The Secret to All-Day Energy for Leaders (It’s Not More Coffee)

Part two of our energy mini-series! Learn five glucose hacks to help first-time managers stay focused, avoid the afternoon crash, and lead their teams with steady energy all day long.

Listen to Part 1: New Manager Tips for Better Sleep to Make You a More Confident and In-Control Manager

Last week we talked about how sleep impacts your energy as a leader.
This week, we’re tackling the other half of the equation—what’s actually happening in your body all day that makes you tired, irritable, and unfocused.

If you’ve ever hit that 2 p.m. crash, snapped at a teammate, or reached for another cup of coffee to power through, this episode is for you.

We will talk about five practical glucose-stabilizing hacks that help you sustain your energy, sharpen your focus, and lead your team with more patience and presence. You’ll learn how blood sugar impacts your mood, motivation, and ability to manage effectively, and what you can do about it starting today.

By the end, you’ll see how managing your energy isn’t just a wellness trend, it’s leadership development in action. Because when your energy dips, so does your influence.

Key Takeaways

• How glucose spikes drain your patience, focus, and confidence at work
• Five sustainable habits to prevent the afternoon crash: savory breakfast, food order, post-meal movement, pairing carbs with protein, and the apple cider vinegar trick
• Why steady energy makes you a calmer, more consistent leader who builds trust and holds employees accountable

Links As Promised!

Glucose Goddess on Instagram

Glucose Revolution Book 

Glucose Goddes

Connect With Desiree on Linkedin
Buy the book - Taking Intentional Action: How to Choose the Life You Lead

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Transcript

Desiree (00:03.736)
Welcome back to our two part mini series on energy. What is it? How can we get it? And how can we sustain it? Last week we talked about sleep and how it impacts your energy as a leader. This week we are talking about the other half of the equation. What is actually happening in your body throughout the day that makes you feel tired, irritable, unfocused, and in my case, like I needed a nap every single day. So if you are wanting to show up at work to be able to sustain your energy,

all throughout the day, get a really good night's sleep, and just make sure that you are at your best, then you're in the right place. Welcome back to You're the Boss, Now What? I'm your host, Desiree Petriq, and our goal here is to help you lead yourself and your team with confidence. So lean in and let's get started.

Desiree (01:11.054)
I hope you enjoyed the episode last week on sleep. Sleep is a conversation that I have been having for many, many years simply because I am someone who likes to wake up at 5 a.m. Let's be honest, most of the time it's 5 30, maybe even six. But I'm someone who likes to wake up early, get some reading in, get a workout in, get some work done. And despite the fact that my the rest of my family sleeps until 7 30, I know that I need good quality sleep in order to actually have the discipline to get up. Because if I am tired all throughout the day,

It wouldn't make sense to have the benefit of getting all these things done just to feel terrible throughout the rest of the day. So I really value sleep, which is why I created that episode last week with a sleep coach, Morgan Adams. If you haven't listened to that, go check it out. But I went to the doctor in January just for a regular checkup, and I pretty much said to her, I am broken. said, I need help. I don't know if there's a magic pill. I don't know what it is, but I

feel the need to take a nap every single day. Every single day, despite the fact that I get seven, sometimes even eight hours of sleep, I still feel the need to take a nap every day. What is happening to me? And I wanted a magic fix. I really did. And she instead introduced me to an Instagram page called The Glucose Goddess. I'll link it in the show notes for you. And essentially what this person does is she shows you how the different foods that we eat affect

our blood sugar and our blood sugar affects literally everything else in our body, specifically our ability to have sustainable energy throughout the day. Now, I have been devouring health content, personal development content. I try and learn everything that I can about my own body and the way that health and wellness works and the food that we take in. And I had literally never heard of glucose management. I mean, I'm sure I had.

I'm sure at some point in time, some nutrition class in high school or college, it came up. But she was essentially saying this was the fix to all of my problems to just eat in a way that stabilizes my glucose and everything would get better. Now, I was definitely skeptical, but if you know anything about me, I am an all in kind of person. So I dove head first. I watched all of the YouTube videos. I watched all of the Instagram videos. I bought the book Glucose Revolution, and that's what we're talking about today.

