The Best You in 2023

This is an AI-produced transcription of episode 246: The Best You in 2023.

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Hey girl, welcome to the Purpose & Pixie Dust podcast, the podcast where we dive deep into our passions, our purpose and really unlock our potential with some pixie dust thrown in. What is pixie dust? You might ask, it's the fun and joy that gets unlocked when you're creating and owning your magic. I'm Lindsay, Dollinger dog, mama, Disney lover and high school Spanish teacher who has used my magic to grow my businesses while also working full time. I'm on a mission to help other women create and own your magic by building not only the business of your dreams, but also the life of your dreams while still juggling life, your full time job and all the things. So if you want more than this provincial life, let's use our glass slippers to break those glass ceilings and Sprinkle lots of pixie dust into our lives and businesses. Let's do this.

Hi friend, welcome back to another podcast episode. I'm Lindsay and I'm super excited to be talking to you about this topic today because if you're listening real time, it is the beginning of a new year and I feel like January, February, I guess it'll probably be February by the time this releases. Maybe not. But anyway, you know, the meaning of the new year, a lot of us tend to get back to the new year, New me and really start focusing on your health again. And I just want to preface this by saying I am not a, I'm not a nutritionist. I'm not a health professional, but I do want to share some of the routines and practices that I have added into my life and this is not just about health by the way at all, but the things that I have done really intentionally in the past few years to feel like I have optimal energy and that I'm really setting myself up for success now, am I perfect in all these areas? Absolutely not, I'm still a work in progress, you know, just how I share with everything in this podcast, this is a journey and I'm I'm on this journey alongside of you and I hope you always feel that way, but I just want to share because I know I listened to several podcasts like this from different people that I follow through the years and that's where I got some of these ideas and I started to slowly add them into my day. Now that is a big thing with habits, you probably know, but we're not going to be successful if we try to change too many things at once, so I definitely wouldn't recommend you do that. But when you sit down to plan for your week next week or maybe tonight before you go to bed, these are some things that you could start thinking about implementing, adding them in scheduling them in if it's something that needs scheduling or things just to start becoming really conscious about because I do believe that you need to feel like your best self and be healthy and happy and just feel really great in order to show up that way and attract the right people to your business and that's what we're here to do, right. We want to live our most purpose filled life and we want to feel great while doing it. So without any ado none of this is really in any specific importance um level I'm not necessarily starting with the thing that is the most important, but I'm starting with, well, okay, I'm just going to, so very first thing is sleep.

