The Optimised Health Show
All Things Healthy Living - From What You Eat and Drink to How You Live and Think. Healthy living with the Laws hosts Ben and Sarah Law have both worked in the health and wellness profession for over 12yrs and have a huge passion for helping others live healthy, happy and with purpose. They absolutely love inspiring other 40 somethings through their journey and knowledge in nutrition, health and entrepreneurship along with a side serving of banter and giggles to brighten your day Sarah Law is an IFBB pro bikini athlete, qualified Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist and has built a successful online health and beauty business that has led her to being an international speaker, delivering motivational and nutrition talks to crowds as large as 18,000! Her mission is to empower women to love the skin they are in both from the inside and out. Ben Law is the founder and director of a global supplement brand, Lovelife supplements, that started from a dream to leave the corporate world. His passion for health and fitness led him to train as a Primal Blueprint certified expert and his mission is to to help people live a long, healthy, happy life. This podcast is for information purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any health conditions. If you have any health concerns please seek advice from a professional for guidance
The Optimised Health Show
E019: 5 Fundamental Principles for Better Health in 2025 - The Optimised Health Show
🧠Episode Overview:
In this packed and entertaining episode of The Optimised Health Show, Ben and Sarah Law are back to kick off 2025 with their signature blend of science, real talk, and humour. Recording from a kitchen filled with red wine, roast chicken, and technical chaos, the duo dive into the five essential pillars of optimal health—and how you can apply them to feel and function at your best this year.
🔑 What You’ll Learn:
1. Sleep – The Foundation of Everything
Why sleep isn't just "nice to have," it's non-negotiable for energy, mood, hormones, and brain function.
âś” How sleep affects blood sugar, detoxification, and brain health
âś” Practical tips for deeper, higher quality sleep (blackout blinds, room temp, blue light hacks)
âś” The surprising link between natural daylight and your circadian rhythm
2. Stress – The Silent Saboteur
Stress can sabotage even the most perfect diet and workout plan.
âś” How chronic stress affects gut health, hormones, and weight
✔ Understanding your “stress bucket” and why too many stressors overflow it
âś” Techniques to manage stress: breathwork, mindset shifts, movement, and nature exposure
3. Movement – More Than Just Exercise
It’s not just about workouts—daily movement is a game-changer.
✔ Why walking is underrated (especially post-meal walks and “exercise snacks”)
âś” How to train smart: strength, cardio, zone 2, and HIIT
✔ Why less can be more—especially if you’re in a healing phase
4. Diet – It’s Not About Perfection
Stop chasing the perfect diet—focus on nutrient-dense, real food.
✔ The truth about diet “camps” (keto, low-carb, vegan, etc.)
âś” Why variety matters: protein rotation, plant diversity, and avoiding food intolerances
âś” How to personalise your nutrition based on your life stage, stress levels, and goals
5. Mental Health – The Missing Piece of the Puzzle
Your brain and gut are deeply connected—and both need care.
âś” Why gut health is essential for mental well-being
âś” The role of community, connection, and positive environments
âś” Gratitude, journaling, meditation, and believing in something bigger than yourself
đź‘Ą Who This Episode is For:
- Anyone looking to feel better, think clearer, and live more fully in 2025
- Biohackers, entrepreneurs, health enthusiasts, and everyday people wanting real advice
- Those struggling with sleep, stress, energy, or general overwhelm
đź› Bonus:
Ben and Sarah share personal tools, hacks, and daily rituals they use to stay grounded and energised—even while moving house for the 12th time in 10 years!
Thanks to Our Sponsor:
Want supplements that *actually* work? Check out Love Life Supplements and use code BEN10 for 10% off your order.
Let’s Stay Connected:
- Ben: @benlawprimal
- Sarah: @sarahlawuk
- Book a Consultation with Sarah: Free Wellness Discovery Call
Thanks for Tuning In!
Enjoyed this episode? Drop us a 5-star review and share it with your health-loving crew. Stay tuned for our next episode — we promise we won’t ghost you again!
Transcription
Speaker 2
[00.00.08]
Hello and welcome back to the Optimised Health Show with your hosts Ben and Sarah Lau. Happy new year! Hello.
Speaker 1
[00.00.17]
Happy new year. It is 2025 and we're off to a good start. Are we with our consistency with the podcast?
Speaker 2
[00.00.26]
What did you just say?
Speaker 1
[00.00.28]
Consistency. You can't call it consistent if it's the first one can you? Well, it's
Speaker 2
[00.00.31]
not the first one. We've already released one. We recorded another one. And this is number three in the new consistent era. I wouldn't
Speaker 1
[00.00.37]
say it's consistent though. We had like a three week gap
Speaker 2
[00.00.39]
again. Well, there was reasons for the three week gap Christmas hospital visits. That's the podcast for another day. I won't
Speaker 1
[00.00.46]
go into that now because that's a long story. We're going to get into it's quite smoky in this kitchen because we're
Speaker 2
[00.00.52]
just roasting a chicken right now. We're roasting a chicken, an organic riverford beauty. So if you hear any popping, it's because it's the fat, basically
Speaker 1
[00.01.00]
exploding chicken.
Speaker 2
[00.01.02]
I've got the oven
Speaker 1
[00.01.03]
next to us. I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 2
[00.01.07]
I'm really looking forward to it. Brown and crispy. It does. And you love a bit of crispy skin. I
Speaker 1
[00.01.11]
do. This is far later than we should have been doing it because yeah technical
Speaker 2
[00.01.15]
issues. Yeah. We couldn't get the. So the bloody
Speaker 1
[00.01.18]
logo behind us. It looks quite simple on that TV. It's
Speaker 2
[00.01.22]
not. Apparently. Get it to appear. And Benjamin Lorre is Mr. Technical. So if you can't do it, nobody can
Speaker 1
[00.01.28]
do it. Now it's appearing, and we're recording on two cameras simultaneously into two different microphones.
Speaker 2
[00.01.34]
It's all a lot. It's a lot, people. I'm drinking a red wine. He is, because he's been stressed about this setup. But excitingly, we are moving house very soon. So again. Yeah, again, we're
Speaker 1
[00.01.46]
trying to do it every 12 months. Wow.
Speaker 2
[00.01.48]
How many times have we moved in the last? How many years did we did we did or did we discover
Speaker 1
[00.01.53]
it was.
Speaker 2
[00.01.54]
It was more than once a year,
Speaker 1
[00.01.55]
wasn't it? Yeah, it was literally ten times,
Speaker 2
[00.01.59]
wasn't it? No, it was more than it was 12 times in like ten years or something. Yeah. I mean, is there something wrong with it? Yes. Tell us, people, is there something wrong with telling us? Apparently we move house every ten months or so.
Speaker 1
[00.02.13]
We can't. We just can't or kill me, basically. So we have to keep moving on. Like,
Speaker 2
[00.02.17]
I think it's something to do with dopamine. It's like a dopamine hit every time we move house. Well, we just get
Speaker 1
[00.02.22]
bored quickly. Partly. And the fact that landlords kick us out, countries kick us out, that makes
Speaker 2
[00.02.28]
us sound like scumbags. They don't kick us out because we're scummy. They kick us out because they decide they want to sell the property or happy
Speaker 1
[00.02.35]
with the location. Um. Yeah, there's
Speaker 2
[00.02.40]
multiple reasons. But yes, the point of that was when we move, we are going to have a dedicated filming studio room only, which is very exciting.
Speaker 1
[00.02.50]
The house is pretty damn mega.
Speaker 2
[00.02.52]
It is mega. So it's got, um, Gaggenau fridge. It's got all the stuff and a Subzero fridge. But importantly, it's got a lot of rooms and so you can have dedicated, like, content room. Like a podcast room, can't we? So it's all set up, ready to go. No stress. We just have to switch it on. Bash it out.
Speaker 1
[00.03.12]
Talk on magic. Wow. But you can't wait for this episode because there's going to be some real magic. Um, the optimised health show is brought to you by Love Life Supplements. If you're looking for clean, effective, high quality supplements that are thoroughly tested and GMP certified. Head over to Lovelife supplements. Co.Uk and use the code Benton for 10% off your entire order. So what are we talking
Speaker 2
[00.03.37]
about today? We are talking about the five fundamental of health.
