The Feel Better Podcast: Ep. 1- solo

Hello, hello friends. Oh my gosh. So I am doing a solo episode today in my bedroom, got everything set up, I had to run out to Best Buy today and get a charger for my recorder because apparently you need one. And I must have lost it in the midst of our move. And every single charger we had was not the mini charger because of course, the 600 chargers we have don't work for this, but all good. Just a little update, I guess on what's going on here. So I've got some really cool guests lined up already, which is super exciting. So thank you to those who have already scheduled some time to come on to the podcast. I can't wait. I've got some great people lined up. So I'm excited to share them with you all. And in the meantime, we're gonna keep the momentum going to keep myself accountable. 

I figured I’d do a solo episode today to just start things off. So, we moved back to LA recently and it's seriously the best thing we've ever done. I didn't realize how much we loved and missed LA until we moved to Orange County. If you've ever lived in Orange County or LA you probably know that there is a big difference between the two. But mostly for us it was the restaurants, the hikes the lifestyle. So we love hiking, Runyon, Fryman, doing the Santa Monica stairs, there's just an endless variety of ways to stay active on the weekends. And then all of our vegan restaurants and our juice bars and also acai bowl places and it's just, I don't know something about being closer and having the convenience. You can Postmates Sweetgreen and we missed Sweetgreen so much so it's so nice to be back. It just feels like home and I talk a lot about Dara Dubinet and Astro… Astrogeography… Yes, Astrogeography is what it's called, where there are certain points on the globe where you feel a stronger pull, and there are certain points where you feel absolutely repelled. So you might know you know, of a particular place where you just don't feel great. They're things don't go right for you. Everything seems to be inconvenienced, and it just doesn't flow. And then there are other places where you just feel like, everything's living in harmony, and it's just different. So, for me, that's definitely LA. Luckily for Dave it is too. Hopefully, Weiland feels that way, down the line. Watch, he's gonna be like a city boy living in New York or something. So yeah, so anyway, we're really happy to be back in LA and doing all the things that we love. And I have two reservations coming up, which I'm super excited about, two vegan spots that I've been dying to try. Pura Vita, which is vegan, Italian, which sounds appalling until you look at their Instagram and you hear all of your friends raving about this place. So I can't wait. I love Italian food anyway. Give me a pasta and bread and I'm happy, so to put a little vegan spin on it and hear that it's absolutely delicious, I cannot wait. And then we're also planning to go have lunch with a friend at Nic's on Beverly, which is another place that I've heard so much about. I cannot wait. I don't know why I never went previously, it's not like it's new. But maybe I'll see Kat Von D and her family while we're there. That's that's my secret motivation. I've been stalking her for the last eight years and we always seem to miss each other. Apparently, we went to the same workout class and I always missed her and we go to the same vegan restaurants and she doesn't live too far away. I used to live right down the street from her tattoo shop. So when I run into her, luckily you'll get to hear about it. So stay tuned for my Kat Von D experience. 

So enough about me and all the places that I want to eat but I will keep you updated. If you live locally or coming to visit certain places you just can't pass up. Little Pine, I just found out that Moby sold Little Pine. I'm really sad about that. That was our favorite. I'm going to have to recreate the recipes at home. Oh, that reminds me, the Real Coconut Kitchen in Malibu, a new vegan spot that we've been going to when we go to the beach out there. They had a contest to win their cookbook and a reusable tote. So I entered and I won! So I'm excited to get that cookbook and I will definitely post some stories on Instagram with any of the recipes that I make. Their food is so good. It's simple, and it's mostly plant based. It's delicious and I'm not strictly vegan, but I love vegan restaurants because that's the kind of food that I want to be eating all the time. I just don't always do it. But we still eat eggs and fish. But I'll keep you updated on that, too. I'm really excited. I never win anything and I won something that actually was something that I would have bought, anyway if I hadn't won it. So thank you to the Real Coconut Kitchen. 

