25 Healthy Habits for Women Who Want to Glow Inside & Out
If you’ve ever felt like your glow has dimmed—physically, emotionally, or energetically—you’re not alone. The good news? Small, consistent habits can make a powerful difference. Whether you’re looking to boost your energy, improve your skin, balance your hormones, or simply feel more radiant in your daily life, this list is for you. These 25 healthy habits for women are simple, natural, and totally doable—and they’re designed to help you glow from the inside out.
I have been on a health journey for over ten years now, and I have learned a great deal in that time.
I’ve made plenty of mistakes, but I’ve also made so much progress.
I went from feeling awful most days—extreme fatigue, brain fog, achy joints, constant headaches, etc., to feeling better than I ever have, and I am in my forties now!
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However, with that being said, the journey has not been easy.
I put my body through a lot—extreme diets that did more harm than good, expensive supplements that did absolutely nothing, and years of over-exercising when what my body really needed was rest.
If I could go back to the beginning of my health journey, knowing what I know now, I could have saved myself so much time, energy, money, pain, and frustration.
Unfortunately, I can’t go back.
But I can help others feel and look amazing without having to make the same mistakes I did.
How to Glow Inside & Out
What exactly does it mean to glow inside and out? To me, it means radiant skin, bright eyes, strong energy, balanced moods, confidence, and inner vitality.
Inner vitality literally occurs on the inside, at a cellular level. It is when your cells are functioning optimally and can heal, repair, renew, and restore.
Inner vitality and true radiance can not be bought. You won’t find it in that $100 skin serum or under-eye cream.
It’s only found through living a lifestyle that’s in harmony with your biology.
That means living in sync with the light and dark cycles, the seasons, and your menstrual cycle. It means nourishing your body with real food, clean water, sunshine, and good friends.
It’s not about extreme fad diets or expensive biohacking devices.
It’s much simpler than that, although I wouldn’t say it’s easy. It can be challenging to live in harmony with nature, as your body was designed to do, in a modern world.
The easiest way to make the necessary changes to look better, feel better, and thrive is by creating new habits.
Why Habits Are the Key to Transformation
You don’t necessarily have to make drastic changes to transform your life. Small, consistent shifts in your daily routine can lead to powerful results over time.
Whether it’s drinking more water, getting better sleep, or moving your body each day, these simple habits build momentum—and that momentum creates real, lasting change.
I recommend choosing five new habits to start this month. Once you’ve successfully integrated those habits into your life, where they’ve become second nature, then choose another five and begin integrating those into your life.
And just keep going, creating, implementing, and integrating new habits until they become a part of who you are. Before you know it, your whole life will look different, and so will you!
Free Habit Trackers
If you are ready to create new habits and change your life, you need a habit tracker.
A habit tracker is a simple tool—often a printable sheet, app, or journal layout—that helps you monitor and stay consistent with your daily habits. It allows you to visually track progress, build routines, and stay motivated as you work toward personal goals.
I created several free printable habit trackers. I recommend downloading and printing one to help you on your wellness journey.
I still use habit trackers daily because they help me stay focused on the habits that keep me feeling and looking great.
25 Healthy Habits for Women Who Want to Glow Inside & Out
If you truly want to glow inside and out, start implementing the healthy habits for women below. These are the exact habits I would start with if I had to start my wellness journey all over again.
1. Get 7-8 Hours of Sleep a Night
Good sleep is crucial for your overall well-being.
While you sleep, your body goes into repair mode. It produces collagen, regenerates skin cells, and heals damage from the day—leaving your skin looking fresher, firmer, and more radiant.
Sleep also helps regulate your digestive and lymphatic systems, both essential for detoxification—supporting clearer skin, better digestion, and overall vitality.
If you’re struggling to get quality rest, click here to learn how to sleep better every night.
2. Drink 70-80 Ounces of Water Daily
Drinking more water keeps your skin plump, smooth, and radiant. It helps reduce dryness, flakiness, and the appearance of fine lines—giving your skin that healthy, natural glow.
Even mild dehydration can leave you feeling sluggish. Drinking enough water supports energy levels, mental clarity, and a positive mood—all of which contribute to an overall sense of well-being and inner glow.
Click here to discover simple ways to increase your water intake.
3. Walk 8,000-10,000 Steps a Day
Walking offers a wide range of physical, mental, and emotional benefits, making it one of the simplest yet most effective forms of daily exercise.
It increases blood flow, which delivers oxygen and nutrients to your skin—resulting in a fresh, radiant complexion.
Daily walking also helps lower cortisol (your stress hormone), improves your mood, and boosts endorphins—your natural feel-good chemicals.
This is the treadmill I use daily. I’ve had it for a few years, and it’s still working great. I also love this simple pedometer for tracking steps.
