Shownotes
Nutrition Nugget! Bite-sized bonus episodes offer tips, tricks and approachable science. This week, Jenn is talking about slowmaxxing, the viral trend that flips hustle culture on its head. Is the answer to burnout really found in 48-hour chocolate chip cookies and 15-minute coffee rituals, or is that taking things a little too far? Jenn breaks down what slowmaxxing really means, why it might be the antidote to internet brain rot, and how it connects to the priorities we already claim to care about. Does slowing down mean getting less done, or could it be the missing piece that makes everything else work better? Tune in to hear how Jenn is putting this trend to the test in her own life, and whether she thinks it is worth adopting or just another wellness fad dressed up with a new name. Like what you're hearing? Be sure to check out the full-length episodes of new releases every Wednesday. Have an idea for a nutrition nugget? Submit it here: https://asaladwithasideoffries.com/index.php/contact/
RESOURCES:
Become a Happy Healthy Hub Member
A Salad With A Side Of Fries Merch
A Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram
Clearing Up Brain Fog and Powering Up Brain Energy
There's Not Enough Time in the Day (feat. Megan Sumrell)
Feeling Off Track? Follow the CURVE (feat. Anna Dearmon Kornick)
Nutrition Nugget: Senobi Breathing
KEYWORDS: Jenn Trepeck, Nutrition Nugget, Salad With A Side Of Fries, Health Tips, Wellness Tips, Slow Maxxing, Slow Living, Hustle Culture, Burnout Prevention, Protein Maxxing, Fiber Maxxing, Weight Loss, Wellness Coaching, Mindful Living, Self Care, Morning Routine, Single Tasking, Multitasking, Time Management, Digital Detox, Screen Time, Stress Management, Anxiety Relief, Emotional Wellness, Sleep Issues, Digestive Health, Gratitude Journal, Presence Practice, Mindfulness, Nervous System Regulation, Breathwork, Sunobi Breathing, Work Life Balance, Productivity Tips, Calendar Blocking, Buffer Time, Rest And Recovery, Seven Types Of Rest, Nature Connection, Glimmers, Nutrition Coaching, Healthy Habits, Overwhelm Relief, Intentional Living, Coffee Ritual, How To Avoid Burnout Naturally, Slow Living Tips For Busy People
Transcripts
[00:00:27] So Keith, not to put you on the spot, have you heard of this one?
[:[00:00:38] Jenn Trepeck: Kind of. So-
[:[00:00:41] Jenn Trepeck: so we had protein maxxing for a long time, which was the idea of, you know, getting all the protein we can.
[:[00:01:08] Keith: I have. Or like even back to Gattaca where you're getting taller through bone breaking-
[:[00:01:13] Keith: your legs.
[:[00:01:33] But so fiber is now having a moment because protein had a moment, so there's this, you know, thing. Now we have this slow maxxing, and when I started to dig into this, I was like wait a minute, we've been talking about this for years on this show, we just didn't give it a name.
[:[00:01:53] Jenn Trepeck: So we'll go through what it is, what it looks like, how to do it, and if we're jumping on board.
[:[00:02:23] That mentality. This is the opposite. It is the opposite of optimizing, and it tends to be showing up especially online, the irony here, go with me, as the antidote to internet brain rot. You know when like you're so in internet culture they call it brain rot? Slow maxing is potentially the antidote to that, and I appreciate that I just said all the things that it's the opposite of, which doesn't actually tell us what it is, and I get that.
[:[00:03:40] And for all of the Type A people, I feel you, I am you, I know this is very difficult. I think what I like about it is that it's a bit of a shift in priorities, or maybe the better way to say that is that slow maxing pushes us to consider our priorities [00:04:00] and whether how we're spending our time reflects those priorities.
[:[00:04:32] So when adopting this, people tend to notice a difference. So what does it look like? Okay, going back to the original like TikTok about it when it went viral, which also I think was based on something else, but anyway, the TikTok, when it went viral, said, "You need to be reading long, fat books. You need to be making 48-hour chocolate chip cookies.
[:[00:05:15] Keith: Yeah, you got... How many times is it baked over as a 48-hour chocolate chip cookie?
[:[00:05:28] Keith: Yeah.
[:[00:05:41] Keith: Mm, yep.
[:[00:05:49] Keith: Right
[:[00:06:21] Maybe it's more of saying to yourself, "I no longer do back-to-back meetings or appointments."
[:[00:06:32] Jenn Trepeck: Right. A little bit of buffer. I think there's also a piece of stepping back and looking at your day big picture or having a perspective on the whole day and where you could find time.
