Top 10 Habits for Better Health & Longevity in 2025

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Go to beyondbloodwork.com to learn how to break free from cell danger response and make the effort pay off. Hey everyone, welcome to Dr. Josh Axe Show. I'm your host, Dr. Axe, and each and every week on this show, we explore the science and principles behind how to grow in body, mind, and spirit and take your health and your life to the next level.

Today, I'm going to be going through 10 habits you need to implement in 2025 to make this your best year yet and become unrecognizable in 6 months. And here's what I can tell you is that if you follow these 10 habits, your life will look completely and radically different.

Before I dive into the content, content though, make sure to subscribe to the channel and hit the link in the show notes to subscribe to my weekly wellness newsletter so you get my top tips for natural healing delivered straight to your inbox. All right, so I'm gonna walk you through 10 habits you want to implement to make your life unrecognizable.

And if you're a person like me and you want to get to the end of your life and know that you ran your best race, know that your life mattered, it had meaning, you had a big impact, well then you're gonna want to do some of these things. The first one is this: spend time in January in reflection and then ongoing reflection afterwards.

You know, one of the things that happens is because of our lives today, the way society is set up, the way that we tend to be incredibly busy constantly. We spend so much time on social media. We just, we have a lot of obligations. You know, think about if we would go back a couple hundred years ago, the majority of people lived in smaller towns or on farms. And so life was much more simple.

You had your job, you went in, you got food, you went home, and maybe there were some extracurriculars, but it was nothing like it is today. I mean, think about Wow. I mean, just throwing this out there, I was talking to a father recently who has 5 daughters, all of them in sports. And he was sharing with me, and most of them are either in junior high or high school or older elementary.

And so, I mean, they are spending time going to athletic events, I mean, hours a day and every weekend it's all they're doing. If we would go back before 1900, most of those sports in that way didn't exist. Some of these sports are newer. They didn't, again, they didn't even exist. Like, like the way that we play football today.

You know, if you look at basketball, a lot of these sports weren't like they are today. And you didn't have kids or every child doing, like, again, our daughter, she's in dance, she's in gymnastics, she's in swimming, a lot of these things. My point there is, is that we are, especially if you're a parent, incredibly busy.

And, and then you have social media devices and And you, and we're driving places now rather than, you know, walking short distances. So we're very busy because of that. Most of us do not prioritize time to reflect and to set goals and to create new habits and even spend time visualizing things or spend time in prayer and meditation. We're not spending time doing that.

But one of the most important things you can do if you want to live your best life possible is do this. Think about your past year, the year of 2024, and write down these things. Number 1, what went really well? What are your best memories? What are those things that you feel like you want to keep doing that went really well last year?

Maybe, maybe, you know, I'm thinking about for Chelsea and I, some things that went really well, certain family traditions, like we want to keep those going. And what are some other things we liked? Well, we really liked Arwen being in gymnastics and swimming in particular. So those were good. We like, going to church. We love doing brunch. It's one of the things we've been doing and we love.

So those are some things we want to keep doing, those times of great family connection time, maybe time we spent with a particular couple. We want to do more of that. So we're aware of, hey, here's some things that we want to keep doing that are working in our life. So spending time in reflecting, and you can do this sitting down by yourself, just get 30 minutes to just think about your past year.

And I always invite God into the process and say, God, would you bring to mind, into awareness, the things that I should stop doing, the things I should start doing, and the things I should keep doing. And so, and so that's another thing to think about. Okay, what didn't work last year? What were some of the things that we definitely want to change about the way the past year went?

And maybe it's, hey, you overcommitted. You had too many things on your plate, so you didn't get to do date nights with your spouse, or you didn't get to do something that really matters more. Maybe you realize, I just spent way too much time watching television and I didn't grow spiritually like I wanted to. I should have spent more time in the Bible.

What Whatever it is, what you want to do is you want to reflect, because listen, you can't improve upon things, or it's much harder to, if you don't learn lessons from the past. So how did your past year go? And by the way, all of the great leaders I know, they spend time reflecting in January. People like John Maxwell, Craig Groeschel, you know, I'm thinking about, you know, Michael Hyatt.

These are people that I really respect, that I know every time this time of year they spend time reflecting over the past year, what went well, what didn't go well. So do that and write down those things that didn't go well and some of the lessons from that and what you want to stop doing, because you don't want to carry those things into the next year, 2025.

