Speaker 1: Hello, listener, it's Amantha here. So you might have heard.
Speaker 2: My fourth book, The Health Habit, came out yesterday. To
Speaker 2: celebrate this occasion, I'm releasing a couple of bonus episodes
Speaker 2: of How I Work. If you missed yesterday's episode, I
Speaker 2: gave a warts and olview about what's involved in getting
Speaker 2: a book deal with a major publisher through to a
Speaker 2: book hitting shelves. And today I'm going to be going
Speaker 2: deep into my own health challenges and how I personally
Speaker 2: have applied the strategies that I write about in The
Speaker 2: Health Habit. My name is doctor Amantha Imbert. I'm an
Speaker 2: organizational psychologist and founder of Behavior change consultancy Inventium, and
Speaker 2: this is How I Work.
Speaker 1: The show about.
Speaker 2: How to help you get so much more out of
Speaker 2: the hours in your day.
Speaker 3: Hi, it's Neo here. I'm Amantha's partner. You might have
Speaker 3: heard me yesterday interviewing Amantha about writing the book. Today,
Speaker 3: I'm asking her about her habits to improve sleep, movement
Speaker 3: and a nutrition. So, Amantha, in your booky writing about
Speaker 3: the habits you've got to improve sleep, movement nutrition. I
Speaker 3: want to start with sleep, and I know you had
Speaker 3: before we met many battles with insomnia. Do you want
Speaker 3: to go through some of those kind of challenges you had.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I.
Speaker 2: Remember this moment where I was in my mid twenties
Speaker 2: and I was living in Sydney at the time, and
Speaker 2: to get to my office where I was working, I
Speaker 2: had to sit in a lot of traffic and cross
Speaker 2: over the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
Speaker 1: And I remember sitting in.
Speaker 2: My car one morning and I was so tired, as
Speaker 2: I was every single morning when I was sitting in
Speaker 2: traffic in peak hour in Sydney, and I remember this
Speaker 2: thought popped into my head and I thought, I wonder
Speaker 2: if there are some people that are not perpetually exhausted
Speaker 2: as I felt like I was as a twenty something
Speaker 2: year old. And I thought, I wonder if there are
Speaker 2: people that actually feel energetic, like for the whole day.
Speaker 2: And in my mind I concluded that yes, that was
Speaker 2: definitely a thing. I believed that some people, maybe lots
Speaker 2: of people, actually had energy during their days. And that
Speaker 2: little thought conversation with myself blew my mind and it
Speaker 2: made me think I've got a problem. I don't think
Speaker 2: I'm sleeping well, so I think I just googled a
Speaker 2: sleep doctor or something random like that.
Speaker 1: And I found an.
Speaker 2: Apparently reputable sleep doctor in Sydney, and I went to
Speaker 2: see him and I told him about the fact that
Speaker 2: I was just never waking up feeling refreshed. I was
Speaker 2: feeling tired throughout the day. And he suggested that I
Speaker 2: should do a sleep test. I think it's called poly sonog.
Speaker 1: Why am I asking you if that's right?
Speaker 3: I have no idea, But these are the ones where
Speaker 3: you go into the hospital and sleep in a strange
Speaker 3: bed while they wire you up. Is that the one?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right. This one was a little bit different.
Speaker 2: I've since done a second one that was in a hospital,
Speaker 2: but this one was actually in a part of the
Speaker 2: doctor's office where he'd set up a room. It looked
Speaker 2: like like grandma's bedroom.
Speaker 1: Off a fifty sitcom kind of vibe.
Speaker 2: And you went into the lab within his office, and
Speaker 2: you like went there in the evening, You got dressed
Speaker 2: into your pajamas, you did your bedtime routine, and then
Speaker 2: just before you were being tucked in by a lab clinician,
Speaker 2: they hooked you up to about forty or fifty electrodes,
Speaker 2: including some being glued onto your scalp like onto your hair,
Speaker 2: and then they said good night, time to sleep, and out.
Speaker 3: The lights go, and they expect you to sleep, and.
Speaker 2: They expect you to sleep someone's watching you through the
Speaker 2: whole night on a camera in the room next door.
Speaker 2: So not exactly ideal sleeping conditions.
Speaker 3: Okay, And did you get to sleep?
Speaker 2: Well? I was surprised because they said that I did
Speaker 2: actually sleep for five hours, but I don't remember doing that,
Speaker 2: Like it felt like I was just awake all night.
