E214: 3 Unexpected Ways Healthy Habits Could Change Your Life

Almost exactly a year ago we launched our very-first-ever 21 day Healthy Habit Challenge, and since then we’ve supported over 100 women in elevating their life through healthy habits!

[00:42] Welcome back to the Women’s Empowerment Podcast, and HAPPY NEW YEAR! This is the first episode of 2023 and in all honesty I was feeling some pressure as to what I would share for the first episode of the year.

I asked myself:

How could I best support the audience of the Women’s Empowerment Podcast?
What could I share that would really inspire and empower them to make the most of 2023?
What do they need to hear at this moment?

So I asked the questions, and I got quiet. I felt a nudge toward “stories.” Stories from everyday women who are making an impact. Women who are taking action to connect deeper to themselves and to their communities.

And three wise women said HELL YES! To sharing their stories and experiences of the life-changing magic of their healthy habits.

Last year I was so fortunate to work with these three women and over a hundred more on elevating their lives through tiny changes.

We did this in a closed community container I host seasonally for 21 days, and we call it the 21 Day Healthy Habit Challenge!

Our next challenge starts THIS MONTH, and you can join us at www.valerielavignelife.com/challenge

Now, if you’re listening to this episode after our winter 2023 challenge, don’t you worry! We still have spring, summer, and fall to come! So use the same link to access the upcoming challenge OR the waitlist.

Okay, before we get into these voice clips, I have a request for YOU, the listener. I am asking you to listen with the intention of tuning into yourself and answering these questions for YOU!

You might be thinking, “But Val I haven’t participated in the 21 day challenge… yet?”

If that’s the case, answer the questions as if you had participated. Imagine WHAT IS POSSIBLE FOR YOU.

Answer in the past tense to manifest it into your present and future. I’ll explain more of how this works as we go.

[00:40] First question: What is your name, feeling word, and habit for the 21 day challenge?

Claim your name with power and worthiness. “I AM (state your name).”

The feeling word is very crucial to forming our new behaviour, because the feeling anchors us in the NOW. How do you want to feel? How do you want to show up in this world? How do you want to move through your days?

What one or two SMALL actions can you perform every day for the next 21 days to help you connect and embody this feeling word. This is your new healthy habit.

Need some inspiration? Let’s hear from our incredible guests:

Paula: My name is Paual Jeffery, and my goal was to feel strong and supported and my habit was to move my body every day for 21 days.

Robyn: My name is Robyn, and I participated in the 21 day challenge. My feeling word was light and the habit that I chose was to get 10 00 steps in every day, primarily being outdoors getting those steps in.

Jana: My name is Jana and my feeling words for the 21 day healthy habit challenge were centered, balanced, and spaciousness. And I was really just wanting to feel more intentional, more balanced like I had more time in my day to get things done. My habits were no cell phone an hour before bed and an hour after waking, getting in 2 litres of water at least, getting in some movement every single day, and also daily meditation.

Can you tell already how important the feeling word is? It identifies the WHY of the healthy habits, so that as you go through each day, you are reminded of why you signed up in the first place. As you create your feeling word, create the habits around it. Each day you have the opportunity to connect to the feeling even before you complete the action.

Speaking of action, each of our guests took action and enrolled in the healthy habit challenge. But every journey starts even before the beginning of the 21 days. This leads me to the…

[5:54] Second Question: Where were you in your life, or how were you feeling before starting the challenge?

So let’s say you haven’t completed a challenge yet. What is it that is calling you forward? Where are you at right now in your life? The frustrations, the goals, the readiness. Recognize it, and describe it.

We all have different reasons for needing a change, no judgment necessary. Knowing where we’re at helps us understand the best next step forward.

Maybe you have done one of our healthy habit challenges before, or something similar. What were your reasons for joining? What called you to this next level in your journey? What did your body, mind, heart, soul need?

There are clues to our possibilities within this call to adventure, let’s hear from our guests to understand what brought them to this point in their journey.

Paula: Before starting the challenge, I was definitely in a place where I was not feeling supported. I was coming out of a fairly stressful fall in winter where my physical health had sort of fallen by the wayside. and this really felt like an opportunity to kind of get back in touch with my physical body and figure out ways to help feel supported so that it can support me.

