From gratitude rituals to Akashic Record readings, this is what keeps her going. 

Stephanie Rice shares how gratitude and mindfulness practices set her up for each day. Image: Steph RiceSource:BodyAndSoul

The three-time gold medalist and recipient of the Order of Australia Medal boasts a successful career track record, but it hasn't come without its battles. Today, Rice shares her daily rituals that help keep both her mind and body in check.

In our editorial series My Healthy Habits, we chat to inspiring individuals about their health and wellness routines, where they share everything from their fitness routines to their beauty go-to's and midweek meals. Artist Emma Hollingsworth has made positivity her default, Olympian Morgan Mitchell discovered the wonder of regular colonics and model Tahnee Atkinson takes a very chilled approach to her self-care routine.

A quick glimpse at Steph Rice's Instagram and you'll think the Australian beauty has life down to a tee. Between the fitness workout videos, the envious glam looks, and just a bunch of happy snaps, the former Australian Olympian is truly living her best life.

However, it took a long journey and a lot of self work to get her to this spot. We recently sat down with Steph to chat about life at the present and how she makes time to do the things her body thanks her for, even on the most chaotic days.

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I like to wake up at around 6-6:30am and I like to spend the first part of the morning really focused on myself, this will include some form of gratitude, meditation (if I have time for it), visualising my goals and intentions for the day and I always try to spend 15-30 minutes reading some form of educational book.

At the moment I’m really into anything around manifesting, mindset, positivity and creating the life you want. This is always followed with an F45 workout which takes me through to around 10am, then I have my breakfast and start my work day.

I like to open and close the day with things that really serve myself. Similar to my morning routine, my night routine usually involves some kind of unwind.

As soon as I've finished the work day I like to put my pyjamas on to signal to myself that the work is finished and now I can relax, especially because I work from home. I then get straight into making some kind of healthy, vegan dinner and then I like to watch something on Netflix for an hour or two, depending on how tired I am.

I like to light a candle and clean up my space so I can go to bed knowing that my home is ready to start the next day. Then I usually have a shower, do my skincare and hop into bed! Simple but effective and I always enjoy having that time for myself.

Turn my alarm off haha! I usually get straight up, I don't like lying in bed once my alarm has gone off. I prefer to get up and make my bed straight away and I don't leave the room until my bed is made! I really like that feeling of accomplishment first thing in the morning.

When I get into bed, I usually say a bit of a prayer or vocalise some form of gratitude for the day such as ‘Thank you for this day’ or think of multiple things that I was grateful for on that day. Then I just lie there and allow myself to fall asleep.

I wish we had access to more wellness elixirs in Australia. I find it so hard here compared to America, where it’s so easy to get your hands on things like ginger shots, inflammation shots and turmeric shots. It’s just harder to buy here.

Supplement wise, I just try to keep it really simple. As an athlete I took so many supplements and I now try to get my nutrients through food instead of a supplement. I do take some form of pre and probiotic and I always take magnesium powder before bed, it just helps me recover from my workouts and turns my body into rest and recovery mode, which helps me get a good night's sleep.

I don't take collagens and greens powders regularly. I will sometimes put spirulina in a green smoothie, but these things aren’t regular for me. The only thing I take on a daily basis is magnesium and if I feel like it, a B12 spray under the tongue, I find it’s quite deficient in our diets these days, especially as a vegan.

Dinner time for me is usually a big salad with heaps of greens and vegetables. I really try to eat seasonal so in these salads is whatever is in season at the time. I always pair this with a delicious type of carbohydrate, I love sweet potato, potato, quinoa, it changes often but there's always a side of a warm carbohydrate alongside the crunchy and fresh salad.

This is definitely something I want to put more intention and self care into. I don't have a regular routine for treatments, but I'll generally do some form of myotherapy every three weeks. This is a combination of acupuncture, physiotherapy, massage and chiropractic alignment which is good for my body maintenance. I’d love to do more massages, saunas and acupuncture but myotherapy is something I do consistently to complement my workout routine.

Yes to both! I try to do both of these things everyday but in reality it doesn’t always happen everyday. I’ve actually done a transcendental meditation course, quite a few years ago once I finished my samidrique and I found it very beneficial with helping alleviate anxiety in my mind, as my mind can go quite fast and get quite racey at times.

I live more in a fast forward mode than in a rewind state so I find meditation and mindfulness really helpful. I find if I sit down to do a five minute meditation I end up pushing through to 15 minutes which is what I like to do. I’ll do anything, from a guided meditation, listening to something on YouTube to some type of manifesting meditation if I feel like I want to use that time to create new intentions and desires, but sometimes I like just sitting in the stillness and focusing on my breath.

Mindfulness is something I try to practice everyday in some form. My morning ritual is where I really get my mindfulness, just focusing on what I'm currently doing in that exact moment without thinking of everything that's on my to-do list. I also find things like reading and cooking help me to be mindful as it's a time when I've finished the day. Exercise also really helps me be mindful, focusing on one type of exercise at a time and which muscles are currently being worked helps me focus on what I'm doing in that present moment, getting me into a state of flow.

