Latest / Tone It Down / The New Health Equation: Mental Fitness Meets Physical Wellness—Part 2
Transcript
- 0:00One day I woke up and I had no idea where I was.
- 0:02And this was an experience of what I learned to be
- 0:06short-term memory loss that was burned out.
- 0:20Hello, it's Carina Don, your friend here.
- 0:23Welcome back to Tonet Down, where we sit down and have fun.
- 0:28Girlfriend, a girlfriend, conversations about all things,
- 0:31life, love, health, wellness, those conversations you have
- 0:36in between the workouts that are so much fun.
- 0:39All right, before today's guest, if you are in LA, my LA peeps,
- 0:44I even I saw on the part of full RSVP for this event on May 3rd
- 0:48that we have girls from the east coast flying out to California
- 0:54for the Tonet Up free community workout on May 3rd.
- 0:58That is so awesome. And we're going to welcome her because it's her
- 1:02first Tonet Up event. That is so exciting.
- 1:06Okay, so this event I'm going to put the link in the show notes.
- 1:09The link to RSVP will also be on the Carina Don, my personal instagram
- 1:14and in the link in bio for on Tonet Up's account.
- 1:18So make sure you RSVP because we are almost hitting capacity
- 1:23and you must RSVP to attend the event.
- 1:26It's absolutely free. We have lots of fun giveaways.
- 1:30We also have a really fun game that we're going to be playing.
- 1:34So just details at the links in bio on social media,
- 1:38link and show notes. Okay. And also one other thing,
- 1:43you know, I have another podcast called The Big Silence.
- 1:45It's all about self-development and mental health and we have a little
- 1:49dive deeper into the mental health side of conversations
- 1:52and life and all those things. The Big Silence.
- 1:54So make sure you also, aside from subscribing to Tonet Down,
- 1:59subscribe to The Big Silence. Next week we have Bob Sagitt's
- 2:03wife, Kelly Rizzo on the podcast. It is such a
- 2:07enduring inspiring story of love. And if you missed last week
- 2:13from Hollywood royalty to hitting rock bottom and now saving other people's
- 2:18lives, we have Randy Spelling, yes, the son of Aaron Spelling,
- 2:23the brother of Tori Spelling, great conversation there.
- 2:27Okay. Now what you've been waiting for today's podcast.
- 2:30It's part two of the new health equation, mental fitness meets physical wellness.
- 2:36So I sat down at a conference in Orange County recently.
- 2:40And part one was last week. You got a lot of homework.
- 2:42You have like four podcasts to listen to.
- 2:45I sat down with the incredible doctor Topeka Chopra, aka the optimism doctor.
- 2:50I sat down with Kim Lyons, master trainer and former biggest loser coach.
- 2:56And with your Tonet Up trainer, Ari Belgrave, and she really discusses burnout prevention.
- 3:03And she's a wellness entrepreneur. You know her. She's going to be in your
- 3:06sonet up summer challenge. So together we unpack the new equation that's
- 3:11changing everything, mental fitness, plus physical wellness,
- 3:15and topics of discussion include rewiring the brain for optimism.
- 3:19Why calorie counting is outdated science. We've always said that at Tonet Up
- 3:24for 17 years. We don't really like to count the calories, right?
- 3:28And the lessons we can learn from climbing a mountain with half the amount of
- 3:32recommended training time, which makes you think like you're always ready.
- 3:36Just just climb that mountain girl. We talk about the truth about burnout,
- 3:40the changes, everything reframing the way you talk to yourself after hard day,
- 3:44self leadership, the reframe that makes self care feel empowering, nourishing the brain,
- 3:51the nutrition link nobody is talking about. And also we discuss how even experts
- 3:58are working progress. And that's the whole point. Make sure to like, subscribe, share this
- 4:04podcast with someone you love and enjoy the episode.
- 4:09So let's talk about burnout. It's now a medical diagnosis in a world where
- 4:14hustle culture is praised, but burnout is a real thing. And I had a conversation
- 4:19doctor to be got this morning with you about how you prevent burnout. And I loved what you said.
- 4:26For me, I always stick to the data and the research. I'm such a data research person.
