WEBVTT - Too overwhelmed to change? Start here 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:03.120 Why is it so hard to get real answers about 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.080 your health. If you've been told that everything looks fine, 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:09.399 but you know that something's off, well, you're not imagining it. 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:13.440 That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.720 better understand what's going on inside your body so that 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.240 you can take the targeted action needed. With a functional 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.959 health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:27.160 uncover the root cause of your symptoms. I've teamed up 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.319 with doctor Jasmina and incredible Integrative GP, and together we 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.239 will help you decode your body's signals and answer the 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:38.680 questions such as why am I always exhausted? What's really 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.920 causing my stubborn weight? Am I inflamed or insulin resistant? 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.600 Or missing out on key nutrients? Because when you understand 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.080 your body better, you can transform your health. Visit v 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:52.600 three sixty dot health or check out the show notes 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:58.160 for more. So at the start of the school term, 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:02.560 I put together some new healthy habits for me and 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:05.559 for the family, so you know, really simple ones, things 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:08.319 like I set us a family goal of only one 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:11.160 takeaway meal on the weekends. 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.600 Which is actually a lot harder than it might sound. 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.200 I also set myself a goal that I wanted to 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:19.080 do one yoga class on the weekends. I'm so stiff 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:21.160 as a board, and I just keep putting off yoga. 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:23.399 I love yoga, so I'm like, yes, I can easily 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.640 find a spare hour on the weekend, you know, just 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:30.080 the other ones, the usual culprits of you know, less 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.160 screen time for the kids, etc. So we have been 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:36.800 off and running, and it's been going really well. That 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.760 last week, Tim went away. He's gone away for two weeks. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:45.000 And I got to Friday afternoon and he'd only been 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:47.440 gone at that point, like three or four days. 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:48.640 I've still got a while to go. 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.920 As I record this, he went away and I got 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.960 to Friday afternoon and I was just done. I had 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.080 food in the fridge ready to cook for dinner, nice healthy. 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:02.200 Did I cook that healthy meal? 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:02.720 No? 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:06.160 Did I order chargrul Charlie's over Uberroots? 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:11.200 Yes? Did I get to my yoga class on the weekend? 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:14.959 There was time for it. It was a really busy weekend, 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.520 but there was time. On Saturday afternoon I could have gone. 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:19.680 Did I go to yoga? 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:20.040 No? 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:22.519 Did I lay on the couch and watch. 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:26.600 Trash TV for a couple of hours, yes, And I 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:28.919 just got to the end of the weekend, the kids 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:33.480 had spent more time on screens than I had intended. 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.680 And I just thought, ugh, Amelia, what have you done? 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.880 Like you actually did have all the ducks lined up 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.160 to have a good, healthy weekend and to hit these 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.400 new healthy goals that you kind of set for you 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:47.240 and the family. 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:51.600 But honestly, I just I felt too overwhelmed. I was 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.360 just done. And now I look back and I think, 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:55.840 what could I have done differently? 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:57.440 Was that okay? 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:01.800 Maybe it was okay, but I just thought what happens 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:16.480 when we just feel too overwhelmed to change? This is 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:18.040 healthy her with Amelia Phillips. 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.200 Have you ever had the best of intentions to make 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:25.040 that healthy change, only to get to crunch time and 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:29.440 just feel too overwhelmed or maybe too exhausted to follow through? 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.519 Or maybe you've made the change. You start the year 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:37.840 of so well, You're exercising regularly, you're doing your strength training, 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.800 you're eating your protein, you're eating well, only to get 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:45.320 a few months in and the overwhelm of life just 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:50.080 zaps any motivation you had. This struggle is real, my friend, 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:52.720 I see it, I hear it all the time. I 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:58.080 experience it in my own life. Yet some women do 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.480 manage to strike that balance to make healthy changes stick 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:07.720 amidst the chaos of life. I'll never forget watching politician 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:12.400 Julie Bishop jogging around Parliament House on this cold, dark, 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:17.320 rainy morning before a huge day of media engagements in questioning, 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.920 and remember watching her jogging and then seeing all these 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.400 media clips and this huge day she'd had. 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:25.719 I remember thinking to myself. 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:28.440 If anyone had an excuse for skipping their workout today, 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:29.800 it would have been her. 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:31.520 But what made her show up? 