7 Things I'm Doing to be Healthier

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias Inc, and it's advertiser, all thoughts and opinions are my own. #V8Mornings #CollectiveBias

Over the last year or so, I've been really trying to focus on my health as a whole, instead of just pigeon holing myself and trying to be perfect at just one aspect. There have been times in my life where I've exercised for hours a day, everyday, but nutritionally, I was eating like a college frat boy. There have been other times where I've had a mostly vegan diet (in college where I mostly lived off of peanut butter and jelly burritos and the entire canned vegetable isle), and then there have been times where my mental health has been perfect (as a result of doing yoga for 12 hours a week and being at complete zen with the universe), but then physically and nutritionally, I wasn't perfect either. I've realized over the years that you can either be perfect in one area, and lack in another, or you can just strive for balance in all three areas and be content with whatever that looks like for you and your life. These are seven things that I've been working on to improve my physical, mental, and nutritional health.



Getting a Gym Membership: I talked about this a little bit in my morning routine post, but getting a gym membership a month or so ago has been amazing for my mental, and physical health. I started to realize that over the last year or so, I've lost a lot of muscle mass, and haven't been able to physically do things that use to be easy for me. I'm slowly working to build strength, and having an hour break from social media, parenting, and other life responsibilities, and having time to focus on just me, has been really rewarding so far.

Working Out at Home: A blogger I follow, Leanne, recently started sharing her daily workouts on her Instagram stories each night and they've been a good reminder that working out doesn't have to be super complex. She shares how she usually does 1.5-2 miles on the treadmill, and then some squats, push ups, and abs, and then calls it good. We got a treadmill for free from someone in our neighborhood over the summer, and seeing her workouts was a reminder that if I can't make it to the gym, I can still get an easy workout in when my kids are sleeping.



Making Veggies Part of My Routine: I'm a creature of habit. I love making small new habits that can impact my life over a long period of time. I really struggle to eat all my servings of fruits and vegetables in a day, but I've recently made the habit of having a salad with my lunch everyday, and it's been a great way to eat all of my veggie servings in one sitting. I just throw some romaine lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, a little cheese, and some diced lunch meat into a bowl, and I have two-three servings of veggies down for the day in one sitting.



Drinking V8® Veggie Blends: I've been a huge fan of V8® for years now. My son loves their V-Fusion line that has one complete serving of fruit, and one complete serving of vegetables per 8oz glass, and it's been an easy way to get some good added nutrition into him when he's had a picky eating day. V8® recently just added two new flavors to their Veggie Blends line: Berry Bliss, and Caribbean Greens. Each 8oz serving has one 1/2 cup serving of vegetables, and they're an excellent source of vitamins A, C, and E. I love that these juices are an easy way to make up some nutrition for the day if you're a little behind on your five servings recommendation. I also love that I can just pick them up at Walmart when I'm getting the rest of my groceries for the week. It's good for my mental health to not have to go to more than one store, and Walmart always has it all.

Unplugging More Often: As a blogger it's easy to get caught up on your phone checking e-mail, and social media all the time, or logging onto your computer to complete a random task real quick, but I've really been trying to make a big effort to unplug in the mornings before nap time, or in the late afternoons before Derek gets home. Instead, if I find myself reaching for my phone, I try to think of a chore around the house that I can do with that time instead, and try to get that done first. 

Reading More Books: In January of this year, I made a goal to read 50 books. I honestly did want to read more, but part of the motivation behind the goal was so that I would have more content to blog about. Come April it felt like just another thing I "had to do", and was feeling a huge burnout, and then when I quit blogging, I quit reading for a large portion of that time too. I recently started reading again, mostly chapter books to Jay as part of his homeschooling, but then I started wanting to read for myself again, and have really enjoyed filling up my time before bed with a book instead of my phone each night. 



Accepting Where I'm at in Life, and not Comparing: Social media has a way of showing you all the pretty pieces of life, and kind of filtering out the bad. I try to be as transparent as possible, but even on Instagram I curate my feed to be a collection of only the prettiest pictures. I often get so caught up in who is working with what brands, and getting what sponsored opportunities, or who is doing what remodel in their homes, and it starts to make me feel like my life, and the things I'm doing aren't enough. I've been trying hard lately to remember that everyone is at different stages in their careers, lives, families, and I have to just be confident in what I'm doing, and not worry about what that looks like for other people.


What are you doing in your life to be healthier? Have you tried the new V8® Veggie Blends flavors available at Walmart? Let me know in the comments below! 

15 comments

  1. Great tips in this post! We recently got some exercise equipment and started working out here at home, and it's made a huge difference both physically and mentally. I love the idea of reading more, too. That's something that I've gotten away from in the past year once we had our son. Thanks for sharing! #client

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  2. Love this! One of the best article I've read so far. It's great to start a healthier lifestyle yet it's realistic to take things one step at a time.

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  3. I love V8 and those toddler vegetable squeezes for getting more vegetables in!

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  4. I told myself I was going to get into reading more books but I guess I got caught up in other things, but I have been adding veggies to my diet more and it has been helping me , and I love working out at home. Being a busy mom, gotta stay on top of health. Nice tips. Thanks.

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  5. I never thought V8 had various flavors, I thought they just had tomato.. cool

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  6. I assume if you've been a fan of V8 for awhile, you've tried their original... how do the new blends compare???

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  7. Sounds as though you have a great plan to get your health on track. Best of luck with it!

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  8. Great post! All your point are healthy option and reading more nice books is fantastic.

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  9. Great post! All your point are healthy option and reading more nice books is fantastic.

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  10. Great tips. LOved to read it because I just started as well. Started with a gym membership 2 weeks ago and I love it!

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  11. Interesting drink you found there. I have never heard about it. I am going to try and find it here.

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  12. These are wonderful tips. I agree its good to look at healthy living as a whole and not just one aspect. I like incorporating things step by step like adding veggies as you suggested because it mitigates that feeling of being overwhelmed.

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  13. Need to try that V8!
    But yeah, unplugging is a problem for me too. Our blogging business just seems to evolve around it, so it's hard to just stop. I hope you stick to tese plans though!

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  14. Awesome! Yeah my biggest goals are 1. eating the lunch I pack and not going out because I'm not in the mood for my packed lunch, and 2. workout out daily. I have a really long lunch break so I go during my break. I've been doing okay, off and on ;)

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