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The Wellness Hustle is your go-to podcast for quick, actionable health and wellness tips designed to fuel the ambitious in this modern world.
Wellness Hustle (00:00)
Welcome back to the Wellness Hustle and thank you for tuning in. It's our second episode and it falls around holidays. So we really wanted to talk to you about holidays and wellness. What an oxymoron that is for most people. It's such an oxymoron, especially for me. I have a really bad sweet tooth. So yeah. the cookies. I, yeah, my mom and I, every year we do an annual like cookie baking. just baked last Friday.
seven batches of cookies. perfect. Each one has about 30 cookies in it. And we usually give them out to people. This weekend, I decided I was just going to eat them all myself. So I had a really hard time at the gym this morning. And I'm not feeling really great right now. We're going to share all the tips and tricks. But number one, don't eat all the cookies. Don't eat all the cookies. Just start there. so what do you like for
wellness for the holiday? Like how do you balance wellness during the holiday? Well, I think first thing really, you have to establish your non-negotiables, right? So what are the non-negotiables? You have to put your movement in, you have to get some of the nutrition in, right? And those are the biggest obstacles for people. They are like, don't have time to work out and we go into all these places. There's all this crap.
Right? Everybody's giving you cookies. my gosh. Yeah. Uh-huh. I got cookies yesterday and I ate quite a few of them to myself. So how do we go around it? Right? So you have to establish non-negotiables. And for me personally, non negotiables are movement. I don't care how much of it I will get in, but I will make sure I get in at least something each day. Yeah. We used to travel, fun fact.
We used to travel to Kentucky for Christmas to see my husband's mom and all his family, because we always lived away. And over the years, I had to establish my non-negotiables because you travel for a very long time there, and then you spend so much time. Like usually if we travel for a long time, we'll stay there for like a week, right? Yeah. And you're living in somebody else's home and you on somebody else's schedule.
somebody else's refrigerator and all of the things. So my non-negotiables were we always went for a walk every day with my husband and we always brought our dog with us. So that was kind of easy. He had to go, we had to go. And another one was I always went to Whole Foods every time we land. If it was too late in the evening, then next morning I would get in the car.
and I will drive to Whole Foods and I've always had my pasture raised eggs for breakfast. I always had avocado and I would buy a big bucket of greens. So at least I had those three things that I can fall on. You have to create some kind of non-negotiables. I love that. And that actually reminded me of when I used to travel. was literally like, would leave either on Sunday night or Monday morning and I would be gone in a different state city. my gosh, like sometimes a different city every single day, but like,
for an entire week at a time. And I actually was, and I think we talked about this in the last episode, I was healthier then. And the weird thing about it is every time I landed, my very first stop was a health food store, whether it was Whole Foods or Sprouts or whatever I could find, I would go to the grocery store, I would make sure that I had enough water because that's something that you don't realize that like, when it's not actively available to you and or you like,
didn't realize that somebody didn't have filtered water or like they only have Brita water and you're like, okay, so a Brita water for now seven people in this household is not gonna do it. And then you're drinking less water and you don't even realize. So I would just know like, I need three of these 30 ounce waters per day. So I'm just gonna buy enough for the entire time I'm here. And then like you said, like getting the things that you can eat. So I was living out of a hotel, but it was like, I would grab the things that I knew.
would be healthy for me that I could eat. like if I couldn't get my greens, I would, and I hate this, but like my negotiation for that was like, I would get those suja green juice ones and just make sure I found one with like super low sugar and that was all from organic clean ingredients. And that would be a way that I would like get my greens in the morning. Some people do athletic greens, like whatever it is you're your thing. Whatever it is you can put. Yeah. It's like, how are you going to get those nutrients that you normally need? And then like,
I'm obsessed with meat sticks. So like I love the paleo Valley ones, but like the Chomp sticks Yes. Epic another good brand. Epic is another great brand. Yep. And so just making sure that you have those on hand. And then another little trick I like to do is when I get a sweet tooth or I have like the munchies, I love to make sure I have a clean version of whatever I am going to eat available to myself. So when everybody else is eating cookies, I will have Greek yogurt with like blueberries and honey.