Speaker 3: All right, And so the outcome was well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the outcome was well, the good news was
Speaker 2: that there was nothing physiologically wrong, so I didn't have
Speaker 2: something like sleep apnea, for example, where you know it
Speaker 2: can affect your breathing, which can then affect the quality
Speaker 2: of your sleep, which is quite a common condition. But
Speaker 2: the bad news was it was psychological and there's no
Speaker 2: magical pill that is going to fix that kind of
Speaker 2: a sleep problem. So this is where I first learned
Speaker 2: about the power of sleep restriction, which is something I
Speaker 2: write about in The Health Habit. And I should add
Speaker 2: when I was researching The Health Habit, you know, I
Speaker 2: think there's so much advice out there about the three
Speaker 2: areas of health that I write about in the Health Habit.
Speaker 2: So I look at sleep, I look at movement, and
Speaker 2: I look at nutrition. And we all know that we
Speaker 2: shouldn't be scrolling through Instagram while we lie in bed.
Speaker 2: That's pretty common knowledge. We all know that we should
Speaker 2: be getting more vegetables. So there are lots of things
Speaker 2: that are common sense. But what I wanted to write
Speaker 2: about in the Health Habit was looking at what were
Speaker 2: the most impactful according to science, but actually underutilized or
Speaker 2: underused strategies for improving our health. Because no one needs
Speaker 2: to be told things that they already know. Again, I
Speaker 2: wanted to see if I could uncover what were the
Speaker 2: lesser known strategies that we're going.
Speaker 1: To have a really big impact.
Speaker 2: And one of those strategies, which I did learn in
Speaker 2: my twenties because of this experience with the sleep doctor,
Speaker 2: is the power of sleep restriction, which sounds really counterintuitive,
Speaker 2: like if you're trying to improve your sleep, why would
Speaker 2: you restrict your sleep? But this is the main It
Speaker 2: was certainly the most powerful strategy that I got at
Speaker 2: the time that completely transformed my sleep. So how sleep
Speaker 2: restriction works is that you think about how many hours
Speaker 2: you spend in bed, and at that point in.
Speaker 1: My life, I estimated I was.
Speaker 2: Probably spending maybe ten hours in bed, which sounds kind
Speaker 2: of ridiculous. I think I was getting into bed at
Speaker 2: about nine pm and then getting out of bed at
Speaker 2: about seven am, with the thinking being that if I
Speaker 2: could spend a long time in bed, then surely that
Speaker 2: increases my chance of catching some sleep. But the sleep
Speaker 2: doctor also asked me to estimate how much sleep I
Speaker 2: thought I was actually getting within that ten hour window,
Speaker 2: and I think at the time I said, I reckon
Speaker 2: maybe six hours, maybe six hours at a guess, it's
Speaker 2: always really hard to know. And he said, Okay, what
Speaker 2: you're gonna do is you are now only allowed to
Speaker 2: be in bed for six hours, which and he didn't
Speaker 2: want me to adjust my wake time, which meant I
Speaker 2: was going to have to stay up into one in
Speaker 2: the morning, which blew my mind. I had no idea
Speaker 2: how I was going to do that, because I would
Speaker 2: just be exhausted. But I did it, and so for
Speaker 2: several weeks I restricted my time in bed. And what
Speaker 2: that does is your hormonal urge to go to sleep
Speaker 2: is building up so much that by the time your
Speaker 2: head hits the pillow, you pretty quickly fall asleep, which
Speaker 2: then starts to change your association with bed, because before
Speaker 2: then I was having a lot of anxiety about going
Speaker 2: to bed. I was really nervous that I was just
Speaker 2: going to be up all night and tossing and turning,
Speaker 2: and it makes you really dread going to bed, and
Speaker 2: psychologically you start to assoc your bed with everything but sleep.
Speaker 2: And so by restricting the amount of hours are spending
Speaker 2: in bed, and I should add like, when you feel
Speaker 2: like you're actually sleeping for those six hours that you're
Speaker 2: in bed, you can slowly start to extend it until
Speaker 2: you're in bed for the time that you want to
Speaker 2: be sleeping, which for me is about sort of eight
Speaker 2: hours or so. That was That was the best thing
Speaker 2: I learned from that sleep doctor. And I'm surprised to
Speaker 2: this day how uncommon that is as a strategy for
Speaker 2: people that are suffering from insomnia, when it's one of
Speaker 2: the most powerful strategies that you can use.