So, yes, let's talk about some important things. Ditching diet culture. So this has come up so much. And I just wanted to kind of just say something quickly about this. I think, you know, just following so many different accounts on Instagram myself, I'm sure you all do it too. And jumping on the trendy new diet that worked for your friend that worked for your co-worker that worked for your mom that worked for the people that you follow on Facebook, on Instagram, the Kardashians, whatever it happens to be, like, all of that is just marketing BS, like it's just money-making marketing. And we're buying it. I've done it many times - raw food, you know, cleanses, juice cleanses, certain supplements, fasting, cabbage diet, Master Cleanse, like, yes, you lose some weight, and you feel lighter, because you're also restricting, like 90% of the things you normally eat, drink and do. And then what happens, the same thing happens to all of us, we all gain it back. And then we're like disappointed. And what do we do we look for the next quick fix. So it doesn't work just doesn't work. And you'll see these, you know, success stories, but you don't see the people six months later or a year later. And it's just, it's sad, it makes me sad. But it's so easy to want to find that thing that works for you. So my goal is to reiterate the things that you can try, that will actually make a difference in your life. So you have to change your lifestyle. 

Now, one thing doesn't work for everybody, there is no magic, you know, answer - no magic ingredient, no one size fits all. If there was then all these companies would go broke because the solution would have been found and we'd all be in perfect health and that would be the end of the story and that's just not the way it is. Because that doesn't exist. So one example of kind of getting into like your own choices, your own habits, your own lifestyle where you can make changes, and see results in shifting your habits so that you, you do things differently. You don't need to go buy something or follow something, just simplify and get back down to who you are, what you want to do, what works for your body, what doesn't, and just kind of eliminate the noise. Like it doesn't matter what everyone else is doing - what works for you?

One example of kind of making some of these lifestyle shifts, is to take a look at your morning routine. And I know that morning routine has gotten kind of trendy, like hashtag morning routine. And, you know, that's a common thing talked about on some of the wellness podcasts that I follow. And I love it because I'm all about a morning routine. Not everyone needs to have a morning routine. Well, I guess if you're waking up at noon, it's not a morning routine. Not everyone needs to be a morning person. So I think there's also this unnecessary pressure for everyone to feel like they need to get up super early and get a million things done or they're not living up to you know who they should be. And that that's not the case either. If you want a morning routine, you want to be a morning person, then sure there are ways to get there. If you don't, and you are truly a night owl and you are productive at night, and you just feel your best and you're lit up then stick to that because that works for you. But if you want to start to enhance your morning and add a little productivity in there, there are definitely ways to do that. And this is something that I'm asked very, very often so I thought it would be a good topic for us. I'm asked a lot like “how do I create a morning routine?” “I want to get up earlier but I don't I just I try but I can't get up. I'm not a morning person.” I hear that a lot. But a lot of those people want to be so how can you do that? 

Well, I'll first give you an example. So I was not a morning person. I did not have a morning routine. I used to hit snooze on my alarm for about two hours to the point where I was living in a brownstone in Philadelphia - So the walls the floor, everything was very thin so you could hear a lot. At one point my neighbors below me actually put a note under my door and asked me to stop hitting snooze so much because my phone was vibrating and falling off my nightstand and hitting the floor and continuing to go off for about two hours. So that gives you an example of how much of a morning person I was NOT.

Yeah, not at all. And then I wake up in a panic because I was now running late and I would get ready really quickly and I just feel rushed and stressed and irritated and everything went wrong and you start dropping things and you can't find things. And then you know, you start checking emails, and then you're answering an email and you realize that you're even more late than you were before. And then, you know, nothing goes right for the rest of that day. And I kind of did that every day. So in addition to that, your stress hormones are elevated your cortisol, your adrenaline is like flying through the roof. And it's already elevated about 30 minutes after you wake up, that's just kind of that primitive mechanism that still operates within us today, 30 minutes after you wake up, your body and your brain are just like scanning for danger. So yeah, that was not a good way to start my day. So I was not a morning person. I am now and my ideal morning, and this has kind of been created over years, I would say of kind of trying different things and then adapting. And I think it's important to keep it balanced too. Because there can be a point in time where you try to do all the morning things. And then you're stressed because you have so many things to do. And you don't get to them and you feel like you didn't have a good morning, because you didn't check off all the things off your list. That's not good either. So we don't want that. 

