For the past 2,5 years, books were pretty much the only topic I was creating content for, and while I love my Bookstagram and I’m really excited to write blog posts about books and reading, I’ve also been feeling really drawn to branching out.
Blogging has always been something I enjoyed. I had a travel blog and a lifestyle blog in the past, both of which got zero traction, so I eventually gave up. But now that I already have a community, it feels like it’s time to start again.
For my first post, I wanted to talk about the holistic wellness journey that I’ve been on in the past 6-7 months.
What kickstarted this journey
At the beginning of August 2023, my ex broke up with me, and this was the catalyst for many changes I’ve made in my life since then. Long-term relationship breakups mark a tremendous life change, and for me, it really made me realize how much I’ve been neglecting myself.
As corny as it sounds, I had to learn to love myself again, and self-love isn’t just affirmations and a bubble bath. It’s taking care of yourself, and so, for me, that meant working on my overall health and well-being. I’ve always been interested in these topics but found it hard to stick with a healthy lifestyle. But this time would be different, I told myself.
Not because I wanted to prove something but because I truly looked at it from this self-love angle and wanted to implement holistic habits that would benefit my body, mind, and soul for a sustainable change. So, I did what I’ve always done: I went to Pinterest and looked for inspiration.
I bought some books, read articles, researched apps, and did some trial and error. It took me a while, but once the new year came around, I finally felt like I knew what I was doing. I also made my word of the year wellness as a promise to myself to make 2024 all about holistic health.
It’s still a work in progress, but I’m so proud of how far I’ve come. It’s definitely changed my life for the better, and now I get to share it with you!
The main things I’ve focused on that I will be talking about in this post are:
- Cycle syncing
- Eating a plant-focused diet, meal planning + prepping
- Finding workouts I actually enjoy and getting a walking pad
- Fixing my sleep schedule (this is still a work in progress)
- Therapy
- Meditations + sound baths
- Treating self-care as something sacred
As you can see, it’s nothing too crazy or fancy. I don’t want this to get too long, so I will be only briefly talking about each of these points, and explore each of these more in future blog posts. Now, let’s dive right in!
As you can see, it’s nothing too crazy or fancy.
I did my best to keep the different sections short and concise, but it is a lot to cover so the post is a bit longer.
Cycle syncing
First and foremost, I started cycle syncing, which means aligning your nutrition, workouts, social interactions, and work tasks to your menstrual cycle. I first heard about this last summer in a pilates app I’m using, and have since incorporated more and more into my schedule.
There are many great resources out there regarding cycle syncing, but as a TL;DR, here’s the gist:
Each of our different cycle phases, so menstrual, follicular, ovulatory and luteal, is a different season in our body. Menstrual is the inner winter, where you should rest and replenish yourself. Follicular is the inner spring where you come out of your cave, open up to new experiences and you’re on a general upswing, followed by the ovulatory phase, which is the inner summer. This is when you’re the most outgoing and have the most energy. Then, finally comes the luteal phase, inner autumn, where you wrap up and slowly enter your resting period again.
Aligning workouts with the different phases is the easiest to implement and it’s where I started my cycle syncing journey:
The menstrual phase is for restorative, calm movement as your body has low energy levels, so think yin yoga, going for a walk, or doing some stretching.
The follicular phase is great for trying new workouts, pilates, light cardio or dancing, for example.
The ovulatory phase is where you have the most energy, so it’s perfect for high intensity cardio.
And finally, the luteal phase is good for strength workouts, barre, pilates and weight training, but then when you get closer to your period, you should also go down in intensity.
I’ve been doing this really consistently for the past months and it’s made the biggest difference. Having a designated week of rest has helped me so much to be more motivated in the other phases. And as someone who is generally not a fan of cardio, it’s been nice to only have five days where I really push myself. It’s also more rewarding because that’s when I have high energy, so I actually have the stamina to do these high-intensity workouts.
I also love that this means having varied workouts throughout the month, which keeps me motivated. I don’t like doing the same type of workout all the time, so this has helped me spice things up.
I’m also cycling syncing my nutrition, which means that I try to incorporate ingredients that support whatever cycle phase I’m in. Just google ‘cycle syncing foods’ to find an overview of what to eat when. This is a whole other topic which I will explore in a designated post.
As for syncing my social and work life with my cycle, those are things I’m still working on, right now all I’m doing is viewing my period as a phase of rest, where I really try to slow down and reflect instead of trying to push through my to-do list. But hey, it is a journey, and implementing changes step by step is what helps make it a sustainable lifestyle.
Eating a plant-focused diet, meal planning + prepping
I’ve been vegetarian for the past 15 years, and I don’t have any plans on going vegan, but I’d say my diet is 70% plant-based at the moment. In the past, I haven’t eaten a lot of veggies and/or fruit, but after having read some books, articles, etc., I decided to make an effort to eat more and try some new ones (which has been hard, I’m an incredibly picky eater).
