The Food Medic - S4 E2 The Power Hour

Episode Date: May 15, 2020

On this weeks episode of The Food Medic podcast, Dr Hazel chats to Master Trainer & Performance Coach, passionate Runner, and host of The Power Hour Podcast, Adrienne Herbert.This episode teaches you how to harness your own power hour, find and chase your goals, how to stay motivated, how to find time to do it and how to reach your full potential. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Hello and a very big welcome back to the Food Medic podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Hazel Wallace. I'm a medical doctor, registered associate nutritionist and founder of the Food Medic, which is an educational platform sharing evidence-based advice on how you can live a healthier and happier life while cutting through the confusing information that we find online. Okay, so on today's podcast, I have an incredibly inspiring woman who I'm lucky to call a friend. She's a master trainer and performance coach, a passionate runner and host of the Power Hour

podcast. She is the ultimate voice and embodiment of inspiration, encouragement and motivation. And she's also an incredible mum to her son Jude. I'm always asked how to get started in fitness, how to stay motivated and how to find the time to do it all and how to reach your full potential. And the one woman who came to my mind as the perfect person for this episode was Adrienne Herbert. Adrienne, welcome to the show. Hello. I've been so excited to have you on here. It's nice to like have a catch up, but also you invited me on your podcast.

We had such a good conversation, so it's nice to have you back. And when I put out some feelers to see who people wanted on the next season of the show, lots of people suggested you. So it's not only me who loves hearing you speak. Oh, that's awesome. Thanks, Hazel. Yeah, it's brilliant to be the guest instead of the host for a change. Yeah, is it weird? I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah. So first of all, let's chat about the Power Hour, which is like your kind of main focus at the moment, the thing that you always champion. But I think for some people, they're like, what is it? How do I get started? Tell us more. Yes. So the Power Hour is essentially about reclaiming some of your time to give that time back to yourself. So I feel like in today's world, we are, there's lots of things competing for our attention and our time, whether that's work commitments, WhatsApps, emails, kids, errands, you know, we live in a 24-7 world,

we're always on demand. So for me to kind of create time when I needed to find more time, often people say, oh, I don't want to do this, but I don't have time or, you know, when I have more time, I'll start that project or I'll maybe get into yoga or maybe start running. So for me, the power hour was all about carving out more time in my own day and then encouraging others to do the same and saying, look, there's never going to be a perfect time in your life to start something. We all have 24 hours in a day. So if something's important to you and something that you want to achieve, maybe a change that you want to make, start prioritizing yourself by creating a power hour, which essentially is in the morning. So it's the first hour that you're awake when you get out of bed and you decide what you want to do in that hour. Something for you, whether it is physical movement, running, yoga, boxing,

whatever. Or maybe it's just actually getting up early to make a hot drink and read, you know, people say, I don't have time to read, you know, maybe you could read first thing or whatever the thing is you want. But put it first, because when it goes to the end of your day, what I find is it's almost like a prioritization, you know, kids, work, this, that by the end of the day, if I have an ounce of energy left, then I'll do this thing for myself. And what I find with that is really you're just putting yourself and your needs to the bottom of your priority list when it should be up there, you know, it should be first on that list. After you've had that hour, you can start the day how you choose to start the day. And then after that, you can give to

everyone else and you can do what you need to do. And like I said, all the things that are coming at you, you can take those things on knowing that you've already had an hour doing something for you. Yeah. And what does your power hour look like? So it's either running. So I just get up, I literally have everything laid out. I've got it down to a fine art now, or I can sneak out of the house like a ninja without making a sound. So don't wake up my son. And yeah, it's running running and other times if it's not a run day then it might be doing some mobility like waking up and doing a really long and slow mobility flow just to kind of get that recovery time in there and also it's sometimes working sometimes I'll use that hour to get through my to-do list I'll write a to-do list for a start I'll circle the three

