03. Your Fuel Determines Your Future

In this episode, I’m exploring what it really means to fuel your mind, body, and spirit and how the choices we make in each of these areas shape the future we step into. 

For the body, I share the habits that have been grounding me this year: hydrating first thing in the morning, tongue scraping, morning workouts, cycle-supportive movement, savory breakfasts, meal prepping, stretching, dry brushing, walking, and even cold showers.

For the mind and emotions, I talk about the routines and boundaries that keep me centered: journaling, monthly reflections, reading at night, limiting screen time, deleting social media, habit tracking with grace, creating a cozy night routine, and being intentional with what I consume.

And for the spirit, I dive into the practices that bring me peace and clarity—prayer, scripture, worship, stillness, creativity, and surrounding myself with faith-filled, uplifting relationships. Staying spiritually rooted has changed how I respond to stress, how I make decisions, and how connected I feel to my purpose.

If you’re wanting to feel more aligned, supported, and intentional from the inside out, this episode will help you look honestly at the fuel you’re choosing—and encourage you to make small shifts that create big change.

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Transcript

0:01

You don't need a perfect moment to start living a healthier, happier life. Welcome to Hannah's Healthy Habits, a podcast about learning, growing, and building a healthier life from the inside out. And now we're doing it together. Hi guys. Welcome back to the podcast. Today we are talking all about fuel and not just food or workouts, but the deeper truth that what you feed your mind, body, and spirit is what determines your future. Everything you consume becomes a form of fuel. Your habits become your fuel, your routines become your fuel. Your relationships, your thoughts, your environment, your faith, all of it's shaping who you're becoming. Even on the days when you feel like you're just going through the motions. I've been thinking a lot about this lately, especially going into the new year about how intentional we have to be with what we allow in. The things we do repeatedly, the way we start our mornings, what we eat, what we listen to, how we handle different situations. The people surrounding us, they create our energy, our stability, our clarity, and ultimately our future. So in this episode, we're breaking down fuel into three parts, the physical, the mental, and emotional, and the spiritual. Whenever you feel out of balance in one of those areas, that's going to affect everything. But when they're all nourished, you feel grounded. You feel aligned, you feel capable of doing anything. We'll talk about the habits and practices that fuel your body. The routines and boundaries that fuel your mind and the spiritual anchors that fuel your soul. And I want you to leave this episode feeling empowered to choose better fuel because you deserve a life built on peace, clarity, and purpose, not stress, survival, or autopilot. So let's get into it. let's start with the physical side of things. The stuff we can actually feel day to day, because when our body isn't supported, everything else becomes harder. The way we eat, move, hydrate, and take care of ourselves, sets the tone for our whole day. This is the foundation, the fuel your body needs to be energized and supported. If there's one habit that I've implemented this year that has made the biggest difference, it would be hydration. Hydration first thing in the morning helps to kickstart your digestion. It boosts your metabolism. It improves your skin and lymphatic drainage. It flushes out all the toxins from overnight, and it helps to enhance your mood and mental clarity. It also helps to balance your cortisol. Cortisol helps to stay alert and it's naturally highest in the morning. Hydration first thing is so important because we are losing a lot of water overnight and we're probably going seven to eight hours without drinking anything. You're breathing, you're sweating, and you're going through all the rest and digest processes I heard on a podcast about tongue scraping, and she was saying that overnight, we detoxify all kinds of different things throughout our body, but whenever you wake up, it's all on your tongue. As soon as I wake up, I'll make my bed, I'll tongue scrape and then I will drink as much water as I can. Just kinda gets you in the mood to start drinking your water for the day. Another thing I've been trying to do in the morning to lower my cortisol is I don't wake up with an alarm clock. I know that's not possible for a lot of people, but if you have the opportunity to train your body to do so, I highly recommend it. Whenever I was living in Arizona, I didn't have to work until 4:00 PM. So whenever I moved out there, I stopped using an alarm clock completely, and now I naturally wake up anywhere from four to seven, I used to use the crazy alarm that just make you jump out of bed, and I didn't really notice it then. But anytime I hear that kind of an alarm, it instantly makes me feel anxious. Another thing you can do if you aren't able to wake up on your own is they have dupes for it, but the hatch alarm clock, it's a sunrise alarm and it's supposed to naturally mimic the sun rising in your bedroom, especially in the winter when the sun doesn't rise until AM. Exercising in the morning is a habit I've been prioritizing this year, it is so amazing the results that it gives not only your body, but also your mind. Whenever you start your day with a workout, it sets your tone for the entire day. It leads to more