Speaker 1: Oh get a welcome to healthy Ish, your podcast from
Speaker 1: Body and Soul. I am your host at Felicity Harley
Speaker 1: and today I'm joined by the delightful nutritional biochemist and
Speaker 1: women's health expert from a home in Queensland, Doctor Libby Weaver,
Speaker 1: to discuss all things energy. Yes, she is going to
Speaker 1: help you feel more energized in twenty twenty five. Today
Speaker 1: we discuss well. Doctor Libby gives us the lowdown on
Speaker 1: the biochemical pathways of energy production and shares her insights
Speaker 1: on maintaining energy through all sorts of ways, sleep, nutrition, mindfulness,
Speaker 1: and also we discuss the impact of iron deficiency on
Speaker 1: overall vitality and confidence. I always love chatting to doctor
Speaker 1: Libby and I know you are going to enjoy this
Speaker 1: interview as well. Doctor Libby, thank you for coming on
Speaker 1: healthy Ish again.
Speaker 2: How are you well? Listening on? Really well?
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me join you. Oh
Speaker 1: it's joyous. I always love chatting to you. Now tell
Speaker 1: me how are you attempting staying healthy ish this year?
Speaker 1: Give me one or two habits you're focusing on.
Speaker 2: Well. I've always been obsessed with.
Speaker 3: Light and in previous years I've closed my laptop and
Speaker 3: watched the sunset.
Speaker 2: That was one of my little rituals. I like that.
Speaker 3: But this year, I'm still really obsessed with light, but
Speaker 3: my focus is different. I'm getting up with the sun
Speaker 3: and then every day and then at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, as the sun disappears, I'm turning all of
Speaker 3: the lights in my home to be really dim and
Speaker 3: have a really yellow gloss. I've changed light globes and
Speaker 3: everything's very warm and yellow rather than cool blue light.
Speaker 3: And it's actually ridiculous the difference of my personal experience
Speaker 3: and my nervous system and the calm. But also I
Speaker 3: just really notice how relaxed I feel and way more
Speaker 3: ready for bed. That's a shift, a big focus on light,
Speaker 3: trying to live more with those rhythms that nature guides
Speaker 3: us with. And the other one I started the new
Speaker 3: you really committed to having an organic daily greens powder,
Speaker 3: so and I notice a real difference with my energy
Speaker 3: when I do that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, just back to the light.
Speaker 1: I think it's really interesting to talk about that because
Speaker 1: I feel like this is an emerging era of science.
Speaker 1: I feel like the gut health was maybe the last
Speaker 1: five years and the next five years are all going
Speaker 1: to be about light. What time are you getting up
Speaker 1: and then what time do you actually go to bed?
Speaker 3: So I get up at five in the morning and
Speaker 3: go to bed usually about it quarter.
Speaker 2: To nine, nine o'clock. I love a lot of sun.
Speaker 3: And I really apologize to listeners who have young children
Speaker 3: who right now want to punch me in the face.
Speaker 1: At the sound of because most of us with young
Speaker 1: children are up at five am anyway, although I might
Speaker 1: a bit older now, but you're up at five am
Speaker 1: when they get up at five am, and then I'm
Speaker 1: like crawling into bed at nine pm, so we match.
Speaker 3: But it's and obviously when when slend is a real
Speaker 3: struggle for people with little with little children, I think
Speaker 3: it's really important to remember that they're young for such
Speaker 3: a short amount of time in your very long life,
Speaker 3: and they're very long life, and then it won't last.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's my that's they're my rough times.
Speaker 1: So the biggest impacts have been on your energy levels?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, very much so. And a real feeling of
Speaker 3: not just energy in my brain and in my eye
Speaker 3: what I describe as energy in my eyeballs and the
Speaker 3: clarity of vision, but I can feel it in my muscle.
Speaker 3: So when I exercise, yeah, there's a I can really
Speaker 3: feel the energy reserves there just from those shifts.
Speaker 2: So it really.
Speaker 3: Reminds me that really small changes can have a big impact.
Speaker 2: And obviously everything's individual.
Speaker 3: Not everyone will notice a difference with those things, but
Speaker 3: it's finding your things. And I think it's good to
Speaker 3: remember that there's a voice inside us that has our back.
