YouTuber Ellie Thumann Talks Setting Wellness Goals and Getting Back to Routine in January

Ellie Thumann was photographed by Derek Kettela in Puerto Rico.Derek Kettela/Sports Illustrated

Kickstart your New Year with SI Swimsuit with 31 Days of Wellness! This January, SI Swimsuit will unlock exclusive offerings with SI Swimsuit models, wellness experts, fitness gurus, and more, who will guide you through 31 days of rejuvenating workouts, recipes, and self-care rituals.

Model and influencer Ellie Thumann is setting her intentions for 2024, and she’s focused on health and wellness. The social media star, who is best known for her lifestyle, fashion and beauty YouTube channel with more than 2.18 million subscribers, opens up about her resolutions for this year—and admits that the holiday season always puts her off her daily health and wellness activities. She’s learned how to give herself grace, prioritize her mental health, and be in the moment with family, while also creating a method to gradually return to routine.

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Wellness goals for 2024

Last year, the content creator decided to take vitamin D and B supplements, as well as a probiotic. In 2024, she’s adding sea moss, apple cider vinegar, colostrum pills and beef liver supplements into her lineup. This month, she’s also looking forward to getting eight hours of sleep at night (she admits that she gets in bed at an appropriate time, but spends too long doom-scrolling), getting her hair extensions removed and focusing on growing strong natural hair, and switching her second caffeinated drink of the day from coffee to matcha.

The 22-year-old strongly believes in not only repeating affirmations, but having them stuck up all around the house. Her sister and roommate, Erin, first put up some waterproof Post-it notes with sweet messages in Thumann’s shower last year, and now they are scattered all over their house.

“I prioritize my needs above others to make sure I’m in a good place physically, mentally and emotionally,” reads one in her bedroom, while another in her kitchen says, “I show up as the best version of myself every day, and it starts with my mornings.”

Getting back into routine after the holidays

Thumann spent Christmas back in Arizona, where she grew up with her family. It was the first time in a few years that all of her siblings have been home for the holidays at the same time. Thumann also has a younger brother and says her family is super close.

Upon returning to Charleston late at night on the 30th after several travel delays, her only priority was to get some sleep. The following day, however, included lightly organizing her apartment, catching up on emails, planning her month and going for a long walk. New Year’s Eve, however, was celebrated in full swing with her best friends and a super chic sparkly outfit.

“[While at home], I wasn’t really doing the stuff that normally I feel mentally well with. I definitely think that took a toll, so I’m very eager to get consistent with all of those things,” she shares. “Like cooking, taking supplements, going on three mile walks a day getting my steps back in. Just kind of take like a reset for the month and do like a quick house clean out, get rid of old clothes or anything that’s not really serving me anymore so I have a fresh space and fresh stuff for the new year.”

Tackling her to-do list 

She knows there’s no shame in feeling lethargic or unproductive after the holidays. However, her method to the madness is just taking “baby steps” and tackling one task at a time to fully return to her typical routine.

“I’m stuck in this rut of not wanting to climb out, where you just kind of feel lazy, you’ve been off it with like your routine and eating and all these just kind of elements that add to my productivity in a day and not wanting to get back to work,” she admits. “I think starting with a game plan of a couple things a day to get back into it, whether that’s just showing up for work or sitting down and doing five emails and having a day where I’m just going to deep clean my apartment or bring stuff to a donation center.”

Thumann feels like slowly checking off tasks is more effective than getting overwhelmed with a long and probably unfeasible daily to-do list.

“I have a really bad habit of getting overwhelmed and then instead of just tackling one thing, I’ll tackle maybe like 25% of it and then I’ll rush to the next thing and then that other 75% will just continuously stress me out,” she shares.

Vision boarding

Thumann says she finds creating a vision board an exciting way to start the New Year. Last year’s vision board featured photos of Charleston, and 2024’s is going to manifest lots of international travel.

She loves to scroll on Pinterest and her best tip is to use very specific keywords and allow yourself to fall down “rabbit holes” to find the best and most niche photos and graphics for your own board.

“You just gotta kind of do all that prep work. It’s [how] on a Monday, you’re setting yourself up for the work week, you want to set your year,” she explains. “Whether that’s physically or mentally, all those kind of things that you’ve been saying you want to do, those goals you want to start or maybe that wellness tip or trick that you saw online that you’ve wanted to do, [anything you want to] put energy into it I feel like January is a great time to really implement those.”

Holding herself accountable

Thumann asks for a new journal or planner for Christmas every year, and this year, she also added some self-help books to her wishlist. She loves writing down her goals in December and adds that seeing them on a paper helps hold her accountable. She and her sister also do their best to check in on each other, whether it’s about their mental health and mood, or whether or not they are on track with all their resolutions.

“I think writing them down in a place that holds you accountable, and constantly like checking them off, whether that list is on your phone, in a notebook, but somewhere writing them down it just makes you stick to them more,” she says. “When you’re making your daily routine and those are something that you can check off your list, it feels like a very empowering feeling even if you do nothing else in your day but do your wellness habits you kind of feel really accomplished and good.”

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Tune in next Tuesday, Jan. 9, as Thumann returns with her second installment of this wellness series and takes us along for her signature three-mile hot girl walk.

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