Far 2 Fabulous

How to Reset Gently When Life Is Already Full

• Julie Clark & Catherine Chapman • Episode 106

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Episode 106:  How to Reset Gently When Life Is Already Full 

January set the bar high, then life happened. Between dark mornings, lingering holiday habits, busy workloads, and a body still riding a sugar rollercoaster, motivation didn’t just dip—it vanished. We unpack why that’s normal and how to build a grounded February reset that respects biology, the season, and your real schedule.

We start with the science of energy. Holiday carbs can push blood sugar up and down, triggering cravings and brain fog. Rather than relying on willpower, we show how protein-forward breakfasts, fibre, healthy fats, and daylight exposure steady your energy so better choices feel easier. From there, we talk stress. Your morning cortisol is meant to rise—phones, caffeine-first habits, and frantic starts pile on. A softer routine—no phone for 30 minutes, water, light movement, five minutes of breathwork—calms the nervous system and sets you up to win the day.

Then we tackle exercise myths. Punishment cardio isn’t a fix; it’s more stress. We outline a smarter plan: two to three strength sessions a week, short bursts of conditioning, and plenty of everyday movement. You’ll hear why “calories in, calories out” misses the bigger picture and how food quality, satiety, and hormones shape results. We share practical ways to clear the environment—donate unopened treats, bin the dregs, use pattern interrupts—and show how tiny, consistent actions beat perfection: prepped breakfasts, short walks, mobility snacks, and simple evening wind-downs.

Most of all, we lean into connection. Accountability makes change stick. Bring a friend, join a group, ask for help. By mid-February, the sugar noise quiets, routines feel natural, and strength becomes your anchor. Start small today: protect your mornings, eat for steady energy, lift something heavy, and choose compassion over punishment.

If this helped, subscribe, share with a friend who needs a February reset, and leave a quick review. Your support helps others find the show—and you never know which small tip will change someone’s day.

Got a question or comment? Send us a text message here!

Thank you for listening.

You can continue the conversation with us in the Far 2 Fabulous Facebook group. Come and connect with other women on a journey to empowered health.

For more information about Julie Clark Nutrition, click HERE
For more information about Catherine Chapman, click HERE

We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Farty Fabulous. Fabulousness and reading fabulous. Get ready for this. Hello, hello everybody, and welcome back to the Far Too Fabulous Podcast. Here we are.

SPEAKER_00:

We're back again. Like a bad smell. I'm just watching the audio on the recording and looking at the spikes of you when you do that and thinking we gotta like normalise that, edit that, and scorch them back down again.

SPEAKER_01:

I know, absolutely. Well, I'm trying to bring a bit of cheer into it. It's February, it at least January's done. At least January is done. But I always I always find, even though ironically, February is the shortest month of the year, I always it is the shortest month of the year, isn't it? I doubted that. Yes, it is. This is this is why we need video because I want everybody to see your face. And I went, Well, they don't get that right. You start to think, oh, it's starting to feel maybe feel a little bit warmer, and then it really isn't like it'll snow.

SPEAKER_00:

I was gonna say the the the month where it snows the most for us here is actually February.

SPEAKER_01:

February, yeah. And you and yeah, so you think, oh, I'm getting there, and then it just plonks loads of snow, and you're like, oh, I'm not there yet. But um, but hey ho! And so actually that whole feeling ties in quite nicely with what we're talking about today, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I guess so, because January can be a really long month, but it can also be one of those months where we have all these high expectations, don't we? Ridiculously high expectations. It is ridiculous, and then so we thought we'd talk about what to do next when January hasn't gone to plan.

