172 Nutrition For Peak Performance and Brain Health with Nutritionist and Health Coach, Sarah Elisabeth

Lucy Gernon (00:03.232)

Hi there and welcome back to another episode of the 360 Leadership Podcast. I am joined today by the fantastic Sarah Elizabeth, who is a certified health and nutrition coach and consultant who has been running her online practice for five years. She has worked with over 350 top executive female leaders and CEOs. She does one to one, she runs group programs and her whole area is around the area of well-being and nutrition.

 

supporting women leaders really to, I suppose, establish your peak performance and excel in both leadership and life. So you are so welcome to the show. It’s so good to have you here. How are you?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (00:41.208)

Thank you so much. Thank you for that lovely introduction. And I’m very, excited to be here, especially after our podcast with you as my guest went so well and I got so much amazing feedback. So I’m dying to get back in the room with you, to be honest.

 

Lucy Gernon (00:54.792)

fantastic. Well, today you are in the hot seat and I cannot wait to pick your brain on all of the knowledge. And guys, we link that episode to Elizabeth’s podcast in the show notes later on as well. do you want to start by just telling us a little bit about who you are and what actually led you to become a nutritionist and health coach specifically for women in leadership?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (01:16.94)

Yeah, great question. So I feel like my journey has been a really long one that started literally from the age of 11 or 12 when I really had a pretty dysfunctional relationship with food, I would say. And so I kind of have been on this really long quest of a, figuring out my own health and then kind of progressing on my health journey. So I work with a lot of high performing female leaders.

 

a lot of type A personalities. And I think I’ve been reflecting on this over the past couple of weeks, actually. And one of the things that I have kind of noticed with my own path into this work is that I was never really a high performer. I didn’t really get the opportunity to be a high performer when I was younger because I moved around a lot as a child. We moved backwards and forwards from Poland to England. You I’ve lived in so many different houses in so many different towns. I’ve switched schools so many different times.

 

And I never really had the opportunity to fully settle in one place and to truly get that kind of momentum going with my own health, with my own hobbies, with schooling, with my academic career. And I feel like my health journey has kind of mirrored my journey into becoming a high performer and really learning what it means to be someone who’s committed, somebody who is…

 

someone who’s working really hard for a goal that they are hoping to achieve. I was really late to the party with figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. And so I feel like my own health journey was kind of dysfunctional because I had so much going on and I had to go through this kind of process of a learning what habits really worked for me, how to navigate a dysfunctional relationship with food and then the symptoms that came along with that, right? So

 

I battled with a lot of hormonal imbalances. I was diagnosed with IBS and told that I was going to need to be on meds for the rest of my life. And then having kind of gone down this road of nutrition and learning to heal myself through food and lifestyle, then kind of progressed into working with high performers and learning what it really takes to perform at your peak as a female leader and to run a business in a way that’s really productive and efficient. And for that, you need rest.

 

Lucy Gernon (03:25.676)

Thank

 

Sarah Elisabeth (03:36.876)

you need good nutrition and you need to be fueling your body correctly. And you also need to be training. You know, there’s not a lot of difference between performance nutrition for athletes and performance nutrition for female leaders because we’re kind of working at the same capacity. And so it’s, it’s been a long, a long journey for sure.

 

Lucy Gernon (03:53.704)

my God, there are so many things I want to ask you. So you spoke about fueling your body for peak performance and you spoke about, you know, to have that, need to sleep, you need to rest, you need to obviously fuel your body with the right stuff. And obviously we all know this. How? How do we do it?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (04:11.626)

Yeah, absolutely. So kind of going back to that trifecta and what I work on with my one-on-one clients, which is that body, first of all, is really, important. So thinking about the symptoms that might be holding you back, that’s the first thing. So a lot of the times when clients first come to me, they’ve got some form of symptoms that are preventing them from functioning at their peak. So that’s

 

way of getting almost like if you’re in your overdraft, right? Before we even work on peak performance and the optimization and the 1%, which was where a lot of female leaders spend their time, before they’ve even discovered what nutrient deficiencies do I have? What symptoms am I battling with on a day-to-day basis, which usually is things like brain fog, hormonal imbalances, bloating, digestive issues.

 

low energy, poor sleep, whatever it might be. And so the first thing that you need to do is identify what it is that’s kind of holding you back in the first place. What symptoms are you experiencing on a day-to-day basis and generate some awareness about what’s going in the tank in the first place, right? So what are you consuming? I’m a really big fan of using tech and tools to support you in knowing where you’re at with everything. I’m…

 

currently wearing a continuous glucose monitor. I found it really beneficial to help you understand how your body’s responding to food. I’m a big fan of tracking your food to understand how much protein am I eating? Am I eating enough? How much fiber am I eating? Is there enough variation of nutrients going in the tank for me? Am I eating enough to fuel my high performance lifestyle? And really just getting the basics down pat first. So that’s the first part is.

