Speaker 1: How many hours a day are you in meetings? How
Speaker 1: much time are you spending having lunch? Are you working out? Like,
Speaker 1: get clear on that and that will help you hone
Speaker 1: in on one What are the things that you enjoy?
Speaker 1: And maybe you love those meetings, which is great, but
Speaker 1: this is also going to help you find where you
Speaker 1: have some room for improvement because maybe lunch isn't on
Speaker 1: your calendar. What are you going to do for yourself today?
Speaker 1: Do you need time to take a walk or to
Speaker 1: journal during your lunch break? Do you need time to
Speaker 1: make yourself a healthy, yummy sandwich? Hey everyone, welcome back
Speaker 1: to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world.
Speaker 1: Thanks to each and every single one of you that
Speaker 1: come back every week to listen, learn and grow. Now
Speaker 1: you know that I love interviewing experts, thought leaders, influences
Speaker 1: and people who have insightful things to share with us
Speaker 1: about our body, our mind, and even our energy and spirit.
Speaker 1: And today talking about a theme that is so close
Speaker 1: to my heart, and I get to talk with one
Speaker 1: of my favorite favorite people in the world who I
Speaker 1: am so excited to sit down with. We're talking about
Speaker 1: our morning routines and I'm sitting down with the one
Speaker 1: and only editor in chief of Women's Health Liz Plus
Speaker 1: and talking about her new book, Own Your Morning. You
Speaker 1: know how much I love mornings. You know how much
Speaker 1: I love Liz have You've been following me and this
Speaker 1: book is beautiful. I feel like I'm opening up a
Speaker 1: ray of sunshine. Like literally, I just want you to
Speaker 1: take a moment to just look at how beautiful this is,
Speaker 1: and every page you turn you just met with real
Speaker 1: great nuggets of wisdom. So while you're listening, what I
Speaker 1: want you to do is I want you to tweet.
Speaker 1: I want you to Instagram and share hashtag on your
Speaker 1: morning and you can tag me and Liz in your
Speaker 1: posts as well. I want to see how you're going
Speaker 1: to start owning your morning after this. Liz, Welcome to
Speaker 1: the show. Thank you for being here, Thank you for
Speaker 1: writing this beautiful book, and I can't wait to dive
Speaker 1: in through with you. Oh Jay, it is so awesome
Speaker 1: to be here with you in person two. I feel
Speaker 1: so lucky and I'm grateful for that amazing introduction and
Speaker 1: just super grateful for your friendship and your support and
Speaker 1: for you being a contributor to this book too. It's
Speaker 1: like it's all happening right now, and I'm filled with
Speaker 1: love and light and happiness. So it's awesome to be
Speaker 1: here with you. You are a powerhouse. You're a leader
Speaker 1: in the health and wellness space. You're a you know,
Speaker 1: you're an editor in chief. You have this huge responsibility.
Speaker 1: But your background wasn't in media or wellness. Your background
Speaker 1: was that you were an investment banker. Yes, and I
Speaker 1: love that about you because it's there colliding of two
Speaker 1: completely different worlds, at least from an external point of view.
Speaker 1: But I'd love you to take us back as to
Speaker 1: Liz at college, trying to figure out what Liz wanted
Speaker 1: to do, yeah, and how you ended up as an
Speaker 1: investment banker. I will go back even further and say
Speaker 1: that an interest fitness and health and nutrition has always
Speaker 1: been part of my DNA. I grew up playing sports.
Speaker 1: I got really into running and training for marathons and
Speaker 1: sort of how fuel could help you perform at your peak.
Speaker 1: So that has always been hugely important to me. But honestly, Jay,
Speaker 1: when I was in college where I was an English major,
Speaker 1: but I also took a lot of economics classes and
Speaker 1: really always loved business and learning about it. Even though
Speaker 1: I was an avid magazine reader back then, like the
Speaker 1: person who spent all her allowance money at the supermarket
Speaker 1: buying all the magazines. Like I grew up doing that.
Speaker 1: It never occurred to me that you could do something
Speaker 1: you love and get paid for it. Like I thought
Speaker 1: work had to be hard. I went through the interview
Speaker 1: process as a senior. I went to Princeton and sort
Speaker 1: of the investment banks and consulting firms descended upon campus,
Speaker 1: and all my friends were going to them. And I
Speaker 1: had enough background and economics and math courses to get
Speaker 1: an amazing job offer. Even at the time, I was like,
Speaker 1: I cannot believe this is happening. You did see that
Speaker 1: I'm an English major, right, But to their credit, I
Speaker 1: think they saw value in somebody with a slightly untraditional
Speaker 1: background and perspective. And then I moved to New York
Speaker 1: and it was like my ticket to come to New
Speaker 1: York City and start my life and be able to
Speaker 1: pay for an apartment and all those things. And I
Speaker 1: learned very quickly that it was not my life's passion.
Speaker 1: And I'm actually in retrospect so glad that I didn't
Speaker 1: land in some job that I was like sort of
Speaker 1: okay with it wasn't that bad, it wasn't that great.
Speaker 1: Like I viscerally knew in my heart this is not
Speaker 1: this is not meant to be my life's work. And
Speaker 1: having that experience and feeling that in my gut really
Speaker 1: catapulted me to start learning about what do you want
Speaker 1: to do and like networking with people and asking everybody
Speaker 1: about their jobs and do you like them? And the
Speaker 1: further I went down that path, the more this crazy
Speaker 1: idea of well I love love love magazines, I love
Speaker 1: health and wellness. Could I explore that? Could I go there?
Speaker 1: It's suddenly the more I learned, the more I was like,
Speaker 1: I think, this is this is where I want to go.
Speaker 1: So fast forward to today. As you mentioned, I'm the
Speaker 1: editor in chief of Women's Health. It's literally a dream job.
Speaker 1: I actually, when I was twenty three years old, had
Speaker 1: a dream that I would have this job. So it's
Speaker 1: I still wake up every day and I feel the
Speaker 1: immense responsibility and just joy and gratitude that I get
Speaker 1: to do what I do every single day. But I'm
Speaker 1: also like really glad that I went down that little
Speaker 1: rabbit hole of investment banking because I have some quirky
Speaker 1: skills that actually are quite valuable in my line of work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: tell us about those, because I think often when people
Speaker 1: are seeking transitions, we almost have this very binary view. Right,
Speaker 1: what I'm doing right now is useless. I hate it.
Speaker 1: It's not what I want to do. It's not my passion,
Speaker 1: it's not my mission. And this thing over here is
Speaker 1: what I want to do, right, And we can be
Speaker 1: very negative and neglectful of the skills, the learning, the growth.
Speaker 1: So I was sharing earlier with you my corporate experience
Speaker 1: at Accenture. Yeah, it wasn't my dream, but what I
Speaker 1: learned was so powerful, the mentorship I received, the incredible
Speaker 1: opportunities I got because I was a part of that company,
Speaker 1: and the great initiatives they had, the relationships and network.
Speaker 1: I have yes back at the company and the people
Speaker 1: that left and are still there, and I look back
Speaker 1: at that and think that's been a strength for me
Speaker 1: in living a life that's truly authentic to my passion
Speaker 1: and my purpose. Totally. So with you, tell us about
Speaker 1: some of the useful skills you brought along with you
Speaker 1: that have been intregral to your purpose. Yeah, Well, just
Speaker 1: as you were talking, I was thinking about my colleagues
Speaker 1: from my early investment banking days, and I'm still in
Speaker 1: touch with a lot of them. They were really proud
Speaker 1: of me and supportive when I completely changed and just surprised,
Speaker 1: but also very very supportive. And I was just thinking
Speaker 1: about how it was a very male dominated group that
Speaker 1: I was in, as finance can be, but the woman
Speaker 1: who led our group was a powerful, compassionate, amazing woman,
Speaker 1: and she was incredibly supportive. I remember walking into her
Speaker 1: office and like taking a thousand deep breaths beforehand to
Speaker 1: tell her I'm going to leave this awesome, amazing group
Speaker 1: and job to go do this completely different thing. So
Speaker 1: I will always just have like a soft spot in
Speaker 1: my heart for the guidance and support and tips that
Speaker 1: she gave me on my way out. She was such
Speaker 1: a like a luminary in my life even at that age,
Speaker 1: and I have gone on to be so lucky to
Speaker 1: have so many other women who have been mentors and
Speaker 1: helped me along the way. So there's that piece of it.
