Episode #64 Five Pillars of Sustainable Success with Jessica Spendlove

This transcript is computer generated and may contain errors and not be an exact representation of the audio

Hayley Quinn 00:04

Hi, this is Welcome to Self ®. And I’m your host, Dr. Hayley D. Quinn, fellow human, AuDHDer, dear business owner, and the Anti-Burnout Business Coach. I’m here for service based business owners and entrepreneurs like you to help you increase your own self care and self compassion. Change the relationship you have with yourself in your business, and help you elevate your business to a new level. So you can live the full and meaningful life you desire. We are all on a continual learning journey. So let’s learn together. Welcome to self is a place where you can come and learn about the practices that will assist you as a business owner, and get tips on how to engage in your business in a way that is sustainable for you.

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Now let’s get to the episode

Hi and welcome to another episode. I’m really excited for this one. I’ve got another guest episode for you this week, but before we get into that, I just want to remind you that the little pod is a nomination for the women in podcasting awards, and I’d really love it if you could help me and actually vote for the podcast. So if you’ve been listening since the beginning, you’ve joined me along the way, or you’re new to the podcast and you’ve enjoyed it and found it helpful, please go to the link in the show notes and show my little pod some love and give us a vote and see if we can win. But let’s talk about my next guest. I’m really excited to introduce her, and I know that you’re going to get a lot from listening to her and her wisdom.

Jessica Spendlove is a leading Australian performance dietitian turned executive health coach, corporate high performance consultant and well being speaker who helps business owners, leaders and executives lead sustainable high performance lives by leveraging science backed strategies with nutrition, sleep, movement, mindset and micro recovery practices. She also hosts stay at the top podcast, and if you haven’t already, I’ve got an episode with Jess on that, so hop over to Jess podcast and give that a listen as well. Having been surrounded by and immersed in high performance culture for most of her life, Jess is now on a mission to change the narrative and start the conversation of not only what it takes to achieve your goals and reach the top, but to do it sustainably and stay there. Jess and I have very similar philosophies. We just come from it, from different professions, but as you can see, we are very aligned in what we do. So I’m really excited to invite Jess to the podcast.

So Hi Jess, welcome and thanks so much for coming and joining me.

Jessica Spendlove 03:47

Hi Hayley, thank you so much for having me and yes, on the episode that you did on mine, as I messaged you and told you, it’s definitely been the episode that people have messaged me about the most just saying, my goodness, this resonated with me so much. So definitely head over and tune into that one, because it’s fantastic.

Hayley Quinn 04:10

Fantastic. So how about you start by giving us a bit of an overview about not just what you do, because I’ve kind of spoken a bit to that, but what got you there, like, what led you to what you’re doing now?

Jessica Spendlove 04:22

Yeah, what got me to doing what I’m doing right now was the fact that I absolutely ran myself into the ground. And that was purely out of the fact of I was such a motivated, driven workaholic. I was definitely a workaholic. I was working in professional sport, which is where I’ve spent most of my career, a good 10 years. And normally, you know, you kind of work with one or two teams, but I was really fortunate to build great relationships and make a really great reputation, and ended up working with seven different sports teams. And a lot of these contracts were running at the same time. So off the back of that, I build a business, but it still required a lot of me, because when teams like that are contracting, they want you, they don’t really want the juniors. And it was honestly a 24/7 job.

And I look back and I just must have been running on adrenaline for years on end, and as you would know, that lasts for so long, and you either need to change that, or you’re forced to change that. And I’d love to say I just you know, realized what I was doing wasn’t sustainable,I had the epiphany and change, but it took a number of health issues before it got really severe, post covid, and I had a lot of health issues, and I’m, you know, convinced it was off the back of being burnt out for a good five or six years, but not realizing that.

Hayley Quinn 05:58

M goodness, it’s such, you know, I think many of us who are doing this kind of work, it’s a common story, isn’t it, that you, you just don’t pay attention to it, and you basically get knocked on your ass, don’t you get forced to listen?

Jessica Spendlove 06:12

Yeah. And I used to do the whole Oh, I’m sick two days. I’ll have two days off, and then I’ll be sweet, you know, telling myself, whereas it’s like, it doesn’t actually work like that. And, you know, every single year in professional sport, because the year’s a little bit different. I worked with a lot of winter sports, like AFL, NRL, netball, so the year for them is really like November to September, and you get October off, yeah. And every single year, towards the end of the year, you know, when what I would work with the elite athletes is to make sure that they were primed at the time that they needed it the most. And I’d be absolutely falling off the cliff with some sort of respiratory or cold or flu, and absolutely on my ass, as you would say. And the thing that really hit home was post covid, I had a number of underlying issues, which surface level, I was fine, like all the standard tests were showing up, I was fine.

