We were lucky to catch up with Lezlie Walton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lezlie, So happy to have you on the platform and our readers are in for a treat because you’ve got such an interesting story and so much insight and wisdom. So, let’s start with a topic that is relevant to everyone, regardless of industry etc. What do you do for self-care and how has it impacted you?
Hello! Thank you so much, I’d love to speak about self-care because I take self-care very seriously. I have not always felt like this however, as I have been blessed to grow older, I appreciate my life more every day. I’d love to take you through my daily routine because to me a daily routine is self-care.
First, having a detailed daily schedule is necessary for me. I keep a hard copy of my daily schedule for every day of the week in the notes on my phone. Every day my morning is the same, but it is still written down. When I say detailed, I mean detailed.
Starting at 3am- Wake up, 305am- Make bed, 310am- start sauna and use the restroom, wash face, brush teeth, set up shower. 320am- Get in sauna for 22 mins (I listen to a morning meditation while in sauna that lats 22 mins), 342am-Get in shower, 352am-Do face routine (toner, serum, moisturize), lotion up body, get dressed, stretch. 412am-Bible reading (20 mins) It is good for our brain to do 20 mins of reading in the morning, and I love my God, so I choose to put this read time towards the Bible, this makes my whole entire day feel seamless, energetic, and safe. Then I use 28 mins to go through any mail (paper mail) or any paperwork on my desk that needs to be placed accordingly. Mind you, I have not opened any social media or looked at any emails yet. That is a no-no this early in the morning. The morning time is meant for me and God and my own silence and thoughts and prayers. We must pour into ourselves before allowing other humans to affect our mind-set. 5am-745am- Work. Work can mean anything on the computer I must do for my business, for example…. This article I’m writing now is my 5-745am block time for that day. Directly after this is when I can open some emails and reply to last night’s messages, SM replies… and so forth.
By this time the world has caught up to me and the stores should be open, so if it’s in the schedule for this day this is the time I would leave the house to run errands, grocery shopping, supply shopping, go to the bank…… take care of any outside business that needs to be done.
I currently still work a part-time 9-5 as a licensed massage therapist but, I schedule my own times to work as it fits around Touch of Love Cookie business, so If I had scheduled myself to work, I would also leave at 745am to do that. My business comes first so I release my (massage) hours at the end of every month after I know what my next month for my cookie business looks like. If I have not scheduled myself to work my 9-5 then this is the time I would baking cookies, bagging, labeling, and getting prepared for my next vendor show or Farmers market or website orders, or I am making batches dough and doing anything I can to make the next day, week, or month seamless. Every hour is scheduled with something from 3am-9pm. I begin to wrap up my day about 5pm so I can go to the gym. If it is a day that I work in massage I work out in the evening, if not this gets moved to morning schedule (I prefer morning workouts, but you got to do what you got to do) I usually eat my last meal at 430pm because I do intermittent fasting from 730am-430pm. I spend 1- 1.5 hours at the gym and do cardio for my heart and stress relief and stamina, then hit the weights for strength, weight loss and muscle tone. By now it should be 6pm and I begin my evening routine of a nice hot Epsom salt bath, setting out clothes, making my lunch, setting out any reading material that need to be taken care of in the morning, send out any last min messages, check on some family by text (I try not to get caught up on phone conversations at this time). By 8pm I lay in bed, do some purposeful breathing, express my daily gratitude, and relax my mind so I can be asleep by 9pm and reboot my body till 3am.
This routine helps me to be my best. All of this is considered self-care to me. Like I said, every single day is different with work duties and tasks, but I try to keep my morning and night as routine as I can. I keep the hard copy schedule to look at every so often to be sure I am on time and I’m doing the task I should be doing, being sure to not get thrown off by a call and spontaneous conversation through the day. This is what is called bleed time. That is the time you can accidentally waste by letting spontaneous conversations, unscheduled phone calls or even bumping into someone you have not seen in a while can make you bleed into our next scheduled time slot that IS SCHEDULED! My car is my mobile office, so it is where I make (hands free) phone calls and daily chitchat. Now, should you be flexible and create the ability to move your schedule around for life’s important things that pop up? Of course you should. Absolutely. I don’t make this schedule to be a robot, and having the ability to create your own schedule is one of the biggest incentives of entrepreneurship in my opinion, however I do keep this schedule to be efficient, and if we let every single person or thing throw us off then what is the point of a schedule? This is why I see it as self-care because I am always protecting my mental peace. I dictate who I speak to and when.
Now for the part of self-care I am most proud of. What you read above is my daily self-care. What you will read next is my life self-care.
For the last couple of years, I have been training my body and mind to live an alcohol-free life. For no other reason than I wanted to. I desired to be one of those people who, simply said “I don’t drink.”
Before we go further, I want to make it clear that alcohol was not a problem in my life as in preventing me from doing my job showing up for others and taking care of business, I was just a person who drank. However being an adult and having the nightly cocktail whenever you want was getting boring and besides the slight “relaxation” you think you are getting from it…. Let us be honest, it is just not healthy for you. when you ingest an addictive substance for years It is going to become habit. Period.
When I share the link to this article on social media it will be the first time, I am letting the world in on my new life. I had a little bit of anxiety deciding to use this article of self-care to say it loud and proud that I do not drink alcohol.
