I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in a rut since the start of the year. I’ve tried to take part in multiple rounds of 75 Soft. However, I think the idea of committing to 75 days is too much for me. Instead, I’m going to use May as a bit of a reset to feel better about myself. That’s why I’m starting my 31 days of wellness challenge for May. Here are a handful of healthy habits I’ll be focusing on starting today!
DAILY MOVEMENT
My first daily non-negotiable is going to be movement. It’s probably the hardest habit for me to crack in my 31 days of wellness challenge, but I just need to get my body moving more! I’d love to get back to walking 10k steps a day and going to the gym daily. However, I no longer have a car, nor am I out and about every single day. Instead, I work from home and live at my desk. I know it’s not healthy, which is why I need to make a change.
That’s why I thought reframing exercise as movement instead. Now that the weather is nicer, I want to get out of the house more. Whilst I don’t particularly enjoy living in this village, it’s quiet to walk around during the day. Luckily for me, I have multiple out-of-town day trips, so I’ll get in plenty of walking on those days. On days at home, I’ll either aim to walk around the village or do a home workout on YouTube.
MY SKINCARE ROUTINE
A habit that I’ve really tried to focus on in 2025 is my skincare routine. Now I’m in my 30s, I want to stay looking youthful. I’ve been ID’d for an 18 movie in recent years, so I want to keep looking younger! I’ve spent far too much money on skincare recently, so I do need to rein that in. However, I’ve been really working on solidifying my day and night skincare routine.
The main issue is that I seem to have developed some mild adult acne. I never really had it as a teenager but my chin and jaw area have been spotty since the end of 2024. I’m currently trialling an azelaic acid cream because I don’t want to try anything too strong with my sensitive skin and eczema. Now, I’m looking at adding retinol into my weekly routine but don’t know if my skin can handle it.
A BALANCED DIET
This is another difficult habit right now, due to the excess amount of Easter chocolate that I have! However, a little bit of chocolate every day keeps the doctor away, right? Ok, maybe not but I’m not someone who’ll ever be able to give it up completely! Since lockdown, I discovered a love of cooking. However, I do enjoy cooking every day. I need to refocus on batch cooking once or twice a week so I have plenty of leftovers for the week.
The focus here will be on increasing my fruit/vegetable and protein intake and snacking less. I find it hard when I’m just sitting at my desk all day. Hopefully, if I eat larger meals, I won’t need to snack so much!
UTILISE MY STANDING DESK MORE
I invested in a standing desk last year and go through phases of using it. I’d say in recent weeks, I’ve not stood at it, only sat. I bought it so I would stand more whilst working and really haven’t. Unfortunately, I can’t stand when I’m doing heavy typing because it wobbles a bit. However, it would be perfect to stand at when I’m doing some business admin, doing keyword research for clients or creating graphics on Canva. An hour on three days every week is what I’m aiming for.
NO-SPEND DAYS
My spending has gotten out of control in 2025 and again, I need to tighten the purse strings figuratively and literally! As I said above, May happens to be one of my busiest months with a few day trips. That means that I’m going to plan my spending days around my activities and be stricter around them. Usually, I put myself on a spending ban in certain categories. Instead, I’m setting myself a small budget in those categories so it’s not a ban but I’ll have to seriously think about spending.
BLOG POSTS
The aim is to post five times a week but I’m also debating about getting rid of two of my blogs. I have a money blog, Saving with Sian, and a minimalism blog, The Realistic Minimalist. However, I’m contemplating getting rid of them both and just making this blog my sole website (other than my business). Would you be interested in me including money, minimalism and capsule wardrobe content over here?
With this goal, I also want to explore posting more to social media. It’s something I need to plan first because short-form content is a whole other venture in itself. I’m not great at taking pictures and I have zero video editing skills. It’s something I’ll need to spend some time researching properly for sure!
2L WATER
If there’s one habit that I need to be more consistent with (other than exercise), it’s my water intake. One day, I won’t drink enough, get a migraine and then spend the following day drinking too much to make up for not drinking enough. Now we’re getting into spring/summer, 2 litres a day is the minimum I should be drinking. If I’m getting in daily movement, I’ll be aiming for 3 litres instead.
JOURNALING
This covers two types of journaling: my morning gratitude and my weekly review. I’ve tried morning pages and it wasn’t for me. Instead, I jot down three things I’m grateful for or looking forward to for that day and it takes two minutes. I also spend some time on a Sunday reviewing my week. Again, I write down some highlights from the week and a few lowlights. Again, it takes a few minutes, but it’s nice to look back at every year to see how many things you actually did accomplish!
8AM ALARM
I’m sorry but all those TikTok ‘5-9 routines before my 9-5 job’ are not for me. I used to get up at 6am when I worked in retail, workout for half an hour before getting ready and out the door. Now, I’m lucky if I’m out of bed by 9am. However, I like sleep and it makes me feel good! That being said, I do feel like I waste quite a bit of time. I don’t want to go from zero to 100mph so instead, I’d like to just wake up a little earlier. 8am seems like a good compromise for now!
And that’s my 31 days of wellness challenge. We’re five days in already and it’s definitely a challenge! However, that’s why I wanted for myself!
If you enjoyed this post on my 31 days of wellness challenge, you can find my other lifestyle posts here. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok too.