Speaker 1: On the completely opposite end of the spectrum. When I
Speaker 1: was talking about the quirky skills, I was thinking about
Speaker 1: how good I am at excel and building up cell spreadsheets.
Speaker 1: I love them. That's not traditionally something that editors and
Speaker 1: chiefs do very much, but you kind of actually do
Speaker 1: like I now because I'm in the role that I am.
Speaker 1: I very much am focused on the content and the
Speaker 1: creative side, but I also have to look after the
Speaker 1: business and are we using our resources and our precious
Speaker 1: editors brains and times in appropriate ways that are good
Speaker 1: for the brand, not only for our readers, but also
Speaker 1: to make the brand flourish and be healthy. So I
Speaker 1: can pull out a spreadsheet and like run the numbers
Speaker 1: on something in an instant. I've made a lot of decks,
Speaker 1: you know, in power Point, back in the day, and
Speaker 1: I continue to love doing that and love like sprinkling
Speaker 1: magic dust on them and tinkering with them. I have
Speaker 1: also found that when people discover what my experience was
Speaker 1: and where my first job was in my industry, everyone's
Speaker 1: like impressed and appreciates that I bring a slightly different,
Speaker 1: not completely traditional perspective to my work. I think that's
Speaker 1: something maybe for your audience to keep in mind wherever
Speaker 1: they are in their journeys. Is that a diverse perspective,
Speaker 1: And I mean that in all of the ways that
Speaker 1: is really healthy and valuable no matter what you do
Speaker 1: or where you are. Yeah. I read a really interesting
Speaker 1: study probably around four years ago now and it was
Speaker 1: by MT and they looked at employees networks online and offline,
Speaker 1: and they found that employees who knew people who knew
Speaker 1: people who knew the same people had less innovative ideas
Speaker 1: and we're able to bring less creativity to the table
Speaker 1: that employees who had a network that was more diverse,
Speaker 1: where you'd be confused by how they know both those
Speaker 1: types of people. Yeah, And so I often say that
Speaker 1: when I have ideas or thoughts, I often think, well,
Speaker 1: what would a tech giants say? So, what would Mark
Speaker 1: Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs or someone like that think about this?
Speaker 1: And then what would the Dalai Lama think about this?
Speaker 1: And to me, that posite spectrum of thought is where
Speaker 1: I try and work from. So I'm always trying to
Speaker 1: combine strategy with sincerity or assertiveness with affection. And I
Speaker 1: feel like the more polar opposites you can put together,
Speaker 1: the more interesting your work becomes. And so when I
Speaker 1: hear you say that, I love that. I am terrible
Speaker 1: at excel. So even after I'm being a consultant. I
Speaker 1: avoided excel at accentia like the play Yeah, I did
Speaker 1: never did it. I stayed away from it. I stuck
Speaker 1: to my strengths and skills and I did a lot
Speaker 1: of powerpoints and all that kind of stuff. But what
Speaker 1: gave you the courage to make that shift and transition?
Speaker 1: Because you went to an incredible institution, you're almost trained
Speaker 1: to go off and do something in a particular way.
Speaker 1: How did you disconnect from any expectations, any opinions, any noise,
Speaker 1: any thoughts that people would have had, like you're probably
Speaker 1: gonna make less money, you work so hard, all these
Speaker 1: things that you would hear Did you hear them? And
Speaker 1: if you did, how did you deal with them? And
Speaker 1: if you didn't, how did you deal with it for yourself?
Speaker 1: I love all of this and it's it's fun thinking
Speaker 1: back on it because it's been almost twenty years now.
Speaker 1: So for starters, I shared my dream literally my dream
Speaker 1: with a group of strangers who I met training for
Speaker 1: a marathon. I did a marathon through team in training.
Speaker 1: We would get together in Central Park. You know, people
Speaker 1: from all over New York City, all different ages, all
Speaker 1: different careers, but you make great, great friendships. I believe
Speaker 1: when you sweat next to somebody literally and when you
Speaker 1: have ten miles to run together, you've got a lot
Speaker 1: of time to talk about all the things. So this
Speaker 1: group already knew that I was struggling with my happiness
Speaker 1: in my career. But when I remember, I had this
Speaker 1: dream about being an editor at a health and wellness publication,
Speaker 1: and we had a fifteen mile long run that next morning,
Speaker 1: on Saturday morning, and you know, a couple miles in,
Speaker 1: as we'd started warming up, I shared it, and I
Speaker 1: think maybe in my heart I knew that these people
Speaker 1: knew me well enough by now that they would be
Speaker 1: honest and open with their feedback. And I am so
Speaker 1: glad that they were, like, you should do that, Like
Speaker 1: I could totally see you doing that. So this was
Speaker 1: a group of people who knew me through running, but
Speaker 1: they just got it instantly with my personality and they
Speaker 1: thought it. They gave me sort of the courage to
Speaker 1: take the next step, which was then to start investigating
Speaker 1: and talking with people. And like we were talking about
Speaker 1: educating and myself and learning more about the industry. There
Speaker 1: was plenty of pain and struggle, and you know, dozens
Speaker 1: of interviews that didn't pan out, and people that were
Speaker 1: not willing to take a chance on an investment banking analyst.
Speaker 1: And finally it did work out, and it was through
Speaker 1: a ton of hard work and networking and also jam
Speaker 1: I'm going to be honest, it was a lot through
Speaker 1: like some privilege and luck because of where I've been
Speaker 1: in my life. So I don't take any of that lightly,
Speaker 1: and like I own it that I made the trend position.
Speaker 1: And then it was like terrifying, like Okay, I've literally
Speaker 1: put everything on a limb. You know, I'm going out
Speaker 1: on this limb, Like what if I don't like it? If?
Speaker 1: What if it's not all I think it's going to be.
Speaker 1: And it was awesome, like from day one, and this
Speaker 1: is day one when I was like fetching coffee and
Speaker 1: like processing contracts for freelance writers, but just like the
Speaker 1: energy of creating. So my first job in this space
Speaker 1: was as an editorial assistant at Self magazine in the
Speaker 1: fitness department, and it was just amazing. From the story,
Speaker 1: like sparks were flying. I was happy. Yes, I was
Speaker 1: doing a lot of grunt work, but I was learning
Speaker 1: so much and I was willing to roll up my
Speaker 1: sleeves and be the one who didn't know and hadn't
Speaker 1: gone through the internships and all of that. One last
Speaker 1: thing I'll say is that you've heard me talk about
Speaker 1: my husband Matt before, and we have a crazy, chaotic life.
Speaker 1: He's got a big, full time job, we have three children,
Speaker 1: we have a puppy at home. Like rewind back to
Speaker 1: twenty three ash year old Liz who was called compleating
Speaker 1: this change, and Matt and I've been together since our
Speaker 1: senior year of college, so he's we've known each other
Speaker 1: since we were eighteen. We were in Latin one oh
Speaker 1: four together on day one of college. Matt was very
Speaker 1: much of the mind that like, don't think about the salary.
Speaker 1: If you love this as much as I think you're
Speaker 1: going to, and you think you're going to, that's all
Speaker 1: going to work out eventually. So having the support of
Speaker 1: a partner who loved me and knew me and cared
Speaker 1: about me and was like, you've got this, you can
Speaker 1: do this. I know it's scary, I know it's a
Speaker 1: lot less money, but take the next step. That was
Speaker 1: hugely impactful and helpful. Thank you for sharing that with us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love hearing that it's I think it's so refreshing
Speaker 1: to hear about that where we can hold space for
Speaker 1: our partners, and we can create space for people to
Speaker 1: become who they want to be, rather than feel pressured
Speaker 1: to or shoehorned into something else. And even though you
Speaker 1: mentioned privilege and luck, I do also believe that you
Speaker 1: know there is a lot to be said for doing
Speaker 1: the grunt work. Often if there's privilege, there's a feeling
Speaker 1: of I shouldn't be doing this, But it sounds like
Speaker 1: in your journey you've actually done a lot of that
Speaker 1: and being okay with that. Let's speak about that for
Speaker 1: a second, because I feel the same way that there
Speaker 1: isn't a substitute for that. And often our dream job
Speaker 1: or passion is on the other side of some grunt
Speaker 1: work that feels beneath us, even though I don't think
Speaker 1: anything's beneath anyone. But often that perception is actually what
Speaker 1: limits people. And I feel that more and more today
Speaker 1: than ever before, where there is a certain disconnect. Tell
Speaker 1: us about how you made that fun or how you
Speaker 1: made it meaningful, or how you felt at the end
Speaker 1: of a day of getting coffees and doing contracts, But
Speaker 1: how did you keep going because now you're at the
Speaker 1: top of the chain, but you started at the bottom.
