11 Health and Nutrition Habits that Have Actually Changed my Life for the Better
Propaganda I do be falling for...
Open an app, any app, and you’re met with a slurry of health-adjacent advice; eat this not that, this supplement will leave you unrecognizable by summer (the internet assumes this is always our primary goal), everything from your face shape to mood can be blamed on high cortisol levels, or weighted bracelets (a year ago it was blankets!) will change your life.
The internet has always been like this, yes, but it feels worse lately, at least on my algorithm. I’m sure this is partly because I’m in the countdown to my wedding, and the algorithm is working overtime to sell me on the latest skincare products, fitness tips, and procedures. But I know it’s not just my feeds are that’s flooded with this type content. The health and fitness industry is a marketing machine, and as long as there are susceptible, insecure, unhealthy people looking for a fix — which is to say, always — we’re gonna fall for their videos and buy what they’re selling.
As someone who’s been in the fitness and nutrition world both professionally and recreationally for well over a decade, I truly do think I’ve seen and tried it all. All the supplements, all the preworkouts, all the trending workouts, the daily step goals, the ways of eating — I’ve done, preached, and perpetuated just about all of it over the years. I won’t get into my toxic past with an MLM or the harm I inadvertently did during my years in that particular cult — that’s another post for another time. But despite a certain skepticism I now have toward the health and wellness industrial complex and a wariness to ever schlep or share another supplement online again, there are some things that have served me well over the years. So I thought I’d do a little roundup in this post of ride or die, tried and truest tips, products, and routines that truly have changed my life for the better — not just in the last couple weeks or anything, but over the long haul.
I know how hard it can be to spot the actual useful nuggets amidst the noise, and of course what works for me won’t work for everyone, but without qualifying the heck out of this post, here are a handful of health tips I genuinly love and credit with improving my health over the years. In other words, enjoy this list of propaganda I DO be falling for (if you’re familiar with the Tiktok trend d’jour.)
1. Working while on my walking pad
Walking? Groundbreaking! But hear me out. Working while getting steps in on my walking pad has changed the game for me. I’ve never in my life (save for the occasional trip when we’re walking all day everyday) been able to hit the much-hyped 10k steps a day. And that’s fine and puts me in the majority… I work from home at a computer, and I don’t realistically have time to take multiple long walks around my neighborhood a day. So I recently bought a cheap Amazon walking pad, set it up out in the garage under a cheap standing desk, and now walk for at least an hour a day most days while clickity clacking away on my laptop. Not only can I see and feel a difference in my body, but the movement feels so good and helps my work tasks fly by without the boredom and fidgityness (at least for my brain!) of being parked at my desk all day.
2. Legs up on the wall at night.
Okay I never see anyone talk about this one, but I swear by it. It’s as simple as it sounds — every night when I get into bed, I scoot my butt up woard the wall our bed’s against and throw my legs up onto the wall. I lay like this for 5-10 minutes or so while I’m night scrolling or reading. I honestly started doing this back in my ballerina days — we’d all prop our swollen, achey feet up to relieve some of the pain of pointe shoes on a long rehearsal day, and it just stuck. Turns out, not only is it always a restorative yoga pose, it can help with anxiety levels while improving circulation and swelling. All I know is, it feels great, and helps me wind down for the night, and it’s a ritual I’ve stuck with for many years now.
3. Taking ashwagandha
When I was training for my last serious bikini show, my coach suggested I take ashwagandha to help lower cortisol (before it was cool to talk about!) and in turn help my body perform and look its best for my show. I know, cortisol…the internet’s currently favorite scapegoat. I’ll spare you the rant on how much I think the vilification of cortisol is both overhyped and over simplified on social media, because it is — but cortisol is also a real thing, and it turns out this adaptogen can help keep levels where they should be, for helping alleviate anxiety and stress in some people, as it definitely does for me.
4. Magnesium at night, specifically Magnesium L-threonate
Back when I was having some of the worst sleep struggles of my life a few months ago, my therapist advised I try out this specific form of magnesium, which she explained is the most bio-available type for our brains, of all the magnesium. The difference it made for me, was pretty immediate and obvious, and it’s now become my favorite little nighttime treat-drink that I look forward to all day. I’ve been a magnesium fan for years, especially when taken at the end of the day to help me shut off my mind and wind down, but am specifically into this one in fruit punch flavor, lately, as a delish little nighttime treat drink that helps me fall asleep.
5. Lifting really heavy weights
I’m endlessly fascinated with the current cultural fixation on pilates and the pilates Princess culture of it all. Specifically, what the mainstream movement to glamorize pilates, which has been around since the early 1900s btw, says about our current political landscape and fatphobic, conservative definition sof the ideal feminie body. Can you tell I’m a fun hang at parties!? This is all a bigger topic than I can write about here — but this post on the “long con of pilates culture” — phew, one of the best things I’ve read on this app. Suffice to say, pilates is all fine and well as part of a fitness routine — of course the benefits are real — but nothing replaces weight training, especially for women. This is a hill I will happily die on. And I’ll die on it with great bone density and muscle tone! I’ve lifted heavy weights for well over a decade and plan to as long as my body permits. After seeing so many women in my family struggle with osteoporosis, my motivation only increased. I firmly feel every woman who can should be doing some type of weight training along with their pilates — the benefits are too numerous to ignore.
