Oh get a welcome to healthy Ish, your podcast from Body and Soul. I am your host at Felicity Harley and today I'm joined by the delightful nutritional biochemist and women's health expert from a home in Queensland, Doctor Libby Weaver, to discuss all things energy. Yes, she is going to help you feel more energized in twenty twenty five. Today
we discuss well. Doctor Libby gives us the lowdown on the biochemical pathways of energy production and shares her insights on maintaining energy through all sorts of ways, sleep, nutrition, mindfulness, and also we discuss the impact of iron deficiency on overall vitality and confidence. I always love chatting to doctor Libby and I know you are going to enjoy this interview as well. Doctor Libby, thank you for coming on healthy Ish again.
How are you well? Listening on? Really well?
Thank you so much for having me join you. Oh it's joyous. I always love chatting to you. Now tell me how are you attempting staying healthy ish this year? Give me one or two habits you're focusing on.
Well. I've always been obsessed with.
Light and in previous years I've closed my laptop and watched the sunset.
That was one of my little rituals. I like that.
But this year, I'm still really obsessed with light, but my focus is different. I'm getting up with the sun and then every day and then at the end of the day, as the sun disappears, I'm turning all of the lights in my home to be really dim and have a really yellow gloss. I've changed light globes and everything's very warm and yellow rather than cool blue light. And it's actually ridiculous the difference of my personal experience
and my nervous system and the calm. But also I just really notice how relaxed I feel and way more ready for bed. That's a shift, a big focus on light, trying to live more with those rhythms that nature guides us with. And the other one I started the new you really committed to having an organic daily greens powder, so and I notice a real difference with my energy when I do that.
So yeah, just back to the light.
I think it's really interesting to talk about that because I feel like this is an emerging era of science. I feel like the gut health was maybe the last five years and the next five years are all going to be about light. What time are you getting up and then what time do you actually go to bed?
So I get up at five in the morning and go to bed usually about it quarter.
To nine, nine o'clock. I love a lot of sun.
And I really apologize to listeners who have young children who right now want to punch me in the face.
At the sound of because most of us with young children are up at five am anyway, although I might a bit older now, but you're up at five am when they get up at five am, and then I'm like crawling into bed at nine pm, so we match.
But it's and obviously when when slend is a real struggle for people with little with little children, I think it's really important to remember that they're young for such a short amount of time in your very long life, and they're very long life, and then it won't last. But yeah, that's my that's they're my rough times.
So the biggest impacts have been on your energy levels?
Yeah, yeah, very much so. And a real feeling of not just energy in my brain and in my eye what I describe as energy in my eyeballs and the clarity of vision, but I can feel it in my muscle. So when I exercise, yeah, there's a I can really feel the energy reserves there just from those shifts.
So it really.
Reminds me that really small changes can have a big impact.
And obviously everything's individual.
Not everyone will notice a difference with those things, but it's finding your things. And I think it's good to remember that there's a voice inside us that has our back. And you know, we're forever looking outside of ourselves for advice and information and that can feel over welming at times, but we also have a great inner knowing and sometimes when you just get a little tap on the shoulder, why don't you try this and lead you out a really rewarding path.
And that is so true.
And even just the simple act of I mean I just dim the lights, like after we have dinner, I just all our lights go dim. And that is such an easy thing that's now in the habit of everyone. If I don't do it, you know, someone will say, mummy going.
To dim the lights.
Oh yeah, got dim the lights, and it just brings the energy of the house down for bedtime.
Say isn't that gorgeous? Yet? Love that I'm the same now.
There are obviously many other factors that can come into play when we talk about energy and boosting our energy. Now through your biochemical lens, talk to us about what's going on in our bodies when we feel that, oh it's heinous, low energy.
Really, so it can come felicity from a lot through a lot of different pathways if we sort of focus on biochemistry for a sec So, the way the body creates energy inside of itself is through the generation of what's called ATP, which stands for a big, silly science y word triphosphate. That's cellular energy and it powers every little selling our body to do its work and then we get to enjoy the benefits of that.
So, if you.
Can imagine that when you consume your food, your macronutrients, your proteins, if fatsy carbs, imagine that as you digest them, they're all fed down a funnel and that funnel then pushes those macronutrients into a biochemical pathway called the CREB cycle.
Some people would know it as the TCA cycle.
Name doesn't matter, but imagine it's like a circle and that cycle is spinning around and the food that gets pushed through the funnel and it feeds into that cycle.
Every time the circle spins around, once one.
Unit of ATP is generated, but there are about eight or nine biochemical reactions in that circle, and for every single one of those nutrients are needed.