Speaker 3: On the surface, when you say it makes sense because
Speaker 3: you're going to be so dog tired by one am,
Speaker 3: you will sleep, that makes perfect sense. But the other
Speaker 3: part you were trying makes also sense, which is I'll
Speaker 3: just lie in bed longer and eventually I'll get tired
Speaker 3: and fall asleep or get bored. So yeah, that's a
Speaker 3: really very valuable thing to share with everyone.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Something else, and I mean, like for listeners that are
Speaker 2: also listeners and fans of Huberman, this will probably not
Speaker 2: come as new news, but if you're not a fan
Speaker 2: of Hubman, it might is the importance of exposing yourself
Speaker 2: to daylight or certainly high levels of light very.
Speaker 1: Early in the morning when you wake up.
Speaker 2: So what some of the sleep professors that I interviewed
Speaker 2: when I was researching the health Habit recommend is that
Speaker 2: you should try to get out into daylight, ideally actually outside,
Speaker 2: but if not, sit near a window for ten minutes
Speaker 2: to half an hour. And what this does is that
Speaker 2: this actually resets your body clock, so it's really effective
Speaker 2: in terms of like waking yourself up. It's a great
Speaker 2: way to overcome sleep inertia, which is that groggy feeling
Speaker 2: that a lot of us feel and we get out
Speaker 2: of bed, and also helping us feel ready to go
Speaker 2: to bed at the same or similar time every night.
Speaker 2: So this is something that you and I do. We
Speaker 2: sort of have had different routines around, like I refer
Speaker 2: to it like you have like a water shower or
Speaker 2: a shower to clean yourself, but we also have a
Speaker 2: light shower where we shower ourselves with daylight.
Speaker 3: And it's surprisingly easing to fit in, whether it be
Speaker 3: take the dog for a walk in the morning or
Speaker 3: just try to get out for a walk before the day,
Speaker 3: those kind of things fit in really well with my
Speaker 3: lifestyle and because I wasn't doing it before.
Speaker 2: We met, Yeah, I feel like it is easy, Like
Speaker 2: I think that on maybe on school drop off mornings
Speaker 2: it can be a tiny bit more challenging, although sometimes
Speaker 2: we can enlist Frankie to maybe come for a short
Speaker 2: dog walk around the block, or we can pop out
Speaker 2: into the.
Speaker 1: Garden for a little bit to eat breakfast. So so
Speaker 1: there are ways to incorporate it.
Speaker 2: But certainly if we don't get time before school drop off,
Speaker 2: then certainly it's something that we can do straight after that.
Speaker 2: Ideally you want to be doing it within the first
Speaker 2: couple of hours of waking up. So that's a good
Speaker 2: strategy and a lot of evidence behind that, and I
Speaker 2: write about that in the Health Habit.
Speaker 3: Okay, so let's go on to nutrition that's been a
Speaker 3: challenging one for you over the years, not so much anymore,
Speaker 3: But do you want to tell all the listeners about
Speaker 3: where you started with nutrition journey.
Speaker 2: So I am someone that had terrible eating habits, like
Speaker 2: from just eating all sorts of crappy junk food as
Speaker 2: a teenager and still in my twenties, and I think
Speaker 2: realizing in my twenties, but probably more so this all
Speaker 2: coming to a head in my thirties that I had
Speaker 2: a massive problem with sugar.
Speaker 1: I was massively addicted to sugar. It's funny.
Speaker 2: I've never been like a drug taker or had addictions
Speaker 2: of that nature, but sugar was absolutely my achilles heel.
Speaker 2: I needed sugar. I needed it several times a day.
Speaker 2: I needed it to energize me, to power me through.
Speaker 2: The cravings were very, very intense. And this all came
Speaker 2: to a head when my daughter, Frankie was three months
Speaker 2: old and I was in the kitchen. I just put
Speaker 2: Frankie to bed and I needed a hit of sugar
Speaker 2: so badly, and I looked through the fridge and there
Speaker 2: was like there was literally nothing there. There was no
Speaker 2: chocolate cake or anything sweet. Then I went to the
Speaker 2: pantry looking for biscuits or leftover lollies, and there was nothing.
Speaker 2: But then I saw a tap of way container that
Speaker 2: was full of raw sugar, and I thought, Okay, let's
Speaker 2: know what I was looking for, but let's give this
Speaker 2: a go because it might it might help. And so
Speaker 2: I took out the tapware container and I started spooning
Speaker 2: like spoonfuls of raw sugar into my mouth. And then
Speaker 2: my husband is now ex husband not for that reason, like,
Speaker 2: came into the kitchen and saw me doing this, and
Speaker 2: just the look on his face was like, what.
