5 Little Details That Have Upleveled My Health & Well-Being

Your life today is a collection of all of the details, the details of your thinking, the details of your environment, the details of your actions. It's the little details that add up to create your experience of life. So in this episode, I am sharing five details that have elevated my health and wellbeing in hopes that maybe you don't start doing exactly what I'm doing, but you'll begin to think about the little details. And are they speaking to you, the self-image of how you want to see yourself? Are they elevating your life or are they detracting and shrinking your life? So let's dive in.

Welcome to the School of Self-Image, where personal development meets style. Here's your hostess, Master Life Coach, Tonya Leigh.

What is happening, my friends? Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. And this week we are going to have some fun, and I'm just going to share some little details that have really helped to elevate my own health and wellbeing, because this is a question that I get asked about a lot like, what are you doing? How are you eating? What's going on with you? Because you look as if you are glowing. It looks as if you are feeling better than ever. And I must admit, I am. I'm feeling so good physically, and it really does come down to the details of how I live my day. One of the things that I teach within the membership is that it's the little details that in the moment don't really have such a huge impact on your life, but over time, these details are what's creating your life.

Everything from lighting a candle to putting on a little spritz of perfume to some of the things I'm going to share with you today. Those little things impact how you see yourself. They impact your self-image. And as you're going to see in today's episode, they also are impacting your cellular energy, they're impacting how you feel physically. And these little details over time make a huge impact on your overall quality of life. So I thought it would be fun for me to share some of the things that I've been doing because I have been switching it up a little bit. I'm always playing with my routines. I'm always experimenting to see what works, because what worked in one season may not work in this season. We're always growing, evolving, and I'm just going to share what's working for me right now.

Five little details that are elevating my health and well-being. And we're going to start with detail number one, and I call this my sunrise ceremony. So what I used to do was I would wake up and like a robot, go straight to my kitchen and make my first cup of coffee. I'm one of those people I go to bed at night being excited about my first cup of coffee the next day. Can anyone relate to that? It's like you're already imagining the smell of the coffee beans, the taste of that first sip. It's so good that the best way to spend the first hour of your morning? And the answer was no. It was habitual. It was me giving into comfort. And so what I've been doing recently that I've really enjoyed, even though in the beginning it was hard to do because my brain wanted to take me straight to the coffee machine, I've been waking up and going outside for what I call my sunrise ceremony. Right now in Charlotte, it's so beautiful. The weather in the morning is glorious, the sun's out, and I want to connect with nature. I want to connect with the sun. So basically what this looks like, I do this in my robe actually. I go and sit on my back porch and I just stare up at the sun. Well, I have my eyes closed, but I put my face towards the sun and I just take some really good deep breaths.

I do a round of breath work that I've been practicing and it takes me five minutes, but it's just a way for me to set the tone of my day. It helps me reset my nervous system. It helps me to get into a state of being intentional versus reactive, because I feel like my coffee routine was just me reacting to my own habitual way of being. And some people wake up and they grab their phones, they immediately start reacting to the world. Me, going outside and just sitting in the sun and doing some rounds of breath work for about five minutes has literally set me up for successful days. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it's a couple of things. It's me interrupting an old pattern and it's me connecting with myself, connecting with the sun, the earth, nature before I get into my day, and it's actually really, really powerful.

So that is detail number one, my sunrise ceremony. Immediately, first thing, heading outside, looking up into the sun and rounds of breath work for five minutes. It's very cleansing. It's very relaxing. And more than anything, it just lets me know you are alive, you are here. You are here to experience and create this day. Go do it, Tonya. Do it with love. Do it with intention. Do it with so much passion. Don't take this for granted. And then we're going to move into detail number two. So at this point, my brain is wanting coffee. I am a coffee lover and probably will never change. I enjoy coffee. But I also realize putting coffee into your body first thing in the morning is not the healthiest. It's very acidic. And so I was like, before we start with that first cup of coffee, we're going to infuse our bodies with something else.

And I call this my Glowtini, and it's basically elevated water. So what I do is I have a mason jar. I know, it's the Southern in me, but I have this huge mason jar. I can't remember how many ounces are in it. I'll have to look into it and see, but it's definitely more than eight ounces, probably more like 16. And I fill it with filtered water. And then I do a concoction of amino acids, which is the building block for protein. So it's very important. I do a scoop of creatine and I also do a scoop of electrolytes. And before I have my first cup of coffee, I infuse my body with this Glowtini. People have been telling me recently, "Your skin looks so good, what is it?" And I could attribute it to many things because, I mean, from my skincare to my supplements, but I do think this Glowtini concoction has a big part to do with it.

