wellness vlog: workout with me, recent habits, & how I’ve been feeling my BEST

This is what we're about to get into.

Good morning. Micah just left for work, which means it's just you and me for the next 24 hours. I thought I'd vlog over the next few days and kind of center the theme of the vlog around like wellness and different habits that I've been doing. I'm going to take you along for my workouts. I feel like I've been getting a lot of comments, a lot of questions asking kind of that I've been doing. I'm gonna take you along for my workouts. I feel like I've been getting a lot of comments, a lot of questions asking kind of what I've been doing.

And obviously it's not always the same from day to day, but I was gonna say my workouts are different, but honestly, I feel like the last four months, I really have just locked into this one specific routine that I've been doing, which is honestly really nice because I feel like before,

I would kind of, it was always just random. It was whatever I felt like doing. And I feel like when I made my routine, whatever I felt like doing, usually I didn't feel like doing the stuff that was like the best for me or like the hardest

because who wants to do the hard things sometimes, you know what I mean?

So my workout routine has stayed the same. So I'll take you through what I'm doing. I still wanna do a whole week of workouts video that will be coming soon. I've honestly been feeling, I think the best I've ever felt in my life, which is crazy because I feel like when I was a teenager,

I was like, ah, it's just gonna go downhill from here. But I actually feel like, I don't know, I feel more beautiful than ever. I feel more confident than ever. And that's obviously a great feeling when I thought my peak was like being 18. No. It's nice and early right now.

We have the whole day ahead of us. I've been loving an early start to the morning. And I feel like, honestly, what helps me the most is the fact that Micah gets up for work so early. So it kind of just forces me to wake up. So it's 7.30. Let's get the day started.

Let's get the day started. Let's get the day started.

Let's get the day started. It is so hot right now. It's 8 a.m. And I'll be surprised if I don't turn into a massive puddle. It's so humid, but you gotta get it done. I really liked the podcast that I was listening to while I was walking.

I didn't get a chance to finish it because I wasn't walking long enough, but it was Mel Robbins, Try It For One Week, Three Small Habits That Change Your Body, Energy, and Life. I'll listen to her podcast from time to time if I see the title is like a, something I'm gonna be interested in.

And I will say, I feel like if you like this video so far, you probably will like that podcast. I always really enjoy the guests that she brings on just because it's always highly credible, doctors, scientists, and there's some really cool information on there that I learned.

So I love a podcast walk sometimes. I don't know, I feel like I get too overloaded with like the wellness and self-help content that I just wanna listen to something silly. So I'll do that. I don't always listen to like educational stuff

or motivating stuff for that matter. But sometimes it's really nice. So I actually really liked that episode. I'm excited to finish it later. I'm just making some breakfast right now. I'm doing a little fruit bowl.

I'm using this yogurt. It's my favorite one from Too Good. Their flavors are so good. There's only two grams of sugar per serving. There's that.

Mm, mm, mm. 22 grams of sugar per serving. There's that.

I'm sure some of you watching this maybe feel a similar way, but I feel like I'm at this age right now where everyone that I know is living completely different lives. I heard on a podcast, someone describing it as the great scattering,

which I thought was so funny because that's literally what it feels like. I have friends who have children and are settled down, are getting married. I have friends who are freshly post-grad, kind of figuring out their lives. Maybe they're still in school. Others who are settling into their careers.

Others who are traveling the world. All that to say it can be easy to compare yourself to other people's situations. Especially during summer, you might feel out of sync with a season that's supposed to be happy. I've definitely had my moments of comparing what my summer looks like to other people's European summers or all these cool trips. It's honestly a lot to keep up with.

And sometimes I just need to talk it out with someone who can help me get a different perspective. And that's where BetterHelp, today's video sponsor comes in. Their mission is to make starting therapy easier. I know it can be scary or maybe you don't know where to begin with it all, but with better help all you do is fill out a questionnaire and you'll get matched with a therapist in as little as a few days. I have gained a lot of good tools