6. Higher protein breakfasts
Uh oh, we’re toeing the line of “trending advice,” with this one, but it also just works. I’ve been aiming for higher protein breakfasts for years now, at the advice of multiple nutritionists and coaches, not Tiktok videos, and I really do feel a difference in my energy levels and focus throughout the morning when I do. For me, this usually means a stack of simple protein pancakes, a yogurt and granola, or a protein shake with fruit. I aim for around 20 ish grams of protein, which sometimes I hit and somedays I don’t, but I don’t track it religiously these days.
7. High volume salad lunches
Speaking of daily food goals I try my best to hit, I focus on getting greens in with a high volume lunch, which is just a bro way of saying, huge quantities! Big bowls! Protein gets all the hype these days….but you know what’s not a trend and what just about all the science ever agrees on? Eating vegetables. I know — chic! If I don’t think about it, my whole day can easily go by without me getting a single veggie in, but what I’ve found works for me is packing in multiple servings at lunch with a big ass salad. I’m not talking a salad bowl or even cereal bowl size. I’m talking, get out your mixing bowl, pack that bad boy with finely chopped (this is important!) handfuls of the following: argulua or lettuce, something briny like olives or capers, something protein heavy like beans, tempeh, or baked tofu, something fatty like cheese or avocado, and whatever other veggies you have around like tomatoes and cukes. I like to top with something fermented — kraut, kimchi, pickled onions, and then douse with a simple homemade dressing made with oil, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt and pep, and garlic. I’ve had some iteration of this lunch almost daily for years and years, and it’s the best way to pack in nutrition and really fill up, since I’ve eating a vat of it! Not revolutionary, but it just works for me.
8. Daily dark chocolate
This is hardly a chore, but I do make it a point after reading Dr. Aviva Romm’s great book on hormonal health, to have daily chocolate. This isn’t one of those trends like dunking your face in ice water daily or any of the other things that Tiktok says will totally “heal your hormones.” The benefits of regular dark chocolate are pretty widely confirmed, and plus, it’s chocolate! This one’s simply a no brainer for me, and very easy to adhere to.
9. Honoring my sleep schedule
If I had a dollar for every video or piece of content I’ve seen over the years preaching the superiority of a 5 or 6 am wake time…I’d never have to work again. I drank the “successful people wake up early” Kool Aid pretty hard for a time there, waking up at 5 am every single day for the entirety of 2017, and listen, it ain’t for me. Nowadays, I embrace my natural night owls tendencies, which I’ve had since 1991 and am not apologizing.
I totally get that being able to sleep according to one’s preferred internal clock is a HUGE luxury — I work for myself and don’t have kids — but man, even just knowing your own natural sleep preferences and not trying to force yourself to adhere to what some rando health coach on Tiktok says you should do? Gamechanger. It’s literally proven we each have unique sleep schedules, and there’s no rule that says you can’t be a wildly successful night owl.
10. Honoring my food cravings — within reason
I know full well this is a touchy topic, but there seem to be two overarching camps on the internet when it comes to the nutrition and, more broadly speaking, the body neutrality movement. There are the staunchly “no food is inherently good or bad, I eat whatever I want and give my kids no food guidelines” intuitive eaters anti dieters. Then there are of course, as there always have been, the staunch dieters and “my body is a temple” types, who lately seem to bleed into the MAHA, anti seed oil, raw milk loving crowd (which, make that make sense, but I digress.) I’ve flirted with both ends of this black and white spectrum over the years (though to be clear, was never MAHA, thank god!) and these days try my best to land somewhere in the a sensible shade of grey in the middle. I don’t have it all figured out, and still battle inner fatphobic thoughts and body dysmorphobia like it’s my job, but it’s a constant goal.
All to say, one of the very best things I’ve ever done for my health is learn to honor my cravings. To me, that looks like intentionally consuming lots of foods I know to be beneficial, steering clear of ultra processed options whenever I can, but also, having a bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup as I write this, at 11 pm, because it sounded amazing. Internet culture makes nuance increasingly more elusive, but that’s what I’m shooting for. I don’t have ice cream anytime the craving hits — if say, the craving were to hit every single day for years on end, or at 9 am. I don’t "give in” to my cravings at all times. But if it’s really on my mind and sounding good, I definitely don’t deny myself either. This is a super complex topic I can’t do justice in a couple short paragraphs, but also one this list wouldn’t be complete without, especially after years of disordered eating and hardcore dieting and deprivation. And generally speaking, the less I deprive myself over the long haul, the less I crave the unhealthy foods. And yes, I do believe some foods are inherently more or less healthy and that it doesn’t help us to avoid labeling them as such. I don’t, however, believe in calling foods “good” or bad,” which can easily morph into deeming yourself good or bad for eating them, which is harmful nonsense.
I’d love to hear — what are the tried and true, non-fad, time tested pratices, tips, or habits that have really moved the needle in substantial ways for your health? Share them below — or let me know if you have any questions/thoughts about mine.
Thanks for reading!
<3
Emmy