Speaker 1
[00.03.42]
Mhm. We've got to work on the title. I can't remember.
Speaker 2
[00.03.45]
Fundamentals of health for 2025 or something. What did I write as the title
Speaker 1
[00.03.49]
five Fundamentals of Health
Speaker 2
[00.03.52]
five principles for Better Health in 2025.
Speaker 1
[00.03.55]
Five fundamental principles principles. Principles
Speaker 2
[00.03.59]
five fundamental principles for better. Five
Speaker 1
[00.04.02]
fundamental principles
Speaker 2
[00.04.03]
for health for better health in 2025.
Speaker 1
[00.04.06]
So let's
Speaker 2
[00.04.08]
go. Number one, we decided
Speaker 1
[00.04.10]
we spoke about it before.
Speaker 2
[00.04.12]
We're going to speak about it again
Speaker 1
[00.04.13]
because it's so fundamental. And this is the
Speaker 2
[00.04.15]
fundamentals. Principle principles.
Speaker 1
[00.04.18]
Sleep. So sleep I think is something that is so underrated and especially I think for people who run businesses, you know, or maybe have side gigs and then kids and you're working the side gig at night and everyone's like, oh, you know, in order to make your dreams a reality, you have to work more and sleep less. And I'm like, no, I get it when you're busy and you've got a lot of stuff going on, but if you don't sleep, you're gonna really bugger yourself up, basically. And your brain doesn't work if you don't sleep. No. So you get
Speaker 2
[00.04.54]
everything. You get less done in more time. So if you sleep better, you're going to get more done in less time.
Speaker 1
[00.05.00]
Yes. It's the foundation for everything.
Speaker 2
[00.05.02]
It really is feeling good during the day. It is. And I think optimizing
Speaker 1
[00.05.08]
everything health
Speaker 2
[00.05.09]
wise. Yeah. People don't realize actually what sleep does. So if you have a lack of sleep, it massively impacts your blood sugar regulation. Well, why can't I speak today?
Speaker 1
[00.05.19]
Stop highlighting it and just
Speaker 2
[00.05.21]
speak. Wow. I'm trying. Um, yeah. It massively impacts your blood sugar regulation. So if you were to test your blood glucose and you'd had a really poor night's sleep, I can guarantee you it will be higher. Um, so it's really important I really affect insulin sensitivity. And also, when we sleep, our brain detoxes.
Speaker 1
[00.05.41]
Yeah. And everyone knows. Yeah. On a basic term, you feel like shit when you don't sleep. Well, this is true. That's. Yeah. It's quite obvious when you don't sleep well, you can't function as well. Your brain doesn't work as well.
Speaker 2
[00.05.53]
No, no. But this this brain detoxing is super important because we have what is called a lymphatic system. So we have a lymphatic system in our body which helps move toxins around and out. Um, but we have a lymphatic system in the brain and the lymphatic. Oh my God. The lymphatic system is basically there to detox your brain at night. That's when it works. So if you are scrimping, is that word scrimping, skimping,
Speaker 1
[00.06.23]
skimping, skimping? I wouldn't say scrimping. Scrimping is a word, but I think it's
Speaker 2
[00.06.27]
skimping. What does scrimping mean though? Don't worry. Move on. Okay, if you're skimping, scrimping, skimping on sleep, you're missing out on that brain detox. And that's probably why your brain doesn't work particularly well the next day. But the long term impacts of that as well are not good, are they? You don't want to load of toxins floating around in your brain. They're not really going to.
Speaker 1
[00.06.47]
So tips to get a better sleep.
Speaker 2
[00.06.49]
Wow. He's on one
Speaker 1
[00.06.50]
day. Well, we're gonna be here all day.
Speaker 2
[00.06.52]
I'm a chicken to eat. Cooking away to sleep. Okay.
Speaker 1
[00.06.56]
Dark room, completely dark. Blackout blinds, if possible. Yes. Literally no light like, because light can really impact sleep.
Speaker 2
[00.07.05]
Um, yeah. And this is one of the criteria, actually, when we moved into the new house, there was no curtains. And we said to the landlord, we're not moving in unless blackout blinds in
Speaker 1
[00.07.14]
basically, well, literally no curtains at all. So. The
Speaker 2
[00.07.17]
option is blackout. So we're not moving in. And in this house that we're in at the moment, it's really annoying because they're like patio doors, aren't they? So basically you can't really have blackouts. So it's got these like sticky shit blackout things
Speaker 1
[00.07.29]
from Amazon. Just a blackout sheet that we have to Velcro to the window.
Speaker 2
[00.07.34]
So there's a tip for you. You know, if you're like, oh, I can't fit blackout curtains. They were super cheap. They Velcro to the frame. And there you are with blackouts basically. Yeah. Um, cold, cold room. Like, not still in the
Speaker 1
[00.07.49]
blackout. Sorry. So any lights at all, you can get, like, little sticky black dots again from Amazon. You can stick over any little, like, little lights on, like,
Speaker 2
[00.07.59]
um, fire alarms, fire
Speaker 1
[00.08.00]
alarms and TVs and stuff like that. And then a blackout mask. Marcus is a bit of a game changer, isn't it? Just a simple eye
Speaker 2
[00.08.10]
mask? Yeah. What are our Z sleep? Oh, mine is yours, isn't. You've got a different one now, haven't
Speaker 1
[00.08.15]
you? Yeah, they're really good. And there's just something about putting it on your eyes. I don't know, it
Speaker 2
[00.08.20]
feels comforting.
Speaker 1
[00.08.22]
Yeah. Just definitely sleep
Speaker 2
[00.08.23]
better with it. It's weird because now I'm so used to it. If I don't have one, I can't sleep. It feels wrong. It feels a bit like I'm naked. Yeah, I'm obviously a
Speaker 1
[00.08.31]
mask. I mean, well, moving on. Earplugs.
Speaker 2
[00.08.35]
Earplugs. I guess that depends, though, doesn't it? If you've got someone who snores and luckily, most of the time, well, I never snore. I do talk, though. Sometimes
Speaker 1
[00.08.44]
you talk in your sleep. Yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.08.46]
Do you want to tell people some of the random things that come out of my mouth? You really want me to say?
Speaker 1
[00.08.54]
It out.
Speaker 2
[00.08.56]
You're obviously scaring me. In my sleep. I was shouting, get out! Basically.
Speaker 1
[00.09.00]
Then there's been a lot of different things. I don't know why I haven't. I get out several. Yeah. And some just. I don't know what's going on
Speaker 2
[00.09.07]
in your head. I don't sometimes either. Um. But yeah, if someone snores a partner, then probably earplugs would be a good idea.
Speaker 1
[00.09.14]
I do snore from time to
Speaker 2
[00.09.16]
time. Occasionally I can't really figure out when. Definitely when you've been drinking, which you don't do that often anyway, so that's good. But ran ran well. He says with a red wine in his hand, but not excessively, but randomly. Just sometimes you will. I don't
Speaker 1
[00.09.28]
know why, but I think I don't do it personally. But I think earplugs in just in
Speaker 2
[00.09.33]
general. What you meant I don't do it personally. Snoring. Yes. Yes you do. I don't do earplugs either, because we're both quite silent. Yeah, well, we
Speaker 1
[00.09.41]
lived in a noisy place then. Earplugs. Just the cheap, fine ones.
Speaker 2
[00.09.46]
Yeah, and then a cold room. Um. Freezing cold. Yeah. Benjamin loves it. It's so cold. I actually hate getting in bed because I'm. I have to literally wear dressing gowns in bed until I warm up under the duvet because it's so cold, and I don't think that's healthy. Never put the radiator on in the bedroom, do we? To keep it cool.
Speaker 1
[00.10.06]
No,
Speaker 2
[00.10.08]
I like it like you love it. What is the optimal temperature? Do you know? No, I don't either. I think it's just. I think it's just below your body's core temperature is about right. Um, but. Yeah. And it makes such a difference now, obviously. Female's going through menopause. This is one of the biggest struggles is the old hot flushes. Flushes that then wake up in pools of sweat. So you definitely, if you are going through menopause, do not want your radiator on in your bedroom because it's not going to help. Yeah.