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:35.000 What made her do that early morning, cold dark run 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:39.760 before such a stressful day. What is the answer when 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.000 we are feeling that wired yet tired sense of overwhelm, 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.160 What is going on in our brains? And how can 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.560 we override it or maybe even work with it to 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:53.640 still make the healthy changes that we want. To help 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.359 us navigate this tricky task, I am joined by world 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:02.520 leading habit change expert Gena Cleo. Doctor Gina has a 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:07.760 PhD in habit change. She's an assistant professor at Bond University. 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.440 She's also an accredited dietitian and the founder of the 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.040 Habit Change Institute who I love the sound of that. 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.800 She's written the best selling book, The Habit Revolution, and 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.920 she runs courses through her Habit Change Institute. Do you 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:26.000 really help us transform our productivity, our health, our mindset, 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:30.080 and our lifestyle habits not just short term but long term, 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.520 doctor Gina, thank you so much for joining us Onhealthy 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:34.240 Herd today. 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:37.760 So good to be with you, Amelia, thanks for having me. 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:43.440 When someone says I'm just too overwhelmed to even start, 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:48.240 what is actually going on in our brain at that moment. 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:54.120 Yeah, when we're overwhelmed prefrontal cortex, the logical part of 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.560 our brain, the one that's responsible for planning, decision making, 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:02.120 and self control, it's essentially going offline. We shift into 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:06.680 survival mode. And you know that survival mode makes it 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:11.120 really hard to start something new or to create a 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:15.039 new healthy habit. And survival mode is very much run 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:18.200 by a stress response. It's not laziness or a lack 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:24.120 of willpower. It's neurobiology. The brain is literally prioritizing threat 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:29.400 management over long term goal pursuits. And that's actually a 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.440 really important reframe I think for so many of us 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:34.680 who can be a little bit hard on ourselves. 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.040 Oh my God, I love that, Like I've just had 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:42.520 a full brain unlock when you said that that this 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:47.720 is actually a stress response, and to think of it 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.600 in that way straight away from me, because I've had 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.480 such a raw experience of it. It's literally, we're recording 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:56.240 this on a Monday, and I'm talking to you about 0:06:56.279 --> 0:07:00.240 something that happened yesterday. Over this last weekend, I have 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.640 had a lot of shame around it, you know, because 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.800 of my expectations not being met. But when you just 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.680 said it's actually a stress response straight away, I go, oh, 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:12.600 poor darling, poor me, How good. 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.640 I'm so glad to give you that gift because I 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.720 really do see it like that, that self compassion, that 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:21.920 understanding of our brain, I think can be the most 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.920 liberating thing. And yeah, oh it's beautiful that. Oh my gosh, 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:27.800 we're like five minutes in and here we are having 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:28.800 a great time already. 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:29.280 I love it. 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:31.680 I know. All right, let's just wrap the episode up. 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:32.720 Now we're done. I'm done. 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.680 I'm gonna go away, and no, no, no, no, no, 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:40.400 please stay stay because I want to talk about overwhelmed, 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:44.400 because it's funny. I often think of overwhelm as a 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:45.280 time issue. 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:47.000 It's just like I've got too much on. 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.480 But interestingly, and using my example again from the weekend, 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:53.880 I actually can't use it as an excuse because I 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.560 have been very organized and I did have the food 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:00.040 in the fridge, and I did have the time. So 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:04.440 if it's not a time issue, is it a cognitive 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.920 load issue or is it that stress issue that you 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:08.880 were just talking about. 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.560 Yeah, it is mostly a cognitive load thing. You can 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:16.160 give someone a completely free Saturday, like you said you 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:19.800 had time on your Saturday afternoon, but you can give 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:21.320 them all the time in the world and they will 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:25.400 still feel overwhelmed if their mental bandwidth is maxed out. 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.720 The thing with our cognitive resources is it's finite. We 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:33.160 don't have an unlimited amount of it each day. And 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:37.400 modern life like mental load of a family, work, making decisions, 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:41.320 digital noise, all of these things actually drain that tank 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:45.200 fast and like faster than when we were living I 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.720 guess in caves like in natural times. And this is 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:53.320 rarely you know, a real barrier. It's mental space. And 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:58.960 when we have less cognitive capacity, we will feel more 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:01.760 and more overwhelmed, even by the tiniest. 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:06.000 Things in the work that you do. Do you see 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:10.000 and mums in particular, because my audience is predominantly mums. 