with you. And I think there's a really nice, you know, mirroring. I think there's a lot of people going through a lot of trauma right now. So that's a little flicker of hope in that that you can find all these beautiful little practices throughout that.

Absolutely. And so one thing I talk about a lot, or maybe I don't talk about it with myself, I talk about this last. I'm going to say. Where have I actually talked about this? I don't know. But one thing I think about a lot, I should say, is that, you know, we talk about, like, self-care and a lot of times we talk about it in terms of, like, you know, doing these nice things for ourselves and, like, taking bubble bass and all this. And, like, all of those things are true and can be true. And also, when I think about self-care, I think that it's also a lot of times is bigger than just that. It's like making difficult life decisions. right, that are really, really hard and that can be really, really challenging, but are the right decisions for us. And, like, self-care doesn't always involve, like, you know, pampering. Like, also involves, like, ugly tears and, like, crying into your pillow for nights at a time. But then doing those things, right? And sticking with the practices that you are helping you and wherever you can, like, it does end up being something really beautiful. But, like, the process throughout doesn't always look that way. And so, like, one of the things I want to do

in the future or kind of working on it now. I don't know. It's out there is a book. And like the title of a book is like Beauty from Ashes because I really do believe that so much beautiful things like happen through a lot of pain, a lot of trauma and then a lot of healing. I love that. If people want to follow along on your journey or find you on the internet, where can they go?

Yes. On Instagram, it's I am Chrissy King and then my website is at Chrissyking.com. But yeah, I'm most active on Instagram though. Absolutely. So much fun. Thank you for having me. All right, Chelsea, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me.

For anybody who is not familiar with you, can you just give us a little bit of background on who you are, what you do? So I'm Chelsea. You might know me from my Instagram, which is at Choosing Chelsea. It's more of like, it started as a weight loss Instagram, which is transition to more of an overall wellness, self-love, kind of anything goes page. And I also work as a part-time registered nurse. I'm a mom. And yeah, that's just to sum it up real quick. I have a question about your name.

It's choosing Chelsea. Is that because you're choosing yourself every day? Yes. And I actually changed it a few years ago. When I first started my page and started to grow, my name was Chelsea Gets Fit X-O, because it was a full-lon weight loss fitness page. And then once I realized that that truly doesn't represent me anymore that I'm way more than someone who's trying to get fit. I brainstormed and I was like,

okay, choosing Chelsea, choosing myself, it works. I love that. I actually never put that together for some reason until I was just talking to you right now. And then I was like, that's such a, it's such a lovely concept waking up every, they say that in, you know, some of the best partnered relationships you wake up every day and choose your partner. And I love the idea of waking up every day and choosing yourself. Okay. So what is the point of a morning routine? with you. You have like several jobs. You have a kid. What type of mindset are you sort of trying to cultivate for your day? So I used to have like a very kind of strict morning routine in which I tried to do like everything right. Like I would wake up. I wouldn't use my phone. I would try to read.

I would journal. I would like try to jam pack everything you hear you're supposed to do in a morning routine and I would have this list of all these things I felt like I had to do. And then if there was ever a morning where I couldn't accomplish all of them, I would just feel like such a failure, which just really led to having this unhealthy mindset. And my morning routine ended causing me more stress, which is totally unproductive. So now, especially with everything going on in the world, just having peace of mind, flexibility, definitely having a routine is important, but just knowing that, you know, having a few key pieces is way more important than trying to be perfect when it comes to a morning routine.

I'm curious how you like, with all of those things, trying to do all of it, how did you even go about the process of narrowing it down to the few things that made the biggest difference for you? Well, I did realize that I definitely have to have a different morning routine on the days that I work my nursing job first the days that I work from home. That they're very different because I have less time on the mornings that I go to work. I have to wake up so much earlier and drive a distance. So I had to realize that I'm not going to fit everything in on the work on my nursing work days that I do on my work from home days. And I had to really debate what is essential to me and what truly makes me feel like I'm setting myself up for a better day when I do them in the morning

and really focus on those key elements. All right. So I'm excited. I'm set up. What did you land on? Okay. Well, I'm just going to preface this by saying also. I texted my friend yesterday and I said, so I'm going to be on a podcast where I'm talking about my morning and evening routines. And I was like, so am I just going to tell her that I wake up, I sigh and then put on reality TV. Because sometimes that's my reality because there's just so much going on that that's all I have the capacity for. Yeah. And I've realized that that's okay. But overall, the really big things that I notice make a huge shift in my mental health.

