033- The Energy Map: What Your Body’s Yellow Lights Are Trying to Tell You

Ever cried in a Target parking lot over forgotten deodorant? (Been there. No shame.) Or found yourself yelling at your readers like they’re alive and hiding on purpose? Yeah… you're not alone.

In this episode of Smash the Crash, I’m breaking down what your energy is trying to tell you using the "Traffic Light Method"—yep, we’re talking green, yellow, and red zones for your life. Because just like your car needs fuel and a tune-up, so do you, my friend.

You’ll learn:

• How to recognize when you’re thriving (green), surviving (yellow), or spiraling (red)
• Micro-habits that help you shift back into your sweet spot
• How to create your very own Energy Action Plan so you stop guessing and start feeling human again

So grab your favorite pen, that magical beverage you pretend hydrates you, and let’s map out your energy like the midlife boss you are.

✨ Ready to stop ignoring the warning signs and start feeling like yourself again? Press play. And if this one hit home, share it with your burnout-bestie. She probably forgot her keys again too.

👉 Download the free Energy Tune-Up Tracker at melissahinman.com/tune-up

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Disclaimer:  I am not a medical doctor. The information and recommendations provided during our coaching sessions are intended to support your overall health and wellness and are not a substitute for professional medical diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your physician before making any changes to your medication, treatment plan, or if you have any concerns about your health. 

Transcript

Introduction to Energy Mapping

Speaker 1 2:28

Hey, hey, testing Is this thing on? Welcome back to the Smash the Crash podcast for midlife women juggling all of the freaking things and secretly wondering why am I so freaking tired all the time? I'm your host, melissa Himmon, health coach, midlife navigator and energy wrangler, and today we're talking about what your energy is trying to tell you. So before you end up crying in the Target parking lot because you forgot that damn freaking deodorant again, or you're getting fresh with yourself because you can't find your phone, your keys or your readers again, let's talk about energy mapping and yellow. Let's talk about energy mapping and yellow lights.

Speaker 1 3:19

Holy moly, I used to think, unless I was in bed with the flu or physically could not move, I was quote, unquote fine, I wasn't sick, so I must be okay. Right, but back in my heyday, aka college, my daily motto literally was sleep is overrated. Motto literally was sleep is overrated and I could run on candy or anything I put in my body, but that was so wrong. Fast forward to after I had my two boys. I started drinking lattes, for the caffeine clearly was up periodically each night, at least when they were really little, because my husband had worked the night shift and so there was no taking turns for me, but this was the true beginning of survival mode. And while for a while there it worked, mainly because it just had to and there was no other options but as the years progressed I found that I couldn't eat junk food the way I used to. Clearly, my body was hanging on to it in places that who knew, like my thighs, my butt and my abdomen. I reached a period of time when I was running. My sister got me into running and so I started training for races, simply because I felt like I needed to prove to myself that I could do it, and for a while it was fun, it was energizing and it was exhilarating, minus the shin splints.

Understanding the Energy Traffic Light System

Speaker 1 4:36

But after I completed my first and currently last half marathon in 2017, I became what society knows as a couch potato I ate what I wanted when I wanted. I was drinking my sugar with coffee and cream Thank you, beastie Boys and became the most sedentary that I truly had ever been in my life. And at that point, I was working my corporate job from home and somehow moved from thriving back to surviving, but in a much lazy, lackadaisical kind of way, and what I didn't realize was that I was living in a permanent yellow light, hazy, moody, low energy zone where everything feels a little bit harder than it should and I wasn't quite crashing quite yet, but I wasn't ever really thriving either. It was like driving a car with the gas light blinking and thinking I've got at least 15 more miles right. Or the check engine light comes on and you're saying, well, I'll deal with that tomorrow until I didn't.

Speaker 1 5:46

So this is where we want to dive into energy. What is your energy telling you? Yes, I can think about what my body is saying or thinking, but really diving into why is it saying or thinking that? What is our body telling us, what's the energy that we're getting or not getting from our body? Is it telling us, telling us what's the energy that we're getting or not getting from our body Is it telling us?

