Feeling the winter blues and struggling to find the energy to power through the day? Have you been told to just wait it out, hoping that your energy levels will magically improve? But let's face it, waiting around for the weather to change isn't doing much for your mood or productivity, is it?

If you're tired of feeling lethargic and unmotivated, it's time to shake things up and take control of your energy levels. Let's explore some simple, yet effective habits to boost your energy and leave the winter slump behind.

Because if we are in control of our energy, we can reach our objectives more easily. —Juliette

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Discover how to boost your energy levels during winter effortlessly.
• Learn daily movement habits that will revitalize your energy.
• Uncover effective strategies for increasing your water intake.
• Explore how sunlight exposure can naturally elevate your energy.
• Find out how to infuse playfulness into your work environment for increased productivity.

Boost your energy levels effortlessly

Adapting our routines can lead to effortless improvements in energy levels. By taking actionable steps to change our habits, we can create solutions that align with our needs and wellbeing. Emphasizing the essential role of movement, hydration, and sunlight becomes the foundation for invigorating our lives, particularly during the more challenging winter months.

My name is Juliette and I'm obsessed with all things self-development, goal-setting, health and sustainability. Originally from France, I made the move to Canada with a vision to design my dream balanced life. On this podcast, I share with you everything I've learned along the way, the challenges, the lessons, and of course, the successes. It's also my chance to sit down with local experts, diving into the services and products that have the power to transform our lives. So grab your favorite headphones, stay hydrated, and get ready to learn simple tips that will elevate your life.

Welcome to good in motion. Hi friends. We are officially a month in the year of 2024 and you're listening to the first solo episode of the Good in Motion podcast. Thank you for being here. Today we're talking about energy, and believe me, it took me a lot of energy to prepare this first solo episode, so I had to use all the tricks I'm sharing here.

This episode is a real deal. If like me, you can feel the effect of the canadian weather on your mood, then listen up. The sky is gray. It's snowing. Then it's raining.

There is slush on the ground. It's not great, but what are we going to do about it? Are we going to wait until, I don't know, May, June for the sun to come back with our mood and our excitement for projects? No. If you know me already, or you'll get to know me a bit more through these episodes, you know that when there is an issue happening, I like to find a solution.

Right now, I don't like to just try to wait for things to fix themselves up. So what do we do about it? There is this quote I really like and it comes back to me often when I have a problem that is recurring. I'm just going to read it to you right now. It goes like this.

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." This is a quote I repeat myself often. I know that if I want a different outcome in my life, I need to do different actions. Otherwise the same thing will keep happening. So that's why I have started a few new habits these past months in 2024 to bring me more energy.

And I'm going to share them with you. Let's get started. So the first one you're going to tell me. Oh, okay. It's not a big surprise.

It's daily movement. Moving energetically creates energy. Daily movement is key. Have you ever slept so much that you were even more tired? Well, it's the same.

The less you move the less you'd want to move. So at first, of course, it's going to take extra effort to move from the chair to the sneakers. But I promise you, it gets better. You will get to a point where you crave the movement and you can identify when you lack of it. I'm not talking about weight loss or muscle strength or anything like this here, just movement.

So, okay, how do we move more often in our days? Well, first I would advise to create a daily reachable habit. Whatever you start, you want to make it easy and a daily routine, because when you say you're going to do something every day, there is no room for. I'll just do it tomorrow. No, you know that every single day, every 24 hours, the day resets to come back to zero and there is no room for excuse.

That's it. It's just every single day, it's easier to stick to it. So of course, I'm not going to tell you to run a marathon every day. I don't have that type of time, and I don't think you do either. The type of daily movement we want to incorporate are much smaller habits, habits that are enjoyable, that are difficult to justify removing them.

And the first one you'll see is very easy. It's a five minute stretch. Five minute stretch. I think everybody has 5 minutes within their days. I think it's Tony Robbins who said something like this.

