HEALTHY HABITS: 10 Daily Habits That Changed My Life (as an MD)

Habits are such an important factor when it comes to how you live your life. And here, I'm talking about both good habits and not so good habits. We all have various habits, whether we realize it or not, but if you have started to realize that your habits could use a bit of a makeover, then I think you're gonna enjoy this video. I'm going to be telling you about 10 different habits that I have personally adopted in recent years, and each one has made a huge positive impact on my life. Now, if you've watched me here on YouTube before, then welcome back. But if you are new to my channel, then welcome. I'm Kim Foster, and I'm an MD turned coach and wellness expert. And on this channel, I talk about wellness and business and designing a beautiful life for yourself. So if those things resonate with you, then I am so glad that you found me here. Now, with these 10 habits of mine that I'm going to describe, I'm not saying that you need to adopt these habits. I firmly believe that everyone is individual, and what works for one person just doesn't necessarily work for another person. So I am not prescribing these habits. I'm simply sharing with you some of the changes that I have made in my life to improve my own health and happiness. And if there's something in there that inspires you and you would like to try, then that's wonderful. Also, this is not a comprehensive list of all the things that I do on a daily basis. I've just kind of pulled out 10 somewhat random things that are a part of my life and my routines, and they are also in no particular order. So without further ado, let's get started. The first habit that I want to share with you is journaling every day. So I started journaling on a daily basis several years ago, and it has made such a huge difference to my life. This is where I get to examine my thoughts and feelings and really be intentional about my choices. It's definitely the best way that I have found of managing my mind because what I've learned is that all of those thoughts and feelings, they were already in there, but until I started journaling and writing them down, they were unexamined. And unexamined thoughts and feelings will just influence your daily actions and decisions unconsciously until you become aware of them. So my journal is where I work everything out, and it's really the best part of my day. Okay, so the second habit is an early bedtime and an early wake-up time. So I assumed when I was younger that I was not a morning person because that's what my parents always told me, but I now realize that I was just being a teenager with a later body clock, totally normal. So as an adult though, I began to realize the benefits of waking up early, and there are a lot of them for me. But waking up early means going to bed early and protecting my sleep is paramount. So I go to bed at 10 p.m. and wake up at 6 a.m., and that's seven days a week, whether it's Tuesday or Sunday. My body and mind are just so used to this now, it feels perfectly natural, and I know that my system thrives on this. All right, so to help me with that early bedtime, I have a simple evening routine that I follow, and this is habit number three. Now, my routine does change a little depending on the season, but right now I usually have a cup of tea, I step away from screens, I listen to relaxing music, and right now, because it's winter, I make a hot water bottle, which I tuck into the sheets at the foot of my bed. Now, I know that this sounds a little grandma maybe, but while it's warming the foot of my bed, that is when I go and do my skincare routine, which I think I'll make a separate video about that, but when I slip into bed, my toes are nice and toasty, and I don't care how old-fashioned it is to use a hot water bottle, I'm obsessed. So anyway, once I'm in my bed, my bedtime routine ends with a bit of time reading a good book, and then it's lights out. All right, so let's move on to habit number four. Okay, so I know that I am going to lose a lot of you with this one, and I am not saying that this is something that everyone needs to do, but I'm just telling you what I do that has made a big difference to my wellbeing, and it's switching to decaf coffee. I am now completely decaffeinated, and the reason is because of migraines. So I suffered from migraines for a long time, and I was getting a lot of them, like weekly, and sometimes more than one a week. It was really bad. I have made a ton of changes to my lifestyle over the years to try to get this under control, and a lot of things have helped, but the biggest difference maker was cutting out caffeine entirely. Now, I resisted this for a long time because I love my coffee, and I have been a regular coffee drinker since my first year at university, basically when I needed to stay awake through my 8 a.m. physics class. So I avoided making this change because, well, I just didn't want to, but then I decided that I needed to try it and see. So I eased myself in with half-caf for a few months and then gradually reduced that too, and now I am completely decaffeinated. So with decaf coffee, I still get to enjoy the taste and the warmth and the smell of coffee in the morning, but without the dependence on caffeine, and it has meant that I rarely get migraines now. I can't say that