Are you going to just travel with your blueberries and hang it to somebody's house? No, well, I would pick it up before. Like if I'm staying at somebody's No, no, no, no. If you're going to a party. God, no. I know. See, that's hard. Because yeah, I definitely do the Greek yogurt and berries for breakfast at my mother-in-law or pasture raised eggs. Yeah. But when you go to her, say, family and they all baked all those cookies and all this like
big platters of cookies throughout the house and living room and the hallway and the kitchen and this Dan area basement everywhere. Yeah. What do do? And the, different. And you want to try them out, right? Okay. So I have a trick for that. Tell me because I really need, I just did this this week and I ate everything in sight. Please help me. Okay. So if you go to a party with empty stomach, you're gonna
munch. set yourself up. yes. So my, my, one of the tips you can either do a roadie, not the alcohol kind, but the protein kind. So you can make a protein shake. It's something you can travel with. You can bring your protein powder with yourself, right? And you just whip it up super quick and you make yourself a roadie. So you feel up on protein before you get to party. And then a you feel better.
You're not jittery. You're not grabbing every freaking cookie you see like a Looney Tune. And you feel better because you already have protein in your body. Like it's already, it's already good. So you're already winning. I have full body chills because the fact that you just recreated the word roadie into something healthy is blowing my mind. You're welcome everybody. guys get a protein roadie. my God. That's incredible. And that's so true.
Because as you were saying that I was like, no, that's so true, because two things will happen. Like when I really wasn't drinking a lot anymore, I would bring like my adaptogenic drinks to the party, like those fun canned ones. And I'd like, this is what I drink at the party. Correct. And so I would just bring my own. And then, yeah, I always eat before I go to any sort of like dinner party. I always eat beforehand because me too, I will get sick. Like it's sometimes I show up and I'm like, there's literally nothing that I can eat here because this has gluten in it and that has rice and like,
And we'll talk about this later too. We'll give some pointers on that too. yeah. So yeah, I love that. Great tip. I want to high five on that one. Yes. Okay. So once you guys have established your non-negotiables, you can start to set boundaries around those non-negotiables. Which leads us to our next key point is boundaries with your health. can you you do it? Yeah. How do you do it? I'm not
good at boundaries as a whole. know what? I have a terrible way with that myself, but I think it took me so many years of traveling to my husband's family because I love them dearly. And I don't want to, you know, make him feel bad about whatever they're hosting. They're gracious. They're trying to provide place for us to stay and they're happy with coming. So, you know, boundaries, I guess the way I did it.
I was just bringing my own stuff. And also I would go and shop with Pat's sister to a local farmer's market and I will buy veggies and things. So I would have an input on the menu that we cooked at home and I would help by preparing food together. Then there were options for everybody, including me.
I and everybody, know, nobody felt like I was, I'm not going to eat that. I had a say in the menu. So that way everybody felt like it was just kind of a normal thing. You know, nobody felt offended. I really love that too. because for me, I tell people all the time that cooking for people is my love language. So like, love to cook for other people and, and I love like sharing a kitchen with my mom and like, part of how I grew up. So
It is like, think we go into it thinking like, my God, I have to set boundaries around my health or I have to, and it comes out as like a negative thing or like you're gonna get all this pushback and you might like, you might have the mother-in-law that has to have control over everything and like, you're gonna have to figure out how to kind of like maneuver your way in to that situation. But in the case where you're coming and you're offering to be helpful, you're creating solutions, you're saying like, okay,
I can't have this thing, but instead of going into the kitchen and saying, I can't have this thing, which by the way, if you did that in my mother's house, my mother would, my mom will make you the thing. If you're not allergic to it, literally allergic to it, my mom will make that thing until you like it. So if you come in and you're like, I don't like onions. She's like, great. I'm putting onions in everything. Everything. like, you know, you can come into situate. That's a, that's a person's kitchen. It's a very intimate place. So you need to come in with solutions and say like, it's not an, can't, it's a,
let me help you make this dish. Yeah. And like sit together. I'll go buy the ingredients and then like I'll have it ready. And I would just say around that is like, make sure you're communicating with them. absolutely. Yeah. Because I've had it where people come in and then all of a sudden they need the oven. And I'm like, girl, the prime rib is in the oven. Like you can open the oven for four hours.
Right. No, you need to be clear about the menu. We are working on this together. This is what's happening. You're not showing up with your turkey that needs to be roasted for 14 hours in the oven when everybody's making pies and something else. So it's planning ahead and like communicating ahead of time with the person that you're going to be staying with or the person who's hosting. I always like, well, this leads into my control issues, but I'm like, I'll just do it.
