the bossbabe podcast - 296. My (Specific!) Morning + Evening Routines/Daily Operating Systems as a Busy Mama + CEO

Episode Date: June 13, 2023

One of our most highly requested episodes yet! In today’s episode, Natalie walks you through her specific morning + evening routines and shares with you her life-changing daily operating systems that keep her energized, organized and highly productive. As a CEO + mama it can be so easy to get overwhelmed by your to-do lists and allow everyone else to set the priorities in your day/life… but today, Natalie is going to share all the details on how you can take back control and get back in the driver's seat. From how she starts the day, what supplements she takes, energy hacks, and how she prioritizes self-care + family time, Natalie is sharing it all so you can not only be inspired but also get real, tangible tools to help you design your life + business to really work for you.  HIGHLIGHTS The specific morning routine + rhythms that create the most energizing and fulfilling start to the day How to increase + sustain your energy all throughout the day (so many easy tweaks + no caffeine needed) The exact supplement stack that Natalie swears by + uses every single day All the details on the evening wind down routine that feels calming, peaceful, and gives you the best sleep possible Non-negotiables throughout the day, specific boundaries to set + how to prioritize family-time (especially for the ceo busy mamas)  LINKS Check out Business By Design x Life By Design - http://bossbabe.com/bbd Ultima electrolytes Purity Coffee  Levels - The continuous blood sugar monitor I use. Here’s the matcha I mention in this episode - Pique Life use code: BOSSBABE Beam Dream Night Cacao Drink  Oura ring FOLLOW bossbabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie

A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. Welcome back to the podcast. This episode is going to get specific. I'm going to be talking to you all about my morning routines, my evening routines, how I set up my to-do list, what my calendar looks like, basically how I run and design my life. And I'm also really excited because this week is a huge week for two reasons in particular. First reason is I'm actually going to Miami this week

and it's going to be my first weekend away from Noemi. And I'm part excited, part very, very nervous. She's just turning 13 months and I haven't taken a trip away from her. I've just not felt ready to. But this weekend I have a bachelorette for one of my friends and I thought, you know what? This is a better time than ever just to give it a shot and see how it feels. Worst case scenario, I can just hop back on a plane and come home. But I really think I'm going to enjoy myself. I am planning to sleep like a queen. Like I'm telling you, me and that bed, we're going to spend a lot of time together. Everyone will be going out to the clubs and I'm like, oh no, I'm heading home because I'm going to catch up on

sleep from the last 13 months. So I'm very excited about that and absolutely terrified about that. So send me all of your tips. And secondly, it's also a really big week because we announced something huge. You've probably heard we've been teasing it saying something's coming for a really long time with James Wedmore. I've been really excited to do something with James for a long time and right now felt like the right time. So once a year, he launches his program called Business by Design. It's probably one of the best online courses out there. Not only is it so great for entrepreneurs, whether you're in the early stages or you've just gotten your business up and running, but it's really great for entrepreneurs who are in the scaling phase because so much of this is basically a playbook that you can

hand to your entire team and have them execute for you. So the real thing about business by design is that it basically implements an engine into your business so that you can design your business around your life and know that the sales is taken care of, the audience growth is happening because you've built the engine. Yes, it takes some work to get up and running, but if you follow this process step by step, it will work. Now, the way in which we're collaborating is we've actually released our own bonuses to go alongside this program called Life by Design. This is something that people have been asking for for the longest time. And so I really wanted to create a life operating system for a seven figure CEO. And so the different bonuses that I'm offering is a life total reset workshop. So you're going

to come to this workshop live with me. And if you've been feeling really behind on your to-do list, you're just constantly exhausted, burned out, not sure where to focus. We are going to say goodbye to the burnout zone and step into your most energetic, productive, and focused state. I'm also releasing a masterclass, which is my seven-figure CEO operating system, and basically showing you what my weekly and monthly schedule looks like and giving you templates and exercises to do yours. I'm also giving you my full life delegation playbook. So it's my step-by-step playbook for exactly how to easily and successfully delegate to your team, either at home or in your