Speaker 1
[00.10.37]
And your temperature fluctuates during the night doesn't it. It kind of raises. Yeah. In the middle of the night isn't it. It's kind of when you, it's it's like during the night you can like wake up really hot. In the morning. You can be really cool because your body temperature
Speaker 2
[00.10.51]
changes. Yeah, and females as well. Again, depending on where they are in their cycle, their body temperature can change quite a lot as well. Like so after ovulation their body temperature basal body temperature will rise and then they'll be hotter. Basically the second half of the cycle you
Speaker 1
[00.11.07]
can get things now like temperature controlled mattress covers like the eight
Speaker 2
[00.11.11]
sleep. Yeah. You can have different sides. Can't you say one side. Yeah.
Speaker 1
[00.11.15]
One side. Different temperature
Speaker 2
[00.11.17]
to the other. If you're an ice queen like myself, you can have it a little warmer.
Speaker 1
[00.11.21]
That will adapt the temperature during the night as well. I mean, we really need one. That's a good one.
Speaker 2
[00.11.25]
Next on the list, um, and then other things for sleep. So something that's actually really important that people don't actually think about is like daytime. So the quality of your sleep is dictated by the quality of the light that you actually get in the day. And the problem, especially in the UK, is that we often live in darkness. I mean, especially in winter, 3:45. I mean, that's fun. Um, and because it's cold and snowy right now, people just don't leave the house. And I'm definitely, you know, I find that happens to us sometimes is yeah, definitely don't leave the house basically in the dark all day, and you don't get out into natural daylight. And so your entire body is regulated by daylight and by by light and dark cycles. So we have these little clocks basically in each of our cells, clock genes in each of our cells. And they regulate things like hormones being released. And those clock genes are, um controlled by light and dark. So if you are not getting that natural daylight, then your body doesn't really know what time it is, and then it's not going to release the right hormones when it should release them. And that can mess with everything. So that's going to mess with you releasing sleep hormones at night, melatonin. It's going to mess with you actually releasing enough cortisol in the morning at the right amount to give you the energy and the wakeup that you need. So one of the like easiest tips that you can do is first thing in the morning, get daylight in your eyes.
Speaker 1
[00.12.59]
Yeah. As soon as
Speaker 2
[00.13.00]
possible. Yeah. People looking at phones
Speaker 1
[00.13.01]
wake up. Get the light in your face. Um. And it's obviously not
Speaker 2
[00.13.06]
easy. Now, if it's dark when you get up, it's when
Speaker 1
[00.13.08]
it's dark when you get up, when you go.
Speaker 2
[00.13.10]
Okay. I mean, it's literally dark all day.
Speaker 1
[00.13.12]
But we do have, like a red light. Only a very powerful red light. Panel. Panel. I mean, they're quite pricey.
Speaker 2
[00.13.20]
They are, but they're worth it if you live in the UK. I think it's a non-negotiable, to be honest. Yeah. In the winter you would often
Speaker 1
[00.13.26]
spend like 20 minutes in front of one in the morning, weren't we? Yeah. Doing a morning routine. So doing a bit of reading, a bit of meditation, breathwork, gratitude in front of the red light and it's absolutely wonderful. I've actually got a discount code for Bon Charge where they do red lights, so if anyone, I'll put it in the show notes so you can get a little discount on your own red light. They actually do a small travel one as well, which is, you know, it's not big. Obviously it's small, but it's big. Wow. Let's go. Well, today, um, it is better than nothing. And it's actually quite good for travel as well. So I often take it when I travel. So that's a really good one. And also at night time blocking blue light from sundown. So people think we're nutters because we both wear glasses. And then in the evening when we're in bed, you'll see us basically in a pair of glasses with a pair of blue light blocking glasses over the top. Double glasses. Yeah. And I remember I was at a conference and I stayed with one of my really good friends for the night, and she was just like, I actually can't cope with you. I was laying in bed with my double glasses on. She was just like, wow,
Speaker 2
[00.14.28]
I know this is my life. You get
Speaker 1
[00.14.30]
some funny looks. We do? Yeah, they're big in the
Speaker 2
[00.14.32]
biohacking world, aren't they? Yes. Everyone wears them. They are. So after sundown, put them on. Especially if you're
Speaker 1
[00.14.38]
working or working late or watching
Speaker 2
[00.14.40]
TV. Yeah, working on laptops
Speaker 1
[00.14.43]
helps with melatonin production, doesn't it?
Speaker 2
[00.14.45]
Yeah. Basically the blue light, which is emitted from phones, TVs, lights in our houses, blue light is is emitted from basically everything. It's artificial light. And so that stops melatonin.
Speaker 1
[00.14.59]
It's not necessarily artificial is it. You can get blue light from the sun.
Speaker 2
[00.15.02]
Well yeah. But that's kind of the real blue light, not the blue light. Um. So yeah, we the blue light blocking glasses do what they say on the tin. They block that blue light, which then means your melatonin production can actually happen because that blue light just stops melatonin production. Yeah. So you want to make sure you're getting melatonin. And especially as we age you know we're in our 40s unfortunately. Um, and as you age you naturally produce less melatonin anyway. So you don't really want to be blocking your own production. And all hormones work together. So I think people forget that, like harm, hormones are like a symphony. They all work together. So when one goes off, they all go off. So you really need to balance them all. And so many people miss these fundamentals and just go straight to, you know I always think like hormones like obviously this is a hormone. But people go to like the main hormones that they think of and try and rectify those when they actually don't look at what the what are the actual routes? Um, and it is the diet and lifestyle things that are the routes most of the time. Yes. It's 15 minutes and we're still on the first one. We're gonna be here all day. Okay. Number
Speaker 1
[00.16.13]
two. Well, just quickly on sleep, just to wrap it
Speaker 2
[00.16.16]
up. Go on and wrap it up.
Speaker 1
[00.16.18]
Not eating too close to bedtime. Um, which is
Speaker 2
[00.16.21]
weird that we're really bad at that. Um. I'm really good when I do like a six hour eating window, because I don't have a lot to eat. So at least probably
Speaker 1
[00.16.28]
at least 90 minutes before I go to bed. Let's finish eating. Ideally
Speaker 2
[00.16.31]
like 2 to 3 hours, though for a lot of people,
Speaker 1
[00.16.34]
at least 90 minutes at least. But yeah. Um, but again, depending on the person. Some people genetically. Um, but as a general
Speaker 2
[00.16.43]
rule. Yeah, as a general rule. But some people might actually find that if they have a little snack before bed. Yeah,
Speaker 1
[00.16.48]
it actually helps them sleep. Hydrates
Speaker 2
[00.16.50]
a few carbs and tryptophan rich foods. Um, because trip to camp, trip to camp, trip to can tryptophan. Tryptophan gets converted into,
Speaker 1
[00.17.00]
uh, five, HTP and five. Oh my God, I'm getting confused now. Tryptophan gets converted into serotonin. Serotonin? No, no. You're right. I was the founder of HTTP
Speaker 2
[00.17.10]
to serotonin. Yeah. To melatonin. Yes. So basically, no one would have understand a word of that. So basically tryptophan tryptophan rich foods or things like turkey that gets converted into five HTTP five HTTP gets converted into serotonin and serotonin then gets converted into melatonin, your sleep hormone. You don't
Speaker 1
[00.17.28]
need to go into such detail.
Speaker 2
[00.17.29]
People might want to know these things because we'll be here all night. Well,
Speaker 1
[00.17.32]
you people get bored.
Speaker 2
[00.17.34]
You, um. Well, number two then. Stress
Speaker 1
[00.17.39]
management. Yes.