Now, there are a lot of people who really struggle with sleep or getting good quality sleep. Um I have to admit, I've been there before. Um one of the things that helped me a lot with sleep was really understanding my sleep cycle and how long it was and I listened to a podcast episode, this was years ago now, I'm sure you could probably still find it, but it was on the shilling johnson show and she had a sleep doctor on and I don't even remember if it was a man or a woman. Now, to be completely honest with you, but the doctor had said you know, you to start paying attention to when you are naturally waking up in the middle of the night and try to figure out the time between those and that is most likely your rem cycle amount of time give or take. So I did that I did what he said to do, paid attention and I realized that my complete rem cycle was about an hour and a half long. So one of the things that he was saying was, you know, you want to try to schedule then near bedtime in your wake up time to be in increments of that because you are going to feel then well rested if you wake up after an hour and a half or for me, it would be like an hour and a half or three hours later, 210 hours later, six hours later, 7.5 hours later or nine. And I was trying to do eight hours of sleep because we here at least eight hours of sleep at night, right? And I was waking up in the middle of a REM cycle then and was just groggy and always feeling exhausted and I'm like, what is happening. So when I realized it would be better for me to get 7.5 or nine and again, I'm not a doctor, I have no idea if this is like actual, but it works for me and so I'm going to be honest, I'm nine hour a night sleeper if I can and this has meant going to bed about an hour to an hour and a half earlier for me and I love it. I am so much of a happier person when I have enough sleep and his quality sleep. So let's talk about the quality of sleep and things that I do. So I wear blue light blocking glasses. Any time that I am on a computer looking at a TV screen on my phone if I can. So I even wear them at work. I have a pair of work so that when I'm on my computer doing emails, entering grades, whatever I have them um I wear them all the time at home and then the only time I don't have them is if I'm not walking around or something and I'm on my phone other than that I wear blue light blocking glasses that helps so that you are not inhibiting the melatonin that your body is making before you go to bed and so you're able to fall asleep quicker. Like you're supposed to with your natural circadian rhythm. I already mentioned that I have a set sleep schedule. So I have really shifted this a lot but I like to be in bed if I can by eight o'clock now one night a week I am on a mastermind call and that call usually goes from 7pm to 8 or 8:30pm. So that's my one night of the week that I'm not necessarily following this. But I also then on those days like before I get on the call I have everything ready to go so that I can literally let my dog out go upstairs do my nighttime routine and go to bed. Like there's nothing left that I have to prep, like my water is already in my humidifier at night. For example, before I get on that call, my clothes are already out for the next day. You know, my lunches made or whatever it is so that I can try to shut off now after something like a call, especially like a mastermind call where your brain is going and you're excited and all the things, it can kind of be hard to fall asleep after that. So that's why I don't like to do calls any more than once a week or any sort of training if you're doing a training um super late before right before you go to bed because it just, it's going to affect your sleep. However, one of the things that I do is I try to meditate before I go to sleep. I have the Peloton app, it comes with my bike and they have amazing sleep meditations, you can get free meditations on Youtube. PS If you'd like my referral code for Peloton equipment to save, click here.  If you'd like to try the app for sixty days free, click here. There's also the calm app, There's all kinds of apps now. So I do, I was doing five minute meditations and I have done probably for the last four or five months at ten minutes and I find that's the perfect amount of time and I'm usually like asleep by the end of it. Like I will wake up because my watch will vibrate that I did a quote unquote work out and that's how I know that the meditation is done. Um but my alarm is set before that everything. So like that's my like signal to my brain that it's time to you know, turn off and go to sleep. Another thing with sleep is that I have a set routine at night. So I literally let my dog out go upstairs, put on my pajamas and this is like a side note, I heard this, gosh, um what's it called on the woohoo Wednesday podcast and I don't remember what she was talking about but she said she bought some legit grown up like silky jammies and how much different it made her sleep and that she felt like kind of bougie and just like put together instead of like her pajama pants with her T shirt that she wore that day to bed right? So I didn't buy these right after that. But I went to, they had like a Victoria's secret warehouse sale where everything was $6 and they had these pretty silky Pajamas there. So I got a full set of them and then I got two sets of just the bottoms friend. I love them. I am someone who is like a hot sleeper. They have been perfect literally all winter because it's winter here in Ohio. Anyway, I absolutely love them. I wish I would have done that sooner rather than later. So that's a side note, but my routine. So I let my dog out, go upstairs. We both go upstairs because she sleeps in a little bed under the chair next to my bed and I brush my teeth as I'm brushing my teeth. I go and check and make sure that my clothes are set out for the next day. And then I walked back, spit my toothpaste out. I'm going in depth here, spit my toothpaste out. Um take my contacts out, take my eye makeup off with like makeup remover wipes. Then I wash my face with either um I have my hair face, like a two in one face cleaner that I absolutely love. Or I also have a beauty counter one. So I alternate them because my beauty counter ones for acne. So I will use that if I feel like I'm getting ready to have some sort of acne. Um wash my face with that. Put on my Pacifica night cream that I really like that as well. And what else? Um I either have a Pacifica eye cream or a modere eye cream. So I alternate them. Put that on. Uh I think that's it. I think that's it. And then I make sure that my humidifier has water in it, put the humidifier on, make sure my dogs in her bed, we turn the lights out and then I meditate and I'm asleep. So that's nighttime routine. I do the exact same thing every night. You know, like my dog even knows like when I walk upstairs. She's like, okay and it's bedtime. Okay, So that's sleep.