LOL! I know…. I know…. Big deal, right!? You would be surprised how big of a deal it is to some people who just do not understand why anyone would choose not to drink at all, of their own free will. Nothing happened, no trouble, not an alcoholic, not court mandated, LOL! No, just simply, I do not want to drink anymore. It is the only drug people question you about when you tell them you do not drink. Like we are the weird ones because we choose not to? And it is hard for people around you to deal with the new you.
This is self-care at its best in my opinion!! This is a pretty big world and only 28% of Americans do not drink alcohol.
You saw my schedule that I just shared with you, how could you fit alcohol and all its effects on the body into that?
Back in the day, my old schedule, like most peoples consisted of kicking butt at work all day then coming home to chill and kick back with a drink and unwind and waste a few hours watching mindless television which then led to mindless snacking, daily weight gain, no night-time routine, breaking promises to myself (which is not self-care) Did I drink early in evening so I could go to bed early and still get up early and still crush the day? Darn right I did. Was I still in beast mode and crush my day and goals? Sure did! Was I still there for everybody who needed me and then some? Absolutely without a doubt. Except one person. Me.
Growing up with all your friends and all you did was spend time together and drink on weekends, then manic Monday creeps in, well now its taco Tuesday, then maybe a couple drinks on Wednesday If you’re off work and then her comes old faithful thirsty Thursdays and now we got to party because it’s the weekend on Friday and Saturday, but let’s maybe just have wine since it’s a Sunday, LOL! Wow! Then we get older and get busy with real life and our real careers and of course you’re not hanging out every day like when you were younger, but you’re an adult and tired after work, so you deserve a nice after work cocktail which can lead to a nightly offense because this is what you’ve trained our body to do for years. Which, again, is NOT SELF-CARE! It’s fun until it isn’t. Sadly, I am not special, this is a lot of people’s daily routine, some just have not seen it yet and some have, either way I can only speak for myself when I say I love being alcohol free. No judgement at all because, I had a wonderful time and it was big fun, however when we are talking about being at your best mentally, physically, and emotionally and keeping with an in-depth schedule such as mine, I feel for me alcohol free is the way to be.
So, I said all that to say, my most favorite form of self-care is the fact that I chose to live an alcohol-free life and I am loving it!
Save money, no extra pounds, obliterating the gym, way more energy, reclaiming my time The list goes on and on, but I will save all the benefits of an alcohol-free life for another time because I am meant to help in this industry. Just know that this form of self-care is pure BEAST-MODE and to do the opposite of what the majority do is a great feeling. I’ve been AF for almost a year, and it is the best thing I ever did.
A detailed schedule and good life choices play a great deal on my effectiveness. give it a shot and I guarantee you will find yourself being more intentional with your time. Time is our most valuable asset and it’s non-refundable.
Does my schedule go as planned every single day? No. But it sure is not all willy nilly, LOL! I live life, life does not live me and that is the daily goal.
LETSGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Thanks, so before we move on, maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am affectionately known as the cookie lady! I bake homemade delicious classic cookies that I offer on my website and a variety of vendor shows, Farmer markets, school football games, jazz concerts, festivals, and any place I can bring a little joy and happiness to the world.
I love to be part of the community and any time I donate or purchase advertisement for my business or anything that can help my brand be seen, I prefer it to be something affiliated with community I want my money to help worthy causes as well.
Touch of Love is still doing your favorite cookies and this year I plan to bring out the jumbo cookies and bite size cookies,
Next step will be to get my next license so I will be able to wholesale and spread Touch of Love cookies even further.
And then I’d like to get into the vending machine industry to have Touch of Love Cookies, available at your fingertips with a push of a button.
All this while working our way to be in the freezer section of your favorite grocery stores.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Change of habits: You cannot get to where you want to go if you continue to avoid changing the habits that do not serve you.
Persistence: If you do not persist and you just give up at every roadblock, then that is where you will stay. Life can hurt and feel great but either way if you do not go through it, you will be at a standstill, and this is where life can get boring and mundane.
Love: A wise author says, I will greet this day with love in my heart. Henceforth I will love all mankind. From this moment I take the first step required to become a man among men. With love I will increase my sales a hundred-fold and become a great salesman. If I have no other qualities, I can succeed with love alone. Without it I will fail though I possess all the knowledge and skills of the world.
I will greet this day with love, and I will succeed. ~ Og Mandino.
The best way to develop these skills is to look at yourself as you would to judge another person, change what does not serve you and go crazy on personal development. It’s never too much. Start slow and keep going and, eventually this will become addictive.
Best of luck, my loves.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
‘The most impactful thing my parents did for me was to raise me knowing God. I was raised in a home filled with faith, love and understanding, jokes and laughter. Having a father and mother in the same house growing up is something I do not take lightly; I understand everyone did not have this blessing as a child and I have always tried to share my parents with those who did not. I admire both of my parents tremendously. True lessons of a real man and a real woman. I’ll never forget the lessons learned.
Rest in peace Ma, Love you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tolcookies.us
- Instagram: touch_of_love_cookies_llc
- Facebook: Tlouch of Love CookiesLLC
