34 | From Snacks to Success: How Your Diet Drives Your Business

Ever wonder how improving your personal health could skyrocket your business success? In today's episode of the Annoyingly Optimistic Show, I share my own transformative journey from overweight to fit in my 40s, and how it revolutionized my approach to running a business. You'll learn how tweaking your nutrition, maximizing your sleep, and incorporating regular exercise can turn you into a high-performing entrepreneur. Whether it's cutting out sugar, taking strategic breaks, or using caffeine wisely, I've got actionable tips that can help you become the engine that powers your business.

Tim, our small business owner who's hit a rough patch, is the focal point of this season's "Voicemails to Tim." As I leave him daily voicemails filled with nuggets of wisdom and optimism, today's message zeroes in on the undeniable link between personal health and business productivity. Tune in to discover why neglecting your well-being can be a silent business killer and how you can flip the script with a few simple lifestyle changes. If you're an entrepreneur feeling stuck or low on energy, this episode is your wake-up call to treat yourself as the most crucial asset in your business.

If you are self-employed or run a small business and feel more like you're self-annoyed then get in touch, visit the website www.theannoyinglyoptimisticshow.com where you can submit a question or problem and start your journey to becoming self-enjoyed! 

The majority of 'business advice' out there isn't aimed at self-employed or micro businesses, following it leaves you frustrated and chasing quick fixes. I specialise in tools, systems, techniques, inspiration and help specifically designed for YOU, the person who has to do it all, who doesn't have a team of people, unlimited resources or the time to spend months learning complicated techniques. 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey there, listeners, it's your annoyingly optimistic host here bringing you another season of the Annoyingly Optimistic Show. Welcome to Season 2, voicemails to Tim. Now let's meet Tim. He's been running his own small business for almost three years now and let's just say he's hit a bit of a rough patch. You know how it is Sometimes you get so stuck, you make yourself busy and just avoid finding the real problems. Well, that's Tim. So, as a good friend, I decide to leave him a daily voicemail, if I can't get hold of him, filled with nuggets of inspiration, insight and wisdom and downright brilliant ideas to help get him unstuck Every day. In just under 10 minutes, I'll share some tips, tricks and a healthy dose of optimism to get Tim, and maybe even you, back on track, because, let's face it, we're all a little tired, in need of help and muddling through. So here we go. Re, oh wait, never mind Tim's being busy. Here's the voicemail I left him today. Hi, tim, sorry I missed you again. Um, haven't heard from you in a couple of days. Hope you're doing well, mate, I'm busy. Um, do pop your message so bit of a slightly out there one. And how many times I've said things like that I don't know, but I think I've mentioned to you and so I won't labour the point too much. Obviously I've been on my own personal journey over the last kind of 18 months of going from fat to fit in my 40s is the little kind of banner that I've done and I'm doing two high rocks events later in the year. So kind of fitness, training and health has been a huge part of my life over the last 18 months and and I've realized how vitally important and how inextricably linked, you know, the health, exercise, fitness, all of that is with running a business and I have to be very careful on this. I'm very passionate about it. Yeah, talk a lot about it. Um, I think I've sent you a link to my uh, my YouTube channel where I do um kind of fitness stuff on there as well.

Speaker 1 2:03

But I have to be careful that I you know I don't come across as some kind of born-again fitness person because for 47 years I mistreated my body. I didn't do exercise, I didn't, you know, concentrate on what I put in it, how my body worked, didn't really understand it, you know, just kind of got by and therefore got by overweight, you know, dangerously got by and therefore got by overweight, you know, dangerously so, and everything else. And now that I'm changed it's kind of like yeah, but you used to be like that, so it's it's very kind of difficult. So I often don't, I don't tend to start the conversation. If people ask me about it, I will tend to dive in and and get very excited, as I do with the business things as well.

Speaker 1 2:45

But I just wanted to kind of put this out there because it was something I picked up up on the other week and it was that that long email you sent me and we've talked about, you know, kind of time management and energy and stuff like that. Um, but nutrition and fitness play a huge part in that and, as I've said multiple times, when we're self-employed, we are the engine of our business and if we don't sleep, if we don't look after ourselves, if we don't take our free time and things like that, then that engine doesn't get to recover and then our business suffers because of it, you know. So this idea of work-life balance when you're self-employed, I don't think is it is a thing, it's, it's your life and you you have to kind of get through it, but you have to find the things that work for you, and this is where nutrition and fitness comes in. And so you know, what you put in your body makes a massive difference. I've talked about um. You know, cutting what you put in your body makes a massive difference. I've talked about, you know, cutting out sugar, going for a walk at half two in the afternoon, when you have that dip, when you feel a bit. You know. I've talked about using caffeine as a natural stimulant as part of a healthy diet to kind of do that.

Speaker 1 4:02

And I just wanted to come back to this whole kind of fitness and nutrition idea because you know it's in the news a lot of the moment, and has been for for a while now, about ultra processed food and these ideas. If you know, if you're eating something that's got more than five ingredients that you don't have in the kitchen or wouldn't have in the kitchen, then it's ultra processed. And that ultra processed food is linked to allergies. It's certainly linked to, you know, kind of cancer, obesity, you know diabetes and all of these kind of things, because we're eating things that our bodies just can't, haven't worked out how to adapt to and and you know they, they, they're tasty, they'll feel nice in the moment, they're the things that we reach for, particularly if we're, if we're busy and we're out and about, it becomes very kind of difficult. But taking the time to actually stop and, you know, really take account of what we're actually eating and realizing what we put on our body.

