Wellness That Works in Real Life: Small Changes, Better Habits and Feeling Like Yourself Again
There is no shortage of advice telling us how to be healthier. Eat this. Don't eat that. Exercise more. Sleep eight hours. Drink more water. Reduce stress. Take care of your hormones. Fix your gut. Cook from scratch. Read every label. Meditate. Meal prep. And, apparently, do all of it while working, taking care of a family, maintaining relationships, answering emails, paying bills, and somehow getting enough sleep.
No wonder wellness can start to feel like another job.
But what if taking better care of ourselves didn't have to begin with completely overhauling our lives? What if it started with understanding ourselves better, paying attention to how we actually feel, and making changes we can realistically continue?
That was at the heart of my recent conversation on The Best Ever You Show with Brianna Brown Keen and Ragan Wallake of Wellness Babes.
What I appreciated about our conversation was the emphasis on real life. Wellness isn't particularly useful if it only works when life is calm, your refrigerator is perfectly stocked, you have two free hours every morning, and nobody needs anything from you. For most of us, that's not Tuesday.
Wellness Is More Than What You Eat
We often reduce wellness to food and exercise, but how we feel is influenced by so much more. Stress, sleep, mindset, hormones, habits, relationships, our environment, and the way we move through our days can all affect our well-being.
Food matters, of course. Learning what nourishes us matters. Understanding ingredients, preparing food, and developing healthier habits matter. But wellness can become frustrating when we approach it as a series of rules we have to follow perfectly.
Real life doesn't work perfectly.
There are vacations and holidays. There are demanding workweeks. There are sick kids, aging parents, deadlines, celebrations, grief, travel, exhaustion, and nights when dinner simply needs to get on the table.
A sustainable approach to wellness has to leave room for being human.
Pay Attention Before You Try to Fix Everything
One of the most useful things we can do is become curious about ourselves.
How do I feel after I eat certain foods? When is my energy highest? When does it crash? Am I actually hungry, or am I stressed, tired, bored, or running on empty? Am I sleeping well? What happens to my choices when I'm overwhelmed? What habits consistently help me feel better?
We can become so accustomed to not feeling our best that we stop noticing.
Sometimes the first step isn't changing anything. It's paying attention.
That principle applies well beyond nutrition. Awareness gives us information, and information gives us choices.
That's something I talk about frequently in my own work: Pause. Breathe. Choose.
Pause long enough to notice what's happening. Breathe before immediately falling back into an automatic response. Then make the next choice you can make.
You don't have to make every healthy choice for the rest of your life today.
You just have to make the next one.
Stop Making Wellness an All-or-Nothing Proposition
One of the quickest ways to abandon a healthy change is to believe we have ruined everything the moment we don't do it perfectly.
We miss a workout, eat something we hadn't planned to eat, stay up too late, have a stressful week, or fall back into an old habit, and suddenly we're starting over Monday.
Again.
But there is an enormous difference between having an imperfect day and abandoning yourself.
One meal isn't your entire diet. One missed workout doesn't erase the movement you've already done. One difficult week doesn't cancel months of healthier choices.
Progress doesn't require perfection. It requires returning.
That may be one of the most important wellness skills we can develop: learning how to come back without shaming ourselves for having wandered away.
Healthy Food Should Still Be Enjoyable
I also love any wellness conversation that leaves room for the pleasure of food.
Food is nourishment, but it's also family, culture, memory, creativity, gathering, celebration, and connection. A healthy relationship with food shouldn't require us to become afraid of eating or to believe that enjoying something makes us unsuccessful.
Cooking can also reconnect us with what we're eating in a way that packaged convenience foods often don't. We see the ingredients. We smell them. We taste as we go. We learn what we like. We begin understanding what makes us feel satisfied and nourished.
And no, every meal doesn't need to look like it was photographed for a cookbook.
Sometimes healthy dinner is beautiful.
Sometimes it's Tuesday.
Both count.
Why Community and Accountability Matter
We tend to think healthy habits are an individual responsibility, but our environment matters enormously.
It's easier to make a change when other people understand what you're trying to do. It's easier to keep learning when you can ask questions. It's easier to return after a difficult week when nobody is standing there waiting to judge you for having one.
That's one of the ideas behind Wellness Babes. Brianna and Ragan, along with clinical nutritionist Julie DelaBarre, have created a community that brings together nutrition, cooking, mindset, education, goal setting, and support.
Rather than treating wellness as one isolated piece of life, their approach recognizes that the pieces are connected.
And I think that's important.
We aren't a collection of separate departments. Our work affects our stress. Our stress can affect our sleep. Our sleep can affect our energy. Our energy can affect our choices. Our choices can affect how we feel.
It's all connected because we're all connected.
Six Weeks Can Be a Beginning
Wellness Babes is also offering a six-week transformation experience designed to help women take a closer look at their nutrition, habits, energy, hormones, gut health, mindset, and overall well-being.
I like the idea of six weeks not because I believe anyone completely transforms every aspect of their health in 42 days, but because six weeks is enough time to begin paying attention differently.
It's enough time to learn.
To experiment.
To notice patterns.
To practice new behaviors.
To discover what helps.
And perhaps most importantly, to stop thinking about wellness as something you'll eventually get around to when life becomes less busy.
Because taking care of yourself is part of your life.
It isn't something you earn after you've taken care of everyone and everything else.
Start Where You Are
If you're feeling overwhelmed by wellness advice, you don't need another impossible list.
Start smaller.
Drink the water.
Take the walk.
Make the appointment you've been postponing.
Cook something nourishing.
Go to bed earlier.
Ask the question.
Learn something about your body.
Put your phone down while you eat.
Notice what gives you energy and what consistently takes it away.
And when you don't do everything perfectly, begin again with the next choice.
You don't need to become a completely different person to take better care of yourself.
You need to pay attention to the person who is already here.
Pause. Breathe. Choose.
And make the next choice one that cares for you, too.
You can learn more about Brianna Brown Keen, Ragan Wallake, Julie DelaBarre, Wellness Babes, and their programs at WellnessBabes.org.
You can also hear my full conversation with Brianna and Ragan on The Best Ever You Show.
About Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino
Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino is a bestselling author, speaker, coach, and founder of Best Ever You®. She is the author of The Change Guidebook and The Success Guidebook and co-author with Dr. Katie Eastman of The Peace Guidebook and Percolate: Let Your Best Self Filter Through. Through her books, courses, coaching, speaking, and The Best Ever You Show, Elizabeth helps people navigate change, redefine success, practice peace, and create meaningful lives grounded in gratitude, compassion, and purpose.
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