58: Take Care or Your Most Basic Needs First

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I wanna have a serious chat with you today about doing the things you know you’re supposed to be doing. Too often we get caught up in the excitement of all the fun ways to practice self-care, but when it comes down to it, none of that really matters if you aren’t taking care of your basic needs first. Who cares if you’ve just had a mani-pedi when you haven’t had enough sleep. No amount of retail therapy can make up for being dehydrated or under-noursihed. 

Especially now, during cold and flu season, when your kids are out picking up all kinds of bugs every week, taking care of your basic needs helps to support your immune system and help you be available to show up for them fully in their time of need, too. 

Taking Care of Your Basic Needs

Hello, my beautiful friend. Welcome to the Meant To Bloom podcast with your host, Brittni Clarkson. I wanna keep today’s episode short and sweet and to the point, and I wanna remind you of the most important thing you can be doing for yourself right now, every day for the rest of your life. Take care of yourself.

Okay. And I’m not talking about fancy self care. I’m not talking about pampering yourself. I’m not talking treat yo’ self. I’m not talking about any of that. I’m not even talking like, to take care of your mental health and to be mindful of what you’re thinking. I’m not, I’m not talking about any of that right now. I’m battling a really nasty cold.

I’m at the tail end of it, but now it’s just like in my throat. So, I mean, I really should have had a podcast. Pre-recorded two weeks in advance to be prepared for a season of cold like this, especially in like cold and flu season. But I didn’t. So here we are. I am five days deep in a cold, and I’m recording this podcast episode for you because I care about you and I need to show up and be here for you. 

And I don’t make excuses. I thought about not recording an episode today, but I thought, you know, we’re friends. I’m gonna show up as I am. I’m here. I’m sick, my throat’s funny. I probably sound weird and I’m just, I’m recording this episode for you from the bathtub. To be totally honest, I’m really embracing this work from a place of peace and I’m really trying to not make work feel like a burden.

Like, this is something I wanna be doing. And now that my brain is like cleared up a bit more and I can actually make sentences.

I wanted to talk to you about taking care of your basic core needs that you need to be taking care of regularly. And I mean, it’s an everyday thing and these core needs that you have they are getting enough sleep. That’s, you know, typically between seven and nine hours a night.

I know they always average it out to be eight hours, but honestly, I’ve read in an article before and I totally know it to be true. Men typically need like six to seven hours a night to function at top performance, and women actually need like eight to nine hours a night. So if you’re constantly feeling like you need more sleep than your husband does, that’s your answer.

Because you are genetically made differently and the male body requires less sleep than the female body does. I have a theory behind that too, and it’s totally a theory, but I think it’s because men move slower and so they get less sleep and then they have a longer day where they do not wear themselves out as quickly.

And I think because women move faster, we get tired quicker. And I mean, you can see this in the way that we speak. Even how men typically speak slower and women tend to say a lot more words a lot quicker, and I think it really is. I think that plays a role in how much sleep you need. It makes sense to me in my brain, and I mean, it makes sense when I’m healthy too, not just when I’ve got this cold brain going on.

So we can pick that up and talk about that more another time if that’s of interest to you, you need more details on that. But getting plenty of sleep, we know that’s important. And how often do we actually prioritize that? All right, and here’s the trick to getting more sleep. It’s always starting the night before. Okay. It’s this domino effect. We always want a good morning routine because we think that’s gonna change our day. Starting in the morning, but you have to domino effect it. Having a good morning routine starts with having a good night’s sleep and having a good night’s sleep starts with a good evening routine. So if you have an evening routine that sets you up for a successful night’s sleep sets you up for a successful morning, that’s gonna change your day.

And when you change your days, you change your life. Because how we spend our day is how we spend our life. Thank you Annie Dillard, for that super commonly quoted quote that I and so many other women I know use all the time. “How you spend your days is of course how you spend your life,” because it’s so freaking true.

It’s simple and it’s true and it’s impactful, meaningful. So yeah, we say that a lot cuz it’s true. So getting enough sleep, super important. The next important thing is drinking enough water. Are you drinking enough water every day? We know we’re supposed to drink water because it’s good for our immune system.

It’s good for our skin. It’s good for your digestion. It’s good for your muscles. It’s good for, it’s good for everything and your whole body. It’s good for your hair I think. Good for you, it’s good for everything. There’s nothing drinking water is not good for, we are 90% water. We are meant to drink water.

And we’re meant to drink a lot of it. All right. The rule of thumb, take your body weight, divide it by two, convert that to ounces, okay? So I mean, basic math, if you weigh a hundred pounds, I know most of you guys don’t weigh a hundred pounds, some of us do, but if you weigh a hundred pounds, that would mean 50 ounces is what you need for the day.

You weigh 120 pounds, 60 ounces for the day. 140 pounds, you drink 70 ounces for a day, you know, you get it. Get the math. That’s how that works. Drink your water and no, coffee doesn’t count. That is not filtered water. That’s coffee. It doesn’t count. And even actually, honestly, for every cup of coffee you drink, you should be drinking a cup of water just to like zero that out because coffee dehydrates you and you know that and it’s not breakfast and you know that.