You want to find a nice balance. And I think what's helpful is to have a toolbox of different things that you want to do in the morning, and then pick from there each day and decide what it is that works for you that day. So it doesn't have to be the same thing every day. You know, or every weekday to be, you know, successful, quote unquote, successful it can be a little bit of this, a little bit of that on Monday, maybe these two things and something else on Tuesday, and then you do what you did on Monday on Wednesday, and you just kind of like, make it work for you. I like to do that I'll set a schedule for the week on Sunday nights, you may have seen it on Instagram, I like to post it. I copied that from a friend so I can't take credit, but it's been really helpful. And usually there's one day on there where I don't do what I had written on there and that's totally fine. I know that's going to happen, I leave room for that flexibility. I don't get worked up about it because the other days, you know I'm doing the things that I set out to do. So my ideal morning essentially is to get up around like 5:30 - 6:00. I like to have time alone before the workday starts, before Weiland wakes up, even before Dave wakes up. I like to have that that time to myself.

So I'll get up, I always brush my teeth first because then I'm going to go drink my lemon water and you don't want to swallow all that bacteria from the night before. So brush my teeth. I'll splash some water on my face. I do a little lip scrub. Always have I love the Sara Happ lip scrub. And then I go downstairs I turn the coffee on. I drink my room temperature lemon water I don't like cold because I don't want to solidify everything in my body. I'm trying to keep things moving. And then I'll do a chlorophyll water. (Get $50 off your first order here!). I'll make some herbal teas. I have a little tea box and I kind of pick from there and decide what I'm feeling that day. Usually a detox tea, dandelion tea, maybe a mint tea. Sometimes I do a more flavorful like a hibiscus rose or something and then I'll put that over ice for later, or green tea with lemon, I usually do two. And I'll have the water boiling. And mind you I don't look at my phone. I try not to look at my phone when I wake up. Because I don't want that elevated stimulation that elevated stress. And I know for me, that makes a big difference. Like when I look at my phone all of a sudden I'm wrapped up in things and I got off track and it just why why can't I could just wait 30 minutes? 

So then I will do my Five Minute Journal, I'll read The Book of Awakening, a page a day, and just kind of like set the tone for my day because I know it's going to be busy and my days are always busy, I make them that way. And then I'll do a workout of some sort. So I'll either go to Pilates, or I will go hike and I alternate on my hikes between listening to like an educational audio book so that I'm learning or a podcast or just like zoning out to Mudvayne or Slipknot or something like that just whatever the whatever mood strikes I just go with my intuition and what I feel like I need that day so I don't force anything. I've learned that that just kind of makes things flow so much better. So do that then I come back quick shower, and kind of start my day and I love that routine. I feel like getting outside getting that fresh air I've really found what works for me and you know that that could change six months from now and it wasn't necessarily the case when you know as a Weiland was a baby but that's that's kind of my perfect morning right now. So just to give you a little inspo!

