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It’s never too late to start building healthy habits—but the best time to start is always right now. You never know—you might be able to get into the best shape of your life!

Take certified trainer and wellness maven Kelsey Rose as a testament to this. We chatted with her to find out her daily musts for staying healthy, and as it happens, she says five simple things have helped her get stronger and leaner in her 30s than she was in her 20s.

“I am a certified trainer,” she tells mindbodygreen, “but I don’t recommend to anyone who wants to feel good and see results to just focus on working out. It needs to be tackled with more of a holistic approach.”

What does that holistic approach entail, you ask? Let’s get into it:

Starting off simple, Kelsey says getting adequate sleep is essential. “If you wake up tired, you’re going to have lack of motivation and lack of energy throughout the day. It also affects our cravings and what we’re eating. We’re more likely to snack or binge.”

Of course, getting consistent sleep is just as important as getting enough sleep, so you’ll want to aim to get up and go to bed around the same time every day. Having morning and evening routines can help create this structure.

Kelsey’s mornings, for example, include a walk outside as soon as she wakes up, followed by celery juice and a mindfulness session before she jumps into work. In the evening, she takes another walk, likes to turn screens off by 8 p.m., and does her skin care routine before getting in bed.

A well-rounded wellness routine would be nothing without mindfulness, which is why Kelsey Rose aims to incorporate mindfulness into her life daily. She’s even included meditations, breathwork sessions, and hypnosis on Shaep, her new wellness app.

“I think that [mindfulness] is one thing that people undermine and underestimate in regards to how it relates to overall health and weight loss and fat loss,” she says, adding, “If you’re stressed out every single day, your cortisol levels are high. It affects every area in your life, especially your metabolism.”

While Kelsey may be a certified fitness trainer, she’s also a big proponent of daily movement as a lifestyle, and that means getting 10,000 steps daily.

From her morning walks to the walks in the evening, clocking those 10,000 steps is another habit people tend to underestimate, she says. “We think we need to do more to see results, and really sometimes we need to do less because our life is already stressful enough. Sometimes by adding too much to our routines and to our to-do lists, it can add to that stress.”

But you know what’s not stressful? Taking a nice, easy walk. “Just getting up and moving throughout the day is so important for our bodies but for our minds also,” Kelsey adds.

The thing to remember about strength training is that a little can go a long way. “Especially for females, as we get into our 30s and 40s, 50s, it becomes increasingly important,” Kelsey adds.

In terms of how much she’s strength training, she says she aims for four to five days a week but sometimes only for half an hour at a time. “And I definitely prioritize rest days,” she tells mindbodygreen. “Sometimes we try to push through or don’t really prioritize rest because we think that’s not going to give us results. But in reality, our bodies need to recover.”

Even on rest days, however, getting those 10,000 steps is always a goal (which is roughly 5 miles or 8 kilometers).

Last but not least, we never want to forget about staying hydrated. It sounds simple, but “making sure that we’re hydrating helps keep digestion moving, as well as flush waste from the body,” Kelsey says.

If you’re not sure how much water you should be drinking, the National Academy of Medicine has recommendations for daily total water intake. And since around 20% of water intake comes from the food we eat, that puts women at a suggested amount of 9 cups a day, and men at 12.5 cups. Pregnant women are advised to drink more at 10 cups, and if you’re breastfeeding, that’ll be 13.

The takeaway

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by all the wellness advice that goes around, but the truth is, real health and real results start with going back to basics. Because no matter how much you’re working out or the latest trend you’re trying, nothing makes up for poor sleep, dehydration, and a sedentary lifestyle.

Take it from Kelsey Rose, who’s been able to achieve more strength and energy in her 30s than ever before—just by sticking with the fundamentals.