Robyn: At the time, I was adjusting to a big season of my daughter's starting kindergarten and coming off a really busy chaotic summer. So I'm really looking forward to giving myself some time and space in my day to focus on my health mentality and to just release a little bit of the heavy burdens. I was carrying.

Jana: Before starting the challenge, I was just feeling like my mornings were sort of wasted time. There was nothing intentional about them. and I wasn't taking advantage of being able to start my day when I wanted and you know, all the benefits of having my own business. I wanted to do it so that I could have slow mornings and really get my day off to a good start. And I wasn't doing that I was wasting time scrolling and I was drinking too much coffee and then it left me feeling jittery and awful. You know, so I was really just wanting to be a bit more intentional and have some really good foundations to my day.

In each of these three scenarios, we can pinpoint both moving away and moving toward. Moving away from not feeling support, of a chaotic season, of an unsupportive routine. And moving toward a deeper connection to self, more spaciousness, and more intentional routines.

In your own response, with how you’re feeling or where you’re at before starting the challenge, are you moving away or toward? There is no right or wrong answer, and maybe the answer is both!

These questions are meant to help you reflect and review so that you can make wiser decisions moving forward with a ritual, routine, habit or system that makes you feel most joyful and supported!

[09:47] Third Question: What was your favourite part of the 21 days?

Picture this: you and other like-minded women working toward empowering and elevating your life through these small, meaningful actions.

These tiny actions are leading you to remarkable results in your life, relationships, health, and more.

Within the 21 day container, and with the support of myself and the community, what shifts, changes, magic do you feel happening for you?

When you think of how you showed up, even when it was tough, what memories bring a smile to your face through the process?

There were many great moments, but here were the favourites from our guests:

Paula: I think my favorite part of the 21 Day Challenge was the Instagram aspect and seeing Val's posts every day, reminding me that I needed to move my body, I think that was really helpful but it was also just a really good reminder that I wasn't the only person doing it, and I loved seeing other people sharing their little charts showing their progress and with their reflections and everything like that.

Robyn: My favorite part of the challenge was just the commitment and the accountability. There were many days where I did not feel like getting my steps in but I was so motivated to have and the community behind me I did not want to let them down. I did not want to let myself down. And it was a really beautiful experience of keeping a promise to myself. And ultimately, there were some there were some areas where I was not able to get my stepson because I got sick and got a bit crazy, but I was still able to feel into my feeling where it of lightness and other ways. So I learned it was even less about the habit and more about who I was becoming through the commitment to myself and the feeling of being light.

Jana: My favorite part of the challenge was having Val in my corner and having an accountability buddy and I did do the one on one private coaching session with Val which also just helped me go so much deeper and really connect more to why I was wanting to do this.

And MY favourite part of these challenges is seeing how the community shows up for themselves and each other. It’s pretty incredible to see the collective group moving toward a common goal. Some people have connected outside of the challenge and continue to cheer each other on through life.

In the last voice clip, Jana shared that she had a 1:1 coaching call with me, which I offered to the challengers as a bonus/add on for anyone who wanted to take advantage of it throughout the 21 days.

This allowed us to connect privately with more accountability. I also do voice note or DM check ins with everyone sporadically during the challenge and this helps me see where people are at, if there is any extra support or education I can offer live throughout the challenge.

It’s not one of those automated dripped content courses. This is REAL-TIME, REAL PEOPLE, REAL RESULTS, THE REAL DEAL.

Which leads me to…

[13:22] Question Four: What part of the challenge had the biggest impact on your life during the three weeks?

Let’s say you chose a healthy habit that made your life better by 1% every time you completed this habit. Now let’s say you continued this action every day for 21 days in a row. Your life would improve by 21%. Right?

Yes AND here’s the hidden gift about consistency when creating a new healthy habit: it creates a positive impact on other areas of your life.

For example, when I get 8 hours of sleep every night with consistent wake up and bedtime hours, I have more energy when I wake up. When I have more energy in the mornings I feel motivated to get more done. Tasks like: communicating with team members, clients, and the community in an enthusiastic way. I’m motivated to workout, maybe even lift heavier weights, or make things a little spicier in my pilates practice.