And honestly, it has definitely improved how I feel. I’ve incorporated new grains and legumes, so usually one of my meals in a day is quinoa-, lentil- or rice-based, I always buy a bag of spinach or kale and throw a handful or two into almost every dish I make, I sprinkle some seeds on top my salads or stews, and I’m using more fresh herbs than I used to.
A nice side effect of this is that my meals taste a lot better now. I used to be a decent cook and I liked what I cooked, but when someone else tried it, they were usually like ‘meh’. But now, I really love most of my meals and I’m impressed with myself and when my mom and sister try a bite, they actually enjoy them, too.
The change that has made the biggest difference in my life, however, is committing to meal planning and prepping. It saves so much time and money, and I think it really helps me make healthier choices.
It takes me between 30-60 minutes to plan my meals for the next week, though I have gotten a lot faster at it now that I’ve been doing it for a while.
I’m going to make a whole post about this, but basically, what I do is I look at the cycle phases I’m going to be in the next week and match my meals to that. I’ve made a big Notion database with recipes and tags (which took forever to set up), and it’s so convenient. That’s not necessary though, before, I would just look through my Pinterest and recipes apps to put together a meal plan.
I always try to think of ingredients I can use for different recipes to cut down on my grocery spending. I’m only cooking for myself at the moment, so if I need a pumpkin or a bag of potatoes for something, I’m going to make another meal that week with those veggies.
For meal prepping, I’m not someone who can eat the same meal 5 days in a row, my personal maximum is 3 days. For the other work days, I just take my dinner from the day before to work with me.
So here’s what a normal week looks like for me:
Sunday: Meal-prep 3 breakfasts + 3 lunches for work
Monday: Cook dinner that I will also eat the next day
Tuesday: Eat leftovers
Wednesday: Cook dinner and prepare breakfast for the next 2 days
Thursday: Leftovers from Wednesday dinner for lunch, cook dinner
Friday: Leftovers from Thursday dinner for lunch, cook dinner
Saturday: Grocery shopping
And then the weekend varies depending on my plans. I’m sure I could save more time if I did another round of meal-prepping, but this is what really works well for me at the moment as it’s a nice balance between repeat meals and ‘new’ ones.
TL;DR: It takes a bit of planning effort to get my meal plan down, but it is such a time saver during the week and it really helps me with eating healthy.
Photo: styledstocksociety.com
Finding workouts I actually enjoy and getting a walking pad
Like many others, I have a love-hate relationship with working out. I know it’s good for me, I know I usually enjoy it and feel so much better afterward, but man is it hard to stay motivated. I’ve tried many different workouts, I used to do some in-person classes, I did YouTube workouts, dance workouts, pilates, and yoga, tried a bunch of different apps and programs, and now I’ve finally found a variety of workouts that I enjoy and that I’m mostly being consistent with.
Again, I cycle-sync my workouts, so what I do depends on the cycle phase I’m in, but here are the apps and workouts I use and do:
This is a Pilates app created by Bailey Brown and I love it! I’ve been using it since June of last year and her workouts are some of the best I have ever done. She regularly hosts challenges, posts new workouts, and has a monthly calendar.
For some reason, I have a hard time sticking to her calendar (even though I genuinely love the workouts), but I try to do schedule at least one of her workouts into my week. And whenever she hosts a challenge, I’m joining! Her most recent one was in January and it was so good, it’s crazy how fast you see results. My body definitely felt and looked stronger and more toned; truly my favorite workout app.
It costs 18.99$ per month, but it’s so worth it in my opinion.
I’ve been using FitOn on and off for about four years now. They have a huge workout library with different trainers along with recipes and meditations. They have programs, challenges, live classes, there is so much content there!
I really love that they have such a variety of workout styles, whether it’s yoga, pilates, barre, dance, boxing, HIIT, toning, strength, stretching, it’s all on there. I think it’s similar to obé fitness (which sadly isn’t available outside of North America) but a bit less fancy, and I definitely recommend it.
Their workouts are free, which is truly wild because they have so many. There is a Pro Plan that gives you access to music, personalized meal plans, workout plans, etc., and that costs 30$ per year. (Tbh maybe there’s a more expensive option but that’s the plan I’m on). I 100% recommend checking them out.
This one is my least favorite out of the three apps I’m using, mostly because the workouts are quite advanced.
They have a selection of yoga, pilates, barre, cardio and toning along with meditations, nutrition, and some self-care stuff.
I do enjoy their workouts and they have great series and programs, but some of their movements are just a bit too much for me. Not in a stamina sense, just that like… I’m not quite at the level where I can hold myself up on one hand and foot and do some twists.
Their membership is 14$ per month, and so far I’m happy enough with them that I am staying with them, plus I hope that as time progresses, I will get better and therefore able to do their workouts.
Lastly, after months of debating, I finally pulled the trigger and got a walking pad from my Christmas gift cards! I am not getting enough steps in and I knew it wasn’t going to change, so having a walking pad at home is just making such a difference. I do want to use it more consistently, but I truly love it and it was absolutely worth the investment.