Speaker 1: So how did you keep feeling that momentum at every
Speaker 1: stage because you don't get to the top in a
Speaker 1: year or even five now, so now it takes a minute.
Speaker 1: It was very much about feeling the vibes and the
Speaker 1: energy of that office. And I was fortunate enough to
Speaker 1: work at a place that the most junior of editors
Speaker 1: were allowed to come into the brainstorm meetings and see
Speaker 1: and hear things that it is. And I was just
Speaker 1: sort of like so bold and courageous of like pitching stories.
Speaker 1: And I remember waving my hand like six months in
Speaker 1: saying I haven't I you know, I have this feature
Speaker 1: story idea. Those are the big, long stories with lots
Speaker 1: of pictures in the middle of the magazine. And I
Speaker 1: know it's crazy, I know I'm brand new here, but
Speaker 1: I actually want to be the one to write it,
Speaker 1: and my boss let me do it. I mean it
Speaker 1: took a ton of handholding. And by no means did
Speaker 1: that mean I was like ready to be promoted to
Speaker 1: senior editor because I'd pinned a feature. But working toward
Speaker 1: and having those moments or opportunities was enough to keep
Speaker 1: the ark and the energy alive, and so to kind
Speaker 1: of bring it full circle. Since now I'm at a
Speaker 1: different point in my career, I try very hard to
Speaker 1: keep that in mind with my awesome team members and
Speaker 1: try to nurture an environment where, no matter where you
Speaker 1: are on the totem pole or the masthead, that every
Speaker 1: single one of us has something to contribute and a
Speaker 1: great idea is like embedded in each of their brains.
Speaker 1: And also to give them access to things that are
Speaker 1: interesting to them, even if it's not quote unquote part
Speaker 1: of their like you know, little box job description. So
Speaker 1: I'm trying to pay that forward because that was really
Speaker 1: helpful to me in my career, and I'm sure you
Speaker 1: feel this way too. Just because we are where we
Speaker 1: are in our professional careers doesn't mean that we're not
Speaker 1: still rolling up our sleeves and doing the groundwork. Like
Speaker 1: a few years ago, when I started at Women's Health,
Speaker 1: I was only overseeing the print side of the brand,
Speaker 1: and we integrated print and digital, and then I began
Speaker 1: overseeing the website, social media, video, all the things. And
Speaker 1: I had experience in the digital space from my previous
Speaker 1: few jobs. But when that formally went into effect. I
Speaker 1: actually asked to like build stories in the in our
Speaker 1: CMS system and go through the SEO training and like
Speaker 1: get the like one oh one and to experience what
Speaker 1: it was like to be in the system. And I'm
Speaker 1: not like trying to pat myself on the back, but
Speaker 1: I think it's important to as leaders to remember what
Speaker 1: like the nuts and bolts are like on the ground level.
Speaker 1: I think it gives me more sensitivity and compassion for
Speaker 1: what every single team member is going through every day.
Speaker 1: And it's also just a good reminder that we all
Speaker 1: have so much to learn and there's there's plenty of
Speaker 1: sweat left, you know, no matter where we are in
Speaker 1: our careers. Yeah, thank you so much for opening up
Speaker 1: about that, because I love what you just said. That
Speaker 1: sweat is in every stage of the journey. There is
Speaker 1: no substitute forever, forget just the beginning. It's never going
Speaker 1: to go away. But at the same time, I think
Speaker 1: for a lot of us, we need to find the
Speaker 1: meaning in the sweat early on when you feel the
Speaker 1: sweat isn't in stuff you care about. So I think
Speaker 1: you've really gave a lot of people are listening today,
Speaker 1: hopefully a lot more motivation and inspiration to stick with
Speaker 1: it because you have to look at it that you
Speaker 1: have to look at it. You have to play the
Speaker 1: long game. You have to look at the long term
Speaker 1: when you're in those situations. Now, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about your book on Your Mourning, which is what we're
Speaker 1: discussing today. I want to before we dive into the book,
Speaker 1: which I really hope everyone's going to get after listening
Speaker 1: to this episode, is let's talk about when did mornings
Speaker 1: become a thing that you thought were important? Because people
Speaker 1: can be mourning people, and we'll talk about what it
Speaker 1: means to be a morning person discovering that your mourning
Speaker 1: is a powerful time to set up a successful day.
Speaker 1: When did that happen for you and what was it
Speaker 1: that made you convinced that owning your mourning had to
Speaker 1: be important. Yes, So this is definitely been a journey
Speaker 1: for me and lots of experimentation to arrive at the
Speaker 1: point where I am now. But I'm actually going to
Speaker 1: go back in time to that that first job we
Speaker 1: were just talking about a few minutes ago, in investment banking.
Speaker 1: That was a job where anything could happen. And I
Speaker 1: feel like a lot of people can relate. No matter
Speaker 1: what industry you're in, anything could happen during the day.
Speaker 1: A deadline could be thrown on my desk at five pm,
Speaker 1: a friend would invite me to an event like the
Speaker 1: possibilities of the day, both good and bad, were endless.
Speaker 1: And I learned very quickly that so sweat a workout
Speaker 1: is an essential part of my day, has been since
Speaker 1: I was a kid. But I learned that if I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to hit the gym on my walk home
Speaker 1: from work tonight, maybe up to nine out of ten
Speaker 1: times something would happen. I would get derailed, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to get there, and then the perpetual, like
Speaker 1: cumulative effect of not getting that workout something that powers
Speaker 1: me up makes me feel clear and calm and confident.
Speaker 1: I felt like, oh, so blah, you know, within like
Speaker 1: a week of starting that job. It's not rocket science.
Speaker 1: But I was like, Oh, I get it. I have
Speaker 1: to set my alarm clock for way earlier and get
Speaker 1: to get myself to the gym and showered, et cetera
Speaker 1: before I hit the work day, and then I'm so
Speaker 1: much better prepared for all the twists and turns that
Speaker 1: are in store for me during the day. And I
Speaker 1: cannot control what happens during the day, none of us
Speaker 1: really can. But we can, for the most part, control
Speaker 1: what happens in our mornings. And so that was the
Speaker 1: beginning for me that I when I got in my
Speaker 1: workout and did the things that powered me up in
Speaker 1: the morning, the whole rest of my day went a
Speaker 1: million times better. And I've sort of been hacking this
Speaker 1: over time and researching it and learning about it, and
Speaker 1: it's been a life's passion for me, and that's so
Speaker 1: that's my So now I'm a very early riser. I
Speaker 1: don't run a marathon every morning, but I do have
Speaker 1: little microactions. I take that nod to the things that
Speaker 1: are most important to me, and I'm a much better
Speaker 1: human the rest of the day because of it. I
Speaker 1: love it. I love and now the first chapter. I
Speaker 1: love the title. When I first saw this, and you
Speaker 1: very emphatically say to everyone you are a morning person, yes,
Speaker 1: And I know a lot of people hear that and go, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not, because there's such a cynicism around or not
Speaker 1: even a cynicism, there's just a pessimism around our own
Speaker 1: selves of like, well, I love staying up late. And
Speaker 1: I me and my wife here this all the time.
Speaker 1: My wife wakes up at five am every day. Yes,
Speaker 1: I wake up at six am every day. When we're
Speaker 1: with our friends. A lot of people say to us, well,
Speaker 1: but we sleep at like two am or one am,
Speaker 1: and you know I'm going to be waking up at
Speaker 1: like eight or seven or whatever it may be. And
Speaker 1: this isn't about better or worse. This isn't about comparing.
Speaker 1: This isn't about oh, we're more healthy, or it's not that.
Speaker 1: It's a conversation about what do you want from your life?
Speaker 1: When you tell everyone emphatically, anyone can become a morning person,
Speaker 1: tell us what are the side that someone's a morning person?
