Back to Basics: The 5 Principles for Optimal Physical Health
When Everything Falls Apart, Come Back to the Physical
When life feels out of control — when the emotional and spiritual weight gets heavy — the fastest way back to yourself is through your body.
Not a dramatic overhaul. Just structure. Just the basics.
This episode is exactly that. A back-to-basics breakdown of what it actually means to be optimally healthy — not perfectly healthy, not Instagram healthy — but functioning, grounded, and in touch with yourself.
The Principle: Structured and Sweet
Before we get into the specifics, there's a framework worth naming: structured and sweet.
Structure gives you your bearings. It's why Bikram yoga works — you know the sequence, you follow the cues, you don't have to think. The same reason children thrive with boundaries is the same reason adults do too. We all need to know the rules so we can relax inside of them.
But structure without sweetness becomes rigid and joyless. Think about the difference between following a recipe exactly and cooking a meal with love. The ingredients are the same. The energy isn't.
Marry both. Do the things you know you need to do — and find the joy inside of them.
1. Eat Intuitively (And Actually Digest)
Diet is the number one physical lever you have. What you put in your body directly affects how you feel in the next moment — not just long term.
But rather than prescribing a specific diet, the more useful conversation is how you're eating.
There are two ways you know you're not eating intuitively. The first is mindless eating — food going in while you're distracted, bored, or checked out. The second is emotional eating — eating from fear, sadness, anxiety, or self-criticism. When you're in either of those states, your body isn't in a position to digest optimally.
The goal is to eat when you're calm, ready to receive fuel, and present enough to actually convert that food to energy.
And then there's the part nobody wants to talk about: you have to eliminate what comes in. Digestion is where detox actually happens. If you're doing all the right things and still not feeling well, check your gut. Are you going to the bathroom regularly? If not, that's your next step — whether that's more greens, more water, or looking into colon hydrotherapy.
Clean water matters too. Filtered, not plastic. Lindsay uses AquaTru reverse osmosis — worth the investment.
2. Move Your Body Every Day
Physical movement is the number one way to create long-lasting results in your health — and it's also how we transmute old, stuck energy.
You don't need to crush it every day. You just need to break a sweat. A rigorous walk counts. A three-mile run counts. The point is movement, not performance.
And speaking of performance — a hundred percent doesn't always mean the same thing.
3. Sync With Your Cycle
This one is specifically for the women.
Men operate on a 24-hour hormonal cycle. They wake up every day working with roughly the same deck of cards. Women operate on a 28 to 30-day cycle — and the energy available to you shifts dramatically across the menstrual, follicular, ovulation, and luteal phases.
If you showed up to a CrossFit class at 60% capacity and gave a hundred percent of that 60%, you gave it everything you had. That counts.
Stop forcing yourself to perform at the same level every single day of the month. Your cycle is not a limitation — it's information. Work with it.
4. Breathe With Intention
Breathing is one of the most underrated tools we have for physical and emotional regulation.
There's a book by James Nestor called Breath — worth adding to your list. The core idea: most of us are breathing too shallowly, too quickly, and too reactively.
When you can prolong your exhales, slow your inhales, and direct your breath into areas of tension or discomfort — you are literally shifting your physiological state. It's not woo. It's biology.
When stress hits, your breath is the fastest intervention available. Use it.
5. Take Care of Your Skin
Skincare is underrated — and not just for vanity.
Your skin is an organ of elimination. When you sweat, you release toxins. Dry brushing supports lymphatic drainage. Gua sha moves stuck energy in your face and body. Coconut oil is a surprisingly effective moisturizer and sun barrier.
A few practical notes:
In the morning, skip the sunglasses for a few minutes. Let natural light hit your eyes and signal to your body that it's daytime. This supports your circadian rhythm, which directly affects your sleep, your energy, and your mood.
Pay attention to how your body feels — not how it looks compared to someone else. Touch yourself with intention. Nurture yourself the way you would nurture someone you love.
No one is going to do this for you.
The Bigger Point
This podcast is called How to Heal. It's not about becoming a perfect human. It's not about being holier than thou.
It's about getting in touch with yourself deeply enough that you can trust yourself. That when a doctor tells you nothing's wrong and you know something is — you go find a second, third, fourth opinion.
Your body knows. Your job is to learn how to listen.
Questions This Episode Answers
What are the basics of optimal physical health for women?
How do I eat intuitively without following a strict diet?
What is cycle syncing and how does it affect my workouts?
Why is digestion so important for detox and weight loss?
How do I use breathwork to manage stress?
What does energetic cleanliness have to do with physical health?
How do I support my lymphatic system at home?
What is the connection between circadian rhythm and sleep?
How do I stop emotional eating?
What are simple daily habits for women's wellness?
This post is based on the full podcast episode. Listen to the complete conversation on How to Heal — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.
Lindsay Trimarchi Richter is a life coach, speaker, and host of the How to Heal Podcast. She works with high-achieving women ready to stop performing and start living. Find her on Instagram @howtoheal