Number one, it's hydrating. So many people are walking around dehydrated. We are drinking acidic drinks, we are eating acidic foods, and we're not getting enough water. We're not getting enough hydration. So I think just that will help plump up the skin. But I also think there's something to be said for the creatine, which is not only great for cognition, but it's also great for muscle and for skin, as well as the amino acids. And then electrolytes. I feel like many of us are deficient in some of the very core and key electrolytes that we need. And so that is the second detail that has really helped me to have more energy and to feel better. And if you think about both of the things that I just shared with you, they are little details. It's not like this big thing that takes hours.

We're talking about five to 10 minutes of sitting out in the sun and doing some intentional breath work and then filling a glass with water and putting three scoops of supplements into the water. It doesn't take much time. It's crazy when you think about it, how often we don't do these things and they're so minuscule, they don't take time. What really happens is we're having to break out of habits that we're so accustomed to, and that's the uncomfortable part. But the actual process of filling up a mason jar full of water and putting some scoops of supplements in them, it's not that hard. It's just a little detail. But those details can have such a big impact on your life. So that's number two, my Glowtini. Number three, I'm calling this my Strut and Sculpt. So two of the things that I have been doing religiously is walking every day and Pilates. Almost every day, not quite every day, Pilates. I've been supplementing going to the gym as well, but for the most part, Strut and Sculpt.

And this takes about an hour to 90 minutes. Depending on my schedule, depending on the day, a minimum of one hour up to 90 minutes. I might cut my walk shorter so I can do more Pilates. I might walk more and then supplement with maybe 20 minutes of Pilates after my walk. I'm not so strict that I don't give myself some freedom to choose how I want to use the Strut and Sculpt hour to 90 minutes. But that's been really good. First of all, during my walk, I can listen to podcasts. I can listen sometimes to my own visualizations that I've created that are inside the School of Self-Image membership. It is just depending on what I need. Maybe there's something in business that I'm trying to figure out so I can put on a great business podcast. Or maybe it's something that I'm struggling with and I just need to settle my nervous system, so I'll go and listen to one of my visualizations.

Maybe I'm wanting to just listen to music because I don't want to plug into anything and I just want to be with me. Sometimes it's silent. Sometimes it's with Vons. He and I will go out for a walk and just talk about our days, talk about what's going on for us. Sometimes it's by myself with nothing. I give myself the liberty of deciding, what do I need on this walk? Do I need to learn something? Do I need to release something? Do I need to talk about something? And so the walk itself is flexible in how I do it, but the walk has been consistent. And that's been so good for me, because this was something I'd been trying to do for a while, just have a consistent walking practice. And I don't know why it was so difficult.

I had all these excuses, I need to do this. I'm too busy to go for a walk. I'll do it tomorrow, just like I know we all do. And I finally got fed up with myself. I'm like, listen, you're not getting any younger. Your body needs movement now more than ever. Don't take your health for granted. Just because you feel okay, don't think that this is going to last forever without some intention and effort. And so I've been getting myself out, usually first thing in the morning to go for a walk, followed up with a Pilates session. I bought a Reformer a few months ago and I have absolutely loved it. It's upstairs. I sometimes watch classes. I've subscribed to two online Pilates class websites. And then sometimes I just do my own thing. I do my own series that I have learned and enjoy.

But Pilates is so good, you all. Oh my God. And you don't even need a Reformer. You can do mat Pilates, but it is so good in many ways. It's good for stretching. It's good for lengthening. It's good for toning. It's like a body stabilizing workout that my body personally appreciates so much. And so that's detail number three. It is a detail. It's just a detail of just going for a walk and then, to simplify it even more, it could just be a walk and a stretch, a walk and a little strengthening. But combining those two have really helped me to have more energy. I feel the best I've felt in a long time. So that's number three. Number four is the one that, just like with my walking, has been a struggle. And I just decided I was no longer going to struggle with it. It's not a struggle when you take the drama out of it and you just ask yourself, okay, what do I need to do to hit this goal?

And so my goal is to consume a minimum of 80 grams of protein, but ideally 80 grams. And you can see I've given myself the grace of 20 grams because I was realizing, number one, I'm the kind of person when I'm busy, when I'm working a lot, I won't eat until later in the day. It'll be like 1:00 or 2:00, I'm like, God, I need to eat something. And so I realized that's not healthy. I feel like my body needs more support nutritionally than that. And then when I was eating, it was eating healthy, but it would be a salad or I went through a period where I was having some oatmeal in the morning, and so I wasn't getting the protein that I needed. And I listened to a couple of podcasts that just reaffirmed what I knew. And that is that we need protein. Especially as we get older, one of the first things to go is our muscle and muscle is built from protein. And so I made it a goal.

