The Simple 3 Step Morning Routine to Boost Energy + Increase Productivity
31 Oct 2024 · 12 min
Dr. Amy Shah shares a three-step morning routine: a 12-15 hour overnight fast, 2-20 minutes of movement and sunlight, then a high-protein, high-fiber meal with fermented foods. Kat Norton explains time-blocking your week by task type, since it takes about 2 hours to enter deep creative focus.
Questions this episode answers
October 31, 2024.
Approximately 12 to 15 hours (examples given: 7–7, 6–6, 8–8).
As little as 2 minutes; up to about 20 minutes if available.
High protein, high fiber, and fermented foods (e.g., egg scramble with veggies plus yogurt, cottage cheese, apple cider vinegar, or sauerkraut).
Map tasks as left-brained (analytical) or right-brained (creative) and time-block calendar days or multi-hour blocks accordingly.
Chapters
Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. It's time for another quickie because there's always time to fit in inspiration. And I'm doing something really fun this week for you guys. So at the end of some of my podcast interviews that I do, I have the guest kind of hold something back. Maybe it's their biggest life tip. Maybe it's their biggest marketing hack. And we do something called bonus content. And today I'm compiling a couple of my favorite pieces of bonus content from two incredible people that we are sharing for you today on this quick wiki. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this format because I would love to bring you even more bonus content. So let's get started. Hey everyone, welcome back to the BONUS ROUND with Dr. Amy Shaw. And she held back during our incredible podcast, which was so good that we just wrapped up. But you're going to tell everyone these signature way that you tell everyone to start their morning. What is that?
It's called a 3F warning now.
It's not the F. Say 3F. We like this. Okay, keep going.
So if you want to start, when I work with people, it's really overwhelming, right? People say like, oh my God, there's so many different things. Like just tell me the three things I need to do every morning to make sure that I have a healthy, energized, you know, hormone friendly, gut friendly day. And so the first F is fasting. Okay. Fasting means that not going on a 24 hour, five day, six day fast. It's just fasting overnight like we talked about with circadian rhythms, 12 to 14 to 15 hours. We're just want you to get used to not eating right when you're going to bed and right the second you.
Wake up, like when the sun is out. If the sun is out, you're safe.
Yeah, okay. Like just give it a 12 hour break. If you're not sure, do 7 to 7, 6 to 6, you know, 8 to 8. That's a really nice way to start. So you want to break from food and it sounds so easy. But most people are eating 16 plus hours a day, so it is a stretch to do 12. So it's definitely a fast. The second F is fitness and I love to like get some sunlight first thing in the morning. It's been really hard with these cold mornings, but even if we can just get two minutes of a movement in, surprisingly that makes a difference.
It's life changing.
Go outside, get some sunlight, go for a quick walk or just do some stretching. If you don't have time. Up to 20 minutes. Sometimes if it's really cold, I'll give you the hack. It's just get the two minutes of sunlight and then go to the gym. You know, first when you get to the gym, walk around for a couple of minutes before you go in. Because getting that natural sunlight, getting that body moving is a great way to get your body ready. If you think about it, thousands of years ago, we didn't just roll out of bed and have our first, you know, meal. You want to move your body a little bit, get some sunlight, get some.
We to go chase our food.
Yeah, there we go.
We to go find it.
Yes. You had to like, do you know, you had to, you weren't just having a pop tart, like right out of bed. And then the third F is the food you want. High fiber, fermented and high protein breakfast. So the food aspect is like that first meal of your day is going to make you or break you. And this has been for me, such a game changer and for everybody I've worked with. So that first meal, high protein, high fiber and fermented.
Give me an example of what you eat.
So like an egg scramble with veggies and then maybe you have a little bit of apple cider vinegar and water, or maybe you have a probiotic cotta cheese or yogurt or maybe you have like a spoon of sauerkraut. Whatever.
So what have you noticed with that? Like what, what changed for you?
Energy levels, cravings and mood? You'll notice.
Okay, I'm sold. We're good.
Yeah, I'm telling you, like the mood because protein, the fermented food, because we're feeding our gut bacteria and the fiber because again, we're feeding that gut bacteria. So you want to have and that first meal is your best chance honestly to get those three things in a meal. Right?
So like eggs, apple cider vinegar is easy. And what was the fiber like?
