Hello, my friends! I hope you had a nice weekend! This is the first post of May, and it seems like a great time for a little spring clean of your wellness routine! 

Four things to stop doing this spring (spring clean your wellness lifestyle)

Here we go …

1. Stop weighing yourself every day.

I do not keep a scale out in my bathroom, and I have not weighed myself in a very long time, and this is very freeing. I remember many years ago when I used to check my weight every day after work, and I always wanted a certain number. Ick. That was a worthless and unnecessary check-in that I have significantly grown out of.

In fact, the last time I weighed myself was probably in late 2021 when I was at the doctor’s office. Why? Your bodyweight is not an accurate description of your overall health or how you’re doing with your wellness lifestyle — not at all. It doesn’t really matter.

And if you’re still someone who steps on the scale once a day to “check in” you may be causing yourself unnecessary stress based on the number you see, if you let it tell you how you should be feeling about yourself.

Your weight does not tell you how you’re sleeping, how you’re feeling, whether you have a lot of muscle or fat, whether you’re getting stronger, whether you’re eating the right amount of healthy food, and whether you look confident in your clothes. All a scale does is tell you your weight at that very moment of time. 

As women, our weight can fluctuate quite a bit depending on where we are in our cycles, and our weight can fluctuate based on how hydrated we are and whether we’ve eaten a meal or not. That leaves a lot of room for the scale to go up or down.

If you’re trying to track your progress, it’s much better to see how your clothing fits. Find a great pair of jeans that you love to wear, and if they start to get a little tight in the waistline, then you know maybe your body is changing. If they start to get a little tight in the thighs, then maybe your quads are growing, and props to you. You can also take pictures of yourself (for your personal files), in order to see how your body is changing if you’ve recently started a new workout routine. But remember, muscle is more dense than fat, so being heavier is not a bad thing. 

No matter what, break up with that daily scale habit, if you’re still holding onto it. It’s not doing you any favors, so spring clean it right out of your routine.

2. Stop comparing yourself to others on the internet.

Do you ever open Instagram to kill some time and then get a yucky and inferior feeling? Yes, I do too. I’ve tried to limit my mindless scrolling, and I try to open and engage on social media when feeling in a good headspace. We have to remember it is up to us to be intentional about what we consume. And if something makes you feel bad, you need to skip it.

I need this tip greatly. A lot of bloggers have turned into social media-only content creators, and they are out there killing it, busting out reels/videos/posts all day everyday in one specific topic. This is not me. This is FAR from me. I am in the gym teaching classes, I am being a mom, and I am writing, writing, writing. This does not translate well to social media, and it’s something that gets me a little down sometimes. (But I do try to share what I think is positive and helpful on the platform, when it works for me, without letting it rule my life or my day.)

But the thing is, what you see on social media or the internet was created to be seen. It was created. And if you can keep this top of mind, you can detach yourself, detach your worth and detach your life from anything you see there. We are not seeing everything from everyone’s lives, we are only seeing the results of what someone feels like posting to share. 

If you think there are other more fit, more successful, more popular and more happy people out there on the internet … well, there may be. But you are you, and you have your own beautiful gifts, that you may not choose to share all over, and that’s fine.

You don’t need to be like other people, look like other people or do what other people are doing (and sharing). And I tell myself this SAME thing all the time. Don’t compare. Be you. Be proud of you. And of course, unfollow with reckless abandon.

3. Stop eating in front of the TV, computer, tablet or phone.

Do you know one of the first things I learned when I was getting my Precision Nutrition coach certification? To stop eating mindlessly in front of technology. For real. One of the biggest nutrition tips was not about what to eat, but about how to eat. We need to eat slowly, and with intention, and this means ditching technology.

I used to eat a lot of my meals in front of the computer or TV, and now I eat all of them at a table or counter with no technology, and it’s amazing. I focus on my food. How it tastes. What it looks like. I chat with Brady or Dave. This is how we’re supposed to consume food, so we can be more aware of our hunger and satiety cues. 

You’ll enjoy your food more, you’ll stop when you’re full, and you’ll appreciate your meal experience more when you’re focused on it. I know it’s hard to appreciate your food sometimes with small children around, but it’s much better than reading a stressful work email while eating a sad Tupperware lunch at your desk, right? Almost always, work can wait 10 to 15 minutes for you to step away to eat.

I know this is a tough one to break, and I’ve only had this one down for a little over a year, and I’m never going back to my old ways. Give it a go as part of your spring clean!

4. Stop having an all-or-nothing mindset on health and wellness.

It’s not black and white. And it’s not about absolutes. If you eat one cookie, the day is not ruined. If you can’t do an hour workout, that doesn’t mean there’s no sense in exercising at all. And you certainly don’t need a million “health rules” for yourself either.

In fact, it’s the little things that you do consistently that truly add up to make you feel good in your lifestyle, like hydration, sleep, regular movement and eating enough healthy food. And these things don’t come with a label, and sometimes you’ll do better with them and sometimes not.

If you can only go on a short walk instead of doing a full workout, that’s totally fine. If you have a sugary breakfast, you can still go on to have a healthy day after with lots of valuable nutrients. And you don’t have to swear off entire food groups or commit to extremes to live a truly well-rounded life, you know?

There’s room for everything, and there’s never really a need for going all in. If you start to push too hard in your workouts every single day or you start to restrict your food too much, you’re not going to come out on the other side feeling healthier. You’ll be rundown, you’ll mess up your hormones, and you’ll get tired of it all. Once again, it’s not all or nothing.

Instead, seek moderation in all you do. Try aiming for mostly healthy choices, with treats, rest days and whatever else you want peppered in, knowing that a truly balanced lifestyle leaves room for variety and is not extreme. I am always trying to talk about this approach, because I think it’s so much more sustainable, and I’ve lived the other side of it, and it’s not something I’d ever go back to. We live and we learn, folks!

And those are my four tips to spring clean! 🙂 

(In these photos, I’m wearing these jeans in a size four because they run a bit big, this top in a size small and nibbling on my favorite protein bars, G2GBars, which you can get at a discount with my code ALADYGOESWEST.)

Thank you for reading this post about the four things you should stop doing this spring for a little bit of a spring clean. I hope you found it helpful in some way, and let’s work on these things together. Have an amazing day, my friends! Go out there and be YOU!

P.S. If you liked this post and think someone else you know would like it too, please share the link with them. Thank you!

Other posts you may like …

• Five little things I do to feel less stressed
• Five healthy eating habits to improve your nutrition
• Small and realistic ways to take care of yourself as a busy lady

Questions of the day for YOU …

What’s one thing you want to stop doing this spring?

What’s one thing you want to start doing this spring?