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:17.760 Do you see the cognitive and emotional load of parenthood 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:25.280 underrepresented and under recognized as a stressor and as something 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.880 that takes up so much load? Because sometimes we can 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:30.440 get to the end of the day, my husband says 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.000 to me, well, you know, so let's talk about what 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:35.640 you accomplished today, you know, in a work sense, because 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:39.240 we work together and sometimes my list is very small. 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.960 But on a cognitive and emotional level, I've you know, 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.720 talked three children off the ledge of a meltdown, or 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:51.320 I've you know, scheduled so many things. Do you feel 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.640 for a lot of parents that that can be really underrepresented? 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:59.920 Absolutely, and it's in themselves. It's not realizing even how 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.680 much self regulation it takes to wrangle three children to 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:06.160 make sure that they're you know, not pulling each other's 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.560 hair out, and that they're eating on time and all 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:13.520 these things. It's constant. It is relentless, and when you 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.080 look at it from a productivity lens, it doesn't look 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.880 like you achieved all that much, but actually it's kind 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:21.640 of like a duck and your little legs are just 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.680 being like non stop under the water, doing all the 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.200 things and doing it while regulating your own nervous system 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:31.079 through it all, and that's huge. 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:33.719 I think the. 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.560 Challenge for a lot of us mums is that we 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:41.160 really want to continue to grow and improve and evolve 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:41.959 as a person. 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:43.280 We've got our health goals. 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:47.040 A lot of us are entering that perimenopause and menopause period. 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.800 So we have these habits that we want to change. 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.200 We want to make new, healthier habits. Maybe we want 0:10:55.200 --> 0:11:00.080 to break some old habits. What's the best way to 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.960 go about this? Like, are we better off just having 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:06.280 a table flip moment and having a clean slate and 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.160 just starting a whole bunch of new habits at once, 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.520 or is that going to be something that backfires? 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:14.640 How do you, as a habit. 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:20.840 Change expert, suggest us mums in this big cognitive load 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:25.520 and stress period of life, tackles this healthy habit change 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:26.600 that we want to make. 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:31.120 Yeah, the first thing is to start so so small, 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:36.000 so small it feels like you can't say no to 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.280 doing it, and when you think of that, make it 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.839 even smaller. Like I worked with someone who hadn't exercise 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.200 in decades and his task was just to put his 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.000 sneakers on first thing in the morning. That's it. That's 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.520 all I wanted him to do. And once he did that, 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.719 it obviously then cascaded into walking out to his letterbox 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:57.880 and then down the road and round the corner and 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:02.079 run the block, and it went to bigger and better things. 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:06.080 But the entry point, like the first time we do anything, 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.480 is usually the hardest, right. It's the first yoga class, 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:10.680 the first time you eat kale, the first time you 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:12.760 decide to put your phone down and get to bed 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:15.080 on time. It's always the first. And so if we 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.520 can reduce the barrier to entry by making that first 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:22.880 step so achievable, that is how we win. That is 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.320 how we move forward. And I would also say, just 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.320 pick one thing. It's so easy to have this like 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.880 list of ambitions, like you know, I want to excize 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.560 more and eat better and save more money and yell 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:36.679 at my kids less. So like there's all these like 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:40.080 wonderful ambitions, great goals. But one of the most common 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.800 reasons why we fall off the wagon is because we 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:45.720 try to do too many things at once, and changing 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:50.080 our habits is all about consistency, not intensity. And so 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.400 when you're trying to do too many things. You don't 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:55.520 get the consistency in there because it's impossible to do 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:59.240 that many things in one day all the time, and 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.640 so you lose use the momentum and the consistency of 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:04.320 some of the habits, and then when we're falling off 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:06.520 the wagon, we feel like we're failures and it's really 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.040 icky cycle. So just focus on one thing at a time, 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.559 write it down and just focus on that, and then 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.080 use a habit tracker every single time you do it. 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.240 Give yourself a little tick on a habit tracker, just 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.480 like you would give a child a tick for or 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.200 like a gold star for doing their chores. We don't 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.720 grow out of that reward learning as adults. So that 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:29.360 little tick gives you a nice head of dopamine. It 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:31.439 feels great, and it makes you want to do it again. 