Fitness and mindset expert Kylie Larson reveals why successful entrepreneurs are abandoning extreme wellness routines in favor of sustainable micro habits that boost energy and prevent burnout without overhauling their entire lifestyle.
The alarm goes off at 5 AM. You immediately grab your phone, checking emails while your coffee brews. By noon, you’ve powered through back-to-back meetings, skipped breakfast, and feel mentally drained—yet your day is far from over. Sound familiar?
If you’re a high-achieving professional or entrepreneur, this cycle probably hits close to home. The irony? While building successful businesses and careers, many of us systematically neglect the one asset that makes it all possible: ourselves.
Enter Kylie Larson, founder of Elemental Coaching and a wellness expert who’s made it her mission to help high performers break free from the all-or-nothing wellness trap that’s keeping them burned out, foggy, and running on empty.
The All-or-Nothing Trap That’s Sabotaging Success
“As high performers, high achievers, we want to do it, and we want to do it all and we want to do it perfectly,” Larson explains. “And if we can’t, the only alternative must be to not do it at all.”
This perfectionist mindset creates a wellness paradox. Successful professionals approach health the same way they approach business—with intensity and extremes. They commit to elaborate morning routines, strict diets, and ambitious workout plans. When life inevitably gets busy and these routines become impossible to maintain, they abandon wellness entirely.
The result? A destructive cycle of starting and stopping that leaves high achievers feeling like failures, ultimately avoiding wellness altogether.
But Larson offers a different perspective: “When you look at all over here and you look at nothing over here, there’s this huge range. If all is black and nothing is white, there’s all these different scales of gray in between.”
The Gray Area: Where Real Wellness Lives
For busy professionals, sustainable wellness lives in those shades of gray—the space between perfect and nothing. It’s about making the best decision available in any given moment, not the perfect decision.
“If I can’t pack my lunch today, that’s not in the cards for me, what’s the next best alternative?” Larson asks. “Well, maybe I go to McDonald’s® and I buy a salad with chicken on it versus a Number Four with extra large fries. There’s always the best decision that we can make.”
This mindset shift is crucial for entrepreneurs and executives who often put their businesses first and themselves last. The key is recognizing that taking care of yourself isn’t selfish—it’s strategic.
“I can’t show up the best I want in my business unless I am taking care of myself,” Larson emphasizes. “If I can help high performers and entrepreneurs see that link between taking care of their most valuable asset, which is themselves, that also starts to shift some things.”
Performance Wellness vs. Performative Self-Care: Know the Difference
Not all wellness is created equal. Larson draws a critical distinction between what actually serves your well-being and what she calls “performative self-care”—the toxic wellness culture that dominates social media.
Performative self-care looks like:
- Following elaborate morning routines because you “should”
- Taking supplements sold by influencers
- Checking boxes on wellness activities that feel like additional chores
- Comparing your routine to highly curated social media content
Real performance wellness, on the other hand, is about tuning into what your body actually needs and responding with compassion, not discipline.
“Maybe instead of going through your 10-step morning routine with your 25 supplements, maybe you sleep 30 more minutes,” Larson suggests. “A lot of people are like, ‘No, that’s lazy.’ No, it’s not lazy. That’s you listening to what your body actually needs.”
The difference comes down to energy: real wellness gives you energy, while performative self-care drains it.
Science-Backed Micro Habits for Energy and Mental Clarity
For professionals struggling with burnout, brain fog, and low energy, Larson recommends focusing on three fundamental micro habits that don’t require a lifestyle overhaul:
1. Prioritize Sleep Above All Else
“Don’t sleep on sleep,” Larson emphasizes. “Sleep is your number one tool for recovery. It is the control-alt-delete of your life.”
Instead of staying up late to finish projects, go to bed and tackle them fresh in the morning. You’ll deliver higher quality work and feel more energized throughout the day.
