Hi.

I'm Laura Vanderkamp.

I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist, and speaker.

And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer and course creator.

We are two working parents who love our careers and our families.

Welcome to best of both worlds.

Here we talk about how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.

From figuring out childcare to mapping out long.

Term career goals.

We want you to get the most out of life.

Welcome to best of both worlds.

This is Laura.

This episode is airing in early August of twenty twenty five.

We are going to be talking wellness trends, what is hot in the world of wellness today, and whether we are trying any of these said trends.

And then we are also going to pivot into a discussion of how to reset.

A lot of wellness is about getting a fresh start, but there are lots of ways one can have a fresh start in life.

So if you are looking for that at this time of year, summer, we will be discussing ways to do that.

So, Sarah, this episode is your baby.

I am in charge today and why am I in charge?

Because Laura may.

Or may not be that excited about very many well on this trends, as you are about to find out.

But I thought it was an interesting topic because people are always debating this stuff.

At the water cooler.

You know, this or that protein or fat, macrocounting or that.

I don't know, and I just thought it would be interesting to do an episode where we did a rundown on our thoughts about various things, either because we've tried them or just because we've thought about them.

And this is not supposed to be an episode with medical recommendations or like the end all be all, like we are right, we know the answer to these things.

But I think with any of this kind of I don't know, trending thing that you might want to try, it's always interesting to hear different perspectives, and so you're going to provide those today because fun fact, Laura and I don't always share the same perspective on all of these wellness trends, although sometimes we do.

Hey, yeah, fun fact, I actually recently reviewed a book for The Wall Street Journal by Amy Larroca called How to Be Well that was on wellness trends.

She's a long time magazine editor who wrote a book that was kind of skewering a lot of various wellness trends.

It's pretty funny.

She tried out various things that sound terrible, like colonics and making fun of the various It was mostly about the wellness trends aimed at women.

She was pointing out that in the past, women were pressured to be skinny.

Now you need to be skinny and have this glow that's obtained through like your vegan food and clean makeup and all this other stuff.

And it may seem a little bit more empowering, but a lot of.

It is exactly the same idea of making you conform to some view of what women are supposed to be like.

Although some of this is aimed at men too.

There are lots of things aimed at men trying to be masters of the universe with trying various ridiculous things.

I mean, there's some examples, she used of a guy who was using expensive hearing aids in public even though there's nothing wrong with his hearing, or the people monitoring their blood glucose constantly, who again are not diabetic.

A lot of that is this may be the first I love that part.

Can we add it in.

Okay, Actually, I'm going to give you my hot take on that, which is that like it's information, it's information, Yes, I mean, but then I think there's also this idea that like you're supposed to keep your blood sugar like, you know, at ninety all day long and it's never.

Supposed to ever bow up.

Yeah.

I don't think there's a lot.

Of data to actually support that, and yet some of oh my god, I went to one twenty two when it came down like, yeah, that's physyllogy, not pathology.

So I guess I am.

But I also feel like if it shows you which foods, first of all, insulin resistance is pretty common, and if it shows you which foods bring your blood sugar way up and stay up and you are and they are not the best foods, then again might be personally valuable, but I think maybe being overused in very specific segments of the population.

Yes, all right, Well, moving on from there, All right, Sarah, where are we starting with the wellness trends?

We're just gonna start with a really easy one, easier than that one because we already talked about it, and that is cold plunges.

There's gonna be a whole other episode on cold.

Plunges, the Cold Plunge episode where we do a live cold plunge on the Yeah, I love it for you if you love cold plunges, but I am gonna live my life without doing it.

That's my plan.

I do like going from like a hot hot tub to a less hot heated pool in Montana where you get to like put your feet in the snow for a minutes.

That's like the closest.

But I'm I've read some of the like I looked up data and I didn't I was unimpressed.

And I I think if you love them, you should do them.

But I don't think you should expect some sort of magic to happen.

I hate being cold in general, so not going to happen.

There are places that actually in addition to like cold pledging into like water or something that you can actually like pay to go in and you know, like a cold room and yeah.

No, yeah, no, okay.

Moving on protein.

Protein is an interesting one because I do read some things that are like, oh my gosh, protein is so overhyped because you only really need X amount of grams, And then I see other things that are like for successful aging and building muscle mass through strength training, you need, you know, a really good amount of protein, and I think the truth lies in between with many of these things.