Next thing for the best you for the best of me is movement. This is going to look different for everyone. Um there's all kinds of theories about this, so I'm just gonna tell you what works for me. I try to walk and get in as many steps as I can. So I'm someone who likes to park a little further out in the parking lot. I will go to run to the restroom in between class periods at school one because I'm drinking so much water, which is coming up, but also because I like the walk, like I don't necessarily go to the closest one I go the one that I can. Um other things I do for movement, I love my peloton bike, I mentioned that so I do bike workouts, I do bike bootcamp workouts and then I also do different strength workouts. I also am a faster way coach. So they have on their faster way app workouts every day. So I do those as well. So like mix them in with the Peloton workouts. Um those are really awesome, 30 minute workouts or less every once in a while a little bit more, but usually, you know, like 28 ish minutes and I feel like I get really good results with those in a really small amount of time and they're not so hard that they're impossible. So I like that. So what I have figured out with movement is I want to do things that I enjoy that excite me. That's also not too difficult that I feel like I can't do it or that I have to modify a lot. Um, and I also like things where I can get on the Peloton app, you can get badges or you can join challenges. So I like those sorts of things. So find what works for you in regards to movement and stick with it. Find something that you like that you were going to stick with, but just move your body every day. Last thing I'll stay with movement that I started doing in the summer probably maybe the spring last year. I have stopped doing it since we have so in ice outside, but I really enjoy, especially when I get home from work or basically when I get home at any time or if I need a brain break, taking my dog Bella out for a walk outside. We just walk up and down the driveway and I'll use that time to listen to podcast, listen to messages from my clients that I need to respond to check emails, I kind of use it as a working time. I also really enjoy doing stories in my instagram and facebook at that time. So as I'm walking one, people like to watch stories as you're moving and doing things. So I'll just talk about my day and it's like a two for one win for me and my dog. So that's something to, especially if you have a pet, you might, um, you might consider, so get your movement in is fuel.

Okay, so fuel has always been a challenge for me. I'm just going to be honest, it is something that my family never did a good job with in regards to like eating really healthy um, because we grew up on a farm, so you know, it's very much meat and potatoes. Um my mom worked and also the majority of my life had breast cancer and did treatments at the same time. So you know, my dad worked and then when he would come home had the farm stuff to do as well. And so our meals were usually quick and easy. Um not always, but a lot of times quick and easy sorts of things. So I have really stuck with that mentality my adult life. And one of the ways though that I have found that I can fulfill that while also eating a little bit cleaner, Making sure that I'm getting my macros in is I order factor meals so they're already cooked all the meals, take two minutes to warm up. They're fresh, they're not frozen and they have some sort of a veggie and then I picked the ones with meat proteins. They also have vegetarian ones. And so I buy those, my sister and I buy them, we split like a box of them. So sometimes I take them for lunch sometimes though. Usually I save them for dinner and honestly I buy a school lunch that's kind of my lazy wave with that. But it is my intention to continue being intentional about eating cleaner because I know when I eat cleaner I feel better and my energy is higher. I also know things that I can't eat, things that make me sick. And one of the things with fuel and this came about from me being a faster way client and then coach is that I don't eat dinner or I try not to, especially on vacation this is a harder one to hit all the time. But I usually eat dinner anywhere between like four and 4 35 o'clock seems a little bit late and then anything after that I know that my stomach is going to either be upset or I'm going to hear it digesting all night. That's just how I work. So my window of eating is usually between seven a.m. is when I have breakfast I eat it on the way to work or once I get to work rather and then I stop at like four or five.

So that is another thing you can maybe play around with energy wise and just how you feel if you know fasting might be something that you try now. One of the things that I know helps me with fasting is the next one and it helps so much with all the things drink water friend. Okay, I'm going to be completely honest with you. I see you, but I just don't understand when people say they don't like the taste of water, like like your body literally needs it to function properly. You have to drink water and to me it doesn't even have a taste. So maybe I'm just lucky with my taste buds. I don't know but drink the water. So I have a giant, I don't even know how many leaders it is, but it's at least a gallon water bottle. It's super cute. I got it off amazon. I linked it in my episode where I talked about my favorite things a few weeks ago and I fill that up every morning once I get to work and I usually have that drink by the time I leave, if not before that and then I drink Probably 2, 133, 4 more glasses when I get home. But I also stop drinking water. I definitely wean off and it's not as much, but I pretty much hard stop drinking much at all between 6-7 because I know I'm going to bed at eight. I also do usually wake up in the middle of night, go to the bathroom, so disclaimer about that, but I try to really heavy load my water and take in the morning and early afternoon, so that I'm not up all night going to the bathroom, but the water has helped a ton with my energy, my face and my skin looks amazing compared to what it used to look like when I did not drink this much water. And I've been doing this for at least at least 2.5 years because I remember I had a student a couple years ago that I always made him go fill my water bottle in the morning and he's not in my class this year, so it was at least 2.5 years that I started doing this. Um And I can tell, I can tell if I used to be a chronic chapstick user, like I would always have to have some sort, not even just like the branch chapstick, but some sort of lip product on my lips all the time, that almost completely goes away if you're drinking the right amount of water. So I will say that too, so drink your water alright supplements.