Speaker 3: And you know, we're forever looking outside of ourselves for
Speaker 3: advice and information and that can feel over welming at times,
Speaker 3: but we also have a great inner knowing and sometimes
Speaker 3: when you just get a little tap on the shoulder,
Speaker 3: why don't you try this and lead you out a
Speaker 3: really rewarding path.
Speaker 2: And that is so true.
Speaker 1: And even just the simple act of I mean I
Speaker 1: just dim the lights, like after we have dinner, I
Speaker 1: just all our lights go dim. And that is such
Speaker 1: an easy thing that's now in the habit of everyone.
Speaker 1: If I don't do it, you know, someone will say,
Speaker 1: mummy going.
Speaker 2: To dim the lights.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, got dim the lights, and it just brings
Speaker 1: the energy of the house down for bedtime.
Speaker 2: Say isn't that gorgeous? Yet? Love that I'm the same now.
Speaker 1: There are obviously many other factors that can come into
Speaker 1: play when we talk about energy and boosting our energy.
Speaker 1: Now through your biochemical lens, talk to us about what's
Speaker 1: going on in our bodies when we feel that, oh
Speaker 1: it's heinous, low energy.
Speaker 3: Really, so it can come felicity from a lot through
Speaker 3: a lot of different pathways if we sort of focus
Speaker 3: on biochemistry for a sec So, the way the body
Speaker 3: creates energy inside of itself is through the generation of
Speaker 3: what's called ATP, which stands for a big, silly science
Speaker 3: y word triphosphate. That's cellular energy and it powers every
Speaker 3: little selling our body to do its work and then
Speaker 3: we get to enjoy the benefits of that.
Speaker 2: So, if you.
Speaker 3: Can imagine that when you consume your food, your macronutrients,
Speaker 3: your proteins, if fatsy carbs, imagine that as you digest them,
Speaker 3: they're all fed down a funnel and that funnel then
Speaker 3: pushes those macronutrients into a biochemical pathway called the CREB cycle.
Speaker 2: Some people would know it as the TCA cycle.
Speaker 3: Name doesn't matter, but imagine it's like a circle and
Speaker 3: that cycle is spinning around and the food that gets
Speaker 3: pushed through the funnel and it feeds into that cycle.
Speaker 2: Every time the circle spins around, once one.
Speaker 3: Unit of ATP is generated, but there are about eight
Speaker 3: or nine biochemical reactions in that circle, and for every
Speaker 3: single one of those nutrients are needed.
Speaker 2: And so when we rely too much on ultraprocessed food
Speaker 2: and we're not.
Speaker 3: Getting enough of our just basic nutrition, our vitamins and
Speaker 3: minerals going in our energy production cycle can actually be compromised.
Speaker 3: The macronutrients give us energy, but the micronutrients allow us
Speaker 3: to extract the energy from our food. So one thing
Speaker 3: to keep in mind when we want better energy is
Speaker 3: to think or for me, there's no such thing as
Speaker 3: junk food.
Speaker 2: There's just junk, and there's food it course, throod whole,
Speaker 2: real food.
Speaker 3: But one little shift is just stepping in the direction
Speaker 3: of eating more food and less junk, because there's the
Speaker 3: micronutrients to start in the junk. There's plenty of macro nutrients,
Speaker 3: and we think, oh, I will give us energy, but
Speaker 3: there's no micro very few micronutrients, so that's a shift.
Speaker 3: And then of course, once the food is inside of us,
Speaker 3: one of the key micronutrients for actually delivering oxygen to
Speaker 3: the cells, which is also required for energy.
Speaker 2: The key nutrient for that is iron.
Speaker 3: So the oxygen is delivered to the cells by the hemoglobin,
Speaker 3: and the hemoglobin is inside our red blood cells, and
Speaker 3: for that to occur we need good iron levels. And
Speaker 3: iron is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world,
Speaker 3: including in Austronia, particularly for women across the menstruation years,
Speaker 3: for pregnant women and then also unfortunately for children. So yeah,
Speaker 3: it's so focusing on having more food to feed that
Speaker 3: cycle and check your iron levels to make sure they're
Speaker 3: okay at two reason if they're out of whack, they
Speaker 3: can be two things that contribute to ours the energy.
