This Is Our “It Girl” Routine We Just Invented To Be Hot And Healthy For 2026. And It’s Only 7 Things
Candidly speaking, of course.
by The Candidly Team
Look, we find most rah rah, get going, new year’s posts exhausting. Life already feels a bit like we operate inside a pressure cooker, thank you. No need to crank up the heat.
That said, we can’t help but feeling like 2026 is our year, which is to say that we’re taking the reigns on a few things. Tangible things. Meaningful things. Fun things! Dare we say the things that make us feel like an “it girl” in our own lives.
Don’t be intimidated. This list is for the laziest, busiest, most bored ladies among us. Soooo …. us!
And it’s only seven things. I mean our greatest hair hack is on the list for god’s sake along with our three very specific secrets to much better sex. And naturally, there are a few nifty tips that make us actually do the things that get us looking and feeling spectacular.
So what do you say? Join us?
1. We trick ourselves into doing things we don’t want to do.
Here’s an expression that bores us: “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” We’re much more interested in what will actually get us to take that first step. And for us, it very literally started with what we put on our feet.
First, we put on THESE* cloudlike sneaks first thing in the morning because they literally make us want to propel ourselves into motion. Second, we stopped being cheapskates and buying shitty socks. We bought THESE* by Bombas, and our feet felt like heaven. Not sponsored to say this. These socks just were THE answer that made us do more of THIS which has both helped us lose an astonishing amount of weight and also helps us stay calm and centered each day when the type B idiots around us ask the same questions we've already answered but instead of snapping like we do when an overhead light is on, we feel entirely in control.
You can see where we’re going with this, right? Essentially, we’re setting ourselves up to take more steps. We walk in the morning and afternoon. We sometimes wear THIS* weighted vest. Brisk walking is a doable, affordable miracle for all aspects of health, and like we said it’s huge for fat loss.
2. We figured out how to actually enjoy sex.
We know estrogen starts to go on hiatus in our 40s, and this can lead to dryness, pelvic floor tension, thinner vaginal walls, and potentially pain during sex. We recently wrote about three specific items that can be game-changing in this area, which you can read about HERE. But here’s a little synopsis: they involve a pillow*, a gadget, and gel*. Oh my.
3. We lose weight while not being ravenously hungry
Well my friends, we’ve reached the part where we talk about the most pounced upon resolution in the industry of making women feel bad about their bodies. But what really annoys us is that choosing to lose weight for ourselves has nothing to do with the all the noise. It’s something we do quietly, on our own, day in and day out through a series of actions and decisions. Our Editor-in-Chief spent the past year doing her best to honestly document her own, drug-free, 50 lb weight loss journey. And what she found is what most of us find, which is that the hardest part of making those choices is very often that we feel hungry - plain and simple. Hunger can be uncomfortable. It shouldn’t be seen as the cost of being skinny or the point of being healthy .
Instead of setting a goal of starving and feeling deprived, we can focus on how to feel full - even in a calorie deficit. And the key players here are fiber and protein. Both fiber and protein offer the kinds of calories that keep us feeling satisfied and satiated over time as opposed to empty, sugary, or ultra-processed foods that leave us wanting more 42 minutes after eating. To meet our daily fiber and protein goals, we sip on things like THIS, make actual sandwiches like THIS, but for more of a play by play of Audie’s weight loss journey, go HERE or HERE or HERE.
4. We finally figured out how to deal with our hair.
Thank Phoebe Waller Bridge in Fleabag for putting it most bluntly, when she said "it's the difference between a good day and a bad day, Hair is everything!" Ok, now here is the single biggest hair trick we learned this year. Yes, it’s a product and thank god that it’s a product, because we’re not up for an 11-step GRWM routine when we’re already late.
THIS* is the multi-miracle blow dry spray that tames the beast and led to the above before and after photo. It adds shine and defrizzes and heat protects but doesn’t weigh down or greasify our aging hair.
And since we’re here we’ll also share that THIS* is the best anti-aging shampoo/condish* combo that has brought life back into our thinning, stripped locks.
P.S. Finally, if thinning is an issue, Vegamour* has stopped our ridiculous shedding and changed our lives. Hair is everything after all.
5. We use this embarrassing water bottle that still fits in our cupholder. (Nope, not that one.)
It’s not the Stanley. We’re not that kind of “it girl.” But hydration is linked to BIG things like longer life and biggish things like better skin. Water plays a role in weight loss, because it’s necessary to burning fat, rids the body of waste, and helps regulate appetite. Now, getting ourselves to drink all this water means making it very, very convenient, practically unavoidable. A dumb vessel we can barely lift is gonna remain at our feet all day at our desks, whereas a cute one like this that’s BPA, lead, and phthalate-free and 40 ounces that ALSO fits in our cupholder (because YES, this matters immensely) is a real game-changer. THIS is the one* that makes us drink all that water.
6. We figured out how to not turn into dust when we’re old.
You know you need to strength train. We all do. It does incredibly critical things to maintain our strong, healthy bodies, increasing bone density, reducing risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis, helping prevent cognitive decline, and oh yeah, creating more muscle mass which helps maintain our metabolism so we can actually fight peri-menopausal and menopausal weight gain.
Yes, that was all said in one breath, but we needed to get it out of our system. And now … how do we actually do it? Well, we go the simple, straight-forward route for gals who forget to weight train by doing things like THIS and THIS (in our nightgown no less).
We also have a very quick, affordable shopping list of what we keep on hand because having them around makes us lift weights:
7. We use one beauty product every, single day without fail because if our skin isn’t glowing we’re depressed
We write A LOT about the thrilling tricks we’ve learned to make our skin look and feel younger and tauter and clearer and smoother and glassier.
But there is one product that makes us glow like we eat all our vitamins and workout twice a day in all seasons. And it’s an oil. THIS oil* is our holy grail that we write about ALL. THE. TIME. It turns us into fresh-faced, golden goddess versions of ourself while helping diminish chest lines to boot.
Oh, and if you’re oily or prone to breakouts, there’s also THIS oil that saved the skin of our managing editor. After all, this list is all about being tried and true. But mostly, it’s about being us!
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