☆ The wellness advice I wish I'd learned sooner

Hey lovely,

Jasmine here, back with your Monday Wellness Dose.

Happy IWD for yesterday, angels - nothing makes me prouder than having a 98% female audience (the 2% I can only assume are mostly my boyfriend and his friends?). In honour of IWD, I'd love to give some shoutouts this week over on social. So if you - or your friend, mum, aunt or gran - run a wellness or beauty business, or you're a coach, expert or creator carving out your niche in the space, hit reply and let me know why our audience needs to know about you. I'll choose 5 over the course of this week.

In other exciting news - our next event is launching this week, with an incredible brand that still feels extremely surreal to say out loud. For now, all I can say is: London girlies, keep the evening of the 19th free if you want to spend it with other high-performing women in this gorgeous community. Join our event page here to be the first to know.

And lastly - I'm mixing things up a little today, well, because why run your own biz if not to make up the rules?! I've finally got round to answering your most asked wellness and beauty questions that land in my inbox and DMs each week.

Let's get into it. 🤍

Your quick hits to be hotter, healthier & wealthier → 

★ HOT

• Need a gym-meets-life bag that does it all and looks cute whilst doing it? According to Wellness Writer Katie Stone, this is the only option - crafty internal dividers, zipped compartments and water resistance built for spring's inevitable downpours - what more could a girl want? (Loeffler Randall)

• You know what's not hot? Your smart ring dying mid-sleep. Thankfully, the upgraded Ultrahuman Ring PRO solves just that with their new portable charger providing 45 days of battery life - and it’s included as standard with every PRO ring. (Ultrahuman)

• New brand Leaked Labs is rewriting the rulebook on beauty launches - lab-to-customer product drops are treated as experiments, with community feedback determining whether each one makes it to full release. Genius really, as any bad reviews can truly be called research, and the community feels like they're building the brand too. (Leaked Labs)

★ HEALTHY

• This low-carb fudgy chocolate brownie recipe has become a firm favourite around here. You're welcome. (Hunter & Gather)

• Much like HIIT, ice baths got a bad rap in recent years in women’s wellness. But according to this biohacker & Doctor duo, there's a time and a place for them. Specifically: 1-4 minutes in your follicular phase, and 1-2 minutes (or a cold shower blast) in your luteal. Get the full protocol here. (YouTube)

• New Crossfit-based competition XENOM launches this summer in London and the US - a 10-event points-based programme designed to fix the scoring inconsistencies that have long plagued fitness competitions. Could this be the rebrand to make Crossfit cool again? (XENOM)

★ WEALTHY 

• If you don't immediately want to renovate your entire kitchen after looking at this, you're stronger than most of us. (Instagram)

• The 20 multi-million pound wellness business ideas somebody needs to build, asap. Please and thank you. (Daily Rituals)

• Sleep-tech brand Eight Sleep just hit unicorn status with a $1.5B valuation, powered by their hardware and subscription model. What's next? Apparently, built-in predictive AI that optimises your sleep environment based on your biomarkers before you've even closed your eyes. (Tech Funding News)

Answering your most asked questions

Admittedly, it feels rather self-indulgent to put myself in the hot seat this week. But I get so many lovely messages and DMs from readers (which I absolutely love). And when I'm out interviewing women on the streets of London, they understandably turn the questions back on me - those moments rarely make the final cut, because ultimately I want those interviews to be all about them.

I've also never really seen myself as the "ultimate wellness girly" - building Daily Rituals alongside my 9-5 meant my wellness routine has never been less "well". But I have picked up a thing or two along the way, having interviewed so many incredible experts and friendly faces over the last year. So, let's get into it.

What does your morning routine look like?

Now that I'm finally out of corporate, my mornings have the option of looking a little different each day - something I'll never take for granted. That said, they usually look something like this: my alarm goes off at around 7.30am, I'll get up, drink plenty of water and head outside for my first walk of the day. This one I try to do without music or podcasts - just see what's going on in my head. When I'm home, I'll make my quinoa bowl (recipe below), eggs and coffee and sit and read a book whilst I eat. Then I'll usually head upstairs and start work around 9.15.

Old me used to get up and hit the gym first thing (Monster energy drink in hand… my poor hormones) and whilst I love the feeling of getting it done, I much prefer training at lunch or mid-afternoon to break up my day (and with plenty of food inside to fuel me properly).

A wellness hack that had the biggest noticeable impact?

Eating more fibre. Despite eating "clean", I didn't realise how little I was having each day until I had a consult with a nutritionist. She was somewhat mortified when I told her about my then ultra-low carb diet that I'd convinced myself my body reacted well to. She kindly explained that carbs and fibre help your body feel safe as a woman, and mean you can actually digest all the goodness you're giving it. Since making more effort to include it each day - aside from things running much, um, smoother down there - I've noticed I can eat a good amount more calories overall yet haven't gained any weight. I can only assume my metabolism has finally caught a break and knows it's going to be fed.

The supplement you'd keep if you could only keep one?