Speaker 1: Let's talk a bit more about iron and food later.
Speaker 1: What are some other common reasons that perhaps you hear
Speaker 1: I mean, and you've written books on that. You wrote
Speaker 1: a book many years ago on the rushing women's syndrome.
Speaker 1: What are some common reasons you hear that as to
Speaker 1: why women particularly and men, I suppose, struggle with their energy.
Speaker 3: Yes, so there can be this real sense of responsibility
Speaker 3: that's almost like a mental load that bears a real
Speaker 3: burden on us, and that can deplete our energy, and
Speaker 3: we feel like our days are filled with kind of
Speaker 3: ticking off our own to do lists, but ticking almost
Speaker 3: ticking off the to do list of other people, And
Speaker 3: so you can end up feeling like your brain has
Speaker 3: eight thousand tabs open, and as it's almost as women.
Speaker 3: I wrote about this in Rushing Women's Syndrome. Yes it
Speaker 3: was back in twenty eleven, which blows my mind, was
Speaker 3: fourteen years ago. But it's likely triage our problems or
Speaker 3: triage what we've got to get done, you know. So
Speaker 3: you might think, oh, there's a rip in the rug,
Speaker 3: and I need to get that sorted because someone's going
Speaker 3: to trip on that and break their arm, and then
Speaker 3: that'll become a bigger problem. But then you get a
Speaker 3: phone call from school and your son actually has broken
Speaker 3: his arm. So then suddenly that goes to the top
Speaker 3: of the pile and you've got to get there. But
Speaker 3: then there's four thousand other things that were also on
Speaker 3: the list that you needed to do that day, and now,
Speaker 3: because the priority is attending to your son with the
Speaker 3: broken arm, those things don't get done. So I speak
Speaker 3: with haste about that sort of because I think it's
Speaker 3: how our brains feel, or it's how we think with
Speaker 3: all those tabs open.
Speaker 2: And we can feel incredibly depleted during.
Speaker 3: The day and at the end of the day when
Speaker 3: that's happening, so you can we label that as feeling really.
Speaker 2: Busy or even overwhelmed.
Speaker 3: And when that comes up as a topic for women,
Speaker 3: because I'm all about solutions rather than focusing, let's hear
Speaker 3: the problem, but then let's find a solution. I think
Speaker 3: a couple of strategies can make a difference, and one
Speaker 3: of them is scheduling rather than having.
Speaker 2: To do lists.
Speaker 3: And I know I resisted this personally for a long
Speaker 3: time because I felt like all the spontaneity, not that
Speaker 3: I had a lot of spontaneousness really long, but mentally
Speaker 3: I just thought, this is a ruin any spontaneity that
Speaker 3: can occur during a day if I schedule my life.
Speaker 3: But what I found was when something arose and I'd
Speaker 3: capture it as a concept that needed to be dealt with.
Speaker 2: But then once I popped it in, okay, I'm going
Speaker 2: to do this.
Speaker 3: At this time, I could forget about it, Whereas when
Speaker 3: it sat on it to do list, I just would
Speaker 3: round back to it in my mind, I must attend
Speaker 3: to that. And what I found was when I actually
Speaker 3: scheduled laws, more free time, more leisure time kind of
Speaker 3: opened up and that was a great gift. So I've
Speaker 3: noticed that scheduling things can make a difference. And then
Speaker 3: when really genuinely urgent things happen, like a broach out
Speaker 3: with the broken arm that you need to attend to,
Speaker 3: it's I think there's this moment of Okay, this is
Speaker 3: why I have urgency, because I'm going to get to
Speaker 3: the hospital as quickly as I can.
Speaker 2: And we have this little moment I think where we
Speaker 2: can ideally.
Speaker 3: Laugh at ourselves and go, I didn't need to feel
Speaker 3: urgent about the sixty five emails groceries that is actually
Speaker 3: not urgent. So sometimes those things put, we get things
Speaker 3: put in perspective and we can take a breath and
Speaker 3: then start to approach life.
Speaker 2: Just a little bit differently.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like that idea of going, Okay, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to worry about this, you know, whatever whatever around.
Speaker 2: The house this month. Let's do it next month.
