49. 3 Healthy Habits I Adopted in 2023 and the 3 Wellness Goals I’m Embracing in 2024
Jan 02, 2024Episode 49
Wendy Kathryn
How did your wellness goals go in 2023? Did you stick to them, or maybe like me, you've got some work to do in 2024? 2023 was a strong year for creating new wellness habits! Sure, I didn't stick to every single thing but I made some serious strides. So today we're taking some time to reflect on the progress we've made. That celebration will lay strong foundations for 2024!
From finally locking down a nighttime routine that has resulted in great sleep to kicking moldly coffee, I've tackled some long time goals this year. My secrets? A blend of morning sunlight, disciplined bedtimes, and a toolkit of sleep aids like magnesium spray and blue light blockers. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. I even hired a macro coach and I feel more empowered with my diet than ever.
In the New Year, I’m not subscribing to huge goals without self-compassion. I know that creating new habits is a small step every single day. Here's what we're looking at for 2024: the end of my hair highlighting era (!), an emphasis on gut health, and re-establishing my morning routine!
How did your wellness goals go in 2023? Did you stick to them, or maybe like me, you've got some work to do in 2024? 2023 was a strong year for creating new wellness habits! Sure, I didn't stick to every single thing but I made some serious strides. So today we're taking some time to reflect on the progress we've made. That celebration will lay strong foundations for 2024!
From finally locking down a nighttime routine that has resulted in great sleep to kicking moldly coffee, I've tackled some long time goals this year. My secrets? A blend of morning sunlight, disciplined bedtimes, and a toolkit of sleep aids like magnesium spray and blue light blockers. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. I even hired a macro coach and I feel more empowered with my diet than ever.
In the New Year, I’m not subscribing to huge goals without self-compassion. I know that creating new habits is a small step every single day. Here's what we're looking at for 2024: the end of my hair highlighting era (!), an emphasis on gut health, and re-establishing my morning routine!
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Speaker 1:
How did your wellness goals go in 2023? Did you stick to them? Or maybe, like me, you've got some work to do in 2024? Let's jump into a 2023 recap of the wellness habits I picked up that actually stuck, and then, looking ahead into 2024, what are the wellness goals that I'm going to be focused on? You're listening to the Detoxed Element podcast, where clean living meets real life. I'm here to help you toss the toxins out of your life and embrace real, lasting health. My name is Wendy and I'm an environmental toxins attorney turned clean living coach, and since 2015, I've helped over 700 families clean up the toxins in their home. My mission is simple to show you how to create a toxin free ish home that you actually love and also fits into your crazy busy life.
Speaker 1:
If you're ready to dive in into what's in store in 2024, no, I did not know that was going to rhyme until I just said it and then stick around and let's dive in I cannot believe an entire year has gone by. The detoxed element podcast launched in February and it's crazy to me that this is episode 49. I don't know where this year went. I feel like it was so fast. And then I also feel like we always say that right, we always say that. We always say, oh my gosh, where did the year go? And as I was planning for what the topics are that are coming up and the things that I'll be focused on in my personal life, as well as the things you can expect to see on the podcast in 2024, I was reflecting on all the progress that I made in 2023. And I'm actually really proud of myself Now. I didn't stick to everything, but I did stick to these three things and I want to encourage you that, even if you didn't hit your wellness goals or maybe you had some other thing you were reaching for in 2023 and you didn't quite get there the life is a marathon. It is not a race. One thing at a time, 1% every day, one tiny habit at a time that's where you're going to get consistency and longevity from. It's not going to be in the big stuff, so focus on the small stuff.
Speaker 1:
So the first thing that I got really serious about in 2023 that is stuck and I believe is going to be a lifelong habit is I regulated my circadian rhythm. I know it sounds foo-foo and woo-woo, but hold with me. I now get a solid, quality, deep, eight hours of sleep every single night. Now, prior to 2023, I don't think I ever really slept like, slept, slept. And maybe it's being a mom you always have one ear open. We have two dogs. I'm a light sleeper, but I started tracking my sleep cycles using biotech, using my Apple Watch, and I sleep like crap. I knew if my overall health was important, my energy levels were important. I needed to find a way to get eight hours of quality sleep every single night, and so 2023 was the year I finally made that happen. I started with small habits and then I stacked them over time, and if you've never read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, I highly recommend you do. Life changing oh my gosh, habit stacking all the things. Go buy the book. I'll link it in the show notes.
Speaker 1:
When I tackled this sleep issue, I knew it was a bunch of different things, so I took them on one at a time. I started getting up one in the morning and going outside first thing to look at the sun. Sunrise was non-negotiable, but it took me a while for that to be a habit. You know I would get up and I would be tired and I would be like I don't want to go outside, but I just I made it a habit and then I started going to bed earlier and I started making sure I used my magnesium spray at night. I then invested in some really good quality nighttime blue light blocking glasses from Bon Charge and I started wearing them as soon as the sun went down if I was on electronics, and then, much to my husband's chagrin, I buy red lights for our lamps in our nightstand so that once the sun was down, white lights in the house, artificial lights went out, red lights went up. I just slowly made those changes over time and I think it took like six months. I think six months in.