consistency with your workouts it's easier because you get it done within the morning and then you don't have to worry about it. Especially for women working out in the morning is going to be the best because your energy is naturally higher. Your hormones tend to be more balanced and workout support your adrenal glands, I really try to prioritize working out during my cycle. I feel like it has helped with cramps, with bloating, with all of the things and I would directly relate that to exercise and the foods that I'm eating before, during, and after. So with that being said, that is the perfect segue into breakfast. I know they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I feel like up until recently I didn't really eat a lot of breakfast because I just wasn't feeling hungry. I felt like it would make me nauseous, but I think it's something that you have to train your body into and get it used to. I. Much rather would eat a breakfast than eating late at night. Because I feel like at nighttime, I don't know if it's because I'm more aware of it now, but if I eat really late at night, I wake up feeling terrible. I feel hungry, like I want to eat right away or I feel nauseous, which is probably related to my blood sugar spiking and then dropping while I'm sleeping. I try to stop eating before 8:00 PM so my body has time to really digest the food I eat so then whenever I'm sleeping, my body can rest and heal. And it's not focusing as much on digestion. I feel like I noticed the biggest difference when I switched from having more of a sweet type of sugary breakfast into a more savory breakfast. A savory breakfast is nice because it's going to keep you feeling full longer because it's usually including a little bit more fats, protein, sometimes fiber, and this is gonna help keep your blood sugar stable. It'll provide long lasting energy, and you're not gonna feel hungry right away. It is going to reduce crashes, jitters, and any mid-morning cravings, the past month, I've been doing avocado toast for breakfast, so I'm still getting those carbs in, but I make my own homemade bread, so it's a little bit. A little bit better than what you can get from the store. It's not sourdough, it's just a white bread, but I usually do a small piece of that with half of an avocado, i'll usually throw two eggs on there. Put some red pepper, flake, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, i'll add some mixed greens on top of it. really spice it up, and I am obsessed with it. I just, I love the combination. I've been trying to switch it up the last couple days. I wanna switch more to like a sweet potato base or a slower absorbing carb instead of bread, because those usually are quick carbs. But I dunno, I missed my avocado toast I feel like I will get on a breakfast kick with the same breakfast for months at a time, and then once I'm over it, I'm over it and then I'll switch, but I won't cook anything else for breakfast. I'll just eat the same meal on repeat. Does anyone else do that? Some other habits I like to include into my routine are meal planning and meal prepping, making it a lot easier to choose those healthy choices throughout the week. Taking time one, two days a week to prep everything out, get off my ingredients prepared, so whenever it is dinnertime, I can either reheat it. Or everything is already chopped and I can just cook it and it's a lot easier and way less brain power to try and think of meals each day. I also like to include walking into my day. I will say it's been pretty cold, so I haven't been doing as many outdoor walks as I used to, but during the spring, summer, fall, I was walking almost every day. I did 75 hard, and so that was typically what I did as my outdoor workout. I, I loved it. I loved walking outside, and I wish it wasn't so brutally cold out. I know that's just an excuse I'm making for myself, but I really do not like the cold, so I'll continue with my hot, heated workout. Another thing I like to include is a lot of stretching, mobility work. I typically will do Pilates or yoga, so more of a stretchy type of workout, but then prioritizing, stretching on the side. I know it's something we all can do a little bit more of. So I've been trying to find YouTube videos where they're stretching with me. Because I know all the stretches I should be doing. It's just sitting down and taking the time and actually doing them and holding the poses long enough, so that's something that I want to get better at. I bought a Groupon for Stretch U, so I'm very excited to try that out. I love getting massages, but I feel like stretching helps my body a lot more than massages do because. I am just so tense and so tight. I feel like I just need to stretch more. A new habit of mine is dry brushing, so I love to do this usually before I take a shower, before I go to bed, it makes your skin feel so soft. It helps with cellulite. Firming the skin, tightening the skin. has lymphatic benefits. I like to do cold showers. Again, not so much in the winter, but I have been doing them the last couple weeks, so we'll see if I keep it up. But those are really good. I like to do those in the morning. That just helps to really wake you up. And honestly, it's gonna sound weird, but when I take a cold shower, I feel way less cold when I get out of the shower than if I were to take a hot shower. So sometimes if I'm really cold, I'll end with like a little cold burst. It sucks in the moment, but you know what? You gotta do it for the long term benefits. Once our physical foundation feels steady, the next layer is our mental and emotional world. This is where most of us get thrown off without even realizing it because your thoughts. Your