Speaker 1: And then you're mentally put it in that compartment of
Speaker 1: next month, and that's one thing I don't need to
Speaker 1: worry about right this minute.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: And it's like and it's accepting that isn't it, rather
Speaker 3: than struggling.
Speaker 2: With that in our heads. You know, one thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, I've also written a book on how
Speaker 1: do I with a mental load? And I've been practicing
Speaker 1: something I think I heard. There's a psychologist who's out
Speaker 1: of Harvard Universe or maybe Stanford anyway, one of them,
Speaker 1: and her name's doctor Ellen Langer, and she she's all
Speaker 1: about mindfulness, and she's all about recognizing three things, new
Speaker 1: things every day and just being in the moment. And
Speaker 1: I'm really practicing being more in the moment, which actually
Speaker 1: takes me away from my mental load.
Speaker 2: I know that sounds like a.
Speaker 1: Weirk kind of connection, but I'm like, Okay, what am
Speaker 1: I noticing right now? It doesn't matter about all those lists. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm noticing the sunshine or And that's just helped me
Speaker 1: shift it a little bit. And also, I think what
Speaker 1: I'm thinking affects how I'm feeling. So if I'm thinking
Speaker 1: and I'm looking up and I'm noticing what's around me more,
Speaker 1: it's just calming me down and perhaps raising me to
Speaker 1: do at the same time, rather being so overloaded with
Speaker 1: the mental load. And then you know, it's like you
Speaker 1: just carry that on your shoulders and you literally do
Speaker 1: a lot of women, you know, complain about short saw
Speaker 1: shoulders and net you carry your mental load. You know,
Speaker 1: what you're thinking is how you feel. Anyway, that's my
Speaker 1: little tip.
Speaker 2: No, and I love that. I felt myself relaxed on
Speaker 2: the inside as you said that.
Speaker 3: And Ronnie Ware wrote a fabulous book called The Top
Speaker 3: Five Regrets of the Dying and as on short books, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's exceptional.
Speaker 2: And she's a very special human.
Speaker 3: Being when and she talks about how when you talk
Speaker 3: to people who are dying and you ask somew what
Speaker 3: they're going to miss the most in the world, they
Speaker 3: tell you the most ordinary things, like the feeling of
Speaker 3: sun on their back, or the night sky, or the.
Speaker 2: Feeling of their dogs fur under their fingertips. And we
Speaker 2: have all of that right now.
Speaker 3: And I think when we let ourselves have what we
Speaker 3: already have, which is kind of what you're describing in
Speaker 3: that mindfulness, in those moments, that when you let yourself
Speaker 3: have what you already have, it gives you this extraordinary
Speaker 3: sense of joy with the privilege of that experience. And
Speaker 3: I think joy gives us and your replaceable depth of energy.
Speaker 3: So rather than always being on the pursuit of things,
Speaker 3: achieving things or fixing things, or changing things or doing things.
Speaker 2: I think that letting.
Speaker 3: Ourselves have those moments as often as we can, I
Speaker 3: think that's great for energy too.
Speaker 1: We'll be back after this short break with more from
Speaker 1: doctor Libby. Talk to us a bit more about nutrition
Speaker 1: and iron. I mean, nutrition is obviously really important. What
Speaker 1: you eat again will dictate how you feel, particularly about iron.
Speaker 1: I mean this is you teld our print. Addition longerg,
Speaker 1: you can also have an impact on confidence. So and
Speaker 1: low iron feeds into this. So perhaps talked to us
Speaker 1: a bit about how low ion affects energy, and then
Speaker 1: and things we can do to help boost our ironstores,
Speaker 1: and then how in turn it affects other areas of
Speaker 1: your life, like your confidence.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Sure, So obviously we need iron for oxygen transportation throughout
Speaker 3: the body. That's what That's one of the big reasons
Speaker 3: why when we are low in iron, energy is compromised.
Speaker 3: But it goes beyond that felicity. So we actually need
Speaker 3: iron to be able to produce some of our key
Speaker 3: neurotransmitters that we know feed into energy and happiness and motivation.
Speaker 3: So we need it for dopamine production. We need it
Speaker 3: for serotonin, we need it for gabba. Gabbas are very calming,
Speaker 3: relaxing neurotransmitter, so iron feeds into our mood in myriad ways.