However, for me a personal experiment kind of perspective, I kind of like protein.

I'm on the protein train.

I feel more satiated when I eat something like twenty plus grams of protein at each meal, and I definitely did not always eat that amount of protein.

It doesn't always have to be meat either.

There's like some reasonable sources of protein that are either dairy or even vegan.

It's harder, but there's some.

And I guess from what I have gleaned and read, it does seem like there might be an association of getting enough protein I don't know exactly where that threshold is and preserving muscle mass, which I think does make a lot of sense, would be associated with successful aging.

So I guess I'm pro protein.

Laura, Well, how about this, like if somebody was trying to do this, Like what does that actually look like when you're saying I wasn't getting enough protein at different meals or snacks, Like what did you actually add to.

Yeah, that's a great question.

So well, first of all, I think actually Knowing what has protein and calculating how much you're getting is important because you might think, oh, this is like super healthy, and maybe it is super healthy in other ways.

But for example, a breakfast which I used to eat and consider pretty healthy and I still eat sometimes anyway, oatmeal, peanut butter and like a fruit okay, that does not actually have very much protein at all.

It might explain why despite having a pretty decent amount of calories depending on how much peanut butter you add, you're like hungry two and a half hours later and searching for something and versus something like eggs or cottage cheese and granola and a fruit which tends to be like my new favorite thing that is just like going to keep me full longer, And who doesn't want to just be able to not have to take a break in the middle of patients because my breakfast was more satiating.

I don't know.

For me, that seems to have benefit.

Plus the idea that maybe it would help some more muscle growth kind of stick on me after my workout.

Like again, maybe that's not entirely true, but if it does sway the pendulum and I like both options, then for me kind of makes sense, But I think understanding how much you are getting and then starting to understand the value the amount that is present in various foods, Like certain things people underestimate, Like I don't think people realize that bread does have some protein.

For example, it's not a zero protein food.

I think the Frugal Girl recently posted she had like this open faced tuna melt.

It was like a piece of bread, pile of tuna, and some cheese.

It was like thirty grams of protein or some huge amount.

But I do think understanding like what those numbers are and what you're aiming for can actually be helpful, or at least it's been helpful for me.

Yeah, this is in the category of things I'm not terribly worried about because I have two eggs for breakfast basically every single morning, so breakfast is already that check with fruit.

But then I probably eat.

More meat than I should anyway, So if that is the case, like meat tends to have protein.

And a lot of protein.

I mean a lot of times for lunch, I'm having leftovers from the night before, and I would say almost all of our meals would have had some meat in them.

That was a dinner, so then that you wind up having meat for lunch too, which I think some people might not have done it.

There might be people having a peanut butter sandwich or something like that for lunch, and that would not be the case for me.

I would be having whatever tacos we had from the night before, that kind of thing.

And you know, this does sort of extend to kids a little bit, and maybe not with the same end goal.

But if your kids drive you nuts because they do ask for a snack an hour after the mule, which is just logistically irritating, then I've started to try to be like, Okay, does anything on your plate have protein in it?

Okay, Well, if not, go find a yogurt or something like that.

Yeah.

That We're struggling with this with the picky eater in my family, who is also growing rapidly right now, because what can you do, Like, there's only so many forms of protein that pass muster.

Although knowing his preferences, some of them do have protein, Like.

Well, chicken nuggets, yes, I mean, I guess you can eat check you do cheese sticks, cheese sticks or cheese sticks.

Yeah, you could do cheese sticks.

There's a lot of cheese being consumed.

I can tell you that piles of individually wrapped cheeses that are consumed.

They're keeping him alive and growing, keeping.

Him alive like that.

The chicken nuggets, well, that is what it is.

But how about the sticks?

Well, should we take a quick ad break or and then get a quick ad break and then we'll be back with more wellness trends.

Well, we are back talking wellness trends and then ways to reset.

Sarah, what about lifting weights?

That's not really a trend, is it?

That's a Oh, it's totally a trend right now because all of the and we're going to get to like perimenopause being talked about.

And I really people might say, well, you're just noticing that because you're of that age, but I actually do not think that's I mean, that is part of it.