- 4:31And in the behavioral and psychological science world, something pretty counter into,
- 4:38I wouldn't say counterintuitive, but what came out of that research about burnout was very
- 4:43different than the way most people were talking about burnout. And I thought that was pretty interesting.
- 4:48So most people think burnout is I'm working too hard. And the fix for it is I need a vacation.
- 4:55I need rest or time off, which can be true. But actually what the research shows is burnout
- 5:00really arises from chronic stress and what the relationship and meaning to your work is.
- 5:08And so there are many people that can burn midnight oil and can work for a season. It has to be
- 5:15obviously we're not hoping for chronic. Everybody doesn't sleep every single day of their life. That's
- 5:20awful. But many people can push their limits and work harder than they can imagine or their
- 5:26limits they could work harder because they have a meaning and a sense of purpose connected to their
- 5:31work. And so what we found out was the sort of antidote to burnout was actually understanding
- 5:39what your meaning to the work is. And then from there, of course, things like boundaries and
- 5:44agency were really important more so than rest. And so yes, rest is important, but there's more to
- 5:50that story. But what if someone has a job and they're burnt out, but they don't have purpose
- 5:56in their job, because not everyone exactly has a purpose in their job.
- 5:59Excellent question, because I think that's a privilege a lot of times. A lot of us don't get to
- 6:03say that what we do for a living is what brings us our passion. Many of us do get to say that.
- 6:09And I think oftentimes entrepreneurs that have started something on their own and they have a lot
- 6:15of blood, sweat and tear and personal investment, they do have that sense of purpose and meaning.
- 6:21It's just a matter of how they interpret it. But I think that what's important for that is many
- 6:25people don't where they get their sense of purpose and meaning and what's connected to their values
- 6:31oftentimes as a side hustle. And so I think that's an important, you know, the generation sort of
- 6:37on the cusp of mine and right below mine research tells us they have literally the most side hustle
- 6:44than any other generation. They're making things work on the side that tick up their passion and it
- 6:48helps them drive further in what they have to do for work. And maybe sometimes they simultaneously
- 6:54sort of do both and then they can take a more calculated risk and actually make their work what
- 6:59their passion is about. But I want to be clear that not everybody's work equals their passion.
- 7:04And that's also okay. And I think we have to teach the generation below that because oftentimes I
- 7:09think we're told you should just do what you're passionate about. You should always do something
- 7:12you're passionate about. Right. But doesn't have to be exactly what you are. Yeah. I was having a
- 7:17chuckle talking to you and you're like, oh my gosh, I was in South by Southwest and then I was
- 7:22here and I'm going to Miami and I've been doing red eyes that are two and a half hours. Yeah,
- 7:26I'm like, girl, are you burnt out? And you're like, I have passion. Well, I think to add to that too,
- 7:33you know, which is so interesting is, you know, something you said earlier is pause. And,
- 7:38you know, something that I've learned very quickly is what I call the pause and pivot.
- 7:44Absolutely. Everybody's going to have that time, whether you call it burnout or just
- 7:48pure exhaustion or you just need a break. Midlife is no joke. You are shuffling everything in
- 7:53the universe from teenagers to jobs to families to, I mean, we take on it all and it's really hard
- 7:58to do everything. So what you have to do is pause. And it's not a vacation. It is a you pause
- 8:06and you pivot. And that pivot is when you set up systems. And, you know, I don't know if all of you
- 8:12are watching Gary breakfast, but he put up his morning routine. And I would bet that 90% of the
- 8:17people in the room went, oh my gosh, I mean, it's all these things that he does. And I look at it.
- 8:22And I'm like, I do all of those things minus the cold plunge in about 15 minutes because my
- 8:28systems are in place. When I look at fitness, I put it in three buckets. You've got the physical,
- 8:34you've got the mental and you've got the emotional. The emotional fitness is where we come in with
- 8:39consistency. Motivation is great, but we're all going to lose that when we get to that burnout
- 8:44phase. So you have to rely on consistency in your systems. For example, something I do every
- 8:50single morning, I have a little tiny kind of a plastic condiment dish. I put in my essential
- 8:55amino acids. I put in my creatine. I put in my colostrum. I put in a little bit of fiber.