Speaker 1 5:09

And one of the things that I was going to suggest without going too, you know, kind of crazy and out there, but a hundred percent this will make a difference is keep a food diary. It sounds like a bit of a faff, but if you keep a food diary for two weeks, but there's a couple of important things and I think I remembered you before and I think I sent you one, but if you, if you can't find it, I've got this worksheet of this thing called routine spark, which is kind of like a daily routine, which can be kind of used for this. Because there's two things. It's not just about keeping a food diary. The other thing you want to do is you want to keep, like a, an energy diary for whatever, if such a thing even exists, the idea being is, if you note down what you're eating every day, just without making any changes, just writing down, so that you can look back and know what that is writing down what you eat every day, also write down the amount of sleep you're getting every day over this two week period and then also write down in the morning, afternoon and evening how you're actually feeling. Are you feeling really energized that day? Are you feeling a bit kind of you know, you're feeling tired or whatever?

Speaker 1 6:23

By tracking those things for two weeks, one kind of it's not a placebo effect, but one thing happens when you track something, instinctively you will improve things a little bit, because if you're about to reach for that pack of biscuits or that piece of cake or something like that and you're doing a food diary, you'll go, I've got to write it down, maybe I'll kind of skip that. So you will naturally improve some of those things if you know you're tracking your sleep. Now again, there's no point lying, because it's only you that's gonna gonna kind of see this, but by um, doing the, the food diary, the sleep diary. But importantly and the third aspect is the, the mood and and energy levels, because what you will see over the course of, and if you do this every day for two weeks, it's going to take you three minutes a day, you know. So it's a tiny, tiny fraction of your day and it's well worth it.

Speaker 1 7:19

What you'll see over that two week period is wow, look, every time I did this, every time I ate this on this day, I was really sluggish the next day. Um, look, when I didn't eat as much of this, then you know, I didn't feel as good the next day and you'll start to see these trends and it's typically enough for people to go god, that makes such a difference. Um, look at these days compared to those days, because we know sleep makes a difference, but food is often that hidden difference because we we're not intentional about what we put in. We we kind of eat what we're used to eating. We get into those habits, good or bad, without acknowledging the fact that that's the thing that makes you feel you know better or worse. You know, when I have all that, those carbs, on that day, I don't feel as good the next day or whatever. Track it for two weeks. Have a look at that and it should hopefully spark you into kind of going.

Speaker 1 8:17

Well, I need to make some changes because you know there's a, there's a, there's a huge body of science but it's growing, growing and it's been a popular thing over the past couple of years now, particularly for the over 40s Resistance exercise and protein two key compounds to what you need for a long, healthy life. And what you will do if you look back on that two weeks, is you won't be eating enough protein. Even if you think you're eating enough protein, you can't. It's very, very hard, not saying impossible, for someone to accidentally eat enough protein, eat the amount of protein that they actually need. So it is, there is an intentionality with that and the same with understanding calories in and calories out and things like that. Again, I don't want to go too far down this because some people kind of roll their eyes, but it's one of these things that you know.

Speaker 1 9:13

I take a range of natural supplements now. I take my high, much higher protein. I'm exercising six days a week and I've never felt better. I've never had more energy and I've never felt better. I've never had more energy. I've never achieved as many things as I wanted to. You know, in my personal life, in my business life, you know, I know for a fact that it's inspired other people, which is a great kind of knock-on effect in that time. Now, going on 16 months, whatever it is, I haven't had a cough, a cold or anything like that. So I'm in the better shape and when I started this journey I had, on this particular machine, I had a metabolic age. So what all my you know my body was looking like of of 64 um, I was 47 at the time. It was not nice to see. I now have a metabolic age of 32. So these are the, these are the kind of the changes and these are the difference it can make.

Speaker 1 10:14

You know, and it's a choice, if you choose to not monitor your health and what you put into your body and all the rest of it, that's fine. But you are making the choice to potentially damage your health. If you choose to be aware of those things and understand those things and track them and make changes, then you're choosing a healthy life and there's a whole range of things that come with that. So bit of an out there one there. Tim, I'm so sorry about that, but it was just kind of in that long email. This just kind of popped into my head and thought, oh, I must kind of mention that. So see if. Track your food, your sleep and your energy and how you're feeling for two weeks and see what that looks like after that two weeks see if you. You might not even need the two weeks. You might start to see the trends straight away and then we can have a further chat or you can do some research into into things that that might help. But there's a whole range of wonderful natural things you can eat and help your body with to help you kind of recover, stay fit, healthy and all the rest of it. And guess what? If you have more energy, if you have more drive, if you're feeling fit, if you feeling healthy, that goes straight into your business, into the energy levels. Your customers will respond to it and you will have a better business. Why? Because the heart, soul and engine of the business is you, and if there's a better you in the middle of that business, you're going to have a better business. So I hope that's useful, tim, and I can't wait to catch up with you soon. Bye for now.

Speaker 1 11:48

And that's it for today's episode of voicemails to Tim on the Annoyingly Optimistic Show. Now, remember, tim might be busy, but we're all in this together. Whether you're tired, in need of help or just muddling through, tim is here for you because, well, tim is you. Yes, you heard that right. Right, tim isn't just my friend. He's a reflection of all of us who are struggling to make it work. T-i-m stands for tired, in need of help and muddling through. So if you're feeling like a Tim, you're not alone for all those ambitious listeners. If you've got a burning business question, a quirky thought, or just want to see if you can leave an even weirder voicemail, head over to the website voicemails to timcom, submit your question and maybe, just maybe, you'll hear your idea. Ina future voicemail to tim. So until then, stay annoyingly optimistic, keep pushing forward and remember if life gives you lemons, leave a voicemail about it.