Wellness Hustle

Wellness Hustle (00:44)
Welcome back to another episode of The Wellness Hustle. We are so happy you're here for another episode. Today we are talking about our morning routine. And so I kind of just want you to kick it off, Sasha. Will you talk about your morning routine? How did this come to mind for you? Well, think morning routine sets you up for the rest of the day.

And I was just thinking about this episode and remembering what a hot mess I was right after college. And we all have our stories. My story was I'm not a morning person. So I had to be at work, not super early, eight o'clock. If you think about it, it's not that early. And I was stressing over it. And I lived two blocks away downtown, two blocks away from the office.

and I slept until 7.45 every morning and I will jump out the bed, I will put some clothes on, I will put mascara on, I will brush my teeth and I will literally sprint for two blocks from the building I live in to the office and I swear to God people probably were like, oh it's two till eight because this chick is running.

down the fourth street you can set your time on me running she's like running a 4.4 just trying to get to work on my heels with my purse over my shoulder and I run in and I throw my purse on my chair and then I will go across the street to Starbucks and I will get my skinny latte because we are back in skinny days yeah and a blueberry muffin and I will bring it back to work

And that was my morning routine when I was 27 to 30. Talk about a cortisol spike first thing in the morning. blood sugar. Blood sugar, all of it. Oh my gosh. A little bit of exercise, I don't know if it was beneficial. Just getting an early morning sprint in. So this is where we started. So you can tell I had a lot of room for improvement. Yeah. Over the years, I would say

I definitely created an amazing routine, but it took me so long. So why I'm telling you this story is because don't get disencouraged. It took me over 20 years to get where I am right now with my morning routine. And I did rewrite my story that I'm not a morning person anymore. I love my mornings, but you have to start in the evening to work your morning. If you are watching Netflix until midnight,

It doesn't matter what your morning routine is. You are not going to love your mornings. So I am a morning person. I am like the person who wakes up singing. It's a joke in our family. My dad and I are the same in that way. Like we literally wake up. We are my mom. Oh yeah. I wake up and I have a million questions for you and I'm ready to go. Like I, I, it takes me 15 minutes to come to in the morning, but once I do, it's like, Jesus, Joseph and Mary, somebody give that girl something to calm down.

So my morning routine really has to start at night because if I don't, am a ball of chaos in the morning. And it's not even like that I'm rushed for time or anything like that. It's just that like, I'm really squirrely. I'm all over the place. feel like again, with ADHD, really just is hard for me to get a hold of that early on in the morning. So having a strong morning routine has helped me be more productive throughout my day. Oh, a hundred percent.

not being snappy, not being rushed, being... Yeah, you're setting yourself up for that day. whatever you're doing, whatever you're carving for yourself in the morning, I think it's very important to go to sleep earlier so you can have little extra time in the morning for yourself because a lot of us have kids, like we don't, but I have a furry kid and he needs attention too. So, I mean, we all have different things in the morning that we need to do, not just for ourselves, but for...

others. So you have to create a little bit of room for yourself. So your day is going to be amazing. Yeah, that's really it. And I think that I hate this analogy, but I just keep using it. It's the oxygen mask. And it's truly like, it is that you have to put your oxygen mask on first in the morning. If you don't take care of yourself first in the morning, then how are you going to be able to support all of these other people, all of these other

pets, of these other priorities. You're to be crabby. Yeah. And overwhelmed.

Okay, so I think, let's start with your morning routine, because it sounds like, again, like as being a morning person, morning routines were always kind of like a, what the heck is that to me? Because I didn't know that I needed one because I woke up ready to go. Like I didn't have a hard time getting ready for school in the morning or any of those, even high school, was never an issue for me.

I am so blessed in that way. again, now I know that if I don't do my morning routine the correct way or the way that I need it to be, then I do, like a lot of my test scores make a lot more sense in high school and college. And like a lot of my productivity makes a lot more sense throughout that time. So I think like, obviously, you know, we've identified a need for change in your early on. 27 year old Sasha's need for change.