We all know that. And yet we do it. Why do we do this to ourselves? We know we need sleep. We know coffee is not breakfast. We know we need water, and yet here we are making wrong choices in the simplest of self care. And then we’re wondering why we feel like we’re falling apart. Why we’re getting sick during cold and flu season is probably because germs love sugar.

And I know most of us are not drinking our coffee black. We’re just filling up on sugar calories from all the creamer and delicious syrups we’re putting in there, and then we’re getting sick and we’re wondering, why do I feel like crap? Well, you’re also not getting enough sleep, so you’re not supporting your immune system when you eat.

Are you eating nutrient dense foods? We try to, don’t we? But I know I’m not. Preaching self care and then getting in these cycles of not actually taking care of yourself on the most basic level, don’t feel guilty. We all do that sometimes. We all get there. I’m in it right now. I am suffering the consequences of my own actions and poor choices.

So let me be a cautionary tale to take care of your basic needs. Get sleep, drink your water, eat nutrient dense foods. Okay? That’s your number three need is to have nutrient dense foods, avoiding all the sugary processed crap that, you know, doesn’t feel good for your body to be eating. I mean, you don’t have to avoid ’em a hundred percent.

I’m not saying totally change your lifestyle and stop, you know, stopping at fast food, I’m saying don’t eat fast food like four times a week when you don’t have to. Don’t make that a normal lifestyle choice for like all the time. Yeah. We get into seasons where we’re busy and we have stuff for fast food, that’s fine.

I do that, but when you make it a habit and you’re not backing that up with drinking plenty of water and then going home and eating a nutrient dense meal, the next chance you get and you’re just getting in this rut of every choice you’re making around food is bad. Then you know, you’re not setting your body up to succeed.

All right. Your body does this magical thing where it supports itself and heals itself. And I mean, have you ever thought about that? That your body heals itself when you’re sick? A lot of times, I mean, when it’s a minor thing, like a cold, your body fights it by itself. When you get a scrape, your body heals itself.

It generates the cells needed. It’s incredible the things your body can do. It really is the way your body’s just constantly producing like new skin cells, new hairs, like you’re constantly regrowing your fingernails. Your body’s always healing itself. It’s always growing. It’s always, you know, it’s incredible.

It really is. And then when we can’t do the simplest thing because our brain just lets us have free will and make our own choices, we can’t support it with nutrient dense foods that just don’t sound delicious at the time. And then we go and make a choice that is counterproductive and we get stuck in a rut of making the toxic choice repeatedly.

Ugh. Don’t feel guilty for it. It happens. Guilt won’t fix the past. Guilt won’t change your future decisions. It’s just gonna make you feel bad about future decisions, right? We don’t, you feel bad about the decision because you know what? That guilt, that’s low vibe stuff, that’s not good for your immune system either.

That’s just fear. It’s just another version of fear. And fear is not good for you. Love is good for you. Love is high vibe stuff. Like that’s what you’re meant to be. You’re meant to be making choices out of love. So don’t, don’t guilt yourself into making good health choices. That’s not really helpful. That’s doing it for the wrong reasons.

Make good health choices because you love yourself, because you wanna support yourself, because you wanna be available to show up for those around. Right. Cause I’m not showing up a hundred percent for my kids right now. I’m not. I’m sick. I’m giving ’em every kind of snuggle they’ll take. But they’re asking me to read books at nighttime.

And by bedtime my voice is not here anymore. Like I can’t do it. So I’m having to say no, I can’t show up a hundred percent for them in every way they want. And that’s fine. I don’t feel guilty for that. But the reason I can’t do that is cuz I’m sick, and why am I sick? Because I made bad choices. I mean, yeah, the sickness, I would be exposed to it anyway, but I could have supported my immune system better to fight it easier and quicker. And I could have been done with it a long time ago. It could have not hit so hard if I had supported myself better, taken my vitamins when I knew I was supposed to be taking my vitamins, that kind of thing. Yeah.

So that’s what I really wanted to share with you, my cautionary tale. During cold and flu season, during every season, take care of yourself on your most basic needs. Don’t over complicate your self care. Take care of the basics first. Get your sleep, drink your water, eat your nutrients. It’s not hard, don’t, don’t overcomplicate it.

Don’t make it hard. You don’t have to go make habit trackers. You don’t have to really pay attention to how many hours of sleep I got last night? You don’t have to be analyzing everything. Just make the next right decision. Every opportunity you get when you feel tired, go to sleep When you are thirsty, drink water every time you get up. Drink some water when you are hungry. Eat something that makes your body feel awesome. It’s not as difficult as we have to make it. 

When we overcomplicate it, we tend to not accomplish it because we make it this whole big perfectionistic thing, and then we think that there’s some option for us to fail at it, and so then we just intentionally self-sabotage a lot of times, and I’m not here for that.

I’m not okay with doing that from now on, I want us all to lead long, happy, healthy lives. So drink your water, get your sleep, eat your nutrients. Take care of yourself, my friend. All right. Love you. Bye.