things I really need to get done that day and if there's one of those things I can get done in my power hour I you know sending out an email that I need to do or maybe I'm reading a book that I'm gonna interview the guest on my podcast you know there's things that need to get done and I just do as much as I can in that first hour and how early is this power hour of yours my power hour is 5 30 till 6 30 because by 6 30 my son um he's eight and a half he's up by then so then yeah then the school routine starts and morning maths and lunchbox and swimming kit and all of that and it's always worth it you know I always feel like it's worth it I never kind of go oh that was a waste of an hour it's always worth it absolutely I completely agree now let's talk about your podcast which we've just mentioned which is also called the power hour yeah why did you start it and what

kind of topics you discuss who's been your favorite guest I do remember though when you had this idea because we were in a long car journey together and you were like I had this idea I didn't know whether I should do it and And I was like, Oh my god, Adrian, you are the best person to host this podcast. You absolutely have to. So let's chat about how that all started. Yeah, you're right. I do remember that conversation with you. Essentially, I was listening to podcasts a lot. And I think now they're super popular. But about three years ago, I'd say to people, Oh, I listened to this podcast. And they'd be like, some people would just say to me, what's a podcast. But at the time, I think I was training for a marathon again. And I found that listening to interesting conversations was a really good way to kind of pass the time when

I was running if I was doing a long run. And also I found I was just soaking up so much knowledge, I was learning so much. And as someone who, I'm someone who struggles to take in information if I read it. But if I listen to it through an audible book or whatever, I retained so much. And as someone who, I'm someone who struggles to take in information if I read it, but if I listen to it through an audible book or whatever, I retained so much more of the information. So for me, I found, wow, okay, I'm listening to maybe three books a month. So throughout the year, you know, that's a lot of books and listening to podcasts, having these amazing conversations. So I felt like as someone who loves to talk, love to ask questions. So I thought, actually,

I'm really fortunate with the work that I do, different industries, the people I get to meet on a daily basis. I just thought if I could share this with other people on a podcast, I thought there's going to be people that are going to be interested in it. And I was listening to shows that were kind of all around self-improvement, self-development. Lots of them were about entrepreneurs and about life hacks. And they were all hosted by like middle-aged American men. And they were all kind of from one angle and one perspective. And so as someone who is interested in, you know, self-improvement and entrepreneurship, I was like, women also want to talk about these things. And it might be a slightly, they might have slightly different

challenges to the male voices I was hearing. So yeah, that's kind of when I was like, women also want to talk about these things. And it might be a slightly, they might have slightly different challenges to the male voices I was hearing. So yeah, that's kind of when I was like, right, I want to have these conversations. So yeah, that is in a nutshell, a long, long nutshell of the Power Hour. Amazing. Have you had a favorite interview?

There's been so many. I don't think I can pick one. I really, really enjoyed an episode with a man called Carl Loco. He has this amazing story of change and transformation. And it's a really just honest, candid episode around how his life changed so much. So I really love that episode. I often tell people to listen to that one. And to be honest, as someone who loves running and loves sports, I am always in awe of professional

athletes who dedicate their entire lives to sport. So I'm always I always love the athlete episodes and I get to sit down with someone who's training for the Olympics. I love that. Yeah, absolutely. One of the things you also talk about a lot is habits and habit formation. For people listening, and they're interested in kind of, you know, restarting or starting a journey into a healthier lifestyle, how can they integrate habits? Where do you get started? Yeah, I do talk about habits a lot. I think habits are incredibly important. We make so many decisions throughout the day that actually having habits, you know, good or bad, it's human nature to repeat. As much as we think we make

choices, we actually repeat things a lot. And as I said, those can be good or bad habits. So two things I'd say about habit formation. One is that I like to give this idea of kind of like casting a vote, yes or no. So when you think of like the desired outcome that you want to achieve, whether that's a health and fitness goal, whether that's an academic goal, whether it's a lifestyle change, think about the final destination and the desired outcome or behavior that you want to embody and to have. Then everything around that is like asking a vote for a yes or a no. So using running as an example, because I'm a runner, the behaviors and the habits that I want to embody to become a better runner or to run the marathon, it's like, you have to run, you have to get up, you have to put your shoes on, you have to get out the door, you have to do the stretches, you have to get sleep, you have to go

