11 Unique Healthy Habits That Kinda Changed My Life (but don’t cost a lot)

Social media really has you believing that you're just one purchase away from becoming her. And you know who I'm talking about. It's the version of you that wakes up early, that buys all organic, and you're a reformer Pilates baddie. Am I doing this right? You're consistent with the routine for maybe a day or two and then life happens and now you're stuck with a fridge full of aspirational groceries that you're never gonna eat and all your brand new gear that's collecting dust in the corner because you told yourself you were gonna start running and you never actually did. But I learned the hard and kind of expensive way that feeling your best and having your life together isn't necessarily about doing more or spending more. Because once I started implementing these simple and unique healthy habits consistently, I now look better, move better, and feel better in my late 30s than I ever did in my 20s. So I'm going to walk you through the simplest habits that can make the biggest difference in your life without needing to come up with a brand new routine or a bigger budget to do it. So let's start with habit number one. And that's to stop rushing. I started this habit because I actually noticed this in myself one morning where I was scrubbing my face so aggressively and so rushed that I like just wanted it to be done. But I didn't have to be anywhere and I literally thought to myself, what's your rush? But then I started clocking it everywhere. I noticed it in how I walked. I noticed it in how I woke up in the morning, kind of always scrambling. I was going through all the motions in my life as if everything was urgent when none of it really was. And when you go through life like this, you can literally feel it in your body. Your jaw is cleansed. Your shoulders are tight. Everything just feels really urgent when a lot of the times it really isn't, or at least it doesn't have to be. Like even as I was filming these two shots, one felt really calm and chill while the other one, I literally felt my heart rate increasing in real time. And if that stresses you out, just think about how you go with the rest of your day. So fixing this was actually embarrassingly simple and it does cost nothing. And that's just to pay more attention. Pay attention to how you do things. And if you notice yourself rushing, literally just tell yourself to slow down. Tell yourself that you're safe. It's okay. Take a deep breath and then continue with the ritual, but just with a little bit more calm and control. And if that's not quite enough, then you can also just work on giving yourself more time. Doing things like getting up 15 minutes earlier in the morning, picking your outfit the night before, laying your gym clothes out the night before. These are all deliberate acts of preparation in order to make your future self calmer. Okay, this next habit takes literally 30 seconds to do and also costs absolutely nothing, but it has made significant improvements in how I feel in the morning, my mental clarity, and even my jitteriness. And that is just having water before coffee. Look, I know the ideal thing would be to have my breakfast before my coffee. It helps with your cortisol and all of these wellness guru things. It's supposed to be really good for you. But for me, I just, I can't do it. I don't know what it is. I'm having my coffee on an empty stomach. I'm sorry. I don't know what to tell you. But it does mean I have to compromise. So before I have my delicious, beloved coffee, I need to have a glass of water first. And it's easy. Because here's the other thing. If you're a millennial, then I know you're not having just one coffee, okay? So if anything, starting your day with a glass of water is just going to at least kickstart your hydration for the rest of the day because I know you're going to be neglecting it. This next one is for my party people who always sit down with every intention to get a lot of really productive and focused work done. But somehow you just always end up getting distracted. I think I want to go for a fully chill outfit today. And you know what I mean? Maybe today you were like, okay, I'm going to sit down and get some deep work done. I am going to focus. And before you know it, you've checked Instagram no less than five times. You started answering all the emails, showing your boss how to open a PDF. 45 minutes has gone by and you haven't done any real work yet. But before you go and start calling yourself lazy, I just challenge you to this one healthy habit. And that is simply getting over the hump. And the hump is basically the painful part of getting started. Your brain is always going to want to take the path of least resistance. So anything that you've got in your environment to distract you, it is going to go straight there. Everybody talks about things like deep work and getting into a flow state. But it actually takes an average of about 20 minutes to actually get into that state. And quite frankly, most people don't give themselves that time. Like for example, this morning, I want to script my next YouTube video. And I find writing and scripting really cognitively taxing. I avoid it all the time. And I find myself self-editing and just like doing everything I possibly can to prolong and procrastinate the task. But once I get into it, I'm into it. So there's two things that you can do to get over this hump. If you want to do your best and most meaningful work. Number one is to set boundaries around the task. And two is to curate your environment. Like so much of me wants to write the script in bed. But guess what? I'm going to pass out in the next five minutes. So let's go somewhere where we'll be more productive. That's better. A real desk to do our work. This is still a little bit cluttered though. So I am also going to tidy up first. Because I do not thrive in a cluttered environment. Which brings me into the next healthy habit that costs nothing. And that is to clean up your space. I'm a full believer in the idea that a cluttered space equals a cluttered mind. And if I have just crap and wires and stuff all over the place, I'm going to be focusing on that rather than the thing I want to actually do. So before we get started, we got to tidy up a little bit. Most people don't really want to give themselves the 20 minutes it takes to get over the hump. But if you can, you're going to get so much more meaningful work done