Habits We’re Doubling Down on This Year // Things We’re Continuing To Do This Year to Thrive

[MUSIC] Hello and welcome back to the Artie Friends Podcast. This is Allison and this is Kara. Today, we're going to be talking about habits that we are continuing, that we have been doing either recently or for many years, that we're going to keep doing in the new year for 2026. And this week's episode is piggybacking off of last week's episode, which was kind of piggybacking off of the one before that, all are under the theme of that new year energy. And so today, we're going to be talking about things we're continuing, because last week, we talked about things that we stopped doing. Yeah, so a fun little flip. And we took a look at our habits, our routines, wrote down the ones that are sticking that have been working, and we'll share those with you today. But first, as always, we're going to catch up, share our peaks of the week, and then we'll get into our lists. Amazing. I know you were talking about earlier this month, in the New Year cleaning mode. I have hit that point now, and it feels so good. We organized a closet and a big cabinet, donated some items to the thrift store, and then just did a deep clean of every room, every linen, the rugs, and a bunch of random projects. The tape that you put underneath the rug, so it doesn't move around, we added new sticky tape to the rugs, just all of these miscellaneous projects that kind of got put on the back burner after baby was born, that now the deep cleaning happened. And it feels so good. Yes, I'm with you. I feel like it's just part of the time of the year to do that. Spring cleaning, who? No, it's January for me. Yes, and then we also got some exciting deliveries. One showing you here, hydrogen water bottle. Are you on this? Do you know anything about it? No, please share. Well, honestly, this was Clay's doing. He got really excited about it and ordered it. And they just came like a few hours ago, so I'm only on my third fill-up of it. And I don't really know the science behind it. So I'll report back next week or something, but it's supposed to be very good for you. And I'm like, you know what? Mm-hmm. New year, new wellness habits. Let's give it a try, but it tastes the same. I think it's just on a molecular level that it's supposed to be doing something extra. And then we also got a stroller, which we had ordered a while ago, but it's from a smaller Dutch company. And it got backordered with the holidays. And then there was a bad storm here. So it finally got delivered. And we have been doing all of the walks. It is life-changing because the carrier is so convenient, like having baby on you. But then if I have to also carry the diaper bag, or if I'm going to the grocery store, or I'm holding a coffee or peaches, it just feels like a lot going on. And usually I always have peaches with me. And at least a coffee or groceries or my phone and my keys. And it just like, for a longer walk, it's kind of tiring. So the stroller was game-changing. I'm like, wait, I can put all the groceries in the bottom and I can tie peaches leash to the stroller. So it's definitely made the last week a lot more active because I don't feel as constrained by the variables going into the walks. Yeah, that would feel overwhelming. All the things that you listed to carry. I know the first time I did it, I hadn't gotten used to the carrier or wearing all of the layers because it's like, you have to put the carrier only on like your underneath layer, like over a long sleeve. And then I do the coat on top of that because if you put it on top of the coat, it's like, the coat is too bulky under all of the straps. So there was like a lot to figure out with it. A long story short, well, that was kind of a long story long but stroller, much more efficient and then on the same wavelength. I feel like I'm emerging out of my postpartum bubble a little bit because I'm at five, yeah, five weeks in a day now since he was born. So I'm feeling good. I did stop bleeding at week three so then I waited like another week and then at exactly a month. I went back to yoga, started riding my bike again. I went to yoga this morning too and Clay gave me some arm lifting sessions because I still want to be careful like with my abs and like avoiding squats or anything just quite yet. But I was like, I can do arms and that felt really good. So I'm trying to ease back into it. And so I feel like I found, you know, like a nice balance between getting past the thick of recovering, feeling good and getting back out in the world. So I feel like it was actually a pretty nice normal week and all of those things gave me a lot of energy and felt like, okay, life is kind of normal again. Yeah, that's good. And going back to super random. I'm sorry, I said this when you were talking about this, going back to the hydrogen. I haven't heard about hydrogen water bottles but I know that hydrogen is so speak good for you and Connor has these hydrogen tabs. He has all these suit allergies and yeah, and they're basically they're in his, the allergy cells are in his throat. So he isn't get like anaphylactic shock but if he eats something that bothers him his throat will start to close and he's got these hydrogen tabs that he heard on the podcast and they literally help him if he's having an allergy flare up. Like it completely heals him. Like he'll drop a tab in water and drink it if he is out to eat and like feels like he got something that he wasn't supposed to get in his food and it completely heals him. That's not what it's for but like hydrogen has amazing benefits. Okay, fascinating. So before having the hydrogen tablets would he have like used an epi-pin in that situation or would he have just rode out the allergy? I think he would have just suffered and been miserable for like three to four days just like letting him heal itself. Yeah, which is why he doesn't really eat out that much but I think these have helped him like not be as stressed eating out. Yeah, yeah because he's like okay, I can do something about it instead of just feeling like four days. Dang, well that's amazing for him. Yeah, the one he does is H2 tab but I'm sure there's like really good benefits if you're getting this water bottle gives you a little bit of hydrogen every time you're drinking water. I'll look into that. We'll report back. Okay, yes, we'll do follow up. I'll still corner about that. I'm sure he would be very interested. Oh yeah, because then he could just have it all the time. Yeah, this is so stupid but it led Clay and I to having a little quiz of the periodic table because we were like okay, hydrogen is each and then what is each E? Oh, it's helium. Wait, Fe is iron. I was really feeling like