SPEAKER_01:

No, absolutely. I put on my membership Facebook page the other day because um I think I'd said on an episode a few weeks back, we are splitting the splitting the uh year up, and every month we're talking about something that's sort of really foundational to do with health. And sleep was just to give you a clue how well it went, was January's and and nothing we did, we just we didn't get any kind of momentum with it at all. So I put a little poll on the uh on the Facebook page saying, you know, basically, select A if your sleep is amazing and the quality and the time is brilliant. No one selected A. B. I've watched the video and I've got questions. C, January was a shit show. Can we start again in February? Yeah. Uh most people selected that. Some people made their own one up and just said they hadn't watched the video yet, they were gonna get around to it. And but it was just we do, we start off even though, and I've said this in a video just today, even though I am not buying into this whole New Year, New Year's bullshit or you know, New Year's resolutions. I didn't make any New Year's resolutions. Did you make any new years New Year's resolutions? No, I didn't actually. No, I didn't, I was I'm purposely not buying into any of that. I think I still went into January high hopes of yeah, this year 2026, all that sort of stuff, and yeah, and then got beaten about the head. And I mean it wasn't, it sounds dramatic. I haven't been beaten by the head, round the head. I just have got into it, it's taken me a lot longer to get back into the swing of stuff after Christmas.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think that's the bit we forget that we had that most of us have such a busy lead up to Christmas, don't we? Yeah, and then we've got all the indulgence.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

So we've put a lot of demands on ourselves, and then we've not nourished ourselves properly, and then we expect to get up in January and just be nailing it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. No, it's it's it is absolutely ridiculous. And I think the the whole indulgent thing, I don't think we give that enough credit because it it takes a hold of our body, doesn't it? Even if we've got really good habits, the moment we start to let the uh the sugars and the bad fats and all that sort of stuff start to eke their way in, it's really hard to not keep doing it. And the body is just like it's loving life, yeah, and it's screaming for it. And I think probably mine has been screaming for it for about another two weeks afterwards, maybe three.

SPEAKER_00:

I think easily, because also don't forget that our bodies think that we should be in a period of time where food is scarce, yes, but it's not anymore. And in fact, we've done the opposite, haven't we? Yeah. At Christmas, we've done the opposite, and it's just thinking, this is good, let's get all this in, keep it coming, keep it coming, because I don't know when the switch is gonna be off again. Yeah, and that's what happens. Yeah, it's more dark, yeah, and that drive to kind of get up and get out, it's hard, isn't it? Yeah, I find it quite hard. I do make myself go and do these things, but you just don't you want to be in your pajamas at six o'clock, don't you? You don't want to be going out in the evening in the cold and the dark.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you want to hunk and down and yeah, just just snuggle up and not go out into the into the daylight. And I think again, that'sn't that that has an effect on your energy. If you don't like I don't know if we've seen the sun at all today, but if you even if you don't go outside, you know, you just need to get that sun in your eyeballs or some daylight. Yeah, and if it's pouring with rain or it's blowing a gale, you can snow on a gallery.

SPEAKER_00:

And there's no nice sparkly lights around now in January, is there?

SPEAKER_01:

All of them have been taken down, except for mine are in my kitchen, they're still all sparkly.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, do you know what? We've got our outside string of lights. We always have that on this time of year. So when you come home and it's dark and you see the string of lights across the front of the house, it is quite a nice feeling.

SPEAKER_01:

It really does. It does not even the dog wants to go out when it's raining or it's blowing a gale. She kind of sticks her nose out the back door and turns around and heads off back to the sofa again.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So we've got all that going on, yeah. But for some reason, we decide that January is now the time. And it just isn't, is it?

SPEAKER_01:

It isn't. I mean, we should, like, we're gonna talk about what to do in February, realistically, but actually we should be starting. Oh, I said the word should. I prickled when I said that. What would be optimal and nice would be that we started these things in like May, when you know it's spring and everything's starting to come back to life again, and and that's how our bodies are feeling as well.