 

body, right? So looking at how your body is functioning, symptoms that you might be experiencing and correcting any nutritional deficiencies, any mineral imbalances that might be preventing you from just even just functioning normally on a day-to-day basis. The next one is brain. So this is where things get really exciting and where I love to spend time with clients. So when we’re looking at brain health, we’re not just thinking about

 

Sarah Elisabeth (06:17.358)

nutrition, which we can go into that if you want to in a little bit more detail specific nutrition for the brain. But we’re also thinking about cognitive drills and practicing. you’ve got in your brain, right, you’ve got lots of different regions and every single region of the brain is responsible for different functions.

 

And so if you think about the amount of skills that we need to utilize as female leaders on a day-to-day basis, right, the amount of information that we have to process, the amount of high-stake decisions that we’re making on a day-to-day basis, the amount of difficult conversations that we sometimes have to have, the amount of communication that we’re expecting ourselves to have on a day-to-day basis, and even things like, you know, your visionary thinking, all of that requires different crevices of the brain, if you will. And if you’re not…

 

Practicing using those on a day-to-day basis. If you’re not practicing utilizing each of those different skills, you lose the ability to use them over time. And what I find with a lot of the female leaders that I work with is that they kind of wait until they’re in a high-stakes situation before they utilize that skill. And so it’s almost like being an athlete and kind of expecting yourself to function at your peak when you’re only training on race day.

 

or when you’re only training when you’ve got a competition coming up, right? We need to be practicing these skills in and around our work so that when we have to make a high-state decision or we have to have a difficult conversation or there is a lot of information that we need to process, we’re already utilizing those skills because we’ve been practicing them. And so that side of the spectrum is really, really interesting and fun. Another one is hydration. your brain, even if you’re…

 

Lucy Gernon (07:52.074)

Hmm

 

Sarah Elisabeth (07:59.95)

2 % dehydrated, it can impair your cognitive function by at least 20%. So yeah, it’s nuts, isn’t it? So many people who are going around, even with a 2 % rate of dehydration, your brain isn’t functioning anywhere near as well as it could be. And not just hydration in terms of drinking two liters of water a day, which is again, something that so many female leaders kind of lean into drinking lots and lots of water. Actually, we’re just flushing out a lot of electrolytes if that’s what you’re doing.

 

Lucy Gernon (08:05.843)

What?

 

Lucy Gernon (08:29.342)

Oops, that’s me.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (08:29.678)

Adding in electrolytes is such a powerful way of properly hydrating, getting that cellular hydration that’s really going to fuel your brain to think straight. And actually, if you struggle with a lot of brain fog or you feel like you’re slow thinking or it takes you a while to process information, some good electrolytes could help. So I use Element. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them before, but they’re little sachets.

 

The sodium is quite high and they’re good for really active female leaders as well. They’ve got lots of amazing flavors, but one of those a day can be really beneficial and you’ll notice a massive, massive impact in the way that your brain’s functioning throughout the day.

 

Lucy Gernon (09:07.648)

The Dior light is an electrolyte as well, right? Is that as good? Cause I do have, I do have another brand that I, now I’m going to go take my electrolytes straight off the podcast.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (09:14.782)

Yes. Yeah, I think have a look at the have a look at the ingredients on the labels. And this is another thing, right, that I just find is one of my biggest bug bars as a nutritionist is there are so many things that are labeled as electrolytes, high protein, high fiber. And then you look at the label and it’s full of sugar, full of fillers, full of emulsifiers. So try and keep the ingredients to as low as you can. So practicing looking at what you’re eating, looking at the labels and

 

asking yourself, know, am I happy that this is going in my body? It can be helpful. I’m not aware of exactly what’s in your electrolytes, but have a look at the label and see if, you know, are there any artificial sweeteners? Are there any artificial sugars, anything that’s going in there that you’re not happy with? But it’s a good idea to check the label, but there are lots of different brands. Hunter and Gather have some good ones as well. Electrolytes in lots of different flavors.

 

and Humantra are another brand that are really good, really accessible. there are lots of different brands, but just have a look at the label and see if you’re happy with them.

 

Lucy Gernon (10:16.703)

Okay, so you recommend even just taking one a day? Okay, great. I can do that. We can do that, girls.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (10:19.67)

Yeah, one a day and even, yeah, we can do that. And the return on, and this is what I love about health, right, is the return on investment is huge. So you’re putting in daily action that is, you know, we’ve got to sit down to eat every day anyway, three times a day, hopefully, if you’re fueling yourself properly, we are drinking all day anyway. So just by optimizing what’s going on your plate or what’s going in your water bottle can massively improve the way that you’re performing on a day to day basis.

 

basis, the ROI is huge and so it’s worth putting in that extra time and just knowing what it is that you’re trying to. I’m a bang for buck kind of girl so I’m like if I’m gonna sit down and eat a meal and spend half an hour of my day consuming something, bet your bottom dollar I’m gonna make it the most nutritious meal I possibly can so that I can fuel myself well for the rest of the day. Same with water, getting your electrolytes in which is a super easy hack that’s just gonna make all the difference.