Speaker 1 6:12

And so, from a nursing and a medical world standpoint, so, whether it's asthma, diabetes or post-surgery care, surgical care, there are what are called our action plans for patients, and so these are basically built around traffic lights. So if you have asthma or you know someone who has asthma, you know about the asthma action plan. So green usually means go, you're good, you're stable. Yellow means caution, something might be shifting. Check your peak flow meters and maybe start using that emergency inhaler. And red just means stop. This is crisis. You need to go see your doctor.

Green Zone: Your Sustainable Sweet Spot

Speaker 1 6:54

So I thought, why don't we have one for energy and, more importantly, why don't we have one for midlife women? Because midlife women are monitoring everyone else's warning signs. You're monitoring your kids' moods, your partner's stress level warning signs. You're monitoring your kids' moods, your partner's stress level, your aging parents' medications, but when it comes to you, you're on autopilot until you crash. But that stops today. So I'm introducing to you the energy map and action plan and we're going to break those down with what the zones actually look like in your real life and what to do about them. So sit down, grab a pen or paper, get your little special drink and we're going to build an energy map that's specific to you.

Speaker 1 7:43

So let's start with green. Green is the sweet spot. You're sleeping decently. You're getting at least maybe seven to nine hours of sleep. Your mind feels relatively clear. You're not snapping at anyone. You actually want to do the things that are on your calendar. You feel like you. You feel like you're living your best life, right, even if life is busy, you feel great. Green doesn't necessarily mean perfect, but it means sustainable Microhabits that we can continue to stay in the green. These are just some suggestions Eating something within 90 minutes of waking up.

Speaker 1 8:21

Don't let your body go on empty for too long. Taking a 10-minute input-free pause each day no screens, no productivity, just letting your mind calm, clear, center grounded. Using a wind-down routine with at least one sensory cue, like dimming the lights or a warm cup of tea or a quiet playlist. But cueing your body, it's safe to shut down. So these habits might be small, but remember micro habits equal macro or big wins, and you know this.

Yellow Zone: Early Warning Signs

Speaker 1 8:57

The next zone is the yellow light zone, and this we call the early warning sign. So here's where it gets a little bit juicy. The yellow zone is one most of us really live in and ignore most of the time. In this zone, you might find yourself snapping or losing your patience more easily, struggling to fall asleep, or you're waking up in the middle of the night at 3 am, not able to fall back asleep. You're eating a lot of carbs and you're craving salt and you're craving the sweets. You're avoiding things that you normally enjoy to do and you feel overstimulated by everything, every little noise, every little thing, request email, question from your kids if they can buy this next video game, when you just got one for them literally five minutes ago, and they want to spend more money. But you're not burned out, but you're kind of like teetering on the edge. And this is the truth. If you don't intervene right here in the yellow zone, the red zone is coming.

Speaker 1 10:06

So what are some micro habits to respond to in the yellow light zone? So let's name it. We're not going to shame it. You say it to yourself. We talked about multiple mental load shuffle in the previous podcast episode, about how we're, like we're wearing all these hats, right. So give it a hat, not me. I'm not in mom mode right now, but I'm in the yellow zone right now and let's work on removing before adding anything else.

Red Zone: Recognizing the Crash

Speaker 1 10:37

What can you remove from today's to-do list? Right here, at this moment, when you're feeling this overwhelm? That will help at least create a little bit more capacity and a weight lift off your shoulders and then create what would be your own energy reset menu. So what would be on your menu? Maybe a quick five-minute walk outside. Maybe you're going to go downstairs and throw the weight ball on the ground a few times, stretch with your favorite song, maybe a cold ice water, maybe rinsing your face with cool water, just to like clean off the grease and the grub from the day so far, and deep breathing. But remember that this isn't overreacting. Is you responding with intention? And you intentionally recognizing what is going on in your body with your energy levels and these cues that you're getting about what it's telling us? So you wouldn't ignore chest pain. We're not going to ignore chronic fatigue either.