Now, the other thing you want to do is write down not what, okay, you want to stop doing. What are some things you need to start doing that you didn't do last year? Okay, maybe it's a morning devotional where you just read and spend time with God for 15 minutes. Maybe it's a gratitude practice. Maybe it's a way of healthy eating.

Uh, whatever it is, write those things down of what you want here for this next year. Okay? So write down what you need to stop doing, write down what you need to start doing, and write down what you need to keep doing to make 2025 your best year ever. And I just wanna mention as well along that, once you write down the stop, start, keep, along with that, write down your goals.

Did you know only 3% of the population sets goals and only 1% actually write their goals down. You are so much more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. And according to a survey, 35% of individuals who start New Year's resolutions abandon them within 1 single week. And I think the majority of people abandon them in that first month after the end of January.

So if you spend time reflecting and then writing down stop, start, keep, and you write down, hey, here's what you wanna do in terms of your habits, It's powerful. It's so, so powerful. But don't just goal set. You wanna goal set and you need to write them down, but you also need to reflect and make sure you write down the right goals and have the right plan moving forward.

And so plan on some time doing that. And when you're writing goals down, remember the SMART technique. Make them, number one, make them significant. They should be things that get you excited, things that matter, they're meaningful. You know, I'm thinking about some of my SMART goals for next year, and I have business goals in terms of revenue, uh, and, and profit.

I have goals around, um, my spiritual growth. Uh, you know, I— one thing I want to do is I want to spend more time praying for other people, um, and, and taking boldness in, in my praying for other people.

Um, you know, I, I had a, an opportunity this, this week where I was talking to a really prominent doctor who actually came down with just something horrific happened to them, and they're in the middle of a health battle. And this person is not a Christian, but I thought, you know what, I wanna be bold and ask them if I could pray for them.

And I did over the phone and they actually started crying on the phone and they said, thank you so much. It was really, I could tell it was meaningful to them. And I'm glad that I took that boldness in doing that because that was something that I felt like in 2025, now it's 2024, but, or about to be 2025, but that was something I'm really glad that I did at that time.

And my point with that is, is that, you know, that's something, it was significant. I felt like that was significant thing in my spiritual walk that that I want to continue to do constantly and live in that state. Also, I want to encourage you to set SMART goals. We just covered that on the last episode. So if you didn't listen, go back and listen. But set goals, remember, that are specific.

You want to make sure they're measurable. Also, I like goals that are inspiring. There's something you're excited about. And so make sure that you write down some of those SMART goals there as well and follow those tips. But you got to reflect as well. Okay? Now, number 2 thing I wanna encourage you to do, habits to that are going to help you be unrecognizable after 6 months.

And let me say this as well. You know, I remember looking back quite a few years ago when I was about to, when I was actually working on my medical degree and I, and I actually had people tell me because I followed a lot of these principles I'm sharing with you and I really also really focused on growing Spiritually and in my leadership.

And I had, for 6 months later, I had people telling me, there's something different about you. Essentially, they were saying, there's something unrecognizable about you here. And that's the goal of this. You should want people 6 months from now saying, there's something different about you. What is that? And if you follow these things, it's going to help that happen. Okay?

But number one, again, remember, reflect. Reflect. And part of this, I think, is a spiritual practice also of meditation, right? Reflection, meditation, doing this where we're not just rushing through life. We take time, we pause, and we reflect and think about our past, where we are now. I mean, goal setting and visualization, that's for the future. Meditation, reflection is about the past.

Meditation partly is, can also be thinking about, it's a self-awareness. You can also think about where am I right now? It's like if you're, if you, if you want to get to somewhere, you also need to know where you're at now on the map, right? Let's say you wanna, you know, I'm in Nashville. Let's say I wanna get down to, I'm going to my parents' house for Christmas around Lakeland, Florida.

It's like I need to know where I'm at now, right? And so, so this, this will help you do that. All right. Number 2, build deeper friendships with 2 to 3 virtuous, purpose-driven people. Okay. Now, I looked up some studies on this and here's some realities. A 2018 study found that 40% of Americans feel their relationships are not meaningful. I would estimate by today that might be closer to 50%.

So think about that. About half of the people out there today, half of people feel like their relationships are not meaningful. And that's really sad because God literally created us for connection. You know, there's another study that said 13% of people feel like they actually have 10 close friends and family members. So 10 people that they can kind of trust and that they can be close to.

