How I Thrive takes an inside look at founders, entrepreneurs and leaders and the behind-the-scenes self-care work they do to in order to live balanced, happy lives. Today's edition is with You Body Care founder Heather Fritzsche, who indulges in a weekly cleaning service and has a meeting hack we can all learn from.
City: Yardley, Pennsylvania
Company: You Body Care, a line of premium, customizable, sustainable powdered body wash.
Morning routine:
The first thing I do after work:
Since I'm still going to the office, I get home anytime between 5:30 and 7 most days. If its on the earlier side, I sit and hang out with my kids. I have one son who plays piano and one who plays guitar, so oftentimes I just sit with them and listen and they open up about their days. If it's on the later side, I roll in and just start cooking. I do all the cooking in our family because I love to cook, and I can usually make dinner within about 30 minutes.
Dinner ritual:
We have dinner at home usually, and takeout sometimes. Takeout is only because either I'm either too tired or because I ran out of fresh stuff. I hate frozen or canned vegetables, and I try to make our diet as veggie-heavy as I can. So if I'm out of fresh food, it's usually takeout.
Nighttime routine:
Self-care guilty pleasure:
Honestly, it's having a cleaning service come every week. Having a dirty house is completely overwhelming to me to the point where I can't function. I should also mention that I have three dogs and a husband along with the two teenage boys, so things get very dirty. But I don't enjoy cleaning, so I hire it out, which is just good for me overall.
Workday self-care hack:
I try really hard to organize meetings in half hour blocks, but I try to be ruthlessly efficient with our time on the calls so that I can end them after 15-20 minutes. Every time I can manage this, I get a few minutes where I can walk around, get a drink of water, and stop looking at my screen. I also frequently leave a pitcher of water on my desk so I can refill throughout the day even if I don't leave my desk.
How do you define self-care?
I define it as something we do for ourselves to help ensure we are able to be the best version of ourselves.
Favorite childhood toy or hobby:
Oh my goodness. This brings back memories. When I was in the fourth grade, my family moved, and I was devastated to be moving. Late in the night of our last night in our "old" house, my mom snuck in my room and left me a Cabbage Patch doll named Millie Maria. She had short curly blonde hair and I loved her. I dressed her every day, I diapered her, I can't even tell you how much I loved her. That doll was my friend, my confidante, she was my playmate with my other friends and their cabbage patch dolls. My sister got one the same night as me, and then started collecting Cabbage Patch dolls—but not me! I had Millie and she was my one and only. I think she slept in my bed until high school.
State of your (email) inbox:
Oh dear. I've imported so many emails over the years that I have something like 4,000 emails in my one business account that are still unread. And that is down from about 5,500 last week when I went on a deleting spree. I've just started a second company, and I'm determined to do it right, so I make sure I get down to zero unread every night. and forget about my personal email. I don't even want to talk about it.
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