- 8:59Every morning, it takes me five seconds. I set up seven of those little containers. But each
- 9:03morning, I set one out. I throw it in a cup. I throw some almond milk. I stirred up and I
- 9:07swig it down. It doesn't take me any time at all. But now I have a system in place that has helped
- 9:13me provide my body with a nutrients that's going to help me get through that stress.
- 9:18And I have about 15 of those little things that I do throughout the day. Those are my systems in
- 9:23place to help me through burnout and help me avoid burnout. So it's things like that that really
- 9:28you have to pause and pivot. Yeah. And I want to piggyback off of that because I feel like it's
- 9:33actually great that there's a word that is tied to the feeling of what's happening when we are in
- 9:38a state of what we know of to be burnout. And one thing I want to remind folks is burnout is
- 9:44stress that accumulates over a long period of time. It's not just a moment where you're like,
- 9:48okay, I'm burnt out because we had a tough day. So oftentimes many would try to put a bandaid on
- 9:55it. Like I'll just use my PTO. I can just take a day off. I'll take a week off. But oftentimes when
- 10:00folks get to a point of burnout, we are in this fight-of-flight mode. You could be at burnout for
- 10:05like a year. And what is often told is the time that it took for you to be in burnout, get to
- 10:12burnout is often the time it takes to recover. So when we talk about what it looks like to recharge
- 10:17our bodies, we have to make sure we're integrating that into our day to day. And having come from the
- 10:22corporate world where burnout was high-key, born as a badge of honor, right? It's reminding ourselves
- 10:28that when we are burnt out as leaders, we are not able to, well, it impacts our creative thinking,
- 10:34it impacts our decision-making, it impacts downstream, right? So if you're burnt out, then it cascades
- 10:40down to your teams. So making sure that we are taking the best care of ourselves and doing what
- 10:44we can in the in-between, and not just throwing a bandaid on it because the very things,
- 10:49you know, you take PTO, and then you come back to the very things that cause you to be burnt out
- 10:53in the first place. So what does it look like for you to make sure you're handling those things
- 10:57that cause that stress? Yeah, Dr. DePica, you're actually going to Miami to speak to a corporate
- 11:03wellness and optimism and mindset in corporate leadership. So you can probably, like,
- 11:09how do you train corporate leadership to see that in their employees and take care of themselves?
- 11:15This is like my favorite topic at the lot of times. I do a lot of workshop and training for
- 11:22corporate leaders. And right now, with the big thing that I'm working on is with probably the
- 11:26biggest consultant groups on AI and uncertainty and job security. And the world is very fast-paced.
- 11:35And there's lots of uncertainty in addition to the normal stressors of personal life,
- 11:41corporate life, global life, all of that. Something that was coming up for me when we were talking,
- 11:46I think what's really interesting to learn more about is stress theory. And a lot of times we
- 11:52just think of the word stress and everybody has a response to that. That is like, you know,
- 11:57you feel tight and stress is the big bad wolf. And oftentimes stress can get to that point when
- 12:03it becomes chronic and unmanage. But actually in the neuroscience world, we describe stress as
- 12:10the response, the human response to daily living. And so if you are a human and you are living
- 12:16and you are responding to life, that is stress. So stress and worry are actually part of our normal
- 12:21existence. Of course, the key point here is not the stressor. It's how we're interpreting the
- 12:27stress. And yes, everything's on a continuum. If we get to a point of chronic stress that's
- 12:32unmanaged, it can be detrimental to our physical bodies and our mental and emotional bodies. But
- 12:38there's a point there before that. And I think that was exactly spot on on this starts from a long
- 12:44time ago. It's not something that is acute and immediate. But there's a point before all that,
- 12:49which we all have to learn better and leaders, especially how we're interpreting setback,
- 12:55stress and things that don't go our way. And one of the most important things that we can do and
- 13:01train leaders is the language, the language in which we interpret and label and share a setback.
- 13:08And so either a leader could look at a setback and say, well, we really asked this one up.