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:36.880 What's a habit tracker? So habit tracker is essentially like 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.840 think of a diary and it's like a grid and 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:42.400 essent to you just write down what the habit is 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.079 that you want to create or do, and you give 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.480 yourself a tick on every day of the calendar month 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:52.040 or year or week that you actually do the habit. 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.800 So it's just like a little like check, yeah, I 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.080 did it. And you use paper based ones, and there's 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:59.679 app based ones. I've got a whole list of all 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.240 the app one of the blogs on my website. 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:04.920 Well, I might get you to pop that link. 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.000 You send me that link, and I'll pop that habit 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.400 tracker link in the show notes if anyone wants a 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.520 fun little app. Because I do agree with you these 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:17.840 elements of positive reinforcement can make a difference. And do 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:22.040 you believe in setting a weekly intention, like at the 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.160 start of the week, kind of sitting down and really 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:28.520 particularly with the new habit, the habit you're trying to 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.200 make or the habit you're trying to break, consciously going okay, 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.880 this week, I'm going to put my sneakers on three 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.080 mornings a week or something like that. Yeah, and look 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:39.760 and might that intention might be the same week and 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.520 week out. It's not necessarily have you don't have to 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.640 make it bigger and better every time, but it is 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:48.680 about being conscious about it and aware of it. 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:51.680 So if you have to stick your habit tracker, you know, on. 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.400 Your fridge, or put it the app on the first 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:57.240 page of your phone, if that's where you're going, If 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.480 you can use a digital version. Yeah, you need to 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.000 be aware of but because at the start creating any 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:05.400 new habit, sometimes we forget, We just like get, we 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:07.400 just do what we've always done, and we forget to 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.200 do the thing that we actually said we would do. 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.320 So those little reminders do help those little intentional moments. 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.960 But once it starts becoming more organic and more natural, 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:18.080 you probably. 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.880 Don't need to set the intention every week. Again, Yeah, 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:26.400 because I've heard that a huge proportioning possibly even up 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:30.520 to forty or fifty percent of our daily habits are habitual. 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:35.520 And so once something shifts from that new into the 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:40.120 habitual category, that's when it becomes effortless or at least 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.400 not as effortful. So I imagine if you've been doing 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:45.960 the same thing now for a few weeks, hopefully that 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:48.160 kind of ticks the box of being Okay, well, now 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:48.840 this is a habit. 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:49.720 I'll move on to. 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:54.320 Something like For me, exercise totally easy. I wake up, 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.920 I exercise my five days a week, no problem. Adding 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:01.440 a yoga class on a Saturday that's totally new to me. 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.760 I'm still getting my head around the yoga places I'm 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:08.040 going to. Where's my yoga MAT's dusty in the garage. 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.040 It's still it requires the effort, But get me to 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.120 a five am CrossFit class and I'm there with bells on. 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.600 That's exactly it. And it's actually up to seventy percent 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:21.720 of everything we do every day is completely habitual and 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.960 trying to do something new use as cognitive energy, right, 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.600 uses mental resources, and so when we're overwhelmed or exhausted, 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.040 that's the last thing we want to do. It feels 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:33.440 like too much sometimes. 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:38.640 Why is it so hard to get realancewers about your health? 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.480 If you've been told that everything looks fine, but you 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:45.000 know that something's off, well, you're not imagining it. That's 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.720 why I created Vitality three sixty to help you better 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.880 understand what's going on inside your body so that you 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.480 can take the targeted action needed. With a functional health 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.480 approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to uncover 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:02.240 the root cause of your symptoms. I've teamed up with 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:06.840 Doctorasmina and incredible Integrative GP and together we will help 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:10.280 you decode your body's signals and answer the questions such 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:14.240 as why am I always exhausted? What's really causing my 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:18.760 stubborn weight? Am I inflamed or insulin resistant or missing 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.440 out on key nutrients? Because when you understand your body better, 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:25.879 you can transform your health. Visit V three to sixty 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:31.679 dot health or check out the show notes for more. So, 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:35.320 then what's the answer when we are in this busy 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:40.160 season of life and we do have a lot going on, 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:45.960 how do we navigate this tricky time of trying to 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:49.359 make these healthy habits but they're not wanting to add 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.520 to the stress and the load of it all. It 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:54.440 feels like such a delicate balance. 