Wearing a weighted vest can be a simple yet effective way to increase the intensity of everyday activities, such as walking, thereby improving strength, endurance, posture, and bone density.
This is the weighted vest I own and highly recommend. The one I own is 15 pounds.
4. Eat 30 Grams or More of Protein at Each Meal
Eating a substantial amount of protein at every meal provides a wide range of benefits for metabolism, muscle health, blood sugar regulation, and overall well-being.
Protein provides the amino acids your body needs to build collagen and elastin, which keep your skin firm, smooth, and youthful.
More protein also means more keratin, the key protein in hair and nails, which results in stronger, shinier hair and reduced breakage.
Protein also helps build and maintain lean muscle, which boosts your resting metabolism and gives your body that strong, healthy shape from the inside out.
5. Ground for 10-30 Minutes a Day
Earthing (also called grounding) refers to direct physical contact with the Earth’s surface—like walking barefoot on grass, soil, or sand.
This simple practice is believed to restore the body’s natural electrical balance and reduce inflammation.
Less inflammation means clearer skin, balanced hormones, and improved overall health.
Grounding has also been shown to reduce cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone. Lower stress levels support better sleep, improved mood, and a calm, radiant presence.
You can click here to learn more about grounding.
6. Don’t Drink Alcohol
Alcohol consumption—especially when frequent or excessive—can pose serious risks to your physical, mental, and emotional health as well as your appearance.
Alcohol dehydrates your skin and can cause redness, puffiness, and breakouts. Removing it from your routine helps restore hydration, reduce inflammation, and improve your natural glow.
Alcohol can also throw off your hormone balance, particularly estrogen and cortisol. Reducing or eliminating it helps your body stabilize naturally—supporting clearer skin, regular cycles, and better energy.
Try to cut back or avoid drinking alcohol altogether.
7. Don’t Drink Coffee on an Empty Stomach
Drinking coffee on an empty stomach can spike cortisol, your body’s stress hormone, especially first thing in the morning.
Chronic elevation of cortisol levels can have a profound negative impact on your health and appearance.
You can click here to learn more about cortisol and how to bring it into balance.
8. Block Blue Light After Sunset and Before Sunrise
Blocking blue light helps support your natural circadian rhythm and improves sleep quality, hormone balance, and overall health.
Did you know that your skin follows a circadian rhythm? It repairs and regenerates overnight, especially during deep sleep.
When your sleep-wake cycle is aligned, your skin has the time and energy it needs to wake up looking fresh and vibrant, boost collagen production, repair daily damage, and reduce inflammation.
These are my favorite blue light blockers.
9. Move Your Body Every Day
Engaging in physical activity every day is one of the most powerful healthy habits for women you can cultivate—for physical health, mental clarity, emotional balance, and overall well-being.
I personally love strength training and bowspring.
10. Take Vitamins or Supplements
Vitamins and supplements can help support the body when it is unable to obtain adequate nutrition from food alone.
Vitamins like A, C, and E are powerful antioxidants that fight free radicals, support collagen production, and help heal acne or inflammation—leaving your skin brighter, clearer, and more even-toned.
Vitamins like B6 and E help regulate hormones, which affect everything from your skin to your mood and metabolism. Balanced hormones lead to fewer breakouts, more regular cycles, and numerous other benefits.
I’m a huge fan of whole-food supplements. You can click here to discover my top supplement recommendations!
Also, magnesium can be absolutely life-changing. It can help you sleep, ease anxiety, improve cognitive function, and so much more.
Check out my DIY magnesium lotion recipe!
11. Expose Your Skin to Natural Sunlight for 15-30 Minutes a Day Between 11am and 2pm
Exposure to natural sunlight on your skin each day is essential for optimal health, not just because of vitamin D, but also for your hormones, mood, energy, and sleep cycle.
Sunlight triggers the release of serotonin—a feel-good hormone that lifts your mood, reduces stress, and promotes emotional balance.
Vitamin D also acts like a hormone in the body and plays a major role in regulating others, like estrogen, progesterone, and cortisol. Balanced hormones lead to clearer skin, better sleep, improved energy, and more stable moods—all key to that healthy glow.
12. Eat Nutrient-Dense, Healthy, Balanced Meals
Eating nutrient-dense, healthy, and balanced meals provides your body with the fuel it needs to function at its best—physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Whole foods rich in vitamins A, C, E, and healthy fats help hydrate skin, build collagen, fight inflammation, and repair damage—giving you that fresh, radiant look without needing layers of makeup.
A balanced diet with protein, healthy fats, and complex carbs provides the building blocks your body needs to produce and regulate hormones as well.
13. Don’t Eat After Sunset
This helps support your body’s natural circadian rhythm. Eating late can confuse this rhythm, impairing digestion, metabolism, and hormone function.