and feel so much better about yourself. Before we get to the next healthy habit that, one, costs literally zero dollars, and two, I think we all desperately need to do more of, I just want to take a quick second to thank the sponsor of today's video, Skillshare. Because truly one of the healthiest things you can do to change your life is to keep on learning. Which I think is a bit tough to do as we get older because you have so many more responsibilities. But I'm telling you, if you want to do things like keep your brain sharp, find new hobbies, and just be more creative, that really will exercise that part of your brain. And what better way to do that than to just take a course? Skillshare literally has thousands of classes from photography, to videography, to how to write a story. And it's taught by actual people with real expertise in their industry. And as a YouTuber, one thing I'm always trying to get better at is my video editing. I have been having a little bit of FOMO with everybody talking about a program called DaVinci Resolve, and I really wanted to learn it. So I took Adi Singh's DaVinci Resolve 20 Masterclass, a complete guide to video editing and color grading on Skillshare. So Adi's class made it really easy for me to learn the basics, and I'm excited to take especially my color grading skills up to the next level because I really had no idea what I was doing before. So whether you're looking to learn a new skill like photography or cinematography, or you just want to do something fun and creative for the sake of it, then definitely check out Skillshare. The first 500 people to use my link in the description or scan the QR code right here will get a free one-month trial to Skillshare. Hydration break! Okay, but what about when your brain actually needs a break from all that deep work? Because your natural instinct, and mine too by the way, I'm not gonna pretend like I don't do this, is to go and reach for your phone. Poor unfortunate truth of that is even though it feels like a break to you, to your brain, it really isn't. So instead of grabbing for this to take a break and just rotting your brain with more social media, you need to start taking do-nothing breaks. And this is basically where you take your breaks in silence. Because I learned about this phenomenon called attention residue where basically every time you switch a task, it takes around 23 minutes for your brain to fully be able to focus on the new thing. So even though you think you're taking a break by checking your phone and going on social media or even doing things like listening to a podcast or watching a video, it's actually overloading your brain with information and it's actually going to be a lot harder to refocus and get back to work. So I just started taking breaks in silence. I like doing bursts of mini chores just like this, but I like to do it without listening to a podcast or putting on a YouTube video or without having my phone on auto scroll. I've even gone so far as to just like lay down on the couch for about 10 minutes and literally stare at the ceiling. Like whatever you need to do to let your brain actually take a break and avoid that overstimulation, do it. I've been doing this for the last couple of months with a lot of my work and it really just helped me stop feeling like I'm the problem when really it is just that damn phone. This next healthy habit I could genuinely talk about... I'm too short for this kitchen. I could genuinely talk about it for a whole video in and of itself, but it is just to start weightlifting. Especially my ladies watching out there, you need to start lifting heavy sh** because this is the single habit that has changed my body, my mind, and my self-confidence more than any other habit on this list. Not even that, it doesn't have to be expensive to do at all, you can literally do it for free, and I'm future-proofing my mind and my body too. Because here's the thing that should really freak you out, especially in an era of GLP1s, Ozempic, and celebrities just like wasting away in front of our eyes, as we age we lose things like muscle mass and bone density. So yeah, even though I could talk about the benefits of weight training for your body and your mind, it's going to make you feel hotter, it'll make you more confident, it'll make you eat better, sleep better, all of those things. But I think it's really more important to start thinking about how strong or how frail future you is going to be. Because whenever I talk to especially women about getting started with weight training, I get a lot of pushback about like, oh, I don't want to gain weight, I don't want to get bulky. It's really hard to do that, like trust me, it's not going to happen. But the other benefit that nobody talks about when they get started with weight training is that especially if you want to get healthier, feel healthier, look better, move better, all the good things, weight training is basically your gateway habit. Once you start doing it more consistently, it will cascade into a positive feedback loop that you never even knew was coming. Like think about it, every time you go to the gym and you lift heavier than you thought you could, it's going to boost your confidence. And then you notice, hey, I want to lift heavier next week. So you start eating more to fuel your body, your energy starts to go up, your mood starts to get better, you start craving less junk food because it makes you feel sluggish, your skin, your hair, your nails start to get better. Like I started at the gym because I wanted to build a booty, but it just turned into a lifestyle and a habit system that supports every other area of my life. And since we're on the topic of doing things like lifting heavier, eating better, the next thing you think I'm probably going to talk about is eating protein. And yes, sure, if you want to build muscle, definitely. I think there is a lot of validity to the protein maxing craze. But the thing I think more of us should be focusing on is not necessarily just on protein, but getting your fiber. So if you guys didn't know, I'm also a pharmacist, but I actually specialize in oncology, aka cancer. So every time I'm in for a shift at work, I see patients who are my age or even younger coming in with stage four colon cancer. And while rates of colorectal cancer are actually decreasing in populations over 50 years old, they're actually rising in people age 40 and younger. I can't control my genetics, but I