So supplements, I'm not going to tell you which ones you should take and which ones you should because everyone is different. So you know you should talk to your doctor about that but I will say that I take a pack from Madeira that has daily vitamins, omega threes. I think it's a probiotic as well. It's like a whole complete pack in there, I take that every day and then when I'm feeling like I'm getting sick or I've had a really like, draining week or a day and I know that I might be feeling run down, then I add an emergency packet to my water. Oh, that was the other thing with water flavor it, if you don't like it flavor, it was something, you know, there's all kinds of additives that you can get to water even if it's not like fruit or something like that, you can, I like the element e electrolyte packets, add those in all kinds of different electrolyte packets honestly, or the new tabs. Um so there's all kinds of things you can try with that. Okay, just a few more things I promise.

Um other things that I do to be the best me is I monitor my energy and what I mean by that is I'm just trying to be very intentional about being self aware. So like what time of the day do I have more energy? What sort of things that I do drain my energy? What sort of things build up my energy? How long can I work realistically before I need to take a break, Can I have 21 on one clients in one evening, can I do to podcast interviews in one evening? Can I do three? What's that look like? So just knowing when it's going to be the best time for me to optimally do things scheduling in breaks because scheduling them in often and knowing also how my monthly cycle affects things. So I usually, and that I am very lucky and that I don't think that I have hormonal imbalance because I can hardly tell physically when I am on my cycle, except that I'm just a little bit more tired, I don't have cramps, knock on wood um or any, any of the things that I've heard of, my friends dealing with with P. M. S. Um even digestive issues, I can tell a little bit, but not nothing bad. So um I know that I'm probably not going to want to plan a live workshop or something where I have to be on live and give my all during the first couple days of my period, so knowing that about you as well maybe and I know then the week after, I have a ton of energy or like two weeks after I have a ton of energy and then the week before it kind of starts dipping a little bit too. So just knowing that and planning around that the best way possible is something that has been really helpful. Okay, next thing we're like going from like the most cut and dry things, I feel like in this list to like the things that are a little bit more like you having to figure them out. Um but relationships, so again, we are human, so a big part of being the best you is knowing when to hang out with your friends and your family, who to hang out with, you know, we are the sum they say of the five people we hang out with the most, so who are you pouring into, Who is pouring into you and how is that affecting the way you believe in yourself, you talk to yourself, you show up for yourself, the confidence that you have um and you know, one tip that I have for this, that I have learned through business is being able to compartmentalize those relationships, so knowing that my best friend for 10 years, we might be able to talk about business like super sub or not superficially say so officially I'm like that's not superficially um and I might be able to like yeah, it's going really great, you know, I have a speaking gig next week or whatever and she might or might not be excited for me, but knowing that those, those conversations are definitely ones that I could have with the women in my mastermind, so knowing who you can talk to about what those certain pieces in your life and remembering that people don't have to fulfill every single role for you has been something that has helped me a lot because when you do have those, I don't even want to say disappointments, but I can feel that way disappointing interactions with your friends and your family and you feel like they don't understand you, they don't get you, they don't support you, that's going to negatively affect then how you think about yourself and how you show up. So if you can compartmentalize those conversations and those roles that certain people have for you, I have found that to be extremely helpful. So let me know if you want me to dive into that one a little bit more because I feel like I could go a lot deeper into that and that's not necessarily what I wanted to do on this episode, but I wanted to include that too. And the last thing with relationships is your relationship with yourself. So my relationship with me taking my me time and I, I'm just going for example, um I started taking baths, which I was always anti bath, very anti bath, but I started taking baths with bath bombs to help soothe my muscles during my marathon training in the fall. Now I have realized I enjoy baths, I enjoy that 45 minutes away from everyone where I can either listen to meditation, listen to a podcast, do nothing. I have brought a book in and read a book, like just something that was what I needed mentally and physically as well, because those bath bombs are nice friends. So um that's one thing that, you know, taking me time and just doing something that I enjoy like that. So I try to do those once a week and then other things that I enjoy. So what do you enjoy, like what do you really like? I love hanging out with my dog and playing with my dog and seeing her happy and healthy and so giving her pets and snugs and walks with her outside. Um, I love my business as you probably do too.