I love all of those things so much. When I lived in Los Angeles my eyes were really opened to energetic healing. I have a lot of crystals around the house as well as incense and sage. I love having these things in my home to bring that beautiful serene energy to the home.

In terms of beauty and wellness practices, I’ve done everything from Reiki, Kinesiology, psychic readings, energy healings, sound baths and I really love all of it. I think anything that I can do that helps me align my energy with my intentions is really important.

Another really important thing I try to focus on is letting go, there's so many things that I have learned to try and let go of and letting go for me can be sometimes challenging, but also so freeing. I find those types of energy practices are a really great vehicle to allow stagnant energy that's been brought on by some form of trauma, bad experience, anger or frustration to lift.

Those practices really help me to alleviate that energy, helping it move through, and out of my body. I find they are a really nice vehicle for something like meditation because they allow the bulk of the work to be done, so when I'm meditating it’s more maintenance of that energy flow and movement.

Steph Rice keeps salt lamps and crystals around her home to help alleviate stagnant energy. Image: Steph RiceSource:BodyAndSoul

I don't really do anything on a one off/weekly basis. I stretch everyday before I work out and I also spend 5 minutes after every workout stretching. That's all I really do other than some form of myotherapy to help my body. I’d love to have an infrared sauna at home to be able to do that more regularly because I think those are super beneficial.

This is something I have gone back and forward on so many times. As an athlete, you don’t really have a choice to listen to your body, you’re sort of like listening to your body but at the same time, pushing through a really regimented lifestyle.

I did go in the opposite direction where I totally listened to my body and just did whatever served me on that specific day but I've found that I'm in a hybrid moment now. I always listen to my body like if i’m not feeling well or as energised, or if something is happening in my life that's a bit more stressful I’ll try to go easier in the workout but I won’t necessarily do something to change my routine.

I do F45 classes six days a week, if I’m at home and not travelling, but generally it’s six days a week. I find that structure of the F45 plan really serves me because not every day is high intensity but if I’m feeling a little bit down and I know that it's a hard F45 workout, I’ll just go a little easier on myself, I won't put pressure on myself to push super hard. I find I'm enjoying the accountability and the structure of still going to the class, and still pushing through something but without it amplifying how I’m currently feeling.

Sometimes if I'm not feeling energetic or I'm feeling a little bit tired, what I actually need is a good, solid, hard workout. If I'm not feeling totally well in terms of my physical health, that's a different story, but day to day, we all have ebbs and flows, especially as women, depending on your cycle. I try to keep consistent at F45, six days a week but the intensity of those workouts will vary depending on how my body and mind are feeling.

No. I do enjoy listening to a podcast every now and then but I don’t listen to anything regularly. I will tend to lean into something if I’m feeling like I want more education on a specific thing or topic at that point in time. I love the The Line with Ashley Woodpodcast that's all about reading the Akashic Records, which I also do in terms of meditation. I always like anything around manifesting, solar, Saturn returns, anything astrology or big picture universal. I would say I get my education everyday through my 15-30 minutes of reading that I do every morning.

I use my Apple watch every day to track my stand and exercise goals, calories, and heart rate, especially during exercise in terms of how intense the exercise was. I don’t do any tracking of my sleep, I always just try to get seven-ish hours. If I need to I can get through on five and a half, but also nine! Seven hours of sleep is a nice happy medium for me.

I don’t get a 3pm slump and I’d say that this has a lot to do with my lifestyle. I get good quality sleep and I sleep at regular hours. I think for me, having regularity with my day to day has been a big positive improvement in terms of trying to sleep and wake at the same sort of time, whether it's Monday or Sunday. I used to fall into the routine of having extra sleep-ins and going to bed much later on a weekend which kind of threw my whole cycle out.

I think not getting a 3pm slump also come from my regular exercise routine and nutrition. I eat a lot of fruit throughout the day so I'm not craving chocolate or sweet things at 3pm as I'm getting this through fruit. I think these factors stop me from having a 3pm slump.

Honestly just chilling out. I love having no routine on a Sunday, it’s the one day of the week that I don't exercise as it’s my designated rest day. I really enjoy switching up all aspects of my day on a Sunday so I start Monday looking forward to my routine.

This means I often change up my morning routine or I might not even do it as I don’t want to put pressure on myself on Sunday. Sunday evening for me usually consists of cooking a yummy dinner, watching a movie, lighting candles and cleaning up my space. I love cleaning my home and preparing it for the week ahead .

I don’t really have specific people that I look up to as I kind of feel I have different people in different areas of wellness, beauty, health and fitness that I look up to. For me, there's not one specific person that is in all of those areas that I feel has everything nailed.

I really enjoy Camilla Coelho and always enjoy seeing her content on social media. She is so positive, gracious and has a lot of gratitude for the incredible life she lives. Camilla is someone I feel better for, when watching her content.

I also like Melissa Wood, she lives a really beautiful life.

There's aspects of both of these women that I love and admire and am inspired by. I always try to be the best version of myself and learning from people in those different spaces of wellness/health/beauty/fitness to incorporate into my own life in some kind of way.

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