 

but you can also use coconut water. Coconut water is really high in potassium, so good for you. And actually I do have mineral testing with my clients and I always see low potassium is so, common and we really need that. A lot of female leaders that I work with struggle with like twitching, so twitching of the eye, twitching of limbs sometimes. This is a sign that you are low in potassium or magnesium. And so, yes.

 

Lucy Gernon (11:37.072)

My eyes, it’s, my God, definitely. I’m going to be working with Sarah like imminently. So I will keep you posted on my journey.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (11:42.894)

Yes, keep us up to date. a glass of coconut water with a little pinch of sea salt to add in those sodium levels is an absolute game changer. So even if you’re not convinced on the electrolyte side of things, that could be a really good way of getting something naturally.

 

Lucy Gernon (12:01.676)

Okay, fabulous. Okay, so this is super, like you mentioned there about like sitting down to eat, you know, three meals a day. And one thing I would like you to give your take on is a lot of the female leaders I work with, they do not do that because they are so busy. They may skip breakfast. They may grab, you know, if they’re in the office and they’re at back-to-back meetings, they might, you know, grab a poor food choice. I mean, I, you know, do it myself.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (12:26.797)

Yeah.

 

Lucy Gernon (12:26.902)

grabbed food from a deli because it’s quick and easy. And then in the evening time, maybe they’re so busy that they, you know, it might be something processed for dinner sometimes. I’m not saying all of the time, but that is the reality for a lot of women in leadership because of their level of responsibility. Nutrition comes last. So not always. But what would you recommend, first of all, there’s so many things I want to ask you on this, but what would you recommend in terms of being realistic with

 

Sarah Elisabeth (12:51.341)

Yes.

 

Lucy Gernon (12:56.616)

expectations that these women have of themselves because sometimes sitting down to eat three nutritious meals is not going to be an option. Where would they even begin to start would you say?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (13:06.306)

Yeah, yeah. And I think this is, again, this is exactly why I do what I do, because in theory, all of the information is available, right? But how are we actually gonna make it implementable for our day-to-day lives? I think this is where it’s really helpful to A, understand what it is that you’re doing so that you know that you’re getting a really specific, bespoke.

 

advice for you. So for example, if I’m low in certain nutrients, I know that I need to prioritize those things in order to improve. this is where some testing or some awareness around what’s actually going on can help you get buy-in for why you’re doing what you’re doing. But I think it’s also really important because it’s difficult to look at someone’s day and think, right, you’re going to have to just add in time to sit down for three nutritious meals today. That’s nigh on impossible if your habits remain the same, right, in order for you to create change.

 

Lucy Gernon (13:42.305)

Yes.

 

Lucy Gernon (13:57.109)

Mmm.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (13:57.876)

life you’re going to have to tweak things around so we’ve got to understand well why don’t we have time for those three meals is it because and breakfast especially right so breakfast is the most important meal of the day it really is i know that that’s the saying that is kind of thrown around but it absolutely is and if you front load

 

your nutrition to the beginning part of your day, you will notice a massive, massive improvement in not only your mental cognition, but in your energy levels. For anyone who’s having that 3pm drop in the afternoon, that’s down to what you were doing early in the morning. That’s got nothing to do with your afternoon state of being. That’s actually because we didn’t set ourselves up well enough first thing to be able to create sustainable energy for the day. And so

 

Lucy Gernon (14:43.66)

And what would you recommend? Sorry, I’m just jumping in here. But like say for breakfast, a lot of a lot of women, again, like they don’t like big breakfast. They are too busy or like intermittent fasting comes into play. Like what what do you recommend? And I know it’s bespoke per person, but in general.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (14:46.177)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (14:58.144)

Yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, so I think you’ve got to start with where you’re at. So if you’re someone who’s like, the thought of breakfast makes me physically sick, I don’t want to do it, not a vibe for me, then even just having a smoothie is a good place to start. I don’t love it. I don’t think that smoothies and protein shakes and things like that are as satiating as a good high protein meal. However, it’s better than nothing. So meet yourself where you’re at and start steady.

 

I would advocate for something like, I love a savory breakfast. And actually, I really don’t believe in breakfast foods. I think that the sooner we can get out of the habit of eating breakfast foods for breakfast, the sooner we’ll all create optimal health. So the way that I like to look at breakfast is so I will have salmon and I literally, I know this sounds gross, but you know those tins of salmon that you can get at the supermarket, wild pink salmon.

 

I will have one of those in the morning with sometimes hard boiled eggs that I did the day before and a handful of rocket. So that is immediately like five minutes put together time, especially if you precook the boiled eggs for, know, and chuck them in your lunchbox and take them with you to work.