SPEAKER_00:

But now that load of people are gonna think, oh, that thank goodness Catherine said that. Oh no! Do anything now until May.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that is not your get out of jail free card at all, because you can still make some really foundational shifts in in your habits now, whilst even while you're hunkering down for the winter. Yes, you can.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's this all or nothing thing that we don't like, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, which is exactly why we're doing it month by month. So you get those 30 days to create some great habits. And I mean, the other thing is obviously at this time of year, everybody's poorly.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they are, aren't they? Yes, everybody's ill, and there's been a lot, seems to be a lot this winter that's been going on. So, yeah, you you may have your your motivation ready to go the first of January, and then you're ill, or a member of your family's ill, yeah, and then you've got to deal with that, and then your sleep gets affected, and it's yeah, knock on effect of that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, Mikey said something. So Mikey's my my middle one, he said something really funny to me. I think I'm fairly safe because I don't think Mark listens to the podcast very frequently, but he said, I said, Oh, I said, You've done really well. You kind of you bounce back from your cold quite quickly. I said, Daddy's got it now. He said, Oh, whenever Daddy gets the cold, he's always dying. I said, I'm glad it's not just me that thinks that. Oh dear. Bless him. Yes, he's wasting away on the sofa.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh no. So, yeah, so we've got to think about what might have derailed us in January, and it could have been illness. Yeah, a lot of people are very busy at work in January. A lot of people I've spoken to, we're busy because of people going, right, it's January, let's get going. So we're busy ourselves, and then just various people I speak to. Accountants are trying to get all the oh, accountants, all the sacks done by the end of this month and or last month.

SPEAKER_01:

So hopefully, right now, they're going, oh, they're probably all ill, actually. It's all the accountants are probably all ill right now because they're everything's in, and they've just gone, oh yeah, but we are definitely sending love to you. And uh, and can can um my my clients that are all accountants, can I have you back now, please?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's a busy time, isn't it? In fact, a lot of jobs that you think about, a lot of them, it's a busy time of year, isn't it? After Christmas, especially if you've got your own business, you're self-employed, you just had the Christmas break, you've just spent a load of money, you've got to get back out there every time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, definitely, definitely. And it is just and it's hilariously, isn't it? You think you've had that that like couple of weeks off over Christmas, um, but it's not weeks off at all, is it? Because it's full on.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You almost need another week off afterwards just to just to recoup your energy.

SPEAKER_00:

Hmm. And I think the other thing that happens in January, even if you didn't have those things and you really did start and you had all these intentions, is it doesn't last very long. Because that motivation runs out, and we we constantly looking for quick wins, aren't we?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well, that's the motivation is at this time of year, it's an away from sort of thing, isn't it? Because you're or a or a lack, you're you're trying to take things away from yourself, you're trying to move away from something that you don't like rather than moving towards something that you would really like to achieve.

SPEAKER_00:

And we've spoken the past on past episodes about the brain and how it's wired, and if it it wants to keep you safe, so it's looking at what have we done to keep safe? Why are we suddenly doing this crazy thing? Why are we getting up at 5 a.m. to do the miracle morning all of a sudden, you know, that kind of stuff. Yeah. And then it says, if if something goes wrong, like you miss a day of doing whatever you're doing, or something's happened, or you've got to the end of the week where you've I'm doing my bunny ears, you've been good, and you step on the scales and it hasn't budged or it hasn't moved as much as you want it, or it's gone up. Then your brain says, Well, I'm failing, so I may as well stop, and then you have that sodic moment.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And then one soddit moment goes to another and it goes to another.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, and it turns into a give up a chocolate bar and a bag of crisps and a full binge watch of Netflix. Yeah. Or a glass of wine or something. Yeah, absolutely. And again, it's just playing into those habits, and it wants easy habits. Your body wants easy habits, so which is why things like the binge watching of Netflix is something that you can default to because it's an easy habit, it's nice and comfortable. Your body wants you to be lovely and warm and comfortable and safe and rested. It doesn't really want you, you know, pounding the streets in the pouring rain in the pitch black. That's I mean, it just literally doesn't understand why on earth you'd do that. I mean, a lot a lot of people agree.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so we gotta move away from that all or nothing approach, but the perfection. But you think you've got to do it all perfectly, and it just doesn't work.

