You’ve heard me say it before and I’ll say it again: self-care is essential for living a well-rounded, healthy lifestyle. When we put ourself on the back burner, suddenly little pieces of our life begin to fall apart: our relationship, our job stress, our social life, our bank account. Sound familiar? Everything and I mean everything is related and you know what they say: How we do one thing is how we do everything.

Fortunately, making time for yourself is one thing that’s actually under our control. Here are 10 little ways to make more time for YOU starting now:

1. Develop a morning wellness ritual and actually stick to it. This is your sacred time to be alone with yourself and your thoughts.

2. Buy a giant calendar and start scheduling time in the day for “me time” or down time. Suddenly that jam-packed schedule full of appointments, errands and chaos doesn’t seem so daunting anymore, now does it?

3. Repeat this affirmation: “I have all the time in the world to do the things I love. I am in control.”

4. Make yourself a priority  by saying “No” to people when you truly don’t want to do something. … Read More!

I know people say this all the time, but holy cow summer really is flying by! In the past month, I’ve turned 26, helped launch sweetgreen’s opening in Boston, celebrated my dad’s retirement (and my sister’s graduation), hiked up Welch & Dickey Mountains, ventured to Cape Cod for my college roomie’s Bachelorette, launched some fabulous new health coaching programs, took a impromptu trip to Fisher’s Island to visit my grandparents (and ate lots of tasty seafood), all while growing my business  and writing my butt off each & every day.

Work hard, play hard baby! Whew, it’s time to catch my breath.

Here are some upcoming happenings going on over at Healthy Chicks:

Swimwear Tips & Body Image Talk at Cerulean Blu: I was asked to speak at Blog & Tweet Boston’s next event, hosted by the lovely co-founders Jen and Kerrie. The event is to be held at Cerulean Blu Swim & Resort Wear Boutique located right off Newbury St. in the Back Bay. I’ll be there talking body image & confidence tips to rock your swimsuit fearlessly, and you’ll also get to learn which bathing suits are best for you (all while munching on healthy … Read More!

I value my time more than anything. While often times I feel like I don’t have enough time to do everything I want in a day, I feel I do a pretty good job balancing my time between my relationship, my friendships and my career. Have I perfected it? No. Have I gotten better? Yes.

Then there’s my “me time,” something I’m still working on every day to create more of. I’m beginning to realize that me time is perhaps the most meaningful, precious time of all because without me time, well, time sort of just tick-tocks on by.

Yesterday I had an extremely busy, action-packed day where I barely had a minute to stop & breathe. I was OK with it because I knew I had my 6:30 p.m. roofdeck yoga to look forward to. Some Rachel time on the mat on a beautiful roofdeck overseeing Boston. That right there got me through a somewhat stressful afternoon.

I left myself a fair amount of time to get to yoga as I always do, and skipped off with my mat and water bottle to catch the T. “Sweet, it’s early! I LOVE when that happens,” I thought to … Read More!