And the GPS were telling me, oh, you’re all good. And I just knew I wasn’t. I was advocating for myself, which is what you have to if you know deep down, something’s not right. And this went on for months and months on end. Finally got the answers. I ended up having to have surgery, and yeah, and then it really just made me go, I’ve learned so much. That was a really great phase of my life for me, professionally, me personally, I was pretty miserable.

I wasn’t nourishing myself and making myself happy. And, yeah, so now it’s like, well, I want to take a lot of what I’ve learned personally and professionally and help other business owners and executives and leadership teams, you know, find this sustainable high performance lifestyle, because it is achievable. And sometimes when you’re that, when you’re wired that way. It’s, it’s not about doing more. It’s actually about doing less or being more strategic and having that accountability and support to figure it out. Because those people, they don’t need to push anymore or add more. It’s really simplifying it for them.

Hayley Quinn 08:14

Yeah, absolutely gosh, it’s like, there you were, helping people be at their prime and be at their best health whilst your health was just deteriorating. And I think, you know, I work with a lot of service based businesses and health professionals, and there’s all this taking care of the other, taking care of the other, and not taking care of ourselves. And very similar, like, I wanted to take my professional knowledge and my personal experience, because I don’t want to see people ending up in burnout. I think we minimize what burnout is.

People’s like, Oh, I’m feeling tired. I’m a bit burnt out, and it’s like, no burnout takes it from you, like, I nearly lost everything, you know, my income disappeared because I had to stop working. My health was shocking. I was not connecting with people in my life, so my relationships were suffering, and it has such a huge impact, doesn’t it?

Jessica Spendlove 09:09

100% and I look back, and I look back on that time, mainly fondly, because I think, Wow, what an opportunity, what amazing relationships I built. How incredible that. You know, I decided when I was really young what I wanted to do, and that was my own experience of being like a very high level teenage athlete who wasn’t getting it right with their nutrition, learnt to and then saw the effects.

So that was the whole that let’s work with professional athletes piece. But yeah, to think back and go, I got a lot of joy and fulfilment and relationships from my job, but that’s very different to you having your inner circle of people and you having that social connection. And you know, at that stage, I didn’t have a partner, and Job was just. Everything, and I’m nearly glad that all happened, because two years after two or three years after making that shift, my life is completely different, and I can look at every bucket and go so much more balanced, so much more fulfilled. Not saying, you know, everything’s perfect. We all have our habits and behaviors, but this is what I wanted, and that’s what I was really allowing work to fulfill for me. But it really wasn’t,

Hayley Quinn 10:29

Yeah, absolutely. And this is something I kind of speak to people about in that sort of being aware of burnout is often people will say, but everything’s great at work when work with my clients is going really well. My business is really successful. It’s like, Okay, now let’s zoom out. What is your life like? Oh, actually, I don’t have time for anyone. I’m exhausted when I get home. I’ve stopped doing this thing. I like, it’s like, okay, so is that how you want it to be? And most people like, Well, no. So So what are some of the things because you, you speak about the pillars of good health, speak, speak to us a little bit about that. What are the sort of things that you can help people with and that you see as important?

Jessica Spendlove 11:13

Yeah, the the five key pillars, I believe, help people lead a sustainable high performance life, nutrition. You know, the food you eat and how sleep, quality and quantity and optimizing what you can for yourself. Movement, you know, moving in some way, shape or form every single day. And then once that’s happening, getting more strategic with what actually is helping us for our longevity, sleep, what did I say? Nutrition, sleep, movement, mindset and mindsets kind of woven throughout, because a lot of the types of people I work with, again, that motivated, driven person, they can be very all or nothing. You know, the New Year’s resolution where I’m changing 10 things, and then by February, nothing’s stuck. You know, I’m going on this strict challenge for eight weeks and then not thinking about the after, where my whole philosophy, it’s like path of least resistance, and it’s about applying principles to your life. Yeah, that’s the key. It’s not following what works for someone else. It’s looking at what you’re currently doing and making changes. Because that’s how it’s frictionless.

That’s how it sticks for the long term. It’s a little bit slower to start, which I think, you know, people want to jump on the scales and see the few kilos, which isn’t actually weight anyway. It’s water weight. Or they want to think that they’re sticking to some sort of like, Oh, I’m exercising six days a week when I was doing nothing, but they’re going to break down. They’re going to they’re physically not going to be able to sustain that. So mindset is really identifying what their narratives and stories are what their edge is and how to overcome that. And looking at health and well being is more like an 8020 than yeah, I’ve got to be on 100% of the time that progress over perfection piece. And the last one, which I absolutely love, is micro recovery strategies. It’s, you know, what are those opportunities each and every day to restore and have space, physically and cognitively, to renew yourself. And some of that’s how you work.