routines, your screen habits, your environment, they all shape your clarity and your nervous system. So let's talk about the fuel that feeds your mind. I talked a little bit about this in the last episode, after I wake up i'll get my journal out, and I will start by writing my intention for the day, five things I'm grateful for, and my top three priorities. I feel like on the days that I don't do this, I feel a little bit more scatterbrained, So I've really been trying to make it a priority to journal every morning the next thing I'll do is I will get out my Bible. I'll read whatever section I'm supposed to be reading for the day, and then end in prayer. I try to keep my mornings nice and intentional, very quiet and slow paced. I've really been enjoying writing things down every day, whether it be the good, the bad, anything in between. It's so nice to be able to look back on it too. I recently looked back on my journal entries from a year ago, and it is so cool to be able to see the progress that I've made throughout the year. At the end of each month, I like to do a monthly review, so I'll write down some things that I'm grateful for, things that went good that month, things that didn't go so well really reflect on it and decide how I'm gonna take my next steps into the new month. It has been so nice. I have done it every month. This year, even if it was a month late, I went back and I still wrote down everything. I'm just so proud that I can look back, see what happened each month, throughout the year, because it's so easy to just get ahead of ourselves and everything starts running together. You can't remember what month you did this or that, so that's something that I'm really grateful that I've done I've also really been enjoying reading before I go to bed, just winding down with a good book, I typically like to read self-help books, but I know a lot of people like to read fiction books at night. But just something to get us off of our phones, like to turn a little lamp on, make it nice and cozy, and that will put me right to sleep. With that being said, avoiding screen time before you go to bed, that is something that I've really prioritized this year. Some days I'm good, some days I'm not so good. But for the most part this year I have really been trying to stay off my phone later in the evening and Trying not to consume too much content at night. Now that it's getting cold and dark super early, I have really been embracing a night routine. I'll usually cook dinner, clean the kitchen, and then I'll turn down all the lights and have my Christmas tree and a lamp on, makes it nice and warm, cozy in here, and really get my mind and body to prepare for sleep. I'll usually take a shower. Fill out the rest of my journal. I'll usually make a to-do list throughout the day, so go through, fill that out, maybe write a little bit at the end of the day talking about how my day went, or if I'm having any struggles, something that I want to get out onto paper. do a workout before I go to bed, usually five, 10 minutes long. Some type of cardio that's going to help with digestion, just getting everything kind of moving. At the end of each night, I will do a quick cleanup of my space. So I'm waking up and everything is put away. It's nice and organized. Set a timer, even if you have to 10, 15 minutes and clean as much as you can until the timer goes off. You'll be surprised with how much you can get done in that short amount of time, and you feel so much better waking up and your space is all clean. Some other things I've been doing for my mind are listening to more podcasts instead of music. Sometimes I feel like it can get a little bit mindless, I will listen a lot to self-help podcasts, sermons, honestly, I just love learning. And the biggest thing I think that has helped my mind is deleting my social media off of my phone. Love, habit tracking. It's so satisfying whenever you can see all the days in a row that you've completed your tasks. It's easy to get into an all or nothing mindset whenever you're doing that. I know in the past, if I've missed a couple days, I'll just pretend like the habit tracker doesn't exist. But I've been really good to give myself grace if I do miss a couple days, but to continue to keep going. I've read in a book it's okay to not do one thing one day, but don't keep. Skipping that thing, don't miss more than one day. But you know what? Sometimes life happens and you miss a day or two, and that is okay, but it's how you act. After you miss those things. Are you getting back into it or are you just letting yourself wallow in your misery and just be upset that you missed a day? It's mind, ever matter. Another thing I want to add into the mind section of this podcast is relationships. Relationships can contribute so much to positive or negative effects on our body, and I want you all right now to hear me loud and clear. If you have any toxic relationships in your life that you've been thinking you need to leave and just need to cut out. Let this be your sign to do so. We are not bringing any toxic relationships into 2026. This is the year that we let go, let go of all of those things. We invite in supportive friendships and healthy boundaries. We're gonna lower our anxiety and foster growth. Look for community and accountability to help contribute to your motivation and to give you a very bright and resilient life. Relationships can either nourish or drain you. This can be anywhere from romantic relationships to friendships, family members, coworkers. Let the relationships in your life give you all of the energy, all of the nourishment, because that's what we deserve. We don't deserve to be walking on