I'm like, listen, get your minimum of 80 grams of protein every single day. Just do what you need to do. So what that looks like for me is that every time I visit my mom, she gives me some of her eggs. She has chickens now, so I get fresh eggs. So I will eat sometimes four eggs a day. I love to make my eggs in a little bit of butter in the skillet. I like them a little bit runny, so over medium. And I will toast a couple pieces of bread, put a little butter on those, and just put the eggs over that. It's so good. I've been doing fish, some chicken, some beef. I also enjoy cottage cheese, but my cottage cheese, I love to take it and put a little drizzle of olive oil, it is so good, you all, a little squeeze of lemon, some salt and pepper. And sometimes that'll be my breakfast. It's so simple, so easy, and it's packed with protein.

I also add a scoop of collagen to my coffee. I've elevated my coffee a little bit. I used to do this regularly and I'd gotten out of the habit of it simply because, and this is a really important reminder, when your environment is not set up to support the habits that you want to have, it makes it so much harder. And so I had my collagen stuck in a cabinet somewhere, and the reality is, if it's sitting out beside my coffee maker, I will remember to put it in there. And so just that one little tweak of moving my collagen and putting it by my coffee maker was this reminder of, hey, listen, just put a scoop in there as you are making your coffee. It's so easy, a little detail. And so that is another way that I get my protein in every single day.

Now, one of the things that I've noticed from being very diligent in making sure I'm getting enough protein is that I am not hungry. And it's not just protein. I'm not afraid of fat. I eat olive oil. I eat butter. I eat avocados. And so protein and the healthy fats that I eat, I just find that I'm sated for longer. I don't have the desire to munch and to snack. And so that's just a positive benefit of making an effort to get this protein in every single day. The final detail that has made such a huge impact, not only on my health and wellbeing, but my overall life is my curated day practice. So within the School of Self-Image membership, we have our daily journal called the Curated Day. I'm looking at mine right now. We just had them printed and they are available to members. They're so beautiful.

But I get so much clarity, I get so much intentionality, I get so much expansion from sitting down every single morning for sometimes 10 minutes max. It doesn't have to take that long. But getting myself into a state that is going to have a positive impact on my day. What often happens is that we wake up just letting our brain run on default. What are your first thoughts of the day? Are they positive? Are they expansive? Do they set you up for success? Because the reality is your thoughts are shaping your entire experience. And so many people don't stop and think about, what am I even thinking? Some people don't even realize that what they're thinking is just a thought. They think it's real, and they're reacting to it all day, every day, recreating the same experience that they don't want to be in.

And so by sitting down every single morning with my Curated Day Journal, I am proving to myself that I am a woman who curates her day on purpose, starting with my current thoughts, why they're there in the first place, getting very intentional about who I want to be for the day, what's important for me to accomplish for the day, how I want to feel for the day, getting connected to my future self, celebrating my wins, celebrating my progress. I mean, you can see how this would have such a positive impact on your life. And it's so simple to do. It's just a little detail, but so many of you don't do it. So many of you keep putting these little details that would completely change your life on the back burner, all because you're stuck in habitual ways of being, you are continuing habits and patterns that are keeping you stuck in a self-image that keeps perpetuating the results that you don't want.

I have to clean up my own self-image every single day. Every day, I have sneaky thoughts that want to pop into my head that say, "This is too hard. You can't do this. Who do you think you are? You shouldn't have done it this way. You should have done it that way." Lots of shoulds in my head, and that just does not serve me. But if I don't check it, if I just let it run out of control in my mind, you can see how I could potentially get way off track from my vision, from the life that I want to live, from the legacy that I want to leave. I cannot emphasize this enough. It's such a tiny detail to sit down with a journal and check in with yourself. How are you feeling? How are you doing? Why are you feeling that way? That is the pattern interrupt that will change your life.

When you're like, "Oh, this is why I keep telling myself this, and this is how I show up when I tell myself this. Let me interrupt that pattern every day first thing in the morning so I can establish new patterns that serve me." Now, beyond my daily practice of doing my Curated Day Journal, I also spend some time envisioning. Now, some people have a hard time envisioning, and I totally understand that. We all process and learn in different ways. We all change in different ways. But having a vision practice for my life has changed my life. I attribute the majority of my success from me literally brainwashing myself into believing that I was going to have success, seriously, doing this every morning, and I still do it.