Speaker 3: It's also needed for thyroid functions, So your thyroid gland
Speaker 3: literally cannot make thyroid hormones without iron. And I've found
Speaker 3: in my cical practice that it was very common for
Speaker 3: women to not necessarily have a full blown thyroid disease,
Speaker 3: although I saw that a lot, but a thyroid that
Speaker 3: just wasn't working as well as it was ten years ago,
Speaker 3: so you could see from hormone levels that its function
Speaker 3: had was headed to become underactive. That would go hand
Speaker 3: in hand with iron deficiency very commonly, and for some women,
Speaker 3: not all, but for some women in that situation, you
Speaker 3: improve their iron status and the thyroid function would improve.
Speaker 3: So obviously thyroid is key for energy as well, because
Speaker 3: every cell in the body has a receptive for thyroid hormones,
Speaker 3: and it's a key driver of metabolism and temperature regulation.
Speaker 3: So iron is needed for almost everything you can think
Speaker 3: about that requires something inside you. Iroon's pretty much needed
Speaker 3: for all of those things. And so then if we
Speaker 3: take that forward into kind of real world consequences because
Speaker 3: it so drastically affects energy and mood and motivation. That's
Speaker 3: how I see it can so very much affect our
Speaker 3: confidence because you think through when we're tired, we're more
Speaker 3: likely to go rab takeaways we drive home from work
Speaker 3: rather than think, oh, yeah, I'm going to cook something,
Speaker 3: and you're less likely to exercise in a consistent way.
Speaker 3: You just want to stay sitting down when you're really tired.
Speaker 3: And then from a confidence perspective, I think when we
Speaker 3: feel like that, when we feel really flat and low energy,
Speaker 3: you think, oh, why would I apply for.
Speaker 2: That job promotion, I'm not going to get it.
Speaker 3: That's sort of the mindset of that biochemical scenario. Or
Speaker 3: you might be invited to a social occasion you think, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't have the confidence right now to
Speaker 3: stand and spend too time.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go. Yeah, I don't doubt I
Speaker 1: don't have enough words left today.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then so that then impacts I think the way
Speaker 3: we also then speak to the people we love the
Speaker 3: most in the world, the people we might live with
Speaker 3: or catch up with, and also our self talk. So
Speaker 3: we're very harsh on ourself. We're very I think we
Speaker 3: can be very self detegrating when we're in that head
Speaker 3: space of lousy energy. So for me, the ripple effect
Speaker 3: of lousy energy is really significant, and I've been on
Speaker 3: a mission for a long time to try to I
Speaker 3: wrote Exhausted to Energize actually book in twenty fifteen about
Speaker 3: that topic. Because the road in to lowsy energy, whatever's
Speaker 3: creating it for someone, we want to address that's factor
Speaker 3: because that will be their road out of it. And
Speaker 3: as you say, for some that is iron deficiency. For others,
Speaker 3: it's what's happening.
Speaker 2: With their thoughts.
Speaker 3: For others it's you know, it could be the quality
Speaker 3: of what they're eating, could be being sedentary.
Speaker 2: Poor sleep. You know, there are many factors obviously that
Speaker 2: feed into lousy energy.
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting with iron too, because often, I
Speaker 1: mean regular listeners of this podcast will know that I've
Speaker 1: gone through my own iron battles, and at the time,
Speaker 1: you don't even think about iron, like we're unaware of
Speaker 1: We're not really educated about iron, are we We're not
Speaker 1: sat down at school and educated about it at least,
Speaker 1: And often you're so tired and you just think it's
Speaker 1: the mental load and everything else that's going on in
Speaker 1: your life, but you don't really stop to think, hang on,
Speaker 1: is it something to do with how my body's actually functioning?
Speaker 1: And you don't go like it took me through years
Speaker 1: to go and actually get a blood test because I
Speaker 1: didn't have time, but wow, it was such a game
Speaker 1: changer when I did. What are you finding, you know,
Speaker 1: with the women that you were with then come across
Speaker 1: when it comes to iron, is it a problem?
Speaker 3: It's so major felicity, and it's just become so incredibly common.