You know, we can get into that talk about things called brain breaks and, you know, give people direction on what to do there. And a brain break is really about taking time, stimulant free. So no screens, no caffeine, no sugar. It’s really about having time to restore and that can be as simple as walking around the block or little bit of breath work or walking out to the park and sitting there for five minutes. So yeah, they’re kind of my five key pillars, and that’s what I really work with people to optimize, and that’s really sustainable. High performance, to me, is at the intersection of peak performance, wellbeing and longevity.

Now, how do we have the best of ourself now, not just at the work output phase, but physically and mentally from a well being standpoint, but how do we also think about future us as well? Because we want to live long, healthy lives, and what we’re doing in our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s is reflecting what happens in our hopefully 80s and 90s.

Hayley Quinn 14:38

Absolutely gosh. We’re so aligned in so many ways that we think, hey, and it’s absolutely the case is we need to do this in a way that is sustainable and serves us long term. And I often check in with my 80 year old self of you know, what is it that I’m doing now that’s going to be good for future me, but also that. Peace around getting to know yourself. This isn’t like cookie cutter. Just read whatever somebody’s sharing to say, you know, get up at five o’clock, jump in a nice bath. Do this, do this, do this, then do this, and your life’s gonna be wonderful. We really do need to tune in, don’t we, for things that work for us, not only in the way our brains might work and do things, but the context of our lives, because we’re all different.

We have different family structures, we have different ways we work, we have different hours that we need to work. So I think you make really good points there around this is about finding out what works for you, and yes, it might take a bit longer, but in the long run, it will be something that you can actually keep doing instead of, I’m going to try, you know, I’m going to try and do it the way you do it, and maybe for three or four days I could maintain that and then be like, what? That just doesn’t work for me. So I’m just not going to do it anymore

Jessica Spendlove 16:01

Exactly. It’s kind of like the whole get rich quick scheme, which, how does that work out never, versus long term investments superannuation. You know, that’s all about time in the market, letting the the market do its thing like we need to think about our health the same, and when we decide to restrict this or change that, or follow someone else’s plan, or do the 5am club when we’re nine hours and that actually doesn’t work for our biology, or we’ve got young children, or whatever, exactly, it’s a get rich quick scheme, which doesn’t work. So it’s really about and the beautiful thing, and what I like to talk about is nearly, you know, let’s find that first important Domino.

And for each person, it might be slightly different, but that’s a combination of one, the biggest needle mover, and two, where the person wants to start, because if they start, they feel the difference. They gain more energy. You know, at the center of what I do. I talk a lot about energy and having more energy and more consistent energy. Yeah, I really believe it’s like one of, if not the most important metric when it comes to leading a high, sustainable, high performance life.

But what you nearly want to do is change one or two things, leverage that to its maximum gain more energy, and then, you know, write on the coattails of that, then push the next one. And it is. It’s really unwinding and unwiring everything we’ve been told, but also going well. What’s worked? What’s what I’ve done previously, hasn’t worked for me. It’s time to look at another alternative.

Hayley Quinn 17:43

Yeah, so you talk about nutrition, sleep, movement. And I laughed, because movement has been my, my bugbear for for a long time. It’s my forever. Like, come on, you can do it. You can do it the…

Jessica Spendlove 17:58

The mindset

Hayley Quinn 17:59

Mindset! and the micro recovery. Can you talk a little bit about the nutrition I’ve recently completed your beta that you’ll reclaim your energy, and I’ll give you a chance to talk about that a little bit later, which has been really helpful.

Can you talk a little bit about some of the some of the things around nutrition that are important, like just touching on what are some of those things that we need to think about?

Jessica Spendlove 18:30

Yeah, the few big ones, one looking at just the timing and the consistency and before even getting into changing what people are doing, even if we were to start to eat at a consistent rhythm across the day.

So the framework that I recommend to people is ideally around four hours, you know, give or take an hour. So we’re in that kind of three to five hour range. Someone really active training for like, marathons or Ironmans, as some people do, like it will be a little bit shorter, but for the average person who might move might not move, that’s what we’re kind of talking about. So if you were to look at yourself, I would nearly guarantee that there are parts in your day where there’s huge gaps, much bigger, probably like six, seven, maybe for some people even up to eight hours, like that, lunch to dinner. And then there might be others that are really close together. So just by consistently spacing them, that’s consistently providing your body and brain with nourishment, it’s also helping to stabilize your blood sugar level so they’re not peaking and crashing as much, I guess. The next part to that is thinking about what each meal and snack contains.