Speaker 1: And then what are the steps we can take to
Speaker 1: become one. If we're sitting here going, Liz, I'm really
Speaker 1: not a morning person. Yes, I hear you, and I'm
Speaker 1: so glad you brought this up because you are exactly right.
Speaker 1: I am also an early riser. You know this about me,
Speaker 1: but I wake up at five seventeen. But this book
Speaker 1: is not about like you need to be waking up
Speaker 1: at five seventeen. There is no judgment whatsoever if you
Speaker 1: are in the camp of I actually want to wake
Speaker 1: up at eight am, and that works for me. I'm
Speaker 1: I am with you. My goal is to help you
Speaker 1: make the most of the time you spend after you
Speaker 1: get out of bed, to set yourself up for the
Speaker 1: best day possible, and to be honest, Jay, And what
Speaker 1: I hear a lot from people is they actually wish
Speaker 1: they could wake up a little earlier. But like your friends,
Speaker 1: they're night owls and it's just not in their nature.
Speaker 1: So yea. So two quick things, as I share in
Speaker 1: the book, I was not a morning person. I very
Speaker 1: much love to sleep in, especially as a teenager. There
Speaker 1: is a lot of signs that suggests that we have
Speaker 1: a chronotype. So you might be more predisposed to enjoy
Speaker 1: popping out of bed in the morning or to staying
Speaker 1: up late at night. So early birds night owls. Some
Speaker 1: people get their rush of energy in the middle of
Speaker 1: the day. The cool thing is it's constantly changing over time,
Speaker 1: So even if a couple of years ago that's how
Speaker 1: you are, or you are there right now, it might
Speaker 1: change just naturally, which is I think interesting. I feel
Speaker 1: like that's partially what happened to me. But secondly, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of things you can do if you
Speaker 1: do want to wake up earlier, to set yourself up
Speaker 1: the night before, and also like what you do when
Speaker 1: you get out of bed, exposing yourself to light making
Speaker 1: Like this is what the book really breaks down. If
Speaker 1: that is your goal to wake up earlier, and you
Speaker 1: think you would be healthier and happier for it, this
Speaker 1: book can help you do that. It really is possible.
Speaker 1: I think also when people think about becoming a morning person,
Speaker 1: they think they have to sleep less, right, And that's
Speaker 1: not the thing. That you can still sleep as much
Speaker 1: as you want. You're just going to try and sleep
Speaker 1: earlier so that you can still have that amount of sleep.
Speaker 1: And so I think a lot of people struggle with
Speaker 1: the idea of being a morning person. So I feel
Speaker 1: like I've always been a morning person, but I'm also
Speaker 1: someone who really appreciates sleep. Sleep even though people are like, oh, Jay,
Speaker 1: but you're a monk, can you wake up? And I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I love sleep. And sometimes I wish I wasn't
Speaker 1: a morning person because sometimes I'm like, I wish I
Speaker 1: could wake up past seven am, Like I can never
Speaker 1: wake up past seven am, and so I wake up
Speaker 1: naturally I haven't used an alarm clock for a very
Speaker 1: long time, and my body will wake me up, usually
Speaker 1: between eight hours to eight hours fifteen minutes of sleep,
Speaker 1: and I'll naturally wake up. When you talk about people
Speaker 1: becoming a morning person, what are some of the things
Speaker 1: that we need to stop doing in order to help
Speaker 1: us become morning people? Is there some of the techniques
Speaker 1: and tools you can share with us. Absolutely, so, you're
Speaker 1: exactly right. As much as you wish or want to
Speaker 1: become a morning person, it's not just like you wake
Speaker 1: up and oh here I am morning person. So for starters,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the night before, which I know is
Speaker 1: a little bit counterintuitive in a book about mornings, but
Speaker 1: I devote a couple of chapters to it. First of all,
Speaker 1: you're exactly right. It's important to know how much sleep
Speaker 1: you need, and that can help you back into what
Speaker 1: time you need to go to bed. I know everybody
Speaker 1: is sick of hearing this, but the truth is, there's
Speaker 1: so much science about exposing yourself to blue light, which
Speaker 1: we get from our devices in the evening. It is
Speaker 1: going to amp up your melotonin production, which makes it
Speaker 1: harder to fall asleep and harder to stay asleep. So
Speaker 1: right there, if you want to have an awesome morning tomorrow,
Speaker 1: you want to have a good night of sleep, So like,
Speaker 1: do yourself a favor, pick up a paper book or
Speaker 1: stop scrolling on your phone. You know, ideally at least
Speaker 1: an hour before you hit the sack. I also talked
Speaker 1: in the book about sleep rituals. I interviewed all sorts
Speaker 1: of sleep experts and looked at all the latest and
Speaker 1: greatest research on this. And there's simple things you can do,
Speaker 1: such as making your room I'm a little bit cooler
Speaker 1: that helps you sleep more soundly. Personally, I like to
Speaker 1: take a shower before I go to bed, just I
Speaker 1: have this vision that it's like rinsing the good in
Speaker 1: bed energy off me and kind of creating a clean
Speaker 1: slate for me to get all the restoration that my
Speaker 1: night of sleep has in store for me. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about alarm clocks for a second too, So I'm sure
Speaker 1: you know this because you're also super into sleep. The
Speaker 1: later phases of our sleep cycle are called rem sleep,
Speaker 1: and that's like where the magic happens and all the
Speaker 1: restoration happens. So if you're the type of person who
Speaker 1: snoozes your alarm button for like an hour or even
Speaker 1: just a time or two, you're actually disrupting that really powerful,
Speaker 1: sacred time of sleep. So I am really encouraging folks
Speaker 1: to think hard about what time do you have to
Speaker 1: get up, Like what's the latest you can get up
Speaker 1: and set your alarm for that, like that is your
Speaker 1: sleep spot and sweet spot, and then back into what
Speaker 1: time you need to go to bed. Those are just
Speaker 1: a few examples, but they will all help a lot.
Speaker 1: They will help tremendously. I love that that's such a
Speaker 1: great piece of advice because often we hear like, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: set your arm half an hour before your ideal time.
Speaker 1: And actually, what you just said is we're disrupting our
Speaker 1: own sleep. Yes, And so I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 1: I think it's unhealthy to set up too many alarms,
Speaker 1: and also the repetition. What we don't realize is we're
Speaker 1: creating a pattern where we don't listen to our alarm.
Speaker 1: And so now that alarm is becoming less and less
Speaker 1: useful because you're so used to just suppressing the snooze button,
Speaker 1: and so it's losing its impact because you reject it.
Speaker 1: It's like someone giving you advice and every time they
Speaker 1: give you advice, you're like, Nope, don't want it, Nope,
Speaker 1: don't want it. No, don't. That person's advice becomes less
Speaker 1: and less useful over time. So now an alarm becomes
Speaker 1: less and less meaningful. Whereas if it only rings once,
Speaker 1: and it rings at the time when you know you
Speaker 1: want to be up, you're going to respond hopefully yes.
Speaker 1: And actually a note on alarm sounds, because rings tend
Speaker 1: to be what we choose, or like that angry bleeping sound.
Speaker 1: And so one other tip or suggestion for folks who
Speaker 1: want to get up earlier just have a more graceful
Speaker 1: entry into their day. Pick a sound that you like
Speaker 1: that makes you happy. I use the chimes on my iPhone,
Speaker 1: but it could be anything. It could be a song
Speaker 1: you love. Start your day with something that makes you happy.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be like a loud, annoying Really,
Speaker 1: what I love about this book list is that it's
Speaker 1: so practical, and I want everyone to see that because
Speaker 1: often when we hear about books on health and wellness,
Speaker 1: there's good ideas and maybe a couple of good thoughts
Speaker 1: and pointers. But Liz's book is full of exercises and
Speaker 1: takeaways and I really appreciate that when I see that
Speaker 1: in a book list, because I just find that sometimes
Speaker 1: we're even like, oh, I've heard that idea before. Oh
Speaker 1: I know that, but that's never been the issue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we know we need to sleep earlier and wake up earlier.
Speaker 1: We know that we need to put our phones down right,
Speaker 1: but we need activities and exercises to actually help us
Speaker 1: do that. And I'm really glad that you put some in.
