Our Diet, Fitness, and Wellness Tips

303 health and health. I combined the words. Health and wellness. Y'all know what I mean. Healthness. Healthness, health and wellness put together. Let's do that again. Today we're going to talk about all the things that are really important to us. Food, fitness, wellness, mental health. All things that we sustain by. Malika and I have so much going on. Our family, our friends, and our careers. But we make sure to take care of ourselves. Our health and wellness is really important to us. So there are so many different ways to survive. Eating is one of the very mandatory ones. There are so many different ways of eating. There is paleo, vegan, vegetarian. People pick different diets. Keto, Atkins, no carb, low carb. Everything under the sun. I think every individual has to figure out what works best for their body. And that normally means trying a multitude of things, which Khadijah and I both have done. I feel like we were raised with a mom that was very conscious of health and that started with our diets. So I feel like we've done vegetarian, pescatarian. But as adults we choose to kind of do what works for us. It just kind of depends on what our body desires at the time. If we had to divvy out one meal, let's say dramatically for the rest of our life, what would your breakfast be? I need a protein, I need a vegetable, I need a carb, and I need a fruit. So protein, let's just say eggs. Boiled, fried, sunny side up. I'm not that picky about my eggs. Maybe a hash brown or a whole grain piece of toast would be my carb. Fruit, apple slices, an orange, and maybe like avocado or a slice of tomato. I don't care for breakfast. Now I understand that it happens to be the most important meal of the day. But what I do find to be very helpful is to make smoothies. Smoothies have saved my life. You can have a smoothie that is just as packed as a meal with fiber, protein, your good vegetables, your good fruits. And I probably have a smoothie about five days a week. Lunch. A salad. I'm like, what else do we really... I think I could eat salad... No, I don't think. I eat a salad every single day. Every day. And sometimes it's twice a day. I just think it's the easy food for me to get... It's the easy category for me to get to because within a salad, you can add fruit, you can add nuts, you can add dairy, you can add a protein. So I feel like... And you get your vegetables. So it's a way for me to just have a little bit of everything. So for lunch, definitely a salad. That's mine as well. Okay, dinner. Sometimes with dinner, I tend to go a little bit heavier. And I think that's the opposite of what a dietitian would tell you to do because you're supposed to do a little bit lighter. But I don't want to be the person that has a light dinner and then gets up at midnight and has a bag of chips. So I like to eat a little bit heavier so I can sustain overnight and then get up in the morning and have a light breakfast. So what's that dinner for you? Pasta or rice. That's heavy. Yeah, just a little bit. But then my portions aren't that big too. That portion control is important. If I'm being greedy, I might have like garlic toast. But like maybe chicken or salmon and then another side salad. I really like salad. Or any steamed vegetables. That's an option too I love. I am very big on heavier proteins like chicken, steak, lamb, shrimp. I'm actually very good with my dinner. I feel like you never miss dinner. You miss breakfast. You don't miss dinner. True. I think that snacking is an essential part of every day. I don't believe in starving yourself at all. It's counterproductive. And sometimes a healthy snack in between meals is just the kick that you need to keep going and it also boosts your metabolism. So snacking for me is typically like fruit, dried fruits, cranberries, raisins. Now these things do have more sugar in them but paired with like cheese or almonds, I think that they make, I know. They're just really great snacks and I also believe that sometimes your favorite snack is water. People miss every time how important water is to the increments inside of your day. And it can really help kind of keep you full and sustain you a little bit too. You need water. Your body just can't go without water. I think we also have to be honest about our snacking. We really like candy. I'm obsessed with candy. Yes. Now I'm not saying that I eat every snack is a great snack. I just think that we're really good at not having every snack be candy. We don't have poor eating habits. We treat ourselves because we do eat consistently well. The more you're disciplined in your meals, you don't feel so bad about having some of the treats and snacks in life that are typically not that great for you. Jelly beans, life. Licorice, life. Oh, from Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish. I can't leave out my hot Cheetos. I do love hot Cheetos. I love you hot Cheetos. I really do. Hot Cheetos lime. I love you. You could not forget Cheetos kids. I did. And hopefully Cheetos will sponsor this. We're not helping anyone right now. Okay, well let's be honest. I think everyone deserves to cheat just a little bit. Okay, so fitness is a huge part of our life and it has always been. Running around the mall, I used to consider cardio. But in all honesty, we have found great comfort in having a trainer. I now just started working out three days a week with a trainer. We're shaping and trying to get my body not back to pre-baby, but who and what my body is going to be now after baby because that's what I'm also embracing that my hips have spread a bit but it's gotten a little bigger. But you know, thank you Ace for that. Mommy needed to develop in some areas. So I've authentically find ways to further just keep myself happy and healthy with the way that I look and feel through fitness. I found after pregnancy that I was just so much more lazy than I was prior to. My eating habits have changed. My fitness habits have changed. So it was really hard to get back in the groove of things. And I did have some stubborn LBs that I was just very unhappy to still have on my body. I wanted them gone, didn't know how I was going to lose it because it was hard to want to be with my baby, still be tired. I was always hungry. Like, you know, I was breastfeeding at a point and, you know, running around constantly around the house. So the last thing I wanted to do was work out. So I basically gave myself the time. I stopped being as hard on myself. Your body changes constantly after pregnancy and you got to have a lot of patience with yourself. Because you're healing. Yeah, and you do have to pace yourself. You've got to, you know, and then you also got to push yourself. It's very easy to go through, you know, pregnancy, labor, the healing, and then now try to get yourself back to this woman that you once knew. And then there's one you've mentioned before and that's, of course, just walking outside. It's free cardio. We love getting outside and walking around. It could be a longer trail. It could just be a couple of blocks. I really like that. I enjoy doing that. Kids really like doing that, so