Speaker 2
[00.17.42]
So I always say to people, you can do all the good things like the right diet, the right supplements, exercise. But if you don't manage stress, none of it will work. None of it will work. Your body, basically. Your body is so clever. So whenever you're in that sympathetic dominant state, chronically, it messes with everything in your body because your body basically thinks you're in danger. So if your body thinks you're in danger, it's going to prioritize the things that are important to help you survive. So the things that aren't important at that point digestion. Your body's like, well, you don't need to be eating food right now. You need to be running. So I'm going to take all the energy that would go to digestion and shunt it to your muscles. Stomach acid production lowers, digestive enzyme production lowers. So you're not going to digest very well. Then things are going to ferment in your gut. You then end up with leaky gut as well, because stress too much cortisol will cause the cells of the gut lining to pull apart, and also makes the cells permeable so things can get through that stimulates the immune system. The immune system gets pissed off. Then you have food intolerances. Then you have all this inflammation because inflammation mainly comes from the immune system. And basically it's all a bit of a shit show. So you could be putting all the right foods in, but if you're stressed to the high heavens, none of them are going to absorb properly. You're not going to break them down properly, and you're probably going to end up with a leaky gut no matter what. So you need to manage stress properly. It's also going to mess up your sleep.
Speaker 1
[00.19.12]
Yeah, but this is a tough one, isn't it? Because it's easy just to say manage stress. I know, but. People have stressful events and things happen in their life.
Speaker 2
[00.19.24]
They do? Absolutely. And this is the thing to think about. Like stress comes in many forms. So you've obviously got like mental and emotional stress, but you've also got physical stress. So physical stress can come from an overload of toxins in your body. Poor gut health. Um, not moving, moving too much under eating. Exercising. Yeah. Under eating is a big one that I see a lot of people under eating and over exercising done it myself. Um, and it really stresses your body out. So you might be thinking, well, I'm not stressed mentally. I'm absolutely fine. But your body is absolutely stressed. So it comes in many shapes and forms. So it's really assessing where the stresses are in your life. And I always like to think of it a bit like having a bucket. So you've got a stress bucket. And stress is really important. We need stress like our bodies. If we didn't stress our bodies, they would never change. So that's not good either. You need you need a stressor. Yeah, yeah you need stressors. But it's about how full is the bucket. So if you think like you've got a bucket and if you have too many stresses going in, it will eventually overflow and that will mess with everything. So you have to assess how many stressors are in your bucket. And that's why some things that are good for some people are not necessarily going to be really good for someone else because if they're their stress. Stress bucket is already too full. Let's take, um, for example fasting. Fasting is incredible and has so many benefits. But if your body if you're stressed to the high heavens, you've got a crazy work schedule, you've got five kids. You are. You know, you've already been under eating for three years and overtraining. If you then just go and fast, you're never going to get the actual, uh, medicinal benefits of fasting because your body is too stressed and it will go into this cell danger response. It won't work. And so it will actually be so counterproductive. So it's knowing when to implement things.
Speaker 1
[00.21.15]
So what can we do to mitigate
Speaker 2
[00.21.17]
stress. Um firstly I would say it's all about like how you perceive situations. So of course there are things in life that happen that can be traumatic or stressful. But we have to think about like how we how we see those situations. Because two people could go through exactly the same event and one person is fine and the other person is not because of the way they perceive it. We all have like our own set of glasses that we wear in this world. I always think about this story about, um,
Speaker 1
[00.21.48]
a plane and it was a really bumpy. Journey a bit like the one for us to Atlanta, which was I thought I was going to die. It was not fun. Um, and everyone on the plane was like screaming, crying. And there was a little boy on the plane and he was like, woo! Like it was the best day of his life. He was just like. It was like a roller coaster to him. And he was actually the son's pilot. A son's pilot for my son, the pilot's son. But it's two different perceptions of a situation. And I think a lot of the time by by the time we become adults, we have so many past experiences that then determine how we see life and see situations. And we've got programming from what people have told us when we're little, and all of that stuff that then leads to and it's going to check the chicken. I got to turn the chicken off. Um, just check those sweet as well. The roasted Swede. Just make sure it's not burning. Whoa. I don't think you'll be able to see us in a second because of the smoke. Holy moly. Have we got a smoke detector in here? Am I saying just see if they're done or not? The Swede. This is scary.
Speaker 2
[00.22.55]
Yep.
Speaker 1
[00.22.57]
This chicken is pretty stressed
Speaker 2
[00.22.59]
right now. Um, well, yeah, I'm sure it is. It looks. I mean,
Speaker 1
[00.23.02]
they're just they're just. Are they hard or. No. I'm sorry. Let
Speaker 2
[00.23.06]
me try one. It's all completely soft. Okay. We're good then we're good. Chicken done.
Speaker 1
[00.23.13]
Now you can just hear a bubbling chicken in the background and loads of
Speaker 2
[00.23.16]
smoke from there. Um, so.
Speaker 1
[00.23.20]
Well,
Speaker 2
[00.23.21]
you really can hear that. Probably things you can do to manage stress is think about how you see situations is number one like and I think this comes from awareness because sometimes we're not even aware of the way we think and how we perceive things. And I can honestly say, like, I used to be someone who used to worry about a lot of things, like I was quite down on myself. I would worry, I would stress about situations and my my self-talk was quite negative. And I did a lot of work on myself, like a lot of reading, a lot of personal development to shift that and a lot of rewiring my brain. You can rewire your brain. Um, so reprogramming, you know, and it started with awareness. Like as soon as I heard that little voice in my head go, oh my God, what if this happens? Or what if that happens or this is not good, then I would like notice it and be like change that to the positive of that. So that would be my first step. What else can be done to manage stress?
Speaker 1
[00.24.18]
Um, things like
Speaker 2
[00.24.18]
breathwork, breathwork, meditation. Yeah,
Speaker 1
[00.24.22]
just like just movement I guess. Just getting outside, going for a walk. Going for a walk in nature is actually one of the best things you can do to lower cortisol. It's been studied and proven that walking in nature can dramatically reduce cortisol, so that's such a good one. Yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.24.41]
Get out and hug a tree.
Speaker 1
[00.24.42]
Basically, if breathwork is a big one, just slow breathing like it's so simple to do. But yeah, people probably don't do it like you're like the box breath for in whole for for for out especially extending the exhale. Yeah. Big um big stress reducer. So you can instantly feel calmer. Like four in like eight out.
Speaker 2
[00.25.06]
Yeah. And also making sure you don't just breathe from your chest. Yeah. Belly breathing.
Speaker 1
[00.25.11]
Belly breathing. Get the
Speaker 2
[00.25.12]
belly then. Chest. Yeah. Because if you think when you panic, you breathe from up here all the time, it's like and really shallow. So the more you can like breathe down past your diaphragm.
Speaker 1
[00.25.21]
Yeah. Mindful mindful mindfulness. Mindfulness meditation. It's quite a hard one to master. I can't say I've mastered, but. Kind of when you try and clear the mind and not really think of anything. Um,
Speaker 2
[00.25.35]
the thing you have to think about as well, with something like meditation is it's a practice. Yeah. People often go, oh, I can't meditate. My brain's too busy. I think of all these things and I'm like, yeah, we all do. We've all got busy brains. But the more you do it, the better you get at it. And there's a quote as well. I can't remember who said this. When people are like, oh, I don't have time to meditate. And it's like, if you don't have time to meditate, you're the person that needs to meditate.
Speaker 1
[00.25.58]
Sure. Yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.25.59]
So even if it's five minutes and you can use guided apps and things like that, like there's an amazing app that we love called Other Ship for breathwork, isn't there? Which is incredible.
Speaker 1
[00.26.08]
Um, yeah. It's great. Absolutely great for breathwork. And it's got lots of like visualizations and so many different breath works for energy or sleep. I mean, it's just got so much on there really and really deep guided ones as well. So this is the great thing with breathwork. Like our nervous system regulates everything. And this goes back to kind of what I said earlier about I can give you all the diet plans, etc. in the world, but if you don't manage stress, they're never going to work and it's because of the nervous system. So the nervous system regulates everything. So if your nervous system is just like on the edge 24 over seven, then that's going to impact any kind of health journey and stop you from getting to where you want to be. Um, so you have to work on the nervous system. All the somatic work really helps, and it's like a double whammy coming and coming at it from a nutrition and diet perspective. And then from a somatic work perspective, nervous system regulation perspective, those two coming together is what changes everything. Mhm. Um anything else for stress management. Dance I think dance and sing actually singing singing is a great one because it actually stimulates your vagus nerve. So your vagus nerve runs from your gut to your brain. And it controls things like digestion, but it also controls like, um, stress. So
Speaker 2
[00.27.26]
stimulating your vagus nerve helps you calm nervous system down.
