Episode 280: Creating Routines for the Whole Family

Did you know that 92% of highly successful people have a solid morning routine? Well, today we'll talk about how you can create those routines with your family.

Welcome back to Essential Oil Solutions with doTERRA, the podcast where you'll hear exciting, useful and simple everyday uses for essential oils from experts in the field.

This episode is brought to you by some brand-new products that are going to help you become your best self. Our ProBiome products: the new PB Assist+ and PB Restore, to support your gut and microbiome, as well as our doTERRA Serenity system—which includes the beloved doTERRA Serenity Sleep Blend, the reformulated doTERRA Serenity Softgels, now with tart cherry, and the brand new doTERRA Serenity Stick with Valerian—all created to support your optimal sleep.

Right now, as a podcast exclusive, if you buy any of these products and enter the promo code: "wellness" at checkout, we'll send you two exclusive audiobooks: "The doTERRA Serenity Sleep Course," and "The ProBiome Product Course." These two audiobooks will walk you through the incredible research, formulation, and benefits behind these powerful products, as well as teach you how to incorporate them into your everyday life.

Check out the link in our episode description or visit doterra.com/podcastoffer to learn more. Open to US orders only.

Today, we're excited to talk to Rachel Sirota about how you can create routines for your whole family.

doTERRA: Rachel, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Rachel Sirota: Oh, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

doTERRA: Absolutely. I'm so excited to talk about routines, because I think it's something that all of us are searching for at some point—a little more stability, a little more routine.

So, to start off with, can you tell us what sort of routines you've adopted to ensure that you're living a healthy, happy lifestyle?

Rachel: Yeah, for sure.

So, I'm so glad that I get to talk about this topic, because routines and habits are—it's like my favorite thing to talk about. I think it's so important to take all of the tools that we have and figure out how to put them into a routine in our life, that makes sense. And I have three kids and try to teach them that as well.

So, the first thing that, of course, we always think about has to do with our nutrition, right? That's always at the foundation of everything that we talk about. And a lot of people will, you know, there's that old saying that adage, right, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And I always try to teach people—remind myself, remind my kids—that yes and no, right?

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" doesn't mean grab a pop tart or a doughnut as you're running out the door because you have to eat breakfast, right? It's that breakfast really sets the tone for your day. And so, we have a lot of routines and habits and goals around setting a tone that, you know, is going to lead us to having a day where the kids can focus in school, where I can focus at work, where my husband can get through his day. So, thinking about starting our day with a really nourishing breakfast with fiber and protein and healthy fats and all those things, not just starting with carbs and sugar.

And, you know, that's just setting us up to crash, right? Like everybody talks about that late afternoon, that midday crash. And we can start to prevent that with the food choices that we make earlier in the day. And then continuing that throughout the day: choosing whole food options as much as possible.

Of course, drinking plenty of water. And we all try to keep a water bottle close at hand—I always have mine right next to me on my desk because when it's right there, it's easy to remember. So, it's easy to make it a part of your routine in that way.

The other piece of it that I think is so important is making breaks a part of your routine, right? Taking that time to recharge, to manage the stress of your day, the overwhelm. Just taking a break is so important to staying healthy, to keeping our bodies functioning the way that they should. And we live in this "go go, go" culture that it almost seems counterintuitive, but you got to schedule those breaks sometimes. You have to give yourself time to just sit and take a deep breath or go outside and get some fresh air, or go for a walk, chat with a friend. Whatever it is, is such an important part of that of those routines.

And then finally, the last thing I'll mention is movement. Finding time to get out. It's so easy in this digital age—we could just spend our days in front of screens all the time. But finding time to get moving is so important.

So, making sure to create routines around movement to whether it's getting outside or getting to the gym or, just standing up and doing a few squats in between your phone calls, whatever it is, it's so important.

doTERRA: Absolutely. I love all of those. And what role do you find that essential oils play into those routines?

Rachel: Oh my gosh, so many things.

Essential oils are such a good tool to help maintain those consistent habits and make those routines kind of happen easier. So, as simple as adding oils to our water throughout the day. First of all, there's all of those amazing benefits for our health, but also it tastes great. And when it tastes great, we're more likely to drink more water. It's as simple as that, right?

We have diffusers all over our house. I love that we now have all of these motion-activated diffusers. So it's kind of like set it and forget it. And so I can have those going. And as I move through the house there's just essential oils creating a calming, peaceful environment and benefiting everybody who walks through the door.

I have oils on my desk, so between calls, even during calls, I can just grab something real quick to put on my wrist. I love Shinrin-Yoku. That's like my new favorite because I can look outside when I'm sitting at my desk, but now it smells like I'm outside too, which is amazing.

And then, you know, my kids are all athletes and so they keep oils with them when they go to practice. It's part of that routine so that they can stay healthy and perform at their best.

doTERRA: That is incredible. And I agree, the Shinrin-Yoku is truly amazing.

Now, what about supplements? Which doTERRA supplements are the ones that you like to include in your everyday routines?

Rachel: I mean of course, doTERRA Lifelong Vitality Pack for sure. My kids are older now, so they're able to take it as well and I've been using it for like 10 years. It's amazing.