Speaker 1:
I was asleep by 8.30. I was getting eight solid hours of sleep at night and I was waking up refreshed and I remember thinking who does that? Who gets up in the morning at? You know, I get up early, I get up at 5.30 every morning. Who gets up that early and is stoked about it and is like, excited to start your day? I was not that person. I was like give me four cups of coffee and then talk to me, and I legitimately get up now at 5.30 and I'm happy and I am well rested and I'm ready to start my day and I know that that is a foundation of health that is going to serve me my entire life. So if you don't sleep well, maybe tackle that in 2024.
Speaker 1:
The second thing that I tackled was my macro nutrition. I hired a macro coach and we very slowly, one thing at a time, we started with upping my protein to 100 grams, which I had never tracked really what I was eating before. I always have had healthy habits, whole foods. I don't do a lot of processed foods, but I'd really never tracked it before and found out that I was not eating enough protein, not even close to enough protein, and so I really committed to learning what my macro nutrition needs were for my body, and my goal was not necessarily to lose weight, although that ended up happening. I really reshaped my body because I started tracking my macro nutrition and if you want to get a little bit more in-depth and really hear what that means, my macro coach who happens to also be my cousin came on the podcast episode 33, so you can hop down all link down the show notes. You can go listen to that podcast episode. I feel like getting my macro nutrition needs settled and done and now a Habit in my regular life, was huge for me and huge for my health.
Speaker 1:
And then the third thing I did was I finally, after forever, never, never I'm knowing I should I ditched mold coffee. Well, I don't know if there was actually mold in my coffee, but I switched to a coffee brand. I took the time to test and to drink and to find a coffee brand that is organic and mold-free. And now I'm obsessed and I love it and I have it on auto ship. So now I don't even think about it anymore, and if you want to hear about all of my favorite mold-free coffee options, you can hop on over to episode 43.
Speaker 1:
So 2023 was a good year for me. I'm getting good sleep, I'm eating lots of protein, so I have a lot of energy. I'm not as hungry, I don't have those sugar roller coasters going on anymore and I'm drinking really freaking good mold-free coffee. That does not cost me an arm and a leg by the way. Some of y'all are paying way too much for your mold-free coffee. Anyway, I digress. So, looking into 2024, I have some big wellness goals and I'm gonna tackle them the same way I tackle the ones that I had last year. I'm gonna do a little bit at a time and I'm gonna create new habits. So here's a look ahead at 2024. Not only is this look ahead about my personal Goals, but because it's what I'm gonna be up to in 2024, you're also gonna get a lot of content and podcast episodes surrounding these wellness goals as well. So number one is not gonna be a surprise if you follow me on Instagram. I have been talking a ton about it. I just wrapped up.
Speaker 1:
It took me almost two months to finish my hair care review. God, there are so many hair care brands out there and I usually, on average, get about 40 or 50 brands you guys want me to review when you vote on Instagram, and I got like hundreds. I didn't even know there was hundreds of hair care products, but during my review of hair care products shampoos, conditioners, hair dyes was a big one. I found a lot of science and a lot of data Connecting the ingredients that you find in hair dye to things like neuroblastoma in infants born from moms who died their hair while they were pregnant or three months prior to being pregnant, and I also found a lot of connections to increased risk of breast cancer. And when I was done with my review.
Speaker 1:
I just kind of sat with that for a little while and I have been contemplating giving up my really platinum blonde Highlights for years. Actually I went from somebody who died from head to toe like full roots, all of it Platinum blonde as a platinum blonde for so many years and my natural hair color is dirty blonde and I think I was 15 or 16 the first time I dyed it and then I just never stopped. And so all these years later I have really damaged hair. I have very fine broken hair. I have tons of split ends. I've just never been somebody who had good hair because I just destroyed it. But when you get used to looking at yourself in the mirror and looking a certain way, that's a really hard thing to give up. But over the years I have gone from full dye to only doing highlights with foil to now I only do by a lodge like twice a year. So I've slowly been growing into a place where I was ready and seeing that data and seeing that science on the health risks, I just decided I was done, I'm ready to give it up, I'm ready to completely quit putting dye on my hair and I'm ready to grow it out and I'm ready to take care of it. I'm ready to have healthy, full hair that I love, but I'm gonna do it without all the toxins.
Speaker 1:
So you are gonna hear a lot about hair care. January is gonna be a big hair month. I have an e-book coming out, so if you wanna be one of the first on the list to learn all about healthy hair, then you can go ahead and hop on over to the show notes. I have a wait list. You can be the first to get that happy new hair e-book. It's free. It's a free book. It's basically all the things that I found all of the data. All of my favorite clean hair care brands actually found some options for clean highlights and hair dyes and covering grays If you're somebody who just doesn't wanna completely give it up but does wanna find something that's more of an organic option. So stay tuned. We're gonna be like in all hair January. It's gonna be a blast.