Speaker 1: Are you doing?
Speaker 2: And I just I saw myself through his eyes and
Speaker 2: I just thought, what am I doing? This is ridiculous,
Speaker 2: this is out of control.
Speaker 1: I need to stop.
Speaker 3: So that was your sugar rock bottom. If you'd like,
Speaker 3: how much sugar were you eating a day and what
Speaker 3: was your sugar of choice?
Speaker 1: H Chocolate bars were a go to.
Speaker 2: They were like an easy source of energy in the afternoon.
Speaker 2: So I would say that, you know, every every day
Speaker 2: I would be having maybe one or two chocolate bars.
Speaker 2: I remember when I was pregnant with Frankie, I had
Speaker 2: a little routine. Where my office for Inventium was in
Speaker 2: the city, there was a route that I would walk
Speaker 2: from the office to Flint the street station in Melbourne,
Speaker 2: and there was a shop at Industry Station, it's still
Speaker 2: there called the Sugar Station SUGA, and it was filled
Speaker 2: with mixed lollies. And every day after work I would
Speaker 2: go in and I would fill up a bag of
Speaker 2: mixed dollies and I would eat them on the train home,
Speaker 2: like every single day.
Speaker 1: I was addicted.
Speaker 3: So that's going to be a tough halt habit to break.
Speaker 3: So when you hit that rock bottom, how did you
Speaker 3: change that?
Speaker 2: So there are a few things that I did, and
Speaker 2: this is why I feel like, you know, knowing something
Speaker 2: is not enough. And I talk about this research in
Speaker 2: the Health Habit where information doesn't actually change behavior most
Speaker 2: of the time. And I'd read books about quitting sugar.
Speaker 2: I'd read books like Sweet Poison by David Gillespie. I'd
Speaker 2: read Sarah Wilson's stuff about quitting sugar.
Speaker 1: I'd sort of I'd tried and failed.
Speaker 2: And this is where the second part of the Health Habit,
Speaker 2: which is all about the habit heroes around what are
Speaker 2: habit change strategies that are go to deal with the
Speaker 2: habit hijackers or the barriers that are getting in the
Speaker 2: way of behavior change, like what is best applied, And
Speaker 2: so a couple of other things that really worked for
Speaker 2: me is firstly, like one of the hijackers that I
Speaker 2: talk about in the Health habit is environmental hijackers. So
Speaker 2: just the physical environment and situations that we put ourselves
Speaker 2: in every day can have a really big impact on
Speaker 2: our behavior. And if you're trying to quit sugar and
Speaker 2: there's sugar like sugary foods in your pantry or in
Speaker 2: your fridge, it's really hard to change your behavior because
Speaker 2: that stuff is staring at you every day. So in
Speaker 2: the Health Habit I talk about disrupt the default, where
Speaker 2: make the default choice like the sort of the natural
Speaker 2: thing to do to not have sugar, And how you
Speaker 2: do that is through removing sugary treats and snacks and
Speaker 2: food from the house. Another strategy that I used and
Speaker 2: actually think this was probably the most powerful one for me.
Speaker 2: He's understanding the power of language and specifically the power
Speaker 2: of the word don't. So there was some really interesting
Speaker 2: research conducted by Vanessa Patrick, who's a marketing professor, and
Speaker 2: she brought a bunch of people into her lab and
Speaker 2: she divided them into two groups and taught each group
Speaker 2: a different strategy so around resisting temptation. One group were
Speaker 2: told to use the self talk when presented with the
Speaker 2: attempting chocolate bar, I can't eat chocolate. The second group
Speaker 2: was told to switch up that second word slightly and
Speaker 2: say I don't eat chocolate when presented with that unhealthy temptation.
Speaker 2: So they learned these strategies and then they thought the
Speaker 2: experiment was over and on the way out of the lab,
Speaker 2: which is actually the crux of the experiment, they were
Speaker 2: offered the choice, these participants of a healthy musli bar
Speaker 2: or a chocolate bar. What they found, what the research
Speaker 2: has found is that the group that had the don't strategy,
Speaker 2: I don't eat chocolate, We're fifty percent more likely to
Speaker 2: choose the healthy musli bar compared to the chocolate bar
Speaker 2: compared to the group that we're told to say I can't.