But I also think that like everyone's like, what wasn't talked about before?

And it's true, I feel like I still would have paid some attention and there just wasn't that much.

And now there's this whole wellness cohort that's like how do you age well?

And one of the ways to do that is to lift heavy and I mean, I kind of think there's truth to that one as well.

Having done the end of one experiment on myself, I knew for a fact and this is even pre hard condition, pre everything that body composition wise, I do best when I am mostly strength training and not doing a lot of cardio.

I have in the past made the choice to just ignore that because I loved running and it was fun and stuff like that.

But if anybody remembers my Little Beach Body phase, yes it's an MLM.

It was not my favorite company ever, but they had some great workouts and I had a nice time, and that's kind of where I guess I sort of learned to strength train.

And I know there's even much more serious forms of it where you're lifting way more weights than the up to twenty five pound dumbbells that I have at home.

But I really do kind of buy into the idea that loading your muscles helps grow those muscles, and metabobblically active tissue on your body does good things for you from a health perspective, from a I can move into my later year's perspective, and from an aesthetic perspective.

So I'm very on board with this trend and I'm fine that it's trendy because if there are more ways to do it, or like more studios that open up and more people talking about how to do it, then great, great for everyone.

Yeah, I would say the one thing I like about lifting weights strength training is it tends to take less time, so there's like certain the physics of getting from one place to another, even if you're running quite quickly, like you're gonna be throwing hours at it as a physical fitness kind of thing, whereas with strength training, you can do a couple minutes of it really honestly, and you're still getting some benefit from doing it.

So I work out with a trainer once a week it's a thirty minute thing, and then I probably repeat most of those at some other point.

But when I'm doing it on my own, I'm really only doing like ten to fifteen minutes, and that's.

About all I can stay entertained for.

But I guess it's it's better than nothing.

It's I'm sure it's better than nothing.

I'm sure it's significant.

And even if you do get to a point where like, okay, maybe I'm not building muscle, but on my maintaining muscle, you are just getting older, so that's kind of still.

A win as I have.

Yes, we are all getting older, that is true.

But here's something you're not as into.

Weighted vests.

Yes, oh my gosh, these are trending, and I don't know, like I'm trying to think about myself and like, okay, to be fair, like this is not an exercise that I can safely do with the heart stuff that I have.

Like the whole point of a.

Weighted vest is it's making your cardio harder and like more stress on your heart.

So like I wouldn't do this, and so part of me is maybe like, well, that's why you're like that's dumb, because because I'm left out or something.

But I also.

Feel like, okay, when you're running, if you're carrying more weight, like that's more stress on your joints, and isn't that exactly what a weighted best is doing?

And I guess you're walking instead of running.

But I also feel like it's this weird middle ground between cardio and strength.

I guess for someone who wants to cardiovascular effect of running but then can't run for some reason like maybe or hates to run, I could see that, although than I would say, go find some hills or something like that, because it would maybe be like a more natural movement.

I just yeah, I'm never gonna do this, and I don't totally get it.

But again, if you love it, then I love it for you.

I don't think it.

Yeah, although I feel like you can wind up carrying stuff in general.

That makes like.

Whatever you're doing, like I'm carrying a bag of groceries, I like carrying a backpack.

I'm getting you know, like you're hiking and you need weight, like put water in your backpack.

Like now you're carrying weight.

I mean it's like are you carrying your kids up the steps or something like that.

I don't know the idea of creating artificial weight when you're doing these things maybe I don't know.

I guess it hasn't come up to me.

It just it would be like, oh, how to make your walk unpleasant?

Yeah, make yourself like how you felt walking when you were pregnant.

That doesn't seem like more fun?

Yeah?

Yeah, no, Although now I'm like having flashbacks of like walking around with the Ergo.

But that was like cozy.

I mean it was heavy, but it was nice heavy.

Yeah, our kid in the backpack.

We've Michael took a lot of kids in our backpack.

That went through all five kids hiking backpack.

But yes, that has been retired now nobody's going on the back anymore.

So yeah, that's a that's the original weighted vest.

That's the original weight invest like put your offspring on your body somewhere.

Yeah.

No, all right, well we're not we're not big fans, but I mean again, if you love it, you should, you should enjoy it, all right, this one, you were like, what even is that?