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.879 It definitely is. And you know, I actually say to people, 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.919 when you're really stressed, I don't think it's a very 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:04.440 good time to create new habits because those two parts 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:06.639 of our brain don't work at the same time, the 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:11.240 learning centers and the stress centers. They don't work simultaneously. 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.159 So if you're really really stressed, your learning centers are 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:16.920 shut down. You are in survival mode. So if it's 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:20.720 more like an overwhelm or you feel stuck, exhausted, a 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:24.240 little bit behind, then I would say to just stop. Seriously, 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:28.960 just pause, do a cognitive offload, write down everything that's 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:32.640 taking up mental space, and then ask yourself, what's the 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.160 one health behavior that we have the biggest ripple effect 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:40.280 on everything else. Usually it's going to be sleep. I 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:41.000 was just. 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.400 Thinking that, and interestingly, it's what I have been struggling 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.280 with that just this last week because hab he's been away, 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:49.080 I've been having to go to bed a lot later, 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:53.119 and I'm like, is it any coincidence that my sleep 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.720 has not been good and therefore, yeah, my care factor disappeared. 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:58.680 It's not coincidence at all. 0:18:58.960 --> 0:18:59.200 Yeah. 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:01.280 I mean when you don't sep well, I feel like 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:05.320 nothing goes well. Yeah, Like we just can't emotionally regulate 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:08.320 as well. We're craving foods that we don't normally crave. 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.320 We're less active, We're literally like our body will be less. 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:14.959 We just want to sit down more because we're just 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.520 more tired. We just get less shits about anything. Really, 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:22.359 We're just like just like just getting through it. So 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.080 I would definitely, I've been sleep is like the most 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.640 underrated health habit ever. But I would just pick You'd 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.119 pick that one thing, not a whole program and not 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:34.280 a big plan, just one thing, and that's going to 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:39.040 be your entry point back into that looking after yourself again. 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.080 And if you're feeling a little bit strung out like 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:45.560 I am at the moment, then, is what you're saying, 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:47.960 Sleep's a great place to start because if you take 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:54.359 that little bit of cognitive effort and organization to go 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.879 to bed earlier, for example, that for me is my 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.320 fix when it comes to sleep, that will hopefully then 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.560 have a ripple effect once I've slept well for a 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:08.080 few nights to then give me the motivation and the 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:11.440 energy to maybe make some other changes or at least 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:13.840 not feel so overwhelmed you feel like that's the best 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:15.760 bang for buck exactly. 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:19.040 That's exactly it. It has got such a nice ripple effect, 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.440 and it happens organically, you don't have to force it. 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.800 And just circling back to that tiny habits approach that 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:30.600 you're talking about. The example you gave was just putting 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.720 your active where on, just putting your sneakers on and 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:34.720 seeing where that goes. 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.000 Can it also play out across the week. 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:43.680 So, for example, say someone's trying to eat less sugar 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:48.679 or trying to prevent that after dinner snacking, and the 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:52.840 thought of doing that forever every single night just feels 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:57.080 like it's too much. Would a tiny method of that 0:20:57.119 --> 0:20:58.800 be I'm just going to do it on a Monday 0:20:58.840 --> 0:20:59.680 and Tuesday night. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:01.280 Alcohol is another example. 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:02.600 I'm just not going to drink on a Monday and 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.000 a Tuesday night for someone that drinks seven nights a week. 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:10.640 Is that another example of kind of bringing these habits 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:12.240 down to their simplest forms. 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:16.280 Spot on. Yeah, it could be reducing the frequency that 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.160 you do it. It could be the intensity. So I'm 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:21.600 going to drink less each night, or I'm going to 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:25.320 drink less on these two nights. It's really just about 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:27.440 doing a tiny bit less of the habit you don't 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:29.600 want to do, or a tiny bit more of the 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:32.640 habit that you do want to do. Rather than looking 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.920 at overhauling you know, your whole life, well, the whole 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.199 habit itself. It's just about these subtle, little shifts that 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.280 are just gentle. They don't feel like they're doing much, 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:44.640 but they really are. They are telling your brain I'm 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:48.560 someone who shows up, who can look after myself, who 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:50.640 does the things that I say that I will do, 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:54.879 And that sense of the change of identity is really powerful. 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:57.840 It's so good to hear you say this because I think, 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:03.960 particularly with our diet and eating, there is a lot 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:07.119 of all or nothing mentality going on, where it's like, Okay, 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:09.960 I'm on the diet, I'm on this eating pattern, and 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.040 everything is going to change my breakfast, my lunch, my dinner, 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:16.600