If you don't have 10 minutes in your day, you don't have a life and it just wakes you up. It's like, okay, well, maybe I can cut the 2 hours of scrolling a day on my phone to spend 5 minutes stretching my body. And it has proven amazing effects. So here's how I do it. I have an alarm.

I created an alarm on my phone. It's at 10:00 a.m. Every day. At 10:00 a.m. My alarm rings.

And whatever I'm doing, maybe I finish writing my sentence in an email, maybe I finish a quick id or I take note of something. But then I stand up, I open my YouTube homepage. I have the same five minute stretch I go to with my partner to watch always. It's called five minute body stretching. Something like that.

I'll add it in the podcast description and that's it. I just follow it. I don't have to think about what stretching I'm doing. I don't want to create more mental fatigue. It's not what I'm looking for.

It's my fun triggers, my habits. I do it I go back to work right after, so I work from home. But if you're someone who works in an office and you don't want to stand up, maybe you can look for yoga chair stretch. I know this exists. It could be less awkward or intimidating to stretch with just your arms or you extend your legs.

I'm sure there are other solutions. And if you're friendly with your coworkers, even better. Maybe it can be a collective habit you have every day. Okay, let's move on to another idea. Another way to move daily is to go on a 15 minutes walk first.

Choose a time. Same thing. We'll talk about it in another episode. But it's important to have the same habit every day. It makes it easier to pursue to be consistent with.

So create a timer as well for your work or attach it to another habit you have. Mine is lunch every day. After lunch, I go for a 30 minutes walk for here I will say just start with 15 minutes. What you do is maybe you finish eating. You put on your gloves, your tuque, your coat, your boots, because it's winter in Canada right now.

But it's okay, I promise. It feels amazing. So you put on your layers, you start an alarm if you want. You put 7 minutes, 30 seconds. You walk in a direction.

You will see maybe some of your neighbors, some cute dogs on the way. Maybe you can listen to a podcast like this one. I don't know. You can call a friend, a relative, and then when your alarm rings, you just walk back home. That's it.

It's as simple. We don't want to add too much mental fatigue. And at some point you explore new streets. What's happening? What is really good with walking outdoor is that you're getting more sunlight and it's really important for your mood.

Another example, the last one of this theory for daily movement is trampoline. I know it might be a bit unexpected and very niche to hear just jump on a trampoline. But my partner Ren, I have an individual foldable trampoline. We actually traveled with it when we moved to Vancouver and back to Ontario. And it's amazing. It can fit just one person.

It's a very small trampoline. And all you need to know is that do you have enough room over your head to jump? But you'll see you don't actually need that much. So what you do is that you just put your headphones and I just jump on the trampoline with some EDM song. And for maybe one song or two songs or 5 minutes and it just resets me.

Like if you feel sleepy, can you imagine jumping on a trampoline and still feeling sleepy? I don't think so. It resets you faster than coffee without the crash after. So anyway, all of these examples show you that energy will not come by itself. We have to generate it.

The second obvious tip to gain more energy is food and eating healthy. If you feed your body with crap, you will feel like crap. Having a good balance of healthy fats, proteins, greens and carbs is a must to feel your best. My suggestions for both working out and eating healthy is not to go with anything. That's a temporary solution.

I don't recommend quick fixes 30 day challenges. I have done some before, I will probably talk about it in some future episodes. I have done health challenges where I cut things out of my diet and I hated those challenges because it's restricting and at the end of them I would always end up getting back to eating the food I cut and in big quantities because I was like upset of not eating enough. So temporary solutions like diet are out for me. They're a big no no.

But I encourage you and myself to find a way of eating that fits us forever. And if you need help, I'm not one to judge. What I'm saying is that I don't cook, except if I host friends, then I enjoy cooking. But for myself every day I rather spend my time doing something else, honestly. So yet my food needs to be tasty and healthy and fast.