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or visit betterhelp.com slash Ava to get 10% off your first month of therapy because your mental health matters no matter what the season. I got a few fun snacks at the store. So I'll show you kind of what my favorites have been

recently. I have been doing, if you want to see like grocery hauls or snack hauls, I've been posting those on my TikTok. Little Costco vlogs just to show you kind of what we get, which has been really fun. I don't think we're going to do a big grocery shop for this week because I'm leaving on a trip, but I did get some snacks. Of course. I got these pure organic layered fruit bars. These are so good. They have different flavors. This one is my favorite though, the strawberry banana. Sometimes when I just want something

sweet and easy, it's just really simple to throw in the bag, have it as a little snack if I need my sweet tooth satisfied. Always a big beef stick girl. I got these mini chomps. So I think they're just like half the size, but there's four grams of protein for 45 calories. I got the jalapeno flavor. That's our favorite. This one's a new one for us. Fiber One. What is this? Brownies? I feel like everyone talks about getting your protein in, which, duh. But also, fiber is extremely important. So these have 7 grams of fiber. And it's a cute little brownie, so I figured we'd try it because I love a brownie. It looks good.

It's a cute little square. Mmm! I mean, it ain't Betty Crocker, but it's good. So one of those days. Picked up some lunch because I have a lot that I wanna get done today. And so a home cooked meal is not in the cards, which is fine, but I'm gonna show you my go-to Chick-fil-A order on a day like this

where I'm not trying to do the whole works of like French fries and you know, that whole thing. This has been Micah and I's go-to order when we still wanna eat relatively healthy and balanced when we're on the go. So first, grilled nuggets. I got the eight piece and then I get the zesty buffalo sauce

which is so yummy. I think the biggest thing that has helped in my health journey is just making little switches. Because even just getting these grilled nuggets, they're still so yummy, so freaking good. But they're not deep fried

and just a little bit of a healthier choice. Now don't get me wrong. Some days we treat ourselves and just get the regular ones because duh. But on the everyday and especially on days that I just, you know, wanna feel my best,

eat as balanced as possible, this has been the go-to. I wanted to try, I've been hearing so many things about the kale crunch salad. I hate kale personally, but I've heard so many people rave about this. I thought we'd try it and I'll give you a little review. It's actually really good. Why is it good?

Well, this is amazing that I like this. I'm actually shocked because again, I think raw kale is disgusting, but they do something. I don't know if you can see. They must massage it in something because got a really good flavor.

The leaves are soft. I'm gonna eat the rest of this at home, but I just wanted to show you what I get. I do eat out. I've just been making little switches here and there that I think have really added up and made a difference. So, still delicious because one thing I will not compromise on is taste because I always want to enjoy my

food and I'm not going to eat something if I don't like it just because whatever. You know what I mean? so Getting myself this robe has romanticized my night routine so much. I feel like everything just feels more fun. I feel so fancy and like luxurious in this. It's not even really one of those like super soft robes, but I really like this waffle material. I'll link it down below.

It's really cute. They have other colors as well, but it's one of those things that just makes life a little bit better. Also, I have been sleeping with a sleep mask for the last maybe two months.

And that's also something that I never thought was really necessary. I sleep so well with this thing. It always ends up like across the room by the time I wake up in the morning. So in the middle of the night,

I think I'm like ripping it off and throwing it. This one specifically is really soft and silky. I just got it on Amazon and it does such a good job at blocking out the light. You put it on, bada bing bada boom, comatose. Tonight is the night that I start Throne of Glass. I think it's time to just rip the band-aid off and do it. I've been wanting to read this series for so long. It

was a Christmas gift last year and so I'm gonna start with this one. If you know, you know, there's a lot of discourse over whether this is the book that you should start with or Assassin's blade, but I'm just choosing to read it in the publishing order. I don't know if I am mentally prepared for what I'm about to get into with this series because I honestly have no idea what to expect if you don't know how thick this series is This is what we're about to get into.

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I get so many questions on where my activewear is from. You guys have seen me wear it in pretty much every single video. These like kind of square neck bras and then these little biker shorts. They're from Aritzia.

I'll link them down below. I find Aritzia active wear to be honestly one of my top three favorite workout athletic brands just because it's so soft. I wish you could reach through the screen and feel this. This is their butter collection.

So they're very comfortable to move in. I lift in these, go on walks. Obviously not anything super high impact, but great for everything I do. I have so many colors. They have so many fun, bright colors, classic black.

There's different kind of cuts in the bras. I'm gonna wear this color combo today. Here's what it looks like on. These are the high rise cheeky shorts. These are the three inch, but they also have five inch if you want a little longer. And then this is the tumbler bra.