Speaker 1
[00.27.30]
The homing in in meditation
Speaker 2
[00.27.33]
is why it's there, isn't it, to stimulate the vagus nerve? Definitely.
Speaker 1
[00.27.37]
I mean, you sound like an idiot.
Speaker 2
[00.27.39]
Um, I mean, I love listening to you in the morning when you're very loud sometimes. Have you heard
Speaker 1
[00.27.43]
you? You haven't heard you. I think someone's been attacked upstairs. Uh,
Speaker 2
[00.27.52]
I'm not even going into it.
Speaker 1
[00.27.54]
Are.
Speaker 2
[00.27.58]
You just letting loose? I'm letting that. I'm letting that aggression out. My nervous system is becoming regulated. Yeah.
Speaker 1
[00.28.03]
You got to be very comfortable with the people you live in. Known for a while if you're
Speaker 2
[00.28.06]
going to be arming. Yeah, but it does.
Speaker 1
[00.28.10]
It definitely helps.
Speaker 2
[00.28.11]
It really does. It stimulates that vagus nerve. And that's going to help your digestion as well. If you are fed up with going it alone on your health journey and you are struggling, you're generally not feeling your best self but are ready to get optimized. Why not book a free wellness discovery? Call with me, a naturopathic nutritionist and functional health coach, where I'll help you understand the root causes of your issues and guide you in the right direction of which of my programs would be best suited for you, whether that be a group program or 1 to 1 coaching. The link to book your free call is in the show notes. What are you
Speaker 1
[00.28.40]
looking at? We're half an hour. An hour early on to
Speaker 2
[00.28.43]
the movement. Like we said, touched on it. Walking. Walking
Speaker 1
[00.28.46]
is so underrated I
Speaker 2
[00.28.48]
think underrated. And I like it's so interesting because I just assume that everyone does about 10,000 steps a day. However, most people don't know. Um, and I get it. Like when you've got an office job or whatever and you're sitting at a laptop a lot indoors, it can be very easy to not move. Um, and then you feel tired because you've been sitting at a laptop all day, so then you're like, oh, I can't do anything. But it's so important. Like, it's so again, like you said, so underrated for regulating blood sugar. Um, I mean, it does. So it's just important.
Speaker 1
[00.29.20]
Yeah. I mean, you just feel more energized, like we both have walking treadmill desks, which is becoming more and more common now and I guess less expensive. Probably, yeah. Probably still like 200.
Speaker 2
[00.29.34]
Maybe you can get them for $150. Good old Amazonia. But
Speaker 1
[00.29.38]
it's just an absolute game changer if you work at a desk. Yeah. Um, yeah. It's a massive game changer. I can get, like, easily get 15,000 steps in in a day without leaving the house. That's a good thing. Um, but I can find I can work. Actually work loads better when you get used to it. It's quite hard to begin with once you get used to it. I feel like my brain actually works a lot better. Yeah. And I'm getting that movement in, like, keeping the blood sugar down.
Speaker 2
[00.30.07]
Yeah. But I would say as well, like, even if you just go, do you know what? I'm just going to do ten minute walks as well after meals. Just get outside. So you're doing if you've got a walking treadmill desk, great. And then ten minute walks outside after meals. And again that's going to really help blood sugar regulation and insulin sensitivity. It was actually a study done that came out recently as well that showed that they called it like exercise snacks. So if you do I think it's like 20 er squats every 45 minutes. It actually lowers your blood sugar more than going for a 30 minute walk. So yeah, even things like that
Speaker 1
[00.30.38]
integrated interval like Joel
Speaker 2
[00.30.40]
Green. Yes we love a bit of Joel Green. That's like
Speaker 1
[00.30.43]
every hour something like just one minute. All out. Like, as hard as you can. Like air squats or pushups or plank.
Speaker 2
[00.30.54]
Yeah. For
Speaker 1
[00.30.55]
eight hours a day, it sounds nothing like nothing.
Speaker 2
[00.30.57]
That's the great thing, isn't it? It feels like nothing. One minute, every hour. Yeah, but it's super simple. It comes
Speaker 1
[00.31.02]
around quite quick. It's actually
Speaker 2
[00.31.04]
quite hard. That's our little trick on a plane as well, isn't it? Long haul flights. Every time you go to the loo, you have to do 20 escorts. At least 20, at least 20. 50. Sometimes it's quite small in there, and people are probably like, what the hell are they doing in there? Um, because they're probably queuing for the loo, but it's what we do. So if you ever think if you're ever on a plane with us, basically, and we're in the toilet for some time, it's because we're air squatting. So now you know. So
Speaker 1
[00.31.28]
yeah. So that's obviously just kind of low level movement. And then obviously running or lifting weights
Speaker 2
[00.31.39]
just hit lifting weights. They're the things. And again this is so person dependent on where you're at in your life whether you're male or female, how stressed your body is for the average human I would say like 3 to 4 strength training sessions a week is vital.
Speaker 1
[00.31.56]
Minimum of. Well, even
Speaker 2
[00.31.58]
two. Yeah. Two
Speaker 1
[00.32.00]
full, um, two strength sessions a week. At a minimum, I would say. Lifting weights. Lifting proper weights. Especially for females. So many people still don't lift
Speaker 2
[00.32.12]
weights? No. And bang about it. On about it all the time. Me too. Especially females. Because they just assume that I don't know. It's this thing about like, burning calories. So obviously when you do cardio, you, like burn loads of calories, or when you do like a class, you feel like you burn loads of calories. Or you can see it on a machine, which is never accurate, by the way. Um, but it's not about the calories burned in the session. It's about what happens to your body after the session that matters. Yeah, especially for females when you're aging. Well, in general, everyone, when they're aging, you need to do everything you can to hold on to muscle mass. And that's not going to happen by doing Barry's Bootcamp, unfortunately. Or yeah, no. Les Mills and
Speaker 1
[00.32.51]
and also women think they're going to get bulky and that's that's the big one. I'm going to get massive for
Speaker 2
[00.32.57]
being a bikini competitor. The amount of time I've spent doing hip thrusts to try and build a but I can prompt and how heavy I can promise you you're not going to get bulky. It's impossible.
Speaker 1
[00.33.10]
It's a yeah, it takes a massive amount of food and exercise for women to get even remotely
Speaker 2
[00.33.16]
bulky, and probably some peds as well along the way for a lot. So slow movement. I would just say, yeah, 2 to 4 strength training sessions a week. Low level activity like walking. Absolutely crucial. And then low level.
Speaker 1
[00.33.30]
Yeah. And zone two.
Speaker 2
[00.33.31]
Zone two is great.
Speaker 1
[00.33.33]
Getting your heart rate up a little bit more but not crazy high like Simple method is 180 for a heart rate. 180 minus your age. Yeah. If you have a heart rate monitor. Um, but just being able to move and still kind of hold a conversation, I
Speaker 2
[00.33.53]
guess. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then there's things like hit, obviously. And again, this is so person dependent. Um, I do think it definitely has a time and a place, but not overdoing it like 1 to 2 sessions a week, and it should be short.
Speaker 1
[00.34.08]
Yeah. I mean, at least even just one session a week of all out sprints, sprinting as hard as you can. Anything like you could be sprinting on a bike. A rower? Yeah. Running, obviously. Um, it only has to be, like ten minutes.
Speaker 2
[00.34.25]
Yeah. Yeah. Not full out for ten minutes. You do like 20s for an hour. Sorry. Rest for 20s. Pull out. Rest for about a minute and go again. Now, again. This is so dependent. Like, if you're you're someone who's on a healing journey. I have been there myself. Um, it is probably not the thing you want to be doing. And again, this is what I see many women doing as loads of hit in a bid to lose weight. And then they can't lose any weight, and it's because their cortisol is
Speaker 1
[00.34.53]
dragging their cortisol in the roof. Yeah. And they're doing it every day. Yeah. Too much of it. Not in the right context. Not fueling their bodies properly. Not resting. And then if you've got anything like if you're naturally more prone to switching on inflammation, like me, um, you need to be more mindful about things like that because your body doesn't cope with it as well. And a lot of it depends on things like your dieting history and your, um, your, your stress load. So if you're, you know, super stressed, you've got a lot going on. I wouldn't recommend doing the hit. Um, it's not going to probably benefit you at that point. And sometimes what you have to think about with movement is depending again, depending on where you are in a healing journey. Sometimes less is better. So, you know, when I work with clients on a 1 to 1 basis, in the first phase, when I work with them, I actually pull back on most exercise. I'm like walking great. Yoga? Great.