I was an eighth grade again. Do you remember like getting tested over all of those? Yes, but I feel like it left my brain a week later. There's a few that I could maybe remember but actually fun back. Did you ever read red rising? And I read the first one. Did you read any of the other ones? This is so funny because Clay and I were just eating dinner and he was talking about the red rising ones because he read all of them and now he's listening to them. And he was talking about the producer and now how they're making it into a movie or something and he like sold the rights to universal and then he didn't like how they were doing it. So he bought them back. And I think I shouldn't be talking about this because it's not my world and I'm probably butchering this. But I'm like Clay, can you come out of the bedroom for a second? Share the glass, share the tea. What's going on? But in the book, they are the golds, the silvers, the bronze, they have these different periodic table names like that's what the groups are in the society. So if you're gold, your name is AU. It has AU and it because that's the periodic element. Oh. And a lot of readers don't know that. I learned it like on the fourth book because I saw Tick Talk about it. But I think it's only the ones that are like gold silver because yeah, there's reds and pinks and oranges. I don't think they get a like a periodic table element. It's only those ones. I think they're maybe another one. I love finding like Easter eggs and movies and books and things like that. Okay. So, okay. So, you're Friday. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. So I was going to reach all them. There's the golds. So, Roke, Ah, Fobby, someone's name. So it's like first name. And then like the AU is like their middle name, I guess. But any gold has AU as like their middle. There's titanium's and there is TI. So, Trig, T, Nakamura, Silvers. And then I guess blue gets one. The blues are X-E for Z-Non, which is apparently blue. But that's it. None of the other ones get. That's all the periodic elements in that book. Okay. Still a fun spin on the names. I like that. You'll have to tell Clay if he isn't noticed. Yeah, I feel I dropped off reading those. I read the first one and the second one. You have to get back into it. It's so good. It is a full-time job. Like my, they're not small books. And like my goal last year for reading books was to read 20. And because I read read rising, they're so big. And they're seven of them. I only had got 19 of my 20 books last year as a reading goal. Because read rising took up like five months. And they were just massive. That was only seven books. That's it. I went in over 500 pages. Yeah. Dang. Well, good for you for getting to the whole series. That's good dedication. And you were busy. You were just like birthing a child. Growing a child. That's fine. It means you're derailed us. Any other updates? That's it for me. How was your week? It was good. I told Alice in this, but I got hacked this weekend. So that derailed. Pretty much two days. My weekend was just making sure all my accounts were actually secured. Long story short, short. I had an old password. They've been using like 10 years that I've been phasing out on anything important. But it was still lingering on a few things. And I posted a TikTok about this. But I'm like, if Google is telling you you've compromised passwords, you should just listen and just check that you're not using it on anything important. And I was using it on like three important things. Two of those accounts had two FI on. So I got emails that someone was trying to get in. And they didn't get like, I had a myriad account with a ton of points in it. Was using this weird old password. I think they were trying to get into like my Reddit and also my Hilton account. But my IHG rewards, which I luckily I don't ever really stay at IHG hotels. It did get hacked though. And they took away points. I don't even know how many of it were in there because again, I didn't even really use it. But I am getting recovered right now. So I called IHG and luckily they are helping me out. But I was just hanging out on Friday. And all of a sudden I'm getting signed up. So they took basically my e-gmail email. And then that old password and tried basically literally every website under the sun to log into with that information. And so I was just getting so many emails of like, if basically they didn't get into website with that combo, it signed me up. So I literally got signed up for like a thousand plus website newsletters accounts. And so yeah, last couple days. I was just going through unsubscribing for everything. Which online I was saying, don't unsubscribe from all these things just yet. Because then it's going to signal to the hackers that this email is live and absolutely dead email. But I'm like, I can't not keep, like I just kept, my phone just kept buzzing all day. So I eventually turned it off and put it on sleep mode. Because I'm like, I'm literally getting so many emails. And I'm like, I don't care if they know that it's active now because I have to start unsubscribing to all these. And thank God Gmail has like a mass unsubscribe option. Then I also had 38,000 emails. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Tell me about that. I want to know a mass unsubscribe. So then you can select, I think I had like 20,000 or something. Promotions, emails. And so then it allowed me to select them all. And then I hit delete. Which then it took like 15 minutes to load it. So I walked away, yeah. Because then just sort of just slowly delete them all. But then before I did that, from all the ones that had come in the last like two days or in that span where I got spammed, I went through in like by 50, made sure that I was like unsubscribing to all those. I don't know. It's a whole thing. But yeah, you can like mass select 50 at a time. And then at the top, there's a stop sign in Gmail. And you click that and it says like unsubscribe from all or report spam. I was reporting spam because then I think I like moves it all to the spam folder. Because I'm like, I didn't subscribe from these. Maybe I should have hit unsubscribe. But I was reporting them as spam. So then maybe it didn't flag to the hackers. I don't know. It's all beyond me. But thank God my other bank accounts. The ones that came when I started getting hacked, I made sure to unsubscribe from all those. But I still had like 30,000 promotional emails, even in my Gmail from before this happened. So then I deleted all those. I just straight up deleted all those. Okay, yeah, that's what I used to. I go and do like the mass deleting of like just like all that feels so good. But I thought you were able to mass unsubscribe. Because