In this episode, Cheryl McColgan shares actionable insights on establishing sustainable habits, building strong foundational practices for health and wellness, and overcoming common challenges like overwhelm and inconsistency. Whether you’re starting out or looking to refine your routine, this conversation offers clear steps backed by research and personal experience.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

CONNECT WITH CHERYL

Shop all my healthy lifestyle favorites, lots of discounts! 

21 Day Fat Loss Kickstart: Make Keto Easy, Take Diet Breaks and Still Lose Weight 

Dry Farm Wines, extra bottle for a penny

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Wild Pastures, Clean Meat to Your Doorstep 20% off for life 

Clean Beauty 20% off first order

DIY Lashes 10% off 

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Facebook

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The Shoe Fairy Competition Gear

The Complete Beginners Guide to Keto

Getting Started with Keto Podcast Episode

Getting Started with Keto Resource Guide

Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:00)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal Nourish Grow. And today I wanted to chat with you about a new program that I just started. And it’s actually a whole little system called the Foundations series. So a lot of this came about because over the years, as you know, if you’ve watched some of my content before, I’m very focused on habits. My background is in psychology and I’ve been basically interested in health and wellness my entire adult life and have had

many different kind of jobs and coaching in this kind of area. And so it’s something that I’ve worked on for myself for a long time. It’s something I’ve worked with other people on for a long time. And it is the content that you see every day on Heal Nourish Grow all has something to do with these sorts of things. So when I thought about it more like how can I put this all these learnings and all the information that I have learned for myself over the last years and practice for so long, how can I put it into a foundational system

that will actually help other people without being overwhelming, being organized and get you to a place where you actually do these things. Cause I feel like a lot of people will say to me sometimes, well, I know what to do. I just don’t actually do it. And so part of that, I think is the overwhelm of it. Part of it’s just that life is so busy, you know, so many factors, but this really breaks it down into little buckets that you can focus on for a small period of time. And just again,

As I always talk about with habits, just starting really slow and building on them. And so that’s why I called it the foundation series, because it literally is the whole foundation, find foundational practices, foundational ideas that will really help you just build your life to meet your goals from there. So these very small things that you start with and creating this very strong foundation will really allow you then to create whatever it is that you want for your life, for your health, all of that.

So I feel like most people, again, they just don’t fail because they’re not trying or they don’t want to. It’s just they’re not really clear yet about their own priorities. Like they think that they know what’s important, but you know, quite often the choices that we make every day don’t match what we think are our priorities. So really identifying them and making them clear in your mind is a really big part of that. So the first thing I started with, with the health

of the situation because once you get your health in order, once you are able to sleep well, eat well, feel good in your body every single day, that also just helps everything with your mental health as well. focusing on these foundational principles that relate to your health that are small things you can do every day, I think really make it a lot less overwhelming than it might be otherwise. And so these are all just daily consistency.

low friction routines, creating things that are easy to repeat every single day.

Cheryl McColgan (02:45)
The very first part of the program is something that’s really in alignment with this time of year, which it happens to be January, 2026 when I’m recording this. And that is working on healthy habits as kind of a challenge for the new year, because people often make New Year’s resolutions. And usually by about this time, by about the end of January, a lot of those have already gone by the wayside, because quite often people just take on too much at once, rather than doing small

things over time and consistently building. really think that’s a much more sustainable way to approach habit change and to incorporating new healthy habits into your life. So the first thing is the free healthy habits challenge. It doesn’t have to be the beginning of the new year. Whenever you find this video, you can always start the healthy habits challenge. You just put in your email and then it’ll start a series of things that you do every single day. It will send you some worksheets. There are links to research that backs up these small practices like why they’re good for you and

what kinds of things it helps. And so you just try a new simple habit every day for 30 days. None of them take any more than 15 minutes. And you can always dive deeper into any of the subjects if you want. Like I said, there’s research links you can read, there’s journal prompts, but the minimum is just doing the habit that day, trying it out and then noticing if that’s something that you think would work well for you in your life that could really help you feel better, look better, perform better, all of those things.

And then ideally after the 30 days is finished, you identify some of those things that you tried that you really want to incorporate going forward for the next 90 days. And so that’s when I decided that I would actually create this whole other series of programs after the free healthy habits, because a lot of times it’s like, well, what’s next after you do that, you kind of, you know, it was great to try all that. And I do give direction in the healthy habits challenge. You’re identifying three to carry forward over 90 days. And you just really try to create that consistency.

But what if you wanted something that’s a little bit more structured and gives you more ideas about how to perform the habits that you’ve chosen, work towards your goals, all that. So that’s where the foundation series comes in.

Cheryl McColgan (04:46)
And so the first one that I decided to focus on, and again, if you’ve already are familiar with my content, this will not be a surprise. And that is protein, because once you get the protein foundation in place, identifying what’s optimal for your body and optimal for your goals, and then actually integrating that and hitting it every single day, that becomes the basis then for your whole nutrition plan.

So this first part, just focusing on protein is because it’s such an important building block in your body, it’s not the protein itself that we need. It is the amino acids that our body breaks down that we need for muscle, for metabolism. It creates more satiety makes it easier for you to feel full longer. And it is big in repair and recovery in your body. So having that proper amount.

on a consistent basis every day really just lays the foundation then for you to build your whole nutrition program. And that is the second foundation is nutrition. So that may sound, you we talked about proteins, obviously one of the major macro nutrients alongside carbohydrates and fat, but that whole thing is what really creates all of your nutrition. Like you can’t live on just protein. mean, you actually can. A lot of people do the carnivore diet these days, but for most people, that’s not a choice.

that they’re making, they want to create something that’s more balanced, that’s more sustainable, that’s easy to still be able to eat out, that’s still easy to go to events and not feel overwhelmed. And so the second foundation, once you have your protein amount in place that you’re going to create on that consistent basis, then you can start to focus on your overall diet. And so the nutrition thing really works with, it doesn’t matter what style of eating that you choose, it’s going to create something that’s balanced and that it’s in alignment with your goals.

And so that’s something that you’ll work on through the program is figuring out is your goal muscle gaining muscle. Is it losing fat? Is it just maintaining your current body weight? Is it maybe reducing inflammation in your body? So any one of those goals that you have will fit into this nutrition framework. So you’ll select those goals. You’re going to figure out your, macronutrients that work best for you. The protein part is always non-negotiable. That number

really never changes that much on a daily basis unless you have like a super hard workout or something that maybe you might go do a little extra for recovery purposes. But for the most part, that number will never change. And so then it becomes figuring out how to balance that and the carbohydrates in a way that make you feel good, that digest well, and that work with your goals. So that gives you a lot of flexibility. It really creates a way to think about things so that when you’re in an unfamiliar situation, you’re not

for yourself, you can still make really good choices and make things work for you. And again, a lot of this is things that people think that they know how to do or that they should do that kind of thing, but they don’t actually execute on a daily basis. And so that’s what the foundation system really helps with is creating that consistency. Again, it’s these small habits over time that build to help you get to your overall longer term goals. But you’ve got to get to those longer term goals. You have to work on those little parts of it every single day.

And so that’s really what this part of it is about. And then the last foundation is the strength foundation. And again, it’s something that you’ve heard me say before, and it’s something that I’ve come to appreciate a lot more now that I’m over 50. And that is that we really need to have some strength training in our life. And I know it’s a challenge for a lot of people, especially a lot of people in my age group, if you happen to be a woman.