I tell everyone to get their bloods done before spending a penny on supplements. I had a Healf Zone test done last year and my results were pretty humbling - again, as someone who thought they were doing all the things - I had scarily high levels of vitamin D and LDLs, and almost no copper, selenium or magnesium. So I switched my routine up and honestly, the difference has been night and day.

If I had to keep just one, it'd probably be collagen via my favourite bone broth. It comes in a powder format so I take it everywhere with me - and there's something so comforting about drinking it.

How did you clear your skin?

Firstly, if you're going through it with your skin right now - I know how incredibly all-consuming it is. How it totally knocks your confidence, your plans, how much you look in the mirror. One thing I used to remind myself: if the likes of Alix Earl and Kendall Jenner - two gorgeous women with unlimited budgets, the best dermatologists in the world on speed dial, and every product ever made at their disposal - still struggled with their skin while showing up to red carpets and having their photo taken every single day, then it's genuinely not as within our control as we're made to feel. And it sure as hell didn't make them any less jaw-droppingly beautiful - so I think I'll be just fine.

The things that helped me:

• Supplements - work out what you need first, but for skin it's typically linked to gut health and hormones. I take Symprove every day and supplement with things like DIM (during my luteal), zinc, pantothenic acid and vitamin A.

• Diet - sadly, sugar and my skin are not friends, so I keep it to a minimum. Neither is dairy, soy or too much gluten (cry) - if I'm having those, it's usually at the weekend or when I'm out. I'm not super strict, but I do notice the repercussions. C'est la vie.

• Checking any new products on a pore-clogging website and ditching any pore-clogging makeup. I now swear by the Kosas concealer and use it as my base most days.

• Monthly extraction facials and peels - far from relaxing but a necessary evil.

• Ditching the acne skincare in favour of a barrier-repairing routine: CeraVe Oil to Foam Cleanser, Medik8 Clarity Peptides and La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5+ are my holy grail trio.

Go-to athleisure brands?

Somewhat niche, but I still rotate a lot of pieces from when I owned my activewear brand. Aside from that: ONER makes me feel like that girl in the gym (especially this new colour), PE Nation for that Aussie cool-girl vibe, and Varley for off-duty but chic casuals.

Your go-to productivity hack?

Changing my phone display to black and white so it's immediately way less appealing to scroll. I've set up a shortcut that makes it super easy too: Settings → Accessibility Shortcut → Colour Filters.

How do you stay consistent when motivation disappears?

Activations help when the day feels like it's going to be an uphill battle. As does spending a few minutes with To Be Magnetic - the journal prompts force you to get super clear on your goals, your blocks and your why. And honestly? Now that I'm fully reliant on the business, there's been a whole new fire lit now that there are bills to be paid.. It's also quite motivating when people say "well, you can always get another job if it doesn't work out" - girl, it's going to work out!!

Favourite podcast right now?

My most listened podcast is My First Million - it was actually what inspired me to create a media brand, after noticing the gap in wellness. The founders both had successful media brands and are great craic. I think I'm in approximately 2% of their female listeners - but they interview incredibly successful founders and are always sharing new tools they're testing. What I enjoy most is that they're intent on creating "whole" lives - being present for their kids, not working seven days a week, making time to create, think and learn and still finding (more) success.

For a shorter episode, I've been enjoying Female Founder World too.

Something you used to believe about wellness but don't anymore?

That the early bird catches the worm. If I have to get up before 7am, it takes me so long to get into the day I may as well have stayed in bed. Emily Austen actually normalised this for me - she talks about the power of the 8am club in her book Smarter, arguing that we'd all be happier and healthier if we stopped trying to force 5-6am starts to work for us.

Most unhinged wellness purchase?

For a hot second a few years ago, I considered creating my own red light panel brand - so naturally, I ordered a £130 panel off Alibaba after going deep on various Reddit forums. Because I was buying direct from a supplier I could customise it too, which was pretty cool - I added a blue light setting to target acne bacteria and cranked up the power while I was at it. That thing has been everywhere with me - it even made the trip to our Pilates event in Manchester last year to bathe the room in a lovely red hue. Let me know if you’d like the link!

Favourite healthy recipe right now?

My quinoa bowl - it's nutty but sweet and my body much prefers it to oats in the morning. It's so easy to make too:

• 100g quinoa

• 2-3 tablespoons of chia and flax seeds

• Milk of choice (I use a mix of coconut and cashew milk)

• 1 teaspoon of mixed spice

Bring to the boil and simmer for around 10-12 minutes.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

I'm a big fan of looking at brands that have done exactly what I'm trying to do but in a different space, and reverse engineering it. If they tried something, I'll try it too and see what sticks - if they're bigger and further along than me, they've likely already worked out what works, so hopefully I get to skip a few of the tests that don't.

Aside from that, I spend a lot of time reading each week - mostly because I have to, so I have something to write about for the newsletter and our socials - but it does mean my brain is slowly piecing things together to spot trends and noticing gaps. I also love a morning Pinterest scroll to get my brain going.

Got a question I haven't answered? Hit reply - I answer every single one. 🤍

See you next Monday! xo