Speaker 1: Are there any favorite activities or size they're in the
Speaker 1: book that you're just like this one really worked for me,
Speaker 1: or this one really worked for a friend. Could you
Speaker 1: share one with us? The chapter about learning what your
Speaker 1: personal core values are? That one is near and dear
Speaker 1: to my heart. I think it's sets this book apart
Speaker 1: from other publications or books that have dabbled in mornings
Speaker 1: because to your point when we first started this conversation,
Speaker 1: my goal is not to get you up at five
Speaker 1: seventeen am like I do. My goal is to make
Speaker 1: your morning more magical. And what I learned is that
Speaker 1: when you are really clear on what your values are
Speaker 1: and what fills you up and lights you up, and
Speaker 1: then when you can actually take little microactions nodding toward
Speaker 1: them every single morning. You are just prepared in ways
Speaker 1: you cannot even imagine to be a better parent, employee, pet, parent, like, sister, brother, friend,
Speaker 1: all the things. So there's one exercise in that core
Speaker 1: values chapter. I mean, I take you through several activities
Speaker 1: to sort of hone in and on what they are
Speaker 1: for you. But the one I think is simplest and
Speaker 1: fastest you could even open up your phone right now
Speaker 1: or your computer right now and do it without having
Speaker 1: to put pen to paper is to take a calendar
Speaker 1: inventory and look at where you're spending your time. How
Speaker 1: many hours a day are you in meetings? How much
Speaker 1: time are you spending having lunch? Are you working out?
Speaker 1: Like get clear on that and that will help you
Speaker 1: hone in on like one, what are the things that
Speaker 1: you enjoy? And maybe you love those meetings, which is great.
Speaker 1: Maybe that means collaboration and teamwork or one of your
Speaker 1: core values. But this is also going to help you
Speaker 1: find where you have some room for improvement, because maybe
Speaker 1: lunch isn't on your calendar, And what are you going
Speaker 1: to do for yourself today? You know, do you need
Speaker 1: time to take a walk or to journal during your
Speaker 1: lunch break. Do you need time to make yourself a healthy,
Speaker 1: yummy sandwich. So anyway, that's one exercise that can help
Speaker 1: you get clear about what your personal core values are.
Speaker 1: And then the rest of the book is really like
Speaker 1: choose your own adventure, or you could read the whole
Speaker 1: thing and get ideas. But say, fitness or meditation, which
Speaker 1: I know is so integral in your life, are things
Speaker 1: that you want to add to your morning and they
Speaker 1: align with your core values, then there's advice for how
Speaker 1: to actually bring those to life every morning. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: love that. I want to ask you this because I
Speaker 1: get asked this a lot, and I'm always conscious of
Speaker 1: it when I'm answering the question. And now I get
Speaker 1: to ask you to someone who's actually dealing with this.
Speaker 1: So you're a mother, you're an editor in chief, your wife,
Speaker 1: you play a lot of roles in your own life.
Speaker 1: And I find that, in my opinion, mothers, especially with
Speaker 1: young children, have the hardest mornings. I look at my mother,
Speaker 1: and that's where I remember it from. My mom used
Speaker 1: to wake us up, get a stress for school, me
Speaker 1: and my younger sister. She'd make our breakfast, she'd make
Speaker 1: our lunch, she'd then drop us to school, and she
Speaker 1: was an independent financial advisor at the same time, so
Speaker 1: she was also had her own mini company that she
Speaker 1: was setting up, so my mum was and then she'd
Speaker 1: pick us up from school, make us dinner, and help
Speaker 1: us with our homework. So I'd lived in a house
Speaker 1: with a superpower powerhouse mom that I love in the door,
Speaker 1: and I just saw now when I think about them,
Speaker 1: like how does anyone do all of that? Like how
Speaker 1: is that even possible? And today life's supposedly become easier
Speaker 1: and we have more support and we have more help
Speaker 1: here and there, or we have tools in technology. But
Speaker 1: as a mother, as a experienced professional, as a successful professional,
Speaker 1: how are you getting through your morning? How are you
Speaker 1: still waking up at five seventeen? Or how did you
Speaker 1: manage it when your kids were slightly younger? I want
Speaker 1: to hear about the messiness, yeah, because I think often
Speaker 1: mothers also are the ones that end up judging themselves
Speaker 1: the most about not being there for their kids and
Speaker 1: then not feeling like they can perform, and then feeling
Speaker 1: like all the responsibilities on them too. So glad you
Speaker 1: asked about the messiness because I also want to be
Speaker 1: very clear that although I've got a good thing going
Speaker 1: with my mornings, that does not mean that every morning
Speaker 1: goes as I envisioned that it would without you know,
Speaker 1: a little tornado here, a little disasters filled milk there.
Speaker 1: I'm also kind of chuckling because here we are, it's fall.
Speaker 1: My kids just started the school year again, which is awesome.
Speaker 1: So all three of them murdered. They are yes. So
Speaker 1: for the first time in a long time, on Monday,
Speaker 1: the school bus, you know, it pulls up at eight
Speaker 1: o four am, and I'm like, oh this, I have
Speaker 1: to like get everything together, Like this is no joke
Speaker 1: because for a long time they were doing school from home.
Speaker 1: And you know, if I went to my first work
Speaker 1: meeting wearing leggings, so be it. So I knew I
Speaker 1: was going into my office. I had some reasons to
Speaker 1: be there, so I commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan. So honestly, Jay,
Speaker 1: it was like I had to put all the stuff
Speaker 1: I talk about in Own Your Morning into practice, like
Speaker 1: practice what you preach, Liz, And for that meant doing
Speaker 1: a lot of prep the night before, pulling out what
Speaker 1: my outfit was going to be, having my children do
Speaker 1: the same, having them packed their backpacks. I made the
Speaker 1: lunches the night before, because oh, it's just like one
Speaker 1: more thing, and everybody has opinions, you know, they don't
Speaker 1: want the whatever they with my kids, they're very picky
Speaker 1: jelly sandwiches that I can't believe I'm admitting that. But
Speaker 1: despite it all, despite it all, it was like a
Speaker 1: morning of madness. And I did get them to the bus.
Speaker 1: Everybody got to school, they had lunches in their backpacks.
Speaker 1: But when I got to my desk, my hair was
Speaker 1: still wet, like I was slightly disheveled and frazzled, and
Speaker 1: I did not feel like I wanted to that morning.
Speaker 1: And that's okay too. I knew in that instant if
Speaker 1: I hadn't done the stuff the night before, if I
Speaker 1: hadn't been trying all the tips and tools that I
Speaker 1: write about in the book, this morning would have been like,
Speaker 1: you know, if it was a seven on a scale
Speaker 1: from one to ten, it probably would have been a
Speaker 1: two or three. And that's no fun. And I have
Speaker 1: a job to do that. I love to help women
Speaker 1: live their healthiest, happiest lives, and I have to like
Speaker 1: show up and be ready for that. So my mornings
Speaker 1: are not perfect. I just posted on my Instagram recently
Speaker 1: a reel that was sort of like Instagram versus reality,
Speaker 1: Like you know, me like sipping my coffee, and the
Speaker 1: reality version is like my giant Bernese Mountain dog puppy
Speaker 1: is like tumbles in and knocks it over and I
Speaker 1: have to clean it up so I get it where
Speaker 1: we all that's real life like that that's going to
Speaker 1: happen to each and every one of us. How do
Speaker 1: you make and prioritize time for yourself You're leading a
Speaker 1: team with the kids, a company, Like, how do you
Speaker 1: actually even prioritize and make space for that time. I
Speaker 1: know you woke up at five seventeen as much as
Speaker 1: you can, which is incredible, But how do you make
Speaker 1: sure that that's a priority when you are serving so
Speaker 1: many other people? Yes, it goes back to the heart
Speaker 1: of this, which is mornings are the only time I
Speaker 1: can can really control and to have space to fill
Speaker 1: myself up and to take time for myself. And I
Speaker 1: think it's a lot like what you hear on airplanes
Speaker 1: about how you have to put on your own oxygen
Speaker 1: masks before you can help the person next to you.