Speaker 2: But interestingly, when we're trying to change behavior, we often
Speaker 2: say to ourselves, oh, I can't do that. I can't
Speaker 2: do that, like I'm not allowed to do that. But
Speaker 2: if we say I don't do that, it speaks to
Speaker 2: who we are as a person. It's like our self
Speaker 2: identity changes, and I really felt that way when I
Speaker 2: made the commitment to quit sugar, which I've done ninety
Speaker 2: five percent successfully over the last decade, where almost every
Speaker 2: single day I just I haven't consumed like chocolate or
Speaker 2: sugary foods because I say to myself, I don't eat sugar,
Speaker 2: I don't do dessert, I don't eat sweet treats. And
Speaker 2: that is literally who I am as a person. So
Speaker 2: to break that is like living a life that's not
Speaker 2: consistent with my self identity.
Speaker 3: That You've been totally fine and there's been no issues
Speaker 3: with me coming into the house with any chocolate per
Speaker 3: se over the last while.
Speaker 2: Right, So you love your dark chocolate and it's now
Speaker 2: or it was for the last few months, always in
Speaker 2: the house, and for the most part that was actually fine.
Speaker 1: But the last few months.
Speaker 2: Of twenty twenty three were very, very stressful, and I
Speaker 2: found that I started getting into the habit of having
Speaker 2: dark chocolate every night.
Speaker 1: And you know, arguably dark chocolate is fine.
Speaker 2: And there are actually good things in dark chocolate, but
Speaker 2: I knew that it was it was like a slippery
Speaker 2: slope in terms of like regressing back to where I
Speaker 2: was ten years ago, and so we had a chat
Speaker 2: about it because I wasn't happy with how I was behaving,
Speaker 2: and I feel like, if there's chocolate in the house,
Speaker 2: it started to become really hard to resist that temptation.
Speaker 2: So now we removed the chocolate. I think you have
Speaker 2: possibly hidden some chocolate somewhere in the house. I have
Speaker 2: no desire to go on a little treasure hunt, but
Speaker 2: it's reversed where I was going, So once again, no
Speaker 2: dark chocolate now for me.
Speaker 3: And for me, it's not been that bad either. I
Speaker 3: do enjoy a chocolate at the end of the day occasionally,
Speaker 3: but I haven't missed it, which has been crazy. And
Speaker 3: it's still hidden somewhere magically around the house, but I
Speaker 3: haven't craved it either, So I suspect it feels for
Speaker 3: me was habit end of day reward myself with a
Speaker 3: bit of chocolate, but also it being there at eye
Speaker 3: level in the pantry every single day. So you've done
Speaker 3: me a favor as well, and I'm not missing it.
Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear that.
Speaker 3: Okay, any other habits you want to go through? With nutrition?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Look.
Speaker 2: The nutrition section of the book was actually the hardest
Speaker 2: one to write because there's so many conflicting views around
Speaker 2: what we should be eating to improve gut how and microbiome,
Speaker 2: improve our energy, improve how we feel, and give ourselves
Speaker 2: the best chance of living along in healthy life. So
Speaker 2: there's a lot of disagreement between academics, but something that
Speaker 2: pretty much everyone agrees on is that our blood glucose
Speaker 2: or blood sugar levels like which which is essentially just
Speaker 2: a measure of like how much sugar is floating around
Speaker 2: in our bloodstream, is something that we want to have
Speaker 2: as stable as possible. So if you have ever eaten
Speaker 2: a meal and felt completely crap and sluggish or maybe
Speaker 2: still hungry after you've eaten a full meal, chances are
Speaker 2: what has happened is that the meal has spiked your
Speaker 2: blood sugar levels and then they've come crashing down.
Speaker 1: So maybe you've had like.
Speaker 3: The big pasta lunch where you feel like sleeping at
Speaker 3: three o'clock, yeah.
Speaker 2: Exactly exactly, or maybe like you know, like a big
Speaker 2: burger or something like that, and you're, you know, and
Speaker 2: you're just feeling like rubbish. Maybe half an hour later,
Speaker 2: maybe an hour later. It's probably because your blood sugar
Speaker 2: has crashed, and we want to avoid that. So some
Speaker 2: of the strategies that I talk about in the health
Speaker 2: habit are really really effective at stabilizing or leveling out
Speaker 2: our blood sugar levels. And if you can do that,
Speaker 2: you will feel so much better. You will feel fuller
Speaker 2: after you eat, you will feel full of energy, and
Speaker 2: you avoiding those horrible crashes that a lot of us experience,
Speaker 2: particularly in the afternoon. So it's super important. So one
Speaker 2: strategy was one of my favorite ones, is that there
Speaker 2: was some really interesting research and this has been actually
Speaker 2: research a few times.