I never get migraines because they do happen occasionally, usually with hormone shifts, but it's so much better than it ever was. Another benefit is that when we travel, I'm not in a desperate state to get my coffee first thing in the morning. It used to be that if I didn't get a coffee early, I would start to develop a headache, and I just really hated that dependence, obviously. Now I'm completely free of that. All right, habit number five is to plan out the week of dinners ahead of time. So I have two kids, and many years ago, I noticed that a big source of daily stress for me was the dinnertime, what should we have for dinner drama. It was always a scramble and had me or my husband trying to figure something out, and if we were too tired or busy or couldn't come up with anything good, that is when we were likely to just order something or make bad choices. So I started planning out what we would have each evening a week ahead, and it changed my life. So I have a chalkboard in my kitchen where every Saturday, I just write out the menu for the week ahead of dinners, and that's where my boys know to look if they are wondering what we're having, and honestly, because I have been doing this since they were quite little, they don't even question it, and they question me on everything else. I live in a family of people who like to be in charge, and there are a lot of strong opinions. It's definitely not without its challenges, but this one thing, they totally accept. They might kind of grumble a little bit if they see something on there that they are just not sure that they're going to like, but they don't really challenge me on it, which is kind of interesting, but for me, it's great to see the week of dinners. I can make sure that I am striking a good balance and variety and making sure that we're eating enough fish, for example, and have a meatless meal or two in there, and when I order my weekly staple groceries on the weekend, I know exactly what I need to get. Okay, number six for me is running outdoors every day, so most days, I go for a run outside, and this is possible because I live on the west coast of British Columbia on Vancouver Island, and it's pretty mild here all year round. We don't really get snow here, maybe just a few days or a week around Christmas or in January, so the weather just doesn't hold me back at all, so I go for a run by the Pacific Ocean year round, and it's a daily habit for me. On the occasions when I don't run, let's say that I'm feeling a bit sore if I did a heavy workout the day before or if I'm just giving myself a little break, I go for a nice long walk. Now, I haven't always been a runner, though. In fact, I used to have a story that I would only run if I was being chased, which I thought was hilarious, but then I kind of had a change of heart, and I decided that I wanted to try running, and so I got started using the Couch to 5K program, which is just the best thing and the easiest way to gradually become a runner, and then I really started to enjoy it. However, even then, with kids, it became kind of tough to find the right time to do it on a regular basis, so it didn't really become a daily habit for me until I started pairing it with another daily routine, which was walking my kids to school. Because I was already putting on shoes and going outside to walk my kids to school, I decided to just try getting dressed in my running gear and running shoes and just walking them to school like that, and then instead of just walking straight home, I would run home from their school and just kind of take a longer scenic route home, so it became a total no-brainer, just an automatic thing. It's just as easy to get dressed in running gear as any other set of clothes that I might put on for the walk to school, and once I was in my running gear and once I had dropped off my kids, there was no reason not to just start running at that point. That's when I became really hooked, and now even though my boys are old enough that they walk to school by themselves and with their friends, I still start my day with a run. It's so beneficial, not just for my fitness level, but also for my mind, and it feels amazing to breathe fresh air in the morning, and I know also that getting a healthy source of daylight early in the day is just great for my circadian clock, which helps to regulate all of my systems. Okay, so moving on to habit number seven, which is intermittent fasting. So I have made a number of other videos about intermittent fasting, which I will go ahead and link in the description box, so I'm not going to go into a ton of detail here, but I had to include this on my list of healthy habits because this one has been huge for me. So I was super skeptical about intermittent fasting when I first heard about it, and certainly went against the conventional medical viewpoint at the time, and all the stuff that I had been trained in, but I'm so glad that I decided to do my own research and reading about it, and then gave it a try because it has been a game changer. So I follow a 16-8 eating pattern now, which means that I only eat between the hours of 12 noon and 8 p.m. The rest of the time, I'm in a fasting window, which of course is mostly when I'm sleeping, but also importantly, during the morning, I'm fasting then too. I used to be a big-time breakfast