[00:00:00] Vesna: today I want to talk about, are you feeling burnt out? Just as the year begins and how to approach 2025 and your goals very differently. So it's not uncommon that even at this point in January, That people are already starting to feel burnt out in their businesses, right?
[00:00:54] You may have had a bit of a break over the Christmas time, over the holiday period, had all these ideas and these goals, and you've got these big projects in mind that you want to work on for this year, for 2025. And as you're getting started, you may feel like, Oh, I feel overwhelmed already, or I feel tired, or maybe you don't feel those things, but maybe you anticipate that as you're executing on your big projects, that you're going to feel tired and it's going to be exhausting, right?
[00:01:24] So. If you ended last year feeling pretty tired and pretty kind of spent, then you really want to pay attention to your physical health in order to achieve your goals for 2025. I always think that, and I always say to my clients that, Your personal wellbeing should be part of your business plan because let's face it, if you don't have the energy or if you feel too stressed, you are not going to do your best work.
[00:01:50] You are not going to be able to complete your goals and complete your tasks. And the stress is going to make you to make bad decisions, right? So this way of feeling is not uncommon coming into January. Okay. And it's because. Really, you didn't do enough things to recharge the body. Okay. There are certain things that we look at in order to make sure that your physical energy, your mental wellbeing, your focus, your metabolic health is at its peak in order for you to do everything that you need to do.
[00:02:22] And so what I want to do in today's podcast is do a bit of a walkthrough on what are the kind of four key things that I'd be looking at to make sure that you have. Your best year yet, right? To maybe have your best year in business, or maybe have your best year in your personal achievements, or maybe have your best year in that you're feeling so good that you feel like you've got the energy for your business.
[00:02:45] You've got the energy for your family and your kids, you're not dragging yourself around, So the first thing is to do a reality check what are you experiencing right now? Do you wake up feeling tired? Like I like to do an energy check with my clients. Do you wake up in the morning feeling full of energy that you exercise or you could exercise? Or do you wake up and think, oh my lord, I could not be exercising in the morning.
[00:03:08] I don't have that energy. Do you go through the day and feel like you can work pretty solid through the day right up until the end of the day and at the end of the day, You still have energy for home life, personal life, personal responsibilities, or do you feel like you hit a wall at 2 to 3pm, maybe come 5, 6, 7pm, you're like, I'm just done, I've got nothing in the tank left for the family, but you know, you yourself through to do those things.
[00:03:35] Do you get brain fog? Do you feel like It's too hard to remember things. you don't have the mental energy or the mental focus or the concentration to get through your work. So what I tend to find with clients is that they're stopping and starting. So they, they're working on a project they don't actually have the mental capacity to work through it.
[00:03:54] Deep, But they don't notice it, right? So they'll work on a project and then they'll stop, they'll check emails, they'll check messages, or answer text messages on their phone. And all of these little breakaway points is because of the mental fatigue. And so there are a lot of things that we want to look at, like your sleep.
[00:04:11] Are you sleeping right through? Are you finding it easy to fall asleep? Or are you waking up in the middle of the night? You know, what is your diet like? Do you find that you're pretty consistent with your meals or are you missing meals? How often are you eating out? Like all of these things we want to have a look at.
[00:04:26] So just for yourself right now, how would you rate your energy out of 10? How would you rate it first thing in the morning when you wake up? 10 would be yep, I'm ready to go. I can get up. I can do a workout. I can come back and feel really energized, And everything is, you know, below 10 from there. And how does it feel during the day? Are there any dips where it's significant that you really feel like you need another cup of coffee to push yourself through? What are you noticing as your energy levels go up? Your mental energy and concentration or brain fog, your sleep quality, your diet quality. Do a bit of a check in, do a bit of a reality check of where you actually are right now.
[00:05:03] And does that look like well being? You know, one of the things that I like to share is that, sometimes we think, we're doing the right things. You know, I'm getting my sleep, my diet could be better. A lot of women will say to me, but my diet is pretty good, right? And then when they come through my program, They feel such a significant difference in their energy and their mood.