So you know, that's how I know that I'm really aligned is I'm showing up, I'm actually recording this episode on a saturday night. Um, I was going to sit down and watch some Outlander for the millionth time and I was like, you know what, I should go ahead and record this podcast episode. So I'm doing that and I'm enjoying doing it because I love doing it. I also know based off my cycle that I am going to be a little bit low energy next week and so I want to get this done now. So you know, I get re fueled by some of the same things that can, can take some of that fuel from me. Um, but my business obviously is something that I really enjoy traveling. I planned a bunch of trips for the next year and a half on my snow day off recently and I'm super excited about them. So I will be, um, well this summer coming up, I'm taking students to London paris and then we're traveling around Spain. So I'm excited about that and then I'm doing a Portugal trip to the ASo race with my sister toward the end of july and um, the next summer internationally I'm taking students and adults to Greece and Italy and then my sister and I will be home a couple of days and then we go to Morocco for 12 days and then we'll be home a couple of days and then we're going to go to Thailand for 13 days, so it's going to be freaking crazy, I'm so excited. Um and then I just planned out and announced, So if you're in my free facebook community or my membership or my email list, you got these emails, but I just announced as well for july this year, this will be between my trips to Europe, but I am hosting a magical Disney business retreat and that's something else I enjoy. Like, you know, every piece of this, like planning the retreat, picking the amazing retreat house, sharing it with women, making this item form and explaining all the things that we're going to do and just really envisioning life's being changed at this retreat because I know they will be lights me up and that is something that I enjoy doing and I want to do it with, you know, well, quite frankly with you. So like finding those things that that light you up and bring you joy that you can add into your day, they don't have to be huge, but it's something you know that you're looking forward to. Something that is recharging you in the best possible way, that's how you get to be the best deal. So I hope these tips were helpful. Let me know if you already do any of these or if you do anything that I didn't mention, I'm always open to learning new things. So please slide into my DMS let me know and friend, this is your invitation to the 2023 magical business retreat that I'm hosting. It is July 13th through the 17th in Orlando Florida. We have a luxury rental home with its own private pool and Jacuzzi area and we are doing a full day of masterminding where you will have eyes on your business and you will have a business plan and we will be sharing ideas, swapping ideas, learning things that's going to be freaking magical. And then the next day on Saturday we're implementing it because that is my biggest quote unquote. I won't say like, well I will say my quote unquote complaint with retreats specifically or conferences is you have all this learning, you have all these ideas and you're so pumped up in your jazz, you're ready to go and then you leave and you go home and you're like, okay, what now? So we're actually going to start the process of implementing some of that together and then we're gonna head to Disney Springs and have dinner at one of my favorite places and then the next day all of us as a group are going to go to Magic Kingdom, which is going to be freaking amazing. I'm so excited. It's so fun to go with a group of women and take all the fun pictures and laugh and just be kids again. Like I don't know, I'm just super pumped and then we will go home the next day, relaxed, recharged, excited and really driven with an idea of exactly what we're going to do to get to the next level. So I hope you can join us. I am putting the link for that in the show notes because it's going to be so epic and I want everyone to have a really individualized attention. There are only eight spots. So I'm hoping there's still a spot open by the time you hear this and there is an early bird price. So make sure that you take advantage of that because it's going to save you a lot of money and some awesome early bird bonuses, like one on one coaching calls that will happen as well.

So jump in on that DM with any questions and as always, my dear friend, go out there and create and own your magic. See you so soon. And that's a wrap on today's episode. I hope you're leaving today inspired princess to create own and spread your magic to the world. If you found by you in this episode or no, a girlfriend who needs to hear it, would you screenshot it and send it to her and if you're feeling really generous, pop it up on your IG Stories and tag me at Lindsay Dollinger so I can see you loved it and tell you, thank you. I appreciate you. Now let's go do some amazing things bye bye.