you know of some like the next door is so annoying. Like on next door, I've not subscribed from it multiple times. But it will be like next door alerts, next door marketing, next door neighbor updates. So there's like all of these different buckets that they have my email in. And I'm like, I swear to God, I have unsubscribe from next door so many times. And I'm still getting emails every day of what's happening in Omaha. And I'm like, this does not pertain to me. And you have cleaning up the inbox promotions. Sounds like a great New Year's energy activity. If I could unsubscribe all at one time. Yes, yes. I think you can. I think in that promotion tab, you can also unsubscribe it. Once I unsubscribeed, well, pretty much since I was doing that for those thousands that had come on Friday, I figured that I was also unsubscribing from all the ones that were in that promotion's tab. But I don't know. So now every single day, any ones that come through, I make sure I unsubscribe. But I just wanted to delete it. I might have been deleting and reporting spam slash unsubscribing. I think you can do both. So I got that done and made sure all my passwords were safe. And yeah, luckily, take this as your sign. Make sure you have for every banking account, have a new, unique password. Don't use the same for any of your banking accounts. Which and make sure to factor authentication is on. Which, yeah, I had all that on. So like I knew that I wasn't the worst at security. But it was a slip up to have a few accounts with this old password on it still. But now I know what I said to you offline. The same thing, just such a waste of time. Things like that. It's like, yes. At the end of it, just so annoying, derailed your whole weekend. And like, for what? A hundred percent. And I was like, because then even when I woke up Saturday morning, because this all happened on Friday. And yeah, I think I spent literally eight hours like deleting emails, changing all my, because I had a one-by-one change any password. Because I was just paranoid that maybe they missed something. Oh, I missed something. And then they were going to log in the next. So I woke up Saturday morning like, I kind of make sure I changed up. We had to hang like just to be extra sure. So that was yeah, just unnecessary stress. But had a nice rest of my weekend. And I can share my peak one of my things I got to do this weekend. I got breakfast with a friend, my friend Alexa. We went to coffee and breakfast this morning at Telva at the Ridge, which is a really nice coffee shop restaurant here in St. Louis. She's 37 weeks pregnant. So she's, she could be due anytime now. It's so fun to catch up with her. I haven't really seen her since I think of her first trimester. So that was a peak was catching up with a friend having a nice breakfast. And it's so cold here. So I'm like, it was nice to do something indoors and nice and cozy and warm. Yeah, that does sound very cozy. And I know you've mentioned this restaurant before. And I'm trying to remember what was special about it. Did they have a sister restaurant or is this the Mediterranean? Yeah, but I think both. It's the Balkan. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Okay. You literally spot on. You remember. Yeah. So this is their breakfast spot. And it's so good. I know you love the other one. Yeah, the Balkan tree box. So good. St. Louis people. Yes. The St. Louis lore. You know now. How about you? What was your peak? I feel embarrassed to share it. But if anyone has been pregnant, I feel like they will resonate and understand this. But yesterday we were going to go today. This is the same vintage market that I went to back in September. They do it a couple times a year. And before I got dressed, I said to Claire. I was like, I think I'm going to try my old jeans on. And he's like, do it. Go for it. And then I put them on. And I was like, wait, they fit. They buttoned. They felt good. And I hadn't even tried this whole time. And I didn't end up weighing myself in the last three weeks of being pregnant. Because I hadn't memorized that, I'd gained like 26 pounds when I was at 36 weeks. But then he, you know, six weeks later. So I'm sure I gained at least 10 more pounds. But then I never weighed myself then. Didn't weigh myself after I gave birth. Still haven't weighed myself. So I like really have no point of reference besides the pants. And I've been wearing basically sweatpants and elastic pants for the last, I don't know, probably six, five months. And so putting jeans on, actual pants with a button and a zipper, I started just crying. And Clay was like, oh my gosh. So he sat his down and he came over and gave me a hug. And he's like, I'm so happy for you. And I was like, why am I crying? It's just so stupid. And it actually kind of is that deep because I have just sacrificed my body for so long. You know, you're like, you're pregnant and you're growing him and then labor and out breastfeeding. And it felt like getting a little bit of my old identity back and like a little bit of pre-pregnancy body, like I'm still definitely softer and not as muscular as I was before. But it still just felt like, oh my god, it's such a relief. To have something that I wore before fit again. I don't know. It really isn't just about like the physical part of it. It was the mental too. And so it just put me in a really good mood and since we were going to the vintage market, it was like, wait, now I'm like way more excited to shop for things because I feel like I can start getting back into fashion again because now my body is like in somewhat of a normalcy state. Yeah, I'm happy for you, but you're starting to feel normal or back to yourself. Yeah, yeah, back to my old self. Amazing. Okay, well, should we listen to his peaks? Yes. Okay, this one from Holly is really unique. I don't think we've ever had a peak like this. She said, the app I've been developing for eight months is going live on the app store. That is really freaking cool. I would love to know more and congratulations. I think it's called Vorro. So I'm going to go check it out. I saw our postcard. I'm very excited. Congrats. Claire said, I've always wanted to get into weight training but I've been intimidated. And I found a gym. I've committed to doing personal training for the next two months. That's awesome. Super excited for you. And Kay said, I set my intentions for 2026 by using the eight dimensions of wellness. So on brand, I'm really glad that our foundational core values at the podcast resonated. And Shania said, finally getting our places more organized. Totally relate to that. It feels so great. So happy you're doing this as well. Okay, well, as always, set in your peaks on our Instagram page. Already