How can you become more of a morning person? If that's something that you want to do, your morning doesn't have to look anything like mine. I would say start small, set your alarm for 30 minutes to an hour earlier, maybe and baby steps, you'll then get tired earlier. And you'll want to go to bed a little bit earlier, which will help you wake up in the morning, you know, a little earlier than you were before. And that cycle just continues. So each week go, you know, 30 minutes earlier until you get to a waking time that that works for you. I think when your body starts to wake up naturally, you know, you hit the sweet spot. So my body, I will probably wake up between 5:30 and 6:00, whether or not I have an alarm, I do on the weekends. That's another point I want to make is be careful with the weekends, you don't want to oversleep and try to quote unquote “catch up” on sleep, it throws your body off and kind of messes you up for Monday, it's really beneficial to maintain that consistency. So if you normally get up at 7:00 Monday through Friday, try to get up at 7:00 or 8:00 on the weekends to maintain that cycle. That's going to be really helpful to you come the work week or whatever week it is that you have. So yeah, baby steps, start 30 minutes earlier an hour earlier, see how that goes for you to find that sweet spot, find what time you wake up and you feel energized and refreshed. And then stick to that. Don't look at your phone, when you wake up. If you can at least wait 30 minutes, just let your body wake up, let those hormones you know, do what they're supposed to do get that fresh sunlight, if you can, directly into your eyes and get that fresh air, maybe do a little journaling, it's really helpful to do it like kind of a brain dump when you wake up just to clear your mind. And sometimes, you know, dream journaling is really cool too, just to kind of before you forget those dreams, put them onto paper or just set an intention. Set an intention, one intention for the day, “how do I want today to go?” Because just putting that out there, subconsciously you take steps to make that happen and the universe kind of works in your favor. So start the day on the right foot and I think you'll see a big difference in your afternoon, your evening, how you go to sleep later that night, how you wake up the next day. 

So try that let me know how that goes. If you are one of those people looking to incorporate a morning routine, and then think about what you want to do, what do you want to do in the morning? So you want to read, you want to read an actual book instead of scrolling through Instagram or, you know, even on your Kindle or something like that. Like maybe it's nice, just have a paper book where you sit and read for 10 minutes or 15 minutes, and don't have that stimulation, maybe you want to go for a walk, maybe you want to hit up a high intensity workout class on Zoom. You know, do whatever you want to do. Perhaps that's making lunch for later in the day and you want to take that with you do something that's going to set your day up to go the way that you want it to go. I also like trying to make my work week a little bit easier through meal batching. So that kind of takes the pressure off the morning to if you're meal batching a few times a week, then you've got something you can grab or something that you can just add a few things to, I'll do Kitchari once a week and then I have that for lunch for the next few days. Or I'll do a stir fry with brown rice and vegetables. Sometimes I'll do it with like an Asian flare, so scrambled egg and liquid aminos a little sesame oil, or I'll switch it up and I'll do like a tahini lemon sauce and just kind of drizzle that on the top. So I'm always kind of mixing and matching things I already have. And then that makes my day a lot easier to, to kind of takes the pressure off the morning and you can enjoy those morning minutes without thinking about all the things that you have to do just kind of do the things that you want to do. And then I would say also keep in mind that the way that you end your day really impacts your morning. 

So if you are, you know trying to wake up a little bit earlier, then pay attention to how you you know, kind of end your day the day before. So are you winding down an hour before you go to sleep? Are you staying off blue light emitting devices so an iPad, a computer, laptop, Smart TV? If you are using those things an hour before you go to sleep or want to go to sleep, at least use some quality blue blocking glasses. That will help a lot to kind of block some of that and allow your your brain to produce the melatonin than it needs to go to sleep. And maybe drink a tea - have a tea with some Calm magnesium powder. Perhaps do a little journal entry - I have the Five Minute Journal gratitude journal. So I have a morning entry and an evening entry that takes less than five minutes most of the time. So I get those positive thoughts into my subconscious before I go to sleep, which I feel like I don't know, it just helps me have a more restful sleep and end the day on a good note so that I you know, I'm usually asleep by 10:30. And I wake up easily in the morning. So if you're going to bed at two in the morning, don't expect to become a morning person and wake up rested and vibrate at 5:30am! 