Well, think about that. Only 13% of people said that. So 87% of people said they have less than 10 people that they can even trust and count on, that are their true friends. 12% Of people say they have zero friends. Wow. That are close. Zero. Now, I think the reality is this. There's probably a lot of people that say, okay, I have 1 or 2 close friends. But you also are earning for something more.

Like, you want deep and meaningful relationships. Can I tell you, when I think about the times of my life when I've been the most fulfilled with the most meaning, it's been the times when I've felt the closest to other people. It's not necessarily the worst times in my life, by the way, or, or, or my biggest hardships. It's when I felt the closest to other people and, or to certain people.

Like I think about Chelsea and I, you know, my life is the best when I feel the closest to my wife. I feel like my life can be the best when I feel the closest to certain other, you know, just friends, true friends. And, and here's the other thing I want, I wanna share about this, this habit. Get in the habit of building deep, meaningful relationships.

But you don't need to be friends with 100 people. Pick 2 or 3 people, or maybe it's a small group of people, 5 or 6 that are in a small group, or up to 8, but something like that that you're going to go deep in life with. You know, I have a men's group that I meet with once a month. And outside of that, we typically meet another time a month and do a guys' night, like a dinner.

But with this, we spend 3 hours together. And we read a book and it tends to be, we rotate books between a spiritual book, we do a book on leadership or business, and then we might even do a book on just other topics like marriage or parenting and those sort of things. And we do it once a month and we get together for 3 hours.

And for that first 3 hours, we all, we cover, I talk for a bit, we cover what we read in the book, our biggest takeaways. We tend to have an exercise that we wanna move forward with and we just spend time sharing those 3 hours. And then most of the time we do dinner afterwards. Or something like that. And, and, and, and it's a really close-knit group.

And I think about when I'm with that group, I'm, I, I, it's, it's iron sharpens iron. It's deep, it's meaningful. They're purpose-driven people. Let me ask you, do you have those people in your life that you're meeting with on a regular basis? I would write down 2 to 3 people, at least 2 to 3 that you say, I want to go and build a deep and meaningful relationship with this person.

And if you don't know where to look, I would go Go to your church. Okay? That's the place that I found it in a lot of these meaningful relationships, but somewhere like that. And then join a group, you know, get involved with something, and that's going to lead to a more meaningful life. But I think about this.

If you can start your year off with just following these first 2, reflect, and then do the exercise of stop doing certain things, start doing things, Keep doing the things that were working and then do some goal setting around that. Write down the goals. And then number 2, focus on building these deep, meaningful relationships.

And, and, and if you are hanging out with the right people, that will change you as well. My biggest life lesson is this: you become like those you spend the most time with.

And if you start hanging around with 2 to 3 really amazing people that are virtuous people, and when I say virtue, that means they're Very high character, and that starts rubbing off on you, and then you're committed to growing, and so you rub off on them in that way. That will transform your life in such a short time.

All right, number 3 habit you want to get into to become unrecognizable is optimize your sleep schedule. Okay, here's why it matters. Poor sleep increases the risk of every illness out there— diabetes, heart disease, obesity, hypothyroidism, depression, anxiety, infertility, low testosterone, you name it. According to the CDC, over 35% of adults in the US sleep less than 7 hours per night, okay?

And a Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine study found that adults who improve their sleep routines reduce stress by up to 30%. So the reality is this, if you want to reverse a condition, if you want to optimize longevity, if you also want to perform at the highest level possible, I mean, I can tell you this, Because if I sleep less than 7 hours of sleep a night consistently, I'm not as productive.

When I'm writing books, I'm not as effective. When I'm recording videos, when I'm even connecting with my, my loved ones, I am not as effective. I'm not my best. And so you really wanna focus on optimizing your sleep schedule. And for most of you, it's not about what time you wake up, it's about what time you go to bed. And so I wanna encourage you, hey, set an alarm for when you go to bed.

Make a decision right now. If you're one of those people going to bed at 11 or midnight, That's too late. I mean, listen, ideally most of you would be going to bed closer to 9:00 PM. Okay. But, but figure out what works for you, but write down what time you're gonna, like, I'll just share it for myself. I go to bed around 9:00 PM.

Now listen, sometimes actually I've, I've been helping my 4-year-old put her to bed and making sure she's asleep. So sometimes for me, by the time she's asleep, well, it's, you know, sometimes it's 8:45, so sometimes even before 9:00 PM. 9 PM or 8:30. But all that being said, um, try and get in bed around 9 or at the latest 10. Okay, the latest, try and make it 10 PM if you can.