Speaker 2
[00.35.44]
Mobility. Great. But everything else I want you to stop actually right now, because most of the people I work with have been overtraining. And I'm like, and we want to get their body into a nice rest and digest state to actually start things moving. And the funny thing is, pretty much every single one of my clients has lost weight by doing less and eating more. Go figure.
Speaker 1
[00.36.03]
Yes, it's a big. Well, for some people it's a big problem, isn't it? Just overtraining in general? They don't even realize this thing. They need to do
Speaker 2
[00.36.10]
more and more. More. Yeah.
Speaker 1
[00.36.12]
Yeah. And actually backing off can make a big difference. Actually lose weight? Yeah. Now, before we ready I mean, this is the topic. Diet, obviously. So what do you put in your gob?
Speaker 2
[00.36.26]
Yeah. It makes a difference
Speaker 1
[00.36.27]
to your health, apparently.
Speaker 2
[00.36.28]
So go figure. Um, I think people are often looking for the perfect supplement routine. What supplement can I take for this? What supplement can I take? Oh, the
Speaker 1
[00.36.38]
perfect and the perfect diet, right? Like, the perfect way to
Speaker 2
[00.36.42]
eat. Well, yeah, but what I was going to say about that is that you can't supplement a bad diet. You know, you can't just supplement your way to help you. They supplements are that they're supplements. They're supposed to supplement a good quality diet. So yeah,
Speaker 1
[00.36.57]
the basics. I guess you wanted to cover the basics of diet. Yeah. Eat real food. Real
Speaker 2
[00.37.03]
food and a balanced, balanced, real meals.
Speaker 1
[00.37.06]
I heard it before, but real whole foods.
Speaker 2
[00.37.09]
80 to 90% of the nutrient dense whole foods. Foods. Bread is not whole food, I'm afraid to tell you. Although, um, good quality sourdough.
Speaker 1
[00.37.22]
Sourdough? Um,
Speaker 2
[00.37.24]
you're a bit of a fan, aren't you?
Speaker 1
[00.37.26]
Yeah. It's not going to
Speaker 2
[00.37.28]
kill you. No, because there's that's the thing is there's levels to processing. Mhm. So there's like ultra processed. Yes.
Speaker 1
[00.37.36]
It's like 50 ingredients and then there's processed like good quality sourdough. And it's like three
Speaker 2
[00.37.42]
ingredients. Yeah, or like a high quality protein powder would fall. Yeah. That's processed, but it's not bad for you. Obviously you're not going to eat it for four meals a day, but having some good quality protein powder, even though it's a processed food, it's not the same as an ultra processed food. So is this. You know, my mentor Vince always talks about this. There's camps, camps for everything. And I think there's such a debate in the in the diet world of like, you know, the keto camp or the carnivore camp or the vegan camp or the low carb camp or the high protein camp, and it's like they all have a time and a place. But anything you do for too long will backfire. Yeah. So it's like, you know, they all their tools, they're all all diets are tools essentially. I use keto with my clients, but you don't want to do it all the time. I use fasting with my clients, but you don't want to do it all the time. You know, it's. Yeah,
Speaker 1
[00.38.31]
it's like Joel Green says, it's
Speaker 2
[00.38.33]
everything works until it doesn't. Oh, sorry. The microphone is gone. Um, again. I can't remember how he puts it now. Everything works.
Speaker 1
[00.38.43]
At what point in time? That's what he said. At what point in time? Yeah, like everything can work for a period.
Speaker 2
[00.38.49]
Yeah. Um, quantity and duration. And I
Speaker 1
[00.38.51]
certainly experienced that with low carb. Yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.38.54]
You were the the
Speaker 1
[00.38.55]
carb,
Speaker 2
[00.38.57]
you I mean, carb Nazi. Yeah. You hated carbs a couple of years.
Speaker 1
[00.39.00]
Yeah. Um, I was like, low carb as the way forever. Um, this is the only way to eat. And
Speaker 2
[00.39.07]
then after a while, I mean, you can
Speaker 1
[00.39.10]
you can work for a good few years. That's the thing. So people think, yes, this is the way. And then, yeah, all of a sudden it stops working as well as it did because you're just doing one way of eating forever. Like cutting out carbs forever. So then you're insulin sensitivity. Sensitivity is not great. And then you actually increase your, um, insulin and your blood sugar, even on low carb.
Speaker 2
[00.39.33]
Yeah, this is it. It's all about variety when it comes to diet. Doing the same. And I know this is not what people want to hear, because as humans, we want the one thing that's going to fix everything. And the one way to eat to make it simple. But there isn't one. There isn't one way to eat the Mediterranean like whole food diet is kind of like the the fundamental diet. And then all of the other things are tools that you add in and you take out and you add in and you take out
Speaker 1
[00.40.00]
the. But the big underlying principle that I've come to is just whole foods as close to nature as possible and nutrient dense. Yes. And within that then you can just eat a big variety of foods, not concentrating on macros as much, maybe obviously hitting enough protein because I think protein is the most important macro
Speaker 2
[00.40.24]
it is. But even saying that there's times to go low protein. Yeah, I think in the in the world that we live in today, everyone's talking about the importance of protein. And I do a lot to be fair because it is important. But there are periods where you might need to go low protein because that
Speaker 1
[00.40.37]
is a short intervention right where you need to if you're in a healing phase. Yeah. But long term definitely not. No, no definitely not long term. But again it's a tool. And even you know when people fast etc. that's obviously going low protein. That's how you create autophagy which clears out old unhealthy cells and recycles parts of cells that are damaged and not working. So, you know, going low protein for periods can be super helpful, especially when you have been high protein for a really long time. And so doing things like that can be really, really helpful. And we'll go into more depth about these things in another podcast. What are whole Foods?
Speaker 2
[00.41.13]
Things that are grown from the ground or have come from a high quality animal or from a tree
Speaker 1
[00.41.19]
just in their own, in their natural state, I guess.
Speaker 2
[00.41.22]
Yeah. So quality Meals. Vegetables. Fruits. Um, meats. Fish.
Speaker 1
[00.41.28]
Eggs. Like buying single ingredient
Speaker 2
[00.41.31]
things. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds. Seeds. Oils. Olive oil.
Speaker 1
[00.41.38]
Olive oils. Kind of process, but.
Speaker 2
[00.41.40]
Yeah, that's a little. Yeah, that's another thing that's you could call that process. But it's very good for you because it's minimally processed. It's normally like cold pressed. Yeah.
Speaker 1
[00.41.50]
Um,
Speaker 2
[00.41.52]
so I always think to myself, like if you were to look like Mediterranean, so grains, legumes, healthy fats like avocado, coconut oil, nuts and seeds, a bit of butter and ghee, um, olive oil, avocado. Then what have I missed here? Grains, legumes, fats, proteins, real protein sources and no grenade bars are not a real protein source. Um, so meats, fish, eggs, a bit of dairy? Yeah. Protein source. And then your carbs. Obviously, you got your grains and your legumes, but you'd have your root veggies, your veggies, a
Speaker 1
[00.42.28]
variety, just a variety of meats, fish and vegetables. It does get more complex, I guess. Based on your genetics, like some people do better on red meats? Yeah. Yeah. People do better on higher fat, lower fat, higher carb. So it does actually get a little complicated. Yeah, absolutely. And that's we're working 1 to 1 with
Speaker 2
[00.42.49]
a coach like me, you can do
Speaker 1
[00.42.52]
to work with Sarah if you want to
Speaker 2
[00.42.53]
be healthy. Absolutely. Um, helps you know, how to personalize your diet to you. And also, I think, to know when to implement the tools. Um, because it's really hard trying to figure it out for yourself when you know when to maybe do fasting or when to go low carb, or when to have more carbs and all things like that. So I have a coach. As a coach, I have a coach because it's so hard to be subjective with yourself.