I'll just everybody come to my house. It'll just be like, yeah, I'll take control of the whole thing. And like, then you're all eating what I want to eat. But that is the bright side. And I meant to say this earlier, sharing what you love, the biggest, brightest joy in my life is to put down a meal for people that I care about and know that it is clean and healthy, and that it's going to like fuel their bodies.
and also that they're going to be surprised by how good it tastes. Exactly. Because they didn't realize. didn't realize. A lot of people think when you're cooking healthy, for some reason it's not tasty anymore. Yeah. And no, it's such a misconception among so many people. They're like, you're on the health journey. I'm sorry. You're deprived. You're not getting all of the good things. No.
No, meals are fabulous. They can be totally fabulous, taste amazing, and they can be healthy at the same time. Yeah. Also, spices are good for you. Spices are great for your herbs. If you want to look like a great chef, you got to start using spices and herbs. Absolutely. Yeah. I want to talk a little bit about nutrition boundaries. So that kind of goes into drinking during the holidays and the sugar. Help me. Help me. Help us.
everybody. Sure. Okay. Well, I don't want to be like just taken away everybody's fun, right? Right. Because that's not me. Like I just want people to have fun, but also realizing too much fun is not going to be no fun. Yeah. So in the beginning, again, I go back to our traveling time to Kentucky. we stay up too late. There's if any family listens, they know there's a sugar corner.
in mom's kitchen. And they know what that is. We have a basket in ours. We a basket, we have a corner. It's mom's. It's a whole corner. there's, yeah, God, there's layers. There's there's like stories, like five story high sugar corner of all kinds of cookies, bread, zucchini bread, this, right? Yeah. of that. And every, and the whole family is, and they will give it to you. So you have this whole thing. And, that's a danger zone for me. yeah.
danger zone. So every evening we would sit there and make tea and eat the sugar corner. I know. And right before bed too. Right before bed. that really messes up my sleep. Right. Not only that we stayed up late, we were having good time with sugar corner. And then next morning you wake up all puffy and tired. Yeah. And not feeling good. So eventually I
think you start realizing this is not serving me. It's it's where I was a few years into it. was like, it's not serving me. I'll just have maybe one cookie. Well, now I know how the sugar corner tastes. I don't really want to taste this anymore. Yeah. So I'll just have the tea. Yeah. If that makes sense. There's that. Yeah. And then I think too, I, we talked a little bit about like how I bring my own drinks now to the party. Exactly. I don't, I'm not a big drinker.
And it is weird to like not have a drink in your hand. I don't know why that socially is so strange. So I started creating like mocktails and creating like all of these other options to just have a drink in my hand. also I get bored with water, if I'm being honest. Like, sure. don't want to stand around, drink water. No, I want like what the fun, my mom's drinking like a good bubbly. Like I want something bubbly. Same. And so I think for like, I always look at the girls trip. Like if you look at when you take a girls trip and every, let's say it's a bachelorette.
right? Okay. Everybody goes out on the bachelorette party and you're all you got there. It's the first night. You're so excited to see all your friends or like you're just flying into town. You're back in your hometown. You're go out and party with all your friends, right? Then the next day, by the way, you work every single day of the year, except for this holiday that you're getting off. And like now you put yourself in a position where the next morning you're gonna wake up, you're gonna be hungover. Then the morning after that you're gonna and if you're in your thirties, hi, hello, it's me. the second day hangover. Yeah.
is brutal still. And then the third day hangover, I'm living with three day hangovers right now. And I'm like, that has ruined my entire holiday. Yeah, I don't want to have a three day hangover. I don't want to ruin the entire time. So establishing before what I do for myself now is like, I know three drinks is my max. Okay, I get into three drinks, I've now hit the danger zone. So that essentially means that like, we she's known as rage cage but like she comes out.
after the third drink. boy. Like she can't be stopped. She's the Energizer bunny. She'll keep going. She doesn't really go home until five o'clock in the morning. Yeah. It's a, it's an embarrassing and also brutal thing that I've done in my past, but it doesn't serve me to your point. And so what I started doing was setting the limit for myself of like, okay, I will have drinks if I want them, but three is my absolute max. I will also say that like, I set the boundary for myself of like, I'm going to have that three drinks.
but I'm going to have them only one night of the week. Yeah. So like you can't, you maybe you do another night and you only have one glass of wine or whatever. Like if you're someone who likes to pair and taste, which is me, like then do that, but it's one glass. So you need to be thoughtful of when you order your drink within the meal, when you pour that drink within the meal and like just being more intentional about, and I think that's the bigger picture there. Be really intentional about what you're putting into your body as a whole.