And as Hayley would know, I talk about a lot, is looking at the protein at each meal and snack. So whether that’s animal or plant based, or a combination of the two, the protein. Is really important for a few reasons. Yes, if you go to the gym, like from a muscle recovery, from a hormone health point of view, but the biggest, most influential and important one for every single human being is appetite control. And so the really common stories people aren’t that hungry in the morning, they don’t eat that much. Come the afternoon or evening, they’re starving, they’re snacking, they’re having big meals, they’re having sweets, they’re back and forth to the pantry. And a lot of people want to change that, but they’re focusing on, oh, that’s a behavior

I want to stop. But what I would really love for people to know is that’s happening because of what you have or haven’t done in the morning. It’s because you haven’t had 20 to 30 grams of protein at breakfast, which is really quite hard to do unless you really are very intentional. You know, if you eat animal products, then you can have like eggs or salmon or milk yogurt or cheese.

And if you’re plant based, well, we’re looking at, you know, plant based options. So soy is a really great high protein option. Plant proteins can be a great way to add to smoothies or oats or yogurt to boost it up, or maybe it’s looking at like a tofu scramble or something like that. So getting that 20 to 30 grams of protein at breakfast and then also having a high protein afternoon snack, again, maybe it’s based on one of those, those foods that I’ve just mentioned, and then the final one, I guess I’ll say here today, like there’s heaps, but these are probably my top three. Is looking at your plant diversity, so looking at your six different plant groups.

So these are fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lentils, legumes, whole grains and herbs and spices, and looking to boost them up. Most of us, we fall into the same pattern. We eat the same meals or the same snacks each day, repeated every single week. And this piece is really about finding as much variety as possible. There’s a magic number, which I kind of hesitate on throwing out, because for some people, they might be close to it, but for a lot of people, they’re quite far away. And it’s 30 different plant foods a week, I just want to highlight that’s all of those categories, not just vegetables. I think when people hear that, they freak out.

Hayley Quinn 22:21

And I’m like, I eat fruit, vegetables, spices and legumes, I’ll be fine.

Jessica Spendlove 22:25

I do that in a day.

Hayley Quinn 22:29

I think, I think during your beta, I’d worked out by day two, I’d had 39 or something like, I think I’ll be fine.

Jessica Spendlove 22:36

This one, I’ve got down pat. So other than the reason diversity is so important when we’re talking about our plant foods is because all the different types of fibers, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, which they ease all the favorite foods of our gut health and fiber is really other than protein, the second nutrient that’s really we call it satiating, which is that feeling of fullness. So when you have a protein and a plant together, and that proteins in that higher amount, that’s so filling and satisfying that you will find if you have the afternoon munchies or the big dinners or the sugar cravings, they will just dissipate. So when we focus on that, it actually takes care of the behavior you’re probably trying to stop.

Hayley Quinn 23:22

Yeah, and, you know, you talk about the gut microbiome, and we know in terms of mental health, you know, speaking as a psychologist, we know the link now between gut health and mental health. So all this stuff isn’t just helping one area of your life. Is it? All this stuff is actually helping the big picture. So it’s so, so important

Jessica Spendlove 23:44

Exactly. It’s this, that ripple effect of, you know, physical well being and mental well being. And it’s that’s the great thing to kind of really tick that holistic box. There’s a couple of strategies which really help speak to all of that. And, you know, on the gut health topic, which I cover in the the Reclaim your energy program, some of the strategies there are also the non dietary strategies, which is, you know, more your space, like, what are we doing to reduce our stress? And I guess that leads into the micro recovery strategies as well, because what is going on in our gut influences what is going on in our brain and vice versa.

Yeah, so when we’re stressed, we’re likely to more we’re more likely to have unfavorable gut symptoms. So if you’re someone who finds that they either have to urgently go to the bathroom or they get bloating or feel really uncomfortable. It’s not all the time. My I would like hedge my bets on nine times out of 10. That’s because you’re more stressed, whether that’s work, life, relationships, whatever, doesn’t have to be a major event. Often it’s a lot of micro stresses that just build over time. Yeah, and your default is probably thinking I need to, like, restrict what I’m eating, or reduce what I’m eating. And both of those things, long term, will actually exacerbate the symptoms. So from that gut health piece, it really is that holistic, yes, what you eat, but also that mental well being piece.

Hayley Quinn 25:20

And I think the other, and I think the flip of that as well, is oftentimes, when people are stressed, they go and eat foods that are really not helpful for them, from a nutritional gut perspective, eating their feelings and kind of eating to kind of try and regulate the threat system, which again, then just all feeds into it, doesn’t it? So it really is that kind of holistic way of of taking care. And I love, I love that you’ve coined that term brain breaks. I speak a lot to people about taking time during the day to slow down. For me, it’s, it can literally be a quick, eyes closed, 10 breaths kind of thing, just to be with myself, regulate check in, but talk to us about the sort of things you would do for brain breaks.