 

or you have it in your fridge ready to go. Those tins are such game changers because it’s a hit of protein that’s still really satiating, that is readily available and it doesn’t go off. if it’s in the cupboard for weeks and weeks, it really doesn’t matter, you’re not wasting any food. And so little hacks like that can be really beneficial and you throw it in a bowl. One of the things that I always say to my one-on-one clients is it doesn’t have to make emotional sense, it has to make nutritional sense.

 

So you’ll find me chucking chicken sausages with a handful of blueberries, with a handful of sauerkraut and eating that for breakfast. It makes nutritional sense, right? We’ve got a high protein meal. Yes, I’ve added in some fiber that doesn’t quite feel right, because you’re eating fruit with savory, but the ROI that you will get on that investment of time, and this is where if you can learn to throw quick things together and carry it around with you, the amount of my clients who will pre-cook a bunch of…

 

Lucy Gernon (16:32.294)

I’m so confused.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (16:58.636)

chicken sausages and take them in and literally eat them cold at their desk first thing in the morning with a handful of blueberries, that is going to sustain you way better. And you’ll notice a massive difference. Then if you’re skipping breakfast, I’m not a believer in intermittent fasting. There’s not a lot of science, especially for menstruating women. We’re finding now that actually a lot of the studies that have been done on intermittent fasting have actually been done on men or post menopause or women. And so when we’re looking at things like

 

Lucy Gernon (17:26.796)

What?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (17:28.184)

hormonal balance, yeah. So when we’re looking at things like creating hormonal balance and energy as menstruating women or women who aren’t in that post-menopausal phase, we need fuel, right? And we need a good level of fuel to function at our peak. So in my opinion, it’s worthy of the investment of time. And if you’re someone who’s like, I’m so busy, I just don’t have capacity, can you grab and go something? Where can you meet yourself where you’re at?

 

Could you pre cook something while you’re cooking your dinner the night before and chuck it in the fridge for later and eat it, you know, with your hands in the car if you need to. I don’t love that, but I appreciate that some people are going from absolutely nothing to trying. And so that’s where we need to kind of just meet ourselves with with the benchmark that we’re at. And then over time, when you start to notice, and this is the great thing about female leaders is when they start to notice progression.

 

they immediately wanna continue, because they’re like, this stuff works. And so create a little bit of a result for yourself to get buy-in to do more is where I would start. But as I was kind of saying earlier as well, look at your full routine, right? So if you’re someone who’s rushing around and busy in the morning, ask yourself, are you setting yourself up well the night before? Sometimes your morning meal actually relies on you being a little bit, making a little bit more space in the evening, even if it only takes five minutes. I’m a really big fan.

 

talk to my own clients about the lazy girl way of doing something because I’m a business owner as well. I’m busy. I have a lot going on. I don’t have time to be meal prepping and spending hours and hours in the kitchen. I’m a big fan of the slow cooker. So when I’m up in the morning and I’m chucking things in a lunchbox for the day, I’m also throwing things in the slow cooker and I will often cook once and eat three or four times from that meal. you chuck a

 

bunch of ingredients in, it’s cooking while you’re out and about, you come back, your dinner’s ready, right? So utilising some of these little hacks can be a really beneficial way of getting good nutrient dense foods in without you feeling like you’re sat in the kitchen for hours.

 

Lucy Gernon (19:22.668)

And if there were five foods that you would recommend that everybody should have these five things, what would they be?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (19:30.83)

Mm, I love this. So first of all, I’m a big fan of red meat. I think red meat is a superfood. I know there’s a lot of noise about red meat not being beneficial. I think quality is really important when it comes to red meat, but I think it’s an absolute powerhouse. know, protein is really essential for us, especially as female leaders. And so I’m a big fan of…

 

beef mince, especially mixed in with, this is probably gonna gross everybody out, but I’m a big fan of organ meats. So organ meats are literally, nature’s multivitamin, they are full of vitamins and minerals that we need to function at our peak. So we’re looking at B vitamins, we’re looking at selenium, we’re looking at zinc, all of these incredible nutrients that’s just packed into one food. So I will get…

 

and I order this online, I’ll get mints with a small percentage of awful meat in it so you don’t even taste it. And I’ll make a chili and eat it a couple of times a week and that’s my multivitamin tick done through food. So I’m gonna say first one is red meat and I always find that when we increase protein intake, especially nutrient dense bioavailable protein intake, immediately people notice that there.

 

hair is thicker, they have more energy, their skin health improves, they feel stronger, they’re sleeping better, and so that’s number one. I’m also a really big fan of probiotic rich foods, so sauerkraut is an appropriate side for every single meal. I’m a really big fan. It’s got lots of beneficial bacteria in it that support your gut health, and it’s a really easy way of getting fiber into your diet because usually you buy it in a jar. So again, when we’re thinking about throwing together those five minute meals,

 

having a couple of forkfuls of sauerkraut and just chucking it on the side of something that you precooked beforehand makes a meal that’s just protein, also protein and fiber. So really big fan of anything pickled or fermented. Blueberries, really, really important for brain health. Blueberries are an absolute super food. If you can find them wild, that’s even more beneficial because they have.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (21:41.474)

more nutrients in them, even if you get them frozen. Frozen is fine. In fact, they often freeze them when they’re at their most nutritious phase of life. And so if you’re buying frozen berries and things like that for keeping or whatever, that’s totally okay. But definitely berries are really beneficial, especially blueberries.