These are things that I really focus on, particularly on my every day. So whether I'm working from home or going to my nursing job are making sure that I have time for myself in the morning, that I'm sitting down. down, having something to eat that I'm reading before I look at my phone and just like really having that like grounding moment in the morning. And that's basically the only thing I have time for on my work days, but that I go to my nursing job. But at home, I also just try to make sure that I make my bed first thing in the morning. I like to tidy up the house before I really start working on anything for the day. And then if I can, I try to go. And then if I can, I try to go. go on a walk and do that because those are the things that really set me up to have a much better

mindset throughout the whole day. Okay, I have immediately a number of questions. One, what are you reading? Is it nonfiction or fiction? Like, what type of content are you trying to consume to start your day off, right? So I used to force myself to read a lot of like self-help books. I hate them. I hate them so much. I just like they make me feel like I have so much that I need to to fix about myself. I'm like, I already think I have enough stuff wrong with me. I don't need more of that. So my self-care is really fiction books. I love anything from like a romantic comedy to fantasy to sci-fi. I love fantasy books or basically any fiction I really love. So I just do that because that is what really makes me happy. Okay. And my second question is, you say you

sometimes wake up and watch reality TV, which I love. And I think one of the things that I struggle with the most is figuring out the line between when doing something like that is listening to what you really need and it's an active self-care and figuring out when it's just going to make me feel worse than if I woke up and meditated and did the yoga and did all the stuff that's, that's, you know, harder, but will make me feel better. How do you figure out that line for yourself? It's definitely a tricky thing to figure out. And unfortunately, often it is a learning experience and you don't really know until after you do it. And I think it really is just taking assessment of where you're at with your mental health, your physical health and just like overall your capacity for the day and just trying to take in like, is this going to help or is this going to make things worse? And so, Sometimes you're right and sometimes you're wrong and you just can't beat yourself up about it. Yeah, that's fair.

And then the third component is you just you sit and you eat food and that's like intentionally so that you're not grabbing something on the go. I just am a horrible person if I don't eat in the mornings. And so even I used to do like the whole intermittent fasting thing a while back. And even when I did that, I had to eat in the morning. And I preferred to eat in the morning than at night, which people. find very unusual, but I just, I need to eat in the morning. Otherwise, I'm, I'm very unhappy, especially if I'm going to my nursing job where, you know, sometimes I don't know the next time I'll be able to get to eat. So I have to eat before I go. Kelly Leveck actually says that she's

the author of a bunch of books and sort of a celebrity nutritionist. And she says that women should always fast through, like from 5 p.m. onwards because when women wake up the way that their hormones work, they actually need to eat sooner rather than later. So for men, they can do the morning fast, but for women, they should always do the evening fast. So you are following her advice, even inadvertently. Yes, I've actually heard that before too. And I'm like, yeah, I'll take it. I love how much you, like, I feel like you're one of those people who, who gets in touch with intuitively what you feel like you should do. And then if you read stuff later that supports it, you're like, okay, cool. But like, you sort of decide based on what feels right for you. Is that true?