It’s so fun to walk and listen to an audiobook or podcast, do a Taylor Swift strut (or watch the Eras Tour while walking!), or watch some YouTube or a TV show.
I will be doing a more in-depth post on my workout routine soon, but this is the gist of it.
As for my next steps, I want to be more consistent with getting 7K or more steps in daily as well as challenging myself to do longer workouts (I love 20-30 min workouts, and anything longer than that I’m like no thank you). But I’ve definitely come a long way, so I’m quite proud of myself.
Fixing my sleep schedule (this is still a work in progress)
I’ve always been a night owl and getting back into reading and joining Bookstagram and making tons of North American friends didn’t help with that. In fact, my sleep schedule the past 2 years has been awful, and I had so many nights with less than 6 or even 5 hours of sleep.
When I took my wellness more seriously and started looking into all these different topics, guess what somehow came up on every single topic? Yes, getting consistent sleep.
It helps with digestion, it helps with more energy, it gives you better skin, it helps your hormones, it helps with everything. And so, of course, I knew that meant that I finally had to fix my sleep schedule.
I am someone who needs less sleep, even when I have time off from work and don’t set an alarm, I usually only get 7 to 7.5 hours of sleep, and when I try to catch up on sleep on the weekends, I don’t often get over 8 hours. So, I set the goal to get 6.5-7 hours of sleep during the work week as often as I can.
Am I succeeding? Well, kind of. I’m definitely more often in that range, but I still need to be better about it. I’ve mostly beat my insomnia (I think therapy and lots of work on myself helped me reduce the anxiety that usually kept me up) and listening to sounds, meditations or stories really helps me fall asleep faster, but I know there’s still more that I can do to improve. But hey, one step at a time!
Therapy
The day of my breakup, I did what every modern woman does: I googled how to get over a breakup. There were a ton of tips, but one that kept coming up on each site was therapy. It made sense to me: a breakup is a big life change and you have to find yourself again, so after giving it some thought, I signed up for therapy again.
Back in 2020, when I dealt with some losses and some other stuff, I used BetterHelp and was really happy with it. I was matched with a great therapist and it helped me so much. So I decided to give it another go; I know not everyone has good experiences on there, but I figured I could always cancel if it didn’t work out for me.
But luckily, I got matched with an amazing therapist, I love her, she’s the best. My plan was only to do therapy for a month or two, but I realized that I had more stuff to work through. Well, and now I’m still in therapy because my therapist is so great and having a weekly session with her is something I don’t want to miss. It helps me so much, it keeps me balanced and it’s truly something I look forward to every single week.
It’s made the biggest difference in my well-being and there is no way I would have done as well after the breakup without therapy. I know it’s not accessible for everyone, but if you have the possibility to get a therapist, do it.
Meditations + sound baths
Back in 2020, I not only started therapy but I also had a bit of a woo-woo phase where I got into witchcraft, tarot, astrology, manifestation, and some other new age spirituality stuff. I still do some of those practices today and ever since the breakup I’ve felt really called to incorporate them more again, but at the moment that is a private practice that I don’t really want to talk about (minus astrology, which I will be talking about on this blog).
However, as part of that, I started getting into meditation and then later sound baths back in the day, and now I’ve started implementing those into my routine again. Every morning after I wake up, I do a guided mediation, and it’s just so good and such a great start to the day.
There are so many resources out there for meditations, I vary between the ones from my fitness apps and some that are part of programs I bought in 2020.
I also love sound baths. AloMoves has a bunch of shorter ones that I sometimes do after work when I get home, but sometimes I feel like doing an hour-long one. There are great ones on YouTube (I love Healing Vibrations, those are also on Spotify), and I just turn them on, lay down on the couch, and let the music relax me. It’s so good and I always feel amazing during and after!
Photo: styledstocksociety.com
Treating self-care as something sacred
Lastly, I just started treating my self-care as something sacred. For me, that means just viewing all of the above as something I get to do, something that is deeply important to me, and that has helped me so much in prioritizing myself. It’s so cliché to say “My body is a temple”, but that is truly what I remind myself of, and it makes me feel so good to treat it as such.
But beyond that, I also just try to romanticize my self-care time that is more like… bubble baths and face masks. Turning on some nice music, lighting candles, drinking a good tea or wine, just really elevates the experience and makes little rituals feel so much more special.
Another part of it is also setting boundaries. When 2024 started, I told myself this was going to be the year I am prioritizing myself and my well-being. That means saying no to plans that feel out of alignment, putting my phone down and on DND when I do a sound bath or workout and just being more present. Saying no is hard, but stretching yourself thin because you keep saying yes is even harder.
And with that bit of wisdom, I am coming to an end. This was a long post and I promise not all my posts are going to be this long, but there was just a lot I had and wanted to cover, plus this should serve as an overview of what you can expect.
I hope you enjoyed this post and I’m excited to see you back for the next one!