⁓ There really wasn’t as much focus on strength training when I was younger I mean I got kind of lucky because I was exposed to it at young age through my dad and Then I did play sports in high school and college So I was in the weight room and I have probably more familiarity with it than a lot of women my age But I was in that same trap growing up in the 90s where it was all about, you know Being skinny was the thing and so I never really had a focus

on muscle is more just about, you know, maintaining my body weight. And I did that through running for 17 years, I kind of did almost the exact opposite of what is really good for your long term health as far as muscle mass anyway, I mean, ⁓ running and walking have a lot of great awesome heart and cardiovascular benefits, but it’s not so great in terms of building muscle. In fact, it often creates a body type where you don’t have nearly as much muscle. So

now that I am more educated and you know, you learn things over time and once you learn things, it’s hard to unsee the importance of it. And when you really think about muscle health in terms of your metabolism and in terms of just living well as you get older, you know, it’s a slow thing, right? That happens over years that you kind of have to just fight all the time and you don’t want to get to be

know, 70 years old and be so frail that you have a hard time getting out of the chair that you can’t do simple things like carry your own groceries in or shovel your driveway when you need to. had a lot of that here in the Midwest just recently in January 2026. So all that is to say that I think what creates maybe a little bit of fear or something in your mind about not wanting to do it as much is because we kind of envision this thing that we have to be in the gym.

five or six days a week, something like that to make it work. And you have to do a whole lot of strength training to make it work worthwhile. But after I’ve really taken a deep dive into this and done more studying and more learning, especially over the last three years focused on strength training is really that there is a minimum effective dose of strength training. And surprisingly, you can get most of the benefits that you can get out of training on a regular basis and just doing two full body work workouts per week.

I think twice per week is way, way less intimidating than the multiple times a week that many of us think of when we think about strength training. And it also then affords you to do many other kinds of physical activities that you might, that are more enjoyable, let’s say. So if it’s walking, hiking, biking, snowboarding, whatever it is for you, if you know that you only have to be strength training in the gym two days a week, I just feel like that mentally takes a lot of the stress off and it makes it seem

more doable. And again, it’s about creating these small habits. once you get into it, obviously, if you want to do more, there’s a little incremental benefit of that over two days a week. And there’s also, if you have very specific goals in relation to body composition or, you know, doing any kind of competitions or anything like that, then that program looks a little different. But all we’re talking about is what is the minimum effective dose for staying healthy and vibrant and strong into old age and just being able to take care of yourself. And that is really a strength training program that is two days a week.

So what I’ve done is I’m actually studying for my personal trainer certification right now. I haven’t taken the test yet. But the two days a week foundation, it’s really about like not creating this intimidation around the gym. Because I mentioned like for a lot of us women, especially in this particular age group, a gym can be very intimidating or just knowing how to use the machines or knowing what to do in the gym or going into the gym, seeing so many machines and this feeling overwhelmed because you’re not sure what to do.

That’s what this program is designed to counteract. If you’re more experienced, this definitely might be a little too basic for you, but this is really meant to take the person who has not been in the gym for a couple years, let’s say, or even if it’s been a year since you’ve been out of the gym, this might be totally appropriate because it’s just going to be a program like I said, is two days a week and it’s going to be simple and it’s going to have some videos to show you some things to do. It works if you’re working out from home with just a few simple tools.

So that’s what this part is. It’s designed to not create overwhelm and to just get you into the gym, get you into strength training and hopefully get you to realize the benefit of it. And then from there, obviously there’s so many more, more complex and more ⁓ extensive programs out there, but this is really just meant for if you’re just getting started again, or if you’ve never been in the gym before and to create this sense of kind of knowing what you’re getting into, knowing what you do in the gym.

and knowing where to go and just not having it be too many things at once hitting you, making it very simple, having a plan, having it written out. So that way, even if you go into big gym has a lot of machines or something, you’re going to feel like you know what to do. You know where to go, you know where to find what you need, and then you can get your workout done. So that is the most of the foundations program. And then at the very end, I have lifestyle foundations and that is a one-on-one coaching program. And I haven’t taken on any new coaching.

people for quite a while, but I decided to open that up again. So really what that is, it’s if you feel like you need more support, you need more accountability, you enjoy having a coach, which I have to admit when I was doing my competitions, this past year was the first time I had had a coach in that capacity for like a, it wasn’t so much health and wellness focused as it was training and competition focused, but having someone else being able to give that over for a little bit to a process that was really new for me.

was just so very helpful in reducing decision fatigue and really like making it easy for me to learn how to do these things that for me were very new at the time doing I’d never done a competition before. So of course I know I do it to expect and that was really nice and useful to have a coach to be able to hand that off to and not have to think about it. So but this kind of coaching is more around. Yes, we’re going to talk together about making your goals fit your lifestyle that you have now and

finding time to do the things. I know that’s always a big challenge for everyone, right? And then mapping it out in such a way so you have accountability, you know what the plan is, and then starting to really integrate these habits over time so that you learn a system that works for you long-term. And then at some point, wish, the hope, the dream is that you don’t need a coach anymore, that you just feel really accountable to yourself.

and that you’re able to evaluate goals and think of things in a way like once you learn the system, if you’re thinking of it in a way that, you know, just requires a little planning, then you don’t always necessarily need somebody kind of taking you to the next step each time or being accountable. You can just be accountable to yourself. So I do think that coaching is really useful in so many situations and for short periods of time. But I personally just don’t know if it’s that great for people to have.

a coach for years and years and years in relation to health and wellness anyway. Like I said, for other things like if you’re in the Olympics or you’re on a team or you’re playing sports, obviously coaches are amazing in that capacity and you kind of need them year after year. But I think when you’re working on your health and wellness, I think that the goal should be autonomy at some point and you’ve learned the tools that you need to just go on and live your life well and not have to.

somebody to do all those kinds of things for you or to talk that out with. So hopefully that’s making sense. Again, my background is in psychology and I was into clinical psychology. So obviously, I hugely see the value in all those kinds of relationships. It’s just that I feel like you should learn to fish, right? Instead of just being given fish all the time. So that old saying, it’s like, hey, if you learn to fish, you’ll never go hungry, right? And so that’s the idea of this program is really just teaching you new skills.

new systems, new ways to think about things in relation to your health so that then you can go forward and keep creating that in your own life again and again. So hopefully that was a great explanation of the program. As always, if you have any questions, I’m always available. You can email me. And if you want to go read the foundations page, it kind of shows you a little bit more about what each program is specifically and like exactly what you’ll learn inside of each of them.

But always if you have any questions just reach out you can reach me on all the social media heel nourish grow everywhere or you can email me at info at heelnourishgrow.com. So that’s it for again for today and I will see you next time.

In this final session of the 30-day healthy habit challenge, Cheryl McColgan encourages participants to reflect on their journey and choose three habits to continue for the next 90 days. She emphasizes the importance of building consistency through small, manageable changes and aligning these habits with long-term goals. Cheryl also discusses the significance of flexibility in habit formation and encourages participants to map out their habits for greater success.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

CONNECT WITH CHERYL

Shop all my healthy lifestyle favorites, lots of discounts! 