friends podcast. We post that story box every Monday. All right, getting into today's topic. Habit that we are doubling down on. I think we both took different approaches. I came up with one for each of the eight dimensions of wellness. Just to give me a little structure to my reflection. But you can definitely just share yours one by one. However, they came to you as well. Yeah. Okay, perfect. Well, do you want to share your first one? First one in the, I put it in the mental health bucket but it's multifaceted and it's getting coffee daily from a local cafe. I know it's not a cheap habit. I know that they say, if you didn't do it, you could afford a house in 2026 and that is not true. This is not, this is not keeping us from buying a house. But it just makes me so happy to get a coffee out every day, especially being in such a walkable area. And when like lays on his calls and I need to get out of the house or mostly him and I start our work day later in the day. So we're working like one to say eight or nine p.m. When we just have that whole morning, it's like, I just want to go to a coffee shop and buy a nice coffee. And so it's good for my mental health. I get some steps in. It supports a local business. It's just really positive for us. And it's only a little bit about like the actual coffee we're getting. It's like the event of putting clothes on for the day, brushing my hair, leaving the house, getting fresh air. Pieces gets a walk and having those micro interactions with our favorite bristas. So that is something I allow myself every single day. And I will not be cutting back on anytime soon. I love that. I think we would pay. We pay a lot of money for subscriptions. Monthly subscriptions go to a gym to make us feel better. Or for a therapist to make you feel better. So it's kind of like paying a what $150, $2 an hour's month subscription to infinitely make your day better every single day. I feel like that's a no-brainer for me. I mean, I would love if it was actually only $150 to $200, but I think that might be a week for us. Because we are doing it. So I'd be like double. But no, a person. I mean, because what, five hours each? We both go twice a day. It's twice a day. Yeah, usually I do the morning run. Or Clay does the morning run and then we switch. And we literally have a drink carrier that we take back and forth to the coffee shop every day. And they just know us. And we were telling Clay's mom and she was here. How much we spend this one that we go to a lot. And she was like, there's no way. And then after like five days with us, she was like, oh, there's a way. I see it now. And so she got us a 100-year-old gift card there. And she was like, hopefully this last you guys more than a week. And we're like, well, try our best. That's hilarious. Okay, well, I still stand by what I said. Even if it's $300 a month each. Okay, so I guess maybe like 600? I don't know. I still think it's worth it. It's fine. It's fine. That's like two massages for some people. So people get, yeah, pay that massages or facials a month. Yeah, we all have our things. And what is your first habit that you are doubling down on? Yes, I will keep in the same genre of mental health. Something that I found maybe a year and a half ago, two years ago was an app called Screen Zen. And you can basically block certain apps based on an amount of time. So of course, I'm blocking TikTok and Instagram after I allow myself an hour a day total on both of those. Well, also, it only unlocks the apps five minutes at a time. So it just makes me aware of how much time is being wasted. Because it is so crazy how you can be watching TikTok or Instagram for five minutes. And it goes by so fast. So I like this app, like stops you, med scroll, makes you aware of how much time is passing. It's like, I am going to consume content for an hour. I'm like, okay, this doesn't feel like I just blinked and it's gone. Like, you know, unlocked it for five minutes at a time. So it makes you super aware. And I was even Googling it. And it said like two to three hours of screen time is still normal. So I'm like, okay, even if I did like a little bit more than an hour, like it's still not that crazy. I feel like it's a good healthy amount of screen time each day. And of course, I tried two days like no social media at all. I tried to do that more in the weekends of like just putting my phone down and like living life. But it's just a good way for me to not get sucked into endless scrolling. Like I could not imagine having no limits. I guess maybe that's just my personality. I feel like I would not know when to stop. Like if everyone has like some sort of vice, mine is like falling into too much screen time. I think it's good to know where you're susceptible to the things in life. And you took that self-awareness and put a boundary on it. So it's great. And I agree. I think you can have a decent amount of screen time each day. But it's being mindful about what you're consuming and how it makes you feel because for one person, maybe depending on their work or their interest, like maybe one hour feels like way too much for them. But then a different person maybe four to five hours is like makes them really happy. And that's their favorite thing. And it keeps them inspired. And it's just whatever people's lifestyle allows. Yeah, so that is going to continue in my life. And I am considering getting one of those brick. It's a very similar thing, but it's a physical version of this where you basically can only unlock the social media apps on your phone. If you touch your phone to the brick, so some people keep it on their fridge or keep it in their office. I might get one of those, um, TBD, but I have friends that have them and really like them. Because a lot of my friends work on their phones for work. Like I have a lot of friends that do social media for companies. And I don't know, it just helps them stay on track and not just like scrolling bad or on the couch or something. And it's okay, I have to chop it in my office and be like in work mode. Yeah, we're no phone zones. Deliberate airplane time, airplane mode time. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, my second one. We've talked about it intermittently on quite a few different episodes. But I came up with this money Monday thing probably two or three years ago when I started doing the payroll for the shop on Mondays. And since I would do all the bank transfers for the shop, it kind of just led into being like, well, I'm just going to check on my own things. And I feel like the energy of Monday you're getting things in line for the week. It just made sense for me to check everything. So for sure every Monday, I check in on the bank checking accounts. And then I, not every single week, do I do all of these things? But I rotate between like checking my credit card transactions to make sure there's not any fraudulent charges or something like an unnecessary subscription that I don't want anymore or checking my student loan balance or my investment portfolio or if there was something I need to return making sure that I like got the refund for it. Anything within the financial category usually I just check in on it on Monday. And then for me, that's often enough that for good peace of mind to the rest of the week, I don't worry about it. And it's quick, honestly. Like I don't think it ever takes me more than 30 minutes. Yeah, that's a great one. My next one, I have reading 20 books every year and having at least six of them being non-fiction. I did this last year and really liked it, didn't hit it. I got 19, but I feel like that's close enough. And then the previous year, I did 12 books. So it has increasingly gotten to more books. Since I didn't hit 20, I'm like, I don't think I can do more than 20. I'm just a very slow reader. It's funny because Connor is the fastest reader ever. He's already read five books this year. I'm like, sorry, it is January 19th, that is absurd. So for being a slow reader, I think it's the perfect amount of a reading goal, a books reading goal that gives me a quantifiable number to keep me on track to make sure I'm actually reading and not just watching educational podcasts or watching YouTube or just other things that could also be not bad for you if it's educational or inspiring. But it's good to just have that number in the back of my mind so every month I can check on my Goodreads account and see where I'm at with that. Okay, controversial question. I'm sorry to put you on the spot. Do you count if you listen to an audiobook? Do you count that as reading a book? I do, but I don't think I listened to any audiobooks last year. And I think the year before was like one. So I'm not a big audiobook, so you are reading reading. Yeah, I'm physically reading them. I, if anything, I'll read a book and then if I'm like going out a long road trip, I'll borrow the audiobook from like the library and listen to like three or four hours of that book during the drive. I've done that a couple times, but yeah, no, I'm definitely talking about reading, but I feel like an audiobook could count or it should count because especially for nonfiction, sometimes that stuff is so dense that would be better to listen to it. And I think it's still information that's higher quality than what you would be listening to on a podcast or a YouTube video. Yeah, for sure. I think it's still good listening to audiobooks, but maybe this is so annoying of me, but if someone says that they read a book and they listen to the audiobook of it, I'm like, I feel like you have to disclose that you listened because I don't think it's the same. I think it requires way more discipline to sit down and read a physical copy of a book and like not get distracted, especially really long books, or yeah, especially nonfiction versus it's much easier to listen to an audiobook while you're like folding laundry and there's a difference between actually like reading comprehension going through a book and like hearing something auditory, not that it's not still beneficial. And for some people, I'm sure many of us, like you would get more books in by also having the audiobooks. I just feel like I put audiobooks and more of like the podcast bucket and I think like reading is its own thing and I mean, that's so bratty of me. And maybe a controversial take, but it feels like cheating a smidge. If someone's like, I read 50 books a year and they've listened to 50 books, I would just be like, that's not the same to me. Yeah, I don't know how to pause on that. I don't know, I mean, yeah, I think for me, I'm trying to like use my eyeballs more and like be reading paper or my Kindle. So like doing the actual reading part is what is important to me, but if I'm also like listening to a really good book and I have like, I did the audiobook for, one of when I was reading one of the red risings I had a long drive and like I need to know what happens next in this book or I'm gonna die. So I'm getting the audiobook and like it was perfect 'cause you know, it's like 10% of the book or max 20%. But yeah, I mean, I feel like it should still count but I get what you're saying. Well, we don't have to keep talking about it. (laughs) That I don't know. Something I've thought about for a long time. Hot Tate. Okay, hot, yes. My next one is a relationship one and it's being really silly with clay and we are just so weird with each other that it makes our day to day is so fun. For example, today we were throwing like little bits of potato, like up in the air and catching them in our mouths like across the living room and we're 30 years old and it's a Monday and then all of our workday and we're playing toss with our food and we just do a lot of, I don't know, lighthearted stuff with each other and I think it helps keep the romance and the charisma live and not take life too serious and that's why I feel like after seven and a half years it still feels like it did when we were teenagers, honestly even better and so I definitely wanna continue. Still being fun and silly with him and not taking ourselves too serious just because we're quote parents now. Okay, I love that. One of the ones I wrote down and I guess yesterday was Sunday so I'll share this but I love my Sunday reset. So that is a habit. I'm doubling down on for this coming year. For me, a Sunday reset is vacuuming everything, getting out the mop, which I am interested not to like be someone who buys a million things but have you seen like the electric mop that people have that kind of look like vacuums but it's like fully a mop system? I don't think so. Okay, they look really nice. I might be getting one of those. I love mopping but it is a whole process like lug the thing up, make the solution, ring it out every single time like and it's just kind of gross. So if anyone has a good recommendation for like a mop, it looks like a vacuum but it's a mop thing, let me know. But yes, a vacuum mop, get my laundry sorted 'cause I know some people say it's better to do laundry over a single day. I feel like when you have kids, that's a really good tip just 'cause it probably always feels like it's never ending so I feel like it's a good way to stand up of it. Right now, I kind of just do most of it on Sunday and that's what works for me. Wash my sheets, clean out my fridge every Sunday 'cause our trash goes on Mondays and then I tried to do one hard task. So yesterday it was just ongoing, January cleaning. So going through, I