Jessica Spendlove 26:09

Yeah, so brain breaks is something which, again, grounded heavily in science. There’s something called your ultradian rhythm, which is like an internal microcycle which humans have, and so do other microorganisms, and they’re multiple microcycles across the day. And there’s this, this ultradian rhythm is based on us being able to work for peak performance for around 90 minutes.

But then off the back of that, we need about a 20 minute restoration so we can then continue that cycle. So that’s why it’s so it’s not about quantity. It’s not about sitting down and just being at your computer for 2-3-4, hours on end. And if you’re doing that, you’re probably really feeling that mental and physical fatigue in the afternoon, but it’s pacing your day, breaking them up, having little breaks and dashes. So the brain break is really about that rest period. And like I said before, it’s really the the classification is stimulant free. So technology, and I’m guilty of this, I’m having my brain break and out comes the phone, and I’m like, Stop, you know, like, stop this. So it’s nearly that constant battle between the conscious and the subconscious and just going, No, put that away. But yeah, so it’s really technology, caffeine and sugar free.

So some of the best things you can do exactly what you said, like just having some space to do a minute, couple of minutes of breath work. Maybe go and make yourself a herbal tea. Maybe use that as the time to have your nourishing mid morning or mid afternoon snack with your plants and your protein. If you’ve got a little bit longer, maybe you can go for a walk around the block, walk out in nature, if that’s close to where you live, if I’m at home, because sometimes I’ll be in the office or in the city or at home. If I’m at home, I’ll often listen to, like a meditation track. Or one of my favorites is what’s called non sleep, deep rest, which is a version of, like a yoga nidra, and a meditation specific, which is very specific to, like a restorative phase from a sleep point of view.

So if you’re not a napper, I’m not a napper, not anymore, and if I do, I wake up feeling terrible. This has the same benefits in terms of shifting your brain into a different brainwave state. And every single time I do a non sleep, deep breath track, I wake up just it feeling phenomenal, like I really respond very well to that. So, really restorative, hey. So restorative, yeah. So it’s not all of those things. It’s pick a couple, like, maybe it’s a herbal tea in a couple of breaths. Maybe it’s a lap around the block in the city, if you work in the city, like, start with something.

But for most people, I would say at least one brain break a day, you know, maybe in the afternoon, and then work your way up to having two to three. So you might have a mid morning, a lunch time and an afternoon, and lunch is a brain break, as long as you’re not eating lunch at your desk. You know, have it with some colleagues, or have it in the kitchen or have it on your balcony or whatever it might be, but just don’t tell yourself that you’re too busy and that you have to have lunch at your desk.

Hayley Quinn 29:29

So many people do, gosh, I’m thinking back to my younger self, and I used to work in the city, and I just, you know, get to work early and work through my lunch and be eating at my desk. And I just think, Oh, my goodness me, but so many people do that and say, I don’t have time. I said you need to make time to do these things, because even that thing of when we’re eating, the brain hasn’t got the input it needs either, if we’re focused on something else and not focused on the fact we’re. Actually eating. We’re not giving the brain the right signals as well. Are we to say, actually, I’ve eaten now. I’ve had enough. I’m ready to start digesting this and move on.

Jessica Spendlove 30:09

Exactly it’s, it’s a lot of what I talk about is learning to learn the language of your body and brain, because we’re not very good at hearing the communication. It’s nearly a second language we haven’t actually being taught, and we only hear it when it’s absolute crisis mode and we’re breaking down, whereas when we do tune in a little bit more, and obviously it helps when you’re kind of being taught and told, and, you know, instructed, and you’ve got that accountability, but when you start to tune in, you do notice these things and to your point, yeah, when we’re working and eating, our brain and stomach are not communicating with each other as loudly as possible. So when we start to feel full, we kind of don’t acknowledge that, and it’s quite easy to overeat.

Yeah, so there’s, there’s so much benefit in sprinting and resting, you know, you can think about it like that. And what you’re doing at the moment is running a really slow, long, drawn out marathon, when what you could be doing is breaking them into little, you know, segments across the day. I’ve heard quite a few people talking about them as that pit stops, like, you know, the formula ones, which I think is a great analogy. They don’t just go, go, go, go.