And so when we rely too much on ultraprocessed food and we're not.
Getting enough of our just basic nutrition, our vitamins and minerals going in our energy production cycle can actually be compromised. The macronutrients give us energy, but the micronutrients allow us to extract the energy from our food. So one thing to keep in mind when we want better energy is to think or for me, there's no such thing as junk food.
There's just junk, and there's food it course, throod whole, real food.
But one little shift is just stepping in the direction of eating more food and less junk, because there's the micronutrients to start in the junk. There's plenty of macro nutrients, and we think, oh, I will give us energy, but there's no micro very few micronutrients, so that's a shift. And then of course, once the food is inside of us, one of the key micronutrients for actually delivering oxygen to the cells, which is also required for energy.
The key nutrient for that is iron.
So the oxygen is delivered to the cells by the hemoglobin, and the hemoglobin is inside our red blood cells, and for that to occur we need good iron levels. And iron is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world, including in Austronia, particularly for women across the menstruation years,
for pregnant women and then also unfortunately for children. So yeah, it's so focusing on having more food to feed that cycle and check your iron levels to make sure they're okay at two reason if they're out of whack, they can be two things that contribute to ours the energy.
Let's talk a bit more about iron and food later. What are some other common reasons that perhaps you hear I mean, and you've written books on that. You wrote a book many years ago on the rushing women's syndrome. What are some common reasons you hear that as to why women particularly and men, I suppose, struggle with their energy.
Yes, so there can be this real sense of responsibility that's almost like a mental load that bears a real burden on us, and that can deplete our energy, and we feel like our days are filled with kind of ticking off our own to do lists, but ticking almost ticking off the to do list of other people, And so you can end up feeling like your brain has eight thousand tabs open, and as it's almost as women.
I wrote about this in Rushing Women's Syndrome. Yes it was back in twenty eleven, which blows my mind, was fourteen years ago. But it's likely triage our problems or triage what we've got to get done, you know. So you might think, oh, there's a rip in the rug, and I need to get that sorted because someone's going to trip on that and break their arm, and then that'll become a bigger problem. But then you get a phone call from school and your son actually has broken
his arm. So then suddenly that goes to the top of the pile and you've got to get there. But then there's four thousand other things that were also on the list that you needed to do that day, and now, because the priority is attending to your son with the broken arm, those things don't get done. So I speak with haste about that sort of because I think it's how our brains feel, or it's how we think with all those tabs open.
And we can feel incredibly depleted during.
The day and at the end of the day when that's happening, so you can we label that as feeling really.
Busy or even overwhelmed.
And when that comes up as a topic for women, because I'm all about solutions rather than focusing, let's hear the problem, but then let's find a solution. I think a couple of strategies can make a difference, and one of them is scheduling rather than having.
To do lists.
And I know I resisted this personally for a long time because I felt like all the spontaneity, not that I had a lot of spontaneousness really long, but mentally I just thought, this is a ruin any spontaneity that can occur during a day if I schedule my life. But what I found was when something arose and I'd capture it as a concept that needed to be dealt with.
But then once I popped it in, okay, I'm going to do this.
At this time, I could forget about it, Whereas when it sat on it to do list, I just would round back to it in my mind, I must attend to that. And what I found was when I actually scheduled laws, more free time, more leisure time kind of opened up and that was a great gift. So I've
noticed that scheduling things can make a difference. And then when really genuinely urgent things happen, like a broach out with the broken arm that you need to attend to, it's I think there's this moment of Okay, this is why I have urgency, because I'm going to get to the hospital as quickly as I can.
And we have this little moment I think where we can ideally.
Laugh at ourselves and go, I didn't need to feel urgent about the sixty five emails groceries that is actually not urgent. So sometimes those things put, we get things put in perspective and we can take a breath and then start to approach life.
Just a little bit differently.
Yeah.
I like that idea of going, Okay, I'm not going to worry about this, you know, whatever whatever around.
The house this month. Let's do it next month.
And then you're mentally put it in that compartment of next month, and that's one thing I don't need to worry about right this minute.
Yeah, exactly.
And it's like and it's accepting that isn't it, rather than struggling.
With that in our heads. You know, one thing.
I mean, obviously, I've also written a book on how do I with a mental load? And I've been practicing something I think I heard. There's a psychologist who's out of Harvard Universe or maybe Stanford anyway, one of them, and her name's doctor Ellen Langer, and she she's all about mindfulness, and she's all about recognizing three things, new things every day and just being in the moment. And I'm really practicing being more in the moment, which actually takes me away from my mental load.
I know that sounds like a.