Speaker 1: I one thousand percent believe that is true. It's sort
Speaker 1: of counterintuitive, like, wait, what, I'm going to leave the
Speaker 1: apartment and go to the gym and do this Liz thing.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take the time to journal for ten
Speaker 1: or fifteen minutes. I'm going to do all this Liz
Speaker 1: stuff when I have like life and career and people
Speaker 1: pulling on me in every direction. But the reality is,
Speaker 1: once you start doing that, you very quickly see the
Speaker 1: benefits and that you are able to give so much
Speaker 1: more to everybody else and everything else you do when
Speaker 1: you've you've stopped and filled up your own your own
Speaker 1: tea cup first. Yeah, yeah, I remember. I used to
Speaker 1: just keep giving and going and giving and going. And
Speaker 1: then I asked myself this question, do I want to
Speaker 1: give people my best or do I want to give
Speaker 1: them my leftovers? And I realized I was just giving
Speaker 1: people my leftovers. Yeah, but these were people that I love.
Speaker 1: You don't give the people that you love you leftovers.
Speaker 1: And that's when I started realizing that self preservation was
Speaker 1: so important, and my morning was the most important time
Speaker 1: to preserve because it was the only time that was
Speaker 1: truly sacred in mine and I could carve out, and
Speaker 1: I found that even recently this week, I've been thankful
Speaker 1: enough to have a beautiful morning routine. It's almost back
Speaker 1: into flow again. Yes, and I'm feeling all the benefits
Speaker 1: of it. And I'm prioritizing going to bed earlier, saying
Speaker 1: no in the evening, and there's parts of me that
Speaker 1: want to go out and do this thing, and I
Speaker 1: have to keep pulling back what happens. See, here's the challenge.
Speaker 1: When we talk about morning routines, A lot of people think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they must wake up every day. At the same time,
Speaker 1: like we talked about the messiness, how do you get
Speaker 1: back on track? Yeah, because I feel like we all
Speaker 1: get on track, maybe for three days, maybe we even
Speaker 1: do the twenty one days, and it's meant to be
Speaker 1: a habit, it was, say forever, but then we fall off.
Speaker 1: I get on and fall off all the time too.
Speaker 1: How do you get back on once you fall in off?
Speaker 1: I'm very glad you brought this up. This reminds me
Speaker 1: of one of my favorite quotes, which full disclosure, I
Speaker 1: don't know who said it or where it came from,
Speaker 1: but it's really stuck with me over time. And the
Speaker 1: quote is, let's make better mistakes tomorrow. That was like
Speaker 1: my mantra on Monday, as I arrived at work with
Speaker 1: slightly damp hair, was like, Okay, okay, we're gonna learn
Speaker 1: from this, Liz. But I too get off track, or
Speaker 1: I have something happened in the evening and it means
Speaker 1: I can't wake up at the hour I want to.
Speaker 1: I'm always looking for reasons to reset, and the beautiful
Speaker 1: thing is it doesn't have to be a huge life
Speaker 1: transition like starting a new job or moving into a
Speaker 1: new home, or you know, a change in relationship status,
Speaker 1: though those are all awesome reasons to have a reset.
Speaker 1: It could be as simple as the changing of seasons.
Speaker 1: But also, Jay, I think it could be as simple
Speaker 1: as like it's a new week or it's a new
Speaker 1: day tomorrow. You don't have to wait for January first,
Speaker 1: or the changing of the season or a huge massive
Speaker 1: shift in your life. You have the power to choose
Speaker 1: that tomorrow is going to be better and different. And
Speaker 1: I would recommend embracing those moments of like, oh, that
Speaker 1: morning did not go like I wanted it to, or
Speaker 1: I stayed up way too late last night, nothing went
Speaker 1: like I like I hoped it would have a moment
Speaker 1: and reflect on that, like sit with that, and now
Speaker 1: now you get to do something about it, and you
Speaker 1: get to make tomorrow better. Yeah. I love that. I
Speaker 1: think what you're saying so true that judgment and guilt
Speaker 1: don't get you anywhere. When I when I judge myself
Speaker 1: for I guilt myself because this has been such a
Speaker 1: bad week. I'm now just creating more guilt and creating
Speaker 1: more judgment, and then now I'm feeding worse. Now I
Speaker 1: don't feel like getting up tomorrow. It's it's like a
Speaker 1: death spiral. So you're just going to get its cycle
Speaker 1: and it just keeps going. And so I find that
Speaker 1: actually me saying, yeah, I gave myself a week off
Speaker 1: last week, but tomorrow is going to be different. It's
Speaker 1: such a healthier way to move and make progress. One
Speaker 1: of the things I think I love that you talk
Speaker 1: about in this book is power breakfasts. I love talking
Speaker 1: about practical things to actually do eat in the morning.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear the signs about it. I struggled
Speaker 1: for a long time with bloating in the morning, and
Speaker 1: so for a lot of time I would wake up
Speaker 1: and I'd eat really well at night, I don't eat late.
Speaker 1: I consider myself to have a really good diet, but
Speaker 1: I think over time I haven't necessarily been mindful, and
Speaker 1: so things have happened. But I remember waking up feeling bloated.
Speaker 1: I remember waking up feeling no matter what I ate
Speaker 1: in the morning, I would end up feeling, you know,
Speaker 1: just not good. And then finally, and the very recently,
Speaker 1: the two things that solved it. It was celery juice
Speaker 1: and cheer seed pudding. Cool. So cheer seeds in the
Speaker 1: morning and celery juice has transformed my life. I feel
Speaker 1: the celery juice is almost like a cleansing. I feel
Speaker 1: completely clean and internally and fresh. And then the chees
Speaker 1: seat pudding is really grounding. And so to me, that's
Speaker 1: really worked for me. I wanted to hear what you've
Speaker 1: found through the signs of breakfast because I think so
Speaker 1: many people skip breakfast or they grab a bagel on
Speaker 1: the way, or they're eating on you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: we're not commuting anymore, but I think breakfast is an
Speaker 1: untalked about meal or unheard of nowadays. Yes, I love
Speaker 1: the breakfast chapter in the book, and I love actually
Speaker 1: the morning Magic essay that was penned by this woman,
Speaker 1: Kate Merker, who oversees food for Women's Health. There's a
Speaker 1: morning Magic essay and every single chapter but Kate talks
Speaker 1: about the ritual of making toast for her family and
Speaker 1: her kids, and she talks about how it fills them up,
Speaker 1: the smell of it, the ritual of it. They put
Speaker 1: cilantro on it. Sometimes it's with avocado. It can be
Speaker 1: all these different things. And to me, what's so beautiful
Speaker 1: about that story and about your chia pudding is that
Speaker 1: it's going to look different for every single one of us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: That's why I asked, because I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: think everyone's EASi no. And I get asked this a
Speaker 1: lot as the editor of Women's Health, like oh, do
Speaker 1: you intermittent fast or do you skip breakfast? And should
Speaker 1: should I be eating before my workout or right afterward?
Speaker 1: And Jay, there's like there's a study for everything, and
Speaker 1: what it really comes down to is what works for you.
Speaker 1: And you felt ikey in the morning, you felt off,
Speaker 1: and so you probably tried all sorts of different things,
Speaker 1: and that's what you have to do. You have to experiment.
Speaker 1: I will never say to somebody, yeah, you should do
Speaker 1: your workout fast in a fasted state, which, yes, there
Speaker 1: is science that suggests you'll go into the fat burning
Speaker 1: zone more quickly if you do sweat without eating first. However,
Speaker 1: if you feel weak or you can't give one hundred
Speaker 1: percent in your workout because you didn't put any calories
Speaker 1: in your body, then who cares what that research study said.
Speaker 1: It's not going to make a difference. But maybe you're
Speaker 1: like me and I actually I feel like I get
Speaker 1: stomach cramps and I feel off if I eat right
Speaker 1: before I workout. But it takes trial and air and experimentation,
Speaker 1: and it might take trying some different some different foods
Speaker 1: and just seeing what works best for your body. But
Speaker 1: like you, over time, I've experimented with all sorts of
Speaker 1: different meals and the timing of them, and what works
Speaker 1: best for me is making myself a smoothie right when
Speaker 1: I get home from the gym. So this is like
Speaker 1: while I'm making my kids their breakfast, which might be
Speaker 1: scrambled eggs, it might be cereal and apples. It could
Speaker 1: be a little different. Every day. For me, I like
Speaker 1: to have a banana with some peanut butter powder and
Speaker 1: some whole milk. And ice, and sometimes I'll add cinnamon
Speaker 1: or some other anti inflammatories like that. But it's it
Speaker 1: fills me up, it's satiating, it feels refreshing after I've
Speaker 1: moved my body and gotten all hot and sweaty, and
Speaker 1: I feel like energized and ready to tackle the day.