Added in the MetaPWR system when that came out, and that has been just a huge benefit in so many areas, like so many places, that that has just up-leveled my life.

And then, of course the new PB Restore and PB Asssist+, you know, supporting the microbiome. And then there's other supplements that maybe we don't use every single day, but I find the longer that we've lived this lifestyle, the more in tune we've become with our bodies.

And so, you can kind of feel when there's areas that maybe need a little bit of support. So, maybe if the kids have had a particularly tough practice. They're all rock climbers and so they're a little bit sore, they worked a little bit hard, and kind of went all in, then we're using a little bit of the Turmeric capsules or the Deep Blue Polyphenol Complex.

There's some days where I just know my body needs some Zendocrine. And my liver needs a little bit of love, you know, my body needs to kind of benefit from being able to more effectively remove those toxins.

So, I love having those abilities to adjust my supplement routine to what's going on, because we're all always constantly changing. And the more that you kind of learn how these things make you feel, the more that you can kind of adapt on the fly.

doTERRA: Absolutely. That is such an incredible part of it.

And along those same lines, when you find yourself needing that extra boost throughout the day, what are some of your other go-to products?

Rachel: Well, for sure, the MetaPWR Beadlets are like my absolute favorite for that. There's always a bottle of them on my desk, in my bag, in the car. They're all over. They're never more than an arm's reach away. And I love those beadlets for two reasons.

One, I do feel like they give me this great boost of energy, but also they help me to not reach for the sugar or, some of those other things that we may tend to reach for when, when we feel ourselves dragging a little bit, but really the things are not the, the healthiest choice. So, I love having those beadlets.

Of course, citrus and mint in the diffuser is always a go-to. I'll be honest, while I love the doTERRA Motivate blend, I like mixing up my own motivational diffuser blends. I really love Spearmint, Tangerine, and Lime. That's like my favorite. It's my jam.

But I will say, especially since taking MetaPWR now for over a year, consistently, the days where I feel like I need that boost are fewer and fewer. As you know, as my metabolism is more efficient, more effective. And I don't feel like I have as many days where I'm dragging in the afternoon, which is really cool.

doTERRA: Yeah, I think that's something everyone wants.

Now, Rachel, what advice would you give to someone who is kind of at the beginning and is trying to build a healthier routine?

Rachel: Yeah, I think it's so important. I think it's easy to listen, even to a conversation like this and get really overwhelmed, like, "Oh my gosh, there's supplements, there's oils. You just mentioned all these different things."

And so, I think if you're just at the beginning, choose one thing to focus on. Choose one area that you really feel like is the most important to make changes in. And then zone in, specifically on one or two habits that are really going to support that.

So, if you want to focus on nutrition, that's an area you need to work on, then maybe you're going to just work on like drinking more water and remembering to take your Lifelong Vitality. And just focus on those two habits and think about how you can integrate them into your existing routine.

I'm a big fan of habit stacking, right? How can you add them on to existing habits that you already do and you don't have to think twice about? So maybe, take those Lifelong Vitality bottles and put them right next to your toothbrush, because you know you're not going to forget to brush your teeth, and so now you won't forget to take your supplements either.

And so, once you've tied those habits to your existing ones, then you can really start to focus on accountability. So, whether that's a habit tracker—I love having just a place where you can like check things off or color things in to remind yourself. Or even an accountability partner—do this with your spouse or with a friend or a kid or a parent or whoever.

And then I think the last piece of it is we're such a goal-focused culture that we forget sometimes to celebrate the small wins and to celebrate the journey. So don't get caught up in like, "Oh, I'm not perfect." And, "Yeah, I'm taking my supplements, but I'm not eating all organic yet," or "I'm not doing--" don't get caught up in all the things you're not doing.

Celebrate the wins. Keep things fun. Because I find boredom is often the biggest obstacle when we're trying to create new routines, right? Like we do it for a little bit and then it kind of just it starts to get boring, and so we stop.

So, if we can keep it fun and we can keep celebrating the wins along the way, then we can keep moving forward.

doTERRA: Absolutely. I love that piece about celebrating along the way, just really focusing on your own journey, and not so much about the perfection you want to achieve.

Rachel: Yeah, totally.

doTERRA: Before we end, Rachel, do you have any last advice that you want to give people who are working to establish those healthy routines?

Rachel: Yeah. I mean, start small, right? Start with one thing at a time. If your thing is that you want to work on diffusing different oils, then try one new oil each month. Take one new thing that you can learn about. Get just a little bit better each day, right?

If you're working on movement, work on doing one more minute of movement each day. You don't have to try to get go from zero to three hours in an overnight. Take an extra 30 seconds to do some deep breathing to calm your body and reset. It's those little things compounded over time that end up making the biggest difference.

doTERRA: I think you are absolutely right. Rachel, thank you so much for being here with us today. For sharing how we can all be creating those healthy routines for ourselves and for our families.

Rachel: Oh, thank you for having me. This was a lot of fun.

doTERRA: Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you want to try any of the products you learned about, click on the link in the episode description or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.

And remember, if you liked what you heard today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.