that's easier. If you don't have time to work out, when you are with the kids, tell them we're all going for a walk. Little weights around the house. And a lot of things that I like doing is where you just take your arms and you lift yourself up and off the couch. You know, using your own body weight. That's good too. I think it's easier sometimes to use the things that are in your home. Yeah, and there's lots of YouTube videos that I was showing you for fitness that you can just sit in your living room and work along with someone. You can get very bored with working out, so switching things up is not only good for you mentally, but it's actually really good for your body to not get used to any one way of working out. So you can actually see those results from all your work. I think having a partner helps too. And just make sure you're really picky in choosing your partner. You don't want somebody that you have to motivate. You want someone that helps motivate you and vice versa. I can't keep up with my kids. They're like, they want to do sit-up challenges. They want to do challenges. They want to go outside. They want me to play basketball. I don't know how to play basketball. They want me to race. I can race, but the one I did race, Christian, and I have a scar on my knee. I try, but they're just so active and they're so busy. They're at that age where they have to keep moving. So if we're not running around the house playing hide and seek, we're outside jump roping, or if they ever see me working out, they want to work out with me. We go on walks together. Sometimes that means I have to pull Selena in a wagon, so there goes a little bit of weight lifting. I'm just always trying to get rid of my cankles. When you're vertically challenged, you get cankles. So I'm always trying to separate the ankles from the calf muscle, everybody. That's it. Just trying to work them out. I remember working out with Bobby in New Orleans. This is when he was still playing for the Saints, and I don't know why it actually got up and went outside. It was a horrible, horrible idea. One of his trainers was there, and I ended up puking on at least two occasions. So another little trick or tool. Treat. Yes. We've both used as a sauna suit. So although you will not be quiet by any means, because it sounds and looks like you're in a big black trash bag, but it kind of helps your workout secrete as much sweat out of your body as possible. But make sure you drink water. You have to drink triple the water you would usually have, but that's one of my tricks I use after babies. I would put that sauna suit on. I would put long sleeves and pants underneath the suit, because it's top and bottom. So you do long sleeve underneath, so it'll kind of catch the sweat. Otherwise, it'll be dripping out of your sleeve, which is also very satisfying. It really does help you shed toxins, squeezing out those fat cells and cellulite you don't want anymore. So that's a really good trick. Once your neighbors or anyone sees you running in that bag... They gotta know you mean business. Even if they don't know what you're doing, it's got to be serious. No, they just stop with their dogs and they're like, in the world. And I've even had some people go, now does that really work? And I'm like, yes, it does. See, I'm sweating. So it's helpful. So we've just about covered all the fitness and all the things that we love on the outside. But the other important area is our mental and spiritual health. I find that I feel my best when I am truly taking care of self, mind, body, and spirit. I rely on my me time, and that could be listening to a motivating audiobook, going to therapy, talking to a friend, prayer. There's a lot of really healthy ways to work on the inside. And that comes from educating yourself on the best ways to treat yourself. It's not always easy to do because sometimes our internal dialogue is the worst enemy we actually have. And I think acknowledging that and learning healthy ways to counter some of that criticism that we have on ourself becomes healthy ways of moving forward. Having a spiritual round that you rely on, whatever that is for you, that's really important. So you try to just keep like a routine, and maybe it's something you read in the morning, like positive affirmations or poems, things like that. You know, there's me time, times when you really need to be by yourself. And I think there's other times, like I use Malika for that sometimes. If I'm just having a bad time, sometimes I might call her crying and she'll say what's wrong. And as soon as I get out how I feel, we have a whole therapy session. So sometimes it's good to just call in a friend. I think everyone needs an accountability partner. You can be your own accountability partner, but it's good to have an outside source that helps you deal with the many things that go on in life. There are feelings that come and go, and some last longer than others. But there are avenues and ways to deal with the things that we have to address in life. The one thing we have learned, and I will say do a lot better now, is we're just better at life because we're better to ourselves. And when you pay really good attention to self, not the fluffy work. Not the pretties. Yeah, not the pretty work, but really do the inside work because when you're better to yourself, you make sure that other people are better to you, and you're better to others. It's a cycle that is actually very important, and more so than eating well and fitness, I think that that's the most important work that you should do overall. And it's a craft that is perfected over time. It's not an easy thing, but boy, when you get it, does it feel good. Another really important thing is you have to sleep. I mean, I don't think I could do anything, not being a working wife, mother, if I don't get a good night's rest, which I'm not guaranteed that somebody might crawl in my bed and kick me in the head or whatever, but you have to try and sleep. So for some people that's napping. I'm not really good at napping during the day. I think I have this internal dialogue that tells me I'm gonna miss something important, so I don't. But I get eight hours at night. Now that might even seem like a lot of sleep for some people, but I go down because I know when I gotta get up. You gotta sleep. Sleep plays a major role in who I am on a daily basis. You can basically tell how much sleep I've had by my attitude. Ditto. I mean, like, I have a headache right now because I'm sleeping. To have a good sleeping routine is really just good for so many different areas, and the way that you affect yourself, and also the way that you affect others. Sometimes you just need to turn your phone off. You just try things. I think you really just have to make a true effort to get the best sleep that you possibly can, because sometimes it's not even about the amount of hours. It's the quality of sleep that you really need. What are some of your favorite health and wellness tips? Comment below. Don't forget to hit the subscription button below so you don't miss any future episodes. We're losing you. Her coffee's wearing off. What time is it?