Speaker 1
[00.43.18]
I think yeah, you think? Yeah, I think, yeah. There's a general, like we say, a general principle. Whole foods trying to vary because people eat this lot. People eat the same things every day.
Speaker 2
[00.43.31]
Don't eat the same five foods on rotation, on repetition. Even.
Speaker 1
[00.43.36]
You know, we are we can be definitely guilty of that because it's easy, isn't it? A lot of people eat the same breakfast and the same
Speaker 2
[00.43.41]
lunch. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but what I would say, what I would say in regards to that is just think like if I've had, let's say, chicken on a Monday, I'm not going to have chicken until Wednesday and then go right. I'm going to have a different protein source tomorrow. And the same with plants like you want to get 30 plant points in a week, which is like different herbs, spices, vegetables, leaves or things like that, just very,
Speaker 1
[00.44.08]
very rarely have the same protein. Yeah. In consecutive days weaving the same carbohydrate in consecutive days.
Speaker 2
[00.44.14]
Yeah. They all have different nutrients, different polyphenol, different fibers. And also your immune system gets peed off if you keep seeing the same things all the time. You got gut microbiome biome. Yeah. Needs the diversity of all the different foods. So if you want a nice diverse microbiome, which we all do because that is the fundamental of health, then you absolutely need to be having variety in your diet. What I actually love to do personally is do like I'll do a bit of a rotation throughout the week where I have two low carb days. Then I'll have three medium carb days, and then how many days is that to two high carb days? And on the two low carb days I do a six hour eating window. So I'm getting a bit of fasting, a bit of autophagy, low carb. Then I'm going to medium carb, and then I train more on the medium and the high carb days. And that's a really nice way to actually create diet variation.
Speaker 1
[00.45.05]
Yeah. And I guess for myself on non training days or rest days I try to go lower carb.
Speaker 2
[00.45.12]
Yeah I don't need
Speaker 1
[00.45.13]
them as much at my lower on my rest days and high carb my training days. More around training I guess to help fuel the
Speaker 2
[00.45.22]
workout. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a really good tip. Um, carbs around training. And again, something I see many women do is go to the gym at 630 in the morning with no food in their system. And I'm like, firstly, that's going to jack your cortisol through the roof most likely. And secondly, you're not going to get the best from your workout. And thirdly, you're not going to build the muscle that you want to build because you need the insulin spike to drive amino acids into your muscles. But
Speaker 1
[00.45.49]
some people have to train at 6
Speaker 2
[00.45.50]
a.m. I know, but I'm like, just eat something, have a banana and a
Speaker 1
[00.45.53]
protein shake. Do these high intensity workouts
Speaker 2
[00.45.56]
or no food? No, never. I mean, I've
Speaker 1
[00.45.58]
been guilty of that. I've
Speaker 2
[00.46.00]
done it before, and I messed myself up. So learn from my mistakes. Um, but, yeah, I just think if you want to grow muscle. You need fuel. You need fuel. To do that, you need carbs and you need amino acids. So the carbs help drive the amino acids into your cells. So
Speaker 1
[00.46.14]
we need to eat this chicken. Oh,
Speaker 2
[00.46.16]
my God, we've got number five to do. Last one. Mental health. Mental health. I guess that kind of falls into what we were talking about with stress. Yeah. So mental health. I mean, it's everything, isn't it? And we have to think about what affects mental health. Firstly, gut health massively affects mental health. Like the the connection between your gut and your brain is unbelievable. And unfortunately like in in the world that we live in, people look at systems of the body as solo systems. So it's like, oh, I'm depressed. It must be my brain. Oh, I'm this, it must be this. And it's like, no, you have to look at the things that affect that. So your your brain is so connected to your gut. So you make, you know, most of your serotonin, your dopamine in your gut. If you're not looking after your gut, you're going to feel depressed, you're going to have anxiety. So you have to start with the gut. That has to be, you know, fundamental. When you've got anything mental health wise going on, it's a lot of
Speaker 1
[00.47.11]
people don't link no diet to mental health.
Speaker 2
[00.47.13]
Do they know? No gut to
Speaker 1
[00.47.15]
mental health? No. But it plays a massive role,
Speaker 2
[00.47.18]
right? Yeah. Huge. Huge. And then obviously, um, stress plays a massive role as well because if your cortisol is all over the place, if you've got high cortisol night. I can say this from experience, I've had high cortisol and I've had low cortisol. When I had high cortisol I felt anxious, edgy, like just like. It. When you have high cortisol, it's like you're on red alert. So it's like your brain is hyper, you know, hyper reactive. It's looking for danger. So it makes your senses really overreactive. So it's like, you know, you feel jumpy and edgy and like everything is a danger, a threat. It's a horrible feeling. So if there's anything like that going on, you have to look back to what is your cortisol doing as well. And when you've got low cortisol you feel low, you've got no energy. You you know, you just don't feel good. You feel depressed and flat and just a bit me. So cortisol will have a huge impact on that.
Speaker 1
[00.48.10]
Yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.48.11]
And then you just iron up that chicken.
Speaker 1
[00.48.13]
Um, it's in my line of sight. Um, and, like, can we talk about community, won't we? In relationships,
Speaker 2
[00.48.22]
which is huge. It really is. There's been so many studies done on, like, community and how it impacts, like, longevity. Um, yeah. I wish we could cite some of the studies, but we never do. Maybe. Maybe one time. Um, but yeah, you know, being a part of a positive, uplifting community and just think about it, like when you're around people who are negative, they're like Hoovers. They drain your energy. You leave feeling flat or tired or miserable and not good about life. But when you're around people who are fun and positive and driven and
Speaker 1
[00.48.55]
have
Speaker 2
[00.48.55]
no purpose, you leave feeling like a completely different person.
Speaker 1
[00.49.00]
Just being around people and
Speaker 2
[00.49.01]
having coming from the hermit.
Speaker 1
[00.49.03]
Exactly. I need to work on this in 2025.
Speaker 2
[00.49.05]
This is your. Yeah. No more hermit Ben. I
Speaker 1
[00.49.09]
have no friends. And don't. Well,
Speaker 2
[00.49.10]
you do have friends. You just don't talk to them. Basically. You. Well, I work,
Speaker 1
[00.49.14]
I work, you know, at home, which is another thing. You know, a lot of people working at home now don't have that much human connection. Everyone's working in the house, and zoom calls are okay, but not
Speaker 2
[00.49.29]
the same is not the same
Speaker 1
[00.49.30]
people. So anything you can do to, I guess, meet up with friends,
Speaker 2
[00.49.34]
um, and find a positive community or just.
Speaker 1
[00.49.37]
Yeah, try and find a community in your local town. I know everyone does CrossFit, but CrossFit is great for that.
Speaker 2
[00.49.44]
Yeah it is. Or once upon a time. Yeah. Going for profit. Yeah. But also be mindful about who you choose to spend time with. I think that's really important because
Speaker 1
[00.49.55]
again, people who want to raise you up.
Speaker 2
[00.49.57]
Right. Yeah. If you've got people who are just draining your energy and your soul and you walk away just feeling like. That's not good. Or like people who are, you know, negative about other people or moaning about people and stuff like that, that just rubs off onto you and you. It's just not. I was in that environment as a performer a lot of the time, and I just was like, I it made me feel horrible. I was like, I don't like this environment. And then I was so fortunate to then be part of Arbonne and be part of a community of like really positive, driven, uplifted humans who want to help each other. And I was like, you know,
Speaker 1
[00.50.28]
you, you know, you get a buzz, don't you? When you're with people that you connect with and like and have, you know, a good
Speaker 2
[00.50.37]
time with. Yeah. And if you are an introvert, which we are both actually naturally introverts, then I know it can feel quite a challenge, something like quite a chore to go and actually make yourself as massive get out of the house and meet people, but whenever you like. There's so many times when I've been like, you know, I've gone to a networking event or I've gone something, I'm like, oh, I don't want to go. But as soon as I've gone, I'm like, I'm so glad I made myself. I'm
Speaker 1
[00.51.00]
like that, you know me. I'm like that all the time. I get social anxiety. Yeah. Like constantly. Yeah. It's like I said, I don't want to do it. But then
Speaker 2
[00.51.08]
when you do, when I do, it's time.