Desiree (03:37.558)
I don't want you to think this is going to be an overwhelming scientific talk. I am not a scientist. Half of the stuff goes over my head. But there are some tips and tricks that I have been using since that meeting with my doctor in January. I have not taken a nap since with the small exception of being dead on the couch last week with Covid. I have not taken a nap because I haven't needed one. So that's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about what does it look like to control

what you are taking into your body so that you can have sustained energy. And I'm not telling you that you can't have candy or dessert or whatever it is that makes you super happy. What I'm telling you is that there are right ways and wrong ways to do it in order to stabilize your blood sugar. So why is this important for you? This is a podcast for new managers and aspiring managers and managers who just want to lead their team better. What does this have to do with you? Well,

You know those days when you wake up, you walk into work, you're already tired. The coffee is barely touching it. Your to do list feels like it's mocking you. And then by 2 p.m., you're wanting to lay down in the closet of your work and take a nap. Sidebar, I actually did that. Granted, I was pregnant. There was a whole myriad of other things, but I've literally laid on the floor in the closet of my workplace to take a nap. Just so you know a little bit more about me. But this is something that I hear all the time. It's really hard to keep your eyes open.

at work when you hit that afternoon slump. And I promise you, it is not a lack of motivation. It's not really even something that you can control. It is your blood sugar. It's the way that energy has the ability to work against you. So ultimately, when your energy dips, so does your patience. The smallest question from your team or from your kid, it suddenly feels irritating. The meeting that could have been really quick turns into a drag that you can't even remember because your brain is foggy. You can't come up with the right words.

Everything happens. Your team can feel it. You can feel it. You know you're not leading at your best, but your energy sets the tone for everyone else and it starts to affect everyone else at work and at home. This is why it matters. This is why this particular conversation around glucose management matters, because being a steady and confident leader, it's not just about emotional intelligence. It's not just about leadership skills and how you do a one on one. Those things are so, so important. But

Desiree (06:00.768)
It is about understanding what your body needs so that your brain can show up in the way that you want it to. This is why we have to manage our energy so that we can manage our presence. Because as we've heard before, our presence is our power. The way that we show up is how we can influence people and leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less, as John Maxwell would say. So I'm going to give you some tips on what it would look like to stabilize your blood sugar. First tip, if you have Instagram, go follow the glucose goddess.

Essentially what glucose management looks like is say you eat a piece of chocolate cake. Your glucose is going to spike. It's going to go up. It's going to go up into a high curve. This is when we maybe feel a little bit shaky. We feel very energized. We always say we shouldn't have given the kids that much sugar because then they get a sugar high. Right. The same thing happens to us as adults. We eat something sugar or noodles, carbs, bread.

those types of things that turn directly into glucose in our bloodstream, our glucose spikes. And then as it's coming back down, most of us, it crashes. It crashes and goes below the line, which is where we start to feel really tired, really irritable, like we need a nap. This is where the cravings lie. This is where all of sudden we feel like we need a candy bar or a pop in order to get our energy back up. It's not our quote unquote energy. It's our blood sugar. It's crashing.

And if you have it like me, it's tied to other physical issues, but I have hypoglycemia, which means that almost anything that I eat is essentially making my blood sugar crash. If I'm not paying attention, this is why I was feeling the need to take a nap every day. This is why I was really, really struggling to get a workout in because I was constantly in a state of glucose roller coasters. I would eat something, my glucose spike would go up and it would crash back down and my energy was just depleted.

I had never, I have said literally a lot in this episode, but it's because I just can't believe that it took over 30 years for this conversation and this topic to come to my attention because it has changed my life. It has changed the way that I eat. It has changed the way that I have a conversation around food. There is no good or bad food. It's the way that you eat it. So I'm going to give you four tips plus a bonus tip.

Desiree (08:22.016)
of the things that changed it the most for me, the things that are super sustainable, things that I do every single day in order to keep my blood sugar stable, in order to not feel like I need a nap every day. And one of the biggest things is I am someone who loves sugar. I love candy. I don't drink pop, so that piece doesn't bother me, but I love a good sweet treat.