So with my partner Ray, we tried different things because we're both non cookers. We tried meal prep, we tried meal delivery like when we lived in Vancouver for a year. We will order meal delivery. So I'm not talking about hellofresh where you receive the ingredients. Even though this I really enjoy too.

I'm talking about the meals are already cooked, you only have to warm them up. So of course this is costly, everyday solution, but it gave us a good sense of what a healthy meal looks like, what a healthy portion also was, and how we feel when we have a full week of healthy eating. So the service delivery we tried when we lived in northern Vancouver was called fed, fed, fed. And I really recommend it. I know I've tried in the past in Toronto, another service called on the run meals that I highly recommend.

And of course hellofresh. I think it's a very good way to eat healthy. It removes the mental charge also of having to go grocery shopping, of choosing a recipe. It just gives you a solution. Ready to go anyway, if you're curious about hellofresh.

We have an offer in the episode description, so I encourage you to check it out. Overall, when it comes to the diet, I know it's important for me to eat healthy because I understand how it impacts my energy, my mood, the way I look and the way I age. I often hear as an argument that to eat healthy is costly, and I think it's probably true because you need more fresh ingredients. It takes more time to grow vegetables, and if you pay organic, it's also an extra cost. But I know that spending more money on healthy food today potentially prevent me from paying medical bills to fix my health in the future.

It's another way to see the cost of eating healthy. But I accepted to pay more to eat healthy for this reason. Also, when it comes to diets and the way we eat, maybe we are missing things in our diet. And I'm talking here about vitamins. And of course we can do a blood test to find out exactly what we need, which is ideal.

But there are some common deficiencies in adults. And I wanted to share with you some of the supplements I take to get more energy and balance into my diet. So the first one is that every morning I press half a lemon and I add this to water. It's the first thing I drink in the morning. Sometimes I add electrolytes to it as well.

I've started taking vitamin D to fight the low sunlight during the winter months. I've also been taking omega three and six magnesium and my partner wanted to try something different, so he just ordered athletic greens. They had a very seducing offer for the beginning of the year. So if you've never heard of athletic greens before, it just tells you that you have one scoop for a green juice. And all your vitamins, all your daily vitamins are included in this.

It's a bit more costly than me buying my own vitamins right now. There's not the same amount in it. But if you're looking for a solution and not to think about it, that could be an option for you. Another solution in terms of eating your energy and bringing energy in your body is cacao. And I know it sounds a bit od to hear this in this list.

Okay, this girl is telling me to eat chocolate. Yes. Finally, the advice I've been looking for. No, it's not what I'm saying. I'm talking here about quality cacao beans and chocolate that is high in cacao and not bad sugar in it.

So you'll get to learn more about exactly a brand that does this very well. A canadian brand from Vancouver. In another episode, we have the chance to have two part interview with Mara from the good chocolateier. And this is what she does. She has cacao bars.

And because it's just the purest form of cacao, you can eat. And it's not like a sweet snack. It brings you energy. And I mean, isn't it the dream just to be recommended to eat cacao? Maybe.

I don't know. Every day, I know for sure. We were sharing with my partner a cacao bar after lunch for sometimes every single day. It was such a nice feeling for us because it tastes amazing, but also we could feel that we were more focused and we had more energy in our afternoon after eating it. And because it's different, you'll get to learn more about it.

But I'm just eager to budge this product. And coffee gives you a crash after you drink it at some point, but cacao is just giving you that slow delivery of consistent energy. Okay, let's move on to another category to bring energy and create energy into your life. Water. We all know it yet.

Do we all do it? No, I don't think so. I wanted to give you some action tips to make it happen for real. Because remember, if we don't create different actions, we're not going to get a different outcome. So how to make it easy to drink more water?

First one, I recommend a large glass bottle. Maybe you have one already at home. Maybe it's a vase. Who cares? Just if you have a large jar of water.

And maybe you can measure it with water bottles at first, or just cups, and then, you know, okay, when I fill it to the top, this is two liters, three liters. A visual way to know this is the water I have to drink today. If you don't have a bottle like this, my partner bought one with time markers on it. So I think it's only 1.8 liters. But it's still a large glass bottle and it gives you tiny goals because you see with the time markers.