to the physio, you have to eat well. So all of those things essentially become habits. So it's like when I get up, put the shoes on, I'm casting a vote that says yes, I am the kind of person who goes out for a run because I am a runner, I am embodying the habits of a runner. But equally, it works the other way. So, you know, if you hit snooze and you miss a run, fine. If you do it once, you know, it's cool. It's life. We're humans.

But when your habits and your patterns of behavior repeat and repeat and repeat, that's the casting a vote that says, no, I'm not the kind of person who gets up and goes running. I'm the kind of person who stays in bed. So it's just that thing of like casting a vote every time. And it's not about perfection. It's not about 100%. But it's about casting more yes votes than no votes. So that's one thing. And then the second thing about practically actually creating habits is that

we need to make it frictionless. You know, as human beings, we're always going to choose the path of least resistance. So to make it frictionless, make it easier for yourself. So for example, when I talk to clients about mobility, and they say, Oh, it's the last thing on my list, I don't want to do stretches, I don't want to have to, it's like, you know, you need to do it, it might feel boring, you might not want to do it. So make it easy for yourself. So I asked them to put their yoga mat out somewhere, they're going to see it every day might be in the kitchen, it might be in a hallway. So put the yoga mat out, maybe have a bottle of water, whatever you want there. And even your kit, if you want to have your leggings there,

have it there ready. So every day when you get up, you're going to walk past that stuff. You can just jump on the mat, you can do 10 minutes, you could do 5, 20, whatever it is. But if not, you're going to keep walking past it and you might even have to roll it up and put it away. So it's like make the habit that you want the easy option instead of thinking when I get up, right, you know, I've got to find my stuff, have a charge my watch, where's my trainer? You know, it's those effort things that you just don't want to have. So yeah, if you want to create a new habit,

make it easy for yourself. I love that. Okay, so next topic I want to touch on is running. Like obviously you're super passionate about running and one of my kind of New Year's resolutions is to just be able to comfortably run 5k and I'm almost there and I've been doing running every week and I think what I've learned the most is the more I do it the easier it's become and actually I'm starting to enjoy it so I love that but what I'd love to

get from you is how has running changed your life and advice to people who are thinking about running a marathon or like me just want to be a runner yes I do love running I'm so happy to hear that you're getting out there running has definitely changed my life which is why I think I talk so much about it and you know encourage everyone no matter what age no matter what size gender whatever, whatever. I'm like, everyone I think can benefit from running. So it's changed my life in a lot of ways. One is the sense of identity and community. So at the time in my life when I started running, I hadn't had like the best year. In fact, probably been one of the most challenging years. I'd become a new mom and my husband had been severely ill. He'd had a spontaneous brain hemorrhage, as you know.

And so he'd had a lot of time off work recovering and I just felt, I don't know, I kind of lost my mojo and just felt, I don't know, it was a difficult, difficult year for lots of reasons. So that's the year that I started running and it certainly wasn't the case that I thought, right, I'll run a marathon. I never thought I could run a marathon, to be honest.

But I was like, okay, I'm going to run a marathon, to be honest. But I was like, okay, I'm going to run for like 10 minutes or 15 minutes. And I was running way too fast. I think the Jamaican sprinter in me was like, right, let's go. And I'd just run and it'd be so hard. And I'd be puffing away thinking this is just awful. This is not enjoyable at all. But then after I finished the run, I'd be like, okay, that was kind of cool. I'm gonna do it again. So it changed my life in that aspect that it kind of went, okay, I started to have this thing that was kind of my thing, you know, in the day, it was like, that's my thing. Like, I'm gonna take 10 minutes and go out for my run. And then at the time, I'd like do a little tweet about it, or maybe post

