May Favorites
Last month’s:
one favorite about life: ENGAGEMENT 💍
one favorite healthy habit: journaling 📝
one favorite food/treat: (not) chocolate chip pancakes 🥞
Life Favorite 💍
I delayed writing this one because, first, I am not a fan of sappy writing, but also I couldn’t put into words the happiness and gratitude I’m feeling for my new fiancé!
My #1 supporter. On a health/wellness note: I truly believe that the person you’re with should honor and support your passions and interests like they were their own. He’s embraced each health and wellness habit, interest, and choice I’ve made, and I wouldn’t have seen such an improvement in my health without his support.
So we’ll leave it at that!
big bend national park may 11, 2025!
Healthy Habit Favorite 📝
Stands the test of time: journaling.
And why this month I’m highlighting it is because the power and benefits of writing in the mornings have become so clear to me as I’ve been writing less.
Writing less. What I’ve noticed? More negative self-talk. More frantic-ness. Less self-awareness.
Writing in the morning serves several purposes for me:
Gets me off a screen and phone. Screens are stress-inducers; our body should not be consuming right away in the morning. It’s too much stimulus and artificial light.
Cultivates self-love and mindfulness: I write affirmations telling myself that I am a certain attribute, even if I don’t believe it.
In 2021 when I moved to Charleston, simply put I was kinda a mess.
I forced myself to write every.single.day. what felt so phony and incorrect: I love myself, I love my body, I am healthy. And months later, I remember writing it, thinking to myself, wow I actually believe these words now???
Growth. Via writing, I can clearly see the actions I need to take toward personal and professional goals and growth.
Slow mornings. I truly believe having a slow morning (rather than my old life of workout right away, pop on my phone, rush into work, skip breakfast) has made the biggest difference in balancing my hormones, regulating my nervous system. Writing forces me to slow down.
Food/Treat Favorite 🥞
I wish I took a pic, but you’ll just have to stay with me here.
Healthier not-chocolate chip pancakes.
Here’s the breakdown
Sourdough (I make my own GF if you have Qs let me know)
Toast sourdough in oven
Butter (let it melt fully)
Sea salt
CHOCOLATE CHIPS
I wasn’t expecting this post-dinner combo to hit so hard, but the second I tasted it, I was transported back to my childhood chocolate chip pancake days.
Sure, it’s certainly not a chocolate chip pancake. But here’s the thing. I am probably never making myself chocolate chip pancakes.
But, if I have the sourdough, which I find to be incredibly nourishing and a part of a whole-food diet, then hell yes, I’m making this as my post-dinner dessert, thinking it’s basically a chocolate chip pancake.
Try it & thank me later.
Okay bye friends, til next month! (And all the little random substacks in between)
Have any requests? LMK.