Okay, and if you're at midnight, well then hey, make it 11. Okay, but just whatever, improve it this next year. And then so, and set an alarm. And the other thing is, before you go to bed, take at least that hour before and don't be on your television. Um, listen to an audiobook.

Or read with a yellow light on rather than one of those blue, the bright blue or white lights with a lot of the blue light coming out. But spend some time reading or listening to an audiobook or a podcast or spending time in prayer or meditation or something like that, ideally, or journaling, writing things down.

And then when you wake up in the morning, ideally go out and go outside or expose yourself to the outdoor light. Okay, so you want to wake up and start getting those melatonin and cortisol levels regulated. And avoid blue light ideally after 7 PM. So what I do is, even though we have some of the house lights on even after dinner, I put on those blue blockers and I wear those from 7 to 8, 8:30.

And a lot of times we're sometimes even longer than that. But you want to do that. Keep your room dark and cold, 62 to 68 degrees. Use blackout curtains. Take magnesium before you go to bed. That's helpful. So do some of those things to optimize your sleep schedule. But for a lot of you, again, I'm telling you the secret: go to bed a little bit earlier.

Okay, number four: plan for adequate vitamin D intake. Vitamin D supports bone health, immune function, brain health, cell regeneration. It's a pro hormone, so it's critical for hormone production. And most people are deficient. It's the number. Yeah. It's the number one nutrient people are deficient in.

And a big reason is, is God created us to spend a lot of time outdoors, and we're spending more than 90% of our time indoors. I mean, since the, uh, really since the early 1900s, um, we have made a major shift from having most of our jobs that were agriculture-related and spending time outside to now most people spend most of their time inside.

So because of that, we get a lot less vitamin D. And at least 40% of Americans are vitamin D deficient. But I think in terms of— and that's very deficient, that's not even optimal. Optimal is probably, you know, less than 20%. So for most of you, what you need to do is try and get more time outside no matter what you do.

And even in the winter months, if it gets, you know, jumps up for a day or two, as soon as it does, spend as much time outdoors as you can just getting sunlight on your arms. And then take a vitamin D supplement. 5,000 IUs daily for most of you. But you want to— but one of the best things you can do is get outside first thing in the morning for 10 to 15 minutes.

And then when the sun is at its highest, if you want vitamin D, that's when you're going to get the most vitamin D. Now, you can also consume some foods that are rich in vitamin D, like salmon, sardines, tuna, mushrooms, egg yolks, beef liver, cod liver oil. These are foods that do have some vitamin D in them.

And so you want to make sure you're getting some vitamin D. Taking magnesium with it and taking it with fat, like getting some omega-3s with it and coconut, that's going to increase the absorption as well. So those are some of the best things to do to optimize your vitamin D levels. And I would say also making sure your gut microbiome's healthy.

So astragalus and probiotics also support vitamin D levels. Here's another big one: move every day. Okay, so I'm— so, so this habit is not It's not me telling you to go and exercise an hour every day. It's move every day. Okay? And most of us sit inside, we sit at a desk, we just, we don't move much. And so be conscious of how much you're moving and aim for 10,000 steps a day.

A study published in the Journal of American Medical Internal Medicine Journal found that walking at least 8,000 steps per day reduced mortality risk by 51%. So, and we're talking about increasing your lifespan here. And, and there are a lot of different ways to move. And write down your favorites and schedule them in.

Listen, I would like for everyone to weight train because I think it's one of the best things for longevity. But I'm also thrilled if you do a barre class or a Pilates class. I'm also thrilled if you Do some HIIT training on your spin bike or do a Peloton class. I'm also thrilled if you go and walk for 45 minutes.

So, but, but, and, and write down maybe the things you know you need to do and also the things you wanna do. Let me give you an example for myself. Um, actually, I might not be the best example, but I'm gonna try here. So, um, I love moving and working out, so I would just do, I would do these things 3, 4 hours a day if it made sense in my life. It doesn't.

But I would, like, I like playing pickleball and I like cycling a lot and I like swimming. Those are probably the things I like doing the most, but yet I know I do need to weight train, so I do it as well.