Veggies. Like a veggie scramble. So you could do a tofu scramble. If you don't eat eggs, you can do egg scramble, add spices, add veggies to get that fiber and then have a little bit of probiotics. So whether it's a little bit of yogurt, a little bit of probably probiotica cheese, a little bit of apple cider vinegar and water, but add that little fermented piece to it because that can really up the bacteria in your gut, which is what we're trying to grow. And then you start your day as you amazing.
Okay. Well, that is like very. If that's the place you guys got, if you're confused at all, like that is the most beautiful, basic, simple place to start. I love that so much. And she's thinking about adding a fourth F. But we're debating, we're debating, we're debating how that'll be taken. But thank you again for coming on. You guys go into the show notes, you can check out everything that she has. She also has that 15 day challenge and we will see you in the next podcast. Bye everyone. So welcome back. You are in the bonus content with Kat Norton, Ms. Excel and Ms. Optimize and you are going to share with.
Us what so this is one of my biggest tips when it comes to energy management. Now when we're talking about energy management, you may be already familiar with the concept of time management, right? We all have the same 24 hours in the day. We got our time blocks. However, energy management is how we are showing up in that time block. Are we showing up at 30%, are we showing up at 60% or are we hitting that hundred percent mark? And this is my trick for really getting in there and showing up at a hundred percent in those time blocks. Now the first thing that I do is typically on a Sunday night, I will map out all the tasks that I have for the week and I will mark them as either left brained or right brained activities. Now what this means. So we got two hemispheres of the brain.
Yep.
The left side of the brain is the one responsible for thinking about the past. It's thinking about the future, it's analyzing, it's crunching numbers, it's your spreadsheets, it's your to do list, it's your hair in a bun, iced coffee, sitting there knocking shit out, type of, type of, type of vibe there. And then we got the right side of the mind. The right side of the mind is in the present, it is in the now. It is where you can get those creative downloads so much more easily if you're in a right brain dominant state. Now we flip back and forth between left brain dominant and right brain dominant. However, it is really hard to do in the moment. And this is something I see so many people making the mistake of, especially in a corporate setting where typically, you know, if you're in a corporate job, you're like left brain dominant all damn day. Like I'd wake up left brain dominant, good brain dominant and, and everything. And then your boss will try to set a little, little calendar invite on there being like, let's have a 30 minute brainstorming session and you're like, how am I supposed to think of this million dollar idea and just flip back into the side of the mind? It's not as efficient and you're not showing up at that hundred percent mark. So what I do is I'll brain dump all my tasks. I'll mark them as left brain or right brain activities and then I will time block my calendar by the activity type. So for example, I do it even by the entire day. So I'll have a full day where I'm just like my get shit done day and go through and be cranking through that to do list. And then I'll have my other days where they're my creative flow state days. I will not wake up and check my email, I won't check social media. I will get out and take a walk, I'll meditate, I'll be grounding. And then by the time I sit down with that notebook and I'm trying to get those creative downloads, it's all pouring through and I'm operating at that hundred percent mark. So being able to break out my day now, if you're like, Kat, this sounds great but like, maybe I don't have control over my day. I don't have control over my whole schedule. Like, yeah, I can't just take my creative brainstorm day. So what I would recommend doing is at least getting in like a three hour time block, if you can, with these different activities when it comes to, you know, structuring out your schedule. Because for me I could tell you it takes me two hours to get into a creative total. I have to just be in that state and then things will start pouring out. And I'd argue too if you're like, well I'm not creative. I get this all the time. Like I would argue that every single person is creative. You just don't leave the space for creativity to happen.
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Amen.
Yeah.
Whenever I give myself the space, which it is three hours plus.
Yep.
I'm like oh my God I wish I could stay here all the time because it just flows and you have to just allow yourself to get into it and fight in the. It's a little bit of a fight in the beginning, and you have to trust. So I love that you shared that.
Yeah.
Okay.
I am so grateful for you. Where can people find you, follow you all the things?
Yes, you can find me at Miss Excel if you're in need of some tech tips, and then Miss Dot Optimize for tips on everything else.
Thank you so much for coming on, you guys. Thank you so much for joining in for the bonus content. And make sure you go find Kat, follow her, because she's got so much fun stuff. Coming up with Ms. Optimize as well. And we will see you on the next podcast. Bye, everyone.
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