something. Instagram wasn't really like what it is now. But it was like seven years ago. But I'd share it and you'd get that kind of little virtual high five of someone being like oh my gosh amazing good for you I'm running tomorrow and actually I'm training for this 10k race and I'd be like oh what trainers do you wear or do you have a Garmin watch or an Apple watch and I started just having conversations with people that I didn't know about running and it just opened this whole world to me that I just didn't know existed this community of people who are so encouraging so supportive I think in other fitness spaces that I just didn't know existed this community of people who are so encouraging so supportive I think in other fitness spaces that I'd been in before it'd been far more competitive

and far more kind of around you know the way you look and running just isn't like that the running community embraces everyone like I said if there's an 80 year old at park run people are cheering him on if there's you know if you're overweight if you're underweight like if you're pregnant if you're there's all these people if you stand on the sideline of a marathon and you watch you will see every walk of life different social economic backgrounds different people and they've all got their own reason to run and whether they are running you know I don't know a six-hour marathon, a four hour marathon, it doesn't matter. And it's just amazing to be a part of.

So, I mean, I could talk all day about how running has changed my life, but that's probably just the tip of the iceberg. Yeah. And so for people who I'm sure are totally inspired now after that little pep talk, how do you get started? Where do you start? Yes, great question. And I often say to people two things. My hack is focus on minutes, not miles. So people will say when they start running, how fast should I run, Adrienne? What's a good pace? What's a good time for this, you know, three miles or 5k or 10k? And I say, forget it. Don't worry about data. Don't worry about pace. Just work on minutes. So start off and think,

can I run for one minute or 90 seconds or two minutes and then do a little walking break? Can I run for five minutes and then have a little walking break can i run for five minutes and then have a walk break can i run for 10 minutes and you can see from there like how you could get started you know maybe you want to go to a park where there's a loop that takes you two minutes can you do that loop can you do the loop again so start with minutes instead of miles because from there you're always going to feel like you've achieved because you're like okay i've done it says as instead of having this goal that is a certain, you know, distance and a certain pace. And that can just feel for a lot of people starting it can feel like 5k can feel like a marathon. That's the

thing. It's a long way. So yeah, that's my thing is start with minutes over miles. Walking breaks are fine. You're still running. And don't get stressed out about I don't know, the tech or the trainers or that doesn't matter. We know how to run. You've probably, if you're able-bodied and been walking and running since you were a child, you know how to run. You don't need to, I don't know, worry straight away around gait analysis

and all these things that have come in later to kind of optimize running. The bare bones and the essence is just to put one foot in front of the other breathe and just go for it and anyone can do it anyone can do it yes amazing now um the next thing i wanted to chat to you about is i guess more so my area of expertise but from something that you have had experience with i know that you're you know largely plant-based when it comes to your diet it's very topical at the moment. It's very trendy. Do you find it's difficult to kind of follow up

plant based diet and feel your training? I know that, you know, it's probably super high in fiber. So you're dealing with that as well on your runs. Any advice for people who are plant based? What kind of foods do you find are you know suitable for your running I know this is very individual and that's a big disclaimer out there that what Adrienne eats doesn't necessarily mean that you need to eat this but I think it's helpful for some people to kind of just get some ideas some inspiration yeah for sure yeah so I would say that yeah being plant-based as you said it's very topical right now and I always say to people that essentially for me it was kind of just like I use myself as not an experiment but I think I'm very happy to take responsibility and ownership over you know what I'm going to read about this diet