business. The great thing about this is you can bring in say a house manager and this playbook will tell you exactly what they can do and how to delegate it out. Or you can give it to your assistant. You can really use this playbook as something you just send to someone and they'll know what to do. And then on top of all of this, you're going to get a hot seat live Q&A call with me and James. So it means you can dive into business by design and life by design, then come onto a call with us and get your questions answered. So if you're interested and you want more information, head to bossbabe.com forward slash BBD. And with that, let's dive into the episode. So let's talk about what it really looks like to set up your day to set you up for success. Because I know I have been in a place before where I've almost lived in a default mode. So like

waking up, looking at your emails first thing, eating your meals while driving in the car, while listening to a podcast, while texting back a friend, you know, just barely connecting with yourself, your family before you're out the door, just really being on this hamster wheel and doing things by default versus design. You can relate, I can relate, and it's actually really easy to fall into that trap and stay there. But if you don't want to make the changes to get out of there, you'll realize that actually it's everyone else that's setting the tone for your day and probably your life, which is no way to live. None of us want to feel like someone else is choosing our reality for us. And so the reason

that I love morning routines, evening routines, you know, operating systems for how you do life is I really love to feel like I'm the one in the driving seat. I'm the one actually designing my life, designing how it looks and how it feels. And so I'm going to share with you my personal routine. And what I would say is take the things that really work for you, leave the things that don't. This for me is constantly changing and evolving. It looked so different before I had Noemi and it's still evolving. You know, in those early, I would say in those early months of motherhood, I probably had no routine other than just trying to like wake myself up and survive. And now I feel like I've

gotten a really great routine back. It's not what it used to be before, baby, but it's something that really works for me and it makes me feel really energized, more available to myself, my daughter, my family, my team. It just feels like everything in my life works better when my routines are really dialed in. And I'm addicted to my routine because I love how I feel when I'm actually in my routine and so even

when I'm traveling there's still elements of my routine that I take with me that ground me and still make me feel like I'm in a routine I'm in a rhythm and on top of this I would say I've gotten pretty firm about my boundaries and my non-negotiables when it comes to my routines so that I can really protect them. And I know when you're first practicing this and implementing, you know, a daily routine, especially if you do have to put out boundaries or non-negotiables, it can feel really edgy. But trust me, they're worth it because once you start to take time for yourself seriously, so will other people. And I know there can be something, you know, some guilt associated

with it. It can feel selfish, especially as a mama to carve out time for yourself. But the reframe here is that in order to show up as your most full, patient, loving, present, happiest self, you have to take care of yourself. You really do. And whether you can grab 10 minutes in the morning or an hour, it's really important that you do prioritize that time. Because without the routine, like I said, you are going to be constantly pulled in so many different directions based on whatever task you were assigned that day, you know, what your partner needs, who's emailing you, what lands on your plate, and you'll never really feel like you're the one in the driving seat or you're the one in control. And I think a lot of people, when I dive into this with clients,

especially, I think some people don't feel as though they deserve to pour into themselves. And I really want you to let go of that story if that is you. A lot of people feel like they have to be busy and productive and wear that as a badge of honor to somehow feel worthy and feel helpful and be loved. And I just want to let you know, that is not a story you get to take with you into the future. What's really important is that you take care of yourself. We all know, put your own mask on first. When you take care of yourself and prioritize yourself, you will feel so much better that you will show up completely different in your relationships and you'll be really proud of that person who is showing up.

So that's really what I've told myself to get to a place where, you know, I have my non-negotiables and I have routines that work for me. I have boundaries in the way that I run my days and my calendars. That's kind of the stories I had to leave behind and the stories I've had to take on in order to make sure that I do uphold my boundaries and I do uphold my routines and rhythms. Otherwise, people can guilt trip you. People can expect you to be on their wavelength and working towards their priorities and working on their timelines and deadlines. And that's just not designing your life that is really allowing someone else to do it for you

so with that let me take you first through my morning routine let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform Kajabi you know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know?