Talk to me a little bit about like how you upgraded your morning routine once you identified that change. I think for me it was gradual, not until I got into wellness I really started to think about, hmm, maybe I should do something about this. My crazy morning. But it took me a while to add different things into it and really starting to get up. Like now I get up at six and it's a big deal because to me,

If somebody told me even 10 years ago, you need to get up at six, I would have a full freak out moment. Like that's a really early, but now it's a problem, right? So whatever you did the night before is very important. And I said that before, but so mine got built on kind of stacking. Like we talk about it before, but I started with the water. Yes. First thing.

So that was my first day. started with water. Then I stopped adding apple cider vinegar to my water. So now it's not just water, it's apple cider vinegar water first thing in the morning that I drink. And it works for me. Sometimes it could not work for some people, but it works for me. And I take my spirulina cruella with that. So it's a good source of protein, antioxidants. So I put that first thing with water and apple cider vinegar. And after that,

added my ice face plunge and it's something I've read about and I thought I'm gonna try and now I'm absolutely craving it so I set up a big bowl and I put ice in there water and I'm stacking kind of a thing so I'm in the kitchen and I'm doing my ice plunge face into the water and then in between because some people just do it once

but I'm crazy. I want to do it like six, seven times because to me it feels so great. I can't even explain the feeling. It's not when you diving in, it's when you coming out of it. That rush of that blood to your skin. It just feels so awesome. It wakes me up because I'm not a morning person. It wakes me up. It makes my mind more clear. It makes me more positive. It makes me more excited about the day.

So I will love, I love my ice plunge. Also, can I just say that you're doing a really hard thing first thing in the morning? Exactly. Exactly. So you do that. You tell your body, it and your body does it. So it's just training your body to follow your command. Love it. So in between I'm unloading my dishwasher. So I'm moving and putting things away. I'm feeding my dogs. I'm doing things that are just like typical mindless, but wakes your mind up because you are moving around.

Then after that again, we're getting some productivity in right? I'm just like noticing like yeah, the mental behavioral things that are like, okay So you did a really hard thing now you're doing a thing We don't really like to do but we have to do and like that also is a little like simple simplified movement and like you're being productive So you're kind of mentally getting into that mode, right? But I forgot the first thing I forgot to say is that the first very first thing before I get out of bed I always

have Moon come over and we cuddle and we say gratitude together. Yes, we do that too. Do you guys do that too Sage? Yeah. So Moon and I, we're always grateful every morning and then we go into the face wash. Yeah. But he doesn't do it. He watches me and he gets to eat little ice. He loves to eat little ice. So yeah, and then I'll do my mushroom coffee and I go and I do, well, we forgot to brush teeth. That was number

too. I was making assumptions. It's not that important, Yeah, I was making assumptions. Yeah, that I brushed my teeth. It was gross. And then, so then we go and we get dressed and I started just in 2025. I've been wanting to do this for a really long time. It's just been in the back of my mind. I need to do it. I need to do it. And I'm finally, I've been really consistent. I didn't skip one day yet. 2025. I've been doing yoga every morning, 20 minutes. I've

fine three filter 20 minutes on Peloton. I put it on and I do every morning 20 minutes yoga and I feel awesome. That's amazing. I love that you're getting again, like you're getting the physical movement in, you're getting the productivity in, you're getting the gratitude in. You're hydrating. I just think it's fantastic. And I just want to touch on, so I...

Do something similar, but it's not as intense as what you're doing with the ice face plunge. Yeah, I started doing that for anti-inflammatory purposes Yes, but I do like our water gets really cold in the morning here. Yeah, and so I splash cold water on my face. Yeah, that's one of the first things I do and It genuinely I have noticed that it makes a big difference like that's that's cool. Try the ice plunge. I'm going to you should also help some anxiety

So it's not just for your face benefits. It does help you with the pore sizes, like with the skin complexion, all of the things for your face, but also it helps you with anxiety. Also for those of you who aren't watching, Sasha has incredible skin. So yeah, so maybe I'm going to start doing the face plunge. Yeah. I think you should. I was such a geek.