as of recently I think I have become more of that way for sure in the past I would have read something like oh my god I'm doing this wrong I'm doing that wrong but through this journey of trying to like figure out myself and just ultimately no one really does know what's best for you and a lot of times you don't know what's best for you also but more than likely someone else isn't going to know what's best for you so you just kind of have to listen to your gut and take your experiences and and kind of add it all together. Yeah, I love that. I'm working on, it's like a big process and therapy for me right now is working on

knowing myself in that way, like knowing what I need and my intuition and all of that, which I feel very disconnected from. So it's definitely a process. It's very difficult. Yeah, it's, I think it's a lot, we have a lot of factors kind of taking us away from being able to listen to our intuition and kind of training us away from an over the years, which I think is really sad. Well, we're always told, like, that everyone else knows more about what you should be doing than you do. And so you always go to other people for what

you should be eating, how you should be exercising, how you should be living your life. And we are just so conditioned to think other people know best that it's intuition feels so weird and foreign. And it's like we're having to overcorrect for it. And it just feels so weird. Are you doing? You said that you're sort of in the process of transitioning to trusting your knowing yourself. Are you doing anything to sort of work that muscle? Like my therapist has me sitting for 20 minutes and I'm not allowed to meditate or do anything. I just have to sit and do nothing, which is really hard for me. That sounds so hard.

It's so hard. And I'm like, yeah, it's so hard. But do you do anything? Have there been practices that have been helpful for you in developing your intuition and getting in touch with it? I can't think of anything specifically. It's just, I think that something that for me personally, I went through numerous years of like strict dieting and exercise regimens. And then I like swung all the way to the opposite end of the spectrum and really dove into trying to get into intuitive eating. And it was just literally going from like one world to like an opposite world. And, and. And I feel like either way, I didn't feel great. I didn't know what I was doing. And then just kind of realizing that I need to fall somewhere in the middle and realize that I need to do what's best for me, regardless of what everyone else is telling me is best for me, if that makes sense.

Yeah, that makes total sense. Like take in the information, but know that it's you who makes the final decision sort of. Yes, exactly. I love that. Okay, is there anything we're missing in the morning? Is there like a go-to breakfast that makes you always feel your best? Do you ever meditate or workout or anything like that? So I do include movement in my morning routine, but it's usually like a later morning routine or sometimes I don't always work out at the same time a day. So like it's kind of hit or miss if it's actually in my morning. But I do like to at least get up and go for a little walk around. the block or so at least a little bit and get the juices flowing. As for breakfast, I'm a big avocado toast fan with my chicken sausage. Can't go wrong with that in my espresso coffee. And I'm actually on like a mint tea kick right now. So I've been going on walks and getting a mint tea. Oh, that's lovely. Are you able, was it hard for you to detangle working out with weight loss and to put it into a category of just something that made you feel good.

Oh, yeah, for sure. It's something I still struggle with, honestly, because I'm still better about it. I'm not someone that just, like, settles at, like, a smaller body naturally. And I used to be very, very overweight, and then I lost a lot of weight. And then I tried to, like, kind of get out of the extreme dieting realm. And, you know, naturally, I put on weight. and it's just still something that I feel not necessarily comfortable with. And then also knowing that like my body just naturally wants to go back to where it used to be

and realizing that I at least need to have somewhat of a balance and trying to figure that all out is definitely challenging. Is it helpful for you to do things? Like when you said take a walk around the block, I still, and I'm, I've been working with, you know, working out to feel good for a really long time, but I still am. I'm like thinking, oh, is a walk around the block? Like enough to, you know, really count as exercise. And I feel like forcing myself to do something like that would actually be really helpful because it's a milder approach to moving your body.

If that makes sense. Does that make sense? Yes. And actually walking is one of the things that I don't necessarily attach to like something I do for like exercise necessarily because going on a walk and getting outside is something that I instantly notice helps my mental health. And so I really focus on that as a key factor, opposed to it being something I need, I like have to do for exercise if that makes sense. Yeah, that totally makes sense. Okay, let's fast forward. You've had a long day. You're either,

do you kind of split, so you'll go to work some days out at the hospital, and then other days you'll do content creation, and I assume a mix of that in child care. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, how old is your, you've a daughter, right? Yes, she's 11. So she's, she just started a virtual middle school. Wow. So you're like in the, in the thick of it with the home teaching and the pandemic and all of that. It's very impressive how much you've been able to keep up with your Instagram content while having an 11-year-old at home. It's been, well, luckily she's pretty independent. Otherwise, I don't know what I would do. But yeah, it's definitely, yeah, let's just say it's been a challenge. So you go and you have your full day and then what