So, but think about for yourself, you may say to yourself, you know what, I could really like playing pickleball and I could really like getting on the Peloton bike, 'cause that's maybe simple and easy for you, or getting on a spin bike or something like that. Or walking. Maybe you just say, okay, walking's easiest.

Okay, well walk 3 days a week, but also then incorporate 2 days of weight training. Okay, 'cause you know, okay, I need that. But at least move every day. So if you're not gonna lift weights that day or get on a spin bike or swim or do something that's physically more using a greater level of energy and exertion, then at the very least walk 10,000 steps that day.

And be aware that you can get these trackers, right, that tell you how many steps you're doing a day. And so you have some sort of idea, but move every day. Number 6, build your own dopamine menu. Here's the reality. Most of us, because of our social media devices, we are bombarded with dopamine.

You've probably heard of doing a dopamine detox because we have so much of this hormone we're getting hit from over and over and over again. How However, there are other hormones you need to be getting, like oxytocin, like serotonin, and different types of activities and lifestyle tend to drive more of those hormones being produced.

So again, dopamine is released when you're gambling, like a slot machine, with certain addictions, with, like I mentioned, with social media devices. And that really wears out your body over time versus oxytocin is you're high-fiving, you're hugging, you're connecting with your spouse, you're hugging your kids, you're just doing something where there's real bonding taking place.

Okay, you need to make sure you're getting some of that serotonin. You're doing something that, you know, and endorphins like exercise. So you want to make sure you're getting multiple of these hormones and not just dopamine. So here's how to create a dopamine menu. Number 1, as a starter, take a deep breath, okay? And so— and I'd recommend doing that a few more times, okay?

And then as an entree, read a book or go for a walk, okay? As a side, listen to a podcast. As an occasional dessert, Maybe you do scroll social media in moderation for a short period of time, but again, you limit yourself on the time per day. Maybe you say, hey, I can do social media 1 hour a day and that's it. And then you draw the line.

And the other times, well, maybe you find something else like reading your Bible or listening to a great podcast or actually connecting with the person that's beside you. There was a study published in the Nature of Neuroscience journal, and it shows that sustained activities like exercise, or learning create long-term dopamine stability, unlike quick fixes like social media.

And so the reality is too much dopamine is very bad for your health. It's a bad habit, the habit that you have of spending way too much time on social media. So you're much, much better off on learning platforms like YouTube, watching actual educational videos there, or again, listening to a book, reading an actual book, Having a podcast, going for a walk, exercise, all of these things.

So be aware. And I'd say the best habit to get into is limiting your social media time. And my wife has an app on her phone where I think it's after 1 hour, it just shuts off. She can't get in the app. Okay. So that's a great sort of thing to do there. Number 7 habit to become unrecognizable is focus on eating foods in season. Go to your local farmer's market on a weekly basis.

Show up to your local farmer's market and you'll be able to eat the fruits and vegetables that are in season. Did you know there was a medical study published? This was published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, and the study found that produce harvested in season had 2 to 5 times more nutrients than out-of-season options. Think about that.

You could be getting, in some cases, 5 times more nutrients of eating the vegetables that are in season, like the beets, carrots, radishes, green beans, okra, bok choy, squash, and zucchini. Whatever it is, buying those in season versus buying them at your regular grocery store. This is why just showing up once a week To your local farmer's market and buying your produce.

You're going to get so many more nutrients that way than if you were buying those foods at your conventional grocery store that are out of season. So make that a habit once a week. And we do this at our house. We are more like every other week, probably, when it's not the summer. The summer, we pretty much go every week to the Franklin Farmer's Market just south of Nashville.

But again, we go to the farmer's market regularly. We get our local honey, our bee pollen, our fruits, our vegetables on a regular— and we actually get our meat, our eggs. We get a lot of— we get everything there. So, but do that and the food is fresher. It's better for you. Okay. All right.

So I'm going to walk you through here seasonal eating per season and the foods you want to focus on each season. And in the spring, you want to focus on getting more fresh foods and sour foods. And if you're going to eat salad, salads or do a detox, this is the best time of year to do it.

Some of the vegetables include asparagus, artichokes, peas, radishes, spinach, arugula, watercress, leeks, and fennel. Fruits like strawberries, rhubarb, and apricots, and herbs like mint, parsley, and dill. You'll see a lot of green there that we mentioned. Those are some things that can be of great benefit to you in the spring.