- 13:14And there's no going back. And x, y, and z, y, this is awful and it's bad. Or we can look at it and
- 13:20say, you always have to be grounded in reality. No one's going to relate to you or have trust in
- 13:25you as a leader if you are delulu, you know, if you're sitting there being like, it's okay, everything's
- 13:31fine. It'll all work out. But we have to look at something and really be able to use language that
- 13:36is more consistent with explanatory style and understand and say, this did not go the way we expected
- 13:42it to go. This is not ideal. What are we going to learn from it and what is our next step? And then
- 13:48further, like we've been through struggle before. This is the piece that most humans on a personal
- 13:53level and in the corporate world, we kind of mess up. We forget to remind people and ourselves that
- 14:00we have climbed really tall mountains before, not Kilimanjaro, all of us. We've been through hard
- 14:06times before. We've had set back before as a teen. How did we get through it? Reminding ourselves,
- 14:12what was our strategy? What did we do? And even if something doesn't look the same, it's again,
- 14:17that reminder of, we've done hard things before. Things are not always easy and they won't always
- 14:22come our way. But we're still really grounded in the reality of it and saying, well, this sucks and
- 14:26it didn't go, you know, this wasn't what we expected. But what is our next step? So we always want to
- 14:31move from rumination of, why did this happen? You can't go anywhere really with, why did this
- 14:37happen? We can answer some of it, but we need to say what is our next step? And this is not the
- 14:41whole story. So we need to move from rumination to agency. Yeah, I was, this sucks. Now what?
- 14:47I was going to chime out on like my HR former HR head on too. And I love everything you said here.
- 14:52And I think what is also important when it comes to leadership well-being and so forth,
- 14:57oftentimes. And now there's a shift is that it's very well-being is very individualized and a lot
- 15:03of corporations. And the shift that I'm loving is that we are making it very important that
- 15:10companies are fusing it into the culture, right? It's not just sending someone about their
- 15:14merry way. Here's a headspace app. Here is credits that you could use via class pass. It is what
- 15:20does it look like as a team to incorporate health and well-being? And it does start with the leader.
- 15:24And there's a word that I often use that allows for a shift in perspective because I feel like
- 15:29oftentimes self-care when people hear it, they're like, oh, like self-care. But self-leadership is one
- 15:34that often resonates. What is self-leadership? It is reminding you that you have to take care of
- 15:38yourself in order to lead others. If that's one that sticks better than self-care, then take it
- 15:43and run with it. But that is one that is a good reminder that we are unable to lead organizations,
- 15:48lead teams make a big impact if we are not doing all the things to tend to ourselves.
- 15:54Yeah, and I think that's really important to you and not feel like you're being selfish
- 15:57by taking care of yourself. That's right. That's exactly right. So I don't want to miss the
- 16:02conversation around mental fitness, mental wellness, and nutrition. So, Kim, I would love to talk
- 16:08to you about that. The importance of what you put in your body and how it affects your brain.
- 16:13It's everything. It's literally everything. I mean, when you look at nutrition like I talked
- 16:18a little bit about earlier, it's the messages that are being sent to your body. And understanding
- 16:24what food means in your body and what it is doing in your body. And so frequently people eat,
- 16:29and they don't know what they're eating for. They don't know what that food purpose is. And there's
- 16:35a link that's missing there in understanding what nutrition is doing for our body. So I really
- 16:43encourage people to really break down, look at your meal. And if you don't know what that particular
- 16:49food is doing for you, look it up. You know, you look at broccoli. You know, it's good for you.
- 16:55But what's in that broccoli that's making it good for you? So for a thing, it's an amazing
- 17:00compound in broccoli. With that said, another thing that is absolutely critical in the path of
- 17:06nutrition is, yeah, you so frequently hear people say, I have to find myself. No, you have to
- 17:12learn yourself. And that information is out there now. And I can't stress the importance of
- 17:18going out there and doing tests, function health, less than $500, you can have 108 biomarkers,
- 17:26might even be more than that, where it's going to break down for you what you're missing.