I'm going to read about that diet I'm going to try this I'm going to try that and literally just figure out what works for me what makes me feel good so that's really how I started on my plant based journey and initially it was excluding all animal products, whereas now it's, you know, I do have some animal products in there as well. But I'd say the biggest thing for me was recovery. So recovery and sleep is so important when it comes to training, especially for endurance events. So for me, that was the place where I saw the biggest improvement. I switched to eating far more plants, loads of nuts, loads of seeds, loads of different vegetables, loads of root vegetables. And I could have, you know, a big plate full of food, but I digest my food, I'd sleep well and I'd wake up feeling more energy. I can't describe it. It was kind of like I felt less

sluggish in the mornings. It made a difference. It was a notable difference. So the things that I try to have lots of, I made it easy for myself because I have all these little glass jars in the kitchen by the cooker. And so I've got all these things in there like pumpkin seeds, flax seed, linseed, sesame seeds, all these seeds basically. So before where I might have just had porridge and banana. Now I have porridge, banana, and I just literally put a spoon of everything on top. So I know I'm adding extra things like, I'm sure you probably know, but like omegas, and I'm adding, you know, more calories as well, which is important, obviously, if you're doing 30, 40 miles of running a week. So I'd say, making it easy by having everything there is, you know, that's a win. And then I'd say batch

cooking, especially if you're a parent, like for me, batch cooking on Sundays, I'll do like big bean and sweet potato chili, or I might make enchiladas again using like kidney beans and I'll add pine nuts. And basically I just make big batches of things because then later on in the week, I just, again, I don't have that decision fatigue of what am I going to cook? You know, who's got time to like soak lentils on a Tuesday night after, you know, you pick your son up from football? It's not going to happen. So for me, it's about getting it done the weekend, prepping for the week ahead. And I think for the nutrition thing, as I said, it's very individual.

You've got to figure out what works for you, but also not kind of worrying too much about perfection. Do you know what I mean by that? So when it comes to nutrition, I don't track calories or I don't know how much of things I'm getting. I know I'm getting a lot, especially right now, because I'm hungry a lot. But someone was surprised they saw me at the start line for the Royal Parks half and I had a banana and a croissant.

And they were like, is that your pre-race fuel? And I was like, yeah, I was like, it works great. It seems to be what works for me, banana and a croissant. And they kind of just looked as if to be like, and it was really close to the race as well. It wasn't like an hour before, digest your food. It was like 10 minutes before. But that's what works for me.

So, yeah. So it is very individual. And I guess people can trial it at the runs prior to the big run. Yeah, I think the biggest thing is, where are you going to get protein if you don't eat chicken, you don't eat fish but it certainly hasn't been an issue for me I haven't you know eaten meat for it's probably three years now and protein is certainly not something that I'm worried about lacking in my diet no but you've got such a diverse diet lots of legumes and their nuts and seeds I know you're a huge fan of nut butter like big nut butter get

the nut butter in there um and of course if you're the type of person who does include eggs and and dairy in that way that's there's some other kind of protein there now you mentioned your mum amongst other things mum to lovely Judy so cute I love him how do you manage to juggle kind of mum life and family life and home life in addition to running, running a podcast, being an entrepreneur, social media, all of thing I should probably caveat by this by saying is that, yes, I am a mum and I'm doing all these different things. And people often say like, oh, you know, super mums that are working and doing that. But I also have to say that Jude's dad, Rob, he is a super dad, you know? So I think that team element is really, yeah, I want to credit him because he's a wonderful, wonderful dad. So he does his bit too. I'm certainly not perfect.

We don't have the perfect schedule in our house, but the power hour, honestly, has impacted everyone. It's really helped because I find we have more time now in the morning. So as I said about me kind of getting things done before Jude wakes up, kids don't generally have a concept of time. If you say to them, you've got 15 minutes or you've got five minutes, it doesn't always mean much. So not having to rush in the mornings and be like, you know, do this quickly, do that quickly. Everyone feels frantic. Everyone feels rushed and the morning is a rush.