eggshells or having a pit in our stomach or being with the people that empty your cup and don't pour into it. It's quality over quantity. And lastly, limiting screen time in the morning. I really want to exaggerate this one, especially if you were the type of person that wakes up and checks your phone instantly, that is going to spike your stress hormones, and giving you mental overload. I've been really good lately, uh, not checking my phone. As soon as I wake up, I will go hours without getting on my phone. Once I get on my phone, sometimes it's hard to not wanna keep checking it, but staying off of it in the morning and sticking to your routines, we all make excuses that there's not enough time in the day, but I want you to check your screen time. Is that where your time is going or are you prioritizing exercise healthy habits, things that fuel you? Or are you giving it to things that drain you, that take away your time, that deplete your energy? Feeling the mind is important, but there's a deeper layer underneath all of that, a layer that determines your peace, your purpose, your direction. That layer is your spirit. The part of you that needs peace and grounding and purpose. For me, this is where everything comes back into alignment, prayer, scripture, worship, stillness. It all fuels me in a different way. So. Let's talk about the soul level. Many people find daily spiritual practices to increase their peace, resilience, and perspective. What I love about worship is it shifts your focus from stress to gratitude. It recenters your heart and softens anxiety. It helps you remember who God is. It reminds you who you are in Christ. Before I really got into reading the Bible and going to church, I started listening to worship music and it's really cool whenever I do read scripture now and I will see something that I've heard in a song and I can connect all the dots. Over the past few years, I've really been diving into scripture and anchoring my mind in truth not feelings. It's unchanging and it's guidance when life feels messy. Reading a verse in the morning or in the evening as part of your routine just gives you a clear mind, and it allows you to see the deeper purpose that life is so much bigger than the here and the now. I love to pray throughout my day and have it as more of a conversation, not just something that I'm checking off my list, but speaking to God and telling him how I feel. Instead of asking for what you want, ask God for what you need. Continuously ask what is it that I need in this season, and then spend time and stillness sit long enough to hear God. Stillness is going to regulate your nervous system and reset your mind whenever it gets busy. Some of my biggest clarity moments have came when I finally decided to slow down to sit still and let God in, let him speak. It's very easy to get ahead of yourself and ask, why aren't you answering my prayers? Why can't I hear you? Why aren't you speaking to me? But we don't give him time. We don't listen. We don't sit in silence and just allow him to speak to us. We're waiting for loud gesture whenever. Sometimes his voice is a whisper. Sometimes God speaks through people. So having good friends, mentors, faith-filled people in your life, someone wiser to pour into you, and being around people that remind you of who you are, what your purpose is, and not harping on your past, showing the glory of God and living like Jesus. I think self care is very important. Taking care of your body and honoring the vessel that God gave you to rest, to slow down, to listen to yourself when something feels heavy or out of alignment. To book the massage, to take the day off to rest, but also to do what God has called us to do, to spend time and creativity, whether it's journaling or writing, drawing. It fuels your soul because it brings you back to your essence. When my spiritual fuel is low, everything else feels harder. My patience, my clarity, my confidence. When I'm rooted in God and connected spiritually, I navigate life so much differently. Things don't shake me the same way. And there's just a piece from within. So when you put all of this together, the physical, the mental and emotional, the spiritual fuel, the relationships you start to see how much of your life is shaped by the little things you do every day. Not the big moments, not the once a year goals, but the tiny choices that either support you or slowly drain you. And the beautiful thing is you get to choose. You get to decide what kind of future you're building based on the fuel you're giving yourself right now. You don't need to overwhelm yourself with all of it. Just start paying attention, start being honest with yourself. Start making one better choice at a time. Okay. Before we close out, I want to leave you with a few questions to sit with, maybe journal about or just think about throughout your day, what am I currently fueling my body, mind, and spirit with which areas feel nourished and which areas feel a little empty. What's one small change I can make this week to support the future I want? Who or what is draining me and why am I still allowing it? If my future self could choose my fuel for me, what would she pick? All right. That's it for today's episode. I hope this gave you some clarity, some encouragement, and maybe even a little fire to make a few shifts. Remember, the fuel you choose today shapes the future you step into tomorrow. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to leave a review and share this with somebody who needs it. I love you. I'm proud of you, and thank you so much for spending this time with me.. keep showing up for yourself. Keep growing and I'll see you next time. Bye.