And those are some very basic examples of how getting 8 hours of sleep with consistent wake up and bedtime hours impacts not only my quality of sleep, but my energy, my relationships, and my physical health.

What about you?

What tiny action is a 1% improvement for your life? What can a 1% improvement repeated, do for you in all areas of your life?

Let’s listen to how our guest’s healthy habits impacted them in life-changing ways…

Paula: I think the feeling word had the biggest impact on my life because it really reframed the purpose of a habit. and it helped me get past a lot of the obstacles that came up. So instead of focusing so much on having to do a certain workout every single day, focusing on how my body feels strong and supported today really opened up a whole world of opportunity for what my habit could look like each day. and I think that was really important for me as somebody who doesn't necessarily resonate with doing the same thing every single day. That really opened up a lot of freedom and it shifted the way that I look at habits in general.

Robyn: The part of the challenge that had the biggest impact in my life during the three weeks was just that every single day commitment to spending some time with myself and prioritizing my needs and showing up for who I wanted to become. Not just who I was in the current reality of a bit of chaos and busy days. So showing up for the version of me that was stronger, that was lighter, that was more nourished that had more space in her day. allowed me to actually be that person and experience that reality because I was able to create it and to see that it was possible for me to have already I didn't have to wait for it. The check ins were also really helpful.

Jana: Again, I think the biggest impact that I felt during this challenge was connecting back to that feeling wired and everything in my life I do is about a feeling or you know feeling good or getting rid of a bad feeling or, you know, using my feelings as a way to guide me and my day to day and so getting back to that feeling and why do I want to feel this way? It really had such an impact. Also getting more water didn't hurt anything. I swear it helped me sleep so much better. And, you know, getting more sleep just makes you feel more balanced and centered so that was also a huge thing.

The healthy habit challenge is meant to be simple, with a focus on taking action. Whether that is taking action with the new habit, or in another way being able to connect to the feeling word.

While I set the challenge up to be as smooth, simple, and easy to do as possible, it is still called a “challenge.” We don’t always want to do the healthy habits. If we did, I probably wouldn’t have created this program.

Which is why I included…

[17:52] Question Five: Were there any obstacles you faced before or during the challenge? If so, how did you overcome them?

To answer this question for yourself, reflect on past experiences of when you’ve wanted to make a new healthy habit, or break an unhealthy one. Where did you get stuck? How did you overcome that obstacle?

Again, this is information; it’s evidence to understand how you can set yourself up for success. Let’s hear from our guests…

Paula: I thought the biggest obstacle meeting my goal of the day, the actual biggest obstacle was having compassion for myself when I missed a day and continuing forward.

I think that it was really helpful to remember the feeling that I wanted to evoke on those days and that feeling strong and supported can look many different ways, even if the habit action doesn't look exactly the same. So I think that was a really helpful piece of the challenge.

Robyn: Some of the challenges I faced was I got sick. For a few days, I had no energy, my body was telling me to really rest. And I had this internal tug of war around whether I could get my 10,000 steps in or not. And for me, that was really about listening to my body feeling connected to my body, and honoring what was truly in alignment, not just what I thought I should be doing. Which really changed the landscape of the goals for me because it was less about ticking the box, and more about becoming someone who kept promises to herself, someone who prioritized the way she wanted to feel someone who consistently connected with her body, nourished her body in the ways it was asking for.

Jana: One of the obstacles that I came up against was probably just after the first week we're midway into the second week. I forgot why I was doing this. I was just going about these new habits I was trying to bring into my life without remembering why and remembering what that feeling word was. And so Val brought me back to that and connected me to my y and that really helped me to remember how I wanted to feel every day and then it made the habits easier to do because then it didn't feel like I was just doing something for the sake of doing it. I was doing it for a reason to feel a certain way.

With any journey, with any transformation comes the waves of change. Obstacles aren’t excuses for giving up. They are there to deepen your commitment, to remind you of why you started, to make you stronger along the way.