Get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash Boss

Babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash Boss Babe. So I do not need an alarm clock. My daughter is a really great alarm clock and she is never late. Let me tell you that she is never the kind to sleep in or let me sleep in. So the alarm clock is not necessary. I wake up pretty early. I would say anytime after 5am, we hear the little noise come through the baby monitor and Stephen normally gets straight up and he goes into Noemi's room, changes her diaper and brings her through. I'm still nursing right now. So he brings her through into the bed and we are just in bed together. I'm feeding Noemi. And then we just have a little playtime in bed and just like connection as a family. And then as soon as we have done that, we try and get outside. So the first two

things that I'll share with you are something that Andrew Huberman has shared on his podcast. I love his podcast. It's great. And the first thing is immediate sunshine. So I'll kind of explain the science of it as well so that you understand why this is really important. But when you expose your eyes to bright light, especially sunlight, it sets off like a chain reaction in your body. It triggers the release of cortisol, which is something that wakes you up, keeps you focused. It's like a little nudge that's like, okay, let's go time to get up. And so not only this, but it also sets the stage for the release of melatonin. So you might be

wondering why would you want to release melatonin first thing in the morning? But actually, it's really important for regulating your sleep-wake cycle. So when you have morning sunlight, and they say to get it within like 10 minutes of waking up, for me, I would say it's probably within the first 15-30 minutes that I get it. But it really helps you to signal to your body that it's daytime and it syncs your internal clock. It's like giving your body a green light to be wide awake during the day and then primes you for good sleep later on. So what you want to do to do this is make sure you get outside. It's really not the same if you're looking through a window. If that's not possible to you at all, turn on all the lights in your house and really make it bright so that you can kind of create that effect for your eyes. But you really want to just get outside,

get some sunlight, even if it's two minutes, if it's 10 minutes, amazing. But that is going to set you up not just for really great energy through the day, but also when you go to bed at night. So we'll normally go outside, get that sunlight, and we just take Noemi out and we just kind of make it a little thing like we go check on her herb garden. We just point things out outside. If you don't have kids, maybe you can just take a tea outside, journal, anything like that to get you outside and to get that sunlight in your eyes. Then we'll come inside and we'll do breakfast. So we do breakfast as a family. We normally have eggs. I'm really loving right now. So my breakfast specifically is I have eggs with some really amazing breakfast sausage, cottage cheese, and some, so what I sometimes do,

and this might sound really gross, but I promise you it's amazing. I mix cottage cheese into my eggs and sprinkle on some granola and sometimes a little bit of maple syrup with some sausage on the side and fruit. This sounds like, oh my god, that's so many things to get ready. But honestly, because I have the same thing most mornings, it's actually not that challenging. I just, it's very much grab and go. And we all eat the same thing. Noemi's allergic to eggs, so she just has, you know, a bit of the sausage and cottage cheese and some fruit. And we'll all just sit down, have breakfast together. We're normally chatting, waking up. And I don't have coffee here and I'll share why I'll share when I have my coffee,

but I generally do have warm lemon water with a bit of salt in and sometimes some electrolytes. The electrolytes I'm loving right now is Ultima. I just feel like, and especially breastfeeding, but just generally, I think it's really important. I feel like I wake up feeling pretty dehydrated. And so I'll try and hydrate as much as I can while I'm having my breakfast. And that really works for me. And then what we'll generally do is go out for a walk. So our mornings are not, you know, my morning used to be so slow. I'd wake up really gently and I'd be journaling, reading. Mornings with a baby just aren't like that. They, I mean, not for us. They're just very go, go, go. And that works for us. And so we'll generally

finish breakfast. We'll be there for like 30 minutes. And then we will put Noemi in her stroller and we'll go on a walk. And on my walk is generally when I'll have my coffee. So I would say by this point, we're normally at like, we've been up for like an hour coming up to 90 minutes. I always try and delay my caffeine intake for 90 minutes. So if it's been 90 minutes, I'll take it on my walk. And if it hasn't been 90 minutes, I'll save my coffee for a little bit later when I'm reading. So the reason that you want to delay your't been 90 minutes, I'll save my coffee for a little bit later when I'm reading. So the reason that you want to delay your caffeine for 90 minutes, again, this is something that Huberman shared that has been an absolute game changer for me. Like I actually really do notice

