E240: Healthy Habits for Busy People: How to Incorporate Healthy Habits into Your Busy Life

The irony of this episode title when this podcast episode is coming out late because life just got hella busy on my end! Nevertheless, I do have some really great tips and tools for you in this episode. And since you’re a busy bee like me, I’m going to aim to keep this one short and sweet so that you can use your precious time on taking action!

Welcome back to the Women’s Empowerment Podcast, thank you so much for choosing this show, it means a lot to me. These days it feels like life is coming at me hard and fast, and with full transparency it has not been easy.

What I can vouch for is that there are certain habits and routines that really keep me grounded during these busy times, as well as specific priorities that allow me to juggle more without affecting my health.

One of my personal values is health and wellness. When life gets busy this becomes my number one priority. Why? Because without optimal health, I am useless to the people around me. I am not completing tasks, or I’m rushing which leads to more mistakes and then we’re just doing twice the work with half the energy.

I prioritize my health and well-being through habits like:

A Consistent Sleep Schedule. I know that for me personally, I need 7-8 hours of quality sleep every night. One of the key ways to get quality sleep is to go to bed and wake up around the same time every day. I aim to go to bed between 9:30 and 10:30 every night, and hopefully on the earlier side. Waking up feeling rested can really set the tone and energy for the day, so this is huge!

Eating Whole Foods. I started eating breakfast again in the last couple years, and while breakfast looks a little different each day or week, I start the day with whole foods and a balanced meal. Ideally something high in protein. Throughout the day I choose snacks, and meals that include greens, veggies, more protein, and foods that aren’t in packages with a long list of ingredients as often as possible.

Staying Hydrated. Currently sipping on ice water – usually I’m more of a room temp water kind of gal, but lately all I want is ice ice baby! If you’re an avid listener of the show, you will know that I’m obsessed with my Hidrate Spark water bottle. It has a bluetooth scale at the base which measures my water intake for the day through an app on my phone. It’s a more expensive water bottle, but it’s also the only water bottle I’ve had for this long that I actually use and it actually helps me drink more water.

Hidrate Spark Water Bottle

Daily Intentional Movement. This one habit could be improved currently, however there are some extenuating circumstances at this time. That being said, I do like to mix in different forms of movement throughout the week. From reformer pilates, to strength training, to swimming and more! Making movement a priority helps energy move through my body. I am more alert, focused, creative and able to do more when I am consistent with this habit.

While my physical health is huge, especially during busy seasons, mental and emotional health are also part of our well-being. For me, these habits look like:

Maintaining a Positive & Growth Mindset. While I have you here, I do want to say that I did not create/form all of these habits overnight – no way José! These habits have been formed over many months and some over years. They have evolved over that time, however they are now actual habits; they are part of my lifestyle.

Everything that I’m sharing with you today is what has worked for myself, as well as many other people, but again they were not formed immediately. Some of these took a lot of time and patience. However, they are all incredibly impactful to my life, business, and relationships.

A positive and growth mindset is one of the mental and emotional health habits that I am constantly working on. My mindset is not perfect every day. It wasn’t too long ago that my mental health was really suffering, and I’m still feeling the effects of that darker time in my life. While I don’t feel like I'm in the thick of it, I do sometimes feel negativity and scarcity creep up on me now and again.

Having a growth mindset means you can see opportunity. You believe that growth is possible through dedication, and action. It doesn’t mean you don’t have down days, or you sometimes feel stuck, that can happen. It means that you pick yourself up and try again.

Another helpful mental and emotional health habit I have developed is Creating Healthy Boundaries. One of our early podcast episodes was titled 7 Things You Must Do When Creating Healthy Boundaries.

E34: 7 Things You Must Do When Creating Healthy Boundaries

This might be one of the most difficult forms of self care, and also one of the most important. Over the years, I have created boundaries around sleep, work, family, schedule, friends, social media and other habits, as well as how I allow people to speak to me or treat me. Again, not something that is always perfect, I definitely work on these things weekly, if not daily!

When it comes to being busy, having boundaries around my schedule has been huge! With work, I am capped out at a certain amount of hours per week for my teaching schedule. I do not take coaching calls on certain days or certain times of the day. Other examples include not teaching split shifts, and my phone is always on airplane mode from 9pm until around 6 or 7am.

This kind of piggybacks off boundaries with scheduling, and part of that is with a habit of Time Blocking. I don’t typically make to do lists, I time block. That means I have a very organized, and yes colour-coded calendar that has basically my entire life on it. From my coaching calls, to teaching schedule, to time blocked for when I’m driving places and for when bills are due – everything! I feel like I always have my weekly schedule up so I can see where I’m at and what I’m doing.

When I’m creating my schedule or adding in appointments I’m very careful to book certain things because I'm looking at where and how else my energy is spent, what physical location I’m in to make sure I’m not wasting a lot of time driving around. This saves time, energy, and stress!

The last mental and emotional healthy habit for busy people I want to share is Taking (Guilt-Free) Breaks. Let me emphasize that REST IS NOT A REWARD! Rest is part of the process. In nature, and in life there are cycles. If we do not honour these cycles – especially women – then we risk coming out of alignment, which can be very damaging to our health, our projects, our energy, and so on. Schedule in breaks, vacations, and time off. The guilt might be there in the beginning, but you can learn to let that go when you start to see how powerful taking frequent breaks can be!

I’ve shared 8 incredible healthy habits for busy people, but how do we incorporate all of these into our lives? Short answer: You don’t.

Allow me to explain: you don’t incorporate ALL of them at once. After listening to the eight different habits and routines, which ones are you already doing? Can you continue these or optimize these in any way? Start there.

Maybe you have an inclination to a specific habit I shared that you aren’t already doing. Great! What is a tiny action you can take today, and maybe tomorrow, and the next day to start incorporating this into your life? Keep it small, keep it simple.

Experimentation is necessary when you’re pulling from examples of what has worked for others. You might need to time block your experiment, and most definitely give yourself grace and patience through this process.

Remember that habit formation looks different for every person, as well as for every habit. There is a unique process to forming a habit, just like you are unique! As a Healthy Habit Mentor, I’ve done the research and a lot of the experimentation myself as well as with the different personality types of each of my clients and students, so I can help you save more time and frustration during your healthy habit transformation!

Comment below this video, or send me a DM on instagram @vallavignelife, I’d love to support you with wherever you’re at!

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!