When my girlfriends come to visit, like for girlfriend stay, all do face punches with me in the morning, I make them. I love that. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to start adding that in. So do you not drink coffee in the morning? Um, well I do mushroom coffee. So it's, it does have a little arabica in mushroom coffee. there's blend of mushrooms and a little bit of coffee in there. So yes, I do. Okay. Um, I am a hardcore coffee drinker, so that's always like.

I look forward to getting up just so I can have my coffee. Oh, I love coffee. Yeah. So I had to ask that. Do you, what kind of brands, flavors, like what are you doing with this mushroom coffee? I want to know more. So I tried the water and then Ryze. Ryze I like the most. Okay. I've So far. I actually have two pouches of Ryze My problem is I'm drinking so much in the morning.

Like liquids that I'm like, okay, I need to back off and I really love my routine right now. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna stick with it. But yeah, moving your body while you're doing chores and like getting the face plunge in, which is a hard thing. I just love this so much. I love that you got this down. I do and I'm looking forward actually to it. And the way I do it is like in my office, I have a little corner where I set up with my yoga mat and my little candle and my little like

yoga blocks and the yoga strap and like the meditation pillow is there that my friend gave me, Nikki. Thank you, Nikki. So all of this is just that I'm really cutesy and I can't wait to get there. See, and that's the thing too, is that your morning routine shouldn't be something that you just are so not looking forward to. Right. These are all really fun things and some of them are hard, but the benefits of them make them so great that you kind of become addicted to them.

I think so. That's how I feel. Maybe I'm crazy, but you guys let us know. I love, love my morning routine. If you're crazy, then I'm batshit. So okay, I can't wait to here. What do you do? Okay. And how it started. my morning, my morning routine actually starts at 7 p.m. the night before. Well, yeah, we didn't touch on that. Mine does too, but. Mine has to because I think that the least amount of friction you have in your morning.

the better your morning will be. that's just for me, again, I'm super squirrely. So the second I have one thing that's out of place, I really need the habit stacking in the form of like the trigger item that brings you to the next item that brings you to the next item. If I do those crumbs, little crumbs, if I do the crumbs out of order, I'm I'm fucked. Like you got fucked one time here, but I decided to help you to set up the podcast situation.

And you didn't do that crumb and then next thing you know, we don't have sound. One time we didn't have sound and one time I didn't hit record. am the value. You get to do the whole thing yourself. I'm like, I'm not helping. Yeah. I have to have things that way. And it is maybe like a little bit detrimental to being able to delegate tasks to people, but...

I really do need to have it that way. So my morning routine starts 7 p.m. the night before and it's really simple. I just fill up all of my waters that are gonna need to be available the next morning. like I have an espresso machine. has to be, the water has to be filled up. I do the same thing. Yeah. Same thing. My water filter, I have one of those reverse osmosis. So I make sure that that's filled and make sure that the little canister is full with water. And then I fill up all of my waters that I'm gonna take with me to bed. And by that I mean like one and then I do my gym one for the next morning.

And then I have some other stuff. We can talk about that later. But then the next morning, I wake up, I do 15 minutes in bed, I'm up at five. So the joke- Girl, I don't know if I'm ever gonna get to five. I'm so proud of my six. I'm probably gonna get to six. I'm so proud of my six. But that's like, again, bio-individuality. Some people wake up and people, because my waking up at five, people are like, you're so lucky. I'm like, yeah, but I'm not. Because if we're out at a concert or anything like that-

Even if I'm sober through the concert if I go to bed at 2 o'clock in the morning I'm still up at 5. There's no if I don't set an alarm. I'm still up at 5 I've had like friends my girlfriends. I'm the annoying girl in the girls trip. Yeah, that's like up at 5 a.m. Like, okay What is that? are we doing now? What are we doing? And it's like so now I've created a space for myself that that's better and luckily my girlfriends are really sweet about it, but So I wake up at 5

I have 15 minutes in bed with Sage where we just like snuggle up. I go through my gratitude. I just come to and then I do all the teeth and things like that. then all the ones you want to keep. And then I do a splash cold water on my face and it's super cold. And I do tongue scraping too, which I, Oh, I have not done it. Maybe I need to add that. I'm addicted. I don't know how much I can squeeze into my morning. Maybe I need to get up at five at this point.