Weirk kind of connection, but I'm like, Okay, what am I noticing right now? It doesn't matter about all those lists. Oh, I'm noticing the sunshine or And that's just helped me shift it a little bit. And also, I think what I'm thinking affects how I'm feeling. So if I'm thinking and I'm looking up and I'm noticing what's around me more, it's just calming me down and perhaps raising me to do at the same time, rather being so overloaded with
the mental load. And then you know, it's like you just carry that on your shoulders and you literally do a lot of women, you know, complain about short saw shoulders and net you carry your mental load. You know, what you're thinking is how you feel. Anyway, that's my little tip.
No, and I love that. I felt myself relaxed on the inside as you said that.
And Ronnie Ware wrote a fabulous book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying and as on short books, Yeah, it's exceptional.
And she's a very special human.
Being when and she talks about how when you talk to people who are dying and you ask somew what they're going to miss the most in the world, they tell you the most ordinary things, like the feeling of sun on their back, or the night sky, or the.
Feeling of their dogs fur under their fingertips. And we have all of that right now.
And I think when we let ourselves have what we already have, which is kind of what you're describing in that mindfulness, in those moments, that when you let yourself have what you already have, it gives you this extraordinary sense of joy with the privilege of that experience. And I think joy gives us and your replaceable depth of energy. So rather than always being on the pursuit of things, achieving things or fixing things, or changing things or doing things.
I think that letting.
Ourselves have those moments as often as we can, I think that's great for energy too.
We'll be back after this short break with more from doctor Libby. Talk to us a bit more about nutrition and iron. I mean, nutrition is obviously really important. What you eat again will dictate how you feel, particularly about iron. I mean this is you teld our print. Addition longerg, you can also have an impact on confidence. So and
low iron feeds into this. So perhaps talked to us a bit about how low ion affects energy, and then and things we can do to help boost our ironstores, and then how in turn it affects other areas of your life, like your confidence.
Yeah.
Sure, So obviously we need iron for oxygen transportation throughout the body. That's what That's one of the big reasons why when we are low in iron, energy is compromised. But it goes beyond that felicity. So we actually need iron to be able to produce some of our key neurotransmitters that we know feed into energy and happiness and motivation. So we need it for dopamine production. We need it
for serotonin, we need it for gabba. Gabbas are very calming, relaxing neurotransmitter, so iron feeds into our mood in myriad ways. It's also needed for thyroid functions, So your thyroid gland
literally cannot make thyroid hormones without iron. And I've found in my cical practice that it was very common for women to not necessarily have a full blown thyroid disease, although I saw that a lot, but a thyroid that just wasn't working as well as it was ten years ago, so you could see from hormone levels that its function
had was headed to become underactive. That would go hand in hand with iron deficiency very commonly, and for some women, not all, but for some women in that situation, you improve their iron status and the thyroid function would improve. So obviously thyroid is key for energy as well, because every cell in the body has a receptive for thyroid hormones, and it's a key driver of metabolism and temperature regulation. So iron is needed for almost everything you can think
about that requires something inside you. Iroon's pretty much needed for all of those things. And so then if we take that forward into kind of real world consequences because
it so drastically affects energy and mood and motivation. That's how I see it can so very much affect our confidence because you think through when we're tired, we're more likely to go rab takeaways we drive home from work rather than think, oh, yeah, I'm going to cook something, and you're less likely to exercise in a consistent way. You just want to stay sitting down when you're really tired.
And then from a confidence perspective, I think when we feel like that, when we feel really flat and low energy, you think, oh, why would I apply for.
That job promotion, I'm not going to get it.
That's sort of the mindset of that biochemical scenario. Or you might be invited to a social occasion you think, oh, you know, I don't have the confidence right now to stand and spend too time.
I'm not going to go. Yeah, I don't doubt I don't have enough words left today.
Yeah.
And then so that then impacts I think the way we also then speak to the people we love the most in the world, the people we might live with or catch up with, and also our self talk. So we're very harsh on ourself. We're very I think we can be very self detegrating when we're in that head space of lousy energy. So for me, the ripple effect of lousy energy is really significant, and I've been on a mission for a long time to try to I wrote Exhausted to Energize actually book in twenty fifteen about
that topic. Because the road in to lowsy energy, whatever's creating it for someone, we want to address that's factor because that will be their road out of it. And as you say, for some that is iron deficiency. For others, it's what's happening.
With their thoughts.
For others it's you know, it could be the quality of what they're eating, could be being sedentary.
Poor sleep. You know, there are many factors obviously that feed into lousy energy.
