Habits I Can't Live Without

0:00Hi and welcome back to your Safe Space. I'm currently taking a little season break, but obviously I wasn't going to leave you with nothing to listen to. So while I'm away, I'm bringing back a couple of your Safe Space episodes that you guys absolutely loved, and low-key are still just as relevant now. So whether you've listened before and needed the reminder or you're hearing this for the first time, I hope you love it. Enjoy the encore episode and I'll be back in your ears very soon. Let's get into it. Welcome back to your Safe Space, the podcast hosted by me, Adele Marie. Just like the name says, this is your space to chat, vent and dive a little deeper into the things that matter. Today we're talking Habit Maxine. The small habits that have made my life easier, healthier, happier and a little more put together. The habits that I don't think take a huge amount of effort, but have had the biggest impact over time. Let's open up the space.

1:01Hello, a happy Thursday, guys. I'm coming to today with a little woo-woo energy. What's taking up space for me is I have been getting signs from the universe. I'm locked in to the universe right now. I'm locked into my woo-woo. Quickly explain. Why? That is the case. Last week is a public holiday. Yes, last Monday. While out on our walk, wait, the day before this, I had smashed one of my jazz handmade collaboration mugs. If you've been following me for a while, you know that I made these mugs with jazz handmade literally three years ago, maybe two years ago. I don't know. Don't quote me on the time frame, but it was a while ago. I have two mugs in my possession. I smashed one of them by dropping it as I was drying it. I'm a clumsy bitch. That's old news. So I drop it and I'm a bit sad because I'm like, oh, I've just got one left. But I said to myself, it's okay. You've got one left. Just be very careful with it. Do not drop this other one because I drink from it every single day. The next day, I go out on a walk with my boyfriend and Franklin and on the side

2:02of the road, we see a box that has free, with a big note marked on it and inside this box, is full. It is full of mugs like drinking coffee mugs. My boyfriend looks down. He pulls out two mugs with dash hands on it like little dashes from a dare's not broken. Beautiful condition, clean. Two of them. The universe said, you've lost your jazz handmade mug. Don't worry. I've got you two sausage dog mugs. Thank you so much universe. So protect it there, right? Today, I pull up to the gym. I'm sitting there and I just finished recording a clip on my vlog camera for my YouTube channel. I'm about to go in. I skull my pre-workout. This crow jumps on to my windscreen and starts pecking at my windscreen. My apart pecking at the glass, scaring the fuck out of me. I've got it on camera. If you go watch my vlog next week, you'll see the crow on there. It's little beady eyes. I love birds, by the way. I love the crow. No shade to the crow. But I looked it up and crows are very significant

3:02as well. I think it was trying to send me a message. So right now, I'm in my woo-woo era guys. I'm getting all these signs from the universe and just a reminder, you are always protected. The universe, for me, I believe in that. I would say I'm more spiritual than religious. So I do feel like I am protected and I do feel like the universe has my back. What the crow's message was, I'm still unsure about that. I'm still processing that. But yeah, that is taking space to meet the moment I'm liking it. Now, why I wanted to do this app is because we did obviously the optimization culture. We did the things I think are worth spending money on, the expensive shit. And it just got me thinking about the little habits that I believe have made big changes in my life and where they've come from. They don't really cost a lot. I don't think. And I think they have changed how I feel, how I live. And my day to day. So I thought it only makes sense that I do share them with you guys. And I also just wanted selfishly to use the word habit maxing in an episode title

4:05because that's what I'm going to call this episode. I really want to do that. So if you see maxing in an Instagram dump caption for me this week, make sure you like that as well because I've been hanging to use it somewhere. Right. But anyway, I wanted to also do this episode because I do believe social media may be kind of lack optimization culture has skewed the habit world a little bit escalated. The habit content. If you jump on Instagram, if you jump on TikTok, you scroll and automatically you say, my 4 30 AM morning routine or the 26 things I do before 11 AM or my 20 step skincare routine that has changed my skin slash the perfect night routine. 30 steps here. And while some of that is inspiring and while some of that I enjoy consuming. And while I don't mind a routine and a step process, I'll never give you anything that's above. I reckon maybe like five steps. I'll be real. But I think it has made habits feel a little bit more complicated than