21 Day Fat Loss Kickstart: Make Keto Easy, Take Diet Breaks and Still Lose Weight 

Dry Farm Wines, extra bottle for a penny

Drinking Ketones

Wild Pastures, Clean Meat to Your Doorstep 20% off for life 

Clean Beauty 20% off first order

DIY Lashes 10% off 

NIRA at Home Laser for Wrinkles 10% off or current promo with code HealNourishGrow

Instagram for daily stories with recipes, what I eat in a day and what’s going on in life

Facebook

YouTube 

Pinterest

TikTok

Amazon Store

The Shoe Fairy Competition Gear

The Complete Beginners Guide to Keto

Getting Started with Keto Podcast Episode

Getting Started with Keto Resource Guide

Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:00)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of FeelNourishGrow and welcome to day 30 of the 30 day healthy habit challenge. You made it to the end and I’m so excited to be here with you for this last day and to hopefully hear all about some of your challenges, some of your wins. I would love it if you would respond to the email after the challenge is finished and just let me know how it went for you. I am always rooting for you. But anyway, for the final day, it’s another kind of reflection thing.

but it’s more future focused. I want you to choose three habits to continue for the next 90 days. So if you discovered there was a particular habit during this challenge, you did a lot of the reflection and reset throughout the challenge, and there were probably ones that you noticed that worked really well for you or that you thought, okay, this is a good habit. I can see this really helping me in my everyday life. Go back to those and commit to doing it every day for the next 90 days.

So ideally, I’d love for you to keep moving for 10 minutes every single day. Maybe it turns into 15, maybe it turns into 20, maybe it turns into going to the gym. These are the way that habits build. We keep doing these small little wins over time, and that’s how you create really big change. So choose those three habits for the next 90 days and set tiny minimums for each one. So you want it to be really specific with yourself what it is that you’re intending to do for those three habits. So again, if I mentioned movement is the one that you want to continue, you could keep it at 10 minutes.

Or you can say for the next 90 days, I’m going to do for the first 30 days, I’m going to do 10 minutes a day. For the second 30 days, I’m going to do 15 minutes a day. And for the third 30 days, I’m going to do 20 minutes a day, whatever it is for you. But making it specific, making it something that you meant to and making it something that’s still relatively small so that you’re going to maintain it. Because at the end of this next 90 days, I want you to set you up for another really big win where you prove to yourself that you can trust yourself.

and that you can make changes and you can create new habits that actually stick. So again, create the minimum, but let’s do three. Over the next 30 days, hopefully some of these habits have turned into a lifestyle. The focus involved with doing little challenges like this just builds like confidence in yourself and it beats perfection. We’re not looking, we can’t all be perfect all the time. We’ve got to just go for sustainability. And that is really how I’ve been able to like.

create these habits for myself that people always talk about me being so disciplined, that kind of thing. It really all started like this, just small little things. Whenever I get onto a new thing that I want to try, I’ve taught myself that if I go big in the beginning, I might be able to stick with it for a little while, but quite often I crash and burn or I just get burned out on whatever it is. But if I start adding it in a little bit of a time, that really creates more of a habit. A great example of this for me, I’ve had many of

exercise things over the years. think I mentioned previously in this challenge, I was a runner for 17 years. Obviously, I just didn’t go out the door one day and run a marathon. It took small changes over time and building consistency. The same thing now where I’ve really been on my streak with strength training is that when I initially started, I told myself, okay, I’m only going to go three days a week, half an hour max. I’m just going to get in the gym, mess around with the machines. That’s going to be a good enough start. Created that consistency mark for myself.

and that kept building and building over time to where now it’s almost like I can’t, in a way, don’t, I mean, I know it’s not that I don’t want to, sometimes your body needs a break and I build in rest days and all that, but I actually feel guilty now if I think about one day where I’m not feeling like going to the gym, it’s like, it’s a habit now, I have to do it. That’s basically how it’s turned out. these.

Consistency things over time is really where you create this thing where you almost feel like it’s just automatic and it doesn’t feel like you need to back out of it or should back out of it. It just becomes purely a habit. So that’s just one example, but it could also be food or sleep. You know, the same thing when I started keto, I didn’t just one day decide to start eating no carbs. I cut it back over time. I didn’t necessarily go cold turkey.

That’s all to say that it all starts with these little things. So pick three things that you feel are really going to feed into your long term goals. And if you haven’t done it yet, this might be a really good time to do that core values and goals worksheet. If this speaks to you, it’s if you go to the website and search ultimate wellness, what is ultimate wellness? The sheet, the link for the sheet is in there and I’ll just walk you through some cues and some questions.

to learn more about what is it they’re all about? What are your core values? And that’s how you create these longer term goals. And then you set these little habits in line to eventually reach those. So if you’re going to do something anyway for the next 90 days, that’s also a great time to do that exercise so that you can start to create these habits that are gonna get you to your five year goal, your 10 year goal, stuff like that. So if you’re wondering to like where to start with picking three, how do you narrow it down?

consider this, this is one option for you. Pick one that’s a movement habit, pick one that’s a mindset habit, and pick one that’s a food or sleep habit, and start with that. Write down the minimum for each of those, and then that’s your thing for the 90 days. Develop some cues around this. So when and where each habit is going to happen. And of course, you can be flexible. There might be days where if you say, okay, I like working out in the morning, I’m work out, I’m gonna do my 10 minutes of movement, first thing when I wake up.

Well, maybe one day for whatever reason that can’t happen. We can be flexible, of course. But mapping it out, putting it your calendar or having the intention to do it at a specific time every day or stacked with another habit that makes sense, that’ll just set you up for even more success. So again, it’s not that we’re not being flexible, but really giving yourself those cues about when and where this is supposed to happen. That way when you see the cue or go to the spot where it’s supposed to happen, will remind you.

that strengthen that habit over time, that that’s where it’s supposed to be. I think that is finally about it for us for this habit challenge. I hope that you got something out of it. I’d love to hear what you learned. I’d love to hear what worked for you, what didn’t work for you, what were your challenges, what were your big wins. As always, if you’re finding this later and you’re like, my God, the challenge is over. It’s not, you can start it at any time. I’ve designed this so that you sign up for the email.

and it’ll send you the series day by day whenever you get started. So whenever you find this, it’s available to you. It’s healnourishgrow.com slash habits. So I’ve said every day, I’ll see you tomorrow, but this time I won’t. I’m still be around on all my channels, all my socials on YouTube, but I’m not gonna have an everyday message to you for a little bit, hoping to get the podcast back on regular schedule, once a week releases, interviews with interesting people in the health and wellness space.

and me talking about whatever random topic of the day that I’ve turned into a research project for myself basically. But yeah, that’s about it. So I will see you somewhere down the road and I hope to hear from you. Take care. Bye bye.

In today’s episode, Cheryl guides you through one of the most important parts of building lasting habits: reflection. As the challenge nears the end, this is a chance to look back on the entire experience and notice what actually shifted for you.

Cheryl explains how reflection helps reinforce progress, identify what worked, and spot what did not work without judgment. Today’s habit is simple and quick, but powerful. You are going to write a few notes about what changed, what you learned, and what you want to carry forward. The goal is not perfection. It is awareness, progress, and building a sustainable approach to healthy habits that fits into real life.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

CONNECT WITH CHERYL

Shop all my healthy lifestyle favorites, lots of discounts! 

