Maybe wellness was never supposed to be this much work.
Somewhere along the way, taking care of ourselves got really complicated.
Drink enough water.
Eat enough protein.
Get enough fibre.
Take your vitamins.
Walk 10,000 steps.
Strength train.
Stretch.
Meal prep.
Get outside.
Manage your stress.
Sleep eight hours.
Don't sit too long.
Eat more plants.
Put your phone down.
Practice gratitude.
And, apparently, relax.
But make sure you relax properly.
I'm tired just writing the list. 😂
There are days when wellness starts to feel suspiciously like another job.
And most of us already have one of those.
When Did Taking Care of Ourselves Become a Performance?
I don't think any of this advice is necessarily bad.
Protein matters.
Movement matters.
Sleep matters.
Vegetables are still a good idea.
But individually useful things have somehow accumulated into one enormous imaginary checklist we're supposed to complete every day.
And suddenly you're not just living your life.
You're monitoring it.
Did I drink enough water?
Did I move enough?
Did I eat enough protein?
Did I get outside?
Did I stretch?
Did I sleep enough?
And heaven help you if your watch tells you that you stood for only eleven of your twelve designated hours.
Apparently the day is ruined. 😂
Something designed to support our health can start creating its own kind of pressure.
Another list.
Another standard.
Another place to feel like we're falling behind.
Your Life Didn't Disappear When You Decided to Be Healthier
This is the part wellness advice sometimes seems to forget.
You still have a life.
You have a job.
Maybe kids. Maybe aging parents. Maybe both.
There are groceries to buy, appointments to remember, laundry sitting somewhere waiting to be dealt with and a dishwasher that somehow needs emptying again even though you are quite certain you just did it.
You might be building something.
Changing careers.
Helping someone you love.
Trying to keep a house running.
Trying to keep yourself running.
And some days you're simply tired.
Then along comes wellness with its little clipboard.
Have you considered adding a 45-minute morning routine?
No.
No, I have not. 😂
Sometimes the problem isn't that we don't know what would support our health.
We know.
The problem is figuring out how to make those things fit inside the life we're actually living.
And that's an important distinction.
This isn't an argument for caring less about your health.
It's an argument for building a version of health you don't need a vacation from.
Could This Survive a Tuesday?
I love learning about nutrition, health and wellbeing.
But I think there's one question we don't ask nearly enough when we're deciding whether to add another healthy habit:
Could this reasonably exist in my regular Tuesday?
Not for fourteen days.
Not until vacation.
Not while motivation is high and the fridge is perfectly stocked.
On a completely ordinary Tuesday.
When work ran late.
When you forgot to thaw something for dinner.
When someone needs something from you.
When it's raining.
When you're tired.
When the kitchen isn't clean.
When the dog needs walking.
When you discover at 6:12 p.m. that somebody apparently finished the ingredient you were planning to use for supper and neglected to mention it.
That Tuesday. 😂
Because that's where most of life happens.
The version of wellness that matters most isn't necessarily the one that looks best on paper.
It's the one that can survive real life.
Good Enough Still Counts
Maybe we need to bring back the idea of good enough.
Not as giving up.
Not as lowering the bar until nothing matters.
But as recognizing that taking care of yourself doesn't have to look impressive to be worthwhile.
Maybe dinner tonight isn't beautifully meal-prepped salmon, roasted vegetables and quinoa.
Maybe it's scrambled eggs, toast and some fruit.
Still dinner.
Maybe you don't have an hour for the gym.
But you have twenty minutes to walk outside.
Still movement.
Maybe you didn't meditate.
But you sat in the car for five quiet minutes before going into the house.
Still a pause.
Maybe you didn't make the perfect high-protein breakfast.
But you ate something instead of running on coffee until noon.
Still taking care of yourself.
Maybe you went to bed with laundry unfolded, emails unanswered and a kitchen that could have used another ten minutes of attention.
But you were exhausted.
So you went to sleep.
That counts too.
Actually, that might count quite a lot.
Be Careful Turning Every Good Thing Into a Rule
There's another little trap here.
You discover something that makes you feel good.
Maybe it's walking after dinner.
Great.
Then suddenly:
I have to walk after dinner.
You start eating more protein at breakfast and notice you stay fuller longer.
Wonderful.
Then:
Every breakfast must contain exactly the right amount of protein.
You start going to bed earlier.
You feel better.
Fantastic.
Then one late night makes you feel like you've somehow fallen off the wellness wagon.
We're remarkably good at turning helpful discoveries into rules.
And rules have a funny way of becoming another thing to fail at.
Maybe the better relationship is simply:
This helps me.
Instead of:
I must do this perfectly forever.
One leaves room for life.
The other gives wellness its own little clipboard again.
Sometimes Taking Care of Yourself Means Doing Less
We hear a lot about adding healthy habits.
Add the walk.
Add strength training.
Add vegetables.
Add meditation.
Add meal prep.
Add journaling.
Add a morning routine.
But sometimes wellbeing isn't asking you to add another thing.
Sometimes it's asking:
What can come off the list?
Maybe you don't need to cook tonight.
Maybe you don't need to answer that email until tomorrow.
Maybe the house can be slightly messy.
Maybe the workout can be shorter.
Maybe you can buy the pre-cut vegetables.
Maybe you can eat the same breakfast four days in a row because it works.
Maybe you don't need to optimize the evening.
Maybe you just need an evening.
There is nothing particularly glamorous about making life easier.
But I'm becoming increasingly convinced that it might be one of the most useful things we can do for ourselves.
Wellness Should Support Your Life, Not Take It Over
I don't want my life to revolve around being healthy.
I want my health to help me live my life.
There's a difference.
I want enough energy to do things I enjoy.
I want to feel strong enough to keep doing them for a long time.
I want food that nourishes me—and food that makes me close my eyes for a second because it tastes ridiculously good.
I want movement that supports my body, but I also want walks where I completely forget they're exercise.
I want sleep.
I want laughter.
I want good dinners.
I want quiet mornings.
I want adventures.
And I want completely ordinary Tuesdays that feel pretty good too.
That's what all of this is supposed to be supporting.
The life.
Not the checklist.
So take the walk when you can.
Eat the vegetables.
Get some sleep.
Lift something heavy once in a while.
Drink the water.
And when life gets busy, do what you can and carry on.
Because the goal was never to become really good at wellness.
The goal was to take care of yourself well enough to go live your life.
Some days you'll do more.
Some days you'll do less.
Some days you'll absolutely nail it.
And some days you'll eat eggs for dinner, leave the laundry where it is and go to bed.
Good enough still counts.
In fact, good enough might be exactly how we make taking care of ourselves something we can keep doing.
— GEN
Real life. No perfection required.