5:07they need to be. Kind of giving the energy that if we're not doing everything, then we're doing nothing. And I don't think that that is the right way to go about it. So I personally don't believe you need to be a morning person. I don't believe that you need to do an hour of meditation. I don't believe that you need to do cold punches. I don't believe that you need 17 supplements. I also don't believe that you need a color coded routine that takes you three hours to do before you even started the day. Because if your habits and your routines and the things that you do are so complicated that you then don't do them, what's the point? It's completely counterproductive. It's not sustainable and it's never going to lead to anything long term. I believe the best habits are actually boring. The best habits, not sexy, probably not viral. Half the time, they don't even feel like their habits for me anymore because they're just so automatic and I lack that. So I've broken up my habits into a few different types. We're going to start with habits

6:10that I think make me hotter or habits that make me feel my best. The first one, I'm going to rapid fire because there's a few. There's a lot. I'm going to give you a lot, but again, take what resonates, leave what doesn't. I'm not sitting here saying you've got to do all the 30 habits I'm about to give you. I'm just doing a bulky episode for you. Okay? So at number one, protein at every meal, especially breakfast, start of the day. I've only started properly eating my protein over the last 12 weeks with my new coach, but what it has done for my energy, say, shading me in terms of keeping me fuller for longer and changing my body composition. You guys will see my progress photos soon. Medanul is going to release the files. I'm a bit nervous about that, but it is because of the protein. It is because I'm actually eating more. It is because I'm eating. I reckon I eat 120, 130 grams of protein a day, and I thought it was unreasonable and unrealistic and that I couldn't do it, but with the right meal plan, it's doable. On that note,

7:13strength training four times a week, longevity baby. I am training, so I'm not having no trips when I'm 70 or 80. Okay? I'm training for my bone density. I'm training to be able to one day for ever having a baby, be able to pick them up, be able to run along with them. And on that note, I'm not saying that you have to strength train, but the only reason I can stick to that habit is because I enjoy it. It's not a movement that I hate or that I punish my body with. It's something that I actually enjoy. Next up, having my water bottle with me at all times. I used to be a dehydrated bitch. Seriously, I never used to drink enough water. It was actually a miracle that I didn't pass out during the day because I was nowhere near drinking enough water. Again, I've been drinking two to three liters of water a day. Do you know how much better I feel? Suddenly, not getting many headaches. Suddenly, not getting a migraine. Suddenly, not feeling like my brain

8:13is contracting in my head because the state I dreaded. Now, life hack, I do have multiple water bottles and I rotate them so that I can frequently wash them. Or I've got one that is on the go with me, or one that I take to the gym. Sometimes, I coordinate it to my outfit. The water bottle is the accessory, treating it as the accessory. SPF every single day. There is nothing cutie about sun damage. Take it from me, the girl with a huge ass pigmentation spot on her cheek because she used to go in the salarium when she was an idiot at 19 years old. There is no point in doing a skincare routine. There's no point in getting Botox. There is no point in buying an ad home LED machine. If you are not wearing SPF every single day, they go hand in hand. If you're serious about your skincare, just start with some SPF. I supplement stack my subs to my breakfast and I keep my supplement stack slim. Now, I know that supplements are all the rage at the moment. I'm going to say you

9:15don't need every single one. I'm going to say max. I think I take four, maybe five. What do I take? I take a magnesium at night for recovery and sleep. I take creatine every day. I take a skin supplement. I take my hair and energy supplement with sat four. I have disgusting greens that I take every day as well. I hate the greens, but I've got to do it. I've got to get my fruit and bedg in. Five. I would say you don't need every supplement under the sun. You also don't need to make that routine too jam packed because again, it can get overwhelming. It can get daunting. Five is the happy spot for me. Aside from the magnesium, I take all of them after I've had my breakfast in the morning. I have also been prioritizing sleep over staying up scrolling. I have my aura ring to thank for that. You guys have heard me talk about that for months on end now. Thank you to my aura ring. But again, when you're well slept, you look hot. There's proof in the pudding.