have a big medicine cabinet in the hallway that has a bunch of makeup products. So my hard task was like going through that, throwing out old products or just acknowledging what's in there so I don't forget. And I feel like it's a good way to start off the week strong, start the week, a clean house and clean laundry and it's gonna be something that I keep doing. I wrote a similar one down for environmental, keeping a clean home. Same, I just feel better as a human being when my space is clean, my mental health is better. My anxiety is lower, I'm more productive because if the house is not clean and I'm trying to do other things, I'm just thinking about it's in the back of my mind. So I would say I'm actually more of an everyday cleaning type of person rather than doing the bigger one clean day, especially now, yeah, with haze, like literally what you just said. It is like everyday if we don't tidy up or do a load of laundry, it will just accumulate. Yeah, very quickly and so usually with the laundry, it's like I'll do whites one day, maybe the next day, I do dark colors, maybe the next day after that is the delegates, then the next day bedding, then the next day all of like the towels and the linens and that cycle keeps it feeling really manageable to me and it never feels overwhelming. I love laundry, it's like my favorite household chore, but I think that's an unpopular opinion and I can see how if you didn't like laundry, it would just feel like, oh my god, this is never ending. There's always more laundry and it can get so big, but yeah, for me doing a little bit every day is the habit I'll continue so that it never feels unmanageable or stressful. Yes, I feel like I definitely have to do a little bit everyday as well 'cause having a German Shepherd I'm vacuuming every single day and actually a new habit that I got into that I will be continuing. Have you ever bought hypochloris acid spray? That's been a really good one, spraying that on my couch almost every single day or every other day. It's really good if you have pets to, it's like an odor neutralizer, if you prefer bot towel or 28 spray, that orange bottle. It's basically that and it's non-toxic, but it odorite, it clears out odors, so that's been a good one that I really like. I was gifted that by someone one time and I used it all, but I never know what the actual ingredient was. Yeah, I literally spot, 'cause that one's made for your face. I don't know what the difference is, but I bought a giant jug of it, literally from walmart.com, and then an amber bottle, 'cause that's supposed to be a dark colored bottle, and then you can just spray it on your couch, just spray it on bedding. It smells like a pool for a little bit, but then it dissipates and it's nice 'cause what other options are there for neutralizing odors? It's like February years and then that's super fragrance. I used to maybe use that in college, no, 'cause I'm trying to get rid of fragrance, 'cause I think in my house, because it's just not the best for you, artificial fragrance, not natural fragrance, but I found that that's been a really nice addition, 'cause sometimes you don't want things to smell like a thing, you just want them to smell like nothing. Yeah, that's exactly, and it kills the bacteria. Okay, yes, another one for me, having a strong morning routine. This is a new part of it, but I'm trying to do no social media before 10 AM, so my morning routine looks like wake up, quick five minute journal. I try to do a daily meditation. I have a book that has 365 prayers, meditations and affirmations. I'll do that every morning, and then I try to do some form of movement, whether it's a workout class or going to the gym and lifting or even just taking a marker for a walk. That is the perfect morning routine for me, and then, yeah, of course, brushing teeth, washing your face. If I come back from the gym, shower, and getting ready for the day, I'm with you with actually doing your makeup and getting dressed. The days where I do my makeup, it sounds so annoying and pick me, but it's like doing my makeup and looking presentable actually makes such a difference and how my day is gonna go. Especially even being a content creator, it's like, when you have ideas as a content creator, film something, you just need to do it immediately or else the idea is gonna go away, you're gonna lose steam. And the fact if I'm already dressed and already ready, I can film something and edit it and throw it up in like 15 minutes if I'm not ready, then it's just like slowing down the entire process. So there's a lot of things to it. And yeah, getting ready every single day, unfortunately, is it habit that I'm doubling down on? It's hard. I, people that have to go to a job and actually get really put together. I commend you. I don't know what that's like anymore to have to like wear heels and a blazer to an office. And I'm just so impressed by people that can like get that level of ready every day because it's like hard for me to get average ready. Every day. And that's so embarrassing. But like props, props to people that are good at that. My next one is in the nutrition bucket and it's continuing to prioritize protein. If you've been a long time listener, you would know I went through the whole vegan and vegetarian journey. But then when I got pregnant, I was like, okay, I do have to start like eating more meat. And even a little bit before that, I was starting to be more okay with it. I would have like red meat or some bone broth and stuff. And I did notice I was starting to feel better. And so for me taste wise, I'm not like super into it. I have to really not think about it. And I'm still so picky. It's clay has to cook it. I cannot cook the protein. But even like everything has to be cut into little cubes. Like if there's like weird shaped pieces, I cannot eat them. And so always on the end of my, like at the end of the meal, there's pieces left on the plate that were like not perfectly square basically. And then clay just eats the rest of my plate after every meal. But trying to get better about it because I have come a long way. Like even a couple of years ago, I could not even like look at it. And so I'm really proud of myself. We had a salmon salad tonight. Last night we had chicken, mushroom, risotto is really good. So I'm trying and I am feeling better and I think that that was really helpful in having a good pregnancy and a good recovery. So unfortunately I will be continuing to try to do that. - Okay, I love that. I'll add to the nutrition piece. I, well of course I am with you. Like getting tons of protein, tons of veggies. So I have it that I'm continuing is just keeping my freezer stocked of having all types of proteins, chicken, salmon, whatever, so