If it were too easy, it wouldn’t be fun!

Something these three women have in common is that they have participated in multiple 21 day challenges, so I wanted to know if they did anything differently the second time around.

[21:19] Final question: what did you do differently for your second round that made you more successful with your healthy habits?

For you, answer this as the version of you who has just completed 21 days of elevated habits, routines, or rituals. How are you going to show up for the NEXT 21 days after that? Knowing what you know now, how will you continue to grow, and elevate to the next level?

Perhaps our guest can give you some ideas with how they did this themselves:

Paula: The second time around was more successful hands down because I was more committed to it. I was more engaged. I was clear on my intention. I was deeply connected to my feeling word, and I really wanted it to work. I was also just more open to it. Transforming the way I saw the habit that I was working with, instead of it being a forceful thing or fixing me or anything like that. it was something that I really wanted, and it was something that felt good in my body to commit to so fully. It was better because of how I showed up to it.

Robyn: I've done the challenge twice now and I would say that this time round. I really felt into my my feeling word a little bit more intentionally, as well as what habit I wanted to create for myself, not something that I thought I should choose, or for a reason I thought I should choose or that would be healthy for me, but I really allowed myself to choose what felt truly aligned and to not overthink it. I think that made all the difference because there was a lot of fun Enjoy attached to getting my steps in and it felt so much less like a chore. And when there were challenges that presented themselves It was easy for me to pause and then get back on track to maintain that goal. And that commitment to myself and to create that feeling word, no matter what was going on in my life.

Jana: The thing that I did different for the second round of the challenge is again about connecting to that word about connecting to how I want to feel and really just keeping that in mind. The actual habit that I'm trying to create almost doesn't matter so much as the feeling. And I think Val says that best where she gives the example of going to the gym, and it's not about going to the gym. it's about closing that laptop. First. you know, it's the thing you do before you do the habit. and Val can explain that better than I just did there. but it's about what's the thing that I want to do before I do the habit. And so, you know, connecting to those feelings again and just keeping that front and center, makes all of the difference to me. So, keeping my words in mind. And, you know, I am going to stick to some of those same words.

I love that each of our guests emphasized the intention and the feeling of being something more meaningful and personal to them.

During the challenge I will show up daily with short posts and stories to encourage, inspire, and educate the challenge members. In the very early days of the challenge I put a lot of emphasis on the feeling word and choosing habits that resonate most with YOU. Not what everyone else is doing, or what’s trendy in the wellness world. But what would make you feel most joyful, centred, light, strong, etc.

And what Jana was sharing at the end, about the habit not always being what you think… that was one of my shares when I talk about how the habit isn’t the workout. The habit is that I close my laptop and get in the car to drive to the gym.

If I don’t close the laptop, I’ll stay working on my computer all day! But when I close it and get in the car and drive to the gym, I have to workout. Plus, the workout is different every time I go to the gym, but the laptop closing is the same every time.

So as you prepare for the next 21 day healthy habit challenge, consider how you want to feel, what actions/behaviours can help you connect to this feeling wod, AND is there anything else that has to be done BEFORE your new habit?

If you’ve answered these questions for yourself in the past or present tense, you’ve tricked your brain into thinking that you’ve already completed the challenge. That you’ve already jump started the journey to elevating your life through new healthy habits.

This allows you to embody the version of you you desire to be. And instead of desiring, you are becoming; embodying; identifying as HER.

With the reflection, examples, and stories you’ve heard today, what are your next steps as your embodied self?

Perhaps it’s joining our next challenge

Or maybe it’s writing your feeling word down on a sticky note and keeping it somewhere you can see it every day.

There is no time like the present when it comes to forming your healthy habits. Whatever action you decide to take today, let it be one toward your goals and highest self.

More episodes like this:

Episode 173: Small Actions that Created BIG Impact in Only 21 Days

Episode 194: From Frazzled to Focused in 21 Days

Podcast Host

Valerie LaVigne

Valerie is the creator and founder of Valerie LaVigne Life and the Women's Empowerment Show. She helps busy and empowered women create healthy habits so that they can become the best version of themselves and transform their lives. Learn more about Valerie here!