Speaker 1:
The second thing that I'm really focused on is gut health, and I really I don't like it when people talk about gut health, overall Influencers and not that I have anything against influencers. I think some people will call me an influencer, although I don't see it that way. But the thing about gut health that's really hard is you can do a lot of things that are gut healthy and because we know that our immune system 80% of our immune system is found in the gut, I really do believe a lot of our health issues all stem from the gut and I do think in the next 20 years the science is gonna catch up and everyone's gonna know. Actually, your gut health, your diversity in your gut, is probably the most important thing when it comes to foundational health. The problem with focusing on gut health up until this point has been that it's kind of theoretical right, like drink some bone broth, that's really good for your gut health. Or take these probiotics, that's really good for your gut health. And it's just kind of been a guessing game, like there really hasn't been a really good way to test Like what does your microbiome look like? What is your diversity? All of those things just from a scientific perspective, have just not really been there. And I know there are GI tests out there stool tests that you can do with practitioners, and I'm not a big fan of them. Not only are they not regulated, there's no quality control. You get different results depending on what lab you go to. You get like this very, very limited snapshot of what could be in your gut, but you're not getting the whole picture. But all of that has changed and I'm so excited.
Speaker 1:
I've been working behind the scenes with a company called Tiny Health. Maybe you've heard of them. They are a gut microbiome test. That is basically you take it at home, you send in your sample and then they return your results in a couple of weeks and the technology is incredible. They use a deep shotgun technology that has not been available for at-home testing at all whatsoever and it can detect up to 120,000 microbes and give you a full picture of your gut microbiome, down to the strains of probiotics that are found in your gut. You actually get a full picture of all the things that are in your gut good and bad, good bacteria, bad bacteria, all the things. So you can stop guessing the root cause of whatever your digestive issues are immune system and balances. You can also use this technology to check and see if your probiotic is actually working and if you even need it. You may be taking a probiotic full of strands that you have a ton of and you're actually missing other things. It's not just the technology. That I love because this is new. This is like new to market. It's been a couple years that they've been in business, but the people that own this company and are their scientific advisors are top microbiome and pediatric experts from the Mayo Clinic, john Hopkins, cornell, stanford, usc.
Speaker 1:
I just I love this company and I'm so excited for the future for them because the quality of their test is amazing. The service they provide you is amazing. They don't just tell you oh, here's what your microbiome looks like, here are the things that you need to work on, here's some supplements. They actually give you lifestyle nutrition. I even saw where they recommend cleaning supplies and they were ones that I loved and I supported, and it's because your cleaning supplies if you're over disinfecting or you're using certain ingredients in your home, it can really impact your gut bacteria. I already sent in my sample and, as somebody who really struggled early in life with a lot of strep infections, I had more rounds of antibiotics growing up as a kid than I even care to even say it's a really high number before my tonsils finally came out. And then for 20 years I suffered from migraines and I probably popped an X-adrin. Oh my gosh, I mean for 20 years, regularly all the time. Like I knew when I started healing my Hashimoto's, I had some work to do in my gut, so I'm really excited to get my results back. The founder of the company. We're gonna get on the podcast and we're gonna go over my results and so my gut health is something I'm finally going to have some answers on and get some direction on, and I'm really excited. So, if you're somebody who wants to jump on and test, another cool thing is they really also focus on infants, so infants born from C-section, where there might be some microbiome issues. There's no one else where you can get a test of the gut bacteria and the biome for babies. They do toddlers. I mean it's incredible. I love this company. I'm so excited for the future of what they're gonna be able to provide to the public. But I'll leave a link in the show notes. If you want to grab your test, you can get $20 off with code WENDY and yeah, so that's number two.
Speaker 1:
And the last thing is really just me getting back to a morning routine. I love my work so much Both work. I love my podcast. I love sending out my newsletter to you guys every Thursday. I love our social media community. My private Facebook is now open back open so I've been excited being in there and talking to you guys and getting close with you again.
Speaker 1:
But the problem is that I'm a workaholic. I really am so passionate about all of this that I really it started to creep in where I would get up in the morning and I had this really good habit I drank a lot of water, I took my dog for a walk, I lifted weights and then I worked, and that was like what I did at the beginning of 2023. It was water, walk, weights and then work, and somewhere along the line it started to become water and then maybe a little bit of work and then, okay, I'll walk later. Oh, but I got to work because I live on the East Coast and I work at West Coast Schedule and as soon as my day starts, well, that's it. Once my day job starts, my other job goes to the wayside, and so then it became well, I'll work or I'll walk after work.
Speaker 1:
I got really uncommitted in my morning routine and I'm really ready to get back to a morning routine that is honoring my health and what I need and my boundaries, and I think it's going to help me show up better, and I know I'm going to be more creative and I know I'm going to be more present and provide better content for all of you. And so I've already. I'm a weekend. I didn't even wait for the new year. I committed to that a week ago a week and a half ago-ish, and I'm on a roll and I'm already feeling amazing. I am so excited for 2024. I hope you have some amazing goals. I hope you find wellness. I hope your life becomes a little bit less toxic. Whatever it is you are chasing, whatever it is you are after, I am cheering you on. All right, I'll see you next week.