And then summer, it's going to be more things like zucchinis, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, eggplant, bell peppers, green beans, fruits like watermelon, berries, peaches, nectarines, cherries, mangoes, and melons. Also herbs like basil, cilantro, and dill.

In the fall, vegetables like squash, butternut squash, acorn and spaghetti, pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, and kale. And then fruits like apples, pears, cranberries, figs, persimmons and pomegranates, and then sage, thyme, and rosemary. And you'll see how a lot of these foods line up with season.

Again, a lot of those foods I just mentioned, those are eaten around Thanksgiving and in the fall. So, so sometimes it does align, but oftentimes it doesn't. So we want to do our best. And in the winter, you want to focus on more of the foods that are white in color, like potatoes and turnips and parsnips and cabbage and leeks and onions. Also beets, carrots, and kale.

Fruit like oranges, grapefruit, lemons, tangerines, and kiwi, and then thyme, rosemary, and bay leaves. So these are some of the best foods to incorporate in the different seasons. And by the way, if you want to get some of this, you can sign up for my weekly wellness newsletter and you'll get lists like this and information in the future.

If you wanted just a printout of it or you want to have that full list of seasonal eating guide, make sure you can find it in my show notes a link to signing up for the weekly newsletter. All right, number 8 here is incorporate more anti-inflammatory foods. If you want to make 2025 your best year ever, eat more anti-inflammatory foods.

And that's going to include more organic meat, more foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, more foods rich in fatty acids like olives and coconuts. And walnuts, uh, and then fruits and vegetables.

Okay, so, so really it's organic meat like grass-fed beef, and then omega-3 foods like wild-caught salmon and walnuts, and then again healthy fat foods like avocado and extra virgin olive oil, and then lots of fruits and some vegetables. If you can do that, it's going to reduce inflammation and you're going to feel amazing. And when you do that as well, get Get rid of the ultra-processed food.

Okay, so get rid of the ultra-processed foods like the seed oils and the sugar. Those are the 2 things, by the way, you just want to exchange and get out of your life. If you have any sunflower oil, safflower oil, canola oil, get it out and replace it with coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil. And then the same, get rid of the sugar, find natural replacements, eat anti-inflammatory foods.

And there are so many studies on this, that anti-inflammatory foods, uh, reverse chronic heart disease, autoimmune disease, promote longevity. In fact, there was a study published in the British Medical Journal that showed a 10% increase in ultra-processed food consumption was associated with a 14% higher risk of all-cause mortality.

So again, it's adding years to your life, but also life to your ears when you can make these simple food swaps. And so again, you shouldn't be overwhelmed by this, knowing that, hey, you still get to have oil, just pick the right types of oil, right?

You still can have things that are sweet, just pick the things that are less harmful, like the honey and the stevia and the monk fruit and the allulose. And there's all-natural options today. Don't use the white flour, use the einkorn. Wheat flour instead of the regular wheat, right? So make some of these simple swaps. It'll go such a long way. Number nine, practice some biohacking.

That that can be a good habit for you. Now listen, there's lots of options here. Maybe for you it's cold plunge. Maybe for you it's infrared sauna. Something like that. Maybe you join one of those wellness clinics and you start to get a regular. Nutrient IV or red light therapy or something like that. But, but figure out, okay, what is your biggest health goal or health goals?

And then what is maybe a type of a longevity or regenerative treatment or practice you can do in order to support your body in that way? For me, again, I really like doing a combination of infrared sauna, doing some cold plunge, doing some red light therapy are some things I really like to do myself.

Maybe for you it's a mini trampoline or rebounder, I don't know, but there are so many options out there today. I do want to mention there's a study here on cold showers. This was published in the PLOS ONE journal, and they found that those who regularly took a cold shower reported a 29% reduction in sickness absences. So somebody who— not, not getting sick from work.

And the way to do this is you simply You start off with a warm shower, you turn it down cold for 1 minute to 3 minutes, and then you turn it back up to warm, and then you get out of the shower. That— it's that simple with just allowing your body to adapt to cooler temperatures. Or again, sauna use is another great one to do. But again, this doesn't cost you anything, by the way, the cold shower.

In fact, cold water probably costs a little bit less most of the year than using your water heater. It's going to be negligible. It's hardly gonna be a difference. But again, that's a great practice. And, and the thing is, it's doing something hard. You know what I've heard so many people do, whether it's a cold plunge or just taking a cold shower?