No, it takes like two seconds to do and it's such a great like I just feel like my oral hygiene has been so much better since scraping my tongue. But I brush my tongue with the toothbrush. Is that the same? I mean it feels different. I feel like it feels different to me. Okay, I'm gonna try it. Do you buy like a tool for it? Whole Foods has them. Okay. It's like a little U-shaped tool. I just scrape my tongue. So you're trying face plunge, I'm trying tongue scrub. Yes. Okay. I also feel like you can get further back.

on your tongue with a tongue scraper. makes sense yeah. So I do that and then I splash cold water on my face like two to three times and then I go through my skincare routine. I do a lymphatic massage on my neck and face, which seriously, you guys, it takes me three minutes. It's not that long. And I use like just a rose hip oil that I get from the ordinary Sephora and it cost me like 10 bucks, I think. And then I go.

Downstairs with the dog and I put my gym clothes on Yeah, very important. Otherwise, it's an alarm. Joy. Yeah, I put my gym clothes on I go downstairs I do my I Start with a bone broth. Uh-huh. So my bone broth is the paleo Valley chocolate protein that they do it doesn't have I Want to see in the powder for it was a liquid comes in powder form? I'm

I want to say it has like two grams of sugar, if not less, like it's next to nothing. Yeah. Um, I, it's good source of collagen. I feel like it's a good foundation before I put coffee in my body. And while that's being prepared, I take my vitamins with water, but I think I'm going to add the apple cider vinegar, like you just mentioned. see if it's not too acidic. It could be too acidic for some people first thing in the morning. Okay. For me, it's fine.

And also you're doing the bone broth so you might be okay after the bone broth to add some apple cider vinegar. Okay. Yeah, so try and see. So I do that and I take my vitamins or my supplements which are I take two probiotics and then I take a liver pill that I love that's specific for female organs. And then I have Cymbiotica's glutathione and vitamin C. then, and I am up in the air about all

these supplements right now so we'll probably get into that later but I do that and then I go have my bone broth and I write out all of my to-do's for the day. I have to do this. I rewrite them every single morning love it. do so they can cross them off. I like to cross them off and I find that if I don't rewrite them then things will just stay on my list forever. So it's kind of like subconsciously remind yourself these are the things still on the list. Yep.

And then once I'm with that, I'm usually done with my bone broth. I go make myself an Americano. I go sit back down. And while that's cooling, I do a 10 minute breath work on opal. Just to be clear, this sounds like a lot, but my whole morning routine, this whole morning routine costs me or takes me like 30 minutes, 45 minutes max. Yeah, that's what mine is about. Well, I do yoga for 20 now. So everything besides yoga is like 30 minutes.

20 minute yoga and then my clients started to come in because I work from home. Yeah, so I'm lucky in that sense. Yeah. Yeah. So then from doing the breath work meditation, I just started a breath work. I used to do just a standard meditation. I feel like the breath work has been really so much better for me. Sasha and I were talking before we recorded this. I feel like a different person and she's noticing a difference too. huge. Yeah, huge. I am so much more calm. I'm so much less squirrely. I feel like more

mental clarity, focused, you stay like on one thing. Yep. Yep. And then from there I hop off the couch and I go to the gym 45 minutes of the gym usually an hour. And that's the whole thing. That's the whole thing. But it makes you feel good. It makes you feel productive. It makes you feel like you had time for yourself before you started giving to somebody else, like pulled by clients, by work, tasks. So when I did not do the morning routine like that,

get so irritated because I think mentally we need to love on ourselves first thing in the morning before we can start kind of give the love away to others.