Speaker 1
[00.51.11]
I really enjoy it.
Speaker 2
[00.51.12]
That's it. So it's like, again, it's like changing that label that you've put on yourself about having social anxiety and being. And I think what helped me was when I started to realize that humans were actually really nice. Well, people are like most people are actually really nice, and they actually want to have conversations. And it's just you sometimes have to be the person that instigates the conversation. And that for me, it was just like, people are nice. People actually want to chat. It's it's just what stories I've made up in my head again. And, and some of it came down to self-worth of like, feeling like I was going to say something that would make me look stupid. Yeah. What would I look
Speaker 1
[00.51.49]
like? Obviously some people, you know, yes, don't have families or are isolated. So
Speaker 2
[00.51.57]
I don't know what just came into my head.
Speaker 1
[00.51.59]
What?
Speaker 2
[00.52.02]
Love was looped. It's at the
Speaker 1
[00.52.03]
window. That's not relevant
Speaker 2
[00.52.05]
for anyone. It is because
Speaker 1
[00.52.07]
you explain that I can't
Speaker 2
[00.52.08]
explain it. No, you can't talk about that. You can't. You can't go. Now what if she's listening? I don't think she's going to be listening. So when when lockdown happened in the UK and obviously I think that shows actually how much community and being around people matters to health, because how many people's health declined dramatically after Covid because they were locked up on their own. Yeah. So anyway, we used to do what we called the Lomas Loop. So we lived in a place called Lumley. I'm not actually saying where it is. We lived somewhere and we used to call it the Lomas Loop where we lived. So we used to do the loop around the block every day. It was so boring and it was always the same thing. We'd walk past the windows and there was one old lady sitting in the dark watching TV. There was another lady laying on the sofa, and there was one lady who basically every time we went past the window, we were like, she's downing wine. First it
Speaker 1
[00.52.58]
was a glass. She was literally downing and
Speaker 2
[00.53.00]
then it was out of the bottle. But one time. No, no, no. You can't go there. Got to buy one. I mean, because it was so funny. One time we walked past And you know, this was the highlight of our lockdown. The curtains or the blind was down past her face, but you could still see her from the body down, couldn't you? From her head down. And she obviously didn't realise, but she had no top on. Why is that relevant?
Speaker 1
[00.53.28]
Why are you talking about
Speaker 2
[00.53.29]
this? And so we walked past and we were literally like, oh, and she was just like tits at the window. So that's why it wasn't relevant to our discussion, because I because she was on her own. That's where it was.
Speaker 1
[00.53.42]
So she had to take her top off.
Speaker 2
[00.53.44]
No. So we used to feel bad because I was like she's on her own and she's got no friends and it's lockdown. And we were lucky
Speaker 1
[00.53.51]
because we had we just assuming this. Well, we had like loads of friends. She
Speaker 2
[00.53.55]
might be really social, but it didn't seem like it. Um,
Speaker 1
[00.53.58]
well, we go with this mental
Speaker 2
[00.53.59]
health. We were talking about tits at the window, but what I was
Speaker 1
[00.54.02]
going to say now completely derailed me.
Speaker 2
[00.54.06]
I'm sorry. There are. Things like what we found about recently. What was it? Bumble Bumble BFF. Bumble BFF.
Speaker 1
[00.54.16]
Yeah. Shout out to Naomi.
Speaker 2
[00.54.17]
Yeah. Naomi Wilkinson, tell me about this. So, Bumble, if you've got no friends, you can make friends.
Speaker 1
[00.54.22]
You can actually literally down an up and make friends. Like a dating app. It's like Bumble, but for friends, which I think is amazing. And the great thing is you can match with like minded people. So I've made some great friends who are into nutrition and you know, so it's it's there's so much we can do nowadays, but it does take you being proactive. That's the thing. And I get it because it's scary. I've definitely been that person who's just like, you know, it's just easier to stay in my house and not talk to humans. I'm always like that. Are you are apart from talking to me. Um,
Speaker 2
[00.54.52]
but it's so worth it because it will change your life dramatically. So community. And then in terms of like mental health, I think gratitude is a huge, huge thing as well. Yeah.
Speaker 1
[00.55.02]
Um, it is there's I mean, there's numerous studies.
Speaker 2
[00.55.05]
Yeah. Showing the power of gratitude. And it's so easy when you're in a dark place to just see all the negative and feel all the things that aren't working for you. And, um, I've again, definitely been there myself, but it's like there's always, always something to be grateful for. Always. And it's just that reminder to yourself. And just in that day, you just think just one thing that I can be grateful for today.
Speaker 1
[00.55.29]
So every morning now in my morning routine, I write down a list of things that I'm grateful
Speaker 2
[00.55.35]
for. Yeah, it's gonna be nighttime. I can get loads of apps now, just literally a pen and paper and just you. Pen
Speaker 1
[00.55.43]
and paper. I'm not saying me. I don't do that. Wow. I'm not on my phone. I can't write or I'm not, obviously. Yeah. Um, yeah. Literally like five things you're grateful for
Speaker 2
[00.55.54]
but really feel it as well. I think that's important because a lot of the time you'll just be like, I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for my home. I am grateful for that. And it's like, actually just sit and take a moment to actually think about that, because a lot of people and think about the people that don't necessarily have that, like what I when I'm doing mine at night and I'm always like, I'm really grateful. Especially now when it's snowing. I'm grateful I've got a warm home and it just makes me think. Think of all those people like, who are homeless and and are now on the streets, like trying to survive in this.
Speaker 1
[00.56.20]
Just great. Yeah. The simplest things kind of like having some
Speaker 2
[00.56.24]
food to eat. Yeah. A good roasted chicken that's bubbling,
Speaker 1
[00.56.28]
isn't it? Yeah.
Speaker 2
[00.56.29]
And I and I also think another thing in terms of like mental health that dramatically helped me as well. Like reading books is huge. Like personal development books, things like that really helped. But also believing in something bigger than yourself. And I know that sounds a little bit woowoo, but like feeling like you're being guided and looked after. So for me, when I went through like all of the health shenanigans that I went through and, you know, it was a
Speaker 1
[00.57.00]
really
Speaker 2
[00.57.02]
tough three years. Was it really tough? And the thing that got me through more than anything was praying. Really to, like, notice.
Speaker 1
[00.57.13]
Yeah. It doesn't have to be God
Speaker 2
[00.57.14]
or no to whatever I, you know, universe, higher power, God, whatever your belief system
Speaker 1
[00.57.21]
is for
Speaker 2
[00.57.22]
help, praying for guidance and and trusting that there was something or someone that was going to pull me through. And lo and behold, that random person popped up on Instagram, the person that saved my life and then became my mentor. Yeah. So there is always something guiding you, but you have to trust. I'm actually reading a really good book at the moment called awakening. So read awakening if you want to go more into that. So
Speaker 1
[00.57.50]
they are the five things.
Speaker 2
[00.57.51]
Wow, he is wanting this chicken.
Speaker 1
[00.57.53]
This is going to be a quick one. It's now an hour. Damn. And
Speaker 2
[00.57.57]
I'm starving. He's hungry. We're done. Chicken is waiting this up right now. So sleep, stress, movement, diet, mental health. Boom. There's a
Speaker 1
[00.58.05]
lot to take in there. Just pick one thing from each category that you can implement in January of 2025. That's what I would say. So one thing that we mentioned for sleep, one thing we mentioned for stress, one thing we mentioned for movement, one for diet and one for mental health. There you go. Boom. Done. Thanks for listening and we will be back again next week in our new home. We won't have the studio done by then. Obviously we need some time to make it look pretty, but we will do our best. Cool.
Speaker 2
[00.58.32]
If anyone wants to help us. Um, no. Get some cladding for the wall. Um, we would gratefully accept donations. Um. And if someone would like to make us an optimized sign, we would gratefully accept that. Um. Yeah.
Speaker 1
[00.58.46]
Thanks. Cheers. Bye, everyone.