And I don't know if I would know if this was without a thirteen year old daughter.

But everything is.

Clean, girl.

Oh that's so clean girl.

And it's like it's like this aesthetic of like all your food looking very green smoothie and all your rooms looking pink and empty.

And I guess I just like this is one of those things where I'm like, oh, social media harms because no one's actual life looks like that.

And I don't find it inspiring whatsoever.

I just find it irritating.

And I think more people should post pictures of the green smoothie that exploded all over their kitchen.

That's not the clean girl aesthetic.

No, the messy girl, it's the real life.

Yeah, okay, I didn't even know what that was, so I heard it.

Gosh, I read I.

Read some magazine for a while that they kept talking about eating clean.

Is that a phrase?

Like what is it?

I don't like that phrase even, like what what does?

What is dirty?

Dirty?

I don't know, probably think.

Dirty and that's you know, we have immune systems to deal with that.

Well, but the idea being that trying to eat mostly I guess, whole foods without and not ultra processed ingredients and without.

Like dies or well that I don't have a chemicals or something problem with.

Yeah, although I think it can be taken to a life disruptive level, which is kind of sad, but within reason.

But that's to me, that's not clean girl, that's like the mid level of normalcy, like before you get.

Up to yeah girl, Yeah, absolutely, all right.

All right, well here comes the juicy one GLP one medications.

Yeah, let's talk about it.

What do you have to say, Sarah?

Okay, spoiler that I included this because I notice that, like everyone uses this as clickbait, so everyone must want to know what everyone else thinks of these I prescribe them, so I don't have a problem with them at all.

Actually, I mean for the right customer.

So they're FDA approved for in kids and teens if you have a BMI of a of over ninety five percent for your height and age for ages twelve and up, and they're also approved for type two diabetes.

And for some people they are so so helpful and the benefits absolutely outweigh the risks.

Do I think they're overused in certain circles.

I do this is another like you do you?

Like?

I think everyone should make their own choices, but I think it is important for everyone to understand some of the downsides.

And to me, my three big cautions are A.

I think so many people use them thinking I want to use this for a little while, And I just think that is such a slippery slope because most of the data suggest that not all but most people gain the weight back, and then you're sort of just setting yourself up for a life of like torturing yourself.

Like do I take it?

How much?

Do I take it?

Like it's just like another layer of and you have many decades of life ahead of you, which is my hesitation.

In teens who are not that impacted by their weight.

From a health.

Perspective, it's like, Ooh, are you ready for sixty years taking these meds?

I don't know, So that's number one.

Number two.

I think the hey, we're going back to muscle.

I think the muscle loss.

I mean, there's there's data to suggest it loves to take away muscle more than even just you know, weight loss takes away muscle too, and there are things you can do to mitigate that, like strength training, but the rapid muscle loss that can happen can set you up for a very bad yoo situation, especially if you then plan to go off because guess what, you're getting back weight and you're not getting back muscle, and then you're like metabolically worse off than when you started.

And I just think people need to understand that risk.

And then finally, I guess there's a black box of again if you're signing up to take a medicine like this and you're being realistic, which means if you want to sustain that late weight loss, you're taking them for a very long time.

We don't really know what like fifty years of taking these meds does, like maybe after twenty years everyone's eyeballs fell off, Like I don't, probably not, but like.

It would be unfortunately, don't assume me no.

Notice that's just theoretical, but like, yeah, I just think there is a little bit of uncertainty that people are trading for.

Well, I feel better now and absolutely in many situations, and I've seen them it's worth that risk.

Like I've seen people's lives change for the better.

It makes me so happy.

And I see patients whose lives are like just incredibly limited by their weight, and if this can help them, then it can be worth a lot of those trade offs.

So that is my clinician perspective.

No, I have not used them.

Yeah myself, I do not meet criteria.

Yeah, no, I mean I wonder how we will see this play out over time.

I mean certainly I think the early versions of it, it's people have had such side effects with nausea and things like that that the trade off is again, if you're extremely overweight, there can be a lot of upsides.

It's like, if you're only trying to lose what like fifteen pounds, then probably wouldn't be worth it.

For that, but who knows.

Maybe people will change over time.

What the drugs are out there, maybe there will be some sort of lifestyle version of it that's lighter, that only has a take.