- 17:30Now you have that missing link and you can go, okay, this nutrient's really low. Where do I find
- 17:34that? Omega-3s? It's low. I'm going to go eat some salmon. I'm going to take an Omega-3 supplement.
- 17:38On top of that, there are genetic tests that you can do. 3x4 is my favorite. And you can learn
- 17:44what your genetic variants are. Are you able to methylate vitamins when you take them?
- 17:49Or do you need extra this that or the other? Do you have high oxalates? And you can really
- 17:54individualize what kinds of food your body needs. And when you find those missing nutrients,
- 18:00you can cater to them. So really, really critical on the nutrition side to not go out there and
- 18:06try and find yourself because nobody's going to be helping you find yourself out there. You got to
- 18:10learn your body, blood work, genetic tests. You can do microbiome tests. All these things that are
- 18:18so, so important for your body. All right. So I want to know from each of you, was there a moment
- 18:24that you had like an aha moment where you realized you had to lean into your mental fitness to
- 18:30achieve all of the goals that you wanted to achieve? Oh gosh. Can I just say yes on such a big level
- 18:35there? And for me, it was after the biggest loser. I had worked insane hours. It was just
- 18:40very mentally draining. I went to a very introverted quiet world where I may have been famous in
- 18:45the fitness space, but I wasn't famous in the world. And it was very, very uncomfortable to have
- 18:50everybody know my name, my dogs name, all the things. The gym had always been my safe spot. And
- 18:54now I couldn't even go in the gym without every trainer going, oh, you're that girl. I bet you
- 18:59can't survive my workout. And it was like this mentality where I'm like, oh, oh gosh, stop. So
- 19:04for me, finding my mental health and going, what do I need to recover? What is what do I need?
- 19:10And that's when I started to go into, you know, what they now call woo woo and biohacking all these
- 19:15things. Those were around for a long time. The red light therapy, the sun as all the things that
- 19:20just helped me felt grounded. I craved the outdoors. I craved having my feet in the sand. And at
- 19:25the time, I didn't really understand that what I was craving was grounding. And all these things
- 19:30that I've started to put together into routines and it changed my life. It helped me get out of that
- 19:35constant fight or flight and find that parasite at the stage where my body was able to recover.
- 19:41The sleep came back. The mental noise came down. And that foundational piece really was
- 19:47life saving for me and really turned me on to the whole aspect of mental health.
- 19:52In my case, I quickly learned that the body does indeed keep score. And for me, my moment,
- 19:59which hands down is one that I always share, was when I was working in corporate. And I'll just
- 20:05paint this quick picture of who I was at this time early in my career. I wore being able to do it
- 20:11all as a badge of honor. I had zero boundaries. I was that girl who got it done no matter what.
- 20:17But there were a lot of things that I sacrificed. Number one being my well-being. And one day I woke
- 20:23up and I had no idea where I was. And this was an experience of what I learned to be short-term
- 20:29memory loss that was burned out. And I quickly learned that I didn't need to take those pauses.
- 20:35And that moment really was my reality check. Because I'm like, well, what am I doing all this
- 20:39for? Right? It's not to be able to get to a point where I'm not serving my body. I'm not going
- 20:44to be able to enjoy all that I'm working for. So that was my moment that I'm like, okay, it's time
- 20:50to change some things. It's time to set boundaries. I can still be high performer and sustain my
- 20:56success and take care of my wellness. Dr. Pika. Ditto, ditto, ditto. Now I'm still working on it.
- 21:03And that's great. I'm still like very much a work in progress. I am known as the optimism
- 21:09doctor, but I am not the most optimistic person. I love how you're always talking about that. I'm not
- 21:13like naturally optimistic. I would say in my family, my small microcosm, my parents are right
- 21:19there, by the way. Hi, parents. I'm probably the least optimistic person, but it's a skill and
- 21:26I've been working really hard on it. But I think what happens is I'm a big believer in seasons of
- 21:32life right now and in the last few years have been big seasons in life. And it's really challenging.