Speaker 1: That looked at does the order or the.
Speaker 2: Sequence of which we eat our foods make a difference
Speaker 2: to our blood glucose response. So there was one study
Speaker 2: that had people eating some Asian vegetable, a chicken breast,
Speaker 2: and some white rice. But what they did is they
Speaker 2: mixed around the order that different groups were eating this meal.
Speaker 2: In what they found, and this finding has been replicated
Speaker 2: several times, is that if we can eat our vegetables first,
Speaker 2: followed by the proteins and the fats of the meals,
Speaker 2: in this case the chicken, and finishing with the carbs
Speaker 2: or the starchier parts of the meal, which in this
Speaker 2: case is the rice, we have a very big impact
Speaker 2: on stabilizing our blood glucose as opposed to if we
Speaker 2: eat it all at once, or if we eat the
Speaker 2: carbs first, which is very common. If you're out in
Speaker 2: a restaurant, you probably get served bread first and you
Speaker 2: gobble that down and then you have the rest, which
Speaker 2: leads to a much bigger spike and crash in your
Speaker 2: blood sugar. So obviously this is not always possible. If
Speaker 2: you're eating spaghetti bowl and aise, it's pretty hard to
Speaker 2: apply this strategy, but you know, for the most part,
Speaker 2: like if you're eating a poke bowl or as we do,
Speaker 2: we will often have some sort of proteins, some kind
Speaker 2: of vegetable, and some sort of carbs like potato or
Speaker 2: rice or something like that. This is something that I
Speaker 2: almost religiously do.
Speaker 1: And then something else.
Speaker 2: Look a final thing that I'll talk about with nutrition,
Speaker 2: which is something that we both did.
Speaker 1: I think this.
Speaker 2: I know I've done it more recently, but we did
Speaker 2: it together a year ago where we decided that because
Speaker 2: I think at the time you were feeling a bit
Speaker 2: crappy health wise and I was feeling experimental.
Speaker 1: But I'm always feeling experimental, so no.
Speaker 2: Difference there is that we got a couple of continuous
Speaker 2: glucose monitors cgms, and these are essentially a little device
Speaker 2: that you stick on your arm like sort of the
Speaker 2: back of your arm where your triceps. If you imagine
Speaker 2: a circle that's like the size of a squashed ping
Speaker 2: pong ball, and it's got a little needle in it,
Speaker 2: and that needle sticks into your into your skin. So
Speaker 2: what it does is it essentially reading your blood gluecose
Speaker 2: levels continuously. And typically these devices last for about fourteen days,
Speaker 2: and then you sync it up with a particular app
Speaker 2: and then you with your phone, you can scan the
Speaker 2: CGM anytime of day and get a reading of what
Speaker 2: your blood gluecose levels are doing. So, as I talked
Speaker 2: about before, it's really important. We should all have the
Speaker 2: goal of trying to stabilize blood gluecost levels. We want
Speaker 2: to avoid the spikes and the dips. And having a
Speaker 2: CGM we're both wearing for two weeks allowed us to
Speaker 2: run heaps of different experiments and actually work out Because
Speaker 2: this is a very individual thing, like which foods are
Speaker 2: going to spike it, it's not the same for every person,
Speaker 2: but we were able to experiment with the sorts of meals.
Speaker 1: That we were having, and I would say.
Speaker 2: You know, we made some significant changes off the back
Speaker 2: of that experiment, like what did what did you learn
Speaker 2: from that?
Speaker 3: I loved rice noodles, and I found that they spiked
Speaker 3: me every single time. And one of my favorite dishes
Speaker 3: is like an Asian soup with the rice noodles in
Speaker 3: it and maybe a couple of dumplings in the luck.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I've gone off those as a staple that
Speaker 3: I go to all the time. That was a big
Speaker 3: one for me and disappointing at the time, I got
Speaker 3: to say, but others I found were it showed me
Speaker 3: where my energy levels were being dipped in the afternoon
Speaker 3: and why they were being dipped. And I found my
Speaker 3: concentration improved when I made some different food choices. And
Speaker 3: I found that that's made a bigger difference for me
Speaker 3: because one of my issues is coffee, and if I
Speaker 3: get that afternoon slump, I'll want to go for a
Speaker 3: coffee and then I'm buzzed all night. And so what
Speaker 3: I found is with better blood glucose management, I don't
Speaker 3: crave for coffee so much in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 2: I remember porridge was a very sad finding For me,
Speaker 2: I used to love porridge. And you know, by all accounts,
Speaker 2: we are told that porridge is LOGII, so theoretically it
Speaker 2: shouldn't spike blood glucose levels, but for me, man it
Speaker 2: spiked it massively. And it also explained, well, I could
Speaker 2: eat a big bowl of porridge and still be really,
Speaker 2: really hungry, and that is why, because my blood glucose
Speaker 2: was spiking and then falling, and so porridge pretty much
Speaker 2: left my rotation of meals. Sadly, but good.