A little bit of the Yeah, there's oral Novo Nordis has an oral one on the pipeline that's supposed to be a lot weaker.

And then there's also like a turbocharged another injectable coming down the pike, and I'm sure that's just a tip of the iceberg.

Yeah.

So yeah, well early days of that.

I mean, it's so good that there at least is something, though, I mean, oh my gosh, that's where I've seen.

I'm so fascinated because before these drugs existed, I think you're getting into this space where there was the body positivity movement, which I'm in general all about body positivity, and then some of those body positivity influencers suddenly got really really skinny, right, It is like, okay, so it actually wasn't a philosophical position.

It was that the current trade offs required to get that physique, it would have taken so much time and effort and unpleasantness, like in mental space, that it wasn't worth it.

I would think that would be really hard for some of them because if you've built your lovelihood around that.

Then you're like, I want to use these MUDs, but I can't because then I'm gonna lose my I'm gonna.

I think people still, I mean a lot of people, even who are body positivities.

If want to be skinny, I don't know, obviously.

But I will still follow this world, and I am not sad that I'm staying out of that.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

All Right, Well, we're gonna take one more quick ad break and then we'll be back with maybe tiny bit more on wellness and getting to our reset part of this episode.

All right, we'll take that down break.

All right, we're back.

Turns out we have a lot to say about wellness because we are far into the episode, all right, but we cannot leave wellness without talking about meditation definitely has been trending for at least the last few decades.

I guess that's a weird thing to say about, like an art practation practice that's like part of actual religions, But it's also true and probably not a insignificant market share when you think of all the apps and things that people do.

I like it, firstly, I like it.

I don't see it as a magic bullet.

I see it as a little vitamin.

Yeah.

I think I have not ever decided to make this a part of my life, like an actual practice.

Maybe it would have benefits.

I don't know.

I often will go out and walk or run and let my mind wander while I'm doing that.

Like I don't listen to music, so I have some of that time that I think is what people are getting at with meditation.

Totally.

Yeah, I mean I don't think there's magic.

I think I enjoy it, like I enjoy the practice of sitting down and like being peaceful and like letting my mind slow down.

I think if I found it torturous, there probably would not be as much well a benefit.

But be readson to continue because I don't think it's like, oh, this is magically doing something.

But I think it can be an enjoyable way to practice, an enjoyable part of your routine that might have some lingering positive things for me.

Absolutely, Okay, wearables, Sarah, wearables, are you on that?

Yes?

And no.

I have an Apple Watch.

I really love how it just keeps telling me all sorts of things like, oh my god, your cardio fitness is going down.

And you used to do more activity and you should just keep moving more.

And I'm like, well, if you were really that smart, you would know better.

So I don't know.

I still like my Apple Watch.

I don't really care that much about all the things that it's tracking, so I guess, yeah, I'm like here nor there.

I think steps can be a really helpful thing to track for certain people.

And I like the fact that I can get any kidge at any time.

It's very convenient.

I've never worn an or ring.

I feel like I would enjoy wearing one to find out what it thought about my sleep for like a week, but then i'd want to give it back.

But some people love them.

And I will say my husband is an unexpected like he's the kind of person who just like every single one of these things we're talking about.

He's like, eh, but he had a running watch that tracked sleep and he was like, actually, that was helpful, and it changed a little bit about how he was trying to sleep because it told him that he had like no sleep pat in at all.

And he's like, well, that's not good.

I don't know why he didn't realize that without the watch, but he didn't, and so it actually was helpful for him, and so your mileage may vary.

Don't expect miracles.

Yeah, well, the step counter, I mean, if you have your phone on you a lot of the day, I mean a phone is tracking your steps, like the iPhone is and the health.

But I don't have it on me.

It's always sitting on various desks and I'm walking around, so that is I.

Mean, mine's not with me in my office or like from walking back and forth to the kitchen necessarily, but a lot of the major like moving around in the day would be recorded on it.

And yeah, I think that gets a lot of it.

So you kind of already have that from the step perspective, Yeah, I haven't.

I mean I tracked my time.

I mean people know that I track my time pretty religiously, but have not decided to have any wearables doing it for me.

So I track my sleep without it.

I guess it seems like it's good enough sleep.

I haven't haven't needed to do that, all right, maybe one or two more?