a difference in my energy throughout the day. So I'm going to explain the science behind it because I always feel like when it's explained, it kind of makes more sense and lands a little more. And then if anyone asks you, you can just be like, oh, I'm really smart. I have all the answers. Here's why it's good for you. So the first part of it, I explained earlier about having sunlight in your eyes is, you know, something to do with your cortisol, same kind of thing with caffeine. So when you wake up, you actually do have a cortisol spike. It's called a cortisol awakening response when you wake up. But if you have your coffee during this spike, it can actually diminish the effects of both the cortisol and the caffeine. So you're not getting that cortisol boost that would be

really great for you to get up and go throughout the day. And then you're not getting the benefits of the caffeine. So it's kind of wasted coffee. And there's a couple of other reasons too. So caffeine actually blocks what are called adenosine receptors in your brain. So adenosine is a neurotransmitter that promotes sleepiness and the levels of it actually rise throughout the day. So, you know, you probably start to feel it that afternoon slump, and then it's really kicked in when you probably start to feel it that afternoon slump and then it's really kicked in when you're starting to wind down and get ready for bed. But here's the thing, if you wait 90 minutes after waking up before having caffeine, your adenosine levels have already rose a bit. That means the caffeine becomes even more effective at blocking the receptors

so it actually keeps you alert and focused for longer. I personally don't get anywhere near the kind of afternoon slump I used to when I've been incorporating this. It really has been a game changer. And there are a couple of other science reasons why you want to delay caffeine. I won't share all of it, but one of the other things which I think is really important is it reduces our caffeine dependency. So if we rely on caffeine too much too early in the day, then our body can start depending on it instead of its own natural cortisol release. But by waiting those 90 minutes, you actually give your body a chance to rely more on itself.

So it decreases the chance of caffeine dependency, which I just think it's great to reduce any kind of dependencies that we've got let's reduce it let's have our body performing at its best and how it knows how it perform but with that being said if it's been around the 90 minute mark or I know I'm going to hit the 90 minute mark on the walk I make myself a latte on the go and we're out normally walking for a good hour maybe even more if the weather feels good and we'll go by the park we just take a really long walk and this is a great time for me and Stephen to connect with each other and get that time I don't know about you guys but I feel like as parents for sure we can sometimes be like passing ships and so having this time in the

mornings we've been really really supportive and there are times where one of us will go out on our own, which also is great, just depending what season we're in. But most of the time we go out together. So I'll make myself a latte and I love what I'm doing right now with my latte. So I will make myself a coffee. I use the same coffee. I've used the same coffee for years. I'm going to put the link with a code in the description for you because if you want to get it, you actually get a discount with my code. It is called Purity Coffee and it's one of the cleanest coffees in the world. It's organic. It's tested for so many different things, including mold.

It's made in a really clean way. And I always order the whole bean because you actually lose so many of the benefits of your coffee beans once they've been grinded and once they've been opened and reused. If you've got a bag of ground coffee, once it's open, you start to lose a lot of those nutrients. I just want to maximize getting everything from it. So I use whole bean coffee and I'll make myself a coffee with purity. And then I will heat up some raw milk. If you can't get raw, the next best is low temperature pasteurized.

I used to be on the almond milk, oat milk wagon. I've really been turned away from that. And so I've been incorporating raw dairy into my diet for the last couple of years. And it's been an absolute game changer for me. Again, I know I'm sharing a lot of very non-vegan friendly things here. You take what works for you and this totally might not be for you, but this just has worked amazing for me and my health, my energy, my hormones. So I'll heat up some milk and I'll generally put a tiny little bit of vanilla in, sometimes a sprinkle of coconut sugar, and put that together in my latte. I will also add shilajit, which is really concentrated minerals. I'll sometimes put that in my coffee as well and put it in my little CEO mama travel mug and out the door we go. Again, this sounds really complicated, but I have got this down to such

a science. I can pretty much make this with my eyes closed with a baby on my hip. Like it really is. I'm a routine and rhythm kind of person. So I just go through the rhythms and I don't really add in a lot of spontaneity to these routines because I just know what works for me. I also make sure any water that I make my coffee with is my reverse osmosis water and I add minerals into it. So I'm really, really remineralizing in a morning and just making sure that I'm at my absolute best and giving my body