person, and I thought I couldn't possibly get by without breakfast, but now all I consume in the morning is my black coffee, decaf, as I mentioned, and black or green or herbal tea, and lots of water, and then all my meals happen in that eight-hour window after noon. Intermittent fasting has helped me control my weight, given me more energy and focus than ever before. It's improved my digestive system, improved my skin, and I know that it is also helping me to stave off chronic disease and serious illness. Again, for more details on how it does all of that, check out the other videos that I will link here if you're curious. Okay, so since we are on the topic of mornings, that's another healthy habit that is such an important part of my life, my morning routine. So just like my evening routine, I change my morning routine around a little, depending on the season and some other factors, but currently my morning routine involves a glass of water, my coffee, music, a candle, a short meditation, and my journal. Then after I've taken care of myself and centered myself, then I'm ready to start getting my family organized for the day ahead with breakfast for my kids and getting everyone off to school, and then I get my workout in, starting with my daily run outside that I just talked about. A key part of my morning routine is that I do my best to avoid looking at email or other notifications first thing. This one is a tough one for me as I think it is for most of us, but I know that when I resist the urge to pick up my phone and just focus on my own self-care and then my family, that sets the right tone for the day. All those notifications and needs from other people, they can wait. I know that they will be there when I'm ready for them. Okay, habit number nine is my pamper day. So once a week on the weekend, I do a bit of pampering. Now this isn't an entire day of pampering, let's get real, but we're talking about an hour or so of some deep self-care and luxury. So I have a bathing ritual that includes dry brushing before I get in the tub. I put on some soothing music and light some candles. I add Epsom salts and essential oils to the water, usually lavender, which is my favorite, and then I put on a face mask and bring a book into the tub with me. So I always have a glass of cool water with me on my little bath bridge. I have one of those old-fashioned clawfoot tubs and a really cute wooden bath bridge, and occasionally, if it's a special occasion, I have a glass of wine in the tub for just extra celebration or relaxation or whatever, but that's kind of a rare treat. Okay, so my final healthy habit is maybe more of a productivity one, but it's something that really helps keep me on track and live an intentional life, and it's writing out my plan for the day the night before. I suppose this is technically part of my evening routine, but sometimes I actually do this earlier in the day, like once I stop working for the day and before I start making dinner and moving into those evening routines. So I look at my calendar for the next day and also my project management system, and I write out by hand a list of the things that are gonna need to get done the next day. If I have appointments at certain times, I make notes about that, and then I create lists of both personal and professional things that I intend to do, and I also go one step further to prioritize those lists. This is a huge addition that I made to my system a few years ago because when faced with a list of things to do, I would sometimes experience that indecision or overwhelm about what to start with. So when I have a list, I always ask myself if I only have time to do one of these things tomorrow, which is the most important one to get done? And then I put like a little number one beside that thing. And then I ask myself, okay, so let's say that I got that one thing done and I have time for the next thing, which one should it be? And then that item gets a number two. And then I just keep going until I have a priority number beside each item. And then the next day, I don't really have to think about it. I just look for number one, do that thing, and then keep moving. I get so much more accomplished in a day because of it and without a lot of drama or indecision or fatigue. All right, that brings us to the end of my 10 healthy habits. I hope that it was helpful to hear more details about the habits that I have adopted to live a healthier life. And I hope that I have given you some ideas to get your juices flowing about the habits that you might like to adopt and bring into your life. I also want to mention that if intermittent fasting is something that you are curious about and you would like to learn a little more about it, then I did put together a checklist of my top 10 intermittent fasting tips. And you can download that PDF for free by just clicking on the link in the description box. All right, so now it is your turn. I would love to hear about your healthy habits. Drop them in the comments below this video. Just let me know about one thing that you do as a regular habit, maybe even a daily habit that helps you to live a healthier, happier life. That way, the comments can actually be a source of even more ideas for people. Okay, that's a wrap for this video. Take care, have a wonderful day, and I will see you again very soon.