can control modifiable risk factors like my activity level and what I choose to eat. So long story short, in this healthy habit, eat your beans. They're cheap, they're affordable, get that fiber in. The general recommendation is that women get at least 25 grams of fiber a day, while men get at least 38 grams. But incorporating more fiber into your diet through things like avocados, kiwis, raspberries, beans, lentils, not only will you feel more full and are probably less likely to overeat throughout the day, but you're going to poop better, and you're doing things like supporting your gut health. If you chew on the beans, it'll help with the tooths. How good is that? This next habit is also free, and I know most of you aren't really doing it because you're going to want to do this instead. But it's simply walking. I know everyone talks about getting 10,000 steps a day, but all you really need to do is just microdose movement throughout your day. So if you have to choose between a staircase or an elevator, take the stairs. If you're going to park your car, park it a little bit further away from the store. Or if you need that do-nothing break that we talked about, go outside and walk around the block. Not only is walking the easiest and most low-impact way to increase your movement throughout the day, but it's also been shown to reduce things like your cardiovascular risk. And you know what? It just puts you in a better mood, especially if you find yourself really overwhelmed and getting started with healthy habits, or you feel like you just don't have the physical ability to do things like weight training or even going to a class. Just start with walking. It's free, it's low-impact, and it's going to be so much more beneficial than you even think. Which brings me into the next habit, and that is, yes, rot, but set a time limit. Like I'm not here to tell you that every second of your day needs to be fully optimized to be as healthy as possible or productive. But there's a reason why when you're scrolling on your phone literally all day long, you feel worse than when you started, even though that's the thing that you wanted to do. And that's because your brain gets absolutely flooded with cheap dopamine. Which is fun in the short term, but in order to restore the balance in your brain, you actually end up feeling worse after. That's why you end up feeling anxious, overstimulated, and pretty depressed after a day of rotting and doom scrolling. So instead of allowing yourself to get stuck in a cycle on your phone for literal hours, just set boundaries around it. I think instead of trying to be all or none with it, let yourself indulge in a bit of a doom scroll and then put the phone down. But once you've had your 15 minutes, you got to force yourself to get up and get going. Okay, but before we get into this next one, which I think is going to be pretty eye-opening for a lot of you, I want you to let me know something. Are you holding your breath right now? Let me know in the comments if you noticed it. Were you holding your breath? If you are looking to feel more calm or just aware about yourself and your body, pay attention to your breath. Way to breathe, no breath. I took some vocal lessons a few years ago to get better control of my speech because I was really struggling with a lot of vocal fry like this. And my voice was giving out on camera all the time. One of the exercises she gave me was to just spend a day paying attention to how often I was holding my breath. And when I did that exercise, I was shocked. We hold our breath so much more often during the day than you might think. I was holding my breath when I was doing my work. I was holding my breath during exercises. I was holding my breath constantly, which kind of goes back to the first habit and the whole idea of slowing down. If you're holding your breath all the time, it just means that your body's not getting enough oxygen. So you're kind of under this constant state of stress. And I found it took a lot to just start to become aware of my breath and to learn to use it fully, which I'm still learning to do because I do find myself going back into fry like this a lot and speeding up my speech quite a bit. And that's all stress and nerves. So if you want to do things like feel calmer and even feel more confident about yourself and just being heard, start paying attention to your breath and just breathe. I also learned from that vocal coach that Canadians talk through a smile. I think it's because we're so nice. Very interesting. There's a whole psychology to speech. And speaking of your voice and being heard and talking to people, this one habit has made me feel so much more confident. It has reduced my social anxiety and my awkwardness by a lot. And overall, I just feel like I'm a braver and happier person because of this. And that is simply just doing something uncomfortable once a day. And for me, that version of discomfort has been talking to strangers. Because if you really think about it, we live in a pretty isolated and frictionless society. When you order takeout, the delivery driver doesn't even knock on your door, let alone hand you your food. We don't talk to or interact with cashiers anymore because of self-checkout. And you can pretty much live your entire life and get everything you need without speaking to a single human being. And I think all this is doing is just creating generations of socially anxious people. And I was starting to feel it too. So I made it a point to talk to someone, especially a stranger, every time I left the house. That could simply just be saying good morning or hello in the elevator. It could be introducing yourself to your barista in the cafe that you go to every single week. And I think for me, it makes me feel more social. I feel happier. And that social anxiety and awkwardness that I feel like always holds me back becomes less and less scary the more you do it. So none of these habits require a massive budget or some big life overhaul to get started with. But I think the more consistently you do them, the easier they'll become and the better about yourself and the healthier you're going to feel. But here's the one thing that nobody tells you. Knowing what to do and actually doing it are two different things. So if you're struggling with things like discipline and getting started, watch this video next where I break that down for you. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next week. Bye!