Speaker 3: So so many women are diagnosed with iron deficiency in
Speaker 3: their teenage years or even in their twenties. That's sometimes
Speaker 3: when you first find out about it because with menstruation,
Speaker 3: our requirement actually increases from nine to ten milligrams a
Speaker 3: day prior to that to eighteen milligrams per day. And
Speaker 3: if someone eats in a vegetarian or vegan way, you
Speaker 3: need to times that DII by one point eight, so
Speaker 3: that gets it up around thirty two thirty three miligrams
Speaker 3: of iron a day.
Speaker 2: And it's hard enough to eat.
Speaker 3: Eighteen milligrams of iron per day, let alone thirty two.
Speaker 3: So there's it becomes incredibly common that we just can't
Speaker 3: get enough iron rich foods going in and deficiency starts
Speaker 3: to unfold, and some, yes, some women find out that
Speaker 3: they have it. For others, as you describe, it can
Speaker 3: take years before they actually find out that that's actually occurring.
Speaker 3: But in my experience, what I've found is that for
Speaker 3: a lot of women, they just put on, you know,
Speaker 3: really basic kind of iron supplements, which for some women
Speaker 3: they find it irritates their gut or they become really constipated,
Speaker 3: and so compliance with taking a supplement each day or
Speaker 3: every second day is really poor when that happens, because
Speaker 3: you don't like the consequences. And so, to cut that
Speaker 3: very long story short, I feel that a lot of
Speaker 3: women might have an idea that they're iron deficient, or
Speaker 3: that they probably are, but they don't do anything about
Speaker 3: it because they feel like the sort of the medicine's
Speaker 3: worse than their reality or just as bad, and so
Speaker 3: they just live with being iron deficient on and off
Speaker 3: across their whole adult life, and the consequences of that
Speaker 3: obviously can impact on quality of life at the time,
Speaker 3: but there can also be accumulative effect because we need iron.
Speaker 3: As I said, the thyroid hormone, so sort of around
Speaker 3: midlife it can rear its head and really lead to
Speaker 3: some pretty uncomfortable symptoms. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, the iron tablets made me vomit, so that's why
Speaker 1: I went straight for the infusion. But now for those
Speaker 1: listeners who perhaps have got happy iron levels, are there
Speaker 1: any specific foods that can boost your energy throughout the day?
Speaker 1: I mean, if you wake up, you know, sometimes we
Speaker 1: wake up and we know it's one of those days
Speaker 1: you're just going to struggle through any foods that we
Speaker 1: can eat that might give us a pep up, or
Speaker 1: any lifestyle things that we can do.
Speaker 3: Felici, Yeah, a few things to say on that topic.
Speaker 3: I love that question and it's so practical. So my
Speaker 3: first thing is, let's I feel like we need to
Speaker 3: stop the conversation around super foods and the idea that
Speaker 3: there are all these superstar foods because they're often really overpriced,
Speaker 3: and the Health of the Nation study showed obviously that
Speaker 3: that was one of the big One of the big
Speaker 3: challenges people found was the cost of living. And so
Speaker 3: if we recognize that all foods when I say that,
Speaker 3: I mean whole real foods, when all foods are superstars,
Speaker 3: they've all got really unique things, and so I think
Speaker 3: let's not use the word superfood and just eat food
Speaker 3: knowing that they're all superstars and know that that's going
Speaker 3: to make a big difference to our back pocket and
Speaker 3: then also what we're actually choosing to put into our body.
Speaker 2: But as far as if you wake up weary, what
Speaker 2: are you going to do with that?
Speaker 3: I would tell that person to eat breakfast, not wait
Speaker 3: until lunchtime to eat. Eat breakfast, and if you can
Speaker 3: make that breakfast contain protein, fat, and carbohydrates, and for
Speaker 3: a lot of people, that will just give them that
Speaker 3: lift at least for a couple of hours, particularly when
Speaker 3: they feel like they're dragging themselves around. And if you
Speaker 3: can really be focused on getting some vegetables into your breakfast,
Speaker 3: So whether it is just throwing a handful of spinach
Speaker 3: or green some sort of greens into a smoothie, if
Speaker 3: that's a more efficient way for you to get your
Speaker 3: breaky in if you've got the time though, and you
Speaker 3: eat them, eggs are such a great way to start
Speaker 3: the day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Actually, that's a really good point. So often we
Speaker 2: focus on, oh, you.