Okay, oops. It's 10:00 a.m.. I should have drank much more by then and makes it playful. It's more interesting, and it often comes with a stroke too. So you don't have to buy anything brand new.

You can just use a large recipient or you can check out value village. But if you are interested in the time marked water bottle, I will add the link in the description of the podcast. Another way to make sure you drink your water every day. You can use a tracker. There are a few free mobile apps where you can track your water intake.

I decided to pay for one that is called waterminder and with it I can even log my drinks onto my apple Watch, which is very convenient. And when I look at my apple Watch, I just see how much percentage of water I drink that day. It can also track coffee and tea and smoothie protein. Check, blah blah blah, et cetera. Another way to drink more water is just to make it fun.

Sometimes, even though I have all these trackers, I know I'm entering a challenging season. For example, during the holidays, I know that my habits are all over the place. What I do is that I buy a big box of flow water. This is a canadian brand as well. This is alkaline water.

I know I can just grab one and I'm going to finish it. It tastes really good and I just make it easier for a little change. Sometimes you want to bring a little fun into your routine. Here we are, a few tricks to drink more water. Let's move on to another tip to have more energy.

Okay. Sunlight and schedule. If you go to the gym early in the morning, like me, or you leave your house to go to work, you probably have noticed that it's dark outside. Then you work all day and maybe you take the transport or your car to go back home and it's dark again. This lack of sunlight in my day keeps my energy down, so I have made some changes.

First, like we talked earlier in this episode, I make sure I don't miss my lunch walks because that natural light in my eyes makes me feel good. It feels like a real lunch break, not like I'm eating quickly to go back to work. Then in the morning I am used to go to the gym as soon as it opens, which is 06:00 a.m. Here I walk to the gym and back to add some more cardio to my day. But now when I come back, it's so early, it's still dark and I feel stuck in a time machine where it's just dark all the time.

So I took a look at my calendar and I was able to move my schedule around to go to the gym later in the morning. So when I come back, I can see the sun rises and waking up with the sun outside, that gives me intense energy. I feel happy. Also, I've tried to schedule more of the deep work in the morning and the lighter work and the meetings in the afternoon because I can notice that my energy rises and sets with the sky outside. So how can you change your schedule to incorporate more sunlight?

Can you go on a 15 minutes lunch walk? Can you reorganize your meetings or the way you work during the day to get the tasks that take the most brain energy at the beginning of your day? Are you ready for the last advice to bring more energy into your life? I started listening to Ali Abdel's book feel good productivity and he talks about how to insert play to create energy in our tasks. And I did notice that both low energy and boredom were hanging out together.

So if like me, you feel a lack of motivation, maybe try working from a different place. Maybe you can work at friends at Starbucks. I've been doing this for a couple of weeks now to kick off my day in the morning. I just go to Starbucks, I work there two 3 hours and I come back home. Maybe you can work from the library for a few hours.

I know not everyone can work remotely, so I'm asking you, how can you change your work environment to make it more playful? Can you dress differently? Can you listen to a new playlist? A new podcast? You can't see me, but I'm waking at you.

A podcast? I don't know, maybe this one. Is there a candle you wanted to get? You can change the smell, the scent in your office, rearrange your furnitures. Maybe you can brainstorm a moment to see how can you bring more playfulness into your work schedule.

Because these habits are fast and simple, we often overlook their benefits and it's easy to cancel them. But they add up and make a big difference in your day and long term as well. We have the power to change our environment to make our life easier. And these are all my tips to bring more energy into your life this year. Because if we are in control of our energy, we can reach our objectives more easily.

So what is the one habit that you will be implementing to create energy into your life? I hope you enjoyed this episode of good in motion. If you loved this as much as I did, go ahead and rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode. This is Juliette signing off. See you next time.