This week at Kula we chatted with Health & Wellness Coach, Luana Marchi to share her top tips on how routines and mindset make for a healthier life.

If your goal is to improve your habits and live a healthier life the first step is to introduce a routine. Our success is determined by the things that we do every day, especially in terms of improving our health. As humans our bodies crave structure and we are creatures of habit. Routines and mindset offer a way to promote health and wellness through structure and organisation.

People often see routines as boring but it doesn’t need to be. In fact, after you start to feel the benefits it will make you wonder why you didn’t start one earlier!

Many of my clients who used to feel stressed, anxious, overwhelmed and falling short of their goals have seen great improvements once they set up a routine. Having a daily routine promotes good habits, saves money, frees up time and importantly, help to achieve our goals!

As a Health & Wellness Coach I know by experience that introducing a new routine can be hard at first. Studies shows it takes at least 12 weeks for a new habit to become a routine. By nature, we are all resistant to change and it is normal to struggle initially. To stay motivated you must keep a positive mindset and here are six of my top tips:

• Prepare your environment: this has a huge effect on how successful we are – surround yourself with positive people, wear awesome Australian activewear and yoga clothes like Kula Athletic and work out in the beautiful outdoors or your favourite studio or gym
• Figure out why: it you want to improve your health take a moment to list the reasons for wanting to do it. When you connect with the WHY you will start achieving your goals and desired outcomes
• Start small: healthy habits are created over time so start with small changes and gradually build on it over time. For example, try exchanging processed high sugar industrial snacks for a natural and nutritious one; or packing your lunch instead of eating out
• Take responsibility: we always tend to excuse our behaviour by justifying it or blaming someone else. Identify the roadblocks keeping you from succeeding like “I had a stressful day so I deserve all the food I want” or “I ate takeaway last night because I was too tired for cooking”
• Encourage yourself: instead of focusing on the negatives, replace criticism with encouragement. Giving praise to others will also encourage praise in return, this will help to build your confidence and continue the path
• Just do it: your future is determined by the decisions you will make today, and tomorrow, and the next day. Your mindset is the most powerful tool you have to build lasting healthy habits. It won’t always be easy to control your mindset, but it can be done. Don’t listen to the demons!

And also eat lots of nutritious and healthy food as this will have a big part of staying focused and feeling great. My favourite smoothie bowl recipe is below and you can see more of my recipes and food here.

Smoothie bowl recipe

1 cup almond or coconut milk
1 cup frozen blueberries
Handful spinach
1 tbsp cacao powder
1 tbsp chia seeds
2 medjool dates
2 tbsp avocado

Place all ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Pour into a bowl and top with your favourite toppings such as cacao nibs, fresh fruit, coconut flaked, nuts and berries.