This is the only way that I can get myself to stop eating candy corn by the handfuls in the afternoon is by making sure my blood sugar is staying steady all day long. tip number one, start your day with a savory breakfast. And this is not a tip for me. Jessie Anashby, she is the French scientist who has the glucose goddess channel on Instagram. She has the glucose goddess YouTube videos. She has a book. She has a cookbook. I highly suggest you go check her out. I will link everything in the show notes, but

She has tips in order to stabilize your glucose. I picked my favorite five and the ones that I use the most. Tip number one is start with a savory breakfast. Funny enough, this is in contrast to how the majority of us eats and not just the majority of the people listening, the majority of America. We think donuts and waffles and pancakes are breakfast. And I won't lie, I still give my kids these things sometimes because they think it's a treat and it's easy. But.

If we are not fueling our body with the right thing in the morning, we are setting ourselves up for that glucose roller coaster all day. If we eat a donut in the morning and our glucose spikes, it is then going to crash, causing us to need more sugar, more carbs, which then causes a spike and a crash. And if you could see my hand right now, I'm going up and down and up and down and it just creates an emotional and a glucose roller coaster that is causing our energy to be all over the place. So.

If you can start your day with a savory breakfast, this is going to make sure that your blood sugar stays stabilized, at least for the first part of the day. If you could get through the first four or five hours of the day with stable energy, that's a pretty good chunk of your day. It is helping you to make better decisions. It is helping your motivation and your discipline to stay on track because you're not getting hungry at 10 p.m. You're not craving all of these things. You're not feeling the need to get up from your desk and go.

Desiree (10:38.464)
raid the break room because you had enough discipline in the morning to not pack the sugary thing, but now you have desire to go to the vending machine. These are all things that we all struggle with, trust me. So start your day with a savory breakfast. Protein, protein, protein, protein. If you were to read the book, watch the videos, protein is a huge piece of the puzzle. It is your eggs. It is your turkey, your bacon, all of the different pieces of

food that provide us protein, I usually try and get around 160 grams per day. The recommended is half of your body weight in grams of protein per day. So whatever that is for you, most people can't imagine getting even close to that because it's a conversation that's still pretty new. But as we age, as we are needing to talk about energy in a sustainable fashion, protein is one of the biggest ways that we can.

talk about it so that we can get from one meal to the next without feeling the need to go and grab something else. So again, I highly recommend you read this book. If nothing else, go to the YouTube channel and watch the videos on her different ideas for savory breakfast. My favorite honestly is lately I've been doing a protein shake with a bowl of peanuts, which sounds kind of

silly, but I can snack on the peanuts, which makes me feel like I'm eating more. It's all a mental mind game, but that is the first tip.

Desiree (12:13.934)
Tip number two, eating foods in the right order. Again, how have we not known this? How has it not come to light before, but it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. So eating foods in the right order, and that order is fiber, protein, fat, then your carbs, then your sugar. she, Jessie, the French biochemist, she talks about like a sink. Think of those old fashioned sinks that are on a stand and

you think about it like if you throw in your sugar, it'll go straight down the drain. It'll enter into your bloodstream. It will immediately enter your bloodstream and your blood sugar will start to spike. But if you start with fiber, think of your broccoli, your cauliflower, all of the spinach, all of your greens, all of the things that have a lot of fiber in them. If you put that in the sink first and then you continue to fill it in this order, the sugar that you have, even if you have a piece of chocolate cake at the end of your meal,

your blood sugar is going to react completely differently if you start with the cake or if you end with the cake. So you really actually don't want to start with dessert, even though it might sound like a good idea. If you can have that sugar at the end of your meal, it's not going to enter into your bloodstream nearly as quickly. It's gonna be a much slower process and your energy is gonna continue to be stable throughout the rest of, until the next time you eat. So again, it's fiber and then it's your proteins, it's your meat, it's your...

whatever your form of protein happens to be, chicken, salmon, beef, pork, you name it, whatever you enjoy. Then it's your fats, your cheeses, your...