Speaker 1: But it took me a long time to arrive at
Speaker 1: that meal that to learn that, like this is what
Speaker 1: helps me really perform at my peak and all the
Speaker 1: hours that follow. I'm so glad you made that point
Speaker 1: and hearing the editor in chief of Women's Health say
Speaker 1: that it is so refreshing and helpful, because I think
Speaker 1: that's exactly it. That none of us are the same, right,
Speaker 1: none of us have the same goals or core values
Speaker 1: as you said, right, and therefore fat burning may not
Speaker 1: be your priority. Your priority may be feeling good, right,
Speaker 1: Your priority may be getting energy. Your priority maybe losing
Speaker 1: weight or gaining weight, whatever it is, Like, it's just
Speaker 1: your core values and your priority has to be and
Speaker 1: we have to be able to experimenting. I think that's
Speaker 1: what I'm hearing from you. It's just how many different
Speaker 1: types of things have you tried. I remember trying oatmeal.
Speaker 1: I remember trying cereal, I remember trying avocado toast, I
Speaker 1: remember trying just dates and nuts, and finally I found
Speaker 1: a win with this and I feel so good about it.
Speaker 1: And again I don't go around saying, hey, everyone should
Speaker 1: do this. I think you should try these two things
Speaker 1: that I've found to be beneficial, and sealery uses lots
Speaker 1: of benefits. But at the same time, you may have
Speaker 1: it and be like Jay, I feel terrible after that, right,
Speaker 1: And I love that you're just giving us permission to say,
Speaker 1: do you try stuff? Yes, and stop thinking that it
Speaker 1: has to be this way. Yes, well, that is very much.
Speaker 1: The ethos of Women's Health is that we are determined
Speaker 1: to help our readers live healthier, happier lives, and our
Speaker 1: job is to give you science backed, expert based, soundly
Speaker 1: researched ideas and tips and suggestions. But the truth is,
Speaker 1: the magic happens when something resonates for you and you
Speaker 1: decided to try it, and then it unmocks a whole
Speaker 1: new part of you. You feel better, you feel happier,
Speaker 1: and it's going to look different for every single person. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: You talk a lot in the book about obviously your
Speaker 1: journaling practice too, We've spoken about this before, and I
Speaker 1: am such a big believer in journaling. I think it's
Speaker 1: such a powerful practice. My wife as well, oh's journaling.
Speaker 1: She talks about journaling in the same way as you do.
Speaker 1: She feels so connected to it. Yeah, and she will
Speaker 1: often do a lot of free journaling, which you just
Speaker 1: let everything out and everything go. And I want to hear,
Speaker 1: how can someone start a journaling practice if they feel
Speaker 1: scared by it? Yes, And I identify with those people
Speaker 1: because it seemed like just one more thing to take on.
Speaker 1: But I have aspired to journal for many years and
Speaker 1: I this summer it really clicked, like as a non
Speaker 1: negotiable ritual that I do every single morning. And the
Speaker 1: way I wrapped my head around it was by giving
Speaker 1: myself permission to stop after two sentences if I didn't
Speaker 1: have anything else to say or just wasn't feeling it.
Speaker 1: And that was like the game changer for me. And
Speaker 1: I think you can apply that to a lot of
Speaker 1: different areas in your life, like even workouts. I've told
Speaker 1: people just go to the gym or start the workout
Speaker 1: for a few minutes and if you feel just oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling it today, you can stop watch four
Speaker 1: minutes Where did you come along? So four minutes there's
Speaker 1: actually very cool sign. It's about four minutes physiologically, that's
Speaker 1: how long it takes for our body to acclimate to
Speaker 1: the work of a physical exertion. Your oxygenation changes, your
Speaker 1: joints and muscles lubricate you. Essentially you warm up. So
Speaker 1: it's the difference between being warmed up and coming in
Speaker 1: cold and nine times out of ten, when I make
Speaker 1: it to the four minutes point. On those days, I
Speaker 1: just am not feeling motivated and don't feel like it.
Speaker 1: Buy four minutes in, I'm like, but I feel like
Speaker 1: a new person. I've got this, and I go ahead
Speaker 1: and do the whole workout. Same thing with journaling, though
Speaker 1: some mornings I'm like, I don't have time, I don't
Speaker 1: have anything to say. It's okay, Liz, just two sentences
Speaker 1: is enough? How did you figure out too? I literally
Speaker 1: pulled it out of thin air. It felt like short enough,
Speaker 1: like I gave it some effort, but also short enough
Speaker 1: that it didn't overwhelm me and Jay. I have never
Speaker 1: stopped at two sentences. It always goes beyond that once
Speaker 1: you get going. I love those two pieces of advice.
Speaker 1: I think it's so important. We always set like a target,
Speaker 1: but what we need to do is set a minimum.
Speaker 1: M yes. Right. It's like the office is like we're
Speaker 1: always used to saying that this, I want to write
Speaker 1: a page a day, but we don't just say, well,
Speaker 1: let me just write two lines. Right, it's like a
Speaker 1: reframing of that. Yeah, it's a reframing. And actually you're
Speaker 1: so right that you develop more confidence, more excitement, more
Speaker 1: enthusiasm when you break what you thought you were going
Speaker 1: to do, rather than when you fall short of a target.
Speaker 1: So if you even wrote nine lines out of ten,
Speaker 1: that would feel worse. Yeah, then if you stopped at two. Yes,
Speaker 1: I love that. One of my favorite studies is about
Speaker 1: the power of accomplishments and taking a moment to reflect
Speaker 1: upon them. It's a psychology principle, the psychology of momentum.
Speaker 1: When you accomplish something that propels you forward to accomplish
Speaker 1: another thing, and it over time, it raises your expectations,
Speaker 1: but you gain that momentum. So if you are able
Speaker 1: to reframe and say I did it, I did four minutes,
Speaker 1: I did two sentences. Actually I blew that out of
Speaker 1: the water and I did ten minutes and ten sentences.
Speaker 1: Whatever it is that that little perspective shift will be
Speaker 1: extremely powerful and everything else you tackle the rest of
Speaker 1: the day. Absolutely. Yeah. I was watching a video recently
Speaker 1: where one of my friends, Jason Goldberg, he was talking
Speaker 1: about his study in the Olympics, and he was saying
Speaker 1: that people who get bronze are happier than those who
Speaker 1: get silver because people who got silver were so close
Speaker 1: to it, so fascinating that that pains us so much
Speaker 1: that we feel less happy. Was when you got bronze,
Speaker 1: you're kind of happy because I made it to the podium. Yes,
Speaker 1: And so I feel like every day we need to
Speaker 1: just make it to the podium and not try and
Speaker 1: aim for this number one, because when you aim for
Speaker 1: that number one, you kind of just set yourself up
Speaker 1: for I'm not saying we shouldn't aim high, that's That's
Speaker 1: not the point I'm making. I'm just saying that on
Speaker 1: a daily basis, you don't need to be number one.
Speaker 1: You just need to make it to the podium. This
Speaker 1: is going to become a new Los mantra. Make it
Speaker 1: to the podium. I'm obsessed with that. Yeah, it's from
Speaker 1: that study that he shared in a video, and I
Speaker 1: thought that was fascinating. One of the things that I
Speaker 1: love in this book that you talk about also is
Speaker 1: winning your weekend. Yes, And when I read this, I
Speaker 1: couldn't agree with you more because I think I think
Speaker 1: about that every week where I'm like, the quality of
Speaker 1: my week is based on the quality of my weekend,
Speaker 1: and the quality of my weekend is based on my week.
Speaker 1: And as monks, we were taught that the quality of
Speaker 1: your day is based on your two hours of meditation,
Speaker 1: and the quality of your two hours of meditation is
Speaker 1: based on your day, and so they're symbiotic, and often
Speaker 1: I think we look at our weekends as a way
Speaker 1: of making up for the week. How do you win
Speaker 1: your weekend and how does that transform the week? Definitely,
Speaker 1: weekends are so powerful. And I'll just speak for me personally,
Speaker 1: weekends or the time when I actually I do not
Speaker 1: set that five seventeen alarm. I'm going to sleep as
Speaker 1: late as my kids and dog let me. But I
Speaker 1: am also in many ways bringing to life those core
Speaker 1: values that I bring to life every single weekday morning too.