But when it comes to things that you know you need to like be more mindful of like sugar and alcohol. Yes. Be intentional about when you're going to have it. Like if you know you want the pumpkin pie or whatever grandma's famous pecan pie, whatever it is. Okay. I'm having that, but I'm not going to have it. I'm not having all of the baked goods the night that we get into town. Very true. Like the sugar corner should just not be attempted.
I need it all to be hidden away. So it's like, if it's out of sight, it's out of mind. Yes. The only strong is our options, right? So if the options are right there in front of us, we're going to have a harder time to say no. Yeah. And you only have so much willpower during the day. And I feel like it's one of those things that get like used up. Yeah. You can only be strong for so long. God, that's so true. So it's kind of gets exhausted. You've been saying no, no, no, no, no.
all day and then eventually you're just going to be like, I'm just going to eat this. true. Cause whenever I'm really busy and I have decision fatigue, that's when I eat more things that hurt me. And then the decision fatigue stays because I'm like lethargic and foggy and all that. Yeah. So have the better options for you, especially when you know, then you have that kind of a day. Yeah. Awesome.
So we can't talk about boundaries, without talking about fitness. So how do you manage that when you're on the road, when you're in, when family's in town, when you've got a lot on your plate, like, what do you do? How do you do that? Two things, comes to mind when my husband and I again, traveled, always had.
a membership there. We'll go and we'll get quick membership at the local gym. It was nothing spectacular. It was a tiny little mom-pop gym. Yeah. And we will go talk directly to owner, be like, we're going to be here for a week. Can we sign up for a week of just using your equipment here? And he always was like, yeah, sure, no problem. Yeah. So every year we would have a like week membership there. And our family knows we need time to go work out. You just open about it.
and don't be feeling bad about it. Just say, hey, you guys, what's the schedule today is like? We need an hour away. We're going to go to the gym and we're just going to do our thing. We'll come back and we'll be ready to go to whatever you guys want to do. But where is it working for everybody? we are not type A vacation getting up at five o'clock and going to the gym and working out. That's not Pat and I.
Some people do that and work for some people. Like some people can wake up earlier, go to the gym, get their stuff done and then come home and everybody's waking up at that time. It's just not us. So we usually just work with the schedule of the family and we'll get the one hour where we can go to the gym and work out. Also just saying ahead of time, like, I'm going to need an hour each day. Where do you want me to put it? Right, exactly. Like, hey mom, where do want me to put my hour?
I also love like, I've used class pass before, like I'll go into a town like when we go down to San Diego and this is, this is a luxury because my family lives in San Diego. like some of the best gyms studios are down there. like, am well aware that I'm very privileged in this regard, like, yeah, restaurants when you go out, the restaurants are healthier. I'm like really blessed in that regard. But yeah, so you know,
We go down there and I do a class pass and then I just schedule and say like, okay, this is what I'm to do it. Or again, I understand it's a privilege, but like go walk on the beach. Well, you know what we walked in the neighborhood with our dog. Yeah, we did. And the flicking rain in Kentucky, gray weather, but we did it. We had to walk. Yeah. Just do it. No excuses. Yeah. I mean, you're going to feel so much better. You have to put some movement because when you're eating like that and you're sitting on your butt having conversations with your.
family because everybody just sits on their butt right in the kitchen and just kind of chit chatting during holiday, right? You're just gonna get, just gonna get, yeah, you're gonna start to feel really, really tired and fatiguing to get out and move it out. Yeah. And I think that that's also like, kind of leads us into our next area, but it's like, how can you show up for yourself so that you can like show up for other people better? And I think that like, you know, I'm a jerk when I don't work out.
Like I was not in a good way this morning. I was hungover from the weekend of chaos that I had. then like woke up this morning, didn't feel well, went to the gym because I was like, must do. I felt better afterwards. Like I always do. But the difference was in the gym. It was just brutal for me. Like it was such a brutal experience. literally had a guy come up to me he was like, you're shaking really badly. Like, do you think you need that top weight? I'm like,
Yeah, that's kind of the point. I'm punishing myself for this whole weekend. just ate cookies and drank alcohol. But I think like, how do you support yourself first? Because every you're going to be able to have like better relationships with people, you're going to be able to have better conversations with people, you're going to be able to be like more present each time that you're, you know, having. I mean, look, you're going to be around your family. Right. It's not always easy. No, it isn't. It's already like, yeah, it's already stressful. So like,
Create a space for yourself where you can show up as your best self. Yes. And that kind of goes into like...