what it needs. So we'll go out on a walk and then we'll generally come back. And that's when our nanny comes and she starts her shift. She will take over Noemi. And that's kind of when me and Steven will get our quieter time. And so sharing all of this to be super transparent. I, you know, the age that she is at, there is no way I'd be able to sit down with a book or meditate and have her play on her own. That's just not what our house looks like. So it's just go, go, go until my nanny arrives. When she arrives, I normally choose from like a menu of options. This is where the little bit of spontaneity comes in. We're not all, you know, doom and gloom over here. No, I'm just kidding. Doom and gloom is not how I describe having a rhythm. This is my idea of

heaven. Just going to put that out there. So this is kind of where I'll choose. And it just depends on what I'm feeling like that day. I'll sometimes do a cold plunge. I'll sometimes do a meditation, some breath work, lie on my higher dose mat, do some red light. Most of the time I curl up with a book and I read a good couple of chapters of a book and I absolutely love that time. It's just so quiet and peaceful and slow. And I feel like my brain is really turned on from my morning, from, you know, walking, the coffee I've just had, an amazing breakfast. My blood sugar is feeling stable. My brain is turned on. So I'll normally curl up, really enjoy a book, hop into the shower, get ready.

I come out. This is generally when I take my supplements. I take supplements in the morning and at night. I'll take my supplements and then it's really into whatever I'm doing that day. So once I dive into my day, every single day for me has a theme. And so I really don't context switch. I batch a lot of my stuff. I'm really focused in one direction almost all day.

Mondays and Fridays, I have nothing in my calendar that is full white space for me. And then Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, there's a lot of batching. So actually inside of my life by design bonuses, I'm sharing with you my exact calendar and what is batched into my days on specific days, the way that they're themed. So what's on my calendar, what all that looks like. But the great thing is when you're not context switching, it really allows you to get into deep work. And I'm also not having meetings on a Monday and Friday. So I don't have those Sunday scaries on a Sunday thinking that I'm coming into chaos on a Monday. I get to start Monday at my own pace and really set the tone for my own week.

And then on a Friday, I generally don't work a lot. I take time off. I spend time with family. I, you know, go for facials and massages and all the things that I want to do for me so that I can really enter the weekend, just feeling really refreshed and ready to go. I used to hate entering the weekend feeling like I just needed a big break and then I'd get refreshed and start all over again on Monday, getting exhausted. That's just not how I've wanted to live my life. I've really changed my routine to work for me. And so that's really what it looks like. I dive into that. And then all throughout the day, I'm kind of dipping out to spend time with

Noemi. I'm still nursing again, like I said, so that's happening every few hours. And I, yeah, I spend a lot of time with her throughout the day. I just, I'm not in that place where I want to be in my office all day, every day right now. And nothing wrong with that. That just hasn't been my choice with where I'm at. So my work schedule has been really flexible. And I definitely don't work full-time hours. I just really work kind of in sprints, I would say.

There's some days that I feel like I really want to sprint. I'm so inspired to get so much done. And other days, I want to take it easy, just let my business run and enjoy the fact that I've built it in a way that it can run. And then before lunch, I normally do my workout. So I actually don't do my workout in a morning. I do it before lunch. There's a couple of reasons for that. And one of them is I really like to think about how I'm managing my blood sugar. So in the morning, you know, I'm already getting out. I'm already doing that walk. So after my breakfast, I'm already walking.

My blood sugar is really stable. And actually, I'll include a link in the show notes to levels. If any of you are unsure if your blood sugar is stable and not really knowing how to track any of this, I use levels. So it's actually a continuous blood glucose monitor that you put on your arm and you can track your blood sugar on your phone. So I know how to optimize my blood sugar because I've used levels for so long. You just need to use it for a couple of months too. You don't need to use it continuously. Just use it and do your normal routine.