10:19Am I last thing on the what makes me hotter and feel and look my best is keeping my skincare simple? Now, maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but you don't need a 30-step skincare routine. You don't even need a 10-step skincare routine. How many products do I use at night? Maybe three on the nights that I'm not doing retinol. The night that I do retinol, it's one product. In the mornings, aside from SPF, also doing two vitamin C moisturizer. I'm never going over three products. You do not need to maximize the skincare routine either. Simple is best, less is best. I know it can be overwhelming when there's all these new product launches, all these brands launching things. Trust me, I get it. I'm addicted to road at the moment. But again, sometimes less is more. Next up, we have habits that make me feel less anxious. I think these

11:20are my bread and butter habits because I am an anxious girlie. Sometimes I do a lot to make sure I'm not an anxious girlie. The first thing that I do is I'm a hoe to my calendar. I would be dead without my calendar. My calendar, holding my life together. But the way that I use it is that every single thing goes into my calendar. Immediately, if someone mentions something and event, a date, an appointment that I make, a plan. When I need to record this podcast, when I need to shoot content for a brand, it goes into my calendar. I make time for it. Before I have the chance to even respond back to whatever it is I've got to do or I'm in a conversation with someone that's telling me about dinner plans, it's in the calendar. I am addicted to my calendar. I don't trust my memory, okay? I trust my system. And it stops that feeling of, oh my god, I'm forgetting something. Oh my god, I feel overwhelmed. I know if I've got it in there, I've got time to do it. It's fine.

12:21We're happy. I do a brain dump whenever I'm feeling anxious. Sometimes I have to do that before bed, but I am very, very, very familiar with my notes app. Sometimes I write it on a note pad, like a physical note pad. Sometimes I write it in my journal. Everything that's on my mind that's stressing me out, taking it off my, off my brain onto the paper. Because when that anxiety or that overthinking is starting to creep in, it feels a lot better to actually see it there and know, okay, this is what I've got to do next week or this is what I've got to do tomorrow or this is what I've got to get done today, you can tick it off. I put things back the second that I'm done with them, straight away, right away. You know why? Future me, very thankful for that. Everything has a spot in my house. Everything has a place. I will admit I need to do a media clean of everything, pantry, bathroom wardrobe. I've got to do a bit of declutter, but my keys have a spot, my headphones have a spot, my LED mask has a spot, my beauty products have a spot, my PR has a spot, everything has a home,

13:24and it takes me two seconds to put it back when I'm done and I never misplace anything. I recently lost my aura ring because I put it into my pocket and I realized whenever I take it off, now it either goes on the charger or it goes on my ring dish when I'm washing the dishes, it is waterproof. I can wash the dishes with it on, but I just choose not to, but now I know it's got a place, it goes back in the place, saves me, saves me lots of stress. Actioning, slash replying to something if it takes less than two minutes. If I can reply to something, book it, email or do it in under two minutes, I just do it. I don't leave it for later. If you leave it for later, those tiny tasks will pile up and become a giant mental ship pile that feels way bigger than it actually is. I never leave dishes and mess on the sink overnight. I always drive them, put them away at night. During the day, I might leave stuff out to drive, but night time, we do like a closing shift. I put Franklin's toys away. We clean the dishes off the sink. The bench is being wiped down. The rubbish has been

14:26taken out, and that means the next day, it's fresh. We're starting from ground zero. We're not feeling behind. I'm not feeling behind. I'm not feeling that stress and panic. Now I will say, obviously my habits, I just live with my mans. We don't have kids. It's probably a lot easier for me to do half this shit. If you had kids, I don't know what the house would look like. I'll just put that out there too. Obviously, I'm not saying your house has to be spotless 24-7, but just reset enough that tomorrow, it feels a little bit easier. On the reset, I am a big, big, big, big, big, big advocate for a Sunday reset. This one makes the whole week feel so much better, whether that is doing my groceries. Sometimes I do them on a Saturday. We do the meal prep on a Sunday, but I also love to do changing of the sheets and washing the hair on a Sunday. It just gives me the best head start and a mental reset for the week ahead. I have decided to meal prep on a Sunday and Wednesday just for food freshness, but the amount of time that it saves me after work every

15:31single night, the amount of time it saves from cooking and cleaning up during the week, priceless. I'm shattered that it's taken me so long to get onto my proper meal prep and Sunday reset. It has been life-changing. On that note, we have also implemented a weekly cleaning cycle since my boyfriend moved in, and this has changed the game. We break everything up. Now, it does pay me because I like everything to be clean and reset at the same time, but it is better to break up our tasks. So we do washing on either a Monday, a Wednesday or a Friday. Take turns. We break up the washing like that. We also take turns in vacuuming, whether it's us or Scrubby. We take turns in bathrooms. We take turns in sheets and everything has a day and the schedule is different. There's something little that gets done every day so that we never really have to do a huge house clean anymore, which is new for me, but it actually works. It relieves a lot of stress. By staying on top of it every day and taking turns with that, the house just stays cleaner. It means that our weekends are