Speaker 1: For my health.
Speaker 3: And they were good porridges. You were making your own
Speaker 3: from home. It wasn't sugar laden or anything like that.
Speaker 1: A bit of a shame, yeah, very sad.
Speaker 3: Okay, let's finally talk about movement. Do you want to
Speaker 3: talk about what your fitness regime is? Yeah.
Speaker 2: So in the movement section of the Health habit it
Speaker 2: is definitely aimed at people who, well, look, there's stuff
Speaker 2: in there for everyone, but it assumes that you're not
Speaker 2: a gym junkie. And I would say I I am
Speaker 2: to some extent, like I'm very regimented with how I
Speaker 2: move and how I think about exercise because I just
Speaker 2: I have learned, particularly over the last five years or
Speaker 2: so where I have been very diligent and disciplined around
Speaker 2: my movement that I just I feel the benefits massively,
Speaker 2: So you know, as background and as you know, neo like,
Speaker 2: I was never a sporty kid. I would probably always
Speaker 2: lie about having my period at school to get out
Speaker 2: of swimming and all sorts of sporting activities.
Speaker 1: It was just not me.
Speaker 2: I was very uncoordinated, hated sport, identified as being someone
Speaker 2: who was unfit.
Speaker 1: But then so if during my.
Speaker 2: Twenties and thirties I got into exercise, but it was always.
Speaker 1: Just like a means to an end.
Speaker 2: It was always about you know, how to lose the
Speaker 2: final five kilos on a diet or you know whatever
Speaker 2: kind of like you know, rubbish fad I was on.
Speaker 2: But for the last five years I have got genuinely
Speaker 2: into weightlifting. And I don't mean bodybuilding where I'm trying
Speaker 2: to I've become super muscular and anti competitions. It's more
Speaker 2: I just love the feeling of being a female in
Speaker 2: her mid forties and actually feeling really strong and fit
Speaker 2: and healthy. So four times a week I will do
Speaker 2: resistance training or weights training. We've got a home gym
Speaker 2: set up in the garage, which I set up when
Speaker 2: COVID hit and I couldn't go to the gym anymore,
Speaker 2: and I love that.
Speaker 1: In I think the.
Speaker 2: Part one of this little two part series, I talked
Speaker 2: about temptation bundling, where you combine the not pleasurable activity
Speaker 2: with something pleasurable to kind of trick your brain into
Speaker 2: feeling motivated to do the thing that feels hard.
Speaker 1: And weightlifting, to me feels hard.
Speaker 2: I don't actually love it per se, but I'll always
Speaker 2: pair it with one of my favorite podcasts, so I
Speaker 2: actually enjoy the experience and really look forward to it.
Speaker 2: The other thing I do is I do cardio. I
Speaker 2: did get back into running or slow jogging for a while,
Speaker 2: but at the moment, I'm back into interval training on
Speaker 2: my bike, which is a hideously expensive bike called Carol,
Speaker 2: which is basically pre programmed with REHIT workouts. And if
Speaker 2: you've never heard of REHIT, I do talk about REHIT
Speaker 2: in the Health Habit. It stands for reduced exertion, high
Speaker 2: intensity interval training, and it is pretty much the most
Speaker 2: time effective way to improve your cardiovascular fitness. So if
Speaker 2: you check out the Health Habit and look for the
Speaker 2: micro workout chapter, you will find a way to improve
Speaker 2: your cardio fitness very very quickly and in short amounts
Speaker 2: of time. A couple of the things that I do
Speaker 2: think about now that I learned when I was researching
Speaker 2: The Health Habit is, Firstly, I used to be a
Speaker 2: ten thousand steps a day kind of person. But I
Speaker 2: learned when I was writing the book that there is
Speaker 2: literally no sign scientific evidence I could find that ten
Speaker 2: thousand steps is the optimal amount per day. And in fact,
Speaker 2: what research has found is that beyond about seven five
Speaker 2: hundred steps, the benefits in terms of like reducing your
Speaker 2: risk of dying in early death sort of flatten out.