So consider your evening routine when you're trying to implement a morning routine. And then it just becomes a cycle you've got all of a sudden you realize a few weeks later that you are on a completely new cycle, you go to sleep earlier, you wake up earlier. And then you know if that works for you keep it up if not adjust and figure out what does work for you. Something else I like to do at night is a little lavender spray. I recently got a bunch of lavender, like actual lavender from Imperfect Foods, I get the produce delivery once a week. And I hung it to dry and I've been crumbling a little bit in my hands and I let Weiland smell it before he goes to sleep and he loves it. So I'm gonna put them in a little like sachet and stick them in our pillowcases because I swear like, I don't know, I put that under his nose and that aromatherapy kicks in like two seconds and all of a sudden he's ready for bed. So do that in my own bed as well. So yeah, that's kind of, you know, if you are interested, like I said in creating a morning routine, if that's something that you want to do, then those are some tips and tricks that I've learned through experience and also have helped my clients to shift their productivity a little bit. 

I've also noticed, so recently with a couple of my six month program clients, we have been passing the halfway point. So I'll take a look at kind of the different areas of their primary foods. So relationships and joy and career, physical movement, home cooking, and I say relationships that's an important one. Creativity, spirituality, all those things kind of make up your holistic health and wellness and those things impact your weight, your mood, anxiety, digestion, sleep, energy, all of that. So it's important to take a look at those areas and make sure that they're not completely out of balance. So what I've noticed is that as my clients create a little bit of a more of a structure morning something that supports them the areas of Primary Foods really balanced themselves out. So recently, I've had two, three clients actually, when we look at their Circle of Life, when we first started the program, it's it's just very out of balance, very skewed very often closed up and tight, and just very little satisfaction and a lot of these areas, and then halfway through, we take a look. And that circle is just like blown out. It just, it makes me want to cry sometimes. And I just, you know, it's the things that you don't think impact your health and well being that do. So we really tried to hone in on some of those areas to have an impact on other areas of life. 

So that’s one of my main components and health coaching is what does your day look like if you feel bad, or you're overweight, or you have no energy or something's missing, or you just are in a rut? What does your day look like? What do you do all day? You know, not what you want to do or not you should be doing or used to do or your sister does? How do you spend your day every day? Because those habits make up you, your life, your health, your well being, and they compound over time? So are you doing things daily that are going to support you and benefit you long term? Or are you doing things today that are only bringing you down and you're just gonna have to try harder, later down the line, you know, don't take yourself into a hole? 

Support yourself. And if you need support, you know how to reach me, you can always sign up for The 6 Month Program or The 2 Week Reset or even The 4 Week Meal Plan. I've got a lot of really good recipes in there for breakfast, lunch, dinner snacks dessert for four weeks, which is I think very helpful when trying to build that familiarity with some of those whole food recipes from a plant based perspective. And if you do want to sign up for a program go to the subscribe button on this podcast subscribe send me a screenshot email it to me at kristen@holisticwithkristen.com and you'll get 20% off. I really would appreciate any support while we get this podcast up and running. So I wanted to offer that to all of you because if you're listening - thank you so much!

I'm just so excited about this. I need to stop talking because a solo episode probably shouldn't go on as long but I'd love to hear from you all I would love to incorporate any of your questions or topics that you really want to hear more about any feedback you have on you know the topics that we will be discussing or questions DM me on Instagram or email me kristen@holisticwithkristen.com 

My Instagram is @holistic.w.kristen … somebody else had the “with” so we had to abbreviate, but it's all good. And yeah, I want to keep the conversation going. So I look forward to hearing from you and can't wait to have some of these exciting guests on and get you guys feeling good and making healthy choices whether it's through the podcast or Instagram through coaching, whatever it is, there's definitely a ripple effect. So when one of us feels good, we tend to extend that out to others and it creates a ripple effect that we all need right now. So okay, that's it for me. I will talk to you guys soon. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoyed the show. 

Be sure to rate and review and also follow along on Instagram @holistic.w.kristen and I will see you soon!