 

Lucy Gernon (22:01.72)

And what’s, when you say wild, do mean organic or what’s wild mean?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (22:05.038)

Yeah, so wild organic is always best with berries anyway, just because they can be sprayed with a lot of pesticides, unfortunately. So organic is always best with berries. In fact, I recommend looking up the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15. This is basically the the 12 most kind of pesticide ridden foods on the market versus the 12 that are like the cleanest.

 

And so if something’s on the dirty dozen, I would recommend getting it organic. And if it’s on the clean 15, then, you know, it’s okay to have it not organic. Or if you don’t buy it organic, you just want to make sure that you’re washing it properly and really, you know, and really being diligent about that. So it’s worth having a look at that. I’ve got a copy of that on my notes in my phone so that I’m just like, while I’m walking through there, I’ll zoom on it. Yeah, it’s worth it. Yeah, yeah, totally, totally.

 

Lucy Gernon (22:51.266)

God, we are all doing that. it. Dirty dozen and the clean 15, we will remember that one. Okay, so we have our red meat with our little bit of offal sprinkled in. I’m sure your butcher, local butcher would probably do that for you as well. Yeah.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (23:01.312)

Yeah, 100%. And you know, these are parts of it’s it’s so interesting, because the parts of the the animal that we usually discard and throw away are actually the most nutrient dense parts, right. So you might find, you know, and again, bodybuilder culture hasn’t been great for this in terms of

 

There’s, you know, chicken breast, example, whereas actually thighs have got way more nutrients in them than the chicken breast. And we tend to not really enjoy like the jiggly bits and things like that. They’re the most nutrient dense parts. In fact, I’d probably say another super food is bone broth. So if you’ve got a slow cooker, one of my favorite hacks.

 

We have a big chicken on a Sunday and then on a Monday with the bones I will throw it in the slow cooker with any leftover veggies from the week that we didn’t manage to eat, any leftover fresh herbs from the week that we didn’t manage to eat and then I will drain that and drink it throughout the week as a support system so bone broth is really rich in minerals.

 

really rich in protein, really rich in collagen, which is important for your skin health, your bone health. It’s got so many different compounds in it that are really beneficial for gut health as well and support for gut health. So bone broth would be another one, I would say.

 

Lucy Gernon (24:13.78)

Is that not really high in fat though? Because I used to do that. I used to make my soups with the bones and I’d see all the chicken fat and I was like, no, I can’t have fat.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (24:20.558)

Well, I think the idea of fat free life is well and truly beyond us at this point. And I really don’t believe in this kind of…

 

issue with fat so this is very much like a 90s thing isn’t it? like everything had to be fat free and often times when something’s fat free it’s usually like really full of sugar and again goes back to looking at your labels and seeing you know what’s actually what’s actually in your food. I am a huge we need fats we need fats especially as females because fats are the precursors to all of your hormones so we can’t have good hormone health if we’re not eating enough fats.

 

So I like to look at, and it’s important to look at your diet and think, what am I consuming and am I eating enough fat? And if I feel like I’m eating enough or if my body, my biofeedback is telling me that I’m eating enough, then maybe it might be that you want to take off that layer of fat. So as bone broth dries, you’ll notice that a layer of fat might kind of like stiffen at the top. You can take that out and just use the rest of it if you wanted to, that’s absolutely fine. But I definitely wanna, know, fats and proteins are really

 

beneficial for us, really, really powerful. So I don’t recommend sticking to kind of a fat free lifestyle for sure.

 

Lucy Gernon (25:36.629)

Okay.

 

Lucy Gernon (25:40.32)

Okay, well that’s really good to know. So we have our red meat, we have our blueberries, we have our bone broth. Give me two more.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (25:43.662)

Yeah, yeah, so we’ve got sauerkraut as well. So sauerkraut is another one fermented foods. What else do I think is really rocket is I’m really big fan of rocket. So rocket is kind of like and a lot of people choose lettuce as their form of fiber. We see this all the time. We took lettuce and that’s my greens. But actually rocket is so much more beneficial because it’s bitter. So anything that’s really bitter helps to stimulate your digestive.

 

juices, right? So if you think as a female leader, you are running around most of the time, switching between task and task, you know, barely getting a minute to sit down and eat or think or do anything. So when you do sit down for a meal, your body isn’t really primed for digestion. It’s not really primed to think, okay, I’m going to sit down now. I’m going to eat my meal. So I need to digest it properly in the same way as when you go to bed, you don’t just necessarily go upstairs and face plant yourself into bed. You know that you need to

 

maybe do your skincare, you wanna brush your teeth, you wanna wind down for the night so that you can have effective sleep. So the same goes for when you sit down to eat. We wanna kind of prime and prep our bodies for digestion. And ROCKIT is a really good way of stimulating digestive juices, digestive juices that we need to break down certain foods and absorb nutrients from them.