Desiree (14:02.178)
your cheeses, your nuts, whatever your form of fat looks like. A lot of times that'll come in the form of like a salad dressing. And then it's your carbs. It's your noodles, your breads, those types of things that typically everything is mixed together. she says, if you have a sandwich, if you have a pasta dish, don't worry about it. It's gonna be fine. But it is something important to remember that when you have the opportunity to eat your food,

in the right order, it will make a big difference on your energy. And so I have started deconstructing a lot of my foods and I'm not a big pasta or bread person anyway, but I've started to deconstruct my food so that I can eat them in the right order. I have found it is direct correlation to the fatigue and the cravings that I have later on in the afternoon if I eat things in the right order and if I make sure that I am eating the majority protein and fats.

I guess I should say fiber, but I'm really not all that great at eating the broccoli and the cauliflower and things. used to be. I should probably get back into it. This is my mental note to myself to remember to eat more vegetables. Next one, this is my favorite hack of them all because it is so doable. It's something we know we need to do anyway. And it's just, it's another way to think about it. It's a mindset shift. And the tip is add movement after meals. So think about you eat

pasta and your blood sugar starts to spike. Essentially what is bringing your blood sugar back down to a normal level is your muscles can take in that glucose and utilize it for energy because that's what glucose is. It's energy. So if you eat noodles but then you immediately go for a walk or you dance or you do calf raises at your desk, your muscles are using up some of that glucose so it's not spiking as high. They call it blunting the glucose spike. So essentially it just doesn't peak.

It doesn't go straight up and come right back down. It starts to blunt it a little bit and it starts to stabilize even at the higher end. And then it'll come back down more slowly. You won't have as deep of a crash because it was stabilized throughout the process. A quick 10 minute walk after lunch. I usually try and go for about 20, but that's just because that's the walk that I like to take. It is all about that energy management. And I want you to think about it like this.

Desiree (16:25.902)
because this has definitely gotten more into health and wellness than leadership. But think about it like this. What does it look like if you get up from your desk after eating? Hopefully you actually went on a break, right? You didn't eat at your desk. But say you did like a lot of leaders do and you get up and you go for a walk. Maybe you even offer for an employee or everyone to go on a walk together. We used to do this when I worked at the bank.

We would have like eight of us go on a walk together simply because one person started and started to invite other people. It was a great way to bond. It was a great way to get to know each other personally.

Desiree (17:06.446)
Personally, it was a great way to keep our bodies moving and to stay healthier, especially since we sat at least eight hours a day. It is a great way to model healthy habits, and that's what leadership is. It is being a good influence on people, especially if you want to be an effective leader. tip number three, add movement after meals. Number four, this one was enlightening for me. Add.

Desiree (17:39.768)
And that is just to avoid naked carbs. And essentially all naked means in this sense is don't just have a piece of toast. Don't just have noodles. Don't just have chips. Add something to them. Add fat. Add protein. So if you're gonna have nachos, right, make sure you're adding, that was a bad example, because nachos, the definition of nachos is to add things to it. But if you're gonna have chips, eat it with some guacamole. Have some cheese on top. Add some pulled pork or some chicken.

add something to your carbs so they aren't naked. This is going to help blunt the spike simply because your body is going to be digesting some of those other things instead of simply bringing that glucose right into your bloodstream. This is a great way to

Desiree (18:33.838)
And that's all it is. Tip number four is don't eat naked carbs. Avoid just the piece of toast. Put some avocado on it. Even butter is a fat, which is going to help blunt that spike a little bit. So all four tips, and then I'm gonna give you the bonus one. Tip number one, eat a savory breakfast. The morning is the most important time of the day for most people. Granted, go back and listen to the sleep episode to see when your most effective time of the day is. But eat a savory breakfast.

Huge piece of the puzzle. If you are gonna have a waffle, make sure you have something first. Make sure you have some eggs and bacon. Make sure you have some protein. Before you eat the waffle, it's gonna help to blunt that spike a little bit. Go on a walk after you eat. Tip number two, add movement. Well, technically this is tip number three. Add movement after meals. Whether it's after breakfast, lunch, or dinner, pick one meal that you always do it. Pick all three. It's totally up to you.