21 Day Fat Loss Kickstart: Make Keto Easy, Take Diet Breaks and Still Lose Weight 

Dry Farm Wines, extra bottle for a penny

Drinking Ketones

Wild Pastures, Clean Meat to Your Doorstep 20% off for life 

Clean Beauty 20% off first order

DIY Lashes 10% off 

NIRA at Home Laser for Wrinkles 10% off or current promo with code HealNourishGrow

Instagram for daily stories with recipes, what I eat in a day and what’s going on in life

Facebook

YouTube 

Pinterest

TikTok

Amazon Store

The Shoe Fairy Competition Gear

The Complete Beginners Guide to Keto

Getting Started with Keto Podcast Episode

Getting Started with Keto Resource Guide

Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:00)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal Nourish Grow and welcome to day 29 of the 30 Days of Healthy Habits Challenge. So we’re getting here towards the end and it is time to reflect again. So this will be similar to some of the reflect and resets that we did throughout the challenge on each seventh day. But today we want to reflect on what has changed this whole.

So what is it that you’ve learned from this challenge? What things changed for you? Did you enjoy moving every day? Did you discover a form of movement that brings you some joy while you’re doing it? I want you to write three quick notes about what changed today. So just the minimum, two or three things. Reflection helps you reinforce the progress that you’ve made and helps you notice what is actually working and also maybe what is not working.

So as you’re reflecting, can write down really any thoughts that you have around this, but at least three bullet points is what I’d like for you to come up with that changed. And we also see that there’s some evidence that your brain can see there was a change, that this wasn’t all for nothing, that it wasn’t just another exercise in futility, but things actually did change or shift. And so even if you weren’t perfect every single day, even if you missed some of the days, this was never meant to be about.

Perfect, right? Like when I said from the outset, I don’t want this to be something like a challenge that’s like 75 hardware, you miss something, you have to start all over, it’s really punitive. And I think there are obviously some advantages to those kinds of challenges as well, but this is just something to ease you in to making changes and to learn how the best way to make sustainable habits is to make small changes, small increments.

note your progress, really create it in a way that works, that can fit into a busy schedule, but that you’re still actually making changes and making progress along the way. Notice, maybe look at your tracker, if you need help thinking about things that worked or didn’t work, notice how consistent you were or lack of consistency if that’s the case. Again, we’re not judging here, we’re just noticing and hopefully thinking about some things that would carry well into your future.

As always, the links for the research are in your tracker and in today’s email. And if you haven’t signed up, if you’re just finding this and you’re like, what is this whole challenge all about? Just go to heelnourishgrow.com slash habits, and you can join anytime. So that is it for today 29. And I will be back with you one last time tomorrow for the habits and the final day. So get ready.

In today’s episode, Cheryl returns to one of the most impactful habits for long-term wellbeing: connection. In a world where so much communication happens through texts and social media, it is easy to feel socially connected without actually getting the benefits of real support and real interaction.

Cheryl explains why true connection is closely tied to both mental and physical health, and why it is worth repeating this habit later in the challenge. Today’s focus is about moving beyond good intentions and turning connection into an actual plan by putting something social or supportive on the calendar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BnlCHBdhGc[k/embedyt]

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

CONNECT WITH CHERYL

Shop all my healthy lifestyle favorites, lots of discounts! 

21 Day Fat Loss Kickstart: Make Keto Easy, Take Diet Breaks and Still Lose Weight 

Dry Farm Wines, extra bottle for a penny

Drinking Ketones

Wild Pastures, Clean Meat to Your Doorstep 20% off for life 

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Cheryl McColgan (00:00)
Hey, everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal Nourish Grow and welcome to day 28 of the 30 Days Healthy Habits Challenge. Today, we’re going back to connection. We did this earlier in the challenge, but I think it’s important to hit on it again because in this day and age where everything has become text and social media and learning things about your friends and people in that way sometimes, reaching out and making true connections is becoming more more valuable. And it is so related to good health, good mental health, good physical health.

Thank you.

Bro.

community a strong support group.

people finding new people to connect with. And so today’s habit is

make it happen. So it’s going to be a social or supportive thing on the calendar. I would say that this could be, you know, an event, a social meeting with a person that you already know, or if we’re calling it a supportive thing, it could be more like seeking out a book club or a support group or a way to meet new people. So either one that you choose and one may be easier the other depending on if you’re introverted or extroverted, but you’re going to do one thing.

like that. So it’ll be to schedule this social time, you’re gonna get real support in real time, hopefully boost some happiness, get a few laughs. And putting it on the calendar turns this intention into an actual plan. The planning part is key because we all have intentions, right? How many times does somebody say to you, we should get together, but they don’t actually make a date or make a plan for doing to you.

and mental health and physical health. So one of the things that you can choose to do if you want to be mental health and physical health is to do something like make a walking date. Just take a walk with a friend, go for a walk in nature, go for a walk on the treadmill next to each other, but somewhere that you can talk and interact and actually have real connection. You can go for a coffee. It could even be a phone call if you can’t get together in person, but set aside time that you’re actually going to do it. And both people have availability. Yeah. So time and date.

leave it as, some time is not okay. It’s gotta be a plan, it’s gotta be on the calendar, it’s gotta be like, map. If it’s something that you can’t accomplish this week, I just want you to get on the calendar. It can be something in the future, but I really want you to intend to treat it as part of the calendar, actually do it. But if you can’t, this first day or tomorrow, actually have that interaction, have that schedule time with somebody, the sooner the better. There’s no time like the present, right? As always, the reason

links will be in your tracker and in today’s email. And if you’re finding this in the future on YouTube or on the podcast, you can sign up at any time. doesn’t matter when you find this. It’s heelnourishgrow.com slash habits. And that is it for today. As always, I will see you again tomorrow. We’re getting closer towards the end.

In today’s episode, Cheryl shares a simple but powerful habit that can completely change how you handle stress, conflict, and emotional triggers. The focus is on building a short pause between what happens and how you respond, even if it is something small like a frustrating comment, an anxiety spike, or an email that instantly sets you off.

Cheryl explains how taking just 10 seconds can reduce rumination, support more consistent decision-making, and help you respond in a way that aligns with the person you want to be, not just your first impulse. She also offers an easy cue phrase you can use in the moment, plus a beginner-friendly option if 10 seconds feels too hard.

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Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:00)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal Nurse Grow and welcome to day 20.

I call it a practice because this one is tough sometimes. It’s something that I have been practicing for a long time in my own life. And that is to today, your habit is to pause before reacting for 10 seconds. So a great example of this is usually

better word triggers you or makes you anxious or makes you frustrated. And you may want to just react in that moment. And quite often what you’ll find is if you just take a pause, a couple deep breaths are useful here as well, but take a pause, give yourself a moment to think, give yourself a moment to feel where that comment or conflict or whatever it was, where it landed in your body, where you’re feeling it and just take a deep breath and then respond.

And so why this is good.

