Last week, we caught up with Joanna Dai, founder of Daiwear, a London based sustainable clothing company that supports high performance women with timeless designs that deliver versatility and function. We talked about the power of wellness, female empowerment, and what it's like to be the founder of a new company. She told us, "The world is better when women succeed and we want to empower women through comfort."
Below, she shared her top 5 tips with us for Health + Happiness.
1. Make time to work out. I usually do 4 cardio running or cycling workouts per week with a longer one over the weekend (15-20 km run outside) and 45-60 min ones during the week. I'm pressed for time so sometimes I even run into the office and/or run home.
2. Make time to switch off. It's not healthy to work evenings and weekends and not give yourself a break to think about other things besides work. On weeknights, I like to cook dinners, read before bed, Netflix, call/Zoom with friends. If there's work spilling over into the weekend, I try to make sure I fully switch off on one of the days, either Saturday or Sunday.
3. Create 30 minute windows for mental and physical health. It's the time I can spare, and sometimes it's all it takes. I use Glo for yoga, Insight Timer app for meditations, and The Ready State for physical mobilisation.
4. Whoop. I've been using Whoop for 3 months now to track and optimise my sleep, training and recovery 24/7. It's a subscription membership based heart rate and lifestyle tracker that uses data to show optimisations when you do different things and should have a hard workout or recover that day. I've learned that I perform better when I take magnesium, read before bed, and, don't drink (surprise, surprise).
5. Social engagement. Loneliness really is a mental health issue, and for me, having a strong support network around me to talk, vent, brainstorm, socialise, celebrate is really important to my own mental wellbeing and growth.
If you'd like to learn more about how to stay happy + healthy sustainably, here are a few of our favorite books:
Sustainable Home: Practical projects, tips and advice for maintaining a more eco-friendly household by Christine Liu:
A stylish, inspirational and practical guidebook to maintaining a more environmentally friendly household. Whether its by making your own toothpaste, converting to renewable energy sources, reducing your consumption of plastic, growing your own herb garden or upcycling old pieces of furniture, there are numerous ways - both big and small - to make a difference.
Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes by Dana Thomas:
The definitive book on the cost of fast fashion, and a blueprint for how we get to a more sustainable future. This book details the damage wrought by fashion's behemoths, and celebrates the visionaries - including activists, artisans, designers, and tech entrepreneurs - fighting for change.
Clean Green: Tips and Recipes for a naturally clean, more sustainable home by Jen Chillingsworth:
This book shows you how to tackle each room and cleaning task in a natural way. From laundry detergent, toilet cleaner and furniture polish to hand wash, dishwashing liquid, stain remover and air freshener, all the recipes for natural products in this book are quick and simple to make and they work well.
Sustainability by Maurie J. Cohen:
An introduction to the concept of sustainability, tracing its history and application from local land-use practices, construction techniques and reorientation of business models to national and global institutions seeking to foster sustainable practices. This book takes us on a journey to show that sustainability is as much about unchartered waters as it is about formulating answers to urgent global issues.
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