 

So even if you have a handful of rocket and you start chewing that before you chew the rest of the meal, what it’s going to say to your body is, I need to digest this food now. We’re going to eat. So stimulates your stomach acid, stimulates digestive juices. And then when you start eating your meal, you’ll find that it’s a lot easier to digest. So rocket.

 

Lucy Gernon (27:21.17)

my God, that’s so cool. And I actually like rockets. This is really good.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (27:24.75)

Anything that’s really bitter is really beneficial for your digestion. So definitely recommend. And this is the thing, right? So this is what I mean by throwing together quick meals. If you’ve got a bag of rocket in your fridge, a jar of sauerkraut, and some form of protein that you’ve pre-cooked that you’ve got in your fridge somewhere, chucking it all on a plate or in a lunchbox and taking it with you is a really, you know, it’s a super easy task, right? Cause you’re just going, right, a few forkfuls of this, a handful of this, chuck that in as well, done. Doesn’t need to make emotional sense.

 

has to make nutritional sense. that’s where it just, yeah, that’s where it just gets to be really easy and you’re not pre-cooking and spending hours in the kitchen. You’re literally just throwing things together and still making a really balanced meal.

 

Lucy Gernon (27:55.5)

really well thought.

 

Lucy Gernon (28:07.476)

Okay, okay, cool. So we have our top five from Sarah and then we have our dirty dozen and our clean 15. So I want to ask you as well about, know, we were, obviously we’ve been talking all about nutrition for peak performance. And I know you wanted to talk a bit about the root of the symptoms that female leaders face that impact their home life and all about kind of like, what are those symptoms, I guess, and how do we fix them?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (28:24.557)

Yeah.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (28:33.078)

Yeah, totally, totally. So I think a lot of symptoms come down to A, know, not eating, not eating well enough, not balancing our blood sugar, not getting enough nutrients in the tank. The amount of clients that come to me and say they are struggling with constipation, for example. Well, one of the biggest causes for constipation is not eating enough food or not having that rhythm, that routine with your meals. And so

 

incorporating some routine into your meals and trying to have that, you know, three meals a day, eat enough food, eat enough nutrient dense foods can be really beneficial. So it depends on the symptoms. A lot of the symptoms that I’m seeing with my female leaders, the clients that I’m working with are things like brain fog, again, going back to your electrolytes, going back to making sure that you’re eating enough protein. There’s a concept that I’m sure we don’t have time to go into at this point, but it’s called balancing your blood sugar levels. So if you think you’re, you,

 

when you’re eating something, unless that plate is balanced, you can experience a massive increase in blood sugar, which is therefore causing this kind of, and if you’re someone who, one minute you’re feeling wired, like, let’s flipping go, go, I’m running on cortisol, I’m running on adrenaline, and then all of a sudden you’re experiencing that crash, and when you’re experiencing that crash, that’s when you need another coffee. That’s when you’re reaching for packet foods, that’s when you’re reaching for…

 

quick fix energy foods that are potentially, you know, gonna cause this spike again and then a drop of, so we call this a blood sugar roller coaster that we’re on all day. And actually a lot of symptoms are down to being on this blood sugar roller coaster. Then of course you’re experiencing a high, trying to get to bed at night, trying to get to sleep, but you’ve got your mind’s racing, your blood sugar levels have been out of whack all day, you’ve not eaten any breakfast, so you potentially, you know, been eating late into the night to offset that. So you’ve got to look at your whole routine and…

 

kind of pull back a little bit. It’s kind of like what you said on my podcast, Lucy, about the first step to any kind of changes that awareness of understanding what is my routine currently like? And this is like where, what you don’t measure, you can’t optimize, right? In the same way as we do this in our careers, where it’s like, I’ve got to look at my day to day and how am I spending my time? What tasks am I doing that are wasting my time? What tasks am I doing that are really moving the needle?

 

Lucy Gernon (30:30.092)

Yeah.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (30:50.988)

you can use exactly the same concept in your health. I would note down and using a food diary is such a great way of self coaching. So when I had breakfast at this time and it was high in protein and high in fiber, and then I had this meeting, this meeting, this meeting, then I had my lunch and this, this is how I felt. This is the symptoms that I experienced. This is what came up for me. This is how I performed that day versus on a day where I skipped breakfast. I went to Costa at 11 and had a.

 

cross on a coffee, then I needed another one at three o’clock and then I ended up going home and overeating on lots of foods that I wouldn’t necessarily have. What’s the difference in the way that you feel and what can you learn from different habits based on how your body’s naturally responding? And again, using tools like continuous glucose monitors, for example, or getting some testing can be really beneficial to understand what’s going on. But yeah, I think in terms of symptoms, some of the most common that I’m seeing in practice from female leaders and things like

 

brain fog, hormonal imbalances, a lot of burnout and stress, to be honest, which has a massive nutritional component. Not a lot of people are talking about this link between burnout and nutrition, but if you’re not fueling yourself properly and you’re expecting yourself to go at 100 miles an hour, that’s naturally gonna lead to burnout. And so one of the things that I like to teach my clients is this concept of building resilience to stress. So this is not about, know, and so many people talk about this where it’s like, right, we need to add in all these stress management.