See where your baseline is at and then make some tweaks. So for me, I like to work out just before lunch. I work out three times a week with a trainer. I have a gym in my garage, which I'm so happy about. And he comes to my house. We do a workout. I normally work out for 45 minutes. It used to be an hour. And I said to him, hey, can you just fit in the same amount of workout into 45 minutes versus 60 minutes? Just give me less of a break. Give me that time back. I'm all about optimizing my time. And he was like of a break. Give me that time back. I'm all about optimizing my time. And he was like, sure, we can make that work. So I get in there for 45 minutes and then I normally make lunch. And it means that I am not spiking my blood sugar having my lunch

because I've just worked out. And so my body's wanting all of those carbs. My body knows how to use that glucose. So I will have that lunch. You know, it depends every single time. Sometimes it's leftovers. I love a good sandwich. I keep it basic over here. I make sure, you know, it's just food that's really going to fuel me. And then I'll normally get into whatever I'm doing that afternoon. And I also in the afternoon, I generally have liquid B vitamins in whatever I'm drinking. So let's say I'm having like a LaCroix or a Spindrift or whatever. I'll put some liquid B vitamins in there. That's also just really great for your blood sugar, for your energy, just keeping your energy

really high. I won't normally have another coffee, but if I am feeling like I need that extra energy, I'll have a matcha. I love the peak Tea Matcha. Again, I'll put links and codes and everything below. I think we have discounts for so much of the stuff I mentioned. This isn't that, this isn't sponsored, but just products that I actually really love. So I have the Peak Tea Matcha. Again, I love Peak in the same way that I love Purity because it's tested for mold, heavy metals, all of the crap that you normally find inside of matchas. And it also comes in single serve packets, which by the way, if you order some peak matcha and then you grab a normal matcha from like Whole Foods, I want you to compare the colors because that should tell you everything you need to know. The matcha when it's in the single serve, it's, you know,

organic ceremonial grade. You put this in your cup and it's like a luminous bright green. Some of the matchas you buy at the store, that's just all in one pouch is like brown. So that will tell you all you need to know about that. So I'll normally have a matcha, something to pick me up and then get on with whatever I'm doing that day. And then my evening routine, same thing. We have it to a rhythm. Again, it kind of revolves around our baby. So our nanny will finish and me and Stephen will normally, you know, come out of meetings or whatever we've been doing and we'll take over from our nanny and we'll normally go on a walk or we'll go in the playroom. We'll just do something as a family and spend time together and connect and just have some fun. And it's a really

good way of kind of bookending the day. I'll sometimes even before we take over from our nanny, I'll sometimes go for a shower. And that's almost me saying, okay, my workday is over. Now I'm stepping into mom mode. And I love that. Like I'll sometimes have a really long shower. I'll come out, I'll do all my skincare, moisturize, and just feel so good and so fresh. I love that. And yeah, once we've done that, we'll cook dinner. We normally do that as a family too. We're all in the kitchen together. We cook dinner and it's just really fun. It's like things that I really, really look forward to every day. And then our routine with Noemi is normally bath, cook, milk, bed. And then Stephen

and I normally, we will either, you know, go and sit outside, watch a bit of TV. We're loving Jewy Duty right now. It's like, we were like, what are we going to watch after succession? We are loving that right now. Or we'll connect. Sometimes he'll go play a game and I'll read a book, have friends around. It really depends. Sometimes we even play games. We love a good board game situation. We've just found a new game my sister in law brought over with her when she came to visit the last month. It's called Spot It. It's so good. It's so easy and fun. So we'll sometimes play a game, put a backgammon. And one thing that is an absolute staple, again, none of this is sponsored, by the way. I know it's like I'm

dropping a lot of links. I feel like it should be sponsored, but these are just things that I really swear by. You've probably seen it on my stories, but I love the Beam Dream Night Cacao Drink. It is an absolute game changer. And again, I track things, you guys. I have an aura ring. I don't have a link for you. I record for you with aura,

but I have an aura ring that I wear every single night. And I know when things have an impact on me and when they don't, because the data does not lie. And the season that we're in right now, again, young child, you really never know what your sleep is gonna look like. You go to bed and you hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

You really do not know what it's gonna look like. I will say Noemi is generally a really good sleeper. We did the Taking Cara Babies course and she generally a really good sleeper. We did the Taking Care of Babies course and she's generally a good sleeper, but very early riser and teething, all the things can sometimes mean wake up. So I want to make sure that when I am sleeping, I am getting the highest quality sleep

that I could possibly get. And of all the things that I've tried, Beam is one of those things that I really can say works. So it's got five ingredients that really help. tried, Beam is one of those things that I really can say works. So it's got five ingredients that really help. Magnesium is one of them. Magnesium's really good for calming your nervous system. It can just generally make you feel really calm too.