Then you leave the house feeling like that and drop them at school. And I see a lot of, you know, it's life, it's family life. It can be like that, but it also doesn't have to be, you don't have to start your day stressed. So one I'd say is trying to if you can carve out that time even if it's 15 more minutes to yeah not have to rush in the mornings with your kids but also I think just having fun with it and just knowing that you know what there's ways that you can double up so for example if you want to get some more steps in and you have quite maybe your job means that you're sitting down all day then you know get some scooters you could have a scooter too you know like make the commute to your child's school or to swimming or whatever it is use that time and double it up so yeah grab a scooter you could maybe i've jogged before whilst jude's on his scooter for like 5k

and i'm getting a jog he's getting a scoot so there's ways to do it so it doesn't have to be separate things of like okay this is my mom commitments this is my work things this is my fitness try and combine it maybe take the kids swimming maybe you know kick the football around maybe get them in the kitchen I've taught you how to make banana pancakes recently you know get them involved and so you can kind of merge things more as opposed to just yeah having to have this separate like mum parent thing that's totally separate from the rest of your world. I think try to blend it, try to make it fun, and know that sometimes it is going to be a disaster.

Don't get me wrong, there's definitely been those days where it's like, oh my gosh, quickly get in the car, have you got your coat, oh, you've forgotten your coat. Sometimes that happens, and I just kind of go, oh, you know what, it's okay. Yeah, I love that. So you're probably the most motivated person I know. And you bring so much energy. One of the questions I'm always asked is like, Hazel,

how do you feel motivated to go to the gym every day and like get up early? And you must get asked that a lot as well. What advice do you give to people who are like, how do I stay motivated? Yes, motivation, that word comes up a lot. It's like this elusive power that we all want to have. So I think when you, an exercise that's really helpful is when you do feel motivated, when you're starting, you know, you're going to the gym or you're going to yoga, write down how you felt before and how you felt after. It doesn't have to be an essay, but just, you know, somewhere in a journal or in your diary, in your schedule. How did you feel before? How did you feel after? So hopefully you're going to say that, you know, maybe before, journal or in your diary in your schedule. How did you feel before? How did you feel after? So hopefully, you're going to say that, you know, maybe before,

maybe you were really excited to go. I don't know, maybe you didn't really want to go. Maybe you're tired, whatever. But then maybe after you're like, I feel this way. And maybe I feel better. I feel more energized. I maybe feel exhausted, write it down. So then you can look back over it and say, okay, what are the things that I'm doing, which are making me feel great, you know, so if you go to something that you hate if you went to a spin class and you you literally wrote down before I'm dreading it and you wrote down after I hated it maybe don't go to spin find something else that you actually will enjoy because then you don't have to have this magic motivation to go because you're actually going to want to go and then if you're really still you know not feeling motivated look at the other things that are impacting and think well why, why, you know, if you've got a reason to do something, whether it's a goal,

whether it's a, I don't know, meeting a friend there, whatever the reason is, you've got to have this reason that's going to be bigger than all the other things that are going to get in the way, you know, if you're sleep deprived, or if you've got a lot of work stress going on, or maybe look at your cycle, where you are in your cycle. For women, it really impacts, you know, our energy levels. So yeah, look at those things as well. And if you still are like, you know what, I'm not feeling motivated, then you need to just pull the big guns and go, you know what, if I'm not feeling motivated, instead, I'm going to be disciplined. Instead, I'm going to three things this week, I'm going to tick them all off, motivated or not, because I know that it's gonna get me where

I want to go yeah sometimes just gotta be firm tough love um you are a big reader like I am and I was listening to your recent podcast where it was kind of like a Q&A with yourself and you mentioned some really great books so what are the top three books that have changed your life? Oh, yes. Oh, there's so many. Picking three is really hard. But I'd say, I don't know if they changed my life, but I'm going to say, I think when you read a book and it has a profound impact on you

and you remember, maybe you read parts again or you give it to somebody else. So I'm going to go with that. And the first one I'm thinking of is Mindset by Carol Dweck. And it's all about essentially the power of your mind and developing a growth mindset and how actually once you accept the fact that our minds are essentially this limitless thing you know we're the only species on the planet with a creative imagination we can dream we can create things in our minds