 

all day long, know, meditate, do this, do that, do the other. We’ve got enough on our plates, quite frankly. We’ve got enough to be doing and sometimes I find that with the clients that I’m working with, if I’m adding more stress reducing practices to their day, they’re like overwhelmed by it. Whereas if we can pull back and say, actually, what are you already doing? You’re already eating, you’re already drinking. Why don’t we optimize what you’re doing to create more resiliency to stress so that you’re not in this place where you’re go, go, going.

 

burning out for a week, go, burning out for a week. You how can we create that resiliency so you’ve got more capacity for stress? Does that make sense?

 

Lucy Gernon (32:52.286)

Yeah, I mean, I really love that point. And guys, if you’re multitasking, please come back to me because I don’t know for me, this only dropped probably last year was around like you say, you spoke about like your body being like a tank. And if you think about a car, right, you will you can go longer and work more hours if you have the right fuel. So I think sometimes when I because obviously we do we work with similar people and we talk about burnout. A lot of it comes from working too many hours. But in my experience,

 

Like you can work the hours if you have fueled your body because you’ve given it what it needs. Where burnout comes from is lack of taking care of yourself pretty much, isn’t it?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (33:32.566)

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And this is the thing is that when you exactly like what you said, when you move more, when you train like a female leader, like an athlete, because as female leaders, we are athletes, we’re using our brain to that capacity. When you move, train and recover like an athlete as a female leader, you will be a more productive, way more effective at what you’re actually doing. You’ll find that actually it’s not more work that you need to do. It’s the right strategic work.

 

that supports you in getting to where you want to be. And you can only do that if your brain is functioning, if you’re switched on, if you’re pro, you know, if you think every time you fuel your brain, you’re increasing your processing speed. You are increasing your ability to emotionally connect to your teams, to, you know, your, your staff members, whoever it is that you’re working with, you have more capacity to think with it. You’re more creative. You are able to make decisions a lot better. You’re able to make high-stake decisions a lot better. And so,

 

like that’s a massive, know, massively worth the investment of your time to, and it’s almost in the way of, I always talk about it from the perspective of finances. If you’re putting away money into your pension every single month and you know that it’s there for later, exactly the same goes for all of your habits on a day-to-day basis if you can invest five minutes, 10 minutes. And this is where…

 

Having a routine that you know is gonna work for you. So this is why I always say I’m a bang for buck girl. I haven’t got time to spend hours and hours on my health every day. I wanna know what’s gonna give me the biggest bang for my buck.

 

And so that’s where we look at, okay, I’m gonna eat three high protein meals a day. I’m gonna make sure that I’m getting my fiber in. I’m gonna make sure that I’m doing some testing to figure out what’s going on. I’m gonna track for a couple of weeks so that I know what to do for the rest of my life. And then you can really streamline what you’re doing so that you know that you’re gonna get a result and you’ll be able to measure the ROI on it, right? You’ll be able to measure, actually I’m performing way better. I’m way happier. I’m sleeping way better. And when I sleep way better, my brain is functioning a lot better. And so…

 

Sarah Elisabeth (35:29.856)

You know, there’s so many different factors, but I think it’s worth having a look at your day-to-day routine and thinking, where am I bottlenecking my own success because my body won’t allow me to go any further.

 

Lucy Gernon (35:39.816)

Love that. And I think as well, what’s really important too is like the impact it’s going to have on your family and those people around you is just immeasurable because I think a lot of women that I would work with as well would talk about guilt, like guilt for investing in themselves, guilt for putting themselves first. And I always give them the reframe of, actually when you are better.

 

Everyone around you benefits, right? And we see it all of the time. So ladies, please don’t feel guilty about investing in yourself and putting your own health and well-being first, because what’s the point of you just like staying on the treadmill, working all of the time if you are absolutely shattered and, you know, longevity of life as well, ultimately, right?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (36:18.624)

It’s really interesting because I often see female leaders who are very, very successful and they have sacrificed their health for their whole careers. And then they come to me at the point of potentially burnout sometimes. And at that moment, they’re like, I wish that I did that. But hindsight is such a wonderful thing, isn’t it? Because they get to that point and they’re like, none of this matters because I feel like crap every single day. So like…

 

Lucy Gernon (36:43.956)

Yes. So ladies, we’re getting the hindsight today. Like you’re literally getting the hindsight today on this podcast. Listen. Yeah.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (36:47.468)

YAAAAS

 

Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. There’s not, there’s, there’s, are you doing it all for if you don’t have your health at the end of the day? And so, and what I like to think about as well, and this is the reason that I love brain health so much, I could talk about it for hours, is because when you’re working on your brain, you’re not only thinking about the skills that you’re able to do more effectively today in the way that you feel today, what action you take first thing in the morning is going to impact your brain health for the rest of the day. But what you’re also doing is you’re preventing chronic disease later on.