They have to stop, change the tires, do all the things, or they break down. So think of them as those little opportunities to break them. And it doesn’t have to be perfect. You know, a lot of people in the Reclaim Your Energy Group, we’ve been talking about strategies, and one of them is, put it in your calendar, at least. Put it there. Have the reminder flash up. I know you’re big on this when you’re creating a new habit, absolutely, and you might be tempted to snooze it. But also that might just be the thing that is that, you know, circuit breaker for the day or the moment, and again, it’s just like, it’s not being like, Oh, I’ve missed my brain break. It’s all out the window. I start Monday. That’s that mindset piece. It’s just going, well, maybe I’m going to shuffle it back 20 minutes.

Or, you know, across this week, three out of the five days I had a brain break when previously I had none. So we really need to be a lot more kinder to ourselves when we’re developing these habits, because we’re not robots, we’re humans. And this is really about you starting to understand your current version of yourself in the future, version that you want to be. And the more obvious what you do becomes and how that makes you feel, the more you can consciously start to make those changes stick to them. And and then the best thing about that is, over time, they then become habits, which are just things that you do on autopilot. And that’s the goal.

Hayley Quinn 32:48

Yeah, I love that about, you know, we need to be kind to ourselves, and I work, as you know, a lot with the compassion piece, and that we need to have this compassionate relationship with ourselves. Because this is hard. Behavior change is hard. If it wasn’t, we would all be living our ideal lives, right? So we know that for human beings, behavior change is difficult, but with the right support and the right knowledge and information, I think it’s so much easier. I just want to speak to you saying about the alarms, and I have ADHD, and my phone is an alarm system throughout the whole day for everything. But I started adding in the meal gaps, because whilst I was eating regularly, it wasn’t consistent in the timing. So that had been really helpful for me, and I had to pop out the other day, and I I’ve started introducing, like, a protein and veggie fruit smoothie into my day, which has been really helpful.

And I was out and my alarm went off and it just says, snack. And rather than turn the alarm off, I did hit snooze, because I wasn’t back on my way home. And I thought, well, if I turn it off, I’m going to forget and I’ll just get, probably get on with my day. And I did hit snooze. So yes, it wasn’t at the time I wanted it, but it was that little bit later I still had that reminder. So I walked in, have my smoothie, did that, and kind of got on with my day, which was really, really helpful.

Jessica Spendlove 34:14

Again, it’s just like, it’s, it’s nearly, how do we put, I like to talk about them as guard rails. You know, how do we put these guard rails on our days and our behavior? And that’s exactly right. It’s not, oh, at 3pm I meant to have my smoothie. And if it’s 315 I’ve I’ve messed up. Absolutely not. It’s I’ve got this kind of window, and you know, within that window, I’ve had that. And look, even if you start to do that, there’ll be times where you skip, that you might go away, you might not have access, and ideally get excited when that happens, because that’s when it becomes so obvious about what you’ve changed and how good that’s actually made you feel.

Because we also really adapt to that really easily. That just becomes our new normal. And then when we have. A day or a week, we’re a little bit disorganized for whatever reason, and we kind of default to what we would have done previously, or we skip something. It becomes so glaringly obvious the benefits of what you’ve changed. And I think that’s nearly great, because then the gap between where you were and where you now are is so obvious.

Hayley Quinn 35:19

AbsolutelyI can speak to that. You know, since doing your program, I have become more consistent in the regularity and like the gaps of when I’m eating and what I’m eating. And then at the weekend, I didn’t eat the same and by about three o’clock, I wanted to just have a nap on the couch. Like my energy levels, I said to my husband, oh my gosh, this is so noticeable when I change what I’ve been doing because I’m more tired, which then is like, well, I don’t want to be more tired, so I’m going to go back to doing those things that I was doing.

So I think this stuff is so valuable and such an important piece for our long term health and well being and performance. And I wanted to say, you know, you talk about high performance, and I don’t want people listening thinking that this is that we’re just talking about kind of athletes and, you know, high level, kind of executives. High Performance is, you know, those of you that are parents that are running around to kids sport and working and running a household. I mean, high performance is us living our best life, isn’t it?

Jessica Spendlove 36:30

Exactly, for me, really, performance is like quality of life, maximum output out of your day, without running yourself into the ground. It’s like, how do you do all of the things you need to do in work, in life, with your family, but not run yourself ragged? And that is what performance is. And I do. I think sometimes people here in my background and some of the people I work with, and, you know, I’ve got different offers for different types of people that I support, but there’s so much relevance to every single person that’s just looking for them to have more energy to prioritize themselves, because it’s so easy for us to put everyone else, as we spoke about that was both of our own experiences, you know, everybody else before ourselves.