SPEAKER_01:

No, absolutely. Just yeah, building building it up gently, understanding like we've just said, that the more weeks that we are away from Christmas now, the easier I'm finding it to resist raiding the um pat lunch box cupboard or things like that. It's just yeah, stepping away and getting back into those those routines. And if they were good routines in the first place, you will be able to get back into them. But I mean, I again it's and this from my experience this month is it's just taking a while.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it does, and I think we have such high expectations, and we think something m miraculous is gonna happen in that month or even in that first week.

SPEAKER_01:

What yeah, yeah, no, it's absolutely bonkers. Why do we um why do we do it?

SPEAKER_00:

I know. I wanted to talk about this not I don't want to say failing, but when January's gone wrong and you think to yourself, you feel like a failure because you haven't stuck to it, what's going on? I want to talk about it from a physiological perspective because thing how things are working in your in your body, got to talk about blood sugars, yeah. Because although we're not talking about blood sugars in a diabetic sense, how we get our energy, how we store fat or use that energy is very much reliant on how the blood sugars are working with insulin. And if we've just had a couple of weeks or longer of being in our Christmas feeding spirit, yeah, yeah, then we do get into that we call it like a hypersglycemic profile where you your sugars go up and then they crash low, they go up, they crash low, and you it's very difficult to get out of that situation. So you then start switching that supply off suddenly, yeah, is a massive problem for your energy, yeah, for your brain. Yeah, your brain is going, what the hell just happened? I get my fuel from the sugar in your blood, and that whole system is not now working. You've gone into fat storing mode, you can't use, you can't make your energy properly, so you're tired, and then you're beating yourself up wondering why am I not sticking to this plan when your energy factory just is not functioning properly?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And also over that time you're not moving as much, are you? You're not actually burning any of that that energy that's now floating around, even though it's lovely, easy energy for the body, you're not you're not using it. So it's just pugging it away for a rainy day.

SPEAKER_00:

The most interesting thing I find with that, the sugars and the energy side of thing, and how your brain works is that when you eat your carbohydrates and it breaks it down into glucose and it goes into your bloodstream and you're in that hypoglycemic profile, and you're you're not insulin resistant, your insulin's working quite well, and it takes all your sugar and it says, Um, I need to conserve this energy, so I need to store this as fat. But because your brain then doesn't get the fuel, this is why when we're having the sugar highs and lows, we we get brain fog and things, don't we? Can't think straight. Your brain goes, There's no energy in the blood. What's going on? Oh, our signal for some more food, and that's when you get those cravings for sugar.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's basically what's happening. It just goes round and round and round. And what's really interesting, actually, and you've just highlighted that is that I mean, when we were talking about Christmas food, in my in my head, I'm I'm thinking chocolates and all that sort of stuff, but you've just said carbohydrates, and there are a lot of simple carbs involved in in Christmas. I just think you'd eat cheese and crackers and breads and all that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's not just the it's not just the chocolates and the sweets and all that sort of stuff, it's all those all those simple carbs that I have this conversation with clients as well about whether they um prefer sweet or savoury, and if they feel that they've got a sweet tooth, and then when they say, Oh no, I don't have any problems with sugar, and I'll look at it.

SPEAKER_01:

But I love a pizza and a sandwich.

SPEAKER_00:

But they crisps, it's crisps. Yeah, yeah. I'm addicted to crisps, and I say, What are crisps made of? And then you see them go, Oh yeah, what does potatoes break down into? Sugar. Oh no, yeah, I've got a sugar problem. Yes, you have.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? I said to somebody the other day, we were talking about sandwiches, and I said, You you wouldn't you wouldn't consider in a million years popping your sandwich filling in between two Pop Tarts. No, would you? No, but I mean it the the body wouldn't know any different, quite frankly, would you?