Speaker 2: So seven five hundred steps is in fact what you
Speaker 2: want to ideally aim for. And then the other thing
Speaker 2: finally that I'll talk about. I mean, there's so many
Speaker 2: more health habits in the book.
Speaker 3: But I love the VILPA by the way.
Speaker 1: You love the vilpi. Yeah, and the VILPA.
Speaker 2: You'll you'll find a chapter on VILPA in The Health Habit,
Speaker 2: which stands for vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity, where you
Speaker 2: will learn about the power of just very short, like
Speaker 2: one minute long, vigorous lifestyle activity like running around playing
Speaker 2: chasing with the kids or running for the train if
Speaker 2: you're running late for it, for example. Anyway, more about
Speaker 2: that in the book and Villpi. But I something that
Speaker 2: we try to incorporate. We don't always do this successfully.
Speaker 2: But back on the topic of blood sugar is the
Speaker 2: power of going for a leisurely ten minute stroll after
Speaker 2: eating And ideally if you wait about half an hour
Speaker 2: after eating food, then go for a ten minute wander
Speaker 2: around the block. It doesn't have to be at pace.
Speaker 2: You will significantly reduce the blood sugar spike and dip
Speaker 2: after eating, no matter what the food was that you ate.
Speaker 2: So it's a really great way to feel a lot
Speaker 2: better to stabilize out your energy like, for example, after lunch,
Speaker 2: a lot of people feel pretty crappy in the sort
Speaker 2: of you know, like one or two hours after lunch.
Speaker 2: But instead of say going for a walk and then
Speaker 2: having lunch, have you lunch, sit in chill for half
Speaker 2: an hour or maybe check some emails and then go
Speaker 2: for a ten minute walk and you will significantly improve
Speaker 2: your energy levels for the rest of the day.
Speaker 3: And it's not a power or a job, is it.
Speaker 1: It is just a stroll. It's just a stroll.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, there are quite a few excellent little tips.
Speaker 3: There are more in the book, I know, but thank
Speaker 3: you very much for chatting to me on your podcast
Speaker 3: and talking about The Health Habit. So I hope everyone
Speaker 3: picks up the book because I love it to Thank
Speaker 3: you for being interviewed.
Speaker 2: And thank you so much Neo for hopping behind the
Speaker 2: microphone on a bit of a whim. It's been very,
Speaker 2: very fun chatting with you about things that you knew
Speaker 2: the answer to, pretended.
Speaker 1: That you didn't.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening today. I hope that
Speaker 2: you have learned a few useful habits for your health
Speaker 2: and if you are keen to find out more and
Speaker 2: learn even more things that can improve how you're sleeping,
Speaker 2: how you're eating, how you're moving, all to make you
Speaker 2: feel way more energetic and get in great shape. If
Speaker 2: that is something you're trying to do, then please, please, please,
Speaker 2: I would be so grateful if you go and pick
Speaker 2: up a copy of The Health Habit, or maybe go
Speaker 2: and buy it as a gift for someone that you
Speaker 2: know maybe needs a little bit of help getting into shape.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I will see you with the regular programming of How
Speaker 2: I Work tomorrow. If you enjoyed today's episode, I would
Speaker 2: love to ask a favor. Click follow on the podcast
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Speaker 2: feeling really generous, leave a review for the show. Following
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Speaker 2: that makes this podcast possible. Thank you for sharing part
Speaker 2: of your day with me by listening to How I Work.
Speaker 2: If you're keen for more tips on how to work better,
Speaker 2: connect with me via LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy
Speaker 2: to find. Just search for Amantha Imba. How I Work
Speaker 2: was recorded on the traditional land of the Warrangery people,
Speaker 2: part of the Cool and Nation. I am so grateful
Speaker 2: for being able to work and live on this beautiful land,
Speaker 2: and I want to pay my respects to elder's past,
Speaker 2: present and emerging. How I Work is produced by Inventium
Speaker 2: with production support from Dead Set Studios.
Speaker 1: The producer for this episode was
Speaker 2: Liam Reardon, and thank you to Martin Nimba who did
Speaker 2: the audio mix and makes everything sound better than it
Speaker 2: would have otherwise.