and act as if and you know I just loved this book and kind of got around the whole negative thoughts positive thoughts and actually so many things are not down to your personality you know whether you're just an extrovert or you're just confident those things are all to do with the mind and you can practice them you can improve them so Carol Dweck mindset second one which I talk about so much to everyone is Can't Hurt Me David Goggins this guy is my hero and he's essentially an ex-navy SEAL he's done all these incredible things in his life his story is just like nothing else that you could imagine he's been through so much in his life he had so much adversity growing up and he overcame so many things and his book can't

hurt me is his story it's his life story and it's amazing and i always tell people to listen to it on audible because after each chapter there's like a little interview with him like a little mini podcast and yeah i'm just obsessed so can't hurt me definitely changed my life because it made me look at the things the adversity that i've had in my life and kind of go you know what everybody has a story everybody no one's exempt and you can still achieve not because of those things but in spite of them so that was great and then the third one again I don't know if it's changed my life but it's in my mind right now and it's Cal Newport deep work yes you read this yeah so it's all about you know how to do focus deep work in a world of distractions so I took away things from that book and thought you know what Adrienne you've got big ambitions you've

got things that you want to achieve and you need to do the work like you have to be able to switch off your phone you have to be able to focus basically and I think focus and attention is something that as a as a society we're just all struggling with. Yeah, it's just hard. So yeah, Deep Work by Cal Newport, if you need to get some focus in your life. Yeah, I absolutely took so much away from that one. It really, really helped me, especially last year doing my master's and having to go back to university again.

I was like, how am I going to sit for hours and write an essay? Like, just how? And it just happened. And I feel like that book really helped me pick up things doing stuff like a power hour working in blocks of 60 to 90 minutes working in a dedicated space like all of those things and that book kind of has so many good tips so I absolutely definitely recommend that also now both you and I met through social media we're both very present on social media what's

your relationship like with it now how do you find you know you switch off and you find that work life balance with it or have you found it yeah I'd say well for the firstly I'd say I'm a big I guess I'm a big social media fan which I think is kind of I think I'm in the minority right now you know culturally I hear this conversation around like, switch off, digital detox, you know, it's so bad for us, it gets demonized all the time of, you know, social media, I feel like has become the scapegoat for everything that's bad in the world. Whereas I definitely am a fan, I think there's always, I'm the eternal optimist. So I see the positives to having these democratized spaces where everyone has a voice,

good or bad, where you can find others who are different to you. So you're not in an echo chamber of opinions and you can look at other people's perspectives. I challenge myself to use social media to learn, to observe, to have fun, to be inspired. Like there's so much there. So I love it. I'd say in terms of the balance, this is going back to deep work, it's definitely a distraction. And it's definitely something that is so time consuming, because it's always there, you can always press refresh and see something new. And so that's where I struggle. It's like I have to be disciplined. I have to, as you said, when I'm doing focused work now, I listened to something the other day that she was talking

about how even if your phone is in the room within a meter of your body you can put it on airplane mode you can turn the screen down on your desk all these things but knowing that it's there there's a part of the brain which knows that it's almost like it's uh someone waiting for a reply from you so you have this feeling of obligation to check it to touch it to look at it to get this kind of feedback loop. So actually putting the phone out of the room is something that I now do. So I have the phone out of the room. So yeah, I don't know if that's actually the full question. But I think there's positives and negatives to everything. I think we definitely have to police ourselves. You know, I think now

people are turning to others and going, well, you know, the government and the schools and the, again, I come back to this thing of taking ownership taking responsibility it's hard it's hard to police our own behavior we're humans it's nice to do the easy thing yeah but I think ultimately the responsibility does lie with us but I think again it's a habit too once you realize that you're actually not missing anything like you're not missing anything the same stuff is still going to be there the next day how many pictures of lattes do we need to see you know so it's like you're not going to miss anything get over that FOMO thing and just I don't know challenge yourself to maybe start with an hour a day of life yeah oh yeah it's so true it's like it's everything

in moderation one of the talks that I often deliver will be based on kind of the core areas of lifestyle that we can, you know, ultimately control or have an element of control over whether that be sleep or diet. And I've included social media and tech in there because I feel like, yeah, I do think there needs to be kind of regulation, but a lot of that comes from us and how we respond to it and how we regulate it. And it's not totally negative you know social media is such a good portal for lots of things and but again you shouldn't feel obligated to be constantly be on and constantly being checking so yeah okay so final question we discussed how early you get up so you must have a very good bedtime routine if you're getting into bed early.