2. Incorporate Movement Through Walking
Walking isn’t just exercise—it’s a creativity and problem-solving tool. “Walks spark your creativity. They help you solve problems because you get out of your mind and into your body,” Larson explains.
The goal isn’t perfection. Can you commit to one 10-minute walk throughout the day, even on your busiest days? Start there.
3. Eat for Nourishment, Not Restriction
Busy professionals often fall into extremes: either restricting food or mindlessly snacking. Instead, focus on nourishing your body with proteins, vegetables, carbohydrates (yes, your brain needs them), and healthy fats.
“If you want to show up your best in your business and for your clients and your people, but you’re depriving yourself of their preferred source of fuel, I really question how great of quality can you possibly be delivering,” Larson notes.
Building Real-Life Wellness Routines That Actually Stick
The key to sustainable wellness for busy professionals lies in environmental design and realistic expectations. Larson recommends:
Meal Prep Solutions:
- Outsource meal prep if you can afford it (time vs. money trade-off)
- Stock up on convenient healthy options: rotisserie chicken, canned proteins, frozen vegetables, bagged lettuce
- Focus on foods that require minimal preparation
Time Management Strategies:
- Wake up 5 minutes earlier for phone-free morning time
- Schedule 10-minute walks during lunch breaks
- Try walking meetings with your team
- Establish a simple nighttime routine that includes shutting down devices
The Confidence Building Approach: Rather than trying to implement multiple changes at once, Larson recommends choosing one or two micro habits you can execute at a 9 or 10 confidence level, even on your busiest days.
“It’s very interesting how the stuff starts to compound, and you start to build that belief and that trust in yourself,” she explains. This approach prevents the start-and-stop cycle that leads to feelings of failure.
Redefining Wellness: It’s Not Just About Weight Loss
One of Larson’s core messages challenges the conventional wellness narrative: “Wellness is not weight loss.” True wellness encompasses:
- Quality sleep and energy levels
- Emotional resilience and stress management
- Meaningful relationships and social connections
- Mental health and therapy
- A supportive environment
- Self-compassion over self-criticism
“A healthy person isn’t a look. It’s what’s going on underneath the surface,” Larson emphasizes. “What’s your relationship with food like? What’s your relationship with yourself like?”
The One Change That Could Transform Your Day
If you could make only one change starting today, Larson recommends this: “Let your day start with you and no one else.”
Don’t immediately reach for your phone or open your email. Give yourself just five minutes of uninterrupted time before engaging with the outside world.
“You put your armor on first and then you can go out and deal with the masses,” Larson explains, referencing wisdom from Jay Shetty’s book “Think Like a Monk.”
This simple practice can create a ripple effect, shifting how you feel throughout the entire day and preventing the all-too-common scenario where it’s noon and you’ve done nothing but respond to others’ demands.
Learning from Failure: Essential Lessons for Sustainable Success
As someone who coaches high performers while navigating her own entrepreneurial journey, Larson shares three crucial lessons:
- Don’t sacrifice yourself for your business – Your well-being is the foundation of sustainable success
- Failure is part of the process – Reframe failures as learning opportunities for growth
- After every boom, there’s a bust – Understanding business cycles can prevent burnout during challenging periods
“That is how you will ultimately be successful,” Larson notes. “You just have to figure out how to keep on going.”
The Bottom Line: Wellness as a Strategic Advantage
For high-achieving professionals, wellness isn’t a luxury, it’s a competitive advantage. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s consistency in small actions that compound over time.
By shifting from an all-or-nothing mindset to one that embraces “good enough” in the service of long-term sustainability, busy professionals can maintain their edge while actually enjoying better health, clearer thinking, and more energy.
As Larson puts it, “We need to be healthy and well, not just lose weight. Cause that’s a beat down if you’re always thinking about weight loss.”
The path forward isn’t about adding more to your already full plate. It’s about making smarter choices within the life you’re already living. And that’s a wellness approach that even the busiest high achiever can sustain.