And I especially do it when things are hard. That's when most people give up. When it's hardest, I know I need this practice the most. It is going to be my lifeline. It's going to help me get out of it. It's going to help me shift my energy so that I can create totally different results. And so with my journal practice, I also love to spend some time really feeling and seeing and embodying that future me that I want to merge with. And the way to merge with her is to be her now. And so by envisioning her, I'm telling my brain, this is what's up. This is who we're going to be today. This is what we're going to create. And so the way that looks for me on a day-to-day basis is really thinking about what's on my plate for the day.

So let's just say, for example, today I am going to record a class, which by the way, I just did for the membership. Today, I'm going to record a class. Instead of me just getting up, having my coffee, coming straight into my office and getting to work on a class, I spend time getting myself into a state that will help me produce the best class. And I have done this in many ways. I've done this without doing this work, meaning I've recorded classes without doing this work. And I go back and look at them now and I'm like, well, girl, at least you showed up, we'll give you that, but you didn't get yourself in the state. And I can tell. I'm like, "That was not your best work." Why? Because I didn't get intentional. I was just checking something off of a to-do list. I need to record a class today. Let me go record it.

And more than ever, I want to be so intentional with the energy that I bring into my work, that I bring into my relationships. And that requires a practice like the Curated Day. And so going back to what I was saying, if I have a class, I want to spend some time in the morning thinking about how I want to be on that class, envisioning me, watching myself teach that class with so much confidence, with so much conviction, with so much passion for the topic, with so much love for my members, with the intention of seeing them step into the next level of themselves and really feeling that so that when I sit down to record the class, it almost feels effortless because I've already practiced it. I've practiced it in my mind. I've practiced it on paper with my Curated Day. And so when I show up for the event, it's as if it's already done because I've been practicing that morning. It's a little detail that had such a big impact.

So if I could encourage you all to do anything, it's to assess the details of your life. Sitting down to journal for 10 minutes is such a detail in the big scheme of things. 24 hours a day, that's such a small detail. It's a small amount of time. It doesn't take a lot, but it does take you sitting down and being with yourself, which can feel like a lot, but that's exactly what you need to address and look at and not run away from in order to get to the next level. When I think about going and sitting in the for 10 minutes and doing some breath work, it's a little detail that gets me into a state. I wake up being intentional versus reactive. When I think about my Glowtini, putting three scoops of powder into water, it's not that much.

But it's having a positive impact, not only on my emotional wellbeing, because I get to have the delight of being a woman who cares for herself in that way, that's creating the self-image of I am a woman who takes care of herself, but also the physical benefits of having more energy, taking care of my body, being able to think more clearly. When I think about my Strut and Sculpt, that feels good to my body, but it's also confirming a self-image of I am a woman who takes care of herself. And when you see yourself that way and you really get it into your subconscious, you're always going to be working to prove that true. Also, the 100 grams of protein is helping me build muscle.

It's helping me in so many ways. And also it's helping me prove to myself, this is who I am. This is my self-image. This is how I see myself. And when you see yourself in a certain way, you are always going to be working undercover to continue seeing yourself that way. And that can work for you or against you. If you see yourself as a woman who doesn't take care of herself, you're always working undercover to prove that true. I want you to see yourself in the opposite way. I want you to see yourself as expansive and healthy and vibrant. And that requires that you start to assess these little details in your life, your daily life. You can call them little details, little habits, but these little things, what are they saying about you? What are they confirming to be true about your self-image?

And when you start changing those little details, when you start switching them up and doing things that give you new evidence for who you're becoming, your life will change dramatically. It doesn't have to be this big profound action. It's these little daily details that add up over time to create the experience of your life. So that's what I've been doing over here. It's helping me to feel good. I think it's helping me to look better. It's helping me to think more clearly. It's helping me to just show up in a more expansive state. Little details, my friends, they add up.

All right, I hope you all enjoyed this episode. And listen, if you are curious about the specifics of the products that I mentioned in this episode, what I'm going to do is actually share them on my Stories the day that this episode comes out. So head over to Instagram, find me at Tonya Leigh. Make sure to hit the follow button and check out my Stories. All right, have a beautiful week, my friends, and I'll see you on next week's episode. Cheers.

Hey, before you go, I have a little gift for you that pairs beautifully with the work that we do around here. It's called The Calm Ritual. It is a short, powerful meditation to help you return to your center, quiet the noise, and reconnect with you because that's where your power lies. Real self-image work doesn't start in the mirror, it starts in the stillness. It starts with calm. So you can go to schoolofselfimage.com/becalm and begin shaping your self-image from the inside out. I'll see you next time.