Do we have to do?

Both of these?

I mean they're very fine.

Digital detoxing, Laura, I like my digital devices.

I don't know.

I think you just have to decide how you're going to deal with it, and if you, it's what I say, like, make sure you have enough effortful fun in your life that the effortless variety of fun is not the only thing you are doing.

A lot of people spend more time than they think they are spending on their phones, looking at social media, reading headlines.

Those are electronic hobbies, like we could just call them electronic hobbies.

And you are devoting perhaps hours a day to your electronic hobbies, and so maybe you can decide, well, is that what I want to be my primary hobby or I rather have something else like reading, calling friends, doing puzzles, knitting, arts and crafts, playing a musical instrument.

All those other things might be things that you could do in some of that discretionary time as well, And that's certainly what I try to do.

I think it is my favorite favorite digital detox modality is do something else, Like fully do something else so that you're not But I will say, as I drop my kids off at camp today, my older kids were like, we're excited not to have screens, So I don't know.

I also think the idea of taking a vacation where I'm totally unreachable and off the grid, although that has lusted with screen use and more to do with is just like everyone leave me alone is very appealing.

So I guess if I could have like a protected digital detox of some sort, I would totally do it.

Otherwise, I think I agree with Laura's take on things.

And then finally, we cannot end a wellness episode without asking about life coaches.

Oh, dear Sarah, do you have thoughts?

Yes and no, I don't feel as like, okay, if a life coach is a person that is going to get you to really think through what you want and maybe think through how various goals are not being met and troubleshoot around that.

I actually took like a wellness coaching certification at one point.

It was we were setting something up for residents and so it was covered and I did it.

It's called well.

Coaches, And I mean, I can see the value in that, just like I see the value in like the fact that some people land with me and I'm helping them to do a specific thing and give themselves time to think through things that they weren't going to give themselves.

However, that is like great.

And then we have a lot of coaches who either are trying to be a sub for therapy and kind of telling people that they'll fix everything, and then others who are selling very unrealistic things, especially financial things like I will make you rich as long as you pay me a lot of money, and I will make you rich by turning you into a coach, which I'm like, that is the pyramidius pyramid.

Ever, like, how is that not labeled a pyramid, because like there's only going to be so many coaches and coaches in the world, and at the end of the day, like if you're not one of those early coaches, like you are just okay, so you get what I'm saying.

So I guess just be very very careful out there.

But I don't think the whole field is bad.

I think some people probably you know, like I wouldn't even say no, would I never work with a life coach, like a one on one individual type of relationship.

That's just more like protected guided thought than it is I'm expecting miracles from this person who's going to give them all to me.

Yeah, I'd say just be careful out there, right, Like cold plunge whatever is not going to do anything to you.

But there's a lot of snake oil in the form of people wanting to make a buck in this field, as people want to make money in any field, but it's not necessarily very clear who's helpful and who isn't.

If you are going to go with one, make sure.

You've vetted the person and have like friends or colleagues who find them really helpful in a very concrete way, like they can point to something they have done differently as a result and view it with the goal of, Yes, I want a person to hold me accountable and I want protected time to think through my goals, and this is the way I'm going to get that in my life.

And I know that about myself.

I think then it could work.

But otherwise, yeah, I'm not sure that that's a great idea.

I don't think it should cost thousands of dollars either.

I just don't like, I don't think there's anyone worth that.

Yeah, okay, yeah, I was reading I've a book.

I won't mention the title because it's a popular one, but about somebody who paid many, many, many tens of thousand dollars to a particular coach with the idea that it was then going to force her to hustle and build the business too.

Oh, they should have just paid me.

I would have happily forced her to hustle.

Yeah.

Interesting, let's just say that you will never read that in one of myself help books.

So we have a different approach in life.

I'm not going to pay someone a bunch to the enforce me to hustle.

That will not be happening, like to decide on my own when I'm going to hustle.

So, anyway, ways to reset?

So we kind of thought we'd make a combo episode.

I guess maybe because I thought there wasn't enough to say about wellness.

But Sarah likes the topic.

More than I do, so we're just going to do a lightning round.

So a lot of wellness is about ways to.

Feel sort of fresh, new sense of possibility, and so we're talking about what are some ways that we do look to reset in life?