[00:05:23] They're like, I really thought my diet was good, but actually there was so much room for improvement. And so just have a look at what does wellbeing look like for you? And do you feel like you're in a state of wellbeing And if not, let's make some changes.
[00:05:35] So let's first of all, look at some hidden saboteurs, things that are going to impact your energy, your performance and the quality of your work. Number one, stress, like elevated levels of stress and elevated energy levels. Levels of stress hormone as you're undertaking your projects, you are definitely going to be challenged.
[00:05:54] I don't know anyone that doesn't have challenges in their business. And I remember a friend said to me once. If you didn't have problems, you wouldn't have a business. Okay, and so that was a nice little reframe for me because the nature of business is that it is up and down, and there's challenges, and things don't work out, and there's problems to solve.
[00:06:11] But, it's how you respond to that, so your levels of stress and stress hormone, because stress and excessive stress Amounts of stress and stress hormone is going to lead to poor decision making it's going to lead to We're not going to have great ideas, right? And the reason is is when we're stressed our body goes into this kind of primal place in the mind in the limbic system right or in the in the lizard brain area and We're not making that best decisions from there.
[00:06:38] We're just literally trying to survive and so We're not rational, we're not creative, we don't have big ideas, and our body is feeling lots of stress. And so the way that we handle stress is going to affect our performance and our energy. Then the second thing I look at is metabolic health. How your blood glucose levels look throughout the day.
[00:06:57] Which is going to be dependent on your diet. So, if you go too long before having breakfast, or maybe you're having caffeine in the morning, and then at lunchtime, it's a predominantly carbohydrate meal, so a sandwich, or a pasta, or something with a rice, that is going to mean that you're going to crash with your energy in the afternoon.
[00:07:17] And all that tells me is that your body's blood glucose levels are up and down, which is going to affect your metabolic health. It's going to affect how your body produces energy, and it's going to affect how your body uses body fat for fuel, which is your best source of energy throughout the day. And that's what we want to use.
[00:07:35] The third thing I look at is the gut brain connection, so looking at gut health as it impacts our mental well being. There is nothing worse. Then feeling that sense of dread or worry or anxiety during the day or overwhelm or low moods, right? We just don't operate well from that place. And there's a lot that we can do with our gut health which influences how we get our mental performance.
[00:08:01] Okay, so we know with the gut brain link that our gut health influences our mood, influences our mental energy, and how we cope with day to day stresses and with life.
[00:08:10] And The fourth thing that I look at is quite often we think if I just push through, then I'll get my work done and everything will be okay and then I can relax afterwards. And so I've worked with clients who have been in that place and they, they find that over time, the energy starts to drain they get to like two o'clock and they crash.
[00:08:28] They can't do any more work. And so one of my clients, Sonya, that I worked with, she was very young, very successful. But she would get to 2 3 p. m. And she would just hit a wall. She said it was she was very stressed And then she just couldn't do any more work after 2 3 p. m. Right so you can imagine that impacted her business She couldn't do client work.
[00:08:45] She wouldn't take calls and by reducing her stress hormones repairing her gut and Improving her mental performance she found by the end of it. Not only was she able to work right through the day She was excited about talking to customers right not dreading it and she doubled her business Okay.
[00:09:02] Simply by taking care of her personal well being.
[00:09:05] Okay. So now with all that said, we know that we want to improve the metabolic health. We want to make sure that you reduce stress hormones, support the gut and mental well being aspect and routines that will help to energize your day rather than drain you.
[00:09:17] so one of the quick wins is your morning routine so I always talk about having breakfast within 20 minutes of waking. As women, as we're looking at improving performance. I will bring in fasting strategies and different more high level advanced strategies for performance and energy and weight, but I will never tell women to not eat within 20 minutes of waking.