Okay, so is it always been the same way like this your routine or did evolve over the years? It obviously you weren't hot mess like me. Yeah, it definitely has evolved. Well, my hot mess is just different. Like I think that it's just so different. Like, and that comes with my situation, right? Like I, you know, when I would wake up in the morning and I wouldn't do these things.

First off, I didn't have things to look forward to to get out of bed, I would just lay in bed for a while on my phone. Oh, scrolling, scrolling. Yeah, or check my emails. OK. And then I would start with my emails. And then next thing I know, I'm super stressed out because I know that I have 1,900 things I need to do. And that was not my 1,900 things I needed to do. That was the external world's 1,900 things I needed to do. So then I would be like,

just again, feeling that chaos and I would immediately jump into work. So the next thing I knew, it was so bad at one point, like when I was working for an accessories company and traveling a lot, like I'd be at hotel rooms, sitting in the hotel room and like working on my laptop in bed before I even was able to get a cup of coffee. Like I would just be like immediately on my laptop. and then next thing I know I'm doing that until nine o'clock at night.

And my whole day has been just like down this rabbit hole of things that need to get done. Yeah. My obligations to other people. And I would just feel so drained and kind of unproductive in a weird way because it was like, just felt like I was being pulled in so many different directions. Yeah. Makes sense. And so, and then when I started my own company, it only got worse, like just way worse. and so now I just feel that I can take this routine with me everywhere that I go.

And I don't seem to have an issue with it. like, even when I've done trade shows for Haven and Flux, I go to the trade show and I can do those same exact routines in the hotel room. Like I'll plan ahead what my routine's gonna be. Because obviously I can't do coffee in the hotel room sometimes, especially when the trade shows in Vegas. So it's like, okay, the first thing I do, what is my routine gonna look like and how am gonna get those whatever things? And I go through that process in my head the night before. So it's honestly, it's made me...

I think it's made me a better person. I think so. It me a way better person. Yeah. I'm not a crabby monster like that was. Yeah. And when you have too much chaos, and I call it chaos, but it's really my symptoms. ADHD, but like that really, the hardest part about getting on medication for ADHD was realizing how much that impacted my loved ones. Like the people who had to, who I was working with all the time and my family and every

I just didn't realize how much that was impacting. And like I mentioned in previous episode, I have recently come off of my medication. And again, don't do this without a doctor's consult. Like I went through all the process, but I feel so good. I didn't feel good for the first two months of coming off of it, but I feel so good now. This is the best I felt in probably years.

I'm so proud of you, I'm so happy for you, honestly. No, me too. It's a big deal, you guys. It's a big deal. It was really impacting my life. So, okay, so how can we help our listeners upgrade their morning routines? Yeah, back to them. I think start small, like, and just think what are you most excited about? Like, what do you want to try the most? Is it the eye sponge for your face, maybe?

Maybe not. it's the just first thing drinking water getting up and drinking that water in because a lot of my clients when I work with them They don't drink water first thing in the morning. This start with coffee, right? So maybe just Drink water first thing in the morning and see how that goes for you.

Yeah, I think that's really the big thing is just figuring out like and again You're you're hearing from two opposite sides of the spectrum of Sasha's not a morning person, right? I very much am a morning person and so

You have to figure out what works for you. Like when I say that my morning routine has to start at night, it's because when I'm starting that process, I'm thinking about what my morning is going to look like. I'm kind of running through it's almost like visualization. Right. Similar here. And also if you don't go to bed early enough, you're not going to be able to get up a little bit early to do the things that you want to do for yourself. Yeah. Because majority probably have kids, other things to do, get up early. Some people have office.

or jobs where they have to leave the house early. So yeah, you have to kind of keep that in mind that if you're partying some time for yourself in the morning, where is it gonna come from? If you have to get up a little early, then need to go to bed a little early. What time do you go to bed? We try to go like 9.30 before 10. Sometimes we get naughty and if it's approaching 10 and we're not in bed yet, I get super angry.