I think it's interesting with iron too, because often, I mean regular listeners of this podcast will know that I've gone through my own iron battles, and at the time, you don't even think about iron, like we're unaware of We're not really educated about iron, are we We're not sat down at school and educated about it at least, And often you're so tired and you just think it's the mental load and everything else that's going on in your life, but you don't really stop to think, hang on,
is it something to do with how my body's actually functioning? And you don't go like it took me through years to go and actually get a blood test because I didn't have time, but wow, it was such a game changer when I did. What are you finding, you know, with the women that you were with then come across when it comes to iron, is it a problem?
It's so major felicity, and it's just become so incredibly common. So so many women are diagnosed with iron deficiency in their teenage years or even in their twenties. That's sometimes when you first find out about it because with menstruation, our requirement actually increases from nine to ten milligrams a
day prior to that to eighteen milligrams per day. And if someone eats in a vegetarian or vegan way, you need to times that DII by one point eight, so that gets it up around thirty two thirty three miligrams of iron a day.
And it's hard enough to eat.
Eighteen milligrams of iron per day, let alone thirty two. So there's it becomes incredibly common that we just can't get enough iron rich foods going in and deficiency starts to unfold, and some, yes, some women find out that they have it. For others, as you describe, it can take years before they actually find out that that's actually occurring.
But in my experience, what I've found is that for a lot of women, they just put on, you know, really basic kind of iron supplements, which for some women they find it irritates their gut or they become really constipated, and so compliance with taking a supplement each day or every second day is really poor when that happens, because
you don't like the consequences. And so, to cut that very long story short, I feel that a lot of women might have an idea that they're iron deficient, or that they probably are, but they don't do anything about it because they feel like the sort of the medicine's worse than their reality or just as bad, and so they just live with being iron deficient on and off across their whole adult life, and the consequences of that obviously can impact on quality of life at the time,
but there can also be accumulative effect because we need iron. As I said, the thyroid hormone, so sort of around midlife it can rear its head and really lead to some pretty uncomfortable symptoms. Yeah.
Well, the iron tablets made me vomit, so that's why I went straight for the infusion. But now for those listeners who perhaps have got happy iron levels, are there any specific foods that can boost your energy throughout the day? I mean, if you wake up, you know, sometimes we wake up and we know it's one of those days you're just going to struggle through any foods that we can eat that might give us a pep up, or any lifestyle things that we can do.
Felici, Yeah, a few things to say on that topic. I love that question and it's so practical. So my first thing is, let's I feel like we need to stop the conversation around super foods and the idea that there are all these superstar foods because they're often really overpriced, and the Health of the Nation study showed obviously that that was one of the big One of the big
challenges people found was the cost of living. And so if we recognize that all foods when I say that, I mean whole real foods, when all foods are superstars, they've all got really unique things, and so I think let's not use the word superfood and just eat food knowing that they're all superstars and know that that's going to make a big difference to our back pocket and then also what we're actually choosing to put into our body.
But as far as if you wake up weary, what are you going to do with that?
I would tell that person to eat breakfast, not wait until lunchtime to eat. Eat breakfast, and if you can make that breakfast contain protein, fat, and carbohydrates, and for a lot of people, that will just give them that lift at least for a couple of hours, particularly when
they feel like they're dragging themselves around. And if you can really be focused on getting some vegetables into your breakfast, So whether it is just throwing a handful of spinach or green some sort of greens into a smoothie, if that's a more efficient way for you to get your breaky in if you've got the time though, and you eat them, eggs are such a great way to start the day.
Yeah, Actually, that's a really good point. So often we focus on, oh, you.
Know, eat X or y to feel better or increase your sex life or whatever it is. I mean, I've written many of those stories back in the day. But you're right, it should be just the whole diet every day that we look at, which will actually, you know, energize you throughout the week.
Yeah, exactly.
And I think to keep it really practical because I think sometimes when people hear that message, you know, eat food, not junk. It's just it's also about keeping it realistic. And think I need just the right amount of mischief. So because some people think, well, I'm you know, I'm never going to tell people to stop eating hot chips.
They're delicious. Why would you stop?
But there's obviously a world of difference with your health if you have them ten times a year versus three days a week every week, you know.
Year after year. But you help this so different with that.
So it's not about not having things you love, but it's a bit about how.
Often you do that. So neat mostly food is my message. I like it. Now, just before we go, I wanted to ask you about sleep. Now.
In the recent Health of the Nation survey which you just mentioned, two and three people were regularly affected by poor sl Yet one of the biggest surprises for you. Was it too few took action to resolve it? Yeah, tell us about it. I actually found that really surprising as well, because I am like a sleep nazi.