is your evening look like and what are your sort of goals for your evening routine? So what's funny is I don't necessarily consider my evening routine and evening routine, but I guess it really is. I always do my skincare. I love skincare. I'll do my like at least four or five step skincare, but it only takes me a couple seconds. And sometimes I'll drink another tea. And then I really try to turn off my phone at least, at least 30 minutes, but hopefully

an hour before I plan on going to bed. And I always just crawl up in bed with a book. and sometimes before that we'll all as a family like watch a show together or read a book with my daughter and do that a little bit ahead of time. But I always read before I go to sleep and I try not to just lay in bed and scroll on my phone. That's the biggest thing that helps a bunch. Yeah, you said you turned off your phone a half an hour before and I'm curious like,

do you actually do that pretty much every day? Do you aspire to do it and do it 80% of the time? I would say I'm pretty successful with it. I mean, occasionally, like, I'll see alerts pop up and I'll just kind of glance at them. But for the most part, I'll turn on my alarm. I put my phone down. And then once I'm in bed with my book, I'm pretty good with not checking my phone. And reading helps me fall asleep so much. So I don't always make it to a 30 minute mark, but I always have my book be the last thing I see before I go to sleep. opposed to my screen. Yeah. Reading makes me fall asleep like that. And I know I love it, but sometimes it's just hard. I'll be like, you would be happier if you're reading your book right now, but I'll still be sitting there like on TikTok and having a hard time forcing myself to put it down, which I know the apps are designed for that. Like I know they're designed to be sticky and addictive, but I still berate myself for being like, you would be happier if you were reading your book right now.

It's hard. It's really hard. And like I'll definitely notice myself on my phone scrolling for longer than I would like to. But yeah, I just really have to be like, okay, time to put it down now. But also just trying to have like a little grace with myself and like, yeah, maybe I spent too much time on my phone, but I can't just like sit in my anxiety over that. I just need to move on. For sure. Do you have any holy grail skincare products that have really made a difference for you?

Oh, let's see. Okay. I've loved to transition to more of like a natural skincare regimen. I love Osaya. I don't know. That's how you pronounce it. They've told me multiple times and I always forget it. I feel that.

I love all their skin care. I really like pharmacy. Pharmacy beauty. They have this like a cleansing balm. The green clean. Yes, the green clean. It just takes off all your makeup, cleans you up real good. Plus their vitamin C, cheer up eye cream.

Like holy grail, obsessed with their. it's everything. And I also love, let's see what else am I loving right now. I just got a sent, I just got sent a bunch of cocoa kind stuff, which I hadn't tried before, and I'm really enjoying all of that. And then I also love Sunday Riley, which isn't clean, but super effective. Their retinol, their A plus retinol makes such a huge difference. It's like crazy expensive, and I ran out and I need a restock and I'm dreading it. But it really, I've really, I've noticed a huge difference with my skin when I use that. Yeah, I think a good retinal changes your skin more than anything else. Okay, final, I have like two final questions. One, with an 11-year-old

daughter at home, do you do anything to sort of help her find how a good way to start her day or end her day would be for her? It's been a really tough transition, trying to figure out how to do that with everything going on right now, especially because she is like going through her preteen years and she just wants to sleep in as long as possible. And I want to like allow her to sleep in more because I know she's growing, but also knowing that she has to wake up and be online for her class at a certain time. So that's an area of improvement at the moment. And I got to say, not getting an A plus mom award for that right now. That's totally fair.