Do you have kind of a routine? Yeah, I've definitely got it down now. So one thing I'd say, this is going to shock a lot of people because it always does. I have never seen a single episode, not one, of Love Island. I haven't. I haven't, no.

We're a rare breed. People literally say to me, they're like, I don't believe you. I'm like, no, it starts too late. So that just goes to show how early I go to bed what a nana but what I'd say is my routine around bedtime starts by sounds silly but like literally I get in the bathroom I cleanse I clean my teeth I put on a moisturizer and I literally feel like I give myself like a mini facial and it's so nice to kind of feel like I'm washing off the day you know like I don't know I just feel like even if

I've had a shower earlier it's just a nice thing to do it's like this to kind of feel like I'm washing off the day, you know, like, I don't know, I just feel like even if I've had a shower earlier, it's just a nice thing to do. It's like this ritual of like, yeah, rubbing in oil into my face. So this is that. I try to be quite strict around social media. In the evenings, I just literally swipe my phone onto airplane mode, put it on charge. And then that's that. And then what else do I do? I think to be honest, it's the habits. It's not even just at bedtime, it's the habits throughout the day. So for example, I don't really drink a lot of coffee. And if I do, it's always before midday. I try not to eat dinner too late. It's like the kind of things that we know these things are simple. We've been told them before, but they're so effective. I don't think you have to reinvent the wheel and kind of like, you know, change your whole room into being this

bliss and this sparse like sleep haven. Great if you can, but also why not just start with the simple stuff like not having a coffee at four o'clock, not eating, I don't know, super, super late. And yeah, just kind of switching off in whatever way you want to. And one thing that really helps,

I've got loads of things on that week, is that I, I think you do this too, I still have like a paper diary have a list of paper and pages and so what I'll do is I'll look at the week ahead and I'll look say for example Wednesday Thursday Friday the next three days what's coming up and I'll write a little list that's like there might be 17 things but I'll just star the three things that I need to you know remember I don't want to forget so that is a good way for me to switch off because if I get into bed without doing that often I'm like oh okay tomorrow I need to, you know, remember, I don't want to forget. So that is a good way for me to switch off. Because if I get into bed without doing that, often I'm like, oh, okay, tomorrow I need to do

this. And I don't forget that. And I must email that person back. And it's kind of things whizzing around in my brain. So just writing them down helps me to unwind. Oh, amazing. Well, that was an amazing episode. Thank you so much for coming in. I just loved speaking to you. Thanks for having me. It feels like I could talk to you all day, Hazel. I'm like, oh, that was quick. Yeah, it was. It was really quick. For people who want to find more from you,

where can we find you? Yeah, so you can find out more, obviously, about the Power Hour. It's the Power Hour podcast. It's everywhere. And if you want to find me online, then it's Adrienne underscore LDN on Instagram and twitter amazing

thanks so much hazel bye okay guys thank you so much for tuning into today's episode don't forget to subscribe and leave us with a review and a five-star rating if you love what you hear on this podcast and don't forget you can hear more from me over on social at the food medic and on my website thefoodmedic.co.uk. Please do send us a tweet, Instagram message or Facebook message if you have some suggestions on who or what you would like to hear next on the podcast. If you're interested in grabbing a copy of my book you can also grab both the Food Medic and the Food Medic for Life on Amazon or in any good bookstore. See you again next time when we'll be talking all about periods

and the menopause with Dr. Philippa Kay.