[:[00:07:09] Some talk about blocking time to breathe. I would say let's put maybe a couple minutes a couple times a day in the calendar that are nothingness breaks or a stretch break or a breathe break. I know one company, I do some business coaching with them, you know, for them, and they start all of their meetings five minutes after whatever the time is.
[:[00:07:58] It doesn't have to be five.
[:[00:08:01] Jenn Trepeck: I would recommend going back to, to our episodes with Megan Sumrall and Anna Dearmon-Cornick. Those were a lot about, like, time management and thinking about how we plan our day. For me, ditching the to-do list has been an incredible piece of this. Because instead of putting something on a to-do list, it ends up in my calendar with a block of time.
[:[00:08:51] So again, we have an episode about morning routines. Could you not rush to the phone and take a couple [00:09:00] deep breaths? We did a nutrition nugget on Sunobi breathing. Maybe check in with that one and start your day with that kind of breathing, or maybe you do that before you eat. The idea of 15 minutes to make your coffee is borderline sociopathic to me.
[:[00:09:53] Or maybe you just drink your coffee a little slower while looking out the window, taking a minute. [00:10:00] Maybe you light a candle. Maybe you just sit in the sun for five minutes and people watch or nature watch, and not spend time with our head in the screen. Give yourself extra time to get somewhere. Then that commute becomes leisurely and you have a moment to notice what they call the glimmers, which is like the opposite of triggers.
[:[00:10:38] Keith: Yeah. So you look for them. Exactly. You're looking for the positives instead of being always negative.
[:[00:10:46] Do we notice, you know, how the sun is reflecting off the water? You know, watching the birds sort of, I don't know, walk around, hop around, whatever. I'm thinking of things I see in New York City that qualify as nature. [00:11:00]
[:[00:11:02] Jenn Trepeck: Glimmers. I think it's, again, it's just this idea of like intentionally looking for the small moments that can bring us little pieces of joy and awareness and presence.
[:[00:11:34] If you see flowers, what if you smelled them? It's the little things. I also think consider activities that you'd wanna do that would feel restorative to you. We did an episode, Seven Types of Rest. Maybe that gives you some ideas of things or maybe where you need or would feel supported by a different kind of activity.
[:[00:12:25] Keith: Right.
[:[00:12:27] Keith: And you don't need to be a different person, you can just incorporate into your mix, right? Like, you can take a slow morning and then get to the to-do list or calendar. And then, like you said, move something in your calendar which shows, like, you schedule it, but you can be flexible to adjust.
[:[00:13:03] I will say that over the years of playing with some of this, not knowing that it's called slow maxing, I feel better, I feel calmer, I am happier. I think I'm a kinder human. I mean, I am better able to handle the things that come at me, like my capacity is higher. And I even notice it. Like, the other piece to me that's really been meaningful is the idea of priorities.
[:[00:13:56] Not to say that certain people aren't important, but to [00:14:00] say my parents are going to be a greater priority most of the time than the client who's calling to ask about reading a label. Like, we can read that label in 10 minutes. I wanna make sure that my family is okay. So I think that piece of prioritizing and noticing where I spend my time and how I spend my energy, you know, even whose incoming call can interrupt what I'm doing, that's been really powerful, and I think that's connected to this slow maxing thing
[:[00:14:34] Priorit- prioritizing, uh, I don't know if you'd call it leveling, but, like, that is inherent in the word prioritizing. But you're also saying that you... I like the way that you're saying play, 'cause play, like, means you're trying things out. And you, I think you've been doing the new term slow maxing because you're talking about your whole, like, life you need a vacation to reset.
[:[00:15:13] So it's like that balance.
[:[00:15:38] Keith: Sam Adams, yeah.
[:[00:15:46] Keith: Maybe that's the human part. You have the variability and let the AI machines- Yeah ... take care of the constant maxing, optimizing.
[:[00:16:01] what happens. Yeah, exactly. Let's play. I love it. All right, friends. As always, I'm Jenn Trepeck. Connect with me on Instagram or all social media. I'm @jenntrepeck, J-E-N-N-T-R-E-P-E-C-K. Website is asaladwithasideoffries.com. Pick your platform, send a message. Hearing from you is literally the highlight of my day. Your questions, your ideas, your takeaways.
[:[00:16:31] Keith: Thank you for having me, Jenn.
[:[00:16:42] This shows your support for this podcast, this community, and above all, your health. On top of access to the community board, where we can interact, ask and answer questions, and so much more, you get discounts, curated content, and then of course this week's recipe for the 15-minute pesto shrimp. Well, [00:17:00] friends, that's it for today's episode of Salad with a Side of Fries.
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