 

down the line. So this is not just like an immediate, usually we have to choose between that immediate response or that immediate like, okay, if I do this now, I’m going to get a quick win. Or we have to do the delayed gratification thing. When you’re working on your health, you get both because you feel better now and you get the delayed gratification of the fact that you’re preventing chronic disease later on down the line and you’re creating longevity in your health and your

 

in your relationships and every other area of your life. It’s a no-brainer, right? So yeah.

 

Lucy Gernon (37:49.132)

It is a totally no brainer. And you know what? I am so excited because Sarah is actually doing a bonus masterclass for my ladies in 360 leaders club. And we’re going to have a lovely clinic with Sarah and everything. So anyone who is in 360, you are so lucky that you get to pick this wonderful ladies brain. So, Sarah, I’m just.

 

We’re coming up to the end of the show. mean, I’m just so grateful to have your expertise and I’m sure all of my listeners are super grateful as well. We’ve got lots of amazing gold from you. I would love to ask you, I’m all about 360 degree success and I always think that exactly like you, there’s no point in having a career if you don’t have your health. But what does success, balance and happiness mean for you?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (38:34.1)

Success to me is living in alignment with my values and what I find important. And I think as a business owner, especially as a business owner or someone who’s career driven, it’s very easy to get wrapped up in what you think you should be doing or what you think success should look like, whether that be online or because you’re comparing yourself to other people in your industry or whatever it is. And actually I found that success for me means being able to walk my dog midday.

 

go to the gym in the mornings and have the capacity to do that, to be able to cook myself nourishing foods, to be able to prioritize my own health. And so for me, it’s all about being able to prioritize. And that doesn’t mean that I’m not sacrificing something in another area of my life, but knowing that I’m doing that because it’s based on my values and it’s based on the way that I wanna live. And happiness, I would say exactly the same. I also love progress. I think progress is happiness. And when you’re progressing in something that you want to progress in,

 

then I always feel really fulfilled. I think we need progression as female leaders. I tried to do this thing once where it was like, I’m just gonna be really present and not try and do anything else or work towards any, it’s a very boring life for me that I need to be working towards something and making progress, so yeah.

 

Lucy Gernon (39:44.972)

We’re going to leave it.

 

Amazing. And I always ask my guests this question, what is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (39:56.11)

Hmm, I’m gonna say that some, the best piece of advice that I’ve ever received is probably something like, you have to be kind, but you don’t have to be nice, or I’ve butchered that, but like being a good girl isn’t helpful, isn’t helpful for your, like, and I’m not articulating that in the best way, but that always sticks in my mind because I think my natural…

 

My natural response has always to be a bit of a people pleaser and want to make everyone happy and want to over deliver in every area of my life. And I think sometimes it’s really important to kind of step back and say, you know, you’re not going to be able to be the hero in everybody’s story or situation. So just be okay with that. I think that’s probably been really beneficial and helped me make a lot of decisions and helped me say no to a lot of things. My word for the year this year was no. And unless it’s a lie.

 

Lucy Gernon (40:49.864)

Love it. my God. Well, listen, a lot of a lot of the listeners are definitely people pleasers as well. So this is really, really good advice. Thank you so much for sharing, Sarah. You’ve been an unbelievable guest. cannot wait to go back and listen to this episode again and take notes. And if know, guys, if you want to go back to the start of this episode again, get your pen and paper out, take some notes or you can go to the show notes. We’ll have the full transcript there as well. The link will be in the usual place.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (40:50.862)

It’s no. Yeah.

 

Lucy Gernon (41:18.508)

Sarah, where can people find you?

 

Sarah Elisabeth (41:20.342)

Amazing. Thank you. And thank you so much for having me. It’s been so much fun. So you can find me on either Instagram, LinkedIn. I also have my own podcast, which Lucy featured on. And the episode was so good. I learned so much from it. So definitely come and check that one out. My podcast is Healthier You. My Instagram and LinkedIn is Sarah Elizabeth. Elizabeth with an S, not a Z, which is so annoying. That my parents were like, how can she not be found when she’s older ever on the internet? Spell her name wrong.

 

So Sarah Elizabeth Health and then on LinkedIn Sarah Elizabeth. So you can come and find me on LinkedIn if you’re on LinkedIn as well.

 

Lucy Gernon (41:55.026)

Amazing. Well, we will link your contact details in the show notes. Sarah, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you. Thank you for everything. And I’m so looking forward to getting cracking on my health journey with you. I’ll keep you all posted, guys. Thank you.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (41:58.296)

Thank you.

 

Sarah Elisabeth (42:03.931)

So exciting. Yay, amazing. Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. Bye.