So while I was so shocked that very few people are doing anything about it, is because I feel obviously when you sleep, when you consistently don't get enough sleep, just takes the edge off everything, obviously your energy, your vitality, your enjoyment of life, and so to have that quality of life impacted upon and then not have something arise inside you that says I've got to do something about this. That's really concerning to me about where people's I guess
care for themselves is at. Sleep obviously is a biological requirement. We can't fight that. We have to as adults, we literally require seven to nine hours per night. And yes, so it was actually the Health of the Nation servant actually showed that it was millennials who were the most likely to do something about it. They were the group most likely to actually embrace mindfulness practices, use white noise, things that turn the lights down have before been ritual, So that was fascinating to me.
Boomers were more in the survey results.
The Boomers were more likely to follow more traditional roads, like not eating large meals at night, that type of thing. But whatever, I feel that when we can recognize that we're not sleeping properly, I think sometimes we stress it.
We can stress about it, and then that makes it worse.
So rather than that, I encourage people to get curious about it and think, I wonder what's leading me to not sleep well?
Because my body is designed to sleep.
I biologically need this, So get curious about what's interfering with that. And as I mentioned earlier, there will be a voice in you that starts to rear its head that says, you know what, you are using your devices way too late at night, and that blue light stops melatone and you sleep all ime being produced even though you might be still busting to use your phone or
your iPad late at night. Put it away at this time and just start to set up a new ritual for yourself, and try not to see it as a rule, because I think some people really buck against rules. You could just see it as call it a ritual, or think I'm just going to have this standard for now, or it might be it might be that you've got a lot on your mind. And sometimes there's very real and genuine stress in the world right now, there's very
real and genuine stress in people's lives. It's I think really important to acknowledge that, Yeah, there's a huge amount of stress though, that we create for ourselves because of how we think. You know, we're worrying about a phone call, what we said two days ago to someone and we haven't heard back from them since, and so in those moments, that's where I think it's really beneficial for us to just pause and think, Okay, I'm actually this is coming
from a really caring place. I care that that person I'm worried about. I care that they're okay. But if I'm really honest, I also care what they think of me. I'm worried that I've upset them or that they think I'm a terrible person. And so it's just acknowledging what's really there can sometimes help us to settle down and
calm down and go to sleep. And then obviously sometimes we're just breathing in a really fast, short, sharp, shallow way, and it's slower, more difromatic breadths that help us to activate the calm arm of the nervous system.
And pop us off to sleep.
So I think just finding rituals that yeah, resonates for you, that you're going to try. But the key is consistency. It's not just doing it for two days and thinking on that didn't work. Yeah, it's doing something consistently to see if that makes a difference for your sleep.
I think you're right, Like, you know, we all know enough about sleep now, we know what we should be doing. We know we should be turning the phone off an hour before bed. We know we shouldn't be drinking, you know, so we know, like at the moment, you know, a lot of us are struggling sleeping in hot weather, like we know. So it's about identifying those and then perhaps working with them and saying, okay, well I won't have a drink tonight. I need that qual sleep.
Yeah, exactly, and or just understanding that all right, I'm in a peratsch. You know, it might be real genuine stress. Someone you love might be you know, terminally ill. When that's just breaking your heart and the grief is already really palpable. It can be things like that. And so it's I think too there are times when we can just accept this is weighing really heavily on me right now. It's a small price, you know, lousy sleep is a small price to pay.
That's not not doing anything about it.
That's just recognizing that this is a snapshot, a moment in time, but it does. I would also say when those things are happening, that's where it's even more important to not use the device as close to bed.
Be really mindful of your alcohol consumption.
That's going to dislikely disrupt sleep those types of things.
Yeah, absolutely, well, doctor Libby, thank you for coming on the podcast and helping us feel energized today.
Nice to have you on. Thank you so much, Felicity.
Well, I hope doctor Libby has left you feeling energized, or at least has given you some advice on what you can implement in your day to well raise those energy levels.
That's what we all want, isn't it. Well I do.
Anyway, if you did like this chat, make sure you share the love, tell a friend about it, share the link, go on you can do it, leave a review, or let me know via dm at.
Felicity Harley.
Now, I don't know if you caught last week's with Steph and Laura, but as part of our Health of the Nation campaign. They are offering a one month free access to the kickapp now. If you do want more information on that, you can jump online bodyansoul dot com dot are you. I will leave a link to it in the show notes. I highly recommend joining us for the four week challenge. Anyway, thanks again for listening. You can head to bodyansoul dot com dot are you for
any other info. Yes, you know the website, follow us on socials, grab our print edition which is out your local Sunday paper. Thanks again for listening and stay healthy ish