it never goes bad. And I always have it as an option. Just the night before I was throw it in the fridge to de-thaw tons of beef by fresh beef from our local farm here in St. Louis. But I wanted to get more fresh veggies and fruits 'cause I just started to like rely on only the frozen ones 'cause Costco just has such good organic frozen veggies that they fire roast or they do all these delicious, clean seasonings to them. And so I just definitely have gotten used to those which is fine, but I'm trying to get more fresh veggies and there as well. So just making sure it's all pre-cut, me pre-cutting it. So going to the store buying bell peppers or broccoli, whatever coming home, washing it all, cutting it and just having it in glass containers. That's easy to throw in a lunch or the berries, spinach, all that, washing it and putting it in a separate container because I've noticed that if you take the berries out of the container and put in glass, they last much longer. Same with any lettuce, spring mix, all that stuff. You take it out, actually wash it and put it in with paper towels. It lasts so much longer. So just making eating healthy, easier, having it all prepped and ready to go cut. So that, yeah, I don't have to just solely rely on the frozen options, which are still great. I still like them, but I think it's someone who travels all the time too. I would just have so much food get wasted if I was going on trips and coming home. But just, yeah, a good mix of both is where we're at. I like the idea of preparing some daily so that you have it and then always having the back up that's frozen because the length of time things last in the freezer is really crazy. And I remember you saying a couple of years ago, like how many things you can freeze that we don't even think about. And my sister sent me this TikTok the other day of someone pre-cutting lemons and then just putting it in a little baggy and putting it into the freezer. And even that has never occurred to me and I am obsessed with lemon water. And I hate when we are out of lemons, I'm like, no, I need the lemon in the water 'cause I don't use like whitening strips anymore. I occasionally will, but they just hurt my gums so bad. Like usually one day you're like, okay, today is the day and then my gums are like hurting so bad for the next three days. But lemon water is like what helps keep them wider, I guess. They're definitely not white. Like they were when I was in high school and obsessed with white strips. But anyway, I don't know how I haven't thought like, oh, just pre-cut up the lemon and put it in the freezer. So now I will be doing that with. - I know. - They're such a pretty good freezer hacks. I love that one. That's a great one. Or even I seem to be able to like lemon and ginger. And then you kind of like a lemon ginger tea just pour boiling water over it whenever you want to use them. - Oh my God. I saw one, two of meal preps where they split up the items in the meal preps. So when I think of a meal prep, like a rice bowl say, I would just do the whole thing. Like I would put rice and corn and the protein, beans, tomato, all in one container and just put it in the fridge. And this girl like made blocks. It was like blocks of rice blocks of corn. And so then she could mix and match her meal preps per day and not have to have them all be the exact same. And I was like, wow, that's really smart. And it just seems so obvious. But we all get used to doing something a certain way and it becomes a habit as we're talking about today. And then yeah, time passes. And you don't realize there's another way to do it. - Absolutely. Okay, I'll do a spiritual one. Not being overly attached to an outcome. Still working on it, but I did used to be like such a control freak and really get invested in things and have such a hard time coping with letting them go or it not being how I want it to go. And I think I'm getting a lot better at being open-minded in that way. And I think a lot of it is contributed to having to move out of new wave. That like ripped my soul out of me. It was so upsetting because of the loud music downstairs if you guys don't know the story. And then after that, it was like move to Columbia and then move to one place in Tulum and then move to the beach in Tulum and then a different apartment. And now we're here. And I'm just getting better at being like, okay, if I have to move again, we have to move again. And this is tied in because on Friday, our property manager of our current apartment had emailed us and was like, hey, I hope you will have a great weekend. Can I stop by on Monday just to like have a quick chat and Clay and I were like, they don't do this in the U.S. like I've never had a property manager reach out and ask if they can come over to our home and just like see if everything is all good. And so we were like, does she want to make sure we're good housekeepers? Are we in trouble? Have we been loud? We do something wrong? Or is she gonna tell us like the owner wants her place back? I didn't know what she was gonna say, but turns out she's just not working for the company anymore and she's like going on her own and she's like really excited about it. So she was like, I just want to come tell you guys in person and also tell you that it's probably likely that you're gonna be able to have another year here if you want it and if not, like I have 20 years in the expat rental market and I'll find you a new place. And in the Netherlands, there's such a housing shortage that finding housing here is something that like was kind of worrying me because I was like, well, if we have to move out of here, gosh, it could be like so hard to find another place. But I was trying to just be like, you know what, if that's what she says, we found this place from abroad, like it will work out, we'll find another place and then turns out I didn't even have anything to worry about. And I think that even just that little scenario over the weekend two years ago, I would have been like riddled with anxiety wondering what she was gonna say. And this time I just like it crossed my mind a few times, I was like, oh, it'll be whatever it's gonna be. - That's great. One for me that I'm keeping up is daily movement. That's realistic, but also breaking up my daily movement goals or fitness goals into more attainable mini blocks. So for example, I try to get 10K steps a day and I've figured out that that's about four miles. So my head, I'm like, okay, can I go walk a mile right now or can I do a mile on my walking pad right now? Instead of being like, I need to get 10K steps right now or I need to get 10K steps today. I think, okay, I need to do four one mile chunks and that has definitely helped