We gotta go to bed. So my mom, for those of you don't know, I'm really close with my parents. They live seven minutes from me and my mom does what you do. So she will literally, she doesn't literally kick me out of house, but like seven o'clock will be approaching. My mom is so strict about her routines that seven o'clock starts approaching and she's like, I gotta get out here. Like I can't, you gotta leave. Like I gotta do all my things. Like gotta put my shower in there, I my lotion in there. And she'll like run through and I'm like, okay.

I'm going I gotta get out of here. So it is so funny But I think that part of my routine being set that way is because my mom does that to me right? I'm like hold on so then that forces me home. I'm home by like 7 15 at the latest and then I'm like well now I'm home. I'm gonna start cleaning up picking up putting the things away like that I'm in my routine and next thing I know I've got this whole nighttime routine. I'm gonna thank your mom for that. My mom is a saint. You love that woman but yeah,

sorry, I digress, but I wanted to talk a little bit about how different Sasha and I are in our morning routines and how we have different situations of one person is a morning person, one person is not. I think

You have to figure out if you're not a morning person, maybe if you're someone who likes to wake up at eight, maybe don't shoot for six right out of the gate. Exactly. Like I did. Yeah. Start with like seven 30. Yeah. For a month and then start with seven. And then like if you're exactly because you have to figure out when your time to wake up is too. And I don't think anybody really talks about that. It's like my time is fine. Like my body decides it's five o'clock and like yours is six.

Mine is, I would say it's getting there naturally, like 6.30 probably, if you know what I mean. Like on the weekends I would not set up an alarm and I would get up probably like seven or so. Okay. That's still better. But that's huge for me. Yeah. Before it would be like 10. See, and that's really important if it was 10 on the weekends for you before. Not seven. You can train yourself. You really can. Yeah. And don't...

make this huge jump because then you're gonna get discouraged. Oh but yeah you'll be so tired, cranky, defeats the purpose. So I think that and then like find a fun thing like maybe it's something we've said or maybe it's something you've heard before where it's like that sounds so fun I want to try that. Yeah try that one thing for a while see what you think.

Well, it doesn't have to be all in nothing

No, and always start small. I did at one point, tried like, I was really on a wellness podcast kick. Shocker. But I just, I eat this stuff up. Like I love that. This is what I do in all my spare time. I'm reading about it. I love it. love it. and sometimes I take on too much. And so I did do that and it made it worse for me. Like I just added all the things in. I was doing like the under ride patches and I was doing, and then I'm like, that's another cost I have to add in.

And then you're doing all these supplements and it's like do we even need all these supplements? And am I supposed to eat these with food? And I don't eat food until like nine. So wow, okay, this isn't gonna work. And again, just being flexible and understanding what your needs are and making those adjustments. yeah.

Okay, all right, what are our takeaways today, Brett? I think our takeaways are that a great morning routine really sets the tone for energy and productivity. Yep. And great mood, stabilization and that too, really setting the tone for your day. Yep. I think really Sasha's step-by-step upgrades show how

small changes can make a big difference. What a difference that is, right? 15 minutes of just like throwing things around and running down the street and getting up at six. Doing yoga. Who is this girl?

so I just think that if Sasha can build it from 15 minutes of sprinting down the street, then you can build it to like, yeah. Um, and that is not a dig on Sasha. It's just like, no, it's a deal. Yeah. But like living in a city too, it's just, you get caught up in things so quick. I've been there. Um, and yeah, personalize your routine and let it evolve with your needs. mean,

There's no need to, there's so many things you can do to change your life for the better. And the fact that you can get really overwhelmed is not lost on us. So just step by step, one day at a time. And make it your own. And make it fun. Cause I'm looking forward to all of the things. Well, your little yoga session sounds like a blast. It is, I love it. I love going to the gym. So like my little end cap is like, I get to go and be in the gym. Yeah. So yeah.

Thank you guys so much for tuning in to another episode of The Wellness Hustle. We love you so much and we are so appreciative that you're here. If you also loved this episode, share it with friends. That helps us grow and yeah, is that the whole thing? think that's the whole thing. We'll see you guys next episode. See ya.