16:35better spent, whether we are doing the meal prep or we are going out for friends birthdays or maybe going out for a date night or having brunch together or he's going for a run, I'm going to the gym. It makes tomorrow easier, makes the week easier. I also believe my last point on this is saying no earlier. Now I used to be a big people, please remember my 20s. I used to not be able to say no. I didn't want to disappoint people. I didn't want to let people down. But dragging out my answer or a no when I wanted to say no only made me feel more anxious and more on edge. So I've learned that a kind and honest upfront no is far better than a reluctant yes that I ended up resenting later on. Protecting your peace is a habit as well. And one of my favourite things that I constantly remind myself is if it's not a fuck yes, it's a no. And that has guided a lot of my decision making, especially as I've gone into my 30s. My next segment is habits that have saved me thousands.

17:38Because we love how many habits here and some of these might be surprising. The first one grows free shopping and meal prepping instead of Uber Eats. Now some of you might recall my 2024 ins and outs one of my outs was Uber Eats because I spent a ridiculous amount of money on Uber Eats. Even last year, 2025 I wasn't meal prepping. I was spending a lot of money on Uber Eats. I spend less now because we buy exactly what we need from the grocery store and we are not tempted by Uber Eats because we have food in the fridge. I will admit last weekend on Friday night we had meal prepping the fridge and we did order Uber Eats because we were going to go out for dinner and we thought no we want to stay home with Frank and we want to watch something on Netflix let's just get Uber Eats instead. So we did do that but for the most part our Uber spending down down down prices are down. We are locked in on the meal prep train. I said it in last week's episode but buying quality once I'd rather pay more up front for something that lasts. Now I don't know

18:44really what has happened to me but I have been doing this lately especially when it comes to purchasing things in terms of looking at the material composition when it comes to say coats, wool composition versus like polyester composition. Obviously I'm going to be buying clothes that have polyester in them. I think all my active ways are complete. But the jumper I have on right now is 100% casual meable. It's just from Target and it is so warm, so lux and actually survives the washing machine. I'm not a hand washer but I have been paying attention to that lately and I think the same goes when it comes to things like bedding or towels things like that better to buy at once buying the quality. I did say this on last week's episode as well but bulk, bulk buying products. I did say to bulk buy your cleaning products from Bunnings I stand by that. So same as like going to Costco. If you need to buy it in bulk obviously that's the most cost effective way but we'll also

19:46say making sure you understand the grocery sale cycle too because at any given point, calls and bullies will alternate what sales they have on and I try to only buy the things that we need from calls and bullies when they are on sale whether that is sale like toilet paper tissues. Shit like that. I know that the things that we always use are the same and I just make sure that I'm buying it in line with the sales cycle. The next one is to unsubscribe from email marketing. These brands are sneaky AF. I know there's energy in doing that but when you can't see the sales you're not tempted to shop. Like right now it's EOFee. There's EOFee sales fucking everywhere. I've unsubscribe from all of the brands and aside from wanting to buy two winter jumpers I ended up buying them from Lana Jane slash the iconic for like in and out of the gym. There's really nothing else. I mean the other thing on my wish list is the new Aurering but I'm not going to do that but there's nothing else that is in my mind that I want to buy right now so I'm not in that mood

20:51I mean who am I kidding? I have had a case of the shoppers but it's been active wear and gym stuff which I needed and I wanted to buy and I knew that I was buying that but as for unsubscribing I think you should do it because when it's not there you're not seeing it you're not feeling encouraged and I find that it's easier to like dodge those sales when it's on like Instagram TikTok. On that note waiting 48 to 72 hours before buying expensive things. If I still want it after that timeframe I will buy it because it's more thoughtful rather than impulsive. I sell things that I don't use. Hello Facebook marketplace I know it's a headbuck I know that there's trainers on there but it's been great. I was lucky enough to sell quite a few things and I still have things that I've got to pop on Facebook marketplace this week because moved in with my partner. Good excuse to de-clutter. Good excuse if you want to change up things in your house anyway even if you're not having like a moving situation great to change up your furniture if you want to swap some