And it’s going to reduce rumination, which is that idea that you just keep playing something over and over in your head. All of this is going to support consistency and create a space between the stimulus and the response. And this usually leads to better choices or better interactions. Another thing, you know, I’m talking about reacting with someone else, but it could also be that you’re alone. It’s a personal thing that you’re just reacting to in the moment. So that’s a

time to again, take some time, take a deep breath and just let it settle and figure out what you’re really thinking about it rather than just your initial knee jerk response. Because it could come in the form of an email or something that just happens to you and you’re just anxious and caught up in the moment. Just give yourself a beat. Pause, breathe, and then choose. That’s like a cue phrase. So along with this habit today to take that pause, think of pause, breathe, and choose.

what I like to do with a pause. And it’s funny that my my ex actually noticed this about me which I thought was pretty perceptive because if you would say something that was

A heavy sigh like.

and then just breathe a couple times and then I would respond. So maybe you don’t want to make it so audible or so obvious because this person in my life did notice this, but you could even say, you know, your thing about pause, breathe, then choose. It could be even a choice to say, I need a moment to think this over. I may need a moment to process this. Something like that that gives you just the time.

to go ahead and take that deep breath and to give it some reflection before responding. So if 10 seconds seems too long to you, let’s start with five, as this challenge has gone the whole way.

make yourself work towards up towards bigger habits, bigger goals, you know, everything like that. The small things will just make it seem more simple and less stressful on you. So if 10 seconds is too long, go for five. As always, the research will be in the email and in the tracker and you can join at any time by going to healnursegro.com. So if you find whatever you find it in the future, please join and you’ll get to take advantage of learning all these fun

new things that can help you get to your goals. So I will see you again tomorrow.

In today’s episode, Cheryl revisits one of the most important stress-related topics in the challenge: money. Since financial strain is a major source of anxiety for many people, today’s habit focuses on taking one small action that supports your future financial wellbeing.

Cheryl explains why progress on financial goals is linked to better overall health and stability, and she shares simple, realistic examples you can complete in 10 minutes or less. The goal is not to build a full budget or overhaul your finances. It is to make a quick “future you” move that reduces stress, creates more control, and supports your ability to stay consistent with other healthy habits.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

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Cheryl McColgan (00:00)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan founder of Heal Nourish Grow, and welcome to day 26 of the 30 Days Healthy Habits Challenge. Today we’re back to money. We did this one habit earlier in the challenge and we’re coming back to it again because as we learned from the previous one, if you read any of the research or just listened to the podcast from before, that money is ⁓ quite a source of stress for a lot of people and this is no surprise, right?

But it does show in the literature that making progress, making financial goals and taking some of your financial stress away actually creates greater wellbeing. It just helps you feel more settled, less anxious, less stressed. So addressing money things now and again is a good idea.

Cheryl McColgan (00:45)
obviously I think we should be considering what we’re consuming, what we’re spending money on, that sort of thing every single day. But when you’re doing these future plans or kind of more extended timeframe things for savings, that’s maybe not something that you’re thinking every single day. So I didn’t mean to say that, obviously you shouldn’t be focusing on spending on a daily basis, but these kind of larger goals might be something that’s more a once a week, once a month sort of thing.

So back to today’s habit is to make one future you money move today. And so this is going to be something that lowers financial strain and just gives you stronger financial capability in the future. And that’s all associated with better health and wellbeing. It reduces stress, as I said before, creates stability and having stability and having control of your finances supports other healthy habits as well. It gives you the finances and the ability to invest.

in other areas of your health if you need to. And it also having less stress in your life makes all the behaviors easier to repeat when you don’t have stress cropping up. So to give you some examples to make this easier, do something like set up an auto-save program at your bank or on an app. So taking $10, $20, $1,000, whatever works in your particular financial situation to automatically save each month. Automated bill.

have a bill or two or all of them that are scheduled to pay every single month so that it takes the stress off of you remembering to send a check or to submit your payment online. Maybe increase your retirement contribution by 1%. This is an area that I’m really interested in because I have always been involved in some degree and both my partners have been in finance and I actually ended up doing a speech about it in college. But the compounding

Interest is such a huge thing the earlier you start saving even if it’s a small amount and then I say earlier I’m like the younger that you start saying your that money just has more time to double and double and double again over time With the you know compounding interest and if you start saving much later in life It doesn’t have as much time to grow now That’s not to say you still can’t start because like every all of this you can start any time But the younger that you start saving the better it’ll just set you up much more in the future for having some

again, gains without having to do anything else. The once in the money is in there and it’s growing with interest, it just keeps building on itself. If the automation seems too much, maybe it’s something like setting yourself a calendar reminder or writing a small financial plan, maybe for the next week or the next month. So we’re doing it in 10 minutes or less. We’re not making a spreadsheet here or creating an empire of things. Of course, if you want to do that at some point, I think that’s awesome.

But this is just meant to be, again, a small, doable habit that doesn’t turn you off from it. So setting up an automation, something quick like that, or setting aside more money to save is a good choice here. So if it’s triggering too much stress, just do a small step, something in relation to it, and then stop. And you can always come back to this at a later date or give it some further thought when it comes for the weekly reset and reflect. As always, the studies are linked.

in the email that you received and in your tracker. And if you haven’t joined yet, that link to join is heelnourishgrow.com slash habits, you can join anytime. It’s never too late. That’s probably the theme of this series so far. But hope you enjoyed this and I will see you again tomorrow.

In this conversation, Cheryl McColgan emphasizes the importance of strength training for overall health, particularly as we age. She discusses how even short sessions can be effective and encourages listeners to incorporate strength and stability exercises into their routines.

Cheryl highlights the benefits of consistency and the need to challenge oneself with appropriate weights to stimulate muscle growth. She also addresses common misconceptions about strength training and reassures listeners that it’s never too late to start.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

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Cheryl McColgan (00:01.902)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal Nourish Grow and welcome to a day 25 of your 30 day healthy habits challenge. This is one I’ve been waiting for to send to the very end here the last few days and that is to challenge you to do a short strength or stability session. So this is not going to require any equipment. It’s not going to require going to the gym or anything like that. But I just want you to try it if this is something that you don’t do on a regular basis.

because strength training has just so related to so many aspects of health. There’s more and more stuff coming about all the time. It is maybe more important than strict cardio for a lot of reasons, but it supports again, functional health, just moving around on a day-to-day basis. And it’s a lot of longer term, less health risks when you strength train. So strength and stability, it all supports healthy aging, it supports confidence and just again, your function in daily life. I always say,

you I’m training to be able to get off the toilet by myself when I get older because these are the kind of things that people lose the ability to do because they lose the strength in their legs. And that is just crazy scary. Also short short sessions are easier to maintain and it builds this consistency, which is an awesome thing for habit building. I’ve actually been following along with this other podcast recently called mind pump. I’m pretty sure that’s right. Like 99.9 % sure. But anyway, these guys have been

training people for years and years and years and just a great collective wealth of knowledge. And they have programs that are just 15 minutes a day. Now people do them six days a week for strength training, but that 15 minutes a day, it supports the habit, keeps the habit going. And it’s enough time if you do for 15 minutes, you probably do two to three sets of some strength training exercise, kind of a full body.

idea and they’re doing all the big lifts like deadlifts, squats, lunges, that sorts of thing. I don’t have their program unfortunately, but that’s the idea behind it is supporting this daily habit, doing it an amount of time that doesn’t scare people off and that people can fit into their schedule. And that’s all it takes to build strength. You can build strength with that little of strength training a day. And actually if you didn’t want to do it 15 minutes a day, like if you would have to go to a gym to do this and that seems like, oh, that’s a lot of

Cheryl McColgan (02:26.766)
driving time to go to the gym for just 15 minutes of work, even just two days a week of a longer strength training session that hits all parts of your body is enough to get 80 % of the 80 to 90 % of the strength that you’re going to get anyway. It comes from just two days a week. You’re hitting your muscles two days a week. You’re waking up the muscles two days a week. You’re stimulating the muscles to grow by lifting heavy enough that it puts a signal in your body to grow.