Not eating after sunset can also help you lose weight.
14. Drink a Cortisol Cocktail or Electrolyte Drink Daily
This can help support your energy levels, hydration, hormone balance, and stress response—especially if you’re under chronic stress, active, or healing from burnout.
This is my absolute favorite electrolyte drink mix, or you can click here to discover easy and delicious cortisol cocktail recipes.
15. Spend Time With Other Women
This is one of the most underrated things that you can do for your overall well-being and inner vitality. Spending time in community with other women can truly be life-giving and healing.
Meaningful social time with other women triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone that lowers stress, boosts mood, and enhances feelings of trust, connection, and safety—all of which support emotional wellness and a radiant presence.
Supportive friendships provide a safe space to vent, laugh, cry, and feel seen. This emotional release helps lower cortisol, which can otherwise contribute to acne, fatigue, and inflammation.
16. Track Your Monthly Cycle
Tracking your monthly cycle is a powerful act of self-awareness that extends far beyond simply knowing when your period is due. It can deeply support your health and hormones.
Your energy, mood, cravings, skin, and even digestion change throughout your cycle. Tracking helps you notice patterns so you can align your lifestyle—like rest, workouts, and food—with what your body needs most during each phase.
Knowing where you are in your cycle enables you to better support your hormones with targeted nutrition, effective stress management, and restful sleep.
17. Speak Kindly to Yourself
Speaking negatively to yourself can significantly impact your mental health, self-esteem, and even your physical health, and not in a good way.
Negative self-talk and thought patterns can actually affect you on a cellular level.
I highly recommend exploring Bruce Lipton’s work or reading his book, “The Biology of Belief.”
If you wouldn’t say it to a friend, don’t say it to yourself!
18. Walk After Each Meal
This simple habit can enhance digestion, regulate blood sugar levels, improve metabolism, and more.
19. Track Calories
I am not a huge fan of calorie counting. However, if you’re trying to lose or gain weight and the scale is not budging, calorie counting can be helpful to get a realistic idea of how many calories you are actually consuming.
It can also be helpful to track the amount of protein you consume each day.
20. Do Red Light Therapy
The only biohacking device I use and recommend is a red light therapy device.
Red light therapy can stimulate cellular energy production, reduce inflammation, and promote healing.
Red light penetrates the skin to stimulate collagen and elastin production, which reduces fine lines and wrinkles, improves skin texture and tone, and speeds up wound and acne healing.
By reducing stress and inflammation, red light therapy indirectly supports hormonal health—which plays a major role in your energy, mood, metabolism, and skin clarity.
You don’t have to spend a ton of money on a red light therapy device. This is the one I use, and it’s pretty affordable.
You can use the code HappyHeart10 to receive 10% off your purchase! You can also click here to learn more about red light therapy and its benefits.
However, you can also get natural red light from the sun during sunrise and sunset, no device required!
21. Stop Smoking or Vaping
Smoking and vaping both carry serious health risks—even though vaping is often marketed as “safer,” it still harms your lungs, heart, brain, and immune system.
Nicotine and toxic chemicals in smoke or vape vapor restrict blood flow, reducing oxygen and nutrients to your skin. Quitting helps improve skin tone and texture, restores a natural glow, and slows down premature aging, fine lines, and wrinkles.
Quitting also allows your lungs to heal and your heart to work more efficiently. Within weeks, you’ll breathe easier, feel more energized, and notice better endurance during physical activity.
22. Rest
Many of us work too much and rest too little. Rest is one of the most underrated forms of self-care. Rest can rejuvenate and restore physical energy, mental clarity, and creativity.
23. Have Hobbies
Having a hobby is important because it gives you a meaningful outlet for creativity, stress relief, personal growth, and joy. Whether it’s painting, gardening, crafting, playing music, or hiking, hobbies provide more than just entertainment—they enhance your overall well-being.
24. Stop Buying Toxic Products
Toxic household and personal care products can wreak havoc on your endocrine system and overall health. Whenever you run out of a product that contains harmful ingredients, instead of repurchasing it, consider swapping it out for a cleaner, safer version or making your own.
25. Use Castor Oil
Castor oil is more than just a carrier oil or a good moisturizer—it is incredibly healing.
It has been used for thousands of years for medicinal and beauty purposes. It is the only skin care or beauty product on this list because it is truly all you need.
Castor oil can be used to promote the growth of longer hair, lashes, and brows. It can also be used to reduce fine lines and wrinkles and so much more.
You can click here to discover all the many ways castor oil can be used for health, wellness, and beauty!
This is my favorite castor oil.
Final Thoughts
I really hope you found this list of 25 healthy habits for women helpful and inspirational! Don’t forget to download a free habit tracker so that you can stay focused on your habits and track your progress.
