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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to go for a five pm walk. A

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Speaker 1: little bit of physical activity is a great way to

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Speaker 1: transition between work and the rest of your evening and

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Speaker 1: can help boost your energy so you can make the

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Speaker 1: most of your evening hours. Longtime listeners know that I

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Speaker 1: have been exploring the topic of weekday evenings lately. I

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Speaker 1: like to call these the golden hours. Just as retirees

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Speaker 1: can celebrate their golden years of leisure and family time

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Speaker 1: after years of work, we can celebrate our golden hours

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Speaker 1: every evening. If you are done with work and commuting

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Speaker 1: by six pm or so and go to bed at

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Speaker 1: ten pm, you have got four hours each night for

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Speaker 1: family and leisure. It is not a small amount of time.

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Speaker 1: It is also incredibly hard to use well. People are

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Speaker 1: tired after a long day. There are often half to dos,

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Speaker 1: like making dinner and feeding people and getting kids through

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Speaker 1: homework or to activities, and of course to bed. The

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Speaker 1: house might need to be picked up. And yet even

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Speaker 1: with the half to dos, there is often some discretionary space.

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Speaker 1: We just have to think of what we want to

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Speaker 1: do and manage our energy to make it happen. Thinking

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Speaker 1: about what you would like to do in your golden

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Speaker 1: hours is a topic we have talked about in other episodes,

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Speaker 1: but today's tip is about how to have the mindset

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Speaker 1: and the energy to take advantage of this time. So

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Speaker 1: this episode is first running in February. In my part

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Speaker 1: of the world, it is finely light late enough where

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Speaker 1: you can see the sun after work, so consider going

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Speaker 1: for a five pm walk as you finish up work

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Speaker 1: in order to reset your mood and energy levels. If

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Speaker 1: you are working from home, when you are done with

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Speaker 1: your last meeting, walk outside for ten to fifteen minutes.

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Speaker 1: Bundle yourself up and get out there, even if it's cold,

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Speaker 1: walk briskly. The space will help you mentally prepare for

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Speaker 1: evening and your home life. The physical activity and fresh

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Speaker 1: air will do what we know they do, namely, reliably

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Speaker 1: boost your energy levels so you can do more than

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Speaker 1: just collapse in front of the TV. Now, if you

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Speaker 1: aren't working from home, maybe it's a little less obvious

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Speaker 1: how this works, but I think you can still structure

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Speaker 1: your time to fit in a ten to fifteen minute walk.

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Speaker 1: One option is to park a little further away from

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Speaker 1: your office, you have to walk ten minutes to get

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Speaker 1: to your car, then really treat this walk as a

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Speaker 1: brain break in an energy booster. If you have to

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Speaker 1: walk to a bus or train stop, you are probably

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Speaker 1: already getting this in and perhaps walking briskly. If you

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Speaker 1: are running late, really notice the break and think about

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Speaker 1: mentally resetting yourself for the evening. If there is no

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Speaker 1: place to walk near work, you can get yourself home

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Speaker 1: and walk in your neighborhood before heading in. Now I

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Speaker 1: am not necessarily suggesting getting home later. Perhaps you could

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Speaker 1: and work a tiny bit earlier. Often people have the

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Speaker 1: ability to cut ten minutes off the end of the

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Speaker 1: day if they want. If you have to make a

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Speaker 1: daycare pickup, really think about how you might structure your

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Speaker 1: time so you can still build in this tiny bit

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Speaker 1: of space. It will help make you more patient for

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Speaker 1: everything else. But if need be, perhaps you can walk

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Speaker 1: with your kids for a few minutes after work and

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Speaker 1: before the rest of the evening. Put them in the

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Speaker 1: stroller and walk around outside for fifteen minutes. Perhaps you

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Speaker 1: could give them a small snack so they are not

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Speaker 1: screaming for dinner the second you get home, you can

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Speaker 1: all get some fresh air together. It doesn't have to

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Speaker 1: take a long time, but fresh air and physical activity

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Speaker 1: are known energy boosters. If you have more energy, you

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Speaker 1: will be able to choose activities for the evening without

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Speaker 1: feeling incredibly exhausted. You might be able to think about

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Speaker 1: doing a puzzle for thirty minutes, or playing a musical instrument,

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Speaker 1: or doing some drawing rather than just scrolling around online

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Speaker 1: during whatever time is available. By taking a walk, you

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Speaker 1: also create a clear demarcation between work mode and home mode.

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Speaker 1: This becomes the official start of your evening. You are

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Speaker 1: starting with something good rather than sliding from one thing

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Speaker 1: into another. That mental shift can help you start seeing

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Speaker 1: this time as real time that can be used. So

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Speaker 1: I've been doing a four thirty or five pm walk

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Speaker 1: a reasonable number of days lately, and it really is

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Speaker 1: helping me feel like now it is the evening. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it is hard to get outside in winter when it

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Speaker 1: is cold and snowy, but as the sun is setting,

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Speaker 1: everything is colorful and beautiful. Pink and golden light on

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Speaker 1: the snow is amazing. What a treat to see it.

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Speaker 1: It's a different sort of happy hour. Maybe you would

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Speaker 1: like a five PM walk too. Does not have to

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Speaker 1: be every day, but try it a day or two

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Speaker 1: this week and see how it goes. My guess as

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Speaker 1: you will start the evening feeling better. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

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Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.