make things not feel all or nothing, same with my lifting routine. I'm doing a 12 week program. I saw a tech talk that was like, if you break things into six week goals, it's way easier for your brain to follow through. So even now I'm like, okay, part one, week one through six. Which my program is set up like that. So that's the one, two, three, really great I'm doing that my brother-in-law created, but yeah, it's nice. It feels way more attainable to say, I'm doing a six week block chunk versus 12 weeks. Sometimes that's like really overwhelming. So breaking things down has been really helpful and it's a habit that I'm going to continue. That sounds great. Clay as a personal trainer, he would agree with that too. Like he has some client who will commit for three, six, nine months and he's like, but I will only give them four weeks at a time. Otherwise, it's just like too much. So that's great. That's really nice. I just have two more and the career one is kind of boring. It's just staying organized. I feel like I've always been pretty organized. I'm going to continue that and one of my main modes of doing that is having everything on slack. I love slack. I think it's like the greatest workspace invention. It has helped in many areas of my life. And then also continuing to refine processes just to keep streamlining things. Enough on that one because you're pretty boring. And the last one is social continuing to attend the mama meetups in order to integrate myself in the community more here and connect and get to know Harlem on a more personal level. Like in Omaha, I have so many friends in such a big network. And even though I love living in Harlem so much, that's like one area that I have to actively try. You know, I don't have the luxury of having lifts here. Like I did in Omaha for 27 years where you're just kind of like guaranteed friends that you grew up with, went to school with, have in your neighborhood. To run now, I have to actively go out and make connections and friendships. So going to these mommy meetups has been really fun and rewarding. And I found a few other groups that do them. Like at first, I was just going through one girl that sets them up for my yoga studio. And now I'm in a few other group chats. So some of them are not like official events, but like tomorrow, me and five girls are going to get coffee. And it's just so fun. It makes my day and it doesn't have to be a big thing, but meeting up for an hour and getting to know each other more has been a highlight of my week when I go to them. Okay, my last one that I wrote down is tracking my sleep and just even making sure I get good quality sleep. I've never been someone that struggles to sleep honestly. So this isn't that crazy, but I do love using, I have an ultra human ring. There's the ore rings or the ultra human rings or the two popular brands. I got the ultra human because it doesn't charge you on monthly subscription fees. That was a big perk for me. But it's nice because I can see if I'm getting it sleep, I can also see if I'm starting to catch a cold, even before I feel anything. It'll notice drops in your HRV or different health parameters that can detect a sickness. I can track my cycle on it. So I'm not someone who, 'cause I know for some people too much data or too much insight can make them obsessive. I feel like I have a very healthy, normal relationship with it where I can see my sleep score and be like, oh, I definitely drink way too much coffee yesterday and that made me get horrible sleep or drinking alcohol or eating a really salty meal or whatever different factors there are. I like checking in on my app and monitoring it and just having some data for all my sides of my health. All right, well, that is all of them. I also wanted to make a disclaimer that I should have made at the beginning. That I also have a lot of bad habits and I don't want this episode to have come off. I am only on the good habit train and do everything right because I also have a lot of bad habits and the current one is peanut butter cut Ben and Jerry's and when I went to the grocery store today they were buy one, get one free. So I did buy two pints and I got clay two pints. He's the bookies and cream and cookie dough and so I came out of the grocery store and I'm like horrible news and he's like, what? And I'm like, Ben and Jerry's just buy one, get one free and he's like, so did you get two or four? And I'm like four, obviously. He's like, this is why I love you. And I'm like, I know where the worst. So now we have Ben and Jerry's for this week. Now that's a good disclaimer 'cause in my head I'm like, these habits are me trying to combat my bad habits. Like my, you know, incessant screen time if I'm not aware of it or waking up and wanting to grab my phone and like, check my emails and stuff. So I agree. I definitely have my bad habits and these are just the ones that we wanted to share that are helping us. So I agree. Good, good disclaimer. Yeah, it would be funny to make an episode of outing ourselves up well over bad habits are. Yeah. I don't even know what I would all say, but it would be funny. I mean, bad habit of like not, when I don't vacuum every single day and it's like day three or four and there's just like Margot's hairballs on every step in our house. That definitely happens. I'm not perfect. Or like going to bed with the dishes. I'm like, that's a tomorrow problem. I'm trying to think of some off the top of my head. Mine would be my tone. That's a bad habit. That might just be me being a bitch. But like, if I'm breastfeeding and Clay like asked me something and I'm oversimulated and A's is like sucking on my boob and Peaches is like trying to get me to throw a ball and then Clay like asked me something. I'm like, Clay, you're the only one that can reply. So I keep, Peaches can't reply and Hayes can't reply. So you have to leave the room. And I feel like I sent him this video. I send it to Kara. Remember that video I sent you? I showed it to Clay and I was like, is this me? And he was like, not at all. He's like, you were actually not like that. That person's really extreme. And I was like, okay, thank you. 'Cause sometimes I feel like the time coming off. 'Cause in my head I feel that crazy. But I'm glad it's not leaving my body like that. See, we're constantly working on ourselves. Constantly trying to get better. And that's what this episode shows all about. Absolutely. Well, thank you guys for listening. Next week we have, what would your best to do? So if you want to send in any questions or situations, what our website or your friend's podcast, go to the WYBD tab. It's anonymous. Send us something juicy to talk about next week. We'll see you there. Yes, thanks guys. Bye. Bye.