[00:09:39] Okay. So unless you're doing a long. a full day fast, I will always tell women to eat within 20 minutes. The reason why this is different for men to women is because of our hormonal profile. We just do much better when we nourish the glucose levels and the cortisol levels in the morning. And then if you wanted to fast, you could have an early dinner and do your fasting that way.
[00:10:01] Okay. But if you need to repair in order to get back to peak performance, I don't recommend fasting right now. Okay, I recommend having your morning routines or your breakfast within 20 minutes of waking. Making sure that breakfast combines protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats. That will keep your glucose levels and cortisol levels stable throughout the day.
[00:10:22] The next thing I would do is have regular meals so eating every three to four hours and you want to stick with the same kind of ratio. Okay. Protein carbs and fats with each of your meals because all of those combined will stabilize your glucose levels, okay? So if we just have protein and fats, it's not as good right if we just have carbohydrates We're just going to drop our blood glucose levels, right?
[00:10:43] So we the carbohydrates play a key role particularly when there's been high amounts of stress because it helps to switch off the stress response. And so when women are going through this phase, and as we're doing this first part of the, healing and getting back to peak performance, I'm really looking at nourishing all of the areas that are controlling our stress and energy response.
[00:11:05] And carbohydrates plays a really important part there. So if you're been trying to do the right thing, but you're actually cutting out carbohydrates, and you feel stressed and kind of heading into burnout, that is not the right approach right now. That is definitely something that you can do later, but not right now.
[00:11:23] The third thing I would look at is reducing mental stress or mental load. it's quite often that we think that because of my workload, because of everything I've done today, that's why I'm tired. But that's not the reason okay, because you will notice will be some days when you do get so much work done You've ticked off your list, and it's like wow.
[00:11:43] I've done so much work, and I feel energized And I know you would have had those days because everybody has those days right and then other days You've got a lot on you take a lot off your to do list and you're exhausted the difference there is not the workload okay, because our body is designed that the more work.
[00:12:01] We do You The more energy we expend, right? The more activity we do, the more energy we create, And we think about it when we exercise, right? There's a process in the body called mitochondrial biogenesis. And all that means is that as we spend more energy, We increase our mitochondria, which is like the energy powerhouse in our cells.
[00:12:22] It's our cells ability to create energy and we have trillions of them. So the more energy we spend, the more mitochondria we produce, the more energy we create, right? And then the more activity we want to do because we have such high energy levels. And so it's not your workload that's It's draining you, it's the mental stress that's draining you, okay?
[00:12:44] So as we're more active, we're creating more energy. The only thing that's going to drain that is the mental stress. And so finding ways to reduce that mental stress, and one of the most simplest things that you can do is to create a micro break in your calendar. Now, when I work with people who are exhausted, the first thing we see is that their calendar is back to back.
[00:13:06] Right. And that's all fine for later. Okay. But if you're wanting to get back to this place of feeling really energized and really good, and that you've been I've got what it takes to complete your goals, then you want to do the repair work first. And that means adding some micro breaks between meetings, between appointments, right?
[00:13:26] Because otherwise you going from one to the other is not allowing your mind to slow down. Right? It's only picking up more speed as the day goes on. And then by the end of the day, because of that busy mind and that mental load, your body has just released stress hormones all day. And it's kind of like drip, drip, drip all day.
[00:13:47] But by the end of the day, you're exhausted. Okay? Your body's been in a state of tension and stress all day. And that is what drains our energy systems. That is what prevents us from creating more mitochondria. Okay, and so if you can create something as simple as that, more time in your calendar between meetings where you can just take a breath, not even do emails, just take a breather, get away from your computer, go grab a glass of water or a cup of tea, just five minutes, right, will allow your brain to wind down and slow down and be more prepped for the next meeting.
[00:14:19] So that is kind of my kickstart for 2025. And in this podcast, I really wanted to just bring your awareness to where you're at right now. And some very simple things that you can change because your physical wellbeing and your mental wellbeing is your business, right? It is a hundred percent your business.
[00:14:36] And without those things, you are just not going to do your best work. You're not going to provide the best value and you won't be able to sustain your success.