If you’re just doing something little and repetitive, that’s not a signal for the body to grow. That’s why you got to lift heavy for you. People get scared when they hear lift heavy because they think it means, you know, for example, that I would go pick up a 200 pound, you know, barbell off the floor. No, that is not. That’s too heavy for me. Right. I’ve got to do what’s heavy for me. And that means something that I can pick up and do maybe six, eight, 10, 12 reps. That’s the kind of range that’s really good for strength building and growing muscle.

And so you want to just do something that’s heavy enough for you doing these little two pound weights. If you’re, you know, even the average woman that might that even if it’s heavy for her, like for a week or two, that’s very quickly going to be too little of weight to cause any real change. So sorry for the little that was a bit tangential, but I just to get the idea of you definitely want to do it. If you’re going to go ahead and do it, like at least give yourself enough.

of a challenge that it makes some difference. Now, all that being said, I said you don’t need any equipment for this one and you don’t because especially if this is completely new to you doing body weight exercises and things at home are going to be plenty of new stimulus for you to try. If you already lift, you already have access to a gym, then I would just maybe challenge you to try a couple of exercises that you haven’t, don’t normally do or you don’t normally.

or maybe if you already strength train, you don’t have the stability part as much, maybe you’re gonna try some stability work for this part of the challenge. So just choose like a little, you can make a little circuit mentally for yourself that you’re gonna spend 10 minutes doing this. And so again, if you don’t have any equipment home or anything, maybe it’s an odd and you can just do this if you find it too stressful to think about figuring this out for yourself. Air squats, so just body weight squats. And if you don’t recognize any of these things, if you look here on look on YouTube,

Cheryl McColgan (04:47.554)
You’ll find plenty of videos that will demonstrate this for you, but simple body weight squats you can do sit to stand. So if you are worried that even a squat might be too much for you or too stressful, you want to just literally lower yourself down slowly to a chair and then bring yourself back up using the strength of your legs. So not pushing off with your, know, really using the strength of your body and your core to push you back up out of the chair. You can do some hinge work. So just literally

bending over or if you have milk jugs or soup cans or things like that in the house, if it’s just way too easy for you bending over pretending you’re gonna pick something off the floor, maybe actually have some milk jugs, something like that. And then you could also do pushups. Everybody knows what that looks like. You can do pushups against the wall if you’re not very strong. And if you’re already very strong, you can just do pushups as many as you can in a row would be a great challenge. also wall sits like literally

bending so that your quads, your quadriceps, the tops, your thighs are parallel to the floor and leaning your back against the wall and just sitting there. That’s an isometric exercise, also very strengthening. So those are all just it. So just 10 minutes, you’re gonna move your body in some ways you haven’t tried yet. If you’re looking to create stability, some balance types of things, most people don’t do those on a regular basis. It would always be surprising to me when I was in yoga class, we’d have.

obviously a whole section of that that was balance of balancing on one leg in some way, whether it’s stretching at the same time, holding a foot while you’re balancing on one leg or just simply balancing on one leg without the stability of a wall, something like that could be a good option for this part of the challenge too. So there shouldn’t be too much concern about figuring something out because there’s so many videos online now and just

Don’t pick anything that looks crazy or out of whack or too, too challenging. Just, you know, pick something that makes sense for where you are in your body right now and your current strength and skill level and just make it a little challenging. Maybe make it something new. But getting out of your comfort zone in regards to strength training, think particularly for some women, this is still a barrier. And it’s just such a shame because the

Cheryl McColgan (07:03.362)
things that happen with old age, especially to us women, bone loss, bone density, osteoporosis, osteopenia, all of that can be prevented and reversed. There’s some excellent data on reversing osteopenia and osteoporosis through strength training. So that’s pretty amazing. then sarcopenia, that is the loss of muscle mass as we get older. And if you don’t move, if you don’t put that stress on your muscles, we just continually lose muscle mass.

as we get older and older and become that’s how we become frail. That’s how people are not able to get off the toilet by themselves. That’s how people, you know, quit moving their bodies because they don’t have the strength to anymore. Again, though, this can all be reversed. I think that’s amazing news. But what I’d really love for you to happen is if you can make it a habit now.

and get as strong as you can now. Hey, believe me, it all, it all goes downhill. It’s all fightable. It’s all reversible, but the older you get, the more challenging it gets for a number of reasons. It gets more challenging mentally. gets more, you know, your time is, uh, tends to be more valuable just cause you’re busier as you get older, more demanding job, children, things like that. So whatever age you are now though, it is not too late. It’s not never too late to get started with strength training. You’ve just got to make it appropriate for where your body is now.

and make it consistent. And like I said, if you’re going to do it every day, that is totally fine. Keep it shorter if you’re doing it every day. And if you’re nervous, you can always hire a trainer or like I said, look at videos online, practice the movement at home, feel confident in the movement before you take it to a gym or like I said, hire a trainer. That’s always a good option so that you have somebody that’s there with you that can just guide you and walk you through it and teach you how to use machines, things like that.

So anyway, that is your challenge for today. I hope you enjoy moving your body in this way and challenging yourself. Like I said, make sure you, if you’re using weights in this little part of the challenge, make sure you pick up something heavy enough that’s actually challenging for you. Don’t just like move some little two pound weights around and think that that’s enough. We’re going to like actually try to stimulate some muscle protein synthesis here. So anyway, that is it for today and I will see you again tomorrow.

For Day 24 of the 30 Day Healthy Habits Challenge, Cheryl shares a habit that makes healthy living feel way easier: planning ahead. Today’s goal is simple, plan tomorrow’s movement and one healthy meal. This helps reduce friction, decision fatigue and makes following through with healthy choices easier.

This habit is all about keeping it realistic. Your healthy meal doesn’t need to be fancy or time-consuming, it just needs a plan. If tomorrow feels too tight, you can plan for a healthy meal sometime in the next three days instead.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

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Shop all my healthy lifestyle favorites, lots of discounts! 

21 Day Fat Loss Kickstart: Make Keto Easy, Take Diet Breaks and Still Lose Weight 

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Cheryl McColgan (00:00.014)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal Nourish Grow and welcome to day 24 of the 30 days healthy habits challenge. So today is one that I am particularly fond of and I think it’s fun. Some people will not think this is a fun habit to have, but that is to plan tomorrow’s movement and one healthy meal. ideally we’re going to plan one healthy meal for tomorrow, but I will say that

if you have a particularly challenging work schedule or this is something that you don’t do on a regular basis, you can really plan for that healthy meal just sometime in the next three days. But the idea is to plan ahead to figure out what it is, how you’re gonna make it, what ingredients you need for it, if you need to find a recipe, all that kind of good stuff. And everybody’s definition of a healthy meal will vary slightly, obviously, depending on your goals and depending on.

you know, what that looks like for you. There’s, you know, there’s all kinds of different dietary practices that anybody might be following. So I’m not prescribing a specific one. Of course, you know, I’m going to say that I would challenge you to, for whatever it is to have at least 30 grams of protein in it. And this one healthy meal you can plan, can do it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever that means for you. It’s going to be, you know, if you’re not used to cooking,

I don’t want you to plan like a big elaborate thing, unless that sounds fun to you, then yes, you could do something like that. But it would mean just a nourishing healthy meal. It doesn’t have to be necessarily anything fancy or anything that requires a lot of cooking. It just has to have a plan. So planning reduces friction, reduces decision fatigue later. It might be decision in the moment that you have to make, but once that is done and once you’ve already planned for it and gotten the ingredients, you already know what you’re having for dinner tomorrow. So that should make everything really easy through.

throughout that next day, not having to worry about that one part of your day, that’s already decided. And then it also, in the literature, the research for today, it says that it supports food variety, which is really also great for your diet, great for your gut microbiome. People that plan meals tend to include more different ingredients rather than if you just, if you don’t do much planning, you just might grab whatever’s available, grab what you typically tend to buy anyway. And so it gets…

Cheryl McColgan (02:18.71)
you know, can get pretty repetitive. So this planning ahead to try a new recipe or to make something slightly different can also just introduce variety into your meals as well. And then as far as picking your movement, that can be whatever you’ve stuck with for the whole challenge for your 10 minutes, but you’re going to plan like when in the day you’re going to do it, what time, what’s going to work for you tomorrow. So this, this idea of this habit is just the idea of planning ahead just helps make everything run more smoothly.