So it's got magnesium in there. I also have this liquid magnesium from a company called Symbiotica and I spray this on my legs. I sometimes get like achy legs if I've been in the gym and I spray this on. Magnesium is really easily absorbed through the skin. So I'll sometimes put it in the bath, like Epsom salts in the bath so I can absorb the magnesium or every night I do spray this Symbiotica liquid magnesium. Magnesium's great. I love it. It's also been a great supplement for me. Having hormone issues, PCOS, it's been really healing. Beam also has reishi in. So reishi is an aptogenic herb. It's a mushroom that just helps the body adapt to stress. It supports your mood

and it supports with sleep. It's got melatonin in. It's got a very small amount of melatonin, which really helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle. It can help you fall asleep a bit faster, and they say it can help improve sleep quality. Again, it's a really small amount, and it has L-theanine. L-theanine, I absolutely love. Now, here's another thing. So L-theanine just has a very calming effect on the mind, can help reduce stress, makes you feel really relaxed, and it can enhance the quality of your sleep and improve overall amount of time that you sleep. Another hack with L-theanine, because I have it in supplement form as well, if I'm out on the go or traveling and I

can't have the coffee that I'm used to having, coffee can sometimes give me the jitters. So if I have purity, I do not get any jitters at all, just because it's such high quality coffee. I guess it doesn't do that. But if I'm out on the go and I have a coffee that's not quite the same quality, I do feel quite jittery. I'll take an L-theanine capsule. The brand I have is Thorn. I'll take that and it takes them away. So you can tell L-theanine works just by that. If you have the jitters, you take it, it goes away. So you can like, you can tell L-theanine works just by that. Like if you have the jet as you take it goes away. And then another thing in Beam is the raw cacao. So it's just a really pure form of chocolate. Cacao actually has something in it called theobromine, which is a compound that promotes relaxation. It improves your mood. It also tastes so good. I do have a

really good code for Beam because it is on the pricier side. So again, all of this is linked below. If I were you, I would just go through one by one and shop all the links because if I'm telling you about it, trust me, it works. And then another thing that I do love is CBD. Again, don't have it too often, but when I do, I notice a massive, massive difference. I've talked about CBD for so many years on this podcast. My favorite without a doubt is Soul CBD. And I like the gummies because it just years on this podcast. My favorite without a doubt is soul CBD. And I like the gummies because it just feels like a treat. And the coconut vanilla is the absolute best flavor in my opinion.

I think soul CBD generally is the best tasting CBD on the market, but those are my favorites. So that's generally what my wind down routine will look like. And then sometimes Steven and I will get into bed and we'll just connect. And we sometimes put a podcast on into bed and we'll just connect and we sometimes put a podcast on in bed and just yeah just go there early and chill and relax and tune out we're both very much the kind of people that love downtime which has just been a really big adjustment having a baby because it feels like it's just go go go a lot of the time So whenever we can fit in pockets of connection time together, quiet time,

this time that we can really slow down and relax, it's been amazing. And it's been really good for our relationship as a couple and good for us individually, because if we don't take that time, we can end up feeling so overstimulated. I don't know if any of you related to that, but overstimulation is real. Even from like days I have a lot of meetings, I can end the day feeling really overstimulated. So taking these pockets of time has been so helpful for me. So I hope this has helped to hear the morning and evening. There's nothing groundbreaking in here. It's really just what I found really worked for me. Again, another thing

I didn't say, but if I sometimes do read on a nighttime, if I read on a nighttime, I read fiction on a morning, I generally read nonfiction. So on a morning, I'm priming my mind, I'm getting some ideas flowing on a nighttime, I want to really lose myself in a book. And so my choice is fiction. And I would recommend always having a nonfiction book and a fiction on the go at the same time that you can tap into both depending on what kind of mood you want to tap into. That's what really works for me. So I hope this was helpful

and if diving into routines and operating systems is something that you want to take even further, again, check out the bonuses that we've got for Life by Design right now. This is not going to be available for much longer. So the link for that is bosswave.com forward slash BBD. You can find all the information you'll need. And then drop me a message on Instagram at I am Natalie if you've got any more questions. you