Creating Your Personal Energy Map

Speaker 1 11:53

And then let's not try and go into the red zone too often, right, or at all, really, but let's talk about it. So the red zone really is the crash mode Crashing, crashing hard. This is where it feels like it all falls apart. You're canceling everything. You're crying in your bedroom with the door closed. You're sleeping, but you're still feeling tired. You're resenting everyone and everything and, honestly, you don't know what you like anymore. You don't even know what you want, but you just know that you're not happy. So this stage, this zone, is really not the time to start any new routines. This is the zone and the time to stop. If you're in the red zone, your only job is to rest, delegate and recalibrate. So let someone else hold the clipboard for a while. You're not weak. You're wise for noticing you're in the red and choosing recovery over feeling guilty.

Speaker 1 13:01

So here's your homework for the week. This week, I want you to determine your own energy zones and create your own energy action plan. Take out a piece of paper or, if you're a notes app, girl go digital. And I want you to create three columns. Girl go digital. And I want you to create three columns. The columns names are zone, what it looks like, what it feels like, what I can do. So we're going to go zone Now. We're going to be in rows now. So, under zone, you're going to do green, yellow, red Okay, going over in the row.

Speaker 1 13:35

What does green look like for you? An example would be sleeping seven hours, walking daily. What does the green zone feel like? Well, I feel calm and I feel focused. And what can I do if I'm in the green zone? Well, I'm going to maintain my current habits because I'm feeling pretty good.

Speaker 1 13:56

In the yellow zone, what does that look like for you? Maybe you're waking up at 3 am multiple days in a row. Maybe you're feeling a little snappy or a lack of patience with the kids or the husband. Maybe you just hear someone say something and it makes you feel like you just want to ball. Just hear someone say something and it makes you feel like you just want a ball. You're restless, you're moody. What can you do? Remove one task, go for a walk. These are just examples. These are just examples.

Speaker 1 14:28

But you're going to be building your own energy zone, an action plan. So zone red. What does it look like? It could be skipping meals, canceling plans flat out. Don't want to see anyone's faces. It feels disconnected. And then what can you do? You're going to rest, you're going to pause and you're going to ask for help. What's the biggest thing that you need help with? And just ask for help.

Speaker 1 15:01

So this becomes your personal energy map. You can check it. You can check in with it every morning or whenever you're starting to feel off. It can be simple, it can be powerful and it gives you back choice, because it puts you back in the driver's seat to take control. So hey, let's recap for a second.

Recap and Free Energy Tune-up Tool

Speaker 1 15:23

We just talked about I just thought I feel like I was rambling word vomit, oh my God. Just talked about an energy map and breaking down our energy levels into energy cues like traffic lights green, yellow and red and what each zone might feel like or look like, and micro habits that you can use when you acknowledge the fact that you are in one of those zones, and what to do next. So if you don't even know where to start with all this, you're not alone. You have your energy map. Now where do we go next? And that's exactly why I created the energy tune-up tool, which is a tracker. It's gentle, it's judgment-free to start seeing your own energy patterns, really in black and white, so you can catch, maybe, what your yellow lights are before they turn to red.

Speaker 1 16:25

You can grab this energy tune-up tracker at melissahimmancom. Forward slash tune-up or click on the link in the show notes. It's totally free, no pressure, it's just support, but you deserve to feel amazing. So let's make it happen, one small habit at a time. After you are looking to see where your energy could be draining from. All right, my friends, that's it for today's episode of Smash the Crash. I'm sorry if I talked your ear off so fast. When I talk fast, it's usually because I'm passionate about something and I'm very passionate about this. So if this resonated with you and you know someone who might benefit from this episode. Please share it with them and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. So until next time, honor your yellow lights, love your green and take a pause when it's red.