I like to do it after at least two of my meals because I have a step goal. And so it's just a great way to make sure that I'm hitting two birds with one stone. The second tip, I'm going out of order here, but the second tip is to eat the foods in the right order. Fiber, protein, fat, carbs, sugar. Again, I love candy corn. I love ice cream. I love all the good things and I eat them, but I typically eat them after I have already eaten things in the right order.

just in an effort to help my body to sustain that energy a little longer. Tip number four is avoid naked carbs. Just don't eat carbs on their own. Add something to them, a fat or a protein. And the fifth one, this is five of the 10 that Jesse and Ashby gives, but this is one that most people have a really hard time wrapping their heads around. However, it makes a huge, huge difference. So apple cider vinegar.

There was a huge craze a while back, it was probably five, six years ago, maybe more than that, where everyone was like, take a shot of apple cider vinegar at least once a day and it'll make you thin. Turns out there was a little bit of merit to that, not because it was gonna make you thin, but apple cider vinegar has a...

Desiree (20:47.518)
cider vinegar has a type of acid in it, acetic acid, that helps to blunt glucose spikes if you drink it right before a meal, within one to 10 minutes before a meal. It will help pull some of those glucose molecules out of your blood and keep them out of your bloodstream. it can, think 40 % is the amount. It can help blunt a glucose spike by up to 40%. So if you can stomach it, I like to add, it's just to water. So I think I do a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar,

with eight ounces of water and then funny enough, I don't like lemon cello sparkling water, but if I add it on top of the apple cider vinegar water, it doesn't taste that bad. It actually is somewhat palatable. So bonus tip number five, just if you want to, is to drink some apple cider vinegar before your meal. They say to drink an eight ounce glans of

Desiree (21:46.328)
They say to drink an eight ounce glass of water before you eat anyway, might as well throw some apple cider vinegar in. So those are the five tips. Follow them, don't follow them, but if you have found that you have a hard time getting through the afternoon slump, if you have a hard time not drinking that fifth cup of coffee, if you have a hard time being focused on anything or feeling like you're so tired by the time that you get home that you couldn't possibly play with your kids or exercise or fill in the blank, whatever it is that you want to do in your evenings.

This is why it's important to manage your energy. This is just one of the ways. But again, I have so much passion around this topic, especially with someone as someone who has a physical syndrome, if you will, that makes this even more prevalent and more necessary for me to do. I can't believe it took this long for a doctor to tell me that this was a thing. So I'm hoping that that's not going to be the case for you. I want you to know.

what it is that you're putting into your body. want you to feel some control over what you're ingesting and how it is affecting your body going forward throughout the day. There are so many sustainability and viability and just longer lasting lives that comes with this conversation too, but I just wanted to cover this topic in regards to the energy for the day. If you have more interest in this, please, please, please check out the show notes, go to YouTube, watch some videos, read a book.

And I promise you, you won't be disappointed by the benefits that this topic has to offer to you. So we are going to connect this in one more way to leadership in self-awareness. You can't coach your team effectively in work if you are running on fumes, which a lot of us as leaders are. And a lot of times it's because our plates are too full, we feel overwhelmed, there's a million people that need our attention. But sometimes it's because

We just aren't providing our body with the right things that it needs for energy. And sleep can be hard. If you've got kids that don't allow you to sleep or a spouse that snores or a bed that's not comfortable or whatever is causing you to not be able to sleep at night, some of those things are just not possible to be fixed. this, glucose management is something that is 100 % within your control.

Desiree (24:14.638)
So I look forward to hearing what tips you try. If you feel like they make a difference, I want to know, was this interesting to you? Was this the kind of topic that you as a manager feel is necessary in your overall management and life journey? Please let me know, send me a message on LinkedIn. If this episode helped you at all, I would love for you to leave a five-star review so that other new managers and leaders can find the podcast. And thank you so much for continuing to listen.

After the sleep episode went out on my email, I had someone send me a message and say, your topics are always on point and that was the biggest compliment I could have gotten. So thank you so much for continuing to listen. I really appreciate you. Thank you so much for being here and for choosing to embrace leadership in this way because leadership is a privilege, but it is also a really big responsibility and you're the boss now. So what are you gonna do with it?