SPEAKER_00:

Get a Victoria sponge, but instead of the jam and cream, you put your cheese and pickle in there.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh Victoria's sponge, now you've done it.

SPEAKER_00:

Now I'm now I'm picturing Victoria's sponges.

SPEAKER_01:

We're making you hungry, sorry.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that was not the point. But anyway, just just so you understand, when you've gone through that process at Christmas, like you said, how much harder it is to step away from your lunch cupboard. So I'll take it that's where the treats are for the pet lunches, is it? Yeah, there's there's chocolate bars and things in there, or cereal bars and things.

SPEAKER_01:

Cereal bars, and yeah, they do have they have a bag of crisps, and I am I am that person, I am a crisp fiend. And often I will buy the crisps that I don't like, or the other thing I do is that I buy exactly the amount that they need for their pat lunches and know that if I end up tucking into that basket of crisps, then uh I've got to go out and buy more.

SPEAKER_00:

So it happens in my house, I do that as well, but then other people that shouldn't be eating that stuff eat it, and then I run out and no one's told me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that must happen in houses everywhere.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it does. So, where were where did we get to? So when you're basically when you've decided I'm gonna eat really healthy, I'm not gonna eat this, I'm not gonna snack, and I'm not gonna eat the chocolates or the crisps or whatever, your brain is going to be screaming at you. You cannot use willpower for that at that point. That is purely physiologically active. I need fuel and it's not there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, absolutely. And so, and that that really backs up that all or nothing kind of thing. Start start slowly, start kind of weaning yourself off of all of the all of the stuff that you wouldn't normally have around. Julie. What is your and I feel like I mean we're now with we're in February and we're still talking about bloody Christmas, and I swear we were talking about it for two months leading up to it, but there we go. What is your feelings on if people have still got lots of stuff left in, I'm hoping they haven't at this point, but lots of stuff left in the cupboards after Christmas. Um, and do they slowly eat their way through it? Do they chuck it out? That's what's your what's your feeling on that one?

SPEAKER_00:

It's an interesting one, isn't it? Because you cannot eat that slowly. You couldn't pace yourself, could you? But I mean you're still eating it.

SPEAKER_01:

You are still like regardless of if you eat it fast or if you eat it slowly, you're still eating that additional stuff that is quote unquote bad for you.

SPEAKER_00:

I can't imagine that people have got stuff left.

SPEAKER_01:

Totally not. But so, second, you know, first, second week of January, when people are really struggling, because they've still got all the junk in the cupboards. What do you do? Do you get rid of it? I don't I don't suppose you've got loads of junk, but would you or would you advise? Do they get rid of it?

SPEAKER_00:

Do they eat it? What do they do? I would just dump it. Yeah. At that point where you know and you've kind of had enough, but you're thinking, I've still got that packet, I've still got that. And there is an element of I don't want to waste food because again, a lot of us that are probably listening to this podcast have been brought up with the starving children in Africa, and you've got to finish everything on your plate and not wasting food. But on the same token, do you want to treat yourself as a dustbin?

SPEAKER_01:

Dustbin.

SPEAKER_00:

So if there's anything that isn't opened that you can donate, then do that. If there's anything that you can, I used to get some of my clients to sellotape stuff up so that it was very difficult to get into and save it if it was something that could be saved for Easter, for example. Yeah. Yeah. To sellotape it and then put it somewhere where you had that moment where you could think, what am I doing? Why am I on this step ladder getting this box of cellotape chocolates down just to a pattern interrupt?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I love that idea. I've done that with the remote control before as well.

SPEAKER_00:

You know when you get to the end of a tin of quality street or celebrations or something, and you get the ones that no one likes.

SPEAKER_01:

Strawberry cream is hanging out of the bottom.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, the creams. Though at that point, you need to throw them out because what will you do? You will eat them. Yeah. Even though you don't like them. Even though you don't like them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Because your body is screaming for that stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. We will tell you what to do in a minute, by the way. We're just kind of explaining what's happened and why it might be more difficult in January to stick to these new habits that you want to set up than any other time of the year.