And look what happens. And the other thing I just want to say is, like, with the consistency piece, even though it might sound like, oh yeah, consistency, that gets really an easy point. It’s actually one of the more difficult ones for people to implement. It’s probably the one that comes with the most amount of friction, because you have to be really committed to it for a good two to four to six weeks, depending on who you are, until you really see that benefit. And I know even with you know, that was one of the things that we would often talk about, like, what? How do we actually do that?

What about when we don’t feel like eating? Because when you adding consistency with more protein, you will feel more satiated, and that four to five hours might come around really quickly, but there’s a level of reprogramming that needs to happen, and if you stick with it for a couple of weeks, you start to adapt. Your body will adjust, and it’s like, oh my goodness, I’ve I’ve finally reached this point where I’m getting both what I need and when I need it, and it’s this new operating system. And then when you miss that, it becomes really obvious. So yeah, just there is an element of needing to kind of push through what we think we know about how we eat when we are implementing that, and just trust that what is on the other side is this new operating system, which is elevated energy, elevated output, elevated well being.

Hayley Quinn 38:37

Gosh, you I could talk to all day. You have so much knowledge and wisdom around all this. If somebody was thinking, Oh, do you know what? I’m really feeling kind of sluggish. I’m exhausted all the time. I’m trying to get all the things done, but I find it really hard. What would be one thing you’d say, Look, why don’t you just try this? Like, start here, start small. Do this thing. What would that be? And I know we sort of said, and I’m not trying for this to be prescriptive, because it really is about people getting curious and understanding what’s going to work for them. But what would you say to somebody if they kind of came to and just said, Jess, I’m just I just know I’m not feeling at my best, and I want to make changes.

Jessica Spendlove 39:21

The best place to start is as early as possible in your day. So depending on who that person is, and I’m going to guess often, what I see here is, and I’m going to use a mum, for example, because I feel like there’s I, you know, worked with quite a lot of mums recently, and that’s either making breakfast for the children or having scraps off the plate, or sometimes eating before they take the children to school, or sometimes when they get back that little scenario, there is four different starts to your day. It’s not having breakfast, having scraps, eating early or eating late.

Okay, so even if you can just start to standardize that whatever it is for you might be eight o’clock, might be seven o’clock, might be nine o’clock, 10 o’clock, I’m not going to give you a time. I’m not going to say to intermittent fast or not to conversation for another day, which I, I personally think, is not the starting point for a lot of people. But even if you just look at what can I standardize in my morning? Yeah, what is going to fit? And you do that so your starting point is consistent that will knock on at least some of your day, if not all of your day, in a in a more energetic way. That’s where I would say to people, where to start.

Hayley Quinn 40:38

Yeah, fantastic. I love that. I talk about front loading self care. And this is always like, front load your day, isn’t it? It’s like, start early before you’re doing anything, and set yourself up well, because then, like you said, you don’t then get to the end of the day. Because that’s certainly something I noticed. Because I would, I would like a snack in an evening. I’ve noticed that I don’t really do that much at all, or if I’m going to. I mean, you know, many people know I love salt and vanilla crisps, and I remember saying to you, well, I’m going to keep eating salt and vanilla crisps, but I’m actually going to do it as an intentional choice, so that I just enjoy the salt and vinegar crisp, whereas before, I would be seeking something because I was hungry and I couldn’t be bothered to make anything. So I’d eat salt and vinegar crisp, which is probably, probably not the best thing in the world.

Jessica Spendlove 41:32

It comes from a very different place. It’s we’re being proactive, not reactive. And as I and I said, Good, I don’t want it. I don’t want you to stop eating the salt and vinegar crisp, but the difference is going, Oh, I feel like a salt and vinegar crisp. I’m going to have that verse, Oh, my goodness, I need a salt and vinegar crisp because I’m hungry and I need salty foods. And you know, that’s a very different coming from a very different place. So this is really setting your day up and you taking control of your day, rather than what I call the reactive rat race, which is often, you know, we feel tired we eat, or we feel tired we rest, or we crave food and we eat, rather than going well. This is the best rhythm for me, and I’m going to look to put that into place as best I can for all of the different days that I have.

Hayley Quinn 42:23

Yeah, love it. It’s like that, like, say, I do the front loading with self care. It’s like, don’t wait until you’re exhausted to rest. Rest so you’re not exhausted, and then you go to bed because it’s time to go to sleep. Not because, like, oh my gosh, I’ve just got to get to sleep. I mean, gosh, there’s so much we could talk about, tell us a little bit about your program, how? And you know, obviously you’ve got your podcast where people can go listen in, and I would highly recommend that you’ve got some really great episodes on there as well. But tell us a little bit about your program

Jessica Spendlove 42:54

Yeah, so reclaim your energy. Is, it’s a 12 week program, and it’s a combination of eight weeks of learning. So really, learning information, putting it into practice, customizing it to your life, and four weeks dedicated to totally implementing it. Because again, I don’t want it to just be, oh, I’m on this eight week program, and it’s all good while I’m doing it, and then stop and I don’t have that support. So I really wanted people to have that dedicated space. And in between the calls, which are live, but they’re recorded, there’s a Voxer channel, or there’s a there’s a channel or group channel where you can ask questions, celebrate wins, seek support between and that’s I really believe has been the big needle mover with the program, and I do that with my one on one coaching as well, because it’s, you know what it’s like when you’re in the moment, like, yes, you’ve got your questions, but what about all the things that pop up in between?