I guess our next topic, which is like, how do you support yourself first? So how do you support yourself first? think it flows from non-negotiables and boundaries. Yeah. Right. So we've fallen back into that. That's how you support yourself first. You have to make yourself a priority bottom line. Yeah. So you know what your non-negotiables are, you know your priorities and you just
You just have to do it every day. Just knowing that if you put the work, it doesn't have to be a lot. Just put the work in, then you're going to feel so much better after the holiday. You're not going to feel so sluggish. I always think about too is like, I'm just going to go back to this, but it's like, I've been trying to challenge myself personally to like,
be really thoughtful about the way that I show up with each interaction that I have, because I don't have a lot of extra time. So if I'm spending time with somebody or I'm spending time with my family, I want to make sure each of those moments is really intentional and that I am able to be really present. And what I have found is that if I am not getting in those non-negotiables first for myself, then I am so caught up in my own shit that I literally... Very true.
like can't I'm like insecure because I didn't do what I should have done that day. And then I'm like, wondering if they know that I didn't do what I said I was going to do if I'm not really showing up as the person that I say that I am like you got it like I will get so far into my head about like how I've let myself down. And so therefore this person knows I'm an imposter is somehow and like that's my own thing. But like what I've noticed and that has been something I've been struggling with for like three years and really five years, probably 11 years. It's probably been my whole life.
if I'm being honest, but like what I've noticed recently is it's like, I started holding myself accountable and started really doing the non-negotiable things that I said that I was going to do. So even when I have weekends, like I did this weekend, I'm like, whatever. was like a fun weekend. It was fine. It's no big deal moving on. was super present. That was the vibe that we were in that weekend. And like, now I can move on and get back into my life. And like, I just have better relationships with people. feel like putting my phone away. Right.
To me, it kind of boils down to if I don't do my non-negotiables, if I don't eat right, if I don't move my body, I'm just a crabby, crabby person. And nobody wants to be around crabby person during holiday, especially. I don't want to be around that crabby person. I want to leave her behind. So for me, it's very important to get everything done for my wellness and for my mental health.
The movement is one of them and the right nutrition, starting with the right breakfast, getting enough protein and fiber for me is very important. So I'm not craving, I'm not crabby, I'm not cranky, I'm not getting hangry. Those are very important because you're around your people and you want to have joy with them. You don't want to be short with them. You don't want to be crabby. That's the state I usually get on if I don't take care of myself.
I just get crabby and angry with myself. didn't do it for yourself, Sasha. And now you feel like shit. And now you just crabby with everybody. Right. So it's the athlete in us. We're like, maybe you didn't put it your practice and now you suck. Now you suck game time. Now you've got a bench. I mean, really yeah. mean, that's kind of what it comes down to. It's like, you got to put in the rep so that by the time you get to game time, like when you're with the family, you don't break under pressure. I'll start a fight.
Like I've done it with my family. Like I'm the terror in the family. So it's like, think that, and I'll run my mouth. And like, these are the kinds of things that keep me from doing that. Yeah. So it's really, really good.
Okay, so with that is enough information. So we're gonna go ahead and let you guys go off and do your holiday thing. But we wanted to just make sure that we highlighted the three key points, which is to establish your non-negotiables, then from those non-negotiables, set your boundaries, and then always support yourself first. Always. Always, so that you can show up for others better. And these really like lead into each other. So if you're doing one thing, you're kind of able to do the other one a little bit easier.
and we really wanted to start challenging you guys each week. So we're going to leave you with a challenge after each episode. And this week's challenge is to, do you want to tell them what the challenges? Sure. We want to hear from you guys. You want to hear what are the non-negotiables that you're going to establish for yourself? We're really curious because we want to learn from you too. Like it goes both ways.
So I want to hear from you, what are the non-negotiables that you're going to establish for yourself? Just give us three, right? And DM us, like, what are you guys doing? DM us on our either Instagram or TikTok. Yup, reach out and tell us what you're doing. And you can tag us in your stories
thank you for listening to The Wellness Hustle. Yeah, we appreciate you guys. Thank you for listening, tuning in. Yeah, feel free to share this podcast with your besties. We would love to hear your feedback. What do you want to hear more of? What do you want to hear less of? Yeah.
Yeah. All of it counts. of course, subscribe to our podcast, download immense world to us. That way we can help more women just like you. Yeah. Just strive in wellness. Yep. All right. Well, go get after it. Good luck this holiday season and thank you again for tuning up, tuning in, doing whatever you're doing, tuning up and tuning in, guess. Yeah. and we'll see you next week, hustlers. See you next week.