🌿 You Choose Health — Now Let’s Make It Easy 🌟

Welcome to the LeafSide Healthy Habits Guide — your go-to resource for easy,  efficient, and evidence-based ways to live your best self. 🙏

Now, if you’re our typical LeafSider, you’re a smart cookie and might already be saying, “Yeah yeah, you self-help types all promise the same thing, what’s different here?” 🧐

What’s Different Here?

What’s different here: LeafSide is always evidence-based, and focused on  maximizing your health results, while minimizing your time & energy spent.

To do that, we’ll combine two powerful ideas here into actionable, quick-to-start, efficient habits, to maximally improve your health:

  1. Using the Pareto Principle as applied to inputs, and outputs — 20% of your actions yield 80% of desired results.  Thus, we should only focus on the key actions to take, in the biggest health factors.
  2. Using evidence-based Lifestyle Medicine; this is the board-certified specialization for health professionals, using what actually works for preventing and reversing chronic diseases (which chew up about 80% of healthcare spending in the IUSA), and living your healthiest life. After decades and tens of thousands of studies, it boils down to 6 things:
    • whole food plant based nutrition
    • restorative sleep
    • physical activity, exercise
    • social connection
    • stress management
    • avoid risky substances

🔑 Start Small, Build Big: The Power of Atomic Habits

The key to creating lasting change is starting small. Big transformations don’t happen overnight — they’re the result of small, consistent actions that compound over time.

As James Clear, the author of the multi-yearbestseller Atomic Habits, emphasizes:

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

Systems, in turn, can start out very small, and easy.  Let’s see how…

The 4 Laws of Atomic Habits

The well-tested 4 Laws of Atomic Habits follow, with examples of building healthy habits (and letting go of bad ones):

  • 🛠️ Make it Obvious: i.e. control your environment! This is the Pareto 20% cheat that yields 80% impact.  Set up big cues in your surroundings to remind you of your goals.
    • For example, keep your LeafSide meals visible and accessible for easy, obvious, healthy choices. Put your Success Tracker on the fridge, or bathroom mirror (change locations every few days to keep it fresh), so you see it throughout your day. 
    • As for ditching a bad habit, the reverse applies: Toss/donate the processed/junk food out of your home and office — that’s a 1-time action that keeps helping you forever.
  • 💡 Make it Attractive: Pair new habits with things you already enjoy. For example, listen to your favorite podcast or enjoy a soothing tea while preparing your meals.
  • ⏳ Make it Easy: Simplify the process! Eliminate steps; make the first step easy and quick, done in seconds or within 2 minutes. Pareto prevails here again; that easy 1st step should set up the next hour. As a favorite example, with LeafSide meals, all you have to do is add water. 💦 See our must-know tips to help them fit even more seamlessly into your life.
  • 🎯 Make it Satisfying: Celebrate each win, no matter how small, and track your progress to stay motivated. Every step forward is another vote for who you want to become.  🎉 Some days may have more votes, other days less, and that’s ok — just keep going. 🏃‍♂️‍➡️

Healthy habits are about progress, not perfection. By focusing on small “atomic” and meaningful  steps, you’ll create momentum that leads to incredible results over time. 🌈 

As Clear reminds us, improving 1% every day, leaves us 37x better after 1 year. 

Take Your First Step ➡️

Pick one small adjustment to make today — whether it’s setting a smartphone recurring reminder to reflect on your day and track your meals; or setting a glass of water by the microwave so you hydrate before lunch; or cuing a walk after dinner to help digestion.

Small changes add up to big differences! 🌟

We’re here to cheer you on every step of the way. Explore this guide, make it your own, and watch as your habits transform your life. 🌿✨

💪 Some of Our Favorite Healthy Habits

At LeafSide, we don’t just talk about healthy habits — we live them! Here are some simple, easy, fast, and big-impact evidence-based practices we love to help us stay energized, focused, and thriving every day:

  • Whole Plant-strong Nutrition
    • We’re biased, but there’s no easier or faster way to get all the benefits of whole food plant-strong nutrition than LeafSide meals. 😇 Not only do you get complete meals with no work within 10 minutes, but you’ll benefit from Dr. Greger’s unmatched Daily Dozen nutrition guidelines, and easily meet the American Gut Health Project’s strong recommendation to eat 30 or more distinct plants per week for optimal microbiome health.
  • Physical Activity
    • 🏋️‍♂️ The Nitric Oxide Dump 4 Minute Workout: A quick, energizing exercise helps boost circulation, improve focus, and keep us feeling strong all day long.
    • 🚶‍♀️ Midday Walks: A refreshing walk after lunch to soak up some sunshine and clear the mind. ☀️
    • The Split-Squat is an amazing exercise that builds 4 benefits at once: strength, stamina, balance, and mobility/flexibility. You can start with the front-leg on a stair, and only going down to 90 degrees (both knees); then gradually build up to the full a$$-to-grass (ATG) version; then add dumbbells to that.
  • Restorative Sleep
    • Last meal at least 4 hours before  🛏️ sleeping: This helps maintain a healthy weight, AND makes deeper sleep possible.
    • 📵 Screen-Free Evenings: Unplugging an hour before bed for better sleep and relaxation. 😴
    • 💧 Hydration First Thing: Starting the morning with a tall glass of water to wake up and energize the body. 🥤
  • Stress Reduction
    • 📒 Gratitude Journaling: This is a top technique from the academic world of Positive Psychology: Take 5-10 minutes in the morning to jot down three things you’re grateful for, to set a positive tone for the day. 🌞
  • Social Connection

Small, consistent habits like these can make a big difference in how you feel — body and mind. Try one today and make it your own! 🌱✨

📞 Have Questions? Want to Celebrate? We’re Here for You!

Whether you’d like to share your progress, celebrate a win, or ask a question, we’d love to hear from you!

Email us at [email protected]
Call us at 1-520-502-4743 during our business hours: 10 AM–12 PM (Mountain Time).

Your success is our greatest joy — let’s keep thriving together! 💚