21:52things even finding what you need on Facebook marketplace. I don't know how my partner does it he has such an eye for all of the goodies on marketplace he always gets a good bargain and then lastly on that having an automatic savings split transfer situation set up. Now I don't get paid weekly monthly I get paid randomly in my job so I don't have that luxury anymore but I do try to keep the same system that I had when I was employed in full-time weekly payments or for daily payments where once money hits my account each dollar has a job and it goes to the dedicated account whether that is to emergency to bills to mortgage repayments to offset account to daily transactions. I have a system it's kind of like the barefoot investor bucket theory that's been the best way that I found my money works for me we're moving on to habits that make me happier and bring me joy the first one walking without headphones now don't get me wrong I own this podcast I love a

22:56podcast but sometimes the best thing for my brain and my mind is just being present with my own thoughts and noticing what's around me noticing the flowers the sunshine the cute way that Franklin waddles is but it's the best I do still listen to a podcast because my next thing is getting ready with music or a podcast and that is one of my favorite things about getting ready going out it's like the the pre drinks but without the drinking on that note if I can also light a candle turn it into a little bit of an ambient moment I will do that too I'm still big on the ambient showers I still love my incense I still love the candles I've got a bit of a candle addiction I put in here calling or texting my mom every day if I don't do that she will do it with me and it makes me so happy it brings me so much joy I've also got waking up to my sunrise alarm because that is the best way to wake up in the morning and I will die on that hill I also have popped in here regular date nights with my mans because I realize life gets really busy really quickly so we have been making intentional time and effort to spend together just making the most of it instead of just assuming

24:02that we'll hang it hang out together because we now live together I also have put in here always having something to look forward to doesn't have to be a holiday it can be as simple as seeing a friend going to a concert I'm going to Dom Dullar with the hell maybe it's even just trying a new restaurant little pockets of excitement throughout the month make the world go round the same thing when it comes to making effort with my friendships and doing something each month that is just for fun last week I did some baking I baked some cookies just for fun I really liked how the duck cakes brought me joy so I tried it out with some cookies and while the cookies were slightly dry it was still a fun process and I still enjoyed it and my boyfriend he is so like very easy to please in the chef department he would eat anything that I make for him he said the cookies are good and I was like you're lying to me but okay you can eat them but it's just been nice to have some fun and it doesn't have to be baking it could be something like going to the market reading painting

25:05watching a new movie joy doesn't have to be earned but we do need to make time for it we do need to be intentional with it and then lastly staying off my phone I know it's hard because this is my job but I have made a very conscious effort to have more no phone time especially on the weekends and I think the less time I spend mindlessly scrolling the more present I am in my life and I've been so much happier for it I have been able to enjoy more I've been able to separate my life and my job a little bit more and it's been quite peaceful and on that note guys I'm going to love and leave you there my recommendation for this episode is actually to do something that is different to your usual routine that does spark a little bit of joy so I did already mention it but baking it made me really happy and this week I'm going to try do you remember those logs of cookies I don't know if anyone else had these but when I was little that's the cookies that I would always get with my family we would go down the grocery aisle and buy that like pre-made roll and then like it kind

26:08of looks like dog food it's obviously not it's a lot better then you cut that up and you make the cookies and those cookies from memory were not as dry as the Betty Crocker ones that I made on the weekend but I'm going to make those this weekend and I can share the treats with my family my boyfriend's family my boyfriend and it just made me so happy to do something with my hands rather than being on my phone what I would have done in that time that I was baking I probably would have been watching TV or scrolling on my phone so I would highly recommend that maybe it's not baking but just finding what that thing is for you so that you can bring some of that back into your day today but I'm going to love and leave you there because my time in the studio is up right now and I will see you guys on Monday have a great weekend as an independent podcast your safe space grows through word of mouth so if you enjoyed this episode today the best way to support me is by leaving a five star review on Spotify or Apple podcasts or simply sharing the episode with

27:08someone you love thank you so much for listening and I'll see you next time this podcast was recorded on Rurundri land always was always will be Aboriginal land and that's it for today's encore I hope you loved revisiting this one or if you're new here I hope you're now deep in the your safe space archives because there are so many good episodes waiting for you I'm still on my break but I'll be back soon with brand new episodes and lots to catch up on thank you for being here thank you for supporting the pod and I'll see you guys very soon