And it can be, again, the minimum. It doesn’t have to be a ton of cooking. Just make it a healthy nourishing meal, whatever that means to you. I will challenge you, like I said, get your 30 grams of protein in that meal and maybe a piece of produce that you don’t typically pick out. Maybe try something different. Maybe just go to the grocery store and be like, this looks interesting. I’ll try making this and then look up a recipe that goes along with that ingredient that you happen to find in the produce aisle. So hopefully that gives you some ideas about how to approach this one.

Again, optional journal prompt for you. The links to the research are in your tracker and in the email that you received for the day. And that is it. I will see you again tomorrow.

In this conversation, Cheryl McColgan discusses the importance of creating a stress release ritual as part of the healthy habits challenge. She emphasizes the benefits of consistent practice in managing stress, including physiological and mental health improvements.

Cheryl shares various breathing techniques and practical applications for stress relief, encouraging listeners to find what works best for them and to incorporate these practices into their daily routines.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

CONNECT WITH CHERYL

Shop all my healthy lifestyle favorites, lots of discounts! 

21 Day Fat Loss Kickstart: Make Keto Easy, Take Diet Breaks and Still Lose Weight 

Dry Farm Wines, extra bottle for a penny

Drinking Ketones

Wild Pastures, Clean Meat to Your Doorstep 20% off for life 

Clean Beauty 20% off first order

DIY Lashes 10% off 

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Instagram for daily stories with recipes, what I eat in a day and what’s going on in life

Facebook

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The Complete Beginners Guide to Keto

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Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:00.494)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McCogan, founder of Heal Nourish Grow and welcome to a day 23 of your 30 days of healthy habits challenge. Today’s challenge is to create a stress release ritual. This is either going to be movement or breath. And this is just going to be something simple. It’s something easy and that you can repeat and that’s about 60 seconds of breath if you’re choosing breath or two minutes of movement. And we’ve had some…

of this in the challenge already, you’ve tried different types of movement, you challenge yourself to move in a different way on some of the days. And so maybe if there was something that you tried and you notice like, hey, that’s really good for me. And it does relieve stress. Maybe it’s that maybe it’s if you try to need a mobility exercises we talked about or stretching or something like that to release stress or if it’s 60 seconds of a breath practice, one of the previous days we mentioned the three

just three deep breaths, something that simple 60 seconds is going to take longer. So it might be like five deep breaths, 10 deep breaths, but you’re just doing something that’s more extended amount of time. was like a quick stress release in the moment. This is something that is more focused on bringing your heart rate down, just, you know, bringing your stress in your body, your heart, your blood pressure, that kind of things like reducing all of those are really getting the parasympathetic system nervous system to come into play on this so that it

relieves your body and your mind of stress. So we’re just doing the minimum, the minimum, the minimum today. We’re just doing the minimum today on this. And this short stress ritual is good for a couple of reasons. It can reduce physiological stress, so your body stress and build resistance over time. And then can also reduce mental stress. So if you do this consistently as a reset, it’ll help you to respond rather than react in the moment. It’s going to make, you know,

that makes for better discipline, better decision making. If you’re not just flying off the handle at a moment’s notice, it also helps with your interactions with people. If you happen to notice when you get stressed that you snap people little more often or respond in a way that is not professional or calm. Having this little ritual will give you a way to kind of downshift. And the more that you train yourself on this, you know, you might notice anytime that you take some deep breaths, it helps. But when you train this every single day as a habit,

Cheryl McColgan (02:17.43)
It is a response that trains your brain to automatically go into that more relaxed state just by the act of you starting to do it. So it’ll become more effective and act more quickly every single time. So here’s some examples. If you’re having trouble thinking of one to do, we can go back to that three breath rate set, but you might do it for longer. Just set your timer for one minute and inhale, exhale, slightly longer exhale to really bring in that parasympathetic nervous system response.

You could try box breathing. You could do a quick walk. You could do wall pushups or you could do the stretching routine. Those are all good ones. And if you have something else outside of that that you think of to do, I would love to hear about it in the comments so that we can share that with others. And then, you know, one of the times you want to try it is any time during the day where you’re feeling a trigger or something that’s making you nervous or anxious, angry or anxious.

And so maybe it’s like you got an email from your boss and it’s automatically creating stress in your body. That’s a great time to do this stress release routine. Or if you are getting ready to sit down for a meal and you’ve been running around all day before you try to start eating, maybe calm your body. It’s just gonna promote better digestion and better, you know, mindfulness of your chewing and experiencing your food. So again, it’s just to be repeatable. It doesn’t need to be really complex or…

long or drawn out, like I said, just 60 minutes for breath practice, two minutes for a movement practice. Some people might notice, and I did notice this when I was teaching yoga a lot, is that for some people, a breathing practice can kind of create anxiety. And usually if that’s the case, it might be that you have, your body is kind of trained to take very shallow breaths and not expand the diaphragm. So really thinking about when you’re breathing to let your…

abdomen and belly expand as you’re breathing. So if you were to lay on the ground and put your hand on your stomach, you want your belly to be expanding up as you’re breathing. So that’s really feeling all of your lungs, not just the top of your lungs, but your lungs are going like all the way down almost to your waist. So you want to expand your lungs as fully as possible. And again, that slightly longer exhale, that’s going to really calm any feelings of anxiety. So if you notice that you’re trying to do the breathing, but it’s causing some anxiety for you for some reason,

Cheryl McColgan (04:32.376)
I’m going to guess it’s because you’re kind of habitually a shallow breather and you’re kind of just breathing almost in the upper chest. So try that low, slow breathing that expands your belly and see if that doesn’t help. So that’s about it for today. Start this stress release practice, whatever that looks like for you. As always, the links to the research are in the notes and my gosh, there are so much good data on meditation and breathing and things like that for

relieving stress and anxiety and just doing a whole lot of great things for your physiology as well as your mental state. So definitely check that out if you have time and then optional journal prompt for you there too. So anyway, that is it for today and I will see you again tomorrow.

In this episode, Cheryl McColgan discusses the concept of habit stacking, a technique that involves attaching a new habit to an existing one to make it easier to adopt. She shares her personal struggles with maintaining new habits and provides practical examples of how to effectively implement habit stacking in daily routines. The conversation emphasizes the importance of cues and motivation in forming lasting habits, as well as the value of research in validating health information.

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Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:00.174)
I’m Cheryl McColgan founder of Heal Nourish Grow and welcome to day 22 of the 30 days healthy habits challenge. Today is something that we’ve talked about a little bit throughout the challenge, but I haven’t really dedicated an episode to it yet and I haven’t challenged you to actually do it as part of the habit challenge and that is to habit stack. So habit stacking is really simple. It can sometimes be hard to find ones that put together that make sense.