And I actually think it's really lovely that you can admit that with a smile in your voice. You know, I feel like people are taught to women, especially, are taught to have shame if they're not doing every single component of their life perfectly, which I just think is another way of keeping women down, you know? Yep, 100%. Okay. And then second question with your daughter. I think you've done such an amazing job on Instagram. You're definitely one of the people that I follow. makes me feel confident and comfortable in my body. And I love all of your pictures and all of your

words. And it was interesting to be at the beginning of this conversation, how you sort of said that you're still working on that yourself, because I'm just like, if you're working on it, how are you able to take these photos and things like that? So I'm curious both with your Instagram and publicly putting your body out in that way. And then also with what you're modeling at home, what those conversations look like, I guess. Like how do you balance figuring all this stuff out with yourself and then also what you're modeling outwardly, both for your daughter and your audience? So I just know that I've come really, really far in regards to body image and how I speak to

myself. I used to be so terribly mean to myself. And I would vocalize my insecurities all the. time in front of my daughter, in front of my husband, in front of friends. And one of the big shifts was when I realized that I really had to stop doing that. So even if I, you know, look in the mirror and I'm like, yep, I'm putting on some weight here, not loving that. I might not love it, but I also don't hate it. and I truly don't hate myself for it. Opposed to a few years ago, I would have looked in the mirror.

I would have absolutely hated what I saw. I would have hated myself because of it. And I would have just been plain miserable. And I think that that's a really, really big difference. And there's a much bigger difference than me looking in the mirror being like, yep, not crazy about what I see, opposed to me looking in the mirror and expressing in front of my family. I've gained so much weight.

I look so ugly. Oh my gosh. I'm so gross. And just putting that out there. I still struggle internally. And I'm working on that. But I'm not putting it out there for others to take in as well, which I've tried to be extremely mindful of because no one wants to hear other people

say that about themselves. Well, and I also, I found for myself, I remember having a conversation with both of our friends Nicole Modick, who's kale junkie on Instagram. I had a chat with her in January about being sort of afraid to show my body on Instagram, being afraid that I didn't have perfect abs and I didn't have what I considered the influencer body. And she sort of convinced me to do it. And since then, I've been progressively more comfortable with putting my body out there. And I have to say, like almost the faking it till you make it makes you feel better. Like every time I take a photo and it's not a perfect angle, it's not hiding my belly and I post it,

I learn to love myself a little bit more and accept myself a little bit more. And it's something I've told my friends, even people who don't have audiences, I think the more you can, you know, wear the crap tab, wear the bikini, not hide or cover or post photos or do any of that and just kind of be like, this is who I am. it has this converse effect of making you like it, even if you're faking it initially. You totally hit the nail on the head with that one. And that actually was a huge step in my journey to being more okay with myself, was really just putting myself out there.

And there were a lot of times that I hit the share button. And I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I just put that picture out onto the internet. And as soon as you do it, it's not really as big of a deal anymore. And it really is kind of a faking it till you make it thing. And I actually would spend a lot of time writing captions that I felt like I needed to see, even if I didn't truly believe it at the moment. But it really helped reinforce things and really helped me become more okay with myself after the fact, even if I had written it and it looks like I'm believing it in the moment. it really does kind of help further things along on that journey to just being okay with yourself. I love the idea with captions and with life of like being the words that you need to see,

being the woman that you need to see, almost being your own role model in some ways. I find that really empowering. Yeah, yeah, I think it helps a lot. And that actually is one of my main purposes of Instagram and one of my wise is is, you know, trying to be the person that I wish I had seen when I was younger and trying to see the body type that I wish I had seen, you know, when I was growing up and all I saw were Victoria's Secret models. I love that. If people wanted to find you on Instagram or elsewhere, where should they go? My Instagram is at Choosing Chelsea. You can go to my website as well, working on that, trying to build out my blog still relatively new. My website is I am choosing chelsea.com.

And yeah, those are the two main platforms I use right now. Thanks so much for having me, Liz. I hope you loved this third edition of my morning and evening routine episodes. I always come away from these episodes so inspired and excited to revitalize my own morning and evening routine. So I would love to hear if there's any tweaks that you're planning on making in yours. Definitely screenshot and then tag me on Instagram, right? Whatever you're thinking about, I don't know, whatever tweaks that you want to make. if there's any that you think we should all commit to together, maybe do a challenge.

And if you did love this episode or there's anybody in your life that you think might love this episode, I would so appreciate you just forwarding on the little link to them and helping us grow our HT family. I'm always so appreciative of when you share the podcast with people. It just means the world to me. It tickles me. It makes me so happy. Thank you, as always for listening.

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