So if you can get a question answered when you actually need it, that actually moves the needle. And the content is kind of everything we’ve spoken about here, the five pillars, like the nutrition, sleep, movement, mindset, micro, recovery strategies, and it’s really how it gets customized to your life. The first week is dedicated to what I call the life audit, which is capturing what you’re currently doing. So we really take stock, because most of us, we think we know what we do, but when we actually write it down, it can look very different. So we actually capture that. And then as we go along each week, we start to modify that and put it into practice.

So again, it’s really, it’s not Jess program and Jess way, and we’re doing that. It’s, we’re learning these principles, but this is Hayley’s life, or whoever’s live, and we’re customizing it to that. So, yeah, I’m about to run I’ve done my beta. I’m running it once more in 2024, and then I’m not sure when I’ll be running it again, because I, as Hayley knows I’m I’m pregnant, so having a Christmas baby, and23rd of December.

Hayley Quinn 45:02

So, oh, wow, okay, I didn’t realize it was that close to Christmas. It’s a very Christmas baby.

Jessica Spendlove 45:08

Yeah, very Christmas baby. So, yeah, and it’s, it’s just been wonderful. It’s been the first time I’ve run a small group program, and I’ve wanted to do it for ages, and I just haven’t, haven’t known how to kind of go about it, but it’s really put the methodology and the things I work with my one on one clients into practice in a way that I believe is the most efficient way to to layer in the information and customize it to get the best, best impact, but also be able to sustain it.

Hayley Quinn 45:38

Yeah. And as somebody that has been in your beta program. I can highly recommend it. You’ve done a fantastic job with it. You’re very knowledgeable. You’ve created a fantastic program, fantastic group. So thank you. I wish you all the best with your next round of it.

Jessica Spendlove 45:54

Thanks so much.

Hayley Quinn 45:56

So I asked this question to everybody that comes on my podcast, is if you could meet your 80 year old self today, what do you think she would say to you?

Jessica Spendlove 46:08

I think what she would say to me is, Jess there’s time, there’s space, just pause and breathe and be kind of to yourself, and that’s a journey, you know, similar to one you’ve been on, like, what, from what I was doing to what I’m now doing. Like, I’ve improved so much, but there is the inner critic, and, you know, I do allow sometimes external noise to influence what I’m doing, and trying to block that out and really be true to yourself. But I feel like I have always had this, this internal pressure of time, and, you know, don’t think I’ve been great at pacing my goals and what I wanted to do.

So I do, do work with, like a life coach on that I really believe in coaching in whatever area of your life you want to improve, and that helps. She’s trying to get me to do a 20 year plan, which I struggle with. I struggle to think, Oh, my goodness, in 20 you know, but doing that just helps you see, there’s so much more time. So that’s, yeah, that’s what she would say to me, yeah, fantastic.

Hayley Quinn 47:21

It’s been such a pleasure. People can find your podcast. I’ll put links in the show notes to your social media and your website. It really has been a pleasure having you come on. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and your wisdom with the audience.

Jessica Spendlove 47:37

Thank you so much for having me always a pleasure.

Hayley Quinn

Yeah, lovely. Thank you so much.

Thank you for sharing this time with me today. I hope our time together has been helpful and supportive. If there has been something in this episode that you have found helpful, I invite you to share it with another person you think might benefit, if you’ve benefited in any way from the podcast, please do me a favour and show my pod some love by giving it a five star rating and review ratings, reviews and shares really help to increase awareness and reach of the podcast, allowing this helpful information to be spread more widely. All Reviews are welcome and much appreciated.

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Music and editing by Nyssa Ray, thanks, Nyssa.

I wish you all well in your relationship with yourself and your business. May you go well and go gently and remember if you thrive, your business will too.

Jessica’s Links

Jessica Spendlove Website – https://jessicaspendlove.com

Group Program Waitlist – https://jessicaspendlove.com/group-course/

High-Performance Profile Quiz – https://jessicaspendlove.com/quiz/

Links to Dr Hayley D Quinn Resources

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Website https://drhayleydquinn.com

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