If you're looking for a reset, what can you do?

So, Sarah, you have some sort of daily rituals that help with this, right.

I find that setting up my planner page every day and like migrating my task from the day before and like sort of closing that day, Like my whole morning thing provides a really really nice reset.

And it's one reason that I really like daily planners.

Yeah, well I do.

I mean I plan weekly.

I mean I do give myself a to do list for each day.

Like so at the end of each day, a fresh area, a fresh area, make myself a to do list for the next day, and then each day is in fact a fresh start.

I love the idea of the day starting and you get your coffee and you sit down and it's all open.

On Monday morning, I look at my time log for the next week and it's all open.

But one of the reasons I like my weekly planning is well, whatever happened this week, whatever I've gotten done.

Next week is a new week, and here are the things I'm going to focus on, and I have my ideas of what needs to happen and how I'm going to happen.

And that makes me feel like a bit of a reset there.

Yeah.

I also, if I'm like struggling with a particular habit or you know, like I'm like, ah, Reddit, I need to quit again doing some kind of like manifesto, you know, like just figuring out like okay, like what do I really want going forward?

What isn't working?

Maybe writing out some like the way I want it to be.

In discussing with a friend, I have done this.

Does it work forever on everything?

No?

But it can provide a really nice, helpful fresh start.

And then every day is different, and if you have some successful days from something like this, then they count too.

So physically cleaning up can we need to be careful with this.

Life does not begin when you put your house in order.

You can live your life whatever your house looks like.

I feel like that's a message that is more feeding on sort of women's insecurities of like, oh, well, how can you dare do anything until everything is picked up?

No, you can go have your fun even if your kid's toys are still out on the playroom floor, Like, don't have that mindset.

That said, if you're feeling a little like and again we don't want to procrastinate here, but sometimes if your desk is messy, spending fifteen minutes cleaning it up can make you feel a little bit more excited about starting work.

If your bedroom is feeling a bit cluttered and you're finding it hard to relax, spending fifteen minutes tidying things up in there might make it feel a little bit more like you could at least shut the door and sit in there and enjoy a bit of relaxation from the rest of the house's clutter.

Yep.

Another thing is if you have a specific health habit, you're trying to work on finding somebody that inspires you, and again, try to find someone that you got to be careful with this because there's a lot of stuff out there.

But once you find someone who's a fit, then great binge.

Listen to their podcast or you know, read their website or whatever it is.

But like you want to get into running, you find people that you really respect that are going to inspire you.

But I have definitely done that with various things.

I've read a lot of books about various digital detox types of things that I've found helpful and inspiring to like create the screen relationship I want over the years.

So that's my example.

You might also try some sort of mini challenge of sorts, explicitly saying I am not saying I'm going to do this for the rest of my life, but for thirty days, I am going to do X and you can try it out.

See if you have sort of that motivational energy to take you through thirty days, or if there's too many logistical challenges, then I guess that's not going to work.

But you don't feel like you fail for the rest of your life is start something else.

But little mini.

Experiments can be a fun way to reset and try something new.

Yes, and then finally we had track it.

Whether that is your time when they're trying to figure out different habits, sometimes it's actually not the habits you want to track, but your time around those habits, especially if you're telling yourself the story that I haven't been able to fit it in because I didn't have time, or you could create some kind of tracker around the habits themselves.

Yeah, yeah, I mean having an open mind of that, like how much time there is.

I wrote on my blog today actually about having a priority for last week to run three times a week and get to the end of day Thursday, and it hadn't happened at all, Right, I hadn't run at all.

But it turns out that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are three days and you can run on those three days and still have run three times a week.

So sometimes viewing time a little bit more broadly can help with that.

Yes, all right, well this was a fun episode.

We are maybe expecting little feedback.

We would love to know your favoriteavorite wellness trends, your least favorite wellness trends.

And hopefully we didn't say anything too offensive.

I don't think we did.

I think we could have been far worse.

All right.

Sarah, the question for this week Longtime Listener, writes in that she is expecting her second child and time already feels crunched with a toddler.

She's a highly organized person when it comes to day to day things, but big picture planning is not always her favorite, whereas her husband is more of the visionary and wants to talk all things baby and long range planning for our family.

Our first child is two and there are things we'd like to do differently leading up to and following baby number two's arrival.