SPEAKER_01:

No, absolutely. And the other part of all or nothing, obviously, for women of a certain age, what do we do? We decide we're going to go and hammer the cardio. Hammer the cardio to burn the calories. Yes. To punish ourselves. Yes, for being so naughty over Christmas and eating everything that stays still long enough to put in our mouths. Yeah. And what does that do? It just stresses your body. Just it well, almost just the same. It's not just the same. Obviously, you are burning some calories, but again, for women of a certain age, that kind of exercise is not what we need now. It's it's really, really stressful for our body. And although you are burning extra calories, the stress that your body is put under because of it is far more detrimental than the than the like half a Mars bar's worth of calories that you've just run off. Yeah. So don't do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Don't do it. And we still know that this calories in, calorie out model is just is that exactly. And I just like the fact that it that has been so comprehensively proven in research by doing those completely calorie-controlled, unprocessed food versus processed food versus different activity levels, and it's just no, your body's so clever that it will, the minute you reduce your calories, it will slow down your metabolism, it will start to conserve energy. Yeah, because it literally thinks that the food has become scarce. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's just like no calorie is made equal. Do you know what I mean? Handful of haribo and a very, very big handful of broccoli, for instance, could be the same amount of calories and but they they can't be compared. No. So you just re please, whenever somebody says calories in, calories out, remember a handful of haribo and a handful of broccoli of the same calories worth and tell me they're the same. I dare you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Just go and punch that person in the face. Calories in, calories out. Ah! Oh, honestly. Okay, so instead of beating ourselves up and doing crazy cardio, and again, we're not saying don't do any cardio. No. But it's when you go full out on the cardio just to make up for the fact that you've eaten too much at Christmas or you want a new healthy lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, be intentional about it. You don't need to spend hours and hours in the gym with cardio-wise. Thankfully, at this point in our lives, we just have to have short, intense blasts for us, um, which is which is lovely. I think I'd far prefer that than longer drawn-out periods.

SPEAKER_00:

We don't have time for it. No, we've got to get in there and be smart and efficient. Exactly. The other thing that we ought to talk about here briefly is that the stress side of it, we know that most people are stressed, and we cannot lose weight in that environment if we're if we've got long-term stress and nervous system is ramped up, we can't lose weight, which most people that's what they want, but also we can't work on those other health markers if we're stressed. So then we've got to look at other things to help calm our system down rather than just go all in in January. Yeah. So I'm thinking about breath work and meditation.

SPEAKER_01:

Meditation. Exactly. Of all the times of year, actually, this time would be a lovely time to start meditation and breath work practices when you want to hunker in, when you want to, it's like a big, nice, warm soup for your brain. Do you know what I mean? It's just what yeah, what a lovely thing, especially and you don't feel like running around and what have you when it when the weather's crappy. So make a whole ceremony of it. Light some candles or switch some tea lights on. I don't know. Um, remember the health and health and safety people after us on the house.

SPEAKER_00:

I do like having candles. We always have candles on our table for dinner. Oh, do you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's nice. It is nice, it's really, really nice. Yes, they make a whole, you know, um it and if you want to there's there are so many ways you could do it. You could make a really nice cacao drink, and you could be there with a candle, and you could get really, really snuggly, you could have that, and you could just sit and contemplate, you could kind of daydream, you could be mindful, you could walk in nature. The I think what I'm trying to say to you is that you don't, it doesn't have to be a punishment. Something that's really good for you doesn't have to be a punishment. I think I think we're in danger of feeling like the stuff that is good for us isn't easy to do or is that feels like a punishment, like cardio, like not eating nice things, for instance. Whereas a breath work session, I don't know, sometimes maybe the breathwork sessions are a little bit punishing, some of mine, but not all of them. I'm just I'm now thinking of clients crying, and I'm like, no, no, those are a bit punishing. But like meditation, walks in nature, get in snugly, you know, the sun does come out every now and again, get out into the sunlight, go and have a look at the beautiful views, go and connect up with some friends. Who was I talking to that said that one of her things this year was that she was gonna meet up with it? Wasn't you, was it? It was me. It was me. She was gonna meet up with people that she'd been meaning to meet. I was thinking, who was it that I was talking to? We actually met up socially, didn't we, the other day? That's why we had this conversation. Yes, yes, so connection is another way, as like like food for your soul, um, meditation and your breath work is that food for your brain and your vagus nerve. You need to settle this all down. If you want, like you said, most people's goal is well, most people's goal is is weight loss, and it's just not accurate, it's fat loss that you want. You want you could just can't achieve these things or make it a lifelong achievement. Like you might be able to temporarily drop a certain amount of pounds of overall body weight, but if you haven't made these changes, if you're stressed, if you're running around like a blue ass fly, you're not gonna keep this off.

SPEAKER_00:

So no, you've got to have a shift in identity, haven't you, as well? You you become that person that does these things without even thinking about it. Yeah, and we've spoken about that before habits that we have habits to conserve brain energy and to make life easy, and if we get good habits in there, you just literally don't think about it, you do it automatically, and you need that, don't you?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, our lives are absolutely insane. I was saying to you earlier, I didn't make my overnight oats on Sunday night, and so then I was like flying free Monday, and I didn't make the Monday night, so I was flying free Tuesday as well. And the brain power and the battle within my head as to what I was gonna have for breakfast, rather than just opening the fridge, getting the overnight oats out, and that and that's it done, and it tastes lovely and I love it. I'm there going, oh, what shall I have? Oh, I could make some porridge, oh shall I have a board egg and oh no, I don't want to eat the toast, that's not good. Oh, I do want the toast, like round and round and round, all that energy, and I just I just take that decision making away when it's when I've already made it, so yeah, and you're like, oh, that's better. I mean, I exhaust myself, seriously.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so what is going to work after January? So these tiny, consistent actions is what you're looking for. So not everything all at once, just look at your your life in general, in general, and think what is the most detrimental habit I've got at the moment? Can I do something about that? And what can I replace that with? What's something good that I can put in? I I'm such a big believer in starting the morning off in the right way. Yeah, yeah. So I was listening to, you know, I like my Jay Shetty Calm meditation in the morning. Yeah. He was saying, would you let a film crew in, the news crew, all your friends? He was going through all this scenario into your bedroom the minute you woke up. Would you do that? No, no, why do you pick your phone up then? That's basically what he was saying.

SPEAKER_01:

And I thought that's that's a really good visual, actually, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

So starting your morning off in the right way often has an impact on the how the rest of the day's gonna be, and just do that for a week.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, when you I'm uh I'm a real stinker for crawling back into bed, and I and I quite like that as a as a almost like a luxurious thing. If I'm gonna take like I've got rid of the children, I've got a cup of coffee, maybe I've got a book or a podcast or something, and I get back into bed and it's cozy and it's lovely. That bit's fine, it's when I fall asleep again, yeah. Don't do that, and it has a complete knock-on effect, and so then I'm cross with myself initially for doing that, so you end up beating yourself up, and then everything's yeah, that knock-on effect. Whereas if you just got on with the stuff that you needed to do in the uh at the beginning of the day, yeah, even if you then went and had a sit-down sort of later on in the day, it feels you you feel like you fulfill just like what you were doing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I just think about what happens in the body when we wake up, we have that spike of cortisol, which we should. Some people don't have it because they're burnt out, that's a different scenario. But most of us have a a naught to half an hour, the the cortisol spike comes in, and that's to motivate us, and etc. What we don't want to do is add more to that cortisol because you don't want it to be too high a response, so you don't want to wake up and be going from naught to a hundred in a matter of seconds. It's not good, and by switching your phone on and just think about how you start your morning, are you increasing that cortisol? Is your first drink a caffeinated drink? That's always telling, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and they lots of people I would be interested with this when you were saying about that spike of cortisol and and then people almost training themselves out of this natural way that our morning should go, is that when they don't have something to eat, first things. So for us, for instance, it's very important that we have something within that first sort of 30 minutes to help with that. However, when people have trained themselves, you have people say, Oh, I'm I'm not I'm not hungry first thing in the morning, and I was that person. I said that when I used to fast until midday, I'd be like, Oh no, I'm not, I I'm happy not to eat anything. And I remember when we were sort of looking into all of this stuff and lots of stuff we'd we'd looked at with uh Stacy Sims, and she'd said, You've kind of you've turned that hunger switch off at the beginning of the day, start to train yourself, you'll wake it back up again, and that's definitely what's happened to me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, because I find it interesting. We get that higher level of cortisol, and we also get higher levels of glucose in the morning. So if you think about high levels of cortisol, would you want to add more stress on there? No, high levels of glucose already, would you want to add more sugar?