- 21:38And I think becoming a parent, I have three small kids and I'm trying to run a business and
- 21:44I'm in the middle of lunch week for my book, which is a whole other thing. I've never
- 21:48traveled in this way. I mean, I've worked before, but I've never like, and this is such a vulnerable
- 21:55thing. I've been through medical stuff like every season is just different. I think I'm still
- 22:00working on it. And mindset has always been the thing that has become something that is my challenge.
- 22:07But I have the most tools around. Doesn't mean you're always great at using them. It's the physical
- 22:12piece that I'm really trying to focus on over the next year because I am wildly bad at it.
- 22:18Like just, yeah, I don't want to tell these. And I don't want to tell these people. We got to
- 22:22year on the right stage. I want to tell these people, you know, have accountability. Don't
- 22:28look at my steps on my aura ring. I won't let you. We won't touch you in this season of life.
- 22:34The good thing we've learned from today, that change is possible at any moment, anytime,
- 22:39and where you're at is okay. Just know that you're capable of anything. And I want to ask,
- 22:44I want to end this panel with three minutes left. Okay, little rapid fire. What's the weirdest
- 22:50food you eat and absolutely hate, but you consume it for your health? And what is, what do you do for
- 22:56fitness that you hate that you do? Because it's good for your health. Well, I know you don't do
- 23:00anything for this is so funny. I was just on a podcast. I was just on Will Kohl's podcast.
- 23:04And he asked me this at the end. And I was like, I am not a risk taker when it comes to food.
- 23:10Like I like my food to taste good. And so I wish I could say that it was something. That is one
- 23:16of my things that I'm trying to work on. I told him this is like getting outside of my comfort zone
- 23:20physically. I'm really good at it mentally. Do you want to go for a walk after this? I would love
- 23:25you, but I'm flying the Miami to go do a workshop. I think you want to go. I'm talking about
- 23:32like taking food. Like if something tastes gross, I just won't do it. So I haven't found that yet.
- 23:36But what I will, what was the second question? I had an answer for that.
- 23:39Typically, like for fitness, what you do that you know, this is really silly. I love walking.
- 23:45That's fine. It's very enjoyable. This is embarrassing. But I read somewhere that balance is
- 23:50like a very good key for, you know, brain health and longevity. So I balanced on one foot when I
- 23:56brushed my teeth. My husband thinks I'm crazy. No, no, I'm not brushing my teeth right now.
- 24:01And I do squats when I'm trying to figure out in the closet what to wear. That's the only
- 24:05place I can get it. It's like become sort of I have it stacked. That's it. Do you know that?
- 24:09And I'm very hydrated. So I have to pee a lot. I do five squats every time I pee.
- 24:15Oh, wow. I love these. I'm learning stuff tips. Girls, those are awesome, by the way.
- 24:19And mine's not really a food, but you guys, I take essential amino acids. And I don't care what
- 24:24anybody says. I've tried every brand. They all taste terrible. So it's just about getting it done.
- 24:29It's not Disneyland in your mouth. And I've accepted that. And I do it every single day sometimes
- 24:33twice a day. But if anybody has an amino acid brand that you think is amazing that I haven't found
- 24:38out there, but I can tell you it is the most valuable supplement out there, especially in the
- 24:43landscape of all the GLPs. Your body has to have the building blocks. And if you're losing muscle,
- 24:48you're losing longevity. So that is my one non-negotiable that I drink that I don't like at all.
- 24:55And as for fitness, I got to say, I have a really big library of exercises in my nuggets.
- 25:00So I tend to not do things I don't like because there's a million different ways to work one muscle.
- 25:05But Bulgarian split squats. It's a love hate. It's a love hate. Am I not right? Like it's anyone
- 25:12do both. Yeah. So that is that is the one that I feel like everybody hates them. But we all do
- 25:18them. And it's like secretly, we kind of love that we just did it. There you go.
- 25:23So I'll piggyback off of that and I will add running. So if I'm playing a sport running natural,
- 25:30I used to play rugby, but just running to run. It's just just really hard. When it comes to food,
- 25:37I'll get specific hair and say beats. I consume it often because of iron levels and I need to make
- 25:45sure my iron levels are high, but not the biggest fan of it in a smoothie is not so bad.
- 25:50All right. Well, thank you. And with 10 seconds left, we did it.