Would you be able to share your tips for thinking through a second pregnancy and preparing for another shift in our family?

How would you recommend we plan for this big change as we reflect on our parenting journey so far.

I love this.

I had fun thinking through this because I was like, well, what would have what did I think through?

And like, what would it have helped me to actually think through as it went from one to two?

But when would you have been thinking you had like a fourteen month old, like.

While I was taking walks with her in the ergo and pretending it was a weighted best all right, So concrete things that you could think about would be does it make sense to rethink your childcare?

Like, is this the moment when it makes sense to go from daycare to nanny, which we did when we went from one kid to two kids?

How will you ensure that this was a really big thing on my mind?

And I'm sure you're already thinking about it, but like, how will you make sure that older kid still feels like they get great to one on one attention when you also have a baby?

Manage?

What'll be some things you might be able to preserve just doing with them?

What kinds of family fun will still be doable with a newborn in tow and honestly a lot because if you're aready dealing with a toddler, probably a lot of those things will translate very nicely to a newborn.

But that will be a reassuring train of thought most likely, how will you get some extra help with your toddler if pregnancy fatigue sets in or if you just feel horrendous, like, will there be kind of a pop off out for you because you might need one?

And then finally all those space related stuff because I feel like, you know, having your baby and your tiny apartment works, and then you add two and all of a sudden, it's like ah.

Although Tyler Moore of Tidy Dad would say that you should question those assumptions.

You can fit multiple kids in a small apartment if you do it right.

Yeah, I would say the childcare and space are the two that are probably most going to matter.

That there might be a.

Benefit in having some childcare outside of regular working hours if it's one kid is one thing, multiple kids like, especially if you're trying to get a baby down and a toddler is screaming for your attention.

If you're parenting on your own in the evenings frequently, for instance, that would be an occasion to get an extra set of hands for you can also, and the space is a practical one too, But I think a lot of life ideas don't necessarily survive encounters with your actual children.

Like you may have philosophies about how you intend to parent or have family culture or whatever, and some of those will work and some absolutely will not because they just do not work with your particular child, and that is just something you may have.

To roll with.

But you could at least think about it if you want, Like, this would be a fun thing to do, Like I thought, this would be a fun family culture to have, so now as our family is growing, we can introduce this idea.

And again, I think a lot of the bigger stuff you're just gonna have to see how it works with your kids.

But like it can be fun little things like we are a family that always has a huge Arbor Day celebration, I don't know.

We are the family that always takes photos in matching jammys on Halloween.

We are a family who Those are the kinds of things you might decide would be fun to do and try with and could probably make happen.

And they can be experiments, just like our little thirty day health ones.

See if it works, see.

If it works, see if it doesn't.

But like you have to have sort of be flexible in general.

But if you have a one kid, you can handle two.

I mean it's just it's just more juggling.

So and if you can handle two, you can handle fun, you can handle three, you can handle three.

All right, Sarah Love of the week.

What do you have this week?

So we mentioned strength training and some people just hate it or are scared of it.

And I would say, for me, one of the easiest gateway drunks are like it would be to actually try the Peloton strength classes.

And I have no Peloton affiliation.

Peloton is obviously known for like cycling and cardio and being really sweaty, but honestly, their strength library is enormous and has things that are like ten minutes long for beginners, and it has things that are you know, hour.

They have programs, they have standalones, they have a million different styles, they have yoga, they have stretching like they're not cardio.

Offerings are immense and I pay something like it's under fifteen dollars per month for however many you want to do.

So I just think if you haven't tried that, that might not be the answer, but it's one possible answer of many.

Absolutely.

Yeah, Well I'm gonna throw out the Mason Perrier forever.

Lime I may have mentioned this before, but sparkling water yet out not as good as a craft beer.

But if you've decided, in the interest of wellness that having a craft beer on a Tuesday is a bad idea, then.

The uh Perier is a nice substitute.

Oh, we could have included that.

Well, it was long enough.

That's long enough.

Yes, all right, Well, this has been best of both worlds.

We've been talking wellness trends in a way to reset.

We will be back next week with more on making work and life fit together.

Thanks for listening.

You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you.

Can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

This has been the best of both worlds podcasts.

Please join us next time for more on making work and life work together.