I just feel like it's so flattering. The straps are adjustable. The shorts are so comfy. I could sleep in them. They also make like a legging version, but yeah, the butter which is my most dreaded day, but I always remind myself it is a blessing that I have a body that can move.

I should honor it and move it because I can. That's the mindset for today. And also,

this ass is not gonna build itself. so 🎵 It's a steak dinner night.

No such thing as girl dinner. Today we got steak, zucchini. My dad gave me the steak. He got it from the market, I think. And then also the pickled onions, which is very nice. And then yeah, my favorite vegetable, which is zucchini.

It's so easy to make and prepare and that was like my gateway. My gateway vegetable that kind of made me start actually enjoying eating my veggies because call me an imbecile but I was one of those adults who was like I hate vegetables what about it? But now I mean as you've seen in this video the kale crunch who is she? I eat broccoli now? Like guys, it's crazy. I'm growing up. I just put it in a pan with some avocado oil,

add some basic seasoning and it's really good. And then for the steak, I just rub olive oil on it and then some Montreal seasoning and then three and a half minutes on each side on my cast iron skillet. Bada bing, bada boom.

Dinner. I love cooking a nice meal for myself. Like, it just is so nice. I also do love a microwave dinner though, so.

♪♪♪ I'm gonna crash. Oh my gosh. That was evil! so Oh boy, it was one of those days.

Very hard to get out here and working out. We were taking a nap that we ended up like snoozing the alarm a bunch of times and it was not looking too good, but we did the thing. I've been feeling really strong during my upper body days, which has felt so nice because obviously it's nice when you are feeling like the results

from the fruits of your labor. Like I feel like that's crazy. I actually love upper body days. It's my favorite leg days kind of kill me because they just take so much effort and energy, but anyway, had a really good workout,

been feeling really motivated, obviously, because we kind of redid the space a little bit. If you saw my last video, it just feels so nice in here. And you know, anytime you change up your space, I feel like it's easy to get re-motivated, but I do get a lot of questions. I feel like I always see my comments, how do you stay motivated and how do you stay consistent?

One of those things is fully just making it a part of your routine, like a non-negotiable. The same way you wake up and you brush your teeth every single day. I feel like that's how I've kind of approached this whole working out lifestyle,

because at this point it's been, it's August, like eight months of consistently working out, which is crazy. I feel like I've literally never stuck to a New Year's goal the way we have this one. Obviously it helps that I have like a workout partner, an accountability partner,

but if you don't have one of those, either grab a friend, maybe a sibling, or I can be your accountability partner. That's obviously really nice, but yeah, just making it such a part of your routine where you always find the time for it, always make the time for it.

And obviously it's easier said than done. I feel like especially for me because I do have so much free time and I could see how it would be a lot harder for having a regular nine to five job and stuff. But yeah, just finding what works for you

and also just realizing that any movement is good movement, whether it's five minutes, whether it's an hour, I feel like just building the routine, building the habit and ultimately just making yourself proud. I feel like that's been my biggest motivator this year, has been wanting to just make myself proud, feel confident in myself and keep the promises that I make, because I feel like for so long,

I would say that I'm gonna do these things and then just never do it. And my confidence was like, crashing and burning because I would never do the things that I said I was gonna do. So now that I am, I feel like, yeah, it's just building. And I'm gonna be honest, a lot of days I'm not motivated.

So I feel like I've realized that you can't really always count on motivation, honestly. Honestly, I feel like there's times where I feel more motivated than others. So on the days that I'm not necessarily feeling motivated, I just do it. Nike really ate with that. I made a crazy discovery yesterday about myself. While I was at my parents house, everyone was sitting at the table and for some reason I got up and decided to try a pistol squat. Which if you don't know is extremely hard to do and I've tried in the past, failed so

miserably, did not think that was in the cards for me. I can do a pistol squat. I can do a pistol squat, which is literally unbelievable because it is so hard to do. And also I just didn't know that I could do it. So then I was like, okay, this is crazy.

My sister was watching me just like in utter disbelief as well. And then I was like, maybe I'll try and do a pushup too. And then I was like, maybe I'll try and do a pushup too. Let's, let's get crazy. I can do a pushup. ♪♪♪