Speaker 1: Know, eat X or y to feel better or increase
Speaker 1: your sex life or whatever it is. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: written many of those stories back in the day. But
Speaker 1: you're right, it should be just the whole diet every
Speaker 1: day that we look at, which will actually, you know,
Speaker 1: energize you throughout the week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: And I think to keep it really practical because I
Speaker 3: think sometimes when people hear that message, you know, eat food,
Speaker 3: not junk. It's just it's also about keeping it realistic.
Speaker 3: And think I need just the right amount of mischief.
Speaker 3: So because some people think, well, I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 3: never going to tell people to stop eating hot chips.
Speaker 2: They're delicious. Why would you stop?
Speaker 3: But there's obviously a world of difference with your health
Speaker 3: if you have them ten times a year versus three
Speaker 3: days a week every week, you know.
Speaker 2: Year after year. But you help this so different with that.
Speaker 3: So it's not about not having things you love, but
Speaker 3: it's a bit about how.
Speaker 2: Often you do that. So neat mostly food is my message.
Speaker 2: I like it. Now, just before we go, I wanted
Speaker 2: to ask you about sleep. Now.
Speaker 1: In the recent Health of the Nation survey which you
Speaker 1: just mentioned, two and three people were regularly affected by
Speaker 1: poor sl Yet one of the biggest surprises for you.
Speaker 1: Was it too few took action to resolve it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: tell us about it. I actually found that really surprising
Speaker 1: as well, because I am like a sleep nazi.
Speaker 3: So while I was so shocked that very few people
Speaker 3: are doing anything about it, is because I feel obviously
Speaker 3: when you sleep, when you consistently don't get enough sleep,
Speaker 3: just takes the edge off everything, obviously your energy, your vitality,
Speaker 3: your enjoyment of life, and so to have that quality
Speaker 3: of life impacted upon and then not have something arise
Speaker 3: inside you that says I've got to do something about this.
Speaker 3: That's really concerning to me about where people's I guess
Speaker 3: care for themselves is at. Sleep obviously is a biological requirement.
Speaker 3: We can't fight that. We have to as adults, we
Speaker 3: literally require seven to nine hours per night. And yes,
Speaker 3: so it was actually the Health of the Nation servant
Speaker 3: actually showed that it was millennials who were the most
Speaker 3: likely to do something about it. They were the group
Speaker 3: most likely to actually embrace mindfulness practices, use white noise,
Speaker 3: things that turn the lights down have before been ritual,
Speaker 3: So that was fascinating to me.
Speaker 2: Boomers were more in the survey results.
Speaker 3: The Boomers were more likely to follow more traditional roads,
Speaker 3: like not eating large meals at night, that type of thing.
Speaker 3: But whatever, I feel that when we can recognize that
Speaker 3: we're not sleeping properly, I think sometimes we stress it.
Speaker 2: We can stress about it, and then that makes it worse.
Speaker 3: So rather than that, I encourage people to get curious
Speaker 3: about it and think, I wonder what's leading me to
Speaker 3: not sleep well?
Speaker 2: Because my body is designed to sleep.
Speaker 3: I biologically need this, So get curious about what's interfering
Speaker 3: with that. And as I mentioned earlier, there will be
Speaker 3: a voice in you that starts to rear its head
Speaker 3: that says, you know what, you are using your devices
Speaker 3: way too late at night, and that blue light stops
Speaker 3: melatone and you sleep all ime being produced even though
Speaker 3: you might be still busting to use your phone or
Speaker 3: your iPad late at night. Put it away at this
Speaker 3: time and just start to set up a new ritual
Speaker 3: for yourself, and try not to see it as a rule,
Speaker 3: because I think some people really buck against rules. You
Speaker 3: could just see it as call it a ritual, or
Speaker 3: think I'm just going to have this standard for now,
Speaker 3: or it might be it might be that you've got
Speaker 3: a lot on your mind. And sometimes there's very real
Speaker 3: and genuine stress in the world right now, there's very
Speaker 3: real and genuine stress in people's lives. It's I think
Speaker 3: really important to acknowledge that, Yeah, there's a huge amount
Speaker 3: of stress though, that we create for ourselves because of
Speaker 3: how we think. You know, we're worrying about a phone call,
Speaker 3: what we said two days ago to someone and we
Speaker 3: haven't heard back from them since, and so in those moments,
Speaker 3: that's where I think it's really beneficial for us to
Speaker 3: just pause and think, Okay, I'm actually this is coming
Speaker 3: from a really caring place. I care that that person
Speaker 3: I'm worried about. I care that they're okay. But if
Speaker 3: I'm really honest, I also care what they think of me.