They've said that they are more resilient at— with other things in life. They found they started doing other harder things, and they're just more disciplined. It makes you more disciplined, and there's sort of a mental buzz it creates. Right. When you do that as well. So consider doing that. Last habit that is going to make you unrecognizable: detox your environment.

Go through your house and just swap. So listen, if you are using conventional dishwashing detergent, next time you go and buy some, buy the natural kind. If you're swapping out your skincare, you're about to run out, Well, now buy the natural kind. You know, text a friend who you know is into natural skincare, ask them what they use, right?

The ones that are free of parabens and phthalates and, and, and all of these other chemicals, right? So I would encourage you to detox your home, detox your body. Simple. Make these swaps. You know, I just, just for some ideas for you, you know, natural skincare and sunscreen, things like Uraza, Neme, Eminence Organics. Toups and Co, One Skin. There's so many good brands there.

Um, so you'll use some natural skincare. Toothpaste— Fygg is one of my, probably my favorite brand. That's F-Y-G-G. There's also RiseWell Pro. There's, there's a lot. There's Himalaya. There's a lot of good brands. Again, Fygg is one of the best. And, um, food brands, you know, Epic or Primal Kitchen or Lovebird cereal. There's a lot of good options there as well.

Um, fragrances, Dime Beauty, cleaning, Branch Basics. So, you know, when you're going through and you're about to run out of something, swap it out and get something natural. One of the best ways to do this, by the way, is getting a good water filter, um, is a, is a really good way to do this, uh, to detox your home and body as well. But again, I would just say at first, just do some simple swaps.

When you're going to buy something new, opt for the healthier version. And listen, if you can follow these 10 habits that we walk through, and remember, I'm just gonna run through these again one more time. Number 1, spend time in reflection. What do you need to stop doing? Like, like, like what went well and didn't go well last year for you? Okay. What were some of your best memories?

What were some of the worst? Think about those things and think about, okay, how can I take these things that I've learned and make 2025 my best year ever? So reflect. And then do that exercise of what you're going to stop doing, what you're going to start doing, and what you're going to keep doing. The next thing is, remember, build deeper relationships.

Pick 2 to 3 people you want to go deep with, deep spiritually. You want to help them grow, and they're going to help you in some way, doing something meaningful together. Maybe you decide you want to, you know, run a 10K race together, or you want to raise money for a certain charity, or you just want to grow in leadership together, or whatever. Or you just want to grow spiritually together.

You want to go serve in some capacity. Find 2 to 3 people you can, you can do that with. Remember, audit your sleep schedule, optimize your sleep. Remember, get to bed earlier.

Uh, vitamin D intake— probably you should be taking 5,000 IUs of vitamin D a day with magnesium, with vitamin K2, because those are the 2 things required for optimal vitamin D absorption, along with getting some healthy fatty acids when you take that vitamin D supplement. That's just eat a little bit of good fat, fat when you take the supplement. Remember, move every day.

Even if it's just walking, move every day. And by the way, when I say that, go walk for 45 minutes or an hour a day on days you don't exercise. But also when you're at work, get up every hour and go walk for 3 minutes and stretch and move and rotate a bit. Just do something to where you're moving more. Build your dopamine menu, remember.

Take time on social media, replace some of that with things like podcasts, educational YouTube. Going for a walk, reading a good book, connecting with somebody. Eat fruits and vegetables and foods in season. Just show up to your local farmer's market, make that part of your daily habits and routine. Get rid of the seed oils and sugar and add in more anti-inflammatory foods into your diet.

Remember, remember number 9. Add in some form of biohacking to help you get healthier, whether it's a cold shower or infrared sauna or something to that nature, and detox your home and body. If you You can do these things. You're going to be unrecognizable in 2025. It's going to promote better health and longevity and just help you have an incredible 2025.

Just know I am praying for you to be blessed in 2025. I'm rooting for you, and I'd love to hear from you in the comment section of which of these 10— are you going to do all of them? Are you going to do some of them? Are you going to implement in 2025? Also, what are you going to stop doing? Start doing and keep doing in 2025 to make your best year ever? Let me know on YouTube.

Let me know on social media. I would love to hear from you. I wanna say thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show, where each and every week we explore the science and principles behind how to make you the very best you. Make sure to subscribe, like, and share. And listen, millions of people don't know the truth about how to live their best year ever. That's right. Year ever.

Thank you so much for being on mission with me and sharing this information. I can't wait to see you on the next episode.