SPEAKER_01:

No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_00:

No, because you're just gonna create more of an issue. Tiny consistent actions, you want to really think about forming habits, and we're looking for reward down the line, we're not looking for instant reward, although if you do those things over even a few days, it makes a huge difference.

SPEAKER_01:

You'll feel it. I agree, but again, I think probably in this in this sort of society, in this environment at the moment, it's it's difficult to sort of stick with the journey when we are trained to have those instant wins all the time, you know, like your Amazon deliveries.

SPEAKER_00:

I blame Amazon for a lot. It makes such people do expect an Amazon style service anywhere they go now. Yeah. Have you noticed?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. And yeah, unfortunately, our bodies have not caught up with that.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no. So I think for you listening, if January's gone completely wrong and this resonates with you, one of the best ways that you can help yourself is with accountability, and both of us are big on that, aren't we?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You it's much more fun to do it with other people. Research shows that you get better results, more results, easier results when you're doing it with people that are all working towards a common goal. Why would you do it on your own? But again, it's it's a punishment thing, isn't it? I don't know why we do this. It's like we have to drag ourselves across the coals for something good. We don't have to punish ourselves, and it can all be like it can all be lovely. Like the the good food is is nourishing, and especially you know, the soups and the broths and all that sort of thing at this time of year is just lovely. If you don't want to do the horrible bits of cardio, do some nice Pilates, do some nice stretching, it's all part of your longevity, it's kind of all foundational stuff for your well-being. You know, it doesn't have to be horrible, harsh stuff, and it doesn't, you don't have to do it all.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, exactly. And I think so many people are uh overwhelmed that they don't even know what to eat. The amount of times I speak to people and they just say, I honestly don't know what I'm supposed to eat. So if that's you, come and speak to me. Yeah. And then with exercise, yeah. I know I need to do something, but I don't know where to start.

SPEAKER_01:

It is overwhelming. There's and there's so much noise and there's so much advice out there. And I mean, your my initial response, obviously, is just to move, just do something. I mean, I've got for free stuff, I've got so much stuff on my social medias and YouTube. There's loads of bits and pieces there, but um, yeah, just reach out if it if you're confused and you don't know what to do, reach out.

SPEAKER_00:

You know that we would be a good cheerleader for you. I think that's what we're trying to say. So a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01:

And that we're human, do you know what I mean? We're making all of the same mistakes and and looking for all of the solutions. It's just that that this is our passion, this is what we do all of the time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I mean it really I d I so I look at people with their businesses, I look at people with their families, I look at people, and well-being, it's lucky it's my business because I I prioritise it fiercely over everything else.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, me too. So if you want to be someone who does that as well, you know where to find us. But we'll be back next week for another fabulous episode.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, we will. See you then. Thank you so much for joining us today. We love creating this for you. We'll be back next week with another great episode.

SPEAKER_00:

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SPEAKER_01:

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SPEAKER_00:

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SPEAKER_01:

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