But when you can find those ones that go together that make sense, it just really makes this such an easier thing. So today’s challenge is to attach a small habit to something you already do every single day. So I think I just even mentioned this in the last recording for day 21 in the reflection thing is about if you missed habits, know, habit stacking is a great way to do those. Because if you’re finding them challenging to fit in your day,

sticking them to something you already do is going to be one of the easiest way that you can make that stick. And then so I’ll give you an example of the one since I started making this challenge, I’ve been thinking about this a lot for myself. And here’s the one that I’m working on right now. So I have had this hair trauma for the last three years. It’s a really long story that you don’t need to hear about in this episode, which I have actually done a podcast episode on it before. But at any rate, it’s, you know, I’ve had a lot of

trauma to my hair. I’ve had a lot of hair falling out. I’ve had some scalp irritation, things like that. And so I’ve been very focused on that. And one of the things I purchased to help me deal with this is this OS one supplement. I’ve been using their skincare for a while now. Absolutely love it. I have an article over at the website all about it. He says a peptide science. It’s really cool technology and it actually works and there’s some good clinical data behind it all. But anyway, oh, and just because I mentioned that

If you read about it, you do get a little extra discount with my link or something. But anyway, the point of none of that is the point here. The point is that I find it difficult. I bought this hair serum and I bought like I can’t remember if I bought a three month supply or six month supply because you definitely get a bigger discount if you buy more. And plus, if you’re doing anything with your hair, it’s going to take you a little bit longer to actually notice results. Right. So anyway, I’m getting to the point I promise is that I bought that serum, probably a good

Cheryl McColgan (02:20.305)
six months ago now or maybe even longer. And I’ve only used it maybe a total of five times and I’ll start to think, okay, I’m going to use it today and then I’ll get on the new habit of doing this every day because you got to do it every day for it to really be effective. So I haven’t been able to do that up to this point. I don’t know why it’s such a simple thing. It’s not difficult. You literally split your hair, you put the serum on the scalp, you rub it in, you go to bed. Easy peasy, right? Can’t seem to make myself do it, but

The one thing I do every single night is wash my face, brush my teeth and put on my skincare. put on the same skincare by the same brand that I put on my face every single night without fail. Doesn’t matter how late I’m out. Doesn’t matter what else I’ve done. I will not go to bed without washing my face, putting my skincare on and brushing my teeth. That is a solid set in habit that does not fail. for the last few days or since this challenge when I was talking about habit stacking several times, I’m like, this is just ridiculous.

have this perfect habit that this pairs with, which is like I mentioned, my teeth and skincare routine in the evening, I just need to put that hair serum like literally where I cannot miss it. And so I had it on the counter next to my toothbrush. I don’t know why, but that wasn’t quite working because the flow. But what I found was I put the hair serum inside of a drawer that has the skincare. I took the hair serum out of the cabinet off the counter.

put it in the drawer like literally right next to the moisture. And this is so dumb right, you’re like, why can’t you just put that in your hair every night? I don’t know why. This is why anybody has trouble with habits, right? This is why we’re doing this whole challenge. But put it right next to my skincare so that it’s literally right where I take them both out. I do the skincare part, I put that back and then I take the hair stuff and then I put it and rub it and put it right back next to the moisturizer. So that seems to be working.

So that is a habit stack. So that was a very long winded way of telling you. But I also think it speaks to the fact that, you know, obviously none of us are perfect. Even those of us that are very good at discipline, very good habits. And also there’s something about the perceived importance of the habit, I think. So this particular thing, like if I put this stuff in my hair or not, it really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t affect anything. I’m not even sure 100 % that it will help or that it will work. So it’s not a high

Cheryl McColgan (04:40.651)
value habit, right? There’s not a whole lot of motivation example for me to continue that habit. Whereas something like changing your nutrition or changing your diet, if you’re say your goal is to lose weight, there’s a lot higher of motivation or importance. I won’t want to say motivation because motivation like we talked about that comes and goes. But the importance of that to your health or to your future goals, looking a certain way or having a certain body composition, the importance of that is a lot greater.

than something like putting this stuff in your hair that may or may not work. You know if you change your nutrition behavior, change your eating behavior, that that will have a positive outcome. So I think you also have to look at the importance of any particular habit in relation to how hard that’s gonna be to maintain or how hard it’s gonna be to force yourself to do. So the whole reason this works is pretty obvious. The habit stacking, the first habit, the existing habit is the cue and there’s no motivation there.

The second habit just comes right after it, because that’s where you’re sticking it now. And so again, this creates less decision fatigue. It just makes it easier for you to just go ahead and do it. So here’s an example. made this little formula that I wrote out so that we are all on the same page with this. It’s so ridiculously simple. But just for clarity, it’s after I blank, I will blank. So for example, after coffee, I will drink water. But I would put that in reverse, because as we talked about,

It’s stacked like that can still be stacked even though we’re supposed to drink the water before the coffee because well the coffee is still the cube. We’ll go to the thing to get coffee and we’ll be like oh yes I’m Annie and I’m going to drink this water first. And the other thing is after brushing teeth I will stretch two minutes. So you’re picking a cue that happens every single day because we want this new habit we want it to be a habit that’s like an everyday habit we just stick it with there. So that is really it for today. If you keep forgetting then you might need a stronger cue.

the more automatic the queue is, the easier it’s going to be to get this new habit to stick. So look for those things, like I said, like brushing my teeth or things that you’ve never missed. Those are the ones you want to stick it to. And as always, the links for the research, the links for the research, this week aren’t exactly tied to or for today aren’t exactly tied to habit stacking, but they’re just kind of the.

Cheryl McColgan (07:01.517)
way that goal setting interacts with habits and things. So I think those are pretty interesting, but those are in your email and in the tracker. As always, the optional journal prompt is there if you want to do that. And the research is always optional to read, but hopefully it’s, know, mostly if you just skim the abstract or skip down to the results, that would be a super quick read for you less than a minute. So also that could be a come a new habit, just like looking at, you know, looking at the research or especially, I don’t know, this one’s turning into a longer little episode here.

But just this is a totally random unrelated thing, but to encourage you whenever you hear certain things online, before I repeat them, or before I invest a whole lot of time in belief or disbelief or whatever, I’ll go search the topic in the PubMed and just see if there’s any existing literature or research on the topic and see if it’s even in the direction of what the person is claiming online. Because there’s a lot of bad information out there nowadays. I’m sure you already know this.

but it’s always nice to just consider the source, number one, and then go check, do a little research on your own and see. And the reason I like to go to PubMed first is because too many articles on the internet are all full of opinion, right? So just looking at the existing literature is a pretty good hint and a good signal to whether something is valid or not. So anyway, sorry to be a little tangential on this one, but hope you…

Enjoy today’s habit. I hope you can find a habit that you can stack with one of your existing ones. And I’d love to hear all about it as always in the comments below. Or if it’s something you don’t want to share publicly, you’re always welcome to email me as well. And if you’re not signed up for this challenge yet, if you just randomly found this on YouTube and you’re like, what is this all about? You can go to healnourishgrow.com slash habits and you can start this 30 days of healthy habits anytime for free.

just check that link out and you’ll get started that very same day or the next day, you’ll get the emails and then you’re onto your 30 days of creating new healthy habits. So that is it for today and I will see you again tomorrow.