Speaker 1: I want to spend quality time with my kids. I
Speaker 1: like to go to a farmer's market and take the
Speaker 1: time to you know, like pick up the fruits and
Speaker 1: veggies and meet some of the farmers who are there,
Speaker 1: and think about what do I want to cook this week?
Speaker 1: Get excited about putting all the fall apples into a
Speaker 1: beautiful bowl on my kitchen countertop. And the other thing
Speaker 1: is jay for me on weekends, I have to be
Speaker 1: clear about all the plans and invitations and things that
Speaker 1: could come my way. And it's so easy to be like, well,
Speaker 1: that sounds like fun. You know, this party or this
Speaker 1: event or this dinner, and that stuff can be really fun,
Speaker 1: and being social and being around people is wonderful and
Speaker 1: can have tons of health benefits. But I also try
Speaker 1: to be really careful about not over extending myself and
Speaker 1: making the weekend like a new different form of hustling.
Speaker 1: I have to build in time to just chill and relax,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that means saying no to going out to
Speaker 1: dinner with friends, you know, just being honest that what
Speaker 1: my body and heart and soul need are just some
Speaker 1: like alone time, watching the latest Marvel movie with my
Speaker 1: kids and my husband, I'm petting my dog. How have
Speaker 1: you got better at saying no? I think that's something
Speaker 1: that so many of us struggle with. And when you
Speaker 1: talk about owning your morning, winning your weekend, saying no
Speaker 1: is such a big part of that because the night before,
Speaker 1: like I know, me and my wife, because we've found
Speaker 1: o morning groove. Right now, we're making sure that we're
Speaker 1: in bed by nine thirty in the evening because that's
Speaker 1: really important to us. But we're saying no to so
Speaker 1: many things. It's it's so true. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of us feel like to live fuller, happier lives, we
Speaker 1: need to add things, And you're exactly right. Removing some
Speaker 1: things and decluttering is just as powerful and important. So I,
Speaker 1: as a lifelong people pleaser who squirms at the thought
Speaker 1: of somebody being mad or upset or disappointed, it's taken
Speaker 1: me a long time to learn this that the hindest
Speaker 1: and most authentic thing to do is to say no
Speaker 1: quickly and not let the invitations sit there in fester
Speaker 1: where it's occupying your brain power, probably stressing out your
Speaker 1: friend who invited you and is like, what's up? Why
Speaker 1: hasn't Jay responded to me? Like can he come? Does
Speaker 1: he want to come? You know, and you don't have
Speaker 1: to go into the the paragraph long reason why you
Speaker 1: can't be there, You can just simply say thank you
Speaker 1: so much for the invitation, I'm really sorry that I
Speaker 1: have a conflict and I can't come, but like I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to seeing you blah blah blah your version
Speaker 1: of that in your own words, in an authentic way.
Speaker 1: But that's been very powerful for me is rather than
Speaker 1: letting it sit and thinking about it and then there's
Speaker 1: like more more drama and internal like oh, I can't
Speaker 1: say no now that's been you know, just handle it
Speaker 1: in the moment, and that that does require that you
Speaker 1: get clear about what your weekend is going to look like.
Speaker 1: Are you going to have like one social commitment is
Speaker 1: next weekend one where you actually just need to lay
Speaker 1: low and not have any and then when the invitation
Speaker 1: comes in or the thing pops up, you're more prepared
Speaker 1: to answer in the moment and imagine like the amount
Speaker 1: of space that that will release in your brain and
Speaker 1: the emotional energy it unlocks for you to not have
Speaker 1: that sitting around hanging over you. I love that. I
Speaker 1: love that. I want to encourage everyone who's been listening
Speaker 1: and watching today to make sure you grab a copy
Speaker 1: of own your Morning will have the link in the
Speaker 1: caption and everywhere else. And of course I really want
Speaker 1: to see what you're all learning from this session, So
Speaker 1: I want you to tag me and Liz, and I
Speaker 1: want you to hashtag own your Morning. Liz, You've been
Speaker 1: so generous with your time. I want to end, as
Speaker 1: we do with every on Purpose episode, with the final
Speaker 1: five or the fast five okay, which the rapid fire
Speaker 1: questions where you have to answer every question in one
Speaker 1: word or one sentence maximum, so you have a bit
Speaker 1: of flexibility. I I like a challenge good. I know
Speaker 1: you do. So the first question that I have for
Speaker 1: you is what is the best piece of morning routine
Speaker 1: advice you've ever received? I mean, I literally wrote a
Speaker 1: book about making me say one word one Okay, I'll
Speaker 1: say one word, one sentence. Okay, Light light Light. Do
Speaker 1: you want me to expand for a sentence? Yeah. It
Speaker 1: is scientifically proven that exposing yourself to light a sap
Speaker 1: after waking naturally makes you feel more energetic and alert.
Speaker 1: I love that, beautiful. I wake up at six am,
Speaker 1: so and you wake up at five seventeen when it's
Speaker 1: not very light. I mean, this is getting more challenging
Speaker 1: as we're moving into wintertime and it's dark morning, but
Speaker 1: light like even a bright light from a lamp. M
Speaker 1: that's good for you too. Yeah, I love that. Question
Speaker 1: number two, what's the worst piece of morning routine advice
Speaker 1: you've ever heard? The worst piece is that there's one
Speaker 1: right way to do it. It's gonna look beautifully different
Speaker 1: and unique for every single one of us. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a great answer. Thad question, how would you describe your
Speaker 1: current purpose service? I'm going to leave it at one
Speaker 1: word service. And question number four, what's the most recent
Speaker 1: thing you've been tinkering with or playing around or experimenting
Speaker 1: within your morning routine. I love listening to music to
Speaker 1: set my energy, and I'm having a lot of fun
Speaker 1: tinkering with different types of music. I love that and
Speaker 1: using it to go where I want to be energetically
Speaker 1: and to take me down a notch when I'm a
Speaker 1: little overly or journalized and hyped up. That's brilliant. I
Speaker 1: really like that one. That's so awesome. I think we
Speaker 1: all listen to the same songs again on the same playlist.
Speaker 1: It's so important. I love that. Okay, fifth and final question,
Speaker 1: if you could create one morning routine habit that everyone
Speaker 1: in the world had to do. What would it be?
Speaker 1: I think we could change the world if everybody began
Speaker 1: their day with gratitude. I personally write a gratitude list.
Speaker 1: It can be short, it can be long, but that
Speaker 1: is some incredible energy to begin your day with. I
Speaker 1: love that. Liz. Plus for everyone the author of Own
Speaker 1: Your Morning, and make sure you get the book. Make
Speaker 1: sure you tag us. Please please please, I think, Liz,
Speaker 1: there's so many awesomely insightful things today and I want
Speaker 1: to see everything that resonate with you. So you can
Speaker 1: tag Liz on Instagram tag me as well, and please
Speaker 1: please please share the hashtag on your morning so that
Speaker 1: we can follow along and see all of your insights. Liz,
Speaker 1: is there anything that I didn't ask you that you
Speaker 1: want to share that you want to tell my community? Oh,
Speaker 1: you're the most awesome interviewer, and it's super fun to
Speaker 1: talk to somebody else who loves mornings. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: just want to say that you don't have to be
Speaker 1: a morning person to read this book. It will have
Speaker 1: some tweaks and ideas to elevate your morning to help
Speaker 1: you level up, but it's also for those of you
Speaker 1: who think you're a night owl and that you can
Speaker 1: never change your morning, I promise you. I promise you
Speaker 1: you can. I will help you. Jay will help you.
Speaker 1: And I can't wait to see everybody's hashtags because I'm
Speaker 1: inspired by how different everybody's mornings look, and that's that's
Speaker 1: the fun part. I'd love to share them and inspire
Speaker 1: more create a little morning movement. Yes, morning movement. I
Speaker 1: love that hashtag on your morning tag us while you're
Speaker 1: doing your weird, funky, interesting, curious morning routine in practice.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see it. And Liz, thank you
Speaker 1: so much again for coming on on purpose. And I
Speaker 1: can't wait to share this with my community. It was
Speaker 1: wonderful to be here with you. Thank you so much, Jay,
Speaker 1: Thanks lu