Speaker 3: I'm worried that I've upset them or that they think
Speaker 3: I'm a terrible person. And so it's just acknowledging what's
Speaker 3: really there can sometimes help us to settle down and
Speaker 3: calm down and go to sleep. And then obviously sometimes
Speaker 3: we're just breathing in a really fast, short, sharp, shallow way,
Speaker 3: and it's slower, more difromatic breadths that help us to
Speaker 3: activate the calm arm of the nervous system.
Speaker 2: And pop us off to sleep.
Speaker 3: So I think just finding rituals that yeah, resonates for you,
Speaker 3: that you're going to try. But the key is consistency.
Speaker 3: It's not just doing it for two days and thinking
Speaker 3: on that didn't work. Yeah, it's doing something consistently to
Speaker 3: see if that makes a difference for your sleep.
Speaker 1: I think you're right, Like, you know, we all know
Speaker 1: enough about sleep now, we know what we should be doing.
Speaker 1: We know we should be turning the phone off an
Speaker 1: hour before bed. We know we shouldn't be drinking, you know,
Speaker 1: so we know, like at the moment, you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of us are struggling sleeping in hot weather, like
Speaker 1: we know. So it's about identifying those and then perhaps
Speaker 1: working with them and saying, okay, well I won't have
Speaker 1: a drink tonight. I need that qual sleep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, and or just understanding that all right, I'm
Speaker 3: in a peratsch. You know, it might be real genuine stress.
Speaker 3: Someone you love might be you know, terminally ill. When
Speaker 3: that's just breaking your heart and the grief is already
Speaker 3: really palpable. It can be things like that. And so
Speaker 3: it's I think too there are times when we can
Speaker 3: just accept this is weighing really heavily on me right now.
Speaker 3: It's a small price, you know, lousy sleep is a
Speaker 3: small price to pay.
Speaker 2: That's not not doing anything about it.
Speaker 3: That's just recognizing that this is a snapshot, a moment
Speaker 3: in time, but it does. I would also say when
Speaker 3: those things are happening, that's where it's even more important
Speaker 3: to not use the device as close to bed.
Speaker 2: Be really mindful of your alcohol consumption.
Speaker 3: That's going to dislikely disrupt sleep those types of things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, well, doctor Libby, thank you for coming on
Speaker 1: the podcast and helping us feel energized today.
Speaker 2: Nice to have you on. Thank you so much, Felicity.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope doctor Libby has left you feeling energized,
Speaker 1: or at least has given you some advice on what
Speaker 1: you can implement in your day to well raise those
Speaker 1: energy levels.
Speaker 2: That's what we all want, isn't it. Well I do.
Speaker 1: Anyway, if you did like this chat, make sure you
Speaker 1: share the love, tell a friend about it, share the link,
Speaker 1: go on you can do it, leave a review, or
Speaker 1: let me know via dm at.
Speaker 2: Felicity Harley.
Speaker 1: Now, I don't know if you caught last week's with
Speaker 1: Steph and Laura, but as part of our Health of
Speaker 1: the Nation campaign. They are offering a one month free
Speaker 1: access to the kickapp now. If you do want more
Speaker 1: information on that, you can jump online bodyansoul dot com
Speaker 1: dot are you. I will leave a link to it
Speaker 1: in the show notes. I highly recommend joining us for
Speaker 1: the four week challenge. Anyway, thanks again for listening. You
Speaker 1: can head to bodyansoul dot com dot are you for
Speaker 1: any other info. Yes, you know the website, follow us
Speaker 1: on socials, grab our print edition which is out your
Speaker 1: local Sunday paper. Thanks again for listening and stay healthy
Speaker 1: ish